Wednesday Night Bible Study

praise the Lord everyone let's do it again let's do it better praise the Lord everyone all right that sounds great well why what a crowd we've got here tonight I appreciate having the adulterers and the children and all the rest and we thank the Lord for each one of you and um tonight you're going to get an experience I'm going to teach three lessons worth uh two lessons behind and I'm gonna get out on time I'm not going to go over time I'm not going any longer than we normally do Bishop J Frank Wilson used to say that a sermon is like baking a cake you've got flour you've got sugar you've got shortening and said most sermons could use more shortening and I agree with that and first of all I want to give you a testimony a couple of hours ago I received a telephone call from Brother Summers brother Charles Summers just a few weeks ago I was told that he was taken to the hospital and went to see him and his eyes were swollen shut I couldn't get no response out of him and I I didn't know what to expect next and of course we we're visiting different times in the hospital and I didn't know where there would be called to officiate his funeral or what but when he called me this afternoon he was as Lucid as as mentally alert he talked about different things of the church and and I told him to give me a great testimony to give to you tonight and we are praying for him he's lost his body was collecting fluid his legs and arms and face was so swollen but he's lost over 50 pounds and that's that's helped him with his health situation and so we thank the Lord for brother Summer's testimony I enjoyed talking to him so very much father we thank you tonight for this great congregation and for this service we pray Lord you'll bless our children and those that are up at the Strong Tower Camp we'll pray you'll bless all the saints of God present here tonight and anoint the lips of clay with the spirit of God give that which you would have spoken in Jesus name we pray amen our lesson is entitled series one is entitled The Power of forgiveness my what a what a title The Power of forgiveness brother Carol Magruder wrote the song There was a woman brought to Jesus he was taken in her sins cast down at his feet that day she was guilty and condemned the law said she must pay the price for the mistakes that she had made but her shame became rejoicing when she heard the master say I forgive you I forgive you and that the last line of that course said the greatest words ever spoken is I forgive tonight's lesson is entitled go and sin no more and it's about that woman that was caught in the act of adultery we're going to be teaching lesson 1.2 1.3 and 1.4 so let's get with it and get get this lesson underway John 3 17 says for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved now almost any of us can quote John 3 16. for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son but whosoever believed that him should not perish but have everlasting life but the next verse for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but the hymn to the world that through him the world might be saved now it didn't mean that he was condoning sin he didn't come for the purpose of condemning anybody he came for the purpose of forgetting and the Bible said he came to seek and to save that which was lost and then John 8 starting at verse 1 Jesus went into the Mount of Olives and early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and taught them early in the morning he left the Mount of Olives he came to the the temple and all the people came to hear him and the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery and when they had set her in the midst now imagine in the temple a crowd of people and Jesus was teaching and in the middle of all that here came a group of self-appointed Pious uh church leaders pushing a woman along and brought her in cast her down to his feet and Disturbed the Bible study what would we do tonight if somebody came uh Sunday night I didn't know what to think when uh our evangelist brother Nick was had I didn't realize he had a young man planted to come down here and I thought at first it was somebody just suddenly come down and going to disturb the service but that was part of the sermon but here they hear these uh self-appointed Pious leaders they brought that woman in and cast her down at Jesus feet the scribes and Pharisees brought on him a woman taking an adultery and when they settle in the midst they say unto him master this woman was taken in adultery in the very Act now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayeth thou now let me pause for a moment here um adultery takes two people and they only have the woman and they said that she was caught in the very Act it sounds like they didn't pay much attention and the man got away and I surmised that they were not looking for the man they were looking for the woman and they were looking for an excuse not because they were against sin but they wanted to put Jesus on the spot the the Jews were under the dominant the the domination of Rome and uh if he condoned what she had done he they would accuse him of violating the law of Moses and if they if he said go ahead and stone her the he would be violating the civil law of Rome because the Romans did not allow the Jews to have the authority to put anybody to death so they said what do you say then they said tempted to him that they might have to accuse him but Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not I underlined that in my study as though he heard them not now now Mark that down in your mind right now as though he heard them not that's that's a sermon in itself there's something that we need to practice right now as never before as we need to act as though we don't hear some things some folks feel like they've got to answer every accusation on the internet they've got the they've got an electronic backyard fence or electronic clothes line years ago the preachers used to preach about people gossiping Over The Back Fence or over the clothesline and then they got the telephone and they we used to we used to have a party line they didn't have just one phone several people you could hear their phone ring and when they're you could you pick it up and listen to them as they talk you know that wasn't ethical but who cares about ethics when you're wanting to gossip well here we've got some some fellows bringing a woman and putting it before Jesus and what do you say about it now the man was not there so I survived that they had been planning this they knew what Jesus taught and they were looking for a chance to accuse him and when they begin to speak to Jesus he just stooped out as though he didn't hear them you and I would be a whole lot better off when somebody says something sharp and hateful just act like you don't hear it you you you read something on the Internet uh somebody says something Pastor Anthony uh in his uh seminar where they had a symposium at the uh General Conference and he spoke on the Holy Ghost and and he I signed something he told about his grandpa being on the radio and how the some of the preachers in Knoxville got all disturbed about it and one preacher got him and and said there's a preacher out here on Pleasant Ridge Road said a dog-faced liar from hell and Pastor Anthony said my grandpa didn't deny the dog face part but he did and not being from hell and I thought that and that is indeed true I got on the radio and I said I don't deny the having a dog face but let me tell you what the Bible says about Jesus the Mighty God and water baptism in Jesus name and so on so uh some of the some things you don't need to answer it don't it don't require an answer it don't deserve an answer and first of all I don't I don't I don't get on Facebook one day I didn't didn't even know I was on that Pastor Carlson pepper we saw your the seasoning of your study I don't know how I did it somehow but I don't know how I got on that but I don't pay any attention to it and you and I will be better off not to answer criticism let it go put it in the hands of the Lord now then uh he acted as though he heard them not now James 1 19-20 he says wherefore my beloved Brethren let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath we need to be swift here but slowly don't answer criticism don't get into a an argument or or a quarrel let me tell you something you and I must live above some of the things that's going on and and this whole world now notice the next line it said so when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone at her now notice he didn't condone and it didn't condemn he just simply said let him that's without sin cast the first stone so when they continued asking him and lifted himself up and said unto them okay that's without sin among you let him cast a stone at her again he stooped down and wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted of by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the last and Jesus was left alone he and the woman standing in the midst and when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman he said unto her woman where are those thine accusers hath no man condemned thee Jesus said or she said no man Lord and Jesus said unto her neither do I condemn the go and sin no more oh what beautiful words neither do I can but he didn't condone he said go and sin no more now Romans 6 15 says What then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace God forbid know you're not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey his servants ye are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but Godly thinks that ye were the Servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to you being made free from sin you became the Servants of righteousness I speak after the man or a man because of the infirmity of your flesh for as you have yielded your member Servants of uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield yourself servants to righteousness unto Holiness so when you were the Servants of sin you were free from righteousness what fruit had ye then in those things where all of Europe were not whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death but now being made free from sin and become the Servants of God you have your fruits unto Holiness and everlasting life for the wedges of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life that's lesson 1.2 let me add this much to this and the Romans 6 and 1 it said what shall we say shall we continue in sin that Grace May abound now Paul writing to the Romans he just said in Romans 5 20 and 21 moreover the law entered that the offense might abound but sin but where sin abounded Grace did much more about that as sinneth reigned unto death even so much grace reigned through righteousness into eternal life by Jesus Christ now he said for sin about it Grace did much more about but then he he anticipated what they would be thinking he said what shall we say this shall we continue and sin thy Grace God forbid how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer thereinth now then verse 7 says for he that is dead is freed from sin that settles the question right there if you're dead you're not going to commit sin you've heard some of you have heard me tell the story this happened was quite proven a number of years ago the cemetery right at the end of Pleasant Ridge Road uh a few years ago my folks got to going in there and vandalizing kicking over tombstones and stealing the brass vases and and doing a lot of damage and they put a fence around that Cemetery and I had this comment they did not put up that fence to keep those dead people inside they put up the fence to put the keep the living people out it wasn't the dead folks that was kicking over each other's tombstones and Steed in the brass faces it was people that were still yet alive he that is dead to sin does not commit sin you just if you're dead to sin you're not going to commit these sins and I was in Dallas Texas years ago and we got a call that the Old Gentleman uh was very old and and they thought he was on his deathbed and when we got there he was in the middle of the night he was laying on a cot and they had already covered him up and they we got there too late he had already passed and they were all kind of clumping a little bit crying a little bit but it's very quiet and and you could tell it was something that happened very serious and they said Uncle such as he's already passed and so we just joined right in with the respect for the dead and we were waiting they said the doctors were going to come and they'll pronounce him dead and and then they'll call the ambulance and so and a little bit here came the doctor and I was expecting to take this stethoscope up and listen to uh uncle's heart and and pronounce him dead but to my surprise he said his doctor's back down and reached in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys about I wonder as big as I carrying around and as he went by the foot of the bed he reached out of the cupboard and got old uncle's foot and raised it and took his car keys and did a number on the bottom of his foot and Uncle John resurrected you talk about story kick it he wasn't near dead and then but the doctor didn't know medical uh uh experiment at all I want to tell you something dead people don't care dead people okay dead people don't gossip dead people don't lie dead people don't fight dead people don't fuss with one another and he that is dead to sin can live no longer there him now then we're going to lesson 1.3 the power of forgiveness and this is entitled 70 times 7. the lessons found in Matthew 18 21. then came Peter to him and said Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times have you ever heard that uh well but this is not the first time he's done that sometimes children are that way but moment he did such but he did such and such and it seems to give you a license to retaliate if they do it more than one time this even cares weight in the court of law if you if you are a habitual criminal if you continually break the law and so Peter said Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother if he trespasses against me said seven times Jesus said unto him I say nothing to thee until seven times but until 70 times seven somebody get your calculator out how much is that 490 times something like that now how many seven no that's and Jesus did not mean seven times seventy he just used that as an expression innumerable you and I have an obligation as a child of God to forgive and there are folks walking around today miserable because they're holding something in their heart somebody hurt their feelings somebody did something to them I preached the message years ago and I think I've preached it here and my mother I can remember my mother so many times we'd be leaving goes and she's out boys be careful and don't get hurt be careful don't get hurt well the reason for that um a minor hurt opens the bloodstream to something more serious when we were building this church we we had to put a detention Pond down here and I thought you put a detention upon left it alone but it got filled up with water and Cattails was growing up and you go by the frogs were jumping everywhere and I I thought that's what it's supposed to be well the city came out and they told me that you're going to have to drain that and clean that out and you got to put a drain in it and you got to put the rocks in the bottom and and you gotta well I didn't have anybody else to drain that pond so I I went and bought a trash pump and it's still back in in the mechanical room and I put it in that and the system of cool help and and we we did it had a motor on it and and we proceeded to um drain that pond and we did and it was the uh the third of July and I was over here by my no brother uh uh uh Brother JD Pierce was was with me that day and and he was up there and I said now if I say cut it off cut it off because and because I I turned the pump around and I was blowing the mud and the muck in the mirror off of the cage that we had built there and somehow another I just got a a tiny scratch it would die I didn't it didn't even bleach as far as I know brother he stopped him and I didn't pay any attention because uh it was just merely a tiny of scratch and when we quit and I went home took bath and and uh system of a cool fixed supper and by the time she got supper fixed I was running a high fever and she said earlier I needed we need to take you to the to the doctor's office of the emergency I said this would be all right I'll be all right in the morning and um in the morning I wasn't better I was worse the fever was getting higher and there was a uh a red streak going up my arm and I was burning up with fever and it was the Fourth of July and we went to one of these Drive-In clinics and walking and the the doctor that was there looked at that of the nurse she said I can't do anything for that at all so you you need to go to the emergency well the long story short system cool took me to the emergency and they looked at that and and the doctor looked at that and he said this is a this is a bad case and uh he began to give some some sad news to System of cool and uh it seemed that that was a a very rare kind of disease that was brought about by uh something that lives in the belly of fishes and frogs and that little scratch just a tiny scratch had opened my bloodstream that that could get in my blood and there I was laying flat on my back and the sister McCool finally she said to the doctor you you say it it's that bad well and you're not doing anything aren't you going to do anything I always remember did I act like I wasn't interested and right off they started rolling and uh these things hanging on the the tripod and started giving me medicine intravenously and finally they discovered it was some that whatever disease it was that that has said only six people had had it and that all been uh in in the water and two of them had to have a surgery and so forth but anyway I told you all of that I was in the hospital five days and had 25 bottles of of that stuff they put in my veins all because I got hurt just a tiny little hurt didn't even notice it but let me tell you something you can get a tiny little scratch a little hurt at somebody somebody can hurt your feelings and you can start holding that and it'll it'll allow your body and let your spiritual soul to invite The Germ in there that could kill you spiritually don't get hurt my mother would tell me don't get hurt Peter said how many times must I forgive a seven no Seventy Times Seven don't go around carrying something in your heart against somebody because they've done something to hurt your feelings put it in the hands of the Lord and let God take care of it they'll control whether or not you can sleep at night they'll take your appetite from you they'll take your personality from you get it out of your life forgive them and forget it and say God I'm going to put this in the hands of the Lord and then he said I said to you unto this seven times but until Seventy Times Seven therefore is the kingdom of heaven like into a certain King which would take account of his servants and when he had begun to reckon one had brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents but for as much as he had not to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment be made the servant therefore fell down and worshiped him and said Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred Pence and he laid his hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me that thou owus and his fellow servant fell down to his feet and besought him saying have patience with me and I'll pay thee all and he would not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt so when his fellow servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told unto their lord all that was done then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him oh thou Wicked servant I forgave thee all the debt because thou desired me should us not thou have I had compassion on my fellow servant even as I had pity on thee and his Lord was Wrath and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one of his brother their trespasses Matthew 5 7 says blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Matthew 6 14 and 15 says for if ye forgive not men their trespasses your heavenly father will all your heavenly father he said if you let me start over I'm gonna I'm trying to go so fast I'm not reading properly for if ye forgive me in their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses now you stop and think about that for a minute if you hold anything against anybody no need to ask God to forgive you of anything because he said he will not he will not forgive you this is a conditional thing that every Christian every person needs to remember this and I've heard folks say I'll I'll forgive you but I won't forget they really mean that they haven't actually forgiven but if you're holding something against somebody the Bible says God will not forgive you so I want to tell you something you and I better give it some thought blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy the Bible says judge not lest you be judged with the same judgment that you judge now when you go around judging other people of what they do you're going to be scrutinized yourself when you start finding fault with this one or that one then you're opening up yourself to be scrutinized and judged and criticize now then let's go to lesson three we're going to get out of here to the early tonight and this lesson three is 1.4 the tale of two thieves the tale of two thieves Luke 23 42 and he said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou cometh unto thy kingdom now I must confess and studying this lesson of course uh I I started studying the next day after I teach a lesson and but this got to me and I've read it many many times I couldn't help but read it aloud to Sister McCool and it seemed to take a a new deeper meaning and as I began to read it to her tears begin to trickle down my face and I don't have to do much commenting on this but let me just read it to you Matthew 27 39 Jesus had been crucified he had been beaten unmercifully he was blood soaked wearing a crown of thorns that crushed down into his skull he was hanging on a cross held there by Nails driven through his hands and his feet his sweat had become his great drops of blood his side had been pierced blood and water had come out and they passed by and reviled him wagging their heads and saying thou that now a man in this pitiful condition and they hung in between two thieves that was no doubt for a purpose to make it certainly look like he was a wicked man because he was being hung between two wicked men and everyone knew they were Wicked so they put him between them and they would pass by here it said and they passed by reviled him wagging their heads and saying thou that destroys the temple and build us in three days save thyself if thou be the Son of God come down from the cross now can you imagine a dying man beaten nailed to a cross likewise also the chief priest mocking him with the scrubs and Elders the respectable religious men they came by and they said he saved others himself he cannot say if he be the king of Israel let him now come down from the cross and we'll believe him he trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the son of God Luke 23 32 are there when also two other mental factors which led him to be put to death and when they were come to the place which is called Calvary There They Crucified him and the malefactors one on the right hand and the other on the left then said Jesus father forgive them for they know not what they do they parted his raiments and cast lots he had a garment they didn't want to split it up so they took his robe and gambled so who could win the possession of that garment and the people stood beholding and the rule is also with them derided him saying he saved others let him save himself if he be Christ The Chosen of God and the soldiers also mocked him coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying if thou be the king of the Jews save thyself and a superscription also was written over him in the letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew that said this is Jesus this is the king of the Jews and one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him if thou be Christ save thyself and us now listen to me Jesus could have done anything he wanted to do he told his disciples he could call 12 Legions of angels but he was as much man as any man he could have as much God as if he was not man and he could have struck every one of them dead but in his Humanity he listened to all this derision and all this cruel talk and he hurt he suffered he pained and he did it for you and me and one of the manufacturers which were hanged railed on him saying if thou be Christ save thyself in US but the other answering rebuked him saying to us thou not fear God seeing Thou Art in the same condemnation and we indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our Deeds but this man had done nothing amiss and he said to Jesus Lord remember me when thou cometh into thy kingdom Lord remember Billy McCool when you come into your kingdom Lord remember First Apostolic Church and believe you me he will and Jesus said unto him verily I say unto thee today shalt thou be with me in Paradise would you stand your feet with us please ah I don't know about you but this is my 75th year in the ministry I couldn't even guess how many sermons I've preached how many funerals I've preached how many babies I've dedicated how many hospital visits I have made but it has not grown old to me that that little seven-year-old sharecropper son repented of his sins at the root of an old oak tree four years later when I was 11 years old God baptized me with the Holy Ghost called me to preach and just think somebody wrote a song but said when he was on the cross I was on his mind and for me to think about this after all these years and I read this story and to know that Jesus could have stricken every one of them dead he could have struck them dead that but he said father forgive him for they know not what they do and to the thief on the cross that recognize him as the Son of God said Remember Me this day or I said remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said this day now this argument that he didn't get baptized that's because that was before the grace dispensation that was of and it doesn't matter when Jesus said it it made it so this day shalt thou be with me in paradise and one day soon I plan to join him there and I plan to see every one of you there in your own time father we thank you tonight for your goodness God I thank you for your love I thank you that you thought enough of me and thought enough for First Apostolic Church to hang there on that cross that our sins be forgiven for you word says for without the shedding of blood there's no remission and God your blood was shed for us that we could be forgiven could be washed white as snow and I pray that we'll leave this place tonight with thankful hearts with a new realization and revelation of the goodness of God and the power of forgiveness dismisses from this place but not from your presence bring us back this weekend for another great weekend in Jesus name we pray God bless you