He talks about the church in
glory, those whose rest is won there. And they're singing songs
of Zion right now, more perfectly, from the bottom of their heart
and the top of their lungs. We just have a few people in
here. But they're singing it up there.
The song of Moses on the top of their lungs. And if anybody
is singing it the loudest, it's somebody like Mary Magdalene,
Thief on the Cross. We learn those songs here. Those
who don't learn the songs of Zion, not going to be there. Not going to be there. Let's
look at this now. 1 Timothy chapter 3. The Apostle
Paul Well, God is writing, God is
speaking through the Apostle Paul to a young preacher named
Timothy. But what he says to Timothy,
he says to us. He says to me and to his church. And he talks about, he writes
about the behavior of not only the preacher, but the church
itself. Look at verse 15, he says that,
that thou may know how thou oughtest to behave thyself." You see that?
And he gives many qualifications for a true preacher, doesn't
he? Do we need this? Absolutely, because everybody
and his brother and even their mother calls themselves a preacher
today, don't they? And you're supposed to try them,
put them to the test by this Word. And I brought up Brother
Tom, and I shouldn't say too much more, because he won't want
to hear this. But you put him to the test by
this, can't you? You better not listen to a man
who doesn't fit these qualifications. Because there's many false prophets
out there, aren't there? And they're clearly known by
their fruit, Brother Gary, clearly known. by the conduct, covetous
men, wicked. Scripture says evil men and seducers,
waxing worse and worse. Covetous, in it for money, in
it for their name, in it for their glory and all of that,
right? And it's obvious to us, it's very obvious to us, because
God has opened our eyes through His Word. The rest of the world
is being led, blind, or being led by a blind leader. But He
tells us, you put them to the test. So these are the qualifications
God gives us, His men. God's men have always been the
best men. That's right. The best men. But
it's kind of like now, it's kind of like old Ahab. When he was
in power, it says he put the worst sort of men in the office
of the prayer. Anybody that wanted to, he said,
could be one. And that's the way it is today.
But God has not left Himself without a witness. True preacher. And so Paul is, the Lord is speaking
through Paul, writing, and He tells Timothy, I hope to see
you soon, verse 14, I hope to see you soon, but if I don't,
verse 15, these things I write, God led him to write, that you
may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God. Not only the preacher, But it
talks about his wife, talks about his children, doesn't it? Talks
about deacons, their wives and so forth, the whole church. How
they ought to behave themselves. Now, religion today has gone
stark raven mad. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. People act like the crazy fools
that they are. But God's Word tells us how to
behave ourselves, what the church is all about. What we're going
to look at tonight is what the church is all about, the purpose
of the church. All right? You're going to like
this. If you're a member of the church, you will like this. All
right? He tells us, first of all, how
to behave ourselves. This is not a party. This is
not a time to be entertained. We don't meet here together to
have a big old whoop-dee-doo time in Jesus, you know. like
they say. I often have described this so-called
Pentecostal charismatic religion today as people that are normally
very conservative and so forth and can't do anything. But they come in and in their
religion they can go plum crazy. It's an opportunity for them
to go plum crazy. Right? The good excuse for...
This is not a place... We're here to do one thing. We're
here to do one thing. Worship God. That's it. Over in Ecclesiastes 5, it talks
about when we approach God, He said, God is in heaven, we're
on the earth, therefore let your words be few. He said, don't be hasty to utter
anything before God. In other words, don't open your
mouth. Everybody's got something to
say, something today, don't they? Everybody wants to have a say.
And everything in the church is to be done with fear and reverence. How we ought to and do, the church
does conduct itself with fear and reverence because of whose
presence we've come into, who we approach. We're approaching
a holy God. God is, what does the scripture say, to be feared
in the assembly of the saints. to be feared. We're approaching
a holy God in the presence of the King and you don't act like
a fool. And over in Psalm 2, remember David said, why do the
heathen rage tumultuously assemble? And that's what they do today.
This heathen religion, that's what it is. And so he tells us
we're to behave ourselves in the house of God. He calls it,
verse 15, the church of the living God. The church. I don't call these places churches,
people, and I highly recommend you get that out of your vocabulary.
When you talk about the Catholic whatever, don't call it the church.
It's not the church. Church is a blessed term for
God's people, God's house, God's family, church. I don't call
it the first Baptist, second Baptist method. I don't call
them that, Chris. I've quit calling them that a long time ago. It's
not the church. Not the church. They're houses
of ill repute. That's what Scripture calls them.
Great whore, that's what Scripture calls them. Why not tell it like
it is? Not the church. But this is the
church. The church is to behave itself. The church of the living God.
How do you do things? How are we to conduct ourselves?
What are we to do here? I said we're here to worship
God. How do we do that? Well, how has the church always
done it? We're going to meet together here today and what
we do and how we do it is exactly like the church has always been
doing it, Brother Dwight. We need to conduct ourselves
in such a way that the Apostle Paul could walk in here and say,
this is the way it's supposed to be done. No matter if there's
2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 145. A man standing up with a Bible,
reading it, declaring it, God's Word, singing hymns of praise,
calling on God in prayer. That's it. That's it. That's the way they've always
done. That's the way the church has always done. Because that's
the way we're to do it. And God doesn't use props. God doesn't use all this stuff,
paraphernalia. This is the power of God in salvation.
This is it. And so the church is the house
of worship. Now look at verse 15. So he tells
us how to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God. He always calls himself that,
doesn't he? Scriptures talks a lot about the living and true
God. How you turn from idols to serve
the living God and true God. People, you hear people all the
time say, God is a big part of my life. They must not know the
living God. God's not a part of our life.
If we're... Scripture says, in Him we live
and move and have our beings. In Him. He's not a part of our
life. He is life. I mean, if we have life, we're
part of His. Right? The living God, meaning
He's not a dead God, an old, dead, dry doctor. He's a living
God, moving, breathing. See, the psalmist David wrote
Psalm 115, Psalm 135. He said, they have eyes, they're
talking about these idols, these false gods. They're not God at
all. They're not living God. He said, they have eyes, they
don't see. They have ears, they can't hear. Noses, they don't
smell. They have feet, they can't walk. And on and on he goes. And how many times did you hear
back in false religion when you were in it? A preacher stand
up and say this, God has no hands but your hands. How many times
have you heard that? They're still saying it, Gary,
aren't they? They're still saying it all the time. God has no hands
but... You mean God has no hands? What's the scripture say? Huh? What's the scripture say, Tony?
The God in whose hands your breath is. Isn't that what it said? He said his right hand is in
the sea. He has no feet but your feet.
What does the Scripture say? His enemy is going to be made
his what? Footstool. No hands but your hands. I can
whip a God like that. You know? God with no hands,
I can whip Him. I challenge Him. Elijah did,
didn't he? Elijah stood up and said, bring
him on. I can whoop him. Maybe he's taking a trip or something. Wake him up. Everybody get together
and shout louder. He's sleeping. Their God is no God at all. He's
not God. The living God. And the psalmist
wrote there in Psalm 115, it says, They that make them are
like unto them. What? Dead. Dead. Our God is the living God. Now,
it sounds strange today. We talk about God being God,
and now I'm on our favorite subject, aren't I? You see, God-lovers
love to hear God exalted. Christ-lovers love to hear Christ
exalted, don't they? It's God's people's favorite
subject, Him. Well, my, my, He's a living God. And when you declare the living
God, people say, that's a strange God. You've got a strange God. Now, I happen to believe that
their God's the one that's strange. Don't you? I heard a preacher,
I actually heard a preacher say that, he wrote it in our local
newspaper. Now see if you can make heads
or tails of this. But he said, he said verbatim,
he said, we control the one that controls us. But you have a clue
what he's saying. That's strange, isn't it? What
kind of imbecile is that man? Whoever's controlling is controlling,
right? Oh, man. Fools. Utter, complete idiots. Brother Don would call them idiots.
Our God is a living God. He is God. Not trying to be.
He is God. And He's everybody's God whether
they acknowledge Him as such or not. All will. All will. Every knee will bow, every tongue
shall confess. Absolutely. Salvation is for
God in mercy and grace and love and sovereign election to choose
you to reveal Himself to you now. Someday all people are going
to see Him as He is. And they are going to be forced
to say it, don't want to say it, but He says, say it. My brothers, I had two older
brothers, and they used to get me down. pick on me. You're older than Chris. He can't
do that to you now, can he? Did he ever pick on you a little
bit? They used to get me down and just torment me and make
me cry something. Make me say something. Well,
say uncle. I don't know where that came
from. Why uncle? Anyway, cry uncle. And buddy, depending on how much
pain I was in, I'd finally... Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue confess. And the goodness and grace and
mercy of God is if He causes our knee to bow now before it's
too late. And cry willingly, Thou art Lord,
my God, my Lord and my God. Thomas hit the dirt. The living
God. I knew I'd get stuck right there.
It's the church of the living God in whom we live and move
and have our being. The one who reigns and rules
on the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay His hand. The one who does all things according
to His will. The one who works and nobody
can say a thing about it. That's our God. Don't you love
Him like that? Alright, now he says in verse
15, the church, the house of God, the church, of the living
God is the pillar and ground of the truth. He told us how we ought to behave
ourselves. Now he's going to tell us what
the church is all about. It's the pillar and the ground
of the truth. Pillar and the ground. Now back
in these days, everybody will be familiar with tents. Tabernacle. It's a tent. When you put up a tent, you use
two things. You use pillars and you use stays,
or to ground it. And this is what he's talking
about. Church, tabernacle of God, temple of God, house of
God. It's a tabernacle. It's a temple.
It's a sojourn. It's a pilgrimage. It's like,
it started with, well, Abraham's the father of the faithful, right?
And he sojourned. Hebrews 11 talks about all of
them were strangers and pilgrims, weren't they? Tabernacling. putting
up tents. All right? Well, the church,
he said, until someday, and it's all such a good picture, Brother
Chris, because the church tabernacle, finally there was a semi-permanent
one put up, which all represents Christ, doesn't it? And that's
where they all finally gather, right there. Everybody didn't
have to travel anymore. They came to the promised land,
and this is it. We're here. We've arrived. This
is the place. That's a picture of Christ. And someday, we're
not going to travel anymore. No more pilgrim, stranger. We're
going to meet in Christ, in glory, permanently, never move again.
That's the picture. But back then, they had these
tents and they would erect these tents and put up pillars. A pillar, post. Generally, some
of you have ever been in tent meetings years ago. My dad used
to be in tent meetings. I remember well as a boy going
to those tent meetings. And if it was a big old round
type tent, you had one great big pillar right in the middle.
One great big pillar. Depending on how long it was.
But the church is called the pillar of the truth. The pillar of the truth. The
purpose of that pillar and that tent was to hold that thing up. Hold that up. And the church
is called the pillar of the truth. The church exists to hold up,
to set forth, to declare the truth. The church doesn't exist
to get people married off. We've got a singles meeting today
and we want all you singles to come out and try to meet your
mate and all that. Brother, I may have told you
this, but I think I did tell you this about going to the drive-in.
Asking what we did for our singles? Well, anyway. Some woman, apparently
she was divorced or single or whatever. She said, what do you
all do down there for your singles? I said, same thing for our doubles.
We preach the truth. We preach the gospel. That's
what we're for. That's what it's all about. Not
trying to get people married off. There's mating services
out there. Dating services. It's not it. It's not an entertainment
play. We've already said that, haven't we? Not an entertainment
play. We don't meet here to have fun.
We don't want our children to have fun, necessarily. We want
them to know God. If they don't know God, they're
going to miss salvation. This thing's too serious to play
a game. We're not playing games. It's a pillar of the truth. Set
forth the truth. Christ said, you know the truth. Set you free. Young people know
the truth, know Christ who is the truth. Set them free. Save
them from this untoward generation. I used to think, I grew up in
the 60s, you young people. I grew up in the 60s. You know
the 60s, you know when the Beatles came to this country and all
that? It was wild. Hippies and all that. I was right
in the thick of it. And I used to think, we all,
me and my buddies used to think we were free. You know, they
all talked about us free. Peace, love, you know, free.
We're all free. Yeah, right. I was totally in bondage. Everything
my friends were doing, I had to do it because I was in bondage
to my peers. Bondage to everything they were
doing. Like today, you know, people totally abusing their
bodies to no end and they say, I'm doing it because I'm free,
I'm my own man. How stupid can you get? You're
not free, you're bound. The reason you do it is because
everybody else is doing it. You're not free. Like sheep, you're going to follow
who's there in front of you until you all fall over the cliff. That's the way it is. The whole
human race is heading that broad way, following one another, blindly
following one another. I'm free. No, you're not. You're
going to do what everybody else is doing. And the scripture says
in Ephesians 2, whom we all walked according to the course of this
world, the prince of the power of the air, who were children
of disobedience, even as others, in his captivity, held captive
by him at his will. That's what the scripture says.
Not free, held captive. But God. But God. How does He set them
free? How does He set them free? Here they're walking the wide,
broad world with everybody else and they're all going to fall
over the... How does He set them free, Brother
Dwight? The truth will set you free. After a while, the Lord began
to speak to me, this young man, and I began to realize Why am
I just doing everything because everybody else is doing it? And I began to question what
I was doing. Like the prodigal son in the
hog pen. Look at me. Look at me. God is bringing me to myself,
to see myself. And then I began, Lord have mercy
on me My friends began to drop me. Began to drop me. I began to realize that I was
just their friend for what they could get out of me. Oh my. May God have mercy on
our young people like He did me. I didn't think this was fun. I thought my parents were being
cruel to me, bringing me to the church house. There's no place I'd rather be
now. There's really not. Truth. Pillar and ground of the
truth. Hold up to truth. Truth. You
remember Moses back when the people were bitten by the serpent?
They were all dying. And just like man, he's dead. Been bitten by the serpent. Sin.
Satan. And God told Moses, He said,
you make a serpent of brass like unto the serpent that bit the
people. And you lift it up on a pole,
a pillar. You lift this serpent up on a
pillar. Lift it up. And whoever looks will be saved. You know what
that means. You know what that means. And
John 3, 14. Brother Chris, very few people,
not one in 100,000 know John 3, 14. Right? That's the gospel. That's substitution.
That's what Barnard used to say. The gospel is not really in verse
16, it's verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Christ was made sin. Sin that killed us. It's killing
us. made sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Christ was made
sin and what did God do to Him? Put Him on a pole. The truth
was on a pole, on a pillar. Christ crucified. And everybody
who's been bitten, dead, dying, damned, doomed, hopeless, helpless,
need mercy, look. He said, look and be you safe.
Look unto Me and be you safe. The ends of the earth. If I am
God, there is none else. Christ is that truth, that serpent,
as it were, on the pole. In the church, what we do here, God uses one thing, one thing,
this message. That's it. I wasn't entertained
into the church. I heard this same message for
years, 20 years. Well, I didn't really hear it.
I couldn't wait for him to get finished. So I'd get out of there
and get back in that Broadway and head toward the cliff. Couldn't
wait. This is what God uses. This is
what God uses. It's the truth. The church is
the pillar of that truth. And look at the next thing. It
says, the ground of the truth. The ground of the truth. That's
an old military. Any of you men in the military?
You in the military? This old military term really
means stand your ground. Stand your ground. Don't give
up an inch. Don't give up an inch. The truth, you see, as
it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ said, I am the way, didn't
He? He's not a way. Billy Graham
said, and I hope this goes out over Sermon Audio, I'll give
people the very place where he said it. I've got him on tape
saying it. He said there's another way.
He's a liar and a false prophet. Jesus Christ, now who are we
going to believe? Should we believe the Protestant Pope or should
we believe Jesus Christ, the great potentate? He said, I am
the way. Nobody gets to God but by man.
No man. The Muslims have to believe Jesus
Christ to be saved. You know, there are very few
preachers willing to stand up and say that today. Well, now
I take that back. Every true preacher stands up
and says that. There's no imposters that do. And sister, they were killed
years ago for saying it. So what? So what? Peter, you
remember Peter and the apostles said, we can't help but speak
the things we've seen and heard. Peter said, is it right to obey
God or man? I said, whip us, kill us. We've got to, it's the
truth. This is the truth. Who? Christ. He said, I am the way. The truth,
not a truth. If Christ is the truth, that
means everything else is a lie, doesn't it? Any other religion,
anything has to do with anybody or anything other than Jesus
Christ alive. I just brought a message from
Isaiah 55 recently on the witness, leader, and commander. Christ
is called the faithful witness. Have any of you been in a court
of law and been a witness? Required to be a witness? Anybody?
Oh, you've seen them. You have. All right. What did
they make you do? They made you stand up and give an oath or
swear. Put your hand on the Bible. I think it's your left hand,
wasn't it? Maybe. Raise your right hand. Yeah. And they say,
do you swear? I mean, do you give your word
to tell the truth? The whole truth, because half
the truth is a lie, isn't it? Isn't half the truth a lie? Not a white lie, it's just a
flat lie. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. In a court
of law, they don't want to know your opinion. Everybody's got
one of those, just like a certain part of our anatomy. Everybody's
got one. Opinion. Don't want opinion.
We want the truth. Now nobody's seen God. A lot
of people say they have. They'll stand up today and say
they have. God hasn't spoke to them out
loud. They say they do. They're a liar. Says the only
begotten Son. He had clarity. He's seen God. He'd been there. He came from
the Father. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God. He said, I've come to declare
it. The truth. The whole truth. The whole counsel
of God. And nothing but the truth. He
said, I can't tell a lie. I am the truth. He didn't put
His hand on a Bible. He is the Bible. He is the Word
of God. In the volume of the book, it's
written of Him. Who? The truth. The truth. And everything concerning God,
concerning salvation, points to Jesus Christ. He is the truth. And I'm not going to give an
inch. We're not going to give an inch. We're not going to give
any ground here. No, sir. Don't give an inch. Give an inch,
take a mile. I'm not going to give up one
word. One word, one jot or tittle is not true. We can cut this
out. Who was that king who took a pen knife and started cutting
things out? Thomas Jefferson did that. Thomas Jefferson is
an absolute heretic, an evil man. That's right. He cut out
everything he didn't like in the New Testament. We're not going to give an inch
here. Not one word. Not one jot or two. Are we, Brother
Garrett? I won't give any ground. Church is the ground of the truth. You remember old Martin Luther?
You remember Martin Luther? He stood almost entirely alone
back then. The Lord brought him out of heathen
Roman Catholicism, revealed the truth to him, and he stood against
the whole world practically. And that's the way you feel at
work. That's the way you feel here. We've got this little crowd here.
Can this few people, there's more than eight, but can just
eight people be right and the whole world wrong? Absolutely. That's why I said
eight. Absolutely. Well, and so Martin
Luther stood up in his day and he said, they told him, said,
you recant, don't say this, don't preach this, take it back, renounce
it. He said, I can't. What did he
say? You remember that famous statement
by him? He said, here I stand. I can
do no other. I'm not moving. I'm not moving. Scripture says we're grounded
and settled in the truth. Now, Brother Tony, do you believe
this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Jesus Christ, there is but one way. There is but one truth,
not gray area here on truth, is it? Who God is, what man is,
who Christ is, how we're saved, That's, you know the truth, don't
you? Well, you're grounded and settled,
aren't you? Well, he says, don't be moved. Church, don't move. Don't move. We're not going to
change things so we can get more people in. No, sir. Man, the other day said to me,
and I know you have it here, you know, religion is the same
everywhere. In the Bible Belt, I'm right in the middle of the
Bible Belt. Halloween came, you know, on a Wednesday night up
there at home. They had it on a Wednesday night.
And do you know most of the local so-called churches, so-called
churches had some kind of fun house and all that for their
kids? It just boggles your mind that they would take up that
time and fun and games and candy and even some of them had haunted
houses. Well, those places are haunted houses anyway. But anyway,
I was at the local, and I'm going to quit here in a moment. I was
at the local building supply. I went there to get something.
And one of the fellows that worked there said, what did you all
do for your kids Halloween? I said, we worshiped God is what
we did. I said, that's what the church is supposed to do. Every
time it meets. We're supposed to worship God.
That's all we do, ever. Worship God. Preach the Word. Trying to keep our kids' souls
out of hell. And there's one thing will do it. Not fun and
games and all that. He said, but how are you going
to get them in? I said, I can't get them in. God will. He said,
the God of the Bible doesn't need all this stuff. He doesn't
use all this stuff. Never has, never will. It's an
abomination to God, I said. It made him fighting mad. So
what? The church is the pillar and
the ground of the truth, though the whole world is doing whatever
they're doing. We're not. We're not going to
do it. We're not going to move. We're not going to move. If we're
down to two or three, if we're gathered in His name, it's the
church, isn't it? It's the church. And I need to
hear it. My daughter needs to hear it.
My granddaughter needs to hear it. The truth. It's the only
thing. It's the power of God, the gospel. And the truth is
a person. Look at verse 16. The truth is
without controversy. You know that? Meaning, now it causes controversy. It's great controversy. There
always has been. When Christ was here, it says
there was a division because of Him. Long before that, remember
Elijah up on Mount Carmel when he said, everybody's halting
between two opinions. Controversy. Is God God or is
He not? So it does cause controversy,
the truth. It does cause confusion. Brother
Scott used to say, it doesn't cause confusion. Man just is
confused. The truth really is the only
thing that'll bring you out of a confused state. But once you
hear the truth, then it becomes, Brother Chris, it's without controversy. It can't be any other way, can
it? It's without controversy. Paul
says here, right in here, without controversy. This is indisputable. There's no argument about this.
Over in 1 Corinthians, that's when He said, Where's the wise
men of the world? Where's the scribes? Bring them all. And
He said, Bring them all. Can't dispute this. You see, we're talking about
Jesus Christ. Our religion is Jesus Christ.
Not a doctrine, it's a person. It's a doctrine of Christ. And
to not believe is to not believe Him. It's to cause Him a liar.
It's to take issue with Him. to not believe is to take issue
with Jesus Christ, Son of God. All right? When He was on this
earth, nobody could take issue with Him. He stood before crowds
full of men who wanted badly to trip Him up, to make Him stumble,
to catch Him at His word, make Him say something to take it.
I got you now. They couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. One time they
all came in, they're trying to We're trying to get him again,
you know, and they all came in, brought that woman with them,
you know. He had them bring her. He had them bring her. But they
all came in, all those religious crowd and all that, and they
wanted to... We got him now. We're going to trap him. The
law, he doesn't, you know, he's a lawless fellow. We'll trip
him up on what the law says. You know what the law says? Dwight,
he wrote it. You're going to trip up the author? The law says. Do you know anything
about the law? If it weren't so blasphemous
and terrible, Brother Tony, it would be funny, wouldn't it?
The law says, Moses said, Christ is the one that was there and
gave it to Moses. He wrote it. Well, they were going to catch
him, weren't they? They were going to trip him up. What did he do? I love it. I
love that story. It says he stooped down. That
woman was there. He stooped down and began to
write in the dirt. And it says they kept talking
to him. Well, aren't you listening to
us? No, he's not. He's not paying any attention. He's hearing every word they're
saying, but he's not paying any attention. And he started writing. And what's he writing? Dates,
names, numbers, places, people, such and such a shady lane motel,
you know, Saturday night, June the 1st, 03 AD, and old deacon
so and so. Went sneaking out until finally
every last one of them were gone. Knew their thoughts, the intents
of their hearts, the motive. This is the Word made flesh.
This is God. This is not just a man. You're
not going to take issue with Him. You're not going to challenge
Him. To disagree with Him is to disagree with God. They said, You're just a man.
You make yourself God. They showed their utter ignorance,
didn't they? He was God. He made himself a man. Got it all backward. Man's all
backward. Christ is the truth without controversy. Without controversy. And it's
without controversy to me, isn't it? Sister, is it to you? Can
anybody convince you, really? Can anybody convince you of anything
contrary this truth now. Can they? Could they? It's a mystery though. Verse
16 says it's a mystery. And it is a mystery until He
reveals it to you. Christ has to reveal it to you.
A mystery of how God was manifest in the flesh. God became a man. A mystery of godliness. How we
get to God. How? God was manifest in the
flesh. to save us. God. I love Isaiah 25. People said,
this is our God. He'll save us. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God. That's who He is. We've
waited for Him. He'll save us. And it goes on
to say, it's a mystery, but made manifest to us. God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. See, there are three
that bear witness in heaven, three that bear witness on earth.
The Holy Spirit bore witness to Him, didn't He? Who He was,
who Christ was. At His baptism, the Holy Spirit
was descended on Him. That's how you know where the
Holy Spirit is now, Chris. Those that preach Christ believe
Christ. They can say what they want to about the Spirit. It's
not the Spirit if they're not preaching Christ. So the Spirit
justified, declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of God,
seen of angels. You know, Peter wrote, he said,
these are the things that angels desire to look into. And poor
man, stupid mankind wants to look into this and that and the
other, when Christ in him dwells all the fullness of the mistress
in him, his person. Angels desire to look into it.
He's preached unto the Gentiles. Look at this, and I close. It
says, he's preached unto the Gentiles and believed on in the
world. Now, I want you to think about
this. This man lived over 2,000 years
ago, around 2,000 years. We don't even know what year
it is. We don't know what year it is. It may be 1999 right now. He's coming soon. We don't know
what time it is. He does. Anyway, nearly 2,000
years ago, There was a Jewish man way over in Israel, in that
little bitty country, little country about the size of New
Jersey or something, that lived in that place, born in a little
old town in a stable, Bethlehem, grew up in a little two-bit town
called Nazareth, and walked this earth just for 33 years, just
33 years, that's it. Do you really believe, do you really believe that that
man is God? Come on. Well, that's a mystery. That's a mystery. You're a Gentile. You're all the way over here
on the other side of the world, Chris, 2,000 years later. And your whole
life, you're devoting your free time. You could be out, you know,
whatever you do. with your free time, but you're
coming here to hear about a man who lived 2,000 years ago, way
over in the middle of nowhere, and you stake your life on it,
your eternal destiny depends on it? You want to give your
whole self to him? Now that's a mystery. Isn't it? That's amazing. He
must be God. Make a man do that. You see what
I'm saying? And he goes on and he closes
by saying he was received up into glory. This proves who he
was. You know, the Apostle Paul preached
a great deal. All the apostles preached a great
deal and traveled all over the then known world to preach. Paul
more than the rest of them. And if you'll read his preaching
in the book of Acts, you'll see that probably every single time
he preached, he talked about Christ being risen. that he rose
from the grave, didn't he? Nearly every time. Maybe every
time. I hadn't checked. Why? Because it proves who he
is. It proves who he is without controversy. Without a doubt, you see. That
man that was crucified, that man that was buried, and
everybody saw him dead, hanging on a cross, and was put in a
grave for three days, there's no doubt he was dead, walked
out three days later. It's never happened before. He walked out. He walked out. That proves we
are beyond a shadow of a doubt, doesn't it? So that means he
is who he is. Everything He said is true. Everything
the Word says is true without controversy. And you can't just
take it or leave it. You can't take it or leave it.
If He's God, you can't just take it or leave it. He said, He that
hath the Son hath life, without Him be dead. So, oh my, the church knows needs to know how to behave
itself. The church has a purpose. It's a pillar and a ground of
the truth. This is the message. What is the truth? Pilate said
that, didn't he? What is the truth? It's not a
what. It's a who. And he was made flesh
and dwelt among us. Okay, stand with me.