[0:00] Did you enjoy that singing tonight? Amen. They really do a good job. Thank you folks for coming and helping us out.
[0:12] One little fellow said, I don't have a very big cup, so I can't hold much, but I short and run over a bunch. I'm glad for those that come to help us sing.
[0:27] They do good. And I think John's getting taller, isn't he? Is that the boots? All right. I need to get me a pair of boots.
[0:43] Or what do they call them things? Yeah, elevator shoes. There you go. Good job. Real good job.
[0:55] All right, it's preaching time. I hope that doesn't discourage you. I hope that you'll be willing to listen to what I got to say. Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 11.
[1:09] Isaiah chapter 11. We'll start reading there at verse 1. Isaiah chapter 11. Verse 1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.
[1:50] And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.
[2:06] And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
[2:25] The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
[2:39] And the cow and the bear shall feed their young ones, shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den.
[2:55] They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
[3:09] I want to preach today on the subject, Christians are seven times better than pagans.
[3:19] If I was an employer, and I had two people apply for a job, and one of them was a Christian, I would know that that would be a seven times better employee than a pagan.
[3:39] If I was going to look for a religion, and I had to choose between Mohammed and Buddha and Jesus, won't you know that Christianity is seven times better than any other religion in America?
[4:01] If I was going to vote in a political election, I wouldn't give a suck egg mule if he's a Democrat or Republican. But if he was a Christian, I would know that he was seven times better candidate than any pagan you can put out there.
[4:21] If I was going to be an educator, or going to send my kid to school, I'd want you to know that a Christian school is seven times better than a public school.
[4:36] Amen. I'm not finished. If I was wanting a wife, Amen. If I was a single man, and I was looking for a girl, I want you to know that an ugly Christian girl is seven times better than a pretty heathen girl.
[4:52] And I'll prove that to you if you'll just give me some time to start with this tonight. But let's pray right now. Heavenly Father, thank you for the privilege to pray.
[5:03] Thank you, God, for your love and your mercy. Thank you, God, that we just get to know you. As Brother John sang, it's well with our soul. Our Father, I pray that you would help us tonight.
[5:17] You know our physical condition. You know how our heads stopped up and have this cough. But Lord, I ask your help as we go to preach here this day.
[5:30] Give us grace in Jesus' name. Amen. A dumb Christian is much better at everything he does than an unsaved man is.
[5:41] He's a better employee. He's a better boss. He's a better leader. He's a better follower. Because Christians have a sevenfold advantage that no pagan person has.
[5:55] You understand that? I was talking one time when I was on the family foundation and we had all these political candidates before us.
[6:07] And one of our people that was quote on our side said, well, if they know what they're doing, I don't really care whether they're a Christian or not. That's what got us in the shape we're in now.
[6:20] Amen. Amen. Amen. If I had a Christian doctor and I had a pagan doctor, you keep him Muslim doctor. Amen.
[6:30] Give me a Christian doctor. Thank you. Amen. Now, I'm not talking about a backsliding Christian. Amen. One of them backsliders that walks after the flesh.
[6:41] Amen. God's word said in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans in the about 12th verse following, if you live after the flesh, you'll die. Yeah. So I'm not wanting to get hooked up with some Christian that's gonna kill himself and kill me in the process.
[6:56] There's two reasons for being a carnal Christian that I know of. Number one's because you just got saved and you haven't had opportunity to grow and you're a baby and that's no problem if you'll just grow.
[7:10] But if, because you didn't have a chance to grow, you just give you a little time and you'll be okay. Luke chapter two and verse 40, the Bible said that Jesus himself grew in wisdom and grace and stature, spiritual strength and filled with wisdom.
[7:30] It says he was full of grace and grace is not only defined as divine favor, but grace is defined as divine influence on the heart.
[7:42] Amen. Y'all pray for me. I don't cough one of them goobers out. I'll clear out past the television and say it there. But grace is defined as God's influence on the heart.
[7:58] Now, the second reason for carnality is not because we didn't, we were in the process of growing, but it's because of a lack of diligence on our part in wanting to grow.
[8:12] Amen. Christians that just shows up maybe on Sunday morning or maybe shows up once a month or sometimes Christmas and Easter, they're never going to grow.
[8:22] Amen. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 talks about a lack of diligence that'll cause blindness in a Christian life. Jesus warned us.
[8:34] He said, you watch. The apostle Paul warned us and said, you put on the whole armor of God. Amen. John warned us and said, love not the world, neither the things are of the world.
[8:47] James warned us and said, draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you. Because our body of flesh has not yet been redeemed, we need to work at living for God.
[9:00] Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 tells us that there is a warfare that goes on between, right in the, right in the middle of a Christian's life.
[9:12] and he's not fighting against other people, he's actually fighting against himself. And his, sometimes his worst enemy is his own self.
[9:23] The fight's over his heart. The fight's over his soul and who's gonna control his soul. Galatians 5, 16, if you walk in the spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[9:37] But why does a Christian, why does he not walk in the spirit? So, now, let's lay aside then the backslider and lay aside the hypocrite, but a Christian, a real Christian is a better prospect at anything than anything else you can give.
[9:58] And the simple reason is that a real Christian has the spirit of God and regardless of what uneducated or a heathen man had, regardless of what education he has, he does not have the spirit of God.
[10:21] He cannot understand the things of God. They are spiritually discerned. The natural man, all he's got is the natural things.
[10:33] He can see, he can hear, he can smell, he can taste, he can touch. Well, any Christian has got those, but I just read to you that a Christian has got seven more things about the spirit of God that no natural man has.
[10:52] The spirit of God seals the believer. I preach like a Baptist. You ain't careful, but I'll preach like a real Baptist here after a while and blow the whole crowd away. I know how to do it.
[11:03] They raised me. Amen. Sometimes I back off and just preach like one of these modernistic Baptists. I know how to preach like the old timers. I might give you a shot at that after a while.
[11:16] But Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13, it said, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 says, you are sealed until the day of redemption.
[11:30] Now if our soul is redeemed, and it is, if it's already redeemed by the blood, Colossians 1 14 says that, redemption through his blood, and that redemption is eternal according to Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12.
[11:46] Are you still with me? It's eternal. All that's left unredeemed about a Christian is his body. Romans chapter 8 verse 23 and Romans chapter 8 verse 24 says that we are hoping for the redemption of our body.
[12:06] I've had people try to tell me that you can only hope you're saved. And they said, hope that you can see is not hope. Amen. All right, listen, you can't see the redemption of your body yet.
[12:20] That's why you're hoping for the redemption of your body. Whenever that day comes, rapture morning, resurrection morning, this old body is going to be changed in a moment in a twinkle of an eye.
[12:34] This old body is going to be redeemed again and I'll never ever have to fight with sin anymore. Won't that be a day? Hallelujah. Is that the right?
[12:46] Okay, thank you. Yeah, you get them mixed up, you're getting all kind of trouble up here. But I'm saying that all that needs to be redeemed is our body because our spirit has been regenerated and our soul is saved as we present it of which one of these guys we're going to follow, whether we're going to walk after the flesh or whether we're going to walk after the spirit.
[13:11] Now, the fact that the believer has the spirit gives him a sevenfold advantage over any unsaved person in the world.
[13:23] Revelation chapter 5 and verse 6, the Bible said that the Lamb, before the throne of the Lamb there is seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God.
[13:41] Revelation chapter 4 verse 5 said there are seven lamps that are burning. So we've got seven lamps, we've got seven eyes, we've got seven sources of light and seven sources of vision.
[13:56] Seven different ways of comprehending that the natural man has none of those at all. You see what I'm saying? If you'll stay with me, if we were just a nation of Bible believers, we wouldn't be in the shape we're in.
[14:14] Now, they rested entirely on the Son and as we yield to Him and He fills us, then they're listed in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 2.
[14:29] So let's look at them. Here's the sevenfold advantage that a Christian who has the Spirit of God has over any pagan. Number one, it said it's got the Spirit of the Lord that'll rest upon it.
[14:44] It's the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Now, number one, the Spirit of the Lord is appointed.
[14:57] that is, a real Christian has no problem with the sovereignty of God. That God is God. That God is the Lord and our impression of Him is one of all and trust and obedience and worship and bow our head and say, hey, my God is not affected by elections that are on the earth.
[15:24] He got His own election going on. My God is not affected by the unemployment rate or the economic crisis or the Amero or the European dollar.
[15:35] It's not affected. My God is running this whole program. Hallelujah. Everything is examined from that standpoint and we realize as Christians that whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, we do it to the glory of God.
[15:54] Now, I think about that and you just compare that with the pagans that are running our nation today. Is American politics lined up with the glory of God? Yes or no?
[16:05] I mean, is holiness to the Lord written over the abortion clinic? Is the sacred right of matrimony for sodomites? Is that the holiness of God we're talking about in America?
[16:19] Is the amount of money we give to build Rockefeller wing of the temple of God? Is that what God wants? We come to church in our tank tops and our tube socks and our little necklaces and our earrings.
[16:33] I'm talking about the boys now. Listening to rock music and casual Christianity. Coffee shop Christianity. Going to do a gospel laity. And then we got to run quick to the dog track.
[16:46] Is that holiness to the Lord? Am I slobbering yet? Amen. We got to have our table games right here in Kenoy County.
[16:57] We got to have our lottery and a judicial system that wants to unarm its citizens so a self-respecting thief, muggler, or rapist can get in our house without risk of injury to his poor little body.
[17:13] Well, I want you to know, pal, I got a gun in my house and I will blow you away. I may even blow you away in my yard and carry you in the living room. A real Christian, a real Christian understands that God is the one who makes the rules.
[17:36] Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 seek ye first the kingdom of God. Some group the other six together in pairs, sets of twos and that's the way they're given there.
[17:48] You got the wisdom and the understanding that's the powers of the mind. Verse 2 you got the wisdom discerns the nature of things and understanding discerns the difference between things.
[18:04] America don't know the difference between a woman and a man. Amen. You talk about stupid. They say everything's the same. America doesn't know the difference between counsel and might.
[18:19] Right conclusion and the power to carry it out. Knowledge and fear to know who God is and how we relate to God. That's the thing we need to know. Amen.
[18:30] Now, let me slow down to get this one out. Whoa. That'll be good for TV ratings.
[18:43] Christian has the advantage in that his promotion of righteousness and his rulership are all known to be under the administrating eye of him who instituted the principle of sowing and reaping.
[18:58] Amen. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 the Christian is made wise by fellowship with Jesus Christ. You can't get wise at West Virginia University.
[19:11] Amen. All you can get is educated. Come on. And education is not a cure for stupidity. Amen. You're right. We are no match for the wiles of the devil.
[19:23] We're no match for the lust of the flesh. We're no match for the allurements of the world. But if we'll get up close to Christ, he can give us the wisdom to be able to negotiate this thing and still come out on top.
[19:39] Christians operate in the spirit and truth. Amen. I think it's said in the 17th chapter of John, sanctify them through thy truth.
[19:50] Thy word is true. Now he will find his governing practices right here. Amen. Are y'all looking at me?
[20:04] You know how jealous I am? Look at me right here. Nobody else, right? Pull a cough again. I hope I don't have to get it out, man.
[20:22] Whenever a Christian is faced with a decision, he goes to that book of God and he wants to find him a principle in there that will apply and when he finds that applicable principle in the book of God, he knows he's right.
[20:41] It doesn't matter if the whole world's against him. He knows he's right if they vote him out of the church. He knows he's right if nobody likes him.
[20:52] It doesn't matter. Thank God he's got God on his side and if God be for you, who can be against God's he'll find that principle wisdom of the world only grants life on a temporary basis.
[21:10] God's wisdom is granted on an eternal basis. We think about, you know, they'll talk about, well, this is what we teach today. Amen. Tomorrow, we'll teach something different.
[21:22] I read a sign over at the Kanoe Mall one time that said that in the, now, let me get this right. In the days of the caveman, the truth was the world was flat.
[21:39] Now, I'm not stupid enough to believe that. The caveman might have believed that. Number one, I don't even believe in the caveman to get this thing to start with.
[21:49] And number two, if the world was flat, the world's still flat because truth doesn't change. And this old book said that God sets upon the circle, not the line of the earth.
[22:04] And it's always been true. It always will be true. It never will vary. And God's truth, you can bank on it. It'll be here today. It'll be here tomorrow.
[22:15] Heaven and earth, they pass away, but the truth of God's word will never pass away. That's why we need to bank on it. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.
[22:30] Do you know what gives understanding? If I was to, help me John, okay, if I was to ask, if I was to ask, what is the source of understanding?
[22:47] This word is used twice in the Bible. You listen to me, twice in the Bible, this word is used. The word is inspiration.
[23:00] It's by the inspiration of the Almighty that people get understanding. Now, could I just pull this out of the hat? You can say what you want about Dottie Rampa.
[23:14] And I saw her in person and she had as much makeup on as Tammy Faye Baker and I understand that. But there's something about that song they just sung here, amen, that isn't like most Christian songs.
[23:29] Whenever it said, he looked beyond my fault and he saw my need, I'm telling you, if you've ever done any preaching, you know what I'm talking about.
[23:41] There is times when the Spirit of God comes blowing in here and what you're saying is not yours at all, but it's the inspiration that God gives you understanding.
[23:54] Second time the word inspiration is used, it says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It didn't say it was written.
[24:07] Amen. We fight a fight that we shouldn't even be fighting. We run around here looking for original manuscripts. Hey, I got the book right here.
[24:19] This is a 1611 King James Bible. It's the word of God right now, right now tonight. It's inspired. Inspiration.
[24:30] No unsaved scholar can teach you anything about the book of God. Luke chapter 24 verse 45, then opened he their understanding.
[24:45] that they might understand the Scripture. You see, people say, well, I need a new book because this whole book is so hard to understand. No, you don't need a new book, you need a new birth.
[24:58] Because listen, yeah, whenever God opened your understanding, you'll have no problem. I don't have any problem with this. There's things in that I don't understand, but you messing with it ain't going to help me.
[25:11] Ephesians 1, 18, Paul pray that the eyes of their understanding be in light. And it says here, right here it says, I'm on point number four, did y'all know that?
[25:24] And it says, counsel, the spirit of counsel is the ability to accept guidance. Amen.
[25:36] A guidance from God's word, Psalm 73, 24, talks about God guiding with his word.
[25:47] Let me preach a little bit to you here. Can I, just let me say about this. Back in the Old Testament days, in the high priest's ephod, in a vest that he wore, he had two little trinkets.
[26:06] I don't know what they were, I don't know nobody else know what they were, but he called them the Urim and the Thumm. And whenever David would go to inquire of the Lord, whenever they would go to inquire of the high priest of God, he would give them the correct answer by consulting the Urim and the Thumm.
[26:31] Now, the definition means light and perfection. perfection. And I've heard, I think it was Erdersheim that I got this from, that they, the gems in the ephod, hello, are you awake?
[26:52] There was 12 stones set in there and guidance would come by whichever one of those stones would lighten up.
[27:04] Amen. man. Now, the old time Baptists, here's what they taught me. They taught me that Baptists were the only ones going to the New Jerusalem. I don't know if y'all ever heard that or not.
[27:15] Don't let me get scared. I'll allow you in. but they would let Baptists in. But here's what else they taught. That the foundations of that city would shine just like those stones in the high priest's vestry.
[27:33] And the nations of them that were saved would get their guidance from what the church did in the New Jerusalem. Well, I don't know whether that's true or not, but that's good preaching.
[27:46] What I'm saying is whenever heaven and earth passes away and a new earth comes and there's a city of God built on those foundations that are built on the same stones that that high priest had and the nations come and bring their glory and honor to that city and they get their guidance from that light shining on them.
[28:09] Council is the ability to accept guidance from God. A council is to give advice to another for the government of their conduct. Like a lawyer.
[28:23] They say a man that goes to court and represents himself has got a fool for a client. Because that lawyer has studied that stuff. He knows what to tell you.
[28:36] And you would probably be better off if you go ahead and plead the way he tells you to plead. That is if you got a good lawyer. I got one pal.
[28:49] Amen. I'm not preaching to try to get you to sin. But if any man do sin we've got an advocate. We've got a lawyer with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and his counsel is worth following tonight.
[29:06] Amen. Number five might. The word might there means achievement. When it talks about King David it said it wrote of David and his might.
[29:19] Might is used for valor. Might is used for somebody that can achieve something. Like old Adina that took on him 800 and slew him.
[29:32] That's might. Like Eliezer in 2 Samuel 23 9. He kept fighting when everybody else quit. The men of Israel had gone away.
[29:43] He took that sword and fought till his hand claved to the sword. Like Shammah who refused to even turn loose his little garden pot. It may have been just a little plot of lentils to everybody else but it was the promised land to him and he fought over it.
[30:01] Like that bunch that they were talking about the other night that broke through the garrison and fetched the water from the well at Bethlehem because their king wanted to drink.
[30:12] Like that fella that went down in that pit and killed that lion in the snow. Amen. I wouldn't even want to get in a pit with a lion let alone get in there when it was slick.
[30:23] Amen. Might and valor is wrapped up in Deuteronomy chapter 6 when it said thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy might.
[30:38] Number six a Christian has the advantage of having the spirit of knowledge a clear perception of the way things exist.
[30:51] Amen. Human knowledge can only be based on what it can perceive with its eyes, ears, nose, throat and whatever else they operate on out there at the clinic.
[31:03] But God has a perfect knowledge of everything that's ever going to happen, ever will happen, ever circumstance. He's got enough knowledge that he can set little Ruth down the road and she says I wonder which one of these fields ought to go glean in.
[31:21] Amen. And it just happened. Just circumstance, just coincidence that she sat down exactly where God wanted her to sit down. All right.
[31:33] let me do it again. I actually didn't put it in the handshake. Ooh, I did it last time. Okay. All right. If we're tapped into his knowledge and we can only tap after the fight.
[31:53] You know, have y'all saw this Bible code? Did you know it in that Bible code everything the world is predicted? I mean, they tell you about Hitler and they tell you about 9-11.
[32:05] It's all right there in the first five books of Moses. But Deuteronomy 29, 29 says the secret things belong unto the Lord our God.
[32:18] And if we knew what was going to happen tomorrow, we'd run into it instead of for it. I'm thinking about that guy that was walking down the street of Boston and he saw the death angel coming down the street.
[32:32] And he said, I've got to get out of here, man. He took off and jumped on a horse and took off just hard as he could for New York. And the death angel said, I wonder where he's going. Guy said, you mean you don't know? He said, I don't know where he's going today, but I've got to meet him in New York tomorrow.
[32:54] Fear of the Lord, number seven. Let me move right along here. Fear, according to Webster's 1828, is the passion of our nature which excites us to provide for our security from impending danger.
[33:09] Amen. That ain't the way Schofield defines it, but that's the way the King James people defined it. In Scripture, the fear of the Lord causes us to shun everything and anything that could be offensive to the holiness of God.
[33:23] First John says, fear has torment, and perfect love casts out fear. Well, listen, we are stabilized by the fact that Jesus took our punishment.
[33:35] I'm not afraid of going to hell. That don't mean I ain't afraid of God. I don't like chastity. Amen. If we would judge ourselves, we'd not be judged.
[33:49] One day, verse 9, the entire earth will have such knowledge. Now it's only available in part. Now we see through a glass darkly. We're incomplete Christians, but as an incomplete Christian, we're seven times better off at everything we do than anything that an unqualified pagan would come up against.
[34:12] Let's bow for prayer. Thank you.