For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. No question here in the
mind of the writer. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, these, they are the children of God. children
are expected to bear some likeness to their parents. The child of
God, well, I'm almost positive of this, that he's sure to bear
a high degree of resemblance to his Heavenly Father. The scriptures
teach that in the eternal purpose of God, that God hath given the
Son, a people for his name. And our Lord came, born of a virgin, and took upon
himself this body of human flesh, and was God over all and above
all, and was as much God as if he was never man, and as much
man as if he was never God. and born under the law, lived
under the law, and died to satisfy the curse that the
law demanded or that the law placed upon those of his people. Now, in this whole eternal purpose
and process of redemption, there is a statement, I think, maybe
in this same chapter, I believe it is, that yes, in the 29th
verse, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate or predetermine
those that he foreknew before time ever was. Those that he
gave to the Son in regard to this a blood covenant before
time ever was. These, we call them the elect
people, we call them the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,
we call them the sheep of God. Moreover, whom He did predetermine
or predestinate, them He also called, and then on up in verse
29, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed, to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now, that's
what I'm saying. I'm saying that children are
expected to bear some likeness to their parents, and that's
true in the physical realm, and it's more so. It's more so, even
if it's not true in the physical realm, which it is true to a
degree in the physical realm, that the offspring has some semblance
of the parent, either the father or the mother. There's some resemblance
there, and whether it's in characteristics or whether it's in physical features,
there's generally a resemblance. But whether that be so or not
is of little value. But I know that this is so. I
know that the children of God will and must bear some likeness
of their Heavenly Father. That's all they are to it. As
I said, I was preaching to some folks here recently, and I said,
if that wipes us all out, why does it have to do it? Because
that's what the Scriptures say. The Scriptures say that those
whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. He predetermined
that they would be conformed, that they would bear likeness
to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to bear likeness to the image
of His Son is to bear likeness to God. And so that's true. Now the idea of a divine fatherhood
extending over all mankind does not appear to be recognized by
the writer of this verse, who was the Apostle Paul. That is,
the world has been instructed in the matters of religion to
believe that that God is the eternal Father of all flesh. Now, He is in a sense. We are
all brothers in a sense. We are all brothers in the sense
that we are the offspring and the creatures of God. We owe
our very existence to God. So we are brothers in that respect.
A fellow said one time, when he referred to another man as
a brother, he said, If I miss you in Christ, I'll get you in
Adam. And that's right. brothers in that sense, but we
are not all brothers in Christ Jesus, and God is not the Father
of us all in a spiritual sense. And I said that the idea of divine
fatherhood extending over all mankind does not appear to be
recognized by the Apostle Paul in this 14th verse, for he says,
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So
that rules out. That rules out the idea that
all men, by nature, are the children of God. That rules that out.
He said that those that are the sons of God are those that are
led by the Spirit of God. Only those. Only those. And I
read 17 verses here, Throughout these 17 verses, you can see
that there is an opposition manifested in the author's writing here
in regard to the flesh and the Spirit. There are 16 or 17 verses
here, and they all have something to say about the Spirit And the
man that is led by the Spirit and the man that is led by the
flesh to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. So here it says that as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Those
who are not led are not the sons of God. Those who are not led
by the Spirit of God are not the sons of God. Now this is
the question. This is the question. What do
you mean? What do you mean by being led
by the Spirit of God? If that is so important, which
it is, Which it is, it's got to be important. That's one of
the most important things that can be called to our attention
this morning here. Because our eternal destiny hinges
upon what this means. How it applies to us, how does
it affect us. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God. What does that mean? Where does
the Spirit of God, lead the sons of God? Let me try to answer
that question, and by doing so, God may help us to say something,
or something might fall into place here that will strike a
chord in our hearts and give us some idea and understanding
as to how we stand in light of this verse of Scripture. I want
to know myself. I want to know. I want to know
whether I'm led by the Spirit of God or no. Because if I'm
not led by the Spirit of God, then I won't be led by the Spirit
of God. For this reason, because only
those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. All
others are false. All others are a void of any
spiritual life whatsoever, and are still dead in trespasses
and in sins, and are still on their way to eternal eternal
damnation, and I certainly want to avoid that. And I know you
do, too. Number one, then, where does
the Spirit of God lead the sons of God? Well, the first thing
that I thought of was this. The Spirit of God leads the sons
of God to repentance. That's the first thing that the
Spirit of God does. It leads a man to repentance. That is, He points out our sins. You know that this is true. Those
of you here this morning, you're saved. And you've experienced
a need of a Savior in your heart. And there was a time in your
life, in fact, the biggest part of your life, that you had no
consciousness of sin as sin. You felt some remorse in regard
to maybe misbehaving or something that was in your conduct that
did not tend to reflect what ought to be in the ordinary fellow. You had some remorse about that,
but as far as having your sin against God and your sins pointed
out to you by the unseen force and presence of God's eternal
Spirit, it just never took place. But one time it did take place.
One time your soul was conscious, was conscious of your inbred
rebellion against God, and your rejection of God in His name,
rejection of the Bible, rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
all of these things. He points out our sins. causes us to feel the shame of,
the guilt of our sin against God. He reveals to us how black
and vile they are. And there is a holy sorrow created
in our hearts against these sins because we know that we've offended
God. That's repentance. That's repentance.
When we come to the place that we see that our actions, our
thoughts, and our desires are in direct rebellion against God,
and the God of the universe, the God of glory, and the God
and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ has been offended. He's been offended because of
our sins. And then, then, and only then,
Is there a holy sorrow created by the Spirit of God in our hearts
against our sins? And there is some remorse. And
there is godless sorrow. And this leadeth and worketh
repentance. Listen, the prodigal son. The
prodigal son must cry, Father, I have sinned against Thee. Not against brother. Not against
the society that I left, but, Father, I have sinned against
Thee. So the first thing I believe
that the Spirit of God leads the sons of God to do is to repent. Is to repent of our sins. I don't think, well, a dry eyed
faith is no faith at all. There's got to be some, I'm not
saying that I'm not saying that there's got to be literal tears,
but there's going to be some weeping, whether it's manifested
outwardly or inwardly, there's going to be some weeping, weeping
in the heart. There's going to be some mourning
in our heart, as the brother said, going to set up a mourner's
bench in our heart and mourn and grieve for our misspent lives
for our sin against God, our indifference and our carelessness
and actual, actual sins against God, things that not only was
fought in our hearts but actually was performed, was manifest in
deeds against God and against our fellow men. So a dry-eyed
faith is no faith at all. And you cannot, neither can I,
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ until I feel that I need a Savior. I can't trust in Him until I
have that assurance in my heart that I need a Savior, that I'm
hopeless and helpless in myself. In myself, there's no hope. What
I'm trying to say is this, I'm saying that when repentance,
of course, is a gift of God. And when it's wrought in our
hearts by God the Holy Spirit, God crosses our path. Now, He
may not do it by the Word every time. You can't just pin God
down and make Him do everything exactly the same. You can't pin
Him. Sometimes He brings this about
certainly through the preaching of the Word. The preaching of
the Word. That may be the start of it. Sometimes he might bring
it about through providential trials and sickness and things
of that nature. However God does it, however
God does it, there's got to be an emptiness, there's got to
be this feeling of guilt and shame and emptiness and need
of a Savior. We've got to have that. No man
will ever flee. to the Lord Jesus Christ until
he feels the need of fleeing to it. He's got to feel that
need. He's got to feel the shame and the guilt of his rebellion
against God. He's got to feel the weight,
the weight and the burden of his sin. For instance, if you
take a man that is physically dead. He's physically dead and
he'd been dead for three days. Now, you take a 500-pound weight
and lay it on his chest, and he won't move a muscle. If he moves a muscle, it will
be the force of the weight that moves it. It won't be any inner
reaction on his part. You could lay a thousand, you
could lay a ton on his chest, and it would be no more to him
than five pounds of sugar. I'll tell you why, because there's
no life in him and he doesn't feel it. He doesn't feel it.
But if he was alive, he'd feel it. And he'd make some effort
to get out from underneath it. He'd twist and turn and roll
and try to get out from underneath that load and that weight. You
see what I'm talking about? And I'm saying this morning that
the one thing that the Spirit of God does, or one way and one
direction, And one place that the Spirit of God leads the sons
of God to is repentance. And in that process of repentance,
he feels. He feels the need of a Savior. And he flees to the Savior, to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, enough. Enough about that. He leads them
also. He leads them while they think
little of themselves. And no child of God that has
experienced the gift of repentance wrought in his soul by the Spirit
of God, that fellow thinks little of himself. He never thinks much
of himself. Never. Whenever you find a fellow
who thinks a whole lot of himself, who continually exerts himself,
who continually manifests the big I, well, let me tell you
this, that fellow was never led to that place by the Spirit of
God. I'll tell you that. You can mark
that down. He leads them, while they think little of themselves,
to think much of the Lord Jesus Christ. They think much of Him. The Spirit of God never led a
man to think little of Jesus. No, sir. The Spirit of God, when
it leads a man, it leads him to think much of Jesus Christ. And that's the reason that I
kind of doubt. I just kind of doubt whether
These people that think so much of, you know, they put so much
stock in reverence to men. For instance, people that think
much of priests, that feel that the priest has
certain powers to do certain things for him, and the priest
is highly exalted in the individual's life. And the first thing that
anything happens to him, the priest is the fellow that we've
got to have nearby. We've got to have him. I'm saying
this, that the Spirit of God never leads a man to think little
of Jesus and much of the priest. Just don't do it. He don't do
it. The Spirit of God never leads
a man to think little of the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ and simple faith in it and much of outward forms and
ceremonies. The Holy Spirit of God never
leads a man to that attitude. It just can't be. Now, the Spirit
of God abases man every time and exalts the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Bible says that when He comes,
they said, will you go away? And He said, I must go. It must means that I go. It's expedient that I go. If
I go, I'll send another, even the Comforter. And when He comes,
when the Spirit of the living God comes, what will He do? Will He lead a man to think much
of the priest? Will he lead a man to think much
of outward forms and ceremonies? Certainly not. If you know the
Bible, you know that when He comes, He shall glorify me. He shall glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ. So you see what I'm saying here
this morning? I'm saying that the Holy Spirit leads a man.
While they think little of themselves, they think much of Jesus. This
is the work of the Spirit. Now, if the Holy Ghost has never
made the Lord Jesus Christ precious to your soul, then you don't
know anything about Him. Then you're not led by the Spirit
of God. Because those that are led by
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God hath made Jesus Christ
precious to their soul. And if He has not been made precious
to your soul, you know nothing about Him. You know something
maybe about outward forms and ceremonies, but you know nothing
about the true religion of the Bible. That's all there is to
it. Now listen to my text. The text says, "...for as many
as are led by the Spirit of God," and I'm saying, brethren, that
the Spirit of God makes the Lord Jesus Christ precious to the
individual's heart. And if he hasn't been made gracious
to your heart, you're not led by the Spirit of God. And the
ultimate conclusion is that you are not the sons of God. What
conclusion can we come to? Listen. If He, the Spirit of
God, has not made you or me to feel that Christ is all that
I want and all that I need, then He has not wrought a change in
me. That is easy to be deceived.
You can be deceived. You can be deceived. I can be
deceived. My soul, the best of of men regardless
of whether or not they can be deceived. Your heart is wicked,
desperately wicked, and you can't know it, and you're susceptible
to being deceived. And you can think, well, I surely
must be a Christian because I don't do this and I don't do that,
and I go to church and this and that and so forth. But I'm telling
you, brethren, if the Spirit of God has not made you to feel,
I mean actually to feel that Jesus Christ is all you want
and all you need. If that hasn't been your experience
in your heart, then God has not brought anything back. See, that's
what it means if you're led by the Spirit of God. If you're
led by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God leads you to see
the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is all
and in all. He's everything. You don't need
anything else. You're not going to lean on anything
else. He's all you need. He's all you need. That is, if
you're led by the Spirit of God. when the Holy Spirit has glorified
the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lives, and
makes Jesus precious to our souls, and makes us to want Him and
want nothing else, and that He is sufficient Then he goes on,
I believe, and he leads us to other truths of the Bible. The
Bible says that my sheep hear my voice, and they will not hear
the voice of strangers. And they'll not be deceived to
the extent that they'll follow after a stranger, you see. who
receives the lie has been led by the Spirit of truth. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, a man may sit at
the feet of the most learned gamele of his day, the most learned
teacher of his day, but he never can know the truth in his heart
until the Holy Spirit of God teaches him that truth. Well, let me tell you some more
things that I believe that fall under this category of leadership
of the Holy Spirit in order that we might We might be tested by
this verse of Scripture here. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are. If you are led by the Spirit
of God, then you are a child of God. And we've got to determine
what it means to be led by the Spirit. How does the Spirit of
God lead? Where does He lead us? What does He lead us to do?
Well, He leads us to repent. We know that. He leads us to
prize the Lord Jesus Christ over and above life itself. We know
that. And if we have experienced to
a measure this holy sorrow in our hearts against sin, and Jesus
Christ has become precious to us, and we have went on from
that to understand that the only way God can be just and justifier
of the believer is in through the substitutionary, vicarious
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ was made sin
on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. If we have come to see that to
a measure, understand it to a measure, then we say, well, so far I believe
that I have been led by the Spirit of God. because I hate my sin,
and I hate myself, and there is nothing good in me. I know
that in this body of flesh dwelleth no good thing, and Jesus Christ
is my all in all. I have nothing to brag about.
I have nothing to boast about. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness." Then it looks like, well, maybe
we are being led by the Spirit of God then. Well, I know that
He leads us to love one another, I know that. Have you been brought
to feel the warmth of it? Listen, a man who is a stranger
to Christian love is a stranger to divine grace. That's all they
are to us. We have our little old disputes. I know that in Christendom we
have that, but for the most part, those that are led of the Spirit
of God, they are slow to take offense. The Bible says we know. We know. Now this is where the
Spirit of God leads us. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. We have disputes. We have disputes, but we are
slow to take offense. Alright, it leads us not only
to love and on to other truths apart from repentance and apart
from faith, It leads us to have a love for the souls of men.
I think every man who is led of the Spirit of God has a love
for the other man's soul. He does not look at him and say,
well, his being saved is of no business of mine. I don't care
whether he is lost or whether he is saved. Well, the Spirit
of God has never led a man to this attitude. I don't care who
he is. The man says, well, that's not
my business, that's God's business. He's got to do the saving, and
I'm just indifferent and careless and unconcerned about it to the
extent that I don't think that my life means anything. I don't
think that I need to clean up my life or I need to manifest
some evidence to my neighbor of Christianity or tell him of
the gospel or anything. I'm indifferent to it. Well,
I'll tell you this. If that is our attitude, the Holy Spirit
of God never led us to that attitude. No, sir, because I am sure of
this one thing, that if we are led by the Spirit of God, then
we are led to a degree to be concerned about the souls of
other men, concerned about them. Well, Jesus Christ Himself wept
over sinners. Do we think like Cain? Cain said,
Am I my brother's keeper? Huh? God said he was. He said, Am I? He didn't think
he was. He didn't think he was his brother's
keeper. But we are our brother's keeper. That's right. Well, all
right. And I'll tell you this. Now,
the Spirit of God leads the sons of God into holiness. That's where He leads them. He
leads them into holiness. Can it be seen in our lives? Is there any evidence of an inward
work of the Spirit of God in our lives? Is there any evidence
whatsoever outwardly of this inward work wrought in our souls? There must be. I asked the question to myself,
and I've already asked it, but I'll ask it again. Do I have,
do you have, A fierce, unforgiving spirit? Well, if you have a fierce,
unforgiving, brooding spirit, let me tell you this, the Holy
Ghost never led you into it. You can just rest assured now,
if you have a fierce, unrelenting, unforgiving, brooding spirit,
the Holy Ghost of God never led you to that place. You're not
led of the Spirit of God in that matter. I'm telling you that.
And I'm telling you that because I know it to be the truth. And
we're trying to find out this morning here. We are trying to
find out this morning what it means when it says, for as many
as are led by the Spirit of God. Because if we can ever find out
what that means, and we can ever fit ourselves in what that means,
then we can have some assurance of the latter part of the verse.
They are the sons of God. Those that are led of the Spirit
of God, they are. Not maybe, not hope so, or they
might be, but they are. These are the sons of God, those
that are led by the Spirit of God. And I'm saying, brethren,
He'll lead us into loving one another. He'll lead us into loving
mankind in general. He'll do good unto all men. A fellow told me one time, he
said, well, he's not a Christian. He doesn't go to our church.
Well, that's the wrong attitude. The Spirit of God never led a
man into that attitude. It doesn't make any difference
if he's black or white or yellow or green. It doesn't make any
difference whether he's a Baptist, Methodist, a Church of Christ
member, an Episcopalian, a charismatic individual, wherever he is. There
is to be some care and concern in our hearts for these individuals. That's right. You mean to tell
me that God has given you that treasure in the field? He's given
you the pearl of great price and you're not concerned as to
whether someone else finds it or not? Oh no, the Spirit of
God never leads us in that direction. He leads us, brethren, to have
a love for men and for the souls of men. And He leads us into
holiness. And individuals that are proud
and haughty and unforgiving, the Holy Spirit has never led
you there. Are you covetousness? Do you
covet? Lustful after worldly gain? Lustful after the physical attractions
of this world? Are you false in your statements?
Are you unjust in your actions? Let me tell you, the Spirit of
God never led you there. No siree. The Spirit of God never
leads anybody to do anything contrary to what this book teaches. You can mark it down. set on
that and say, that's it, that's a fast rule that the Spirit of
God never, never under no circumstances or conditions, and you can do
away with this situation ethics too as far as that goes, because
the Spirit of God does not lead any man to do anything contrary
to the revealed and written Word of God Almighty right here. And
so, if we are proud and haughty and unforgiving, the Holy Ghost
never led us there. If we are covetousness, the Holy
Ghost never gives us that attitude. If we are lustful after worldly
gain, false in our statements, unjust in our actions, the Holy
Ghost never led us there. And if you see a child of God
mixing, mixing with the ungodly and using their speech and walking
like they walk and talking like they talk? Well, I'll tell you
this, brethren, I'm persuaded that the Spirit of God never
led them there. I don't know how they got there, but the Spirit
of God never got them there. The Holy Ghost leads men to prayer. Do you pray? Actually, do we
pray? Any of us pray? Prayer is the very breath, the
very life of a Christian. And the Holy Ghost leads men
to cry, Have a Father! Leads them to fellowship and
seek their Father's face. Now, if we don't seek our Father's
face, the Holy Ghost never led us to that place. The Holy Ghost
never led us to a place that we refuse to talk with our Heavenly
Father and pour out our complaints and our griefs and our desires
and our wants and our hopes to the throne of our Heavenly Father.
If we never praise our God through prayer and thanksgiving and bless
our God in our hearts, I'll tell you this, the Holy Ghost never
led us there. Oh, the Holy Ghost, brethren,
He leads them from worldly care and into fellowship with God. These people that stay home from
church won't come where prayer is made, and the Bible is read,
and God is worshiped. And Christ is exalted. The Holy
Ghost never led them to that place. Does that rule you out? Does
that rule me out? Well, I'm sorry. I really am. If that rules you out, my heart's
heavy for you. I want to force you into decision
this morning. I want you to either jump on
one side or jump on the other. I want you to get with it, you
see, what I'm talking about. I'm saying, brethren, for as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. You're going to trifle. You're
going to play. Don't play here. Don't play with the Bible. Don't
play at the religion of the Bible. Don't play here. I'm saying this. But stay home from church. I
mean, just rule it out. Just rule it out. Come and go
when I want to. I don't need to come two or three
times a week. Once a month or once every two
months. That's enough for me. Well, I'm telling you this. If
that's my attitude, if that's your attitude, I don't think
it's the attitude of anybody here. Because I'm not preaching
to anybody in particular. I'm preaching to all of us. Me,
I'm preaching to me and I'm preaching to you. But if that's your attitude,
if that's your attitude, I want to tell you, under God, as kind
as I can tell you, lovingly as I can tell you, and as truthful
and sincere as I can tell you, if that's what you think, if
that's what you think, you never was led to think that by the
Spirit of God. I want to tell you that. God,
the Spirit of God. He never led you to that place.
I don't know how you got there, but the Spirit of God didn't
bring you there. No, sir. Where prayer is to be
made, and the Bible is to be read, and God is to be worshipped,
and Christ is exalted. So the Holy Spirit leads men
to go to a place like that. He does. The Spirit of God leads
men to go to the Church of God. where prayer is to be made, God
is to be worshipped, Christ is to be exalted, the Bible is to
be read, and songs of praise swell up from the hearts of God's
people to the throne of God. The Holy Spirit leads men to
do that. And I'll tell you what something else the Holy Spirit
leads men into. He leads them into usefulness. Usefulness. To help the brethren, that's
usefulness. To help one another. To do good
unto all men. I was thinking about this this
morning. It weighed heavy upon my heart.
I heard one of the television programs there. I got up kind
of early and turned that on and listened to one of them preachers
from the television. And he said he'd been there for
26 years. And he said, well, he was reviewing
his past and the year that just passed, 1980, and what was accomplished
and so forth. And he mentioned some things
there, and they were all good as far as I was concerned. I
don't know. But anyhow, this is the statement that stuck with
me. He said that he'd been there
26 years. I've been preaching here for
26 years, about, give or take, probably maybe a little more
than 26. He said they started off, 26 years ago, 35 members. That's what he said. And right now they've got 17,000
members. And I thought to myself, have
I missed it? Have I missed it? I've been here for at least 20
some years preaching three times a week, sometimes four times
a week, sometimes this place and that place and all over the
country and this state and that state. And here's a fellow that's
been there 26 years, started off with 35 members, got 17,000
church members. And I haven't got enough to hardly
pay the oil bill. Can't get enough to start a fire. Have I served my generation
wisely? I asked myself that question.
You asked the question. Have I served my generation wisely? We all must serve our generation. I've made a stab at it. I don't know how. I haven't done
it very well, but I've made a stab at it. I think that the Holy Spirit
of God leads a man into usefulness, don't you? He's of some use. Now, I don't know about the fellow
that's got 17,000 church members. I don't know how he got them.
I don't know how he got them. Someone was telling me at the
Bible conference here recently said, you could get that many
too. I don't think I could. I don't
think I could get 300 people regardless of what I preached.
I don't believe if I was a ranked out and out Armenian and had
all kinds of quartets and trombones and violins and all that together,
I still don't believe I could get 300 people to come hear me
preach. I just don't believe I could. But that's of little
value. It doesn't make any difference.
What I'm trying to say is this. The Spirit of God leads a man
into usefulness. That's all there is to it. I
think, brethren, if you eat the fat and drink of the sweet of
the house of God, but never turn a hand for the household of God,
than the Spirit of God's not in it. That's what I think. And I think also, brethren, that
every one of us, that there's something for every one of us
to do. I think that every one of us
has a talent committed to our charge. I think God's given every
one of us something that we can do. He's committed it to our
charge. And if we have the Spirit of
God dwelling in us, He's going to tell us what the Lord has
appointed us to do for His honor and for His glory. He leads a man into usefulness. He gives a man a talent. Maybe
you can't preach. Or at least I thought that I
had some gift to preach years ago, and I started out on it.
Maybe I could have been deceived. Maybe I could have been deceived.
It's highly possible. Man desires the office of a bishop. He desires a good office, and
I desired it. I desired to preach. And I realized
it, and have preached these many years, and felt that God had
given me Just a little bit of ability, very little, but a little
ability to set forth the unsearchable riches of our Savior. And I felt many years I was the
most unlikely candidate for that, but nevertheless, that's the
way it turned out. What I'm saying is this, I think
that God's given every one of us something to do for His honor
and for His glory. The Spirit of God leads us to
usefulness. You say, well, preacher, I'm
not doing anything, never have done anything. I don't pray too
much. I don't read my Bible very much.
I never visit anybody. I'm never concerned about anybody.
I never tell a story about Jesus. The Holy Spirit of God never
led you there. He never led you there. You better
face up to it. You better face up to it that
the Spirit of God never led you. Well, I don't know. I don't give
any of my money to the church. I don't support the work. I don't
support the work. You don't see me going back to
that box and putting in $200 every month, and you never will
see me put in $200. Listen, the Holy Spirit of God
never led you to that place to give you such an idea. I'm not
talking about $200, $20, $10, whatever it is. You see what
I'm talking about? We're getting down here where
we're going to find out. We're going to find out. Am I
being led by the Spirit of God? Oh, I'm a child of God. I'm a
child of God. The preacher said I was. Mother
said I was. Daddy said I was. I shook the
preacher's hand. I come up and I confess that
Jesus Christ was my Lord. I went to the baptismal pool. I was baptized. I take the Lord's
Supper and I do these things. That's not what I'm talking about.
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about from the time
that you made that profession, has God ever led you into a spirit
of usefulness that you might serve your generation? Are you
indifferent and unconcerned, and I don't care, and I don't
care what the other fellow thinks, and you're a stumbling block? Well, I want to tell you here,
listen, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they're
the sons of God. Spirit of God, oh, I'll tell you, He leads us
into usefulness. I think He does. Well, I could
say a whole lot of other things, but I'm not going to say them.
I hope I've said enough so far that will stimulate you, cause
you to think. You might search your heart,
and you might say, well, eternity is just around the corner here.
And as I was telling you about this fellow, I was thinking about
this fellow, 17,000 people and all that. And I thought to myself,
I said, well, here, eternity is just a few steps away from
me. It's not long from me. I'm never going to really...
If my ambition and my goal back 30 years ago was to preach to
17,000, or have 17,000 people, that never was my ambition. My ambition was, I believe to
preach to a pretty good size audience, I mean that's every
preacher's ambition, but if that wasn't, well then I've never
realized it and I'm not going to realize it. Because eternity,
you see, eternity is just We're on the threshold. When you get
between 55 and 60 and 65 years old, then brethren, you're going
downhill. Just face it. Face it. The biggest
part of your life is spent. It's spent. It's gone. Whether
it's been misspent or not, it's gone and you can't bring it back.
Now you see what I'm trying to say? I'm trying to say, brethren,
This is what's important, to know whether you're led of the
Spirit of God, to know whether you're the Son of God or not.
You're going to die. You're going to die. Now you
look at me here today. You're going to die and the process
of death may already be started in you. That's right. It may
already be started in you. The seed may already be in your
bloodstream, you see. It may already be there. It may
be just a short time until it'll show up in you and in me. In all probability, there's 10
or 15 of us right here, right now. If we knew, if we knew the
truth of it, the seed of death has already got to start. It's
already there. Huh? As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. You are led by the Spirit
of God. He led you to repentance. He led you to trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him only. As He led you to prize Him above
everything else in this life, you will be able to say, Well,
I count all things but loss for the excellence and knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. I suffer all things to be but
done that I might win Christ. He is my prize. I prize Him. I esteem Him over and above everything
else. I love Him. I love Him. I want
Him. I need Him. I must have Him.
He is mine and I belong to Him. I want to praise Him and I want
to worship Him. I love the brethren, I love the brethren, and I want
to be useful. If I can sing, I want to sing.
If I can read the Bible in such a way that men might understand,
then I want to read the Bible. If I can be of help to some sick
old people that are confined, then I want to go and help them. Or if I can give them my money,
give them my money. I've got to give them my money
to help the cause and the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see what I'm talking about? I think the Spirit of the living
God leads us in this direction. He doesn't lead us to hate one
another or hate somebody just because He differs with you.
He doesn't lead us. If you're that way or if I'm
that way, well, the Spirit of God never led me there. We're
tight and stingy. Spend all of our money on herself
and never contribute. You never give anything and I
never give anything until we give something that means something
to us. We can give our $5 every Sunday
or our $10 every Sunday, but if we've never given, if we've
never denied ourselves, and that's the thing that's lacking in professed
Christendom right now as I see it, is there's a lack of self-denial. Nobody wants to deny themselves.
Everybody wants everything, and nobody wants to deny themselves.
Flat out, I'm talking about flat out denying themselves. And I'm
going to tell you this. You don't want to deny yourself?
The Spirit of God never brought you there, because the Bible
says, if any man be My disciple, let him deny himself. Huh? You
know what it says? Let him deny himself! Let him
hate himself! Father, and mother, and brother,
and sister. Yeah, even his own life. If he don't do that, he
can't be my disciple. Well, I've only said these things
to kind of stimulate us. Stimulate us. How does the Spirit
of God lead the sons of God? How does He do it? I'll tell
you how He does it. The Spirit of God operates upon
our spirit, certainly, mysteriously, in a mysterious manner. But I
think that one instrument that the Spirit of God uses is the
Word of God upon our minds and upon our spirits. There's too
much hypocrisy among the professed children of God in our day, and
we need to evaluate ourselves and to get away from all this
play in church and all that and get down there to where it counts
and find out something about the fruit of the Spirit, which
is love and long-suffering and goodness and joy and peace and
gentleness and faith and meekness and temperance. And the Bible
says against such there is no law. Well, all right. Read the text again. For as many
as are led, by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You remember that. What does
it mean? Where? How? In what avenues does
the Spirit of God lead? Remember this, He doesn't lead
contrary to the Word of God. He doesn't do it. Let's stand, we'll
be just a minute.