<TITLE>03. Par 9-12</TITLE>L-9 You see, there is a depth to things. And the Mohammedan was correctly right. And the Christian knew that he had not met a man that had just simply--what we would express down in the South--"an overnight man." We have taught Christianity in the line of psychology, many of us. And we've caught it--taught it in the line of some theology of our churches and our denominations.
But let me say this: Christianity goes a million miles beyond that. Christianity is presenting a living and a present day Jesus, just the same as He was then, or the Scriptures are wrong. We must face the fact that Christ said these things.

L-10 And the Mohammedan said to the Christian, "We are waiting for the time for you teachers to produce what He said you would."
And he said, "What do you mean? Of the promises? Of like Mark 16?"
He said, "That's one of them."
He said, "Well, we learned (the teacher did)," said, "that we learned that Mark 16 from the 9th verse on, is not inspired."
And the Mohammedan come back with this. He said, "What kind of a book are you reading? If part of it is inspired and the rest of it is not inspired, how do you know what part really is inspired?" He said, "All of the Koran is inspired." That's the Mohammedan Bible. And he said, "Mohammed only promised life after death, but your Christ promised that the things that He did, you'd do also, and we're waiting to see that produced, then we will believe." The Christian was defeated. Certainly.

L-11 What we lack today, if, when Christ gave this commission to go into all the world--not to make churches, or to build buildings or to make schools (which are all right), but He said, "Preach the Gospel." And the Gospel is not building buildings, or sending people to school, but it's the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit. Then He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe."
And in the weakness of our theology, we've by-passed that and excused it to another day. But the Bible still remains, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Then if He is the same, He has to be the same in principle and power. He has to be the same as He was: only one difference, a corporal body.
But before He left the earth He said, "I am the Vine; ye are the branches." Now, the vine does not bear fruit. The branch bears fruit, not the vine. So He left in charge of His Church, this great commission to bear the same fruit that He bore when He was here on earth.

L-12 If you would go to a grape vine, you'd expect to get grapes. If you went to a watermelon vine, you would receive watermelons, if it's a good fertile vine. If you went to a pumpkin vine, you would receive pumpkins.
But when we come to the vine of God's heritage, what do we find but fusses, and troubles, and barriers and all kinds of little isms and not the Spirit of God moving in the church as it should be. And yet, it's the Vine of God.
What the palmerworm has left, the caterpillar has eaten. But God said, "I will restore, saith the Lord." That's the glorious promise that we wait for.


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