In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the growth of a church and the impact of preaching about Jesus Christ. He emphasizes the importance of surrendering one's life to Christ and allowing revival to be a daily reality. The speaker shares the joy of taking people to New York City to preach and fellowship about Christ, witnessing the transformation in their hearts. However, the speaker expresses concern about the low demand for sermons about Jesus Christ compared to practical topics. He encourages listeners to recognize the centrality of Christ in their lives and the edifying effect of preaching about Him.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Let's pray. Hallelujah, Father. Lord Jesus, we praise you this morning also. Spirit of God, we acknowledge you. Oh God, we love you this morning. Yes, Lord, we can't do anything without you. We acknowledge you for who you are. You are the all in all. There is no other God beside you. Father, we desire today to get another glimpse of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, no man, no man can do that. Oh Father, send forth your Spirit, even as you promised that he will testify of your Son. Oh Father, send forth your Spirit today upon our hearts that we may see Jesus and be changed. We ask this in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. Well, good morning. Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus. It's Tuesday morning. Did you have a good day yesterday? It was a great blessing to put the icing on the cake yesterday to see so many of us up here on our knees last evening. That simply says this to me. We're serious. We're serious. We didn't come here just to sit and listen and go home. We came here to seek God. And that's part of seeking God. You open your heart to the Word and the Word comes in. And you have to respond to that which you hear. Let us continue to do that today. Alright, the next two sessions that we're going to give on our subject, the incomparable Christ, today and tomorrow we're going to speak on this, the power of Christ-centered theology. So that'll be part one and part two, today and tomorrow. The power of Christ-centered theology. So in these next two messages, my burden is to establish a simple Christ-centered theology in all of our hearts. That is my burden. As it was said of ancient Rome, all roads lead to Rome. So also all theologies lead to Christ or flow out from Him, whichever way you want to look at it. And so my burden is to establish a simple Christ-centered theology in our hearts and in our lives. Christ is the hub in the middle of the wheel. There are many spokes on the wheel. And we could speak about many, many theologies and we will in the next two days. But I want us to see and we will clearly see as it is beautifully revealed in the Scriptures that Christ is the hub in the middle of the wheel. And everything flows out from Him. Let's give you a little insight here this morning to the tape ministry. Because the tape ministry is on computer, we can study what's going on in the tape ministry. You can sit down at the end of the year and look and see all the titles of the tapes. And as you look at them, you can see, oh, that one, hundreds went out there. Oh, thousands went out there. And that's very interesting to do that. And I enjoy seeing where all of you are by looking at that tape ministry statistics. But let me just shock you a bit this morning at some of those statistics. You go down through there and you look at those tapes and you come alongside of a tape about modesty or covering or child training or any of many, many different practical sermons and you will see hundreds and sometimes thousands of them go out. But when you get down there along the lines of sermons about Jesus Christ, those numbers drop way down to 10 or 20. And as our custom is, we go through these statistics once a year and try to look at them. And if we see that this tape is not being ordered anymore, we kind of weed them out. Otherwise, it gets to be too many. But I'll tell you something, brethren, I have a real hard time looking at those statistics and seeing that there's hardly any sermons being ordered about Jesus Christ. I have a hard time taking those out of the catalog. We leave them in. But that reveals something. It reveals something. Brethren, we stand in danger of reacting or overreacting to the lack of Christendom today. And I understand. I understand why there is a tendency to react, but brethren, we stand in danger. We dare not do that. And I think that we can look at those statistics and take the pulse of what is happening among us, and it's dangerous. And I understand. Many of us came out of churches where they talk about Christ all the time. But Christ doesn't have any meat on Him. And I understand. We want a Christ that has meat on Him. And brethren, this morning I want a Christ that has meat on Him. A living Christ. One I can see. One that lives out in my life every day in practical ways. I want that kind of Christ. But brethren, I don't want that life without the Christ. And that's where we stand in danger of overreacting. You know how the pendulum is. The old theological pendulum. There is a natural tendency for that pendulum to swing way over here when we've had some bad experience over here. And we dare not let that happen. We must stay in the book, lest we go astray big time. Let me be very frank with you this morning. What we do with these types of messages will determine who we are in 15 years, I promise you. It will determine whether we will be a vibrant Christ-honoring evangelical church, or some quaint little group of different people. Which one do you want? Oh, the burden of my heart. If that's all we end up being 15 years from now, is some quaint little group of people that are different than everybody else. Now don't misunderstand me. I believe in being different. But oh, let our difference flow out of Jesus Christ in reality. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Let our differences flow out of Him. And if not, someday they will call us a cult. And we'll have nothing to say. But I'm telling you what, brethren. If we can keep the Lord Jesus Christ right in the center. Right in the center. I mean, I was here Sunday morning, you know, and I just kind of sit back and I do this sometimes. You know, when lots of visitors come, you sometimes put yourself in the shoes of the visitor. And you may not realize it, but not every visitor comes with an excited, open heart. Some of them come to see, what is this? I heard these tapes. Now what is this? So I just was kind of looking that way on Sunday morning. And my heart just thrilled. I mean, the young people, the songs that they were singing, and the songs we gave here, and the messages that were given. I mean, Christ was everywhere. And I just sat back and said, this is no cult. This is a true evangelical church. That's what it is. Brethren, we must keep it there. We have a responsibility, a trust that has been given to us. The testimony of Jesus is at stake. I lost my way here. There are words that emerge in the New Testament which stand out like a huge banner to guide us on our path of faith in Jesus Christ. Words that emerge in the New Testament. And I've been intrigued over the years to find words that emerge in the New Testament, but you don't find them in the Old. Those are significant words. But let me just give you a couple of them here this morning. This is not a sermon on those words. But in the New Testament, and please, those of you that are sitting there with your computers, you know, I didn't do this on a computer. I just had a strong concordance in my hand. The word Christ emerges 500 times in the New Testament. The word Jesus emerges 800 times in the New Testament. Not to mention the places where He is called Lord. I didn't even count them. I rest my case. I really wouldn't have to say anything else. Do you suppose that God is trying to say something to His people? God is trying to get our attention, brethren. What do you think? There is a word in the New Testament that says it all. Nothing else need be said. One simple word in the New Testament speaks about Christ. And that is the word preeminence. I think it's only in the New Testament one time. But it's a powerful word. Preeminence. It means the place of highest glory. Preeminence. And God's heart is that His Son would have the place of highest glory. And when you look at the New Testament and see how His names emerge 500 times, 800 times, it seems very evident to me that not only did God write that word, I want my Son to have the place of preeminence. But He gave Him the place of preeminence in the entire New Testament. Dear brethren, let us do the same thing. Now let's turn for a reading of Scripture over in Colossians chapter 1. I'm going to start there. You know that I cannot cover this subject in four days. I know you know that. But I'm going to have fun trying. I told my wife this morning, there is such a fire in me, I don't know what to do with it. Just getting in here and looking and gazing upon it all, Lord, what am I going to do with what I see? Colossians chapter 1, verse 13. Who hath delivered us? And that who there is the Father. The Father. Brethren, the Father hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Oh my! Just grab that little verse there. He has translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. My margin says, into the kingdom of the Son of His love. That's how the Father feels about the Son. He's the Son of His love. Let me give you a secret. You love what the Father loves. God will walk with you. In whom, now this is Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Who is, this is Christ, Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, or are held together this very morning as we sit here. Our very beings are being held together this morning by Christ. He is before all things and by Him all things consist. And He, Christ, is the head of the body. The church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He, Christ, might have the preeminence. Now you see what God is saying there. That in all things He, Christ, might have the highest place of glory. For it pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. We needn't go any further than that. But we will. Because I want to convince you to where your heart is so clearly set and established on Christ that you will never be moved away or distracted by any other thing. That is God's heart. It pleased the Father to give His Son the place of highest glory. We saw why yesterday. Let us bring our theology into line with the One who is to have the place of highest glory. Now we're going to look at all kinds of scriptures in the next two days. We're going to turn and look at Christ this way. We're going to see the doctrine of sanctification. We're going to look at justification. We're going to look at the church. We're going to cover all kinds of doctrines from the Bible. But brethren, Christ has the place of highest glory in every one of them. And He touches every one of them. And it pleased the Father to make it that way. And we do wisely to give Him that same place in our own hearts and our lives. Let us bring our theology in line with this truth right here. Preeminence. Preeminence. That's our first point this morning. Second, let's look at this subject. Christ is the Head of the Church. That puts Him right in the middle of all we do and say. The Father put Him there. Because He is the Son of His Love. Christ is the Head of the Church. We read the verses, but let's read them again. He is the Head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. The Father made Christ the Head of the Church so that everything will flow from Him. That is the Father's heart. He made Him the Head of the Church. He made Him the Head of the Body. Because He is the Son of His Love. As believers, we have been baptized by the Spirit of God into the Christ. We have been baptized by the Spirit of God into the Christ. And that's a revelation for you to think about for a while. Baptized by the Spirit of God into the exalted Christ. And that's why Paul could say, He has quickened us together with Christ and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are part of His Body. And He is the Head. That puts Him right in the middle of everything we do and say. And the Father is pleased with that. We are all members of the Body of Christ. Amen? He, Christ, is the Head of the Body. Paul addressed the Colossians with warnings. It's over at the end of chapter 2. Warnings about being distracted by angels, by visions, by sensuous experiences. Distracted. Distracted away from the Head. And he goes on to say, From whom the whole body gets all of its strength and all of its wisdom and all of its inspiration. It all comes from the Head. And Paul says, Warning. Warning. Don't be distracted by an angel. You have Christ. Don't be distracted by some vision. Don't be distracted by some sensuous experience. Although there are experiences in the Christian life. But Paul says, Don't be distracted. Don't be moved away from holding on to the Head. From whom the whole body is fitly framed together and increases with the increase of God. Do you see the Christ-centered theology of this point? Christ is the Head of the Church. Now, no body functions right if it doesn't receive messages and commands from the Head. Amen? We understand that. There are, in our day, what they call paraplegics. Who, their bodies get no messages. The arms, the legs, they don't get messages. They can't pick up and move this and do this. They can't. Johnny Erickson is one of those. Who had to learn to live with a body that doesn't get messages from the Head. Brethren, let us never be satisfied to live in a body that doesn't get messages from the Head. We can point out there and say, Yeah, look at them churches. I'm telling you, that thing can come pretty close to home. And a body does not function right if it is not getting messages from the Head. Do you see the Christ-centered theology there? Acts chapter 2, let's turn there. In Acts chapter 2, we see the birth of the body. We're breaking into the middle of Peter's sermon. He's preaching about the resurrection. He just touched on some of David's prophetic words, prophesying of the Christ to come and the fact that His body will not stay in corruption, but it will be raised from the dead. And he's explaining to these thousands of Jews what is happening here this day. It is the day of Pentecost. And the Spirit of God has been poured out upon 120 believers. And Peter is explaining to this great crowd what just happened. And he says, we're breaking in, in verse 32 of chapter 2, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, this Jesus God hath raised up. Remember, we covered that yesterday. And He is being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye see and hear. Now, what is Peter speaking about? He's trying to explain this anointing of the Holy Ghost that fell on these 120 believers and the result of that anointing, how that all 120 of them are speaking forth and prophesying the mighty works of God in the power of the Holy Spirit in languages that they don't even know. And he's explaining to these people what happened. And I want to just remind you what the word Christ means. I mean, Jesus means Savior. Jehovah saves. But Christ means the Anointed One. Now, Christ was the Anointed One. As He walked for three and a half years upon this earth, He was the Anointed One. Don't misunderstand me. But He got an anointing here far beyond what He had there. The Father gave the promise of the Spirit to the Son. The Father anointed the head with oil. And that oil, which is the Holy Ghost, which is the promise of the Father, which is what Jesus promised to His disciples, He said, I must go away, or He, the Spirit of Truth, will not come. Now He's seated there at the right hand of the Father, and the Father anoints the Son, and the anointing of the Son falls upon those 120, and the head and the body are united. Hallelujah! Christ just extended Himself. He just expanded Himself 120 times. Hallelujah! 120 times. Now there are 120 little Christs going everywhere with the anointing of the Spirit of God upon them, receiving messages from the head, thrilled with the head, talking about the head, and they're scattering themselves all over Jerusalem. And if that's not enough, 3,000 of those Jews who heard Peter's sermon believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, were baptized that day, and also received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now He has extended Himself 3,120 times. Do we see why it was so important for the Son to go back to the Father? Do we see how important it is that we keep the Son of His love in that rightful place? He is the head of the church, brethren. And no body is going to function right unless they're getting their messages from the head. And that, brethren, that should make us all tremble. It ought to make us earnest. Sometimes we sit around in circles in our brothers' meetings, and you know, we just kind of flip these things off, talk about this, talk about that. Sometimes I tremble. I think we think we know what to do. And we should maybe be on our faces saying, Oh Christ, what do we do now? So the Lord adds to the church 3,000 little Christs to His body. And the rest of the book is history. Do you see, brethren, the very nature of the church, which is His body, demands that we hold a Christ-centered theology. And we stand on dangerous ground if we get off not holding the head precious and dear to our very life every day. Let's move on from there. Consider the ongoing nature of justification by faith, brethren. The ongoing nature of justification by faith. Romans chapter 5 would be a good place for us to read a couple of verses. Romans 5 verse 1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God to come. Consider the ongoing nature of justification by faith this morning, brethren. We will never get away from our need to be justified through the righteousness of Christ. Don't misunderstand me. Faith works, and I believe it works. But I don't care how holy you get. I don't care how holy Christ makes you. You will never get to the place where you can say, I do not fall short of the glory of God. You'll never get to that place. Not on this side. And by the way, God could have put you to that place. I mean, He can do anything, amen? But guess what? He wants every one of us standing with a heart that looks away from ourselves and looks unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross and despised the shame and is now sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. God wants us to be looking unto Jesus. He wants us to look every day. The ongoing nature of justification by faith demands us that we see Jesus every day. It demands it. I need to be justified today. I fall short of the glory of God. One little glimpse like what Isaiah had and I'll be on my face, and so will every one of you. Praise God there's blood on the mercy seat this morning, brethren. And I'm not talking about some cheap attitude that just runs around using the blood and stepping all over the Son of God and crucifying Him in flesh. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a sincere walk with God where God continues to deal with our hearts and helps us to see who we are. And as we see who we are, we just look one more time. That ongoing nature of justification by faith where we also have access into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Do you see what I'm saying, brethren? The power of Christ-centered theology. We must keep Him in His place in our hearts. We can lose our way. I'm telling you, we can lose our way. It's years ago now, but I'm telling you, I dropped into a plain church many years ago. Dropped in there to see what was going on. And it was Sunday night of a weekend of meetings. And it was Sunday night, the evangelistic sermon for Sunday night. And that man stood up there and he preached for one whole hour. And he didn't preach the gospel one moment of a whole hour. He preached all the things that the gospel produces. But he didn't preach the gospel. And I shuddered. I shuddered. Consider the ongoing nature of justification by faith. I need to hear about Jesus this morning. It thrills my soul. It edifies. It strengthens me. It causes me to continue to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need that. You need that. Every day. This foundational doctrine alone puts the person and work of Christ right in the center of my everyday life. Hallelujah. Let's move on. We've got a lot of doctrines to cover. Consider the subject of evangelism this morning. Which, by the way, is the main reason why we're still here on this earth. Did you get that? It is the main reason why we are still here on this earth. We are not here to be a museum, brethren. We are here to be an evangelistic machine that goes out into a world and reaches a lost and dying world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why we are here. But look with me to 1 Corinthians 1. Ah, the Son of His love. The Father loves His Son. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, Paul says these words, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. Oh. Us which are saved. It is the power of God. That's more on that last point. Sorry. Verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews it is a stumbling block. Unto the Greeks it is utter foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, basically what Paul is saying here is, God hath ordained that by the foolishness of preaching, souls get saved. Now, I didn't say that. God did. God could have chose ten different ways for souls to be saved. He could have enlisted the angels to do it. He can do anything He wants. But God chose that the Son of His love would be the focus of salvation for all of humanity, for all of the ages. And God hath ordained in some mysterious way that I can't figure out, brethren, that when you open up your mouth and begin to speak to a soul about Jesus Christ, mysterious things begin to happen inside of them. And brethren, we don't have to understand all of that. I don't have to understand it. I don't know that Paul understood it. He just did it. He just did it. Souls will be saved by the foolishness of preaching Christ. Do we believe that this morning, brethren? Souls are saved by the foolishness of preaching. I mean, do you believe that? I mean, God can take a drunk, a drug addict, a mess, and turn him into a saint. It's the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. See again? Christ is right in the center of the one thing that we've been left here to do. Christ is right in the center of it all. And by the way, have you ever noticed what it does to your own very spirit and soul when you do open up your mouth and preach about Jesus Christ? Have you ever noticed? My, what an edifying thing that is. We used to have such a ball taking all kinds of people to New York City. And many times we'd have maybe five or six people on the bus to go to New York City who never did anything like that in their life. And they spend the whole day fellowshipping on the bus, talking about Christ all the way there. Then when you get there, you start preaching about Christ and you sing about Christ and you go around one on one and talk to people about Christ. And you get back on the bus and you start talking about Christ on the way home. And by the time they get home at midnight on Saturday night, their hearts are so overflowing with joy, they don't know how to contain it. And we just think, Amen. Got five more. Five more men found out what a joy it is to preach the gospel. Do you see God's wisdom there in all that? Yes, it's true. Jesus said again, I said it yesterday, If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. And He will. And some men will see Him and yield to Him and believe. And others will just walk away. And that's up to them. But our responsibility is to engage ourselves in the foolishness of preaching. You know, I thought about the Apostle Paul. Though he was a scholar, and he was. And though he was a great theologian, and he was. And though he had been trained in rhetoric by Gamaliel, he laid all those things down in every city where he went. He just gave the sweet old story of Jesus one more time. And stood back and watched that mysterious work taking place in the hearts of people. And this one believed. And that one believed. And that one. Paul believed this simple word that we just read. It was his life. We must do the same, brethren. Do we believe that God will justify the ungodly through Christ? Do we believe that? I believe it. I believe it. I know it. He did it. Oh, let us make Christ famous throughout the world. Let us engage our hearts in this gospel enterprise. And make Christ famous throughout the world. This is why we are here, brethren. And we'll say more about that later. Let's move on. Consider the subject of sanctification this morning in 2 Corinthians. You want to be sanctified? Here we are. We're here this week. We didn't come here to play around. We left our work behind. We left the money behind that we could make it work. We paid for airplane tickets. We drove our vehicles. We paid $3 a gallon to run our vehicles to get here. We're not here to play around. We're here because we're hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Amen? I know that's why we're here. And I believe in what happened last evening. I mean, sometimes we just need to go to the altar and say, Okay, God, it's me. I see my need. And you need to go to the altar. You need to get things out. You need to deal with it and leave it behind. But would you just consider this morning, brethren, the positive side of sanctification? Sanctification doesn't always have to be a groaning trip to the altar over all the things that you've done that you shouldn't have done. It doesn't have to be that. I mean, if that's what it needs to be, then bless God, let's do it. But it doesn't have to be that. God has a better way. A better way. And it's found in 2 Corinthians. Chapter 3, verses 17 and 18, where Paul says, We are changed by gazing upon Christ. Say, you want to be changed? I want to be changed. You know, we talk, we sing the song, Oh, to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer, Oh, to be like Thee, pure as Thou art. But dear brothers, that's not just imitation. It's impartation. It's impartation. Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 17 and 18, Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. That is the power to do God's will, not the freedom to do whatever I want, by the way. That's another sermon. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from one measure of glory to a greater measure of glory. And how? Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And Paul says earlier in 2 Corinthians 3, he talks about the Spirit of God writing upon the fleshly tables of our hearts. Now that's the positive side of sanctification. Paul says that we should come with an open face to behold as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. And what I believe Paul is saying there is that we need to come with an open and a sincere heart, with a clear heart, you know, no more umbrella over the top. We need to come with an open heaven. We need to come with an open face. We need to come with a desiring heart, a heart that longs for and hungers after and thirsts after righteousness. You come that way to the Bible, and the Bible is simply a portrait of Jesus Christ. So you come that way to the Bible with your tender open heart, and you gaze upon the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ, and guess what happens? God's Spirit takes His finger and begins to write on the fleshly tables of your heart the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that we want to be like. And that's the exciting part about a week like this. You know, some people say, I don't know if I can hold anymore. You know, like, okay, I've got to get all of this stuff written down so I can take it home. Oh, I'm not against taking notes, but brethren, let's just come with an open face and behold the glory of the Lord and trust that God will write His very image upon our very hearts while we're here this week. Do you see the centrality of the doctrine of Christ here again? See, we want to be sanctified. I don't want to stay the way I am. I want to be like Jesus. I've looked at His life, and His life has captivated my heart. I want to be like Him. He is God's beloved Son. I want to be like Him. Come with an open heart. Come with a tender heart. Remember we said yesterday that God has pulled back the veil and revealed Himself through His Son, and brethren, we get to gaze upon Him and be changed, and be changed. Do you believe this verse? Or is it too far up here? I mean, maybe it is too far up here, but let's believe it anyway, because it's real clear, isn't it? It may be way up here, and you think, whoa, that just went right over my head. It's still here. It's still here. We are changed by gazing upon Christ. I tell you what, I'll give you a new Bible. Just that. Won't I? I'll give you a new Bible. Let us gaze upon Jesus, every facet of Him, every glorious angle of Him, as we look in the New Testament, all the different places, the way He lived, the way He walked, He talked, the things that He did in His life, the way He is now, where He is now. Let's gaze upon Him, and every facet of His life. As we gaze into this book, we see His character, we see the beauty of His Spirit, and it is written on our very hearts. And if you think about it, brethren, there isn't any other way. There isn't any other way. You can't do it. You can't be like Jesus. You can't look at something and say, okay, I'm going to do that. You can't be like Jesus. Let us come with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord and be changed into the same image. Let us rejoice this morning that God has pulled back the veil and revealed Himself in His Son. I mean, you think about it. That's pretty thrilling, you think about it. In the Old Testament, remember back there, Moses came to God and said, O God, You love me. You say that You love me. You say that we talk face to face. O God, I want to see Your glory. Show me Your glory. That was the cry of Moses' heart. I want to see Your glory. Brethren, there's more glory revealed in the New Testament than what Moses saw on that mountain in the cleft of the rock. Way more glory. And we have it. We all have it. It is ours. It is part of our inheritance. Christ is our inheritance. We have it. Now in Christ we see the glory of God, brethren. My, that's thrilling. He is the express image of the Father. The stamped out image of the Father. Let us come in humility and cry out to God and say, God, make me like Your Son. Let me see Jesus with the eyes of my heart and change me. Let's move on. And if you need wisdom, I need wisdom. I need wisdom. Where does wisdom come from? Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom of God. Let's read in Colossians 2, just a moment here. Paul said these words in Colossians 2, verse 1, For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. What is this burden? That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and under all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. I want you to see the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. You know, brethren, there's a lot of wisdom out there today. I mean, the information highway has been opened up to us modern American Christians. But let me tell you something, that's just worldly wisdom out there. We don't need any of that kind of wisdom. We need Christ in whom is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When you think about all the decisions that you have as a father, as a husband, as the head of your home, all the decisions that you need to make, all the things that come our way, day after day, and all of those things, we need wisdom. Christ is wisdom. But if you just put Him over here somewhere, just kind of set Him over here on the side of your theological shelf, you're not going to get that wisdom. He's got to be full center. That's where the wisdom flows. That's where the insight flows. That's where the one who sits on the throne in heaven, who knows all things and sees all things, that's where He sends His messages to our hearts and our lives. Brethren, that's not going to happen if He's over here at the very far end of our theological shelf. You know, oh yeah, we believe in Christ. He's over there. But the seventh day is more important. Or the covering is more important. Or non-resistance is more important. Oh yeah, yeah, we believe in Christ. He's over here in this corner on our theological shelf. Yeah, yeah, go to the back of the church. You'll find it. Pull that confession of faith out there. He's in there. He's in there. That's not going to haunt, brethren. That's not going to haunt. He just can't be in there. He's got to be full center. That's where the wisdom flows. That's where the insights flow. That's where you begin to discern the times and the seasons that we live in, brothers. That's where it comes from. Let's leave all the other wisdoms behind. May I just say it for a moment? I think some of us spend way too much time on the Internet reading a bunch of other stuff instead of this book. Could we please get back to the Bible? I mean, come on. Let's not be duped by the information highway. You know, I mean, yeah, it's true. The Internet is like one huge New York City library. Well, who wants to waste the rest of their life running around in the New York City library, pulling all the books off the shelf and reading all the interesting things that are in there? Not me! And horrors! That whole New York City library is now in my living room! Christ. In Christ is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's in Christ, brethren. I'm not saying you can't get on the Internet and do something, but put that thing over in the corner on the shelf and let Christ be right in the center of our life. That was extra. All right. Lastly, for today, I want us to consider Christ in this subject of church building. Church building. You can go to the Christian bookstores today and find a big long list of books on methods on how to, they say, build your church. I say, fill up a building. There are all kinds of methods. There's the seeker-friendly church. And what's it called, Moe? The new one? The emerging church or whatever it is. There's all kinds of that stuff. It's out there on the shelves. And I mean, the books are selling just like that. And the men are taking this human wisdom and filling up their buildings with people. But that's not the way that Christ said that He would build His church. What did He say? Moe told us yesterday. On this rock I will build my church, Christ said. And I agree with Brother Moe. It's His confession. It is the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He'll change your life. He'll turn you inside out. He'll turn you upside-downside. He'll make you a new creature and give you a totally new life and set you on a totally different path. On this rock I will build my church, Jesus said. That's Christ's method. That's it. He said, You build your life on Me and I'll build My church. Boy, that's a very different methodology, isn't it? I mean, today we've got 20 different things that we're in the middle of. And I mean, we've got these machines moving and growing and we've got the people going and we're on to everybody that moved into the community and wrote this letter. We've got all of our machines moving and the buildings are filling up with people. But Christ said, You build your lives on Me. I'll build My church. I am the Master Builder. And the church that I build, by the way, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We need a church that Jesus Christ built, brethren. And this comes right home to every one of us. It comes right home. I'm telling you, that is a prophetic promise that Jesus gave us there. On this rock I will, I will build, I will build My church. It's a prophetic promise. And down through the ages of church history, wherever you see a group of men and women who come together and center their hearts on the Lord Jesus Christ and say, It's Christ and only Christ, to be honored and loved and exalted, wherever you find a group of people who will do that with all sincerity in their heart, not that they're perfect, but their hearts are upright toward God, God begins to build a church. Some mysterious thing begins to happen and church begins to emerge. It doesn't matter where it is. It doesn't matter what nationality, what language it is. It doesn't matter whether you're smart or whether you're dumb. On this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Brethren, do you see? This is Christ-centered theology. I mean, every direction that we go, we find Him. He's there. It pleased the Father to give His Son preeminence in every facet of our lives. We need to come to grips with what we're seeing. We need to come to grips with what we're hearing. It's real simple. You know, just like Paul said to the Corinthians there, I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, lest you be drawn away like Satan through his subtlety deceived Eve. You will be drawn away from the what? The simplicity. Simplicity, brethren. Not complicated. Not difficult. The simplicity of just loving Christ with all of your heart and letting Him be full center in your life, in your heart, in your theology, and your everyday practice. You put Him there, He'll build a church. I've seen it over and over again. It's one of those marvels that you just stand back and look at it and say, there He goes again. And I know you all can't have the same perspective that I do. But, you know, you go out, you go out the first time and you visit with four or five families and they're there and, oh, what should we do? We feel like maybe God wants us to have a church but we don't know what we're doing and, you know, you get up there and you tell Him, look, let me tell you what to do. You sell your lives out to Jesus Christ. You let revival be the living reality of your everyday life and God will build a church. You know, some of them, they don't take that. But some of them take it. And you can just stand back and watch. Now there's six families. Now there's seven. Now there's eight. Drop in a month later. Two months later. How's it going? Oh, who's this? Where did he come from? Here they are. There's another one. Another one. I get to the point where I just say, okay, who's moving in now? What's happening? Christ is building His church. Why? Why? Because we are centering on Him. I think I'm going to stop right there. Do you understand my heart this morning? Pretty simple, isn't it? I thought about it this morning. I thought, whoa, I don't know how I'm going to do this. This whole Bible is just full of Christ. I've got this one week to do this. But do you see what I'm saying? We're just going to do the same thing tomorrow. We're just going to do the same thing so you can be ready for tomorrow. It's the same thing. But I trust when we're done, we'll see real clear what this whole thing is all about. It is the Christ, the incomparable Christ, the Son of the living God. He lived, He died, and He is exalted at the right hand of the Father. And there He is making intercession for you and I and for His church which He is building this very moment. And it's real simple. May God help us to see it that way. Let's pray. Lord, our hearts just jump inside of us. Lord, You are beautiful. You are the altogether lovely one. You have not left us here in the dark. You have so blessed us with such a beautiful revelation of Your Son in the New Testament. Thank You, Father. God, we are trusting You that You will continue to help us to see Jesus. Let us see the King in all His beauty in our hearts and be changed. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.