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. . . All right, folks, welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church. We're going to go ahead and get started this evening. If you would grab your hymnal, turn to hymn number 120, Jesus Save Your Pilot Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus Save Your Pilot Me. . . Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me. Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, Jesus save your pilot me, hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand, never folk can follow, never traitors stand, not a surge of worry, not a shade of care, not a blast of hurry, touch the Spirit there, stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, binding as he promised, perfect peace and rest, every joy or trial, ball it from above, praised upon our dial, by the Son of God. We may trust Him fully, all for us to do, they who trust Him wholly, find Him holy true, stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, binding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Amen. Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church. If you don't have a bulletin, Brother Omar can grab you one over there. We've got the Bible memory passage, Romans 8, we're on verse 28. Really great verse there, probably one of the most iconic verses from Romans chapter number 8. Any child that's able to quote that can get an ice cream after the service. They quote that to a non-family member. On the inside we have our service and soul winning times. Also, our regional soul winning with Brother Brandon Darnell. We also have our stats. Is there anything you report as far as soul winning for the last few days, Monday through Tuesday or today? Okay. Our soul winning times today, we had one, so praise the Lord for that. And then also we have Ms. Gomez, Sarah is expecting, she's actually planning on getting back into the states this Saturday. So for the next, not going to be a part of the soul winning marathon, just because you got to pick her up and everything like that, but you should be back in the town and so hopefully maybe by next week or following soon after, maybe we'll see her back at church again. So hopefully everything is going well in Rhea. Also, this Sunday, I'm going to be preaching both services. October 3rd, we have Pastor Aaron Thompson from Church Foundation Baptist Church coming out here and preaching. This Saturday we have our soul winning marathon as well as our false Bible burning. And so if you have any Bibles that are false that you'd like to contribute, we'll take those. I brought a lot of them down with me that we collected up in the Dallas-Borth area. And we also have our new soul winning invites. I've got them with me in my car, so I'll make sure to put those in the cabinet. We also have a chili cook off on October 31st. We also have a Thanksgiving service moved from Thursday to Tuesday and a Christmas candlelight service on Thursday, December 23rd. This Saturday we'll have breakfast here, coffee and some breakfast items at 9 a.m. and we'll go out around 10. And then we're going to have a catered lunch at 1230. Then we'll go out soul winning again for a little while, probably two to four-ish. We'll meet back at five, we'll have our false Bible burning, and then we're going to have hot dogs and s'mores. So if you'd like to stick around for all that, we would love to have you. So it'll be a fun day. That's pretty much all I have. Four announcements, I have my family with me tonight, so make sure to say hi to them. And it's great that we're all able to make it down here safely and without any headaches or anything like that. But no, it went well, and so we're glad to be down here with you guys this weekend. That's pretty much all I have. Let's go to our third song. Two hundred and thirty, heavenly sunlight. Two hundred and thirty, heavenly sunlight. Alright, hymn number two hundred and thirty, heavenly sunlight. Let's sing there, starting on verse number one, heavenly sunlight. Walking in sunlight, all of my journey, over the mountains, through the deveil, Jesus has said, I'll never forsake thee, promise divine that never can fail. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Alleluia, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. Shadows around me, shadows above me, never conceal my savior and guide. He is the light in him is no darkness, ever I'm walking close to his side. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Alleluia, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing, pressing my way to mentions above. Singing his praises, gladly I'm walking, walking in sunlight, sunlight above. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Alleluia, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. Amen, good singing this evening. While the offering plate's being passed around, good in turn if you would to Acts chapter number 19. Acts chapter number 19, okay. Acts chapter number 19, we'll read the entire chapter starting in verse 1. The Bible reads, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coast came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him. That is on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about 12. And he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. When divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons. And the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them, which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds, many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men. And counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered on him, Timotheus and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. And at the same time there arose no small stir about that way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth, moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying, That they be no gods which are made with hands. So that not only this our craft is in danger to be said it not, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! And the whole city was filled with confusion, and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not, and certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused, and in more part knew not, wherefore they were come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, and the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not, how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, in the image which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open. And their deputies, let them and plead one another. But if ye inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. Let's start with a word of prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this evening. Thank you so much for Purest Baptist Church and all those that have gathered together this evening. I pray that you would just bless this time of preaching, that the Word of God could just touch our hearts, that we'd be stirred up in our spirits, and that we'd be edified by the Word of God. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. So we're in Acts chapter number 19, and we're continuing through our journey with the Apostle Paul. He's going to different areas, and he's preaching the Word of God, and we're seeing all kinds of different events and stories. But a lot of the same thing. He's preaching to the Jews. They're not receptive. Then they get mad. They want to stone him, and he gets a lot of Gentiles saved, and then he moves to the next city, and then the next city. Just the same story kind of just retold over and over. Lots of different areas. But as we go through this journey, we run into some unique scenarios. We run into some unique situations, and we have in this first part of chapter 19 kind of a unique scenario. It says in verse 1, It came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coast came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples. He said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So we have an interesting story where the apostle Paul is passing through. He runs into a couple guys that seem to be Christians. They're supposed disciples here. And he's asking them, Have they received the Holy Ghost? Now, that makes sense because the apostle Paul is laying hands on people. People are receiving the Holy Ghost by the apostles. And so he's basically just trying to see if they've received this gift or not because he wants to impart that unto people that are following Christ. And whenever he brings up the question of if they've received the Holy Ghost, they have some kind of puzzling statement where they say, We haven't even heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. So basically to them, they've never even heard of this term. They don't even know who the Holy Ghost is. They've never even heard of this. And it's kind of perplexing to the apostle Paul. So he then asks this question. He says, unto what then were you baptized? And to make sense of this statement, I think it makes sense to keep your finger and go to Matthew 28 for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter 28. Why would he ask about baptism? And he's saying, Hey, do you have the Holy Ghost? And they're like, We've never even heard the term Holy Ghost. We don't even know who the Holy Ghost is. We know nothing about this. And then he's like, Well, then how did you get baptized? Because if you got baptized, you should have heard the name Holy Ghost. And you say, Why would you say that? Well, look at Matthew 28, verse 19. This is Jesus speaking, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So Jesus made a clear instruction. When you baptize them, you're supposed to do it in what? The name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. So if you got baptized, according to this formula that Jesus is laying out here, you would have heard of the Holy Ghost. I mean, it's impossible to say I've never heard of the Holy Ghost and been baptized if you were baptized the way that Jesus has instructed. So that's why he's basically bringing up the idea of baptism saying, you know, how did you get baptized then? Because they were disciples. So he's assuming they've been baptized. He's bringing this up. But they bring up the fact, if you go back to Acts 19, they say, Well, we had John's baptism. You know, we've had John's baptism. Now, that could make sense that John is not saying in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost at the time that he was baptizing people. So they were early disciples in the sense that they were interested in the things of the Lord. They got baptized with John. But then Paul goes even further to bring up the idea, Okay, well, if you got John's baptism, though, you should be saved. And if you're saved, then you would have the Holy Ghost. So he's basically, in his mind, he's kind of going through a testing question thing where he's realizing these people aren't saved. And you know what? I think that this is kind of interesting because when it comes to our method of soul winning, this is a little bit more close to home as far as what our method of soul winning actually looks like, where we're asking people questions and trying to figure out. You know, we ran into somebody that said, Hey, are you sure you're going to heaven? And they said, I've been baptized. And it's like, Okay, but what do you have to do to be saved? And if they said be baptized, then we'd be like, well, wait a minute. The Bible actually says something different. Let me show you what the Bible actually says. If they say, well, just trust Christ, then it's like, Oh, okay. But if they're giving wrong answers, then you're going to start preaching them the gospel. And so they're saying, well, we got John's baptism. And he's identifying these people aren't saved. So then he says in verse four, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus. And it says in verse five, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So why were they baptized again? The reason why they're baptized again is because their first baptism, they were just obviously going through the motions. And in fact, we actually see this today. There's many people who have been baptized physically, yet when you ask them how to be saved, they won't give you the right answer. And you know what they need to do? They need to get saved, and then they need to get re-baptized. And this is an accusation that was brought against a group of people during Catholics and the Protestant Reformation is they would re-baptize people. They call them Anabaptists. And it basically means to re-baptize, is what that means. Now, some people have kind of decided that the Anabaptists are like a perfect lineage of independent fundamental Baptists. That's a screwy idea, because honestly, Anabaptists became Mennonites and your Amish. So if you really want to trace Anabaptists they went to that cult-like weird religion, not really independent fundamental Baptists. But they did re-baptize people, basically teaching that people don't get saved as a baby. They don't understand the concepts of salvation as a baby. So if they got baptized as a baby, we need to re-baptize these people. So everybody baptizing the Catholic Church in the 15, 16, 1700s or whatever, you have a lot of people saying that's not a legitimate baptism. You need to get saved and then re-baptize. Now, whether or not they're a heretic or not doesn't matter, because the principle's true that if someone was baptized a thousand times but they weren't saved, once they get saved, they need to get re-baptized. Now, that's why they're baptized, and it says in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, Oneness Pentecostals and a weird subset of Christianity will, so-called, will end up saying that, well, in order to baptize, you don't say the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, you say in the name of Jesus. And they'll knock people over, and they'll be like, have you been baptized in Jesus' name? And sometimes you'll knock on someone's door, and they'll be like, yeah, I know what you're talking about going to heaven, but have you been baptized in Jesus' name? This is what they're talking about. They'll bring up this verse, or they'll bring up other verses and acts, and they have this idea that there is no Trinity, that there basically is no Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost is Jesus. And so instead of baptizing in that, they'll just baptize in Jesus' name or whatever, and they get all real excited. It's funny because if you just believe that the Word of God has power, you just do it normal. But because they don't have any real spiritual power, they have to do all these special, you know, emphasis and inflections in their voice and, you know, get their fingers twinkling or whatever so that people feel like something really happened. You know, like, woo! We're going to baptize you, yeah! Jesus' name! And they have to do all that so it seems special. Rather than just letting the Word of God be special and ring in your heart, you know, the charismatic maniacs have to go around screaming and yelling and hooping and hollering because they don't have the real spirit, so they have to make up a fake spirit, this infatuation or whatever. But I want to prove to you how this doctrine is foolish to believe in for lots of reasons. But number one, that I don't believe that the apostles and the early disciples were going around baptizing in only Jesus' name because that would make Paul's question make no sense. Paul's asking this question directly to figure out if the Holy Ghost, if they've heard of the Holy Ghost, because they're baptizing in the formula that Jesus gave them. Now, in the book of Acts, admittedly, you don't see them ever having a verbatim quote of that, but I don't believe you have a verbatim quote anywhere. And to say, oh, well, you baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus, well, you don't have that exact formula everywhere in the book of Acts either. Go to Acts chapter two for a moment. I want to show you. It has various wording as far as, like, the verbatim wording that is used in Acts, which tells me it's not giving you the statement that they're making. It's giving you the emphasis of what they're doing. So if you got John's baptism, obviously, and you weren't saved, you didn't really do it in the name of Jesus, did you? Because you weren't really trusting in Christ. The whole point that he's bringing up is that the baptism of repentance is a trust in Jesus. So if you never really trusted in Jesus, then once you get saved, now you're going to be baptized in Jesus' name, not whatever you thought you got baptized with John. Now, it's not that John was doing something wrong. It's not that John was doing a wrong baptism. It's that plenty of people showed up. I mean, the Bible says that all Judeas showed up to get baptized. But did everybody believe in Jesus? No. So there must have been a big chasm of people that got baptized by John that were actually not saved. A lot of people that ended up getting purified, quote, unquote, by John going down in the river, but they didn't get purified spiritually. It was just a washing of filth of the flesh. It wasn't actual repentance in their heart trusting in Christ for salvation. So a lot of people didn't get saved through John's preaching. A lot of people did. And that's kind of how it is. You have somebody just preaching to a large crowd, a large swath of people. Not everyone's going to get saved. And it's silly if you think that you can just preach to a hundred people and they all raise their hand and they all get saved, that that was actually effective. If you actually drill down and you go and talk to those people, you realize you got no one saved. You have to just one-on-one talk with people often and you have to kind of sit them down. I'm not saying it couldn't happen. Because it usually doesn't. I've been, when we went to Jamaica, I've been there and someone gave a full gospel really clear. There wasn't anything left out. It made a lot of sense. He asked for a raise of hands. Five hundred kids raised their hands. And they all get saved or whatever. But then you track them down and you start talking to them. None of them are saved. Not a single one. And it's just like you don't trust that idea of this big crowd or whatever. Everybody's getting saved. People just do anything in a big crowd. They're just kind of following monkey see, monkey do. And when it comes to baptism, look, a lot of kids want to get baptized even though they're not even saved yet. That's why I try to make sure we ask them some questions and make sure kids really trust the Christ. Because I don't want someone to have the illusion that they're saved when they're not. Look at Acts chapter 2 verse 38. The Bible says, Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for their mission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now notice here the phrasing is the name of Jesus Christ. The previous one was in the name of the Lord Jesus. So that's actually a little bit different. Go to Acts chapter 8 for a second. Acts chapter 8. So you have the name of the Lord Jesus. Then you have in the name of Jesus Christ. Then you have in Acts chapter 8. Look at verse 16 quickly. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So that goes back to Acts chapter 19. Go to Acts chapter 10 for a moment. Acts chapter number 10. So do we say in the name of the Lord Jesus or do we say in the name of Jesus Christ or Acts chapter 10 verse 48 and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then pray they him to tarry certain days. So you have all these variations of wordings here and this is the point that I make when I show this to someone is I say obviously they're not giving the verbatim formula because it's different every single time. So it'd be really strange to then cherry pick one of those and say well this is the exact formula because then you'd be denying all the other times that they said whatever. All they're doing is they're just baptizing by the authority of Jesus. But I still believe they were doing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost because Jesus is one of those, he's the Son. But to say that the name of the Father is Jesus is really just destroying the Bible's narrative. The Bible never calls the Father Jesus and it makes a clear distinction from the Father and the Son and that the Son has his own name and is Jesus. Let me prove this to you. Go back to Acts chapter 4 for a moment. Go to Acts chapter number 4. This is an important doctrine that we realize that the Son of God is Jesus. We have God the Father, our heavenly Father and then we have the Son of God, his name is Jesus. Now you say well that's simple Pastor Shelley, we already understand that. Okay yeah but let's prove it from the Bible. Let's get this really deep in our heart. Look at Acts chapter 4 verse 30. By stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus. Notice he gives a description of who Jesus is, the holy child of God. It's not saying your name, it's saying the child. Go to Philippians chapter 2. Go to Philippians chapter number 2 and we're going to see another clear verse on this about the distinction of the name. Look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and the context is about Jesus Christ and given him a name which is above every name that of the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So notice God is giving someone else a name. It's giving him a name and his name is what? Jesus. Now go if you would to 2 John chapter number 1. Go to 2 John chapter number 1 for a moment. So you say well maybe the Father is just giving the Son his same name. Or something like that. But wait a minute. Where in the Bible does it ever use the name Jesus for the Father though? Because if it is the Father's name, then wouldn't we have at least one place in the Bible where it's using the Father's name as Jesus or something interchangeable? But it never does that and it makes clear distinctions between the two. Look at 2 John verse 1. And then I'm sorry verse 3. Grace be with you. Mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So you can say oh is that the same person? Notice this. The Son of the Father and true the mother. So he makes a real clear distinction between God the Father and the Son of the Father who's who? Jesus Christ. Because they're two different persons. That's why it says in verse 9, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God be that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son. So notice there's a distinction between the two and there's two persons here, the Father and the Son and the name of the Son is the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to John chapter 16. I want to prove this even stronger. So I've given you a few verses that really make it clear when the Bible's talking about the two. It distinguishes from the Father to the Son when it's giving the name of Jesus and that the Father gave the name to Jesus, right? Well we have Jesus interacting in prayer to the Father and he's also making it clear that they have distinct names. Look at John chapter 16 verse 23. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Now just pause for a second, okay? Think about what I've taught you so far. If he's saying there's going to be a point in time when you don't ask me anything. And what is he alluding to? He's alluding to the fact that he's about to die and go to heaven, okay? And he's no longer going to be with them in person. So they're not going to be able to just ask Jesus anything. So then who are they going to ask for things? They're going to ask God the Father. But notice he says, you're going to ask the Father in my name, okay? Now let's say that the Father's name is Jesus, which is not, but I'm just saying. Let's say the Father's name is Jesus and the Son's name is Jesus, right? Whenever I pray to Jesus, then how do they know who I'm talking to? I mean, how does that even work? How do they know that I'm praying? Like if I said Jesus, how would they know that I'm not praying to the Son instead of the Father then? But he's saying, you're not going to be praying to me. You're going to be praying to the Father in my name. That gets really confusing when you have the same name. You know, if you name every kid Yair and Yaretsi. No, I'm just kidding. George Foreman, George Foreman, George Foreman. You know, it's like, whoa, who are you talking to, right? It gets really confusing because they have different names. It's real simple. Verse 24, hitherto have you asked nothing in my name? Now that's going to make it even clearer, okay? He's saying at this point in time, you've never asked for anything in my name. So then how could they say that the name of the Father is Jesus if they haven't even asked anything? And he's saying basically when they pray to God the Father, how did Jesus teach them how to pray? Heavenly Father or Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Oh yeah, because his name is Heavenly Father. Why, if the Father's name is Jesus, why didn't Jesus stand there and say, Jesus which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Why did he say Heavenly Father? Because his name is Heavenly Father. That's his name. The name is the Father. God the Father, God the Lord, right? But there's a distinction between Jesus and the Father, okay? It says in verse 25, these things have I spoken to you in Proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and I believe that I came out from God. So he's saying there's going to be a point in time when you're going to stop praying to me, you're going to actually pray to the Father, but you're going to do it in my name, and I'm not going to have you turn there, but in Ephesians chapter 5 we have an example of this. It says in verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's saying we give thanks to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that we pray to God the Father in Jesus' name. That's why you'll often hear someone say, you know, dear Heavenly Father, or you know, they're praying to their Heavenly Father, and then they say, and we ask all this in the name of your son Jesus Christ. You know, they're praying to God the Father on behalf, or basically Jesus is our mediator or advocate, and we're praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter 17. It's right there on the same page, verse 6. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now, Jesus says this, I've manifested thy name. What does manifest mean? It means to make obvious, okay? Now, here's what's really interesting about the Bible, and I've preached whole sermons on this. I probably should preach more, but you never hear the term God the Father or Heavenly Father before Jesus teaches it to us. Jesus is the one that comes and tells us about God the Father and the Heavenly Father when they're asking to pray. He's making it clear. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, when you read the Old Testament, you're not seeing all these prayers to the Father. You're seeing prayers to the Lord, to Jehovah. You know, you see a lot of those type of things, but you don't see the Father. It's manifested through Jesus. Jesus is the one that teaches us about God the Father, okay? He tells us the name of God the Father. But what sense would it make if he said, I've made his name obvious, right? But his name was actually Jesus, and then he never actually told us. I mean, hey, there's this guy in the front row. His name is Fernando, okay? And that's, I've made it manifest. And then people go around, and they're like, that's not really his name, though. Let me tell you his real name. It's like, well, then I didn't make it obvious, did I? I'm just saying something that's wrong, right? Why would Jesus have gone around saying, I manifested his name. Well, when did you call him Jesus? Never. Well, then that's not his name because he didn't manifest it. You know, you gotta have the right name. It's Emerson, you know? If I said, hey, the guy in the front row's name is Emerson, right? Then you know that guy's name's Emerson. If I said, I've made it clear what his name is, and you're like, oh, it's Fernando. No, it's not. Sorry people who call you Fernando, okay? But what I'm making it obvious is that the Father can't be his name Jesus. Otherwise, Jesus is just lying in these chapters. Look at verse 11. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of a magician, that the scripture might be filled." So notice he's saying, hey, this is his name. I've manifested his name. Here's the name, Holy Father, keep your own name, meaning that you know what Jesus' name doesn't have? Holy Father. That's not Jesus' name. So we have distinctions. God the Father, Heavenly Father, Holy Father, that's the Father's name. Then we have Jesus, the Son of God, that's his name. The Father's not the Son of God. The Son of God, not the Father. Okay? And it's really clear in scripture, Jesus is making it manifest here in John chapter number 17, and I can prove this in all kinds of other places in the Bible. Let me show you one more. Go to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter number 2. But I'll say another point here, just for sake of explaining this, people bring up, well, what about Isaiah 9-6, where it says, you know, unto us the Son is given, and you know, his name shall be called Wonderful, and Counselor, and the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. And they'll say, oh, see, his name's literally the Everlasting Father. But the problem with that interpretation, if I'm going to take that and then say, oh, Jesus is God the Father, is that it's taking it out of context number one, okay? And then it would destroy the doctrine I just taught you, and it would make it really confusing. People that believe that doctrine will not explain to you what I just showed you because it would contradict what they're teaching. But if you look up the word Father in the Bible, it's often used to mean many different things. It's not just the name of God the Father. It can mean many things. It can mean a ruler, or a leader, or a governor. That's simply what that name could be referring to. Just like we have in America the founding fathers, right? What does that mean? It's basically like someone that started the nation, or someone that's the ruler, or the one that's the leader. And in fact, in Isaiah, I believe it's chapter 22. You can look it up. There's another point in where Jesus, or the Bible, is telling us about another man who's going to be a father of the nation. And it's basically the point of the fact that he's going to be the governor. He's going to be the ruler. He's going to be the leader of the area. And the whole emphasis of Isaiah chapter 9 and 6 is the fact that he's going to be the governor. The government shall be upon his shoulder, right? And he's going to be called wonderful, the counselor, the mighty God. God can mean ruler. It's synonymous with that. The everlasting father. The prince of peace. Prince means ruler. So it's like, he's a ruler, he's a ruler, he's a ruler, he's a ruler. God the Father, ruler. It's like, no, no, no, no. It was just ruler, ruler, ruler, ruler, ruler, ruler. It was that clear. It was that simple. That's the only place they go to. They twist. They pervert the scripture. But the Bible's really clear. There's a distinction between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father's name's not Jesus, OK? And the Son's name's not the Father. They're two distinct names. Heavenly Father, Holy Father. And then we have Jesus Christ. We have the Son of God, right? Look what it says in 1 John chapter 2, verse 1. My little children, these things write unto you that you sin not, and of any man sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So again, he's explaining we have a completely separate person that's going to be our advocate with God the Father. It's Jesus. What sense would it make if the Father is Jesus then? Then you have no advocate. That verse makes no sense whatsoever. And when these people are like, have you been baptized in Jesus' name? It's like, you're not saved. It's like, that person probably doesn't believe the Trinity. They have a false gospel. That's someone that you don't want to go down the weeds, try and argue documents with probably either. You want to just preach them the gospel if they're willing. We'll go back to Acts chapter 19. In Mark chapter 1, the Bible says that John did preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now think about this statement. If the baptism of repentance is repenting of your sins, then this verse, Mark chapter 1 verse 4, would teach the repenting of your sins was what gives you the remission of sins. It would literally teach that work salvation gets you saved. So either baptism of repentance means repenting of your sins and it's works-based salvation, or it has nothing to do with turning from your sin because salvation's not of works unless any man should boast, like Ephesians chapter number 2 says. And in Acts chapter number 19, it clearly defined it for us that it was what? To believe on Him, which would come after Him that is on Christ Jesus. So again, the baptism of repentance is simply trusting Christ. And Jesus preached that in Mark chapter, or I'm sorry, John preached that in Mark chapter number 1 that if you trust in Jesus, what do you get? The remission of sins. So it's just by believing in Christ that you're saved. John the Baptist preached that. Jesus preached that. The disciples preached that. The Apostle Paul preached that. Everyone preached that. Look at verse 6. And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. So this met the whole point. He showed up and he started with what? You have the Holy Ghost. And then he got them all the way to the point where now they have the Holy Ghost. What was their problem? They were not saved. That was the problem. Because if he had laid hands on them before they were saved, it wouldn't have mattered. Nothing would have happened. So he had to get them saved, emphasizing the fact that some people are baptized and not saved. Some people go through the motions, yet they haven't received salvation. Some people are trusting the wrong thing. Some people are wrong on doctrine. And here's the thing. Yes, we believe that it's a doctrine that saves you. There I said it. You're like, oh, you guys are always nitpicky about doctrine. I had somebody tell me one time, oh, they don't have to believe the Baptist gospel to get saved. And I'm like, well, look, there's only one gospel. And if you differ with me on the gospel, you're not saved. There I said it. And look, the Pentecostals have a false gospel. And the Catholics have a false gospel. And most churches, they have a false gospel. And yes, it is the Baptist gospel that saves. If you mean our gospel, amen. And like, oh, I don't believe the Baptist gospel. Then you need to start believing the Baptist gospel. You need to believe the John the Baptist gospel for the remission of sins, right? Isn't that what John the... I mean, it's John the Baptist, right? It's not John the Methodist here. Not John the Episcopalian, right? He's so Baptist, it's his last name. You read it in the Bible, he's not even John the Baptist in some places, he's just John Baptist. Look it up. That's how you're a real Baptist, okay? Verse 7. And all the men were about 12. So, you know, there's a lot of people here. Verse 8, and he went in the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. And when divers were hardened, and believe not, but spake evil of that way, before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. Now, the word divers, if you just add an E, it makes it easy to know what that word means. Diverse. So, it just means many. So, just saying there was a lot of people that were hardened. Now, this is what you have to understand about the word of God. Is the word of God has a really strong impact, but it's not always good. Word of God can have a really positive impact in your life. It can also have a really negative impact in someone's life. And you say, how? Well, when someone preaches the gospel, if you don't receive it, a bad thing can happen where your heart gets hardened. And it's not just salvation, it's every doctrine, but specifically with salvation. You know, when people are rejecting the gospel over and over and over, the Bible explains it as their hearts being hardened. Because the cure is the gospel. And the more and more they resist, and the more and the more they turn away, they can get to a point where their heart is so hardened that they would never believe in Jesus. In Exodus, we have a story about Pharaoh. Pharaoh keeps hardening his heart and hardening his heart, and it gets to a point where God then hardens his heart. And God hardens his heart to the point where he can be standing in front of Jesus and he still wouldn't believe it. You could get to a point where just nothing will change your mind, where nothing will fix it, where God just hardens you to that type of an extremity. And you say, well, why would God do that? Because God wants to then reveal himself in such a magnificent way that everyone would just be like, this is God, but then yet still have people reject it. Just to show his power, just to show his might, just to show the consequence of rejecting the Lord. So Pharaoh got to a point where he was just done listening. So God hardened his heart so much that literally even his own false prophet magicians are like, this is the finger of God. And he's like, I'm still gonna resist. I'm still gonna reject the Lord. I still don't wanna believe in him. I mean, still not interested. And you know, it's important to believe in the Lord when you have the opportunity. It's important to hearken to God's word when you have the chance. Go to Mark chapter six for a moment. Go to Mark chapter number six. I'll read a verse for you from Hebrews that says, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So you know, your heart, it's really important that we keep it tender for the word of God and soft to the word of God, meaning that when you hear the word of God, you feel something. You know, whenever you hear about doing something wrong or sinful, you feel bad. You know, if you are doing something wrong or sinful and someone preaches that verse that's like exposing you, not necessarily like by name, but just you know it's about you. You know that verse touches you. And you're just like, don't care. That's a bad place to be in. That's a scary place to be in. That means your heart's been really hardened where it's just the word of God can't penetrate. You know, why is it picture hardened? Because the word of God is like a seed. So the seed is supposed to go into the ground, but a seed can't go into a hard ground. It just bounces off. You know, it's just going to sit on the top. It's not going to do anything. So you want that ground to be, you know, soft and fertile and moist and basically where it can get planted deep in there and then it can germinate and can produce fruit in your life. But many people, they're just hardened. They just don't care. And honestly, you say, well, why? It's because they had lots of opportunities to fix things in their life and they just kept not listening. And I'll tell you what. Going to church three times a week and not making the changes that you should be is a dangerous road to be on. Because you will get to a point where nothing will fix it. You can just get hardened and hardened and hardened and then you get to a point where you're just broken, basically. Where nothing is going to basically fix you. That's why it's important every time you hear the word of God to just fix it right away. Just get right back with God and try to keep your heart tender and soft with the word of God. You don't want to turn away your ear from hearing the law unless your prayer is an abomination of the Lord. But there's a lot of people that just kind of go through the motions and it's kind of like the first time you steal. You feel like the cops are hunting you down. You hear a siren and you're like, that's probably from me. And your heart's pounding and it's beating and it's like, oh man, oh man. The hair on the back of your neck standing up and every person that just looks at you feels like they're just grilling you or something. And your parents are like, how's it going? And you're like, I didn't steal anything. And they're like, what are you talking about? I didn't take it. Take what? There isn't any money in my pocket. You're just like, what money? And you're just like freaking out. But the second time someone does something sinful, they don't feel as nervous. They don't think as many people are watching them, the third, the fourth. And then it can get to a point where it's just they feel nothing when they do evil. They feel nothing when they do wrong. And that's why it's important when you know you're doing something wrong, you know the word of God's touching on your heartstrings, tugging on your heart a little bit, and you're like, I need to make a change. I need to fix something in my life to do it then. Because you don't always have tomorrow. And if you don't do it now, the ground might just get a little bit harder and harder and harder and harder so then the preacher could get up screaming your name and yelling at you what you need to be doing and you're just like, la la la, hmm, I don't care. Can't wait for dinner, you know. Can't wait for ice cream later or whatever. And they just don't care, they won't fix it. And look at Mark chapter six, verse 52. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. Meaning, you know, when we read these stories, it's easy for us to gloss over them and not really understand the deep things that are being spoken, but people are witnessing miracles that you and I have never seen in our life and they still couldn't contribute them to God. They still weren't willing to serve the Lord. I mean, can you imagine someone walking into Houston, Texas and cleaning out every hospital, every clinic, all cancer patients, just every single person just miraculously healed perfectly, every cripple walking, every dumb tongue talking, every blind person seeing, just every miracle you could ever imagine. And then being like, well, I'm just gonna go play video games, I don't care about what that guy does anymore. I mean, think about it. Nobody, like so many people just didn't care about Jesus, didn't want to follow Jesus, not interested in the word of God, not even getting saved after seeing all of that. But you know what? Some people come to a church where they can see the miracles of the Bible, they can hear the spiritual truths that are coming, they can feel something special with the word of God and they turn away from that. They would have turned away from the same miracles. You're like, well, I would follow Jesus if I saw those miracles. No, you wouldn't. If you won't serve him now with a preacher just preaching the word of God to you, with the opened up King James Bible, you wouldn't serve him no matter what miracles he saw. That's why it's important to keep your heart soft and tender to the word of God and that's why also some of the worst people, some of the most hardened, reprobate type people, you know where they exist on this planet? In Bible colleges and universities? Notice where they existed in this, in the school of one Tyrannus. And you know who's like really, really reprobate and hardened? It's a bunch of these college professors that study religion and they study the Bible and I've read the Bible scores of time and now I'm an atheist. And it's like, yeah, of course you are. You're a reprobate. They didn't hearken to any of the truth that they were given. That's why, look, false religion makes reprobate so quick. The Catholic church and all these other things. You know, when you hear the word of God and you just don't like it, you don't respond well to it, it has a really bad effect on people. It's a lot easier to get someone saved that's never heard the Bible than someone that's heard it their whole life and is not saved yet. You know, when you go to an old person's house in America, talk about a difficult person that you take. Why? Because they more than likely had plenty of opportunities to have heard the gospel. They've heard it. They didn't care back then. They didn't care. They didn't care. And now they're just so hardened. And when I look at old people today, that's what I think of as just hardened. Their hearts are hardened. They're not interested in learning new things. They don't want some young punk coming and knocking on their door, telling them what is up, that they can't learn anything. They've already learned it all. They've already seen it all. They're just such a hardened person. Whereas you go to some other foreign countries where they haven't really been exposed to the Bibles much, older people are actually a lot more receptive than America. Now, in general, younger people are just more receptive. But I'm saying it's almost impossible to get someone in their 60s, 70s, 80s saved in America. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm not saying I wouldn't try to preach them the gospel. I'm saying it's really hard. But, you know, other countries and other areas, it's actually a lot more likely. You know, you run into these people and they're willing to listen. They actually could change their mind. They will get saved. And it's specifically related to this same instance of the fact that their heart just hasn't been hardened the same way as a lot of Americans have, a lot of older people have. That's why it's important to believe today, while it is called today. You know, don't harden your heart. Hear the word of God. Make the changes that you need to do. Don't get deceived by sin today. Go back to Acts chapter number 19. Go back to Acts chapter 19. And, you know, these schools are just a debt of iniquity often. They just make people worse. I'm not for Bible college. I'm not for the university. Now, I'm all for learning. I think you should learn the word of God. You should believe the word of God. You know, why would I go to an institution that's not the institution that God set up, which is the local church? You know, the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. He didn't set up school. And, you know, when you go to the school today, a Bible college, what are most of the people that teach there are women. The Bible makes it clear that women aren't even supposed to be the ones teaching the Bible to everyone. They're supposed to be a man getting up and teaching the word of God, teaching the Bible. You know, you find the word college only a couple times in the Bible, and it's always women that are in the college teaching the Bible. That's not a coincidence. Yeah, it's a coincidence that the only times college are mentioned is a bunch of women in the college that they go find. And here, the people that are in the school are a bunch of reprobates. They're a bunch of people that have been hardened. They're not interested in the word of God. Oh, let's go set up a college in the school. It's like, no. You know, the school that I want my kids to go to is home school with my wife, where they have the prophecy that their mother taught them, not some strange person with a dyke haircut that isn't interested in the things of God. I mean, you know, another common thing is when you look at all these women professors, they all have a dyke haircut. They all look like a lesbian. Oh, shock. The one that looks hardened is probably hardened. That's why I reject it. That's why I don't want it. You know, I've had people even come up to me, and they say, well, if you get a Bible college degree, Pastor Shelley, more people want to listen to you. And I'm like, that's just a waste of time, and I don't want to reach those people. You know, I want to reach the common man. I want to reach the regular person. And you know what? I would take any guy that's read the Bible cover to cover 10 times, that's not even a pastor, over any of these Bible college graduates or any of these other fools and these other people that want to pontificate and say, I'm a master of divinity. That's a foolish title, OK? No one has conquered God, all right, my friend? And what a weird thing to say, you're God's master. That's what that's literally saying. Master of divinity. I've conquered divinity. I've completely amassed divinity. I'm its master. No, no, no. You have one master. It's Christ. OK. You're never going to overcome him or overtop him. That's why I reject that. I'm not going to have a Bible college. I'm not going to have a school in the sense that we have public school. Now, I'm all for, you know, we have classes where we teach men how to preach the Bible. We have sermon classes. And I'll do training with men that want to become a pastor. And I'm all for the church educating people. And I'm all for people learning. And I believe in homeschooling. But I don't believe in having a school for basically religious purposes and charging people money and trying to just see how many people would contract into the facility and try to hire as many women to be professors as possible. You know, the professors are usually professing themselves to be wise, but they became fools, as the Bible says. And a lot of these professors don't even believe in the Bible. I believe Harvard, I heard this. Harvard used to be a school for preachers. If you look up its foundation, OK, why did Harvard come into play? They wanted to have a formalized education for young men to become pastors and preachers. That was the whole goal of Harvard, OK? Most recently, their most recent chaplain, which a chaplain means someone who believes in God, is what it means, OK? The most recent chaplain is an avowed atheist for Harvard. And he wants to bring that ideology. I mean, talk about just complete destruction of the institution and the whole purpose. Look, wait a minute. Didn't the Bible say that upon this rock wall I build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it? Didn't it prevail against the school of Harvard? Yeah, schools are going into the trash can. Even if you could create a great school today and it was all right and everything was perfect and you had great men leading it and all the education was perfect, it's going to go bad because it's not the institution that Jesus Christ bought and purchased with his own blood. It's not what he established and set up. No, it was the church. And so we need to keep having church and not have school. You know, school is a different thing for a different place, OK? Look at verse number 10. And this continued by the space of two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And that's an effect of ministry. Where the Pauls of Paul is just everyone's hearing the word of God. Verse 11, and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases that departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one schema, Jew and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? And the man whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them. So they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks, also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Now, think about the context of some things we've been talking about. It's interesting that the apostle Paul is doing these same kind of miracles that Jesus is doing in a sense, where just healing incredible numbers of people. In fact, the Bible says special miracles. Special miracles, meaning unique to him, because other apostles, while they had the ability to lay hands and recover the sick, it's not even just the apostle Paul's hands. He touches a handkerchief, and then they just pass the handkerchief around, and people are getting healed just from touching the handkerchief. Think about imagining a guy having that capability, and you still reject his message. You still want nothing to do with them. That's how hard these people were against the word of God. And then you have some traveling Jews who are not saved, and notice it's not that the name of Jesus has some special ability in just invoking the name. The Jews want to make it this special incantation, where they just use the name of Jesus, and the name by itself will do something special, or there's something special about just using the name. Whereas, according to the Bible, you don't have any power unless you're saved, unless you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. So them being unsaved, trying to cast out a devil, even though they're using the name of Jesus, has no power. And in fact, the devils come and leap upon the exorcist, quote, unquote, and it causes them all kinds of havoc, and they say they don't know them. Jesus doesn't know them. Nobody knows them, because nobody cares if you're unsaved. That's just a fact. And at the end of the day, you can't do anything unless you're saved. You could have Jesus' name tattooed on your body. You can have as many crosses hanging from your neck. You can get up, you can wear your backwards collar and your dress and call yourself Papa, and you can get up there and use the name Jesus, and it does nothing unless you're saved. Nothing. You say, wow, what about these unsaved people? They can do nothing good. You say, oh, I know someone that's being tortured with devils, or they have a problem. Let's get this Catholic priest to pray over them. The best thing the Catholic priest can do is take the devil upon himself, but he can't cast it out. I guess he can make the devil mad enough to attack him only or something, but at the end of the day, he's not going to actually exorcise it out. He can't cast it out. He can only attract it to himself, because he's a devil himself. And you know, some people say, oh, I know a Catholic priest, and he got a devil out. Well, did he take it into himself? You know, I don't know. Obviously, the devils in some places in the Bible are recorded to leaving somebody and then returning. So obviously, there could be at times where the devils are playing tricks on people or doing whatever. But here's the thing. Someone that's saved, they can't have a devil possess them. They have the Holy Ghost inside of them. And no longer are they even capable of being under the possession of the devil. They could be potentially afflicted by one. I mean, the Apostle Paul has a messenger of Satan to buffet him, meaning that the devils could irritate you, annoy you, or cause you some kind of affliction, but they can't take over your body. They can't possess you. Whereas, unsaved people can literally not even be in the driver's seat. They can literally have a devil enter them, and the devil can just cause them to just fall into a fire and to hurt themselves. And every time the devil's taking over someone's body, it's always going to kill them. You know, some people will say, oh, I have this family member, and they're always trying to kill themselves. And they say, we need to get them on more drugs, or we need to go see a different psychologist. Here's what they need, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So you could stop wanting to kill yourself. You stop wanting to hurt yourself. And look, the Bible says, no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished and cherished it. So that tells me the people that are trying to constantly kill themselves are probably possessed with devils. Now, I'm not saying every suicide is someone that's unsaved, possessed with the devil, but I'm saying a lot of them probably are. It could be that someone's afraid of being tortured or they're in so much pain they end up taking their life. Basically, we see that with Samson and with King Saul. Saul's afraid of torture, so he kills himself. Samson's in so much pain and agony and embarrassment and shame, he wants to kill himself. So obviously, a saved person could even commit that sin, and they still go to heaven. But a lot of times when people are just, there's nothing wrong. They're just constantly trying to cut themselves and kill themselves and hurt themselves, and it's just like, what's going on? They might just literally be possessed with a devil, with legion, as it were. But these things that Paul are doing are what's called the Bible miracles, and they're special miracles, and they're not for every Christian. Now, there is a distinction here between the saved and the unsaved, but I want to make another distinction. There's a distinction between the apostles and us. If I get a tissue and I blow my nose, don't think by touching that you're going to get healed. You might get sick from touching that, okay? I can't touch a handkerchief and then you touch it and you're going to get the disease taken away from you or whatever, nor are other Christians. If someone's trying to sell you their handkerchief online, don't buy it, okay? And don't think that they can just hand you over these things. Don't go to the Benny Hinn crusade and think that he's going to knock you over. What kind of a weird, bizarre thing is that? You're going to come running at me and I'm going to knock you on the ground and it's somehow going to heal you. It's like, what kind of bizarreness is that? Or knocking people over. You know, whenever they healed people in the Bible, you know what they did? They took someone that's on the ground, crippled, and they picked them up. They lifted them up and they restored them. They didn't take someone that's standing up and then knocked them down. What kind of bizarre logic is that? Be healed! Bam! Knock them on the ground. It's like, what? That didn't help anybody. That just made them worse. You probably just hurt their back or something. Go to Mark chapter 16. But realize that there is a place in the Bible that talks about miracles being performed. And it makes perfect sense why this would happen and why it would be limited to the apostles. Look at Mark chapter 16 and look what it says in verse 16. He that believeth in his baptize shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. And my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now, what Jesus is doing is he's trying to supercharge all of his apostles with abilities to go out and to perform all these miracles so as to confirm their word so as that people know who's the real apostle and who's not. Because here's the thing. In the epistles, we have the apostle Paul saying there's a lot of people going around saying they're an apostle, but they're not. So it's like, well, how would I know who's the apostle and who's not the apostle? It's the guy that's laying hands on people and they're recovering. It's the guy who could take up a deadly thing and drink it and he wouldn't die. It's the guy who got bit by a serpent and just didn't die. You know, the guy that gets bit by a serpent and dies, that wasn't the apostle, you know? And it makes sense that he's giving him these abilities, not only that, laying hands on someone and casting out the devil. Now there's some guys going around trying to pretend like they can do it, but guess what happens? They totally fail. It's a misery. They're shamed. They run out naked. I mean, you know, they basically, the devil comes in and they're freaking out. They take all their clothes off, which would be really embarrassing, and then run around naked or whatever. That's not the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul's not running around naked because he actually lays hands on people and they recover. He actually lays hands on people and he casts out devils. The apostles have these signs to confirm their word and so other apostles can recognize other apostles and so that believers can recognize the true apostles and that the word of God can be more effective when it's going out. Because if you have a bunch of people that are silver-tongued snakes that can say all the right things and whatever, it's kind of hard to tell who's right and who's wrong or whatever. And a lot of times, testing someone's fruit takes time, effort, and energy. These are just kind of some quick things to just go out and you can figure out who's real and who's fake real quick and you have a lot of things confirming the word. Plus, you walk into a town. Imagine you walk into a country in the world today. You don't speak their language, right? So you just go to Romania all of a sudden and you're supposed to get everybody in that country safe and you're supposed to go to the next country as soon as possible. What would you do? Step one, you'd start learning the language because you wouldn't be able to communicate with anybody because who speaks Romanian? All right, so that's going to take a little bit. It's going to take years for you to learn that language. Then after you've learned that language, now you're going to have to try and convince people a whole brand new religion. Now, how easy is it to get someone that's already Christian to come to our church after you get them say, isn't that pretty hard? How hard is it to get someone that was a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim to come to church? That's real hard. How long is it going to take to reach everyone? Isn't that going to take forever? Now, what a minute. What if you could just walk up to someone and speak their language of having ever had to learn it and then you can just lay hands on their family member and heal them rapidly. Now what do you think their likelihood is of coming to church with you to service? A lot higher, isn't it? So you're going to be a lot more effective. That makes a lot more sense because you have one generation of apostles. They need to get the gospel as many people as humanly possible, the whole world, so they have these special abilities. Now, after the gospel has been spread, now we basically are building Christianity in a slower process, a more reasonable process. It's gone in all these other languages. We have these churches that have been established. We don't need to have these apostles going around. And look, if everyone was an apostle, if every believer had these special abilities of an apostle, then it would kind of take away a lot of the faith element, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it take a lot away of the faith element? I mean, it's like, well, maybe we should just believe in the religion where everyone's always healed perfectly and they can preach any language automatically. I mean, there would be a huge difference between all the Christians in the world and everybody that's unsaved, since we can communicate every language automatically. We can lay hands on people and they recover. We can never die of a snake bite. We can't die of any kind of poisonous drink or whatever. I mean, people would pay attention to that, would realize that, would notice that. It'd be evident, and it would kind of take away. It'd be the same as like Jesus just coming down from heaven and just being like, I'm Jesus, believe me. But he doesn't want that. He wants us to have faith. He wants us to have the tempter out there. He wants there to be eight churches in this complex, and you get to pick. Do you want to go to the Pentecostal, or the Pentecostal, or the Pentecostal, or the Pentecostal, or the Baptist? He wants you to have like eight versions of Pentecostal to choose in. Spirit of the Fire, Spirit of the Wind, Spirit of the Words, whatever. I don't know what kind of screaming, yelling one it is down the street, but he wants you to have all these options. You got Joel Osteen. You got the billboard of him and his wife shining up there. This is my Bible. You can get co-pastor. You can get that Victoria Leiter sermon. I'm sure she doesn't yell at you. She's probably real sweet, sweet spirit. Sweet spirit, Lakewood, or whatever. It's real country-like. You got your Joel up there with his accent. I mean, you got all kinds of options, and then basically what God gets pleasure in is someone saying, you know what? That's fake, and that's fake, and that's fake, and that's fake, and this is fake, and I reject all of it. I just want Christ. I reject all other plans of salvation. I reject all of my works. I reject all of my pride. I'm going to humble myself, and I'm going to accept the free gift of salvation by Jesus Christ, and you know what? To him gets all the honor and glory. And think of all the glory that it gets for overcoming the world and overcoming all the evil and all the lies and all the deception, and imagine how incredible it is that we can go and knock on someone's door who's gone to a Catholic church for 20 years of their life, been told lies their entire life, and in 10 minutes the truth just immediately gets them saved. I mean, think about that. That's pretty incredible. That was pretty powerful that I can literally destroy 20 years of work in 10 minutes, right? I mean, think about it. Don't you do that all the time? You run into people. They go to a false religion, a false church. They've been taught lies their whole life, and in 10, 15 minutes, you completely get them saved. You completely destroy all the false doctrine that they've been taught their entire life, and you know what? That gives a lot of honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't need all these miracles. The miracles didn't really do anything anyways because the miracles just sped up the process. It's not like, well, I would believe if you showed me the miracle. It's just the miracles speed up the process, okay? Jesus used the miracles to speed up his process. The apostles have the miracles to speed up their process. We don't need the speeding up. God has decided to be more long suffering and allow us to go through the process in a different manner. But if speaking in tongues is part of the apostles' gifting here, then it's stopped with them. Like did the drinking deadly things, the taking up serpents. It's funny how the modern day Pentecostals though today, they'll just cherry pick one of the Mark 16's out. You know, which one of them? You go to these big mega churches. You go to the Joel Osteen church. You go to these ones that are charismatic and Pentecostal today, and you say, hey, can you drink this deadly thing? They'll be like, well, no. Can you take a snake bite? No. But I can do the speaking in tongues. Why do you cherry pick that one? Because that's the only one that they're not going to instantly die when they fake it. Okay? Because you don't really want to fake the snake bite one or, you know, fake the drinking the deadly poison or whatever. But you can get up there and be like, shakalalalala! And like, what was that? It's a heavenly prayer language, okay? It's like, it didn't sound very heavenly. It sounded kind of like a toddler. It sounded kind of like gibberish to me. It sounded like foolishness, nonsense. Now, I have a lot more to cover in this chapter, so I think I'll just wait and preach it next week so that way I don't just take too much time and do a bad job through it. But, you know, this is a great chapter where we learn a lot of different things. And, you know, to me, I don't need all the special miracles. I think we want them in our flesh. But we have to realize that the flesh isn't spiritual. You know, what really stirs up our spirit is the Word of God. And, you know, if we learn anything in this chapter, we need to realize that we don't want to harden our hearts and feel like, well, I'd change if I saw a miracle. You know, I'd serve God if He gave me more money or if He gave me a promotion or if I saw some great thing, if He came down from heaven and told me to worship Him and serve Him. He told me to, you know, Jesus knocked on my door and said, go soloing with me. I'd go soloing with Him. Well, you know what? Jesus might not look like that. He might just look like Omar. Come and say, hey, come, go soloing with me. You know, or Brother Cameron or whatever. And, you know, if you wouldn't go soloing with Omar, you wouldn't go with Jesus. And if you wouldn't go with a little girl, you wouldn't go with Jesus. You know, if you've done the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. And we need to stop worrying about all the miracles and all the things that could possibly happen and just worry about what the Bible says. Worry about the things that you already know. Jesus is testing you. Would you serve Him when it doesn't make sense in the physical or it only makes sense in the spiritual? It only makes sense according to the Word of God. And you know what? I think this. If you serve God, you will see miracles in your life. But when you go look for the miracles, you won't find them. You just got to put your faith in the Word of God and trust in Him, and you're going to see all kinds of cool things in the future. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for your Word. Thank you for this great chapter of the Bible. I pray that we would not be so fixated on some kind of a miracle or some kind of a show or some kind of a physical feeling, but rather we would let our hearts be touched by the Word of God, that we would allow our spirits to be filled with the Word of God, that we wouldn't harden our heart, but rather we would try to keep it tender and soft to what you've commanded us and what you've instructed us. And we would take the opportunities that we have right now to worship and to serve you, rather than waiting for some big thing to happen. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our last hymn this evening, if you would, bring your hymnal to hymn number 321. Hymn number 321, three, two, one. Where He leads, I'll follow. 321, where He leads, I'll follow. 321, we'll sing there starting on the first verse. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word, Dearer far than any message man ever heard, Pure was the mind of Christ, sinless I see, He the great example is empattered for me, Where He leads, I'll follow, follow all the way, Where He leads, I'll follow, follow Jesus every day. Sweet is the tender love Jesus hath shown, Sweeter far than any love that more souls have known, Kind to the erring one, faithful is He, He the great example is empattered for me, Where He leads, I'll follow, follow all the way. Where He leads, I'll follow, follow Jesus every day. List to His loving words, come unto me, Weary, heavy, laden, dearest, sweet, rest for thee. Trust in His promises, faithful and sure, Lean upon the Savior and thy soul is secure. Where He leads, I'll follow, follow all the way. Where He leads, I'll follow, follow Jesus every day. Amen. With that you are dismissed. Have a safe night, folks.