Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 62. In the hardback timbrel, hymn
62, crown hymn with many crowns. Let's all stand together. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing. of Him who died for thee, and
hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky. eye Can't fully bear that sight
But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries so bright ?
Crown Him the Lord of life ? ? Who triumphed o'er the grave ? ?
Who rose victorious to the strife ? ? For those He came to save
? ? His glories now we sing ? ? Who died and rose on high ? who died
eternal life to bring and lives that death may die. ? Crown Him the Lord of heaven
? ? One with the Father known ? ? One with the Spirit through
Him given ? ? From yonder glorious throne ? ? To Thee be endless
praise ? ? For Thou for us hast died ? Be thou, O Lord, through
endless days adored and magnified. Please be seated. Thank you all for coming. I pray that the Lord would speak
to us tonight. I told Greg when he called, I
remember Thursday or so, and I said, listen, there's a lot
of these young men that can, they must not bend, because he
had to go to the bottom, but it's not me, it's the Lord. If
the Lord speaks, he could use a deaf person to do it. Would
you turn with me, please, to 1 Timothy, Timothy 3 verse 15. This is what we're here for tonight.
Paul is right, Timothy's right, but if I tarry long that thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house
of God, which is the church of the living God. We don't have
a dead God, we have a living God. the pillar and ground of
the truth. Now, I'm not an expert in building,
but I know that that pillar is what holds everything up. You
can knock that pillar down and the whole house comes down. And
the Lord says that God's church is to be the pillar and ground
of the truth. And that's my hope tonight, that
the Lord would enable me a sinner to tell you the truth about God,
the truth about ourselves, the truth about Christ, and the truth
about salvation. If the Lord would send His Spirit
and let me do that, then I fulfilled my obligation and hope. That's where my responsibility
and any preacher's responsibility ends. It ends right there, to tell
you the truth. And we know in gospel preaching,
it ends there because anything after that, whether everyone
or no one believes it, is not the preacher's. It's the work
of God's spirit. And that's God's work. In religion,
Men like to do God's work, don't they? They want you to, well,
raise your hand, walk the aisle, dance around, whatever you wanna
do, but they try to merchandise people's souls in hopes of making
themselves feel good about what they've done. That's not man's
work. God's work is to do the saving.
And our work is we hope that God would enable us to Tell you
the truth. That's what I hope he does tonight. If he does that. We've been blessed. We've been blessed. Let us ask
the Lord's blessing upon our services and. Lord, we've gathered
here tonight knowing that you're present. And we plead with you,
oh God, that you would enable us to worship you in truth and
in spirit. That you would use a sinful lip
to declare who you are and show us our need for you. And cause us, Lord, to rest and
to believe on and in you and have no hope in self. and that
we would give you all the glory. Amen. And let's stand again. 58 Jesus, the very thought of thee
with sweetness fills my breast. But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in thy presence rest. Nor voice can sing, nor heart
can frame, Nor can the memory find, A sweeter sound than thy
blessed name, O Savior of mankind. Oh, hope of every contrite heart. Oh, joy of all the meek. To those who fall, how kind thou
art. How good to those ? But what to those who find of
this ? ? Nor tongue nor pen can show ? ? The love of Jesus what
it is ? ? None but his loved ones know ? Jesus, our only joy,
be thou as thou our prize wilt be. Jesus, be thou our glory
now and through eternity. Please be seated. Tonight is a subject that God
has been dealing with me now for many, many years. And it's a very difficult one
for me. But he addresses in his word, so that's why we're going
to talk about it. No one knows joy, the joy of
Christ and the believer, and the joy of salvation. What David
said, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. One of the
great joys of a believer, and I know for me, and I hope for
you it is, When you walk in here some Sunday morning and you see
this baptismal sitting on the side over there. I'll just tell you that a lot
of times I don't know who it is, but it just stirs everything in your
heart. The joy that the Lord has been pleased to call someone
to profess Christ in baptism. It's not only great joy, it's
a great hope. Hope that those who I love and I care about,
that there's still hope for them, that the Lord's not finished.
And at the same time, there's no greater grief for a believer than to watch loved ones reject
Christ. And the greatest grief is when
they die in willful rebellion to Christ. The world doesn't understand
that grief, do they? And that's why I want you to
turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. I don't know of a believer that
doesn't Grieve over their lost loved ones. We grieve for ourselves,
God save me, but we grieve those who we interact with that, and
we plead with God. And I want us to look at that
tonight, because that's most things, religion's got it wrong.
They plead with man. I want you to see what Paul,
who he pleads with. Chapter 10, verse one. And Paul,
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. They might be saved. I find myself,
I have a family member that I love dearly. It's operating and you
know, we do want them to get well, but he needs salvation
more than he needs the healing of his body. And when I talk
with him, he has no interest in the gospel. Paul said, it's my heart's desire. You notice Paul is pleading with
God. Lord, I'm pleading with you because
you're the only one that can save them. If they're going to
be saved, Lord, you're going to have to do it. Because Lord, if it's left up
to them. they'll perish and go to hell. That's a heavy burden for us
as believers, isn't it? We want them to know the joy
of Christ's salvation. And here's what Paul says, and
this rings so true every day, I have to pray this. For I bear
them record, this is those he's praying for, this is his family,
these Jews. I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge.
For these people, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. They're going about trying
to atone for their own sin with their works, and they are refusing
to rest and upon the Lord Jesus Christ is their only righteousness
that God will accept. They don't see that they're ignorant.
Most of my family, very religious. They attend church. They do drive
the church bus. They do Sunday school. They give,
they do all those things and there's lost as can be. There's lost. They have no idea. that God will only accept the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've all been around
them, haven't we? That's, you know, they don't
even, we don't, I'll just say from my own family, they know
that's a subject they don't want to talk about. They don't want
to talk to you about it. And I don't want to hear it.
I don't want to hear all the things, like I said before, they
tell me and all I can tell them, well, the Lord had to do everything
for me. I didn't do nothing for him except
rebel. He said, they're ignorant of
God's righteousness in Christ and in verse four, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Only righteousness we have is
the Lord Jesus Christ. I have nothing, nothing to contribute. I need Christ to do all the saving.
And when I plead with God for the souls of these loved ones, Lord, they're not coming. They're not going to come. We're
going to look at that. Lord, would you be willing to save
them? Is there a believer in this room that doesn't know that
God's able? Do you ever doubt that God's able? No, that doesn't
even cross my mind that he say, Lord, I know you're able. You've
shown me that. You've shown me that in my own
life. And I see it around me. But Lord, I'm pleading with you.
Would you be willing? Because I know, Lord, it's all
of you. I don't want to plead with them.
I'm not trying to talk them into anything, but I know them. They
can't because they're trying to establish their own righteousness.
And what a great blessing it is. I have a jealousy for some
of you. I mean, one of your loved ones,
that's, I'll just tell you, that's a great joy and a great jealousy
because you want that so badly for your own. But one of the
greatest, I don't want to embarrass anybody, so I'll embarrass myself. I don't need to embarrass anybody.
But I can't tell you sometime how you plead day after day after
day. Oh God, would you be merciful?
You praying for someone and weeks and months and years go by. And you almost to the point where
you're, you're hopeless, aren't you? I'll just say this. I'll
speak for me. That's why I said so personal.
Lord, am I praying in vain? but I can't stop, Lord, because
I know that they have to have Christ's righteousness, and I
know you have to save them. I just can't say, well, I'm done.
I guess you don't want to save them. You can't do that, as long
as there's breath in your body. And then one day, I remember a person one day,
they said, well, I just don't know, but that's okay. They said,
are you going to be here next Sunday? I said, well, no, I'm
going to be gone. Why? I'm going to be baptized
next Sunday. I cried there because I missed
it. But I rejoiced. Lord, you've answered my prayer.
Thank you, oh Lord. What a joy it is to see your
salvation. But they will not come. Every
believer knows what it's like. The title of this, Are You a
Beggar? Every believer knows what it's like to beg. You know,
a lot of people, I'll never beg. Brother, if you've never begged,
you'll never be saved. Some of us have walked with the
Lord now for many years. We beg every day, don't we? It's not I beg one time and it's
over. I beg every day. Lord, save me from Michael Etheridge. Because Lord, if you leave me
alone, I'll perish. I'll perish. Lord, I plead with you, Christ
is my only hope of life. There was a time you and I were
ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, weren't we? Some of
us, we could, We progressed all right. You know, they talk about
we progressed. We progressed from free will to reform religion,
to all that. All we did is went deeper into
the hole. That's all it was to it. Deeper into the pit of hell.
That's what we did. Because we kept thinking that
we were doing something that surely God would atone for our
sins. And didn't know anything about
begging. Until God broke us. Broke us. I want us to look a little bit,
because I ask myself, why will my loved ones not? Why do they
continue on this path of destruction? And talk about how we as believers
have to treat them. Look with me please to John chapter
5. I'm not going to tell you anything
new tonight. pray that we can see this. A
lot of it you probably can quote them better than I can. John chapter 5 verse 36, excuse me yeah verse 36, John says,
the Lord says, But I have a greater witness than that of John for
the works which the Father hath given me to, you see that next
word? Do you see the next word? Finish. He didn't come to do a part,
he came to finish, okay? And he did finish, thanks be
to God. The same works that I do bear
witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself
which has sent me hath borne witness of me. You have neither
heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape. And you have
not his word abiding you, for whom he has sent, him you believe
not. And he tells what they did. These
Pharisees, they searched the scripture for, and then you have,
thank you have eternal life. And they would testify me and
verse 40 is what I want to see. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. The Lord ain't saying I'm going
to put a barrier up and I'm not going to let you come. No, he
said, you won't come. I've told you to come and you
still won't come. I've pleaded with you to come
to me. He's commanded us to do that. Won't come. My loved ones
won't come. There's a time I wouldn't come.
And if you're honest with yourself, there's a time you wouldn't come. Because as long as you think
you can come in your own power, you'll never come to Christ.
You'll never have a need. That's what religion does. They
put salvation in the hands of man that he can accept or reject
Christ, offer salvation. The truth is we're in Christ's
hands and his holiness demands that he either save us or cast
us into the pit of hell and it's his decision. That's why I know
something about begging. Do you know something about begging
if Christ ever teaches you that? We won't come. Turn with me please to John 3. chapter of John. Verse 14, And Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever, you know, it's each and every one is what it
means. That each and every one that believeth in him should
not perish but have eternal life. For so God so loved the world.
Remember he's speaking to Jews here. But did Jews think Gentiles
could be saved? No. Them dogs, are you kidding
me? So he's telling, no, I'm going
to save Gentiles. That's what he means by the world, okay?
The world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, If Christ
came to condemn the world, all of us would be condemned. Because
not a single one of us wanted Christ. And not a single of us
would submit to Christ. You know, when we talk about
what the Jews say, we will not have that man rule over us. I
could have been right in the choir with him. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. because
he had not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world
and men love darkness rather than the light because their
deeds, their good works, their righteousness was not up to standard. Is that what it says? No, it
was evil. What I'm doing right now is evil
because of my flesh. You know, I was always like,
you know, Greg's right. My, there's times that I'm sure
you have, God's broken you and brought you to tears. And they're
heartfelt tears, aren't they? From the heart. Those, as Jonathan
Evans said so, those tears have to be washed in the blood of
Christ. For everyone hates the light.
And here's verse 20 is what I want you to see. Here's why they won't
come. For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. My loved ones don't want to come
to Christ because they don't want to hear that their good
works is filthy rags. That's what they don't want to
hear. And they won't come. They won't come because they're
relying on their works. and they don't want to hear.
He calls our best filthy rags. And he that doeth truth, that's
to believe on Christ, cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest that they were wrought in God. The only reason I came to Christ,
because God wrought me. I'd never come. I'd never come. God has to do something us. That we can't do and that we
don't want to do and he does it for every one of his children. We don't have to go there but
in Psalm it says the Lord God has made us willing in the day
of his power. Not in the day that I decided
to accept Jesus, not in the day that I sat in that pew, not in
the day that I sat there and heard a gospel message. And the
day that he made me willing because I wasn't coming. You know, it's
a, uh, I think of our children. I don't know why the Lord puts
that on my heart, but he always had. We're thankful. They have
a place to go where the truth is told. That's a great blessing,
but it's not salvation. God still has to make them willing. Has to make them willing. That's
why I tell you, brother, and I speak this out of my own heart,
probably some of my hardest pleadings is for those to come here. They're
here where the gospel's preached. They've heard the truth, but
they still won't come. And the only reason can be because
they don't want their deeds to be reproved or that their family's
deeds be reproved. Uh, I'll tell you, it's just the truth. That's all
I can say. My grandmother, when the church door opened, she was
there. Every Sunday for those in religion, you'll know she
had the white Bible. You know what that means? Those,
some of you know some, if you giggle, you know what that is,
the white Bible. My grandmother had the white
Bible. And when she died, she died without Christ. And they thought, oh, Michael,
you're just grieving because she helped raise me. You're just
grieving or your grand, no, I was grieving because my grandmother
died without Christ. because she was trying to establish
her own righteousness rather than submitting to the righteousness
of Christ. And to the believers that's done,
some of you went through that, that pierces your heart, doesn't
it? It does, it makes your heart very heavy. But God had to make
me willing. Did he have to make you willing?
If he didn't, my fear is he still hasn't made you willing. He had to make me willing. God had to grab me by the neck
and jerk me out of religion and bring me to Christ. And I'd sit under some gospel
preachers, but that doesn't mean I believed. I knew a lot of doctrine,
but that doesn't mean I believed till the day God showed me I
had no righteousness. He wouldn't accept anything I'd
done. And the harder you work, it's
like a mud sling. You know how you get in mud or
snow? The harder your tires spin, what happens? You just keep going
deeper and deeper, deeper. That's where I was. The harder
I'd pray, it just got worse. That's all it did. Till finally
the Lord took you to the point where, as David said, those waters
overflowed me. And you come out of crying and
said, Lord, I can do nothing to save myself. Save me lest
I perish. The Lord made me willing. Look
at Romans 10 and verse 4 there. We'll go back to Romans 10, verse
4. It says, Christ is the end of
righteousness, is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. The Lord, I wouldn't come, not
because Christ kept me from coming, because I didn't want people
to know. I wanted my self-righteousness. I wanted salvation in my terms.
And the Lord just kept pushing me deeper and deeper and deeper
into the pit. Then one day, he made me willing. And then we see here, right here
is the end of righteousness. I couldn't believe. until the
Lord sent His Spirit to give me the faith to believe. I didn't have faith. I wasn't
going to believe. The only reason we believe what
we do today is the faith that the Lord has to give us. Now,
I'm going to tell you, I'm not a very strong man. I'm kind of
a weak man. As that my faith that sometimes
it seems almost be nonexistent. Thanks be to God. It's not the
amount of my faith is the object of my faith. That's my salvation. But the Lord gives you faith.
You're going to believe. I don't understand most of this
book. But I know it's true because
the Lord's give me the faith to believe that. despite what
other people can say. The Lord had to make me willing,
gave me the faith to believe on Christ, and gave me the faith
to believe the gospel. Preaching the gospel, the gospel
is absolutely necessary for the salvation of one's soul. I can
say that, that's all I can tell you. You want them to be here
to hear the gospel. Because without the gospel, unless
somebody can show me, I see nowhere else in this book how one's to
be saved, but through the preaching and hearing of the gospel. You
know what they all say? How can they believe on whom
they've not heard? How can they hear unless someone
sent? We all needed a John, and I use
the term a John the Baptist or a gospel preacher to come to
us, didn't we? And if you're a believer, you'll
remember that John the Baptist, don't you? When Brother Todd
was here last, we were just discussing, so many of us was in religion.
And boy, they didn't like Todd. They hated Todd. They'd have
killed him if it wasn't, I think, if it wasn't for those people,
they'd have killed him. They really, they hated him so bad. But I told
him last time, I said, you know, Todd, you was John the Baptist.
You came to us and preached the gospel. And God made us willing
and gave us the faith to believe. We plead with God. I plead every
day, Lord, send a John the Baptist to my family. Maybe this is morbid. I hope
not. Maybe if it is, I pray that if not dead, I told Greg, and
I mean it with all my heart, Greg, when I die, don't you tell
them about Michael Etheridge, you tell them about Michael Etheridge
as God. That may be the only time my
family hears the gospel, and they need to hear it. They're
already rejecting it, so what's gonna change? But oh, but who
knows, maybe the Lord, he might be willing, and make them willing
to come. I want to say something here
and I hope this doesn't come off. Well, it's just what it
is. I'm so thankful that God has
placed me in this place and time in history. And as I look back
on my life, I don't know why, but he's blessed me by bringing
several gospel preachers through my life. Most of them, I didn't
hear what they said and I didn't believe what they said. All I
cared about is when's this going to get over and what are we having
for lunch? But I'm thankful that the Lord
continued to bring gospel preachers. And I want us to understand something
that we love them and we're thankful for them and they are called
of God, but they're sinners just like you and I. Frail sinners. They struggle probably as much
or more than we do for the flesh. because there's always attacks. And I want us to, I hope you
pray for Greg and Trish and other gospel preachers and their families,
because God would encourage them and protect them and comfort
them, and he would reveal himself to them. I've told, I tried to
do this more often. I tried to tell the wives at
the conference I was listening to a sermon, a funeral for a
gospel preacher and Brother Henry preached it. And I said, I remember
one thing. He started the sermon. He looked
down at the deceased preacher's wife. And he said, I want to
thank you for sharing your husband with us. Now I'm going to tell
you that hit me like, Oh, he's right. They have to share their
spouse with us. I'm not a share. I couldn't share
my spouse with anybody else. They have to share. That's only
done by the grace of God. Only God can bless that and give
them the ability to do that. And the other part I always want
to say is, if you preach long enough, you're going to make
something, you're going to say something that's wrong. That's just bottom
line. You're going to say something
that's wrong. And you're going to look back one day, I don't
know why I said that, that was just wrong. That's why I'm going
to tell you, anyone that comes up here before the people of
God, Adam, whether it be to sing a hymn or Tom to lead the singing,
or Robert to do the call to worship or to try to preach a sermon.
If you're not scared to death that you might tell a lie about
Christ, I don't, I'm worried for you. Because I've seen and read what
he said, woe unto them. I don't want those woe unto them
to be to me. But they're going to say something
wrong. And I appreciated what Henry said one time. He said,
you know, there's always somebody out there that wants to pick
out something. You get what I'm saying? He didn't say that just
right. He recorded that just not perfectly. You know what I'm saying? Always
picking at. Henry said, if you preach long enough, you're going
to do that. But he said, I always try to tell them, I always like
this, because I'm not too fancy. Henry always said, even a mule
knows that when he eats from the side of the road, to spit
out the briars. That's what we've come. When
it's, we spit out the briars. They're frail, they're human.
This is a gospel issue, we would correct them in love, but that's
no, usually not, it's something Turn with me please to John 17. I'll close on this, make it short
here. We'll start at verse one. I plead every day that God would
send a John the Baptist to my loved ones. I'm thankful God
has sent the John the Baptist to this congregation, to those
who are yet to believe. And we plead with God every day
for their souls. I hope we do. I know I plead
for the, sometimes I'll start, I have You know, I'm not too
good. I have to start names, you know, and I put them by families.
We plead with God because we know only God can save them. I don't care. I can plead with
them all day long and they, but if God saves them, they're saved.
We can convince them to do something that I so appreciate. Greg and
I talked about, we don't try to coerce our children. Well,
you need to be baptized. You want to go to heaven, don't
you? You know, we don't do that. That's the work of the Lord,
not our work. You see what I'm saying? But
John 17, what if a gospel preacher don't come? Well, you know, I
don't, I'm not a gospel preacher. What do I do? Well, again, I quote it. Every
believer knows how to witness. Every believer knows how to witness. We don't need to take classes
on how to witness. We don't need to read books on
how to witness. But every believer knows how
to witness. All we have to do is tell them, what has Christ
done for you? This is what Christ has done
for me. And let it go. From there on, it's the work
of the Lord, whether they believe or not. But I want you to see
something 17 here. We'll close with this. These
words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that the son
may also glorify thee. For God has given Christ power
over all flesh that he should give eternal life as many as
God has given Christ. Not one more, not one less. I cannot tell you what a comfort
it is to my soul to know that all of my salvation's in the
hands of the Lord. That's a comfort to my soul. This old flesh, it's not gotten
any better and it ain't gonna get better till it dies. I can
tell you that right now. And it's always, how many times
it accused you Could you call yourself a believer and have
some of the thoughts and desires that you have? That's that old
flesh on my back. It ain't changed and it's not
getting better. But thanks be to God, my salvation's
in Christ. And this is life eternal. They
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou sent.
Christ has glorified God on the earth and Christ has, there's
that word again, finished the work which God gave him to do. And now, Father, glorify Christ
with thy own self, with thy glory, which I had with thee before
the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. I've made myself
known to those you gave me. I came, and thy Spirit hath come
and made them willing. I sent a John the Baptist to
preach the gospel to them. God the Holy Spirit came and
gave them faith to believe and rest on Christ. And the beauty
of it is we all believe the same thing, don't we? We all believe
the same thing. I have manifested me with what
you gave me out of the world, thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and I've kept them thy word. Now I've known that all
things whatever thou hast given me are thee. And I give them
the word which thou gavest me, and they have Received them. The child of God don't want to
sit there and argue with what God says. Well, not in that world. Now that may not mean they should
believe it. Don't they? I'm not, I'm not smart enough
to argue. Just, I just want to believe it. Lord, give me the
ability to believe it. That I come out of thee and they
did believe that thou send me verse nine. Here's my comfort. Christ is saying, I pray for
them. That's good news to me. Because
I know whatever Christ prayed for, God the Father is going
to give it to him. His prayers are not like yours
and mine. Whatever he asked for, God's given it to him. I can
tell you that because he is perfectly holy in the sight of God. So
are we. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. All mine are thine, and they
are mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no more in the
world, but these are in the world. I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep though thy own name, whose whom thou hast given me, and
that they may be one as we are." We're one with Christ. I have
a hard time. God give me the faith to believe
it. I'm looking at a whole bunch of little Christ all over the
place here. They were just like him. While I was them in the world,
I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I've
kept and none of them's lost. Oh, that's really good news right
there. None of them's lost. He's not going to lose us, but
the son of perdition, the scripture might be filled. Verse 14, I have given them thy
word and the world hath hated them. Because they are not of
the world, even as I'm not of the world. I think Google said
one time, the only reason people in the pocket ain't coming here
trying to burn this place down is they don't know what we preach.
That's the only reason. Because I promise you, they hate
us. They don't want to hear it. And you've all met some now.
You try to share something with them. I don't want to hear that.
Leave me alone. Here's what I want you to see.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from evil. Christ is praying
not to take us out of this world. I can speak for me. I would be
glad to go tonight. I'd be glad to go. I'm just gonna
tell you, for some of you don't know, I had some health issues
and it looked like, Unfortunately, Diane didn't make the decision
early enough, and I came out of it. Because they was trying
to get her to, they really was, they told her, I think we need
to take him off all the ventilator and all that. He's brain dead
and all those kind of things. And I told her, I said, don't
you ever let them put that on me again. As soon as I got well,
I went straight down there and I got me illegals.zoom. Resuscitate,
no. Do this, no. Do this, no. And
I hope I didn't hurt my wife's feelings, because the first thing
I did, our daughter's a professor of nursing. I said, Maggie, I'm
putting you in charge. That way, there's no emotion
she has to deal with. Not that she would, but there's
none she has to deal with. You know my wishes now. And I'm
dead serious. I'm ready to go. But I'll go
when the Lord's ready, because it's his time. He doesn't take
us out of this world. They're not of this world as
I'm not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth.
The word is truth. Thou has sent me into the world.
Even so, I also sent them into the world for their sakes. I sanctified myself, but they
also might be sanctified through thee. Here's what I want you
to see. You see verse 20. Neither. I pray for these alone. but for them also which shall
believe on me. You see those last three words?
Through their word. We are to be God's witnesses
here. Oh, I don't know. I don't know
how to do the Roman road. And I don't, I don't care about
Roman road. But if you're a believer, you
know what Christ has done for you. And if you don't know, I'm
afraid it's because you're not a believer. I know this. I can tell them
there was a time when I have always had a zeal for God. That
ought to be your first warning light right there. Oh, yeah. I know scripture. I can do this
and I have a zeal for God. I'm ignorant of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was ignorant. I tried to establish
my own righteousness rather than submitting to the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I wouldn't come. Even when
I heard the truth, I wouldn't come. And one day the Lord says,
come on, you're coming. And Donnie said, had me by the
nap of the neck. Boy, when he shows you your need,
doesn't he? He showed me all my righteousness
was filthy rags. And only a believer can say,
you know this as a believer, when Paul said, in me, that is
my flesh, is no good thing. It's not a mystery to us. It's
not one to me when it said that which I know to be good, I do
not do. That which I know to be evil,
I do. Yeah, that's me. I do that all the day long and
I have no righteousness other than the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he had to give me the faith
to believe that. And he put me here with other
believers. He put me here with a John the
Baptist to preach the gospel to me. And he grew me in his grace. And he's left me here. To be
a witness to those who are still yet to believe. And every day. I don't think a day goes by. I
don't know. I said it's hard for me. Pleading with God. pleading with
God. Someday they may say that, you
know, they put him in jail because when I walk in the mornings,
I'm talking to myself the whole way. And all of a sudden, I hope
somebody's there and they've heard me all the way talk about
it. Lord, I plead with you, oh God. God, my loved ones, they
won't come, Lord. They're religious and they're
resting in their own righteousness rather than submitting to your
righteousness. That's why this verse is so true to my heart.
And Lord, if you don't save them, they're gonna perish. And Lord,
would you send to John the Baptist to them? Even if it meant my death. You learn a little bit. I've
always wondered this and some of you are probably smart, you
can answer it for me. You know when Paul says that I would be
accursed for their sake. Isn't that what Paul said? I thought, there ain't no way
I could say, Lord, I wish you'd cast me into the pit of hell
if that's what God can't be bargained with. I already know that. But
I do understand a little better. Lord, if cursing me on this earth
could mean that my loved ones, somebody, couldn't believe the
gospel, that you would save somebody, Lord, curse me. Curse me in this earth. Don't leave me, because I can't
do anything for myself. But we desire, especially, you
know, you have, some of you have parents, you have children, now
you have grandchildren, and I don't want to get in personal. I'll just say, like I said, this
is my family. This is my family story right
here. And what John says is, I go to church and some of them
are deacon and the little kids, you know, Jesus loves me and
all that kind of thing. They're given the zeal for God,
but without knowledge. Without knowledge. And I pray
the Lord would give us ability to plead with God for our souls
and for those that come here with us. And I said, may he continue
to bless us and grow us in his grace. And I thank you for coming
and tolerating. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me? Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old Thou hast ordained me
that I should live to Thee. Your love had no beginning. No cause in me was found that
you should choose to save me. A sinner strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for, Was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, For
Christ paid the dreadful toll. Twas Sovereign Mercy called me,
And taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, To heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before Thee,
for Thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first.