We sat around for a little while
visiting with the groovers, just catching up and enjoying one
another. And in the course of our conversation, Brother Walter
mentioned the title of a sermon he had heard more than 40 years
ago and asked me if I could tell him the text. The title of the
sermon was, When Lefty Let Fatty Have It. We all laughed. And I said, I would guess the
text is Judges Chapter 3. Turn there if you will. Brother
Gruber smiled and said, I sure would like to hear you preach
from that sometime. And I've had that passage on my mind all
week long. Just couldn't shake myself from
it. So I want to tell you when left in that fatty habit this
morning. The title is a little humorous, clever, but not the
message. That's weighty, serious. As E. Hood said to Eglon, the king
of Moab, I have a message from God unto thee. May he be pleased
to deliver the message and cause you to hear it and receive it. Verse 12, Judges chapter 3, And
the children of Israel did evil again. If you go through the
book of Judges, mark that word, again and again and again and
again and again. The children of Israel did evil
again. in the sight of the Lord. And
the Lord strengthened Eglon. The text does not read, The Lord
let Eglon have some strength. It does not read, The Lord permitted
Eglon to have some strength. It does not read, The Lord couldn't
help it. Eglon got some strength. The
text reads, And the Lord, Jehovah God, strengthened Eglon the king
of Moabite against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight
of the Lord. What great meaning there is in
that word again. Even Israel, God's chosen covenant
people, that people to whom his mercies had been constant and
immeasurable, did evil again in the sight of the Lord. God's
Jacobs, whom he has made his Israel, are compelled to confess
again and again, I have sinned. I have sinned. But blessed be
his name if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us of perpetual washing from all sin. Yes, He chastens us for our sins. He raises up and strengthens
eglons, Moabites, foes from every side to chasten us for our sins. That He does so that we might
cleave the more firmly to our great Deliverer, the Lord Jesus. But he never ceases to be our
Deliverer and our Savior. Verse 13, And Eglon gathered
unto him the children of Ammon, and Amalek, and Went, and smote
Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees. So the children
of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. But when the children of Israel
cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud
the son of Gerah of Benjamite, a man left-handed, and by him
the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
What grace is here! When our great God intends to
send great mercy, He causes His chosen to seek His mercy. Did you hear that? When God Almighty
intends to send His mercy, He causes His chosen to seek His
mercy. This is what He says, It shall
come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while
they are yet speaking, I will hear. You see, when God answers
the cry of your soul, When God answers prayer, don't ever imagine
that your crying to God, your prayers cause God to change,
to change his mind or to do differently. No, no, no, no. He causes your
cries that he may perform his purpose. And the cry as well
as the performance are according to his purpose. If God intends
to have mercy on you, He will cause you to cry to him for mercy. And your cry of mercy is itself
the gift of mercy. He declares, therefore will the
Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. Therefore will he be
exalted that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God
of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. This man Ehud, we are told, was
a left-handed man, a left-handed man. God doesn't always do things
by the right hand. He often does things left-handedly. Ehud's name means united, or
I will give thanks. And yet this man Ehud, this left-handed
man, is declared plainly to be a Benjamite. Do you know what
the name Benjamin means? Son of the right hand, perhaps. This is mentioned here. Because
being one of Israel's judges, one of those deliverers who typified
Christ, Ehud is held before us as an imminent type of the Lord
Jesus, who is called in the Psalms the son of Jehovah's right hand. He is the son of man whom thou
made strong for thyself. Verse 16, But Ehud made him a
dagger. which had two edges of a cubit
length, about 18 inches long. And he did gird it under his
raiment upon his thigh. And he brought the president
to Eglon, king of Moab. And Eglon was a very fat man. And when he had made an end to
offer the present, when he pretended to offer this man a great present,
Eglon sent away the people that bear the present, or he who had
sent away the people that bear the present. But he himself turned
again from the queries that were by Gilgal and said, I have a
secret errand unto thee, O king, who said, keep silence. And all
that stood by him went out from him. And Ehud came unto him,
and he was sitting in a summer parlor, which he had for himself
alone. And Ehud said, I have a message
from God unto thee. and he arose out of his seat."
Now, any time you see a fellow coming with a present in his
right hand and a dagger in his left hand, you'd be wise to pay
attention. Especially if he declares, I have a message from God unto
thee. His message is sure to be found
either in the present of his right hand that appears obvious,
or in the dagger that is at his left hand. Verse 21, Ehud put forth his left hand,
and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into
his belly. And the haft also went in after
the blade, and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could
not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt, the bile,
came out. Then Ehud went forth through
the porch, and shut the doors of the parlor upon him, and locked
them. When he was gone out, his servants came. And when they
saw that, behold, the doors of the parlor were locked, they
said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber. And
they tarried till they were ashamed. And, behold, he opened not the
doors of the parlor. Therefore they took a key and
opened them. And, behold, their Lord was fallen
down dead on the earth. And Ehud escaped while they tarried,
and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Shireth. And it
came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the
mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down
with him from the mountain, and he before them, and he said unto
them, Follow after me, for the Lord hath delivered your enemies,
the Moabites, into your hand. And they went down after him,
and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not
a man to pass over. And they slew of Moab at that
time, about 10,000 men, all lusty, and all men of valor, and there
escaped not a man." Now everything in this passage seems to have
a stamp on it that says, this is God's doing. This is God's
doing. Let it be marvelous in our eyes.
Eglon, this Moabite king, was so excited when Ehud came and
told him that he had a message from the God of Israel for him. That king did something kings
just don't do. He stood before a man who was
his slave. This man, Ehud, came by the guards
with a dagger on his right thigh, apparently tied to his right
thigh, under his clothes. These guards were men who were
responsible to protect the king. But God so blinded their minds
that they had no suspicion of this man Ehud, who was the king's
enemy. He was the king's enemy. I mean,
these folks had been in tactivity and in bondage. And now this
Jewish man comes with a present in his hand. Now, I'm not the
brightest bulb in the house, but I'll tell you this. If I
had been oppressing a fellow for 18 years, and he came and
pretended to bring a present to me, I'd be a little suspicious. I think I might check and see
if there were any daggers on him. But not these guards, because
God blinded them. God simply took away any possibility
of suspicion in them that this man might be here to do harm
to the king. And Moab's destruction after
Eglon's death was complete. The children of Israel that day
slew 10,000 lusty men of valor. Who can fail to see the parallel?
When God the Holy Spirit stirs his people to seek his mercy
in Christ Jesus, when he stirs the hearts of chosen redeemed
sinners to pray for his grace, when he puts prayer in the heart
of a needy soul. All things conspire, all things
conspire, that's a good word, all things are God's covert operation
to bring deliverance to the captive soul. For the oppression of the
poor, the psalmist wrote, for the sighing of the needy, now
will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him. Verse 30, So Moab was subdued
that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for eighty
years, for fourscore years. Immediately when I read that
passage in the Psalms, Psalm 90 came to me. The days of our
years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength
they'd be fourscore years. By reason of strength they are
eighty years. The heaven-born soul shall have
peace. Rest. When the Lord God gives
saving mercy, He gives peace, peace, peace, all peace through
Jesus Christ our Lord who is our peace because He has made
perfect peace for us by the blood of His cross. When the Lord Jesus,
our mighty Ehud, blows that great trumpet of His salvation in Mount
Ephraim, the children of Israel shall follow after Him and it
shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall
be blown, and they shall come, which were ready to perish in
the land of Assyria, and the outcast of the land of Egypt,
and shall worship the Lord in the mountain of Jerusalem." Now,
let me give you the message. The message with which God sent
Ehud to Eglon was in the form of a sharp dagger, a glittering
two-edged sword, and when the message was delivered, Edlon
lay dead on the earth, and the Moabites were slain, and God's
chosen people, Israel, were delivered from captivity. Like Ehud, the
message with which the Lord has sent me to you is a glittering,
sharp, two-edged sword. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." And when I've delivered the message, the message God's
given me, the results are going to be exactly the same as they
were when Ehud had delivered his message. Some will be slain
by it. Others will be saved by it. To
some it will be a savor of life unto life, to others a savor
of death unto death. I'm here on my master's business,
and my heart's full of the message and full of the consequences. Look up here right into these
eyes, will you? I'm looking into the eyes of eternity-bound sinners. And what I have to say to you
today, if it is of God, if it is of God, will have everlasting
consequences upon you. Now if you think that's an easy
thing, you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. I began
to understand something of what the old prophets meant when they
said the burden of the word of the Lord. God give me your attention
and hear the message. I'll give it to you in five statements. And I'd like to talk to every
one of you. just as if I was just talking to you, with the
presumption that you're going to hell before this day's over.
With the presumption that you're going to hell before this day's
over. Number one, understand this, God Almighty created you
for His glory, and He's going to get glory in you. I know this
whole world, religious folks and otherwise, have accepted
the theory, the ever-changing, constantly updating theory of
evolution as a fact that just cannot be denied. But just look
at things. It's obvious, obvious that this
world has evolved over the years. Is it really? Is it really? I
have a very good friend, sharp, sharp lady, who was having some
struggles with between evolutionary science she had learned all her
life and the statements of scripture with regard to creation. I wrote
to her one time and I said, you're familiar with the various evidences
of evolution and animals and living things. Do me a favor. Would you tell me where in the
The process of evolution, anywhere, anywhere, doesn't matter where.
Where in the process of evolution has there been any evidence of
an evolvement to a better state? And I didn't hear from her for
a long time, about three months. She wrote me back and she said
there's not any. All of those things that are
spoken of as evidences that life has evolved to higher stages,
are mutations. Larry commented yesterday, I
believe it was, we were driving, and I was coming back from one
of the ruins, and I said, is there any fish in there? He said,
there are mammoth caves, looking at a huge cavern. He said, but
they're blind. When I was a boy, I heard about
those fish. When there's no light, they go
blind. That's not evolving, that's degeneration. You understand what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying?
In the natural world, there's no such thing. And it's dead
sure certain you haven't evolved in here. Man at his best estate
is altogether vanity. And you know what happens from
generation to generation to generation to generation? We just become
more vain. You older folks, and I'm getting
to be numbered among you, we look back and say, Things have
sure changed since we were children, and they have. You know why?
Because our children have taken on all that we passed along to
them by nature, and all that we passed along to them by practice.
And the next generation gets worse, and the next gets worse,
and the next gets worse, and the next gets worse, and it ain't
never going to change until God makes all things new. But God
created you, and God created me for His glory. Much to the
surprise of some of you. And this is going to shock you,
I know. God didn't make the world to make you happy. He didn't create the universe
for your pleasure. Well, I thought the only thing
important was what I wanted. No, the only thing important
is what God wants. That's the only thing important.
And He created you for His pleasure. And He's going to glorify His
justice in all. He's going to give glory to Himself
in all, showing His sovereignty in all. He's going to make it
clear to the whole universe, angels, men, and devils. He's going to make it clear to
all, the righteous and the damned. He's going to make it clear to
everybody forever that He's the Lord and you're His. You belong
to God, lock, stock, and barrel. Me too. And He can do with us
whatever He will. He can hold you in life, or He
can strike you dead before you breathe your next breath. It's
up to Him. He can keep you in health, or
He can make you a vegetable, like that. It's up to Him. He can save you, or He can damn
you. It's up to Him. It's up to Him. Altogether, up to Him. Oh, my
soul. The God of glory reigns. He reigns everywhere, over everybody,
all the time. You're in His hands. And blessed
be His name. He will show forth the glory
of His grace in sons. I pray that he may be pleased
to show forth the glory of his grace in you. But either way,
either way, whether he saves or damns, he's God, and I intend
to worship him as God. I intend to bow before him and
seek his mercy. Number two, you and I have sinned
against God our Creator. We are sinners. I'm talking to you. I'm talking
to you. And I'm talking to me. We are sinners. If there is one word above all
others that most fully and most accurately describes the whole
human race, One word above all others that most fully and most
accurately describes you. One word above all others that
most fully and accurately describes your mom and dad, grandma and
grandpa, son and daughter, grandson and granddaughter. One word that
most accurately describes me. This is the word. Sin. Sin. Oh, I don't like that. Well,
I'm not a politician. I'm not looking for your vote. I'm here
to tell you what God declares. The ancient Jews used several
words to speak of sin. But sin doesn't consist in this
or that act of evil. The acts of sin are just the
branches of a corrupt tree. Sin in its root is within. That's what we are. Robert Hawker
made this statement, tremendous statement. The fallen, corrupt
nature of man, sin itself, is alike in every son and daughter
of Adam. You mean, preacher, there's no
difference between us and other people? You mean there's nobody
on this earth that I can't look at and say, well, I'm not like
him. I'm not like her. I'm not that bad. I'm not that
corrupt. You heard me right. Our nature
is alike. Sometimes people suggest to me
when I'm finished preaching that it's astonishing that I could
know so much about it. And that's not a problem. That's
not difficult. I know myself. And Darwin Pruitt
and Don Fortner are exactly the same. Larry Chris and Don Fortner
and Jeffrey Dahmer. are exactly the same. And Abraham
and Adolf Hitler are exactly the same. You too. That's our
nature. Well, folks don't all act alike. That's God's restraining hand. It ain't cause of you. It ain't
cause of you. Brother Oscar Bailey said in
a door one night, he said, we never know what we might do in
the heat of passion. He's exactly right. How often
have you been in a situation Where if by some means or other
God hadn't stopped you, you'd have killed somebody. You'd have
killed somebody. Oh, not me. Yeah, you. You. It's
called sin. Corruption. That's what we are.
We are sinners by imputation. Adam's sin was imputed to us.
We're sinners by birth. The wicked go astray from the
womb as soon as they are born, speaking lies. And we're sinners
by choice. We have turned everyone to his
own way. We're centered by the constant
practice of our lives. People, religious folks, I've
been guilty. You too. We talk about when a
man sins. What foolish language. When don't
you sin? When don't you see? That's our
chosen course of life by nature, and that's the habitual practice
of every man's life. This is what God says. Man drinketh
iniquity like water. He drinks iniquity. He gulps it down like water. At heart, we're nothing but sin. The heart is deceitful above
all things. Who can know it? Our righteousness. Even what we look at as righteous
deeds, good things, good things. Offering a thirsty man a drink
of water, or plowing your garden. What does God say about it? The
plowing of the wicked is an abomination to God. There's nothing he does
that's not an abomination to God. Even our righteousnesses
are filthy rags in his sight. Do you understand what I'm talking
about? You are an abominable thing, a filthy thing before
God Almighty. Me too. If I were to give you
my resume, I'd give it to you in one word, sin. Sin is my name,
sin is my surname, and sin is my game. Sin is what I am, and
sin is what I do. I take my place in the dust before
God Almighty, a guilty sinner. And you will never obtain His
mercy until you do. It ain't gonna happen. It ain't
gonna happen. What does that mean? How can I speak to your
heart? A sinner, you're cursed of God. A sinner, you're under the wrath
of God. He that believeth not the Son
of God is condemned already. because he hath not believed
on the name of the only begotten Son of God, a sinner, a sinner. Hell shall be your portion, and
your screaming conscience in you. Oh, I pray God hasn't turned
you over to a seared conscience. Your screaming conscience in
you. Try as you may to silence your screaming conscience in
your soul. Try as you may to say, No! It's
not so. Your conscience screams constantly,
Damned! Damned! Damned forever! I must be. Say, Not me, preacher. You go to bed tonight and try
to convince yourself of that. Damned! That's the consequence of sin.
But thirdly, blessed be His name. Your helpless
condition as a guilty, hell-deserving sinner under the wrath of God
is the very thing that makes you a candidate for God's mercy. Because Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. The Son of Man, He declares,
has come to seek and to save that which was lost. The hymn
writer said, not the righteous, not the righteous sinners Jesus
came to call. Do you understand that? God will
never save anybody but a sinner. A preacher just told us we're
all sinners. I told you, as God told you, as God showed you. I'm not talking about theory.
I'm talking about God convincing you what you are. Sin. Just sin. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. And I want to tell you something. If God Almighty has convinced
you of your sin. If God Almighty has convinced
you of your sin. so that you recognize and acknowledge
and contest before him. That's all you are. Can't change
it. It's because he chose you before
the world was and sent his son to redeem you. He's calling you
by his grace. How can you be sure of that?
Because this book tells me so. This book tells me so. Jesus saves sinners. I want to try to hide my sin. That's how nature is. I so much
don't want you to know what I am. I just don't want you to know.
I just don't want you to know. Worse than that, I don't want
God to know what I am. Don't even know. I keep trying
to hide behind the trees until God convinced me of my sin. And
now I try constantly to live with my heart ripped open before
Him, hiding nothing. For if we confess our sin, what
does He say? He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God
saves sinners by Jesus Christ alone, by His blood, by His righteousness,
by His grace. Now here's the fourth thing.
Here it is. If you would be saved, would you have God's mercy? Would you? O preacher, I am a
guilty sinner in desperate need of free grace, in desperate need
of sovereign mercy before God Almighty. I long for God's salvation. Do you really? If you would be
saved, you must trust Jesus Christ alone. Look unto me, and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, beside me there
is none else. God promises salvation to all
who trust his Son. This is what he said. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Not only that, the Lord God Almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, urges sinners to come to Christ
in faith. Imagine that. Imagine that. He
urges sinners to come. Everyone, especially, come to
the waters. He said, come to me and I will
abundantly pardon you. He said, I'll make with you an
everlasting covenant, give you the sure mercies of David. The
Lord Jesus says, if any man thirsts, let him come to me. Let him come
to me. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden. The Spirit and the bride say,
Come! And whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water
of life freely." Not only does God promise salvation to all
who trust His Son, not only does He urge sinners to come to Him,
He commands you to come. This is His commandment, the
Scripture says, that we believe on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ
whom He sent. Sometimes you ask yourself, though, But can I come? Can I come? If God commands you to come,
it will be alright for you to come, I promise you. How can I come? Any way you can
get to Him will be alright. Any way you can get to Him. Desperate
men, desperate people, shove decorum aside, don't they? If a man's really, really, really
thirsty, I'm talking about really thirsty. Brother Walter, several
years ago, out hunting, got dehydrated, got dehydrated. And almost, almost
too late before they found him, folks had to come get him, he
just couldn't make another step. Man out there in that hot Mexican
sun. I didn't ask him the other day, I wish I had. I didn't ask
him what the vessel looked like that he drank the first drink
of water out of. I didn't ask him whether he knew it was clean,
purified water or not. I didn't ask him if it was sealed
or if they just brought him some water in a bag. It wouldn't matter. I didn't
ask him, are you dead sure that water's for you? You get thirsty
and you see some water. I don't care who it was poured
for. I don't care who it's intended for. If I'm thirsty and it's
in front of me, I presume it's mine. Now I know it's mine. Do
you understand what I'm saying? If you refuse to drink of the
water, it's because you ain't thirsty. If you refuse to trust
the Savior, it's because you don't want it. If you refuse
to come, it's because you don't want to come. Our Master said,
ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. Now, let
me show you one more thing. If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
God has saved you by his free grace. If you trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, right where you're sitting, hear me vile, wretched,
self-loathing, doomed, damned sinner. Hear me. James Jordan,
if right now, right now, you trust Him, it's because God has
dropped His grace in your soul. He saved you by His grace. You
see, faith is not the cause of the new birth, but the result. Faith isn't what causes God to
save you. Faith is the hand that receives
the salvation God's given. Faith is not a work you do for
God. No. Faith in Christ is a work
God does in you. It's called the operation of
His Spirit, the gift of His grace. And faith, faith, faith in Christ
is the evidence of grace in the soul. Oh, may God give you faith
in His Son. I've told you the story many
times, but a fellow who ran away from home when he was a young
man, I can identify with him. After a number of years, parents
hadn't heard from him. And he wrote home to his mom,
and he said, Mom, I sure would like to come home. I don't deserve
to. Your dad had no reason to walk me. I've been altogether
unworthy as such. But if you'd had me, I'd like
to come home. He gave her a date and said,
I'm going to be on the train coming by the front of the house. And said, if it's all right for
me to get off, you just hang a white handkerchief on the clothesline
on the front porch and I'll get off the train and come home.
If not, I'll stay on the train and keep going. So he started
home. The train rounded the bend and he was so hopeful, so hopeful
he might see a white handkerchief hanging out there. He planted
that bin, and that woman had gotten every white sheet and
every one of her husband's undershirts and white handkerchiefs and white
socks and hung them all over the house, and she was standing
out in the front yard like this. That's the gospel of God's grace. God
says, Sinner, come home to the Savior. Oh, may He now sweetly
force you to come. Handbook number 459.