I invite you this morning to
turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. I have but one goal this morning, one mission, one mark to strive for, and that
is to preach to you the unsearchable riches of Christ. I don't care anything at all
about building a name for myself or a big church, or as far as
that goes, to fill all the pews. I've just got one goal, and that
is for those that God has gathered before me today to preach to
you the unsearchable riches of Christ. The scripture says, in
Him, our Head, Hid from who? Hid from the world. In him are hid all of the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. There is wisdom and knowledge
that is a treasure. You say, well, I know a lot of
people who are wise. Yeah, they're wise and prudent,
and God hid these things from them and revealed it unto babes.
I'm talking about the treasures of wisdom and the treasures of
knowledge. There's treasures there. Treasures
to be discovered. There was treasures, he said,
hid in the field, didn't he? And if a man ever finds them,
he'd buy the whole field. He knows what's in it. If I thought entertainment would
do you any good, I'd do my best to entertain you. I'd tell you
some jokes and entertain you best I could. Or if I couldn't,
I'd go hire somebody. Let them come in and entertain
you. If I thought philosophy would do you any good, I'd counsel
you every waking minute. Every time you had a question,
I'd run over to your house and answer it. If I thought supernatural
gifts and evidences would contribute to your faith, I'd spend the
rest of my life seeking those things, trying to get them. Trying
to get them. But the truth of the matter is
that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And so that's where I'm going
to put my efforts. I know these other things please
men. Sure they do. I used to love
it. I'd pack up my guitar. I couldn't
hardly wait for a Wednesday night or a revival to start or a church
to visit. And I got to be friends with
some of the other singers. And we'd go around to these churches
and play our guitars and things. But that pleased me, but it didn't
please God. And see, that's the thing. It
pleased God through the foolishness of preaching. to save them that
believe. Be honest with you, most folks
don't like it at all. It's distasteful to them. Now
it's not the preaching of foolishness, but the foolishness of preaching.
Why would Paul, who thought so highly of preaching, refer to
it as foolishness? Well, he uses that term foolishness
in light of the fact that the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness. He already said that before he
gets down to this verse. It's in light of the fact that
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
because they're foolishness unto him. There's nothing foolish about
preaching But the foolishness of preaching that he refers to
is how men receive it. And that's what it pleased God
to do. To bring this message in a form that displeases rebels. And what men call foolishness,
God calls the power and wisdom of God. My text this morning
here in Acts is a classic example of the preaching of the gospel.
and the power and wisdom of God being demonstrated in the hearts
of chosen sinners. The Apostle Paul was raised in
strict legalism. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee.
He was raised in strict ceremonialism. They had all these holy days
and feasts and all these things, and boy, you didn't miss one
either. They were very strict in it. And he was raised in works
salvation. He was a Jew and a Pharisee and
his zeal for his religion exceeded all. What do I mean by legalism? I use that term a lot. What do
I mean by that? I mean that he believed that
he could produce a personal righteousness acceptable to God by his obedience
to the law. That's legalism. And this is the foundation and
the core of all works religion. They believe that they can produce
a righteousness to make themselves acceptable to God. Now, this is how Satan twists
things because man is in such a state that he understands because
of his conscience that he is not right now pleasing to God.
But then he He indwells his preachers, Satan's ministers. They're preachers
of righteousness, self-righteousness. And they appeal to the sinner
and they say, you know what you're doing is not right. Here's what
you need to do to get right. And then he convinces them, you
need to keep the law. That rich young ruler came to
Christ and he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And he said, well, Here's what you do, you keep the law. Oh, all this have I done from
my youth up. Yeah, he was raised in legalism.
And he thought he had kept the law. There's only one who ever
kept the law, and that's Christ. He tells us plainly that if you
breach The first commandment, you're guilty of the whole law,
because all these other laws are dependent on your love for
God. You don't commit adultery because
you love God. You don't want to dishonor His
name. And so on and so on all the way through, all the law. How do I know this is what Paul
believed? Well, he prays after his conversion for his kinsfolk,
those that he was raised with, these Pharisees and these Jews.
And here's what he said. They, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Now what do I mean by ceremonialism? I mean a strict adherence to
ceremonial rituals, customs, feast days, Good Friday. Is there anybody, I'm going to
get base this morning, is there anybody in here stupid enough
to not eat meat on Friday? If you adhere to that, you'll
be ashamed of yourselves. Need to read the Bible. That's ceremonialism, Christmas,
Easter. Oh, my soul, if you don't put
a wreath or something out, you're ungodly. That's how the community
looks on you. That's ceremonialism. If you
don't go to church on Easter, you're a reprobate. Now you can
get away with it all rest of the year, but Easter morning
you better be here with a hat on and a new suit of clothes.
Huh? That's ceremonialism. That's
what it is. We say it's ridiculous. That's
what our Lord said. It was ridiculous. And he exposed it. The scripture
says, Christ blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us and contrary to us and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross. We say there was nothing nailed
to that cross except Him. Exactly. And He is the fulfillment
of all of those things. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of every ceremonial ordinance day, year, and week. And we're
to let no man judge us in meat or drink or in respect of a holy
day, new moons or Sabbath days. These were but shadows of the
body of Christ. That's what he tells us. Salvation
is not by doing, it's by faith. It's not the reward of good works,
but the free gift of grace to chosen sinners. Isn't that what the scripture says?
By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Now this morning I've got several
things I want you to see in this chapter that have to do with
the faith of God's elect. And the first thing I want to
point out is the providence of God that brings his gospel to
whomsoever he pleases. Paul tells us in Acts 13, 26,
men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham and whosoever
among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation
sent. In other words, every man sitting
in this synagogue, that's what he's telling them. I can see
Paul, that little skinny thing with his finger out. Every man
in this place today, this word is sent to you. If you're here
this morning and you're under the sound of my voice, I can
say without hesitation, to you is this word sent. Who sent it? God did. How should they preach
except they be sent? God sent it. Who did he send
it to? To those he gathers to hear it. Men are accountable. for what
they hear and what they could have heard but wouldn't. I met a black preacher this past
week, pastor of the church over close to Magnolia. When he found
out I was a preacher, he wanted to know where and where did I preach and what did
I believe. So I told him, I said, well,
our building now, I said, we used to be down there, and now
we're up here between Stamps. Oh, he said, I know that building.
He said, I went by there the other day and saw your name on
it. He said, I knew I knew your name. And he said, you're the
pastor of that church. I said, I am. He said, I've often
drove by there and wondered what you all believed and what you
preached. You're accountable for what you
hear and what you could have heard. It's here, it's right
out there on the side. When God sends his ambassador
into a city or town, they are responsible to preach his gospel
to all who will give him hearing. And to those who do, I can say
with Paul, to you is the word of this salvation sent. Now,
I don't know why he sent it. I don't know why. It may be sent
as the gracious means by which God will grant you the gift of
faith and repentance. Might be. That's how God gives
faith and repentance through the preaching of the gospel.
It may be sent for that reason or it may be to warn you to flee
the wrath to come. Whatever the reason, only God
knows that. If you're here this morning,
the word of the salvation is sent unto you. Now let me tell
you something. The gospel's not an invitation.
We've been told that in religion all our lives. All you gotta
do is turn the TV on, go to any one of those religious stations
on a satellite and listen to them. They'll preach a little
while and then they'll say, we invite you to do this and we
invite you to do that. It's not an invitation. It's an ultimatum. That's what
it is. Really? That's what he says.
It's an ultimatum. It is a statement of terms and
conditions for surrender and submission and carries with it
the most serious of consequences. sound like an ultimatum to me?
Go ye into all the world and preach my gospel. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. What about those who don't believe?
They shall be damned. Sound like an ultimatum to you?
That's what it is. In Acts 13.40 he said, Beware
therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the
prophets. Isaiah quotes this. Behold you despisers, who's that? That's all who wouldn't hear.
That's what he calls them, despisers. And wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. Either believeth not the Son,
shall not see light, but the wrath of God abideth on him. The gospel, my friend, demands
your attention. I know when I was a kid I liked
to work crossword puzzles or anything rather than listen to
that man in the pulpit. But the gospel demands your attention. On to you, Peter said, is this
gospel that these old prophets searched for diligently and couldn't
understand the spirit of Christ that was in them that was testifying
of all these things. They couldn't understand when
it was and to whom it was and all these things. To you is this
gospel preached by those who are accompanied with the Holy
Spirit. Wherefore, he said, now listen
to this, gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. He's not talking about
not drinking here. He's talking about being sober.
Give attention to what's being said. And hope to the end for
the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. God may just reveal Christ to
you. So you gird up the loins of your
mind and you'd be sober and pay attention. Isn't that what he's
saying now? The gospel demands your attention
and the gospel demands response. Do what? Well you don't believe
that preacher. Oh yes I do too. It demands. It's a commandment. And it demands
a response. And there's only two responses.
When a man hears the gospel, he'll believe it or he won't. He'll submit to it or he'll reject
it. You'll either receive this gospel
or throw it down, one or the other. There is no middle ground
when the gospel is preached. The Bible said, God now. He uses that word N-O-W. Now, this is over in Acts chapter
17, God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. He didn't
say pretty please. Huh? We're talking about the
Lord of glory. We're talking about God himself. He commands us to repent. Turn
from yourself and turn from this present evil world the gospel is god's testimony
and therefore it demands faith now i'm going to tell you something,
you're either going to submit yourself to god's authority or
you're going to defy the living god, one or the other he that believeth not he that
believeth not god have made him a liar. Isn't that right? And
I'll tell you something else. The gospel demands surrender. Surrender. What's that mean? I give up. That's what that means. You're hiding that hideout as
long as you can and the sheriff's out there and he got you surrounded
with apostasy and you peek out that window and you see that
there's no hope for you. What do you do? Throw down that
pop gun and say, I give up. You surrender. You surrender. The natural man
is a child of wrath. He's a rebel. He's a rebel to
God. His mind is enmity against God. He's not subject to the law of
God. That is, he's not subject to
God's authority. Every word God speaks is law, isn't it? And it demands obedience because
God spoke it. But the natural man, his mind
is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God, and to be carnally minded is death. When the gospel comes in power
to such a one, it is an assault of God. The preaching of the
gospel is not a man begging you to do something. The preaching
of the gospel is in your face. It's an assault. God takes His finger and He points
at you. I'm talking to you. It's an assault. It's in your
face. You do this or else. There's no middle ground. There's
no gray area. To be carnally minded is death.
Preachers are armed men according to the scriptures. They're armed. They have armor on. They carry
a sword. Paul said, the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal. What weapons? I didn't even know
we were at war. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. When the gospel is preached,
it's an assault. What do they intend to do? They
intend to tear down that stronghold. Whatever it is you're hiding
behind, that preacher needs to dissolve it through the preaching
of the gospel. He needs to tear it down. Well,
I just believe man has a free will. I'm going to try my best
to tear it down. I just believe salvation is by
decisionism. I'm going to try my best to tear
it down. Our weapons are spiritual. They're mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds. And gospel preaching is a full-on
frontal attack with the intent to rip apart a man's stronghold. He wants to tear it down. He
wants to render it useless. And gospel preaching also casts
down imaginations. You know what that word is, imaginations? That's idols that men build in
their mind and worship, practice idolatry in their imaginations. That's all that. And over there
where he condemned the world in Genesis chapter 6, it said,
God looked down from heaven and every thought, now listen, of
the imaginations of men was only evil continually. Their head
was filled with idolatry. That's right. Covetousness, which
is idolatry. Their head is filled with idolatry. Gospel preaching casts down the
imaginations, takes a pin and busts all the soap bubbles. It's
a full-on frontal assault. to tear them down, render them
useless, and listen to this, and to bring every thought to
the obedience of Christ, bow down. Isn't that what the preacher
says? Not to me, but to the one I represent,
bow down. The Bible said every knee gonna
bow. Things in heaven, things in earth,
things on the earth, every knee gonna bow. Question when? God works in your heart, you
bow now. If he don't, you'll bow then,
but you're gonna bow. Ain't that right? You reckon
David, when he conquered all his enemies, rode into town and
said, well, you can bow if you want to. No. No, he had men standing behind
those men of authority with a big sword, and they bowed. They bowed. They bowed or else. Isn't that
right? The gospel demands submission. And then secondly, our text tells
us plainly, through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. This man whom God set forth to
be the propitiation of our sins. This one who was foretold from
all the way back in Genesis chapter three and all the way throughout
the Old Testament, to him give all the prophets witness. That
through him whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sin. The entire Old Testament points
to this man. He holds the appointed offices
of mediator and savior, redeemer, representative and king. Man
don't hold any offices. God's done all he can do, now
it's all up to you. You don't hold any offices except
that of a convict. Huh? You reckon the warden down at
the prison comes in and addresses some of them men as governor?
I can't even picture that in my mind. Old rough men, scarred
and tattooed Dirty and mean. That's the only name you and
I hold. Convicts. You were sometime alienated,
Paul said, and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now
hath he reconciled. Who'd he reconcile? Enemies in
their mind. You were the servants of sin.
You ever look on yourself that way? This whole life before conversion,
you was a servant of sin. I don't care if you're a goody
two shoes or the biggest rebel we ever lived. Doesn't make any
difference. You were the servant of sin. You were the servant of sin.
But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered you. Being made free from sin, you
become the servants of righteousness. You hath he quickened who were
almost there. No, who were dead. You're trying to make religion
look ridiculous. I hope so. I'm trying my best. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sin by nature children of wrath even
as others. Salvation by faith comes by the
preaching of his ambassadors through the person and work of
Jesus Christ. He is the way. Isn't that what
he said? I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Are you listening? No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. And yet thousands bow their head
and say, Father, No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Well, we preached in your name,
and we done many wonderful work. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. He said to those Jews, those
legalistic Pharisees, he said, you neither know me nor my father.
And he said, as far as Abraham. He said, if you knew anything
about Abraham, you'd love me because Abraham rejoiced to see
my day and he saw it and was glad. Salvation by faith comes through
the preaching of the gospel and through the person and work of
Jesus Christ. By his perfect representative
obedience and his vicarious sufferings and death on the cross, He has
sanctified us once for all and perfected us forever. You still lack a little work
to make you acceptable before God? Then you don't know Christ.
Because in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
and you're complete in Him. Now he said kiss the son. Can you imagine being one of
them old rebels in Israel who hated David's guts? And David rides into town and
his generals say, now kiss the son. Kiss the son. Lest he be angry and you perish
when his anger is kindled just a little. Just a little. He hath reconciled us in the
body of His flesh through death to present us holy. Can you even look in the mirror
and say what you're looking at is holy? You can't do it. The only way you can see yourself
holy is to see yourself in Christ. But my friend and Him, we are.
Not only are we holy, but we're unblameable. And not only are
we unblameable, but we're unreprovable. We don't need touching up in
Christ. We're justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus through
faith in His blood. What's that mean? That means
that his death was set forth of God to be the propitiation
for our sins and that God saw the travail of his soul and was
satisfied. That his blood is sufficient
to put away your sins. Do you believe that? That his blood was sufficient
to put away our sins and at the same time declare God to be righteous
in his justification of us. Whatever knowledge we may gain, it comes through Him. No man
knoweth the Father, save the Son, and He to whom the Son will
reveal Him. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. We preach Christ and Him crucified
because there's nothing else that can do you any good. We say, you preach the same thing
every week. I hope so. These are the terms and conditions
of our surrender. You're going to surrender to
Him. You will acknowledge and submit
to these terms or die in your sins. You'll turn from the powers
that rule over you or be bound hand and foot and cast into hell. And you may not believe it, but
the battle that's being fought here today is not to destroy
you, but to save you from yourself. That's why we fight. He calls
it pulling brains out of the fire. They're already in there. They're already starting to burn.
Get them out. Get them out. Not being fought to destroy,
you're just trying to destroy me. No, I'm not trying to destroy
you. I'm trying to save you from yourself.
Isn't that what Peter said in that message at Pentecost? He
said, save yourselves from this untoward generation. And John said in Revelation 6-2,
he said, I saw a white horse And he that sat on him had a
bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth begging
folks to do what he wanted them to do. That ain't what it says.
He went forth conquering and to conquer. How do I know if God's gonna
work in me, he'll conquer you? Now, I'm gonna tell you something.
I've been in a few fights, and I know when I'm conquered. Don't
you? I may not know everything, but
when I'm down and can't do nothing, I'm going to give up. I'm conquered. What else am I going to do? Those
men stayed in there until there was nobody left but them. And they said, what have we got
to lose? Let's put a rope around our neck
and hold it up, and we'll just walk out. That's being conquered. Conquers. It's when you quit
fighting and you bow to the powers that be. Well, it is. He unhorsed Saul of Tarsus and
put his face in the dust. Oh, that old proud rebel. He
had his papers in one hand and a bridle in the other and he
was charging down the road. He was going to do a service
to God. He was going to kill every Christian
that lived. charging down that road. God
unhorsed that proud rebel and shoved his face in the dust. Paul said, what's going on? I can't see anything. Paul, hard
for you to kick against the bricks, ain't it? And He will unhorse us too if
His heart set on our salvation. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Now watch this, here's the third
thing. Faith comes by spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ our
Lord. I want you to listen close to
our text, Acts 13 verse 39. You might want to read it with
me. He says in verse 38, through this man has preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. You can be justified by him from
things that you could never be justified by the law of Moses.
Now watch this, 39, and by him, the same one that was preached
to you, by him all that believe are justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
one. Peter's talking over here in
this chapter about The gospel being preached unto us by men,
indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, accompanied by the power
of the Holy Spirit. And in particular, he's talking
about his preaching of our redemption in Christ. Verse 18, 1 Peter
chapter 1. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
now listen, who by him, do believe in God that raised him from the
dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be
in God. You see what Paul's saying back
there in Antioch when he preached to them? By him, all that believe,
by him, That's what Peter's saying here, who by him do believe in
God. I'm so sick of people talking
about some general faith with general reasons and general ends
that I can't understand myself. Just believe. They don't even know what it is to
believe. They don't know what faith is. Faith's not general,
faith is particular. It has to do with the saving
knowledge of God in Christ. Listen to this, 1 John 5, 20.
And we know that the Son of God is come and given us an understanding
that we may know Him that's true. That's what both Paul and Peter
are preaching. He sent His Son and in the sending
of His Son and in the accomplishing of His redemptive will, He's
given to us an understanding that we may know Him that's true
and that we're in Him that's true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ, and this is the true God and eternal life. So I'm telling you as clearly
as I know how that all this hour-walking, miracle-working, freewill decisionism
is absolute foolishness and it's an abomination before God. Don't
tolerate it, don't okay it, don't turn your back as though it's
okay. Tell them what it is. It's nonsense. Peter said, there shall be false
prophets among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and many shall follow their
pernicious ways, deadly, ruinous ways. by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of. Faith zeroes in on Christ
and through him learns the true and living God. Learns about
their salvation being of their Heavenly Father, a gift of God
before the world began. Learns of his eternal purpose
of grace and his well-beloved Son and the Holy Spirit who reveals
these things unto us and makes us able to believe them. Young girl wrote to me this week,
about 15, 16 years old. She sent me a text. And she said,
I think I'm losing my faith. If you can lose your faith, you
never had it. That's just true. You see, faith
didn't come because you had the ability to believe. It was given
unto you by God. man had leprosy. And he bowed
down there before Christ and he said, if you will, you can
make me clean. He said, I will. He walked away clean. You reckon
he got to be a leper the next week? No. Because he didn't cleanse himself,
God cleansed him. When God gives a man faith, right
after that verse that I quote so often to you, probably the
most quoted verse in all the scripture. By grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But we never look
at that next verse. And that next verse says, for
we are his workmanship. Oh, you mean God gave me faith,
yeah? And he maintains it. We're kept
by the power of God through faith. Isn't that right? God maintains
his faith. And though you believe not, though
you're filled with unbelief, yet he cannot deny himself. You could lose it if you wanted
to. But believers don't want to. We're not of them that draw
back under perdition. We're of them that believe to
the saving of the soul. Faith is a supernatural gift
of God. It's not something you conjure
up. It's the gift of God. Watch this. Here's the fourth
thing I want you to see. This faith is God's gift to his
elect. He's going to gather a house
full, but all his elect will believe. After Paul had preached and when
the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and religious
proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking unto
them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God, and the
next Sabbath day came almost the whole city out to hear it.
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and
they went around in the crowd and spoke against those things
which were spoken of by Paul contradicting and blaspheming
God. Paul and Barnabas waxed bold
and said, it's necessary that the word of God should have first
been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and that's
what I told you at the beginning of this message, you're either
going to bow to it, receive it, or you're going to put it from
you. You keep putting it from you,
and sooner or later, it'll quit getting put before you. Now I'm
telling you what I know. It was necessary that the Word
of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you
put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
and that's what a man does when he puts it from him, he said,
we're going to turn to the Gentiles. Verse 48. And when the Gentiles
heard this, when they understood that this
gospel was not just a gospel for the Jews but it was a gospel
for Gentile idolaters, rebels, sinners. When the Gentiles heard
this they were glad and they glorified the word of the Lord.
Now watch this. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Nobody else. Nobody else. Paul said to the church at Thessalonica,
we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. Who did he call?
His elect. If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. He said, I told you. You believe not, because you're
not my sheep. Years ago, I mean, this is going
back to my 20s, and I don't even want to think how far that was.
But many years ago, when my eldest daughter was about seven, I had
a contracting business. I had collected some money from
various accounts. I put on some roofs and framed
some houses. And one of those guys had paid
me in cash. And I just set the cash up on
my dresser. And I had the day off, so I was
sleeping in late. And I got up, went about my business,
and got a call from one of the teachers down at the school.
And she said, this may sound like a silly question, but did
you give your daughter permission to pass out $20 bills to her
classmates? And I said, no, ma'am, I didn't.
And she said, well, that's what she's doing. I said, we'll be
right there. But immediately, I realized that
she had seen this money on my dresser. And not understanding
the value of it or the purpose of it, simply took it and passed
it out to anybody and everybody that would take it. And this
is exactly what ignorant preachers do, not knowing the purpose of
God in Christ, nor the value of his person and work, nor the
intent of God of sending this gospel. They just ignorantly
pass him out to anybody who will take him. That's what they do. Why do they do it? Because they're
ignorant. They're ignorant. Paul said of his own people,
he says, they're being ignorant of God. They're ignorantly going
about to establish their own righteousness. They wouldn't
have done it if they knew better. How are they ever going to know
better? They have to be told. They have to be told.