Give thy word success and the people blessed. Go back to Revelation 1 with me. You know, Paul is the one who said, thanks be unto God always causes us to triumph. Always. Word of God does not return void. Accomplishes what he sends it to. Savior of life to life. Death to death. But, and he said, who's sufficient for these things? But Paul's also the one who said to the Galatians and the Corinthians and others, I'm afraid for you, I fear for you. He did. So, may the Lord open our ears and hearts this morning. Revelation 1, look at verses 1 through 3 again.

The revelation, singular, of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, He is the revealed will, heart, mind, purpose of God, isn't it? Word. To show unto his servant, not everybody, but his servant, things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified, confirmed them by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of what? The word of God. and of the testimony, the gospel of Jesus Christ and all things that he saw. And look at this, this is our text and the subject blessed, blessed is he that readeth.

And they that hear the words of this prophet, hear it preached and keep Keep means lay hold of as something precious, something you don't want to let go. Like Jacob laid hold of Christ, didn't he? He said, I will not let you go until you bless me. Keep means to guard from loss. You don't want to sell it, give it away, lose it, let it slip. Don't want to. Blessed are they that keep those things which are written Therein, the book, written in the book, times at hand.

The book, the book. Look quickly at the last chapter of Revelation, the very last. It begins with the book, doesn't it? He ends with the book. You have it, Revelation 22, verse 18. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. Read on. If any man take away from the prophecy of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book.

This book you have in your lap is no mere book. This is the Word of God. This is a message to declare God's Word, not prove it. God does not prove himself to people. He reveals himself. And how's he do it? What I'm doing right now. This is it. Preaching the Word.

This is a message from this blessed book, written by our blessed Father, our God, about the author and subject of the book, and of salvation, of faith. A message I hope and pray to glorify God for this blessed book, and his blessed son, and his blessed gospel. A message to show us the blessedness of this book, to read it. We're so blessed to read it.

You know how few people read this book? People have Bibles, most of them aren't the authentic, true Bible, many perversions of it. They take away the offense, they take away the message. We're so blessed to read this book, the book, the authentic, true word of God. Blessed to read it, blessed to hear it. The Ethiopian eunuch said, how can I understand this unless some man show me? We're blessed to hear it.

Those people in Nehemiah's day in Israel, they heard these preachers stand up and give the sense of the reading. And they all wept and cried at the same time. They understood the words of the book. They wanted to hear it. They told them, stand up. They made a pulpit to get behind the show. Are you reading the book? Right? That's what they did. And that was what a pulpit's for.

It's not to display the man. and not for you to see Him, but to show you I'm reading from the book. Well, what's the subject of the book? And we'll get to that real quickly. But I want you to see the blessedness of reading this book, of having a man stand up and preach this book, not man's words, not man's thoughts, not a Sunday school quarterly. The book, Timothy.

Preach the word, words of life, the word of God. This is God's, it's called Biblia, means book in Greek. I hate seeing these titles like the Bible about building motorcycles. There's a Bible about this, a Bible of that. I hate that. This is the Bible. That means the book. You know we don't need any other book. We really don't. We really don't.

The whole mind, the counsel, the will, the purpose, the beginning, the middle, the end, the future, right here. We got the first chapter, we got the last. We got the beginning, we got the end. We got the reason, the purpose, the reason for all. Why this? Why that? Right here is the will of God. Oh, a message I hope to show us the blessedness of reading, hearing, knowing, believing God's Word. A message to exhort us all to read it. Put other things down. Put it down. Start reading. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Know it.

And a message to exhort us to hear it. To hear it preached. This is what God has chosen. The world calls it foolishness. Those that believe, those who know, Experience the power of the gospel over and over again. You know, this is the wisdom of God and the power of God in preaching his word. You're glad for it. You love it. No, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, but that the excellency of the power might be of God might be clearly shown that, you know, that, that wasn't a man speaking to me today.

That was God through his word. A message to exhort us to continue in the Word. Be not moved away from the Gospel, literally. Our only hope. A message, if by the grace of God He'll do this for us, the Spirit of God, to see Christ. That Christ, brothers and sisters, this is not a slogan.

This is not just a verse, Colossians 3.11. This is the truth in a nutshell. In three words, Christ is all. He really is. All what? Name something. Anything. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Anything, everything you really need to know. You're poor if you don't have Him. You're rich if you do. He hath the Son hath the life. If you don't have Christ, I don't care what life you're living, rich and famous, you don't have life. You'll die without Christ. Christ is all. This message, I hope, will show us that Christ is all and in all this book. The substance of this book. All right, who wrote this book? Who wrote this book?

And listen to me. Listen to me now. Do not argue with people that don't believe this is God's Word. Don't do it. How do you know this is God's Word? I don't believe this is God's Word. Don't argue with them. You're casting your pearls before swine. How do you know this is God's Word? You know it's God's Word, don't you? Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 1. You know it's God's Word.

Why? Flesh and blood didn't reveal it to you, but the Father did. It's revealed unto you. It's His voice. Not just a book. It's His voice. It's how He speaks. Don't argue with people. You bring God down when you do that. Trying to convince sinners? Trying to convince creatures there's a Creator? Trying to tell blind people? Now can't you see?

Don't do that. If anything, just give them a word. Thus saith the Lord. And leave. Don't argue. Who wrote this book? God did. You say, but men didn't. Hold on a minute. 2 Peter 1. You need to know these scriptures. Verse 20. Know this first. See this?

First thing you need to know is this is God's Word. No prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation. No man sat down and said, I'm gonna write a book. But prophecy, verse 21, came in old time, not by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

And you know it's so. You know it's so. When you read these things, you read from Genesis to Revelation, 66 books written by 40 different men, most of them didn't know each other, they did not collaborate, they didn't compare their stories over a period of 1,500 years, and it tells the same story. Every single one of the same person. If I hollered, so be it.

You're so blessed to know that this book is the book of Jesus Christ. How do you know that? God revealed it unto you by His Spirit. How? Through the preaching of the Word. The Word made flesh and dwelt among us. This book is Jesus Christ from cover to cover. Hebrews 1 in the beginning. It's sundry times, and divers' manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Who wrote the Bible? Revelation 1, you read it with me. The Lord said, write this down, didn't it? And these men, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, they just took dictation. Remember Jeremiah, I've started reading through that again. The Lord told Jeremiah, write this book down, write it down.

He said, in the first chapter, he said, everybody's going to be against you. They're going to hate you. That's what he said. They're going to be against you. But he went on through, I have a remnant, a small remnant, they're going to hear you. This is my word. Why do men hate the Bible? Because they hate God by nature. They really do. Who wrote the Bible? God wrote the Bible. Christ wrote the Bible. What's the Bible all about?

About what? About who? Who? whom, Paul, over and over again, whom we preach, whom, unto him who loved us and watched us from, unto him, who, who, who. Our Lord said this, he said, you search the scripture, he was talking to those Pharisees, you search the scripture, you do read the Bible, describes Supposedly, Pharisees too, supposedly could quote whole books of the Old Testament, verse by verse. I know Brother David Edmondson was telling me about a man that could do that very thing, that he could quote, if not whole Bible, the New Testament, word for word, verse by verse, tell you every word.

But David said, that man didn't know God. Our Lord said to those Pharisees, you search the scripture, and in them you think you have life, or that is, you think this is the way of life, this is how we should live, to have life. He said, but they are they which testify of me, he said, Christ said. Me, this book is about me, Christ said. Moses, and they got angry when he said this, Moses wrote of me. He said, you're not yet 50 years old. Abraham, you don't know Abraham. He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.

Moses wrote of me. Christ himself said, this book is about me. That's why God wrote it. What's the Bible all about? 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, look over there, 1 Peter 1. What's the Bible all about? 1 Peter 1, cover to cover. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to redeem his people from their sin. 1 Peter 1, look at verse 23. And this is how we're born again. This is how we know God and know Christ and believe Being born again, not of corruptible seed, that is flesh, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

The word of God, the book is living. Yes, it's a person. Christ said, my sheep hear my voice. Read on, flesh is grass, the glory of man, the flower of grass, the grass wither, the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. The word of the Lord. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The Bible is about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, second person of the Trinity is the Bible. He is the Word of God made flesh. He said, Moses wrote of me. Paul said to him, give all the prophets witness. Revelation 1, go back there. Revelation 1, our text. Look at verse 8. You have it? Revelation 1, verse 8.

He says, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and was and which is to come, the Almighty. The beginning and ending, the alpha and omega, that's the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and everything in between. The beginning and the ending, all right? Now I want you to turn with me to Genesis 1. Christ said, I'm the beginning and the ending, didn't he? How does a Bible begin? In the beginning. Christ said, I am the beginning Well, he didn't exist before. I am the beginning and the end. What's the last verse in the Bible? Revelation 22, 22. You say it's just 21 verses. You didn't keep reading. And the translators didn't add this verse, but it says at the bottom of the page, the end.

Christ is the beginning and the end and the reason for this book. Genesis 1, look at that, look at this, Genesis 1, this is glorious. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Who did? God did.

Listen to John 1. Isn't it significant? that these books begin and end with, John, I went through the whole New Testament, beginning and ending, and it all, every single book begins with Christ and ends with Him, every single one of them. Isn't it something that like John 1 begins where? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God when? In the beginning.

And the Word was God, The same, what did Christ say? What did Hebrews 13, eight say? Jesus Christ, the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is God, our creator. He's the only God that men have ever seen or ever will see, Jesus Christ. He's very God of very God, equal with the Father. In the beginning God, God. Look at it, all things were made by him.

Verse four, in him was life, the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness. Genesis one. Go back there, you have it, stay there. Genesis 1 verse 2 the earth was without form and void Darkness upon the face of the deep the Spirit of God What does the Spirit of God do? What did Christ say in John 14 John 16? He'll take the things of mine and show them my dear The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light.

And there was light. And God saw the light. This is good. And divided the light from the darkness. Read on, verse five. And God called the light day. The day spring. The bright and morning star. What's that? It's a person. A person. The light was day.

John 1, you have that? Stay with me in Genesis 1 and John 1. You have it? This is why we cut the services down so I can give you everything I've got in one message, okay? This is glorious. It's Him. It's about Him. Look at John one, verse four. In him was life, the life was the light of man, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Look at verse six. There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light. Any man who's sent of God, who's a witness sent by God, what's he doing? He's bearing witness of the light. John said, I was there in this Lord's day for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, to preach Christ. That's how you know a man sent by God. Verse eight, he was not that light, sent to bear witness of that light, capital L. See that? He, Christ, is the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Verse 14, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Oh, I could keep reading. The law, verse 17, given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That light, true light.

Christ said this, I am the light of the world. Didn't Him? Christ said this in chapter three of John. He said, this is condemnation. that light is coming to the world, but men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil. That's what this book says about man.

You know, the entrance of thy word giveth light. The light shineth in darkness to dispel, to expose, dispel the darkness and show things as they really are. You know, we bought these lights. I changed all these bulbs and got these bulbs. And they offer you soft light, low light, room light, and then daylight, that's it. Natural light. Well, I bought daylight. I want it to be daylight.

This is not even close. You know, you really can't tell what something really looks like, the color of it. Let's go out there. You know that? I've been in a paint store before and see the chips. And I take it to the sunlight. Oh, there it is. That's not what I wanted.

And you go in the light of God's word, exposes everything about man. What does it say about man? Their deeds are evil. But everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be reproved. But he that doeth truth believeth the truth, believeth on the Lord Jesus, cometh to the light. Expose me, break me, teach me. I'm blind. What do you want, Bartimaeus? I want to see. What do you want, leper? Clean. There's one.

Christ said, I am the light of the world. Back in Genesis 1, the Lord said, let there be light. Why was there light? The Lord said. The Lord spoke, didn't He? The Lord spoke. Who spoke? Who was that spoke in Genesis 1? Christ. He's the Word of God. Let there be light. You know what happened to many of you in here? God, who in sundry times and diverse manners spake unto the fathers by the prophet, hath in these last days spoken to us by the gospel. And as God said, let there be light, he shined in your hearts to give the light, the knowledge, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I never get tired of quoting that verse. I hope you never get tired of hearing that. If He's truly done that for you, you ought to be so grateful. Tell it again, preacher. I believe that's what He's done for me. I believe He's opened my dark heart, my dark eyes, my blind eyes, my deaf ears. I believe I've heard His voice. Tell me again. I want to know that I want to hear it. Come to the light. This is how you know people haven't seen the light. The Lord hasn't spoke to them. They go places where Christ does not preach. Christ is not all. They do other things.

Right? You know it's so. Entertained me. Barnard used to say, they're entertaining Christians on the road to hell. Oh, but those who've seen a great light, Paul, he said, after seeing Christ, he said, I'm determined not to know anything among you, said Jesus Christ. Oh, man. Look at Colossians 1. I told you to read Revelation 1 and Colossians 1, didn't I? Did you? Colossians 1, look at this.

Here's the gospel. Here's the light of the gospel. Spirit of God, those born of the Spirit, born of His Word. God says, let there be light. Look at Colossians 1 with me. Look at verse 5. Three, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. That's what a true man of God does. That's what he does, always.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love you have to all the saints, and the hope, which is faith, hope, and love, what's the greatest? Whereof, verse five, you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, you heard this. Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it does in you, since the day you heard of it." You heard it. Faith cometh by hearing. How shall they hear without a preacher? What did you hear? Verse 6. The grace of God in truth. What's that? It's not even a what, it's a who, it's a person.

Christ is the truth. Christ is the grace of God. Christ is the salvation of God. Christ is acceptance of God. Christ is our righteous. Christ is our righteousness, sanctification from death. Christ is our pain. Christ is our hope. Christ is our life. Christ is the love of God. Christ, Christ, Christ.

Is that all you preach? Yes, yes, yes. That's all that's in this book. That's what this book's about. Isaiah 8, 20, I was going to have you turn there. It says, to the law and to the testimony. That's the law and the gospel. If they speak not according to my word, there's no light in them. What's his word according to? Christ! Let them go to peeping wizards, he says.

And in that chapter 8 he says you look to the world and you go to these preachers that preach about the world and the world hears them. What does it produce in you? Anguish and dimness and darkness and vexation, doesn't it? But then in chapter 9 it says some of those blessed people, some of those people are blessed, that walked in darkness have seen a great light. How did they see it?

A preacher stood up and preached Christ's light. Just like Saul of Tarsus. You say, Saul didn't hear a preacher. Yes, he did. He heard Jesus Christ himself. And then God sent Ananias. He said Ananias' first message of Saul of Tarsus was, God hath chosen you. Elect! Can you preach the gospel without preaching that? No! Any other gospel It doesn't, it's not the gospels of perversion. It begins with the election of God. And it begins and ends with Jesus Christ and everything else in between. Of him, to him, through him, by him, for him, what, how much? All things.

Aren't you glad? Those that have come to the light are so glad. They've seen the darkness of their heart, the depth of their sins, their depravity, their hopelessness, their helplessness, their inability, their total sin. Give me Christ or I'll die. Isn't that right? And brothers and sisters, it's more desperate now than ever. It is. We're like the children of Israel. Right on the precipice. Right on the... Bonnie, we're on the brink of Jordan. We're a people on the brink.

And if God doesn't part those waters and have that ark go across there, if we don't look to Christ's ark, we're not going to make it over. But everybody, you want to hear that message again? Every single person that looked to that ark, which is a picture of Jesus Christ, every single one of those people crossed, passed, clean over! They made it to the other side. How? The ark! Men holding up the ark, holding up Christ.

Look! Don't turn your eyes over here. Look at that, that looks good. It ain't good, it's a deception. It's darkness. Don't look, don't leave. Keep looking. Keep holding fast. Are you rejoicing in this? The beginning of your confidence was looking to Christ. It's the end of your confidence. He's the end of your confidence. Do you rejoice that He's your hope, your salvation? Do you rejoice in Him? If you're a sinner, you do. You are a sinner, I'm here to tell you. I'm here to tell you. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner.

The only way we're going to make it is by Jesus Christ. Us and our children, they've got to hear this gospel. Do you understand that? Settle down, preachers. The zeal of this house eats me up. A burden. If I don't preach like this, get another preacher. Honestly. I don't want to preach your head. I want to preach your heart. What shall I preach? Christ.

That's all. It really is. All this other stuff is vanity. Oh, I know, brothers and sisters, I know you young people, you've got a life to live in this world, I know that. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And after that, nothing else matters. It doesn't matter if you're a garbage man or whatever it is, it doesn't matter if you know Christ. I had my best friend die in my arm at 15 years old. Nothing else matters. Did he know the Lord? That's all that matters. You know that? It really is. Christ is all. This book, the first and last in the middle, This is a hidden book, you know that?

Look at Malachi. It's about in the middle. It's between the Old Testament and New Testament in Malachi. What's Malachi about? What's Exodus about? It's all about Christ. Look at Malachi chapter four. Look at Malachi four, right before the New Testament.

You have it? Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven. Didn't we read that in Revelation 1? Didn't we read that? Feet like brass that burned in a furnace. Why are his feet like brass that burned in a furnace? Do you ever remember Christ being in a furnace?

That's Daniel. That's Christ. He's in Daniel. Ezekiel. Hosea. Malachi, it shall burn as an oven, the proud, and they that do wickedness shall be stubble. The day, the day that cometh shall burn them up, shall the Lord, saith the Lord of hosts, leave them neither fruit nor bran, but unto you that fear my name, read on, unto you that fear my name shall the Son, capital S, of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and you'll go forth and grow up as calves of the stall."

That's the middle of the book. Look at the next page. What's the next page? What's the next page? Matthew 1. By the way, people, I ripped out that. Do you have a dividing page? Take it out. I ripped it out of there. There's no division here, Kelly. The son of righteousness, the very next chapter says the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. Begins with him and it ends with Christ saying, I'm with you to the end of the world. He's this book. Christ is this book. If you don't see the book in the book, you've missed the book. If you don't know the word in the word, you've missed the word, the meaning of the word.

The generation, the generation, that's Genesis 1. In the beginning God created. He's the creator. He's the giver of life. Life, he that hath the son hath life. The generation. This book is a hidden book. It's hidden. In Isaiah 6, what's Isaiah 6 about? Hmm?

Isaiah said, And the day that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple, and the angel cherub said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. That's Jesus Christ. And the Lord told Isaiah, write this down, write it down, but go and shut the people's eyes and shut their ears, let's say here with their ear, and be converted. I said, shut their ears, shut their eyes, close their, hide it from them. That's what he said.

Doesn't God want everybody to know? No. God doesn't want anything. You understand that? God's not trying to save anybody, not trying to get people to listen to him, is he? And the only way anybody's gonna listen to him is if God says, let there be light. Right? Didn't plead with people, didn't ask people, won't you, won't you, won't you, won't you? Did he do that when he made the worlds? I sure hope the sun will cooperate with me. There was no sun. There was no light.

And you hath he quickened who were dead, and you who were in darkness even as others. He passed from darkness to light, from death to light, because God said, let there be light. See how blessed? This book's hidden, Isaiah 6. It's hidden. He said, close their eyes, shut their ears. He said, our Lord was walking along one time, Matthew 11. He was walking along, and he rejoiced in spirit. And he said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wide and prudent, and revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight.

Do you understand how blessed you are? Peter, Simon, Lord, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. Who do you say that I am? Christ, I chose you. This book's a hidden book. To whom is the arm of the Lord what? Revealed. Let me close with this. Are you still in Malachi, anybody? Look at Malachi three. Look at verse 16.

And they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. He said, they'll be mine, saith the Lord, in the day I make up my Jew, I'll spare them. As a man spareth his own son, it serveth him. Where does fear of the Lord come from? The Lord. The beginning of wisdom. And they that Harkin and they that spake often one to know that means assembled together The Lord heard and he wrote a book of remembrance and we had a whole message on it What is the book to remind us about?

What did our Lord say that but the table was all man this do in remembrance of me It's all about him And the Lord keeps opening these things to those that are his sons that he's gonna spare in the end, he keeps revealing and revealing and revealing that he that hath more will be given. And he that hath not, what, the son, will be taken away, even that what he has. You understand that? I know you do. You understand? So don't let these things slip.

Don't take away from me keep Don't take us away from and I close with this first Corinthians one such a wonderful wonderful Declaration of the gospel and first Corinthians one which is Christ crucified First Corinthians one and I close with this I promise I close And I won't open my mouth till Wednesday But brothers and sisters though, it's my mouth and I hate myself. That everything I'm telling you is good. Words of life. It's from this book. It's about him.

Pointing you to Christ, that's all I've done this morning. First Corinthians one, Paul said in verse 17, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of word, not high-sounding oratory, not intellectual speech, not preaching to the head or the heart. Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. What it took to save a sinner like you and me was a bloody death of Jesus Christ. A substitutionary death. Nothing more, nothing less will save us. So that's what we preach on who. He says, where's the wise scribe? Verse 19, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the dispute of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Hath He not? Do you not see that? Has God given you an understanding, some wisdom from above that you see that all of this stuff is foolishness, science falsely so-called, religion especially, Todd. Do you not see religion as a pack of foolishness? Foolish men preaching to a bunch of foolish people are fooled by their foolishness. But the gospel's not foolishness, is it?

It's the wisdom of God and the power of God. Because it's about the Son of God. He's not just Jesus standing outside trying to do anything. He's the Lord of glory. Doing as He will, with whom He will, because He will. And if you know Him, it's because He willed for you to know Him. Bless His holy name. This is the God of Scripture. This is the Christ of Scripture. This is what happens when He saves a sinner.

Here, He says, you won't until He says it. Come, you won't come until He says come. This ain't doctrine, it's life. We preach Christ, verse 23, crucified. Not just Jesus, Jesus Christ in him crucified. That's why he came, you understand. He came to die on a cross as a substitute for his people's sins, the soul that sins shall surely die. That ain't just a slogan to get people to make a profession. This is the whole sum and substance of this book. Why Christ came. Died according to the scriptures for our sins.

Crucified. Jews a stumbling block. Well, you're getting in the way of our law keeping. You're not saved by the law. Do you understand that? It's impossible. In fact, salvation is completely impossible with man. Under the Greeks, it's foolishness. No, we can figure this out. No, you can't. You can't understand one word of this book unless God gives you an understanding.

We know the Son of God has come, John says. He's given us an understanding. He said, we're of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. He said, they're of the world and we speak of the world and that's who the world wants to hear. But He is of God, heareth us. What are you saying, John? Him! And you got anything else to say, Preacher? No! You see your calling, brethren? Verse 26. Not many wise men out of the flesh, not many mighty.

Where are the doctors? Where are the lawyers? Where are the politicians? Where's the governor? Where's the mayor? Where are they? They're at the Trinity Ecumenical or the Holy Catholic St. Francis at Sissy. That's where they get, that's where they sit. God's people in the church where Christ is praised.

You see you're calling God has chosen foolish things, confound the wise, weak things, confound the mighty, base things of the world. Listen, stay with me now. Not me, this is God's Word. Things that are despised hath God chosen. They despised Jesus Christ, didn't they? Things that are not, you're a nobody from nowhere. That's the only kind of people God saves. Things are not, why?

That no flesh should glory in his presence. Here's the difference between the truth and all error. God gets all the glory. No flesh. We worship God in spirit, rejoice in Jesus Christ, no confidence in the flesh. Not yours, not mine, not anything about man, none. All our confidence is in one place, one person, Jesus Christ.

Read on, this is it, here's the gospel right here. But, don't you love the buts? But of him. My daughter was about three or four years old, coming home from church, and she asked my wife this question. She said, Mom, She said, to be saved is to be in Christ. She said, how do you get in Christ? Can you answer that? Right here it is. Of Him, God, are you in Christ? You didn't put yourself there. You didn't make a decision. If you did, you made the wrong decision, you have the wrong God, you're not yet saved. You need to ditch that and ask the Lord to reveal himself to you. Of God, are you in Christ Jesus? What's that mean? It means everything. It's all your salvation because he's made unto you. John, do you love this? He's made unto you all you need. Everything you need.

Wisdom. I don't know God. I can't get to God. I don't know the way of God. Christ is wisdom. The wisdom, righteousness, gotta be as holy as God and be with God. How? Christ is made in righteousness, made sin for us. and knew no sin that we might be made the righteous of God. Sanctification, set apart, consecrated, dedicated, set apart for the use of God, the glory of God, for the glorification of God, set apart. You don't do that to yourself. You don't sanctify yourself.

No, no, no. By one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. and redemption. He redeems our life from destruction. Almighty love, arrest that man. That man in the pit, see that prodigal in the hog pen, deliver him. I found a ransom. It's Jesus Christ. Let him go free. May him go free. Christ said, take me. That's the only way anybody's ever said. Okay, John, come and lead us number 172.