Out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But this he spake of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this say, said of a truth, This is the prophet.
Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that
Christ cometh to the seat of David, and out of the town of
Bethlehem, where David was? So there was division among the
people because of him. And some of them would have taken
him, but no man laid hands on him." Back here in John 7, and I want
you to look at verse 43. 43. John 7.43. So there was a division among
the people because of Him. And you keep that and look over
here in John chapter 10 and verse 19. This is where our Lord Jesus
Christ talking about laying His life down for the sheep. How
to lay it down and take it up again. It said in verse 19 of
John chapter 10, there was a division therefore again among the Jews
for these saints. I want to talk about Christ divides
men. There's a division over Christ. And there's still a division
over the Lord Jesus Christ and what He came to do and who He
was and who He did it for. Why He did it and where He is
now. Still a division over that. When our Lord walked this earth
in human flesh, walked this earth as a man, He was despised and
rejected of men. He said, they hated Me without
a cause. He says, you know, the Scripture
says that they hated Me without a cause. And He said in Isaiah
53, He was despised of men and rejected of men. And you know
I, Lord Jesus Christ, while He was here, they cursed Him, called
Him a devil, asked Him to leave their cities, tried to stone
Him twice, spit upon Him, tried to throw Him off of a cliff one
time, hired false witnesses against Him at His trial, and then they
mocked Him at His trial, convicted Him, crucified Him between two
thieves and stood and ridiculed Him as He died. Would our Lord Jesus fare any
better today in this world if He was here? Would He fare any
better? If our Lord Jesus went up here
to the biggest Baptist church in Crossville,
would He fare any better there today if He got up and done the
preaching? If He got up and said the things
that He says that caused the division among these people.
You know, our Lord Jesus Christ and God is a stranger in His
own world that He created. Men worship and serve the creature
more than the Creator. Look over here in Matthew. Keep
John now. Look over here in Matthew chapter
23. Matthew 23. Matthew 23 and verse 29. Excuse me, 29. This is what our Lord Jesus said.
Would He fare any better today if He was here? He said in Matthew
23, 29, Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, play actors,
because you build the tombs of the prophets. and garnish, dress
up, put flowers on, take care of the graves of the righteous.
And you say, if we had been here in the days of our fathers, we
would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the
prophets and how they treated God's prophets. And then our
Lord said, you yourselves be witnesses unto yourselves that
you are the children of them which kill the prophets. And
don't be deceived by religion. Don't be deceived by monuments
and recognition given to preachers of the past. You know, it's just
one generation trying to cover up the crimes of another generation.
The natural mind is still enmity against God. I was at the Metropolitan
Tabernacle where Charles Spurgeon started preaching, built it,
held 7,000 people every service come to hear that man preach. And in the evening, the people
that belonged to the church would give out tickets for visitors
to come in and hear Mr. Spurgeon preach. Well, I was
over there and they was going to have a special meeting. Got
my picture, took up in the pulpit and all that. And there were
some folks standing out in the great big, great big, the foyer
there was as big as this room. And I got to talking to some
people there. They was going to have a meeting about the Holy
Spirit. And I started talking about what Mr. Spurgeon preached. I said, do you reckon the preacher
here still believes what Mr. Spurgeon preached? I said, well,
what do you mean? I said, he preached particular
redemption. That Christ only died for his
elect. And he preached that God had
an elect. And he preached Christ was an effectual Savior. And
out of all the people I was talking to there, there was one little
woman from Yorkshire that was there. And she was the only one
in that crowd of people I was talking to that had any idea
what I was talking about. She said, I remember preachers
preaching that. But they didn't believe it there
now. Where Mr. Spurgeon preached.
And the place still stands. Still have a preacher there.
Still have a congregation. And when Moses was here, I'll
show you how religion is. When Moses were here, they hated
him and said, we're Abraham's children. We bragged on Abraham.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was here, they hated him and bragged
on Moses and said, we're Moses' disciples. When the Apostles
were preached, they hated them and started bragging on Christ.
When the Reformers was here, Calvin and Luther, they hated
them and bragged on the apostles. And today prophets are hated
and while they raise monuments to Calvin and Luther and Spurgeon
and brag on them and go to their tombs and say, oh what great
men they were. And they won't listen to a prophet
of God today. But what caused this extreme
hatred for our master? Why was He despised and rejected
of men, hated to the point of nailing Him to a cross? And I
read a few verses of Scripture, and I'm going to read some today.
And you, see, if you have in your heart, if your heart's divided
over who Christ is, if you have a division in your heart over
Christ, are you divided in your heart about Christ as to who
He is? I know there is a division among people, but I have known
that Christ is everything to me and all there is to me. Now
listen, we read there that there is a division because of that.
Now look with me in John chapter 10 and verse 31. Read a few scriptures
here and see if you have a division over Christ. If you are divided
over who He is. Would our Lord fare any better
today? John 10, 31. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. What in the world is going on?
Why in the world are they picking up stones to stone Christ? And
they're picking them up again. What had he done? What had he
said? Well, I'll tell you what he said
in verse 30. I and my father are one. That's why they picked
up stones to stone him. You know, and I tell you what,
they said to him, and look what our Lord asked them in verse
32. Our Lord answered them when they took up them stones again
to stone him. They're standing around him and
got rocks in their hands. I mean, not little bitty rocks
like you and I do. When they stole people, they
got great big rocks. And they would get up close to
them as they could and hit them with them rocks. They didn't
pick up little old rocks that you could go like that with.
Not the kind of rocks you could skip across the lake. They got
big rocks. They had big rocks laying around.
When they stoned somebody, there'd be a pile of stones, big stones,
laying on them. And hell, Lord Jesus Christ said,
Jesus said to them, many good works have I showed you from
my Father. I've raised the dead. I've cleansed
the lepers. I've given sight to the blind.
I've healed the sick. I've done lots and lots of good
works. I fed people when they were hungry.
I sat and preached to people. And what good work have I done
that you want to stone me? For which one of these works
do you want to stone me? Well, you know what they said?
We're not going to look at how they answered him. In verse 33,
the Jews answered him saying, for a good work, we ain't going
to stone you. We love good works. I mean, we're in love with good
works. I mean, we pay our tithes, we
give men and women tithes, and we pray, we wear our phylacteries,
we wear our scriptures on our forehead. We are religion. We go to the church every Saturday. We love good works, but we're
not going to stone you because you're a good works. Here's why
we're going to stone you, because you're being a man. You're a
man and you make yourself to be God.
They understood clearly that our Lord Jesus Christ was claiming
to be God. And they don't want a man to
be God. They don't want a man to have
all power and authority. They don't want a man to be the
only Savior. They don't want a man that's
the only one who can forgive them of their sins. They don't
want a man like that. They want something, beloved,
that's different than them. And I tell you what, beloved,
I ask you, I ask you, is Jesus of Nazareth God Almighty? Is
He God Almighty? Not only a Son of God, a messenger
from God, a prophet of God, God's first elect, do you believe that
He's God Almighty who actually came to this earth in a human
body? And this is what the Bible teaches
and yet these men say, we're going to stone you because you've
just been a man. And as a man, you're saying you're
God Almighty. You're saying that you existed
before you come to this world. You're saying that as God, I'm
going to have to face you in judgment. And we can't have that. We can't have a man being God.
We can't have a man ruling over us. And I tell you, beloved,
the Scriptures teach us plainly that our Lord Jesus Christ was
God. It teaches plainly that God was
in Christ, reconciled the world unto Himself. He purchased the
church of God with His own blood. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And I tell you, God Himself said
unto His Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and Thy
scepter is a scepter of righteousness. Let me tell you something. And
this is it, beloved. If Jesus Christ is not God, He
is. What an imposter He is. What
a liar He is. If Jesus Christ is not God, He
could not possibly save anyone on this earth. Huh? If Jesus
Christ is not God, every one of us here worship Him. We're
worshiping an idol. Huh? But let me tell you something. about our Lord Jesus. He claimed
all the attributes of God while He was on this earth. He claimed
having an eternal existence. He said, for ever I am was, I
am. He said, Father glorify thou
me with the glory which I had with you before the world was. And He talked about having the
power to create all things. All things that was made was
made by Him and not anything was made was made without Him. All things were made by Him whether
they be visible or invisible. Whether they be a throne, whether
they be a dominion, it don't make no difference. What president
is going to come up here in November is going to be the one that Jesus
Christ Himself sat on that throne. And we're going to live with
it. Because we're saying God runs
this world and Christ runs this world. And He said He Himself
has the power to give life. Nobody else could give life.
He said as the Father has life, the power to give life, even
so the Son has power to give life in Himself. He that cometh unto Me, He said
I give them what? Life, eternal life. He has said
He has the power to give life. And He did have power to give
life. How many times, how many people did He raise from the
dead? Three people He raised from the dead. Just spoke to
them and they come. They spoke to dead people and
they came to life. And you know, He still does that.
He speaks to dead sinners and they come to life. If you hear
that, hear the voice, the hour is coming and now is during the
dead. Now is when the dead, what dead? Dead in trespasses and sin. When
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that
hear, what's going to happen to them? They're going to live.
And he claimed holiness. He claimed God to be holy. He
asked them, he said, which of you, which of you can convince
me of sin? Huh? Where's sin at in me? And he claimed omnipotence. These
are attributes of God. He said, all power, all authority
is given unto me both in heaven and in earth. He claimed omnipresent
that he can be everywhere at the same time. He said, Lo, I'm
with you always. Now what do you reckon that means?
You reckon he's here? You reckon he's there? You reckon he's in Mexico? You
reckon he's in China? You reckon He's in Kentucky?
Where do you reckon He's at? He's everywhere! He said, you
know, I'm with you always. And then He claimed omniscience.
That means that He read people. He knows everything there is
to know about man. How many times in the Scripture
He says that? He said, perceiving their thoughts. He said, perceiving
their thoughts. So, oh, I tell you why they gonna
stone Him? What a division because of Christ,
because He said, I'm God. He said, I'm God. Look at another
one over here. Let me show you something in Luke 4, 28. Why
there's a division because of Him. Some of the things He said,
I, Lord Jesus Christ, fare any better today. You know, I tell you folks, folks
call you a heretic. Say, you know, I don't know how
many times, we and Todd was talking about it yesterday, I don't know
how many times somebody's told me, said, you all believe you're
the only one saved in this whole place. I said, as far as I know
we are. He said, you think you're the
only one who knows the gospel? I said, as far as I know we are. I ain't
no use pulling no punches with them, and I hope there is another
place around here preaching the gospel. I hope there's another
place here in Cumberland County that's preaching the gospel of
the free grace of God in Christ, refuses to let any man have any
strength, glory, or any hope in anything other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. Shut men up, tell them they ain't
got a work they can do, a word they can say, a deed they can
do, or nobody who they are, where they're from, or anything, has
any hope of being saved apart from Jesus Christ and the grace
God give Him in Him. Huh? And look what He said here
in Luke 4, 28. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things," listen to this now, "...were
filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city,
and led him under the brow of the hill," edge of the hill,
"...whereon the city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong." What in the world? Huh? These people were in a church
service. They were in the synagogue. This
was when our Lord Jesus started His ministry. These people were
in organized religion. It was the Sabbath day. They
were there to worship God. They claimed to be God's people.
And our Lord preached to them, and now they're attempting to
murder Him. Well, what in the world would He say that upset
these folks so bad? Unless I tell you what, look
what He says there in verse 25. Oh, my! They first of all said, oh, they
were just amazed at the gracious words. But he said, I'll tell
you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years
and six months, when great famine was throughout the land. But
under none of them, no, not one in all of Israel, was Elijah
sent to, except to surrept a sea of Sidon unto a woman that was
a wisp. And then he said, and there were
lots and lots and lots of lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha,
the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
saved, damned. Oh, that made them mad, that
got them upset. And what he's saying to these
men and these people here is that you thought you had a corner
on God. You thought you had all the rights
to God. You thought you had all the privileges
and you thought that you deserved something from God. And he said,
you think you deserve God's grace. And he's telling them salvation
is not in your Sabbath keeping, not in your traditions, not in
your relationships, it's not in your customs and your rituals
handed down from one generation to the next. And he's saying,
you fellas think you got a handle on this thing. I'm telling you
way back yonder. You think God's going to come
here and do something for you because you're related to somebody?
No. No man deserves the mercy of God because of who he is,
or what he's done, or what he claims. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is a gift of God. It's not earned. It's not deserved. If it was
earned and deserved, then it wouldn't possibly be of grace,
would it? Salvations of the Lord is the
gift of God. He'll have mercy on whom He'll
have mercy. Look what it says over here in
Romans 8. Look with me. If anybody, if God's ever pleased
to let a person know, let them know, if He's pleased
to let men and women know, that they absolutely deserve
nothing from God. And if God does anything for
me, it's because He wills to do it. If you get anything from
God, God's got to give it to you. If I get anything from God,
God's got to give it to me. If I got faith, where'd I get
it at? God gave it to me. And look what it says here in
Romans 8.28. We know we know some things we're
not guessing at these things. We're not just scratching our
head trying to say boy. I hope this is right We know
That all things work together for good To them that love God
now. Here's here's why we do and why
they work to them who are the called on purpose For whom he did foreknow that
he knew personally knew him intimately, didn't foreknow what they would
do, didn't foreknow why they would, no he just foreknew him,
he had an intimate acquaintance with him. He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the
firstborn among many creatures, among many brethren. Moreover,
listen to this, moreover, those that He did predestinate, what
did He do to them? He called them. Have you ever
been called of God? Has God ever called you, spoke
to you, and called you from sin, called you from self-righteousness,
called you from darkness, called you from death, called you to
life, called you to life? Look what He goes on to say,
"...and whom He called, them He also justified." and whom He justified, He also
glorified." Oh, what in the world we're going to say about these
things if God be for us? You see, men don't hate grace.
Men don't. You know what they hate? They
hate sovereign grace. Men don't hate mercy. Everybody
loves mercy. But they hate sovereign mercy.
That He'll have mercy on whom He'll have mercy. Huh? Oh, so you see, oh, this is the
thing that upsets people. When you look in John chapter
8, verse 59. Here's another one. We look at
these scriptures and see, would our Lord Jesus Christ fare any
better today? I heard a fellow say one time,
I've heard several fellows say it. He said, yes, salvation is of grace and God
is sovereign, but yet in His grace and in His sovereignty,
He gave us the ability to choose. You know what you choose? We
all choose the same thing. We choose to sin. And God chose in His sovereign
mercy to save us from our sin. Bless His name. Look what happens
in John 8.59. Then took they up stones to cast
at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and passed
by. Oh my, here they are, these religious
people. Now they're in the temple. This
is where our Lord Jesus was sitting in the temple teaching. And they
brought the woman taken in adultery. That's how this chapter starts
out. That's how it starts out, the woman taken in adultery.
And then He comes down and they took up stones again to stone
Him. And here these religious people
again going to stone the Lord Jesus Christ. Right in the place
of their worship in the temple. Why are they going to do it?
Why did He say to them? Well, He rejected their doctrine
of the fatherhood of God. Look back over here in verse
41. Oh, listen. They thought, you
know, that because they are Abraham's children. Look what they said.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, You do the deeds of your father, They said unto him, we be not
born of fornication, we have one Father, even God. God's our
Father. God's the Father of all of us. That's what they're saying. Our
Lord Jesus Christ said, that's not right. And our Lord said
to them in verse 42, if God were your Father, if you really had
God to be your Father, you know what you'd do? You'd love me
if God was your Father. If you worshiped my Father, if
God were your Father, you would love me. Oh, how you would love
me. Huh? Because I proceeded forth
and came from God. I didn't come here by myself,
but He sent me. He sent me. And then look down
at verse 44. That's why I said, why do you
not understand my speech? Because you cannot hear my word.
You don't hear what I'm saying. You are your father. Listen to
this. He said, you know who your father is? God's not your father.
I'm going to tell you who your father is. He said, your father
is the devil and the lust of your father you will do. He was
a murderer from the beginning. He murdered our first parents
and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him. When
he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own for he is a liar and
the beginning of it. And look what our Lord Jesus
said in verse 47. He said, John, John, I know who your father
is. It's not God. And here's how he made the distinction.
And this is why they said, I'm going to stone you. He that is
of God, heareth God's words. If God's your father, he said,
you'll love me and you'll hear what I've got to say. And when
he says, heareth me, that means he believes what I'm saying.
He understands what I'm saying. And look what he says, you therefore
hear them not because you're not of God. Oh, he rejected,
he called them children of wrath. But the scripture says as many
as received him to them, to them gave he the power to become the
sons of God. They're the children of God.
And men, I'm going to tell you something. It's just the way
it is. And I hope you don't stay this way. But men and women who
live in unbelief and rebellion are not children of God, and
they don't enjoy the life of God, the love of God, and the
favor of God. Our Lord Jesus says, He that
believeth not on Me, the wrath of God abides on him. That's
what He said. You know, it says that God is
angry with the wicked every day. And here's what people say, and
this is not true. This is not true. Let me just
give you an illustration. They say God loves the sinner,
but he hates the sin. Well, how do you separate the
two? How do you separate the sinner
from his sin? He said he hates the workers of iniquity. You say, well, my guy's not like
that. I know he's not. I understand
that. I don't understand that. And
if there's any love for a sinner, that love for a sinner is in
Christ. So if you want the love of God,
if you want the mercy of God and the grace of God, the only
place it's found is in Christ. All spiritual blessings and heavenly
places are in Christ. The love of God is in Christ.
Grace is given us in Christ. And they took up stones to stone
Him. Why? Because I know who your Father is. I know who your
Father is. And look in John 6. Let me give
you another one. John 6. Oh, look how they... Would our Lord Jesus fare any
better today? John 6, 66. Would our Lord fare any better
today? From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. Why? Why did they walk no more with
Him? Why did they leave Him? Why did they desert Him? Why
do people leave the Gospel? Why do people lose interest in
the Gospel? Why do people not enjoy the gospel? You know, Paul asked this question
in Galatians 1. I marvel! I marvel that you're so soon
removed from Him that called you into His grace unto another
gospel. Another gospel. And why did they
desert Him? I'll show you why in verse 53.
This is why they deserted Him. Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in
you." Huh? You have no life in you. Oh my! What did they mean? What
did they mean? What did our Lord mean? Eat my
flesh and drink my blood. That's spiritually speaking.
That's spiritual speaking. You know, and our Lord Jesus,
He preached to them that He's the bread of life. Look what
He said in verse 48. He said, I am that bread of life.
I'm the bread of life itself. Your fathers did eat man in the
wilderness and they're dead. This is the bread which came
down from heaven. A man may eat thereof and not
die. He's that heavenly bread. He's that man of Christ as the
bread sent from God. And He preached to them that
He's the water of life. He preached to them that the
flesh, look what He said in verse 63. This is what really, really
gets folks. Our Lord says this, it is the
Spirit that quickens. The Spirit's what gives life
to a man. The Spirit is where God dwells.
The heart's where God dwells. The flesh profits nothing. Nothing
you can do in this flesh. And I'm telling you something,
My flesh is no better today than it was the day God saved me by
His grace. It's no better. It ain't gonna
get no better. I remember asking Scott when he was way up in his
seventies, I said, Scott, is life getting any easier as you
get older? Trials getting any lighter? He said, oh no, no,
no. Age ain't got nothing to do with
it. Oh, this flesh, we still have problems with it. And the
flesh profits nothing. What does the flesh add to salvation? What does the flesh do in salvation? What can the flesh do? What can
it do? This old fallen nature, what
can it do? And that's what our Lord, the
flesh prophets, nothing it can do. It adds zero to anything
that you can do. Zero. And look what He says,
but the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. spiritual words
and they are alive. And he preached to them that
he must suffer. I must go to Jerusalem. I must
suffer. I must die. And I am except a
corn of wheat fall to the ground and die and abideth alone. He
said it won't bring forth any fruit but if it dies it brings
forth much fruit. This speaking of the death. And
he said he must suffer and die and atone and put away our sins.
And He's teaching us and telling these folks here that life eternal
is not in a ceremony, not in law, but in the substitutionary
death and the satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
all the fullness, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells
in Him. And you are complete in Him who
is the head of all principalities and powers. Oh, listen. I'm telling you something. I've seen this happen over the
years. It used to happen much more than
it does today. Because folks figure out where
you're at and you ain't going to change. You're not going to
change up and you're not going to change the way you do things.
And they figure out, boy, after all these years, I guess it's
just useless to say anything else about it. But you leave
men to their traditions and their religious thoughts and they'll
follow you. But you give them the truth of
God Almighty. That bare, naked truth. The salvation
to the Lord from Alpha to Omega. That God chose a people in Christ. And those people are going to
hear the voice of the Son of God. and the Holy Spirit is going
to bring the gospel to them, and the Holy Spirit is going
to give them life, and the Holy Spirit is going to give them
eyes, the Holy Spirit is going to give them ears, the Holy Spirit
is going to give them life, the Spirit is going to give them
a new heart, and they're going to believe Christ, they're going
to follow Christ, they're going to trust Christ, and they won't
hear nothing but that once they hear that. Look what our Lord said over
here in John 5. This is the issue right now. This is the issues
of the Scriptures. In John 5.40. These are the issues
of the Scriptures. These are the issues of the Scriptures.
Who is God? What is man? And who is Jesus
Christ? Look what He said in verse...
This is man right here. I've decided, Lord speaking,
these are the issues of the Scriptures. You will not come to me that
you might have life. You will not. You will not. He didn't say,
though a man try to persuade you, you will not. Let's just
get the music just right. Give us one more verse of just
as I am, And you will not. That's the
issue. You will not. Come to me. You'll
go to church. You'll buy a Bible. And you'll even be respectful. But will you come to Christ? And look what else it says here
now. And he said, and I receive not honor from men. I don't have
to have men's honor. But here's man again, and here's
God. But I know you that you have
not the love of God in you. Oh, you claim to know God, but
you don't have the love of God in you. And oh my, do you love
God? Do you even know God? And he
said, I am come in my father's name. This is the kicker right
here. I am come in my father's name.
And you won't receive me. You don't receive me. But here's
what will happen. If another shall come in his
own name, you'll receive him. You'll receive him. Oh, let a
fellow get him a poster and stick it up. Oh, this preacher's coming,
this preacher here's coming, and oh my goodness, you just
got to go hear him. You never heard such a preacher.
Oh my, that guy can, I mean, he can take the Scriptures and
just preach all that prophecy and everything and all. He just
makes it every, got all these charts and he can just take you
from here to yonder and show you everything there is about
the Bible. Talk about men being walking
Bibles. I don't want a walking Bible. I want to live in Christ from
His written Word. And oh, I tell you what, that's
the issues. What is God? What is man? Who is Jesus Christ? Now I'm
telling you, the anger and offense is still there today. You know
why? Because the Gospel, this blessed book right here, addresses
all men as sinners. From the President to me, to
you, to the old folks, to the young folks, to the educated
and non-educated, to the rich, to the poor, to the person sitting
in the PhD and the fellow that can't write his name. God addresses
all men as sinners. All men as sinners. And that
salvation comes as a gift a gift. God gives life. Grace is a gift. Faith is a gift. And it's by
revelation. You can't learn it. God's got
to reveal it to you. And here's another thing, and
it still addresses and upsets men, is that there's a full atonement
made by Christ. Christ actually is a successful
Savior. His blood actually saves sinners
and cleanses them from their sins. And that Christ is Lord, and
we're going to bow to Him as Lord, or we're going to perish. That's the way it is. And you
say, preacher, you're pretty hard about that. No, I'm not.
I'm telling you what this said. The issue is with this, not the
preacher. Not the preacher. There was not
a more gentle, good-natured, and God-honored preacher that
I ever met other than Brother Henry Mahan. And preachers would
ask him to come, and he'd say, now listen, if I come, this is
what I'm going to preach. Are you willing to have your
church divided over that? Are you willing to have folks
split up over my message? And they'd think about it a while,
and they'd say, well, no, no. And I remember a place, they
had him to come, and Bruce Crabtree had him to
come at this place. And the reason he wanted Brother
Mahan to come is because he said, and note, if a man gets offended,
they'll not get offended at Henry in the way he preaches. They'll
have to be offended at the gospel he preaches. And sure enough,
he preached two nights. A bunch of women and men started
calling the preacher the second night after the service over.
He says, oh my. He said, do you understand what
that fellow is saying? We're not going to go back to
the service if you go have him preach tomorrow night. And they called Bruce early in
the morning and called him. He said, they don't want you
back. Don't want you back. A division. A division because
of him. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, how wonderfully kind and gracious
and patient you are with us. Lord, I pray that you take the
message today and use it to your glory. Lord, if there's anything
ever done in our hearts or in our minds or our understanding,
the Holy Spirit must do it. And so, Lord, Holy Spirit, go.
Speak to hearts. Speak to minds. Open them. Reveal Yourself. Make Yourself known. We ask these
things in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. What's that number of only
trust Him? Only trust Him. It's 356, I think. 252. Let's
stand together and sing this. 252. Only trust Him. Come, every soul, and sing of
Christ, there's mercy in the Lord. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now He will save you, He will save you, He will
save you now For Jesus shed His precious blood,
which blessings to bestow. But now into the crimson flows
that wash it, Yes Jesus is Reach you into rest Believe in
Him without delay And you are truly blessed Only trust Him, only trust Him
now He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now