Y'all know we've been in Mexico
for a long time, 45 years. That's a long time. We've seen
a lot of things. And the churches have got stronger
and stronger. And the pastors and the preacher
school, we have 12 men that come in every Monday. We enjoy those
times together. Fellowship, we want to keep in
contact. And Cody does a wonderful job of teaching and preaching.
I wish you could hear him preach in Spanish. I don't know, he
still hasn't lost his English ability. Maybe when he comes
up here, the Lord bless him preaching like he does in Mexico. But we
have a young man that's coming, that came down and has been going
in the services there with us for a long time. He's from Canada.
He's coming along real well and he's taking He's taking advice
from Cody and I on some things about getting into these Pueblos.
And I told him the other day, I said, now, don't despise the
day of small things. He said, where's that found in
the Bible? I said, look it up. Get your
concordance and look it up. It's in there. And I don't know
how to quote all the scriptures and verses, but it's there. And
he's doing fine. He said, go into Pueblo. And I told him, I said, you find
a house that will receive you into the house. And I said, if
you're going to start any service in that house, you ask the others
around to find out about the reputation of that family. And ask if they're worthy. If
you ever wondered about that scripture, ask if they're worthy. Nobody's worthy of the gospel.
Nobody's worthy of salvation. But I think what he's talking,
the scripture's talking about is you better find a family that's
not fighting with everybody else in town. Somebody's getting along
pretty well with the rest of the community. Identify with
them and go into their home and start having services because
you get in a home. Now I learned from the hard knock
way. I got in a house, a man, you
know, and I found out his daughter's, oh my, I had to get out of that
house and get into another house. Well, I'm rambling now. Let me
see. But that's Bill's fault. But good to be up here in this
cool weather. First change. I don't envy the
ragweed that's blowing around. It's got me all stuck to it. But Cody, as driving, he's driving a lot, goes to Cancun,
services there. The church is going well in Cancun.
He goes over to his shop. It's just about a three or four
hour drive to get over there, and preaches over there. And
I don't drive as much as I used to. And I got a good, nice truck
to do it in, but I just drive. I preach on the Wednesdays and
have the classes on the Mondays, and then I preach in other places.
But Cody's doing, he's taking the load. He's doing the real
responsibility of the whole ministry. He's the pastor of the church
in Matadda, and now he'll be coming up here later on, and
I'll be there in Matadda. It'll all fall on me. It's amazing. It's amazing. We're
immigrants down in Mexico now. We've been immigrants for the
last 10 years, Betty, something like that. But we can't vote
in Mexico, even though we're immigrants. We still have dual
citizenship. But I don't want to vote down
there anyway. But we're immigrants in Mexico. We're glad to get those papers.
It took us 30 years to get those papers. Imagine 30 years. And we're just so grateful to
have that paper. Passport, you know, Mexican passport. And I guess I don't have any
desire to be buried up here in the States when I die. I'd die
down there and be buried out in Yawain, that's where I got
mine, or Six Antun. Buried like they were buried.
We've had several funerals this year. I wish you could go to
one of those funerals. People think it's so pathetic. But it don't cost a lot of money
to get in and put you in the ground. And they sing, sing songs,
and preach messages. It's so different from what it
is here. Bill told me to read a text.
So I'm going to take a text from this, from the Galatians. I might think of something else
to say along the line as I go. In Galatians chapter 2, Paul is talking here to Peter. Peter's a big thing in Catholicism,
but here Paul is rebuking Peter, it says, We who are Jews
by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith,
faith of Jesus. A lot of folks want to stress
the faithfulness of Jesus. Well, that's true. He's faithful
in all things. But I want to stress the reality of it, the
faith of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the faith
of Jesus Christ. A man had to believe God. That's
the reason eternal Son of God was made flesh, made man, that
he might, as a man, believe God and fulfill all the law in every
point, in every jota, in every tilde. He could fulfill it all,
establish a perfect righteousness. It was the faith of Jesus, His
faith. But you could say His faithfulness
time being, but a lot of preachers talk about just the faithfulness
of Christ. He's faithful, but it's His faith. That's where
I want, I think that emphasis should be on His faith. A man obeyed God. We had to have
a man to stand in our place. Couldn't be an angel. Had to
be a man, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood. And that's
what he did. And he said, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law. He uses that we have believed
in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by the what? the faith
of Jesus Christ, by his faithfulness, by his, he fulfilled all that
which we cannot do. It's not our faith. I don't trust
in my faith. My faith is up and down. If I
had to trust in my faith, I wouldn't have any hope. Oh, you little
faith. Everyone else have just a little
faith. But I think, God, we have a little faith in a great God. And the faith of Jesus Christ,
that's our hope. The faith of a man that glorified
the Father, glorified God, and fulfilled all that the law demands
of us. In this text, Peter is confronted
by Paul because Peter went up to to visit the work there among
the Gentiles. And while he was there, he was
enjoying the fellowship, enjoying the food that the Gentiles ate.
Probably they ate pork and different things. The Jews would not dare
to eat any pork. And Peter was eating those tacos
made out of pork and enjoying that fellowship with the Gentiles.
And here came a group from Jerusalem, and there was some false brethren
among them. They come up to see how it was going along. And when
Peter saw those that were sent from James there in Jerusalem,
he saw them, he withdrew from the Gentiles. It was offending, it was a denial
really of the gospel which he believed himself and which Paul
preached and Peter preached, but his action was denying the
faith that he believed. The faith of Jesus Christ is
our only hope and we have believed on him that through the faith
of Jesus Christ we're justified before God and not by the works
of the law. And Paul rebuked him to his face. And he goes on to say, but if
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. I don't want
to give anybody the impression that I have justified before
God or I have any comfort or hope of salvation in what I do.
I don't trust anybody. Anything I ever have done or
will do or am doing, only trust I have is in Him, who He is. He's the God-man. What He did,
He offered up a sacrifice that's sufficient. acceptable to God,
that justifies all for whom He died, they're made just in Him
by the imputations you were preaching about. Righteousness. I can come to God as a sinner,
the sinner that I am, and call God my Father without being presumptuous. If I didn't believe and trust
in the faith and the fulfillment that Christ did on Calvary for
my sins and His resurrection and where He is now and what
He's doing. He lives forever to make intercession for us.
And that's the only thing that gives us confidence to lift up
our eyes and pray, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. We have access and confidence
through Christ alone. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroy, I'll make myself transgression." The
preachers nowadays are preaching faith, faith in Christ, your
faith. Loosen your faith. Exercise your
faith. And they're putting all the emphasis
on the faith of the believer. And then they, as soon as they
confess the faith, well, they say, well, that all depends on
you. They send them back to the law
for their real justification. I'm sanctified in Jesus Christ. You are too. By the faith of
Jesus Christ. I'm sanctified in Jesus Christ. We grow in grace and knowledge
of the Lord, but I tell you what, Paul, when he grew in grace,
he said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of this death? He sure wasn't looking to himself,
was he? He's looking. I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. Who are you looking for? Who
are you looking to? If you're looking to any other one than
Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have no hope. You're looking
the wrong way. And that's what Bill preaches.
That's what I preach. Let me say some things before
I go on. I want to thank the Lord for
this church and for Bill and Dorothy. They've been down there
a couple of times at Yucatan, years ago, when it had to drive
all the way down there. And this church has been faithful. My first supporters ministered
there, and they've been faithful all these years. Thank God for faithful people
like you. And the minister here and Bill's
preaching. It's the first time I've ever
been on a film. We wonder how this is going to
turn out. But we can. Betty's the computer expert.
I don't even touch the things. I'm computer illiterate. But
she does all that stuff. And she takes what we do in classes. I'll get up some, I'm going into
all my old outlines and I'll say, type that up. And it looked like a bunch of
chicken scratching. And she'll type it up and it looks like
it comes out on that machine and it looks real good on that
machine. I can turn it and give it to the men. I always give
them a sermon each Monday when they come in. I didn't know whether
they were preaching to them or not. But the other day, I gave
them one. And I gave them all one. And
I was wondering, are they getting any good out of those messages? But Cody came back from Cancun. He drove down there three hours,
down there three hours back. He took Elio with him, Elio from
Chichantum. Young man, when I went to Yucatan,
Elio was just a baby, wasn't he? He's a pastor now, Elio Chay. And a fine looking, fine looking
man. Fine wife and family. He's a
good preacher, good preacher too. He went down there with
Cody, and Cody put him up to preach. Cody, he preaches all
the time. He's glad to put somebody up. But Elio preached that message,
that last outline you made. And he got back, and he said,
Elio preached that message. He did real, real well. Real
well. Got along real well on it. Betty said, it looks like he
beats you shooting your own gun. Yeah, he beat me shooting my
own gun. But it's wonderful to have a son in the ministry and
have him down there preaching the gospel. I hope you pray for
him and Winner. Winner's a fine wife, fine wife. She's a fine woman, fine young
lady. And she supports him all the
way. And Batty, she's not so bad herself. She's been through
a lot. She's been a backbone to us,
too. But Bill and again, the things
which I destroy. Preaching the gospel is destroying
that false hope that a man has in his religion, whatever he
puts his confidence in, that's other than Jesus Christ, Him
crucified and resurrected on the throne of God, ever living
to make intercession. Any other hope is a false foundation. I just want to preach a clear
message that I have no hope outside of Jesus Christ, and I don't
trust in the law. I don't have anything against
the law. The law's good, but I'm thankful I don't have to
be, I'm not saved by the law. The law don't do anything to
me but condemn me. For I through the law am dead
to the law. How am I dead to the law? in
the person of Christ, he died because of my transgressions,
because of your transgressions against the law of God, he died.
That I might live under God, that's what we live now. We live
under God, how? By faith in Jesus Christ. By
faith in Jesus Christ. But it's not our faith, it's
his faith. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by
the faith, there it is again, by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness
came by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. As far as that person is concerned,
if they trust in anything other than Christ, Christ's death for
them has no meaning whatsoever except greater condemnation.