Blessing see all of you that are here this morning. I sure appreciate the Lord letting us be in his house today. Been obedient to him. Blessing to sit under the good preaching, the good testimony, the good things that have been done. Blessing this morning to have the indulgence of being with us. I appreciate the Lord letting him be with us this morning. Surely their church is not able to meet, but I'm sure I'm glad to I appreciate that. I want you to pray for him. to him who sat on the pew and patiently prayed for you and waited for you. And this morning, I hope you'll do the same for him. Justin, I want you to come, take your time, all the time you need. God bless you. God bless you, brother. God bless you, brother. Bless him, God. Help him work. I love Paul Jones. Y'all know I do. I love Sister Kelly. He's my friend. I appreciate him. Right now he's my pastor. So I told him if he told me to mow the yard, I'd mow the yard. If he wanted me to vacuum the floor, I'd get the vacuuming floor. That's how much respect I have for him. I love you this morning. I'm glad we're able to come. strange circumstances that we're in, but I'm glad that it works out and we can be here today. And I want you to pray for the church at Antioch. The whole bunch is sick, every one of them is sick. Just maybe five or six of us was able to avoid being affected by the virus again. And when you got a building full of old people, it really hits you hard. And these are just unusual days and times that we're in. People ask me all the time, what we gonna do? I don't know. I don't have all the answers, brother Paul. I know God's still God. He's still on the throne. What this book said yesterday, it still says today. It'll say tomorrow. And he told us to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together. It's a matter of some years. The day's coming. If I live long enough, Health issues will probably keep me from coming like I'd want to. I understand that. But I believe the desire God put in our heart to assemble together is a grand martyr of Christianity. I really believe that, of salvation. People trying to bypass the church and make it to heaven. Well, they're trying to find a back door to God. There is not a back door to God. Heaven don't have a back porch. It just has a door and a gate. Jesus is the door in John chapter 2. Amen. You can't get to the gate unless you first go through the door. Amen. So I'm grateful to know this morning I have that desire to be in God's house. And even in these kind of days, we need the church. Nothing replaces the church. So grateful to be here. Appreciate all this preaching and the testifying has already been done today. This is at home. You tell me to make myself at home, but it is home. Paul, and I'm glad to be here among friends, and I know you're praying for us this morning, so I'll do the best I can to be as free as the Lord has let me be, and do what God would have us to do without taxing your patience too much. But you pray for us a few minutes. In Galatians, I'll be in Galatians this morning. We'll be in chapter number 2. We'll be reading from there to help us with these verses. I want to say publicly too how tickled to death I am about some of our young'uns getting saved here. And we've been praying for that for years and to see that's just a blessing to know that We've stood here many times and told you I'm not wondering if it's going to happen. I'm rejoicing now in the day that it's going to happen. If you're going to pray for something, you might as well believe it. The Lord tells us to do that in the scripture. When we start praying for a conviction and praying for power and glory in the church, God would love nothing more than to see that in the church. More than you and I want that. So he tells us to ask believing. He said, whatsoever you desire, if you ask believing, you shall receive it. And that's misinterpreted. I know y'all are more mature than to believe. That means you can be frivolous about that and ask for anything. But it simply means when we desire what God wants in our lives and what God has in store for us. We desire the will of God to be so, that we can certainly enjoy seeing what we want done. So, the church is still in full operating business this morning. Glad to know that. And even if there's two or three gathered together, he said, I am in the midst of them. So, he's a very present help in time of need. Galatians chapter three. For me to read. This morning, Lord, help us in these verses to get the authorities laid on our heart today. All right, verse 16, the Bible says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live In the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That's all I'm gonna read to you. I was here long enough that I'd probably preach these verses here at some point in time. But it don't wear itself out. You'll notice there's a few things I wanna notice before I get to wrapped up in this, you'll notice that Paul here to the book of Galatians was solidifying the source of faith and who it belongs to. The source of faith is Jesus Christ. He said, by the faith of the Son of God, by the faith of Jesus Christ. And so he's not only the source of it, he's the owner of it. Amen. He's the author and the finisher of our faith, that's what the Bible says. So the faith you have is not really yours, it is the faith of the Son of God. Heard a preacher preach that one time and he really blew my mind with that. He said, your faith is not yours really, it is the faith of the Son of God. You mentioned this morning, Brother Caleb, about that measure of faith that's been dealt to every man. Man can't believe unless God gave him some faith to do so. Amen. comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the plan of salvation, we repent toward God and we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have faith in God. You see, the devils believe in God and tremble. Amen. Some of our political figures today that are sympathizers with homosexuals, sympathizers with whoremongers and alcoholics and dope addicts, They sympathize with that, and they say they believe in God. Amen. But we repent toward God in salvation and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the devils have faith in God, but it don't make them saved. There's a lot of folks that believe in God, and they're on their way to hell right now. Your faith must be placed in the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of Calvary. Amen. You see, it's not enough to believe in God. Amen. A lot of folks believe in God. They say, I believe in God. I believe there is a God. And that's nothing, I've preached it here before, that's nothing more than a devil's failure. There's a lot of people on their way to hell, going to wind up in hell today with a devil's failure. Believing in God all the time, yet they went to hell. And you say, how's that possible? We must have faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we have faith in Christ, we have faith in the finished work of his cross. Amen. And that's kind of where we want to get to this morning about the cross and the Lord Jesus Christ. And you don't read much about it in these verses until you get down to verse 20 and Paul makes a reference of crucifixion. He said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. Amen. And so, I heard a man say this one time. He said, I've got to crucify Well, now I want to get technical with you for just a minute this morning. God will help me. You cannot crucify yourself. Now don't get upset with me this minute. I'm talking about literally in order to be crucified, somebody's got to lay you down and they got to nail you to a tree and they got to raise you up. Amen. Now listen to what I'm saying. People say I've got to crucify the flesh. I believe the Bible teaches us not to crucify the flesh, but to be crucified with Him this morning. That means to be identified with Christ. We don't have the power to crucify ourselves, but what we do have the power to do is identify with His cross this morning. I know what they mean by saying that. I understand. of what they're trying to get across. But the Bible says to mortify the deeds of the body. Amen. And Paul didn't say I'm crucifying myself. He said I'm crucified with him. In other words, I've identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe the grand mark of what he's teaching here He's not ashamed of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took his part in Calvary. He stood and made his claim at the cross. Friend, you won't get a crown unless you get a cross in your life. People don't get heaven until they first go through the grave. And that's why they refuse God today. My friend, it's not the prize they refuse. But it's dying at the cross. It's taking their place in Calvary. A lot of people say he died for me. And I know he did. But he also died because of me. And because of my sin. And because of my shame. And he bore it all on Calvary's tree. And bought eternal redemption for fallen man. And you're not good as you are. And if you come to Him as your own, you'll be proved guilty this morning. And God's not going to tell you how good you are. He'll let you know exactly what you deserve this morning. Amen. That's what the cross of Calvary does. I'm crucified with Him. Amen. I've got a place at the cross just like He does this morning. Oh yes, in order to see the other side of the cross. You've got to take your place this morning on the front side. Amen. You remember them disciples scattered after they came and arrested Jesus in the garden. And they were carrying him off to a mouth trial. And it falls to the accused. And the disciples, they scattered in the garden. I've tried to preach Epiphore on different kinds of church members and how they'll scatter and how they'll run. Just prior to that, Jesus told them to watch and pray. He got back from praying and ended up falling asleep. It's like a lot of Baptists today. Watch and pray. The Lord found us asleep. Amen. The battle set while men slept. The enemy came in and sold towers among the weak. Amen. And they said, should we go? and render the tares. And he said, no, let them grow together. That's it. But in the great day of God, he'll do the separating. And he'll throw the tares in with the child into everlasting fire. That punishment, you hear me, friend, is because they wear a suit and a tie and go to a Baptist church. Doesn't mean they've been to Calvary. Amen. Hey man, the cross is more than an emblem, friend. Hey man, it's more than a bumper sticker on your car. Hey man, it's more than a t-shirt. Or a set of earrings. Or a necklace. I saw a man the other day with his shirt unbuttoned. Had a big old gold chain on and an old hairy chest and a cross hanging off the end of it. And I guess he thought that would impress me or somebody else. You need to look at that word, man. It says neck lace. Amen. Why in the world would you want to wear a lace? Amen. I'm not trying to be funny, but I'm telling you this morning, if that's all you've got, you need more than that. Amen. You need more than that. Oh, yes, the cross. This morning is where we take our place in salvation. That's the only way a man can get saved is go through the cross. Y'all believe that, don't you? Amen. Still through the blood of this cross. Amen. And I thank God it's that way. Praise the Lord. Ain't nobody gonna sneak in the back door. Ain't nobody gonna bargain their way in. Amen. And if Pope John Paul or Francis or whoever, that crazy crowd is over there in Italy, if they don't get it right and go through Calvary and drop all that other pagan stuff they're doing, they're going to wind up in the same hell as the infidel and all the demons that God cast in there to start with. That's where they'll wind up this morning. Amen. Religion is the quickest route to hell. And there's people on a crash course collision. with the judgment of God, I say unto you this morning that the only reconciliation man will find with God Almighty and a holy righteous judge is through the blood of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank God. I'm glad I know that. Amen. Brother Paul, I wouldn't trade what I know for what I don't know. No, sir. If I did that, then I'd wind up with a bunch of stuff I don't know and I'd forget what I did know. I just take what I do know. Amen. And I know the cross will get the job done. I know the blood will work this morning. You made a proper statement, brother. Caleb, this morning when you pointed at that artwork on the wall, I'm afraid today artists cannot depict, hand cannot draw out. Amen. The English language cannot describe the brutality and the ugliness of the cross of Calvary. And God helped us heal that day. Hey man, a lot of folks look at it as three nails in a tree. But I'm telling you, God punished the sin of all mankind that day. He blacked out the universe. Hey man, the sky turned dark. And the Bible said he hung down the tree and he suffered. And they put vinegar up to his mouth. And he refused and would not pray. And man and the earth began to quake. And he cried from Calvary's cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's because he did forsake him. He did turn his back on his unforgotten son. Peter said, you know, it was a painful cross. The book of Hebrews said, it'll make the captain of our salvation perfect. Through suffering this morning, he not only died, but he suffered death. On the cross, 2 Peter said, eat by our sins. in his body on the tree. Amen. And the Bible said cursing is every man that hangeth upon a tree. So said the law of Moses. He not only died, but he suffered death and became a curse. for you and I. And he suffered eternal hell for three hours on the cross. He endured your shame. He endured your penalty this morning. He took it all the way. to death, he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Friend, if you remove the cross, we're out of business. We might as well go in the house and shut her down. It's all about the cross. Amen. If I can't preach that, I'm out of business. That's what Paul said. He said, I glory only in the cross. That's right. If any man had Any room to brag on himself, Brother Paul did. The Apostle Paul did. Amen. He went over his accolades. He went ahead and enlisted them for us. Let us see where he came from. The stock of Israel. Amen. Named after the first king of Israel, Saul. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, the Bible said. Amen. Taught at the feet of Gamaliel. Amen. Went to the finest schools of his day and time. Was taught by the finest instructors. He had every T crossed and I dotted. Amen. And history says He even memorized all 613 points of the Mosaic Law. That's pretty impressive. Amen. That a man could sit there and memorize and quote to you God's commandments from the Mosaic and Levitical Law. But I say this to you just as the Apostle Paul. You can take all that this morning and flush it, amen, in the nearest outhouse, because without the cross of Jesus Christ, my friend, all is vain, all is vanity, but without the cross and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. When he stood before Felix and he stood before Agrippa, oh yes, and he was to give an account and speak for himself. Oh, he didn't brag on his plaques on the wall. He didn't talk about all the schools he graduated from. He didn't come in there with long robes like a rabbi, trying to impress them with lengthy prayers and repetitious sayings. Oh, no, friend. He told Felix Hennig-Ripa, he said, I was on the road to Damascus, and I saw a lion! Amen, and heard a voice! And he spoke to me, and he fell down before Him, and cried, Lord, what wilt Thou help me to do? Amen. You can't have Him as Savior without having Him as Lord, and that's why God put a cross right in the middle of this thing. Amen. Praise the Lord. It was a painful cross. It was a cross of suffering and shame. It wasn't necessarily how he died, as much as it was who was dying. There was two other men that died with him the same way that day, crucified just the same. What made his cross so important is who God in the flesh. Preacher, can you explain that? No. But I can believe it. Amen. I can believe it this morning. Oh yes, and God reconciling the world. Bible said, and God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. You know what that tells me? God come down here and do what me and you couldn't do. That's right. He come down here to do what the Pharisees couldn't do. He come down here to do what Moses couldn't do. He come to do what Abraham couldn't do. When Jesus was here, he said, greater than Jonas is here. And then when he was here, he said, greater than John the Baptist is here. Hallelujah. Amen, ain't you glad this morning, when John the Baptist saw him and John 3, he began to testify, and his own disciples said, Jesus, we're baptizing everybody, and they're all going to him, and John said, good, amen. I'm glad they're going, how are they supposed to go? John confirmed right there in John 3, he said, he's the one, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Hallelujah, I'm not looking for Oh, yes. I like what John had to say in his own personal testimony. He said, I'm the friend of the bridegroom. He said, all the friend of the bridegroom does is prepare And when the bridegroom shows up, he gets out of the way. Amen. Oh, bless his holy name. The Bible said John knew him not. But yet when he saw him, he said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. I believe by that scripture's teachings, they probably never crossed paths, my friend, in a physical sense. In this life, John dwelt in the wilderness. and Jesus on his journeys. Oh, but here they are, my friend, even though related in the flesh, my friend, strangers, because of distance, because of position, because of calling. Oh, but one day the scripture was fulfilled and Jesus come to John and he said, I must be baptized today. Oh yeah, John said, I have need to be baptized in you. Hallelujah. Oh yes, please know this morning that God had a predestined plan before there was ever a man. Praise the Lord. It was a painful cross. It was a predestined cross. Amen. Revelation 13.8 said he was a lamb slain for the foundation of the world. Amen. That's right. Praise God. He was foreordained. Amen of God. There's old songs that say, they looked all over heaven, hogwash. Right. Nobody looked all over heaven. You're right. Amen. Sometimes I'm looking under heaven, above heaven, behind heaven, whatever they was doing. And man, if they was looking, they was wasting their time. God already had a plan. Amen. God had a predestined plan. before we ever got here. I don't get all that. I just know it's so. Amen. The Bible said the early church searched the scriptures to see whether these things were so. Amen. You know why I know they're so? Because they're in that book. Amen. I don't question that, and you shouldn't either. If it's in there, it's right. Praise the Lord, it's right. You say, I don't know if I believe it or not. It's still right. Amen. You might say, Bridge, I don't believe any of it. It's still right. Amen. Oh, I bless Him this morning for His cross. The one that He called His cross. That's what I was talking about a while ago. It wasn't necessarily how He died, but who was doing the dying. The Bible says He was reconciled by the blood of His cross. That makes it personal. It's not just any cross. It's a personal cross. It's a cross that God foreordained that should come. The cross foreordained that God should judge. And a lot of Christians fail to ever understand, I don't believe they ever fully enjoyed their salvation until they realize just how lost they were when God saved them. I didn't get that right off. It took me a long time of living and studying that Bible and having a relationship with God on a personal level. before I ever really figured out just how lost I was. I wasn't just almost lost. Y'all, I was a heartbeat away from hell. And if I'd have gotten there, just like everybody that's there now, they would know they deserve to be there. Amen. That rich man in the book of Luke, when you read after that, you never read where he pled for his own escape. That man knew he needed to be there, he deserved to be there, and he was gonna be there. Now what he did want was some comfort. What he did want was relief, that he didn't pray for an escape. People in hell are smart enough to know better than that. People in hell preach a whole lot better message than a lot of church folks do. That rich man does. He didn't tell, he didn't ask Abraham to go over there with cookies and lollipops and hot dogs and try to get his brothers to go to church. No, sir. He didn't send them over there with a little track in the Roman road and try to lead them to Christ. You ever heard of such? Amen. I've seen a lot of things that go against the grain a lot of times in the Baptist habit. Amen. What you read this morning at Sunday school, amen, was a proclamation of the gospel. Repent and be baptized. Every one of you. Men today say God is offering salvation. Salvation is not an offer. It's a proclamation. I sing on church sound in Marshall County this week. God is offering salvation. God don't offer anything. God proclaims the gospel through the men of God. And you know, you keep reading that next verse, it said, keep on going down about three or four verses. And the Bible said, and they received the word. Amen. Amen. It is a gift, but understand the gospel is not an offer, the gospel is a proclamation. It's a proclamation of who Christ is and what he did. It's a proclamation of Calvary. Amen. Paul said, I don't know anything among you save Christ and Him crucified. That's right. It's a proclamation of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going around offering salvation. You ain't either. None of you are. What you've been called to do is proclaim the gospel. That's right. Amen. It's a gift. In order for a gift to be effective, it has to first be given, then it has to be received. Amen. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. That gift was wrapped up in swaddling clothes one day lying in a manger. And a lot of people, that's all they'll ever see is a little baby lying in a manger. If he never becomes more to you than that, you'll die in his sins. You'll die in your sins. He's more, amen, than a major scene. He's more than a Christmas play. I'm not being derogatory to Christmas plays. I've seen a lot of them be effective. Amen. I want you to understand something this morning. He's more than that. I like Bible school. I really do. We've had some effective Bible schools right here. But he's more than Bible school. He's more than singing in the church choir. That's exactly right. Amen. You realize, when we got together and tried to fix this floor, and God helped us all along the way, helped us get all that done. We got down here around the altar, Brother Paul, and realized we didn't even know what was holding us here together. People down here praying all the time. We got down about right here, and there wasn't hardly anything holding all this up. But you know, people say it's a miracle of God or whatever, I don't know. But I know nobody fell through the floor. Amen. But y'all, I want to get down to where the rubber meets the road. And we spent some money, now we got this nice carpet down here. God's more than that. Amen. If we'd have been broke as a hank, couldn't afford it. and just dug a hole right here and throw some dirt, rock, or sand right down there, Brother Greg, and said, here's the altar, and seek God with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. You know what the Bible said? Seek it such as be of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. He does not dwell in buildings made with hands. It's not cathedrals. It's not carpet on the floor. It's not having a nice building, and the early church didn't even have a building, but they had God. They had power, they had influence, and they had boldness. What we need this morning is a revival of what Calvary is and what it means in our lives. Amen. A lot of people think they can't have church unless they come to a building. We used to have a prayer meeting at our house when I was at Mount Pleasant, and I pastored there two years. We had a meeting in my living room one night. People shouting, preachers preaching more than one in my living room. Tell me you gotta be down here. I love this place, this sacred place. Amen. It's emblematic of everything that Jesus Christ came and lived and died for. I got that. But the church is not mortar and brick. Amen. You know what this is when we leave here today? Empty buildings. You know what it'll be like when we get back mid-Sunday? Church. Because you'll be here. Isn't that amazing? Praise the Lord. I'm going to quit. I'm going to quit. It's a powerful cross. And I'm done. I've thought about these things all week long. And I thought, where am I going to preach this? I don't have a clue where I'm going to preach this. I didn't have a feeling for it on the radio this morning. And I got to where I can't even hardly read anything anymore. I get in the pulpit and go talk about what God's done for me and can't even hardly read. Amen. And that's all right. But I thought, where am I going to preach this? I'm glad I can preach this in a place where people understand what the cross is really for. What it truly means. And I hope it revives your spirit this morning into wanting to be emblematic of what the cross is, and I believe it's like this. Paul said in one place, he said, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was a visible outward showing of his personal walk with Christ. Now Peter did say that Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree, but Isaiah got a vision a little bit deeper than that, way back in Isaiah. Go back and read it, and you'll read a whole chapter that's dedicated to the crucifixion of Christ. Amen. Several hundred years before it even took place. It's an amazing thing to read. And you'll find out not only did He bear our sins in His body on the tree, but He became our sins in His soul. That's right. Now, there's Baptists that don't believe that. But they need to go back and read it. God said through Isaiah that God saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied. and it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And he put him to an open shame. Oh, listen, friend, what was done was that God executed judgment on his son, wherein it should have been happening to you. I know that's a simple thought, a simple saying, but there's a lot of people in church today that have never got that. They've never got it. And if you ever fully get it, I promise you won't be so shy. I promise you won't be so laid back. I think you might get emotional. Yeah. I believe that. All this Baptist crowd, well, that just ain't my style. I just, I don't talk. I'm not loud, but boy, your team scored a touchdown. Yep. You're right. Amen. You'll do that when a little baby boy hits a home run. You'll show out in the bleachers over at the red center field. Amen. Preacher, preach on Calvary and Christ take him. You're sin dead to the cross and we're cold as ice. Turn to 305 and that church hymnal, the old rugged cross and sing it. Don't even bring a tear to anybody's eye. We're dead to what it means anymore. It's still about to cross. If I ever preach again, I hope God will let me preach about His cross, because that's the most important thing. There's a lot of ways a man can impress you with knowledge, and we could probably grow in knowledge by somebody else's intellect this morning. But real preaching, I said this on the radio this morning, a man may go to school and learn how to study better, learn how to read better. Amen. Learn how to do a lot of things better, but a preacher will never go to school and learn how to preach better. Amen. Amen. Because men don't teach men how to preach. God does that. And I figure whatever you do the most, that's what you're going to get better at. Amen. That's what I tell them kids on the ball field, the more you practice, the better you get. Yeah. Brother JP Rowling used to say, if I waited on an appointment, I'd have never preached. Amen. You know when you should preach, men? When God gives you the option to do so. Amen. Don't wait, don't wait on imitation. When God gives you the option, you see, God's already worked on the other end. That's right. And when God gives you the option, it'll be in order, it'll have a place, and I believe it'll be received. You may not get a big response, you may not get a bunch of hallelujahs and amens, but I believe the Word of God, when our bread is cast, amen, it won't go out void, but it will claim that which it is intended to claim. It will accomplish that which it is intended to accomplish. It may be 15 years down the road, Bo Josh, but you preach it anyway, and somebody may walk through them doors one day and say, you know, preacher, 15 years ago, you stood and said some plain refuse, and I never got over that. Amen. Just do what God tells you to do. Preach the cross, men. That's all I tell you. Church, stand by your pastor while he preaches the cross. Amen. Now, I wasn't here the day y'all voted on him. But I want y'all to know I was back at the house screaming. You got my vote. Sure. I know he's going to preach you the truth. That's right. I know he's going to come down here and tell you what that book says. He's going to love your babies, but he's also going to tell them what's right. That's right. That's why I'm a fan of your daddy. I'm a fan of your daddy. You've got a good mom and daddy. Yeah. One day you'll be as old as I am and you'll know what I'm talking about, but you'll appreciate it. I mean, you'll really appreciate it. I'm thankful for people that love God and love the cross. I'm done. I want you to stand, Caleb. Come on up here and get us a song. Page 529. This cross is a predestined cross. It's a painful cross. It's a planned cross, a powerful cross. You can go on and on about the cross. It has the power to redeem, the power to save, the power to heal this morning. Amen. I'm not talking about That Albert healing a lot of people's looking for. Not that God couldn't do it, but what Al's man today is, he needs a healing of the soul. He needs a great physician to fix him on the inside. It's amazing to me, I like reading this, it almost kind of tickles me, and I'm just strange that way, but every time I read that in the Bible, where that man of the Gadarenes was a maniac, and he was in the tombs, and they tried to bind him, And they tried to tame him, and it got so bad they even carried him over into the tombs, into the rocks, and they just left him out there to be. They couldn't even hang out with him anymore, couldn't do anything else with him. But Jesus, on purpose, went to where the man was. And he healed that man. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with him was an internal thing. You know, there's an alcoholic out here, Brother Sean. It ain't the beer that's the problem. It's the hearts what his problem is. He's doing the alcohol because his heart's wrong. There's not one man, woman, boy, girl in hell today because they drank a can of beer or did drugs or robbed a bank. That's not why they're there. They're there because they're an unbeliever. And the Bible says unbelievers are wicked. It's not just a human weakness to be an unbeliever. And there's a difference in doubting and unbelief. There is. There is. Unbelief is willful rejection of God. And it's a wicked thing. It's an evil thing according to the scripture. So what tickles me about that Gadarean maniac story is that God healed that man. And the Bible said the next time he was seen he was clothed in his right mind because evidently he got naked up there somehow. And he was crazy before. But now he's in his right mind, speaking his right mind. Amen. And God told him, don't go tell anybody this now. Go tell your house, don't go tell anybody this. I often wondered why Jesus was telling people not to tell others what he had done. Some would say, some commentators would say, he was telling them that for fear that if the word got out, they would come and find him and kill him. Jesus did not fear. Jesus knew what was happening before it happened. So those commentators are wrong. They're trying to presume that Jesus was humane. He thought like you and I think. He's God. I know He had emotions like we do, but it's not as though He didn't know what tomorrow had in store. He knew where those Pharisees was. He knew where the Romans was. But now I'm starting to believe that it was emblematic to us that if God's done something for you, Brother Paul, It's gonna be hard if you keep your mouth shut about it. If I tell these babies they got saved, don't you tell anybody. Just leave it alone. Just like I told these boys of mine when they said God called them to preach, I said leave it alone. If God's in it, one of them old Pharisees said one time, wouldn't he be saved? He said if God's in it, ain't nothing we can do to stop it. And if he's not in it, he said he'll come to know it. Amen, God told that Gadarene man, don't tell anybody, and the very next verse said it was published throughout the Catholic what God had done for that man. He couldn't keep his mouth shut. Did God do something for you today? Amen. Brother Sean, they may not testify about it today, or next week, or even next year. If God done something, man, said this to me one time, he was talking about revivals. Matter of fact, one I just come out of, he said, y'all have anybody saved over there? I said, we had one come down there and confess to be saved. I said, but we'll find out about a year or so. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, there's one that came, said she got saved. I said, but if we really want to know if she got saved, come back a year, see where she's at. Come back two years from now, see where they're at. Maybe, you know, people say, get them saved. I said, we can't even hardly get them lost, much less get them saved. We need to get them lost. So we're standing this morning, and the cross is all you can see. That's all I'm going to say this morning, because that's all God's going to deal with in judgment, what you did with the cross. Whatever you did with that cross, that's all He's going to deal with.