SPEAKER_01: O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee.
SPEAKER_01: He is just in having salvation, lowly in riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the fold of an ass.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, it says.
SPEAKER_01: We sang, Behold the glories of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord be my helper this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I have a desire to be in the book of Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: A few places, probably.
SPEAKER_01: But that's where I started.
SPEAKER_01: It was in chapter 9, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Rejoice greatly.
SPEAKER_01: O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy king cometh unto thee.
SPEAKER_01: What a blessing that is.
SPEAKER_01: As we know, we can find this in the 20th chapter of Matthew, 19th chapter of Luke, and where this is the triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus, our King, coming into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I think about that time where we have that, and we're in Zechariah, the last, the second to last book in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And just I've been studying it a while now.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, it is rich.
SPEAKER_01: It is a rich book of the prophecy of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And here is one of them.
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't even begun to uncover, I think, all the richness of it.
SPEAKER_01: But after this book, and then we have uh Malachi, and then what they have, what's uh called the 400 years of darkness, where they didn't hear a word from a prophet, they didn't hear a word from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But then it says, Behold, he came, of course, he was born.
SPEAKER_01: He was born into the world.
SPEAKER_01: But this is talking about when he's coming to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, brothers and sisters, I want you, if you will, uh, this morning to consider his journey to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: We sang the song when I surveyed the wondrous cross.
SPEAKER_01: And brothers and sisters, I tell you, we need to survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, because it is uh he was there because of us.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, just as one of my favorite songs of uh Bless Jesus while in mortal flesh, it tells us the second verse, on thy dear cross, I fix mine eyes, then raise them.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, brothers and sisters, that's the beauty of it.
SPEAKER_01: The beauty of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: While it looked like a great defeat, it was the greatest victory in the history of the world, and we need to go to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: All but thanks being to God, we don't stay there.
SPEAKER_01: We look at it and then we raise our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: It says, On thy dear cross I fix mine eyes, then raise them to thy seat, till love dissolves my inmost soul at my redeemer's feet.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he was delivered for our offenses.
SPEAKER_01: I might be getting way ahead of myself here, but raised again for our justification.
SPEAKER_01: That was uh him coming in to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: When he did that, oh, they cried, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, and all those Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: Those Pharisees show up when you're having uh, I say a good time, when you're uh uh in the spirit, when things are going good, here comes the Pharisees, and they said, uh you need to rebuke your disciples, but I love what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, I like it because uh people say, You say, I tell you too much.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I say, Jesus says, I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the stones would cry out.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, he will have his praise in this world, he will have his honor, his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the lamb, the living lamb, the lamb on Calvary, the lamb was slain, but rose again to intercede for me.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, He's gonna have it, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: It will be here in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's my prayer that it be right here at Grace Primitive Baptist Church, at Pilgrim's Rest, at Bethel, at all these uh churches represented.
SPEAKER_01: It's my prayer that it grow to many more places.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever the Lord's has people that needs uh loosed and let go.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we don't believe that the church is gonna make children of God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but I tell you, we can speak from experience, can we not?
SPEAKER_01: That it frees children of God from the pain, the bondage of sin and death in this world, from the rags of death.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Lord told them at Lazarus' graves.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Lazarus come forth, and he came forth.
SPEAKER_01: But then he told them to loose them and let them go.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, brothers and sisters, the same message that looses and lets go is this message right here.
SPEAKER_01: Behold your king.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go two chapters over here.
SPEAKER_01: And just look at these things here as we eleventh chapter.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord, verse 13, and the Lord's, nope, verse 12, and I said unto them, if you think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear.
SPEAKER_01: So they weighed for my price, thirty pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound familiar?
SPEAKER_01: What did Judas take to betray the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Thirty pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says, and the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter.
SPEAKER_01: And the goodly prized that I was prized out of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I took thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter.
SPEAKER_01: You know where Judas went out after he did that.
SPEAKER_01: Cut himself asunder in the potter's field, I believe it says.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to go to the next now.
SPEAKER_01: In the 12th chapter of Zechariah, verse 10, he says, And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication.
SPEAKER_01: And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is bitterness for his firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: He says, They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced.
SPEAKER_01: You know what it tells us in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah?
SPEAKER_01: I'll go to it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, He is despised and rejected of men.
SPEAKER_01: A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_01: Then it says, and we hid as it were our faces from him.
SPEAKER_01: He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
SPEAKER_01: But here it says, we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
SPEAKER_01: But over here in Zechariah it says, and they looked, and they looked, and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced.
SPEAKER_01: But what does it say before that?
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to the 53rd chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, we go to the cross and we see what was done there, and it is we it's horrible.
SPEAKER_01: The words, there's not words to express it.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, we hid, as it were, our faces.
SPEAKER_01: He was despised and rejected.
SPEAKER_01: A man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_01: He was despised and we esteemed him not.
SPEAKER_01: But it says, We hid our faces, as it were.
SPEAKER_01: I tried to preach in Mississippi a few weeks ago on this verse.
SPEAKER_01: We hid our faces, as it were, from him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but then I took it.
SPEAKER_01: How he makes his face to shine upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, brothers and sisters, uh, he looked, and there was none to help.
SPEAKER_01: He looked and he says, Therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I tell you, those that will tell you that he did so much for you.
SPEAKER_01: All you've got to do, we can't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: We hit our faces, as it were, from him.
SPEAKER_01: We looked away in his most trying hour.
SPEAKER_01: In the most pain that's been felt upon a man in the history of the world, we hid, as it were, our faces.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but in Zechariah, it says something there.
SPEAKER_01: I will pour, he's going to pour something out here.
SPEAKER_01: I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication.
SPEAKER_01: And they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him.
SPEAKER_01: First he says, I will pour, pour out upon the house of David, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication.
SPEAKER_01: We see that pouring, that's a spirit.
SPEAKER_01: When we see pouring in Scripture, that's a he will pour out his spirit upon us.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one that I'm reminded of there is that centurion of all of them, of all the people it could be.
SPEAKER_01: It was a Roman centurion that after all these things happened, he smote his breast and said, Surely, this is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, brothers and sisters, I believe there was something poured upon him.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he saw something.
SPEAKER_01: And when he saw it, he mourned.
SPEAKER_01: He smote his breast and said, Surely this is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but I'm also reminded of those on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: You ever look at that sermon that got so many people to join the church?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, you know, we've got some uh loaf-hanging fruit sometimes that you think, oh, I tell you, I'm just they're just ready, Brother Jeff, to join the church.
SPEAKER_01: If I can just really preach a good one, they're coming.
SPEAKER_01: And you preach one and you're like, this has got to be it.
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: And it's some weird sermon you preach, and here they come, and you're like, what?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, they preached that day on the day of Pentecost is you took him, you crucified him, by your hands was he crucified.
SPEAKER_01: And it says what?
SPEAKER_01: They were pricked in their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And they says, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Repent and be baptized.
SPEAKER_01: Save yourself from this untoward generation.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, they had something poured out upon them, and they were able to look on him whom they pierced.
SPEAKER_01: And then they says, What shall we do?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I tell you, brothers and sisters, may we always preach the cross of Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I tell you what, I hate heresies that rise up.
SPEAKER_01: There's a heresy that rose up in this state, and I still travel to this day, and they still hold us responsible for it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I didn't have anything to do with it.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, my granddaddy was a pretty good scrapper against them.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell you, it's how can you deny the cross that say his salvation and atonement didn't happen on the cross of Calvary because they looked upon him who was pierced.
SPEAKER_01: He was pierced on the cross for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I tell you, brothers and sisters, you ever get low?
SPEAKER_01: You ever get sad?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, he's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but brothers and sisters, I'm thankful that now we don't hide our faces from him.
SPEAKER_01: We can boldly go into the throne of grace, and we can go to the cross and say what he did there, he was pierced for us.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, we mourn.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a bad, it's a horrible mourning.
SPEAKER_01: They have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him.
SPEAKER_01: It's bitter to go to the cross to see what was done.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you were the only child of God that sinned, he would have done it for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's personal.
SPEAKER_01: It's very personal.
SPEAKER_01: We can get caught up in the, and it's beautiful that there's a multitude.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that in all things Christ shall have the preeminence, and I believe in his family he shall have the preeminence.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell you, brothers and sisters, it is very personal to you, Brother Land.
SPEAKER_01: He thought of you before the world began.
SPEAKER_01: He thought of you when he was pierced.
SPEAKER_01: Then I want to go to the next chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Verse six, and one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands?
SPEAKER_01: And he shall answer.
SPEAKER_01: Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
SPEAKER_01: You know what the beautiful thing about the church is?
SPEAKER_01: We're friends.
SPEAKER_01: We're brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it tells us to bear our burdens.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, when the Spirit of God is in a place, all our little quirky differences go away.
SPEAKER_01: We're lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't it a wonderful blessing to feel that unity?
SPEAKER_01: How sweet and how pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it sweet when you're in a low spot in your life?
SPEAKER_01: That you can call who?
SPEAKER_01: A friend.
SPEAKER_01: We sang, what a friend we have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But he says these wounds in my hand came from my friends.
SPEAKER_01: They came.
SPEAKER_01: What are these wounds?
SPEAKER_01: Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
SPEAKER_01: He came unto his own.
SPEAKER_01: And his own received him not.
SPEAKER_01: Those whom he loved so much wounded him.
SPEAKER_01: They pierced him.
SPEAKER_01: Then the next verse says, awake, O sword, against my shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: And against the man that is my fellow.
SPEAKER_01: You know what fellow is?
SPEAKER_01: It's equal.
SPEAKER_01: And let's look at who is writing this.
SPEAKER_01: Saith the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: Awake, O sword.
SPEAKER_01: Against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
SPEAKER_01: And I will turn mine hand upon the little.
SPEAKER_01: That was meant for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: That we deserved.
SPEAKER_01: But he put it on his fellow.
SPEAKER_01: God, who being in the Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
SPEAKER_01: He was, this is both of these, a lot of these are, these express the deity of Christ in the Old Testament, in Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, This I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_01: God, the Lord of hosts, is saying, I'm going to do this to my equal, to my fellow.
SPEAKER_01: God manifest in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Awake.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, brothers and sisters, going back.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord knew what was coming to him.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord says in John chapter 12, Now is my soul exceedingly sorrowful.
SPEAKER_01: But what shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: Save me from this hour.
SPEAKER_01: But for this cause came I unto this hour.
SPEAKER_01: And I love where it says, He set his face to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Then we go to Isaiah and it'll open it up a little more.
SPEAKER_01: It says, He set his face as it were a flint.
SPEAKER_01: He was determined.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews, it tells us who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, you are the Lord's joy.
SPEAKER_01: But back over in Isaiah, it says, My fury, it upheld me.
SPEAKER_01: How about that?
SPEAKER_01: He said there's a joy that was before him.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy that was said before him, he endured the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But over in Isaiah, he says, My fury, it upheld me.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, brothers and sisters, those aren't contradictions.
SPEAKER_01: There was a something standing against in between his joy and him.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, he was angry.
SPEAKER_01: He's just like David said whenever David came up and heard that Goliath, that's his name.
SPEAKER_01: Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: He heard him what he said.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, he's a lad.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: Uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't understand.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't understand that he'd been anointed.
SPEAKER_01: The chapter before.
SPEAKER_01: They says, We know the naughtiness of thy heart.
SPEAKER_01: You've just come to see the battle, you kid.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, What have I now done?
SPEAKER_01: Is there not a cause?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, brothers and sisters, he went, knew what was coming.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that he must lay down his life.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they didn't take it from him.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we pierced him.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, his friends wounded him in the hands.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell you, brothers and sisters, he laid down his life for us.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I have power to lay it down.
SPEAKER_01: I can give away my ending because everyone knows what it's going to be, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I have power to take it up.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you don't know the resurrection, I mean you're pretty new and it's still gonna be sweet.
SPEAKER_01: Oh but he knew it and he had it, he set his face as a flint to go.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, awake.
SPEAKER_01: O sword.
SPEAKER_01: The dark side, you know, we started with behold the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Look, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced.
SPEAKER_01: Back to Hebrews 12.
SPEAKER_01: It says, consider that endured such contradiction of sinners against yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: What's the answer to worries?
SPEAKER_01: What's the answer to anxiety?
SPEAKER_01: What's the answer to stress?
SPEAKER_01: Go to the cross, brothers and sisters, and consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Consider him.
SPEAKER_01: Look upon him whom you have pierced.
SPEAKER_01: Look upon his hands that he was wounded in the house of his friends.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look upon it and see what was done on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Consider.
SPEAKER_01: But as I said, oh, endured such contradiction of sinners.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I often think of that.
SPEAKER_01: And I think about how the enemies that stood against him thought it was going.
SPEAKER_01: I think they were pretty happy.
SPEAKER_01: I think when he says, I thirst, look at him getting weak.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell you, we look beyond the veil with an eye, a spiritual eye, eye of faith, and say he was thirsting for that cup.
SPEAKER_01: To drink it to the bitter drinks.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, Eli, Eli, Lama, sit back tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why did it put that in the other language there?
SPEAKER_01: And not in English.
SPEAKER_01: Because it says, and they thought that he was calling for Elias.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, let's see if he will come and help.
SPEAKER_01: They thought, look at him.
SPEAKER_01: He's crying for the old prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He really is getting weak.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that he was crying out, and as it's been said so many times, Jesus never asked a question that he didn't know the answer to.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't ask the question for himself to be answered.
SPEAKER_01: But he asked the question so that we would know what was occurring right then and there.
SPEAKER_01: And that was that his God was forsaken him.
SPEAKER_01: It's what it says.
SPEAKER_01: He was pouring out his wrath.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't feeling the loving embrace of his father, but he was feeling the wrath.
SPEAKER_01: He was feeling that sword being awoken against him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what was, and we can know that.
SPEAKER_01: And then he cried out, it is finished.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And what they thought was their cry of victory.
SPEAKER_01: Turns out it was our cry of victory.
SPEAKER_01: How about that contradiction?
SPEAKER_01: It is finished.
SPEAKER_01: And it'll preach today, brothers and sisters, that the work of Christ, he was wounded for us, he was pierced for us.
SPEAKER_01: He was uh his hands were wounded in the house of his friends for us.
SPEAKER_01: And it was finished there.
SPEAKER_01: But oh, how do we know?
SPEAKER_01: Because as I quoted earlier, he was delivered for our offenses.
SPEAKER_01: That's in Romans, end of chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: Four, I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01: End of chapter four, it says he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
SPEAKER_01: What is justification?
SPEAKER_01: It is a proving and a declaration of his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: You look back and study and read, and I will agree with you.
SPEAKER_01: It's difficult reading.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus and that, but we need to do it.
SPEAKER_01: And you go back and you look at that high priest that went in once every year to the holiest of holies.
SPEAKER_01: And he'd go in, and if he did anything wrong, he'd fall dead right then and there.
SPEAKER_01: But if he came out, what did that tell us?
SPEAKER_01: His offer was good and it was accepted of God.
SPEAKER_01: So he was delivered, raised again for our justification.
SPEAKER_01: Three days and three nights later, he came out of the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a declaration to us that the sacrifice was enough and that it was accepted.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I tell you, brothers and sisters, may we always go to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: May we always look.
SPEAKER_01: It's not pleasant, but we must look upon him when we do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful, oh Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That we can go to the tomb, and it is empty.
SPEAKER_01: And it is a declaration to us this day that the work is finished, accepted, and it is enough.
SPEAKER_01: It is enough.
SPEAKER_01: Behold your king.
SPEAKER_01: Come ahead, Brother David.
SPEAKER_02: I should take our dear brother's example, Brother Jeb's example, who preliminaries none, zero.
SPEAKER_02: But I come from a different generation, Brother Jeb, and the men who raised me, they were so bad to preliminary.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, half of their message would be preliminary.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not that bad, but I have to say a few words by way of introduction.
SPEAKER_02: And that is number one, I love you all, and I'm so thankful to be here with you.
SPEAKER_02: And it is your love that has compelled me to be here today and the love for my Savior.
SPEAKER_02: And I mean truly compelled me, because I would see in Brother Mallow's emails, those faithful emails, the association taking place here.
SPEAKER_02: And my heart was so dry.
SPEAKER_02: I will owe Brother, as I've said previously, I'll owe Brother Clifford Goins a great debt of gratitude that I'll never be able to feel.
SPEAKER_02: He was the first minister that invited me to the state of Texas.
SPEAKER_02: And I've loved you all ever since.
SPEAKER_02: I love you so much.
SPEAKER_02: And so I I just accepted, and please pray for me, I just accepted the church in Oxford as pastor.
SPEAKER_02: Um a sweet privilege to pastor that sweet band of believers, Antioch Primitive Baptist Church, and we would love to have you.
SPEAKER_02: We would love to have you come be with us there.
SPEAKER_02: So uh this Sunday, God willing, I'll be in Oxford, Mississippian.
SPEAKER_02: So it's like 10 hours from here.
SPEAKER_02: And um seven hours from home, right?
SPEAKER_02: There, and you know, we've been in several, you know, it's meeting time, so we've been a lot of meetings and enjoyed every one of them.
SPEAKER_02: I thought, I want to go, but I just can't go.
SPEAKER_02: And no, you can't don't do that, and I'll like David.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you need to pace yourself and my sweet wife, and then um, and so there's this uh spiritual thermonuclear missile that comes in last week, a text from Brother Travis Brown.
SPEAKER_02: And you can be a, you know, be a little I'm I'm a former high school principal of many years, and so folks being ugly, being a little, you know, aggressive and rough, that doesn't bother me a bit.
SPEAKER_02: You know, with the Lord's help.
SPEAKER_02: But if you're sweet and kind and humble and gentle and entreating, that's not fighting fair with me.
SPEAKER_02: And that's Brother Travis Brown, amen.
SPEAKER_02: So kind, so gentle, and so uh, and I love my sweet experience with this church last year and your precious pastor and his family.
SPEAKER_02: So the bottom line is by God's grace, I'm here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: I'm thankful to be here.
SPEAKER_02: Very thankful.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, there are no miles, too great.
SPEAKER_02: Um, not just for the church, and I've told somebody recently, you know, I ultimately I don't try to serve God's people, and I hope you'll take this in the sense it's um given.
SPEAKER_02: Ultimately, I don't try to serve God's pe I would serve you because I love you, but ultimately that's not the reason because you're worthy.
SPEAKER_02: I serve you because he's worthy.
SPEAKER_02: Ultimately.
SPEAKER_02: Ultimately, that's it.
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm here, I trust, not just because I love Brother Travis, Brother Mike, and you all, but I hope I'm here because I love my Savior.
SPEAKER_02: So, Brother Michael, uh, and Brother Jeb, but Brother Jeb, he's always, and I told him that he left the pulpit, and I love him so much in his preaching because he's always going to set, he's going to evidently set before our eyes Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to worry about Brother Jeb doing that.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I've had the privilege of uh sharing the pulpit with him now more than just a couple of times, and it's it's so wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: Such an honor.
SPEAKER_02: Um I was very engaged by Brother Michael's preaching last night, and he um he shared one passage of scripture, and with his permission, there is a passage that he shared, and he made a comment and he moved on.
SPEAKER_02: He shared what I think may be one of the most encouraging passages of scripture for the New Testament church that there is in the entire New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: And if Brother Mike is okay, I think at this point I move forward anyway, Brother Mike, but but I would love your uh benediction uh and approbation.
SPEAKER_02: Um and it is uh in John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_02: I I've tried to think about anytime I mention any passage from John chapter 14, I'm trying to think about the hearts of the apostles, those 12 men and the condition of their the condition of their hearts and their minds right then in John 14.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll just say this, they're broken.
SPEAKER_02: They're absolutely broken men.
SPEAKER_02: Um and and it's very tender to me.
SPEAKER_02: They're absolutely broken, and the great shepherd of the sheep, who knows exactly what sheep need and when they need it, he tells them exactly what they need to hear, and he tells them one of the most encouraging things I think he could have told them.
SPEAKER_02: But their hearts are broken.
SPEAKER_02: If you think about it, um three and a half years earlier, those men have left their visible means of support in this world.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, God's called on me to do a lot of things, but he's never called on me to leave my visible means of supporting my family.
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: But he went down to the uh shores of the Sea of Galilee, and there were those fishermen, and they were commercial fishermen.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm from Florida, and I know what I had friends that were in commercial fishing, and they fished with nets, and I know uh what commercial nets cost, and they're expensive, and they're so expensive that if you get out of the business and you sell your business, I had a friend who did this, he could not get back into business.
SPEAKER_02: It was too expensive.
SPEAKER_02: Those nets were so costly in the ship.
SPEAKER_02: And those dear men, by faith, they left their nets to rot on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and they forsook all and followed him.
SPEAKER_02: Peter said they had, and it was a truth.
SPEAKER_02: Said it for the wrong reason, but it was a truth.
SPEAKER_02: Said, Lord, we've forsaken all.
SPEAKER_02: What shall we receive therefore?
SPEAKER_02: That's the wrong thing to follow up with.
SPEAKER_02: But they had.
SPEAKER_02: They'd forsaken everything.
SPEAKER_02: They'd followed him, they'd left their families behind.
SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus tells them these words.
SPEAKER_02: I must go away.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to leave you.
SPEAKER_02: I've got to be rejected of the scribes, the chief priests, and the Pharisees, I'm going to die.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to leave you.
SPEAKER_02: He tells them at the end of John 13, he says, whether I go, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_02: How would that have if you were one of those apostles, how would that have made you feel desperate?
SPEAKER_02: I think their hearts probably were paralyzed, gripped with fear.
SPEAKER_02: And so, of course, being the sympathizing savior that he is, he says, his next words are, let not your heart be troubled.
SPEAKER_02: And he tells them about a person, he tells them about a place, and he tells them about a promise.
SPEAKER_02: And that would encourage their heart.
SPEAKER_02: But then he doesn't listen, it's not over.
SPEAKER_02: The work is not over.
SPEAKER_02: And he and he tells them the work is not over.
SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, it's just beginning.
SPEAKER_02: I know you think because of what I said that you've come to the end, but you have not come to the end.
SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus says this, and if the Jews want to emphasize something, they do it by repetition.
SPEAKER_02: And so that famous, that famous uh pairing that Christ uses, verily, verily, he doesn't just say, hey, this is truth.
SPEAKER_02: He says, This is truth, this is truth, I say unto you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he shall do also.
SPEAKER_02: And greater works than these shall he also do.
SPEAKER_02: And then he gives them the reason.
SPEAKER_02: And the linchpin is because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does that have to do with it?
SPEAKER_02: He's encouraging.
SPEAKER_02: He said, listen, it's not over.
SPEAKER_02: He said, the works that I do, you're gonna do also.
SPEAKER_02: You've believed in me.
SPEAKER_02: The works that we're doing, you're gonna do them.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, not only that, but believe this is over the top.
SPEAKER_02: It's really over the top.
SPEAKER_02: He said, not only that, but greater works than we have done, you're going to do them.
SPEAKER_02: Greater works than I have done, you shall do also.
SPEAKER_02: Because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to say, before I say exactly what the greater works are, I'm interested in that, aren't you?
SPEAKER_02: How can that be?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's mind-boggling.
SPEAKER_02: But first, before we say what they are, or share with what I believe the Word of God indicates that they are, let me say what they are not.
SPEAKER_02: I received a letter from uh, I received a letter from an evangelistic association back 30 years ago in McClane when I was pastor there.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know how they got my name, I don't know how they got my address, but clearly they had sent the letter to the wrong person.
SPEAKER_02: Because in the letter it said that we want you to have Brother So-and-so at your church.
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing the work that he's done.
SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, he's been so great in the work of God that whenever he gets to heaven, there are going to be multiplied thousands that seek his face for him having saved them and delivered them to heaven through his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: They're going to seek him.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that's who we're going to heaven to seek.
SPEAKER_02: That evangelist.
SPEAKER_02: And truly, they did not know who they'd sent the letter to.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, they never heard from me.
SPEAKER_02: But there are many who are deluded and feel like that they are participating with Christ in the work of salvation redemption.
SPEAKER_02: And there are many men that that's the way they would teach that word is that, you know, whereas we have saved together thousands for glory, the church will come after me, and they will save untold millions for glory.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing could be further than the truth.
SPEAKER_02: We have absolutely, and I know you all know it, I want you to know that I know it, and we'll just rejoice in it together, that we have absolutely nothing to the matter of the salvation and the redemption of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God is clear that that exclusively belongs to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the brightness of his glory, the expressed image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power, when he has by himself, exclusively by himself, exclusively by himself, purged our sins, who purged our sins, the Son of God, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
SPEAKER_02: He had by himself purged our sins.
SPEAKER_02: He has by himself perfected forever.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation was the only business for the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: It belonged to him because only he was able.
SPEAKER_02: That's why He's worthy.
SPEAKER_02: He's worthy.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation is of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So whatever the greater works are, then these shall you do.
SPEAKER_02: They are not salvific, they're not redemptive, it has nothing to do with the salvation-redemption of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: But it's an amazing statement.
SPEAKER_02: You think about the ministry of it's referencing something in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you think about what went on in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: How can you do greater works?
SPEAKER_02: So I think about what Jesus did while he was here, and it touches my heart.
SPEAKER_02: A great sympathizing man.
SPEAKER_02: I love the short biographical phrase in the tenth chapter of the book of Acts, speaking of what Christ did while he was here.
SPEAKER_02: It says that he went about doing good.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that sweet?
SPEAKER_02: That's so lovely.
SPEAKER_02: He tells us, Luke, Dr.
SPEAKER_02: Luke tells us the second chapter that he was a man approved of God, and then in the tenth chapter he tells us, and he simply went about doing good.
SPEAKER_02: I try to do good.
SPEAKER_02: I want to do good.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I've done some good, but I haven't always done good.
SPEAKER_02: But that's all Jesus ever did.
SPEAKER_02: So we can do good, but think of the good that he did.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: He came he came into this world.
SPEAKER_02: And he didn't just come to uh he didn't just come to save us from our sins, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: There were other things that he was doing as well.
SPEAKER_02: He says in Mark chapter, uh I'm sorry, he said Luke chapter 16, verse 16, and he says, listen, he says, the law and the prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: Now this is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: He said that now the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
SPEAKER_02: You think about the implications of that?
SPEAKER_02: He's bringing in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: God had originally given Adam in the Garden of Eden the uh the what we refer to as the creation mandate.
SPEAKER_02: And that is, Adam was given the mandate to subdue and to um and to be literally God's, I can't spend a lot of time on this, but Adam was created to be God's vice regent on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: He was to exercise in the creation mandate in the first chapter, he was to exercise dominion over the face of the earth, over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the beasts, and everything that creepeth on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Man was to exercise dominion.
SPEAKER_02: Buffalo are not my brother.
SPEAKER_02: They're not my cousin.
SPEAKER_02: We have dominion over them.
SPEAKER_02: And God's creation mandate.
SPEAKER_02: So I don't apologize whenever I catch and eat a redfish.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: God gave me dominion over them.
SPEAKER_02: And it's for my benefit, my good.
SPEAKER_02: And that was to be man.
SPEAKER_02: And God was to uh uh God was uh going to fellowship and enjoy the presence of his creation, the noblest of his creation, the creation, man that he'd made in his own image.
SPEAKER_02: So, and he'd made man in such a way, he created us in his image so that we would be able to commune with him and have union with him.
SPEAKER_02: But then Adam and Eve decided to become their own bosses in the Garden of Eden and caused a rip and a tear in the fellowship, severed fellowship between them and God, and the kingdom was lost.
SPEAKER_02: The dominion of man was greatly injured.
SPEAKER_02: And Eden is wounded.
SPEAKER_02: And so what God had purposed and designed in Genesis 1, man loses it in Genesis chapter 3, that vice regency.
SPEAKER_02: But here the Son of God in Luke chapter 16 says, No, now the kingdom of God is come because the king is here, and I've come to repair and to heal the wounds of Eden.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I'm doing here.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm beginning by setting up my kingdom in this world.
SPEAKER_02: And you can reign and rule with me in my kingdom in this world.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not waiting for Christ to come back again to reign with him.
SPEAKER_02: Every time I sit with the saints of God and I mix my voice with yours, and I pray my prayers with yours, and I hear the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ preached.
SPEAKER_02: I'm reigning with the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not waiting to get the glory to reign.
SPEAKER_02: I've reigned with you right here at Grace Primitive Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_02: He's come to set up the kingdom of God, and in setting up the kingdom of God, he does amazing things.
SPEAKER_02: He's going to demonstrate that I'm beginning to heal the wounds of the garden.
SPEAKER_02: And he does amazing things to show who he is and his power and what he came to do.
SPEAKER_02: And he touches the ears of the deaf and they hear, people that have never heard in their life.
SPEAKER_02: He touches the eyes of the blind and they and they see, people who are never seen in their life.
SPEAKER_02: And uh he speaks to the dumb, and now they can sing praises to him and the lame that have never walked.
SPEAKER_02: They've laid in their bed for 38 years, helpless, and he just speaks to them.
SPEAKER_02: Rise, take up your bed and walk.
SPEAKER_02: And they get up and walk.
SPEAKER_02: The wounds of the garden, the king is here, healing is coming.
SPEAKER_02: So he marches through time in his own glorious ministry for three and a half years, and we see the king of glory doing amazing things.
SPEAKER_02: In Matthew chapter 8, there was a pitiful man that came to him, a leper.
SPEAKER_02: Helpless, pitiful, incurable.
SPEAKER_02: Leprosy was a death sentence when you got it.
SPEAKER_02: In the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I know God gave the law of leprosy, the book of Leviticus, but there had never been an Israelite.
SPEAKER_02: And I stand to be corrected, but as far as I understand from the old Bible, there had never been a leper recorded that went to the priest for uh getting cleansing under the law of leprosy, the acknowledgement of cleansing.
SPEAKER_02: He said, What a well Naaman, he was, he was cured of it.
SPEAKER_02: Laman wasn't an Israelite, he was a Gentile.
SPEAKER_02: It was a helpless, we don't have a record of anyone ever being cleansed at Namiriam.
SPEAKER_02: That was before the law, and that was a special case.
SPEAKER_02: But after the law, not one record of it.
SPEAKER_02: And it was a, you know, it was a slow, it was a slow, it was, it was, first of all, it was a marginalizing disease.
SPEAKER_02: It was a horrible disease.
SPEAKER_02: You were put away from your family, you wouldn't embrace your wife and your children anymore.
SPEAKER_02: You'd never hold your grandchildren on your knees and you'd live in isolation.
SPEAKER_02: You'd be socially marginalized, and people would cast dispersions at you and throw rocks at you as you went by them and you'd live on the fringes of society.
SPEAKER_02: And uh it was a slow death, but it was a certain death.
SPEAKER_02: It was a death sentence whenever you got the unthinkable, when you got that uh unthinkable diagnosis from the priest, and uh you were not to live your life until finally it just impacted the vital systems, and mercifully you would die.
SPEAKER_02: It was a living death, and then in Matthew 8, something unthinkable happens there.
SPEAKER_02: Comes a leper to the Lord Jesus Christ and he bows down and he worships him.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to notice the order of that.
SPEAKER_02: He worships the Son of God before the Son of God ever did anything for him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is worthy of my worship if he never does anything for me.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Because he's God all by himself, and he deserves all of my worship.
SPEAKER_02: And so he knelt down and he worshiped him and he said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the sweetest passages in all of the Word of God, the Word of God said that Jesus did the unthinkable, the unspeakable, and he touched that man who hadn't been touched.
SPEAKER_02: Only God knows how long it had been since he was touched, and he said, I will be thou clean.
SPEAKER_02: And righteousness flows out of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: That man is healed.
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: He said, How do you know righteousness flowed out?
SPEAKER_02: Because when the woman touched the hem of his garment in uh Mark chapter 5, Jesus said, Virtue's going out of me.
SPEAKER_02: That's righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: God's righteousness is the answer for the disease of sin.
SPEAKER_02: God's righteousness is the answer for physical disease.
SPEAKER_02: All physical disease is the result of original sin.
SPEAKER_02: Not necessarily somebody's individual sin.
SPEAKER_02: If you believe all disease is because of somebody's individual sin, go home and read the book of Job.
SPEAKER_02: But it is the result of original sin, and the cure for all disease is going to be whenever we are dressed in the royal regal robes of Christ righteousness in the morning of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: But we get a little picture of it in those smaller healings that Jesus does while he's here.
SPEAKER_02: What can be greater than now?
SPEAKER_02: How are you going to do greater works than that?
SPEAKER_02: Let me say, you're not.
SPEAKER_02: You're not.
SPEAKER_02: That's not it.
SPEAKER_02: It's not salvation, it's not redemption, it's not those incredible miracles that Christ did where virtue flows out of him.
SPEAKER_02: That's not it.
SPEAKER_02: I've enjoyed trying to tell you all a lot about what it isn't.
SPEAKER_02: I hope tell you what it is is as good as what it's not.
SPEAKER_02: But before I tell you what it is, whatever the greater work is that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is given to do, and let me say, I know you say, well, he's talking the apostles, he's not talking to the church, but the apostles, in a sense, are our representatives.
SPEAKER_02: They are.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever they're with the Lord, don't you believe in the upper room and they're with the Lord?
SPEAKER_02: That that is the church in microcosmic form, and that they are the representatives of the New Testament church and the Lord's last time, right?
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So whatever those greater words are, it's gonna be because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be able to do whatever Christ wants us to ask us to do and commands us to do and charges us to because he goes to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: If you're it looks, it's kind of counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_02: It seems like if you're going away, you're gonna have less effect on us if you're over there than if you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing could be further from the truth because of where he goes.
SPEAKER_02: Paul tells us exactly where he goes as he goes to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't just go to the Father in a nebulous way.
SPEAKER_02: You know, like I'm I'm going to Grace Primitive Baptist Church this weekend.
SPEAKER_02: Now, so whenever I come in the building, uh I could have said, I intend to sit back there.
SPEAKER_02: I saw my dear friend Brother James Conley sitting up here.
SPEAKER_02: So um, I didn't tell my listen, I'm gonna go to Grace Primitive Baptist Church and I'm gonna take a seat by Brother James Conley.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm going to Grace Primitive Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what the Word of God says about Jesus Christ going to his Father.
SPEAKER_02: It's not nebulous.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Apostle Paul says about Christ going.
SPEAKER_02: You're going to be able to do greater things because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what Paul says happened when Christ went to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And what Paul describes, I'm telling you, I've been trying to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for 50 years.
SPEAKER_02: And what Paul tells us in Romans 8, 34, is the reason that I've been able to continue and go in the strength of what this text represents.
SPEAKER_02: And the Apostle Paul says this.
SPEAKER_02: You know, 33, who can lay the same charge of God's elect?
SPEAKER_02: It's God that justifies.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, Who is he that condemneth?
SPEAKER_02: Who would have the audience, based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would have the audacity to point a condemning finger at a child of God?
SPEAKER_02: And then he goes on this little roll call.
SPEAKER_02: Who is he that condemneth?
SPEAKER_02: It's Christ that died, finished work, yea, rather that's risen again.
SPEAKER_02: The hammer comes down, not guilty.
SPEAKER_02: Who, each one of these are legal proceedings in your salvation?
SPEAKER_02: The satisfaction, the atonement of Christ, justification and resurrection, atonement and death, justification and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Then he says, Who's at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us?
SPEAKER_02: So, at the right hand of God, he said, You're going to be able to do these great works because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Notice how he goes to the Father and where he goes when he gets there.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said, He is at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's a powerful statement.
SPEAKER_02: That Christ went back to glory and now he's at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_02: Theologians for years have described this as the session, that is the S-E-S-S-I-O-N, Christ being at the right hand, when he goes back to heaven, he sits down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_02: Now let me stop and say this.
SPEAKER_02: The right hand of God is not like sometimes we'll get mistaken in our view of, I so appreciate what Brother Mike had to say about the Godhead.
SPEAKER_02: We can never preach on the Godhead too much, though we'll never fully explain it.
SPEAKER_02: But we we get these unusual ideas in our heads sometimes about the arrangement, the relationship in the Godhead in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And so sometimes we'll get to thinking, you know, like God the Father, he's like the number one God, and then God the Son, he's the number two person, and then God the Holy Ghost, he's the number three person.
SPEAKER_02: So, like God the Father, he's a first degree, God the Son, second degree, and God the Holy Ghost, he's somewhere down here a third degree.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing could be further from the truth.
SPEAKER_02: They are co-equal.
SPEAKER_02: They're co-equal, they're one in mind, they're one in counsel, they're one in purpose.
SPEAKER_02: They are one in their mission, they're one in the things that they're doing.
SPEAKER_02: They're one in divine essence, they're one in divine substance yet, three in person.
SPEAKER_02: And so that God the Father is no more God than God the Son, and God the Son is no more God than God the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: They are co-equal.
SPEAKER_02: They all share the same divine essence and substance.
SPEAKER_02: They are all God.
SPEAKER_02: So that the place where Christ sits in glory today is not a lesser place than where God the Father is.
SPEAKER_02: So let me say this.
SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, thank you, James Conley.
SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, it's the very same place.
SPEAKER_02: There are not three, listen to me, there are not three thrones in glory.
SPEAKER_02: They all occupy the same throne.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what John said in Revelation 22, verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: It says, and he showed me a river of life, a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you'll notice the word, the little letter S is not on the throne, is not on the word throne.
SPEAKER_02: He could have, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, if there are multiple, if God the Father has a throne, God the Son has a throne, if God the Father has a throne, God the Son has a throne, then the Holy Spirit would have inspired this.
SPEAKER_02: He showed me the thrones of God and the Son.
SPEAKER_02: Is that what it says?
SPEAKER_02: The Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: God and the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: He showed me the throne of God and the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: There's only one throne in glory, and it belongs to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: The throne is not divided.
SPEAKER_02: God is not divided.
SPEAKER_02: He's one.
SPEAKER_02: So then what does it mean?
SPEAKER_02: Is that the Father's right hand?
SPEAKER_02: If we were all Hebrews and traditional Hebrews, Orthodox Jews, we'd understand exactly what the right hand means.
SPEAKER_02: If you went into a Jewish feast and you were to set on the right hand, you were sitting in the position of authority, in the position of power.
SPEAKER_02: Authority and power.
SPEAKER_02: You would be legally vested with authority and power.
SPEAKER_02: So whenever Jesus goes back to heaven and he is at the right hand, he sets down in heaven, he is legally seated, this is important, he's legally seated in the position of authority and power.
SPEAKER_02: Because I go to the Father, this is what it's all about now.
SPEAKER_02: He's in the position legally, he's in the position of authority and power.
SPEAKER_02: The session of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Now I ran this by uh someone who I think should know, a state Supreme Court judge.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I ask him, in when um when we were growing up, I don't hear it so much more, but anytime you saw a court go in session on television, the court crier would come out.
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember what he would say, hear ye, hear ye?
SPEAKER_02: Um the this court is now what?
SPEAKER_02: In session, and the honorable James Connolly is now presiding.
SPEAKER_02: The judge is now presiding.
SPEAKER_02: So what the court crier is knowing is that this is a legal proceeding, that the matters that will issue forth from this court, they're legal, they're right, they're appropriate, and they cannot be, and they will not be overturned.
SPEAKER_02: And that the judge who is seated here, he's seated here legally, and he has the legal right to exercise authority in this courtroom.
SPEAKER_02: The courtroom is now his, and what takes place?
SPEAKER_02: Takes place under his legal and rightful authority.
SPEAKER_02: The judge is seated, he's now in session.
SPEAKER_02: When Christ went back to heaven, he sat down on the right hand of the men, the place of authority, and he is legally ruling and reigning from glory today.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a usurper.
SPEAKER_02: There have been men in this world who were powerful men, and I've tried to study over the course of years, probably too much, the uh reign of the British monarchs, thousand-year reign.
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing as far as men are concerned.
SPEAKER_02: And it's the story of one family usurping another family, usurping another family, the plantagenets and the tutors and the and the uh stewards and the Hanovers and one house wrestles authority and power from the other house, and they put themselves on the throne rightly or or justly or unjustly.
SPEAKER_02: Well, uh Jesus Christ is justly and rightly reigning in heaven over the church.
SPEAKER_02: The Apostle Paul, that's a thread, that is a thread, that's a trend with him.
SPEAKER_02: That's a trend with him.
SPEAKER_02: He goes throughout his epistles and he tells us uh at the end of the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, he says, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power?
SPEAKER_02: That is God's power.
SPEAKER_02: What is what how great is God's power in his people today?
SPEAKER_02: Listen how great it is.
SPEAKER_02: What is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us?
SPEAKER_02: Who believe according to the working of his mighty power in us?
SPEAKER_02: What kind of power is working in us?
SPEAKER_02: Which power he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named in this world, not only in this world, but in the world to come.
SPEAKER_02: And he's given him to me.
SPEAKER_02: What?
SPEAKER_02: Head over all things to the church.
SPEAKER_02: So you know who the head of the church is?
SPEAKER_02: I love Mike Montgomery, and he's a wise man.
SPEAKER_02: But it's not Mike Montgomery.
SPEAKER_02: He's not Mike Moses, not Phil Kong or Jeb Bush, or anybody else except Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Christ has earned the right.
SPEAKER_02: He's earned the title in the covenant of grace before he left.
SPEAKER_02: There were pledges and promises made among the Godhead before Christ ever left the world.
SPEAKER_02: And the pledge and the promise of the Godhead to the servant of Jehovah, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, that if you will go and you will represent them and you will die for them and you will vindicate our righteousness and our holiness, and you'll satisfy, and you deliver my people, then I'll give them to you to be your inheritance, and you'll be head over all things to them in time and in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what it means when Jesus said, You're going to be able to do these things because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And when I go to the Father, I'm going to sit down in the place of power and authority and rule and reign.
SPEAKER_02: And from that place of power and authority and rule and reign, whatever the church needs in this world, I will give it to them.
SPEAKER_02: I've got the right to give it to them, and I've got the ability to give it to them.
SPEAKER_02: I had a great father.
SPEAKER_02: He was a great man.
SPEAKER_02: He's the best friend I ever had outside of my precious wife.
SPEAKER_02: And I've told y'all before, he was a little Scotsman, only about five foot six and 145 pounds, soaking wet.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe the only reason when I was a little boy, the only reason that Muhammad Ali was champion of the world is because my dad didn't want to be.
SPEAKER_02: But that was not reality.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't have the ability.
SPEAKER_02: But he did everything in the world that his son needed.
SPEAKER_02: He did everything that he possibly could for me, except when it came to things that I needed, and he lacked the ability.
SPEAKER_02: But thank God, if this church doesn't go forward, it's not going to be because the head of the church lacks the ability.
SPEAKER_02: It won't be Christ's fault because he's gone back to his father and he said down the right hand of majesty on high, the place of authority and the place of power.
SPEAKER_02: He's got power, friend.
SPEAKER_02: He's got power, and he's going to take care of his church.
SPEAKER_02: He's going to take care of his church.
SPEAKER_02: Over in the uh 19th chapter, the uh I don't know if I'm gonna get to the greater things than not.
SPEAKER_02: But he's going, he's got the power, he's got the authority, and he's going to take care of the church.
SPEAKER_02: I want to let you know.
SPEAKER_02: Now, listen, I've traveled among Gold Baptists in the past two years.
SPEAKER_02: I've been like the fun uncle coming into town for two years.
SPEAKER_02: I hadn't passed at a church in two years.
SPEAKER_02: It's been sweet, you know.
SPEAKER_02: I I had the privilege of coming to Yald Meet, come in, love you, hug you, and then leave you with your daddy whenever I go home.
SPEAKER_02: It's been wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: I've enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_02: But one of the things that I've noticed from the time I was a little boy, uh, from the time I was a little boy, um, Mike, on Sunday mornings at our home church, uh, the place where I grew up, there'd be 250 people sitting in the meeting house on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I heard Brother Jeff preach that uh, you know, the best is just the time, and these are the good times.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm having a time of my life, these are good times.
SPEAKER_02: But I have seen uh, you know, the home church where I grew up in, there's not 25 people there on Sunday morning now.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what it was, and sometimes Satan can overwhelm us and get us to thinking that it's all hope is lost and just wringing our hands, and we might as well fold our tents and pack them up and uh and go.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, don't do that.
SPEAKER_02: Don't think like that.
SPEAKER_02: The church can go forward because as long as the head of the church in heaven is safe, the church on earth is safe.
SPEAKER_02: Now we need to do the greater works, whatever those are, if I get to them.
SPEAKER_02: So if the church goes backwards, it's not Christ's fault, is it?
SPEAKER_02: It's our fault.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that with everything in me.
SPEAKER_02: I do.
SPEAKER_02: Because we've been given greater works to do.
SPEAKER_02: But Christ is going to take care of us.
SPEAKER_02: I love this in Revelation 19.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe, um, and you don't have to, but I believe very strongly with the Word of God that Revelation 19 gives us a view from heavenward of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And then Revelation 20 gives us a view from the earth looking up at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: They're just two pictures of the same event.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus coming from heaven down, and uh then the earth on church looking up and seeing Jesus coming from heaven down.
SPEAKER_02: So a heavenward view in heaven, uh, this is what John saw.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever he, whenever he, by God's grace, he could see the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the conclusion of the inner Advent period, at the end of church history, uh, God allows John to see the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever he comes a second time without sin unto salvation.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, I believe there's only been two advent, there's only been one advent, and there's gonna be a second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: There's only gonna be two comings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The first one is born in Bethlehem of Judea.
SPEAKER_02: And the next and last, and you know, it depends on which form of dispensationalism you believe in.
SPEAKER_02: They believe there's gonna be a second secret coming, and then there's gonna be a third, and modified dispensationalism has a second secret coming, a third secret coming, and a final fourth coming.
SPEAKER_02: There is a first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's gonna be a second and final conclusion, second appearing of the Son of God, and that's the end of history in this world, and we're going home to glory.
SPEAKER_02: It's as simple as that.
SPEAKER_02: And whenever he comes, John said it looks like this from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I saw heaven open, and behold, a great white horse, and he that sat on him, his name was faithful and true.
SPEAKER_02: Faithful and true, that's his name.
SPEAKER_02: And in righteousness doth he judge and make war.
SPEAKER_02: That's the power of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: You say, wait a minute, you believe that Jesus Christ makes war?
SPEAKER_02: He makes war in righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Does he judge it?
SPEAKER_02: No, you said, I'm not saying that every war that's ever been Jesus made it.
SPEAKER_02: But whenever Jesus moves forward on behalf of the defense of his little flock in this world, he will make war against the enemies of the Son of God, against the enemies of the church of the Son of God in this world.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason that the church has continued for 2,000 years in this world is because the Son of God has made war on the enemies.
SPEAKER_02: It's not because we've been so strong and we're so wise and we can marshal great armies into the field and we have great money or political influence.
SPEAKER_02: It's because of the great conquering hero of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, our mighty warrior and captain of our salvation.
SPEAKER_02: He has delivered the church over and over and over from the poison and the venom and the spite of that great dragon, the serpent, the devil, who is also Satan.
SPEAKER_02: It's he that we conquer through.
SPEAKER_02: We're mighty through him to the pulling down of stronghold.
SPEAKER_02: Because he went to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And we see him at the end.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, this is the reason church will go forward.
SPEAKER_02: And John said he saw him and had a name that no man knew but himself, and on his head were many crowns.
SPEAKER_02: At the end of church history, Christ is going to have many crowns because he's got many victories for his church.
SPEAKER_02: Every time a child of God is born again by the power of the Spirit of Christ, it's another crown.
SPEAKER_02: Every time the church gathers in spite of the influence of this dark age in which we're in every time the church stands up against the culture of this world and continues to worship and the sacred principles of Jesus Christ and him crucified and the practice of the ancient church.
SPEAKER_02: Every time the church does that, it's another crown, it's another victory for the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Every time someone denies themselves, takes up their cross and follows Christ in the waters of baptism.
SPEAKER_02: It's another crown for the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Every time the Father overcomes temptation in his life and he remains a good husband and a faithful father, it's another crown for the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: He's got many crowns at the end, friends, of human history.
SPEAKER_02: People are worried about getting crowns for their head.
SPEAKER_02: All the crowns belong to him.
SPEAKER_02: Solomon said, he's talking about the church.
SPEAKER_02: He said, the coney are a feeble folk.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we are.
SPEAKER_02: We're just a bunch of conies.
SPEAKER_02: That's uh rabbits who can't run.
SPEAKER_02: And rabbits who don't have ears.
SPEAKER_02: They can't hear the predators, they can't run away from them.
SPEAKER_02: One brother said they're just a meal on wheels.
SPEAKER_02: That's all they are.
SPEAKER_02: And uh predators love them, but they're exceedingly wise in this way.
SPEAKER_02: They can't stand on their own for one day, but they make their house in the rocks.
SPEAKER_02: In the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We have no help except all that we need.
SPEAKER_02: We make our house in the blessed rock of ages.
SPEAKER_02: He's seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, and he's dispensing from glory.
SPEAKER_02: Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, Christ goes back to heaven, and this is what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and uh he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ goes back to glory, like the uh uh Caesar, whenever he conquered Gaul.
SPEAKER_02: He came back to Rome and he did this thing.
SPEAKER_02: He had the triumphant march through the streets of Rome, and the uh barbarian kings and generals were chained to his chariot, uh, and uh his chariot was filled with riches and jewels as tokens of his victory over the enemies of Rome.
SPEAKER_02: He drug the generals, those defeated generals and kings behind his chariot, and he would throw out to the masses that were there to celebrate his victory coins, jewels, precious gold and silver, tokens of his great victory.
SPEAKER_02: And so Paul uses that imagery and he seven of Christ went back to heaven and he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
SPEAKER_02: He led our enemies, he chained our enemies to his chariot of omnipotence.
SPEAKER_02: He drug back to heaven death, hell in the grave, he destroyed them and defeated them, and they're chained at his feet till this day.
SPEAKER_02: And not only that, but from glory, he's dispensing the golden spiritual gifts that are the energy and the lifeblood of the church today.
SPEAKER_02: He did all of that because he went back, because I go to my Father.
SPEAKER_02: I told you that's an encouraging text for the church, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: If that doesn't help your heart while you're here this weekend, I don't know what to tell you.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says that, this is, Paul says this, he says that he he has gone into heaven.
SPEAKER_02: There too, you know, we sometimes, if we're not careful, we preach uh Christ sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, kind of like he's up in heaven, just kind of twirling his thumbs and just you know taking an afternoon nap.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_02: While he's resting from the work of salvation and redemption, Christ is busy.
SPEAKER_02: He's singing after you, he's making intercessions for you, your child, according to the will of God, because he went back to his father.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul said, he is there today, appearing in the presence of God for us.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that wonderful?
SPEAKER_02: You know, I had a lot of folks in McClane.
SPEAKER_02: My dear friend was Judge Joey Williams.
SPEAKER_02: We were good friends, dear friends.
SPEAKER_02: Uh he was 28 years old when he went in as judge, and he was judge about as long as I was in Baker County.
SPEAKER_02: And we ate lunch uh at least once a month.
SPEAKER_02: I loved him.
SPEAKER_02: He was a strong disciple.
SPEAKER_02: Folks knew I loved Judge Williams.
SPEAKER_02: And so they get in trouble in the community.
SPEAKER_02: They call me and they'd say, Brother Crawford, don't you think you could say a word with the judge for me?
SPEAKER_02: They tell me what they and I would, I'd speak to him, I'd just tell them that you know, the judge, they called me and wanted me to say a word for word.
SPEAKER_02: No, I I would I'm I'm just playing now.
SPEAKER_02: They wanted a friend in court.
SPEAKER_02: Paul tells us, you got the best friend in court ever.
SPEAKER_02: There is going to heaven to do what?
SPEAKER_02: To appear in the presence of God for you.
SPEAKER_02: For me.
SPEAKER_02: And when I get weak, and when I'm struggling, when clouds come between myself and my Savior, and I bow my knee and my head to him, and I'm begging.
SPEAKER_02: And uh the Son of God hears my prayer, and uh he supplies what I need.
SPEAKER_02: He's there.
SPEAKER_02: And I want you to think now, I do not want you to think that Christ is in heaven begging God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Lord, do you remember what I that's not what he's doing, that's not the nature of the intercessory work of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Christ doesn't beg the Father for anything.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm telling you this the mere presence of the glorified Son of God, the conquering hero of the church, the mere presence of the Son of God in heaven is intercession for you.
SPEAKER_02: That guarantees your access to a throne of grace in time of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And that God will supply all of your needs, accords, riches, and glory.
SPEAKER_02: His mere presence is enough.
SPEAKER_02: So, what are the greater works?
SPEAKER_02: What are the greater works?
SPEAKER_02: You remember, so I can do this very quickly.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm telling you, this is so important.
SPEAKER_02: This is so important.
SPEAKER_02: And the time I'm giving it is not the is not equal to the level of authority of the greater works and how critical they are to the church.
SPEAKER_02: But it's so important.
SPEAKER_02: This is what this is our proper response to the fact that Jesus, according to the dictates of the covenant of grace, has gone back to heaven to be head over all things to the church.
SPEAKER_02: This is our proper response.
SPEAKER_02: The greater works are implicated by these verses.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said in Matthew 10, 5, whenever he sends out his twelve for the first time in Matthew 10.5, he says, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, nor into the cities of the Samaritans, but rather go you to the Law Sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, of himself and his ministry, whenever the little Syrophoenician woman comes seeking healing for her daughter, and says, Yea, Lord, but even the dollars have crumbs from the master's table, he had told her previously, uh, no.
SPEAKER_02: He says uh in the 24th verse, 15th chapter of Matthew, he says, Because I'm come not except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: And so what he tells his apostles and what he says is that my public ministry for reasons, um, and I don't have time to go into reasons, I wish I did.
SPEAKER_02: But my public ministry while I'm here is as a rule, specifically to the nation of Israel for a whole myriad of reasons.
SPEAKER_02: But it is exclusively to the dead nation of Israel, my ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And so he tells him, Don't go away, Gentiles of the cities of Samaria, but rather go ye to law sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: But then he says, The works that I do.
SPEAKER_02: If any man believe it, the works that I do, he shall do also, and greater works than he shall he do.
SPEAKER_02: So uh Christ preached his own everlasting gospel while he was here, but he preached it narrowly to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: But in his last post-resurrection message to the church in microcosmic form that are gathered together before he takes his leave, he tells them that they're to go into Jerusalem and to all of Judea and into the cities of Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth and preach his everlasting gospel.
SPEAKER_02: So it's not they're going to do greater works in the matter of salvation redemption or in the incredible healing and the miraculous ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's in the extent to which we are privileged to preach the gospel, the breadth with which we're allowed to go and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: A gospel minister can go and preach the gospel anywhere God birthed in this, in a qualified sense, can go and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ now, anywhere that the Spirit of God lays on his heart.
SPEAKER_02: You know the reason I'm in Houston, Texas this morning?
SPEAKER_02: It's not just because of a text from Travis Brown.
SPEAKER_02: But the Lord used that text to grip my heart and my love for this church and their pastor and for you all and for my savior, and it gripped my heart, and I feel like the Spirit of God led me to come here.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus never preached his gospel in Houston, Texas.
SPEAKER_02: But by God's grace, I've had the privilege of doing it.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that incredible?
SPEAKER_02: Greater works in extent, not in kind.
SPEAKER_02: May God bless you.
SPEAKER_02: Do that! That's what the church needs you to do.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Well, I can't, I can't, I'm not gonna I can't tell them like brother Philip Conley can tell them.
SPEAKER_02: If you can tell them like Philip Conley can tell him, you'd be Philip Conley.
SPEAKER_02: You'd be a preacher.
SPEAKER_02: The best, you know what the best advertisement for a doctor is?
SPEAKER_02: One patient telling another patient how to go there.
SPEAKER_02: That's all you gotta tell folks.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, I once was blind, but now I see.
SPEAKER_02: And our pastor, Elder Mike Mosley, if you hear more, it's amazing, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_02: There's a little place, a little fellowship that's so sweet.
SPEAKER_02: It's family, away from family on earth.
SPEAKER_02: The fellowship is sweet, and you'll hear the greatest message ever.
SPEAKER_02: Just come in here.
SPEAKER_02: Come and see, come and listen to our pastor.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's not hard, is it?
SPEAKER_02: You do that, you've done the greater work.
SPEAKER_02: May God bless you.
SPEAKER_02: Keep it in my prayer for Christ.