I do want to thank Mike for filling
in for me in my absence. I understood that the lessons
on the Beatitudes were enjoyable and appreciated. And I do thank
him. It's good to be back. I enjoyed
some time out in my study the other day. I just want to say a few words
about the latter part of this first verse of this twelfth chapter. We have, in the previous lessons,
we looked at there appeared a great wonder in heaven. This wonder, as we looked in
the scriptures, it shares with us that this wonder is the church.
It's a great wonder. It's a wonder that's created
only by God. It's not something that's man-made. The church is a creation of God.
It appeared in heaven, and it's a woman clothed with the sun.
And we looked at that and saw that the church is only righteousness. The brightness of the church
is the righteousness of Christ, and that alone. We have none
of our own, and that's one thing that everybody that truly is
Christ will admit. They don't have to be arm-twisted.
They don't have to be pleaded with. They will readily admit
the fact that their only righteousness is Christ. And they are depending
upon His blood. and His righteousness for their
position with the Father, and they're not dependent upon anything
else. And then it says that the moon
was under her feet, and I just looked at that as a statement
that the Gospel has such a place above any law. And just by comparison,
the moon is a cold, hard, dry, uninhabitable, unapproachable
place. And everything I can think of
with regard to the moon is also with regard to the law. It's
unapproachable. It's hard. And there's just so much about
the moon with relationship to the gospel that the church has
put her feet on it. It's no longer applicable. It's
no longer used. It's no longer, well, the law
is holy, just, and good, but be used lawfully. And that is,
we're sinners. And that's all it points out.
We're sinners. And it does nothing to promote
our righteousness. And the only way that we have
righteousness promoted is by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
in that last part, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. And I just spent some time about
Now, I appreciate, and I back up just a statement here, I appreciate
what Brother Gene Harmon shared with me one time when I made
a statement. He said, that may not be the interpretation, but
that certainly is an application. And I think there are lots of
applications found in the scripture. And this may not be the interpretation. I don't agree with many of the
commentators on this subject. I found out that most of the
time we just run this direction. Because I think they've missed
the point with Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1. This is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. I found a Bible Nancy gave to
me almost 40 years ago for my birthday, 39 years ago. And some
of the comments that I had written in there in the key verse to
the book of Revelation, I looked at it now and said, how in the
world could you ever pick that one out? The key verse is Revelation
1.1. That is the key verse of this
book. And so I have trouble with commentators that get away from
that position. They get away from that verse.
And look at the book of Revelation as something more than the revelation
of Jesus Christ. So, if I err, it's going to be
on that side. If I have a problem, I want to
be on that side. I want to be on err to the side
that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Alright. The crowning glory of the church. crowning glory of the church,
the most gracious responsibility, most crowning glory that the
church has, the greatest responsibility the church has, the greatest
authority that the church has is one thing, and that is preaching
the message of Christ. That is the church's crowning
glory. To think about what it all encompasses,
the covenant of grace, the wonderful redemptive work of Christ, the
eternal purposes of God, all of these great things that we
find in the scripture, that is what the church gets to and is
the responsibility of declaring. It's the church's responsibility
to declare the greatest message ever presented in the human race. It's our privilege. It's the
church's privilege. It's always been the church's
privilege to declare the greatest message that has ever been heard. Now, the other night, I talked
to my youngest brother, Robert. And by the way, it was four degrees
down there in New Pine Creek. And he said that there was a,
on the History Channel, they have found a lot of films that
were taken, moving pictures, colored moving pictures taken
during the war by soldiers. And this one guy had a whole
bunch of them up in his attic and he's donated them and they
put them into digital form and all this stuff. And to hear those
guys and to hear the President at that time, the message that
they declared, you know, we're winning the war, we've taken
this island and all these, that was no doubt great news to the
United States and to the free world at that time, but it doesn't
compare to the message of God's grace in Christ Jesus. That's
the greatest message. It's no wonder we don't get involved
with politics. It's no wonder we don't get involved
with social issues. Those issues are great. But the
greatest message the church has, and we only have one voice. We
only have one period of time to say it. That's now. So the
greatest message we have is the message of Jesus Christ, Savior,
Great Savior, saving great sinners. And that's the crowning glory
here. And it's mentioned here with regard to 12 stars. The
church owes all that it is and all that it has and all that
it will ever be to this message. It is not extra message. It is
not sideline message. It is the message. And that's the crowning glory
of the church. To get to speak for Christ. To be ambassadors
for God. To be ambassadors for Christ
is the greatest opportunity, the greatest blessing that we
will ever have in this life. To consent to it. the greatest
blessing we have to have our hearts opened up to the truths
of the gospel and to Consent to the Word of God is the greatest
blessing we can ever have Now there are groups. I remember
working with a group one time their whole goal was to start
independent Baptist churches in other countries That's not
the goal of the church The goal of the church is to preach Christ.
The goal of the church is to declare Christ and to honor Him. Our ministry and message is not
even to win souls. Now by the grace of God, He does
that. But our message is not to win
souls. Our message is to honor God.
And when we delineate, when we drop from that glorious position,
we're not going to see people really saved. We'll see some
movement, but we don't want to see people really saved. So the
greatest honor we have, the greatest crown of glory we have, is the
message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And the Apostle Paul
spends a lot of time in his books that he wrote that the Holy Spirit
gave to him on this very message. Woe is me if I preach not Christ. This is the subject and that's
the crowning glory. There is a way that God determined
that the message of God's grace in Christ Jesus should be made
known to man and is found in the scriptures as the foolishness
of preaching. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. The foolishness of preaching.
Now, to those that are saved, it's not foolish. But to the
world, it's a foolish thing. There's all kinds of plans. I don't know how many times I've
heard in my life, the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation. and to know Christ and find out. That is not a way of saying it. It's not a plan. It's a person
of salvation. And he has a purpose. It's the
purpose of salvation. Plans can be destroyed. Plans
can be moved and altered. But the purpose of God will never
be altered, moved, it will not be dictated to. So here in the
book of 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21, the scriptures share this.
It says, For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. This is the crowning glory of
the church. This is the most honorable thing that the church
can do and perform. It's not the ordinances that
are responsibility, though we do that. I really appreciate
recently what Paul was led to write, I am thankful I baptize
none of you. And then he goes on and clarifies,
except maybe Crispus and Gaius and a few others, I can't remember.
But his responsibility was to uphold Christ. His responsibility
was to preach the gospel. And through that, people were
saved. He saw the Holy Spirit shows
the church, it's not you that does the saving. It is you that
plants the seed. It is you that cast out the seed
of the glorious message of a sovereign God ruling over all things and
taking the time in his dispensation of grace to save people from
their sins. Whoa! What a message! That's the crowning glory of
the church is to just have that message and to declare that message.
Another passage I want to look at is back one book in the book
of Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. A favorite
passage for soul winners. I have a Bible somewhere that
my dad and mother gave me when I was nine years old. And I was
sitting in church one time, and as some kids do, not paying very
much attention, and he grabbed my Bible and rolled it over to
Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, and underlined it. Now that
was his formula. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe, Romans chapter
10 verse 9, shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. And when you stop there, you
have nothing more than a formula salvation. Formula so if you
do this if you do this if you do this, it's not a formula Let's
go on though for the scripture saith whosoever believeth in
him shall not be ashamed For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him For whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed and This straightens out. This makes plain. This clears up the ground. How
shall they do this unless they have already believed? And the
only way that they can believe as it goes on to share with us
is faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The
crowning glory of the church is to hold forth the Word of
Life, to keep it up. to hold it up, to preach it,
declare it, to make it known. It's not popular, but to keep
holding it up. And when God passes that word
by one of those that he has determined to save, it will take lodgment
in their soul and in their heart, and he will reap the victory. He will reap the Fruit of that,
and we'll see that in just a moment. How shall they call on him whom
they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Now, the number one that brings
the glad tidings and is the preacher is the Lord. Book of Revelation
shares that in principle and in word. He is the preacher of
righteousness. Noah was declared to be a preacher
of righteousness, but Christ is the preacher of righteousness.
And he's the one that we truly bow down before and who truly
we worship. And we come before his feet with
thanksgiving because he has brought to us the grandest message that
this world has ever had. It's not that the war is over.
World War II or World War I, or the Spanish-American War,
or the Vietnam War, or any other war. That is good news, and a
country delights in it. But that news passes off. This news never loses its glamour. It never loses its glory. Because Christ is always glorious. And then it says in there, in
verse 16, But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah
saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And that's the crowning
glory of the church. The word of God, the word of
God, the gospel message has been proclaimed in every age, every
age since the fall. It was declared inside of the
Garden of Eden. It was mentioned there and Adam
and Eve got to overhear it and that's all we get to do about
the message of Christ. We're just overhears. They got
to overhear the message that the seed of the woman is going
to destroy the seed of the serpent. that glorious message of victory. They overheard. Genesis chapter
3 and verse 15. First prophetic statement made
in the Bible about the Lord Jesus Christ. Though we find the gospel
earlier, God brought everything after its own kind, and that's
the gospel. He's going to bring forth after
His kind, and anything else is going to bring forth after its
kind, and the only kind that's going to be eternal is after
His kind. That's all there is. The rest of it is temporal. It
will not stand the test. Alright, the gospel message has
been proclaimed. It says Genesis chapter 3 and
verse 15, we know, and that's just to humans. That's when human
got to hear it. Prior to that, it was mentioned
in the covenant of grace. And we delight in that. That's
the crowning glory of the church is to talk about a message that's
not just beginning in the garden, but began before the world began. That God had an interest in his
people before the world was ever created. that he created the
world with full knowledge that his son was a lamb slain from
the foundation of the world that he was there ready prepared identified
glorified and it was only going to take the check had been written
it's going to take 4 000 years since man was created to come
down and fulfilled the check but to Abel the check was written. Covenant of Grace was in full
force way back then because it reached back before the foundation
of the world. So this great message that God
has and it is only great if it reaches beyond human beings. If it's not reaching beyond human
beings and it's only in human beings hands then it's no greater
than human beings and we know what we're like. It's not a very
good message. It's no wonder that people trade
it in like automobiles. Go from this one to that one.
The only thing that's really secure and will keep people intact
is the gospel of God's free grace that was determined before the
foundation of the world. It's an eternal gospel based
upon an eternal covenant which is made by an eternal God. On
the behalf of people, He's going to save for eternity. It's a
glorious message. It's the grandest message the
world has ever heard. And it's so uncommon. And it's
so fought against. And we're going to see in that
book of Revelation that even when that woman is preparing
to deliver her child, that great red dragon is ready to eat it.
Why? To destroy it? Why? Because it's coming by birth
and not by works. The world cannot stand coming
by birth. It can tolerate and will encourage
a coming by works. That great red dragon is just...
well, we'll get there in just a minute. Turn with me, if you
would, to the book of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. We just
see here what the... the patriarchs of the faith.
Book of Acts, 2,000 years ago, nearly 2,000 years ago, here's
what was preached and here's what saved people. Acts chapter
13. Now, it's a good chapter. It leads us right to verse 13-48,
which is a glorious statement. It's a grand statement. It's
a wonderful thing. Acts 13-48, they that were ordained to eternal life,
whoa, reaching way back. It's a glorious gospel. It is
far superior to human gospel. Human gospel is only as good
as the human being. But this gospel, it is as good
as God, and it has His guarantee on it. Boy, have you read any
warranties or guarantees recently? This is guaranteed until you
get out of the store. The word guarantee has been so
belittled. But God's guarantee is eternal.
I will lose none. I like that kind of guarantee.
Alright, notice here, Acts 13 verse 5. What a wonderful statement is
here. And this is the crowning glory of the church. This is
what it's all about. This is what we use. I can understand a church if they
want to use literature, but it better be based on Christ. not
some man-made ideas. All right? Acts 13, verse 5,
it says, And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word
of God. The crowning glory of the church
is to use this and not skip passages. Paul said, I have declared unto
you the whole counsel of God. He's not shunned and declared
to stop at anything. The first message he ever preached,
because it is a message of hope. The first message he ever preached
was the message of Christ. to those that God had determined
to save before the world began. And what was it that caused that
preacher to go over there and baptize him in the first place? God told him, go over and take
care of this business. And that guy said, Lord, that
guy is mean. And the Lord said, he is a chosen
vessel of mine. What did the guy say? The preacher
said, okay. That was all it took. This man
is a chosen vessel. This is an elect of God. Hallelujah! And he went over there and did
what he was supposed to do. He lost his fear when he found
out that this guy had been part of God's eternal everlasting
covenant from before the foundation of the world, just like he had
been. Sinners, baptizing sinners. Sinners declaring a message to
sinners. That's what it is. All right.
Let's notice here. Acts 13 verse 5 They preached
the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and they had also
John to their minister They preached the Word of God That's all it
is Acts 17 turn with me to Acts 17 verse 13 Acts 17 verse 13 Acts 17 verse 13, but when the
Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached
of Paul in Berea. Now this is Old Testament. This
is the Old Testament that's being preached, and the Jews are having
a fit about it. What? When the Word of God was
preached of Paul in Berea, they came thither also, and stirred
up the people. You know what they said? Ain't
so, ain't so, ain't so, ain't so, ain't so. They came in the preaching of
the Old Testament by the Apostle Paul to these people and those
this whole group of people They came down and stirred up the
people and then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go
as it were to see but Silas and Timotheus are both there still
What was it? He was preaching the Word of
God was preached and Paul preached the Word of God clearly, distinctly,
without reservation. It was what was brought to him.
This is the seed that was sown that brought him out of the depths
of despair, out of the great pit. This was the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in 1 Corinthians, back to
1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul indicates
here a little bit about what his used to be preaching was. His used to be preaching. I believe
he was a preacher before he was a preacher. He was ordained. He'd gone through the ceremonies. Didn't know a thing about Christ,
but he knew a lot about the Old Testament. Now notice here, 1
Corinthians 2, verse 4 and 5, it says, and my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom. Now I can just hear him say,
now it used to be. I persuaded, I proselyted, I
tried to encourage people to be like me, to be in my religion,
to become a whatever religion we're talking about. but that's
not what he is now. He says there, verse four of
the second chapter, and my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit
and the power which he had no control over. Nobody commands
a spirit. Nobody tells the Spirit what
to do. But this preaching of the gospel, which is not by enticing
words of man's wisdom, it comes by power and demonstration of
the Spirit. The Spirit puts His stamp of
approval on it. Yay and amen. This is what I
once said. God has determined by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. He authenticates it. He authorizes it. He raises up
the speakers of it. He verbally does not say a word,
but he puts his stamp of approval when it is declared. And when
it's declared, the Holy Spirit, as it says right there, demonstration of the Spirit and
power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men."
That's why it's so valuable. Our salvation does not stand
in the confession of faith of some man. Our salvation does
not depend upon some man. We hope they're right. I really
appreciated something that Mike's mama told me the other day. She
went to a Catholic funeral. And she just said, those poor
people, those poor people, they're not getting anything. They're
depending upon the wisdom of men. And the wisdom of men will
fail us. But he goes on to tell us here,
Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect, ye, yet not the wisdom of this world,
not of the princes of this world that come to nought. And then
chapter 3 of that book of 1 Corinthians verse 4. This is a problem that the Apostle
Paul faced, and Corinthians has a lot of problems. Church of
Corinth has lots of problems. One of them is there's a bunch
of sex about who they hold to, who is the best preacher. And
here it is, right here. For while one saith, I'm of Paul,
and another, I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then
is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase." Greatest message. We get to plant, we
get to water, we throw out the seed, we declare the great glory
of God, the grace of God, the grace of God in Christ Jesus,
all the great blessings of the gospel, but it is God that giveth
the increase. So then, verse 7, neither is
he that planteth anything, neither that watereth, but God giveth
the increase. It's not worth the Rolex. Neither is he that planteth anything. I like what Scott Richardson
said about it. We're just garden hoes and hoses. There's no glory
in them. I like Ames better than anything
else. I like the old ones. But just
garden hoes and garden hoses. That's all we are. Planters and
waterers. But it's God that gives the increase.
And that's the glorious message of the Gospel. It's not ours. It's His. We're just servants. We're not able to make a mud
baby, not alone make a spiritual baby. We can't get mud babies
to stand up. So, well, the crowning glory
of the church is the preaching of the peace by the blood of
Christ. Now notice, going over to Revelation,
chapter 12, verse 2. Now notice the results of the
preaching. Notice with me here the results
of the preaching. I'll not take a lot longer here. We just got
to see this. The results of preaching, Revelation
chapter 12, verse 2. The results. Now nowhere in here
do we ever find that anything is described except a child,
an unborn child. Now that's what God has out there. He does not take goats and make
them sheep. Notice this verse of scripture.
And she, the church, being with child, being with child. The church is the minister to
unborn children of God. We're not ministers to unborn
goats. We're ministers to unborn children. embryonic sheep, if you please. His gospel is to lost sheep of
the house of Israel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is to those that are without those that he has set without
in the covenant of grace to be brought in by the glorious gospel.
It says, she being with child cried, and this is how it happens. This is such a clear verse on
number one, who is the gospel after? Unborn children of God. And number two, how is it taking
place? A birth. She is travailing in birth. The church is the minister of
the gospel. The church is the upholder of
the gospel. And as a result of that, the
church is the one that is feeling the birth pangs, if you please.
It is a birth. God's people realize this is
a birth and it comes from God. But we're the ministers of this.
We're the ones that share the gospel. We're the ones that cast
the seed out. God's holy seed. And this seed
is cast out. And to those that are his children,
unborn children, that seed finds a place. The gospel, the seed
of the gospel finds a place. And God uses it. As he says there
in the book of Romans chapter 10, he uses this gospel to cause
a belief to come out of them. What's that? The leaves, my goodness,
the leaves of the gospel is repentance towards God and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this only happens after he
has given a birth. Now, we don't know when that
takes place. I can remember my youngest sister's
baby shower. She's three and a half years
younger than me. I can remember one thing from
three and a half years old. That's the earliest I can remember.
I remember her baby shower. I remember my grandmother taking
down the diapers off the line in March, and they're frozen
stiff as a board. They're freeze-dried. She brought
them in, thawed them out, and when they warmed up, you could
put them on that little girl. I can remember that. But I can't
go back any further than that. Now, I had to tell a lady one
time when she asked me that question, when were you saved? I said,
this is my answer. After I heard the gospel. I had to have that seed. That
seed had to be scattered. That seed had to be cast out.
That seed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ had to be.
When he did the work, don't ask me that. The covenant of grace
work was done. The work in time was done. God
worked the work in time. To me, to put my foot on that?
Can't do it. But, the results of it is repentance
towards God, and that is quit worshiping dumb idols and worship
the true and living God. That's repentance. It's not repentance
of our sins. We'll spend our lifetime as Paul
did, O wretched man that I am. We spend our lifetime of that
thought. We thank God for his salvation
and when we go introspective, oh wretched man that I am. We
can't spend enough time repenting of our sins. That's not what,
it's never mentioned in scripture. But we have repentance towards
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe with our heart
because he has created faith in it. And that's the message. This Church is being with child
now a couple verses. I want to read here in 2nd Timothy
chapter 2 verse 10 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 10 We read these
words the Apostle Paul was very clear. He's led by the Holy Spirit
to write this He's very clear on his debt who his debt is to. Now he doesn't know who his debt
is to individually, but he knows who his debt is to. 2 Timothy
chapter two, verse 10. Therefore, I endure all things
for the little babies yet unborn. I'm not talking about infants,
I'm talking about those children of God that have not been brought
out of the pit. What does he call them here?
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake. Or when
Revelation calls it, she was with child. That's why we're
so adamant about this I remember Brother Henry as he
looked at that little ultrasound of his great grandchild. He doesn't know yet. Just barely,
he says, that's a baby. People want to call it a fetus. That's a baby. That's the way
it is spiritually. That's a baby. That's a child. That's a child. God has worked
His work. He has created life in the covenant
of grace to be applied to those who are dead in trespasses and
sin. All right, what's He say here?
I endure all things. for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. I will go through heck and high
water for the elect's sake. Those yet to be found. That's the term used. Now, Galatians
chapter 4. Another term is used for this
wonderful position The doctors may induce labor
But God doesn't he never asked the church to He never asked
him to be born early Never asked him to be held late He's in charge
It's his birth, but notice here in Galatians chapter 4 Galatians
in chapter 4 verse 1 Wonderful statement here now I say that
the heir as long as he is a child is Now again, the Apostle Paul
is going back and referring to those that are without Christ
at this moment. Now, they're in the covenant
of grace. He laid down his life for them. He ransomed them. He
paid their debt. He covered them. All the things
that we have, and yet he has not applied the gospel to them,
and once that happens, they are identified as his children. Now notice this, a heir, as long
as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant. Now there's the
difference. A servant is never going to be
brought in. It's going to be the child. A
servant. They're the hewers of wood and
drawers of water. They're the servants of God.
They're the servants of the church. They're the ones that are used
to bring glory to God and to aid and assist and bring health
and happiness to God's people by providing their needs. but
they're servants, and they'll never be anything else. But the
child, even though the heir, as long as he's a child, differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under
tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.
Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons." No longer are they just identified
as heirs and differing nothing from the servants. I can put
it this way. Before God saves his people,
you can't tell a wits difference between them and a goat. Baby goats and baby sheep look
a lot alike. That's why I talked about not plucking out the tares
before it was time. In their infancy, they are identical. You can't tell the difference.
And so it is. You just can't see the difference
between a servant and a son until the son is identified by adoption
by the blood of Christ. So is with child, elixir, heir,
children, adoption of sons and sons. This is how God declares
it. They are mine. They're sons.
I've had them born. They've been brought out of this
position that they were in. And then it says that woman was
travailing in birth. One of my favorite verses in
the book of Acts is right here, Acts chapter 4. Let's go back
there for just a moment and with this we'll close. They're travailing
a birth. It is a birth. It is a birth. There's the greatest issue that
people have, religious people have is they have nothing to
do with it and they just can't handle it. Bible classes are taught, I suppose,
in every Bible school in the United States and around the
world on how to be midwives. how to get a birth going, how
to talk someone into being born, how to use the right scripture,
oh my goodness, and threaten and scare people. Boy, if you
don't do it, they're going to stand before God and say, no
one ever told me. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, no one shall
be without excuse. When God resurrects them out
of the dust or translates them from this position to before
him, they will know they are guilty before God. And that's
what he said, every tongue shall confess and every knee shall
bow. So it's not, they're not going
to say, oh boy, Norm never told me. Nope, nope, nope, nope. No, it's our pleasure to tell.
And when God moves on us to tell. And He draws people to the assembly
of the saints to hear. I'm convinced of it. He just
does things that are totally unpredictable to us. We just
can't figure it out. How did that person get there
to hear what he needed to hear? And how did that person get there
who had a message to say? We just can't figure it out.
It's all so strange. But God has worked it out. And
here in Acts chapter 4, Verse 1 through 4, it says, And as
they spake unto the people, the priests in the capital of the
temple and the Sadducees came unto them, being grieved that
they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection
from the dead. And they laid hands on them,
and put them in hold unto the next day, for it is now eventide.
How be it? The preacher's in jail. I love
it. He can't be a midwife. All these
apostles are in jail. They can't be midwives. They
cannot take credit. How be it? Many of them which
heard the word believed, and the number of men was about five
thousand. They couldn't be midwives. We can't be. We can't be midwives. We can't assist in the birth. We just can assist in the planting
and in the watering. But that part is God's, and He'll
not share it with anybody. And He'll even take people and
shove them into prison. He'll take them out of... Brother
Henry Mahan was in Ashen, Kentucky, when God revealed His Son to
me. It wasn't during the service.
One of the things that I just remember clearly is this man
never gave an invitation. Holy cow, what's people going
to think? He's not giving anybody an opportunity.
You know what he believes? And that's what we believe. Leave
him alone with God. The birth will be a whole lot
more secure. The birth certificate will be
found to be in Christ and not in man. So this woman, The message
is the crowning glory of the church. And then we find, oh
my goodness, she's dealing with children, yet unborn. That's
what we're dealing with. And there will be births. Births. And there will be travail, I
would dare say. Not one of us here has not had
some travail over a loved one or a family member over this
very issue. Oh God, save them by your grace. Nothing I've said has touched
them. Save them. So there is travail. There is travail by the church.
It is travail as a woman in birth. Alright, we're going to stop
there tonight. We may get through verse 2 next time.