Now, if you'll turn back with
me to Ezekiel 37, I'm going to talk to you a little bit this
morning about preaching to the bones. Now, in the first 14 verses
of Ezekiel 37 is a prophecy that I've just read to you concerning
true Israel. All of the prophets of God concern
Israel. Over and over throughout the
Old Testament you find these promises being spoken to Israel. And Paul says when he begins
to tell us, and I'll read some of that to you here in just a
little bit out of Romans chapter 9, when he begins to tell us
who his kinsmen are, he tells us that they're Israelite to
whom were the promises. While it might picture other
events and some of the events that took place concerning the
nation of Israel, it is overall, speaking of the true church in
the heavenly Jerusalem, the Israel of God. Now let me show you a
couple of scriptures. It's very important that we understand
who Israel is. If you don't understand who true
Israel is, you're in a mess. You're in a mess. Brother Barnard
used to say, you could make any scripture in the Bible say anything
you wanted it to. If you buy these two things,
you could either say, well, it was meant to happen in the millennium,
or it was talking to natural history. And he said, through
those two things, you could explain away anything. But turn with
me to Romans chapter 9. I want to show you a couple of
scriptures of here and get us straight on on the true Israel. Who are true Israel? Who are these people? We've got
a nation today that's recognized by all the nations of the world
called the nation of Israel. And this prophecy of Scripture
back here, talking to Israel. But who is this Israel to whom
these promises are given? Look here in Romans chapter 9
beginning in verse 2. Paul said, I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption
and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and
the service of God and the promises. Whose are the fathers, talking
about Ezekiel, the very book that we just read from? Jeremiah
and Isaiah and all these Old Testament prophets, whose are
the fathers? And of whom, as concerning the
flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Not
as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham, his natural seed, are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not. Let me read that one more time. These are not the children of
God. But the children of the promise,
are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son." Now
over in Galatians chapter 4, you don't have to turn to this
one, I'll just quote it to you, but this is where I preach from
a couple of Wednesdays back. Paul takes the story of Sarah,
Abraham's wife, and Hagar, and their two children, Ishmael and
Isaac, And he shows us the difference between natural Israel and true
Israel. He shows us the difference between
natural religion and true religion. He shows us the difference in
the cognitive works and the cognitive grace. He takes these things
and he uses them as an allegory. And when he was finished speaking,
and he's speaking here to Gentile peoples in Galatia, This was
his letter to the Galatian church or the churches of Galatia in
that region. Gentile believers, maybe not
a Jew among them, Gentile believers. And when he was finished speaking
to those Gentile believers, here's what he said, Galatians 4.28,
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise. Gentile believers. Uncircumcised. Knew very little about the Law
of God. And then in chapter 3 of Galatians, he tells us that Christ
hath redeemed us. Talking again to Gentile believers.
Redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for
us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree. Galatians 3.14 that the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now watch this down here
in verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds as of many, but
as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And then if you'll
recall or look back a little earlier in that chapter back
there to verse 7, he said, Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. True Israel
are those chosen in Christ before the world began, given the promise
of the woman's seed in the garden. which seed came in the fullness
of time and accomplished the salvation of God, and then ascended
up into glory to intercede for them, and see to it that God's
testament was dispersed according as the will of God had purposed
from the very beginning." This is what salvation is all about.
This is what true Israel is all about. This is what the gospel
is all about. In every age, God has called
out His people and given them an understanding of His promised
redemption in Christ. He said of Abraham, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Moses esteemed
the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt, and therefore he left that country, and he left the
blessings of that country, and he went off to be with his own
people. Moses and Elijah both stood with
the transfigured Christ on the mountain and talked with Him
concerning His death. And Isaiah, I read to you this
morning, said these things when he saw His glory and spake of
Him. To Him give all the prophets
witness that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall
receive remission of sins. And then turn with me over to
Romans chapter 2. Let's look at this verse for
just a minute. He goes through Romans chapter 1, and he tells
us that he is ready to preach to these Gentile Romans with
everything that was in him. He was ready. Because this gospel,
he said, was the gospel of God unto salvation. He was persuaded
of it. And then he begins to talk to
the Gentiles and he tells them how that through conscience and
creation they denied the glory of God and changed it and become
idolaters, worshipping man and worshipping birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. That the end of that type of
religion left them men with men and women with women. It left
them in disgrace and God gave them over to themselves to do
whatever they wanted to do. He just left them to themselves.
And that's always the end of religion. It always is. And then in chapter 2, he tells
those Jews, he said, you've done the same thing. God gave you
greater light and you despise the light that God gave you through
His gospel and through the priesthood and the sacrifices and all these
great pictures of God that He's laid out before you. Picturing
these things that He foretold from the garden. Picturing these
things by which He judged the world. picturing all these things
that would come to pass. He said, you've taken this light
and just threw it away and tried to interpret these things and
treated this light in the light of human reason and logic and
tradition and you just cast it on the ground and trotted underfoot.
And he said, God has done the same thing to you that He did
to them. And now you're satisfied rather
than being satisfied in some type of outward idolatry, worshiping
frogs and goats and who knows what, you're over here in a temple
worshiping an unknown God. That's what you're doing. And
you're just as much an idolater as they were. Now listen to what
he tells them down here in Romans chapter 2, verse 28. Now here
was their defense. We're Jews. You read this chapter
and you'll find just a little bit up above this where I'm reading
to you from right here. He said, I know what you think
you are. You think you're Jews. You think
that you're the teachers of Babe. You think you're the light. He
said, I know who you think you are because I'm a Jew and I know
how you think. But here's what you really are.
Now listen to this. Romans 2 verse 28, For 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." And then one more Scripture, and I'll get on to the message
over in Matthew 13. Look with me at this, over here
in Matthew 13, verse 52. He said, every scribe who is
instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, that is those which preach
and promote the gospel of Christ, that's what he's telling, is
like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his
treasure things new and old. New and old. And that's what
I'm laboring to do here this morning with you, is to take
the New Testament revelation of Christ and show you how His
kingdom and work was foretold in the old, how that it was pictured,
how that this work was represented. Somebody said a picture is worth
a thousand words. He was right. It is. God had
given us these pictures. He didn't give them to us in
vain. He knew what He was doing. He laid the foundation. He laid
the foundation of the priesthood. What idea would I have of a priest
representing me before God apart from the Old Testament priesthood?
What idea would I have about a sacrifice other than what I've
read about this sacrifice and what it was for and who it represented?
You see how these pictures, they tell us a lot more than words,
these Old Testament pictures and types. But apart from the
revelation, we don't even know what the picture represents.
And we just adopt it, put it into some kind of a form into
our religion, and go about our business. I'm laboring to take something
old and something new and show it to you. In these first 14
verses of Ezekiel, the Lord paints a very vivid but awful picture
of man. He tells us first that they're
beyond all question dead. Now, I might see you from a distance. I might just walk down the aisle
of a hospital, and there you are, way down there at the other
end, and the door's open, and you're laying in the bed, and
I know you're in bad shape, but I can't discern from the other
end of that hall if you're dead or alive. At a distance, I can't
tell. I can't tell. And here's what happened with
Ezekiel. God put His hand on him. And
in the power of His Spirit, He took him who was one time. Ain't that what Paul said? You
who one time were afar off are made nigh. He took Ezekiel. He put His hand on him. And by
the power of His Spirit, He took him out where the bones were.
He didn't let him look at him from a distance. He took him
up close. He took him right here as the
skeleton laying on the ground. And all out there in this great
valley, just get a picture in your mind, this was a huge valley
and all over this valley was dry bones. Dry bones everywhere. And it brought him close enough
to see. Close enough to see. I might see you from a distance
and not be able to tell if you're dead or alive. But when you stand
out there in the desert and you look down on that sand at them
dead dry bones, They're not a question in your mind, they're dead. They're
dead. And religion looks at man from
a distance. He's far off. He looks with earthly
eyes. He looks with natural reasoning.
He looks on the outward countenance. That's what the Lord said. You
look on the outward countenance. He looks through the glass of
tradition. He looks through eyes of natural
reasoning. He looks through the glass of
worldly projection. Rudiments, Paul called them,
rudimentary principles, that is, accepted facts of the world.
He looks through the glass of worldly religion that's been
exampled and accepted worldwide for centuries. And in his far-off
state, man looks pretty good. He looks like he's got a little
potential looking through them eyes. But man's far off. He's far off. Looks like he's
got a chance to live. Looks like maybe he can be reformed.
Looks like maybe with some proper care he can be restored. But
let the Spirit of God put his hand on you. And take you where you can see.
Take you from far off up close. and let you see what man is.
And there'll be no question in your mind, he's dead. He's dead. He's dead. Well, maybe some of them are
dead. Now, I ain't what Ezekiel said. He said they was all dead. They all dead. They didn't just
pass away. He didn't run corpse to corpse
seeing if maybe one of them still had just a minute or two left
in him, did he? He didn't run nowhere. He just
stood there with his mouth open. There's nothing left out there,
nothing left in man but bones. Been dead for a long time. He
died now. He didn't just die. You know,
you might resuscitate a man who just died. You got the right
equipment. You might run over there and
resuscitate that man. You may bring him back. If you
ain't bringing these bones back, they've been dead a long time.
They died in Adam. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. They've been dead a long time. And they're dry. There's no moisture in them.
There's no life in them. There's nothing in them. They're
just dead, dry bones. Bleached out. White in the sun. No moisture left. Can these bones
live? I tell you, when God convinces
you that you're dead, dead, preaching to bones becomes more than just
standing up here and arguing. It becomes more than just standing
up here and saying, well, boy, if I could just get the right
words, if I could just get the right illustration, if I could
just... Oh, no. No. They're dead. They're dead, Winston. It don't matter how pretty I
make it. It don't matter how much it flows. That might hold
your attention. And I'll tell you something else.
He didn't say preach to the bones. He said prophesy upon them. That's
what he said. You can't preach to bones. You can't do it. You have to
preach upon them. Huh? There's a difference, isn't
there? There's a difference. Has your opinion changed about
man? It will when God takes you out
by His Spirit and shows you what He is. When the Spirit of God begins
to work in the heart, The first order of business is to take
him out to the valley of dry bones, to show him what's left
of the great army of man who declared war on the living God.
And that's what happened. That's why they're laying there.
That's exactly why they're laying there. Who stood up and said,
I'll do things my way. I'll do what I want. I'll come
to church when I get good and ready. I come to church when things
are according to the way I want them to be, then I go down there.
I won't hear that man. Shake your fist in the face of
God. Start dictating my will, what
I will do and what I will not do. That's what this army did.
All the way back in Adam, stood up and said, I'll eat what I
want to eat when I want to eat it. I'm tired of having somebody
telling me what to do. I'll do what I want to do. Satan
said the same thing. Both of them got cast out. I'll
take the helm. I'll drive the ship. I'll take it from here. I'll tell you this was the end
of the good man when he stood up and shook his fist in the
face of God. God said he looked down over
all earth. And he said, the good men perish
from the earth. He died in the garden. He died when the thought first
entered his mind. You know, when it talks about
the fall of Satan over there in the book of Isaiah, it didn't
say that Satan tried to take the throne of God. He just said
it in his heart. It never got past there. Why? Because that's where God
judges men. That judgment is about, He discerns
your thoughts and intents. When He destroyed the world back
there in Genesis, I showed this to you when we went through our
study early in the book of Genesis. When He destroyed the world,
destroyed the earth, it was because every imagination of their thoughts
Ain't that what he said? It never got past the thought.
God judged it when it was a thought. I'm not an idolater. You never
lusted. If you lusted, you're an idolater
or an adulterer. God judges the thoughts. They
may go ahead and become a deed. But whether they do or not, you've
already been judged. You've already been judged. He died when the thought first
entered his mind to put forth his hand and take that which
was forbidden for him to have. And he died not physically. That'll
come in time. We're all dying. Some of you
maybe haven't looked in the mirror in a few days. Go look in the
mirror. You're dying. You don't look like you did last
week. I find a new wrinkle every time I look. I get where I don't
even want to look. We're dying. We're dying. I talked to Gene this morning.
I said, I'll race you. I said, I can keep up with you
for about 20 feet. Used to, I could run miles. What's
the problem? I'm dying. That's what it is. We're dying physically, but that's
not where he died. The death he's talking about
here is spiritual death. Man's dead. He bleached. He's
dead dry bones spiritually. Spiritually. He has no spiritual
life, no spiritual reasoning, no spiritual understanding. Everything
spiritual to him is foolishness. Foolishness. Neither can he know
them because they're spiritually understood and he's not spiritual.
He's fleshly. He is not dead in his mind. That
death of his mind lies in its nature of rebellion to God. His
mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the authority
of God, neither indeed can be. Man is a rational creature. He
thinks, he invents, he puts things together, but not when it comes
to understanding God. Talk to a man. Talk to him about
building or fishing or playing baseball. Talk to a man about
working or farming or business or anything. He'll impress you
with his ability to understand. He will impress you. I tell you,
I go look at some of these buildings and things that men build, I'm
impressed. I can't do it. But talk to him about spiritual
things and you'll discover that his mind is in the material.
It just starts right off. I don't want this. I don't want
this. But you're a rational man. I have rational argument. I don't
want it. I'm going to have it. Take somebody
who's never read the Bible, maybe three or four verses, maybe the
Beatitudes or something. That's all they know about the
Scripture. And I'm telling you this is a big book. A big book. But they're going to take one
little portion out of it, and they'll stand and fight with
the man who poured his life into the study of this book, and they'll
sit there and argue with him. Sit there and argue with him.
He's dead spiritually. That's where the enmity is. It's
in his mind. It's in his mind. Listen here
to what he tells Ezekiel. Every time I read this, I stand
in awe of it. Ezekiel 37 verse 4, prophesy
upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Preach to them. Preach to them. Can these bones live? Oh, Lord
God, thou knowest. Now let me tell you something.
When God convinces you that you don't know, you'll be willing
to follow Him who knows. Now that's when you listen. When
He convinces you that you don't know anything, that you don't
know anything, that's where that starts. When He convinces you
of what darkness is, when you can put your spiritual hand up
here and you can't see it, Then you'd be willing to look for
the light. You'd be willing to listen. Can they hear? Well, I tell you what, if I was
out in that valley and I saw those bones, I know how Ezekiel
felt. I know exactly how he reasoned.
They're not going to hear my voice. He said, O Lord God, Thou knowest.
Thou knowest. Preach to Well, old boy, he'll come around
when he gets ready. Let me tell you something, dry
bones don't get ready. All they do is lay out there
and bleach. That's all they do. Them bones been laying there
from the beginning. Dead dry bones. Ah, he'll turn
around when he's ready. Dry bones don't ever get ready.
Don't ever get ready. He'll turn around when he realizes
he's going the wrong direction. Dry bones don't know which direction
what is. They just lay where they fell. I'll tell you what the Lord said.
He said it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. If you want to, you can draw
another map on how to get there. But I'm telling you this, the
way to redemption is through the preaching of the gospel.
That's how you get there. That's how you get there. That's
what He said. You might run over here, I'm
not saying that you can't run over here and find some example
like John the Baptist or find some example like the Apostle
Paul and the light shining down on him. A fellow told me one
time about that and I told him, I said, why don't you go get
you a big white horse and get on it and ride around until God
blinds you with the light. You'll ride that horse until
you ride him into hell. Now I'm telling you, you'll hear
the gospel, you'll hear it or you won't go. You won't go. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Ain't that what it said? That's
what it said. Here's what he tells them, all
you dry bones, hear! But they can't, they're dead.
Hear! They couldn't, but they did. Boy, I love that message, Brother
Mahan. I might just play it one morning and sit down, and we'll
just all worship God and listen to Him preach that message. They
couldn't, but they did. That's the story. That's the
story of every sinner. He couldn't, but he did. Oh, ye dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord. Verse 5, Thus saith the Lord
God unto these bones. Each one has to speak. My words
mean nothing apart from His. They mean nothing apart from
His. Oh, listen to this. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you, and you shall live. Listen to what James said. I'm going from Old Testament
to New. I want you to understand what
this thing... Here's the foretelling of it at the old dry bone. Here's
the reality of it over here in the New Testament. James said,
of his own will begat he us through the word of truth. All dead dry bones can do is
wait for the God of all grace to willingly give them life.
That's all they can do. Salvation is not in your will,
it's in His. And I tell you this, when God's
willing, you'll be willing. Not until. Not until. Oh, He said, what I did physically
in the beginning, I'll do spiritually at the last. I'll lay sinews
upon you, put flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and
put breath in you, and you'll live, and you'll know that I'm
the Lord. When the gospel of God comes
in the power of God's Spirit, He creates us anew. And when He creates us anew, we don't
appear the same as we used to. Did you know that? We don't appear
that same way. Believers walk, love, work, pray. They don't stay bleached laying
on the floor. When God saves a man, He raises
him. He raises him up. He gives him
life. It says a little bit later on,
"...and they all stood on their feet." They stand. They live. They breathe. They pray. They're
concerned. And I tell you this, if the only
thing's changed was your doctrine, I can tell you this, you haven't
met God yet. You're still laying out on the
floor. When God speaks through His prophets, the bones live,
and they change what they say, and they change what they think,
and they change what they feel. They change their habits. They
change their walk. He covers up that old dead, dry,
lifeless bones with everlasting life. And a new man stands upon
the earth. Verse 9, Then said He unto me,
Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon the slain, that they may live. I
know the gospel, and I know some of you do. You know the gospel. And I know how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. And I can take you
through here if you're interested and show you. Show you how that
He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that He
was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
And I preach this gospel to you the best I know how. But God
help me to remember this, my preaching is vain until the wind
blows. Until the wind blows. Oh, that's
what preaching is all about. I stand up here and preach this
gospel in full assurance that God will bless this gospel. He'll
either harden you and it will begin when you hear it. He'll
either harden you or He'll soften you, one or the other. He'll
either call you to life or He'll shove you away into the darkness,
one or the other. One or the other. I want you to see the wonder
of this text. A man. Just a man. Not anything in particular, just
a man. I know from the Word of God he
was probably a base man. That's what he said. God hath
chosen the base thing, the weak thing. A man like me. Took him out in
this great valley full of death and destruction, a great aftermath,
full of dead, dry bones. Bones laid out in the hot sun
for centuries, laid out there forever if God doesn't intervene.
They're going to stay out there. And he tells this man, just a
common, ordinary man, to preach to these bones. Preach to them.
Preach to those who had no will. Preach to those who had no understanding. Preach to those who had no life.
Preach to them. Give them the commandment of
God. And then prophesy to the wind. Bless God, I have a difficulty
here. Because I know who the wind is.
He's talking about the Holy Ghost. And I say this to you in all honesty. I find it hard to prophesy to
the Holy Ghost. I can't do that. I know that's
not what this is talking about. But what this is talking about
here is an understanding in my prophecy to you that apart from
Him, there's not going to be any life. And it's a convincing
of my heart as I preach to you that I'm totally, 100% dependent
on the Spirit of God to do what the Gospel says He will do. But
here's what God's telling us It's not only His will to preach
to the bones, but His will that the bones should live. And He's
not going to cause a man to preach and not accompany that preaching
with the power of His Spirit. He ain't going to do it. Listen to this, verse 10, So
I prophesied as He commanded me. That's all I needed to do
right there. My job's over right there. prophesy
as He commanded me. And the breath came into them,
and they lived. And they stood upon their feet
an exceeding great army, all willing, all devoted, all in
one purpose, all dedicated, all remembering where they came from
and what they were. All of them bond slaves who loved
their master, stay and work because that's where they want to be.
All of them serve Him out of love and gratitude of heart.
An army ready to fight for a cause. An army ready to defend their
kingdom. An army ready to fight for whatever
enemies invade and threaten the kingdom of God. I want you to think about this. An army is no army without a
uniform and a flag. Is that right? An army is no
army. If I just go out there in my
cutoffs and throw a rifle up on my back and I got no flag
and I charge out into battle, they're just going to stand and
look. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. They'd
probably just shoot you and put you out of your misery. But it
doesn't mean anything. It doesn't stand for anything.
An army is no army without a uniform and a flag. And the uniform of
this army, they stood as a great army. Ain't that what that says? A great army. The uniform of
this army is what identifies them as soldiers of the king.
And the flag is what identifies the kingdom they fight for. Now I'm going to tell you something,
I want you to listen to me. Baptism is the uniform. I don't preach on baptism very
often. I've been talking to Brother Winston about it and some of
the rest of you about it. Baptism is the uniform. Now when
a man is brought into the army of God, he stands before this
world identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. I served in the
military. I stood before the flag and took
an oath. And I put on a uniform. He stands
up in the full view of His wife and His relatives and His friends
and His neighbors and as many as come to see it done. And He
puts on, the Scripture said, the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts
Him on. Puts on the uniform. Colossians
2 verse 12, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are
risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who has
raised Him from the dead. Listen to this over in Romans.
Paul said, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid! How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted in
the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin." And then talking
about that final resurrection and glory, and our spiritual
resurrection in this world. Paul argues this with those men
who denied the resurrection. Now, I want you to listen to
this argument. If there be no resurrection of the dead, then
what of those who were baptized for the dead? What on earth is
he talking about there? Let me tell you what he's talking
about. This is over in 1 Corinthians 15, 29. He's not talking about
somebody alive being baptized for somebody that's already dead.
That's not what he's talking about. What he's talking about
is martyrs. If there be no resurrection,
what about these men who put on the uniform of baptism, knowing
that when they did it, they were surely going to be put to death
for standing up for what they believed? What about them? These all died in faith. psalm
asunder. You read the account in Hebrews
chapter 11. They put on the uniform. When
you put on the uniform, you stand up and you say, what he preaches
is what I believe. Now just being baptized, just
going through a ceremony because you think that's your duty, doesn't
do it. There is an oath of allegiance. involved in baptism. When I'm
baptized, I say, this is what I believe. This is where I stand. And Christ is Jehovah Nissi,
the Lord our banner. Now let me tell you something.
When you put on the uniform, this young man can tell you,
because he just got back, and he's been over there many times.
You put on that uniform, when you step on the enemy's soul,
you're in harm's way. You're in harm's way. And brother,
when you take that flag, you're really in harm's way. You're
saying, this is what I believe. And this uniform tells you where
I stand and who I stand for. That uniform don't mean diddly
and that flag don't mean diddly, but you fill that uniform full
of patriotism. And fill that uniform full of
a man with full understanding for what he fights for, and then
it means something, doesn't it? Huh? That's what baptism is all
about. Baptism is not just an ordinance.
It is an ordinance. It is something we're commanded
to do, but it's not just a duty. It's where we put on the uniform
of Christ and we say, this is what I believe. This is where
I stand. And this army, when they preached
to them, they stood up on their feet a great army, all of them
in the same uniform. All of them carrying the same
flag. Christ. Oh, may God give me the power
of His Spirit someday to stand up here and preach and see that
door in a man's heart. I'm more hungry for that than
I am food.