I'm going to be very honest with you brothers
and sisters. My heart is far from here today and yesterday. I'd like to ask for unspoken
prayers. It's been troubling me since
yesterday morning, and it's been difficult to focus on what needs
to be done here. He lives. I don't want you to
think he's passed or anything, The trial he needs to go through
is greater than my heart can handle. You turn in your Bibles to the
book of Matthew chapter 1. In our Friday night study, we've
come to Matthew chapter 15, where the Lord once again for the second time feeds a great
multitude of people, 4,000 men. And some folks like to guess
a little bit about that. Some say it might be over 20,000.
But the scriptures tell us this. We don't know how many people.
But we do know this. 4,000 men and their wives and
their children were fed on a couple of little loaves of bread and
a couple of fishes. A few loaves of bread and a couple
of fishes. What a miracle. Yeah, I've expressed this to
you before. Think about, you're sitting on
a hill, and you've got 4,000 people, kind of like an amphitheater
thing, you know, and you're, the guy at the top of the hill,
they're up there in the baskets, and oh, you know, I've gone three
days without food. I don't know about you folks,
I've never gone that long, as you can tell, without food. But I can imagine how poverished
you must be to go that far without food, without eating something. These folks were hungry. So hungry
that the Lord had compassion on them because he knew they
would faint if they tried to leave and go to a town and get
something to eat. Here you are sitting on the hill.
You're looking up there, and you've got these 12 guys, and
you've got baskets, and they're all getting ready to go out and
toss this basket. And you know that you've heard
there's only a couple of loaves of bread in there. It's never
going to make it to me. And then here, they get down to you, finally. And you look into that basket,
and the basket's full. And you're thinking to yourself,
oh my. Oh my, what a miracle. That must be God. Only God could
create a miracle like that. Or let's try a different one.
Let me give you another example of what I'm talking about here.
Miracles. How about you're on the edge
of the Red Sea, and you're with thousands of people, and you
see the Egyptians coming down off the hill behind you in chariots,
And the horses are stomping, and you hear them running, and
you see them coming, and you're thinking to yourself, we're going
to die. And all of a sudden, the sea just opens up. That's a miracle. What a miracle that would be.
Not only did it open up, it's dry ground. It's dry ground. I'm going. The Lord must favor me. What
a miracle to show. Or how about, did you hear about
that? Did you hear about Lazarus down
the street? Brother of Mary? Did you hear
about him? He died. He was sick. Where was
his God there? He was sick for quite a while. And they went and told his God,
and his God said, I'll get there when I get there. And he died. He's been dead for four days
now. He's going to start stinking. We've already buried him. We've
already put him away. But man, bodies don't take long
in this hot weather to start smelling bad. He's been dead
for a long time, four days. Here comes the God of all creation
and says, Lazarus, come forth. And you're watching this. And
you're seeing this. Folks, that was not something
done in hiding. It was a plain, open miracle
right in front of everybody. And Lazarus comes forth out of
the grave, wrapped in his grave clothes, which means he can't
walk because it's almost like mummified, yet he comes to the
Lord. And the Lord says, unwrap him.
What a miracle. I know there's a lot of people
who say miracles like that happen today. People commit miracles
here. Most of it you find in the Catholic
religion. And it's a bunch of nonsense.
It's about as nonsense as seeing the face of Jesus on a piece
of burnt toast. And we've all heard of that,
haven't we? But I'm here to tell you this
morning, folks, Our God is not finished with miracles. He's committing miracles. I pray this very day, we talked a little bit about
bringing loved ones to our Lord, how the scriptures In reference to the men who the
Lord used to pass out the fishes and how He used them for His
service, we talked a little bit about the service of bringing
our loved ones to Christ, to church, to hear the Word of God
preached. You know, those four men who
took their friend and lowered him down. They didn't just lower
him down into the room where Christ was. They tore the roof
off. so that they could lower him
down. They went to whatever it took. I thought about that. Would
I go to whatever it takes for the salvation of my children?
And the answer is yes. Despite where my heart is this
moment for my son, if this is what it takes to bring him to
the Lord, praise God. Kathy said the same thing yesterday.
If this is what it takes, praise
God. I was listening to a message
once, and the man preaching asked this question, he says, what
are the three most wonderful miracles that God ever performed? I believe the first one is God
incarnate. That means God manifests in the flesh. Well, how is that a miracle,
John? A miracle is something that cannot be explained. It's
a mystery. It's a phenomenon that cannot
be explained with human wisdom. I love the words that we read. Our Savior says these words,
He says, I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent. But then it says this, and revealed
it unto babes. That's a miracle. God is revealing
His Son, God incarnate, in the flesh, to His people. I mentioned this in the Bible
study. Kathy, it reminded me of what
it was She wrote that note to me that said, I finally understand. I finally understand that I and
the Father are one. I finally understand that it
is God incarnate. It is God in the flesh that the
Scriptures are talking about. What a miracle! It was a miracle
because it had to be revealed to her. just as it had to be
revealed to Peter, not by flesh and blood, not by the man who
stands in this pulpit speaking, but by God Almighty Himself to
the hearts of His people. I can't talk to your hearts.
Only God can. Folks, if you know who the Lord
Jesus Christ, if He is your Lord, if He has revealed Himself as
God Almighty incarnate in the flesh, He's created a miracle
in you. God became flesh. Great is the
mystery of godliness is what we were looking at in our Bible
study today. God was manifest in the flesh. I want to begin
this morning's account in Matthew chapter 1. Look at verse 16 if
you would with me. Matthew chapter 1 verse 16. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband
of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. The word Christ is Messiah. The word Christ is Deliverer. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband
of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all
the generations from Abraham, verse 17, to David are 14 generations,
and from David until carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations,
and from the carrying away into Babylon and to Christ are 14
generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wife, verse 18. When as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. and she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people. Now all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is God
with us, being interpreted as God with us, Then Joseph, being
raised from the sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden
him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not, till she had
brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus."
Now listen to these words if you would. In Philippians 2.6
we read this. Now we're talking about the miracle
of God presenting Himself incarnate, in the flesh. In Philippians
2, 6 we read, "...who being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God." In John 14, verse 9, Jesus saith
unto him, Have I been so long speaking to the doubting Thomas?
Have I been so long with you? And yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? Or Philip, not doubting Thomas,
I'm sorry. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. He's saying that to Philip's
face. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." This is the
miracle of God manifesting Himself in the flesh, of humbling Himself
and becoming a servant. A servant not only to God, because
God the Father has promised the people to the Son, but a servant
to you and I in laying down His life for us and being our substitute
dying, providing Himself His own flesh and His own blood,
and dying in our stead. Listen to 1 John 5 verse 7, For
there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. John 10 verse 30, I and my Father
are one. And of course there is also John
chapter 1 verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made, and the Word was made flesh.
Verse 14, and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The
glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. How mind-boggling that is! How
mind-bogglingly, the very one who could not look upon sin,
manifest himself and walked with sinners. Tell me that's not a miracle.
Tell me that's not something that man's wisdom cannot explain
or can't explain. how mind-boggling it is to comprehend
that God became a man. He who is so holy, He cannot
even look upon sin, walked amongst simple man, He became flesh. He who created Mary in her mother's
womb, depended upon the milk from that very woman whom He
had created. He who has all power in heaven
and earth, He who has all power in heaven
and earth needed food to nourish his body. He needed drink to
quench his thirst. 100% man get 100% God. Tell me that's
not a miracle. I'm here to tell you that that's
more of America and more important than any waters that could be
separated. I'm here to tell you that that's
more important than any 5,000 people who could be fed at one
time off such a little amount of food. I'm here to tell you
it's more important than anybody who's been raised from the dead,
because I'll tell you, they could not have been raised from the
dead if one had not died in their place. That's the Lord Jesus. That's
the God that we worship, the one who laid down his own life
for us. I'm praying for his miracle today
for both of my children. What a miracle. I don't know. I sent a little note off. Maybe
it'd be good to go to church today. Maybe you can just drive
up there to Madisonville and hear the truth preached. I don't
know if he did or not. Wouldn't it be something? Wouldn't
it be a miracle? If he did, and the Lord spoke
to him? Remember the miracle when the
Lord spoke to you the first time? Can you remember it? But is it not a miracle of grace
and mercy in talking to a hell-deserving sinner, a wretch, a worm? What a miracle that God became
flesh. Turn over to John chapter 19,
if you would. The second greatest miracle that
I can show you that I believe is as great as
God becoming flesh was the miracle performed in the death and the
resurrection of Him who is life itself. He is life. He says that. I am
life. I am life. Folks, without Jesus
Christ, there is no life. He holds in His hands the very
air that we breathe. As God, as we just saw, as God,
He holds everything in His hands. Every molecule, every bug, that
comes our way. We've got a lot of folks out
right now in sickness. Brother Mike and his wife Shirley
are out sick. Brother Tim Burnett's been sick
for a couple of days. Brother Gene Harmon's been sick
for two weeks. A lot of people out sick. You know what Pastor Gene says
to me? He goes, this is what God has for me right now. I've had moments of sickness
where I've not been able to hold anything down. That's absolutely
miserable. Could you imagine being 84 years
old and not being able to hold anything down for three days
straight? A lot of sicknesses. And he says to me, John, this
is what God has for me right now. I can't talk to you anymore today.
I'm too sick. But this is what God has for
me right now. This is the very one who laid
down his life and shed his blood for you and I. The Messiah. The Deliverer. Without Him, there is no life. He holds up everything. We depend
on Him for the very air that we breathe, yet He died. He gave
up the ghost. Look here at verses 28-30 of
John chapter 19. After this, Jesus, knowing all
things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Everything. Everything that needed to be
fulfilled, that God had purposed to that point, had been done.
He saith, I thirst. Now there was a set vessel full
of vinegar, and they filled his spine with vinegar, and put it
upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. What a miracle. Not only was
there a miracle of God manifesting Himself in the flesh, there was
a purpose for it. There was a purpose of laying
down His life for you and I, our substitute. Folks, without
blood, there is no remission of sin. And we're all sinners. Every one of us. I don't care
how much of a sinner you are. You're a sinner, just as I am. And the only remission of that
is the blood. And those who are in Christ Jesus
have the perfect, the perfect sacrifice of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus, as our payment. Does that not grab ahold of your
heart? Does that not shine His grace
in your heart? But what does mean? This is a hard thing to believe.
In fact, It's not even possible for the unregenerate carnal mind
to comprehend. Man cannot be taught by man this
truth. You're not going to learn it
by going out and leaning up against a tree and thinking about this
or that. Only God can reveal Himself to
you and He does it through the pleasure of Himself of being
preached by His ministers. Preaching the Gospel of Christ
and Him crucified. That's why it's so important.
That's why Paul declares that we wish to know nothing of you
save Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because that's saving grace.
What you do as far as your goodness in this world has nothing to
do with it. It doesn't add anything and it
doesn't take anything away. Oh, I encourage you, go out and
be holy, for our God is holy. But that's not salvation. Salvation
is the Lord. The miracle of Christ becoming
flesh and laying down His life. I read this in Bible study. We're going to read it again.
Allow me to read it for you. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? After asking the disciples who
the men of the world say that He is. And Simon Peter answered,
he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. If you say this with a heart,
did you know you can't say it without the Spirit doing a work
in you first? You can't say that. Oh, there's
a lot of people who say it, but they don't mean it. Oh, He's
Lord of all, except for when I made a decision for Him. He's
Lord of all, except for when I came down to the front and
prayed the prayer. That was me. He's Lord of all,
except for when I got in the waters of baptism, that was me. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto thee. Folks, it takes America. It takes
America. to reveal who He is and what
He has done to His people. It's a miracle of the new heart. Only God the Spirit can teach
these things to men. The natural man cannot perceive
the things of God. The natural man is enmity with
God. We come into this world dead
in our own sinful nature, unable unwilling to believe the truths
of God. And that's exactly each and every
one of us. Turn over to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. This One who is God in the flesh,
this One who is called Jesus, He died and was raised again
for the justification of His chosen people. Death could not
hold Him. If it could, then He would not
be God in the flesh. Is that not correct? Remember
what I said earlier? He is life itself. All power
and heaven and earth are His to serve His purpose. Death has
no reign over Him. Look at verse 22 of Acts chapter
2. 22 of Acts chapter 2. Ye men of Israel, Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs. Remember what he said over, I
think it was John, when they asked him, he said, how long
do you make us to doubt? And he says, I told you. He's
talking to some unbelievers. I told you who I am. The works
that I do bear witness of who I am. The works that I do in
my Father's name, they bear witness of who I am. That's what this
is right here, the miracles and the wonders and the signs which
God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Was that just an accident? Was it plan B? No. God had purposed His Son to come
to this world from before the world ever was created. Was it
just an accident that Adam sinned against God? Absolutely not. Folks, there are no accidents
with God. He is the first cause of all
things. That doesn't mean that He's the
author of evil, but He allowed the author of evil to walk this
earth, and that is man in the flesh. Him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God, ye have
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God
hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holden of it. Now look over
at verse 29. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that He is both dead and
buried, and His sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn an oath with
Him, that of the fruit of His loins, according to the flesh,
He would raise up Christ to sit on His throne. Verse 31, He,
seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that
His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption,
This Jesus hath God raised up, wherefore we are all witnesses.
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this, which now ye see, which ye now see and hear. For
David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith unto himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit now on my right hand, until I
make thee make Thy foes Thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus,
whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ." Jesus is the Lord
of all. I love that song. All power,
all authority, All principalities, everything that is, is His to
do with as He sees fit according to His pleasure, according to
His will. And it is His pleasure to be
merciful. Did you know that? Did you know
that it pleases God the Son to be merciful? Listen to John chapter
17 verse 2. As thou hast given Him power
over all flesh. This is speaking of this very
one. This One who is God in the flesh, this One who is raised
to sit on the right hand of the Father right now, making intercession
for His people. He has been given power over
all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given Him. Now if you would, turn over to
Romans chapter 9. The third greatest miracle is the miracle of salvation. God the Father gave His Son a
people long before a star ever twinkled in the sky. They were
predestined to be conformed to the image of Him, as we read
in Romans 8, verse 29, on the promise that the Son would pay
the ransom price for their sins. And He did. And He did it perfectly. This boggles my mind every time
I read about it and every time I say anything about it. He who
knew no sin was made sin. He was made sin that knew no
sin is actually the way it goes in Scripture. That we would be
made the righteousness of God in Him. He did it perfectly. Does that grab ahold of you in
any way? I mean, if you try to think about it, It'll almost
make your head pop. God, perfect in everything He
did, was made imperfection perfectly. Kind of an interesting way to
look at that and think about that. He was made sin perfect. Perfectly. Not one drop of my sin can be
laid to my charge because it was laid on Him and He paid for
it perfectly. Not one drop of your sin, if
you belong to Him. It bothers me to no end for people
to say, He died for the whole world. Well, if He did, then
how come the whole world's not saved? That was one of the points
that I heard when I was sitting over here and I said, that makes
more sense to me than anything else I've ever heard. This Christ,
this God that we see in this scripture is telling us that
we are perfected forever in Him by that one offering of His body. Not just a little bit, not just
partly, but all. When Christ went to the grave,
He took all the sins of His elect and He left it there. He left
them all there. He didn't come out with any of
them. He came out as perfect as He was when He went in. If you belong to Christ, God sees
your sin no more is what Scriptures tell us. You are justified in
Him. I like the way they break that
down. Justified. Just as if I'd never sinned. They are gone as far as the West
is from the East, Scripture tells us. And if God loves you, could
anything take you away from Him? Paul writes in verse 31 of Romans
chapter 8, he writes this, he says, what shall we say then?
What shall we then say to these things, if God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Folks, Paul is writing to you
and I here. He's telling us Stand up and
praise the Lord, sing praises unto our God, for who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that dieth, yea, brethren, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intersection for
us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? distress, persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded,
I am completely convinced, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a miracle that God would become
flesh. What a miracle that He would
lay down His life and pick it up again so that the miracle
of salvation would be evident to His people. How dare these people say God
loves everybody? Scripture says differently. Look
at verse 10 of chapter 9. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, verse 11,
for the children being not yet born, this is speaking of the
twins and their mothers, in their mother's womb, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What a miracle of love and grace
that He would save any. What is it that God sees in John
Reeves or you or any one of His other peoples? It's not this
flesh that He sees. It's His Son. The very One who
took up dwelling in our hearts. The new heart. The heart that
loves Him because the old one didn't. A heart that loves Him because
He first loved us. What a miracle of love and grace
that He would save me. Turn over to Ephesians if you
would. Go to the right in your Scriptures
there if you're in Romans 9. Just a few pages. Turn to Ephesians
chapter 2. And I'll bring this to a close.
In verse 8 we read these words, For by grace ye are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
prepared, that we should walk in them. Wherefore, remember,
that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who were called
uncircumcised by that which is called the circumcision in the
flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world, but now in Christ. In Christ Jesus, you who were
sometimes afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ. Folks, I close with this. The
greatest miracle I know. The greatest miracle I know.
And I know we've talked about a couple of different ones. God
becoming flesh. God laying down His life. and raising it up again, and
God saving his people. You know, you can sum all of
that up in one. You can sum it all up in one miracle, and that's
the miracle of love. God has loved us with an everlasting
love from before things were ever created. to eternity, despite what we
are. He has loved us, and that's a
miracle beyond comprehension, that God would love me. Nothing
can separate me from that love, the love of God that sent his
son to be my substitute. We sing this song And I want
to close with this. I want to close with this song
instead of what's in there. I changed it on Kathy. I'm so
thankful that she's able to work with me on those things. I want
to sing the song, It Took a Miracle. Turn to page 524 and stand with
me. The song goes like this. It took a miracle to put the
stars in place. It took a miracle to hang the
world in space. But when He saved my soul, cleansed
and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace. When did He
do that? When did God save my soul? When
did He cleanse and make me whole on that cross just over 2,000
years ago?