Wednesday Night Bible Study

praise the lord everyone we greet you tonight in that wonderful glorious magnificent name of jesus that name that is above every name aren't you glad you know that name tonight praise the lord i'd like to let me give a plug i've been asked to preach our father's day service that'll be on the 20th of june and i'll be preaching not only to the fathers but to the mothers and sons and daughters and i would like for you to be here because when i anytime i preach about husbands wives families children whatever i i preach about the church because the lord fashioned his his church after the family or he fashioned the family after the church and i'd like to see all of you here and i'd like to say something else too as you know we've changed our format just a little bit for wednesday night we used to teach bible on sunday morning but we're teaching our sunday school lesson on wednesday night and a lot of the we elderly folks we're not as prone to get out at night as we are in the daytime so therefore wednesday when we dismiss all the classes of course i'm so glad we have such able teachers and they they they teach the uh children and young folks and young adults according to their age which i think is so so great and so wonderful and then that leaves me with the the golden oldies and um i want to see you here but and those who are afraid to get out at night you are home watching on the internet i need you here i'd like to fill up this auditorium with folks how many of this i'm going to ask you a very personal question how many in this congregation is over 30 raise your hand everybody over 30. all right we this spring this summer we're beginning a new class 18 through 30 and the pastor nate whitley and sister ashley they're going to be teaching that and you're you're in for a tremendous treat in this in this age group so if you're in that age group 18 to 30 you want to be sure and be here but i want to see a i i want a good crowd here for bible study on wednesday night uh did any of you hear or read the message brother carpenter preached at one of our general conferences he preached about the goldfish the kite and the cheeseburger anybody hear that oh yeah well he he told about how he got in church and how he uh we were we were giving away uh goldfish one sunday and then we gave away it was march coming on we gave away kites and uh and then we also brothers brother uh neil uh brother neal hill uh all those that came to his class that particular son he was gonna gonna take him out for a cheeseburger so brother carpenter entitled his message of goldfish kite and a cheeseburger and he told what what that those small things did for him it really really got him in church so i'm thinking about giving you folks goldfish on wednesday night or would you rather have a kite or maybe you'd rather have a cheeseburger we'll think of something i'm not sure or i'll tell you what uh we we might uh we might give some special pills for arthritis or something what but anyway carla i there's a lot of faces i'm missing right now um we've got a good crowd here tonight i'm not complaining about that we've got a good crowd but there's faces that i that this pandemic has done they i heard these statistics that uh over 25 of people that used to go to church regular will no longer come back to church because they get out of the habit the bible says when jesus entered nazareth as was his custom he went to the synagogue and they delivered to him the scroll of the book and as was his custom there are their customs and their habits that we get into and then when you when you break that habit uh sometimes you you don't you don't go back into it and uh those folks are listening to me tonight on the internet remember the bible said forsake not the assembling of yourselves together on the internet no it didn't say that it said selling yourselves together and it's important that we see each other's faces we are an encouragement to each other so i'll tell you what what you do for me and for yourself and for god you know somebody that's in this bible class age call them up this next week and tell them that that you want to see them in in in bible class next wednesday night we're not taking from any of the other things but i don't want to did you old folks can backslide as well as young folks i'm not accusing any of folks that's not here backsliding i don't mean that at all but um we we in whatever age bracket we're in uh we need to to remember the lord and and i want you to be be faithful to be here on wednesday night and i'd also like for you to be an evangelist for me and that is to invite people to be here on wednesday night that's in that age group now if you happen to invite somebody under 30 that's all right too we we got a class for them we got a special class and excellent teachers in action and i'm amazed at the way god has blessed our church and the ministry with the different ministers of the different age group pastor anthony and sister kelly there and i think their title is school pastor but their associate pastor student pastor what did i say student pastor thank you uh pastor for correcting me on that they are are uh student pastors but and we're all students aren't we and then pastor whitley what a associate pastor we have and then our senior pastor i don't know whether they call him senior pastor or not he's a lead pastor but i remember one year was getting ready to have our graduation and we asked all the seniors to stand up and uh a sister uh what's her name used to shout and ain't a grave gonna hold my body that and her sister done she stood up because she was a senior well we you are a special person whoever you are you are you are special but to come wednesday night say hey i'm going to church because this is my night this is my night wednesday night all right and let the church say amen all right our lesson tonight is entitled alpha and omega alpha and omega the word alpha is the the first letter in the greek alphabet alpha means a it's the first letter in the greek alphabet omega is the 24th or last uh last letter in the greek alphabet it's been said that the the greek language is a dead language which meant that it don't change it stays the same uh they tell me that um every so many years our our language changes so much uh there's things that you know tell to to tell somebody uh that uh they had a good ride well i i mean i caught a ride with somebody well they talked about our or those wheels you got and they got different they adopt different lingo for uh an automobile and so forth but um one thing you don't change the the the bible said sin that it might appear sin that sin might be exceedingly sinful that don't change everything else may change so um we're we're talking about alpha a the first letter in the greek alphabet omega the last and we'll deal with that a little further our focused thought the revelation of jesus christ should produce all and wonder in all of us we should be we should be so interested in anything concerning jesus christ uh you you mentioned uh football some folks said they just perk up that they are a football fan or you mentioned some other sport or you could mention you know a good fishing spot you could mention uh good gardening or what whatever you can you can choose what you want to choose your certain kind of car and that's that's of great interest but but the one thing that should put us in in awe and should perk up our ears and that's a so to speak is to mention jesus christ he is such an awesome god and that should arouse our interest the revelation of jesus christ should produce all and wonder in us and if we get to the point we lose that that that that all um i talk about this quite a bit uh and i'm not ashamed and i'm not apologizing but uh on the screen of my my laptop i have 65 different pictures of sister mccool i've got a picture of her when she's in the third grade got a picture of her when she's a freshman in high school i've got pictures of her down through the years uh i i love the one that was in her annual the the year she graduated it was the most attractive girl in her school boy oh boy i i i want that on my computer and many times almost every morning the first thing i do i open my computer and before i go on the internet to see how many builds have come in and what other stuff so but i like to look at those pictures and and i take a little journey down memory lane and and i got the i got the picture of the the very first picture that we ever had taken and it was under the tent and she and i were standing there holding his hands i have no idea who took the picture i have no idea how it felt in my hands but it was the first picture we ever had made and then i've got pictures down through the years i've got one uh little uh icon on my computer it said uh many roads together and we took a trip to uh to california when mark was just a little bit and every state line we stopped and i would take a picture of mark and sister mccool me and they would switch around i think i had a polaroid camera at that time but had all these pictures down through the years and pictures i i got a picture of our pastor um i'm standing on the sidewalk of the little church at 123 west columbia and i look at that and that's one of those 65 pictures and and what i'm getting at is all of these things i'm talking about i don't have a picture of football players on my laptop i don't have pictures of baseball players i don't have but these things i i and they refresh my mind and rekindle my excitement and my thrill you heard my song about uh she's a beautiful lady she just turned 80 but she still seems like 20 to me and i think we ought to things that are important we need to keep it in mind if it's our children or grandchildren right now we're living in in in canada's land when we get uh those little uh 30-second videos on and so what a fantastic day we're living in when we get those little videos of eleanor and and and easton where it's just absolutely so delightful and i've got to tell this uh all little children i love these pacifiers as they are a little and and eleanor she has her favorite pacifier and they wanted to break her from that and and they would get used to being without it and they nipped the end off of the nipple of that uh that we used to call them foolers with pacifiers and they showed a pitch and then of all things brother whitley put a music to it about uh he's standing before what the first horse it's the saddest sounding and and they said that the insistent could i we cried and we laughed and we cried as we saw her look at sticking her finger down in the nipple of that little pacifier and and then the look on her face she threw it away but yet it was indicative of a phase you see some people don't realize the moment they're in now you look back years ago and well i didn't realize this but we we don't we don't realize the precious moment of the present the precious present moment now uh what i'm trying to say to you now is the things that are dear to me and and i love to look at the pictures of and and i got one picture of her just recently had been all that long she she was in her 80s and and and i and i the heading under that said angels never grow old and it rekindles reminds me and refreshes me now i said that to say this if you will review the word of god if you will talk about that word right there i'm the alpha and omega by his stripes we are healed for god so loved the world me i'm part of that world he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and and and and i've read it for 73 years i preached it for 73 years and there's not a day as i read it that i don't i don't i don't read something new it seemed like of course i had pastor mark and pastor anthony pastor quickly they they thrilled me every time they preached but it seemed like pastor anthony as sermons i've preached in stories i've preached about he'll preach it and and my goodness i i preached on that 50 60 years ago i didn't get out of that what he's getting out of it and and i can't keep my it's refreshing are you are you understand what i'm saying now when we lose our love for something it may be because we haven't kept our mind refreshed we haven't and and i don't like to hear a woman call her husband the old man i don't like to hear a man called the old lady the old lady that and i know i know a lot of times that that's that's said in love and and but anything that that is disrespectful or cutting down that shouldn't be but i want to tell you something your children are so precious don't call them rugrats and don't call them terrible twos and so forth they're they're a gift from god they're a treasure from from the lord if we look around us god has not given us anything less than something that's very precious and refresh your mind about well here i'm getting totally off of this but it it isn't off of the subject but because i'm talking about things that should thrill us the word of god should be of great interest to each one of us revelation 1 through 18 and when i saw him i fell with our focus verses 1 17 and 18 and when i saw him i fell at his feet as dead and he's and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not i am the first and the last i am he that liveth and was dead and behold i am alive forevermore amen and have the keys of hell and death well i thought of another picture i've got to tell you about i've got on my laptop i remember in fact i've got it i got it on video and i i copied it off to put it on still but um i walked across that they lived across the street from us and anthony and ashley were just little bitty things like that and i picked ashley up like this and she and i said give up all kiss and she was and i was holding her off deliberately to just to just cutting up with her and she and i was holding her off like that and she reached out and got me by the ears you tell me that picture's not worth a million you think that's not precious and then anthony comes on and i handle him i'm gonna see them like they are now and who they are and what they're doing how they're working for god right now and those little how what what a treasure it is i'm talking about some important things that you and i need to need to refresh in our minds and and it will be in awe and here's here's what john said when i saw him i fell at his feet is dead it was overwhelming and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not i am the first to the last i am he that liveth and was dead behold i am alive forevermore amen and have the keys of hell and death now that's a for focused verses these are some powerful words be amen well that's the same as saying omega that's that the soul let it be and have the keys to hell and death revelation 1 and 1 the revelation of jesus christ which god gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by the angel unto his servant john now god is talking not to john about john he's talking to john about the seven churches seven churches in asia but there's there was more than seven but there's specific three seven that he's referring to and he showed me his servant things which must shortly come to pass verse 2 who bear record of the word of god and of the testimony of jesus christ and of all things that he saw oh what a marvelous a magnificent thing to think about here john was and we're talking about the apostle john we were talking about uh the kinfolk of jesus we're talking about one of the twelve we're talking about one that had been exiled to the isle of patmos and now then god is sending his angel to talk to him and and he bear a record of the word of god and of the testimony of jesus christ and all things that he saw god was letting him see some things that he had never seen before and others had not seen it blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand blesses he that readeth all the books that you can read every book on philosophy every book on history every book on whatever subject you want to mention will not compare to this book this blesses he the re and yet we we let on the coffee table and let it lay there walter bales the the there's a bales brothers many many years ago was a singing group and the baal walter wrote a song dust on the bible and became a big gospel hit many years ago and so i went into a home one day to see some friends of mine and of all the books and magazines not a bible could i find i asked them for their bible and when they brought it what a shame dusper's covered or not a fingerprint was plain dust on the bible dust on the holy word the words of all the prophets and the sayings of our lord of all the other books you'll find there's none salvation whole get the dust off of that bible and redeem your poor soul oh what a great book it is and it said blessed is he that readeth i i don't understand it you don't have to understand it it was one of the great philosophers in a bygone day was uh told that i don't like to read the bible because i i don't understand it he said well i don't unders it's not what bothers me what bothers me is what i do understand the trouble is the word of god is there and the way is going to be so plain the bible said it throw a fool or away from him and would not err therein uh the the simple of all if we'll get in that new testament and read it you don't have to pronounce every complicated word it was another language another group and you may not be able to pronounce it but you can understand the the story of the lost sheep the story of the lost corn the story of the prodigal son the story of it he he put it on the lower ship so that you could understand it and those that are high and mighty they can get down on their knees and and read it and understand it blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is of hand john to the seven churches which are in asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne uh john to the there were there were more than than seven churches in in uh asia minor but these were the closest ones that and these were the ones that god was addressing to john and said grace be unto you in peace from him which is which is which was and which is to come now later on we'll read this he's the alpha and omega that means the beginning the end the a and the b he is which was which is and which is to come what else is there if he's the first if he's the last and he's all in between what else is there that should thrill every one of us to know that we know him who is was and is to come oh hallelujah from jesus christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us all these titles and all these things that were ascribed to him was was of course a revelation from the lord himself and was being given to to john from the lord jesus christ who is the faithful witness the first born of the dead princeton the kings of the earth and him that loved us and washed us and washed us from our sins in his own blood now if that doesn't thrill you there's something you're not understanding it he washed us in his blood the sins that you've committed whatever they are and there's another one here tonight that hasn't had something in your life that you need forgiveness for and if you could only eliminate this if you could get forgiven of this well uh the bible ascribes this to him who washed us from our sins in his own blood now a lot of a lot of men and prophecy preachers and i'm not criticizing prophecy preachers because we all should be but um i do have well i wouldn't say a problem that's not the right word but some get engrossed in trying to trying to describe and tell what this meant that this horn and this eye and all these monstrous things that you can read and they try to try to tell what they mean and they may be right or they may be wrong but to me that's not the important thing the the most important thing this whole thing is and washed us from our sins in his own blood isn't that isn't that moral isn't that fantastic he washed us in his blood in his blood no matter who you are what you've done what your past may have been he washed you clean and hath made us kings and priests unto god and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever amen verse six now that kind of gives me a little chuckle because i preached the message based upon the song the choir sings i am who i am because i am told me who i am and i i preached a message on that i am who i am and in that message i told of who i was as as a little uh son of a sharecropper in southeast missouri and and of course as we grew up you you you you grow up to be a sinner because you're you're born into adam's race but i i told her and i i said i am what and i had i gave a picture to brother derrick and he's a an absolute genius at at these pictures he puts on the screen and he had a picture of me and i must have been in the second grade or something like that but anyway i had on a pair of overalls my mother had made for me and i was snaggletooth and and uh uh ugly as could be and and they had undone my galaxies and let them down so it looked like i had on pants rather than overalls they wanted to make me look and but you could still they left part of hanging out then you could see part of the galas and then they had a picture of sister mccool and she was a little girl much prettier than i was of course but uh then i said after all this he hath made us kings and priests unto and brother derek took that little picture of that little second grader and and and put a crown on his head and a robe on him and hear that i wish i had that picture put on the screen to show you but this is what he does he takes us a nobody he takes a sinner he takes it down and out and he hath made us kings and priests unto god and his father now now ladies and gentlemen please let me i i'm not preaching about the the i said behold i stood for the sins of the sea and the beast rules of the father see having seven heads and ten horns and on her horn seven crowds at a point i'm not preaching that i'm preaching something very simple that he has washed us in his blood and has made into kings and priests unto god and his father don't let anybody describe unto you as being a low down no good sinner no such thing he's forgiven you of your sins and he cast them in the depths of the sea never to be remembered against you anymore oh hallelujah these are the things we need to be remembering i'm the alpha and the omega behold he cometh with clouds every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so amen he cometh with clouds every eye is going to see him now somebody said that well the internet that's where he's going no it's not going to be through the the magnificent miracle of the internet it's going to be the miraculous power of god that all eyes are going to see that great king when he ascends from glory when he comes to the clouds every eye shall behold him and the bible says every knee shall power and every tongue shall confess that he is lord to the glory the father oh that day is coming and as soon as to arrive and that thrills my heart [Applause] john to the seven churches which are in asia grace be unto you peace from him which is which was which is to come from the seven spirits which are before the throne the apostle begins this much like other jewish prophets they often named themselves in their message when they were what they received from god to deliver to the people the isaiah talks about the vision of isaiah the son of amos which he saw concerning judah in jerusalem the words of jeremiah the son of hilkiah to whom the lord the word of the lord came the word of the lord came expressly unto ezekiel i'm quoting the priest the word of the lord that came unto hosea southern beer now you heard me preach about hosea what a unusual request it was of god to show israel and show hosea what it was like for him to be mistreated by his people and so all of these now these these prophets ascribes their name to their books and to their sermons one preacher i asked he wrote a book on prophecy and i wanted to buy his book he said uh i'm not selling that one anymore said um there's some things happened since then i'm revised it you don't have to revise prophecy you don't have to wait and you don't have to wait till the news comes out and then rewrite it it's going to be right and they were not ashamed to put their name to it and i'm going to keep hammering on what i'm about to say because i've said it several times brother blevins was trying to find out what some apostolic are supposed to be believed and he read the statement of faith on the internet but nowhere in that statement did it say anything about being baptized in jesus name and oneness of the godhead it rounded all up to to fit everybody let me tell you something friend we need to be willing to put our name to it he put his name to us he gave us his name and we at least ought to be willing to put our name to what we believe we believe in this jesus name apostolic oneness message and i'm glad to say that that's what i am i don't mind putting my name to it i had a very dear friend i got to got to know him i i served on the criminal court jury many years ago and and his wife was a one of the secretaries and i don't know why it impressed her but somehow she told him jc odom was his name very he became very close he came to church for a long time and and we became very close a very dear friend very dear and he had me appointed to the judges uh called the project misdemeanor uh first-time offenders they had a program instead of blocking them up with hardened criminals they had a better program and and i i spoke on tv about that and and uh jc would get me in front of his friends and he said this is my holy roller friend billy mccool and then he said oh he's the smartest man i know and well he was writing about one thing the holy roller was all right but the other was but uh he laughed and he wasn't doing that to ridicule me i never i never felt he was trying to belittle me he always addressed me in such a manner that it was very respectful so uh one day i said j.c i'm going to say this about you you call me your holy royal preacher friend i said i found out that you and your church are going to be the first to to rise from the greatness is that right yeah yeah are you going to be the first one to go to heaven is that rod yeah he said where's that number i said the bible said the dead in christ shall rise first well that was the relationship we had but what i'm getting at now i'm not ashamed to be called holiness that word ho i wrote i wrote an article about that you remember that what's wrong with holiness that's what we are he put his name to our sinful life the bible said though he knew no sin he became sin for us thank you can you imagine that though he knew no sin he became sin and then me unwilling to put my name on the internet that i'm first apostolic church and our fundamental belief is we believe in the oneness of the godhead we believe the bible to be the infallible and inspired word of god we were baptized in the name of jesus me be ashamed of that never on your life ladies and gentlemen we are now not to be arrogant and and and not to be abrasive i'm not saying it to be mean but i want to tell you something i'm not jesus own i'm jesus everything and i'm glad to tell you that somebody's say amen [Music] the number seven may be used here as a number of perfection as the hebrews use the seven names of heavens the seventh heaven has seven names of the earth and all the the letter the the numbers ten and seven and so i have never been one to uh to attach any doctrinal significance to 7 being the perfect number and 10 being the number of judgment and so forth may or may not be but those are things that are not significant to me it's like they say that they uh when they appoint seek out seven men for the holy ghost that we may appoint over waiting on the tables that was the first deacon board the bible doesn't call them deacons they may have been and that could be but we attached them and what i'm trying to say now is we attach great significance and time to certain things when the important thing is we don't keep the main thing the main thing the main thing is jesus christ came to this world god almighty manifested in the flesh and that died gave his life that you and i can be saved revelation 1 8 i'm alpha and omega the beginning and the ending saith the lord which is which was which is to come the almighty i john also who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of jesus christ was in the isle that is called patmos for the word of god and for the testimony of jesus christ i was in the spirit of the lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying i am alpha and omega first last what thou seest write in the book and send it to the seven churches which are in asia unto ephesus and smyrna and to pergamos and phiatara and to sardis and philadelphia and to the laodiceans and i turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned you you don't see a voice i turn to see how do you see a voice i'll tell you how you see your voice john in the beginning was the word that's a voice the word was with god and the word was god the same was in the beginning in the beginning with god all things were made by him and without him there was not anything that was made and in his life and that life was the light of men listen if you want to see a voice the word is jesus christ and when you see him and you see is where you're seeing god manifest ladies and gentlemen that's why it's important for us to come and hear the word of god faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god now when i when i heard pastor preach i was hearing god speak because he was speaking god's word and when you and i hear the man of god if he's preaching the truth if he's preaching the word you're hearing god himself and in the midst of the seven candles six one like unto the son of man clothe the garments down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden candle his head and his hairs were white he was an ancient god his his his hairs were white like wool white as snow and his eyes was a flame of fire now i want to tell you something he is a god of mercy but one day you're going to see him as the god of judgment i read a story with a true story a judge was was driving down and he saw a young man that had a wreck and was drowning in a marsh pond and he stopped and he rescued that young man from that drowning situation that sinking car thought nothing about it years later that boy got in trouble committed a horrible crime and came before that judge and that judge said son i was your savior once upon a time when you was drowning but so i'm sorry to tell you that today i'm your judge jesus is your savior he saved you washed you in his own blood if you believe if you've repented of your sins but the day will come you will face him as the god whose eyes are the flame of fire and he will be your judge god gave jezebel a space repents you repent she repented not genesis 6 and 3 god said my spirit will not always strive with man yet his days should be 120 years and it is so urgent and so important to understand that god is giving us the opportunity to get our families safe to bring him to church allow the conviction i was listening online it was the night system of cool came and i was staying home that night but that message that pastor anthony preached about the the the sensuality of repentance what a baptism in jesus name the infilling of the holy ghost and you could just simply feel the conviction in this place we need that kind of conviction to fall on a congregation and people fall on their faces before i know it don't take falling on your face i know it don't take crying but there's nothing wrong with being so overwhelmed john fell on his face as dead there's nothing wrong with being overwhelmed and overcome with the feeling of conviction and realizing you need a god you need a savior that there's a heaven to gain in the hell desean there's a place called hell that people are going to go to my spirit shall not always strive with man yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years would you stand your feet with us please and it said i am he that liveth and was dead and behold i am alive forevermore amen and have the keys of hell and of death oh what a treasure the word alpha and omega is the very beginning omega there's nothing after it but he also said i am which was which is and which is to come father we thank you tonight for the word of god lord i pray that you will let our simplistic message our words that are meant from the heart i pray god that you will let it sink deep into the hearts of men and women that don't know you and father also lay an evangelistic and missionary spirit upon each one of us to cause us to reach out to our loved ones bring them to church invite them to the house of god and those listening tonight on the internet who once attended regularly in this pandemic that has spread around the world has got folks out of the habit of going to the house of god thank you for the great crowd we have here from night to night but lord there are others that are allowing this thing to keep them from the house of god i pray lord that you will speak to their hearts and bring them back to the house of god and let us revive and be revived and get ready for the coming of the lord all this we ask in jesus name amen you're dismissed in the name of the lord and as pastor says follow the protocol that is comfortable to you and don't be ashamed of it you're dismissed in jesus name