Matthew 16:20-27 - Without God, We Are Nothing

Highlights:

* God does not want unsanctified spirits spreading the news about His Son Jesus, not even the spirits of otherwise good and decent people, such as the disciples before Pentecost, because they cannot do it right.

* Demons don't have the Spirit, and they never will; angels don't have the Spirit, and they never will. And we humans are not born with it -- but Jesus died for us to have it!

* The confusion that the Bible calls Babylon is when people with the Spirit join those without the Spirit to promote a gospel that is not from God.

* It is a fundamental tenet of the gospel that all men are born with a sinful nature, and it stays that way unless God draws them to His Son. That is why Jesus died for everybody, not just the bad people. Everybody is bad.

* The Spirit is constantly striving with human hearts, trying to convince us all that what we are, even at our best, is not what God is, and what we think, even at our best, is not what God thinks, and what we do, even at our best, is not what God wants done.

* God is looking for people who will hear Him, and be honest with themselves, and admit that Jesus and David were right, that even the best of men are evil, and then repent so that He can be as good to them as He wants to be, and wash them from their sin.

* The best we humans can be without receiving and being led by the Spirit is like Satan. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again."

* God's children who turn from doing God's will to their own ways are like Satan, in that they have done what he did.

* The cost for following Jesus is your life, the kind of life with which we were all born in this world. You are blessed if you lose that life.

* Our heavenly Father wants us to know the cost of following His Son before we plunge in, and He wants us to weigh that cost because if we faithfully follow Jesus we really will have to pay it!

* It is a wonderful thing to know that Jesus is coming again and that when he comes, he will judge righteous judgments and make everything right. We long for that.

* Have you ever wondered what you would do if Jesus was not coming back?

* We hear a lot about cruel Roman emperors persecuting believers and throwing them to the lions. But it is a historical fact that since the time of the apostles, far more of God's children have been slain by "good Christians" than the Romans ever thought about killing.

Scriptures referenced in this video:
(Scriptures are from the PJV version, found online at https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_translation.html

Matthew 8:2-4
Mark 1:23-25
Romans 10:15
1Peter 1:12
1Timothy 1
1Corinthians 11:13-15
Psalm 50:16
Romans 3:23
Romans 5:18-19
Matthew 7:11
Jeremiah 7:9
Isaiah 53:6
Psalm 53:2-3
Psalm 39:5
Psalm 127:1
1Peter 2:4-5
Psalm 32:5
Ephesians 2:10
Mark 10:17-18
Proverbs 14:12
1Corinthians 4:3-4
1Timothy 1:13
Ephesians 6:12
Ezekiel 28:15
Matthew 7:21-23
John 8:44
Romans 8:6-9
Philippians 3:17-19
Isaiah 14:13-14
Matthew 4:8-9
2Timothy 3:12
Matthew 5:11-12
Acts 9:11-12, 15-16
Galatians 1:13-14
Philippians 3:4-8
Romans 8:18
1Corinthians 11:23-25
Romans 3:7-8
Hebrews 11:24-26
Psalm 73:3, 7, 10, 13-14, 16-17
Hebrews 12:2-3
1Thessalonians 4:16-18
1Peter 2:21-23
1Peter 3:8-9
1Thessalonians 3:2-3
Hebrews 11:36-38
Matthew 10:22-25