Someone asked me back by the
door if I was going to preach tonight, and I said, well, no,
in a few minutes. I want to. I desire to. And I've studied
and prepared. And now there's nothing left
to do but wait on him, see if he will enable me. I invite you to turn with me
tonight to the book of John the gospel according to John chapter
8 John chapter 8 I did a study
a few years ago and I was going through the book of John and
the book of Genesis at the same time and I was amazed at the
harmony between those two books. It was just amazing how often
they crossed each other's paths. Now the context of this chapter
has to do with knowing Christ. There were some who followed
our Lord who knew Him. There were some who followed
our Lord who didn't know Him. And there were some who followed
our Lord who thought they knew Him. And this is what this chapter
is all about. It's about knowing Christ, knowing
that He is God come into the flesh. Look down there at verse
24. He tells them, if you believe
not that I am, that He is in our tax. If you believe not that
I am, what's He saying there? If you believe not that I'm God,
you'll die in your sins. It has to do with the manifestation
of the redemptive light of God, the revelation of God, and it's
the revelation of God, not in the abstract, but in the salvation
of his people. Look there in verse 12. He tells
them this, he said, I am the light of the world. He's not talking about a light
bulb of the world. He's not talking about the sun
that shines in the daytime. He's talking about redemptive
light. The redemptive light of God.
And he said, I am the light. I am the light of the world. And he that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but he shall have the light of life. Eternal life is to know God. It's to know God. And there's
no other way to know God except in Christ. It has to do with how God can
be just and justifier of all that believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you say, well, where do you
find that in that verse? Verse 28. When ye shall have
lifted up the Son of God, Then shall you know that I am He,
and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught
me, I speak these things. You'll know, you'll know who
I am, why I came, and what I did when you put me on that cross.
Isn't that where we learn it? That's where I learned it, on
that cross. Now the Jews who were following
him believed in a coming Messiah. I don't think our generation
knows what the Messiah is. If you talked to him or walked
up to one and just asked him, what is the Messiah? I doubt
he could tell you. But the Jews believed in a coming
Messiah, the promised Messiah. He was to be a deliverer or a
savior, if you will, but they were confused as to his person
And as to his purpose, and as to his people, the objects of
his coming, and they were confused about his power. They said, he don't preach like
them other guys. He preaches with power. He preaches
with authority. With authority, he cast those
demons, he commanded those demons to come out, and they came out.
They not like them scribes. The Jews believed and taught
that the man of God was coming like Moses who would deliver
Israel from their captives and restore them again like David
and Solomon to their former state of glory. They believed in a Savior and
Redeemer but not as He was set forth in the Word of God. The
old prophets, this is taken from First Peter chapter one and verse
11. The old prophets were endued
with the spirit of Christ and testified beforehand the sufferings
of Christ. The Jews didn't even talk about
the Messiah being his suffering and death. They had no idea what
he was talking about when he started talking about it. Even
his own disciples didn't realize what he was talking about when
he said, I must go to Jerusalem, I must die, and be buried, and
on the third day, raised from the dead. And that wasn't in
their theology. They didn't know anything about
that. To him, Paul said, give all the
prophets witness. Here's what the prophets said
about him. That through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. That's what the prophets preached.
They didn't preach a ruler was gonna come and set up Israel
as a nation again and build again the temple and all those things. Having given a brief review of
the Old Testament prophets and their message, Paul said in Acts
13, 38, he said, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which he could not be justified
in the law of Moses. So Jesus Christ was preaching
to them the Father's redemptive will which he was sent to accomplish. What are you saying in all this
preaching? I'm saying Christ preached Christ. That's what
I'm saying. He preached himself. How many times, Larry, in that
chapter does he say, I, I, I, I? And if you read through the
epistles, he often, often speaks that way. He was preaching to
them the Father's redemptive will, which he was sent to accomplish,
and the Jews who were listening to it, having seen some of the
things that he did, and understanding that this was not your average
preacher, They decided to believe on him
as the Messiah, yet retaining that old luggage of Judaism. Does that still happen today? Those of you who were raised
in religion, didn't you have a lot of religious luggage when
you first came to Christ? Didn't you have these preconceived
notions of Him as the universal Savior? Didn't you have some
notions about Him not being able to do anything for you unless
you decided to let Him do it? Well, I grew up listening to
that. Won't you let Jesus come into your heart? One thing I remember when I first
sat under Brother Mahan, he said, if the Lord wants to come in
your heart, he'll kick the door down, boat bar and jam. He'll
come in. He's Lord. He's Lord. And so the Lord looks at this
people, and he sees them deceived, confused. Wanting to believe
but not understanding how to believe wanting to believe but
not understanding what it means to believe They didn't know who Christ was And so the Lord speaks to them,
and this is what he said John 8 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him If you continue in my word then are
you my disciples indeed. What's he saying there? If you
continue in my word. He's saying if you continue in
my doctrine, in my teaching, in my gospel, in my declaration
of the word of God, if you continue, then Are you my disciples? Indeed. Verse 32, and you shall
know the truth. I'm being told by my relatives
and close friends and people I talk to every day out in the
world that it don't matter what you believe. It don't matter
what you believe, as long as your heart's in the right place. If you don't believe the right
thing, your heart ain't in the right place. It's way out of
place. You shall know the truth, now
watch this, and the truth shall make you free. Simply believing him to be some
savior of man's imagination, some messiah according to some
denominational creed or some redeemer according to the popular
opinion of this world, will not set anybody free. What's the phrase? Been there,
done that. Tried that. I believe that Jesus was the
savior of the world before I even started school. I was told that. I was told that. Later on, the
church told me that. And then my mother told me that.
And then the school I went to, they taught that. That's back
when you could still pray in the school. All my friends believed that.
But we knew nothing of His person and work. And all of what we
believed rested on us, whether we wanted to or not. And I grew up believing that
a person could believe anytime they wanted to. Anytime you wanted
to. I hope there's nobody in here
that believes that. With man, it's impossible, isn't
it? Sure it is. That faith is a gift
of God. It's the gift of God. And hear
what our Lord is saying to this people who thought they knew
God. thought they were God's children, thought they were blessed
of God, who were by their own professions believers. He said,
if you continue in my word, my preaching, my doctrine, my gospel,
then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. Real freedom, that's my
message tonight. Real freedom. Freedom from what? We have freedoms in this country.
Is that what he's talking about? No, that's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about freedom from
the lying deceit of satanic religion. That's what he was being confronted
with. We'd be not born of fornication.
God is our father. Freedom from lying deceit. of
satanic religion, antichrist religion, free will works religion,
legalism, ceremonialism, ritualism, spiritualism, feel good about
yourself religion. Universalism, the religion of
this world, and I want you to hear me, is poison to your soul. You ought to put a skull and
crossbones out in front of it. It's poison to your soul. And I hope nobody here, a fella
told me one time, he said, well, I said, where's your children
going to school? They moved off to college. And he said, well,
there are no great churches down there, but he goes down to a
Baptist church. He said, that's better than nothing.
I said, no, it ain't. No, it ain't, that's a step down.
That's a step down. Freedom from the lying deceit
of satanic religion. Truth will set you free. Free
from what? Well, freedom from the covenant
of the law. We have churches down there.
I see them all the time. And their sign is in the shape
of a scroll. And on the scroll, they have
the Ten Commandments. And down at the bottom, It said,
the Ten Commandments are enough for me. And I told the guys riding
with, I said, it's too much for me. It's too much for me. You shall know the truth and
the truth will set you free. It will set you free from the
covenant of the law. That law will have no more dominion
over you. It has no more control over you. It can't threaten you anymore.
It can't convict you anymore. You're free from it. You're dead
to the law, you see. Paul said, you that seek to be
under the law, do you hear the law? Do you hear what it says?
What does the law say? It said, Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. I forget how many hundreds of
precepts are in that law. You have to continue them. You
can't just do them one time and then forget about it. You have
to, from the cradle to the grave, in all things, continue to obey
that law. And you have to do it in your
heart. And you have to do it for the right motives. And you
have to do it perfectly. Then you have to do it forever.
And you can't do it. You can't do it. Curse it. That's
what the law is to men. It's a curse. What else does
the law say? The law says we're guilty. You
can't run to the law for help. The law says you're guilty. What thing soever the law saith,
he said, it saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may become guilty
before God. The law says, by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The law offers no hope to anyone,
it only condemns, exposes, and declares you guilty. But if you
know the truth, it'll set you free from the law. Free from the law. What else
does it set us free from? Well, freedom from fear. That
constant nagging fear of judgment. Eternal damnation. Separation
from God. One of the older men in my congregation
said to me one day, he said, Preacher, he said, I just, I
don't have any assurance. He's one of the founding members
of that church. I don't have any assurance. I said, you mean
you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Oh,
he said, absolutely, I believe Him. And I said, you don't believe
that He was made flesh and dwelt among us, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us? Oh, absolutely, I believe in
Him. I said, you don't believe that He lived under that law,
as a servant to that law, and brought out a perfect righteousness
for us? Yes, I believe it. I said, then
you don't believe that He went to the cross and died for our
sins, the just for the unjust? You don't believe that? Oh, absolutely
I believe it. I said, well, I'm trying to find
out what the trouble is. You don't believe that God raised
him from the dead the third day and sent his servant the angels
down to accompany him into glory and crowned him and set him up?
Absolutely, I believe that. I said, that's assurance. That's assurance. What's your
hope resting? My hope's resting in him. In Him. If I'm accepted of God,
I'm accepted in the beloved. Isn't that what it says? If I
have an atonement, He made it. If I'm forgiven from sin, He's
the one who did it. I can do anything. He did it
all for me. All for me. That's my assurance. I don't have any, oh, hopefully
you don't look at yourself looking for experience. Man, that's a
black hole. You ain't gonna find anything
in there but conviction, guilt, fear. But what is the truth of the
gospel? What is the truth of the gospel?
It is the declaration of the collective and personal condition
of men. Our Lord brought men to see their
need. That leper who came to them had
a need. That man with the palsy had a
need. Old blind Bartimaeus had a need. All of these men, demon possessed,
you go on and on and on with all pictures of our condition.
And the Lord let them They said, who sinned that that man was
born blind? He said, his parents or him? He said, neither one. He was born blind for the glory
of God. God leads us and convicts us and shows us of our need for
him. He shows us the collective condition
of this world and Adam all died. Isn't that what scripture says?
All died. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men. By one man, these things happened. And both Jews and Gentiles,
it tells us in Romans 5, or in Romans 3, he tells us, but the
Jews and the Gentiles, they're all under sin. Paul said, I've
already proven that to you. They're all under sin. Well,
what does it mean to be under sin? Well, there's none good.
That's what it means, none good. A friend of mine told me, he said,
I just don't believe a good God would send anybody to hell. I
said, a good God wouldn't, but a just God would. A just God
will, a holy God will, a righteous God will. Jews and Gentiles are all under
sin, there's none good. God said he looked down from
heaven to see if there's any good, to see if there's any sought
after, and he said there's none seeking after God. They're all
gone astray. There's none that understand
it. Preach to them until you're blue in the face, they don't
understand. They have to be given understanding. They have to be
sent a preacher. I'm tired of hearing people say,
well I just bought me a Bible and I locked myself up in a closet
and God revealed himself to me. You're a liar. He didn't do any
such thing. Now here's what the Holy Ghost
said. How shall you hear without a preacher? And how can he preach
except he be sent? Isn't that right? Now you can't
understand anything without one. He might as well just bow to
that fact and submit to it. Paul told those Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God. My gospel came not unto
you in word only, it come in power, it come in the Holy Ghost. Now listen, and you become followers
of us and the Lord. Isn't that something? You can't do that on your own.
God has to do that. I can't even get my dogs to follow
me, let alone men and women. But God can. God can. And then he talks to us about
our personal condition. Now here's what I want you to
see. What happens to a man that causes him to know his sin? Does he just one day suddenly
start trembling and have this vision of hell and start shaking
and then he begins to seek the Lord? No. No, he sees the Lord
first. Then he sees himself. Can you
make good on that? I think so. I think so. Isaiah said, in the year King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. What happened when you saw him?
I said, woe is me. He didn't jump around the room. He didn't start speaking in tongues. He didn't start dancing and falling
out in trenches. He said, woe is me. I saw the Lord. I'm a man of
unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. That's
conviction of sin. And I'll tell you when you'll
be convinced when you see Him. When you see Him. He said, For
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. When Daniel saw
by revelation the Lord our Redeemer, he said, There remaineth no strength
in me. And all my comeliness melted
into corruption. All his good deeds. Oh, you think
back on that one prayer, that one experience. We used to talk
about it when we was in religion on Wednesday night, that testimonial
night. We'd get up and we'd start talking
about it. If we didn't have something, we'd make it up. We didn't want
people to think we didn't. It wasn't religious, so we'd
make it up. But we'd talk about that experience,
talk about that feeling, talk about this, talk about that.
No, that's not what happens. What happens is he reveals himself. And when he does, in his holy
justice, bleeding and dying on that cross under the wrath of
God, living, living in pain and suffering, he who thought it
was not robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation,
took on him the form of a servant. He suffered. while he kept that law. He was
tempted while he kept that law, but he kept it. And he kept it
all the way to death, even the death of the cross. I tell you, you see that, your
comeliness will melt into corruption. Oh yeah, all your goodness go
right out the door. Paul said, oh, he said that I
might win Christ and be found in him. Listen, not having my
own righteousness. Well, what was wrong with his
righteousness? He was touching the law, he was blameless. Not
when he saw the Lord. It was filthy rags. Filthy rags. Oh, Paul said, what things were
gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. And let me tell you something,
this general and collective knowledge of sin is a good thing. I want
folks to understand that. I want them to know that. But
it can't make a sinner desperate to come to Christ. That takes
an inward personal conviction of sin. When the Holy Spirit's come,
he'll convince the world of sin. How? Because they believe not
on me. Oh, my soul, when Henry Man preached
to me, that glorious person of Christ, and I saw him dying on
that cross for sinners, and I looked at myself, and how pitiful you
are. You can't even believe on such
a saint. And that's when you begin to
discover what's in here. Secondly, the truth of the gospel,
as it's declared in the doctrine of Christ, is the truth about
God our Savior. He said, if you believe not that
I am he, you'll die in your sins. You'll die in your sins. Jesus
of Nazareth said to Thomas, he said, I am the way. We're all going out of the way.
That's what it says in Romans 3. That's what it means to be
under sin. We're out of the way. He said, I'm the way. He said, I'm the truth. And now
what we're talking about? You should know the truth. Well,
you don't know anything outside of Christ. I can tell you that.
You don't know sin. You don't know righteousness.
You don't know justification. You don't know a holy walk. You don't know anything outside
of Christ. Christ is all. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. I hear preachers talking about
life and they're talking about lakes and heaven and fishing
and forests and mountains and I don't know what all, mom and
dad looking down and all these things. Christ said I'm the life. To know Him is eternal life. That's life. The truth of the gospel is declared
in a person. Paul said this to Timothy, God
has saved us. We're not saving ourselves and
Gamaliel's not saving us down at the Christian school. God
saved us. And then he called us. Oh wait
a minute, you got that? No, that's what it says in the
script. He saved us and then he called us. And when He did,
He called us with a holy calling. It wasn't according to our works,
but it was according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Before the world
began. But that's not where that verse
stops. It goes on. But it's now made manifest. Manifest. by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought
life and immortality to life through the gospel. What are
you saying? I'm saying that Jesus Christ
is the revelation of God. That's why we preach Him. People
think sometimes when we're up here preaching that we preach
Christ and then the Holy Spirit, when you get home, will give
you another revelation. That's not what it is. When you
get home, He allows you to hear and understand and perceive and
rejoice in what that preacher said about Christ. Christ is
the revelation. I'm preaching to you tonight
the revelation of God in Christ. He manifested, it was manifested
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And He is the revelation
of God. What the Spirit does is simply
enable us to see it and acknowledge it, and most of all, rejoice
in it. Boy, I tell you, every time I
see a casket and somebody in it at a funeral, I'm all, man,
I rejoice. Don't you? I rejoice. I don't have to get in that box
one day without a hope. My hope is bigger than that casket.
It's bigger than that hole in the ground. Our Lord said, one
day, one day, those in the grave is gonna hear my voice. It ain't
gonna be somebody out here in the pew. Everybody that of his
elect, everybody Christ died for, even unbelievers gonna hear
his voice and they're gonna come out of that grave at his command. Jesus Christ is the revelation
of God. Now I hear people talk about
being convicted of sin and then coming to Christ. The scripture
says just the opposite. Our Lord said this, this is condemnation. Light came into the world and
men loved darkness rather than light. That's the condemnation,
that's how the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. Light comes first and
then sin is exposed. Or 2 Corinthians 4 I guess it
is. He said, If my gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Light comes first
and then sin is exposed. The Holy Spirit convinces men
of sin because they believe not on Him. And the truth about God
our Savior is that He came into this world as the eternal representative
of His people. He wasn't here for everybody.
He wasn't here for whosoever will. He came here on purpose
to save His people from their sins. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? To live for them and die for them. and be raised from
the dead, and then be given reign at the right hand of God to make
intercession for them, and to arrange all things, and order
all things. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will, and that's exactly what He's doing
in glory tonight. He said in John chapter six,
before we ever got to John chapter eight, he said in chapter six,
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Well, what if they decide not
to? None of them will. They'll be willing in the day
of his power. Well, you're preaching that a man's saved against his
will. No, I'm saying that a man will
be willing in the day of God's power. He'd be willing. God doesn't save anybody against
His will. He'd be willing. See, we got this little God today. He can't do anything unless you
let Him. You have to let Him into your heart. You have to
let Him into your mind. You have to let Him into your
life. That's not the God of glory.
That's not the God of glory. He works. He works when He will,
how He will, with whom He will. He came into this world as the
eternal representative of all God's elect. Substitute of every
chosen sinner. Dying in their room instead. Covenant charity of all God's
sheep. He said this about those, all
them that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I'll know why it's cast out. Now what's this? Four. Four. Here's the reason why it
won't. For I came down from heaven, not due my own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. You reckon
he's gonna have his way? Oh, my soul. How did our Lord accomplish the
will of a holy God and the salvation of a sinner? The scripture said
he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. He died, the scripture said,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Paul
said in Ephesians 2, 5, even when we were dead in sin, God
quickened us together with Christ. He raised us up together and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. by an unexplainable
act of sovereign purpose and grace, our great God put us into
an eternal covenant union with His Son. What's that mean? That means He made us one. There
was two and then there was one. Huh? One. One with Him. John said, herein is our love
made perfect that we may have boldness, now listen to this,
in the day of judgment. You mean, preacher, you can have
boldness in the day of judgment? You can stand there before the
sovereign God, God in all of his glory, God in whom man can't
even look at lest he die? You can stand there before that
God in judgment and have boldness? That's what it says. Well, how in the world
can that be? Because as He is, so are we in
this world. Huh? You got something better
than that? I don't know anything better
than that. I'd preach it if I did. I don't know anything better
than that. As He is. Well, how is He? Ask yourself that. How is He?
In this world, I am as he is. Well, how is he? How can I take
that? How can I find joy in that? How can I find peace in that?
Because he's seated in victory expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. As he is, so am I in this world. He's seated at the Father's right
hand, having obtained, has it in His possession, eternal life,
eternal redemption for us. Has it in His hand, He possesses
it. As He is, so am I in this world. He's one with His people. And
He is, as He is, so are we in this world. The truth of the
gospel is the truth about God our Savior. This is the God-man. With man it's impossible, but
with God all things are possible. What was possible for the Savior?
Whatever He wanted to do. So let me ask you something.
Is your Savior seated on the throne? Is that where He's seated? Is
your Savior ruling over all things, arranging all things, working
all things after the counsel of His own will, working all
things together for them that love God to them who are the
called according to His purpose? Can your Savior save? Can He deliver you from this
present evil world? Can He give to you? Is it in
His power, in His possession to give you eternal life? He
said it was. What are you saying? I'm saying
we must know the truth about God our Savior and when you learn
the truth about God our Savior, you'll be free! He said, you're
free. Somebody come up talking that
nonsense, you got to get out of here. What kind of God
do you got? Oh, he's got all he can do, that's
all up to you. You going to worship that kind
of God? I must know the truth about God. Christ alone has satisfied the
justice of God. Christ alone has wrought out
an acceptable righteousness. Christ alone can raise the dead,
make new creatures in himself, and preserve us unto the end.
Now he says, everything he did was foreordained, foretold, and
foreknown. He's the eternal Christ. Preacher,
I don't believe in eternal justification. You don't believe in the eternal
Christ, that's your problem. He's eternal, everything he does
is eternal. You mean God, you see God up
there scratching his head saying, oh, that didn't work. All right,
you're gonna have to go down there and die. They didn't do
what I wanted them to do. Come on. He's eternal. That means His justification's
eternal, His love's eternal, His fellowship with His people.
You read in Proverbs, He fellowshiped with His people before He even
had a people. They weren't even created yet.
He's already rejoicing with them. Huh? He's eternal. We must know the truth about
God our Savior. And then thirdly, the truth of
the gospel is the truth about our Heavenly Father. God is not
the universal Father of man in a spiritual sense. He's our Father
as He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
Father of all His elect whom He chose in Christ and blessed
with all spiritual blessing before the foundation of the world.
And He did it according as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and just, holy and just
before Him. And if you've ever wondered what
that means, it's not talking about your love for Him. Before
Him being loved, that's what that means. In Christ, you're
being loved. You always were, that's why I
put you in Christ. He's the father of his elect
who were chosen and blessed and predestinated under the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. And because we're sons, God has
sent forth the spirit of his sons into our hearts, allowing
us, enabling us to pray and to cry, Abba Father. though them were children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. The Pharisees tried to argue
the Jewish fatherhood of God, and our Lord said to them, if
God were your father, you'd love me. I proceeded forth and came
from God. You're of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father you'll do. Don't that kind of rule out
that universal fatherhood of God? God is the Father of all those
He made provision for in His Son. He's the Father of all those
that believe, who've been enlightened and made meek to be partakers
of the inheritance of enlightened saints. To know their election
of God. Do you know your election of
God? You say, Preacher, I believe in them things, but I don't know
if I'm elected. Do you know your election of
God? Are you sitting there quiet because
you don't want anybody to know that you don't? Do you know your
election of God? We say, how can a man know his
election of God? How can he know it? Well, listen
to this. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Have you come to Christ? I'm
talking about the Christ of revelation, the Christ of scripture, the
Christ set forth in the word of God, set forth by the Father's
own testimony, ratified by the works which God did by Him in
our midst. You come to Him, you bow before
Him, Did you receive Him, believe on Him, trust in Him, rest in
Him? If you will, you can make me
whole. I will. I will. All that the Father giveth me
will come to me. That's how you know you're lecturing,
you come to Christ. You quit coming to the front,
you quit coming to mourner's bench, and you quit coming to
decision, you quit signing pledge cards, and you come to Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Now listen, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. All God's elect come Christ. They come empty. They come broken. They come in need. They come
desperate. And then listen to this. They murmured when Christ told
them that, and he said, don't murmur. No man can come to me
except my Father draw him. It's written in the Scriptures.
He said, you know the Scriptures. Written in the Scriptures, they
shall all be taught of God. So every man that's heard from
the Father comes to me. There's a God in heaven whose
purpose to have a people just like his beloved son and the
son is in heaven having accomplished God's redemptive will to assure
that they all shall. Is that right? And the Holy Ghost is moving
among his people and among his pastors and preachers to make
it all happen. The truth of the gospel is the
truth about God our Father. And it's the truth, the truth
of the gospel is the truth about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is not in or near any church that majors on the doctrine of
the Holy Ghost. You see a sign out there that
says, Full Gospel Church, and I know what they're talking about.
Don't pull in. Don't pull in. All of those so-called
spirit-filled churches Sometimes called full gospel churches tongues
churches or whatever name they go by they're all antichrist
churches what they are Our Lord said when the spirit of God come
he's not even gonna speak about himself People said well, I got the spirit
Well, how you know you got spirit? Oh? Man, it's like somebody poured
warm honey down my back That's not how you know you have the
Holy Spirit. You know you have the Holy Spirit when you get
some understanding of the gospel. Might not be any jumping around.
Might not be anything just sitting there in your pew and everybody
looking forward. I don't know, but I know this.
The result of his being there is believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's giving an understanding,
an understanding. Our Lord said He'll take of mine,
my offices, and my appointments, and my accomplishments, and my
glory, and my power, and my person, and my gospel, and He'll show
it unto you. He'll show it unto you. He'll
glorify me. Isn't that what Christ says?
He'll glorify me. His presence and power is what
enables men to preach to your hearts and not just your heads. Enables you to hear and believe. Men and women are chosen of God
to salvation, the scripture said, through sanctification of the
spirit. Our men sanctified by the spirit.
They're born again. They're given enlightenment.
That light of God, he commands the light to shine out of darkness,
and he shines in our hearts. His presence and power have do
with our understanding of the truth, and he enables us to have
the mind of Christ. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians
2, at the very end of it, he said, who hath known the mind
of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of
Christ. We have the mind of Christ. And
let me show you something over here in Romans 7, I'll hurry.
In Romans 7 verse 24, he talks, there's two I's all the way through
here. He's talking about the flesh, he's talking about the
spirit, he's talking about believers, he's talking about that raw flesh
that just can't be taught, can't be tamed, can't be, can't do
anything with it, you can't reform it, you can't do anything with
it, it's just flesh. And finally he says down in verse
24, oh, wretched man that I am. Not that I used to be, that's
not what he said. This man's an apostle and had
been so for years when he said that. Oh, wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from the body of this dead? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, Now watch this,
with the mind I myself serve the law of God. How do you do
that? With the mind of Christ. David,
I keep that law every jot and till with the mind of Christ. Every type is fulfilled. Every
ceremony is fulfilled. Not one jot or tittle left aside. Everything in there is fulfilled.
He honored the law and exalted it. And so do I with the mind
of Christ. You can't better handle the law. In fact, you can't handle it
at all except with the mind of Christ. You want to exalt and
honor the law? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I used to tell a story up there
in Washington, D.C. I went up to visit my son, and
we went over to this big art gallery. I'm not interested in
art, but it was something. I was going to all the museums
and all things, so we went to this art gallery. And I was so
shocked when I seen those Dutch artists. They were called masters.
And they did these paintings, almost the size of that wall
between the two windows. And they did these paintings,
and there was such detail in them paintings. And there was
a bench that sat out there a little way, and you could sit down on
the bench and just take in these various paintings. But then there
was this guy, and he stood over there by the door, and he looked
like Mr. Clean. He was standing over there like
this, big old guy, weighed about 260 and about 6'6", and looked
like he wrestled alligators for a living. And I said, what's
he aware for? He said, that's for anybody who
wants to go touch up that painting. You're not gonna touch up that
masterpiece. That masterpiece. You're not
gonna touch up that law that Christ exalted and honored. You're
just gonna sit back in Christ and marvel at how he fulfilled
it. Satisfied it. and exalted it,
and you're gonna rejoice in it. You're gonna rejoice in it. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. And then lastly, and
I'll just read this and quit. The truth of the gospel is about
the victorious, effectual, irresistible reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's beyond the touch of men. He's beyond the influence of
Satan. He's beyond anything that goes
on in this world. He's seated at the right hand
of God and before he went up there, he looked at his disciples
and he said, all power in heaven and earth. I can't take that
in, can you? I'm in absolute power. All power in heaven and earth
is given to me. Now, you go preach the gospel. You go preach the gospel. Somebody said, well, man, he
preaches with confidence. I got no confidence in me, but
I got confidence in him. He's where it makes the difference.
He has the power to make it come to pass. He's in glory. God bless you. Thank you for
having me.