Good evening, let's turn to the
book of James chapter 2 for our scripture reading. James chapter
2. My brethren, have not the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, with respect of
persons. For if there come unto your assembly
a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also
a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect to him that
weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in
a good place, and say to the poor, stand thou there or sit
here under my footstool. Are you not then partial in yourselves
and become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and
heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love
him. But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress
you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme
that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfill
the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself ye do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So
speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law
of liberty. For he shall have judgment without
mercy that hath shewed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith
save him? If a brother or sister be naked,
and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them,
Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding you
give them not those things which are needful to the body. What
doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also
believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was
faith made perfect we could say it was proved to be true it was
proved to be genuine it was proved to be sincere in the scripture
was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by
faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the
harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers,
and had sent them out another way. For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. John 17. Let's look in John 17 again. I want to get my subject out of
verse 18. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I sent thee, sent them into the world. And
that's what I want to talk about this evening, if the Lord enables
me, about being sent into the world, as our Lord was sent into
the world. But our Lord, in praying for
His people, He makes all these requests for them. He prays for
them. And He loves His people, gave
Hisself for His people, shed His blood for His people, guaranteed
their salvation, eternal salvation. And He prays for them to be kept,
Because He's going back to the Father. He prays for His joy
to be fulfilled in us. And He prays for us not to be
taken out of the world. And like I said last Sunday night,
He don't take us out of the world, but He takes the world out of
us. And He's continually taking the world out of us. Continually
taking it out of us. Constantly weaning us off of
this world. And one of these days, we're
going to certainly be weaned. We're going to be weaned. And
then also not that, but to be kept from the evil or the evil
one, keep them from the evil that's in the world. And then
he prayed for God to sanctify us. Remember I talked about that
last week, sanctifies. And sanctify, oh, what a good,
strong, biblical word and Bible doctrine sanctification is. It has nothing to do with us
getting any better. We don't get any better. Don't
do that. We just don't. In fact, I'm standing
amazed that I'm as bad as I am after all these years. Why ain't
I a better Christian? Why do I have all this trouble
inside? So, you know, it has nothing
to do with us getting better, has nothing to do with progressively
getting more holy, but it's what God has done for us in Christ.
He said, sanctify them there in verse 17, sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth. And sanctify means to set apart. That's what the word saint comes
from, being sanctified, saint, a sanctified one, a separated
one. And God only sets us apart and
sets any man apart through the truth, through the truth. And
people think that the more they get dedicated and the more devotional
they have and the more Sinless they become and the more work
they do that that that's what sets him apart now finally at
the end be set apart But we start out being set apart The truth
is what God sends to us and sets us apart by that truth when he
first started sending the truth to me I've I was just astonished
I was it's you know, it was as though opposite to like one preacher
told me one time it's exactly the opposite of everything I
ever believed and was ever taught and polar opposites. And we know when God starts teaching
you the truth, and you know and you've been in religion, it's
like you get a brand new Bible. You get a new Bible. You know
it's the same Bible you always had, but you never needed to
know what it said until God taught you the truth. And you get this
new word. And God sets us apart by the
truth. And it's God who sets us apart
to the truth. And I tell you, we never looked
for the truth. People say, there's a world of people out here searching
for the truth. There's never been one soul ever
sought the truth until truth set them apart. You'll never
seek the truth until truth finds you. And then once he brings
the truth to you, then that's the only thing. As Joe said one
time, he said, you hear the gospel, it ruins you for anything else.
And it does, it ruins you for anything else. When you hear
the gospel, it ruins you, you can't hear nothing else. That's
a good ruin, ain't it? And oh my, and it's not our truth
that sets us apart. Not our truth. What have we got
that we didn't receive? What have we got that we can
boast in? It was truth before you and I ever believed it. It's
truth whether anyone ever believes it or not. And the truth is constant
as God himself and as constant as Christ is. He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And I am the Lord, I change not.
That's why you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And that's
the way truth is. It's constant as God himself.
That's right. And he says, thy word is truth.
It doesn't say it contains some truth. It contains partial truth. It said it contains truth. It
is the truth. Truth for us to believe. Truth
that affects our behavior. When the grace of God comes,
it teaches us to deny all ungodliness and causes us to look for the
appearing of our Savior. And truth, not only to affect
our behavior, but to affect our practice, how we live in this
world, and how we think, and how we worship. The truth affects
our whole be, don't it? It affects our minds, the way
we think, the way we live, the way we talk, the words we talk
about, the things we, the truth absolutely changes us dramatically
in every part of our lives. Would you agree with that? Thank
God for the truth. And that's what he said, that's
what the Lord prayed, sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth. Now, now he
said as in verse seven to 18, as thou has sent me into the
world, even so have also sent them into the world. Now our
Lord Jesus Christ, he was before he was ever sent. He was somewhere
else before he was sent. As the father has sent me into
the world. And I tell you what, that means
that there was a place he was before he ever come into this
world. And where was he before he came into this world? He said
he was in the bosom of the father. He said he was daily the delight
of the father. He said God says that everything
that was made was made by him and there was not anything made
that was made without him. And there he's always been but
there was a time that he came into the world and God sent him
into the world. and he sent him into this world
for a task, for a job, for a work, to something to accomplish. He
didn't send him in here into the world to hopefully, hopefully
convince somebody to love his son. He didn't send his son into
this world hopefully, hopefully to convince somebody that they
needed to be saved. Hopefully, hopefully not to try
to change somebody's free will and try to get them to make a
decision for Him. No, God sent Him into this world
to accomplish something, to do something. And look what He said
up here in verse 4. He said, I've glorified Thee
on the earth. That's one of the works that
He gave Him to do, to glorify the Father. He said, I came from
heaven not to do My will, but the will of Him that sent Me.
He said, I seek not mine own honor, but the honor of Him that
sent Me. And then look what else he said, and I finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. So God gave him a work. And he
said, what did he say about it? I finished it. I finished it.
And all he was sent to do a work. And he not only was sent to do
a work to glorify his father, but in that doing that work,
he was sent to save his people from their sins. Look what he
said in verse two. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, now listen to this, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. He was sent into this
world to save a people, to give them eternal life, to give them
life, life for his life and the soul. And these people were giving
him those that thou gavest me. We were given to him and he came
into this world to do what the Father sent him to do. And even
his own mother, how many times did he say, woman, it's not mine
hour, it's not mine hour, it's not mine hour. And he says, now
my hour's come. What hour? The hour that everything
was gonna be finally, fully completed that God sent him to do. And
you know when he said it was actually finished? The last word
he said on the cross, it is finished. What's finished? Law's finished. Sin's finished. Death is finished. Judgment's finished. Wrath is
finished. Everything that was against us
is finished. What was it finished at? It's
taken out of the way, nailed to His cross. And oh, listen,
I tell you, bless His holy name, when the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to do this, to redeem us out from under the law. And so
he was sent. He was somewhere before he was
ever sent. And all this, and he wasn't sent into this world
to love everybody. to make an effort to save everybody.
No, he was sent into this world. He said, herein doeth my father
love me because I lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh
it from me. I lay it down. And all that the
father gives me, it's what Bruce preached on the other morning,
an election. All that the father gives me,
given to him by the father. He sent him into this world and
said, I've got a people I gave you. Will you go and take their
obligations? Will you take their debt? Will
you take their sin? Will you take their guilt? Will
you take their condemnation? Will you take their judgment?
Will you take their punishment for their sins? He said, I will. I'd like to do that. And every
one that the Father give me, they gonna come to me. And when
they come to me, I'm gonna give them life. And you know what
will happen? They'll never, no never, no never, no never, no
never perish. Never, never. And then look what
he said, as thou has sent me into the world, even so I've
also sent them. Sent them. As thou sent me in
the world, even so I've also sent them into the world. Our
Lord Jesus had his place, and his place is the place of acceptance. His place is at the right hand
of the majesty on high. His place was to be a witness
in this world of God Almighty, and he left us in this world
to do what he did while he's in this world. He left us in
this world. And why he did this was because
we're so identified with him, we're so identified with him,
so one with him. We're made accepted in the beloved.
We're made partakers of the heavenly calling. And we're made, we're
pressed toward the high calling. And in fact, Paul says, we beseech
you in Christ's stead as ambassadors for Christ. That's what we're
in this world for. That's what we're in this world
for. We're left here. We're left here because we've
been accepted. We're left here because we're
one with Him. We're left here because we got
a message about Him. We're left here so we can glorify
Him. And we're left here and every
one of us And I know every one of us has got an appointed place,
an appointed time, and an appointed amount of service and ministry,
whatever that ministry. If you've got a ministry of giving,
give is given liberally. If you've got a ministry of praying,
there's lots of ministry. And Christ said that as I have
went into the world, I'm sending them now. I'm sending them. And
we're ambassadors of Christ. And what was our Lord sent to
do? Whatever He is sent to do, that's
what we do. Well, first of all, He was sent
to reveal the Father. He said, no man has seen God
at any time, save the only begotten of the Father, who is in the
bosom. He hath declared Him. He hath told Him out. And our
Lord Jesus Christ came here to reveal His Father, to reveal
His Father's true nature, to reveal His Father's true character,
to reveal His Father's will and purpose. I'll show you, let me
show you what that is over here. I want to say in John, very well. I just, I had it on
my mind, just, phew, gone. What was it? His true character,
his purpose, and his will. Well, well. But you know what
I'm talking about anyway. You know, you know. Well, I told you, I back there
in the study, I said, boy, I hear good preaching. I ought to sit
down. But I do know this, that he came to reveal God's true
nature, God's true character. His purpose, and I know what
it is. Matthew 11, 25. I know what it is now. I just
thought of it. I was thinking, John, Matthew
11, 25. Now look over there with me. Oh, just give me a minute. Oh, what our Lord, He's sent
to reveal the Father. And you remember when our Lord
Jesus Christ, they came to Jerusalem, and He was about 12 years old,
and they headed back. They came up to worship and they
headed home and they went three days journey, three days journey. And they went to, Mary said,
where's Jesus at? Where's our son at? They went
three days journey and didn't know where he was. They thought,
well, he's with Elizabeth or he's with somebody else. He's
just following us around. And they turned around and went
back. That's three days out. And they turned around and went
back. And when they found him, he was sitting in the middle
of doctors and lawyers and the rabbis and the Pharisees and
the Sadducees. And he was confounding the best
of those days when he was 12. And his mother came up to him
and said, son, what have you done? Where have you been? Why
are you here? He said, wished you not that
I be about my father's business? And he was standing there at
the woman at the well, and his disciples came and they brought
him something to eat. He was standing there at the
woman at the well. And they brought him something to eat. He said,
listen, I have meat to eat that you don't know not of. And they
said, has somebody brought him something to eat? He says, my
meat is due the will of Him that sent me. Finish that work. That's my meat. That's what I
live on, is what my Father sent me to do. And look what he said
here in Matthew 11, 25. He reveals God's character. At
that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven, Lord of heaven and earth. People don't mind
him being Lord, being sovereign in heaven, ruling in the heavens. That's wonderful. Oh, I love
God ruling in the heaven, sitting on His throne. But don't let
Him come down here and meddle in my life. Don't let Him come
down here and tell me what I'm supposed to do. But He's not
only Lord of heaven, but He says, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth. And earth. For thou hast hid
these things, these blessed truths, the gospel, from the wise and
the prudent, and revealed them unto babes. You know what babes
can do? And I've said this, what in the world can a babe do? I
tell you what babies do. They cry and make a mess. Somebody
has to clean them. Somebody has to dress them. Somebody
has to feed them. Somebody has to take care of
them. And that's what we are. We are in God's sight. We're
just babes and He has to do everything. He cleans up our messes. Washes
us when we're dirty picks us up when we fall and Feeds us
and say well you got it. You know we open our mouth Listen
he if there's anything goes through these brains and through these
mouths He's the one that sends it and all look what else he
says Even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight. Oh
That's God's true nature God's character. He's Lord of heaven
and earth He hides things and reveals things and makes things
known and hides it from other people And then look what he
said all things are delivered unto me of my father and no man
knows his son But the father need knows any man the father
saved the son Except to whom he revealed him And He came to
reveal His will, and He came to reveal His purpose, and oh
my, and so are we sent into this world to do the same thing. Look
at Psalm 50. Look at Psalm 50. And you know,
we're in a world where God's not known at all. We live absolutely
in a world where God's not known at all. We was coming through
Oak Ridge yesterday, And I don't know why, you know, and one way
it angers you, and another way you feel so sorry for them. But
this time of year, everybody gets these crosses, these crosses,
and sets them out in front of their churches. and out in front
of their buildings, and they hang a purple robe around it,
or a purple scarf around it, or a red scarf around it, and
they think that's honoring to God, that's honoring to Christ,
and to glory in the cross, and to glory in what Christ did on
the cross is to glory in what was accomplished on the cross.
what was done on the cross, who it was that's on the cross. It's
not how much suffering was done on the cross, it was who did
the suffering. It's not how much blood was shed,
it was whose blood was shed. It's not how long he was on the
cross, but it's who it was that on that cross. And I don't need
a cross to make me understand that there was a cross. And the
cross is what Christ was crucified on. And he was put there to reveal
God and his holiness and his righteousness and his grace and
his love and his mercy and his pity. And oh, that's why he said,
oh, and look what he said here in Psalm 50, and I think it's
verse 19. And this is what we want to witness about Christ.
He said, there's people here, said, thou givest thy mouth to
evil, thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against
thy brother, thou slenderst thine own mother's son. And he says,
these things hast thou done, and I kept silent, because you
thought I was altogether such a one as yourself. I will reprove
thee and set them in order before thine eyes. And that's what He
sent us to do. That's what we are. We're sent
here to bear witness. They say, this is the way God
is. No, this is the way He is. This is the way He is. He's not
like we think. You thought everybody thinks
He's like, this is the saddest part of human nature. Almost
every soul. Their conception of God is like
themselves. If they was God, He'd be like
them. He would do the things that they would do. He'd love
the people that He had loved. He wouldn't make anybody suffer.
He wouldn't be no pain, no anguish, no sorrow, no grief. Everything
would be... hunky-dory until they got upset
with somebody. But almost everybody's concept
of God is based on their conception of the self and what they would
do if they was in that situation. And that's why our Lord came
here. He come here and said, I'm God. You think God's not
like we are. He said, you're from beneath.
I'm from above. I'm from heaven, you're the earth.
And then there's one place says there was a division because
of him. And there'll be a division over
Christ if you know the truth about him and you worship him
and love him and adore him. I tell you, there will be a division
when folks find out how you really think about Christ. And he was
sent not only that, but to reveal His true nature and His true
character and His will and His purpose. But He was sent, the
Lord Jesus was sent to show forth His glory. Show forth His Father's
glory. I've glorified you on the earth.
Glorify me now with the glory that I had with you before the
world was. And that's what we're supposed to do in this world.
Whatsoever we eat, whatsoever we drink, whatsoever we do, let
us do it to His glory. To His glory. Look over at 1
Peter 4.11. 1 Peter 4.11. where our Lord is saying here. We, you know, we're, and I feel,
you know, Brad was praying. He says, Lord, we don't know
how to pray. When we come up to pray and we
come up to read the scriptures, we come up to talk to somebody. We want to glorify Christ. We
don't get up here and stutter and stammer and not glorify Christ. As Scott used to say all the
time, he said, I don't want to shame my father. I don't want
to shame God. I don't want to bring shame on God. I don't want
God to be shamed. And we don't. We don't want to
embarrass God when folks look at us and say, well, that boy,
their God ain't nothing to him. You know, we talk about His sovereignty
and then we complain over every little thing. We talk about Him
controlling our lives and then we get upset if our lives don't
come out the way we think they ought to come out. If salvation
wasn't of the Lord and of grace. But all listen to what He says
here now. 1 Peter 4.11. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. Let him speak what God says.
If the man's gonna speak, let him speak what the oracles of
God is the words of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth. Listen to this, that
God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom
be praise and dominion forever and ever. Speak the Word of God,
and if you've got any ability to minister at all, do it that
God may get all the glory through Jesus Christ. And that's our
goal and our aim in this world. I'd love to see people converted.
I'd love to see some of these folks in these services that's
never made a profession of faith. I'd love to see them come clean
with God. I'd love to see them throw themselves
on the mercy of Christ. But we have two responses to
God being dishonored. We have two responses to God
being dishonored and God being belittled. We have righteous
indignation if they deliberately, deliberately dishonor God in
our presence, or we see it. We have righteous indignation.
And the other response we have is pity and sadness for those
that are deceived by lies and by ignorance. But there's some,
it's all, it's according to what's happening at that particular
time. When I saw those crosses, I had righteous indignation.
There's no reason for a man to have a Bible and call himself
a preacher and pastor a congregation and stick a cross out in front.
When we was building this building, there's some guys, men that was
working on this and And they were Pentecostal, and of course,
they were dead and gone now. But one of them come in here
to his work, and he said, boy, I said, man, you're talking about
a beautiful place to put a cross right in this ceiling. Go right
down the middle and right down the sides. I said, no, no, no.
We're not going to do that. That's what he said. Right down
the middle and down the sides. He said, they come in here, the
first thing they see is a cross. You can look at all the crosses
that you want to look at and not one of them, not one of them
will reveal Christ to you. And if you could find the cross
that Christ was crucified on, turn it into toothpicks. because
just as sure somebody thought that it was one he's crucified
on, they would make a shrine out of it and people would go
where the shrine was and miss Christ. They'd go to where the
cross was and miss Christ, wouldn't they? And also we're sent to
glorify him. And we're sent to witness to
the glory of Christ as of the only begotten of the father.
And you know, look over in Luke 24. You know, we're sent to witness
to the glory of Christ. Luke 24, 44. And you know how
you can know that you're a believer? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God? And when you say that you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that means that He was
God before He became the Son. That it means that He was eternal,
that He came to be flesh, God and man. And how many times do
you find it when Simon Peter said, he asked, who do men say
that I am? Simon Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. And all that Philippian, that
Ethiopian eunuch, he preached Christ unto him from Isaiah 53
in the Old Testament. And he says, here's water, what
doeth hinder me from being baptized? He said, if thou believest with
all thine heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said, I
believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ. And the only thing
that would have kept him from being baptized, if he would have
said, I believe that Jesus is a good man. I believe that Jesus
loves everybody. I believe he died for everybody.
And I believe he's got good intentions and is a wonderful teacher and
was a great prophet. And Philip would have walked
off and left him. But when he says, I believe with all my heart
that Jesus is the Son of God. And that's what we witness to.
We witness to that. Look what it says here in Luke
24, 44. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And that's the only
way. Oh my. And said unto them, thus
it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day. And he told them all about what
Moses and the law and the prophets said about him. And that's what
I've told you. And he says, you know, it's written about me that
I was going to suffer and I'm going to die and I'm going to
rise from the dead on the third day. And that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations
starting right here at Jerusalem. And list what I've said. And
ye are witnesses of these things. Witnesses of what? Of what Moses
said, what the psalm says, and what the prophet says concerning
Christ. We witness to his eternal generation. We manifest his glory as we witness
of Christ. To Him, to Him, all the prophets
give witness. And that's what we do. We witness
of Christ. We witness that when we get the
opportunity to witness, you know what we say? He's our all in
all. He's our all in all. He's my
only hope. He's my only plea. He's my only
righteous. He's everything to me. And He
was sent on an errand of grace and mercy to seek and to save
that which was lost. Come to seek and to save that
which was lost. And what an earn of mercy. What
a mission of mercy. What a mission of grace. He come
out to seek. Went looking for people that
was lost. The lost sheep. He come to seek
them. And then when he sought them,
when he found them, he saved them and he put them on his shoulders
and he carries them and he bears them. And so are we. You know
what we're on? We're on this, as Brother Mahan
said, we're on the trail of God's sheep. We're on the trail of God's sheep.
We're not after everybody. The old Paul preached and the
apostles preached and the Lord, God saved as many as such as
should be saved. And everyone that should be saved
will be saved. And that's why we're not on a
fool's errand. And that's what our Lord, you
think that he come down here just wandering around and seeking
somebody to accept him, to knocking on hearts doors and pleading
with people. And I heard a preacher get up
and say one time years ago, and they excluded me from the church,
but he said, stand up, some of y'all be a lady, be a gentleman
for Jesus. Come on, stand up and be a lady,
a gentleman for Jesus. And you know what our Lord Jesus
said? Come unto me. And when they come unto him and
know everyone he saved, it says they came and fell at his feet
and worshipped him. When those lepers came to him,
they fell at his feet. Said, if you will, Barnabas said,
what do you will? I will that you will see my son.
And when there was a multitude that came and fell at his feet,
he had to heal them that had need of healing. And we're on
the trail of God's sheep. And I'll tell you what, and you
know what we pray? Lord, send your sheep in this place. And
if there's any sheep in here, I'm telling you, on Sunday morning,
Sunday night, or Wednesday night, if there ain't any sheep in here
that ain't heard his voice, they're gonna hear it one of these days.
You heard it one day, didn't you, Herman? I heard his voice. And if you wanna hear it, he
said, you're gonna hear his voice one of these days. If you ain't
heard it yet, you're gonna hear it. If you're one of His sheep,
you may sit 20 years and never hear it, and then all of a sudden
you hear it. And we're sent to bear witness
to one Savior. There's only one Savior in this
world. We're sent to bear witness of one mediator between God and
man. We're sent to bear witness of
one Redeemer. Just one Redeemer. Mary's not
involved in it. The Catholic Church's not involved
in it. No preacher's involved in it. No work's involved in
it. One Redeemer that put away sin by the blood of His own self.
We witness to one person who finished salvation, not nothing
to do, done, it's done. We witness to one righteousness,
one righteousness, and that's the righteousness of Christ.
We witness to one way of acceptance, and that's acceptance in the
beloved. We witness to only one who can
save a soul from their sin, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only can He save, and He will save, and we witness to
one that's full of grace and truth. That's what we witness
to. And oh, my soul, may God make
us gracious in telling the truth. When we speak the truth, may
we speak it in love. And when our Lord Jesus was here,
He was the Holy One in the midst of corruption. He was the Holy
One in the midst of corruption. When they brought that woman,
taking an adultery to Him, and Moses in the Law says that she
should be stoned. And of all the group, men and
women, that was gathered there that day, there was one person
that could have picked up a stone and throw it at that woman. Our
Lord said, He that's without sin, let him cast. And he could
have cast a stone, but he didn't come here. to throw stones. Oh,
and John and James said, you just, when they went through,
call, tell us Lord, we'll call down fire from heaven on this
bunch of heathens. He said, you don't know what
spirit you're of. He said, I didn't come to destroy
these men. I come to save them, seek and
save. And oh my, and here's this holy,
sinless man that takes the vilest and the weakest and had corruption
all around him. And he was holy. And he was untainted
by anything that he ever came in. He was as holy when he left
as he was when he got here. Lepers touched him. If you and
I touched a leper, we'd get leprosy. Our Lord would touch him and
the leprosy would leave them and not affect him. And so he
was left as the holy one in the midst of corruption. And we're
left and he said, leave them in the world. Don't take them
out of it. And you know, we're left here as the salt of the
earth. And because we're the salt of
this earth, that's why this world is not any more corrupt than
it already is. God keeps His church here to
keep some salt and keep this world from putrefying worse than
it already is. And He was the light that come
here and shined in darkness. And look in Philippians 2 with
me. And I won't be very much longer in Philippians 2. And
we're lights in this world. We're to be lights in this world.
Philippians 2. In verse 14, he was the light,
so we're to shine as lights. We're to shine as lights. Philippians
2.14, do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be
blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the
midst, middle, right in the middle of a crooked and perverse nation
among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the
word of life, that when the day of Christ comes, I'm gonna rejoice
in you, realize that I haven't run in vain, that you believe
the gospel that I've preached to you. He was a light, we're
to shine this light. And then let me close with this. I think I'm about done here.
He was filled with the spirit. He said, as thou sent me into
the world, our Lord was filled with the spirit. Without measure,
God anointed him with the spirit to lead him to labor, And he
had the Spirit without measure. It was by the Holy Spirit that
all the healings and miracles were done. And we have received
the Spirit. And the Spirit has anointed us
and filled us to guide us. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. And the Spirit Himself bears
witness through Thy Spirit that we're the children of God. And
you know, and that's why he talks about we're, and I gotta show
you this. 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 2.9. We aren't left to our carnal
reasoning. That's why God gave us the Holy Spirit. I heard a
preacher preach, a very well preacher that I've known for
years, preach here recently on believers not having two natures. They don't have two natures.
And he explained away 2 Corinthians 5.17. He explained away we're
made partakers of divine nature. He explained that away. He explained
away being new creatures in Christ. And I know three preachers right
off the top of my head. And they're great, you know,
they're great preachers and they preach truth. But for some reason, they cannot
grasp this idea of having two natures. And listen, Did you
ever have a problem with sin until God saved you? Did your
thoughts ever condemn you before God saved you? Did your attitude
ever condemn you before God saved you? Did you ever think you'd
be as sinful as you are right now after God saved you? Now,
what nature is it makes you understand those things? It's not our carnal
nature. Our fleshly nature, it'll justify
everything we do. But our new nature won't let
us, won't let us. And that's why he gives us the
Holy Spirit. Look here at verse nine, 1 Corinthians
2.9. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But now wait a minute, but God hath revealed them unto us by
his Spirit. For the Spirit goes into the
Scriptures, and takes the word of God, and this is what this
means, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things
of God, he goes into the scriptures and searches these things, and
then what does he do? He teaches them to us. And only
God knows the things of man and nobody knows that, but the man,
the spirit of man that's in him and God gives us the spirit so
we can know the things of God. In verse 12, now we've received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things freely given to us of God. Huh? And our Lord was about His
Father's business, pleasing not His self, making the most of
His brief life on earth. And God help us to redeem our
time and make the most out of the life that He's given us to
honor and glorify Him. And He set us apart by the truth.
He set us apart from the world. He was not of the world. And
it is only as sanctified ones set apart by the truth are we
sent into the world. And you know the disciples were
sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and we're sent
to preach the gospel to every creature in this world. We get an opportunity. What a
blessed privilege to be sent into this world by Christ, to
be set apart by Christ with the truth, to be his witness, to
glorify him, to honor him, to be truthful about him. Oh, what
a blessing, what a privilege. Our Father, in the precious holy
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to
be here again tonight. What a privilege, what a blessed,
blessed privilege together with God's blessed people to rejoice
in the truth, to hear the truth and want the truth and desire
the truth that you've taught us. And Lord, help us by your
grace to walk in that truth, walk in that light, and honor
you, honor you by our speech, by our attitudes, by our character,
by our words, by our walk, by our obedience, by our desires,
by our prayers. Oh God, in our homes when we're
privately, by ourselves in our homes, no one knows where we
are and what we're doing but you. God, help us to honor and
glorify your blessed son. Direct our very steps into the
paths that you light Be a lamp under our feet and your word
a light under our path. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.