I go through mixed emotions in
preaching. I have basically a twofold desire
every time I preach, and I mean this. Number one, I want to honor
and glorify God by declaring his word. And that does honor
and glorify God, just to declare his word, the reading of his
word. We make much of his word here. And that honors and glorifies
God. God has magnified his word above all his name in the scriptures. I want to do that. I want to
declare his word, verse by verse, every line, every jot, every
tittle, line upon line. And secondly, I want to feed
the sheep, you, God's sheep. I'm constantly mindful of these
two things. I have that passage in John 21
on my desk where I can always be reminded of it, where he told
Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. And I'll be honest with you,
though, I would like for every message to absolutely just rouse us and stir us up and rest
our hearts and fill us full of wonder and praise and joy and
tears and laughter, you know, just have us just filled full
of spirit. But I have no control whatsoever
over that. But there's one thing I'm called
to do, and that's feed the sheep. Feed the sheep. I know that.
And I remind myself of that. Now, what do I feed you? Christ expressly said, feed the
sheep. What? What? Well, Jeremiah, our
Lord, talked about true pastors that he would say, and he said
in Jeremiah, he said, I will give you pastors according to
my own heart, which shall feed you with. Knowledge and understanding. Knowledge and understanding.
Now, not talking about mere Bible knowledge or the knowledge of
facts in the scripture or have an understanding of historical
facts to feed you. That might feed your intellect,
but it won't feed your soul. Feed you with knowledge and understanding. Peter said it, in 2 Peter 3,
he said, in the last line, does anybody know the very last line
of 2 Peter 3 and his second, he said, grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So this is the knowledge, he
said, that I want to feed, the knowledge of Christ. knowledge
and understanding. Our Lord said, rejoice in this,
that you know and understand that I am he. And so we keep declaring God's
Word, we keep going verse by verse by verse by verse, not
skipping over any of it, dare not, and not in a hurry, line
upon line. We've missed, we've seen a lot,
haven't we? Going through the epistles and
Genesis and all. I was talking to Don Dale, call him that. And
we were talking and we were asking one another, you know, what we
were dealing with tonight. And he said, we're going through
Genesis. I said, oh my. I said, I want
to go through Genesis again. He said, yeah, this is the second
time for us. We're loving every minute of
it. We've seen so much, haven't we? Just feed and green pasture. But we've missed a lot. I guarantee
you we've missed a lot. We've missed some choice nuggets. So for that reason, we go verse
by verse. And I'll be honest with you, I approach some passage
description, I think, what are we going to get out of this?
How's this going to stir anybody? This just seems like a statement
of, you know, a geological statement or a historical fact. Well, how
are we going to, what are we going to get out of this? How
am I going to feed with this? Well, let's see. All right. A little story here. There's
a little story here now of Herod the tetrarch. Are you with me?
Are you tired? Are you hungry? That's who I'm looking for. Anybody
hungry? All right. There's a little story here.
It's a beautiful story about Herod. And the disciples had
just left. The Lord had sent them out in
pairs to go preach. That's what they went to do,
preach the gospel. That's why they were sent and they went
to preach the kingdom of God and they departed. It says, verse
6, they went through the town preaching the gospel and healing
everywhere. Everywhere they went, they were
preaching this gospel, gospel of the kingdom, gospel of the
kingdom. And as you might know, this was causing a stir all over
the place. This was this was causing a great
stir and it was reaching all the way to the palace of the
governors and the king's Roman governors and the king's they
heard what somebody stirring the folks up down there with
a message about kingdom. And I understand. And this little story of Herod
the tetrarch. Here in verse seven, now Herod
the tetrarch heard of all this, all that was done by Christ. Herod the tetrarch, that means
ruler. In another place he's called
king, but he wasn't even a king. He reigned over a little place
called Galilee, about the size of Franklin County. King. It
would be like calling our mayor King, King Pinker. You know, well, he wasn't any
more king than I am. He's a governor, a little governor.
Caesar, there was a fellow named Caesar, Augustus Caesar, that
reigned in Rome. Roman rule and he'd sent these
little head honchos down there into the little town, the little
place of Israel. All right? Now, but this is recorded
in three Gospels. These little lines here about
Herod is recorded in three Gospels. So there's something here, isn't
there? Well, I think we're going to
see. is another story among many of who Christ is and to whom
and why he came. All right let's look at verse
seven. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of him, heard of all that
was done by him and he was perplexed, he was confused. Turn back to
chapter three and find out who this Herod is and you know there
were several It was King Herod, remember King Herod that reigned
when the Lord was born and had all, he heard about some baby
king being born and he had them all killed, all male children
killed. Well, that's when God warned
Joseph and Mary to go to Egypt. And then when that Herod died,
then they came back. Well this is I think it's not
OK another hair much hair it's like a bunch of things. All right
check three verse one down the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar pop just pilot governor of Judea Herod Petrarch or Galilee
his brother Philip Petrarch. Other places all right. These
three fellows, basically, Pilate, Herod, and Philip, you're going
to hear about them all the way through the gospel. Their names
are mentioned all the way through the gospel. These three Roman
rulers. Now, this is not a mere history
lesson. It's not a mere history lesson. As we know, it is to teach us
a greater lesson in his story, his story, the lesson we need
to learn. That Romans 13, 1 says, now the
powers that be are ordained of God, powers that be. God raises up, God raises up. Remember in Romans 9, he said
about Pharaoh, for this call, purpose, have I raised thee up?
God raises up. He puts whoever's in power in
power for his purpose to do his bidding. And the very heart of
that ruler is in the hands of God. Now, I like that thought. I really do. I'm going to go
to the voting booth come November 2nd. And I'm going to vote for
the man I think is right. I better be careful here. And
I'm going to vote for the man that I think ought to be in there.
But you know, when it's all said and done, God's going to put
in there whoever he chooses. It's not going to be our vote
at all. Not at all. I see these bumper
stickers all the time that said, Don't blame me. I didn't vote
for so-and-so, you know. Well, who did? Who did vote for? Nobody takes credit, do they? I didn't vote for him. Well,
somebody did. He got the majority. Well, God put him in there. raised
him up to do his bidding. All right? And that's the story
of this Herod and Pilate and Philip and all of them. They
were there for God's purpose. God raised up these very men
at a particular time for a purpose, and each of these men are going
to serve God's purpose. You know, the funny thing is
each one of them thought they were something. They thought
they were governor. They thought they were kings.
They thought they were men of power and authority. Just like
men today, don't they? They get a little title in front
of or behind their name and they think they're something. When
in fact, the scripture says that government is upon his shoulder,
doesn't it? That the increase of his government
is no end. Christ has always reigned in
rule. He never has relinquished his reign in rule. He always
has reigned in rule. All power and authority was given
unto him by the Father before the world began. And the powers
that be are ordained of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the King of
kings and Lord of lords. And though they don't know him,
though these little pinhead rulers don't know him, and they don't
acknowledge him as king, he's their king. And you know, but
the funny thing about it is that one of them were troubled by
him. They were troubled by him. Herod was perplexed. Why should
this Jew, why should this little Jewish rabbi down there bother
him? He's king. Each one of them, and eventually,
we're going to see, you remember where it says both Herod and
Pontius Pilate and the Jews and the people, they all finally
gathered together, set themselves against him finally. What does
that remind you of? In the end, all of them, all
these rulers and kings and pretended kings, set themselves, they were
bothered by this Jewish rabbi, this teacher. If they were really
a king, they wouldn't have been bothered by him. But they were
bothered and eventually they all set themselves against him.
Why? Because Psalm 2 says this, kings of the earth set themselves. And rulers take counsel together.
Against the Lord and against his anointed saying we're going
to break this band up. In the Lord he that said it in
heaven shall laugh. He said I've set my king on my
holy hillside. You going to break this band
up? You might as well reach all the
way to heaven and try to jerk God off the throne. That's who
he is. That made me laugh. It says God's
laughing. Well, Herod was perplexed, you
see. He heard all these reports. He heard all kind of things about
this Jesus. Reports that he was receiving,
rumors of this Jesus of Nazareth. And I guarantee you his conscience
was bothering him. You remember later on Pilate.
Was it Pilate or Herod? Which one of them? His wife.
Somebody tell me. Pilate's wife was what it was,
who it was. She had a dream and came to her
husband and said, Don't you have anything to do with that just
man? I've been warned of a dream. Their consciences are bothered.
Why? Because this is the king they're
dealing with. Eventually they're going to have
him in their judgment seat. But really now, who has who?
Who's judging who? Well, Herod didn't know who Christ
was, but he was affected by Him. He was perplexed by Him. He didn't
know what to think about Him. Herod is a picture of the wise
and the mighty and noble of this world. And I was talking to one of the
brethren, Brother Steve, how that those three characteristics. You know, first Corinthians,
we're going to turn there in a moment, first Corinthians one.
It says, Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. Well, you know, that pretty much
describes America. Most people in America today
would consider that. We're living in an educated generation. Everybody's just so bound to
get educated, aren't they? Wise in their own conceits. We're all so wise. Wise. We're
getting so wise. Our generation gets so wise.
Mighty. Oh, man is really getting powerful. He's able to do some great things.
Noble. Rich. Affluent. Well, here's a picture. And all of whom people have heard
of Jesus, called the Christ, People in our generation have
heard of him, but don't know what to think about it, really.
People don't really know what to think about the Lord Jesus
Christ of Scripture. They really don't. They're perplexed.
People are absolutely perplexed. The word perplexed, I looked
it up, it means at a mental loss. I mean, absolutely at a mental
loss. In other words, Herod heard all that he'd heard, and he just
thought, I don't know what, who is it? Some say he's John. Some
say, look at it here, it says, He is John risen from the dead.
And Herod said, hey, that can't be. I cut John's head off. We
got his head right in here in the closet. That can't be. Some say it's Elijah. You know,
Elijah never did die. Elijah went up on a chariot,
they say. A whirlwind took him out of there. Some say it's Elijah. Some say
it's the old prophet Samuel. You know, Saul called Samuel
back from the grave one time. And Herod said, I don't know
who he is. He's at a loss. He was at a loss. And man today is at a total loss
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll hear everything on
the Sunday, won't you? Why do you think there's so many
different denominations? Why do you think there's so many
different denominations and a new little group or sect or cult? Every abandoned building, every
building that goes up for sale or is abandoned, a business fails,
some little cult will get in there. Why is that? Well, everybody's just plumb
perplexed. They've all got so many different ideas. Folks don't
know what to think. I don't know what the fact that
I believe truth and I work at one point with. My message will
be called anything. Will be called by you. You never
thought about how ridiculous these denominational titles are
what we denominate ourselves and the nominate nomination where
we're going to church of God. Well is there any other kind. We're Church of Christ. What
the hell? Yeah, we're Jehovah's Witnesses.
What? Mute point. Think about it. We're Presbyterians. Well, that's
what the church means, doesn't it? The Presbyterians, the believers,
the congregation, we're congregationalists. So are we. Here we are, a congregation. Isn't it ridiculous? Men are
perplexed. What are we going to call ourselves?
How about believers? How about believers? Well, folks
don't know what to think. And this is interesting because
this is right on the back. Last Sunday, well, on the radio
anyway, the woman at the well, remember? The woman at the well,
Christ said to her, you know not what you worship. We know
what we were salvation to remember that. You don't know what you
were. And so men have all different
sorts of opinions. Well, some say John, some say
Elijah, some say the old prophet verse nine and Herod say, Well,
John, I've beheaded. Who is this? Who is this? Of whom? I hear such things. Fantastic
thing all sorts of who is this and it said here and the last
line of verse nine and he desired to see him. Now this is not a saving desire
this is not a desire you know as a sinner wanting to meet the
Lord. This is a man who's merely wanting
his intellect to be fed. I want to have a theological
discussion with this Jewish rabbi that he's confused about. Like
Pilate, when Pilate finally had him in front of him and said,
what is truth? Remember that? Well, he desired
to see. That sums up a lot of people
in our day, too. It's just merely a curiosity. But he never did. Herod never
did. Until later on. Look over chapter 23. Later on,
just before our Lord was crucified. Well, at his crucifixion. Look
at it. This is good. Luke 23. Luke chapter 23. You got it? Verse 8. Luke 23, verse 8, when Herod
saw Jesus, how he was glad he finally got to see Him. See,
Christ made His point back then when He said He desired to see
Him. I'm sure He put out the word, tell Him, go get Him, I
want to see Him. No, Christ took His disciples
and went in a desert place, remember? Hid, because He's hid these things
from the wild and the brutes. Well, Herod finally got to see
Him. Herod saw him, Jesus, he was
exceedingly glad, he was desirous to see him, been desirous to
see him a long season, a long time, because he'd heard many
things of him, and he hoped to have seen some miracle done.
Oh, show me a trick. Then, verse 9 says, he questioned
him with many words. Well, look at this. But he answered
him nothing. And you know how mad it must
have made this little I can see this guy, he probably had a big
pot belly and all he did was sit around and eat grapes and
turkey. That's what those old Roman men
had, a leaf on their head, you know, a laurel on their head
and sit around and be fanned and eat grapes. At least that's
what Hollywood does. Well, that's what he probably
did, you know, sat around and about 5'1", 120 pounds. And finally,
Christ, King of Glory, comes before him and this little pompous,
I wish I could call him what he is, sitting there on his throne,
you know, pompous fellow, and he said, now, ask him all sorts
of questions, King, King, Herod. And Christ wouldn't answer him
a word. Now, what do you think? I heard
that, you know, that the Jews say that, and what do you say? I'm sure the Lord was looking
him in the eye, wasn't open his mouth. Well, they say that in Jewish
history, and we Romans say that God has said, what do you say
about this? By this time this guy's veins
were popping out. He's getting mad. Wasn't this
little pompous fellow? Christ wouldn't answer him a word. I like this. You don't
question God. How many times have you heard
people make comments in that way? I told you about that woman that
said she was going to demand of God someday why she's never
been able to have children. She's going to ask God, why did
you not let me have children, all these other women? You don't ask God questions. You don't ask God questions.
He does the question asking. I love that story, Nancy, when
they were all asking him a bunch of questions, and he confused
them all with his answers, and finally he asked them. I remember
what it said after that, that after he asked one question,
it said, and therefore, from then on, there's no way I'll
ask him any more questions. King of Glory, King of Glory,
standing before this. And this little pompous fellow
desired to see. Well, what do you, what am I,
what do I see in all this? All right, I took too much time
already. What do we see in all this? Number one, number one,
be taking notes. Christ's kingdom is not of this
world. Let's get this through our brains,
because there's a big movement afoot in this world today. It's some
kind of linking of religion and moral reformation, and I don't
know how to put it. But there's a great interest
in reforming society, you know, moral reformation, and as I said,
I'm all for, you know. I hope the decrease in evil,
but I just it's not going to be now you're not going to reform.
And it's going to take regeneration and not reformation and regeneration. That's what's wrong with the
term reformation. It's regeneration that changes people. They brought
from the death to life. But as a movement, you know,
people are so interested in Paul told young Timothy, he said,
a soldier is not concerned with
the affairs of this life. Our Lord said, my kingdom is
not of this world. Remember when Peter, my kingdom
is not of this world. If it were, my servants would
fight. We'd try to save it. We'd use it. Here's the point I want to make.
Listen to this. God doesn't need or use worldly means to promote
his kingdom. God doesn't need or use worldly
means to promote his kingdom. In light of this, think of what
influence Christ could have had if he had used heritage. Huh? Herod could have taken him all
the way to Rome and put him in the forum. I mean, put him up
on the forum, which was, you know, the biggest. I had thousands
of people to hear this man. Well, let's put him, let's get
Herod in on this, you know. Go all the way to the forum and
we'll have a bigger audience that way. His brothers, remember
when his brothers came to Christ and said, if you be the Christ,
go do something, go make yourself known. Remember that? Make yourself
known. Christ didn't grant Herod an
audience, and he often told, he didn't need Herod, didn't
use Herod. He often told, remember how every
time he healed somebody, After he healed them, he'd say,
now, go home and tell your folks, but don't make it known. Don't
tell anybody who I am. Remember that? Boy, if that doesn't
go against soul winning tactics, huh? Let me put this in modern, the
way we can understand it. Do you think that God could give
somebody a million dollars in order to put Henry Mahan or
Maurice Montgomery on national TV 9 o'clock Saturday night on
NBC in order for 21 million people to watch him? Do you think he
could do that? I know men right now who could
do it right in check. Well, yes, we're going to get
this message out. That's not the way God does it. That's not. He's not out to save the world.
God doesn't use means. Means will get the glory. Let
me give you an illustration. I was watching a fellow on TV. I don't know when it was, this
fellow. If I said his name, you'd probably
know him. But he was talking about, we're right now going
through the greatest harvest the world has ever known. Harvest
outreach, it's called. We're right now experiencing
and going through the greatest harvest of souls the world's
ever known. Millions upon millions of souls
are being harvested for the Lord. He said, but... You know what's
coming up here. We've got a 1.1 million dollar
shortfall. You don't fall short. Shortfall. I mean, it's God harvesting,
but he can't come up with 1.1 million. It's going to be a shortfall. Scripture says the Lord's hand
is not short, but he can't say he is. Huh? You see what I'm saying? God's
King is not of this world. He's not out to save this world.
Scripture says he shall not cry or cause his voice to be lifted
up in the street. Why not? Why? Because he's not trying
to get everybody to believe on him. He could put a man on a
knife and say, what's wrong with him? Nobody from nowhere worked in
a steel mill named Walter Gruber and sticks him down on the backside
of a desert thing made of the Yucatan and saved people all
over the place. Driving a little car up in the
villages up in the middle of nowhere, you know, man up a tree
or by a well or whatever. That's how God does things. Why? God's going to get all the glory
that way, not national television. and not Herod, because he's using
his influence. God's kingdom is not of this
world in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Doesn't need the
means of it, doesn't use the means of it. No sir. Who hath despised
a day of small things? God uses small things. Whittle him, whittle Gideon's
army down. Got too many, Gideon, you'll
say you did something. Well, how about we cut her down
to three pounds? Ah, get in, you've got too many. You'll say
you did something. You'll say you did something
for the Lord. Well, let her down. We ain't got nearly enough now.
Now you've got just enough. See that? Let's use somebody's
influence. No. God's kingdom, Christ's kingdom,
knowledge of this world. Secondly, Christ is known, or
makes himself known, only to those that he intends to save. of God's Word. John, remember
John saying that this is the revelation. I was in the Isle
of Patmos to receive the Word of God and the testimony, which
is the revelation. Well, it's just that. It's a
revelation. And Luke, look at Luke 10. Just a couple of pages
over Luke 10. This is good. Luke 10. We've been looking at this the
last two or three times we've been together. Luke 10. Verse
22, All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man
knoweth who the Son is, but the Father, and who the Father is,
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. See that? This thing's a revelation. Wow. Because God gets the glory that
way too, doesn't He? God gets the glory that way.
Wait a minute, don't leave there. Look at the next verse. This
is even better. He turned to his disciples and
said, privately, privately, blessed are the eyes
which see the things that you say. I tell you, many prophets and
kings have desired to see those things you see and have not seen
them, to hear those things and have not heard them. Why? Because,
well, do you see your calling, brethren? Do you? Not many wise
men of the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. And I really would love to see
a show of hands, but I'm not going to do it. I bet you there aren't, I bet
you there are a whole lot more or less college graduates in
here than otherwise. A whole lot less. There's some
in here who didn't graduate from high school. That's not many wives. Man, that's
flat. What about mighty? Anybody in
here ever owned a business? Mighty, powerful. Well, Henry,
you know. You didn't get rich anyway. You didn't call yourself CEO,
did you? CEO sword. Have a private office
with a glass and your name painted on it. I said, one employee,
Roberta. No, she had you. Well, what about
noble? Anybody have any nobility in
here? People keep tracing their family
tree. You know, they all wanted to find out that they come from
Ireland. That's true. I don't know what
the fascination is with Ireland. Ireland has a bunch, the Celtic
people are a bunch of absolute heathens. They used to go to
war naked. You want to do some studying about the old Celts?
That's how you say it, C-E-L-T-I, Celtic. They were absolute idol-worshipping
heathens that wore naked. A noble race, yeah. Yeah, your
ancestors ran around naked in the woods. Noble, real noble. Well, here's your calling, brethren.
God has chosen foolish things of this world, confound the world,
weak things of the world, confound the things, base things, things
that are despised, God has chosen. People from Corn Valley and up Elk Creek. Where in the
world is that? Who's ever heard of that place?
God asked, Can anything good come out of hell? Or Corn Valley,
can anything? What good is anything or anybody
from Corn Valley to this world? Nothing. But God sent His Son
to die for them. That's when Christ said, a few
times, that he rejoiced in spirit. Was it that? Thank you, Father,
you've hid these saints from the wise and prudent. These scholars,
you know, with their long phylacteries, and they know everything. They
don't know anything. But a common people knew him. You see, the truth God has chosen,
God has chosen. That's what's said there in 1
Corinthians 1, but God has chosen. That's who the gospel's revealed
to, that's who the truth is revealed to, those whom God has chosen.
It's not those who choose, it's God has chosen. The truth, Christ,
is a revelation of his chosen, and it's not by blood. John 1
says it's not by blood or nobility. Not by the will of the flesh,
not by the will of man, not by intellect. Can a man by searching,
Job asked, can a man by searching find out God under perfection?
He can't find him out at all. Not by intellect. It's God's
choice. It's in God's good time. It's
according to God's good pleasure. called grace is what it is, sovereign
grace. And lastly, what I see in this story here, that Christ
came not to call the righteous. He came to seek and to save the
lost, Scripture says. He said, not to merely convince
the confused or to answer the questions of the perplexed, but
to save the lost. You see the difference? He came
to save the lost, not answer the questions of the confused,
but save the lost. He came not to call the righteous
to higher and mightier and nobler pursuits. No, he came to call
sinners to repentance. He came to save sinners. I'm
talking about Bible kind of sinners, Romans 7 sinners, Lot type sinners, Jacob type
sinners. Bible kind of sinners. Huh? Syrophoenician woman sinners.
Dead dog sinners. Bible sinners, you say. You know
what I'm talking about when you say Bible sinner? I'm talking
about no good sinner. Nothing, helpless, worthless
sinner. Verse 11, I saw someone smile
when we read that. The last line says, He healed
them that had need of healing. I told you about that doctor
up in Kentucky that said he was getting tired of all these people
coming to him with a sore toe, you know, sore toe and their
bunions are killing them or, you know, their whatever. And
he said, he said, I've been tempted at times to go out in that waiting
room and holler and say, if there's anybody in here that's really
sick, I'll see you now. Otherwise, go on home. And that's
exactly what our Lord said. The well need not a physician,
but the sick. Christ came in this world to
save dead dog sinners. Not high pollutin', you know,
just people need a little help toward heaven, need a little
push. People need carryin' all the way. People that have that little
saying, how many times have we mentioned that? Footprints in
the sand? People that have that little saying, they don't need
somebody to carry them. They don't need a savior. They
ain't lost sheep. Lost sheep never made one step
toward heaven, did they? Well, they've gone the other
way. And it says a shepherd went out in the wilderness and found
them and put them on his shoulder. Oh boy, killed them that had
need of healing. And that's, you know, that's,
it doesn't describe this generation we live in, this rich, religious,
righteous generation of folk that they don't want or need
a sovereign Savior. Anybody you talk to, why do people
get mad? Why do people get mad when you
talk about God being God? Why? How could anybody get mad
at that? Would you mind telling me? Could
somebody tell me why or how anybody can get mad over talking about
an absolute sovereign Savior? I mean, doing all the saving.
How, why could anybody get mad at that? The only person getting
mad at that is somebody that doesn't need Him. Somebody wants to share a little
bit of the glory. That's a joke, isn't that right? That's the
only reason the person can get mad that you're talking about
God being on the throne, is somebody wants to sit there with him. Doesn't need him, doesn't need
a sovereign savior. The only way somebody can get mad at sovereign
mercy is somebody ain't guilty. You go to death row and tell them the king is sovereign
of the chosen. You reckon they're going to get
mad at sovereign mercy? chosen sure wouldn't. Grace,
the only person who wouldn't get mad at grace, the only person
who would get mad at grace is somebody who doesn't need grace.
Right? Imputed righteousness, somebody's
got a little one of their own. It just needs polishing up, patching
up. Isn't that right? But I tell you what, God's people
know who He is. Herod was perplexed. We know
who He is. Like you said to that woman at
the wedding, we know who we were. We know who he is. And like I
said, all kind of denominations, they say, well, some say he's
son of God, or some say he's like God, but not completely
God. Some say he's just a prophet,
like they say. He sure ain't God. And some say,
some say, some say, some say, some say. We know who he is. This is our God. That's what
Isaiah 25, my favorite verse, is saying, that this is our God.
We've waited for Him. He'll save us. God's salvation
is of the Lord. Well, God came, and what did
He do? He saved us. We know who He is, don't we,
John? He's God. Well, He's the Son of God. No,
He's God. Manifest in the flesh. Yes, God.
I know who He is. He's God. I'm not a bit perplexed
about who He is. I have no problem believing He's
God. He did only what God can do. I know he's Jehovah. I know
he is, because he's the Lord my righteousness. He's Jehovah
Sidkenu. I argued with, well, argued.
I asked those so-called witnesses if they know who Jehovah Sidkenu
was. They'd never even heard the name.
I said, you witness for Jehovah? What about Jehovah Radio, Shemar,
and so on? Never heard of it. You're witnessing
for Jehovah? I know who he is. He's Jehovah. Jehovah said, Kenneth, the Lord
our right. Surely shall one say, and the
Lord have our righteousness. Huh? You say that? You're not
perplexed, are you? Janelle, are you perplexed about
that he's Jehovah? Any doubt in your mind? I'm not
perplexed about that. I'm not perplexed that he's Melchizedek. Are you? Well, I think he might
be. He could be. I'm not in the least
bit perplexed about that. He's the priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. No father or mother, no beginning
or end of days. He's the great high priest. I
know he is. Yes, he is. He's the advocate for sinners.
He's Jehovah Jireh. God, my son, Jehovah-Jireh. Abraham said that to Isaac, Jehovah-Jireh. Why? Because God will provide
himself a lamb. I'm not in the least bit perplexed. And I can say with the Apostle
Paul, I know whom I have to leave. Can you? Joe, we don't have much
education, but he's made unto us wisdom. The world didn't give us a diploma from their high and mighty schools,
but I tell you, they don't know who they believe. I know whom
I believe, and I'm persuaded of it. Yes, sir. I know who he is. He's God. He's Jehovah. Now,
I'm at least a bit perplexed. Are you convinced, absolutely
convinced? Well, I hope that's got something
out of that. A little side story there, just
a little brief mention of this fellow, you know, this king,
perplexed by those peons and peasants, if you know who he
is. All right, blessed—flesh and
blood didn't reveal it to you, the father but his neighbor.
All right, let's stand. John, would you dismiss this
in prayer? He came to earth to save us,
to assist us. He came to judge us about four
years ago. It was my dream to go. He came
to earth to save us. I believe that we can do it in
Christ. Father, we pray that you would,
as you do after you go to earth, keep our hearts and our faith
on Christ. Amen. Amen.