We're so glad to have you here
today. It's kind of my custom to start off with something that's
supposed to be funny. The Lord God told Adam, I'm going
to make you a helpmeet. She will serve you, cook your
meals, mother your children, never argue or disagree with
you. She will follow your leadership
and constantly compliment you. And Adam said, wow, that's great.
What is it going to cost me? The Lord said, well, it's going
to cost you an arm and a leg. And Adam said, what can I get
for a rib? And the rest is history. All right. I see Pastor Don McKay and his
family are here with us today. Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church
pastor, we're glad to have you. I'm going to bring a friend out
of the closet today. It's going to get me in trouble,
but my friend David Mardigan is here with us today. David's been hiding for about
10 years. There he is right back there.
David, hold your hand up where they can at least... There he
is. We don't believe everything the
doctors say. We believe what God says. And this church is
evident with so many people that have been healed of cancer, and
we declare that for our friend David. Actually, David MCM, his
company, did the first house on Seneca Street, 53 Seneca Street,
redecorated that house. I didn't know for years it was
him. When we were $500,000 below budget in the month of June several
years ago, He gave us all the things in the GM plant, over
1,700,000 square feet, those things we sold all over the world.
He has torn down innumerable drug houses for us. We have bought
and taken those down, and I could go on and on and on. And he's
going to have some beautiful cars down here on the lot on
Saturday. You'll want to see some of his
cars. I got a preview. So I hope you'll be with us on
Saturday as well. David, we're glad to have you
here. Love you and appreciate you and all the things that you've
done for us at Grace Centers. I wanna talk to you today about
radical grace. I read this week where Dr. Richard Lay, a prominent psychologist
and anxiety specialist, was quoted as saying, the average high school
kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric
patient in the early 1950s. We're in trouble. I also read where three out of
10 women in America take sleeping pills because of anxiety. I read that in 1990, those with
no religious affiliation was about 7% of the population. That
number shot up to 16% by 2010. And recently, those under the
age of 30, the number doubled to 35%. Something's missing in America. Say, well, it's probably churches.
No, no, we have churches on every corner. It's more than a church
problem. When I came to Pontiac, there
were 400 churches in this city 25 years ago. This ought to have
been the holiest city in the entire country. It's not more
church buildings that we need. Something wrong with the message
of the church, I believe. You know, the world is tired. Actually, our country and citizens
are exhausted, and I think maybe the church as well. What we call
performance-ism causes us to live in a constant state of anxiety
and fear and resentment. Until we end up heavily medicated,
some in the hospital are just really unhappy. Every child of
God in this building coming to know the good news and the message
of God's free grace will have joy unspeakable in them. I think
what is missing is this message of grace. And that's what I want
to talk to you about. Radical grace. And let me tell
you this right off, the grace of God, God's grace is radical. If you don't believe it's radical,
just look at yourself. That God would save you or me. The old writers were exactly
right when they wrote of the wonder of God's grace. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me. Out in the darkness, no light
could I see. He put his great arm under, and
wonder of wonders, he saved even me. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die, would He devote that sacred head for
such a worm as I? Oh, at the cross, at the cross,
where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled
away. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me who caused His
pain? Amazing love. Have you lost the
wonder of it? If you have, you've lost joy.
Radical grace. What Hosea was told to do was
insane. The Bible, and there in Hosea
chapter four, that little word freely is an interesting word. God wrote Hosea for this purpose,
to get across to us how radical grace is. I will love them freely, says
God. This word is found not only in the Old Testament, but it's
found in the New Testament, and it's found especially in Romans
3, where it says, being justified freely. by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This word is found in
the Gospel of John, chapter 15, and verse 25, and translated
a little differently. In John 15, it says, they wrote
in the Psalms that I would be hated without a cause. Being justified freely, without
a cause by grace. You haven't been saved because
you're good. Good people don't get saved. Christ didn't come
to die for good people. Here's the wonder of it, that
you were saved and you had nothing to do with it. That's radical grace. Without
a cause, there was no cause in you that caused God to save you. It's unmerited, undeserved favor. How many of you are happy about
that? I'm happy about that. Why, it's the only way God could
save us without a cause. God looked down from heaven upon
the children of men to see if there were any good and did seek
him. In Psalms 14, he said, there
is none good. No, not one. God took out his
big telescope and looked for a good person and couldn't find
a single one. No, not even you, honey. Not a single one. Peradventure,
there might be some church people here who are saying, yes, pastor,
I know you deal with that dirty, trashy bunch of drug addicts.
No, I'm talking about you, church person. There is none good, no not one. The only way God could love us
is unconditional. We don't deserve the love of
God. We didn't purchase the love of God. No, and for all of the
free will people, we didn't even seek God. We said, well, I sought
the Lord, not until He had already found you, not until He had already
done something on the inside of you, then you got busy. It's called in the book of Ephesians
2, you were dead, inactive toward God, and the Holy Spirit quickened
you and gave you life. He began the good work in you. And thank God he who begins the
good work is going to finish it. Sovereign grace does not
wait for man. I've heard preachers say God's
waiting on you. Well, if he's waiting on a dead
person, he's going to be waiting a long time. I've heard preachers
say the doorknob's on the inside, and it's up to you. I've heard
preachers say God voted for you, the devil voted against you,
and you cast a deciding vote. The only thing wrong with that
is you were not a registered voter when the election took
place. Let that sink in a little bit. No labor of man procures grace. There was no inducement to him
loving man, no tears, no prayers, no good works, no baptismal pool
that caused God to love you. He loved us freely, radically
loved us. In fact, God loved you before
you were you. I mean, before I formed you in
thy mother's belly, I loved you and ordained you. I'm glad that's
true. That God had a plan and a purpose
before there was a world. He's the great architect of salvation. And you know what I'm praying?
Here's what I'm praying for. That God will begin at here.
That God will give you grace to know grace. Because unless
He gives you grace to know grace, you'll still be bragging about
your church affiliation, your baptism, or what you've done,
or who you are, or you've never used drugs, or you've never done
this or that. It takes grace, God's grace,
to take the scales off your eyes and let you lift both hands and
say, to God be the glory, great things he has done. Now, I know this about me, but
there's several others here. We believe in radical grace.
The truth is I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed with grace. Let me make this really clear.
I'm not saying I believe grace a lot. I'm saying I believe grace
alone. Let me say that again. I'm not
saying I believe grace a lot. I hear people say all the time,
well, Pastor, you know, they've been studying Calvinism a little
bit, and they go, I think I'm a four pointer. I'm a five pointer,
and plus anything else that goes along with giving God all the
glory and all the honor. I believe it's grace that puts
you in the way, grace that leads you along the way, and grace
that takes you all the way. I believe this, for whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, whom he
also called. I'm getting happy by myself.
Whom He called, they'll be also justified. Whom He justified,
they'll be also glorified. Who shall separate us from the
love of God? I am persuaded, I am persuaded,
I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. Preaching in the church has got
to change. I would encourage you to attend
a church that preaches grace. that does not apologize for grace. I've heard almost for 50 years,
people have said to me, you know, Kent, you ought to consider maybe
preaching about, you know, this or that. And I'd give it a try
and I wasn't good at it at all. Let's stop playing it safe, and
all of us get drunk on grace. What do you think? Let's all
get drunk on grace. Just staggering around, lifting
our hands, filled with the Spirit of God, caught up in the wonder
of His marvelous grace. I'm talking about this grace
that is amazing, grace that is greater than all your sin. Let
me say it again, grace that is greater than all your sin, where
sin did abound. And I know some of you, it did
abound. Grace did much more abound. Aren't you glad? I'm glad about
that. Older preachers used to tell
me, you know, you preach too much grace. You're going to pastor
a church where everybody's drunk and using drugs. I already do. They're the ones that need to
hear the message of grace along with me. You can't preach too much grace. I know some of you, you knew
this morning, you know before you come here, he's going to
preach on grace this year in the world. He's going to say
something about God's amazing grace. It is amazing. Actually, it's startling. You
know, once you begin to see it, It's like a snowball going down
a hill. It doesn't get smaller, it gets bigger. Yes, we're bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Ephesians 1, 4,
according as he hath chosen us before the foundation of the
world. And get this, all of your blessings
have been bought and paid for, just like your conversion. God
has great things stored up for you. God has a plan. God has
a purpose. God has a design. And all those
blessings are coming your way. Somebody told me once, you know,
I almost went to hell. You didn't almost go to hell.
You may have thought so, but not with God. Startling, shocking,
surpassing, inexhaustible, untamed. Grace that is shocking is a declaration
of God's love for the unlovable. Scandalous! It's a scandal! I don't want to get too far ahead
of myself here, but I'll tell you how scandalous it is. God
said, I want you to see this thing of grace. And so I'm going
to give you an example of grace. Hosea, go marry a whore. And the girl that you marry,
her mother was a whore too. Now you wouldn't think God would
say something like that, but you've got your Bible. That's
what God said. I want to show you this thing
of grace, how radical it is. God didn't tell Hosea to go marry
a virgin when he wanted to give an illustration of grace. A nice,
clean, cut-gut young lady, go marry a whore. I know some of you are going
like this, those are nervous laughs. It's nervous because
you're not used to the preacher saying something like that. That's
because you're not used to hearing grace. You get used to hearing
grace and you go like that. That doesn't surprise me that
God said that. God was so radical that he became
a man and condescended into this world to save somebody. That's awesome. Awesome! I'm talking about radical grace.
Radical grace that does not lead to ungodly living. Somebody said,
if you preach that, you know, you're giving people a license
to sin. In case you haven't learned this
yet, nobody says, I'm about to sin. Could you give me a license,
please? Before you sin, you don't ask
for a license. I'm talking, do you save people?
We've got enough mess in our life. Every saved person in here
knows it's a struggle. Because in my flesh dwells no
good thing. But thank God, greater is he
that's in us than he that's in the world. Grace that says no matter where
you started, oh, some of you had such a pitiful start. And
I mean by that, You were born a little bastard. You didn't
know who your mama was and didn't know who your daddy was. But
God knew who you were. Some of you have been raped.
Some of you have been molested. Some of you have had abortions.
Some of you have lived on the streets and sold yourself, both
men and women. But I'm telling you, no matter
where you've been or who you are or what you've done or who
you've slept with, or what you smoked. Because of
what Jesus has done, you're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the good news. And I'm
talking about grace that not only saves your soul, but saves
your life. I want to tell you, I'm talking
about radical grace that leads to equally radical freedom. If the Son sets you free, you're
free indeed. I'm not in bondage to the law. Rules and regulations don't float
my boat. Love to Christ does. Radical
freedom that leads to infectious joy and suppressing faithfulness
to Christ. We love him because he first
loved us. I want to tell you this, and
I'm not bragging, it's only by the grace of God, but for 45,
46, 47 years, 47 years, thank you, Ms. Pam, I
have not physically committed adultery, but it wasn't because
of the commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. I'll tell
you what kept me from it primarily, love to that woman. It wasn't rules. It wasn't regulations. It was love. You know, too many
get that backwards. They work hard to be faithful
in the hopes that it'll lead to a life of joy and freedom.
It just doesn't work that way. Faith without grace is exhausting. Somebody ought to say amen to
that. Faith without grace is exhausting. I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm doing my best. I don't think, I don't know whether
I'm going to make it or not. I, you know, I'm just wore out. Crack has kicked my, I'm exhausted. There's such a
pull. Freedom. Faith without grace
is exhausting. Grace is not compensation for
the hard-working good people. Grace is a gift to the hopeless. And grace-living is living the
way you want to live. I'm not here because I have to
be here today. I'm here because I want to be
here. I couldn't wait to get here. You shouldn't get up in the morning
on Sunday morning and say, gee, I hate to go out there. Man,
I'm going to have to go out there again next Sunday too. No, no. I was glad when they said, let
us go up to the house of the Lord. Because we know that Pastor
Clark is not going to beat us up. When I was growing up in
the Baptist church, I remember people used to come by and shake
hands with my dad. It was kind of like this. Thank
you for beating us up. And they would say things like
this. You stomped all over my toes. I'm not preaching to your
toes. I'm preaching to your heart about
the amazing radical grace of God. Listen. You had enough mess out there.
Nobody needs to beat you up. Every saved person here knows.
Oh, wretched man that I am. What I want to do, I don't do.
And what I hate, that do I. That's the testimony of every
saved person in here. So no need for me to try that.
Besides, I'd have to start with myself. I don't enjoy pain. God said this to the preacher,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Don't be beating them up. Christianity
is not about good people getting better. It's good news for bad people
coping with their failure to be good. Amen, that's Christianity. It's not God who helps those
who help themselves. That's not in the Bible. By the
grace of God, I am what I am. Anything good comes out of you,
God put it in you. Don't be strutting like a peacock
about what you've done. Every good and perfect gift comes
down from the Father above. The reason we're so bad is that
we've been trying so hard to be so good. The harder you try to be good
in the sense of providing a righteousness that God will accept, the worse
you are. Jesus said, believe on my boy. Trust my son. He's the apple of my eye. He's done it all for you. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If I put you under law, let me
tell you this. I know some of you, I think you're
growing in this, but let me try to explain it this way. If I
put you under law, you'll only drink more. One of the old Puritans I was
reading this week said, I preached against drinking till my whole
church were drunk. My preaching against these things
are not going to stop you in your flesh. What will apprehend
you, what will stop you is this radical grace, this amazing grace,
this love of God toward us. Legalism is much worse than freedom. It ties you up. The truth is I've found this to be true with
myself. You know, I love being here in
the inner city because it's so bad. It is so bad. But because it is so bad, I know
God is so good. And I know His grace reaches. You know what? I just wouldn't
fit in one of those churches out there. I don't fit. Because
I'm radical. Go marry a whore. That wouldn't
fit in most churches. What did you say? Let's have
a deacon's meeting here. It's time we switch pastors. It's in those churches I want
to say, whore, whore, whore, whore. Go marry a whore. Look
at God's grace. and see it to be amazing. And
I can say to some of you guys way back there, now that I've
got your attention, you've wallowed in the stables of sin. You're
as black as all hell. I got some good news for you.
The blood of Jesus Christ will make you white as snow. Being a good citizen is not the
same thing as being a Christian. But we're in a society where
goodness and Christian are used interchangeably. So church becomes
the place where a nice, pleasant, bland person stands in front
of another nice, pleasant, bland person, urging them to be nicer
and more pleasant and more bland. That's not what I'm preaching
today. Jesus didn't die to create nice, pleasant, bland people.
He died so sinners would find grace and forgiveness and joy
and exuberance in the discovery of His amazing love for them. In fact, Jesus condemns stiff
people. Are you stiff? You know, the
truth is this. I have never met a person that
I could not put my arm around and say, if God saved me, he'd
save you. Amen. If God saves somebody,
he'd say, I'm not too worried about you, but I worry a lot
about me. I say this every single day of
my life. Oh God, keep me from me. Save me from me. I've heard so many awesome stories
since coming to Grace Centers. I had this guy tell me at one
of our vans, he was over in McDonald's. He said he was pulling out of
McDonald's and said, the devil just took the steering wheel.
And I turned left and went to Detroit and bought some heroin. He said, Pastor, the devil just
made me do that. I said, you sorry rascal? The
devil didn't do that. You did it yourself. I'm scared
of me. My problem is the devil's in
me, in my flesh, grace. You who are regulars here at
Grace Gospel Fellowship know that I confess often that I'm
a recovering addict. And I say recovering because
I often relapse. Hear how quiet it is in here.
You see, I'm addicted to performance. There's no doubt about it. I'm
a driven person. I'm a doer person. I doer 14
hours a day. That's kind of the doer person
I am. And you see, somehow I got it
in my head that performance, Performance equates with value. It's a struggle for me when somebody
gives us a million dollars, because you know what? I feel like I've
done a good job. Oh, I'm being honest now. I'm
just being, it equates to, hey, CEO, we wouldn't even think about
him, look at him go. We wouldn't think about firing
him. Look at what he's doing. You know what though? I found
this out. That kind of life takes the heart
out of you. Many of you in here are trying
to prove yourself like I often do in relapse. And I'll tell
you, it's exhausting. It is exhausting. I was thinking
yesterday, Pam and I talk about this, we gotta get away. We're
just so tired. We just wore out. We gotta get
away. You know, I think there's something
wrong with that. Because I really think that grace
will take you away. And you know what? I can't miss
on Sunday. Because I'm a controller too.
I'm addicted to control. I mean, something might happen
there. And I wouldn't be there. Really what ought to happen is
God's got it. Jesus Christ went away and rested.
Are you and I better than that? Are you living an exhausted life?
You're a child of God, but you're just constantly exhausted. There's something wrong. I love it here because on Sunday
mornings and Wednesday night was a great night. Hey, I'm free. When I'm here with the people
of God in the house of God singing praises to God, reading the word
of God, and the spirit of God is here, there's nothing greater
than that. It's radical. It's without a
cause. And you know what? It's even
a little offensive. It's a little offensive. Here's
what Grace says. You're a worm. I tell this story and Greg Gaius
often reminds me after a rain, he'll either send me an email
or call. Did you pick up any night crawlers on the driveway
today? Somehow or another, I think it's because of God's grace.
When it rains real hard and the night crawlers come out and I
get up the next morning and they're in the driveway on the concrete
and the sun's shining, I think to myself, they're not gonna
make it to the grass. So I began picking them up. I
put them over in the grass. You know, that's what God did
for me. I was a night crawler and he picked me up. I wasn't
gonna make it. Humanly speaking, listen, humanly
speaking, the lack of understanding grace or grasping grace or hearing
the gospel of grace keeps so many from coming to the Lord.
The message of grace doesn't bar the door to sinners. If you're
here, and as I said, you wallowed in the stables of sin, you're
as black as can be, and you're back there saying, Can that be
true? That God would love somebody
like me? That God would save somebody
like me? Pastor, I don't think you clearly understand. You were
a PK kid, you were a preacher's kid. I don't think you clearly
understand how far a human being can go in sin. Maybe not literally as you, but
I've already been there in my head. You haven't done, don't
be bragging about how bad you are. You haven't done anything
I haven't done. You're not better than me about
sinning. That doesn't even sound right,
does it? Don't get haughty. Think you're
the only one. All have sinned and missed the
mark. You know, the message of the
church that the church preaches keeps many a person from coming
to the Lord. Because churches preach, you're
not good enough. You've gone too far. You've got
to keep these rules and these regulations. And so you feel
like there's no hope for you. There's hope for the homosexual
in Jesus Christ. Somebody ought to say amen to
that. You know, we're being labeled as people who hate homosexuality
because of our stand for the Word of God about, no, same-sex
marriage, no. It's not gonna happen here. It's
not gonna happen here. But let me tell you this, we
say no to adultery here too. We say no to fornication here. We say no to stealing here. Amen. And secondly, I think the
people at church who declare they're good enough also keep
people coming to the Lord. What you ought to say, the membership
of this church ought to say out there, if God save me, he'll
save you. Could I lead you to Jesus Christ? I know you're watching me and
I want to tell you right off, I'm not a perfect person. I'm
far from it. The reason I tell you so much
about myself is because I want you to know we're no different.
Who maketh thee to differ from another? The Apostle Paul asked
that Corinthian bunch who were getting drunk on the Lord's Supper.
Who made you to differ from another? You know, that wasn't a nice
New Testament church, the church at Corinth. Some of you ought
to read about some New Testament churches. Some of you that are
proud of your church affiliation, you ought to read about the New
Testament church. I had a pastor tell me, many
years ago, I want you to know I pastor a New Testament church.
I said, oh, like the one at Corinth where they were getting drunk
on the Lord's Supper and committing fornication and all kinds of
lasciviousness? Why are you getting quiet? Do
you see what I'm talking about? Don't be backing up on me. I'll call
you out. Okay, it's 1209 and I haven't
got to it yet. I want to give you the radical
illustration. Hosea, go marry the whore, take
a wife of whoredoms. Go to a country of whores. Not exactly a place one would
go to find a wife. Hosea, go down there and take
one of those gals as your wife. Now, brother, that's radical.
Why, Lord? Why do you want me to do this?
Because I want to illustrate my grace. You have to get over
maybe to the 14th chapter. You ought to read the whole book
of Hosea. But when you get over to the 14th chapter in that fourth
verse, God gives the reason for telling Hosea to go. Because
I will love you freely. I will love them freely. So Hosea
did and he took Gomer. Lord, even her name was bad. And you have to know with a name
like that, she was no beauty queen. I hope there's nobody
named Gomer in here. We'll get it changed on your
birth certificate. If your name is Gomer, I'll help
you. In fact, I'll pay for it. We'll help you. Well, he got Gomer, she got pregnant,
and she left him. Had a son. He got her back, she
got pregnant, and she left Hosea again. She got pregnant, came
back, got pregnant the third time, and left Hosea. Only this time, she didn't come
back. You see, she was a lying, cheating
whore, that's what she was. She left the third time and didn't
return. And Hosea said to the kids, your
mother has played the harlot in chapter two and verse five.
She that conceived you hath done shamefully. For she has said,
I will go after my lovers that give my bread and my water and
my wool and my flax and my oil and my drink. But Hosea takes action. I'm glad
we got a Savior that's active. You know He's here today. Oh,
He's here today. He's here today in the person
of the Holy Spirit in the gospel of His Son. He's active, the
heavenly Hosea. Hosea in chapter two, verses
six through 14. You know, when you're reading
the book of Hosea, when you get to the second chapter, it looks
like he's gonna go find her and do her in. It looks like it. And several times there in that
second chapter, it says, behold. And I'm saying, you know, first
time I read it, I'm saying, okay, now you can, now you're gonna
take care of her. for all her mess. I'm kind of
cheering him on. Yeah, you ought to kill the gal.
Put her out of her misery. Hosea took action. And verse
14 says, behold, I will hedge her up. I will hedge her up with thorns.
That means she ain't gonna have a lot of fun living. God ever hedged you up with,
you ever get sick and tired of being sick and tired? God ever
hedged you up? Crack isn't gonna do it anymore.
Heroin isn't gonna do it anymore. Sex isn't gonna do it anymore.
Pornography's not gonna do it anymore. I'm not happy! You know, on the coffee cups
and glasses, you've seen the saying, life's a bitch and then
you die. Without God, that's true. Without God, that's exactly
right. Without God, there's nothing
in life. You can make all the money you wanna make, live in
the biggest houses, drive the most expensive cars, but without
God, there's an empty spot. Hosea, this is what our God does. After she left the third time,
Hosea said to his servant, go follow her. When she gets destitute,
when she gets hungry, feed her. Don't let her know it's meat.
When she gets naked and need clothes, clothe her. I know you didn't know this,
but I think you'll be able to raise your hand right now. When
you were down in Lodi Bar, when you were down in the hood, when
you were in the crack house, when you would have killed yourself,
when you were destitute, he was there all the time. He was there all the time. Somebody said, the Lord won't
go in crack houses. Oh, yes, he does. That's where
he found some of you. He'll go wherever his sheep are
to find them. Finally, the servant comes back and says,
she's old and ugly now. She's downtown. on prostitute
row. Her pimp is selling her down
there. She's wrinkled and dirty and ugly. She has come to the
end of her own way. Life has beat her up. Hosea goes
and gets his top hat and jacket and heads downtown. Back in those days, they lined
the girls up according to their youth. and their vitality and
their beauty. Hosea got downtown. The pimp
greeted him and started to escort him down the row of horse. The first one, young, beautiful,
had not lost her vitality. Hosea goes, no. $100? No. No. Goes on down the row, the pimp
is trying to sell him. There at the end of the row is
a dirty, arthritic, crippled, ugly, filthy, ragged woman who
can not stand up straight. She's been over. Hosea said, I want her. Oh, let's go back up to the front
of the room. This doesn't make any sense unless
you know that God loves us freely. That's the whole story of Hosea. To show God's radical, amazing
grace, I gotta come down there a minute.
Because I know there's someone here that's got goosebumps right
now. You've slept with animals. You've done the drug thing. You're
unclean as unclean can be. You've done everything imaginable.
The blood of Jesus Christ will make you white as snow. If you
trust him, it's all gone. It's buried in the deepest sea.
Your sins are gone. Your sins are covered. Will you
trust him today? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. The spirit and the bride say,
come. You have an invitation to come. Oh, pastor, you wouldn't
ask me to come. I'm telling you, he told Hosea
to marry a whore so you'd know you can come. In all of your
filthy rags, throw yourself upon the mercy of God. Trust the blood
of Jesus Christ. Come just as you are. Don't be
trying to clean yourself up. That won't work. Christ came
to save sinners. Leave here with joy in your heart. I want to tell you today, I am
a mess, but I'm going to heaven. There's no condemnation for me.
There's no condemnation. And I think a lot of things I
don't do. How about you? You nice church going people. Thank God we don't do what we
think. And many times we act like we're
better than those who actually do what they think, but we're
not. We act like we stand apart, but
it's not true. And so there's not a sinner that
I can't put my arm around. Say, if God saved me, he'll save
you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved, come just as you are. Don't wait to
clean yourself up. Say, well, pastor, are you talking
about coming up front? I don't care whether you come up front
or not. I'm just saying, come to Christ. You know, you can
come to Christ and not move a muscle. Right where you are, hiding back
there. Right where you are thinking
about, oh, did he read my mail? He seems to know something. I wonder if Pastor knows. Oh,
I know. I've read the Bible. I know about
you, and I know about me, and I know about all of us. And I
know this too. If you'll come to Christ. And
I'll tell you this too. I don't know, maybe you're here.
There was a gentleman who told me a few weeks ago. He said,
you know, I almost popped out of that seat. I just felt like
I ought to come up there He didn't know what he ought to do when
he come up there, but he thought, and then he regretted he didn't.
You're a little confused. Here's how simplistic it really
is. Here's what God tells you to
do. Hoist a white flag. I surrender. I surrender. Lord, I surrender. I'm coming
home. I trust you. I believe you. Lay the shotgun down. You're
fighting God. You won't win. Lay the shotgun
down. Trust Christ. And I promise you
there'll be a peace that will flood your soul, that passes
understanding, and then keep on believing grace, keep on trusting
Christ, and keep on seeking the Lord. And every day will be a
good day. This is the day the Lord's made.
He's in control. He's a God who is sovereign.
He's working out His will in my life. I'm going to ask you today. I
know some of you probably can't wait. I believe this is the way
it happens. Get out of my way. I'm coming
to Christ. Get out of my way. I'll run you right over. I've
got to come. I believe there's going to be
a day in this building where we're going to see masses come
to know Christ. And they're not going to be bashful
about it. I do know this. I've had a revival in the past
couple of days. I know I'm on the right track. I'm not going
to stop preaching grace. I'm going to preach it till Jesus
comes. And then when I get up there,
I'm going to sing about it. I'm going to shout about it.
Let's stand together. Will you, right now, trust Jesus
Christ? Will you confess him as Lord
and Savior publicly today? That's what it means to come
up front. You're publicly saying, Jesus is my Lord and my Savior.