[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Alright, first question. Let's see what we've got here. Q&A. I can handle that.
[0:12] If we are dirty, rotten sinners who cannot do good, how could we make a decision to follow Jesus? How could we have a desire to be saved? Well, no man comes to the Father except the Spirit draw him.
[0:25] So the Holy Spirit convicted us and showed us. Jesus was lifted up. He said, and if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to him. The Bible was preached to you. And you've got to be very careful. Everybody in the room has to be very careful of going to either side.
[0:40] You know, there's two things going on. There are two things going on in the Bible that don't work together. One is that God is in charge and all-powerful.
[0:50] And the other is you have a free will and you're able to choose. It's the same as I tried to make it clear to you this morning. And it is the exact same thing. It's the exact same thing that happens when you have a Trinity who is three in one.
[1:02] You have a God who hears prayers and will answer prayers who doesn't change but answers prayer. It just doesn't hardly make sense. And so what you have to get a hold of is this.
[1:14] You're never going to be able to wrap your mind around it. You're going to never be able to wrap your mind around it. And the truth is you would never accept Christ. You would never make a decision to follow Christ, to trust him, to believe in him until you saw yourself as a dirty, rotten sinner.
[1:27] And you would never do that by yourself. You would never do that by yourself. You would refuse to see yourself as a dirty, rotten sinner. We don't want to admit that we're dirty, rotten sinners.
[1:40] It goes against everything in us to admit that we're dirty, rotten sinners. I had a man in my church a long time ago say to me, you would do a whole lot better if you were a little more positive.
[1:55] He said, you constantly tell people they're sinners. You constantly tell people they're wicked. And I said, that's all I can do. So I could say I'm positive that you're sinners. But there's not really anything left.
[2:08] And just let me say to you, I think that's a good question. And I don't know if you meant that argumentative or what, but let me show you this. If we go out right now and talk to people on the street and say that mankind is basically bad, they would easily tell you that that is a really bad concept.
[2:27] They would say that man is basically good. But the Bible says, for all of sin comes short of the glory of God. The Bible starts in Romans 3.10 and says, there's none righteous, no, not one. And it continues all the way down to verse 23.
[2:39] And all it says is, man, everybody's going out of the way. Everybody's failed at God. And everybody's bad. So, and I'm telling you, if we go talk to Fox News, they're going to say that's not true.
[2:51] They're going to say people are pretty good. People are pretty good. And if you go talk to CNN, they're going to tell you people are pretty good. And I don't care who you talk to. Dr. Phil's going to tell you that's a really negative attitude that guy has.
[3:03] That's not a true attitude, a good attitude. And it's not. It's just a biblical attitude. I can remember being in college and being asked, do you have a basically good concept of human beings or bad?
[3:15] And I'll tell you, well, I think I've got a pretty good attitude. The truth is, you know why you need a gun? You know why you lock your door at night? You know why you lock your door at night? Because you don't have a real good attitude about people. Why don't you leave the doors unlocked?
[3:27] I grew up in the country. We never locked our doors. But you know what? You don't feel that way. And it goes against everything. And you'd admit you're a sinner. And you'd have a far bigger church if you'd simply say this.
[3:40] Man, aren't we good? You could fill a stadium. And you could smile a lot. If you'd just learn to tell people how good they are. But when you tell people that they have sinned against the holy God.
[3:52] And only Jesus saves. The only thing about you that saves is that God is good to you. I know it goes against you. Grain, I know it's hard. But we have to admit this.
[4:03] We are nothing more than sinners saved by the grace of an almighty good God. Next question. Even though we are not Jewish and we live in grace, since we believe the whole Bible is the Word of God and try to live by and follow it, why shouldn't we also abide by the Jewish law since it's part of the Word of God speaking in the Old Testament?
[4:23] Example, food. Who in here wants to give up bacon? I'll give you a good reason. Is anybody in this room really feeling like bacon is a sin? Who thinks bacon is a sin in this room?
[4:34] Besides, Sean Bateman's wife thinks it's a sin. She's a vegetarian. Anybody else in this room? Okay. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. The Bible is a story of everything from God when he first started.
[4:49] When he created the world in the beginning, God created the world all the way to what's going to happen long after we're gone. And we are not Jewish and there were things written to it.
[5:00] So one of the first things that you learn when you're studying your Bible is to find out who is he talking to? Who is he talking to? So when you read it, you find out who is he talking to? And you find out why he's saying it.
[5:12] You find out all these background questions. And we aren't Jewish and so those rules don't apply to us. And Jesus and Paul and the Bible guys make a clear distinction of that.
[5:23] Jesus says as he's starting his ministry, he says, you have heard it said, but I say unto you. And he didn't take away anything. Actually, he added to it. He said, you've heard it said if you may commit adultery with a woman.
[5:35] He said, but I'll say unto you if you think it in your heart. And so the Apostle Paul said, the Apostle Paul said, let's see, would you open your Bible to 1 Timothy? Let me just get that right quick.
[5:50] 1 Timothy 4 or maybe 2 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. And by the way, while you're turning there, I will wait on you to get to 1 Timothy chapter 4. Let me remind you that Peter was on the roof of his house.
[6:02] And he is soon going to go speak to a Gentile, which he would have considered beneath him to go into a Gentile's home. And as he's going to do that, the Lord allows a great sheet to be let down.
[6:13] It has all manner of unclean animals in it. And he says, rise and kill and eat. And Peter says, I've never eaten that kind of stuff and I don't plan on it. And what he was trying to show him was you're going to, there's going to be some changes here.
[6:25] And you can't put new wine and old wineskins. And you can't put new pieces of cloth into old cloth because they won't work together. And we've got a whole dispensation, a whole time period of law and of Jewish things.
[6:41] And then we've got the church and the grace and new things. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, in verse 3 it says, well it says in verse 1, that in the last days there would be some seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
[6:56] That they would speak lies and hypocrisy. Verse 3, they would forbid to marry and command to abstain from certain foods, meats, which God had created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
[7:08] For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. And so to go back to the question, God did a whole lot of things with the Jewish nation that he doesn't do with us.
[7:25] The Jewish nation met on Saturday to worship. The Sabbath day was their day. That was Saturday, not Sunday. And in the New Testament, those guys, once Jesus arose, we find them meeting on Sunday.
[7:37] Their day was the Lord's Day. What we call the Lord's Day, which was the first day of the week because Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week. We celebrate his resurrection not once a year on Easter, but every Sunday that we get together.
[7:49] So there are tons of things that God said to Israel that he's not saying to us. We don't have to be circumcised. We don't have to not eat certain foods. Those rules were made for Israel.
[7:59] They all had a purpose. And there's a great shift and a great change that comes in the New Testament as he brings the Gentiles into the church. And so, no, you're not, you're not, we don't keep any rules.
[8:10] And even the nation of Israel, what was God doing? Do you understand what's going on in Romans? The Jews, throw the question back up again if you don't mind, but the Jews had gotten a hold of this idea. They thought that all their rules keeping.
[8:23] And I think you mentioned that in your question. It says, why shouldn't we also abide by the Jewish law since it's part of the word of God? Well, here's, I think that says world of God. Amen.
[8:33] Man, well, it's, yeah, well, it's word of God. But, but, you know, but you, you know, what was the purpose of the law? And what was, what was going on? We get to the New Testament.
[8:43] And in Romans chapter 9 and Romans chapter 8, here's what you've been learning. Romans, all the way from Romans 1, what you've been learning. Jewish people, I think it's Romans 2. Jewish people thought that by being Jewish, they ought to be saved.
[8:58] They thought by keeping the law, they ought to be saved. They thought by keeping rules, they ought to be saved. And he is constantly reminding them, it doesn't matter who your daddy is. It doesn't matter how good you behave. That's not what gets you saved.
[9:09] And so we don't keep the law. What was the purpose of the law? The purpose of the law in the Old Testament, even. Listen, the purpose of the law, even in the Old Testament, was never for you to keep it.
[9:22] This is going to blow your mind. It was never for you to keep it. It was for you to find out you couldn't keep it. Why did he have a lamb to be slain on the day of atonement?
[9:32] Why did he have a sacrificing system set up in the Old Testament? You've got to get this. So many people don't understand this. Here's what was going on. The Old Testament, here's what God was wanting to say. You blew it.
[9:42] You stink. You blew it. You're a sinner. Nobody's ever kept the Ten Commandments. Nobody's ever kept the Ten Commandments. Well, take that one half. And his name is Jesus.
[9:54] Everybody else has always failed. So the Old Testament law was never to be kept. The Old Testament, I want you to catch that.
[10:05] It was never to be kept. It was to show you you couldn't keep it. And you would need a lamb. Well, get this. It was to show you you couldn't keep it.
[10:15] And you would need a lamb. You would need a lamb. And then John would stand one day on a Jordan River and he'd point up at a little hill. And as Jesus came walking across, he'd say, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
[10:30] So the law was never. So don't worry about that. Now, then you might say to me, well, what about those Old Testament rules about food? Two or three things I'd say. I wouldn't doubt it.
[10:41] It might not be a good idea for you to follow those. I think they're probably good hygiene laws. If you're going to eat your pork, if you're going to eat your pork, cook it good. If you're going to keep food, cover it up.
[10:51] I mean, the Old Testament is so full of great things, but it's not a rule to be kept. None of it is a rule for you to be kept. There's not a rule in the Bible for you to keep. Not a rule in the Bible for you to keep.
[11:03] Every rule in the Bible will show you you can't keep it. And then by grace, as God works in us, we will keep it. And we will live it out. And the rules will become from our heart, not an external ministry of death, but an internal revelation of the power of God as he changes my life.
[11:21] Next question. What group of people do you think are the most ignored in our community when it comes to hearing the gospel? The lost ones. You know, I don't know.
[11:35] I think that we could do a whole lot better job of getting the gospel to people. I feel like we probably have a Spanish church. I don't know that we do well with them.
[11:46] I think probably Indian people and Asian people are probably fairly ignored in our community. I think that if they don't have one of their churches to go to, they're probably not being reached for the gospel and we ought to reach them.
[12:01] But I will tell you that Keith Shoemaker, in missions, if you were in the world of missions, you'd know that everybody talks about unreached peoples. And they talk about these, they talk about different people groups.
[12:14] And you've got to find these people. And they would walk by, in China, they would walk by a million people to get to one guy who happened to be a member of a race that hadn't been reached yet. And somebody asked Keith Shoemaker one time in Burkina, they asked him, they said, what people group are you trying to reach?
[12:31] And I don't know if Keith had read the latest missionary journals, but he just looked at them and said, lost ones. That's the best answer of all. That's the best answer. Next question. When do we get the wall?
[12:46] Are you talking about the climbing wall or what are you talking about? That's a good question. We're in the process of working on paperwork, working on the county and getting all that taken care of. And Lord willing, before Jesus comes.
[13:00] Next question. By the way, if we was in Peru, we'd already have that wall. If we was in Peru, we'd already have that wall. I would have bribed somebody. I'd done what we had to do. But we're not in Peru. And so it takes a little while.
[13:13] Chronologically, go ahead. Chronologically, where does Star Wars occur in the Bible? Ha! Okay.
[13:23] You want to be funny? All right. Go to Revelation, funny person. Let me find out. I'll show you. Let me see. I've got to figure out which one. Hold on a minute. I don't know which chapter.
[13:35] 12, I think. Let me make sure. Yeah. Okay. I got you. You want to play games with me? I can play them with you. Revelation, chapter 12 and verse 4.
[13:48] Star Wars taking place. Look what it says. And his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman. And so up in heaven, there was this big war.
[14:01] And a third of the stars got thrown to the earth. And that was Star Wars. And that was the demons. Not really. But anyway, that was a good, funny question. I appreciate that break. All right.
[14:12] Next question. Galatians, it says we are the seed of Abraham. So which part of the promise applies to us? Okay. I guess I'd like you to give me your verse.
[14:22] Let's go to Galatians. Whoever did that, holler out your verse so I can find that right quick. It's always easier for me if you give me the exact verse. It's going to have to be three or four, I would assume.
[14:36] So... Okay. Galatians 3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, he said, Not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ.
[14:50] I want to see where it says we're the seed. We are the seed. That's close. Let me see here. I'm scanning. Hold on one second. I'll answer your question without the verse, although I prefer not to.
[15:10] Three what? 29. All right. And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise? Who said that over there? Who was it?
[15:23] Sanabria? Miguel Sanabria. Good deal, man. I'm glad you found that verse. Slick. Kid does it in two languages. And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise?
[15:35] And I put the question back up so I can make sure I got the question straight. Question. And Galatians says, We're the seed of Abraham, so which parts of the promise apply to us?
[15:47] You know, that's a big argument. Let me just state to you, that's a major argument among Bible studiers. I would tell you that I am some sort of or minimal dispensationalist, which if you're a Calvinistic or reformed person, you wouldn't be.
[16:03] I believe that God has worked in different times and different ways with people, always salvation by the same means. I do believe there's a definite difference in Israel and the church. We talked about it in the church.
[16:15] I believe that Romans 9 refers to, which is what we did this morning. I believe that Romans 9 refers to God having used Israel and he sets Israel to one side and he picks us to use us, the church, and he's going to use us.
[16:26] And in Romans chapter 11, he's going to set us back aside and put Israel back into place and let them continue on. And so the spiritual, I don't think that, I do think personally, let me just say this is my personal opinion and you're all going to have to study.
[16:40] There's probably more opinions than you would believe in the room. You know, get with somebody like, get with Brother Frick. I'm sure he would have a good, strong opinion. Brother John, you know, several people in this room.
[16:52] I believe Israel has the promise of returning to Israel's land. And I believe that God really meant those promises to him. I don't believe that those, I do believe that God gave specific promises to Israel.
[17:03] But we're Abraham's seed because we believe. Abraham believed God and we believe. And Abraham gets special blessings, but he's not a part of the church and I'm not a part of Israel in my opinion.
[17:14] And I don't think that's a big thing to fight about or to make a big deal about. But I don't believe, one of the reasons I don't wear a robe when I preach is I do not believe I'm a part of the Old Testament. I believe the Old Testament had, boom, that's it.
[17:27] And then you got the New Testament. I believe you had the old wine skins and you got the new wine. I believe that you have the old piece of cloth and you got the new piece of cloth. I believe that we're a part of the church age.
[17:39] We're a part of what God's doing in the church. And so the promises that would apply to us would be the promises that we're believing God and God's doing the work in us and that we're saved through that. But I don't believe that we're getting the nation of Israel.
[17:50] I don't believe that they're not getting the nation of Israel. And that might not be a good answer for you because you might want to sit down and talk to me. And I'd be glad to talk to you about what I think about that in much more detail if you'd like. Next question.
[18:02] Being that I'm not a missionary, what do you think my average week should look like? I think that's a very good question. So let me just answer. I don't ever know what these questions are going to be, but let me give you an answer.
[18:17] And I'm going to assume that you work a daytime job. Are you ready? I think you ought to get up in the morning before you go to work. Before you go to work, I don't care what time you've got to get up. I think you ought to get up and have some time that you read your Bible and pray.
[18:30] I think you ought to have 15 minutes, 20 minutes minimum. 15, 10, 15, 20 minutes that you ought to read your Bible and pray to start your day. And I think you ought to be reading the Bible through in an orderly fashion.
[18:41] You should start in Genesis and work your way all the way to Revelation. Start in Genesis and work your way all the way to Revelation. Somebody's going to tell you, well, brother, you don't need to read so much. You need to read a little bit. But if you read a little bit and don't have the whole big picture, you really get messed up.
[18:53] And after you've read the Bible through 25 times, then you can start their other plan. But most of you young people, most of you young people, you only read books about the book, but you never read the real book.
[19:04] And that bothers me bad. I'm just going to tell you. You don't need to know what anybody thought until you read the Bible through. Read it from cover to cover. So every morning, 15 minutes of Bible reading, you'll finish the Bible in one year.
[19:16] 15 minutes of Bible reading, you'll finish the Bible in one year. Get you a prayer list. Pray for our missionaries. Trent gives you every week a country of the week, a missionary of the week, and one of our sevens. Have a prayer time.
[19:27] Take 15, 20, 25 minutes in the morning and spend some time with God. You say, I can't get up earlier. I have to get up really early. Well, go to bed a little bit earlier. Make some time for God.
[19:38] Then as you go to work, you walk into your workplace and you do it like Jesus was your boss. You do not work as unto men, but as unto the Lord, which means that you get to work a little bit early, earlier than regular people get there because you don't do it for the boss and you don't do it for the paycheck.
[19:57] You do it for Jesus. So if you're supposed to be there at eight, you'd be there at 745. You get there early and you work. And by the way, every hour of your day, you work like Jesus was watching you.
[20:09] Because lost people are watching you. And they know you represent Jesus. And if they don't know you represent Jesus, then you ought to tell people you represent Jesus. And so you work hard all day long.
[20:21] And you should work all day long. And you should do your job. Let me say this. If everybody else produces 100 in a day, produce 110. If everybody produces 10 in a day, produce 15 in a day.
[20:35] Always. We ought to be the hardest working people in any job. We ought to be the most dedicated people. We ought to have the best attitude. Then when you get off work, you ought to come home.
[20:46] You ought to come home. And you ought to probably at night, because you got up early. It depends on morning or night. You ought to have family devotions somewhere between four and five times a week. You ought to sit.
[20:56] If you've got small children. That's what I'm talking about. If you've got small children, you need to sit them down and say, I want to take five to seven or eight minutes with my children. And I want to read the Bible to them. It would be a shame for your children to grow up and get married.
[21:11] And the only real Bible man they know is the pastor and the Sunday school teacher. They ought to know. My daddy's a Bible man. And my daddy sat down with me and read me the Bible and taught me the Bible.
[21:21] You don't need to do much. Some of you might say, well, it ain't worth doing it if you're only going to do five minutes. But if you do five minutes for seven days, that's 35 minutes. That's as much as I preach on the average Sunday morning.
[21:34] So you ought to have, you've got devotions in the morning. You're going to work hard during the day. You're going to have a family time at night. I think you ought to be with your wife. I would tell every missionary I work with, I want you at home at least three nights a week. I want you at home.
[21:46] I want you with your wife. I want you to spend time with her. I want you to hold her hand. I want you to say sweet things. I want your kids to know who you are. Don't you let the ministry or anything else get you away from that.
[21:57] You ought not miss church services. You want to know what your average work week looks like? You ought to be at church on Sunday. If you don't miss, let me tell you this. If you're too sick to come to church, you're too sick to go to work.
[22:09] You ask, I'm telling you. The things of God have got to take a preeminence in your life. No more than a missionary ought to take off or miss, you should. So you ought to be in church on Sunday morning.
[22:20] You ought to be in church on Sunday night. You ought to be in church on Thursday night at this church. You ought to be faithful to church. You are teaching your family. The most important ministry I have is to be a husband.
[22:33] The second most important ministry I have is to be a dad. And the third most important ministry I have is to pastor this church. Betty should believe with all of her heart that I really am a man of God.
[22:46] I'm not sure what you think, but Betty should say, that man really does mean that. He really does live that. He is really who he says he is.
[22:56] So that's how your week works. Hey, you ought to find you a ministry. You ought to find you a ministry. You ought to Sunday school class, discipleship.
[23:10] You ought to find some time every week. I know you're busy, but honestly, you know, if we lived in the days before internet and television, it's amazing how long a day is.
[23:22] Let the power go off and figure out how long an hour is. Have you ever noticed how long an hour is? When you don't have a cell phone, texting, or internet or television?
[23:33] An hour is a long time. An hour is a long time. People tell me sometimes, I just don't have time to read. Well, we probably really do if we wanted to. And then I think you ask, so I'm going to tell you, I think you ought to go to bed when your wife does.
[23:53] You ought to go to bed with your wife. I think the mess ups that happen in marriage is because you don't work at your marriage. You don't work at your marriage. You don't work on your marriage.
[24:07] You ought to go to bed with your wife. You know, you can get up before her, but you ought to go to bed with her. And you say, well, we don't have the same kind of schedule. Fix it. You're married to each other. You're married to each other.
[24:19] I mean, we ought to work on it. So my average work week, if I were you, would be, and by the way, I'm not a missionary. I don't know if you realize that I'm not a missionary. I'm a pastor.
[24:30] And I will tell you this. I spend time, every week I spend several nights a week with Betty. I don't care if it's watching TV or whatever you want to do. You can take her out to eat. Eat watermelon and sit on the bed.
[24:42] Get you some. I love that. Get watermelon. Sprinkle salt on it. Turn the TV on. Sit there and eat watermelon together. I'm a watermelon-eating machine. And seedless are good.
[24:53] Amen. And so Sunday morning I'm in church. By the way, I'm at Sunday school, and I'm here early because I'm making a statement. I'm making a statement.
[25:06] I'm saying God is important enough for me to give time. I'm going to do Sunday morning, Sunday night. I'm going to have devotions in the morning, family time during the evening where I talk about the Bible, talk about the things of God, answer their questions.
[25:18] It really bothers me since you ask, and I don't know who puts these questions together, but I'll tell you this. Some of you are more interested in your kid learning algebra than eternity. And I'm 58 years old.
[25:32] And by the way, I taught algebra and geometry. Algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. And I'll just tell you this. Nobody uses that in years when they use eternity.
[25:46] And you're more interested in your kid learning proofs and algebraic equations than you are being in God's house. You're screaming to your kid.
[25:58] You are one generation away from your family loving Jesus and coming to church. You're one generation away from them walking away from God. And you will say when you're old, and me and you're old together, and we'll be sitting here and you'll say, I just don't know what happened to my kids.
[26:12] I'm going to say, they're acting like you. Next question. Y'all mad enough at me? You shouldn't ask those questions. I'm telling you, you set me up.
[26:22] Where do you see our church in five years? Well, I would hope and pray.
[26:37] Number one, I'll just say this. The things I really feel pretty good about, I think we can, I think in five years we might could double the number of missionaries that we send out. I would pray that God would give us a piece of property and a place to build.
[26:50] I would pray that I would have an office. I would pray that we would have a wall. I don't have any kind of visionary plan for the future.
[27:02] I would say to you, I'm going to work hardest I can to build people. And the buildings and all, the buildings and all won't make as much a deal, big a deal to me.
[27:14] Now on the way down here from Calhoun, we were talking about how we can get the place cleaner and how we can get you and more involved in taking care of some of the things that need to be done. But to be honest with you, I'm going to preach five years. I hope to preach through two or three more books, four or five more books of the Bible.
[27:27] I hope to see people growing here. I hope to see our people discipling more people. I pray that God would give us a piece of land. What size? I don't know. Two or three hundred. I'd like to see us at two or three hundred.
[27:39] If you keep sending people out, you're not going to grow as fast as other churches. But for everybody that we send out, I'd like to see us have two or three families that stay here to be really linked up to them. And so that's probably the best answer.
[27:51] I would like to right now pull what I would as a young person and try to really challenge you. But I don't know how I can. And I would say to you that we'll have a building when you guys want one bad enough. I can promise you this.
[28:04] I am not the one holding us back. You have more money to give than I do. And I'll give. And you should give. And, of course, it costs money.
[28:17] But we're not, as a church, our building doesn't determine our church. And here's a big statement for you. This is a missionary statement. It's a big statement. A church should never be judged by its seating capacity.
[28:30] But by its sending capacity. And so this is a great church. And you are a great church. And you're great people. A church is the people. And for our church, I mean, I didn't drive to Calhoun this afternoon because I'm a great preacher.
[28:46] You and I both know I'm not a great preacher. I drove to Calhoun tonight or this afternoon because they know. If anybody knows about sending a missionary, a vision does. And so let's build a church for his honor and glory.
[28:57] Next question. Do you know the name of the only Don Breed mentioned in the Bible? I have absolutely no idea who's got the joke.
[29:09] What is it? I know that Jacob spoke. Okay, Greyhound. I know that Jacob smoked camels because he lit off his camel. I know that. I mean, I know that the Bible verse for a lot of girls is, if any man will come after me, let him.
[29:27] And so, yeah, Greyhound. Is the word actual, is Greyhound actually in there? I don't think so. Next question. Have you ever performed exorcism?
[29:38] No, but if you'll see me after church, I'll work on it. I think it'd probably shock you to know that I have been in places where I think demonic activity was strong and real.
[29:53] I got called one night years ago. I got called to a house. A young preacher I had trained named Charlie Culp.
[30:03] I called and he was crying. He said, you've got to get here. The demons are in this person. And I got there. And this guy was a scrawny little skinny guy. Make Ed look big.
[30:14] And a lot skinnier than Ed. Can you believe that? And they were holding, about four or five guys were holding him. And he was looking at me and his face was really, it was like frozen and his mouth was only moving.
[30:25] He'd go, he'd get going, I hate you. I'm going to kill you. And I was like, man, I don't even know you. What's your problem mean? And they told me, they said, man, it ain't him talking.
[30:36] And I was like, I don't know. Let him go. And when they did, he dove at me and they caught him in midair and stopped him from getting me. And they slammed him down on the floor. So I prayed everything they do on TV.
[30:47] And it didn't work. I said, in the name of Jesus, come out. He just kept going, I hate you. And he started eating my tie. We had a visitor, a guy that's a mystery in Spain that was down visiting with me.
[31:00] And he was there with me. I mean, shock the fire. This guy, he was about to die watching all this happen. This guy was eating my tie. And I couldn't get my tie out of his mouth. So the guys kind of slapped him around and pulled my tie out of his mouth.
[31:10] I went home, bought every book I could on demonism and exorcism. And I found out they were all idiots. Because I'd already tried it. So then I got called all the time to go to people's houses.
[31:22] Because Peruvians are pretty much their demon, devil oriented. And so they would call me. And they'd say they'd seen little, they called them duendes, little people running around their house.
[31:34] And they smelled things and stuff. And so this one family called me. The tables were moving in their house. And so I go into their house. And they said, can you help us? I said, oh, I sure can.
[31:45] I said, I now have the formula, which I really do. And they said, I'm fixing to tell you how to do it. They said, well, can you help us? Because there are demons in this. I said, I definitely can. They said, well, help us.
[31:56] I said, okay, here's how it's got to work. For the devils to leave, Jesus needs to be Lord. So let's start with the first thing. The Bible says in Romans 3.10, there is none righteous, no, not one.
[32:08] And I said, the Bible says in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come to the glory of God. And I led about four of them to Christ that night. And they all started going. I told them, I said, hey, you're saved. You ain't going to have any more problems than the devil.
[32:20] Amazingly, they didn't have any more problems than the devil. And I didn't baptize hardly anybody. I quit baptizing many years ago simply because I was training young men. And I'll always let them do the baptizing. And the little mama in this family, she's kind of short and wide and old.
[32:34] And she called the church and she said, he's baptizing me. Nobody else baptizing me, but the big man himself is baptizing me. And so we got into baptistry.
[32:45] And I'm in the baptistry with her. And the baptistry floor was really slick. God, they didn't clean it enough. And I'd never been in the thing more than three or four times. And I'm sitting there and she looked up at me.
[32:55] And she said, you evangelized me and now you're baptizing me. And I said, okay. And so I went to, I said, I've now baptized you in the name of the Father. I don't ever hold my hand up.
[33:05] I said, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And when I went to bend her down, her feet started sliding. And she ran all the way down to the baptistry. And I'm just running beside her like that. And her feet caught.
[33:16] And when they caught, I dropped her under, pulled her back up. And that was from exorcism to baptism all in one service. All right. Next question. What do you think of the Children's Church for raising 800 for the Nehemiah's initiative?
[33:30] Well, I think that that ought to challenge the adults to raise 80,000. How many can say amen right there? Thank you. I didn't think you would. Next slide. As I say, 56.1 talks about keeping the law.
[33:45] I doubt it. Throw Isaiah 56.1 up there. Keep ye judgment and do justice for my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed.
[33:57] Keep you discernment and do right. Keep you for my salvation is near to come. Think the right thing. I'd have to study that to really give you what I would consider a good Bible answer.
[34:12] And I would take a long time to say. But let me just say this to you. Nowhere in the Bible are you told to keep the law as an end. Nowhere in the Bible are you told to keep a law as an end. You're told to keep the law in the Bible to find your end and to realize you can't.
[34:28] Jesus is the end of the law for us. He's the end of the law. Romans chapter 10 verse 3 or 4. He's the end of the law. And so nowhere in the Bible are you going to be.
[34:40] Is it your job to keep the law? A Jewish person is going to keep the law. But when he couldn't he was going to have to make a sacrifice. You're not going to be able to either. You're going to have to make a sacrifice. There it is. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
[34:52] Next question. Can you give us a synopsis on your view of predestination? How many more questions we've got back there?
[35:05] One? Okay. Here's a synopsis. Wherever the Bible uses the word predestined, I use it. And the Bible doesn't use the word predestined very much. There's a whole ministry brought up about that, but it doesn't use it much.
[35:18] We've already gone through one in Romans chapter 8, 29, and 30. If I have my thing over, I don't think it's used but about four times in the Bible. The word predestined or predestinate. Predestinate. But those who are called according to his purpose are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
[35:33] I think that predestination always has to do with believers and what God is going to do in our lives. I think predestination always has to do with believers and what God is going to do in our lives.
[35:46] He saved me and he has predestined me to be conformed to the image of his son. And I preached Romans chapter 9 today, so you can go listen. I preached Romans chapter 9. I mean, do you realize we threw out three songs that we would normally sing?
[35:59] I preached longer and I've preached since we've been here, I think. So I do not believe, I don't know where you're going, but I do not believe that God predestined anybody to hell. At all. Ever. Ever.
[36:09] I do not believe that. And I know that might be a common thing. I believe that God loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved. I do not believe everybody will be saved. I do not believe in universalism.
[36:21] I do not believe that everybody will be saved. But I do believe that God loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved. And I believe predestination, misspelled up there, by the way, refers to believers and what God is going to do in our lives.
[36:33] One more question. Since man cannot reach God, why did he confuse the languages at the Tower of Babel? Well, you know why he's confused the languages at the Tower of Babel, so let's go back over to Genesis and let's read what he said.
[36:46] Genesis, what, 11? Let's see if it's 11. Verse 4, and they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower who has taught me reach into heaven and let us make a name.
[37:04] Thus we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city, and the Lord said, They have all one language as they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from what they've imagined. Let us confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech.
[37:18] So the Lord commanded or scattered them abroad. And I'm going to give you a, really, I think a good, I think a good understanding of that. One of the biggest things the devil likes to do is to get you to feel like you're equal to everyone and we're all the same.
[37:31] He likes to lump us all together into this big group where I'm as good as you are and you're as good as me and nobody's better than me and nobody's worse than me. And when God really wants you to realize you're a sinner all by your lonesome.
[37:45] And so at the Tower of Babel, they were getting together, they were all learning, they all spoke the same language, and they were figuring like we're good enough to get all the way to God. We're good enough. And they were lifting themselves up and making themselves a name.
[37:55] And God brings us to the end of ourselves. Let me explain something to you. Everybody in this room, see, here's what we tend to do. Well, I'm as good as the other guy. When you really ought to think this, no, I'm worse than everybody.
[38:08] The Apostle Paul, who in Philippians chapter 3 said, as talking about the law, blameless. He didn't break any rules. He kept all the rules. That's what he said before he was saved.
[38:21] That's what he said when he was religious. That's what he said when he had a false view of himself. But once he got saved, he said this. He saved sinners of which I am the number one chief.
[38:35] I'm the chief. You should not have an attitude at all of, well, I'm not very bad. I look around this room and I say, there's Steve Morgan. I ain't that bad looking Steve.
[38:46] That is never the way you look. Never. Please listen to this. Never. Never. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says, love doesn't rejoice in evil. You know what that verse is talking about?
[38:58] We love to find other people and say, I'm not bad. Compare me to Hugh Watson. But you're not to compare. See, I love to say, I mean, for me, I've always enjoyed finding a guy that's fatter than me and saying, baby, you think I'm fat?
[39:12] Check that one out. That's rejoicing in evil. That's bragging because I found somebody else that makes me feel better about myself. Love says, let me compare myself to Jesus and I stink.
[39:24] I stink. And everybody in this room, can I just say, everybody in this room, we got to get somewhere. We got to realize we are the chief of sinners. I'm the worst guy in this room. I'm the worst guy in this room.
[39:34] That needs to be your attitude. So what's going on in the entire babble? They're all getting together. They're all making a name for themselves. They're all feeling good about themselves. And this may blow your mind, but I really think it's true.
[39:44] When you're together and you can say, well, hey, if he's going to be bad to me, he has to be bad to them. You still have a problem. You need to come to a place where you realize I have sinned against a holy God.
[40:00] I am the worst. I don't deserve to be saved. I have come to the end of myself. Tower of Babel, it was we're all together in this. We're all together in this.
[40:11] And when God talks about sin, he's talking about us as individuals. I have sinned. Austin Gardner has sinned. Austin Gardner deserves to go to hell.
[40:22] There is nothing good about Austin Gardner. And if anything ever happened in Austin Gardner's life, it was the God of heaven and glory who sent Jesus to die in my place.
[40:33] And it's God that did a work. Please get rid of the idea. Don't look around the room and think we're all in this together. Let's reach up into heaven. And I think Romans 9 kind of answers that.
[40:47] I call the message, let God be God. We really do want to make a box and figure out how to put God in it. We figure God better do things the way we want done.
[40:58] We're just like those guys in Genesis 11. What I need to realize is this. He is so holy and such a bright light. I am a dirty scumbag. And I know of my sinfulness when I look at his face.
[41:12] So in Genesis 11, here's what he's saying. You're not. You're not. Together. Something about. Why do sinners like to get together so they can all be in their sin together?
[41:24] You find them. Men, you find the alcoholics all in the same place together. You find the adulterers like to run with adulterers. You find every group of sins looking for a place to hang around their own kind so they don't feel bad about themselves.
[41:39] I need to feel bad about me. I don't now. Because I'm saved. My sins are forgiven. But I needed to. And so I really believe that's what's going on. And he scatters them to say, you're alone.
[41:51] You're alone. There's no security in numbers. No security in knowing other people like me. I've sinned against a holy God.
[42:02] And I need God. And you need God. Father in heaven, I love you. And I thank you for the chance to study your word. And I thank you for this wonderful church and the chance I have to speak to them. And I pray you bless each of them in Jesus' name.
[42:12] Amen. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.