All right Well, we're gonna continue on in these things where we began studying last week the different things that the Bible specifically says in the wording of That something that Jesus was made. Okay. It's it's something that he wasn't before but was made for us All right, and we're gonna we're gonna do a little more defining of that as we go in But last week we looked at the fact in John 1 14. It says that the word was made flesh and Okay, the word the eternal word of god was made flesh and you would ask, you know what we covered this But you know, what was the body of jesus christ made out of what was his flesh made out of? It was made out of the word of god. That's what it was made your bible literally tells you that Uh, then we also looked at uh that he was made of the seed of david Okay, according to the flesh and so we we looked at all of those things there. Uh, Really picking apart the construction the makeup of our Savior what his body the body that physically walked the earth what that was made of And we delved in the scriptures concerning that today We're gonna look at another aspect of that is that he was made a quickening spirit Okay in particular in first Corinthians chapter 15 if you'd want to turn there we're starting verse 39 when we get there But he was made a quickening spirit. This is in verse 45, but we're going to start in verse 39 just to get some good context of this. This shouldn't be an unfamiliar passage of scripture. It's one that, you know, is quite readily known. But again, we're looking at these things to let the Bible teach us our doctrine, all right? We ought to take our Bible doctrine, what we believe about God, what we believe and what we claim, we ought to take those things not from the writings of men, not from commentaries, not from dictionaries, not from lexicons, we ought to take it from the Bible itself, okay? What does the Bible tell us about God? What does the Bible tell us about man? Okay, these ones who wrote these commentaries did that. They took their doctrine from what they had light in, in the Word of God. And so today we look at the Word of God and we allow God to teach us doctrine. Remember in 1 John 2, in verse 20 it says, but you have an unction from the Holy One. And again, that word unction is only used one time in the King James Bible, and it's there in verse 20 of 1 John 2. But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. Well, what does that teach us? Well, We know all things because of this unction. But what is an unction? Well, if you look at the definition of it, it will say an anointing, but it goes deeper than that. Because over in verse 20 of that same chapter, it says, but that same anointing which you've received of him abideth in you. and it teacheth you all things, okay? So what is happening is your Bible is defining these words for you, these ones that are quite often difficult to understand. You look at that unction, and it's an anointing on the inward parts, remembering that every anointing, when the loaves were anointed with oil, or the furniture of the tabernacle was anointed, or a priest was anointed, or a high priest, however it was, the oil was always applied on the outside. But this anointing is on the inward parts. That's why there's that distinguishing term of an unction, it's on the inside. And we have that from the Holy One. Now that's not the Holy Ghost, that's not the Holy Spirit. That is Jesus Christ himself. You look throughout your Bible and you find that phrase, holy one, that statement, that title, and it points to Jesus Christ every single time. Even those unclean spirits, when they were in the synagogue and Jesus comes in and there's that man with the unclean spirit, and that man with the unclean spirit cries out and he says, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? We know who thou art, the holy one of God, and he rebukes that spirit and casts it from him. And so we see all these things laid out to us and defined for us, and it gives us clarity on these things. And so we get that understanding that we need not that any man teach you, but that same anointing teaches you all things. That's the end of that verse there in 1 John 2. And so we let the Lord teach us. We let the Lord open his Bible to us and speak to us through it. And so this is what we're going to do in 1 Corinthians 15, and it starts right in verse 39. It says, all flesh is not the same, is not the same flesh. But there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. And really, this is one of my favorite verses to go to when somebody tries to, especially children, tries to teach children that we are nothing more than a mammal, okay? Of course, I'll take them to Genesis in the creation where on the sixth day, God created the animals and all the beasts of the field and all, and then he created man, a separate creation in the likeness, in the image of God himself. And so here we see this, another thing, a determining factor. Not all flesh is the same flesh. The flesh of a bird is different than the flesh of a fish, which is different from the flesh of a beast, which is different from the flesh of a man. We're different. We are not animals. We may share some same features, but we are not animals. God created us as man, okay? And so continuing on, verse 40, there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, all right? So again, expounding on this a little deeper, we see that then, okay, there is that which is celestial. It is beyond us. It is beyond the physical realm. It is a celestial realm. There are terrestrial bodies, the bodies that will walk this earth, this flesh, this terrestrial flesh that we see, and then there are bodies celestial. And the rest of chapter 15 really ties into that about the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed and for this corruptible is put on incorruption and all of that. And speaking of that celestial body. But for the purpose of this study today, this is just context for where we're at in the chapter. It says, but the glory of the celestial, in verse 40 again, is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. For is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written the first man adam was made a living soul. Okay, that's that's written right there in genesis chapter 2 The first man adam was made a living soul god took the dust and formed man says he formed man out of the dust of the ground and Breathed into the breath of life and he became a living soul. Okay, and so then the last adam was made a quickening spirit. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Now we know over in Romans, and I don't believe we're gonna go to this particular portion in Romans today. We will be in Romans, but not this particular thing. dealing with this thing of Adam and then Jesus Christ, and that by the transgression of one, all are sinners, but by the redemption of one, all can be made whole, all right? And so, looking at those things, but this last Adam was made a quickening spirit. This is the concept and the idea I wanna look at today, is this idea of a quickening spirit. A quickening spirit is something that makes alive. It's a quickening. When you talk about your quick, it's that live part underneath your fingernails. If you cut too deep in your fingernails, you get back into the quick, and it bleeds, and it really, really hurts. And so a lot of people are very nervous of cutting their nails. That's why they leave them long. Some ladies like the fashion of it and everything. Sometimes it's just really good for grabbing things. But regardless of all that. That's what that is. It's the part of your finger that's alive. So when you find that thing of quick and quickening, it's not necessarily that it's doing it speedily. In the olden days, back in maybe 100, 150 years ago, people would say, be quick about it. Go get me that and be quick about it. It's not saying do it fast, do it quickly. But in the evolution of the English language, what it was talking about, be lively about it. Look alive while you're doing it. And so that's where that all ties in. But he says that the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. There's a few places I wanna go to in relation to this, but this is our main text of what he was made. He was made a quickening spirit. Go to Romans chapter eight now. Romans chapter eight, and we're gonna start right in verse one. We're gonna look at this thing of the quickening aspect of the spirit of Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter eight, starting right in verse one. It says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now I want you to understand, the second half of that verse is very important, because what that shows you, it is a clarifying statement. This is an identifier. If you wanna know what those that are in Christ Jesus look like, what does it look like? What does it look like to be in Christ Jesus? Well, it's those who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. So if you find someone who is walking after the flesh, they are walking contrary to what the Bible says a born-again believer will look like. Those who have been quickened by the spirit of Jesus Christ will have a new life in them, and it will look different. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. All right, there's that new creature. It's that thing on the inward parts. It's not the creation. The creation is your flesh. It's what you're looking at. The creature on the inward parts is what God is concerned with. When he changes this, this that you see is gonna change. It's cause and effect. Once the inward man is changed, then the outward man can change. Until then, it is foolish to tell somebody that you need to look this way, dress this way, act this way, talk this way, not talk this way, do this, do this, do this, don't do this, don't do that. Why is that foolish? Well, it's because all you're doing is you're forming a religion on the outward parts of that one who is lost. They're gonna all of a sudden look at what they have done in changing their outward appearance and say, hey, this looks like godliness. And then they will not be seeking God. Honestly, when you start applying the word of God to your life, whether you're lost or whether you're saved, it is going to start changing some things. For one thing, you're not gonna hurt as much. When you do it God's way, it doesn't hurt as much. Okay, when you follow, honestly, the laws of God, the rules of God, what God has laid out in his book is for your safety. Okay, if you follow the way that God would have you to run your home, there will be a certain level of harmony in the home. If a wife reverences her husband and a husband loves her wife as Christ loved the church, there is going to be a level of harmony in that home. I know because that was us. We were lost living what we thought was a Christian life because we were applying the laws of God to our home to a certain extent. Both had a secret life that was full of wickedness and just vileness. And God was good to root that out, okay? He was so good to make those things manifest. But in that, if you do it God's way, you're gonna hurt less. And so if somebody changes things on the outside, and they've never been born again on the inward parts, their life is gonna hurt a little bit less than gonna say, oh, this must be the Christian life. They're gonna walk through and then they're gonna come to Romans chapter seven and see those things that I do, I would not, and those things that I would, those things I don't do, and what I wanna do, I can't do, but, and he goes back and forth and back and forth, and they say, oh, that must be the Christian life, because that's what Paul dealt with. No, that's not it at all. That's a battle of your carnal mind against the mind of Christ. That's what that is. the battle of your carnal mind, which is still enmity against God, and the mind of Christ in you, if you're born of God. And so, all of that, that's why that's so important, is this is an identifier. Those that, them which are in Christ Jesus, there's now no condemnation. And those that are in Christ Jesus, who no longer have condemnation, they're gonna walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit, all right? So it's just a little bit of a clarifying statement. It identifies those who are in Christ. You get into 1 John and you see that constantly, constantly. This is what it looks like when somebody's saved. This is what it looks like when somebody's lost. And if you look like this, you're lost. If you look like this, you're saved. If you talk like this, you're lost. If you talk like this, you're saved. If this is on the inward parts, you're lost. If this is on the inward parts, you're saved. It gives that comparison and contrast throughout the book of 1 John. And now you don't just conform your life to look like that. You get born of God and He does that in you. And so there's those things too. But verse two, this is where we needed to be in the first place. It says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Now that law of sin and death is the soul that sinneth, it shall die. All right, that's the law of sin and death, it really is. But the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is that those that are in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation. That's the law. That's the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. But I want to focus on that phrase, the spirit of life. When you see that spirit of life, what we are looking at is it is that personal spirit of Jesus Christ that gives you life on the inward parts. It is that same spirit that he commended into the hands of his father as he died on that cross. Father into thy hands. I commend my spirit It was one of the three things that left his body that john bears witness of in first john chapter five He uh, the blood and the water flowed out when the the centurion stabbed his side and he said Father into thy hands. I commend my spirit and his spirit left his body the blood and water poured out and that centurion said Truly, this is the son of god This was the Son of God. So this is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Go over now to... Do I want to go there? Is that what we will need to do next? You know what? I'm going to. I'm going to. Let's stay right here for a second. Romans chapter 8 in verse 2 is a very succinct Chapter or verse. All right. What is the way that this is written is very purposeful and it is very clear We're gonna look at this for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death I want to define something we've gone through this before we've talked about this did a compare and contrast of this but I want to look at the difference between made free and set free and Okay? What you're gonna find is that to be set free is to be allowed to go where one wishes. Oxford English Dictionary, all the way back to 1380, it was used in this way, this term set free. If somebody is allowed to go wherever they wish. When you look at this, this is the same concept of being set at liberty, okay? And there is an aspect of that in the Christian life. Okay? But to be set free and to be made free are two different things. When something is made, it is brought into existence. Again, Oxford English Dictionary. This, I think, the early 1400s, maybe even a little earlier than that, I can't remember exactly the first date of where it was used in this way. But to be made, it's to be brought into existence, to manufacture, construct, to frame, to fashion, okay? It's something that wasn't, and all of a sudden, it was made, all right, it was made. In order for something to be set somewhere, it has to be first made. Okay, so it's a creative act. This is the difference of set free and made free. When something is set free, it's allowed to go. It's allowed to go wherever it wants to go. But when something is made free, it has been made something it was never before. It is now a legal designation. Again, we might get into this a little later when we get to Romans, but this is the difference between a slave and a servant. Okay, I'm gonna define this for you too, I wrote this out. A servant is a person who is engaged to attend or wait upon and meet the needs of a particular person. They can be, as a paid person, they can be recompensed with food and lodging, that type of thing, but it's a personal attendant, okay? They have, they have rights, they have, they're recompensed for their work, they're paid for what they do, whether in housing or in money, okay? A slave, on the other hand, is a person who has the legal status of being the property of another, has no personal freedom or rights, and is used as forced, unpaid labor. That's what a slave is, okay? It's a legal designation. So, when you look at a slave that is made free, They have been legally undone in the slave sense and given freedom. They've been given personal rights. They've been given an identity as a person, okay? When you are made free in Christ Jesus, you, and looking at Ephesians 2.1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now riddle me this. If we have, let's just say, a foothold trap, OK? And an animal has been caught in that trap. It's chained to the ground, it can't get out. The more it struggles, the tighter the trap gets, the jaws get on the foot, okay? Somebody comes up and they don't have a tag to trap that animal, to take the fur from it. They release the animal and it runs off. It has been set free. Let's just say it was a fox. They didn't have anything, or a bobcat, all right? Because you gotta have a special permit for a bobcat. They didn't have a permit for a bobcat, so they set that bobcat free. Now when it left, was it still a bobcat? Yeah, nothing changed. It was just set free. It was confined, but now it was able to go wherever it wanted to go. But if you come up to that thing, and it had been there long enough that it died, and you release that trap, is that dead bobcat going to go anywhere? It's just going to lay there. It can't go anywhere. Why? Because it's dead. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. If all you are is set free, you can't go anywhere, you can't do anything, you are still dead in your trespasses and sins, and your foot's still laying there on the track. Even though it's opened, you've been set free, you can go wherever you wanna go, but you can't go anywhere because you're dead. But if you've been made free, if you've been quickened, if made me free, become something I never was, new life in Christ, a changed creature on the inward parts, all of a sudden there is a life there that wasn't. There is a creature there that wasn't there. It's the person of Jesus Christ on the inward parts. That's what it is to be born of God, is to have Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe, take up residence in you. You are made a new creature. Behold, old things are passed away. All things have become new. Listen, at the point of salvation, you get Jesus Christ, you get the Holy Ghost, you get God the Father. The entirety of the Godhead resides in you. You are a new creature. You've passed from death unto life. made free. Once you have been made free, then you are set at liberty. You now have liberty. Where is that? Galatians 5.1. Let me turn to it real quick. It just popped in my head. Galatians 5.1. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. There again, we see that Christ is the one that hath made us free. Once we are made free in Christ Jesus, then we are set at liberty. And honestly, what that means, now you can do what you want. But I always say that with a caveat. What you wanna do changes when Christ is there. All of a sudden, you don't wanna do the things you used to do. All of a sudden, those things that you used to love, your sin and the... the life they're in. And I understand, listen, drunkenness, you could put that as the sin, okay? I can show you in a place where drunkenness, somebody giving over to drunkenness is a punishment from God, all right? I can show you that. But drunkenness, the sin of drunkenness, it is a work of the flesh, okay? But honestly, the drunkenness is only a small aspect of the life of sin that people love. There's the social aspect of it that first gets you into it. Most everybody that gets into drunkenness was dragged into it by friends. And the life that you're drug into from that point, obviously it takes you farther than you wanted to go, and you are ensnared by that thing. Jesus Christ is the only one that can give true liberty from that stuff. He's the only one. He's the only one. You want to find real liberty, you find it in Christ Jesus. That's where you find it. That's where there's new life in Christ, abundant and free. What joys are mine, what, wait, no, what glory divine, what wondrous blessings I see, all right? I can't remember, it's been so long since we sung that. At any rate. But this is this new life in Christ, and there is a liberty. And he says, let us stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Now, what was Paul talking about in Galatians there? He was talking about the law being made free from that law of sin and death. But he says, is the law sin? God forbid. If it hadn't been, I would not have known sin by the law. I wouldn't have known lust unless the law had said, thou shalt not covet. That law is the schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. But once we're unto Christ, we're no longer under that schoolmaster. We have liberty from that, okay? But until you are under the law, and have been put under the law, and have been found guilty under the law, and have then seen that guilt and everything before Christ, and He saves you by His grace alone, You are not under grace. People want to throw that out there. They want to say, hey, look, right now we're in the age of grace. So you can go ahead and you can do whatever you want. You can live whatever you want. Ignore the law entirely. Ignore it. Just ignore it. You don't need that. That's Old Testament. We're not under the law anymore. Well, you still are under the law. What did Paul do? Everywhere he went, he preached the law of God. When he was in Athens, he put those Athenians, those Gentiles, those idol worshipers under the law of God. He put them right under the second commandment. He said, God is not likened under these gravened images. He's not likened unto something that can be made with hands, this unknown God that you ignorantly worship. He put them under the law of God. He wrote in Romans that he did that, that every mouth could be stopped, and the whole world would become guilty before God. Without the law of God, you're not going to be guilty before God, so you're not gonna see your need for a Savior, you're not gonna be lost. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, Paul said. He said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. But until somebody finds themselves lost, they're not gonna be seeking Jesus Christ to be found. You can scare them away from hell. You can dangle hell out there and scare them into making a quick profession, but is that belief? No. that the Spirit of God wooing them unto Christ is that the Holy Ghost of God reproving them of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they believe not on me of Righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more of judgment because the prince of this world is judged not at all Why in Hebrews chapter 3 and going on into chapter 4, why could those Israelites not enter into the promised land? unbelief It's unbelief He says they could not enter because of unbelief. Later on in that chapter four, he says, let us be, I'm gonna have to turn to it. I had it on the tip of my tongue and then it left. Spoke a little too soon. Hebrews four. Again, he limiteth a certain day, verse seven, saying in David, today, after so long a time, as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not have afterwards spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. And then he says, let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. Work and labor are two different things. Work and labor are two different things. Work changes things. That's why a Jew will not flip a light switch. That's why he won't kindle a fire on the Sabbath day. Because it changed the state of that thing. The light was off. There was no electricity going through it He flipped a switch. He changed it. That was work Labor maintains things they could take water their animals. They could do certain things like that. There's a difference between work and labor God ceased from his work on that seventh day and the only way you're going to enter into the rest of God is if you cease from your work and But he says, let us therefore labor to enter into that rest. What is the labor? What is the labor of entering into the rest of God? Well, you get yourself under the preaching of the word of God. You read the word of God. You study the word of God. Pour through that thing. Labor with God in those scriptures. Let him peel away the calluses and the hardness of your heart. Let him peel away the sin and wash that thing. That washing of water by the word, it can purify your wicked heart. Your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? Isaiah told us then, I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. We don't wanna look at that though. We don't wanna think that God's gonna give us according to our ways, according to the fruit of our doings. You don't wanna look at the bad things in your life and how things have just fallen apart. You don't wanna look at that as being God giving you the fruit of your ways. It's the fruit of your doings. That's why your life hurts. Because you refuse to do it God's way. Many have sat in this church, many have grown up in this church, been sitting underneath the preaching of the Word of God since before they even knew English. As babies, you know? And they refuse to believe that what that Bible says about the wicked and the sinners is them. They refuse to believe it. They'll believe it just enough so that they get a ticket out of hell, but they care nothing of Jesus Christ. They care nothing of the Son of God. They care nothing of repentance. They care nothing of having their lives utterly changed and they finding themselves a wretch. They just don't care. And so what do they do? The world draws them in. If you think I'm lying, look around, where are they? What did that profession of faith get him? There's no peace on the inward parts. Listen, the work of righteousness shall be peace. Work changes things. The work of righteousness shall be peace. The effect of righteousness, what it does in you, the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. Quietness where there once was nothing but clamor and hatred and anger. It's not quietness Where there you were that enmity against God the carnal mind is enmity against God It's not subject unto the law of God neither indeed can be your carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God it hates the law of God and You in your natural state hate the law of God. You hate the Son of God. You hate the Holy Ghost of God. You hate God the Father. You hate the preaching of the word of God. That's why you get agitated while you're sitting under preaching. That's why you get, you're just irritated, you just wanna go. I've seen people run out of the house of God shaking. I've seen people and heard personal testimony. Yeah, my wife, she has panic attacks whenever she sits under the preaching. It's because the Holy Ghost is stirring her up, showing her her lost state, wooing her unto Christ, trying to show her, listen, that what you have is not. There is peace in Jesus. Why? Because he was, this is another thing, we're gonna look at this, not today. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. In him. Being at perfect peace with the law of God, that's what righteousness is. Not only that, we are made His righteousness. It's still not your righteousness, it's His. It's not your faith that saves you. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus, in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. Justified, declared righteous. When we looked at those things that we're justified by, those eight things that we studied throughout the Word of God that we are justified by, we're justified by the faith of Christ. If you try to work up your own faith, then it's of works. You've worked up enough faith to give to Jesus and say, okay, I believe you this much. And he's required to save you because of that? No, he's gonna save you on his terms, and his terms are in that book. You believe, you're born of God. All right, we gotta get back on track. Let's get back on track here. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. There's one verse here. Oh, start at verse five. He says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Now, again, in the King James Bible, you find a lowercase s spirit, and it's applied to deity. Let me ask you this, can your spirit give life? No. Whose spirit quickens? Jesus Christ so this is speaking of the personal spirit of Jesus Christ you find that from Genesis chapter 6 verse 3 all the way through to the end you find where it's speaking of Jesus or speaking of deity and it's a lowercase s spirit and it's speaking of the person of Jesus Christ his personal spirit father into thy hands I commend my spirit it was a lowercase s first John 5 8 in the pure Cambridge text it shows that it is that lower that spirit that left his body And that is that witness of God. Now, it continues on here, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Go to John chapter 6. Again, we're just laying these things out, just building this case. You know me, a lot of the times my preaching has a hard time tying together. I'm very, very terrible at making outlines. So we just look at a lot of scripture and let the scripture speak for itself. And if preaching breaks out, preaching breaks out. Genesis chapter six, and look at verse 63. Verse 63 says, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Now if you remember, earlier on he said, unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you can't see the kingdom of God. And many were offended at this saying, and they went away. And he turned to his disciples and he says, are you also going to go away? Peter saith unto him, Lord, where shall we go? For thou hast the words of life. Hast the words of life. Jesus' words give life. Does that maybe connect with his spirit too, which also gives life? Find these things, and then you come down here. It's the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. Your Bible literally tells you that. The words of Jesus Christ are spirit. So where do they go? Your physical ears? I think not. They go to your spiritual ears. They go to your spiritual heart. Listen, some will listen to the word of God. But even the prophet prophesied, I can't remember which one it was, I think it was in Isaiah, that there was going to be a dearth of hearing, a famine of hearing in the land. The words of God are gonna go out, and people are either gonna stop their ears, they've grown dull of hearing, they just won't receive it. They're listening, it's going in one ear, you're hearing words, and then it's going right out the other side. but he has to cut away the deadness of the flesh. He has to circumcise that heart. He has to circumcise your ears. He has to give you ears to hear. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. Isn't that amazing that God lets you hear his words? A God that has to humble himself to even look at things in heaven, let alone consider the things on earth, let alone consider you. What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? What is man? Nothing but God. Two of the most beautiful words you'll ever find in your Bible, but God, who's rich in mercy. That's what it is. For by grace he is saved through faith, and that, that faith is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should boast." Again, you work up enough faith to give to God, what is that? Hey, I worked up this much faith. How much faith did you work up? Oh, I worked up more faith than you did. You boast in it. No, it's all Him. It's all Him. What is it, Titus 3, 5? Now by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy has he saved us. It's that mercy, that mercy that he has. That's the only reason you have breath still. The longsuffering of the Lord is salvation. Him longsuffering you is salvation. The only reason you could even live today, have breath today, get in your car today, come to the house of God today is the longsuffering and mercy of God. That's it. There is zero reason whatsoever that he doesn't snuff you out except for his mercy. And that ought to terrify you more than hell. If I took hell out, if God, all right, I'm not gonna put myself in the place of God to do this. If God took hell out of the equation, would you still want to be born again? If God took heaven out of the equation, would you still want to be born again? Why did you get saved? What was your motivation? Was it a ticket out of a hell? Or was it a home in heaven? Or was it so that you could be right with God? So you could be at peace with almighty God. That you could have the righteousness of God. That you could be made the righteousness of God. It's beyond reckoning. It's beyond anything that my mind can comprehend at all. I believe it. Believe it, because he gave it to us in his word. All right, we were here in, what did we say? The spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Go to John chapter five, as long as we're right here. John chapter five, and look at verse 21. John 5, 21, for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. Isn't that something? The Son quickeneth whom He will. It's according to the will of Jesus Christ. God quickeneth the Son. Look at this. The Father, verse 21, sorry. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them. All right, so right here, your Bible defines what quickening is. It's once was dead and is now alive, okay? Raising up the dead, quickening them. Even so the son quickeneth whom he will. Go to John chapter one, verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. And you remember that word received, it has the aspect of taking a gift, like if I give something to my son, and he takes it, he receives it, okay, it has that aspect. But really what it is, in its entirety, is believing that a thing is absolutely true. Unreserved confidence. Okay, that's what belief is. It's unreserved confidence that something is true receiving it If I give you the Word of God and I say something you have the option to receive it or reject it You either receive what I say and believe it's true or you reject it and believe that I'm a liar That those are the two options Okay, and so the same thing here, as many as received him. All right, he came unto his own, his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. That even, it's in italics there. Okay, again, that's not in the original languages. But what it is, is it's that word that is necessary for that English sentence to make sense. So put it to you this way. Had the apostle John spoken English, When he said that sentence, wrote that down, he would have written that word even there. Okay? That's the easiest way to put it. Okay? We could go into, like, the Spanish, and there may be somebody here that speaks Spanish much better than me and could butcher this up. But I need to go to the supermarket. All right? Seven words. Okay? Yo necesito ir al supermercado, five words. There's two extra words in English. Those two extra words in English would have been italicized, okay? That's the easiest way to put it. Does anybody here speak Spanish that would know? All right, check it. You speak Spanish. Right, you don't need the yo, right? You just put necesito, right? You're absolutely right. So there, we could even cut it down to four words. Necesito ir al supermercado. Sure. Yep. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. And that's the other thing, the formal and informal. I've never was able to keep those things straight. All right? Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're not, no, I'm working on Italian right now, and I'm seeing that, absolutely, me and Trevor are, but yeah, absolutely. So, but that's what those italicized words would be, okay? They'd be those extra words, all right? Four words in Spanish to say the same sentence that took seven words in English, okay? The extra words, those extra three words in English would be italicized, all right? It's the easiest way to comprehend that. But he says, even to them that believe on his name. What is it? He gave them power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on his name." Which is to say, those that believe on his name. How, what is the power to become the Son of God? Belief. Believe the gospel. It's the, still the gospel, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is still the power of God unto salvation. Not, that word still isn't even in there. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. That power to become the sons of God is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and being born of God. He does the miracle work. He does all of that. He requires you to believe what he wrote. He requires you to believe the record that he gave of his son. All right, we're gonna go to 1 John 5 after a little bit here, but we'll continue on this. Verse 13, which we're born. Not of blood, okay? It's not your bloodline. Whether you're a Jew, it doesn't matter. Jew, Greek, Gentile, it doesn't matter. Nor of the will of the flesh, your carnal mind. Paul said, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. So your flesh is connected with that carnal mind, which is enmity against God. Okay, those fleshly things are those carnal things and it's only driven off of your carnal needs. Hunger is a carnal need, thirst is a carnal need, all right? Lust is a carnal need, all right? Those things, those are carnal things in your flesh. And you cannot will yourself in your own flesh into the grace of God. You can't do it. Why? Because then it would be of works. And it can't be of works, lest any man should boast. Let's continue on. Nor of the will of man. You can't even on the inward parts, will yourself into the grace of God. You can't do it. It says they were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. God is the only one that can do it. And you don't tell God what to do. Okay, God, I'm ready to be saved now, save me. And he says, I'm trying to find faith. I'm trying to find the faith of my dear son, and I don't see it in there. No. Oh, but he called on the name of the Lord, didn't he? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? You cannot call on the name of the Lord and be born again until you believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's impossible. That would be your will imposed upon God. That doesn't work. That just doesn't work. So who then can be saved? All those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But you couldn't do it God's way. You're not gonna do it your way. You're not gonna climb up another way. You're not gonna come in the back door. You're not gonna seek over the gate. You're not gonna dig and tunnel in. You're gonna go through the door. Jesus said, I am the door. If by me any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture. He's the door. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And by me and through me are two different things. And then he says both. By me is a direct action. If I take my pen and I give it directly to Russell, he received it by me, by my hand. But if I give it to my son Trevor and he gives it over to Russell, Russell still gets the pen. But it went through Trevor. For by grace he is saved through faith. And that, what's the subject of that? Faith, not of yourselves. And so when you look at this thing, No man cometh unto, that denotes delivery, difference between to and unto, to shows direction, unto shows it got delivered, it's there. It arrived at its destination. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. That means Jesus Christ has to take you there. You're not getting there on your own. Who's gonna send up into heaven and bring God down? Who's gonna send into the deep and bring him up again? No one. He's God. He does it on His terms, and His terms are right here. Isn't it amazing that He gives you what you need to know so you can be born of God, so you can be right with the God of heaven? the God of Israel, you can be right with him. The same God that commanded an angel to kill 185,000 men in one night. The same God that in his wrath smoked 20 and 3,000 fornicators in one day. Imagine if that same God would do that today. He says, I, the Lord, I change not. It's the same God. Oh, but you got saved because you didn't want to go to hell. You were afraid of fire. Pretty sure the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord. My people perish because of a lack of knowledge. There is no fear of God in their eyes. There's no fear of God in the world today. No fear of God at all. Why? Because no one believes this book. No one believes it. Intellectually, you can look at that, and historically, you can look at it. Scientifically, you can look at it, and you find it 100% accurate. You can make a mental ascension with your carnal mind. Yup, those things are true, but you don't believe a word of it. Why? Because in Philippians 1.23, it says, it's given unto you not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. Belief is a gift from God. God gives you belief. We're right here in John, ooh, John chapter six. Look at this, verse 29. Jesus answered and said, ooh, let's back up, Luke verse 27. This is good. John 6, 27, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. They said unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? You see that? He said, labor. They said, what do we got to do to work for it? He said, labor. They said, work. He said, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God. that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." It's a work that God does. God does that work. How? Romans 10, 17. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It's the foolishness of preaching. First Corinthians 14 it goes through this whole thing and it gets down to the end and it's talking about speaking in tongues and all this and if one come in and and Everybody's that he comes in he's unlearned it and unbelieving and everybody's speaking tongues isn't not gonna say you're mad But if I'll prophesy he says if all are declaring the Word of God and all are preaching the Word of God fall prophesying they're telling about the G the Lord Jesus Christ in the volume of the book and It says then he is convinced of all he is judged of all and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest And you shall fall down his face and worship and will say that God is in you of a truth It's the preaching of the Word of God that saves sinners Nothing has changed in that aspect nothing That's why unless you get somebody into the preaching the Word of God. There's no hope for him There's just no hope for them. God gave them the way. They're either going to do it God's way or they're not going to do it at all. And they're going to enter into eternal damnation. They will take part in that second death. They'll have their part. God gave them a way. God gave them a way. Ah, but he's the quickening spirit. That's where we were first talking about. Let's see. James 1.18 says, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Matthew 9.13, I wanna go on this just a little bit more. We might actually be done. We might do a part two of this quickening. Let's go to Matthew chapter nine. We might finish this this evening, I'm not sure. There's a couple of more things I wanna go through and I just, I don't have the liberty to do it. Matthew chapter 9, look at verse 13. He says, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. Now, we learned that we're born not of the blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. So we're born by the will of God. But what is God willing? He says, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Whenever you see that word will in your King James Bible, that's showing you either the will of man, the will of God, you see the will of devils and angels, you see this will here, okay? I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It's what Jesus Christ came to do. He came to call sinners to repentance. He didn't come to call the righteous. Why? The righteous don't need it. Sinners need it. Wretched, wicked, vile, need it. And by the way, the Pharisees needed it. And they were the most religious people you would have found in that day. They looked right, they dressed right, they talked right, they spoke clean, they knew that law inside and out, and they were lost without hope. They needed to be born again. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. And again, every time we go into this thing, I love pointing this out because it's just, it was such a simple thing and it opened so much for me. Ye, your, you, yours, it's all plural. Pronouns that are plural in your King James Bible. Thee, thy, thine, thou, all begin with T. Those are all singular. Okay, in Greek and Hebrew, there are plural pronouns and singular pronouns, okay, in all those languages. And when this was translated, those things didn't exist in the English language. People didn't say, go get thy hammer for me. They didn't say that. This is a language that nobody spoke at the time. Nobody talked like this. You read even, okay, read the letter from the translators to the reader at the beginning of the King James Bible. You just read that. It is written, it's very difficult, okay? Their level of eloquence was much more, but it is written completely different than the way the King James Bible is written. It's completely different, okay? And when you find those pronouns of thee, thy, thine, thou, it's speaking to one person. It's speaking singularly. Now there is possession in the different ways that those are sifted out, I understand that. Like the difference between you and yours, okay? Today, if I would say, you come with me, I could be talking to all of you, or I could be talking to one person. In order for me to get Bob to come with me, I'd say, Bob, comest thou with me? That would be the singular, it's identifying it all right there. And in John chapter three, Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus and he says, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. It's the entirety of the world that needs it. It's not just you, Nicodemus. It's everyone. It's all your Pharisee friends. The high priest must be born again. And that's the hardest thing for a religious person to see. What, I must be born again? Me? But I've got it right. I'm standing for the truth. I love God. With your lips. Your heart's far from him. Because when the law of God is applied, it hurts. It hurts. Oh, where were we? Matthew 9, that's where we were headed. What did I say? Verse 13. Did I read that yet? Yes, I did. Okay. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. One last place, and I think we're gonna be done. We're gonna end it with this. Go to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. We're going to look at verse 9. We're looking at the will of God. It says, "...the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward." Okay? Now, pause there. Remember I quoted to you the longsuffering the Lord is, salvation? Look at 1 Peter 3.15. or 2 Peter 3, 15, I apologize, just right over at verse 15. It says, in account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Right there it is, okay? But he says, the Lord is not slack considering his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's God's will, that they should come. He gave them everything that they needed, and they should come to repentance. But do all come? No. They should. That call went into all the earth. God said a call to Jacob, but it lighted upon Israel. Why? Had ears to hear. Some people don't have ears to hear. They're just not gonna hear the word of God. And some of the ones that stop their ears the most are those who have grown dull of hearing, and all they hear is like Charlie Brown's teacher. Romp, romp, romp, romp, romp, romp, romp, romp, romp, romp. Religion, religion, religion. Oh, there's a little more religion. I can look a little more religious. And I'm not talking about the Catholic Church. I'm talking about Bible-believing Baptists. They say they believe the word of God, but all they've got is religion. How do I know that? That was me from 2002 to 2009. Seven years, thought I was born again. There was nothing new in me, and I knew it. I knew it. I doubted my salvation constantly. There was no righteousness in me. How do I know there was no righteousness in me? Well, because the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. Assurance forever is a long time to have assurance of your salvation. And that righteousness in you, that you are made, changes things. What am I telling you? I'm telling you there is a salvation that will utterly change your life. There is a salvation that will pass you from death unto life. And it's found in a person. Salvation is not a thing. Salvation is a person, Jesus Christ. You find Jesus Christ, you'll find salvation. You find Jesus Christ, you'll be born of God. You find him, yeah, you'll get a home in heaven. You find Jesus Christ, you're not gonna have to spend one second in the flames of hell. But it's him. Where do you find it? Oh, we've got to go to one more place. Where do you find him? I could take you to Psalm 40, verse 7, but I'll just quote it. Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. 1 John, chapter 5. For the sake of time, I'm just going to read it to you. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. What witness is that? The Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. It's what it is. If the Spirit of God can't bear witness with your spirit on the inward parts, proving to you that you're saved, proving to you that you're born of God, then you are lost. And as I said in the beginning, he's gonna prove to you that you're lost. Because the comforter, when he shall come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me. And he's the comforter in that. The Holy Ghost is the comforter. in proving to you that you don't believe God. Look at this. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. Where is the record? It's in the Word of God. It's in your Bible. That's where the record is, of the Son of God. This is what God gave you to believe. You believe the Word of God? And everything that Jesus says about himself, what God the Father says, all of that, you believe that, and he'll save you. By the way, you gotta believe some things that he says about you too. Like you're lost, you're without hope, your religion is nothing, your righteousnesses are his filthy rags, all of them. You have no goodness. In you, that is in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing. It says this, and this is the record. All right, so we're about to see what that record says. That God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Why? Because he was made a quickening spirit. That's what it is. This life is in his son and that's the record Jesus Christ is eternal life you go to John chapter 3 in verse starting verse 14 and even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up as whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life Eternal life has no beginning. It has no end. I For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Everlasting and eternal are two different things. Eternal has no beginning and it has no end. It's God. Jesus Christ is eternal life. That's what it is. You get him. Everlasting life is a life that begins, has a starting point. There's a point of reference where you see that life start. but it lasts forever. It is everlasting. God gives it both to you. You get the eternal Son of God, and you get a life that starts and never ends. And it's in Jesus Christ. It's the whole thing. Why? Because he was made a quickening spirit. All right? There, and I think we're