God is good. You know, we prayed for rain, and He sure has blessed us in abundance, hasn't He? My grass is about knee-high, and every time I decide to cut it, it rains again. So, I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. Thank God for the rain. Keep it coming. And God is good to us, isn't He? I want to talk to you tonight a little while on the subject of a vision from the Lord. Vision. We need vision. And we are all familiar with the verse in Proverbs. Let's go there to start with in Proverbs chapter 29. Proverbs 29 and verse 18. Where there is no vision, the people perish. But he that keepeth the law happy is he. Whenever you find the word vision, whenever the vision, when you see the word vision in the Bible, it refers to the Word of the Lord, how the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord being given or in reference to the Word of the Lord. It's tied here in this verse with the Word of the Lord, the Law. Happy is he that keepeth the Law. Where there's no vision, the people perish. So that tells us right off the bat we need a vision, amen? Whatever we can determine the vision to be, we need vision, a vision, or we need vision. And I want to show you just some introductory material, then I'm going to give you three portions of Scripture, three points, if you will, and we'll be done tonight. But I want us to look at some things in the way of introduction regarding a vision and its direct connection with the Word of God. In verse chapter 32 of 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 32. 2 Chronicles 32, 32. I'll give you a moment to get there. 2 Chronicles 32, 32. I just want to bring a thought out of this, nothing to do with the context necessarily. Verse 32 says, Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, son of Amos, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. When he speaks of the vision of Isaiah, what's he talking about? Book of Isaiah, right? So if he's talking about the Book of Isaiah, he'd be talking about the Word of the Lord, or the Word of God given to Isaiah. So if he says the vision of Isaiah, he's talking about the Word of God, alright? Numbers chapter 12, if you will, Numbers chapter 12. Numbers 12 and verse 6. In Numbers 12, 6 it says, And he said, Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses." So, then he tells us here about a vision. If he's going to give his word to a prophet, it's going to be in a vision. If his word's going to come, it's going to come in a vision or something of that nature, except with this matter of Moses where he spoke to him directly. Now, chapter 3 of 1 Samuel. Chapter 3 of 1 Samuel. Chapter 3 of 1 Samuel, verse 1 says, And the child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, And the Word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. The Word of the Lord being precious meaning, I guess we could say scarce. It wasn't readily available. It wasn't in abundance, if you will. It was scarce. It was precious. One of the things that makes a thing valuable is its preciousness or its scarcity, its rarity. And so in those days, the days of Eli, the Word of the Lord was not readily evident, not available on every hand. And he says, why? Because there was no open vision. In that time, before the Word of God was fully complete, the Word of God was given in a vision or by vision to prophets. It was given, pronounced to Israel in different settings, different circumstances. And now, however, we have the full revelation of God. We have the complete revelation of God. And a vision, in that respect, a vision, the Word of God that was revealed to them is the revelation of God. It was God revealing Himself to His people through the prophets. When Jesus walked along the Emmaus road to the disciples in Luke chapter 24, He said to them, He expounded the Scriptures from Moses and the Psalms and the prophets. He expounded the Scriptures to those disciples, things concerning Himself. And so the vision that was given to the prophets, different periods of time, was given piecemeal, if you will. It was the revelation of God. through the prophet. Now we have that revelation in its entirety, complete, full. We have the complete revelation of God and the vision we need must come not in some kind of a trance, that those prophets fell into a trance on occasion. They had a vision or a dream or something of that nature whereby God spoke to them in such a way that they were able to receive the pure Word of God, not a commentary on the Word of God, but the pure Word of God. Now, we have the pure Word of God, so the vision we need must come from the pure Word of God, the complete Word of God, the revelation of Himself. Still need a vision today, I believe. I believe a vision is, as it says in Proverbs, where there's no vision, the people perish. Or, may I say, where there's no exposure or understanding, clear direction given from the Word of God. the people perish. And so I believe that at this juncture in the history of Faith Baptist Church, one of the primary things that we need is a vision from God. We need God's vision. And let's go to chapter 15 of the book of Genesis. Chapter 15 of the book of Genesis, and I want to give you the vision that Abraham got from the Lord. His vision was a vision of salvation. In all of these three instances we're going to look at this evening for just a few moments, it will be in reference to salvation, the salvation of the individual or the salvation of others. We need a vision of the Lord. Verse 1 of chapter 15 of Genesis. After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Now Abraham here got the vision of God. What he learned from the Lord, the vision that he got of the Lord was that God was his protection. God was not only his protection but his exceeding great reward. Now, I want to bring in a verse here out of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 says that he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Now that's the last part of that verse. Without faith it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is." You can't come to somebody you don't believe that he is. You must believe that he is, but it doesn't stop there. And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Here he tells Abraham the vision that Abraham got of God was that he was his shield and his exceeding great reward. So the reward being God Himself. Salvation, see, God is our salvation and strength. He is our shield. He is our buckler. He is our all in all. Somebody said it this way, when you understand that Jesus is all you need, He'll be all you want. See, He is salvation. Salvation is not some little plan of man. Salvation is summed up in the one word, two words, if you will, Jesus Christ. And so, I want to follow this on down just a little bit. In chapter 15, verse 1, or read verse 1 again down to 6. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness. Now therein is where Abraham got saved. I believe that's this chapter, verse 6, is where Abram believed. First incidents of when he believed in the Lord. He believed on the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now I'm going to give you a little bit of Mar's opinion tonight. When I'm giving you Mar's opinion, I generally will let you know that it's Mar's opinion. You can take it or leave it. You can say amen or you can just throw it to the side. It doesn't matter. I believe verse 5 there. Now verse 6 says, he believed. And when he believed, God counted it to him for righteousness. Now verse 5 says, what did he see? When he brought him out and told him to look up at the stars, what did he see? I mean, was it the number of the stars, the vastness of the space? What was it that caused Abraham to believe? Now whether you believe it, you may believe he got saved back in chapter 12 or whenever, I believe he got saved right here. And I believe this is when it was, the actual imputation took place was right here when he believed. In verse 5 though, he says, "...look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them." Same word is used, translated in other places, to count, in the sense of accounting or putting together, if you will. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he said to him here, Galatians explains it, he didn't say plural seeds as of a succession of generation. He said to him, Thy seed, and thy seed being Christ. I think we could probably all agree, we're not going to take the time to go to Galatians, but that he's speaking to him about Christ. When he went out and looked at the heavens, he saw something that revealed to him Christ. This is where Maher's opinion comes in, okay? This is Maher's opinion, what I'm about to tell you. I believe the 12 signs of the Zodiac today, that we call the Zodiac, was a revelation of the plan and program of the coming of Christ and what He would do in His coming. I believe Abraham looked there and was able to determine that Christ would come, that this would be the fulfillment, that this was what the promised Messiah. And when God said to him, so shall thy seed be, he was pointing to Christ and whether what I just told you is true or not, he understood that it was Christ he was talking about and not Isaac. So he believed on Christ. He had a vision. The vision that he had was one of Christ. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, go with me to Acts chapter 10, if you will. Abraham had to understand, get the understanding through the vision that he got was an understanding of God, of Jesus Christ as his reward. Now in Acts chapter 10 we see actually two visions, but it's two visions in one, if you will. It's two related visions tied together with two different people bringing them together, if you will. In Acts chapter 10 and verse 1 it says, There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. He said in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him and saying to him, Cornelius, and when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodged with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside, and he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do." Now, this is Cornelius' vision, and of course he sent for Peter. He responded to the vision and he sent for Peter. But the vision that we want to look at, I want you to see here, is not Cornelius' vision, only in relation to that of Peter, but he sent him to find Peter. And in verse 9 it says, on tomorrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh into the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, of wild beasts, of creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. The voice spake, unto him again the second time, what God hath cleansed called out thou common. This was done thrice, and the vessel was seized up again into heaven. And while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquire for Simon's house and stood before the gate." And it goes on, of course you know the story. how that they were there, and Peter went with them and told them that God had showed him that he should not be calling anybody common or unclean. And that was, if we wanted to read on down the rest of the story, we'd find out there that it was illegal for Peter to go to Cornelius' house. Under Jewish law, under Jewish tradition, it was illegal for him to go to Cornelius' house because he was a Gentile. And there was that degree of separation. What Peter's vision had to accomplish here in his life was he had to overcome Peter's prejudice. Peter had to come to the place to where he responded to God's vision to him, to the Word of... And again, let me refer back, we're talking about the Word of God coming to him. See, God's will being revealed to him. He had to come to the place in his life to where he had to overcome his own prejudices. You know, we all have opinions. Some of us hold our opinions quite strong, amen? All of us have opinions, and this is kind of crude. I probably ought not to say it, but I'll say it anyway. Opinions are usually like armpits. Everybody's got a couple of them, and they usually stink, but I told you it was crude, and I probably shouldn't have said it, but there it is. I've said it. Opinions, see, we've all got them, and when we get too dogmatic on our opinions, Peter was a dogmatic individual. And you know, God could have revealed it to him through another individual, through a person. He could have said to him, you know, he could have sent one of the other apostles or one of the brethren. He could have sent to him and talked to him about this matter, this need to respond to Gentiles, that the message was now open to all, whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely. He could have sent somebody to tell him that, but probably he wouldn't respond. See, some of us hold dogmatically to what we believe to such a degree that we're not going to respond to another person because we've set ourselves up as an authority. Peter was in such a state. Now, Peter wasn't a devil. Peter was God's man. He was anointed with the Lord. He was chosen of God. He was one of the twelve disciples chosen of the Lord to reveal Christ to the world. And yet, God had to send a vision to Peter to overcome his prejudice so that when the time was right, he would respond to those Gentiles when they came to his door. Now, what is it that you're holding so tenaciously to that God's got to reveal to you the need to change? See, salvation of precious souls depended on Peter's changing. You know, I don't know how it would have fallen out if Peter hadn't responded here. I mean, we could speculate and we could go in all different directions with our speculation. But the fact of the matter is, this was the first incident of the door being opened. By the way, Peter was given the gates to the kingdom of heaven to open those doors, the keys to the gates. Well, here was one of the doors being opened, right here. Peter opened the door to the Gentiles. The four different groups of people that you find in the book of Acts where they have a visible manifestation of them coming into the kingdom is in Acts chapter 2, all Jews on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 8, Samaritans, half-breed Jews. Here in Acts chapter 10, Gentiles, and then in Acts chapter 19, the disciples of John, John the Baptist, see? They were under the Old Testament economy. Those four groups of people are what you find, the door of being opened up and you see a manifestation of the evidence of tongues or laying on of hands or different circumstances whereby, and in this case, when they believed, the Spirit of God descended on them just like He did on those disciples on the day of Pentecost. But now after that, after the book of Acts is complete, you don't see that anymore. And it was because why? All four groups of people that needed to come in were in. And then it just extended from there. But Peter had to get a vision from God. I pray that God would give us all a vision to overcome our prejudices, whatever they might be, to overcome our dogmatism, whatever it might be, to the point that we would respond to God when He sends people our way that we don't want to minister to or whatever it might be. The salvation of souls depended on it when Cornelius was there waiting on Peter to come after he had sent those to him. Let's go to the last incident, Acts chapter 16. We're talking about vision tonight, where there's no vision, the people perish. You see, Abraham had to come to an understanding of God's plan for man. Abraham had to come to a place. Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees in chapter 12. Actually, he was called out, but if you read the incident, he was brought out by his daddy. Abraham had to come to the place of understanding. Maybe you have to come to the place of understanding. That's why God's got you here, to come to the place of understanding of what Jesus did for you. See, all of us, most everybody in this area, let's say in this area, here in Santa Rosa County, it's the most religious county in the country, More churches per capita than any place in the country. And so, my soul, we ought to know about Jesus. Amen? So everybody knows about Jesus. I've known about Jesus since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Somebody said, you're still knee-high to a grasshopper. Well, that's beside the point. The devil knows about Jesus and he knows more than most of us. See, when that demon-possessed man came up before the Lord and he said, We know who thou art, thou Son of God, Jesus, Son of God. He certainly knows more than a lot of seminary professors who don't believe in the deity of Christ. You know, he knows more than a lot of folks. But it's not just knowing about Jesus. It's coming to an understanding of who He is. The very Son of God manifest in flesh. The very God manifest in flesh. And it's coming to an understanding of what He did for you and I when He died on the cross of Calvary. It's coming to an understanding that the work is a done work, not a do work. That He's already done it. We must simply believe it. Abraham believed in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness. And then in the case with Peter, again he had to overcome some prejudices. He had to overcome some dogmatism in his own life. He had to come to the place of understanding that, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever, see the world and the whosoevers, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He had to get a vision from the Lord to overcome his prejudice. And then Paul, in Acts chapter 16, needed a vision from God to get God's direction for that missionary party. See, they were in a quandary. They were on the mission field, by the way. I've heard this used many times as a call to missions. It's not a call to missions. These folks were already involved in God's mission for them. They were already on the mission field. They were seeking to go into different areas to preach the gospel. Now let's look at what happened in chapter 16 and verse 1. Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek and which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium, him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him, because the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the creeds for to keep, that were ordained to the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily." The churches increased in number daily. Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia, after they had come to Mysia, they said to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. They, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." So loosing from Troyes, they went straight way and the result was people being saved when they got over into Macedonia and the Philippi. The thing we need to see here tonight is that we don't always have God's direction. We may be in the program, we may be in the way, we may be in God's service, but we don't always know the specifics of the where's and the how's and the whines. See, we don't always know exactly what God wants us to do, and therein is the need for the vision. They came to a place, and the group, now we're talking about the whole group here, there was a missionary party. It wasn't just a one-man show, it was a missionary party. Paul was the leader of that missionary party, but it was the missionary party. And they came to a place, and they said, well, we're going to go over here and preach the gospel. I mean, that was what they were there for. We're going to go over here and preach the gospel, but the Holy Ghost wouldn't let them go. He stopped them. Now, how He stopped them, I don't know. Maybe it was circumstances. Maybe they had a flat tire. Well, I don't know if they had flat tires back then, but whatever the case was, He stopped them. They say, okay, we can't go here, so it wasn't a matter of giving up, you know. A lot of times people get in trouble and they'll start having a few little problems when they get out trying to serve God and they'll throw up their hands and say, oh me, oh my, I didn't think it was going to be like this. He didn't do that. He said, got over here and found a roadblock, so he said, okay, let's try over here and we'll go here. Got over there and the Holy Ghost said, no, I don't want you over there either. Now how he did that, I don't think, it doesn't say that he spoke to them verbally, but he forbid them to go. And I want you to know that when God opens a door, it's a wide open door. And when God closes a door, it's a closed door. God can shut her down, brother, I want you to know that. He can shut her down where you can't open it. And a door that God closes, no man can open. And a door that God opens, no man can close. And so, he said, no, I don't want you over here. So, as we oftentimes do, most of all of us do, say, well, it's time to pray now. No, we get over here and hit a roadblock. We get over here and hit a roadblock And then we say we get over here and we say what it's time to pray and so we begin to seek the face of God and and that's what they did they stopped waiting on the Lord and God gave Paul a vision of a man of Macedonia saying come over and help us Now I want you to see something here in verse verse number 10 It says, and after he had seen, after he, watch this now, after he, Paul, had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called not him but us, for to preach the gospel unto them. Now that word assuredly gathering means to drive together. It means to unite, to force into a unison. And that's what took place there. Paul got the Word of the Lord, he got God's mind, he got the will of God, the vision of God, and the Holy Ghost of God put those people together, that they all determined, they drove them together, that they went forth as a... they were a group, but they went forth in unison as one man. See? And I would say that that's what Faith Baptist Church needs at this juncture in the history and the life. of Faith Baptist Church. We need the mind of God. We need vision from God. Now, it wouldn't be fair of me to stand up here and I'm not trying to convince you of anything. Just because I say that I feel like it's God's will for me to be pastor of this church, that don't make it so. I've said that before and I'll say it again. I can't say that I have not politicked at all. It would be impossible not to do that in a discussion of this nature. You know? But I say to you, what we need is a vision from God. I believe that God will give us that vision. You see, some people will never get the vision because they don't care about the will of God. All they care about is their own agenda. If that's your case, then if that's my case, then we're not going to get God's mind. And where there's no vision, what? The people perish. And that's what can very easily transpire. I'm not telling you, I'm not trying to make a case that I'm God's choice for this church. I am saying this, I would support whoever God sends here. I'll support God's choice for this church. If it's not me, that's fine. I didn't come looking for a job, I got one. I've had one for 30 something years. I'm pleased with what I've done. Pleased with what God wants to do. And the vote's gonna take place next week. I'm open to ask, I'll answer any question you have on Sunday morning. No questions withheld. Most of y'all know me. And you've known me long enough to know my strengths and my weaknesses. What you see is what you get. Nothing hidden. And so, I say to you tonight, The apostles needed vision. Peter needed vision to accomplish God's will and overcome his prejudice. Paul needed vision for direction in the way. In the Old Testament, in Genesis, forget the chapter, Abraham sent his servant to get a bride for Isaac. That's a picture of the church. It's a picture of the Father sending the Holy Ghost to get a bride for his son. The servant went out, and as he went, he got to the place to where the bride was found. And he said, he made a statement that was very interesting, very important. He said, I, being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. See, a ship, and I've said this many times, a ship must have what's called way on it. or be underway, we call it underway, must have way on it or movement in order to be steered, in order to be directed. And a person, an individual, a group of individuals, a church, a missionary party, as long as they're moving forward in God's process and with God's process, they can be led and directed. See, not sitting waiting, moving forward with the proper process. Moving forward, individual moving forward in obedience to God's command. See, that's what I said in Acts 16, that the missionary party, that wasn't a call to missions. Wasn't a call to be a missionary. It was a direction to missionaries involved in the work. Now, the will of God is not hard to discern, to determine, for your personal life, for anybody. It's simple. It's a simple matter of deduction. I being in the way, the Lord led me. You as an individual, me as an individual, as I'm moving forward with God's command. What's His command? Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It's God's command to every one of us. As we are fulfilling that command, seeking Him for guidance and wisdom, He'll direct us into His way. A vision. Everybody needs a vision tonight. We need a vision as individuals. We need a vision as a church. We need a vision. In the stores, you need to operate with God's vision. You get it from the Word of God. In other words, obedience and responsiveness to what God says. Amen? Vision from the Lord. I trust that you get a vision from the Lord. I trust that you have a vision from God. And I trust that We'll obey God's vision as He gives it to us. Amen? Let's all stand. We stand with our heads bowed, eyes closed.