Now, if you'll turn with me to
Romans chapter 16, the very last chapter in Paul's letter to the
Romans. I've got some things that I want
to say to you this morning about the Word of God, about this book
from which we speak. and the preaching of the gospel,
and what takes place in the hearts of those who hear it, believe
it, rejoice in it, and live out their lives according to it.
Now, let's read this text together here in Romans chapter 16, beginning
with verse 25. Now, Paul said, having established
this gospel of justification by faith through this great book
here in his letter to the Romans. Now, he said, to him that is
of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery
which was kept secret since the world began. but now is made
manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets." Old Testament
scriptures. According to the commandment
of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith. Now that's a mouthful, isn't
it? That's a mouthful. To him that is of the power to
establish you according to my gospel. This gospel that he preached. Paul was a missionary. Paul was
an apostle. Paul was a preacher of the gospel.
God sent him out. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. As God opened these providential
doors to him, Paul went all up and down the coast preaching
the gospel. Took ship, went out to islands all over the place
preaching the gospel. And he writes back to this church
at Rome and he said, to him that's of the power to establish you
according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, that
which the world calls foolishness, that which established religion
gives about that much space in that much room. Come in and meet
for an hour and a half and have about five minutes worth of preaching,
which is no preaching at all, and then sit down. That's not
how I find preaching in the scriptures. I find preaching from the get-go. I find it to be the preeminent
thing. Those multitudes went out there
to him. Yes, he healed them. Yes, he
fed them. But he preached to them. And
when he stood up that day and read from that passage in Isaiah,
he didn't read on there about The preeminent thing in that
reading was not all those miracles and things that he'd do. The
preeminent thing in that is he was called to preach, is what
he said. Sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. He closed the book up and sat
down. And he told them, he said, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. According, now watch this. There's
a lot of, he just keeps using that word according all the way
through this. The power to establish you according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ, which is according to the revelation
of the mystery. This gospel is a mystery. Folks
don't get it. Have you not noticed that? When
you tell them this gospel, they don't get it. What are you talking
about? I've never heard that before.
Of course you haven't. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. The angels desire to look into
this thing. It's a mystery. You thought you
know it. You thought you was born with
it. You thought everybody knew it. Nobody knew it. That's what he says. I have not
seen nor hear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But God
hath revealed them unto us by His Holy Spirit. Yea, even the
deep things of God. It's a mystery. And this thing
of being established, this thing of preaching the gospel is according
to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the
world began. But now it's made manifest. How
does he do that? By the scriptures of the prophets. Huh? The scriptures of the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah. Huh? All the way through. According,
now watch this, here's according again. According to the commandment
of the everlasting God, these things, these things declared
in these Old Testament scriptures, and this new revelation of going
out and preaching the gospel, and this revelation of this mystery
that's made manifested to you as it is today, is according
to the commandment of the everlasting God. He didn't gather them folks
together and say, now, if you can find a place in your church
service, you might want to preach a little bit. That's not what
he said, is it? He said, you go into all the
world and preach this gospel. You preach it. Preaching is a
declaration. And you declare this mystery.
And I'll tell you this, by this everlasting commandment of God,
it's made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. You
see that? That's God's commandment. That's
God's commandment. And Paul said, to God only wise,
only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. And we are, without
doubt, living in perilous times, days of darkness, deceit, days
of great satanic influence. There's a voice on every corner
saying, I'm of God. I'm of God. We worship God here.
You want to know something about God, come over here. It's on
every corner, on every corner. God meets here. We're the true
church. And we've been so, and I want
you to consider this statement. I'm not trying to pick an argument
with you this morning. I'm trying to show you something.
So pay attention to what I'm saying. We've been so absolutely
flooded by false preachers and teachers and flooded by their
lies of universal love and atonement and salvation, we begin to accept
it as the norm. That's why you can't get to first
base with somebody, because they just say, well, that's not what
everybody else believes. What in the world does that have
to do with anything? That scripture I read to you
by Paul writing to Timothy, that young man, he wrote from prison. He wasn't up at the First Baptist
Church. He was in prison. He wasn't down at the synagogue
sitting in the chair with his broad phylacteries showing out
on his robe. He was in prison, been beaten
twice within one stripe of death, been shipwrecked, scarred from
head to toe. His eyes just, I don't know what
God did to him, but he gave him this thorn in the flesh. And
it's obvious to me by reading the scriptures, he told those
Galatians, he said, I bear you witness When I first came to
you, you'd have plucked out your eyes and gave them to me if I'd
asked you. There was something wrong with his eyes and something
wrong with his facial appearance. And here he is sitting down in
prison. Nobody wants to look at him. Boy, now he's down there
in prison. And he's writing to this young
preacher, Timothy. And he said, don't be ashamed
of me. I'm God's prisoner. I'm God's prisoner. But all around,
all around, everybody sitting down in the synagogue, why? He
ain't no God. Look, he's in prison. Don't listen
to him. Don't listen to him. You see,
we've been so bombarded by this thing that we think this is the
norm. Go back 100 years. Just go back
100 years. Take man's writings and man's
ways and man's religions and go back 100 years. And it's not
such a majority. Take it back 200 years. And now,
it's almost equal. Take it back 600 years, and all
you find is the doctrine that I'm preaching to you this morning.
And we're not halfway back to the days of Christ yet. Do you really want to take something
that was developed in the last 200 years and build your faith
and hope before the sovereign God on something that's just
been manifest and talked about in the last 200 years? You see how silly that is? This
is what God, this is what Paul is writing to this Roman church.
And he said, here's the commandment of God. We're not making this
thing up. We're not the beginning of this
thing. I'm declaring you things here under the commandment of
God that was declared from the beginning. From the beginning. I'm showing you Christ. I'm showing
you these things of God that's been declared from Genesis. It
didn't start out with Matthew, it started out in Genesis. You
see what he's saying? And this gospel's inclusive of
that Old Testament. In fact, it's based on it. Apart
from this Old Testament, we don't know who Jesus Christ was. We
don't know who he was. Everything he did, everything
he said, everything these men preached about him, they based
in that Old Testament. The universal presence of the
Antichrist religion has infiltrated the world in all religions and
of all faiths. And they're all commonly accepted,
no matter what they preach. But you've got to respect them.
You've got to call them reverend. You've got to call them ministers
of God. You have to give them respect. Why? Why? Why do I have to give them respect?
You have to call their converts children of God. You dare not
say anything about their converts. Let me tell you what the Lord
said about them. He told them that they was, He
said, you come up a sea and land to make one proselyte like unto
yourself, and when you've made him, he's twofold more the child
of hell than you are. That's what he said about them
and the converts. But we dare not say that today.
I've got to say whatever the church titles him, father, pope,
whatever, preacher, whatever he is, I've got to come and belong. Set before men as these men are
all described and set before us and described like roads They're
like spokes in a wheel. I know they're going different
directions, but they're all connected to the same hub. Ain't that what
you say? I know they're going down a different road, but the
road always goes to Rome. The Word of God has been replaced
by the testimonies of men. The Gospel has been replaced
by decisionism and invitations and preaching has been replaced
with entertainment and motivational talks. You have to come in on
Sunday morning, get pumped up to get through the week. Can't
get through the week. New birth, being replaced with aisle walking
and accepting Jesus as your personal savior. And obedience and submission
with ceremonial tradition and holidays. There's nothing about
the religion of this day is even remotely similar. Read the book. Just read it. Don't take me at
my word. Read this book. and see if you can find any similarities
with the people that was converted in this book and the preachers
that preached to them with this generation. You won't even find
a similarity, let alone a lookalike. We live in a day when dogmatic
preaching is considered to be ungodly, offensive, unfair, and
uneventful. I want to tell Ralph. Man, he'd skin the hide off of
you. That's what they said. I don't find his preaching that
way, but folks said, man, he'd skin the hide off of you. And
finally, they come and told him, they said, Rob, you can catch
more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. He said, I'm
not trying to catch flies. I'm trying to kill sinners. There's
a difference. There's a difference. Uneventful, they say. Well, to
these things, let me say with the Apostle Paul, here's what
he said. They had him in prison, took
him up before the governor. And they said, here's a man,
he's a troublemaker. All he does is go around town
stirring things up, trying to get the people. He stirs them
up against government, and he stirs them up against one another,
and he stirs them up against the churches. And he comes down
here and he pollutes our synagogue and he defiles our services and
he talks bad about us. He's a man. He's a seditioner. He's a pestilent fellow. And
that's why he's here. That's why we brought him here.
And Paul just sat there and let him talk. When it got done, Paul
got up and he said, that's not what I am. He said, and they
didn't find me in the streets trying to organize people against
the Roman government. And they didn't find me down
there in the synagogue trying to stir up and make trouble.
And I wasn't down there trying to drag off a bunch of cross
lights after myself. But he said, now, I'll confess
to this. After the way they call heresy, that's how I worship
God. Now, that's the problem. He said,
they don't like what I preach. don't like what I preach. I feel like it's my responsibility
in my day to tell you this, there are no gray areas concerning
the gospel. There are no gray areas concerning
the things that we preach and the God we worship. And everything
that I have to say I base on the authority and veracity of
the Word of God alone. One fellow told me, he said,
well, we were talking about 2 Corinthians 5.21 is the exact scripture we
were talking about. And he said, it doesn't say that
in the Bible. I said, well, sure it does. He said, no it don't.
I said, well, I think I've got a Bible in my truck. And I went
over there and rooted around and found this old Bible. And
I brought it out, and I turned over there. Oh, he said, that's
that old King James version. Either this is the book of God
or it's a total sham. That's where you have to start.
I'm not going to stand here and give you my opinion. You're going
to give me your opinion. We're not going to get anywhere.
I don't need to tell you what my folks believe and then you
tell me what your folks believe. What's that got to do with anything?
We're talking about men and God. We've got no other testimony,
no other record, no other basis of this thing except God's word. That's all we have. And that's
where we have to start. And either this is the book of
God or it's a total sham. It's either altogether infallible,
or it's altogether opinions and speculations of men. And that's
what's being passed off on this generation. Well, I'll tell you
why they believe that, because of that old translation. So we'll
just get another translation. Well, the problem with all these
translations is that they come along, and each church that publishes
these things publishes that translation with a bias. So everything they
don't like, they take out. The King James Version, I like
it the best because it was written at a time when our language was
at the clearest, at the purest. I'll tell you why we have so
much trouble. We go back and try to read these old... I have
to read them with a dictionary. You know why? Because we're so
lax in our English in our day. We don't know anything. We're
talking slang. This Bible was written in a day
when our language was at its richest. If I receive this book
in any way except as the word of God, it is to me become of
no more value than a rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover. And
that's all it is to most folks anyway. It's just a decoration
to put on a coffee table. Just another superstitious object
that men hold, hoping for good fortune and good luck. The Bible is not like any other
book. There's nothing in this world
to compare to it. The Bible has more than 40 authors,
spanned 1,600 years. It was written in three languages,
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. It was written on two separate
continents by men of two different cultures. And it was written
by men of not only different cultures, but different stations,
different times. It was written by kings and judges
and prime ministers and priests and peasants and fishermen and
doctors and tax collectors. You get that group together today
and see if you can get them to agree on anything. Yet the Bible tells one story,
and its writings are in perfect harmony, and it bears no contradiction
of itself from beginning to end. Now, there's five evidences within
this book. If you just read this book, you're
going to come to this conclusion that there's five evidences within
itself that bear witness to its divine origin. And I'll just
touch on these things this morning. First of all, that Jesus Christ
himself gave no other evidence of his person and work except
the word of God. The word of God. That's what
he did. Everything he had to say to men,
he said it and he said, for it was written. It was written.
It was written. It wasn't too long ago, one of
our fellows was talking to a man and was talking to him about
the Word of God and he said, I don't blankety-blank care about
the Word of God. Well, there's no hope for you. There's no hope for you. Jesus
Christ himself gave no other evidence to what he had to say
except this book. This book. Even when he announced
who he was to these people, He got the book of Isaiah, found
the place where it was written, and read it to them and said,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Secondly, there's
a uniqueness about the contents of this book. The Bible alone gives us an irrefutable
account of creation. Now they've tried for thousands
and thousands of years to disprove the Bible, what the Bible says
about creation, but they haven't disproved it. And in this day,
with all their scientific means and all the things that they've
got, they still can't disprove what God declared from the beginning,
that God created the heavens and the earth. They haven't taken one thing
from it. It stood the test of time. The
Bible alone gives us the only explanation of the character
of God that's in perfect harmony with your conscience and creation.
The only one. You can't find anything else.
Everything else you find, you're going to have a problem with
it. You're going to have a problem with it. In 2 Corinthians chapter
4, Paul said he was willing to submit himself and his message
to the consciences of his ears. No problem, he said. Of course,
this is the only message that will do it. The Bible's the only
account of man's origin and fall that can accurately describe
what he is and why he is and why he does what he does. The
Bible's the only book in this world to declare and explain
the necessity of the incarnation of Christ. There's no other reason,
no other book, no other information anywhere that describes the necessity
of Christ, of God coming down, of the Word being made flesh
and dwelling among us, the incarnation of Christ. And there's an uncommon honesty
in the Word of God, unlike any biographies of men, any of the
writings of men. You open this book up, and it
takes the most eminent characters in the book. And it doesn't leave anything
out. I've read the old Puritans, and I'm not saying that the Puritans
promoted themselves that way, but the men who wrote about them
did. And you get the idea that all these men ever did is just
pray and read the Bible. And it's just not so. Just not
so. When God describes his most eminent
characters in his book, he doesn't picture them that way. He doesn't
leave anything out. He didn't leave out the fall
of Adam. He didn't leave out Noah's drunkenness, Lot's incest,
David's murder and adultery, Solomon's lovers, Moses' angry,
Aaron's idolatry, and Peter's denial of Christ. It's all right
there in the book. There's an uncommon honesty about
this book. And once you see the honesty
of God about his most eminent character, Don't you feel like
he's being honest about you? Huh? There's evidences. This is not
a book like any other book. You're not going to pick this
book up and read it with sincerity. I'm not talking about reading
it trying to disprove everything I say. Pick this book up just
between you and God and read it. I challenge you. I challenge
you. And then fourthly, there's a
harmony and a unity of the scriptures that testify of its divine origin. You go back and you find this
lamb in the garden. And then you find that lamb on
Abel's altar. And you just keep finding this
lamb. The lamb never disappeared. The lamb just, it has a continuity
and it flows all the way through the scriptures. You go clear
over here in the very last book of the Bible, over here in Revelations,
and you're looking and talking about the lamb. He's still talking
about the lamb. The seed of the woman in Genesis
3 is the same as the seed of the woman talked about in Isaiah
7, verse 14. It's the same seed that he talks
about over in Matthew 1, verse 22, where he said, Now all this
was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child. Every prophecy, every future
prophecy of the scripture from the beginning of time has been
fulfilled with perfect accuracy. Right down to the exact words
that Christ would cry on the cross. Right down to the exact
words that his enemies had to say against him. Right down to
the betrayer of Christ described him to a teacher. This book is the word of God,
and it evidences itself by not only inward evidences, but by
God's preservation and popularity of it. It's been translated into
every language there is in the world. You can't find anybody that doesn't
know what a Bible is. Take the books of men that was
written only 100 years ago. Where are they? Take the books
of men written 600 years ago. Go back a little past that and
you don't even find any books. But here's one. Here's one. Been around 3,600 years. Still
the best seller. Outsells any book. There is. 3,600 years. This book is the
book of God and it testifies of the glory of God and the redemption
of a people through the substitutionary work of Christ revelation of
his person, and his work in the hearts of chosen sinners. And
this book is written in the language of common men. It uses illustrations. I was talking to my sister over
in Oklahoma City last night, and we got to talking about my
son and his new bride. And they both had a tremendous amount
of schooling behind them. And now when they come, his conversations
has changed. And I sit and I listen to them
talk, and they don't use the same words like they used to.
Now they use these great big words, you know. And my sister said, well, they're
not. I said something about putting on airs. And she said, oh, no,
they're not putting on airs. I said, oh, yes, they are. Yes,
they are. And she said, well, you know,
these old writers, I said, you have to read them with a dictionary.
I said, I can't imagine an average congregation in that day and
a man like Jonathan Edwards that you have to read with a dictionary
to end up preaching to these folks and them understanding
half of what he's saying. I said, you know, this thing
about preaching and communicating, it's not about trying to impress
people with your education. It's not trying to make them
think that you're smarter than they are so they need to listen
to you. That's not what it's about. I said, our Lord stood
up to preach and here's what he said, a sower went out to
sow. Everybody in the place knew what he was talking about, didn't
he? Everybody in there. A certain
king made a marriage for his son. I understand that. This book is written in the language
of the common man and it uses illustrations and relationships
and simple parables to teach and declare the gospel of God's
free grace in Christ. He spoke to those Pharisees.
I mentioned those three parables to you here the other day. that
he spoke against them. When he got through the second
parable, they said they perceived that he talked to them. It's plain. It's clear. It's
pictured. It's typified. It's allegorical. It's demonstrated
in the universe. All you have to do is walk outside
and look up. You can't get away from it. You
can't hide from it. You can't deny it. Romans chapter
1 and chapter 2 said whether you're religious and got a Bible
or whether you just live in the world and a native with a bone
in your nose, you look up, you're without excuse. You're without
excuse. God's preserved this book. And
by His commandment, He's preserved this book. And He's preserved
the means. And He empowers men to go and
preach from this book. Gives them an understanding of
what it says when others just doing this. And that's what I
was doing until he showed me what it meant. And that's what
you'll do until he shows you what it means. You'll read it
and just stand there, I don't get it. I don't understand it. But you can't get away from it
because it's so clear. It's so clear. The same fellow that questioned
me about 2 Corinthians 5.21, He said, that's confusing. He
said, and that's that old English. And I said, that word made, M-A-D-E,
made. It means the same thing that
meant then, didn't it? Sure it does. It's not the word of God that
confuses and clouds the issues. It's rather the veil that covers
men's hearts to its mysteries. The gospel proclaimed in this
book by those sent of God is only hid to the lost. That's
what Paul said. Hid to the lost. Not hid to anybody
else. Not hid to anybody else. It's
not hid to that man who desires to know it. It's not hid to you.
If you desire to know it, he said, I'll tell you, he said,
when you'll find me, when you seek for me with all your heart. It's hid to the lost. And I'll
tell you this, it's hid because the God of this world has blinded
the minds of them that believe not. He's blinded their minds.
They're not blinded by strange unseen spirits. They're blinded
by ministers under Satan's rule. They're blinded because they're
bombarded with lies and deceit. Antichrist religion is any religion
that will not submit itself to the word of God and the gospel
of Christ. I don't care what the name is
on the door. They won't come back to this book, they're antichrist.
Write it down. They argue against the things
of Christ and not just the main things, all things, all things. They will not submit to his ways,
to his means, to his authority, privately or publicly. They will
not put themselves into His hands, commit their lives and welfare
into His hands. They won't do it. They won't
surrender themselves. Peter said, humble yourself under
the mighty hand of God. And you will when you realize
this is His book. Oh, yes, you will. Four things that I believe are
stated in our text as well as throughout the Word of God. First,
that only God can give you a true revelation of this Word. If this
book be of divine origin, then to understand it, you're going
to have to have a divine revelation. It's God's book. It's God's book. I'm not talking about what you
hear with your ears. There's a hearing of the ears
that hears truth every time it's preached and every time it's
read. Let me give you an example. The Jews came up to Christ. How
many times, how many times had he told them that he was Christ?
How many times had he done miracles right in their presence? How
many times did he give them parable after parable after parable?
Plain declarations. And they said, if thou be the
Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you. I'm not talking about
a hearing with the ears. I'm talking about a hearing in
here. But he said, you hear not. They heard him. They perceived
that those parables were against him. I know they heard him with
these ears. Men hear truth with these ears. They don't hear it
in here. A lot of people hear it in here. Tell us plainly. He said, I told
you. I told you. I told you plainly. I told you
often. I told you in parable, I told
you in type, I told you by the prophecies of the Scriptures,
I told you. But you believe not because you're
not my sheep. That's what your problem is.
Matthew chapter 13, the Lord spoke to the Pharisees as He
would an unlearned child. Simple parables. These were educated
men. These were men with degrees and
honors. These were men that everybody
was afraid of and feared and gave all kinds of divine rights
to. And He spoke by parable and illustrated
as if they had no understanding at all. Talk to them like they're
babies, John. Use little tiny words and simple
illustrations and talk to them. And the disciples come back and
they said, you know, you offended them. You offended these men. Why did you talk to them in parables
like that? Why did you talk down to them like that?" He said,
"'Cause it's given unto you to hear, it ain't been given to
them." Ain't been given to them. It's given to you to know the
mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it's not given. And
the man who knows this is patient with men, knowing that apart
from divine intervention, you'll never understand the Scripture. He'll read this book, and it'll
be a law book. It'll be a law book. You don't
eat meat. You don't drink blood. You don't eat things strangled.
It's a law book. He'll go through here and tell
you all the do's and don'ts. To others, it's going to be a
history book. It may be a book of fables and practical stories,
a book of ceremonies and ordinances, a book of mysteries and future
prophecies, a book of miracles. Scientific phenomenon. Might even be a book of philosophy.
Moral reform. Governmental standards. But it'll
never to you be a book of redemption until he opens it up. And when
he does, you won't find any of those other things in this book.
Every time you turn a page, he's talking about redemption. Redemption. How contrary are the metaphors
of Scripture to the ideas that men have concerning the Word
of God. What you talking about? Well,
the Bible pictures itself, pictures the Word of God as a lamp to
light. You know what it says? A mirror
to reflect. I'm not like what you said. Look
in this book. See your reflection. It's a mirror
to reflect. It's a laver in which to wash.
It's bread to satisfy, milk to grow, strong meat to establish,
honey to sweeten. Are you sourpuss? Read this book. That'll sweeten you up. Yes,
it will. It's a fire to melt. It's a hammer
to break. It's a sword to defend and divide. It's a seed. It's a seed by which
we're born, the Word of God. Only God can give the true revelation
of His Word. And then secondly, by this book,
this revelation, we're taught the means of faith. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Ain't that what he says?
Go back and read what he says in those four previous verses
before we say that. This hearing, it's the same hearing
He declared back in verses 14, three verses earlier, how shall
they believe on him of whom they have not heard, and how shall
they hear without a preacher? But when that preacher stands
up, he don't stand up and says, now here's what I think. He says,
here's what this book says. Here's what this book says. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18,
Paul tells us that the preaching of the cross, substitutionary
redemption is to them that are perishing foolishness. But unto us which are being saved
it is the power of God. Why? Why? Why don't God just pass out Bibles
and let everybody figure it out for themselves? Why all these churches in the
land? Why all this preaching? Why all
these people standing up making these declarations and all of
them saying something different. Why all this confusion? You see what I'm saying? Why
don't God just pass out Bibles? Why didn't he just anoint these
ones that we're reading about here this morning and have this
book and preserve it and just pass the book out and say, here
it is. Here it is. Figure it out. Why don't God
just use dreams and visions and experiences and decisions? Why
don't God just send out all his elect Why don't he do that? Why don't he just take everybody
in the church here and just send them out in the street? Why does
he do this? Why this preaching of the gospel?
What's this all about? It pleased God. That's what it's
all about. It pleased God. And you know
what? God don't care if it pleases
you or not. People like don't care. Here's the third thing. The results
of these means is that men and women are brought to faith and
repentance. Look with me over here at 2 Corinthians chapter
3. A young man called me here the
other day. Lord willing, we're going to baptize him next Sunday.
He said, I've been sitting in the church for going on two years. He said, I haven't had any kind
of experience. So I had spent long nights weeping.
But he said, what I had done is he said, I've sit and I've
listened to what you're saying. And he said, when it started
out, I started following you so I could disprove you. And
he said, I'd write everything down. Then when I get home, I'd
look at it. And I tried to disprove you, disprove what you say. But
he said I couldn't. And then he said, after a while,
I started seeing what you were saying was so. And I started
reading. And when I started reading, I
started finding out what you were saying is all over the book.
It's everywhere. And then he said, suddenly I
realized that it was opening the book. And I began to look
in here, and it was opening things up. I could understand them.
I could see them. And then he said, this book revealed
to me what I was. what I was. And it revealed Christ to me,
and I've embraced Him. And He said, I've come. He said,
I want to be a part of this. I want to be identified with
this. He said, what do I need to do? I said, you've already
done it. Everything you need to do. I
don't have anything else for you to do. I'm trying to point
you to Christ. And if God will give you that revelation and
you embrace Him, I thank God for you. Listen to what Paul says to his
church. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 1. He said, Do we begin again to
commend ourselves, or need we as some others letters of commendation
to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in
our hearts. known and read of all men. Forasmuch
as you are manifestly declared to be the letter of Christ, ministered
by us, written not in ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the
heart, and such trust have we through Christ to God, not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to thank anything of ourselves,
but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. We
don't have altercars. I don't believe in them. I don't give what some men call
the invitation. And I don't plead with men and
women at the end of my message to make some kind of a decision.
To be an able minister of the New Testament, one must be sent
of God blessed of God, accompanied by God because the work he must
do is beyond his ability. Paul's talking about writing
this letter in their hearts. You see what he's telling them?
I don't need letters from men. What's that amount to? Do I need
a degree? Do I need to go down to college
and take some courses so I can put that up there so everybody
have confidence? Now, you have confidence if God
gets His pen out and writes in your heart. That's when you have
confidence. That's what Paul tells them.
I don't need letters. Give them my letter. Circumcision. Think about it.
You know what circumcision is? Circumcision is of the heart.
Of the heart. You reckon Paul could do that?
No way. Well, then who made him an able
minister? God did. Why did He do it? Because it
pleased Him. Huh? Pleased Him. Having laid the foundation of
Christ, the High Priest, that one all-sufficient sacrifice,
Paul makes this statement to the Hebrews. He said, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness. Now listen to us. You ever read that? To us. For after that He said before,
this is the covenant I'll make with them after those days, saith
the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds
will I write them. And their sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. That's the New Testament. The
New Covenant is the covenant written on the heart. Paul said
he was made an able minister of the new covenant. You see
what I'm trying to tell you? No man is sufficient for this.
Who's sufficient for this, he said? Our sufficiency is of God. It's of God. And there's no gray
area. Either this is the way it is,
or this whole thing is a sham. But if this is the way it is,
and we reject it, we're in trouble. We are in trouble. And this is
the whole point of my message this morning is this. If this
book be of divine origin, and these means be of God, and this
is the testimony of this book, and this book is of divine origin,
then brother, there are some serious consequences to what
this book says. Serious consequences. But there
are also divine blessings. Divine blessings in this book.