Message from God unto thee That's
that secret Aaron say I have a message from God Unto thee
and he rose out of his seat and he slipped over in front of old
egg lawn and He had put forth his left hand left handed Remember
that dagger is 18 inches long, sharp on both sides. And he took
the dagger from his right thigh and he thrust it into his belly. That's the present I got from
you. That's the message I've got from God for you, buddy.
That's the message right there. Some message, wasn't it? The
message that fellow will never forget. I'll guarantee you that
fellow heard the message And he felt the message. He stuck
that thing in him so far, 18 inches into that fat man's belly,
that that thing went clean up to the shaft of the knife, and
the fat closed around the knife, the dagger, and he couldn't pull
it out. He couldn't pull it out. He stuck
that in there, and it went in so far, it said that, in verse
22, and the haft, or the shaft, 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. That's the message. Well, that's
the present. Eighteen inches. I've got a message
for you. Well, I wonder this morning as
we think about this and this particular statement in verse
20, I have a message from God unto thee. I wonder if there
is anybody here under the sound of my voice who thinks that they
never heard from God. You say, well, brother, I never
had a vision. Well, I never had either. You
say, well, brother, I never received a visit from an angel. An angel
has never talked to me in the quietness of some dark night,
gotten me off to himself and spoke to me as a man would speak
to another man. Or I've never heard the audible
voice of God speak to me. I've never seen a vision or image
of God in any way. I never have either. But I want
you to know here this morning that every one of us has received
a message directly from God. Directly from God's throne, we
have received a message. Now, when I thought of this,
and think of it now even, it startles me. It makes me kind
of tremble to realize that the God who is the creator of all
things, the sustainer of all things, who sitteth upon a throne, who
rules and governs everything in the universe, everything from
the least particle of dust to the biggest elephant on the continent
of Africa, God controls every step, every thought of every
man and of everything in nature. All this is dependent upon God.
And when I think that this God speaks directly to me, who is
so insignificant, so black of heart, so ungodly and unholy
and so far away and so little. When I think that God speaks
directly to me, it startles me. It amazes me. It makes me tremble. Well, just think that the God
of heaven, the King, the Ruler of the universe would speak to
you and I, would have a message for us. Well, that's right. He
speaks to all men. The King, who's the ruler, speaks
to all of his subjects, every one of them. And there's not
a man on the topside of God's green earth at any given time
that God has not sent a message to in some way. In some way,
God has sent a message directly to every one of us from His throne. As I was thinking about this,
even this morning, as I was thinking about this, I thought how gracious
and kind and loving and full of tender mercy that the God
of heaven is. Before He sends a message of
doom to anybody, He always sends them a warning. And I remembered
the the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Great cities, great
civilized cities, and their wickedness was so great that it arose to
the heavens where God dwells. And he said, well, I'll go down,
I'll go down and see if this wickedness is really as great
as what it really appears to be. So he sent some angels of
death, down at Sodom and Gomorrah. And they even walked the streets
of Sodom and Gomorrah and warned the people of the doom and wrath
that was about to come. Well, you know the story as well
as I do. You know how the world in Noah's
day was destroyed. God told Noah to build an ark.
He said, I'm going to destroy all the world. Destroy everybody
except those that are on the ark. And Noah preached for what? 120 years. It took Noah 120 years
to build that ark. And all the time that Noah was
building that ark, he was a witness. He was a witness of what God
was going to do. And no one listened to him. No
one listened to what God had to say through his witness and
through his prophet Noah. Well, you know the story. God
destroyed a whole civilization, a whole race of men and women
and boys and girls, God destroyed. Someone said one time that God
sent about two billion people off to hell before they could
pack a suitcase. It just happened that quick.
God has a message, I believe, for every man, woman, boy or
girl upon this earth at any given time. The truth is that God has
sent us many messages, but we haven't heard them. We haven't
listened. It's not that He has not spoke. It's just that we haven't listened.
We haven't paid any attention to what God said. We've turned
a deaf ear to God and have not paid any attention. He speaks,
but we won't hear Him. That's the problem. He speaks,
but we won't hear Him. I just was reminded of this,
this morning, of how God speaks to men. Well, it didn't seem
like much. It didn't seem like much, but
I know that it was important. I know that God was speaking,
even this morning, as I was getting ready to come to church. I came
out to my truck and my neighbor was fooling with his car. His car was parked pretty close
to where my truck is. And I said, what are you up to
now? He said, getting ready to go
on a picnic. Getting ready to go on a picnic. I said, I hope
you have a good time. Well, he said, I hope it don't
rain and spoil our picnic. Well, I said, maybe it won't.
He said, have a good time. And I got in my truck. He knew
where I was going. It doesn't speak highly of me.
It doesn't speak highly of me. But he knew where I was going.
He knew where I go every Sunday morning. He sees me go. He sees
me come out and get in my truck and go down over the hill and
come up here to this church. He knows where I go on Sunday night.
He knows where I go on Wednesday night. He knows. That's a witness. That's God. Speaking to that
fellow. Now, he didn't hear it. He didn't
hear it. It's not that God is silent. It's not that God does not speak. It's that we won't hear Him.
We give God the deaf ear. We pay no attention to Him. But
God's speaking. God speaks in our witness. God
was speaking to the whole world through Noah, but they weren't
listening. They weren't listening. They were turning a deaf ear.
And the Bible says, doesn't the Bible say that one day destruction
and wrath will fall upon this race of people? When we're in
a time just like the days of Noah, where we're marrying and
giving in marriage and where we're drinking and dancing having
all of this so-called fun and pleasure, then God's going to
come. God's speaking, but ain't nobody listening, Bob. Nobody's
listening. God spoke to that fellow this
morning, but that fellow didn't hear Him. You know why I didn't
hear Him, Bob? He didn't want to hear Him. That's
the reason we don't hear Him, because we don't want to hear
Him. We don't want to hear Him. Naaman, the leper, came to the
door of the prophet And he got the message. He said, I'm a leper. I'm a leper and they say that
you can do something for me. You're a prophet of God and they
say that you can cure leprosy. Well, the prophet told Naaman,
said go out there to the Jordan River and dip in that river seven
times and everything will be okay. But Naaman didn't do that. He said, He said, well, I thought... He said, I'm a captain of the
Syrian army. I'm a man of great valor and
courage. And I thought that you'd send
some great... He just sent his servant out
there. I thought you'd come out and speak to him face to face.
He heard what he had to say, but he didn't pay any attention
to it. He heard, but he didn't pay no attention. See? You see,
it wasn't what he wanted to hear. So he turned away. Turn with
me real quick to 2 Timothy if you will. I want to read a scripture
to you. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse
4. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse
4. I want you to see this. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall
they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto stories, or unto fables." You see, we only hear what we
want to hear. He speaks, but we're just not
paying any attention to Him. And the reason why we're not
paying any attention to what He's saying is that we don't
want to hear Him. We don't want to hear Him. Now,
if we're determined to hear what we want to hear, we'll find somebody
saying what we want to hear them say. If we're determined. He'll tell you just exactly what
you want to hear. Now, I think that I've maybe
established a basis here to continue on, that God does speak to men. God does speak to men. He does
speak to us, but the question is, how does God speak to us? How? Well, I've already said
He speaks through witnesses, and that's the reason why our
Lord said, go ye therefore into all the world and be a witness,
be a witness of me, be a witness of who I am and what I have done,
be a witness. And one of our great and chief
responsibilities as Christians is that we are to be a witness
to this lost, dying world of the cause and the claims of God's
dear Son. We are to be a faithful witness
and tell men, tell men that judgment will fall upon them, and hell
will be their home if they die in their sins, that Jesus Christ
is the only hope for a sinner. We're to be a witness of the
saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if we never come
to church, every time you stay home from church on Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night, you know what you're doing? Now,
I'm not saying this to offend anybody. I'm not in the business
to offend people just to be offending them. I hope you understand that.
If you stay at home on Sunday morning in church, then you're
destroying your witness to your neighbor, to your own children,
to your own children. Your own children one day will
rise up and they'll not call you blessed. They'll not call
you blessed. Why? because you denied them
a witness of God. You say, well, I have got up
on Sunday morning and come to church when I was sick and it
never affected my children. But it may affect your children
after you are dead and gone, after you are rotting, your body
is rotting in the grave, your faithful witness unto God, God
may be pleased to make that effective to the saving of their souls.
Did you know that? Yet so many on Sunday morning. I'll just, well, they won't miss
me. No, we won't miss you. We won't
miss you. God won't miss you. God won't
miss you. He can do without you. But you
may be signing the death warrant to your neighbor over here or
your own children. Maybe even to your own soul.
Better think about these things a little bit. Better think about
them. You better quit finding every time I say anything to
you. You better quit going behind me and saying, well, the preacher
is mad at me. You better get that out of your system. You
better get that out of your system if you ever want to wind up at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm telling you. I'm telling you the truth. There's
not many people going to tell you the truth, but I'm going
to tell you the truth. If it kills me, it kills you. I'm going
to tell you the truth. You better get rid of these preconceived
ideas and notions as to what my motive is. And realize that
my motive is to say something or do something and relate something
to you from the Word of God that will be for your good. If that's
not so, then I better quit. I better quit. All right. I wanted
to say that. Now, listen. How does God send
His messages to man? Everybody hears from God, whether
he's saved or whether he's lost, he hears from God. How? Number one, he hears through
His Word. He hears through His Word. This
is the Word of God right here. This is the Word of God. You
hear, you've got it right in your hands this morning. I never
heard, you've got it, right there it is. Right there it is. There's
something in there for you. You've heard it time and time
again. Right there. Everybody in this
county, I'll bet that there's not a family in the county of
Marion in the state of West Virginia this morning that doesn't have
a Bible. I'll bet you can't find one household this morning that
doesn't have a Bible. It may be a brand new Bible that's
never been opened. And it may be tattered and torn,
but everybody's got a Bible. Every hospital room's got a Bible. Every motel room's got a Bible. Every jail's got a Bible. Everybody's
got a Bible. Everybody's got a Bible. How
does God speak? He speaks through His Word. Let me read something to you
here, see if I can make good on that. Over here in the book
of Hebrews, in the first chapter, in the first verse, I believe
it is. Hebrews chapter 1, verse number
1, says, God, who at sundry times and divers manners spake in past
time unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son. who is the Word of the living
God, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom all
things were made by Him. So He speaks to us, brethren,
through His Book, through the Word. Open it, and it will speak
to you. It will speak this to you. It
will tell you that all men are ruined. It will tell you that.
You turn to the third chapter of the book of Romans, and it
will give you about 14 or 15 verses there that will describe
whatever man is by nature. And it will conclude and say
this, it will say that all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. That's what it will say. It will
say that all men are guilty before God because of their transgression
of God's holiness. That's what it'll tell you. Every
man, every one of us, is guilty. That's what the Bible says. We're
all guilty before God. Every one of us. And I'll tell
you this, if we die in this guilt, Jesus said, if you die in your
sins, you cannot come where I am. If you believe not that I am
He, you'll die in your sins. And if you die in your sins,
what's going to take place? If you die in your sins, you're
going to be resurrected in your sins, you're going to stand before
God in judgment in your sins, and you're going to live throughout
eternity in your sins. It would be better not to be
born than to die in your sins. It would be better that when
you came forth from your mother's womb, that someone come along
with a rope and choked you to death and throwed you in the
water. It would be a better death. Better death. Far better death. Open the book. It speaks. It
tells us that every man's sin comes short of the glory of God.
This book says that God is pleased show mercy. In Romans chapter
9, He said, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. This
book declares that He shows mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ
and only through the Lord Jesus. He declares in His book that
Jesus Christ is the only hope. This book speaks to you and I. Just open it up. Someone said,
well, What we need to do is go down to the 10 cent store and
buy a Bible. If you haven't got a Bible, you better buy a Bible.
Open the Bible. The Bible is speaking to us.
You say, well, I'm not going to open the Bible. Well, that's
just exactly what I'm saying. You're not hearing. You're not
hearing because you don't want to hear. You don't want to hear.
You won't open the Bible and read the Bible. You won't come
on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and read
the Bible. Why? Why? You don't want to hear it.
You don't want to hear it. But that's not going to lessen
your responsibility before God. God said, I spoke. I called. I called. I stretched forth my
hand and no man regarded. That's what the Bible says. I
stretched forth my hand and no man regarded. Forget your Bible. If you're
not reading the Bible, you'd better read the Bible. You'd
better open up the Bible and find out what the Bible says.
If you can't find out, you say, well, I can't understand the
Bible. Nobody can understand the Bible. Well, it's not what
you can't understand that worries you, it's what you do understand.
You see? It's not what you don't understand,
it's what you do understand. You understand that you're going
to die. You understand that. You understand that there's a
judgment. You understand that you're a sinner. That's what
bothers you. Death, judgment, and hell for
your sins. You understand? I understand
that. That's what bothers me. The book of Revelation doesn't
bother me. I don't understand the book of Revelation. It doesn't
bother me. What bothers me is what I do understand. That's
what bothers me. What bothers me is this. Every
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of in
the time of judgment. That bothers me. I understand
that. That bothers me. Does it bother you? I understand
it. Well, the Bible says that Christ
is the only foundation. He's the only hope. He's the
only Savior. He's the only Redeemer. That's
what the book says. That's what the Bible says. And
it just keeps on saying, just keeps on saying, whether you
hear it or whether I hear it, it just keeps on saying, I've
got a message from God for you. You see, you and I this morning
who are fathers, we have a tremendous responsibility because God has placed us as
head of the family. The woman's not the head of the
family. She's not the priest. Man has got the responsibility,
and God has ordained, before time ever was, that every father
is the high priest of his home. And we've got a responsibility.
The mothers, they're not the high priest. The mothers are
not the boss of the situation. Fathers are. Fathers are. You've got a responsibility.
Listen, you remember old Joshua? Joshua understood what I'm talking
about. You know what Joshua said? He said, I don't know about you
people. He looked them all over and said,
I don't know what you fellas are going to do. I don't know. But he said,
I'll tell you this. I know what I'm going to do.
And he said, I know what this house is going to do. He understood
that he was the high priest over that house. And he said, for
you fellas, now you just go ahead and do what you want to, but
he said, as for me and my house, he said, we're going to serve
the Lord. We're going to serve the Lord
as for me and my house. Now, if you're a father here
this morning, that's your responsibility. That's your responsibility as
the head of that family. Now, you can't force the Lord
Jesus Christ on your children. You can't do it. But I'll tell
you this, if you're going to line up to the responsibility
that has been placed upon you by God Himself, then you're going
to see to it that your children's here. That is if they're under
your jurisdiction. If they're out of your house,
now you can't do anything about it, but if they're in your house,
if they eat your bread, and drink your water, and bask in your
lodging, and you pay the bills, then if you don't do it, you're
a coward. If you don't do it, you're not
fit. You're not fit. You're worse than an infidel
if you won't do it. Now you hear me out. I can make good on it. The Bible says, does not provide for his own. Is what? Is an infidel? He is worse than an infidel.
That's what the Scriptures say. Worse than an infidel. Not an
infidel, but he's worse than an infidel. Now, fathers, you've
got children in your home. You run them, or do they run
you? Tell the truth. They run you.
They run you. They tell you what to do, where
you can go and where you can't go. Your whole life is built
around your children. They're your little gods. You
bow down to your little children. You hug them in your breasts.
You hug them in your breasts. God will break your arm one of
these days and He'll snatch them away from you. I'm telling you
the truth. I got a message for you this
morning from the Word of God. Fathers, you've got a responsibility. You're the high priest of that
house, not your children. Not your children. You are. You
are. You better start taking up the
slack. Mothers, you've got a responsibility. God has entrusted you with a
responsibility of bringing up those children in the nurture
and the admonition of the Lord. You've got that responsibility.
You've got a responsibility to be obedient to your husband.
I read here just recently where In the marriage service, when
the Prince of England or Prince of Wales gets married, they had
a big fuss over this. They said, we're going to omit
the word obey. It's old-fashioned. They interviewed
some people about it, and they said, well, it doesn't make any
difference because women don't obey anyhow, so it doesn't make
any difference. strike it out because women are not going to
obey their husband anyhow. Well, that may be right, but that still
doesn't make it so and lessen the responsibility of the Word
of God. The Word of God says, wives, wives, obey your husband. Obey your husband. Wives, obey
your husband. That's what it says. Well, it says, husbands, love your
wives. Doesn't lessen the responsibility
on either part, does it? I found this out. I found out
that most women who will not submit to the Lordship of Christ
have already refused to submit to the Lordship of their husband. You show me a woman who wears
the pants in the family, who wears the pants, And she can't
get her way, she pouts all day. You show me that woman, and I'll
show you a woman that not only usurps authority over her husband,
but she does the same thing over God Almighty. She will not submit
to God. It's true every time. Well, children,
you have a responsibility to what? Obey your parents. That's
your responsibility. Well, they're old-fashioned.
It doesn't make any difference. They are old-fashioned. You're
to obey your parents. You see what I'm telling you
here this morning? I'm telling you that every one of us, preachers,
you've got a message and a responsibility from God. What's the message
to you, preacher? Preach the Word! Preach the Word! Be instant, in season, and out
of season. Preach the Word! We've all got a responsibility.
You remember Esau? He sold his responsibility. That's
what Esau was. He was the oldest boy in that
family, and the head of the household fell upon Esau. But Esau says
that he sold his birthright, but he sold more than his birthright.
He sold his responsibility. That's what he sold. He sold
it for what? For a pot of beans. He counted
it worthless. Sold him for a mess of pottage.
Well, the Bible says, Fathers, I've got a message for you. I've
put you in charge of that home. You're the priest of that home.
You'd better get with it. He'll hold you accountable for
it. Mother, you wives, you children, I've got a message for you. Love
your husbands. Obey your husbands. Children,
obey your parents. Preachers, I've got a message
for you. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word.
Don't let people scare you. Don't be intimidated by somebody
and say, well, I just won't come back to church no more. Goodbye. Goodbye. Well, I won't give any more money.
Keep it. Well, I just won't come down
there. Now goodbye, my friend, goodbye. He speaks through the Word. God
does. He speaks to all of us here.
The fact that we don't read it or the fact that we don't listen
to it doesn't lessen our responsibility one single solitary bit. He'll
call us into account and I can be sure of it and you can be
sure of it. He speaks through His Word. I've
got a message for you. I've got a message for you. He
speaks through providence. He speaks through prosperity.
Something good happens to a fellow and most of the time we say,
well, that fellow's had a bit of luck, hasn't he? Something
good happens to him. He gets a raise on the job. He gets the raise and we say,
well, the boss has taken a liking to that fellow and given him
a raise. But I want you to know that the
Lord maketh rich and the Lord maketh poor. God speaks through
prosperity, speaks to us through prosperity. Well, listen, does
not the Scripture say that every good and perfect gift cometh
from God? Doesn't the Scripture say Everything
that I have or everything that I've received, I received it
from Him. The Scriptures say that. Well,
listen, when God bestows prosperity upon us, that is when we've got
this $15,000, $18,000, $20,000 a year job. You've got a $20,000
a year job. You struggle all your life working
while you're raising your kids and you're only getting $5,000
a year. And you just hung in there, and hung in there, and
hung in there, and all at once, all at once, something opened
up! Something opened up! You never dreamed that that would
happen! Here you are! The old man said, listen, I'm
making $20,000. Beginning this year, I make $20,000. That's a jump from $10,000 to
$20,000. And the wife said, well, that's good. That's good. Between us both now, I'm making
$10,000 and between both of us, we're making $30,000 a year.
And if you just sat and realized
a little bit, your poor old mother and father raised a half a dozen
kids and probably never made $60,000 a year in their lifetime. All of their wages together never
amounted to $60,000. You're making $30,000, you and
your wife, in one year's time. You know what that's saying?
That's prosperity. God's saying to you in your prosperity,
He's saying, I've bestowed favor upon you. You say, well, I thought
I earned it. No, you didn't earn it. You didn't
earn it. Gone! God worked behind the scenes
and bestowed favor upon you and has given you and your wife $30,000. And now He says this, this is
your responsibility. This is the Word of God. You
say, well, I never heard it. You didn't want to hear it. You
didn't want to hear it. It was speaking to you. It was
speaking to you. You knew at the time. You knew
at the time, well, now, I've got to increase my offerings
now. Boy, the Lord has been good to me, so now I'm going to have
to share it. But you didn't do it. You know
why He didn't do it? He didn't want to. He didn't
want to. No, I've got to have a new boat. I've got to have
this. I've got to have that. We've got to do this. We've got
to do that. We've got to put another room on. New carpet. New bathroom. None for God. None for God. The
Bible says when God bestows prosperity upon us, He's speaking to us
and He's saying, I've shown favor to you. I've shown favor to you. Therefore, use that for my glory
and my honor. God speaks to us through prosperity. But you know, in my short Christian
experience, I've seen more men and women stumble and fall because
of prosperity than I have adversity. Get them a new job. Get a job
that makes a little bit of money. Get them a job that's got a little
bit of authority. You know what happens? Forget
God. Forget God. Got a little authority
now. Got a new job. Well, they expect
so-and-so out of me. Well, I might go to church once
a month. I might give a nickel now and then. Goodbye, Jesus. I don't need you now. I don't
need you now. What do I need you for? I got
$30,000. Prosperity speaking to you. Prosperity
is speaking to you. It will ruin you. God, He may
give you this. He may put this snare out for
you just to ruin you. And He will not do it. He will
let you do it. You will harden your own heart. What about adversity? How many
times have I seen people get sick and things happen to people,
death in people's families. Instead of that death speaking
to them, Instructing them and them submitting to some things
is just the opposite. How many times have I talked
to people in the hospital bed? Oh, they say, I'm so glad you've
come. I'm glad you've come to see me.
Tears in their eyes. I'm glad you've come. I'm glad
you've come. I'll tell you this, preacher, I'm going to do this
from now on. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do something
else. You big liar, you're not going to do it at all. You're
lying. You're lying through your teeth.
You don't want to do those things. Your heart's never been broken.
You've never been captured by God. You're just a rebel. You're
not going to do it. Don't tell me that. How many
times I've told you, I said, don't tell me that. Don't tell
me that because I know you don't mean it and I know you're not
going to do it and you're going to be a bigger liar than you are now.
Don't tell me that. I know, but preacher, I'm going
to give 10%. Don't tell me that. Just do it.
I'm going to do this. I said, don't tell me that. Just
do it. Just do it. And I can name you person after
person after person after person. I have for the first time ever
to find one of them persons to do what they said to do. I haven't
found one of them. Not one. Not even one. Out of
almost 30 years in the ministry, I haven't found one fellow. Because
of adversity, because of pain, because of affliction, because
of suffering of some sort that said that they were going to
do something, that adversity did not drive them to God. It
drove them farther away from God. God speaks to us through
providence. Well, turn over with me. This
is a good book here. Turn over with me to the book
of Amos. I used to, when I was a boy, I used to see this on
the rocks. They used to paint this on the
rocks on the highways before we got the interstate back 30
or 40 years ago. You could just drive anywhere
in West Virginia and just look up at a rock and on that rock
it would say, Prepare to meet thy God. You ever seen that? Brown, you've seen that in your
day, haven't you? Prepare to meet thy God. They don't put
that on rocks anymore, but they used to. Well, over here in chapter
4 of the book of Amos and the 12th verse, This is what God says. God says,
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I
will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Judgment is coming, that's what
he's saying. Judgment, judgment. Now listen, he said here in this
fourth chapter, he said, I also have given you cleanness of teeth
in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places.
That is, I've created some affliction in all your cities. I've created
some hunger and starvation in your cities. Yet have ye not
returned unto me, saith the Lord, but it didn't help you. I withheld
bread from you, but it didn't help you. Verse 7, And also I
have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three
months to the harvest. I held rain, and I had a famine. And I caused it to rain upon
one city and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece
was rained upon, and the piece where it rained didn't wither. So two or three cities wandered
into one city to drink water. That is, they had all come together.
But they were not satisfied, yet have ye not returned unto
me. You see what I'm saying? God
speaks through prosperity. He said, I've done you a favor.
I've bestowed favor upon you. You didn't deserve it, but I
give it to you. Now, he said, I want you to use it for my honor
and for my glory. In verse that he comes, God says,
I've caused this to come upon you, but you still haven't returned
to the Lord. I've caused this to come upon
you because I want to drive you to my breast. Well, I said, I've smitten you
with blasting and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards
and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, and the palmer
worm devoured them, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith
the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence
after the manner, after the way of Egypt, like I did Egypt. Your
young men have I killed with the sword, and have taken away
your horses. I have made the stink of your
camps to come up to your nostrils, yet have ye not returned. unto
me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you
as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked
out of the burning. Yet have ye not returned." Now
he says, listen to me, therefore this will I do unto you. I sent
prosperity and that didn't help you. I sent adversity and that
didn't help you. Now he said, now he said, prepare
to meet thy God. Prepare to meet thy God, because
I'm coming after you. I'm coming after you. You'd better
prepare. You'd better prepare. Prepare to meet thy God. That's
a solemn event, isn't it? The most solemn event in the
history of my life and your life is when we meet God. It's not
an ordinary event. No, sir. It's not the meeting
of a man with a man, but of a man with his maker. That's what it
is. And just as sure as I clenched my fist this morning, just as
sure as Pat McGinnis sits there and Jack sits behind him, just
that sure, there's a judgment. There's a judgment that God is
going to bring men in to judge them. And it's not going to be
an ordinary event. It's not going to be an ordinary
event. We will all see Him for ourselves and not for another. Oh, to meet Him in judgment!
How can we contend? What are we going to say when
we meet God in judgment? What are we going to say? What
are we going to say? Are we going to argue with God? Are
we going to argue with God in judgment? When God brings us
up into judgment, are we going to say, well, I didn't like the
preacher? Is that going to change the issue
any? Well, the preacher was too demanding. Is that going to change
the issue? Well, it worked a hardship upon me to do this. Is that going
to change the issue? You're going to contend with
God? You ain't going to contend with God. You or me, either one. When
we stand before God, our mouths are going to be shut. We're not
going to contend with God. You remember the fellow that
came to the wedding supper and he did have the wedding garment
on? You remember that? He had the wedding garment on.
And the Lord of that supper came and He said, He said to that
fellow, he said, what are you doing there? What are you doing
there without a wedding garment? Did he give an excuse? The Bible
says he's speechless. He didn't open his mouth. The
Bible says, let me read it to you real quick, just so I won't
forget it and you won't forget it. Over here in the book of Romans,
chapter 3, it has this to say, Third chapter, listen to this.
First it says, "...destruction and misery are in their ways,
and there is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we know that
whatsoever things the law says, whatsoever things the Bible says,
it says unto them who are under the law, that what? That what?
That every mouth, mine and yours, every mouth may be stopped, and
the whole world become guilty before God. I'm telling you,
prepare to meet thy God is what the prophet said to the children
of Israel. He said, I've caused the canker
worms to come up on your crops and I've withheld the water from
heaven for three months. I've made it rain upon one city
and the rest of the cities wandered into that one city to get something
to drink. Yet you didn't return. It didn't
do you any good. It didn't do you any good. Now,
he said, now this I will do. This I will do. I'll bring you
into judgment. I'll bring you into judgment.
Prepare to meet my God. What argument will we use? If He be as such as the Bible
describes Him to be. What argument will we use for
our unfaithfulness and our ungodliness and our sins when we stand? What
argument? There will not be one argument
that you and I can use. We'll just have to bow down and
say, Lord, whatever punishment comes my way, I earned it. I
deserve it. I deserve it. Whatever you've
got reserved for me, if it's the hottest place in hell, I
earned it. I earned it. We'll have to agree
with God. Oh my, the greatness of God. That's the motive that's used
to enforce this preparation. If we don't meet Him as a friend
and a Savior, then we're going to meet Him as the judge, the
jury, and the executioner. and to meet Him in anger. If we continue in our wildness
and craziness and our insanity, if we continue in our rebellion,
we're not going to meet God in friendship. We're going to meet
God in anger, and He's a consuming fire. We meet Him in anger. Think of that. God's going to
be mad. He's not going to be gentle. And he's not going to
be a God up there with a big, long, white beard and stroking
his beard and say, well, come up here, my son, I understand
what conditions you was in. Well, I kind of, my God, that's
the most asinine thing I ever heard tell of in my life for
a man to think like that. And yet it's bound and wedded
in the hearts of the majority of people in this world today.
God's going to meet you in anger. Anger! He's going to be mad!
God's being mad. If you don't meet Him as a friend,
you're going to meet Him as a judge. And he's going to be angry. He
says God's angry with the wicked every day. Listen. You know what
the Bible says about judgment time when men who violate everything
that the Bible says, when God speaks to them through through
providence, when He speaks to them through His Word, when He
speaks to them through His witnesses. And man says, we won't hear.
We don't want to hear. We don't want to hear. We want
to hear something else. And then you go and find something
that you want to hear. You know what they're going to
say in that day? They're going to say, we cry for the rocks
and the mountains to fall down upon us and hide us from the
face of Him That's what they're going to say. Hide us from Him. Hide us. Hide us. Rocks and mountains,
cover us up. Cover us up and hide us from
Him. We can't look for Him. My soul. My soul. No righteousness. No righteousness will stand,
no righteousness will do at this time, but the righteousness of
God. And have we got that? Have you
got that this morning? The righteousness of God is in
Christ. That's where it's at. If you
bowed to Him, Have you bowed to Him, surrendered your body,
soul, mind, and spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ as your ruler,
as your King, as your Savior? You have no other God but Him.
He belongs to you. You live for Him. You breathe. Your heart pants after Him. You're
a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things become new. I'm new! I'm new! I'm new! You
don't necessarily grieve. for the sins that you commit
out there, but you agree for what you are. You agree for what
you are. Do you know what you are? The
fellow said, I never took a drink of alcohol in my life. Oh my,
isn't that pitiful? I never took a drink of alcohol.
I never chewed any. The fellow just told me yesterday,
the day before yesterday, tell me how good he was. He said,
listen to me. He said, I haven't taken any
alcohol for 30-some years. I haven't chewed any tobacco.
I haven't rubbed any snuff. And he said, I don't smoke any
cigarettes. Boy, I said, you're a good fella. Yeah, you're a
good fella. And then he was telling me about
another fella right down the road from him. He said, there's
so-and-so, old bud so-and-so. He said, he's my relation. He
said, do you know that his boy is in the hospital? Said, his
boy is in the hospital. And he's laying down there and
he's in a coma. He hadn't rallied for two months.
And poor, poor Bud and his wife, they go down there every day,
every day, every day. And he said, the fellow right
over there said, he's got two boys. He's got two boys and he
said, they shot two cows right up in that field and not anybody's
done anything about it. And he said, they shot a man's dog.
And he said, the man's dog was tied up with the dog. He said,
them two boys come down and shot him. He said, nothing ever happens
to that fellow. But he said, that poor fellow
down there, he said he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't
chew. And he said, his voice landed. I said, my soul, my soul. That's not worth that, brethren.
I'm telling you, some of you right out here today, you think
that you're going to go to heaven, you're going to be with Jesus
because you don't smoke, you don't drink, or you don't cut.
I got news for you, you missed it. If that's your hope, you
missed it. You're grieving. You're grieving from the product
of your black heart. You better start mourning and
grieving before God for what you are. What you are. What made
you do it. What you are. You know what I
am? I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. That's what I am. I'm a sinner. My heart's black. And I'm not
perfect. And I sin against God. And I
hate it, and I grieve over it. I grieve over this black heart!
Out of the heart proceeds the issues of life, adultery, lasciviousness,
and fornication. It comes from right there. There's
the cesspool. There's that great big source.
There's that spring that never stops. A bad heart. Better grieve
because you've got a bad heart. What argument? What argument?
No righteousness will stand or do but the righteousness of God.
Ah, you better prepare to meet Him. To meet Him with joy, not
grief. Still time. This is what I like
about all this. He waits to be gracious. He waits. God waits to be gracious. Noah, the Bible says, moved with
fever, prepared an ark." To what? To the saving of his house, he
prepared an ark. Well, the last thing I want to
mention to you, I know my time is gone, but I want you to see
this. The last thing I want to mention is that God speaks not
only through providence, not only through His Word, but He
speaks through preachers. Whether you believe it or not,
God speaks through preachers. You see, David had his Nathan,
didn't he? David sinned against God. Oh,
what a terrible thing he did. He took Uriah's wife. She was
sweet and pretty to look upon. And he couldn't contain his lust
And he looked on her, and he lusted after her. He said, I
want that woman. I want that woman, come hell
or high water. This is a man. This is the man
who was a man after God's own heart. Oh, tell me about these
sins, these things out here. Is that in here? Start mourning about that thing
in here, about these lusts. Yeah, I don't smoke, I don't
drink, I don't chew, but you hate your neighbor. Fellas tell
me, they say, I don't smoke, I don't chew. And he said, it's
been a year? That was a couple of days ago.
And he said, the next day will be exactly a year since I took
a rub of snuff. He said, I emptied all my snuff
cans out, and I can take you right out there in that little
building right now if you care to go. And he said, all my snuff
is right there in one big box. Right there. And he said, you
know, even to this day, every morning when I get up, I still
want to rub a snuff. And I said to myself, what in the name of
God has that got to do with standing before God and judgment, whether
I took a rub of snuff or not? What's that got to do with it?
The issue, the issue is Christ and sin! That's the issue. It's hard. That's the issue. God speaks to his preachers.
Old David, Old David, concocted this plan to get this fellow's
wife. And then after he got his wife, after he got her, took
her, lusted after her, took her and she was pregnant, going to
have a child. He said, I'm in trouble now.
I'm in trouble now. I've got to come up with some
sort of idea to cover this thing up." And so he said, well, here's
what I'll do. He said, when she comes to him,
he said, I'm going to have a child, David. What are we going to do?
Well, he said, I'll fix that up. So he sent his messenger
down. They were fighting. He was home, at ease in Zion,
having an illegitimate relationship with another man's wife. So he
sent his messenger down to get her husband. He said, Uriah,
come on back. The king wants to see you. Come
back and see the king. And he said, what do you want,
king? He said, well, you've been fighting
down there for about three months and you haven't seen your wife
and you're tired. He said, you're one of my favorites. I don't
know what all he said, but I'm sure that he laid it on. And he said, Bathsheba's down
there by herself. Why don't you go down and spend
the night with Bathsheba? He knew what would take place. He knew
what would take place if he could get Uriah down there at Bathsheba.
But old Uriah, he wouldn't go. He wouldn't go. He stayed right
there and he said, No, sir. No, sir. He said, As long as
the favor of God, as long as the mercy of God, as long as
God is, I'm going to fight for His cause. And he said, The people
of God are in jeopardy. While my brothers are down there
on the front fighting, and me home sleeping with my wife, he
said, never, never, never. Stayed right there all night. Well, Old Westmacaw said, well,
all right, I got to do this. David said, I got to give that
man his death warrant. I got to give him his death warrant.
So Old David wrote a note. Put the king's seal on it. In
Uriah's hand, he said, now Uriah, when you go back to battle, give
this to Captain Joab. Give it to nobody else, just
him. Uriah, so faithful to his king, didn't even open it up
to see what it said. He had in his hand his own death
warrant. That was his own death warrant,
Jack. He had it in his hand right there. I'm telling you that God
speaks through preachers. Now get it. Follow me now. He
got down there and he opened it up and it said, it said, Joab,
put Uriah, where the battle's the heaviest, where he is most
likely to get killed, put him out there on the front. And that's
what happened. So he killed him. The news came back and said,
Uriah's dead. Uriah's dead. David sighed and he said, well,
that's over with. Well, I got his wife now. Got his wife. Forget him. So he forgot all about it. He
forgot all about it. In joined another man's wife.
Forgot all about it. No grief, no mourn, forgot all
about it. All at once a prophet steps onto
the scene, a preacher, and his name was Nathan. And Nathan told
that man a story. He told him, he said, listen,
there's a fella down the road here. He said he's got a thousand
sheep. And he said there's a fella up
the road there that's only got one.