Division Because of Him

Now it's been asked over and
over again, and I'm sure it'll be asked ten
thousand times in the future, why don't the religious people
of this town and of the world get together? all the churches
and denominations get together. Why don't they present, instead
of all these different cults and sects and denominations,
a united front? People say they could do much
more working together, accomplish much more united together, much
more than they're doing separately. I agree wholeheartedly, unanimously
agree. They ought to get together. They should get together for
basically, among all the denominations and churches that I know anything
about, there's very little difference. They all basically have the same
message. It doesn't matter what religion
or what denomination it is, whether it be Pentecostal or Nazarene
or Church of Christ or Seventh-day Adventist or Baptist or Methodist
or Presbyterian or Catholic or whatever, they all basically
have the same message. Do good and you'll go to heaven. Isn't that basically the message
of all denominations? They all use the terms grace,
God, Jesus, cross, resurrection, gospel, salvation, sanctification,
redemption. Everybody uses those words. But
basically, I say basically, they all have the same message. There's
no reason for the division. If you listen to the television
preachers, they're all saying the same thing. salvation by doing in some form
or other. But I can speak for the people
of God. I can speak for the people of
grace. I can speak tonight for the elect
of God, that the division between us
and other religions, between us and all other religions, is
not over-formed. I don't care whether you raise
your hands or sit on them. It doesn't matter to me whether
you kneel, sit, or stand when you pray. It's not foreign. It doesn't matter to me if you
wear black or yellow. Our differences are not over
laws. Basically, all religions contend
for morality, don't they? Our differences are not over
religious traditions. Actually, we all have one daddy,
Adam. We're all brothers. Not spiritually,
but we are physically. We all came from the same root.
But I'll tell you what, my division with the whole religious world,
my problem with the whole religious world, and their problem with
me, And with you, the division is not over laws, not over tradition,
it's not even over ordinances. Even old John Calvin admitted
baptism was by immersion. But the difference in division
is because of him, H-I-M. Him. Him. Turn with me to John 7, and this
has always been the division that matters. I
say, I contend, there are two religions in this world. Salvation,
all of grace or all of works. Salvation, all of God or all
of man. Salvation, all of his doing or
your doing. You cannot mix them. You can't
have 99% and 1%. It's got to be 100%. God or 100%
man. And the division is because of
him. Now look at John 7 to 43. He spoke and the scripture says,
so there was a division among the people. And remember these
people are very religious people. You think we're religious today.
We don't hold a candle, John, to those people back there. They
were devout. religionist, traditionalist, of the worst sort. And there
was a division among the people because of him. Him. That's where the division is.
Who is he? What did he come to do? Why did
he come here? What did he say? What did he
say? There's the big problem. Turn to John 10. Listen to this.
John 10, verse 19. And you know about the 10th chapter
of John, the good shepherd, the great shepherd, the shepherd
and his sheep. I know my sheep, other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them I must bring. You
know about that chapter. Well, when he talked to them,
it says in verse 19, John 10, There was a division, therefore,
again among the Jews for these sayings. My friends, I contend
it was not what Christ did that caused the division, it's what
he said. It's not what he did. They had
no objections to his healing the blind, or the lame, or the
haught, or raising the dead. In fact, when he raised Lazarus,
the next time he came into Jerusalem, they wanted to make him king.
Just think, if he'll feed all the hungry, and heal all the
sick, and raise all the dead, we got heaven on earth. But when he opened his mouth
and spoke, that's when they were split. Some of them said, he's
got a devil. He hath a devil. Here they were
talking about him whose doctrine is pure. Who said, I speak not
of myself, but of him who sent me. And they said, you got a
devil. That's devil talk. What you're saying is of the
devil. Of the devil. Well, I'll tell
you this. I want you to turn again now
to Acts 24. And I borrowed the words of the
Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 24. Acts chapter 24. Now, they brought
him before the magistrates and accused him of being a troublemaker. They accused Paul of stirring
up sedition, stirring up the people. And he said in Acts chapter
24 verse 12, they neither found me in the temple disputing with
anybody. He said, I'm not a debater. I'm
not a debater, I'm not arguing with anybody. And he said, neither raising
up the people. They didn't find me stirring
up the people. The Apostle Paul preached his
gospel waiting on the Holy Spirit to do the work. Neither in the synagogue nor
in the city, neither can they prove the things while they now
accuse me. They can't prove these things,
they're lying. But, hold the phone. This I confess." And what he
was talking about was these religious leaders that had laid hands on
him and brought him before the magistrates, and they said, this
guy has been in the synagogue and the temple and on the streets
stirring up the people. He's preaching the gospel of
Christ. And they said he's a disputer and he's a troublemaker and he's
stirring up the people and all this. He said, that's not so.
It's just not so. But I'll tell you this, this
I confess to you, that after the way which these men call
heresy, what do they call heresy? God's absolute, indisputable
sovereignty and salvation, that's heresy today. God's sovereign,
particular election, election of a people, that word's in the
Bible a few times, isn't it? You didn't choose me, he said,
I chose you. God's indisputable, unchangeable, election, covenant
of grace, they call that heresy today, don't they? The Lord Jesus,
vicarious, what does vicarious mean? In the place of, and there's
no place for another. He has no rival for his glory. That's the God I worship. What
these guys call heresy, that's the way I worship God. He didn't
stop there. All things are written in the Word of God. Everything
written in the Word of God, I believe. And I have a hope toward God. A hope which they themselves
also allow, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both
of the just and the unjust. Yes, sir. There's a division, but the division
is not over denominational dogmas and traditions and forms and
ceremonies, the real division between the people of God and
the rest of this religious world is because of Him. But it's always
been so. When our Lord walked this earth,
now listen to me, when He walked this earth in human flesh, when He revealed the purpose
and will of God, He said, No man has seen God, the Son reveals
Him. No man knoweth the Father, but
he to whom the Son reveals Him, manifesteth. When He walked this
earth to reveal the purpose and will and work and way and words
of the Father, He was despised and hated of men. Isn't that
what Isaiah said? We hear it as it were our faces
from Him. Nobody wanted to be identified
with this fool. Why, they said, you're mad. You're
crazy. They called him a winebibber,
they called him a gluttonous man, they called him a devil,
and they told him he was crazy. Even his own brothers didn't
believe him. The other children of Mary and Joseph. He's despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
They cursed him. They asked him to leave their
city. In the land of the Gadarenes, when he cast the demons out of
that man and he sat clothed in his right mind, they said, would
you please leave here and not come back? And he got in his
boat and left. They spit on him. They tried
to throw him off a cliff. They scourged him. And then they
took him out and nailed him to a cross and walked away saying,
well, that takes care of this Jesus fellow. Oh, but Brother Mahan, this is
a different day. I heard one preacher say on national
television, thankfully his program is folded up, but I heard him
say on national television, as he was describing the death of
Christ on the cross, he said, if I'd have been there, I'd have
stopped it. A man makes a statement like
that doesn't know two things. One, he doesn't know himself.
If you'd have been there, you'd have been with all of that. He
walked the winepress of God's wrath alone. I'll be a friend
to Jesus? No, you won't. No, you won't. He'll be a friend to you. Second thing he doesn't know
is the gospel. The man doesn't know himself, he doesn't know
the gospel, because if you take Christ down from the cross, you've
got no Savior. What held him to the cross? Do
you think those nails held him there? Do you think the will
of the Roman Empire held him there? Do you think human weakness
held him there? What held him to the cross? My
sin, and your sins, and the will of God to redeem us from our
sins. That's what held him there. He said, no man takes my life
from me. My generation is ignorant. Would he fare better today? Oh,
we would not have hated him. Well, this is just an echo. Turn
to Matthew 23. This is an echo from our fathers. They said the same thing. In
Matthew 23, let's look at it. This is just an echo. Matthew
23, verse 29. Men have been saying this for
years. In Matthew 23, 29 our Lord said,
Christ our Lord said, woe unto you, woe unto you scribes and
Pharisees, you religious leaders, you hypocrites, because you build
the tombs of the prophets and you garnish the sepulchres of
the righteous. Now what's he saying? He's saying
you build monuments over the graves of these preachers from
the past, Isaiah, Moses. Jeremiah and Ezekiel. You go
find their grave and visit it. Stand in front of their grave.
Let's erect a monument over Isaiah's grave. Great! Let's put a monument
up. And let's on his birthday every year, let's put a wreath
on it. Good old Isaiah. Good old John Calvin. Good old
Martin Luther. Good old Charles Spurgeon. People
go from everywhere to visit the graves of Isaac Watson. He's
a great man. Listen to the next verse. And
when you stand there at their tombs, you say, if we had been
in the days of our fathers, we would not have partaken with
them in the blood of these prophets. We wouldn't have done that. And
that's what I'm saying is the echo today. They've been saying
it ever since man's been on the earth. When Moses was here, they
hated Moses. They said, you bring us out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? I said, when you brought us out,
they hated him. The sons of Paul rose up against him. Moses always
had somebody trying to put him out of business, always. And
then he died, and he became a great man. But then they hated Christ. Christ was here. And then our
Lord Crucified, buried and rose again, and they started bragging
on him and hating the apostles. And then the apostles all died
and they started bragging on him, hating the reformers. They
hated Augustine. They hated Bunyan. They put Bunyan
in jail for 13 years for preaching the gospel. Ebenezer Erskine,
I was reading him yesterday, they kicked him out of his church.
He had to preach in an open field. They wouldn't even let him in
the church anymore. All the churches were closed to that man. One
of the greatest preachers of his time. But all the time they
were hating Erskine, they were bragging on Calvin. And Luther. And now Erskine and
those men are dead, and they're bragging on them. Do you know
it's hard to find one of the old Puritan works? Everybody's
buying them up. But when the men were here, they
wouldn't even go here. So to melt anything, you gotta
be dead. That's the moral of that story.
Our Lord said, verse 31, Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves. You are the children of them
that killed the prophets, and you're doing the identical same
thing. You're bragging on the dead and cursing the living. I preach I preach the same identical
message that Charles Spurgeon preached, identical. I've read,
you just couldn't believe how much of his, John Gill, I've
read everything Gill wrote from Matthew to Revelation. Preach
the same thing. He's Dr. Gill, and I'm that fellow
at 13th Street. Spurgeon's the great prince of
preachers. And the fellow that's living
and preaching the identical same message he preached, he's a fool. That's normal, typical human
behavior. That's exactly right. My Lord,
there it is right there in black and white, from the lips of the
master. He said, you brag on the dead and you kill the living.
And you're sons of those, and listen to what he said. Verse
32, keep on until you fill up then the measure of your fathers.
You are filling up the cup. They started at the bottom, you
are going to fill the top up. And your serpents, your generation
of snakes, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore,
behold, I send you preachers, Wise men, scribes, some of them
you kill, some of them you crucify, some of them you scourge, and
some of them you persecute from place to place, that upon you
may come all the righteous blood shed on this earth from the blood
of Abel, the first man who died for what he believed. Salvation
by substitution. of the last one that will die
before Christ comes. The blood of every one of them
are going to be on the hands of every man that turns down
the preacher God sends in his day. In his day. You're not going to make it bragging
on dead folks. You're not going to make it.
You're going to hear the man God sends in your day. Or you're
going to be guilty if you persecute him and turn away from his ministry,
God says, I'm going to charge you with the blood of every prophet
that's ever died, from the first one that died back there on the
outside in the shadows of the Garden of Eden, till the last
one dies before I come. You and all your daddies. What caused this hatred for Christ? I'm just going to give you about
four scriptures. What caused this hatred? Let's
turn to John 10 first. And I'm telling you, this was
bona fide, genuine, unadulterated hatred. Hatred. And it's the same hatred today,
it just takes a different direction. In John chapter 10, verse 31,
John 10, 31, it says, Then the Jews took up stones again to
stone him. Now this is speaking of Christ,
our Lord. Now, do you realize what it means to stone a man? He stood before them, and these
men reached down to pick up hard stones and rocks, and they were
going to cast them into his brain. They were going to stand there
with those stones and throw them against his flesh until they
lay on the ground, and then they stood when they stoned somebody
and just kept hurling stones until they bashed their brains
out, and the gore of their bodies covered the ground, and then
they covered them with those stones. and walked away. That's
what they were fixing to do to Christ. Now you've got to really
despise somebody to do that to him. And they were going to stone
him. Why? What had he done? What had he
said? Well, let's find out. Go back to verse 22. And you
know where it was? It was in Jerusalem, the religious
capital. And it was at the temple. And
it was at Jerusalem, the Feast of the Dedication, it was winter,
and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came
the Jews round about him, and they said, Now how long do you
make us to doubt? Are you the Christ? If you be
the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. And you
didn't believe me. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of who I am. But you believe not because
you're not of my sheep. I said unto you, My sheep, hear
my voice. And I know them, and they follow me, and I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. You see, I and my Father are
one." Then they picked up the stones. Then they picked up the
stones. But I'm telling you this. Jesus
Christ is God, the very God of their God. I'm not saying he's
a messenger of God, though he is. I'm not saying he's the Son
of God, though he is. Though he is. I'm not saying
he's the servant and the Messiah and the Christ, though he is.
I'm saying that he is the very God of their God. I'm saying
he is wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. He's God. I want no stuttering
about it. He's my Lord and my God. The
scriptures say so. God was in Christ reconciling
the world. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Acts 20, Paul
said, feed the church of God which he purchased with his own
blood. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in
the flesh. Call his name Immanuel, God with
us. Thy throne, O God, is forever. He's the electing God. He's the
sovereign God. He's the God for whom all things
were created and by whom all things are held together. Jesus
Christ is God. And I cannot explain the Trinity.
I don't even hope to even offer you any explanation at all of the Trinity.
I can't do it. I just know the Lord our God
is one God. Somebody wrote me last week, who watches our television
program, said, we get to heaven, we're going to see three gods.
I wrote back and said, no. One. One. We're going to see Christ. God
is spirit. The Holy Spirit. And Christ is
the man. Christ Jesus. The Godman. We're
going to see Christ. And when he says he sits at the
right hand of God, that's figuratively. That's figuratively. He sits
as our representative. He sits as our mediator. He sits
as our intercessor. But he does not sit as an inferior. He's equal with God. I and my
Father are one. He's not a subordinate. He is
as our representative. But not as God. You see, as God,
he has no father. But as man, he said, my father
sent me. As God, he has no mother. As
man, Mary gave birth. As God, he has no pedigree. As
man, he was born in Bethlehem. As God, he has no beginning.
As man, a child is born. As God, he has no end. As man,
he died. And as our intercessor and mediator. But when we stand in glory, The
work and ministry of our intercessor and mediator is finished, and
we'll bow before Him as God. He's God. And all the attributes
of God are in Him. Eternal existence, He said, I
am. And if you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sin.
Creative power, He said all things were made by Him. Power to give
life, He said the Son will quicken whom He will. You think he doesn't
have the power to quicken whom he will? Holiness. Which of you convinces
me of sin, he said. He knew no sin. Omnipotence.
He said all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Omnipresence. He said I'm with you always.
Omniscience. He knew their thoughts. Peter
said you know everything. You know I love If he's not God,
he's a liar, he's an imposter, he can't save anybody, his bones
are in the grave in Jerusalem and his soul's in hell, and if
you worship him, you're an idolater. Not much choice, is there? He's
God. And that's when they took up
stones and stoned him. You say, how do you explain God becoming
a man? I don't try. He didn't say go
explain the gospel, he said go proclaim it. It's a mystery. I can't explain heavenly mysteries.
Do you understand God? No, do you? I don't need a God
I can understand. That's the kind of God these
jerks out here have, is a God they can understand and explain. Our God we worship. We know in
part. We prophesy in part. We see through
a glass dimly. The older you get, the dimmer
it seems like it gets. But then, face to face, I'll
know, ask me in about 40 years, and I'll tell you. We're going
to discover some things, aren't we, Charlie? Woo! Good night. You're going to turn to me in
heaven and say, you sure were dumb. And I'm going to say, you
were too. Didn't know much. I'll tell you
this. Thank God we don't have to know everything, we just got
to believe Christ. I don't have to understand God.
Alright, turn to Luke 4. In Luke chapter 4, let's see
what they were going to do to him over here. Let's see what
these religious fellows were going to do to him over here.
Luke 4. Now you remember he went back to Nazareth where he was
brought up, to the synagogue as was his custom to worship,
and stood up to read. Like my son Paul stood here a
few moments ago to read to you. This is what the Lord did. All
of them with every eye fastened on him, he stood up to read.
He read Isaiah 61. In verse 20, he closed the book.
He closed the book. And he gave it to the minister
and sat down. And all the eyes, the eyes of all them that were
in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. He read a messianic
prophecy. They knew what he was reading.
He read the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61 that says the Spirit
of the Lord is on me. It is in order for me to heal,
preach the gospel of the poor, heal the brokenhearted, deliver
the captive, give sight to the blind, and to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. Well, I suspect that irritated
him, but it didn't make him really mad. He claimed to be the Messiah. And verse 22 says, I'll bear
him witness and wonder at the gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, hey, is this not
Joseph's son? And Jesus said unto them, you
will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself.
What have we heard done in Capernaum? See, what he had done in Capernaum
and other places had drifted back to his hometown. They said,
he said, you will say, do also here in your country. And he
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in
his own country. But I'm going to tell you the
truth. Now here it is. Here it is. I'm going to tell you the truth.
And you're always about to tell them, now see if it's not so.
That salvation is of the Lord. That as he said to Moses, I'll
be gracious to whom I will, I'll be merciful to whom I will. God
will save whom he will. Now remember, he's talking to
a whole packed house full of Jews on the Sabbath day in the
synagogue that were there to worship, read the Bible, a whole
crowd of people who felt that they were God's people, they
had all been circumcised, they all kept the traditions, they
all attended the synagogue, they all read their Bibles, they all
kept the law, they all tithed, they all did these things, and
they were going to heaven when they died. That's what they believed.
I'm going to tell you the truth, he said, verse 25, there were
many widows in the land of Israel in the days of Elias when the
heavens were shut up three years and six months. It did not rain
and great famines throughout the land. But unto none of them
was Elias sent by God, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto
a woman that was a widow. A Gentile widow. God will feed whom he pleases,
save whom he pleases. And there wasn't a single Jewish
widow in that time of famine to whom God sent his servant
to give her nourishment and bread and water. And also, verse 27,
there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseas the prophet.
None of them were cleansed, none of them. except Nahum, a Gendile,
a Syrian. God's mercy is sovereign. His
grace is sovereign. Now what's the reaction to that?
I'll tell you what he's teaching. Same thing that all the other
apostles preach. And we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, who are called according
to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. foreordained, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, whom
he predestinated he called, whom he called he justified, whom
he justified he glorified. The children not yet being born,
twins, lay in Rebekah's womb, not yet being born, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of work, but
of him that called it, it was served to her Your youngest son
is going to serve your oldest son, because I love the youngest
son and I hate the oldest son. What shall we say to these things?
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. He said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and whom he will
he'll harden. Therefore it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy.
For he said to Pharaoh, for this same purpose have I raised you
up, to dump you in the river for my glory. Even so hath he
mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he will harden." How
do you react to that? I'll show you how they reacted.
Verse 28, And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these
things, were filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him off the cliff. That's how much natural men hate
sovereign grace and sovereign mercy. You say, well, I know a lot of
preachers that believe in election. But do they define it? These Jews believed in election. Oh yes they did. They believed
that the Jews were elected and everybody else wasn't. That's
what they believed. But God, our Lord told them that
He had an elect even among the Jews and the Gentiles. Alright. Men hate sovereign grace. And the way you find it out is
you preach it. You define it. He defined it
as our Lord defined it. All right, let's see where else
he crossed the grain of these fellows. Turn to John 8. John
8, verse 59. John 8, 59. It says here in verse 59, and took they up stones to cast
at him a gator. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple. He was in the temple. And going
through the midst of them, he passed by. What on earth did
he say to these fellows this time? You know, a lot of people
have the wrong, they think that the Lord Jesus Christ, everywhere
he went, the mobs and multitudes just followed him and fell all
over him, rejoiced in what he said. No, they despised him. After he fed that big bunch,
you know, they preached to them and then they left. And the only
people left were the twelve disciples. And he turned to them and said,
will you go away too? They said, to whom shall we go?
And they were going to stone him. Now let's go back and see
what he said. Back here in verse 41. You do the deeds of your
father. Then said they to him, Well we'd
be not born of fornication, we're not born sinners, we have one
father, God's our father. God's our father. You know what
this generation think? God's the father of all men?
Our Lord said he's not. Our Lord Jesus Christ rejected
the fatherhood of God idea. He destroyed, he shot it to pieces
right here. God's not the father of all men.
He's the father only of believers. We have one, and Jesus said to
them, verse 42, if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God, neither came I of myself, he sent me. Why do you not understand
my speech? Because you cannot hear my word.
You are your father the devil, and the lust of your father will
you do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks
a lie, he speaks of his own. He's a liar and the father of
it, because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinces me of sin? If I say the truth, why do you
not believe me? He that is of God will hear God's
word. You, therefore, hear them not,
because you're not of God. God's not your father. You're
not God's offspring. I beg your pardon. Men and women in unbelief are
not children of God, nor are they under the love of God. No,
sir. And all the preachers, yes, there's
a division. There's a division. And all the
preachers who indiscriminately and their silly wives, have you
seen all these silly painted wives that they have on TV with
them? It looks so cute, you know, and they said, Jesus loves you
and I do too. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. God loves men
in Christ and nowhere else. That's what he's saying here.
It's the truth. He's saying that, John 3, 36,
listen to this. I'll just quote it to you. He
that believeth on the Son hath life. He that believeth not the
Son of God shall not see life, but the what? The wrath of God
abideth on him, abideth on him. Psalm 711, God hateth all workers
of iniquity. Psalm 55, God's angry with the
wicked every day. Romans 8, 38 and 39 says nothing
can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Now let me show you some scripture.
Now that's when they took up stones to stone him. This is
a stoning offense to a natural man. A believer knows this. A believer knows that outside
of Christ there's no love. You say, I don't believe a loving
God will send a man to hell. I don't either. I know he won't.
I'm as sure of it as I'm standing here. When God rained fire and brimstone
on Sodom, that wasn't an act of love, it was an act of judgment
and wrath. When God destroyed the world by By a flood, that
wasn't an act of love, that wasn't a loving God acting in grace
toward his beloved. That was God in judgment and
wrath pouring out his indignation and condemnation upon rebels
whom he despises. And when God stands at the judgment
and sends men to hell, it'll not be God in love, it'll not
be a loving God, it's going to be Elohim, judge of the earth. condemning and putting every
mad dog where he can do no more harm. That's exactly right. I know this. Bless your hearts.
He said, where do you go to church? Thirteenth Street. Oh, I understand
the old now. Because the world doesn't believe
that. But that's what Christ taught and that's the reason
they stoned him. Or tried to. That's the reason they nailed
him to the cross. They hated him. And they hated what he said.
They hated what he said. Let me show you something. You
don't need to turn to these, you know these. How is God in
Christ a God of love? He is love in Christ. First of all, in Christ God is
reconciled to us. He said God was in Christ reconciling
the world. Having accepted the ransom of
Christ, God now declares himself, John, a God of peace. You see,
that's how that God is love toward us. He's now a God of peace because
Christ has reconciled us. If we're not reconciled in Christ,
then God is not peace. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. He's the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Secondly, in Christ, God's promises
are to us. Let me read you this in 2 Corinthians
1.20. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians
1.20. In Christ, in Christ, God's promises
are to us. For all the promises of God in
Christ are yea and amen to the glory of God. Wherever you meet
with any promise in the Bible of grace, mercy, and peace, it's
always in Christ, is it not? It's always in Christ. There
are no promises to anybody outside of Christ. And then thirdly,
in Christ God sits upon the throne of grace. He said, having a high
priest over the house of God, let us come boldly to the throne
of grace and find grace and mercy to help in times of need, having
a high priest. And then God in Christ is for
us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? And then God in Christ gently
entreats us to come. He said, Come to Me, and I'll
give you rest. No rest outside of Him. Alright,
here's the last one. Honestly, I don't know any message
that's clearer on this subject than this message I'm bringing. In John 6, 6-6, and from that time, many of his
disciples went back and walked no more with him. Now these aren't the twelve.
These are disciples in the sense they're followers or learners. What had he said? Well, let's
go back and see, verse 63. It is the Spirit that quickens
it. You know what the word quickens means to make alive? It is to
quicken the dead. The Spirit quickens it. You who
were dead had to be quickened. Dead in trespasses and made alive.
Spiritual life. The Son quickeneth whom he will.
Quicken is to make alive. See, we're born dead in trespasses
and sin, and to be saved you've got to be quickened, regenerated,
made alive, and it's the Spirit that quickens it. The flesh profiteth,
N-O-T-H-I-N-G, nothing. I know, but shouldn't my devotion count for something?
Nothing. Yeah, but shouldn't my tithes
count for something? Nothing. Yeah, but shouldn't
the fact my mother's prayers countless? Nothing. The flesh
property, nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
the word, their spirit, their life, the Holy Spirit's the agent,
the word is the seed of life. And the Holy Spirit takes the
word and quickens dead sinners. But there are some of you that
believe not, but Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not. He knew who would betray Him.
Therefore He said, therefore I said to you that no man, nobody,
whoever he may be, be his talent, ability, knowledge, wisdom, education,
age, experience, no man, no man, black, white, male or female,
bond or free, No man can, has the ability, or the desire, or
the will, can come to me. Come to me is to believe, isn't
it? To receive, to submit, to receive Christ, come to Christ. No man can come to me. He has
neither the will, nor the desire, nor the ability to come to me.
He can come to the front. He can come to the preacher.
He can come to the pool. He can come to the table. He
can come to the doctor. He can come to the law. He can
come to the beach. He can come anywhere he wants
to, but he can't come to Christ. And that's what they're doing.
They're coming to something besides Christ. Coming to experience. But no man can come to me, watch
it, except it be given him of my Father. And from that time,
they went back and walked no more with Him. And he turned to the twelve and
he said, will you go away? And I turn to you tonight and
I say, truth is truth, Christ is Christ. The Word of God is
the Word of God. You say, I won't have that kind
of God. Oh yes you will. All things are naked and open
to Him with whom we have to do. There's no other God. This is
a true and living God. This is His character. This is
his only revelation. God spake to our fathers, but
the prophets have spoken thus by his son. This is his final
revelation. Next time God speaks, he'll be
in judgment. He's not going to speak again. He spoke. He spoke. Will you go away? Well, I reply
like these disciples, there's no place to go. I'm not going
to go to one of these religious organizations. They don't have
anything. I'm not going to go to some some silly thing like
that Catholic deal they've got with all their funny stuff, I'm
going to go to Christ, the sovereign Christ, the effectual Christ,
the vicarious Christ, the reigning Christ, the ruling Christ, the
almighty Christ, the Christ who has all power and all authority,
and I'm going to follow at his feet. And I'm going to say, Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole, if you will. It's not
my will, but thy will. And I'll be eternally grateful
and I'll praise your name forever if you'll give to me that unspeakable
gift, your love and life everlasting. And if you have it, he'll give
it to you. You make all the decisions you want to, but life is his
to give. Is that right Cecil? That's it.
And that's the division. Now you mark it down. There was
a division because of him. I don't mind that. Now, if we're
going to fuss over how we dress, I don't want that. We're not
going to fuss over personality, but if it comes to the gospel,
we'll fuss.

Division Because of Him

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Division Because of Him

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