The Lord sends a word to his doubting
disciples. John was in prison, and John being just a man, he's
having his doubts. I know he's wondering why he's
in prison. He's preaching the gospel. He's
wondering why are men rejecting the Christ? He knew that the
Lord was indeed the Christ. He preached it. And yet, men
and women are rejecting him. They're going to reject him. And he's having his doubts and
his fears, just like us. And I'm thankful the Lord wrote
this, because if a man as strong in faith as John can have doubts,
a man who knows Christ without a doubt, and yet wonders, why
is this happening? What is your purpose in all of
this? And his two disciples have to
be wondering why. Why? There's a preacher in prison
who preaches the truth. And John sends them to our Lord,
and the Lord sends a word to them, these doubting disciples,
and confirms who He is again. He says, you go show John again.
And we need to hear again and again. And why do we preach Christ?
Because He's salvation. Why do we preach Christ? Because
He's salvation. He's all there is. He's our only hope. He's our
everything. Christ is everything. He's made
unto us everything. We need to hear Him. We need
to believe. We need to know that He is indeed the Christ and that
we're found in Him. And He's our salvation. We need that. So we preach over
and over again the Lord Jesus Christ. We point men and women,
and I need to be pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to
have it confirmed. I'm the preacher. I'm the one
up here that should believe, know whom I have believed, and
pointed you to Him. Well, I need the same hope. I
need the same comfort. I need to hear this again. We've
already looked at that. I need to look at it again. Are
you the Christ or do we look for another? And our Lord confirmed
it. He said, yes, you go show John
again that the blind receive their sight. You know, I receive
a little bit of sight every time I look at the Word. Every time
we get together, I receive a little bit of sight. No kids a day.
As many times as we've looked at that, I learned a little something.
And that's good news. That's why it's called gospel.
If we don't learn, oh my, we must not be disciples, our little
children. But he said, the lame walk. My, my. Lepers are cleansed. Those in bondage to sin, the
Lord cleanses. The deaf hear. Those who could
not and would not hear the gospel, they hear. The dead are raised.
The dead are raised. Dead men. Dead to God. Dead to
Christ. Alive to this world, but dead
to God. No, they're raised. How? By this Gospel. How do I
know this Gospel is the Gospel? It raises the dead. It raises
the dead. The Lord raised the dead person
here. There are more dead amongst us. The poor have the Gospel
preached on. The poor. How can people keep
coming to hear the same message from the same man for so many
years? The same message over and over again. Well, they must
be poor. They must be hungry and thirsty. What a blessing. Blessed are
the hungry and thirsty. They'll be filled. The sign of
life. Poor. The poor in spirit. This
gospel is only for the poor in spirit. Those that are rich and in need of nothing, they
won't hear it. And he said, Blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. Most people are offended in what?
Christ said, they were offended then, they're offended now. The
gospel offends most people. The gospel is an offense to the
natural man. They hate it. That God is sovereign? They think they are. That God
only is righteous? That all our righteousness is
filthy rags? I hate that. And you tell people
that everything they've ever done won't account for anything.
with God. I hate that. Pharisees hate that. That's offense to them. But,
oh, an unrighteous person. A sinner is not offended. A sinner
knows he or she is unrighteous, and they know that Christ is
their only righteousness, and they're glad of it. Offended?
No. Oh, glory in Him. Glory in that. He said, Blessed are those who
are not offended in me. And then he confirms his preacher. Our Lord said, Blessed are they
that are not offended in me. And one time Paul wrote to Timothy.
He said, Timothy, don't be ashamed of the gospel. Nor me. Don't be ashamed of me. Our Lord confirms his preacher,
John. And he must. He must. We need to know that the man
we hear is sent from God. If he's not, we're following
a false prophet. Right? Our Lord confirms John to men. John testified of Christ. John witnessed of Christ to men. Confirming, that's the cry, pointing
the cry. Our Lord turns around and tells
man, that's my preacher. We need to know that. We need
to know that. For our comfort, that we're not
following a false prophet. Many do. Many do. And our Lord gives these words
to everyone that came out to hear John, most of whom were
just curious. Most of them were just curious.
Everybody went, even Herod went to hear John. Wanted to hear
John. Remember that? Herod wanted to hear John, wanted
to hear the Lord. Why? He was just curious. And
our Lord said in verse 7, as they departed, the Lord began
to say unto the multitudes, As John's disciples left, he said
to everyone listening concerning John, he said, what went ye out
in the wilderness to see? What did you go to see? Who did
you go to see and hear? And there are many today that
go out to hear somebody, to see a man, some even a woman. But
they go to hear and see the preacher. And our Lord said concerning
John, what did you go out in the wilderness to see. That's
where John was preaching. He said, did you go to see a
reed shaken with the wind? A spineless reed, you've seen
those little cattails by a farm pond, you know, the slightest
little breeze, they'll bend with it. Any little wisp of wind that
comes along, it's not a stout rod, it's a spineless little,
and it'll bend and even break eventually with the wind. You
say, what do you go to see, a spineless little weak effeminate fellow? Easily swayed by popular opinion. Easily swayed by whatever people
want to hear. You pay me enough, I'll tell
you anything you want to hear. Is that what you wanted to say? Paul said this, he said, if I
seek to please men, I'm not the servant of Christ. I'm not the
servant of Christ. He said, did you go to see a
man, did you expect to see a man afraid of offending someone lest
he lose his job? You don't need a man like that.
You don't need a man like that. He said in verse 8, What did
you go out to see, a man clothed in soft raiment? He said, They
that wear soft clothes enter in kings' houses. Soft raiment,
silk robes, long flowing silk robes, clerical habits. Last Sunday, I believe it was,
we drove left here and went up Main Street going to somewhere
to eat. And that Episcopal, I think the
name of it, up there on the corner, they were letting out And standing
out on the front was this fellow, I think it was a fellow, but
he had on this long golden gown. This is so plain. Where did that
start? I think they got it from the
Old Testament priesthood, but all of that had purpose. Those
robes that Aaron wore had a purpose to point to Christ. And we're
not under the law anymore. There's no more need for robes. That's where a lot of people
go and that's what they see. A soft fella in soft clothing. By the way, this is a forested
wool. Silk garments, long flowing. Have you ever noticed how the
preachers are depicted on TV by Hollywood? How they're depicted?
Spineless little fellas, weak, effeminates. Nobody's paying
any attention to them. All they're good for is marrying
people and they're standing in the background. Nobody has any
need whatsoever for them until it's time for them to get this
marriage over with. Because men reflect the God they
preach. Men act like who they follow. And they're preaching a puny,
spineless little Jesus that can't save a flea. Read those two articles
in our book. Wonderful articles by true preachers. God's preacher then and now has
never been a man-pleaser. There's never been a soft, weak,
meek, yes, but that's not weakness. Moses didn't want a confrontation,
ever. He fell down often before his
detractors. But in the name of the Lord. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Strong men. John the Baptist.
John came preaching. And you know what he said to
a Sunday morning crowd? He said, you generation of vipers, who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now, that
wouldn't get a hearing, would it? In God's people, it would.
But not a big crowd wouldn't draw a crowd. Barnard used to
say, that will get your head cut off. Get your head cut off. He said in verse 9, what do you
go to see? A prophet? I say unto you, more than a prophet.
A preacher? My dad said, there's preachers
and there's preachers. Everybody can be a preacher.
Anybody can be a preacher. Go to school, get you a degree,
you can be a preacher. It's easier to be a preacher
now than about anything. You can get your Master of Divinity
online. Imagine that. Anybody can. Let somebody give you an honorary
doctorate and you're a preacher. Well, you may think you are,
but you're not sent by God. You go see a preacher, he said,
more than that, I'll tell you more than a prophet. Verse 10,
he said, this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my
messenger. Now there you go. He said, this
is my messenger. This is the man I sent. Who'd
you go to hear? A man sent by a seminary? You
better not listen to him. But this is my messenger, he
said. This is the one I sent. And one
time he said to some, who doubted John. And Paul had to defend
himself constantly, especially to the Corinthians. Our Lord
said of John, he said, the ministry of John, is it of God or is it
men? And the Pharisees didn't want
to answer that. Because they said, well, if we
say it's of men, then the people that follow and listen to John
will say they're fooled, they're wrong. But if we say it's of
God, we'd better hear it. And they said, we can't tell.
And the Lord said, then I'm not going to deal with you anymore.
I'm not going to speak to you anymore. See, the Lord confirmed
his man. I listened to this man for years.
I still listen to him. I still, I need to know that
this man was sent from God. And if he is, I need to listen
to him. And I still do. I still do. He's God's messenger to me. If
I'm going to hear from God, I want to hear from that man. A man sent by God with a message. With a message. And thank God,
his preachers, they are like the God that they preach. Authority. A message of authority. Our Lord, remember in the previous
chapter, He said, you go and you preach. You tell them what
I tell you. And he said, if they won't receive
you, you shake the dust off of your clothing and you leave.
You don't beg, you don't plead, you don't ask anybody anything. He said, I'm going to provide
for you. You're not a beggar. You're not a man pleaser. You
go. I'll give you a message and I'll give you a hearing. If they
won't hear you, get out of Dodge. Don't argue with them. My sheep
will hear my voice." He that is of God is going to hear God's
Word, and he's going to hear it through you. And if they won't
hear you, they won't hear it from me. So you can just get
out. Get out. Well, then, the Lord said this
in verse 11. Look at it. He says, "...among
them that are born of women, there is not risen a greater
than John the Baptist." There have been some great men
now through history. what we call great, in our history
of this country and others, but in our history there have been
great men like George Washington. George Washington, I suppose,
was the first great man in this country, this young republic. George Washington, he was a great
man, wasn't he? Not as great as John the Baptist.
Not as great as Henry Mayhem. Not as great as Scott Richardson.
George Washington is not merely the man that Cody Groover is. That's what the Lord is saying
here. Thomas Jefferson. Many hold Thomas Jefferson in
high esteem. I thank the Lord that he raised
up men to do what they did, you know, their inventions and the
Declaration, all of that sort of thing. But Thomas Jefferson
was a sinful, vile fellow who took the Word of God and cut
it like old Jehoiakim, the king of old. everything out of the
Bible, he didn't lie. That's what Thomas Jefferson
did. He made his own Bible the way he liked it. Thomas Jefferson. I tell you, Todd Nyberg is a
much greater man than Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Harding is
a greater man than Abraham Lincoln. Abraham and Lincoln may have
emancipated the slaves, but the Lord's using Todd Nybert to emancipate
the captives to Satan himself. That's what the Lord's saying
here. What a blessing. He ascended
on high. He gave gifts to men. Apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Oh, I'm so thankful. And I'm thankful the Lord did
this. I'm thankful he confirmed his preacher then and does it
now. And he said in verse 10, This
is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. My messenger
shall prepare the way. What's the messenger doing? How
do you know he's God's messenger? He's preaching Christ. He's just
preparing the way. He's bringing the high places
down and the low places up. He's removing the obstacles,
getting everything out of the way, including himself, that
men may look to Christ and Christ alone. That's how you know. That's
how you know. He's not preaching himself. Paul
said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus alone. John
said, don't follow me, follow him. Follow him. And so our Lord said, this is
my messenger. to prepare my way. Verily, there
is none greater than John the Baptist, verse 11, notwithstanding
he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John
the Baptist. I think, I believe, I know he's
still talking about this office of preacher. There's a young fellow in Kingsport,
Tennessee right now that very few people know about. Preaching
to a small group of people. And he's as great or greater
than John the Baptist. Can you believe that? That's what our Lord said. Men think that's foolish. I will. Let the pot sherd strive with
the pot sherd. And he said, down in verse, look at verse 14. Well,
verse 13, all the prophets in the law prophesied until John.
And if you will receive it, in other words, the Lord is saying,
this is the last Old Testament prophet. He said, and if you
will receive it, if you'll hear this, if you'll believe this,
if you'll receive it, he says, this is Elijah. Well, John wasn't
Elijah, wasn't. He's just John, born of a woman.
He's not Elijah. And our Lord said, he is to you.
He is to you. The Lord has not left
himself without a witness in every generation. He sent Elijah
to his generation. He sent John to his. He sent
us, someone in our generation. And he's Elijah. And that's why
he said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Who? Who? He said, you hear, they hear
you, they hear from me. Talking to a man on the phone.
And I like him, and he listens to
tapes, listens to our tapes a lot. And he's not a member, doesn't
attend anywhere. And he listens to a lot of tapes,
and he says he rejoices in them. And finally I said to him, I
said, what are you going to do tomorrow on the Lord's Day? Where are you going to go and
worship? He said, I'm going to stay right here, I guess, and
listen to the tale. I said, don't do that. I said, don't do that.
They said, God's sheep have to have a fold. They have to congregate. That's a sheep. I said, you need to go where
God's people are meeting and worshipping together, because
the promise is where two or three are gathered in His name. Not
to forsake the assembly of yourself together as some is. I said,
if you're doing that, you're doing what some do. And that's,
the Lord won't bless that. I said, you go, you find somewhere
where some man is standing up, preaching the gospel, preaching
the word, and two or three people met in His name, And the Spirit
of God is present and you'll be blessed. And I said, you go.
It doesn't matter how far you have to drive. You go there tomorrow.
Go there. And I looked on the atlas and
I said, here, there's a place less than two hours from you.
Rupert Rutherford. I said, you get in your car tomorrow
and you go there. Well, he began to bicker with me. He began to make excuses, just
like those people made excuses to our Lord, you know. Well,
I've married me a wife, bought me some life, and so then I'd
had it with him. And I began to say to him, then
your professions all talk. If you're not willing to sacrifice,
give up a little bit. So I'm saving my money. The Lord
won't re-immerse you for gas. The Lord won't bless anybody
that doesn't go to great lengths to have the gospel. A person
that doesn't sacrifice. A person that doesn't, except
you forsake all you have, you can't be my disciple. I began
to tell him, and he didn't like it. Up until this point, he liked
me, but he doesn't like me now. And I said to him, I said, if
you can't listen to me outside the pulpit, don't listen to me
in it. Throw those tapes away. If you
can't listen to what I'm saying to you now, throw those tapes
away. I don't know how he'll take that,
I hope. I hope. He'll hear it, because that's
what he needs. I said, brother, I'm giving you the benefit of
the doubt. I said, I'm doing this for your
own good. You need to be where the gospel is being preached.
I've known too many people to sit out there and be like I have
the Enoch syndrome. So Enoch was alone. Well, there
wasn't any gospel being preached where Enoch was. There is today.
There is today. This is Elijah. Boy, if Elijah
was alive, would you go hear him? How far would you drive? This is Elijah, the Lord said. Did you hear him? Go wherever
it takes. And you know, quite often, most
of the time, the true church and the true preacher is located
in obscure places like down, what's the name? I've been going
to Fairmont for a hundred years and I still don't know the name
of the road. And so, what's the name of that road, Sam? If Katy
is the name of the little town where Brother Scott began to
preach years ago, right beside a creek, Katy Baptist Church,
in a little one-horse town named Katy, God put a prophet there,
Scott Richardson. Now He's raised up another man
there. And if you want to hear the gospel in Fairmont, West
Virginia, or anywhere around there, you're going to have to
drive to get there. But it'll be worth it. It'll be worth it. And it's the same everywhere.
Same everywhere. They're without the camp. They're
not easy to find. It's not a gospel of convenience. All right? Now the Lord says, here's what
this gospel is about, and here's what my preacher does. Here's
what I came to do. I didn't come to mealy-mouth
around. I didn't come to make friends with you and win friends
and influence people. I came with a sword, you see.
And this gospel is a violent thing. A violent thing. Look
at it. This is one of the most astounding
verses in all of God's Word. Verse 12, from the days of John
the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. And the violence, take it by
force. It's going to happen. Kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven. It's an unseen
kingdom. It's an unseen kingdom. It's
a spiritual kingdom. And there is a King, and His
name is Jesus Christ. Men and women don't see Him,
but He is reigning and ruling. He is seated right now on the
circle of the earth. Everything is under His feet.
Men can't see Him, but He is. He is. We see Him. We've beheld His glory, haven't
we? He's given us eyes to see. But men and women are blind to
Him. They're dead. They don't see.
The kingdom of heaven is an eternal kingdom. The kingdom of heaven
is a spiritual kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is called
the kingdom of God, the kingdom of His dear Son, the kingdom
of light. This world is darkness, and it's
ruled by one who's called the prince of the power of the air,
the ruler of the darkness of this world. This is not fable.
This is not fiction. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
said, that Satan is a real person. Well, people scoff and mock at
that. They are under his dominion.
They were under his sway and his hold at that very time. Most of them standing up are
under his rule, saying what he tells them to say. And people
are following them like the Pied Piper through their description. And our Lord said it's going
to take violence to take it. What our Lord endured, and it's
not talking about us doing the battle, Principally and primarily
and first and foremost is talking about the captain of our salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who with a violent axe on Calvary's tree,
defeated the powers of darkness. Defeated Satan. That's what it's
going to take. Not him and me. Him. Facing our foe for us. First
thing he did was a man. We're going to face this foe,
this adversary, all our life. But you know, he can only do
what our captain allows him to do, thank God. Just for our good,
for his glory. He got him on a leash. But our
Lord, when he came, he met a real foe. At his weakest time, he
met Satan head on, because that's our foe. We are no match for
him. And unless a stronger than he
binds him, and binds us with the cords of love to the sacrifice. Unless the stronger than he binds
our adversary and holds him captive, he's going to have us. He's got
everybody. Why do you say our world is going
to pot? People are under the dominion
of this God of this world. Look at it! Look at it! Young people, look at it! cutting
themselves, marking themselves, mutilating themselves, watering
in the mire and the muck and the filth. Solomon, Gamara, look
at it. What's it going to take to get
them out of that? Not you and some counselor. Oprah ain't going to get us out
of it. Dr. Phil, Christ, and then crucified. That's who we call on. That's
who we pray to. That's who must do this. That's who we call to. That's
who we pray to. That's why. That's how we preach. He said, you preach. If I'd be
lifted up, preach me, he said. If I'm willing, if I'm at that
time, I'll bring them out of darkness into my marvelous light.
I'll open it. It's going to take balance. He
said, my Word's like a hammer. You ever been hit upside the
head with a hammer? That's what the Word's got to do to us. Our
heads are so hard. A sword? Anybody in here been stabbed? Most of you have. Surgery is
being stabbed. Brother Todd said that. He brought
that to my attention. You go through surgery. It's
not minor. You've been stabbed. You've been cut. It may heal
on the outside, but the inside takes a long time. You're sore.
You're hurting for days. But when this sword of God's
Word gets in you, It's got to be by the hand of God, through
the Spirit of God. It's got to pierce you. Because
these hearts are hard. Oh Lord, take that sword and
pierce me through. Break this heart, heart. Break
my son's heart, heart. Break my daughter's heart, heart.
Get through her hard head. Open her blind eyes. Open her
deaf ears. Violence. Violence. There's no namby-pamby, oh, when
I have a convenient season. Oh, for Lord, if I'm one of His
elect, I'll be saved. No, sir, that ain't it. That
ain't it. Violence. When a child is born,
you ladies have had children, is that not a great pain and
suffering and a violent act? A violent act, isn't it? He went
very long without any painkiller. Violent one. So is the birth
of a child of God. Violent. And our Lord is the
one who takes this kingdom and takes us captive and delivers
us from the God of this world. Violent. He's the one of whom
all those men in the Old Testament were pictures in time. Joshua.
You read the book of Joshua. When's the last time you read
the book of Joshua? I just read it. All it is, from start to
finish, is Joshua slaughtering people. All the way through it,
Joshua taking everybody. And the world reads that. The
unbelieving world reads that. And so they hate Judaism. They
hate this Bible. That's what they believe. Joshua's
just going through killing everybody in his path for no reason at
all, taking this land for Israel. That's not it. That's a picture
of Jesus Christ. And it says there in the book
of Joshua that the ones he killed were the ones that opposed him,
the ones that didn't like him, like the Amorites and the Malachites,
the Habites. They didn't like him. They didn't
like his God. And they were the ones that started
the fight. And Joshua said, you're not going
to beat me. And he took them and slaughtered
who would not submit to him. That's Jesus Christ. That's who
the scripture says Christ is, our Joshua. Saves his people,
but destroys everybody else. Oh, that's hard. Christ said,
that's me. Merciful. Love, yes, but holy. Holy. Mercy and grace, yes. Thank God. Gracious, kind, tender
mercy. But it will by no means clear
the guilty. No, ma'am. You bow. And the kingdom is yours,
the half of the kingdom, joint heirs with Christ. Don't bow.
He will bow. Every day he will bow. The violent, take it by force, suffereth violence. You know, I thought about this.
The Lord told John that the blind received their sight, opening
of deaf ears, Like we said, the breaking of a stony heart. But
when the Lord sends His Word and breaks a heart, it's pretty
obvious. It's very obvious. The person
is torn up. They're torn up. It's a violent
thing. A confrontation. And they're torn up. And I hope and pray the Lord
will just tear somebody's world up. But the opening of deaf ears. Can you imagine having never
heard anything in your life? Never heard a thing in your life.
And then all of a sudden, they turned the volume up. That's the way it is when you
hear the gospel. That's the way it is. I went for you. You didn't hear a thing. All
of a sudden. What if you're blind? Never seen anything. No light
has ever entered your eyes. You've never seen anything. All
of a sudden, turn the light on. Painful. Violent. It's violent. That's what I'm waiting on. Subduing the enemy. If a person
is held captive by Satan and somebody comes to take them back,
it's violent. Then you're going to start struggling. It's like old Jacob. The Lord
revealed Himself to Jacob. When he was alone, left alone,
Jacob was running, running scared. And the Lord came to him one
night and says, the Lord, a man wrestled with him. A man grabbed
ahold of him, and oh, that's what I want, I hope, I pray the
Lord to do to me and to do to you and to do to your children
that the Lord will come in the dead of night or whenever it
pleases Him, and grab hold of them, and wrestle with them,
and make them know, you're mine. I'm going to have you. And leave them changed. Make
a change in them. Change in their heart. Change
in their head. Change in their mind. Change in their life. Get
a new life. And so the Lord wrestled with
Jacob, didn't he? And Jacob knew he had been wrestled with. He
crippled him, didn't he? He's never going to be the same
again. He's hurt. He's hurt. Hurt bad. And he bears
the signs of it. But the rest of those days, a
violent act. This was no arm wrestling match.
You'd have to see who's the best man. He wrestled him all over.
Got him down on the ground. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
got Jacob down on the ground. What's your name? I'm sure he said it with compassion.
Now, what's your name? Now, who do you think you are?
What's your name? What are you going to do with
Jesus? Huh? What's your name? Sinner, hopeless,
helpless. Now, who am I? Your Lord. That's what he did to Saul of
Tarsus, didn't he? Come down off your high horse. Now, what
are you going to do with Jesus? Huh? What are you going to let
me do? Huh? That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
does to everybody that He loves. And you know what? Jacob wrestled back. Jacob wrestled
back. When he found out who this was,
his only hope, his only help, his only salvation, he wrestled
back. Except whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's not a one-time thing.
It's a continual thing. Have you ever been lost? Have
you ever been lost? I haven't been lost, lost. You ask Mindy, who can be somewhere
on some side street, some back street, some road, be at the
end of the road, and it'd be a dirt road. And she said, you're
lost. I said, no, no. No, not me. What, a man be lost? But I know some who have. Brother
Walter Groover, I told you about him going out hunting in the
middle of Mexico, and it all looked the same, wilderness,
desert area. He's going to die. He's going
to die unless somebody gets him. What's he doing? He said he laid
down on the ground, and his throat was so parched, his tongue was
swollen, he couldn't hardly do it, but he hollered as loud as
he could. Somebody heard him. And they
found him. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. If you're waiting on the Lord
to call on you, forget it. I'm waiting on a bolt of lightning
to strike. Forget it. Go on then. Violence. The violent take it
by force. Let me in. I will not let you
go, Jacob said, unless you miss me. He knew. He found out. All his help, all his help, his
blessings of God were in this man. And he said, I'm not going
to quit until you bless me. The problem is, we don't need
this blessing. We'd be calling with it. Those that don't call, the rich
increase with good. I see. No, you just don't know
that you're blind. He's so miserable. He's got so
many blessings, you don't know how miserable you are. The kingdom of heaven suffered
violence. Our Lord Jesus Christ took it
by force. He doesn't ask anybody. He takes
it. He takes what's His, like Abram. Abram, going down to get
Lot. He didn't ask those kings if
they'd let him have them. He took them. And the violent take it by four.
Now, if you have ears to hear, you hear this. You hear this. And may the Lord cause us, all
of us, to call on the name of the Lord without ceasing. Pray
without ceasing. Listen to his preacher. These
opportunities are so few, so far between, so few people have
them. We are blessed. We are blessed
always. I'm sorry you've got me, but
you do have the truth. I know that. God has still given us the truth.
And I'm so thankful for it. A place to worship. And I know
how blessed we are. It's not going to last. Never
does. Never does. It's going to end.
These things have an end. Christ even said that things
concerning me have an end. It'll be over. If you're not in the kingdom,
you better start shouting, calling, hoping.