Tape 1 - Who Do You Say I Am?

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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman

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There are many things in the scripture that we just don't understand, and God laid on my heart a few months back to do a complete study of the blood of Christ in the
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Bible. So I began studying about the blood of Christ. Now you hear it preached,
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I've preached it, we sing about it, we talk about it, and most people are completely ignorant.
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I'm sorry, most people are just totally ignorant of the blood of Christ. And what I want us to do this week is take the
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Old Testament, correlate it with the New Testament, and I want to just teach you this week,
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I don't want to preach to you, hopefully, I probably will some, but I don't want to do that necessarily, but I want to teach you what the
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Bible says about the blood of Jesus Christ. Now that's alien to modern intellect. People do not like to talk about, they scoff and scorn at the thought of the blood of Christ, and yet it is the essentiality, it is the essence of redemption.
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For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There cannot be forgiveness of sin outside the blood of Christ.
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Now we want to cover topics like, and the first one, I want to give you a message that I gave to you one other time, what the
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Bible teaches about the blood of Christ. Secondly, on Tuesday, we want to go into reconciliation through the blood of Christ.
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How are you reconciled to God because of the blood of Christ? He said, well, Jesus died, but how is that blood applied to your life?
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I mean, we're living in the 20th century. What's it mean to you in 1974? We're talking about 2 ,000 years ago.
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Reconciliation through the blood, how you are sanctified through the blood of Christ. A lot of people think you've got to get sanctified later on.
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My Bible says you are sanctified through the blood of Christ, and I want to show you how that happens, and you're going to have to understand that we're going to have to necessarily go through Leviticus, the 16th chapter, we've got to do a little
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Old Testament study with the New Testament and show you the sacrificial system, how it worked with the
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Jews and the nation of Israel and the high priest and how they offered their sacrifices, and how it happens today between you and me and God and the
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Holy Spirit and Christ. So we have reconciliation, sanctification, how are you cleansed through the blood of Christ?
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You know, I once saved, always saved, it's because of the blood of Christ, it's not what you do, it's not what
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I do, it's the blood of Christ that cleanses you from all sin. If I were to stand before you tonight and stand and say that God does, did you know you're not guilty?
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If you're a Christian, you're not guilty. You are never guilty in the eyes of God if you're a Christian, not spiritually so you're not.
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Now God will get you for what you do wrong, you'd understand that, but spiritually you are never guilty before God as a
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Christian, all because of the blood of Christ, that's not license, it is a privilege, but with that privilege you have precept, by that I mean you have responsibility along with it, but cleansing through the blood of Christ.
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How do you have power through the blood of Christ? How do you have fellowship with Christ through the blood? It's all the blood of Christ and I believe that if you'll come every single night this week,
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I believe that the Old Testament will come alive to you and I believe the New Testament will be far more meaningful to you in your life than you ever dreamed possible, because you cannot understand the
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New Testament until you understand the Old Testament. It is an impossibility. Most people ask me about those tapes
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I've got on the Book of Revelation, they say why it sounds so simple. Book of Revelation is probably one of the easiest books in the
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Bible to understand. Most people think it's the most difficult. It's difficult because you don't know the Old Testament. If you knew the
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Old Testament, the Book of Revelation, it just unfolds to you. But because of intellectual laziness, we don't know a lot of things that we ought to know.
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So that's what I want to do with you basically this week and I believe that God will bless us. We've done it several times in the churches and the churches have been revived, they've been revitalized, and Christians have had a greater appreciation of the
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Bible, a greater appreciation of one another, certainly a greater appreciation for their Lord, and a greater appreciation for the cause of Christ.
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And I pray that you'll be here. Now if you don't want to study, don't come, just stay at home. Don't take up my time, don't take up God's time, and don't take up the
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Holy Spirit's time trying to convict you of sin when He wants to be teaching you. You see, if you come to church with unconfessed sin in your life, the
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Holy Spirit's got to spend all His time convicting you of that sin when He'd like to be teaching you. So if you'll confess your sins before you get here, get your sins confessed before you come, the
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Holy Spirit can spend that time teaching you rather than spending His time convicting you. And it's a reality, dear people, it's a reality.
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And I hope that you'll come and try to sit in here, and if we overflow the building, we'll find places for them.
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But try to, don't scatter out, I mean, don't sit out in the foyer. Can you hear me back there in the back rows?
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Sure, I thought you could. So it wouldn't make any difference if you were sitting down here or back there, you're going to hear me, aren't you? Okay, fine.
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Baptist churches are all this way, so don't get all rattled. Matthew 16. I believe that some people, when they get to heaven, want to sit on the back row, if there be any rows.
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Now, men, now, I know you ushers and deacons back there, I understand, I understand, but Oh, that's right,
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I'm sorry, I made a mistake, another unusual Baptist church, don't have deacons. I don't know how you exist. Don't have deacons, don't have bulletins.
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I don't know how you make it in the Baptist church. That's a blessing in disguise. Matthew 16. Matthew 16.
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We'll have a great time together. Aren't you happy you're a Christian? Oh, I tell you what. I told the pastor, if it rained like this down in Texas, we'd have to close churches down.
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They don't have church. They don't have. I was just over in North Carolina, and they had meetings in North Carolina, and they had a meeting over there, and it just kind of drizzled.
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I mean, it wasn't anything like it did here, and congregation has. And I was stunned.
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And I told them about John. I said, you know, I was up in Elgin, Illinois, and they had four inches of snow before I got there.
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They had five inches while I was there, and they were waiting on 10 more when I left. And you know, it's so, you know, it's so, and I got on the plane, it was flurrying snow.
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And they asked me, and I said, what's the forecast? He said, 10 inches may come. He said, they say it could be up to 10 inches.
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And I said, and it drizzles, and you can't come to church. It's amazing to me. Cars won't start.
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People can't. I don't understand it all, but I want to preach to you about that tonight. Not about that, but in a way about that, and throw out what's your appetite.
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If you look at verse 13 of chapter 16, very familiar passage of Scripture.
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It's quite familiar to you, but follow along with me, if you will, and let's let the Lord speak to our hearts.
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And I believe that God wants to bless us tonight, and this week, and I do pray that as we read
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God's word, always endeavor, when your pastor reads, or Sunday school teacher reads, always be reverent with the word of God.
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Listen to the word of God. This is the way God speaks to your heart most of the time. It's through this book.
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You can't ever know about God and his will for your life without relating everything that happens to you in your life to the word, to the word.
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All right, look what he asks. This is Jesus, of course, the master teacher. When Jesus came unto the, and the word here means borders, now you know that like I do.
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When Jesus came unto the borders of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I, the
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Son of Man, am? And they said, some say that thou art John the
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Baptist, some say Elijah, and there are others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
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He said, who do people say that I am? They said, some people think you John the Baptist, some people think you're Elijah, some of them think you're
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Jeremiah, or they just think you just another one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but who say ye that I am?
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He said, who do you say I am? I'm not too much interested in what they say, what do you say? And Simon Peter, who was always the first to come forth on anything, seemingly, and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the
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Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art the Christ, the
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Son of the living God. Now the word Christ is from the Greek word Christos, and all it means is anointed one.
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It doesn't mean anything else. Don't say it means something that it doesn't. It simply means anointed one.
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And the word Christ is the same as the English translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, or Messiah.
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Messiah and Christ mean the exact same thing, and all it means is anointed one.
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So Simon Peter says, thou art the anointed one, the Son of the living
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God. Had he just said the anointed one, it may not have conveyed the meaning, but he qualified it.
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He said, not only are you the anointed one, but you are the Son of the living God, because the
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Bible does use the word anointed one in many ways. David was an anointed one.
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Barquba, who was a false messiah, who lived in the intertestamental period between the
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Old and the New Testament, those 400 dark years of intervening time between the writing of the
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Holy Scripture, they called him the anointed one, and they used the very same words. So Peter qualified it.
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He said, you are the anointed one. And what I really mean is, you are the Son of the living God, and that's what
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I want to preach to you tonight on. Who do you say he is? I don't care what other people say, what do you say, as an individual, as a person, not your wife, not your husband, not your mother, your dad, not your friends, not your neighbor, not the pastor, not the men, not the
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Sunday school teachers, just who do you say, as a person, that Jesus Christ really is?
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Would you pray with me for a moment, Father? I simply pray, Lord, that you'll bless the teaching from thy word. I pray,
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Lord, to thank you for the Holy Spirit of God who pricks and probes and pries into the hearts of lives and people.
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I pray for the young people here tonight, the children. I pray that you'll speak very tenderly and very preciously to their young hearts.
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I pray for the young people who are teenagers. I pray, God, that you'll warm their hearts. I pray that they'll understand that there is a tremendous responsibility that comes with being a
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Christian and carrying that wonderful name of Christ around with us. And, Father, I pray for adults tonight, that they too shall understand that there is a tremendous holy responsibility that comes with carrying the name of Christian.
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Father, I pray that truly we would be mirrored images of the matchless and marvelous Son of God.
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So, Father, I pray that you'll take this question tonight, that the Lord Jesus ask of Simon Peter and the apostles of old.
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Father, I pray that it shall ring forth tonight, who do you say that I am?
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And, Lord Jesus, as we answer that in our hearts individually, I pray that you'll bind us together corporately, and I pray that you'll join this church in unity and harmony, and that it shall go forth once again into this community to spread the love of God and the grace of Almighty and everlasting
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King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Himself. Father, bless our hearts now as we look into thy word, and we'll thank you for it because we ask it in Christ's name until he returns.
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Amen. The question, of course, as I said, who do you say that I am,
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Jesus asked this of the apostles. I believe he always necessarily had a specific purpose, but I believe he just kind of threw it in the
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Scripture, and the Bible says there are many things that he said are not recorded in the Scripture. There are many things he did that are not recorded in the
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Bible. But he put it there, I believe, for the purpose of stimulating their thinking, but also to leave it there so that as the ages unfold, that every person that would read that, you cannot read that passage without that question sticking in your own heart and mind.
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Who do you say that I am? And many answers have come forth, and in the 20th century, 1974 years
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A .D., 1974 ad datum, 1974 years supposedly after the
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Lord Jesus Christ came upon the earth personally, the same question goes forth. And Jesus was constantly asking this same question.
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This wasn't the only place that he asked it. He asked it in many different ways. He did just come out here and just say, well, who do you say that I am?
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But he used parables, he used different ways of teaching, he used different statements, and sometimes he just said, take up your cross and follow me.
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And actually he was saying there, who do you say that I am? Because if you answer it correctly, you're going to take up that cross and follow me.
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Now there are many answers that are given by lost people. By lost people I mean non -believers, by non -believers
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I mean people who have never themselves had a personal experience with the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about people who have never themselves lifted their hearts to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and asked God for forgiveness and invite Christ into their life in their own personality, in their own words, their own vocabulary, but confess the fact that they are sinners and invite
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Christ into their life to be their personal Lord and Savior. My Bible says that a person who's never done that is a non -believer and my
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Bible says they're lost. They've never been born again. They are not saved no matter how religious they may be.
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And the Bible teaches them. So consequently, they come up with other answers. They say, well, he was a prophet.
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That's exactly what they said. They said some people say Jeremiah, some people say this, some people say something else, but there are those who say you're just one of the prophets.
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Now the Bible does say that Jesus was a prophet. The Bible says that God in the Old Testament, it said that God would raise up a prophet like unto
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Moses, but who would be greater than Moses. And Jesus himself said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up. As Moses took a serpent and he nailed it, a brass serpent, a copper alloy there.
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He took it and nailed it to a big stick and raised up. And God said, if you'll look upon it, then you'll be healed.
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And Jesus said, I've got to be nailed just like that was. And if you'll look unto me, he said, you'll be healed and you'll never thirst and all these things that he taught us.
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He was a prophet, but he was more than a prophet. He was like unto
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Moses. And yet he was after the order of high priest of Melchizedek who had no beginning. There are no parents for him in the scripture for Melchizedek.
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Jesus was from the beginning to the end. But I say to you, there are those. And last week I was at a meeting and a young Jew was there.
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And this young Jewish boy who happens to be a medical doctor, he said, well, I believe that that Jesus was a prophet.
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I believe he was probably an inspired man. And he left it.
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And my question is this. If he was a prophet, if he was an inspired man, certainly he would never lie.
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A prophet doesn't lie. An inspired man of God would not lie. Now, what did he say?
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He didn't say I'm a prophet. He said, I am the son of the living God. He said, before Abraham was,
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I am. He said, I am. And I illustrate that to you when I was with you previously. I want to doubly illustrate tonight.
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Jesus, when he said before Abraham was, I am, used the same two words that God used in speaking to Moses out of the burning bush.
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That's why in the very next verse in John the 8th chapter, around verse 59, the Jews took up stones to kill him because he claimed to be the
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God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But you see, when they came to get him in the Garden of Gethsemane, what did he say?
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They said, we've come to find Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said, I am.
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And what happened? What happened in the Garden of Gethsemane? Oh, dear people, so many people walk right by it and never see it.
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Jesus said, here were all the Jews, the Roman soldiers. They came to capture him.
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And he said, I am. And the Bible says they staggered backwards and fell on their face.
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And yet, they came to get him. And his majesty so overwhelmed them by using the two words that means that he's the
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God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's more than a prophet. But others say, well, I think he was a great teacher.
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When he was 12 years of age, he walked into the temple. He went into one of the teaching areas of the synagogue.
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And he began to teach the learned doctors of the day. And he was only 12 years of age. At another time in his life, they said, never a man spoke like this man speaks.
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He speaks authority. This man talks like he knows what's going on. And he had a complete command of the scripture.
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He could quote the Old Testament any time he desired. He quoted from every book in the Old Testament.
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He said, Moses and the prophets, they have written about me. Jesus said, the Old Testament screams aloud with my majesty and my splendor.
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He had a complete command of the Old Testament. And he spoke to the learned Jews of the day so much so and in such a manner that they said, we've never heard a man talk like this man talks.
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And yet, they had the great rabbis of old. They had Gamaliel, the man who taught the apostle Paul. They had some of the greatest minds the world's ever known.
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And yet, he was a young man. A young man, listen, not even 33 years of age.
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That stunned them with his authority and with his intellectual capability. And the quality of his life was that which they could not.
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Oh, listen to me carefully, dear people. He's more than a teacher. More than a teacher. Most teachers give speculation.
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Most of them surmise. Most of them deal in conjecture and assumptions. Or presumptions.
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And Jesus gives declarations, declaration and guidance. Purity, confidence. He doesn't speculate about anything.
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He says, here he is, Paul. More than a teacher. There are others who say, well, he's a superstar. Probably one of the worst and one of the most infamous musical abominations to ever hit
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America is Jesus Christ Superstar. Jesus Christ Superstar that a lot of young people jumped onto and they thought is great and wonderful.
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It says that Jesus Christ had an illicit sexual affair with Mary Magdalene.
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It makes Jesus Christ a blundering, stumbling fool. And he makes
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Judas Iscariot the hero. But I want you to know this, that Joe Namath is a superstar.
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Yeah, Joe Namath is a superstar. Dick Butkus is a superstar. Yeah, there are many superstars.
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Bart Starr of the Green Bay Packers of former years, a superstar. Bob Lilley of the Dallas Cowboys, superstar.
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Larry Zonka, Paul Warfield of the Miami Dolphins, superstar. John Brody of the San Francisco 49ers, superstars.
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Henry Aaron of the Atlanta Braves, superstars. Jesus isn't a superstar. He's the
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Son of the Living God. He's the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And you better stop trying to bring him down to your human level.
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You can never bring him down here. He doesn't want you to bring him down here. He wants to spiritually lift you up to where he is.
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And there's a big difference in trying to bring him down to grassroot levels and talk to the man in the sky.
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He's your Lord. And if you'll let him, he'll lift you spiritually, dear people, to right where he is.
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I thank God that I am seated in the heavenlies with the Lord Jesus spiritually.
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Seated in the heavenlies, and that's where you are if you're a Christian. You're seated right there with him. But you don't live like it.
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You don't act like it, and sometimes we don't feel like it. But you see, that doesn't change the fact.
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Because you don't feel like it, because you don't think so, because you don't live like it, dear people, it's a reality.
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It is a reality. I say to you, he's more than a superstar. You say, but we're talking about what lost people, unbelievers say.
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What about the Christians? What do Christian people say? Well, we talked about it. Christian people have all kinds of things they say about it.
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And the Bible goes on, and it gives us many. What about in the wilderness? Satan. I would just ask to come and make a television appearance in the state of Kentucky.
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Two Roman Catholic priests, a Methodist minister and an Episcopalian minister were on the television discussing the movie
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The Exorcist. Most of the psychologist friends that I have and the psychiatrists tell me that their business has almost doubled since The Exorcist came on the scene.
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And people's minds, and I know mine has. My counseling opportunities, I can't meet them all.
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I have people calling me, and I talk to your pastor on the phone. I have people calling me from across the country. I had a major in the
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Korean Air Force come to my office, his mind torn apart.
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And these people on television, they said, well, Satan, there's no such thing as Satan. What it really means is it's just a lack of goodness in the world.
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But you see, the Bible will not allow that. The scripture used, the language, the Hebrew, will not allow it. Neither will the
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Greek and the New Testament. It will not allow it. It always uses the definite article. It always uses the personal masculine, which indicates real people.
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Jesus was some kind of an idiot. If he went out and talked to nothing, he was psychotic. And my
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Bible says that Satan addressed him as the Son of God. Satan knew who he was.
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And most people think that Jesus went running out into the wilderness to hide from Satan. No, sir, he was looking for him.
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He was hunting him. Jesus was going out to put him to the test. Satan wasn't hunting Jesus and Jesus running from Satan.
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Jesus went out into the wilderness, led by the Spirit of the Lord. He went out there, and after he went hungry, and after he was thirsty 40 days and 40 nights, and his weakened condition, then
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Satan came to him. Jesus was waiting on him, dear people. He wasn't running from him.
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And Satan addressed him as the Son of God. Isn't it amazing that Satan gives Jesus the title that human beings want?
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I mean, Satan addresses him as Son of God. Most people won't. It's utterly fantastic. Well, the maniac of Gadara.
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Oh, by the way, I was telling you about the television program. It's amazing the response you get. And last week in Fort Worth, Texas, at a
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Lions Club meeting, I was asked to come down and just sit in, and another gentleman, you know, I don't pull punches with you.
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He happened to be a Roman Catholic priest who said about the maniac of Gadara, a young dental friend, a dentist friend of mine, he stood up and asked him, when the man talked about Satan not really being real and all this stuff, and demonic activity not being real, it's all in the mind.
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He says, well, now, we have many terms today that equate the same, you know, they're the same equation. He said, we have paranoia, we have schizophrenia, and there's no question that we do have valid mental illnesses.
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And he talked about all these things. And this young dentist friend says, well, how can you transfer mental illness into pigs?
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And the pigs went off the hill and down. And the man, a Roman Catholic priest, said, that's not in the
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Bible. He said, that's not, young boy. He didn't know where it was. He said, but I've read it.
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He said, it's not in the Bible. And I said, excuse me, sir, if you'll turn to Mark the fifth chapter, you will find it in the
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Scripture. It is in the Bible, and I was glad to take my New Testament out and read it to about 240 -something men in the
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Lions Club as a man stood there with his collar turned backwards and stumbling and stammering with his tradition and his philosophy and his church history knowledge, but being almost ignorant of the
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Word of God. I am not an authority on the Scripture, nor do I profess to be, but I know that's in there.
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And yet there's so many people who are hung up on what people say instead of going to the Bible and what the
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Bible says. If you'll do what the Bible says, dear people, you won't get into much trouble. If you just do what the book says.
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Do what it says. It's the greatest book on living the world has ever devised. The maniacal Gadara, here was a man who came.
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He was tormented in his mind, and we did a study, basically, when I was with you in January, I believe it was.
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We talked about Mark, the fifth chapter, and the different symptoms, how many of them are exactly alike and very similar to real mental illnesses.
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But while there are some that are different, and I say to you again, there is no psychological classification for a person.
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There's not one case in human history where any mentally ill person has ever spoken in a language that he has not been previously exposed to.
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And yet there are many people who come under the dominion and the control of Satan that can speak in languages that they have never heard, that they've never been out in.
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And I gave you the example of Mirabelli, the Brazilian medium, that speaks in 25 different languages.
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A 10 -year -old boy in the Philippines that speaks in about 12 different languages and dialects, when in real life, when he's not in a trance, in a seance, he can only speak one
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Philippine dialect and broken English, and one of the languages he speaks is Russian, and he's never been out of that little village, and a
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Russian has never been there. And then we talked about Dr.
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Kirk Cook, that your pastor is familiar with, with over 30 ,000 case histories.
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30 ,000 case histories of demonic oppression and demonic possession, demonic subjection and demonization.
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And affiliated with him is Dr. Lechler, who was head of the largest mental hospital in Europe for 25 years.
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This man came to Jesus, and they said, What have we to do with thee, thou
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Son of God? The demons of hell know who he is, and they will recognize him readily and immediately, but people won't.
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Well, we go on down. There was a man in a synagogue, and Jesus came, and the Bible says he had demonic trouble in his life, demonic activity.
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I like what Billy Graham said the other night at the Arizona Crusade. He said, If a Christian sins and keeps a sin in their life, they open themselves up to demonic activity.
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He is the first major Christian leader in America to come out and acknowledge that Christians can have demonic activity in their life.
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I thank the Lord for it. I thank the Lord for it. And I have a lot of people, I have a lot of theologians. I talked to a theologian two days ago.
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He said, I just can't abide. I said, Let me do this. When the doctors come and call me, and they send me a young man or a young lady or a mother or a dad or a teenager, and they have a psychological report in their hand that says we can find nothing wrong with this person.
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They have no psychosis, no neurosis, nothing wrong with them psychologically. Perfect order. A medical doctor's report right underneath it.
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It says organically there's nothing wrong. This person ought to be happy, whole, and healthy. Let me send them to you.
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And you help them. If demonic activity isn't real. It is real.
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And through counseling, they are set free and delivered. And they're going to live glorious, victorious, happy Christian lives.
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It's utterly amazing. And yet the Bible says that doesn't it? 1 Timothy 4? It plainly states in the last days there'll be people who will depart from the faith and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.
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And the Greek language will not allow the translation or the mistranslation of doctrines about demons.
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It is doctrines by demons. And so that's what we have today. But this man in the synagogue says,
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I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. He knew who he was. Pontius Pilate brought him in.
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And after Pilate questioned him, couldn't find anything wrong with him, Pilate said, I can find nothing wrong.
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He said, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Even Pontius Pilate acknowledged who he was.
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He said, he's just. That means there's no fault in him. There's nothing wrong with him at all. Isn't it strange to you that on the first day of Nisan, which is the
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Hebrew month, the tenth day of Nisan, on the tenth day of Nisan coming out of Egypt, God told the people of Israel, on that tenth day,
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He said, get a lamb and you keep it. And on the fourteenth day, which was five days later, five in the
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Bible is the number of grace. Five days later, He said, you take it and put it on the blood, on the lintel and the doorpost.
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And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you and the death angel won't come in. On the tenth day of Nisan, they took that lamb and the reason they kept it five days was to make sure it wasn't sick, to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with it.
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And then they offered that lamb for God delivering the people of Israel out of Egypt. Did you know it was only exactly the same day, the tenth day of Nisan, that Jesus walked into Jerusalem to die on the cross?
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Where's the first place they took Him after there? They took Him before what? The high priest, the same place that the people of Israel took the sacrifice.
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They took it to the high priest. They took it in and when Jesus came out of the garden, the first person they took Him to was the high priest.
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Why? So that He could say, I can't find anything wrong with Him. And Pontius Pilate answered for all of them, said, we can't find anything wrong with Him.
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Totally just, ready to die, perfectly able, perfectly willing, with no blemish and no spot whatsoever.
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The centurion, oh, Jesus hanging on the cross. I've tried to get that in my mind. I wish,
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I wish that I had an artist's friend who could paint for me the crucifixion scene the way I'd like for it to be painted.
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With Jesus hanging on the cross and the dark clouds beginning to roll in and perhaps some way to convey on that cloth the clapping of the lightning as it flashed across the skies and the rolling of the thunder as it would come across as the clouds began to move in the darkness as the wrath of God began to be poured out upon the blessed
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Son of God and the earth began to shake and all the rocks began to split open and the graves and the cities began to open up and one man stood at the foot of the cross and all of a sudden he was overwhelmed with what
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God was doing through nature as nature itself rebelled against the death of the
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Son of God and he said, Surely, truly, this man is the Son of God.
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Even he who crucified him acknowledged that he was and people still won't.
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People still won't. And he said he was. And then he came to old
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Simon Peter. He said, Peter, who do people say? They said, Some people think you're
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John the Baptist. You're John the Baptist. Others say that they think you're Elijah.
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You see, the Bible said in the Old Testament that Elijah is to come and even the Jews today at the
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Passover meal, they stand at the closing of the Passover and they hold up a little glass of wine towards an empty door.
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There's always an empty place set at the table of the Passover meal and no one sits there. There's a place sitting there that no one bothers.
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It's for Elijah. And they stand at the door and they beckon for Elijah to come because Elijah was to come before the
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Messiah would come and to set up his reign as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So they said they believe that maybe you're he.
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Maybe you've come and the Messiah's going to follow you. And others, because of his compassion, because of his concern, they said they think you're
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Jeremiah reincarnated. They think you're Jeremiah raised from the dead because of your compassion for people.
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And Jesus just erased him and said, Well, Peter, I can't help a whole lot of what people think, but what
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I'm really interested in, what do you think? What do you say? And Simon Peter said,
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No question in my mind. Peter said, I don't have any doubts about it at all. Well, I mean, he didn't say, Well, now, you know,
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Lord, I believe. Oh, Lord, I think. Oh, Lord, I feel. Oh, I got a friend that told me.
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Now, you know what they say, and we never know who they are, but they say or they told me or that's what they said.
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And we never can pin it quite down who they really are. But he said, No, he just said, Thou art the Christ.
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There's no question about it. Why? Now, you don't even have to ask that question, Lord. Thou art the Christ, the
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Son of the living God. He said, You are him. You are he. You are it. You are all this world ever needs.
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You are the one. That's what he was saying. Now, I want to ask you a question in closing.
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And you know the question, don't you? Who do you say he is? Huh? Sir, who do you say he is?
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You say, Well, there's no question in my mind. If you answer like Peter answered, if you answer like Simon Peter answered, and you say in your heart that he is the
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Christ, the Son of the living God, then what you're going to have to do is acknowledge, dear people, that he is the
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Lord of your forgiveness. You see, if you're ever going to get saved, you're not going to get saved by joining this church.
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You're not going to get saved by joining any other church. The only way you're ever going to get saved is acknowledging that there's just one way to get saved, and that's through Jesus Christ.
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You've got to stop trying to figure out your way, and you've got to get it God's way. I mean, a lot of people are trying to find peace with God their way when you've got to do it
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God's way. And the only way you can ever get your sins forgiven is to confess them to the Lord and ask
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Him to forgive you. And the moment you do that in sincerity, you have forgiveness, and you have it immediately.
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You don't have to worry about having it. You don't have to figure out if you've got it, dear people. The Bible just says it's a fact.
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You've got it. Just accept it in your life and appropriate it. Stop worrying about whether God forgave you three days ago.
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Stop worrying about whether God's forgiven you four or five days ago. Stop letting Satan defeat you in your life with all that guilt and anxiety.
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If you've asked God to forgive you, He has. He has, and He'll do it.
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That's why Christ died on the cross. He'll do it. If you're already a
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Christian, the same thing applies. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Christians, most people tell me, and you know, most psychologists, psychiatrists that I read and I meet many of them across this country, tell me, and I've said this to you, your pastor said it to you, you've read it, you've heard other people say it to you, that if most people would get the guilt and anxiety out of their lives, they wouldn't have any problem in this old world.
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Guilt and anxiety, and Satan uses that on you. You sin, yes. I sin, yes.
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And so we get guilt, and the guilt brings about anxiety, and anxiety not only deteriorates the mind, but it deteriorates the body physically.
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It deteriorates relationships. It deteriorates everything. Guilt and anxiety weighs in. That's why
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Christ said, My peace I give unto you. Not like the world gives.
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Let not your hearts be troubled, and neither let it be afraid. You are never to have a troubled heart about guilt and anxiety.
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If you've asked the Lord to forgive you as a Christian, He has. He has. So forget it.
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Forget it. And go on. And I say to you, that there's just one way.
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One mediator between God and man, not the pastor. You don't have to come to the pastor for confession. You might have to come to him for a little guidance.
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You might have to come to him for some advice. But you don't have to sit in a confessional booth. You don't have to sit down on this front row.
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Dear people, right where you are right now, all you've got to do, if you're not a Christian, is to admit that to God, and be willing to turn away from the life that you're living, and turn your life over to Him.
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And the moment you do that, the Holy Spirit performs that great transaction. And the miracle of all miracles occurs when
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God regenerates your life. And the Spirit of the living God brings the life of God into your life.
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God and Christ and the Holy Spirit in one. I and the Father make our abode in you,
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Christ said. And the life of God begins to live through you. The moment you lift your heart.
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The Lord of your forgiveness. If you say, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, I'll go you another one.
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He's going to be the Lord of your home. I wish that all of you adults, I cannot understand why every married adult would not be in that training class.
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I got a chance to sit on that tonight. I wish, Pastor, every church could have something like that in their church.
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I spend 90 % of my time, other than occult counseling, and people hung up on witchcraft, and Ouija boards, and all that other stuff.
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People hung up on that. I spend most of my time counseling people who have marital problems.
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Christians. I'm not doing my law school. I'm talking about Christians. People who know the Lord. Churches are being destroyed by Christians who do not know what a family relationship is all about.
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And yet, some of you were there, bless your hearts, and others of you weren't. You just don't have time. Some of you older people, you think you've learned all there is to learn about the married life.
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You've learned all you know, all there is to know. There are many things you don't know. And to have a man of the caliber that you have, to give of his time, and the spiritual insight, and apply it to the scripture, you ought to take every advantage and be there, and be there.
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And I'll go, if you will. You'll make my job a lot easier, and you'll make your job a lot easier, too. I know you got it made, but brother, it won't be long you'll be calling to the pastor and say, what happened to my home?
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My husband, what happened? Get your life right with the Lord and it won't happen. And you can't be right with God if you're not right with one another.
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It is an impossibility. It is an impossibility to be right with God and not be right with your husband and wife.
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Nope. Can't prove it from scripture. Bible says just, well, I know what you think. But listen to me,
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I'm talking about this. In your decision -making process, what do we mean by the Lord of the home? In your decision -making process,
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Christ must be involved. Everything that affects your home and your life, Christ must be involved.
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You must take Him into consideration. How does this glorify God? How does this honor Christ? What would
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Jesus do? What would Jesus have me do? How does this reflect upon my Christian testimony? Instead of being pleasers of men, be a pleaser of God.
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And young people, that means that before you date, before you go anywhere, before you do things that affect your life, you must consider your
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Christian testimony. In your decision -making process, Christ must be
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Lord. He also must be Lord in the supplying of your needs. Stop being self -sufficient and self -dependent and recognize the fact that one good heart attack will let you know in a hurry just who you really have to depend on.
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Yeah. One good case of leukemia, teenage friend, will let you know in a hurry.
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One good case of terminal cancer will let you know in a hurry. About seven or eight years in an iron lung will let you know in a hurry who you better learn to depend on.
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And when it comes, brother, it's too late to learn to trust. It's too late to learn how to have faith.
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It's too late then. If you're not practicing now, you won't learn it then. It's too late when the tragedy hits to learn how to trust
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God then. You need to learn it now. Remember thy creators in the days of thy youth.
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Learn it early. Make it the habit of your life. You know why Job was able to be so successful?
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It was the habit of his life. He did it every day. So when the problems came, it didn't even bother him. He just kept on going the way it always will.
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He just kept on serving the Lord. And the Lord worked it out. What would happen if that had been a good old Baptist? You want me to tell you what most
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Baptists would have done? Just what that woman said. Why don't you curse God and die? I've heard people tell me that.
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I wish God had just taken me on out of this world. I just can't understand it anymore. Christian people know better sense than to make a statement like that.
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An ungodly, pagan statement to make. I wish God just take me on out of the world. I can't understand it.
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Compare your life to Job. You haven't had any persecution. You haven't had any problems or difficulties.
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Compare it to Simon Peter. Compare it to the Apostle Paul. Compare it to the Christians throughout the years.
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And we don't know what persecution's like. Go to India where I went and see a 15 -year -old girl that had her arms and her legs cut from her body because of her witness for Christ.
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You don't know what persecution's all about. Go to Taiwan where a 16 -year -old girl when she slipped over to the mainland of China to hand out tracts was immediately thrown against a concrete wall and shot by five soldiers.
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You don't know what persecution's all about. And I think one of the statements in the thing was
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Plum, P -L -O -M, poor little old me, self -pity, and self -sufficiency, self -dependency.
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All these things are wrapped up together. Learn, and then in your home, loving your heart for one another.
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We're talking about the Lord of your home. You can't love one another until you get your lives together in Christ, in Christ.
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And you see, a lot of people are confused here. People, now close the system carefully. A lot of people are confused when Jesus said,
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He that loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. They're confused when they say, You ought to love your husband, you ought to love
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Jesus more than you love your husband. You ought to love the Lord more than you love your wives. You ought to love the Lord more than you love your parents.
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You ought to love the Lord more than you love your children. People are confused about that. But what it really means is this, it's not that you don't love them, it's you make
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Christ first in your life, and he gives you the ability and the capability to really love your mate, to really love your children, to really love your parents
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Like you could never do otherwise he opens the door to love to you and yet most people miss it
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Most people miss it because Christ is not the Lord of their home. He's the Lord of your home when the preacher knocks on the door
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He's the Lord of a home whenever you can't do anything else and you get down to the old in the road You say well our homes on the rocks
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I guess all we can do is pray about it if you'd spend a lot of time in prayer before You to save yourself a lot of heartaches a lot of heartaches
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And then I want to just say this if you say thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God He'll be the
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Lord of your forgiveness of your soul salvation Redemption of your life here on earth
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He'll be the Lord of your home and your relationships in your home your relationship to other people dear people
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He'll be the Lord of your life at work you men you ladies
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Somebody watches everything you do you influence somebody almost every minute of your life for Christ or against Christ Every moment of your life teenager or mother dad grandmother granddad almost every moment of your waking life
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You influence somebody to either choose for Christ or to choose against Christ That is a tremendous
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Responsibility that has been placed upon our shoulders and our hearts and our lives to know That everything you do or say on the job or on leisure time
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Wherever you go everything you say or do reflects upon the Lord Jesus Christ You think about it sir
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Who do you say that he is? Ma 'am, who do you say? What do you say?
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Young people, who do you say? Can you really say in your heart thou art the
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Christ the son of the Living God? Can you really say he is the Lord of all that I am?
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He is my Lord Not just my Savior from sin, but he's my Lord He governs everything that I do.
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I try to consult him on everything I'm involved in and everything that I do. I want to reflect for good upon the matchless marvelous
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Savior Many of you people sit here you're kind and you're gracious But deep down in your heart you are living in rebellion against God Deep down in your heart.
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You'll feel with selfishness and greed You're filled with egotism You're wrapped up in your own little world and nothing else matters except you can make another dollar or you can get a little more pleasure or you can get a little happier
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And you know nothing about Jesus Christ Really being your
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Lord That's the biggest need in this church I find it's the biggest need in every church that I go to is for Christians to wake up to the responsibility
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That when you say he is the Christ the son of the Living God that means that you give your life to him You lose it and give it to him and die to your selfish ambitions and your selfish desires
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And your intent upon this earth is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ thereby finding the road to peace confidence joy happiness
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Assurance everything you're trying to find everywhere else is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Let's pray father We stand in awe
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We cannot comprehend Our minds are not sufficient to grasp
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Our intellectual capabilities fail us All of the knowledge we've been able to attain all the wisdom we've tried to amass
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Fall short in conveying to us All that is wrapped up in that answer given to you by Simon Peter in years gone by Thou art the
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Christ the son of the Living God But Lord if we know our own hearts, we want you to be the
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Lord of our lives. We're tired of being unhappy We're tired Lord of living an old life wrapped up in self and sin
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We're tired of being disgruntled. We're tired of not having any peace We're tired of having arguments and gripings and misunderstandings and criticisms
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Lord, we're just tired of it. So Lord tonight. I pray as you speak to the hearts of good people
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Gracious and kind people as you speak to the hearts of Christian people tonight. I Pray that Christian people might just come and say pastor
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Brother Ernest, you know me and I know you and I'm a member here and I've tried to be faithful to the
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Lord, you know, but I've just let a lot of things go in my life I stopped reading the Word of God a long time. I don't read the
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Bible anymore. Oh spasmodically, I Don't pray until I want something
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I'm really not concerned about other people. I just live for myself. I really don't care for my wife my husband
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I don't care about my mother and dad. I really don't care about my young people children Lord here.
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They're trying to beg people Trying to find I have to stand and almost beg somebody to work with little children
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In a vacation Bible school to teach them something. Nobody else will teach them God have mercy
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Upon a cold in different hearts Lord, I pray for someone lost tonight that young man had young married person older married person that young lady who's never found
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Christ to be real as This young lady that we saw being baptized tonight found him to be real in her life
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May you speak to someone else's heart who may even be a member of a church maybe another church
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But they've never had that experience with Christ may they have the same courage May they you speak to their heart and give them the same grace
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To come and just say I want somebody to show me how I get Jesus in my heart and life