Well, we know that the speaker
here is the Apostle Peter, and Peter is an eyewitness of some
things that are taking place. Peter charges these that he preaches
to with the base neglect of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he tells
them that this man, Jesus, whom you have ignored, whom you have neglected, whom you
have despised, and whom you have killed, God hath raised him from
the dead. Down here in verse 33. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, God raised him from
the dead and seated him on his right hand, and he will be there,
he says, until he makes all of his enemies his footstool. He
will be on the right hand of God until the time comes when
all of his enemies are made his footstool, all of his foes. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ." And when they
heard this, something happened to them. It says they were pricked
in their hearts. I believe by the Spirit of God
that there was a heavy, hard, weighty conviction that came
upon their hearts because of their attitude towards the Lord
Jesus Christ. because not only of their attitude,
but because of what they've done. And they said unto Peter and
to the apostles, they said, Well, what should we do about this?
What can we do to undo that which we've done? We've done some things
and that's terrible. The realization now has finally
dawned upon us what we actually did. While we've killed the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom God has sent. We've killed Him. We've killed
Him. What can we do? And they were just tore up. They
were broke up. It wasn't just a period of anxiety because of
something outward had taken place here. But it was a period of
great distress depression down in their souls. They said, what? What can we do that we might
undo what we've done? What can we do? We've killed
him. We've killed him. What can we
do? Well, you say, did these people actually kill him? Well,
maybe not literally. Maybe they were not at the mock
trial. Maybe they were not one of the
witnesses that was paraded before Herod and Pontius Pilate and
gave false testimony of who the Lord Jesus was and what He had
done. Maybe they were actually one
of those people. Maybe they were not at the crucifixion. But the
crime of murdering the Lord Jesus Christ is attributed to every
man who ignores Jesus Christ. Every man that ignores Him murders
Him. Let me show you something now,
if you'll turn with me to Matthew chapter 17. I know that we're not at Jerusalem
this morning, I know that the death of our Lord Jesus Christ
happened some 1800 years ago. Therefore, it is not necessary
that we dwell upon the sins of those long since dead. But we
need to consider how far we, who are gathered here this morning,
have been guilty of similar sins against the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look over here in Matthew 17 and verse number 5. I read this in order that we
might somehow, maybe the Lord will be pleased to open our eyes
and our hearts to the truth of what's being said and to the
magnitude of our sin against God. Verse number 5 says, While he
yet spake, that's while Peter yet spake.
Peter's doing some talking. While he was speaking, behold
a bright cloud overshadowed them. They were just engulfed. in a bright cloud that certainly
depicted the glory of God. And a voice out of the cloud.
That voice was God. There is a voice that speaks
out of this cloud. And that voice was none other
than God Himself. God speaking audibly. Right here, this is God the Father. God the Son is in the presence
of Peter, James, John, Elijah, and Moses. But God the Father
now speaks. He kind of interrupts. And behold,
a voice out of the cloud which said something here of vital
interest and of vital importance to you and I. There are three things that are
said here. The first thing is, this is my
beloved son. That's the first thing he said.
That's the first point. The second point is this, in
whom I am well pleased. That's the second point. And
the third point is this, here ye am. Now, to ignore this, To ignore
this, to ignore Him who spoke, is the sin so aggravated, a sin
that is such a terrible crime, that if it were not for the mercy of God in pardoning sinners
through the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole world is being held
today. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased, hear ye Him." Well, it's said that, in the
Bible here, it says that if a man hates his brother, he's a murderer. You remember reading that in
the book of 1 John? It says if a man hates his brother,
he's a murderer. Now, if that's true, what do you suppose could be
attributed by way of crime against a man who hates God? Now, we know that men in their
natural state do hate God. They are enmity against God. That is, they are hostile against
God. They don't appear to be, they
don't believe they are, but they are. They are an enemy of God
and they hate God. Now they don't hate the God of
their imagination, they hate the God of the Bible. They don't
actually hate the God that they trust and the God that they believe
in, and for the most part, the God that they heard about. They
don't hate that God, but they hate THE God. THE God of the
Bible they hate. Now, if they hate him, which
the Bible says that every man outside of the Lord Jesus, every
man in his natural state, he hates God. All right, if he hates
God, he's a murderer of God. You see that? If a man hates
his brother, he's a murderer. That he hates him in his heart,
he's a murderer. He doesn't have to drive the
knife in and actually perform the deed. It's performed here
in his heart. If he hates his brother, He's
a murderer. Now, if a man hates God, he's
a murderer of God. You see what I'm driving at? Well, here's a voice that spake out of this cloud
that said something that's applicable to all men. of every race and
creed and color. It is said universally to every
member of the human race that has ever lived or ever shall
live. It makes a statement, a fact
here, that Jesus Christ is His beloved Son. God says, This is
My beloved Son. He's my beloved Son. Let me read
something to you here in the book of Hebrews. Turn over there
to that first chapter. It's not something that you don't
know. It's not something that you haven't read before. But
it needs to be brought to our attention in the first chapter
of the book of Hebrews. Listen to this now. This is my beloved Son. in whom
I am well pleased." Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? God's beloved
Son. Now, we've got to know who He
is and what He is. It is who He is, now listen to
me, if you don't get anything this morning, rivet this in your
heart. It is what He is and who He is
that gives value to what He done. Do you see that? It's what He is. If this little
old mythical Jesus that we've manufactured from our childhood
days and this little old ghostly, vapor-like, unseen Jesus, somewhere
in the clouds that's unconcerned and indifferent as to the well-being
of the human race, just don't cut it with the Bible. The Jesus Christ of the Bible
is God's beloved Son. If we could get a hold of that,
that He is God's beloved Son. Matter of fact, well, you keep
your Bibles open there, it's the first chapter of the book
of Hebrews. Now what does he mean when he says, My beloved
son? Well, it means that he's not
a servant. He's not a servant, he's a son. What are you? Now we are the sons of God in
a sense, but we are the servants of God. Never let anybody persuade
you or convince you into thinking that you or I ever will be on
par or equal footing with the Lord Jesus Christ. We never will
be. We're going to be like Him. We shall see Him as He is. We're
going to be like Him. But we'll never, we'll never
be a beloved son of God Almighty, like the Lord Jesus Christ is
a beloved son of God Almighty. You see what I'm talking about?
We'll never reach that stage. We'll always be children. We'll
always be servants. We're servants. He said, this
is my beloved son. My beloved son. God only had
one. God only had one Son, and He
said, this is it right here, here they are on top of the mount, James and Peter and John and
Moses and Elijah. And Peter's talking. He doesn't
know what he's talking about. Peter doesn't know what he's
talking about here. One of the other writers, I believe
it was the book of Luke, in the book of Luke it says, pertaining
to this same Scripture, it says that Peter, not knowing what
he said, not knowing what he said, up here when he said, verse
4, Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good
for us to be here. If Thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles, one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
In Luke it says, not knowing what he said. He didn't know
what he was talking about. He didn't know, really, literally,
who the Lord Jesus Christ was at this time. He knew Him in
a sense, but he didn't know the fullness of what God was talking
about when God said, This is My beloved Son. In other words,
what he is saying here, This is My beloved Son, He's not a
servant as Moses and Elijah are servants. They're prophets. They're
men. They're servants. That's all
they are. They're My servants. Peter, you know what you're talking
about. Don't you imply, suggest in any sense of the word that
my son is to be put on equal footing with Elijah and Moses. That's what he said. Now you
see the importance of my beloved son. Get it again now. Get it again. It is what he is
and who he is that gives value to what he does. Oh, if we could ever get it in
our hearts, you and I that believe on the Lord Jesus to the saving
of our soul, if we could get it in our hearts, who He is,
then what He done would take on more meaning to us. That He
died. That He actually, God Almighty's
beloved Son, actually offered himself as a sacrifice for our
redemption, for our sins. You see, what he is, who he is,
gives value to what he does. The blood of bulls and bullocks
could not wash away a single sin. Why? Because of the value
of the blood. See? They shed their blood If
I shed my blood, it couldn't save nobody. It couldn't save
anybody. Why? Because I'm a servant, a
sinful human creature. But he's talking about, this
is my beloved son. Peter, you're talking about building
a little shelter here out of twigs and boughs off of limbs
off of trees and so forth, to keep out the sun and to keep
out the rain and so forth. And we'll just set up. You're
talking about building three little temporary places here
for Moses and Elijah and my son. Now, you don't know what you're
talking about. This is my beloved son right
here. This is my beloved son. Don't
you, don't you suggest by way of your opinion. Don't you even
consider that my son is to be seen or to be considered on equal footing with these two. They're not on equal footing
with my son. They're servants. That's all they'll ever be. What
does it say when it says, after you have done all you know to
do? If you've done everything that
you know to do, what are you to consider yourself? Are you
to esteem yourself, to prize yourself as one? Well, I fulfilled
every jot and every tittle of it, now I'm this and that. No.
He said after you've done all that you know to do, consider
yourself what? Unprofitable servant. That's all you'll ever be. That's all we'll ever be is servant. We're not going to be equal with
God as Jesus Christ is equal with God. We'll never be like
that. Oh, I know that it'll be glory
and it'll be heaven and all of those things. And we'll have
an inheritance and we'll be joined with Him and all that. But in
a sense, He is so high above us, we'll never be like Him. This is God's beloved Son. Not a servant as Moses and Elijah
and as the rest of the prophets were, but he is a divine person. He is the Son of God. He is not
a son by creation. We are sons by creation. He made
us out of the dust. That is where we come from. He
took some of the dirt. He took some dirt and he just
fashioned that dirt into the form of a man. That's where we
come from, out of dirt. After you dig under that snow
and you look down at that black dirt, red dirt, yellow dirt,
that's where we come from. We are sons by creation. He created
us out of the dirt. Well, he said, My son is not
a son by creation as men and angels are. Angels are created
by God. If you and I are the saints of
God, we are saints by what? By adoption. By adoption. He
is a dearly beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, over
here in Hebrews, look at this in chapter 1. Now, verse number
2, it says that God in these last days has spoken unto us
by His Son, the Lord Jesus. Now, look how He regards His
Son. Whom He hath appointed heir of
all things. This is My beloved Son, hear
Him. This is My beloved Son, His Son,
whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory." That is, this
is My beloved Son. He is the brightness of My glory. He is the express image of My
person. "...and upholding all things
by the word of His power." when He had by Himself, this is my
beloved Son, purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty of God, being made so much better than the
angels. That's what this whole thing
is talking about. He's not to be on equal footing with the
angels, or the angels not to be on equal footing with Him.
He's over and above. Look at the latter part of this
chapter here. in that 13th verse. It says,
But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool? When did he ever say that? When
did he ever say to any of the angels, Here you sit on my right
hand until I make your... Oh no, he is higher than the
angels, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, you see, he is a dearly
beloved son. being His image, the brightness
of His glory. They are of the same nature and
perfection. And with Him, and He is equal
with God, so He ever was and ever will be. And it says, This
is My beloved Son, and I am well pleased with Him, or well pleased
in Him. This is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. I am well pleased in Him. He
is not pleased in nobody else on the top side of God's green
earth except the Lord Jesus Christ. There never was a time and there
never will be a time that He was ever pleased with me or ever
be pleased with you apart from His Son, the Lord Jesus. Never
will. He is, and I have said this many
times, say it again, that God so values His Son. This is my beloved Son. He so
values His Son that He has proclaimed on practically every page of
the Bible that He will not speak to nor be spoken to by any member
of the human race apart from His Son. He has spoken unto us
in these last days by His Son. That's the only way He'll speak
to us. These people that say they have
visions and they hear God speaking to them and all that, they're
liars. They're liars. God does not speak to anybody
apart from Jesus Christ. Now you can write it down. You
can just put a line under that, and that's the way it is. You
can stand on it. God doesn't speak to anybody apart from Christ.
And anybody that says, well, someone was standing at the foot
of my bed last night, I seen a vision there, and that man,
he just looked like Jesus Christ. How do you know he looked like
Jesus Christ? Well, he looked like Jesus Christ. I thought
he looked like Jesus Christ. Well, he had long flowing hair,
and he had a long white gown on, and you might have seen somebody,
or you might have seen something, but you didn't see the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I get tired of hearing people
talk like that, don't you? They woke up in the middle of
the night, and someone touched their foot and said, this is
Jesus, and He's speaking. Nah, Jesus doesn't speak that
way! God doesn't speak that way! God
speaks through His Son! And that's all! God honors His
Son. His Son is what? His Son is His
dearly beloved, His world beloved. And I'll tell you this, you better
listen to it. You and I better listen to it.
There's a voice that spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved
Son. If you haven't submitted to it,
if you haven't listened to it, you better. You better because
you will. You will. I'm trying to impress
you here this morning that if you continue to ignore and to
neglect Him, He'll send you to hell. This is yours, 2 and 2
is 4. God will damn you and send you
into hell and you'll burn throughout the ageless ages out forever
for one reason. Because He said, this is My beloved
Son, and you said, Go to hell, I don't need to listen to your
beloved son. You made a mistake by sending
him and I'll just ignore him. That's what men are saying. That's
what I said. That's what I said all of my
life up until the time I saved. That's what I said. I said it. I said it in my heart. I said
it in my actions. I said it. And that's the way
everybody else is. Now, I don't know whether you'll
admit it or not, but that doesn't make any difference whether you
admit it or not. You're guilty of it. You ignored God's Son. This is
my beloved... If you haven't submitted to it,
there's someone here this morning. Man, woman, boy or girl, if you
have not submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer and
Savior from your sins, then you have neglected, rejected, despised,
and murdered the Son of God. That's all they are to us. This
is my beloved Son. This is God's Son. Well, we're
to hear Him. We're to hear and we're to believe
and we're to accept His doctrines. We're to submit to Him. We're
to obey His commands as King. We are to hear Him always. and
in all things. This is My beloved Son, hear
ye Him." All right? What's all this got to do with
what he's talking about over there in the book of Acts? Well,
it's got this. Turn back over there in the book of Acts, chapter
2, wasn't it? Now, the book of Acts. They said,
men and brethren, what shall we do? What shall we do? What can we do to undo what we've
already done? Well, what have they done? They've
ignored God's Son. That's what they did. They ignored
Him. He said, This is My beloved Son. And they said, Who cares?
That's what they said. That's what the world is saying
this morning. That's what the world said this morning, yesterday
morning, and every day that has passed. They have said, Who cares? Who cares? He said, This is My
beloved Son. They said, Well, who cares? They some do care, but for the
most part, nobody cares. Nobody cares that He's God's
Son. Well, God's not going to let people get by with this.
He's not going to let people get by. I mean, they can flip
and flop and run around and seem to get involved with everything
here in time and maybe have all that the heart could desire,
but there's going to come a time when When they're going to come
to grips with this statement right here, this is my beloved
son, and they're going to have to stand before God, and God's
going to say, this is my son. What do you think of my son?
They'll just have to drop their head and say, well, I've ignored
him all my life. This is my son! He's mine! And you mean to tell me that
you've ignored him all your life? Yeah. Alright, go to hell then. I ain't to punish you. I'll have
to punish you. I'll have to send you to hell.
I'll have to send you to hell not to rehabilitate you. I'll
have to send you to hell to punish you for your wickedness towards
My Son. Now God won't put up with this. I'm telling you this morning
under God, God's not going to put up with it. He's not going
to put up with it. Now we may seem to slide through
this life and never come to grips with this and maybe even die
a peaceful death and everything appear to be alright. But if
we have not heard and submitted and bowed to God's Son, God is
going to punish us. This is my beloved Son. You better
hear Him. You better not neglect Him. Better
not. Does not the book of Hebrews
in about the third chapter or the second chapter there, maybe
this, say this? How shall we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation? That word neglect means ignore. How can we escape if we ignore
it? That's what men are doing. Neglecting,
ignoring. They say, well, I don't hear
anything. Well, here's the Bible. Well,
no preachers ever come. Well, that's no excuse. Folks
say, well, I never went to church and no one ever came to my house.
That's no excuse. The preacher never came and talked
to me in some back room or in his office or in my home and
explained. He doesn't have to. He doesn't
have to. It's already been written down. It's right here. Right
here it is. Or John chapter 17 and verse number 5. There it
is. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You better
hear Him. It's already said. It's already
said. And that's enough. That's enough. It's in the Bible. The Bible is true. Every word
in the Bible is true. Every word. There's not a word
in this Bible that's not true. Every word of it was inspired
by God. This is just the same as if What
I read to you right here this morning in John chapter 17, verse
number 5, Acts chapter 2, verse 29 through 47, and where Fred
read to you from the book of John chapter 3, it was just like
God Himself standing here speaking to us. Same thing. This is the
Word of God. This is God! It's my beloved Son, hear ye
Him. Well, what's that got to do with Acts 2.38? All right,
I said, we're not at Jerusalem. And the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ happened more than 1800 years ago. Therefore, we need
not dwell upon the sins of those long since dead. We just need
to dwell upon how far you and I have been guilty of similar
sins against the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said that every man now,
and I proved it, every man who has not bowed down, bowed down
to the Lord Jesus Christ, he is still standing straight up
in pride and rebellion against God. I am saying every man has
neglected Him, has ignored His claims. You see, to ignore a
man altogether is, in a certain sense, as far as you're concerned,
to kill that man. You ignore a man, that is, just
write him off the book. Ignore him. Don't pay no attention
to him. I'm not concerned about him.
I won't even think about him. He comes around, walk off from
him. I ignore him. I completely ignore
that fellow. I don't care about him. Leave
him go. Haven't you said that about people?
Maybe people have unjustly treated you or criticized you or hurt
you. And you said, well, I'll write
him off. Alright, leave him go. Let him
do what he wants to. I'll never... Just leave him
go! I'll ignore him. Well, as far as you're concerned,
in a sense, you've killed that fella. You've ignored him. You wrote him off. You wrote
zero behind his name. I never have nothing to do with
him no more. I don't want to talk about him. Let's not discuss
it. He doesn't interest me. Don't
talk about it. Let's talk about something else.
I ignored that fellow. I murdered him. I killed him.
Well, you see, if you put him out of your reasoning, if you
put him out of your reckoning, if you treat him as though he
were nothing, if you treat him as though he was a zero, well,
then you've killed him. And that's what men are doing.
See? God said, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well. Please hear ye him. And men have
ignored him. And to ignore him is to kill
him. And so they say, men and brethren,
what shall we do when they are awakened to their guilt, to their
crime? I know that men right now don't
realize that's what they've done, in fact. They don't realize that.
But that's no excuse. They've got the Bible here to
find out about it. They don't even open the Bible.
They don't even read the Bible. And I say this in all honesty,
I wouldn't have read it. I wouldn't be interested in it
unless God had been interested in me. But that wouldn't excuse
me at the bar of God. That wouldn't excuse me. God has sent His Son into this
world. I need to find out about it. I need to find out about
God's Son. God has put in a built-in mechanism
in the heart of every man. Every man, woman, and child that's
born a woman, if they're not imbeciles or morons, God has
something in them that says, I am God. Something like that. And brother, every man is responsible
then to seek to increase the life that he has. And if he doesn't
seek to increase that life, he'll get no life. We're responsible
creatures and agents unto God to do so, every one of us. And
if we die and go to hell, it won't be God's fault, it will
be your fault. But if you die and go to be with Him, it will
be by the grace of God. It won't be because you deserve
it. Well, lots of people treat Him
with empty compliments by observing His day and hearing His words. and yet have no real regard for
Him. They ignore Him. That is, they've
got a religion. They wouldn't be found in that
number who don't go to church. They wouldn't be found associating
with that number who profane His name. But yet, in their hearts,
they have ignored God. Their confidence is in their
religion. Their confidence is in in what
they know. Their confidence is in what they
do or what they don't do. And so, therefore, they're just
as guilty. They're just as guilty as the
profane person. They're just as guilty as the
fellow that doesn't come at all. Because they don't regard God
in their hearts. Well, they never seem to catch
Him. His spirit of love or meekness
or so forth. And they've never in any sense
of the word confessed their sins before Him. They've never sought
His help. They've never looked to Him for
mercy. And I'm saying all this in order
that we might say it's just neglect. It's neglect. It's ignorance.
It's neglect. It's despising God. It's showing
contempt for God's Son, the Lord Jesus. And there's no excuse. There's no excuse for nobody
in this building or nobody outside this building. Nobody on the
face of God's green earth has any excuse for not submitting
to God's Son. Nobody. Nobody. I mean nobody
has any excuse. You see, it's base neglect. It's
ungrateful contempt. I want to tell you this one more
time. what God thinks of His Son. God. He is so in love with
His Son, He won't hear anything else. Moses, or Peter, shut up! Shut up, Peter! This is my beloved
Son right here. God thinks so much of His Son
that He cannot set Him up too high. He has placed Him at His right
hand. This is the highest place that
a man can be elevated to, is to God's right hand. That's where
He elevated His Son. He elevated Him to His right
hand. And He's seated by Him on His
right side. He raised Him from the dead.
That's what I read to you. You see, He's placed him at his
right hand, and yet men won't spare him a thought. Ignore him. They killed him. Ignore him.
Write him off with zero. Well, I want to tell you about
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tell you about His
doing and dying. Don't talk to me. I don't need it. Well, that's
what men say. They don't have to say it audibly.
They just say it by them not being here. See? God has raised
up a group of people to build a building. And He's given some
man some ability to express the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. And bar him in a place that you
say, well, we haven't went out enough. We don't have. Well,
it's alright if you do. I'm all for it. But that does
not excuse man from being here on Sunday morning. Every seven
days is a memorial to the Lord Jesus Christ that it's His day
that God raised Him from the dead. Every seven days. Every seven days that the sun
shines or doesn't shine is a memorial to the resurrection, to the ascension,
to the exaltation of God Almighty, that He's at God's right hand.
God raised Him from the dead. And men, they can find all sort
of excuses to keep from coming to church. Isn't that right? Any excuse you can think of,
well, my wife's sick, or my children's sick, or I had to work, or this,
or that, or I want to go here, I want to go there. Now, that
may be well and good. I don't know, and I may forgive
it, and I may say, well, that's fine, you're justified and all
that, but I'm telling you this, there is not one excuse in the
book of excuses that will stand you in good stead with God Almighty.
Brother and sister, God has commanded us to hear His Son. This is my beloved Son. That's
the command. There ain't no alternative. You've
got no choice in the matter. Either you do or you don't. That's
your choice. Well, all right. The great God
Almighty thinks heaven and earth is too little for Him. and He
magnifies Him above all as the King of kings and the Lord of
lords. And you and I, for the most part,
treat Him as if He were of no account. When God says that I
look upon Him as the way, Jesus said, I am the way. There is
no way to God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is My
beloved Son, you better hear Him." Jesus said, I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life, and no man cometh unto the Father
except by Me. That's what He said about Himself.
He said, I am the Way, I am the Way, I am the Way. Well, I know,
but, but, but, but, Jesus said, I am the Way! No man, no man,
no man comes to God my Father apart from coming by Me. I am
the Way. That's My middle name. The Way!
the truth and the lie. God calls him the way. This is
my beloved Son. He is the way. Don't tell me
you come to God by baptism or by praying through or by bowing
at the altar or doing good works or holding out faithful to the
end or this or that. No, you come to God through Jesus
Christ or you don't come at all. He is the way. He is the way.
This is my beloved Son. Better hear Him. hear Him. Now
maybe it's what the preacher says. Maybe it's what the church
believes. Maybe it's what this fellow says
and that fellow says. It's what God says. That's what
counts. It's my beloved Son. I'm the
way. The Bible calls Him a rock. That rock was Christ. The Bible
speaks of Him as the fountain of living water. The Bible speaks
of Him as the head of the church. The Bible speaks of Him as the
Lamb of God, the pearl of great price, the believer's friend.
He said, I am the rose of Sharon, the mediator. I'm the surety
of a better covenant. I'm the bridegroom, the express
image of the person of God. I'm the door to God. I am the
door. I'm the bread of life. I'm the
water of life. I'm a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. I'm a prophet. I'm a priest and
I'm the good shepherd. I'm the advocate with the Father.
I am the Son of Righteousness with healing in my wings. I am
the root and the offspring of David. I am the lily of the valley.
I am the heir of all things. I am the only foundation. I am
the tridestone. I am a precious stone. I am the
chief cornerstone. And then people ignore Him. This
is what God says about Him. He says, This is My beloved Son. He is My beloved Son. I am well
pleased in Him. Hear ye Him. He is wonderful. He's excellent, He's Counselor,
He's Almighty God, Everlasting Father. The Bible says He's the
Captain of our salvation, He's the saint's wedding garment,
He's the bright morning star, He's the Judge of all, He's Judge
of the quick and dead, Christ is all and in all. That's what
God says about Him. This My Beloved Son right here,
He's My Beloved Son. Won't you be quiet? Won't you
be quiet, Peter? You don't know what you're talking
about. Are you trying to bring Elijah and Moses up to equal
footing with My Son? Just be quiet. You don't know
what you're talking about. This is My beloved Son here.
He's not a servant. He's My Son. His heart beats
with Me. I've always loved Him. I've always
loved Him. He has loved the Lord Jesus Christ
with a burning, fervent love, throughout eternity's past and
throughout the eternities to come. He is the lily of the valley. He is the apple of the eye of
the Lord Jesus Christ, or God Almighty. He is everything to
God. He is everything. And oh, when
He died, when He died, when the Lord Jesus Christ said, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Oh, the heart of God was
broken. the broken heart of God Almighty. God's heart, drenched with blood,
is my Son. What would you say? What would
you say? God can love. God Almighty can
love. We put Him off somewhere and
put Him up on a little pedestal there as some sort of an idol.
And we feel that God can't express Himself in emotion. God can love. God can hate. If He can't love,
He can't hate. If He can't hate, He can't love.
But God loves and He loves us. This is my beloved Son. God sent
His only beloved Son into this world. My beloved Son. We said, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? What do you reckon went through
the heart and the mind and the emotions of God the Father? On
one hand, he was pleased, and on the other hand, his heart
was broke. He was pleased that the Lord
Jesus Christ would willingly give Himself cheerfully and gladly
in the sinner's stead in order that God might save poor sinners. But yet on the other hand, he
was displeased. Oh, he was hurt. He was hurt.
His son was suffering. How he suffered here! This is
my beloved son, Bob. This is my son. You better hear
Him. I don't care what you... You
might not listen to the newspaper, that'll be alright, and these
commentators and some of these preachers and all that, but you
better listen to my Son. You better listen to Him. This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I'm well pleased. You won't be pleased this morning. You won't be pleasing unto God.
The only way you can be pleasing unto God is to hear His Son.
Hear His Son. be found in him." Paul said,
I had a pretty good righteousness before Christ came. He said,
as before the law, I was blameless. What do you reckon he meant by
that? Paul said, before the law of God, he said, I was blameless. That's what he said. But he said,
I count all of that righteousness that I had before the law as
being blameless. He said, I count all of that
but done. that I might win Christ and be
found in Him. Be found in Him. Having His righteousness,
which is the righteousness of faith. To be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ is to hear Him. It's to hear God's Son. You know
you're a sinner. I don't have to go on here and
point out various aspects of men's sin in order to convince
a man that he's a sinner. You know you're a sinner. Well,
must I feel something? No, you're not called upon to
feel anything. Must I experience something? No, you're not called
on to experience anything. You are only called upon to believe
that you are a sinner. Yes, sinner, and you know it. You're not called upon to believe
that you're anything more than what you are. What are we? We're sinners. I'm a sinner.
I'm a sinner. Well, Christ died for sinners.
Well, if He died for sinners and I'm a sinner and I know I'm
a sinner, He must have died for me. Better hear Him. Hear Him. This is my beloved Son. Hear
Him. I'm well pleased in Him. If you
get in Him, I'll be pleased with you. You stay out of Him, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. Every hour of every
day that a man is outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is
angry at him. He is angry at him and with him. He can only be in love with you
as you are in love with His Son. He will honor you as you honor
His Son. He will regard you as He regards
His Son. You've got to get in His Son.
How do you get in His Son? Just by believing on Him. Just
by believing on Him. Just by trusting Him. Just by
saying, Lord, He's my Redeemer and my Savior and I bow to Him. I'm nothing. I renounce all of
my righteousness. I renounce every claim that I
have upon God. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. All
I do is bow at Your feet. That's all. Just bow at your
feet and I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Redeemer and my
Savior and my King. That's how you get in here. By
faith. By faith. Not by feeling. Not by experience. By faith.
This is my beloved Son. I'm well pleased in Him. Hear
Him. Hear Him. If you're missing, you missed
it all. If you missed Christ, you missed everything else. God
is going to punish you. I mean, He's going to put the whip to
us if we miss Him and go out into eternity. He's going to
beat us. I mean, punishment like... You
say, well, does God punish? God must punish sin. You mean
to tell me that God made Jesus Christ to be sin for us? And then here's men who have
ignored Him all their life and went off into eternity. And just
go out there and nothing happens? Oh, no. Oh, no. You'll either have your sins
punished in Christ or they'll be punished out of Christ, but
I'll guarantee you they'll be punished. God will send us to hell. He'll
send us to hell. And there's no way that you could
describe hell and its misery and its awfulness. No way that
you could describe it. One way you could describe it
is to say You're just void of the presence of God. But apart
from that, there's that worm. That worm that just gnaws and
gnaws and gnaws. And that fellow said, these flames
torment me. Now, I don't know what he meant
by that. But he said, they torment me. And he said, if you could
just send this beggar that laid at my gate. He's in your bosom.
Just send him. Just let him. Let Him put His
finger in some water. And if He could cross over this
great gulf where I am, and just let Him retain that drop of water
and put it in my tongue. Oh, he said, I'd be so thankful
if that had happened. But Father Abraham said, that
can't happen. He said, you're over there and
He's over here. He said, it can't go across.
God's going to punish sinners. Why? Because he murdered his
son. Because he won't hear his son.
Because he neglected his son. Because he despised his son.
Because he won't bow to his son. And he said, my son is the best
that I've got. And he said, you've ignored his
claims. You've ignored his claims. What
else can I do? He said, you're crazy. He said,
you're crazy. You're a fool. He said, fools
and crazy people. He said, I've got to put them
away. They're dangerous. They're dangerous. Insane people and
fools are dangerous people. And he said, I've got to put
them away. He said, I'll put them away when this thing's all
over with. All my enemies, he said, I'll put them away. Wherever
you put them, I'll put them in hell. I'll put them in hell down
there with the devil and the fallen angels. I'll put them
right down there. That's what's going to happen. I hope you'll consider what I've
said this morning. Give it some thought. This is my beloved son.
You say, well, what can it be? Read the Bible. Read the Bible.
You say, well, I don't understand it after I read it. Well, just
look at it and read it and say, God, I'm interested. I'm interested
in what the preacher is talking about. I'm interested, Lord,
make this known to my heart somehow, some way, that I might understand. I believe God will make you understand. I believe He will make me understand.