Are we on? We good? Okay. I will say there's a few places that I've been to that genuinely feel like home away from home, and oddly enough, a church on the other side of the world definitely felt that way. And I think it's nice when you can go literally to the other side of the world and still feel like somewhat being at home, but obviously there is no place like home. And it is definitely good to be back. So, open your Bibles to John chapter number 6. And why don't we do this? Why don't we stand for a little bit, read a couple verses, and then have a word of prayer and have you sit down. And we'll jump right into it. John chapter 6, starting in verse number 41. And Miss Jackie jokingly came in this morning, and after not having been here for a couple of services, she goes, I see we're in John 6. I said, yeah, she goes, I guess I haven't missed much, have I? So yeah, I'll just say amen to that. John chapter 6, look at verse number 41. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Let me give you a little practical little piece of advice. God hears your murmuring even when nobody else does. And whenever you murmur, even if you don't think it is against the Lord, murmuring generally tends to be against the Lord. Because there's a circumstance or something going on or someone that's there or whatever that God has placed there or that God is doing and you don't like it. And if you want some good reading sometime, read through the book of Numbers and see how God handled murmuring in the Old Testament, right? I'm thankful we're not under the covenant of the Old Testament. Look at verse number 42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. Now, let me give you this. There's a number of groups that do not believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Jehovah's Witnesses are obviously one of them. Another one would be the Muslims. They also do not believe. They believe he's a good prophet. They believe he was sent from God. As a matter of fact, not to get too far into this, Muslims will tell you they believe you should follow the teachings of Jesus. Where they fall off the wagon is they go, we believe in Jesus, we don't like Paul. Because all the they believe all the references to the divinity of Christ are in Paul's writings Well, that's not exactly true John the gospel of John does this as well? And we're seeing it over and over and over and by the way, if you ever come in contact with a Muslim They're told by their prophet Muhammad to read the Gospels ask them. Have you ever read the Gospels? You'll find out many of them have never read the Gospels And if they have, say, what do you think about the Gospel of John? All right, look at verse number 44. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. and I will raise him up at the last day." That wording there, except the Father which has sent me draw him, that's curious. I'd underline that because we will talk a bit about that. There's some people that take that verse and other verses similar to it and make it say something it doesn't say. I want to clarify some of that. Verse 45, is it written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. That's a quote from Isaiah 54. We'll look at that. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Brother Kiran, if you would, take us to the Lord in prayer. Yes. Yep. Amen. Amen. Be seated if you would. Now, we talked about this a little bit before. He says, I am the bread which came down from heaven there in verse number 41. I am the bread which came down from heaven. Now, obviously, he's talking about himself being God. And you know that from the rest of your Bible. They didn't quite understand that. And the more the passage goes on, though, I think this is important to get a hold of. God does not reveal everything at one time. There is a term that you'll hear Bible-believing teachers use, and it's this term, progressive revelation. Not to be confused with progressive politics. They're not the same, all right? But progressive revelation means this, that when you respond to the little bit of truth that God gives you, then He'll give you more. And when you respond to that, He'll give you yet more again. When you as a believer expect God to show you everything at one time, you're expecting something of God that is against the nature of God. God knows how much you can handle. And so the Lord does not give them everything at one time. He's just giving them little bits, little bits, little bits, and then watching how they respond. Now obviously, they murmur. And if they're murmuring, they're going to have a problem no matter how nice he says something or how sweetly he says something. I've had people that, you know, you preach a message and one person says, man, I really needed that. It really helped me. That was a blessing. I've been struggling with this. Someone else says, I'm offended. I'm never coming back. Same message. You say, what's the difference? I'll tell you what the difference is, your heart. Your heart. And so those that were listening, what did they do? They murmured. So right there, you're kind of putting up a mental, an emotional, and spiritual block saying, I don't really, I'm not going to actually listen to what you have to say. I'm going to be more concerned with my offense than I am with what you have to say. And you're going to see that played out in the rest of the passage, all right? Having said that, he says, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Now, we talked a lot about unleavened bread and how leaven's a picture of sin and leaven's a picture of false doctrine. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Keep your hand there, 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And just keep in mind, there is a connection between the feast of the Passover and the days of unleavened bread. And if you remember from the Old Testament when they ate the Passover, they ate it with unleavened bread. So there is a connection between the sacrifice, which is a picture of Christ's sacrifice, and the eating of the unleavened bread. And it's all going to kind of come together. Because eventually he says, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, right? So look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and look if you would at verse number 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, look back at verse number, I'm sorry, verse 6. And by the way, if you don't know what this is talking about, This is kind of a salient, they call it salient. So what does that mean? It's a passage that kind of sticks out in the New Testament. And it's about, I would say, in today's Christianity, it's a controversial subject. What you had is you had someone that was living in fornication, and the church was not addressing it, and the church was kind of embracing it. And because Paul saw that, Paul gives them this letter, and he kind of chews them out, to be honest with you, and he lets them know, hey, what you're doing is wrong. Now, it doesn't mean that when someone isn't living right, that it's your job to try to play the Holy Spirit, and your job to expose all their sins and all that. However, if somebody comes into the assembly part of, not lost, not someone that just got saved, but someone has a testimony of following Jesus Christ, and they're living a certain lifestyle, and it isn't right, and the church just kind of turns a blind eye to it, and that person is going out. Let's put it in 2024. Is that okay? Can I do that for a moment? Let's say they're floating pictures all over the internet, and one picture is me at church, and one picture is me doing whatever, fill in the blank, okay? And one picture's here, and one picture's there, and everyone's going, wait a minute, what's going on here? And the outside world is looking at it going, well, if that's what a Christian is. Okay? And then you got baby Christians going, oh, so it is okay to do that? And then you got the young kids going, well, my parents said no, but they're friends with them. Do you see how this stuff spreads? So Paul has to address it. Paul didn't want to. It's not like Paul woke up in the morning and said, you know what I want to do? I want to chew a bunch of Christians out with a letter. Paul didn't want to do that, but it had to be addressed. So look what he says about leaven, sin, infesting the church, 1 Corinthians 5. Now, again, I've got to make this clear. If what we're looking at in 1 Corinthians 5 is, you know, the church is not sinlessly perfect, therefore no one can come. If that was the case, then there would be no church, okay? We're not talking about that. We're talking about someone that refuses to repent. What they're doing is public, it's wicked, it's shameful, and it's a bad testimony in the name of Jesus Christ and on the local church. And instead of saying, hey man, my bad, I'm sorry, I messed up, it's like, how dare you tell me anything? And I'm not going anywhere. And so what Paul does is Paul gives some pretty direct instruction. I mean, I've only done this once in my entire ministry, only once. where I've prayed what Paul says to pray in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It's not something you do lightly. So what Paul tells them to do is to turn that person over unto Satan. for the destruction of the flesh, not their soul. Their soul can't be destroyed. All right? It doesn't mention their spirit. Their soul talks about their flesh. Why? That the spirit may be saved in the day of judgment. In other words, when someone refuses to get right and they're bringing a shameful reproach in the name of Jesus Christ, this is not a hoot and holler and amen, glory to God kind of message. I get it. This is a sobering kind of thing. But when someone is living that kind of lifestyle as a born-again believer in their community with no shame, look, it's one thing when you mess up. It's another thing to broadcast it and be proud about it. You understand the difference? We're not here, Pastor Adrian's not here saying you gotta be perfect, you gotta be sinless, you can never mess up. We all mess up! That's not the point. The point is I don't want to broadcast what I mess up and say, check this out. There's no it's no big deal. Who are you to judge me? That's the problem. And Paul had to address it. And he addresses it by saying, OK, we're going to turn that person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. that the Spirit may be saved in the day of judgment. In other words, I'd rather say, okay, Lord, they're now in your hands, and if Satan's gonna have at them so that they can repent, so that they have something to show for their life at the judgment seat of Christ. Are you tracking me so far? So that was the prayer. That's what he lays out. Look at 1 Corinthians 5, verse number... Do you realize what this would do to a lot of churches? You understand? You got people that literally are living in fornication, and they think nothing of it. And you got preachers all over this country who are scared to mention it. Why? Because if I mention it, there goes the money. And we over-leverage for our building, so I can't talk about certain things. If I talk about them, then I rock the boat. If I rock the boat, mom ain't happy. If mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. And if that happens, they take their toys and leave, and there's no more offerings. And therefore, so what do they do? They just don't mention it. Well, look, I don't I'm not mentioning this to be offensive. I mention it because it's in the Bible. God wants us to be holy. That's to me is part of the morning message this morning. God wants he desires holiness out of us. Why? Because he is holy. He wants to conform us more to his image. All right. Look at First Corinthians five. Look, if you would, at verse number six. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? I remember during COVID, man, I mean, you know, you cough on a plane, it's like, put your hands up where I can see them, do not breathe one more time, right? Remember that? Because we can't spread, stop the spread, stop the spread, stop the spread. I wish Christians were that way about sin. I mean, he tells them, look what he says, a little leaven leaveneth a whole lump. You don't realize it, but just a little bit, a little bit of that way of thinking, a little bit of that kind of conversation. A little bit of what we call entertainment that God looks at and goes, ah, that's dirty. I don't think you should think that way. And you laugh about it. And at first, you're kind of uneasy. Then after a while, it's like, well, you know, I mean, no one's perfect and it's funny. And then before you know, like you're thinking that way. then you're talking that way. Like, you go, oh, preacher, you're just kind of being old-fashioned. You know, it's really interesting to me. I think sometimes people forget, I'm out there every single day, guys. I'm not sitting behind a desk putting messages together 24-7, seven days a week. I run a business. I deal with people. And I don't look at them and go, I can't believe that you cussed in front of me. Oh, gasp. Like, I'm a big boy. I understand what's going on in the world. I get it. But that's them. That's not supposed to be you. All right, look at verse number seven. Purge out there for the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump. As ye, that's you guys, all right? That's, if Miss Cindy was here, that's y'all, okay? All right, that's yalla in South Africa, right? All right, that's all of you, all right? Ye are what? What are you? What does it say in the verse? Unleavened bread. All right? So, you're not drunk, are you? Okay. Unleavened bread. So, ye, not just the Lord Himself, but ye are unleavened bread. Why? Because you're supposed to be conformed in His image. And every day, you know what the Lord is doing? He's going, okay, that's leaven, and that's leaven, and that's leaven. And here's the thing. It's not my job to tell you where all the leaven's at. That's the Holy Spirit's job. My job is simply to get up and say, thus saith the Lord, here's what the Bible says, and let the Holy Spirit take that and put it in your heart, and you take it from there. You know, I've never gotten up, I don't think I've ever preached a message on, you should not smoke weed. I haven't. But I have had some young men come to me and go, Pastor, you preached this message, the Holy Spirit convicted me, and I'm going to quit smoking weed. I've never had to preach, don't smoke weed. Now, you know, it kind of goes without saying if you're in church, but I guess, you know, in 2024, you know, you say, what is it? The Holy Spirit's job. All right, well, when the Holy Spirit goes, here's some leaven, let's get it out, how do you respond to that? You say, I want to be like Jesus. Do you? Holy, harmless, and undefiled? Well, if you want to be more like Him, I'll tell you this, I want to be like Him. It's just the process that it takes to get there, I don't always like. And the things that God uses to get some of that leaven out of my life, sometimes they're humbling. And God'll use your kids to get leaven out of your life. God'll use preaching. He'll use you reading His Word. Sometimes, every once in a while, He'll use someone within the body who's not even directing something at you. They're just saying something that is true, and you hear it and you go, mmm, man. And, you know, the first human response is, it's not that big of a deal. I know people that do way worse. I'm not that bad. You know what that really is? That's called self-righteousness. I love it when people are like self-righteous, holier-than-thou Christians. Well, everyone's self-righteous. Everyone. The question is, how much of your self-righteousness are you willing to sacrifice in order to be more like Jesus Christ? So when the Holy Spirit says, hey, let's purge that out. How do you respond to that? Because Paul tells him, hey, you got to purge this out because you're supposed to be unleavened bread. Why? Because you're supposed to be following him. He's our unleavened bread. Look, look, look at the instruction. Look at it says in verse seven for even Christ, our what Passover is sacrificed for us. Verse eight. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old what? There it is, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the, what? Unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to accompany with fornicators. Now look what he says in verse number 10, in case you're going, oh man, if that's the case, then I will never witness to anybody. Verse 10 clarifies that. He's not talking about you ministering to lost people. He's not talking about you reaching out to the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's talking about you approving things which are excellent. Don't you want excellence in your life? Do you want to be better and grow? You do that with your job, and you should. You should do that with your job. Nothing wrong with that. But if you do that with your job, and you do that with finances, you do that with your 401K, and you do that with your education, don't you think you should do that with Christ? I want to be more like him. I want to approve things which are not mediocre, not just what other Christians do, but I want to be more like Christ. That's the aim. That's the goal. The goal is not to be more like Pastor Adrian. We don't need another Pastor Adrian. One is enough. Thank you, Hector. Amen. All right. One is enough. We need one. We need you. We need Joe to be more like what God wants Joe to be. More like Jesus Christ. You need Brother Tim to be what God wants Brother Tim to be, and so on and so forth. Look, if you would, at Luke, Chapter 22. Again, just looking at this connection between the Passover and unleavened bread and how there's a connection there. Look at Luke, Chapter 22. And again, you can go back to the book of Exodus to see that as well. Luke, Chapter 22. Look, if you would, at verse number 1. Now, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Drunei, which is called the what? Passover. Okay. All right. Look, if you would, down at verse number, same chapter, verse number 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the what? Passover. Passover must be killed. So there's this connection between unleavened bread and the sacrifice that Jesus Christ makes for us. Are you starting to get the connection with John chapter 6? Because what he's about to talk about is his body being broken. Go back there if you would, John chapter 6, and look if you would at verse number 43. John 6, verse number 43. Because they have a problem with what he says in verse 42. They make that known. In verse 42, they basically say, isn't he basically just one of us? I know I've mentioned this before, but I remember in the 90s, you know, what if God was one of us? Remember that song? Some of you that are older. You know, what if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us? He's not. Don't worry. He's not. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by that man Jesus Christ. He's not like us But the idea that they're throwing out there is you know, who is this guy? Like who does he think he is? He just mentioned he came down from heaven. We know his parents and We know all about him. We know his background. We know where he was raised. We know where he was born. We know all this stuff. All right. So again, keep in mind, keep your hand here. And I know that some of you could quote this verse and that's all right, but keep your hand there and go to first Timothy chapter three. I want you to see it for those that maybe are, let me say this in this room, you got people that got saved within the last year. You got people that have been to Bible school. You got preachers, kids that have heard this stuff their whole life. You got people that are just getting into a Bible-believing church within the last, you know, six months. So we've got a wide and broad range. Always know this, that the Word of God will feed everybody. It will. All right? Even if you have to repeat some things and you're like, well, I know that verse. I know what it says. That's good for you to look at it anyways. You know how many times I've looked at a verse and said, I've seen this a million times. Then I look and I go, that wasn't there before. You ever just kind of put your hand on the Bible and go, like, wait, wait, wait, stop moving, stop moving. It's like it's alive, right? Look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. And without controversy, great, great is the mystery of godliness. And then there's a colon. In the English language, when you see a colon, what it means is this. The statement that I just made, that basically says this, great is the mystery of godliness, I want to explain what that mystery is. So here it is in verse 16, God was manifest in the flesh. not just a man, not just a good prophet, not just a great teacher, but God was manifest in the flesh. And if it's not God, then He couldn't be your Savior. Because it had to be a sinless sacrifice, and there's only one being in the entire universe that's without sin. Now, I know he had to be tempted as a man. I get that part. That's why it's kind of mind-blowing. It's kind of mysterious. That's why Paul uses shocker, the term mystery, because it's hard to wrap your mind around it, right? Having said that, yes, he had to be tempted as a man. However, he is God manifesting the flesh. And it's important to get a hold of that. That's why he says, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Now, over in your Old Testament, go to Jeremiah 22. This may not seem like it's relevant, but God mentions, pronounces judgment through Jeremiah's prophecy on a certain king. And that king's name is found in different formats, depending on which language it's coming from in the Bible. Sometimes you're reading it transliterated from the Greek into English. It might show up as Jeconias or Kanaias. Sometimes it's Kanaiah, the Hebrew, C-O-N-I-A-H. Sometimes it's Jeconiah, J-E-C-O-N-I-A-H. Jeremiah 22, and look if you would at verse number 28. Jeremiah 22, verse 28. Is this man, Kanaiah, a despised broken idol? Again, this is without giving the whole entire story. We don't have time for that. God has pronounced judgment on Judah, and the kings of Judah are not listening. And the Lord is telling them, hey, Babylon's coming. You may as well just face it, deal with it, and surrender. And by surrendering, you're submitting to my plan of judgment on my nation. And if you do that, it'll go better for you. But they didn't want to listen, and they were proud. And they said, you know what? We're going to fight this thing. We're going to fight this thing. We're going to fight this thing. Without realizing it, they're just actually fighting God. So look what the Lord says about this king. Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast out he and his... What's the next word? Now keep your hand there. Go to Genesis chapter 3. This is how you learn the Bible. Genesis chapter 3. Frieda walked in with some espresso and I just gave her the biggest hug. That was so good. Praise the Lord for coffee. Genesis chapter 3, look if you would at verse number 14. shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Another one bites the dust. All right, so this one is gonna bite the dust, right? And obviously the judgment that God gives to the serpent is not completely fulfilled here in the garden. It's not gonna be completely fulfilled really until the second coming of Jesus Christ. The way, if you remember the movie, The Passion, anybody ever watch that movie? Okay, a couple years ago, that was a big deal. And then, you know, you got Baptist pastors coming out, you know, the poison of the passion. Imagine, someone who doesn't know the Bible makes a movie and it's not all biblical. Shock, you know? I mean, just spend less time on those kinds of things and just preach the Bible. Anyways, the point is, the way they had that thing laid out is Jesus Christ crushing the serpent's head there in the Garden of Gethsemane when he's about to go to the cross. Well, that's, you know, cute, but it ain't biblical. He doesn't crush his head until the second coming. That's why over and over and over it talks about the wounding of the head over in the book of Psalms. It's a reference to the Antichrist. So what you're reading in Genesis 3 is stuff that partially there's judgment that's pronounced in its immediate, but part of that judgment is not fulfilled until thousands of years later. You're talking, guys, this is at this point 6,000 years ago, and we're not, it's still not happened yet. But don't worry, God always keeps his promises, all right? Now look down at verse 15, and I will put enmity, this is God talking to the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. Now look, if you're a lady, don't get offended and leave the church, what am I about to say? If you're a lady and you like snakes, we love you and we're praying for you, okay? But it kind of weirds me out when it lays like, ooh, snake. It's just, I don't know, something weird about that. Because of what God says, I'll put him between thee and the woman, and between thy, now watch it, thy seed. Who's he talking to? Satan. So Satan has a seed. Who is that seed? He's the man of sin, the son of perdition. You see a foreshadowing of it in the life of Judas, but it's not fulfilled until the Antichrist shows up in the Great Tribulation. So you've got the Lord prophesying about... Guys, everything in the Bible is about whose seed is going to overcome. That's why in the Old Testament, this guy beget this guy, and this guy beget this guy, and this guy beget this guy, and you go, who cares? Who cares who beget who? God cares. Because it's an ancient battle that goes back to the beginning about whose seed is gonna win All right, if you get over the Middle East to this day You know you find you find tribes have been fighting each other for thousands of years to this day you go to Afghanistan You know you find over there, you know, it's it's hard to get a centralized government in a nation like that I don't get political but it's hard to do that because they're tribal by nature. It's my seed versus your seed and Americans don't think that way for the most part because this is just one giant melting pot, right? But over there, it's kind of different. Now, understand from God's standpoint, it's not about black and white. It's not about Latino and Asian. It's not about any of that. It's about His seed versus the seed of the devil. And spiritually, spiritually, before you were saved, you were the child of the devil. That's what the Bible says in John chapter 8. You have your father, the devil. And the lust of your father you will do now that's spiritual nature Then you get adopted in God's family you become his child you become his seed How do you become his seed when the Word of God the? Incorruptible seed is planted inside of you, and you accept it then you get saved and it grows from within All right, that's the spiritual side of that the physical side is this God has a seed his name is Jesus Christ and and he's born of a virgin. How do I know that? Look what it says in verse 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. Now, I don't want to, this is not, you know, sophomore biology class, but I think we already understand that women don't have seed. Right? Okay. So, I really don't want to have that class right now, because we're really quiet. I'm like, okay, public school, I thought you guys already got that. So basically, what he's saying is he's saying something that goes against what we understand to be true by the laws of physics and science. By laws of nature. You know what it would have to be? Supernatural. You know what modern man says? I don't believe it. Okay, don't believe it. But I mean, really guys, the virgin birth and the resurrection, to me, if Genesis chapter 1 isn't true, then nothing's true. If God doesn't, you know what, you got some smart people in this world, and they're really genuinely smart, I mean that, but they're so smart, they're dumb. And I have no problem saying that whatsoever. If you had a scientist, someone that claims to be a scientist, because I think it's, when someone goes, sorry, I literally heard this recently, all I can think of is, sorry, Nacho Libre, I don't believe in God, I believe in science, you know. But when you got someone that says that, they're going, they don't realize it. What you're saying is like, I don't believe in science, I believe in science. That's what you're really saying. Because science, if you even know what the word means, means knowledge. Well, what is the fear of the Lord? The beginning of knowledge. And either you believe it or you don't. I'm not saying you have to. It's a free country. You can believe whatever you want. But the greatest miracle of all is God just going, here I am, and I'm going to talk, and stuff's going to show up. That's the greatest miracle. Because if that's not true, none of the other stuff is true. If he can do that, the virgin birth isn't a problem. If he can do that, the resurrection is no issue. That's why you've got such an attack in the educational system in our nation about this issue. Well, you know, I believe things evolved and, you know, that vestigial tail that the whales have is no use. It's a leftover from evolution and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What they don't remember, what some of them kind of conveniently leave out is that that thing that's there is not a vestigial. Vestigial, is that the right term? The limb thing? You know what that is? It's to help with reproduction for the whale. But they don't want to say that. Because if you say that, then you go, well, I guess we're wrong about this stuff, you know? And again, if the amoeba is the thing that kind of, you know, sparked into something, where'd the amoeba come from? And where'd the bang come from? And at the end of the day, you know what the answer is? We don't know. Scientists can't answer that. You know why? Because that is not a matter of something you can measure. You can't measure that. You can't repeat that. You have to believe something by faith. You know what evolutionists believe? That somewhere, billions of years ago, something exploded that I can't explain, and from that explosion came order and beauty and nature. That's the greatest fairy tale for grown-ups I've ever heard in my entire life. So you think I'm crazy for believing a being that designed the universe. You look at anything in this room, design, design, design, design, design. No, no, no. I just believe there was a speaker factory. No one can tell me where the speaker factory came from, but in the speaker factory, there was an explosion and all these electronic modules and nodes came together in that explosion and there's the speaker. That's asinine. You know what makes more sense? Someone designed it. In the beginning, God. Now, it wasn't in my notes, so take that for whatever it's worth, but the idea is this. God says something supernatural, and there's a battle that takes place between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and the woman has no seed. Now, here's what's interesting about this. Go back to Jeremiah 22. Now, what you have is you've got, you know, Adam, and then you've got Noah, then you've got, of course, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 tribes of Israel. And then from that, you have the kings of Israel, and the kings of Judah, and all that stuff. Now, of course, the Messiah, according to the Old Testament, would come as the line of the tribe of Judah. Judah is the lawgiver, Genesis 49. And the scepter shall never depart from Judah, Genesis 49. So we know that Judah is the line of kings that God is really gonna pay attention to. If you follow in the Kingdom of Splits after Solomon, it's a made-up kingdom over here anyways. It comes from a group of guys that were never royal to begin with. And so what you have is you've got, in this line of kings going through Judah, you've got this king named Jeconiah. And I say Jeconiah, it shows up over there in Jeremiah 22 as Keniah, the JE's taken off. Where else have you seen that JE? You say, what is that? It's Jehovah. When you take that off, God's saying, I've got nothing to do with that guy. You know, that's a bad thing when God takes into your name and goes, yeah, we're... I'm glad when I got saved, He changed it and made it better. Right? But when you go in that direction, you've got problems. Now this king, what God does, He pronounces judgment on him. And look what He says here in Jeremiah 22, look at verse number 28 again, in light of what you just read in Genesis 3. Halfway through the verse, wherefore are they cast out, cast out of where? The chosen land, God's promised land. He and his, what? Cast into a land which they knew not, Babylon. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, write ye this man, what? But he had kids. But God says, but write it out, blot it out. Act like he never had them. Why look what it says in the rest of the verse for no man of his seed shall prosper Sitting upon the throne of who? You know what they call Jesus Christ when he shows up over and over and over Son of David have mercy on me son of David have mercy on me son of David why? Because he it but when they say that what they're saying is he's the king King of kings and Lord of lords. He's the Messiah Okay. Well, let me just say this If Jesus Christ is not born of a virgin and Joseph is his daddy, remember the Maury Povich show? Joseph is not your daddy or whatever, you know, that whole thing. If Joseph is his father biologically and there is no virgin birth, And really, this whole story was made up because, you know, they were trying to make this Messiah complex of Jesus, and it really wasn't real, and it was just all a big fairytale. And really, they already had relations before they were married, and that's why she was pregnant. If that's true, there literally is no way for... You can't make it both. You couldn't say, I don't believe in the virgin birth, but I believe that Jesus is sent of God. It can't be both. You can't say, I believe in the teaching of Jesus, but I don't believe in the virgin birth. Because the teachings of Jesus have nothing to stand on if the person behind the message is crooked. You understand that? Look at Matthew chapter 1. He's the bread that came down from heaven. He's not like us. Matthew chapter 1. First year of your baby's life. First couple weeks, you think they're sent from heaven? Then about a year into it, you're like, I think they came from the other place. Amen? Look at Matthew chapter, sorry, sorry sisters. No, no, no, don't. We'll reverse that. Take that out, brother. Take that out. All right? Matthew 1, look if you would at verse number 23. Matthew 1, verse 23. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name, they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is what? God with us. All right? Now, in light of that, look, look down here at Oh, let's see here. Down at verse number 16. This is the lineage of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Do you guys get that? You see that in verse 16? Okay. I got three people who said yes. Good. Okay. All right. Look back up, if you would, to verse number 11. And Josiah speaketh... And you know it's historically accurate because look what it says about the time they were carried away to Babylon. Let me tell you right now, if Joseph is literally the father of Jesus Christ, then Jesus is not the Messiah. He is not the King of Kings, He is not the Son of David, and He cannot be the fulfillment of prophecy. You guys get that? So you know what it would have to be? It would have to be, look at Galatians chapter number 4. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. It would have to be that He was supernaturally born of a virgin. Now, I understand people make too much out of the perpetual virginity of Mary and all that kind of stuff, and there's nothing in the Bible about that. Obviously, he had brothers after he was born. He's the firstborn son. You don't call someone the firstborn if they're the only one, all right? It's clear that he's the firstborn, but he was born of a virgin. Look at Galatians 4, look at verse 4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, not made of a man, You say, why? Because it's the woman's seed. You say, what is it? It's supernatural. It's what it says in Matthew, that thing which is in you is conceived of the Holy Ghost, not of man. All right? So when Jesus says that he came down from heaven, it is a supernatural reference to the virgin birth. And what they're struggling with, and they mention in the passage, is not he the son of Joseph? Isn't he just like us? And the short answer is, no, he's not just like us. He's different. He's born different. And obviously he died different and rose from the dead different. And the reason he rose from the dead different is because he started different. The reason his story ends the way it does, and I say ends, humanly speaking, is because of the connection with how it started. The reason I'm going to go in the ground, if the rapture doesn't happen first, and I'm not going to come up until he calls my name, the reason I won't do it on my own power is because I was not born of a virgin. I don't have God as my physical father, all right? And so what you have to understand is this. Again, spiritually, we are begotten of God. We are the begotten children of God. And we're gonna get to this a little bit down the road, but understand, physically, we're not begotten of God. The only, listen, the only begotten son is Jesus Christ. Now let me give you something that modern Bibles say, and this is also not true, all right? Let me tell you what he's not. He's not the only son. You say, why? Well, Israel is called the son of God. The angels are called sons of God. Born-again Christians are called sons of God. You're a son of God. He's not the only one. But, a little grammar class, I read a little birdie thing. You guys remember that? All right. Some of you are like, nope, never got that. Here we go. All right. He is the only begotten son. Because he didn't come from here. He came from up there. All right? So let's go back to John chapter 6. Go to verse number 44. John chapter 6, verse 44. John chapter 6, verse 44. I had someone one time tell me, I want to debate you on this subject of the virgin birth. I said, no thanks. I want to debate you on the subject of evolution. I said, why would I waste my time? arguing with some person about something that they obviously are not going to... You know, the older I get, the more I'm like... Someone goes, well, I believe this! The older I get, I'm like, okay. You know? Like, whatever. It's America. Free country. But if you want to believe the Bible, and you want to get the most out of the Christian life, you're going to have to exercise something called faith. Well, I can't understand it. Okay, let me ask you a question. Do you understand Can you explain to me all the technical details when you flip that light switch, if everything goes on between that switch and that light? Can you? If you're an electrician, maybe you can. But outside of that, I'm guessing the majority of you, probably not. But you don't doubt the light. Well, I can see it. You can't see the effects if someone follows Jesus Christ. You can't look around the world and look at different face, and you can't tell that certain face will have a certain impact on cultures and societies. You're going to tell me for a moment that you think all faces are the same. Ladies, you want to go be dropped off in Iran right now? No. All right. Hector's not a lady, but I think he agrees with you. I just want to clarify. I'm trying to help him out. That's all. I'm guessing you ladies kind of like it here. You don't want to be dropped off in Afghanistan. Right? All right. Well, faiths have impact on culture. And that is, oh, that's a hot topic. Don't say that. You can't say that. Well, I think it's important to get a hold of that. The reason why, yesterday, we went out somewhere, and I had the boys, I know where it was, we were at Starbucks. Imagine that. We were leaving Starbucks, and as we're leaving the store, the boys were holding, I said, boys, I'm walking out with the baby mama. He said, hold the door for these ladies. And these ladies come out, and they go, oh my goodness, thank you so much. You boys keep doing that, and they just, you know, talk about how important that is, and blah, blah, blah. And you say, where does that come from? You think that's going to happen in Iran, ladies? You think Western civilization has benefited from the Bible? Do you think maybe the idea that she is to be honored, which is what the Bible says, and you were to dwell with your wife according to knowledge, and that you were to esteem her, do you think that maybe, all those biblical references, do you think maybe, that as the Bible says, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, do you think maybe the idea that, man, you should be willing to lay down your lives, the idea of chivalry itself comes from the Bible? What I'm getting at is this, here's what I'm trying to get at, is there are things you're gonna have to accept by faith, and eventually, listen to me, some of those things you'll get caught up on as you grow and mature as a Christian. Some of those things will start to click. And yet, there's some things, I've been saved for 20-some years, and to this day, someone goes, I can explain the technical aspect of the deity of Jesus Christ, I just did. But then to wrap my mind around it practically and go, He's God, but He's man. He's God, but He wore a diaper. I'm not trying to be blasphemous. He's God, but He limited His knowledge. Right? I think something happened when He's 12 years old in the temple, and there's a light that kind of gets turned on there where He gets connected, reconnected, if you will, and comes into His own remembering, kind of, okay, I know who I'm supposed to be. I think there's something there. I can't prove it, but I think there's something there. That's another Bible I'll save for another time. But all that said, He limits His knowledge, but yet He's God. And God has unlimited knowledge. He's omniscient. Alright, well how do you explain that? I don't know. But you better believe it because God said it. Look at John chapter 6, look at verse 44. Now listen, listen, listen. Get a hold of this. You know what a cult says? Believe it because the pastor says it. I didn't say that. I said believe it because God said it. I don't forget one time, this is just like in my mind, like it happened yesterday, the year was 2010. I had someone that I knew personally very well making a big decision to go in a certain direction in their life. I'm not gonna go into all the details, but they simply said this, Adrian, what do you think? You know what I did? I took a verse, I typed out the verse, and I sent it back. Do you know what their response was? Well, that's just your opinion. I literally didn't even comment. I sent a verse. You say, what is that? At some point you've got to go, I'm going to be on the side of just believing what God says. Look at John 6, we'll give you a word at verse 44. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I've talked about this. Go to John chapter 12 real quickly with me. John 12. We'll probably have to finish this next week, this thought. But there's a system of theology called Reformed Theology. Sometimes people refer to it as Calvinism. And of course, there's varying degrees of this system of theology, and I don't want to paint too broad of a stroke, but generally speaking, the major tenants of it, and I've talked about this before, are total depravity, meaning this, you are so depraved you can't even choose to do the right thing. So every time God tells you that you need to choose to do the right thing, God's wasting His breath. Let me just start with this. This is not right. This is not true. The next one is U, unconditional election. It's an acronym that spells TULIP. Unconditional election means this. God sat back in eternity past and says, Adrian will be saved, Emma will be damned, Lacey will be saved, Diane will be damned. I'm just going to just pick whoever I want. It's unconditional. I just do whatever I want to do. And here's the thing. If God did that, he would be going against his own word. because God gives conditions by which you can enter into fellowship with Him. The major one being, today you come to Christ and He will in no wise cast you out. The next one is limited atonement. God didn't die for the whole world, He just died for a select group of people. No, last I checked, for God so loved the world means for God so loved the world. Now I know, I know it goes deeper than that. I could lay out all the different things. I'm just trying to give you a 30,000 foot view. Irresistible grace. This is the one that kind of relates to the verse that we're in right now, where it says, the Father draws you. And just the way I vision is like, you know, Darth Vader, the father, you know, he's got the force and he's using on you. You can't. Oh, I must get saved. I need to get saved. I don't have any choice in the matter. I must be. No, it doesn't work that way. The Lord does draw you, but you still have a choice in the matter or else you know what God would be. He would be a manipulator. He would be an abuser. I don't want you to raise your hands, ladies, but if you've ever dated a guy that's manipulative or, you know, kind of controlling and kind of makes you feel like, you know, you're second class if you're not with him and all that kind of stuff. Let me just, that's not who God is. He doesn't force you into relationship with Him, He gives you the option, alright? And lastly, now it's known as the preservation of the saints. In the olden days, when it first started, it was called the perseverance of the saints. And it comes from Matthew 24, where Jesus says, He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. You Bible students, He that endureth unto the end, the end of what? Great tribulation. Not the end of your life. That's not the context of that. So the idea is this. This point right here is irresistible grace. The way it's taught is this. The Father draws you and you have no choice in the matter because He chose you, therefore you're it. It's like God goes, tag, you're it. You have no choice in it. God does not play tag with you to get you saved. Look at John chapter 12. Look at John 12. And look, if you would, at verse number 30. John 12, verse 30. Jesus answered and said this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes that's the voice of God the Father Now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out and if you're not familiar with where we're at He's about to go to the Last Supper. He's about to be betrayed. He's about to be crucified All right, and if and and I verse 32 if I be lifted up from the earth will do what? If you don't draw all men and all men aren't saying what does that tell you? Oh That's not what that's saying. He's drawing all men. He's going to, as the sinless Son of God, He's going to appoint all men to Himself as the only sacrifice that can pay for their sins. It is still their choice to accept Him or reject Him. And I'll also say this, as it relates to this, we'll get into this next week. What you see in the work of salvation is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit working in unity. The Father working through the Holy Spirit to draw all men to the Son, Jesus Christ. We'll get into that more next week. Let's go ahead and stop. Let's all stand. We'll have a word of prayer. We'll take a break. And, Brother Eric, we'll start at 11 o'clock, all right? All right. Hope you guys learned something this morning. Let's go ahead and go to Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for the opportunity to open up the Word of God and, Lord, to clarify things, to get more clarity in our lives. Lord, I pray that you'd help us, Lord, sincerely to desire not just the milk of the word, but the meat as well, Lord, and not just to drink it, to eat it, but, Lord, to do something with it, to pass it on to somebody else, to apply it to our lives. I pray that everyone in here would learn not just to be a Bible believer, but a Bible doer. Bible practice or Lord would you help them with that? Give us a strength to do it. It's not always easy We'll give you the praise and glory for it and God I pray if anyone comes today that isn't saved that today would be the day of their salvation We ask it in Jesus name. Amen