That's the only way it's going
to keep from leaving the God that it loves. It's a monumental task, and seemingly
impossible to preach the gospel. Aside from the fact that most
people think this is foolishness, and I'm fairly certain that there's
some in here right now who think this is foolishness. Aside from the fact that most
people think this is foolish and are not interested No one is going to be interested
unless God Almighty makes them interested. Unless God, the Holy
Spirit, decides to create an interest. That's why this thing is so perplexing,
so impossible. Yet you go on preaching with
earnestness, with a burden, for somebody to hear it and believe
it. And some do, thank God. Barnard gave my father good advice
when he was just a young man. He said, Henry, you be careful what you say.
Somebody's going to believe it. And thank God, some do. Some
do believe the gospel, but some don't. And most of us, at one
time, were like those that don't. Most of us were more interested
in the world and all of its pleasures and its pastimes. Interested
in yourself, job, home, family, friends, recreation and so forth. And the only reason we went,
some people went to church like some people do now. The only
reason for religion is just to try this thing to do. Everybody
does it. Everybody goes to church, you
know. It's expected of you. As I said, when I was a young
man, my parents forced me to go to church. I didn't want to
go to church. But it was expected of me, so
I went. And it's the moral and decent
thing to do. It's the way to straighten up
your life, you know. It's a way to make everybody happy and speak
well of you. You'll be thought of as a fine
Christian in the community. And just in case there's some
truth to it, you got you a fire escape, don't you? An insurance
policy. Most of us were like that, weren't
we? Until finally, in God's good
time, at just the right time, you heard something. You heard something for the first
time. In God's good time or just the right time, you heard something
for the first time, didn't you? Other than the first time you
heard what you heard. Perhaps you heard the same thing
you've been hearing for a long time, but you just never heard
it. Somebody's saying, what? But others are going... My father always uses my father-in-law
as an illustration about this. Ed Ballard, he's been here. For
quite some time, he came to hear the preaching. And he'd sit there,
this is the way he looks normally. That's the way he looks when
he's happy. He's just a serious, sober fellow. And he'd sit there and listen. And he'd go away. He'd be scratching his head.
Isn't that what he says? He'd be scratching his head.
He said, I don't know what he's saying, but I know he's coming
from the Bible. That's what he'd say. So I'm
going to go back. And he'd come back to find him. Dad said he saw it in his eyes.
He said after the message was over, he came running back to
him and grabbed his hand and a big old smile on his face.
He said, I see it. I hear what you're saying. Dad
said, well, come on back. He said, I'll be back tonight.
I'll be back Wednesday night. And I'll be right here from now
on. And he has been. Brother Ron Trabant, he used
to sit right back there where Anthony is. Back row. He said he used to
spend his time during the worship service counting the tiles in
the ceiling. He had a suspended ceiling, you
know, with tiles. He said he'd count. He knew how
many tiles there were. But the man who built it didn't
know that. Just to kill time, you know. Not interested in what
the preacher was saying. Until one day, Dad said he got a call. A shaky voice. It was Ron. Henry, I need to talk to you. And from there on out, you know
where Ron sits? On the front row. And Ron's eyes
aren't on the ceiling, are they? He's the best listener in there. My sister and myself, we grew
up under the sound of the gospel. We're babies, 13th Street Baptist
babies. I was born the year that the
church was founded. Infamous day. It's a wonder the
church got through it. My sister and I grew up hearing,
we probably heard more gospel preaching by more prominent preachers
than anybody else. Cut our teeth on the truth. Roth,
Barnard, A.D. Mews, Luther Hutz. Keep naming
them. Or tomorrow. I hope we didn't
hear a word. But one day, at different times,
my sister at one time and I at another. One day, Terry, we heard. I mean, I don't know how many
messages we heard before. Same thing over and over and
over and over again. Finally, one day, we heard. inside, and it grips the heart. When you finally hear it, it'll
grip the heart in an unexplainable way. I can't even explain it
this morning. You just have to experience it. It captivates
your mind, your attention. It rivets your attention to what's
being said, what's being read from the book. It creates an
interest in you, a need. It creates a need you didn't
even know you had. Nancy, you tell me this all the
time, that you were a good Christian woman, you know. till the truth
was preached to you, and then you found out, hey, I need, I
got, I'm a needy sinner in need of a savior. Create a need you
didn't know you had. You thought you were all right,
didn't you? Henry, Roberta, Sherry. And you hear and you believe
for the first time. You believed some things before.
But you, you become completely engrossed in this message. and become committed to it, and
you can't get enough of hearing about it or reading about it
or talking about it. The reason I say that people are
really interested in it, they don't have a nominal interest.
No, no, no, no. I can't imagine going any length
of time without hearing the gospel. I just can't imagine that. But you can't get enough of hearing
about it. Really interested people, people in love with the Lord
Jesus Christ. John, they can't get enough about it. Hear about
Him. Want to read about Him. Want to talk about Him. Want
to hear about Him. Want to worship Him. Thank Him
for what He's done for you. Don't you, John? Now, what was
it that you heard? What was it? What was it that
we had heard for the first time? What was it some of you heard
for the first time? What was it, what is it, what
is it that will truly transform somebody? I mean make a rotten
gutter snipe like this old boy doing a bat face. What is it
that will do that? Influence somebody in such a
way? I'm going to nail him one more
time. One more time. For the road,
the scriptures call it the word of truth, the gospel. Dear son,
how old is that word? Has that word lost its meaning? The good news. What is the gospel? What is the gospel? It's not
a what. It's a who. It's a who. The gospel is called the good
news. It's a wonderful story about
a wonderful person who came. His name is Jesus Christ. The Christ. Now, I know you've heard that
name before. Everybody in here has heard that
name. We hear it a lot nowadays, don't we? People even cuss with it. But
have you ever heard that name? Savior? Messiah? The gospel, have you ever heard?
In other words, have you ever heard Him? He's a real person, Terry. He's
a law. He's no figment of man's imagination.
It's no old story. It's new. It's living. Why? Because
He lives. Jesus Christ. The gospel is about a person,
and it's a personal thing. It concerns your person. Your person. It concerns you.
Are you listening to me? It concerns you personally. It's
a personal thing. It's between you and this person.
The gospel, the story I'm going to tell you right now, is between
you And Jesus Christ. I want to ask you this question,
this is the gospel question, I ask everybody in here this
question. What do you think about it? What do you think about Jesus
Christ? What do you think about Jesus
Christ? Your heart's opinion, your heartfelt
thoughts determines your eternal destiny. Who is he? This is the question
of all questions. Who is he? Who is this one I'm
talking about? Do you really know? Is he real? Is he alive? Is he? What did
he do? What's he done now? Where is
he now? What does this have to do with me? Everything. I'll tell you what it has to
do with you. This book says your life, right
now, right now, your life is in his hands. That's what it says. It says
right now, your life, my life, our lives are in the hands of
this one I'm talking about. It behooves us to pay attention
to what I'm about to say about this one, that your life right
now is in the hands of this one, and your eternal destiny. Everybody
in here is going to die. I don't care how young you are.
My best friend died when he was fifteen years old. That's the
farthest thing in the world from my mind. Death. Fifteen years
old. Died. Snuffed out. Gone. Gone
to somewhere. Where? To meet this one. So how do I know that's true?
We're going to find out, aren't we? We're all going to find out
for certain. Who is he? Turn back to John
6 with me. John chapter 6. Who is this Jesus
Christ? Let's get it straight. We need
to know. Better yet, we need to know him. You don't need to know, necessarily,
the answers to too many questions. We sure need to know the answer
to this question. Who is this? They asked that
question when they came riding in on that donkey. Remember?
People were crying, this and that and the other. And some
of them would say, Who is this? I'll tell you who he is. He's God. This one called Jesus. He's God. He's God. God came to the earth disguised
as a man. The creator, the one who made
the dirt you stand on, the ruler, the one who controls the dirt,
the controller of all the universe, came to this earth, walked this
earth. Do you believe that? Unconvinced. Unconvinced? Well, you'll either believe that
now, by God's grace, or later. You know what the most, the worst
words that we, the words we hate to hear worse than anything? I told you so. Don't we? Overall so full of pride, you
know? And for somebody, for us to make a mistake, you know,
and fall or whatever, and somebody warned us against it, we don't
ever want to see that person again, do we? Huh? Because they're going
to say, well, and they like to say it. I told you so. We're going to hear a divine, I told you so. Yes, indeedy. God Almighty says
it over and over throughout the scriptures to some people that
stood before him. I told you so. Look at verse 59, John 6. These
things said he in the synagogue. Who? This one, this God. Listen
up. This one whose God said this
in the synagogue. He said, many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard the things that he said, said this. These things
are hard sayings, I can't hear this. And when Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples, now this is a professor in believers,
when they murmured at it, he said unto them, does this offend
you? What if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up, that is,
disappear right in front of your eyes? It's the Spirit that quickened
the flesh promises nothing. You wouldn't believe it then.
The words I speak unto you, they're Spirit, they're lie. But there
are some of you, verse 64, that believe not. Christ knew from
the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him, and he knows now. He knows now. And he said, Therefore
I said unto you, No man can come to me, except we are given unto
him of my father, the gift of faith. From that time," look
at it, verse 56, "...that time many of his disciples, professing
believers, went back and walked no more with him." Hard to say
is I don't like this dogmatic preaching of a sovereign God. Then said Jesus unto the Twelve,
what about you all? And Simon Peter, bless God, that's
who he blessed God, wasn't it? Later on in his epistle, he blessed
God. He answered, Lord, where are we going to go? To whom shall
we go? You've got the words of eternal
life, and we believe. Why do you believe, Henry? Well,
he asked him over there at that time, well, who do you say that
I am? Peter said, you're the son of the living God. Christ. He said, Blessed are you, Son
of Barjona, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father
which is in heaven. Peter said, I believe. You believe,
Nancy? Why? We believe and are sure,
are you sure? Well, most of the time, that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Christ
said, Now, didn't I choose you? Didn't I say that? Have not I
chosen you? You didn't choose me. Wasn't you a fool? Well, I wasn't.
On the contrary, you heard whose will it was in. Bless God if you do believe it's
because God has chosen you from the beginning through sanctification
of setting apart of the spirit and belief of the truth. The
truth, not just any old haphazard, another gospel. The truth. Now, look over chapter 7 with
me, verse 40. Chapter 7, look at verse 40. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, when they heard him talking,
preaching, when they heard, they said, this is a prophet. Yes,
this is the prophet. Others said, well, this is the
Christ. And some said, well, did Christ come out of Galilee?
That's questions, you know, questions. Hadn't the scripture said that
Christ comes out of David and the town of Bethlehem where David
was? There was a division. So there was a division among
the people because of him, because of him. And there's a division
among the people today, still. Many divisions. Look over chapter
10 with me. John chapter 10. There's still
divisions over him. It's all concerning him. That's
what this is about. The gospel concerning God's Son,
Romans 1 through 8. The gospel concerning Jesus Christ,
who he is. And there's still divisions today.
Divisions. Still a great deal of division
concerning him. John 10, verse 19. There was a division, therefore,
again among the Jews for what he said, his preaching. He was
a preacher. Jesus Christ was a preacher.
And people got mad at his preaching. One time he said, for which of
these works do you stone me? Oh, we're not stoning you for
a good work. We want you to heal people, and this is what this
generation want. They want you to heal people
and do miraculous works, you know, and talk in tongues, do
whatever you dance, a jig, act the fool, we don't care what
you do. No, you don't be preaching this dogmatic truth now. Isn't
that right? Offer a good work, we're not
stoning you, because you're a man, you say you're God. And a good
work, we won't stone a creature for, humanitarian efforts and
so forth. But when that man stands up and
dares to declare that Jesus Christ is none other than the sovereign
God, and we're in his hands, he stays whom he will, and we
best be bowing down to him. We don't have to ask anything
but that. Anything but that predestination. And many didn't believe him.
Verse 20, and many of them said, he's a devil. See how blind men
are? This is God! They call God a
devil. That's what John Wesley said
about the gospel of God's sovereign grace. He said, you're God, but
God in electing grace is a monster. And that's what they say about
us. Me? Us? Anybody who preaches the
word as it is in truth. He's a devil. He's mad. Why hear
him? Others said, these aren't the words of him that hath the
devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? Now, he was at
Jerusalem. At least to the dedication. It was winter. Now, I tell you,
we're in a spiritual winter right now. Hosea talks about a time
of famine when people won't hear the word. They'll hear all manner,
like I say, all manner of foolishness. You let a man come in his own
name, looking real slick, you know, dressed real sharp, just
telling people to give him a thousand dollars, they'll just flood him
with money, go by the thousands to hear him preach, won't they? Make him rich and increased with
goods? And he ain't saying a word out
of the Scriptures? Oh, that's what he does, he'll
pull about one word out and then go wild with it. And let a man
come in the name of God, for the glory of God. Let Christ
himself come. Christ came. He's the one that
quoted it. Christ said, I come in my Father's name, merely telling
you the truth of how it is. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Knowing, therefore, that this
is a holy God we must answer to, and we need a sacrifice. Knowing these things, if we declare
them unto you, let a man come, and he'll be stoned and killed.
or hung on a cross. But there's still a great deal
of division concerning him, about who he is. Some say he's God.
I ask you this question, who is Jesus Christ? This is the
question of all questions. I wish somebody would ask me.
I wish somebody would call me. I get scared to death when people
ask me questions. I've got a question for you. And what about that gray horse
over in Revelation 10? What is that on his ankle? I wish somebody would say, who
is Jesus Christ? What is the gospel? Who is God? What does it mean to be saved?
How? Like the people at Pentecost
said, what must we do to be really saved? How can we really know
God? I wish somebody would ask that
question. Not ask the unanswerable. No man has all the answers. One
man is the answer. Some say he's God. Some say he's
just the Son of God, like us. That's what old Kenneth Copeland
says, Kenneth Hagin. He's no more God than you and
I are. That's what he said. Some say he's the Christ, the
only Savior. Some say he's just another prophet,
like Mohammed. There's a division about why
he came and what he actually did when he got here, if he did
come. Some say he came to save. Some
say he tried to. He made a down payment. Some
say he came to redeem, pay for our sins. Some say he made a
little deposit, you've got to come up with rest. Some say he succeeded. He sold,
he went back to the right hand of God and sat down, finished
the work, nothing left for anybody to do. Some say that. Some say, now he's done all he
can do. Now, you little God, you, it's
up to you. Some say he does the choosing.
I tell you who says that, God says it. Didn't he just say that?
Christ, didn't he just say that? You didn't choose me, I chose
you. Some say, by his grace, he must choose me. I have never
chosen him. Others say, you must choose God. There's divisions about where
he is now. Some say he's seated on a throne. I wish I could tell
it like he is. I wish I could like Was it Elijah
that, the Lord said, oh, he said, open his eyes so he could see.
Wish I could pull a big zipper down, a big veil, and say, rock! And you'd see a king in control. But I can't. But that's what
I'm saying right now. He's on the throne. Some say
he's still in the grave. Some say he's coming back. He's
coming back. He might be in the morning. The
judge sometimes just scare tactics, guilt manipulation. They open
to the masses. What do you say? Here we go again. Here's the question again, Joe.
Romans 8.31. What do you say to these things? Which do you believe? I mean,
let's ask ourselves that. Look at verse 22 again, John
10. It was Jerusalem, a feast of
dedication. It was wintertime. Jesus walked in the temple in
Solomon's porch and came to Jews around about him and said unto
him, How long are you going to make us to die? If you're the
Christ, tell us plainly. Here it is. Here is the verdict. Jesus answered them and said,
I told you. And you didn't believe. Works I do in my father's
name is enough to bear witness for me, but you don't believe.
Why? Why doesn't anybody believe?
Look at this. Verse 26, the Son of God said
of himself, you believe not because you're not of my shape. As I've said unto you, and here's
my text, my shape. Hear my voice. Bless God. Now, listen to me, folks. There
is a problem with man's responsibility. People have a problem with God's
sovereignty and man's responsibility. Men and women don't believe because
they don't want to. This is the whole problem. This
is the problem. The problem is in a man's will.
That's right. That's right. It's not free.
Not to think it is. It's not free. It's bound by
their nature. Men are sinners. Horses eat grain. They won't eat a piece of meat.
You can stuff it down their throat, they'll be regurgitated. Lions
won't eat grass. They eat meat, right? Man, what
does man do? He comes forth from the womb.
What does the Scripture say? Speaking lies. In sin did my
mother conceive me. Man is a sinner, Terry, a sinner
full of sin. A man wrote, called me this morning
from the jail over there. Wanted me to pray for him and
all. I talked to him, I said, Bud, I said, you're behind bars. I'm in front of the bars, but
we're both in captivity. That's not your problem. It may
seem like that right now, but the problem is sin. in the hands
of an angry God who's going to punish sin. We have to do something
about this sin. And the problem really is that
we can't do anything about it. God's angry with the wicked every
day. The scripture says the soul that sins must surely die. All
the world's guilty before God. All the world is wicked, evil.
That's it. None righteous, no not one. None
that doeth good, no not one. On and on and on and on. sinners
before this holy God. What are we going to do? This
is the reason people, Henry, at Pentecost cried out, came
running down, what are we going to do? We've got to see this holy God. Now, that's not the problem.
Men and women are willingly ignorant. Human nature is such that, now
listen to this, see if this hits the side, listen, listen very
carefully. Our nature is such that when
we can make ourselves believe anything we want to, to be true. I don't care how far. Why would
people follow a man like Jim Jones and go to their death?
They convinced themselves, and he was of such a charismatic
personality, that he convinced them and they convinced themselves
that what he was saying was true. And Joe, we can refuse to believe
the truth no matter how clearly it's put before us. Right? No matter how obvious it is,
this is the reason we're such convincing liars. We get well
practiced at it, and before long, we convince ourselves. Don't
we mean that? We convince ourselves of what
we're doing. And we can convince ourselves
that what we believe, what the man's saying up there is true,
no matter how contrary to the scriptures it is, right? And
believe it. And the scripture says, they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, saying, prophesy.
Tell us what we want to hear. Don't tell us what God said that
cuts deep. Don't tell us that. I don't like
that. But thank God Christ said, my
sheep are going to hear me. Thank God. Did you see that in
Ezekiel 2? He said, he caused me to hear it. Jerked me up out of here. Caused me to hear it. Thank God,
Henry, one day God said, Henry, you're sure going to hear what
I'm going to say. And you heard it before you. Don't like that,
do you? Don't believe that. Never believe
that. Yes, you will. In God's good
time. Have you heard. Have you heard
it yet. This voice. Have you believed
him. If so it's because it's because
no man can come to the father come to me except the father
which has sent me draw him. If you have heard, it's because
the Father said, there's one. Christ said, there's one, my
sheep. Go get her. God's faithful sheepdogs, goodness
and mercy. Surely they'll follow me, yipping
and napping. And I'm going to come in to the
shepherds. Get her. Bring her to me. Ask you to follow
me. Yes, sir. God's on the throne. Bow down. Holy, holy, holy. Pick that sheep up and bring
him home. Let me give you a story. There
was some fellas out fishing. There's some fellas out fishing.
And he was Drinking Budweiser and chewing Red Man, having a
big old time telling their fish stories. Telling their fish story. You
know how fishermen are. They've fished all night. All night. Didn't catch a thing. You ever
done that? Well, I have. Sure as you like, quit fishing.
I don't fish much. I don't like to fish unless I
catch something. They've been out all night, you know, fishing.
And they were about to come in and there was a preacher. preachers
by despicable little fellows aren't they? Hate them. Can't
stand them. They really are. They're despicable
creatures, preachers are. I hate to be associated with
them. They're the scum of the earth.
Freeloading, no good, lazy bums. Most of them. God's men aren't. But they came in as preachers
standing there on the shore and he said, fellas, he said, go on
back out to the trowel over there. Let you know it's down over there.
I just don't mind Peter oh it's
very soft. But it but brother and. Preacher
well the world you know about the ship. Will teach him a lesson. If you're. OK preacher. At your work. We'll go out and
we'll lay down the nets. So they went out. They didn't know who it was that
was talking. That was Jesus Christ on the shore. They didn't know
who this was. The one who was on the shore
was the master of the sea. The ruler of the waves. The one
on the shore was the master fisherman. He'd come and do a little fishing
himself. And it wasn't fish he was about
to catch. It was men. And they had two little fishies
in a boat. Fish were already in the boat.
So they went out there and they threw those nets out there and
tuna and mackerel and sailfish and lobsters and crabs were just
dying to get in that net. Because the master of the sea
was controlling them, willing them, said, get in the net, get
in the net, get in the net, come, get in the net. And they loaded
those nets down and they start, the fishermen start hollering
for their buddy James and John, come on help us. They came over
and the nets started to break, the ships started going down
and Peter I said, boys, this ain't no preacher.
And he came running and fell down at the feet of Jesus Christ. And what did he say? Lord. I said, two things, Derrick. He said, Lord. You're Lord. And I'm a sinful man. That's what every one of God's
sheep will do when they hear, when they see who he really is. No more questions! I'm a sinner. The only question left is, God,
can you have mercy on me? If you ever see just who he is
and whose presence and power you're in, you quit playing And you'll start worshiping the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go over to Ephesians chapter
1 real quickly. Ephesians chapter 1. Christ said,
My sheep hear my voice, I know them. Why? He hand chose them.
That's just the way it is. I like it that way. I really
do like it that way. Why? Like I've said before, because
I've never chosen him. John, I was on my road to hell
just as fast as I could, but some people are on the road to
hell in the church. Some are on the road to hell on the bar
stool. It's still on the same road. Still got to be stopped. Still
got to have the gospel revealed to them. Still got to be chosen. That's just the way it is. I
like it that way. I had no like it that way, because I'd have
never chosen him. And he said, they'll hear my
voice. They'll hear it. All of it. They'll believe it
all. Believe the unbelievable. Believe the illogical. Believe
the unreasonable. Why? Because it's not by human
reasoning, by revelation. Look at verse 13. He says, And
they'll trust in him in whom they'll trust after they hear
the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, the truth
of who God is, who I just tried to explain or describe. It's
holy, sovereign, just. The truth of who Christ is, God
who came down in human flesh. The truth of what we are. Chapter
2, verse 1 says we're dead in trespassing and sin. Dead, without
hope, without God, without life. Young people even have come to
realize what they really are before this holy God. And that
Christ is their only hope. But this man had to come down
and do for me what I could not do for myself. Save me, actually
save me, by living the life God requires
and by dying the death that I deserve. And then by going back to the
Father, Vicki, and sitting down and interceding, making sure
every one of those sheep get home. The good shepherd, making
sure, with his rod and his staff, that's what this is, a rod. Come
on in, little sheep. Rings them in there, got a hook
on it. With the net, it's called a gospel
net. It throws it out there and gathers his sheep. And they come
in, and he throws out the goats and takes them to sheep. In whom? You trust it. In whom? Like I said at the very
outset, it's in a whom. It's in a whom. Not a what. Glorious. Oh, powerful. Have you heard his voice? Have you heard that? Some believed, some didn't. Do
you read all those with me? Some had divisions. You're the
Lord, you're the Master, you're the Savior, you're the God. This
is God, this is the God of the Bible, that's the truth, this
is the Scripture, this is the Gospel, isn't it? This is the
Gospel. Some hear it, believe it. Have
you heard it? I hope so. Oh, I hope so. If you have, come
on back again tonight, we're going to tell it again. Our Lord and our God, our Savior,
the great Shepherd of the sheep, we thank you for that glorious
calling, the gospel of our salvation. God, enable us to have ears to
hear it and a heart to receive it and lives to show it. God help us, in Christ's name,
amen.