More than a Miracle

To bring Israel out of Egypt, God had to perform a series of spectacular miracles and plagues in that land of Egypt. Such as, He revealed Himself to Mojus in a burning bush. Moses didn't even know who he was. Who is that? What is that about there? Well, that's the one that God with no name. Because remember, they didn't say the name of God. They were afraid to take the out of God's name and what He didn't even say. So that's it. So He went up to the... He went up to the... I'm going to go up and see this. So He went up and then on burning bush. God speaks to him out of a burning bush. Another miracle. He listened. Another miracle. But this He gave to return to the land which He had evicted Him to die in the desert. Then, He agrees to go back. God sends Him back. God tells Him He needs to go back. He makes all these excuses. I can't speak. Even though the people who tell us He was a no-look-with-man, He could speak. But He made excuses. He could. I can't really go, okay, Aaron could be your spokesman. So you find Moses many times saying things to Pharaoh as well. Then the 12 miracles or 12 plagues. The rod to a serpent. That was the plague. But it did show the power of God. Through down the rod, it became a serpent. And then, of course, it swallowed up all the other little serpents of the magic magicians tried to do. Then water to blood. The Nile turned to blood. The miracle of God. To try to convince Pharaoh that God was good. But God had a plan. God just gave him enough to keep him tantalized, but not enough to unharden his heart. Third was frogs. And after the third one, flies or lice. Some say lice, not flies. Swarms of lice. And these all come from chapters 3-14. I'll show you in a moment Exodus 8 verses 22-23. Before the fourth miracle, we read this. Exodus 8, 22-23. And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell. So God made a difference now. Apparently, in the first three, he did not.

When he makes a difference, he said, I'll set apart the land of Goshen. So I'm not going to punish them anymore with what you have gone through. My people dwell. No swarms of flies shall be there in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between my people and your people. So now there's a difference going to be made through the rest of them. So after that, when the fly after the the lice then came the flies or stinging insects. I don't know about you, but I don't like stinging insects. I don't like mosquitoes. I don't like I don't like gnats. That's really going to bug you and bother you. They're like little pesky flies. They don't stay away from you. They're trying to protect you. I know a big sand in Jekyll Island, Georgia in the early years when we had the tent out in the sand. 5,000 people down there and they're sitting there sliding away the flies. I thought they were just flies. They weren't. They stung you. They bit you. And so you had to really get them off with you. And down in Jekyll Island at that time. Stinging insects. Cattle disease. Where the cattle died, cattle were afflicted with afflictions. And many of the animals that they afflicted also were kind of worshiped or looked to as something that they would behold. Boils. I don't know if you've ever had a boil. When I went to Ambassador College, my very first year came from Pennsylvania across the country with my dad, mom, and then not across the country to Texas. And then hitched a ride with somebody going back to Texas, going back to California from Texas. And so I was able to go with them from the college. And when I got there my first year I had a boil right underneath my arm. It bit of my arm. Did that ever hurt? Did that ever hurt? And I took it and didn't want to do anything about it finally. I did have a doctor on campus who's in the church. I wanted to see him because I'd take care of that. So I took my arm off and took his knife. He sliced it and I came all in. And then I was appointed by Mr. Dorothy or no, I don't know who was going to be down there if that's I pass in the ambulance, Dr. Dorothy. They prayed that I would never have any problem but boils again. That was 1959 to 1960.

This fast forward 64 years, I've never had another boil. So I thank God for being merciful to me after rescuing people for that through the knife of somebody who was skilled in doing so. So boils, hail. Hail that came down when we lived in Texas. I was going to see my daughter, Jan, and son-in-law, Mike, at their home in Arlington, Texas, driving from Big Sandy over there.

I was teaching at the college. And all of a sudden I heard a report. Hail is coming. I had a relatively new car that we had, in fact, the first car that we ever, the second car that we ever ordered and had delivered, had picked up the delivery of, it was a Pontiac SSE, not super-clouded, but had a really nice car. And they kept telling me about this hail. Slunk called my daughter, Mike was out of town, and he didn't have his car in the garage.

So I said, Jan, did you open your garage door? And I thought, it's just starting to hail now. And she did. So I came zooming into the pitch driveway. When I went into their garage, they closed the garage, and the hail started. And I'll tell you, they were about the size of a golf ball. And they broke, believe it or not, a charcoal grill. They broke the lid of a charcoal grill.

They broke his screens, and as they hit their screens, and the screen bent those on his shape. Thankfully, nothing else was damaged so severely. That was in Arlington, Texas. And I remember well what what hail can do. But sometimes the hail is even larger, and at the end, one of the seven last flags at the end, I believe, is maybe a trumpet plague. I didn't check that out, but you could check it. There's going to be hailstones, huge hailstones! Balders drop from the sky. You don't want to be out of those, nor do you want to have your donkey, or your horse, or your car, or truck.

It'll puddle them. So they had that. They had locusts. Locusts are awful. And it's to teach the book of Joel. It's all about locusts, the locust plague, how devastating a locust plague can be. You can set the spiritual thrive through that you want. But he was telling them how bad that land was going to be once it was devastated. And it means complete waste. They eat everything in sight.

There's a book that said, but babies, some of the Arabic women would leave their babies out to try to, you know, if they were out in the field, they'd have them lying there. And before they could get out of the field, the locusts came through and ate their faces. They're in that hungering, eating mode, gnawing mode. They chew everything. And before them, it's like the Garden of Eden, and after them, it's like a desert. That's how much they stripped the land.

So the locusts came, and then darkness came in the land. Darkness all over except for the endosha, the lights which go on endosha. Who did all those things? What kind of miracles are those? Show to the Egyptian Pharaoh, who then turned his back on and turned down every time he promised to let them go. He can't. Then if God had to say, okay, this is when they'll let you go.

This is why I've softened them up. I've given them a chance. Now there's going to be the death of the firstborn. And sure enough, all the firstborn. We've just watched the Ten Commandments. We've watched that almost every year with our children. They've since been little around Easter time, unquote.

They normally play the Ten Commandments movie with Charles and Heston. He's Moses. He's been Moses. He's been Ben Hur. He's been a lot of things. He's been over the NRA. But he loves being in battle. But anyhow, Moses, and we saw that whole thing. And we saw how God protected the Israelites because of the blood that protected them.

And it's interesting, that blood protects you if you stay in the house. And what is the house of God, the church of God? Household of God, the people of God. Stay with the faith. Don't give it up, even though you have the blood that covers you. So again, but he protected Israel. And finally, when he left Israel, we can see all those bobs that's moving, the epic movie.

You see all these people gathered together, all type of makeshift vehicles that carry all their wares, and to carry their water jugs, and to carry all their paraphernalia, and all their herds being whipped and taken out. They estimate 600,000 people, men, which they reckon to be about two million.

Can you imagine trying to lead a group of two million people, which Moses had to do? Of course, God was on his side. What a miracle! And then bring them out, have them march on, have them all come up, and then he takes them right to the sea. He doesn't leave them any escape route, and then Pharaoh follows him, according to the movie. And God puts a pillar of fire, a pillar of the cloud, in front of them, in back of the Israelites, in front of the armies of Pharaoh, and then he opens the Red Sea.

What a miracle! God created and made so many miracles that Israel might leave Egypt. And just as it took many miracles to bring Israel out of Egypt, God had to perform many miracles to bring you and me out of sin and set us on the road to the kingdom of God. He had to perform many miracles for us. And I want to share some of the process of what God had to do to take a human being and bring them to the point of being a child of God. So let's take a look real quickly at some of the scriptures. Titus 2 verse 14. I'll read this. I have my notes here in front of me. I have the scriptures all printed out, New King James. Titus 2.14. Jesus had to redeem them from our sins, had to redeem us all from our sins. Verse 14 of Titus 2. Who gave himself, that's Jesus, gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people. Zalas of good works for willing to change and do the things that they need to do that are right in life. Titus 2.14. He had a redeemer for us just like he had the blood on the doorposts for the Israelites and how he opened the Red Sea and all the miracles. But think about it. We'll talk about the process, the miracles that have to take place for you and me to be redeemed. Paul. The Apostle Paul writes much about salvation, writes much about Christianity, writes much about the grace that's given to us. And one thing, please, brethren, never confuse. Don't try to do it all yourself. You can't, I can't, we can't become righteous of our own. It takes the righteousness of God, faith, and belief in Him and trust in Him that He'll give you the strength to change. As I look at you, you're all veterans of Christianity. You've been living this way of life for most of you, years, decades, maybe.

You've been Christian for a long time. Ephesians 2 verses 2 and 3. He talks about in which time, before you were brought to conversion, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, this world has a prescribed course for us to follow. If you want to be a success, you got to do this, you got to do that. You got to do the other. You got to wheel a deal. You got to climb over people, step on and get ahead. You got to step on their shoulders, push them down, and you step ahead. That's the way of the world. You do what you can do. You lie a little bit, cheat a little bit, steal a little bit. That's the way of the world. And then when the weekends come, what do they say? Thank God it's Friday, TGIF. Thank God it's Friday. And then they party all week, again, about Friday night and Saturday, while we're having a sober-up on Sunday, because they got to go to work on Monday. You know the system. It's a system of this world. Our young people know the system, too, because if they go to school, that's what they learn. And if they're homeschooled, that's wonderful.

Wonderful. Because schools today are awful. Colleges today are awful. So the course of this world was prescribed. He said, you have walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. That's what's actively working, influencing them, not demon-possessed. Maybe some of them are. A lot of them are demon-influenced, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. We were that way. What does it take to change the mind of somebody who set on doing their own will? I don't know. I don't know how God does it. Humans can try to persuade them, it doesn't work. Oh, you can get them to... you stand up and say, oh, won't you accept Christ in your heart? Just come up here and say, I accept Jesus, and you're saved. That's what it has to do. The Billy Graham crusades, they save people? Well, it's a good effort. But just saying, Jesus, not everyone that says to be a Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of God.

Not everyone who comes to him and says, Lord, didn't we do all these good works in your name? What does Jesus say to them? I never knew you. Who are you? I don't know who you are. What does it take to change a person's mind? What does it take to soften a person's heart, to open their minds, to draw them? Jesus Christ had to call each one of us, you know, John 644. He had to call, he had to reach down. He said, the Father draws you, you can't come to Christ. He has to reach down and draw us.

Set a fulfilling the lust of the flesh, we were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But verses 11 to 13, that's in p. 2, verses 2 to 3, p. 2, verses 11 to 13. Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, he taught each of the Gentile group, who were called uncircumcision. We were uncircumcised, too, spiritually, for sure, by what is called the circumcision, because the Jews made fun of the Gentiles.

He said, made in the flesh, the circumcision, made in the flesh by hands, the circumcision you received, Romans 2, 28, 29, is the circumcision of baptism, the circumcision of the heart. God doesn't deal with the flesh. He heals the heart, as we mentioned today, too, a couple of times. He said, but at that time you were, it was not Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. We didn't know what to do. A lot of people commit suicide. Why do they commit suicide? Because they have nothing to look forward to. They have no hope.

As we've heard, God's Holy Days give us hope.

God's Holy Days shows us every year of man. God is working out here below. It's not just for us. It's for all people. He said, you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. I'll tell you, when you're without God, you better do a lot of saving and money. You better do a lot of vitamins for your health. Because if you don't have God on your side, you're in deep, deep trouble. Because there's nothing that's going to save you when you get into a scrape. Nothing. Because you discounted Him and His righteousness and His graciousness for us. But now, verse 13, in Christ Jesus, you who were once afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He's drawn you to Him, drawn you to forgiveness. What led you to forgiveness? I'll share something with you at the end. Have you ever talked to your children and said to them, what it took for you to come to the church? Have you ever talked to your children and said, you don't know what your dad's long plan to go through to be a part of God's church? That's why we value Him so highly. You don't know what God had to do to bring us. You don't know how we were, you failed. I've gone here to expose all of our dirty, dark sins. I'm here to tell you that I wasn't always the way I am now. And I see hope. God gave me hope. Oh, I remember reading the book of Why Were You Born? And I remember going to my dad and saying, Dad, look what it says. I could be a member of a family of God. I could be, you can be proud of me. One day I could come, and it would, you know, depending on your situation, and they weren't in the church. I said, that's my son. He's a member of the family of God. That's my son.

He's a child of God.

And we have that. I've got that vision. I've got that understanding. And it isn't just for me alone. It's everybody. Why were they born? They were born to be the rule. They were born to be in the kingdom of God. They were born to be a child of God. They were born in the likeness of God to be come in like Him. As 1 John 3 verses 1 and 2 says, we're going to be changed to be like Jesus Christ, for we shall see Him as He is. Glorified! What joy! What a blessing! What does it take for God to bring somebody into that state?

John 6, 44, God had to call us. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, I'll read this scripture. 1 Corinthians 1, verse... Sorry, before the 1 Corinthians, let's go to Romans 3 verses 10 and 11. Romans 3 verses 10 and 11. He says, there are none righteous. No, not one, verse 10. Romans 3. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks after God. People tell me, I've been seeking God all my life. No, you haven't. Not the right God. You may be seeking the God you want to worship. The right God said, no, people don't seek Him that naturally. Because you seek God, you want to follow His way. God doesn't accept separate Christians. He wants Christians who are on fire in their own way, each one in His or Her own way. Everybody's gone on fire in the same way. We're not all the same. We're not all rubber stamps in the same yellow pencil. We have different personalities. We have different understanding. We have different intellects. We have different approaches to life. But they all fit into God's way. That's the difference.

But going on in Romans, he said, there's none who understands. There's none who seeks after God. Romans 8, verses 5-8, we read what Paul wrote here. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on things of the flesh.

What was important to me, my girlfriend down the street? What was important to me, basketball? I remember saying in repentance or God, I valued more the praise of the young teens out in the audience as I was playing basketball on Saturday night. I valued that more than I valued you, bothered, praising me for keeping your Sabbath day.

I valued them more.

We had to come to the place where we seek God in His ways, not set our minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things that are of the Spirit. If you are of the Spirit, you seek to see things of the Spirit. For it to be carnally minded. Here's a strange thing, the greatest miracle of all.

Our normal state is fleshly minded. So the fleshly minded person wouldn't be minded. Fleshly things. How can I make more money? How can I get more money? How can I get ahead? How can I get a better position? How can I have more power? How can I exert more power? How can I show more power? It's all about us. And how does that benefit me? And what am I going to get out of this?

How does that benefit for it to be? Currently minded is death, but to be spiritually minded, verse 6 of Romans 8. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because, listen, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject of the law of God. Neither and deeply can be. So that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. How do you take a person from that state and make them God? How do you do that? I met some people who were really antagonistic. One man who took his wife's Bible, she got a ride with others to church because he wouldn't bring her. She was a human being. She had every right to come to church. But the person who took her, the people who took her husband and wife and children, they would stop outside her house. She would never keep being watching outside about that time for them to get to church, maybe 15 minutes or 20 minutes from her home. He would stop outside her house on a pavement, not on a driveway, their property, who would stop there. She would look out the window and she would go. You know that man, he tore up her Bible and flushed part of it down the pipe, page by page. Just to be nasty, despised her, despised the people who took her to church. And when that happened, he called me and he said, look, rest of you, you've got a tiger on your tail, I'm not going to get you. I said, while he was talking to me, I said, the Lord rebuke you. Bang! His wife told me at the other end, when I did that, he went limp.

Because I was talking to an unreasonable demon-influenced human being. I wouldn't take it. And he went limp after that. Another guy would take his wife and would brandish her gun, a pistol with bullets in it, sometimes pointed at her. That lady, her four kids, came to church regularly. They got so bad that she had to flee. And church people kept her in another church area. I didn't know where she was, but I've been deliberately so. And finally, after a few months of being gone, he wanted her back. He would come and sit outside our church, on the street, watching everybody who went in to see if his wife went in or came out. Of course, she was in another church area. And then he asked to have a meeting with us. We set it up in a private place.

And then Charles Bryce was with me, that student bus. And we watched, made sure he had a trench coat or whatever, watch his hands where he was. We didn't know what he was doing. He had a gun for his wife. What's he going to do for these ministers and classes, like these issues? So we walked in, we dealt with him, we told him, if your wife wants your wife back, you need to respect her religion, you need to let her in. You know what happened to that man? That man, finally, after years of letting his wife go, he had few returns in them.

He got sick. He was a big tricker, the cirrhosis of the liver. And guess who cared for him to the time, to the time of his death? His wife, that he had tried to kill.

So talk about how things can switch. And that lady did not stay with the United. As far as I know, she was staying with whatever Garner Tents group was, Canada Church of God International or whatever. But she's still faithfully trying to follow him. That's the teaching that she wants to have. She had four beautiful kids, but she's still trying to hang in there as far as I know, the last time I heard of her. So what does it take for God to bring a person from carnality to spirituality? What kind of a miracle was that? Awesome, to say the least. And then, what does he have to do? He says he doesn't call many mighty. He doesn't call many Moses. Moses. He doesn't call many Moseses. Not many mighty. First Corinthians 1, 26. I'm not going to read it. Not many mighty. Not many noble. He doesn't call any noble. I've known somebody in noble people that he's called. I've known some that had nobility in England. There were Serbs that inherited their father's knighthood when the father died. Very noble, but very Christian. They had some, let's say none, that are noble. Some people that are brilliant. Some people that have been wise, who kept their wisdom in a godly way, not in a worldly way. So we've had some like that. First Corinthians 2, verse 14. Let's read this scripture. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. They can read the Bible from one end to the other, and still not understand what the play of salvation is. Not know clean and unclean needs, because they don't read, and they read right over it. Not understand who Israel is today, modern Israel. Not understand the plan of God. They can read it from beginning to end. They can even memorize scriptures, but not know what they mean. Spiritually discerned. What does God have to do with people like that? They're spiritually discerned. Matthew 13. I'm not going to read it. Just put it to you. Jesus Christ said in verses 16 and 17, when he was asked, Why can't you always speak to them in parable, to the crowds in parables? He said, I don't want them to understand them. Because if they understand, then they'll be responsible for it. And if they're responsible for it and don't live up to it, they're going to be held much more accountable. So I speak to them in parable, so they can take a parable, tell them, I think it means this, I think it means that, I think it goes this way, I think it goes that way. However they want it to go. But he said, But blessed are your eyes, for they see you, and your ears, for they hear, because many righteousness would love to know what you know and don't have that opportunity. And God has to soften your heart. He has to open your mind, give you the truth, help you to discern it, understand it in a spiritual way, and lead you, Romans 2.4, Romans 2.4 leads you to repentance. He doesn't repent for you. He helps create circumstances that kind of push you to that direction, but he won't repent for you. Romans 2.4 tells us that the goodness of God leads us to repentance.

Let's take the breakdown of person. I don't know. I'm not God. But I've seen a lot of people who come this way. I baptize hundreds of hundreds stay, that's on their shoulder. Many people who bore a grapefruit, as long as I ever knew them, some of them turn away. So that's interesting. One person we know really well knew for a year since I she was a little girl.

She, her husband, I knew well. I did her way. They're coming back to church after they've gone to Grace International or Grace Communion and stuff. They're coming back. I'm not against Grace. I'm offered Grace. Grace does not mean you do anything you please. Grace says, I've got God covering me. All my life, if I slip and stumble, I'd ask him to forgive me. I accepted that in factus, and he forgives me by asking me. But I need it sincerely after repenting of whatever the sin I slipped and stumbled or did. He's always there for you. To give you strength, not just to forgive, give you strength to fight it and resist it. That was brought out today, too. So Acts 2, 38, 39, Peter said, what? Repent! What? Repent and let every one of you, Acts 2, verses 38 and 39, repent every one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive and get from the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do for us? Gives us life. Your ticket to eternal life. Your down payment to eternal life. Talk about what God invested in us. Each one of us that we're baptized in that Holy Spirit. He's invested in us the most precious gift anybody could ever receive.

Something that can change the hearts and minds of people could give them strength to live a godly way in an ungodly world. And I'm not down on the whole world. They can't help us. They don't know what they're doing. One day they will know. Thankfully you'll be there. We make it into the kingdom. We go out there often and maybe even help understand more about what it takes to bring people to conversion. God's blessing. He said, and that's part of it, for the promises to you and your children and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord, our God will call. Our children are automatically called. You young people, you're all automatically being called. What you do with that calling is up to you. The calling is like, hey, an extra, extra, read all about it. Hey, you might hear that, but you have to come to the face, find a newspaper. Hey, you heard that call, please.

So I said, hey, hey, read all about it. I don't need that. But some people say, hmm, that sounds interesting. Let me write more. Dr. Austin calls them. God could call many people. He says many are called a few chosen. A lot of people hear it. They go so far, and then it wrangles them, wrangles them, and they don't want to go anymore. I don't want to learn anymore. I may have to write too many changes. Don't tell me anything else. That happens.

It's interesting, in Exodus chapter 10, verses 1 and 2, Exodus chapter 10, verses 1 and 2, I'd like to share this with you at this point, because God has called you. God has opened your mind. God has given you this Holy Spirit through baptized and hands laid on from the Lord, and God's Holy Spirit. But Exodus 10, verses 1 and 2, my question for you is, do we speak to our children of our journey from the old person to the new? Do we speak to those with God said to Moses? Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine before him. Verse 2, He, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt. How your children, what I had to do to bring you out, tell them of the miracles. Tell them what they had, the people had to go through, what I had to do for Israel to bring them out of Egypt.

Tell them what I've done in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord. And what does it mean when you know God is the Lord? It means you understand eternal life.

Now, what he said, John 17, this is life eternal, that they know who you are, Father, and who I am. Do you know all about them? Do you know how Jesus Christ began? Do you know that God did not have a beginning or an ending, does not? Do you know that Jesus Christ did have a beginning when he was born after denuding himself of all his powers and glory? In the years, not all, most of them, he still had power when he walked the earth. But it was God's power supplying you, and he said of himself he could do nothing of himself. Fleshly Jesus could do nothing of himself. But he had the Spirit of God in it from the time he was conceived. Big difference between you and him, and me, and I and him. Why? He had God's Holy Spirit from the time he was pre-gotten in a womb of his mother. That was with him. He never sinned once. Some of your children have sinned. Some of them have told lies. Some of them have white lies. Some of them are defensive lies. Did you do this? No, no, no. Yeah, I did that. Because it's a defensive lie. Look, I'm not justifying it. Somebody didn't tell a white lie. The white just told a little white lie. It wasn't a black lie. All lies are lies. They're not true. They're not sincere. They don't let them read about sincerity and truth. Sincerity and truth.

So he talks about us to thee. He said, tell your children about it. Tell them of your journey, that they may understand what you have to go through, what they have to go through to be converted. Let's look at Romans chapter 5, verses 6 to 9. God remits our sins, and when we were still without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Would you see somebody who's been doing awful, awful, awesomely horrible things and say, let me go to prison in his stead. Let me go to prison for Charles Manson. Let me go to prison for these son of Sam murderers. Let me go to prison for these serial murderers, for these serial rapists. Let me take their place. Let me die for them. Let me suffer for them. He said, for scarcely, for a righteous man, for one guy. Well, there's a good man. I hate to see him suffering. Okay, I'll do it for him. Most of us wouldn't do that either.

Yet, perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his love, own love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, still sinners, there aren't any more, while we were still sinners, notice what did he do while we were still sinners, and Christ died for us. Much more than, verse 9, having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Jesus Christ in us is the hope of glory. You want to shine as light? Who is the light? Jesus Christ said, even the light of the world. Amen to the world? Who's the light of the world? What is God called? God is light! Do you want to have light? Have God in you richly. Your light will shine, brightly.

How do you have God in your life? Study, pray, do good deeds, be gracious like God is, to others, you will shine. Romans 6, verses 3 and 4 were very, very, very, the fact is, what happened to that old man? Very, the old man, and a new one was created by God. Never it says you come out to walk in what? Romans 6, verses 3 and 4? Newness of life. Hear a new person. That's why it calls you babes, even in Christ. How do you go from being a doll to a baby? To baptize. The adult was buried, but the babe was born. A lot of people say, you're born again. Well, not really, but that's some of the, some of them say born again really means you have the Spirit of God. That's what's up to me by then. We don't use that terminology. We believe you'll be born again, you're changed to Spirit beings.

2nd Peter 1, verse 4. 4. God gives us divine nature. You talk about the vine of Christ in Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus. Was Christ divine? Yes. Let this mind be in you. What is the mind? So, I can give us the same. What is it? Oh, 150. Okay, give me 150. IQ. No. What is it? Attitude. How do you look at life? How do you look on others? How do you approach life? With hope? Forward-looking? Or you backwards? Remember Paul said forgetting those things. Yeah. Some people like to dwell on the past. Oh, it makes me feel good to dwell on the dirty rotten center. Does it? Why does it make you feel good to know you've been redeemed? Why does it make you feel good to know that you're on the road to eternal life? Why do you want to wallow in the dirt in the past? Some people will pray their sins again. In fact, Catholics will say, if you can't think of anything to confess, you go into a confessional, saying what you did. It's something you did before. Well, that's real sincere, isn't it?

You don't have to do that. Be genuine. Be honorable. Be honest. God gives you divine nature, the mind of Christ. He said in verse 4, we've been given exceeding great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of divine nature. Can you believe that? You have part of God's nature dwelling in you. How does that happen? Talk about miracles. And what does that do? 2 Timothy 1, 7, it was quoted today already. It's not given us a spirit of fear.

But what? Our love and a silent mind. Did you can see things that senators and representatives can't see? And it sickens me that these individuals cannot see that you can't run a government in the red and continue to add to that red.

And you're bankrupting the United States of America. How can you do that? You don't run your own families that way, whole three of your businesses that way. Why do you run the government that way? Well, just get more money. Money you bring makes what you have now worth less.

What a world. They can't think straight. They can't think sick. And all these senators, let this guy go. I know he's letting billions of people who are undocumented carrying diseases all over the country. If you don't know where they are, we can't trace them. All these 85,000 or whatever it is, young children, they have no idea where they are. No idea. But this guy gets to stay in because he's competent. They try to throw him out. Because you have people that care more about their position than they care about the people that they're supposed to serve. That is awful. That's insanity. God gives you a sane mind, a soundness of mind. Be thankful for it. I see it. Why can't they see that? I see that. Why can't they see that's a lie? Why can't they see that driving across the bridge that just collapsed, going across the bridge on a train, is impossible because there is no train. There are no tracks on the bridge that collapsed in Baltimore. Our current president thought he went across on a train.

Nobody ever says anything about it. You know why? Because they don't have a sound mind. What's more important than them is position than truth. It causes my blood to get more playable.

Why? Because when I believe it was lies, they don't care. Get their way, lie. And some of them are really good at lying. You can hardly tell they're not lying. They don't have a smile at the right time. Say the things that they think people will swallow, who don't know any better because they don't have a sound mind. What a shame. God gives us sound mind. He gives us love. He gives us power to resist and power to overcome and power to live right. So, activity 170. First Corinthians 12-13, what does God do? He'd have to re-rescues us. He brings us to his body, the church. By one spirit, you've been baptized into one body. You've been all made to drink off from one spirit. What a blessing. How can you have unity? We don't have the Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit about? Unity. It manifests in different ways because you have a different personality than I do. But it gives us unity. Unity of purpose, unity of thought, unity of action. That doesn't make yellow pencils on us. We often like different things. That's personality. One reason Jesus Christ never tells you what his favorite food was, never tells you what his favorite ice cream is. Oh, I love that. I should exactly. Never tells you what his favorite candy is, although I don't think he had candy back. A lot of people did have certain care of maybe. I don't know what to say. Never tells you his likes. Never tells you his favorite color. I guess it might be white, although he may not be more white, tied white cloak when he went out and carried bricks and lumber. Remember, he was a carpenter. Learned from his dad. Made him a lot more than just carpentry. Were his clothes always whiter than white? No!

Jesus Christ was a man's man. That's why he got all those people to get out of here. Not some wimp who's begging people, please help me, please listen to me. He was strong. He spoke with authority. Oh boy, thanks, thank God for the us in his bond, making us a part of this church. We have been all made to drink with one spirit. Philippians 3, 14. We have the goal of God's kingdom. Paul said, I press for the mark of God's kingdom. Press for the mark, which is the goal of all Christians. Matthew 6, 33. Seek and curse the kingdom of God. God sets us on the road to eternal life. Any conclusion? There is a greatest miracle of all. Is that the greatest miracle of his? Coming. He was too dead. The word was fitting for him. Christ who for whom were all things, by whom were all things. Listen. In bringing many sons to glory.

Many sons to glory. To make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. The greatest miracle of all. Take a carnal-minded, eighth of all God, can't stand God, enmity about God, and change that person where he loves God, where he wants God's law, wants God's way, wants to live right, wants to do right, wants to love people, and ultimately make him a child in his kingdom. That is pretty awesome. But you know what? God promises you even more. He said, you will do greater works than I did. Jesus said, you'll do greater works than Jesus before in John 14, before we become children of God and glory. He said, the works that I do, you will do greater. The Apostle Paul would have loved to be able to speak on the internet and have it go to the whole world. The webcasts that are done. The 10-minute webcasts on YouTube and other, that millions of people have access to that all over the world. Talk about miracles that could be done and how we can try to use them. And they are trying to use them, as many as they can, to reach the world, to reach out to a world whose true shavies and the talks are really good. To reach out to a world to warn them. It's a witness. We're not converting the world now. It's going to take Jesus Christ to do that. But we could set the stage. We could have a lot of people ready when they see all the warning signs of the tribulation and all the rest that they go through. Somebody said about that's going to come. And it's coming. And I need to do something about my life, which I haven't done thus far. A lot of blessing. And God will change us. 1 Corinthians 15, 15 to 58. God will change us, the immortality, and his children, and give us that victory. That's what we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 51, I tell you a mystery, which shall not all sleep, or we shall be changed in a moment. That's when we divide. That the last trump for the tropical sun, the dead will be raised incorruptible. We shall be changed. From this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. You don't have immortality, except that God spirits in you. That isn't working. But you don't have it of yourself. So when the corruptible must God has put on incorruption, this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to vast the same. 1 Corinthians 15, 51 to 54. Death will swallow it up in victory. What a joy for all those people we have known who've been faithful to the end, that they will be resurrected to eternal life. I hope we can have ahead of us. I'm 83. I have not been here so I have. I have no. But I can tell you this much. Never be depressed. I can try to serve God as long as I can.

We all need to make sure we are growing in that faith, becoming that special miracle that God wants. How can we be sure we can make it? I'll tell you why. 1 Corinthians 15, 57. Thanks be to God. 1 Corinthians 15, 57. Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore my brethren, be steadfast, immovable, so let anybody shape your faith.

Let me do this to be. Okay, I'm not going to church anymore because I did it. Did God do that to you? Or did that person do that to you? Is that person God? Why do you blame God for what that person did? People do that. They weren't nice to me. I'm not going anywhere. You blame God for human error, for human weakness. That's not God. Why do you blame Him? Therefore be steadfast, immovable, so always a founding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Whatever you do to this Godly will never be counted as vanity of vanities. It'll never be vanity of vanities. Whatever you do in the Lord, God will always remember every good, decent, righteous deed you have done. He will remember. That is a promise. And in the end, what will you have? He's done the life. That's why I titled this sermon more than a miracle. You're worth a lot more than all the miracles we took to bring the physical issue of our region. Contact a blessing, thank God for it, and carry on to fulfill that dream that God has, that plan, that promise of bringing many sons to glory.