We Live in a Time When People Would Create a Religion Composite of God-Country-and a Fifth of Liquor, and Some Would Anticipate "Singularity"-When Human and AI Is Merged to Defy Death. In Scripture, Following the Synoptic Gospels Which Preach the Kingdom of Heaven, the Gospel of John Centers on the New Birth, and for This Reason John Stands as a Succinct Presentation of the Gospel of the Grace of God.
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00:00Amen, amen, all right. If you have your Bibles, I hope you have, turn with me to the book of Matthew, chapter number 5.
00:09This is Levi, tax collector.
00:14You say they collected taxes 2,000 years ago? Oh yeah.
00:19Oh yeah, once the government learned it could do that, it hadn't stopped since.
00:24Matthew, chapter number 5 and verse number 1.
00:29Matthew, chapter 5 and verse 1.
00:31And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain.
00:34When he was steady, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
00:40Blessed to the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
00:44Father, bless this book now in your holy name.
00:47Amen. You can be seated.
00:50And thus he enters his beginning of his earthly ministry, and he gives them what's called the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.
00:58He opens the book of Isaiah, chapter number 61.
01:02When he was handed the book at the synagogue and said,
01:05This day is the scripture fulfilled in your hearing.
01:09The Lord Jesus Christ was the apostle sent forth with a commission from the throne of almighty God.
01:17God now had become a man.
01:19God now had become closer to men than he ever had before.
01:22He had become a man so men could begin to understand a little bit about who he was, who he is, and his nature.
01:31He had become one of us.
01:33He was not exactly us.
01:35The Bible says he took, likewise, he took part of the same, referring to his incarnation.
01:41The part that he did not take was the fallen nature of Adam.
01:44But the Lord Jesus Christ was man in every sense of the word, fully man, fully God.
01:49No question about that.
01:51But he starts with the gospel of the kingdom.
01:53The reason I mention this to you this morning is because we keep up with current affairs.
01:58This is 2024.
02:00I've watched things develop in my lifetime.
02:02I am an observer.
02:04Believe me, I do listen.
02:06I watch.
02:08And we are living in a time, this country and around the world, where we are witnessing the development of a new faith.
02:15Now, this is a faith that is associated with Christianity, but it's associated with a lot of other things.
02:20The other day, I saw a man, and he was talking about God and country and a fifth of liquor.
02:27How many of you know what I'm talking about?
02:30Three of them together.
02:32And here's another one who talks about people of faith.
02:35Are you hearing this?
02:37How many has heard this now?
02:38People of faith.
02:39What you're seeing is the development of a new religion.
02:42This is a kind of a political populist religion, but it's a religion that a lot of people are, they've signed up to it.
02:49And they're putting all of their faith in a political party.
02:53I'm up here this morning to tell you that I will go as far as I can with any man, when he's in the truth, and support him in every way I possibly can, and pray for him.
03:03But folks, I'm a bishop in the church of God.
03:06That comes far, far, far before any political party.
03:11Who, whether they're here today and gone tomorrow, it makes no difference whatsoever.
03:16I'm called of God to preach the gospel, and that's what I'm going to do.
03:19And let me tell you right now, when you talk about people of faith, that's not the gospel.
03:24You talk about God, country, and a fifth of liquor, that is not the gospel.
03:29And you can get off into a lot of other things if you would.
03:31I'm not putting any political party down today.
03:34Obviously, if you've watched what's happened in the last few years, your food is costing you 30 to 40 to 50 percent more.
03:41A gallon of gasoline is double what it used to be.
03:44People, especially in Knoxville, Tennessee, because this place is growing, the cost of rent has doubled.
03:50People can't even afford a place to stay.
03:53They say this has contributed to a lot of homelessness, and people, the homes have gone up in value.
03:58Well, let's say value.
04:00They've gone up in expense.
04:01I don't know if they're any more valuable.
04:03And you're watching a country literally coming apart at the seams.
04:07Amen.
04:08Our southern border does not exist.
04:11They come by the millions.
04:13They're still telling how many we have in this country, tens of millions, 30, 40, 50, 60.
04:18Nobody knows of undocumented.
04:22They call them workers.
04:23That's a euphemism for the fact that they're aliens that have come across the border and have broken the law.
04:29And we're living with that.
04:30So it's obvious that we're living in a new time element that we've never lived in before.
04:37So keep that in mind.
04:38Amen.
04:39Keep it in mind.
04:40I served four years in the military and served four years in the military because I felt like I had a need and a responsibility to do that.
04:49I was born a male, 1946, never had any question about being a male.
04:55And when I went into the Marine Corps, they had no problem determining that I was a male.
05:00So I had no issue for four years with them, amen.
05:04But the point is that being a male, I felt an obligation to serve my country.
05:09I was never drafted or any of that, and I'm not putting anybody down that was drafted.
05:13I joined at my own free will.
05:15Four of us went in together.
05:17We had a buddy plan from rural high school.
05:19All four went in together.
05:21I signed up for four years, and two more of my buddies signed up for four years.
05:24But one of them snuck around and signed up for three years.
05:28I didn't know anything about it until he came up to us with a year left, and he said,
05:31Yo, boys, I'm getting out tomorrow.
05:34I said, What do you mean you're getting out tomorrow?
05:36We've got a year left.
05:37He said, No, I just signed up for three.
05:40I said, Oh, swerve, man.
05:42It's a fine time to learn about all this.
05:44Amen.
05:46So he went home, and I had another year.
05:48But that's all right.
05:49I'm not crying about it.
05:50We served our country.
05:52So I feel like I have a little bit of a right to get up here and gripe and complain a little bit, don't you?
05:57Amen.
05:58And I'm trying to tell you this, though.
06:00I'm trying to tell you that the gospel of Christ is not about people of faith.
06:05It's not about God, country, and a fifth of liquor.
06:07It's about the Lord Jesus Christ.
06:09That's what the gospel of Christ is about.
06:11And a lot of these people that are connected with a lot of this other stuff, they may very well be your brother and sister in Christ.
06:18I'm not the judge.
06:19The Almighty is.
06:20But I will tell you this today.
06:21I have a responsibility from God to preach the truth to you.
06:25And what I'm going to do is take you through a quick survey of the New Testament.
06:29I hope that if some of you that were here this past Wednesday night, you remember the message that I gave you about conditional situations as they show up, where John the Baptist could have been Elijah.
06:39This gets off into an area that will open up the New Testament for you.
06:43It took me decades to learn that, I suppose, that God chose a certain time to show me that and teach me that from the word of God.
06:51But the kingdom of heaven that is preached here in Matthew chapter number 5 was not a permanent thing.
06:56It was brought to the nation of Israel, to the Jewish people, and they rejected the king and they rejected the kingdom.
07:03And my friend, because of that, then the Lord God turned to the Gentiles.
07:09But during this period of time, when he offered the kingdom of heaven to the Jew, it was a conditional time.
07:17It was a time where John the Baptist could have been Elijah.
07:21Had that happened, a lot of things that we have known for 2,000 years could have gone an entirely different way.
07:28There's not one word in that Old Testament that said, first of all, there even had to be a church age.
07:34And there's not a word in that Old Testament that said that church age had to last for 2,000 years.
07:40This you get from studying the word of God.
07:42So the book of Acts chapter number 28 and verse number 28, this is one of those turning points in the Bible.
07:48Here's what it says, Acts 28, 28.
07:51Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it.
07:59Had Gentiles been saved before this statement?
08:02Of course they had.
08:03By reading the word of God, it's clear to anyone they had.
08:06But so what's happening here?
08:07We have a commission.
08:09We have a complete change in the direction of the emphasis of where the gospel now was going.
08:15It was going into that vast array of the sons of Japheth to the Gentiles.
08:20And out it went.
08:22And so in the book of Acts chapter number 28, verse number 28, it went.
08:26Who said this?
08:27The man that said this in verse number 30, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
08:33That wrote 13 books of the New Testament.
08:36Probably 14 if you wrote Hebrews.
08:38And we have a man here who wrote the biggest part of the New Testament itself.
08:43And he said, I'm an apostle, a sent one with a commission and authority from almighty God to carry the word of God to the Gentiles.
08:54Now there's a last gospel that is written.
08:56Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called synoptic gospels.
08:59Anybody ever heard that term before?
09:01They come from the word synopsis.
09:02It means a one view.
09:04That's all it means, a one view.
09:07So a synoptic gospel has to do with one view, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
09:11The reason they say that is because they can compile what's called a life of Christ from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
09:18I do not personally believe the New Testament was ever written so that we could sit down and meticulously record everything in chronological order of the life of Christ.
09:28Because some things don't necessarily fit.
09:30But that's okay.
09:31But the bottom line is this.
09:33Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written and so-called synoptic gospels.
09:38But the last gospel of the New Testament is not Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but it's John.
09:44And the gospel of John is written by the apostle John.
09:48The apostle John is the one the Lord said, take my mother, take her to the home, and be a son to her.
09:54And so when John wrote that gospel, he wrote it as he also wrote the last book of the Bible, of the canon of scripture, which is the Apocalypse.
10:03It's the book of Revelation.
10:04So in other words, God used the apostle John to close out the canon of scripture.
10:10Canon means what?
10:11It means straight, gun barrel straight.
10:14And he completed the scripture.
10:16Nothing to be added to it later.
10:18Now if you get into liberalism, liberalism will teach you that 135, 140, 200, 250, 300, some of them even go further than that, before the New Testament was ever completed.
10:29You get all kinds of garbage out there.
10:31But folks, I'm a Bible believer.
10:33And I believe the gospel of John is important because it doesn't deal with the kingdom of heaven.
10:39It doesn't deal with the Jewish kingdom.
10:41It deals with issues that are long past that.
10:44The gospel of John now is directed toward Gentiles, Jews, bond, free, red, yellow, black, and white.
10:51It makes no difference.
10:53The gospel of John is a universal gospel to all mankind.
10:57And the theme of the gospel of John is John chapter number three.
11:02You must be born again.
11:04That's not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.
11:06Not one time is it even mentioned Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
11:10There's a reason for that.
11:11Because in that Jewish kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the new birth was not an issue.
11:16Because it was an earthly kingdom here on this earth.
11:19But once that kingdom was rejected, and now the gospel of the grace of God preached by the apostle Paul.
11:25And preached by the apostle John.
11:28We have now a new birth.
11:30The new covenant.
11:32The new covenant of the book of Hebrews chapter number nine.
11:35Without the death of the testator, the testament is not in force.
11:39So when Christ died on the cross, the new covenant was ratified.
11:44It became of authority.
11:46It became legal.
11:47It was binding now.
11:49And you must be born again.
11:51Though what you read in the gospel of John chapter number three took place during the earthly ministry of Christ.
11:57The implications of it reach far into the future.
12:00Up to the time where we are today.
12:03The new birth is what we preach today.
12:05I don't preach building a kingdom.
12:07Have you ever heard me preach to you about building the kingdom?
12:11When you get into building a kingdom, you get into that image of Daniel chapter 606 B.C.
12:17In the book of Daniel.
12:18A kingdom that is a Gentile kingdom with a head of gold.
12:22Chest of silver.
12:23Midsection of brass.
12:25Legs of iron.
12:26There are kingdom builders in the churches today.
12:30They're building a kingdom.
12:31Therefore, it is necessary to build a culture.
12:34To build a people.
12:36To build a land.
12:37You're following me now?
12:38It is not my place to do that.
12:40My place is to preach the grace of God in the midst of hell.
12:45If the culture is going this way.
12:47He said upon this rock, I'll build my church.
12:51And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
12:54Last Sunday morning, we had people here from Mumbai, India.
12:58It's quite a remarkable thing.
13:00Mumbai, India.
13:02They have millions of people in Mumbai.
13:04Huge city.
13:05And they came and one of the young ladies gave me a pin that she had made.
13:09I had a very interesting conversation with them.
13:13They've been listening on YouTube and watching on YouTube.
13:15And it was quite a remarkable thing.
13:17And she said, Preacher, let me tell you this.
13:19She says in India, which has over a billion people, folks.
13:25In India, she says the spirit of God is moving.
13:28She said people are being saved.
13:30She says all over the place, the word of God is reaching out.
13:34And people are receiving Christ.
13:36I thought to myself, you mean that God's not an American?
13:42Are you listening to me?
13:44Amen.
13:45Do you think, Preacher, that God loves a little Indian as much he does as an American?
13:50Yeah.
13:52He said upon this rock I'll build my church.
13:55And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
13:58His church is not a bunch of bodies sitting in a building made with hands.
14:03His church is a spiritual entity.
14:06And his church, my dear friend, made up of people that are born of the spirit of the living God.
14:12And every one of us in this house today, glory to God.
14:15If you're born again, the Holy Ghost is living in you.
14:20And there's a power that comes together when God's people come together.
14:24Couldn't you feel that this morning?
14:26Good night.
14:28Couldn't you sense that from up here?
14:30These singers are up here singing for the glory of God.
14:33Could you not sense something from this choir?
14:36It was all over the place.
14:39There's power in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
14:42And that's all life.
14:44Without the Holy Ghost, it is dead orthodoxy.
14:48All the truth in words may be true, but there's no power in it.
14:52The power comes from the Holy Ghost who's able to touch the soul.
14:57Here's God on one hand, the Father eternal almighty being,
15:01and on the other is the Holy Ghost that touches the being,
15:05and it is the Son that connects the two.
15:08Amen.
15:09The Son can reach into heaven and take hold of the Father.
15:12He can reach down to this earth and take hold of you,
15:14but he never touches you except by the Spirit of the living God.
15:18For by one Spirit are we all baptized, no one body.
15:21It's the Holy Ghost that's there where he's turning to the potter's house.
15:28He said, Jeremiah, let me show you something.
15:30And he took him to the potter's house, and that was in Hebron, by the way.
15:34And Hebron's quite a place. I've been there.
15:36And when I went to Hebron, the potters were lined up one right after another
15:41on the little places on the side of the road,
15:44and I thought to myself, this is it. This is the potter's house.
15:48And so he sits there, and it's spinning, and it's marred in the hands of the potter.
15:54So what does he do? He makes it anew.
15:56But before he touches it anew, he puts his hand in the water.
16:00It is the water, the type of the Holy Ghost.
16:04Hand in the water.
16:06He knows that in order to touch it, he must touch it through the water.
16:09If Almighty God touched me this morning without the Holy Spirit, I'd cease to exist.
16:15I couldn't stand in His presence for a moment.
16:18I'm talking about an eternal, absolute being that is almighty and all-powerful.
16:23The only access we have to the Father is through the Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost of God.
16:29This is why you must be born again. Amen.
16:32And one day, one day, I'm jumping ahead of myself a little bit, but I'm going to go ahead and do it.
16:37One day, when you think about the new birth, why does he say in John, you must be born again?
16:43Now, most people equate the new birth with salvation, rightfully so, right?
16:48When you're born again, that's salvation.
16:50If you're born of the Spirit of God, you're saved, no question about it.
16:53But it goes further than that.
16:55The new birth changes your essence.
16:57For every one of us, every last thing on this earth, when it dies, the Spirit goes back to God that gave it, right?
17:05The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, the spirit of the man goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast goeth downward.
17:11That's life. Why? Because God's the source of life.
17:14There's nowhere else for life to go.
17:16It goes back to the life giver.
17:18There's only one that's alive. In him was life. He's life.
17:21But, we died when we sinned against God.
17:25So, spiritually, our spirit being, when it comes to that part that is of the very essence of God, of the likeness of God, the image of God, it died.
17:36And yet, we're still men.
17:38So, what happens?
17:39At the moment of conversion, by the new birth, your essence now has been changed from a child of the earth to a child of God.
17:49Born not from here, but born from above.
17:53Amen.
17:54And by that, you are able, capable, qualified to enter in to the very presence of almighty God himself.
18:03In the beloved.
18:05Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
18:07Accepted in the beloved.
18:09You see, the new birth, he said, Nicodemus, you must be born again.
18:13He didn't say, Nicodemus, you must be saved.
18:15He said, Nicodemus, you must be born again.
18:18That new birth qualifies us to approach and come in to the very presence of almighty God.
18:23How many followed me so far?
18:25That's what I'm trying to get across to you.
18:27Therefore, the new birth is in John, chapter number, in the gospel of John, chapter number 3.
18:33Now, I want you to turn there with me.
18:34Turn to John 3.
18:37I want you to look at something here this morning.
18:40John 3, verse number 3.
18:46John 3, 3.
18:47Remember now.
18:48The gospel of John has to do with the new birth.
18:50Matthew, Mark, Luke doesn't mention it.
18:52The gospel of John is the last gospel written.
18:54The gospel of John takes us in to the church age.
18:57The gospel of John makes a difference who you are, where you are, what you've done, how much money you've gotten, who you know.
19:02The gospel of John is the plain gospel of Christ who died for us.
19:06Now, look at verse 3.
19:07Jesus answered, said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, accept a man to be born again.
19:13He cannot see the kingdom of God.
19:14Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he's old?
19:18Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
19:20He answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee.
19:24Now, watch this.
19:25Accept a man to be born of water and of the spirit.
19:29He cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
19:32Now, look at verse 6.
19:34Let's look at just a little simple English grammar.
19:37Verse 6.
19:39That which is born of the what?
19:41Is flesh.
19:43And that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
19:46So, what's he comparing that to?
19:48He's comparing that to what he just said in verse 5.
19:51So, what do you mean?
19:52To be born of water is not to be born in a baptismal pool.
19:56To be born of water is the physical birth of a human being brought into this world.
20:01Many of you ladies are mothers in this house.
20:04And you know fully well what I say when I'm talking about when a woman's water breaks.
20:08You understand that.
20:09But look at the text.
20:10Look at the scriptures.
20:11Look at Isaiah chapter number 48 and verse number 1.
20:14This is a beautiful thing if you catch it in scripture.
20:17Isaiah chapter number 48 and verse number 1.
20:21Hear you this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel,
20:26and are come forth out of the what?
20:29Waters of Judah.
20:31Isn't that something?
20:32Now, look at Proverbs.
20:33Chapter number 5, verse number 16.
20:37Proverbs chapter 5, verse number 16.
20:45Proverbs 5, verse 16.
20:50Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
20:58Now, go back with me to the book of Numbers chapter 24 and verse 7.
21:03We're talking to people who at that time knew exactly what God was talking about.
21:08These are called figures of speech.
21:10But they knew what it was.
21:12Now, look at the book of Numbers chapter 24 and verse number 7.
21:16Look at this.
21:20He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters.
21:29Are you following?
21:30That's as plain as it can be.
21:32The seed in many waters.
21:35In plainer words, the physical human birth.
21:40Now, immediately, it makes you wonder what's going on in the book of Genesis chapter number 6.
21:45When the sons of God saw the daughters of men came unto them, and giants were born.
21:49Remember that?
21:50Men of renown.
21:52Be careful, he said.
21:53Angels could be walking in your midst, unawares.
21:56Be careful that everything you're looking at, you may not be looking at what you think you're looking at.
22:01The Bible says in the book of Daniel, it says, and they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.
22:06You remember that one?
22:08We preached on that a few days ago.
22:10Remember, we've talked about artificial intelligence.
22:13We've talked about CRISPR-Cas9.
22:16I'm just passing these out to you this morning.
22:19I've got messages on these things.
22:21I talked to you about DNA and the double spiral helix.
22:24Talked about a ladder and it's twisted, and the connection that goes through it.
22:28In plain words, I'm telling you that you live in a generation that is transgender.
22:33They're doing everything they can.
22:35I read a thing yesterday that said that in something like, oh, I forget what it was, something like eight years, nine years,
22:41they're going to reach what's called singularity.
22:44How many has ever heard that term before?
22:46Here's what that term means.
22:48It means that human and machine, or human and artificial intelligence, as it presents itself as a machine, merge.
22:55And what they're looking for is this.
22:58They're looking for that moment where they can live forever without God.
23:06And that would be the worst curse to ever bring down upon anything, whatever it is, to live forever without God.
23:14What was it that God did back there in the Garden of Eden when they had sinned?
23:19He put a cherubim. Remember that?
23:22He put a cherubim at the tree of life with a flaming sword to protect that tree.
23:28Why? He said, lest they eat and live forever.
23:33They would be living forever, but it wouldn't be the new birth.
23:36Follow me.
23:37They would exist forever, but it would be a curse beyond imagination.
23:41Look at the text in Genesis.
23:43There's no punctuation to complete the sentence.
23:46In other words, the statement is made, but it's left open for you to think.
23:50It's like Selah in the Old Testament.
23:53We live in probably one of the most critical generations that's ever walked on the face of this earth.
24:00When you're looking at people anymore, you don't know what you're looking at.
24:02You have this Olympics over here.
24:04They just had it.
24:05They blasphemed the Lord's Supper.
24:08They've got a fellow with this big ball.
24:11What do they call that when the shot put?
24:14And he's non-binary, they say.
24:17And so no longer is it, he did this, he did that.
24:20Here's what they use.
24:21Here's the pronoun, they.
24:24They use the pronoun they in reference to a one person.
24:29Are you following me?
24:31They're insane.
24:33They've gone off the deep end.
24:36And it's going to get worse.
24:38It's like the floodgates have opened and all of a sudden you have this onrush.
24:42And there's no stopping it or slowing it down.
24:46But that day will not overtake you as unawares.
24:49If you're children of light, then you know.
24:52You know what's coming.
24:53You know what's happening.
24:54How many of you realize, how many of you would agree with me this morning?
24:57It's crazy out there.
25:01It is, folks.
25:03It is plumbed off the deep end.
25:06And let me tell you something.
25:08Don't humor someone or humor yourself.
25:13By trying to carry on a conversation with an absolute and complete insane idiot.
25:21You can't do it.
25:23You have nothing in common.
25:26You don't.
25:27And I'm not trying to denigrate somebody.
25:29I'm simply telling you, you can't argue with a...
25:33Would you want to get your dog bark over here and you start arguing with your dog?
25:37It's about the same thing to expect an intelligent conversation from an animal.
25:42You can't talk to them.
25:44They're gone.
25:45They've lost it.
25:46They're plumbed crazy.
25:49So don't let that happen to you.
25:51Stick with the book.
25:53You must be born again.
25:55Amen.
25:57Amen.
25:58Amen.
25:59So it's the gospel of the new birth.
26:01It's not found in the synoptic gospels.
26:04They rejected the Jewish kingdom.
26:06They rejected the king.
26:08They rejected it all.
26:09So what if...
26:11Let me say this to give you a little bit of historical background.
26:14How many of you realize now that these books of the New Testament were not all written...
26:18No one just sat down and wrote them all out and said, here's the New Testament.
26:22You understand that?
26:23As I've said time and again, the book of Revelation, the book of John, written from 90, 95 A.D., possibly even later.
26:30Written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
26:33These books were written at different periods of time.
26:36That's a study in itself.
26:38And here's what you're going to find when you get into it.
26:41You're going to find that there's a lot of disagreement as to when they were written.
26:46But here's the point.
26:49How many books do you have in the New Testament?
26:52You got how many?
26:54You got 27, right?
26:5539 old, 27 new books, right?
26:5766 books.
26:59All right.
27:01Have you ever thought about the first compilation compiled to bring them together when that happened?
27:09You ever thought about that?
27:11You ever thought about how many generations lived back in the first century
27:16and there was no such thing as a Bible where all these books were brought together?
27:22Do you realize that the book of John, the gospel of John, is one book of the New Testament?
27:30That if that's the only book of the New Testament you had, you'd be okay?
27:36Do you remember what happened to the book of Acts when they found Apollos and what was he preaching, the book of Acts?
27:41He knew only the what?
27:43Do you remember the Sabian-Mandians I talked to you about the other day in the Euphrates River?
27:48I don't know if they meet on Sunday or the Sabbath.
27:51I forget which one it is.
27:53But every time they meet, they're baptized because the water baptism washes their sins away, all right?
27:59And they connect themselves with John the Baptist, Sabian-Mandian, all right?
28:03And they say, oh, yes, Christ lived, but he perverted the truth.
28:07So they've rejected the Lord Jesus.
28:09But here's this crowd.
28:11The only thing they preach is the baptism of John.
28:15See? Okay.
28:17So in the book of Acts, you have Apollos knowing only the baptism of John, all right?
28:22He's safe because of when he's alive.
28:25He didn't know any better.
28:27He had never rejected any more light because he'd never had it.
28:31But when Priscilla and Aquila came to him with the word of God and more light and the gospel of Christ,
28:38and all that John preached was true.
28:40John was true.
28:42But more happened after John than the Bible said.
28:46What did Apollos do?
28:47What did he do when he was presented with the truth?
28:50He accepted it.
28:51Of course he did.
28:52You know why?
28:53Because his faith was built on truth to begin with.
28:56And so he accepted the truth.
28:58And so what did he do?
28:59He began to preach Christ.
29:01In Isaiah 53, when the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from the scriptures, Isaiah 53,
29:07Philip went down.
29:08He said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
29:11He said, How can I?
29:12Except some man did show me.
29:14He'd been to the temple.
29:16He'd been among the learned sages of Judaism.
29:20And yet he didn't know what he was a hold of.
29:22And Philip showed him.
29:24So how did he get saved?
29:26Where did this Ethiopian eunuch get saved?
29:28Did he get saved from the New Testament or the Old Testament?
29:33The New Testament didn't exist.
29:35He got saved from the Tanakh, as they call it, the Old Testament.
29:39Right.
29:4053rd chapter of Isaiah, which is a powerful chapter in the Bible.
29:44Anyway, it shows you that anywhere in scripture you can get saved.
29:48But John's gospel is the one gospel where you won't get messed up with the kingdom of heaven.
29:56You won't get messed up with a Jewish Messiah.
29:59He is the Messiah.
30:01But you're not going to get messed up with a water baptism.
30:04I just showed you that.
30:06Water baptism is included in the gospel of John only in the historical context where Christ was baptized.
30:11Not in a doctrinal sense.
30:13And so you've got the gospel of John.
30:15So what does it do for you?
30:16It's the one book before all the books came together to create a Bible.
30:21It's the one book.
30:22If you had it in your hands, you can get saved.
30:26You're following me on this?
30:28The Syriac Peshito.
30:30How many of you have ever heard of that?
30:31Where were they called Christians first?
30:34In Antioch of what?
30:35Syria.
30:372,000 years ago, there was a bishop in Syria who was over a large area.
30:41Like in Alexandria, Egypt, there was a bishop over a large area.
30:45All right?
30:46So the Christians were first called Christians.
30:48They were, first of all, they said, the people of the way, they were first called Christians in Antioch of Syria.
30:56All right?
30:57And so what have we got?
30:58We've got a Syriac, Syria Peshita.
31:01What is that?
31:02That is, and here's where always controversy enters in because they know that the further back you can push the Peshita,
31:11the closer you can get to the first century, the more power it has in it.
31:15So there's a big dogfight going on as to how old it is.
31:19I'm one of these people that believe the Bible.
31:21I believe that that book was probably compiled 100 and something A.D.
31:26What's that?
31:27It goes all the way back to the apostles.
31:29All right?
31:30It goes all the way back, and it has not all but most of the books of the New Testament that you've got right there in your hands.
31:38They're in it.
31:39They're in it.
31:40In that book, brought together, open it up, and you've got books that make up the New Testament.
31:47So you've got a book in your hand.
31:49Now, it's quiet in here.
31:50God bless your soul.
31:52How many of you believe your Bible more after I get done with you than you believed it when I started with you?
31:56I hope you do.
31:58I hope I never put any doubt in your mind about your Bible to cause you to doubt it.
32:03I want you to believe it because I believe it.
32:07So the book, the Gospel of John, here's the way he finishes it, and I love the way they do it.
32:13It's a beautiful thing.
32:15Last thing he says, according to what John records for us, is it is finished.
32:21These are the last words of Christ in the Gospel of John.
32:25It is finished.
32:27John chapter number 19, verse 30.
32:30Here's what John says of his own book.
32:33John chapter number 20, verse number 30.
32:36John chapter 20, verse number 30.
32:40Many other signs, truly, did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book,
32:46but these are written.
32:48That you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Mashiach, the Son of God.
32:53Amen.
32:55And that believing you might have life through his name.
32:59That's pretty clear, isn't it?
33:01Amen.
33:02But he doesn't stop there.
33:03Going over to the last chapter, chapter 21.
33:07John 21.
33:12Chapter 21, verse 24.
33:14This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things,
33:20and we know his testimony is true.
33:23And there are also many other things which Jesus did,
33:26the which, if they should be written every one,
33:30I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
33:35Amen.
33:37It's almost like the apostle John gives the book a book in the midst of books.
33:44Are you following me?
33:47See, a book in the midst of books.
33:50In plain words, this is the book.
33:52In plain words, all the truth of God as it relates to a sinner's salvation can be found in this one book.
34:00If the only book you ever had in the Bible is the gospel of John, you're safe.
34:12But, of course, you and I both know there are 66 of them.
34:16How many agree with what I'm talking about here this morning?
34:19Father, bless your word.
34:21Thank you for the time in your house now.
34:23Bless it to the hearing of the people.
34:26May it stir their hearts.
34:28May it stir their soul.
34:30In Jesus' name I pray.
34:32Amen.