Turn back in your Bibles to John
chapter 16. If you don't have your Bible,
you can use your outline. Your pastor's commentary will
be needed as well. You can use the portion of the
scripture reading in your bulletin. It's good to have our elder back
and his wife. Oh, they went and stole away
some leisure time, and they just got tired of us, and
they said, we're out of here. But it didn't last long. They
got homesick, and so here they are again, and we're glad. Jesus said something very interesting
in John chapter 16 of course John chapter 16 is a very Significant
book in it in itself and the doctrine in it is germane and
relevant and critical to the greater purpose of Christ after
his accomplished redemption on Calvary and and there are a number
of things in our passage that we want to deal with. If you
notice the title is co-workers together with me. I don't know
how Kevin came up with that. I think I wrote co-laborers together
with him. And that changes the position
or the mode of the verse. If God were speaking, this is
what he would say to us, that we are co-workers together with
God. If we are speaking, this is what
we would say. We are co-laborers together with
him. We are co-laborers together with
him. I'll make that more plain as we begin to develop our text
I want to jump right into verse 6 of John 16 and begin to give
you the the central purpose for which the Lord Jesus began to
Expand upon the third person and his work in this great cause
of the gospel. He says in verse verse 5 I'm
sorry verse 5 but now go my way to him that sent me and none
of you are asking me where do you go but because I have said these
things unto you sorrow has filled your hearts Now, that's the essence
and premise upon which Christ launches into this discourse
on the particulars of why he went. I want you to grasp this
now. He's talking to his disciples. He's talking to the disciples
about his departure. Now, it's not like he hasn't
spoken about this before. He has. In fact, more particularly
in John chapter 13 and 14, he talked about going away, and
the disciples asked among themselves, where are you going? He explained
briefly in John 14 and 15 that he was going back to his father.
As he continued to elaborate upon the nature of his departure,
and that is the sufferings that he would endure at the hands
of the leadership of the church, the disciples became increasingly
aware that the end is near. that their master would be taken
and something horrible would occur that was larger than their
scope of comprehension. They began to be apprehended
by the reality of their master's departure. apprehension grabbed
them because as our Lord made his way to Jerusalem he continued
to explain that my departure would not be without a lot of
pain and conflict and turmoil and difficulty and so imagine
yourself walking with the Savior as he heads towards Jerusalem
and every hour or so he begins to discuss in detail what he
would suffer and If you loved him, you would know that where
we're going is a difficult place. as Christ continued to press
forward to Jerusalem and the scripture makes it clear that
as he drew near to Jerusalem he moved even faster in terms
of his pace as if he was driven by something greater than himself
to get to the place that his father had called him to all
the time he said my hour is come and for this purpose I came into
the world my father is about to be glorified and I'm about
to be glorified in my father and we will both glorified. Christ was bent. The Bible says
in Isaiah that he set his face like a flint. He headed towards
Jerusalem to do only what the God-man Jesus Christ could do. The disciples becoming increasingly
aware of this are now apprehended. It's one thing however for them
to hear a continual discourse on the sufferings of Christ.
And the Son of Man shall be taken and he shall be mocked and he
shall be cruelly dealt with he shall be spit upon and they shall
put him to death that's one thing to hear those things because
as you know self-preservation is the first law of nature it's
it's going to be difficult for them to get a handle on the sufferings
of Christ but then he begins to talk about what they've got
to go through look again at verses 1 through 5 that's my point These
things have I spoken unto you in order that you should not
apostatize. The word offended is the Greek
word skandalizo. In other words, it's a word that
means to scandal, to be offended by what occurs and it causes
you to offend. causes you to transgress it causes
you to err out of the way and what Jesus is saying is I've
been telling you all that I'm telling you so that when it comes
to pass you don't make a mistake and go apostate and Depart from
me He says in verse 2 they shall put you out of the synagogues
Yay, the time comes that whosoever shall kill you will think that
he's doing God's service. That's Isaiah 66 and these things
will they do unto you because they have not known the Father
nor me." Now saints that's not easy to bear because in reality
Christ's own disciples had a hard time grasping the Father and
the Son. so as he explains to them what
will occur having been with them for three and a half years and
they know That whatever he says will happen. They know this they
know that they're about to enter into a very perilous crucial
climax a time that's going to be very difficult and they These
things he said they will do unto you because they have not known
the father nor me But these things I have told you that when the
time shall come you may remember that I told you them And these
things I said unto you at the beginning, these things I said
not unto you at the beginning, watch this, because I was with
you. I was with you. For the three and a half years
that Jesus was with the disciples, that first two years, two and
a half years, he did not talk about his conflict at Jerusalem,
his suffering at Jerusalem. He talked about the kingdom of
God. He spoke concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
He explained to his disciples the character of God, the character
of the gospel. He talked about what they would
accomplish, but he didn't talk to them specifically and in great
detail about his sufferings on Calvary Street, nor the fallout
of his sufferings on Calvary Street. Why? Why would you tell
me at the beginning of our liaison, our relationship, that in three
years I'm gonna be beat, I'm gonna be stoned, I'm gonna be
cast out, I'm gonna be ridiculed, I'm gonna be hostily treated,
but it's not gonna happen for three and a half years. Why would
you do that? See what I'm saying? So he didn't do that. He was
with them for three and a half years and so he ministered unfolding
truth gradually developing the the whole scheme of redemption
to them and Jesus thought it wise to only begin to explain
to them his sufferings at the end of the ministry and their
sufferings at the tail end of the ministry. You know what that
means Saints? That means you and I by nature are what? Weak.
That means that we're weak. That means that you and I really
cannot handle a whole lot of bad news. Isn't that true? Even when God's with us, even
when God's with us, we can't handle a whole lot of bad news.
The disciples are grown men. I need some air. The disciples
are grown men. the Lord Jesus in his wisdom
has decided not to speak to them about these things until now
and I want you to see the net effect of what Jesus has done
having compounded to them the nature of their calling now as
his apostles I want you to see the net effect because this is
going to be important important to the subject I want to talk
to you today about look again at verse 6 but because I have said these
things unto you sorrow has filled your heart sorrow has filled
your hearts. What kind of sorrow, pastor?
The sorrow of an accurate assessment of their own inability to deal
with what they know is coming to pass when their master is
gone. The sorrow of an accurate assessment
of what they know they have to deal with when their master is
gone. Saints, what I want to talk to
you today about is witnessing. Witnessing. The task of witnessing. The call to share the gospel
with men and women. The monumental challenge of witnessing
Christ to the world. That is the foundation at which
Jesus now is addressing the subject of of why he's going away, why
he needs to go away, and that when he does go away, there will
be certain things that transpire which will make this business
called witnessing successful. Somebody asked me the question
a couple days ago, a dear friend in our congregation, about what
does it take to become a good witness? What does it take to
minister the gospel to sinners effectively? Pastor, help me find a way to
communicate the truth to men and women in a way that they
can receive it. That's a good question, isn't
it? Tell the truth now. Don't you know that in yourself
you have a hard time witnessing the people about Christ? Am I
telling the truth? You've been saved, you've been
born again, you've been living for Christ 10, 15, 20, 30 years
and you still find it hard to share the gospel even in a country
where there's not an all-out hostility against you physically.
yet you still have a hard time sharing the gospel. Am I telling
the truth? You know why? You know why? For several reasons
of which I want to address today. The first and the foremost is
the reason why we have a difficult time sharing the gospel is because,
this is point number one, we're going to see this. We think that
witnessing to people about Christ is 90% our responsibility and
10% God's. We think that we have to find
a way to make it work by which when we share the word with somebody,
then God will honor it and he will work and that person will
be persuaded and come to Christ. The major flaw in this idea of
witnessing is that we take upon ourselves the burden, the grandiose
burden of thinking that we can actually change an eternity-bound
soul from one direction to the other. So I want you to hear
this now. This is so very critical. So
very critical. The first thing that I want you
to grab in your outline, it says, how do I witness the gospel to
someone? Do you see that? How do I witness
the gospel to someone? Here's the first thing that I
want to set before you. First of all, you have got to
become a witness yourself. You have got to become a witness
yourself. You cannot talk to anybody about
something you don't really know. And this matter of witnessing
the gospel to people is really a matter of you and I not so
much being the ones bearing the burden of trying to explain Jesus
to somebody, but that you and I become co-laborers with the
one who really has the job of explaining Jesus to somebody,
and that's the Holy Ghost. I want you to get this point.
Look with me at John chapter 15, the last two verses, right
before we go into John 16, verse 26 and 27. Are you there? Now,
when the Holy Ghost, that is the Comforter, the Paraclete,
the Counselor, the Advocate, Whom I will send unto you from
the Father. There's your triune, triunity,
right? Even the Spirit of truth, which proceeded from the Father.
Did you see that last statement? He shall testify of me. Mark that, put it in yellow.
Put a big ring around that. Put a, put a, put exclamation
marks right there and say, let me get this through my thick
skull. The one who is going to witness to lost sinners effectively
is the Spirit of God. The reason the third person is
coming is so that he can do what only he can do to save a sinner
and bring him to a saving knowledge of Christ. Did you guys get that? This is critical. This is critical.
I'm helping those of you who are like me, a man of like passion,
understanding that I could talk forever and a day and a soul
will never be moved to look to Christ. Get this now. This is going to relieve you
of a few things. Your job is to be a co-laborer together with
Him. It is not the job of the Holy
Ghost in particular. It is not the job of the third
person in particular to be your helper, but rather for you to
be His helper. That's going to help a few of
you. That's going to help a few of you. The objective is to cooperate
with the Spirit of God in giving testimony to the truth of Scripture.
in a real sense and strictly speaking in the actual effect
of the message of the gospel having an impact in the life
of an eternity bound soul. You and I are helping the Holy
Ghost. He's not helping us. We read
this in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1. This is where I took the title.
I want you to see the verse just for you to grasp it. I want you
to understand, first and foremost, if we are going to be successful
in witnessing the gospel to anyone and doing it right, I'm going
to come alongside the Holy Ghost and let Him do His thing, and
then I'm going to do precisely and specifically what He calls
me to do. If I do that, I can be confident
that he'll get the job done if today it's his job to save somebody. Listen to what he says in verse
1 of 2 Corinthians 6. We then, we then, we, all believers,
the apostolic band, the leaders of the church, the ministers
of the gospel, every local gospel church that preaches Christ in
the truth. Watch this, we then as workers together with him. Do you see it? Beseech you also
that you receive not the grace of God in vain. The Apostle Paul
knew very clearly that he was simply working with God. Now,
doesn't that change the emphasis a little bit? that if God is
working for me, I might fall prey to the idea that most of
the work is mine. But if I'm working for God and
I know who God is in the truth, then I know He has the big yoke
and I got the little yoke, in that He's doing the majority
of the work and I'm simply following in the shadows. What this will
do is a couple of things for the believer who really wants
to be effective in witnessing. First, it will cause you to take
off of your neck the inordinate burden that the scripture never
places on you to save anybody. You can't save anybody. You can't
save yourself. You can't keep yourself saved. God wouldn't use you to save
anybody anyway. The best God will do is allow
us to work together with Him to get the job done. Now here's
what I want you to understand. The apostles were frightened
to death. They were frightened to death
that what Jesus was doing was leaving them to this task of
taking the gospel to the world without Him. They never opened
a blind man's eyes. They never fixed a withered arm.
They never caused the lame to walk. They never refuted all
of the errors and assaults and the assailments of the leadership
of the church. They sat through three and a
half years of ministry and watched their Savior do the whole thing,
didn't they? Now all of a sudden the Savior
said, I'm leaving the rest of it up to you. They are scared
to death. They have no idea what they are
going to do to accomplish this task. This is true of you and
me as well, until we understand the significance of what Jesus
said twice in our text and two or three times before, and that's
this, because I go to my Father. Look at verse 16, which is the
intention for which I had us to stop in John 16. Look at verse
16. Are we there? John 16, 16. A
little while and you shall not see me. They understood that
part, right? Going to Calvary, gonna die.
Watch this. And again, a little while and
you shall see me. Is that a contradiction? No. Why? Because what he's saying
is in his physical body he will die on Calvary Street, he will
be buried, raised again on the third day, then ascend on high
for us to never see his physical body in that form ever again. But then he says in a little
while you shall see me. How? the person of the Holy Ghost
who is called the Spirit of Christ who will come and abide not only
with them but in them so that Jesus returns to his disciples
in a much more efficacious way not only now being the atonement
for their sin but the advocate by which he through them gets
the job done of saving sinners. Am I making some sense? See,
Jesus knew what he meant when he says, because I go to my father. What these guys didn't understand
was the significance and the relevance of Christ returning
to his father. If you guys were to think about
this, all that Jesus accomplished when he went back to the right
hand of the majesty on high, you would be amazed at how much
work still got done after his departure to glory. And you would
realize that you and I, as witnesses of His, are merely participants,
instruments in a work of redemption of which we have to give God
all the glory. So then, I want to share with
you a number of things. First and foremost, stop assuming that
you can save anybody. Secondly, say what God says and
say that only. Learn to simply say what God
has already said. Declare God's Word plainly. Don't
add to it. Don't take away from it. Don't
distort it. Don't twist it. Don't water it
down. Don't build it up. Don't touch
His Word. Speak as of the oracles of God
and God only. You know what that does? That
leaves the onus for God to honor His Word. Am I making some sense? That leaves the onus for God
to honor his word. Now, if you're lazy, you're already
understanding the implications. That is, you got to study, right?
Study to show yourself approved under God, right? Oh, here we
go. Yeah, you got to study so that you don't tell a lie on
God. I'm going to talk about that today. You have to learn
the word. God will help you with that.
If you don't know how to get into it, do what David did. David
prayed in Psalm 119, Lord, incline my heart unto your testimony.
Teach me thy statutes. Open your word to me. Reveal
your truth to me. Help me to know the way of your
precepts, so shall I keep it unto the end. David knew how
to ask the Holy Ghost to help him love the Word of God, to
study the Word of God, and to be clear on what the Word of
God teaches. So, first I want you to understand,
say only what God says. Secondly, depend upon God. Depend upon God to witness. What are you saying? In Acts
chapter 5 verse 32, the apostles had just preached to the church
at Jerusalem. They were beaten for the preaching
of the gospel. And Peter found himself explaining that they
were privileged to witness the sufferings of Christ on Calvary's
tree. They said, we are witnesses of these things, watch this,
and also so is the Holy Ghost. whom God hath given to those
that obey him. Did you guys get what I just
said? Now I want you to watch this now, it's very important.
We know in the law that one witness is not true. Isn't that right?
According to the Word of God you can't testify of something
yourself and it be valid in a court of law. Isn't that right? Out
of the mouth of what? Two or three witnesses let every
word be established. Therefore, Christian, if you
and I will speak the truth concerning Christ, it will only be as we
stand together in witness with the Holy Ghost, who himself must
testify of Christ to the hearts of sinners. We are then agreeing
with him. That's the work that must be
done. I'm trying to drive this home because I want you to understand
that it's God's work and the only thing that you and I have
to do is to depend upon God, come alongside of Him by the
grace of God, be His helper. Here's the reason why. Elihu
said this in Job chapter 32 verse 8. You don't have to go there.
And I'm going to share a couple of other verses that you already
know. He says, but there is a spirit in man. You believe there's a
spirit in man? Of course we do. We believe in
the trichotomous nature of man. We believe that man is body,
soul, and spirit. Isn't that what the Bible teaches?
1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We believe he's body, soul, and
spirit. There is a spirit in man, Elihu said. Now watch this.
And the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding. Did
you get that? Now watch this. You and I all
have a spirit. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. He says, who knows the things of a man except the
spirit of a man which be in him? Even so, no one can know the
things of God save the spirit of God and those to whom he will
reveal them. All of us have a spirit. Our
spirit is the true essence of who we are. In order for us to
know divine and eternal truth, the spirit of God has to reveal
those things to us. A natural man cannot reveal truth
to another natural man. A spiritual man cannot reveal
truth to another natural man or a spiritual man. The natural
man can do nothing but produce the flesh. I can teach you science. I can teach you earthly disciplines.
I can talk to you about history. I can teach you logic and philosophy.
I can't teach you God. I can't teach you Christ. I can't
teach you truth. I can't help you understand divine
things. Do you understand what I'm saying? That is the prerogative
and realm of God Almighty. So you know what the Bible tells
us concerning witnessing to Christ? Philippians chapter 2 verse 12
says this, For it is God who worketh in you. The will. to do of his good pleasure did
you get that now watch this so if God's not working in me not
only to will but to do as of his good pleasure I can be sure
of this I can talk until I'm blue in the face and folks you
know that's hard for me to do and nothing's gonna happen nothing's gonna happen I can
witness the people all day long I can talk about Christ all day
long I can try to woo people all day long And you know what
I'll do if I don't understand this first principle that I'm
driving home to you? And that is God has to witness to them.
God has to open their understanding. God has to reveal Christ to them.
God has to glorify the Son of God to them. You know what I'll
do? I'll be tempted to manipulate the message to get a response.
Did you hear what I just said? See, this is what goes on in
our American culture. Americans are so good we can
sell oxygen and designer bottles. oxygen in designer bottles. What
we have learned, now this is called capitalism, you know that,
right? We're nothing but manipulative snakes, that's what we are by
nature. We can sell oxygen. It's free and it's everywhere,
but we'll sell it. We'll create a need, we'll establish a market
for it, we'll satisfy that market, and then we'll call it success.
Listen to me, but if the premise is flawed, even though we have
created a market and made some money, all we've done is manipulated
people. Now I'm going to carry that over
into religion. Religion has turned the gospel into capitalism. We
have taken the message of redemption. We have defamed it from its offense. We have taken out all of the
language that brings a sinner to his knees and we have packaged
the gospel in user-friendly terminology and we've sold it to sinners.
That's what we've done. And we have marketed religion.
Religion is marketed today. You've been taught that you can
save a sinner in five words. You can lead him down the Roman's
road of salvation. You've been deceived. Remarkable a couple of years
ago Billy Graham said this having retired and Now he's starting
to have a sense of consciousness About all the things that he's
done and most of you who don't know about Billy Graham. You're
ignorant You really do think that somehow God mightily worked
through him to save all those masses of people But he knows
better and a few other people know better, too he said in an
article one time that he doubts and that if there's even 5% of
all of the people that he helped march down the aisles in all
of those stadiums to the front, wooing them through the music,
strategically setting people up in the crowd who would start
coming down the aisles to lead the rest of the folks down the
aisle, you know, like the black goat that leads the sheep to
the slaughterhouse. He knew what he was doing. He
knew what he was doing to get the people to come make a decision
for Jesus. And he said, I doubt if 5% of
all the hundreds of thousands of people to whom I had these
folks in a machine-like fashion come down to the front, if they
were truly converted. You know why he said that? Because
after all of those labors, those people went back to their own
lifestyles as if they had never heard the message before. You
see, you can't save a person by your manipulative schemes
and methods of religion. Can't be done. Can't be done.
And so it's so very important for you and I to make sure that
we understand that Salvation is of the Lord from beginning
to end and that if people are going to be saved you and I are
helping the Holy Ghost That's a humbling phrase. We're helping
the Holy Ghost, but he ain't helping us It's not like we're
doing most of the work and he helps us a little bit. No, he's
got to do the work Holy Ghost you've got to save them You've
got to save them. I want you to see this is so
critical. How do I witness the gospel? I Myself must first become
a witness of the gospel. Listen to what he says in John
16 13 and 14 How be it when he the spirit of truth has come
he will guide you into all this in the definite article in the
Greek the true and For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things
to come. Listen to verse 14. He shall
glorify me. Who's going to do the glorifying
of Christ? the Holy Ghost for he shall receive of mine and
show them unto you all things that are of my father are mine
therefore I said unto you he shall take of mine and show them
to you if you look very carefully at these verses I just shared
with you The operative phrase is that he shall do this, he
shall do this, he shall do this, he shall do this. Jesus saw the
third person of the Blessed Trinity, God himself, the Spirit of God,
equal with the Father and equal with the Son. He was there in
the beginning, created the universe, sustains it by its power. He's
the means by which men and women come to a saving knowledge of
Christ. Jesus saw the Holy Ghost doing the work. Now I want you
to go to 1 John chapter 5 and I'm going to show you what I'm
talking about. 1 John chapter 5. My first and main point to
make it clear to us who really want to be able to see people
saved under the ministry of the gospel, if God should be pleased
to use us, is to understand that we can't save anybody and that
the witness to the souls of men must occur by God the Holy Ghost
if ever a man or woman will see God in His glory. I'm in 1 John
chapter 5. I'm going to start at verse 6
and read through verse 12. Listen carefully to the language.
This is he talking about Jesus The he here has an antecedent
in this verse 5 the Son of God. This is he that came by water
and by blood Even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water
and blood What does he mean when Christ hung on Calvary Street
2,000 years ago John chapter 19 the centurion soldier took
a sword and pierced him in his side and And out came what? Water and blood. At that point,
Jesus had fully come to his end. This is he who came by water
and blood. It's referring to the fact that
God had designated him before the world began to be the lamb
slain. when the centurion pierced his
side out came water and blood the testimony that he was the
God man who would put away the sins of his people by the sacrifice
of himself water came out and blood came out Christ had fully
come did you guys get that Christ had fully come so he said on
Calvary Street it is finished listen to the language for there
are three that bear record in heaven and The Father? Jesus said that all through the
Gospel of John, didn't he? My Father bears record of me.
Watch this. The Word? Who is the Word? Christ! And the Holy Ghost? Who's bearing
record? The Holy Ghost! Now watch this. All these three are one. That
is, they agree in one. And there are three that bear
witness in the earth. Now watch the witness in the
earth. The Spirit? In your King James Bible, it's
in the small S. It should be the capital S. The
Spirit of God. The water and the blood and these
three agree in one. Do you see that the Spirit of
God agrees? With the crucified Christ who
was manifested to be the sin bearer of the world. He was there
when Christ was crucified He was there when they put him on
Calvary Street. I He was there when he says,
Tetelestai. He was there when they pierced
his side and water and blood came out. Therefore, they did
not break his bones to fulfill the scriptures. The Holy Ghost
is really the only credible witness we have. The Holy Ghost is really the
only credible witness. What do you mean? You and I are
liars by nature. The Holy Ghost is true. And if
he gets a hold of you, he'll use you in a way whereby his
word in your heart, declared to sinners, can be used, sanctified,
to speak to the hearts of men and women who need Christ. Apart
from the Holy Ghost, you and I could talk forever and a day,
and it would never happen. Now listen to what he says, verse
9. If we receive the witness of men, see there it is. We're
talking about witnessing the men, right? If we receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater. Isn't that right? If we receive the testimony of
men, if we receive the records of men, if we receive the arguments
of men, the message of men, their discourse, the unfurrowing of
all of their views in order to persuade us of a truth, if we
listen to men argue in court or in academia, in places of
significance where we need to determine and ascertain what
truth is and we receive the witness of men don't we the witness of
God is greater the witness of God is great listen to me God
is the witness for himself now watch the language watch the
language if we receive the witness of men and we do the witness
of God is is greater for this is the witness which God hath
testified of his son. John chapter 15 verse 26 said,
and he shall testify of me. Who? The Holy Ghost. Who is the
Holy Ghost? He's God. What is he doing? He's testifying of Christ. He's
testifying of Christ. Listen to what he says now. I
want you to get this. This is the witness of God. which he
hath testified of his son. Verse 10. He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Do you see that? He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him what? because he believes not the record
that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God
has given us eternal life and that life is in his son. Who's going to plant that record,
that witness, that testimony in the hearts of sinners in a
way in which they agree with it? God must do it. God, am I
making some sense to you? God must do it. God must do it. So be very clear a couple things.
In order for me to be effective in witnessing, God must give
me the agency of the Holy Ghost so that I might cooperate with
Him in the Word. Two verses now. Go with me back
to Acts chapter 1 verse 8. Then I want us to go to Acts
16 and look at an account that's going to begin to build upon
what I'm saying. Acts chapter 1 verse 8. You've
heard this before. perhaps not in this context,
but now that we are addressing the context of what it means
to be a real and effective witness of the gospel, is that we are
simply coming alongside of the Spirit of God and he's actually
doing his part of the covenantal task of calling all sinners to
Christ. Listen to what he says over in
verse 7. And he said unto them, it's not for you to know the
times and the seasons of which the Father hath put in his own
power. That is, when is the kingdom of God gonna come? But verse
eight, but you shall receive power. Do you see that? After
that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses
unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea, Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth. What was he saying to the disciples?
Don't you move until the third person comes. And when the third
person comes, then you'll be able to go. And when you go,
you'll go successfully. Because the third person will
be the one doing the work. Now, if you go through the whole
of the book of Acts, what you will see clearly is the only
time anything happened of any eternal efficacy is when the
Spirit of God moved. Are you guys hearing me? Very,
very important. Now, go with me to Acts 16. Show
you what I'm talking about. Acts 16. In Acts 16, the Apostle
Paul has already begun at Lent this ministry. He's going through
his first missionary journey, and they're making their way
throughout the regions of Philippi. And we find in Acts 16, verses
13 through 15, these words. And on the Sabbath, we went out
of the city by a riverside where prayer was accustomed to be made. And we sat down and we spake
unto the women which resorted there. a certain woman named
Lydia, you guys know about Lydia? Seller of purple, had a big business
of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God. Listen to the
phrase now, she heard us. Do you see it? She heard us.
You can remove the italicis, she heard. She heard. How does faith come? But do you
also know that God has to give you ears to hear? Proverbs 2012,
the hearing ear and the seeing eye is of the Lord. He has to
give you an ear to hear. You know that day that the gospel
sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher? You remember that day? When the gospel sounded like
Charlie Brown's teacher? And then the next time it became
crystal clear. You didn't get smart overnight.
The Holy Ghost opened your understanding that you might understand the
Scriptures. Am I making some sense? I want
to show you what I'm talking about. Listen to what it goes
on to say. Verse 15. No, verse 14. And a certain woman
named Lydia, a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira, worshipped
God. She heard us. Whose heart? The Lord what? Saints, will you hear me? You
can't open anybody's heart. You and I don't open hearts.
God opens hearts. God opens the heart. He opens the heart through this
means. Preaching. By which the Holy
Ghost makes effective by giving the auditors ears to hear. It
goes through the ear gate into the heart which God opens to
receive his truth. You know that person to whom
you've witnessed for years and years and years. It's like witnessing
to a door. No change whatsoever. No change
whatsoever. Why? The Holy Ghost wasn't in
it. It was just you. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Until the Spirit of God comes
through the ministry of the Word and opens the heart, the heart's
door is closed. The heart's door is closed. God
the Holy Ghost must open the door of the heart and then enter
in and give testimony of the Son to the soul and spirit of
the one he is targeting. Am I making some sense? This
is so very important. Therefore, what you and I are
doing is simply saying, Holy Ghost, you speak to these lost
sinners. Holy Ghost, you testify to them
of Jesus Christ, because all I can do is open my mouth and
say a few feeble words. If you don't work, they won't
hear me. Now listen to what it says, whose heart the Lord opened and
she attended to the things which were spoken by Paul. And when
she was baptized, which what? It means she believed the gospel.
You're not gonna be baptized unless you believe the gospel.
Couple weeks from now, several of you will be baptized, several
of you. You'll be baptized because God opened your heart. You'll
be baptized because the Holy Ghost witnessed to you. He planted
the witness in your heart concerning the person, work of Jesus Christ.
And you are now compelled. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch? He's sitting in his chariot.
He's riding down Gaza Strip, headed back to Ethiopia, and
Philip comes alongside of him. Ask him, what are you reading?
As he reads from the scroll of Isaiah 53, and the Ethiopian
says, look, I'm reading something, but I have no idea what it's
saying. He says, what are you reading? He says, I'm reading
the prophets. And the man asked Philip, can you tell me of whom
is the prophet speaking? Of himself or of another? He
was being honest, wasn't he? You know what he was saying?
I'm reading this with my literal eyes and my physical brain, but
I'm not comprehending the truth at all. You know how it is when
you read the Bible and it's just like reading a brick wall. You're
reading German, you're reading Russian, you have never read
that language in your life. It's a code, it's dark, it's
vague, you have no idea what's being said. And you know what
God the Holy Ghost did who sent Philip up to him? God the Holy
Ghost took that same passage Isaiah 53, he was led as a sheep
to the slaughter, as a lamb before his shepherds, he was done, so
open not his mouth. And the scripture says, and Philip
began at the same scripture and preached Jesus. By the time Philip
had finished preaching Jesus, the Holy Ghost had witnessed
to the Ethiopian, and the Ethiopian said, well, we wait no. Now that's
what happens when you really come to know the gospel. You are compelled to identify
with this one who has become lovely in your eyes. I'm sharing
this with you because I want you to understand, when a person
really comes to a saving knowledge of Christ, you don't have to
kind of guess if there's life. You know, some of us use the
language like, you know, it seems like he's coming to the Lord. It seems like he's coming to
the Lord. Until he comes to the Lord, he ain't came to the Lord.
I know that's bad language. until he comes, he has not come. People can debate, they can argue,
they can discuss, they can deliberate. Jesus is preaching to Agrippa,
not Jesus, but Paul, in Acts chapter 18 through 23, he says
to Agrippa, Agrippa says to him, Paul, you almost persuaded me
to believe. You almost persuaded me. Agrippa,
you're going to hell with an almost persuasion. Did you hear
what I just said? Paul says, I wish you were all
together like me. I believe this thing. When I
saw the heavenly vision, I was not disobedient. I bowed the
knee to the glory of God in Christ, and I would that you would bow
the knee to the glory of God in Christ and be just like me
without these chains. Paul wasn't messing around. Paul
knew that an almost faith wasn't true faith at all. Well, he's
kind of coming. The Lord's working on him. Can
I share something with you? When the Lord works on you, we'll
all know it. We'll all know it. I'll say this
and I'll move to my next point. Very seldom have I seen in my
life, and I'm not the paragon of experience, but I observe
this carefully. Very seldom have I seen in my
life where having witnessed to people for weeks in, and weeks
out, and months in, and months out, and years in, and years
out, and they're just vacillating, and equivocating, and arguing,
and fudging, and getting out of the way, and positioning themselves
where they're not getting hit square in the head with the message.
Very seldom have I seen that person ever come to Christ, ever. When a person comes to Christ,
generally, It's radical and quickly. Generally, it's radical and quickly.
In other words, when the Holy Ghost does his work, you're not
out wrestling the Holy Ghost. Did you hear what I just said?
It's a powerful, efficacious, and thorough and obvious witness
that God has changed. You know what he does? He breaks
you. He humbles you. He strips you of your pride.
He shows you what you are. He shows you what He is. He shuts
your mouth to all your arguments. And you say yes to God. And all
of us know it. We're going to see that right
here. Because it's so very important for us to understand that. Go
with me back to our text now. I want to share with you a couple
of things on that. I've been stressing the necessity of us
understanding that folks being saved will only occur when God
does the work. This will relieve you and me
of fudging the scriptures soft-petaling, back-petaling, and distorting
what the Bible says, since God is infinite and wise and he wrote
the Bible the way he did, we figure that he can take his own
word and get the job done. Isn't that right? There are,
in this area of witnessing, three non-negotiable doctrines that
must be continually set forth by which the Holy Ghost works
through this truth in order to save sinners. Listen to what
Jesus said in John chapter 16. I'm going to start at verse 7
and go through verse 11. I'm actually going to start at
verse 7 and begin to expound it. Nevertheless, I tell you
the truth. It is expedient, that is necessary
for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the
Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will
send him unto you. Now listen to this. And when
he is come, He will, do you see it? And when He is come, He will
reprove the world of sin. Do you see it? Of righteousness
and of judgment. Point number two in our outline,
God the Holy Ghost does the convincing. The Greek word elinko, our New
Testament is a word which is often translated to reprove. It means more than to correct. It means to convince. It's a
legal term that's used in the court system of the prosecutor
setting forth his arguments and his evidence in such a way that
that the person against whom he is arguing is utterly and
totally convinced of the truth of that negotiator, that advocate,
that prosecutor. It's a term in the Old Testament
that's in reference to what we call the daismen, that person
who is a go-between two parties. You got a party who's offended
and you got the party who is the offender. The offender does
not believe or is not persuaded that he or she has offended the
offended party. The daisman's job is to stand
between the offended party and the offender and convince the
offender that they're guilty of offending the one who has
been offended. Did you guys get that? The work
of the Holy Ghost then is to convince sinners that indeed
they have sinned against God. shall reprove the world of sin he shall reap now watch this
because it's gonna help you on in a lot of levels the job of convincing human beings
that they are sinners is to God's job see you can raise all the arguments
you want about a person's condition and try to help them understand
that they are in an awful place with God. But they will never
believe you. They will never believe you until
the Spirit of God does what only the Spirit of God can do, and
that is convince them Himself. The phrase here, reprove, is
given to us in two passages in the New Testament. I'm going
to quote them. You know them. I'm going to quote them, develop
it a little bit, use one passage in the Old Testament, and wrap
this up. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter
8, 18 verse 15, it speaks concerning a brother who has offended another
brother. You guys have heard this a lot
in religion. If your brother offends you, You go to him alone. That's what we blow it right
there, isn't that right? You didn't went to 25 people before
you went to him. No wonder he won't listen to
you, and he shouldn't. But I'm gonna help you here.
If your brother offends you, you go to him alone. This is a neutral form. It's
male or female. You go to them. Alone. Personally. Now watch
the language. It's in a participle form. Same
Greek word, elencho. And tell him his fault. And tell him his fault. If he hears you, you want him. Man, how many times in your life
have you been able to go to somebody Tell them their fault and they
hear you. Most of the time it has failed,
isn't that right? Here's the reason why. There's
a two-fold reason why. First of all, I'm gonna help
you here. Sometimes when we are trying
to tell people their fault, we really don't know their fault. we have erected what we think
from our empirical observation of what the fault is. And then
we've tried to heap upon them the faults that we have erected
by building our own straw men, and we think we are going to
persuade them with our arguments, and our logic, and our evidence,
and I remember this, and I remember you said that, and I remember
this, and they look at you and it's uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, and
it totally falls flat on its face. And you're frustrated. You know why you're frustrated?
Because your motive wasn't right when you went. And when you went, you built
a case that wasn't predicated upon the pure truth of the issue.
The second thing, see I'm helping you, watch this. You really didn't
get at the heart of the problem with that person. Because only
God knows. heart of that person. And therefore when we go, if
we are not absolutely under God conviction clear that I see the
issue the same way that God sees it and that God has endorsed
my going to him with this issue, I can be sure that I'm not going
to convince them. And if they want to walk away
from me, they can certainly walk away from me. Listen, I have
no right to be upset, all bent out of shape. I'm not God. I
can't convince you. Did you hear what I just said?
I can't convince you. Now watch this. Take that precept
again and understand God the Holy Ghost saying to God the
Son, if your brother offends you, You go to him alone and
show him his fault. Now we see the gospel, don't
we? Because the Holy Ghost will come to you who are the offending
party and show you your fault that you have offended your brother.
That is the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And only the Holy Ghost can show a guilty sinner that he's offended
Jesus Christ. And when he's finished showing
you your fault, you're gonna agree with him. And he's gonna
win you to himself. And this is what Jesus meant
in Matthew chapter 5. You don't have to go there. When
he said in Matthew chapter 5, he started at verse 17, worked
his way through verse 26. He said this. Accept your righteousness. exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, there is no way you're getting into
the kingdom of heaven. You know what Jesus had just done? He
had just showed the rulers of the church their fault. The rulers
of the church had a fault and that was they sought to obtain
righteousness by their own works. He went on to explain the necessity,
the necessity of receiving God's righteousness in order to be
saved. And then he says this, when you have been offended or
when you have offended someone, you seek that person and ask
for forgiveness. And if you don't hurry up and
ask that person for forgiveness, What he's going to do is take
you before the judge, and the judge is going to take you to
the prison, cast you into prison, and you're going to stay there
until you pay the very last mite. He was talking about the importance
of acknowledging your sin. Listen to me, saints, not before
men before God. See Jesus was talking to the
rulers about their rebellion and offense towards him and he
was telling them if you don't bow the knee to me you're going
to hell. Did you get that? You're going
to hell. So the essence of reproof, the
essence of correction, is the work that the Spirit of God has
to do. Do you remember the book of Job?
Job had three friends. Remember them? These three friends
came to Job, supposedly in love, in order to help Job. Remember
that? Do you know what they came to do? They came to show Job
his fault. Did they accomplish their purpose?
No! You know why? Because they didn't
know Job's faults. They didn't know Job's fault.
Read it in your own time. Job chapter 6. In Job chapter
6, what Job says to his friends in Job chapter 6 is this. Here
you are coming to me and you are imagining things against
your friend. You're making up my sins. You're
fabricating my sins. Here's what he said. Would you
stand over in respect of persons with God against me by using
this methodology? Listen carefully. This is what
he said. You haven't reproved me at all. I still don't know what my problem
is if I'm waiting on you to tell me. In that same chapter he called
the miserable comforters. physicians of no value. Did you
get what I just said? And then over in chapter 12,
this is what he says. In chapter 12, we talked about
this before. He says, I have heard you for a long time. My
sin still remains with me. Here's what he says. He says,
How forcible are right words? How profitable are the right
words at the right time by the right power? But what doth your
arguing reprove? He says, you've been arguing
with me all this time and you haven't shown me my sin. In fact,
you've made me worse. I'm ready to die. Now, after
listening to you, I feel worse than I did before you came. And
you're supposed to be my friends. I'm trying to help you guys understand
something, a couple of things here. Before I lay down the three
cardinal principles that we have to share in preaching the gospel,
be careful to understand two things. Just like God has to
be the one to convince a person of sin, When you are dealing
with your neighbor, or your brother, or your sister, or your husband,
or your wife, or your children, or your parents, or your friends,
don't be quick to be the advocate, the daisman, the go-in-between,
to tell them their fault. Don't be quick. Because in all
likelihood, you really don't know it. Don't be quick. See, don't be like the Pharisees.
And don't be like Job's friends. Understand your limitations.
Understand whether or not you really know the issue. Understand
whether or not you are moved to bring allegations against
that person based on emotions and feelings and certain temperaments
that you have because you want to make them guilty. Are you
hearing what I just said? It'd be much better that if that
person offended you, that you pray for them. Do I sound like Jesus when I
said that? Because that's who said it. Okay, he offended me. His offense
might be a problem, but if he's going to be reproved, I'd much
rather God do it. So what I'm going to do is pray
that the Holy Ghost do what only the Holy Ghost can do, and that's
penetrate the depths of his soul and cut the lights on and help
him to see his sin against God first, and then maybe me. Did you hear what I just said?
You know what this is going to do on a practical level? It's
going to stop a whole lot of baseless arguments and bad scenarios
and hot conflicts that don't result in anything but self-righteous
splits. That person is still hardened
and you're still under the delusion that you know what their problem
is. They may have a problem way over here that you never considered
that only has the superficial manifestation of their being
short with you over here. And you want to get on them for
being short with you over here when their problem is way over
there. And only God knows their problem is way over there. So
the Christian has been called to be patient. Pray for those
who despitefully use you and abuse you. Be patient with them. Go to the Holy Ghost for them.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Same thing with witnessing to
them. Jesus says when he the spirit of truth is come he will
convince the world of what sin and of righteousness and of judgment
those are the three cardinal truths a Person will never come
to Christ until he's made to see that he's what a sinner I'm
talking about in the biblical sense some of you think that
you are like, you know, you're not that good You know you did
a few things wrong. That's not what makes you a sinner.
What you do is not what makes you a sinner. I What you are
is what makes you a sinner. Did you hear what I just said?
Sin is what you are. So, if the Holy Ghost is going
to bring a person to a point of their need of Christ, He's
going to first show them how desperately outside of the will
of God they are in a state of abject sin. And when we expound
the doctrine of sin, what we are going to be teaching is the
definition of sin, the origin of sin, the extent of sin, and
the consequences of sin. Sin is transgression against
God's law. Anybody here free from sin? Did you get what I just said?
First John chapter 3 verse 4, it's all in your outline. Sin
is transgression against God's law. Sin, what James said is
all unrighteousness is sin. Sin is when you and I do not
live in full conformity to all that God's Word has said. The
Bible makes it very plain in Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 4. He says, verse 9 rather, he that
obeys every one of my precepts is the man who shall live. Sin
is violating those precepts. James said in James chapter 2,
if you obey all of the precepts and violate one, you're guilty
of the whole thing. Isn't that what he said? I'm a sinner. Let me help you. So are you. Did you hear what
I just said? So what we have to tell the world
is you're in sin. The world's never going to come
to Christ as long as they know they're sinners. The extent of
the sin is this, that when Adam sinned, him and Eve, sin passed
upon the whole human race, for all have sinned. All have sinned. The wicked go astray from the
womb speaking lies. We're all sinners. The next point,
not only is everybody a sinner, but the consequences of sin is
this, you and I don't know God and we don't love God. You guys
got that? By nature we don't know him and
we don't love him and we don't want him. Romans chapter 1 tells
us what the consequences of sin are. Our hearts are darkened.
We are idolaters. We love ourself. We love this
creation. We love this world. We love sin,
but we don't love God. The evidence, John chapter 16
verse 9, is they don't believe on me. What are you saying? When we preach Christ, people
reject it by nature. That's sin. The Holy Ghost has
to convince you of sin. When he convinces you that you're
a sinner and know that you're under the wrath of God and that
you're going to perish under God's just judgment, then he
points you to God's righteousness. See, you can talk about God's
righteousness forever and a day and it will mean nothing for
the person who doesn't sense and know that they are a sinner.
See what I'm getting at? You can talk about how lovely
Jesus is, how he died on the cross for you, but if the Holy
Ghost hasn't started the first work, and that is to convince
you that you're a desperately hell-bound sinner, Christ's righteousness
means nothing for you. You can leave it or take it,
but when God shows you that you are wretched and desperate and
then shows you Christ's righteousness, it means something now. Am I
telling the truth? Now watch this. What is righteousness? It's the opposite of sin. It's
full perfect and complete conformity to all of God's law. You know
what that means? I'm not righteous and neither
are you. Which one of us has perfectly
obeyed God's law anytime? See what I'm getting at? But
there was a man the scripture tells us and the Holy Ghost tells
us he knew no sin, he did no sin, and in him was no sin at
all. In fact, he asked the rulers
who were high on righteousness, which one of you can convince
me of sin? The Bible tells us he was holy, he was harmless,
he was separate from sinners. He is the spotless Lamb of God.
Not only did he not do any sin which made him righteous in his
deeds, he was the Son of God. You know what that means for
him? He was righteous in his nature. Righteousness is the
nature of the Son of God. It's not just that He did everything
right. He's right by nature. God is righteous. Just like He's love, just like
He's holy, just like He's true, God is righteous. So righteousness
flows from God's character. Are you guys hearing me? God's
all righteous and you and I are all sinful. So we need Him, don't
we? The Bible declares that he was
righteous by the work he accomplished on Calvary Street. And he tells
us in John 16, 9 or 10, he says, and he will convince the world
of righteousness because I returned to my father. When he died on
Calvary Street as a substitute for guilty sinners in their place
and in their stead, he bore the wrath of God. He satisfied divine
justice. He vindicated God's holiness
so that God never, listen, he never looks to the sinner to
have to obtain righteousness in order for him to be right
with God because God is well pleased with Christ's righteousness. We know this because he rose
from the dead. Had he not accomplished a perfect redemption, he would
have never risen from the dead. He says he will convince the
world of righteousness because he goes to the what? Father!
Do you know he's the only one that descended from heaven? And
the only one that ascended to heaven? He's the only one. And everyone who has ascended
to heaven, ascends to heaven because he first descended. And
then ascended again. And we took a ride on the draft
of his ascension. Did you get that? The only reason
I go to heaven is because I've become the righteousness of God
in Him. Have you? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So when you're talking to guilty sinners, they got to
know they're sinners and they got to... Watch this now. There's
only one place in the universe that you can find righteousness
and that's in Christ. That's in Christ. That's in Christ. And a man must be right before
God to go to glory. Isn't that true? A man must be
justified before God to go to glory. By the works of the law,
no flesh shall be justified. Isn't that what the Bible says?
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. This message
is designed to help you to say the right things when you witness
to people. We're sinners. We need God's righteousness.
The Holy Ghost has to testify to the righteousness of God in
Christ. And when he does, he'll let you know that Christ is your
righteousness. Isn't that right? 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30. But of God are you in Christ,
who also of God has been made all these things to us. Wisdom,
redemption, sanctification, and righteousness. Christ is our
righteousness. That's good news to a sinner.
Is that good news to a sinner? That's good news to a sinner. What do you have to show that
you are right with God? Christ. I got the same thing
to show that God has to show. I'm pleased with what God's pleased
with. Are you? He that believeth on the Son
of God hath what? Life! And he that believeth not
does not have life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. One more
thing that the Holy Ghost convinces, and that is of judgment. Of judgment. Now, let me say this as I close.
The Holy Ghost doesn't have to convince the world that there's
a day of judgment coming. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. That's
why we're born into this world with phobias and fears. We come
out of the womb crying. We don't come out laughing. We
come out crying. We're scared of something. We come out crying. We come out
backwards, upside down, crying. Why? Because we know we're under
the wrath of God. We know we go straight from the
womb speaking lies. We're separated from God and
everything scares us to death until we get taught by our teachers
it's alright to believe a lie. But subconsciously, deep inside,
intuitively, we know we gotta face judgment. Now, you don't
need the gospel to know that. Pagans have been offering up
their firstborn for tens of thousands of years, trying to appease the
angry God that they don't know. Am I telling the truth? Here
is the judgment that the Holy Ghost must convince you of. It's a threefold judgment. He
must convince you that when Christ died on Calvary's tree that that
was a day of judgment where God's wrath was poured upon the Son
of God and when God poured his wrath upon the Son of God it
was in the stead of the guilty sinner who should be cast into
hell I must be convinced that judgment day took place 2,000
years ago John chapter 12 verse 30 now is the judgment of this
world Now is the prince of this world cast out and if I be lifted
up I'll draw men unto me. Do you know what I've learned
by the Holy Ghost? That the Bible tells me that he that heareth
my words and believes on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from
death to life. Why? Because the judgment took
place 2,000 years ago on Calvary Street. You know what happened
2,000 years ago? God judged me in the person of Christ, my substitute
on Calvary Street. Do you know what that means?
God can never bring me into judgment ever again. Watch this now. This is going to help some of
you. God will not punish Christ in my place. my stead as my surety
and my substitute be pleased with punishing Christ as Isaiah
53 says and he was well pleased when he saw the suffering of
his soul he was satisfied if God is satisfied with the death
of Christ on my behalf why would God then turn around and take
me and cast me into hell when he already punished Christ for
my sins are you hearing what I say see a whole lot of folk
who don't believe in the judgment of the cross What did Christ
accomplish on the cross when he said to Telestai? He accomplished
putting away my debt, my debt of sin, my hostility towards
God. Do you know for every one of
God's elect, the day Christ died, God was done with judging you. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that good news? That's
the first judgment that I must be convinced of. I must be convinced,
Sister Bertha, that when I die, I'm going straight to glory because
the judgment is passed. And God must be just. He cannot
punish Christ and punish me too. That would be an atrocity, a
travesty of justice, wouldn't it? Who on earth would go to
jail, suffer the crimes of their punishment, fit for their crime,
get out, and then expect the police to arrest them and put
them back in jail for the same crime? Therefore, when you preach
the gospel to sinners, you must not tell them that Christ died
for you, but if you don't accept Him, then you're going to hell,
and you're going to be punished for your sins as well. That's
double jeopardy. Let me say that again. Some of
y'all missed that. Do not tell sinners that Christ died for
you, that he put away your sins, that he satisfied the justice
of God, that God's holiness was vindicated by his son's death
and his resurrection was the proof of it. But if you don't
accept him, then you're gonna die under that same wrath. You
do what Joe's friends did, misrepresent God. Did you hear what I just
said? If you tell men and women Christ
died for you, Christ died to put away your sins, you better
tell them they can walk away free and happy because gods are
just God. Did you hear what I just said?
Because gods are just God. God will not twice exact sin,
not on his son and then again on me. He will not do it. Therefore,
don't you tell anybody that Christ died for them. you don't know
Christ died for them. Don't you lie on God because
the death of Jesus Christ at Calvary's tree did something
for somebody. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and he that cometh unto me I will in no wise
cast out because the death of Christ at Calvary's tree put
away our sins. When you preach the gospel to
sinners say this Christ died for the ungodly Are you ungodly? Christ died for sinners. Are
you a sinner? Christ died for needy souls.
Are you a needy soul? Christ died for those who are
dead in trespasses and sins. Are you dead in trespasses and
sins? Christ died for his sheep. Are you one of his sheep? Christ
died for his bride. Are you his bride? Christ died
for his church. Are you his church? Are you hearing
me? He didn't die for everybody. Fix this right now. And the Holy
Ghost will tell you, Christ died for you. And if the preacher
knows what he's talking about, he'll tell you, man, you need
to be rejoicing, because you're the richest man or woman on planet
Earth now. And God did it all. All to him
I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. I didn't even help him with it.
He washed it white as snow. That's the gospel, folks. Let's
stand and sing our last hymn.