I intend to make it plain. The Holy Spirit is the one who
must make it plain, must give you ears to hear, the heart to
receive it. John, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter
11. Matthew chapter 11, kind of indwelling here in Matthew
11. both here and the radio program,
and now tonight. But this struck me as I was reading
it. Let's read verses 1 through 3. Matthew 11, verses 1 through
3. And it came to pass when Jesus
had made an end of commanding His disciples, His twelve disciples. He departed thence to teach and
to preach in their cities. Now, when John had heard in the
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and
said unto him, or told them to ask Christ, Art thou he that
should come, or do we look for another? Now, the scripture says of John
the Baptist that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his,
even from his mother's womb. That's amazing. Ever thought
about that? That's what it says about John
the Baptist. He was filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his
mother's womb, and that was evidenced by, do you remember the story
of Elizabeth when she was pregnant
with John? And Mary, her cousin, Mary the
mother of child Jesus, came to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who
was pregnant with John at the time. And when Mary walked in,
it says that the babe leaped in her womb. upon Mary coming
in, John was the forerunner of Christ. Even as an unborn child,
he reminded Elizabeth of who Christ was. He pointed to Christ,
didn't he? John, from his mother's womb.
That's amazing. I don't understand that, but
it's so. It's amazing. But John was just a man. He was
not a sinless man. He was not a super man, not a
sinless man. It doesn't say that. It doesn't
say John was without sin. He was just a man, just the son
of Adam like us, the son of Jacob. Nevertheless, he was a man that
was led by, taught by the Spirit of God. And there's a great,
well, there's a very real sense in which everyone who's led by
the Spirit of God leaps at the sound of. and the voice of and
the thought of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's no doubt
John was one of... I said all that because of this.
There's no doubt that John was one of the Lord's choice disciples
and one of His choice preachers. John believed Christ. Did he
not? It's obvious. Every time people
would come to hear him, he'd say, I'm not the Christ. I'm
not the one. Look to the Lamb. Didn't he?
Do you remember studying that? Three days they would come to
him He was baptizing at Jordan, and he would say, Behold the
Lamb of God. Next day, same message. Behold the Lamb of God. Came
to him the third day. What did he preach? Behold the
Lamb of God. Same message. That's how you
know a true preacher, whether it be John or whoever it may
be. He always points people to Christ, away from himself, and
points them to Christ. That's why Paul said, Woe is
unto me if I preach not the gospel. Men and women need to look to
Christ. That's the purpose of the preacher.
But John's in prison now. As I said, he's just a man. And
he's in prison now for preaching the truth. He's in prison for
preaching Christ. He's in prison for telling men
what they were. He wasn't afraid of anybody.
proof of a true preacher. He stood before a king and said,
you're a no-good sinner. Now, that's preaching to get
your head cut off. Well, they had him put in prison
for that. He was in prison for preaching the truth, preaching
who Christ was and what man. Now, how long John was in prison,
we don't know. We don't know. But it says in
verse 2 that while he was there, Now he could have been there
a good while. He could have been there a good
while. Eight months. And it says while he was there
he sent two of his disciples. He had men, he had disciples
that would come and minister to him, bring him food and clothing
and so forth. And it says while he was there
he sent two of his disciples to Christ to ask him this question. In verse 3, He told them to ask
Him, Art thou He that should come? Or do we look for another? Are thou He that should come? Are you the Christ? That's what
John told them to ask. Ask Him. Are you the one of whom
the whole Scripture testifies? Are you the one of whom Isaiah
prophesied our God will save us? We waited on Him. He'll save us. Are you the one
of whom Isaiah said that the substitute who should come and
have the iniquity of His people laid upon Him and by whose stripes
we're healed and who will make intercession for the transgressors?
Are you the one that should come? Are you the Son of Righteousness
who's arisen with healing in your wings? Are you the Lamb
of God? Slain before the foundation.
Are you the one? Are you the Christ? Are you the
Son of God? Are you the Holy One of Israel? Are you the Savior? Are you the Mediator? Are you the Intercessor? Are
you the King of Israel? Are you the One we're looking
for? We've been waiting on Him. Art thou
He? Now, I think John did this. I
personally think John did this for those two disciples. As we said, John was filled with
the Holy Spirit. John preached cry. He knew it
was cry. When Christ came to where he was baptizing in the
Jordan, he said, I saw him upon whom the Holy Spirit descended
as a dove, and it said to me, this is my son. This is my son. I bear witness, John said. But
he sends these two disciples And I believe he told them to
ask Christ that for their sake. For their sake. I believe his
disciples, well, it's obvious he was facing imminent death.
It's obvious that he was going to die very soon. and his disciples,
who had been with him for years now, were worried. They were
fearful. They were full of doubts about
the future, weren't they? They didn't have the same confidence
and assurance that John did. So John sends these two disciples
to Christ. These disciples were probably
thinking, if he is the Christ, why is John in prison like this? If he's the Christ, why is his
greatest preacher in prison right now? Don't you know they were
thinking thoughts like that? Maybe John had a few, being a
man, he probably did, had a few fleeting thoughts. Why am I in
prison? Why is the Lord allowing this?
He didn't know. Why am I going to die at about
35 years old? You know he probably had a few
thoughts like that, being a man. Whatever. It's sure for us. Whoever it's
for, it's for us. It's for these disciples here.
It's for us here. We're full of doubts and fears,
are we not? We look around, you look at the
world events going on right now. Does it bother you at all? Does
it disturb you? I tell you all the time, don't
worry about it. But you do anyway, don't you? I do. I have a daughter,
you know, I'm concerned for her future and your children and
all of us, right? We can't help it, we're human
beings. We're finite. and our understanding and our
faith is weak at best. When we look around at world
events, we hear and see wars and rumors of wars and wonder
is it going to come come to us. We see all of the catastrophes
and evil events. We see the wickedness of this
world prevailing, it seems like, don't we? We see a world that
is in turmoil and chaos. We see madmen with apparent power
and so forth. Does it concern you? Be honest. Sure it does. In our lives, we
experience in our lives trouble. We wonder, why is this going
on? Why is this happening? Why does the Lord allow this?
And we do think in terms like, if the Lord is on the throne,
we know He is. We say we know He is. But we
think that. Why is he doing that? Why is
he not doing something? David, you read the Psalms. And
throughout the Psalms, David would say, Lord, it's time for
you to work. Have you read that? You remember reading that. Lord,
it's time for you to work, David said. They've made void your
law. That is, nobody's paying any attention to your word, your
law. Do something. That's what David would say.
That's what he was saying. Do something, Lord. Would you
please show me that you're God? In our lives, we experience terrible
troubles, traumatic events, traumatic events, terrible trials, troubles,
sadness, sickness, death, temptations, struggle with sin, nothing but
trouble, it seems like. We find ourselves, not unlike
John, imprisoned, seemingly captives to doubt, despair, don't we? It seems like we're captives
at times. I know you are. I see it in your face right now. Captives to doubt, despair, fear,
unbelief, all of that. Captives. And you come here tonight, and we're going to ask the Lord
this question. Art thou He? Is Christ reigning and ruling?
Is he real? Does Christ live? Do I belong to him? Is he sovereignly
in control of my life? In him I live and move and have
my being. Am I his? Is everything going
to turn out all right? Are you interested in knowing
the answer to that question? Huh? We need to know if If that
one that came 2,000 years ago, named Jesus, is right now sitting
on a circle of the earth, reigning and ruling among the armies of
heaven, the inhabitants of the earth, and none stays his hand,
he worketh all things after the counsel of his will. Right now,
we need to know that. Is he the one that should come,
or do we look for another? Do you want to know? You got problems like John? Alright. What did the Lord answer? How
did the Lord answer John and his disciples? How did he prove
himself? How did he prove himself? Huh?
Alright, let's see. And we're going to see, we receive
the same word that John and his disciples did. We're going to receive the same
word. We're going to hear and see the same things that they
heard and saw to make them know he's the one. All right? Let's look at verse 4. Christ
answered and said unto them, You go and show John again those
things which you do hear and see. Go show John Davis. Again. He's seen them, he's heard
them before. He's seen them before. Show him
again. Go show John Sheasley. You guys
have a good name tonight, fellas. This is written to you too. If
anybody ought to be listening tonight, it's you. Go show John
Sheasley again. He's heard this before. I preached
this very message before. Show him again. He's heard this,
he's seen these things, he knows these things. Tell him again.
Tell them again. We sang it just a moment ago.
You know why? That's why we chose that song. Sing it or, and or, again. Go show John again. Go show Sherry
again. She's heard this before. You've
got these same notes down, Sherry. I don't know why you're taking
them again. Just go back and look at the old notes. No, go
show Sherry again. Write it down again, Sherry.
Line upon line, line upon line. Go show Dan again. This is to
all of us. Henry, how long have you been
here now? Tell him again. Same things he's
heard and seen. Show him again. See, faith cometh
by hearing. First thing he said was, show
John again those things which you hear. They're going to hear
what Christ said. They're going to hear what he
said. Faith cometh by hearing, not
seeing. Hearing, because hearing, faith is seeing. We walk by faith,
not by sight. An evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign, but our Lord said no signs are given anymore.
The Lord is through with signs. He gave signs and wonders and
miracles before this Word was written, completed. Now no more
signs, He said. Well, how do you get faith? And
then faith becomes sight. Faith becomes sight. You walk
by faith. In what? What you see? No. What
you hear. What you read. Right here. Things
that are seen are temporal. But things that are unseen are
eternal. Spiritual things. If you believed
everything you saw, you'd go live in a cave somewhere. Scared
to death to come out. No, we believe what we hear and
what we read right here. And that's how we walk. Well,
he said, tell him the things you've heard and seen. Heard
and seen. See, faith, once you hear, once
you hear the Word of God, once the Lord Himself gives you spiritual
ears to hear His Word. See, the world's going after
signs and visions, and so they're falling for everything they see,
every new thing, not God's people. They all believe in the same
thing, what they're hearing from the Word. Not what they're seeing,
not what's going on out there, but what they're hearing. See,
this abides the same. All these visions, that's the
reason they come up with some new thing all the time. But God's people are still believing
the same Word, resting on the same truth, grounded and settled
in the truth. Nothing and no one can bother
them as long as they're grounded and settled in this. And they
look up and see all this, and this settles them. Look down
again. Oh, look, look, look. Oh, don't look there. Look here.
Look to my Word. Do you understand what I'm trying
to say? Go show John again the things you hear and see. See,
once you begin to hear the Word, then you begin to see. You hear and then you begin to
see. You hear who God is. You hear
what God's Word is saying by the Spirit of God, that is. God
begins to instruct you from His Word and then you say, oh, now
I see. You see, it's not with these eyes, but with the understanding.
You say, now I see. You've said that before, haven't
you? I see now. I'm not talking about something you've said,
but something you understand. Alright, go show John again.
Go show Stan again. Go show Henry again. Roberta
again and again and again. These things. Telling, verse
5, the blind receive their sight. Reminding what you've heard and
what you've seen, that the blind receive their sight. Now people,
our Lord did not do these miracles for the sake of the miracle.
But He did these things as a proof of who He was. We read
in Isaiah 35, that our God shall come and the blind shall see. He's quoting Isaiah 35 here.
Proof of who he is. But our Lord did these miracles
as types, as pictures of a greater miracle than that. A greater
miracle than eyesight. You see, every one of these people
that the Lord healed their eyesight, their eyes grew with age, did they not? Everyone
whom our Lord raised from the dead died again,
did they not? But this is a picture of a greater
miracle. All of this is a picture of our
Lord still doing these things. Our Lord is still doing these
things. As a matter of fact, everybody in this room has had
every miracle here. performed on them. Are you the one that should come
or do we look for another? You go tell Kelly again that
the blind received their sight. Go tell them again. Go tell Mary
Parks again that the blind received their sight. An old boy or an
old girl who lived for 20, 30, 40 years who didn't see anything
in God's creation, didn't see any of God in creation. Woke
up every morning, the sun can come up, but he wouldn't give
God a thought. He couldn't see God in that. The rain, the water
that just sustains life on this planet, just fall out of the
sky. Just fall out of the sky. This planet would die without
this water, and it just comes out of the sky. And he'd see
that every day and either cuss it for doing too much of it or
not enough of it. And never, will not see God in
it. An old boy or an old girl who
was blind to providence could live 20, 30, 40, 50 years and
see how God has just provided them with everything. Not see it, that is. Not see
how God has provided them with children and wife and husband
and houses and lands and food and clothing, just all this freely,
freely given. Not see God in that. person full of blind to self. Thinking they're something when
they're nothing. Thinking they're beautiful when they're not. Thinking
this, thinking that. Blind to the world's ways, to
the ways of the world. Blind to it. The whole world
going crazy and they're going with it. Blind. Blind following
the blind. Blind ambition. An old boy, an
old girl, young Boy, young girl, blinded with ambition, going
after what? Chasing a soap bubble, chasing
useless things. Blind. Like a puppy chasing a,
whatever, a butterfly, you know. Blind. An old boy, young boy,
young girl, old boy, old girl, blind to the dangers that they
face, blind to the ways of Satan blind to the truth, you go tell
John again. An old boy and an old girl has
their eyes wide open. Just all of a sudden, one day,
all of a sudden, after hearing the gospel, sitting under the
sound of the Word, all of a sudden, a boy, a girl who was blind to
God has her eyes open. See God. Begin to see. Begin to see themselves for what
they really are. Begin to see how that God is
freely provided. Begin to see that all of this
is vanity. Begin to see, hey, I'm in danger. Begin to see the ways of the
world. Begin to see. Tell John the blind
to have their eyes opened. Receive their sight, real sight. Tell them. Tell them again. To see God's glory, to see Christ,
His beauty. People that go for years without
seeing any, in Him, any form or comeless, no beauty about
Him that they should desire Him, all of a sudden after hearing
the gospel, they see in Him the altogether lovely one. They see
in Him the bright and morning star. They see in Him the fairest
of ten thousand. They see in the gospel something
that, no beauty in it before, they see it's, oh, this is wonderful.
Isn't this beautiful? And turn to their mates and say,
you see that? That the Lord gave them eyesight. Go tell Jill again. It's happening in our midst,
is it not? There are people in here right
now that weren't here a few years ago who didn't see anything in
this, but now they see everything. Is he the one that should come? You go tell John again, verse
5, that the lame walk. Tell him that the lame walk. Now Christ literally, literally
healed those that were born with crippled legs. Literally. And
that was amazing. I've known several who were born
crippled. and some who became crippled
later in life. A man up in the church in Ashland
was stricken with multiple sclerosis, MS. And I told you his story,
how he was stricken with MS, married and had a young daughter,
and his wife, Left him, took the daughter, and he didn't see
her again for about 20 years. Didn't see his daughter for 20
years. In the meantime, he was listening to the, he was a very
ambitious fellow in the U.S. Air Force, a very brilliant man. He designed airplanes for the
U.S. Air Force. Brilliant man. On
his way up, I think he was a captain at the time. muscular, multiple sclerosis,
crippled him, put him in a wheelchair, slurred his speech, and he just
began to deteriorate in a primal life. And in the midst of that, he
had to sit in a house and turn the TV on, a fellow named Henry
Mahan preaching the gospel. opened that man's heart to the
gospel. And he became a believer, moved,
left his home somewhere in Ohio, I think it was, sold out, and
moved down there to 13th Street and never missed a service, wheelchair
and all, never missed a service, until the day he died. And he
told the pastor one day, I am so thankful And he didn't talk
very clearly. He kind of had slurred speech.
I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me multiple sclerosis so
I'd hear the gospel. You see, the Lord healed that
old boy by giving him crippled legs. Now, he explained that. That's the way the Lord does
things. A mysterious way. People think, well, the devil
did that. The Lord healed him. The Lord,
you see, men and women who walk all their lives after the course
of this world, when Brother John walked, his name was John, Brother
John walked according to the course of this world, like Ephesians
2 said, according to the prince of the power of the air, was
by nature children of wrath, even as others. who walked according
to the book of God, rich in mercy, for his great love were with
him. He loved that old John. Quickened him. How'd he do it?
Crippled his legs. But gave him legs of faith to
walk by faith. People unable to walk uprightly. John walked on two legs for a
long time, but he wasn't walking in paths of righteousness. He's
walking his own way, walking the way of the world, walking
that blind ambition. God smote him, put him in a wheelchair,
and he started walking by faith. Are you understanding that? An
old boy, an old girl, unable to walk by faith, always following
the crowd, heading for a cliff. This world is headed literally
for a cliff. God and power of the gospel come. Give spiritual feet, legs to
come to Christ. Christ said, you will not come
unto me that you might have life. We're just like old Mephibosheth.
Lame on both our legs. Spiritually speaking, we will
not come to this Christ. Oh, we'll come to some Jesus,
you know, and get credit for it. But not this Christ. We've got to be fetched. The
Lord has to fetch us, lame legs and all, and bring us to Christ. Thy people shall be willing.
in the day of thy power. It is God which worketh in us
both the will and to do of thy good pleasure. There's people who are walking
after this world, just following the world blindly, walking toward
eternity and destruction and didn't have a clue. Turn. I mean, turn 180 degrees, start
walking toward Christ, walking with His people. Where are you
going? Are you going with that religious bunch? Yeah. And if
you don't turn, You'll perish. Now, that's a miracle, is it
not? Is he the one? Is this the gospel? Is this the power of God? Is
this the one? Or do we look for another? Did it turn your direction, Brother
Dan? Barbara, did this gospel turn
you? As John Newton wrote, stop my
wild career. Folks, I wasn't following the
world, I was leading it. I read a bumper sticker the other
day that said, I am the ones my mama warned me about. I'm not laughing at that. I thought
it was funny when I read it. But that was me, leader of the
pack. 180 degree. did it about faith. That took
the power of God. Is he the one? Yes, he is. He's
the one. This is the gospel. This is the
power of God. Tell John that lepers are cleansed. Go tell
John again that you're hearing about and seeing lepers cleansed.
That good news, John? Lepers are cleansed. A man, a
woman, Somebody in here wanted me to preach on Psalm 38. I know
why, don't you, John? I know why. Read it all the time. David, in Psalm 38, says, My
loins are filled with a loathsome disease. David said that my sin's
gone over my head. David is lamenting himself through
that whole psalm. Why am I like this? Why do I do this? Why am I this
way? That's what Psalm 38's all about.
David crying out, Lord, why am I such a rotten person? Well,
go tell him again that rotten persons, lepers, are cleansed. They're being cleansed from this
disease called sin, which is a much greater miracle than leprosy,
the physical leprosy being cured. Leprosy back in the old days
would affect everything a person would do, everything a person
would touch, everything a person would come into contact with,
wherever they went, everything everyone was affected by. Isn't
that a good picture, a bad picture of sin? It affects everything
we are, everything we do, everything we touch, our thoughts, our desires,
our passions, our way. Everything about us is sinful. Huh? Go tell John. They're being
cleansed. A fellow lying, literally lying
in a gutter, literally lying in a gutter, is now seated in
a pew. Clothed in his right mind. A
fellow who wanted to hear over and over again these honky, you
know, things that make him cry in his beer. sitting and the
gospel makes him cry. Is it the one that we're looking
for? It sure is. Clean, sitting, clothed in their
right mind, seeking God, worshiping Christ, sins forgiven, washed
in the blood, smile on their face, joy in their heart. Tell them again. This is the
fire of God. This is the one. This is Christ.
Go tell John again, verse 5, go tell John again that the deaf
hear. The deaf hear. I don't know how long you sat,
well some of you I do, I sat and I preached to you and preached
to you and preached to you and you didn't hear a thing. I was the same way. Preached
to you and preached to you and didn't hear a thing. And one day, he's talking to
me. Like old brother Champ Clark.
I love that story. Old brother Champ Clark in Ashland. Champ and Opal Clark. The Lord
saved both of those people through the television program and brought
them to hear the gospel there and became members of the church
there. Anyway, they were up in years, up in their sixties. when the Lord revealed Himself
to them. They were sitting, let's see, Opal, the wife, the Lord
dealt with her first. She came and Champ would come
with her just to make her happy because she'd, you know, gripe
at him if he didn't. And he came with her several
times and one time, one time, After hearing the message, he
went home, and Opal told this. She said, on the way home, a
champ jumped all over her. He said, You've been talking
to the preacher about me, haven't you? I know you have. He said, He
was talking about me up there. She said, No, champ, I haven't.
I haven't said a word to the preacher
about you. He was his ear. He was starting to hear. I kept
telling, you know, I was listening to the TV program, sitting there
at nine o'clock in the morning, listening to TV, drinking beer,
and turned the TV on, and my pastor was preaching, and about
the time he turned the TV on, the pastor said, You're a sinner. You remember And that fella got
up out of his chair and went and turned the TV off and said,
I ain't no sinner. Sat back down, took another drink
of Budweiser, and in a minute, maybe I am a sinner. And turned
it back on. The Lord dealt with him. The deaf are hearing. You go
tell John. A person deaf to God's Word for
years, unable to hear the gospel. Unwilling to hear that. Uninterested.
Unmoved. Uncaring. Unconcerned. Day in,
day out. Week after week. Year after year.
Just don't give a flip about this Word. Just come in for whatever
reason. All of a sudden, hey, I heard
that. All of a sudden hearing, hey,
God is God and I am a sinner. I do need Christ, don't I? Hey,
this gospel is good news. Is this the one we're looking
for? Is this the truth? Did Christ come? Yes, he did.
Is he living, reigning? Yes, he is. Go tell John again,
verse 5, that the dead are raised up. Dead are raised up. Dead in trespasses
and sin. You know, when you're dead, you
don't have any senses. You'll have sight, hearing, taste,
touch, smell, anything. Five senses are gone when you're
dead. Scripture says we're dead and
trespassed in sin. Not only are we blind, not only
can we not hear, we can't smell. You know it's significant that you
can't smell your own body odor when other people can? That's significant. That's a spiritual picture. The Holy Spirit has to tell us,
you stink. I told you about my wife smelling
my shirts for me. I love that illustration. That's love. I was visiting somebody. Now, this is love. I might test
some of you ladies on it. I was visiting somebody. I think
it was Mary Bell. I said, I got one shirt, and
I don't know if it's clean. Would you do me a favor? Can't smell your own? You think
that's vulgar, but it's true. And what a picture it is of us.
We may think, oh, I look good. I am good. I'm a sweet person. Boy, other people say, is he
crazy? Like that fellow told John Chapman,
he said, I quit sinning. John said, I know him. I grew up with him. He's lying.
Can't smell yourself. Mary did smell my shirt once.
I'm glad it was clean for her sake. The Holy Spirit gives us smell
and we begin to smell ourselves. Smell. Touch. Untouched about anything in the
gospel. Untouched. Taste. Scripture talks
about taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Hear the gospel. Partake of it. Not sweet to it. All of a sudden. Oh, this is
good, isn't it? I like this. It was distasteful
to you for so long. I remember sitting and listening. Thinking, oh, I'll be glad when
this is over. And then I remember, I don't
know when it started, but then I remember thinking, I hope this
never ends. This is wonderful. Tastes good,
like honey. Go tell, you see, that's the
senses. I'm dead, I raised up, or given
these senses, spiritual senses. through the power, quickened,
life-giving, regenerated, alive unto God, once alive unto the
world, dead to God, now alive unto God and becoming deadened
to the world. Go tell John, lastly, that the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Now Christ is coming back. I
know He is. He said He was. I think it's pretty simple. If
you have your eyes wide open, according to the scriptures,
reading the scriptures, understanding what the scriptures say about
it, observing the signs of the times, nobody knows the day or
the hour, but you can discern the seasons, approximate times. Read for yourself 2 Timothy 3,
1 Timothy 4, on and on, Matthew 24. You have read these things. We've looked at them together
time and again. I know he's coming soon, but the gospel is still going out.
People are still hearing the gospel all over the world. Mexico,
Dominican Republic, all over the world, and the United States.
Here, sheep are still being brought in. It's still elect out there. The gospel is still the power
of God. It's still going forward. Still
being preached. The gospel poor, having poor
centers that is. They're having the gospel preached
to them and in the remote corners of the world and they're coming
to Christ. They're coming. It was a flood. It was a flood. Floodgate. When our Lord said
in the beginning, 2,000 years ago, He said, the harvest is
great. But the laborers are few. Harvest
is plentiful. It's a huge harvest. The world. That's why he said that to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus. They were right there, Tammy,
in little old Israel. And Christ said, oh, the world. I have a people in a portion
of this globe you don't even know exists. The world. go in all the world. The harvest is great, but the
laborers are few. That's the reason he sent them
out. 77 one day, John. Seventy-seven disciples he sent
out. Seventy-seven disciples. Seventy. Plus twelve. And then they multiplied and
multiplied and went all over the world. But now it's down to a trickle. I know our Lord's return is soon,
because the laborers are being brought in from the field. We
have seen three or four missionaries come back from the field. In
one go, but four come back. That tells me the harvest is
not as great as it was. But nevertheless, they're still
coming in. This is still the gospel, the
power of God. And look at the last verse, and he said this. He reminded John and these disciples
and us. So do you believe what he just
said? Do you hear what you hear and
what you said? What you've heard tonight? Does
that apply to you? What you've seen? Do you believe Christ is alive,
reigning Well, he said, remind them, tell them again, blessed
is he, verse six, blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended
in me. Now, people, this gospel that
we believe and preach is absolutely despised by this world, now more
than ever. Well, not more than ever, but
more since there are more people, there are more people to hate
it. But they've hated it from the beginning. Our Lord said
that, and it was so. They killed all the prophets,
killed all the apostles, they killed Jesus. Why? For the truth's sake. Men don't
like the truth, and they still don't like it. Don't believe
all this Revival, so-called, you're seeing today. You tell
them the truth. You go out and you tell men and women who God
really is, and you'll find out what they really think about
the truth. You tell men and women about
God's divine rights, not man's. You go tell men and women about
God's will will be done, not man's will. You go tell men and
women how that Christ reigns and rules. He doesn't do what
men let him do. He does what he wills to do,
and nobody can tell it or change it. The God's purpose has been
set before the world began. You tell people that and watch
the veins pop out of their mouth. And watch the venom spew out
of their mouth for the truth. They hate it. People hate it.
We would too, but by the grace. You did before God revealed the
truth to you. Every one of us hated it. Offended. People are offended by the gospel.
That's what's called the offense of the gospel. That's why Paul
said that. the offense of the gospel. And
I've reminded you before that there's no offense in telling
everybody God loves you and Christ died for you. There's no offense
in that. Nobody's going to hate you for
that. But if you tell men and women, God may not love you,
but the wrath of God may abide upon you and Christ may not have
died for you at all. And you'll get what you deserve.
That's offensive. But Christ said, now let me remind
you what Christ said, Blessed is he who shall not be offended
in me. Blessed, you're blessed if you
can hear this and not be offended. You're blessed if I can stand
up here and call you a worm all day and not be offended by it. You understand? I told you before,
all dogs go to heaven. Uh-huh, you read every person
in the scriptures that's confessed to being a dog. The Lord took
them to glory. It started with Caleb. That's
what his name means. Faithful dog. He went into the
Promised Land with Joshua. Old Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth said, Who am I?
I'm a dead dog. Why should you think on me?"
He sat at the king's table the rest of his days. The Syrophoenician
woman, the Syrophoenician woman, the Lord said it's not fit to
give the children's bread to dogs. She said, that's truth.
I'm a dog. But I'm your dog. And even dogs
get crumbs from a table. He said, great faith. That's
great faith. All dogs do that. I can stand
up here and call you a dog for fourteen years, Henry, and you
not be offended by it? Smiling at me? Well, you don't
smile at me? Blessed is he that's not offended.
This is offensive to the proud, vain, glorious world that thinks
there's something. But you go tell dogs, you go
tell worms, and I turn them into butterflies. I turn worms into butterflies.
Dogs get to go to heaven with me, get to glory with me. Blessed is he that is not offended
by me or offended by God's people. There was a time when I wouldn't
have spent my time with you. That's too cool. You're too square. would rather be with God's people
than this cool world. God has a very warm place for
all cool people. All cool people will find themselves
in a very hot place. Blessed is he who is not offended
by God's poor nobodies and nothings and wants to be one of them.
Blessed. That's God's work. Is Christ alive? Is he reigning and ruling? Huh? Is he controlling all things?
Is this gospel real? Is this the power of God? Are
you a child of God? Good! If you believe everything
you heard tonight, you should be able to say, yeah, yeah. Will
you go show John again? Tell him again. If we meet again
Sunday morning? I want to pretty much tell you
the same things, and you'll be glad to hear it. Tell them again.
Blind, sick, lame, bald, deaf, hearing, lepers or clans, dead
or raised, poor, deaf, hearing, poor. I have the gospel for you
to tell them. And that's all of us. All right, stand with
me. Our Father, thank you for your
Word. It is everything to us. It's all we need, and it meets
our need. I would thank you for it. We
ask that you would write it on the tables of our heart and not let any iniquity have dominion
over us, not let the things we see disturb us, but ground us
and settle us in the truth so that these things be recalled
to our minds, bring them up again and again, Lord, that we might
find peace and hope, comfort from your word. From you who
cannot lie, though heaven and earth will pass away, yet not
one word of yours shall fail. We thank you for it. In Christ's
name, amen. You're dismissed. Thank you.