Voddie Baucham

Fill a room with people hearing the gospel, and there will be different responses. And that response is not based on demographics. That response is not based on ethnicity. It's not based on education. It's not based on income or wealth. The response to the gospel. You take two twins who are not only raised in the same family by the same parents, but who share the same DNA. And they can hear the gospel at the same time. And one finds it beautiful and the other finds it repulsive. Because there's something else at work.

That's why those folks who say, you know, I would go to church, but you know, there's a lot of stuff in my life that I got to get straightened out first. Help you. I would come to God, but I'm not worthy of God yet. When I get worthy of God, then I'll come to God. If you could get yourself worthy of God, you wouldn't need God. You can't get yourself worthy of God. There is nothing in you that would satisfy God. On your best day, it's filthy rags. That's not the answer.

بویژه در مورد اپلوس در نظر بگیرید. او در مورد یونانیان صحبت می‌کنه در قرنتس جایی که یونانیان هستن و به دنبال حکمت هستن و عاشق سخنوری هستن. در نظر بگیرید مسیحیانی که در قرنتس بودن و اپلوس براشون صحبت می‌کرد که در زمینه سخنوری استاد بود. هر آنچه که یونانیان به‌ش احترام می‌گذاشتن، در او خلاصه می‌شد. و بعد احتمالاً کلیسا می‌گفتن اگر ما این فرد را داشته باشیم در بین یونانیان کار بزرگ انجام می‌شه و همه ایمان می‌آورن.

When we have this, then we'll have the kind of marriages that will cause the world to stop and take notice and eventually come to us and say, can you help us? Because we would give anything to have what you have. My wife and I have had millionaires in our home asking us to help them rescue their marriages. Millionaires sitting at our table saying we've got everything and we would give it all away to have what you two have. Why? Because they bought a lie. Don't you do that.

But you know what? I meet people who resent their parents all the time. And here's usually the difference in the story. Their mother was working like a slave, not because she was a single teenage mother who had to, but because she wanted more stuff. And she thought stuff was more important than her children. and so she sacrificed her children on the altar of prosperity and instead of giving herself to her children she gave nice things to her children somehow thinking that number one she could pay somebody ten dollars an hour and they would give her children what God designed her to give them and secondly somehow thinking that giving her children toys that got bigger as they got older would make up for the fact that she chose to sacrifice them on the altar of prosperity those people are the ones who have problems with their mothers.

Y de hecho esto es lo que decimos en nuestros votos de boda. Y si yo no estuviera en el punto de vista de la permanencia, yo tuviera que buscar una manera de cambiar lo que decimos cuando hacemos matrimonios. Porque los votos de boda son votos de boda promesas del punto de vista de la permanencia del matrimonio. decimos en la pobreza o en la riqueza en lo mejor o en lo malo en la enfermedad o en la salud para mejor o para mal déjame te pregunto algo el adulterio es parte de lo bueno o de lo malo es de lo malo y eso fue parte de las promesas que se hicieron cuando se hizo la boda olvidarte de todos los demás. ¿Hasta cuándo? ¿Hasta que él te traicione? ¿O hasta cuando tú te aburras? No. ¿Hasta cuándo? ¿Hasta que mi pareja no haga esto? No. ¡Hasta que nos separe la muerte! Esas son las promesas de la del matrimonio.

و در یوهنا فصل 14، در همون شبیه که به او خیانت میشه، خداوند این مراسلیم را تحسیص میکنه و به این شکل شاگردانش تسلیم میده قبل از اینکه از این جهان بره یوهنا فصل 14 دل شما مسترب نشود به خدا ایمان آوردید به من نیز ایمان آوردید در خانه پدر من منزل بسیار است وگرنه به شما میگفتم میروم تا برای شما مکانی حاضر کنم وگر بروم و از برای شما مکانی حاضر کنم باز میایم و شما را برداشت و با خود خواهم برد تا جایی که من میباشم شما نیز باشید و جایی که من میروم میدانید و راه را می دانید خداوند ما رفته تا جایی و برای ما فراهم کنه او باز خواهد گشت برای ما مسیحیان این چیزی که ما اعلام می کنیم در مراسم شام ربانی

A dear friend of mine, Dan Urey, he's a pastor of a church in Phoenix. His wife has multiple sclerosis. I was with them a few months ago. And she is so advanced in this disease now that she's in a wheelchair, and she can't walk, and she can't get around, and they're both advancing in age. And I spent the day with them. And everywhere they went, he would grab her arms, and he'd wrap them around his neck, and he'd grab her Do the same thing again. Struggle to get her in the car. Get the chair in the car. Get to where they're going. Same thing again. Over and over and over. He bathes her. He feeds her. He takes her to the bathroom. You don't get that with the Greco-Roman myth of romantic love. Cupid doesn't give you that. That is the will. That is a man who says, I choose to love you with everything that I have for the rest of our life together. I choose to love you. That is what you're looking for. They don't look like they used to when they first got married. So if they built their marriage on that, it would be gone. She can't even get around like she used to. If they built their marriage on that, it would be gone. Do you not think he gets tired?

I thought about this. You know, the last couple of years I've had to cancel tours in Israel. Last year, I was supposed to be leaving a few days after October 7th to lead a tour in Israel. That got canceled. This year, I'm supposed to be leaving to do two tours, one at the end of this month, one at the beginning of November. We had to cancel those as things heat up over there. And so it's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to lead a tour in Israel. there is something powerful and spiritually moving about reading the Bible and being able to say that happened right here. It's hard to put into words. And somebody asked me once, you know, what it was like, and I talked about what it was like, and they talked about how they wish they could have that experience. And I said, you can, every time you take the Lord's Supper. What? Listen, that night, Jesus is with his disciples. And they're at this very familiar meal, this Passover meal, but he's about to pour an entirely different meaning into it. So he takes this bread and he breaks it and he gives it to him. He says, this is my body, which is for you. Take this and eat it. He takes the cup. This is my blood of the new covenant. He hasn't died yet, folks. They don't fully understand what he means yet. It is only later that he's going to be arrested and then beaten and then nailed to a tree and then die this gruesome, bloody death. It's only after that, that they eat this bread again, and they drink this cup again, and they are reminded of what Jesus meant when he said those words. Something happens when you physically, tangibly experience something connected to a memory. And that's what they did, and that's what we do. You eat that bread. and physically, tangibly, you're reminded of a spiritual truth and a spiritual reality. And there is communion in that. And you drink that cup, physically, tangibly, you're reminded of this real thing that took place. And there is communion in that. And it is serious. It is not like any bread that you ever eat any other time in that regard. And so we are sober. We are serious. We are not joyless, but we think rightly.

شما از مردم می‌خواهید تا در برابر خداوند عیسی مسیح تسلیم بشند به عنوان یک نجات دهنده. در زمان باستان اگر شما می‌خواستید نجات دهنده‌ای را به مردم معرفی کنید که در برابر او تسلیم بشند و به او ایمان بیاورند شما باید یک ابرمرد را معرفی می‌کردید. کسی که قدرت داشت و ثروت داشت. زیرا آن‌ها به قدرت و ثروت احترام می‌گذاشتن. اما کسی که مصلوب شده، منظورش این بود که آن فرد ضعیفه، قدرتی ندارد. و به احتمال زیاد آن فرد یک جنایتکاره. و کسی به دنبال چنین فردی نمی‌آید. کسیانی که مصلوب می‌شن، چنین افرادی بودن.

It's interesting, you know, when I was a boy, I was fascinated with gangsters. I just was. Probably because I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, surrounded by gangsters. But I was fascinated with the old gangsters. Right? With the guys who wore double-breasted pinstripe suits and fedoras and machine guns. The combination of those things, the wingtips, the whole deal. I was just fascinated. And the interesting thing about that to me was that even in this world, We think of the world of gangsters and mobsters as this anything goes kind of world, but it's really not. There's rules. And in many ways, they're more serious about the rules than people who live outside of their worlds. But there's an entire world that they live in with rules that just make sense to them. And in that world, there's certain things that you do, and that means I've got to kill you. And it just makes sense. And if you're outside of that world looking into that world, you go, that's crazy. Not if you're in it. If you're in it, it's completely logical.

Again, you can put twins in the same room, and it has happened on a number of occasions. Many of you have multiple siblings. Some of you are here today, and you are a follower of Christ, and your siblings who were raised with you by the same parents, in the same family, maybe even in the same church, are not Christians. or maybe it's the other way around maybe you're here today at the invitation of someone and you grew up in the church you grew up in a family where you heard the gospel and you have siblings and parents and nieces and nephews and cousins and uncles who have come to faith in Christ but you have not Because the beauty of the gospel is not something that we access and we understand through our human effort. It's not mathematics. It's not if you add this plus this, then you get that. It's not a formula.