I invite you to turn back with
me again to John chapter 8. You can find my text and title
are both found here in verse 32. And you shall know the truth. The truth. And the truth shall set you free. You're not going to be set free
until you know the truth. The Bible, no matter where you
read from, is the testimony of God concerning the salvation
of a people through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
care where you're reading. You can read in Genesis. You
can read in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and
Judges and Joshua, and you go on and on and on and on and on.
This is what you're reading about. This is what you're reading about
right here. Of the Old Testament Scriptures, John said, this is
the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. That's what this Old Testament
teaches, and that's what it's all about. He that hath the Son,
as God has set him forth, has life. He's got life. He's the woman seed. He's Abraham's seed. Over in
Galatians 3, verse 16, it says, Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. What kind of promises? Promises
of blessing. Promises of inheritance. Promises
of life everlasting. Promises. And all of these promises
was given to Abraham and his seed. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ."
This is where the promises are. This is where the life is. This
is where the inheritance is. This is where everything that
God has for sinners is in Christ. And it's in the Christ as God
has set Him forth. It's not in our ideas. and preconceived
notions of who the Christ is. It's not a compiling of stories
with moral overtones or even the preservation of the history
of man to show him the consequences of sin, although these things
do stand as an example of that. And we're called, our attention's
called to that in the Corinthians, that these things happened as
examples unto us. They did, but that wasn't their
prime theme. That wasn't the main theme
of the Old Testament. The main theme of the Old Testament
is the coming of the Messiah, the Christ of God. And Peter
said this over in the book of Acts. If you go through the book
of Acts, these are the first messages preached after Christ
ascended back into glory, poured out His Spirit on the church,
sent these men out into the world. He said, all powers given unto
me in heaven and earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations. Preach to men. Preach to every
creature under heaven. You go out and do these things.
These are the first messages these men preached. And they
were preaching almost entirely at that time to Jews, to the
Jews. And especially on the day of
Pentecost, he was preaching to those Jews who were out there
in that crowd crying, crucify, crucify. It was that same outfit,
that same bunch of people. And out of them, he saved 3,000
souls. But you go through here and you
see these things, and he said this, over in Acts 10, verse
43, Peter said to him, to him, give all the prophets Or what
did they have to say about him? To him give all the proper witness
that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remission of sin. His name, who he was, his character,
how God was going to set him forth. That's his name. Only
one name given under heaven whereby men must be saved. That's that
name manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. And the issue,
when Christ appeared into this world as a man and that which
the Jews rejected, for which they eventually gave him over
to the Romans to be crucified, is his claims to be this Christ
and what this Christ was all about. Every event from his birth
in Bethlehem to his death at Calvary was the manifestation
of the promised Messiah and Redeemer of Israel. Now what's going on
over here in the book of John chapter 8 is the Jews rejecting
Jesus as the Christ. Now who are these Jews? Why is
that so important? Why would he record this in the
book about this Jewish nation that's that has rejected Him. Why would He mention that in
the book of God? What's that got to do with New
Testament gospel revelation? Who were these Jews? Well, these
Jews were the natural sons and daughters of Abraham. And they
were a typical people that God separated from all the other
nations to lay the foundation and figure of spiritual Israel
which was yet to come. Old natural Israel is a picture
of the New Testament church. Now today's religion, they've
got the Jews separated over here in the Middle East, and their
nation, and their God's people, and then over here they've got
the church, and these are God's people, but these are the New
Testament believers, and these are the Old Testament believers.
That's a bunch of poppycocks, what that is. Natural Israel
was never, never, never the children of God. Never, not at any time,
was they ever God's chosen people. God had a people within natural
Israel who were His people. But they weren't all His people.
We're about to study that over in the book of Exodus. how that
every man over 18 years of age that left Egypt died in the wilderness
in unbelief. That's what it says over in the
book of Hebrews. Well, you reckon God would take 2 million of these
people that He's provided a Messiah and was going to send Him to
the cross and die for, would just curse them after all the
stuff they'd been through and just let them die in the wilderness
if those were God's people? No way. These Jews are the natural sons
and daughters of Abraham, and these Jews were a typical people.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 9. I've told you how religion tries to
separate these two and call them both. They call the church of
God and they call old Israel of God both God's people. And
any time when we're talking about election, they want to run back
to natural Israel and say, well, this was God's elect over here.
But the New Testament has to do with these over here. That's
just not so. Now watch this over here. Let me see if I can show you
this in Scripture. In Romans 9, Paul begins with
a prayer for his kinsmen after the flesh who were Israelites. Those who made up this nation
to whom pertaineth, he said, the adoption, verse 4, and the
glory, and the covenants and the giving of the law and the
service of God and the promises to whom all the prophets were
all Jews, every last one of them. And all the patriarchs were Jews.
And out of the Jews came the Christ. But the Jews rejected
Him. The Jews wouldn't have Him. They
despised Him. They nailed Him on a tree and
they scorned Him as a false prophet and a pretender to the throne.
Does that make the Word of God without effect? Now, come on. He promised His everlasting love
to Israel, didn't He? All of His promises to Israel.
Promised them an inheritance, promised them His everlasting
love. Don't that make the Word of God without effect since when
He came they rejected Him and wouldn't have anything to do
with it? No, sir. It makes their claims
to be His children by their blood ties. It makes that of none effect. But it doesn't change the Word
of God whatsoever. Or, he said, they are not all
Israel which are of Israel. Oh, you mean all these natural
sons are not to Israel. That's what Paul said. Verse
7, "...neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac the son of promise shall thy seed
be called." Now listen, that is, now he's going to make it
real clear to you now, that is, they which are the children of
the flesh, these are not, ain't that what that says? The children
of God. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. And then over in Galatians 3,
verse 6, he tells us that Abraham believed God. That is, he believed
God concerning this coming seed through which all the nations
of the earth were going to be blessed. And it was accounted
to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And you
see what I'm talking about, what these Jews, they were a typical
people. And God used them to lay the foundation in figure.
And all these things that they did were in figure of true spiritual
Israel, which has been from the beginning of time. Let me give you one more scripture
and nail the coffin lid shut on natural Israel over in Romans
2, verse 28. Look over there for just a second. Romans 2, verse 28, For he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly. This man who has been circumcised
and keeps the law and wears a funny little hat and whatever else
they do, He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is
that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. So then, what we've got over
here in John chapter 8 is a long established religion. Thousands
of years, John. Thousands of years. They go down
to the temple, they bring the lamb, and they hand it to the
priest, and the priest does after the order of the priest, and
offers the lamb, and they go through all the ceremonies, and
they keep the holy days, and they do all those things that
Jews were instructed to do. Established by strong traditional
background. But in spite of all this, they
were only just a pretense. of true Israel. For all intents and purposes,
these men were 100% convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that
they were the children of God. They were convinced. There's
no need to even come up and start talking to one, because I'm a
Jew. I'm Abraham's son. I'm a saved
man. I'm a child of God. Ain't that
what these men, I just read it to you a few minutes ago, they
were talking to the Lord of Glory, standing right before His face.
He was a walking, talking, fulfillment of Scripture. Everything he said,
every step he took, every city he went into, every look he gave,
every miracle that was done, established him as the Christ. He was a walking, talking fulfillment
of Scripture. And he stood there. Never a man
spake as this man spake. And he stood there before these
people. And because of that long established brainwashed, driven
into their head thing that they were the children of God, this
man stood before them and he said, you don't know me and you
don't know my father. You don't know God. You know
what he told them? Huh? I tell men that today and you
know what they do? What right you got to tell me that? I've
been a Baptist all my life. That's your problem. I've been Nazarene all my life.
That's your problem. I was raised in a Catholic church. That's your problem. They stood
before Him and listened to nothing He said, saw nothing that He
did, saw no glory about Him, and judged the Son of God with
their preconceived notions of who the Christ ought to be. Ain't
that what's going on today? That's exactly what's going on.
You know it and I know it. I stand and preach to men and
they've got a concept already in their head. Got it there when
they was little. Teaching them how to sing these
little songs. Jesus loves me, this I know and so on. And all
the way up through their upbringing until they get away from home
and then they go out and meet somebody and that gets changed
a little bit and they get a little bit more and after a while they're
just a big mixture of who knows what. And they come in but they've
got no idea. They have a concept. based on
long established accepted religion. I dare say you could go to anybody
in the day of the Jews and say, who is that outfit down there?
Oh, those are Jews. Those are Jews. That's the chosen
people of God. You ask people today, who are
the Jews? What are they going to tell you? Same thing. Same thing. They don't know God. He said, you don't know Me. You
don't know anything at all about this coming Messiah. You've got
your preconceived notes. What did the Jews believe about
the Messiah? They believed that He was going
to be a man like David who was going to be born in a certain
place in Bethlehem because of the prophets. I read it to you
in a Sunday school lesson, Micah chapter 5. He'll be born down
here in Bethlehem. He's going to come out of Bethlehem,
and then he's got to go into Egypt for a little while, and
then he's got to do these various things. And then he's going to
rise up in prominence among the people, which Jesus did, and
great crowds begin to flock around to hear him. And so they believed. They saw all these things going
on, and they believed in him. But they believed in him according
to those preconceived notions of who the Christ was. They didn't
know him, and they didn't know God. And you can't know God apart
from knowing him. And that's what he told them.
He said, you don't know me, and you don't know God. And they
said, now wait a minute. We'd be Abraham's here. He said,
you don't know anything about Abraham. Here I am. I'm a man. Which one
of you convinces me of sin? Boy, don't you wish you could
say that. I can't say that. He could say that. He's now about
32 years old. And he said, which one of you
convinces me of sin? Ain't nobody. He said, then why
don't you believe me? Well, I tell you, if I could
find somebody that I couldn't convince of sin, I think I'd
listen to them. Don't you? I've never met anybody
like that. These men were 100% convinced
that they were children of God, heirs of Abraham, heirs of all
the promises of God. And everybody else around them
were convinced of the same thing. They were products of an ancient
origin. They had the prophets, the promises
of God. They were the only people on
the top side of God's earth that even had a knowledge of the coming
Messiah. convinced beyond all doubt you
couldn't even talk to one, all these preconceived notions, and
he said, you don't know me. You don't know me. But because of what they saw,
they saw in these preconceived notions of the Christ rising
into prominence, He was going to set up an earthly kingdom,
everything that The Christ, the way they believed the coming
Christ was going to do, He was going to establish an earthly
kingdom. He was going to make things great and give them great
advantage here on this earth. Everything within these promises
that really meant anything to them had to do with this world.
It had nothing to do with heaven whatsoever. They figured because
as Abraham sees that there is a heaven, That didn't have anything
to do with the Messiah. The Messiah to them was all wrapped
up in earthly things and earthly kingdom, earthly glory, earthly
freedom. All of these types of things.
And they saw Him and they saw the people flocking out to Him
and they heard Him and never a man spake like this man. Nicodemus
said, we know. He was a Pharisee. He said, we
know that thou art a teacher come from God. They saw all these
things. And they believed on him. But
they believed on him according to those old preconceived notions.
And he said, that ain't going to get it. That ain't going to
get it. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, if you continue in my words, What does that do? That tells
you who He is. If you continue in My Word, then
are you My disciples. And you shall know the truth.
If you continue in My Words, His teaching, what He was teaching,
what He was preaching, what He was declaring to the people,
you continue in that. God gives you an appetite for
that. Opens your ears and hearts for that. You're going to know
the truth. When you know the truth, the
truth is going to set you free. Ain't that what he said? And
he said that to a bunch of rebels who thought they saved already.
They got saved. They got fixed up. I chose this text this morning
because I preach to a people in my day who have a preconceived
notion by long established traditional religion as to who and what the
Messiah was and what he came to do and all those things. My
generation is no different than that generation except in their
outward appearance. They're the same. It's the same
issues. I'm judged and my message is
critiqued by preconceived ideas and notions about the gospel. He said, you're from beneath,
I'm from above. And he said, you judge me according
to the flesh. Hmm. Wow. Ain't that what we do? Huh? When
we do this? Ain't that what we do? When we
lower them eyebrows down, squint your eyes, ain't that what you're
doing? You're judging me according to the flesh? You're judging
the things that I say according to the flesh, or are you judging
those things out of what I'm reading to you out of the Bible?
What's the basis? What's the issues? The issues
are the same. They're the same. These people believed exactly
what the multitudes in our days believed, that if you do the
best you can, obey the law, go to church, conform your lifestyle
to that of a Christian, you'll be a saved man. That's exactly
what they believed, and they perished. They believed that
a person ought to read the scriptures, pay his tithes, identify with
the people of God, and worship Him, and so on. All these special
days that are set aside. They had days and weeks and years
and Sabbath days and holy days. We got ours too, don't we? We
got a few of them coming up. Christmas and Easter and all
those holy days. Live like rebels all year long
and get sweet as pie on Christmas, don't we? Huh? These men believed and kept the
commandments concerning the structure of Israel. They had a high priest,
common priest, teachers, counselors, the temple, synagogues, all of
these things. And they were students of the
Scriptures. He said back in John 5.39 to the same bunch of people,
he said, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. But they are they which testify
of me, and you won't come to me that you might have life. The truth. What is the truth? Well, the truth is not a what,
it's a who. They were looking at the truth. Isn't that what he told them?
He said, I am the way, the truth. Ain't that what he said? The truth is a person. A person
God ordained to be before the world began. That's the truth. You listen to these men preach.
You might listen to them more than you need to, but you listen
to them preach. Are they preaching a Christ ordained
of God before the foundation of the world? Are they preaching
an eternal Christ? A lamb slain before the foundation
of the world? He can't be slain if he's not
appointed a lamb, and if he's not appointed a lamb back then,
then God can have no mercy. They preach a Jesus who was born
in time. Some of them even prayed prayers
to Mary and say that she is the mother of God. How absurd is
that? How did Mary get her existence
if she is the mother of God? He is eternal. Listen to what Peter said to
God's elect. And he's writing here that little
Gentile churches spread all over the place. Scattered abroad,
he said. Listen to this. 1 Peter 1.18.
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold from your vain conversation. That
was just one of the old traditional ideas that they had back under
the law. That old lifestyle received by tradition from your father.
For with the precious blood of Christ is a Lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you,
who by Him, as God has set Him forth as the eternal Christ,
God come into the flesh, God in all His appointments as Christ,
who by Him do believe in God that raised Him up from the dead,
and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Now, I'm trying to tell you this morning, I'm trying to tell you
the truth. The Christ of God is not plan B after plan A failed. That's just not so. And that's
the way men preach His coming. The Redeemer of Israel is not
the last minute desperate attempt of God to save somebody who don't
want to be saved. He's the Christ of God into whose
hands was given the very purpose and glory of God from all eternity. That's who He is. I tell you,
you must be nuts if you take your eternal soul and hand it
into the hands of a Christ who can't do anything. Think about
it. You're a fool. That's what the
Scripture said. You're a fool. I'm not going
to give my soul into the hands of anybody less than God. Christ
was God. God over all, blessed forever.
That's what Paul said about it. He's the Christ of God and into
His hands was given the very purpose and glory of God from
all eternity. Religion's got God creating the
world somewhat, most of it coming from evolution, part of it coming
from God. And then along the way, man don't
work out and he sins against God and he gets in trouble. So
God changed everything. He said, well, I'm going to let
him grow up to the age of accountability. And then when he comes along
and able to make decisions, if he does good, I'll save him.
If he don't, I'm going to have to send him to hell. That's what
religion preaches. You listen to them. That's not
so. None of those things are so.
God trusted all things, including all his elect, into the hands
of Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, and to prove God
created the world by His hands, didn't He? Without Him was not
anything made that was made. Who did that? The Christ. Into
whose hands? You go over Revelation chapter
5 and John's vision of the Christ. And he tells you that this Christ
who has appeared into the world in these last days, and he talks
about Him in this vision, and he said, I saw Him up in the
heavens. This Christ, this one that was
laid in the manger, this tiny baby that these wise men came
to worship and give their treasures and all these things to and to
pay homage to. John said, I saw Him in the heavens, and I saw
one sitting on the throne with a book sealed with seven seats. That's all the eternal counsels
of God, all the purpose of God sealed up in a book. But he said,
I went because nobody could look on the book, John. They couldn't
open the book. They couldn't loose the seals. Why? Because to do these things, you've
got to be consistent with the character of God. All of these
purposes and things that come to place in time is going to
have to be exactly consistent with all the perfections of God.
And they can only find one worthy to do it. Who was that? The Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. Huh? What did he do? He took the book. He took the
book. You don't take anything from
God. God gave him the book. And he took the book. And he
unloosed the seals. And he did it all consistent
with the character and purpose of God. He said, that's the Christ. Listen to this. Let me read you
something over here in the book of Ephesians. You go through Ephesians chapter
1, you don't even have to preach on it. It preaches itself. It
tells you that God from everlasting chose a people in Christ, predestinated
them to the adoption of children, made them accepted into blood,
on and on and on. And He keeps telling you, He
just keeps telling you, it's according to the good pleasure
of His will. It's according to the greatness
of His grace, the majesty of His grace. And he gets down here
to verse 9, and he said, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed
in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, going
to gather together all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, which are on earth, even in him, in whom we also have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory." Whose
glory? God's glory. Who first trusted
in Christ. You see that? He's the Christ
of God into whose hand God put all things. You can rest your
soul on Him. And that's what Paul says down
here, in whom you also trusted after you heard. After you heard
what? Into whose hands God trusted,
then you trusted. You can trust whom God trusts.
You can't trust men, but you can trust Him. You can trust
Him. That's just God. He said, you
don't know me. They were looking for another
David. They were looking for another Solomon. They were looking
for another Isaiah. They were looking for another
Moses. They were looking for somebody to give them some earthly
glory and some earthly hope and some earthly glory. They wanted to raise up. They
wanted to be noticed. They wanted to be seen. They
wanted men to take notice of them. They were tired of being
captives and prisoners. He said, you don't know me. I remember an old preacher giving
an altar call one time, and we had this old wooden bench up
front. That's what they called the altar. And he said, now this
altar, he said, it's got no efficacy whatsoever. It's just a place
where men meet God. Let me tell you something. You find a place where men meet
God, it's got more efficacy than you know what to do with. And
the only place you can find that's in Christ. That's where men Paul said, we have an altar.
Ain't that what he said? Christ is our altar. He took the book. He opened the
seals. He did all these things. And
he said down there in Ephesians chapter 1, in whom you also trusted
after you heard the word of what? Truth. Truth. Ain't that what we're talking
about? You shall know the truth. And the truth shall set you free. Free from what? Free from lies. Free from pretense. Free from
those preconceived notions that leave you with no hope. All of
those things are based on what you do. This is based on what
he did. You want to go out to glory and
meet God based on what you've done? I wouldn't want to go out
and meet God based on what I'm doing right now, let alone based
on all those other things. My hope's in Christ. It's in
what He did, what He manifested, what He accomplished, and where
He's at according to God's eternal appointments. Think about it. Creation, providence, salvation
in His hands. Peter's opening message on the
day of Pentecost, he said to those men who shouted out there
at the cross to crucify Christ, Peter said, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel of God. Ain't that what he said? And for knowledge of God, he
said, you took and by wicked hands crucified and slain. He
turned right around to the very next message and he tells them
again, Acts 4, verse 27. For of a truth, thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou hast ordained, both Herod Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles, and all the people of Israel, were gathered together
to do whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel determined before
to be done. This is the eternal Christ of
God. Now, you said, you continue in
my word. You keep listening to my word.
Then you'll be my disciples. But right now, you're not. You're
not. You're of your father, the devil. John's message to the church,
and indeed the whole of the New Testament Scriptures, is that
Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. He was foretold throughout
the Old Testament. He's the coming Redeemer and
Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. This Jesus of
Nazareth came as a representative man, Romans 5.19. As by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." It's all in him. It ain't in them. No man born of Adam who can produce
a righteous obedience acceptable to God. Because all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Paul said the law is spiritual. It demands obedience in the heart.
It demands right motives, perfect motives. Perfect affections. And then we stand before God
that says in Hebrews 4.12, is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. Boy, if that don't slay you,
nothing can. God looks on your intents, Russell. You might lay
the money down. God don't even see the money.
He's looking right at your heart. Why? Why did you do it? He's
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that's not manifest in His sight, but
all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do." No wonder he says in Romans 3, none righteous,
none good. What else did it say about this
Christ? The Scripture said He appeared once in the end of the
world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That's
why He came. He came to put away sin. What
did He do? Who is this man? This is this
man appointed of God before the foundation of the world, into
whose hands was given all that. What did he do? He appeared in
this world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What
did he do? Did he put it away? Huh? Did he put it away? Then you
can rest in him, can't you? His birth was the declaration
of one who had for centuries cried, lo, I come in the volume
of the book it's written of me to do thy will, O God, by the
which will we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Ain't that what it says? Put
them away. Put them away. The gospel's not
an invitation, decision, plan, or creed. It's a person. an eternal
purpose, promise, manifested, risen, accepted, glorified person. When you see Him, you embrace
Him. And how you embrace Him is exactly
as God set Him forth. That's the only way you can see
Him. The only way you can see Him. Everything God has purposed
to give to fallen sinners, He accomplished in the life and
death of His Son. Now he's either the victorious,
risen, reigning Lord of Glory, or he's the biggest imposter
ever put over on this world. One or the other. That's right. He's one or the
other. He's either all that this book says he is, or he's nothing. The Jews understood that. It's
a shame our generation don't. The Jews understood that either
this is the Christ or He's absolutely nothing. They judged Him according
to the flesh and said He's absolutely nothing. Isn't that right? That's
right. He's an imposter. They said let
His blood, even Pilate had some reservations about what he was
doing and tried to get them to not do this because he knew that
this was an innocent man. This man was not guilty of the
things they accused him of, but he couldn't get out of it because
he was a politician. He had to worry about the people,
so he couldn't get out of it, but he knew that. And those people
said, let his blood be on us. I tell you, you'd have to be
convinced he was nothing to say that, wouldn't you? Let his blood
be on us and our children. He's either all or He's nothing.
And true saving faith sees Him as God has set Him forth, and
it rests in Him, trusts in Him, finds in Him alone everything
it takes to save their worthless soul. They find it in Him. And
it's not because I haven't looked, but you can look into this flesh
all you want to. You're looking in an empty box.
You won't find any hope in it. You won't find any assurance
in it. You won't find any righteousness in it. It's all in Him. What's repentance? That's stopping
to look in here and starting to look up there. The Lord of glory confronted
these men with His gospel. And they totally ignored the
Scriptures and miracles and preaching of the gospel. And they judged
Him by their traditional ideas and understanding. You think
about this. A man approved of God. He called
the dead out of the grave right before their eyes, John. And
they stood and watched. They watched him call Lazarus
out of the tunnel. They watched him take a basket
and feed 5,000 men with a few fishes and a few loaves. They
watched him cleanse lepers, cause the deaf to hear, the blind to
see, men that they knew from the time they were children.
They saw that never a man speak as he... You talk about preaching. This man took the greatest lawyers,
defenders of the Jewish religion that's ever been and put them
to total silence in less than a paragraph. Just left them standing
there doing this. They didn't have nothing to say. And after all that, they would
not receive God's testimony. Why? Why? Let me read this Scripture
to you, and I'll close. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3. Our Lord stood before them not
only as the Messiah, but He stood before them as a preacher. The
Lord has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He read
that Scripture to them and said, I am. Over in Isaiah. And now He stands before these
people, and He preaches the Gospel to them. He is the Gospel. This
is the gospel preaching the gospel. That's what it is. But they wouldn't
receive it. Why? The greatest light. This
is the day star. This is the sun. Why wouldn't
they receive it? What was the problem? 2 Corinthians
4, verse 3. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to the lost. Who's that? In whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them." They just kept coming at him,
kept coming at him, kept coming at him. They said, if thou be
the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you. But you believe not, because
you're not my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear
my voice. Follow Me. My sheep continue
in My Word. And My sheep know Me. And I know
them. 2 Corinthians, where I just read
to you from over there. Verse 4, he goes on down a little
bit. I think it's in verse 6. And he said, For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's what it takes to be saved.
That's what true faith sees and rests in. And once you see it,
I don't care if the multitudes are seven million to one, you'll
stand on what you've seen.