Now Paul had been exhorting Timothy
to hold fast to the gospel and the grace of God that's in Christ. He was his son, he was his beloved
son. And he told him also, you know,
to endure hardness as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And take those things that he has learned and teach others,
committed to faithful men, teach others. And teach others the
doctrine that he had heard Paul preach. And then he says down
here, and he said, the Lord give you understanding. And then he
said, after I consider what I said, the Lord give the understanding.
He says, now talking about his gospel now. Remember that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel According to my gospel And here's the thing he
said remember Remember this. I don't know why anybody had
to be told this Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David
Now I want you to remember he says that Jesus Christ was born
of Because if he is a seed of David, he was a descendant of
David. That means he was the rightful
king. You remember when the angels came, you know, he that was born
king of Jews, he was born king. And David was made a king, anointed
a king. And God spoke about David twice,
and the only person who's ever done this other than his own
blessed son, he's a man after my own heart. So David, God made
a covenant with him. As David sat before the Lord
and said, Lord, you've made with my house an everlasting covenant. And God told him, said, I'll
raise up a man that'll sit on your throne and he'll sit there
forever and ever and ever and ever. He'll have an everlasting
dominion. And so that's why he was at the
seat of David. He was a rightful king of Israel,
but he was the king that God raised up himself. But first
of all, he was born. A lot of people say that Jesus
Christ our Lord was created, that he was God's first creation. That's impossible since all things
was made by him and there was not anything made without him,
and he was before all things that was ever made. By him all
things consistent, by his own power oppose them all by the
word of his power. And I tell you what, not only
was he born, I mean he took on humanity. He became a sinless,
perfect, holy man, but he says that he arose from the dead.
Remember this, he arose from the dead. He was raised from
the dead. You know, the scriptures tells
us this. Paul said, you know, there'll
be some among us who do not believe in the resurrection. They don't
believe in the resurrection of the dead. He said, well, he said,
this is the situation we're in. If Christ be not raised from
the dead, you know what happens? We're still in our sins. We're
without God and without hope and without Christ in this world.
If you don't believe in the resurrection, if you don't believe that God
raised Christ from the dead, then there's no hope for anybody
anywhere. But our Lord Jesus Christ has
said He was raised from the dead. And what He's telling us is that
our Lord Jesus Christ was God and He really came to earth in
the flesh. He was truly man as much as He
was truly God. He was the Messiah that was promised. And He came into this world in
order to die. We just sung it. And He died. Went to the cross and died for
sins, not just anybody's sins, but for our sins, the sins of
God's elect that Paul talks about here in a few minutes. And I
know this, beloved, that His sin offerings And his sacrifice
as God's blessed lamb was accepted, accepted by God. How do we know?
Because God raised him from the dead. And you know why the Lord
himself said this, when John 10, he says, no man takes my
life from me. Men think they're going to take
it. They said they're gonna take it, but God made his soul an
offering for sin. God made him to be wounded. God
himself sent him into this world to be our sin offering. And God
himself, and our Lord said, no man takes my life from me. I've
got the power, the ability, and the authority to live down of
myself. I'll die when it's my time to
die. And he said himself, he said, he gave up the ghost. He
said, it's finished, and he gave up the ghost. He died just when
he willed to die. Not a moment too soon, not a
moment too late. And then he said, and since he
had the power later on in his life, he said, I've got the power
to take it up again. I've got the authority to take
it up again. And I tell you, beloved, you
know why it's so important for the resurrection and that God
raised Him again? And not only did God raise Him
again, but He sent Him in His own right hand, exalted Him to
His own right hand to be our mediator. And I tell you what,
if He did not raise from the dead, there'd be no hope for
us. And Acts 2, you know Acts 2, 22 said, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you with
wicked hands are taken and crucified and slain. But it was, now listen
to this, the next verse says, but it was not possible that
he should be holding of death. Not possible. It's not possible
for death to hold Christ. Impossible for it to hold him.
And I'll tell you what, you know, this is a fundamental, this is
something that has to absolutely believe. It's the war that's
so important to our faith. And I'll tell you, and here's
the thing that Satan attacks more than anything, is the resurrection
of Christ and tries to get people, let me show you some things.
I want you to look with me in Acts chapter four. Look at Acts
chapter four. This is what, you know, there's
people today that believe when you die you're just like a dog,
you just go. And then there's people that believe that Jesus
Christ was a creation. And there's people who believe
He was not God because man could not take on matter. God could
not take on matter. says God's eternal if he took
on matter he'd be just he'd be like us he couldn't take on flesh
without being sinful like us some of the most unbelievable
things that people believe but here's what here's what he said
here in Acts chapter 4 look in verse 1 & 2 And as they spake unto the people,
they've been preaching to the saints here, you know. Pentecostal
in chapter 2, and Peter went to the temple to pray and preach,
and he got there and he began to preach. And as they spake
unto the people, the priest and the chief captain of the temple
and the Sadducees came upon them. Now listen to this, being grieved
that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection
from the dead. It grieved them. You know why
I agreed to him? Because if he rose from the dead,
they had to face him as the Lord of lords and king of kings, as
somebody that actually came to put away sin, and they had to
face that. Now look what else he says over here in Acts chapter
17. Acts chapter 17. Look here in verse 18. The Stoics and Epicureans, two
opposite philosophies, absolutely, couldn't be more opposite philosophies
in the world than these two guys, these two groups, encountered
him and said, what will this babbler say? And the margin says,
base fellow. I mean, he's a lowlife. That's
what that means. He's a lowlife kind of a fellow.
And he said, what will this Bible say? Other some, he seemeth to
be set aforth as strange gods. Why? Because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. Look down at verse 32, Acts 17. And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked and others said, we'll hear thee
again of this. We'll hear you again. So I'll
tell you this, and that stuff still goes on today. And then
over here, not only said, remember that in verse eight, remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead.
And this is what he said, according to my gospel, my gospel. Why does he call it my gospel?
because he was saved by that gospel. And you know who taught
him the gospel? He said in Galatians, he said,
I did not receive my gospel from man. My gospel didn't come from
man. God took him off into Arabia,
and he was over there three years, and Christ himself taught him
the gospel. Christ himself opened the scriptures
to his understanding. Christ himself taught him the
gospel. And he said, it's my gospel because I'm saved by the
gospel. It's my gospel because I'm committed
to this gospel. It's my gospel because I'm entrusted
with this gospel. And I'll tell you, and he means
my gospel is not the same gospel that these false preachers and
teachers are teaching. I want to show you something
in Ephesians chapter one. I want to show you something
in Ephesians chapter one. You know, that's what I, we talk
about our gospel, my gospel, your gospel. We all have it. We all, we all have the gospel
and it has to be your gospel. Not just mine, it has to be yours.
But look what he said here in Ephesians 1, 12. That we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ, and whom ye also trusted
after that ye heard the word of truth. Listen to this now,
the gospel of your salvation. Huh? The gospel has to come to
you, and when you hear that gospel, you say, I'm saved. God saved
me. This is the best news I ever
heard. Oh, I tell you, we've got to
hear the gospel of your salvation. And you know who's the first
one to trust in Christ? Robert Hawker said this, he said,
the first one who ever trusted in Christ was God the Father,
and then we trusted in him, and God himself trusted in him, and
then we trust in him, and the gospel becomes the gospel of
our salvation. And when you hear this gospel,
and the Holy Ghost teaches it to you, and instructs you in
it, and makes it alive and effectual to you, that's the day it becomes
your gospel, and the gospel of your salvation. And then look
what he goes on to say now, in verse nine. And here's why he
said, this is why I'm suffering trouble. He said, when I suffer
trouble as an evildoer, what for? For preaching that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead. He said,
I suffer trouble as an evildoer. How could anybody be called an
evildoer who preached what Paul preached? Well, you seen there
in Acts where they took those men and beat them and told them,
never go talk about Jesus Christ ever again. He said, I suffer
trouble as somebody that's evil. I mean, they treat me, they think
I'm so evil for what I believe and what I preach, that I preach
that Jesus Christ was God to come into this world, that he
was the seed of David, that he was the promised one, he was
the Christ, he was promised and he was prophesied of, he was
pictured, and oh, so many types. Then he said, I suffered, and
Paul would go to the scriptures and show them exactly what the
gospel was. And he said, here I suffer as
an evildoer. And not only that, but even to
being in bonds, to being in chains. Being in chains. Treated like
a, put in prison. Treated like a common criminal.
Common criminal. You know Paul suffered some awful
things. I won't look at it tonight, but
let me tell you where it's at. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 11,
You go down there toward the end of that chapter and you'll
find out how much Paul suffered in his lifetime over the gospel. The Jews whipped him three times
with 39 lashes. Three different times they whipped
him with lashes. One time they stoned him and
left him for dead. He floated around on a board
three days and three nights in the ocean. Oh, and then he says, then they
treat me like I'm an evildoer. Over in Peter it says this, he
says, men will get so far gone that the reason, when they hear
the truth, they'll say the truth is a lie. That's how far gone
this generation is. They'll hear the truth, They'll
hear it, and they'll say, that's no way that can be right. That's
opposed to everything I've ever believed. That tears down my
profession. What about my mama? What about
my granny? What about my children? What
about Christ who suffered? What about Christ who died? What
about Christ who bore sin? What about Christ who suffered?
What about Him? Instead of about somebody else,
what about Christ? What about Him being the Lamb
of God? What about Him bearing our sins
in His own body on the tree? Oh my, he said, here I am, I'm
bound as a common criminal. But I love what else he says
now. But the Word of God's not bound. God's Word's not bound. I may
be bound, but you know, there's one place, I believe it's in
Acts chapter 8 in Philippians. He says, you know, he said that
my bonds has caused the furtherance of the gospel. Said the gospel's
going all through the palace. You know, them pilgrims that
was watching him and keeping track of him, and they would
hear him preaching. They'd go home and they'd go
in the palace and they were servants of the king and servants in those
palaces and Caesar's court. And they'd go tell him what Paul
said. And next thing you know, people were starting to believe
the gospel. Well, even worse, Caesar reigned. Oh my, he said,
I'm thankful that my afflictions fell out to the furthest of the
gospel. He said, I'm bound, but God's
word's not bound. Let me tell you something about
that. Every once in a while, a preacher will get up, and I
mean he just, the Lord just will not come. He's just left there
by himself. And that's the miserable place in the world to be. And
God leaves you up there by yourself, and when it happens, I know it,
and you know it. But anyway, to make the long
story short, That even though we may be bound down and not
have no liberty, what we call liberty to preach, but the word
of God, no matter we have any liberty or not, is still true.
Ain't it? It's still so. Truth is truth. You know, God used a donkey to
preach to a prophet one time. So if he can use that, he can
use me. But what I'm saying is that the Word of God's not chained. It's not imprisoned. It's not
bound. Men may be bound. Men may be fettered and bound
for the sake of the gospel and persecution for preaching the
gospel, encouraging others to preach it. But oh no, he said
God's Word's not bound. I am, but I can still preach.
I can still witness. You know, back when people used
to write letters before we got cell phones and computers and
email and texting and all that, there was an art to writing letters. And that's what these are called.
They're called letters, epistles, letters. And multitudes of men
have written letters, John Newton, John Flavel, Charles Spurgeon,
multitudes of men have written letters. And by those letters,
you read John Newton's especially, by those letters so many people
were converted. There was a famous preacher named
Thomas, last name was Thomas, and he tried to prove that John
Newton was wrong, and he'd write John Newton and tell him all
kinds of evil things and say filthy things, but Newton would
just write back and start talking about Christ and what Christ
accomplished. And that man got converted and
became a famous preacher. And I tell you, beloved, that's
why Paul said that. I may be bound, but thank God
His Word's not bound. Man may be dead, but when God
speaks, life's coming through that word. And then look what
he said. And he said, this is why I'm
in bounds. This is what I'm in prison about. Because listen,
I therefore endure what I'm going through. I endure all things
for the elect's sake. I'm going through this for the
elect's sake. I'm not just suffering just for the fact of suffering.
God's got a purpose in this. God's got a will in this. God's
got some glory in this. And he said, what I'm going through
and everything that I've endured in my life, in my ministry, is
for the elect's sake. He didn't say I'm doing this
so that everybody can be saved if they get an opportunity. He
didn't say I'm doing this for the free willer's sake or the
Armenian's sake or so people can live a better life. No, no. He said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake. Our law of election. Thou hast
them elect people. Who elected them? God did. God
changed them in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Then he turned around and gave them to Christ. All that the
Father gives me shall come to me. Oh my. He said I I have all power to
give eternal life to as many as God has given me. I've got
all power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. And our Lord Jesus Christ says, I pray not for the
world, I pray for them you've given me. I don't pray for the
world, I pray for them that thou hast given me out of the world. And I'll tell you what, I love
election. I remember Scott telling me one
time, said he got a hold of a track by Spurgeon on election. And he read that thing and read
that thing and read that thing. And he said, boy, the more I
read it, the more I said, that's got to be right, that's got to
be right. So next thing you know, he's preaching election. And
I'll tell you what, beloved, God, Christ suffered and He died
for who? His elect. He said, shall not
God avenge His elect who cry unto Him day and night? Huh? And I'll tell you what, Christ
died for His elect. And God calls people to preach
the gospel, sends them to preach the gospel, sends them to publish
the gospel in this world for one reason. Call out His sheep. My sheep hear my voice. And I
tell you, when they hear my voice, they follow me, they come to
me, they come on on to me. And I tell you what, we call
upon the name of the Lord because we know whom we have believed.
And that's what Paul's saying here, for the sake of God's elect,
for the sake of God's elect, for preachers, they're called
and qualified. to bear the gospel and cheerfully
promote the salvation. Ain't that what he said? Obtain
the salvation. And there's only one place salvation's
at. It's in Jesus Christ. It's in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, promote the salvation of
the Lord's church, the Lord's people. Oh, I'll tell you, he
said this, he said, that they may obtain the salvation in Christ
Jesus. Listen to this. with eternal
glory. Eternal glory. Not just glory
for a little while, eternal glory. And eternal glory. And I, you
know, we'll go to jail. Paul went to
jail so a jailer could be saved. And God saved a jailer. Go to the hospital and preach
to a patient. Go to a leper colony to call
one of his own. Our goal, and Brother Henry said
it so well, he said, I'm on the trail of God's sheep. I'm on
the trail of God's sheep. And that's why we always pray,
say, Lord, you save your people in this place. And if you got
some sheep out there somewhere, around this area. If you've got
to bring them from California, if you've got to bring them from
Michigan, if you've got to bring them from Texas, if you've got
to bring them from Florida, I don't care where you bring them. Just
bring your sheep. And when he brings his sheep,
10,000 wolves can't stop them sheep from hearing his voice.
All the devils in hell can't stop it. Ain't that right? You talk about having a purpose
to preach. We're not just drawing a bow at adventure. Well, let's
see if I can hit something here. No, no. When God draws his bow
back, he got somebody just aiming straight at. And when that arrow
hits, that's it. Oh my, that's no wonder Paul
said, Nothing here is worth, nothing here is nothing like
the gospel. And I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that's gonna be revealed in us. Then look what he said
in verse 11, let's go on down here now. He said, it's a faithful
saying. You know, this salvation that
we have in Christ, this Lord Jesus that was raised from the
dead, He said, this is a faithful saying. Paul, this is one of
his favorite sayings. He said, I think he used this
three or four, maybe even five times. I know three right off
the top of my head. But he said, this is a faithful
saying. What that means is, this is what's
right, this is what's true, this is what's really, really honest
and true. And he used this phrase frequently. And what he does, and it means
great importance to him, what he's about to say is opposite
to the feelings of what the flesh feels like, and what the flesh
respects. And that's what he says here.
It's a faithful saying if we be dead with him. Now what he's
saying to us, if you wanna live, you gotta die. Now that's, you
talking about killing the flesh. You can't be saved by the flesh.
If you want to be saved, you've got to die before you can have
life. Nothing's more opposite to the
thoughts of men than the feelings of the flesh. You've got to die
in order to live. And you can't live in the Spirit,
you can't live by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit demands this flesh
die. And I tell you what, this flesh,
what we were talking about our flesh, we were talking about
our own nature. That's what we were talking about, our own nature.
And it's an awful thing, our own nature is. But I tell you
what he's saying to us is this, that you've got to put to death
the flesh. James read it the other night,
he says, if we be dead with Christ, If we be dead with Christ, then
we also believe we'll be raised with Christ. If we suffer with
him, we'll be raised with him. And like as Christ was raised
from the dead to walk into the glory of the Father, even so
we're gonna walk in newness of life. And that's what he's talking
about here. And when Christ died, it says,
when Christ died, if he be dead, we also shall live with him.
Now, that's a true statement. It's a true statement. Now, we
know this is right. That's true. When Christ died,
we died with him. When our Lord was as representative,
when he was buried, we was buried with him. When he was raised,
he was raised with him. And I tell you, and the scripture
says that we're alive. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto Christ. That's what he said. And I'll tell you, you know,
this old flesh, and you know, here's the thing.
Paul said, I die daily. Now that's something that I believe
all of us do because of this old rotten flesh, Lord. And we
die daily to ourselves. We die daily to this world. We
die daily to the things that's going on around us. Oh my, we
die daily to this world. We die daily to our flesh. And I tell you something, we
die daily to those things which interrupt or keep us from fellowship
and communion with Him. Oh my, it's a faithful saying.
If you wanna live, gotta die. Gotta die. You know, I tell you,
the longer I live and, you know, we have to be out in the world.
We have to do certain things. We have to do business in the
world. You have to work in the world. But that's why it is so
wonderful to be able to come hear the gospel. But as far as
this world, as far as its glories, as far as its relationships,
and as far as the advantages of this world are concerned,
we're dead men. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory in only one thing, that's the Lord Jesus Christ
and His blessed cross. If we're gonna glory in anything,
glory in Him, glory in Him. Then look what else he said here
in verse 12. This is another thing. This is a faithful saying. He's keeping on dealing with
that faithful saying. If we suffer, we also shall reign
with Him. If we really, truly love the
Lord Jesus Christ, if we're called by His blessed grace, if we're
partakers of Him and what He did, we're going to be called
upon to lose friends, maybe even be persecuted some, maybe even
death is going to surely get us one of these days, but those
who believe the gospel, those who are faithful to the gospel
of Christ, that if we suffer with Him, and here's the thing,
you know I thought a lot about this today, There's a lot of
people that suffer greatly in this life. They suffer, have
suffered over things, losses and crosses. And here's the thing,
you suffering, when you're suffering, you're suffering with Christ.
Christ has already been where we've been. He's done went through
what we went through. We think we've had grief sometimes.
He was acquainted with it. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with it. So whatever our sufferings are
in this world, they're partakers of Christ. And if we suffer with
Him, you know what that means? While He's reigning, we're reigning
right with Him. And one of these days, our suffering
will all be over and we'll go and reign and live with Christ
eternally. Oh my, I tell you what, even
those who are faithful to the gospel, we're gonna enjoy the
gospel blessings. And I tell you what, and that's
why our Lord Jesus Christ, he says this, he said, if a man
love his father and his mother and his brothers and sisters
more than me, he's not worthy of me. He said, I'll tell you what,
he said, if we recant, if we recant our gospel, we disown
and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's saying.
We shall also, if we, we shall reign with him. If we deny him,
he also will deny us. Now this is what he's saying
is, if you suffer with him, reign with him. But some people can't
take suffering. And over in Matthew it says they
endure for a while, but as persecution arises by the word, they quit.
And this here says here, he said, if we disown and deny the Lord
Jesus Christ out of fear of some man or men or to win the favor
of men, or to avert persecution for the sake of the word, Christ
will disown and deny us. He said, you deny me before men,
I'm gonna deny you. And the seven words, seven words,
that the seven worst words anybody'll ever hear. Depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity. Man, eight words. Seven, eight,
did I, well I counted them. But you know what I'm saying. You imagine people that, there's
people right today bragging about what they've done for Jesus.
You know Todd went and preached for a fellow that were real close
to him, preached the gospel. And the fellow said, that's the
gospel, I know it's the gospel. And he said, well, why don't
you preach? He said, if I preach it, I won't have a congregation.
They'll fire me. I've had two men tell me that.
Said, if I preach what you do, I wouldn't last two Sundays. And they're gonna hear that word
depart. If you know the truth and don't preach the truth, what
does that make you? And that's what he's talking
about. If we want to, Paul said, are we persuading man or are
we persuading God? Does God need persuading to do
anything? He said, we're persuading men.
We want to persuade men to Christ. I tell you, I don't want to be
disowned and deny Christ to you. Oh no. And I tell you what, to
be afraid of men, to try to get on man's good side, be awful, awful, awful. And then
look what else he goes on to say. In verse 13, this is a strange
verse of scripture to me. Always has been. Very, very strange
verse of scripture to me. And still he's going on talking
about the faithful saying of things. If we believe not, he
said, if we deny him, he'll also deny us. If we believe not, yet
he about us faithful, he cannot deny himself. Now what this is
saying is that our unbelief and our denying Christ It's not going
to change Christ at all. It's not going to take any power
from Him. It's not going to take any glory from Him. It's not
going to take any authority from Him. It's not going to take any
power of the blood away from Him. Oh, He does not stand in need
of us. He does not stand in need of
our confession. And that's what He's saying here.
If we believe not, if we don't believe, and that's what people
say all the time, you know, I don't believe that. Well, that does
not change Christ, it does not change God. If you and I deny
it, it's still not gonna change who He is. It's not gonna change
His will, not gonna change His purpose, not gonna change His
glory. Huh? And let those deny Christ who
will. He remains the same, today, yesterday,
and forever. Oh my, he remains unchanged.
Christ's not like me and he's not, you know, he's not like the wind. We just
tossed about with wind and he said we're unstable as water. Unstable as water means whatever
form you put water, put it in a glass, it takes the form of
the glass. Put it in ice, it takes on the form of ice. Boil
it and it gets bubbles in it. And whatever form you put it
in, he said, that's what water can be changed, instantly. You
can boil it and it disappears. And that's what he said, we're
as stable as water. But oh my, I'll tell you something. And he said, if we believe not,
he abides faithful. You know what that means? That
our Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the same. He's going to
be faithful over the work that God gave Him to do. He's going
to be faithful to His covenant. He's going to be faithful to
His Word. He's going to be faithful to
His promise. He's going to be faithful to
even His words of threatenings. And I tell you what one thing
our Lord cannot do and God cannot do he cannot go contrary to his
word or to his nature We wait if you don't but that's why Paul
said oh listen You say God's unrighteous who in the world
are you that think you can talk to God and charge God with foolishness? And that's what people think
they do they think because they don't believe that that's going
to upset God and have him a have a nervous breakdown That's awful. Oh, God's going to have to take
baby aspirin to get himself under control because you upset him
so. Oh, my. I'll tell you what. For him to deny himself, it's
an impossibility. And then here's another way of
looking at this. And this is the way I what he's
talking about, and John Gill says this, he said, he may be
speaking of believers whose faith is sometimes so low, it's like
smoking flax. It's like a smoking flax or a
broken reed, and your faith gets so low that sometimes you can't
recognize it in yourself. And what he's saying is, is that
Christ will be faithful to you and hold you up and will not
allow you to finally fell away. He'll still love you, he'll still
be gracious, he'll still be merciful, even though we get so low that
we find our faith has nothing to it. And I've been there. I've certainly been there, and
you have too at one time or another in your believing life. And then
let's finish this thing up. Oh my goodness, I took way too
long. And then he goes on to say, of these things, of the
things I just told you about, remember that Jesus Christ of
the seed of David was raised from the dead. Remember that
I'm suffering trouble. But also, I'm enduring all things
for you. You set these things, you put
people in remembrance of these things. If we suffer with Him,
we reign with Him. If we're dead with Him, we're
gonna live with Him. And no matter what goes on, He's gonna abide
faithful. He cannot deny Himself. Put these
people in remembrance of these things. And then look what He
says, charging them. right before the Lord, give charge
in them. That means telling them before
the Lord himself that they strive not about words to no profit
and subvert the hearers. Now, I know I've took too long,
but I've got to say these things. You know, men, they argue over
words, over words. There's no profit in it. Debate
over subjects, which does nobody any good. And what it'll do when
people hear preachers doing that kind of thing, it undermines
their faith. But let me give you something.
People ask all the time, are you a pre, a post, or an ah?
Do you know what that means? You know what one old fellow
said? It's gonna work out the way God intended it to, no matter
what. And then you got these fellas that say, are you a sub,
super, or an infra? Now see, if I told you what that
meant, it would be no profit to us whatsoever. But people
debate stuff like that, want to know that kind of stuff all
the time. And then they argue over the impeccability of Christ.
That means that Christ could have sinned, but he didn't. I'm
not going to even, I wouldn't debate, I wouldn't talk, I wouldn't.
Listen, before you get into arguments about stuff, just say, I don't
have a clue what you're talking about, and I don't need to know.
But here's the thing, here's the thing about it. If somebody
brings up a subject, and they ever ask you if you're a sub,
a super, or an infra, Say, well, listen, I got a cup of coffee
I need to cool off. I'm gonna save my breath to cool
my coffee off. Ain't that right? Oh, boy. Christ, the scripture said, the
common people heard him gladly. And let's hear the Lord Jesus
Christ gladly. Amen. Father, thank you. Oh, blessed be your name. for
allowing us to meet here tonight, to worship with you, to come
into your holy presence, to deal with your word. Thank you again
for enabling me, enabling them to hear, enabling me to speak.
And Lord, thank you for allowing us to meet together. Bring glory
to all of us for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what
Jesus said?