Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, help us. Thank you for what has already been said. And Lord, sometimes I wonder, is it possible for us to process all of the wonderful information that we have received from your word this week? Lord, I pray that there's something in each one of these messages that we can take home. And Lord, in this next little while, I pray that you are glorified as your word is exalted. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's get two passages. Get Acts chapter three. Acts chapter 3 and Hosea chapter 4. Acts chapter 3 and Hosea chapter 4. So, of course, this is the account of the healing of the lame man. And let's just start reading in verse 1, Acts chapter 3 and verse 1. Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer. I wanted to say thank you, musicians, too. Hasn't the music been wonderful? Where did Liz go? She's back there. Liz and I were in school together, what, six years ago? Something like that. We're both still blonde. Yes. It's an amazing thing. Miracle of God. And I so appreciate the Rogers and their music, the musicians here in the church. I love that small songbook that you all have put together. And I'm going to hit Brother Caleb over the head and put him in the trunk of my car and take him to Grace Baptist in Sydney. because your music here is such a blessing. So anyway, let's go back to the Word of God. Chapter three and verse one. Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer. Now, that's an interesting combination right there already. We don't see Peter and John together a lot. The other thing that shouldn't surprise anyone is Peter never gets, or John never gets a chance to talk. We'll see that in this account. Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple." Now, don't miss this. This man is 40 years old, according to chapter 4, and he's been lame from his mother's womb. Can you imagine when that child was born and the parents, they're excited to have this new baby, and the baby comes out and they can tell there's something wrong with his feet. And in that day, if you can't work, the only thing you can do is beg. And so he's completely helpless. He had to be carried to this spot. And he had good taste because he picked the most beautiful spot to be taken. But not only did he have good taste, he had wisdom because he was there at the time of prayer. And he's hoping that maybe somebody who went in there to pray had heard from God and would come out there with a desire to help somebody. And so at the hour of prayer, he's being laid there outside of the gate in verse two, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked him alms. Now, why did he ask Peter and John for an alms? Because he had surely seen what had happened at Pentecost. He knows that there's thousands of people there as they were going into the temple daily, they were preaching the word of God. Thousands of people are watching what Peter is doing in the temple, and he just asks him for money. And look at Peter's answer. Verse 4, and Peter fastening his eyes upon him, don't miss this, Peter saw him. You know, when we go out into the community and I see people that are dressed in a way that I wouldn't like, or maybe they've affected things on their appearance that I wouldn't like, and I go out into the culture, what is my attitude? Do I see them for what they are? Do I see them as a soul that Jesus died for? Am I so wrapped up in my right-wing politics and my conservative clothing? Am I so wrapped up in my Christian subculture that I can't fasten my eyes on them and look on them as someone who needs something? And what do they need? Look at what Peter said. And Peter, verse four, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. So not only did he see him, he wanted the lame man to see him. Why? Because this is the way that God intends for us to work. You know, we're not supposed to love the world, but we're supposed to love sinners. And the Bible says that God spoke to Moses as a friend face-to-face. How are we supposed to deal with the world face-to-face? Look them in the eye and have them notice you. He said, look at us, and then look at what happens. Verse five, and he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, and we know this, right? Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. Do you have something? Peter had something. It wasn't silver and gold. But not only did he have it, he gave it. What did he have? Silver and gold have I none, But such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Can you imagine what that was like? What in the world is happening right now? This guy can't walk. Why? Verse 10, and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Now look at verse 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people. Yemen of Israel. So who is the audience? Would you answer out loud for me? Who's the audience? Yemen of Israel. This isn't a message to the church. I'm not going to find soul winning in this passage. This is a message to the nation of Israel. Amen. This is a message to the nation of Israel. Look at what he says. When Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? You know, the Bible says no marvel. Young people, it's only DC. No marvel. Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we hath made this man to walk? Now, let me just ask you a question. Be honest with me. How many of you would love to be able to do that? How many of you right now wish somebody could do it for you? Okay, let's take a vote. And you have to answer. Before God, you have to answer. All right? Say amen. How many of you, your back hurts right now? Hold your hand up. Seriously, hold it up. A little higher. If your back will let you. I mean, look around. Look around. How many of you wish that I could heal your back? Right? Just come on up here. I'll just walk on your back for a little while. I don't know what that's going to do. I've heard that helps. I don't know. And we can really make mistakes. We'll hear a preacher preach a text like this, and we see the miracle, and it's exciting, and we get excited about what God has done, and then we start applying it today when, I'm sorry, I can't do that for you. And what happens is we can create a faith expecting God to do something that he never promised to do. We can read the Bible and people think the Bible is full of miracles. Well, the Bible is full of miracles, but it's not full of men doing miracles. There are only three specific times in the Bible where men performed miracles. It's Moses performed miracles. And then the next generation, Joshua. There's no more miracles performed by men until we get to Elijah, with the introduction of the prophets and the school of the prophets. And Elijah does miracles, and then the next generation, Elisha. And then there's no more miracles until Jesus Christ comes. And Jesus Christ performs miracles, and the next generation, his apostles perform miracles. But by the end of the apostle Paul's life, he's no longer able to perform miracles. And the next time we have miracles, it's when the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, are doing those same miracles in the tribulation period. And then they're raptured out and there's no longer any need for miracles because it's all ended. And so sometimes we get frustrated, we're praying for God to do things, and we ought to expect miraculous things from God. Amen? We still worship a miracle-working God, but our faith is not based on those miracles. Why do we no longer have that power? Very simple, because in the New Testament, God is much more concerned with our eternal souls than our temporary physical bodies. What is life? It's but a vapor that appears for a little time and vanisheth away. This life is short. And we got so wrapped up in our own physical needs that our own physical ailments can become idols to us. We think about our physical issues more than we think about God. And that is why we must understand that the Old Testament faith is a physical faith, dealing with a nation, dealing with animal sacrifices, dealing with the physical land. The New Testament is a spiritual faith. We have here no continuing city. Amen? And we have to, my goal tonight, let's elevate our thinking. We become so earthbound. But even in this account of a miraculous healing, I want us to see the way that Peter directed their thinking. So look at Peter's message in verse 12. So verse 13. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus. He's glorified him. He's glorified him. How did he glorify him? Remember in John chapter seven, he says that springs of living water will flow out of your bellies. And he said, he spake of the Holy Spirit, which had not yet come because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Really? He hadn't been glorified. Look with me. Keep your place here in the book of Acts. Go to Luke chapter 24. Luke 24. And look at verse 25. So this is the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. Now, you might want to mark that, all that the prophets have spoken. We're going to see that phrase again here pretty soon. And what was it that they had all spoken? What did Jesus Christ pray in John 17? And now, O father, glorify thy son with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Remember what Jesus Christ gave up when he came to earth. He didn't give up his deity. He didn't give that up. But what the Bible says is he was found in fashion as a man. If you saw him, you'd have said, oh, that's just Jesus. When he was the eternal son of God. I've heard people preach the amount of transfiguration when Jesus Christ was transfigured. He was seen in his full glory. No. Do you know what happens when Christ's full glory is revealed? And I saw a throne and he that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. The Bible says that the elements shall melt with the fervent heat. How does that happen? Jesus Christ, finally, in all of the history of the earth, reveals his glory. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. What is the wherefore? Because he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And so, Jesus Christ has been glorified. He has gone to glory. He's sitting in his father's throne. One day he'll come back and sit on his own throne on the earth. And that is the theme of the whole Bible. Amen. Ought Christ not to have been glorified? Look what the Bible says back in Acts chapter three, verse 13. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified his son, Jesus. And then look at the message he preaches. He says to the nation of Israel, you denied him in verse 13. You delivered him up in verse 13. You denied the holy one in verse 14. You desired a murderer instead of him in verse 14. You killed the prince of life in verse 15. That's the indictment against Israel. You killed the prince of life. But good luck. He's the prince of life. and he rose from the dead. Now notice the message that he's preaching to them. Go with me to verse 17. And now brethren, and I want you to notice this verse, verse 17. Verse 17 of Acts chapter three may be the greatest exhibition of mercy in the whole Bible. Don't miss this. And now, brethren, I want that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. Remember what Jesus said on the cross, Father, forgive them. Finish it for me, for. Should they have known? Should they have known? Why did Jesus say that? Because there's no forgiveness for first-degree murder. There is forgiveness and hope for manslaughter. Killing someone through ignorance. Do you see what God did for Israel? But, even though they did it through ignorance, Peter is going to show them what they were ignorant of. The first thing that he says to them is that they are ignorant of the prophets. They are ignorant of the prophets. And he gives them the big picture. So look at what it says in verse 18. But those things which God before had showed, now notice what he says, by the mouth of all his prophets. Verse 21. whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. Look at what it says in verse 24. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, and as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. All the prophets said this, all the prophets said this, all the prophets said this. And what did they say? All the prophets preached about the suffering of Christ. They all told you he's going to die. All of them told you he was gonna die. So when modern, maybe a Ben Shapiro, he calls the New Testament the fiction section of the Bible. Why? Because there's nowhere that the Messiah was gonna die. That's what Ben Shapiro says. All the holy prophets preached it, about the suffering of Christ. They were ignorant of the suffering of Christ. They were ignorant of Christ's return. Again, look at what it says in verse 19, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. So Jesus Christ is coming back and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you. So they're ignorant of Christ's first coming and they're ignorant of Christ's second coming. And all the prophets have prophesied about both of those things. They're ignorant of it. You killed him because of ignorance. He ascended to his father. He's in God's presence. Notice what it says again in verse 19, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. So Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. They know that, but not only to heaven, he wasn't just in heaven, he was in the actual presence of the father. And that is who is going to send him back. This is the message that Peter is preaching to Israel. So he's giving them the big picture. He was sent by God and he will be sent again. Yes, the same Jesus that was preached unto you. Now don't miss this. Remember what the Bible says, that the apostles went out into every village and everywhere they went, they said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They healed the sick, they raised the dead, they cleansed the lepers. People had heard the message of Jesus Christ. It was preached to them. All Jerusalem, all of Israel went out to hear John the Baptist. And what did John the Baptist say? Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They had heard the message over and over again. This same Jesus that was preached to you is the one that's coming back. That's the message that Peter is preaching to them. By the way, He just throws this in. Notice what it says in verse 21. Whom the heaven must receive, that's the, don't, I keep saying don't miss it, but don't miss it. The apostles constantly preached three things. They constantly preached the name of Jesus Christ. They constantly preached the ascension of Jesus Christ. And they constantly preached repentance. Amen? So now look at what he says. Verse 21, whom the heaven must receive, that's the ascension, until the times of the restitution of all things, that's the beginning of the kingdom, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. Now notice these last four words, since the world began. You didn't only miss it, this has been preached since the beginning of the world. Even Enoch preached it. This has been preached since the beginning of the world and you missed it. You are ignorant of this. That's his message to Israel. So they're ignorant of the holy prophets. But then he goes on, he's gonna drive the nail in. You're not only ignorant of the prophets, you're ignorant of specific prophets. Look at what he says in verse 22. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren. So Moses prophesied that not only is the prophet gonna rise, he's gonna come from you. But what did they say? Can any Nathaniel, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Remember his family thought he was crazy. They came to lay hold on him for he is beside himself. What did Jesus say? Who are my mother and my brethren, but they that keep my words. Do you remember that? Why? It's just Jesus. It's just the carpenter. We know him, his mother, his brethren, they're here with us. We know him. What did they miss from the Bible? Of your brethren, he's going to raise one up. Then, notice what Moses said to them. Verse 22 again, for Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you. of your brethren like unto me, ye shall hear, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. We were talking today at the preacher's house about the significance of words and how Jesus is the word and how we'll be held accountable to his words. Look at what it says in verse 23, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." Now, I had you get to Hosea. Open that up. Keep your place in Acts. Go to Hosea chapter 4 and verse 6. And look at what it says. I know you know this verse, but let's look at it in this context. Hosea chapter 4 and verse 6. My people are what? Destroyed for lack of what? Ignorance. Because thou hast... Oh, wait a minute. It's not that they hadn't heard it. They rejected it. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee. that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God. I will also forget thy children." Back to chapter three of Acts. Notice what it says, verse 23, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Specific prophets, the prophet Moses. He's going to rise from among you. Listen, or you will be destroyed. And what happened? They were destroyed. Verse 24, not only Moses, yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after. Specific prophets, as many as have spoken. How many prophets spoke? All of them. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God. But you didn't hear. All of them said this. This is the continual message You didn't listen. But what did they prophesy? Verse 24, Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. What days? The days when the Messiah would come and heal the sick, raise the dead, give liberty to the captives, heal the blind, let the blind hear. The blind see, the deaf hear. And the preacher just pointed out when John the Baptist questioned, no, wait a minute, what's he done? What's he done? He fulfilled Isaiah 61. Now, can we just stop for a second and think about something? This is the same Peter that seemed to be foolish. This is the same Peter that seemed to always get it wrong. But honestly, all he was doing was trying to process what he had heard. He's on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus had just said a few days before that this generation shall not pass until you see the Son of Man coming in His glory. And then Jesus is transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he thinks it's time for the Feast of Tabernacles, and says, let's build three tabernacles. And you know you've messed up when God speaks from heaven to correct you. This is my Son, hear Him. Yes, Lord. And so Peter identifies that. We were on the holy mount. We heard the most excellent glory. We've got a more sure word of prophecy. Why? Because the written word of God is clearer than the audible voice of God. That's exactly the message of Peter. And yet somehow now, after Pentecost, this man that seemed to be just kind of all over the place is now an unbelievable spirit filled preacher of the word of God who is pregnant with scripture. Spurgeon said that when you cut the preacher, he should, he should bleed bibling, bibling. And Peter was. And so he's just hitting them again and again and again. They were ignorant. They were ignorant. You're ignorant, oh my goodness, look at this. These days, remember that's what it says, these days, what Christ was doing. Verse 25, they were ignorant of their amazing blessing. You're the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. They were ignorant of their blessing and they were ignorant of their responsibility to be a blessing to the whole world. They're supposed to be the city on the hill. They're supposed to be the light of the world. They're supposed to be the salt of the earth. And they killed the Messiah. They killed him. They're ignorant of their amazing privilege. Not only that, but they're also ignorant of the fact that God sent Jesus to them first. Look at the next verse, 26. Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son, Jesus. Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son, Jesus, sent him to bless you. So first, first, he came to them as the Messiah. He came unto his own and his own received him not. To the Jew first. Amen? He raised him up. He raised him up. He grew in wisdom and stature. He was one of their brethren from among them. That's where he came. They missed it. Is this heavy? They missed it. Not only that, when Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to them first. The preaching of the resurrection was to them first. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the earth. They're in Jerusalem. They get scattered to Judea in Acts chapter eight. Amen? Paul persecutes them. They're scattered abroad, and everywhere they go, they preach the gospel. Judea, Samaria, Philip, the next place he goes is Samaria. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. What's the next thing that happens? He goes to the Ethiopian eunuch. And in Matthew chapter 12, we find out that Ethiopia is the outermost parts of the earth. He sends them out. Where? From Jerusalem first. They missed their amazing privilege. They were ignorant of how blessed they were. So what is his message? Israel, you're ignorant of the Bible. Jesus has said, there's one that's gonna judge you. The words that I speak unto you, they're gonna judge you. Do you remember when Jesus Christ gave the account of the rich man and Lazarus? Lazarus is full of sores and he eats the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, they both die. Lazarus is carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man wakes up in hell being in torment. And he sees afar off, he sees Lazarus. And he says, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to dip his finger in water. He may cool my tongue, just one little drop, that's all I want, just one drop. There's a great gulf fix between us. Well, I have, my father has five sons. Will you send Lazarus to tell my sons, my father and his sons, I don't want them to come here. I don't want them to come here. And what did Abraham say? They have, what? Moses and the prophets. They won't hear him. They won't hear them. They won't believe one rises from the dead. Andy Stanley is now preaching that we preach, that our faith is in the resurrection, not in a book. Liar, liar, pants on fire. We preach the death, burial, and resurrection according to the scriptures. They have Moses and the prophets. They won't believe if one rises from the dead. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Unless people believe the word of God today, they cannot be saved. Why? Because they have to believe what the Bible says about them. They have to believe what the Bible says about Jesus. And they have to believe what the Bible says about what they are to do. And look at the good news of this text. This is amazing. This text is to, do y'all agree this is to the nation of Israel? Do y'all agree with that? But notice what he says in verse 26, unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you. Look at what it says, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Look, the whole nation might not repent, but you can. Is that a great definition of repentance right there? In turning away. from their iniquities. What iniquities? You didn't believe in Jesus. You didn't believe the prophets. Believe the Bible, believe Jesus. That's the message. So preacher, that's all really good. What does that have to do? You know what this means? Absolutely nothing. So important. Don't miss this. What does this have to do with us? Folks, we've been given something. I have been given a godly heritage, as Psalm 16 says, a goodly heritage. Praise the Lord for that. God gave me a Bible. Am I ignorant of it? As has already been said, we live in a time where we have greater access to information than at any point in human history. And Christians know less of the Bible today probably since the invention of the printing press. Read the old preachers. Read the old political speeches and how full of Scripture they were. See, we forget the privilege that we have of having a Bible. You go all the way back to 6 and 700 AD when the Venerable Bede translated the Book of John into Old English, Gothic English. You move ahead and there's just a few times when a little bit of scripture is translated. You go all the way to 1380 and you finally have the Bible translated into Middle English by Wycliffe's followers. That Bible wasn't printed until 1731. If you wanted to have a Bible, it would have cost you $80,000 in today's money to have a Wycliffe Bible because it was copied by hand. How many of you can afford $80,000 for a book? I need stuff for my book table. I'm watching. I'm looking right here. But even so, Tyndale, I don't know that Tyndale ever saw, there's no record that Tyndale ever saw a copy of Wycliffe's Bible. So 1525, we finally have the Bible, the New Testament for the first time in English, and he's running for his life. 1536, he puts out his second edition of that, cleans it up a little bit. He has finished the Pentateuch, first five books of the Old Testament, but he hasn't been able to publish them yet. And Henry VIII is chasing him. But what Tyndale does is he actually invents the English language. He actually invents English prose. It's between Tyndale, with the majority of it, and his enemy, Thomas More. The man for all seasons. And so, Henry VIII, because of the instigation of Moore, they chase him down, chase him down, chase him down through a trader. They finally catch him in Belgium. They trick him into a meeting and they strangle him and burn him to death. Tyndale's last words were, Lord, open the king of England's eyes. He had a friend. His name was John Rogers. John Rogers was the chaplain at the English house there in Antwerp, Belgium. And it was kind of an embassy-type place where English people could live without being molested by the local government. And he had been a friend to Tyndale, and so he published Tyndale's Pentateuch. He wanted to see that it was done. And then he completed the Bible. It's called the Matthews Bible. He called it the Matthews Bible because he didn't want to die for doing it. Well, 1547, Henry VIII dies. By 1553, Bloody Mary is now the queen. Roman Catholic. You know who the first person was that Mary burned at the stake? John Rogers. So we have the Matthews Bible, we have the Coverdale Bible. The amazing thing about the Coverdale Bible is that's the first Bible that was authorized by a king. You know who authorized it? Henry VIII. You know what the Coverdale Bible was? It was almost all William Tyndale's work. You know what God did? He opened the king of England's eyes. Want to know something? I have something. I have something. It goes through and we could tell the stories of all these, the Geneva Bible and those men that were expatriates from England, they were running for their lives and they translate the Bible in the Geneva Bible. Then of course we have the Bishop's Bible and our wonderful King James Bible. And what God gave us in this King James Bible is something that's so special. It is, it really is the finest monument of English prose. It really is, because it's the definition of the English language. Why is it so special? Why is it so special? Because it's the refining of the Bible in English for a thousand years. It took a thousand, just think about it, it took a thousand years to develop this. A thousand years. And people think that they can do one in two or three years. That is the height of arrogance. It's the height of hubris. And I want to give you just one example. There's a great book, it's called God's Secretaries by Adam Nicholson. And I don't even know if he's saved, I quoted him the other day. And he talks about the King James, that it's an auricular translation. What in the world does auricular mean? It was designed to be heard. Some of your Bibles won't have it, but open your Bible to the title page, and I want you to see something. The Holy Bible. authorized King James Version containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the original tongues and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. So your Bible is not a translation, it's a translation and a revision of the previous six English translations. I know there were 12 English translations, but there were only six in the line of the King James. And they were based on the rules that King James gave them. But look at what it says. By His Majesty's special command, and then look at what it says. Now your Bible might not have this printed in it, but this is what would be in the Bible. Appointed to be read in churches. What did Paul tell Timothy? Till I come, give attendance to reading. People say, well, the King James, the idea was for the common man to be able to understand it. No, it was designed for the common man to be able to hear it. So what they did, they had six different translating committees in three locations, one in Cambridge, two in Cambridge, two in Oxford, two at Westminster Abbey. And at the end of the translating, they went to Stationers Hall in London, and each of the groups sent some representatives, and one man would sit in the center of the room, and the others would sit there and listen, and it would just be read to them. And it's so fun, Brother George, I don't know where you are, but it's so wonderful that you quoted that passage where God spoke to him in a still, small voice. The previous English translation said, a small, still voice. And they changed it. Nicholson said, to a still, small voice. He said, and I don't know why, but it's better. And think about this. Can you tell when Linus is reading the Christmas story? It sounds different, doesn't it? Have you ever noticed that when the pastor reads the text, that you understand it? When sometimes you're reading it by yourself and you don't, how many of you have ever noticed that? Why? It's designed to be heard. See, when the King James translation came out, most of the population couldn't read, but they could hear. And the Bible says, he that hath an ear, let him hear. Amen? God gave us something special. I could talk about the refining process and all the different editions of the King James. We don't have time to do that. But I have something. I have something that came to me at a great cost. When my father as a pastor, as a church planter in the 1960s, when all the translation confusion was starting and he chose to take a stand on the Bible, he made a sacrifice, he gave me something. He gave me something. Not only that, but we have an opportunity. Notice what the message of Peter was. This is what I gave your nation. Do you realize what God has given us in the United States of America? Now, this isn't a patriotic rah-rah. What I'm saying is God had a special purpose for this nation. And all through history, it's been demonstrated in so many different ways. The fact that George Washington lived long enough to be our president, it's a miracle of God. Don't have time to tell you the stories, but it is a miracle of God. The fact that our continental troops made it from Brooklyn back to New York, at the Battle of Brooklyn. You know what that took? It took a miracle of God to bring in a fog where nobody could see so that they could escape. God did that. Let me just tell you one story that will help you understand this. So William Henry Seward was, of course, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State. And John Wilkes Booth had a conspiracy to kill the president and at the same time kill the vice president. and at the same time kill the Secretary of State because they're the three most popular or most powerful men in the Union. And so as President Lincoln was being shot, the man who was supposed to kill the Vice President, he got drunk and scared and didn't try. But a man named Powell tried to make his way into Seward's house. But listen to what God had done. Nine days before this happened, Seward was in a terrible carriage accident. The horses had gotten away. He was trying to save his daughter and one of her friends, and he went to dive out of the carriage. His heel caught on the step, and he hit his face on the pavement and broke his jaw terribly and cracked some ribs, broke his arm. They thought he was going to die. Blood almost choked from the blood. So he's convalescing. The doctors couldn't figure out what to do, so they made this contraption. They wired to his back teeth a steel plate and it wrapped around his head with canvas and wire. Well, when this pal came in and his, Seward's son, Frederick, was there, and he wasn't going to let him in to see his father, and so what the man did was he tried to shoot him, and he had a revolver, and he pointed it two feet away at his face, pulled the trigger, and it jammed. Revolvers don't jam. So, in a fit of rage, he started smashing Fred in the head, and he was in a coma for two months. but the gun was now useless. So he made his way into Seward's room and he couldn't quite find him. Couldn't find him very well because it was dark in the room. And the doctors, because his arm was broken, he needed to be able to hang off the end of the bed. So he was at the farthest place from the door in a dark place on the edge of the bed. So when he came up with a Bowie knife to kill him, he stabbed three times but missed him because he was all the way over. And when he finally saw where he was, he stabbed again and he tore open his cheek, stabbed him through the cheek and kept trying to stab him. But what had God done? He had a steel plate around his neck. And so a guard was there and he had also hit, and they wrestled him and he got away. And so Seward lived. Say, that's great, that's great, Brother Jim. 1867, we have Seward's Folly. The state of Alaska. Without Seward, there would not have been a state of Alaska. Do you know what Putin said in 1917? I'm sorry, in 2017, that if Seward had not acquired Alaska, Russia would have won the Cold War. It's true. It's true. One murder attempt and the unbelievable protection of God save the United States, but that's not all. In 1856, there was a treaty called the Guano Treaty. Y'all know what that is? It's bat stuff. And because they need it for fertilizer and other things, the treaty said that any uninhabited place can be seized by the United States for that, and In 1867, or actually a little earlier than that, they found, same year though as Alaska, they found some on an island, a series of small, tiny islands halfway between Japan and Hawaii. And in 1867, Seward sent the Navy to seize those islands. And one of them is called Midway. Y'all understand how significant the Battle of Midway was? in World War II? And you're going to tell me that God hasn't had his hand on our wicked nation. Why? Because he has raised us up to be a blessing. I have something. How did he do that? How did he do that? You go all the way back to the beginning of our nation, all the way back. The founders weren't necessarily friendly to religious liberty. At Carpenters Hall in 1774, the First Continental Congress, a group of Baptists, Isaac Bacchus, a pastor from Massachusetts, and James Manning, the president of Brown University and founder, which was a Baptist college, they met with John Adams and they asked him, we've got to get some freedom. Because in 1752, Isaac Bacchus' mother was put in prison in Connecticut because she refused to pay tithes to the congregational pastor. She was put in prison, Isaac Bacchus's mother. And so Bacchus petitions him and here's what John Adams said, there will sooner be a realignment of the heavenly bodies as a disestablishment of religion in Massachusetts. They weren't for it. They weren't for it. So we have the Revolutionary War. John Gannot is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, and he becomes George Washington's chaplain. He ended up baptizing George Washington in the Potomac River. Washington had him preach, had him pray at the cessation of hostilities when it was announced that the Revolutionary War was over. His chaplain, John Gannot, got up and preached, prayed. Why was Gannot so interested in that? Well, Gannot had been the pastor of a small church called the Jersey Settlement Baptist Church in North Carolina. Out of that church was a man named Benjamin Merrill. Benjamin Merrill came to be known as a regulator. The regulators were people in North Carolina, they were Baptists and Quakers and others that were tired of being persecuted by the state church, the Anglican church, and they had a governor named William Tryon. Tryon was a horrible man and they had 10 to 1 representation against them so they were able to take their property and it was a horrible thing. And so they started trying to stand up against him, and these regulators were stopping the seizure of property militarily. And so they had a battle, it's called the Battle of Alamance County in 1771. It is the first battle of the Revolutionary War, and the regulators were trounced. Well, Daniel Merrill had his own militia. They had 300 men and they were on their way to that battle and the battle would have been different if they had gotten there on time, but they didn't. When they got there, Benjamin Merrill was arrested. Benjamin Merrill was a deacon at the Jersey Settlement Baptist Church where John Gonneau had been the pastor. Well, he was arrested with 12 other men. He was tried. And the next place that Tryon's troops went after the Battle of Alamance County was they camped out on the grounds of the Sandy Creek Baptist Church. Sandy Creek Baptist Church was founded by a guy named Schubel Stearns, who was saved under the preaching of the Great Awakening and John Whitfield. He was discipled by Noah Alden in Massachusetts, and he was actually ordained by a man named Waite Palmer in Tolland, Connecticut, as a Baptist. He went to North Carolina and started that church. He started that church the same year as that Jersey Settlement Baptist Church, and the church had grown to about 606 members. Within 50 years, there were 1,000 churches that were planted out of that church. That's the birth of the Bible Belt. Well, that church had 600 members in 1771. In 1772, they had 14 members because Tryon had stamped it out. But what happened? They went everywhere preaching the gospel. They went and planted churches in Virginia, in Kentucky, and in Tennessee. So several years later, oh, by the way, Benjamin Merrill was arrested, and he was hung, drawn, and quartered. And that means while he's being hung, they cut him open and they pulled out his entrails and burned them in front of his face while he was still alive, while his children had to stand in front of it and watch. Y'all understand, we have something. The liberty that we have, it came at a great price. So the Revolutionary War starts, And honestly, it's going badly for the Continental Army. And in 1780, it's going very badly. And so Cornwallis is coming, he has sent Major Patrick Ferguson, the Ferguson rifle, and his grenadiers, and they have been pushed back a little bit, but there's going to be a battle. And so the Continental militias had put places where they could set fires to know when Cornwallis' troops were coming. And so they knew they were coming, but Colonel Shelby, and I'm from Shelby County, Ohio, it's named after him, he had called the leaders of the Union Army's, I'm sorry, the Colonies Army's in the South to General Sevier's house from Sevierville, Tennessee, while they were in North Carolina. They didn't know, and there were others that weren't there, and so they sent a man, a Baptist deacon named Martin Gamble. And you've heard of Paul Revere? He rode about eight miles. Martin Gamble, he rode 100 miles in 24 hours. He rode three horses to death to call the other armies to get them to Kings Mountain in time. So Patrick Ferguson got up on Kings Mountain, and listen to what he said, Jesus Christ himself could not remove me from this mountain. And Ferguson had warned the militias. He said, he sent a messenger to these men in Tennessee. And he said, if you don't surrender, we're going to come and burn your farms and ravish your women. And you know what they said? They tarred and feathered him that message. They tarred and feathered that to him and sent him back and said, we're coming to you. And so he installed himself at the top of King's Mountain. He said, Jesus Christ himself couldn't remove me from this mountain. Well, he was surrounded before he knew it. Why? These are mountain men. And so the over-the-mountain men, including a man named Tidance Lane. Tidance Lane was the founder and pastor of the Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church, the first Baptist church in Tennessee. He had been there at Sandy Creek and got sent away because of all the trouble. They didn't want trouble, but when they said, we're gonna come after your women, He and his sons, five sons, they ran, picture last of the Mohicans, they ran over the mountains. They had these troops, they had that mountain surrounded, and they defeated him in 65 minutes. And that changed the war. That changed it. And so we win the war, praise God, right? We have our liberty, but we don't have a constitution yet. And so in 1787, the Virginia Constitutional Convention, each state had to have a Constitutional Convention. James Madison had written the Constitution, but he wasn't going to be elected as the representative to go to the National Convention. And so he met with John Leland, the Baptist preacher. John Leland was a friend of Thomas Jefferson. As a matter of fact, the weekend after Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous Wall of Separation letter, He went to hear his friend John Leland preach a sermon on Sunday in the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. And so Leland met with Madison. And Madison said to Leland, this is in Orange County, Virginia, you can go, there's a plaque there today. He met with him and he said, why won't your men support me? And he said, because there's no religious liberty in the Constitution. And so they were going to elect Patrick Henry because Patrick Henry had defended Baptists. 113 Baptist preachers were imprisoned in Virginia. So they were going to, Patrick Henry had defended many of them. So they were going to elect Patrick Henry. And so Madison said, if you, I promise you, if you will send me to the convention and you will ratify this, our first order of business will be a religious liberty amendment. We call that the first amendment. So what have we been given? Think about what we've been given. We've been given the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. Do you all have that? We've been given the preserved Word of God in our language. But not only the preserved Word of God, the preserved Word of God at a level that is beyond comprehension. We've been given a nation that is the first time that a nation like this has ever existed in the history of the world. Y'all need to understand, we live in a parenthesis in history. We've been given something. When I think about my dad, my father, He wasn't saved. His parents didn't like religion. His senior year of high school, he ran track, and a friend of his named Bill Lee would pull up in front of his house. He lived in Pueblo, Colorado. He rolled down the window and said, Bob, are you coming to church today? Honk the horn. Bob, are you coming to church? Finally, my dad went to church with him, and the first time he heard the gospel, he got saved. Not very long after that, he surrendered to preach, and his family disowned him. They didn't come to his high school graduation. They wouldn't let him sleep in his bed. He had to sleep on the floor underneath the kitchen table. I only saw my grandparents two or three times in my life. Dad planted his churches, and we were, it was rough. There were times when there was no food in the house. Dad didn't know anything about raising support. He just went and started a church. Buckley Road Baptist Church in Liverpool, New York. Then Faith Baptist Church in Wallingford, Connecticut. And Dad did all of that. I only saw my grandparents two or three times in my life. because they were not for religion. I came to Grace Baptist Church in Sydney. The church in New Philadelphia, Ohio, First Baptist Church in New Philadelphia, influenced our church with discipleship. Changed my life. Changed our church. We have 100 adults trained in one-on-one biblical discipleship. It's amazing what God is doing through that. Well, a man in my church is a historian, and he, without my knowing, did a genealogy for me. You know what we found out? My great uncle, an aunt, six times over, started First Baptist Church of New Philadelphia. Sarah Alter, Cyrus Alter. So that doesn't, so who cares? I've been given something. Do you know what that means? I have something. Silver and gold have I none. Lots of needs in the world, such as I have. Give I unto you. What am I gonna give them? The name of Jesus. Where am I gonna learn about that? Right here. How am I gonna do it in the liberty that God has given me in this nation? How many of you know that it's not for long? How many of you know that? If you have something, stand up. You have something? Has God given you something? I have Jesus Christ. I have the indwelling Holy Spirit. I am in Christ Jesus. He's my Savior. He's my God. but he's not a deistic God. He's here present with me. He speaks to me through his word. He speaks to me through the preaching of his word. He's given me a mandate. He's given me the way that I am to do it. I am supposed to manifest his name. Why? Because there's not salvation in any other name but the name of Jesus Christ. I am to baptize. He's given me the structure of the New Testament church and I am to send He's given us everything that we need to do. Can y'all say amen to that? Then what are we doing? If you have something, would you raise your hand? You have it? What are you doing with it? Who are you telling? We've heard about public ministry. What did Peter say? He saw him. He really saw this man. Do you see your neighbors? They're going to go to a Christless hell for eternity, like that rich man begging for a drop of water. And it'll never come. We have what they need. I don't want to berate you. I've got the same problems you do. But I've got something. I've got to give it out. Will you? Will you? Lord, please help us. It's so humbling to see what you've given us. We're not Israel. We're not Jews. We're not those who say they're Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. We're the church of God. You have given us your glory and earthen vessels that the glory may be of you and not of us. Lord, we have something. Lord, will you please help us to get up and do something with it? In Jesus' name, amen.