proud. Let's do it. It's the 10th. I want to remind me to call my parents. Today is my
parents' 47th year anniversary. Forty-eight, seven years together. And then our service
times are Sunday morning, 10.30, Sunday evening, 4.30, Wednesday, 5.30. Soul wedding time is
at 2 p.m. on Sunday. And the week of the verse is Philippians 1.13, so that my bonds in Christ
are manifest in all the palaces and in all other places. And then year to date, we have
one baptism. And then we had four souls, one out on Sunday. So we're at 268 souls for
the year. So praise God for that. And then we have a couple of events coming up for next
year. I mean, there's still a little bit of ways out, but it's still good to know. So
I think for sure I'm going to let Pastor Oz know, but I think we're going to have him
February 8th to preach both services for us here in the beginning of the year. And then
in July we're going to have Pastor Shelley, and then I'll fill in between and we'll set
up so many marathons and stuff like that. So we're already getting ready for 2026. We're
starting to fill up the events, but we still want to focus on 2025 and just close out on
a couple of things. So the Christmas fellowship, December 21st, the Sunday after the morning
service, we are going to order a big brisket, eight to 10 pounds, and then we're going to
order a five pound ham. We'll have plenty of meat for your carnivores out there. Carnivores
out there, don't worry about it. And I'm going to order some Mexican tamales from the border.
So we should have enough of that. So all I need you to do is just fill out, you should
have gotten a text. If you didn't get a text, let me know that lets you sign up for the
side dishes so we know what to expect. I sent it out this afternoon and already Jenny and
Cynthia filled it out. So we've got a couple of people that have filled it out. And then
just keep praying in the back for the Bosticks, especially for Sister Mary. We did the math,
Pastor Cobb and I, I think they were married over 60 years. So that's really rough on her.
Just pray for her. Brother Bostick, God ought to be with the Lord. We've added all the prayer
requests to remove some. If there's anything we need to add, just let me know and we'll
go ahead and keep doing that. If nothing else, is there any other announcements? Pastor,
is there? Yes ma'am. Oh, amen. You know what? That gives me an idea. I won't do it this
year, but maybe once a quarter we can have like a text or email that just has an update
to the answered prayer. That's actually pretty cool. So remove, but he's in remission. Amen.
Praise the Lord. So Kande, the guy right there towards the bottom, Sylvia's uncle, he's
in remission from his cancer. So praise the Lord for that. And just keep praying for everybody else.
And if nothing else, I'm trying to think. I don't think there's anything else. Let's turn
our handles over to page 78. And then we're going to be starting a new series today in the book of
John. I was going to wait till the new year, but then I was like, what am I waiting for? Let's just
go 78. Oh, you know what? I will say one thing. If I know some of you talk to other church members
and stuff, if there's interest in, and I can try to remember to send one, but if you guys just help
me, I'm just going to make this organic. If there's interest in some Christmas caroling,
like the week before, let me know. And I would definitely be willing to do that,
but I would need help at least printing on some, or at least getting them to the songs,
even on the phones. And then just picking the most, like the ones that we would sound good,
but not a lot of direction. Because you guys already know I'm not that great at leading,
but let me know about that. But other than that, 78 angels we have heard on high.
Before we get started, chapter one. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light,
that all men through Him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.
Even to them that believe on His name.
Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.
The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of Him, and cried, saying, "This was He of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me."
And of His fullness have we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man had seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, had He declared Him.
And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites for Jerusalem,
to ask Him, "Who art Thou?"
And He confessed and denied not, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
And they asked Him, "What then, art Thou Elias?"
And He did say, "I am not, art Thou the prophet?"
And He answered, "No."
Then said they unto Him, "Who art Thou?"
"That we may give an answer to them that sent us."
"What sayest Thou of Thyself?"
He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness."
"Make straight the way of the Lord," as said the prophet Esaias.
"And they which were sent were of the Pharisees."
And they asked Him and said unto Him, "Why baptizes Thou?
Then if Thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither the prophet, that prophet."
John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water,
but there standeth one among you whom ye know not.
He it is who coming after me is preferred before me,
whose shoes latch it, I am not worthy to lose."
These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and said,
"Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, 'After me cometh a man which is preferred before me.'
For he was before me, and I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore I am come, baptizing with water."
And John bare record saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove,
and had a bow upon him, and I knew him not, but that he sent me to baptize with water.
The same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him,
the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God."
Against the next day, again the next day, after John stood and two of his disciples,
and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he sayeth, "Behold, the Lamb of God."
And the two disciples heard him and speak, and they followed Jesus.
And then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them,
"What seek ye?" They said unto him, "Rabbi," which is to say, "Be an interpreted master."
"Where dwellest thou?" He said unto them, "Come and see."
They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and sayeth unto him, "We have found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted to Christ." And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus
beheld him, he said, "Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah; thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is by interpretation a stone." The day following, Jesus would go forth into
Galilee, and findeth Philip, and sayeth unto him, "Follow me." Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel, and said unto him, "We have found him,
of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Then Nathaniel said unto him, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip saith unto him,
"Come and see." Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile." Nathaniel said unto him, "Whence knowest thou me?" Jesus answered and said
unto him, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee."
Nathaniel answered and said unto him, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel."
Jesus answered and said unto him, "Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou, that thou shall see greater things than these." And he said unto him, "Verily,
verily I said unto thee, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man." Pastor Cobb, will you pray for the message?
Amen. All right, we're there in John 1, and we're starting a new series. One of the things
I'm trying to do as I do these Bible studies is just jump back and forth and do one series
in the New Testament, and then one in the Old, just to keep things, I guess, fresh but
also congruent and in harmony. Because, you know, you can spend a lot of time in the New
Testament and not really get the reason why they believe the way they believe, but they
clear up a lot of things in the Old Testament. So if we're jumping back and forth, we'll
see a lot of, you know, the parallel passages, a lot of just the way that it's all weaved
and intertwined. But before we get started, let's just get the name of the title of the
sermon this morning. I mean, this afternoon is John one, the light that darkness cannot
stop the light, the darkness cannot stop. And there's a lot, I mean, John one is a
lot of verses, but it's kind of broken up into a couple of pieces. We just have like
three major pieces. We have a lot of verses that are talking specifically about Jesus.
Jesus coming to the earth, manifest in the flesh. We get an introduction into John the
Baptist and some of the prophecies that are fulfilled even about him. And then towards
the end, we see that the recruitment and the work starts, right? We see Jesus basically
being followed being, and he's in a way he's recruiting the apostles, the first 12 apostles
to him. We see here four out of the five come here for in chapter one of the book of John.
And so that's kind of how I'm going to break this down. We're going to talk mainly about
Jesus, of course, we'll address John the Baptist and then the apostles and we'll tie it into
how we can apply it into our daily lives. But the first point I bring to you this morning,
this afternoon, I don't know why I'm in mourning, maybe I took a nap, I didn't take a nap, but
the first point I have this afternoon is that Jesus is the Word, right? He is eternal, divine,
and creator. And it's interesting, a couple of months ago, or not even a couple of months,
a couple of weeks ago, maybe one month ago, or yeah, no, it was probably a couple of months
ago, we had that group of individuals that were fighting us on the Trinity. And what's
interesting is, I guess, you know, the more it goes back to, let me just rehash that
for just a few seconds, all you got to do is read your Bible. You know, it's interesting,
I was doing a little search and I gave AI just a general question. I didn't tell it
which way I was leaning. And I said, "Give me some counter arguments for classical
Trinitarianism." But I didn't address the fact that the one will or anything. I was just kind
of curious what it would pop up. And it said, "Oh, one of the arguments is that they say that
the Word is really not Jesus, because it's God's Word." You know, the motorist and all that stuff.
Except that in the same chapter, you can debunk that argument because it says that Jesus was in
the bosom of the Father. We're going to see these verses. There's this already, there's this
relationship, the dove. We see the Holy Spirit in here. Like in just chapter one already,
we've already seen this debunked. And why is that important? Again, I go back to what I preached a
couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to re-emphasize, you know, Jesus is the main character.
Not just in a story, like it's not a story just written, but it is written in a book. So in this
book, the protagonist, the main character is Jesus Christ. But it translates into real life.
In our life, the main character of our life is Jesus Christ, right? We need Jesus to be saved.
People constantly, almost every time we go out, so many people are like, "Oh yeah, I believe in God.
That's why I'm saved." And I'm like, "You just believe in God?" And those just look at me like
I'm trying to be dumb or I'm trying to be mean. And I'm like, "Is it just God?" And they're like,
"Yeah, yeah, I believe in God." And I'm like, "Well, what specifically do you believe about God?"
"Oh, I just believe in God." And then that's when I usually transition. I'm like, "Well, you know,
the Mormons believe in God. They don't believe in the God of the Bible. The Muslims believe in God.
The Catholics believe in God. The Jews believe in God. Heck, even the Hindus and the Buddhists
believe in God. They just don't believe in the God of the Bible." And you know what they're always
removing when they attack and they want to agree with Christianity? The one thing that they'll
always remove is the deity and the power and the Godhead of who? Jesus Christ. And the entire book
of John is all about Jesus. I mean, we start out right there. Let's look at these first few verses
we're going to spend a little bit of time here. At the end, we're just going to really kind of
cover just how the apostles are brought in. But in John 1 and verses 1, it says, "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now a couple of things really quick.
We are King James only. And for us that study it out, you know, I have pastor friends who know
this subject better than I do. But over the years, I've picked up some things. The translators that
put this together were no dummies. Like these guys were super linguists. They were really educated.
They knew languages. They're not just picking up and penning this on the fly. "Hey, can you translate
this for me real quick? Because I got to go take this Bible." No, they spent several years
in several committees with 13 rules that they had for the translators where they would have
like checks and balances, kind of like how we have the executive and the judicial and the legislative
branch from the constitution for the purpose of what? Checks and balances. They made something
similar for the preserving of the King James. So just on the surface, when we read this and they
capitalize the word, "Word," it's not a far-fetched thing for us to say that's Jesus. Plus the context
of it, these guys were not just translating directly, they were also using the proper
grammar and context of the language. English, which is actually still carries all these rules
that they wrote in, still apply today. A lot of people are like, "Oh, I don't read the King
James because it's archaic." No, Old English is archaic. King James is actually written in
modern English with just a few nuances. I mean, as a matter of fact, the only thing that
changes a lot is the spoken language. People can read the King James and understand it,
but that happens every generation. I mean, I was listening to a podcast that Pastor Scheller was
doing with Generation Z, and they were using all the new terms that they use, and it doesn't even
make sense to me. But you know what? When I was growing up, our parents thought that we were
weird. I mean, I still to this day will say when I hang up, I'm like, "Hey, so-and-so,
oh that's good." If I'm talking to a contemporary, I'm like, "Hey, peace out." Peace out means
nothing but just hang up, right? But when you read the King James, it just makes perfect sense,
right? So we see there, it says, "In the beginning was the Word," this is actually speaking of Jesus,
"and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God."
And I love that the way it's structured, right? "The same was in the beginning with God. All things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men." And it says, "And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehendeth it not." There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, one of my favorite verses in the Bible,
to them gave me power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born, and Allah, and then here we go, we see another really profound breakdown.
It says, "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory,
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, 'This was he of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.'
And of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.
For by the law, I mean, for the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten,
which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared it."
And by the way, this is a very powerful verse,
especially for those that are anti-trinitarian
in the way that Baptists believe.
Because this verse literally tells you,
what does the Bible tell us in the Old Testament
and even in the New Testament?
"No man hath seen God and lived."
And Jesus, who came in the flesh, it says, "He declares him."
And I love that it actually says it this way.
It says, "No man hath seen God at any time."
But Jesus, who was a man, who is a man, right?
He's in heaven. He saw him. He says, "At any time,
the only begone Son," which is what?
"In the bosom of the Father."
By the way, the bosom is the chest area.
It's not paradise.
I don't know if people love to argue with that.
So Jesus is not a God. He's not a prophet.
He's not some historical figure that was powerful or dynamic or cool.
Jesus is God.
He's not created. He has no beginning.
He has no end. He's God.
And this is where we get the attack.
We as Baptist or Bible-believing Christians get attacked
because we just take this at face value, right?
Because the modern cults, this is where they'll collapse, right?
Verse 1 is like, "Well, the Word is the spoken Word of God."
Well, yeah, but you didn't read verse 18.
And you didn't read the manifestation into the flesh.
I guess you just forgot to read all the other verses.
And the challenge is people want me to sit there,
and not just me, anybody who believes like we do,
and they want me to extrapolate more than is given here.
And that's playing a dangerous game.
Because before any of us was here was, "I am."
Period, right?
People are like, "Oh, well, you know, it looks like this,
or it looks like that, or..."
No, actually, all modern religions, all modern cults,
all modern traditions, all they mimic is the original.
The original is God, you know, it used to be, I didn't have an answer, I remember when I was first,
you know, you always have people that are arguing religion, right? People would be like, even in
Christmas, I even got caught up for a few years, my wife knows it, I have nothing to hide. You know,
these are the things, this is why it's so important to read your Bible, right? I remember I was like,
"Well, we shouldn't celebrate Christmas because it has pagan roots and you know, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah." And there's truth to that to an extent, right? Like you can find these things,
but you know why there's all these pagan influences? Because what they were originally
trying to do is mimic what? The original. In my vernacular, my modern day vernacular for my
generation, we would say they're trying to mimic the OG, the original, right? The original one.
And so the challenge was I didn't have a counter argument because they always made it seem like
Christianity was copying, you know, all these other false religions. But no, because if we believe
that God is eternal, well, then there's nothing to copy. Everything originates from who? From God.
We're not copying any religion. They're all copying us. As a matter of fact, they always
try to lump us into some group that we don't belong to. They're like, oh, you know, Catholics
and Mormons and everybody, all the Christian beliefs. Well, hold on. We're not Catholics.
We're not Mormon. Okay, well, you know, all the Protestant beliefs. Well, no, we're not
Protestant either. We're from the Church of Jesus Christ. The Word in the beginning was the Word.
We are believers in the beginning. That's it. Go over to Colossians 1, but I'll read for you
really quick in Hebrews. Hebrews 1, in verse 8, the Bible says, "But unto the Son he had said,
'Thy throne.'" By the way, how do you have this conversation if they're just like one entity that
just doesn't have a set, like there's no relationship there. It's just one will. Because
he says, "But unto the Son he said, 'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.'" It's funny, I was
clipping today the Trinity in light of the Bible, the sermons I did, and one of the clips was how
Jesus said, "Oh, you know, your God or my God," right? And he refers to him as my God. But here,
God the Father saying, "But unto the Son he saith, 'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Therefore, God, even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of thine hand. I mean, it's crystal clear the equality of the Godhead, but there's also
a hierarchy, right? I mean, literally, it says, but unto the Son, he said, thy throne, O God,
is forever and ever. So who's saying this? God the Father or the Son? But then in the next one,
he says, therefore, God, God the Father, even thy God, the Father hath anointed thee with the oil
of gladness above thy fellows. And then, O and thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundations
of the earth and the heavens are the work of thine hands. In Colossians 1 and verse 12, the Bible
says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son, and whom we have redemption through his blood, even the
forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were
created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."
In other words, they exist, they live, they breathe. The fact that anything happens in
this world is because of God, but specifically, Jesus Christ. You know, the scepters, literally,
the baton was handed to him. It says, "Hey, here's the scepter." If you go back to the very
beginning, we see this, right? And you see now the spiritual application of light and darkness.
In John, it says, "Hey, he was the light, and people didn't like the light, so they wanted to
dwell in darkness, but also, he's the light of the world." In other words, none of us exist and see
the light of day without Jesus Christ. Whether they believe in Him, whether they accept Him,
whether they reject Him, whether they live in darkness, or whether they live in light
after salvation, the first light they ever see when they finally, when they're birthed,
when they recognize it, is because of Jesus Christ. The only reason life exists is because
of Jesus Christ. Genesis 1, let's tie this together, says, "In the beginning," and I know
you've heard this, but something else really stood out to me today, says, "In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth." And we know that's Jesus, right? Then it says,
"And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water," meaning physically moved it,
"and God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light, and God saw the light,
that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness." He's always made that
distinction from the beginning. But then verse 5 says, "And God called the light day,
and the darkness He called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day."
Who is the day? Jesus Christ. We're going to touch on some verses that literally say,
literally darkness doesn't exist in the presence of God. You know, when we go to heaven,
it's going to be like in the Arctic. I don't remember which was in the south,
the Arctic or the Antarctic? Antarctic. And it's in the south where the sun never goes down,
right? It's 24 hours. Except the difference is when we get to heaven, it's 24 hours
of glory. It's not going to be cold and it's not going to be death and dreary. It's going to be
light. Knows everything. He exposes everything. Whether you think you're hiding it or not,
it's exposed, right? I mean, He was there in the beginning. I mean, I've given you clear scripture,
right? Christ is eternal. He is not created, right? He is the creator. He created you. He created me.
He created everything, which then easily debunks what? Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons,
liberal theology. Brother Hethus gave me a bunch of info on the new apostolic reformation. It
debunks all of them. Boom, let's just get rid of them all, because darkness cannot stop. It will
never stop the light. Even while he was on earth, they tried to stop him. What they didn't know was
that was the plan all along. So let's take a step back. Point number two is we also see what? That
it's man who's been chosen or designated to shine that light. Look, if Jesus was the one that's
going to do all the saving, then Jesus is eternal. He could have just hung out for all this time,
but he lived on the earth 33, 33 and a half years, whatever that timeframe was. He died.
He was buried and he rose again and he's now seated at the right hand of the father.
And the last commandment he said is he says, "Go into all the world." But before that,
he was already telling people like John the Baptist was the one carving the way.
He's clearing the land, right? When we see this, if you go back to John 1,
right there in verse 6, it says, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe."
I like that. That all men through him might believe. Hey, everybody has an opportunity.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. And by the way,
there's just so much, like the reason I'm going to just cover what we cover, we're going to move
on because really you could split this into like three or four different sermons, just John one.
I mean, right there alone, you know, people like to, you always get these weird hypotheticals,
which by the way, I just, I've stopped living in hypotheticals because unless it's happened,
I can't give you an answer, right? And people are like, well, what about all the people in the
jungles that never hear of Jesus? Well, the Bible says that all men through him might believe. Now,
I do agree that some nations have better, like a brighter light than other nations. I believe
there's people in China, there's soul winners in China, there's Bible believing Christians in China
who are preaching the word, but I guarantee you it's not anything like what we do where we just
go out in droves and knock doors every Sunday or there's other churches that have a soul winning
program every day. It's just, but those people get an opportunity. Sometimes all you get is one
opportunity. You say, well, that's not fair. I'm not God. He said it was, it was for all men and
everybody have an opportunity. Why some people get more opportunities than others, you can take it
up with the Lord when you get to heaven, you know, and that's the challenge with humanity, right? We
always want all the answers, but we're not going to get all the answers. Pay attention. First 15,
the Bible says John bare witness of him and he cried saying, "This was he of whom I spake,
he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me and of his fullness have we
all received and grace for grace." Right? And then this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible,
"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Nobody could,
and you know why I think that verse is so important? Because to this day,
people love the Old Testament when the New Testament is a better testament. By the way,
I love the Old Testament. Don't get me wrong. I just love the New Testament more because the
Bible tells me that's the better testament. There's nothing wrong with being biased. I mean,
as a matter of fact, if we know a little history about John, isn't John the beloved one, right?
He's the one that got to experience some things that nobody else did. And there was 12 of them,
but he's just kind of special, right? It's just the way it is. It says, "No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared it."
And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
"Who art thou?" So John's making a rug kiss big enough that everybody's like, "Hey, who are you?"
You know, "Who do you think you are?" Right? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed,
"I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are thou Elias?" And he said, "I am not.
Are thou a prophet?" And he answered, "No." And they said unto him, "Who art thou?" Then we may
give an answer to them that sent us, "What sayest thou of thyself?" Hey, we're here to audit your
words from the authorities in this world. The principalities and the powers of this world,
the rulers of darkness, want to know who you are. He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet Esaias." And they, which were
sent were the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, "Why baptizes thou then, if thou be
not the Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?" John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water,
but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is, whom coming after me is preferred before
me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose." These things were done in Beth-Berah, beyond
Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and said, "Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." And just to finish being a dead horse,
I read a verse that had "behold the Lamb of God" when I got in that discussion with these people
that were fighting the Trinitarian view of the Bible. And I took one of the young men to
Revelation where it says, "Behold the Lamb of God." And he's like, "Hey, you know that's not a literal
lamb." I'm like, "I think so. I think I know exactly how to read English. We know it's talking of
Jesus. So in case you think this is a literal lamb, it's not." It says, "Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sins of the world, the sin of the world. This is he whom I said after me,
cometh a man which was preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he
should be made manifest to Israel, therefore I am come baptizing with water. John bare record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, the Holy Spirit,
right? I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me,
upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God,
against the next day that after John stood and two of his disciples were looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. So John's leading the way. By the way, the book of John is
written by John the Apostle. This is speaking of John the Baptist who was beheaded. So, you know,
just there's a lot of Johns in the New Testament, right? Although John is not the light, right?
He's there to be, he's the conduit for the light. The thing we need to learn about John the Baptist
is that we are still leading the way. We still need to be crying as one in the wilderness because
we are in a spiritual wilderness. That's literally what's going on. Now, both John both lived in the
wilderness, literally, but also speaking to who? The house of Israel, who by then had become
spiritually desolate in a spiritual wilderness. That's why the Jews are so vehemently against
Christ even to this day because that's exactly what they were then and they decided they weren't
going to change. The Jews hate it when you say they killed Jesus even though the Bible is very
clear. They killed Jesus. It's funny because there is one clip out there, so I can't knock on all.
There's actually, I saw this many years ago, but there's a clip. I don't know if he was a Jewish
rabbi or who's of Jewish descent, but he's like, I guess he's talking to a room full of his people
and he's like, "I don't know why you guys get all up in arms." I'm like, "We did kill Jesus." It's
clear, right? Even though he's not for Jesus and he makes that clear in that clip, this just came
to mind. I'm trying to remember it exactly, but even if they were honest with themselves,
they would be like, "We killed Jesus." The Bible makes that very clear. Go over to Isaiah 40.
I'll read for you in Malachi. John is an important role in the New Testament because he's prophesied
in the Old Testament. It's a fulfillment of prophecy. By the way, I was watching this clip
of, I would encourage, I'm going to call him, Pastor Thompson, I guess, everybody clips their
sermons because it's easy to just get snippets. He threw out some statistic. It would be like
one in a trillion, several trillion chance to just fulfill a couple of the prophecies,
to fulfill all the prophecies. In other words, God is so real, it's the only way to fulfill
the prophecies because he's God. From a statistical viewpoint, it's nearly impossible. But is anything
impossible for God? No. In Malachi 3, verse 1, the Bible says, "Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come,
saith the Lord of hosts, but who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he
appeareth, for he is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap." And this is the purpose,
right? It says, John, "And he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and he shall
purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an
offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord,
as in the days of old, as in former days." And what's that refining when he's talking about Jesus,
who's the sacrificial lamb? Because remember, in the Old Testament, by the time you get to Malachi,
there's plenty of verses in Isaiah, in Jeremiah, in Lamentations, and in all the minor prophets
that where God's literally saying, "Don't even, I don't even want your oblations. I'm not interested
in your sacrifices. I'm not interested in your oblations. I'm not interested in your feast
anymore." They've done so bad, it means nothing anymore. The only thing that matters is that Jesus
is going to be the sacrificial lamb. When you go to Isaiah 40, right there in verse 1, the Bible says,
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto
her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of
the Lord hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The voice said, "Cry." And he said, "What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever."
And this is a prophecy both of John, the Baptist, and of Jesus Christ. By the way, I mean, it almost
kind of is interesting how people will argue, "Oh, well, you know, the Bible is written by man,
the Bible this." And then you go to their websites and they're like, "Oh, well, we believe that the
The Bible is the Holy Scriptures.
They never tell you what scripture it is or what it is,
except you read these verses and it's like, it's forever.
Thy word is settled forever.
Thy word is truth.
He's eternal and forever and forever.
And yet they keep trying to change it or, you know,
tweak it or change, you know, sorry, tweak it, change it,
modify it is what I was looking for.
What is it?
It's an attack on Jesus Christ.
That's all it is.
It's an attack on salvation.
They want you to think that it belongs to you
when it belongs to God.
John the Baptist, the Bible tells us in Matthew 11,
verse 11 says, "Verily I say unto you,
among them that are born of women,
there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding he is least in the kingdom of heaven."
I mean, notwithstanding he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
The Bible says, "Hey, John was the greatest man to ever live."
And what is he doing?
He's paving the way for salvation.
He's like, "Here comes the lamb of God.
This is the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by him."
And yet to this day, we have people that argue that.
I mean, Sister Sylvia witnessed it
only because we were waiting for Brother Matt
to finish soul winning on Sunday.
I had a conversation with the Pentecostal.
The only reason I engaged them as long as I did
was because we were waiting for Brother Matt
and we didn't want to interrupt them.
But I took them to verse after verse after verse
of one saved, always saved.
And you know what he kept saying?
He's like, "Yeah, no, I agree that salvation is my grace,
but you can lose it.
Yeah, I agree that it's eternal, but you can lose it.
I agree, but you can lose it.
I agree."
And then they start spewing.
They're like, "Well, the Bible says."
And then they make up stuff the Bible doesn't say.
You know why?
Because they don't want to pick up their Bible
because they'd rather listen to some charismatic,
fun-filled or emotionally-filled preacher
and he makes it sound good,
then it's not real, right?
I mean, John knew his role, right?
John knew what he was sent to do.
He was sent to preach hard.
I don't know that he knew that he was going to die,
you know, at the hands of a woman being beheaded,
but what he did know was that he was willing to die for Christ, right?
He wasn't going to miss words with anybody for any reason.
Today, all that preachers want is platforms for influence, clout.
They want to be seen taking a picture with Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.
You know, there's a group here.
I remember I hung out with them. They're still around.
There's like a political group of Baptists and all other denomination preachers,
and they hang around with all the, they hobnob with everybody,
and they don't preach the Word of God, right?
They weren't, John wasn't like the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
They went around in robes, they looked good, they smelled good.
John kind of was a little rough around the edges,
the Bible tells us, right?
They're not rehearsing their speech.
You know, one of the challenges I have is,
you know, I have so many thoughts in my head,
and I don't rehearse my sermons.
I was watching this clip of Ed Young Jr.,
who's like 60 years old now, pastor,
the one that's out in Dallas,
and I guess the clip is like his daughter's telling him,
"Hey, dad, you need to do a day in the life of a pastor,"
'cause those are like the typical, you know,
you've seen that, a day in the life
of this business guy or whatever.
He's like, "Oh, it won't work," but then he does it.
And what's interesting is in the clip,
the way that he does it is he's filming himself
waking up on a Sunday at six o'clock in the morning,
and then he films himself making coffee,
and then he films himself in his office,
and what he's doing is he's just highlighting
like a pre-printed sermon that he already has.
And I know this for a fact,
the conventional contemporary church
has somebody else write the sermon for the preacher,
and then they just highlight the things they want to do.
You know, I printed this right now,
I mean, not right now, maybe a few,
like about an hour and a half ago, right?
This is fresh material from reading John 1 today,
and yesterday, in the last couple of days,
when I made the decision,
hey, we're going to preach on John 1.
I'm not saying, and if somebody wants to be prepared,
I'm just saying these guys are not prepared,
they're scripted, right?
I mean, if you want to write a sermon a week ahead
and be prepared and all that,
but usually they're scripted, they have six services,
all of them sound the same, they have the same inflection,
they hit on the same point.
Look, if you asked me to preach this exact same sermon
a month from now, it's going to sound totally different
because I'm just going to preach what comes up to mind then.
Let's go to the third point.
And we're there in John, in John verse nine,
John one verse nine, we're going to keep coming back
and forth to these and then we'll close out
with the rest of the scripture.
But right there, and the third point is that
the true lie is rejected by the world.
You say, this sounds really basic.
Look, if you don't have the basics,
you can't get to the advanced stuff.
My wife and I, we're in the car and I'm like,
kids, what's one times one?
What's one times two?
And then we got to the twos.
What's two times 10?
Two times 11?
Because look, if they can't get that,
how are they going to get advanced algebra, right?
Or advanced anything?
It was the same thing with the Bible.
Look, if you can't get the basics,
how are you going to get beyond that, right?
How are you going to get beyond the basics?
You're not.
It's like when you play sports, you know,
I grew up playing basketball
and I know I'm five foot, five and a half.
Don't make fun of me, but I grew up playing basketball.
And I, you know, one of my favorite players growing up
was Pistol Pete.
'Cause Pistol Pete taught you the basics, right?
You knew how to dribble.
You knew how to dribble the ball.
You knew how to do a layup.
You knew how to shoot the ball properly.
These are the things that are needed.
And right here, the world rejects the light
because they don't even know what a basic light
should look like.
'Cause what they want is the fake, you know,
fake daylight bulb.
Nobody goes outside anymore.
That's why we have daylight bulbs, right?
So you can mimic the daylight.
How about just go outside and get real daylight, right?
How about you just go out and actually talk to people
in the real world, right?
Jesus comes to the world, and the world ignores Him.
I mean, He came unto His own, and His own knew Him not.
And we're there in verse 9 of the book of John,
in John 1, verse 9.
What does the Bible say?
It says, "That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,
and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
I mean, the Bible's pretty clear the world hates Jesus.
The majority of the people will not believe in Jesus,
and they will burn in hell for all eternity.
You know, this idiot, Kirk Cameron,
you know, I grew up watching Kirk Cameron.
He's my, he did growing pains.
That was the sitcom of the day.
I'm dating myself now, but he's an older man.
He's probably in his 60s.
And he's like, "Oh, I've changed my mind on hell.
Hell is not an eternal torment.
It's not forever.
You're not going to burn in hell for all eternity.
You're not going to suffer.
There will be no wailing and gnashing of teeth
where the warm dieth not."
Because that's not a just God.
Hey, stop trying to tell me
or trying to tell everybody who you think God is.
God tells you that if you reject Him,
you're going to hell.
And then you're going to burn in hell for all eternity
in the presence of the Lamb, period.
We had a lady a couple of weeks ago
when we were out sowing in Refugio.
She called us and she almost, you know,
she was like losing her mind.
She said, "One of your guys that was with me
said that I was going to hell.
And I'm sorry Lucy, I might butcher it
'cause I know you're better at it than I am.
My daughter memorized it better.
But the lady was like, "Do you let people talk to people,
you know, other people like that?
That's not right.
Like they shouldn't be saying that."
I was like, "No, actually,
that's exactly how we need to be talking to people.
That's exactly how we need to be addressing people."
You know, I have a recorded phone call
with a Mormon that called me a week ago.
You know how I ended the call?
Go to, you're not gonna listen to God, go to hell.
And I'm not even exaggerating.
It was probably louder than this
'cause my kids were in the room.
As a matter of fact, Lucy,
well, she was within the sound of my voice
'cause I said, "Lucy, have you heard this call?"
She's like, "Daddy, I was there, I heard you."
'Cause that's what we need to hear, the truth, right?
There's a pastor friend of mine in California,
Pastor Ruz Mejia, he has a famous Twitter,
like he has a famous clip that's going around
on X right now, it has like over a million views.
And it was some Muslim that showed up
to the footsteps of his church and said,
"Hey, I wanna pray."
The other church, he said,
"Hey, take that Muslim crap somewhere else."
There's a dumpster over there that you can pray at.
And you know, he's right.
He's like the reason that false religion
is invading America today is because men of God
won't stand up for the truth.
Look, I'll talk to you about faith.
I'll talk to you if you're lost, if you're sincere.
Let's have that conversation.
But if you're trying to tell me
that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God,
I'm just gonna tell you to go to hell.
And the difference is if you tell me to go to hell,
I can't go to hell, I'm saved.
Once saved, always saved.
There's no way anybody could ever send me to hell.
I'm in the Father's hand, I'm in Jesus' hand.
No man can pluck them out of my hand.
But if I tell someone that's not saved,
they're going to hell, there's no power in me.
They're already condemned already, the Bible says.
We're gonna see that in a couple of chapters in the future.
But turn over, go over to Ephesians,
go over to Ephesians 2,
but I'll read for you really quick.
In Psalm 139 and verse 12, the Bible says,
"Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee."
This is one of the greatest Psalms in the Bible.
This is one of my favorite Psalms personally.
This is my opinion.
David's talking about how Jesus, how God made him.
And he's saying, "Hey, God,
the darkness hideth not from thee."
And why?
"But the night shineth as a day,
the darkness and light are both alike to thee."
In other words, when Jesus is around, it's all light.
And you know why darkness hates light?
Because it exposes their filthy lifestyle.
Isaiah 53 verse 3 says,
verse 2 says, "For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor calmliness.
And when he shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
And you know, the Lord is despised.
The Bible says, "Hey, marvel not if the world hate you."
It hated me before it hated you.
John 3.19, right here it is, I think.
It says, and this is the condemnation in John 3.19.
It says, "That light is coming to the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light."
Why? Because their deeds were evil.
See, one thing is we're all sinners.
But you know, when you get exposed to the reality of hell
and you're like, "Hey, I'm going to have eternity forever,"
you're like, "Oh, I want to do better."
Whether you do better or not, it's two different things,
but at least there's that, I don't know,
there's that will or interest to do that.
But the people that reject God,
they just want to do evil all the time.
I mean, literally, they...
And you know, our justice system sucks, by the way.
Like, it just pisses me off that some guy
was here working at Second Baptist.
Who saw that article?
The guy that got caught, the pedophile freak
that got caught at Second Baptist
and he was running the children's ministry,
even though he had a history of looking at stuff
and he got arrested for child pornography.
And you know what they're gonna do?
They're gonna throw him in jail.
They're gonna, you know, slap him on the hand and that's it.
The Bible says he's worthy of death.
If we had a justice system that was right,
the light would prevail and that guy would be in hell today.
You know, if people get mad,
"Oh, you shouldn't say stuff like that.
You shouldn't say...
Well, what if he can be reformed?"
The Bible says there's no reformation for that guy.
He's reprobate.
He needs to go to hell.
He needs to die.
He needs to be destroyed.
If we had a proper justice system,
you take him down there, you process him,
you turn on YouTube and ABC and all that,
and you make sure that everybody saw that he was taken out
so that the other guy that was thinking about doing it wouldn't do it.
Go to point number four, go to John 1,
and we're there in verse 12.
The Bible says that God's given us the power
to become the sons of God, right?
I love that because this is an example I use out so many.
When we go so many, I'm like, "Hey, by the way,
I just want to let you know,
not everybody in this world is a child of God."
Because, you know, one of the lies of the devil is the devil says,
"Hey, you know, the false religious always be like,
'Oh, we're all children of God.'"
Even politicians will say that.
That's not true.
We're lost.
The Bible says in John 1, verse 12,
the Bible says, "But as many as received them,
to them gave me power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name,
which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God."
And I like that because it's like not of blood.
In other words, not of race.
We don't see race here, right?
We don't, we're not, you know,
I know I was born in Mexico,
but I'm just of one blood.
If you're saved today, you're a Christian, period.
And the story, not of flesh,
meaning not of all the work that you're going to do,
right, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes,
and everybody's always looking for money and wealth
and fortune and all that stuff.
And not of man, not of a religion.
That's how I know that the Mormons are false religions.
Sorry, the Mormons have been fighting with me
the last couple of weeks, so they're like top of mind.
But Joseph Smith was just a man, just like I'm a man.
As a matter of fact, nobody should ever follow me for me.
Follow me, the Bible says, like Paul said,
follow me as I follow who? Christ.
Hey, if I stop following Christ, stop following me.
That's even if you're following.
I don't know if you are or not, but you're there in Ephesians 2.
We know these verses, but these are great verses for salvation, right?
I love being saved because it's such a simple explanation.
I love salvation because it has nothing to do with me.
I love salvation because, you know, when I was growing up,
Seventh-day Adventist, I had to, like, not eat meat,
and I had to, you know, not work on the Sabbath,
and I had to do all these stupid things.
And you know what, nobody told me if I was going to heaven or not.
But then somebody told me, "Hey, all you got to do is believe."
And this verse, verse 12, is so powerful
because how many of you can stop being your mama's son or daughter?
You can't, right?
My mother-in-law passed away several years ago.
My wife doesn't say, "Oh, my ex-mom or Teresa."
No, her mom.
Anytime she speaks of her mom, it's in the present tense
because it's still her mom.
It's forever.
So when God says, "Hey, you become a child of God,"
you are His child forever.
He's going to whoop on you here on this earth
like I whoop on my children when they misbehave.
But you know what I don't do?
I don't punish my children like, "Hey, you're going to jail."
Or I'm just like, "I'm going to throw you in a dungeon."
No, you know, I love my children.
God rather would correct you than punish you.
In Ephesians 2 verse 8, the Bible says,
"For by grace are you saved through faith."
By the way, I don't know how people fight work salvation
when it says, "And that not of yourselves."
It is the gift of God, not of works.
Oh, you got to do, if you don't have good works,
you're not saved.
Well, what about this verse?
Well, not of works, lest any man should boast.
And then verse 10 says,
"For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus
unto good works."
So the only way we get good works is through Jesus Christ,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
In Titus 3 verse 5, the Bible says,
"Not of works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us
by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost."
And we're going to go to verse 8,
go to Galatians actually, go to Galatians 3,
but verse 8 says, "This is a faithful saying,
and these things I will that thou affirm constantly
that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men."
That's how it says, "They that have believed."
So hey, you believed, so now you're saved.
And then it says, "Now that you're saved,
now you should be careful to maintain good works."
But notice that has nothing to do with salvation
because salvation is all belief.
I put my trust in Christ, and He says, "Now that you're saved,
it would be a good idea to lead a righteous life.
But if you don't live it, when you die, you're still coming home,
you're just not going to get any rewards, right?
You're coming home, you know, I love, like I said,
I love watching basketball. I don't watch it as much as I used to.
I'm the older generation. Michael Jordan's the greatest player to ever live,
period. And the story, I mean, I don't know, people like to argue with me on that.
It's just hard to watch the new generation of basketball players.
But it doesn't matter if it was back in the day or now today,
there's only a small group of people. They all play basketball,
but some of them maintain a better discipline, and there's only a small group of teams that make it
to the playoffs. And then of that smaller team, they make it to the quarterfinals, semifinals,
and then they're finally, there's ultimately like a great, like the champion team, right?
They all had the opportunity, but some weren't careful to maintain the discipline and the work
ethic and the mental fortitude to say, "Hey, we're getting tired. We're coming to the end of the
season. The crowds are tough. I don't have the energy." And just plow through that. It's the
same thing with Christianity. You know, there's days where you just don't feel like getting up
and you're just like, "You know what? I'm going to just do it because I'm here to serve the Lord."
You go to Galatians 3. I had you turn there. Galatians 3. We'll start to close this up.
In Galatians 3 verse 23, the Bible says, "But before faith came, we were kept under the law,
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
I think my son was the one listening to me because I was saying something about
there's children of the devil. You know, there's the lost, there's this big group. Like if you look
at this, actually this pulpit is a good example. In the middle, this is the largest piece. Most
of the world is in this category. They're lost. You just don't know. Then there's a small group
of people that are saved. That's us. And then in this small group, this little sliver right here,
this is the small group that's actually doing anything for God. We're the 1%. We're the ones
that are in the semifinals, in the quarterfinals, in the championship. The rest of them are bunch
of losers. They got saved, but they're just living a loser life for Christ. And then over here,
you have the same thing. You have all these people that hate God, that are giving up,
and some of them are just lazy about it. And then you got the big reprobates, your serial killers,
your psychopaths, your political guys that are trying to change agendas. They live here. But the
majority of the world has just lost. Go back to John. We're there. We're starting to close this
thing out. But the next point I have for you is that point number five is the Word was made flesh.
And I know that we already talked about it, but we also, I want to point out here is the incarnation,
right, of Jesus Christ. It's not just that He was made flesh. You know, we have what's called
Christophany. He's in the Old Testament where Jesus showed up, right, on the scene, and He did
certain things, and then He left. But here, He was born of a woman. He literally was a baby.
You know, He went through all the same things that babies go through. Then He was a child.
The Bible gives this clear indication that at 12 years old, He was teaching and debating with men
of theological backgrounds. And then His parents got on to Him, and He said, "Hey, you know,
don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" Like, He had to grow up. He probably
experienced growing pains, things. The one thing Jesus never did though was sin. But in John 1,
in verse 14, the Bible says, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John bare witness
of Him in Christ saying, "This was He of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before
me, for He was before me. And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace." That's all
God has is grace. "For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." And amen.
That's the only religion in the world where God becomes man. You got all these false religions,
and it's always like these demigods. The only one where, I think maybe I mentioned it, so I'm not
going to spend too much time, but if you know the history of Coca-Cola, right? They're not doing
great in sales during the winter after they got rid of cocaine and the cokes. And they're like,
"How do we get people to buy Coca-Cola?" And they got all their marketing geniuses and they're like,
"Hey, you know what we need to do? We need to combine Chris Kringle, who was like a thief,
who would go down the chimney, but your chimney would be clean and he would steal your gifts."
And they're like, "And let us take this saint who hasn't done a miracle in so long. He was
going to get uncanonized, Saint Nicholas." And they're like, "And let's combine them."
And in the pictures of those individuals, they were always wearing green garbs and stuff.
And they're like, "How about we make them a little bit plump and white cheeks and white hair
and red clothing?" You know why? Because Coca-Cola was like, "We're red and white."
And then it's interesting, they're like, "We're going to make Christmas popular." Because before
Christmas was popular, you know what was popular? Easter. And the reason was, the little
historian that I was listening to made a really good point, he's like, "The reason Easter was more
popular in Christmas is because Christmas is cool because the Son of God is born into the world."
But you know what's really cool? Because when you die and you're buried for three days and three
nights and then you rise again and go to be at the right hand of the Father. So people celebrated
Easter because it's like man, Jesus rose from the grave to save us. And so you know the Bible's
real clear. Let's go there in 1st Timothy 3.16. Just for the sake of time I want to wrap this up.
It says, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the
flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory." Philippians 2 verse 5, some of the greatest verses on the Trinity,
right? "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought
it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation. It took upon him the
form of the servant and was made in the likeness of men. Being found in fashion as a man he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. That I mean for God almighty
everlasting everlasting do something like that for us that should tell you your value and your worth.
Hebrews 2 verse 14 says for as much then as the children are partakers of the flesh and blood
he also of himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him
that at power of death that is the devil amen. And then the last point I have for you go to
John and we're going to be there in the last few verses 38 hey so John comes on the scene he tells
us hey here comes the lamb of God Jesus shows up on the scene he gets baptized and what's the very
next thing that he does he starts recruiting soul winners right then Jesus I mean Jesus turned and
saw them following and saith unto them in verse 38 what seek ye they said unto him rabbi which is
to say be an interpreted master where dwellest thou he said unto them come and see they come
unto see and they abode with him we've read this and then we see so this is Andrew right there's
two disciples one of them is Andrew he's following Jesus and then we see that immediately in verse
40 says one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother he
first found his own brother Simon and he said hey we found the messiahs which is being interpreted
to Christ and he brought him to Jesus and Jesus beheld him and said thou art Simon the son of
Jonah thou shall be called what Cephas which stands for what rock which is interpreted as stone
right and upon this rock I will build my church and then verse 43 says the following the day
following Jesus would go into Galilee and findeth Philip and say unto him follow me now Philip was
of Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him we have
found him of whom Moses and I love this they knew the Bible right up to that type here he says
of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph hey
the Jews will tell you today that hey the Torah never speaks of Jesus we don't know who this Jesus
is Nathaniel knew I mean I'm sorry uh is it Nathaniel yeah Nathaniel knew I mean Philip
sorry Philip knew and was telling Nathaniel and Nathaniel shows up Jesus said hey I saw you under
the fig tree and he's really impressed and God says what and Jesus answered unto him and said
because I said unto thee I saw the under the fig tree believe is thou thou shall see greater
things than these and he said of them barely barely I say unto you hereafter you shall see heaven open
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man and so we get a great
introduction into the book of John because I mean there's a lot, John one is just I mean you could
do a whole series on the book of John for weeks and still you wouldn't extrapolate all the goodness
that comes from it but the big thing I want to leave you with is that the light will never
prevail against the darkness they could kill every one of us that are saved to this day and you know
what God's word would continue then really matter let's close in a word of prayer heavenly father
lord thank you so much for today thank you for your blessings lord thank you for the opportunity
to preach lord thank you for John one thank you that you uh that as many as receive you to them
they can become the sons and daughters of God for all eternity lord thank you for allowing us to be
saved thank you for saving us lord so that when we die we don't go to hell for all eternity
in Jesus name we pray amen let's turn our hymnals over to page 82 we'll close out on a hymn 82 page
Happy 82, joy to the world.