That's not just an old formal
hymn, but that's taken from Psalm 100, like a joyful noise unto
the Lord. O ye lands, serve the Lord with
gladness. come before his presence with
singing, Know ye that the Lord he is God. And so on. That's a very scriptural hymn. That's what the early church
used to sing. The early church used to sing
psalms and hymns. Words or hymns written by men. Great hymn. All right, go back
to Acts chapter 26 with me. Acts 26. Verse 25 caught my attention
when Festus said to Paul after he spoke, You're mad. You're
crazy. He said in verse 25, I'm not
mad. I'm not crazy. But I speak forth
the words of truth and soberness. In other words, this is the absolute
truth of what I'm saying. The whole truth. Nothing but
the truth. And this is serious. This is
serious. Paul was standing before a king, preaching like the Lord
said he would. The Lord said, he's a chosen
vessel of me. Paul is a chosen vessel to bear
my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel.
And he's doing just that. He's standing before King. And, you know, any man who's
called to preach, truly called, how can they preach except they
be sent? Stands before a different crowd. And I stand before you
this morning to declare the exact same thing that Paul did. Nothing new. And these are words
of truth. This is the absolute truth that
I want to try to deliver this morning. And it's very serious. It's very serious. So much so
that our Lord said, You go into all the world and preach the
gospel, and he that believeth and is baptized will be saved. Eternally saved. But if they
don't. That's how serious it is. And
so for that reason today, and even under such a poor preacher,
this message, this day, is a day of salvation. We use one means. There's one thing the Lord has
ordained to use. The gospel is the power of God
on salvation. And the preaching of the gospel.
Please God, by the foolishness of preaching, I'm not going to
act a fool this morning. What I'm saying is not a bunch
of foolishness. It's serious. It's serious. And this is the truth. The whole
truth. Nothing but the truth. So help me, God's Word. Now,
the truth is hated and rejected by everybody. By man. It says in the Scriptures,
the natural man doesn't receive the things of God. They're foolishness
to him. Like old Festus said, you're
crazy. No, the natural man doesn't. He calls it foolishness. He can't,
neither can he. No. They have to be revealed. But the natural man hates these
things. I did. Paul, look at verse 9. Paul said, I used to think with
myself I ought to do things against this. He said, I used to put people
in jail for this, punished people. And everyone in here at one time
hated the truth, despised the truth. Yes, we did, if we're
honest. Natural man, religious man hates
the truth. And so for that reason, the natural
man, unbelievers are the crazy ones. They called Paul crazy. Paul said, he said, I used to
be mad. I used to be crazy. I'm not now. I'm in my right mind now. Thanks
be unto God. See, for someone not to believe,
or for someone to reject their Creator, for the creature to
reject their Creator, man, that's foolish. You're crazy. For someone to reject their only
hope, I mean, there's only one hope for dying men and women
and young people. The hope of the gospel. The hope
that's in Christ, that is Christ. For someone to just, I don't
need that stuff, that's foolish, that's crazy. For someone to
choose and believe a lie over the truth, to willingly believe liars and
reject God who cannot lie, that's crazy, isn't it? You're out of
your mind. For someone to tempt God in whose
hands their breath is and all their ways, to defy God, live
daily, and defiance of God in whose
hand their breath is, you stop it right now. Done with you.
For them to continue, that's a fool that said no to God. Paul said, I used to be crazy.
I rejected the truth. I'm not crazy anymore. I'm not
crazy. This is the truth. The natural
man doesn't receive it. The natural man must have it
revealed to the new man. The truth must be revealed. He said, there is a way that
seems right to man, but no matter what it is, it ends in destruction. Christ said, I'm the way. But
for men, nah, there's other ways. That's a fool. Christ said, I'm
the way. I'm the truth. I'm the light. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. For someone to go any other way
is crazy. Crazy. And you know, like Paul
here, there are lots of so-called Bible scholars today with authority
and with commissions from schools and with degrees and so forth,
but not from God. Paul renounced all of his commissions
and his learning and everything. There's one that sits right here
and tells you he went to Bible school and seminary and all that,
and everything he learned there was wrong. It was wrong. God had to reveal to him the
truth, didn't He? And He sent a preacher to do
it. An old boy from North Carolina, of all places. Can anything good
come out of Carolina? Yeah, the gospel did, in a powerful
way. And look at the fallout. But
the truth is revealed. It's not discovered. Christ Himself is the truth.
He is the truth. He must reveal Himself to you,
to us. Personally, each one. Paul, we're
going to see, the Lord came to him and spoke to him. He said, I've chosen you. This is what I want to do with
you. personal thing. Look at it. It says in verse 13, it said,
I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of
the sun shining round about me, and then which journeyed with
me, and we all fell to the earth. You know, every knee shall bow. Every knee will bow. Our Lord
said this, unto me, every knee will bow. It's only a matter
of time. Every tongue of every human being
will confess. He is true, isn't he? He is who
the Bible said he was, isn't he? He did come like he said
he would, didn't he? Every tongue will confess. Every
knee will hit the dirt before him. But for many it's too late. Choose us, you see, we're going
to talk about election now. Paul was one of God's elect,
and how you know that. And here's the thing, if God
does not choose to make us bow now, if God does not choose us,
if God had not chosen us before the foundation of the world,
we won't believe the truth. We won't bow to Christ. We won't
see our need of Christ. We won't be saved. And Paul said,
others saw the light, and many say that today, don't they? I
saw the light. But he said, I heard a voice. Verse 14, I heard a
voice speaking to me. Isn't that what our Lord said?
He said, my sheep will hear my voice. My sheep will hear my
voice. Not the preacher. It's his voice. My sheep, you say, will hear
my voice. This is how you know, because
you're hearing a man preach, and yet if it pierces your heart
and breaks your proud will and causes you to see who God is,
who Christ is, that's God speaking to you, not me. And you must. My sheep hear my voice. Paul
said, I heard a voice speak to me. And he said, look at it,
saying in the Hebrew tongue, that's the language of scripture.
You know, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. How many people
know Hebrew? Very few. Well, Hebrews do. All Hebrews do. Salvations of
the Jews. How many people have a Bible?
How many understand it? Few. All God's people do. It's in the language of His people. They understand. Words like holiness
and righteousness and propitiation and mediator and intercessor
and justification and sanctification. Words you don't hear today, do
you? Huh? Did you understand that? Paul
said, I heard it in the Hebrew language, the pure truth. Right from the mouth of Him who
is the truth. And that's the way all of God's
people will. The elect will hear it. Speaking
to me. And here's what He said. Saul,
Saul. Christ said, I call them by name. If we ever hear from the Lord, we're
going to hear it personally. We're not going to hear it through
someone else. We're going to hear it personally.
He's going to speak to us. Saul, Saul. Why persecutest thou
me? In other words, you're fighting
God. You're fighting God and you cannot win. It is hard to
kick against the praise. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? You're fighting against God.
You hate them that love me. You hate the truth and you believe
a lie. You hate them that love me. Why persecutest thou me?" I love
this. He said, it's hard for thee to
kick against the pricks. Oh, we all need God to take the
prick of His Word, probe, the cattle prod of His Word and just
keep judging us, and just keep judging us, and keep judging
us. This comes from an old term years ago when they used to,
today they have a cattle prod, an electric probe, don't you?
Would that get a cow moving back? Oh, if he's not moving an inch,
if he's not budging, or an old mule or whatever, you take that
electric pole and boom, he's getting up, buddy. Back then,
they used to use a long prod, a long pointed stick. Get going
now. Get going now. And buddy, if
the Lord doesn't use this word, this is the only thing. Abraham
says, when he was called, he went out. Thank God that he takes this
word. Get up. Get up. Rise. Pit! Call! Jabbing his heart, and
thankfully, thankfully. And it's hard, you know, a cow.
Use a long probe to get at that cow because he kicked. He'd probably
kick against it. But that cattle probe was too
long where he couldn't get to the one using it. And he kept
kicking, and he kept kicking, and he kept pricking, and he
kept kicking. And here's the point. You can't keep kicking.
You can't get to me. But I can keep kicking until
finally you say, I give up with kicking. Quit kicking. Oh, may the Lord keep pricking.
And we need these pricks all the days of our life, don't we?
That just recurred to me, actually. Thank God that in His sovereign
power and irresistible grace, when He says, Come, you will
come. Thank God He uses this word, which is His power. And
that's my hope for me. That's my hope for you. That's
my hope for your children. That's my hope for every lost
sinner is that It's impossible. If God says to somebody, come,
they're coming. But I know what the prick is.
I know what he uses. And that's the reason I approach
every message with this thought. I really do. Whether it touches
you or not, this is the way I approach it. This is the one. And I prepare
it that way. This is the one that so-and-so
is going to hear. Maybe this is the one I'm going
to hear. Paul said he didn't believe the
truth, he hated the truth, and he kicked against it. And no
one knows or believes or receives the truth, the true God, the
true Christ, the Word of God, unless they are one of God's
chosen. One of God's chosen, one of God's
elected. All right, verse 15, Paul said,
Well, who art thou, Lord? Here's old Saul of Tarsus. He
was religious, but lost. He preached in the name of God,
didn't know God. He didn't even know God. He was
orthodox. He knew Bible history. He knew
the law. He knew all these things, but
didn't know God. Can you imagine that? Can a man be a preacher
and be lost? Can he be a false preacher and
be lost? Yes. Saul was. I know many of our brethren.
I'll tell you that. That was them. He said, Who art
thou, Lord? Who are you, Lord? He knew whoever
it was that put his face in the dirt is Lord, is God. And the Lord said this, I am
Jesus whom thou persecute. Now, he hated Jesus of Nazareth. And that's how he referred to
him, didn't he? He said, I used to think I should say many things
contrary to this name, Jesus. That's what I went about to do,
to put under all this talk of Jesus. But he never referred
to him from here on out, did he? He said, Lord Jesus. That's how you know. The person
quits talking about Jesus and starts talking about the Lord
Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said unto him, verse 16, Arise, stand upon thy feet, I have appeared
unto thee. See, there was a crowd of people
around him at the time. And here's sovereign election.
The Lord chose him. The Lord spoke to him. The crowd
saw a light. They didn't hear a voice. Some
said it thundered. Paul heard the voice. The voice
of the Lord. Powerful. Powerful. It broke this old proud religious
Pharisee. He said, Rath, I have appeared
unto thee for this purpose. Oh, known unto God are all His
works from the beginning. God has saved us and called us
with a holy calling according to His purpose and grace that
was given us in Christ before the world. God does all things
on purpose. Like old Brother Barnard used
to say, he learned something God who does all things on purpose. You'll know something about the
God of the Bible. You're starting to learn the
truth. Purpose. This is the purpose. Salvation
is not an accident. It's on purpose. Read on. "...to
make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things, that thou
hast seen of those things into which I will appear unto thee."
The Lord is telling Paul, He's saying, it's not what you're
going to let me do. See, when the Lord appeared to
him, He didn't ask him anything, did he? He didn't ask him anything.
He's not coming to say, I can do the if you let me. He's coming
to tell him what he's going to do with him. What he's already
done, I've chosen you. What he is doing and what he's
going to do. You're going to be a witness
to me. Yes, you are. And look at what he said. He
said, things you've seen. What did he see? He was blind
up to this point. He didn't see anything until
he saw Christ's light, the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ. He said, you're going to bear
witness and be a minister, a minister of the gospel and a witness of
what you've seen. What did he see? Christ! That's how you know a true preacher.
That's how you know every child of God. That's how you know a
Christian. Are you a Christian? Is that fellow a Christian? Well,
who is he talking about? His church, his denomination,
his profession? Then he's not a Christian. This
is a Christian. He'll bear witness of Christ.
He's a preacher. How do you know? Well, he preaches
the Bible. It doesn't say anything about Christ. Then he's not a
preacher. He's not a minister. Is he a
minister? Is he a witness? A witness is
someone who bears witness of what they've heard with their
ears, what they've seen with their eyes. And so Peter and all of them
said, we can't help but speak the things we've seen and heard.
We're witnesses. Of what? They said, we saw Him. Peter said, we beheld His majesty,
His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and what? Truth. This is the truth. What's the
truth? He is. What's the way? Show us the way.
He's the way. What's the meaning of life? Jesus
Christ. I've appeared to you to make
you a witness of these things, and things which I will appear
unto thee. You see that? Things that I will
appear unto you. I'm going to show you through
the Scriptures, me. You see that? That caught me
like never before. I'm going to show you in the
Bible that you've been reading all your life and didn't see
nothing. I'm going to show you me. You're
going to look at Noah's ark that you knew from a child. You heard the story about Noah
and his faith and all the animals on the ark. You're going to see
me. You're going to see your need
of me. You're going to see that I'm all and in all. I'm the ark. I'm Noah. I'm the one who set
the rain. I'm the door. I'm the window.
I'm the dove. Me. You're going to see me. That's how you know that He appeared
to you. And that's what you're going
to talk about. Me. Like Sheba. He went away talking about Solomon. Not greater than Solomon. is
here. And he said, I'm going to deliver
you from the people and from the Gentiles, verse 17. You see,
just as soon as Paul heard the truth and believed the truth,
that's Christ, not a doctrine, it's a person. It is a doctrine,
but it's a doctrine of the person. It's all it is and all it is,
a doctrine. Just as soon as he began to believe
the truth, he began to preach it. Like the blind man. Like the woman at the well. Come
see a man. Not come to church. She said that before, didn't
she? Oh, this is a place where we're Methodists and we're Baptists. No, come see Christ. Forget that
stuff. Come see him. But as soon as
he began to believe the truth and talk to others about the
truth, they start hating him. Just the minute, they didn't
mind him being lost and religious, but as soon as he believed the
truth and began to tell the truth, they hated him. They wanted to
kill him. And the same with everyone. How
do you know you're a believer? Well, has he appeared to you
like this? Have you? Do you try to tell people the
truth? What are you trying to tell them? What are you trying
to witness people of? Come see your church? It's not
much to look at, is it? Come see your preacher? He's
sure not anything to look at. Come see a man, Christ. He said, I'm going to make you
a minister and a witness of me, of me. You're going to see that
in me dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body. You're going
to see that in me are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
You're going to see that I am all and in all, and there ain't
no other message at all. You're going to be determined
to preach nothing but me and me crucified. That's how you
know. That's how you know. And look
at verse 18. He said, now here are the words
of truth and soberness. Everything that's been said is
the truth as it is in Christ. And here it is, Paul said, I'm
not crazy, I'm telling you the truth. Now here's the truth.
And this is serious. It says in verse 18, you're going
to open their eyes. I'm sending you to open their
eyes. Whose eyes? Well, everybody's. That means
everybody's blind, doesn't it? Is that what that means? They're
blind. And I'll tell you this, I once
was blind. Aren't you? You can't see unless
you're first blind. You cannot see unless you're
blind. Our Lord said that. I've come to send you, come to
you to send you to your preaching to open the eyes of the blind. Men are blind to God. Everybody
thinks God is this way or that way, but they're blind, aren't
they? They're blind to themselves.
what they are. Here's what the Lord said. The
Lord said, You knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked. He said, I counsel of you to
buy gold, arraignment, and gold. And He went on to say this, I
salve, to anoint your eyes that ye might see. What's I salve? Right here. Let's open your eyes. Men are blind to Christ. Blind to Christ. The way, the
truth, the only truth, the only life, the only truth. God is
true and all else are liars. He said, I'm sent you with the
gospel, verse 18, to turn men from darkness to light. Ignorance. Superstition. Ninety-nine point
nine percent of religion is religious superstition and ignorance based
upon what men think, not what God says. Ninety-nine point nine,
let's say. The world's major religion is
Roman Catholicism, and it's darkness. It's superstition of the worst
sort. Not that others are not just
as blind, but I'll give you an illustration. When we went to
Detroit, Michigan about 25 years ago to attend a wedding of Claire
and Annie Sharon. They were getting married. We were downtown and we did this
then. I wouldn't do it now, but we
went inside this Roman Catholic The biggest, supposed to be the
biggest in North America, St. something Cathedral. And we walked
inside that place. I had Hannah in my arm, two years
old, about the age of Sophie. And walked in that place, and
the first thing I noticed was how dark it was. It was dark. And it was spooky. And walked
in, and it was dark, and people just had a a bad feel to it. You know when you've got darkness,
you don't have any windows, that means you've got something to
hide, don't you? Doesn't it? Anyway, we walked in there
and the first thing we saw was over on the right was a cave.
It was a cave, a simulated cave. They built this room to look
like the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there were people
down in that tomb. on their knees, dark, again,
it was even darker, dark, burning candles, dark, ignorance, superstition. Hannah was, I felt her literally
shivering in my arm, that little girl. I said, let's get out of
here. Let's go out in the light. God is light. In Him is no darkness
at all. In this religion that's full
of darkness, where do they get this stuff? Let's worship this,
let's worship that. No, worship God. True worshipers
worship the Father and nobody else. Anybody else that's worshiped
is idolatry. And rejoice in Christ Jesus.
That is, He's all. Mary is nothing at all. Mary
is nothing at all. Saint Peter is nothing at all
but a voice, a messenger. Paul said, I'm nothing. Christ
is all. Worship Him and Him only. One of those sanctified prophets,
John, fell down before him on the Isle of Patmos. John fell
down before an angel, and the angel said, don't do this. Worship Him. darkness to turn
men from darkness. Well, bless God, Clare and Annie
were raised in Catholicism. They were in that place, down
on their knees, burning candles in the dark. Where are they now,
Sarah? Oh, my. There's one thing that
will do this. power of God unto salvation from
darkness. Are you in darkness? From the power, look at this,
of Satan unto God. See, this is serious. People under the captivity of
the God of this world, the rulers of the darkness, Scripture The
prince of the power of the air. Paul said, I am come. He's told
young Timothy to go preach that if God, peradventure, let me
read that to you in a second. Timothy, he said that they may
recover themselves of the snare of the devil who
are taken captive by him and his will. I remember being a
young rebel and Thinking I was free? Thinking I was a free man? Doing my own thing? I was doing
everything that everybody else was doing. I was going the broad
road that everybody was traveling, all my friends. Look at me, I'm
an individual. No, you're not. You're just like
a million others, just like you're going the way of destruction.
If God doesn't stop you, you're gone. Gone. that God may, peradventure, God
will recover them out of the snare of the devil who are taken
captive by him. I tell you, it takes one who
is in captive to be able to tell others they are in captivity,
doesn't it? The Lord didn't send angels to
preach this gospel because they were never in captivity like
that. They were never sinners. They can't tell you. They didn't
go through that. But He will send a man like Paul who said,
I was blind, but now I see. I was in darkness in religion,
but now He's freed me from that. I was a Pharisee. And now, what
am I? A sinner, saved by grace. I'm sending you to tell other
sinners there's hope, and only one hope. And to look at this,
oh my, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. Oh my. We're sinners. That's all we
are. That's all we'll ever will be. And this gospel's about the forgiveness
of sin. And it's in one place. And a
person's in darkness if they try to get this forgiveness anywhere
else. They try to get anybody else to pray for us poor sinners.
God won't hear them. But I'm telling you, this is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into this world to save sinners. There is forgiveness
with Him. There is. Of all manner of sin. Complete forgiveness. Past, present,
and future forgiveness. Total, complete forgiveness payment
for sin. Wiped out. Never to be remembered
ever again. One way. Why would you be a fool
and go some other way? Christ said, come unto Me and
I will relieve you of all your burden. Come unto Me and I will
wipe your slate clean. To whom coming? I keep coming.
It may be wiped out today, but boy, the rest of this morning,
all day long, I've filled it up again. The bed has been raised
again. That's why I keep coming. Keep
coming. Forgiveness of sin. That's the
sweetest word a sinner ever heard. Forgiveness of sin. Inheritance
among... This is the truth. These are
words of truth and seriousness. Read on. It says, an inheritance
among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me. Verse
18. An inheritance. And what is that,
preacher? I don't know. I don't know. I haven't seen it. I'll tell
you a little bit. It's a little bit. This is a
foretaste right here of glory divine. If you like what you're
hearing now, you ain't heard nothing yet. If you like seeing
Christ Lift it up, oh my, and you'll love it there. It's something
to do with life, joy, peace, righteousness, heaven, a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. For those that are set apart
by faith, one way, it's in Jesus Christ. And then he went on to
say in verse 20 that you should tell the Gentiles and the Jews,
all of them, repent. Turn to God. Do works meet for
repentance? My, my. Do you ever even hear
that word anymore? Repent. If you're a child of
God, you'll hear it over and over again. If he's a preacher
from God, he'll be saying it all the time. Repent. He himself
will be repented. Turn to God. Turn us, O Lord,
and we'll be turned. Brother John prayed it, didn't
he? Prone to wander. That's the nature of sheep. And
they know it. And they know it. Seek me, Lord,
like David said. I've gone astray. Prone to wander. Turn. Turn. Now, Paul went on
down there to say these Festus, this is not crazy talk. You know,
people in our modern educated world think that what we're saying
and doing here is crazy. And I'll admit that most religion
today is a pack of foolishness. The men and women that are doing
it are clowns. And all that they do, they've
even got clowns for Christ. They even make their buildings
look like a circus. Don't they? Excuse me. But it's
truth, isn't it? It's the truth. It's a mess. Paul knew that from experience.
He said, I was in it. Oh, my. This is no light matter. We don't use lightness. This
is serious. This is no laughing matter. This
is not foolishness. This is the truth. From God's
Word. Words of truth. And it's all
according to the Scripture. He said, I don't say anything,
verse 22, other than what the prophets and Moses said should
come." What, Paul? That Christ. Christ died according to the
Scripture. And be the light. Rise from the dead, show light.
He's the light of the world. Anybody outside of him is in
darkness. Well, Festus hollered, you're crazy. Paul said, no,
I'm not. You are. Everybody else is. that believes anything else.
He's looking anywhere else. He's crazy. Because there's one
way. One Lord. One truth. One faith. Isn't it? One. One. Neither is
there salvation in any other. There's none other name. There's
one name. Jesus Christ. And then the king, I like this,
and I close with this. The king, he said, the king,
king, you know these things. Verse 26. I'm persuaded these
things are hidden from you. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
Have not they all heard? Has not everyone heard this?
There's a Bible in nearly every home. Yes, they have. This is
why it must be revealed. This is why the Lord himself
must reveal it to you. Must reveal it. He heard this
thing wasn't done in a corner. Look at this. Every eye. Verse
27. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? Do you believe?
Do you believe what God said? I know that thou believest. I
know you believe in your head. I know you say you do. You see
it. You hear it. I know you do. Out
there it is. Now listen to what Agrippa said. He heard this message. Agrippa
heard. Oh, my. And so did we. Truth. The truth. Did I preach
the truth? I just preached what Paul did.
The truth. So this is truth. It's serious. King and Grimper said, Paul,
you know, almost. Almost, thou persuadest me to
be a Christian. You've almost convinced me. I
see the truth in what you're saying, and I'm almost I've convinced
myself that almost doesn't mean anything. Almost doesn't mean anything.
Almost. But I'm not persuaded. What Paul
said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I have committed. Here's the point. Close is not
good enough. Knowing the truth in your head
is not good enough. I did as a child. And it's able
to make you wise unto salvation, but that's not salvation. Being close is not good enough.
Being under the sound of the gospel is not good enough. Knowing about Christ is not good
enough. People say, He's a big part of
my life. That's not good enough. Paul
said, Christ is my life. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. Close, we have that
old saying, it only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
But not in this. Part of my life? Can you be partially
alive? It's either in or out. It's either
all or nothing. Christ our life. Life means this. When the Word of God, when the
Gospel is a savor of life to life. Life means hunger and thirst,
okay? You're not alive if you don't
hunger and thirst. Oh, how blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness. If somebody doesn't hunger and
thirst after Christ and the gospel, they're not alive. Life, a savor of life. Life means
breathing, speaking, hearing, laughing, weeping. It's life. I seriously doubt someone's profession
of faith who does not need to hear the gospel, that the gospel
is not words of life to them, that they would go away for anything
or anyone. Christ is not their life. Someone
who might show up and might not, I seriously doubt. Say you're
married. I'm married, but I might come
home and I might not. No. What's the difference? Love. Love of the truth. Paul said, you receive the love
of the truth. You've got to have it. It? Him. Him. I seriously doubt someone's profession
who is not all in. Not all in. Committed. Paul said,
I've committed. Paul is standing there. before
this pompous man and all his refinery, and all his freedom,
and all his glory, and all his intellect, and all the world's
goods, and all these people around him that think he's something,
somebody, and they're all in agreement there. Here stands
this one man in chains and a ragged garment, a poor little bald-headed
man, I believe he was, standing there. And he says to him, he
says, Agrippa, I would to God that not only you, but everybody
around here were just like me. Except for these chains. Agrippa's
the one that's in bondage. Paul's for him. Agrippa's the
one in darkness. Paul's in light. Agrippa's has
everybody agreeing with him but God. Agrippa has all that the world
has to offer and is about to lose it all. Agrippa is dead. Paul is lying. Agrippa is going to perish in
his sin. Paul is going to go to glory
and be dressed in righteousness. My, my. This is serious. Now,
this is the truth. My, my. Words of truth. You have to doubt someone who
hears the gospel over and over again and doesn't laugh or cry
of sorrow, joy or sorrow, pain, guilt, life, savor of life to
life. It's someone who does not see
their need of Christ and want to get in that pool so fast and
confess Him because Christ said do it. You've got to doubt someone. Here am I, send me. I can do
no other, Martin Luther said. Agrippa, it's not almost, it's
all together. It's all together. May the Lord
use that. That's the truth. And it's serious. Okay, Brother John, you come,
if you would please.