Well, I think I'm not checking
that door. I think Hannah went out, but
she left the door open. Here she comes. Close the door
behind you. Help. Well, it's good to see you all
out this morning. Remember those who requested prayers, good to
be back. Had a great time up at 13th Street. The Lord gave
some liberty. The Lord gave some liberty to
Sam to preach last Sunday, too. It's an excellent message. Cynthia's
birthday this week. She's not here. She's on the
way in. Oh, she's on the way in. Yeah.
Okay, well, it's her birthday, November 22nd. Next Sunday's
the last Sunday of the month to have the Lord's table. And
since we're, Thursday is Thanksgiving. and we're all gonna eat like
pigs at a trough. I thought I'd ask you if you
still wanted to have dinner Sunday, next Sunday, after cooking all
this week for Thanksgiving. If you don't want to, we'll have
the morning worship service at the Lord's table and then go
home. Would everybody like to do that
next Sunday? Not have dinner next Sunday? since everybody's gonna be eating
a lot for Thanksgiving and cooking and all that mess. So next Sunday,
this'll be the schedule. We'll have the morning service
and the Lord's table, then you can go home and sleep off your
Thanksgiving dinner. So that'll be the schedule. Oh, and also, we don't have a
bulletin this morning and we won't have an afternoon Bible
study because my computer no longer recognizes my printer.
And we spent about eight to 10 hours yesterday with experts
who couldn't do anything. And one of them, I think, was
in India. He actually got onto our computer,
remoted with it, and still couldn't do anything with it. So it looks
like I'm going to go shopping at Best Buy probably tomorrow
and get a whole new outfit. And Sam told me something really
interesting. I didn't know this. I don't know if you people know
about computers that much, probably about as much as I do. I love
the XP programs. They're my favorite program on
Microsoft. It's a real simple program to
use. You can buy a refurbished XP computer on Amazon for about
a hundred and something dollars. I'd be doing that. I will. Thanks again to Sam for filling
in for me last week. I appreciate it very much. And
I don't know whether you got it on Facebook, but Stan was
awarded the National Honor Society, engineering? In engineering. His professor recommended him
for it, so that's, congratulations. That's wonderful. I never made
any award in education at all. In fact, they were so glad to
get rid of me when I left. Let's begin our worship service
this morning with hymn number 242, Jesus, I Come. Out of my bonded sorrow at night
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come into thy freedom, gladness, and
light. Jesus, I come to thee out of
my sickness, Out of my want and into thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into thyself, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, ? Jesus, I come ? Jesus, I come ? Into the glorious gain
of thy cross ? Jesus, I come to thee ? Out of earth's sorrows
into thy palm Out of life's storms and into thy calm, Out of distress
to Jubilat's song, Jesus, I come to thee. ? Sound of unrest and arrogant
pride ? ? Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come ? ? Into thy blessing
to abide ? ? Jesus, I come to thee ? to dwell in thy love. Out of despair into raptures
above. Upward for I on wings like a
dove. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the fear and dread of
the tomb Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into the joy and light
of Thy home Jesus, I come to Thee Out of the depths of ruin untold
Into the peace of thy sheltering fold Ever thy glorious face to
me hold Jesus, I come to thee After Scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 258. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to 1 Timothy, Paul's pastoral epistle to young Timothy.
1 Timothy chapter 6, I'm going to read two verses of Scripture. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he says, verse 15, which in his times he shall show, who is the
blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who only hath immortality, dwelling in a light which no man can approach
unto, who no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and
power everlasting. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father,
we bless you and thank you that you have taken your power to
yourself and have reigned. We thank you, Father, and are
so glad that you are the sovereign of this universe, you who will
always do what's right, you who rule and reign with absolute
sway, showing mercy to thousands, showing mercy to whom you will
show mercy, and being gracious unto whom you will be gracious.
We thank you, Father, that this is clearly taught in the word
of God, and that we have it before us, and to deny it is to be an
unbeliever. We thank you, Father, that we
can come into your presence as your children, because you have
bought us with the price, you've adopted us, you've given us a
new birth in Jesus Christ. and made us your family. What
a thing for a poor, wretched sinner to even consider the beauty
and the wonder of it. Father, we pray for those who
are sick. Continue to pray for Fred as he's had his first round
of chemotherapy. We pray that you'd be with him
and strengthen him as he deals with the side effects of it.
Be with Arlene as she ministers to him. pray for and is follows you'd
be with her be with those who tend to help them lord help her
also pray for our should ends we ask lord for your help for
them strength for them father we pray for ourselves today as
we gather here that you might be pleased to give us worship
causes in our hearts to fall down and worship you you're worthy
of all praise and all honor all glory but when it comes down
to it we must confess as all will one day and Jesus Christ
is Lord and all these things that have taken place in this
world we call history is for but two reasons your glory and
the good of your people we bow to you with hearts full of thanksgiving
and praise in Christ's name, amen. Hymn number 258. ? A wonderful Savior is Jesus
my Lord ? A wonderful Savior to me He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the glint
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. ? With numberless blessings each
hominy crowns ? And fills this fullness divine ? I sing in my
rapture, oh glory to God ? For such a redeemer as mine He hideth
my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with his
hand. When clothed in his brightness
transporting I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the glint of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. ? He hideth my life in the depths
of His love ? And covers me there with His hand ? And covers me
there with His hand I want to ask Stan and Sam to receive the
offering this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again, we
approach in the name of Christ, and as we render unto thee that
which you've given us, let us do so with a heart full of thanksgiving
and praise for your goodness toward us, for we know that we
have nothing this side of eternity that is not wholly a gift from
thee. We thank you, Father. Let us
return these things that are yours for your glory, for the
preaching of the gospel here and in other places. It is in
the name of Christ we ask this. Amen. you you I invite your attention back
to 1 Timothy. Over in Romans chapter 1, Paul
gives the definition of reprobation, and we know reprobation is in
Scripture set forth not only as an act of God, for it says
he speaks of those that are ordained to a certain condemnation, and
others who refuse the gospel who were appointed to refuse
the gospel. those things are just so and
need not for human beings to try to apply human logic to it but also there seems to be the
Lord says in this declaring one reprobate or ordaining him to
be so there seems to be a explanation of the way this reprobation operates
in its declension into utter idolatry Paul says in Romans chapter one,
he says, these people who refuse to acknowledge God as he is,
though they do acknowledge God. They say he's the creator. They
say he's the one who sends the tornadoes. They say things like
that because they have no other explanation for it. And they
give him credit for certain things, but they refuse to give him credit
for salvation. So in doing that, they refuse
to acknowledge him as he is. that they profess themselves
to be wise, to be above all this religious stuff, and they become
fools. And they begin the process that
will lead them to utter reprobation where God sets them aside and
where any possibility of repentance is removed. And they, in the
end, knowing that God punishes people for what they do, do them
anyway even though they know they're going to be punished
for it they do them anyway and rejoice in those who do them
also but this process begins with making another god worshiping
another god and it begins with making one in the image of themselves
so the first god they worship is one like themselves a man
they make an image of a man or either they worship a man and
then it goes downhill if you will from there to uh... birds and four-footed beasts
and creeping things now i believe what that simply means if you
look at the gods of these different nations and the religions of
these nations it has to do with the beasts that either help them
like in india which is the cow or the uh... beasts that scare
them like in some places in south america worship of crocodiles
because they can kill you So things that can make you feel
better, things that can kill you, things that fascinate your
imagination like perhaps birds or even fearful like birds of
prey or creeping things which are interesting to watch and
study. These things become items of
worship to men and they make statues of them. and such idols
and so people can see them. One of the biggest gods of Egypt
was the scarab beetle. And the reason was because these
scarab beetles had the power to devour things very quickly.
They would pour onto a carcass and just decimate it. So it became
a thing of worship. But it starts with men worshiping
men. That's how it starts. Back before
the turn of the century, and it's interesting that we can
say things like that now, as we've lived from the 20th through
the 21st century, we can say, back before the turn of the century,
a fella gave me a videotape. And this was when all kinds of
conspiracy theories were working in religion. He gave me a videotape
to watch. This fella was worried, and I
mean, he called me and he sent me this videotape, and he was
worried. And this was a VHS tape, that's how long ago it was. He
was worried about the evils of Freemasonry. And he had done
studies on it and read books on it. He sent me a tape on a
ceremony where these people made one of the Freemasons the High
Potentate. And it was an interesting ceremony.
This fellow had become afraid of some particularly erroneous
practice and decided to study the Freemasons in order to expose
it to the world. He didn't. Nothing has changed
since then. The Freemasons are still going
strong, and they will. No one understands error by studying
error. That's the first thing you need
to know. You won't know the wiles of Satan
by reading in the occult. You'll know the wiles of Satan
if you know the truth, and anything that's not the truth will shine,
and you'll see what it is. The only way you know a stick
is crooked, Henry Mann, you should say, is lay a straight stick
beside it. That's the only way. So the only way you know something
is crooked is if it's set forth the truth, it's the straight
stick. And anything that you put it up beside anything else
and it ain't straight, you know it's not the truth. You know
it's not the truth. I watched the tape, because a
fella asked me to, and it was, I believe, a comedy of errors.
I watched it, and I actually giggled while I was watching
it, that men were doing this, in this inauguration ceremony
of sorts, supposedly high secret and full of intrigue. This was
men dressed in robes and white gloves, and oh, it was the silliest
looking thing. It looked like a Halloween party.
It was inauguration ceremony, And several grown men were doing
acts of worship, and they were. They were bowing down and scraping
and kowtowing. They were bowing down to this
fella who had been put on a stool in a high place, and he was wearing
a robe and a top hat. A top hat. And I was waiting
for a Broadway tune to kick out, you know, any moment. They were
bowing and scraping before another man dressed in a shroud and a
top hat. And these obsequious adorers
referred to their shrouded, dapperly donned, newly elected fetish
as the most high potentate. That's how they described it,
the most high potentate. I suppose that it never occurred
to these kowtowing sycophants that it was by their own campaign
and their own vote and their own will that this one before
whom they now fawned had been raised to this exalted position
and high echelon by their own power. They had made this man. The supposed power of this most
high potentate of this ersatz emir was derived and could not
exist without the affirmation of the huddled masses and horde
that groveled at his feet." Does that sound familiar? It seemed
to me that they were simply practicing their version of the religion
that is offered to Christianity today. Same thing. They made this guy the most high-procented. Now what does men say in religious
pulpits today? Make Jesus your Lord. You make
him your Lord. You set him on that. He ain't
Lord unless you make him so. Let Jesus be your Lord. Release
your faith so God can work in your life. Exercise your anointing
to enable God to bless you and send you lots of stuff. Lots
of filthy lucre and such. These men had made their equal,
their lord, and now proceeded to attribute power to him that
they themselves had given him. You're all powerful. How did
I become all powerful? We made you powerful. We said
you were powerful, therefore you're powerful. That's what
they said. They had bestowed upon him a
spurious supremacy that could not function and could only function
if they permitted it to function. They bowed to a sovereign of
their own invented imagination. Being wise, they became fools
and changed the glory of God into a man. What a pure, what
a poor, puny, paltry, potentate this is. Yet they were worshipping
him. Men worshipping a man. It is evident from our text in
Timothy. that they who practice such convenient God-manufacturing
will one day be introduced to the only one who has the right
to this title. That's his title, which in his
times he shall show who is the blessed and only. That means just one. The only
potentate. Jesus Christ is the only potentate. Since he is the only one, there
is no other, and any who might feign to appropriate that title
to themselves are nothing more than vain and blasphemous pretenders,
writhing maggots that accept the title of monarch at the behest
of other middling minions. The remainder of the text and
the following verses are filled with the language of absolute
singularity only, only. The singularity only serves to
serve further enhance the identity and the uniqueness of this one
of whom it is being spoken, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only
potentate. In his times, in his times, he
shall show. In his times. What about his
times? Ecclesiastes said something about
his times. He said everything is beautiful
in his times. Everything. So some ugly things are going
on. No, they're His times and they're
beautiful. We just don't understand them. We don't have the capacity
and we shouldn't try to apply human logic to try to figure
it out. Everything is beautiful in His time. And what He does,
He does forever. And what was to be is already
been. And what is already been is now,
is what it says. Strange and wondrous language
about eternity. vain efforts of impotent men,
plans and purposes of puny, penny-ante puppeteers, moans and groans
and tears and anguish on countless altars and mourners' benches
cannot alter his times." And it says, in his times, he shall
show. He shall show. When did he show?
He showed them on the cross. Look over Colossians chapter
2. Galatians chapter 2 says in verse
13, And you being dead in your sins and uncircumcised of your
flesh, hath he quickened to death with him, having forgiven you
all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances,
that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out
of the way nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities
and powers which only a potentate can do he made a show of them
openly triumphing over them in his cross he's the potentate
the potentate of all lords he is the lord of all kings he is
the king concerning immortality only he has it the word immortality
means we find it in the greek language it comes from the word
that means death thanatos and when combined with a negative
a which precedes it it's athanasia athanasia and it means concerning
death he has no death Only He has immortality, no death. Everything
else has death. We have it woven into our fabric. But He dwells in a light where
unto no man can broach. Where is that light? It's the
light unto which men cannot approach in the light of spiritual things.
Christ dwells in the gospel by which men, no matter how their
intellect or studious endeavors in their religion or even a monastic
zeal can approach the light. It's the gospel. We preach something
that cannot in any way be understood naturally. It's an impossibility. A man
may devote his life to this, and I know some who have, studying
the Bible, writing theological things, writing books, and yet
when you read them, you say, where is Christ in this? Where's
the mention of His absolute wondrous sovereignty in the substitutionary
act He performed on Calvary's tree? No death in Christ. You say, well, there was. Death
wasn't in him. He owned it. He possessed it. It was his to use or not to use. When Moses and Elijah came back
on the Mount of Transfiguration to speak of Jesus, they spoke
of the deaths which he should accomplish. Said he tasted death. What do you do when you taste
something? Who's got control? What's being tasted or the one who's
tasting? He tasted death for every son
of glory. Death was His to use. Death and
life are the same to Him. He's the Lord of life and He's
the Lord of death because He's the King of kings and Lord of
lords. And when he talked about that light, that light is the
gospel. Light is the gospel. Our Lord said, I thank thee,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thou didst his things for wise
and prudent, revealed them unto babes, even so for it seemed
good in your sight. God said it's good for him to
hide the gospel and reveal it to some. Who does he reveal it
to? Babes. No man knoweth the Father but the Son, no man knoweth
the Son but the Father, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him. This is the language of Scripture. No man knows God.
saved by Jesus Christ, and no man knows Jesus Christ saved
by God the Father. It just doesn't happen. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, their foolishness
to them, neither can he know them nor discern them, because
they are spiritually discerned. Yet the spiritual man discerneth
all things, yet he is discerned of none. The unique person, this
unique person, can only be seen in one way. That way is seeing
what cannot be seen, and that can only be done one way. We
look at things that are not seen. That's what the scripture says
in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 18. We look on things that are not
seen. How does that work? Well, it
has nothing to do with these eyes. It has something to do
with the faith that God has given you. For faith sees what cannot
be seen. No man can see Christ except
by faith. And faith, truth, safety, and
faith is a gift of God. For scripture says all men have
not faith in 2 Thessalonians. to Christ and Him alone belongs
HONOR and POWER, that's what it says, POWER BELONGS TO GOD,
Psalm 62, 11, Jeremiah chapter 9. For these reasons He rightfully
and He alone owns the glorious title of POTENTATE, I like that,
I like just the way it rolls off your tongue, the only high
POTENTATE, the Lord, you can hardly say it without shouting
it. because it means power and strength. He is the Omnipotent
One. What does that mean? Omni means
all. Potent means powerful. Omnipotent
means all powerful. The title of this message is
Where Power Resides. This title asserts and suggests
many things. This title potentate. The root
word for the title is potent. And the immediate thought that
enters the mind upon reading and hearing this word is that
of vitality, of that of power, innate and unstoppable ability,
being able to do exactly, precisely, and always what he pleases. Whatever he wants to do, he does. Now I know men stand up and make
foolish statements like, God wants to do this, God wants this
for you, and God wants this, wants you to do this. Listen,
if God wants something, that's what's going to happen. He's
God. He wants to do something. If
He wants you to bow down to Him, you know what you're going to
do? You're going to bow down to Him. Tell you what I want? Yeah, you will. Yeah, you will. He's omnipotent, unstoppable
ability. Christ being the only Potentate
puts all other men and deities in the complete opposite category
of Potentate. This is an accurate description
of fallen humanity. They're impotent. Impotent. No potency in them. No potency at all. Humanity is
impotent. We find that word used to describe
a crippled man who had never walked as being impotent in John
chapter 5 and verse 3. In Acts chapter 14, an impotent
man who was impotent in his feet. Humanity, you see, humanity has
no ability or power, even inclination, to change. Can the leopard change
his spots? Can the Ethiopian change the
color of his skin? No. Then how can ye who are accustomed
to doing evil or who practice evil do good? It can't be. You
cannot do good. Scripture says there is none
that doeth good. How many does that make? Zero. There are none righteous. How
many righteous are there? None. Not one on the face of
the earth is a righteous being and not one on the face of the
earth does a good thing. This is the language of scripture.
Humanity has no ability, no power, or even inclination. The pipe
dreams of free will are just that, pipe dreams without potency. The will is as impotent as the
one who possesses it. The will is as impotent as the
one who has the will, and he's impotent altogether. The fact
that all humanity is impotent also reveals that men by nature
have no spiritual potential. The word potent again, potential.
All false religion lives off the premise of potentiality.
Whether in the matter of assisting God in salvation or in the hallucination
of progressive sanctification, one thing is necessary. It's
necessary that men have potential. It's necessary. In order for
them to have potential, they must be potent. And they aren't,
they're impotent. Since Christ is the only potentate
and therefore the only potent one, no human being is potent
or has potential of anything spiritual. Read Romans chapter
3 which was taken from Psalm 14. Read Romans chapter 3 verses
10 through 18 and find how man is described. It is not a pretty
picture. Read Ephesians chapter 2 verses
1 through 4 and see how man is described. It's not a pretty
picture. Impotent. Let men speak of sinners
being on probation or dangling on a string of choice between
good and evil or accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ after
some false offer of salvation or talk of them having a spark
of spiritual life. without potential. If man has
no potential, and he doesn't, if man has no potential, such
protestations of religion are empty and decidedly in themselves
impotent. If man doesn't have any potential,
what's his hope? The singular and absolute potentate. That's it. If he don't have it,
and can't produce it, and only God can help him. Christ is the
only Potentate. Power belongs to Him. He resides
in sovereign majesty and unequivocal potency. No thing that He has
put His hand to can fail. Who can prevent Him on any level?
Shall the impotent prevent or even discourage the only Potentate?
No, He does as He pleases. None can stay his hand. None
can even ask him why he does things. It's none of your business.
We used to say that a lot to people. People would say, what's
going on? I'd say, none of your business. Well, in the matter
of God and how he operates in this universe, it's none of your
business. It's his business. He'll not give account of his
matters. What then, does it matter how high men build their egos?
Or build the egos of others as impotent as themselves, or speak
of Christ in terms of unrealized purpose and intent and unrequited
love, the word of truth is specific. And absolute Christ is the only
potentate. He is. There's the answer. Plain
and clear. Can the only potentate be frustrated? because he does his will according
to his will and the armies of heaven among the heavens and
the earth. Can the old and potentate be disallowed from showing mercy? No. He said, I will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy and whom I will I will harden and
whom I will I'll be gracious to. Is there any possibility
that those whom the only potentate has chosen will ever be lost?
Absolutely not. is thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sin all that the father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out for I came down from heaven not to do mine
own will but the will of him that sent me this is my father's
will which is sent me of all he's given me I shall lose nothing
but raise him up in the last day all authority in heaven and
earth is given to me that I might give eternal life to his meaning
as God has given me you gonna frustrate that I don't think
so Is it possible for anyone who is loved by Christ, the only
potentate, to be severed from him? No. Who shall separate us
from the love of God? From the love of Christ? Who?
Sword, pestilence, tribulation, trial, death, life, what? Nothing. She'll be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Is it possible
for anyone whose sin has been put away by the only potentate
to ever be charged with sin? No. because it was the only potentate
who offered the perfect sacrifice to God in Hebrews chapter 10.
He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Written
is word in their heart. What does that mean? You know
what that means. It means the word of God from
Genesis to Revelation is in your heart. You say, well, I don't
know it all. I can't quote it all. I know, but here's what
you do. You see, it was written in your heart, not so you'd be
able to quote it. It was written in your heart
so you'd be able to respond to it. And that's what you do when
you hear the truth as a child of God, as in one of the elect.
You say, that's it. That's right. That's the truth. Why? Because it's already written
in your heart. It's a response that God has given you. And he
says this, because he has perfected forever them that are sanctified,
God will remember their sins no more. no charge will ever
be laid against one of God's elect. Never! You say, What about
before you saved? It was already on Christ! He
had already signed the name to pay your sin debt! He was the
one that owed the payment to God, NOT YOU, if you're a child
of God! If you're a child of God, you'll
never be charged! Now, you may charge yourself,
conscience often does, until it's quieted by a perfect sacrifice.
Satan will charge you, but it won't stand. Let me tell you
this, God will never charge you. God will never judge you again. God will never call into question
your sin. So if you're having difficulty along those lines,
it's you or Satan or the law or some preacher or some spirit
other than the Spirit of God. No charge should be laid against
God's elect. It is Christ that died. It is God that justifies it.
No charge. You can't lay any charge because
the potentate has fixed it. The only potentate. Mark well
this powerful title and find sweet rest for your soul. This
is the rest of the child of God in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the one who finished the work is the potentate,
the only one. He who only is potentate is infinitely
potent to accomplish all that his heart desires and his mind
designs. He says that in Isaiah 14, whatever
I have purposed. That's what's going to come to
pass. Whatever I purpose. The believer neither serves nor
worships nor embraces the useless, impotent, feckless deity of the
world's religion. We have nothing to do with him.
That's not God that's being preached in pulpits today. The believer
serves and worships and embraces the only potentate because he
has potency aplenty and he is the only one who has it. and
the believer is safe and secure in his arms who can touch you
there if you're in the arms of the potentate the only potentate
who is king of kings and lord of lords who dwells in a light
where unto no man can approach he's the king he's the potentate
which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only Potentate,
the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Father, bless us to understand
Him. We pray in Christ's name.