Turn with me to Luke chapter
11. Luke chapter 11. Again, I think that's just normal
for me. I wrestle with titles for messages
because Often people when they look, especially at our ministry
on the internet, they look for titles. And also the title of a message,
Brother Mahan told me years ago, is actually the message. That's what it is that God laid
on your heart. That's the thing that you've
heard us talk about things jumping out. jumping out of the Scripture. And you've had that experience.
You've read through there, James, and you've seen things. And just
all of a sudden, boom, there it is, just like somebody took
a highlighter and put on it. And so I titled this message,
What Possesses the Man Becomes the Man. Now, I'm going to read
for you several verses here in Luke chapter 11. And then I'm
just going to refer back to parts of it throughout the message.
But he says here in verse 1, And it came to pass, that as
he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples
said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught
his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye
pray, Say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one
that is indebted to us. and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, Which
of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight,
and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves? For a friend
of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to
set before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut and my children
are with me in the bed. I cannot rise and give them. I say unto you, though he will
not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because
of his importunity, his persistence, he will rise and give him as
many as he needs. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he
ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he
shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him?" Now watch this. We're reading along here. We've got a progression. He's
went from prayer to all of a sudden, and now he's talking about the
giving of gifts, the giving of the Holy Spirit. Now watch what
he says. And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the
devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered. But some of them said, more than
likely the Pharisees, he casteth out devils through Beelzebub,
the chief of devils. And others, tempting him, sought
of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts..." Remember I read that to you out
of the psalm? David said, "...he understandeth my thought afar
off." He, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided
against it, the house falleth. If Satan also be divided against
himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that I
cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out
devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall
they be your judges. But if I..." Now listen, "...with the finger
of God cast out devils, no doubt the
kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man arm keepeth
his palace, His goods are in peace. But when a stronger than
he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his
armor wherein he trusteth, and divideth his foes. He that is
not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone
out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and
finding none. He saith, I'll return unto my
house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth
it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to
him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they
enter in and dwell therein. And the last state of that man
is worse than the first." The eleventh chapter, everything
I've just read to you in the eleventh chapter of Luke has
to do with conversion. That's what he's talking about
all the way through. You see, conversion is about
a new creation. A new creation. A new man. Something
God puts inside of you that wasn't in there before. Bobby, there
comes a time when God deals with a man and This man receives from
Him the Holy Spirit. That's what He's talking about
here. He giveth to anyone who asks whom He draws. And they ask. There comes a time
when they ask, and they ask, and they ask, and they ask, and
they keep on asking until He gives. And then He gives the
Holy Spirit of God. and a new creature, a new creation,
a new man, something that never was there before. Not a reformation
of the old man, not a mixing of colors, not a mixing of the
flesh and the spirit, but a new man, a new creation, something
completely different inside this man. A new creation. Something God puts inside of
you that just wasn't there before. Real faith. Real faith. Real repentance. Godly sorrow. Real commitment. Real submission. Humble. Submissive. Loving. Charitable. Kind. These things are as natural to
a believer as a newborn babe taking a breath. That's just
so. And you sat in one of them. Man,
those things wasn't there before. They wasn't there before. Now
I'm telling you, I was raised in religion and I tried to believe.
I tried to be humble. I see these Pharisees around
in these churches trying to be humble. It's hilarious. There's no humility there. At Newborn Bay, one minute lives
connected to another, and in just a moment, just a moment's
time, it's breathing on its own. I'm talking about real life as
opposed to an empty hollow shell of religion. Our Lord said this, He's not
a Jew, which is one outwardly. What's He talking about He ain't
a Jew? He's not an heir of the promises. He's alien to Israel, to the
commonwealth of Israel. He was an alien. He doesn't have
any covenants. He doesn't have any promises.
He doesn't have anything. Well, he's not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
that mark of the covenant, which is outward in the flesh. You
see, a person comes to a place in his life where trouble arises. Something comes along in the
providence of God, and that man, he can't deal with it. It's outside
his abilities. It's outside his wisdom and his
understanding and his knowledge. It's beyond him we suffer. Something
happens. Whatever it is, he loses an arm
in a car wreck Or his wife walks out the door on him. Or her husband
walks out the door on him. Something happens. Trouble comes. And it's beyond their ability.
It's beyond their reach. And so they go down to wherever
it is that somebody sent them. They go down to whatever it is. Maybe it's their family's church
where they were raised, where they went when they were a kid.
Or maybe it's just a place that somebody they worked with and
had some confidence in told them to go down there. You go down
there. You'll see, those are good folks down there. They'll
tell you the truth. And they go down, and they sit,
and they're serious. And they sit down, and they listen,
and the man tells them, gives them some things to do, and it
makes sense to them. It's logical to them. You need
to reform your life. You need to take on new habits.
You need to quit running with the crowd you've been running
with. You need to do this, and you need to do that. to be conscious
about sin. You know you're a sinner, don't
you? And they begin to tell him all about what sin is. The sin
of tobacco, and the sin of alcohol, and the sin of drugs, and the
sin of stealing, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. And they go down there, and they join up, and they swallow
the whole thing, hook, line, and sink. And they find peace for a little
while. They find some answers. They
change some habits. Things seem to be getting a little
bit better. He reforms his life. He supports the church with his
money, reads his Bible. He prays before he eats. He dresses
a little different than he used to dress. He's got some different
habits. He runs with a different crowd.
He supports his church policy. He promotes Christian behavior.
But he ain't a true Jew that's one outwardly. He ain't a true Jew yet. Bro,
he ain't an heir of the promise yet. He ain't been circumcised
yet. Everything he does, though he's
serious, he's just as serious, Donnie Bell says, as a heart
attack. He's serious, but it's all just
an outward facade. It's just veneer. He just painted,
he just whitewashed over it. The Lord called them Pharisees,
those religious men. He called them like the whited
sepulchers. You just whitewashed. On the
outside, you're beautiful, but on the inside, you're full of
dead men's bones. He said, you clean, you are all
excited about cleaning, and you clean the cup and you clean the
platter on the outside, but on the inside it is full of all
uncleanness, full of corruption. Paul said he is a Jew which is
one inwardly in circumcision as that of the heart in the Spirit
and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God. True
conversion. You know men can't see true conversion? The kingdom of God cometh without
observation. They can't see it. This is the
Son of God standing before them, and they're telling Him, You're
casting out devils by the prince of devils. Rex read to us a while
ago, they said, He commits blasphemy. This is the Son of God. This
is a man in whom is no guile, no sin. This is a man who thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. The world knew him not. And he told his disciples, he
said, if you was of the world, the world would know what you're
all about. They'd know everything you do would be perfectly logical
to them if you were of the world. But you're not of the world. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying conversion is a heart work. It's a heart work. Out of the heart, he said, proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, lasciviousness, and so on. All
these evil things, he said, come forth from the heart and defile
the man. Now, the lesson begins back here
in verse 1. The Lord was pouring out His
heart before God. And one of the disciples, I don't
know if it was John or Mark or who it was, but one of those
disciples was standing there and listening. Listening to the
Son of God from His heart, pouring out His heart to God. And they
were standing there and they said, I won't pray like that. See, that's where conversion
starts, seeing Him. We see Him and we want to be
like Him. And that's what they were doing.
They were standing there watching. And they said, teach us to pray
like that. Wouldn't you like to have been there and heard
Him pray? My soul. Lindsey was talking the other
day about Him agonizing in prayer in the garden. And I thought,
there is the prayer. Right there is the prayer. You
can't pray enough. Now listen to them. You can't
pray enough. You can't beg enough. You can't
get sorry enough to quiet your conscience before God, to satisfy
your conscience before God. You can't do it. But after you
see Him agonizing prayer, and that conscience goes away. There's
my prayer. There's my representative. I
want to pray like that. Oh God, teach me how to pray
like that. That's where they were at. They
said, teach us how to pray. What's the language he uses? Our Father. Huh? Our Father. The man that calls on God is
going to call on Him as his Father. Only sons of God call on God. Did you know that? You won't
find no heathen calling on. He'll call on his gods, but he
won't call on this one. It takes a son. Our Father. Over there in John chapter 1,
He said He came into the world and the world was made by Him
and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own. His own
received Him not. But there were some folks who
received Him. How come? Because they were born. That's
what it said. They were born. It didn't have
anything to do with blood kinsmanship. It didn't have anything to do
with the will of man. They were born of God. And you
know what He gave them power to do? Become the sons of God
until we see it. That's conversion. Paul said
we've not received again the spirit of bondage that we were
born with, that spirit of bondage that we found under the law,
that spirit of bondage that reigned over us in religion. That's not
what we received. We haven't received that again.
This is not a reformation of that. But we received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That's why you cry. Because
that spirit came in. And He said, You're a son. You're
a son. And as a son, they know their
father's character. Hallowed be thy name. As a son, they know his interest
by kingdom come. They know something of his strength
and his determinate counsels by will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. And as a son looks to his father
for all things, prayer has a need, conversion. They know what they
need. Heavenly bread, forgiveness of
sins, direction, wisdom, deliverance from evil. Oh, there's a word
jump up and get you. Look down at verse 13. Boy, I went back and I seen this.
That thing looked like it was put in there in capital letters.
If you then being evil. Not used to be. Being evil. And being evil constitutes an
evil being, don't it? That's right. Oh, how we hate to equate ourselves
with that word evil. Man, I'll tell you, you're choked
to death. Somebody talks about, well, I ain't always done the
right thing. No, you're evil. That's what
he said. Evil. That's what we are. That's
what abides in us. That's the old man and his nature.
Now watch this. If you being evil know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Ghost to them who ask you? Do you have
a desire to be a child of God? Think about it. Do you have that
desire? Is that desire in you to be a
child of God? I'm not talking about a fire
escape. I'm not talking about just in case there is a God.
I'm talking about being a desire to be a child of God, a son of
God, to know God. Can you feel the Father drawing
you in His providence? Can you look around and see how
His providence led you here? Can you see how His providence
arranged the gospel for you to hear? Can you see that? Are you
aware of that? Can you feel His drawing you
in the Gospel? Can you feel an interest in the
Gospel? Didn't used to be interested
in it. Something caught my ear, Bobby. All of a sudden, I wanted
to hear it. I wanted to hear it. Has He created in you a need?
An awareness of sin? An awareness of your helplessness
and inability? An emptiness. Oh, thank God. He opened up in
my heart one day a void. I couldn't see the bottom. Empty. Empty. There wasn't any love
in there. There wasn't any grace in there. There wasn't any joy
in there. There wasn't any peace in there.
It was just a dark black hole. That's all it was. Empty. Everything
that God said of Himself, I was empty of it. Seek the Lord. I couldn't seek Him. Wasn't in
there. Wasn't in there. Just a big black
hole. Emptiness. Do you want real faith? Real heart conversion? Here's
what it takes. the Holy Ghost given to you. That's what it is. I'm telling you. You can't
work it up. It can't be done. It can't be
done. You can put both hands to the
plow and all you're going to do is plow. That's it. Ain't
nothing going to happen. You can get the music and the
drums beating. That's what they do in Pentecostal
churches I used to play in. They get the whole band up there
and they get the drums and the guitar and the beating and they
get up and go marching around and doing all this crazy stuff
and work up the spirit. Well, you can work it up, but
it's gone when you leave at the back door. It's gone. It's all
gone. Now watch this here in verse
14. Now he told us. Ask. That's all
you've got to do, Bobby. Just ask. Just ask. He said, you know how to get
good. Those grandbabies, I tell you, they come up to me, I'm
ready to give them everything I've got. What do you want? You
can have it. I was a lot better with my kids
than I am with my grandkids. I can't hold anything back. He
said, if you being evil, you know how to get good gifts to
your children, how much more? How much more does he know how
to give? How much more are you willing
to give? How much more willing is God
to give? Oh, I tell you, I'm ashamed when
I kneel down and pray. Why can't I see the willingness
of God? That's what brought me to Him. Oh, I knew what you had to do
to be saved. It takes faith. It takes faith.
But you ain't got it. He has to give it. I know he's
able to save. I knew that. But is he willing? Is he willing? He's more willing
to save than you are to be saved. Oh, that reluctant son coming to the father's house.
And the father ran. The son wasn't running. He was
moping, had his head down. Heart broke. Knew something about
what he was. Just wanted to be a servant.
I'd just go over there. I'd just sleep with the servants out in
the shed. I don't want anything. I don't want to be called a son.
Just put me out there in the shed. I just want a place somewhere
in your kingdom, somewhere in the house. I just want a place
over here somewhere. Oh, but the Father reigned and
threw His arms around him and He kissed him and He smothered
him with His kisses. God is willing. He is willing.
He is more willing to save than you are to be saved. He is more
willing to convert and give the Holy Spirit than you are to receive
it. Look here in verse 14. Out of nowhere, he said he was casting out a devil.
And it was dumb, talking about the devil. And it came to pass
when the devil was gone out of the dumb, the dumb spake. Did you get that? I don't know
how many times I read that verse of scripture and never got this. And this is why I called your
attention to this verse. The Lord identifies both the devil
and the man as one and the same, doesn't He? Isn't that so? He calls them the same. One second. The next second,
He's got them separated. You see that? The devil come out, and he's
talking to this man. And he's talking to this man.
What possesses the man becomes the man. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 2. Our Lord got in a ship one day, and He sailed over to the land
of the Gadarenes. A boat come up there on the bank, And one came running to meet
him. He was a wild man, a wild man. His hair was knotted
and gnarled and long and his eyes were flashing and his beard
was all dirty and filthy and the man had fetters hanging from
him, chains where they tried to bind him and chain him and
couldn't hold him. And he come running up there,
naked, filthy, living in the tombs. And the Lord said, What's
your name? What did He tell him? Legion,
for we are many. But the Lord said, What's your
name? What possesses the man becomes
the man. Now listen to this here in Ephesians
chapter 2, And you hath equipped them who were dead, spiritually
dead. Sin entered into the world, and
death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, dead in trespasses. What's he talking about? Death.
Death. Now watch. Here it is. Here's what this death's all
about. We're in. In this death. You walked according
to the course of this world. The course that this world approves
of. That's what he's talking about.
The course that seems the logical course. The broad way. The course
that they promote. The course that they reward.
The course of this world according, now watch this, to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. That now worketh. Among whom? Here's this Pharisee.
Here's this religious man. grew up in religion. Moral man. He didn't drink. He didn't do
any of those things. He would clean his hounds too.
He didn't do nothing. He was a moral man. Devoted.
Devoted to his church. Supported. Committed. Zealous. Among whom also we all
had our conversation. Ain't that what it says? In times
past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath
even as others." What possesses the man becomes the man. Are you with me? That's where
He found us. That's the condition. Now go
back to Luke chapter 11. The Pharisees heard what He was
saying and they saw what He did. But they wanted to cast a bad
light on it They didn't believe in him. That's what religion
does, cast a bad light. You don't want to go down there.
You don't want to go down there. Those folks down there, they
believe whatever will be, will be, whether it ever happens or
not. That's what they do. They believe once in grace, always
in grace. They believe once you're saved,
you can live any way you want to. Don't go down there. Don't
go down there. Throw a bad light on them, a
bad light. Oh, a fellow asked me the other day, where do you
go to church? And I told him out here. Listen to this, verse 18. Satan
divided against himself. His kingdom ain't going to stand.
It ain't going to stand. But if I, with the finger of
God, cast out demons, cast out devils, overcome the strong man,
you see what he says? No doubt, the kingdom of God
has come unto you. I want you to just listen to
me a minute. Before these proud religious Pharisees stood a man,
just like I'm standing before you tonight, flesh and bones. They knew where he was born.
They knew his mother and his father. We know you. We know your sisters. This is
the carpenter's son. We know who he is. We know how
he made a living. We've known him since he was
just a little boy. He used to come down there at the synagogue.
And he's a smart little fellow. He'd take those Scriptures. Man,
you couldn't believe how many Scriptures that little boy could
quote. He just turned us inside out when he used to come down
there. We know who he is. And he said, if I, with the finger
of God, I'm God. That's what he's telling them.
I'm God. And if God comes and casts out
the devils with His finger, flips them out of the way, No doubt,
the Kingdom of God has come unto you. Do you believe that? Boy, I sat
and asked myself this afternoon, do you really believe that Jesus
of Nazareth was God? Yeah, I do. Bless God, I do. And I'll tell you this, until
you can believe that, The Holy Spirit of God has not
been given to you. That's just so. Now watch this, verse 21. He said, When a strong man to
arm keepeth his palace, his goods are at peace. But when a stronger
than he shall come upon him and overcome him, you see that? He taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted." You see that? That which possesses
the man becomes the man. You can't separate him. That
prince of the sky there, he's so much a part of you that you
can't separate him. You can't see him. You can't
untangle his web. Only God can see him. And only God's finger can put
him out of the way. You can't even see him. You can't
even perceive when he's there. You can't even perceive when
those evil thoughts are coming into your mind. You're just sitting
out on the lake fishing and throwing that little lure out and reeling
it in, looking around. Oh man, this is just like heaven
out here. Yeah, he's got you. He's got
you. I've got this business running
like a fine-tuned machine, boy. The money just pouring in, and
all those years of labor I put, they well worthwhile. He got
you. He got you. Strong man. His goods are at
peace. He ain't worried. He ain't worried. They're not a single son of Adam's
whose house is not kept in peace by the strong man. That's what
I'm trying to tell you. Armed with deceit, armed with
lies, armed with religion, armed with the experience of the ages,
knowing sin, experiencing human nature. He knows more about human
nature than anybody but God. And whatever desire, I don't
care what it is, whatever the desire is that comes into your
mind, if you'll follow Him, He'll give it to you. I don't care
what it is. He'll give it to you. He's the Prince of the power
of the air. He's the God of this world, the
Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Paul
said, We wore not with flesh and blood. Our weapons are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. And you can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. He's the strong man to arm. He
can have you smiling on the brink of hell. He can have you testify. I think I've told you this story
before. I went in, I was playing my guitar and traveling around
and went into this Free Will Baptist Church up in Worthington,
Kentucky. And we were in there and we'd
had our little time to get up and I'd say a few things and
watch the pastor until I'd seen him getting uneasy and then I'd
shut up and play my music, you know, and go sit down. They didn't have much preaching,
about 10-15 minutes. The pastor got up, and just as he got up,
this old couple came through the door, probably in their 80s. And he just stopped. And he let
them get up, and when they entered into the pew, the lady sat down,
and the man was still standing, taking his coat off, and he said,
I want to introduce you to this man. And he introduced him, brother
so-and-so, and they were right in front of me. He said he was the founder of
this church, this Free Will Baptist Church. He said, how are things,
brother so-and-so, between you and the Lord? And he throwed
up two fingers, and God killed him dead in a way. He was dead
when he hit the pit. Just like that. See what I'm
saying? That's the power of the one who
possesses you. And what possesses you becomes
you. Oh, me and God just like this. I'm telling you, he's a strong
man to honor. He can have you smiling on the
brink of hell, testifying on the edge of judgment. The Pharisees
saw them and said, they said, we have Moses to our father. We're not of Satan. We have Moses. God is our father. What did he tell them? He said, you're of your father
the devil, and the lust of your father you will be. Now that's
just the truth. Turn with me to John chapter
6. I'm telling you the truth. His goods are at peace. His kingdom
goes unchallenged, unprovoked. And His goods are the heart.
His goods are the mind. His goods are the will and the
affections of men. And his chief weapon is religion. Nestled up in Deacon's Row. That's
what we used to call it up front. Deacon's Row. Hymn book open,
singing about the Bible and the blood and the blessed hope, sits
the old man of sin. He loves it. He loves the old
church. Yeah, he does. He's here tonight. Yeah, he loves coming here. Oh, don't worry about me.
Don't worry about me. That's what the Lord said you'd
say. When the overflowing scourge comes through, it won't come
down to us. How are you going to escape it?
We've made lies our refuge. We've hid ourselves in falsehoods.
He abides in the house and He keeps it undisturbed, unprovoked. He keeps it. He rules over it.
He tends to its needs and its wants and its desires. We bow to His bidding. We fall
for His light. We agree with His reasoning.
It's logic. It seems right to me. We were
jealous in our feelings. And the preacher can't touch
you. Can you hear me? I can't touch you. I would stand
up here and scream and yell and jump up and down and quote scripture
all night. I can't touch you. I can't touch
you. And your grandma can't touch
you, and your mama can't touch you. It takes the finger of God
to go in there and flip him out. Stronger than he must come upon
him. Now, over here in John chapter
16, verse 8, it said, When he is come. That's what we're talking
about, ain't it? When he is come. Listen to this.
He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Now, in the original, the word
is not reproof. Reproof is what I'm doing. You know what reproof means,
actually means? It means to assign blame, James.
That's what it means. All flesh is grass. That's reproof. That's reproof. It means to assign
blame. And the Holy Spirit does that
too. He goes in the preaching of the Gospel. We preach and
we assign blame. All flesh is grass. All is sin. And come short of the glory of
God. But I can't convince. Only He can convince. Paul told
Timothy, he said, you go now and you preach the Word. You
don't preach fables. You don't preach what you think.
You don't preach things you don't know about. You preach the Word
of God. And you reprove. And you rebuke. And you exhort with all long-suffering
and doctrine. You do those things. You assign
that blame. But only God can come in and
kick out the strong man. I can't convince. He comes into
the house with the power of the resurrected Christ. He comes
in with the power of the victorious Christ, the justifying Christ.
He comes upon Him, He said, and overcomes Him. Overcomes his
lies. Overcomes his reasoning. Overcomes
his power and his peace. And he brings down, he casts
down those imaginations and he tears apart the strongholds. Just like they did in the old
country when they went through and the good king, the king of
God comes through and he'd go up there in those vineyards and
he'd tear out those idols. That's what happened. God comes
in. The Spirit of God comes in. The Spirit of Christ. And He
comes upon you with His righteous obedience and His satisfying
sacrifice and His effectual intercession. And He overcomes His rule with
the love of God. He takes away those false motives
and He replaces it with the love of Christ. Paul said the love
of Christ constrains us. And He overcomes it. exposes his righteousness with
filthy rags and his ministry is a sham. Conversion comes when
the Spirit of Christ overtakes a man's heart and makes him tremble. I can't make you tremble. I'll
tell you, Larry, I've got a tape back here. We're going to try
to get Shelby to get it on a CD. I want you to listen to it. It's
called The Murder of John the Baptist. Scott Richardson preached
it years ago. Man, what a tape. And it's what
he's dealing with, this very thing right here. And he talked
about John the Baptist preaching to that king, that ruler, that
monarch. He wasn't afraid of anybody,
but he was afraid of John. How come? Because the Spirit
of God dug down where he lived. Dug down where he lived. And
he said, you're guilty! You're guilty! I can't do that. I can't convince you. I know
that you're guilty, but I can't convince you. Only He can. And
when He does, you tremble. You just sit and shake and tremble.
Oh God, don't let me die. Don't let me die in my sins.
Bring me to Christ. Give me faith. Give me mercy. Give me grace. I can't believe. I want to, but I feel unbelief. Oh, Paul said, If our gospel
be hid, it is hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For God, that same God I preached
to you this morning, God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I want to read this to you and I'll close over here in Romans
chapter 5. I lied to you again. I told you
I wouldn't go very long. What possesses the man becomes
the man. Now let's watch this. Romans
chapter 5 verse 17. For if by one man's offense death
reigns..." How did it reign? I'll just finish preaching until
you have that. It reigns in your nature and
it reigns in your will and it reigns over everything you do.
And it reigns by the prince of the power of the air who can
conceal himself and hide himself. And it reigns in religious ideas
and all those things and concepts. It reigns. It rains. Much more. Now watch. They which
receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. When He comes in and
overcomes the strong man and He casts him out, now you've got somebody else
reigning in there. And what possesses the man becomes
the man. he becomes.