Did Christ Say That?

And go back to basics on some of the things, because I think no matter how long that we're in the church, we need to go back and we need to remind ourselves who we are, why we're here, what word we follow, and what it means to us, and what it should mean to us when we commit to God. So I want to start today back in a book that we have been reading in the local Bible reading program. If you've been following it, you would have completed this book just this week. But let's turn back to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1. I'm going to read verses 1 and 2, and then I'll come back and we'll talk about those in a little more detail. Hebrews 1, verse 1, the author of Hebrews, whether that be Paul, that some people think it may be, someone else, we know the words were inspired by God, it says, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. And then it continues to talk about Jesus Christ and his position. So we have Jesus Christ, and we have God saying, in times past, in verse 1, he spoke to us through his prophets. He spoke to us that way, or spoke to his people that way. And that's just the distinction between the time of the law. If you'll remember, a few months back, we talked about seven dispensations and seven ages.

And we talked about us now being in the age of grace, or in the church age, if you will. But at the time before that, Jesus, or God, spoke to people by prophets.

You know, the prophets that came to Israel and talked to them, they carried a message of repentance, like we heard in the sermonette. They always admonished Israel to turn back to God. They talked about what his law was.

They were there to tell them what would happen. Tell them the consequences if they were going to live in a different way than what God had proposed. And what did Israel do to all those prophets, all those messengers that God sent to them?

Well, you know what they did. They refused them. They rejected them. Christ said they even killed them.

And keep your finger there in Hebrews 1. Let's go back to Matthew 23.

This is Jesus Christ in his own words, Jesus Christ, who speaks to us today, in this age, had this to say about how his people, Israel, handled the situation with the prophets when they were sent to him.

Matthew 23, verse 37, it's a touching verse, actually shows how much Jesus Christ loved Jerusalem and loved the people.

What he wanted them to do in verse 37 of chapter 23, he said, Oh Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her.

That's how you received. That's how you received my word, he said.

That's how you received these messages I sent to you. You killed the people.

You didn't want to hear what I had to say. You didn't want to pay attention to it. You wanted to follow your own ways.

And Israel continued to do that. They would look at the nations around them and say, Oh, we want to worship God that way. Not the way he said to do it. We want to worship Him the way that these other people worship Him.

Oh, we won't want to do that and keep that commandment in the way that he said to keep it.

We want to kind of do things our own way. And what they would do is they would kill the messenger.

They just wouldn't listen.

Over in Luke 11, Christ in another occasion is saying this very same thing in His words.

He who speaks to us today, He says in Luke 11 in verse 49, Therefore, the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute.

That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation.

From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple, Yes, I say to you, it will be required of this generation. They killed the prophets.

You know, Jesus Christ, as He talked, He did talk a lot about events in the Old Testament.

There's those in the world today that would say, we don't even need to pay attention to the Old Testament, right?

We can just kind of do away with it and just read the words of the New Testament.

Others, especially in universities, will say, did those events in the Old Testament really happen? Or did some clever writer just come up with these things and draw some lessons from them?

Well, I think as we read Christ's words, and I'll get to that in a little bit, we say that He validated all those things that happened in the Old Testament. They are true. The words are true.

Cannot refute them. If you refute them, you refute Jesus Christ. You refute the Bible.

But the point here being that He said, when I sent those prophets to Israel, when I sent those prophets to my people, they killed them. They rejected them. They didn't want to hear the words.

They just wanted them put away. Back to over in Matthew 21, He gave a whole parable on that very thing Jesus Christ did.

Matthew 21 and verse 33, He says, listen, hear, hear this parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, drug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and he leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country.

Now, when vintage time drew near, He sent His servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit.

And the vine dressers took His servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.

Again, He sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.

Then last of all, He sent His Son to them, saying, they'll respect My Son.

But when the vine dressers saw the Son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill Him, and seize His inheritance.

So they took Him and cast Him out of the vineyard and killed Him. Matthew 21.

Oh, it's clear what they did is exactly what Jesus, exactly what God said in Hebrews 1.

He sent prophets, and it's clear how Israel received those prophets. They didn't listen.

Now, let's go back to Hebrews. Hebrews 1. That's how He spoke in times past.

But now in this age, verse 2, God, verse 2, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

Today, He speaks to us directly. His Son, the one who used to be God, but gave it up to become flesh and blood that He may live, die, and be resurrected so that we could see, we could have the hope of eternal life and see the pattern of what God has in store or what He would like mankind to become if we yield to Him. In the succeeding chapters here in Hebrews, you read many things. And I hope you took note of them.

You read about the Sabbath day and how there is still a Sabbath rest for the people of God. It wasn't fulfilled or done away in the Old Testament. It's still there.

You read about Melchizedek and Christ. You read about tithing.

You read about assembling yourselves together and not forsaking it in those words. You read about men of faith.

And that should have inspired all of us because those men of old lived through some terrible times. And through it all, they never wavered from Christ or from God. They remained loyal to Him even when it meant their lives.

And maybe you noticed when you got to just about the end of Hebrews, when the author is finishing up, what he said back in Hebrews 12 and verse 25.

He started the book saying, in times past God spoke to us by prophets, but in these days, these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.

In Hebrews 12 verse 25, it says, See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.

You don't be like the people of old who refused the prophets who killed them, who stoned them.

See that you don't refuse Him who speaks. For if they didn't escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven.

Those are words that should stir us. Those are words that should wake us up.

See that you don't do the same thing that God's people in past ages did.

Today, His Son speaks to us. See that you don't refuse Him.

And He gives us a stern warning. If we go back to chapter 10 and look at verse 28, we see a similar thing there for people who would begin to follow God, but then leave it all behind.

Just cast it behind and follow a different way. Anyone, Hebrews 10 verse 28, who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Of how much worse punishment do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? You know, when we don't listen to the words of God, we don't pay attention to the words of God and every word of God.

Not interpreting through our own wishes, desires, wants, and ideas, but interpreting them from God's standpoint exactly the way that His word is in the Bible.

When we hold on to our own little ideas, our own little theories, and we refuse to let go of them, when we let them even change the way we worship or think, we're counting.

We're counting the blood of the covenant, a common thing. We're insulting the Spirit of grace.

God didn't call us to not listen. He called us to become more and more and more like Him. He called us to perfection. He called us to begin the race and to keep running it all the way until the time Jesus Christ returns.

Not doubting, but becoming stronger in our faith, more aware of the Scriptures, more aware of their impact in our lives, paying attention to them and molding our lives and yielding our lives more to what He says rather than what we want.

Let's drop down to verse 35.

Here the author says, don't cast away your confidence. You know, when we begin, the walk, if you want to call that, with God, when we're baptized, when we receive His Holy Spirit, we're confident.

We are not confident in ourselves, we're confident in God. We know what we believe. We're fresh with that belief and we want to please Him.

He says, don't cast away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance.

Ah! You have need of endurance. The same words as Jesus Christ said, endure to the end, so that after you've done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Endure right to the end. Know His Word right to the end. Grow closer to it right until the time of the end.

So today I want to look and go back to what did Jesus Christ say? What did He say in the Bible?

And a question that we can ask ourselves that every single one of us would say yes to today, but I want us to really think about it.

Do you believe the words of the Bible? Do you believe Jesus Christ with all your heart, mind, and soul? Do you yield to Him? Will you follow His words?

Because today He speaks to us. God does through His Son. So let's go back and see some of the very words of Jesus Christ when He was on earth that He spoke that were recorded for us in all the Gospels here and in Revelation as well.

Let's go back and look at some of those words, but before we do that, let's turn to Matthew 17.

Now, let's not turn to Matthew 17 yet. Let's turn to John 17.

And then we'll turn to Matthew 17 in a minute.

John 17 is the chapter we've been in quite a bit here recently. As we've gone through the Passover, this is the prayer that Jesus Christ offered before He was arrested.

In John 17, in His own words, what He said about those who would follow Him, those who God would call, that would respond to Him and then follow Him.

John 17, verse 17, He says, sanctify them or set them apart. Set them apart by Your truth. Your word is truth. Your word is truth.

That's how we're going to set them apart. These people will live by the Word of God.

A few chapters back in John 14, as He was talking to the disciples that night, in verse 6, He said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.

No one comes to the Father except through Me. His words. A few more chapters back in John 6, verse 63. His words as He speaks to us.

He says, it's the Spirit which gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

The words I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life. The words that He spoke. The words that we should know well. The words that should shake us and rivet us when we hear that God is speaking to us through His Son.

Now back in Matthew 17.

Now back in Matthew 17, the chapter that describes for us the Transfiguration, the vision where the three apostles were with Christ in the coming Kingdom.

And in vision, chapter 17, verse 5, Peter is making a comment in verse 5. It says, Now again showing the unity of the Bible from Old Testament to New Testament from beginning to end, those very same words are found in Deuteronomy 18. 15.

Listen, he told Israel. Hear him, he tells us today. Listen to the words that he speaks, because today God speaks to us through His Son.

Back at the beginning of his ministry, if you will, in Matthew 4, Jesus Christ gave us the standard of the words that we are to live by.

The words that he lived by in Matthew 4, verse 4, as he was facing the Great Temptation, as he was there with Satan wanting so desperately for him to fail.

So desperately for him to disobey God. Just like Satan so desperately would like to see you and I forfeit our place in the Kingdom.

So desperately would like us to buy into this idea or that idea or something different from the Bible just so that we forfeit what God has reserved for us.

In Matthew 4, verse 4, Christ answered and said to Satan, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus Christ lived by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. As he spoke on earth and as we have his words preserved for us today, we can see that the answers to so many of life's questions are there.

Our direction is clear if we will follow his words, if we will hear him, as Christ said.

And when temptations come and when trials come and when little theories come that make us think, Oh, that's kind of a neat thing. I'll focus on that for a while.

And they don't have their basis in the Bible. We would say, we reject that. We're not going to pay attention to that.

We don't have our focus as the Word of God. We know the Word of God and we stick close to it.

We don't listen to the Internet. We don't listen to men. We listen to the Bible.

And we listen to the words that God speaks to us.

Let's look at some of those words that Jesus Christ said because, you know what? He validated much of the Bible.

He didn't come to do away with the Bible or the Old Testament. One chapter over in Matthew 5. In His first sermon, at least the first sermon that's recorded for us there, He said something that the world doesn't listen to, or many of the religions in the world don't listen to or pay attention to.

In Matthew 5, 17, He says, Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

Did He think the law, the first five books of the Bible were valid? Yes. Did He think the prophets were valid? Yes.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, on and on. Yes! He validated those.

I didn't come to destroy them. I came to fill them up. I came to complete them.

I came to help you understand more because now we're closer to the return of Jesus Christ so that we would know more and understand more.

He didn't come to do away with them. And yet so many people in the world around us would say, We don't have to keep those commandments. Or maybe we'll keep nine of the ten, or seven of the ten, or four of the ten, or whatever it might be.

Jesus Christ said every word of the Bible. Every word of the Bible.

Verse 18, Assuredly, He said, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled, until the purpose for life on earth and this planet is completed.

Seems to me like it's pretty plain language. And yet there are many who I would go and could stand out on a street court and say, Do you believe in Jesus Christ? And you know what? More than half would say yes. Do you believe the words of the Bible? Yes.

And yet they wouldn't and they don't live by the clear words that Jesus Christ said in those two simple little verses. And if that wasn't enough in verse 19, He says, Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. That's who God is looking for. People who will live by every word that Jesus Christ has spoken.

Every word that Jesus Christ has spoken. Jesus Christ did.

Over in John 5, John 5, he talked about the law of Moses and validated it, if you will.

Over in John 5, verse 43, as he is speaking here to people who didn't want to believe and who didn't believe, we'll begin in verse 42. He says, I know you. You don't have the love of God in you. I've come in my Father's name and you do not receive me.

Just like the prophets of old, you don't receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you'll receive. Verse 44, how can you believe who receive honor from one another and don't seek the honor that comes from the only God? Why aren't you looking for the honor that comes from him by doing what he says? Don't think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There's one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust.

You say that you follow the law of Moses. You can, in many cases among the people in the audience there, they could have recited those first five books of the Bible. I can't recite all the words in those first five books of the Bible. I've never written them down, like many of them that may have been listening to them today. And he said, you know what? Moses will accuse you. You say and you walk around saying, we live by the law. That's written there, but you don't. You're not paying attention. You have a semblance of it, but you're not living by the law. I don't have to accuse you, Christ said. Moses will accuse you. For if you believed Moses, verse 46, you would believe me. For he wrote about me. But if you don't believe his writings, how will you believe my words? If you're not paying attention to the Scriptures, Jews, of that time, that Moses gave you, why would you pay attention to me? If we're not paying attention to all the words in the Bible, if we pick and choose and say, yeah, 99% of the Bible I'm happy with, 1%, I don't think God cares about that, that's not the standard Jesus Christ set. The standard is you live by every word of the Bible, and the people of the Jews' time just didn't do that. They deceived themselves into thinking that, but they didn't really listen. They didn't really read. They didn't really hear the prophets as they came. They didn't listen to Jesus Christ when he came. All they wanted to do was kill him. All they wanted to do was see him out of the way. He upset what they wanted to do, as opposed to what God wanted you and me and all of mankind to do. They didn't listen. They didn't listen at all. Mr. Braul Mooger mentioned Matthew 19. There's an example there with the young man. What did he tell the young man? If you want to enter into life, keep my commandments.

And then he said some other things too that the young man wasn't prepared to do.

Well, Jesus Christ, in his words, he's pretty clear. Pretty clear if we follow his words. We don't have to worry about it. We don't have to think, oh, we can compromise with this commandment or that commandment. We live in 2016, and so God kind of winks his eyes at the seventh commandment because of the society we live in. No, he doesn't. He winks his eyes at the fourth commandment because of the society we live in. As long as we're not working, he's okay with it. No, he knows what he wants us to do and how to keep his Sabbath day. Every word of God.

We read back in Matthew 5.19. We won't turn back there right now, but we read that he didn't come to do away with the law or the prophets. The law, I mean, we have his own words. Right? Or the prophets. He didn't say, you know, forget Isaiah, forget Hosea, forget Habakkuk, forget Daniel, forget all those. No, he didn't say that at all. In fact, he validated all those things. He used those prophecies in when he was speaking. Let's go back to Luke 4.

Luke 4.

He used those and showed us how we can use the Old Testament, the principles that come from there, to guide our lives. Luke 4, verse 17.

He, speaking of Christ, verse 17, was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

And he read, beginning in verse 18, He read those verses, and in verse 20, he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

He was saying, I'm the fulfillment of that verse. He didn't do away with it.

He fulfilled it. He would be the one who those scriptures were talking about.

They don't have to turn to Matthew 24. You know what the disciples asked Christ in Matthew 24, verse 3. They said, What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

And then in the next chapter, and actually in chapter 25, too, he responded to them, and in chapter 24 specifically, he gave a very detailed prophecy. The Olivet prophecy, it's called, he told them exactly what would happen between now, or between then, and the time of his return.

And you know, it came from his own words. His own words were there. They had the prophecies in Daniel. They knew the prophecies in Obadiah. They had the prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah and all those places. In the Old Testament, what did he do when he said those words? What he did was validate all those prophecies. With his words, we can see they match perfectly with what it says in Daniel. We can see perfectly that it matches what was said in Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the minor prophets. We can go forward to the time that the Apostle John, who walked with him for three and a half years, wrote. And God gave Jesus Christ the prophecy of the end. Jesus Christ gave it to John. He recorded it for us. And we see that Matthew 24 is the perfect template from Revelation 22, which provides us more details from the Word of God, from one who followed him of what will be. The prophecy is sure. We don't have to doubt it. Jesus Christ said it. If any part of that prophecy disappears, if it doesn't come true, then we can throw the whole Bible out. We can disband and go and do whatever we want, because the Bible is absolutely true, and we had better believe it. We had better know it to our core. We had better learn to live it by our core and not refuse him who speaks.

And certainly not reject him or put the Word to death in our lives. Over in 2 Peter, 2 Peter, who walked with Christ, continued to preach what Christ preached right until the time of his death. In 2 Peter 1, verse 15, he makes some comments that are good for us to know today, because there is a unity of the Bible that is from beginning to end. Verse 15, moreover, he says, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease, after I'm gone. For we didn't follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We didn't make it up. It was not hearsay. We didn't add to it. We didn't take away from it. We told you exactly the way it happened. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Peter says, and we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. God didn't put it there so that we would just speculate. We all speculate, but we all need to realize when it's speculation and when it's Scripture. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Oh, there's prophecy in the Bible. It came by the Word of God. It came by the Word of Jesus Christ. He was there, and every prophecy you read in the Bible matches up. It came from His Word. It is truth. So if I speculate and I make some comment and you show me a verse and say, well, that absolutely can't be true. You know what?

My only job is to say, you are right. We're not speculating. We're going to do things exactly the way God said. If there's an aspect of our lives that we live and say, oh, you know, God doesn't matter. You know what? When we find it, we yield to God. We agree with Him and don't expect Him to agree with us except as we are living and walking by His Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ also made some prophecies about Himself.

He was there on earth. The disciples who walked with Him came to knew who He was. But He told some things about Himself that would prove that when these come true, come true, I am who I say I am or who they believed He was. Let's go back to Matthew 12 and verse 38. Matthew 12 verse 38. Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Some college professors would say, Did that story about Jonah really happen? It really happened. Jesus Christ said it happened. It had happened for a reason, and He uses it as an example here. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Many, many religions that call themselves Christian in the world today that would read that verse and say, Yes, we believe Jesus Christ. Yes, we believe the words of the Bible.

We believe He was crucified on Friday, and we believe He was resurrected on Friday. Therefore, we do not believe His words, that He will be three days and three nights in the tomb, in the heart of the earth. Do they believe Him? And we know, we just had a Bible study a few weeks ago on this, we know that what Jesus Christ said, it happened exactly the way He said.

Proof positive of who He was, the only sign He gave, and it happened exactly the way that He said it would. Let's go to Mark 9. Mark 9. Mark 9 verse 21...I'm sorry, verse 31. Mark 9, 31. Christ taught His disciples. His disciples then? We're His disciples today, too, right? If we're true disciples, we learn His words, we look at His behavior, we learn about Him, we become like Him. Mark 9 verse 31.

He taught His disciples and said to them, The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He's killed, He will rise the third day. We've talked about this recently, too. Verse next verse tells us they didn't understand what He was saying. They didn't get it, and they were afraid to ask. But, you know, they didn't run away when they didn't understand it. They'd come to trust Him and His words. They didn't run and say, well, we don't get it, we don't get it. They didn't want Him to die. They didn't want any of that to happen right up until the time it happened.

But they had faith in Him, and they believed Him, and they eventually saw what He said was true. Luke 24. Luke 24. After Christ. After Christ was resurrected. In His words, when He was speaking to His disciples, He told them something else that would happen, something that He had told them back in the discourses He had with them before the time that He was arrested and crucified that last day of Passover. In Luke 24, verse 44, Christ, in His own words, who speaks to us today, said, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.

All those things that you've read, all those laws, all those prophets, all those writings, whenever you saw a prophecy of the Messiah, every single one of them were fulfilled, He was telling them, every single one. And many of the gospel narratives that we have go through and show that those prophecies were fulfilled one by one. And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. It's not us who opens our understanding, it's God who opens our understanding.

And if we hear His words, if we understand, we have a responsibility to listen, not kill the words, not refuse the words. He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures, and He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

On the sermon night, you heard about the gospel of repentance. That was preached by Jesus Christ. It was necessary that these things were happening, that they would happen. And now a gospel of repentance and remission of sins will be preached. Christ's own words said that. In His own words, and He says, And you are witnesses of these things.

Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until you are endued with power from on high. I'm not even sure they knew what He meant. But you know what they did? They tarryed in Jerusalem. And on that day of Pentecost, that's just three weeks and one day from where we are now, what Jesus Christ said happened.

They were endued with the Holy Spirit. And when the apostles, Peter and John, went out, they did preach a strong gospel of repentance. They did talk about repent and be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. The same words that Jesus Christ said. They followed His standard of preaching exactly the same thing that He preached. Exactly the thing that's in the Bible. Exactly the thing that when we think we have a little different spin on it, that we don't find in the Bible, that we would say, oh no, no, no.

I reject that. I choose this. I don't choose to follow this theory or that thing that isn't 100% truth. I choose to follow the Word of Truth. That's the litmus test. That's the proof text. That's where we go back to. And we reject error. And we reject additions. And we reject subtractions from the Word. Because we follow Christ's words. Not the words of men. Not the words of televangelists. Not the words of the Internet. Not the words of some paper we might read. That tickles our fascination.

But we follow His words. I could spend two or three sermons going through Jesus Christ's words. I don't have to do that. You can do it yourself. And you can see exactly what He said, because God said He sent Him to speak to us. And He tells us, don't refuse Him. You know, we talked about a lot of things that, you know, you look at the world around us, and there's questions that are out there.

And there's no reason for questions, major questions of life to be out there. Because Jesus Christ gave us the answers. The only reason the world doesn't know is, one, they don't listen. And two, God hasn't opened their minds. He has opened our minds. Let's look at one of those questions. One of the most popular booklets that the church has ever put out is, What Happens After Death? Right? I mean, year after year, that booklet is at the top of the list of the one that's requested.

People want to know, what happens when I die? Where do I go? And you can go from a religion, Christian, so-called Christian religions to Buddhism to Hinduism, and they all have a different answer. None of them are founded in the Bible. Because Jesus Christ answers those questions pretty readily. Let's start back in John 3. And build up to that. In John 3, we have one of the leaders of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, coming to Jesus Christ. And he understands, or he wants to understand, and he recognizes in verse 2 here that Christ was a teacher that came from God.

In verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him, something that the man didn't really get, Christ said, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. Well, speaking from a human standpoint, Nicodemus had a question, he answered it, to his credit.

He asked. I wish everyone who had a question would just ask. Ask someone. Go back to the Bible. Go back to the source and see what the answer is. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Christ answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God.

If he's not born of baptism, if he doesn't go through that ritual and receive the Holy Spirit, he's not going to be in the kingdom of God. Very simple. He said, repent and be baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you don't go through that, you don't have to worry about the kingdom of God. If you don't think that's important, if you don't think that's the path, you don't have to worry about it. You won't be in the kingdom of God. Christ's own words say that. Every church on the world should look at those words and say, repent, what that really means.

Look at the words that Jesus Christ said, many of which we've talked about already. Repent, baptized, turn to him, receive the Holy Spirit, because if you don't do that, you don't have to worry about being in the kingdom of God. Let's drop down to verse 12. It goes on in the discourse here, and it says, Christ speaking, if I've told you earthly things and you didn't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

If you're not getting what I'm telling you that you should understand just from a physical standpoint, how are you going to understand the spiritual things? No one...here's an answer to the question of what happens after death. Verse 13, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven.

And speaking of himself, John was writing this after the fact, and so Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven by that time. People want to know when their loved ones die. Are they in heaven? Are they in hell? Jesus Christ said, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven. Pretty clear.

Not a big mystery if you just believe what Jesus Christ said. If you know the words of the Bible, that question is answered. Over in John 5, John 5, verse 24, we were in John 5 earlier.

But earlier in the chapter here, in verse 24, he says, again, Christ speaking to us, who God sent to speak to us in this age, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word, hear that? He who hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. If you believe in him who sent Christ, and you follow him, and listen to his words, and do his words, as we're told in James 1, 22, verse 25, most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, who haven't ascended into heaven, who aren't in hell, the way the world thinks of hell, most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

For the first ten years of my life, we were in the Catholic Church. I never heard of a resurrection. We went through the catechisms and everything. I heard about heaven, hell, purgatory, all those things. I heard about lighting candles and how we can help people move from one phase to another, which, well, I won't even describe what it sounds like now. I never heard of the resurrection. Jesus Christ is pretty clear. His words are there. There is a time coming when they will hear his voice, and they will be resurrected.

He says it again. Don't marvel at this. For the time is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

He spoke of the resurrections. So when we read in 1 Corinthians 15, on Paul's speaking of the first resurrection, it's Jesus Christ, the same words that he spoke. When we read in 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul talking about those who sleep, the same things that Jesus Christ spoke. When we read in Revelation 20 about the first resurrection and the second resurrection and those who will be resurrected to eternal death because they've rejected the words because they refuse to hear.

Wasn't John's idea? Jesus Christ said it. Jesus Christ said it. We just have to believe. We just have to believe and make sure that we understand it and understand it completely.

A few chapters over in John 11 on the occasion of Lazarus, who had died, and Jesus Christ was going there to resurrect him to physical life, not eternal life.

In verse 23, Jesus said to Martha, his sister, Your brother will rise again. John 11, 23. Martha said to him, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Those had to be words that Martha listened to. Maybe he didn't understand exactly what he was saying. And he finishes off his conversation with her with, do you believe me?

Do you believe this? You notice she just didn't say yes, but she believed him. She knew that one day she would understand. She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world. Do we believe him?

Do we believe his words? Even though we may not fully and 100% understand them today.

Do we believe him? Let's look at another thing here that the world seems to be wrestling with today. And Christ makes his position of truth very clear. Let's go to Matthew 19.

Pharisees trying to trick him into an answer.

In verse 3, they're asking about divorce, but Jesus Christ, in his own words, says this.

In verse 4, Christ answered and said to them, Haven't you read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two but one flesh. What God has joined together, let not man separate.

Christ's words are pretty clear. There are two marriages between one man and one woman. It's for life. Not for just as long as she pleases you in whatever way you want to be pleased.

For life. And yet the world, and I dare say some who even attend services, would say, Well, you know, this whole same-sex thing, I mean, if they're born that way, isn't it right that they should just be married? Does God really care? As long as two people love one another, right? That's what the world would say. And if you listen to it, it kind of makes some logic from a physical or a carnal sense. But Jesus Christ's position is clear. We don't have to wonder if it's right or wrong because Jesus Christ said it's right. The laws of the land don't have to wrestle with this. We don't need the Supreme Court to make the determination whether that's valid or not. God says, No, it is not.

You know, following along the same concept of marriage here, we can go back to Mark 12.

And we can see another place where marriage is the subject. But Christ uses marriage to dispel a notion that apparently had become or was becoming popular in Judah. A notion that is still popular among...I won't use the word popular. That's still out there today. Matthew 12 and verse 24.

Again, the Sadducees in verse 18 says, they don't believe in the resurrection. They have concocted this story. Here's a man who has...he dies. His wife lives. She marries all seven brothers. They don't have any children. When she's resurrected, whose wife will she be? Verse 24, Mark 12. Jesus answered and said to them, in his own words, Are you not therefore mistaken? Because you don't know the Scriptures nor the power of God.

You're mistaken. What you're thinking here isn't in line with the Scriptures. If you knew the Scriptures, this notion that you have wouldn't be an issue with you. For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. That don't marry. That aren't given in marriage. That don't reproduce. That don't have sex. And it was a notion among the Jews that indeed in times past angels, fallen angels, had come down and mated with women. And had produced these unseemly beings that is talked about in Genesis before the time of the flood. Jesus Christ said, angels don't marry. They're not going to reproduce. I think Jesus Christ was saying, don't pay attention to that. That is not a fable. And yet, it's still extant. You can still find a number of people who believe that indeed, even though Jesus Christ said, angels don't marry or are given in marriage, that indeed there were angels who came down and who married, and who produced these beings, these giants of Genesis 5. If we would just listen to what Jesus Christ said, we would understand more. We'd be able to dispel some of these things that come our way. We wouldn't have to worry about, well, we wouldn't have to worry, but we would be able to discern what's true and what's not true, what is in accord with the Bible, and what isn't. And we would save ourselves an awfully lot of heartache if we would just follow what Jesus Christ had to say. We've seen the words of Jesus Christ. We have a lot of letters in the New Testament that were written by people other than Jesus Christ. We have a lot of words of His in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We have an awfully lot of letters from Paul. We have letters from Peter, James, John, Jude, epistles from John, revelation from the book of John. What about those books? Are those in concert with Jesus Christ said? Let's go back to John 17. John 17, and see what He said in that prayer that we read a while back. In John 17, verse 17, we read, Set them apart, sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. And as Jesus Christ went on in that prayer, He said, As you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I don't pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. I will send them out. If they are my true disciples, they will say and preach the same things that I preached. And He follows that up with talking about the oneness, the unity of the Spirit, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in Me. And I in you, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent Me. I will send them out. They will preach the gospel. They will say the same words that Jesus Christ said as they are led by Him. He said in John 14, He would send the Holy Spirit. We read it. In another thing, He said, Terry, Terry in Jerusalem.

When the Holy Spirit came, the apostles went out and they preached the same words that Jesus Christ spoke. When you read in Acts, you see the very same comments, the very same attitude that Jesus Christ had, the very same words. When you read the book of Peter, you don't find anything in conflict with what Jesus Christ said. When you read the book of James, John, you don't see anything in conflict. Even when you read the book of Paul, or the book of the letters of Paul, he wasn't there among the original apostles. Later, he was trained by God through the Holy Spirit. You can go back and read through Galatians 2, the verse 10 verses there, where for 14 years, and after 14 years, he went to Jerusalem to compare the message he was giving to the Gentiles, and the message that Peter was giving to the Jews. They hadn't had any contact with each other. Paul had been trained by Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, and when he compared notes, they were preaching the same gospel. Peter couldn't add anything to him. They knew the work was of God. They knew the words they were preaching. They were spirit, and they were life. They weren't their words. They were the words of Jesus Christ, spoken by men, but they were the words of Jesus Christ. And we have those in our Bible today.

You can go from Genesis 1.1 to the last verse in Revelation. You will find a perfect unity. You will not find anything in the Bible that contradicts itself. There are some things that may be confusing. I would encourage you. In fact, I would implore you. Ask. Ask if you have those questions. If you don't want to ask me, ask Mr. Wendt. Ask Mr. Johnson. Ask Mr. Brahmuller. Just ask. Don't just lean to your own understanding, which we're warned against in Proverbs. Ask. Don't go to the Internet with people who aren't preaching or teaching the words of Jesus Christ, who have error mixed with truth in what they're saying. Come back to the source. Come back to the source and live because these are the words of spirit and the words of life.

A few chapters back in chapter 10 of John.

Jesus Christ, again speaking. And he's got an interesting question, and you might look at that later on. In verse 34 of John 10, says, Does John answer them? And... Jesus, I'm sorry, Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law? And then he quotes, I said, You are God's, little G, God's. If he, God, called them God's, little G, to whom the word of God came, verse 36, To you say of him who the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you're blaspheming? Because I said, I'm the Son of God? Interesting, but I'm not going to go into those verses right now. What I want you to draw your attention to is the parenthetical phrase there in verse 35. Jesus Christ, in his own words, said, The Scripture cannot be broken. The Scripture cannot be broken. The Bible is the only pure source of truth on earth. It cannot be broken. Believe it. Live by it. Embrace it. Let it become you. In 2 Timothy 3, the Apostle Paul, verse 16, wrote, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The same Spirit that binds us into one that unifies us, That unifies us with Jesus Christ and God the Father, one as they are one.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, And is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and correction in righteousness. Believe it. Don't refuse it. When you have a question, ask. Don't go to the Internet. And if you're going to go to the Internet, Make sure that who you are listening to has the whole truth And is preaching all the words of Jesus Christ and not their own opinion.

I don't know if it was in the sermons last week, Or maybe it was one of the Sunday things at the General Conference. A comment was made in the sermon, I think it was Dr. Ward, actually, Who said that if you look at the Old Testament and Israel's problems, What God cited them on over and over again was Sabbath-breaking and idolatry. Sabbath-breaking and idolatry. They just wouldn't listen to God. They just wouldn't obey Him. They abused the Sabbath, And that they would take these other things and they would put them in place of God. You know, we talk about idolatry, and we'll talk about the wealth of this nation. We'll talk about the economy, the weaponry, and things like that, And how people have set up gods. But you know what? We can become gods to ourselves. Our own ideas can become gods to us. And sadly, there have been some who take their own ideas, And they set aside all the word of God and just will not let it go. They refuse. They refuse the word of God. Young people, young people don't refuse the word of God. It's a world out there that will tell you all sorts of things. The world, Jesus Christ in His own word said, is passing away. Life, future, happiness, joy, hope is in the truth. It's not in the world. There may be momentary, momentary happiness, but true joy, peace, And all the things that all of us want are in the truth of God and in the words of Jesus Christ. Let's go back to Hebrews 10, and let's conclude there. And let me just remind that in Deuteronomy 12, I didn't turn there. You know the verses. We don't add to and we don't take away from what the word is. We live by every word of Christ.

Hebrews 12. And this time I'm going to pick it up in verse 22 where the author, inspired by God's Holy Spirit, wrote this. Hebrews 12, 22. You, that's you and me and everyone who God has called.

You know what I didn't say? Jesus Christ commissions His church, as you heard earlier. Preach the gospel. Teach all nations to observe all things, Jesus Christ said, that I have commanded you. Not your own ideas. You teach them the truth of the Bible. Parenthetically here.

You have come to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are registered in heaven. To God, the Judge of all. To the spirits of just men made perfect. To Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant. And to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape, who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more. Shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven?