leave from Habakkuk 3 verse 2
which says, O Lord, revive thy work in the
midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make
known. In wrath, remember mercy. Revive
thy work in the midst of the years. Do you know what those
years are? We are in the midst of those
years. Paul talked about perilous times, times when men turn away their
ears from the truth and the fables, when many depart from the faith,
and on and on the description goes of the times we live in.
We are in those years, and he says, revived. in the midst of the year. Make known. All right, over in
Hebrews chapter 11. Turn back over there, please.
Hebrews 11. I told you Wednesday night I
thought I was going to preach from Mark 5 on the demoniac. Well, I thought Until my pastor
preached to us Wednesday night. And he just made mention of the
word. Of this passage here in Hebrews
11 and it really captured my attention. And so I thought we'd look at
this this morning. This is a life or death. Message
as all of them are. Life or death. Let's dive right
in. Look at verse twenty-four. It
says, By faith Moses. By faith Moses. And you'll notice that all the
way through this chapter It says, by faith, by faith Abel, by faith
Enoch, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah, by faith Moses, by faith
Isaac, by faith Joseph, Jacob, so on and so forth, by faith,
by faith. We call this chapter the Hall
of Faith. That's a good way to remember
it, the Hall of Faith, a testimony of those who believe God. Not believe in God. There's a difference. That's the difference between
true faith and false faith. Didn't James say, you believe
in one God, you do well? There's one God. But he said
the devil believes in one God. And trembles. He's not saved
by that faith. So believing in God is not saving
faith. It's believe God. Believe God
to believe God is God. Moses believed God was God. Not that God wanted to be God,
if Moses let him. Huh? Did Moses believe that? Is that the voice that Moses
heard out of that burning bush? Now Moses, if you will accept
me, is that it? Oh, no. The voice he heard was
Moses, take your shoes off. Get down. I am that I am. And you will do what I say. I am God. Beside me there's none
else. I am God. Moses believed Christ. This is faith. This is saving
faith. Believing God is God. Not that he wants to be God.
A lot of people today believe in a God, but he's not God at
all. He just wants to be God. He can't
be unless you let him. You know, let go, let God, that's
what they say. That ain't faith. That's not
faith in fact. That's not God. God will work
and who will let it. If I'm not careful, I'm going
to stay right here on this point, because I don't, there's no subject
that excites me anymore than to talk about God being God. I mean, this is, this is, he
is. He that cometh to God must believe
he is God. Moses believed Christ. Moses
believed there was one way he was going to be able to live
or stand before this holy, consuming fire called God, and that was
by a blood sacrifice. Moses knew that. And that, not
lambs and bulls and goats, but the one God was going to send
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, the Christ. Moses
believed that Christ was his only hope to keep from being
consumed. What are you talking about? Moses
believed Christ. That's just what Christ said,
isn't it? Didn't Christ say that? Moses wrote of me. Abraham believed God. Believed
Christ. Yeah, yeah. Christ said, Abraham,
rejoice to see my day. And he saw it. And boy, he was
glad. Moses. By faith, Moses. Moses was a believer. Now how
do you know? How do you know Moses was a believer? By what he said? Well, Partly. If you'd heard him talk,
he would never say, God wants to do this, or wants to do that,
or I did this for God, or I did that for God, or I let go. He'd never say things like that. that he talked in terms of fear,
and trembling, and dread, and of the holiness, and the sovereignty,
and the majesty, and the power, and the glory, and the honor
of God, and his own nothingness, and worthlessness, and inability,
and helplessness. That's how he talked. You'd know
it if you heard him talk. You'd know. Just like you know
now. Those who believe God and worship
Christ only. Because that's who they talk
about. They see his glory, they talk of his glory, not their
own. They see Christ as their only hope, they talk of him as
their only hope, and not what they've done. Oh, you'd know
he was a believer by what he said. I mean, you'd, you could
tell the difference. His language betrayed him. You'd take note that he's been
with God. true God. But you know better, you know
what better showed it? His life. It says here, by faith, Moses. Look at verse 24 again. By faith, Moses did something. He did something. He refused
something, and he chose something. Now listen to me. Listen to me. Faith is not the cause of these things. Faith is a result of life. We just talked about that, didn't
we, in the Bible study. Faith is a result of life, not
the cause of it. A person is not saved because
they believe. They believe because God saves
them. It's like a child being born.
This is what our Lord was telling Nicodemus that day. That Jewish
ruler and master or teacher of Israel who didn't understand
the first thing, the fundamentals of faith. He said that which is born of
God is born from above. He said you don't, and Nicodemus
said Can I get back in my mother's womb and give birth to myself? No. You're born from above. Someone gives birth to you. And
as a result of that life given, everything else comes from that.
Repentance, faith, belief, works all come from that life. They're
not the cause of it. We understand that. Huh? We're not born of the blood,
of the will of the flesh, of the will of man, but of God. Born. My child, when she was
born. Now she didn't give life to herself by accepting me as
her personal father. Did she? When she was born, did
she accept me as her personal father? Therefore she was alive.
Is that it? Huh? What about crying, calling on
men? She called when that was her call. That's about
the extent of the believer's call, too. You know what? Groans that cannot be uttered. Was her calling on me, crying
to me? Does that give life to her? No! I gave her life. I planted that
seed in the womb, and that child came from me and her mother. Her mother travailed in birth
until she was formed. She had nothing to do with it.
She was passive in the whole thing of birth. She was forced
out of the passage. She wanted to stay. Her mom said,
no, go. And she came out against her
will. She came out what? Born. Life given by her parents. Same thing with the spiritual
birth. We have nothing to do with it.
And faith is result of it. And when a child is born, a child
of God is born by the incorruptible seed planted by God, when does
that happen? God only knows. The wind blows
where it is. Why? Why is that so? For no flesh
is going to glory. The preacher is not going to
glory. The preacher is going to say, Sherry, Sherry, Sherry
needs this message. When Sherry might not hear it,
it's going to be Bill over here. Bill's going to hear it. Sherry's
not going to hear it. Shoot an arrow at a bench. I
don't know who it's going to hit. God knows he's the one that
puts you home. No flesh is going to blow them.
And that seed goes in. The Word goes in. Well, when
does it, when does it plant it and when does it bring forth
life? When does it start to germinate? God only knows. Because He sends
the Holy Spirit. The rain, so forth. The water of that seed. And one
day, up she grows. Well, there's somebody dead,
alive. Their ears start opening. Eyes
start opening. where it won't be good in order
to stay awake during the service. All of a sudden, whoa, wow. You see that? Yeah. You hear that? Life has begun,
you see. What do they do? Call on the
name of the Lord. They call. Lord, would you have
mercy on an old sinner like me? They call. You see, that's not
the cause of life. by faith, Moses. I've got to
go. I've got to get on, OK? By faith,
Moses. You see, faith is not of ourselves. It's the gift of God, all right?
Let that be established. And faith is this, believing
God. Faith is trusting Christ, Him
and Him alone, as your salvation. Not yourself, Christ. All right,
now we talk about three things that faith does. True faith, saving faith. Faith refuses some things. And faith chooses some things.
Now once again, by grace you save, through faith, and that's
not of yourself. Nobody will refuse these things.
Nobody will choose these things unless they've been born of God.
Let's get that straight. Let's get the horse before the
cart here this morning, OK? If anybody refuses these things
like Moses, or if anybody chooses these things like Moses, it's
because God chose them. All right? God doesn't choose
them because they refuse. They refuse because God chose
them. All right, it says here in verse
24, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, when he was come
to years, forty years old, a man, a man, it says he refused,
here's the first thing, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's grandson. Who are you? Pharaoh's grandson. Do we realize what that meant
back then? What that would have meant? The honor? The favor? The influence? The esteem? to be known the world over, to
be somebody. Why? You're somebody, aren't
you? Yes, I am. I am. You know, that's at the
start of somebody that believes they're somebody. What are you? I am somebody. I saw some You know, men do these things
and not knowing what they're saying. I heard some fellow on
a commercial say something like, I do this, therefore
I am. Therefore I am. Pharaoh's grandson. Moses refused
the honor and the recognition of this world. The highest position
that could have been placed on a human being at that time would
be Pharaoh's son or grandson. The son of Pharaoh. There's nothing
to compare it to now. Prince Charles. Bill Clinton's son. I won't do
it. Who could you? There's nobody
like Pharaoh. Pharaoh was king of the then
known world. Pharaoh's son and grandson. Moses
refused that high honor. Well, there's a higher honor,
a much higher honor to be bestowed. And you'd smile if you knew what
I was talking about. I'm much higher on that. You
know, the most sought after thing by this world is not money. It's not money. That's why a billionaire will
run for the highest office on earth. It's not money. Well,
there's money in there somewhere. The love of money is the root
of all evil, but, you know, prestige, honor, esteem, the recognition,
the applause of man is the drug that men seek more than anything
else. You know? That's just what it
is, a drug. Power, prestige, to be somebody. to be somebody. And it takes
many forms. I mean, it can be as low as wanting
to be a member of the town council, you know. You can
think you're something if you're a member of town council or mayor,
you know, Mayberry. Well, do you covet recognition
or honor or title or applause or friendship or recognition
of this world? Anybody in here? You know what the Lord said about
the world esteeming us highly? He said, Woe is unto you if man
speaks well of thee. Now what does that mean? We better learn what that means.
Go to the next thing. It says he refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, refused that esteem and prestige
and honor of this world, recognition of this world. Verse 24, choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season. He refused the pleasures of sin
for a season, choosing something else instead. Now listen to him. Listen to him. Young and old
alike, listen to him. May you listen to God's word.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life is what plunges this world into the quagmire of sin and
filth that it's in right now. Our grandmother, great-great-grandmother
Eve, says the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life is what plunges this world into sin and destruction. And these things, if one is given
over to them now, will plunge the soul into hell itself. This is why God's gonna burn
this ball up with people on it. It goes deeper than a little
white lie. Now listen, young people, everybody,
there's no sin in pleasure. This is what religion will tell
you. That if it, you know, if it's
something pleasurable, it must be bad, must be evil, must be
wrong. God doesn't want you to be, to
enjoy yourself. That's just not so. Why would
he have created senses? Why do we create us without touch,
taste, smell, hearing, sight, and so forth, senses, which are
able to be enjoyed? Things are able to be enjoyed
by those senses. Doesn't it say, Vicki, that God
giveth us richly all things to enjoy? The whole book of Ecclesiastics
talks about this. There's nothing better for a
man than to work hard and enjoy things and so forth. Nothing
wrong with things. Sin's not in things. Sin's not
in enjoying things. But the flesh is weak. Here's
the problem. The flesh is weak and lusts against
the Spirit. So that a person is naturally,
by a natural bent of this flesh, is easily given over to these
things, totally given to these things, in such a way that that's
all they want, and to where they forget God, period. Just forget
God. And their God, this is the reason
the Scripture says their God is their belly. They want nothing
more than to satiate and please this body. And they've given
over to it. And when a man becomes that way,
he's nothing but an animal. Or a woman. You see, man is supposed to be
a higher, nobler creature than given over to nothing but vain
passion. You understand? Animals do that. Man is a much higher and nobler
creature. What is the end of the pursuit
of man? What is man created for? What's the end? No God. He was creating the image of
God. Now he enjoyed things. Didn't Adam enjoy things? Sure
he did. But he wasn't given to them.
He was communed with, lived with God. Now listen, do you hear the toll
of the bell here in this verse? Young people, listen to the bell
toll. It's time of the time clock here
in this verse. Read it again. Look at it. Verse
25, "...choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." For a season. That just rings loud to me. For
a while. Because everything on this earth
is just going to last a while. You ever heard that modern saying?
Life is short, play hard. Have you seen that? I'm sure
you have, young people. You've seen that, haven't you?
Who is that? That's some sports company in
it, Nike or somebody like that. Life is short, play hard. Well, half of that's true, without a doubt. Life is short. If you ... I'm 40 years old. This is unbelievable
to me. Isn't it, Deborah? Deborah's
41. Now, some people in here are 50's and they're saying,
that's young. And some people in their 60's
say, 50's young. Wish I was 50 again. And some
people in their 70's say, well, 60's a young little feller. Ain't
that right? We're smiling, we're laughing.
But I tell you, this ought to make us cry and tremble because
life is just paper. I ought to be Stephen's age.
I can't believe it. Deborah, I ought to be 18. And if the Lord doesn't come,
I'm going to say, just like tomorrow, I'm going to say, Debra, I'm
51. We're 51. And if the Lord doesn't
come, it's going to be like that, isn't it, Henry? I'm going to
say, Debra, can you believe this? We're 61! Isn't that right? We're going
to say Charles is dead, John's dead, Joe's dead, Henry's dead. They will be dead. They will
be dead. Why don't we listen? They're
going to be dead just tomorrow. For a season. When I was 18, born. Go! Get ready, set, go! Play hard. For a season. Gone. Gone. Over. It's appointed unto man once
to die, and if you believe anything, you have to believe these two
words. After that, everybody in here is going to die. Then
what? After that. This is what we better get serious
about. After that, this? Oh, life is short, right. We'd
better not be playing games. Don't play hard. Seek the Lord
hard, because after this, phew, then
what? I don't know and I don't care.
You will then. You will know. Real, no play games. Because
life is short. For a season. Next to honor and fame, next
to fleshly gratification and pleasure, this is it. This is
what men want. Verse 26 and 27, esteeming the
reproach of Christ's greater riches and the treasures of Egypt. Treasures of Egypt. By faith,
verse 27, he forsook Egypt. The treasures of Egypt. Do you
know what the treasures of Egypt are? Sure you do. You've got
a catalog. It is. It's the Egyptian Roebuck
catalog. It's got all the treasures of
Egypt in it. Palaces. Egypt. What was Egypt? Palaces. Art. Entertainment. Fashion. Taking up garments and beautiful
things. What about these chariots? I've got me a 123 BC chariot. Dodge chariot. Look at all the chrome. Funny isn't it? Things don't
change a bit. Don't change a bit. Egypt's all around us. And I
hope Egypt's not in us. Or we'll die in Egypt. Moses? Come out of Egypt. And all of my people. Egypt. Let me ask you this. Do you reckon
Moses was willing to give up the promised land for a better
chariot? Some people are. Those children
of Israel stand and say they'd rather have leeks and onions. Isn't that neat? Leeks and onions. Good food. They walk around out here in
the desert and suffer and all that stuff. To be a nobody. Well, let's see what choices
Moses made, OK? And see if these be your choices. These are the choices of faith.
This is what, and people, every one of God's true people refused
these things. Excuse me. Now, again, let me say, it's
only by grace. Only by grace Moses chose, made
these choices. Only by grace. But you know, and you know that
makes it so that a person doesn't have a choice. You know that? That's the grace
of God. He makes it so a person doesn't
have a choice. What would you rather have? Would
you rather have a real fine job and a real nice car or the gospel? What, man? You mean there's a
choice? There ain't no choice to be made. Right? Believer? Huh? Is there a choice? There
ain't no choice. What do you want? Christ, if
Christ be in us, the devil said, Christ said, here's the world,
I'll give you this, worship me. You say, he had a choice. Now
he's the choice. John was there a choice to be
made? You reckon Christ had to stop? If you don't stay away from the
gospel, you'll have a real fine Italian job, and you won't have it. Is the gospel there? No, but... Why, no choice. I don't have a choice. The chariot I've got may be broken
down, and it gets me to wear the gospel suit. That's what's
important. The suit I'm wearing may be ten
years old, but that's all right. I've got to go wear that noble
righteousness suit. That's the one I'm interested
in anyway. This is going to rot. A new one will too. Huh? This is what he said here
in verse, look at verse 25, "...choosing rather to suffer affliction."
Choosing affliction. Now, this religious world doesn't
have the foggiest idea what this is. This doesn't have the foggiest
idea. Choosing to suffer affliction.
What does that mean? Choosing to suffer affliction.
Well, listen. Contrary to popular religious
opinion, God does not promise his people health and wealth. God doesn't say anywhere in his
word, now if you'll just believe Jesus, all your troubles will
be over. On the contrary, he says the
troubles in this world are really going to begin now. This is the cross Christ said
man must sit down and count first. We talked to that woman about
it, didn't we? They've got such a fine position and prestige
and influence and Egypt coming in, you know, and all that. And
we talked to her about the effects of the cross, how that if you
believe Christ and stand for the truth and preach the truth,
men will hate you for it. Well, everybody loves them, don't
they, men? They wouldn't have a position they do in religion
if they preached this gospel. And she knew that too. And she
said this, I won't give up anything for this. She said that. But if you speak Christ, everything
is nothing. If Christ is all you, you will
give up anything for Him. You'll give up your family. Listen to me. Who does God love?
The one that's rich and increases the good. Who does God love?
Listen to this. Listen to this. Here's a fellow
named Job, and three, four fellows sitting around a fire. Job and
four fellows sitting around a fire. Who do God love? And here's four
fellows, they're real well off. Here's Job, he's scraping boreal. scraping laurels off his body. That's through God's love and
the blessings of God were on that man. And God said, if he
doesn't pray for you through you, don't. Here's a fellow named Paul standing
in rags and chains before a mighty Agrippa and his wife, and all
the courtiers, you know, the beautiful people. Here's this
little bald-headed bloke, you know, ugly, good-looking, high,
in chains and rags and standing, and he gets shot, you know. Who
was in the favor of God Almighty? Who was about to become rich,
really rich? Jacob and Esau. Esau lived a
life of ease and prosperity and trouble-free, didn't he? Nobody
was chasing him. There's a teller named Jacob.
He's lying out there on the fire, stoned for a pillar. He's got
his head on a rock. That's a good place to have your
head. That's a good place to rest.
As a matter of fact, that's the only place you will rest, on
a rock. He's resting on a rock, isn't
there, Rock? revealed himself to them. False religion says you don't
have to give up anything, religion's gone. Just join up, all your troubles
will be over, you'll be well off, happy, healthy, God doesn't
want you to suffer. Oh yeah, and this is it. Because we don't want to suffer either. But Christ said, What does he say? Christ said,
except you forsake all that you have. Father, mother, husband,
wife, children, your own life also. Why? Why? Is any of that proof of who you
really love? How are you going to prove somebody loves the Lord? If they keep blessing them and
they keep... Well, thank you. Keep blessing them like anybody
would, wouldn't they? Anybody would. I'll tell you
anyway. Bless, bless, bless, bless. Here's
a fellow that really loves God, poor God, and worships God as
God, not because he gives and he gives and he gives, he's not
a sugar daddy, he worships God. Job said, if he slays me, I'll
trust him. His wife said, curse God, look
at you, you're not God, I'm not blessing you, oh woman, you're
a speaking fool. If he slays me, I'll trust him. There's a man that God killed
all his children, or at least one of his children. There's
another man. God killed both his sons. He
had two sons only. God killed them both. God killed
them both. And the tidings came, and he
said, It's the Lord. They knew what to do. He says here in this verse 25,
look at it again, and it says, choosing rather to suffer affliction,
here's the next thing, with the people of God. Moses chose to identify with
the people of God. He refused to be identified with
Egypt and the world, but chose rather to identify with the people
of God. These are my people. Who? Who
are they? Well, who are they? My wife,
when she was a little girl, listen to this. You'll like this. When she was a little girl, she
was eleven years old. Young, young lady. She was eleven,
twelve years old. She went to school one day, and
some of her healthy, healthy friends, you know, used to be
those pretty little girls, you know. We'd go down to the medicine
shop. Everybody goes there. You know? And they said, she
said, well, I go to 13th Street Baptist. They said, well, who
goes there? They said, who goes there? She
said, I don't know anybody that goes there. You go there? No,
I don't go there. You go there? Nobody goes there.
Who goes there? And she said, here's my preacher
go there, and he preaches God to me. What else do you need? Who else
do you need? Who needs to go there? God better
be there. A preacher better be there. And a sinner. That's all it takes
for heaven to come down. And salvation to come to this
house. Let me ask you something, Mindy.
Where are those girls now? who went where everybody, somebody
went. There ain't no more nobody. With the people of God. You know,
Moses not only left Egypt, he left relationships in Egypt,
didn't he? Forty years. After forty years,
you can make a lot of friends. But a lot of friends can make
a lot of influences. You know, Sam, back up in Kentucky,
I used to have a lot of contacts. Now I just wear them. But I used
to have some contacts back then, some influence, some people I
could call here and call there. I knew where to go and I could
get a little, you know, I'd lose their inside track. Relationship, influence, family. Moses left his family, didn't
he? He called Pharaoh's daughter
his mother, didn't he? Oh, he loved that woman. Do you
think he loved that woman? Well, every blue-blooded son
loves his mother. Sure he did. He loved Pharaoh's
daughter, didn't he? He loved his grandfather. Pharaoh,
he loved him. His grandmother. Twofold. Twofold relationship. What'd he do? What'd he do? Well, Mom and Dad don't go down
there. Mom and Dad aren't going out there. You don't have to
go down there, Moses. Stay here. You don't believe that, but you don't
have to go out in the wilderness. Say you and I. Oh no. You mean you're causing me to
choose between you and God? I ain't no choice. I ain't no
choice. Isn't that right? Isn't that what Christ said?
This is what Christ said when he said, If any man hate not
his father, his mother, and so forth. To the world it appears
you hate them. And father and your mother can
forsake them for the gospel. They'll treat you like you hate
them. I told you about Walter Gruber
going to Mexico with his family, didn't I? Brother Walter Gruber.
The Lord saved him and called him to be a missionary to Mexico,
a pagan land down there. He had five children. Started at five or six years
old, went on down. They've been on. And he moved
to that disease-ridden, impoverished country of Mexico. Horrible place with no knowledge
of the language and no support. Quit his job at the steel mill.
Sold his house and moved to that land. And you know what his family
said to him? His daddy? His mother? Her dad and mother? You know
what they said to him? You don't love your children?
How could you love your children? How could you love your children? Every one of their children are
believers. Every one of them. And their children's children
are believers. What does that mean? Well, see,
they have a household of believers now. Did they give up anything? Nothing. This is what Christ said. Peter
said, Lord, we've given up all for you. What do we get? What
do you get? What do you get? Neither have entered into the
heart of man the things that God has prepared for them." We're
going to get the glory. Walter's going to get there and
say, I traded a good job and a good home. That's like trading
dung for pearls. I took a bag of cow manure somewhere
and got a sack of gold. Dung for poverty. That's what
Paul said, isn't he? So listen, I count all that dung
rubbish for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all time. This is
dung. This is dung. He left the psychic of, I have
to hurry, forgive me. He left the rich and the famous
for the poor and the unknown. He was in the life of, if old
Robin, whatever his face is, had been alive, he would have
done a special on Moses. Here is the son of the Pharaoh,
a life of the rich and the famous. He had done a tour of his palace.
He showed you his castle. He left all that. He left the
wise and the mighty for the ignorant and the foolish. He left the
somebody to be identified with a bunch of nobody. A bunch of
nobody. Joe, he left the doctors, the
lawyers, and professors to be associated with wagons, I believe. He let somebody, the professors,
become associated with bricklayers and labelers. Young people, listen, children,
Andrews, young people, Hannah, I won't go through you now, Andrews,
Hannah, all of you, the rich and the famous, the high and
the mighty of this world. They're notable. They call them
beautiful people. They call them the stars. They worth the rope and take
the hang. I'm telling you the truth, any
one of them. If those were anything, they wouldn't let anybody call
them the stars. Because there's one bright and morning star. There's one human, there's one
person ever lived that deserves recognition, Jesus Christ, said
by us, nobody. Go to heaven and you'll find
out who their savior and friend is. One person. It ain't Michael Jordan. He's
not going to be there. It ain't Celine Dion. She ain't
going to be there. Mary Magdalene's going to be
there. She's going to be standing here. Jesus Christ. He's the only one. Only one. Only beautiful person. We didn't
have the outward beauty. And most of these rich and famous
resorted to evil means to get what they got. Right? Old folks? Hearing? Old folks? Henry? Right? They resorted to evil
means. You're not honest hard work. You can't get rich by being
honest, can you, Henry? You can't say that, Henry. You're
a testimony of that, Henry. Some of y'all inherited it all.
They inherited it all. Dear old dad did evil things,
and then he gave them all they got. That's right. An example
is God gave them everything about them, the faculties they have. Do they give God the glory? Maybe
lip service. You know, if they win the World
Series, then they might mention God's name. The fact that they
can walk and not in a wheelchair. God gave them that. That's the reason not many wise
men at this place, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Why?
They're not giving God to nobody. Do you see who you're calling,
Brethren? Nobody. See, God made the world out of
nothing. And if He's going to do something
for you, you've got to be of nothing. Can't be of nothing. God doesn't take somebody. He
only takes nobody. You all right? That's right. Common folks. Common. But here's
the last thing. He restrained the reproach, verse
26, the reproach of Christ. What is the reproach of Christ? You think greater riches than
the treasure in Egypt. The reproach of Christ. What
is it? What I've already said. It's
the gospel. The gospel will make you an object
of this world's reproach. Religion won't. The gospel will. Listen to me
now. You believe the gospel. I'm talking
about the gospel. You're going to be hated. Christ said so. The offense of the cross. What's
being preached today is not offensive, and that's not the cross, not
the gospel. The deep gospel is offensive. Listen to me. He defends
man's self-worth. When you tell people that they're
nothing, they're one, the scripture says that. Worms, grasshoppers,
vanity are lighter than that. That offends man's self-worth,
Bob. It offends man's wisdom. We read
that this morning in 1 Corinthians 1. It offends man's wisdom. It's
a wisest man or a chance figure. It's got to be revealed to them.
God has to make it known to them. You don't figure it out, God
makes it known to you. And God reveals it to a truck
driver before you reveal it to a college professor. Well, you
reckon college professors like that? Why, no. That offends their wisdom. Now,
I'm smarter than him. Not that you don't know Christ,
you're not. You're dumb as, as Don would say, boxer rocks. You're out of your mind. A man's
that lunatic if he doesn't know Christ. He does not have his
right mind. He's out of his mind. That man understands all things.
You know what Scripture says, Sherry? He and his spirit will
understand all things. Now they don't understand what
I'm talking about right now. He does. Where'd this man get
his wisdom, having never learned letters? He is a good teacher, and amen. The Holy Spirit will lead and
guide unto all truth, while he hides these things from the wise
and the prudent, and reveals it to babe. You babe, Joe? Good,
Joe. Good, Joe. That offends man's
wisdom. is man's dignity. He's got to
come down. I don't care how high you are.
Naaman, I don't care if you are a captain. You're going to have
to get down in the mud. But I'm nothing is what you are. You're going to have to come
down. You see, Naaman the leper wasn't a great man who just happened
to be a leper. He was a leper. He just happened
to be a great man. And so is every man, woman, boy,
and girl born on this earth. Some of them aspire or attain
greatness, don't they? Well, they're lepers who just
happened by God's providence to become great, notable people
in this world. But that doesn't mean they're
God's people. And the last verse says, Moses
endured as still as him. Why would a man leave all these
things? How would a man leave all these things? Doctrine will
do it. If a man's got doctrine, he'll
leave even the doctrine. He'll leave the doctrine. It won't keep you. Doctrine won't
keep you. Head knowledge won't keep you. When you see him, you
know, you see Christ and then look at Egypt, there's no comparison. When you
see things afar off, you see what we have in Christ and look
at what we have You know what you're going to
have very shortly? Very shortly, you know what's
going to be rightfully yours? A six-foot deep hole. It's going to work all your life. For what? A six-foot deep hole. For Christ worked all his life. of the unsearchable riches. Pearls, I suppose, maybe. What do you refuse? I refuse.
Who is he that's better than you, sir?
All right. Joe, do you have a picture?