All right, if you will, let's
turn to John chapter seven. I have too many notes for this,
but we're gonna get through as far as we can. I'll give you
all I can. John chapter seven. We'll begin in verse 37, but
we're going to skip verse 39. That's what we looked at Sunday
morning. As we're going through this, and hopefully the Lord's
teaching us, that's in parenthetical notation. You can take that out
and not do any damage to the text. John gave that to us to
describe to us what was going on, but we can pull that out
and read it clean through. So verse 37 says, John 7, 37,
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, Let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." Verse 40. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, what he just said, said, of a
truth, this is the prophet. Capital P, prophet. They said,
of a truth, this is the prophet. Some thought he was the prophet
that was mentioned in Deuteronomy 18. when the Lord spoke and said,
I will raise up a prophet, capital P, from among their brethren
like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command. I said, you
know what? I read something one time in
the scriptures, and I think this is it. I'm discerning what's
going on in this world by what God said before, and I think
I've got a good handle on it. That's just cold, dead facts. Cold dead facts. And they didn't
go on to say that next verse in Deuteronomy 18, 19. And it
shall come to pass that whoever will not hearken unto my words,
which he shall speak in my name, I will require of him. If that
don't make you sit up on the edge of the seat, I don't know
what will. They're saying, well, I think that checks the block
of my discernment, my understanding, the way I see things. And I think
that's the prophet. They're not speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because it goes on. Wedged in
between. There's two cold, hard, dead
fact-checkers in this group. And wedged right in between them
is some of the Lord's people. You know that? That happens often,
don't it? Verse 41 says, And others said,
This is the Christ. Some said, This is the prophet.
And they said, This is the Christ. This is the Messiah. This is
the Anointed One. The Holy One of Israel. This
is not just a prophet. You think there's going to be
a real important prophet coming. This ain't just a prophet. All
the prophets are fulfilled in this one. This is the Christ. That's who this is. Verse 41 continues there at the
end. It says, But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?
Hath not the scripture said that Christ come in of the seed of
David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was? Now they're arguing. I know more
about the Scriptures." That's an absolute horrible way to do
it. If somebody says something wrong, they go whip them with
Scripture. The Lord teaches people. Our Lord asked some scribes one
time, those that copied the Bible down, made copies of it, those
lawyers, they knew it inside and out. And he said, what think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And they said,
well, that's David's son. That's the answer to the question,
isn't it? of a fact, of a cold, dead, lifeless fact. And the Lord hit him with a person.
That would be some understanding that God had to give. And they
said, well, if that's David's son, how did David call him Lord? Well, your fact checking ain't
going to do you no good on that, huh? God's going to have to send
a man to preach to you and apply that to your heart. The prophet's
going to send his prophet to speak. His words to the heart
of His people. Christ asked that to His disciples.
He said, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Some said
John the Baptist, some said Elias, some said Jeremiah, one of the
prophets. Those are all good things. Those are nice things
to say that He is. And He said, but who do you say
I am? Who do you, you, say that I am? Simon Peter answers, Thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God, not son of David.
He was a son of David. He's not just a son of David.
He's not just a prophet. He's a son of God. You're God
Almighty. That's who you are. You're the Christ. You're God.
The Lord said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and
blood. Men didn't reveal this to you. Learning didn't reveal
this to you. Cold dead facts didn't reveal
this to you. He said, My father, which is in heaven, revealed
it to you. Now he might have used those means, but the means
ain't what's important. It's that the Lord spoke to his
heart. Verse 43 there. This is three of the responses
there to what our Lord said. In verse 43, John 7, 43, So there
was a division among the people because of him. There was a division. There was a split. That's how
we see things. That's what makes us warm and
fuzzy on the inside. Well, now we just split a little
bit. The proper word is gap. You hear me? Gap. There's a gap
between. This wasn't just children arguing
about who gets to ride up front. You ever had that happen? I've
done that. I used to argue, I wanna ride up front, mom. And she'd
always say, the back seat is going the same place the front
seat's going, right? We're all in the same car. This
is not what's happening. Pay attention to me. This ain't what happened. This
is a big gap. This is a big division. You know
how big it was? This is what our Lord was speaking
when He gave that parable of the rich man and Lazarus, that
beggar. Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham. And the Lord said, Abraham said, between us and
you, there's a great gulf fixed. That ought to make us pay attention.
That ain't a front seat and a back seat. There is a great gulf fixed. There's a gap fixed. What's the cause of this great
gap? What's the cause of this great gulf that cannot be crossed? I have this highlighted in my
Bible. I have it underlined in my Bible, the next three words.
Because of Him. Because of Him. division, a great
gulf, hatred, backbiting, spitting, war, killing. Three times dividers
on one side against the other. They took up stones to kill him.
They picked up stones. Why would they do that? Why would
somebody take up stones to kill the Lord? Isaiah said, He has
no form nor comeliness. When he shall see, and there's
no beauty that we should desire him, I've been desiring Jesus
my whole life." No, you ain't. No, you ain't. He was despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. As it were, we hid our faces from Him. Oh, don't
look at that. Just let that go. He was despised
and we esteemed Him not. What is it to be at war with
God not to esteem Him? What is it to pick up rocks and
try to bash His brains out? It's not a statement. That's
not kissing the sun, is it? Don't be deceived. Turn over
Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Don't be deceived.
A raven can feed on dead things. Religious people can feed on
cold facts, on theology and on doctrine. And they do feed. And
they feed on dead prophets and they feed on God's preachers
of old. Watch it. Matthew 23 verse 29. Matthew 23 verse 29. Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of
the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, We would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
If we was alive back then, we wouldn't have killed the prophets.
We wouldn't have done that. I heard a man stand up from a
pulpit with a tile on one time and a Bible frame, and he said,
if I was there at Calvary, I wouldn't let them kill Christ. Well, first
off, you don't know what that had to accomplish. You don't
know what that hour was about. And second, you lie. You flatline,
or you're ignorant, or both. Don't be swayed to those that
brag on the dead preachers and they curse the living. I've seen
it happen over and over in my lifetime. Well, they must be
good. They like so-and-so. One writer
said they were building monuments from one generation trying to
cover crimes from another generation and the natural mind is still
enmity to God. This isn't a new thing. Did you
know that? This isn't a new thing. Just because somebody quotes
the right things, because somebody has some right words to say, and they
know some scriptures, they don't know Him. And it's life and death. There's a great gulf in between.
In Moses' day, they hated Moses, and they praised Abraham, didn't
they? Christ walked this earth. They hated Him, and they praised
Moses. The apostles, they preached,
and they belittled them, and they had good things to say of
Christ, didn't they? Even while he was alive, they
went to John the Baptist and said, well, Christ is baptizing all kinds of people.
What's wrong with you? He's doing good things. And Calvin and Luther
and Ulrich Zingley and John Huss, they were all hated. And the
churches during that time, every one of them was being named St.
John, St. Mark, St. Matthew, St. Jude, on and on.
All those apostles were great men. But not you people. Not
you people. Seventy-five years ago, God raised up some men after
His own heart in this nation to feed His sheep, to call out
His elect. And the Southern Baptists got
together and they formed the Spurgeon Baptist Association.
I ain't lying. If Christ were here in our day,
in the flesh, would He be treated any different than He was 2,000
years ago? Well, everybody loves Jesus now, don't they? What about
my neighbors? My neighbors are good people. They're Christians.
Everybody's a Christian. They'd kill him. A raven will
eat on a dead thing and leave the living alone. They'll ignore
it, they'll squawk at it, or they'll attack it, but they will
not eat the living. They won't go after the living. Why was
he hated? Why was there such a division? Because of him. Why was that? Turn over to John
chapter 5. There always has been a division,
a separation, a gap, dividing, splitting. But it's not over
ways of doing things. It's not over doctrine. It's
not over really anything else. Well, they pass a plate and we
have a box. Well, they do the Lord's table only in the evenings
because it's a supper. Well, I ain't going to go to
church then. They have the Lord's table in the morning. That ain't
the reason there's a split. It's because of Him. There was
a great division, a great gap because of Him. And I want to
look at three things. I'll try to be brief with it.
There's a division because of Him, because of who He is. The person. The person of who
He is. There was a great division because
of what He came to do and did do. The work of Him. His work. And a division because
of Him. Because natural man is not Him. You ain't God. You ain't holy. All flesh is grass. That's it. He's God. He's holy. He came
to do a work and he did it and we didn't. That's all of him. Man's nothing and Christ is high
and lifted up. People say, well, that ain't
nothing too bad, is it? Religious folks put aside all their differences
to hang Christ on a Roman cross and crucify him. That's why there's
division. That's first division. Because
of Him, because of the person. And this happens in any generation.
Don't matter if it was Old Testament, when Christ walked this earth
300 years ago, or 300 years from now if God sees fit to keep this
earth spinning. It's because of who He is. You
got John 5, look at verse 15. The Lord just healed that man
at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day. It says in John
5, 15, the man departed. and told the Jews that it was
Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus, and sought to slay him. Because he had done these things
on the Sabbath day, he had broken their laws. But Jesus answered
them, My father worketh hitherto, and I work." We worked together. They knew he wasn't speaking
about Joseph. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him. Because not only had he broken
the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself
equal with God. Look over in John 10, just a
few pages. We'll see this later, but there
in John 8, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham
was, I am. And they took up stones to cast
at him. They took up stones. You can
read these scriptures and just be as pious as you can be and
hum to yourself in old English phrases and all this. They pick
up smooth, beautiful stones to throw at him. Do you know how
mad you've got to be to pick up a rock to go after somebody?
You grab the closest weapon you can to kill. That's what you
do. My grandfather was a hard man.
And he raised his children as God said to raise his children,
and you minded him. And his animals minded him. And
he had a horse that wouldn't come out of a stall one time.
He said, come on, Charlie. And it would not come. That never
happened. And he grabbed the first thing
he saw, and there's a claw hammer right on a barrel. And he grabbed
that hammer and hit that horse as hard as he could right between
the eyes. And that thousand-pound horse fell over. And he walked
back in the house, and Mama said, I thought you was gonna go out
and play out in them fields. He said, Charlie wouldn't come out of the barn,
so I hid him. I think I killed him. So he had dinner. He had lunch,
ate it. Then he went back out in the
barn, and next to that horse was swaying and cross-eyed. He
said, Charlie, let's go. And Charlie come out the barn.
He got mad. He was angry at that horse. He
picked up the first thing he had. We got John 10 now. This good shepherd, he lays down
his life for the sheep. Man can't do it. And the Lord
lays down our lives, too. Do you know that? He laid down
His life, and He's the one that lays our life down. The Lord
kills and He makes alive. He's the one that appoints the
time. John 10, verse 18. He said, No man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father, and there was a division therefore again among the Jews
of these sayings. And many of them said, he hath
a devil and he's mad. Why hear ye him? Why are you
listening to this guy? He's crazy. He's crazy. They tried stoning him before
and he kept walking in between them. And they said, well, let's
just have defamation character witnesses against him. We'll
libel and slander and anything we can to put him down. In case there's any confusion
as to what he said down in verse 30, John 10, 30 said, I and my
father are one. Then, then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. And Jesus answered them, many
good works have I showed you for my father, for which of those
works do you stone me? The Jews answered and said, for
a good work we stone thee not, we love you benefits. Those fishes
and the biscuits and the health and the healing and my hip don't
hurt no more, that's wonderful. Nobody minds those things, do
they? but for blasphemy, because thou, being a man, makest thyself
God. There was a division, and always
will be a division, over who Jesus of Nazareth is. He's Almighty
God in human flesh. Our old nature hates that. You
know why? We have a shot at being a prophet.
I could study and study and study, and I could make people think
and convince myself I was a prophet, or you could convince yourself
you're a prophet, or a prophetess, or whatever. We have a shot at
being king. Now, it might be a small country.
There's a chance I could have a coup. I could take that place
over, run for office or something. There's a chance I could be a
king. I have a shot at being a priest. Now it's gonna be man's
ordinations and man's titles and man's garments, man's laying
on hands and all that stuff. But I'll have the title. Boy,
we love them titles. I'll have that. I could be a
prophet. I could be a priest. I could be a king. And all that's
Antichrist. Did you know that? Man seeking
that for themselves is Antichrist. Man's his own prophet. Man's
his own priest. And man is his own king. But
the reason they get mad is because he's God. You can't be God. You have a chance at pretending
and everything else. But he's saying he's something
I know I can't be. I can't even make it look like
it. There's a division because of who he is. Second, there's
a great division and hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ because
of his work. Because of what he did. Turn
over to Luke chapter 4. Luke 4. We'll see the response and then
see the cause. Luke 4, verse 28. It's all to hit us too. Luke 4, 28, and all they in the
bar room. All right, what's this? All they
in the house of ill repute. All they in the marijuana store.
Nope. All they in the synagogue. when
they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up,
and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the
hill whereon the city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong." What did Christ say that made these churchgoers,
these people that were keeping the Sabbath, these people that
was going to church on Sunday, that regularly scheduled time.
What made these people want to kill him? What made him want
to cast him out of the city, run him out of town, and throw
him off a cliff so he'd land on his head? He stood up and
read the Scriptures. Look up in verse 25. And he said,
But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up for three years and
six months, when great famine was throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent. save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, a Gentile city, unto a woman that was a widow. You
see, remember that time that there's all kinds of widows in
Israel. Heavens were shut up, and God's
prophet was sent to an old Gentile woman. And, verse 27, and many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet,
and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman, the Syrian, named
the Gentile. What's our Lord saying? Salvation's
not in your ceremonies. It's not in your physical activity.
It's not in your pomp and circumstance. It's not in you playing religion.
It's not in your birth. It's not in your anything. Salvation's
of God alone. He came to seek and to save the
lost. The great physician came to heal
the sick, those ones that need a physician. We read that in
Exodus. Moses called out to him and said,
I beseech you, Lord, show me your glory. And he said, I will
make my goodness pass before thee, I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious. Almighty God says, I will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy. I
had a privileged youth. I grew up, in a lot of different
ways than other people say, I had a privileged youth. I think I
had a privileged youth because I grew up with parents that told
me that God didn't owe me anything. I didn't get pat on my head and
get pumped religion into my veins. They said, God don't owe you
nothing. The Lord doesn't owe us grace. He doesn't owe man
mercy. He doesn't owe life to man outside
of his son. He doesn't owe eternal glory
and life to somebody outside of his son. The only thing we're
owed is what we earned, our wages, and the wages of sin is death.
You know what right you have? In this country, do you know
what right you have? You have the right to take one more breath
and meet a holy God you offended. That's it. The Constitution is
a piece of paper. It can burn and be gone tonight.
It can go whenever the sun goes down. It don't matter. We are
dying men and women about to meet a holy God. And outside
of His Son, you're in eternity of trouble. Almighty God must be just, but
He may be gracious. Almighty God must punish sin,
but He may be merciful. If He's gracious, it'll be to
whom He will. And if He's merciful, it'll be to whomever it pleases
Him to be merciful to. None of us deserve or have merited
grace. We haven't deserved or merited mercy or salvation. It's the gift of God, and it's
only found in our substitute. Who was he? What was the division?
He's God. What did he do? Come save his
people, be their substitute. You get a hold of that. Think
about that. If I had to have a stand-in, if I had to have
one take my place, do I want somebody mediocre? That ain't important to some
people. It is to me. Because it's important to the
Almighty God that sent Him. Paul told us, he said, We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who will be called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. What shall we say to these things?
God be for us. If He's been gracious, if He's
been merciful, if He's given us His Son, who can be against
us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. What
Christ was saying to those people is, God doesn't owe you anything.
And that made them mad enough to cast him headlong off a cliff. They were born of good stock.
They were religious. They prayed out loud before every
meal. Did you know that? They didn't
care if it was in public. They was good little Christians.
They prayed out loud. I bet it prayed like this, God,
I thank thee that I'm not as other men. extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. He came to seek and to save the
lost. Which way do people divide on
that? Are you saying that I'm lost
or amen? He did. He came to seek and save
the lost. I was lost. Now I'm found. I'm going to stay
that way because He found me, that's why. He came to give sight
to the blind. What do those Pharisees say?
You say we're blind or amen. He came to give ears to the deaf.
You say I'm deaf. I've listened to a thousand sermons.
I listen to 14 messages a day. You saying I'm deaf or do you
say amen? He came to give tongues to the
dumb. I've been telling everybody about God my whole life or amen. Amen. I didn't even know who
to tell of. He came to me. You see, there's two sides to
every fence. You can't sleep on a fence. Did you know that?
You ever tried it? Somebody had henpecked me and
said, well, you can put boards sideways. You can't sleep on a fence. You're
going to fall off. You're going to land on one side
or the other. And let me tell you something, you're going to
go into the grave and you ain't going to sleep on that fence. And that made people mad enough
to kill him over it. The blood of the martyrs. You
can read all the books you want about these old martyrs and stuff.
Who killed them? Was it government? Was it the
military? Church-going folks did, didn't
they? First there's a division because of him, because of who
he was. His person in any generation, that's primary. Then there's
a great division and hatred over the Son of God's work. What he
accomplished at Calvary. what he came to accomplish. And
third, man is not God. Man cannot be God. Man cannot
save himself, and man will not save themselves. Not on God's
terms. Do you know that? We'll do it
on our terms. Lord, don't bend the way we want
it. We're at war with God, and we're
children of the devil outside of Him, outside of Christ. That's
a bold statement, isn't it? You're either a child of God
or you're a child of Satan. There's a big gap, big division
in between. It's one or the other. There's
a division over that, but it's not a technicality. What's the
reason of that? Because of him. Because of him. Because of the Word of God against
sin. That's what mankind threw out. All the problems in the
news is because man don't believe God. They're going to face a
holy God, they know it, and they can't stand it. And they stick
pacifiers in everybody's mouth and try to make everything okay.
And it ain't going to be okay. Come Monday, everything ain't
going to be all right. Turn over to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. John 8, 58. John 8 verse 58 says, Jesus said
unto them, barely, barely, I say unto you, before Abraham was,
I am. And they took up stones to cast
at him. What on earth did he say? He
said, I am. He said something else too, didn't
he? Look up verse 39. John 8, 39. They answered and
said unto him, Abraham's our father. They called on somebody
that was dead and gone instead of the one that was right in
front of them. Abraham's our father. Jesus saith unto them,
If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me. A man that hath told you the
truth which I have heard of God, this did not Abraham." Abraham
did not seek to divide. Abraham did not seek to kill
God's messenger. You do the deeds of your Father, and they saith
unto him, We be not born of fornication." What's that mean? I wasn't conceived
in sin. I'm not a child of Adam. I'm
not that bad. I didn't come into this world
that bad. We have one Father, God. Jesus said unto them, If
God were your Father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth
and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech? Because you cannot hear
my word. You are of your father, the devil.
This isn't some radical preacher getting up, trying to get shocked
by you. This is Almighty God speaking
in the flesh to people that's against him. And the lust of
your father's you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When
he spake a lie, he spake of his own, for he's a liar, and the
father of it And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me
not. Which of you convinceth me of
sin? If I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He that
is of God heareth God's words. Ye, therefore, hear them not,
because ye are not of God." That's as clear-cut and plain and as
bold and as brutal as it can be. And that's as comforting
to a child of God as it ever could be because I'm in Him.
You're painted in a corner. You're pigeonholed. You ain't
got a leg to stand on. Cry to Him. The child of God
will say, Save, Lord! Come to me! I don't know everything. I don't know how it all works.
I just know You and I need You. They'll cry to Him, won't they?
Those in unbelief and rebellion are not the children of God.
They're the children of wrath. Life hasn't been given to them
yet. It's that clear cut. It's that plain. But for you that see Him as who
He is, and you say, Amen. And you see the work that only
He could accomplish, and that's completely finished. It's done. And you say, Amen. And His Word
says, All flesh is grass, there's none good, no, not one. You say,
You're right, Lord. Amen. Paul wrote to us in Ephesians
2, and he said, And you hath He quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins. He was dead. You couldn't hear,
you couldn't see, you couldn't talk. Wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom we also, we all, had
our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature,
were by nature children of wrath even as others. Ain't no different
than anybody else. I was conceived in sin. I've
done it from the moment I come out of the womb. I lied. I cried
when I didn't have a wet diaper. I cried when I wasn't hungry.
Just so mom picked me up. That's lying from the womb. That's offensive to our nature.
They hated Christ saying He was God. They hated Him saying that
He and He alone could save His elect. They hated Paul for saying
it. They hated God's preachers throughout
time for saying it. And I may have one or two people
that just ain't a fan of me. Should I be surprised? Our Lord
said, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before
it hated you. Why does there division? Why
would somebody be mad at me? Why would somebody not defend me
and go defend somebody else? Because of him. That's true. Why did those disciples, those
ever-learning ones, not his true disciples at the end of John
6, why did they leave him? They walked with him no more.
They up and left because he spent that whole chapter. We just went
through it. He taught he was the bread of life. His body must
be broken. His blood must be shed for the
remission of sins. And in order to have eternal
life, you must take this person to yourself. You must consume
him. You don't have to need him. You
don't have to thirst for him and hunger for him. Not thirst for a doctrine,
not eat a teaching, Not just the right gospel facts, but a
person. A person. That's who saves. Peter had a
handle on Isaiah 40. That prophet said, Lord, what
am I going to cry? What do I tell these people? It's all flesh
is grass. Here's what Peter said. For all
flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass
that withereth. The flower thereof falleth away,
but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Christ endures forever. His words endure forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Welfare is division. People won't
hear it or they'll be affable at best. They'll take it or leave
it. That's okay. Well, Kevin didn't drink too
much water and he didn't fumble through his notes too bad and
his points were real clear. That's on that side of the fence. Isn't that good news? The Lord
sent someone to preach the gospel to us. We're grass. God came in human flesh, made
like we are. He was born of a woman. He had
mitochondrial DNA. That's necessary. He was made
underneath the law, fulfilled it as a substitute of his people,
and he willingly laid down his life. He sacrificed himself for
those that hated him, and that sacrifice was accepted. It's
done. Paid in full. It's finished. All that's because the Father
purposed it, the Son purchased it, and now the Holy Ghost comes
to His people in power and proclaims it in their hearts. Those that
He sought out, those that He loved before time and has always
loved and shall always love. Mankind will either get fully
humble and rejoice hearing that. Amen, Lord, thank you. You ain't
going to jump up, down, wave your arms, and cut a big shine
so everybody can see you. You'll stick your head down and
say, Amen, thank you, Lord. Thank you. That's right. That's
who you are, what you've done, who I am. Hey, that's right.
Or you'll be on the other side of the fence. Any other response? Ignoring
it? Picking up stones? Killing! We will not have this
man reign over us. If I get stoned to death, he's
worth it. It's going to hurt. That's all
right. That's all right. I can handle that for a little
bit. If I get stoned, he is worth it. A child of God's desires unity,
not division. There will be division." I had
several more pages of notes. I won't get to them. I went too
far. There'll be divisions among you. Paul said that to Coriath
right before he told him how to take the Lord's table. And
he said, first of all, when you come together in church, I hear
that there's divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
And he gave him some instructions. He said, there must be heresies
among you. There must be. We clean up. I
could go through and just chop down all the weeds and pluck
them all and get them all out of here. And there must be heresies
among you. Why? 1 John 2 says, they went
out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us,
they would have no doubt spent a couple minutes with Noah, they
would have continued with us. Hopefully we'll look at this
again next time. be a child of God, don't desire division. We
hate it. Now, we're going to be accustomed to it, and we'll
have to deal with it. But that's not what we want, isn't it? Those
people that are wrong, they're just flat wrong, and they're
lying on God, and they're at war with Him, and they don't
even know it. I don't want to go out and just kick them. I
pray the Lord gives you a new heart. He teaches you and gives
you understanding. I hope He wakes you up to it.
That's what we pray. Why? Because we seek unity. We
want to dwell in the house of the Lord together. Worship Him
together, don't we? How would that all men be saved?
Amen. Father, thank You for this time.
Lord, thank You for Your perfect Word. Thank You for Your perfect
Son. Lord, allow us to bow to Him
and be thankful for what You've provided us in Him. How grateful
we are, Lord. Don't let us take it for granted. And we so often do, don't let's
take for granted Christ's blood, whose blood that was, what it
accomplished on that mountain. Lord, keep him in our minds.
Show us, teach us what we ought to be grateful for. Teach us
how to pray. Lord, teach us how to love. Teach us how to be tender, long-suffering,
kind one to another. Forgive us for what we are. It's
in Christ's name that we ask it. Amen.