with me if you will to Matthew
16 and while you're turning let me mention a prayer request that
was brought to my attention this evening James Elmore's granddaughter
that comes with him every week Lily the biggest one She's got
a real crooked spine, and she's down at Children's Hospital in
Knoxville, and they're going to operate on her. And it's just
been planned for a long time, waiting for her to get old enough,
I guess. And they're going to try to straighten
her spine out. And that's, you know, it's hard
on anybody, but you know, when you think about children. And
James and Rhonda took those two babies to raise. And that's very,
they love them. And I do, and she sits here and
sings, and please remember her, and James, and Rhonda, you know
how it is. They're going to be concerned,
they're going to be worried. And then Joyce told me about,
was her son-in-law, Alan, he had an emergency surgery today,
had an infection in his gallbladder, and they had to take it out the
old-fashioned way. and going to transfer him to another hospital
in case he gets infection or whatever. So we got those two
folks to pray for and we certainly want to remember them. And before
I read scripture, let's do go to the Lord in prayer and watch
on our minds. Our Father, in the blessed name of Christ our
Lord, you are most high, you inhabit eternity. Oh Lord, the
heaven is your throne. But Lord, even though your heaven
is your throne and there's not a house that we can build unto
you, Lord, you dwell with that man who has humility and his
heart and who trembles at your word. And oh Father, we do, we
are conscious of your word and conscious of your great power.
But we're also conscious, Lord Jesus, of how you're touched
with the feelings of our infirmities and how you're ready and willing
to hear us when we call on you. And, oh Lord, we do call on you
for your mercies tonight, for your grace to be in abundance
tonight. And we especially pray now for
James, Rhonda, Little Lily, we pray for them, that family. Lord,
they're no doubt there and they're sitting worried and concerned
and praying from their hearts that things will go well. And
Lord, that's what we pray. We pray that you've given them
abundance of grace, that you'd give the doctors wisdom in dealing
with this child. And our Father, we pray for Alan. Oh God, have mercy on him and
please meet his needs and may he be made whole again. Our Father,
we thank you for those who have returned. Thank you for allowing
us this privilege to have a place to come and worship, to have
a place to gather, a place of your providing, a place, Lord,
that you provide for us to keep and to meet in, such a comfortable
place. Thank you for the saints of God
that's come out tonight. Lord Jesus, we look unto you.
Day by day and with each passing moment, Lord, it's you that we
trust and it's you that we look to. God, meet the needs of the
hearts and the homes, and especially again, pray for James and Rhonda
and little Lily in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Here in Matthew 16, I just want
to read a few verses of Scripture to go along with what I want
to speak about this evening. It says in verse 13, When Jesus
came into the coast of Caesarea, Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or
one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? Who do you say that I am? Regardless
what anybody else says about me, what do you say? What do
you say about me? Who do you say that I am? And
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, For flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Well, now let's look over here
and let's go pray again. You think we don't get mechanical. Act now over in 1 John chapter
4. 1 John chapter 4. Let's look over there together.
You'll see why I read that verse of scripture. 1 John chapter
4 verses 14 and 15. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God. God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. You know, the Apostle doesn't
just, without any reason, just throw a statement out that's
not in context. And when we deal with the Scriptures,
we've got to keep the subject in its context. The Apostle's
been teaching about God's love. God's love. One way we can know
we have God's love in us, and the way we know God, is because
of the love of God that's in us. the love of God that's manifest
to us and the love of God that's in us and that we're to love
one another and the only way we can know that we're born of
God is to have this love one for another and and and how in
the world do we know that the love of God is in us and for
us well he said here in verse 13 hereby know that we dwell
in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit.
And that man knows we love one another in verse 12 because God
dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. And so now we
come down to find in verse 15 that whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in
God. There's three ways here and three times it tells us how
God dwells in us. He dwells in us by love, dwells
in us by the Spirit, and dwells in us because we confess that
Jesus is the Son of God. And so this is how we know that
God's in us and we're in God. Not only does God dwell in us,
but we also dwell in Him. That He is our abiding place
as we are His abiding place. And these blessed, blessed truths
must be dealt with in contact. He just doesn't throw out a statement
without any reasoning. And so we follow his reasoning
here and he says, you know, we've seen and how do we know we've
seen? By the Spirit of God in us. How
do we know that the Father sent the Son in the world? By the
Spirit of God that's in us. How do we know that he was sent
to be the Savior of the world? By the Spirit of God in us. How
do we know that we confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?
by the Spirit of God in us. And so here, I want to start
right here. So we mentioned God dwelling
in us and us in God. He said here in verse 12, excuse
me, verse 15. And here's why we do know that
we've seen and testified that the Father sent the Son to be
the Savior of the world, that whosoever, whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in that man and that
man dwells in God. And how do we know? How do we
know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Now, I know that
people have attributed a lot of things to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why when he asked his disciples, who do men say that
I am? Who do they say I am? There was
three different opinions about him by three different people.
And they often said, when they said to John the Baptist, he
said, are you the Christ? He said, I'm not. I'm not him. Well, then who in the world are
you? I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. That's all
that I am. And how do we know he's the son of God? There's
only one way we can really know that he's the Son of God is the
Spirit of God makes us to know that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now you talk about something
we confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now beloved,
there's a lot of people confess a lot of things about the Lord
Jesus Christ. They confess a lot of things,
but to confess that He's the Son of God, that means that you
confess that He is the same nature as God the Father. The nature
that God's got, God the Son has. The attributes that God the Father
has, God the Son has. There's only one Son that God
had, and that was His blessed Son. I have my Father's nature.
I look like my Father, I walk like my Father, and I have lots
of my Father's characteristics. Because our God is nature. But
our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that He's the Son of God because
we know by the Spirit of God that He was the Son of God. Now
let me show you something over here in 1 Corinthians 12. Look
in 1 Corinthians 12. People say, well, anybody believes
that. No, they don't. No, they don't. No, most preachers,
what they're doing is making merchandise out of men's souls.
They're not interested in Christ, not interested in souls. But
if He is who He said He was, if He says He claimed to be the
Son of God, God's Son, the eternal God's Son, and if He's the Son
of God, that means He's eternal. But there was not a beginning
to the Son of God. There's a beginning to Jesus
Christ. There was a beginning to Jesus.
But there was not a beginning to the Son of God. The Son of
God's always been the Son of God. And when He came in this
world, multitudes of people, even those that saw Him by the
thousands, did not believe Him to be the Son of God. Martha
said to him, said, when Lazarus was sick, if you'd have been
here, you hadn't have died. Well, don't you know that he
that believeth in me shall never die? She said, I am believed
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, who should
come. And this is the difference between
a true confession and a false confession. And look what he
said here in 1 Corinthians 12, 3. Wherefore I give you to understand,
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed,
call an anathema to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that no man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but how? By the Holy Ghost. And that tells me right then
and there that it's impossible for a believer to ever blaspheme
the Holy Ghost. He cannot blaspheme the Spirit.
You know why? Because the Spirit of God's in
him. The Spirit of God in him makes him to know that when he
bows down before the Lord Jesus Christ, he is actually bowing
down before God. And that's why, you know, when
he healed that man, told that man they'd come in the house
and couldn't get in, the Lord Jesus sitting in there teaching,
so they climbed up on the roof, took a few tiles off of the roof.
Our Lord's teaching, you know, and fellas climbing up on the
roof and they're starting to tear the roof apart. Our Lord
just kept on preaching. And they start tearing, we're
sitting here, somebody started tearing the roof apart, we said,
what in the world's going on? But they had this fella, they
had him in a mat, they had him on a piece of mat, and they had
ropes, and they got up there and got hold of the roof and
they started letting him down, because they couldn't get him
any other way. And you know what our Lord Jesus
Christ said, while he's swinging there in the air and those fellas
on the roof holding him up, you know what the Lord Jesus said?
said, Son, your sins are forgiven you. They brought Him there not
to get His sins forgiven, to get Him made whole, to get Him
to where we can walk out of there. And He no sooner said, Sons,
thy sins be forgiven thee, that all them Pharisees and them all
sittin' around there on this, they said, this man blaspheming,
nobody can forgive sins but God only. And our Lord Jesus Christ
looked down and said, now let me ask you, which is easier,
to say your sins are forgiven or to take up your bed and walk? He said, but that you may know,
that I have the power on earth to forgive sins. Take your bed
and get up and go to your house. That's what it means to believe
on the Son of God. That's what it means to believe. Only God can forgive sins, so
He's the Son of God. Only God can make a man whole,
so He's the Son of God. And also, you see, beloved, back
over here in our text again. He is Son of God by nature. We're
sons of God by adoption. God only had one Son, and He
has the attributes of God. And I'll show you something else
about Him being the Son of God. This is so important. I know
we hear these things and we talk about these things, but I want
you to look with me in Acts chapter 8. We've seen this so many times,
but You know, I'm around some folks,
and you know what most preachers and most church members are interested
in? They're not interested in Christ, not interested in a relationship
with Christ. They're interested in prophecy,
interested in gifts, and interested in how to have a happy marriage,
how to have a healthy life, and how to get money in the bank.
And preachers are lined up to teach them how to do all those
things. And you know what I'm interested in? I'm interested
in knowing Jesus Christ! I'm interested in a relationship
with the Son of God. Because I tell you what, to confess
Jesus Christ as the Son of God, that is salvation. With the heart
we believe, with our mouth we confess. And we confess only
what we believe in our heart. And if the Holy Spirit is in
our hearts, we cannot help but confess. Confess that that man,
that man that everybody here turned thumbs down on, that everybody
here who was anybody stood around His cross and cried crucify.
That man who they said blasphemeth, that man who said he had a devil
and he had beasel bub, was a drunkard and a blasphemer and a wine-biggerer,
that man, I'm telling you that that man was the Son of God and
I put all my eggs in that one basket. No matter what anybody
else says about him. And all listen to what he said
here In Acts chapter 8 and verse 30. And Philip ran and joined
himself to the chariot. And as he got there, this is
the Eneothium Munich, of course, and he heard him and he read
the prophet Isaiah. It said, understand this what
you read? You understand what you're reading?
He said, how can I? Except some man guide me. And
so he said, Philip, come on up here and sit with me. And the
place of the scripture he read was this. He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shears, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation he was taken
away, and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken
from the earth. Now that's what he's reading.
He's reading Isaiah 53. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, who is this prophet talking about, himself
or some other man? That's a good question. Is this
prophet talking about himself? Or is he talking about somebody
else? And look what he says here about
what Philip said about that verse of scriptures he was reading.
And Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and
says, now Isaiah wasn't talking about Isaiah. Isaiah was talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And he began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said, here is
water. What does hinder me from being baptized? Is there anything
that could stop me from being baptized? Anything could stop
me from going into the water? And Philip said this, this is
all he wanted to know. If thou believest with all thine
heart and thou mayest, and he answered and said, now listen,
this is the answer he gave. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. That's what I believe. You mean
that man that was crucified? Son of God. That man that was
born of a virgin? Son of God. That man who walked
on the water? Son of God. That man who healed
and cleansed lepers? Son of God. He was the Son of
God or the greatest imposter that ever lived on the face of
this earth. And our confession is the same thing right here
and right now. I believe every one of us in
here tonight that knows Christ will confess that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made
all things, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, upholds this
world by the Word of His power, that He's God's Son, has the
same nature, that He's eternal, and as the Son of God, He's our
only hope, as the Son of God, He's our only righteousness,
and you know what it's called? It's called the righteousness
of God. That's what it's called, the righteousness of God. No
wonder they said, what manner of man is this? And oh, we confess
with our mouth. Oh, we confess with our mouth
what we believe in our hearts. Oh, how we confess. I'll tell
you some things we confess. We're like Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. We confess that we're strangers and pilgrims on this
world. If you confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God, you
confess that you're a stranger and you're a pilgrim here. that
you're just passing through. And I'm going to show you something.
We confess Him, and if we don't confess Him, He won't confess
us. That's what He says. Look at
Matthew 10. This is Matthew 10.32. And our Lord Jesus is talking
about how precious we are to Him, and how dear He is to Him,
and how He watches out for us. And he says there in verse 30,
he said, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. And so
don't you fear because you are more value than many, many, many
sparrows. And look what he says now. Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men. Confess what before men? Does that mean us just have a
confession of faith and tell people that we're saved? Does
that mean that we're supposed to go out here and testify to
everybody we come to? Yes, I'm a Christian. No, it's
confessing that Jesus Christ is who He said He was, the Son
of God. He was as much the Son of God
on the cross as He was when He was in eternity. He was much
the Son of God when He was in the grave as He was before He
came into the world. He was the Son of God when He
rose again from the dead. He s always been the Son of God
and He always will be the Son of God. And that s what He said,
Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before Me in him will I confess
also before My Father which is in heaven. Confess me, not some
things about me, but confess me. And then he goes on to say,
but whosoever shall deny me before men, deny that I'm the Son of
God, deny that I'm the eternal Son of God, deny that I'm the
only one that can forgive sins. You deny me before men, I'm going
to deny you before my Father, which is in heaven. And that
don't mean here for us to go out here and, you know, do like
Simon Peter did and get through fear of man, he denied the Lord
Jesus Christ, denied that he knowed Him. But this is confessing
what he said about himself. And there's some people in John
chapter 9 that that's exactly what happened. When our Lord
opened that blind man's eyes that was born blind and opened
his eyes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees came around and said,
ìWhoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened here? Tell us, who opened
this manís eyes?î And they kept saying, because they said, ìIf
anybody said that Jesus of Nazareth did this, If they confessed that
Jesus had been the one to open this blind man's eyes, that if
they confessed that, they'd be put out of the synagogue. That'd
be like being put out of the Catholic Church. You take a Jew
and put him out of the synagogue? And so his mother and father
finally said to him, said, well, he's of age, ask him. you know
why I say it's because they were afraid of men. They were afraid
of men and afraid of being put out of the church. That's what
our Lord meant when He said He confessed me. He said, Don't
think that I've come to bring peace on the earth, but I've
come to bring a fire, bring a sword, and that's what this confession
of Jesus Christ will do. You confess Christ as your all
in all, that He's the Son of God and you worship Him as the
Son of God, you believe He's God the Son, and you worship
Him as such, I tell you what, when you do that, more than just
accepting Him as your personal Savior, and I tell you what,
it'll split a family pretty quick, it'll split a family, I tell
you what, you know, and that's why a lot of you when you get
around your families, that's why you don't bring it up, you
know what's going to happen, Just, you know, get together
and talk about the weather, get together and talk about how Uncle
James is doing, how old Granddad Cotton Top's doing or whatever,
you know, and talk about those kinds of things. But I'll tell
you what, Paul said he's the high priest, the apostle and
high priest of our confession, our confession. And look back
here in 1 John 4, but also up in verse 5 of chapter 5, look
what he says here. This is the only way to overcome
the world. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5 verse 5. Who is he that overcomes the
world? You can't overcome the world. This is how we overcome
the world, that believing that Jesus is the Son of God. The world don't believe that.
The princes of this world didn't believe it. The wise men of this
world didn't believe it. And that's why they crucified
him. But we believe it. Why? Because the Spirit of God's
made it known unto us. Now look what else it says here
back in 1 John 4. And then verse 14 says, We have
seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the
Savior of the world. And when he says, we have seen
and do testify, this is the apostles. This is the apostles. We apostles. He says, me and James and John
and Peter, the men who wrote the word of God, we have seen
and we testify, do testify. This is our testimony. This is
the apostles message. This is their message. And we
have seen and confess that Jesus Christ, the father sent the son
to be the savior of the world. And what they're saying is, and
you know that's what he said, that which we have seen and heard
and handled with our own words, with our own hands, he's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we can only tell what
we've seen. We can't do anything else. And
that's for my experience. I can only tell you what I've
seen for myself, what I've experienced for myself, what I know about
the Son of God myself. I can't tell what you've experienced. And that's why we know a preacher,
he has to have a testimony and experience of his own. And if
it's real to us, it'll be real to you. And when he says, we
have seen, and do testify, we testify. And you know, if you
was to get in a court of law and you got on a stand and they
said, well, what did you see? What did you see? What did you
see with your own eyes? What do you testify to? you'll
say well I heard so don't want to hear what somebody else said
I want to know what you saw tell us what you saw with your own
eyes and that's what these apostles said we have seen we've seen
with our own eyes we have handled with our own hands we have seen
that and do testify that the Father God the Father Sent. Sent. Our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I sent into the world. The Father sent me. I want them
to know that Thou hast sent me. We preached that Sunday night.
I want them to know that Thou hast sent me. And oh my. And sent Him to be the Savior.
But I tell you, our faith, our faith is founded on this blessed
Word of God. And the Apostles wrote the New
Testament. The Apostles. Peter, James, John,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, James and it's what he said and us apostles
that's what we're seeing and what we heard now look over here
in second peter go back back to your left a little and look
at second peter one and our faith is founded on what you know on
what the apostles taught what the apostles preached i was reading
today about You know, after our Lord Jesus Christ was raised
and ascended back to glory, that there was a lot of what they
called Apocrypha books, and that is that people just wrote a lot
of stories and a lot of things about Jesus, and there was just
imagination, a lot of untrue things. Doogie brought me a manuscript
of somebody named Mark, and it wasn't the same Mark in this
book, and he brought it to me. And this was so far, I started
talking about how Jesus was when he was four or five years old,
some of the things he'd done when he was four, some miracles and
things he was doing when he was four or five years old. The Scriptures
don't tell us anything about him. It tells us about his birth,
and the only thing it tells about after that, when he's 12 years
old, his mother and daddy took him up to Jerusalem for the Passover,
and they left, and our Lord Jesus stayed right there, talking and
preaching. And they got three days' journey away, and they
said, where's Jesus at? Where's our son at? I thought
he was with you. I thought he was at Elizabeth
over there. I thought he was with Zacharias. They had to turn
around and go all the way back to Jerusalem. You know where
they found him? He was 12 years old. Talk about when he's born.
Talk about when he's 12. And then talk about when he's
30. And they come back there and what's he doing? He's sitting
there. There's doctors and the lawyers and scribes and all the
wise men of his day. And 12 years old, he had their
heads spinning like tops. Oh, he's the son of God. But
look what he said here now. And 1 Peter 1.16, this is what,
now this is the man, he's gonna describe what took place on the
Mount of Transfiguration now. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables. Oh, people that dreamed up some
fables. A fable is something that's not
true, that has some moral, or some lesson to be taught from
it. We've not followed cunningly devised fables. when we made
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But were eyewitnesses of his
message, of his majesty, we've seen and do testify, were eyewitnesses. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there comes such a voice to him from
the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. And this voice came from heaven
we heard which came from heaven we heard and we were with him
in the holy mount now listen to this now he said i was there
i was an eyewitness to them i experienced this i heard the voice of god
i saw him honor and glory there but we all have also a more sure
word of prophecy preaching where unto you do well that you take
heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. That's the word
of God. Until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts,
listen to this, knowing this first that no prophet of the
scriptures of any private interpretation. I'm the only one that understands
this. I've got this new revelation on this verse of scripture. If
anybody tells you that, Stay as far away from Him as you can.
Nobody's got any private interpretation. The Word of God interprets itself.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy God.
He said, I had that great experience, but you know what I'm going to
trust? I'm going to trust God's Word more than I had my experience
on that mountain. That's what He's saying. And
then look what He says down here in verse 2 and 3. 1 and 2 of chapter 3, talking about
trusting the Word of God, these apostles and what they said.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both
which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. I want
you to be remember some things, that you may be mindful of the
words which were spoken and of the commandments of us, the apostles
of the Lord and Savior. I want you to know the words
that we've said. The words of the Lord and Savior.
And when it says the Father sent the Son, that means, beloved,
He was made in the flesh. That was His glorious incarnation.
And the Father sent the Son, sent Him to the womb of a virgin.
Sent Him to be born in Bethlehem. And I'll tell you something,
here's what He didn't do. He didn't send Him here to just
send Him here to give us a help and give us some shove in the
right direction. He didn't come here to have us live up to the
Sermon on the Mount. He didn't come here and go out
before us for us to follow in His example. And He didn't come
to walk out before us and look back and see if we were going
to try to catch up. No, the Father sent Him. made of a woman, made
under the law to save us out from under that law. Born under
the law, condemned under the law, sinners under the law, and
God sent Him to be the Savior. And who in the world did He come
into this world to save? Who needs a Savior? That's the
first question I asked when I read that there. He said, send him
to be a Savior. Who needs a Savior? And the very
fact that he's called a Savior tells us that he's going to save
somebody. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall. Jesus, Jehovah's Savior. And
who in the world needs a Savior? If we find people that need a
Savior, you're finding people that's already been saved. If
you need a Savior, you can write it down that you've already been
saved from your sins. If you really need a Savior. We don't need help, we need saving. We don't need to cooperate with
God, we need saving. God sent him to do what? To save,
save. Oh, there's no other name. Oh,
I've said this so many times. If I got an opportunity to preach
to a multitude at one time, I believe that I would use Acts 4.12 and
say, there's no other name, no other name, given, given. Under heaven, that means God's
heaven. No other name under all the heavens
whereby we must be saved other than Jesus Christ. And when it
says that He's the Savior, that means that there's nothing you
can do. If He's the Savior, what can
you do to save yourself? If He's the Savior, if He saves
you, He saves you from sin. That's the first thing He saves
you from. And that's why He saves us from the condemning power
of the law. He saves us from sin's guilt
and sin's pollution. Oh, Savior, Savior, Savior. And
then for somebody to get up and say, He will save you, well,
that's not a Savior that He wants to save you. That's not a Savior
would like to save you. That's not a Savior. A Savior
saves. And then he said, John told us
that we're cleansed from all sin. By what? His blood. You can't talk about Christ being
the Savior without talking about blood. You know, if He sent us here
to be a Savior, you can't talk about Him being a Savior without
blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. And He is the perpetuation for
our sins and not for ours, but the sins of the whole world.
And so when the Apostle says, We have seen and do testify that
the Father sent the Son, the Son of God. And that's why we
confess that He's the Son of God. They've seen Him come. They
seen him live, they seen him die, they seen him buried, they
saw him after his resurrection, and then they saw him on Mount
Olive, they saw him ascend back to glory. And they say that which
we have seen, we do testify. And beloved, our confession and
our testimony is of the same thing. I've seen Him. I've seen Him by faith come. I've seen Him live. I've seen
Him die. I've seen Him resurrected. I've
seen Him ascended. And now I've seen Him seated
at the right hand of God appearing in the presence of God for us.
And I've seen Him coming again one of these days without sin
unto salvation for everybody that's looking for Him. Huh?
I'm going to testify. I have the same testimony that
the apostles have. A fellow I talked to yesterday,
and he was telling me this. He's a Pentecostal. We've had
some conversations. But he told me yesterday, he
mentioned, do you know how my shoulder's been? I said, yeah,
did you get it operated on? He said, no. No, I worked and
worked and worked and worked and worked and tried to save
up enough money to get it operated on. But I just couldn't, no matter
how hard I worked, I couldn't get up enough money. So he said,
you know what I did? I just trusted God to heal it.
He said, I trust God to heal it. He said, I testify that God
healed it. And he said, I got up in church
yesterday and testified last night and testified to God healing
my shoulder. My testimony is that God healed
my soul. That's where my healing, by His
stripes were healed. You know, listen, I'm gonna get
a new shoulder one of these days anyway. It don't make no difference
what's going on in this old body now. Get it healed today, it's
gonna die in the near future anyway. But everybody's worried
about keeping this, you know, oh my. And keep it up, oh listen,
I keep mine up, I take good care of it. You can tell by looking
how good I take care of mine. But listen, we confess what we've
seen and we confess what we know. Nothing more, nothing less. Our Blessed Savior, Our Lord
Jesus Christ, how blessed you are. Oh, to confess that you're
the Son of God. You're the Son of God. When you
was on this earth, you was the Son of God. You is mistreated. You is hated. You is despised. You is rejected. You is ridiculed. You is mocked. You is derided.
And you is crucified. You is the Son of God. And we
confess that. Confess it from our heart. Confess
it from our soul. And that was our confession when
we were baptized, that you're the Son of God. You're the Savior
of sinners. the one that gives us such a
blessed, blessed hope. Oh, blessed be your name. Lord,
as we part ways this evening, as we part ways, keep your people,
keep them in peace, keep them in rest, keep them in looking
and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto Him who's the author
and finisher of our faith. And Lord, for those who have
traveled, those who will be gone, we ask that you'd protect them
and preserve them. And again, James, and Rhonda,
and little Lily, oh Lord, please, please, be gracious, kind, and
merciful, and strengthening them, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.