In the book of Habakkuk, that song there, very fitting. Joe, I'm glad the Lord led you
to choose that hymn. It said, farewell mortality,
welcome eternity. I hope we can say that. I preach as one who may never
preach again, as a dying man to dying men. I quoted that two weeks ago at
the start of the message. I do well to quote it every time
I stood up here to preach. Because you and I are going out
into eternity. We're going to face God. And
the wisest thing that we could possibly do on the face of this
earth is to prepare ourselves for that journey. I went to visit Virgie yesterday
in the hospital. Virgie is 80 some years old,
81 years old. 82, 81. At any rate, that's 10 years
more than the Lord promised the natural man. And I look down at her. I want
her to come back. I tell you what, we'll all miss her when she's
gone, I guarantee you. But I looked down at her, and
I thought the next time I see her laying down like this, maybe
in a casket. And I have good confidence that
she knows Christ. Well, I sure hope so. That probably, possibly be somebody
else that we don't expect. I wish I could go into the homes
of everybody here, go and sit down personally with every single
individual and really find out the state of your heart. I mean, really have you tell
me, yes, for my own benefit, have you tell me so I can get
up over your dead body and preach with some enthusiasm, so I can
get over your dead corpse and say with some confidence, She
knew Christ, she's standing with Christ now. Instead of having
lingering doubts, not knowing what to say, dreading, I've got
some funerals, I'm dreading, I really am dreading. It's the primary responsibility
of the preacher of the gospel to prepare people to meet their
God. That's the first, foremost, primary,
the principal responsibility of this man, stands in his day,
to prepare people to meet God Almighty, to prepare the way
of the Lord. That's what John the Baptist
said. He was called a harbinger, one who goes before the Lord
at his coming, a harbinger. a harbinger to proclaim the coming
of the Lord. And Christ said it, he said,
the law and the prophets until John. All of them up until John
preached the kingdom of God. All of them, without exception,
go through the scriptures and look at the message of all the
prophets, including John the Baptist. It was this he's coming. Who? The king. Do you read with me in Habakkuk?
The King! Not some silly, sentimental Jesus
who's knocking on your door. The King is coming! I mean the
God who made this ball of dirt. Right? Every prophet, every preacher
preached the sovereign rule and dominion of an almighty King. And I don't mean to say that
or preach that with meanness, but I want to do it with authority. Because that's who's coming.
The author and the finisher of it all. The creator and the sustainer. The giver of life and the destroyer
of it is coming. And Christ forewarned us, he
forewarned us, he said it'll be at a time when you think not. Now, the prophecy people are
going crazy. With all this talk of peace,
peace, because that's a warning, that's a warning in the Scriptures,
when they shall say peace, peace, then sudden destruction shall
come upon you, Christ said, Matthew 24. But all of the prophets up until
John and preachers and preachers now, true preachers, preach of
a God who reigns and rules among the armies of heaven, but not
just there, among the inhabitants of the earth. And nobody stays
his hand and nobody can say unto him, what are you going to do?
Or you can't do that? Nobody. And they preach and they
tell and forewarn men of his imminent coming. Oh, don't Don't
lose me on this message, please. Greg, ask God to. Ask God to
give you a wakeful hearing right now. The prophets and the apostles
were sober, serious men. And weren't clowns, they didn't
dress up in silly robes. They were sober, serious men.
And they proclaimed a message of repentance. Yes, they did.
I know it's unfashioned, it's unheard of in our generation,
but they all proclaimed it. Repentance that's necessary to
salvation, vitally necessary to life. There is no salvation
except through repentance first. Not repenting over the watermelon
you stole or the past life of cigarettes you smoked. hating
yourself, hating your sin, standing before a holy God, begging this
God for mercy, that's repentance. A true willingness and desire
to change, to want to be made holy, necessary for salvation. And they all, every one of these
men, preached, they preached wrath and judgment. I know that's unheard of yeah
you just never hear it. You never hear a message of judgment
and wrath. But at the same time. They preached
glad tidings. Of great joy. They preached full,
free pardon and forgiveness and justification and righteousness
and sanctification and joy unspeakable and peace with God and eternal
happiness with God, life. They preached all of that at
the same time, but only to serious seekers, not nominal church folk,
not religious outwardly religious people, John the Baptist would
turn to a man under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit.
He turned to a man dressed up in his religious habit, and he'd
say, You're a snake. You're a viper. Bring forth food
and meat for repentance, man. You're going out to meet God
with a profession on your lips, and your heart's not anywhere
near him, isn't it? And John said that with authority,
but yet he said it with a tear in his eye. I know it is compassion. But these men preached a judgment
coming, a certain and sure looking for a final and eternal judgment. But not today. So-called sons of thunder are
sweet little preacher boys, you know. Fresh out of seminary, secluded
from society, don't have a foggiest idea what sin is. Talk of love,
love, peace, peace, you know, when they got that sickening
smile on their face. Talk about a peace before a God
with whom, a God who's angry with the wicked, angry, especially
the religious wicked. And most of these so-called preachers
aren't preparing people to meet this God. They're not preparing
the way of the Lord. They're saying, Lord, Lord with
the lips. But they're making him a pathetic failure, aren't
they? With their gimmicks and all this. Most aren't preparing
the way of the coming king. They're preparing people to meet
the coming king. They're preparing for the next
Christmas play. Is this a serious message or
what? Most people aren't preparing for the coming king. They're
preparing for the next young people's outing at Disney World.
They're preparing for the next women's Saturday brunch. And these fools are going to
be soon gathering around a little manger to look at a plastic doll
and see some guy dressed up in a fake beard. But there's going to be a few
gathered around a book, a few people gathered around
a book to prepare to meet a God of fire, consuming fire. Not a baby, no longer a baby
in a manger, a God who's a consuming fire. Is this a serious message or
what? An angry Almighty. This generation
is in for a, you're talking about a rude awakening. A God who's coming again in judgment,
old-fashioned, this old-fashioned, you better believe it. From the
law, from the prophets, until John, they preached the same
thing, the coming kingdom. And what did Christ say when
he got here? He said, Christ came preaching the same thing,
the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom. The apostles preach
the same thing, the gospel of the kingdom. And preachers, faithful preachers
now, better be preaching the same thing, the gospel of a king, an almighty sovereign Henry. While a few peanut preachers
are sitting down to tea, There's a few like old Habakkuk
here are standing watch. Look at it here with me. Habakkuk
chapter 2. He says, I'm going to stand upon
my watch. I'm going to stand upon my watch,
he says. A watchman. They said to Isaiah,
Terry, watchman! What of the night? What of the
night? In other words, what do you see? A seer, a watchman, a man who's
on the lookout, a man who's looking out over the horizon, not just
carrying on and things around with it, but he's looking. He's
looking very carefully out over the horizon, judging the shape
of things and all, looking out there for danger, for patiently
expecting something. Diligently, carefully, look on
the lookout. They said, what of the night,
watchman? What do you see? What do you see? He said, the
morning's coming. The sun of the morning. Isaiah
said that before Christ came, the first time. He said, the
sun of righteousness is going to arise with healing in his
wings. The day star from on high is
going to rise on this planet. Oh, get to him! A sprouting is
going to be given. The mighty God is going to be
his name. The everlasting Father, run to him! That's what I see, Isaiah said.
The sprouting, the morning is coming. Oh, the daybreak is going
to shine on this planet like never before, in the midst of
the darkness. And then he said, and also the
night. Darkness. Judgment. The night. Death. You see, a faithful preacher,
a true and a faithful preacher is a watchman, just in the same
mold as Isaiah, just in the same mold. At the risk of sounding
like an all hell-fire and damnation preacher, he is. He does forewarn. He's not an ear-tickling socializer,
although I'm not against these things. I socialize with everybody
here. Christ-like man. He's a man of
love and likes to be with the people, but he's not an ear-tickling
socializer. But chiefly, he's a watchman.
He's a watchman. He discerns the times and the
seasons. He's looking for and anxiously
awaiting the coming King. And the thing he wants more than
anything else out of people is that they see his coming too,
that they're ready for his coming. That's what he's all about. That's
what this is all about. Charles Hudson, that's why you're
here, buddy. That's why you're here. You didn't come here to
church. Garnet, I address, I call names, because I'm talking to
you. That's why I call names. I want to make sure you hear
me. Stephen Kinsley, as young as you are. Jesus Christ is coming,
buddy. You better know him. You've got
to know him. You've got to know him. If you
don't know him, you're going to be left out. John Sheasley got to know Christ. You've got not the doctrine,
Christ. You've got to know him. That's what a true and faithful
watchman is doing. He's watching out. Ellen, you're
in those, when the evil years come now. The eyes grow dim, the ears grow
dim, all of your mental and physical faculties are leaving you. You
better know Christ. You must know Christ. You're
going to lose your mind one of these days, and then not be able
to comprehend the gospel, and then not be able to believe a
gospel. You won't be able to understand it. You've got to
know Christ now before it's too late. Now, he's coming. He's coming back. Yeah, he is. He's on the watch. He's on the
watch. And that's what Habakkuk said
faithfully. He said, I'll set upon the watch. I'll set me upon
the tower. I'll watch. Now look at this.
Look at verse one carefully with me. He said, I'm going to watch
to see what God's going to say unto me. And he didn't wait till Saturday
night to prepare this message. He didn't wait. He'd get up early
Sunday morning and say, oh, I've got to get a message. Oh, he
was watching. He was carefully, diligently digging, searching,
studying. What's God saying? What is he saying to me? I've
got to answer when I'm reproved. You see that? This is Habakkuk
saying, I've got to answer when I'm reproved. When God says to
me, what was your message this morning? What did you say? What was the
theme of your message? Well, I talked about abortion.
It's an evil thing. It's rampant in our society.
I talked about politics. We've got a good Christian man
who's running for sheriff down here, and I had to tell—you what? Like David said, oh, I'm a high-me-ass. You know, the runner when he
came down here? What about the king's son? A high-me-ass? What did you see concerning the
Son? That's what I'm interested in.
I may say, I didn't know, I didn't see anything, but everything's
great. The church is good. Peace, when
there is no peace. How long, this kept running through
my mind all morning, how long shall it be in the heart of these
prophets to prophesy our lives? How long is God going to put
up with these fellows? Lies, lies, and more lies. God told
me this. God told me that. God loves you.
Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you. God loves
you. Peace, when there's no peace. What did you say this morning?
What did you talk about? What was your message this morning?
Man's goodness? The social ills of society? Man's works? Man's will? Did you describe God's holy character? Did you get on God's holiness
one time? Did you say, did you mention
the word righteousness? It's so in the scripture. I said
it, he said more than 500 times in the word. Did you ever say
it one time? That the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness? Isaiah said, I've got the answer
for myself. And what I say to me, you've
got to say for yourself here, too. This applies to you. What
am I going to say, Jeanette, when I have to give an answer
for when I'm reproved? The Word reproves me. The Word
reproves. All the scriptures are promptable
for what? For proof. Did you, he may say, did you
acquaint men with the Holy God they're going to go out to face?
You see the signs. Prepare to meet that God. That ain't so bad. I'm not so
all fired against that. We better. That's what this is
all about, Rick. That's why we're here this morning.
Not to go through the motions, aren't we? But to prepare our
hearts, to give diligence to make our calling and election
what? Sure! I don't want to go out of this
place with a doubt in my brain. Do you? Polly, you got to go
out in that world or you're going to be gone a week, working in
the midst of... I want to know, don't you? Now here's what the Lord demands.
Look at verse 2 with me. Here's what he demands. And the Lord answered me and
said, you write the vision. Are you looking at it with me?
Verse 2 of Habakkuk 2. He said, The Lord answered me.
I'm talking out of God Almighty's words this morning. The Lord
answered me and said to me, and Habakkuk was watching. He was
listening. Oh, well, Bacchus was going to
get a blessing. Now, Bacchus was going to be one of the only
ones, because old Bacchus was listening. He was watching. And the Lord answered me, and
He said, You write the vision, but not a vision out of your
own heart, like He said to the prophets, false prophets. But
where, John? Where's the vision got to come
from? The Word of the Lord, right? It's got to be what God's telling
it. To the law, to the testimony. If they speak not, That goes
for you, Habakkuk. According to my word, all of
it is because there's no light in them. It's a false vision.
I said this to Terry a while ago. I said, the minute the man
closes this book, you close yours and you get out of the door and
close it behind you. The minute a man strays too far away from
that book, get out of here. Get out of here. You go somewhere
where this man has got his nose right here. and begging you to
seek. Look, look, please look with
me. Right? Not what I think. God, I've got
me a paper to read here, a dissertation. This right here, this is it.
You're going to see some amazing things with me this morning,
right here in four verses, four verses that's going to stun you.
The picture of the gospel here. He said, you write the vision,
not a vision out of your own heart, not a vision of your own
heart, but out of the mouth of God. And he says, you make it
plain. Look at that. Write the vision. Make it plain. Make it plain. Seeing that dead, hopeless, lifeless,
godless sinners have only one hope. There's only one hope. Seeing then that we have one
hope, and it's Vital importance, absolutely a life-and-death matter
that we know this Jesus Christ, this one hope of standing before
this holy God. Seeing then that we have one
hope, Terry, we use what Paul said, great plainness of speech. Yeah, but I don't like the way
he yells. Sometimes it's hard to get people's
attention. Great plainness of speech. We
don't use flowery words. I could. I could. I believe I
could. I could read you a paper and maybe impress some of you.
My great performative speech. I really believe I could. But he says don't do it. You're
not out here to be seen, but heard. You're not out here to
be admired. Liked or disliked, you're out
here to be understood. Not admired, but understood.
Don't use flowery words of wisdom or fair speeches. It might make
the cross of Christ of no effect. I was listening to Robert Shuler
this morning. Man, there's a smell comes up in my nose when I mention
his name. There's no blood in that man's
religion. There's no blood. You know what's
wrong with today's preaching? There's no blood in it. It's
flowers. It's flowers. Flowers won't adorn
my naked soul. They might be on my casket, but
they won't adorn my naked soul before holy God. Only blood will
cover my soul. Right? Flowers. Spurgeon said, I can't eat flowers.
I've got to have bread, I've got to have meat, I've got to
have doctrine, I've got to be instructed, I've got to be taught
from God himself. Don't impress me, teach me. Instruct
me from this book, too. Make it plain, he said. Write
the vision. Make it plain. Use plainness
of speech. Make the message plain, the song
says. Make the message plain. Sing it o'er and o'er again,
Christ received a sinful man. Make the message plain. Make the message plain, he said. Why? Somebody doesn't understand
out there. Somebody doesn't know Christ
out there. Make it just as plain and as simple so our teenagers
can understand it, right? Don't go over our heads. We're
not giraffes. We're sheep and dumb, ignorant ones at that.
Black sheep make the message plain, and here's
the message simply put. It's simply this. It's Jesus
Christ and him crucified. It's the person and the work
of Christ. The simplicity or the singularness of the gospel,
that's the only message. The gospel of Christ and him
crucified, because all the scripture point to Christ, all directly
or indirectly. And we're not saying here that
every single verse of Scripture in this book directly has some
direct reference to Jesus Christ. But it has an indirect one. In
the context of everything that's written there, it all points
to Christ. Yes, it does. Every single chapter and verse
all works together for what? for a divine purpose to point
men to that Savior, to Christ, their only hope. If there's only
one hope, if there's only one way to a man, a man to know God,
a woman to know God, if there's no other Savior, none other name
given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved, then
you better believe God's Word points to that one way, indirectly
or directly. directly. And the job of a preacher
is to take a text and run just as fast as he can
to Christ. Take a text, get on the road,
and get those people to Christ fast. Why? Time is short. I've only got about 15 minutes
left. And this is what he says, exactly
what he says to Habakkuk here. He says, write the vision, make
it plain upon the table of wine, that he may run at redemption.
You better point that old boy to Christ. Why? So he can run
to Christ for mercy. So he can beg forgiveness while
there's still hope. So he can run through that door,
because it's still open. There's coming a day when it
shuts. And once the master of the house has risen up, when
Christ comes back again, you say, you're trying to scare me.
Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, I mean love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going
to hell. If Christ is not his life, that man's going to hell.
How can you say it any plainer? If a woman, I don't care how
sweet and tender she is, How professing religion, how faithful
she is. She doesn't know Christ in her
heart, but she's going to an eternal amnesia. I do not apologize for that. That's
God's Word. How orthodox a man may be, how much a man knows,
how much he's read, who he is, how moral he's been. It doesn't
matter. If any man loved not the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Let him be anathema marinatha
when the Lord comes. Accursed. He says the vision is yet for
an appointed time. Now, Habakkuk was writing this
about the first coming of Christ, OK? He says it's yet for an appointed
time, and at the end it shall speak. Look at it, come on, look,
every eye, verse three. At the end, this vision will
speak. At the end, it'll speak. That
is, in the evil times, in the last days, in the fullness of
time, it'll speak. Who's that talking about? What's
that talking about? It shall speak. You remember
when the angels appeared before those shepherds, when it appeared
to Mary? They said, you've got something
in your belly? And they were searching for words.
Oh, what's in your stomach, Mary? It's, it's, it's never been seen before. That holy thing. And they would
have taken their hands and put them on. That holy thing in you. God is here. At the end, at the end, the end
time, the scripture's been saying this ever since Christ walked
the planet, it's the end, it's the time, it's the time, it's
the end, the end time, we're living in the end time. He said
this generation will not pass away. Now I know many of the
experts talk about two thousand generations, folks, it's approaching
two thousand years. And he said this to these people
back here, he said, it will come, it will speak to. Paul said in Hebrews, God at
sundry time. at his different time and in
different manners, different ways, spoke unto us, spoke unto
the fathers by the prophets. Habakkuk was one of them. But
in these last days, It spoke. It has spoken. What's it? The Word. The Word. I mean, the last Word. The first
Word and the last Word. The last Word is going to be
spoken from heaven. Has spoken. Has spoken unto us by His Son. By His Son. The last Word. Old Scott preached the message
one night. I never get it out of my brain. I never get it out
of my heart. He was entitled, When God Breaks His Silence.
You see, everybody everywhere wants God to speak, and there's
a lot of them saying he's doing some speaking. God isn't speaking.
God isn't audibly speaking. He's not speaking to anybody
audibly. He's not telling anybody a private vision. I don't care
who the man is, how great. God's speaking through his Son,
through his Word. The Word, the incarnate being
inspired to written Word. God's speaking through this book.
But, old Scott said, there's coming a time when God is going
to speak. And the scriptures describe his
voice as the sound of what? You know those people down in
Florida, hurricanes, whatchamacallit, recently came through. They could
describe to you a sound of many waters. Don't you know that that
struck fear in them? The sound of... We read it there
back at three, didn't we? their hands, the waves, huge
waves, tidal, the sound of many waters. God's going to speak. Scott said, I don't want God
to speak yet. Not yet. I've got an unsaved son, he said. Or somebody maybe will say, I've
got an unsaved wife, or husband, or mama, daddy. When God speaks,
I see it. I see it. That's all she wrote.
That's all he wrote. The Word. It's big, it'll speak,
and he says he won't tear it. He don't, he won't lie. The end,
in the end, he shall speak and he won't lie, Michael. He's the
truth. He said, Christ stood on that day and he said, which
of you convinces me of iniquity, convinces me of sin? He looked
out on everybody. Those, which of you, somebody
convinced me of sin, Christ said. Somebody catch me up in a lie.
Oh, ain't nobody can say that now. It's no preacher. He said,
somebody who can convince me of saying, I said, if I tell
you the truth, why don't you believe that? You see, when Christ,
this is why, when we read this word, when we look at this word,
especially when Christ himself speaks. That's the reason I'm
not so much against the words of red in the New Testament script. But when the Son of God came
down here and opened his mouth, he wasn't fumbling and mumbling
and trying to think of something to say. He wasn't giving a sermon. That's
not the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5 and so forth. It's not the sermon on the mount.
It's the words of what? Life. You see, life, the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. In him was life, words of
life, and my words are spirits, able to give life. When I preach
this word, when we look at this book, it's able to give life,
eternal life. One word. Yeah, it is. One word. Look, oh, I wish the Holy Spirit,
through that word right now and the point of my finger, could
do that to somebody. Look. And be saved. When Christ spoke. It was the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me. God. Right. He doesn't lie. And how men should have been
hanging on his every word, how we ought to be hanging. on every
word. I'm going to get out of the seats
and get out on our knees and read the rest of. He reckoned. Though it Terry. Hello, the scripture
says he's coming again. And Peter warned over 2nd Peter
three, he said, I know what they're saying in the last days, scoffers. Are coming. Mockers, they're
going to be saying And where's the promise of his coming? For
since the end times, all things continue as they've always been.
I don't see any signs of it coming. And we've got that little thought
running in the back of our mind, don't we? Christ said, watch,
didn't he? He said, blessed is the man when
the Lord comes, he finds what? Watching. There's ten virgins, you remember?
Five without oil, five with oil. They all look like virgins. In
the bridegroom come, five. They all are asleep. And no, all things do continue
as they once were from the foundation of the world, he said in a moment,
in a twinkling of an eye, the sound of the trumpet, I wish
I had a trumpet right now, for effect, yes for effect, he said
a trumpet's going to be And some people are going to die of fright. Some people, it says, every eye
are going to behold him. Am I preaching a message of Jesus?
I'm scared tactics or what? I'm just quoting scripture. It
says that every eye shall behold him whom they have pierced. The
Son of God whom they pierced got blood dripping on their hands. And some are going to cry out
to the rocks, oh, hide us from the face of him. There'll be
some teenagers in that group. Yeah, there are. I don't know.
God knows. God knows who's able. But some, by His grace, are going
to hear that trump and say, could it be? I've been
waiting for this. Huh? Ain't that what this is
about? I'm tired of religion, aren't
you? That's what this is about. If I need to go back to the railroad,
if I don't preach with all the heart I've got to prepare you
and me both to meet this Lord, I need to go someplace else and
do something else. And let a man up here who will
cry over your souls, over you, your children, who will warn
you to flee from the wrath to come, who will point you to Christ
and Christ only. Take your eyes off of him and
point. It's that serious. William, you're weak, you're
sickly, aren't you, buddy? You'll tell people as they meet
them where they are and tell them like it is, we're dying. The next one is you, Maitland.
We've got to know Christ. A profession of baptism won't
do it. That didn't take care of things.
Only the blood of Christ takes care of things. Give diligence
to make your calling and election watch. Sure. Don't leave this
place. Boy, I'm sounding like Revival
preacher. Habakkuk did, he said it in verse
chapter three, Revive the work in the midst of the years, in
the midst of these complacent years, in the midst of our worship
services. Make us worship! Didn't he, Sherry? In the midst of our goings-on. Revive me! I'm dead, I'm dead
toward God. Well, he says, wait for it. It will surely come. It will
not carry. Now look at verse four, and I'll
quit. Behold, his soul, now listen, oh my soul,
if you've listened yet. If you haven't listened yet,
please listen now. This word from God right here, verse four.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him. His soul which is lifted up is
not right in him, upright in him. This is the all-important question,
people. I ask myself this. How are we going to answer God
when we are reproved of him? This is a hypothetical situation
I know. Nobody's going to have to answer
to God. He knows. He doesn't have to ask anybody anything. He knows. Whatever, if there's
a faith in a man's heart, he put it there. The child of God's
not going to have to answer to God. Don't take me wrong. We're not going to have to stand
up for ourselves. We've got a mediator. We've got somebody that's going
to stand for us. But we better have him now, right? Right here is where you get to
know Christ. Right here. It's not going to just all of
a sudden change and then all of a sudden you're going to see you need
Christ. No. It starts right now. But there may be some people,
the wicked may have to give an account of themselves. Christ
said that. He said, they're going to say
unto me. When asked of them, when reproved by God, when asked
of them to give an account for themselves, some people were
going to have the audacity to say things like this. Well, we've preached in your
name, in the name of Jesus. I won a
thousand souls. Well, we've cast out devils in
your name. Well, we held a meeting last
week, and I stomped on the head of the devil. We did many wonderful works.
We healed slew people in the Spirit. We believed on Jesus.
There's going to be some people, ignorantly enough, say, well,
we believed on Jesus. Why are you doing here? I was
baptized. There might even be somebody
who says, well, I believe the doctrine's grace. Do you reckon? Do you reckon anybody would say
that? Well, yeah. I believe the doctrine's grace. I was Calvinist. There's going
to be some people who say, we accept that Jesus is our personal
Savior. We let Him in our hearts. He's
knocking on my door. I let Him in. We let Him in. We exercised our
free will. We were moral. We were good.
I was a good daddy. There's going to be all kinds
of excuses, aren't there? I was a good daddy. I never drank
or smoked or cussed or cheated. I went to church. You reckon anybody would do that?
I guarantee you. They're doing it now. You see
what you do now? As a man thinketh, so is he.
Right now, if that's what you're saying, if that's what a man's
saying, that's what he's dependent upon, isn't it? I believe Jesus. I. Lord,
we. We. I did this. I did that. What's the Lord going to say
to him? We're going to say to these angels, we're going to
say, get these despicable people out of my presence. Find them
hand and foot and cast them into the lake of fire, where there'll
be weeping and wailing and gnashing, where the worm dies. You see,
they're lifted up with what? Pride. Self-righteousness. And the minute God gets a whiff
of any of this, the soul is not right. And here we go, Terry. The soul's got to be right before
God, doesn't it? People say, get right with God.
We'd better. How are we going to get right with God? We can't.
There's only somebody who can make us right with God. That's very plain, isn't it? Down to earth preaching? is only
one person who can make us right just before God Almighty. And that, he said, when he stood
on the earth, it spake. He, the word, said, I'm the way,
truth, life. No man comes unto this holy God
but by me. And he said, come unto me. But he said, no man will come
unless the Father which has sent me draw him And how does he do
it? What I'm doing this morning. But the soul that is lifted up
with any form of self-righteousness. Well, I'm 60. I've been in church. My son was a preacher. Well,
you can't even say that. My father, my husband. Ooh. Anyway, I'm not picking on anybody. I'm just using examples here.
I can't. My daddy was a preacher. I grew
up. I swam in the Baptist I'm a Hebrew
of Hebrews. Paul said, that's dumb, isn't
it? Stinking. Rotten manure before
God. It's filthy rags. You want to
know what those are? It stinks to high heaven, to God's self-righteous. Don't enter into his presence
with that. Well, how are we going to get there? Oh, we've got to
have a spotless robe. A spotless robe of righteousness.
that Jesus Christ came down here to live, to perfect, to weave
an immaculate weaving tapestry of His works, His doings. And
He got it all finished, and He hung there on the cross naked.
Why? He'd given the robe away. You ever think about that, why
Christ was naked? He'd given His covering away. He'd given
His righteousness away. He clothed me so I don't have
to hang naked. and shame. He gave me that life,
that perfect righteousness through which God can't see. It covers
my sinful black heart. And I gladly, in faith, all faith
does is say, I'll take it. That's all faith does, John,
doesn't it? All faith does is say, you mean
for me? I'll take it. And put it on as if, oh, it's
a perfect fit. 39 short or 54 short, whichever
it may be. Perfect fit. Just what I needed. A righteousness. And we come
before God and God says, you look good. You look like Christ. What's that smell? Oh, it smells
good to me. A sweet smelling sniffer. And
it won't be Pierre Cardin's It will be blood on it. It will be ear, thumb, and toe
religion. Blood on the ear, blood on the
thumb. That is, the ear will be anointed.
The thumb, the hands, will be anointed. The foot's walk in
newness of life. What's that? Come on up here,
I can get a good close look at you, like old Jacob dressed in
Esau's clothing. Let me smell you. What else do
you say to old Jacob? I'm going to give you a big kiss. Can you imagine that? God Almighty? Me? A scumbag of the earth? Yeah, come on up here. How am
I going to do that? He'll find me out. He knows about it. He's got a
robot. It's the only hope, isn't it,
Joe Parks? Only hope. Only hope. Gotta have it. How
do you get it? Believe. Why, it sounds too simple. I know. That's the reason people
don't do it. Yeah, I gotta do something, surely.
No. No. Believe. You believe everything
I said this morning. Or rather, believe everything
he said this morning. See, it's coming. He's coming.
Though it tarry, he surely cometh, and the just shall live." Did
you notice this with me? Do you notice that? It's the
first time this verse is quoted in the Scriptures. His faith. Not my faith. John, not my faith. I look real good. I sound like
I really believe what I'm preaching this morning. Huh? Tomorrow morning, don't call
me up at 9 a.m. I may be feeling mighty rotten,
full of unbelief, no telling. I don't live by my faith. Does
that make sense? I don't live by my faithfulness.
The only reason I live Terry Kensington is because he lives. Right? Ever liveth to make intercession
for me. And I said, when a man closes
a book, you close yours. The just, the only people who
are going to live before God are those who have been justified
freely by his grace. Not by our works, by his grace,
right? Justified freely. The just, those considered holy,
righteous Unblameable, unreprovable in God Almighty's all-seeing
eyes are only those who have been justified by God. Why? Who is he that condemns? Christ died. He paid for my sin. He paid for my sin. He satisfied God's justice. I'm a dead man, you're looking
at a dead man. I was crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, but it ain't me, it's Christ. The life I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. The just, and I want
to be just in that last day, don't you? Don't you? Shall live
by his faith. We look to Christ right now. Aye, right now. There may not
be an afternoon for you. All right? God help us. Stand with me.