The Lamb Of God (video) — Randy Jones

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There's a little chorus several years ago, one night, sitting at my piano at home. Do you have a favorite spot in your home? You probably do. One of my favorite spots is not only sitting on the bench, but just kneeling at the piano bench.

And I was sitting there one night, and it was probably two in the morning or so, and all of a sudden, God is beginning to give me, just sitting there, some words. And it's a little chorus, and Greg and I, we did it here Sunday night, and he had mentioned about maybe us singing it here, and we've done it a couple of times.

But the words go like this, descend holy fire on me. Descend holy fire on me. Cleanse me. Yes, purge me. Inflame my soul. Descend holy fire on me. Ascend, now the believer, the spirit lives within us, obviously.

And so, you know, it's kind of like sometimes when someone's giving the details of a picture, and it's a picture of a farm, and there's a barn, and there's a house, and there's horses and cows. And some people have a way, if you say, wow, look at that wraparound porch.

They come back with, oh, but there's a barn, but there's a truck, but there's cows. So please, you know, descend, and then ascend holy fire from me. A fragrance so pure for thy glory. Ascend holy fire from me.

Please send holy fire through me. Please send holy fire through me. To a world that's lost in the darkness of sin, please send holy fire through me. Amen. Here's how it goes, and follow along with me a little bit if you can.

Descend holy fire on me. Descend holy fire on me. Oh, cleanse me, yes, purge me, inflame my soul. Descend holy fire on me. Ascend holy fire from me. Ascend holy fire from me. A fragrance so pure for thy glory.

Ascend holy fire from me. Please send holy fire through me. Please send holy fire through me. That's lost in the darkness of sin. Please send holy fire. Will you sing it with me? Descend holy fire on me.

Descend holy fire on me. Cleanse me, yes, purge me, inflame my soul. Descend holy fire on me. You know, fire falls on sacrifice. And ascend holy fire from me. Ascend holy fire from me. A fragrance so pure for thy glory.

Ascend holy fire from me. Descend holy fire through me. Holy fire that's lost in the darkness of sin. Oh, please send. Oh, please send. Oh, God, please send through us your holy fire through me. Upon me.

A fire within my curry. Flow through me, I pray. And by your spirit, Lord, come glorify thy name. Like a fire within my curry. Flow through me, I pray. And by your spirit, Lord, come glorify, blow upon me.

Like a fire, Lord, burn within me. Like a river, flow through me, I pray. And by your spirit, Lord, come glorify. By your spirit, Lord. By your spirit, Lord. Oh, by your spirit, Lord, glorify your name.

Yes, we're glad to have with us today Randy Jones from Texas. What are you, Texas, Randy?

Dallas. Dallas, Texas. I'm from the New Jerusalem, Dallas, Texas.

And we are looking forward to hear what God wants to share with him, with us through him. And I think we'll just take a moment to pray for you and then give you the time however the Lord leads. Father God in heaven, we thank you for one more meeting.

Lord, this side of eternity. Thank you for everyone gathered in here this morning. And we commit this time to you in the name of Jesus. Commit this dear brother and friend in the name of Jesus to you.

And we ask you to fill him, to flow through him and to use him. Speak what you want to us through him. And we pray, Lord, that he would say all that you've given him to say and nothing that you haven't.

Just use him for your glory. We commit this time to you in Jesus' name.

Again, Father, we praise your name. From the rising of the sun to the setting down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised. And, Father, we are very grateful that you have been meeting with us these last two days.

And we have no reason to believe that it would be different today. To come in simplicity, no formality. Just to come and meet together as brothers and sisters in Christ. To hear what God would say to us if we would take time to pray and to seek your face.

And to listen to what you have to say to us from your servants and from the Word. Now, Father, I just met Randy. And our acquaintance has been very short. But being in Christ, we are brothers in the Lord.

And I ask, agreeing also with Brother Murrell, that the Spirit of God would just come upon our brother here. And you would anoint him afresh. And that he would bring to us a message from the presence of God.

Thank you now, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you, brothers. It's good to be here in this beautiful church. We appreciate the pastor and his church letting the Revival Conference use the facilities. It's good to see Greg Gordon again. And enjoy fellowshipping with him.

I am not a Christian missionary. I'm a missionary from Texas. Going around telling everybody about the Promised Land. My daughter-in-law is from Oklahoma. So I always give her a hard time. And it's good to be back in Texas parking lot.

It's really sweet. I'm just kidding. Start a fight. It is good to be here. Beautiful country. Beautiful place. It's in the middle of nowhere. I thought I was never going to get here. I came in late. I had a meeting last night and couldn't get away.

It was something important. And I was on my way here and Greg told me where to go. And I thought about stopping on the way but I wasn't too tired so I just kept coming. And he gave me a phone number of a brother to call who could show me my room.

Well, I didn't get here until late so I didn't want to wake him up. So instead I went through the building out back and woke everybody up. And if I opened the door and woke you up, that might have been the Lord, it might have been me.

I don't know which one. But anyway, sorry about that. I am privileged to be here. It's always a privilege to talk about Jesus. I just want to talk a little bit. I want to talk about the cross today. The Bible doesn't say the preaching of the Bible is the power of God unto salvation.

It doesn't say the preaching of the law is the power of God unto salvation. It says the preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. I believe in using the law. The law brings conviction of sin.

It brings the knowledge of Christ. But if you just use the law to witness and try to win the lost, all you do is get them convicted. But the cross gets them saved. And what Jesus did on the cross, you know, it's a cliche today just to say Jesus died for you.

Everybody knows that. They'll tell you that. But they don't really know it. Christians don't know it like they should. I believe with all my heart that the last move of God. First of all, I believe the Lord's coming soon.

And second of all, I believe that we're running out of time. The last move of God, I believe with all my heart, is going to be a Jesus movement. Not a people movement. Not a denominational movement. Not a church movement.

Not an American movement. A Jesus movement. If you've been reading the news and seeing what's going on in the world right now, and if that doesn't wake you up a little bit, you know how God gets your attention?

He smites your 401K. And then he's got your attention. I do live in Dallas, Texas now. I'm originally from Tyler, Texas, the rose capital of the world. And it's a beautiful place. And I have been a pastor.

I preached my first sermon when I was almost 13. When I was 12, my parents lost their minds and left Texas. And I moved up north and moved to Louisville, Kentucky area. And when we crossed the Ohio River, I was terrified.

That's a mile wide. The biggest river I'd ever seen was the Trinity River. It's about 30 feet wide. In Texas, what they call rivers, every other state calls a creek. And I crossed the Ohio River Bridge holding on for dear life, terrified.

And we lived in that area for many years. And we went to a church there in southern Indiana. And I had been called to preach when I got saved at home at 8 years old. And I made the mistake of telling this.

They had an old man there. He was 6 '4". His name was Leroy Beatty. And the first time I met him, he looked at me and said, Randy, I've got a Baptist brain, a Pentecostal heart, Jehovah's Witness feet.

Now, that's a Christian. And I made the mistake of telling him at 12 that I was called to preach. From that day on, he was relentless. And you're going to have to overlook me and forgive me because I started out preaching on the street corners of Louisville, Kentucky.

And being harassed, slapped, chased, had a razor put to my throat one time. And just that was how it was normal for me, just being heckled, being yelled at. And you learn to really preach then. In church, everybody just goes to sleep.

That's even worse. I'd rather you heckled me. And I'll tell you this. If you don't say amen once in a while, I may preach until 6 p .m. Because if I think you're asleep, I'll never give up. I'll never quit.

And, you know, preaching is the art of talking in other people's sleep. So I'll keep preaching and you keep sleeping. One time I was preaching in Tyler, Texas, my hometown. And I got up to preach on Sunday morning.

They'd just given me the service and there was a man on the front row right here, sound asleep, the head deacon, already asleep during the worship. You heard about the church that somebody died during the worship and they called the paramedics.

They had to examine 21 people before they found the right one. Well, the worship had killed this guy. And I got up and he was asleep. So I picked up a hymnal and threw it real hard and hit the pew, boom, right next to him.

He woke up. He thought the rapture was taking place and he'd been left behind. But he knew what I was doing. And he watched me like a hawk the rest of the service. One man got introduced and he said, I'm not the best speaker in the world, but I'm like the cross-eyed discus thrower.

I keep the crowd alert. So I'm going to try to do that. So anyway, we went to this church. I told this old man I was called to preach. I heard he was a street preacher. Later on I found out he had the whole Bible memorized by heart, King James Version.

That's the only man I've ever met in my life that had the whole Bible memorized, even the begats. And he was, to this day, he went to be with the Lord in the 90s, but to this day he's the most Christ-like man I've ever known in my life.

And he made an impact on my life. His boldness, his courage, his joy. Most Christians look like they've just been sucking on lemons in the parking lot right before they come into the church. One side singing, will there be any stars in my crown?

And the other side is singing, no, not one. In the middle section singing, and that will be heaven for me. And as Christians, I'm not shocked that sinners don't want what we've got, because they already have depression and discouragement and fear.

The joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. He meant for us to enjoy Him. It's serious, but it's fun. There's nothing greater than walking with Jesus Christ. There's nothing greater than the power of the cross that keeps working in your life.

So I told this old man I was called to preach. He kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me. Every Sunday morning he'd say, Randy. He called me shoutin' Randy, which was sarcasm. And he'd say, shoutin' Randy, how you doing?

I've got a pulpit saved for you, an empty pulpit. I said, really? Because I had in mind as a preacher you would have a brick church with a Cadillac and no people in the church, just a brick church. That'd be the perfect church, wouldn't it?

And just a good salary and a big parsonage and life insurance. That was my idea of preaching, not on the street corner. But he kept on. I got an empty pulpit at 4th and Chestnut, downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, I either wanted to watch the Cowboys, if they were on, take a nap, or play football myself. I'm 12, almost 13, and he kept bugging me. Every Sunday I'd hide. I tried to go out different exits.

He supernaturally knew where I was. And he would say, I've got an empty pulpit for you, downtown 4th and Chestnut. And I finally said, Brother Beatty, leave me alone. He said, I can't, brother. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he buggeth.

That was his paraphrase of provoke one another to love and good works. So finally he wore me down. I said, I can't go down there. My friends in junior high will see me. But finally I went. And when I got there at 4th and Chestnut, I got a ride with someone.

It was worse than I thought. There was a big group of prostitutes, obviously dressed up as prostitutes. That was close to Fort Knox, and all the soldiers would come into Louisville on the 1st and 15th weekends.

And there was a big group of prostitutes, and this little weird, crazy guy. There's always somebody like that. He actually was crazy. And he was pointing at those women. Then when I walked up on the street corner, pointing at them, going, Prostitutes will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Well, they obviously got mad because he was right in their face, pointing at them and screaming at them. And so they started beating him with their purse. Just as I walked up, this little guy's running around screaming at them, and they're beating him with their purse, about five women.

That's as bad as it gets. But I started to turn around and go back. And Brother Beatty spotted me, and he said, Hey, Brother Randy, come on over here. So I couldn't get away. I hid behind a post at JCPenney's and stuck a track out, hoping it would stick on someone, because I was terrified that somebody from school would see me, with these crazy people.

Well, Brother Beatty sang and played the guitar, and if anybody ever stayed after that, it was a miracle, because he was terrible. I loaned him my guitar one time, and he just ripped it to pieces with a pick.

It was a really sweet, nice, acoustic guitar, and he ruined it. But it was anointed ruin. As he was singing, I saw an older man squatting down, leaning against the wall a few feet over up the street. And Brother Beatty said, Go talk to that man.

Now, you've got to remember, I've been in church since I was eight. I'm almost 13 now. I had no idea. No one had ever taught me in church how to talk to anyone about Jesus. So I went over and squatted down next to the man, and I just said, and he had tears running down his face.

Brother Beatty was singing something like, in the suite, Bye and Bye, or something like that. I said, How you doing? He said, Fine. My mama used to sing that song. I said, Would you like to get saved?

And he said, Yeah. So I patted him on the back and said, God bless you, and walked off. I had no idea how to lead him to the Lord. No one had ever taught me in church. So I walked back to Brother Beatty, and he said, Well, what did he say?

I said, He wants to get saved. He said, Do you pray with him? I said, I don't know how to do that. So he said, Come here and I'll show you. The first thing I learned from him is this thing is better caught than taught.

And he took me over there and led that man to the Lord. I've seen him lead whole groups of soldiers to the Lord, groups of children, because he was always smiling, always happy. See, when he was 19, he went downtown Louisville, Kentucky to see a movie.

And that was way back when they had streetcars. And an old plumber, who wasn't a pastor, just a plumber, was preaching on the street corner. And he said, Young man, come here. He said, Where are you going?

He said, I'm going to see a movie. He said, I got something better than that. And he led him to the Lord right there on the street corner. You don't have to be in church to get saved. Zacchaeus got saved either in the air or in the tree or before he hit the ground.

He was saved when he hit the ground. And Brother Beatty, this plumber, led him to the Lord. And he said, Now I want you to come with me. I want you to meet some Christian young people. And they got on the streetcar.

As soon as they got on the streetcar, it had about 80 people on it. The plumber preacher stood up and said, Can I have your attention, everyone's attention? This man here just got saved, and he wants to tell you about it.

He had been saved 10 minutes. And he had to get up and testify about his salvation to about 80 people he didn't know. He almost had a heart attack. Well, they got off the streetcar and walked into a gas station.

And there was a group of boys, had cigarettes rolled up in their T-shirt, drinking beer, cussing. I don't know what, just acting bad. And this plumber walked in there and said, Anybody ever tell you boys about Jesus?

They said, No, sir. And he said, This man here just got saved, and he wants to tell you about Jesus. Now, he'd been saved 20 minutes by then. And he became, to this day, one of my good friends is Ray Comfort, Ray, in Living Waters and Way of the Master.

And he's a great soul winner. He got us almost kicked out of Luby's. I've preached with him in California. But Brother Leroy Beatty, I've never seen anyone like him, so much like Jesus. I went back the next Sunday.

I thought, Well, this isn't too bad. And as Brother Beatty was preaching, he had a powerful voice. He was preaching on the street corner there. Two boys in a 65 blue convertible Mustang stopped at the red light right there at 4th and Chestnut.

And they were revving their engine, honking their horn, trying to drown him out. And one of them yelled, Hey, old man, are you Moses? He said, No, son, I'm Saul. My father sent me out to look for two asses, and I just found them.

And I thought, This isn't too bad. I'd like to be a street preacher. I like insulting people. Now, he was doing it with joy. And you know what? They got out and talked to him. And from that point on, I was a co-youth pastor at 16.

I've been a full-time evangelist, revivalist twice in my life. I've preached in hundreds of churches. I've preached so many revivals, camp meetings, retreats, services, youth retreats, youth rallies, banquets, luncheons, pastors' conferences, pastors' luncheons, that I can't keep track of them all.

But along the way, I started realizing I don't see the fruit in Christians, my life and everyone else's life, that I want to see. And I went to Christ for the Nations. It's a non-denominational Bible school in Dallas, Texas.

They've taught thousands of students and sent them out all over the world. Number one worship school in the world. A lot of songs you sing were written there by students. And I was a full-time core professor and a dean and over all their outreach and evangelism in that area for six years.

It was my privilege to preach and teach revivalism for five summers to students from India, Japan, China, literally Timbuktu, Papua New Guinea, from all over, even Canada, all over the world. I got to preach and teach thousands of students about the cross.

And that was the core. I taught evangelism. I was the evangelism professor and evangelism director and I taught revivalism. It was my privilege to teach them about the cross. And I'm an experienced, seasoned minister.

I've pastored, youth pastor, singles pastor, janitor. You know, you're a real pastor when you go around after church flushing the toilets. But only the last few years have I seen what it's really about.

It's about Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's not about denominations. There won't be any in heaven. There's people that kill you over their denomination. They're faithful to a building. They're faithful to a TV preacher.

But God's going to get our attention and right now he's judging the church. It's not America. It's not the world. Judgment begins at the house of God. And we better pay attention and start praying and pray for revival.

But not just any revival. Francis Schaeffer said, reformation is a return to sound doctrine. Charles Finney said, revival is practicing sound doctrine. It doesn't matter what you know. It's what you live.

If I could live what I know, I'd be greater than Paul. But I can't live what I know. That's the breakdown. And it takes the power of God, the word of God, the Holy Spirit. But more than anything else, I think it takes a single heart.

A single heart. An utterness, if I could put it that way. Totally consecrated. Totally dedicated. I believe right now, if the church really made Jesus their Lord, we would turn the world upside down. Jesus is our part-time Lord on the weekends, on Sunday morning.

But the Bible says he's Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And he owns you, lock, stock and barrel. All your money, all your kids, your house. Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and bought you. And if the church would start preaching the cross again, instead of money and success and miracles.

I believe in miracles. I believe God blesses his people. The righteous have never been forsaken or their seed begging for bread. But that's not the gospel. The gospel is, it's not even a doctrine. It's a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when the church quit preaching the gospel and started preaching money and prosperity and success, then we see what the result is. God said, OK, I'll take away your money and your success. And I'll take away your place among the nations.

I just went to a Memorial Day. We spent Memorial Day in Austin, Texas. You'd have to be a Texan to understand the Alamo. Stand in front of it and cry. And there was a big rally there for Texas independence to succeed from the union.

Quit paying federal taxes. Sounded good to me. Too bad we don't have enough. If we had enough army, I think we could do it. And they had a big sign that said, once again, the Republic of Texas will raise its proud head among the nations of the world.

Well, guess what? God is humbling our proud head. And he has shut up the heavens. And there's no rain. That rains the Holy Spirit. But, he said, if my people. God said, when I shut up the heavens and there's no rain.

When the power and the authenticity of the gospel isn't there and God has shut the heavens up. Then he said, if my people, which are called by my name. And by the way, all the cultural Christians are getting off the ark.

All the ones who just said they were Christians and thank God for it. All the ones who said they were Christians for some kind of networking, sales, looking good position. Now there's a stigma attached to it and they're fleeing the ark.

Thank God. The Bible says only remnants gonna be saved. God's never said he was gonna. His will is that everyone would be saved. But he never said they were all gonna be saved. Because God's will is done through our prayers.

We pray it to pass. And just a minute, I wanna focus on the cross. But I love quotations. Charles Spurgeon said, he who seldom quotes is seldom quoted. And Charles Spurgeon has some of my all-time favorite quotations.

What a preacher. And my number one all-time favorite quotation is Charles Spurgeon. You know what he said? Preaching that leaves out the cross is the laughing stock of hell. That's good. Another thing he said is some of you have enough dust on your Bibles to write damnation in it.

That's a good quote. And another one he said was, whenever I preach, I read my text and then make a beeline for the cross. No wonder he was a great preacher. And he preached on Jesus like few people that have ever lived.

I want you to stand with me for a minute. For just a little while, I wanna talk about the cross. And the cross, I'm not talking about a piece of wood. I'm talking about Jesus. The power of his death, his suffering, and his sacrifice.

The piece of wood was where it happened. But it's Jesus that made the cross important. You could put up a million wooden crosses. But Jesus, the son of the living God, hanging on that cross. Jesus was fully human and fully God.

In the early days, the church battled with teaching everyone that Jesus was really God. Now we battle with everyone believing he was a real man. But he was a real man, just like you and I. He felt pain like we do.

He got tired. He got hungry. And the greatest act in time and space and eternity is when the son of God hung outside of Jerusalem on an old rugged cross. A fountain of blood from head to toe. And by the way, I'm one preacher that's still preaching the blood of Jesus.

That's the one thing the devil fears. It's the power. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb. Modern churches are taking those hymns out of their hymnals about the blood. And I've preached on the cross all over the world, literally.

Different countries, not every country, but different countries. America, I've preached all over Oklahoma, Texas, everywhere I could go. And I preach on the blood and the cross. And one lady came up after church and said, You made it too gory, too bloody.

And I said, Sister, the half hasn't been told. That's the worst suffering that's ever happened in time and eternity. Was on that hill outside of Jerusalem. And Jesus' physical suffering was the least of his suffering.

He suffered in his soul. God saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. And I hope that when you leave today, at least one thing I say will get you more excited about what Jesus did for you and the whole world on the cross.

And he died for everyone. Not everyone's going to receive it, but whosoever will may come. Brother Beatty had a Baptist background. I said, Brother Beatty, do you believe in once saved, always saved? He said, I believe in it for me.

I believe in it for me. The Bible says only those who endure to the end will be saved. And I'm not trying to start a controversy. I'm just saying if you ain't living it, you ain't real. It ain't as a Texas word, I think.

You gotta live it to be saved. Saving faith. It'll change your lifestyle. You'll lose part of your vocabulary when you get saved. You'll lose part of your mind when you get saved. And if we had more people really saved.

Ray Comfort told me one time, Randy, it's not the Christians that wear the pastor out. It's the false converts that wear the pastor out. And that's the truth. So I want you to pray with me. The Lord will show you something about the cross.

Because the cross isn't just in time and space. It was born in eternity past in the heart of God. When Jesus, the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. When Jesus laid his will down and the Father's will stood up.

An eternal cross was born in the very being of God. And it's that cross that I'm talking about. Jesus was born crucified. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for everyone here. Open up their hearts, Lord.

Lord, plow up the fallow grounds of our heart. Lord, I just pray that the word would find good ground. The word of the cross, find good ground. Lord, find a soil that's good and honest. And take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Cover us all and put us under the protection and cleansing of the blood of the Lamb. Push back the powers of darkness, Lord. Cleanse the atmosphere. Cleanse the heavenlies. Lord, cut through our flesh.

Cut through the enemy. And give us a new revelation of the mighty, awful, suffering Lamb of God hanging on Calvary's cross. In Jesus' name, everyone's head. Before you sit down, turn to someone and tell them, I've never seen anybody look like you in my whole life.

Then you may be seated. Thank you. See, that's what I risked coming up. If you'll open your Bibles quickly to John chapter 1. I love being a Christian. I have more fun by accident than sinners do on purpose.

When I lead outreaches, I led five outreaches to Mardi Gras. Took thousands of students, hundreds, maybe thousands. And the main principle, well, first, be normal. Number two, be happy and excited. And number three, come in the spirit of the Lamb of God.

We're not there to scream at people. We're there to tell them about Jesus. And not compromise, but come in the spirit of the Lamb of God. You'd be amazing. You'd be amazed how well that worked. Everybody else was walking down the streets with signs that said, God hates sinners.

And no one listened to them. We were telling them they were sinners. And they were going to go to hell. But we did it with love. And we did it in the opposite spirit of the world. The spirit of the Lamb of God.

And the Lamb of God is the greatest type in the Bible. And I don't know why we don't preach on it more. The type of the Word of God is the Lamb of God. From Genesis to Revelation. All the way through the Bible, this is the type.

And this is the biggest type in the Word of God. This is the biggest principle. It's Jesus. Nature is a lamb. The little animal that you see out in the pasture. That's fuzzy and wooly and eating the grass and really nice and gentle.

That's not a lamb. That's a picture God painted of the lamb that's seated at his right hand in heaven. And my dad got tired of mowing his back pasture one time. So he bought some sheep. And they were behind my house too in the country in New Albany, Indiana.

And one of the sheep had a sheep. And by the way, shepherds don't have sheep. Sheep have sheep. And I walked out in this tiny... And the Greek word in Revelation is lambkin. A tiny baby newborn lamb. I think it's 17 or 21 times I get confused.

Somebody said 21 and it confused me. All the way through, it's always lambkin. A tiny baby newborn lamb. That's Jesus. And this little tiny baby lamb was so cute. It was fresh. Just came out. And I walked up to pet it.

I was going to touch it and pet it. And the mother was just looking at me. She didn't care. She knew me. And when I reached out to pet it, it went... It bit my hand almost off. No, it didn't. It was a lamb, not a Christian.

I mean... Martin Luther said Christians don't tell lies. They sing them. No, it didn't do anything. It didn't have any fangs. It didn't have any claws. It was just born. It couldn't even stand up. That's the picture of God's son in the book of Revelation.

And that lamb went back to Abel. My personal opinion, I'm personally convinced that God killed lambs and covered them with those bloody skins. Because we know he covered them with skins. We know that Abel offered the firstling of the flock.

And something happened when he put it on the altar. My opinion is that fire came down and consumed it. Because Cain saw it and made him mad. That lamb and his blood is the message of the word of God. It's the only hope of the universe.

And John the Baptist, who was a great prophet... Jesus said he was the greatest prophet. Do you know why? If he ever worked a miracle, it's not recorded. But you know why he was the greatest prophet? Because his privilege, his ministry, his calling...

And by the way, he destroys every theological camp in the world. He was filled with the Holy Ghost before he was born. That destroys every theological camp I've ever heard of. The Bible says God doesn't give his spirit to the wicked.

And he was filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb and was more on fire than most of us. He leaped for joy. Because he heard the lamb's voice before he was born. And he came from the womb, the Bible said, filled with the Holy Ghost.

And I don't understand that, but I believe it with all my heart. God can do anything he wants to do. I'm sorry to inform you. And that's what he did. And he went out in the wilderness wearing a leather garment and eating bugs.

Modern commentators try to say they were leaves off the locust tree. That's such baloney. The Greeks had a word for it, baloney. Bugs and wild honey. And he was rough around the edges. He never read how to win friends and influence people.

And he came out of the wilderness baptizing, preaching repentance. The first word of the gospel is repent. Reform. Turn around. Start thinking about sin like God thinks of it. That's repentance. Boy, he was preaching repentance and even the Pharisees, even the Pharisees were coming down.

Folks, that's a miracle. And they wanted to be baptized. And if it had been us, we'd go, sweet. The Pharisees are coming. The ones with money. The ones with the big robes. I have a book called The Pharisees Guide to Total Holiness.

John the Baptist wasn't like us. He looked at them and said, you brood of vipers. What a man of God. You didn't care about the offering. I saw this cartoon of this huge church and the pastor was preaching on Sunday morning.

Only one couple on the back row. And he said, as you may recall, I said some things last Sunday that needed to be said. John the Baptist preached the truth. What could God do with a whole generation of John the Baptist that would stand up and preach the cross again and introduce the world again to the Lamb of God?