April 19, 2025 • 24 mins
When you join us for the next Treasured Truth, Pastor Ford will encourage us to remember that Christ took the sting of death so that we wouldn’t have to. Oh grave, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? Christ has achieved the victory over death and is alive! And because He’s alive, we are alive too! So, join us as we conclude the message called, “Run Tell Dat,” on the next Treasured Truth.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
That's what Jesus Christ did. He took the sting of death.
O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is
thy sting? But thanks be to God for the victory
through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's alive. And because he's alive,
we are alive too.
S2 (00:24):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm
Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us. As today we're continuing
a message. Run tell dat and pastor. We began last
time taking a look at what the gospel is, the
good news of Jesus. And you're just talking a moment ago,
the fact that he took that penalty, that sting of death.
(00:47):
And if we really understand what Jesus did for us
on the cross, I think we are going to feel
that compulsion or that need to go and tell that.
S1 (00:58):
Oh, yeah, you just can't help it. when you're choosing
a restaurant. Do you go to the one that has
the real long line? Or do you go to the
one where you can just walk in? Well, I don't
know about everybody else. I'll wait in the line, because
if everybody's waiting in that line, that tells me I'm
going to be able to go in there and buffet
my body. Amen. And then what do you do when
(01:21):
you come out of there? And the food is good? Man.
You tell it, man. You've got to go to this place. Yeah.
They have some great food. Well, one preacher long ago
said it best. The gospel. Just one beggar telling another
beggar where to find bread. Yeah. You know, and say, look,
if your soul is thirsty, like Isaiah said, come and
(01:43):
buy water that's free, you know. And so that's oxymoronic.
But most people would say that it's not oxymoronic. Come
buy water that's free. Well, wait a minute. Well, how
do you buy water that's free? It's free to me.
It cost Jesus his life on the cross. There's somebody
who loves me more than anyone could ever love me
(02:06):
on a human level. Yeah. He loved me so much
that he died for me while I was his enemy. And, man,
come on, Steve. Who wouldn't tell that?
S2 (02:16):
Yeah. And for the person who says, pastor, I'm terrified
to share my faith. I'm scared what people are going
to think about me. I think, well, let me just
put it to you this way. How do you respond
to the person who is not sharing their faith, because
they are concerned about what those around them are going
to think?
S1 (02:34):
I would say there's a person who really, yet, at
this particular point in time, have not comprehended the magnitude
of what has been given to them in their so
great salvation. But one day they will. And you won't
be able to shut them up.
S2 (02:54):
Amen to that. Well, we're going to continue a message
from First Corinthians chapter 15 today. So I hope you'll
open your Bible and join us there. As we continue
with run! Tell that here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (03:07):
Yeah, the content is the gospel and it determines where
you will spend eternity. Somebody asked me, do you preach
the full gospel? I said, yes, I do. I preach
the full gospel. I preach that Jesus was God who
became a man who died on an old rugged cross, buried,
and then rose again the third day, ascended in the
(03:29):
right hand of the father, and is soon coming. King.
That's as full as it gets. It doesn't get any
fuller than that. Amen. That's it. And so it is.
And we know it. It is the content of the
gospel that saved us. Okay. Alright, alright. See, it was
the gospel that took that 40 out of your hand
and put a Bible in it. It was the gospel
(03:49):
that turned your cursing tongue into praising lips. It was
the gospel that took you from the party house, the jailhouse,
the crack house, the frat house, the school house, the penthouse,
the bar house, the outhouse, the white house, even your house,
and brought you to the church house. Yeah. It was
the gospel that took that blunt, that bud from your lips.
And now you get high on the Holy Ghost. It
(04:10):
was the gospel that stopped you from sleeping around with
every woman that was stupid enough to sleep with you,
and now you're celibate. If you're single or if you're married,
you're a homosexual. You get your sex at home. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, sister.
It was the gospel that kept you from getting your
self esteem, from the fact that you have a man,
(04:33):
and then you now get your self esteem from the
fact that you have the man, Jesus Christ, that all
your girlfriends think that you are crazy because you left
a man you could see to hook up with a
man you can't see. And now the man that you
can't see is taking better of you than the man
you could see. And so you're grateful that he came
(04:53):
with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Touch your life. Touch
your heart. Young people. I know you're glad that the
gospel help you understand that it's not the label on
your clothes that give you value and worth, but that
your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Yeah, it was the gospel. Yeah.
(05:15):
That content that wrote our name in the Lamb's Book
of Life. It was the gospel that put God in
our heart and pep in our step and sense in
our head, and a Bible in our hand, and a
song on our lips and a smile on our face.
Cuz I know some of y'all ain't cracked a smile yet.
(05:38):
You have to buy better makeup. Mm. But not just
the content of the scriptures. Notice the confirmation of the scriptures.
Two times it says according to the scriptures. Now you
gotta understand something. Uh, the first extant manuscript that we
have of the scriptures were written approximately A.D. 45 by Mark. John, Mark,
(05:59):
the first gospel, of which all the other gospels are,
got some of their information and a lot of their information.
And so when it says here the Scripture is talking
about the Old Testament Scripture. Now Paul says, let me
tell you something. This is not new and improved. This
is not something that you're hearing for the first time,
(06:19):
he says. Back in the Old Testament, everybody begin to
tell you about the fact that Jesus would die, be buried,
and rose again and rise again the third day in
the Old Testament. So you take Isaiah, what we call
the fifth gospel in the Old Testament. What did he say?
He said that he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised
(06:40):
for our iniquities, and the chastisement of his peace was
upon us, and by his stripes we were healed. 700
years before Jesus ever came to Calvary, Isaiah said in
the scriptures, he's going to die, be buried. And now
his resurrection is confirmation that you can trust the Bible
(07:02):
that you can trust it. As a matter of fact,
you know what amazes me in Psalm 22? It talks
about the fact that Jesus would be crucified. Well, wait
a minute. This is at least 400 years before Rome
ever started using crucifixion as a means of execution. So
God said, I done already set this thing up. He's
delivered up because of the foreordained counsel of God. And
(07:25):
God says he going to die on a cross. And
people back then were saying, what is a cross? And
now he confirms it. It means you can trust God's Word.
There's a whole lot of people that you can't trust.
There's a whole lot of people who said, like I said, I,
James Ford junior, do take thee, Lesley Ann Moore to
(07:47):
be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold
in sickness and health, and to hold to you only
until death do us part. There's a whole lot of
folk that lied, and it wasn't until death do you part.
It's till death do you part? Come on. We know
folk that lie. You. You try to turn and go
the other way because, you know, they're going to say, hey,
can you let me hold something? And, uh, you know, hey,
(08:09):
I'll pay you back on Friday. And like I said earlier,
they don't tell you which Friday. They don't tell you
what year. You ever loan somebody something and then go
back to try to get it? They done kept it
so long, they think it's theirs. There's a whole lot
of people whose word you can't trust. Like when I
said I won't be long this morning, y'all didn't believe that.
(08:34):
We preachers, we have a saying. It's called a preacher, count.
Let me tell you what a preacher count is. And
a preacher count is when somebody says to another preacher, well,
how many members you got in your church, preacher. And, uh,
the preacher says, well, about. See, that's how you keep
it from being a lie about my practice here has been.
I only count the people who come. I don't count
(08:54):
the people on the membership list. If we had everybody
that came on the membership list, we have about 2000 members, but,
you know, they didn't join other churches and all that
kind of stuff. And so you never know who you got.
So I've always only counted those who are here. Amen.
So if everybody came, we'd have about 1500 members. But
(09:15):
we're settle for about one third every. Every Sunday. Amen.
And so, what's going on? Uh, we call it speaking evangelistically.
But see, here's what it means. And I say it
all the time. Come on, help me out. The Word
of God has no expiration date. That you and I
know that I can trust this word. Why? Because the
(09:37):
grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of
our God endures forever. Because Isaiah 5511, so shall it be.
The word that goeth forth from my mouth. It will
always accomplish that which I set for it to do.
It will never return unto me. Void. Psalm 119 107.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
(09:57):
light unto my path. The Word of God is pure
and is profitable for cleansing the soul. The Word of
God is that which we need and we can trust it.
Two preachers I heard him telling about it. Two preachers
were in a guy's new. I thought it was a Rolls-Royce,
but it was a Bentley. And they were in this Bentley,
and they were in California, down that long road where
(10:18):
people go and look at the coastline, and they were
about 50 miles away from, uh, gas. And and the
other preacher looks over and he says, man, why did
you do this? Do what? That thing is on E, man.
It's on E! And so, man, I don't feel like walking.
You saw the sign next gas, 50 miles. And he
kept riding. He kept riding. He said, man, why do
(10:40):
you do this to us? He said, open up the
glove compartment and turn to the page that talks about
the gas and all that. So he turned to the
page and then he chilled to he he calmed down
because he read in the manual, uh, that this car
has two gas tanks and that whenever one runs out
of gas, you flip a button and that starts the
second one and both of them took a chill pill.
(11:02):
You know what? Why is it that one person has
lost of their mom and they go to pieces, and
another person has the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
Why one person can can have their house foreclosed and
they're giving praise to God, and another person is going
crazy and drinking and drugging and doing everything else to
(11:22):
try to deal with. Why is that? Because one man
read the manual and the other man didn't. One woman
read the manual and the other one didn't. See, when
you read the manual, it will let you know that
there is no temptation taken you, but such as common
to man. But God is faithful who will not allow
you to be tempted above that you're able to stand,
but will, with the temptation, make a way of escape,
(11:44):
that you may be able to bear it. There are
some people who read the manual, and they get comfort
because they know that the Bible says that. Count it
all joy when you fall into divers temptation, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let
patience have her perfect work that you may be complete
and entire, lacking nothing. There's some people who read the
manual where it says in Romans 828, and we know
(12:07):
that all things, not most all things, not some all things,
work together for good to those who love the Lord
and those who are called according to his purpose. There
are those who read the manual and they taking a
chill pill as we go down the road of life.
Somebody help the shelter. Somebody cool, calm and collected. You
want to know why? Because they read the manual and
(12:28):
they said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Somebody read the manual.
Weeping may endure for a night. But joy comes in
the morning. Somebody read the manual. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. Yeah. And it takes faith to
(12:49):
believe this. And the resurrection says you can trust God's word.
S2 (12:56):
And great reminder from Pastor Ford of just the power
of the resurrection and what that means in relation to
our faith, and why we can have faith and confidence
in what God says in His Word. Well, we'll get
back to that teaching in just one moment. But you're
listening to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr.
A message entitled Runteldat. Just a great encouragement for us
(13:18):
to be telling others about the opportunity to begin a
relationship with Jesus. And I hope that this program encourages
you to do just that. We'd love to hear about
it though. You can always get Ahold of us through
our website. It's Treasure Truth Radio. Click on the contact
link or you can always interact with us on social
media like Facebook or Twitter, and you'll find those links
at our website, treasure Truth radio. All right, let's get
(13:41):
back to the message again. Here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (13:45):
My last definition I gave to the Wednesday night crowd.
I told them, here's my new definition for faith. I
got about 30 or 40 definitions for faith. Here's the
last one I came up with. Faith is God giving
insight into foresight like its hindsight. Now there are folk.
Tell me. I don't know if I can believe that
(14:06):
you use faith all the time. Some of us even more.
Me and Brother Green have more faith than anybody else
in this room. Why? Because we over £300 and we
came and plopped down on the pew. We wasn't worried
about whether or not it was going to hold us.
You want to know why? That's what it's supposed to do.
(14:27):
It was designed to hold us. Amen. Got support in
the middle. And I'm like you, I sit over the
support beam. Amen. He said, I don't have faith, okay?
You don't have faith. You do have faith. You went
to a doctor. You don't know to tell him about
a disease you can't pronounce. And he wrote a prescription
(14:48):
that you couldn't read for a medicine that you can't pronounce.
And you took to a druggist that you don't know
anything about. And you get a drug that you can't pronounce,
and you take all of it because you have faith
in the doctor, in the diagnosis, in the prescription, and
(15:08):
you take the medicine all by faith. Don't tell me
you don't have faith. You got faith. Yeah, you got faith.
And then finally, finally, here's the last one. The triumph
of the Savior. Uh, yeah. You see the testimony and
and I'll I'll end on that. But I ain't going
(15:29):
to say nothing about it, because in five through nine,
you have the testimony of the spectators. Yeah. You got
the testimony of the spectators. All these people that saw him. Uh,
but but listen, look what's going on. What do you mean?
The triumph of the Savior. He rose from the dead. See,
death is inevitable, but Jesus Christ conquered death that we
can't escape. Brother was trying to tell it yesterday, and
(15:50):
I was. I was saying, oh, man, he kind of.
He kind of he kind of missed it a little
bit because here's how the story goes. Uh, that a
man was walking on 79th Street and, uh, he saw death.
He went face to face with death. And death had
a puzzled look on his face. And the man looked
at death, and he could kind of sense death is
coming for me. So he went to a wise man,
(16:12):
and he said, uh, I want to get away from death.
And he said, look, get on a plane. Go as
far as you can as quick as you can. And
that's what he did. He went to midway, got on
a plane, went to Minnesota, and when he got there,
he said, I have escaped death. But then when he
stepped out on the streets of Minnesota, he saw death.
Death tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and
(16:32):
he had the surprised look on his face. Death said,
let's go. He said, wait a minute. I ran from you.
I ran from you to get away from you. And
death said, you remember when I saw you on 79th
Street in Chicago? And I had that puzzled look on
my face? Yeah, yeah, he said, that's because I had
(16:53):
an appointment with you tonight in Minnesota, and I was
wondering how you were going to get there. Yeah. It's inevitable.
It's inevitable. Death is inevitable. Not Hebrews 927. It is
appointed unto man once to die. But when you look
at what's going on, Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Here's what he said. Revelation 118 I am he that
(17:15):
liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.
And I have the keys of death, hell, and the grave.
Nietzsche said, God is dead. I'm with the late, great
pastor S.M. Lockridge, who said, If God is dead, then
who killed him? What corner performed his autopsy? What undertaker
received his body? What newspaper carried his obituary? And why
(17:38):
wasn't I informed of his death? Because I'm the next
of kin. And so he says, listen, we need to
understand it, that Jesus Christ, at the end of the chapter,
it'll say he took the sting of death. We can't
understand it. But there was a family. They were going
to a picnic on a Saturday after a hard day
of work. They had the two kids in the back,
(17:58):
their older teenage son and their younger six year old boy.
The six year old boy was allergic to bee stings.
He could blow up and swell up and die without
a shot. And so they were on the way and
they told them, now be careful of bees. We're going
to watch you real good. We're going to put you
in your little net, he said. Okay, but while they
were traveling, a bee got in the car. Dad said,
(18:19):
we gotta pull over. But they were on a highway.
And so his big brother reached out and grabbed the
bee and put it in his hand. But that week
he had been studying entomology about bugs, and he had
compassion and and so he just grimaced. And then he
let the bee go. He tried to put him outside
the window, but he was still buzzing around in the car,
and his little brother was going, whoa, whoa. And the
(18:40):
bee was buzzing around and his dad said, I thought
you got the bee. And I thought you put it
out the car. He said, dad, I got to be.
And I tried to put it out of the car,
but I need to let my brother know the bee
can't hurt him. And he opened up his hand and
the stinger was in his hand. He had taken the
bee's sting and he was letting his brother know. Listen,
don't be upset. He can only make noise. He can't
(19:03):
sting you because the stinger is in me. That's what
Jesus Christ did for you and for me. He took
the sting of death. O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting? But thanks be to
God for the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's alive.
And because he's alive, we are alive too. And then finally,
(19:24):
and finally, the testimony of the spectators. Let me just
say this. He says, we saw by Peter, then the 12,
then James, then Paul, and 500. Now Peter is counted twice.
That means there were 514 people that saw that resurrection. 120, though,
were in the upper room after this event. My question
is this where are the 396 folk? The other folk
(19:46):
who saw and witnessed the resurrection? How come they weren't
in the upper room with the 120 that went out
and ran and told that? I came to tell somebody
that when we look at what God wants to do that.
You and I gotta run and tell that. Let me
just close. Why run? Tell that Pastor Ford? Yeah, because
of all that I said. And I ain't going to
(20:06):
recap it. Uh, but why? I watched, uh, I don't
like reality shows that much. I don't watch them. It's
a waste of my time. Uh, but there's one I
do like. And it is, uh, Undercover Boss. I'll never
forget the first one I saw, which kind of hooked
me on it, was the owner of the Cubs. Uh,
he put on an employee uniform, and he was cleaning
toilets and selling peanuts. Uh, people didn't know he was, uh,
(20:30):
because he had on their uniform. Uh, but they didn't
know he was management and service. And so he cleaned
toilets and he passed out peanuts, and he he set
himself under the authority of the one who was managing everybody. Uh,
he refused to exercise the power of his management. He
did what they did. He ate where they ate. He
took the break when they took the break. Yet he
(20:51):
was the owner of the whole thing. Finally, uh, he
revealed himself to them and then went back up to
the owner's box. And then he called one employee up
and he said you were an exemplary employee. This is
the one they were putting all the work on. This
is the one that everybody was hating on. And he said, listen,
here's what I'm going to do for you. I am
going to pay for your college education. And so he
(21:12):
paid for his college education. That's what this story is
all about. Uh, that the owner, the creator of the earth, uh,
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world.
And they that dwell therein put on the uniform of humanity,
step down, as the old preacher would say, through 42 generations.
Then he lived among us, ate among us for 33.5 years.
(21:33):
A third years Jesus Christ healed the sick and he
raised the dead. He did all of those things. He
was among us. The Bible says, he came unto his own,
and his own received him not. Oh, but he didn't
exercise the attributes of deity, because being in the form
of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal
with God, but took upon himself no reputation, and be
(21:54):
found in the fashion of a man becoming obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. And he went back up.
And guess what? One day he going to call us
or to the office? To the owner's office, and he's
going to say, you served. And everybody hated on you.
You serve because you ran and you told everything about me,
and now I'm going to reward you. Enter thou into
(22:16):
the joy of your Lord. So then what we need
to do is we need, we need. So. So can
we go home? Oh! Hold up. That's my cell. Yeah. Oh, really? Well,
(22:43):
thank you, thank thank thank you, Lord. Oh, okay. Jesus
said to let you all go home. And he said, run.
Tell that.
S2 (23:02):
Her until that. The title of today's message here on
Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr. And
a great challenge for us as well, that we do
need to be sharing the gospel with those around us.
We need to be telling that good news, and you
can actually help us do that through radio as you
give a gift of support and as you pray for
this program, and I hope you'll do that. We do
covet your prayers above all else, but if you're able
(23:24):
to stand with us financially, would you come to treasure
Truth radio.org? Click on donate and give an ongoing monthly
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Treasure Truth radio.org and click on donate. Thanks for doing that.
Thanks also to our producers, Amy Rios and Ryan McConaughey.
For Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a
production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
That's what Jesus Christ did. He took the sting of death.
O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is
thy sting? But thanks be to God for the victory
through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's alive. And because he's alive,
we are alive too.
S2 (00:24):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm
Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us. As today we're continuing
a message. Run tell dat and pastor. We began last
time taking a look at what the gospel is, the
good news of Jesus. And you're just talking a moment ago,
the fact that he took that penalty, that sting of death.
(00:47):
And if we really understand what Jesus did for us
on the cross, I think we are going to feel
that compulsion or that need to go and tell that.
S1 (00:58):
Oh, yeah, you just can't help it. when you're choosing
a restaurant. Do you go to the one that has
the real long line? Or do you go to the
one where you can just walk in? Well, I don't
know about everybody else. I'll wait in the line, because
if everybody's waiting in that line, that tells me I'm
going to be able to go in there and buffet
my body. Amen. And then what do you do when
(01:21):
you come out of there? And the food is good? Man.
You tell it, man. You've got to go to this place. Yeah.
They have some great food. Well, one preacher long ago
said it best. The gospel. Just one beggar telling another
beggar where to find bread. Yeah. You know, and say, look,
if your soul is thirsty, like Isaiah said, come and
(01:43):
buy water that's free, you know. And so that's oxymoronic.
But most people would say that it's not oxymoronic. Come
buy water that's free. Well, wait a minute. Well, how
do you buy water that's free? It's free to me.
It cost Jesus his life on the cross. There's somebody
who loves me more than anyone could ever love me
(02:06):
on a human level. Yeah. He loved me so much
that he died for me while I was his enemy. And, man,
come on, Steve. Who wouldn't tell that?
S2 (02:16):
Yeah. And for the person who says, pastor, I'm terrified
to share my faith. I'm scared what people are going
to think about me. I think, well, let me just
put it to you this way. How do you respond
to the person who is not sharing their faith, because
they are concerned about what those around them are going
to think?
S1 (02:34):
I would say there's a person who really, yet, at
this particular point in time, have not comprehended the magnitude
of what has been given to them in their so
great salvation. But one day they will. And you won't
be able to shut them up.
S2 (02:54):
Amen to that. Well, we're going to continue a message
from First Corinthians chapter 15 today. So I hope you'll
open your Bible and join us there. As we continue
with run! Tell that here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (03:07):
Yeah, the content is the gospel and it determines where
you will spend eternity. Somebody asked me, do you preach
the full gospel? I said, yes, I do. I preach
the full gospel. I preach that Jesus was God who
became a man who died on an old rugged cross, buried,
and then rose again the third day, ascended in the
(03:29):
right hand of the father, and is soon coming. King.
That's as full as it gets. It doesn't get any
fuller than that. Amen. That's it. And so it is.
And we know it. It is the content of the
gospel that saved us. Okay. Alright, alright. See, it was
the gospel that took that 40 out of your hand
and put a Bible in it. It was the gospel
(03:49):
that turned your cursing tongue into praising lips. It was
the gospel that took you from the party house, the jailhouse,
the crack house, the frat house, the school house, the penthouse,
the bar house, the outhouse, the white house, even your house,
and brought you to the church house. Yeah. It was
the gospel that took that blunt, that bud from your lips.
And now you get high on the Holy Ghost. It
(04:10):
was the gospel that stopped you from sleeping around with
every woman that was stupid enough to sleep with you,
and now you're celibate. If you're single or if you're married,
you're a homosexual. You get your sex at home. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, sister.
It was the gospel that kept you from getting your
self esteem, from the fact that you have a man,
(04:33):
and then you now get your self esteem from the
fact that you have the man, Jesus Christ, that all
your girlfriends think that you are crazy because you left
a man you could see to hook up with a
man you can't see. And now the man that you
can't see is taking better of you than the man
you could see. And so you're grateful that he came
(04:53):
with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Touch your life. Touch
your heart. Young people. I know you're glad that the
gospel help you understand that it's not the label on
your clothes that give you value and worth, but that
your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Yeah, it was the gospel. Yeah.
(05:15):
That content that wrote our name in the Lamb's Book
of Life. It was the gospel that put God in
our heart and pep in our step and sense in
our head, and a Bible in our hand, and a
song on our lips and a smile on our face.
Cuz I know some of y'all ain't cracked a smile yet.
(05:38):
You have to buy better makeup. Mm. But not just
the content of the scriptures. Notice the confirmation of the scriptures.
Two times it says according to the scriptures. Now you
gotta understand something. Uh, the first extant manuscript that we
have of the scriptures were written approximately A.D. 45 by Mark. John, Mark,
(05:59):
the first gospel, of which all the other gospels are,
got some of their information and a lot of their information.
And so when it says here the Scripture is talking
about the Old Testament Scripture. Now Paul says, let me
tell you something. This is not new and improved. This
is not something that you're hearing for the first time,
(06:19):
he says. Back in the Old Testament, everybody begin to
tell you about the fact that Jesus would die, be buried,
and rose again and rise again the third day in
the Old Testament. So you take Isaiah, what we call
the fifth gospel in the Old Testament. What did he say?
He said that he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised
(06:40):
for our iniquities, and the chastisement of his peace was
upon us, and by his stripes we were healed. 700
years before Jesus ever came to Calvary, Isaiah said in
the scriptures, he's going to die, be buried. And now
his resurrection is confirmation that you can trust the Bible
(07:02):
that you can trust it. As a matter of fact,
you know what amazes me in Psalm 22? It talks
about the fact that Jesus would be crucified. Well, wait
a minute. This is at least 400 years before Rome
ever started using crucifixion as a means of execution. So
God said, I done already set this thing up. He's
delivered up because of the foreordained counsel of God. And
(07:25):
God says he going to die on a cross. And
people back then were saying, what is a cross? And
now he confirms it. It means you can trust God's Word.
There's a whole lot of people that you can't trust.
There's a whole lot of people who said, like I said, I,
James Ford junior, do take thee, Lesley Ann Moore to
(07:47):
be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold
in sickness and health, and to hold to you only
until death do us part. There's a whole lot of
folk that lied, and it wasn't until death do you part.
It's till death do you part? Come on. We know
folk that lie. You. You try to turn and go
the other way because, you know, they're going to say, hey,
can you let me hold something? And, uh, you know, hey,
(08:09):
I'll pay you back on Friday. And like I said earlier,
they don't tell you which Friday. They don't tell you
what year. You ever loan somebody something and then go
back to try to get it? They done kept it
so long, they think it's theirs. There's a whole lot
of people whose word you can't trust. Like when I
said I won't be long this morning, y'all didn't believe that.
(08:34):
We preachers, we have a saying. It's called a preacher, count.
Let me tell you what a preacher count is. And
a preacher count is when somebody says to another preacher, well,
how many members you got in your church, preacher. And, uh,
the preacher says, well, about. See, that's how you keep
it from being a lie about my practice here has been.
I only count the people who come. I don't count
(08:54):
the people on the membership list. If we had everybody
that came on the membership list, we have about 2000 members, but,
you know, they didn't join other churches and all that
kind of stuff. And so you never know who you got.
So I've always only counted those who are here. Amen.
So if everybody came, we'd have about 1500 members. But
(09:15):
we're settle for about one third every. Every Sunday. Amen.
And so, what's going on? Uh, we call it speaking evangelistically.
But see, here's what it means. And I say it
all the time. Come on, help me out. The Word
of God has no expiration date. That you and I
know that I can trust this word. Why? Because the
(09:37):
grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of
our God endures forever. Because Isaiah 5511, so shall it be.
The word that goeth forth from my mouth. It will
always accomplish that which I set for it to do.
It will never return unto me. Void. Psalm 119 107.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
(09:57):
light unto my path. The Word of God is pure
and is profitable for cleansing the soul. The Word of
God is that which we need and we can trust it.
Two preachers I heard him telling about it. Two preachers
were in a guy's new. I thought it was a Rolls-Royce,
but it was a Bentley. And they were in this Bentley,
and they were in California, down that long road where
(10:18):
people go and look at the coastline, and they were
about 50 miles away from, uh, gas. And and the
other preacher looks over and he says, man, why did
you do this? Do what? That thing is on E, man.
It's on E! And so, man, I don't feel like walking.
You saw the sign next gas, 50 miles. And he
kept riding. He kept riding. He said, man, why do
(10:40):
you do this to us? He said, open up the
glove compartment and turn to the page that talks about
the gas and all that. So he turned to the
page and then he chilled to he he calmed down
because he read in the manual, uh, that this car
has two gas tanks and that whenever one runs out
of gas, you flip a button and that starts the
second one and both of them took a chill pill.
(11:02):
You know what? Why is it that one person has
lost of their mom and they go to pieces, and
another person has the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
Why one person can can have their house foreclosed and
they're giving praise to God, and another person is going
crazy and drinking and drugging and doing everything else to
(11:22):
try to deal with. Why is that? Because one man
read the manual and the other man didn't. One woman
read the manual and the other one didn't. See, when
you read the manual, it will let you know that
there is no temptation taken you, but such as common
to man. But God is faithful who will not allow
you to be tempted above that you're able to stand,
but will, with the temptation, make a way of escape,
(11:44):
that you may be able to bear it. There are
some people who read the manual, and they get comfort
because they know that the Bible says that. Count it
all joy when you fall into divers temptation, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let
patience have her perfect work that you may be complete
and entire, lacking nothing. There's some people who read the
manual where it says in Romans 828, and we know
(12:07):
that all things, not most all things, not some all things,
work together for good to those who love the Lord
and those who are called according to his purpose. There
are those who read the manual and they taking a
chill pill as we go down the road of life.
Somebody help the shelter. Somebody cool, calm and collected. You
want to know why? Because they read the manual and
(12:28):
they said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Somebody read the manual.
Weeping may endure for a night. But joy comes in
the morning. Somebody read the manual. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. Yeah. And it takes faith to
(12:49):
believe this. And the resurrection says you can trust God's word.
S2 (12:56):
And great reminder from Pastor Ford of just the power
of the resurrection and what that means in relation to
our faith, and why we can have faith and confidence
in what God says in His Word. Well, we'll get
back to that teaching in just one moment. But you're
listening to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr.
A message entitled Runteldat. Just a great encouragement for us
(13:18):
to be telling others about the opportunity to begin a
relationship with Jesus. And I hope that this program encourages
you to do just that. We'd love to hear about
it though. You can always get Ahold of us through
our website. It's Treasure Truth Radio. Click on the contact
link or you can always interact with us on social
media like Facebook or Twitter, and you'll find those links
at our website, treasure Truth radio. All right, let's get
(13:41):
back to the message again. Here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (13:45):
My last definition I gave to the Wednesday night crowd.
I told them, here's my new definition for faith. I
got about 30 or 40 definitions for faith. Here's the
last one I came up with. Faith is God giving
insight into foresight like its hindsight. Now there are folk.
Tell me. I don't know if I can believe that
(14:06):
you use faith all the time. Some of us even more.
Me and Brother Green have more faith than anybody else
in this room. Why? Because we over £300 and we
came and plopped down on the pew. We wasn't worried
about whether or not it was going to hold us.
You want to know why? That's what it's supposed to do.
(14:27):
It was designed to hold us. Amen. Got support in
the middle. And I'm like you, I sit over the
support beam. Amen. He said, I don't have faith, okay?
You don't have faith. You do have faith. You went
to a doctor. You don't know to tell him about
a disease you can't pronounce. And he wrote a prescription
(14:48):
that you couldn't read for a medicine that you can't pronounce.
And you took to a druggist that you don't know
anything about. And you get a drug that you can't pronounce,
and you take all of it because you have faith
in the doctor, in the diagnosis, in the prescription, and
(15:08):
you take the medicine all by faith. Don't tell me
you don't have faith. You got faith. Yeah, you got faith.
And then finally, finally, here's the last one. The triumph
of the Savior. Uh, yeah. You see the testimony and
and I'll I'll end on that. But I ain't going
(15:29):
to say nothing about it, because in five through nine,
you have the testimony of the spectators. Yeah. You got
the testimony of the spectators. All these people that saw him. Uh,
but but listen, look what's going on. What do you mean?
The triumph of the Savior. He rose from the dead. See,
death is inevitable, but Jesus Christ conquered death that we
can't escape. Brother was trying to tell it yesterday, and
(15:50):
I was. I was saying, oh, man, he kind of.
He kind of he kind of missed it a little
bit because here's how the story goes. Uh, that a
man was walking on 79th Street and, uh, he saw death.
He went face to face with death. And death had
a puzzled look on his face. And the man looked
at death, and he could kind of sense death is
coming for me. So he went to a wise man,
(16:12):
and he said, uh, I want to get away from death.
And he said, look, get on a plane. Go as
far as you can as quick as you can. And
that's what he did. He went to midway, got on
a plane, went to Minnesota, and when he got there,
he said, I have escaped death. But then when he
stepped out on the streets of Minnesota, he saw death.
Death tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and
(16:32):
he had the surprised look on his face. Death said,
let's go. He said, wait a minute. I ran from you.
I ran from you to get away from you. And
death said, you remember when I saw you on 79th
Street in Chicago? And I had that puzzled look on
my face? Yeah, yeah, he said, that's because I had
(16:53):
an appointment with you tonight in Minnesota, and I was
wondering how you were going to get there. Yeah. It's inevitable.
It's inevitable. Death is inevitable. Not Hebrews 927. It is
appointed unto man once to die. But when you look
at what's going on, Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Here's what he said. Revelation 118 I am he that
(17:15):
liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.
And I have the keys of death, hell, and the grave.
Nietzsche said, God is dead. I'm with the late, great
pastor S.M. Lockridge, who said, If God is dead, then
who killed him? What corner performed his autopsy? What undertaker
received his body? What newspaper carried his obituary? And why
(17:38):
wasn't I informed of his death? Because I'm the next
of kin. And so he says, listen, we need to
understand it, that Jesus Christ, at the end of the chapter,
it'll say he took the sting of death. We can't
understand it. But there was a family. They were going
to a picnic on a Saturday after a hard day
of work. They had the two kids in the back,
(17:58):
their older teenage son and their younger six year old boy.
The six year old boy was allergic to bee stings.
He could blow up and swell up and die without
a shot. And so they were on the way and
they told them, now be careful of bees. We're going
to watch you real good. We're going to put you
in your little net, he said. Okay, but while they
were traveling, a bee got in the car. Dad said,
(18:19):
we gotta pull over. But they were on a highway.
And so his big brother reached out and grabbed the
bee and put it in his hand. But that week
he had been studying entomology about bugs, and he had
compassion and and so he just grimaced. And then he
let the bee go. He tried to put him outside
the window, but he was still buzzing around in the car,
and his little brother was going, whoa, whoa. And the
(18:40):
bee was buzzing around and his dad said, I thought
you got the bee. And I thought you put it
out the car. He said, dad, I got to be.
And I tried to put it out of the car,
but I need to let my brother know the bee
can't hurt him. And he opened up his hand and
the stinger was in his hand. He had taken the
bee's sting and he was letting his brother know. Listen,
don't be upset. He can only make noise. He can't
(19:03):
sting you because the stinger is in me. That's what
Jesus Christ did for you and for me. He took
the sting of death. O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting? But thanks be to
God for the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's alive.
And because he's alive, we are alive too. And then finally,
(19:24):
and finally, the testimony of the spectators. Let me just
say this. He says, we saw by Peter, then the 12,
then James, then Paul, and 500. Now Peter is counted twice.
That means there were 514 people that saw that resurrection. 120, though,
were in the upper room after this event. My question
is this where are the 396 folk? The other folk
(19:46):
who saw and witnessed the resurrection? How come they weren't
in the upper room with the 120 that went out
and ran and told that? I came to tell somebody
that when we look at what God wants to do that.
You and I gotta run and tell that. Let me
just close. Why run? Tell that Pastor Ford? Yeah, because
of all that I said. And I ain't going to
(20:06):
recap it. Uh, but why? I watched, uh, I don't
like reality shows that much. I don't watch them. It's
a waste of my time. Uh, but there's one I
do like. And it is, uh, Undercover Boss. I'll never
forget the first one I saw, which kind of hooked
me on it, was the owner of the Cubs. Uh,
he put on an employee uniform, and he was cleaning
toilets and selling peanuts. Uh, people didn't know he was, uh,
(20:30):
because he had on their uniform. Uh, but they didn't
know he was management and service. And so he cleaned
toilets and he passed out peanuts, and he he set
himself under the authority of the one who was managing everybody. Uh,
he refused to exercise the power of his management. He
did what they did. He ate where they ate. He
took the break when they took the break. Yet he
(20:51):
was the owner of the whole thing. Finally, uh, he
revealed himself to them and then went back up to
the owner's box. And then he called one employee up
and he said you were an exemplary employee. This is
the one they were putting all the work on. This
is the one that everybody was hating on. And he said, listen,
here's what I'm going to do for you. I am
going to pay for your college education. And so he
(21:12):
paid for his college education. That's what this story is
all about. Uh, that the owner, the creator of the earth, uh,
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world.
And they that dwell therein put on the uniform of humanity,
step down, as the old preacher would say, through 42 generations.
Then he lived among us, ate among us for 33.5 years.
(21:33):
A third years Jesus Christ healed the sick and he
raised the dead. He did all of those things. He
was among us. The Bible says, he came unto his own,
and his own received him not. Oh, but he didn't
exercise the attributes of deity, because being in the form
of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal
with God, but took upon himself no reputation, and be
(21:54):
found in the fashion of a man becoming obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. And he went back up.
And guess what? One day he going to call us
or to the office? To the owner's office, and he's
going to say, you served. And everybody hated on you.
You serve because you ran and you told everything about me,
and now I'm going to reward you. Enter thou into
(22:16):
the joy of your Lord. So then what we need
to do is we need, we need. So. So can
we go home? Oh! Hold up. That's my cell. Yeah. Oh, really? Well,
(22:43):
thank you, thank thank thank you, Lord. Oh, okay. Jesus
said to let you all go home. And he said, run.
Tell that.
S2 (23:02):
Her until that. The title of today's message here on
Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr. And
a great challenge for us as well, that we do
need to be sharing the gospel with those around us.
We need to be telling that good news, and you
can actually help us do that through radio as you
give a gift of support and as you pray for
this program, and I hope you'll do that. We do
covet your prayers above all else, but if you're able
(23:24):
to stand with us financially, would you come to treasure
Truth radio.org? Click on donate and give an ongoing monthly
gift or even a one time gift. Again, come to
Treasure Truth radio.org and click on donate. Thanks for doing that.
Thanks also to our producers, Amy Rios and Ryan McConaughey.
For Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a
production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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