You got tribulation? Christ had tribulation.
You got troubles in this world? He had troubles in this world.
Did Christ come to save everybody? He sure did. Will everyone get saved? Nope. Why? Because it is up to them to believe. Not everyone is going to believe. But the sacrifice was for everyone.
And here He is coming before a religious group that claims to know the Great I AM, that knows the Pentateuch, those five great books of the Bible, knows about Moses, their main prophet is Isaias. Jesus Christ quoted Isaias, I think, more than any prophet in the Scriptures, in the Gospels. He put the Bible right back to them. And here, they watched the personification of the Word of God in front of them. The very Word of God in front of them—and they rejected Him.
And here today we have the WRITTEN WORD of God, and we are saved and have the Holy Spirit of God. And Peter said he had a ‘more sure word of prophecy,’ meaning the Scriptures. He said he touched, he talked to the Lord, he had emotional contact with the Lord, but now he says we have a ‘more sure word of prophecy,’
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23).
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
So, here we are, saved people, watching multitudes of people out there disrespecting doctrine—couldn’t tell you if they had the real Word of God or not—but they can say that they have the thoughts. But see, there are perception is their thoughts. They don’t have the Word of God on it. And here we have little Bible-believing flocks being designated as cultic because they raise this ‘paper pope’ up instead of a physical one.
Well, I’ll stick with this Book! But the other part of the formula is the witnessing. If we got the Book, and the truth, then we better get the mouth in operation. And we get the tracts out and we tell people about Who we know. Who do we know? The Great I AM. We know Who He is! I’m telling you. And He is greater than Abraham. You got to be saved!
Now we know that the first prayer of Jesus was recorded in Matthew 11, and it sounds sort of strange. Yet when you consider it carefully, it is a fantastic prayer . . .
“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:25-30).
So, we look at that and we see, hmm? We see why Christianity is available to every man. Our religion is based on faith, and not intellectualism. We can never know God through our minds only. We must see Him with our hearts and our souls. Because of this, even those that have weak minds can know and love Christ, as well as the very brilliant.
Now, we too, should thank God because we can know Him through faith—rather than through intellectualism. It has been wisely said, “He who has a testimony is never at the mercy of ‘who has an argument.’”
We can know ‘about’ Christ with our mind, but to ‘know’ Christ requires the leap of faith in our hearts. What does that mean? No matter what intellectuals are out there, or skeptics are out there, you can look them right in the face and say, ‘I was once blind, but now I see. I was once lost, but now I’m found.’ They can ramble on all they want, because, why? Because you know.
You may not be able to answer all the questions and dot the ‘I’s’ and cross the ‘T’s’ but you know personally that He is your Saviour.
You don’t have to be a brilliant person and try to debate everybody out there on that issue, but you ‘know!’ and if you know, nobody can take that from you. And that thing will carry you all the way to heaven. Because after all, we are signed—sealed—and delivered. I mean, what a blessing that is.
You need to take heed to that and think about that today of what you have everybody out there don’t have. And it is a gift. And Christ is offering it. And we are ambassadors for Christ. The Bible says that’s our ministry. So, nobody gets away with saying, ‘I’m not a preacher,’ ‘I’m not a this . . . or that.’
We are all preachers. Proclaiming the truth is our business. The Gospel is our business. To everybody that we come in contact with.
I just hope that everybody we come in contact with is not at that White Throne Judgment pointing their finger at us for not delivering the goods. Go to a restaurant, what’s wrong with telling somebody, ‘Yea, I’ll pray for you. Got any problems? I’ll pray for you now.’ Pray for your food. What’s wrong with leaving a tract with a good tip. If you’re not a tipper, don’t leave no tract—I’m serious. You represent the Lord.
And you’re gonna run across all these religious people out there non-stop. Their job is to get people from other churches that have already been evangelized and saved—and get them into theirs. They don’t go out and lead anybody to the Lord and they try to get them to their churches, so they can somehow get this ‘other’ blessing. And that ain’t Bible, that ain’t in the Bible. The death, burial and resurrection is the Full Gospel. Once you get a hold of that, because that is how you got saved, you surely don’t want to push for something else. That is the Full Gospel.
So, today, remember that a ‘greater than Abraham’ is here. He is up in glory sitting on the right hand of the Father, making intercession for His church. We are here, we are His church. We need to learn to sit on the lap, next to your Father, Jesus. You need to ask Him for some fruit.