1 Peter 4 and verse 5. 1 Peter 4 and verse 5. There's a lot of cross references in Peter. He's quoting from a lot of other people. He's using words again that absolutely no one else uses many times. And I tell you where these are. He's using combinations of words. He's actually inventing some terms. and I'll try to bring them out as we go along. Hoi, we covered five pretty well last week, didn't we? Yeah? All right, let's go to number six then. Ace, Tuto, Gar, Yuongaliste, Hina, Trithusen, Trithusi, that is, Man, Kada, Ansarpus, Sarki, Stosi, Dei, Cata, Theon, Numati. Again, there is so much here. This is again a much debated scripture. There are two basic interpretations of it. It's called in Latin, Descensus Aud in Pharos. This is where we went back before. Remember when we talked about the descent into the infernal? Remember when we talked about hell? As a matter of fact, on Sunday morning, we just finished a week ago studying two lessons on hell. And this is what it's talking about. The Lord descended into the paradise side of Hades, didn't He? As you look up here, on this map of the ages, back in eternity past is when God created everything. How long that was ago, I don't know, when he created the heavens and the earth. And then when he placed man upon it, that's when we finally come into time. Because man is relevant to time. Time is space. The other things before that were just kind of eternal. Of course, man is an eternal being, but he lives in time and space. God made a promise that he would come to the earth after man sinned and that he would redeem mankind by himself and through the person of Jesus Christ. We find all the different things happen in history. The age of innocence, conscience, human government, the promise through Abraham, then we have the Egyptian bombing of Israel, and then everybody has watched the movie Exodus, I know. It wasn't exactly right, but it was an idea. And Israel was under the law, and then Jesus came and fulfilled the law. Well, All of these people back here that lived and died before Jesus came to the earth lived under a promise that God would become flesh and that he would redeem mankind. Only a promise. Well, at the cross, the promise became a fact, didn't it? It became a fact. Now, let's interpret this verse as such. Unto this, or because of this, for because of this, indeed. Alright? Or for this purpose, or for this cause, indeed. Two dead men. It was preached. It was caused to be preached. Two dead men. This word necros, look at that. Necros. What kind of dead is this? Necros. Isn't there an English term that comes from this word? What? Necromancy? All right. Necromancy. There's other terms too, I believe. All of it is to do with dead people. Necromancy is the, well you see that on television. If you turn your television on, I think it's on all the channels in the morning. My wife turns the thing on and I come in there and we congregate in the kitchen and she has it on and about a certain time in the morning, all these channels have got necromancers on them. So we turn it off and forget about the necromancers. They're talking to dead people. You nor anybody else in this world can talk to a dead person. Did you know that? It's impossible. Well, they told me about this and fortune tellers and all kinds of stuff. Fortune tellers, necromancers deal with demons. Not with dead people. Dead people go to heaven or go to hell. And there is no more communication. That's it. But demons live and breathe everywhere. And every morning when you get up there are demons around you. Every night when you go to bed there are demons around you. All for 24 hours there are demons around you and watching you. And if you die, and you're worried about what happened somebody's worried about what happened to you they can go and go on these necromancers and one of these necromancers can communicate with one of the demons that has been following you around and watching you and very easily tell you all kinds of stuff because demons don't forget we do how many of you begin to forget? well demons don't have They don't get geriatric. The only thing they're going to get is them one of these days. But if they're in really good shape and mentally in really good health, they don't forget. And they can tell what happened 400 years ago to somebody. Have you ever heard somebody say, well, I was a Viking 400 years ago, or I was a headhunter and so and so, 400 years ago. And they can even speak the language. These necromancers and things that get out there, why do you think that's happening? They're not talking, they're not living lives that they lived before. It's demonic. Now let's get back to the verse. The gospel is preached to dead men. When Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, He descended into the inferno, in the paradise side, and told them that I have overcome. Some people also think, how about, and you hear this all the time, how about them aborigines over there and how about those pygmies and how about those people down in the Amazon River and all those people who never heard the gospel. What's going to happen to those people when they die? I'm going to tell you something, the Holy Spirit is not limited to His churches. Did you know that? Today, the Shekinah glory of God The Holy Spirit is working through the Lord's churches. But the Lord's Holy Spirit works throughout all mankind wherever they are. And God deals with mankind with whatever light or understanding they have. And what does the Bible say in Romans the first chapter? It says a lot in Romans the first chapter, doesn't it? It condemns a lot of things. It condemns immorality, homosexuality, thieving and stealing and lying and plundering and all that stuff. And it also says another thing. That no man anywhere in the world is without excuse that you can see that there is God. And God deals with those men according to knowledge. The knowledge that they have. Alright? the American Indians when they were over here. Of course, if you're a Mormon, they say that Jesus died on the cross. Calvin came over here and died again on another cross over here in America, which was hogwash. The Bible says that Jesus Christ died once. For all mankind. Alright? But the American Indian was judged by what knowledge that they had and what was given to them when the earth divided them. Remember when the earth divided? And the languages were confused at the Tower of Babel. Now, what God had told mankind at that period of time, they were living over here on this planet. Now, many people out and down in different parts of the world, they say, well, Christ talked, went and preached to these people and told them the gospel. All right? He said, because of this, indeed, to dead men was preached the gospel, in order that they might be judged, yes, or indeed, or also, according to men in the flesh, and that they might live according to God in spirit. Now, I believe that it's talking about the same group of people that it was talking about earlier in the scripture, because Peter's carrying on the same thought here. He's talking about descending into Hades, Christ descending into Hades, and telling the good news, or announcing better term, announcing to them that he had overcome the cross, that he had now died and he had now paid the cost, but it wasn't finished yet, was it? What did Jesus have to do to procure our salvation even after he died on the cross? Remember what it was? What was necessary? Jesus dying was not enough. Now you've got a lot of people dealing out here. The Jehovah's Witnesses will tell you that Jesus Christ died for the sins of mankind. That Michael on a car came and took on flesh and he died. That's it. But that's not all of it. What was it? He had to be resurrected. Now there are people that will tell you that Jesus never was resurrected. That's the story. That's just a myth. Jesus died and Jesus rose. That's part of the gospel. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's not all the gospel. That's only half the gospel. Alright? And he rose to his glorified body. And he rose to his glorified body and he took those with him and he ascended into heaven in a way that he had never walked into heaven before because Christ, when he left heaven, he left heaven and came into humanity, he begat himself in the person of Jesus Christ on this earth, and he walked as a man, yet he was God. Then he died like a man dies, and his spirit went into the infernal like man's spirit does, but then all of a sudden We have a glorifying Christ when he rose, when he was resurrected. And then he, it says, according to the scriptures, that he blazed a trail into heaven for all of us. He was the first to walk into heaven with a human body. He blazed that trail. We talked about Kit Carson. We talked about Joseph Walker and all these trailblazers that they had. And I'm going to tell you the truth. They didn't blaze any trails. All they did was follow Indian trails. They discovered some Indian trails is what they did. They didn't blaze any. There's trails from one end of this country to the other. They were just smart enough to follow the well-beaten paths. Walker Pass over here, on the other side of Isabella, that Joseph Walker went over there. And it's called Walker Pass. But really he just followed the Indian trails. That was when the white man discovered those trails. But he was a trail blazer. He chopped forward. The actual literal term of it is to take an axe or a knife and to chop the weeds down to blaze a trail where no one has walked before. That's the real term. And that's what Jesus did. He blazed a trail that no one had walked before. Because no part of humanity had ever entered into heaven itself. Humans, when they died, could not go into heaven before the cross, could they? They had to go down into Hades, the paradise side of Hades. But after he died and after he rose again, then he could blaze that crown and he'd be the first one to walk into heaven and leave his children behind him, safely. Because of his flesh that he gave and his blood that he spilled. Alright. Do you have any questions on that? Paradise. Both Hades and Paradise were in the same location. But one side of it was Paradise and one side was a place of suffering. And I've shown you this before. And this pen probably won't write. What do you know about that? It doesn't. Here's the earth up here, and down underneath the earth. Luke 16 tells you about paradise over here, and Hades over here, but it's all called Sheol or Hades. And these were in paradise, or the guarded place. Over here was the place of suffering. Jesus descended down into here. Down into that place. And he announced to them that he had died for them. He announced to them that he had died for them. And when he rose, he took these into heaven. I don't know everything about that. I'm telling you, there's a lot here that I don't know about. There's things I can tell you about. There were graves opened up in Jerusalem. When the Lord resurrected, graves opened up and people walked around all over. Take people that had died. Maybe Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, all these people. I don't know who all was graced at that time. I don't know how many. Maybe all of them. I don't know. That's what we call the first groups, theologically of the resurrection. But he took all of these here, and they got to go up to heaven. Here's the earth right here. They got to go up into the third heaven. And they got to go into the abode of God, in the paradise of God, Valhalla, the bucephic vision, whatever you want to call it, they were there. All right. 4 and verse 7. This verse talks, or actually verses 7 through 11, talks about the security, the hope, the security that you have as a good minister of God. And every one of us are ministers of God. When it talks about ministers, it means servants of God. When you're a good servant of God, there's a lot of gratuities that you have. What kind of a gratuity can you have when you know you're doing the will of God? A clear conscience. That's absolutely right. A clear conscience. How could you have a good conscience and not serve the Lord? I had a good friend of mine, Jay Gibson, come out of my house the other day and we were listening to a tape and I gave him some tapes. One of them was by Vance Havner. And boy, I mean he was preaching. I listened to one of them yesterday upon this rock. And he was preaching against sin. Sin that is so prevalent among church members, he said. The bingo parlors, the card games, the casual drinking, the wine beverage, the dancers, the cursers, those that cuss. and use the Lord's name and name. All of these so-called churchgoers do these things, and how do they know that they're even related to God in all reality? What security do they have? If God has not beaten them over the head with a sledgehammer because of the sin that they're allowing to be in their life, how do they know that they even have security of salvation? Boy, he was getting with it. He walked up to a woman's door one time, and knocked on her door and he was preaching the revival in a church there and a matter of fact this woman had been sick and she hadn't gone to the revival yet and she was a Sunday school teacher and she opened up the door and was in her bathrobe and stuff like that and she said hello and he said hello ma'am I hope you're feeling alright well I just got something to ask you, do you know the Lord Jesus? And she said... She didn't stand there stuttering. He said, I want to know something. Do you know that Lord Jesus as your Savior? Is He your Savior? That's what I want to ask you. And she stuttered and started bawling. And shut the door in his face. And her husband came home, which was a deacon in the church. He'd been to some of the meetings. They said, this preacher came over today. Oh, it's the Diocese of Vance-Tamminer. Yeah. Well, he, and she's still bawling. He said, what's wrong? Are you sick? Worse? Did you have a relapse or what's wrong? And she said, he, he asked me if I knew the Lord. Did you tell him that you were the leader of the women's Bible study group and the Sunday school teacher? She said, he didn't ask me that. He asked me if I knew the Lord. And I didn't know what to say. And her husband says, Well, you're a member of the church where he's preaching right now. Did you tell him you're a member of the church where he's preaching? No, he didn't ask me that. He asked me if I knew the Lord. And she said, I don't know the Lord. She was raised in that church. She was a Sunday school worker. She was a faithful member and everything but she didn't know the Lord. She was religious but she didn't know the Lord. I remember one time there was a girl that I went to church with. Her name was LaVonna and I was going to church at law school at that time and I believe while I was there in one of the meetings She was a Sunday school teacher. She had been in the youth group in the church as she grew up. She had been baptized and everything in that church. And I believe there was a revival preacher there. I think that she had a revival and she never went forth in the revival. I think the guy's name was Bill Woodall, the revival preacher. And about a week or two later she had been under conviction in her heart. And finally one night when they gave the invitation she ran up front, the church is bawling, bawling and fell down at the altar and baby got saved and forgiven. Nobody could ever better church member than that woman was. No money. She was lost. She had grown up in church. She had been dumped in the motions. She had never repented of her sins. She had never called upon the Lord to save her. She did not know Jesus. Do you know Jesus? Do you know this Jesus? Do you know Him? Is He the Master of your life? That's what the security, and that's one of the gratuities of having a good ministry, serving the Lord. You can smile from ear to ear, from your heart out, when you know the Lord, when you know that you're doing what God is doing, at once for your life. Ponton! Dei! Totilos! Agikon! Sophronestate uncae netsate eis chosyukas. Of all things, and of all things, the end result are the, the end result are the, the terminal illness. has drawn near. It has drawn near. The end of life, the end of things, it has drawn near. The end times. I tell you what people, we're living in the end times. I can say that without blushing, without any kind of remorse or contradiction because I believe that we are in the end times. I don't know how long it is before the Lord comes back and raptures his people and then brings tribulation upon this earth. We're in those end times. I was listening to a preacher on the radio today as I was outside working in the shop and I wondered why God did not strike that man down and kill him right there when he was preaching. He was preaching the most radical, anti-God message that I ever heard in my life. One of the richest men in the country. He has his own radio program. And preaching and telling people not to go to church. that God hates churches. Listen to this program and send him money and you'll be alright. Don't go near churches. Nobody's preaching the truth. You know, I got a promise in Matthew 16 and 18. It says that the gates of hell would not prevail against this assembly. And as long as these churches are in the world today and not raptured out, They're going to be here and they are administrators of God's kingdom. Not that man. He got this fellowship shirt so he's all mad and he's anti-church now. The end times have drawn near and what does that tell me? It says in the last days this type of thing will happen. Leading people and people that are saved are listening to this man. He is reaching God's people with lives to lead them away from the service of God. How can they have security of a good ministry when they are taken out of churches? Don't go there. Don't go to churches. You don't need to be baptized. You don't need to tie up in churches. You don't need to listen to preachers. We got churches out here today that will tell you all you have to do is just believe in a creator or a man upstairs. It's all right. Everything's okay. That's all you have to do. That's not what God says. God says that he has rules in his world that he created and that he sent out his churches to carry out this gospel until He takes them out of the way. And you haven't seen them raptured and taken to heaven yet, have you? So it hasn't happened. And they are in this world. There are the commandments of God that we... I mean, they're basic. Everybody knows. You can go to the darkest part of Africa. You can go down on the Amazon jungle, and they will tell you in those places that the basic sins that God tells you in the Bible don't do. Guess what they're doing down there? It's a prohibition. Cousins don't marry. They don't have homosexuality. They don't steal from one another. They don't beat up each other and take their wives or husbands away from them. This don't happen. You know why? These are the basic laws of humanity that God has put in every man's heart. It's there. You know it's wrong. I mean, there's people today making excuses. They have groups and they'll fight against God. And say, you're wrong, God. But I don't care how many times you tell God he's wrong, he's still right. Matthew 14, 38, 1 Thessalonians 5 and 6, Romans 12 and 11, 2 Thessalonians 2 and 2, Romans 13 and 11, Hebrews 9 and 26, James 5 and 8, 1 John 2.18 and 1 Peter 1.13 all correspond to this very verse right here. That what you see in here. The end time has drawn near, and then it says, So from nesaptic, be of a ye, that is, ye be of the sound mind. Sound mind, therefore. And be sober, nesaptic. Be of sound mind. Sound mind. What was a sound mind? It comes from the word frame. Here, this Greek word, phrein, phronio, or phrein, and we have something on the front of that that means to get your thoughts together. A little preposition on the front of it, get your thoughts together. Think a little bit, now. Think a little bit. Be a sound mind, therefore, and become sober. Not only sober, But you're to become sober and become a sound mind because of prayers. Point your life toward prayer and service to God. Pray like a little child. Jesus, one time, was teaching his disciples. His Mosaics, his habitual learners. And here come a bunch of little kids. What do little kids do? They make noise. They make a lot of noise and they're having fun. Little kids learn how to talk and they keep on talking. You would think that their mothers were women, you know, because women, you know, when they're born, they get vaccinated with a phonograph needle, they say. That's what they used to say. And they just talk. Little children, when they learn to say mama and dada, they will say it a lot. Well, here come these little children. And they're so trusting to you. You can throw a little child up and he won't get scared. He'll just know you're going to catch him. You can hold him out over a balcony like that and he'll just hold on to you knowing that you're going to be alright. Saying, okay, we love you. He trusts you. Little children trust you. They love you. And they said, get the children away from Jesus. And Jesus says, don't touch them. leave them alone. For such is the kingdom of God. What more would you like me to talk about? Have you ever watched children pray? Teach your children to pray and then you watch them and you learn. You teach your children to pray and pray to God like he's their best friend because he is. And watch him go to town. I want to use you as an example, Marilyn. I don't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. But this is one of the greatest examples of prayer that I've ever known in my life and answered prayer. You can cry if you want to, but I don't mean to make you cry. She was raised in an absolutely dysfunctional home. Her mother was a terrible abuser and beat her. Would not let her talk to anybody, would not let her have any friends. She grew up in a horrible, isolated atmosphere. Father didn't protect her from it. Even her own twin sister sometimes would turn against her because her mother would make her do it, and beat her, and they'd call her names and things. All her life, until she was a teenager, an adolescent, a teenager, and a grown woman, and then getting older. All this happened all of her life. Horrible, horrible treatment and abuse. Constantly. Couldn't even have a sandwich with a piece of meat on it. I mean, this basement when I came there was just full of stuff. I had to haul off thousands of cans of stuff. But she, when she'd get in, come in front, she hadn't stand up and eaten lunch, and she'd get a little piece of devil ham and she'd spread it thin. In fact, she'd been out shoveling all day long. But spread it thin. Maryland had one thing. with some lettuce on it. And she looked up to her and put a lot of lettuce on it. And then she asked her, she said, how do you like your lettuce sandwich? Because her mother, they were out working, slaving, and weren't even allowed to eat much at all. But Marilyn had something. She had a little red Bible. And she carried this Bible all of her life. And when they would go someplace, her mother was an addicted gambler and things, and they would go, go, go, go. And she'd be reading her Bible, and asking God, God, I want to understand your Word. And when she was being beat up and things, and one time she was nearly beat to death down when she was working as a secretary, she goes there, just beat all to pieces, black and blue all over the place, praying to God to please help me. You know what? That hard stuff taught you to pray, didn't it? And when you trusted, you trusted in the one that those words came from. She read the words of Jesus. She read the words of Solomon. She would read through the Psalms. She loved these things. She would read. And she just read this, and this was her life. They'd be going, everybody was in their own little selfish world, and she was talking to Jesus. And I told her many times, I laugh about this. I mean, it was a sad story. But finally in the end of her life when she was ready to die and go be put in the graveyard, she had her grave post set out and everything underneath the bed, she said, God, if you're ever going to do something for me, you better do it right now and real fast. I want to know about the Bible, and I want to know you that I've been reading about all of my life. And guess what? Here I came. And you bit off more than you can chew, swallow, and digest. Because she has really learned it. But God taught her how to pray. It was a hard lesson wasn't it? Horrible lesson. But she learned how to pray. Little children. Some of the people that have been in horrible death camps and horrible concentration camps Prisoners of war and everything have been put in there, and you know what holds them together? Praying to the great almighty God. And I'm not talking about some man upstairs. I'm talking about the Creator that created the heavens and the earth, that sent Himself down here as a Savior and lived among us, and He knows your griefs! He knows your griefs! Prayers! That word prayer means to bend your knees toward God. Now, it's like this. To bend your knees toward God. That's what it means. Now, the Moslems will get down and they will bend their knees toward God and they will go like this and put their head down. I wouldn't make a very good Moslem because my back is too bad. I had to modify that situation. Now that's what the word prayer means. But you'll find in the Bible where people hold their hands up, praying to God. I'll give you a little preview. It's coming back on Sunday morning. I'm going to teach you a little prayer. Okay? I've been studying about that. And they hold their hands up to God and say, Here I am, God. Use me. Here I am, Lord. Some of them will bow their heads and look down. Some of them will fall flat on their face and pray. But as you see, In the Word of God, you'll see some people talking to God. And little children. I have learned a lot about prayer from my daughter. Believe it or not. I have learned a lot about prayer. I remember one time a pastor preaching. He was teaching this youth group. And these These people in the youth group, they would get up and they'd pray with their eyes wide open and hold their hands out like this and they'd just be praying and talking to God and some of them would be going through it. People would throw their arms around and everything else. They'd explain what they were saying. They were looking like this and they were just talking to God and using hand motions and everything. And Lord, I mean, like I tell you, Or Irish, or whatever. I think every race has hand signals or something. Talking like that. He said, I never saw such a thing in my life. Some of the churches where those young people went, they want to throw them out. Praying like that. Until they stopped to listen to what they were talking to God about. Every night I pray with my daughter. She won't go to sleep unless I pray with her. And she'd be, I'd go in there and lay down on the bed with her and everything, and I'll pray with her first. And if Marilyn's there, Marilyn would pray, and then Dakota prays. And Dakota comes home and says, where is she? Well, now I'm praying. She's like Marilyn, she wouldn't have anybody to talk to for 60 years. Except the Lord. She talked to Him a lot. She said she fell asleep many nights talking to the Lord. Nobody would talk to her. Sometimes the mother would not let anybody talk to her. She was isolated from them. So the only person she could talk to was Jesus. Yeah, you know what, even sometimes God can bring glory from that because you learn how to pray, don't you? He's always there. Well, she's going to lay there on her back just looking up there like that and she's going like this with her hands explaining everything to God. That happened that day, last week, last year, or when I was four. You know, Jesus, when I was four years old. And she'll just go on and on and say, I did this and I did that and I had a lot of fun. And boy, Jesus, it was really neat going out in the ocean in the boat and seeing all the things that you made. And there was this one fish out there. that jumped out of the water. I could see him jumping out of the water. And I was playing with this one over here and everything else. He jumped off and got back in the water and I saw this bird. And she'd tell all about it. And she'd tell God to watch over her precious sweet peanut, her little horse. Life, he was her daddy. Because he is. We ought to learn how to pray like that. Shouldn't we? Take a lesson from it. I talked a little bit about this on Sunday morning. Well, here it is again. It jumps up all over the Bible. Even out of Greek. 4 and verse 8. Prol, ponton, tain, eis, iotus, agapain, ekkanae, Ekontes, hote, agate, kalite, kleitos, harmartion. Marilyn, have you ever heard that term before? Huh? Hote, agate, kalite, kleitos, harmartion. Have you ever heard of that term before? Huh? Have you ever heard me quote that term before? Just like that. I come to the house sometimes and I'll say, Now you know the scripture I'm quoting, don't you? I never told you before, did I? Here it is. 1 Peter 4 and verse 8. This is one of my favorite scriptures in the whole Bible and it ought to be yours because you'd be lost and going to hell if it wasn't for it. Did you know that? And I'll tell you something else. How many people, have you ever had somebody in your life that just didn't quite rhyme with you? But they were your brother or your sister or something? You had to put up with them? And you loved them in spite of their ornery self? Before all things, we have pain and then we have all the pain. That pain up there, points to Augustine, that's a pointer, okay? Before all things, the love, unto yourselves, the love, it is far-reaching. Having, love reaches a long way. How far did love reach? when God was in heaven and he came down to this earth and became flesh for Jesus. How far did love reach? All the way from heaven. From one whole part of the universe completely to the other. And then this, this is something that we need to understand. Hote agape kalite Plato from Archeology. Because, hote, because, that's a conjunction or a casual particle, because agape, love, It covers a multitude of many different kinds and colors of sins. Not sins of the one loving, I mean the one loved, but the one loving. Not the sins of the one loving, but the one being loved. That love covers that multitude of sins. That's a beautiful verse. I like the sound of it in Greek better than the other way. Well, you heard it in Greek a lot more than you did in English. I've been quoting this for six months or eight months. I'd walk along through the house and I'd say this every now and then and I'd tell her again. Hosea agape kalite pletho samarthion. That word agape there, that means the sacrificial love. That's a love that you will give your life for someone else. This is no baloney love. This is the love. This is genuine. You know it's so easy for somebody to tell you they love you. And I can guarantee you can tell somebody loves you when they don't love you. It's very easy. What does it cost them to say I love you? What does it cost them to say I love you? It cost God everything for Him to say He loves us. For God so loved the world, what did He do? He gave His only begotten Son. And what did the only begotten Son, what did the third person of God do? Jehovah, what did He do? It says that God emptied Himself and put upon, He enclosed Himself in flesh, the flesh of sin for man. He became, He lived among sin for you. Jesus lived among sinners. Where did He go to? To the prostitutes? To the tax collectors? To the beggars? To the lepers? Nobody wanted to talk to any of those, did you know that? But Jesus wasn't talking to them. What happened to their lives after Jesus talked to them? They weren't prostitutes anymore. They weren't tax collectors anymore. Or if they were, they were honest tax collectors. If they were soldiers, they didn't go out and rape and pillage anymore. They were out of soldiers. If they were murderers, they didn't murder anybody else. If they were thieves, they stole them all. That love that God showed upon them, that in turn, they loved God back with that love. That's what this verse is talking about. If you want to remember something in Greek, Hoti agape kalite pleso tamarchio. Because love, it covers. of multitude of sins. Not only does it cover it, but you leave it behind you and walk off and leave it. God walked off in the person of Jesus Christ and left glory. He left glory and took upon this flesh. Took upon this flesh. The religious leaders in his day, Jesus had told them that they were wrong and that he had taken the kingdom away from them because they weren't worthy of it at all. And they had perverted it. They had taken it and used it for politics. They took and pulled his beard out. They spit in his face. They pulled his hair out. Now this is a God glory they're doing this to. This is the one that created and holds everything together in the world. They slapped his face, they beat him across the back with rods. Over in China they cane people, did you know that? Cane them. They take a bamboo cane or a rod and they beat him across the back with it. They beat an American citizen over there one time because he was bad. And that one made world history. or news. Well, they came Jesus. They took a cat and nine tails that ripped your flesh off of you and cut you all the way down to the meat and the bone. And they just ripped his back to pieces. Then, that wasn't enough, then they put a cross on him and told him and put a sign on the cross and had him carry it up the hill and he couldn't even do that. And there was a man, a black man in the Ethiopian, that had to carry his cross for him. Up to that hill. Because a condemned criminal was made to carry his own cross. Well, they carried him up there and then they drove those nails in his wrists right through the carpal tunnel area. that almost painful part of your wrist they drove the nails through his hand right there and right there and then through his teeth and then they stood him up on the cross to suffocate to death and to be in great pain that's the love, that's the occupation now he could have dissolved the universe at any time and said this is too much it's not worth it these rascals aren't worth it But He remembered you, Mary. He remembered you, brother. He remembered you, John, to redeem you out of our sins. He remembered me to redeem me out of that and to cover those sins. Cover my sins with His blood. What love! What love! John 3.16 James 5 and 12, James 5 and 20, 1 Peter 1, 22, Proverbs 10 and 12, and 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 4. Someone turn, how many of you got a New Testament? Anybody got a New Testament? You got one? 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 4. Could you read that for me please? 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 4. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It is not puffed up. Love suffers, doesn't it? Love suffers. Love pays back, did you know that? When you love somebody and you take something from them, you pay it back. That's love. We nailed Jesus to the cross. Did we not? Our sins nailed Jesus to the cross. So what are you going to do to pay it back? Well, what are you going to do? You know that there's nothing you can do to ever get it back. But what can you do after you're saved, after you've been, your sins have been covered, what can you do to say, Pino Barca, gracias, thank you? What can you do to say thank you? Because I couldn't have done it myself. I couldn't have done it myself. What can you do to say thank you? What are you going to do this week? To say Pena Magna. Gracias. Gracias. What are you going to do? How are you going to say thank you Lord for covering my sins? Are you going to take those sins back up and water back in? Or are you going to put them behind you and follow Jesus? I remember 20 years ago, I was pastoring a church and I had one of my old friends come to my door. And his name was Sherman. And he came to my door, just looked terrible. Just looked stunk. He looked terrible. He had become an alcoholic as we had graduated. Probably hadn't been out of high school 15 years. Well, he was 15 years out of high school and had been nothing but drugs. Just a mess. He came up to the house and Jimmy didn't have any money. I gotta have a drink. Do you have anything in here? Do you have any vanilla? He was desperate. How about mouthwash? I'll even drink that. And he was shaking real bad and having DTs and everything. Telling me all about what had happened to his life. And he said, can I have a glass of water and give me some sugar? He took a glass of water and he poured sugar in it and he drank it. Boy, it hurt my stomach seeing that. He said, settle my murder now. I'm shaking because he was an alcoholic. I said, sure, I'm involved in the world and I do that. I said, you know, I've got a friend that I work with that's with AA. Oh, he said, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I said, I'm going to call him. So I called this guy named Otto Kraus. I had worked with him with Sunland Refinery. I called Otto. I said, Otto, I got a friend I want to school with here and this guy is in bad shape. I said, can I bring him over there to the alcoholics' deal? He said, yeah, I'll bring him on over. So I brought him on over. And he was sitting there and he said, yeah, he's been here before. I said, Sherman, you know, the God of heaven can redeem you out of this. He said, I don't want it. I said, what do you want? And Otto was sitting there and I was so surprised. I'll never forget this. He said, he hasn't gone down far enough yet. He's got to go bite the dust real good. He said, that man is not down far enough yet. That's the reason why he isn't here. And I said, don't ask crude of them to say that to this man. I mean, he's in really bad shape. And they tried to get him to come. He said he's come in here two or three times before, but he never gets past two or three days. He's not finished yet. He's not finished yet. Well, Jesus loved him. And I told him that Jesus loved him. I don't know whatever happened to that man. But I learned out one thing right there. I was trying to make him feel better and they were telling him that he was a drunken thug. And he could do just like they did. He could trust in God and grab his boots and pull his boots on one foot at a time and take one step at a time every day. And if he loved himself at all, he'd do that. Because he was damning and destroying his life. That was harsh treatment, I thought, for this guy. But then I realized later on, you know, that's what John the Baptist preached and that's what Jesus preached and everything. I didn't quite, that's the first time I'd ever met that type of situation. But that's the way it is. How much do you love God? Do you love Him as much as He loves you? Are you willing to put on His power and walk in His steps? Are you giving Him the reins of your life to let Him change your life? And say, I'm not the old guy that I was 2 years ago or 3 years ago or 4 years ago. I'm a new person, a new creation in Christ Jesus. There's nothing you cannot do with the help of the Lord. Do you know? There's nothing. God sets a goal for you and says there it is and I'll take every step with you. All the way. Every step. Well I don't know what ever happened to Sherwin. He came by one other time. After that I never did give him a drink. Never did give him a dollar to get a drink. And so he quit coming by. But I prayed for him all the time. I don't want to have to never have seen him anymore. I don't want he died or what he did. I think if he had been saved, he would have come back and told me. I think he would have. I don't want to ever happen to him. But Jesus loved him. But some people will not apply the blood to themselves. Love my favorite scripture. Love, it covers the multitude of sins. Thank you for your long, endured patience tonight. I'll let you out a little bit later because Dakota's with us. So we didn't have to rush over there. Do you have any Bible questions you want to ask me? You've got some time. You can run home if you want to, do whatever you want to. But you've got time. I'll give you a few moments because she doesn't get out until 7.30. So I get time to piddle around from here to there. Brother Greg, you got something? Well, I had something a while ago. I'm trying to remember what it was. I didn't ask it when I should have. If it comes to me, I will. All right. These are beautiful margaritas. Is there a place in the Bible that talks about the arrow on Jesus' face? The what? hair on his face, his beard. His beard, yes, it talks about where they plucked his beard out. It even prophesied it would happen. And that tells that verse that everybody's always saying, well, Judas could have been a woman, huh? God could have been a woman. Unitarian Universalism, the women's lib movement, these cults, say that God was a woman. But the name Jesus, Jesus Christos, and the definite articles in front of it are masculine. God calls himself masculine. He is masculine. If he had been feminine, he would have called himself feminine. But he is masculine. Now that's what God chose, that's what God is. He's the Father, the Father is masculine. He's the Son, the Son is masculine. And He's the Holy Spirit. And many times the adjectives and everything of the Holy Spirit, the word Spirit isn't a neuter word. But the adjectives that describe the Holy Spirit are masculine. Alright? When you're talking to a child, 5, 7 years old, and you're trying to explain how much God loves them, would you use the term God and not Jesus? They understand Jesus better because they can relate to Jesus. You know, there's pictures of Jesus and everything, even though there are not pictures of Jesus, but they can see Him. My daughter, in her dreams, when she was going through such horrible times, used to play with Jesus in her dreams when Jesus was a little boy. She would be playing games with Jesus in her dreams. And a lot of times she'll tell me I was dreaming about Jesus one time. They can relate to Jesus more than they can the invisible God. Because they can see Jesus as a person that loves them so much. If you see little children, one of the best ways to really relate to little children and teach them about God and the love of God is to love them and be that God to them. You know, as you're going to do homework with your children, as you're going to teach your children how to pray, as you're going to give them food on the table, as you do all these things to them, what they learn about God is what they learn from mama and daddy. Did you know that? You are the example in this world to them of caring and loving and giving and sacrificing. If you sacrifice for your children, the first thing that children, one thing that they understand is T-I-M-E. Love is spelled T-I-M-E, tied with it. If you spend time with your children, and your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, if you take them on your knee and you hold them and love them, talk to them, tell them stories and things, that shows love. When you're raising your children, you have to take out time from the busy day and sit down with them and explain why. Have you ever heard that term? Why? Why? Why? Every child goes through why, and I don't think Dakota ever got past it. Why daddy, why? You've got to take time and tell them why, whether you know why or not. Or explain why you don't know why. That's teaching them about the love of God. Of course if they grow up in absolute total abuse, What an example. Horrible example of anything. Is that what you're talking about, Brother Greg? Yes, thank you. Alright, anything else before we dismiss? You can even go get a cookie. You can get one last cup of coffee and everything. Anything before we dismiss? Let's have a word of prayer and I'll turn you loose or you can play around for a few more minutes. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you give us the opportunity to come here and to teach it and to listen to it and help it to land solidly in our hearts and our minds. We ask you to convict us of sin, of righteousness and judgment to come that we talk about tonight. We pray that you mold our lives for your glory. And I pray, Father, as I learn and study your word every day, that I can communicate it in a way that is honorable and glorifying to you. Please watch over my children tonight, my family. Thank you for the trials sometimes that you send our way that lead us closer to you. I pray that you use us this week, everyone in this class, in some way to be an identifier in this world that you love us. Help us to remember as we walk through life, as we take each and every step, as we walk on your earth, that it's yours. Everything that we have is yours. Help us to learn to be thankful for every breath of air that we breathe and every time that our heart beats. Because that's a gift too. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.