Titus chapter 1, and let's read
these three verses again. We're almost finished with the
introduction of this. But there is just so much in
God's Word when you begin to think about it and meditate upon
it, and that's so important. Titus chapter 1, and we'll begin
next week hopefully to get into the body of this epistle. Paul,
a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to
the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth
which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which God
that cannot lie promised before the world began. But hath in
due time manifested his word through preaching which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior." This is an
amazing introduction here of the Apostle Paul. Among other things that it does,
all the information it gives us, it gives us also his relationship
that he tells us to God here. In verse 1 he says that he was
a servant of God. The word literally means a slave. He is God's slave. But he is
a willing slave. There were slaves that you could
purchase and abuse them. and they weren't serving you
willingly. They served you because they
were afraid of you. But here was a man who was bought by a
great price and he served God willingly, served Him humbly. He tells us in another place
that he served the Lord in humility of mind and with many tears. and he served him with reverence
and godly fear. I know he was a son. He was a
son of God by new birth. And that's the highest relationship. But here's another relationship
he had with God. And he said, I'm a servant of
God. Then something else here that
he did, he tells us his authority as an apostle. He's a special
messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't attempt here to prove
that He is. He just asserts that He is. I'm
an apostle of Christ. Other places He proved that.
He proved how He become an apostle. He was chosen of Christ to be
an apostle. He's a vessel to carry my name,
a special messenger. Not of men, He said. I'm not
an apostle of men. No man chose me. They didn't
ordain me to be an apostle, neither by man. I wasn't taught anything
by man. It is all from Jesus Christ,
His Lord. He is a special messenger of
Jesus Christ, the Lord. And then He says here that He
goes everywhere preaching the Word and He tells us by whose
authority. There in verse 3 again, But hath
in due time manifested His Word through preaching which is committed
unto Me. preaching the gospel was committed,
it was entrusted to the Apostle Paul. What a precious treasure! And that's the way he describes
it in 2 Corinthians 4. He says, we have this treasure,
an earthen vessel. I remember when I first come
to Indiana, I went to a filler station, one of the busiest filler
stations in Muncie. And I worked there. And the first
night I worked there, we were selling gas for 28 cents a gallon. And we took about $2,500 in. That's a bunch of money. I've
never seen that kind of money. And I deposited it down in a
safe. Had a little hole in the safe.
And I deposited it in that safe for the safe keeping. I entrusted
it to that safe. That's what this Word means.
God deposited the Gospel in my heart. He entrusted me with the
Gospel. He gave me the knowledge of it.
And then He gave me the grace to preach it. Gave me the grace
to preach it. Look over here in 1 Timothy and
I want you to take your Bibles and keep them. I want you to
turn as fast as you can to some of these places with me. But
I want you to read some of these places with me. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 11, the Apostle Paul was talking about men preaching
the law here in this chapter and not even knowing the nature
of the law, the spiritual nature of it. and just turned it into
vain jangling, he said. And he told Timothy to be sure
and not let these people in the church that preach in anything
contrary to sound doctrine. And then in verse 11, 1 Timothy
chapter 1 and verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God which was committed to my trust. The glorious Gospel
was committed to my trust. That's a treasure, isn't it,
that was committed to this man. You know, if you're out here
and you run into a man and he's filthy rich, you want to know
where did you get your riches, don't you? How did you get your
riches? Did you work for him? Did you inherit him? How did
you get your riches? Well, if we ask Paul how come
him to be a preacher of this gospel, this glorious gospel,
he says here that God committed it to him. God entrusted him
with this gospel. Look at another place on over
to your left in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter
2 and look in verse 3. First Thessalonians chapter 2
and look in verse 3. For our exhortation was not of
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. not as pleasing men, but God
which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time use we
flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness.
God is witness." He was entrusted with the Gospel. And because
God had entrusted him with this Gospel, this is what he was faithful
to preach. He never sought to please man.
He never spoke so man would think well of Him or speak well of
Him. He preached exactly what He had been taught, the Gospel.
And you know, that's an amazing thing, isn't it? When you've
been entrusted with the Gospel. I, as a preacher, have been entrusted
with the Gospel. But the Lord has entrusted you
with that Gospel. That's a precious trust, isn't
it? To be entrusted with the Gospel. And then in our text,
back over in our text, the Apostle Paul adds something to this. He says in our text that in due
season, at due time, has manifested His Word through preaching, which
is committed unto me, and listen to this, according to the commandment
of God our Savior. Commandment. Now that's strong
language, isn't it? In other words, it's not just
the Lord's desire that Paul preached this gospel. It's not just something
that he wished he would do. He said he commanded, this is
God's commandment that I preach the gospel. You remember when
the Lord appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus there in
Acts chapter 9 and brought him down and humbled him and he said,
Who are you, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you
persecuted. And then he said, I'm going to
send you. I'm going to send you to the
Gentiles and you're going to burn my name to kings and so
on. And then he went over there, the Lord did, and in a vision
appeared to Ananias. And he said, Ananias, you go
lay your hands on Saul because he saw in a vision you coming
and laying your hands on him. And you remember what he said?
Lord, I'm scared to death of that man. I've heard about him. And now you're telling me to
go lay hands on him? He may lay hands on me. But you
remember what the Lord told him? I'll show him. Remember that? He said, Ananias, he's my chosen
vessel to bear my name, and I'll show him. I like that because
my mother used to tell me that when I wouldn't mind her. She
said, little young man, I'll show you. And she did. And all
she had to say was, You come back here and you take a whipping
from me or I'll tell your father when he gets home. I'll show
you. And that's what the Lord was
saying. He's not saying, Paul, this is My desire. It was that. But He said, This is My commandment
that you preach the gospel before kings and the Gentiles and the
children of Israel. Now there's a good reason for
this. There's a good reason that the Apostle Paul does this sometimes. He reminds us of his authority
as an apostle, where he got his authority. And he reminds us
of why he preached. God commanded him to preach. And he reminds us of these things
for this reason. The Jews always were interested
in where a man got his authority. Why do you do what you do? You
remember when the Pharisees sent their people to John the Baptist
and said, Where did you get your authority? Are you the Christ? He said, No, I'm not the Christ.
Are you Elijah? No. Are you that prophet? No.
Then they said, Why are you baptizing me? Who has given you the authority
to come out here and baptize? They wanted to know where he
got his authority. And they came to the Lord Jesus
one day when He was preaching in the temple and the chief priest
asked Him that very question. By what authority are you doing
these things? And where did you get this authority?
And you remember His answer. I love His answer, don't you?
He said, I want to ask you a question. The baptism of John, was it from
heaven or from men? And those fellows said, now if
we say from heaven, then he's going to say, why didn't you
believe in me? And if we say of men, we fear they're going
to stone us because they believe John was a prophet. So they said,
we don't know. He said, neither am I going to
tell you where I got my authority. But you know where he got his
authority, don't you? We know where he got it. The Father sent
me. And I speak the Word that my Father sent me. But these
Jews were always attempting to discredit the Apostle Paul. They hated him and they hated
him for different reasons, but they were always trying to discredit
him. And Paul was such a humble fellow.
Bless his heart, he was such a loving man. He never did exalt
himself. He said, I am what I am by the
grace of God. And I'm less than the least of
all people, but when it come to His authority, He never would
relinquish His authority. And listen to these Jews. The
Jews hated the Apostle Paul, but they hated him for different
reasons. Those self-righteous Jews that sought righteousness
by the works of the law, they hated him because he said, Righteousness
don't come that way. It comes by the obedience of
Jesus Christ alone. And they hated Him. And when
they read His letter where He said, I pray for them that they
might be saved, for they are ignorant of God's righteousness
and they are going about to establish their own righteousness. They
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And boy,
they got so mad at Him And they tried to set him forth in such
a light where people would say, He's a blasphemer. Read his epistles
and you see what he's teaching us is let us do evil that good
may come. And they sought time and time
again to diminish his authority that God had given him. But there
were some more Jews that hated him too. There was those Jews
that professed to believe in Jesus Christ. You remember this
from Acts chapter 15. And they believed that Christ
had come. They believed that He was virgin
born, died and rose again and ascended back to heaven. But
they said this. They said, the Lord Jesus never
intended that we would be justified by what He did. We cannot be
justified by faith in Christ alone and it was never Christ's
intention to do that. He wanted us also to be circumcised
and to keep the Law of Moses. Remember that in Acts chapter
15? And Paul said, No. We conclude that a man is justified
by faith alone without the deeds of the Law. So what happened
with these fellows? They would go follow Paul around.
He would go to Galatia and preach and the Lord would bless and
save people by the Gospel. Then these fellows would come
right along behind him and they say, you know, Paul does not
have the authority. He is just like the rest of us.
He comes here and he preaches to you, but he preaches part
of the Gospel. And He didn't have time or He
didn't take time to tell you the whole Gospel. And the whole
Gospel is this, it takes more than Christ to justify us. You
have to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. They said,
but the Apostle Paul said. And they said, He's not an Apostle.
He's not an Apostle. You find that in the Corinthian
letter too. They said, He's not really an
Apostle. You know what? If they could strip Him of that
authority, then what would happen? Well, no matter what he said,
no matter what he wrote, it would have no authority behind it,
wouldn't it? This is where you and I get our authority today
to believe what we believe and to practice what we practice
because we believe and practice what the Apostle Paul taught
us in his epistles. And we believe and practice what
he preached when he preached. And where did he get his authority?
from God. He got His authority from the
Son of God. And He preached the Gospel that
was committed unto Him and was commanded of Him to preach. That's where we get our authority
in. That's where we get our authority. There were others, and this is
sad, but this is true too. There were others, you can find
this in Philippians chapter 1, that Paul said they truly preached
Christ. They preached Christ. They preached
His Gospel. But he said they preached out
of envy and strife. They were envious of the apostle.
They were jealous of him. They were jealous of his power.
They were jealous of his popularity among God's people. They were
jealous of his gifts, his usefulness, and his success in a ministry.
And they seem to be accusing him of something like this. They
said, we preach the same Gospel that Paul preaches. How come
he's in prison? We're not in prison. How come
he's in prison? Is there something he's not telling
us? So they sought to diminish him, his ministry among God's
children. But the Apostle, as I said a
minute ago, being a gracious man, he said, I rejoice that
Christ is preached. I don't know their motives for
preaching it. Some preach out of envy and strife, but I rejoice
that Christ is preached. And He yielded to them in that
and gave them the glory for doing it. But He never for a moment
gave up His authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ or as a preacher
of the Gospel. He could say, I'm the chiefest
of sinners, but He yielded to nobody, did He? He yielded to
nobody. He said when those fellows come
in and try to spy out our liberty, we didn't listen to them not
for one minute that the truth of the gospel might continue
with us. He is a servant of God, a true
servant of God. And he is an apostle of Christ
with authority. And his preaching was from God
and God commanded him to do it. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters, you and I should ever be grateful to God for this Apostle
because the Scripture says He was an Apostle for us poor dead
dog Gentiles. Isn't that wonderful? For us! Those other Apostles, we read
Peter, we read James, we read John, but we have a special Apostle
to the Gentiles and that was this man Paul. Saul of Tarsus
that the Lord had saved. And I think we can see it here
in this epistle to Titus. Here's this young man Titus.
And you know he was a Gentile. He was an uncircumcised Gentile
that the Lord had saved and Paul left him here on this island
of Crete. And we're told here in this epistle
he left him there to ordain elders. And can you imagine a Gentile
man uncircumcised, there in Crete, going around telling them, the
churches, here is the qualifications for a pastor. You must meet these
qualifications or you can't be a pastor in the churches. And
can you imagine somebody rising up against him? Imagine some
Jew in the congregation. There were always Jews in the
congregation. They were sort of a proud lot of people. And
I can just almost hear one rising up and saying, Well, I've got
as much authority as you have. Besides, I'm a Jew. I ought to
be telling these qualifications. And you know what he did? He
retched in his little satchel and he got out this letter. And
he says, Here's my authority. Here's my authority. This is
from Paul. Jesus Christ speaks directly
to this man. He's a special messenger of God
and God has commanded him to write these epistles. This is
not just Paul's opinion. This is God speaking to us. This
is Jesus Christ speaking to us. And boy, that settled the issue,
didn't it? And when we read this epistle, this is not Paul's opinions. These didn't originate in his
mind. This is the commandment of God. and the commandment and
the Word of the Son of God. I tell you, when I read these
qualifications here about being a pastor, I tell you, it concerns
me. It concerns me personally. And
I want to see am I qualified because this is not a personal
man's opinion. This is the Lord's commandment,
isn't it? And that's what makes these epistles
so important. This man was speaking as he was
moved by the Holy Ghost. And that's so important. It's
so important. Here's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said concerning this. He told His apostles that He
sent out, He said, when you enter into a city and they won't receive
you, go out into the streets of that city and start stomping
the dust from your feet. Shake off the dust from your
feet and tell them this, We wipe off the dust of our feet against
you, notwithstanding, be sure of this, that the kingdom of
God is come unto you. We've come preaching the kingdom
of God on Christ's authority. And then he said this to them.
But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in the day
of Sodom than for that city. And then he made this statement
here which settles it. He that heareth you, heareth
me. And he that despiseth you despiseth
me. And he that despiseth me despiseth
him that sent me. We can't hear what Christ says
and reject what Paul writes. It's impossible. We can't love
the teachings of Christ and despise Paul's doctrine. They are one
in the same. I think I told you about listening
to a rabbi. I was watching him, as a matter
of fact, on my computer and hearing him preach. And he was talking
about this very thing. And he said, he made the statement
in effect that, he said, I don't reject Jesus Christ. I don't
reject His ministry. He was a teacher of the truth,
he said. But he said, you read Christ
in the Gospels and He never taught us that the ceremonial law was
going to be fulfilled, that it was coming to an end. He said, the renegade Paul is
the one that brought that in. And he gave some examples that
when Christ healed the leopard, he told him to go offer to the
priest, you know, what was supposed to be offered under the law.
He never went ahead and explained that Christ did that because
he'd come to fulfill the law. But he said it's this renegade
Paul I utterly reject. This grace came in with this
renegade. This justification by faith came
in with this renegade Paul. That's what he was trying to
prove. But all Paul wrote, he wrote
by direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was a special
messenger of Jesus Christ and God commanded him to write it
and the Holy Spirit moved upon him to write it. And he preached
by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Christ's writings, Christ's
sayings are absolutely consistent with Paul's epistles because
they have the same author. What author? They're the same
author. This is why this is important.
If we don't hear Paul, we won't hear Christ. And if we don't
hear Paul and we're the enemy of Paul, then we're the enemy
of Christ Himself. And we see the importance here
of Paul's writings and his preaching in all the Testament writers,
the New Testament preachers. When we compare back here in
our text, chapter 1 and verses 2 and verse 3, here's what I
mean. Look at this in our text in verse
1 and verse 2. Compare these two verses. in
hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began, but hath in due times manifested His word
through preaching." Here in verse 2, Paul mentions that God promised
eternal life, and then he said he made that promise before the
world began. And you and I looked at that
last week. And when you see the Bible, when you begin to read
your Bible, one of the things that you notice in your Bible
is all of these things that God has purposed. and all of these
things that God has done, all the things that He knows about
and knew about before the world began. I want us to look at some
of them right quickly, and I want you to turn to just a few of
them, certainly not all of them, but I want you to turn and look
at these things, and then I want us to see what Paul's ministry
was all about, what his preaching and his writing and his epistles
were all about. Look over in 1 Peter 1, just over to your
right, the things that God purposed, the things that He ordained,
knew before the foundation of the world. Look here in 1 Peter
1 in verse 8. 1 Peter 1 verse 18. forasmuch as you know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold." We
know that, don't we? That's from the vain conversations
received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
who verily was foreordained, set aside, before the foundation
of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you."
Christ was ordained when? Before the foundation of the
world. And the censure is that Christ
the Redeemer and all that He did to suffer and atone for sins,
were He should suffer? when He should suffer, the extent
of His sufferings, and at whose hands He should suffer, all of
it was arranged and purposed and known of God before the world
was ever created. This wasn't something that was
plan B, was it? This wasn't something that caught
God off guard when the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. He had
this Savior set up in His own mind and purpose before the foundation
of the world. This is what Peter tells us in
that great message in Acts 2 and verse 23. Listen to this. Peter
said, Him, Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands are
crucified and slain. And there is another passage
that said He was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Look at another place with me,
something else that took place before the foundation of the
world. Look all the way back in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter
1 and look in verse 3. Ephesians chapter 1 and look
here in verse 3. Christ stood as a Lamb slain
in the very purpose and mind of God before the world was,
And look at this in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. All that were to
be saved in time by Jesus Christ and that redemption that was
in Him were chosen to that salvation before the world began. And over in Revelation 17 and
8, remember this verse that said their names were in the Lamb's
Book of Life from the very foundation of the world. Their names were
there. They were chosen before the foundation
of the world. And let me show you another passage
back over to your right in 2 Timothy. Look in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and
verse 9. Look at this. These verses tell
us that the whole plan of salvation, the Redeemer Himself, and all
who was to be saved by Him, and when they were to be saved, and
how they were to be saved, and for how long they were to be
saved, it was all fixed in the purpose of God before the foundation
of the world. In other words, it shows us that
this was no hasty thing. It wasn't something hasty or
something God was shut up and had to revert to or resort to. It's all planned out. Look at
what He said in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9. According to the
power of God who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus when? Before
the world began. And in verse 10, But now is manifested
by the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. A couple of more. Look in Matthew
chapter 13. In Matthew chapter 13, this is
what the Lord Jesus said when He had finished preaching these
parables, the mysteries in these parables, and nobody could understand
it. He just kept speaking in parables.
And He quoted from Psalm 78 too concerning that. And Matthew
chapter 13 and look in verse 34. Matthew chapter 13 and look
in verse 34. all these things spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables. And without a parable spake he
not unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I
will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation
of the world." There was a lot of secret things, the mysteries,
and they were hidden in God. Nobody knew it but the triune
God. Listen to Romans 16, 25. Listen
to this. Paul said, that is of power to establish
you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ
according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret
since the world began, but is now made manifest." The whole
plan of salvation was a mystery. It was known only to God, the
triune God, before the world was ever made. It had its origin,
our forefathers used to say, in the mind of God. If you could
say anything originated with Him. But it had its origin way
back there in the mind of God. And all through the Old Testament,
it was known to few in comparison to those who remained ignorant
of it. And though it was revealed more
fully and clearly in the New Testament, the world as a whole
even to this very day after 2,000 years of having the Bible, the
world is ignorant of it as a whole. And this was the Apostle's calling
under God through his writings and preaching to make manifest
that which God had already purposed to do. That was Paul's, we could
say, his business. That was his job. That was his
calling. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians
2. He said, We don't speak the wisdom
of this world, that comes to naught, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory. which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory." Why did those wicked Jews crucify
Jesus Christ? They didn't know Him. If they'd
have known Him, they'd have never crucified Him. But the Lord Jesus
Himself said, you don't know Me and you don't know My Father.
It was hid from their eyes. And that's the wonderful thing
about what God did and purposed before the world was. Even though
now it's written down in the Bible, it still has to be revealed. I bet you, and I know this to
be so, and I know it to be so in my own experience. I read
the Bible for some time, and I read over all of this stuff.
I just read right over all this stuff. And what does that tell
you? That it has to be made manifest. It has to be revealed. And that's
what Paul said. I'm an apostle and I am manifesting
what God did even before the world. The promise of hope of
eternal life that He made before the world was, now it's being
manifested. How, Paul? Through my epistles.
and through my preaching. Look at one more passage. This
will be the last passage. Look in Ephesians chapter 3.
This is very, very plain the way he says it here in Ephesians
chapter 3. And look in verse 1, just beginning
here in verse 1. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
1. Paul said, For this cause I,
Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given
me to you worthy." See what He did there? See why He called
Paul? For you poor Gentiles to write these epistles to you and
preach to you. How that by revelation He made
known unto me the mystery. as I wrote afore in few words,
whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge and the
mystery of Christ. It is nothing that I conjured
up. It was not because I am a brilliant
man. It was revealed to me, which in other ages was not made known
unto the sons of man, as it is now revealed. It was made known,
but not to the fullest extent as it was in the New Testament,
unto His holy apostles and prophets by His Spirit. And here is one
of the mysteries. Verse 6, that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise
in Christ by the gospel. Wherefore I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of His power. Unto me who am less than
the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." And look at
this, "...and to make all men see what is the fellowship of
the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in
God, who created all things by Christ Jesus, to the intent that
now into principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which he hath purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord." And
Paul is simply saying there Everything that's happening now and is going
to happen is that which God planned and purposed before the world
was. Jesus Christ and His death, His redeeming death, He stood
as a Lamb slain before the world, but He was manifested. He was
manifested in these last times for you. And he said over in
that passage I read to you that He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to His purpose, our works, but
according to His own purpose which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world was, and then He made this statement.
But it's now made manifest. And Paul said, That's my calling
as an apostle, to write these epistles. And what do these epistles
do? They make you see. Ain't that
what He said? To make all men see. And what
do these epistles do? They make us see, don't they?
Sometimes they make us see by reading them. And suddenly, there
it is. I never saw it before, but there
it is. Sometimes meditating upon these things. But mainly, Paul
said, it's by preaching to me. By my preaching. It's a wonderful thing. to be
chosen of God to salvation, is it not? Isn't it a wonderful
thing to think? You know, we used to sing that
song. We don't sing it anymore. There's a new name written down
in glory. But there is no new names, is there? And isn't it
a wonderful thing to think that perhaps He has chosen you? But you know there's only one
way to know that. And that's for Him to manifest it to you.
You can't go back and look on the Book of Life and see your
name there. How do you know that you're one of His chosen, one
that He's chosen to serve? How do you know that? You can
only know that if you find yourself in Jesus Christ. That's the only
way. Have I come to Christ? Then I'm
one of His. I'm one of His. All that the
Father gives to me shall come to me. What if God had purposed
all of these things and never manifested them? Then we'd be
like those old primitive Baptists, Larry. You know, God has chosen
us to salvation, but He's never going to save us. You're just
going to wake up in heaven because you're one of His elect. There's
a way we can know. It's manifested. And that's what
we find in these epistles, not only of Paul, but these other
apostles. Everything that God has purposed, now He's slowly
unfolding. It's like this wonderful bud
that folds into this beautiful flower. And only as it folds
out, you and I can understand. That's what God did. That's what
He purposed before the foundation of the world. I had a young lady
say to me one time, she said, I just can't believe I'm one
of His. I just can't believe I'm one of His. I said, but yes,
what if you are? What if you are? What if He'll
reveal to you? What if He'll manifest to you
that you are? Wouldn't that be wonderful? She
to this day hasn't found it out. But I know this much, if she's
His, He's going to manifest it to her somewhere. Because whatever
He purposed back yonder, He's revealing now. And that's what
the Apostle Paul said my ministry is about. That's why I'm an Apostle
of Christ, to make men see. That's why I'm going around preaching
the Gospel, to make men see. And that's one of the reasons
I preach, brothers and sisters, to make men see. And that's one
of the reasons I'm honest. I ain't got no right to hide
any of these truths. I ain't got no right to be mean
with them and hateful with them and try to jam them down somebody's
neck. And I don't have any right to withhold them from anybody.
This is not my Word. This is God's Word. And that's
the only place and time that I have any authority as a minister
when I'm saying, Thus saith the Lord. Well, Lord's willing, we'll try
to get next week into the body of this epistle. Brother Wayne,
would you dismiss us?