Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave? All right, we pick up our studies
in the book of Acts now. Chapter ten. Acts chapter ten. I fully intend to make this brief
as possible. Acts chapter ten. Let's read the first two verses. There was a certain man in Caesarea
called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian
Band. Centurion, just a moment here,
a centurion comes from the word century or sentiment It means
this man was a captain or a soldier over a hundred soldiers, centurion,
of the band called the Italian band, a devout man and one that
feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people
and prayed to God always. And that verse caught my attention. I thought about giving an overview
of the whole chapter because the whole chapter is one story
telling of this man's dream and of Peter coming to him as a result
of that dream and preaching the gospel to him and the Lord saving
this man, Cornelius. The whole chapter is about about
this man's salvation. But this verse caught my attention,
and I studied it, looked at it for a long time. I want to ask
you some difficult questions. I'm going to require you to do
a little thinking with me. All right? You need to do some
thinking, some scriptural thinking now. You need to think in light
of scriptures. It's the only way we need to
think anyway. We think any other way it's wrong. Question number
one. Can a man know God without knowing
Jesus Christ. Now I just read Romans one there's
a verse in there now you before you answer now you better you
better think what scripture said Psalm nineteen turn over to Psalm
nineteen. Psalm nineteen. I ask you, can a man know God
without knowing Jesus Christ? Most of you shook your head,
no. A person can know there is a
God and know something about God
apart from Christ. And this is what Psalm 19, and
we read it in Romans 1 also. Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens
declare the glory of God, or that is, his deity, something
of his power, his godhood, godhead that Paul talked about. The firmament,
the heavens, the earth and the sky above it shows his handiwork. Star, day unto day uttereth speech,
or that is, day unto day preaches the glory of God when the sun
rises A man ought to get up and say, God is, because night unto
night when the moon rises in its splendor, it showeth this
knowledge that God is. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. The glory of God in his handiwork.
Their line has gone out throughout all the earth. Look over at Isaiah
chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. study in the
Scriptures with me tonight. This should be profitable to
answer some difficult questions that people raise, and that you
may have these same questions. Isaiah chapter 1, and we know
he's speaking of the Israelites primarily here, and he says in
verse 2, "...Hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth, for the Lord
hath spoken." This is what God says. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his
owner, the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider." Children, is God the father of all men?
Turn over to Acts chapter seventeen. Acts 17, read verses 24 and following,
the end of this paragraph. Acts 17, beginning with verse
24, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands. as though he
needed anything. Now Paul was at Athens here. He was in Greece. These were Gentiles. These were
not Jews. As though he, seeing he giveth to all life and breath
and all things, verse 26, and hath made of one blood all nations
of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined
the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord God hath determined that they
should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and
find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in
him we live and move, talking about God, and have our being,
as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his
offspring. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like the gold and silver and so forth." The times of this
sickness God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. He hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
That's Christ, whereof he hath given assurance unto all in that
he raised him from the dead. God, the father of all men, in
the sense that all men are created in the image of God, not father
in the sense of God being their their heavenly father as Christ
called him as the believers call him those who have the spirit
of adoption. Some Christ said were of their
father the devil. But the sense here is that God
that all men were created in his image in that sense they
all sprang from God right. Now God can be known as God as
creator ruler sovereign. He can be known. This is why
men are held accountable to God. If God could not be known as
God and worshiped somewhat as such, then nobody would be accountable,
would they? God would be unrighteous to hold
them accountable for something that was impossible. This is
why men are held accountable, even though they haven't heard
the gospel. That's what Roman 1 said, because
when they heard or knew God, that's what he said, didn't he,
Rick? When they knew God, neither were thankful. They didn't worship
him as God, but became foolish in their imagination, didn't
worship God as God. God can be known as God, but
God cannot be known in the strictest sense of the word. Cannot be
joined to like Adam knew his wife Eve became vitally joined
to her intimately acquainted with. Introduced to acquainted
with associate with dwell with in love and affection and talk
back and forth with communicate with commune have union with
no God cannot be known like that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Right, that's what it says in 1st Timothy chapter 6. He said
this, you don't have to turn, I'll read it to you. I can't
quote it exactly, I want to get it right. He said this, God hath
immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
which whom no man hath seen nor can see. God no man can approach
unto, no man hath seen him nor can see him. That's God. In another place, in Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 29, Paul says, God is a consuming fire. And God is spirit. We're flesh. Right? God is spirit. We are
flesh. God had to be made flesh and
dwell among us. In order for us to know, really
become acquainted with, commune with, hear him speak to us and
us speak to him, and fall in love with him, and talk to him,
and be vitally joined to him, have him reveal his character
to us. God had to be made flesh, because
that which is flesh is flesh. You can't see into the spirit
world, right? That's what gives us so much
problem. That's what, that's what, that's the reason we have
so much trouble believing because we can't see. We generally go
by sight, but it says that just shall live by faith, not by sight.
We don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. So God had to be made
flesh and dwell among us. The only begotten, or that is
the only flesh born son of God, hath declared God. He hath revealed. He hath revealed. Now think about
this. If God can be known, that is,
really become acquainted with God, and you speak to Him and
Him speak to you and so forth, be joined to. If God can be worshipped
and ultimately go to be with, if you can ultimately go and
dwell with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, then the gospel's
a lie, isn't it? The gospel is a lie. Christ came
and lived and died in vain. And we're of all men most foolish,
aren't we, for doing all this? We don't need Christ. Why do
we need Christ? And this is why John said in
1 John 4, that every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh, that is, that God had to send his Son
down here to reveal God to to men. Every spirit or preacher
or person who doesn't confess that Jesus Christ was the preexistent
God and came down here, that's anti-Christ, against Christ. Don't need him. We can get there
without him, thank you. Fine. This is what all other
religions are saying, and all other religions are anti-Christ. All right? If you don't need,
if Christ, if we don't If Christ didn't need to come and reveal
the father to. Then we don't need. We don't
need. And that makes us anti-Christ. All right, question number two,
I asked you if God could be known apart from Jesus Christ. The
question is. Not vitally, not intimately,
not become acquainted with no emphatic, no, you can't know.
The character of God you can't speak to and that neither will
he speak to you or reveal himself to you. You can know there is
a God and men can worship him in what light they have. That's
the reason they're accountable. That's the reason God holds men
accountable. That's the reason men and women are going to go
to hell who have never heard the gospel before. Right? All right. That's what we believe. All right, question number two,
does God hear the prayers of those who don't know Christ? I told you to think about the
Scriptures. Did you read Acts 10 with me?
Chapter, the first two verses. Does God hear the prayers of
those who do not know Christ? Now, I'm not speaking of those
who have heard the gospel and rejected it. Now speaking of those, talking about those who haven't
heard and haven't believed in Christ yet, does God hear their
prayers? Huh? Everybody has a difficulty
with it. I admit I had difficulty. Let's
read verse 2 again, OK? Acts chapter 10. A devout man,
Canaanites, was, feared God with all his house, gave much alms
to the people, prayed to God always, He saw in a vision about
the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him,
saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on the angel,
he was afraid. And this is not Christ here, this is just an
angel. He was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? Notice it says
an angel, not the angel of the Lord. What is it, Lord? And he
said unto him, Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial
before God. look over chapter or look the
same chapter verses thirty four and verse thirty five. This is
tough now. We've got to study to show ourselves
approved. This is tough. How are you going to deal with
this? Somebody ask it to you. Acts ten verse thirty four and thirty
five. Peter opened his mouth, that is, after he heard of Cornelius's
dream and Cornelius came to him and and said, I want to hear
everything you have to say about God. That's what Cornelius said.
Cornelius did not know, had not heard the gospel and did not
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ yet. All right. Peter opened
his mouth and said, I have a truth. I perceive that God is no respecter
of person, but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh
righteousness is accepted with him. Now, what's your answer? Does
God hear prayers of those who don't know Christ? What about,
all right? You say, well, maybe he does.
Well, wait a minute. What about 1 Timothy 2, verse 5? It says
there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
What about that? What about Ephesians 1, 6? It
says we're only accepted in the beloved. Look at verse 2 again. It says
he was a devout man, all right? He was a sincere man. That's
what about me. He was devoted. He was a studious
man. He was a sober man of God seeking. He was seeking God. It says he
feared God with all his house. He taught his house to fear God,
what he knew of him, what he had read of God, what he had
heard of God. He feared God as God as creator,
as ruler, as sovereign, as his sovereign. And it says he gave
much alms to the people. This man put his money where
his mouth was, too. He put his faith in action. What
he knew of God, he practiced it. He had works to go with his
faith in God. It says that he prayed to God
always. He was constantly, always praying
to God, acts of devotion and worship. Does God hear those The prayers
of those who do not know Christ. All right, was Cornelius a saved
man at this time? You better shake your head no.
He hadn't heard the gospel yet. He hadn't believed Christ yet.
He was not a saved man. Was he accepted right now? God wouldn't have heard his prayer
if he wasn't. Was he accepted? All right, was he accepted? If
he wasn't accepted in the beloved right now, then he was accepted
because of his devotion, because of his piety, because of his
works. Right? Was he heard by God right
here? Ain't no doubt about it. God heard him, didn't he? That's
what God said in verse four, I've heard your prayer. God sent
an angel down, I've heard your prayer. Was he heard because
of his prayer or his much speaking? Because he prayed a lot? No. No. Here's the answer. The ultimate
answer. Cornelius was not saved. Yet. Because he did not yet know or
believe or trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? He was elect
though. clear this whole thing up. He
was elect, though, and he was going to know Christ right soon.
Right soon. And this is what confuses the
world. See, verses like passages like this confuse the world.
Even higher high muckety-muck religious leader like Billy Graham.
He's the most... Billy Graham is probably the
fundamentalist of the fundamentalists. Right? He's the most fundamental
and orthodox Baptist preacher of all of them. Everybody will
have Billy Graham in their pulpit. But me. Billy Graham said when
asked this question on Larry King live not too long ago, what
about those heathen in the jungle who never heard the gospel before
who don't know Jesus Christ? What about them who don't believe
in Jesus Christ? Will they go to hell? Billy Graham said. Well, God's
merciful and he may make another way. Why, why would a man say that?
Because of things like this, it confuses them, doesn't it?
Passages like this confuse them. Well, Cornelius was a devout
man. God heard his prayer. He didn't know Christ or heard
the gospel yet. Cornelius was not accepted for
his acts of devotion. Now listen to me. This is important.
I'm not just laying out theology here. Cornelius was not accepted for
his acts of devotion or piety or religious zeal. That's work,
isn't it? He was accepted. His person was
accepted in Christ. He was a chosen vessel of mercy.
He was elect of God. He was chosen by God, put in
Christ before the foundation of the world, represented by
Christ when Christ came down here to fulfill that righteousness
for Cornelius, fulfilled for him And when he shed the blood
for all of God's elect, Cornelius' name was on the heart of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The blood was shed for Cornelius.
Cornelius had a substitute. Cornelius had a surety. Cornelius
had a redeemer. Cornelius had a mediator. He
didn't even know it yet, though, but he had one. He'd know him soon. He'd know
him soon. Salvation is by what? Grace. Through faith in whom? Christ. By the deeds of none of works,
lest any man should boast. If this man was saved apart from
Christ, he could boast to God, couldn't he? I was saved because
I prayed a lot, because I was devoted. Right? Because I feared God. By the
deeds of the flesh, or the law of no flesh, shall be justified,
not by works of righteousness which we have done. Well, you
say that doesn't, that doesn't Peter said, he that worketh righteousness,
not by works of righteousness which we have done. All who are
loved, accepted, received by God, have been redeemed, justified,
sanctified by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, and will be
in time born again by the word of God. Peter said, the word
is the gospel which we preach unto you. That's what Peter said. Some might say, well, he was
heard, though he was heard, wasn't it? Yeah, he was heard because
Christ, his mediator, his intercessor, Sessor, had already prayed to
the Father for him. And said, Father, hear Cornelius's
prayer in the day when he calls upon you. Because there's one
mediator. Between God and me, one advocate. He was asked that in Job, wasn't
it? We need a daysman betwixt us. We need a man to lay his
hand on God and his hand on us and bring us together. And it's
only one. It's not Mary, it's not St. Christopher, St. Jude, whoever
those are. None of those. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
over to John 16. Well, you say, what about asking
God, what about prayer in the name of Christ? He didn't pray
in the name of Christ. Anybody ask that to themselves?
That would have been a good question, wouldn't it? Cornelius didn't
say in the name of Christ, did he? Well, is it just saying in the
name of Jesus? Is that it? If that were so,
every prayer would be heard that said that, wouldn't it? This gets to the heart of what
this thing of praying in the name of Christ really is. Everybody
says in the name of Jesus. Every good Orthodox so-called
Christian says that, right? Look over at John 16. John 16, let's read verses 23
through 27. In that day, Christ said, you
shall ask me nothing. Barely, barely, I say unto you
whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give
it you. What is it to pray in the name
of Christ? What is it right what is the
name of Christ. The name of Christ is his person. It is his authority the name
of Christ Lord. Sovereign Jesus is savior Christ
Messiah Redeemer mediator covenant head sure to representative substitute. Intercessor. Christ in his name
is to pray with an attitude or that is To pray with him as all
of those things unto you. Him being all those things unto
you, whether you know it or not, in the case of Cornelius. All
who know him ask everything in his name. Everybody who knows
him asks everything in his name. He better. He won't be heard.
That is, ask. He called upon God with a mind,
with a heart, toward Christ. thinking of him or trusting in
him, wrapping yourself, hiding yourself in him, in the beloved,
knowing your acceptances in him. All who shall know him, like
Cornelius, all who are going to know him, Christ himself in
his own name, his own authority, his own person, praise the Father
for them. Does that make sense to you? Christ himself, else that person
would—they wouldn't be heard for their first calling upon
God for repentance. Lord, reveal yourself to—reveal
the gospel to me. They wouldn't be heard for that,
would they? Huh? How does a person first call
upon God? God, who are you? I don't know who you are. Reveal
yourself to me. Reveal—I don't know Christ. I
don't know the—reveal him to me. Ignorant prayers, not knowing
what to ask for, who to call upon, what to say. Huh? They're
heard because of the person of Christ seated at the right hand
of the Father, praying for that person. Right? And he said, look, read on. Christ
says, Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. Ask, and
you shall receive, that your joy shall be full. These things
have I spoken unto you in Proverbs, but the time comes when I shall
no more speak unto you in Proverbs. I'll show you plainly of the
Father. At that day you shall ask in my name, or that is, in
me. just the fact that you're in
me. And I say not only you that I
pray the father for you, you're in me. The father himself love with
you. Why? Because you're in me. Not heard
very much speaking, we're not heard for our orthodoxy in the
way we speak. We're heard why? Because we're
in Christ. We're found in him. This is not. That's not prayer anyway. Try
here. Try here. Someone somebody asked
this question. I don't know if that muddled
water muddy the water, therefore, you're not what I'm trying to
say. Is it Cornelius didn't yet know Christ yet? God heard his
prayer, didn't he? How could he have? He didn't
pray in the name of Christ. He didn't know Christ. He didn't
believe Christ yet. Christ knew him. Christ loved him. Christ paid for his sins. Christ
was represented. Christ prayed for him, to the
Father for him. So God heard his prayer in the
Beloved, in Christ. Does that make sense? It makes
gospel sense. It makes sense in the light of
Christ. All right, well, somebody asked this question. What if
Cornelius had died? before he heard the gospel from
Peter. Would he have been saved? What if Cornelius had died right
there and hadn't heard the gospel? Well, that's what you would call
a hypothetical question, isn't it? You know what you call a
hypothetical question? I generally label hypothetical
questions, endless questions. Foolish and unlearned questions. That's what the Bible calls hypothetical
is to say in the grace of my own that if that's so then then
if our scene will magnify the grace of God what if what if
what is supposed to man a woman married seven men in the judgment
what would that. Foolish in unlearned questions
and if somebody asked something like that in sincerity and just
generally just genuinely ignorant. I might answer We're told to
avoid questions like that, but I'm the one who brought it up,
aren't I? So I want to answer it. I'm the one who brought it
up. No. That's the answer. So what was the question? Don't
you remember the question? What if Cornelius had died right
there before he'd heard the gospel? Would he be saved before he believed
in Christ? Would he be saved? No. No, salvation is in Jesus Christ. Salvation is to hear his voice,
be born from above, know him, who he is, what he did, believe
him, trust him, and all who do eventually confess him. Salvation is to know the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Right? Just know God
and be saved. You've got to know God and Christ. You don't know God, anyway, apart
from Christ. Salvation is experienced upon
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in Him. The Scripture
says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. What Lord? There's only one Lord,
right? One Lord, one faith. Who's the
Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture
says that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess what? That he's Lord. There's only
one Lord. The Jehovah's Witnesses got it
confused, don't they? They got it messed up. I don't
know what they do with the Scriptures like that, that I quoted to you
from Philippians 2, what they do with that. Jehovah is Jesus Christ. So he is. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord, that's got to be the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall be saved. Well, Paul goes on to ask in
Romans 10 there, how shall they call on him whom they've not
believed? You know, we'll call on the Lord
Jesus Christ, Lord Sovereign, only say Savior, only Savior,
Jesus Christ, only representative, mediator, substitute, surety,
all those things. You know, we'll call on him.
You don't know anything about him. Are you, John? Huh? Just hear
the name Jesus and repeat that. You're not going to call on him
to save you. That's just going to be by rote, like a parrot. The call from the heart, with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth
confession is made. Out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaks, he said. How shall they call on him on
whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him
on whom they have not heard? These aren't hypothetical questions,
these are necessary questions. How are they going to hear without
a what? Preacher. God has chosen to please
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Preaching
what? Foolishness? No, the gospel of
Christ. He that believeth and is baptized. Believeth what? Believeth the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and is baptized. There we put
baptized into it, baptism into it. Everybody who can be baptized
must be baptized or they will not be saved. Anybody who can be baptized cannot
be saved without it. Right? He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
what? Damned. Does that make it clear? A man, a woman, in conclusion,
told Judgement acquitted. A man, a woman, a boy, a girl
is saved by the Lord Jesus Christ doing what he did for them. That's
how we're saved. We're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ living and dying for us and then going back to the Father
to sit there and ever live to make intercession for us with
his own person, with his blood. They are loved. God's elect,
they're loved, they're accepted, they're justified by Jesus Christ. That's how. They're saved by
Jesus Christ, by Him. Their prayers are heard through,
on behalf of, because of Jesus Christ, their mediator. That's
the only reason. God hears no one outside of Christ. No. And the only reason that
he heard Cornelius was because he was found in Christ. He had
not yet found Christ, but he was found in Christ. Christ had
found him. And like, oh, was the Philip
sitting under the tree that Christ said? So he's sitting over there
under the tree. How do you know that? I've had
my eye on you a long time before that. Long time before that. And there are prayers, all these
people that are going to be saved, their prayers are heard through
the Lord Jesus Christ, their mediator. And it's not that he
has to say anything. You know, Christ doesn't have
to say anything for us to be heard. It's not like he's saying,
and I've used this illustration. Father, hear that prayer. He
doesn't know what he's saying there. Let me make it right.
That's not it at all. It's just him being there. There's
a man in glory, and all those people are in him. And he has
he shed his blood and the father is accepted on behalf of all
the God knows who. It makes a good illustration
sometimes, you know, but he doesn't have to say a thing. He's already
said it all and all needs to be said. Him just being there.
God hears every one of our prayers. That's what he said in John 16.
The father himself loves you. He hears everything you say.
Because I'm there. Because there's a man in glory. If these things aren't so, what
I'm saying to you tonight, and like I said, I'm just giving
you theology here, because if these things aren't so, we don't
need Jesus Christ, right? That means Jesus Christ came,
lived, died in vain, and we can get to God without him. That's blasphemy, isn't it? Because the Scripture says that
salvation is one way. I got news for you, Billy Graham.
There's one way. One way. Christ said, I am the
way. He that believeth on me hath eternal life. He that believeth
not on me shall not see life. If it's a native in the jungle,
he's never heard my name, God's going to hold him accountable
because he didn't worship God with the light he had. And God
will be just and righteous. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we ought to be. Should be, may
be, must be saved. Cornelius was a devout man. He feared God. He called on God.
Why? Because God loved him. God made
him devout. God chose him. God made him fear
him. God accepted him in Christ. He
was calling on God because God dispirited about already begun
to call on him. Right? He was calling on God
right there because God the Spirit had already begun calling on
him. And he was about to hear the gospel and about to be believed
and be baptized. And Cornelius, you know, he owes
all of his devotion, all of his fear, all of his piety, that's
works of religion, alms and so forth, 100 percent to the grace
of God. He was what he was by the grace
of God. A man can receive nothing except
to be given him from above, right? You must be born from above,
from above. And, you know, I thought about
if people, this message was sort of born in light of a conversation
I had with a woman just a couple of days ago. And the woman was
asking me, she said, you know, I really don't See, I don't know. She asked me this question. She
said, I don't know if I'm elect or not. And. She said, sometimes I want to
come to church, sometimes I don't. I don't know if I'm elect or
not. I don't know how to pray. I don't know what to do. Will
God hear me if I'm not one of the elect? And I said, don't worry about
don't sit there and try to figure out your elections, call on God.
I said, you'll find out later on if he answers you. Right? If he answers you, you're one
of the elect. And don't call on me. Don't ask
me. I don't have, I can't look at the book. That's the reason
John wept. Maybe John wept because he didn't
want to see his name in it. Huh? The new birth is a mysterious
thing. It's a change that nobody can
figure out. Let's throw away all your books
that talk about how to be born again. Throw them away. Don't
ever buy one. The new birth is a mysterious
change. You know, we go through changes
in our life, don't we? They're mysterious. You can't
put a finger on them. Birth. Anybody remember that? Can you recall it? There are
different changes, too, that bring signs following. Signs like birth, puberty. Women
go through menopause and they have strange feelings. They can't
understand death is going to be a different experience in
it. I can't tell you anything about death. So is the birth
in this life and in the new birth spiritual maturity from faith
to faith and then death and in that transformation in this.
I can't explain all that. There's no it's so. And these
mysterious but certain signs follow these things. Certain
signs follow that God has begun a good work and faithlessly that
have called you will both do it he had begun a good work in
the I'm confident he'll finish it before me perfected and certain
sign like calling on God no one can call on God must God leads
him to. Right. No one will repent unless goodness
of God leads him to right no one will believe unless God gives
them a gift of faith right so if there is a spark of that in
you where there's a spark of life, just a breath. That's life,
isn't it? And stop trying to figure out,
that's what I did tonight, though, isn't it? But this is, these
are things, these are questions and problems from the Scriptures,
things that give us problems. But they shouldn't. The foundation
stands assured, right? Foundation of the gospel, foundational
truths, and you come to certain things in the scripture and they
don't exactly gel, you're just ignorant. You just don't understand. You need to understand, because
that doesn't say exactly what I think it ought to say and I
can't exactly understand it. It's got to be so in light of
Christ in the gospel it's got to it's got to. You know it's
got to be in keeping with the gospel. All right I hope it's
been some help to stand with. And let me say this to you know
the Lord is. He sanctions. He sanctions prayer
and devotion, piety, and things like that. There, didn't he?
Who hath despised a day of small things? He sanctioned those things. That tells me that I need to
be devoted. I need to fear God more. I need to pray more. There's
a lot in the Scriptures about praying without ceasing, constantly. And this man was heard, heard
because he was in Christ, but he was heard. because he was
praying with sincerity. So the Lord sanctioned that here.
All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this story,
this man that you saved. Someday we'll meet him in glory. And it's all because of Christ,
because of his blood, his righteousness, because of him. This man was
accepted in Christ, and so are we. So it's in Christ that we
We come to you, it's in Christ that we pray to you. It's in
Christ that we've met together tonight. It's in Christ that
we want to understand everything. It's in Christ that we want to
read and see the scriptures in Christ, in light of Christ. And
if we're confused at times, Lord, let us take it to the light,
take it over to the light, the light of Christ, and it will
be opened unto us. Lord, teach us that we might
be that we might be workmen that needeth not be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth. We know all the word is Christ
and the truth is Christ. If we rightly divide it, we'll
see Christ in all of it. Give us patience, compassion
in dealing with people. Give us wisdom. Give us courage. Thank you for the blood of Christ.
In his name we pray. Amen.