Greetings friends and welcome
to another broadcast of the Old School Primitive Baptist with
Elder Don Martin Sr. Stay tuned for another gospel
message of God's free and sovereign grace. and read from the 11th chapter
of Hebrews. You that have a Bible and want
to follow me, I'm going to read from the 11th chapter of Hebrews,
which is called the faith chapter because it starts off talking
about faith. But in the latter part of the
chapter, it talks about the history of Israel. It talks about the
life of Moses and Pharaoh, and God's dealing with Moses and
Pharaoh. And then it talks about faith.
And it talks about the substance and the evidence of faith. And
how this substance and evidence brings forth a hope that is a
tangible perspective for the soul to lay
hold upon as an anchor. Now, I'm reading to you in regarding
those who suffered for the sake of God and for the
sake of Christ as markers in the latter part of the 11th chapter
of Hebrews. And if God give us a few moments
to consider these things, I want us to take a look at this as
we, in this day, In the year of 2010, we, over the past few
generations, I'm going to say from the end of World War II,
up until the last, within the last ten years, have lived in
the golden age of prosperity and of a life of materialistic
blessings that surpassed any generations
of time as previous. We have had the best of the best. Now think about it. We have seen
the best of the best. come our way. We have come from
horse and wagon to trucks and automobiles. We have come from
sending a verbal conversation from one neighbor to another
for miles to having mail being delivered to our residents to
the telephone edge. And how many remember when you
had the oak wood box on the wall with the hand crank on the side,
and you picked up the little black earphone piece with a wire on
it, and you rang it, you know, ring. And somebody said, operator,
what number please? You had one operator in an area,
however big it was, a little community, and she took all the
calls there and then would plug in to plug whoever you wanted
to call. I remember at my granddaddy's
house up in rural Indiana, he lived out on a farm, And I can
remember the phone numbers, there wasn't no six, eight digit phone
numbers. It was, I'd like to have number
314. 314, that was the number of the
neighbor down the road about five miles or so. And then it
went from that, they got more modernistic and they got more
electronic involved into it to where you had more numbers to
dial. But you didn't have to speak
to an operator. And then as time goes on, we've seen all these
inventions come along in our lifetime. Now my mother is 91
years old and she's still living. She's living over here in Haines
City with my stepbrother and my stepfather had just passed
away here in April. And now my mother is a widow
again for the third time. But she's pressing on. I call her about every other
evening and talk to her. She's pressing on. She's a believer
in Christ and has a blessed hope of Him taking care of her needs,
which He's doing. My step-brother is a pastor of
a Southern Baptist Church over there around Haines City area
and so forth. But she can tell you some things
that goes way back to where, you know, I can't identify with
because I come along about 21 years after she was born of course. But I mean, I can remember in
1975 or so, in the early 70s, when the fax machine was first
being used. I went into a place and I said,
yeah, I'd like to get a copy of this thing made. At that time
you used to have to use a carbon paper on a typewriter to copy
a duplicate of anything. But then they had copy machines
out and then the fax machine came out to where you could take
and put a piece of paper in the fax machine and it sent it over
the telephone lines. I was totally amazed by that. I said, well, I've got to get
this document to this guy. And I told him I'd sent it to
him two days ago, and I haven't sent it yet, and he needs it
by tomorrow. He said, no problem. We'll just fax it to him. I said,
fax it? Yeah, through the phone line. I said, what do you mean?
He said, watch it. And this guy had a print shop, and he had
a fax machine in there. He took the paper, and he put
it down in there, and he dialed the number, and the tone went
off, and he pushed start, and it went on. And the next thing
you know, the guy calls me in about five minutes and says,
okay, I got the document. And I was amazed. And then around
that same era, the computers, We're coming into the commercial
aspect of things, and they were used in drafting, because I worked
for an architectural firm at the time, and rather than have
a man, or men, as women, at a drafting desk with a with a pen and a
slide key and everything and doing things by hand and drafting
and writing on blueprints by hand. They were doing it on a
screen before then with a wand and drawing lines from point
A to point B and then let off the button and the line would
stay there. And they would draw out a room on it and they would
take it back to a computerized mainframe unit that stood about
6 foot tall, 3 foot deep, and about 12 foot long to take and
store all this stuff, which now is done in something probably
about the size of that book right there. But they ended up buying
3 or 4 more of these terminals and so all the drafting and designing
was done now on this computer and then they had printers that
were 36 inches wide that printed out full sheets of blueprints
of an entire floor plan and a building. As fast as you could see it print.
It printed lines out. And we've seen this all in the
past few generations of time. Never before was ever such things
ever thought of in the minds of men. We've seen shuttles go
to the moon and be shot off into space and all these other things
about in our lifetime. And I say we have lived in the
best of the best. But it is slowly being deteriorated
as we see our society falling into demise immorally, materialistically,
in prosperity and every other way. We are losing control. We are out of control. We have
become a spoiled nation, a society of people that have been used
now to the easy way. We have no idea what it is like
to be and live in a third world country except for you fellows
or ladies that have been overseas in the military. Otherwise you
have no idea what it's like other than what you see on a documentary
on television. I have no idea what it's like
to wade through water ankle deep and then have to almost drink
that same water to survive and have no place to take a bath
and have insects flying around about me all the time. Look at
Haiti. I've left on an hour's flight out of the east coast
of Florida to an island out there, and they're living in plastic
tarp tents as housing now, still, even today. It's unbelievable. And we're living in our comfortable
places with air conditioning on, driving our cars, and enjoying
ourselves and going on. But we are beginning to suffer. It is beginning to pinch us down
economically and every other way. We're seeing our society
erode morally. We're seeing the wickedness of
man compound more and more. We're seeing that through the
internet and other things that child molesters are more prevalent
and they seek their prey in different means and methods. Everything
that man designs and makes will end up one way or another being
used for deceit, deception, and wickedness before it's over with.
Well, I don't care what it is, you name it, that man has devised
and I can tell you where it's been used for wickedness and
for sinful, immoral living in one way or another. I don't care
what it is. Whether it's television, internet, automobiles, whatever
it may be. Man can turn it around and use
it for wickedness. This is nothing new. It's just
that we, as a nation, have never experienced this. One of the
youngest nations in the world, two hundred and some years old,
the most prosperous nation in the world, up until the last,
say, ten years, because China actually owns us. We are so indebted
to China that we can never pay them off at this point in time.
And how we ever got to that point is just unbelievable, how that
over the years we have got indebted to a people that we had nothing
in common with other than the need of their resources and money. I can remember that when I was
a boy, when I was about six years old, that the greatest thing
that we feared in our society was the Japanese. television
pictures and movies were of a Japanese guy sitting in an old Japanese
MiG with his goggles on and an old canvas helmet flying in his
eyes and this was the enemy that was going to kill us Americans
and we needed to fear them. And then when that war was over
with, the Koreans, They were the next group that we feared.
And then after that, the USSR, Russia, that was the great mega-power
that was going to wipe us out and we feared them. We went through
vast enemies of times that brought fear upon our nation. and so
forth, and yet we survived all of them and have continued to
get prosperous and more comfortable, more materialistic, more selfish,
and more spoiled in all that we do. To the point of where
we're not in a position to where we want to sacrifice anything. And this is nothing new. Because
we as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this society,
in the United States of America, have never suffered persecution. Life has been suffered in other
third world nations where communism has stamped out on the most part
any Christian influence to where they've had to go underground
and meet secretly to even worship or sing an hymn together. We
don't even know what that's like. Now the Bible says in the 11th
chapter of Hebrews It talks about those who were
the faithful of God who suffered. Now, I believe that we're liable
to have some suffering to endure before we see the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I would hope that He would come
today and deliver us from this sin-cursed world. But if He doesn't,
and He tarries a while, We've got some hard times ahead of
us yet, I believe. It's going to get worse. But
the Bible says that Paul, talking about the history of Israel in
verse 32 of the 11th chapter, he says this, and what shall
I more say? For the time will fail me to
tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
and David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets." In other words,
I don't have time to go through and tell you about all of these
others. That by faith, through the divine
workings of God's determined purpose, have persevered through
these things and went through these hardships and these sufferings. He said, I don't have time to
put all this stuff down. He says, who through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, and stopped
the mouths of lions. quench the violence of fire,
escape the edge of the sword, out of the weakness were made
strong, wax valiant in fight, turn to flight the enemies of
aliens, or the armies of aliens. Women, listen now, women receive
their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured not
accepting the deliverance or accepting deliverance. In other
words, they were tortured rather than being those who would be
camped for their belief and their faith in the Lord God Almighty.
The Bible says in verse 36, and others had trial of cruel mockings
of scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, sawn asunder, they were cut in
two. It says, they were tempted, and
they were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins, and it says, and being destitute, they were afflicted
and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. In other words,
the world was not worthy to have the martyrs of God that suffer
such afflictions for the sake of the gospel. They wandered
in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith,
received not the promise." The writer of Hebrews says that
all of these people that were martyrs for the sake of God,
that were blessed with the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ over
the times of history, They never wavered one bit, but pressed
on. The cause of hope, that was their
substance and their anchor for the soul. That God had instilled
within them by his Spirit. And therefore, that's why I say,
hope is not some mystical vapor in the air. It is a tangible
substance of which is the anchor for the soul of them which are
blessed to believe. having God having provided some
better thing for us in this New Covenant, New Testament era,
that they without us should not be made perfect. In other words,
those in times past did not see the fullness of the revelation
of the delivering operation of Christ in their life. But yet God was faithful to see
them through it that they would be delivered immortally in time. But we have better promise, the
Bible says. The writer of Hebrews says earlier
on in chapters 8 and 10, we have a better promise built upon a
better foundation. We have now a new and living
way by which we now enter into the presence of God through the
person of Jesus Christ. He is our mediator, intercessor. He is the one who stands in our
behalf. And He's the one of whom those
of days past who were martyrs for the sake of God that did
not see the fullness of the revelation of Christ's all-sufficient salvation. Because only in the fullness
of time has God revealed His Son to us when He came born of
that Virgin Mary. and we grew in the statute and
the spirit of God and preach the gospel of the kingdom and
then give himself upon that cruel cross for our sake that we might
see salvation in all of its fullness. Now, we don't know what it is
to suffer. We haven't suffered for Christ's
sake in this nation as yet. And yet we have the Islamic world
that is squeezing down harder and harder upon the societies
of the world's nations and upon this nation which we live in
now and they have taken the Constitution
of the United States and made it such a full circle thing that
where they've taken our freedoms and are using it for their own
deception to come into this society and this nation and to exploit
their own cause against we which are the infidels and enemies
of their cause. The Islamic world hates us. I have read the Koran, I have
preached on teaching from the Koran on comparative religions
to try to inform and educate people about what they believe
and what they teach. And what the Koran teaches is
that all those that are outside the teachings of Islam are infidels. And an infidel is an outcast
and an unbeliever and one that is an alien to their society. And the Koran says to those that
are the unbelieving infidels, and it names them as Christians
and the Jews, shall be killed with a sword. And so let anybody
that tells you that Islam is a people that desire for peace
among men is a liar, and they're not living in accordance to the
teaching of their own book. In John chapter 14, in chapter
1, We move over to John where we find Jesus Christ speaking
here, and here is where Christ lays out the great and wondrous anchor
for our soul. In regarding the times of those
who suffered martyrdom, and the times ahead which we might have
to even be exposed to some persecution as things get tougher and tougher. We are seeing now a movement that is against Islam to the
point of where there is one so-called Baptist church up in Lake City,
Florida that are saying that on 9-11 they're going to burn
every book of the Koran they can confiscate. Now, if that's
what they want to do, then that's their business, let them do it. I don't know what that's going
to prove, other than the fact that we don't agree with that
book. But to burn it and to aggravate the situation is not in any way
helping anything. I see nothing but a great conflict
beginning to gear up in this nation in regarding the freedoms
of which we have enjoyed as Christian people against that which is
of Islam. Because they will not stop their
cause until every infidel is dead. And they are growing by
the thousands daily, worldwide. Because they infiltrate the third
world countries that have nothing, and they give them something.
They give them food, they give them raiment, they give them
shelter, and they give them a false gospel of a hope in Allah, that
is the God of the Koran, and these people flock to that because
they're getting these other things along with it as benefits. Just like you said, brother Buddy,
you know, The Christian preachers today on TV, you sow seed and
you're going to get a hundredfold in return. It's nothing but gimmickry. It's nothing but trickery. It's
nothing but lies. And poor widowed women are sending
in a hundred dollars of their social security checks to these
ministries because they're banking on the promise that they're going
to get a hundredfold in return. And they live in a little old
25 foot mobile home and just strive to get by eating cereal
three times a day trying to survive on it. And drinking Ensure trying
to keep their bodies healthy enough to go on. I know, I've
seen it, I've heard about it. And these preachers, they're
going to give account of this to God. They're going to stand
before God. They're going to give account
and be judged according to their wicked deceitful ways. But in
the 14th chapter of John's Gospel, look at this with me, look at
this great and wondrous promise. 14th chapter of John's Gospel,
verse 1. Jesus said this, let not your
heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe ye
also in me. He says, let not your heart be
troubled. Though we see all these things before us that have occurred,
and all the prosperity, and all the materialism, and all the
luxuries that we have enjoyed over the golden years since World
War II, and all of the modernistic things that have been devised
and invented in men, and so forth, and now we see them start to
fall apart on us. Jobs are depleting. People financially
are losing their homes by the hundreds daily. They can't afford
to pay for their cars anymore. But he says to those who are
blessed of God to believe in Christ and trust in him, he says,
let not your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, believe
also in me. For in my Father's house are many mansions. We had
better get our priorities lined up to be thinking about heavenly
things and setting up treasures in heaven and not on earth. Because
treasures in heaven will fly away like a vapor. And the proof
of it is that look at the statistics of the houses that have been
foreclosed on within the past year. Look at the jobs and unemployment
situations we're dealing with in our nation. And look at all
the cars that are being repossessed. Look how we are sacrificing the
things that we would have done five years ago now that we can't
do because financially we can't do it anymore. We're going to
start being pinched down, ladies and gentlemen, more and more
as we see time go on. It's going to get worse. But
Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled if you believe in
God, but believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions, and he says this, if it were not so, I would have
told you. He said, if it's not true, if
it's not so that my Father has got mansions for you in heaven,
then I would have told you. But he is telling us that he
does have mansions in heaven for us, and it's a promise of
God, and God cannot lie. And he has never laid a promise
or a prophecy that has not been fulfilled according to the jot
and tittle of every aspect of what he said was going to happen.
When Isaiah said 730 years before Jesus Christ was born of the
Virgin Mary, that she shall conceive and have a baby, this virgin,
this one that was prophesied in Isaiah's prophecy, it came
to pass just as he said. And nothing can circumvent it
from happening. Nothing can circumvent our relationship
with God from occurring when He is pleased to call us into
that salvation experience. Would you rather go to a meeting
house and hear some man get up and stand up and open the Bible
and tell you how God has made an opportunity for you and how
that it's all up to you Or would you rather go to a meeting house
and have somebody open the book and tell you about how God has
chosen to save some out of the majority of the mankind, and
not all? And all that He has chosen to
save, they shall come to Jesus? For blessed is the man whom He
has chosen and has caused to approach unto Him? Would you
rather hear that gospel? That is a gospel that's an anchor. But when you hear about a gospel
that lays it on man to do something, to gain it and earn it, that's
no blessed hope. That is a work saver. the historical Baptist of this
nation and of that which is of our forefathers and the foundation
of that which we believe taught about a gospel of sovereign grace. about by an almighty God that
chooses his people and had chosen them in Christ before the foundation
of the world, and wrote their names in the Lamb's Book of Life,
and in time they shall be called by God and regenerated by his
Spirit, born again and caused to believe on Christ, and the
gospel be a good-sounding trumpet to their ears when it's preached.
and is strips man of everything and anything they can do to earn
it or receive it. I could never say in clarity
of mind and truthfulness of heart that God has given everybody
an opportunity to become a Christian and say that honestly. That is
not true. He's not given everybody an opportunity. You can't find that in the Bible. But what you will find in there
that God who does as he pleases among the armies of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth. And no man shall stay
his hand, shall cause them who he has chosen in Christ to come
to him when he so pleases." And they won't come a minute before.
And you can't persuade them to come. Paul went to King Herod
and to the governor there in Rome. And he talked to them about
his testimony. He shared with them about how
God had revealed himself to him and Christ had revealed himself
to him on the road to Damascus. And the king said, I'll hear
no more of this today. You come back another time, he
says, and maybe I'll hear some more of this. He said, for thou
almost persuadest me to be a Christian. Let me tell you something, dear
friends, that's all man will ever do is almost persuade one. You'll never persuade anybody
to be a Christian. You may express to them the gospel
and the testimony, but there's only one means by which one becomes
a Christian, and that's by the Holy Spirit's operation of sovereign
grace upon the heart and mind of the soul of an individual.
Jesus said, if this was not so, I would have told you, but he
says, I go to prepare a place for you. Jesus has gone to prepare a place
for us that have been blessed to believe in Him as our Savior,
Lord and Master. And he says, And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself, and that where I am, there ye may be also. Now, brother and sister, that
is a glorious promise. He says, I have gone to prepare
a place. He says, and if I go, which he
has gone, hasn't he? He's gone. He was in the first
chapter of Acts, he was ascended up into the clouds and taken
up into glory. For those men of Galilee stood
there gazing upward, and there stood there the angels of God.
And they said, why are you men of Galilee looking upward? For
the same Jesus that you have seen ascend up into the clouds,
up into heaven, is soul-like matter coming back again. He's
coming again for his church bride, for those who are of the elect
of God, chosen in Christ Jesus, appointed heirs of grace. He's
coming back for them. I'm looking for him to come back. because he's got a place prepared
for you and for me to believe. The Bible says in verse 4, and
whether I go ye know, and the way ye know. And listen to what
Thomas said in verse 5. Thomas said unto him, Lord, he
said, Lord Jesus, we know not whither thou goest, and how can
we know the way? And listen to what Jesus said.
Jesus said unto him, I am the way. There is no other way. He says,
how are we to know the way, Lord? Jesus said, I am the way. He
didn't say the church was the way, religion was the way, the
Bible was the way. He said, I, I am the way, Jesus
Christ himself, the God-man, deity in the flesh of man, the
Savior of sinners, I am the way. Allah is not the way, Buddha
is not the way, Muhammad ain't the way, I am the way, Jesus
said. This is the true and the living
gospel that we have, that the martyrs of days past have died
by. Their bodies sewed asunder by
saws. Their heads cut off by the sword. They were ate by lions as they
were set before the kings in the Roman days. You take that
book right there. The Martyr's Mirror. There's
about 600 pages there of the history of the believers in Christ
that have suffered martyrdom throughout the history of time.
It's in that book right there. If you have never looked through
the pages of it or read it, you need to. Because not one of them
recanted and said, oh I don't believe in Christ, I was not
really honest and true about that, please don't kill me. No.
You read about them being burned at the stake and singing praises
to God as their bodies were on fire. You read about them, just within
the last, it was overseas, I can't remember what nation, it seemed
like it might have been in a communist country, it might have been Romania.
It was in one of those countries that a friend of mine, I knew
that went over there and visited a church over there that was
meeting in a home of believers. And the communists had come in
to to a meeting house where there was a church meeting going on,
and they came in there with machine guns, and they said, uh, everyone
that is a believer in Christ, everyone that is a believer in
Christ, sit down and stay in your places. And to those of you here that
are not believers in Christ, you can be dismissed and go outside. And not a one of them got up.
For they were there for the divine purpose to worship God and to
praise Him and to gather together. And they did so under persecution.
And the Bible, not the Bible, but the document of history says
that the communist soldiers took and shot those that were there.
There were about 20, 25 of them there. Shot every one of them
and lit the house on fire. because they believed and were
persuaded that Jesus Christ was the way. And they could not recant
and they could not deny that fact. The Bible says Jesus said that
I am the way and I am the truth. There is not three or four different
truths when it comes to knowing the God that created the universe
and is the Almighty. There's only one That truth is knowing that Jesus
Christ is the only way and the truth and the life. There's not two truths and three
truths in regarding deity. There's not One who succeeded
Christ as proclaimed in Islam today. It says Mohammed succeeded
Christ and he came after Christ and therefore he brought the
prophecy and the demonstration of being God's messenger. You see, let me just say this
a passage. That Islam teaches and defeated a thousand enemies. And because he did that, they
that knew of that devastation of war, and he took 300 and killed
a thousand, that he must be a god to have done such a feat of valiant
battle. And therefore, This is the new Messiah. This
is God's messenger. This is the prophet of God and
therefore we need to honor him. And he was put upon a high and
lofty pedestal among the Arab nations and Islam started right
then and there with Mohammed as a valued soldier. And therefore
they made him their prophet and he wrote the book of the Koran.
And there you have it. Let me tell you something. In
Mecca where they have the place, the shrine of Muhammad, he died
the death of all mankind that he's never been raised again.
But Jesus Christ died the death and rose the third day and to
prove himself as God Almighty. He rose from the dead and he
came up from that grave. and he come up victorious and
the Bible says he defeated hell and he defeated death for our
sake that we might not be fearful of that which is to come in our
mortal bodies when it's laid to rest because we have a hope
beyond this mortal realm and our hope is in that anchor of
Jesus Christ and the proof of it is that he is raised from
the dead and so shall we be also. Islam has no such proof. They
have nothing but a dead man who was a valiant soldier who died
the death and was buried in the ground and his sepulcher can
be identified even today. He never came back again, but
Jesus Christ did. That's why Jesus said, I am the
way and the truth. The singular, not plural. I am the only truth. And I proved
it, because I came back again. And he says, I am the what? Way, the truth, and the life. Mohammed cannot give life. He
could not give life. He could not promise life. Life is only through the person
of Jesus Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. I am the life, and the life that
we live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved us and gave this life for us. That's what the Bible
says. Paul said that how to do that
which is right, I find out within me. I don't know how to perform
those things which are good within me. But the life that I now live,
as a believer in Christ Jesus, I live by the faith of Christ.
who loved me and gave himself for me. And he lives through
me. And the life that I now live,
I live by the faith of Christ, who loved me and gave himself
for me. Going on, he says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life,
and no man cometh to the Father but by me. If any man comes to
the Father God, and is received of Him and is able to communicate
and to worship and to praise and adore Him in spirit and in
truth is only going to be because they come by Christ. He says, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man can come to the Father but by me. You
can't get to the Father You can't get to the Father by Muhammad.
You can't get to the Father by Hindu gods. You can't get to
the Father by being just serious enough and call out on God whom
you do not know through the person of Christ. If you don't know
Jesus Christ as only the means, the mediator, the intercessor
between God and men, then you have no access to God the Father. For the Bible says that only
they can know the Father by the Son. And unless they know the
Son, they don't know the Father. You say, what about all those
who have never heard about Him? What about Him? What about Him? Is God not righteous in all that
He does? to enlighten a certain nation
or a tongue of kindred of people in times past of who Jesus Christ
is and to reveal to him the truth of the matter, is that not God's
right? Can you say that there is unrighteousness
with God? Can you say that he's unjust? What does it say in the Bible,
God has to be fair? Let me ask you a question. Was
God fair when He caused Noah to build the ark and put the
animals that He told him to put in there and eight of them of
his family and himself and then caused it to rain upon the earth
for forty days and the whole earth perished? Was that fair? Was it fair for God to rain fire
and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah Thousands of people, is it fair?
It don't sound fair to me, but it sounds good to God, and it's
alright with me, whatever God wants to do. Whatever He desires
to do is right with me. He's the one that does whatsoever
He pleases. The Bible says that our God is
in the heavens and He doeth whatsoever He pleases. Man does not have
the right to question God or to even insinuate that God is
unfair or unrighteous in anything He does. If an airplane goes
down and 350 people perish at one time, God has a right to
cause the plane to go down and every one of them die. I mean,
if folks get over it, whether it's a 4-month-old baby or a
90-year-old man in an airplane, God's in control of life and
death. And as Buddy said earlier, the
Bible says that God holds the breath of the creature within
the prophet's hand. Our days are appointed of him
and our paths are determined of God. And none can alter that. Let me conclude. No man comes to the Father but
by me. In verse 7, If ye have known
me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye
know him, and have seen him. Now that really threw a question
to their minds, no doubt. In other words, Jesus said, from
his forth ye know the Father, and have seen him. And they no
doubt, and we're going to read here next, they no doubt went
into a whirlwind in their mind. They say, whoo, how do we know
him? How do we know the Father? To
whom the forefathers of Israel adored and admired and worshipped
and looked to as Jehovah God Almighty. Philip said unto him, Lord, show
us the Father and it shall satisfy us. That's what
he said. Philip said, Lord, show us the
Father and it will satisfy us. For, he says, It will suffice
us. Listen to what Jesus said. Jesus
said to him, have I been so long time with you and yet has thou
not known me, Philip? And then he said, he that has
seen me has seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
us the Father? He said to Philip, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. How sayest thou, Philip, show
us the Father? You've seen me. I am the Father. Jesus Christ is the Father in
the human body. For the Bible says in Philippians,
it says that Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It says also in the same book
and for that instant that not only is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, but He is the very image of the invisible God of which
could not be seen before because He is Spirit. But Spirit took
on human flesh and became man and dwelt among us and is Jesus
Christ. And Jesus said to Philip, Oh,
Philip, how long have I got to remain with you? And you've not
known me, and you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Jesus
Christ is God Almighty manifested in the flesh. Jesus Christ is
the Father. That's why that it took God,
dressed in the clothes cross of Calvary and to be put
on that cross by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God and be crucified in our behalf that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him through His vicarious sacrificial blood that He shed
on that cross. That blood that He shed was God's
blood. If Christ be God, which He is,
God's blood was shed through that mortal body, conceived of
a virgin. And that blood cleanses us from
all unrighteousness, forgives us of all our sins. Not some
of them, not just the past sins, past, present, and future. When
the Bible says that he shall forgive and remove all our transgressions,
that means what it says, every one of them. There is no sin
that will keep an elect child appointed heir of God from heaven's
glory. There's no sin so great because
God has redeemed us and He has purchased us with His precious
blood. And we shall ever be in glory
forever and eternally all because of that beautiful remnant, that
beautiful flowing blood, that crimson flow that came from Calvary's
cross, from his wounds, from his hands and his feet, that
was the sacrifice that God was appeased with. and just as it
was a type of the Old Testament fulfillment. When they used to
take, and the priests would take the animal's blood and pour it
upon the altars of their carcasses and then burn them before God.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of all the sacrifices
that is necessary to appease the Father in Heaven. For Jesus
Christ, the Bible says, without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness of sin. There is no remission of sin.
Jesus shed the blood once and for all, it says in Hebrews.
He shed it once and for all. He shed it one time for all of
God's church. All of God's elect, appointed,
chosen heirs of grace throughout the time of eternity. And they
are all paid for lock, stock and barrel. And Jesus Christ
with His blood, He stamped on the very throne desk of God,
paid in full by my blood, signed Jesus Christ. And we are paid
for and bought with a price. And therefore to Him be the glory
and praise and honor forever and ever. Because He's worthy. Because He's the way, He's the
truth, and He's the life. And though we have hardships
before us maybe to be faced, yet let not your heart be troubled.
If you believe in God, believe also in me. May that be the blessing
of God upon each one of us here today, that when we're discouraged,
when we're faced with hard times, May we be blessed to call upon
God and lay hold upon Christ as the anchor of our soul. Would
you pray with me as we close? Our gracious God and our Father,
in Jesus wonderful and holy name, I thank thee for thy word, for
thy word is truth. and thy word expresses to us
the person that is truth, even Jesus Christ. And so, Father,
we thank you, Lord, for his wondrous works of love and grace and mercy
towards us. undeserving and needy sinners
by going and paying the ultimate price on Calvary's cross to save
and redeem us from the curse of sin. To grant to us that blessed
hope and peace of mind that immortality is ours to claim because of Jesus
Christ. Because of his resurrection we
also shall be likened unto him in that glorious day. Bless us,
O God, as we continue, as we fellowship together in the moments
to come. Lord, help us to be mindful,
Lord, of those who are sick and afflicted. Help us, Lord, to
go to our places of abode at the conclusion of this meeting
day with safety and by divine watch care. This we pray in Jesus'
name. Amen.