Did you notice the quote at the
bottom of your bulletin? It says, a preacher is like the
pole on which the serpent in the wilderness was lifted. Nearly
everyone in here should remember that story. The children of Israel,
when they were bitten by the serpent and they were dying,
And God told Moses, make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole
and raise that serpent up before everyone, made in the likeness
of that thing that bit them, that they were dying from. And
everyone who looked at that serpent was healed, everyone. A preacher is like the pole on
which that serpent in the wilderness was lifted. He is only worth
The preacher is of no value, of no worth whatsoever, except
as he sets forth or holds up Christ, who was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, that which kills us, flesh, sin. And Christ was
lifted up, even as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness,
he said, John 3, 14. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And whosoever looks, whosoever believes on him, They
have everlasting life. So the preacher is only of any
worth as long as he sets forth and points men and women to look
to Christ. Look to Him. I keep saying, Brother,
keep Christ between you and me and we'll be all right. I told
some people that and they appreciate that. Don't see the preacher. Don't even see yourself. You've
got to see Christ. The best message that you'll
ever hear is the message that you go away from that place talking
more about the Savior than you do about the sermon. The best message, the best preaching
that a man can do is when people leave that place not impressed
with the preacher or impressed with his preaching. but highly
impressed with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, recently I listened to three
fellows on television discussing the Bible. And they were discussing whether
or not it was truly the inspired, whether or not it was truly God's
Word or not. They were discussing whether
or not it was inerrant, That is, without ever. And they were
discussing whether or not it was to be interpreted literally
or what translation was the best. And one fellow said, We're getting
closer to the truth now with our translation. Whether this
version or that version, you know, whether the Hebrew, you
ought to study the Hebrew, the Greek, the Testament, or the
Latin, or the Greek subjugates. or the English, or the revised
standard, or the revised, revised, revised standard, or the new
American, international, Spanish, Hispanic, English, Latin American
version, you know. And I thought, I was listening
to those fellows, I thought, the pot shards of the earth sitting
here striving with the pot shards of the earth. About endless questions, and
genealogies, and contentions, just like the Scripture said
they were. And the fact of the matter is, God doesn't speak
in Hebrew. God doesn't speak in Greek. I said the original version. God doesn't speak in Greek. That means only those who understand
Greek will hear God's voice, right? God doesn't speak in English. The fact of the matter is, God
speaks one language. One language. And unless you
know and understand this one language, it's the language of
the Scripture, you're not going to understand anything God says.
I don't care if you can break the Greek down to the tenth fold. One language. Look at it here
in Hebrews 1, verse 2. God hath in these last days spoken
unto us by sun. The word his is in italics. Do
you see that? God speaks in son language, not sign language. Although he does speak with signs
and wonders, but he speaks in son language. And unless you know and understand
this language, you're not going to know and understand God's
Word. I was talking one time when we lived in the house on
Main Street. A fellow came along, and he was a theologian, and
we were talking. And I would quote a verse of
scripture to him, and he'd proceed to break it down, and break it
down, and break it down. Well, you know the Greek word
means this, and the Greek word means that, and that, and that form
of that word is this, and the verb, or the adverb, or the adjective
is this, and that's the preposition, or the proposition, or the predicate
of the noun, the proverb. And he'd break it down, and break
it down, until finally I was, it didn't mean anything. It wasn't
even close to what it was saying. I said to him, Bud, I said, you
know, there's kids in Greece right now that speak better Greek
than you do, and they don't understand the gospel. See, it's not an
understanding of Greek that enables you. I said, there's three-year-old
children in Greece that understand Greek maybe better than you do. That's not it. It's what God's
saying. It's not the mechanics of it.
Right? It's not the mechanics of it.
It's not whether or not you understand this verb or that verb, it's
do I hear his voice? Do I hear what he's saying to
me? You know, God speaks in messages, not in grammar. God speaks messages, and that
one message is his Son, Jesus Christ. And you may be able to
break down the original Hebrew and Greek turn and be impressive
in your homiletical and exegetical, are you impressed with that?
Homiletical or exegetical ability? That barely means preaching and
teaching, by the way. But unless you hear the shepherd's
voice, you're ignorant of the Scripture, ignorant of God's
Word. And whatever language this book
is read in, it all comes out the same anyway. It speaks about
or of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let's look at it here in verse
one of Hebrews. God, who at sundry times, or
that is, many times in the past, and in diverse or different manner,
spake. He spoke in time past. unto the fathers," now he's talking
here to the Hebrews, which are Jews, and the Jewish fathers. He spoke unto our fathers, our
forefathers, by the prophets, all right? In diverse manners,
the scriptures say. God, many times and in many different
ways, God spoke unto our fathers by the prophets. But that is
the Old Testament scriptures, okay? Moses, Elijah, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so forth. Moses was the first great prophet. You could say that. Moses was
the first great prophet. What did Moses write? The law? Well, yes, but what did Christ
say that Moses wrote of? He said, Moses wrote of me, didn't
he? And Christ said, Moses wrote
of me. So anybody, Brother Terry, who looks into the perfect law
of God, whatever that may be, moral, levitical, ceremonial,
if he doesn't hear and see Christ, he doesn't understand the law,
does he? The law and the prophets. The Law and the Prophets give
witness of Christ. That's why they were written.
The Law was never written in order to show a man how to live.
The Law was written in the first place to show a man who alone
can live it and who you must go to to have life, who can give
life. The Law kills, the letter killing.
The Law and the Prophets speak of Christ, the moral law, the
Ten Commandments. has its fulfillment in Christ. He shall love the Lord thy God
with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength. Who can do that?
Huh? Shall not have any other God
before me. Who can do that? Is anybody here innocent of that
law? Only one man, whoever did. Thank
God. Now, this man, through that man's
obedience, is accepted and made righteous, declared holy according
to God's holy law. the moral law. Then you have
the Levitical law. I'm sure glad that Christ fulfilled
that, or else I'd better be. I'd be considered a Levite, Brother
Stan. Oh, man, those guys had to walk
on eggshells. They had to be careful what they
planted, when they ate it, what they harvested, how they lived,
moved, and had their Everything they touched, everything they
did ought to be perfect to be accepted, or else they were in
danger of death. Christ did. Christ did. That great high priest, after
the order not of Levi or Aaron, but of Melchizedek, he did. He
fulfilled the Levitical law for me. I'm glad about that. The ceremonial law. Ceremonial
law. Now, if Christ didn't fulfill
that, if any of you have sinned, you better have you a herd of
lambs. You better have you a pen full of turtledoves, some goats,
some bullocks. Stan, you better buy you a farm,
buddy. But you sin a lot, don't you?
You're going to need a lot of sacrifices, aren't you? Huh? Now, if Christ didn't fulfill
that, Oh, my, my, there remaineth therefore
some sacrifices to be made for sin. But no, what does the Scripture
say, John? There remaineth therefore no more sacrifice for sin. Why?
Christ made that one sacrifice for sin. He put away. He fulfilled
that ceremonial law. Turn over with me now to 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Now, that's how God spoke through
the law and the prophets, okay? The law, you understand? Where
I'm coming from, the law, be it moral, Levitical, ceremonial,
or other, has its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Has its fulfillment
in Jesus Christ. Okay? The law spoke of Christ. Moses, he said, wrote of me.
Well, did he or did he not? Yes, he did. Abraham saw my day. He rejoiced to see my day and
he saw it and he was glad. Now, in olden times, in Old Testament
days, the language of son, son language, was hidden. People
didn't rightly understand it, Margaret. But God still spoke
in that language. God didn't speak in law back
then, and now He speaks in grace. He's always spoken the same language. Same thing. The law spoke of
Christ. The prophets speak of Christ.
The New Testament, the apostles speak of Christ, the epistles
speak of Christ. God was speaking of his Son,
but men didn't understand the language. He said, any more than
a man stood up here and spoke, you know a little bit of French,
don't you? I know a little bit of Spanish. A man stood up here and spoke
Russian. I don't think anybody here knows Russian. But then
nobody would know what he was saying. consequent, in the same
way, God speaks in son language. Everything God says, has to say
to men, is in the language of Jesus Christ. Unless you understand
that language, you don't know what the scriptures are saying,
do you? You don't know what God's word is saying. You can break
it down. It means this, it means that.
If you haven't seen Christ there, you don't know what it's saying. All right, 2 Corinthians 3, verse
14, look at this. That's what it says, their minds,
or Moses, in the days of Moses, the people's minds were blinded
until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading
of the Old Testament, which veil is done away, where? In Christ. when you see Christ. God was
speaking in Old Testament days of His Son, but men didn't understand
the language. Abel's sacrifice, what does that
speak of? Well, I've heard all kinds of
preachers go around preaching about Abel's sacrifice, how he
had so much faith and how he did his best and came, his motive
was evil and all that. I didn't have anything—well,
it does have something to do with it, but that's not the point,
is it? The point, the difference in what God accepted. Between
Abel's sacrifice and Cain's sacrifice was where? In their faith? It's in the sacrifice. Abel brought
blood, didn't he? Cain brought his own works. Joe,
that's worship. All religions separate right
there. There's only two kind of religion. The religion of
blood, what God has provided, and that alone God will accept
without the shedding of blood, no remission of sin, or the religion
of works. And I might add, works adds a
little blood to it, just to make it sound good. But it's works,
it's either of grace, 100% in it, from start to finish, or
it's of works. Can't be both. Can't be both. Able sacrifice. Spoke son language,
didn't it? Did you hear, have you heard
it? Sure you have. Blessed are your ears. Noah's
Ark. Well, that's a good story. Noah
sure was a faithful man. You know, great is God's faithfulness.
He provided an ark, God's purpose, God's architectural plan for
an ark to hold those people in. That's the picture of Christ,
the ark, the Passover lamb, the Passover lamb. You know, when
the lamb was smitten and all those who had the blood on their
doorpost, the lamb, the death angel would pass by their houses
and not kill them. What's that a picture of? People's
faith? No, it's the blood. It's the lamb. You hear that
language? You hear that story? Who that
speaks of? The smitten rock in the wilderness. Remember when
Moses smote the rock in the wilderness and out came water? What's that
a picture of? Well, God sure is miraculous
to send water out of a rock. And we'll spend an hour talking
about how water came out of that rock. No, it's a picture of Christ,
who was smitten, and out of Him came life, the water of life
for you. The serpent on the pole, I mentioned
that already. What's that a picture of? Well,
everybody's great faith, if you looked on that serpent. No, it's
a picture of Christ. Do you hear the language? And
even today, men don't understand the language, do they? They don't
understand the language. How many of you grew up in so-called
churches? And I use that term very lightly. Church is the bride of Christ,
and we know what the bride does. The bride makes much of the groom.
The bride is constantly talking about the groom, not itself. But those of you that grew up
in so-called churches that the gospel was not preached, do you
remember hearing Did you grow up in a church house, Brother
Henry? Do you remember hearing the Noah's Ark preached as Christ
ever? Do you ever remember Abraham
going up to offer Isaac on the mountain? And I heard a fellow
just the other day preaching from that very text, Genesis
22, and it sure wasn't Christ. Do you ever remember hearing
people, growing up, Nancy, in church, do you ever remember
hearing them talk, bring out Christ so clearly from those
passages? They don't understand the language, do they? Now, they're
Greek scholars now. They went to school, didn't they,
to study the Greek, and they know all about the Greek, but
they don't know all about the Son. All right? Verse 2, it says,
Now God hath in these last days... Now, God used to speak in time
past by the prophets. What did He say? Somebody's coming. What did God say in time past
in the Old Testament? Somebody's coming. He's—God's
the first one to preach the gospel. You know that, Terry? When Adam,
just as soon as that old boy fell, what'd God say? God preached
the gospel to him. He's the only one that knew it
at the time. And Adam fell, and what'd God say to him immediately?
Genesis 3, 15. Somebody's coming. Adam, you're
in a heap of trouble, aren't you? You're in a mess, aren't
you, buddy? You're cut off from God. You're without hope, without
God, without help. You can't get back to me. You're
dead, Adam, while you yet live. What are you going to do, Adam?
Well, I'm going to try my best again. I'm going to keep the
Ten Commandments. They weren't written yet. What are you going to do, Adam?
Adam says, I don't know. I'm without help. I don't know
where to turn. What am I going to do? Adam,
you ain't going to do nothing. I'm going to do something, though.
You can't do nothing, anything, apart from my English. See, I don't know Greek. I don't
even know English. Adam, but I'm going to do something. Here's
your salvation, Adam. Here's all your salvation, Adam.
I'm going to do something. I'm going to come and save you,
because you can't save yourself." Adam, the woman's seed, the woman's
seed, shall bruise that old serpent's head. You couldn't handle him,
could you? of darkness, principality, rulers
of the darkness in this world. He'll crush them. Have them under
his feet, buddy, under his feet. And he'll bruise his heel. He'll
kill his body, but he won't stay dead. He'll rise victorious over
it all, and he'll put away your shame. Son language. Now, God spoke,
and time passed by the prophet. And now in these last days, what
are the last days? When are the last days? Zero,
the year zero, is when they start. 1 A.D., 2 A.D., the year zero
is when the last days start. A.D., Anno Domino, the year of
our Lord, the last days. When He's come, that'll be the
last day. The last, the scripture talks
about day, or thousands of years as a day. The day is a thousand
years, a thousand years as a day. And there have been 4,000 years
before Christ came, and there have been 2,000 years since then.
And in these last two days, the Son of God, it says that God
hath in these last days, verse 2, spoken unto us by sun, sunlight. Now, God's voice, His word was
obscure. And the people didn't understand
it in the Law and the Prophets. Their minds were blinded, right?
So God, in these last days, came down Himself. God Himself came
down. He said, I'm going to go down
and speak to them personally. not through types and shadows
and symbols and so forth that the natural man can't understand.
I'm going to go down and personally, in a body, speak to him. And he did. And men and women
still didn't understand. They still didn't understand. Thank God though, some did. Who did? The smart ones? The
ones who understood Greek? No, Christ said, I thank Thee,
Father. You didn't? The ones that did, didn't understand.
It seemed like the only ones that didn't understand Christ
were the ones that knew Greek. Or Hebrew. The scholars. Christ
said, and Christ marveled at Thee. Christ was thankful about
Thee. Now, you better be thankful too, Margaret. You don't know
Greek, do you? If it depends on that, you better
be studying it. But Christ said, I thank thee, Father, you hid
these things from the Greek scholars. Now, there's a few. There's not
many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble.
It doesn't say not any, but not many. I thank you, Father, you
hid these things from these self-made men, these wise and these prudent
that think they can understand God and nobody else can. You've
hidden these things and revealed it unto coal miners and service
station men and truck drivers and railroaders. and diesel mechanics
and seamstresses. Aren't you thankful? Oh, thank
God, some people, by His power. How'd you figure it out? Did
you figure it out? No, by His power, by His revelation. God just doesn't sit. You don't
understand this, Terry Kennedy. How much education do you have,
buddy? You've got as much as me. You don't
have much. You understand the mysteries of the universe have
been kept hid from the foundation of the world. But now in these
last days, they've been revealed unto us, the church. You didn't
figure it out? God had to reveal it to you.
And you'll sure make men mad. You'll sure offend their pride
if you go around saying this. You can't figure this out. By
the wisdom of the world, the world by wisdom do not God. God in revelation. God reveals
Himself to people. Some people, have their ears
open, their eyes open, and after that happens, after you see, Brother Steve,
after you see what God's Word is saying, you wonder, how in
the world, why don't people see this? Don't you? It's clear as
day to you, isn't it? It's like a trumpet has been
blown. It's like the darkness has been
blown away from you, and it has. And you say, why can't men see
them? Because their minds are blinded, Scripture says. Our gospel be hid as hidden in
the Lord, in whom the God of this world has blinded their
minds, lest they should see the glorious gospel of Christ, believe
me. But God in these last days spoke unto us personally by His
Son, by His Son. And some people, after they have
heard this voice, they're not the same. They're not the same. They've heard this voice. All
of them have heard this voice. And the Scriptures are not the
same anymore. The Scriptures never become the same anymore.
They're not what you used to think they were. But it's the living, breathing.
You don't sit around discussing whether or not it's the inherent
Word of God. When you read it, it's like God
Almighty actually spoke to you. It's the living, breathing, almost
audible Word of God to you. And you don't sit around and
say, well, is this true? Is that true? No. He bears witness to the truth. And you see it not as just history,
but you see it as what? His story. His story. Not just printed words. You see the Word, the incarnate
Word, that And while so-called experts and authorities dissect,
analyze, interpret, and translate the Scriptures, searching for
answers to questions, and nobody's really asking, the clarion cry
of Scriptures is Christ, and He is crucified. But they don't
hear it. The Law and the Prophets say
somebody's coming, the four Gospels say He has come, and the Epistles
say He's coming again. Now look at it again, verse two,
God hath in these last days spoken unto us by sun, by sun. God spoke once and twice and
men perceived it not. Unless they understand some language,
Job, they don't perceive it not. They perceive it not. So Job
said, Job thirty-three, men perceive it not. Scripture goes on to
say, today, if you will hear His voice, who's voice? Shepherd's voice. Christ is all. The language is
still the same, the message is the same, and the word is, Christ
is all. All God has for me is in Christ. He's all. And in all. All right? By Him, by Him, God
spoke. It is by His Son whom He hath
appointed heir of all things." Heir of all things. God has given this universe,
God has given this universe with all of its inhabitants into the
hands of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has the whole world,
yes, the psalm says, in His hands. Christ said it Himself, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Everything is in His
hands, right? To do with as He pleases, right? Then why do men say that, that,
what are you going to do with Jesus? Why do they turn that
around and say, he's in your hands? They don't understand
the language. They don't understand the language
of Scripture, which said, God hath appointed him, God hath
made him heir of all things, right? Lord over all. Wait just a minute now. You just
don't understand. What do you mean by Lord? Well,
let him have his way. Is that what Lord means? I don't
know anything about the word at all. It means absolute sovereign,
ruler, controller of all things, who manipulates and does things
as he will, whom he will. None can stay his hand or say
unto him he's got no right to do. That's what Lord means, doesn't
it? Well, then how, oh, but pray tell me, you're going to make
him That means that you're a little
Lord. You're just as much Lord as He is. He's done something
He can't do, and now you're just as much Lord as He is. God has appointed Him heir of
all things, heir of all things, to do with as He will, save or
destroy. Scripture says, Kiss the Son.
The language of the Scripture is, kiss the son, and that's
not on the cheek either. Because we can't walk up to him
and say, Jesus, I love you, and kiss him on the cheek. That's
what Judas did. We can come up to his feet, like Mary Magdalene,
and kiss his feet, and water him with our tears, and hope
he'll have mercy. If not, you'll be angry. You'll
be angry. Christ alone earned the rights
to all things, because why? Because he made all things. Look
at verse 2 again. By whom also he made the worlds. Now we're describing Jesus Christ
here. And if men don't understand this,
they don't know Sunday. God hath appointed him heir of
all things. By whom, by Jesus Christ, he
made the worlds. How much clearer can you get? Who made the world? Who made
the universe? Well, people say God did. Yeah.
He did. He sure did. In the beginning was the... Everything made that was made,
and the Word became flesh. Can you put two and two together?
The Word was God. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. All things were made by this
Word. Without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word
that made all things, that was God, became flesh. Who's that? Christ. Wait a minute, preacher. Are
you trying to say that Jesus Christ is God? I ain't trying
to say nothing. I'm saying it. He's God. God. Colossians 1, 16 says all
things were made, created by Him and for Him. For Him. Why don't men believe
Jesus Christ is God? Why don't men believe? You've
got a whole denomination out there who's going door-to-door
to fight this notion. They call themselves Jehovah's
Witnesses, God's Witnesses. They're not God's Witnesses.
They're false witnesses. Unless you witness to the fact
that Jesus Christ is God, you're a false witness. We are Jehovah's
Witnesses. Why don't men understand that
Jesus Christ is God? They don't understand the language
of Scripture. Word. They say, we'll break that
down into groups, you know, the Logos, and the Logos means this,
and the expression of God. The Word was God's. And the word
became flesh. How much clearer can you get?
They don't understand sign language. Do you understand it? Do you
understand Jesus Christ as God? Oh, blessed are your eyes, your
ears, your mind, if you do. Look, keep going. He's going
to go on now until he builds this thing up to where there's
no doubt who this is. Verse 3. be in the brightness
of God's glory. The brightness of God's glory.
You see, God, who shined the light out of darkness, the Scripture
says, has shined in our hearts, in some people's hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And where is
that? The light, you understand, of
the knowledge of the glory of God. It's talking about the essence,
the personality, the everything about it, His works, His glory,
everything that has the person and the worth of God. God made
a face, and that face was His Son, Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ. See, Moses, Moses up on that
mountain was talking to God. And God said, No, Moses, I'm
a consuming fire. Take your shoes off, first of
all. Before I want to talk with you, you take your shoes off.
And we need to take our intellectual shoes off, don't we? Before we talk, before God will
speak to us. Take them off. You're nothing.
As a matter of fact, get on your face. You have nothing. You know nothing. You are nothing.
You can't do nothing. You're nothing, OK? Now I'm going
to reveal something to you. I'm everything. I am Who are you? I am. That I am. What's that? I am. That I am. Oh. Oh! You know. I am. The brightness of His glory
says it. Now Moses, when he was on that
mountain, God said, now Moses, I'm going to put you in the cleft
of a rock. You can't see me like I am. I'm going to pass by you
and you're going to see my back parts." Whatever that is, nobody
knows. Moses just saw his back part.
Brother Henry, you don't understand this blessing, buddy. God then
one day said, I'm going to come down in a body and I'm going
to talk with you face to face. I'm going to put on a face that
you can behold. You can't see God's light. You
can't be in the awesome, infinite, pure, indescribable... God is light where darkness.
God is a consuming fire that will be snuffed out in a minute,
like a worm, like a maggot before sunlight. Immediately consumed. So God says, I'm going to have
to robe myself. I'm going to robe myself in a
body and come down to earth to sleep with me." Now, he put himself
in such a robe, such a disguise, if you will, that men, when they
see him, say, well, he looks like a man to me. Right? Of course. If he looked like
God, you couldn't see him. Right? One day, Brother Stan,
he did. And Peter, James, and John were
on that. Man, they fell on their face.
John in the Isle of Patmos one time, he saw him as he is, didn't
he? What'd John do? Oh, thank you,
Jesus. Did he do that? Well, John on
the Isle of Patmos, when he saw him there in Revelation 1, eyes
as a flame of fire, feet as like burned in a fiery furnace of
brass. countenance of the sun that shines
in his strength." What did John say? Huh? Thank you, Jesus. Oh, he fell on his face as a
dead man. You can't behold God and live,
but God put on a body. See the mercy of God and the
grace of God. The tenderness and compassion
of God. But some people see through that, see past that. A lot of people are worshiping
that. Right? We don't worship His body,
per se. We worship His person, personality. Right? Moses could only see the
backside, but we beheld His glory in the face of Christ Jesus,
of the only begotten of the Father. But men don't perceive this. They said to Him, You're just
a man, and You make Yourself God. Didn't they? You're just
a man, and you make yourself God. And they say it now, don't
they? Well, He couldn't have been God. He's just a man. Oh, He's the Son of God. We'll
let Him have that much. But so are we. No, you don't understand. You
don't understand. He's the brightness. Look at
verse 3. He's the express image. Are you with me? Jesus Christ
is the express image of God. Brother Terry, how much clearer
can Scripture be? He's an exact duplicate of God,
the very same essence of God, exact copy. The Scripture says,
equal with the Father, equal with the Father. Turn over to
Revelation 1 with me, if you're still with me. Revelation 1.
Revelation chapter 1. Again, now, no man can see God
and live. So God made an image. Are you with me? No man can see
God and live. We're flesh. That which is flesh,
Paul is flesh. God is Spirit, and it talks about
Him being light and a consuming fire. And if we were to see God
as He is, we'd be snuffed out of the matter. He can't even
dwell in His presence. So God made an image. He made
an image of Himself and expressed exact image to dwell with us,
to talk with us, to come face to face with us. Now, God doesn't
tell us to understand this just to believe it. God was in a body. Well, I don't
understand it. He doesn't tell us to understand
that. Great is the mystery of God to us. God was manifest in
the flesh. Who can even describe it? Can't
do it. It took a million years to touch
the hem of the garment. He doesn't tell us to understand
it. What does he tell us? Any more than he tells us to
understand the gospel fully. He just says, Believe it! It's
so. Why must we believe that Jesus
Christ is God? Because He is! Do we need a clearer... Do
we need a better reason? Why must you believe? Virgie,
why must you believe that I'm Paul Edward Mann? That's who
I am. Why must you believe Jesus Christ
is God? Because He is. Christ uttered those words in
the garden, didn't He? I am. Go to Revelation 1, verse 1.
Now, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto John to show unto his servant. things which are unto Christ
to show unto his servants, things which must shortly come to pass.
And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John. All right, now verse seven. And it says, Behold, he cometh
with clouds, and every eye shall behold him, every eye shall see
him, they also which thirst him. Now who's this talking about? Christ. Any doubt about that?
every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him,
his side, his hand, his feet, all kindreds of the earth shall
wail because of him. Even so, that's the way it is.
And here's what he says when he comes, verse 8, I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is and which was and which is to come, the who, the what, the
Almighty." The Almighty. Verse 11, he says, I am Alpha
and Omega, the first and the last. The first and the last. Look at verse 17. And when John
saw him, he says, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his
right hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last. All right, you get the picture
there. I am Alpha and Omega. Do you hear who's talking there?
Who's talking? Jesus Christ. Now turn over to Revelation 21.
Revelation 21. Revelation 21, look at verse
3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven say, Behold, verse
3, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. Who? You hear that? He will dwell
with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall
be with them and be their God. You see that? Look at verse 6
and 7. And he said unto me, I want to tell you again, it is done. God did come, and he's coming
again. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I
will give unto him as a thirst to the fountain of the water
of life freely. Look at this now. What is it to overcome? What
did John say, Ed? What is it to overcome? Even
our what? Faith. Faith in what? He that cometh
to God must believe that what? He is. He that believes that
he is. Who is? Christ is. What? God
shall inherit all things and I will be his God. Christ never said he was God. They don't understand the language.
John chapter 8, here we go, seven or eight times, six or seven
times, he said, I am. John 8, 24, he said, you believe
not that I am, you die in your sin. He's God. Why is it necessary to believe
he's God? Because only God can do the things Christ did. Only
God can forgive sins. Isaiah 25, 9 says, Lo, this is
our God, and we've waited on Him. He'll save us. God's with us. The angels announced
it, didn't they? Call His name. What? Immanuel. Wow, what does that mean? What
does Immanuel mean? God's with us. God's in a body. Only God can save us. Only God
can forgive us. And it says in our text that
he upholds all things by the word of his power. You see God
in the beginning, God who called the light to shine on darkness.
How did God do that? He spoke. God spake and it was
done. You remember I was looking through
Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 last week? And God said, and God said, and
God said, was it done? A dictum factum. Said, done. Whatever God said,
It's done. Right? Every time. Whatever Christ
said, got done. He just had to speak it. Just
had to speak it. He spoke and food appeared. Master,
we don't have enough food. Food? You don't have enough food? What,
are we going to go down there? Yeah, we better go down to the
store and buy some, Master. You don't understand, boys. I made the heavens! Go to the store, let there be
food." And there was food, and some left over. He spoke and men were healed.
Somebody goes to the doctor. Doctor, I'm in a great position. I wound, I heal. I kill, I make
alive. He spoke and dead men came alive,
just by the word of His power. And He upholds all things by
the word of His power. Christ is the unknown God. You remember in Acts 17, when
Paul came there to Mars Hill and said, you all are worshiping
a God and you don't know who He is? The unknown God whom you
ignorantly worship, he said, I'm going to declare Him unto
you. The unknown God in whom we live and move and have our
being. Who is that? Jesus Christ. And that's what throws me in
it. That's what throws us. That's what throws us. Only God can forgive sins. Only God can justify. Only God
can speak peace, right? And Christ said, now, peace,
I've got peace, I leave you. Your sins are forgiven. God's a blasphemer. If He's not
God, John, He's a blasphemer. That's what the Pharisees said. Now, who can forgive sin but
God? Are you greater than our father
Abraham? I'm Abraham's father. Oh, you're not yet 50 years old.
That's true. I have no age. I'm ageless. Before Abraham was, I am. By himself. Now look at verse
3. It says, He's the express image of his person, upholding
all things by the word of his power. And boy, I like that.
When He had by Himself purged our sins. By Himself. By Himself purged our sins. You get a hold of that? By Himself. That is, nobody was
with Him. Nobody helped Him. It wasn't
Christ plus my helping Him out, my faith. Christ poured out his
blood and shed his blood and lived a life and all that and
now it's up to me. Now it's my fate. Now I've got
to do my part. All by himself, right? Purged our sins. Well, he made
an attempt. You'll only believe. Oh, he purged our sins, doesn't
he? What's purged mean? You ladies
ever purged the laundry? Ever really got it fully cleaned?
He purged it. That means there's nothing, there's
no stains in it. There's no iniquity to be found.
There's a verse of Scripture, I wish I could think of it right
now, it says, talking about God's people, it says that God will
look for iniquity and none will be found. You remember that verse
there? He'll look for it and none will be found. We've purged
our sins by Himself, and this is not a cooperative effort on
God's part, and we help Him out. I know what the world says. God
has done all He can do. I got news for this generation. If God's done all he can do.
That's all that can be done. God's God. If all it if God's
done all he can do. That's all that can be done right. I like it that way. Because I
see that without Him, I can't do nothing. But with Christ,
in Christ, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens
me. He said it. Christ said it. It's
finished. Sins put away. Finished. My boy. And it says, He sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. Keep going now. We're building
up here to a climax. He sat down. That means he finished
it. He finished it. Betty, if he
hadn't finished the work, if some sands weren't put away,
then he didn't, couldn't sit down, could he? High priests
of old couldn't sit down. There was no chair in the sanctuary,
was there? And that's what men and women
are saying today, aren't they? Christ is walking in. All of it, you
know. He's done all that can be done,
right? He said it's finished. He didn't
say, no, most of it's finished. I took, I ran 99 yards with a
ball, now I had the TV. We fumbled. Pardon me. We get to the one yard line,
we fumbled. We fumble and stumble every day, don't we? And worse
yet, we'll turn the other way and start running. We'll turn
around and start running the other way. And that's what the
Scripture says. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to our own way. God will do all He can
do, you know, and in hands of life to you, your soul is in
your hands now. What will we do? We'll turn the
other way. He's not in your hands. It's in Christ's hands. Why in the world would anybody
worship an angel? What this alludes to is the same. Right? Where in the world would
you have a picture, or a little statue, or a little thing around
your neck of Saint Christopher? Saint who? Who is that dude,
anyway? Who is Christopher? I know a Christ, but I don't
know any Christopher. Did some Christopher late shed
his blood for me? Did he purge my sins by his own
blood? Did he live out a righteousness
for me, this Christopher Kellogg? He did. I'll hang him around
my neck. Oh, no! Christ did though. Jude, Saint
Jude, Saint this and that and the other. Oh no, he's moping
so much better than those angels. I tell you, when you start, I
tell you, you'll start worshipping Christ when you find some, when
you'll stop worshipping all this other stuff. Mary, you'll stop
worshipping Mary when you see somebody better than Mary. Alright? When you see Mary just as a sinner,
just like you are. who said, my savior, she needs
a savior. You'll stop worshiping Mary,
you'll start worshiping Christ. You'll stop worshiping this and
that and the other, and you'll stop hearing all these other
voices, you'll stop listening to these creatures. Once you've heard this voice,
once you've heard this gospel, you will be satisfied with anything
else. He's so much better than the angels, who have by an inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. Because he said, which
of the angels did he say at any time? You're my son, Michael. Son? I didn't say that. He said,
I'd do his bidding. Angels now are glorious creatures.
One angel is going to sit on the circle of the earth and blow
it to smithereens. Four angels are going to destroy
the universe. One angel could handle this whole planet. One
angel. He's so much better than the angel, they serve him. The
scripture says, they bow to his feet. What are we going to do?
Worship angels? That's what Paul said, that men
are intruded into things and worshiping these angels. They
don't know what they're doing. Y'all don't understand son language,
he said. Which of the angels did he call
son? And again, he said, I'll be to him a father and say he'd
be my son. Verse six, and again, he's building
his case up here. When he bringeth in the first
begotten into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship
him. But that's just a baby. A child
was born, yeah, but the Son of God, the everlasting Son of God,
went into that body. Now, y'all bow down and worship
Jesus. And of the angel, verse 7, he
said, he makes his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of
fire. Now, here it is, the climax. But under the sun, he said, not to anybody, never said this
to anybody, Now listen to this, Russellites, whoever may hear
this on the tape. Don't you dare let Charles Russell
throw you for a loop. Are you Mormon Joseph Smith,
14-year-old boy? You're going to put your life,
your soul's hope in the hallucinatory dream of a 14-year-old boy who
found some plates on the back side the wood somewhere and supposedly
talk to an angel of God. Somebody better than that angel.
You better listen to him speak. Who speaks from heaven? And this is what God said about
him. Verse 8, and we quoted Psalm 45. This is where this comes
from. God is forever and ever. There's two thrones. There's
two thrones. There's God's on one throne and
the Son of Jesus Christ is on another. There's one throne. John said it over and over again.
And I beheld a throne. A throne. One throne. There's
only room for one God, Joe, isn't there? One God. The Lord our
God is one God. Well, there you go, preacher.
Now, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. We're not going to see God in
his... God as a spirit. We're going to see a man. A man. Oh, be it a glorified one. Doesn't
look like any man we've ever seen. Read Revelation 1. You'll
see what he looks like. He doesn't look like man as we
know him. But he's still a man. Still a man. I'm thankful. I'm
mighty thankful that he's still a man. But you see, man, that's
the reason they don't understand. Because they can't understand,
they don't believe. They don't believe. They can't
understand. Satan understood it. And that's the reason he did
what he did. Look it up sometime in Psalm 2. It says God has declared
the decree. He said, I set my king on my
holy hill of Zion. He's my king. He's God. And every
knee's going to bow to him. Satan understood that. Henry
Satan thought that he defeated God's plan and purpose through
a man. And God, in his wisdom, made
himself a man, he said, and defeated and crushed Satan. And now Satan
is going to have to bow to a man. See, one time he manipulated that man, that
preacher, and Satan stood back, you know, in a devious way, laughing,
God, God, God, now God said, we'll see about that. And I'll
humiliate you through time and eternity. I'll become a man.
And it says Satan went after him. and could find nothing in
it. Can you imagine the desperation
and the... Can you imagine how frustrating
that was for Satan? It's just a man. He looks just
like a man. He looks like any other man to me. I'll get him.
No, you won't. It's God. See, Satan couldn't
even rightly understand how God could be in that body. But he
was, wasn't he? He was. Only God could do the
things you do. Only God can do it. I find nothing
in it. And the reason men don't understand
today, the reason they don't believe that Jesus Christ is
God and He's the Son of God, He's with God, He was made, and so
forth, they don't understand the language of Scripture. How
much clearer could it be than what we just read? How much clearer
could it be? It's God. It's God.