Welcome to another message from God's Word. We're going to give you a little bit of a treat tonight. I think it's a treat. This is Valentine's Day. This is February the 14th, 2019. That doesn't even hardly sound real. Valentine or Valentino was a real person. He was a pastor. Now, the Catholic Church made him a saint, canonized him later on. But when Valentine lived between about 226 A.D. Some people have him going around all the way back to 180 something A.D. But he died a triple death. Did you hear that? He died a triple death in February the 14th, 269 A.D. Now, at this time in history, there was no such thing as a Catholic Church. They were all Baptists. And in Rome, there was a controversy between Cornelius and Novatian at this time, and it was over Church discipline. But the church in Rome, where he was in Italy, was still really, by faith and practice, a Baptist church. Now, he was in one of the cities around Rome, and he was a pastor and a spiritual leader. And Claudius the cruel Claudius Gotham. He was the emperor of the Roman Empire at that time. Claudius was going out to conquer and trying to control his western front and eastern front, and he had to have a lot of soldiers. And he had found out that his soldiers, if they were married, they wanted to go back home. They didn't want to stay out on campaigns for years and years and years. So, he forbid his soldiers to be married. Now, some of the Roman soldiers were Christians. You have to realize that some of the Roman soldiers were Christians. Even though Christianity was not looked upon, it was frowned upon, but some of the soldiers were Christians. And Constantine made an edict, a law, that none of his soldiers and none of the men of that nation there, for a period of time, they could not get married. Now, we did not have a church and state this time. I want you to understand that church and state did not exist still. This was before the church and state idea. Now, the pastors did not, what we might call, sign decrees and have Mary's license like we do today. That all came from Catholicism, church and state later, many, many years later. By 325 AD, then we have Constantine the Great and we have the church Catholic actually begins. And then they wanted to control the births and marriages, people from birth to marriage to death. And so at this period of time, this is 300 and something AD, this is 200 we're talking about now. They didn't have marriage license. What did a pastor do at that time? A man and a woman would come before a congregation and they would state that they wanted to live in holy matrimony, that they wanted to have children, that they wanted to have a marriage, and they wanted to have God in their lives, and that they would follow God in their married lives. It was not a license or anything, but it was a commitment. It was a public commitment. And so people would come to Valentino or Valentius, however you want to say his name, and they would say, we want to get married. We want to come together in marriage as two people in the eyes of God. And so he would get up before the congregation, and they would lead out, and he would say a few words, and they'd have a prayer, and these people would go home and be married. Well, Claudius, the cruel, said, stop it now. Stop it now. And he had Valentino arrested. Well, Valentino preached to the emperor about Christ and his gift of himself and his eternal life that he offers. And the emperor was very interested in him in the beginning. But Valentino tried to convert him. And so the emperor got mad and condemned him to death. Now I told you that he had a triple death. A triple death. How do you kill somebody three times? How do you do that? Well, the triple death that Constantine was sentenced to was first of all, they beat him with clubs. And then they stoned him. And then, to make sure he was dead, they decapitated him, they beheaded him. Well, Valentino was in prison. And in prison there was a guard, a captain there, called by the name of Asturias. Asturias. And Asturias was guarding Valentino and he listened to him preach and he believed. He became a believer. And he also had a daughter, some people say adopted daughter, that was blind. And the daughter listened to Valentino. He brought her and she listened to him preach and to read the word of God and she believed. Well, Asturias asked Valentino Valentino, do you think, if you prayed, do you think God might heal this beautiful girl's eyesight where she can see? And so he prayed, laid his hands upon her, and she saw. Her sight was given to her. And she would come to his cell every day and he would read to her. And it finally came time to where it was time for him to be executed with this triple execution, beating with clubs, stoning, and then beheading. The girl didn't come to the prison that day right early. She was very sad. Valentino left her a message, it says, in history. God bless you, your Valentine. That was the first Valentine card, supposedly. She got the card, she got his note, and she planted a flower on her doorstep, by her doorstep, and that flower every year on February the 14th it would bloom in memory of Valentino. He was beaten with clubs, he was stoned, and he was beheaded. He's buried now. And then later on, in February 14th, 269 A.D., Valentino gave his life for the gospel. And we remember him today. We remember him as standing for the faith in his time and his place. We live now As the legend of Valentine came on down to us, now we give our wives and girlfriends Valentine's cards. When I went to school, everybody made little Valentine's cards and they would give, the girls would give the boys a Valentine card and the boys would give the girls a Valentine card. And that's what we do now. We look and we have little Cupid, little angel looking things, little Cupid, little, Cherubs are in diapers, shooting arrows in people's hearts and things like that. This is all legend. It's all real cute and everything. But the real story of Valentine is the story of death. It's the story of a man that gave his life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And by the way, the only people in the world at that time were either Gnostics, which he was not, or Baptists. which he probably was in faith and practice. We look at different ones. We look at Patrick. If you go to the site discovertheword.com or discover the word with drjim.com and it's linked to sermonaudio.com. Up there, there's a square little black thing with a black and blue background postage stamp looking thing with a radio tower with beams coming out. If you push on that, you go over there to the website, the other sister website, and down there it says St. Patrick was a Baptist. And you can read that story also. We'll have St. Patrick's Day coming up here sooner or later. But Valentine was a Christian. He was a pastor and he gave his life for his faith. Now let's go to the 11th chapter of the gospel according to Matthew and verse number 25. Now this is kind of a short lesson here from 25 through 30. And Jesus has been talking to his disciples and his apostles, and he talked to great multitudes. And he told them about basic Christianity, basic Christianity. And basic Christianity now is a whole lot different than Judaism. Judaism isn't, Christianity isn't an evolved Judaism. Christianity is Christianity. Opposing Judaism in raw reality Judaism here you keep the law You offer sacrifices and you're looking for the Messiah to come in Christianity the Messiah came You trust in Christ that he is your Sabbath That all of the things that those festivals the young Kapoor the day of atonement that he is our atonement first John 2 and 2 He is our salvation, John 3, 16. He's our one and all. He's our only mediator between man and God. That is our Christ. And that's what we're going to talk about now is basic Christianity. Basic Christianity. You write that down, Marilyn? Basic Christianity. In ecchano tol chiro. apokrythes ho eisous eipen, exo logou mai, sue pater kyrie tu ranu, kai teis geis hoti, ek krypes tauta aposofon kai sineton kai apakalypsos pauta nepios. In that the season and that word Cairo that means season that's not time and that season Having answered Jesus. He said I Give thanks to you father and now he's talking to the father The father son and Holy Spirit are one triune God now the Sun is glorifying and magic and putting in great majesty the father and Jesus told us how to pray say our father which is in heaven hallowed. Holy Precious is your name that will be done On earth as it is in heaven, etc Now he's going to praise God. He said I give thanks to you father Lord of the heaven and of the earth because you have veiled and hidden and made cryptic these things from wise ones, the wise ones, who he's talking about, who were the masters of the law, the rabbis, the priests, the high priests, from the wise and intelligent, and you did cover up, you did uncover, you did uncover them to speechless babies. for those babies that don't know how to read and write or even speak, and that's talking about you and me. 1126, nehopater hoto hutos udokia agenito emprostensu. Yes, the father because thus. You judged good or it was your good pleasure, it seemed or it became for itself. down in the presence of you. What he's talking about here? He's talking about the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation. Basic Christianity, the plan of salvation is that God in eternity past decided how that he would save all mankind. How that he would redeem all man to himself. This is the only way of salvation now. And eternity passed, he wrote his name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And in space and time, we believe. We repent of our sins and call upon the Lord to save our souls. That repentance and that calling upon the name of the Lord is a miracle work. It's a miracle work. It is a powerful work. The restoring of the soul is a miracle. Jesus went about all the land of Palestine, Canaan, whatever you want to call it, Judea, Samaria, even Syria, and he healed people by the power of God. Every time a soul believes in Australia, New Zealand, China, the Philippines, especially in the Islamic world, when a person believes it is a miracle. And what God does in people's life is miraculous. It is powerful. Repentance and faith is a majestic, powerful work. It is a divine work. It doesn't come from you. That restoring of fellowship with God in your life and the power to walk off from sin and go the right way. We were like children, all victims of sin at one time. But we, while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, give his life for us that we that call upon him might have eternal life and have the power of God unto salvation. Yes, the Father, because thus it was your good pleasure, it seemed, down in the presence of you. What did God do? In eternity past, He chose to save us in the Beloved One, in Christ Jesus. John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world. Now the whole world God in eternity past, he created Lucifer, which became Satan, he created spirits, he created angels, and we know that one third of them rebelled against God, the spirits and the angels, and they stood in opposition. But through the merits of God's Son, he would In space and time, Kaihologos sarxikanato, and the word, the Jehovah became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has seen God in any time, but the only begotten God, the one being in the bosom of the Father, that one has led himself out. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that God sent him into this world, that He died for you on the cross of Calvary and that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. You shall be saved. And that gift of repentance and that gift of faith will explode in your life. Are you going through times of trouble? Are you? down and bewildered and sometimes just don't know what God wants with you, why He's even dealing with you, because you just don't have the will, you just don't have the wherewithal, you just don't have the power to do what He wants you to do. Yes, you do. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and say, Lord, lead me. And He'll do it. It's a power unto salvation. because in this way, in this manner, it was judged good by Him, it was His good pleasure, down in front of you all. Now let's look at verse number 27. Panta moi paradofe, hipo tu patros mu, cae udes epigonosce ton hwion e me ho pater ude ton All things to me it was handed over, each and everything. Each thing, third person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, first person singular, He was delivered to them. The baton was handed to the son in the procurement of salvation for the human race. Now I'm not saying that everybody's going to be saved there. But God did die that everyone in the human race, the propitiation was made. Whether you take it up, that's that real fine line gift that God gives to you in volition. That you're capable of responding to God. and believing. And when you respond to God, the power of God explodes in your life, in your mind, in your soul, in your spirit, and in your person. All thanks to me it was handed over by the agency of the Father of me, and no one, he fully knows the Son, except the Father. Neither the Father, anyone, he fully knows. Except the Son into whom or in whom if he may will the son to reveal Uncover to put out on the stage under the spotlight. That's you people That's you God at one time in your life when you believed and came unto the What we might call the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God because that's the only way you're gonna get saved. I You can't decide to be a Christian one day. You can't decide to just go to church one day. It's the power of God that leads us unto salvation. And the power of God that leads you unto salvation leads you in the Lord's footsteps. Jesus said, if you don't believe, you don't follow me, you're not worthy of me. What makes it able for what makes it a why are you able to follow God? By the power of God that's how Now let's go on a little bit further verse number 28 do it a pros may Ponte's ho a coal peon tase chi-4 t soul man away cargo on up who so he must Salvation isn't works. Salvation to the people that Jesus came to, the priests and the Sadducees and the Pharisees, all of these people, salvation was accumulation of good works, whereinby you would finally walk up the pathway of God into the path of heaven. The pathway isn't there, people, on your own. There is no pathway. It's a false road. The Jewish people believe that when you first die that you're very sad, your soul is very sad, and that it wanders around the body for about three or four days up to a week. And everybody laments and cries and bawls and goes on. But then that spirit, that soul, that person goes up there and it starts to get used to heaven. Starts to get used to heaven and then it's a little happier. And the Jewish people, they have stages of bereavement and then great joy. But I'm gonna tell you something, that road's not there. That road is not there, that road alone is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Come unto me, all of you laboring. This word, it comes from, it's copiontes, it's nomine plural masculine present participle active, comes from copio, and it means to do hard working, beating labor. You used to have a guy that worked for me out there on the farm. I'm going to tell you something. Work on that farm's hard work. Marilyn, you sweated 100 gallons of sweat out there at least, out chopping weeds and shoveling things in your life. Oh, Ricky would come in for lunchtime, and we'd cook him lunch. And he'd come in for lunchtime, and he sat down. I'm beat up. Boy, I'm beat up. Oh, that was a hard job out there. Oh, that was hard. And it was. Works for salvation would beat you up. Religion will beat you to death. False religion will. And you won't get anywhere. Where's it going to get you? To a dead-end road. Jesus Christ and Him only. He said, come unto me, all the ones laboring heavy. And having been burdened down, and they were, Jesus told the Pharisees standing there, he said, they load you down, those Pharisees load you down with great burdens that they themselves won't lift with one little finger. But yet they'll lay it on your backs. Don't walk across the grass on the Sabbath, you might sow seed. Don't eat an egg laid on the Sabbath, buy chicken, or a guinea, or a duck, or a goose. That's bare bottom, that's forbidden. Don't go but so far on the Sabbath to do anything. Don't do any kind of work on the Sabbath. You go into a Jewish home on the Sabbath and you go into the bathroom and the day before the Sabbath they'll go in there and they'll take toilet paper and they'll pile it up in little piles. because pulling toilet paper off the toilet paper roll is work. Some of the Jews, if they're really religious, they won't even go to the bathroom on the Sabbath. They hold it till the next day. Foolishness, great burdens that men wear down other men's shoulders. Jesus said, come unto me, I shall give you rest. Rest from all your labors and toils in religion. Relax in the truth. Relax in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Verse number 29, Hapate ton zogon mu ef himas kai mathete. At imu hote pros eme kai tapenos. Te Kardia Kai Hurei Seitei Anaphusen Teis Psycheis Himon. Ye take and ye carry the yoke of me. You carry the yoke of me. My yoke. You carry my yoke. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You carry my yoke upon you, and you learn, you become a habitual learner, that's what he says here. That's second person plural, present indicative active, imperative active. You learn, you become a habitual learner from me. Because meek, pros, that word's meek, that's lowly, that word is humble. I am, and humble, absolute, true humility in the heart. And you shall find anapusen. Anapusen means to stop moving. Stop moving. Stop moving. Anapusen. It means to stop moving, stop laboring. It means to lay down and rest. Lay down and rest. Stop moving. Cease activity. To the souls of you all. Verse number 30, and then we'll go back and read this from the Amplified Bible. For, or Hol-gar-seagulls, Mu, Cray-stohs, Ky, Toh, For-tee-ohm, Mu, Ah-lah-frohn, Estin. For the yoke belonging to me, and belonging to you now, gentle, Christos, it's gentle, it's mild, it is easy to carry. And the burden of me, light it is. Now I'm going to tell you something, the burden that Jesus Christ paid for your sins was not light to Him. But He paid it for you. He died for all of us, that we might have life. Let's read this from verse 25 onward. Yes, Father, I praise you that such was your gracious will and good pleasure. All things were entrusted and delivered to me by my Father, and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Son, except the Father, and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son deliberately wills to make him known." He wills to make him known. There's a lot of controversy in the election, and superlapsarian, infralapsarian, and sublapsarian, and those are great big words. But I'm going to make it real simple to you. Jesus Christ died for all men. It is not efficacious, it isn't what we call valid for all men, even though He died for all men, but it only becomes valid when you believe. And when you believe, when you surrender your will to God, when you give up your you and put Jesus Christ on the throne of your life, when you hand your soul, your spirit, and your body over to God, He will give you the power to believe and to live for Him. The Son deliberately wills to make known, come to me, all you who labor, are beat down with hard labor, and are heaven-laden and overburdened, and he's talking about the religious people that were religiously overburdened. I will cause you to cease moving. Cease activity. Stop. And look at me. Jesus told old Nicodemus, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me. That means all men. That all men have an equal chance unto believing. That all men, that's all men, Pontus, all men can believe. and whosoever will shall have eternal life. I will cause you to rest, and I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls. I'll give your souls life. It is a miraculous, it is a powerful, it is the divine work. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am gentle, humble and lowly in heart, and you will find rest and relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet for your souls. For my yoke is wholesome, useful, good, not harsh, hard, sharp, and pressing down, but comfortable and gracious and pleasant, and my burden is light and easy to be borne." We don't understand what that means there in the modern language. My burden, my yoke is light. A yoke is like a saddle, it's like a harness. Saddle and harness. Now you go back into the days when I was young, they were still using stock animals for some things. But I'll tell you one thing, they've always used horses for cowboying and there's still cows running all over the ranges and the hills and the pastures. Every time you go to McDonald's, somebody killed a cow. Somebody rounded up that cow. Somebody gathered that cow. Now, I know that people do it by helicopters today, and they do it with quads and all kinds of stuff, even motorcycles in some places. But cowboys. In the old days, a horse would wear out about 10 or 12, 15 years, and he was done for. Why was he done for? Because he had hard work and abuse. And how many of you ever have seen a horse's back with saddle sores on him? The old horses in the old days were slimmer and narrower and the saddles were narrow. And a saddle had a sheepskin on it. Now at one time, the sheepskin was a pad between the horse and the saddle and the man. And then they began to pad underneath the sheepskin because the sheepskin would wear out, and they'd pad it up. And then a horse would have a saddle sore on it. And they'd take a saddle blanket and they'd cut a hole right where that saddle sore is. And that was for that horse. And the old horse can only be ridden so long and he'd be this worn out. Then you had to drape that saddle and put it on another one. And the same thing with the oxen. The oxen, sometimes all they had was a rough hewn timber. Well, smoothed out a little bit, and it has a U-shaped thing, and they put it through there, and they put pins through that, and that cow had to push against that. And there would be calluses and sores on that yoke. Jesus says, my yoke is easy. Some gentle Animal owners and farmers used to take sheepskin and put it around in between and wool and blankets in between the yokes and the neck of the ox or the cow to make it easier for them so they wouldn't have to be pulled. When you're pulling against a hard load, when you're pulling against a hard load, when you got a heavy man sitting in the saddle and that man is rubbing, that saddle is rubbing your sore in some places, it's hard to go. Those poor old oxen were hard, hard to pull. When you pulled against something that gave you pain, it's hard enough to pull and strain against something that's easy to pull. Or it's not hurting you. But when that thing is gouging you, it's hard to stand. And false religion is like a sharp yoke and a unpadded saddle. The faith in Jesus Christ is the power of God in salvation. Our Heavenly Father, we send this message out for you, for your people today. I pray that you work miracles out there in the world, that you give people the joy of their salvation, and that they can shout and praise God for what you've given them to do. And Father, may we always Thank you for the salvation that you so freely give us in Jesus Christ. Please forgive me where I fail you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.