Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 258. 258. A wonderful Savior
is Jesus my Lord. O say can you see, by the dawn's
early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last
gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright
stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming? In the cliff of the rock that
shadows a dry, thirsty land. there with his hand and covers
me there with his hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, he taketh my He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty lair. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, And covers me there with His
hand. And covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment be crowned, and filled with His wholeness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows our dry, thirsty land. And covers me there with His
hand, And covers me there with His hand. Salvation is born I'll shout with the millions
on high. He guideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows our dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
236. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. disappear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already when we In thousand years, bright shining
as the sun, we've known we'll sing hymn number 326 326 More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness seen,
More of His love who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern Spirit of God, my Teacher be
Showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness seemed
More of His blood who died for me More about Jesus' sin His Word,
holding communion with my Lord, hearing His voice in every life. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness sing,
More of His love who died for me. More about Jesus on His throne
Riches and glory all His own More of His kingdom's truth increase
More of His coming Prince of Peace More, more about Jesus
More, more about Jesus More of His love, who died for
me. John Chapter 9, John's Gospel
Chapter 9. Of course, this is the whole chapter
is dedicated to Christ opening this man that was born blind,
opened his eyes. Now there were men that went
blind that he opened their eyes, but this is the first time a
man that was born blind that Christ opened his eyes. Starting
at verse 14, and I'm gonna bring my subject out of verse 31, but
I'm gonna work my way there. And here's the first thing I
want you to notice now. Who it is that's speaking? Who
it is that's doing the speaking? And you've got to deal with it
in the context it's in and why they said what they said. And
it was the Sabbath day, verse 14, it was the Sabbath day when
Jesus made the clay and opened His eyes. Then again, the Pharisees also
asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them,
he put clay upon mine eyes, I washed, and do see. Therefore said some
of the Pharisees, this man is not of God, because he keepeth
not the Sabbath. Others said, how can a man that
is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among
them. They say unto the blind man again, what are you got to
say about this? That he hath opened thine eyes.
What do you got to say about this man? He said, well, he is
a prophet. But the Jews did not believe
concerning him that he had been blind. They didn't believe he'd
ever been blind. God had done this incredible
miracle. Man is born blind. God opened
His eyes, and because He had done it on the Sabbath days,
these folks were so religious, so legalist, so committed to
their false conception of God, they did not believe that this
man had ever even been blind. They didn't even believe he had ever
been blind. and didn't believe he received his sight until they
called the parents of him that had received his sight. And they
said, well, we're gonna have to have somebody to corroborate
this that happened. Somebody's gonna have to tell
us and prove to us what's going on here. And they asked his parents,
they said, now, they asked them saying, is this your son? That's
the first thing they said, is this your son right here? Is
this your son? Who was born blind? And how then
do we now see? They asked three questions. Is this your son? Was he born
blind? And how in the world did he get
to receive his sight? These fellows are really... His
parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son.
We do know that, that this is our son. And we also know that
he was born blind. But now watch what they do. They
hedge right here. They start hedging. But what means he now seeth?
We don't have any idea. We just don't know. We just don't
know. And we don't know who hath opened his eyes. We don't know
that. He's old enough to answer for
himself. Ask Him. He can talk for Himself. He can
speak for Himself. These words spake His parents,
and listen to this, because they feared the Jews. They feared
the Jews. They had a man-fearing spirit.
They feared man more than they feared God. They feared these
men more than they loved their son. They feared these men more
than they loved the Lord Jesus Christ and was grateful that
he had done something for their son's eyes. They feared the Jews. For the Jews had already had
a meeting and decided that if any man did confess that he was
Christ, gotta put him out, gotta exclude him, gotta discipline
him, gotta put him out of the church, gotta put him out. Therefore
said his parents, he's of age, ask him. Then again, they called
the man was blind. I mean, these fellas got a little
powwow going here. And said unto him, give God the
praise. That's a good thing to do. We
do, we praise God, we glorify God. And we know that this man
is a sinner. Calling Christ a sinner. calling
Christ a sinner. And this may be where John Newton
got his first idea of amazing grace right here out of this
verse. He answered and said, whether he be sinner or no, I
know not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. That may have been where John
Newton got his thought for amazing grace right there. Can't never
tell. Then said they to him, what did
he? How he opened eyes, to questions
again. He answered them, I've told you
already. I told you, I told you. And you didn't listen. You wouldn't
listen to me. You wouldn't hear what I got to say. Why would
you want to hear it again? Were you going to be his disciples?
That's what he asked him. You going to be his disciples?
Oh man, that upset him. That upset him to no end. They
reviled him, ridiculed him. Oh my, you're being, oh, go be
his disciples? No way. You be his disciple. We're Moses' disciples. We know
that God spake unto Moses, and listen to this. As for this fella,
we know not from whence he is. We don't know where he come from.
The man answered, said unto them, Why, herein is a marvelous thing,
something to be absolutely marveled at, that you don't know where
he's from, where's he come from, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
Now we know, now this is what I'm gonna deal with tonight.
Now we know that God heareth not sinners. But if any man be
a worshiper of God and doeth his will, let him will he heareth. Since the world began, it was
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born
blind. If this man, if this man that opened my eyes were not
of God, he could not do anything. The answer said unto him, you
is altogether born in sins, and you gonna teach us? and they cast him out, they cast
him out. Now here's a verse of scripture,
verse 31, that we know that now, we now we know that God here
is not sinners. This is true, and it's not true. Most of us at one time or another,
when we was unconverted, when we was lost, When we were out
in the world, most, one time or another, we all prayed when
we were lost. And we called on what God, who
we thought was God, and we really believed that He answered our
prayers. Really believed that He heard them and answered them.
Well, here's this man born blind, and he says, we know that God
heareth not sinners. And that's what the Pharisees
said, God heareth not sinners. Never, never, never, never rest
the scriptures, never. Deal with them where they're
at and the context they're in. And a man can rest the scriptures.
I read it tonight out of 2 Peter back in the study where Paul,
where he says, Peter says, Paul, our brother Paul writes some
things that's hard to be understood, hard to be understood. And many
unlearned and ignorant men rest the scriptures. rest the Scriptures
to their own damnation. And here's what he's talking
about, just like he said, you know, Jacob he loved and Esau
he hated. The first thing they said was,
and they rested the Scriptures. That's unrighteousness with God.
That's not right with God. Paul said, who art thou, old
man, that would reply against God? That's the only answer he'd
give him. Only answer he'd give him. And then people can use,
you know, if a fellow wants to be a drunk, he can use the Scriptures
to be one. He says, not what goes into a
man's mouth, it's what comes out. So, you know, he can use
that. He can use the thing that Christ
was a winebibber. So listen, I can drink wine. I guess I can get, you know,
I can have a big time. And you can have two or three
wives if you've listened to the Old Testament, because those
fellas had concubines and two or three, four wives. So that
gives you, you know, you can take the scriptures and prove
anything you want to prove. You can prove that there is no
God by just saying there is no God. That s what the Bible says,
said there is no God. And you know, you can go over
there where God said He hath, they said He hath forsaken His
people, Israel. You can go use that verse of
scripture and say God hath forsaken His people. Lord Jesus Christ
is a gluttonous man in a wine-bibber. And the Pharisees were saying
that the Lord Jesus Christ was a sinner. Ain t that what they
said in verse 24? Give God the praise, we know
that this man is a sinner. You know why they said he was
a sinner? Because he d done something for a man on the Sabbath day.
And he done that often just to make those fellas mad and to
prove to them, and they rested the scriptures to their own damnation.
And then, you know, and that's what they said in verse 16, that
this man's not of God. He cannot be of God. How can
a man, now if they had this division? And the blind man turned this
argument on themselves. And he said in verse 25, and
he said, whether he's a sinner or no, that's got nothing to
do with it. I just know this one thing, I
was blind, I was blind, and now I see. That's just the way it
is. And this man done this for me,
done this for me. And then they, if this man were
not of God, he could do nothing, could do nothing. And they know
it was a good argument against them. But then remember, this
is the saying of man, not the Lord Jesus Christ talking. It's
not Christ talking at all. And it's either true or false. And it depends on the
way you look at it. And let's look at it in that
it's not true in some ways. We couldn't say absolutely that
God heareth not sinners. You know why? Because if He didn't
hear sinners, He wouldn't hear a person in this building. Is
that not right? If He didn't hear sinners, He
wouldn't hear anybody in here. But if we called on Him, He wouldn't
hear us all. If He didn't hear sinners, huh? If He couldn't
say absolutely, God hears us. But God does hear me in the sin. If he didn't, he would never
hear anyone. Ecclesiastes says this, there's not a just man
on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And so if it
wasn't so, and you know, and God does sometimes hear and answer
non-regenerate men. And why he does that, is truly
does that is to make them know that I'm God. He did Pharaoh
that way. Pharaoh was an unregenerate man.
And at different times, he said, I've sinned. Would you ask God
to forgive me? I've sinned. And then, oh, he'd
say, please go, God, stop this, stop this. And then God done
that to make him know one thing, that I'm the one in control.
I'm the one that's got the power. I'm the one that's in control.
And the second reason He'll hear sometimes an unconverted man
or unregenerate man to hear is to manifest His great, great
compassion. He that hears the ravens cry,
sometimes He'll hear an unconverted man and answer Him. And thirdly,
He'll do it oftentimes to lead them to repentance. He'll answer
them and bring them down to cause them and bring them to repentance.
To bring them, cause them to repent. And oftentimes, he'll
hear an unregenerate man, as they call on him, to punish them. The Jews, the Jews, talking about
the Jews. When they come out in the wilderness,
they was mad at God all the time. They murmured against God over
and over and over and over and over. And they say, load this
ripe bread. Say, we ain't got no meat. So
God starts sending them quails. Start sending them quails. They
asked for meat. He sent them quails. And then there was a,
Israel wanted a king. They prayed for a king. We said,
well, we want a king. So God gave him a king and his
anger. And I know God graciously, graciously
hears sinners when they cry for mercy. Oh, he graciously hears
sinners when they cry for mercy. To believe that God doesn't hear
sinners that cries for mercy, you take away all hope from the
gospel. Scott Richardson used to say all the time, he said,
you stand on the ground that God put you. and God'll save
you. He puts you on the ground of
a sinner, then he'll meet you on the ground of a sinner. You
stand on the ground of a Pharisee, and he'll meet you as a Pharisee.
You stand on the ground of a wicked man, a lying man, a deceitful
man, a dishonest man, and he'll meet you there. Whatever ground
you stand before God on, that's the ground he'll meet you. He
met Pharaoh on the ground that he stood on. Pharaoh said, who
is God? God said, I'm gonna show you
who I am. And he said, that's the only reason I raised you
up, to show you that I've got the power. Oh my, and I tell
you what, if he didn't hear sinners pray, what about David? He took another man's wife, took
another man's wife away from him, from her husband. Then he conspired to have her
husband killed. Now you reckon God heard him
pray? All of Psalm 51 is him praying, God forgive me, have
mercy on me. I'm sorry, have mercy upon me
according to your love and kindness. What about Manasseh? I don't
know if y'all know who Manasseh is or not. You read about him
over in Jeremiah. He was the most wicked king in
all of Israel. Ahab, well, he was wicked, but
Ahab was the worst. Ahab even took his children and
offered them on altars and offered them as sacrifices on altars,
his own children, to strange gods. He would build a big fire
and he'd call on strange gods and offer his own children on
the altar and sacrifice his own children. But God done a work in that man's
heart and he began to call on God and ask God for mercy and
ask God to forgive him. Ask God to forgive him. And what
about that dying thief? He lived his whole life without
God. He lived his whole life without
Christ, never thought about Christ, never thought about God, never
thought about his sin. But all he said is, Lord, remember
me. That's all he said, remember
me. And what about that publican? He was praying. He was praying,
he was a praying man. Didn't have much to say. All
he said was, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And that man went down to his
house, justified more than others. What about the prodigal? Prodigal
was a sinner. He was way off in a far country.
Way off in a far country. Wasting everything that he had,
just like me and you. I wasted my life. Wasted my money,
wasted my body, wasted my mind. And that prodigal, he said, I'm
not even fit to come to, I'm not, father, I'm not, if I've
come home, all I want to do is just be a servant. I'll do it,
I'll go barefooted, I'll do whatever. And his father said, that ain't
gonna happen. That ain't gonna happen. Huh? Oh, my. God said, let the wicked forsake
his thoughts, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and he'll have mercy upon him. Have mercy upon him. But it's
also true, it's also true, that God does hear sinners prayer.
But let me tell you this, it's true that he does not hear sinners
prayer. Huh? He don't hear sinners pray as
he hears his own people pray. He does not hear his sinners
pray as he does his own people in prayer. Oh no, he don't do
that. Our Lord Jesus Christ hears the
cries of his people when nobody else, when he won't hear nobody
else. And he hears sinners He hears no sinners. Now listen
to me. This is true. He hears no sinners. I'm talking
about he hears not sinners. He hears no sinners. God hears
no sinners apart from the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will
listen to nobody, nobody whatsoever. He will not hear sinners apart
from the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling you the truth. Now look over with me over in
Ephesians chapter two. You know, there's one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Look here in Ephesians 2, verse
17 and 18. And it, and came and preached peace to
you, which were far off unto them that were nigh. For through
him, through him, we both have access unto one by one Spirit
unto the Father. You know, Christ came and brought
peace, preached peace, and brought peace, not us. And it's through
Him, only by Him, only by Him, we have access by one Spirit
under the Father. Whether we're Jew or Gentile,
male or female, bond or free. I'll tell you something else
where it says, He will not hear a sinner pray. He will not hear
a sinner pray. He will not hear a wicked, formal,
heartless prayer. He will not do it. If a man prays
and he ain't, it's a formal prayer, you know, there's churches that
got, they got prayer books. They got prayer books and they
have prayer books and they pray through them prayer books. They
have a prayer for this day and a prayer for that day and they
get up and read them. And I mean in the Senate and
all them places where they have a fella, the chaplain gets up
and reads. He reads his prayers. In the Church of England, one
reason why they ejected all those preachers and thrown them out
of the Church of England and took away their living and things
from them, and so many churches rose up and so many preachers
suffered greatly was because they refused to do the prayer
book. He said prayer does not come
out of a book. Prayer does not come out of a
formal thing. and a formal man, a hard-hearted,
wicked man, God said, I will not hear him pray. The only prayer
most people know is, Our Father which art in heaven, that s it.
Then you know everybody would quote that, Our Father which
is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And you think about somebody
taking a bunch of beads, and every time they pull a bead through
there, said, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. Or a bunch of beads and going
through them. You think God would hear that? Bypassing Christ? Wicked formal prayer? And He
will not hear the man who continually abides in unbelief and willfully
continues in sin. He will not hear a man like that.
Well, God said He will not hear, He won't hear one like that.
He'll hear not the man who continually abides in unbelief and willfully
continues in sin. Oh, that's why we say, Lord,
I believe, but please help my unbelief. Oh, unbelief's an awful
thing. You imagine how, you know, two
things amazed our Lord. One of them was that men did
not believe. He just was astonished that men
would not believe. He said, it was amazing to him
that men would not believe. And the other thing that astounded
him was that he said, one man, he said, I've never seen such
a great faith in all of Israel. One time our Lord got angry and
he said, for the hardness of men's heart, because they would
not believe. Unbelief, people say, well, that's
an awful sin. There's not a greater sin, I
don't think. Belief and self-righteousness. To not believe God Almighty,
to not believe what God says, to God say something to a man
in doubt of his word, and they could read the Bible, and they
say, I'm not gonna believe that. That's what these fellas said.
Here, we're not going to believe that this man's of God. We're
going to believe this man's a sinner. We're going to believe that this
man could do nothing. We're going to believe that this
man broke the Sabbath and he's a lawbreaker and there's no lawbreaker
going to glory. And when he raised Lazarus from
the dead, you think it's bad the way he treated over this
blind man. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, they even tried
to say, they decided, let's kill Lazarus too. We'll kill Christ
and Lazarus too. We'll do away with both of them. Cause they couldn't stand the
fact that he raised somebody from the dead. Oh, willfully,
willfully continues in sin. And I want you to look with me
in Job chapter 27. Job 27. You know, he will not
hear the hypocrite. He will not hear the hypocrite.
And I know all of us got enough hypocrisy in us to, oh damn a
multitude. But he will not hear the hypocrite. Look what he says in verse eight,
Job 27. For what is the hope of the hypocrite,
though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? He said
the hypocrite don't have, will God hear his cry when trouble
cometh upon him? Will he delight himself in the
Almighty? Will he always call upon God? Oh my. Goes on, will he call? Will he teach by the hand of
God? Oh my, will he call upon God?
Will he delight himself in God? God said, when the hypocrite's
hopes perished. Proverbs says the hope of the
hypocrite will perish. And you know our Lord in Matthew
6, that's what he said. Let's look at that, Matthew 6
for a moment, for a little while. Matthew chapter 6, talking about
the hypocrite. You know, one thing that troubles
me, and you know, that people, you know, they call
everybody in the church hypocrites. I understand that. But that's
one thing a person does not want to be. He does not want to be
a play actor. You know, that's what hypocrite
means, play acting. It means putting on a play. It
means to pretend to be something you're not. I'm going to act
like I'm not who I am. I'm going to pretend to be this
person. I'm going to give this view of people of myself. And
when I'm really somebody else and I'm somewhere else, that's
what a hypocrite is. He pretends to be a believer.
He pretends to have a hope. He pretends, he puts on an act. And I'll tell you, that's something
that God makes us honest. I'll tell
you that. God makes us honest. He makes
us honest before himself. And if you're honest, God makes
you honest before himself. And when he makes you honest
with himself, then you start being honest with yourself. You'll
absolutely be honest with yourself, and you'll admit what you are,
when you are, and everything that you are. You won't be play
acting. Oh, no, you won't have this sham
religion. Won't be no sham religion. And
look what our Lord said here in Matthew 6. Take heed that
you do not your alms, or your righteousness, what it says in
the margin, before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, God
ain't gonna give you nothing of your Father, which is in heaven.
Therefore, when you do your alms, don't sound the trumpet, before
you, listen to this now, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets. Oh my, that they may have glory
of men. Oh my boy, that fella, if anybody
goes to heaven, he's gonna go. If anybody loves the Lord, he
does. If anybody lives a good life, he does. Oh, I sure would
like to be like him. That's what we're talking about.
And I said unto you, they have their reward. But when you do
your arms, when you do your rights, you do what you do, don't let
your left hand know what your right hand does. Your arms be
in secret and your Father with sin in secret rewardeth you openly. And when you pray, you don't
pray like the hypocrites do. Don't do that. They love to pray
standing in the synagogues, standing up and praying. And or in the
corners of the street. that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. So he said, he talks about the
hypocrites do this. Don't you do that. Don't you
do that. Don't you do that. And I'll tell you something else
in Mark 11. Oh, we really need to see this. He will not hear
the unforgiving person. Look in Mark 11. You know, when
it says, He will not hear sinners prayer. Now, if He didn't hear
sinners prayer, He wouldn't hear us. That's for sure. That's what
I'm saying. But there is a sense when it's true that He will not
hear sinners prayer. But in Mark 11 and verse 25,
look what it says. He will not hear
the unforgiving. And when you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against any
person, any, any, don't say just one or two people, if you have
ought against any, forgive that your father also, which is in
heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither
will your father, which is in heaven, forgive you your trespasses. Oh, to have an unforgiving spirit.
You hear people say all the time, that's unforgivable. That's just
absolutely unforgivable. If there was anything that anybody
done that was unforgivable, God would have quit forgiving me
years and years and years ago. Never would have forgiven me.
But I tell you what, if a man can hold a grudge, if people
can hold grudges, and not be able to say, I'm sorry,
forgive me. God says, well, you're in trouble. You're in
trouble. That's one of the first things
God teaches us. In fact, He says charity covers
a multitude of sins. We can see a brother sin. Be ugly, act a certain way. But
you know what charity does? It don't go and get mad at them
and aggravate about them and gossip about them and tell on
them and all of that. What they does is that love covers
a multitude of sins. Christ is responsible for his
sheep and he'll take care of his sheep. I believe that with all my heart. He won't hear the unforgiving.
And here, listen to this now. He will not hear those who refuse
to hear him or hear his words or pay any attention to his ordinances.
Hey boy, he will not. If you won't heed his word, refuse
to hear his words, and don't pay any attention to what he
says. You know, baptism is for believers. Well, I don't believe
baptism is necessary. If you have the ability to be
baptized and you wanna confess your faith in Christ, you said,
I'm not gonna do it. I gotta put big question mark.
And then the Lord's Supper. I don't feel I'm worthy to take
the Lord's Supper. Of course you're not worthy.
We have nothing, worthiness has nothing to do with it. Baptisms
are identity with Christ and the Lord's Supper is his remembering
him Remembering him and oh my that's why it says, you know,
we know when they heard the gospel in Acts chapter 2 the scripture
says they were pricked in their hearts and Says sirs, what must
we do? What must we do? And I'll tell
you he even got to talk about God here not prayers God here
not Christ here and not prayers He will not hear those who harden
their hearts harden their hearts especially against the Word.
All men harden their hearts against the Word. That's one of the most
dangerous things that could ever possibly happen to a person,
to harden their heart against God's Word. Well, I know that's
true, but, or to harden their hearts against
the Spirit of God. You know, you hear preaching
and the preaching people, you say all the time, well, he got
all over my toes. Listen, the gospel don't get on your toes.
It's for your heart. It's for your heart. And the
Holy Spirit comes and he takes the things. And then when the
Spirit deals with some people, they'll say, oh no, I don't,
I, you know, I wish so and so had been here. No, no. And then
there's the warnings. Harden your heart against the
warnings of providence. Every time, Every time I go to
a funeral, God Himself is speaking to everybody
there, especially the family, this is coming to you. God speaks
in providence. and you think, well, this ain't
gonna happen to me. Yes, you're gonna be laying there one of
these days. And God speaks in providence. Every time somebody
in your family gets in a car wreck, God's speaking in providence.
Every time you get on your sickbed and you're laying there with
some sickness and you're burning up or you're freezing to death
or you're coughing yourself to death or the doctor says you
got cancer, that's God in providence speaking to everybody. And people
harden their heart against that providence. They say, well, and
then, oh my. And then to disregard and harden
your heart against the pleas of the preacher? Oh my. How many times have I pleaded
and pleaded and pleaded and pleaded with people? I said, if I could
dump it in their heads, I would. But people can't hear the pleas
of the preacher if they don't come. Listen, talking about the warnings
of providence, I'm gonna confess something to y'all. I'm gonna
just confess. There's, and I've said this before, there's people
that I've preached to for a long time that if the Lord was to
take them, I would be at a, at a, between a rock and a hard
place as to what I could say about them. Did they love the
gospel? Was they faithful to the gospel?
Was they faithful to Christ? Was they faithful to meet with
His people? Did they want to be with the
sheep? Did they want to come and get fed? Or could they take it or leave
it? I have to have two or three meals a day. And everybody does,
but some way, somehow, people can get by with one meal a week.
And I tell you, that scares me. And I'm gonna confess to you
that if somebody in that situation was to have to leave this world,
what in the world could you say? Ain't that scary? And then there's your own conscience.
Your own conscience will trouble you. Your own conscience will
say, boy, that's not, you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't say that.
You shouldn't act that way. And you go against your own conscience. And oh my, I got to hurry. He
will not hear those who refuse to be saved by grace. You know,
if you refuse to be saved by grace, he won't hear you pray.
If you trust in your own prayers, trust in your own merit, and
have your own righteousness, God won't hear you pray. No,
He won't. He just won't do it. You refuse
to be saved by grace. If you're like the Pharisee,
trust it in themselves. Trust in your prayers. Oh, I
tell you what, I've heard people say, I know that my children's
gonna be saved, I sent up too many prayers for them. And he will not, and this is,
he will not hear those sinners who die impenitent. If you die without God, you die
without Christ, you're gonna live. without God and without
Christ in eternity. As a tree falls, so shall it
lay. Look what our Master said in
Matthew 7. Now this is one of them things that we know this
as well as anybody does. Hardly anybody, anybody perishes
Everybody gets to go to glory. I get to see them again. But look what our master said here
in Matthew 7, 21. As a tree falls, he said, not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord. Oh, a lot of people
say, Lord. Oh, Lord. Can't be saved without
Christ being Lord. shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven, what's that will? That he that seeth the Son believes
on him. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name? And in your name
have cast out devils. And in thy name done many, many
wonderful works. And then he'll say, I profess
unto them, I never knew you. You know what you really were?
You worked iniquity. You were lawless. It's like the foolish virgins. Ten of them
was wise. There's ten virgins. Five of
them was wise. Five of them was foolish. The foolish got up. And the wise of them went out,
and they began to bang on the door, Lord, Lord, open unto us,
open unto us, open unto us. And he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't
do it. And I may give you this in closing.
Some things are clear as a bell. He can't hear those who never
call on him. If you never call on him, he can't hear you. If
you don't call on him, he'll never hear you. And He's never
yet, never yet given any of us any refusal. Those just called
on Him and looked to Him. And no one, no one has ever died
and perished at the door of mercy who came to that door, nobody. And the last thing is this, He
allows us to call on Him now, allows us to pray now. So let's pray while God hears us, because if
He hears not sinners, He wouldn't hear anybody. Our great and glorious God in
heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that precious name,
that blessed name, that glorious name, that name that's above
every name. Lord, we know that you do hear
sinners pray. And we come weak, always in need, always in need,
need of mercy and grace, forgiveness of our pride, of our thoughts,
of our self-righteousness, of our hypocrisies, of our coldness
and lack of love and interest and lack of heart. But Lord,
we thank you. Oh, how we bless you. There's
forgiveness with you that you may be God bless these dear saints
as they go their way. Lord, keep them, preserve them,
and teach us and give us a love, oh God, increase our love in
our hearts for our Lord Jesus Christ. Increase the love in
our hearts for one another. Increase our love for the grace
of God. Increase our love. of the blood
and righteousness of our Lord in our desperate need of Him.
We bless you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. Well, see you wish tonight, God
willing.