Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
struggling with some things. So, I want you to just, you know, step out there, be bold. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Remember, the gospel is not just that Jesus died for sins and rose from the dead. That's of course the most wonderful thing, but the gospel is also that he bore our sicknesses and our infirmities. He came to set us free from the demonic forces that that latch on to us and oppress us and and so, there's a lot of people out there that need they need the true gospel. They need to understand what it means to repent, and they're going to need somebody to explain it to them. And they're going to need some deliverance, and they're going to need some healing. And that's what God's called his church to do. Amen? Hallelujah. So, take that word right there as God's saying, "I'm ready to I'm ready now." Amen? Don't look to a day in the future to do something for God. Do it now. Amen? All right. Hallelujah. Don't despise prophesying, the Bible says. Tongues and interpretation in the church is equivalent to prophecy. Amen? So, don't despise prophesying. 1 Thessalonians 5, don't despise prophesying. Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. Amen? The Lord is with us. And that's one thing I can say for sure. I can judge that prophecy there, that interpretation. I know the Lord is with us. God is moving in new and fresh ways. Amen? Hallelujah. And he's moving all over the place. Um, I've shared with you a word God gave me back a a few, I don't know, maybe it was a couple of months ago, two or three months ago, but I was praying right there on that couch is where I usually pray in the mornings. And I was praying and the Lord just spoke to me and he said, "You know, our little church is and he said, "You guys are the the five loaves and the two fish." All right, not much. Just a little boy's lunch. But, Jesus took that and Jesus is able by his power and by his anointing and by his favor to to use us to touch thousands of people and we're seeing that happen right now. Um but I believe that uh I believe we're going to do more than just just what's going on through the internet and through our different outreaches, through all that, but God wants us to reach this city. Amen. This region, Opelika and Auburn. And you know, a lot of people think, well, you know, this this city's full of churches. We're in the South. We're full of churches, yeah? We are full of churches, but sadly, most of them do not preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They preach a version of it uh that's watered down that's actually so watered down that it's become a false representation of Jesus. But, this was the warning of the Apostle Paul. He said that, you know, there would come a time they would not endure sound doctrine, but they would heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, right?
He said that time would come and we are in that time, right? But, he told his people to preach the word, to be instant in season and out of season, to reprove and rebuke and to correct with all long-suffering, right? And doctrine. So, we're going to look at the scriptures this morning. The Lord's given me a a message I think we need to look at, but uh I'm just simply going to call it the foundation of God. Cuz I felt like that's what he spoke to me this morning. Did everybody take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. You know, there's a scripture while you're turning there, I'll just give it to you. You can write it down, jot it down, look it up. But, it's Psalm 11 verse 3. And David wrote there, "If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?" Right? The foundation. And the foundation of God is is important because you know what I'm finding out? I'm finding out that there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians in this world who are not even established on the basic foundation of of God, the basic foundation of Jesus Christ. They're not even They They think they know Jesus, or they think they know about him because they know his name, or they might know a few scriptures. But, what I'm finding out is many Christian people don't even understand who he is. Much less what it takes to follow him, what it takes to be saved, to be born again, what it means to become a disciple, what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in power, and what it means to walk in holiness. I mean, that's almost a bad word now in the church world, holiness. Now, if you say that word, you're legalistic. Right? That God actually demands holiness uh from his people. So, let's let's look at this. We're going to go through a few scriptures and then, you know, just go wherever the where the Lord says here, but let's go to uh 1 Corinthians chapter Look at verse 1. Paul's speaking to this church and he says, "And I, brethren, cannot speak unto you as under spiritual, but as under carnal, even as under babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believe? Even as the Lord gave to every man. I have a I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So
then neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. And you are God's husbandry, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, Paul said, here I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. He says, but let every man take heed how he builds thereon. Now look at verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now we could say that much easier than I guess it's written here a little difficult, but no there's no other foundation that can be laid except the foundation of Jesus Christ. But what and if we let the devil come in or the church world, the seminary world, the theological world, we've let the devil come in and change this. What happened? I'm going to read another scripture before we go on, but notice it says here what? That there is no other foundation except Jesus Christ. Now we have to identify him, right? We got to be sure we know who we're talking about. Why is that? Well, flip on over and go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 Because Paul warned about people coming preaching another Jesus, another gospel, and having another spirit. Now, this is some of the stuff I've I've preached to you guys a good bit, but I'm going to go a little different direction with it hopefully today and help you. But, here is what he said. This is why he said, "No other foundation can be laid but the foundation of Jesus Christ." So, we need to look at who Jesus is because Paul warned in 2nd Corinthians 11:1-4 he said, "Would to God that you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But, I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom you have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received, or if or another gospel which you have not accepted, notice he warns. He see he tells them, "You might well bear with them. You might accept it."
Listen, there are a lot of churches out here. There are a lot of big, pretty, fancy churches. There's a lot of big denominations out here that claim to preach Jesus. They claim to preach the gospel. They claim to have the Holy Spirit. But, I'm going to tell you right now, many of them do not have the real Jesus. They do not preach the true gospel, and they do not have the Holy Ghost. I don't even care if they have signs and wonders and miracles going on. And right now, in these last days that we're living in that Jesus warned us about, we are at epidemic proportions of this false Jesus being preached. This blew me away. You know, I made a statement on my Dino Ministries Facebook page this past week about Jesus Christ being God in the flesh. Now, this is foundational Christian doctrine that's clearly in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Our Lord is one Lord. God Almighty, the creator, is one God who manifests himself in three different ways, but he is not three different gods. He is not three different beings, and Jesus Christ is not somehow lesser and somehow a created being or did or had a beginning. But yet, there are many people out there who call themselves Christians that believe say they believe in God the Father, but that they don't believe that Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh. Now, we might look at this in a little depth this morning, but still here I'm I'm My mind's boggled. I mean, because of the verse that comes to my mind, one of my favorites, is of course Isaiah 9:6 that we should know that's on Christmas cards every year, right? That's you even see in secular places all, you know, around Christmas time every year you see Isaiah 9:6. Behold, what? A child is born. A son is given. And his name will be called what? Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. Right? The Old Testament prophet Isaiah called this son who would be born, this child who would be born, who would be a son, he called him the Mighty God, not a mighty God. That's right. Call him the everlasting father. And then when Jesus looks at Philip and we're in John 14 and Philip is standing there and he says to Jesus, even Jesus' disciples were confused about this. And Philip says, "Show us the father." This is John 14. Show us the father. And what does Jesus say to him? He turns to him and he says, "Philip, have I not been so long a time with you?
If you've seen me, you have seen the father. Not you have seen something like the father. Jesus said, "I and my father are one." That doesn't mean two. We are one. And then I think about, you know, the Bible says Genesis 1:26. If you're taking notes, if you want to turn, I'm going to just, you know, I'm just spontaneously going through this this morning. But Genesis 1:26 when GOD SAID, "LET US MAKE man after our image." So who's he talking to? Himself. But he says, "Let us make man after our image." So I look at each human being and I look at what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. What does he say? I pray God that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So a human being has three parts, a spirit, a soul, and a body. Three different Greek words. But there's not three Dean Odells. I have a spirit. I have a soul. I have a body. I am three parts, but I am one Dean. God and I am made in the image of God. Our God is one God who manifested himself, who has three distinct parts, BUT HE IS ONE GOD. SEE, the Muslims and other people try to claim that Christians are polytheists, that we believe in three gods. BUT, IT'S NOT TRUE. BUT, there's a lot of Christians who say that Jesus is not God who manifested himself in the flesh, just a god. He's a god. That's one of the things they say. Then, they try to say, "Well, no. Now, how could Jesus be God when the Bible says he's the son of God?" And they want to get into all these discussions about this. And I say, "You know what? Here's the thing. The Bible's very clear in John 1. In the beginning was the word. And the word was God. And the word was with God. Verse 14 says, "And the word became flesh." So, if he just told me the word was God, and that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made, then the creator is the word of God. That was his name before he became the son. When God decided to take on a human body, the way he chose to reveal that truth to us is that I'm going to show you the relationship between a father and a son, so you'll get a picture of how you're supposed to have a relationship with me. But, he couldn't trust anybody to do it, SO HE DID IT HIMSELF. AMEN? AMEN. And I don't know why this is so hard to understand. The Bible says it, you know, if a Christian right now dies before the second coming of Jesus, before the resurrection and the rapture takes place, when a Christian dies, the body goes into the grave, but the spirit and the soul separate from the
body and go into heaven. Remember Paul said, "To be absent from the body is what?" "To be present with the Lord." So, for a season, until the resurrection, the body and the spirit and the soul are separate from one another. God can separate his three parts out. Amen. And that's why Jesus said, "I came forth from the Father. I separated out and came." Amen. You know, before that I mean, it gets deep. Because, you know, there is no time with God. He's eternal, so everything in him has always existed. Amen. We won't get into that. That'll just I don't want to fry some brains this morning. But, again Listen. If somebody says to you that Jesus Christ is not God they don't believe in fundamental foundational Christianity. They're already off base. Amen. This is a fundamental Christian belief. I'll give you a few verses. Just just off the top of my 1 Timothy 3:16. If your Bible doesn't say God was manifested in the flesh, it was changed. You need to get one that does. Cuz the original Greek, the original true uncorrupted manuscripts says in 1 Timothy 3:16 that God was manifested in the flesh. Amen. That's one right there. Hebrews 1, he says he says God said to my God. Oh, wait a minute. And he refers to Jesus. Right? God in the Old Testament said, "I'm the beginning and the end." Jesus comes along and says, "I'm the beginning and the end." Oh. Amen. Jesus is God. So, that's the first thing. The foundation, and again, what I'm talking about this morning, the foundation of God and we find out from 1 Corinthians 3 the foundation of no other foundation can be laid but that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But who is Jesus? You see? He's the eternal everlasting father. He's also the son. Amen. And that's why the book of John says he had the spirit of God without measure. Cuz guess who can have the spirit of God without measure? God. Right? I tell people all the time it's not hard to understand. Really it The most fundamental one of the most fundamental elements in our world, what is it? Water. Pretty important, right? To everything. Water. I take a glass of water. Now that same glass of water,
that same cup, that H2O, can be what? It can be frozen, it can be a solid, it can be a liquid, or it can be a gas. Right? It gets hot enough and it's steam. Right? Three different parts of the same thing. Whether it's steam, whether it's ice, whether it's liquid, it's still H2O. It never changed. Whether God comes to you and speaks to you and reveals himself to you as a loving heavenly father, or he comes to you as the son, or he comes to you as the Holy Spirit fire and power, it doesn't matter. He is God manifesting himself in three ways. Foundational Christianity, okay? Every false religion in the world and every Christian cult denies that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. That is, and I'm going to tell you, that is the spirit of Antichrist that's taken over the world. That's in Islam, it's in Hinduism, Buddhism, it's in Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons, Christian Science, Scientology, all of the new age things. And right now, even many Roman Catholics are saying these things. Okay? So, the first defining aspect of the foundation of God is is Jesus Christ. Number one, number two, who is he? He is God who manifested himself in the flesh. Amen. You'd think a preacher these days wouldn't have to preach on this. Right? There's many scriptures that we can give. But, let's let's move on cuz remember Paul, he said, you know, the foundation Let's look, go to Matthew 16. In light of the Roman Catholic Church getting their newest false prophet this past week. Let's uh Let's look at a passage that they've hijacked. Because they had to hijack it cuz it's a foundational doctrine of Christianity. All right. You with me? All right. Matthew 16, verse 13.
It says, "When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, 'Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?'" "And they said, 'Some say that thou art John the Baptist, and some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.'" "And he saith unto them, 'But who say ye that I am?'" "And Simon Peter answered and said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" "And Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in the in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose in the heaven.' And then he charged his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus, the Christ." Now, why is that important? See, a lot of people skip over this, but if you call Jesus the Christ or the Messiah, okay? The Old Testament clearly revealed that whoever was the Messiah when he came, that he would be God. That's where we get the scripture in in Isaiah, when he said he will be what? Emmanuel. God with us, right? Everybody know that? Right? Said that God said, "I'll give you a sign, a virgin will conceive." Right? So, all these things, to say that he was the Christ meant that he was God in the flesh. Now, granted, most people back then didn't understand that. And here's what's amazing. The heavenly Father gives uh Peter this revelation of who Jesus is, the Christ, first. God in the flesh, the Son of the living God, the position that he decided to take to show us how this worked. Peter didn't even understand what he was saying. They didn't fully understand it until after his resurrection and Jesus sat down and explained it all to them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen? See, this is something else. Let me just say, I think that there's a lot of people in the Christian world who call themselves Christians who have never really been born again. Now, I know there's a lot that have and have backslidden and fallen away from God. They've fallen into error or they're living in sin, but there's a bunch of folks that think they're Christians, but they've never truly been born again. And what does the Bible say? If you're not born again, you do not have the spirit of God dwelling in you. And if you don't have the spirit of God dwelling in you, then these things seem like foolishness. It says the natural man cannot understand the things of the spirit of God because they are foolishness to them. I actually believe that this is why the Christian church world is so messed up because we got a bunch of unsaved people that are in positions of being pastors
and priests and teachers and and everything else. They just go to seminary and they get a degree, but they're not born again and they don't have the Holy Ghost in them. And so they try to teach us Christianity and we listen to them because they got a piece of paper on the wall. And I'm not against education. I got my pieces of paper back there and I'm not against those things. It's just not about that. If you don't If you're not truly born again and you don't know the Lord intimately and powerfully and personally and you're not filled with the Holy Ghost, you're not going to even understand the basic concepts of You can't even read the Bible. And that's what gets ME. WE GOT ROMA DOWNEY, you know, doing the Bible series and people got so mad at me for making one comment about how they conveniently left out the whole reason why God judged Sodom and Gomorrah when they did the Sodom and Gomorrah scene. They left out the whole homosexual issue. You know, that the homosexuals wanted to rape the angels that looked like men and wanted to rape Lot. They left that out, you know. But I make one comment about that and people lose their minds. And then my wife does a little research and we find out that Roma Downey is in a new age Christian cult that says all paths lead to God, all religions lead to God. And yet she's the one doing the Bible series. Her and her husband are the ones that produced it. No telling what else they're going to leave out or twist or change. And what I just can't find I find amazing. Christians around act like they got to have a a a Bible TV series so that they can learn the Bible or have a conversation about the Bible with someone. You know what I've said and I said it last night. It's amazing to me because, you know, I wonder how the Jews and the Christians kept the faith alive for centuries before TV came into being. You know? It's ridiculous. Now, they love it so much. Let me tell you why they love it so much and they defend it so much even though it's it's being twisted. The Bible's being twisted. They love it so much cuz it's coming through their idol. Anything comes through the idol, oh, that's wonderful. It's coming through the idol. I know, I said it. What is What is Americans' idol? Entertainment. You know what? That's our greatest idol. We put the idolatry of Rome, the idolatry of worshipping Mary and praying to Mary and praying to dead folks they call saints. We put it to shame with the TV set. I didn't make their praying to Mary right.
Amen. But that's wrong. I know yeah, I'm not afraid to bust Rome. Yeah, I'll bust them down. Um We got to quit being afraid. I don't care if it's Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, Charismatics, or the Roman Catholics. If it's wrong, it's wrong. If it's not Bible, if it's not foundational Christianity, if you're getting off base and you're in the la-la land and idolatry and and tolerating all kind of sexual sin and immorality, something's wrong. Right? Something is terribly wrong. Now, Jesus said here He said to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church." Let's just break this down for Rome, cuz they seem to can't get this one right. Okay? Jesus is speaking to Peter, but he's speaking to all of his apostles, but he says, "You are Peter." The Greek word he used here is petros, which means, if you look it up in the Greek dictionary, just a piece of the rock. But he says, "Upon this rock, petra, a huge, massive rock, I'm going to build my church." Do you think that Jesus was saying, "I'm going to build my church on the little pebble of Peter"? No. He was saying, "I'm going to build my church on this massive rock of the revelation of who I am." And listen, if you go over into 1 Peter chapter 2 where it refers to Jesus as the stone of stumbling, guess what? He is referred to in that passage as petra in the Greek. So, Jesus was saying, "I'm going to build my church on me." ON THE REVELATION OF OF ME, of who I am, not on Peter. So, even if they were right, they need to study Greek a little BIT BECAUSE THEY'RE WRONG. AND THEY BUILT THEIR WHOLE CHURCH ON SOMETHING THAT'S WRONG. AND THAT'S JUST ONE THING. RIGHT? But the foundation is the revelation, knowing who Jesus is. Do you hear what I'm saying? This is the whole foundation of the church is knowing that you have the right Jesus. Christ, Messiah, GOD IN THE FLESH. AMEN. I'm sorry if I'm a little loud and fired up this morning, BUT I GET FIRED UP ABOUT WHO HE IS. He's not just another RELIGIOUS LEADER. HE'S NOT just a man who had some power and did some miracles. He's not just a man who realized his own divinity like Buddha or
something. He is the creator of everything. HE IS ABOVE ALL GODS. HIS NAME is above every name. No matter which language you say it in. We've had a little debate on Facebook about the right English translation. Guess what? Jesus Christ is the correct English translation from Greek. Amen. But in Hebrew it'd be Yeshua or Yeshua. You know in Spanish, Jesús Cristos. In Greek, Yesous. I mean, how many you know, if I'm speaking to Hebrew people, I would say Yehoshua. Or Yeshua, either one works. You get what I'm saying? Jesus Christ, somebody's trying to argue with me, it's wrong to use Jesus Christ. And I'm like, my lord, son. Do you know for 26 years how many people I've seen saved, truly saved, truly born again, truly healed, delivered, I've seen the crippled walk and the deaf hear and the blind see and the dead raised and cast out hundreds of demons in the name of Jesus Christ, the English translation, it works. Goodness. Can come up with some foolish and listen, I know about the Messianic movement, I praise God for Jews that are getting saved and becoming Christians and I don't say they have to give up all their heritage, but don't try to make me a Jew. Amen. Hey, I think it's wonderful to go to a Passover meal. I think it's wonderful to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. I think it's wonderful to learn from all of those things, but I don't have to do them. Amen. The New Testament has set me free from the ceremonial law. Amen. I didn't say the moral law. But I said the ceremonial law. We'll cover that in another message, right? All right. The foundation. Now, let's get back to it. Now, I'm going to show you something else, all right? So, we know who Jesus is, right? God in the flesh. Now, we got to know something else about him. Um go to Acts chapter 20. Ooh, boy, I can feel this today. Acts chapter 20. Well, this this gets looked over here. Now, as you turn to Acts chapter 20, what did John the Baptist call Jesus when Jesus walked by? And everybody was standing there and Jesus walked by and what did he say? He said, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Jesus is the Lamb of God. I'm going to show you something. This is how bad sin is. It's how bad your sin was, how bad my sin was.
Folks, it took the blood of God, not just the blood of a man. If it was just the blood of a good man or a righteous man that it would take to cleanse us from our sins and to give us eternal life. And there's been a lot of good men. A lot of righteous men, a lot of men who've laid down their lives for other people. But all that righteousness is as filthy rags. Because there's only one who ever lived that never sinned. And there's only one that ever lived that it was even possible that they would not sin. And that is Jesus Christ. See, here's what I love. I I I put this on Facebook the other day and it blew up. I mean, it went just viral out there. Went crazy. But do you know that Buddha neither Buddha nor Muhammad nor any religious leader ever claimed to be the God, the creator? You know that Buddha never claimed to be God. Muhammad didn't claim to be God. He points people to the wrong God, to Allah, this moon God who is not the same god of the Jews or or the Christians. But he didn't claim to be God. But there's one religious leader who came and said, "I am God." Who said, "If a man keeps my saying, he will never see death." Right? "Before Abraham was, I am." Used the very name God revealed to Moses in the burning bush, "I am that I am." Right? It took the blood of God to deal with the sin of mankind. You hear what I'm saying? Look what Paul Paul wrote about this. I mean, there's more than one verse, but let's just read this one. He was finishing his sermon to uh to the church of Ephesus. Verse 17, let's just read a few verses here. And from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, and he called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, "You know that from the first day that I came in to Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how that I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks, what?
Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is something you might want to mark cuz this is going to be our next point here in a second. But I want you to see, Paul says, "This is what I've testified. This is what I have preached to you, testifying to the Jews repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, "And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide in me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." So these was his last words to this church. Okay? Face-to-face, anyway. And look what he said. He said, "Wherefore I take to you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men." Why? Why Why could Paul say, "No man's blood here is on my hand"? He said, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. God purchased the church with his own blood. Do you see that? Shall we read it again? He says, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood." He said, "God" The word God there in the Greek is the supreme God purchased it, the church, with his own blood. Somebody say this with me. The blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross is the blood of God. Amen. And no other blood was good enough. Not the blood of bulls and goats, not the blood of sheep and lambs, not the blood of turtle doves or any other thing. God said all those things that he had the children of Israel do under the old covenant, they were all types and shadows pointing to the day when God would take on a human body. So Jesus is the only one that can take away sin.
You are you are hoping for salvation in vain if you are hoping in Allah or Muhammad or Buddha or Krishna or anything else in this world. And you know, there's only one religious leader whoever had a book written about him thousands of years before he showed up that gave details not only about where he would be born what his name would be how he would be born, the circumstances around his birth but that he would die and how he would die. It talks about in Psalm 22, David prophesied and and Jesus spoke through him said, "They have pierced my hands and my feet." 1,000 BC. "They have pierced my hands and my feet. They have cast lots for my garments. There is no religious leader, not Muhammad, not Buddha, not any of them, that can say it was foretold that he would die. And it says in Isaiah 53, 750 BC, he would be wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace would be upon him, and by his stripes we would be healed, that he would be numbered with the transgressors. Literally means he would suffer and die among among criminals. And then it says he would be put with the rich in his death, in a rich man's tomb. And all of that happened. Nearly eight centuries later. Right? The Quran can't make that claim. The Hindu Vedas can't make that claim. The writings and the teachings of Buddha, no one, there's no religion that can make that claim and back it up. It's time to follow the right God. Listen, folks, people listen to these messages in Europe, in Saudi Arabia, in Turkey. It's why I preach like I do. You say, "Wow, you're preaching like you're preaching to the world." That's right. Muslims listen. You know? Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. No man's coming to the Father but through him. Let's look at something else here. Remember I said that that repentance toward God and faith is an important thing? Go with me to 2 Timothy. Remember we're talking about the foundation of God this morning.
Here's another Here's another aspect of the foundation that's left out of the modern church, particularly in America and Europe. I find it amazing that I have to explain this all the time. Everybody there yet? Second Timothy? You're trying to get there myself. Second Timothy chapter 2. We're going to start reading at verse 14. Second Timothy 2:14. Everybody with me? I want to make sure you see it for yourself. What he says here. He's been talking about Jesus the whole time. He says, "Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase into more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some." I love it, you know, people say we shouldn't name names, but I will name them. Paul named names. He told them, "Beware of this Hymenaeus and Philetus. They're teaching error, and it's and it's throwing it's throwing people off their faith. It's throwing, you know, overthrowing people's faith." But look at verse 19. Somebody say this with me. "Nevertheless, Nevertheless, the foundation of God the foundation of God. Standeth sure. Standeth sure. Having this seal. Having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Depart from This is the foundation of God. To know who Jesus Christ is. That he is God in the flesh. That he is the only perfect sinless sacrifice for our sins. The only way we can be forgiven. But how do you experience that? You need to know how you get that. How you have it. How you possess it. How you keep it. How you walk in it. And it's the dirty little word that no one preaches anymore. It's called repentance. Repentance. The Greek word metanoia. It means to feel the guilt of sin. To change your mind about sin. That means to agree with God about it.
And then for that guilt and that change of mind to bring reformation or change in your life. There's so many people who say, "I believe in Jesus." But they have not repented of their sins. They haven't confessed them. They haven't felt sorry about them. If they really felt godly sorrow, then they would hate those sins and want to walk away from them and be a different person and draw near to God. So many people want to have Jesus. They want to have salvation. They want to have this great thing that God has purchased for us in his own blood, but they don't want to do it his way. Amen. I'm sorry, folks, but I know it's hard for us that in the with our English language to grasp that believeth in our English language means much more than just some mental ascent and I can go do what I want. I mean it's it's a travesty. It's one of the greatest tragedies that's happened to the church world. You know, how many of you remember you've ever heard of William Booth? The founder of the Salvation Army. Back in 1800s. You know what he prophesied? One of his his prophecy and I can't remember the whole thing right now, but one of the things he prophesied he said, "I know that in the days ahead he said, "there will be a gospel that offers forgiveness without repentance." Oh. What did Paul say he preached to Ephesus? He held back nothing. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. How many people they want to say I believe in Jesus, but they want to continue in adultery, they want to continue in premarital sex, they want to confess Jesus now and continue in homosexuality? They want to they want to say I follow Jesus, but they want to keep on lying, stealing, cheating. And again, you guys know I've said this before. I'm not saying that a Christian a born-again Christian never sins, but it's not what dominates their life. If that dominates their life and it is a habitual thing and it is a lifestyle, they are even have they have either fallen away from God or in a backslidden lukewarm state in grave danger of of judgment and being lost to eternal fire forever in hell or they've never been saved and understood that you must repent to be born again. Listen, folks. I was not saved until I was willing to GIVE UP MY SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK AND ROLL. BUT WHEN I SAID, "JESUS, WHAT YOU PAID, THE PRICE YOU PAID for me on the cross, is worth me giving MY LIFE." HE SHOWED ME, LISTEN, IF GOD HASN'T SHOWN you that the wages of sin is
death, and that if you keep that a lifestyle of sin and rebellion to God, that that leads to eternal death and hell, if if God hasn't convicted you of that and shown you that, then I dare say you've never been truly saved. You've never come under conviction of sin. WE'VE FORGOTTEN EVEN THE PATH OF SIN. Uh uh uh of salvation to get to get out of the sin. Listen, folks want to think, you know, I you listen, I was a drunkard. I'm not anymore. Amen. I was a fornicator. I'm not now. Amen. I was an angry, foul-mouthed, violent man. I'm not it. Why? Because I repented and put faith in Jesus. And he washed that out of me, gave me his Holy Spirit, but he gave me his Holy Spirit and washed me because I understood that he hates that stuff, and that he doesn't want me doing that stuff, and to be with him, I got to turn from that stuff. This is foundational Christianity. This is why this verse says this, "Nevertheless, verse 19, 2 Timothy 2, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity or sin." Somebody say, "That's good preaching." Listen, that's the way Billy Graham used to preach back in the 1950s. When he filled up Madison Square Garden, that was the way he used to preach. But this political correctness, this nicey-nicey, this water it down, this seeker-sensitive pressure to change Christianity and make it unoffensive has twisted it all to pieces and changed the gospel to something it never was. LISTEN, THEY DIDN'T BEAT PAUL, they didn't beat him with rods and stone him and throw him in jail and whip him five different times, and they didn't kill Jesus, and they didn't kill the other apostles because they preached that Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life to sit around and sing Kumbaya. No, what got John the Baptist's head cut off? When he told Herod, "You can't It's not lawful for you. It's not right before God to have your brother's wife." Got a little specific. Right? No, if John the Baptist would have sat there and said, "It's all right, Herod. I understand. God understands. He knows your heart. I got you. We're good." No, that's a Joel Osteen. That's what Joel Osteen does, and I'm not afraid to say it. He does not preach what I'm preaching this morning. Does not do it.
But he's not the only one. It's conveniently missing from many ministers and many Christians. And And here Here's why this is so important. If preachers don't preach it, then it doesn't get ingrained in your heart and your mind, and when you share the gospel with somebody else, you'll end up sharing the wrong way. I'm sorry. A homosexual can say he believes in Jesus and comes to church. And he can come to church or she come to church. I want them to come to church. They're welcome. But salvation will come when they confess what they're doing as sin that God hates, that Jesus died to set them free from, and they say, "I believe in this sin. I'm repenting. I'm turning away from it, and I'm going to give Jesus my life." That's salvation. And I'm not in hate or a bigot because I tell them to give up their homosexuality just like I would tell the adulterer to give up his adultery or the murderer to give up his murder or the drunkard to give up their alcohol. IT'S THE GOSPEL. THE PROBLEM WITH MANKIND is sin. The answer is Jesus Christ and his blood and turning away from it and letting the blood wash you and cleanse you and make you a new creature. That's Christianity. There is I'm going to be very blunt. There is no true Christianity where Jesus Christ is not exalted as God and his blood as the only way and him as the only way and that repentance is how you get it. You know what repentance is? Repentance is the action of faith. If you want an answer for what is repentance, it's the first, second, third, final walk action of faith. Listen, to be a disciple of Jesus means you spend your life turning away from sin, resisting that taking you back, and walking, taking up your cross, dying daily, following after him. Amen. That's Christianity. Let me Let me show you a verse. I bet y'all never even never even caught. You want a blessing? You want the blessing of Jesus Christ on your life? You want a blessing? You ain't going to get it from Pope Francis. Here it is. Okay? I bless the I bless the world. No, you didn't bless anybody. The first thing you should have said, "Huh, I'm going to rebuild the church. Pope Francis going to rebuild the church? All right, first step, uh the
statues got to go. Y'all got to quit bowing to statues. Y'all got to quit praying to Mary. It's idolatry. You got to quit. You priest molesting children, you gone. You bunch of homosexual priests, you gone." I then I'd get get my attention. I'd go, "Hey, may- maybe maybe we got a man of God that's going to do the right thing." No. First thing he said, first words, "I'm leaving here now to go pray to the Madonna." And I'm like, well, not as if I had any hope that, you know, but still, you know, people have done some radical things. Acts chapter 3. I promise we're about to stop. I could go on with this one. You know, 20, 30 years ago you used to hear preaching like this. I remember when I was a young man here, sitting in churches, I'd hear preaching like this. About who Jesus is. What it takes to follow him. What it takes to be born again. What it takes to be saved and to stay that way. Amen. And the church has gone we've gone it's gone downhill. But look at this. You know, say you want a blessing, right? Now let's read, I got to see where we need to read from here. In Acts 3 Well, let's look at verse 26 is the one. We'll just end with this. This is Peter's sermon after the healing of the lame man. And he's speaking to them all, he's speaking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the people that gathered around. And look what he says, he says, "Unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you." How? In turning away every one of you from his iniquities. The blessing of Jesus Christ is to get you to turn from your iniquities, and the blessing inside that blessing is that his blood will wash you and cleanse you, and then he can fill you with the Holy Spirit, and then you can have power to not be that person you used to be. Homosexuals want to argue about they were born that way? Well, guess what? I was born wrong the first time, too. Amen. That's why Jesus said you must be born again. An old man has to die, and a new man raised to life through the power of Jesus Christ. That's why it says in John 1:12 that he gives US POWER TO BECOME the sons of God. Right? That is just awesome to me. I don't have the power in my own strength or ability to live the Christian life. I have to have God's grace and help. But if I don't cooperate with him, what he's
trying to do in my life, then I frustrate the grace of God. And And of course Hebrews 10 says you can abuse the grace of God. Right? But the blessing, he sent his son to bless you. And the blessing is to get you to turn them in. Say Pastor Dean's trying to bless me this morning. Right? That's why Pope Francis and stuff doesn't bless anybody cuz he's not trying to get people out of idolatry. And he can't get them out with the system they got. Right? Because you got to have the truth. The way, the truth, and the life. They preach another Jesus that doesn't answer prayers unless Mary comes and convinces him to do it. That's not the Jesus I I got. Amen. My Jesus didn't need Mary to participate in the sufferings of Christ and to become part of salvation. Oh yeah, that's what they teach. She's co-redeemer. Co-mediator. Co-savior. No. The real Jesus doesn't have a co-mediator. Right? He he he No. There's no assistant. He was it. Amen. Him and him alone. I need to quit right there, but now let's do this. Go to John 1, and this will be our final. I mean, first John, I'm sorry, first John. First John 1. Got you going the wrong direction. But now we're getting back on the right direction. We'll close with these verses. We're going to read verse five. Starting verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness and that means in the sins of the flesh and the lust of the flesh and the devil's works. Says if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light. Now, what is the light? The light is the word of God, right? The word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, right? If we walk in the light as he is in the
light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. Of course, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, if we confess. Joseph Prince teaches you don't have to confess a Christian don't have to confess sin. Yet, John says we here. So, he's including himself. So, John said we have to confess sins as Christians. But Joseph Prince has decided he's got a better way. Okay? If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now, let's keep reading. My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby or this is how we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. This is how we know that we are in him. Does that not go against the majority of modern American Christianity? Amen. The foundation of God is Jesus Christ. The way into Jesus Christ, the foundation, is repentance and obedience to his commands and holy living. And that sin in the life of the believer is the exception and not the rule. Amen. We might cover next week that there are sins unto death and sins not unto death. All sins not the same to God. We might be getting into that discussion. But not right now. Let's pray. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you, heavenly Father. We thank you for the word. God, I thank you that you preserved your written word for us that we could have an anchor, that we could have, Lord, the truth in this life about your character, your nature, your work, about everything about you, God. We have what we need. I thank you that the written word, God, that it you said that it's powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's alive and powerful. And I thank you, Lord, that the Holy Spirit anoints it and empowers it in our lives. And I just ask you, Lord, to take this word today, the truth of what the gospel is, what who Jesus
is, and what the gospel is about. Take this and let it sink deep into our souls, everyone here and everyone listening by internet radio or by podcast. Let it sink deep into every heart and every life. That Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He is the unique and only true savior and Messiah. His blood is the only pure sinless blood that can wash away sin. And that the way we experience that is to turn from sin, from idols, from all other gods, and to make Jesus the supreme Lord God of our lives. Father, let people hearing this today repent, turn away from sin, and truly get saved, truly become born again. Even if they're listening in Saudi Arabia or Turkey or Italy, or Zimbabwe or Kenya, touch people's lives today, Lord. Touch people here, us Christians to be bold and strong to preach this as we live it. Father, we pray this this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, I hope you learned something today. And maybe you knew all these truths. And that's good. But it's time to share it. And it's time to be bold because the world out there is putting the pressure on the church to lighten up. I mean, listen, the theology of the doctrine of the coming Antichrist and the world government and the UN and all the stuff they're doing and I I can prove all of it. It's not that they are upset about you. You want to follow Jesus, follow Jesus. Just don't tell us he's the only way. Mhm, then you're enemy number one. Don't tell us Jesus is the only way. So, that's why we need to be well equipped true Christians, solid in the word cuz listen, I'm watching videos the other day. I get sent one of the persecution in Korea, I mean in North Korea. I I it blows my mind what Christians are living under. I've become friends with a guy in uh in Pakistan and of course you know we've had another brother from Pakistan minister here. Um last week, I know I don't know if I shared it, but I sent some money to Pakistan because there are the the friend that I have in Pakistan, Sahil, um who's a minister there. Um a town very near to him, the Muslims got all in an uproar, ran Christians about 160, 170 homes, ran all the Christians out, burned, took anything of value and then burned their homes. And these Christians are living in tents
or really just whatever they can find. And so, I sent him some stuff. He sent me some pictures back that they went and bought supplies and food and and things and you know, right now American money will go a little further than uh in Pakistan and other places. I don't know how long that's going to last, but just let you know that uh you know, I think sometimes we're spoiled rotten here. Aren't we? You know, we think we're suffering if somebody calls us a name, you know, or disagrees with us or or if we lose a friend or over preaching the truth or something, we we think we're suffering. No, friend, there's suffering in North Korea. There's suffering in Pakistan. There suffering in Iran. The Christians I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine living under that. So, we're blessed. We need to count our blessings, and we need to use the freedom, the opportunities we have, and to quit being afraid of what people think, or what they might say, or what they might do, or what or what friendship we might lose, or what person might be offended. It's just time to stand up and be strong, because listen, I do believe this, what's happening in Pakistan, and what's happening in North Korea will soon reach the United States of America. It's building like a huge storm in the atmosphere, it just hadn't hit shore yet, but it's going to hit shore. And we need to grow up. Amen, and be strong about what we believe. I mean, listen, I get called all kind of things. I get called The new name I'm getting called right now by a person is the Antichrist. I'm the Antichrist. Yeah, that's the new name. I have been called pure evil, that's another one. All right. For simply preaching like I preached this morning. But I don't care. It doesn't move me one bit. All right. And you can't let it you move you. Listen, we have family members that won't speak to us. Am I right, babe? Don't care. Love them, wish they would, but I'm sorry if the truth offends you. All right. If you want to live in your, you know, as my friend Billy Painter puts it, if you want to live in your Dr. Feelgood gospel fantasy land, enjoy that. Time's running out on Yeah, time's running out on that little that little Willy Wonka trip, isn't it?