Elder Steve Woods & Elder Gary Rhodes | 2026 Camp Meeting | Friday AM | 7.17.26

Elder Steve Woods, Pilgrim's Rest PBC, Arkoma, OK

Elder Gary Rhodes, Fuller Chapel PBC, Little Rock, AR

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Concerning the remarks that Brother Bill made of an introductory nature, he spoke about everything that we got coming from God. It reminded me of that old Sarah Adams song, Nearer My God to Thee, where I think it's the third verse says, All that thou sendest me in mercy given. Now, the first time I heard that expression, everything you've given me was in mercy was from Brother Arvell. And uh I was just proud and dumb enough simultaneously to question that. And that's a that's a healthy thing at times when it makes you go study to see that that is the truth. Everything that he has given me was in mercy. Everything. Grace is given in mercy. We like to define one as things we don't deserve and the other as not getting what we deserve, and there's nothing wrong with that. But while those things are both true, everything that he's given me was in mercy. We're pitiful, pitiable creatures. And uh and if you know Jesus, you know that. I think that's the first thing he taught me. He uh quoted John 14 earlier, Brother Bill did, and later on, when he uh when he said, I'll send you a comforter. If you read a few verses later, he says, I will come to you. Now you understand what that means? This man, Christ Jesus, walking on the planet earth, talking to his disciples, said, I am God. I am the Son, I am the Father, and I am the Holy Ghost. Now that's not my subject this morning, but I just had to say that it is a beautiful sight. Um it's not fair for the preachers to get all the best seats in the house up here at the front where you can hear, because I started out sitting back there by my dear wife and two members from Marcoma Church. One of our deacons and uh one of the twin daughters of our former pastor, Elder Cal Kennedy. And if you knew him, you loved him. If you didn't love him, you really didn't know him, or there's something wrong with you. So it's a good thing to have the gospel, and that now I'm going to tell you why. Because one of the first things that you're taught by the Holy Spirit when you're born of the Spirit of God, is He will not just teach you this, He will convince you that you're a sinner. Okay? If you're part of that world of John 3.16, if you're part of that world that God so loved, then as soon as you as soon as He sends His Spirit into you, He will convince you that you're a sinner. And where do sinners go? Where are they supposed to go? We sang it in 184. If you didn't miss it, uh Brother Isaac did a great job, great song selection. I I love that song. I won't go into that in the nature of why, but I want to tell you one of my favorite phrases, and that's what I'm gonna try to talk to you about just a little while this morning. And shall not come into condemnation. Now, if there's any better news for a sinner, I'd like to hear it. I'm ready. If one of you brethren's got a better message than, and shall not come into condemnation. I I don't, I'm not saying there's not one, but I don't think I've heard one. You know, Jesus spoke to me one night, years ago, I believe long after I'd been born again, but I was in the wrong church. It was not a primitive Baptist church, but it was a church of confusion. And I, as Brother Philip likes to say, I will withhold the name to protect the guilty. That you could have your salvation and lose it. I'm sorry, but your eternal life cannot be longer than your natural life. One of the foundational truths of Scripture is that if you have heard my word and you believe on him that sent me, you are in possession of eternal life. Now I'm gonna give it to you in the King James Version. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath. Hath. Hath in his hand. He's got it. He has it. He ain't looking for it, he ain't hoping for it some sweet day. He has it. Lamb's the words of Jesus, not mine, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from one condition, is passed from death. Now he's talking to living, breathing human beings. Okay? He's not talking to graveyard people. He's not talking to people that are underground in a box with a marker above their head. He's talking to people who are dead in their trespasses and in sins. People we sing about in another song that just go their own way by nature, their natural way. But we're going by the way. We're going by the way that he teaches us to go. We're going by the way he says to go. And I don't mean exclusively. I know we've still got that sin nature, and sometimes we'll do wrong. That's when it's good to know and shall not come into condemnation. Now, many of you may have for a favorite chapter, Romans 8. And that's fine with me. You may have another favorite chapter, that's fine. But I want to remind you of how that chapter starts. There's a lot of great doctrine in the second half, but there's a lot of great doctrine in the first half. And if you don't understand verse 9, if you hadn't paid very attention to verse 9, you probably don't know whether it's temporal or otherwise. It's otherwise. You read verse 9 and you'll learn that, but ye are not in the flesh, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Okay? He's just defined his terms for the entire chapter. But if you start with the very first verse, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Let's roll back to John 5.24. It shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Now that dark and rainy night in Van Buren, Arkansas, when the Lord showed me eternal security was true, and apostasy was false. I guess apostasy can be true in a temporal sense, but not in an eternal sense. But that's just a theological word. Forget I even said that. I don't know why I went there. But on that dark and rainy night in the backseat of my brother-in-law's Toyota, he showed me that eternal life was eternal life, and that you come, you're in possession of it if you've been born of the Spirit of God. Folks, if you've ever felt guilty about your sin and wondered whether you're going to hell or not, you've been born of the Spirit of God because you wouldn't care. Otherwise, you wouldn't believe there was a heaven or a hell. Let alone I'm not going there or whatever. When he's teached, when he has taught you and convinced you that you're a sinner, that's good news. Because that means you're one of those he said is passed from death unto life. And the good news is shall not come into condemnation. There's a chapter in the book of Revelation, and I believe it's the 20th, where he says that they're going to open some books, and they're going to open a book. Now pay attention to the singularity and plurality, because the plurality does not apply to you if you've been born of the Spirit of God. If you're one of those where the books was open, he's going to judge you by your works, and you're not going up. Okay? But if your name is written in that Lamb's book of life, you're going up. And not only that, don't listen to people who say you're going to have to stand before Almighty God and be judged someday. You've already been judged. You've been judged at the cross, and you've been judged, and your fine has been paid. You're not going to have to, God is not unjust. Let me just teach you a fundamental thing about God. He is just. If Jesus has paid for your sins, you won't have to. That's why there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Well, that's why Jesus could say, and shall not come into condemnation. You've passed. Congratulations. I see a lot of young people here, and it's a thrill to me. I hope after the summer you're going to the next grade and not back to the last grade. No do-overs. Folks, I want to say there's a reason. Our just God has made it this way. Now, a long time ago, I worked. And uh back in the 1900s, there was uh a good job in Fort Smith called rating. We'd uh go to work at 5.30 and get off at 2 in the morning. We'd go to work at 5.30 in the afternoon, have lunch at 8, and then get to take a break at 10 and another one at 12, and then we got to go home at 2 a.m. It was a good job because it paid well. And uh I remember a fellow, and he was one of the sweetest people I ever knew. Him and his wife are devout Christians. Uh, we're friends on Facebook. But he was so insecure. Fred was a good rake clerk, but he made mistakes. Guess what? So did all of the rest of us. Okay? Uh none of us were perfect. None of us, not one of us rate clerks, were perfect. We made mistakes. But he was so bound up in fear of making those mistakes that he quit so he wouldn't get fired. He quit one of the best jobs in town out of fear, out of insecurity. Now, why did Jesus tell you, and shall not come in to condemnation? So you can get on with your Christian life and live the way you really truly want to, without fear, without insecurity, without worrying the body, oh my goodness, I've done this, I want if I go to hell now. No, don't worry about it. I mean, do the best you can. Be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect. That's the word of God. Do the best you can. People say, well, if I lived that way, if I believed that then, I'd go out and sin all I want to. Let me tell you, folks, I sin more than I want to. I wish I could get to the point where I sin all I want to, because I want to zero. I want to zero. Okay? And I tell you the story about my friend. Because it's come to me so many times since God taught me this truth about eternal life. About being in possession of eternal life, about having a faith. Once upon a time, I stood before Elder James Isaac at my ordination, and he was questioning the candidate. Y'all know what I mean? I wish we'd start calling that proving the candidate. I just like that better than in interrogating or whatever. Uh sounds like a criminal on trial or something. When Brother James was proving me, he asked me if I believed in the doctrine of eternal security. And he expected Scripture to back it up. And I used Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14. And it is the basis and it is the purpose of, and shall not come into condemnation. And the scripture reads like this for by one offering, he hath perfected. You try to live perfectly, good for you. Keep trying. But let me tell you first, he hath perfected. By one offering, he hath perfected. He hath perfected. Now, if you want to see what that means, really, you go to Deuteronomy 32 where it says his work is perfect. So he never tried to perfect one of you. He did it. He perfected, for by one offering, he hath perfected them that are sanctified. Now that's a big old 50 cent word. Sanctified. What's that mean? That means you've been set apart for a holy use. Set apart from what? Set apart from them that are not set apart. There's another way to say that. Chosen. He has chosen you. He has elected you. And he's the only one that had a vote. Doesn't matter what anybody else says. If he chose you, you're chosen. If he chose you, you're sanctified. He didn't choose you for condemnation. He chose you for work in his kingdom. He chose you for love. He chose you for being the best you can be. He chose you and put you to a holy work. It's a holy. I don't care if you're, is it Macy or maybe? Cooking. Meat here. There's a family that's barbecuing meat out there. And that's a holy work feeding God's people. You know what I'm saying? I thank you that He didn't choose us all to be preachers. Wouldn't that be dull? You know, he chose some of us to be prayer warriors. When Paul talks about the gifts in the kingdom, he compares them in one, he talks about it in at least two major places. In one of those places, he compares the church body to the human body. Okay? Now y'all see my hand? See my foot? No, you didn't. There's no foot there. That's a prosthesis. Okay? You can get away. You can get away with not having a hand or a foot. Okay? But when this old ticker gives out, you can't see my heart, can you? Well, is it a much more valuable gift than the hands that are seen? We're seen, brethren. We're seen, and I'm not saying we're unimportant. I don't want to live without one of my hands. I don't. They're very important. I don't want to live with my eyes. You can see my eyes. Thankfully, they still work some. Well, they're not perfect, obviously. But I want to encourage each of you to go about living your Christian life knowing you shall not come into condemnation. And it's not because of anything that you have done. It is because God sent you his only Son in mercy. Jesus was given in mercy for you. Jesus loves you. And the life that we live should reflect that we appreciate it and we love Him. Thank you for your good attention.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

It's a great blessing to be with you all today and to see your faces and to see the love going about from breast to breast in the place already. And what a wonderful time of refreshing it's been already. And it's a great blessing to be in the house of God with all of you. We love you and we miss you. We feel like we're where the Lord wants us to be, but um and we live almost as close to you now as we used to, but we're thankful for the great privilege of being yoked in the Lord Jesus Christ with all of you, and hope the Lord will add his uh blessings to our feeble words. Uh it's a great blessing and privilege to share the time with Brother Steve. Um the one of the many things I love about Brother Steve is when Brother Steve is done preaching, you're not uh you're not wondering and confused about where does he stand with that subject. Um brother, uh sometimes when I hear preaching or what's called preaching, and and it's uh and the man gets done, and I'm wondering I I don't I don't know where he stands on the subject. I don't I don't know, you know, it seems like he didn't take one position or the other. And preaching should be with clarity, right? Preaching should be with clarity. Nobody's gonna accuse Brother Steve of of lacking clarity in his preaching, and I'm and I'm thinking I'm not saying that as picking on you, Brother Steve. I'm I'm that's a great blessing, and and um and preaching should be done with clarity so that um it's easily understood. I like what Brother Sonny Piles used to say. Deep preaching is often poor explaining. And when we uh when we preach, it ought to be clear. And even if you think that we are wrong, it's clear where we stand. And I'm thankful for Brother Steve's boldness and and for the clarity that he said. Um I think my feebled ears probably heard him say the phrase backwards, but it's a great point that he made. Um, that there's no way that our natural life can be longer than our eternal life. You know what I hadn't thought about that. That's so simply put, and it's so clear, and it's such a great and wonderful point. If you can lose your eternal salvation, then your natural life just became longer than your eternal life. And that doesn't make any sense, does it? So uh that was worth coming for, and I'm thankful for that beautiful nugget. Um, Brother Philip in his prayer prayed uh that God would bless us to breathe things, bring things both uh new and old, and that's the scriptural um recipe, a requirement for our preaching that we do that, bring things to the from the storehouse, both new and old. And I took that as a confirmation for what was on my mind because um what is on my mind is an angle that I've never heard taken before, and and I'm not good enough to come up with something new, and I'm not good enough to uh and smart enough to bedazzle you with say, hey, look what I figured out. You know, y'all know me well enough to know that. But to rightly understand what the Lord meant by those things brought from the storehouse, both new and old, it's uh the old part we know, it's the same old doctrines, the same old principles, the same old practices of the church, uh the same scriptures that we've had, you know, for all you know, for all of our history and for all of our future. Uh the things that are new are um new illustrations of teaching the same old things. Right? So I have a new approach with you this morning, and I hope that it will be of God. Um so I'm gonna back up in my feeble way, try to give a little bit of an encapsulation. This sounds so silly to say this. An encapsulation of the Old Testament. Um we know that there's a scarlet thread that runs through the Old Testament, right? The scarlet thread that's illustrated with Rahab holding the scarlet thread outside the window. And there's a scarlet thread that runs throughout the scriptures, it's pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I like to think of it as like an arrow that's being shot. You know, once that arrow is is released from its target, it's gonna shoot in that angle, right? Well, if you think about that from the Old Testament, all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when the Lord God uh killed an animal in order to cover them from their uh nakedness, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being killed in order to cover us from our unrighteousness and from our sin. Uh I assume that's the first type and shadow of his suffering and and of his death. But when we go throughout the scriptures, it's repeated over and over and over and over again. Right? Throughout the Old Testament, it is always pointing towards the cross of Christ, which Brother Bill told us to preach on. Right? And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with somebody's. Says, hey, you come when you preach, you preach the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I'm okay with that assignment. If somebody were to give out and say, hey, brother so-and-so is going to preach on this, or brother so-and-so is going to preach on that. I'm going to run away from that and I'm going to resist you. And I might even fight with you about that and say, I'm sorry, I'm not going to take your assignment. But I'll take that assignment. I'll take the assignment that says you preach the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's a good recipe to always follow, so much so that the Apostle Paul said, When I came among you, I came knowing nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Right? That's the foundation of everything that we are ever going to preach. And it is the climax of world history when the Lord Jesus Christ hung upon the cross. That is the climax of world history. If you say, what's the climax of the United States history? You might go to 1776, you might go to 1812, you might go to World War II. But the climax of all of human history is Jesus Christ hanging upon the cross and three days later coming up out of the grave. That is the climax of all of human history. Everything before it was pointing to it, and since then, everything that we do points back to it. The Passover is a beautiful example of that. Where the Passover was something that was pointing us to the Passover, the Lord Jesus Christ. He Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. When we observe the communion table, which looks a bit like the Passover feast, we're not pointing forward to something, we're pointing back to his crucifixion. He said, When you do it, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. Remembrance means I'm going to remember something that's happened in the past. I can't remember something that hasn't happened in the future. I'm challenged enough to remember what's happened in the past. But he says, you do this in remembrance of me. So when we observe the New Testament communion service, we're pointing back to the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we sing hymns of Man of Sorrows, what a name, we're pointing back to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we've got something to look forward to when he comes and takes all of his people home, and that should draw much of our attention in life. But in the Old Testament, as the Old Testament, I think you'll agree with me, right? That the Old Testament is pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. When he walked on the road to Emmaus with those two, and he said, Oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the fathers and the prophets have given us. And he said, He began, began at the scriptures to expound unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So Jesus told us right there in plain and simple language, when you read in the Old Testament, it's concerning me. Jesus is saying, It's concerning me. Jesus said, When Moses wrote, he wrote of me. So you go read in the Old Testament, and if you do like many Bible readers, when they start reading the Bible and you begin in Genesis, the book of beginnings, and you begin in Genesis, and you exit it at Exodus because of what appears to be some monotony, some specifications that go beyond our interest level. When he wrote about the tabernacle, he was writing about Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ, I heard Brother Tom preach, I think, at this meeting several years ago, about the beautiful picture that the tabernacle is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, excuse me. Jesus, yes, Jesus himself said, when Moses wrote, he wrote of me. Well, when he wrote about the animal that was killed to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness, he wrote of Jesus. Now Jesus' name is not mentioned there, it's not Emmanuel, it's not Prince of Peace, but he says he wrote of Jesus. And when we know from the types and shadows, we know from the suffering of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Ah, I see Jesus there. I see Jesus there. And we see j we should see Jesus all over the Old Testament. And then when we come into the house of God, our desire is like the Psalm, Sir, quoted from the borrowing from the scripture, Sir, we would see Jesus. I would see Jesus, one of the flowers. Right? So in the Old Testament, as he's pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ, right? We get to uh Abraham in a handful of chapters later, and he tells him to consider the stars of the sky and consider the sands of the sea, so shall thy seed be. And he goes on to we get to David, the king of Israel. And David is a king, and he prophesied to David that he would have a son that would sit upon the throne of David. And he said, Of his kingdom there would be no end. And you and I know on the other side of the cross we can look back at those scriptures and say, I know who he's talking about. I know who he's talking about there when he talked to Abraham, when he made the prophecy to David. I I can feel pretty good and say, Well, I don't know much, and I'm not all that bright, but I know who God was prophesying about when he prophesied to David about his son sitting upon the throne. That's too big, and it says way too much to be talking about Solomon. And the angel confirmed that because this is he that was spoken, he shall sit upon the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Aren't you thankful to be sitting in a kingdom this morning that has no end? Because this is a kingdom that one day is going to be delivered up to the Father. So here's all these Old Testament prophecies, and obviously I'm just, you know, painting over it very, very quickly. Here's Old Testament prophecies and all these things pointing like the arrow that has been shot and it's speeding its way to the cross and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here he is over and over and over again, in many, many different ways. He's pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ, pointing to his crucifixion. Brother Gary, you've made that point enough. Move on with it. Okay, we'll move on with it. So, my question, and here's a different approach that I haven't heard taken, and I hope it's of God. Please pray that it's of God. If it was up to you, thank God it was not, thank God it's not up to me, it wasn't up to me, and up to you know any of Adam's race, thank God that this was blessed by God and divinely inspired by God. But if it was up to you, and here the Old Testament has happened, and now there's 400 years of darkness, no prophecies, you know, outwardly spoken, no scriptures being written, you got all this prophecy, and now 400 years of darkness. If it was up to you, how would you begin the New Testament scriptures? How would you start to tell the gospel story in divinely inspired language? If it was up to you, now I just I just ruled us all out of it, right? Because you say, well, it's divinely inspired language, so therefore it can't be me deciding this. It must be Almighty God deciding how this story is going to be told. But if it was up to you, and all you had was the Old Testament scriptures, but the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, if it was up to you, how would you start off the New Testament story? How would you start to tell the story of Jesus Christ to say, hey, everything that you've been reading, it points to this man. How would you start that story? Well, Philip told Nathaniel, he said, we found him that was written of in Moses and the prophets. We have found the Christ which is being interpreted the Messiah. What does Christ mean? It means the Messiah. What does Messiah mean? It means the anointed one. So therefore, what does the Christ mean? It means the anointed one. Jesus Christ is the anointed of God. He's the one that was chosen of God, my elect in whom my soul delighteth, as he says in Isaiah 42, right? He said, This is the one that we've been waiting for. So when it comes to Philip telling Nathaniel about hey, we found him, that was Philip's way of telling the New Testament story. We've been waiting a long time for somebody to come. We've been waiting for a long time for him that God has promised that he would send. How about when Moses said, A prophet like unto me will the Lord God raise up unto you? He said, I came up from among you. I came from nowhere. I came from Egypt, but I kind of grew up around here. You know, I'm just one of the people. I've got a stammering tongue, and I'm not able to speak in eloquent words, but God raised me up for some reason. And he says, God's gonna raise up somebody from among you, and he's gonna be like me because he's gonna be your intercessor, he's gonna be the one that goes before the king for you, he's gonna be the one that represents you to God. He's like me. But there's a big difference. He said, Unto him, ye shall hearken. Now I can sense a little frustration in Moses. Maybe I'm transposing something that's not there. So if I'm wrong, y'all throw it out and forgive me, please. But I can sense a little bit of frustration in Moses' voice, I think. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. He says, Unto him ye shall hearken. What's kind of implied there, I think, from what Moses is saying is, you haven't listened to me. Right? I've been telling you the message sent from God. I've been telling you what God has told you that you need to hear, what you need to do, how you need to behave yourself. And you haven't listened to me. Oh, but there's a prophet coming, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. Ye shall hearken. Well, does that mean we're going to obey Jesus Christ and everything that he's ever commanded us and everything that we're supposed to do? No, watch me long enough, watch yourself long enough. We know that that's not the case, right? But he says, ye shall hearken. Here's a shall of the Bible. We love the shows of Matthew chapter 1. Here's another shall, and I love this shallow. Unto him ye shall hearken. How is it that the child of God is going to hearken unto this prophet that he's prophesying about? The prophet with a capital P, by the way. How is it that you're going to hearken unto him? You already have, if you've been born again, because he spoke life and you hearkened. Right? He spoke life and you became alive. You inherently, irresistibly hearkened unto his call. Right? Unto him ye heard. Ye heard what he said. Now you may or may not be listening to what I'm saying. You may not be able to be hearing it. You may not be following the things that I'm telling you. But when Jesus Christ spoke, live, the Son of God spoke life into you. You lived, you hearkened unto that. And Moses said, unto him ye shall hearken. Right? So here's the here's now in the New Testament era, how are we going to tell the story? Right? Well, here's the Messiah, the one that's been pointed to. Here's the one that we've been waiting for for a long time. So much so that apparently all the Jewish young ladies, when they would have a baby, oh, maybe this is the one. Maybe this is it. And they knew he's going to come from Bethlehem, Ephrita. They knew where he would be born. In fact, they also knew, wait a minute, the scriptures don't tell us about a prophet coming out of Nazareth. Search and see, is there any prophet that comes out of Nazareth? Right? They knew the scriptures well enough to know, no, no, no, no, no. He came from Nazareth. That's not where the Messiah is going to come from. Oh, but there's something that was hidden from you. There's something that you don't really remember or have knowledge of. He was born in Bethlehem by the miracle of God. Right? He was born. He was born of that Bethlehem Ephrata. Because it was a time of year where the men had to go to Bethlehem. Here comes Mary along with Joseph. She brings forth a son, wraps him in swaddling clothes. They don't stay there very long. An angel warns them and says, Hey, Herod's going to kill all the babies. You need to go into Egypt. And then whenever Herod was gone, he says, Okay, it's time to come back out of Egypt. That fulfilled a prophecy out of Egypt. Have I called my son? The Bible tells us so plainly that that's a fulfilling of the prophecy, right? So there's some things about Jesus that they didn't know. You'll go along with me on that, right? There's things that there's things that they didn't know about Jesus Christ. Wait, but he's from Nazareth. That disqualifies him because the scriptures don't say anything about him coming out of Nazareth. But the Bible does tell you that as it was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. Now go look for that scripture, you're not going to find it. Right? I don't think you're going to find it. If you find it, come tell me, because I don't believe it's there. But he says this was spoken, not written by the prophets, spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. So here are all these Old Testament things pointing to Jesus Christ. And if it was up to you, how would you start off? The gospel message. We know how Philip told Nathaniel. Oh, how about the angels? The angels had a pretty good way of delivering the gospel message, did they not? Now they had permission from the master. You know, because they could have been singing his praises all the time. They could have let their praise in heaven be heard down here upon the earth, I guess, if God would have allowed them to. But you see, when it came time for Jesus' birth, the picture that my mind goes to is almost like the Father says, you know, they're good master. Like he says, Go ahead. And I think I've got scripture to stand on that because in Hebrews 1 he says, and let all the angels of God worship him. Ooh, what that what that must have been like. Oh, what that must have been like when he says, and let all the angels of God worship him. And they started crying out from heaven. They started singing praises from heaven, so much so that the shepherds could hear it. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men. That's a good summary of the gospel message, is it not? Glory to God. First of all, when it comes to the gospel, it's not glory to man, it's not glory to the preacher, glory to the hearer, glory to mama or grandma. It's glory to God in the highest. And on earth, what about on earth? There's a consequence to the gospel on earth, right? There's a gospel to the salvation of God coming in the form of Jesus Christ. There is a message that comes from that. And he says, the effect on earth is, and on earth, strife and envy and blasphemy and all those things. Oh, no, no, no. That's not what Jesus brings. That's not the effect that Jesus has when he says, here's glory to God in the highest because of this baby being born, and on earth, peace, goodwill to men. Right? Peace. Goodwill to men. This is goodwill from God down to men. It's the goodwill from God that he sent his son to die to save sinners. That's a pretty good summary of the gospel message, is it not? That they say, glory to God in the highest. You know, the gospel message should always, always give glory to God. One of the reasons why eternal security that Brother Steve preached to us, one of the reasons why we can have a confidence in eternal security is because it gives the glory to God. Right? Because when we look at ourselves and say, well, since I've been born again, I can't list all the bad things I've done in my life, right? Here's all the sins and all the things that I've been guilty of since the new birth. So therefore, I know if it was left up to me, I'd have lost it a long time ago. But the reason why we can have a great confidence in eternal security is because it gives all of the glory to God. Right? All of the glory to God. So many of you diligent Bible readers are ahead of me already. And you say, well, Brother Gary, you asked us if it was up to us, how would we start off the gospel message? And to put that a little more succinctly, how would you start off New Testament scriptures? Right? If it was up to you, how would you start off New Testament scriptures? If you were ordering the Bible and it was up to you to say, well, okay, uh, I've been given 27 books to write. Uh that's what God allotted me, and I'm going to make the first one start off this way. Hey, everybody, look, he's here. I mean, you might, right? I've got a second cousin that I call nephew. I was Uncle Gary to him when he was growing up. And when he was little and he'd tell a story, he'd be really excited, you know? He'd get really excited. And he'd say, hey, hey, Uncle Gary, guess what? Hey, hey, Uncle Gary, guess what? You know, if my nephew Jason was writing the New Testament scriptures for the first time as a little kid, he'd be, hey, Israel, guess what? Hey, guess what's happening? Guess what's coming next? Guess what? It's been thousands of years. It's been four or five thousand years. But he's here. Right? He's here. He's been prophesied about for a long time. Guess what? He's here. That's how my nephew Jason might have told it when he was a little kid. You know, my my my precious daughter Lillian, she and Sister Donna are on the way here. And when Lillian was an adolescent age, and she started to, she had a pretty you know, colorful and animated way of telling stories. And uh when she was when she was younger, she said, okay, let me set the scene. Okay, let me here here's here's what happened. You know that I you know I'm Mr. Facts, you know, give me the facts. Did it end up okay? Was everything alright? You know, does dad have to step in and try to fix something? Is there some correction that needs to be done? You know, how bad is this? You know, did somebody misbehave themselves? You know, I'm I'm kind of waiting for the I'm waiting for the punchline, so to speak. I want to know everything's okay. I want to know there's not something broken that has to be fixed. And but I I you know, if we're gonna communicate with one another, we need to communicate in each other's way, manner of speaking. I have to really stop myself in our home at times. But Lillian, when she came to tell an animated story, said, okay, let me set the scene. I'll be like oh, here we go, set the scene. I want to know if she's about to be in trouble, you know, what I've done. So different personalities are gonna tell the story in a different way. Different manners of communication styles are gonna tell the story in a different way. If it was up to you, what would you start off with? The promised seed is coming. The promised seed is here. Let me tell you about how the promised seed got to this earth. You know, he told it to Abraham about 4,500 years ago, consider the stars of the sky, so shall thy seed be. And the Jews thought to themselves that they had Abraham to their father. Right? John the Baptist rebuked them for that. Jesus rebuked them for that. Said, say not that you have Abraham to your father. God's able these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham. So, but they knew that there was a seed coming, and they looked at it in a broad way, and they said, Okay, the seed that God promised to Abraham was us. And we've been tracking our descendancy for a long time. We've been tracking our tribes, we've been tracking who our ancestors are and who we've begotten so that we can ensure and make sure that we know, and then we can tell everybody else, I'm a seed of Abraham. But we find out in Galatians chapter 3 that what was primarily meant by the promise of the seed was one. Well, but wait. He said, consider the stars of the sky, consider the sands of the sea, and if thou canst tell them, if you can count them. So, Brother Gary, it can't be just one. But Galatians says it's one. But that promise of the seed is like a pomegranate seed. When you open up a pomegranate, you've got this one seed, but you cut the seed open, and there's a multitude of seeds within that one seed. And there's a spiritual picture in pomegranates in the Bible with that understanding. But you see, the seed is one, but inside the one seed is a multitude of seeds. And the reason why you are children of faith, children of Abraham by promise, is because you're in Christ. But the seed that was promised was one. It was Jesus. Right? One seed, Jesus Christ. So somebody might jump up and down and start telling the whole world, it's my job to start telling the New Testament story, and I'm gonna tell you about the seed that was promised to Abraham. You may have thought that it was all of you, you may have thought that it was the family tree of Abraham, but guess what? You were wrong. It's Jesus, it's Jesus, the seed that was promised by God about 4,500 years ago. It was Jesus, and let me tell you about that seed. Or somebody else might come along and say, Oh, I'm thankful for the seed, but our government that we have to live under is terrible. This Roman Empire stinks. I hate it. Don't want to deal with it anymore. Oh, I can't stand this Roman Empire. We are in bondage and we are slaves to the Roman Empire. I don't want to be a slave anymore. I don't want to be under bondage anymore. I want to know that I am free and that there's a pure and holy government that resides over me. Somebody that's in that type of thought process would be glad to know the king is coming. Right? The king is coming. The king that you've been waiting for that was promised to David and upon his and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Right? The government shall be upon his shoulder. You don't have to worry about a filthy and wicked government when it comes to the kingdom of God and the kingdom that we're going to in heaven one day. You don't have to worry about such a despicable government because the government is upon the shoulder of your Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus is the king. And if you're telling the gospel story, you might want to tell the whole world. Put yourself at ease. You won't be in bondage to this Roman Empire much anymore. And for anybody that's dealt with tyranny throughout the ages, they would love to hear that story. You've got a good and holy king. Oh, you've got a good and holy king that is your master. And you don't have to worry about a corrupt government ever again. So some people might tell the excuse me, tell the message in some of those ways, right? He's the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. He's the promised seed. He's the king that was prophesied. Oh, but the Jews of that day, maybe even the Jews of today, they weren't looking for those three things in that way. The Messiah is going to be a conquering hero. He's going to lead us in battle. He's going to lead us in war. He's going to put down all of our enemies, foreign and domestic, you might say, in this land. He's going to put down all the enemies, and we're going to have a kingdom here in this world that is going to have prominence throughout the world. And that's going to be the king that we're going to serve. And we're children of Abraham biologically. But they were wrong on all three of those things. They're wrong on all three of those things. He came to conquer, yes, but he came to conquer sin and destroy death, hell, and the grave. That's the Messiah that was promised to us. That the natural eye doesn't really see, but the spiritual eye recognizes there's the kingdom of his dear son. Matthew's the only gospel that talks about the kingdom of heaven, he's emphasizing that this is a heavenly king, right? But if you're with me, I hope you are, I trust that many of you are. If you were starting the New Testament scriptures and telling the gospel message, I don't think any of us would have started off with a genealogy. But I'm gonna tell you the very first book of the book of the verse of Matthew. The very first verse in the book of Matthew is teaching those three things. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. You know what Matthew just did there? Matthew just said, This is the chosen one. This is the one that you've been waiting for. This is the anointed of God. I'm gonna tell you the story of Jesus Christ. I've got divinely inspired words for you. I'm gonna tell you about this one. And he's the son of David! Wait, that's not where the genealogy starts. It's not David first and then all these others. And if you'll take a little hiatus with me, when he gets later on in the chapter and he's telling about these prophecies, he says, 14 generations. You know, from uh from Adam, let me read that because I'm I'm skipping that here. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. So he says, here's Abraham, here's David, here's your bondage, and here's the Lord Jesus Christ. That reminds me of what Simeon said to Mary and Joseph in the temple. He shall be for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. He didn't say everybody in Israel, did he? But many in Israel. He's also the light to lighten the Gentiles. But in the very first verse of what might look like a boring genealogy, I'm gonna start reading the Bible. I'm gonna start in the New Testament. It's a genealogy, what? Right? But this genealogy from the very first verse tells you I'm telling you about the anointed one. I'm telling you about the seed that was promised to Abraham. I'm telling you about he that is king that was prophesied to David. That's who I'm gonna tell you about. And when you're reading genealogies, look for him. Look for him. Look for him. And when Jesus comes back, when I'm life here upon this earth now, when it comes to what do I do for the rest of my life? Look for him. Look for him, look for Jesus who's coming. May God bless you and I love you so dearly.