So if you have your Bibles, Acts
chapter eight, verse 30, we will here pick up from where we left
off last week with Philip engaging now in his assignment with the
Ethiopian. And we saw last time that Philip
in obedience came to the Ethiopian and heard him reading as we find
it in verse 30, And he heard him read the prophet Isaiah and
said, do you understand what you are reading? And that would
be our fourth point in your outline. Do you understand what you are
reading? And it was there that we began
to develop some of the unique blessings that we discover in
the life of people that are serious about God. And last time I called
your attention to the gift of scripture. Do you guys remember
that? Under that point, I called your attention to the gift of
scripture. The proposition, do you understand
what you are reading, assumes that the man has the word of
God, right? It assumes that he has the scriptures. The word and he certainly does.
The Bible says that he was reading from the prophet Isaiah or Isaiah
in our English structure of it. The word therefore was already
given and that's something that you and I marked last time and
I want to address that now if I am providentially allowed to
run across someone who has a Bible And that individual is reading
the Bible and I'm a knowledgeable man in the grace of God. The
first thing I'm going to thank God for is giving us his word. I'm going to thank him for giving
that man, that woman, that people a Bible. And we learned last
week, just more on an apologetic level, that the Bible was given
to us by God. You guys remember that? Could
you defend that proposition if someone asks you, how do you
know? Why do you emphatically believe
that the Bible was given by God? Could you take them to a text
or two or three to affirm that? I'll let you work that through
in your own head. The challenge that the Christian
has is being able to demonstrate to people who are inquiring earnestly
why it is that you have confidence in God. And you and I talked
about this over a year ago about the danger of assuming something
that you and I should have already long ago established, right? The assumption that the Bible
is the Word of God is just that for some people, but for believers
who actually have the Bible, it should not be an assumption.
It should be a fact. You should be able to demonstrate
biblically that your Bible is the Word of God. Who remembers
one of the proof texts I gave last week as a very direct statement
on the part of the Word of God to attest to the origin of scripture? Who remembers it? Psalm 68 verse
what? 11. Look at it again. Psalm 68, 11. Listen to what
he says in Psalm 68 verse 11. This is a very important verse
because in the Old Testament, what it does is it gives us origin
of scripture. The Lord gave the word. Now again, just on an evangelical
level, when you are witnessing to people, when you are trying
to, um, influence them for the cause of Christ. One of the things
you and I have to be capable of doing is handling the scriptures.
If you and I want the precious souls of men and women to slip
out of our hands, be deficient, be careless, uh, be aimless in
your handling of the scriptures. If you want to see people like
fish jumping your net and then find a hole out of the net, Be
the man or the woman that's not close to scripture, that doesn't
read your Bible, that doesn't meditate upon your precepts,
that doesn't commit certain critical biblical texts to memory. You
and I know the awful feeling of someone asking us a question
about the word of God and we not being able to find the place
where that text is and how embarrassed we are when we say, I know it's
in there somewhere, right? In the area of evangelism, there
are some necessary requisites that are critical to influencing
people. And I've said this for years
in my early days of doing evangelism, that one area in which people
are watching you is to whether or not you are committed to the
very word that you want them to be committed to. If you are
not committed to your Bibles, do not expect anyone else to
be committed to your Bible. If you don't know your Bible
yourself, if you cannot accurately quote verses and take people
to Bible verses, forget telling people to believe the Bible when
you don't. Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against you, right? And so the scripture
tells us to meditate on his precepts day and night, Psalm 19, Psalm
1, right? And we are exhorted to know the
word that we should have the word of God dwelling richly in
us, as Colossians says. The people of God ought to be
constantly committed to not only memorization of scripture so
that we can actually bring it to mind audibly, but a proper
interpretation of it. That's what study is all about.
But if you're going to be a good witness to people, you want the
word of God to flow out of your mouth as Jesus said in the gospel
of Matthew, out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth what?
See, so here's what I mean by that. Not only do I wanna have
a good quality Bible in my hand, I wanna have the word of God
in my heart. Now, if I'm gonna have it in my heart, I'm gonna
have to treasure the word, because you can have it in your head
and not have it in your heart, okay? And what I mean by that
is, you can know it intellectually, but because you do not treasure
it, it will not be there to keep you or to use you in a time when
you should be used. But there's no one in here who
cannot learn a Bible verse or two. Cause you and I can memorize
all kinds of stuff. You know those old funky songs
we learned a hundred years ago, how they pop back up and you
can sing them word for word. So where that song came from?
It came from the old school love and longing and memorization
and burning that old LP up. Remember those LPs? You burned
them up. You played them until they got
scratches in them, and you were so upset because it got a scratch.
And then you learned it by heart. And you know what? To our grief,
a lot of that junk stays with us. Am I telling the truth? So ought the word of God be able
to have residence in our soul and to our joy stay with us. and come back up on its own at
the appropriate time to bear record to the truth that we intend
to tell someone. So the Lord gave the word, that
is the origin of scripture. Great was the company of those
that publish it. These are the authors of the
scripture from Moses all the way to John, the final book of
the revelation, 45 to 48 authors over a 1500 year, 1600 year period
gave us what we call the Bible. They published it, they declared
it, they proclaimed it, they wrote it down and it finally
got bound together in what we have now, the Old and New Testaments. That is a proof text for the
origin And compilation of scripture then 2nd Timothy 3 16 all scriptures
given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine reproof
correction and training and righteousness that the man of God the people
of God might be thoroughly furnished unto all good works and on and
on so what I am talking about is when people question and Today
the Bible is being questioned more fiercely today than ever
one has to be able to defend the Self-attesting claims of
scripture and then the efficacy of its power to actually do what
it's supposed to do So we are thankful that the Word of God
was given so that's not an argument It was given this Ethiopian is
reading the scripture in the scroll of Isaiah He has the text
in front of him. He is a hungry soul and now God
is sending a hungry servant A hungry servant is being sent to a hungry
soul who wants to know what the text which was given to him means. This is going to be a point and
grounds of salvation, is it not? All the material is there. The
hungry soul, the hungry servant, and the text of scripture. See, and we need the scripture
because salvation only comes through the word of God. Faith
comes by what? In hearing by what? That's right.
And then we also need the preacher, do we not? Because he must expound
the scriptures. This is the dilemma of our black
brother headed back to Ethiopia. He has the word of God, but he
does not have the gospel. And the gospel is contained in
the scriptures, but it's only brought out by someone who knows
the gospel. And this is the word, the scriptures
by which the gospel is preached unto you. First Peter chapter
one, verse 23 through 25. So it's one thing to have the
Bible. It's another thing to understand the message of the
Bible. And it's the message that saves. That's Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of Christ. Many of our, a manuscript, say
the word of Christ, meaning the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's
critical to the call. So the word was given. And then
we saw also that the gift of hunger is given. Is that true?
Not everybody's interested in God. Not everyone's interested
in the word of God, but some people are. And this Ethiopian
came a long ways to hear from God and God is gonna meet his
needs. So the hunger is there as we learned in Psalm 119 verses
20 through 40. And then the expositors, the next gift are not teachers
gifts, are not teachers gifts. The hunger is a gift. You remember
there was a day when you didn't hunger for the word of God. Hunger
is a gift. Some of you now are struggling
right now with not being hungry for the word of God. Teachers
are a gift. They are a gift from God. They
are there to help facilitate the hunger. This is the beauty
of our text in front of us. These two men who have nothing
in common never would and from this day on never would with
the exception of a glorious savior that they are about to both affirm
in our text. He says to him, do you understand
what you are reading? And so we began to work through
point D in our fourth consideration. Do you understand what you're
reading? The humility Humility rather to the process of teaching. Humility to the process of teaching. Listen to what he says in verse
31. And he said, how can I accept some man should what? And he
desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. So
this is what we meant in Proverbs 16, one, the preparation of the
heart and man. And the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord. When God gives you an assignment to share the
gospel with someone, and he's prepared you in terms of a knowledge
of the word of God, a hunger for God, and a care for the souls
of men, and then he brings that person into your life, they are
gonna be ready to listen to you. Ready to listen. This Ethiopian
gave that man a door wide open to come in, didn't he? You and
I saw that we had to consider the external circumstances and
the exigencies of Philip's assignment that he wasn't going to just
run up on this dignitary from Egypt without God opening the
door, without God shutting down all of the soldiers that were
protecting this Ethiopian dignitary, without God saying to them, leave
this man alone. This is my servant. He has a
mission to your treasurer. The treasurer lets him in. Why
would the treasurer let him in? He's a stranger in the desert,
heading from Gaza back to Ethiopia. The Lord has prepared his heart.
The Lord has prepared his heart. This Ethiopian is ready for a
conversation about God. You remember those days when
you found yourself talking to someone about God? It was remarkable. Because it doesn't happen much,
does it? It's remarkable here. These two men are talking about
God. Think about it with me for a
moment. Let's not let's not be religious. Think about it for
a moment. For two people to talk about God is very rare today. When you think about it, you
you very well may be able to say, I don't remember the last
time I talked to somebody about God. Certainly not this week. See what I'm getting at? So see,
we're not gonna jump over the text as if every day you and
I are talking to people about God. Particularly in this God
forsaken generation where God is a taboo, especially the true
and the living God, you and I know to have a conversation about
God would be a divine appointment. And so we talk about the humility
to the process of teaching. Why do I say that? Because the
average person that you meet would not be so open to you helping
them understand the scriptures. He's a dignitary, by the way.
He's a ruler in Ethiopia. He is learned to a large degree
in a lot of areas of life, a lot of disciplines of life. He's
reading Isaiah. Isaiah is the way we would say
it in the Greek. And he probably has what we call the Septuagint
version of the Greek manuscript of the Old Testament, which means
he had to learn Greek. So he's fluent in languages,
he's an intellectual, he's a dignitary, so he's not a dummy. Now a person
with that kind of accomplishment might already take a position
of, you can't tell me anything. Like the average Christian you'll
meet today, you can't tell them a thing. They already know. You
can't tell them, you know what? There's a more perfect way to
understand that. Everybody already knows. And the average Christian
doesn't understand that the joyful, the joyful reciprocating benefits
of just dialoguing about the scripture, where you use the
decorum of opportunity to say, hey, what say you about the scriptures? What's your thought about this
text? I'd love to hear what you have to say. Even if you do understand
it, I wanna know what you have to say about that text. Cause
he may, she may, they may have an insight you don't have. So
this man is prepared. He's been humbled. He's hungry.
He's ready for whatever God would have. But what a profound question
that Philip asks him. And you and I talked about this
last week. We said when God is in the mission, and you are walking
in the spirit. This is not some transcendental
state. To walk in the spirit is to simply
enjoy God, okay? That's what it means to walk
in the spirit, to enjoy God. Walking in the spirit is not
some super mystical thing. It's not. You will discover,
if you haven't already, that to walk in the spirit is to simply
enjoy God in such a way as that you are willing to allow the
circumstances to unfold any way God wants to. And however way
he wants them to unfold, you can use me that way. And nine
times out of 10 for people who are truly walking in the spirit,
they don't have any cognizant awareness of walking in the spirit
until an assignment shows up. In other words, they're not going
around saying I'm walking in the spirit. I'm walking in the
spirit. I'm walking in the spirit No, they're just enjoying God
and then they discovered that they are walking in the spirit
Why because the compilation of that day? Amounts to the will
of God being done in their life I'm gonna say that again so you
can get this to walk in the spirit is to enjoy God and And the compilation
of that day is the net result of you being conscious, Coram
Deo, that you are God's and God is yours. You are sensitive to
the events and God just brings about a good day for you, a good
day. Sometimes it's just a day of
devotion, just you and God, a day of devotion. Other times it's
a day of intercession. He's got you burdened about somebody
and you are, you know, praying about them three, four, five
times that day. Some days it's a day of service and he's got
you running here and there doing things for people, but you're
happy because you're enjoying God. And then some days it's
evangelical. And some days like it is with
me, it's apologetic. I'm battling error and fighting
against heretics who would otherwise oppose the gospel. That for me
is walking in the spirit. I'm like Luther. Luther was best
in his theological discourses when he was mad. He says, you
know, I'm actually sharper when I get upset at the devil than
when I'm just in my normal state, because you can be much more
focused, much more clear, much more concise when you got a battle
to fight. This is true for men, by the
way. It might be true for sisters, too. But I understand that your
ire gets raised when somebody says something Contrary to the
word and especially when it has the glory of Christ in view all
that can be walking in the spirit to say To say that is to simply
say walking in the spirit. It's not just some cloudy experience
Walking in the spirit carries the gamut of human experience
and human need You guys understand that? Walking in the spirit carries
the gamut of human experience and human need and also the glory
of God Sometimes walking in the spirit means throwing you in
the midst of a fire. And so then a bunch of trouble
is occurring now simply because you're walking in the spirit.
But you have to remember now the joy of walking in the spirit
is your communion with God, not the circumstances that are emerging
around you. The fires that are rising up
around you, they are just a test. Remember, you got into this mess
only because you were enjoying God. Because had you not been
enjoying God, you wouldn't have opened that door. You would have
never went through that door and jumped into those flames.
So understand walking in the spirit does not always mean cessation
of conflict, absence of troubles or difficulties. No, sometimes
it means going directly in them, but you have the added benefit
of the joy of the spirit as we will see if we get through with
our five verses today. So I do want to call your attention
to the humility, humility of this Ethiopian. eunuch as Philip
raised the question, do you understand what you are reading? He said,
how can I accept some men should what guide me? And I told you
that Greek word, Hodego, Hodego is the word that's used in the,
um, gospel, um, of John chapter, um, uh, 16, go to John chapter
16 and listen to what our master said. The work of the spirit
of God is in the ministry of the gospel and we will then reflect
upon how we are by the grace of God guided into true. And
we'll see if we can build on this. We've got a good 40 minutes,
45 minutes to go. Here is what is said in John
chapter 16, where our master is treated for the third time,
is treating for the third time the doctrine of the third person,
the spirit of God. I'm going to start at verse seven,
and then I'm going to go through verse 13, and I'll show you the
term in verse 13. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the comforter will not come unto you. See the rate of
exchange. Christ must go for the spirit to come. If I depart,
I will send him to you. So now he's Christ is speaking
both in the passive and active sense. And I'll talk about the
passive obedience and active obedience of Christ. shortly. If I go, the Comforter will not
come, but if I depart, I will send him, which means it's an
intentionality on Christ's part to send the third person because
the third person is going to be the means by which all of
the realities of the glory of Christ are going to be brought
home to us through the third person. There are things that
the disciples did not understand about Christ so long as they
did not have the experience of the third person present. And
Christ wanted them to have that when he has come, notice it's
in the masculine gender. When he has come, he will reprove
the world of sin. That means he's a person, right?
He's not an it. He's not a thing. He will reprove
the world of sin. Now this is quite remarkable
because reproved means to correct. He will reprove the world of
sin. and of righteousness and of judgment. What is the chief
objective of the purpose of the spirit of God? To declare God's
word to the world to the point of correcting the world and showing
God's righteousness to men and women in order that they might
be saved. A critical component then to preaching and teaching
is reproof. How do we know we have the spirit
of God among us? Because he is correcting his
people. Do you need correction? Proverbs
chapter 6, 23, Jesus learned it by memory. Reproof of instructions. That's the way of life. The law
is a lamp, the commandment of life and reproof of instructions
are the way of life. You know what that means? You
and I have to be corrected all the time. We're not perfect.
And we might have a thing right today, but have it wrong next
week. And then he has to get us back in line. Here's the one
critical area of which our world is constantly fighting against
biblical truth. And that is the doctrine of sin.
The idea that human beings are sinners is not accepted in this
present generation, but it must be preached. If we do not preach
that all men are sinners, then God has no controversy with the
human race. Am I making some sense? Not only
does God not have a controversy with the human race, whatever
you and I do is okay. Cause we're not sinners. And
if whatever we do is okay, because we're not sinners, it means that
things have changed radically. Cause 50 years ago, it wasn't
okay. But today it is okay. Which means either it was right
then and wrong now, or wrong then and right now. Or either
was always right, and is right today, even though we want to
make it wrong. Am I making some sense? See, the danger of backing
away from the doctrine of sin is giving people a license to
do whatever they want to do in the face of God. Secondly, if
we deny the doctrine of sin, then we deny the necessity of
the atoning work of Jesus Christ. We make the cross of Christ utter
foolishness if men are not sinners. That's why the text says he will
reprove the world of sin, then of what? Righteousness. What
do you mean righteousness? Don't talk to me about righteousness.
Because to assert a righteousness is to affirm wrong. Because the
antithesis to right is wrong. You mean if there's a standard
of right, then that means there's also a wrong that exists over
against that standard. And the cross is what reveals
to us God's standard of holiness and his response to sin. So in
fact, ladies and gentlemen, where we start to capitulate on saying
sin is sin, we must necessarily capitulate on the efficacy and
necessity of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The gospel then
means nothing. It means nothing, and this is
why people will not preach the gospel, because the gospel does
not mean anything where men and women are not sinners. If you
are not a sinner, you do not need to hear about the death
of Christ. What's the purpose of God giving
his son as an atonement for sin, as a propitiation for sin, as
a punishment for sin, if we're not sinners? And this then indicts
all three persons. because God was utterly foolish
in giving his son. And what on earth is the Holy
ghost doing running around the world, telling people they need
Jesus when they're not sinners. You see how we are unraveling
the gospel as we think it through, this is the problem. And so right
at the ground level of the issue of sin, if the church backs up
on sin, it has no gospel. When the work of the Holy ghost
is to convince, convict, That's a courtroom term. To indict you,
to show you your sin is the participle form in Matthew's gospel, chapter
18, verse 15. If your brother sin against you,
go to him and show him his sin. Well, the Holy Ghost comes to
every chosen sinner and shows them their sin. brings them into
the courtroom of God, shows them God's holiness, shows them their
sinfulness, points them to Christ, and say which way you want to
go. Are you hearing me? That's what gospel preaching
is designed to do, not make you feel good, make you saved. There's a big difference between
feeling good and going to heaven. And then finally, a judgment.
And when he comes, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. And people struggle with that.
We're not talking about the final judgment on the last day. The
final judgment on the last day is judgment to come. He's talking
about a judgment that was accomplished at Calvary. What he's saying
is you got to understand that the cross work actually accomplished
something. It didn't make something possible.
It actually accomplished something. God's wrath was satisfied. Sin
was put away. Righteousness was established
because the judgment is passed. God poured his judgment on his
son as a substitute for his people so that now the courtroom is
closed. God has given a decree. There
is therefore now no condemnation because the punishment has been
paid. The debt is paid. The judgment is passed. In Christ,
all God's people stand righteous. Go tell them that, says the Holy
Ghost. And the sinner finds in the cross
work of Jesus Christ, the finality of his dilemma. The finality
of his dilemma. His dilemma is he's a sinner,
God's holy, and Christ is his answer. Are you guys hearing
me? It's very critical to understand
that. Now there is a judgment to come. And the man that shows
up on that day is going to be in trouble. And so we are very
clearly taught in the gospel of John chapter 12, verse 31.
Now is the judgment of this world. Now it's the prince of this world
cast out. And if I'd be lifted up, I'll draw men unto me. How
are sinners coming to Christ? Because the judgment is passed.
That's John chapter five around verse 28. The hour is coming
when they, that hear the voice of the son of God shall live.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hearth my words and believes
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into
judgment, but is passed from death to life. That's the judgment. That's the decree. That's the
declaration. Let my people go. That's the
message we preach. There was a radical finality
of judgment that took place at Calvary. And we will not diminish
that. We will not diminish the necessity
of men understanding how holy God is by his punishment of sin
on the person of Christ at Calvary Street. The men and women better
reckon with their sins. You better reckon with your sin.
You better take your sin to Jesus because there's no other hiding
place for sin. You better run to Christ. Run
to Christ. Your only hope for heaven is
Christ. He's the hiding place for sinners. He's the refuge for sinners.
Verses 9 and following of sin because they believe not on me
the fundamental error of mankind is he's born an unbeliever Nobody's
born believe you guys do know that right cute little babies
you have they're not born believing You must be born again You do
understand that right? Radical grace of work work of
grace has to be done of sin because they believe not only you the
person that is unsaved does not believe the gospel He or she
must come to believe the gospel of righteousness because I go
to my father. What does that mean? That means
that Christ was righteous from the time he came here to the
time he left, thereby having the right to go back to his father.
Isn't that amazing? Had he sinned one time from the
point of assuming a human nature to the point where he said to
Telestai, Had he sinned one time, he would have never risen from
the grave. He's the only righteous person in the universe. Of righteousness, because I go
to my father. Of judgment, because the prince of this world was
judged. See verse 11? What we're talking about in judgment here
is the efficacy of the atoning work of Christ to now break the
power of the devil's capacity to keep God's people blinded.
What do we mean? Isaiah talks about it in Isaiah
chapter 25, a veil covering the whole of the earth, keeping people
blinded from the truth of God's glory. Before you were saved,
before I was saved, we were blind to the glory of God. Is that
true? Before we were saved, we were deaf to the glory of God.
We couldn't hear the gospel, but God opened our eyes. He opened
our ears. He removed the blinders. He pulled
back the veil and he gloriously penetrated our minds and our
hearts with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he showed us his
son and it became the means by which we were liberated from
the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear
son. Isn't that what happened? And this is the purpose for which
we preach the gospel, so men and women can be liberated. Now,
ladies and gentlemen, whether you know it or not, right now
I'm preaching the gospel to you. And you need to know what the
gospel is, because the gospel is not about you, it's not about
me, it's about Him. So you need to know what the
gospel is. When you are hearing the gospel, you are hearing about
the Son of God. You're hearing about the work
of the Father through the Son of God. You're hearing about
the message of redemption in Christ. That is the gospel. Well, of course, it's the gospel
if you are a sinner, because if you're not a sinner, then
this message is not good news to you. But it's good news to
God, so it doesn't really matter. It is the gospel of God. He says
in verse 12, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot
bear them now. What was he indicating here?
That the revelations essential to their apostolic ministry would
be only accomplished by the presence and ministry of the third person.
In other words, if we were to extrapolate verse 12, here's
what you and I must say. We cannot comprehend biblical
truth until the spirit of God gives us insight. Is that right? And our master was a gentle shepherd
saying to his gentle sheep, there's a lot I want you to do. But in
order for you to do right, you have to know right. But in order
for you to know, right, you have to have a depository of truth
in your life that is the consequence of the Spirit of God. It's not
something you can accomplish on your own. Mere intellectualism
will not qualify you for the ministry of the gospel. It takes
an invasion, an infusion, an illuminating work of the Spirit
of God, which now brings us to verse 13, which is our point. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth, do you see that? That's a critical attribute of
God, essential to our conversation with men, the spirit of truth. Because people will tell you
everywhere that everybody's views are right. The very notion that
there is a spirit of truth also affirms that there is a spirit
which lies. And what the Bible would plainly
say to us about this concept or this idea or this inference
is that all men by nature are what? That's right. We are liars,
God is the truth. So when God comes to us with
truth and truth, if you don't know it, is reality according
to God. Truth is not the figment of our
own imagination. It's not the compilation of our
experiences. It's not the sum total of our
ideas and our views. Truth is reality according to
God. So if I'm actually gonna know
the truth, God's gonna have to reveal it to me. That becomes
then a subject-object relationship of which I am passive. Did you
get that? I'm the object. God's the subject. And if he's gonna reveal his
truth to me, I have to passively be open to that. A man by searching
cannot find out God. I'm barred from truth. You understand
what I'm saying? Saving truth. We're talking saving
truth. God has to reveal that through us. And this is why we're
moving now. We're funneling down to the mechanism. Right now we're
dealing with the source. The source is God himself. In
the third person, God hears the spirit of truth. The spirit of
truth, reality according to God. He is antithetical to lies. He's
antithetical to error. He's antithetical to falsehood.
He's antithetical to failure. He's antithetical to all distortions. He is the exact representation
of what is right all the time. That's what truth is. Did you
guys get that? The moment that we distort reality,
it is no longer true. God is the exact representation
of reality all the time. And his communicating himself
to us in terms of propositions are exactly as he is. Like you
and I, we can have good motives and be deficient in our capacity
to communicate them. That's often our problem. This
is why when you have two people that actually love each other,
you better learn how to interpret motive over methods Especially
over the message because by the time you get to the message it
can be all jacked up But see that's part of rules engagement
to series learn how to interpret the motive Because that's what
God does with us. If God were to judge me purely
on my methods and my message I would fail every time He judges
the heart He weighs the motive. He weighs the spirit does he
not? This is the secret sanctum of communion between God and
his people. And you'll wonder why one person prospers, one
doesn't. The person that's not prospering seems to be more articulate
than the person, person that is prospering. Um, uh, and he's
not prospering. He's not prospering because of
a flawed motive that you don't see, but God sees it. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? And the person that is a prospering
though, he's fumbling and bumbling all over the place. God's looking
way past his words. He's weighing his spirit. And
he knows, he knows that's the critical conversation. That's
the real language. That's the real dialogue between
us and God, the motive. And that's why you do what David
said, do Lord search me. I want to be on your team all
the time, all the time. Hear what I'm saying? And as
Paul said in his second Corinthians chapter three, hey, if I judge
myself, I'm in trouble. I can't actually penetrate the
depths of my heart to know the motives of my heart because I'm
deceitful, desperately deceitful. I will deceive myself. I was
talking with one of my brothers the other day. I think it was
a sister I was talking to and she was saying to me, I deceive
myself all the time. It was so refreshing to hear
one of my sisters say, cause you know, men are totally depraved,
but women are too, you know, y'all may not know that, but
it's so, it's so refreshing to hear my sister just be honest
about the self deception. Cause we deceive ourselves. You
will deceive yourself when you end up in hell. No one deceived
you more than you. You can say the devil made you
do it all you want to. The devil won't be sitting with
you in hell. You inhale all by yourself. The devil in hell way
over on the other side of the universe you and hell on the
other side and the twain never meet Because the devil cannot
send you to hell only you can send you to hell Am I telling
the truth? So that's why the scriptures
would constantly say be not deceived God is not mocked which will
remain souls that shall he also reap So here we are at the heart
the nexus of our consideration of this particular point under
do you understand the reading? How be it when he, the spirit
of truth has come, he will guide you into all the truth. That's our original language.
You'll see the word guide. It means to take by the hand,
as I've told you before, and to lead you like a little child.
The goal of the spirit of God is to latch hold up to God's
sheep, God's people, and to lead them into the truth. Now, what
we are describing here is a relationship, a pedagogical relationship, pedagogical. Like a schoolmaster who takes
their child and trains them up. That's pedagogical. So for those
of us in the New Testament church, our pedagogue is not the law.
Our pedagogue is the spirit of God who uses the whole law, whole
Bible to actually train us up into the image of Christ. Am
I making some sense? Am I making some sense? The pedagogue for
us is the third person. This is why Christ said he's
so critical to come because his teaching is actually effectual. It's effectual. He will take
you by the hand. How do we know this? It says
when he when he comes he will guide you into truth for he shall
not speak of himself But whatsoever he shall what so the Holy Ghost
is a hearer too. Is he not? Yes, he is The son's
a hearer The Holy Ghost is a hearer and God's people are hearers
Is that true? The son said I do nothing of
myself That which I have heard of my father, that do I. It's
the subordination of relationship. Did you hear that? So the father
speaks to the son, the son speaks to the spirit. And the spirit
in his subordinate role of love for the son and the father says,
I don't do anything other than that, which the son has told
me to do. Because my job is to glorify
him. So this is how you know you have the spirit of God, because
the spirit is teaching you about Christ. That's how you know. That's how you know. And when
men and women are taught of Christ, God the Father is happy. How
do we know that? This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased, hear ye him. See, salvation is a hearing business. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? It's a hearing
business. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. And the pedagogue here is taking the children by
the hand and leading them into the true. He will not speak of
himself, from himself, originating from himself, but whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things
to come. This here speaks to the process of the unfolding
revelations of Christ to the apostles, and then the apostles
to us. Verse 14. He shall glorify me
for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you. You see
the relationship? The father gives to the son and the son
gives to the spirit. The father speaks to the son
and the son speaks to the spirit. The whole of salvation is a gifting
process. The spirit hears from the son,
the son hears from the father. The Father speaks to the Son.
The Son speaks to the Spirit. The Spirit speaks to His people.
The people hear the Spirit and thus hear Christ and thus hear
the Father. See, this is the gifting process.
This is why it's called the charisma, the gift, the gift. It's critical
to understand that. And He shall glorify me for He
shall receive of mine and show it unto you. That word show there
means to fully explain. I told you several months back.
It's like pulling the curtains back and giving you a full or
display of the glory of the son. See, a lot of people only know
about Jesus Christ as it were by rumors, but God's people are
allowed to have the veils pulled back by the spirit of God and
get to see Christ. That's the work of the spirit
of God to bring you into the depth of contemplation and knowledge
of the son of God. that has a saving efficacy to
it. It brings you into a relationship
with him. It calls you to love what you hear. Don't you love
hearing the gospel? That's a gift from God. Don't
you love the idea that God has given you a vision of his son? That's a gift of God the mind
being able to comprehend the person of Christ. Isn't that
a magnificent thing? Do you remember the day when
you weren't even? Contemplating his person I do
I Had no conception of the person of Christ until one day there
was a blistering revelation that came through the gospel that
removed the veil and Just just drop the blinders and I saw him
in blistering glorious white Never saw anything like it. It
changed my life Changed my life that second Corinthians chapter
4, you know that Verses 4 and following if our gospel be hid
is here to those that are blind Of whom the God of this world
had blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ should shine unto them
for God has commanded the light to shine, giving the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to men and women,
causing the light to shine out of darkness. You remember that
day it penetrated your heart, brought you into a love relationship
with God through his son, Jesus Christ. And the lights have been
on every since. Oh, we have some dark days, but
the lights have been on every since. They have never been cut
off. These lights never go off. Do
you understand that? Just in case you don't know it,
it's Proverbs 4, 18. The path of the just is as a shining light
that shines more and more unto the perfect day. That's the path
of the just. They never go out. We might have
some cloudy days, but the sun's still shining. My worst day in
Christ is a thousand times better than my best day when I was lost. I would never trade it for the
world. He shall glorify me, shall receive
of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Therefore, I said, he shall take of mine and show
it to you. This is what we call saving revelation. Saving revelation one more verse
on this topic Romans chapter 2 This is why you do want to
as frequently as possible be under the preaching and teaching
of the Word of God Because you want to constantly have your
ears Calibrated to hear biblical truth you want your soul to be
constantly feeding on a diet of biblical truth you and I are
are like every other consumer in the world, particularly Western
culture. We feed on garbage. Garbage. And to the degree that
we spend hours consumed in garbage, to that degree, you and I are
not being conformed to the image of Christ. Nor are we finding
ourselves having a desire or passion for him. When you and
I are feeding on the junk food of this secular present culture,
we have no desire for Jesus. That's what I'm saying is the
truth. And so it's very critical for you and I to understand.
Romans chapter two, let me see here. Verse 22 and following, let me
see here. Which one do I want? No, verse
17 and 18. Let me see, here's the word that
I want. It's in maybe verse, it's verse 19. I'm gonna start
at verse 17. This here's the same analogy of the ministry
of the teaching of the Spirit of God, whose subject is Christ,
as we're gonna see with Philip and the Ethiopian here in a moment.
But the term guide is a word that is constantly used with
regards to the tutor-teacher, the tutor-student, teacher-student
relationship. Verse 17, chapter two, Romans. Behold, are you called a Jew? And resteth in the law, and make
your boast of God? and you know his will, and you
approve of the things that are more excellent being instructed
out of the law. See verse 17 and 18? There's
several clauses there that actually establish what we would call
the ideal Jew. What is the ideal Jew? He's the
person that rests in God's law, the Torah. It makes him his boast
of God. That is, God revealed himself
through the Torah. And he knows God's will. That
is, he knows what the Torah says. And he approves of the things
that are more excellent being instructed out of the Torah. That's the argument that Paul
is making to those who were under Torah. Now, Torah is light. Torah is revelation. Torah is
God's law. The law of the Lord is light.
Isn't that what the psalmist says? Psalm 119, your commandments
are a light unto my feet, a lamp unto my path. They are light.
The word of God is light. This is why people don't want
to hear the law because it's light. Whenever you quote scripture,
you cut lights on and like roaches, people flee because they're used
to darkness. When we're sinners, we don't
want to hear God's word. We don't want to hear it because
what you're doing is cutting lights on in people's conscience.
Thus saith the Lord. But first and foremost, the application
is to self. What do we mean by self? If you're
going to be someone that teaches, you must know the law yourself.
You must have cut the lights on in all the rooms of your own
house, unless you're a hypocrite. You cut the lights on in your
own house and you experience the power of the revelation of
the law. The law is good. It shows us
our sin. It affirms the holiness of God. It tells us that we're damned
and cursed without a savior. It runs us to Christ. That's
good. That's good. That's good. And
the next person without Christ has to come through that door.
You're not coming to Christ except through the door of the law.
That's right. You're not coming some other
way. You're coming through the same door we went through. We
have to be first convinced of what? Sin. That's what law is
about. That's what law is about. That's
what law is about. The Spirit of God is going to
teach you that law. He says, now you are boasting
yourself and knowing the law, verse 19, and you are confident,
here it is, that you are a what? There's a word, a guide to the
what? Here's the metaphor a light to
them which are in what now is the Holy Ghost a light? Yes,
he is Yes, he is. And so what we are talking about
now is the instrumentality of the revelation which again this
sort of carnal Autonomous sort of a self-righteous culture denies
instrumentality Had a caller the other day. I didn't want
to challenge him on the proposition But again, I hear this from time
to time. You know, I just started searching for God one day, man,
and I just start reading my Bible and God revealed himself to me,
never acknowledging that someone had to come and explain that
book to him, never acknowledging that God uses teachers to explain
the word, never acknowledging that he needed the radical impact
of the third person to rightly divide the word of God. And God
uses means to do that. See, he just actually comfortably
left that part out. I could've challenged him on
it. I could've challenged him. I could've actually challenged
him as to whether or not he actually has the lights on. Oh, you say
you have the lights on. Let's see. Cause see, if he has
the lights on, guess what? God sent a Philip to him. Think
that through with me for a minute. We got 20 minutes. Think that
through with me for a moment. Faith comes by what? Hearing
by what? How shall they hear without a?
See it. These are axioms that are inviolable. So you would tell me, well, I
can get God all by myself through my Bible. Then I can show you
the next man who can get God all by himself without the Bible.
Follow the logic. Are you following the logic?
See, there are those who don't even want the instrumentality
of the book. So see, I see the deceitfulness of the man or the
woman or the people who want to set aside gospel preaching
as the mechanism by which we rightly interpret the scriptures
and come into a saving knowledge of God. So now we don't even
need to do missionary work. All we need to do is fly over
countries and drop a bunch of Bibles down. Let them get saved
that way. Are you guys following the logic?
That's right. No, we need the word and we need
the preacher and we need the Holy Ghost. We need the word
and we need the preacher and we need the Holy Ghost. How do
we know that? We're headed back to our text.
Let the black man tell you. Go back to your text with me.
Let's see what the black man have to say about this. Now,
you know, today black men don't have much to say and I ain't
listening to many of them either. Being facetious here, but listen
to the text. Philip ran to him and heard him
reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what
you are reading? And here is his eloquent, humble, accurate
assessment of his need. How can I understand what I am
reading except some man should guide me? You see his recognition
of something that was absent in all of his labors. He was
reading the scriptures. He knows he has a passion for
God, but there are things missing, things that he himself does not
have. Someone else has to bring them
to the table. So now what we call this in the economy of the
ministry is the process of humility. So I'll say this again for the
saints at grace so that you guys don't fall prey to a form of
self-righteousness that I have just explained with the cat that
got saved all by himself, right? The cat that just got saved,
didn't I talk about him? He got saved all by himself.
Nobody helped him. He's the only person in the world
that got saved all by himself. Not even the apostle Paul got
saved all by himself. The apostles didn't get saved
all by themselves, but this cat got saved all by himself. Special
person, special, special, special person. 5150. You know what I
mean? All by himself. Don't need the
apostles. Don't even need the Holy Ghost.
All you need is a Bible. There are folks who go to the
top of the mountains, get saved. Have you heard it? I've heard
it. I've heard it all. I went camping way top of Mount
Tomopious and God met me there. Did he? Did he? What'd he say? You understand
what I'm saying? When people have all of these
fangled notions, don't know that they're militating against the
scriptures. Then you just follow their life and you realize maybe
some God did meet him up there, but not the biblical God. And
what I'm saying to you is don't unhinge yourself. Don't ever
break the hedge of God's methodology of saving, sanctifying, using,
and sending the glory because he will not violate it. God will
not violate his methodology. He just won't. He even bound
himself to it. Do you know that? Do you know
the incarnation is the example par excellence of binding oneself
to the methodology? God bound himself to his own
method of saving. He made himself dependent upon
humanity to enter into the process of the redemption of the very
people for whom he would die. Do you guys get that? He made
himself dependent upon generation, of generation, of generation,
of generation, of generation, of generation, of generation,
of generation, of knucklehead sinners, whom he called, chose,
kept, preserved, until one woman said, do whatever you want, I'm
your handmaid. Whatever you say is cool with
me. You know what her name was? Mary. Whatever you say is cool
with me. Point of contact, human nature.
The whole story changes now. Why? Because he made himself
dependent upon his own methodology. So what we learn is God never
tells you and me to do something which he has not done himself.
That's what I meant by him being the reality of all things. He's
the reality of all things and does not distort. This is why
we call Jesus the revelation of the invisible God and incarnation
without stretching that garment out too broad because it gets
all jacked up. Incarnation is an ongoing process. That's how humanity is redeemed.
God fusing himself into humanity in a redemptive process by which
men and women are brought into a saving knowledge of Christ
conformed to his image by a recapitulation process. One man speaking to
another man, speaking to another man, speaking to another man,
speaking to another man and on and on and on until the last
man hears the gospel. That's called the incarnation.
That's right. And listen to what he says here
in the text now. We got about 10 minutes before
we break it up here. And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. And when Philip came in, notice
what it says in verse 32. I'm just gonna be able to, I'm
gonna deal with this just a little bit and we'll probably have to
close here next week because this portion is rich. The place
of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter and like a lamb done before his shearer, soul
opened he not his mouth and in his humiliation his judgment
was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his
life is taken from the earth that's the text at which the
eyes of the eunuch had fallen upon the scroll of Isaiah and
the eunuch looks up at Philip and says in verse 34 and the
eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speaketh
the prophet of himself or of some other. Now verse 34 is the
hinge pin of biblical hermeneutics and the centrality of the gospel
of Jesus Christ if ever there was one. So let's just talk about
this briefly and I'll just tap onto one portion of the text,
he's in Isaiah chapter 53, right? That is the gospel, the heart
of the gospel in the book of Isaiah. But to read Isaiah 53
without the eyes of the Holy Spirit is to not to come to truth.
To read Isaiah 53, you can draw any conclusion as to who it might
be of whom that text says, behold my servant. You might say that
servant is Israel. like Israel does. And many people
who are still Jewish in their thinking and legalistic in their
approach. Israel thinks that they are the
suffering servant. Israel thinks that they are the
only nation in the world that has gone through the hell and
chaos and the suffering and the slaughter that they have. And
Israel actually thinks that by its sufferings it will merit
the benefits that come at the end of that chapter, where the
Lord will bless Israel, the servant with the bounty and the spoil,
and he will divide it with the great and the strong. That's
what Israel thinks. But Israel has been wrong for
2000 years, hasn't he? See the whole battle between
national Israel and Jesus in that day in which Jesus had come
was this. Jesus says, that book is not
about you, it's about me. That's what Christ said. And
those are fighting words for those Jewish people. And they're
fighting words for every narcissistic religious person of whom all
they want is God to talk about you, how he gonna bless you and
do this for you and show you this is all about you. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? This is the problem with religion
today. Please hear what I'm saying. If you and I tolerate a theology
who has as its projectory always lauding us, we steal God's glory. That's a high crime of absolute
treason against his majesty. We have no right to do it. What did you do? Or me, or us,
or all of humanity collectively, to earn the favor of God, not
a thing. So see this matter of you can
make the scripture say what you want to, just kind of a loose
thing. You cannot make the scripture
say what you want to. You are either on the Lord's
side or on the devil's side when it comes to what the scripture
say. And I'll tell you how humble this brother was. He was humble
enough that when the proposition came, he said, you know what?
I'm, I'm treading on some very serious ground here with regards
to your question. Cause see in my pride, I can
lie and tell you, I know what this text says, or I can be humble
enough to actually ask you what I know. And apparently, you know,
also that I don't understand. I do not know the subject of
the text. Somebody tell me what is the
subject of the text? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
That's the critical question to biblical interpretation, the
gospel and the salvation of souls. At the present time, I can tell
you because I study deeply, I study broad, I study significantly
in the areas of scholarship on all kinds of levels. If the church
is not careful, it will not have a Bible. There will be no Bible
in a minute by this present generation who thinks it can operate loosey-goosey
with the Word of God. There will be no Bible. Because
your average Christian today is cool without their Bible already.
Am I telling the truth? They're cool without their Bible.
You know why? Because they got the Holy Ghost. Right. As if you can have the Holy Ghost
without having the Word of God. Now you can have the Word of
God without the Holy Ghost, but you cannot have the Holy Ghost
without the Word of God. He wrote the Scriptures through
men, and His singular subject was the Son of God. Am I making
some sense? He wrote the Scriptures through
men, and His one singular solitary subject was the Son of God. That
was the Holy Ghost's assignment. He had no other assignment and
men now who are going to occupy the mouthpiece and voice of the
Holy Ghost is going to say the same things the Holy Ghost says
Right. Are you not a servant of the
Spirit of God? He said I pray thee of whom speaks the prophet
this of himself are some other man Now, let's just take a moment. I got five minutes. I want us
to See what Philip says, this is our final point, the gift
and obedience of preaching Christ. And we're gonna work this through
next week. The gift and obedience of preaching Christ. Why do I
call it a gift? For several reasons. One is,
Christ is the gift, is he not? Woman, if you had known who it
is that speaks with you and the gift of God. The gospel is a
gift. Salvation is a gift. Grace is
a gift. The word of God is a gift. Is
that not true? And then again, the preacher
is a gift. But can I tell you that what Philip has received
right here by the question of this hungry soul was a gift?
What was the gift? The inquiry as to what said the
scriptures. That's a gift. That's a gift
when anyone asks you what said the scripture and you are a person
who knows God it's a gift And you are obliged to respond As
philip is about to do beautiful gift Now just think about it
for a moment. I got five minutes with you Just
think about this for a moment Think about this for a moment
think about him philip boasting in a false gift As the proverb
says, he that boasted himself in a false gift is like rains
and clouds that have no moisture, the sweeping rain that leaves
no fruit. That's the proverb. And a false
gift is a person that says they call to preach. They call to
teach. They call to prophesy. They're
called to expound the word. And when the opportunity is given,
nothing of the sort ever occurs. an explanation of biblical truth
does not happen. What do they do? They quote a
verse and run on a tangent, never even make it back home. That
heart's so drunk. He doesn't even make it back
home. Like one preacher said long, long ago, these preachers
are like the wind of John chapter three, verse eight. You don't
know where they go or where they coming from. At the end of the
message, you don't know what happened. It's like the wind
that blew. And what we are saying is they
do not have the gift of teaching or preaching. Because the gift
of teaching and preaching is as consistent with the nature
of God as anything. Again, if I say out of the abundance
of the heart that the mouth speak, that you can know what I know
when I open my mouth, then I can know what God knows when he opens
his mouth. Is that true? That when the Spirit
of God gives me His Word, He's going to give me an understanding
of His Word. And when I actually explain His Word, I will be recapitulating
what the Spirit of God has revealed. And if you have a Bible sitting
there, and if you are available to the ministry of the Spirit
of God in revelation and illumination, your heart is going to say, that
man told me the truth. And it was anchored to the text.
anchored to the text. He did not leave the text. He
explained the text. He preached the text. He taught
the text. He explained the text. He taught
the text. He preached the text. He is a
text preacher. But when you go away, you have
come to know God more accurately and fully through the word. And
you didn't get taught to listen to a man or a woman untether
you. from the black words on a white
page that don't change ever. Did you get that? Because whole
groups of people are absolutely enraptured by persons who are
very eloquent in their words, great swelling words, who do
not tether their people to the word of God. That's right. And those people are like a ship
adrift on the sea, waiting for the wind to blow them to this
end and that end and the other end. further and further away
from the clarity of biblical exposition. What Philip is experiencing
here is a gift. Now, had Philip not been prepared,
Philip would make a mess out of this opportunity, wouldn't
he? You know, I don't even like to
ask people sometimes, you know, would you explain that to me?
because I don't really wanna hear a wrong explanation. I'd rather us avoid explaining
the text and just be happy. Cause see, as soon as, especially
the ones that come and tell me, I'm a teacher sent from God.
Okay, here we go. My brother will bear record.
Once you say that, the level of seriousness goes up. infinitely
doesn't have brother. Okay. So would you please show
up on Saturday night at the men's meeting? Cause we get ready to
test you. Since you say you call to teach,
there'd be another thing. Just come on in. Let's have some
coffee, some donuts, get to know one another fellowship. You can
do a little exorbitant. I'll do a little exit. But soon
as you say you called to teach, all right, we're getting ready
to test you, right? because the teacher is saying
that he or she or they are qualified by God to explain this book rightly. That's no joke. It's just no
joke. So had Philip been a false prophet,
a cloud without rain, a liar, if you will, when the door was
open for him to explain the text, he would have not given a satisfactory
answer at all. Here's what Philip says, and
this is our introductory thought. We'll close here and come back
next week. Verse 35, then Philip opened
his mouth. Do you see that? Now see that
either you get in trouble here. Are you highly favored of God? See, it's right here, right here
now. This here is the point of no
return. He opened his mouth. He opened
his mouth. As the proverb says, a fool is
known in the multitude of his words, right? But even when he
holds his peace, he is perceived to have been wise. But see, Philip
has to open his mouth because he raised the question. Do you
understand what you are reading? The man says, can you tell me
what this says? And rather than going on a tangent
about this, that, and the other, as a preacher and teacher of
the word, he directly goes to work. You know what that means?
He knows his Bible. He knows the word of God. He
knows how to start right where the subject is and right from
that subject, expound the subject, explain the subject, interpret
the subject, clarify the subject, exegete the subject, expound
the subject to the man that needs to expound it. He's not making
excuses. He's not talking about, can we
catch up next week? He's not saying I gotta go get some commentaries
or some books. Either he knows the text or he
doesn't, right? Either he knows the word of God
or he doesn't. And a teacher ought to be prepared
at all times to explain the scriptures. The Bible is very clear about
that. In season, out of season. Stand at your post, Timothy,
to be ready to declare the word of God. Sound doctrine. That's the job of the teacher.
Sound doctrine. He's at his post. What say ye
of the word of God? Here is what the scriptures say.
A serious business. That's very serious business,
ladies and gentlemen. Very serious business. And if we were more
committed to that, our churches would be healthier, wouldn't
they? Listen to what he says. Then Philip opened his mouth,
and I want you to hear this, because this is the hallmark
of a gospel preacher. He began at the same scripture. He didn't say, well, I actually
have to start somewhere else. Can I tell you a story first? You know, back in the day. But
all of that would have been what we call equivocating, begging
the question, you know, softening his auditor. He began with the
text. And here's what it says. And
he preached. Do you see that? Unto him, Jesus. Do you see that? He preached
unto him. The Greek word is euangelizo.
He evangelized him. He evangelized him. Do you know
what that means? We're gonna unpack it next week.
We're gonna actually go into the text and deal with the beauty
of this humble servant who kept his mouth shut. What it meant
was that Phillips said, what God has called me to do to this
Ethiopian is evangelize him. So this wasn't really merely
a didactical exercise of technical explanations of nuanced meanings
in the text. This was preaching. Can you see
it? The Ethiopian had a front row
seat by one of God's spirit-filled deacons who knew how to preach
Christ Man, that's sweet. Did you understand that? They
sitting in the Escalade, right? At condition, in front of him
and Philip, and Philip is preaching the gospel to this man. The sweetest
words this Ethiopian ever heard, as Philip took scripture after
scripture, after scripture, after scripture, after scripture, after
scripture, and explained the deity of Christ, the humanity
of Christ, the sufferings of Christ, the atonement of Christ,
the resurrection of Christ, the propitiation of Christ, the exaltation
of Christ, the glory of Christ, the power of Christ, the resurrection
of Christ, the infinity of Christ, the Alpha and the Omega of Christ.
And that man was so blown away. The next word you hear, hey,
he's on the water. He's on the water. He's on the
water. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for this time. Thank you for our word. Thank
you for our gathering tonight. Thank you for meeting us in the
text that we know was the beginning of our life to the message of
Jesus Christ. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.