All right. Now, let's open our mouths to
Acts 19, Acts chapter 19. Continue our studies here. Acts 19. Another difficult portion
of scripture. We need to pray. For me, pray for yourselves. The Lord will give us something
out of this. Acts 19, let's read the text,
verses 13 through 20. And you know, this is right,
Paul was in Ephesus, and this is right on the back of those
strange happenings of men given the Holy Spirit and languages
and prophecy, and Paul was sick being healed by miraculous means. Verse 13, Then certain of the
vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which
had evil spirits, to call over them the name of the Lord Jesus,
saying, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of
one Seba, a Jew, chief of the priests, which did so. There
were seven sons of this chief priest named Seba. And the evil
spirit, after they said this, the evil spirit answered and
said, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? And the man
in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and
prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked
and wounded. And this was known to all the
Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on
them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified. and many that believed came and
confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used
curious arts or the sorceries and witchcraft and astrologies
and so forth brought their books, their enchantments and so forth
together and burned them before all men and they counted the
price of them or what they could have been sold for, the value. of all of these books, and found
it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of
God and prevailed. Now, like last Wednesday's message,
this is tough, these mysterious things here. But Paul wrote in
the Romans that everything is written for our learning. And
God wouldn't have put it there were it not for a purpose and
were it not for our good and our learning and beneficial to
us, right? It doesn't just take up space.
And there must be some relevance to us now, right? There must
be something relevant to our day. Yet I confess sometimes
I just do not know how a particular passage relates to us. The one
before us concerns the seven sons of a man named Siva, men
who attempted to, using the word exercise, or cast out demons
in the name of Jesus. Look at verse thirteen again.
It describes these men as being vagabond Jews, certain of the
vagabond Jews. Vagabond means men who wandered
about. Wandering Jews is what these
men were. Doing what? I don't know, but
evidently they wandered from town to town, perhaps to practice
this exorcism, expelling of demons and spirits
and so forth. At any rate, these Jews, these
religious fellows, wandered from town to town, vagabond Jews. That kind of reminded me, when
I read that, it kind of reminded me of some of these traveling
tent preachers with all of their claims of Pentecostal power and
Holy Ghost revival and so forth, able to do so many things, you
know, traveling salvation show. It kind of reminded me of them. And that must be what these fellows
are. And it says that they took upon themselves, look at it,
took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name
of the Lord Jesus." Now, here's the key to this verse, I believe. It says that they took upon them
to call over these evil spirits. They took upon themselves to
try and cast out evil spirits by the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now, turn over to Mark chapter sixteen with me. Mark chapter
sixteen. This is a favorite scripture
of vagabond Christians today. Tongue-talking, snake-handling
vagabonds that wander about. This is their favorite passage
of scripture. That's about all they know, I
believe. That's about all they know. John 3, 16, Romans 10, 13, a
few others. But they love these passages.
And I do, too. But they sure do confuse these
passages. Mark 16, let's read down through
here, verses 14 through 18. Afterward, the Lord appeared
unto the eleven as they sat at meat. Now, there's a key, isn't
it? He's talking to his disciples, so it immediately applies to
them. As they sat at meat, he upbraided them with their unbelief
and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which
had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Now, it doesn't
say, he that seeth signs and is brought to wonder and amazement
and has a supernatural experience and is baptized with the Holy
Spirit. It doesn't say that. It says, he that believeth the
gospel. That's the first order of business,
isn't it? And if a man's not doing that, whatever else he's
doing afterward is bogus. It's not of God. This is what
they went—this was their purpose in going, and this is what they
did. The first thing they did was
preach that gospel. And he that believeth the gospel
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall
be damned, and these signs shall follow afterward. These signs shall follow them
that believe. In my name shall they cast out
devils." Now, we're reading that. We have read that already. We've
already read of that. Philip cast out a devil in Appella
and some other places we've already read in the Book of Acts. They
shall speak with new tongue. That's the word is languages.
It always is. Wherever you see tongues in scriptures, it means
languages. It means a discernible language. And whenever it says
a new tongue, it means one that they had not before known. It's
not one that nobody speaks in, but it's one that the apostles
or the disciples that were going to preach had never learned before.
Say a man like Paul was going into, say he came over to North
America and was going to preach to ancient people back then,
whoever was here, if it wasn't And he had to know the language
in order to communicate, right? It was new to him. He wouldn't
have known it. He wouldn't have been able to learn it anywhere.
So God immediately gave it to him. All right? And this happened.
These signs followed. These preachers of the gospel.
And look at verse 18. They shall take up serpent. Now
the word take up does not mean pick up. It does not mean pick
up. It's snake handling. It doesn't
mean they'll show off their faith in front of everybody. It means just what Paul did.
He said, take away. Take away is what the word means.
I challenge you to look it up in your report. It means take
away serpent. In other words, if there were serpents, Paul,
you remember he was gathering sticks for the fire on that island,
Melita is that it? And he reached down to gather
sticks to put in a snake, grabbed ahold of his hand and he, you
know, Paul saved somebody else's life, didn't he? Whoever else
would have gathered sticks for the fire would have gotten bit,
but Paul got bit instead. That reminds me of somebody,
the Lord himself. He'll take it away. Paul shook
it off into the fire. He didn't say, look here, guys,
look, I can handle this thing. Kiss it. Wrap it around his neck. See, I got faith. You need to
have this. That's blasphemy, isn't it? It's
ridiculous. Paul shook it off immediately.
I bet you it scared him. Ain't a man alive that's not
scared of snakes. I don't care how macho he thinks he is. I bet it frightened Paul at first.
He threw it down and the men were waiting around. Evidently
it was like one of those little green snakes over in Africa that
meant it'd bite you. You're dead. And these island
natives saw that happen to Paul and they just said, well he's
coming. They waited on him to die and nothing happened to him.
And they thought, hey, this man's from God, or the gods are among
us, or something. He says, this is no ordinary
man. And God used that for them to listen to what he was saying.
He gave authority to what he was going to say. He said, and
he went on to say, I'm not God, but there's one God. And he sent
me, and this is the message from God, and preach the gospel to
them. But all that's going on today in this, using this passage,
is handling snakes. That's all they're doing. They're
not preaching the gospel. They're handling it safe, and they're
getting bitten, and they're dying, too. But it doesn't mean that you'll pick
them up and show off their faith. No. I mean, take it away. Take
away. Just what Paul did. That happened. That was fulfilled.
And if they drank any deadly thing, and it was said in Jewish
history that the man Matthias, remember who the apostles elected
as apostle to replace Judas, that in Jewish history has a
case of him being poisoned by his enemies and it not having
an effect on him. Things like that. Doesn't mean he's going
to drink poison to show everybody what great faith he has. You
know they're doing that today? Drinking strychnine? Did you
know they do that, John? And they're dying, too. And they
deserve it. It's not what this is talking
about. This is being fulfilled. And they drink, and it shall
not hurt them. They'll lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
All right? These things were fulfilled during the course of
the apostles' ministry. And the only reason for these
things was to validate their preaching. To validate their preaching.
They preached first, and these things followed, these miracles
followed, and it gave credence to what they were saying. Credentials.
To prove that they were sent from God. And like I said, some
others did this besides the apostles. There's not many, but there are
a few, like Philip. And I didn't look up anybody else, but there's
some others. And these were men, and the ones like Philip were
men that were directly anointed by the hands of the apostles
themselves. Right? You look that up, see if it isn't
so. And all of these miracles were granted to men going in
all the world to a people, a people and they were ignorant of the
language of the people. They went like Paul to that island
to a hostile people, cannibalistic people. Hostile? You know what
I'm saying? A strange man come in and stand,
and the Lord gave them miracles and signs to get the attention
of these pagan, especially these superstitious people and all,
you know. That's the reason at times they
thought Peter and the boys were gods. These miracles and so forth. But it made these people that
would have slain them and maybe eaten them sit up and pay attention. Do you see that? Hostile people and signs and
wonders that caused the people to hear what they were saying. Miracles that gave authority
to the Word at a time when there was no Bible. People didn't have
a Bible. But these signs are no more.
No more. They are no more. Our Lord said
it, didn't he? He summed it up. He said, now
an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign
shall be given. You know what I'm saying? No
sign shall be given. But what? One sign. It's the one sign that amends
from God. What is it? He preaches the gospel. He preaches
the gospel. And that's the power of God that
works miracles. That's the miracle working power of God. We're going
to see that in a minute. And that we have a more, the
scripture says we have a more sure proof of calling infallible
standard to judge preachers and preaching and so forth. The word
of God. The word of God. Now, listen
to me. Stay with me. I've already lost
some of you. Lord help us. As in the days
of Moses, you remember when those Janice and Jambres and those
sorcerers and all, they withstood Moses and they imitated his tricks? Not his tricks, but the miracles
that the Lord gave Moses, do they imitate that? You remember
that? Well, there's signs and wonders
being going on today. Going on today, that's it. God said he sent them. Strong
delusions. Strong delusions. God said, they're
looking for a sign? I'll send them. Strong delusions. The Scripture says this, though,
to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
my word, it's because there's no light in them. No light. Christ is the light. It's not
in them. He didn't send them. No understanding.
No gospel light in them. Don't believe a man is sent from
God because of these signs' sake. There may be strong delusions.
Believe a man is sent from God because of the gospel's sake.
That's it. The truth's sake. And that may
be the lesson we're to learn here in Acts 19. That may be
the lesson. I said, I don't always know why
something's put in there. That may be the reason that it's
there for us. Now, all these fellas did, Back
in the text, they did it in Jesus' name. Does that sound familiar? They
cast out devils in Jesus' name. Tried to. They didn't have much
success. But they tried to. Does that
sound real familiar? Christ said, many are going to come to me
in that day. And I think most of them are going to be from
our generation. Most of those many are from the 20th century,
because they've multiplied. all over the place, casting out
devils and demons and so forth. They're not casting them out.
They're doing His work. But our Lord said, many will say, Lord,
Lord, Lord, we preach, we cast out devils. It didn't mean one
for you. In your name. He said, I never knew you. I
never sent you. You took this on yourselves.
These men took it upon themselves, didn't they? And He might say
to these fellows, you didn't care for the truth. You didn't
care for my glory and honor. You didn't care for the truth.
The scriptures wasn't good enough. You never preached it. But you
were like old Simon Magus. All you wanted was power. Now,
evidently, look at verse 13. It says these men were exorcists.
Evidently, they had some success, or they had done this in the
past. They were Satan's exorcists.
They were employed by him to delude the people. And in fact
they were doing his work. But evidently they had some success
in other towns. But here's the key. They hadn't
used this name before. Now they were taking on their
lips that name which was above everything. The name of God's
Son. And God didn't take kindly to
it. And he's about to show them that
you don't take that name on your lips without suffering severe
consequences. It says that they said to this
demon, or these demons, we adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. Now evidently they didn't preach
it. They didn't preach Christ. Did you see that? Evidently they
just heard this name. They didn't know the Lord, nor
preach Him, but they were just trying something new. Somebody
said that this Jesus, here's another God, here's another,
let's try this. Somebody said that this Jesus, possibly this
will work, try that. Okay. Like Hocus Pocus domino
machine. We adjure you by the name of
Jesus. Who that is, we don't know, but
another God in Paul preaches it. Be gone. And look what happened. Verses
14 following. There were seven of these fellows
ganged up on this one demon. Surely it was the seventh and
had a one. And they were sons of this chief priest, verse 15.
That didn't hold any I thought he either did it. Verse 15, the
evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. Evidently, you
don't know him. Do you remember that demon that
was in, named Legion? It was in that man, and the Lord
cast him out in the swine. Remember what he said? We know
who art thou art. The Holy One of God, they feared
Him. Jesus, we know. And we bow and
we do His bidding. We go when He says go, and come
when He says come. We know Him. He's the Holy One
of God. He's Lord. He's sovereign. He's ruler. He's Lord over devils. Jesus, we know. Heaven and earth,
you don't know Him, though. Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know,
because Jesus sent this Paul. But who are you?" And I can hear
their sinister laugh now. It flew into those fellas. I'd
like to be around. I wish this would happen now,
don't you, Greg? I'd love this to be on TV. One of these fellas. Wouldn't you? These fellas running
naked out of the service. Huh? The people would attribute
that to the Holy Spirit or something, wouldn't they? Well, they really
got it now. They would. Oh, I'd like to see that. You'll
see it someday. We'll see them all standing naked
before the Holy Throne of God Almighty for Him to mash under
His thumb. I never knew you. And we'll all
say, Amen. Amen. Get rid of these guys.
read on. And they overcame them and prevailed
against them. They fled out of that house naked
and wounded. And this was known, verse 17,
to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear
fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified now. I bet nobody's running around
saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. They heard these fellows utter
that name and severe consequences. The only time people were using
that name from here on out was in, Oh Lord Jesus have mercy. The name of the Lord. Two things
I want to dwell on in the remainder of this time, just about 15 more
minutes. Let's read on. Verse 18 says, And many that
believed came and confessed their sins and showed their deeds,
came clean. They came naked before God. And many of them also, which
used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them
for all men, counted the price, and it was fifty thousand pieces
of silver. Verse twenty, So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Verse seventeen says, The name
of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Verse twenty says, His word and
the word of God grew and prevailed. Those two things I want us to
dwell on. These are two keys here. Two keys that will let
us see some things and understand some things that we might not
understand before. Two keys. Two keys to understanding. Two keys whereby you may know
the truth from the false. Two keys. The name of Christ
being magnified, the Word of God growing. Two keys now, right
here. Two keys whereby you may know
a man is from God or a thing is from God. Christ's name is
magnified, the word of God grows and prevails. Two keys. And these
are two glaring faults, two things you will not find in modern religion
today. The name of the Lord Jesus being
magnified and the word of God growing and prevailing. Two keys. The name of Christ in our day
is not being magnified. The word of God is not growing.
It's diminishing. The name of Christ is not being
magnified. The name of the Lord being magnified,
number one. The vast majority of everything
being said and done in religion today is not being done or said
that the name of the Lord be magnified, is it? It's being
done that the name of the preacher be magnified. It's obvious they
got his name everywhere. It's obvious it should be. I'm
glad it's obvious to you. God has revealed that to you.
Some people, for the life of me, I cannot understand how the
people fall for some of these dudes they're falling for. Do
you? Brother John and I were laughing.
Well, it's sad, really. It's pitiful that this dude that's
on that religious channel walks around like Alfred Hitchcock.
Have you seen him? He looks just like Alfred Hitchcock.
Doesn't have a Bible in his hand? And he's cracking jokes, and
he's just, he's a fool. An utter fool! And that church
house so-called is full, isn't it, John? This is full. That's
the place we're all lying there and laughing on the floor, by
the way. I want to lie down and laugh, too. Maybe if we were
there, we'd lie down and laugh, too. Comedy show. The name of the preacher's being
magnified. It's not being done for the glory of Christ, giving
him all his due and in his name, but the miracle worker, he's
getting all the glory, isn't it? It's obvious. Benny Hinn
and these fellows, they're getting all the glory. Isn't it obvious? Blessed are your eyes, they see
this thing. Your ears, they hear the phoniness
of all that. The gospel isn't within a mile
of these places. And the essence of the name of
the Lord Jesus is not being magnified. The greatest glory of the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ—listen—the greatest glory of the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not his miracles, not his healing, not his providing
health and wealth and feeding the 5,000 and all that. Look over at Luke chapter 4 with
me. The greatest glory of Jesus Christ is not his healing the
body, or feeding the body, or his miracles, walking on water
and all that, which our generation is taken up with. His greatest
glory is his saving power. That's what he told Moses, wasn't
it, on that mountain? I'll show you my glory. He said,
I'll make my goodness pass before you. I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'll be merciful. I'll be
gracious. I'll save some people. Watch
how I do it. That's my glory. His greatest
glory. Luke 14. His greatest glory is
not feeding 5,000, but it's calling dead sinners to life. It's not
healing lepers, but healing spiritual lepers. Luke 4, verse 18, and
our Lord quotes this concerning Himself, from Isaiah, "'The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to.'" Look
at that. Even God's Son was sent to preach.
Preach the gospel to the poor, poor in spirit. "'He hath sent
me to heal arthritis.'" Well, He does that, but that's not
why He came, to heal the brokenhearted. broken apart. To preach what? Health and wealth? No. Deliverance
to the captive. Deliverance from sin. Deliverance
from the law. Recovering of sight to the blind,
to the physically blind? Oh no, they're going to get old
and get cataracts and they're going to go blind. No matter
what. The spiritually blind are going to have their spiritual
eyes restored. And to set at liberty them that
are bruised. Bruised in the hip? Now, wounded
in the heart to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You see that,
don't you? That's why Christ came. His name
means that. It means all these things. That's
His essential person at work, the Lord Jesus Christ. And His
name is not being magnified, is it? It's being called. It's
being used. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is being used today like somebody would use a rabbit's foot. A
religious prop, because you've got to say certain words, you
know. His name is not being magnified. When you magnify something, what
do you do? You say, right. Good, John. You
enlarge it. Do you have a magnifying glass
at home, Valerie? It brings things to clearer light,
doesn't it? So that you might fully see them. You might see them more fully.
It enlarges them. so that you'll see what they—under
a microscope, things become—you see things that you don't see
with the naked eye, right? And to magnify the Lord's name,
the Lord magnified—what does it mean? It means more than just
say, Jesus is Lord, like Kenneth Copeland. That fool. That's a
despicable fellow if I've ever seen one. They're taking his name and banging
people. You better believe it. They're taking his name and banging.
God's not going to hold any of them guiltless. It means more
than just using that name. It means magnifying it. Lord,
what does it mean, preacher? Tell me what it means. You've
got his name on your lips now. Tell me what it means. Preach
him as Lord. What does it mean? It means he's sovereign. He's
absolutely sovereign. You don't make a sovereign anything,
do you? Sovereigns aren't made king. They're born king. Right? No man was ever made king. No,
it comes down through the lineage. You're born king. If your daddy
was king and you're a prince, you're going to be next king.
Well, I'm here to tell you, this is the Son of the Most High God,
and God has given Him all. He's king. He's Lord. God hath
made this same Jesus Lord. Who does it now? Whose job is
that? It's not your job, God. We do
this. Isn't that the most blasphemous
statement a man could utter? Make him Lord? Let him be Lord? You see, these men aren't preaching
the name. They aren't magnifying the name,
are they? They're using Lord, but their
hearts are part of believing that. And people are far from
worshiping Him as Lord. Lord, Absolute Sovereign, Ruler,
Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Buried God of Buried God. Jesus! Oh, we love to use that name.
What does it mean? God's the one that named Him
that. Isn't He? Isn't the Lord God from heaven
the one that named Him that? Call His name! What do we call
Him? Mary and Joseph. I've already
picked His name out, God see. I've had his name picked out
before time began. Call his name Jesus. Oh, that
sounds good. It means something. Savior. He shall save. You going to call
his name Jesus? You going to call on the name
of Jesus? You going to use it in your preaching? Preaching as
Jesus, Savior. Preaching that he shall save
his people from their sin. Or else, if they're believing
on another Jesus. If he can't save unless they
let him. Wrong Jesus. Right? You know, we've heard this message
so much, and we take it for granted. The world needs to hear what
you're hearing tonight. Because the world is out there
believing on another Jesus. And they're going to hell for
it, thinking they've got the right one. That's how serious
this is, isn't it? The name of the Lord Jesus is
magnified in this place. Magnify! Let's bring it to full
might. What does Jesus mean? Savior!
He shall save, not try. He shall save. Who? Anybody that
lets Him know. His people. He's the covenant
head, sent by the Father. He's the shepherd of the sheep.
He's got a sheep, rest your goats. That magnifies His name, doesn't
it? It magnifies His honor, His glory, His power. His name's got to be magnified
if you're going to use it, or else you're using it in vain,
aren't you? Jesus. It means the lamb slain, the
Passover lamb, the blood atonement. Blood's being taken out of preaching
today, and it's all lovey-dovey Jesus and God and all this. Blood. Call his name Jesus. Why? He's going to be a bloody
mass of flesh to take away sin. Christ, what does that mean?
The only acceptable one by the Holy Father. The only anointed
one, and you're only anointed in through him. The only man
approved of God. The only one God accepts, and
you're only accepted in through him, because of him. The substitute. The representative. The Messiah.
The Christ. The go-between. The mediator. The days went betwixt us. One
got his hand on God and some men. The Christ, our Christ,
the Son of the living God. Go to God for us. Don't let God
speak to you. You go for us. You're the only
one He'll hear and accept. Magnify that name. It's not being
done today, is it? Not being done. Well, wherever
you find the name of the Lord Jesus being magnified, and it
creating in the people a fear of the Lord Jesus, that's where
God is, and that's what God's doing. He's in that. Count them. That's what happened here, wasn't
it? All right, verse twenty says,
So mightily after all this grew the word of God and prevailed. God himself said there in Psalm
138, he said, I've magnified my word even above my name. I've always liked that verse,
haven't you? He upholds all things by the word of his power. And
it's glorious, incomprehensible that the word and his name are
the same thing. It's one and the same person.
The word is his name. That's that name that everybody
doesn't know that he's got written on his thigh. Over there in Revelation. The word. That only a few know
that he's given it to. And only a few know the word
of God. They see the word of God in the word of God. Right? If you do, oh, you're blessed.
God has made known. God has shined in your heart.
He's given light and knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus. He's shown his word into your heart. written
a word on your heart. What's that? Just so you can
quote Psalm 23. Now he's put Christ in your heart. So you
see Christ in the word. Jumps out at you. Word. Christ.
Different words jump out at you. Christ. Christ. Christ. Everywhere.
So it keeps you looking to Christ. The Word of God growth. He said,
I magnified it. A man may say he's come from
God and believes God and is a Christian and uses his name and prays the
Lord and prays Jesus and all that. But the Scripture says
that he speaks not according to this word. If anything he
says or does is contrary to God's Word, God didn't send him. Do you see how the Word of God
is being disregarded in our day? Just totally disregarded. Do
you see that? You know, and we Much to our
shame, we take for granted the fact that we just pour through
the Scriptures. Just pour through them. Like
I said, we've already gone through seventeen books in five years. Just pouring over verse after
verse, returning to Scripture. Like I said, half of the messages
you hear from me and other men are just so full of Scripture.
Just dozens of Scripture that you might not even recollect,
but being quoted for your sake, so you won't have to look them
up. Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture. That the word of God
is being disregarded all over the land. That's the reason for
all this other nonsense that's going on. That's the reason for
it. That's the reason for all this
blasphemy and heresy and all these evil practices going on
today. The word of God's gone. And men are susceptible to anything.
Right? That's what he said to Cain in
the very beginning. He said, sin lies at your door.
You're going to be susceptible to anything because you receive
not the love of the truth. He said he sent strong delusions.
And it's getting wilder and wilder out there, isn't it? Wilder and
wilder because the Word of God is not growing in use, but it's
diminishing. The Word of God is God's power.
And if men—listen to this now, just a few more minutes. If men
really believed the Word of God was His power, they'd be using
it, wouldn't they? Joe, men say they believe the
Bible. I believe the Bible. Then why don't you preach it, man? Scripture says it's the Word
of His power. It says He's quickening. It's life-giving, soul-saving,
life-changing. It's His power. They don't believe
it, John. They can say all they want to.
If they believed it was God's word, they'd preach it. If they
believed it's sharper than a two-edged sword, like a hammer that breaks
a rock in pieces, trying to get through to people, they wouldn't
try to give it some tricks. They'd preach the word of God
and call on God. Bless your word. You said it's
powerful. Use your word. Right? They don't believe it. And they haven't experienced
it. And they don't know it. If they'd experienced it in their
own heart, they'd know, this is what changed me. It's the
only thing that's going to change another old sinner just like
me. Right? The only thing that could get
a little wild, hill-bound, wild-assess coat like me, a prodigal son,
back, bring him back to the Father, was the Word of God Almighty.
Nobody corralled me or pigeon-holed me, whatever that means, and
tricked me and wooved me and put ten-dollar bills under the
seats and came in a bus to get me. The Word of God came in its convicting
power and did what nothing else could
do—slowly. If men had ever experienced that
in their own hearts and lives, they'd know this is the power
of God's only thing God uses, and they'd use it. And those that are using it today
or profess to, they're twisting it, and they've interpreted They've
translated it away. They've got them a little translation
that's so far removed from the original that it doesn't even
resemble it. Taking away its meaning, taking away the fence
of the cross. Isn't that right? Take this tape out. I'm telling
you, our generation needs to hear this. The Word of God is
not growing, it's diminishing in our day. All your blessed
if the Word of God is growing in your midst. The Word of God, so you find
the place where the Word of God in its purity, its naked truth,
unabashedly, unashamedly being proclaimed just as loudly and
as dogmatically as it can be, that's where God is, John Sheasley. That's where God is. That's where
God's man is. That's where God's people are. And the Word of God will prevail.
I like that. Don't you like that word, John?
The Word of God grew and it prevailed. Not the preacher, not the soul
winner, the word of God prevailed. The word of God. In closing now, listen to this.
Some people, to some people, he said, an evil generation seeks
after a sign. That's our day, isn't it? God's
given them signs. Strong delusions. They're believing
a lie and being damned for it. To some people, God leaves with
an impression on their mind, a miracle. To other people, He
impresses the Word on their hearts. There's the difference. Some
people, He leaves them with an impression, being impressed with
a preacher or the miracle on their mind. But to His people,
He writes the Word on the tables of their hearts. The word of
God alone will prevail. He said in Isaiah, my word will
accomplish that whereunto I have sent it. It will not return,
boys. And he says to the preacher of
it, the true preacher of it, go preach the word. Preach it. And they that believe and are
baptized shall be saved. Now those are impressive miracles.
They that believe the word. The Word of God, Christ's name
magnified, the Word of God growing and prevailing. All right, stand
with me. Lord, we are blessed people,
blessed of blessed people among men. We are just like Mary of
old, highly favored among men and given a glorious treasure,
an unspeakable gift. the Son of God himself, the Word
of God concerning the Son. Not all men have it, Lord, but
you've entrusted us with this gospel, given us this glorious
treasure in earthen vessels. We're not worthy of it. We're
not capable of handling it, but bless God you've given it to
us. God forbid that we should misuse it or mishandle it or
not preach it. Lord, enable us to always treasure
this treasure. always esteem it for what it
is, the greatest gift ever given to man, the gift, the knowledge
of the Son of God through the Word of God. In His name we've
met together tonight. Amen.