WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:25.480 Now we're not going to throw a brick at you, but what was the purpose? 00:25.480 --> 00:30.240 We need, preferably this week, $3,400. 00:30.240 --> 00:33.400 If you got it, right out of check today. 00:33.400 --> 00:40.760 Some magnificent soul has said, if you'll match what I match, we'll get the job done. 00:40.760 --> 00:47.560 So $5,000 has been set aside by some good human being that I know after so much giving, 00:47.560 --> 00:54.200 $40,000 the last year, since last July about this time, $40,000 has been raised. 00:54.200 --> 00:56.440 And if you'd like to match that, we are finished. 00:56.440 --> 00:59.280 Kapoot, it is done. 00:59.280 --> 01:00.480 It is finished. 01:00.480 --> 01:05.640 And if you'd like to help with that, well, just write out a check and put bricks on it. 01:05.640 --> 01:07.160 And it'll be done this week. 01:07.160 --> 01:08.880 It started this week. 01:08.880 --> 01:14.880 John 8.12, the following fabulous statement is made, I'm the light of the world, and that 01:14.880 --> 01:16.720 person speaking, of course, is Jesus. 01:16.720 --> 01:26.800 If I said that, it would be the babbling of an idiot, which may be obvious anyway. 01:26.800 --> 01:30.840 But then Jesus goes on to give us one of those dark things that he sometimes come with. 01:30.840 --> 01:33.520 I've actually heard people say, well, is Jesus confused here? 01:33.520 --> 01:39.880 Because he says to us in Matthew 5, verse 14, you are the light of the world. 01:39.880 --> 01:42.000 Now, which is it going to be, Jesus? 01:42.000 --> 01:44.840 Well, of course, both are correct, aren't they? 01:44.840 --> 01:48.960 He is the light of the world, and we are the light of the world. 01:48.960 --> 01:50.720 And I think that's important. 01:50.720 --> 01:52.920 The world's in darkness, have you noticed? 01:52.920 --> 01:56.800 The world is in darkness, and we need light at work. 01:56.800 --> 01:58.700 We need light at school. 01:58.700 --> 02:01.640 We need light in the church, even. 02:01.640 --> 02:04.200 We need light in the home, don't we? 02:04.200 --> 02:08.960 We need light with our teeny boppers, facing a world that's consummately ugly and a gross 02:08.960 --> 02:12.800 out and black in a dark place, and someone says, that's negative, man. 02:12.800 --> 02:15.440 Well, the world is negative. 02:15.440 --> 02:20.760 If you'll read the marvelous book, Not of This World, by Watchman Knee, you have to 02:20.760 --> 02:24.800 come to the conclusion that there's nothing good about the world, and oh, I'm not discounting 02:24.800 --> 02:29.360 the beautiful sunsets and the great mountains and the little trouts and the bubbling streams, 02:29.360 --> 02:33.960 and all those are wonderful, but that can cost you your eternal life, and there's nothing 02:33.960 --> 02:37.280 intrinsically good in a river, believe you me. 02:37.280 --> 02:41.120 There is only one consummate good, and that's in Jesus Christ. 02:41.120 --> 02:44.680 He said, love, not the world, neither the things that are in it. 02:44.680 --> 02:50.760 So the cosmos is not what comes first in our life, but it is the logos, the logical one, 02:50.760 --> 02:54.840 the Jesus man who comes first before us all. 02:54.840 --> 03:00.880 Even so, he said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. 03:00.880 --> 03:03.280 Why do our little lights shine? 03:03.280 --> 03:07.160 It's because men see that we are Jesus-like. 03:07.680 --> 03:12.120 If there's any goodness about the church, it is to say it was a bunch of folks that 03:12.120 --> 03:15.720 loved Jesus and lived a life like his. 03:15.720 --> 03:21.680 He went around everywhere doing good, and the church ought to everywhere be doing good. 03:21.680 --> 03:26.560 Now he doesn't say leave the world, and there was a desperate attempt of the early church 03:26.560 --> 03:28.760 to try to leave the world. 03:28.760 --> 03:33.240 Men gathered in hidden places, in caves, and in desert areas. 03:33.240 --> 03:36.480 People like old John, remember, out there eating locusts and honey. 03:36.480 --> 03:37.480 That's gross out. 03:37.480 --> 03:39.760 We don't eat that bad back home. 03:39.760 --> 03:45.400 And he was living in a strange and perverse style, if you will, escaping, so he thought 03:45.400 --> 03:51.000 the affairs of this world, but he still was a harbinger and a voice in the wilderness. 03:51.000 --> 03:52.880 God doesn't need the church in the wilderness. 03:52.880 --> 03:59.680 He needs it right here where people are, and the monastery, and the Abbey, and great places, 03:59.680 --> 04:05.160 and sanctuaries for men as they hid in deserts to get away from the world, thinking that 04:05.160 --> 04:09.080 that would be getting closer to God if you got farther away from the world. 04:09.080 --> 04:12.560 And yet where do you need godly people today? 04:12.560 --> 04:18.680 I pray every day of my life that it won't be but just a few weeks until Bev and Jake's 04:18.680 --> 04:22.120 get over there in that horrible land that's called Uganda. 04:22.120 --> 04:24.480 And I'm not putting down Uganda. 04:24.480 --> 04:28.680 There's so much sadness, so much starvation, so much disease there. 04:28.680 --> 04:31.240 But where do Jesus people need to be? 04:31.240 --> 04:38.600 Well, besides church, they need to be where they're suffering and heartache and disease 04:38.600 --> 04:40.760 and agony, isn't there? 04:40.760 --> 04:42.720 That's where they need to be. 04:42.720 --> 04:51.360 Not of the world, not away from the world, but in the world, and yet not of the world. 04:51.360 --> 04:53.680 You have to be careful with your prepositions there. 04:53.680 --> 04:59.920 29 years ago on a hot summer's day, an evening, Kitty and I called in a little family and 04:59.920 --> 05:03.600 they had come just once to the church and they said, they liked it, they agreed with 05:03.600 --> 05:04.600 it. 05:04.600 --> 05:05.600 They agreed with the terms of salvation. 05:05.600 --> 05:07.200 What do you mean the terms of salvation? 05:07.200 --> 05:10.840 Hey, there are things you need to do to be born again. 05:10.840 --> 05:15.160 And that's the doctrine of the Almighty God, and I dare not tamper with it, see. 05:15.160 --> 05:16.960 There are certain things that need to be done. 05:16.960 --> 05:18.520 You must be born again. 05:18.520 --> 05:21.320 And the church preaches that, and I'm very happy that we do. 05:21.320 --> 05:25.560 It's not a particularly popular way, but it is the way. 05:25.560 --> 05:26.560 And that's all that matters. 05:26.560 --> 05:29.480 The way you get home is following the way home, isn't it? 05:29.480 --> 05:33.080 Not the way you would like to go home, but the way that leads you home. 05:33.080 --> 05:35.440 And that's what the church needs to be preaching. 05:35.440 --> 05:40.320 29 years ago, everybody says, young man, and you can conceive of me being a young man. 05:40.320 --> 05:42.760 That's a long time ago, isn't it? 05:42.760 --> 05:46.480 He said, I agree with everything you've said, but he says, I'm a political conservative, 05:46.480 --> 05:50.520 and I know if you continue to preach that, your name is going to be on a roll sometime, 05:50.520 --> 05:53.240 someplace in this socialist world order. 05:53.240 --> 05:56.040 And he says, I don't want to get on that roll with you. 05:56.040 --> 05:57.880 I believe you are right. 05:57.880 --> 06:03.360 I know that what you're preaching is correct, but I don't wish to be persecuted. 06:03.360 --> 06:08.520 And from this day on, my wife and I will never participate in anything that contrasts the 06:08.520 --> 06:11.240 world system or counteracts the world system. 06:11.240 --> 06:16.640 I was a big chicken, wasn't I? 06:16.640 --> 06:20.200 And if you think I'm naive enough to think that maybe your name couldn't be on a roll 06:20.280 --> 06:24.560 someday because you love the Lord Jesus, but what a cop out. 06:24.560 --> 06:25.400 What a sad thing. 06:25.400 --> 06:29.200 Aren't you glad that that didn't threaten me and threaten you? 06:29.440 --> 06:36.600 Aren't you glad when you think of the 34 men who have gone out to be missionaries and the 23 kids 06:36.600 --> 06:39.280 that have been ordained and are faithfully preaching the gospel? 06:39.400 --> 06:43.280 Aren't you glad we didn't quit and hide in the world system? 06:43.680 --> 06:44.880 Gross. 06:44.920 --> 06:50.360 I'd rather be dead than to go along with the world system and to hide from a 06:50.360 --> 06:52.360 possible fight in this world. 06:52.760 --> 06:55.080 Now, Jesus alone was this following thing. 06:55.080 --> 07:01.000 First, John one, nine and 10, the true light, which lighteth every man coming into the world. 07:01.760 --> 07:09.800 There was one true light and that true light is Jesus in it, not out of the world, but in it. 07:10.200 --> 07:16.280 Now I mentioned the desert prophets who went out in hard places and dry and barren places in the 07:16.280 --> 07:22.680 wilderness to preach the gospel because it was safer to be pure in the desert than it was in 07:22.680 --> 07:28.160 Sodom, than it was in Gomorrah, than it was even in the heart of Christiana, Jerusalem, 07:28.760 --> 07:30.560 Jerusalem, the city of peace. 07:30.720 --> 07:33.480 What a farce to call Jerusalem, the city of peace. 07:33.680 --> 07:38.880 It's the city of turmoil and tribulation until the king of peace comes and straightens up the 07:38.880 --> 07:41.440 mess in that territory needs to be done. 07:41.560 --> 07:46.440 But that gave us the Essenees and you recall that they were also the deliverers of us to 07:46.440 --> 07:53.520 verification in a time of age of enlightenment and of greater reasoning and higher criticism of 07:53.520 --> 08:01.040 the Bible that showed us that the whole book of Isaiah is written out and is almost word for 08:01.440 --> 08:08.640 word, 750 years later is almost verbatim the same Bible you are reading today. 08:09.280 --> 08:13.920 I'll cry out in the wilderness if you will, but cry out where there's a crowd. 08:14.720 --> 08:20.680 My I want to go to Alaska one day and preach up there because I want to be a free man and 08:20.680 --> 08:23.240 to preach the gospel, but trees don't go. 08:23.240 --> 08:30.600 Hey, now I'm in and all it was was teddy bears and trees and God's people can't be where there's 08:30.600 --> 08:32.240 just teddy bears and trees. 08:32.480 --> 08:34.920 They don't worry about their salvation. 08:35.040 --> 08:41.200 It's people, it's mankind that hungers and thirsts after righteousness and the world has it in the 08:41.200 --> 08:41.720 church. 08:42.160 --> 08:46.520 Now, maybe the church hasn't been as popular as it could have been because we tend to preach the 08:46.520 --> 08:48.840 church from the thou shalt nots. 08:49.560 --> 08:53.880 In effect, we say, well, you know, you got to watch about adultery. 08:53.880 --> 09:00.320 If you're Christian, you got to watch your mouth when it comes to speaking the word of God. 09:00.840 --> 09:04.240 Hey, you can't hate like the world can hate. 09:04.320 --> 09:07.600 And so people says, well, it feels good with church preaches against it. 09:07.640 --> 09:08.480 And I, and I agree. 09:08.480 --> 09:14.240 Sometimes we see the church as a kind of negative castle of don't do this and don't do that. 09:14.520 --> 09:18.920 But hey, there's something more important than the don't do's in church. 09:18.920 --> 09:22.400 We're taught the things we ought and that makes a pretty good poem, doesn't it? 09:23.040 --> 09:23.720 It's in church. 09:23.720 --> 09:27.000 We're taught the things we ought, but we haven't stressed. 09:27.000 --> 09:29.720 I think we said that don't do this and don't do that. 09:29.920 --> 09:34.800 But what we need to stress, perhaps is the do's, what we really should do. 09:35.160 --> 09:38.720 We have preached it kind of from an abstinence kind of thing. 09:38.960 --> 09:40.080 Quit doing this, quit doing that. 09:40.080 --> 09:41.720 And the world doesn't want to do it out anything. 09:41.720 --> 09:46.760 You know that we recognize wealth by the number of cars and the ski do's and all 09:46.760 --> 09:48.480 this kind of stuff that we have. 09:48.840 --> 09:50.480 And we keep up with the Joneses. 09:50.480 --> 09:54.680 That's the way of the world, but that's not the way of Jesus's precious church. 09:55.080 --> 09:57.960 Really don't care what the rest of the churches in the world are doing. 09:58.600 --> 10:04.000 It's, we look at it and we have to say, is this what gospel would be preached as 10:04.000 --> 10:05.440 far as Jesus was concerned? 10:05.680 --> 10:09.160 If he would quickly slip into the back there, would he be happy with the 10:09.160 --> 10:10.240 message this morning? 10:10.800 --> 10:14.880 Would it be important to him that ears got titillated or that a heart was 10:14.880 --> 10:18.720 changed, that someone came stumbling and weeping down the aisle with their 10:18.720 --> 10:23.800 heart sundered because the word of God and the spirit of God had said, Hey, I 10:23.800 --> 10:26.280 must change my way in my style. 10:26.840 --> 10:29.960 And that's what the church ought to really be preaching and teaching. 10:30.480 --> 10:32.160 So what is the kingdom of God? 10:32.160 --> 10:36.080 The church, he said, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking rules. 10:36.080 --> 10:43.440 See, do this, do that, but the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy 10:43.800 --> 10:45.160 in the Holy spirit. 10:45.520 --> 10:49.920 We can sell the church on three positive attributes to be righteous. 10:49.920 --> 10:54.200 Now I don't know about you, but being righteous, I sleep well when I am that 10:54.200 --> 10:56.880 way. How about you, man? 10:56.880 --> 10:59.400 I can remember my little brother when he did something wrong. 10:59.440 --> 11:01.160 It was all over his face. 11:01.400 --> 11:04.760 Since we slept together, he'd storm and toss all night long. 11:04.760 --> 11:09.400 If he hadn't got something straight with big mamoo or big papa and that little 11:09.400 --> 11:11.280 guy's conscience drove him nutty. 11:11.760 --> 11:15.640 Now he was a lucky guy because if your conscience drives you to change, that's 11:15.680 --> 11:19.440 great for godly sorrow works repentance, doesn't it? 11:19.760 --> 11:23.120 And now that Christians ought to be made a little bit uncomfortable by their 11:23.120 --> 11:27.200 church. If you find the church just makes you with a kind of warm, nice feeling. 11:27.200 --> 11:28.360 Good day, good day, good day. 11:28.840 --> 11:32.840 Then that's cheating you because now and then you ought to feel naughty, naughty, 11:32.840 --> 11:37.400 naughty, naughty, you ought to feel that you've been taught something and 11:37.400 --> 11:40.880 instructed from the mind of God that says, Hey, fat Albert, shape up, man, 11:41.320 --> 11:45.080 shape up in your life and change your style just a little bit. 11:45.520 --> 11:51.000 So you see, there's ways that we could sell the church and sell to our children 11:51.280 --> 11:56.040 our walk of life by using other things than thou shall not. 11:56.320 --> 11:59.080 I know that my kids, maybe your kids were the same way. 11:59.080 --> 12:02.800 The first word they learned was no. That right? 12:03.600 --> 12:08.600 It wasn't mama, papa. It was no, and they learned that. 12:08.840 --> 12:11.640 Now they never did learn yes, but they did learn no. 12:11.640 --> 12:15.120 They put that little fat foot down and say, no, I can still remember Annie. 12:15.280 --> 12:18.680 You know, we used to beat her with hot tire chains. She'd still say no. 12:19.680 --> 12:22.640 That was just part of Annie. See, 12:23.720 --> 12:29.120 and oh, how that's born into us. Joy, peace, righteousness. 12:29.120 --> 12:30.920 Those are good things to sell in it. 12:31.280 --> 12:34.280 If you're selling your children on living a life like Christ, 12:34.320 --> 12:37.960 then show them righteousness, show them peace. 12:38.560 --> 12:42.840 And for heaven's sakes, three times a week, smile. 12:43.840 --> 12:47.920 And look at your children and just grin all over and just be 12:47.920 --> 12:53.440 disgustingly modeling and say, oh, I'm so glad you came to my house, 12:53.440 --> 12:57.720 honey. And smile, smile, smile. 12:57.960 --> 13:01.760 Never shouted a child if you're going to show him about Jesus Christ, 13:02.080 --> 13:05.560 quietly thrashing from time to time, if that's necessary. 13:05.960 --> 13:10.880 But you smilingly show him that the kingdom of God 13:11.680 --> 13:15.880 is righteousness and peace and joy. 13:16.080 --> 13:20.800 If you want to teach a kid about a happy marriage, then be happy, 13:21.480 --> 13:25.320 be happy. You've thought that can make a good title for a song. Couldn't it? 13:25.360 --> 13:29.840 Be happy. Be happy. You want a happy church? 13:30.200 --> 13:35.080 Well, it begins with you. I know we don't have a perfect church that 13:35.080 --> 13:40.000 dawned on me a long time ago. Did you notice that? I'm not very bright, 13:40.000 --> 13:44.280 but I understood quickly that there were some ringy, dingy, 13:44.280 --> 13:48.160 dingy dudes in the church. Well, I was a member of the church. 13:48.320 --> 13:53.120 I had a good clue that it wouldn't always be perfect because even I 13:53.320 --> 13:58.120 was not perfect. I had a wife who could clearly illustrate that and family 13:58.120 --> 14:00.360 and friends who could also illustrate it too. 14:00.880 --> 14:03.120 Christians are made up of humanity. 14:03.120 --> 14:06.120 And isn't that an awesome start for a poor beginning? 14:06.640 --> 14:10.400 That is really great, isn't it? So show their kids, 14:10.400 --> 14:15.400 show the church examples of peace and joy and righteousness. 14:17.480 --> 14:21.000 In John 16, verse 33, 14:21.000 --> 14:24.800 Jesus is making a plea for one reason to follow after him. 14:26.040 --> 14:28.360 And it is this reason in the world, 14:28.680 --> 14:31.920 you have tribulation and say, 14:32.040 --> 14:34.720 would anyone doubt or negate that this morning? 14:35.640 --> 14:40.520 The world brings forth tribulation. That's trial, sorrow, 14:40.520 --> 14:43.400 troubles. And there's plenty of that, isn't there? 14:43.920 --> 14:48.040 But in me, you have peace, peace, 14:48.680 --> 14:53.560 peace. Oh, how many people are simply looking for peace 14:54.120 --> 14:58.680 in this world. What do you mean by peace? Didn't Jesus say that was a sign of time 14:58.680 --> 15:01.800 when men would say everywhere, peace, peace, when there is no peace? 15:01.800 --> 15:04.160 I don't mean that kind of piece. That's the kind of piece the world offers. 15:04.160 --> 15:09.160 Political peace. There's no safety in political pieces or in great horses or 15:09.160 --> 15:12.280 in laser beams or rockets facing one another. 15:12.280 --> 15:13.600 There's no peace in there. 15:14.520 --> 15:18.280 The only peace we have in life is a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 15:18.600 --> 15:23.440 It cures the woman who cannot stay away from the alcohol 15:23.440 --> 15:24.280 and the bottle. 15:25.320 --> 15:29.200 It cures the man who simply lives a life of lust. 15:29.920 --> 15:34.840 It rectifies the pathway and the actions of people who essentially 15:34.840 --> 15:40.200 live in hatred, who live in fear, who live in own loneliness. 15:40.880 --> 15:45.760 And ah, the world offers no escape from tribulation and those 15:45.760 --> 15:49.000 things, but Christ really does. 15:49.000 --> 15:51.240 What a joyous sermon to have to preach. 15:52.000 --> 15:55.880 Now there is either darkness or light. It's going to be one or the other. 15:56.040 --> 16:01.760 The shades of gray isn't really a common pathway in so much of the world. 16:02.400 --> 16:07.280 Hey, it's either the night or it's the daytime. 16:07.280 --> 16:10.960 Now there's a twilight zone in an early morning, false dawn in between, 16:10.960 --> 16:16.040 but that last just minutes, the brunt of the day is either darkness or it's light. 16:16.640 --> 16:19.920 A spiritual life eventually has to come into that existence. 16:19.920 --> 16:23.640 Either make it all light or make it all dark. 16:23.640 --> 16:26.760 And Jesus said, at least you won't be a schizophrenic that way. 16:27.520 --> 16:30.520 If you take me 100% you'll live in the light. 16:31.200 --> 16:35.960 Now listen to what old John, beloved, sweet, good, John had to say, 16:35.960 --> 16:40.440 these precious, precious words in writing in John one, it's four and five. 16:40.880 --> 16:48.080 In him was the life and the life was the light of men. 16:48.080 --> 16:51.160 Now he goes on to verse five and there's a profound thought. 16:51.480 --> 16:55.360 I sat knee to knee with the demanded woman this morning who didn't buy that 16:55.360 --> 16:58.840 and believe that and it wasn't until just a few minutes ago as I sat there 16:58.840 --> 17:04.000 thinking about what she believed about the world, how foolish and how stupid it 17:04.000 --> 17:07.640 was and yet how totally committed to her kingdom of darkness. 17:07.640 --> 17:10.360 She really was that I came up with an answer. 17:10.360 --> 17:12.360 She says, God is nature. 17:13.880 --> 17:15.400 Well, that sounds awful good. 17:15.400 --> 17:19.040 And the hippie hippie doodoo's are really prone to believe that, aren't they? 17:19.720 --> 17:20.440 God is nature. 17:20.440 --> 17:21.880 God isn't nature. 17:22.240 --> 17:27.240 That's a mere tool of the logos, a small, insignificant tool of the logos. 17:27.440 --> 17:32.200 There is no intrinsic good to the cosmos, nature, the world. 17:32.280 --> 17:34.440 There is no goodness in the world. 17:34.440 --> 17:36.360 Jesus said, love, not the world. 17:37.080 --> 17:40.560 Neither the things are it was he just talking to hear himself talk. 17:40.760 --> 17:47.280 He said, don't fix your attention on the world, but on being born again and 17:47.280 --> 17:50.600 knowing the kingdom of light in a way from the king of darkness. 17:50.600 --> 17:53.640 And I got to think of what a powerful logic he gave us here. 17:53.880 --> 17:58.120 Jesus, the logical one, the personification of intellect logos. 17:58.240 --> 17:59.560 We still have logos. 17:59.560 --> 18:03.240 When you go down and sell an idea, you give the newspaper, the logos you want to 18:03.240 --> 18:07.600 deliver, that means the coherent idea that you wish to sell, that you wish to 18:07.600 --> 18:11.200 pedal, that you wish to get in the newspaper, whatever it is, it is still 18:11.200 --> 18:16.920 God's precious name through Jesus logos, the logical one, the personification 18:17.040 --> 18:17.720 of intellect. 18:17.880 --> 18:22.040 It is a thrill to me that you don't have to be stupid to be a Christian. 18:22.320 --> 18:26.800 As a matter of fact, he calls the highest part of the intellect in the mind to 18:26.800 --> 18:29.040 Christianity, to the holy calling of the Lord. 18:29.280 --> 18:33.840 And that answer to that woman comes to me now an hour late. 18:34.920 --> 18:39.480 And it was this, and the evolutionists would talk the same way that she did. 18:39.480 --> 18:43.280 They're just as demented in some respects as the babbling brook. 18:44.280 --> 18:46.560 And it was this, which was first. 18:46.800 --> 18:49.640 We're always taught in science that light brings forth life. 18:49.720 --> 18:50.840 But what did God say? 18:51.080 --> 18:53.720 And in him was the life. 18:54.600 --> 18:55.640 Can you see that? 18:56.240 --> 18:57.520 What came first? 18:57.680 --> 19:04.520 There was a priori from strats from the beginning, life, and he was God and 19:04.520 --> 19:11.560 Jesus was his architect and the spirit brooded and hatched on the face of the 19:11.760 --> 19:16.760 darkness before there was light, which comes first. 19:17.240 --> 19:19.680 Well, the evolutionist apparently is wrong. 19:20.200 --> 19:22.400 You have to have light before you can have life. 19:22.600 --> 19:26.120 But no, the very first order, the first cause, was it not? 19:27.600 --> 19:31.160 In the beginning was the life and in him was the life. 19:31.360 --> 19:33.880 But no, he goes on in verse five and John one. 19:34.040 --> 19:36.320 He goes on to add this awesome thought. 19:36.720 --> 19:46.360 And he was the light of the world, but he says, the darkness comprehended it, not 19:46.560 --> 19:52.240 verse five, and he was the light of the world, but the darkness couldn't see it. 19:53.240 --> 19:55.560 Isn't that interesting how the words are used? 19:55.760 --> 19:57.360 The darkness couldn't see the light. 19:58.080 --> 20:03.160 Well, dwelling in the light, in the darkness and good things, light things, pure 20:03.160 --> 20:06.280 things, sweet, whole things, light things, pure things. 20:06.320 --> 20:10.240 Holy things are really hard to understand, really hard to see, aren't they? 20:11.520 --> 20:12.920 So I'm kind of excited about that. 20:12.920 --> 20:15.720 Cause you can be kind of dumb and be a geologist too. 20:16.240 --> 20:17.560 You've discovered that. 20:18.240 --> 20:19.480 But what a wonderful argument. 20:19.480 --> 20:25.440 What came first, the life that was God, the life that was in Jesus, and then 20:25.520 --> 20:32.040 order and creation comes into existence only after the light had already existed. 20:32.520 --> 20:33.560 Now listen to what he says. 20:35.080 --> 20:39.160 Philippians four, seven, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding 20:39.160 --> 20:42.560 will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. 20:42.800 --> 20:45.240 What do I have that gives me peace in the troubled world? 20:45.440 --> 20:46.600 I don't have machine guns. 20:46.600 --> 20:48.000 I don't have a standing army. 20:48.000 --> 20:51.200 I don't have millions in bank or buried gold and silver. 20:51.360 --> 20:54.000 Oh, I have a little of that, but not enough. 20:54.000 --> 20:54.760 I'm counting on it. 20:54.760 --> 20:59.560 See, and I hope someday we'll exchange some of that gold and silver for a sack 20:59.760 --> 21:04.480 of baloney sandwiches, because that's be what it's going to be worth someday. 21:06.280 --> 21:07.480 But what about that? 21:08.640 --> 21:10.720 How does he guard our hearts? 21:11.920 --> 21:14.320 Well, he says that's the word for garrison, isn't it? 21:14.320 --> 21:16.120 We've talked about that a great fortress. 21:16.840 --> 21:21.480 You know, in San Francisco, when I was in the army, I wanted to volunteer. 21:21.480 --> 21:22.720 He had to weigh over 200 pounds. 21:22.840 --> 21:23.680 Well, that's good enough. 21:23.680 --> 21:24.640 You had to be an athlete. 21:24.640 --> 21:28.720 You had to qualify it on one of the army teams to get this special elite guard. 21:29.280 --> 21:31.640 And they had chromium bayonets. 21:31.640 --> 21:32.680 I'll never forget. 21:32.680 --> 21:34.640 I wanted one so bad. 21:34.840 --> 21:37.120 I've never had a chromium bayonet. 21:37.400 --> 21:40.760 They had on helmets, which were chromium helmets. 21:41.360 --> 21:47.840 You could see your face in those glistening shoes, but you had to be six foot two. 21:48.600 --> 21:51.080 And of course, I don't care how I strain. 21:51.320 --> 21:56.040 I could handle the 200 pounds, but I couldn't handle the six foot two. 21:56.320 --> 21:58.120 Now that's an elite guard, isn't it? 21:58.680 --> 22:00.760 And you'll see those big boys walking down there. 22:00.760 --> 22:06.160 You're going to hop two, three, four, hop, hop, two, three, four. 22:06.160 --> 22:08.440 I was, I wanted it. 22:08.440 --> 22:09.360 I wanted it. 22:10.040 --> 22:11.280 And I couldn't have it. 22:11.360 --> 22:11.800 Why? 22:12.200 --> 22:14.640 Because I didn't qualify for the elite guard. 22:15.440 --> 22:16.600 I did not qualify. 22:16.600 --> 22:17.760 I wasn't six, two. 22:19.280 --> 22:21.360 And I probably couldn't march with that wiggle either. 22:23.760 --> 22:26.120 You know, you got to have the beat in life, too. 22:26.120 --> 22:26.960 I couldn't do it. 22:27.240 --> 22:28.400 That's called a cohort. 22:28.440 --> 22:32.080 By the way, when Jesus was crucified, there stood a Roman cohort. 22:33.120 --> 22:34.760 We still have that word, don't we? 22:34.920 --> 22:36.640 He's in cahoots with somebody. 22:37.120 --> 22:38.200 That's cohort. 22:38.920 --> 22:39.880 He's in cahoots. 22:39.960 --> 22:43.840 We never get anything right in the English language, but it came from the Roman. 22:43.840 --> 22:45.640 They style of elite guard. 22:45.640 --> 22:49.880 He says, I'm going to garrison your heart with six foot two boys. 22:50.360 --> 22:54.680 You know, that really can swing down the aisle and no one says, see, see, see, see, see. 22:55.360 --> 22:59.080 Because they might wind up on the end of a chromium plated bayonet. 23:00.160 --> 23:04.880 Garrison, elite guard, garrison protected by God's special protection. 23:05.480 --> 23:08.640 We have been studying in the church, the fifth church of Sardis. 23:08.640 --> 23:10.680 Sardis means bloody escapee. 23:11.360 --> 23:12.640 The one who escaped from the blood. 23:12.640 --> 23:15.240 It's the Reformation Church, as far as I'm concerned. 23:15.680 --> 23:21.000 But at any rate, whether that's right or wrong, it does mean the bloody escapee who 23:21.000 --> 23:26.360 escaped out of tribulation, Sardis, Sardstone, bloodstone, and it does mean 23:26.360 --> 23:27.000 agony, does it? 23:27.440 --> 23:31.320 Did you know that in studying that, we see that one of the great kingdoms of the 23:31.320 --> 23:37.600 church was Sardis and it was the Lydian kingdom, Lydia and the Philippian seller 23:37.600 --> 23:40.440 of purple Lydia came from that kingdom. 23:40.680 --> 23:42.560 The head of that kingdoms was King Croesus. 23:42.560 --> 23:47.520 So rich that it is said he is richest Croesus means you had the gold of Croesus. 23:48.320 --> 23:49.280 You had the gold of Croesus. 23:49.560 --> 23:55.680 He had above a plane on the level floor there 1500 feet and on top of that towers 23:55.680 --> 24:01.760 running over excess of 200 feet and the kingdom had never been whopped until the 24:01.760 --> 24:07.720 Persian King Cyrus approaches the church at Sardis and the town of Sardis and seeing 24:07.720 --> 24:10.320 it's almost invincible says offered to his soldiers. 24:10.320 --> 24:15.800 The first one up there gets a golden crown and a young man, I had to write it down. 24:15.800 --> 24:17.240 I had such a lousy memory. 24:18.000 --> 24:24.920 His name was, and I have a lousy way of placing it in my notes. 24:24.920 --> 24:28.800 Herioides is a Persian name. 24:28.960 --> 24:33.720 Herioides saw that their ground was all cracked beneath the fortress. 24:34.880 --> 24:40.360 A spasmo protector on the walls dropped his helmet and in full view of the 24:40.360 --> 24:45.040 enemy went down, picked up his helmet by going down the cracks in the wall and in 24:45.040 --> 24:52.840 the foundations and went right back up and Herioides said, uh-huh, Doomcoff and he 24:52.840 --> 24:57.880 goes up in the middle of the night and takes the wall and no other soldier was 24:57.880 --> 25:02.440 there to oppose him and the mightiest kingdom rich in wealth, rich in the 25:02.440 --> 25:07.200 greatest fortress, hence conceived at that day and age, the greatest fortress and 25:07.200 --> 25:12.400 is conquered without basically a fight because there were no watchmen on the 25:12.400 --> 25:15.120 walls because there were cracks in the foundation. 25:15.440 --> 25:18.360 Now there's cracks in the foundation of the church of today. 25:18.560 --> 25:22.400 There's cracks in the foundation of people's lives who are not built upon 25:22.400 --> 25:27.360 loving and keeping and knowing Jesus as number one in their life. 25:28.000 --> 25:31.280 Don't you be like that great king? 25:31.920 --> 25:37.080 Don't you be like him for he lost everything that he had because he had no 25:37.080 --> 25:37.920 real fortress. 25:37.920 --> 25:39.560 He had no watchmen to watch. 25:39.560 --> 25:43.840 He had no church to sustain or to guard him in Jesus. 25:43.840 --> 25:49.560 When he was a crowd at Capernaum, people jostling, hustling, sweaty, pushing, 25:49.560 --> 25:56.160 hungry, tired, crying out, heel, heel, and probably jostled a thousand times that 25:56.160 --> 25:58.040 morning instantly just like this. 25:58.040 --> 26:03.360 When a tiny woman from behind him touches his robe and he says, who touched me? 26:04.240 --> 26:08.040 How did Christ handle the jostling and the ugliness and the filth of the world? 26:08.240 --> 26:09.960 Because he was the light of the world. 26:10.200 --> 26:12.440 He handled it very instantly. 26:12.600 --> 26:18.280 Now with me, it'd be say get away from me leper and men are tend to be that way. 26:18.280 --> 26:21.680 Human beings tend to be the way, but Jesus responded to her need. 26:22.120 --> 26:25.680 Children of God in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation among whom 26:25.680 --> 26:29.160 you are seen as lights in the world from Philippians two 15. 26:29.160 --> 26:30.040 It's true, isn't it? 26:30.640 --> 26:34.960 We're in a midst of a wicked and perverse and a crooked generation. 26:35.440 --> 26:37.680 Go into all the world and preach the gospel. 26:37.840 --> 26:39.880 Hey, I don't want to touch the world. 26:40.080 --> 26:41.080 I'm pristine. 26:41.320 --> 26:42.120 I'm pure. 26:43.040 --> 26:45.040 I've been sterilized, so to speak. 26:45.160 --> 26:47.360 I don't want to touch gross out stuff. 26:47.680 --> 26:48.520 It's ugly. 26:48.640 --> 26:49.520 Sin is wicked. 26:49.600 --> 26:52.560 And the church is kind of withdrawn into a little sack. 26:52.560 --> 26:53.160 Hasn't she? 26:53.440 --> 26:57.640 And he said, yet go into all the world in the world, but not of the world. 26:57.640 --> 26:58.360 See the difference? 26:58.640 --> 27:01.480 Stay in the world and the job needs it. 27:01.960 --> 27:03.160 The church needs it. 27:03.160 --> 27:04.360 School needs it. 27:04.680 --> 27:06.880 Home and family life needs it. 27:08.040 --> 27:09.080 Be of good cheer. 27:09.600 --> 27:10.880 I've overcome the world. 27:10.880 --> 27:11.720 Isn't that fabulous? 27:12.120 --> 27:14.960 John 16, verse 33, be of good cheer. 27:14.960 --> 27:18.040 I have overcome the world and I'm convicted of that. 27:18.280 --> 27:19.320 That keeps me going. 27:19.520 --> 27:21.920 That I wake up in the morning. 27:21.920 --> 27:26.040 You're ready to realize that I should be of good cheer. 27:26.600 --> 27:28.120 He's a common soon. 27:28.560 --> 27:30.280 And there's some things that need to be done. 27:30.280 --> 27:32.560 You know, when we're poor in cement, we expect a big poor. 27:32.760 --> 27:34.080 I get up just like deer hunting. 27:34.680 --> 27:35.760 I just roam the house. 27:35.760 --> 27:40.000 I can't, I just can't wait until seven o'clock because there's something for 27:40.000 --> 27:41.600 the kingdom I can do. 27:41.600 --> 27:45.160 I can do so little and I can't sleep well. 27:45.160 --> 27:46.120 I know Larry's that way. 27:46.120 --> 27:47.560 I know many of you are that way. 27:48.200 --> 27:53.880 You just can't wait to get in there and start the fight because cement mixer. 27:53.880 --> 27:55.240 Putty, putty is a fight. 27:55.680 --> 27:57.680 The body cries out, stay homey, homey. 27:58.480 --> 27:59.480 Don't putty putty. 28:01.120 --> 28:05.520 Jesus one time in conclusion said this, the prince of the world 28:05.520 --> 28:08.040 have nothing in me and I thought about that for a long time. 28:08.040 --> 28:08.400 What do you mean? 28:08.400 --> 28:09.160 What does Jesus mean? 28:09.160 --> 28:10.960 We said the prince of this world have nothing in me. 28:11.200 --> 28:12.400 I said, I affirm it. 28:12.520 --> 28:14.920 There's nothing intrinsically good in this world. 28:15.480 --> 28:17.760 Love, not the world, neither the things that are in it. 28:17.920 --> 28:20.440 Fix your mind on celestial spiritual things. 28:20.440 --> 28:21.040 They'll last. 28:21.040 --> 28:21.720 They'll be clean. 28:21.720 --> 28:23.880 They'll be pure, but the world will pass away. 28:24.000 --> 28:27.320 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 28:27.320 --> 28:28.920 You see, you could just go on endlessly. 28:29.760 --> 28:32.360 He makes a plea for spirituality, doesn't he? 28:32.680 --> 28:36.520 Of being clean, of being sweet, of being honorable, of having integrity. 28:36.520 --> 28:37.840 He makes a cry for that. 28:38.200 --> 28:39.640 And he says, the prince of the world have nothing. 28:39.840 --> 28:40.480 What does it mean? 28:41.000 --> 28:43.480 Hey, Satan didn't touch Jesus's lips. 28:43.840 --> 28:47.760 There was nothing of the frontal lobotomy of Jesus Christ that Satan had 28:47.760 --> 28:48.400 hold of. 28:48.760 --> 28:52.200 There was no dope in his life that had bought his life. 28:52.600 --> 28:58.520 There was no kind of alcohol that had stultify his intelligence and his will 28:58.520 --> 29:02.520 and desire to be clean and to be strong and to be fruitful in this life. 29:02.800 --> 29:05.360 No Satan had touched Jesus's hand. 29:05.520 --> 29:07.240 His foot had not gone anywhere. 29:07.240 --> 29:08.400 It ought not to have gone. 29:08.560 --> 29:11.920 There is nothing of the prince of this world that's in Jesus. 29:12.160 --> 29:16.920 It's a sheer dichotomy, a clear dichotomy, good, bad, light or darkness. 29:17.400 --> 29:18.080 And so we go. 29:18.360 --> 29:21.720 A politician the other day said something about a thousand points of light. 29:22.760 --> 29:27.680 And it's pretty in a thousand points of light. 29:29.040 --> 29:34.520 Well, that's a good idea, but I don't think he, the Bible would talk about a 29:34.520 --> 29:37.240 thousand points of light like this. 29:38.520 --> 29:40.720 I think of that as being up there in the heavens. 29:40.880 --> 29:42.560 There's nothing wrong with the heavens. 29:43.240 --> 29:48.240 What's wrong is down here among us folks who sin and that's where the thousand 29:48.240 --> 29:50.120 points of light ought to be. 29:50.440 --> 29:54.920 I think of the thousand points of lights as desert sands filled with diamonds. 29:55.440 --> 30:00.160 Don't tell me that there are no or or riferous Aeolian dunes because there are 30:00.160 --> 30:07.080 or riferous and diamond differs when blown dunes and you can pluck out a diamond 30:07.080 --> 30:09.560 here and a diamond there and that's the way the world ought to be. 30:09.800 --> 30:11.400 We don't need God in the heavens. 30:11.760 --> 30:14.440 We need God right down here among us. 30:14.600 --> 30:24.680 Jesus dead, buried and resurrected to a new life as he is. 30:25.040 --> 30:34.040 First John four, verse 17 says, so are we in this world as he is. 30:34.760 --> 30:38.960 So are we in this world as we stand and offer a hymn of it. 30:39.960 --> 30:44.720 One hundred two, trust me. 30:46.720 --> 30:48.640 Maybe there's a decision you need to make. 30:50.480 --> 30:52.680 Now is the time for first year. 31:09.920 --> 31:20.320 While we're in this event, here lies the question, and the only one who lets us stand 31:20.320 --> 31:35.360 away, shall stand away from each other and pray to be happy in Jesus that he trusts and 31:35.360 --> 31:47.680 may the reading of God's word have been a blessing more than the little mugginess 31:47.680 --> 31:54.960 that's in the air, more than the state that might be burning at home or at least 31:54.960 --> 31:56.480 green below nature and greener. 31:57.200 --> 32:07.680 But that's this world and I pray that something spiritual and that the light which was our 32:07.680 --> 32:13.680 very life shines in the enormous recesses of your heart which we see in the place of the Lord.