If you will, open your Bibles
again to the Book of Matthew, Chapter 16. When we read a portion of God's
Word such as this, every one of us, I know, have
something of great significance or importance
revealed to us. And I studied for the message
tonight, and I have several things that I want to present to you. But as I read the Scripture over
again this afternoon, and while Brother Tom was reading it a
few moments ago, something stood out more strongly than during
my previous readings, and I wish to point it out to you. Our Lord said in Matthew 16,
15, now he just asked the disciples, whom do men, the people out there,
the natural man, the unbelievers, those who are not disciples,
whom do they say that I am? And the disciples readily said,
well, some say you're John the Baptist returned from the dead. Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're Jeremiah. They
hold you in pretty high esteem, Lord. Some say you're one of the prophets.
And then he said, but whom say ye that I am? And Peter seems to have been
the spokesman for the group. I suppose they all would have
answered this way, but somehow, and we call Peter impulsive,
an extrovert, or whatever. But he sprang forward, and he
gave a good answer. He said, Thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And when he said that, our Lord
Jesus answered him and said unto him, the other eleven were standing
there, and he singled Peter out and said, Blessed are you, Simon
son of Jonah, Bars son of Jonah, flesh and blood, and reveal that
to you, but my Father which is in heaven, and thou art Peter,
I say unto thee that thou art a little stone, And upon this
rock I'll build my church, this confession. And I give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. And what you bind here on earth
will be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven." Now, it's hard for flesh to take. I just
imagine Peter's head grew an inch an hour. I know how I would
react. The Lord God. singled me out
for such a special recognition, such a powerful commendation. I know he had to be. I know he
had to, you know, look at the other disciples and, you know,
shift his shoulders a little bit, feel good, real good, real good. And then I read on, and I thought,
oh, how quickly the mighty fall. Oh, how quickly this flesh proves
it's nothing but flesh. Nothing in this world but flesh. Oh, how quickly does our wisdom
become ignorance and foolishness. How quickly do we, who are given
an opportunity to speak, speak too much. Once the tongue starts flapping,
it just don't know when to stop. Peter was the spokesman and he
wouldn't quit. And our Lord Jesus began to tell
him, in verse 21, how that he would go to Jerusalem. And this
is, this is the great, this is the climax of his whole ministry
and work, his death. This is that which God has been
prophesying and promising since the foundation of the world.
This is that of which the redeemed of all ages in glory will sing,
the Lamb slain. This is why He came. This is
the hour for which He was born into this world. This is what
they talked about on the Mount of Transfiguration when He and
Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the
Prophets, got together, the Christ, the Law, and the Prophets. talked
about his death, that he should accomplish it, Jerusalem. And
he began to talk about how he must need suffer and die and
be raised the third day. Here's Peter. See, he couldn't
domino, could he? He couldn't just rest in the
Lord's comfort and assurance. He had to start talking again.
And he stepped forward and he said, Lord, be it far from thee,
this shall not be unto Here's flesh speaking, here's natural
wisdom, here's man. And no sooner had the Lord said
to him, Thou art a little stone, Thou art favored of God, Thou
art blessed of men above all men, Thou hast had revealed to
thee the glorious redemptive grace of God, our Lord's eyes
flashed as he turned on him and said, Get thee behind me, Satan.
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou savour'st not the things
of God." But you're talking like a man. Oh, I tell you, how we
need to be shut up to His grace and His mercy and His glory.
How frail and foolish and faulty and fickle is human flesh. It's not worth the powder it
takes to blow it to hell. Did you know that? That's exactly
right. There ain't a nickel's worth
of good in anybody here starting at the pulpit and going to the
back door. Nothing prevents us from becoming emissaries and
missionaries and ministers of Satan but the grace of God. That's
right. That just shocks me. I looked
there while Tom was reading, when I was reading earlier. Here's
Peter lifted up, favored, exalted, spokesman for the disciples,
and five minutes later he was speaking for the devil. Five
minutes later he was speaking for the devil. An instrument
of Satan. If that doesn't frighten us and
shock us and disturb us and cast us on the mercy of God and put
us at the feet of Christ saying, Lord, keep me or I'll perish,
hold me up or I'll fall. If that doesn't do it, I don't
know what will. I don't know what will. Here you have the first time
in the New Testament our Lord refers to the Church, or one
of the first times he refers to the Church. And it's very
significant, here's something else of great significance, it's
very significant that our Lord connects the Church with the
right opinion of himself and the right idea of himself. He
says, Whom do ye say that I, the Son of Man, am? You see that
in verse 15. Whom do you say that I am? And
Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
he said, On this rock I'll build my church. On this rock. The question to be put to any
who would seek to be a part of the Lord's church. who would
seek to be a part of the Lord's bride, of the Lord's body, of
the Lord's family, of the church of the firstborn. The question
to be put to any man who would seek admittance to the church
of Jesus Christ is, who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? What think ye of Christ Jesus? It's first Christ and then the
church. It's first Christ. You can't
be right on anything else if you're not right on Christ. I
know there's churches or organizations or places that we call churches
all over the world, all over this country, but I'm saying
this, you can't be right on anything else if you're not right on Christ.
This is it. First Christ, and then the church. First Christ, the root, and then
the church, the offspring. See, He's the vine, we're the
branches. It's first Christ, the root,
and then the church growing out of Him. It's first Christ, the
builder, and then the church, the building. It's first Christ,
and then the ordinances. It's first Christ, and then the
offices. It's first Christ, and then our
creeds or catechisms or whatever. But the question is not, do you
belong to the Church? The question is, do you belong
to Christ? That's the question. The question
is not, do you belong to the Church? The question is, do you
rest in, do you believe in, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Above all, if Christ be formed
in you, who's the hope of glory, you do belong to the Church.
And if Christ be not formed in you who is the hope of glory,
then belonging as a member to all the churches in the world
won't help you. You see what I'm saying? Paul, speaking to the elders
at Ephesus, said, Feed the church of God which he purchased with
his own blood. And then Paul, writing to the
church at Ephesus, said in Ephesians 5, Husband, love your wives as
Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it. Christ loved
the church, and Christ purchased the church with his own blood.
And Christ Jesus the Lord is the foundation, is the cornerstone,
He is the builder of his church. Now, in putting forth, notice
this also, in putting forth this question about himself to the
disciples, he divided men into two classes, into two classes. And I'm saying this, the significant
thing is this, that our Lord connects the church with the
right opinion of himself, the right opinion of himself. A man
who is in Christ is in the church. A man who is not in Christ is
not in the Church, whatever he professes, whatever he does,
whatever he claims, whatever organization that he may belong
to does not make him a part of the Lord's Church. Now notice
how he put this question to the disciples. First of all, he said,
Whom do men say that I am? Whom do men? You see that in
verse 13, the last line, Whom do men say that I am? Whom do
men? And then he said, Whom do you?
There's two classes. There you have it. You have men
in general, and you have disciples. You have flesh and blood, and
you have God Almighty's spiritual people. You have unbelievers,
and you have believers. And it all has to do with what
they think of Christ. It all has to do with what they
think of Christ. Whom do men? Men in general who
are unbelievers, who are flesh and blood, who have no part in
the kingdom of God, whom do they say that I am? Now, whom do ye,
my beloved, my disciples, my brethren, whom do you say that
I am?" And when they answered, he said, Here's where I'll build
my church. This is my church. Now I have
three divisions for this message. First of all, all believers.
And I'm saying every member of the Bride of Christ, of the Body
of Christ, of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, every believer,
and they're the only ones who are in the Church. They're the
only ones who are in the Church, and they all know who Christ
is, every blessed one of them. And secondly, this knowledge
of Christ has come to them in a very special way. This knowledge
of Christ has come to them, to their hearts, in a very special
way, a miraculous way. And then thirdly, this knowledge
of Christ, which has come to them in this special way, has
brought with it, with that knowledge, heavenly blessings indescribable. All right, are you with me? I'm
being very positive, very plain. I'm simply saying this. I'm saying
this very clearly, it's very significant, that our Lord Jesus
Christ, this is one of the first mentions of the church in the
New Testament, one of the first times he ever mentioned it. And he said to his disciples,
whom do these natural men say that I am? These men without
understanding, these men without revelation. They're religious,
they were religious. You see, these religious men
talked about Elijah, talked about Jeremiah, talked about John the
Baptist. These were religious people. But they weren't in his
church. They were not a part of his church,
he said. Now he said, whom do you say that I am? And they told
him, they said, we know who you are. We know that you're the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, this is my church.
This is my church. And I'm saying that all believers
know who Christ is. Now let's see Peter's answer.
Whom do you, whom do you say that I, the Son of Man am? And
Peter stepped forth and said, Thou art the Christ. Now, my
friends, this is not a title only, this is an office. When a lot of people say, Jesus
Christ, or Christ Jesus, or Jesus is the Christ, to them it's just
a title. To them it's just a title, it's
just a word of identification. But do you know what the word
C-H-R-I-S-T is? Now those Pharisees knew what
it was because it came to John the Baptist and they said, are
you the Christ? Are you the Christ? One of the
disciples went and found another and he said, we found him of
whom Moses wrote, the Christ. And the woman of Samaria, when
she listened to him at the well, she went down into Samaria and
she said, here is a man up here that told me all things that
I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Is not
this the Christ? And what are all these people
talking about when they talk about the Christ? I'll tell you
what they're talking about. From the very first moment that
man fell in the Garden of Eden, Almighty God announced the Christ. He announced the Christ. He said
the Christ will be the seed of woman. That's what he said, not
the seed of man. He'll be the virgin-born seed
of woman, the Christ, Genesis 3.15. And then Almighty God announced
to Abraham. He said, you'll have a son by
Sarah, a son of promise. And of that son shall the Christ
come. He'll be the seed of Abraham.
He'll be the Christ. That's exactly right, the Christ.
And then Moses came along and he announced that the Christ
would not only be the seed of woman and the seed of Abraham,
but the Christ would be raised up among the brethren and would
be a prophet like him. He would be a prophet. And then
the Christ was announced that he would be of the tribe of Judah. You remember when Jacob was blessing
the sons, the twelve sons, and he came to Judah. And Judah represents
the tribe of Judah, of course, and that's the kingly tribe.
That's not the priestly tribe. That's the kingly tribe, isn't
it, Tom? Tribe of Judah. And no priest ever came out of
the tribe of Judah. The priest came out of the tribe
of Levi. And yet the Lord had already said that he would be
a priest, this Christ would be a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. Not after the order of Levi,
but of Melchizedek. And then when Jacob was blessing
his sons, he came to Judah. And the half-blind old man put
his hand on Judah and said, Blessed art thou, Judah, your brethren
are going to bow down to you, because out of you shall come
Shiloh. Shiloh, and the scepter shall
not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes. Those Jews knew what that
meant, the Christ. The Christ would be of the tribe
of Judah, no other tribe. He'd be born in Bethlehem. That's
the hometown of Judah. Has to be. Has to be. Has to
be. And then God said he would be
of the house of David. He'd sit on the throne of his
father David. Whoever his mama was had to be
the heir to the throne of David. All the way through the Old Testament,
you see, I've tried to tell you so many times through the years
that the Old Testament is not just a love story, and not just
a book of history, and it's not a book of Proverbs and quaint
sayings. It's not just that. It's the
story of the Redeemer. It's Christ in picture, in promise,
in prophecy, in pattern. It's the announcement that someone's
coming called the Christ. The Christ, 39 books, are given
to declare the Christ. And when our Lord said, whom
do these folks say that I am? Well, some say you're John the
Baptist, some say you're Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
They got a thousand ideas about you. And a thousand lives will
live together. They will. And you can go out
to all these places called churches today, and they've all got different
views and ideas about Jesus of Nazareth. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Well, he's this, and he's that,
and the other. He's John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one
of the prophets, a good man, a great healer, this, that, and
all these things. But whom do you say that I am?
I am the Christ. Thou art the Christ. Thou art
the Christ. Thou art the seed of woman. Thou
art the lamb slain. Thou art the Passover lamb. Thou
art the son of Abraham. Thou art the son of David. Thou
art the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Thou
art the Lord, our righteousness. Thou art the Lord, our banner.
Thou art the Christ. We know who you are. And I'm
saying this, and you get me, and I mean it. Ain't no man in
this world saved who does not recognize Jesus is the Christ. I don't care who he is. I don't care who he is. All believers are unanimous on
this opinion that Jesus is the Christ. Whosoever confesses that
Jesus is the Christ, Paul is born of God. And the man who
doesn't has never been born of God. I mean that. And that's so. Whether
a fellow likes it or not, he might get roaring mad and the
veins stand out on his neck like water hoses and clench and unclench
his fists and grit his teeth. But he can do what he wants to.
But this is the rock on which Christ's church is built. He's
the Christ. He's the Christ. He didn't stop
there. He said, Thou art the Christ! Thou art the Christ! The Son of the living God. Thou art the Christ. Thou art
God himself. That's what he said. God robed
in human flesh. God incarnate in human flesh. God Almighty come to earth, God
with us, Emmanuel, God with us. My Lord, Thomas said, and my
God, my God. That's who you are. That's who
you are. There's not any doubt in any
believer's mind concerning the deity of Jesus Christ. He knows
he's man, perfect man, behold, the man. He knows he's man, bearing
our flesh and our bones, bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh, numbered with the transgressors. We know he's man, tempted in
all points as we are yet without sin. We know he's man, a man
of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. We know he's the
carpenter. We know all these things. We
know he walked this earth, lived in the flesh, hungered, wearied,
thirsted, and wept. And then they drug him out and
nailed him to a tree and buried him in a barred tomb, but he
came out and he's God. You say, how can God tabernacle
in human flesh? I don't know. I don't know. I just know it's so. I don't
know how God made this world out of nothing. I don't know
what keeps the sun suspended out there in space, do you? I
don't know what causes a bird to fly south, but God Almighty
gave him the direction, told him, it's just this way, little
bird, how he builds his nest and takes care of his young.
I don't know, but God knows. I don't know, I've never entered
the treasures of the snow. I know there are ten multiplied
quadrillion snowflakes and none of them are like. And I know
the stars all differ in glory, and I know there are ten billion
faces of human beings, and all of them are different. I know
all the fingerprints in the world are different. I can't figure
that one out. Looks like they'd run into one pattern that was
alike, don't you think? There are a lot of mysteries
that I hadn't figured out. And how God could become a man,
I can't figure that one out. But I just know it's so. That's
what God said. It took God to save me. to God
the Savior, and every believer is unanimous in this opinion.
I hear people talk about the church is divided. Oh, there
are a lot of divisions in men's churches, but Christ's church
ain't divided. I don't care where you find them. You find them
over in the Anglicans, you'll find a Luther in something else,
and a Calvin in something else, and a Whitfield in something
else, and an Edwards, and a Spurgeon, and all the rest of them. Every
blessed one of them confessed, not like the Christ, the Son
of the living God, and there's not any hedging on it, or stuttering
on it, or fumbling around on it. They're all united in that
faith. Every one of them. The saints
of God appear as one in word and deed and mind, while with
the Father and the Son, sweet fellowship, every one of them
find." That's exactly right. Now, be careful not to write
a fellow off because he doesn't agree with you on everything.
Be careful, don't write him off. He may be one of God's own. I
know two of the chief preachers of the gospel in the New Testament
fell out with one another, and one went one way and one went
the other. That was Paul and Barnabas, but both of them knew
the Lord. Both of them knew Christ. I know that two other fellows,
one named Paul, one named Peter, had a real knock-down drag-out
down there. Where was it, in Galatia? Galatia. And Paul withstood Peter to the
face, and he said, you're to be blamed. You're not acting
right. And he embarrassed the apostle Peter in front of all
that people, all those people. But both of them could say, I
know whom I have believed. I know that my Redeemer liveth.
I know we're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver
and gold from our vain conversation received by tradition from our
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. I'm saying that
every believer, every believer on this earth, and everyone who's
in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and washed in his blood,
whose names are written in glory, every blessed one of them know
who Christ is, not any doubt in their mind about it. And every
one of them, in word, in deed, in thought, in mind, are united
on this foundation. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. The Son of the living God. I
believe it. I'm convinced of it. I'm persuaded of it. I'm absolutely confident of it.
And He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. All right,
the second point. This knowledge of Christ, and I'm saying this,
you say, well, you speak with a lot of authority. When you're
preaching the gospel of Christ, you can preach with authority,
because there's no question about it. I know there are a lot of
secret things in the scriptures that belong to the Father, but
the revealed things belong to us, the children of, sons of
men. And God has revealed that his
mercy is in Christ. He's given all things in Christ.
And that I know, I know that I'm positive of it. Oh, here's
the second thing, this knowledge of Christ comes to us in a special
way. Now, he said, whom, what are
they saying out there? Well, they're saying a lot of
things. Well, what do you say? What do you say? He looks at
me tonight and he says, whom do you say that I am? And I say,
thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ. I see Christ,
I see Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ on every page. I see that
rock smitten by Moses, that's the Christ, that's Christ, Jesus
the Lord. I see that blood put on the doorpost
and the lintel, that's Christ, my Lord, that's His death. I
see the brazen serpent lifted up, that's Jesus Christ in picture,
all the way through the Word of God. I see Christ, the Son
of the living God. I see Him there at the right
hand of God, interceding for us. I see Him hurling the world
out into space. I see Him sitting on the throne
of intercession. By Him all things were made.
For Him they were made. He has the preeminence. I see
Him with a name that's above every name. I see Him, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, one and the same.
My substitute, my sin offering, my savior, my righteousness,
my justification, my all in all, my hope of eternal glory is Jesus
Christ. I see him as my representative.
I see him as my slain lamb. I see him as my risen justifier. I see him as my conquering king.
I see him as my holiness before the Father. I see Christ. Well, remarkably so, remarkably
Not many folks see that. Not many folks see that. Really
and truly, not many folks see that. And Jesus answered and
said, You're blessed. You're blessed. Blessed are you.
Simon, son of Jonah, Bari's son. Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. Barjona,
son of Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. You can learn the mechanics of
the Bible by teaching and preaching. You can learn the mechanics of
the gospel through teaching and preaching. But the glory of God
in the face of Christ Jesus does not come by teaching and preaching. It comes by revelation of the
Spirit of God. And that's just so. I'm saying this, I'm saying if
my voice is the only voice you hear, and I might talk about
the glory of God, the majesty and power and greatness of God,
and you might say, well, that's so mechanically, I give assent
to all of these facts as they're stated and written. But for a
man to see the glory of God and to be awed and to experience
In his soul, the majesty and glory of God has to be revealed
by the Holy Spirit. A man may say, well, I believe
in the sovereignty of God. But for a man actually to experience
so that in every trial and in every success and every failure,
in every weariness and sickness and pain, and in every fear and
in every cloud and in every storm and in every tempest, For him
to rest in and trust in a God who is sovereign has to be revealed.
There's as much difference as daylight and dark. Because you
hear preachers. I have a preacher friend who
can preach the sovereignty of God as well as anybody ever heard
in my life. He lives like there ain't no God. Always scared and
worried and troubled and complaining and griping and murmuring and
finding fault just like God never existed. Well, maybe he's never
seen it. I don't know. I don't know. I'm saying this. A man can believe
in the depravity of man. He can talk about, oh, what great
sinners we are. Oh, we're great sinners. Oh, I'm the chief of
sinners. It's one thing to know that mechanically. It's another thing to feel it.
To feel it. To be overwhelmed by the truth
of it. to feel the nakedness before
God, and to feel your unworthiness, and to be drained, completely
drained before God of any goodness, so that you're ashamed to even
look up, like the publican in the temple, and you cry in your
soul, O God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's right. That's something I can't give
you, that's something only the Holy Spirit can give you. Only the Holy Spirit. I know
there are a lot of religious people that got bad attitudes,
just rotten attitudes. It's hard to even pastor them,
their attitudes are so rotten. And the only one that can change,
that's the Holy Ghost. They got all the mechanics. They got the
facts. They even believe these facts and these mechanics. They
give mental assent to these things. But God has never broken them.
God has never stripped them. God has never dealt with them
in saving grace. He never has. And that comes
by revelation. God's never stopped the mouth.
God's never broken them before his throne. He's never put them
into dust. He just ain't never saved them.
That's experience. We can talk about loving Christ.
Loving Christ. Did any of you go home today
and watch those Olympics about 2 o'clock? When they ran, I want
you to know, listen to me. They had a 26-mile woman's marathon. And this little gal ran 26 miles
and set a world record and won it for the United States. But
that wasn't the drama. is all over, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and
4th, and 5th had come in, finished the race. Then here came a woman
into the Coliseum before 90,000 people, a woman in a red outfit. I don't know where she was from,
but she was just about dead on her feet. She hardly could walk
and stand up. She'd run 25 miles and 900 meters. She had 100 meters to go. How
many saw that? I want to see your hands. Anybody
see it? Did you watch her? She was determined to finish
that race. It may have cost her her life,
but she's going to cross that finish line. And they kept the
camera on her, and she staggered from one side of that track to
the other, from one side to the other. Her eyes were barely open. She hardly knew where she was,
but she was headed for that finish line. She's headed for that finish
line. And I kept saying, well, somebody
stop her. Somebody get an ambulance. Somebody go and help. Somebody
put some cold water on that girl. She's going to die right there.
Nobody touch her. She started that race. She's
going to finish it. And she kept on coming. It took 5 minutes
or 10 minutes or 15. I don't know. I thought she'd
never. Finally, she staggered like this. And she crossed that
line and collapsed. And I thought to myself, if some
of our preachers and people ever get that kind of compassion and
drive and desire for an incorruptible crown like that woman had for
a corruptible crown, all she got was a pat on the back. That's
all she got. But she was dedicated to finishing
that race. And Paul said they strive for
a corruptible crown. They strive. They give their
lives for a corruptible crown. We for an incorruptible. Oh, if I had that kind of drive,
that kind of compulsion, I will not let thee go. I tell you,
that only comes by revelation. That's experience. You turn with
me to 1 Corinthians 2. Paul said this in Galatians.
He said in Galatians 1, God separated me from my mother's womb and
revealed his Son in me. He revealed his Son in me. That's
how I came to know Christ. God revealed him to me. Look
at 1 Corinthians 2. Verse 7, we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world, our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew. Had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, natural
eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither hath entered into
the heart of man the things God has prepared for them that love
him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit. Verse 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Oh, he can receive religion,
he can receive the mechanics, he can receive the facts, but
not the things of God, not the treasures. God hath given all
things into the hands of Christ, and the natural man receiveth
not those things. Not those things. And you have
a lot of things, but not those things. It's just different. Men save their lives and lose
them. They lose their lives for Christ's sake, and they save
them. And this work is called a new birth. It's called a new
nature. It's called a work of the Spirit.
Let me show you a verse over in John 4. John chapter 4. Listen to this. I beg your pardon.
It's John chapter 6. John chapter 6. And here's what
I'm saying loud and clear, and these are positive nails I'm
driving in a foundation. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
his disciples, whom do you say that I am? And they said, you are the Christ,
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he said, that's where
I'm going to build my church. That's the foundation on which
my church is built. That's the testimony of every
member of my body. That's the faith of every believer.
And those believers are united, I don't care where they are,
Jew, Gentile, male, female, black, white, Presbyterian or Baptist
or whoever. They're bound together in Christ,
cemented together with this one truth as their foundation. He's
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And that's an experience. People have died for it. They've
died at the stake for it. They've had their heads cut off.
They've been cast into the lion's den. All people have suffered. Dark the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. Life is not in a sacrament. Life
is not in an ordinance. Life is not in the Pope. Life
is not in ceremony. Life is not in ritual. It's in
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You can shoot me, Luther
said, but here I stand. I can do no other. But that comes
by revelation. That comes by revelation. He
says here in John 6, verse 37, All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, he shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is his will which is sent me, the Father's will, that of
all that he hath given me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. This is the will of him that
sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, buyeth the Christ,
the Son of the living God." He sees, he's heard. He believes on me, you'll have
everlasting life, and I'll raise him up." And these religious
folks began to murmur. Oh, they murmured, because he
said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven. And they said,
this is Jesus, the Son of Joseph. We know his father and mother.
How is it he said, I came down from heaven? And our Lord said,
murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me. Can come to me. except my Father
which hath sent me drawing, and I'll raise him up at the last
day. It's written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught
of God." That's what I'm talking about, taught of God. There's
the three words, not taught of men, not taught of the seminary,
not taught of the professors, not taught of the soul winners,
not taught of the tracts, taught of God. That's where they learn
this. And a man who's taught of God,
what will he do? Everyone that's taught of God,
everyone that has heard and learned of the Father, comes to me. He
comes to the Christ, the Son of the living God. And that's
where he camps. And that's where he stays, in
Christ. That's so. You see that? It's
a miracle. And they're thinking, I heard
Mr. Farwell say on television last
Sunday night that he's hoping for a great revival in America. He wrote down his plans for revival. The first three points, I didn't
get the rest of them, but the first three was this. Number one, we need 5,000 new
churches reactivated and re-established and organized, 5,000 new churches. We got too many churches now.
Nobody preaching the gospel. Nobody preaching the gospel.
We don't need any more buildings. We don't need any more organization.
We need somebody to preach the gospel. Secondly, we need 5,000
new Christian schools. Teaching the boys and girls the
gospel. Let me tell you something. You can't teach a man the gospel.
It has to be revealed. You can preach it to him. You
can pray for him. That's what you said, let's pray for the
Lord. Preach the gospel to him. But I'm telling you, What you're
going to do in most of these Christian schools is raise you
a bunch of Pharisees, that's what you're doing. And I'm for, I'm for quality
education, I'm for quality discipline and education, I'm for teaching
the boys and girls that God created the heavens and the earth. Because
it didn't just happen to be. But he's going to find it out
when he gets out of school that that's what they're saying. that
it's evolution. You can't shield them from this
world. You can't shield them and protect. You can't put them
in a cocoon. You can't put them in a walled
room and say, this is what you're going to be because hell's in
their hearts. And they're going to bust out.
They got to be born again. They've got to be saved by the
grace of God. God still saves, S-I-N-N-E-R-S, not boys and girls
protected from the world. 5,000 new Christian schools. Then he
said we need to make the university over there in Lynchburg a school
of 50,000 students and turn those champions for Christ loose on
the world. Too many of them have been turned
loose on this world now. We need somebody to preach the
gospel. I'm telling you this, if somebody
is standing in the pulpit and declaring who the Lord Jesus
Christ is, who God is, what happened in the fall, what happened on
the cross, and revival comes by revelation. That's right. That's exactly right. This knowledge, I wish I could
show you that you can train up a person. Paul said, Timothy, from a child
you've known the Scriptures and able to make you wise to salvation.
But that has to be revealed by the Holy Spirit to the heart.
God doesn't work apart from the mind. That's the reason I'm preaching
to you now. I'm preaching these truths in the hope that God will
make them experience. Truth has got to become experience. Or it's dead letter, dry dead
letter. It won't do anything. It's like
crumbling paper and fit for the fire. That's all. Crumbling leaves.
Dry, dead leaves. That's what doctrine is without
Christ. It's got to be applied to the
heart. I can make a man a church member, only God can make him
a new Christian. I can make a man a legalist or a moralist, but
only God can make him love Christ and love people. I can tell people
the law and what to do, but God is the only one who can make
them want to do it. See what I'm saying? Want to do it. And
if a fellow does anything that he doesn't want to do, it's not
worth anything to God. It comes by revelation. You say, well, my soul preacher,
what would you do if you were sitting here tonight and you
had not been a target of God's arrows of revelation and of God's
arrows of mercy? I'd pray for him to shoot me.
That's what I'd do. I'd just say, Lord, I hadn't
got it. I don't have it. I've got the mechanics, I've
got the doctrine, I've got the dry dead letter, I've got the
legalism and morality and I've got the truth. I've got all these
things but I don't have that grace and love and mercy and
life of God in my soul. I don't have it. Do something
for me. You did it for Saul of Tarsus,
you can do it for me. You did it for Mary Magdalene,
you can do it for me. You did it for Simon Peter, you
can do it for me. You did it for the woman at the
well, you can do it for me. God have mercy. That's what Blind
Bartimaeus said. Lord Jesus, Son of David, have
mercy. Don't leave me here in the darkness. Don't leave me here in the field.
Don't leave me here in the deadness. Come back. That's what I do when
you say so. I'd be like the thief on the
cross, hanging there, hanging there under the judgment of God
and the judgment of men, isolated, alone, separated by himself. And he turned over there to Christ.
He didn't have anything. And he said, Lord, would you
remember me when you come in your kingdom? Call me to mind. Call me to mind in your mercy
and grace. Call me to mind. Lord, call me
to mind. I tell you, that's what I do,
because that's where grace comes from, from the throne of grace.
And it's a throne of grace. I'll be gracious to whom I will.
Well, there's some mighty rich blessings. Look here, back at
our text. I've got to quit. And our Lord
said unto him in verse 17, Blessed art thou. Blessed art thou. All the man said was, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. That's all he said, but
he said it out of his heart. He was a fumbling, bumbling fellow.
Yeah, he was on a mountaintop here, and the next minute he
was in the valley, but he still believed he was the Christ. Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And our Lord said,
Blessed are you. Oh, how merciful thou art to
me. Blessed art thou. Number one,
you have eternal life. Well, eternal life is to know
Christ. That's what Christ said, eternal life is to know the Father,
the one and true and living God, and Christ whom he has sent.
Secondly, he said, you're favored of God. My Father in heaven revealed
that to you. And thirdly, he said, you can
never perish. This is the rock on which I'll
build my church, and the gates of hell itself can't touch it.
And the church, my friend, is not a building of stones and
bricks. It's people. People. This is his church. He loved
the church, not the building. He gave himself for the church.
People. People. And he said, boy, you're
blessed. You have eternal life. You're
favored of the Father who has singled you out and taught you,
taught of God. Taught of God. My Father revealed
this to you. And you are the church which
I will build, which the gates of hell cannot prevail against
you. And He said again, Lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the earth. Turn to Philippians
4.19. Let me give you a closing verse. Philippians 4.19. Listen to this. Philippians 4.19. Our Lord said through the Apostle
Paul, What a favored people we are. But my God shall supply
all your need. He didn't say He'd supply all
my wants, all my desires, but He'd supply all my need according
to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Highly favored. What blessings. God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus. I pray God will bless this message to your heart. It's
such serious business that we're in, this thing of preaching the
gospel and calling men to faith in Christ. Salvation is not the
mechanics. It's not going through the motions.
It's not believing certain doctrines. It's knowing Christ. It's knowing
Christ by experience. Knowing Christ in a personal,
intimate, consecrated, dedicated way. Loving Him. Loving Him. Loving Him more than you love
life. More than you love your mother, or father, or brother,
or sister, or husband, wife, son, or daughter, anything else.
Loving Christ. Not the way you part your hair,
the way you're clothed, all these things that we've been brainwashed
with so many years, belonging to an independent, fundamental,
missionary, Calvinistic, premillennial Baptist church either. It's belonging
to the church of the Lamb of God in heart. That's right. Our Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught
us to pray, Our Father. And we dare to say, Our Father,
because of Him. In Him and through Him and by
Him. Resting only upon Him. Looking only to Him. Made one with Him. Joint heirs
of Thine. joint heirs with Christ Jesus. And we call upon Thee knowing
the solemnity, the awesomeness of this hour and of the truth
which we've tried to put forth. Salvation, eternal life, redemption,
redemption. delivered from our sin, made
new creatures, born again, sons of God, delivered from death
and darkness, never to die, eternally triumphant over death, hell,
and the grave in Christ. What a highly favored, blessed
art thou. And, Lord, we realize that this
is just to some folks another message, another time together,
another sermon, something to argue about, something to disagree
with, something to quarrel over. But, Lord, that's not it. It's life. It's life eternal. It's life and death. It's heaven
and hell. It's blessings and judgment. It's deliverance or condemnation
to be in Christ. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. I don't want to miss Christ.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, not know
about Him, but oh, that I may know Him, that these who hear
me may know Christ and the power of His resurrected life. That
we may lay hold upon that for which we've been laid hold of
by Christ Jesus. Lord, do something in our hearts.
Do something in our hearts. For if our hearts are right with
Thee and our hearts love Thee and are attuned to Thee, everything
else is all right. Do a work of grace in our midst
for the glory of Jesus Christ, we pray in His name. Amen.