Are you washed in the blood? We're going to see in a minute
that that's a desperate need. That song, like this book, has
been discarded today by modern 21st century religion, old and
out of date. Most believe that Genesis is
some kind of Jewish fable. They really do. Most believe
that This book has no relevance today. Even mainstream religion really
doesn't believe it. Their preaching tells me that. But true believers, what is a
true believer? A true believer is one who believes
God. Not in God, didn't say that. James wrote, the devil believe,
you believe there's one God? The devil believes and trembles.
Not to believe in God, believe God. What does that mean? God
wrote a book. In the beginning, God. God wrote
a book. To believe God, to believe the record, all of it, from Genesis
to Revelation. And it's concerning God's Son. So it's still relevant. As a
matter of fact, if you miss what happened in the beginning, you'll
miss the rest of it. If you don't know what happened
in the beginning, if we don't know what happened in the beginning,
We don't know what happened in the middle or what will happen
in the end. Genesis means beginning. In the
beginning. Can you read a book? Can you pick up a book and start
in the 40th chapter? 39 Old Testament book. Can you
start chapter 40 in a book and understand? The introduction is vital. It's the reason, you know, I
try to get your attention right at the outset. It's not like... The introduction is vital. Genesis
is the introduction. Genesis begins everything. Everything about God, about man,
about religion, about how God deals with man, about how God
saves man, and it starts right there and it never differs. It stays the same from there
on. The way God started this thing
is the way he'll finish it. Genesis. Believers believe and clearly
see. that this big ball that we're
standing on, it's spinning. This ball is spinning. I don't feel it. How's that? This ball is spinning,
but we don't feel it. How many miles per hour is it
spinning around the sun? And we don't feel it. That's
amazing. Believers believe and clearly
see that God created the heavens and the earth. God, I mean, an
all-wise, powerful, magnificent, superior, infinitely high being
created all of this. Believers believe and clearly
see how that God created man, his crowning God created man in the image
of God. No other animal on the earth.
You can talk about monkeys all you want to. Look in their eyes.
You can see they don't have a clue. They're monkeys. Man, now man, is marvelous. But believers believe and clearly
see how that man, though created in the image of God, fell terribly. Terribly fell. died in sin, just
like it said over in Genesis 3, just like it said. They clearly
see that man died and is dying. Not only did he die or that he's
lost spiritual understanding, life, but he's slowly just getting
worse and worse and just dying until he's going to decay away.
Believers believe and clearly see that. They've got their eyes
open. They clearly see, they see themselves. Believers believe and clearly
see that there's God ordained one way. That man, since man
is such a dead, helpless creature, not a high and lofty being anymore. No, he's a dead, he started upright
and he's now down on all fours. And believers believe and clearly
see how there's one way, one hope, and that's for God to do
something for them. That there's one way to get to
God. They can't get to God. They're not even interested in
God. But it's only for God to be interested in them. It's for
God to come to them. It's for God to do something
for them. It's for God to save them. Believers
believe and clearly see that there's one way that a sinful
creature, mankind, that God Almighty can have this holy, holy, holy
one. We sung about it. Do you understand
what you're saying? If there's anything more clear
in scriptures than that, I don't know of it. Holy, holy, holy. What's that mean? God's too holy to look upon sinful,
this mass of humanity. How can he do it then? Blood,
blood, blood. Are you washed in blood? Old, ignorant, mountain, traditional
hymn. One way, and it started right
here. It started right here. God started it. Where did, where
was blood first shed? Where was blood first shed? Who
shed it? Who shed the first blood? Who
killed, who did the first killing? Who did it? Who shed the blood? You say, well, right here, Cain.
Uh-uh. God did it. Chapter three, verse twenty-one. You have it? Oh, this is important,
vital. It says, unto Adam also. Now,
you remember, you remember how the man and the woman rebelled
against God. They didn't, they didn't innocently,
ignorantly eat, just eat an apple, and how hard it is for God to,
oh, they rebelled against God. Satan said, You'll be like God.
You have a free will. Who does God think he is to restrict
something from you? Well, he knows you'll be like
God. You want to be like God, don't you? Yeah, we do. This
is unfair for him to give us infinite things and the whole
one. It's unfair. I've got to have
it. Let me have that. Who does God think he is? God
said die. And he should have snuffed them
out. He should have snuffed them out. The angels saw this. The
angels saw this. The angels did this. The angels
which kept not their first estate, scripture says, and Jude, which
also speaks of Cain. The angels rebelled against God.
Satan and a multitude of his followers rebelled against God,
and God said, Get out of my presence. And he put them in chains in
hell, reserved. Everlasting chains of darkness
description, no hope, no mercy, till finally someday you're going
to snuck them out completely. That's not a fairytale itself.
Well, the angels who were still with God, they saw this man and
this woman do this. What do you think, Darnell, what
do you think was running through their minds? Here this little
creature shook their fist in God's face and said, Who does
God think He is? We'll be like God. That's what
Satan did. What do you think was running through their mind?
God's going to snuff them out. He's going to put them where
Satan is. Surely. No. They saw the voice walking. God
came walking. God went down and walked and
talked to them. Talked to them. stood there and
talked to the man and the woman. And they heard him say something
like about a woman's seed coming, going to bruise your head, talking
to Satan. He was going to bruise his heel. What's going on here, they thought. Mercy. They've never seen mercy before.
Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Angels didn't get mercy. They got justice. What does he
do? Why doesn't he care about mercy?
God's merciful. He's going to show all of his
character. Then he starts talking about this woman, she's going
to come. What's this? What's he doing? He's telling
them the good news. The gospel of grace. Grace? What's grace? Grace is getting
what you don't deserve. Giving you something you don't
deserve. What's grace? That's what he's going to do for them.
He's going to save them. And then they saw this. Now,
you know, I thought about this the other day. If it weren't
that the Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty of Animals wouldn't
throw me in jail, it might be a good thing for us to see this
happen. God, Jesus Christ, was man. I mean, in a human form here,
I believe that he Christ himself went over and there was a newborn
lamb. A little lamb, have you ever
seen a lamb, a baby lamb? Have you ever, anybody here ever
seen one, held one? It's got the sweetest creature
on earth. It is the sweetest. The face, the eyes, it's just
soft. It's like velvet, every part
of it. innocent help wouldn't hurt a flea. God went over. Here's this man and this woman
standing there. God went over and got one of
those, grabbed that little one-year-old, or less than that, little lamb, and slit its throat. I had a maneuver sitting there
watching in horror. What's he doing? Angels. God killed something. Poured that blood out. Skin it. And took that skin over where
that man and woman was. Wrapped it around. That's awful, isn't it? Oh, that's
mercy. Glory in it. Oh, glory. How awful. Oh, how gracious. Do you understand? Do you understand? Do you understand what he did? God did it. They tried to cover
them, said the man and the woman. They got them some money. Got leaves. You know, the minute
you pick something, it's dead, isn't it? The minute you pick
a leaf, a green leaf, it's just... I just cut hay the other day.
Henry, two days later, it's dead dry, just... A lot less than it was when you
cut it. As soon as they picked those leaves, they started withering,
and they wore them. No telling how long they wore
them. They'd get there till finally
they were in little brown, crumpled-up leaves. Recovered. Oh, how ignorant can you be?
You've got to have skin. You've got to be covered all
over. You're naked. What is that? What's all about?
You understand? This is fundamental religion. This is fundamentals of the faith.
God shed blood and then took the skin and covered that man. Do you understand? What's that
talking about? And then from there on, for 4,000 years, billions and
trillions of lambs were killed. Lamb of the first year. Firstling
of the flock. Firstborn. A male. First year. Without spot. The best lamb of
the bunch. Without blemish. Perfect. Beautiful, harmless, sweet, kind. Millions of them. What's it talking about? Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ. Until one day,
John, he walked this planet. Same voice, the word was made
flesh. and dwelt among us four thousand
years later, and was walking along Galilee one time, and John
the Baptist, a preacher, said, Behold, the Lamb of God. God's going to cut his throat. Please the Lord to prove it.
God's going to shed his blood and skin him and cover us in
it. That's what this is about. It
hasn't changed. Salvation hasn't changed. Every
naked sinner is clothed the same way. A lamb. Skin of a lamb. Uh-huh. We're wearing wool. A
hundred percent virgin wool. The righteousness of Christ.
Who needs notes when you've got a Bible? Huh? Well, look at the
story here in the book of Genesis chapter
four. Look at Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived and bare Cain. Now, she heard God say, Your
seed, woman's seed is going to come. And she had a son named
Cain. Now, people don't think for a
minute that Cain and Abel were all the sons that Adam and Eve
had, or the first ones. Don't think that for a minute.
Cain, a little while later, married somebody. Where'd she come from?
That's what a lot of people are concerned about, aren't they?
That's the deep questions that men are asking now, Stan. Where'd
Cain get his wife? He married his sister, dummy.
He married his sister. Adam and Eve, you know, estimates
had it that they had as many as 30,000 children. Lived 930
years. She was fruitful. Boy, a woman
was a woman back then. Like Molly, my, you know, she
can throw them out. Had one every year and not complain
and get up the next day, hit the road. Now, 30,000. What about them? They're multiplying,
too. They're multiplying. Sons, grandsons, granddaughters,
great-granddaughters. There were 30,000 people. Now, God wrote this down. Cain and Abel. Adam knew, or that is, had sexual
relations with his wife. And she bore a son named Cain. And this wasn't the first child
she had. Maybe the first son. But God
recorded this because this is a picture of the two religions
on earth. This is the beginning, see? If
all the things that were done and all the people and all that
were written in the book, the world couldn't contain the books,
you see. But God recorded this because
this is most important. This is absolutely vital. There
are two boys here, and these two boys represent all religion. All religion. You're going to
find all religion, always have and always will find, all religion
under one of these two boys, Cain's way or Abel's way. All right? All right, verse 2, And she again
bare his brother Abel. Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep. Where he gets sheep, where does sheep come from? Let
me ask a real deep question, philosophical question, that
I believe Anna right there could answer. Which come first, the
chicken or the egg? Huh? Sarah, which come first,
the chicken or the egg? What did God create first, a
chicken or an ape? Huh? Come on. A chicken! Which comes first, a sheep or
a lamb? Where did the sheep come from?
He was a keeper of sheep. He had sheep. When he was born,
there were sheep. When he got old enough to keep
sheep, there were sheep. Where did he get them? God gave
them. He didn't grow them. God made them. Right? You see
that? Sheep come from God. The chicken
comes first. And eggs come from the chicken.
Well, God created sheep. Abel did not grow sheep. But
now Cain, it says, was a tiller of the ground. Cain was a tiller
of the ground. He was a farmer. There's nothing
wrong with being a farmer. If I wasn't a preacher, that's
what I'd be. Really, I love farming. I think it's, well, that's what
Adam was. God first created man, then made
him a farmer. He was out of the dirt, and he
was in the dirt. Well, Cain was a tiller of the ground. He worked
the ground. That's good, honest labor. Yes,
it is. What does God say about the ground,
though? Look back at chapter 3. Now, after Adam and Eve sinned
against God, look at what God said in verse 14. No, verse 17. God said unto Adam,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy and hath eaten of the tree of
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, because
it is the ground." Or you're set. In sorrow, you're going to eat
from the ground. The ground's not going to give you any peace.
The ground, anything that comes from it, is not going to give
you any peace, but sorrow. You're from it, and you're going
back to it, he said. Verse 19. Dust you are, in the
sweat of your face you'll eat bread till you return to the
ground. The ground's going to be a curse
to you. Everything that comes from it's going to be sorrow.
You come from it, going back to it. You'll grow in it, and
you'll find a grave in it. The ground. It's flesh and blood. It's dust. It's dirt. Don't find any hope
and happiness in it. Now you heard this. Grounds. Curse. Curse. And God told Adam. Now Adam lived
930 years. You think a man learned something
in 930 years? A man ought to learn something.
It gets 40 years old. You ought to learn something.
Looks like it. It looks like it. But 50, 60, 70, 930 years, you're going to learn
something? God told him about a seed in
the garden, a woman's seed. God told him to skin that animal,
covered him with it, shed the blood. God said the ground's
cursed. Had him 930 years. He could commune with God, yes.
What's this mean? What's that mean? Nine hundred
and thirty years God taught him. He learned something. If he learned
anything, he learned this. You can't bring anything from
the ground. You can't bring anything that we do. You see, a farmer
goes out and he plants a seed. He goes and buys a seed. He plants
a seed. He tells it up. plows it up,
prepares the ground, puts in the seed, covers it up, fertilizes
it, waters it. Can't give you an increase, though.
But he did it all, did he? He did it all. And if it grows
up, that farmer, just about to a man, will say, ha, look at
my corn field. Look at my turnip patch. Cain
was a turnip farmer. I know that for a fact. I'll
tell you why in a minute. Hancock was a turnip farmer,
and he prepared, look at it, in the process of time. Now,
do you see the difference? Do you see the difference in
their occupation? Does everyone in here, from young
to old, understand that Abel, the sheep that he had, God just
gave it to him. He didn't have anything to do
with it. When a lamb was born, he had
nothing to do with that lamb being born. He did not artificially
inseminate, no sir. It was born, a lamb was born,
a miracle. When he first saw it, he thought,
oh, isn't this wonderful? God, look, isn't this a marvelous
miracle of God's life? This lamb, beautiful lamb out
of this sheep. But came now, worked hard, sweat,
sweat equity. blood. He matched his hand. He
cut his hand. He worked hard. And he had this
garden. It was beautiful. I know it was
beautiful. Virgin soil. Beautiful. Black, deep, rich,
humus. He could grow anything in it.
Oh, and he grew some turnips. Beautiful. And it took a long
time to do it. And he was a hardworking man.
And look at it, verse 3. In the process of time, it came
to pass that Cain brought to the fruit of the ground an offering
of the Lord. Cain thought, I'm going to worship
God. I'm going to worship God. My way. Look at what all I've done. I'm
going to give some of it to God. Surely He'll appreciate this.
I've worked hard. I've worked hard. And so he made
him an altar. He had to have an altar. He'd
heard that you have an altar and you bring an offering to
God and offer it up. And he made him a handmade little
altar there, and he got him a big basket of turnips and brought them and placed them
on the altar. Now, he worked hard. He was a
sincere, hardworking, honest farmer. And he brought these
to God. He worked hard. Surely God will
accept that. Surely God will appreciate what
Cain's done for him. Surely God will be pleased. Surely
Cain will go up in God's favor. Surely. Look at verse four. of verse
three. Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought,
what did he bring? A firstborn male lamb, first in the flock. The firstborn
of a particular you lamb, or you sheep, which had been a virgin
and now had conceived and brought forth the firstborn male lamb. And he watched it for a few days
and saw, this is perfect. This one is perfect. He's without
spot. I can't find any fault in him
whatsoever. He's without blemish. He's beautiful.
Ah, slit his throat. The fat thereof. Fat, that tells
me he cooked it, doesn't it? You've got to kill it. before
he could cook it. He slid its throat. You can infer all that
from this. Abel took that little lamb and slid its throat and
poured out that blood and put that body on a rock. He didn't
make some elaborate altar, just rocks that he found laying in
the field and put that body, that little lamb. Where'd he
learn that? Polly, where'd he learn that? What'd he do that for? Blood. Dad said it. That God said it. Blood. Blood. I've been hearing it since
I was a boy. Blood. Without the shedding of
blood, Adam told him. Adam told both these boys. He
told Cain and Abel time and time again. These weren't young boys.
These were grown men. Cain and Abel. Grown men. They
could have been 50 years old by this time. Grown men. And Adam had told them time and
time again what happened in the garden. Oh, we rebelled against
God. Rebelled against God. We're sinners
through and through. You know why you boys think evil
all the time? You know why you're quicker to
lie than you are to tell the truth? You know why this sin
rises up in you? Because you're born from me,
your daddy. It didn't used to be this way.
But I sinned against God, and this thing called sin is in us
now, and it's in every one of you, and it's in all of our descendants. We're sinners. God's holy. God kicked us out of the garden
because God's holy. But God said you can have fellowship
with me if you bring blood. We saw it. We saw it right there
in the garden. We saw God kill that lamb. Kill a lamb. You know
who that lamb is? That's the seed. of a virgin
born a son of a virgin is going to come Sunday. God's going to
be without sin. I don't know when he's coming.
I don't know where he's going to appear, but he told us, he
told your mother and I, that the seed of woman, some man is
going to walk this earth, a holy man, without the sin of me in
it, without the seed of Adam in it, A woman's seed, a virgin-born
child, is going to be the very Son of God, God with us. And he's going to live a perfect
life. And then God's going to take
that seed, that son of His, and going to kill him like a lamb,
like that lamb, that innocent lamb. God killed an innocent
lamb to cover your mother and I, our nakedness, our guilt. We got his skin, he got killed. And that's what God's going to
do to the coming saints someday. And so he tells us from that
day forward to bring a lamb as a type, as a picture. Because
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. Without
looking to that Christ who's going to come, there's no forgiveness
of sin. God can't have anything to do
with us unless we bring blood. Sons, do you understand that?
Hank, do you understand that? Yeah, I understand. Yes, sir.
I'm a boy. You understand that, son? Yes,
sir. What is it? Blood. What? Blood! Abel? Yes, sir. How do you come to God? Blood.
Why? God's holy. OK. Across this time, here comes
Cain. That blood. That sure is a mess. There's got to be a better way. He looked over there at Abel's
offering. People, if we could see this. You ever been in a butcher shop? It's not a neat, clean, It's a gory mess. There's blood
on the walls. There's blood on the floor. There's
blood on the man who's killing them. There's blood everywhere.
There's a piece of carcass hanging. Carcasses hanging all over the
place. It's a bloody mess. It's not a pleasant place. Smells
of blood. Blood smells, doesn't it? It has a certain smell that blood
does. Why do you think man has such an affinity for blood? Why
do you think when we see blood that it re-correlates? Why? Why
do people get queasy when they see blood, especially their own
blood? Why do people go in shock when they see the blood? Blood. God said the life of the
flesh is in the blood and the soul, the life of the soul is
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's too gory for
man, you see. It's too gory, it's too bloody,
it's too messy, too old-fashioned. There's a new way. This is 21st
century. Cain, just a few years later,
thought that. Surely, there's got to be a better
time. All I've heard is blood, blood,
blood. Well, I'm above that. Why was Cain a turnip farmer? Why did he raise turnips? You know the answer. You can't
get blood out of a turn. That's what's got rich. I believe. You can't get blood out of the
terminal. You got it. Well, now look at
it. Verse four. to Abel. He brought
the first of the flock and the fat thereof. He killed this lamb
and shed the blood, roasted its body on an altar, and it says
the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering. The Lord
had respect unto Abel and his offering. You see, you'll be
accepted according to what you bring. As your offering is, so
are you. Matter of fact, you'll be accepted
by him that brings you. The offering will bring us. You are what you bring. You are what you bring. You'll
be accepted or rejected by God according to how you approach
God. Abel brought blood, a bowl of blood and a smitten
lamb and said, God, will you Will you accept me?" God said,
yes, every time. Every time. But now, verse 5,
unto Cain and his offering, he had not respect. What happened? What God said
other than this, we don't know. If it was Christ standing there,
I don't know. Somehow or another, God was speaking,
though, wasn't he? What they saw, we don't know,
but if they saw God, they saw an angry countenance. They didn't smile. They didn't
see a smile. When Abel brought that blood,
he saw a merciful face, a kind face, a compassionate face. Good,
well done. Accept it. That's what I told
you to bring, and that's what you brought. Good. Son, you've
done well. Cain brought all that. Oh, this
is going to be good. What's all this about? Do you
understand? Do you understand what this is
all about? There's an old saying that sums
up that all these. This sums up religion to that.
Listen, listen to it. OK, have you heard this before?
Do you have it on your wall? Only one life. And soon will
pass. And only what's done for Jesus
will last. What do you think about that?
And that sounds sweet. God hates that. It's an absolute
abomination. Nothing that any human being
has ever done or ever will do will last. It's dirt. It's ground. Cain brought produce. He produced it. Anything we do,
God said, it's going to pass. Get it out of my sight. He even
called it filthy rag. I don't want anything to do with
your works. Why? It's done by a sinner with an
evil motive, with an impure motive for gain, for reward, for, you
know, for pride. Don't you know Cain was proud
of that? Huh? Don't you know that? Have you
ever done, have we ever done a charitable work ever and not
been proud of it? Have we ever done anything for
anyone And we really didn't want anybody to find out about it. Ever given anything, done anything,
anything. Have we ever done one completely
unselfish, with no thought to our own glory or pride? Have we ever lived a moment on
this earth when we weren't proud and pleased with ourselves? You see, do you see what the
works of man are? The wise man, was he glorious?
His wisdom. The strong man, was he glorious?
His strength. Where'd he get it? The beautiful
woman, was she? Oh, where'd she get it? Anybody can do anything. Acts
like they did it. When everything is a gift. But
we can't do anything. without being proud of ourselves.
You see why God can't accept anything we do. Do you see that? Works of the flesh, that which
is flesh is flesh, proud flesh. But now, what was this lamb?
What was it? That's Christ. That's all that
he'd done. That's all that he is. That robe, that's the righteousness
of Christ. When a believer comes to God,
he says, Christ is all my righteousness. I'm just an old rotten sinner.
And if you can look upon me, it'll only be if you put me in
Christ. It'll only be if you dress me
in Christ's righteousness. It'll only be if you make me
righteous, if you put on me his righteousness,
and he takes my sins. And that's what the blood's all
about. He died. I've got innocent lamb, the just,
the unjust. That's how a sinner comes to
God. Do you understand that? Does everybody understand that?
Don't anybody leave this building without understanding that. That no human being can bring
anything we do or say or think or feel to God and have God accept
it. He won't do it. Only look into
Christ. Christ is Christ. Why should
I let you in heaven? Why should I accept you, Christ? Accepted in the beloved. God said it for all heaven and
earth to hear. This is my son, my beloved son. I'm well pleased. God never said
that about any human being. I'm well pleased for his righteousness
sake, the psalm says. I'm well pleased for his righteousness
sake. Now, if you'll come to me by
him, the Lamb of God, through his skin and his blood, I'll
accept you. It doesn't matter what you've
done, or who you are, male or female, black, white, rich, poor.
It doesn't matter who you are or where you've been, what you're
doing right now. Come in the blood of that Lamb, and I'll
receive you every time. Is that right? Yes, it is. I'm God, and that's what I said. Well, in my hands no price I
bring. I dare not trust the sweetest
prayer of my holy lean on the Lord Jesus Christ, his blood
and his righteousness. Accept it. But now, wait a minute. So it's
two religions, you see? Two religions. Christ's period! Exclamation point. Or, the sky's
the limit. This, what this is saying here,
look at chapter 4, look at it here in verse 7. Zichain was
wroth and his countenance was fallen. Have you ever seen somebody's
fallen countenance? You will if you talk to somebody
about sovereign grace. You'll see a fallen countenance. If you talk to a self-righteous
religious person who's been just a good person all their life
and just real religious and you start talking about we're nothing
but ungodly sinners in God's sight. It's too holy to accept
anything we've done. And buddy, it's going to be by
mercy. If God doesn't have mercy, we're
worse than a harlot. You'll see a countenance. You'll
see a fallen countenance. It's like all the blood drains
out. And if it was the Old West, That's what happened here. Why? God said it would in chapter
3. Remember, God said Satan's seed, followers, Satan has a
seed, he has a children. And God has a children. Not all
human beings are sons of God. Uh-uh, sons of promise. Romans
nine, six. Satan has his children, too.
And it says they'll be enmity against the woman, not against
her son. And there are countenance for fire. In verse nine, or verse
seven, God said, If you do well, thou shalt be accepted. If thou
doest well, shall thou not be accepted? What was doing well?
What did Abel do to do well? Margaret, what did Abel do to
do well? And God, he said, he brought
blood. He didn't do anything, really. Did he? He just brought
what God had already done. Believe. What must we do to do
the works of God? They said. Christ said, believe
on the Son of God. Believe that you're unrighteous,
that he's righteous. Believe that nothing you can
do, but he must do it all. Believe that his righteousness
must be yours, and your sin must be his. Believe, and thou shalt
be accepted. And you'll do well, and God will
accept you. Believe. That's the word of God. If you do well. But he said,
if you don't, if you don't do well, if you don't believe, if
you don't trust Christ alone, look at what he said. Let's see
if I can make you understand it. Verse 7 says, See in life
at the door and under thee shall be his desire and thou shalt
rule over him. Do you know how many denominations
there are in the United States? You've got Christian scientists,
you've got scientists of the Christian scientists, you've
got sons of the Confederate scientists, you've got, you know, Russell
Ice, keep going. Every time Dick and Harry have
made up something, every fellow who's a worthless, no-good worker
down at the mill, he becomes a preacher then, and he opens
that little storefront and says, I've got it the way. Everybody
else out there looking for it? I've found it. Come to me. We'll
call this Joe Bob Johnson's Memorial Church. The way of the road down
the bush in the heart of the church. I've got it. And there's
thousands all over the land. What is it? It's the way it came.
That's all it is. Call it what you want. Dress
it up what you will. You've got the high. You've got
the Really, you know, the robe, the satin robes and miters, and
boy, we got it. Then you got the plain, ordinary,
you know, all black, and the beards and all. We got it! And
then you got over here. No, it's not that. We got it!
There's one way. Dress it up what you will, call
it what you will, look like what you will. It's either Christ's
own plan. Or it's the way it came. God
will turn thumbs down. What could be plainer? What could
be plainer? This is where it started. And
now look at it. Sin. Men fall for everything. Rebecca, that's what that means.
Sin lies at the door. You'll fall for anything that
comes to your door. You'll fall for it. You'll believe
it. But now, if you trust Christ,
John, if you trust Christ, you won't believe anything else. If you come to see blood, you'll
have great vision. If you hear the joyful sound,
you'll hear middle C. If you ever have your heart tuned
to middle C, everything else will be out of key. Every song you hear, if it's
not middle C, Christ, Christ, you'll say, that ain't the gospel
music. Every message you hear, if you
don't hear Christ exalted, man in the dirt, Christ righteous,
man sinful, if you don't hear that, you'll say, that ain't
the gospel. If you hear of a God who tries and fails, you'll say,
that ain't the God of the Bible. I don't dress it up in high-sounding
words. You'll say, that's not it. You bring what you will, and
that may sound real philosophical. No, that's works. Right, Henry? You'll dress it up. That's works. That's works. That's the way it came. There's
only one way it comes. You understand? Does everybody understand? And my hands are free. I finally preached. And it says, Cane talked with
his brother Abel. Verse 8, they talked together.
What were they talking about? They were talking about this. Works and grace. Blood and man
and Cane's rejection. One accepted, one rejected. And
Abel, a loving son of God that he was, and a brother, a caring,
compassionate brother that he was, he said, Cain, I didn't,
God showed me this. He showed it to both of us. We both grew up hearing the same
message. You heard it just like I did.
I didn't do anything special. Only by the grace of God did
I. Cain, you heard it too. It's blood. It's not what we
bring. You knew better than that. It's
only blood. It speaks of the seed. Dad told
us all about that. But Christ's not our works. We're too sinful. God's too holy.
You know that, Kay. Shut up. Abel turned to his Bible. And he killed him. Why? Most battles, Ed, most battles
have been fought over what? Religion. Religion. The first one. The
first man was killed over the truth. And the second man, who
was the truth, was killed. Christ himself. Well, I hope
that's clear to you. Now, you see, God still saves
everyone the same way. We still come to God the same
way as in the beginning. Now, you hold steadfast the beginning
of your life. You hold that steadfast to the
end. Don't let anybody tell you it's
this way, that way. Don't let anybody impress you.
There's better preachers, I listened to a local, I'll quit with him,
I promise. I listened to one of these local
fellows the other day, picked up one of his tapes at the radio
station. Never heard him before. He attracts a large group, a
lot of people. And I went home and I thought,
well, let me hear it. And I turned it on, and after
about 35 minutes of professional music, And I mean professional. Jeanette, you sound like a beginner. I mean a full orchestra and just,
oh, it's just so beautiful. Touching. And this fellow, he
came on. And boy, I sound like a hick
from Kentucky compared to this fellow. I butchered the English
language. I'm a vain Bible. This fellow
was such an orator. And the first five minutes or
so, he had me. This man can move his hearer. And he had me. I was impressed. I thought, whoa. And he kept on and on. That moving oration, you know,
and on and on. I thought, wait a minute, I'm
not hearing something. This all sounds real good, but
I'm not hearing something. It was out of tune. There was
no gospel in it. I thought, I'm a fool. I was actually taken up with
that. I said, that's garbage. I don't care how it sounds or
what he cloaks it all in. It's garbage. The best thing to do is like Nehemiah
said, let's get the garbage out of the way. And let's just kill
us a lamb and worship. Do you see? Do you see? The knife didn't matter. He altered
it. It's just blood. is able to matter. All right, let's sing a closing
hymn. So thirty-five, two thirty-five. I'm going to bring up the lamb and worship. Let's
sing verses 1, 2, and 4. God rest ye merry, merry gentlemen. Healing, mercy, and praise God
for our unbelief. Savior, Savior, I'll never stop falling to my
deathly time. God will bring us all that's
lost earth for all that's right to be. Whom hath our earth beside
thee? Whom in heaven does he? Savior, Savior, Here is my ample pride While
on earth this fire is burning Do not let me die So, you.