I want to thank the Lord for His goodness to us, allowing us to be in His presence tonight. It's been said, but I thank God for the opportunity to come to His house when He's at home, when He's here and manifesting His presence. You talk like that in a lot of Baptist circles and they'll look at your cross-eyed like they don't know what you're talking about, but I sense that I'm among folk here tonight that know exactly what I mean. And I thank God that there's a reality to the presence of almighty God and that you can sense his presence. He's living in you. He'll let you know when he's around and when he's moving. And I appreciate the singing tonight. Appreciate the message already from our brother. What an encouragement it's been to our hearts. And I say this every opportunity I get to preach, try to. It's just an honor to be able to try to do our best to exalt the Lord. And that's what our desire is this evening. is to make much of him, and service might be a little different as far as the message goes. I want to share with you my testimony as I'm preaching, and I love to hear people's testimonies. I love to hear how God worked. different individuals' lives, brothers and sisters in Christ, and see how God saved them and got a hold of their lives. And I promise you, it was the Lord getting a hold of you, not you getting a hold of the Lord. And thank God for the day that he got a hold of me. And I believe that's true in every one of his children's lives. And I will say this, a wonderful means of grace God uses is prayer, isn't it? As what was just sung about, what we just entered into, and how we are able through prayer to pray him in. I remember one old preacher telling us, he said, you preach it to them, but you pray it in them. And I know it takes God to do that work in their life, but we get to become a part of that ministry even through prayer. And I tell you, if God wasn't sovereign, I wouldn't pray. Because if I had to convince them to do it, I'd just throw in the towel. But I'm glad we have a God that's in control. They can be sitting on a bar stool somewhere tonight. They can be headed down the highway somewhere tonight. They can be laying in bed somewhere tonight. But the God of Heaven's able to step down, and He's able to speak to their heart and begin fingering around in their life. and bring them to an end of themselves and bring them to a place where they're made to call upon the God of heaven for mercy and quicken them and save them by his grace. And I'm glad that we serve a God like that tonight. I want us to take our Bibles, be finding our place in the book of Acts chapter 17. I know a very familiar portion of scripture to many of us here tonight, but I believe this is what the Lord's put on our heart and I'm going to try to obey the Lord. You would rest from your seats for a moment. We'll stand as we honor the word of God and read it together. And again, just going to share with you about trying to preach this passage, some of my testimony and maybe my hope is tonight that God will just take you back to the place where he found you and make it real to you one more time and make it fresh and that you might worship the risen Savior. Acts 17, verse 1, the Bible says, Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollyonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. Some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas. Of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of a baser sort, gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them to the people. 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. Let's pray one more time together. Father, we bow in your presence tonight, recognizing the great need of the hour, Lord, is that you would get the glory and the honor through all that's said and done. Lord, we recognize our inability, Lord God, our insignificance. Lord, we need you tonight. We cast ourselves upon you. We pray, Lord, the Holy Spirit fill us afresh in the new Lord, grant unction to preach and the power of the Holy Spirit tonight. God, I pray that you would just open every heart. Lord, you'd warm our hearts by the light of your word. God, if there'd be one here tonight, Lord, that is lost, you'd save him by your marvelous grace. Lord, you'd remind us, Lord God of Calvary, what Jesus did. Lord, to not try to save us, but Lord, to save every one of them for whom he died. Lord God, you've made us a part of something so much bigger than we are. God, we bless you tonight. We give the honor and the glory. God, we just want to do our best to make much of your darling son. God, would you help us tonight now? Fill us with the Holy Spirit. Use us in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. I know in verse 6 a lot of times we'll preach this text and take that verse as our thought, these that have turned the world upside down, but as I said in my study one day and I was reading that and I was contemplating that verse and that phrase before me, I got to thinking there that was the accusation of the enemy. That's what the world said about what was going on in Thessalonica. That's what they said about Paul and Silas and Timothy as they were there in Thessalonica preaching and ministering and doing the work of the gospel ministry there among those folk. They said, these have turned the world upside down. But I got to thinking about, I wonder what the thought was of those who had been saved. Those who had made part of the family of God and the plan of God. And I got to thinking about really for them it wasn't that their world was turned upside down, but for them their world was turned right side up. And I want to preach on that thought tonight. The day God turned my world right side up, I remember as a young man, I remember as a ten-year-old boy, for the first time in my life, God convicting me of my sin. I remember our mom was raising me and my brother. She was a single mother, and she took us to church in every meeting that she could find when we were younger. And I remember there was an evangelist in town. He'd set up a gospel tent, and my mom said, well, we're going to go every night. And so we started going. I'd never seen preaching like that before in my life. That man preached like his hair was on fire. I mean, he preached like he really believed in a place called hell, and he really believed people that died and their sins was going there, and he really believed they'd spend eternity under the wrath of a holy God. And I remember one night he preached on hell. And it was like I could smell the sulfur. I could feel the heat. And I could see the brimstone. And as he preached, I fell under conviction for the first time in my life. I remember that. I remember that in my mind. I even went to the altar that night. And I tried to make a deal with God. I tried to bargain my way into heaven. And as a 10-year-old boy, he said, well, I don't believe that. Well, you can believe what you want to believe. I remember that. I know some folk think you've got to be 18 to be saved. You've got to be a certain age. But as a 10-year-old boy, God began to deal with my heart, and the God of heaven began to reveal to me that His Word was true and that I was a sinner and He was holy and righteous. And I fell under conviction. And for two years of my life, 11, 12 years, I would lie awake in my bed at night sometimes. From time to time it seemed like it would come and then it would go. Some of you know what I'm talking about. The conviction of God. Times it would just set in and I'd wake up at night and I'd crawl out of my bed and I'd get down on my knees and I'd cry out, God, would you save me? God, would you save me? And it felt like I'd never get through. And I remember as a 13-year-old boy in a revival meeting, it had gone through its first week, going into the second week, and God was beginning to move. That was back in those days when the preachers would stand up and pull their handkerchiefs out and wave those hankies, Brother David. And they had God just moving in those meetings. Not a show was being put on, but people worshipping God. As a 13-year-old boy, I remember they had all the young people set in the choir loft because there wasn't room for all the visitors. And I sat up there that night, and it was like from the moment I walked in that church building, the Holy Ghost got all over me. They sang the songs, and I sat there, and I couldn't sing. Oh, they began to testify, and I sat there, and I got more miserable. And the preacher began to preach from John 3. If I be lifted up, and it just got worse and worse. God working me over and showing me I was a sinner. And I didn't have any righteousness of my own to hide behind. Thanks be to God, He hand me up in a corner that night. He saved me by His grace. And I give Him the glory and the honor for what He's done in my life. I bless His holy name. And I thank God for the day He turned my world right side up. And I know as a 13-year-old boy saying, well, there wasn't a whole lot you could have been saved from. I thank God there was a whole lot He did save me from, from my past and from the future that was lying ahead of me had I not come to know Christ as my personal Savior. Thank God for the day that He turned my world. right side up. I want to preach on that for just a moment. As I was looking at the text here, I just want to point out a few things that might be of help to us tonight. I noticed the manner of Paul's preaching Christ. The manner of his preaching. What was it that was his manner of preaching that so presented Christ in such a way that it caused these people's worlds to be turned right side up? I thought about here, that was the report of Paul's preaching in Thessalonica. And we notice here in verse number 2, it says that his manner was that he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. I thought about how he did not peddle his own ideas or those of the religious community of the day, but everything Paul said was based upon God's written revelation. He didn't have to add to nor take away from what God had already penned down in the Old Testament. I believe He turned to the book of Isaiah 53 and began to preach Christ in the Old Testament. And He began to preach to them what God's Word had already been said. And thanks be to God tonight, church, and dear brethren and sisters tonight, We don't have to preach a new message. We just have to preach the blessed Old Book. Just preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it will get the job done. He reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. I thought about how at this time in history there was no New Testament. Only Old Testament. And so as it was his manner, Paul, as his manner was, he preached his way, I believe, through the Old Testament. It said three Sabbath days. That's three weeks. I don't know about you, it would probably take us a whole lot longer than three weeks to preach through the Old Testament. But Paul, as he's working his way through those prophecies of Christ's coming, that scarlet thread of redemption that's woven through the Old Testament, maybe he started there at Genesis 3, verse 15, he began to expound the lamb that would come and would crush the serpent's head. He began to preach Christ to them and expound all the declarations, the types, the prophecies, and he would tell them of the Christ of Old Testament prophecy. As it was in that day, so it is in the day that you and I live, that we must preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And as Paul would later write, he said, Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel. Why, you say? Because though the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, unto us which believe, or unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Oh, keep preaching Christ. Keep preaching the gospel, dear saint of God. Dear man of God, keep thundering forth the gospel message from the pulpit. It's not in vain, the manner of Paul's preaching. I noticed Paul preached Christ as his manner was. I noticed he preached Him tirelessly. He says here he went into them three Sabbath days. Day in and day out, I believe for three weeks, every day, he was there reasoning with them from the Scriptures, tirelessly. He didn't give up. He didn't give in. He didn't throw in the towel the first time they reared their ugly head of rebellion and began to question the Word of God as those Pharisees so often did to our Lord and Savior. He didn't stop whenever it got hard, but he kept on tirelessly. Oh, may I encourage you tonight, dear Saint of God, be faithful. Keep serving God tirelessly. There's going to be times, and I know many of you, I'm preaching to the choir, you've been in this thing far longer than I have. And I can imagine as a young preacher the times that I felt like throwing in the towel and quitting and just going and doing something different and serving myself. How often maybe you've had those very same aspirations or thoughts enter your mind. May I say to you, be as Paul here was and tirelessly preach the Gospel, Be faithful to serve God tirelessly. Not only did he preach tirelessly, he preached thoroughly. The Bible says that he reasoned with them, opening and alleging. That word reason there, if my understanding of it is correct, means to discuss, to mingle thought with thought. It is from the Greek word where we get our English word, dialogue. It means to converse with somebody, literally, to have a conversation. And it was that Paul, his manner was conversing with other people of the gospel of the grace of God. In his conversation, in his lifestyle, in his preaching. Everything he had to talk of of any importance was the gospel of the grace of God. He spoke often of Jesus, and that was the theme of his message. And he would tell the church at Corinth, when I could have come with wisdom and human reasoning and enticing words, I declared to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Because Paul knew that the message of the Gospel was the only thing that can change a cold, dead heart and give it life. And so he preached to them thoroughly. He reasoned with them the Gospel. Oh, I thought about that and I thought, can you imagine Paul having probably got hit time and time again with questions about his doctrine, and yet he maintained the presence of mind to open to them the mysteries of the Scriptures and to support his claims with proof from the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 2.13 says, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And Paul took one text and laid it out alongside another text and let the Word of God speak for itself. And Paul may have been a preacher, but the Scriptures did the preaching for him. Oh, I want to be a preacher that is full of the Scriptures. I want my preaching to be filled with the Word of God. Why? Because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Oh, may we thoroughly preach. It says that he expounded. I thought about that word expounded there. It literally means to open. It's a term that indicates to open by dividing or drawing asunder, to open thoroughly what has been A lot of times it was used in those days of dividing a book that had been sealed and only someone with the proper authority or the proper knowledge was able to open or to break that seal and to divide that book to expose the content that was hidden therein. Oh, do you remember the day when your mind was blinded to spiritual things, but as the preacher began to expound the Word of God, the big preacher, the Holy Ghost, showed up and began to open up to you the Word of God, and things you'd heard all your life began to make sense and click in your heart, and God produced faith in you. Oh, thank God for the day that an expositional preacher preached to me Christ, and the expositor himself showed up and showed me who he was. He expounded to them. Well, it's interesting that this is the same word used to describe Christ's teaching after His resurrection, we're told. He opened unto them the Scriptures in Luke 24, verse 32. Thought about even, isn't it true, not only before you're saved, but after you're saved there's times when you've read something time and time and time again. Well, you get in a place where you're needing God to speak to your heart and you open to a familiar portion of Scripture. All of a sudden, the Holy Ghost sets loose in your soul and He begins to crack open to you some precious nugget, some truth found in the Word of God you've read over a hundred times. All of a sudden, He's making it real to you. Oh, thank God for that exposition. Oh, it's the same thought found in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15, where the Bible teaches that it is the responsibility of the preacher to rightly divide the word of truth. Expounding. Expounding. As Paul preached, he was enabled by God to unlock the spiritual vault of Scripture, and he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ. Oh, he expounded, but he also propounded, alleged, The idea of the word to allege is to set forth an idea with evidence. In its original sense, the best I understand it is to bring something forward as a source or authority on what you are speaking about. In the context, Paul was using the Scripture as both the source and the authority of the message that he preached. He expounded the Scriptures and he let the Scriptures allege and bear testimony that what he said was accurate. We don't need just a... the latest health, wealth and prosperity book or top number one selling book or the best set of commentaries or the greatest preachers even. And I love to read. I'm not down in that. I have a lot of books. Thank God for reading. I need all the reading I can get. You can tell. I felt kind of nervous preaching before an English teacher tonight and a literature major getting a doctorate. He's probably looking at me thinking, that guy needs to go back to school and learn how Speak the King's English. I need education. I need to learn more. But oh, I'm telling you, that's not where it's at. Don't preach something just because another preacher preached it. Don't believe it just because another commentator agrees with it. But let the Word of God be what's convinced you. That's what Paul did. He opened and alleged the Word of God. He expounded. Paul not only gave the meaning of the Scriptures, but he backed it up with the Scriptures. He preached thoroughly. Oh, may I exhort you to not keep on preaching that gospel thoroughly, tirelessly, but he preached it truthfully. Notice he says out of the scriptures, it was the truth of God's word. He used a scripture. He preached God's Word, not man's word, not what man's thoughts were on it, not what Dr. So-and-so said, but what the Word of God said. Let God be true and ever man a liar. Oh, the manner of Paul's preaching the Gospel. But then I notice in verse number 3, the message of preaching the Gospel. Paul's message. What did he preach? We find the body or the framework of our messages in the Bible, is it not? The whole counsel of the Word of God is our message, but at the center of that body of divinity that is the Word of God, the heart of that message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I believe you can find on every page, in every chapter, in every book, the theme, the major theme is pointing sinners, pointing souls to the Christ of Calvary. You may not get a full picture of Him in every verse. And I know we have to take Scripture with Scripture. There's no doubt Old Testament prophets that didn't see fully and clearly everything we see now. But I believe that from where we see things now, we can look back and clearly say that's exactly what they meant. Though they may not have understood what they meant, that's exactly what they meant and that's who they were pointing towards and looking for was the Messiah, Jesus Christ that would come. The message is Christ. That's why the Lord has given us His Word, is to give us a fuller revelation of His Son. And in knowing Christ, you know God. we find Paul's whole agenda was presenting Jesus to his hearers. Again, 2 Corinthians 4-5, we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. One man pointed out that the foundation for Paul's preaching was in the proof that Jesus was the Messiah of the Old Testament prophecy. Paul simply preached and compared the Old Testament prophecies of Scripture with the facts of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And though that be true in Christ, that it was the central theme of Paul's preaching, our message today must not only come out of the Bible, but it must focus on Christ. Oh, I've been around, and the more I fellowship, the more I learn there's some brethren, all they like to do is talk about prophecy. All they like to do is talk about this doctrine. All they like to do is talk about, and don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong about talking about doctrine. I love to and I'll be the first to jump in in a conversation with older preachers especially and pick their brains about different things. But oh, if we ever get so far past the gospel that that doesn't spark our interest more than anything else. Talking about Jesus. That was His thing. That's what He lived and breathed to do, was preach Jesus one more time to one more soul. Oh, may God help us to preach Jesus. I thought about John the Baptist didn't come from the wilderness preaching, Behold the prayer that taketh away the sin of the world. Behold the church that taketh away the sin of the world. And I love the church, and I'm strong local New Testament church. Thank God for the church. I love the song they sang. Thank God for churches that still have the light on. But it ain't the church that saves you. Oh, man, we never get tired of speaking of Him. Preaching Jesus. Talking about Jesus. Oh, behold the Lamb. that taketh away the sin of the world. Preaching that exalts Christ, the Lamb of God, who He is and what He did. It will always be, one man said, it will always be divinely honored. You preach Jesus and God will honor it. Paul's message starts with Christ and it ends with Christ. Look at it. Verse 3. opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach to you is Christ. What better way to start and end a message than with Jesus? Oh, that was the theme of his message, Jesus, Jesus Christ, the Messiah has come. Thought about that old hymn, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my ever longing, keeps me singing. as I go. There's one name that I can think of throughout the day that'll lift my spirits and cause my heart to flutter one more time. It's the name of Jesus. It's the precious name of our Savior. The day we stuck in a CD, my sister-in-law, she made a CD and heard my brother trying to adopt a child and they're raising funds to do that. We put their CD in and began to listen to her sing. She'd made it to try to raise money. Began singing about Jesus. Boy, tears began to run down my face as I drove down the highway. All other things became oblivious to me as I began to think about Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. Oh, is He precious to you tonight? That's what Paul wanted to preach. He preached about Jesus. As I think about the message of preaching Christ, I notice Paul preached Christ in his preeminence. He said that this Christ is Lord. He's Lord. Now, he doesn't say Lord there, and I know that's what you're thinking, but that is what Christ literally means. It was His title. It wasn't necessarily His name. Jesus was His name. Christ was His title. He is the Messiah. He's the anointed one. He's the one that God has anointed and sent for the purpose and the task at hand. He preached Christ in His preeminence, in His Lordship. He's worthy of every knee to bow and every tongue to confess, except a man repent and believe the gospel, you shall all likewise perish, was the message that Jesus preached when He came forth in Mark chapter number 1. May I say, He's worthy tonight. Colossians chapter 1, Paul said it like this, And He is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. Oh, He preached Him in His preeminence. Preached Him as Lord, preeminent in all things. that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And Jesus Lord has received all power, He tells us. He told His disciples, I have all power in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore. Oh, He has all power. He is the Lord of glory. I thought about how he did not assume that position of lordship. But it was his position. It was given him. He was legally entitled to it. And it was invested in him by a grant from the Father, from Him who the fountain of all life flows. It is His power. God the Father has set Him King. Psalm chapter 2 verse number 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. God has inaugurated Him and enthroned Him. Acts chapter 2 verse 34. For David is not ascended unto the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit there at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. Christ is Lord by right of His essence, by right of His eternality. He is God, thus He is Lord. Now may I say to you, Christ is Lord also by recognition of His obedience and accomplishments at Calvary. As God, Christ is equal with the Father and all power is originally His. But as our sacrifice and Savior, He is our Lord and has been made Lord by the Father. This lordship was given to him as a result of Calvary. Philippians 2.8 says, Jesus being found in fashion as a man humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And then he'd say there, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and of things in earth and of things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Oh, may I say to you, He preached Christ in His pre-eminence. May we preach Him in that same way. Oh, He's Lord. He's Lord. The gospel that's being preached today has excluded that from its message. Make Him Savior now and He can be Lord later. He is not Savior without being Lord. He is Lord and Savior. In fact, it's most often in that order, Lord and Savior. You bow to Him and then He will receive you unto Himself. He's Lord. Matthew 28, 18, He's Lord in heaven. Ephesians 1, 20, He's Lord over the angels. Romans 8, 34, He's Lord in intercession with the Father. Matthew 28, 18, again, He's Lord upon the earth. 1 Timothy 6, 16, He's Lord over all men. Oh, Jonah would say it, the Lord. He is the Lord of salvation. And I echo with the words of the great hymn writer, all hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. Oh, he's Lord tonight. He preached him in his preeminence. He preached him in his purpose. Not only did he preach Christ, but he preached that Christ must needs. Oh, I love that phrase in the Bible, don't you? Aren't you thankful the day God must needs come by wherever it was He found you and He saved you and turned your world right side up? Thank God for the day He must needs come by Zirconia, North Carolina on a Tuesday night, Crossroads Baptist Church while the preacher was preaching. And speak to my heart and save me by His grace. Oh, I thought about John 4, before we find that phrase, and He must needs go through Samaria. Well, I was reading that the other day, and that just kind of blessed my soul. There, that woman at the well came and saw Jesus. You know the story. We won't go through all that. But you remember, she leaves, and she goes and tells, Come see a man that told me all things I ever did. Now, usually when you get caught up with, you don't want nobody to know about it. But this woman wanted everybody to know what the Lord had done for her. And are we not the same band of pilgrims with the same message and the same tune? We go around telling everybody of the day Jesus caught up with us and found us in our sin, but thanks be to God He didn't leave us the way He found us. And what a blessed day for the day that He must needs come by. It wasn't by accident, friend, that God came to where you were. accident that you're here tonight. It's all about the divine providence of a sovereign God. Blessed be his name. He preached God in his providence, in his purposes. He preached Christ in his passion. Most needs have suffered. Always started preaching on the blood. suffering, the passion of Christ, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Christ needed to suffer because we needed a Savior. And man's perfect and only substitute could only be Jesus Christ. And God's perfect and only sacrifice could only be Jesus Christ. And because God gave Christ what I deserve at Calvary, God will give me what Christ deserves throughout eternity. Because God looked at Calvary and saw me, He looks now at me and sees Christ. Thank God! The passion, the suffering of Christ, what He went through for you and I. Oh, He preached Christ in His passion. Preached Christ in His power. He didn't stay dead. He rose again. He's victorious over death, hell and the grave. He's risen for our justification. The power of God, not only had He the power to lay down His life, but He had power to take it up again also. Boy, you begin to see the message that Paul preached. A big God! He didn't preach a little God wringing His hands, wondering what He's going to do about Obama messing with Israel. But He's a big God tonight, and He's got it all under control. He's a God of purpose. Doesn't do anything by mistake. Never scratched His head and thought, was there a better way? Jesus wasn't plan B. Oh, He's a God that had a purpose to punish His Son at Calvary so He could be set free from the penalty of sin. He's a powerful God, isn't He? Resurrected Himself from the grave. He preached Christ in His person also. preach about Jesus. That's what he says in the text. That he rose from the dead and that this Jesus, oh it gets personal, this Jesus. Oh, I love that name. Don't you love the name of Jesus tonight? I was reading just really recently, being Christmas time, going back and reading the Christmas stories, there Matthew chapter 1, whenever Joseph receives the dream from the angel, And there the Bible says, thou shalt call his name Jesus. And then later it said, and thou shalt have a son. And then you go on down, he says, and his name will be Emmanuel. Being interpreted, God with us. You ever thought about that phrase, God with us? If that doesn't blow your mind, friend, the God of heaven is with us. He's with us tonight. He's on our side. We've been made a part of what He's doing. We're on His side. I thought about as He preached Him in His person, no doubt He preached Him as Savior. He preached Him as the Son of God and He preached Him as the Sovereign, Emmanuel, God with us. Preached Him. The message of preaching Christ. The manner that He preached Christ. But then lastly, let me give you this quickly. The miracle of preaching Christ. Verse number 4. What's the miracle? I love the hound out of this. Oh, this is what gives me fuel to keep on going, brother. And some of them believed. Well, all of them didn't believe. Well, no. Thank God some of them believed. I don't know where all of them believed except Nineveh. But thanks be to God, some believed. That's what keeps us going, isn't it, preachers? Church, isn't that what keeps you paying the power bill and keeping the doors open? Thank God there's at least one at Mark Tree, Arkansas that God is going to purpose through the preaching of His Word and the prayers of His saints to bring into the fold of God. Be faithful. Keep on preaching Christ because the miracle is God is going to raise up another Lazarus and save another soul. Brother in Alabama, keep on preaching because someone down there, God has purposed, He is going to save them. And thanks be to God, you get to get in on it. I'm in Smithville, Oklahoma still because I believe with all my heart there are some folk there that God is going to save by His grace. And it keeps me keeping on. We know not everyone is going to believe and accept the Gospel message. Praise be to God, if we'll be faithful to proclaim it, some will. Some will. Romans 9, 16 says, salvation is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that is my hope tonight. I ain't hoping that somebody finally decide to turn over a new leaf. or gradually get better until they decide they'll come join up with the saints of God. But I'm looking for an all-powerful, almighty God to step down on their road to hell and do for them what He did for me when He turned my world right side up. Oh, Peter, in praise and adoration, we write in 1 Peter 1 13, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It's the Lord's work. It's a miracle, and it's marvelous in our sight. We see here that it produces the miracle. Preaching Christ, it produces faith. It's unbelievable. See, quickens that heart. Some of them, Spirit of God, comes into their soul and they cry, Abba, Father. Oh, there's faith. Some of them believe. But then I notice there's fellowship. Preaching Christ, the miracle of it, it'll take your, maybe one of your strongest enemies, Pastor, in this community that has fought this church the most. and it'll put you in fellowship with one another around the gospel ministry. Just as the pastor testified tonight that he had had people in that congregation the night he was baptized that he could look through that congregation and see people that he had run off and been ill toward to try to keep them from him and keep them from testifying to him and witnessing to him, and yet God brought them into fellowship. Oh, the miracle of preaching Christ. The Bible says, in consortia with Paul, that word consortia means to cast your lot with. Instead of casting stones at Paul, they went and they turned and they said, I'm going to cast my lot with him. Fellowship. The miracle of preaching Christ. Not only is there fellowship, though, there's fruit. There's fruit. And of the Greeks, a great multitude, and of the devout women, chief women, not a few. I mean, there was fruit, there was folks being saved, and there was a continuation of what God had started. Oh, preach Christ. I get tired of hearing that preacher get up there and preach the same old gospel message over and over again. Brothers, sisters, it'll produce fruit in your life. The more you see Christ, the more you'll want to be like Him. The more you hear preaching of Christ, the more you'll long to be like Him and be with Him. Fruit. But then I noticed this and I'm closing. The miracle of preaching Christ, it'll produce faith, it'll produce fellowship, it'll produce fruit, but it'll produce a future. They had a future. I thought about this as I was reading over this, meditating. You know, I had a future before Christ. It was a future of despair and sorrow and brokenness and bondage and sin. Yeah, I had a future, a future of living for myself. running the race of life only to come up empty-handed. I had a future, a future of a life of sorrow and turmoil, a life that's been torn in two. I had a future, a place called hell, a lake of fire, utter darkness. eternal damnation, I had a future, but it wasn't a very bright future. But the day that God came into my life and turned my world right side up, brothers and sisters, we received a future that is unlike anything this world has to offer, anything the devil has to offer. I received peace and forgiveness and life everlasting and fellowship with the God of heaven. I've got a family tonight and a beautiful little girl. Girls now that are sitting back there that God has blessed me with. I'm telling you, God has been good to this old boy. I don't deserve the least of His favors tonight. But thanks be to God for the day that He turned my world right side up and He gave me a future to live for. Oh, in heaven's now my home, the eternal presence of God I'll enjoy as I'll worship the Lamb of God that was slain as it was before the foundations of the world. Oh, Paul would say when he wrote back to this church in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 19, For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye at the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ as His coming? Oh, I thought about what Paul was saying there. One of these days, He's going to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ with those saints, which He already is. And He is going to worship the risen Lamb for the grace that's been demonstrated in those men and women's lives through the preaching of the Gospel. One day, brothers and sisters, you're going to stand in the presence of God with a preacher that preached faith into your heart, and you're going to worship God. and is going to worship God for what God has done in your life. A trophy of grace He's made out of you. One day, we're going to stand around the throne, and I'm going to look over at Brother Sam, and I'm going to look at him. Glory to the Lamb of God! And I'm going to look over at Brother Ron, I'm going to look back at Him and I'm going to say, Blessed be His holy name. And I'm going to look over at Brother Raymond. Oh, I believe we'll do that throughout eternity. We're going to see what God's grace made out of each other's lives. And we're going to turn back and give Him all the glory and all the honor and all the praise. And when we run out of saints to do it with, Maybe we'll look over in the sea of life and see our own reflection and we'll start all over again. Worshipping Him for what He did in our lives. Thank God for the day that He turned my world right side up. Thirteen year old boy, headed to hell. And I vividly remember the Holy Ghost making that real in my heart before the Lord saved me. That if I died and went to hell, I'd die and go to hell, and rightfully so. I deserve that for my sins against the Holy God. And He saved me by His grace. Oh, do you remember the day the Lord turned your world right side up? We're going into a new year. I can't think of anything better meditate on, to think about, to bring before our thoughts this evening in the day Christ saved your soul. Remember that. It's a great, great tool that you can use. Paul used his testimony. Just about every time he had the opportunity to preach, he shared his testimony. Maybe tonight you don't have a testimony. Maybe tonight your world's still upside down. My exhortation to you would be come to Christ. He's the friend of sinners. Oh, he's a merciful savior. Let's bow. Lord, we thank you for your word tonight and ask you, Lord, to bless it. Thank you, Lord, for liberty to preach. Thank you for the opportunity to preach. We thank you, Lord, for this pastor in this church. We love him. We've come to love this pastor and his wife, and Lord, we thank you, Father, for their faithfulness. We ask you, Lord, to take what's been said tonight, what'll be said, and the songs that'll be sung, Lord, the remainder of this service, Lord, may it exalt the Lamb. May our hearts be flooded with worship. May we give honor and adoration to the King of Kings. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.