Thank you, Brother Art. Let's
turn in our Bibles to Galatians 1. My subject is obedience by revelation. Obedience by revelation. Now
throughout this letter to Galatia and in all Paul's epistles, Paul
is declaring that true believers walk by faith in Christ and we
work, we do the things we do in the cause of Christ and in
our daily lives by love. By love. We're not compelled
by men. Not compelled by men using the
law of God. Not compelled by men using man-made
commandments and church creeds and traditions and those things.
We're not compelled by fear of punishment nor by a promise of
reward. That's not what makes God's true
sanctified people believe on Christ and do good works. That's not what does it. Those
sanctified by God in true holiness, true holiness, They're made obedient
by the revelation of Christ in our hearts. The revelation of
Christ, Christ Himself being revealed in our hearts through
the Spirit of God, through the preaching of the Gospel. This
is what creates obedience in the heart of a sinner. This is
what, when you're truly sanctified, God reveals Christ in you, in
your heart, so you see Him, you behold Him through faith, And
this thing of the gospel becomes a person, it becomes real. And you walk by faith in Him. And the same as He separated
us and called us in the first hour, the same message, the same
power, the same revelation, that's how He keeps us walking by faith. That's how He keeps us separated
unto Him and corrects us and keeps us following Him throughout
our life. It's by the revelation of Christ
in the heart, through the spirit, through the preaching of the
word. It's not through the message of man's works and morality.
It's through the gospel by which he called us in the first hour,
the message of Christ, the message of his person and all his wonderful
works. Now, to show this, the Holy Spirit
moved Paul to declare how that Christ had personally done this
work in him and called him to be an apostle. He says here in
verse 11, but I certify you, I make known to you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ, by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The gospel's not
after man. It didn't originate with man.
It originated with God, and no man can teach another sinner
the gospel. No man can teach the truth in
spirit and in truth in the heart of another sinner. I mean effectually. I mean powerfully. He cannot,
in spirit and in truth, teach another sinner. and he certainly
can't make another sinner receive it. Christ is the gospel and
he's the revealer of the gospel. He's the revealer and the revelation
he reveals is himself. That's how we're made, that's
how we're taught the truth, that's how we're made to receive the
truth. Christ must teach us. Now, Paul
obviously here is talking about the difference there is between
an apostle and us. And there are some differences.
With us, Christ is going to use a preacher. He's going to use
a preacher. But it's going to be Christ that
teaches you. It's going to be Christ that
reveals himself in you. And it's going to make you receive
the truth. Christ will have to do that.
He uses a preacher with us. Now, he did not with Paul. He
called Paul directly. He's an apostle. Christ went
to him in person and called him. Now he may not give us the full
revelation that he gave Paul as immediately as he gave Paul. He may not work this drastic
of a change in us as just suddenly as he did it in Paul. But the
point of showing us this is to show us it's Christ who does
it. The way he does it is revealing
himself in our hearts, and he does create obedience of faith
and works of love in his people by this revelation. Now, he does
it today through the preaching of this gospel. That's how he's
pleased to do it. Now, we may not be exactly like
Paul in that Christ called him personally, and he worked this
so immediately in Paul, but Paul is a pattern. He's a pattern
for every believer. Go to 1 Timothy and look here
at chapter one. He is a pattern for us. He says
that here, speaking by the Spirit of God, he says in verse 12,
1 Timothy 1.12, he says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. That's who we all thank, isn't
it? We don't have anybody else to thank but our God. Our Lord,
Christ Jesus. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting
me into the ministry. He made him faithful. You know,
he only imputes, he only counts what's true and what's fact.
He counted him faithful because he made him faithful. He put
him in the ministry. Now watch, who was before a blasphemer,
a persecutor, an injurious, but I obtained mercy because I was
dead in sin. I did it ignorantly and unbelief.
And the grace, the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. It was the faith and love
of Christ that did this for me, Paul said. This is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came in the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief, how be it? For this cause
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. Paul is this drastic pattern. He's this exaggerated pattern. And when we see what great thing
Christ did in him, he's the pattern to show you This is what he did
in you, this is what he did in me, this is what he does in every
believer he saves. Now let's go back and let's see
what he did for Paul. First of all, as unregenerate sinners, natural
sinners in this world, we don't have to have God to help us become
religious. We naturally take on religion,
vain religion, apart from Christ. That's our nature. He says here
in verse 13, you've heard of my conversation in time past
in the Jews religion. In the Jews religion. Notice
how he said that. How that beyond measure. I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. Everything we're looking
at here is just exaggerated. I mean, it's just magnified for
it. Paul was more zealous than anybody. He said, I persecuted the church
of God, I wasted it, I profited in the Jews' religion above many
my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the
traditions of my father. Now, we see how wrapped up in
the Jews' religion Paul was. He was zealous. I mean, he was
wrapped up in it. The Jews' religion is natural,
man-made religion. That's what he's referring to.
Paul wasn't born of God. He didn't know God. This was
all natural. He did all this on his own of
his flesh. That's what the Jews' religion
is. It exists in our day. I'm not just talking about the
Jews. I'm talking about in so-called
Christian churches, you find the Jews' religion. It's natural
religion. It's man-made religion. It's
the worship of the will of man and the works of man. And it's
made up of two things, primarily. And he tells us right here. One
is persecuting the true church of God. That sums it up. They're persecutors of the true
church of God. He said, beyond measure, I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. That was me and you. We were
blasphemers, we were persecutors, we were injurious against the
true church of God while we were dead in our sins, whether we
were in religion or not in religion. Christ said, if a man's not for
him, he's against him. There's no neutrality. We were
against the true church of God when we were dead in our sin.
When he was Saul of Tarsus, Paul consented for, they laid their
coats down at his feet when they stoned Stephen. He was there. On the road to Damascus, he had
letters going to where he could arrest and imprison and consent
to the death of believers, of true children of God. That's
where he was headed, on the road to Damascus. It may not be that
bad in our day right now, but it has been and it probably will
be again. But this is in the heart of every
self-righteous religious man. This is in the heart of every
wheel worker right here. It's what they could do if they
could have their way. This thing you see in the world
right now of people getting so offended at every little thing
and acting like they just, everybody ought to just bow to them and
they ought to have their way and they speak about being open-minded
and being, what's the word I'm looking for? I know you just
said it, but I can't... Tolerant. Yeah, tolerant. They're
tolerant of everybody, but they're not tolerant of anybody that
doesn't agree with them. Where's that come from? That's
the heart of self-righteous man, and that's the heart of self-righteous
religion. But they still speak evil of us. They call us antinomian. They say we're against the law
because they don't understand what I'm preaching to you tonight.
They don't get it. They call us antinomian, and
they say that we're They discourage people from listening to our
gospel, and they'll sooner lock arms with rank freewill Armenians
than they would call us a brother. But listen, Paul said in Galatians
4, 29, as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him
that's born after the spirit, even so it is now. It's that
way right now. That's the first thing false
religion is. It's all persecution against Christ's church. But
here's the second thing. It's a religion of personal profit
by the sinner's will and the sinner's works. Personal profit,
profiting self by the will of the man and the will of his works.
That's what it's all about. Paul said, verse 14, I profited
in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation, being
more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father. Works
religion, what you're gonna hear when you hear a free will works
preacher. I don't care what they go by,
what their names are, what phrases they're using to describe their
brand of religion. You're gonna learn how to be
born again by something you did. You're gonna learn how to be
made righteous by your morality by something you've done. You're
gonna learn how to be made holy by the works you do under the
law. You're gonna be taught how to live a purposeful life You're
going to be taught how to be a better Christian, and how to
be a better neighbor, and all of these various things. It's
all how you can profit you by what you do. That's the message. We go to Philippians 3. That's
what Paul was in. That's what our nature is. And
some of you may have been in that. But this is what the Lord
is going to separate us from. He says in Philippians 3, Verse
2, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. He's talking about free will
works religion. He says, for we are the circumcision,
we're the true Jew, we're the true child of God which worship
God in the spirit. rejoicing Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinks that he is, whereof he
might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. That's a good pedigree right
there. He said as touching the law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning
zeal, I persecuted the church. Touching the righteousness which
was in the law, I was blameless. If you'd have looked at Paul,
you'd have said, this man, he's righteous. There's nothing he
does wrong outwardly. You wouldn't be able to spot
him doing anything wrong outwardly. But what things were gained of
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the
loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win
glory. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, by his will and his works, the
righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him. I want to know the power of his
sufferings. I want to be made conformable
unto his death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection
of the dead. Now all sinners come into the
world, like Paul was when he was dead in sin. Religious by
nature. It doesn't take anything to get
a sinner to join religion and do works and do, do, do, do,
do. That's all it is. That's why
Paul called it dung is do-do religion is what it is. Do this,
do that, do the other. Nobody has to be born of God
to get into that. That's what we are by nature.
He has to save us out of that. But now look at this next thing.
Go back to our text. God alone separates us from that. God alone calls us out of that
darkness into his light to the grace of the gospel and he does
it by his grace. Look here in verse 15. But when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. Now don't lose
sight of my main point and I'm making through this whole message.
Paul is laying down a magnified example of how exceedingly zealous
he was in vanity and self-righteousness and lost, all of that was sin,
all of that was just, it was ungodly is what all that was. But he's showing how he was brought
out of that, how he was made obedient to believe Christ and
follow Christ. Because if we can see how a man
like Paul was brought out of that and made to be so zealous
for Christ, to follow Christ, then you know that's how Christ
is going to keep doing it from here on out. That's how He's
going to keep you and make you walk obedient before Him all
your days. However, this happened right
here. It's by God separating us. He said here, it was by God's
good pleasure when it pleased God. Separation, sanctification,
salvation is all of God's pleasure when it pleased God. Whenever
God chose His people in Christ in eternity and He blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in Christ, He did it according
to the good pleasure of His will. It pleased God to do it. When
our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, we're sanctified
by the will of Christ, by the which we were sanctified by the
one offering of Christ Jesus. He came into this world to separate
his people, to sever his people from everybody else. And he came
to do it for those God had severed and sanctified and separated
in divine election. And he did it by laying down
his life. And that was the good pleasure
of God's will. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in Christ's hand. And it prospered in his hand.
That was God's plan. When it pleased God. And God
set a time from eternity when he's gonna cross the path of
everybody he chose in Christ. He's gonna come and reveal in
the hearts of each one Christ redeemed what Christ has done
for them. He's gonna make them to know
Christ. He set the time. He appointed the hour. And when
it pleased God, Paul said, he came and revealed his son in
me. It's of God's pleasure, and we rejoice that it's God's good
pleasure. We rejoice. And here's why we
rejoice. Because the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake, because it pleased the
Lord to make you his people. It pleased him. It pleased him. We tend to want to snap our fingers
and we want it to happen now, especially if we're in a trial.
But understand this, since this world started, everything that
comes to pass comes to pass when it pleases God. Not before, and
not one second after when it pleases God. Paul says, when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb. That
word separated means to sever, to divide, to set apart. Let me give you an example where
it's used in two different words used in one scripture. Matthew
25, 32, it says, Before Christ shall be gathered all nations,
and he shall separate them one from another. As a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats. Both that word separate and divide
is the word we have right here in our text. God separated me,
he divided me, he severed me from my mother's womb. Go over
to Jeremiah 1. Paul is like every believer. God did this in eternity when
he chose us in Christ. And he's saying here that I didn't
have anything to do with it. It wasn't by anything I did because
it was from my mother's womb. That means it was from eternity.
It was before I knew who I was or could do anything or had done
anything. It was before that. God had already
separated me, severed me, divided me from all the rest. Look here
in Jeremiah 1.4, this is true of all God's elect, just like
it was of Jeremiah. Then the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. You see that? Before I formed
you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of
the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations, he said. I thought about, when I was reading
that, I thought about these little infants in Sarah and Kristen. Wouldn't it be wonderful if God
said, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. I sanctified
you. I set you apart. I ordained you to be mine. I ordained you to believe this
gospel. That's how you're going to be
brought to believe the gospel. Paul was made a preacher because God
ordained it before he ever even formed him in the womb. God doesn't
do anything as an afterthought. He's doing it beforehand by his
pleasure. And he said, he called me by
his grace. Grace means it's all God's free
favor. If anything about salvation is
of us, it's of works. Now, that's just simple, isn't
it? I wish folks in religion could understand, if the preacher
is saying anything that you have to do, and this is how you know
if it's heresy or not, if you go to him and you say, well,
I think that He's speaking of Christ. I think that's in Christ
that I find that he, nope, you gotta do that work now. If you
don't do it, you can't be saved. That man's a heretic. Anybody
that puts something between the sinner and Christ that the sinner
has to do, that's works, that's not grace. Now a man could, he
could be a believer and think he needs to do some work and
just wanna do it in his heart because he believes Christ and
he wants to do it, but he doesn't, part with you and say it's a
necessity or you can't be saved. Paul said he's in error, but
it doesn't mean he's not a believer. But that man who makes it a necessity,
who says if you don't do this, you're a heretic, he's a works
religionist. He's trusting in that work. If
it's of works, it's not of grace. If it's of grace, works have
nothing to do with it. If it's of grace, there's no
necessity incumbent upon you for you to be saved. Christ does
it. Well, what, I don't have to believe?
That's not of you. That's of Christ. Whatever is
required, Christ provides it, every bit of it. He saved us
and He called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And it's now
made manifest by Christ. When it pleases God in time,
that's when He separates and calls us, and He does it by revealing
Christ in us. Now here's what I want you to
see. Verse 16, this word here, He said, He revealed His Son
in me. Christ revealed himself in Paul
on the road to Damascus. Now I know a light appeared and
Christ saw a light and he was blinded by that light and he
physically saw it. But Christ blinded him, put him
in the dust. The revelation was in his heart.
And the revelation is going to be in your heart. Paul didn't
merely receive the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. That's
not what it was. He didn't learn a catechism.
He didn't just learn the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. Christ the life entered into
Paul, and when he did, for the first time, Paul had spiritual
life. You know what you do when God
breathes life into you? You live. That's what you do. Paul didn't just learn the doctrine
that Christ is wisdom and that God makes him wisdom to us. He
didn't just learn that doctrine. Wisdom himself entered in and
revealed himself to Paul in the heart and gave him the mind of
Christ and Paul had discernment and he could hear and understand
the things God had freely given to him for the first time in
his life. None of that religion gave that to him. He steeped
in all those works, and most churches around us, if they'd
have seen Paul, they'd have said, that's a fine believer right
there. But for the first time on the road to Damascus, wisdom
entered into his heart, wisdom himself, Christ Jesus, and made
Paul understand and discern. He didn't just learn the doctrine
that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Most people
that claim they've learned that hadn't really learned that. He's
only the end of the law for righteousness to everybody that believes on
Him and trusts Him. And most people don't. They prove
it by continuing to try to work, try to come to Him with a co-effort
between works and Christ. And that's not believing Him.
But Christ entered in, Christ His righteousness entered in
and made Paul know, I've established a law for all my people and justified
my people of all their sins. That means, believer, you can't
break God's law before God, before the judgment seat, before the
record books. There can be no sin found because
past, present, and future, Christ put it away. He is our righteousness. Our righteousness is seated at
God's right hand. Our righteousness is the same
as our life. Our life, He's the resurrection.
He's the righteousness. He's the wisdom. He's the power
of God. He doesn't just teach you the
doctrine of redemption. Christ enters in, in the heart,
and reveals to you He's your redeemer by unlocking the shackles
off of you and opening the prison door and leading you out. It's
real. Faith is the substance. This
is not imaginary fancy. When somebody tells you a story
about some old cabin on a hill somewhere with a little old oak
tree sitting outside in the sun going down in the background,
you start fancying that in your mind and picturing that in your
mind. This ain't that. Faith is the substance. Faith
is evident. When Christ enters in, He gives
you the real thing. You see Him. You know Him. And
Paul is saying, I'm certifying to you. I lie not before God. This is so. This is what Christ
did in me. When he enters in, the doctrine
of sanctification is not just a doctrine where you accuse people
of confounding righteousness and sanctification. The person
who is holiness enters into the heart and creates a new man that's
created in true holiness and really is holy. There is no sin
in that new man. He's born of the incorruptible,
capital S-E-E-D, the capital W-O-R-D, the living word, the
incorruptible Christ, the word enters in, and there's life.
There's life. Now get this, brethren, the spirit
of Christ works internally. He works internally. This is
what Christ said when he said, those that worship God must worship
him in spirit and in truth. This works internal. This works
not in the head. The knowledge that you have really
is more than a, it's a heart knowledge. I can't describe the
difference, but you know this in your heart. And it's internal. and he makes us know him. David
said, in the hidden part, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Paul said, this is more than
carnal understanding. He said, God makes known the
riches of the glory of this mystery, and it's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. A person enters in, a person
becomes your salvation, a person becomes your life, and he's real,
he's real. And we live and we have faith
by the faith of the Son of God living within us. That's right. Now, when Christ reveals himself
in us, you want me to tell you what the results are going to
be? You're going to obey him. That's the result. You're going
to obey him. You're going to obey him. Verse 16 says, he revealed
his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen. That's
why he, that was what he called Paul to do, to believe on him
and to immediately to preach him among the heathen. And Paul
said, and immediately I did what he called me to do. Immediately,
I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went up to Jerusalem
to the apostles, but I went to Arabia, out in the middle of
the desert, out there in the midst of Ishmael's family, and
I started preaching the gospel right then. Because that's what
he called him to do. And it was three years later
I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, Paul said. Paul didn't
go to other apostles, he didn't confer with any man. He immediately
believed on Christ in the heart. He immediately, he was driving
along, riding along on his horse, telling everybody what to do,
and everybody asking him, what would you have us to do, Paul?
And when Christ put him in the dust, he said, Lord, what would
you have me to do? He believed him. And Christ said
in his eyes to him and said, He said, God chose you that you
might see the just one and that you might see what He's done
for you and go into this world and preach Him. Now get up and
be baptized and Paul did it. He believed Him, he was baptized
and he said immediately I went preaching the gospel. I didn't
need a man to convince me. I knew Him and I knew what He
called me to do. When Christ reveals Himself,
He's the power that makes us obey Him. He is. He makes you
believe Him. That's what obedience of the
faith is. He calls you and says, now trust
me for everything you need, for everything. For your righteousness,
your holiness, your redemption, your life, your preservation,
your resurrection, your glorification, everything. Trust me to lead
you, guide you, to be your master, to be your king, your lord, your
prophet, your priest, everything. Trust me and you believe Him.
You believe him. He dwells in the heart by faith,
and he makes you see he's all. And the immediate fruit he produces
is you believe him. We saw how wrapped up in Will
Work's religion Paul was. I mean, he was wrapped up in
it, full of self-righteousness, full of self-worth, full of self-merit,
full of self-sanctification. All his self-accomplishments
he had gotten, he had worked himself way up in religion. Nothing short of Christ's power
coming and revealing himself in Paul's heart could make him
drop all that immediately. Only Christ can grant you and
I repentance. That's what Paul was granted
when Christ revealed himself. He dropped it all. None but Christ
can make a God-hating rebel immediately believe on Christ. None but Christ
could turn Paul for being a student of Gamaliel in that prestigious
school of Pharisees and make him a disciple of Christ. None
but Christ could make him leave the membership of the Sanhedrin,
which was looked upon like our senate or is looked upon to leave
that and become a member of Christ's body. that despised a bunch of
people. Nothing could make him leave
ease and luxury for labor and poverty and bitter persecution
unto death. Nothing could do that but Christ
revealing himself in his heart. But that's what he did. And that's
what you do too. What's going to make a man? We
talk to our loved ones and we try to bear witness to them and
we get so, we don't understand why they won't believe and why
they, you know, we say, I just don't see, why they can't see
this? Nothing but the revelation of Christ is going to make them
drop it. But when he reveals himself, that's when a man will
drop it. This wasn't of man, it was of
Christ. Now, He does this work today
through the preaching of Christ. He does it today through the
preaching of Christ. And it's not the message of man's
works that will do this. It just won't. It's the revelation
of Christ in our heart, Christ Himself. He alone makes us center
part with His former religion. He alone makes us turn from sin
and self-righteousness. He alone makes us leave our former
life and follow him as a new creation. He alone does that.
And in every trial and every time you need to be corrected,
every time you need to turn, he's not gonna do it by the message
of works and morality and turning you to you. He's gonna do it
through the same message by which he turns you in the first hour,
the message of his person and his works. And it's gonna take
him doing it. But when he does it, Just like
Paul was turned right there, he'll turn you, and you'll follow
him. He does it throughout the life
of faith. You know, if we hear somebody
preach man, if you listen to these fellows, and all they preach
is man, all they preach is man work, man's will, morality, all
these different things on how to be better, bigger, faster,
and all that stuff, and they just keep preaching that to you.
That's going to make you zealous for your works. That's going
to make you zealous to keep your mind focused on you. That's going
to make you exclude Christ. You're not going to listen to
the gospel. You're not going to hear somebody preaching man,
preaching Christ's words because that doesn't impress you. That
doesn't give you something to do. That doesn't pump up your
zeal. And that's exactly, look over
Galatians 4. Let me show you this. That's what Paul was saying
right here. about these wheel workers. It forms Moses in you,
so to speak. Forms the law in you. Forms an
image of yourself in you to where all you can focus on is you,
you, you, and your works. And it makes you zealous, but
it's a bad zeal. Look here, verse 17, he's talking
about these wheel workers. They zealously affect you, but
not well. They would exclude you. They
make you zealous, but they exclude you from Christ. They exclude
you from hearing the gospel. They shut you up to Moses and
the law and your works. That you might affect them, that
you might follow them rather than Christ. Now watch this,
it's good to be zealously affected, always in good when it's of Christ,
when it's of the gospel, and not only when I'm present with
you, Paul said, not just for the sake that you're following
a man, not just so that you follow me when I'm with you, but then
when the wheel workers are with you, you're following them, he
said, that you follow in Christ whenever I'm not even there.
What's gonna remedy them from being turned from this zeal for
their own works and for these will-working preachers? What's
gonna make them turn from that? Verse 19, my little children
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
That's what it's gonna take. It's gonna take Christ entering
the heart and renewing a man and turning you from you, making
you exclude the will worker and exclude the message of works
and make you be one with Christ and hear Him and follow Him.
That's what happened to Paul in the first hour and he's telling
him, that's how you're gonna be saved. That's the only way. And when he does this, you don't
have to confer with flesh and blood. You know it. That's what
John was saying when he said, I've written unto you concerning
them that seduce you, concerning them that are trying to turn
you to yourself and your works. He said, but the anointing, the
anointing which you received of him, him revealing himself
in spirit in you, it abides in you and you don't need that any
man teach you. You don't have to have another
man convince you. John said, you know Christ is all. I don't
have to convince you of this. No other body else can or has
to. You that know Him, you know He's
all, don't you? By the anointing that He's given
you. And He says, as the same anointing
teaches you of all things and is truth and is no lie, even
as it's taught you, you shall abide in Him. And that's so of
all his people. If he's really revealed himself
in me, really taught me, I'm going to abide in him because
he's not going to stop teaching me. And what my point is, is
when he becomes our life. We're going to be separated into
holiness of life in Him, and we're holy in Him. We're without
sin in Him. Now in our flesh, we're going
to sin, we're going to mess up, we're going to turn to the right,
to the left, but it's through this message He's going to correct
us just as real as He did to Paul right here and turn you
from it just like He turned him from his vain religion and keep
you walking in Him, keep you following Him. It's the only
reason I'm still standing here today preaching and believing
and rejoicing in His gospel. And you know what He's going
to do? He's going to make you give Him all the glory. He's
going to make you declare Him who you once hated, and He's
going to make you give Him all the glory. That's what they did.
Look at verse 23. But they had heard only, this
is what all the apostles heard about Paul. He which persecuted
us in time past now preaches the faith that he wants destroyed. I wonder about Christ do that? And what did they do when they
heard it? And they glorified God in me. They said, all the
glory goes to God. He's the only one that did it.
So that's the point I'm making. One side of Christ he's going
to make you drop everything else and follow him. And follow him. You've heard the story about
the, I think I told you this illustration, Brother Henry was
down at the restaurant and a little boy was, had a corn cob. And he was just gnawing on that
corn cob and and just wouldn't let it go. Butter's dripping
all down. His parents were trying to talk him into leaving and
tell him, let's go, let's go, we need to go. And the little
boy just wouldn't let that corncob go. And Brother Marvin's dad
owned this restaurant. Henry was sitting there watching
this, you know. And Brother Marvin's father, Gerald, owned the restaurant.
And he went up and he said, he walked up and he said, can I
try something? And they said, sure. Little boy sitting there,
he just hanging on that corncob. Nobody could get that corncob
from him. And Brother Gerald pulled out a Hershey bar and
held it out. And that little boy dropped that
corncob and grabbed that Hershey bar just like that. And you know
what he did? He gave him something better.
That's what Christ does. He comes and gives you something
better. He makes you see him. And when he does that, you'll
drop the old corn cob. You'll drop the old corn cob.
All right. Brother Art.