Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker recounts a story about a woman who was told by her doctor not to climb stairs. After a few months, she asked if she could climb stairs again and the doctor gave her permission. The speaker then mentions how every message they have heard has emphasized that authority comes from God behind the Word. The speaker goes on to discuss various Bible verses that have been mentioned, such as 2 Peter 2:21 and 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, and how they have been interpreted in the messages. The speaker also talks about the power of nature as evidence of God's existence and the need for a written revelation of God's will. They discuss the Bible's consistency and lack of contradiction, and how it allows for the possibility of scientific advancements like space travel. The speaker concludes that if there is a God and He has a will, He would make it known through a written revelation. that went to the doctor, and he told her, I don't want you climbing any more stairs. And so she complained about it, but she didn't climb any stairs, and finally after a couple of months she went back and said, Can I climb stairs again? He said, Yeah, go ahead. Good. I'm tired of shinnying up that pole. So you obey your doctor, all right? Well, I tell you, everybody has preached everything I was going to say, haven't they? Now, you just think back over the messages we've heard, and isn't it true they have taken all those good little proof texts about the authority, and every one of them said that the authority came from God behind the Word. And so every time I thought, Well, at least he hadn't got to that one, and at least he hadn't got to that one. Lucas got on 2 Peter 2.21, that no scriptures of any private origin. The holy men of God spake as they were moved with the Holy Spirit. He got on that one and ruined that one for me. And then I think it was Keith or someone got on 1 Corinthians 2.9-10, at least he left that one alone that said, I have not seen nor heard nor have it entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love him. Everybody applies that to heaven. That isn't talking about heaven, that's talking about, in the second chapter there of Corinthians, that the things that we know have been revealed by the Father, not by the eye, eye has not seen it, it's not by the testimony, ear has not heard it, it isn't even in the imagination of our heart. But the things that we know, we know because God has revealed them to us. So they ruined that one. And then someone, I think that was Keith too, got over there in 1 Corinthians 1, out of what our message is and what it does. And then Lucas, I believe, was also in Matthew 28, 18-20, all authority has been given unto him. Took all my verses. What have I known for? Old Testament. Right? Come on. Deuteronomy. Chapter 29. I thought, boy, I'll get one in the Old Testament and read my text and depart therefrom. Secret things belonging to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belonging to us, to our children, they do all the words of this law. I think I just went off, didn't I? Flipped my switch? I'd rather switch than not preach. Okay. Now he says, the secret things belonging to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belonging to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Some things God has not revealed. Isn't that right? But the things that he has revealed are for us. You might put it like this. God has shown us his power in nature. Nature reveals God's power. But in the Word, he has demonstrated his purpose. Nature doesn't tell me his purpose. Nature demonstrates the power of God. The Word demonstrates the purpose of God, and the incarnate Word demonstrates the person of God. Nature the power, that's volume one. The written Word, the purpose, and the incarnate Word is the person of God. And he, God, is the authority behind the Word. I made a thing here a while back, several years ago in fact, I think it was in 1970 if I remember right, 69, 70, called He that cometh unto God. And in that prospectus that I used out in the home, I try to get people to see that it's reasonable to believe that there is a God. His eternal power and Godhead is seen in nature. In fact, Romans 1 says that men are without excuse because nature shows us his power and shows us his eternal power and Godhead. It's reasonable to believe that there is a God. And I go into the fact that design demonstrates a designer. Have you ever just thought of your head? The acoustical design of the ear, to hear sound. The little hairs in the nose to keep unclean objects from going up into your nose. The little hair in the ear or the nostril. The eyebrow to keep things from falling down into your eye or the sweat from falling down into your eye and burning or the eye lice that keeps out foreign things. The tearing teeth in the front and the chewing teeth in the back. Now all that demonstrates design. You can tear the front and you can chew in the back. Born without teeth so that you may tuck your mother's breast, but when you are in need of meat, something more than milk, all of a sudden the designer has designed it so our teeth come out and we can begin to eat meat. All that design demonstrates a designer. The law of gravity. If I drop something on the ground, you see the law of gravity. If there is a law, there must be a lawgiver. So design shows designer, laws show lawgiver. The deterioration of matter and the fact that it always goes down, that is the second law of thermodynamics where everything is decreasing, shows that matter is really not eternal because you can either believe in the eternality of matter or else you can believe in the eternality of spirit. It's a lot easier for me to believe that a spirit created matter than to believe that a matter created spirit and intelligence. And so wisdom, common sense says there is a God. And if common sense says there is a God, common sense would say that God has a will for me. That just follows like day follows the night. That if there is a God, it is just common sense to believe that that God has a will for my life. And thirdly, it just follows that if there is a God and He has a will for my life, it just follows that He'd make it known to me. Isn't that reasonable to believe that? Don't you tell your children what your will is? It's only reasonable that if there is a God, He has a will. And if He has the will, He'd make it known. And if He made it known, it's only reasonable to believe that it would be in a written revelation. I'm smart enough to write down my will. I got a will. You got a will? You don't dare leave it bespoken. Any intelligent being makes their will known in a written revelation. It can be more exact. It's more permanent. It's a point in debate. Surely God would be wise enough to give me a will and to give me that will in a written form so I could know it. Let's suppose that God just appeared to each one of us. For one, that would get into respect of persons because He may appear to you when you just had a fight with your wife. Or as He might appear to me when I'm out in the woods and feeling real good about it. And I might receive it, you might reject it because you're happy to be having it with your wife at the time. But in His wisdom, He gave it in a written revelation so that you may read it at your leisure. You can meditate upon it. Suppose that God appeared to each one of us and told us what His will was. I'm a dirty rotten rat. And you come running in and say, guess what God told me? What did God tell you? He told me such and such. I'm mean. I mean, I'm mean. And I say, that's just exactly the opposite of what He told me. It is? Yeah. You must have misunderstood. I'm mean. And I tell you, that's not what God told me. You don't think people are that wicked? Well, they do it with a written word. Can you imagine what they'd do if they did it in every man's mind? Of course they'd fool with it. They'd fool with the written. Not alone if God just spoke to us, each individual. Or I'm a bully. And this man down here, I bully him and I give him a dirty look. Because you come in and say, well, he said this and that's not what he told me. And he says, what did he tell you? And I give him a dirty look as if you'd tell him the truth and I'll belt you one. He's scared of me. He says, you told me the same thing you told George. There's got to be a point of reference. And so it's reasonable to believe there's a God, that he has a will for me. That he'd make it known to me. And if he made it known to me, it would be written in a written revelation. Now the Bible was written over a fifteen hundred year period by forty authors on three continents in three languages. What's the possibility of that many authors writing sixty-six books on a controversial subject like religion, over a fifteen hundred year period, and none of it contradicting the other? What's the possibility of a book that's been completed nineteen hundred years ago, not contradicting one known scientific fact? My dad told me that when he was a boy, he remembered people saying that if a car ever went over sixty miles an hour, it disintegrated. You find anything stupid like that? Now if you go home and say that I say the Bible prophesied man to get to the moon, I'm going to call you a fibber, but the Bible allows it. That when the Son of Man comes, he will gather his elect from the four corners of the earth and the uttermost parts of the heavens, northeast, west, and south, and from the uttermost parts of the heavens. I'm not saying the Bible prophesied that man would go to the moon, but here's a book that allows it. It allows that a man could be in the uttermost parts of the heavens. And when Neil Armstrong, assuming that he was a Christian, when he poured the first subject to ever be poured upon the earth, it was the Lord's Supper, it was grape juice, he was pouring grape juice, which was the first substance to be poured on the moon. Had Jesus come right then, had he been one of the saved, Jesus would have literally gathered his elect from the four corners of the earth and the uttermost parts of the heavens. Here is a 2,000-year-old book that allows that to be literally fulfilled. The point I'm making is, is it contradicts no scientific fact, nor does it contradict one another. Here are 40 authors over a 1,500-year period on three continents in three languages and not one contradictory thought or fact in the Bible. Now, if there is a God and he has a will for me, he'd make it known for me. If he made it known to me, then obviously it would be written, and if written, it would claim to be from God. And all those verses I mentioned to you, no scriptures of any private origin. Those scriptures that I gave to you, eyes not seen, nor ear heard, nor have it entered into the heart of man. What God has prepared for them that love him, God has revealed those to us by his Spirit, and he not only reveals them to us by his Spirit, but he uses spiritual words to explain spiritual things. He even has his own vocabulary. And only the spiritual-minded man that will take the time to learn that spiritual vocabulary can really understand the Word of God. If there is a God, he has a will for me, he made it known for me in a written revelation, isn't it reasonable to believe after taking 1,500 years, 40 authors on three continents in three different languages to write it, isn't it reasonable to believe that he would then preserve it so that it remains his will for man? What would you think of a man who went to a lawyer and had his will written and took no precautions to make sure that his will was up-to-date, saying what he wanted to be done in the event of his death? I'd say he was one dumb bunny. And if God, after going to the trouble of giving his Word, wasn't smart enough to preserve it so that it remained his revelation and his authority, I'd say God just isn't too smart. But he has preserved it. How many in here have ever read Mark Fleming, Samuel Fleming, I know you haven't, I know you haven't. There isn't anybody in here that's ever seen the originals of Huck Pym or Tom Zoellick. You have seen copies, you have not seen the originals. I have not seen the originals of this book. I have not seen any of the original manuscripts. Those have been copied through the years. Now, you remember he says in some of the books in the New Testament that to read, to pass this church on to the church at Ephesus and so forth, and they passed those writings around. They had scribes. That was an art. And they were very careful. And so let's suppose that Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians. Some wealthy man in the church said, I'd like to have that letter that Paul wrote us. I want my scribe to copy it. So his scribe took it and copied it. It was a science. They not only counted, they not only counted every single sentence and word, but every little mark. Every single letter was counted. And the scribe copied it. Now they didn't have books like this. You remember they had scrolls. All those got torn off. In 1969, when I wrote that book, He that cometh to God, there were 2,900 Greek manuscripts, whole or in part. Now, I mean, there are today over 3,200. Over 300 Greek manuscripts have been found of the New Testament since I wrote that book in 1969. And those do not differ from the 2,900 they already found. In fact, we not only have the Greek manuscripts, we've got Armenian manuscripts, we've got Latin manuscripts, and we have Egyptian manuscripts. And we not only have the manuscripts that don't differ, we also have something else that's interesting. We have the catalogs of the early church, what church books they consider to be inspired. There's ten of those. We not only have that, we have the infidels who quoted the New Testament trying to disprove the author. We have those manuscripts. We not only have that, we have the commentaries. All but eleven verses of the New Testament are quoted in the Antonicine Fathers. I said, all but eleven verses of the New Testament are quoted in the Antonicine Fathers. There are only ten copies of Caesar's Gallic Wars. Homer, you can go to college, any college in America, of any note, of any university, and study Homer. The oldest manuscript that we have in possession in the world today is 1,500 years after Homer wrote it. No one denies that's what Homer wrote. Bacchides, or whatever his name is, Dad used to talk about, every time he ripped his pants he called it Euripides. Well, Bacchides, or whatever his name was, only got five of his. I can say Caesar's Gallic War. Aristotle and those men, they're right, we don't have their originals. You think we got Josephus' original? Of course not. Yet if you take all of the manuscripts, all of the versions in Latin, Armenian, and Egyptian, and you take what the atheists wrote in trying to refute the Christians, and you take the commentaries that are quoted by the early Christians, they differ one-fourth of one percent from the accepted text. And what is really interesting about that is this, there are only four hundred variants that really make much difference at all, and none of them have to do with doctrine. Most of those are conjunctions and such things as that. I'm as confident as I stand here that we have in this book what God wrote. It's reasonable to believe that there's a God, that he has a will for me, that he'd make it known to me in a written revelation, and then preserve it after he gave it. So I don't really get all hung up on whether the Bible's inerrant. I believe it's inerrant, and I think it's stupid to say that it's not inerrant, because I believe that if there is a God, and he has a will for me, he's obligated to make it known to me, and tell me what it is he wants me to do. And if he mixes it up, then the responsibility falls on his shoulders for not making his revelation clear to me. He's got a moral obligation to tell me what his will is. Now if I was the conductor of an orchestra, I must not only write music for the violins, I've got to write music for the piccolos. And the part can't function without the whole. And if God has not revealed what he wants me to do, and you to do, and if he hasn't made it all plain and not allowed it to become perverted so that we can all function, then the whole can't function properly. And if he has omitted one thing that one little instrument, so to speak, is supposed to play in the orchestra, then he is to blame that the orchestra doesn't sound good. I think that you are bringing a charge against God when you don't believe that his word has been preserved. Now, if it was delivered over a 15-year period by 40 different orchestras on three continents in three languages, if he did that, and since I wrote that book, 300 new manuscripts have been found, and they don't disagree with the 2,900 to any degree, there's 400 variants, differing one-fourth or one percent from the accepted Greek text. If that's true, what is the possibility of one man or one group of men or organization of men being the first one to the discovery of the next role to change it so that it will agree with the ones that have already been found? Is there one man that could possibly be at the 300 finds to change those things to agree with the way we got it? No. Is there an organization that has that kind of power? No. Someone might say, well, the Roman Church may have during the Dark Ages. They may have during the Dark Ages had some kind of a power to see the manuscripts, but every day the archaeological spade turns over a new scroll. They'd have to be the first one there. Now, personally, I don't think it's the Catholic Church. If I was going to change it, I'd at least change it to agree with my theology, and the Bible don't agree with the theology of the Catholic Church. I was going to change it. I'd change it to agree with me, wouldn't you? I'm telling you, you don't need to worry about whether this is what God said, because He is the God behind this book. It's by His authority that was ever written. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It is not of private origin. And since He wrote it, inspired it, God breathed it, and wanted it to be profitable for doctrine, proof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the men of God may be perfect, mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good work, I think you can bet your salvation on it that it's just exactly the way He wants it to be, because if it's not, He has no one to blame for Himself, but Himself, if it's not the way God wants it to be. So I've said all that to say this, that this is a Bible that is inspired of God and has been preserved for us, and when you quote the Bible, you can rest assured that it is what God said and has the authority of God behind it. Now the Godhead has always worked together. In Ephesians 3.11, the Bible shows that God the Father was the planner. In Colossians 1.15 and 16, it says that the Son was the original bringer forth of all creation, for by Him were all things made that have been made, it says in John. In Genesis 2.2, it shows the Holy Spirit brooding like a mother hen over the face of the deep. I'm telling you, the Father planned it, and it was carried out by the Son and brooded over by the Holy Spirit. In Redemption, if you look at the book of Jude in verse 1, it says this about the Trinity, Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Who calls? The Holy Spirit calls, and the Father sanctifies, and the Son preserves. So in creation they work together, and in Redemption they work together. This doctrine of the Godhead, and by that you probably know it as the Trinity, I prefer the name Godhead. Alexander Campbell said a good thing. Alexander Campbell says, we prefer to call Bible things by Bible names because we are always suspicious that if the Word is not there, then the idea that the Word represents is not there. So I prefer the name Godhead, although I believe in what is commonly called the Trinity, but I prefer to call it by the Bible name. That is expressed all through the Bible, that there is a Godhead, a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. If we could return to Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4, it says here in this passage of Scripture, these words, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. That's called the Shelma. It's quoted by our Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 12.29. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Now right there in that one little verse called the Shelma, which the Jews often repeat it, the word Lord and the word God is used three times, always in the plural. The Lord our God is one Lord. Lord God and Lord are in the plural. But he uses the word, and incidentally it's got the ending new on it. New is never used with the word unless it's in the plural. But he says the Lord our God is one Lord. There are two different Hebrew words for one. The word etad means absolutely, or rather a compound unity, many in one, a combination. And he says the Lord our God is one Lord. It's a compound unity, or many in one. For example, in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24, what's it say? A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and those two shall become one flesh. A compound unity, two becoming one. The Bible says in Numbers 13.23, speaking of the grapes that they got, that there was one cluster. Or for example, in Exodus 24.3, all Israel answered with one voice. They were all saying the same thing. Many voices, but answered with one voice. And again in Judges 20 and verse 1, all Israel gathered together as one man. That's etad. But the other word is not etad. The other word is yaketh. It means absolutely, singularly one. For example, in Judges 11.34, Jeremiah 6.26 and Amos 8.10, it says that they shall mourn for them as an only son. Absolutely singularly one. Of Abraham besides this, he had neither, or rather of Jephthah besides this, he had neither son nor daughter. He was his only child. Or in Psalms chapter 68, verse 6, it says that he hung the earth in a solitary place. How many places solitary? One absolutely singularly one. Does the Bible say here, O Israel, the Lord our God is yaketh one, absolutely singularly one, only, solitary one? No. The Lord our God is a compound unity. The Lord our God is etad one. These two become one flesh. They all answered with one voice. So your Bible, the Shalmah, the main statement of the Jewish religion in the days of Jesus was, here, O Israel, the Lord our God is a compound unity, a Father and a Son and a Holy Spirit. And that's the ones that are the authority behind the written word, conceived in the mind of the Father and revealed in the Old Testament to the prophets, and now speaking to us in these last days by his Son. Look at the language that is used of the plurality of the Godhead. Let us make man in our image. Let us go down. They compounded those people's languages. Even some of the verbs, such as God moved, or some of the adjectives, holy God, that's a plural word. Or remember now, by Creator in the days of thy youth, the word Creator there is in the plural. Because, as I showed you a while ago, it was planned by the Father, brought forth by the Son, and brooded over by the Holy Spirit. Remember your Creator. That's in the plural. So not only does the Bible absolutely state, in plain fact, that the Lord our God is a compound unity, the pronouns, the verbs, the adjectives, and even the titles of God are in the plural. And then there are some necessary inferences in the Bible that cannot be understood any other way. Look in Psalms 2. And verse 7. I will declare the decree, the Lord has said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. That's speaking of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And look what it says in verse 12. Kiss the Son, that's S-O-N, not S-U-N, kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are they that put their trust in him. God's got a Son. And even in the Old Testament, he says, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Not speaking of Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary. That is quoted in the book of Acts, referring to Jesus being raised up from the dead. That was the day that he was the begotten Son of God. And blessed are they that put their trust in him. In whom? In the Son. The Jews knew that God had a Son. And that's why they got so upset and tried to stone Jesus when he said he was the Son of God. For no good work do we stone thee, but because you, being a man, make of yourself God, because you said that you are the Son of God. The Jews knew that God had a Son. That's why they were so upset. Listen to Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. And that passage of Scripture is so familiar to you. For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Someone says, well, how can he be called the Everlasting Father? That should be translated the Father of Eternity, just as the Bible calls him the Father of Mercy. He is the Father of Eternity. Jesus is the Father of Eternity. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that hath been made. Because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. He is the Father of Eternity. And notice it was a Son that was given, who was Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God. The Jews understood that God had a Son. Look in Isaiah chapter 48. I like this Scripture. Isaiah chapter 48, if you can count, you can see the doctrine of the Trinity or the Godhead in the Old Testament. Because in Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 16, Come ye near unto me, hear ye this, I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time that was there am I, and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. How many is that? The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. And who is that me? Well, it's our Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll notice in verse 12, he says, I am he, I am the first and I am also the last. Who said that? Jehovah did. What does Jesus say? I am the first and the last. And he plainly teaches that he will not give his glory to another. And so Jehovah in the Old Testament and our Lord Jesus are one and the same. It's the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. Or maybe a more beautiful passage is in Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, and the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim liberty to the captives and to the opening of the prison of them that are bound. Jesus quoted that in the book of John and said, This day is that scripture fulfilled in your ears. I'm telling you that there is God the Father and his Spirit. He hath sent me. He hath sent me to preach the acceptable behavior of the Lord. And he talks about me coming to the temple. And so it's not just a New Testament revelation, that there has always been an understanding that there is a Father and a Son and a Holy Spirit. And those three are the ones who are the Godhead behind the scriptures. In the Bible, the Father is the benefactor. He's the giver. And so we pray, Our Father which art in heaven, and we say, Give us this day our daily bread. The Son is the prophet who teaches us. He is the priest who saves us. He is the King who rules us. And the Spirit is the one who guides us, who teaches us, who sanctifies us, and who comforts us. So that on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah are crowded out and a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, hear ye him. No longer listen to Moses and the law. No longer listen to Elijah and the prophets. This is my Son, hear ye him. Those sound a lot like the words in the time that Jesus was baptized. John the Baptist heard the Father when he said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He saw the Spirit descending in the form of a dove, and he handled the Word. That is Jesus himself. So he heard the Father, he saw the Spirit, and he handled the Son at his baptism. And it is said, Hear him. God who in many different ways and many different times has spoken unto the Father hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, and through whom he made the world. So during the Old Testament, the Father was the principal speaker. In the New Testament, Jesus is the principal speaker, and he spoke those things that the Father told him to speak. And of course, now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit speaks what the Son would have spoken through the writers of the New Testament. And the authority is seen all through the Bible of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are the Godhead, who are the authority behind the Word. But who has authority? I don't think we've answered that all week. Who has authority over anything? The original owner is who has authority. The owner has authority. The creator has authority. One who purchases has authority. So it's the person who originally made, he has authority as creator. Or the original owner, if you worked for me and I paid you to make something, even though you're the creator, I am the original owner and therefore it is mine. Patents don't go necessarily to the inventor. He may not have authority over his invention if he was paid to do it. So only original owners, creators, and purchasers have authority. The only other people who have legitimate authority is when the original owner or the creator or the purchaser grants authority or delegates authority. All other authority is usurped. Hear that? If you were not the original owner, you're not the creator, you're not the purchaser. But if someone has not delegated authority to you, then your authority is usurped. Now there are those who claim today to have authority. But unless the creator, the original owner and purchaser delegated them authority, they are usurpers of authority. The Pope of Rome is a usurper of authority. God didn't delegate it to him, he's certainly not creator, nor original owner, nor purchaser. So the Pope's authority is a usurped authority. To recognize a man who has usurped authority is to also usurp authority. Now, the creators of this campground have delegated Dean authority. Those authority around here is not usurped. If I try to say something around here and say, this is the way it's going to be done, I'm out of line. I am a usurper of authority because no one delegated me any authority. And if you listen to me instead of Dean, you have joined me in a rebellion. All the way down to Kai Amici Clinic, or maybe both of them, I don't know, have usurped authority. And there's a big fuss down there, isn't there? Because there's some usurped authority. And if you join the usurper, you yourself are a usurper. So if you are a denominational preacher and you are ordained by a synod or by a convention and you are preaching not by the authority of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are preaching by the authority of a synod, you are preaching by the authority of a convention, who delegated that synod authority to make you a preacher? Who delegated authority to the convention to make you a preacher? No one. Their authority is usurped. And our denominational preacher friends have joined a rebellion because they have recognized a usurper of authority. And to remain in a denominational church and say, I don't believe in the authority of the Pope or I don't believe in the authority of the Baptist Convention or the Lutheran Synod and remain in those churches and preach by their authority, recognizing that their authority is usurped, makes you a continued usurper of authority. God has all authority, and who did he give that to? All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Now if Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, and he did not delegate you authority, then what is your authority? You serve. Now who did God delegate, or Jesus, delegate authority to? He delegated his authority to his apostles. And those apostles in the New Testament are the ones who laid down the terms of pardon, revealed the nature of the New Testament church, and we need to be careful that we don't go beyond what's written. Now a thing may be unscriptural and not be wrong. A thing may be unscriptural and not be wrong. A thing is not wrong because it's unscriptural. A thing is wrong when it is anti-scriptural. That thing is as unscriptural as it can be. They didn't have them back then. It's unscriptural. This microphone is unscriptural. This camp is unscriptural. A pew, a communion track are unscriptural, but they're not anti-scriptural. And we need to stop talking about something being wrong because it's unscriptural. He has given us command to evangelize. We can use whatever means we want to evangelize as long as it's not anti-scriptural. And that's a very important distinction that I wish our non-instrumental friends would learn to make. We wouldn't have a lot of the problems we'd have if we'd realize that a thing's not wrong because it's not mentioned in the Bible. A thing is wrong only if it is anti-scriptural. It keeps us from doing what God told us to do. When I've told you all that, that God is the authority behind the Word, to just tell you things. What is the nature of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit? I loved what the brother did this afternoon. I thought it was excellent. When he asked these three men down here, they said, Now you men are firemen and I'm going to make you the cook. You're going to shine the truck. And the other fellow was to care for the building. And then he asked them what their job was. And they all three repeated those three things. He said, No, that isn't your job. Your job is fighting fires. That's the real job. They're firemen. The other things are incidental. Now the Holy Spirit's involved in creation. He's involved in re-creation or redemption and so forth. But the thing that the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son are really interested in is the salvation of men's souls. This is a true saying. And worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. The things they're interested in is the salvation of men. Look in Luke 15. This is just something I'm going to show you right quick. It says here, an incidental thing. If you look over in that 14th verse, I've got to comment on that. He keeps talking about salt is good and salt's lost its savor. Wherewith shall it be seasoned, fit for nothing to be thrown on the dunghill that men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Well, he's been talking all along there about I know the cost of being my disciple. You've got to be willing to forsake your father and mother. You've got to be salt and so forth. And when he preached hard like that, making tremendous demands like that, it says, then voodoo near the publicans and sinners to hearing. Hey, when you preach decisively that you've got to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me, that if you exalt yourself, you're going to be abased. If you humble yourself, you're going to be exalted. That you've got to be salt. And you preach plain like that. You know what people do? The publicans and sinners will draw near. But the Pharisees and the scribes will murmur. Man, I tell you, preach plain. Sinners will draw near. It's the self-righteous man that will run. And so it says, this man receives sinners and eateth with them and he spaketh this parable. And I don't have time to read that. But you remember there in Luke 15 what there is. There's the lost sheep. There's the lost silver. And there's the lost son. In fact, the one ad that day, when you looked in the peddler's post, said lost. One lost sheep. Or it said farther on down, one lost coin or silver. Or it said lost, one son. That would have been in the one ad that day. But look at the picture of men in that. The sheep were born in the fold, but they went astray and was lost. All you like sheep have gone astray. We weren't born astray, we went astray. And so there's the picture of the lost sheep. One that was born in the fold that went astray. There is the picture of the silver. It's valuable. It bore the image of the king. But it was lost. That's a picture of you and me. We're valuable. We were stamped with the divine image of God's nature. We were made in the image of God, but we were lost. And the son was home born, but he went astray. He was a partaker of the Father's bounty, but he became a prodigal. He wasn't born away from the house, away from the home. He left the Father's bounty. He even took some of it with him and spent it in riotous living. So the picture is of the lost sheep, the lost silver, and the lost son. They were born at home, but went astray. They bore the image of the king, but they went astray. But look at the concern there was for these three. The shepherd had ninety-nine sheep left, but he suffered looking for that one lost sheep. The woman had nine more coins, but she went seeking and cleansing for that one lost silver. And the father had another obedient son at home, but he sang over that one lost son.
