1 Timothy chapter 3. The Apostle
Paul, as said, is writing to a young preacher named Timothy,
and in these verses he speaks of how we ought to behave ourselves
in the church of pastor and people. should behave themselves. He
talks about the character and qualifications for a preacher
or pastor and even the deacons and their wives. And then he
talks about the purpose of the church, what the church is all
about, what it's for. And then he gives one of the,
I think, one of the most glorious declarations of the gospel in
all of God's Word in one verse. A glorious declaration of Christ. And as said, this is not Paul's
letter, merely Paul's letter to Timothy, but it's God's Word
to us, me, to you. And all right, let's look at
it. Chapter 3. In verse 14, he says, these things
I write unto you. We looked at, that's the reason
we, the reason we read all of those verses is so that we might
see the things he wrote unto Timothy and why he says that
you might know how you ought to behave yourself. He tells
us, these things I write unto you. He says, I hope to see you
soon. But if I do not, if I do not,
you need to know, verse fifteen, if I tarry long, that thou mayest
know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church, how to behave thyself. Now, everyone here knows
what it means to behave. We tell our children that, don't
we? Meaning, don't act like an animal. Settle down. Behave. Straighten up. My dad
used to say, straighten up and fly right. Do what's right. Behave yourself. Religion—and
this is so appropriate, isn't it? Because religion has gone
crazy. People are plumb nuts. And it's not religion that you
see today is not according to God's Word. Creatures are the
false. They're the ones who it started
with because they're the ones that lead, aren't they? They
stand up and how they conduct themselves and what they do is
what the people did. And preachers and people act
like fools because that's what they are. And he tells us, though, how
to behave ourselves. Now, this is not a party. This is not a house of entertainment
when we come here. This is not a place to come to
have fun, per se. to be entertained. Our Lord,
the first thing he did when he went into Jerusalem was to clean
that building out of all of the foolishness and the money raising, fund raising, tactics, and all
the foolishness that was going on in the name of God. He said,
My house shall be called what? A house of prayer. It's not a fun house. It's not
a place of entertainment. It's a house of worship. Is this
necessary? Now more than ever it's necessary.
If folks are really looking for the truth of what God's word
says and how to know God, what this book says, how to worship,
approach God, worship God, who are the true people of God. There's
ways you may know, and this is one of them. The way God's people are to conduct
themselves in the house of God, what we are doing here. This
is a house of worship. Over in Ecclesiastes 5, he says,
God is in the heavens and thou upon the earth. Therefore, let
thy words be few. He says, be not hasty to utter
anything before God. Scripture also says that God
is to be feared in the assembly of the saints. Everything we
do is to be done with fear and reverence, considering who it
is that we're approaching. We're to do it with joy, yes.
Joy and rejoicing, let us come before his presence with singing,
yes, but even that is to be done with reverence. This is not a rock concert. This
is a worship service. Nor is it a country music concert. It's a worship service. Not entertainment. It's a worship service. God is
holy. God is to be feared. And we are
to do what we do with reverence. We can still do that with joy,
can't we? Huh? Fear and reverence. We're approaching
a holy God. We're in the presence of the
king. We don't act like fools. We don't act like fools. So let
the religious world act like the fools that they are, but
let us, he says, behave ourselves in the house of God. That's one way you may know a
true preacher of God. He's not a clown. He's not an
entertainer. He's not a back scratcher, an
ear tickler, a man pleaser. He's not a fool. He's not an
ignorant fool. He's a wise man with a great
message, worthy to be heard. So he says, and we do things
here, and this is to confirm in your own mind and heart, What
we're doing, why we're doing, whether or not it's the right
thing to do. What we do is we worship God
in the exact way God's word tells us to do. We read God's word. We pray. We sing hymns and we
preach the word. That's it. That's it. That's it. No statues, no crosses,
no pictures, no robes, no choirs, no all of this paraphernalia
that man has come up with. We do it the way God tells us,
that we may know how we ought to behave ourselves in the house
of God. All right, he calls the church,
verse 15, the house of God, temple of God, where God dwells. Now,
God doesn't dwell in buildings made with hands, does he? That's
what he said. This building is not holy. This building is not sanctified
per se. This building is wood, hay, and
stubble. It's a place to keep the rain
off our heads. That's all. Nothing holy about this building
anymore. There isn't anything holy about the dirt in Israel.
It's a building. The church of God is his people. That's what he said, no, you're
not that you are the temple of God. The people of God church,
and he calls it the house of God, the church of the living
God. I'm not careful, I'll get stuck
right here. Meaning not stuck, not knowing
what to say, but I mean, stuck. Stay right here and talk about
the living God. God who is God. But he says here
in verse fifteen, he says, The house of God, the church of the
living God, the God in whose hands our breath is, in whom
we live and move. The living God, the church, he
said, is the pillar and the ground of the truth. This is what the
church is all about. And I just told you how, Brother
Wesley, how we're to behave ourselves, conduct ourselves. And then he
says, here's the purpose of the church, it's the pillar and the
ground of the truth. Don't you love that line? It's
the pillar. What is a pillar? Well, back
when they used to have tents, the thing that held up the tent
was a pillar, a post, a support. And so the church, this is the
purpose of the church to uphold, to set forth the truth. the truth. What is the truth? The truth of who God is. The
truth, the living and true God. The truth of who Christ is. We're
going to see that Christ is the truth. The heart, the soul, the
essence of it. The fullness of it. The truth.
He is the truth. The truth of what man is. No
matter what anybody's saying. No matter what anybody else is
doing, the church is holding up this truth. No matter how
far people have turned away their ears from the truth, the church
is holding it up, setting it forth, declaring the truth of
how we're saved. The purpose of the preacher and
the church is to declare and uphold the truth. What is the
truth? As I said, as he said, Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, not a truth, the truth, the truth,
not part of the truth, I am the truth. So the church is to always
at all times Principally, declare Christ, lift up, exalt, set forth. I mean lift up and exalt and
set forth or declare Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is why
the church exists. It's the pillar that holds up
the truth of who Christ is. Like, remember Moses? In the
wilderness, the people were dying, bitten by the serpent. And he
made a serpent, a brass, serpent of brass, like unto the serpent
that bit them, made like unto, and held it up on a pole, a pillar,
a pole, so that all could see one thing. What's that? The remedy.
For what it is, it's killing them. And that's what our Lord
said. Very few people know John 3,
14. Do they? Very few people. I bet there's
not one in 100,000 that know John 3, 14. Brother Groff Barnard
used to say the gospel's not in verse 16, it's verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
For whosoever believeth in him might not perish. For God's Son loved this wife,
lifting up Christ crucified. Christ said, If I be lifted up, I'll draw men to myself, all
men, all sorts of men, all my men, all Christ's men. I'll draw
them. This is how, this is the message,
isn't it? Christ crucified. You're going to preach that again?
John, they came to John the Baptist one day, said, who are you? He
said, it's not important. Well, tell us your credentials.
Don't have any. Where'd you go to school? Didn't. Well, what's
your name? That's not important. I must
decrease, but he must increase. Here's what you need to hear,
not who I am. Here's who you need to look to, not me. Behold,
the Lamb of God. Here he comes. There comes one
mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to untie. He it
is. That's what John preached the
first day. They came back the second day and said, what's your
message today? Same message. We're not trying to get people
married off. We're not trying to get singles
together. We're not trying to get this and that and the other.
We're not trying to let our kids have fun. We want them to know
God. Let them go to YMCA and have
fun. They have all kinds of fun. We're here to preach Christ. To hold
up Christ. That they might look to Him and
be saved. That's the one thing we need,
isn't it? The time is short. We don't have time for this foolishness. This other foolishness. We've
got one message. And it's an urgent one. And we
need to hear it, the world needs to hear it, our children need
to hear it. So that's what we're talking about. It's the pillar. That's what the church is all
about, the pillar and the ground. I love that, the ground of the
truth. That's an old, like a tent. Many
of us have been camping, many of you, most everyone here has
been camping at some point. And how you keep that thing from
moving, And being tossed about with every wind that comes along,
is you ground it, don't you? You take a stake and you tie
it to that pole and you drive it deep, don't you? The deeper
you drive it, the more settled that thing will be, and it won't
be moved when the wind comes along. Well, the church is the
ground of the truth, grounded and settled in the truth, who
God is, who Christ is. What salvation is? Truth, grounded. I love what old Martin Luther
said you know the Lord taught him the truth he didn't know
the truth he was religious for years a Catholic monk devoted
the most devout Catholic monk of his day perhaps devoted and
the Lord opened his dark heart and his dark mind and revealed
the truth, Christ to him, that salvation is in Christ, not in
the church, not in the works, not in the catechism, not in
the ceremonies, not in all of these traditions and so forth
and the doings and the holy water and all of this stuff. None of
that. God revealed Christ to his heart,
the truth. And in that day, over in his
In Germany, where he was born and raised, that country, as
well as nearly every other around him, was steeped in Roman Catholicism,
as much as the world is today, with all its traditions and ceremonies
and all this stuff that doesn't come from God's Word. And he
almost stood alone over there. But the Lord used that one little
monk to turn the world upside down, just like the apostles
of Rome. Lord used him to to translate the Scriptures. People
didn't have a copy of the Bible. That's how religion keeps people
in the dark, and they used to call the dark ages back in those
days. Why? Because people didn't have
the word, weren't reading the Scriptures. They didn't have
a copy. Well, Martin Luther said, because people need to read the
word. Life. And the Lord used him to
translate it and wouldn't be involved in creating the printing
press early printing. Turn it out so that people could
have God's word. Used to be chained in a monastery
nobody could see it but a corrupt priest. Martin Luther was one
of them but God. Revealed the truth to him Christ
and he stood alone practically many of you know that story of
him somewhat. And. It's a great saying and
I love it. I love it. I admire the man.
I thank God for him. The whole world practically,
all the religious world was against him. They said, recant, recant. Turn from this. Like Peter and
the apostles of old says, we can't help but speak the things
we've seen and heard. Peter said, is it right to, should
we obey God or men? Well, Martin Luther stood that
day before all the thousands that were against him, he said,
concerning the truth. Who God is, who Christ is, how
man is saved, not by works of righteousness, but according
to his mercy, he said, Here I stand. I can do no other. Church is
the ground of the truth. One of our brethren, a fellow
Went to school with him 30 years ago, and after coming back in
contact with him some 30 years later, he said, You still believe
the same thing you did back then, don't you? Still preach the same
thing, don't you? The ground. You know, that's an old military
term, too. Stand your ground. Stand your ground. Don't give
an inch. No retreat, no giving in. Stand your ground. Not going
to compromise, not one jot or one tittle with this world. So, while the world acts like
fools, let us worship and behave as those who know and fear the
living and the true God. And while religion has completely
compromised God's Word, To get a following for money's
sake and follows and is taken, carried about with every new
wind of doctrine, let us, I believe the church, the true church,
declare the truth for God's glory, for God's sake, for Christ's
sake, because we're the pillar and the ground of the truth.
Now, here is the truth. OK? Now I'm going to preach Christ
to you. He says it's a pillar in the
ground of the truth and verse sixteen he says it's without
controversy. The truth is without controversy.
Now hold on. You know the truth causes great
controversy. Doesn't it? Our Lord said, I'm
not, our Lord said, suppose ye think not, he said, that I am
come to bring peace on earth but a sword. The Lord Jesus Christ
said that how many preachers have you ever heard even quote
that. He said I'm not going to bring
I've come to set a man at variance with. His father a woman with
her mother. Son daughter and so forth a man's
enemy should be those of his own household separation division. It does cause great controversy
Christ. opposition, debate and argument,
the prophets and the apostles. All the prophets were killed
for the truth's sake, all of them. Except Elijah, he went
on into glory, didn't he? They were all killed for the
truth's sake. All of the apostles were killed for the truth's sake,
except John. It does cause controversy, though.
Scripture says of Christ, it says there was a great division
because of him. They were divided controversy. Paul stood before the Jews and
he said, I know, he said, I know everywhere that this way, or
they said to him, they said this to Paul, they said, everywhere,
this way that you preach this way, this God, this Christ you
preach is spoken against. That's what they said to him.
And the truth does cause controversy. Because it's strange, strange
to people that aren't really reading God's Word. Paul came
into Mars Hill in Greece and they said, what is this strange
God you're declaring? This strange doctrine. So it
is controversial. But what Paul is saying here
is it doesn't matter what men say. It doesn't matter that there's
a great division, it doesn't matter that people are confused,
it doesn't matter that, you know, remember what Elijah said, that
they halt between two opinions, that these think this and these
think that. He says, without controversy.
Let's end the controversy. This is without controversy.
This is the truth. You want to know what the truth
is, who God is? What man is, who Christ is, what
salvation is, what this book is saying. Here it is. God was
manifest in the flesh. Without controversy. Let it be
settled forever. This is it. Yeah, but no, no,
no. This is without controversy.
God became a man. people all over. It's a great
controversy, the subject of much discussion, argument and debate,
the controversy surrounding who this man was, right? This Jesus. It continues today, the controversy. Back when our Lord was on earth,
he said, Whom do men say that I am? Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? Here I am a man. Look like you,
sound like you. No, no, no, he didn't sound like
him. No man speak like this man. But he looked like him, dressed
like him as a man, 30 years old, OK? Whom do men say that I, the
son of man, am? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth?
Who do they say? And so they spoke. Oh, well,
some say you're John the Baptist risen from the dead. Wow. Wouldn't that be amazing? and some said he's a lot of the
problem of the problem most of her. Time you are one great problem. Now if you said those things
about me. And the amazing what. We with this church we have to
build up a hundred thousand square foot building to hold the people
to come see me. John the Baptist risen from the
dead. Right people be amazed. But it was that was very demeaning
to. This man. That brought him down. He said to his disciples but
who do you say that I am? Who is this? Well Paul writes
here to young Timothy. Timothy you're a preacher. You're
standing up before people to preach, and here's what you preach.
Don't back down for a minute. Hold this up. Stand your ground. God, Jesus of Nazareth, is God. Now that's completely different. He's God. Isn't that still the
controversy you know Mormons I go door to door. Up the sea
and land establish a parcel like when they said we should look
to pull more the child of hell. And one thing that they despise
tooth and nail and they go about spouting it though they called
himself Church of Jesus Christ. They do not believe Tammy and
that Jesus Christ is Jehovah God they don't believe that.
And they'll fight you for. And that's where you need to
meet them at. And right there. Under us a child
is born and the son is given call his name Isaiah nine six
call his name wonderful counselor. You vote the rest of it. the
mighty God, the everlasting father. No, it's a mystery, but God was
manifest in the flesh. God became a man. You're just
a man. You make yourself God, they said.
You're just a man. You're just Jesus. You make yourself
God. No, you got it all wrong. I'm
God. I made myself a man. What's the importance of this?
just doctrine, so you believe the right doctor. Everything
he said is on who he is. If he's God, you can't just take
it or leave it. We see. Right, you can't. It's it. You
can't be indifferent if he's God. If he's not, he's just another
prophet preacher. You can take it or leave it.
Like Mohammed or Confucius or Buddha, but if he's God, I mean
the one that made of. And most folks talk of Jesus is only
a good man like they would talk of Buddha or Mohammed or Confucius
or any of these, and they like some things he said, not some
other things they don't like the hard saying. They believe
some some things he said, not take those, but they don't take
all thing you can't. He's not just a man. This is
God. It's a great controversy who
this Jesus was. All right. God came to earth.
God came to earth. Our Lord said this. Brother Henry,
you and I know this. We committed this verse to memory.
John 8, 24. If you believe not that I am, you will die in your sins. Well, that's serious. I am, I am God. I am what? The way. There is no other way. Islam's not just a different
way. It's not the way. Christ said, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. I am the way. Don't come by Mary. You don't come by this and that
and the other. By me. Me doing something for you. You in me. Me presenting you. Thoughtless. Me. I am the way. Only way. I am
the truth. Everything. Everything else is
a lie. Everyone else is a lie. Let God
be truth. Every man a lie. Christ said,
I am the truth. Who can say that but God? I am
the life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. No man. Now why did God become
a man? I'm not going to take it for
granted that everyone in here knows this. Once again, very few people throughout
the world know, believe that He It was God or if they do no
one can find a God to try to talk us into living right. To play with us. Show us what
you do like me then you can get. God came. Christ came, it's a
mystery, great is this mystery, God was manifest in the flesh,
revealed to us, to us, he's revealed himself to his people, not just
this little group, there are many all over, but he came to
glorify God himself as a man. Scripture says all of sin that
comes short of the glory of God. God's angry with the wicked every
day, God's not happy with them. this planet, God's going to destroy
it like he did with the flood. Why? To come short of the glory
of God. Romans 1, I started to preach
from Romans 1, 2, and 3. Well, I am. Romans 1 declares who God is
and why man is like he is, why America is like it is. Why is
America the vile Sodom Place like some of the. People it's going to you'll say
it is hell in a hand mask. Was in the Romans one he talks
about the wrath of God revealed from heaven. Talks about he may be known by
the things that are created clearly saying his eternal power and
God but it says that they did not. Acknowledge that they did
not were not thankful to God didn't give God thought God was
not in all their thoughts. It's a Roman law. It says that
they profess themselves to be wise, but they were fools. Only
a fool would say no God. Only a fool would say thank you
all of this brilliant, amazing, complex creation called Planet
Earth, especially mankind evolved from a primordial soup, what
an utter bunch of absurd nonsense. Professing themselves to be wise,
educated fools. Why? God made foolish, made them
foolish. Hath not God, 1 Corinthians 1
says, I'm going to preach the whole scripture. Hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world? When God reveals the truth
of David said, I'm fearfully and wonderfully a thumbprint
will reveal that God is a thumbprint. I've never been to the same ever.
A thumbprint. I want to tell you that maybe
somebody hasn't heard that illustration, it's a good one. This believer
that was talking to this scientific evolutionist felon and he he
said to him he said that's a nice watch you got on there. Yes it's handmade in Switzerland
a lot of money for. And my fellow believer said handmade.
Can I see it. Yeah I looked at it. That's. That's handmade. Evolution said yes and my. Believer said. I don't believe
that. I believe that I believe four
billion years ago. Floating out in space. Were. jewels and crystals and watch
bands and and springs and and hands second hands and men hands
and faces and leather bands and all of this were floating out
in space and a huge explosion. And that's how you have your
watch. Man said, well, you're a fool.
It's obvious from the complexity of it and the creativity of it
and the architecture of it and the beauty of it and the wisdom
of it and the workings of it that a skilled craftsman created
this thing. He said, no, man, thou art the
fool. The fool had said there's no
God. But look at this glorious thing,
especially this, God's creation in his image and say, No, it
all just happened. That's a universal conspiracy
by man to try to prove that God is not. Therefore, we don't have
to answer to him. He doesn't own us. He's not our
judge. We're masters of our own fate. No, we're not. The God in whose
hands our breath is, and all our ways thou hast not glorified."
That's the handwriting on the wall. They use that term all
the time, don't they, Stan? He sees the handwriting on the
wall. No, he doesn't. The handwriting on the wall is
this. You haven't glorified God. And that's the handwriting to
all human beings. You have not glorified God as
God. And Romans 1 goes on to say,
so they made up all sorts of things. about God. In the images
like beast and especially man, make God like a man. And he said,
so God gave them over to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment,
void of good sense to do all manner of evil. And they become
like animals, men with men, women with men, men with animals, and
so on and so forth. Full of extortion and excess
and wickedness. That's because God gave them
over. Why is America like it is? Because
Romans 1 tells us exactly why. But God. And such were some of you. But
God. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not concerned. But God, who's rich in mercy. Chose some of these and some
of these unlovely, despicable creatures that hated him. To
reveal himself. And he came down. So here I am. And we beheld his glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, the
way to God, the truth of who God is, the life. Christ came
to glorify God as a man. God said, this do and live. We
can't. We haven't. We couldn't. We didn't. He did. This do and live, we
couldn't, but as our substitute, Ed, as our substitute, Christ
came down. And for his people, given to
him by the Father in a covenant, for his people, Christ said,
I am come to do thy will. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. Lo, I am come to do thy will, for thy glory
and for my people. They haven't done it. They can't
do it. I can, and I'm doing it for them. And they're subject
to it. But they're sinners. God said
the soul that sins must surely die. So God made His soul an
offering for sin. God made Him to be sin for us. He knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, accepted
by God in Thee. Substitution satisfaction. My pastor preached that, didn't
he, Brother Gabe? Three times up in Fairmont. Three times. Same old message.
He'd been preaching that fifty years. Substitution. Substitute. He came to redeem
from the curse of the law. He came to pay the penalty of
sin, which was death. I know everyone doesn't understand
all this, but I'm bound and determined to declare it. I got to. Necessities
laid upon me. Go home and look these things
up. Learn what these things mean. God was manifest in the flesh.
That was God that came. And look at the next thing. It
says he was justified in the Spirit. I've got one message,
so I'm going to give it all I've got. Justified in the Spirit. justified in the spirit. Romans
1 says this gospel concerning God's son declared to be the
son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection of the dead. He was declared to be who he
is by the Holy Spirit. There's three people in the Godhead.
Father, son, that is the offspring, the bodily Offspring of God, God doesn't
have a body, but he took one. And in the Holy Spirit, say,
I don't understand. I don't either. But this is what
Scripture says. And these three are one. One
God. Behold, our God is one God. We don't worship three different
gods. We worship one. That's all I can do with that.
But he was declared to be justified in the spirit by the Holy Spirit
when he was. How do you know this is God?
OK, well, when he was born. When he became a man, when he
assumed flesh likeness of sinful flesh without sin. It says an
angel declared who he was to his so-called mother. Mary was
not married. Mary did not give him life. Any
more than any woman gives anybody life. Women don't give life. They nurture it. The seed of
man gives life. Right? Isn't that a good picture? We're saved by an incorruptible
God. The Father gives life. Mary was
a borrowed womb. A vessel. Just a borrowed womb. She did
not contribute. To his being his existence. Could have been a woman named
Martha could have been a woman named. Whoever. The Lord chose her. And there's
nothing sanctified or special about her any more than any other.
Child of God. Nothing. She didn't stay a virgin. She had at least seven children
after that. That's what this book says. All
right. She's not the co-redeemer. There's
but one redeemer. You just read it. One mediator.
She's not the mediator. We don't pray to her. Nuh-uh.
There's one mediator between God and man. The man. Not a woman. The man, Christ Jesus. That's
what this book says. He that is of God, heareth God's
word. Well, when he was born, it says that there was a multitude
of heavenly hosts, angels, That's my next point, seeing of angels.
I'm ahead myself. He was declared to be the son
of God at his baptism. You remember when John was baptizing
him in the River Jordan? And I'll get back to that in
a minute, at birth, OK? John was, we're talking about
the same person. But John was baptizing him and
God told John that whom you see the Holy Spirit descended upon,
that's him. Declared to be who he is by the
Holy Spirit, declared by the Spirit of holiness and the resurrection
of the dead, a holy man, the only holy man to ever live. The
only holy man to ever live. The only holy man to ever live.
I mean, thought, word, and deed. That declares who he is. Spirit
of holiness justified in the Spirit, declared to be who he
is. And the next thing, scene of
angels. And as I said, at his birth, a multitude of heavenly
hosts said, Glory to God in the highest. This is him. This is
him. Scene of angel. This is he. At
his birth, at his baptism also, angel. In the garden, the angels
uh ministered under him and when he ascended back to glory as
an. It talks about the angels in
the church being preachers that prophets apostle pastors and
teachers they all say one thing this is him. This is God. Seeing a bank don't look at this
next line preached on the Gentile. And believe don't. I'm going
to We preached unto the Gentile and believed on in the world.
Now. Right now, 2000 years later,
we're I'm standing up and talking about a Jewish man that lived
over way over in the Middle East, a place that you most have not
been and never will be and don't know what it's like. And this
man lived 2000 years ago. grew up a little tiny obscure
village called my birth bed born in a little place called Bethlehem.
In a stable. And two thousand years ago here
I am standing up declaring him and you have your whole life
is being lived around him. Concerning him. I thought about this. This morning
thinking about the I thought. Who? Has there ever been a person? In the Western Hemisphere. A man who lives a great man. Who people over in China or Japan
or or or Israel are right now 2000 years worshiping? Following
belief, huh? Has there ever been a person
that grew up? Hated and killed. The one that
came among them. But here we are way at the far
ends of the Earth. We say it's God. That man that
lived 2,000 years ago, we say without reservation, and are
willing to die saying it, and devote our lives to, and our
children, and everything we are, and give our substance to that
one that lived over 2,000 years. This is God. This is my life.
All my life depends on him. It's a mystery. That's why I
say it's a great mystery. Well who could it be? Melody. But God. Now this is one instance
when all those people can't be fooled. All the billions and trillions
that have believed him by the grace of God. And it's all because
God said so. He said, I'll call my people
from the four corners of the earth. This was a mystery that
had no airways, no way to get the message out way back then,
but this message flew like milkweed in the breeze and was planted,
and it's the great kingdom. We believe. We've preached unto
the Gentiles. Here we are, a bunch of Gentiles,
and we believe on it. And look at the last line. How
do we know who he is? He was received up into glory. Now, that man who came to this planet
and did all that he did and said all that he said, you can't just
take it or leave it. He said he was God. This book
says he's God. Why did he come? You need to
find out. You need to find out. Your life, your eternal life,
depends upon it. If he's God, you better call
on him, nobody else, because there's one mediator. And here's
one way that is indisputable, without controversy. I preached
this message in Mexico, the word I learned, indisputablemente. Indisputable. Without controversy. That's what. That word for them
is. He rose from the grave. This
is how you know this is what the apostles went about preaching
everywhere they went proof of who this was proof more than
anything else. And you know, people all over
the world, they celebrate this thing called Easter, whether
they know what it is, whether it's just a pagan thing, whether
they do it out of superstition or tradition or whatever. But
all the world over, at least people are thinking about. The
story that this man who died on a Roman cross. And laid in
the grave, obviously dead for three days. Walked out of it. Alive. And you've seen over five
hundred people at one time and this could have lamented. And
it says they saw him rise and taken up on the clouds into heaven. And the angels once again saying
of angels the angels said this same Jesus coming. This proved beyond a shadow of
a doubt without controversy. A man Got out of the grave just
walked out of the grave. And said now. I'm not just a
man. I'm God. Come unto me. I'm going back to the Father. Oh, it's a mystery isn't it?
And this poor earthen vessel. These stammering limbs. I've tried. But the half is not. No man is able to tell you. It's
a mystery. It's a great mystery, but thanks
be to God that he's revealed under something. Part of this
mystery, which is Christ. The hope of God. OK, stand with. Our father. Our word, once again, we thank
you for your word. We have no life. We have no life. We have no message. We have no
understanding. We don't know who you are. We
don't know what we are. We don't know how to get to thee. We don't know what eternal life
is, life after this life, except through your word. Thank you
for it. Thank you for the word, the inference. The psalmist said, the entrance
of thy word bringeth light, the light, the knowledge of the glory
of God in Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for the little
light that we have. We long for more light, more
understanding, but we thank you and we praise you. And this is
our testimony that God has given us an understanding that we might
know The Son of God has come and given us an understanding.
We might know Him that is true, even in Him, the Son of God.
Thank you, Lord. We've met together with praise
and the glory of thy name, thy Son, and to seek thy face. It's in Christ's name we've met
here. Amen. You're dismissed.