(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Good evening and welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Can I please have everyone find their seats and grab their songbooks and turn to page number 296. Please find your seats and grab your songbook and turn to page number 296. We're going to start the service off seeming follow on. Page 296. Follow on and let's go ahead and sing it out in that first verse. Down in the valley with my savior I would go Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow Everywhere he leads me I would follow, follow on Walking in his footsteps to the ground he won Follow, follow I would follow Jesus Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on Follow, follow I would follow Jesus Everywhere he leads me I would follow Page 296. Let's sing it out on the second verse. Down in the valley with my savior I would go Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow With his hand to lead me I will never, never fear Danger cannot fright me if my Lord is near Follow, follow I would follow Jesus Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on Follow, follow I would follow Jesus Everywhere he leads me I would follow on Down in the valley or upon the mountain sea Those beside my savior would my soul ever keep He will lead me safely in the path that he hath trod Up to where they gather on the hills of God Follow, follow I would follow Jesus Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on Follow, follow I would follow Jesus Everywhere he leads me I would follow on Great singing. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church and the Wednesday evening Bible study. Let's open up on the word of prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this church, Lord. Thank you for these people coming out here on a Wednesday evening to serve you. I pray that our singing would glorify you, Lord. I pray that you would bless the service and the preaching would come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, now turn to your song books page number 173. We're going to sing Love Lifted Me, page 173. Love Lifted Me, and let's go ahead and sing it out on that first verse. I was sinking deep in sand, far from the peaceful shore Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more But the pastor of the sea heard my despairing cry From the waters lifted me, now save am I Love Lifted Me, Love Lifted Me When nothing else could help, Love Lifted Me Love Lifted Me, Love Lifted Me When nothing else could help, Love Lifted Me Page 173 on the second verse All my heart to Him I remember, to Him I'll cling In His blessed presence live, ever as praise to sing Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul's best songs Faithful loving service to, to Him belongs Love Lifted Me, Love Lifted Me When nothing else could help, Love Lifted Me Love Lifted Me, Love Lifted Me When nothing else could help, Love Lifted Me Let's sing it strong on the last Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves He's the master of the sea, willows as well obey Be your savior once to be, be saved today Love Lifted Me, Love Lifted Me When nothing else could help, Love Lifted Me Love Lifted Me, Love Lifted Me When nothing else could help, Love Lifted Me Great singing If you didn't have a bulletin, please raise your hand I'm not sure if you can bring your bulletin Just keep your hand up and she'll come by The verse this week, 2 Corinthians 9-7 Every man according as he purposed in his heart So let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity For God loveth a cheerful giver And we are all out of bulletins So please share if you would And if you open up your bulletins, we have our weekly church service times We have our Sunday morning service at 10.30 a.m. A Sunday evening service at 6 p.m. And of course tonight is our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. And we do ask that you please pray for our pastor Pastor Jimenez is in Arizona preaching tonight live now at Faith Ward Baptist Church So be praying for him and he will be traveling back tonight So pray for him and his daughter as they travel back tonight from Arizona And we're excited to have Pastor Steven Anderson from Faith Ward Baptist Church preaching for us tonight So he's a great friend of our church, a great friend of our pastors And so we're grateful for him to be here with us tonight And so if you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times are Saturday morning at 10 a.m. And for now Thursday and Friday soul winning are postponed And we do have a Sunday soul winning at 2 p.m. as well And if you're a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Grady Baptist Church We're glad that you're with us We have a gift that we'd like to give you As you walk out of the main foyer, you'll see a table And on that table you see these gift bags set up Please grab one of these on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight There's a lot of resources we want you to have But the one that we like to highlight is this documentary It's called Being Baptist It's very interesting, very well made about the Baptist people Where we believe, where we come from We want to give this to you as a gift for being our guest this evening And if you are a guest, we ask that you please take a moment to fill out this communication card Which is in your bulletin If you need a pen, please raise your hand And I'm not sure if we can bring you by a pen that you can keep But we want to be a blessing to you, but we need your information So please fill this card out and drop it in the offering plate as the offering plate goes by And we are a family integrated church Of course we keep the kids together for the services We have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms With chairs, monitors, so you can watch the service and listen to it So you can use those rooms if you need so during the service And if you look at our announcements there We did have our vision offering this past Sunday And we've had more come in since Sunday And pastor will be updating the church on how that went On Sunday, so beware of that The pastor will give us an update this coming Sunday On the vision offering And of course tonight we have pastor Anderson preaching for us And we're excited for him to be here And this Sunday is daylight savings time So please make sure that you set your clocks forward one hour The night before and be on time for church That is this Sunday, March 10th So make sure you are aware of that We do have our next generation youth rally coming up April 9th through the 10th So make plans to attend And if you're a teen or you have a teen Please register on your communication card And please give us your name, your age And your shirt sizes And let us know that you can join us for the youth rally Home school group There is PE class coming up on Thursday March 14th Choir There's choir practice again for Easter This coming Sunday at 5pm as well Ladies weight loss accountability group They meet every Wednesday at 615 pm In Ms. Joanne's office And cleaning crew, you can see if your name is there on the schedule If you look at the back of the bulletin The birthdays and anniversaries for the month This week we had Ms. Denise Anderson's birthday on March 4th And Ms. Naomi Nell Kasko's birthday on March 5th Money matters, praise report All those things are there for you to look at And that is it for the announcements And so normally on Wednesday nights we go through our prayer list We will not be going through our prayer list So if you can please raise your hand We ask that you please take this home And please pray for your church family And so please keep your hand up and an usher can come by And give you a prayer list And we do ask that you please take this home Read through it and be in prayer for your church family We of course want to give Pastor Anderson as much time as possible So we will not be going through this tonight And so that is it for the announcements At this time, Brother Moses will come up And we will sing a song before we receive the offering Thank you Turn your song books to page number 24 We are going to sing And Can It Be Now this isn't a song that you can just kind of sit back And mumble a little bit We have to actually sing this pretty good Especially since Pastor is not here I can actually see everyone who is singing right now So I will make a list And tell them But let's sing it out on the first Number 24 And Can It Be And can it be That I should Gain An interest In the Savior's blood Die Me For me Who causes pain For me Who will Die For me Who causes pain For me Who will To death Pursue Amazing Love How can it be That Thou My God Should Sign for me Amazing Love How can it be That Thou My God Should Sign for me Now That was pretty good for the first verse But we can sing it a little bit better On the second Let's sing it out He left His father's throne Above So free So Infinite His Grace Empty Himself Above Above And Let More atoms Helplessly His Mercy All Immense And Free For Oh my God It Mound out me Amazing Love How can it Be That My God Should Sign for me On the last verse Long High Imprisoned Spiritly Last Bounded Sin And Nature's Night I Use The Quicking Rain I Woke A Dungeon Blamed With Light My Chains fell All Holy Amazing Love How can it Be That My God Should Sign for me Great singing. At this time, the ushers come forward with the offering. And I'll pray for the offering. Father God, thank you so much for these church and these people who come here and give and tithe for you Lord. I pray that you bless the offering. I pray that you bless the gift and the giver. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And so we really emphasize that verse 8 about the Word of our God standing forever. And, you know, the grass of the field perishes. The flower perishes. But the Word of God endures forever. But what is the grass representing in this parable? What is the grass representing? Well, the Bible says in verse 6, all flesh is grass. But then he gets even more specific and says in verse 7 at the end, the people is grass. Now look, what people are we talking about? You know, we're talking about the people of Israel because he starts out at the very beginning of the chapter and who's, you know, comfort my people, say to Jerusalem X Y and Z. Then we get down to this part and he says, this is what needs to be cried by John the Baptist. John the Baptist is going to cry, all flesh is grass, the people is grass. It's the word of God that's going to abide forever. You see, that physical nation of Israel is not eternal. God is eternal. The Bible is eternal. And he that doeth the will of God, the Bible says in 1 John 2 17, abideth forever. So the Bible abides forever. God abides forever. And he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And of course, the will of God is that we would believe on the son, that we would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has sent. John chapter six, verse 40. And so it's not a physical nation that's eternal. It's not going to last forever. And this is why when John the Baptist shows up, what does he preach? What's the first thing? I mean, you just start reading your Bible, right? And you just open Matthew chapter one, you get through all those names. You go to chapter two, you get through that Christmasy story in chapter two, you're going through chapter two. In chapter three is the first time that you really get to some preaching in the New Testament. It's the first preaching that you come to in the New Testament. And it's John the Baptist preaching. And the very first thing in the New Testament that any preacher says is, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham, and now also the ax is laid onto the root of the trees, and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. He says, look, you are going into the fire. I don't care if you're a son of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you're nothing. You're going to hell if you don't believe in Jesus Christ. It's the first sermon. You're going to be chopped down. You're going to be cut down. Why? Because all flesh is grass. Folks, we're grass tonight. We're just, this is a lawn right here, and God's a lawn mower. We're grass. We're nothing. But you know what? I'm going to live forever. I have eternal life. I am going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ, but this flesh is not going to be the kingdom of God because all flesh is grass, and specifically the people, the people of Israel, the nation of Israel, the kingdom of Israel is grass, and guess what? The lawn mower came in 70 AD, and they had it set to the lowest setting, like it was a golf course or something, and in 70 AD, the Roman-Jewish War, the temple was destroyed, Jerusalem was burned, and Israel was wiped out, and you know, you say, well, you know, they were still kind of hanging on. Yeah, then in 135 AD, about 65 years later, you have what's called the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and in the Bar Kokhba Revolt, about 585,000 Jews were killed in the fighting. Countless more were killed just from famine, pestilence, destruction, and in fact, every single Jew was removed from Jerusalem, and it was made illegal for centuries for any Jews to even live in Jerusalem. I mean, to where not even one Jew is living in Jerusalem, because when God wipes out a nation, He wipes out a nation. Now, of course, the religion, the Christ-hating, Christ-rejecting synagogue of Satan still continued on, you know, throughout history, and you say, you know, why did God allow the synagogue of Satan to exist? You know, because ultimately, everything that ends up happening in this world ultimately ends up fulfilling God's will. All things end up working together for good to them that love God, and so God even uses wicked people and wicked institutions, and even the devil himself, you know, they're all allowed to exist for a reason. I mean, don't you think God could just get rid of the devil whenever He wants? But yet, He lets the devil be around. Why? Because one day, God is going to bind Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. I mean, why not do it now? And then here's the really crazy part. After a thousand years, He's going to let him out of hell on purpose. He's going to open it up and let him go. Why? So that he can go deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to that battle, and the number of them will be as the sand of the sea. Why? Because the devil is a great trash collector. And, you know, there's so many things in this world that just, I just wish they would just die, you know, like the Mormon church. You know, I just wish I could just see Mormonism just cease to exist in my lifetime. You know, you'd think the internet would have done that for us. But, you know, still, it's just everywhere in Arizona, all these Mormon churches and Mormon temples and everything like that. You know, when are the Jehovah's Witnesses just going to die? I mean, they've got their little Temple of Doom set up with all their literature, and you see them in parks and on school campuses and so forth with their literature. The nice thing is nobody's ever talking to them. That's what's comforting. But they're all just sitting there like... Nobody's ever talking to them. But I'm just like, why? I just want to walk up to them and just prove them wrong and just destroy their doctrine because it's so dumb, it's so ridiculous, it's so absurd, it's so unbiblical. It's so easy to disprove. Why do they even exist? But you know what? God allows all these false religions to exist. I was reading a history book, and you're reading about how Islam was just almost wiped out by the Mongolian Empire, and you're just like, finish them! Why didn't they just finish it? Why didn't they just wipe them out? But God allows Islam to exist. God allows these false religions to exist. They ultimately fulfill His will because they are trash collectors. They are providing an alternative to the truth so that wicked people will be deceived by them. And anyone who is sincere and wants to know the truth will find Christ. They will find the truth. They will find the Lord Jesus Christ. But why did God allow the synagogue of Satan to exist? Well, you know, one reason is because of the fact that even though they don't believe the Bible, at least they were good at just copying the Bible, right? Because I mean, any robot could do that, right? And now we literally have machines that just do it for us. So it's just, you know, computers and machines and printing presses and so on. But before that, you know, the Christ-rejecting Jews, you know, they're at least copying the Hebrew Bible. They just kept copying it and copying it and copying it. And they kept all kind of great statistics about, like, how many letters are in this row and how many letters in this column and how many times this word is used, how many times this letter is used, you know, just to make sure that everything gets copied accurately. And if you have the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible at the end of each book, it has all these statistics about how many letters, how many words, how many verses, all these different stats, making sure, and it's just funny, it's like you got all these stats, but you don't even understand what you're reading, and you don't even believe the Christ that the book is even pointing to. But you know what? They served a purpose. They served a function to copy that thing and get it to us. And of course, they're going to play a role in the end times. You know, the old IFB loves to talk about how God's not finished with Israel. And that's quite true. He's not finished kicking their butt. He's not finished with Israel because the fake nation of Israel today is going to be punished by God in the end times for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and hating the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what the Bible clearly teaches. And so the people's grasp, nation of Israel's grasp, what abides forever? The Word of God, the kingdom of God, the people of God. In AD 135, after the Bar Kokhba revolt, the physical nation of Israel was pretty much annihilated, you know, and you have, of course, them scattered into all nations, and they kept the religion alive. They got a bunch of white people to convert to their religion, and now we have a bunch of white people who, you know, say they're Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. But the salvation that he's promising in this passage in Isaiah chapter 40 is a spiritual salvation, not a physical salvation. You know, and this is what a lot of the Israelites didn't expect because they're thinking that the Messiah is going to come, think about this, that the Messiah is going to come and deliver them from the Romans and give them their own independent kingdom. But instead, what did he do? He actually saved the souls of those who believed in Christ. He gave them peace in their hearts. He put the kingdom of God within them, and then he literally unleashed the Romans on them. I mean, they're looking to Jesus to save them from the Romans. They want Jesus to deliver them their independent, free kingdom from the Romans. Instead, what does he do? He unleashes the Romans on them to take them out in 70 AD and again in 135 AD. And so, literally, the opposite of what they expected is what happened to them. There's one final reversal in this passage. If you look at the beginning of the passage in Isaiah chapter 40, it says, speak ye, verse 2, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her sins are pardoned. And so we have Jerusalem in verse 2 being given good news, being told good news. Hey, good news. Captivity's over. Exile's over. Punishment is over. You're going to be saved. You're going to be forgiven. And then what's interesting is at the end of the passage, it's actually reversed. And instead of the good news coming to Jerusalem, by the end of the passage, we have the good news going forth from Jerusalem. Because look, if you would, at verse number 9. It says, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringest good tidings. Of course, good tidings means good news, also known as gospel. O Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with your voice. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. And so we have now the good tidings coming forth from Jerusalem. Instead of speaking to Jerusalem, now it's been reversed. And now it's Jerusalem that is giving the good tidings to the cities of Judah, which is the surrounding area. And of course, Christ said, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea. That's the next step. And in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And so the gospel came to Jerusalem. For the most part, the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. And then from Jerusalem, the gospel goes forth. Because it's at Jerusalem, at the day of Christ, where God's Spirit is poured out upon the early church, where the apostles are endued with power from on high so that they can go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so everything is reversed by the time we get to the end of this passage here in Isaiah, Chapter 40. So what is the moral of the story here? You know, we've seen this passage. And once you study it and look at it and comprehend it, you can see that verses one through 11 are all about Jesus. They're all about pointing us to Christ coming and the things that are going to happen when He comes. What is the moral of the story? Don't be high minded. Be humble. Why? Because God can bring down the high. He can make every mountain and hill low. And He can result every valley. And so if you're smart, you will be humble. You will have a lower view of yourself. You will humble yourself in the sight of the Lord so that He can lift you up. That is the moral of the story here. Because let me tell you something. Today, it is epidemic today among Christians, among Americans. I mean, it's probably just a human problem. People are just super prideful. And you know what? It's easy for us as Christian people in our type of a church or in our type of Christianity to get prideful because of the fact that we're living Christian lives. And let's just face it. Living the Christian life is a more excellent way to live your life. The way that we live our lives as Christians is superior. So it's easy for us to get all high and mighty and lift it up and look out there at a lost and dying world and say, you know what? I'm better than them. But here's the thing about that is that there's nothing good about us. I mean, the Apostle Paul said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwell with no good thing. And if the Apostle Paul could say, well, I don't have any good thing in my flesh, well, how much more those of us that are not on the level of an Apostle Paul, we can admit, hey, in my flesh dwell with no good thing. Yes, we are living a more excellent life. Why? Because of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells us and has shown us exactly what to do and has empowered us to live the Christian life. It's not that we're just better. The only thing that makes us better is Christ. And yet you have Christian young people today growing up, and they just look down on everybody, and they just think they're so much better than everybody. They just think they're so much smarter than everybody. They just think there's so much more righteous than everybody. You know what? Hey, maybe you are smarter. Maybe you are more righteous. Maybe you are living a more excellent lifestyle. But you know what? You don't have anything to brag about because that was all handed to you by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not you. That's not your greatness. It's not your goodness. You know, that is your, it's not white privilege. It's Christian privilege. It's Christian privilege. This is white privilege. You know what? There are some white people's houses. If you grow up in them, you're privileged. There are some messed up white people out there. And let me tell you something. You'd be better off growing up in a godly Christian home where your parents are as black as the night. But they believe on Jesus Christ. You are privileged, my friend. And I don't care how much money they have. I don't care what part of town they live in. Hey, the people who are going to make it in life are Christians. It doesn't matter what color they are. It's Christianity that will actually privilege the child and let him grow up and live a more excellent life. It doesn't matter the race. Because you know what? A white atheist is going to raise their kids wrong. There's no white privilege. White privilege is a code word for Christian privilege. And it's not about being white because you could be red, yellow, black, white, and still have that privilege if your parents are Christian. And you know what? If you're a child here growing up in a Christian home, you should thank God every day that you're growing up in a Christian home. Oh, my parents. Oh, shut up. Because your parents are Christians and have taught you the gospel and have taught you the Bible. You are going to be doing better in life than 99% of people. But you're whining that your parents aren't perfect. Well, you're not so perfect yourself. And the only good things about you come from Christ and Christian parents and church and the Bible and everything else. But we got Christian young people today that somehow think that they're better than the people out there. But you know what? If the people out there were raised in your home, they'd be like you. And if you were raised out there, you'd be a derelict like That's the true story, my friend. And so we all need to be humble and be thankful and say, man, thank God that I was born in America. Thank God that I had the parents I did. Thank God that... And you know, those of you that got saved later in life, obviously you have a different testimony. I was born and raised in the faith. I got saved as a six-year-old boy. Pastor Jimenez also got saved at a very young age. He's raised in a Christian home. You know, his parents are here tonight. My parents are here tonight. You know, all our parents are here. You know, we were raised in a Christian home. These things were handed to us. But you know, those of you that got saved later in life, you know, you should just be so thankful to God for that person who brought you the gospel or that you're in a place where the gospel abounds because it's a lot easier to get saved in America than it is in a lot of places because the gospel is everywhere here. The gospel abounds. You know, we need to be humble. We need to be thankful. We need to realize that we're not anything special. And anything good about us comes from the Holy Spirit within. That's what makes us a good person if we are a good person in a certain area. And all the bad parts of us, well, that's the part we can really take credit for. You know, hey, that was my flesh that contributed that. And so don't be high-minded. Don't be puffed up. Don't be prideful or arrogant and look down on other people. You know what? We should look out at the people that are out there and instead of looking down on them, we should, you know, feel bad for them and want to elevate them and want to get them the gospel and get them saved. And then hopefully once we get them saved, we can show unto them a more excellent way. So the first thing that we can learn from this passage is don't be high-minded, be humble. And then the second thing that we can take away from this passage is that we should focus on the spiritual and not the physical. Focus on that which is spiritual, not that which is physical. Be humble because God can exalt every valley and God can bring down every mountain. And if you're humble, he'll lift you up. If you're high-minded, he'll bring you down. You know what? When I listen to prideful people talk, I get scared for them. You ever hear prideful people talking and you're just, I'm just scared. Like, what is God going to do to you? Like, I can't even believe what you're saying right now. And I'm just wondering what is God going to have to do to humble you because you're so prideful right now. I mean, I'm just thinking like I would be scared to death to talk the way that you're talking right now. Wow. Don't be high-minded. Don't be prideful. Be humble. But number two, focus on the spiritual. Don't make the mistake that the Jews made where it's just all about our nation, our kingdom, America, you know. It's not about the physical things that we see. The Bible says the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal. And so we need to focus on the spiritual, not on the physical. You know, today we spend so much time in our society because we live in such a comfortable society, because we live in so much luxury and wealth and prosperity. You know, we spend so much time in our appearances. You know, we're just really worried about the way that we look, really worried about clothing and just worried about our physique, and we're just worried about maybe even the way our things look and, you know, our possessions, vehicles, houses, things like that. You know, we need to focus on the spiritual because it's a lot more important what's going on in your heart than how you look on the outside. And, you know, I'm not saying to just go around looking like trash or something, but cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also, right? Start on the inside. You know, start with reading your Bible. Start with praying. Start with singing a hymn. Start with thinking about the fact that we are dust and ashes, that we are grass, and that God Almighty holds our very breath in His hand, and humbling ourselves before God, getting the right attitude and getting a spiritual focus rather than a physical focus. You know, this church, Verity Baptist Church, has always been a church that has emphasized that which is spiritual. Faithful Word Baptist Church has been the same way. You know, if you think about this church, this church began with a very humble beginning in Pastor Jimenez's living room, right? It didn't start out seeking out the building and seeking out all of the external things. You know, it started out humbly just seeking to win people to the Lord. And all the effort went into getting people saved, right? And the effort went into people and preaching sound doctrine and good Bible preaching. And notice how because Pastor Jimenez emphasized that which was spiritual and focused on the important things first and taking care of the important things first, now over time, God has blessed, and now God has given and blessed with a nice building. You know, and here we are these many years later, and you're sitting in a beautiful building. You know, it's funny how, you know, you seek first the kingdom of God, and then all these things are added unto you, right? And then you get to this point, and then you can enjoy a nicer facility. You know, there are probably people back then that despised the church because they'd say, oh, you know, it's meeting in a house. Oh, it's in an office complex. Oh, it's in a strip mall. Oh, it's right next to the methadone clinic or whatever, you know. But now here you are, you know, but here's the thing. It's the same church. It's the same stuff. You know, God blessed with some material things, an enjoyable time and a nice building because of the fact that you focused on the spiritual first because you made the main thing the main thing and the priority. And, you know, Faithful Word Baptist has been the same way where, you know, we started in the living room. We started just meeting in little office spaces and storefronts, and, you know, and we are still meeting in an office space, you know, to this day. But that's okay because it's all about winning souls and preaching the gospel and preaching the Word of God. But you know what? God has blessed us in other ways. And so the point is that this church has focused on spiritual things and now has been blessed with a cool building, you know, which is a lot better than making it all about getting the cool building, compromising, cutting corners on doctrine, not focusing on hard preaching or soul winning or those things, focusing on just getting the building because you know what? Here's the thing. Once you get the building the wrong way, you're not just going to suddenly become fundamental, you know. But if you preach hard and do what you're supposed to do, God's going to take care of the needs in the long run of facilities and whatever you need. And so this church is a great example of a church that has focused on the spiritual and not on the carnal and not on the physical. And even as this church moves forward, you know, it's never going to be about the building. It's never going to be about, I mean, the building's a tool. It's never going to be about the things that we see because everything that we see, look around the auditorium, look at yourself, look at yourself in the mirror, look at your wife, your children, your husband, your friend, everything, everything that you see here, everything in 100 years, you know, it's just, is it going to be here? Is it going to be like this? A thousand years from now, 10,000, everything's going to be gone someday. But what's going to last is the soul, those who are saved, the word of God, the kingdom of God. Those are the things that are going to matter. And so number one, don't be prideful, don't be high minded, but rather be humble. And number two, focus on that, which is spiritual in your life as a church, in your family, focus on the spiritual, not on the physical. That's probably enough word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for this powerful passage in Isaiah chapter 40. Lord, I pray that we would apply these truths to our lives and Lord, that we would not be prideful and that we would not become carnal and focused on physical worldly things. Help us keep us spiritual in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen. See and draw a light in the darkness you see. There's life for a look at the Savior and life for a fun and tan free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. 261 on the second, through death into life everlasting, He passives all away there. Pour us in all the light of His glory. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Let's finish strong on the last verse. This word shall not fail you, but it will be promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is lying, His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Great singing. If you're a guest and you have any questions about church membership, salvation, or baptism, you can see brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front. And can I please have brother Oliver in the front.