Jesus' cleansing of the temple demonstrates his divine authority and zeal for God's house, challenging the religious establishment's commercialization. He performed his first public miracle at the wedding in Cana, turning water into wine, signifying the abundance of joy he brings. Jesus asserted his authority by predicting his resurrection, stating, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," referring to his body. The sermon emphasizes that Christ's resurrection is the ultimate proof of his deity, and his intimate knowledge of humanity underscores his divine nature and ability to provide strength and comfort.
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And the Jews passed over, was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and over through the tables, and said unto them that sold out. Take these things hence. Make not my father's house and house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house have eaten me up.
Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple. and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, walked in six years of this temple and building, and was thou veered up in three days, that he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the Scriptures and the word which Jesus had said.
Now when he was in Jerusalem, At the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. I think it must be. Seventeen, eighteen years ago, we took up John's Gospel, but it seems almost like a new book to be going to it at this time. So we want to speak on, more or less, skimming through the entire chapter.
It was back at the wedding next Sunday morning, Lord willing. You know, there are those who find Talus and in reading church history, you'll find those, and especially some of these big religious organizations. Tell us that the Lord Jesus, for poor miracles even as a boy. There's one I read, and they said the Lord Jesus was, as a boy, playing with other children, and he made a bird out of some clay. And when the bird was finished, he touched it or flew away. And they actually believed that. That's passed on, legends from generation to generation. And people actually believe this happened.
And many other things they claim the Lord Jesus did at the child and in young manhood, and people believe it. Well, I don't know how they read these words. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee. The first miracle he ever performed in his life was right here at the age of about thirty years. And so he did not perform any miracles prior to this occasion. This was the beginning of his public ministry. But for anything that you read about Christ performing miracles before this, just forget it. He did not perform any miracles until this occasion.
Do you find the Lord Jesus, and he's approving of this wedding, as we mentioned this morning? Heavenly, he was in perfect sympathy with this young couple being united, and thus he was glad to accept the invitation and be present on this occasion. One stopped to think there were a lot of things going on today. Not long ago, I read about a Hollywood star saying he had been married eleven times. Could you imagine the Lord being present at any one of those weddings? It would have been a disgrace. He would have frowned on the whole situation. An utter disregard of what the Bible teaches about waiting, about being married.
And yet today people seem to glory in the fact of being married a number of times. Some even change mates, and think it's all right. How far removed they are from the Word of God. But here's a wedding, and the Lord Jesus was happy to be present. I'm sure, have there been anything wrong such as an unequal yoke? He wouldn't have been present. If he had interreduced them, because he said later to the Spirit that we were not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And had one of these been a gentile, I don't think the Lord would have been present.
As a Jew, he knew what the Bible taught. God did not want his people to be married to any other nationality. They were to be a separate people. And I'm sure he would have found had one been a Jew, the other been a Gentile. The Gentile was looked upon as a heathen, the unsaved. And I'm sure had one of these been unsaved, Christ would have shook his head. This is an unequal yoke. And I cannot endorse it with my presence. The Lord Jesus would only associate himself with that. which was according to his will.
And he performed the miracle as he did to add a joy to that occasion. And he wouldn't have done that had there been something wrong at this wedding. It's nice for us to keep these things in mind. Next to your salvation, the most important thing in life is marriage. There's no question about that. After a person saves, and that's the most wonderful experience in a man's life, to know I'm saved, I'm going to heaven. The next important thing is being married. I've taken the first step, and I'm very happy about that.
I've not tried the second yet. The Lord hadn't given me enough grace for that. But nevertheless, it's a very serious step, and a very important one. No doubt a wedding of the Lord is wonderful. And he means it should be so. And yet not for all people. He makes it plain that some remain single for the kingdom of heaven's sake. But I do believe it's a real blessing. When a man finds Miss Wright, a Miss Wright finds Mr. Wright. In other words, it's all right. If you get God's choice, in your marriage selection so we find this remarkable incident the Lord Jesus being present on this occasion the Lord Jesus certainly by his presence endorses something of a social nature because he was a social being he wasn't a hermit the Lord Jesus didn't stay in seclusion and the very fact he went to this wedding believe there's an element of social life in Christianity.
Christianity in no way endorses anything of a melancholy nature. Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ wants his people to be happy. And on this occasion, the element of happiness was lacking. They had no wine which speaks of joy. And so he not only went there, but he knew there was going to be a need, and so he met that need. And he turned the water in to wine. As I say, the wine speaks of joy. Sad, the marriage that has lost all joy. I have led a few marriages, and that would happen.
The joy has gone out. There sit the six waterpops of stone for the purifying of the Jews. Just to carry out... Jewish ritual. They wash not their hands lest they eat bread. But these water pots that speak of the ritual and formalism of the temple, they sat there empty. But here the Lord Jesus Christ, he introduces the element of joy on the occasion. How sad when joy has gone out and married is just a formality, it's just a ritual. That's sad. It's sad in the physical realm, the human realm.
The loss of that first love is sadder still in the spiritual. When that first loss of love to Christ, oh yes, Christ was everything. I've given up all for Jesus. This vain world means not to me. And true conversion, with its first love to Christ, can become a formality. Our virtue, the heart has gone out. of your Christian life. He says you've left. He didn't say you've lost it. He says you've left it. You've left your first month. That's what he wants us to enjoy, love, and he brings it in here in connection with this wine, the water he turned into wine.
When you think of the Lord Jesus and what Mary did on this occasion, Mary had been living under a shadow. for thirty years. It was noise abroad that Christ was an illegitimate child, and she, a fallen woman. You remember over in chapter eight, the critics of the Lord Jesus, when he struck them with the sword, tricked their conscience, they barked back, we're not born of fornication, implying that he walked. And that was quite common, that the Lord Jesus was illegitimate, which meant that Mary was a fallen woman. And here it is, Mary, all during those thirty years, under suspicion.
Did she long for the day to come when the Lord Jesus would demonstrate that he was indeed the Son of the living God? Of course she had the message of the angel. She in her own heart knew the truth, but others didn't want to believe that. Here this woman tells us an angel came and told her she was going to have a child, a son, without a human father. He laughed at it. Impossible. So Mary was under suspicion. Did she long for the time when the Lord Jesus was stepped forth and proved that he was the Son of God and that she had been a virgin when Jesus Christ was born?
Was it here when she hoped He will perform that miracle when there was no wine, and she said to him, "'To him, no wine. Could you demonstrate now that you are the Son of God?' The Lord Jesus turned. He said, "'Woman, what have I to do with thee?' Mine hour has not yet come. I don't think he said that harshly. Not for a moment. Jews of the rule were subject to their parents up until about thirty, and he was a good Jew. In chapter twelve of Luke, when they found them, he had been lost for three days, but he went down with them from Jerusalem and became subject unto them, and the Lord Jesus was subject to his parents.
And undoubtedly the supposed father Joseph had died. And Mary was a widow. No mention of Job. And undoubtedly, the Lord was subject to her. But the time came when he had to exert his authority and become independent. And he did it here. Here the Lord Jesus exerted his independence. This is the time. And he said, on this occasion, woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet done, but it is going to come when I, by my resurrection, will demonstrate that I come into this world to establish a new relationship, not the human relationship.
Find at the end of Matthew twelve. If Paul said, if I have known Christ after the flesh, henceforth know I him no more, I know Christ not as a man on earth, but as a living man in heaven. Here the Lord Jesus is beginning to exert his authority. As the Son of God, now he's subject to his father's name. This is a remarkable thing in connection with this amazing incident. You'll notice now he turns to the servants, or Mary does, And she turned to the servant. She said, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
There's much other words. She seemed to be a step out of the picture. You listen to him. Whatsoever he. And that whatsoever is a big word. Whatsoever means obey him in everything. That's exactly what it means. Whatsoever he. sayeth unto you, do it. Now these water pots of stone are very interesting. There are six of them. And I was quite surprised this week in looking up an old Bible dictionary to find out the size of these water pots. There they sat for the purifying of the Jews. I found out that these water pots, some buried in size, ran from eighteen to twenty-seven gallons per pot.
And if you think of six of them, that means the aggregate gallons, a hundred and eight to a hundred and sixty-two gallons of wine. And the Lord didn't single out one pot. They filled that one. There must have been a lot of people at that wedding. I know one thing there was a lot of wine. Because they filled those water pots up to the brim of all six of them. And he turned them into wine. Of course, the feast isn't going on six or seven days, as we did on those occasions. How wonderful the Lord is demonstrating here the abundance of His joy. All this wine, there's an abundance.
He didn't put one star in the sky but millions. He didn't put one flower on earth but fields of flowers. He doesn't give us one blessing but a lifetime of blessings. He's a God of abundance. And here he fills all these water pots with wine. How wonderful. Plenty of joy on this happy old Jesus. You know this is the Lord's human instrumentality. It doesn't say whether he stood or whether he sat in the temple. But he did give orders. His attention was drawn to the fact that there was no wine, but there sat six water pots of stone.
He said, fill them up with water. He told the servants to do that. He gave order. And when they filled them up, he'll speak more about this, maybe not, about the significance of filling them up to the brim. Then he performed the medical return, the water into wine. Then he said to this servant, draw out now. Now he didn't go and get the water and put in the water, but neither when he turned it into wine, did he take the wine to the table. The servants did it. He told the servants, there he sat and he gave orders. That's what he's doing today. He's sitting at God's right hand.
He's performed the miracle of his resurrection. And at God's right hand, he's giving orders to his servants. Go and tell. Romans ten. How shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent? And he said in this prayer, as we mentioned this morning, As thou hast sent me into the world, so send I them. Christ is sitting at God's right hand. He's not here on earth. And as he gave orders on this occasion to the servants, so our orders are played. Go and tell. about this miracle, the greatest of all miracles, my resurrection from among the dead.
Be clear. And that's the story of the infant church in the beginning. That's what they went forth to portray Christ his risen. So here you find the Lord Jesus performing this amazing miracle on this occasion. And the satisfaction is very noticeable here. When the governor, and you'll notice here the governor, he didn't compliment the Lord for this medicine. He called the bridegroom, the young bridegroom. And he complimented the young bridegroom. He said, this is the best wine I've ever drank. I guess the bridegroom was just as surprised as he walked. Well, it's kept the best wine until now.
You know, it was amazing how the governor didn't recognize that it was Christ who did this. He called the bridegroom. Christ seemed left out of the picture, and he complimented the young bridegroom for this choice wine. This is amazing. Now you come to the passage we spoke on a little last week about these money changes. As I read through this last night, I couldn't help but think, here we are in a world when People are making money out of religion. That's what these men were doing. Money mad men.
Here they were at the temple at the time of Passover. These money changes, and you couldn't put anything into the temple or bring any money into the temple unless it was Jewish coin, Jewish money. Because nothing like Roman coin with a picture or image of the emperor on it could be put into the treasury of the temple. That was barred. They had to have Jewish money for the Jewish temple, the half-sheetful of the sanctuary. These men sat there in the temple, and they exchanged Roman coins for Jewish coins. Not only so, plus that, the money they made in selling goats and sheep and off, and they really made money.
They made money and the Lord knew it. They were making money out of those people. And it's so impuriated the Lord Jesus. He says, My house should be called, a house of prayer, and you've made it a den of these. Here you have the zeal of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was impuriated these money chains. And you notice what happened to these money chains. He certainly didn't handle them lightly. He handled them rotten, making money out of religion. What did they care about the Passover? That was a very serious experience in Israel's history, that dark night when the angel of the Lord passed through the land.
God says the firstborn in every home is going to die. And unless I see the blood of the lamb on the two side posts in Upper Lintel, the firstborn going to die. That was a solemn night. That was an unforgettable night in the history of the Jewish nation. What a whale went up on that land that night when the firstborn, whatever lamb was not found, it bludged on the side posts in Lintel. It was a whale of anguish. The firstborn had been slain. An unforgettable night, a dark night. Israel was never to forget it.
But here, thousands of years later, they're going through the formality. Those men who are making money, changing money, they weren't even thinking of that night. This was just a religious occasion. They're going through the ritual, and we're going to make money out. The Passover did not affect their hearts. It would get monetary. Sad to say that's true today. Today there are those agencies and they're making money hand over gifts, not just out of religion, but out of Christianity. Christianity.
I presume you read some of those articles in the paper a couple of weeks ago. I read it through every one of them and flipped them out. Sad to say there are those that may possibly be Christian. And they're making money out of Christianity. Plenty of it. If these men here had lost the grip and seriousness and soberness of the Passover night and they were busy making money, I believe men today who will make money out of Christianity, the grip of Calvary, the meaning of the cross, the seriousness and soberness of the cross, the grip of the heart. They wouldn't try to make a nick out of Christianity.
While I was in North Carolina, there was a man I'm convinced he was saved. I could give his name. He was on WBBB, the radio station I was on. And he seemed to climb pretty fast, quite gifted. And when he would come back from a tour, you know what he did when he came to town? He had a young wife with three little kids, one, two, three years of age. He went and stayed in a plush hotel in Greensboro. He said the kid got on his nerves. There he stayed and went down to his dining hall and lived like a king.
There's his wife, at home looking after the youngster. And him are born against Christians. And E.Z. Jones, the manager of that station, called me into his office one day. He said to me, Brother Lipson, don't think you can't scum it. And he mentioned the same thing. He said, he went on the radio this morning, and he told the people that if they didn't send in money to pay for that, we'd broadcast, he was going to have to offer it. He said he'd already paid it. Making a statement like that, how terrible to think that men could cheapen Christianity by making money out of it.
And yet to find it right here in this passage, these men were doing the very same thing. Two men were walking down a busy street in New York. One was a naturalist. He was enthroned with nature. because he was walking with the crowd. His friend stopped. He said, I hear a cricket. A cricket. And he walked right to it. There was a pot over there, and he walked over there. He heard a cricket. It was all that noise. He was a naturalist. He was tuned to nature. And he turned to his friend. He says, now let me show you. He pulled out a half a dollar.
He said he hadn't hit the payment. He said there were about fifty people turned around. They heard the jingle of money. They had an ear for that, but they couldn't hear it. Today, people have an ear for money, but for what they're after? Money. It'd be a sad thing to have to face the Lord, and guilty of filthy lucre. That's what daylander did. he was more or less making money out of God's people. And I trust that I'll never be guilty of such a thing as that. And so we find this situation.
And how the Lord Jesus, he made a remarkable mistake. I figured the crux of the whole thing. I really didn't notice it until last night. And it's wonderful what the Lord Jesus said on this occasion. He's no sissy. He's not feminine. The Lord Jesus Christ is the most manliest man, the person that ever lived. And here the Son of God, I began wondering, are there reasons why he was as he was? While this occasion single-handed, what must his disciples have thought of this good? And saw the Lord Jesus single-handed, clean out the moth, Grove them up, threw them on the altar, and the tables and everything.
Clean the business. And no one challenged them. No one fought back. But Son of God, in my opinion, was a real man in every respect of the world, vigorous, strong, courageous. I wonder why. He had no sin. And in today's world, sin will weaken the human body, even out of a Christian. Sin is working enough to bring forth fruit unto death, not to mention carousing. The Lord Jesus had no sin.
There was no weakening element in his body. He lived a clean life. You find men today. who live clean lives, they discipline themselves, they watch themselves, in many cases they have good health, they're strong. The Lord Jesus without sin, he knew nothing that was detrimental, he did nothing that was detrimental to his body. And it's a startling fact that Jesus Christ hadn't given his life on the cross, he that lived to this day. There was nothing in him to bring forth fruit unto death, that the unnaturalness of his death he laid down his life.
No sin within him. There was nothing in him that was weak. There was everything in him that was strong. Strong. And the Lord Jesus showed his strength on this occasion when he cleaned this place out of him. It showed his holiness. He is gracious, but he is righteous. He's merciful, but he's holy. And he shows that right here. He wasn't going to tolerate this situation in the temple. You take a judge. He takes off his robe at the courthouse. He goes home. As he enters into the door, his children come and they leap into his arms.
He embraces them. He sits down, they climb on his knees. They're not afraid of him. Yet he's the judge. That judge goes to the courthouse, he sits on that bench, and those guilty criminals are afraid of them. They tremble out. They're not his children. A nice thing when he's our father, we're not afraid of him. But if we sin, we might well be afraid. The world trembles. At least they should a million do. They tremble at the thought of God, the judge of the universe. But when you come to know him as your father, it's something else.
And this one who cleaned out this temple that day, strong and powerful, courageous, but he wouldn't tolerate sin nor evil. You might well think of it. And when we have a clear conscience, we're happy in his presence. If we have a guilty conscience, we're not. You'll notice... what he said. My father's house. This is what thrilled me. My father's house is verse sixteen. And said unto them, That soul does. Take these things, hence make not my father's house. Here he declares his deity.
My father's house. No priest in the Old Testament. No prophet ever used that land. David in his most intimate moment, never called God my father. Jehovah, not my father. Here's the Lord Jesus, declaring definitely he was a son of God. Make not my father's house a den of thieves. How wonderful this is. And then you'll notice when he did this, His disciples thought of a text. You have that in verse sixteen.
They watched their zeal on this occasion. Verse seventeen. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house have eaten me up. The disciples thought of a scripture. They watched their zeal. of the Lord Jesus Christ. That text came into the mind. Why, he's zealous. He's zealous for his God. He's zealous for the temple. And he cleaned them out. His zeal was made none of this. What is zeal? He'll simply mean enthusiasm, fervor, earnestness, great interest, ardor, eagerness, eagerness.
All this was evidence in the Lord Jesus. And the disciples watched his deal. is enthusiasm. I wonder if the world can watch mine. Are my enthusiastic about being saved? Is there an ardor about me, a fervor, an eagerness, an urgency that people can see? Maybe if they see it, they think of a scripture, a scripture of the discipleship. They saw his ease. when he said prophetically the zeal of my heart he said that in verse for the verse seventy and disciples remember that is written the zeal of thine house is love for the house of God has eaten me up devoured me notice the opposite of this opposite of this is certainly apathy we mentioned that this morning you don't have zeal for Christ what have you got You're disinterested.
You're not enthusiastic. You're just lazy. You're characterized by apathy. That's the opposite of zeal. God help us to be jealous. One of our dear sisters said last Sunday night she was glad I spoke on what the Lord did because they gave her some relief when she lost her temper, thinking the Lord lost his. No, the Lord didn't lose his temper. To lose your temper is an indication of natural weakness. There was no weakness in the Lord Jesus. He practiced righteous indignation.
Be angry and sin not. And his eyes cleft when he took that whip and he drove out those men. That was righteous indignation. That was pleasing to God. And he didn't sin. A person can be righteously indignant over things that go on today in the religious world. Christ did that. And he didn't sin. Righteously indignant. I wonder what the Lord would do today if he walked into some of our churches. What would he drive on?
Well, I believe if it were a worship meeting, he'd drive out all the unconverted to begin with. No Jews, no Gentiles were allowed in the temple. They couldn't even get in the court. There's God's place to worship. And no Gentiles would get in there. And Gentiles speak to the unconverted. God doesn't want an unconverted person at the worship meeting, that one thing he would disprove of, disprove of. I believe he'd drive out all modernism. How could he tolerate going into a place that believed that he was not the virgin-born Son of God?
He wouldn't tolerate that if he'd drive them out. Those who didn't believe in the inspiration of the Word of God, he'd drive them up. Those who didn't believe in a literal resurrection, he'd drive them up. And he'd go down the line. He'd do a lot of driving up. There are some things in our lives that he'd like to drive us. And he can do it. All we need is a little exercise before God on our knees. and you'll find some of those things leaving. You'll drive them out. Sometimes you can pretty be pretty firm in doing it, as we was on this occasion.
And his eyes flashed, and he took that with, and he used it. What a day we're living in when we think that the things are allowed to go on in the name of Christianity. You'll notice something remarkable here. in verse seventeen. I'll go with that again, and said unto them, That sold out, Take these things hence, make not my father's house a merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thy house have eaten me up. Then answered the Jews, Don't I want you to get this. Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us?
seeing that thou doest these things. Give us your authority. What claim do you have to clean this place up like this? You're just an ordinary man, a fisherman. Where do you get your authority for cleaning out the temple and throwing us out of this place? And this is the most remarkable statement in the New Testament. He says, kill me, put me to death, and I'll raise my body up on the third day. I'll show you who I am. You put me to death.
He spoke of the temple of his body. That's what he said. Destroy this temple in verse nineteen. In three days I'll raise it up. That is my authority for doing what I do. That was a challenge, wouldn't it? that'll settle all the questions, solve all the problems, put me to death. And if I don't raise on myself on the third day the whole thing, the flute is a fate. You tell it. Isn't it amazing? And I was struck with it. And you'll notice what we read in verse twenty to two.
When, therefore, he was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus Christ. Years after, this incident, evidently, the disciples didn't really believe that he was the Son of God, not until he rose from the dead. Then all doubt fled. The disciples said he indeed is. the Son of God. His miracles don't declare that He's the Son of God. That's why He wouldn't commit Himself unto Him in verse twenty-three.
Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in Him when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit, and that word committed the same in the original as believed. But Jesus did not believe in them because He knew all men. He didn't demonstrate his deity by the miracles he performed, driving the people out, turning the water into wine, open the eyes of the blind. That's not the way he demonstrated his deity. He demonstrated his deity unmistakably by his resurrection. Why, he says, many shall say in that day, we've cast our demons, we've performed miracles, they were not the Son of God.
People come before miracles today. That doesn't prove a thing. Only one did this. He laid down his life. He took it up again. You can't dispute that when only the Son of God could do it. He demonstrated he was the Son of God. He was all he claimed to be by raising up his body. He challenged, destroyed this temple, and in three days I raised it up. And that's why they were quite disturbed when Jesus Christ was crucified and he was buried, and when he was not in the tomb on the third day.
Please say amen. Now we're trapped. If he rises from the dead, he risen, our whole arguments crumble. That's why they said to someone to keep it. Now we're going to give you some money, and you say some people come and stole his body. This is the message that shook the world. Jesus Christ told them where his authority was. I'm the Son of God. I'll prove it by my resurrection from the dead. How amazing this passage is. How well we might, and might well, we rejoice in what we have in this remarkable chapter.
Christ, that is amazing resurrection. I want to conclude. with our last verse. He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Yes, he knew. He knows what's in your heart. He knows what's in mind. If there's sin in your heart, he knows it. And he knows what sin it is. If there's sorrow in your heart, he knows it. If there's cares in your heart, he knows it. If there are burdens on your heart, he knows it. Whether you want him to know it or not, he knows it.
Whether you're really saved or not, he knows. He knows what's in there. That's searching, isn't it? I can't pull anything over his eye. He knows what's in there. I read something and it didn't come from where it did. I wouldn't like to believe it. But it came from... an English preacher. And they're not quite given to exaggeration. If an English preacher, one in high circles over there tells something, it's very often sound. They're not given to much exaggeration. But this man said that he had a church.
But you know if the young man come in each day, just the afternoon, and he would sit in the back pew, He stayed there about five minutes to get up and go out. So he spoke to a young man. He said, why do you do this every day? And that's quite often the case. In New York, they have churches open all the time for people to be able to sit down. Well, he said, I'll tell you why. He said, I get so tired some days. I'm worn out. And he said, I'd like to come in. And I just sit down here and I say, Lord, this is Jim. I'm tired.
I want you to give me some strength. And he says, you know, the Lord pours in that strength and grace. If I sit there and tell him who I am, what I need, and I go out to feel well. So we told the preacher that. Then one day the preacher got a call and he went to the hospital. He went to the hospital. Jim was in the hospital. so the preacher came in and when he came in Jim asked the others to go out he said I want to be left alone with my pastor he said pastor you know when they brought me in here they thought I was unconscious he said then I heard them saying he's going to die there's no hope he said when they brought me in I've left the foot alone for a few minutes And he said, I heard a knock at the door, and he said, I opened my eyes, and no one was there.
But he said, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a voice said, I am Jesus. Jim, I've come to take you home. Don't be afraid. I'll go with you through the valley. He turned, he said, preacher. I'm not afraid. He said, I'm going home. I'm going to meet the deal of the Lord. And I want you to know right now, I'm not afraid. I'm Jim. And the Lord said, Jim, I'm Gene.
I've come to take you home. I thought of the simplicity. Put your name in there. Jack, Jim, Mary. Someday you sit down. Lord, I'm tired. I'm really heavy-hearted. I'm married. I need help. Thanks for the Lord says, I'm Jesus. And you get your help. And through life, when the end comes, and you know it's the end. And he says, I'm Jesus. Don't be afraid. I'll see you soon.
I'll give you the value of you. I'm Jesus. He knows what is in man. That's the secret of Christianity. He knows. No need anybody telling me about anybody in my audience. He knows. You know. But he knows. He knows your heart. He knows mine. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who submit to thy presence, we ask thy blessing, upon thy word, we thank thee for it. How wonderful to know, for us to know, that he knows. He thanked thee for the many times in simplicity of his child.
We've called upon him. We've given our name. He responded. And so he knows us. Others may not. We thank thee, thou knowest us. So may we realize that this one who manifested his glory, his power, on this occasion, is the same at thy right hand. The centuries have not changed him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Blessed are my word to our hearts. We ask it in a worthy and precious name. Amen.