All right, if you'd return in
your Bibles to Matthew chapter 25. I imagine this text of scripture
is familiar. I often think of it. We often refer to sheeps and
goats. I guess it's really sheep and
goats. The plural of sheep is still sheep. We've all, or I have said time
and again that all the world is divided into sheep and goats. and that all the sheep are blessed
and all the goats are cursed. Now this scripture shows us how
it is that the sheep and the goats are distinguished one from
the other. Now we all know what it's like
to be divided into groups. When I was a kid, we used to
play sandlot baseball. They called it that because it
was just a bunch of boys getting together playing, and they quite
often were on a dirt or sand field or something like that.
We didn't have anything like that. We played on the street.
But I lived in a quiet neighborhood, so you could get away with that.
In fact, the one we played on was a cul-de-sac. Francis Circle,
it was called, and it was about 150 feet long and then a circle
on the end of it. If you'd stood it up, it'd look
like a lollipop. And home plate was right up by the circle. And
first base was the telephone pole that came out of the ground,
not the big tall one, the little one. You know, where all the
wires get connected. And then where there was an intersection
in the slab to concrete was second base. And then the cold irons
mailbox was third base. Before we start, all of us would
get in a group and two were chosen to be captains. And it was most
always the same two. And they would start choosing
sides. There was a little contest to determine who got to choose
first, but they'd choose one and choose another and choose
one and choose another. And on virtually every occasion,
I was the last one chosen. I was not that good. On one occasion,
I was there at first base and the ball got hit and I took off
running, got all the way to third. And the pitcher was a good friend
of mine, and he looked at me, and he said, you're out. And I said, I am not. Ball hadn't
got close to me. And he said, yes, you are. I
said, no, I'm not. He said, I don't mean that you
were just tagged out. You're playing the field. You
weren't on first. You were supposed to be playing
first. So it was probably the best run I had for the whole
game, but so you can see why I was usually chosen last. Baseball
was not my strong suit. But we know what it's like to
be divided into two groups. There's never been nor will there
ever be a more solemn division than the one we see in this scripture
right here. And it won't be a division for
one side to play against the other. and there won't be two
captains. It will be all people, all the
way from Adam until the very last person born in this world. And there will be only this one
man, and he will be dividing everyone
into one of two groups. Now, this division was first
made by the father. It was made before the world
began when he, from the mass of sinful, corrupt, rebellious
humanity, chose a people to save. Not a one of them deserved it.
There was not one person worthy. As time would prove, every one
of us, or from all of us, there was none righteous, though not
one, none that did good, none that understood, none that sought
God. Now when God chose those who
he would make to be his sheep, he chose them out of that group.
Not a one of us who in the end shall be designated as sheep
have anything in which to boast in ourselves. Before the world began, God loved
me then. He chose me for his own, an heir,
a throne. This division was further inscribed
by our Lord Jesus Christ as he fulfilled the words of the prophet,
for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. Our Lord Jesus Christ took upon
himself willingly all the sin of all of those whom God chose,
and he bore within himself every ounce of divine wrath that would
have fallen on them if it had not fallen on him." Now, I don't
know how to describe that to you. I've heard people try, and
every time they try, they get in trouble. Those things are
too deep for us. There are things we do not know,
and thank God we never will. The only one in all of the universe
who knows what the fullness of divine wrath is, is our Lord
Jesus Christ. You say, well what about those
in hell? They never know the fullness of it, because they're
never done. They never get to say, It is
finished. Because it'll never be finished. Because he bore it all in behalf
of his sheep, none of his sheep will ever experience one little
bit of that wrath. Not any. And in the course of time the
Holy Spirit comes and once again marks this division between the
sheep and the goats as he sends preachers to them, whether by
living men or written record or even the scriptures themselves,
but somehow or another they come into contact with the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of God gives them
spiritual life so that they can understand things they never
understood before, things that before were to them foolishness
and couldn't possibly be true. They suddenly see as clear as
a bell. And while throughout the remainder
of their lives they learn it better and better, they don't
learn it any differently. They have been born again by
the Spirit of God. They are alive to the things
of God. They are united to God through Christ. They are His
sheep. He spoke, and they heard His
voice, and they followed Him. So this division has been going on a long time.
This separation of the sheep and the goats has in many respect
defined the character of what we call time history. But those three things I mentioned
to you are all works of grace in which the sheep are divided
from the goats. What we have before us here is
a work of judgment by which the same thing is accomplished. And the results of this judgment
are of the most sobering kind. Verse 46, then they will go away
to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life. I don't talk much about hell.
Sometimes I think I should more. I don't talk about it because
I don't like the subject, to be honest with you. I don't talk about it much because
I prefer to talk about grace. to talk about the blessedness
of an eternity in the presence of God, faultless and full of
joy. But we're really not allowed
to look at the scriptures like we might look at a buffet and
choose only those things we like and leave the rest behind. The
scriptures are given to us as a single thing. We call them
the scriptures, but they are the single revelation of God. And to benefit from them, we
must receive its entire message. Now, this is a fairly big book,
but it's not saying many things. It's saying the same thing over
and over and over again in different ways. If anybody wants to know what
the scriptures has to say or what God has to say, he's got
a Bible, he can read it, and if there's parts he doesn't understand,
then he can just skip over them and keep going till the parts
he does understand. And there are some things so
crystal clear that none but a purposely rebellious person would miss
it. And one of those things is God
is a just God. He will by no means clear the
guilty. And if in the end of days you
appear before Him with sin upon you, He will not clear you. He will not put away your sin.
He will not ignore them. But He will send you to a place
which is called hell in the Bible. Actually, it's defined by several
terms in the scriptures. We don't really know what it's
like. When it talks about fire, I believe
it's talking figuratively, and you say, why? Well, it talks
about that place of fire reserved for the devil and his angels.
Well, the devil and his angels are spirits. What's fire going
to do to them? But I think that they use the
term fire because, can you imagine? a worse torment than to be forever
on fire and never burnt up? Some of our brethren in the past
were burned alive at the stake. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine that some of
them sang hymns while it was going on, hymns of praise to
God. I can't imagine that. But they
did. But here's one thing about their
punishment. There came an end to it. Horrible as it was, it came to
an end. It was the unjust punishment
of men and God brought it to an end and took them into everlasting
blessedness. And I guess that's why they could
sing hymns because they knew as painful as the journey was,
the destination was worth it. Paul said, I am convinced that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And I suppose those of our brethren
who suffered like that took comfort in this, if it's more glorious
than this is sorrowful. Oh, what glory it must be. But whatever hell is, I don't
want anything to do with it. Our Lord likened it to the garbage
dump of Jerusalem where the fire is not quenched And the worm
does not die. And I've heard others, and I
think this is a good way to handle that. The fire's not quenched. Why?
Because the job's never done. Whatever is the torment of hell,
it's never over because no human being, no natural human being
can ever bear within himself the fullness of divine wrath. The only one who ever did is
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wasn't a natural human being. And the worm dieth not. What's the worm? Well, worm,
I think of it in terms like with a garbage dump, corruption. Nobody likes to go to a real
dump. I mean, I used to, when I did some work in Huntington,
West Virginia, uh, doing reshingling jobs. All we could do is shuck
off the old shingles, put them in the back of a pickup, and
then we would have to go to the dump and unload them. And it
would take your breath away. The awful smell and the flies. And you know what the flies once
were? Maggots. And so worms are a token of corruption. And what our Lord is saying,
they go to hell corrupt, and they are forever corrupt, insane
with the guilt of their own sin. I've heard people make jokes
about hell. Of all the things you might want to joke about,
that's really not a good thing to joke about. Heard one joke, and I can't even
remember how it was set up, but the punchline was, well, if so-and-so
goes to hell, he'll be so busy shaking hands with his friends,
he won't have time to notice what hell is like. I'm sorry,
friends. You will be utterly, completely
alone. trapped within the knowledge
of your filth and the horrible judgment of
God and absolutely no hope that it will ever be over. I'm looking at a crowd of what,
35, 40 people maybe. I hope none of you ends up there. But be assured of this, someday
the Lord Jesus Christ will divide his sheep from the goats. And if you're among the goats,
that is your destiny. However, there's another side
to this story. Our Lord says to the sheep that they should enter in, this
is verse 34, come you who are blessed by my father. Now notice
that he didn't say come you who did good, come you who put your
sins away. He said, come you who are blessed.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, according as he has chosen us from the foundation
of the world. When he says, come you who are
blessed by my Father, he's not talking about those blessings
given to them right at that moment, or during their lifetime, or
on account of anything that was done during their lifetime. He
is referring back to blessings given and secured before the
first bit of light appeared in this universe, before space and
time itself was created by God. These blessings were bestowed
upon the sheep by the Father. Come, you who are blessed by
my Father, take your inheritance. What's an inheritance? It's something
good you get that you didn't earn. When my parents passed away,
I was the executor of the will. And me and my two sisters, in
the end, each got a sum of money. And a sum of money we didn't
do a thing to earn. It was an inheritance. It wasn't a reward. It wasn't wages. was an inheritance. And the blessings
of God's people are an inheritance. The book of Hebrews, in translating a word that's
normally translated covenant, however, in Greek, the word covenant
and testament, there's only one Greek word to cover them both.
The writer of Hebrews did a bit of a play on words there, and
he talked about this new covenant as a testament, a will, if you
will. And here's the thing about a
will. There's only one who has an authority
to write the will. And whatever he puts in it, that's
the way it is, and nobody can change it. And the blessedness of God's
people is written in the will of God, and shall we call it
the last will and testament of God over all. And there's nobody in heaven,
earth, or hell they can add to it or take away from it. If you are among God's sheep, there is stored up for you unimaginable
blessing assigned to you personally before the world began. It was
yours before you knew Christ, it is yours after you know Christ,
and God will not change it, the devil cannot change it, and nobody
else is trying. It's yours. There will be no
contesting this will. To whom would you contest it?
The one who wrote it is the judge. Isn't that a blessing in and
of itself to think on that? All those things in Christ, unimaginable,
are given to God's sheep by inheritance and no one can take them away,
not even the sheep himself. Let's note the judge here. Now
we all judge, but our judgments are generally flawed and they
certainly have no power in eternal matters. I may judge you a lost person
or a saved person. It's not going to make any difference
as to whether you're lost or saved. Why? Well, for one thing,
I don't have the capacity to know whether you're lost or saved.
Secondly, I'm not the judge anyway. It says, verse 31, when the son
of man comes in his glory, the son of man, who's that? That's
our Lord Jesus, but why is he called the Son of Man? Well,
because he is man indeed, perfect man, but he's also God. Now, we might be called the sons
of men, but all we would mean by that is that we're descendants
of human beings. But this is the Son of Man. This
is the man above all men. The man to whom every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. And why will
every other man confess that? Because God has made it to be
so, and God's going to have everyone confess everything he said is
true. God hath made him to be Lord
in Christ, and willingly or unwillingly, everybody, you, me, you teenagers,
you kids, The devil, all his demons, every conscious being
in all the universe is going to bow the knee to Christ and
confess him to be Lord. And back then, the Lord was judge
as well. He always did right, so his judgments
cannot be called hypocrisy. If I judgmentally accuse you
of sin, I am a hypocrite. I may be able to accurately point
out that you committed a sin if I saw it done, but I can't
judge you. Why? Because the judge, in order
to not be hypocritical, the judge must be innocent of the crimes
that He assigns to other people. Well, the Lord Jesus is fit to
be judged. Why? Well, He did no sin. He
knew no sin. In Him is no sin. Never once
did our Lord Jesus Christ even desire a sinful thing. Now, it's, according to that
clock, 12 minutes after 11, Central Daylight Time. I've been up since
four o'clock. I have fought countless sins.
I have desired things I should not desire. I had attitudes I
should not have. I can't judge anybody because
I doubt that there's anything you've done that I have not at least wanted
to do. And the only reason I didn't is because I figured I couldn't
get away with it. And I've probably done some things you never did,
but you never did them because you didn't think you'd get away
with it. We're not fit to judge the Lord
Jesus Christ is. He's the Son of Man. He's the
Son of Man because He is God the Son. And as God, He's never wrong. When you appear before Him, whatever
He says about you is absolutely true. And you will know it, that it's
true. And there will be no appeal beyond
his judgment. There's no higher court. And
your conscience, if indeed he accuses you of sin, your conscience
will have to acknowledge that it's true. That is me. I did that. You'll not be able to plead extenuating
circumstances. Adam tried that, so did Eve.
God said to Adam, why'd you do that? This woman you gave me.
And he asked the woman, well, it
was the snake's fault. It's interesting, my son pointed
out to me the other day, Nathan talking to me on the phone, he
said, I was reading that the other day and I noticed this.
There were three involved in that sin, and there's one God
never spoke to. and ask them why. He never questioned
the serpent. For God had nothing good to say
to the serpent. He had no word of mercy and grace
for him. He would have a word of mercy and grace for Adam and
Eve. But first, their sins got to
be borne out. so that they might know why they
need the grace and mercy that he would give them. The results of this judgment
are of the most sobering sort. We already looked at that. There's only two possible verdicts.
One of them will be assigned to you. See, we got to be careful
when we read scriptures that we don't think it's about somebody
else. It's about us, friends. Everyone here will end up on
the right or the left of our Lord Jesus Christ. And every
one of us will experience one or the other of these destinies. And there's no change in that.
And what will be the standard? Well, you look at verse 40. The king will reply, I tell you
the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
of mine, you did for me. And then verse 45, he will reply,
I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these you did not do for me. Now the standard. interpretation of this, which
I long held to. The standard interpretation of
this is that this judgment is going to be according to how
nice you were to the people of God. And that sure looks like what
it's saying, doesn't it? And you know something? There
are other scriptures which indicate at least the general principle.
If you'll look over at 1 John chapter 4. Now we know from Paul that there
is a curse upon everyone. who does not love the Lord Jesus
Christ. We understand that. And John
says this, if anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he
is a liar. Now understand the way the scriptures
use love and hate. It's not talking about emotions
here. People get confused over that. In the scriptures, nearly
all the time in the scriptures, love and hate are descriptions
of how you treat someone. And that's why you can, You know,
these guys that you hear about, the fellas that are abusive,
and they abuse their wives, and they say, but I love my wife.
No, you don't. You don't love your wife if you don't take care
of her, if you beat on her, if you verbally abuse her. That's
not love. If anyone says, I love God, but
hates his brother, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God who is not seen. And so if we can ignore the sufferings of our brethren
in Christ, well, it puts a big question
mark on whether or not we love God. But that's not what the Lord's
talking about. Why do I know that? Because if
we take these things as literally feeding someone, visiting someone
when they're sick or in prison or something, all of those things
can be done in the flesh. And there is nothing that can
be done in the flesh which will improve a man's standing before
God. Nothing that anyone can do or
that anyone can do for someone else. Our Lord said, the flesh profits
nothing. And so anytime we read even something
like this and we see a description of actions, which anyone could
do, all they got to do is get up
and do it. Then we must understand there's
something more to the story than what appears on the surface of
it. What is our Lord talking about? If it's not actually providing
food to the hungry and clothes to the naked and care for the
sick and imprisoned, it's very simply this. Trying to find that list here,
okay. Who are the hungry and who are
the thirsty? Our Lord said, blessed are they
who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Who are the strangers? The ones outside of Christ. Paul
talked about the Gentiles in this way, he said, you're aliens,
strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, without God and without
Christ in the world. Who are the naked? Nakedness
is always used in the scripture as a picture of a man and his
sins. Who are the sick? It's those who are suffering
the awful corruption of sinfulness. Who are those in prison? Those who under a sense of guilt
are locked away with a conscience full of deserved
judgment. the sheep and the goats can be
known by how they treat people like that. For the sheep, they see someone
hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and they feed him. They tell him where it can be
found. They don't say to him, I'm not like that and I don't
want to be around people like that. They don't say, as our Lord spoke
of some in Isaiah 65, stand not near me for I am holier than
thou. They look for the hungry and
the thirsty and they feed them with the bread
of life. And then there are those who are strangers. You know, we live in a modern
day. If we go somewhere that isn't
our home, it's really not too bad. There's motels. We got credit cards. There's
restaurants. There's a reasonable level of
law and order that we don't go around afraid that we're going
to be set upon by thieves and robbers and murderers. Not so
in that day. Gentiles stroll into Jerusalem.
You better watch his back. Or a Jew anywhere else better
watch his back. Strangers. You're not one of
us. Brethren, there are some strangers
out there. There are some people who, in
their present experience, are estranged from God. They are
outside, outside the experience of God's
covenant of grace and mercy. Do you invite them in? Or do you look at those who worship
in ways that we know are wrong and say, well, okay, y'all just
stay over there? Do we ignore them like that priest
and the Levite did to the guy in the ditch who had been set
upon by thieves and robbers and beat within an inch of his life?
We walk by and say, well, he's unclean. That's why the priest
and the Levite wouldn't do anything for him. Because to have touched
him would have made them unclean. They said, no, I'm not going
to have anything to do with that. You know, that's his problem. You know any strangers? You know any people on the outside?
Especially, do you know any on the outside who have a desire
to be on the inside? And do you invite them in? Are you ready to receive them,
whoever they are, whatever they've done? Run into any naked people, spiritually
naked, all exposed to their shame. I've got to admit, when I see
the sexual perverts of our day going
around with their rainbow flags and very self-righteously declaring
what they should be ashamed of and holding the people of God
in contempt merely because they say it's wrong, you know what I want to do? They're
like, I don't believe in me. Have you ever thought of inviting
them in? I'm not saying that we would
quit telling them what they're promoting as good is truly wrong. But I just, I don't hear a lot
of it, but I've heard of a lot of it and heard some of it. of
believers just writing those people off and acting as though
they have sinned a sin beyond recovery. Brethren, they've sinned
no worse than we have. For the greatest sin of all,
according to the scriptures, is the sin of unbelief. And every
one of us was an unbeliever until God in grace gave us spiritual
life and with it came faith. And there's not a thing that
anybody out there has done that God's grace will not forgive. The sick. All people are sick. We call
them dead in trespasses and sins, and that's true, but in a sense
they're also sick. They are inflicted with an awful,
awful disease. It's terminal. Left uncured it
will bring them to eternal death. How do you treat people like
that? Do you just condemn them? Do you just say, well, they're
unworthy of heaven? Well, so are we. What about those in prison? I think prison ministries are
great. I think it's great when folks go to prison, preach to
them. That's not all that's meant here. Do you visit them with the gospel? Those who are imprisoned in their
rebellion and sin. They think they have a free will
and they can get out anytime they want. But the fact is they
can't get out because they like their jail cell. They can't get out because they
haven't a mind to get out. And they never will until God
gives them one. But how do you look on such people? Our Lord said, by whatever judgment
you judge, that's the, you know, the yardstick you'll be judged
by. You write them off. Now, I know that we can't go
in to everyone like that. I mean, we don't have the time.
There's 7 billion people in the world. But what's your attitude? And in closing, Let me see if I can't feed a
few, invite a few, maybe you. Maybe you're one of those who
belong to the Lord, but right now you're hungry and thirsty. It may be that you belong to
the Lord and you don't even know it yet, And yet, as God has begun to
work with you, he's shown you that you don't have any righteousness,
and you hunger and thirst for it. Boy, do I have good news
for you. The Bible says, blessed are they
who hunger and thirst for righteousness. for they shall be filled." People go after these world's
blessings and they're never filled. It's always more, more, more. But our Lord, it is said of Him,
of His riches, they're unsearchable. But that means they're uncountable.
The richest man on earth, you can eventually count how much
he has. There's a limit. There's no limit to the riches
of Christ. Our Lord said that his body was
true food and his blood was true drink. And of course he didn't
mean that in a literal sense. He meant that what those things
represent. is real food and drink for those
who are hungry and thirsty. And I tell you this, if you hunger
and thirst for righteousness, there is a fountain open. There's a table spread. And Christ says, come and dine. You say, well, before you can
come and dine, the Lord didn't say that. He spread the feast
and he said, come and dine. And I know this. If you're hungry
and you're thirsty, you'll come. I'm not going to have to have
a clown put on a show at the table. I'm not going to have
to have a really good band to play some music to convince you
to come to the table. If you're hungry, if you're thirsty,
Jesus Christ and him crucified will appear to you as a feast
you cannot resist. And maybe you have already eaten
at that feast, but right now you still hunger and thirst for
righteousness. Maybe you're going through one
of those periods where your guilt lays heavy upon you. I go through them a lot. Oh,
it's a miserable situation to be in. There's a table. There's a table with the best
bread and the finest wine. And the
only reason you're hungry and thirsty is because you won't
eat and drink. And I found this to be my experience. The reason I don't eat and drink
is because I've started judging others. And my judgment of them
has caused me to become aware of my own sin. And I've turned
my back on the table. Because I guarantee you, no one
facing the table judges anybody. I've turned my back on the table. The way back's easy. Remember who you are. Just a
beggar. But by grace, you are a beggar
who's been made to sit at the king's table. Come on back. You're a stranger. You feel outside. There's a world. No longer seem a home to you. And yet you don't feel you have
a place in God's household? Come on in. You'll forgive me if I pronounce
this Dutch word wrong, but it's one of the best Dutch words I've
ever heard. Come on in. It's gazellic inside. And you're welcome to come in. Nobody in here, nobody inside,
wants you on the outside. And child of God, do you feel
like you're outside? Thank God it's only a feeling. If you're His, you're on the
inside, but sometimes We act so little, like those on the
inside, we begin to think, I must be on the outside. Well, as one
of my old friends used to say, don't feel like the Lone Ranger.
We've all been down that road. Come on back in. Or better yet, just realize you're
already in. And nobody in here is wanting you out. Nobody in here is cutting you
off. Nobody here has disowned you. Feel naked? Feel like you got nothing to
wear? You feel as though your sin is
exposed? I know what that feels like. I'll tell you the best way to
find out you're naked. And that's to look at yourself
thinking you're righteous. If you start looking at yourself
to find something good, the Lord is going to let you see what's
really there. while he may never show the world
what you are, he'll show you. Paul thought he was somebody,
somebody righteous, and God unclothed him, and he found out he was
the chief of sinners. But oh, I'm telling you, if you feel
naked, I know where you can get some good clothes. The Scripture says he has robed
me, with a glorious robe of righteousness. Now whose righteousness might
that be? Certainly not ours or we wouldn't be naked. It's His. And I say to you, now I can't
give you the robe. It's not mine to give, but it
is mine to tell you about and tell you that you are free to
put it on. Are you sick? Are you sick of
what you are? Scripture says there's a balm,
a medicine in Gilead. There is medicine for the sick.
If you are in your mind sick with sin, and your conscience
troubles you, and you're in a fever of legal fears, There is a medicine. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin and the sickness is gone. Are you in prison? Have you found
yourself locked up? Justly put aside awaiting execution. Come on out. Seriously, come
on in. You say, well, I can't get out
of my jail cell. Why not? The door's locked. No, it's not.
It's closed, but it's not locked. You see, that's one of the tricks
of the devil. Everybody thinks the devil wants people to sin.
No, it's just the devil wants to make sure you never trust
Christ, that you never believe his promises. The blood of Jesus Christ has
unlocked the door. And if you stay in, there's only
one reason you're staying in. You like it in there. Or you are still protesting your
guilt. That's where most people are.
They're sitting in their jail cell. I don't deserve this. I shouldn't
be in here. And they sit there, and they try to appeal their
judgment, and they try to say it's wrong. Let me tell you something. All you got to do to get out
of that cell is come out. And I urge you to do so before
he who unlocked it comes and locks it forevermore. And in as much as Our Lord said,
inasmuch as you did this, for the least of these my brethren,
and his brethren are my brethren, you brethren, and sister, you feel like you're in prison
right now. Come on out. You said, oh, but I've sinned
an awful sin. Of course you have. Because you've
sinned and there's no other kind of sin than awful sins. Yes, but surely God cannot forgive
me of this. Oh, our Lord said all manner
of sin will be forgiven. That's a big group of sins, all
manner. But I've done it so many times. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. The door is unlocked. Come out
from that bondage. Come out from that sense that
God's about to step on you. And you say, well, I just, I
don't feel a warrant to do so. Well, then do this. Look out
the window of your cell. on that hill out yonder where
stands three crosses. Where at one time three men were
hung. Now the two on the right and
left, irrelevant. Criminals dying for their own
crimes. But that one in the middle, he's
dying. He's suffering the judgment of
God. but not for sins which he did, but for sins that were laid on
him. Look there and find in him a warrant. Find in the shedding of his blood
and the pouring out of his soul unto death. Find in that sufficient
cause to turn around and walk out that door. and discovering
it's not locked and you've only been in there because you refused
to acknowledge you were a sinner or somebody convinced you that
you don't have a right to go out until an angel comes down
in the middle of the cell and tells you you can't. I'm telling
you, God says you may. In the book of Revelation, it
says, the Spirit and the Bride say, and who's that? That's the
Spirit of God and the Church of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit
and the Bride say, come. And the only thing that'll keep
you from coming is you. Well, the Lord had his blessing.