It is not in man to seek the
Lord. Psalm 14 says that God looked down from heaven upon
the children of men to see if there was anybody who would seek
Him out, see if there was a good man. He was trying to find some
good folks, and you know the answer to that. He got his big
telescope out and looked right down through time, saw everybody
that was ever going to live, and could not find a good man,
a man or woman that would seek the Lord. The Bible says that
there is none that seeketh after God. Let me do this again. There
is none that seeketh after God. Does Romans 3 say that? I don't
care what you say. Romans 3 says there's none that
seeketh after God. Then we've got a problem. Sounds
like folks have to be found. Sounds like folks have to be
sought. Does it sound that way to you? It's not in the natural
man to seek the Lord. Adam didn't seek the Lord, he
hid from the Lord. What were you doing when God
found you? Hiding. You had your little fig leaf
apron on, some of you. I'm as good as most folks, better
than some. You had your little fig leaf
apron on, hiding from God, camouflaging, trying to blend in. You weren't
seeking God. When the preacher said, salvations
of the Lord, you said, I'm going to do it my way. I hate that
grace message because it just totally shuts me up. scares me
to death. If I'm going to get saved, God's
going to have to save me. We can't have that. I mean, I've
got to do something. I don't want to lose total control
here. I mean, you know, I really think, Pastor, that if I don't
come to the altar, I can't get saved. I want to tell you this,
baby, coming to the altar never has saved anybody. Coming up
front never has saved anybody. First of all, you can ask a man
to do just about anything to get saved and he'll do it. You
can ask him to step over the line, sign the decision card,
come to the altar, pray up, pray down, pray in, pray out. Just
give him something to do. Take him down the Roman road,
you know, tell him a little story about God coming to earth, being
a perfect man, dying on the tree of the cross, being buried, rose
again. Now, do you believe that? Yeah, I think that was a good
thing God did. Of course, He did it all for
all of us to give us a chance. You know, God loves everybody.
He gives everybody a chance. Some of us gave Him a chance.
We helped God. You know, we all have a free
will. No, I didn't know any of that. In fact, that whole business
I just talked about is an absolute lie. There is none good. No,
not one. There is none that seeketh after
God. That means if you ever get saved,
you have to be sought. If you ever get saved, you have
to be found by God Himself. It has to be an on-purpose thing,
because you ain't coming to Him as you are. Left in your natural
state, you are not going to come to Him. He must come to you.
Paul of Tarsus wasn't riding on his high horse down the Damascus
Road Signing a decision card, I'm going to give my heart to
Jesus. You know, I think I'll stop killing these folks, Christians.
You know, maybe, maybe I'll give Jesus a chance. After all, I'm
a member of the Sanhedrin. I'm Baptist, Catholic, Methodist,
and Presbyterian. You know, I'm a pretty good guy.
Maybe, you know, maybe. No, no, no. He's riding along
with murder in his heart when he gets zapped. You ever got
zapped? Let me tell you, if you don't get zapped, you don't get
saved. You gotta get zapped. I'll tell you what that means
a little. I'm being light right now. I'm going to get really
down to it here pretty soon. You've got to be apprehended!
Somebody has to catch up with you! Because all we like sheep
had gone astray and we turned everyone to his own way, running
straight to hell. You better hope that God comes
to church today and does for you what you cannot do for yourself,
because you're crazy! You're absolutely crazy! You're
out of your mind! You are rebellious! You are degenerate. The heart is desperately wicked. Not just wicked, but desperately
wicked. Fool has said in his heart, no
God for me. That's you. Oh, I believe in
God. Oh, you believe in the one you
want. You got your own little idol.
You got a little God, you move around, and when He gets in your
way, you put Him out of the way, and when you want to do what
you want to do, you set Him up on the shelf. That's not the
God of the Bible. That's not the God I'm talking
about. I'm talking about the One who's sovereign, the One
who does what He wants, when He wants, how He wants. with
whom he pleases. I'm talking about that one. Oh,
no, no, no. I don't want that one. I know
that. I understand that. You talk about the folks in Africa
that build a totem pole, but you've built an idol out of your
own will and works and church. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's right.
Some of you talk about the Catholics who have the St. Christopher's
you know, this or that on their dashboard. But you Baptists have
one too. You've made one out of free will.
You Catholics have one. You Baptists have one. Presbyterians
have one. Amen. And you're going to go
to hell with your own little idol. My glory I will not give
to another. Every knee is going to bow. And
every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God. That salvation from Alpha to
Omega, from beginning to end, is of the Lord. That He is the
author and He is the finisher of my faith. And all glory and
all praise and all honor be unto God for saving a wretch like
me. The woman with all the husbands
did not seek the Lord. She was living in adultery, had
all those husbands, degenerate. And the Lord of Heaven said this
one day, I've got to go through Samaria. And the disciple said,
hey, that's way out of your way. I know a shortcut. He said, I
must needs go through Samaria. I got an appointment. I'm about
to get happy all by myself here. I've got to go through Samaria. There is an appointment that's
been made before the foundation of the world. There's a little
sinful lady there that doesn't even know herself. I've loved
her before she was ever born. Her name was written in my book
before the foundation of the world. She is a chosen vessel. I've got to go through Samaria.
She came out there singing one of her oldie tunes, thinking
about who she was going to sleep with that night. Jesus said,
I got some water. You drink of this water, you'll
never thirst again. And she said in her craziness,
you don't even have a water pot. You have nothing to draw with.
And you're telling me you're going to give me water? Yeah,
I'll give you living water. He crossed her path. That was
no accident. Nobody gets saved accidentally.
Some of you in here right now, The Hound of Heaven is on your
trail. He's calling you in the crack
house, in the whore house, in the church house, and pretty
soon he's going to test you out of Lodibar. That's a wonderful
truth. Wonderful truth. Lydia, she wasn't
seeking the Lord. In fact, The Apostle Paul was
forbidden to go down into Asia Minor, where Lydia was from. Lydia was from Thyatira, and
she went to Philippi in Macedonia. And the Spirit of God said, don't
go into Asia Minor, go to Macedonia, and particularly Philippi. So Paul goes, being led by the
Spirit of God, and guess what? Here comes Lydia down by the
riverside. and a seeking sinner now, and
a preacher meet up. I see the Ethiopian eunuch. He's reading Isaiah 53. He has
no idea about the true and living God. Philip is up in a big revival,
and the Spirit of God says, go into a deserted place. Here's
the Ethiopian eunuch traveling down. He's reading Isaiah 53. Here comes Philip out of that
great revival into a deserted place. And he says, hey man,
understandest thou what thou readest? How can I except some
man show me? And Philip got into the triad
and preached unto him Jesus. That was no accident, you see.
That was no accident. That impotent man had hung around
that pool for 38 years and Jesus came walking by and made him
It's not me and Jesus got a good thing going. If Jesus doesn't
come to you, you're going to go to hell. That's exactly what
the Scripture says. Now, I want you to turn over
to Isaiah, because I want to read a couple of passages. Some
of you don't know your name. I want to read you your name.
Isaiah 62 and verse 12. This is us Christians. But there's
one particular name I want us to look at. Isaiah 62, 12, And
they shall call them the holy people. Isn't that something?
Us Christians are called the holy people. Are we? Not in our
flesh, but before God we are. We're the holy people because
we've been made holy in Christ. We're the holy people. Ye shall
be called the redeemed of the Lord. That's my name. My name
is holy people. My name is redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be called sought
out. And thou shalt be called sought
out. Hey, sought out. Hey, sought
out, sought out, sought out. How many sought-out folks do
we have in here? That's your name. I'm sought-out.
What's your name? Sought-out? Well, you have the
same name I have. Sought-out. Now look at this,
Isaiah 65, verse 1. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. What? I am sought of them that
ask not for me. I am sought, the Lord speaking,
I am sought of them that didn't ask for me. I've got to figure
that out. Does your theology fit that? Here's a weighty thing.
You can examine your theology right here. Does your theology
fit right here? God says, I am sought of them
that never did ask for me, that didn't want me, that hated me,
that was at enmity with me. I am sought of them that never
even dreamed about asking about me, never looked up, never said,
thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Never looked up, never
were grateful for air, and clothes, and houses, and children, and
family. Never said thank you. I am sort
of damned, that's not for me. I think we got a wonder going
on here. I think there's something really weird about this. I am
found of them that sought me not. Wait a minute. I don't understand
that either. I am found of them that didn't
seek me. Well, how do you find something
that you weren't seeking? Oh, we got a problem here. You need to examine your theology
by this verse right here. You need to try to figure this
out. All of you free will people, all of you good people, all of
you religious, all you church-going people for salvation, All of
you that have been sprinkled ducks and poured, all of you
baptized people, all of you folks, you need to try to figure this
out here. By the way, did I ever read the
verse in Romans? Did I have you turn over there?
All right, why don't we go back? I'm sorry, I'm a little excited
this morning. Romans 10, 20. Romans 10, 20. See, Paul is using this verse
from Isaiah. And here's what he says. Isaiah
is very bold, very bold. Isaiah makes a very bold statement
here. In other words, Isaiah made a
statement that folks aren't going to like, especially religious
people. He had to be very bold to say what he said over there
in Isaiah. Right? Because it is a salvation
by words, a salvation by self-righteous mentality that that verse destroys. It destroys salvation through
freewillism. Isaiah is very bold and saith,
I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto
them that asked not after me. Very bold. This is a bold passage. It required courage. to utter
it in Isaiah's day and in Paul's day to quote it and in my day
to preach it. What I preach here, all religious
people hate. The gospel I preach, religious
people hate. I'm not in tune with religious
folks. I'm a locust wild honey. I am a wild man about this. It's
grace alone. It's Christ alone. It's the scripture
alone. I'm crazy about that. It's to
God be all the glory. Not some of it, not part of it,
all of it. Folks don't like that. Pastor,
you mean I did nothing? Oh, you did something all right.
In fact, you did a whole lot of things. You were very active,
but not in this matter of righteousness. Dead to God. You were inactive
toward God. There was no righteousness at
all toward God. But you were alive in this present
evil world. That's what the Scripture said.
Dead to God. Any man that preaches the Gospel
of this Bible has to be bold. This is no place for cowards.
This is no place for cowards. Any man that protests against
a self-righteous people, angers them in showing them that salvation
is of the Lord. They don't want it. They will
not have it. They will not receive it. You see, what makes many
people mad makes me glad. See, I like this. Jesus eateth
and fellowships with sinners. Why? He'd talk to prostitutes
and go home with folks. If He were here today, He'd be
over at Grace Centers of Hope hanging out. That's right. He'd
be at your kitchen. He'd come in and sit down there
and say something like this. What's that? Oh yeah! And then
He would tell you what's up. And before you know it, He crosses
your path. He still does that in the power
of His Spirit. That's right. Many of you met
Him over there at the mission. That's right. He came in that
place. Of all places for Him to be. He wasn't in the high church.
Not out there in the suburbs, hobnobbing with the Bloomfield
Hills aristocrats. I don't mean he doesn't save
rich people. He does. But wherever you find the Lord
in his earthly ministry, he was after sinners. He wasn't looking
for good folks. He was looking for lost people. In fact, you'll never get saved
until you're lost. You'll never get found until
you're lost. That's the only kind of people
get saved are lost people. That's right. Only people get
found are sinner people. That's right. Because that's
our name. Sought out. Give me your testimony. Sought
out. Found out. I heard an old, old
story how a Savior came from glory. He sought me. He bought me. And He caught me.
He did all of those. All right. We've got to get going
here. It becomes the servant of God to be bold. All of you
guys that are in my elders class, I'm going to tell you flat out,
if you're a coward, You need to get you another little class
somewhere with somebody else. You know, if you just, if you
want to be a nice little preacher who doesn't ruffle feathers,
and you're not going to preach the gospel of grace, and you're
not going to be an elder that talks about grace, find you this
plenty. I can recommend to you many churches
out here where you can go and never, you know, you can just
smooth everybody, tickle everybody's ears. But if you preach this
message, somebody's going to get mad at you. They're going
to try to put you out of business. That's right. Some of you do
this. This happens with some of you. Oh, Pastor, my folks
are coming. You know, my folks are coming
to church. Oh, they're good. You know, they're good. They're
good folks, Pastor. They go to church on Christmas
and Easter. And you know what? I'm just so glad they're going
to come and hear you. And they come in here and hear
me and they say something like this to you. That man's nuts.
You don't believe what he's saying, do you? Hey, I'm going to tell
you right now, that's a cult. Nothing but a cult over there.
That's a cult. I'm going to be honest with you.
Can I be honest? I like you better when you're in a crack house.
Oh yeah? You say, oh no, pass. I'm telling you, in my 42 years,
I've heard family relatives say that. You know why? They hate
the gospel. The gospel that totally shuts them up to God alone. The
gospel that takes their church away, and catechism away, and
their strengthening away, and their immersion away, and their
self-righteousness away, and gives God all the glory. They
hate that gospel. It becomes the servants of God
to be bold in protesting this chief sin. The Apostle Paul in
Romans 1 said, we all know the Gentiles are sinners. They're
a bunch of heathens. And then he turns on his Jewish
brethren and he says this too. And you're sinners too. You have
the Word of God and you seek to establish your own righteousness.
The righteousness which is in the law. And you're going to
go to hell with the Gentiles. You say you're Abraham's seed
and we're never in bondage to any man. But I'm going to tell
you, being of the Jewish nation of Israel won't cut it. You can
be a Jewish person and die and go to hell unless you have Christ
in your heart. Your pedigree will not take you
to heaven. Whether you're a Jew, Gentile, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist,
or Presbyterian, Episcopal, Church of God, Church of God in Christ,
First Church of God, Pentecostal in Christ, holiness, tongue talking,
walking, holy, holy, holy. Christ! Grace! Glory! For saving my soul. That's the way it is. and you'll
perish without it. This cultured age repudiates
the doctrines of grace, which are the heart of evangelical
teaching. Men are vexed when we declare that God is first
in human salvation and God seeks men before they seek Him. Men
grow red-faced if we testify that the Lord in His gracious
sovereignty meets with persons who have never God is able. There
is implied in the word sought out the natural condition of
man. If the church of God has been sought out, then it's clear
enough that originally it was lost. If it has to be sought
out, it must have been lost. Sought out. Sought like a pile
of rubbish. God went to the dung hill one
day and started picking up dung. No, no, no, no. Yep. Wait a minute, Lord. This
dung looks just like the dung you threw down there. I know.
There is no difference in the dung. I'm going to make a difference
in this one. Oh, now some of you don't like
that, do you? You mean the dung was the same
and he took one piece of dung and threw the other dung away?
That's right. You have a problem with that?
It's his dung. It stinks. It's no good. Amen. And if he saves one piece of
dung and not the other, we say, Praise God, look what he did
with that piece of dung. Amen? And thank you, Lord, for
saving this piece of dung. Thought out. You see, where God
found you was on the dung hill. He didn't find you up in the
great White House pure and holy. He saw you on the dung heap.
That's where he found you and he was seeking among the dung. One day he came down to this
earth looking for a particular piece of dung. Everywhere he
looked was dung, dung, dung, dung, dung, dung, dung, dung,
dung, everywhere dung. But he was looking for a piece
of dung that had your name on it because it was written in
his book how filthy some of you were, how filthy all of us were. Amen. Lost. Lost. Do you recall? Lost. Horribly lost. Ignorantly lost. Rebelliously lost. Lost to self. Lost to mama. Lost to daddy. Lost to society. Lost! But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love for which He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins and trespasses, By grace, how you say it through
faith, and that not of yourself, it's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Lost we were in our federal head,
Adam, by the imputation of Adam's sin. Lost effectually by infusion
of his corrupt nature. Lost afterwards actually in our
own practice of sin. Lost manifestly in the accumulation
of evil habits and the growing force of a depraved appetite. Lost! Dead by nature. Dead in our practice. Drink a
little bit. Drink a little more. Get drunk.
Marijuana. A little alcohol. Marijuana. Cocaine. Alcohol. Marijuana,
cocaine, crack. How come? Because I'm a progressive
sinner. I'm a progressive sinner. See,
you started out stealing cookies when you were five. By the time
you were ten, you were in the daddy's liquor cabinet. How come? Because you're a progressive
sinner. We have by nature departed far from God, and like the prodigal
son, we've gone into a fire country. We're down there in the hog pen.
That's where we are. Somebody's going to have to come
after us. All our friends are gone now. They just used us.
Now we're out there eating husks that the hogs did eat. We have
departed far from God like the prodigal, compatible to that
poor wretch who was possessed with a legion of devils whose
fetters could not bind him. nor chains restrain Him." Remember
reading about that guy in the Bible? He would break the chain. He was so sin-crazed. Is that you? Was that you? Some
of you ought to be shouting all over this building. Oh, that's
me, but I've been slaved. I'm sought out. Oh, he found
me down there in the hog pen. Oh, I once was a cutter, cutter
with no self-value, but I've been sought out. I am somebody. I'm a child of the king, and
he did it on purpose. I've been washed in that fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein. I'm saved, saved. Saved to new heights sublime. I'm saved. I'm a child of the
King. I have a righteousness that cannot
be forfeited, that cannot be marred. Why, I'm as good as God's
own Son. I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ. I have a mansion built for me
already in heaven. I'm going to be in that heavenly
choir. Oh, it just gets better for me. The lowest pit in hell
was our portion. That's what we deserved. Think
about it. If God had let you go and had
not sought you out, where would you have been in hell? We were
so lost we did not seek the Lord. Isn't that something? Natural
men have superficial and passing thoughts of seeking God, but
they have no true hunger and thirst after Him. Now and then
they're hit with a pang of conscience. You remember out there, every
once in a while you'd be hit with a little pang of conscience. What would my mother think? But
that would soon go away. That would soon leave. It's like
smoke out of chimney. Your conscience blows away by
the wind. You had no serious, no effectual
thoughts of seeking after God until He sought you, until He
found you. We were wandering sheep. That's
what we were. You see, those who repent and
seek the Lord, do it because His grace comes after you. draws
you to Himself. That's right. Now there's a different
you because you've been born from above. See, the reason,
by the time you seek the Lord, you've already been born again.
You don't even know it. Oh, Panther, I remember when
I was born again. You do not. I know right to place
where I got born again. In fact, when I get to thinking
I'm not saved, I go back to the time and place. Let me tell you,
baby, time and place didn't save you. If you're saved, Jesus saved
you. Now, you may have times and places where you remember
a rush. of the love of God. But when
He borns you again, He doesn't confer with you. You're so crazy,
He can't talk to you. He just has to set you, born
you again. And then all of a sudden, you
begin to have the weirdest thoughts. Like, you know, before I go to
bed, maybe I ought to read this Bible they left here in my room.
I don't believe it. Yeah, I guess. They make it a
requirement to go to church. I guess I'll go. After all, I
want to keep my bed. But then on the way home to the
mission, you say something like this. And inside jumps, and that
crazy man was preaching. Yelling and screaming. Something
inside of me. And you find somebody that maybe
you can talk to. And you say something like this.
Are you one of them? You don't want to give it away.
You know what I mean? You don't want to give it away.
And when he goes like this, no! Are you? Oinky, boink, boink,
no! You don't think I'm one of them,
do you? I'm just checking to see if you
are. You know somebody did that in the Bible, right? The Apostle
Peter did that. He denied the Lord. Now let's
go a little lower. We not only had no thought of
coming to God, we never had a will to come. We never had a desire
to come. Left to ourselves. We're like
lost sheep. We just keep wandering. You know,
sheep are crazy. They have no sense. They get
out. They just keep going and going and going. They never think
about coming back. That's the way we were. And I'm
telling you this straight out. Water will run uphill sooner
than a totally depraved sinner will seek the Lord. Wolves and
tigers do not, without a miracle, renounce their blood feast. It's
their source of food. You've got to have a nature change.
Your nature has to change. See, you'll put down the bottle
and pick up crack. You'll put down crack and pick
up a work habit. That'll keep you busy enough
where you don't think about anything except work. Anybody say amen? Oh, you pick up something. You
need a divine implant. Somebody say, give your heart
to Jesus. Can you imagine? What would He do if you What
would He want with your heart? He's got to take that. Can you
imagine when He cuts you open in the power of His Spirit, the
stench of the gangrene that's coming from your heart? A holy
and a righteous God of whom the cherubims and the cherubims sizzle
His throne and cry, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The
whole earth is full of His glory. And he cuts you open and the
stench. Have you ever smelled a corpse
that's been left in the wild? Have you ever been sprayed by
a skunk? A corpse that's been left in
the wild is a hundred times worse than being directly sprayed by
a skunk. The stench is so horrible. You will never forget it. Some of you say here, Pastor,
I just don't think I'm that bad. Oh, I understand. I understand
you don't think at all, except with your corrupt mind, your
totally depraved mind. Our being sought out, considering
the condition we were in, is one of the greatest wonders ever
known or heard of, that God sought us out. Have you ever heard anybody
say this? If anyone would have told me
six months ago, that I would have made a profession of faith
and be following Christ today, I would have knocked them down.
Do you ever do that? Six months ago, two years ago,
three years ago, do you ever look back and say, oh, what a
wonder that Jesus found me? Amen. Amen. Do you ever think
about this? Do you ever think about this?
One reason why Jesus would follow after you in your wandering. Do you ever think about this?
Where did He follow you to? What did He see when you got
there? Think about it. Think about it,
baby. Think about it, gentlemen. Think
about it. Think about it. Somehow or another,
You know, we've lost the wonder of being saved. With this little
watered down gospel that salvation is cooperation between God and
man, we've lost the wonder. That's where the shout's gone.
Church is not exciting anymore because you and God got a good
thing going and you cooperate and God cooperates. And of course,
the end results are always good when God and man begin to cooperate
together. Why should He save you? Have
you noticed this? Have you ever looked at your
brother and sister and said, you know what? If I were God,
I would have saved them because they're so much better than me.
And they really are in outward conduct. I read the Bible sometimes
and I read a verse like this, Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated, and I say, why? It should have been the other
way around if you go by merit. Esau was a much better boy than
Jacob. Somebody says, you know, that
really troubles me, that passage of Scripture. That really bothers
me that God hated Esau. I'll tell you what blows my mind
is not that God hated Esau because Esau deserved to be hated because
he was a totally depraved rebel. He did some good things better
than Jacob in outward conduct. But what shocks me, what blows
my mind is that God loved Jacob. Amen. What ought to blow you
away is this. He loved me. He loves me. Like
old John. Behold! Any of you ever get that
way? Whatever happened to Paul on
the Damascus Road, he never got over it. Some of you get over
it too quick. You've got to get over it, salvation. Some of you,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess me and Jesus are alright.
Me and the man upstairs. But you know, my life sucks.
What are you talking about? Anything short of hell is mercy.
If you're not going to hell, you ought to be shouting. You
ought to be shouting. If God loves you, you ought to
be shouting. I don't care who does not love you. I don't care
who molested you. I don't care who did what to
you. If God loves you, you ought to be, whoo! Whoa! Amen. Say, well, Uncle Charlie
did this to me. Yeah, but God loved you before
you were ever born. Oh! Now, you shouldn't be born
in church. The gospel shouldn't be born
to you. You ought to be ready to take off almost any time.
Watch it, Pastor. Watch it. Watch it. Watch it. You better slow down. That's
right. And He predestinated you. He predetermined that come hell
or high water, I'm going to meet up with you, boy. You and I got
an appointment. And He'll follow you down into
the slough of iniquity, over the mountains of vanity, and
lay hold on you. And He won't come pulling you
back like this. Come on now. Hey, come on. I said, come on. No, no, no. Come on now. I'm going to take
you home. I'm going to take you all the
way home. I'll never leave you. Oh God, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. Somebody said, you got a hold
of grace? No, but it's got a hold of me. I don't have a hold of
it. It's too big. It's too awesome. I don't understand
unmerited favor. I don't understand unconditional
love. I don't understand how you made
a difference. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what is thou that thou didst not receive? Now if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not
receive it? God made a difference. That's
who we are. You know, you think about this,
that it's grace enough for God to provide meat for the hungry.
It's grace enough for Him to say, come on and eat. But when
He sets the banquet, provides the feast, and you will not come. This is abounding grace. I'm
going to go get you then, because I've got a feast prepared. Come
on. Come on, boy. I'm not going to
take you up there. Come on. Come on, I've got a feast here.
Here, come on, set it at the table. Come on. And He'll go
down there in Lodibar and test you out of Lodibar and set you
at the king's table. Yes. I say, tell it in hell,
but let the demons howl. Publish it in heaven and let
all the angels sing, to God be the glory, great things He hath
done. I say bring forth the royal diadem
and crown Him, crown Him Lord of all. He is worthy of all glory
and praise and honor. Sought out. I looked this word
up. Sought out. It has a mass of
meaning. Just a mass of meaning. It's
a perplexing, this sought out term here. It means to Go through
the dung, find what you're looking for that is dung, make a difference,
and then preserve the dung. Oh, I'm glad that preserving's
in there. Prone to wander? Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love? Yeah, but you're preserved. Have
you ever ate preserves? Some of you don't know what preserves
are, do you? My Tutty used to have preserves. She'd have preserved pears, apples,
that's right. All kinds of preserves. We put
that butter on that biscuit and get some preserves. You know
what she'd do? She'd can that stuff, and I'd
hear it pop. And I would say, what's it doing,
Tuddy? She'd say, it's sealing. It's preserved. Everything in
here has been preserved. Say, well, am I going to make
it? Oh, yeah, you've been preserved. That's right. Yeah, preserved. Think about that. No gloom could
hide us from His seeking us out. No filthiness could conceal us. We've been sought out. We've
been found. Isn't that something? I know
I've kept you a long time. I'm almost through here. This
grace is even more conspicuous if you consider the person sought
out. It's grace beyond degree. I feel
like I should have been left out, not sought out. I feel like
my name ought to have been left out because I deserve to be left
out, but I have not been left out. I have been called out.
Why me, Lord? One of the old Puritans wrote,
Why was I made to hear Thy voice and enter where there is room
while thousands made a wretched choice and rather starve than
come? Good question. Good question. God has chosen the base ones.
Have you read this in Corinthians? The low born ones. and nobody's. The people the world looks at
as if you do not exist. I've been in a thousand meetings
uptown with business people where they said, just lock them up. Just keep them in the furlong
building and don't let them out. Just put them in cages and throw
some food in. You know why? Because you're
garbage. You're throwaway people, nobodies. But I read in my Bible, God has
chosen the nobodies. That makes you somebody. They
don't know who your daddy is. Amen. And you know what? We're beginning to show them
who our daddy is. Look over at Seneca Street. They
understand the outward things. Look over at Seneca Street. Who
did that? My daddy. Amen. How do you explain that 127,000
meals? My daddy. How do you explain 55,000 nights of stay? My daddy.
How do you explain a $3.5 million budget? My daddy. How do you
explain all those pennies? My daddy. Amen. Got a call from Indiana like
this. This is so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so has
left you in her will here at Grace Centers. He'll be coming
in a week or so. How do you explain that? She's
out of state. My daddy. Get a $5,000 to $8,000
check every year from some people. They don't want us to know who
they are. How do you explain that? My daddy. Last month, a
$25,000 check came in from a lady we never heard of. How do you
explain that? My daddy. Amen. How do you explain this
building? 13 months we paid cash, $275,000
in quarters. How do you explain that? My daddy.
Oh yeah, my daddy is bigger than your daddy. My daddy will whoop your daddy.
My daddy is a rear end kicker. Oh yeah. None can stay his hand
nor say unto him, what doest thou? You better get out of his
way. That's a good thing to know. You know that? Okay, I've got
to get back to my notes because I'm wondering. Think about this.
Sought out by God Himself. Think about that. We were sought
out by God Himself. Omnipotence is strained. Do you
know how much power it took to save you? The same power that
brought Christ out of the grave. That's how much power it took.
It takes power. I mean, it takes power. It takes
wonder-working power. Power. That's how dead you were.
Not just dead, but dead with a thousand deaths. Like a man
who's been stabbed a thousand times. Dead! Dead! Dead! We're going to have to
have some power here. Omniscient. The mind of God must
be fully exercised. Oh, that simple little gospel
over there, I will make it as easy as ABC. You ever think about
this? You remember the story about
Daniel being thrown in the lion's den? And Darius tried to find
a way to get him out, but it was against the law. Daniel had
sinned against the law, so he had to stay in the lion's den.
And Darius was going like this all night long. I've got to find
a way. I like that boy. I love that
boy. I've got to find a way so that the law can be satisfied
and I can get that boy out of the lion's den. They're going
to eat him sure as a girl. I need to do it quick. I need
to do it one day in eternity. I don't know exactly how this
works. I don't know how to put this in words. I just have to
do it a human thing. One day, God said, I'm going
to bring all my elect out of the pit because I've found a
way to be just, and justifier of the ungodly. I love this passage. I think it is in the book of
Job. Deliver him from going down into the pit. I like this one
too. He is a brand plucked from the
fire. That is what we are. An old piece
of charcoal, burnt, useless. God reached into the fire and
Fuck you out!" And he said, put a robe of righteousness on this
piece of dung. Take away his dung, put a robe of righteousness
on it. God found a way. Isn't that something? The mind
of God. This isn't no little light gospel. Every attribute of God was put
into action to save you. Every attribute of God was put
into action. When we talk about grace, And
we talk about it being free. We're not talking about cheap
salvation. We're talking about every attribute
of God being put into action. We're talking about God coming
down to earth. We're talking about God dying
in the sinner's room standing in place. That's what we're talking
about. That's what we're talking about sought out. You think about
this. Your pastor might have sought
you. But I'm going to tell you this. He would never have found
you. I can remember On two occasions,
at least, I remember Pam and I in our total frustration of
the girls not knowing the Lord. And I can remember one particular
day when she was crying, Pam was crying, nobody home but her
and I. She was laying on the bed. We
were talking about the girls being lost. And I totally broke
in my helplessness to save my own kids. And I remember crying
out like this, Oh God, they're going to go to hell if you don't
do something. That's the truth. Preacher's
kids are wino's kids. They're going to go to hell unless
God does something. You got to have some power going
on here. I also remember when Shannon dropped in my arms right
here, finally broke and conquered by God. Been miss this, miss
that, miss this, miss that, but miss Christ. It doesn't make
any difference if you're Miss Universe or Miss Michigan or
Miss Troy, Miss this, Miss that, Miss anything else. The only
thing that makes the difference is God says, I'm well pleased.
Yeah. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. An anxious father will never discover you. A loving
mother will never find you. I was listening to Darren's testimony
Friday evening. And that little group where he
was giving his testimony prayed for him. As I listened to him
give his testimony and his love for his mother and how his mother
was influential to some degree. She had a great mother's love
for him. I said in my own mind, in fact, that's what got me on
this message this morning. Aaron would never have been found,
not by his mother, not by his father, not by a church. God
had the confidence. He's such a natural rebel anyway.
God had to conquer him. God had to catch up with him.
That's true of all of us. We would hide and hide and run
and run. One of the most blessed stories is, God must have a sense
of humor. God came walking in the cool
of the evening. He goes like this, Adam! Adam! He already knows what's taking
place, right? You do know that, right? You do know that God never
asks questions so he can get some information from you, right?
You know God doesn't need information, right? Adam! Where art thou? It wasn't going like this. Adam,
I know you somewhere. You over there? No, it was like
this. Adam! What have you done? You're separated. If God hadn't come walking, Adam
wouldn't have been found. And then you think about the
craziness. Adam, I see you have a fig leaf apron covering ridiculous
spots. What's going on here? I was naked.
Naked? How'd you know you were naked?
Lost innocence. Sewed some fig leaves. What have
you done, Adam? I didn't do anything. She, she,
she, uh... Anybody identify? When God finds
you, it's like this. Well, if my old man hadn't mistreated
me, I wouldn't have been such a rebel. If, uh, if my uncle
hadn't, uh, if my, you know, uh, if the world, uh, you know,
if I'd had a job, uh, you know, if they hadn't taken me off welfare,
uh, uh, you know, uh, you know, basically, I'm a pretty good,
uh, it's the government's fault, uh, after all, uh, ha, ha. What
about it, Eve? This snake deceived me. Now,
ladies, first of all, it's not in the character of a woman to
like a snake. Secondly, when you get to talking
to a snake, there's really a problem there. Some of you are talking
to snakes. You need to stop it. Snakes! But you know what? God was gracious
anyway. He said, OK, got to find me an
innocent male animal here. God with His own hands killed
it and shed blood and took the skin and covered the nakedness. It was the first gospel message
that God was going to take an innocent one and the innocent
one had to die in order for us to be covered with the righteousness
of God's own Son.