Good evening. Hi Momo, how you doing out there? His tail's wagging, he must be happy. I think he's happy that Janie came up. Janie's got goodies. I'm not complaining, but it would be nice if you all had tails that we can always tell when you're happy. We got puppy tails in our town? They don't wag. I've said that before to Jenny, it's a shame that thing don't wag when she's happy. Well, we'll serenade the others who come in and we'll start with page 7 in the praise book. His blood makes my heart pure And I find the curse is pure When I run into the arms of Jesus A whole new life begins There's forgiveness of my sin When I run into the arms of Jesus When I run ♪ Into the arms of my Jesus, my friend ♪ ♪ I lose all of my fears ♪ ♪ He dries up all my tears ♪ ♪ When I run into the arms of Jesus ♪ ♪ I find a brand new strength ♪ I sing to God above my heart when I'm right my soul my king into the ♪ Into the arms of my Jesus, my friend ♪ ♪ When I run into the arms of my Jesus, my friend ♪ Amen. Get Neil Diamond saved and have him do that. It's gonna be a hit. Number 17, short little chorus here. We'll sing through twice. It's Your Blood. that cleanses me, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1.14. It's your blood that cleanses me. Jesus. It's your blood that gives me life. It's your blood that took my place in redeeming sacrifice. Washes me ♪ Whiter than the snow ♪ Than the snow ♪ My Jesus ♪ God's precious sacrifice Amen, now turn to the back page there, page 18. Let's sing the Lord lives. I will I will My salvation be exalted, the Lord be praised. Good singing. Let's sing one more. This is kind of a 1905 hymn. We'll understand it better by and by. Page 62. Written by Charles Albert, it says Alberti, I think it's Albert, Tim Lee. We are often tossed and driven on the restless sea of time. Somber skies and howling tempests all succeed a bright sunshine. In that land of perfect day, when the mists have rolled away, we will understand it better by and by. When the saints of God are gathered home We'll tell the story how we've overcome For we'll understand it better by and by We are often destitute of the things that life demands Want of food and want of shelter, thirsty hills and barren lands We are trusting in the Lord and according to the Word We will understand it better by and by When the morning comes When the saints of God are gathered home We'll tell the story How we've overcome For we'll understand it better by it Temptations, hidden stares Often take us unawares And our hearts are made to bleed For a thoughtless word or deed And we wonder why the test When we try to do our best But we'll understand it better by and by By and by ♪ When the morning comes ♪ When the saints of God are gathered home ♪ We'll tell the story how we've overcome ♪ Oh, we'll understand it better by and by ♪ By and by Can you say, oh my, oh my? Oh my. Amen. Probably not what was causing it, but we'll find out, huh? Yes. All right, raise your hand for a fare card and writing utensil in the house. Send your request in to bbfohighwoodprotonmail.com if you're not in the house. And we'll look for those in the email box. Well, that's a reminder to turn off your cell phone ringer. Johnny's a lifesaver and a lollipop. I prefer to be cut in candy, if given a candy. All right, I see you're doing the camera zoom thing, so move on. All right, how are you liking this Thanksgiving weather, fall weather? It was definitely A change, let's say. It's a bit chilly. We got some serious wind out there where we were at. I think tomorrow I'd like the white stuff, just none of the wet stuff. I just don't want too many inches. Sounds like it's gonna be a mix. We'll just pray in the evening that it's just snow. Like 5 o'clock on, just snow. Thank you. Hey, you can do it, you can call it storms. Yeah, but you're in against people who are praying for just rain. So who's he gonna answer? That's the question. Snow is prettier. All right, 1 Timothy chapter three. Oh, that's a problem. I was in second duty. It does make a difference. Eight days until Thanksgiving. Man. Eight days. Are we ready? Oh, that means eight days till I get a four day weekend. That's nice. I used to get those. You're going to have a weekend. Yeah, yeah. Come in here and preach out of the hymn book. I'm gonna get some clean hands. How many times have I told you, feet off the coffee table. Sheesh, you scared the stuffing out of me. Where you been all day anyway? I have been getting ready for Thanksgiving. Oh, you mean the apocalypse? Okay, now I know that Thanksgiving isn't the best time of the year for turkeys, but it's not a time to be cynical. It's a time to stop and count your blessings. Right, right. Easy for you to say, Mr. Positive Pilgrim. Mr. My life's perfect because I've got buckles on my shoes and my hat doubles as a hot tub. Okay, now stop. You stop! Just listen to me. You listen! Okay, I'm listening. Hi. I don't have anything to say. I just... Alright, okay. Bring it in. Come on. Come on, let's hug it out. Who's your buddy? Who's your pal? I am, that's right. Now look, I know what you're going through. I've had my share of my own midlife crises. Like what? Hmm. Trust me, this too shall pass. Yeah. But what do I have to be thankful for? I mean, look at me. I live in your house. I sleep on your couch. I eat your food. My life is a wreck! And besides that, I have not seen or heard from my brother Larian over a week, and I can't even grow a decent beard! What kind of turkey am I? You are the type of turkey that's not going to allow circumstances to dictate your joy. You are going to have a more thankful perspective. What you talking about, Pilgrim? I'll tell you what I'm talking about. Do you have a place to live? We'll be thankful for that. Do you have a place to lay your head down at night? Yeah. We'll be thankful for that. Are you getting enough to eat? Yeah. Seriously, I need to know if you're good enough to eat. Yeah. It's like you're trying to fatten me up more than you know. All I'm saying is let's not focus on what we don't have, but focus on what God has already blessed us with. You're right. I am a blessed turkey. Yes, and you're about to bless a whole pilgrim village. Never mind. Hey, I am hungry. You want something to eat? You betcha, Bellgrum. Hey, I forgot about these leftovers. Larry! I missed you, Larry Bellgrum. I don't know why the mouth didn't quite match the... That was silly. That's pretty good, huh? They're on Israel at war. Today's date is 11-20-24. Time flies and getting old, isn't it? This all began October 7th of last year. There's still 101 hostages. That's the big thing. We'll see. We'll have an update on that in just a second. The latest attacks on Israel include a massive Hezbollah rocket barrage that caused damage, but I haven't heard anything specific about what happened there. So we just kind of keep an eye on it. Tit for tat, as they say, it's gone back and forth. Hezbollah chief has threatened an attack on Tel Aviv in response to previous Beirut strikes. If that happens and they're successful, that's gonna heat things up. Netanyahu will come back with a punch. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is turning up the heat on Hamas. Netanyahu vows to hunt down Hamas, offering Gazans $5 million per hostage. So if someone there in Gaza can wrestle up a hostage and turn them in, they're set for life. That's pretty good. And it says Defense Minister Katz, who I believe is who replaced Gallant, and Shin Bet Chief Barr, is his last name. joined the Prime Minister in a visit to the Netzerim Corridor in the heart of Gaza. So they went right into Gaza and had a little powwow there. The Biden-appointed UN ambassador does the right thing again. Surprise, surprise. I don't know if you saw this, but the U.S. vetoed the Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN. as it didn't condition the truce on hostages release. I mean, how can you even put forth a ceasefire without an agreement to release the hostages? Just crazy. And by the way, incoming GOP Senate Majority Leader, his name's Thune, He threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions if they don't drop the Netanyahu arrest warrant that they have on him. They really don't have any standing in the United States of America constitutionally. But you know what? When it comes to courts and enforcing their decisions, it really just comes down to if they can find a big enough army or police force to enact what they, you know, that's what it really comes down to. Our courts only have power because they are connected with and supported by law enforcement here in the United States. If the court convicted somebody and no one agreed to, you know, carry out the sentence, what good would the sentence be? That's really what the ICC is right now. It's either going to come through the ICC or another means that the Antichrist is going to have his international court and he'll put people to death for not taking the mark. This is John Thune's name. He's replacing Mitch McConnell. Can't be any worse. and he posted this on X, if the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis. So the House has already done it, and if the Senate does it, Trump signs it, and then that would punish the international It's called the International Criminal Court. It should be called the International Clown Court. What? International Court of Criminals. Court of Criminals. Yeah, there you go. So that's all stuff to be aware of. We continue to pray as we stand with Israel. Amen. And it is as in the days of Lot. It's not gonna be, it is. Jesus said it'll be as it was in the days of Lot, so we're there. It's just a matter of time now. The countdown continues. Congresswoman Nancy Mace, how many of you saw this? Takes on the trans cult. This was from Breitbart, the story represented Nancy Mace to introduce a bill preventing transgender people from using female bathrooms in the Capitol building. She posted this trigger warning and she was reposting something from Eric Dowery announcing that she had filed a national bill to ban all biological men from using the women's restrooms on federal property. That means any federal building anywhere. That's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. It's called Protecting Women's Private Spaces Act. And they haven't put a number on it yet, but this is a copy of the actual bill. To prohibit individuals from accessing or using single sex facilities on federal property other than those corresponding to their biological sex and for other purposes. Now listen, It's just amazing as we see so many people that I know now who, when I was a kid, when I first became a Christian in the end of the early 90s, that people have, by the millions, come on board with this insanity, this perversion, calling a man a woman. letting him change his name, letting him act like a woman and be treated like a woman and go into women's restrooms and locker rooms and everything. And I always said it'll possibly be too late, but it will only be fought back against with people in power when it starts to affect them. And now it is affecting them. So Representative Mace explains her purpose while being peppered with Orwellian newspeak and then followed with propagandist spin by this so-called journalist. from ABC News, listen to this. The question is, with your piece of legislation about banning women from using- 100% yes. My question to you is- And it doesn't go far enough. I'm filing more bills. You have said that it was created in response to Congresswoman Elect McGrath. 100%. But should legislation be created targeted at one specific person? It doesn't mention anyone in the legislation, but I am- But you've said it was aimed at her. No, I have said it's a result of this. I'm not going to allow biological men into women's private spaces. I will stand in the brink and stand in the way of anyone on the radical left who thinks that it's OK for a penis to be in a women's locker room or a bathroom or a changing room. Hell no, I'm not going to stand for it. And the speaker said it would be in the House rules package. If it's not, I'll be ready with a motion, a privileged motion to force a vote on this. This is not okay. I'm a survivor of rape, I'm a survivor of sexual abuse, and I'm not going to allow any man in any female private space. End of story. And by the way, I'm getting death threats from men pretending to be women. Why is it that these crazy people, the insanity, the radical left, are willing to kill women over a man's right to be in a women's restaurant? Speaker Johnson has said he wants to treat every new member with the words dignity and respect. Forcing this congressperson to go into a male restroom, is that dignity and respect? Forcing women to share private spaces with men is not dignity and not respect. I'm absolutely going to stand in the way of anyone who thinks it's okay for a man to be in our locker room, in our changing rooms, in our dressing rooms, in women's bathrooms. And in fact, if you agree with that, you're crazy. Because that's not okay. It's not okay. Thank you, Congressman. We're going to peel away from this conversation, Kira. So a little bit of the context of what we were just talking about, and I'm going to have my cameraman step out of the active driveway here, was that Nancy Mays put forward this piece of legislation. It was aimed, she said, although the name is not in the legislation, at a new member of Congress, Sarah McBride of Delaware, who is a transgender woman. She has said that the legislation would prevent women from using male restrooms and vice versa in the United States Capitol. Speaker Johnson has said, he made a statement earlier today where he said he believes, quote, man is a man and woman is a woman, but he also called for, as you heard me ask the congressman about, dignity and respect for new members of Congress, and that would include this new member of Congress, Sarah McBride from Delaware, who is a transgender woman. All of that to say, this is now an issue that Congress is forced to grapple with here and one that they've never been forced to grapple with before because Sarah McBride is the first trans person elected to the United States House of Representatives. And it's very much unclear at this hour what Mike Johnson plans to do, although Nancy Mace is under the impression that her resolution or something of the like will now go into the new House of Representatives rules package, which would theoretically be voted on and approved by the next Congress come January. So this could be a good thing. if it results in that kind of legislation being passed. Now this is the wicked, perverted man who was elected as a Democrat trans woman to Congress. Goes by the name Sarah McBride, and is a Democrat who served two terms as a state senator, wins Delaware's only House seat. The state of Delaware has one Congress person, and it's Klinger. That's what he really looks like on the left. Tim McBride is his real name. In drag, he goes by the name Sarah. He says, he posted this on Instagram, I am using a women's restroom in North Carolina, in this picture there where he's in drag, that I'm technically barred from being in. They say I'm a pervert. Yes. They say I'm a man dressed as a woman. You are. They say I'm a threat to their children. You are. They say I'm confused. Well, I wouldn't agree with that. You're wicked. You're not confused. They say I'm dangerous. You are. And they say accepting me as the person I have fought my life to be seen as reflects the downfall of a once great nation. And it does. You know, if a person Is that wicked slash insane? Either or. We should not be required. To play along. And then they're doing this in schools with kids pretending to be cats and dogs. What's next? I don't want don't answer. This is the so satanic woke agenda. It's satanic. Everybody supporting this agenda is a servant of Satan. That includes my relatives. Guess what this ad that you're about to see is selling? Just to give you a taste of the satanic delusion. Guess what this is selling? Jaguar. Where is it? Where's the car? Exactly. It starts with that. I cut that out so you wouldn't see it, but that's Jaguars. I won't make you watch anymore of that. These are Jaguar autos. None of them showed up because they are so given over. This is reprobation, folks. It's an abomination. It's a mind handed over to reprobation. Romans 1, 18 to 32. Scripture tells us this will only get worse until Jesus returns. Isaiah 3, 9 describes this. This is back before God destroyed the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom because they were where America is today. and it describes them then, and it describes America today in Isaiah 3, 9. The show of their countenance, that means the way of their appearance, doth witness against them. Do you think that commercial and that guy in drag is a witness against them? And they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. when they are, as soon as they started coming out of the closet, you're in the last days, folks. And any nation at any time, when they come out of the closet, that's when you're in the last days of that nation. Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. And remember Jesus saying, as it was in the days of Lot, and we are there. And one last thing is this thing with Matt Gaetz. Trump has nominated him to be Attorney General. And so we wonder, will he be confirmed? We don't know. But after slandering Matt Gaetz and basically accusing him of sex trafficking, pedophilia, and other crimes, Sonny Hostin, in that gathering gaggle of hags called The View, had to read a legal statement on air. Now listen, if Matt Gaetz did that stuff, I don't want him to be Attorney General. But they did a full investigation. The Democrat DOJ did an investigation and didn't bring charges. Are you telling me that if they didn't have proof that would stand up in court, they wouldn't have brought charges? I mean, they brought charges against Trump with no evidence. So that's why I don't believe that Gates is guilty of exactly, did he commit some sexual sin? He probably did. I don't know that he's even a Christian. This was before he was married. He got married in 2021 and no one says he's cheated on his wife's sins. So he's probably better than most that's up there in Washington, D.C. Most of the presidents, by the way. But this is what she had to read after she falsely accused him, basically, of these crimes. Son, you have a legal note. I do have a legal note. Thank you, Whoopi. Matt Gaetz has long denied all allegations, calling the claims, quote, invented, and saying in a statement to ABC News that this false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism, that DOJ investigation was closed with no charges being brought. We'll be right back. That's the saddest part of the whole thing right there, they'll be back. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congresswoman, is now threatening that if they bring out all the stuff that they gathered on him and everything, she's going to bring it out on all the rest of them. That right there might be the one thing that kills their efforts. Do you know, we've talked about it before, the millions of dollars that Congress has paid out to victims of congressmen to keep them quiet. And then it's sealed. So we'll see. Getting interesting. Be informed. Pray and act accordingly. Amen, amen. All right, anybody have a comment or question before we move on? I saw that Nancy Mason, she also said she had some vaccine. damage done to her. And she took the two Moderna shots. And she said, you know, I believed I was doing it to help out. Yeah, most people did. Now she's got all kinds of things that she never had before. I can relate to that. And the thing, too, is people getting that shot, it's really hard to prove a definite connection. So not only is pharma, big pharma, is protected by legislation from being sued and such, but even just proving it, it's a very difficult thing to prove. So, I mean, without question, beyond a reasonable doubt, I guess you'd say. So, yes. I know Jessica asked about this. The United States telling the Ukraine they can use those attack-on-missiles and how that escalates. Could you just comment on how that escalates the situation? Yeah, the thing you've heard probably about the Biden administration giving Zelensky and Ukraine permission to use those missiles. It's not as bad as a lot of people are saying and a lot of people are hyping it to scare it by death. It's not a good thing. I believe it's meant to complicate things for Trump. It is an escalation, but it's not the kind of escalation they're claiming. These are not the long-range missiles that would provoke Putin to try to declare war on the United States or anything like that. These can't reach Moscow. They can reach some military installations within 190 miles of wherever they can shoot them, which puts them along the front between Ukraine and Russia. It'll make things more difficult for Russia on the front. But originally they were trying to make people think we were, but we, the United States was giving them permission to shoot missiles into Moscow and that kind of thing. And they still don't have that permission and they don't have that range when it comes to these missiles. an escalation, but it's not the escalation a lot of people feared. And always keep in mind, when you hear some of these guys, they may be sincere, but a lot of them aren't. They're just, they play people, and they exaggerate things so that you'll click, it's click bait to get you to click on their stuff, and they make money off that. So even conservatives, just because somebody's a conservative doesn't mean they're not, you know, run by filthy lucre. So you're welcome. All right, well, that's it. Then let's get into our study with the word of prayer. And we'll ask Brother Dan, if you would, to open by his study. Lord, just come in and out. Thank you for this day and chance to be here. And just ask for your opening of the word, our understanding, and help the life of our hearts. And just help us. better discerning the news and things that are going on. You have to get to the whole palace truth about what's happening. And just thank you for bringing that out on these different issues. Just ask us all in your name, Jesus. Amen. All right. Know your eyes do not deceive you. We are in 1 Timothy 3 16 still. We've taught of this great is the mystery. And we're now gonna follow line upon line and finish our look at this verse. And we're gonna look at now what the overall basic purpose of the passage is, speaking of the mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness. And we laid the groundwork with a couple of studies. Instead of keeping you here for two and a half hours, I thought you'd probably rather I cut it up into maybe three studies. And so that's what I did. So for the background of our study, let's go ahead and read it again, verse 16. And hopefully, if nothing else, by us reading this over and over, it might become a memory verse out of necessity, you know. And some of you, as we discovered, a couple of you have photographic memories, but the rest of us have to work at it, amen? So let's read verse 16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of God, in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Amen? Amen. J. Bernard Gee adds that this verse probably constitutes one of the earliest creeds of the church. Some think that it was one of the songs of the early church. That's a guess. There's no real, I've looked, I haven't found any real evidence, but that's because of the structure of it, and the way it was quoted in some letters that were found. It was never said to be a creed or anything like that. Creeds are not a bad thing, but they became a bad thing in certain denominations. A creed is basically a construction of your beliefs in a memorable way, easier for memorization. It's like you can take the Ten Commandments, it's really difficult to memorize, especially the first half of Exodus 21 through 17, which contained the Ten Commandments. But you can just break those down, and I think John was telling... Yeah, just different ways of memorizing. Without memorizing every word, you memorize the truth behind that. And there's nothing wrong with it. The Apostles' Creed is one that a lot of churches have quoted and everything. There's nothing wrong with that. Everything in it's true. It's a good resource for memorizing certain doctrines and everything. But then when the creeds and things are put above scripture, See, what we are telling you is those things are helpful in your understanding of Scripture. They're not supposed to take the place of or be put above Scripture. And so we do the same thing with songs. We have songs that we do that. We never have said, well, now that is an authority. You know, it just doesn't make sense, but that's what man does. So we've basically broken down two plus hours of study into these three studies, and in our third and final installment on the mystery of the incarnation, we're just gonna have two bullet points here, mystery solved, and then closing thoughts. So I just flunked the seminary. You always have to have four points, and so I just flunked. But what was it, Doug, I was telling you one day, they teach you four points and a punt. And they all have to start with the same letter, yeah. I do that sometimes, it's on accident, I'm like, hey man, I'm just kidding. To fully understand the mystery of the Incarnation, we will now go line upon line. The mystery is solved. See, when we're talking about mysteries in the Bible, it doesn't mean they're mysteries to anyone who studies the Bible and has the Holy Spirit to help them understand it. It's a mystery before the New Testament, it was a mystery, and before being saved and studying the Bible, it's a mystery to the unsaved world. That's why people will celebrate Christmas, but they won't celebrate the virgin birth. That's impossible. That's scientifically impossible. There's no way. And we answer with two words, but God. It's nothing for God to cause a virgin birth. And so we don't have any problem with that. And we began with these words and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. That is a mystery. Godliness among mankind is a mystery. All you have to do is go anywhere where the influence of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit has been removed, and you'll see. Well, okay, just go to downtown Columbus. I mean, some poor kid shot the other day, just sitting in his house. And I don't know if that was in Columbus or Dayton. It was one of these little Ohio towns. Bullet went through, just shooting and goes through an air conditioning unit, hits the kid. Thankfully, the kid's gonna survive. Two years old. Two years old. Wow. All kinds of stuff like that going on right now. All kinds of, there's rape, theft. Oh, you know, you're adding the blasphemy and everything going on in Columbus, Ohio. Why? Because the inner cities, first of all, I believe it's biblically defensible to say this, God never intended for everybody to pile in together like cockroaches. And that's what the cities are. Everywhere, well, first of all, there's a party in this country that's satanic, and they only won in the cities. because that's where the scum is. And so we have ministries, they can turn on the radio, they can turn on TV, they're within a short drive of churches, and they want nothing to do with it. I've spent years going into downtown Columbus. Jimmy Hood put a mission down there, charity mission, planted a church, Amazing Grace Baptist Church, and he's with the Lord now, but when he was here, he'd be the first one to tell you, that he is, that was the closest thing to Sodom that he could ever have experienced in his life, trying to reach those people down there. A lot of times it was in the Sullivan Avenue area, but that whole near west end was where he spent most of his time. I spent a lot of time in the near south end. A lot of the crime and everything you hear on the short north right now, which is Sodom. I mean, short north is Sodom. If you go there on especially a Friday or Saturday night, it's just horrible. So then, all right, I would say this before we move on. When you remove the hypocrites, And the apostates, which means people act like they're Christians, but they're not. All these female preachers and lesbian and queer preachers and churches with the gay flags flying, those aren't Christians. It's a free country so they can be fakes and pretend to be whatever they want. But we're talking about real Christians, not the false converts and that kind of thing. But Christianity with the real biblical gospel, with people repenting of their sin and turning to God with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, being born again and a change takes place. Christianity has produced the cream of the crop of humanity for 2000 years. There's a lot of people call themselves Christians. and they're fakes and they're frauds and they're exposed and then people say, ah, and they totally ignore all the fact that almost all the good things that have happened culturally in this country can trace right to the influence of Jesus Christ. Hospitals, even our prisons, usually prisons. Yeah, what we got today, I mean, they're like country clubs compared to anything outside of Christianity and before the influence of Christianity in any country. Go read about what prisons were like before Christians reformed them to make them humane. Humane, that makes you think of animals. Go where there's not a Christian influence, that's where you find the puppy mills and you see all the nasty, wicked things going on with animals. Not to mention bestiality and all that. I mean, if you go on and on with all the examples, if you just open your mind to it, you'll see that the influence of God through his son, Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh, who gave us his word and spirit, and has been changing lives now for 2,000 years. What a difference that makes anywhere it takes place compared to humanity on its own. That's why you got people like Richard Dawkins who will admit, yeah, I'm an atheist. I think Christianity's a crock, he says, but I would rather live in a Christian country than any other country, including an atheist country. So he says, why? Self-preservation. He knows where it's good to live. Any honest person does. So the mystery is solved. God was manifest in the flesh and has changed the world. And you think his influence is great now? Wait till he returns. And he says, okay, we played with the whole free will thing. Now the dictator has arrived. So God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus is the image of God and revealed the light of God in a way mankind had never experienced before. Even Israel, let alone all the Gentile nations, had never experienced anything like the influence of Jesus Christ. Go over to John chapter one and we're gonna look at the first four verses and then jump down a few verses after that. John chapter one. Verses one through four, we're gonna stop there. Go ahead and read with me. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now is that W for Word capitalized in all your Bibles? If not, throw yours away and get a new one. Because that's referring to Jesus. The word was God. God was manifest in the flesh. Read verse two and three and four. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of man. That's the influence of the word Jesus on the world. Now jump down to verse nine. Talking about Jesus, that was the true light. Isn't that capitalized in your Bible? That's Jesus. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Read 10 through 14 with me. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. You see, that's the same message Paul's given us in 1 Timothy 3, 16. The Word was made flesh, and what did he do? His light changed the world. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Amen. When the light of Jesus comes in and takes over, we shine. We do not have light in us of ourselves. You were not born with the spark of divinity as the apostates and extreme Armenians like to teach, but you were also not born totally incapable of receiving God and receiving the gospel. You have a free will, but sadly without Christ, your will is given over to your flesh and your flesh is wicked. You have a sinful nature. But when you are saved and Jesus comes in, There's a glow about you. And now, after you're saved, through life, ups and downs, good and bad days, it's up to you how bright you shine. But the good news is, we live in such a dark world right now, it takes less light to shine brighter. I mean, if you're in a time of revival and people are being saved and everything's great, then your light kind of gets, you know, it's not a bad thing, but you don't really stand out. If nothing else, you can thank God for living at a time when your light can really shine when you let it shine. We should have sang that. So each one of these lines we're looking at, it starts with the word God was. If you look at your text without controversy, great is the mystery of God. God was what? Manifest in the flesh and now justified in the spirit. God was justified in the spirit in Jesus. The claims of Jesus as God were then justified in his works and resurrection. and they affect us for that reason. If Jesus couldn't have done the miracles that Messiah had been prophesied to do, making the blind to see and the lame to walk and raising the dead, he couldn't have been Messiah. He would not have been justified in his claims. And if he had not himself been raised from the dead, when he said, first of all, you tear down this temple and I will raise it up after three days, if he had not been resurrected, There would be no reason for Christianity. How crazy it is. There's whole seminaries, whole denominations that reject the resurrection of Jesus. They have no purpose for existing and calling themselves Christian in any way, shape or form. His resurrection justified his claims. Look over Romans chapter eight. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, chapter eight, verse 10. As I said, when you're saved, Jesus comes into you. His spirit comes into you. And verse 10 begins, and if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit, capital S, is life because of righteousness. Read 11 with me. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live, read 14 with me, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So Jesus was justified by his death, burial, and resurrection, and that then has its place in our lives and produces change. It produces a changed life, a changed person. And there are Christians who stump that because of their choices and unwillingness to let God work in their lives, their unwillingness to make changes in their life and obey God's Word and begin to read God's Word, study God's Word, memorize God's Word, talk about God's Word, come to church and listen to God's Word being taught, memorize God's Word and hide God's Word in your heart that you might not sin against Him. to pray without ceasing, to pray for one another, to preach the gospel to every creature, to be baptized, to give a public testimony, and to be active serving and ministering to others in the name of Jesus Christ. And they don't do any of that and wonder why they don't grow. There's no other way to grow. Growth comes through obedience. Salvation was a free gift. But if you wanna grow in Christ, there's sacrifice. You have to count the cost, pick up your cross and follow Him. Amen. Knowing that Jesus is risen then transforms us. Jesus is risen. If you haven't really sat and meditated on that, you gotta. You need to sit alone with God and think about the implications of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he is risen. He's not only conquered sin and death and won the victory for all who will come to him by faith in the gospel, but that then should tell you all these things we get so caught up in and get upset about in this life are really nothing. We should lay that off to the side and fully and completely, as Paul says in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Why is it reasonable? He died for you. He rose from the dead for you. It's only reasonable you die for Him. Next, God was seen of angels. I love this. Angels ministered as servants to and worshiped as subjects to Jesus as God. The angels served him and were subjects to him and worshiped him. Seen of angels. I'll go to Matthew chapter one real quick. Matthew. No, go to Mark chapter one. Go to Mark chapter one. This is just, we're just gonna read this last verse about how Jesus was in the wilderness, 40 days and 40 nights, and we kind of skip over this a lot of times, but how did it end? Verse 13, read it. And he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him. I always said, I hope we get to see like a replay, you know, just to see these things and how it happened. And here he is after 40 days, exhausted and hungry and tired but victorious over Satan by the power of the word of God, and then the angels came and ministered to him. What did they do? Maybe like Paul, first thing he got was a hug. Now, Paul further explained this to the Hebrews in his epistle to the Hebrews. Go over to Hebrews chapter one. Paul's explaining this relationship between angels and Jesus. He's talking about Jesus in verse four. He says, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Now, some people will take that and arrest it from the text and try to pretend that that just means Jesus is better than the angels, but he's not God. denying all the other passages, the Jehovah's Witnesses, but look what it says in verse five. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, with a capital S. This day have I begotten thee, and again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. He didn't say that to any of the angels. Read verse six now, read that with me. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he said, and let all the angels of God worship him. You only worship God. As a matter of fact, that's one of the things Jesus said to Satan when he was being tempted in the 40 days in the wilderness. He said, you worship God only. But the angels are worshiping Jesus. He's God. I'm gonna come back to you as soon as we read this. Verse seven, read that with me. And of the angels, he said, who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. And we're not gonna get into it, but in the next verse, again, he calls him God. The father calls the son God. Read verse eight. But unto the son, he said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. And on and on it goes. Jesus, was ministered to as subjects. His subjects, first and foremost, are the kabillions of angels. We don't know how many there are. But he is king of the angels. And one day, we're gonna see the angels. Why don't you run that for a minute while me and Johnny talk. Oh, I just wanted to, I found the verse in Matthew. And you can make reference to that same account, different book. Amen. Okay, moving on. God was preached unto the Gentiles. You see, that's how it reads. And you gotta get that because who are they preaching unto the Gentiles? Jesus. God was preached unto the Gentiles. The apostles declared the deity and resurrection of Jesus to the civilized world of that day. In Acts chapter 17, verse six, you might remember this. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. How did they turn the world upside down? They formed militias and they, no, they preached the gospel. The preaching of the gospel turned the world upside down. Go over to Colossians chapter one. Colossians. Chapter one, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. And verse three. Read through verse six as I have it there. Three says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he have to all the saints, read five and six with me, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof he have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you, since the day he heard of it and knew the grace of God. Keep your finger there, we're gonna come back there, but look right there. Verse six says that the gospel would come unto you in Colossae, the church in Colossae, the Colossians, as it is in all the world. That means those apostles were busy. And we have some legends, and they're interesting, but the Bible doesn't tell us a lot about it, but you can read those in the Fox's Books of Martyrs. I'm sorry, Fox's Book of Martyrs is one good source where you can read about what happened with the apostles according to historical information, how they all were martyred, but they all went into other countries. Thomas was supposed to have gone all the way to India, and it's believed that John, well, we know where John went down into certain areas in the Mediterranean. I'm trying to think of some of the, who was it? Paul, I think it was, is supposed to have gone to Spain and trying to think of all the different places. I have to look at it again, refresh my memory on that. And possibly England, yeah. And I was trying to think of something. There was another one who they said, they thought might've went to England too, but anyway, he's preached on and then believed on in the world. It wasn't just people hearing, but many believed and were saved throughout the whole world. The world went from crucifying Jesus and not a single Christian on earth to within a hundred years, the whole world was covered with Christians. Isn't that fascinating? Romans 1.8, Paul said, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Isn't that amazing? Now, nowhere near in comparison to the early church, but you know Bible Believers Fellowship is spoken of throughout the whole world? There are dozens of countries, all 50 states, where people are telling other people they ought to tune in to Bible Believers Fellowship. I told people in the UK today. Yeah, there you go. I hear the reports all the time, it's great. So Colossians 1, if you kept your finger there, We're gonna look at verses 12 through 23. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. We're gonna come back in 1 Timothy talking about that, saints in light. Verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. It's talking about me and you if you're saved. In whom we have redemption through his blood. New versions rip out the blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. Who is the image of the invisible God? That's Jesus. The firstborn, not created, the firstborn of every creature. He's the first one resurrected to eternal life. Now read 16, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. Continues, and he is before all things and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That's firstborn right there. Bible tells you what that firstborn means right there. firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. There's that God manifest in flesh, showing up in different ways, worded different ways over and over, but there it is. Verse 20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, read 21 through 23 with me. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." The gospel, at that time Paul wrote this letter, had been preached to every creature which is under heaven. I've had people say, well, how is that possible? Don't ask me, ask the guy who wrote it. Get saved and go to heaven and you can ask him. I just know that it's true. I just believe that originally when Christians got saved, the first thing they started doing is telling everybody they know about Jesus. Well, you know, somebody did the math one time and said that if every Christian would just tell one person a week, that within a few years, everyone on the planet would hear the gospel. So that's evidently all they did. And they got the job done. Now they say less than 10% of Christians preach the gospel. Okay, well. I'd have to say a lot of those aren't real Christians to begin with. But there's a lot of Christians, people I think are Christians and for one reason or another they don't do it. We've had some folks, Janice downstairs. Hi Janice. You can tell everybody your story. She can tell you that until she came to Bible Believers Fellowship, she said no one ever told her to pass out tracts. No one ever told her she should be preaching the gospel. Well, how many other people are like that? Just didn't know they were supposed to. You start reading the Bible, you'll see it, but it ought to be coming from the pulpits. Amen, amen. Moving on. God was received up into glory. That's the ascension with the promise to return. He went up, but he went up promising to come back. Let's look at it. We're gonna close it up. Acts chapter one. Of course, the first, Five verses there tell us about Jesus spending 40 days showing himself with many infallible proofs in verse three. And then we pick up verse six there, when they therefore were come together, they asked of him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? And he didn't say he wasn't going to, he just said, it's not for them to know the times and the seasons. And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the father put in his power. So he's gonna restore the kingdom to Israel. Amen. Two-thirds of professing Christianity today deny that. And then he says, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. We just read where Paul said it happened. Jesus prophesied it and Paul said it came true. That's a prophecy. And it came true. Now read 9 through 11 with me. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. He went up and everybody watched him. Trust me, when he comes back, every eye shall see him. They'll land on the Mount of Olives. So, the bottom line of this study is that godliness is the effect of the incarnation. When he comes and dies and pays for sin, he provides for our salvation technically and legally, but he also has provided for us then to become children of God in practical terms in the way we live our lives. That's all because Jesus came. And that's our closing thoughts. We're gonna segue into our next study, seven mysteries. How many of you have ever done a study of the seven mysteries? A couple of you, hopefully. J. Bernard McGee says, the mystery of godliness is that God in the person of Jesus Christ entered this world in which we live, paid the penalty of sin, and is making men and women godly. And those seven mysteries are gonna be an amazing study and talk about things that happened to you when you were saved and truths about us as Christians that a lot of Christians aren't even aware of. They're not even taught these things. But I wanna end with this thought. If Jesus doesn't affect the way you live, You don't know Jesus. The Bible says just knowing him, that's the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. It is a life-changing effect called godliness on those who believe it. And so we'll jump in next time with the seven mysteries. We'll do an overview of these next time. Lord willing and the church don't rise. Live like Jesus is with you. Why? Do you get that? Live like Jesus is with you all the time. Why? Because he is. Amen. By the way, thank you Lord for this time in your Word. Thank you for what you're teaching us. Thank you for changing us. Most of us are honest enough to admit we're pretty pathetic before we found Jesus. Only to realize Jesus found us. And we are changed. Into your image, far from the fullness that we will experience when we will be as you are, because we will see you as you are. In between now and then, Lord, may we all be subject to, willing subjects to the changing power of your word and your spirit, daily growing. And for your glory, we want to please you and we want people to think of you, not to get an attention to ourselves or get some kind of accolades. but to show people the way. People come to us and if they say something about the peace that we have, the wisdom that we are able to demonstrate, the love that we have for lost souls and for brethren in Christ, whatever it is, gives us an opportunity to brag about Jesus and to point folks to the cross and to that empty tomb. for your glory and in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I want to sing about the king. If you'll stand. God is a gracious king, eternal noble king. God is the king. He reigns victorious, divine and glorious. Jesus reigned over us. God is the King. God is our loving King, omniscient Holy King. God is the King. He saves eternally. His blood sets sinners free. Jesus, true loyalty, God is the King. All hail King Jesus. All hail Emmanuel. King of kings, Lord of lords, bright morning star, and throughout eternity I'll sing His praises, and forevermore I will reign with him. All hail King Jesus. All hail Emmanuel. King of kings, Lord of lords, bright morning star. And throughout eternity, I'll sing His praises. And forevermore, I will reign with Him. Can you say, all hail King Jesus? All hail King Jesus. Amen. You can be seated. All right, let's say goodbye to the onliners on three. One, two, three. See you here, there, or in the air. Bye, everybody. Have a good night. Amen.