John chapter 1 is wonderful in
it. Turn with me to 1 Timothy. Book of 1 Timothy chapter 3. As you know, I intended to speak
to you from Romans 9, but Saturday morning I was literally
awakened very early with this scripture running through my
mind. And it was just on and on. I couldn't get it out of
my head. I began to look at it. We've
looked at this many times together, over a dozen times, this one
verse. This is one of the greatest verses in the Bible. Many people know John 3, 16,
or think they know it. You can quote it. But this verse,
1 Timothy 3, 16, is amazing. Look at it with me. 1 Timothy
3, 16, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen or observed, watched of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world, received up
into glory. Without controversy, it begins.
Now, to man, this is the greatest controversy in the history of
the world. It was, it is, and ever shall
be a controversy. A controversy is when everyone
cannot agree on something. They're differing opinions. While
our Lord was on the earth, it says several times, they all
differed concerning Him. Men and women have had different
opinions as to who Jesus of Nazareth is. They have different opinion,
have had, they do now, and ever shall be, until someday everyone
will know clearly. and see Him as He is, and know
with certainty who He is. God manifests in the flesh. It is not controversial among
God's people, is it? Wesley read that to us. It says,
no man hath seen God at any time. the only begotten Son, He hath
declared Him. And He told His disciples, He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, didn't He? He told the
Pharisees, He told everyone, if you believe not that I am.
Now you know. God's people know. That's the
name that Jehovah gave to Moses. to go to the people to tell them
who it was that sent him, right? That's what Jesus Christ said.
If you believe not that I am, you will die in your sins. So
this is the heart and soul of the truth here. This is the truth
in one thing. Without controversy, who Christ
is, what he came to do, For whom, where he is now, and who are
his people, is without controversy in the Bible, okay? And though the truth is indeed
controversial to man and different people, like our Lord was standing
before Pilate, remember? He was standing in front of Pilate,
and Pilate said, what is truth? Our Lord didn't answer him. But
he told his disciples, didn't he? He said, I am the truth. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. They knew what
he was saying. It says, great is the mystery. It's been a mystery that's been
kept hid. And God still hides these things
from man, the wise and the prudent. Mankind thinks he's wise. Romans
1 says, professing himself to be wise, he's what? You've read
it. Become a fool. The fool hath
said no God. And a fool doesn't believe Jesus
Christ is God. Why? Because he is. Without controversy. And I'm
not here to convince or try to... I can't convince anybody of anything.
Right? I'm not here to try to explain
God or try to get you in the notion of believing God. No sir,
I'm here to declare Him. Our Lord didn't come to this
earth to try to get people to believe on Him. God doesn't try
anything. God does what He does. God wills
things and they happen. God purposes things and they
happen. We can't let God do anything. If we do, He's not God. God lets us do everything according
to His will. All right, I'm way ahead of myself.
It says, without controversy, no controversy among God's people
who Jesus Christ is, One time, the Lord asked His disciples
whom He revealed Himself to. You don't know me, 1 Corinthians
2 says, you don't know the things of a man unless that man reveals
himself to you, right? You don't know what I'm thinking.
Alright, Ron, I'm thinking of a number between one and one
million. Go ahead. You're just going to guess, aren't
you? You're just going to imagine something. But if I whisper it
to you and tell you, It will not work. You won't unless I
tell you. You can't know God unless He
reveals Himself to you. Can you find out God the Scripture
says? No. By searching. He has to reveal Himself to you.
He's a person. God's not a concept. God's not
simply a spirit. He's a person. When God created
man, He said, let us Us? And there's more than one God?
No. There's one God, but three persons. Wait a minute. You said
there's one God, but there's three persons. I didn't say that. Scripture said that. These three
are one. And he said, let us make man
in our image. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Three,
but one. equal in essence, equal in power,
equally God. Jesus is God Almighty. Jesus of Nazareth, that One who
walked this earth, it said He was manifest in the flesh, revealed
in the flesh. That means He was before He came
here. That means He existed before
He came here. The Jehovah Witnesses claim they
believe that He was created He was a created being, and when
he came here, he did not exist before he came here, but he was
created, given a body, and that's when he began to exist. Scripture
says, a body hast thou prepared me. Proverbs 8 says of Jesus
Christ, I was with him before the worlds were made. I was by
him, the one he took delight in. You know these things. It's
without controversy. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. Islam, the God of Islam?
Not God. The Hindus? Not God. They have
many. Some animals are their God. The
Buddhists? Not God. Catholics? Not God. Free will, Southern Baptist religion? Not to go to the battle. Not
to go to the battle. If Jesus Christ cannot do what
he will, with whom he will, if men have to let him into their
heart, he's not God. This Bible doesn't say things
like that. It says things like this, the
door being shut. And his disciples are on the
inside. He said, I am the door. I am the one. No man, no human
being cometh unto God, knows God, gets to God, will be with
God, understands God, believes God, but by me. Who said that? Jesus Christ. It's without controversy to God's
people. God was manifest in the flesh. Not just the Son of God. God. Wesley. Charles Wesley. There was another Charles Wesley.
And he's written many hymns we sing in this book. And he was
a preacher of the gospel. A good preacher. Well, this Charles
Wesley read the same thing that the other Charles Wesley believed.
John 1. He said the world was made by
Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made, right? He came unto His own, His own
creatures. He's the Creator. And He came
to His creatures and they knew Him not, received Him not. Didn't
they say that? But it says of His people, we
beheld His glory. We knew him. John said, I didn't
know him. Did John say that in that same
church? He said, I didn't know him. But
when the Holy Spirit landed on him and told me, this is he,
now I know him. He said, he that came after me
is before me. And then after that, he said,
he was before me. Who was born first, John the
Baptist or Jesus of Nazareth? John the Baptist. John was nine
months older. Wait a minute. John said he was
before me. He said, I am. The one without
beginning, without ending. Our Lord said, I'm the beginning,
I'm the ending. I am that I am. God was manifested in the flesh.
This is a mystery. I'm not trying to explain it.
I'm just declaring it. who he, Isaiah 7 verse 14 says,
a virgin shall conceive. And many of you, if not most,
know why it must have been a virgin. Mary's not the mother of God.
The child that she had is her God. The mother was holding the baby,
but really it was her Heavenly Father. Can you explain that? You can't. I like what Charles
Spurgeon, he said, we can't explain God because He's so infinitely
above us. We can only tell you what this book says and no more.
And we're not trying to get finite minds to understand Him. You
can't. You just believe. Believe. And then He shows you
something. But Spurgeon said this, if you
have a God you can understand, that means He's just like you.
He's no better than you. He's no more powerful than you.
He's just like you, and He has to try to get you to do things.
I don't need a God that's trying things. I need a God who's reigning
and ruling over everything. I need a God who is God. Leading
me, guiding me, directing me, controlling me, providing for
me, protecting me, saving me, keeping me, teaching me. God,
because I am a little child. I'm almost 70, but I'm still
a little child. Without Him, I can't do nothing. You and I can say, tomorrow I'm
going to do this. God willing, you will. We have
a dear brother, Joe Terrell. He and I were born the same year,
55. Grew up in the same church together. Both preachers of the
gospel, pastors of churches. Joe was a smart man, wasn't he?
Fine man. He woke up one morning, went
out, somebody killed him. You don't know what's going to
happen to you tomorrow. Who killed him? God says, I kill, I make alive. That's the God I need. That's
the God that Joe trusted in. That's the God that Joe's with
right now. And thankful that it happened.
Very thankful. Otherwise there's no hope, no
peace, no answers, no comfort, no refuge. No knowledge, no understanding,
no nothing. This world is chaos. It's just
spinning out of control, and nobody has any control over anything.
I need God. And Jesus Christ is God. And He came here, and did to
Him exactly what God determined before to be done. That's what Peter preached at
Pentecost, didn't he? He said, you with wicked hands
have taken and crucified the Lord of glory, but you did what
God determined before to be done, or you couldn't have done it.
They did what God purposed to do, what God preached in Genesis
3, 15 and 16. What God said would happen 3,500
years later. It happened exactly like he said
it would. It must, or he's not God. He
said, I've spoken it, I'll do it. I've purposed it, I'll bring
it to pass. He said, all souls are mine.
Our Lord said in John 17, you've given him power over all flesh. Aren't you glad? The world doesn't
like that. The world doesn't believe that.
The world thinks man's in control of his own destiny. That's why
they don't want God. They don't want someone else
in control of their destiny. I do. I thought I was in control of
my destiny for a while, and I just about killed myself. But God. God was manifested in flesh. Why? Why did He come down here? This is what made me think of
this. I began to think about Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the
God of the universe, coming to this earth and walking with men. And for three and a half years,
His disciples heard Him and spoke to Him and were spoken to by
Him and touched Him. They said, We touched Him. We
handled Him. John said it later, 1 John 1. He said, We handled
God. We had our hands on God. Would
you like to ask God something? Would you like to see God? No
man can. God's a spiritualist. Hold on. He did walk this earth. He came
to this earth for three and a half years. Why? He had a reason. He had a purpose. Scripture says,
known unto God all His work from the beginning of the world. He
purposed to come here in the fullness of time. God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to do what? Redeem. Save. Look across the page here
at first. Timothy chapter 1. Look at, this
is a verse, verse 15 that we all love. Chapter 1, verse 15. This is a faithful Savior. And
worthy of all acceptation. All human beings ought to sit
up and pay attention to this. Because we all need saving. You
know that? Say, I don't need saving, preacher. Well, I didn't
say that. God did. That Christ Jesus came into the
world. to save sinners. Are you a sinner? Well, I'm not as bad as you. I didn't come for you. You don't
need Him? He sure doesn't need you. Are
you a sinner? What's that mean? I mean, God who's angry with the
wicked every day. That's what the Bible says. And Christ came to save somebody.
from sin, saving from the world. This world is not our Savior. Mother Earth, don't try to save
Mother Earth. She can't save you, and you can't
save her. Our Savior is Jesus Christ. This is a mystery, he said, in
verse 16 of our text. It's a mystery. It's a mystery.
It must be revealed of godliness. What does godliness mean? Anything
and everything has to do with the kingdom of God, who God is. How do we get to God? How do
we know God? The Word of God, the salvation
of God, the truth of God, the God most great is the mystery,
but it's not a mystery to God's people. That is not completely
a mystery. Ephesians 1, he says, He abounded
toward us in wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery. Colossians 1, verse 26. He made
known unto us the mystery to the church. That God was manifest
in the flesh. Look at the next thing. Six things
he talks about. It says He was justified in the
Spirit. justified in the Spirit. Turn
with me to Matthew 3.16. Matthew 3.16. You know, I went
through the Scriptures looking at chapters 3.16 and so many
passages. Most people just can quote John
3.16. Well, there are many Scriptures. In Matthew 3.16, I looked at
this, and this is amazing. It's wonderful. It says there,
He was justified in the Spirit, meaning that the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit of God, declared Him to be the Just One. The Just One. The Holy One of
Israel. That's what the Old Testament
talks about. He's coming. The Holy One of Israel. The Just
One. Here's what the Scripture said.
There's not a just man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. But now 2,000 years ago, there
was a man that walked this earth who was just. Just one. It's the only one to ever live.
Completely just, without sin. Holy. Harmless. Separate from
sin. Who is he? God. Look at Matthew 3.16. Jesus. And he was baptized. went up
straightway out of the water, came out of the water. Remember
he said in John 3 to Nicodemus, who thought he knew something,
he was a doctor of theology, doctor of divinity, and our Lord
said to him, you don't know anything. But he said, except you be born
of water and of spirits, you cannot see the kingdom of Didn't
he? Well, here he is, being baptized. He came up out of the water.
He came out of the water, but you know what? He is the water. He is the water of life. He was
formed in a mother's belly in water like you and I are, but
hold on a minute. She was formed in Him. The water
of the Word. He said to that woman at the
well. There's a whole message right here in Matthew 3.16. See
that? He said to the woman at the well
who came to draw water, she said to Jesus, you don't have anything
to draw water with. She didn't know him, Sally. He
hadn't come to draw water, he came to draw her. And when it
was over, she dropped her water pot. She's not thinking about
water anymore. She had received the water of
life, which is what? Not what. Christ said, I am the
water of life. He came up straightway out of
the water. And lo, verse 16, the heavens were opened unto
Him. I want you to notice with me,
those who are listening. It says, unto Him, upon Him,
and verse 17 says, in Him. Unto, upon, and in Him. The heavens
were opened unto Him. Where have you heard that before,
John? Psalm 24? Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? He, that clean hand, a pure heart, has never
lifted up his soul unto vanity or sworn deceitfully. Perfect
and holy is God Almighty, as righteous as God. Psalm 24. Who
shall go into heaven? Who is God going to let into
heaven? Who? Clean hands, perfectly sinless, spotless hands, have
never sinned, done one thing evil. A pure heart, Never lifted up his soul unto
vanity. Never gone after anything in
this world. Vanity of vanity. All flesh is
vanity. And never sworn deceitfully.
Always told the truth. Always. Out of his mouth. Perfect
truth out of your mouth. Who can go in there? Then the next verse says, open
the gates. The next verse says, open the
gates. Someone's coming in. Who? King of glory. The heavens were opened unto
Him. He goes in. How are we going
to get there? In Him. Through Him. By Him. In Him. Like a woman is pregnant. Wherever
she goes, the baby goes. Whoever accepts her, accepts
the baby. If you're in Christ, you're accepted
in the blood. You're in God. You're in the
kingdom. You have eternal life. You in
Christ, Christ in you. Look at the next line in Matthew
3, 16. The heavens were opened unto him. And he, John, saw the
Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God, descending like a dove
and lighting upon him. The Spirit of God came down upon
him. Why? He's anointing Him. He's showing, oh, then and now,
this is He. This is the Christ. Anointed
means Christ. Christ means anointed. You hear
preachers all the time say, I have the anointing. Receive the anointing. They're all liars. The Spirit
of God landed on Jesus Christ. John saw it. You and I see this. We read this. Who's the Christ? They came to John in John 1.
You read it with me. And they said, Are you the Christ?
He said, No, I am not. Well, who are you? Are you a
great prophet? He said, I know. Maybe you're that prophet. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not that
prophet. Jesus Christ is that prophet. Who are you, John? Tell us who
you are. Tell us your credentials. Tell us. Tell us. I'm a nothing.
I'm a nobody. I must decrease. He must increase. There's standing one among you,
he said, whom you don't know. Three words. He, it is. Oh, what words are in that? He,
it is. What is? Name something. Christ is all. Three words. You understand the
mystery of the universe in these three words. Christ is all. Who's
Christ? Jesus. He it is. What it? Truth. Way. Love. Mercy. Grace. Knowledge. Understanding. Name something. Life. Death. He it is. It's in his hands.
He is not in our hands. One time God put himself in man's
hands, and man did what God determined for him to do. And before that
and since then, never in man's hands did he sin. The God in
whose hands our breath is in all our ways. I'm trying to glorify
this morning, and you are too. So look at the next line in Matthew
3, 16. It's like lighting upon him.
You know, he's going to come like lightning in the earth.
And verse 17, Lo, a voice from heaven. Hold on, man. God hadn't
spoken in 400 years. God hadn't spoken. At this time,
God had not spoken in 400 years. God never spoke out loud to all
human beings. Never. He spoke unto the fathers
by the prophets. And Hebrews 1 says, He's spoken
unto us in these last days by His Son. But God out loud said
for everybody at that time to hear Him, said, This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. God never said that about anybody
ever. And another place He said, Hear
Him. That's Matthew 3, 16. Go back
to our text. Let me hurry. You know, I preach
this on the radio five or six times in 15 minutes. It says in verse 16, He was seen
of angel, justified in the Spirit. That means the Spirit of God
declared him to be the just one, the holy one, the righteous one,
the one sent by God to justify his people. The only just one. He must justify. We are justified,
we are declared holy and righteous through Jesus Christ who is our
righteousness. There is no other. And the Spirit
of God teaches all his people that. All right, the next thing
says he was seen of angel. You see that? scene of angels,
observed, watched, beheld by angels. 1 Peter 1 verse 12, I
love this verse, it says, which things the angels desire to look
into. He was observed, he was watched,
he was beheld by angels at creation. Now, the angels were created
beings, long before God made anything. It was God
and nothing else. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And the account is not given,
but God created angels. They're created beings, right?
Satan is a fallen angel. Jesus Christ created him. And
it says in Romans 9, the Creator has complete, utter power over
His creation. The potter over the clay. I told you I was going to preach
that Wednesday. I don't know. I don't know. We don't know, do we? I intend
to. But that's what Romans 9 said,
and Christ is that. Satan is a created being. He's
under the absolute control of Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad about that. You've
seen that the angels beheld, after they were created, they
beheld Jesus Christ create the heavens and the earth. They watched
it. Can you imagine? You know, the
universe, the heavens declare His glory, the firmament showeth
His handiwork, day unto day others speak. The oceans, the mountains,
the rivers, the streams, the skies, the stars, the sun, the
moon, you know what it all says? God is. And it says to God's
people, Christ is the bright and morning star. It says to
them, Jesus Christ is God. They see His hand and everything.
Trees, He's a tree of life. Water, He's water of life. Son,
He's the Son of righteousness. Just name something. He's all. Well, the angels beheld as Jesus
Christ created it all. Oh, weren't they? Can you imagine? Alright, then they watched Him
On earth, we don't know when Jesus Christ took a body. He
assumed a bodily image all through the Old Testament. He came and
appeared to human beings. Proverbs 8 tells us that. And
He came down on earth and He took some clay, some dust and
water, maybe from His mouth. There's nothing unclean about
His mouth. But he made this clay and he
started forming this creature, the angel. What's he doing? He
wasn't giving an account, he said. And they all looked at
him. Are you listening to this? And he made this creature. And
they said, it looks just like him. It's just a statue. It's just
clay. It doesn't have life. But it
looks just like him. It's an image of him. That's
right. Then he took the face of that clay creature. He breathed into him. He became
a living soul. Man didn't come from a monkey.
Man became one. Man didn't come from a single-celled
creature. He's gone back to that. He's
a worm. That's what the Scripture says.
But Christ breathed into that creature that looked like Him,
that image of Him, and He became a man. Male and female created
Him in the image of Jesus Christ. Holy. Upright. Beautiful. And the angels... Look what He's done. Scene of angels. Observe. And
then they saw him go throughout the Old Testament, these two
creatures that he made and did everything he did for them, shake
their fists in his face. He said, we will not have you
reign over us. We want to be God. We have our
free will. We have free will just like you.
We're God just like you. No, you're not either. And they fell. They did what
the angels saw a third of the heavenly host do, rebel against
God. The angels saw these two creatures
do that to Jesus Christ. They kept their fists in his
back. And they thought, well, he's just going to wipe them
out. No. They beheld as Jesus cried. walked
in the garden that day, Adam, Eve, where are you? He knew where they were. He's revealing to them what they've
done. And now he's going to reveal
himself to them, what he's going to do. They have created a mess. Did this take God by surprise?
Uh-uh. Ordained by God. I don't understand.
I don't either. But I believe. Alright? The angels beheld. They saw Him.
You've seen of angels. They saw Him walking in the cool
of the day, and they saw Him talking to these two creatures
that rebelled against Him like a third of the heavenly host.
Satan and all that they saw. And they saw Him cast those angels
into a pit. reserved for everlasting fire.
But not these two creatures. They saw Him talking to these
two creatures. Why is He doing that? Why is
He heaven? What is it? And if somebody would
say it, they would say, this is mercy is what this is. God is sovereign. God is absolute
power over all things. God is creator. But God is merciful. What does that mean? Not getting
what you deserve. I don't know what that concept
is. Right there it is. He's not going to kill these
two creatures. Instead, instead of, are you
with me? They watched him as he took a
lamb. and slit its throat. They'd never
seen death. They didn't know what death was.
They'd never seen blood. They didn't know blood was coursing
through their body. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. And they saw Jesus Christ take a lamb right before the
eyes of these two creatures and slit its throat and pour out
that blood and skin that lamb, strip that lamb of its covering
and put it on these two sinful, rebellious creatures. What's
this? What's He doing? He's revealing Himself. He's
the Lamb of God. He's revealing what He is going
to do. Don't holler, preacher. No, the whole world needs to
hear this. John stood up and said, behold,
the Lamb of God that does what? Oh, He's going to give you a
new car. He's going to give you a new job. No, He's going to take away the
sin of the world. Not just Jews, but Gentiles.
Everybody that needs a Lamb. That's why He came. That's the
reason Jesus Christ came. 6,000 years ago in the garden,
He said, this is why I'm coming to earth 3,500 years later. To
be the Lamb, the substitute for sinners. That God ought to wipe
them all out. But no, God is merciful. God is love. No, God doesn't
love everybody. It's a miracle He loves anybody. Nobody came to His own, they
received Him not. He came to His creatures, they
spit in His face. He said, I didn't do it. If you
were there, you'd have done it. There's people that hate what
I'm preaching. Hated. They hated Him. They killed Him.
They killed every prophet that came preaching this. They killed
every apostle that came preaching this. What? Mercy. Grace. Salvation for the undeserved.
We don't like this. Go away. Leave us alone. If He
leaves you alone, you'll die in your sins. This is why Jesus Christ came.
Not to make people healthy and wealthy. To save us from our
sins. Oh, that's old-fashioned. Yes,
it's as old as God. This is how this mess called
planet Earth began. Sin. It's the source of all our
troubles, all our problems. Death. Our Lord said, die and
you shall die. You'll die and everybody and
everything around you. But life came. Jesus Christ came. He said, I
am come that they might have life. He said, we're going to
kill you. He said, you can't. No man taketh
my life from me. I lay it down. Why? to give life by His death. I don't understand. I don't either. Except it's substitution. Like
that lamb in the garden. Substitution. Either your soul
is going to die or somebody will die for you. And there's only
one that can do it. Jesus Christ. The angels saw this. Do you see
this? Do you see why Jesus Christ came?
Do you see who He is? Do you see yourself? Adam and
Eve saw themselves. There was no controversy to them. The angels, no controversy to
the angels. That if God doesn't do something,
we're goners. He did. And when Christ was hanging
on the cross, Patrick, you know what he said when he was hanging
on that cross? He said, I've done all I can do, now it's up.
No! It is finished. Three words.
It is finished. What? Salvation of His people. Then there's nothing for me to
do. That's exactly right. Do you like this? Do you really? Most people don't. Most people
hate that. There was a time I didn't believe
that. The next thing says he preached unto the Gentiles. Paul, Saul of Tarsus, hated this. He hated it. He hated the truth. He hated Jesus. He hated all
this talk about Jesus being the only way. The only righteousness.
He said, I've got one. I've got a righteousness. Didn't
he, John? I'll have you know, I've kept the law. There was
an Olympic contestant, diver. She was diving. Maybe you read
about it. She hit the board in her first
attempt, and her score was zero. That's a good thing, isn't it?
You and I need to realize we're all a bunch of zeros. I have,
you know, I'm worth something. No, you're a zebra. This church
is not a place where everybody's something. This is a place where
everybody's nothing, where Jesus Christ is everything. If it wasn't
for him, you're just another creature. Cumbering the ground. Well, that
woman, she hit the board with her feet, and boy, doesn't that
really matter? That really matters, doesn't it? You need a gold medal.
Man, oh man. But she hit the board with her feet, and they
scored a zero, and she's out of the running and all that.
And she said, did you read it? She said, I believe God. She said, I don't know why He
let this happen. I've served Him faithfully all
year long. That's what she said. I've been
true and faithful to Him all these years. I don't know why
He let this happen to me. That woman doesn't know God. She wouldn't be giving her life
to earn a little piece of metal. Christ would be her life. She'd
be sitting in a worship service like you and I, worshiping Christ. Oh, man. Preached under the Gentile. Why did I say all that? Because
Saul of Tarsus didn't believe it, and I didn't either. And
I scoffed at it. My dad was a preacher for 65
years. My dad was a pastor. And I scoffed
at it. I sat cross-legged. I was in
Hinduism. Studied Eastern religion and
all that. I thought I knew something. I was smarter than my parents.
Smarter than the Bible. Smarter than Jesus Christ. That's
what I thought. And I told my friends that. And Elizabeth, here I am preaching it. You told me back then you'd
be standing up behind a pulpit apologizing for everything you
ever said. Everything you ever did. Renouncing
everything you are and have and done is worthless. And preaching and declaring Jesus
Christ is everything. I would have laughed you to scorn.
I would have laughed at your face. Not me. But God. Now I'm laughing. That's what
Psalm 126 says. When the Lord turned our captivity,
we were like them that dreamed, and our mouths were filled with
laughter. Oh, the Lord has done a great thing for us. Preached
unto the Gentiles. You and I. Gentiles are the worst. Romans 1 describes Gentiles. Wallering in filth. The United
States is a Gentile nation. Just wallowing in sin. It's just
a filthy, vile, wicked place. And the Lord is so merciful,
He sends the gospel to preach to these despicable creatures.
Amazing. Why? Because the gospel is the
power of God on salvation. What I've been doing, what the
world calls foolishness, my occupation, what the world does, they think
the world can do without all preachers. I agree. Most of them.
And they think what we're saying is a bunch of foolishness. It's
not. You have to call Jesus Christ
a liar, you see. I believe Jesus Christ. I think
men are liars. Do you? By the grace of God,
I believe Jesus Christ. I don't believe anyone else.
And there was a time I didn't. Times are opposite. Then why
do you believe what you believe? That's what I'm trying to say. I had nothing to do with this.
I didn't want it. I wasn't seeking it. But God. Believed on in the world. Do
you believe what I've been preaching and what you've been reading
and what I've been trying to declare so feebly this morning? Do you believe this? The world
doesn't. This is so Rare. What I've been saying about God
and about Christ, about man, is just rejected. The vast majority of human beings
think this is just utter foolishness. Do you believe this? Catherine
Trent, do you believe this? Todd Trent? Teresa? David? Polly? Patrick? Dan? Do you? Jill? Do you really? Melanie? Abigail? Do you? Olivia? Do you believe
this? Well, it's not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God. And if you do, you need to confess
it before this idolatrous generation. Yes, you do. How? Why did Jesus Christ be baptized?
I don't really know. But He did. Confessing us. Preached unto the Gentiles. Believed
on in the world. And here's what the last line
says. Received up into glory. Where is Jesus Christ now? Sitting
on the circle of the earth. The world's not flat. And the world's not in control
of itself. It's under the absolute control
of Jesus Christ. And he's sitting on it. He's
sitting on the right hand of the majesty on high, expecting
his enemies, Scripture said, be made his footstool. And he's
coming back again. He came the first time. That's
without controversy. And it's a great controversy
among many that He's coming again. Where's the promise of His coming,
they said to Peter in 2 Peter 3? It's everywhere. It's all
through this book. He said to His disciples, when
you see all these things, when you see all these things clearly
coming to pass, and we do know, we've looked at these things,
clearly, when you see these things, He's near. He's coming. Who's He coming for? Those He
came for the first time. Those He died for on the cross.
Those that Scripture says that God gave unto Him. And those
that He gives faith and repentance. And those that confess Him. That's
who He's coming back for. And He's going to confess them
to the angels. He's going to say to the angels
who have beheld all of this, He's going to say, here they
are. Here they all are. Look what I've done. Isn't this the greatest story
ever told? Okay, John, you come lead us.