Pastor John Brandt
https://newharvestministriesneo.org/
New Harvest NEO
I Don't Wanna Hear About Jesus
the Lord's Day, given glory to Him, just what a blessing it is to be here, to share the truth of God's Word, the week, sometimes the week can get hectic on us. We have life and life's trials and have we got to live in the rest of the Lord, the benefit that he offers to his chosen, to his church. And I do have to say that my life does influence, I work on preparing my messages, I'm going through my daily struggles, and with joy in my heart, living in the Lord's rest. But there's a continual battle, it's not a fleshly battle, it's a spiritual battle that goes on, I would hope in each and every one of us. It's even quite violent at times, this battle that's taking place. We don't see it, but it's going on. As being in God's Word, I begin to read the Word, prepare for my message, and I tell you, it's no better feeling to just get lost in God's Word. There's no better time than time spent with God. We have to face different challenges and questions, and we live our lives, and I have a brother of mine who struggles with the Apostle Paul, he struggles with religion, and, you know, by the way, the religious people are the ones who put our Christ up for crucifixion. He's late in life, he's come to the Lord now, everybody has his struggles with this guy called Paul. Last week's message, we've been working our way through Acts, and we talked about Stephen, in the martyr of Stephen, and how Paul had sanctioned it, was there standing there, and how could this be? It's for a young believer, maybe just still on the milk, maybe it's difficult. It's not my place to change God's Word or to manipulate it. We have to speak the truth of God's Word. We have to know the truth, and we have to speak the truth. And he made a comment to me, he says, "I'm tired of hearing about Jesus, I want to know him." I said, "That's awesome." So, the title of the message tonight is, "I don't want to hear about Jesus, I want to know him." And who better to put this title, other than the Apostle Paul, on what had taken place in his life, his conversion, where he heard about Jesus, but he knows Jesus in his life. And there'll be a couple of points that I'm going to bring up that's not necessarily in the Scripture that I'm covering, but I'm using it as examples that goes on. So, what I'd like, if you have a copy of God's Word, we're going to be in the ninth chapter of Acts this evening, from 9 to something, chapter 9. But I'd like for us to stand for the reading of God's Word. We're going to be in, we're going to stop and we're going to read actually in chapter 4, chapter 4 verses 24 to 30. It's actually a prayer that the Apostles had said. And it was very powerful to me as I read through the book of Acts again and to where I'm at, to prepare for my message. We had Peter and John that were challenging. The synagogues, the people, was reprimanding them and they had just got released again and they went back to tell the other believers the way. And they said, "Let's say this prayer with such enthusiasm." And I think the prayer is pertinent to start us off this evening. So, with that being said, Acts chapter 4, starting at verse 20 through 23, "So when they were released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God. May we all lift our voices right now to God. Read along with me if you'd like. God with one accord and said, "Oh, Master, it is you who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your Father David, your servant said, 'Why did the Gentiles rage?' And the people's devise vain things. The kings of the earth took their stand. And the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predetermined to occur. And now, Lord, take note of their threats and grant that your slaves may speak your word with all confidence while you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders happen through the name of your holy servant Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. I thought that was a powerful prayer. And one of these troubling things about having the understanding of God and who He is, not the whole back. But in verse 28 it says, 'Your hand and your purpose predestined to occur.' God was pleased. In Isaiah, God didn't say, 'I'm really going to hate to do this to you, but God was pleased to crush Jesus.' Okay, that's a hard truth. And how do we not preach the truth? He didn't say, 'I'm going to really going to hurt me to do this.' He didn't say that. He said, 'He's pleased to crush him.' Because that sins, for our sins a price had to be paid. He's such a just God and such a loving God. So here we are, chapter 9. The Apostle Paul, we were introduced to him at the stoning of Stephen. Now we find the Apostle Paul, just a couple of things about Apostle Paul, some of the beliefs that are going around. I think that hinder my brothers' feelings towards Apostle Paul, someone had embedded in his mind at a young age that Paul was basically an Uncle Tom for the Romans to make society conform to God's word. And that didn't happen until a couple hundred years after the death of Paul. There's a false belief there. And then I think there's a big battle. He was brought up in the Roman Catholic Church. And there's a big battle with the between, I don't know if you know this or not, but Rome and the Protestants. We're still held in anathema because we don't add to the gospel. And he was a victim of that. So naturally, I think a lot of the Apostle Paul's writing was controversial to them. They can't refute it. So I don't know if that was in place in his mind, that his struggles are your mind and your struggles on this Apostle Paul. And what it does, it puts God in his word in doubt. And so what is it? I want to know Jesus. I don't want to hear about Jesus. I want to know about Jesus. Well, there's three things. And as we're going through the Scriptures, we need to build, accept them, have truths. Believing in the Bible, that's absolute truth. If you want to know Jesus, you have to believe that not only that the Bible is absolute truth, it's more than that. It's what truth is. It's the foundation of truth. It is truth. It's more than truth. It's where truth comes from. That comes from the Bible. You will never know Jesus until you accept this as a truth. And here's another point. Believing that the Bible is sufficient makes us complete, equipped for every good work. The sufficiency is of Scripture that we believe in it. Now, I'm not saying that if we have to have brain surgery, that we need to go to our Bible and look for it there. I'm talking about all spiritual matters is sufficient on how to grow to church. Not to be a pragmatist. Not to do other things. But it's right here in God's word. It's sufficient to accomplish what it's written to do. I enjoy reading commentaries from 600 years ago from a man by the name of John Calvin and his words have not changed. God's word has not changed from that point until today. Nothing new needs to be added to it. The truth of God's word is sufficient to save people back then. It's sufficient to save them right now today. It's just a matter of believing it. And it's interesting how opposing views will then label a topic that we're going to run into tonight. It's called Calvinism or predestination. And it's just a topic that because it's written in the Bible and it's God, then somebody then wants to put a name on it like it's Calvin. No, it's not Calvin. Calvin interpreted the Bible properly. That's it. We read God's word in brothers and sisters. I struggle on perplexed with the fact that if I can't share simple things with my brothers and they can understand the simple things, how can they then begin the more complex things that we get into these struggles that everybody that reads God's words gets to it and has to ask the question. And I do not have the right nor do you have the right when we get to something that we read that we don't like then to reject it. We do not have that right. You know, the foundation for us is believing. Believing, believing, believing. Now if you don't believe all of what God says, that's concerning to me. I struggle with that this last week in understanding how do I prepare the message in Acts and talking about Paul, saw and get into some of the deeper issues if we're not capable of grasping the simpler ones. And I'm going to get into some of that. Believing that the Bible is the absolute truth, the foundation of truth is what truth is based upon. Believing that the Bible is sufficient, it's complete. And understanding, this is another very important one today. You want to know Jesus? You need to understand where Jesus sits right now in His authority. We can't just say, "Oh, He's an authority then think that He's not." So you just want to hear about Jesus? Or do you want to know Jesus? Do you know where He's sitting right now? Do you know what's taking place with His church right now that they refer to as the way? Three things, believing the truth of the Bible, believing the sufficiency of Scripture, and understanding where Jesus sits today in His authority over His dominion, His domain on heaven and on earth. Jesus would not tell us to say a prayer to be done on earth as it is in heaven if He were not going to be able to accomplish that, to be done on earth as it preyed this way, on earth as it is in heaven. Do you think He would tell us to pray that if we could not, if His church would not accomplish that? Maybe we'll get into some more of that too. But I'm very perplexed. I'm very perplexed that we have, I understand the world. I understand the fallen nature of a sinner. I understand that totally. That's what they do. What they don't understand is brothers, professing brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ that were supposed to be. We just said a prayer to be united in the same mind and they come up with these beliefs whether it's because of rituals or that's what they were told, but that's not what's written in God's word. Now a prime example of something that's very simple and I find it with my dispensationalist brothers, by the way, and I challenge them on the fact that in the book of Acts we read that as He went up into heaven, the two were looking and they were told by somebody, Angel, that He is going to come the next time, the same way that He left, we're going to see Him again. So I challenge you, show me where there's going to be this secret rapture in the Bible. I challenge me to see that. And I went over as far as reigning militarily in Jerusalem when getting to the point knowing where Jesus is right now in all authority, reigning in His kingdom on His throne that He would come down and have to think that He would reign militarily from Jerusalem. I challenge you, brothers, just show me that. But if you just disregard Scripture, then how can you understand the deeper things of the Lord? I am a uneducated man, okay? And I'm talking about men who would have an education, who has degrees in college that studies God's word and deny what is written in this book and it perplexes me. I cannot understand it. Just as Paul, at perplexed Paul, in Galatians, he says, "You silly Galatians, who has bewitched you? You've heard the truth, you've believed it. Now they're coming in and are adding to the gospel. They're adding works into it. They're telling them that they need to be circumcised. There's eating rituals. You need to do these things. What happened to you, silly Galatians? I'm perplexed. You were willing to give me, I my sight was struggling. You were willing to give me your eyes out of your head, but now you're my enemy. Now you're my enemy for me speaking the truth. The truth. Who bewitched you? See, my argument will start with the Bible, it will end with the Bible, and it will go back to the Bible. My feelings and what I think are does not matter. Does not matter. God, I love God's word and the more and more that I go over these complex that some think are complex that we should stay away. I find them not to be so complex no more, and I'm actually getting to love them because I'm getting to understand them. If he was pleased to crush my Savior and he says that he loved Jacob and hated Esau, I love that he hated Esau. That's not a hard issue for me. That is not hard for me at all because you know what? He crushed Jesus for my sins. What's so difficult about that? Oh, you don't understand. Well, read the Scripture. I'm an uneducated man and I understand what that Scripture says to me. I don't know who's lie to you, who's deceived you, who's bewitched you. I don't know, but it's perplexing to me. And it was perplexing to Paul that how could this be? I know when the Holy Spirit takes the hold of somebody and fills them and gives them life that it begins to change a person. It changed me. It changed me to hunger and thirst for his word and to want to get his word right, to accept his word as the truth that not only is the truth, this is what truth is based upon, that everything that I need to be sufficient for salvation and for growing a church is written right here in this Bible and to understand where Jesus is. And a simple, how can we then understand? Here's a, we had a Bible study and I mean, it was brought up, I don't know, we'd love getting into God's Word. It's just absolutely wonderful, my brother Logan. And man, the card is going down the road. It's just cruising along. We're in Titus and older men should train up the younger ones and the women and we must show yourself so self-restraint. And I'm just enjoying it. And all of a sudden we get a comment that the cart, the wheels fall completely off the cart. And I have a brother begins to say that well, you're missing something. And it's like, and then he says, they, and I says, well, who's they? And he says, well, they're alcoholics, they drink. And I'm like, oh, okay, they drink. So now, are you saying that one who drinks drinking alcohol is a sin? And well, first off, let me ask you this, who's they? Are they regenerated or are they saved? Well, they're unregenerated. But then later as his comments continued on, I found that that person was then a brother and was regenerated. But see, when you have a charismatic Pentecostal point of view on scripture that you go by your feelings, you can come in and out of your salvation. So then why not his comment then could be the person could be saved at the beginning of the conversation. And before we hit the period, and he's lost his salvation, our vice versa. I'm sorry. And then to let's separate some of these things, please define this for me. What sin is you're saying that alcohol is a sin? Yes. Yeah, and smoking and pornography. Oh, so okay, now we want to add the rest of the training there. We want to throw pornography now, which is clearly nowhere in the Bible does it? Jesus say, watch pornography and be glad. It is a complete sin. And by the way, I don't know how I ended up being this advocate for the truth. Well, I know I'm an advocate for the truth of God's word, but an advocate for it seems like for this alcohol issue. When a drunkard will not enter the kingdom of heaven, he's going to hell. Okay? So what's the difference? Well, the difference is that alcohol itself is not a sin, just like money itself is not a sin. Okay, do you read in the Bible, it says that the money is the root of all evil, but it's not the money that's evil. It's what man's desires to do with that money is the evil part of it. It's not that the alcohol, because now you're telling me, then I ask my brother. So now you're saying, Jesus is a sinner, and well, then he wants, now, now here's what we have to do now. You have to take the sufficiency of Scripture. You can no longer believe God's word. You have to just take that and set that aside, because you're feeling Trump's God's word and who God is. My feelings and my life are way what God's word says. And not only was that I say, well, not only was Jesus a sinner, because he had wine, but he was a, he like, he shared, he gave out wine, he made wine for everybody to drink it. And by the way, he would be unqualified at certain churches to serve as a deacon or in any part of the church, because this man has alcohol and he serves it to other people. He is a sinner. Okay? Who's bewitched you? How can you, how can I preach the book of about echolay? A chosen God's chosen instrument is chosen to instrument is chosen tool to preach to the gospels for our salvation. How can we even get into that if we can't even accept the fact of simple Scripture? And it's just not with one brother. It's with several of my brothers. So then what you have to do is you have to completely throw away what God's word says. Believe me, I've watched alcohol destroy families. My grandfather's leg was hanging off the nickel plate bridge. I've watched it go through marriages, but it wasn't the alcohol that did that. It was the man that was unable to restrain his self and his desire for more and more and more and he exchanged, he exchanged that for God. That became his God. I get it. I've seen that. But somebody that can have a drink, a glass of wine, responsibly control their self, is not a sin. And to tell somebody that that is a sin, then we have good saintly people in our church while they're sinners. They're a bad example for everybody. And forget about the people of church, Jesus himself. So he begins to tell me about how alcohol destroyed his family. And I understand that. Believe me, I see what happens. I see that. But I can't take God's word and throw it away. I can't do that for you. I can't exclude the truth of God's word because your son went over to a pastor's house and he's seen beer in the refrigerator and your son turned into an alcoholic. It wasn't because that guy had a beer in his refrigerator. Everybody wants their free will. Everybody has a choice. Everybody wants a free will. And then when you come on God we pray for God to take that free will from you. All of a sudden now it's a big problem. God gave me a free will and he gave me that free will to choose my sin. But what I wasn't able to do is I was not able to stop these behaviors, the sin nature in me until I cried out to the name of the Lord and I was filled with the Spirit. And that Spirit of God and the truth of God's word came upon me. And it causes me to walk in the direction of my life today, a sanctifying direction, and always seeking wisdom. Wisdom is not a bad thing. The beginning of wisdom is the foundation of fearing the Lord, having a reverence and an awe for the Lord. And we start there again with Scripture. I'm glad I got that out. That was my opening. I want you to think about that. What do you do? If something you get to something in God's word, we're all going to get to it, that we're not going to really like it. We're going to be like, "Wow, I don't know about that, John. I mean, do you just disregard it, reject it?" I sure hope not. I sure hope not. I sure hope that we can, and I struggle with different passages and different times. And you know what I do? Pray for God. Pray God. Please, give me wisdom. I accept this. Your book here in front of me, it's the authoritative word of God. It's accurate. It's true. It's without air. Please give me wisdom. Please give me understanding. And he does. And he made that promise to us, and he will, and he'll give it to you too. But what I can't do is I can't reject God's word and expect him to give me wisdom. It doesn't make sense. Why would he give someone wisdom who continues to reject his word? Matter of fact, we keep denying the truth of God's word. He turns us over to the desires of our heart. He gives us a reprobate mind. So, here we go. Chapter 9, now Saul, still breathing threats, murder against the disciples, breathing. Here's Paul actually, I like the word breathing in. With every beat, this whole being, breathing, threats against the church, the apostle Paul. Here we find the persecutor, apostle Paul, then at the bottom of his heart, every breath he desired to capture the way, to even sanction the death of Stephen. But God, our God, chose the persecutor had been chosen by the Lord as a tool, as an instrument, as an implement. God chose the apostle Paul who his every breath was to capture the way, the church, has a name now. Wasn't Baptist or, it was the way. That was the Christian church. This is the, this is the foundation, the beginning of the Christian church. The numbers are growing greatly, immensely, every day. In the truths of God's word are coming out, in the sufficiency of the Scripture on how to operate a church and what we need to do as a church to go forward and to put our faith and trust in God that that's what God's word says, that's what we should do. Amen, brother. So, here we see this, this Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from, from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he was traveling, it happened, that when he was approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise up and enter the city, and it will be told to you what you must do." I want to stop there. There's a reason for this. If you remember earlier on, when the apostles had to choose a new apostle because of Judas, who, by the way, is in hell, for people that believe that he's in heaven, scripts are back set up. But that's another problem that people have with God's Word. You have a problem with God, by the way, not me. But they chose Mattis, and there were certain qualifications. The qualifications were, they had to be with Jesus from the time of Jesus as baptism with John the Baptist, his miracles, all these things that they had to be with Jesus for the teaching to call theirself an apostle. Because another problem we see, we have a problem with definitions today. You have these people that still say that, "Well, they're an apostle." Well, you can call yourself a apostle. That's fine. But you're not a biblical apostle from what it took because you did not live in Jesus' time. You did not see him being baptized. You didn't have direct revelation and training and teaching from Jesus Christ, our Lord Himself. That's what made these guys apostles. And Paul was lacking that. See, we find that Paul was lacking because he wasn't in there for Jesus' teaching. So we find that Echolay chosen, preordained, that God chose Saul, the persecutor of the church, and then he had to get him up to speed to say. Jesus himself came out of heaven. He came from the throne at the right hand. He came down and had a special one-on-one chat with Paul after he got blinded and fell off his horse. Paul says, "Lord, Lord, who is it?" He told him he was Jesus. And then we find that we'll find that as we continue to read through the book of Acts, we'll find that Paul had went away for three years, one-on-one time with the Lord. Going over everywhere in the Old Testament that pointed to Jesus, understanding his purpose, his calling, his predetermined plan. By the way, I said this word three times on Echolay. It's E-K-O-L-G-E. This is only used seven times in the New Testament, and it's only referred one time, and we're going to run across it here. We're going to come across it, and it was Echolay. For this purpose, he is our apostle, a specific task to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. There was only one, and this was his task. He was set apart. God chose him to do this. And so we had at Damascus rise up, enter the city. We'll be told you what you must do. And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice button, seeing no one, and Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing, leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus, and he was three days without sight. And neither eight nor drink. Three days. I think that would have some significance that we could chase some rabbits, but I'm not going to do that tonight. I'm short on time. Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him, "In a vision now," the Lord said to him in a vision. And remember Jesus had direct revelation with our apostle, Apostle Paul. And he said, "Here I am, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Rise up and go to the street called straight and inquire at the house of Judas, for a man from Tyros, a name Saul, for behold he is praying." And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might reign his sight. But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much harm he did to your saints in Jerusalem." Here's a good example. Ananias should just ignore what the Lord said to him, because he had personal feelings, revelation. He knew better than God, didn't he? Why am I going to go to that man? But what a blessing, what a blessing that he did follow through with listening to the Lord. And it's a blessing when we fill out our calling to the Lord, verse 14. "And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine." Now that word chosen there is echolé, it's used seven times and it's only used one time in a specific instance for an individual, one individual as Paul as our apostle. We find it in other verses, we find in Acts 9, 15, we find it in Romans 9, 11, "Though they were not yet born," and now here's where we're going to run to another issue that we just need to throw away God's word because we just can't accept it. These are the difficult things and it doesn't take a lot here, the real high education, understand what it's saying. But in Romans 9, 11, it says, "Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good nor bad in order that God's purpose of election," now that word election, the same word, echolé, might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, okay? Not because it works, but for him who calls. I'm going to, we're going to round back around to that to make a point. I'm just going to continue through with these verses. Romans 11, 28, "As regards to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election," now that time the echolé has an H.O. in front of it, so they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, according to their, and this is basically according to their election, which is due to grace of grace of election. Romans 11, 5, "So too at the present time there is a remnant, a remnant chosen by grace," that's echolage, the same word, by remnant, a group of people. First Thessalonians, it says, "For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen H.O. echolé, you," here we see with the H.O. in front of the echolé, that he chose a church, the Thessalonica church, he chose them for a specific purpose, a whole church, so that's where it's used another time. 2 Peter 2, 10, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election," echolé, "for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall." Romans 11, 7, "What then? Israel failed to obtain it, was seeking delect echolé." The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened as it's written. God gave them a spirit of stupor. So here we find that a remnant of God's church, the elect, Calvinist belief, Calvin wrote it, but it's God's word that God chose this remnant to take out, and what did he do to the rest? This is God. God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see, and ears that would not hear down to this very day. Oftentimes, when we open up in prayer, we pray to God, we holler out to the name of the Lord, and we say, "God, give them a heart to know, ears to hear, and eyes to see." Without God, it is impossible for any of his preachers, teachers, to advance the kingdom. We rely totally on God, and I believe God's word, the truth of it, and I believe the sufficiency of it by speaking the truth. One will come to believe, and by believing he'll spend all eternity with God. There's no question in my mind. Now, I got to move over. I got to move back to this difficult. This was the difficulty. The easy thing in the Bible was for someone to understand about alcohol. That is like very simple. I can't understand how you could deny God's word there. So I don't believe that you could even possibly, you probably don't have the ability to comprehend what's going to be said next. But it's not me saying it. Let's just read it for face value. What does it say? Let's go to Romans 9, 9, 11, 9, chapter 9. Funny I'm in Acts, chapter 9, 2. Oh, here we go. Acts, Romans, chapter 9, we're going to start at verse 10. 9, chapter 1, 10. And not only this, but there was, and this speaks of the two that I, with the echolae, was also used there where God chose one of the twins over the other one. What I hear then is, here's the argument that I hear is, well, John, does that mean if God chose one person to go to heaven, then he chose somebody else to go to hell? Well, I don't want to be God. I'm not the one up there choosing him, but let's read what God's word says. And then it says, well, this is clearly what we would make by reading this. That's what we'd say. Yes. And I love that because I love God's word. And the more and more I grow in God's word, I'm not afraid of to say that no more. I'm confident in his word and I love God's word. And if this is what God says, then it's fine with me because remember he was pleased to crush his servant, Jesus. But this is what's presented to me as a guilt trip that I, because I should be this, just because remember, John, we have to love God with our heart, mind, and soul and love other peoples as God has loved us. So then how then is this, can this be a loving God and puts this guilt trip on this finite creature, me, who is this Christian, hungering and thirsting for God's word. And I'm like, I don't know, but it says it right here. This is what it says. Can't you read this? You have a higher education to me. What does it say to you? Well, we should just stay away from them. Then we're difficult topics, John. We should just stay away. We should just ignore the truth of God's word. It's perplexing. As Paul says, who be with you, you silly Galatians? It's perplexing. What does God say? Not John, not anyone else here. And let's read it. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also. When she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac, for though the twins were not yet born, they weren't even born, and had not done anything good or bad, they hadn't done nothing good or bad, so that the purpose of God according to what? His choice. Whose choice God's choice would stand not because of works, but because of him who calls. It was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger, just as it is written. Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated." I love that. I love that. You know why I love that? Because God said it, and I have to accept it. Who bewitched you, you silly Galatians? It's just that simple. So, and remember, the foundation of the only possible thing, closest thing that I think you can do is believing. And it's just not believing what you want or your perception or your persona or your feelings, but believing who God is and who Jesus is. It tells us that in John chapter 3, 8 times, 7 or 8 times, and 8 verses believe, believe, believe, believe, and who believe in Jesus Christ. We cannot throw out, you can if you want. I cannot. I cannot proclaim the truth of God's word. By the way, that brings me to before I continue on here. That brings me to when Peter and John were admonishing the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrids and went before them, and it was admonishing them, and they told them, they told them, "Fine." And this was the prayer that we said, "Fine, you guys don't talk about Jesus no more. You just go be on your way. That's it. You're done." And they walked out of there and they, here's what they said. So they went on their way from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the name. They considered a joy to suffer, to suffer for the Lord. They found it worthy. Wow. Oh, I'm sorry. And before this, they gave him a good beating. It says, they gave him a good beating. They got him straightened out, and they walked out of there, and they were rejoicing to the fact that they were worthy to suffer for the Lord. His choice was to stand not because of works, but because of him who calls. It was said that the older shall serve the younger. Just as it's written, "Jacob, I love but Esau, I hate it." So here, now everybody's saying, "No, you don't understand that. This is a difficult scripture." And here's what Paul, the writer, understands that that's what you're going to be saying. He understands that this is what your comments going to be. This is what even makes it even more clear to an uneducated person. Here's what Paul says. Now, he says, "What shall we say, then? Is there any unrighteousness with God? May it never be." So what shall we say then? Because God hates one and loves another, because God chooses it and loves another one. Should we say he's unrighteous then? This is the exact argument that people that want to deny God's word, they say, and Paul answers it. It's not me answering it. It's God answering this question. And I understand it comes up in us. What shall we say then? Is there any unrighteousness with God? May it never be. For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on who? On God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up in order to demonstrate my power in you and in order that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth." Now, if we don't share that God raised up the Pharaoh to crush him, then how would this then go throughout the whole earth if we don't share that? Well, that's a difficult subject. That can't be John. That can't be love in others as yourself now, can it? Put a guilt trip on me like I've done something wrong. Who be which Jew? So then his mercy on whom he desires and listen to this. So now he has mercy on whom he desires. Now listen to his next part, and he hardens whom he desires. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who resists his will on the contrary? Who are you? This is for you doubters and people that have been bewitched. Who are you? Oh man, who answers back to God? Well, the thing molded, say to the molar, why did you make this? So understand Paul, Echolle, the only time that's used in New Testament. God not only predetermined, predestined for Paul, before the foundation of the world, he not only did that, but he chose him, but he molded him. He molded him as a molar molds of pot. He made him just how he wanted to make him. And he made him an instrument, a tool, an implement for his desire to go out and proclaim the gospel of Christ and to carry it but all the world. I think if you're struggling with this, I understand. Pray about it. Read God's word, pray about it. Now, the Apostle Paul. Let's just read some a little bit about Apostle Paul now. And I thought the sufferings of Paul, was it because it goes on here, I'm not going to be able to finish the whole way, but it goes on to say that Jesus says he's his chosen instrument, but he must suffer much. And I really tossed and turned over the suffering that Paul and Paul endured. And we know he had much suffering. And I know it's not because of what he did, because he killed Stephen. I know that would be wrong. But I think during that three-year period that he had some one-on-one time with Jesus and being brought up that some of this stuff was going to be revealed to him. And I believe it that he considered suffering worthy that he took joy and suffering for the Lord who saved him. And so people begin to challenge Apostle Paul and his belief. And even to this day, people want to attack the Apostle Paul. Maybe he was an uncle Tom for the Romans and he did this and he did that. And by the way, he causes all this controversy with Rome. But then here's Paul speaking to other people. He talks about, he has to share his apostle authority that this is who he is. Not out of pride, but it's boastful when one talks about theirself. And he talks about that as being foolish. And second Corinthians, no, not second Corinthians. Yeah. Well, yeah, second Corinthians. I repeat, no one, no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, now remember, the Apostle Paul was born with a Roman citizen status. He was at the highest levels of Judaism. He come from money. He had the best teachers. He had the Joel Osteen best life now, you would say, okay, your apostle or apostle to the Gentiles chosen by God, he cashed that all in for a career in ministry. Now, let's see what this career in ministry gave the Apostle Paul. Okay. It's not what our carnal churches preach today. What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would put as a fool since many boast according to the flesh. I too will boast for you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. For you bear it, if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on heirs or strikes you in the face to my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool. I'm speaking as a fool now speaking of myself. Here's my credentials. And he begins to share with his ministry. I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am better. One I'm making. I am talking like a madman with four greater labors, far more imprisonment with more countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received that the hand of the Jews, the 40 lashes, less one, 39 for one wouldn't die. They believed 40 lashes. Five times he suffered that. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was in danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food and cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me, on my anxiety for all the churches. All that Paul went through, he's concerned about his churches, his ministry, who is who is weak and I am not weak, who is made to fall and I am not indigent. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, escaped, escaped the hands. Our Apostle Paul gave up the good life to be our chosen Echolle instrument, implement for God's desire. God chose him. He accomplished God's task and there was something resounding that I keep seeing in all these verses when it talked about chosen. It talks about God's predetermined plan on things that people want to deny and that's the more difficult. I understand that's the more difficult things, but if you can't accept the simple things in the Bible, how will you ever grow? How will you ever get from the milk to the meat? But I beg you to pray to the Lord for that and ask him for that. Let us pray. Lord, I pray for your church. I pray for your servants, Father. I pray for the brothers that proclaim to be brothers. Father, I pray for them. I pray God that you may open their eyes, their heart. Father, and I pray for myself. Father, if I have something wrong here today, I pray for your wisdom, Father. The more I get to know you, the more I love you, the more I love your Word, the more I love that all you've done. I accept all of your Word. I accept you totally, not that I could have any right to not. How could the clay pot say to the potter, Lord, if anyone struggles with that, call on the name of the Lord, pray for wisdom. Let's be of one mind and one body of Christ. Are we going to advance, help, take part in this wonderful, the talents that we've been given, this wonderful, and beautiful, redemptive plan that our Lord, who God was pleased to crush, has given us the talents to share the truth to the world. Father, to share this Word, the absolute truth for all truth is based upon. To share the sufficiency that it's complete and everything that it must do, it goes out, it's complete, it will accomplish for every good work. In understanding, most of all, understanding where Jesus sits in His authority, in heaven and earth, reigning. He said, right now, this is where our Jesus sits, reigning with all authority. We pray for an intercessory, on our behalf, Father, we pray for your church, the intercessory, on your church, that you can utter words for them that don't understand. We pray that you can give them a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear. I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.