what it was and how to inherit. Inherit eternal life. Very interested in that. And our Lord told him, he said,
you know, how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel. And
people say that there was a door called a needle that camels would
have to stoop down to go through. I don't think that's what our
Lord meant. I think our Lord meant exactly what he said. You
find a needle, a needle, and put a camel through it. Now how
hard would it be to put a camel through the eye of a needle? He said, that's how impossible
it is for a man to save himself. That's how impossible it is for
God, for a man to do anything for himself. If you could put
a camel through the eye of a needle. And our Lord said, that's just
exactly how hard it's going to be for, that's how impossible
it is for a man to save himself and to be saved. And as long
as there is a man or a woman on this earth They'll be devising
a way to be saved. They will be devising a way to
be saved. And if they're not, the preachers
will figure out a way to get them through. Preachers will
figure out a way to get a profession out of them, to make them walk
an aisle, to make them get on an altar, to make them raise
a hand, to make a decision. And here's a man who came running.
I mean, he was dead serious about this thing. He was running. He
didn't just walk up there casually. He ran. He was running. And he
got in the right posture. He got on his knees. Came to
the right person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he went away lost. Went away unsaved. Went away unsaved and sad about
it. And our first parents Our first parents devised their own
way of covering their nakedness, of being accepted before God.
When God told them that they were going to die and they took
of that fruit, they were naked. God came looking for them. He
said, where you are Adam? He said, well I'm in this bush
over here. He said, we're naked. Who told you you was naked? God
made him naked when He made him. And when he ate that fruit, his
eyes were open. And he was ashamed. And he felt
guilt. And he felt fear. Things he had
never felt before. And how is he going to cover
his nakedness? He got him a great big fig leaf.
And he covered himself with it. Eve covered herself. And man's
been making him a fig leaf. Every man and every preacher
will make a fig leaf for themselves or for somebody in their congregation. Unless God does something for
them. But here's the thing. What does
a man want to be saved from? Why does a person want to be
saved? That's a whole other question.
And I'll tell you this, it's a rare, rare, rare person who
wants to be saved from sin. You know, people want to be saved
from hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. They
want to be saved from hell. They want to be saved from afflictions. They want to be saved from their
troubles. They want to be saved from bad health. They want to
be saved from cancer. They want to be saved from trouble.
They want to be saved from trouble in their minds. They want to
be saved from depression and despair. But where in the world is the
person, the soul, that wants to be saved from their sin? Who wants to be saved from their
sin? Men just want to go to heaven. That's what preachers have done.
They made the issue out of heaven and hell. You want to go to heaven,
don't you? Yes, I do. I certainly don't
want to go to hell. Well, I'll tell you how you can
go to heaven. You follow my directions, and you do what I tell you to
do, and you'll get to go to heaven, and you'll get to go see Mama.
You'll get to go see Mama. You'll get to go see Granny.
And not only that, but they want to go to heaven. Most just want
to go to heaven and they presume that they're entitled to it.
And they make jokes about it. Wait till I get up there to see
St. Peter. Wait till I get up there, you
know, I'll tell the Lord all the good things that I've done.
But our Lord here is talking to His disciples. I'm a disciple. Some of you are disciples. He's
talking to His disciples. When that rich man, that young
man came running and kneeled down to him and asked him and
said, Master, what shall I do, do that I might inherit eternal
life? And thy Lord told him, he said
here in verse 23, Jesus looked round about and saith unto his
disciples, that fellow went away, went away, he walked away from
Christ. Went away and grieved, had lots
and lots of possessions. And I looked round about, the
Lord looked round about, and His disciples were there. And
He said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God. Oh, not going to be many, not
going to be many. And oh, listen, how in the world
did they react to that? and the disciples were astonished
at his words. Oh my! Rich people can't go? That's not what our Lord said.
How hardly? Very few. It's going to be a
hard thing. It's going to be very hard. Hardly
for them. And then he said to them, and
they were astonished at his word, and our Lord said, You astonished
at this? How hard is it? Now here's where
he puts the rubber. Here's the road right here. How
hard is it for them that trust, trust in riches to enter into
the kingdom of God? It's not that they can't go or
rich men can't go. I know, I know a couple of very,
very wealthy, wealthy men. And some of them done gone on
to glory, but very wealthy, wealthy men. And they trusted Christ
and they were believers. And the key is your trust. You're gonna trust Christ, you're
gonna trust your riches. You're gonna trust Christ, you're
gonna trust mammon. You're gonna trust Christ, you're
gonna trust your wealth. And that's the key to that, to
have trust. And when he said that, and he
said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And
then you thought they were astonished before. They said they were astonished
without measure. You couldn't measure how astonished
they were. You ever seen something that you say, oh, I just can't,
I can't believe that happened. I just can't, that just, I just
can't get that. You know, and that's the way
they were. They were astonished without measure. They just flabbergasted. And they asked this question. And they said it among themselves.
Didn't ask Christ, said it among themselves. Who then can be saved? You know this rich man here,
what could he do for the church? Oh, he can so bless the church.
He can help so many different churches. He can help preachers.
He can buy cars for preachers. He can pay a bunch of preachers'
salaries. He can do a lot of things. These rich men can't. And they said, who then can be
saved? And the Lord looked right at them. Looked right at them.
You know what He said? With men, absolute impossibility. Absolute impossibility. But it's not impossible with
God. It's not impossible with God.
For with God, all things are possible. And you know when it
says with men it's impossible, you know what that tells us?
It tells us that salvation is needed. They asked who then can
be saved. They wanted to know who could
be saved. I often wonder, you know, with the way that I am
and the things that I think and the things that I do and the
things that I say, how in the world could I possibly be saved? But I do know this, that I can't
save myself. I couldn't save myself when I
started. I can't save myself today. I can't save myself from
one sin. I can't undo one thing I've ever
done. I can't do it. Salvation is needed. Who then
can be saved? You see, we are people in trouble. What do you mean in trouble?
We are in trouble first and foremost with God. You are in trouble
with God. Men without Christ are in trouble
with God. That's the first person you're
in trouble with. People think, boy, I got a letter from a fella
in jail the other day. He said, oh, my mama needs this,
my sister needs that. No, dude, oh, would you do this?
Would you do that? And I came to get out and do
this and do that. And I tell you something, beloved, people
are in trouble. Not because they're in jail.
Not because they said some bad things. They're in trouble with
God. David said it like this, it's
against thee. Thee. Oh God, you. You're the one that I sinned
against. You're the one that I've raised
my voice against. You're the one that I misused.
You're the one that I blasphemed. You're the one that I didn't
trust. You're the one I didn't believe. You're the one that
was watching me when I said I've kept the law from my youth up.
You're the one that's watching me. And I'll tell you, that's the
first thing. You know, you may think you've got troubles in
this world. You ain't never know. You don't know what trouble is
until you know you're in trouble with God. When you get in trouble
with God, you know what you do? You start trying to say, how
in the world can I get out from under this trouble? And I'll
tell you something else. We're not only in trouble with
God, but we're in trouble with the law. Look what this fellow
said up here in verse 19. Look what he said here. You know
the commandments. And these are just things to
deal with man to man. Don't commit adultery. Don't
commit adultery. Don't kill nobody. Don't steal
anything. And don't lie. And don't defraud
anybody. Don't take something from somebody
by fraud or by lying or by deceit. And honor your father and your
mother. Oh my! Anybody ever... You ever got really, really mad
at somebody when they've done something to cross you? I mean
getting mad enough, you know, to really hurt them? Our Lord said, that's as good
as murder. That's as good as murder. And our Lord said it
like this, if you look upon a woman, just look on her, to lust after
her, you've committed adultery. And if you ever sold something
or try to sell something or buy something, you say, well, you
know, I'd buy that, but it's got this in it and it's got that
wrong with it and all that, you know. And the fellow says, oh,
no, no, it's not that way. And then he tries to do something.
He's trying to defraud somebody. Get something for less or get
something for nothing. Defrauding people. And I wonder
how many lies we've told in our lifetime. People say a little
white lie won't hurt. A lie is a lie is a lie. There
ain't no such thing as a white lie. They're all black. They
all come from a blind heart. You know why people lie? There's
born liars. We go forth from the womb speaking
lies. Speaking lies. That's what our
Lord said. And oh, listen, you think you
can keep the Ten Commandments? I never will forget, and this
has happened to me twice. One time in a service here, and
another time, a fella called me one time, he's out here in
one of the motels, he wanted to come out and meet with us
that morning, come out and worship with us. And he was a Reformed
Baptist. And he asked me the question,
he said, well, how do you discipline the church? That's the first
thing you want to know. I said, I don't. You know, I've
never, I've been pastored here 40 years and nobody has ever
been put out of a church. Nobody's ever had their sins
brought out to anybody in front of a congregation. Nobody's been
called out and said, well, if anybody's got to be called out,
it would be me. I'd have to be the one standing
down here in the front and tell my sins. And then you'd have
to exclude me. But I've never, nobody's ever
been put out of the church. Never. He said, but what about
this? What do you deal with when they
commit adultery? I said, when I was lost, I knew
every one of those things was wrong. I knew not to do those things,
but did it stop me? No. And so, oh my, run to that law
if you want to. But I'll tell you one thing it'll
do. It'll be Moses there in that old long robe of his beating
you with that stick. He won't let you have no peace.
Oh no, he'll get that stick out and whap! You just told a lie,
whap! You just looked on a woman, whap! You tried to get something for
nothing, beat somebody out or something, whap! He'll keep hitting
you with that stick until you'll say, oh Lord, I can't do that. I can't find no peace under that. And we're in trouble with the
justice of God. So if you're in trouble with
God and with His law, justice says, I can't let you go. Somebody's
got to pay for your sins. Somebody's got to answer for
your law breaking. Somebody's got to answer for
that trouble that you're in with God. And all of these reasons
is because we have sinned. Not that we did sins. We have
sinned. And oh my, and our Lord says
with, he says with men it's impossible. Who can be saved? With men it's
impossible. Salvation with man is utterly
impossible. There's not a soul nowhere on
the face of this earth can save himself. He may think he can,
and let me give you several reasons why. Man can't put a ways on
sin. People preachers preach that
all the time. Boy, I tell you what, you got
to quit that sin and you got to put that sin away. You know
if you got a sin that's troubling you better get rid of it. You
better get rid of it. You better put that sin away.
Well, who in the world can put sin away? Huh? If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who? Who? Who? Who can stand? Who could stand? Man's nature
is sin. Man don't, you know, people think
they sin with the hand. It's what you sin with. It's your nature. Did any of
you ever, ever have to teach, did somebody have to teach you
how to sin? Did somebody have to teach your children how to
sin? Did somebody teach your children how to lie? When something
happens in the house, who did it? It wasn't me. You know, that's a non-natural
sin. And you don't watch in the man's
heart, that's what's going to come out. A man says, well, he
stole that bicycle so that makes him a thief. No, no. He stole
that bicycle because he is a thief. Man does what he does because
he is what he is. You know why a man lies? Because he's a liar. You know why a man steals? He's
a thief. It's not what he does or he doesn't
do. It's what he is. And he can't
put that away. He cannot deal with that. Look
what he said here. Now, you know again that verse
19 and 20. Oh, I've done all these things
for my youth up. I've kept all these laws from
the time I was a little fella. And ain't that what people say?
Well, listen, I trusted Jesus when I was nine years old. I
accepted Jesus when I was 12. I've been a Christian all my
life. I tell you, if you've been a Christian all your life, you've
been a Christian way, way, way, way, way too long. And I tell you, he can't put
away sin, he can't atone for his own guilt. Oh my, how do you atone for your
own guilt? The price is too great for one
who's so poor and needy. The one without strength. Preachers,
psychologists, and psychiatrists, you know what keeps them in business?
Trying to get men to get rid of their guilt. If you ain't got no guilt, you
don't need nobody to You know, but that's what psychologists,
that's what sociologists, that's what psychologists are always
trying to do. Trying to get people to relieve
them of their guilt. Something that they've done,
some way that they feel, some act that they've done in their
life. Their mother mistreated them or something. Their daddy
mistreated them. Something was going on. So I
gotta go to a psychiatrist and try my best to get rid of this
awful guilt that I feel. Charge you $200 to tell you,
oh, listen, come back next week and we'll deal with it again. And I'll tell you something,
he can't atone for his guilt, can't put away sin, and he can't
change his own heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things. And you know the only people
who know they've got a deceitful heart is people that God saved. I didn't know my heart was deceitful
until the Lord saved me. And now to a fool, the scripture
says, a fool trusts in his own heart. Can the Ethiopian change
the color of his skin? Can the leopard change his spot?
How then can you, who are accustomed to do evil, do good? And I tell
you, he cannot purchase salvation. I don't care how much money he's
got. And this fella had plenty of it. Plenty of it! And our
Lord told him how he can be saved. You want to be saved? Give everybody
your money away. Give it all away! And then take up, get your cross
and start following me. Give it all away. He went away
sorrowful. Let me show you something. Look
at Psalm 49. Look at Psalm 49. Oh, you can't purchase salvation. I know
the Catholics say you can. I know that works religions say
you can. You can purchase it by being
good. You can purchase it by living a holy life. You can purchase
it by not hurting anybody, not harming anybody, doing the best
you can. You know, preachers are telling
folks that they can purchase it. All you got to do is just
do the right thing. And you'll be good enough. You'll
earn it. Look what he said here in verse six, Psalm 49. Now this is the same thing our
master said, how hardly shall they that trust in riches, they
that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude
of their riches. None, none can by any means redeem
his brother. Can't pay for his sin. Can't
redeem him from his sin. Nor give to God a ransom for
him. Here, I'll pay for it. I'll pay for it. For the redemption
of their soul is precious. And that soul, it ceases forever. And all these people that trust
in their riches, they think they're going to live forever and they're
never going to see any kind of corruption. Things are always
going to go well for me. He sees wise men die, and the
fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
But their inward thought is this, that their houses shall continue
forever, their dwelling places to all generations. They call
their lands after the all names. Nevertheless, man being in honor
abideth not. He's like the beast that perish.
Oh my. Well, Salvation is impossible
with man. Well, how in the world is a man
going to be saved? How is he going to be saved?
Huh? Well, I'm going to tell you something. You're going to
find this hard to take, but I know it's true. It'll take more than
preaching or a preacher. It'll take more than preaching
and a preacher. Look over here in Mark 6 with me. Let me show
you what I'm talking about. Mark 6 and verse 20. It will take more than a preaching
or a preacher. If preaching and preachers could
save people, everybody in this building would be saved. Is that
not right? Look what he said here in verse
20. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man, and a
holy, and observed him. And when he heard him, he did
many things, and heard him gladly. Did Herod? John's preaching never
saved him. Never saved him. Look over here
in John 6 with me. I want you to see in John 6. John 6. Look at verse 41. Our Lord is talking about being
the bread from heaven. Bread from heaven. Then the Jews murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And you know what they said? And is not this Jesus, the son
of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he saith,
I came down from heaven? And they murmured among themselves.
So I tell you, Christ was preaching. Christ told them who He was.
They didn't believe. Look over here at verse 60. John
chapter 6. Look in verse 60. Therefore many of his disciples
when they heard this said this is a hard saying who can hear
it You got to eat. You gotta live by me. You can't
live without my blood. You can't live without my body
It's a hard saying who could he when Jesus knew that in himself
that his disciples murmured at him said this is offend you Does
this cost you to stumble? What and if you see the Son of
Man ascend up go back to where he come before and It's the spirit
that quickens the flesh, prophets nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, their spirit and their life. Now listen to this here.
But there are some that believe not. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that would betray. So I tell
you what, here's the best preacher ever been on the face of the
earth. John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ. How many people
walked away in his preaching? And I tell you what, it'll take
more than miracles. That's one put, you know, people
all the time looking for me. I believe in miracles. I believe
in miracles. I believe in miracles. It's like
that rich man in hell. He said, oh, listen, if Abraham,
if you just let Abraham come, Just dip his finger in that water. Let that come on my tongue. Just
one drop. That's all I want. One drop. And our Lord Jesus Christ walked
by the pool of Bethesda one day. People's laying everywhere. Everywhere. People's everywhere. Laying on
beds. Couldn't walk. Lame. And after every year, sometimes
something happens to that truck, water, and whoever got in first,
be healed like that. Whatever's wrong with you. Our
Lord walks around that pool one day, and there's people everywhere.
And He looked at one man, just one man, walked up to one person. Just one person. And that's the
way God saves people. One person at a time. One at a time. And our Lord Jesus
Christ looked at that man and said, Will thou be made whole?
He said, Sir, no man, no man will pick me up and put me into
wash tub. He said, I say unto thee, take
up thy bed and walk. And he jumped up and rolled up
his mat and away he went. Away he went. And you know what
the Pharisees said? They said, this is not lawful
to do on the Sabbath day. They saw this miracle and still
didn't believe. Everybody else saw that miracle
and walked away from Christ. Miracles won't do it. Huh? Oh, that blind man, when our
Lord opened his eyes, oh, they just couldn't believe. They said,
this man's a sinner that opened your eyes. And oh my, he fed all that great
multitude with bread and fishes. And then in a little while they
followed him around and he said, I know what you're following
me for, because I filled your belly. I filled your belly. You saw me feed all them people
and that's all you want from me. You don't want me for myself. You don't want me to save you
from your sin. You don't want me to give you
eternal life. You don't want me to perform
a miracle in your heart. You don't want me to do that.
You want me for what I can do for you. I can save you from
your marriage. I can save your marriage. I can
save you from your bad health. I can save you from a thousand
things. But you don't want me for me.
Oh, it will take more than miracles. And it will take more than Bible
knowledge. You know that? You know, some of you all probably
remember years and years ago, I could quote chapters at a time.
Just quote the Bible just like that. And I found out that that
is what you know what the scripture says, not how much you quote.
But look with me in John chapter 5. He'll take more than Bible
knowledge. Look what our Master said over
here in John chapter 5 verse 9. Chapter 5, excuse me, I'm sorry,
chapter 5 and verse 39. Chapter 5 and verse 39. Look what our Master said here. Search the scriptures. Look through
them. Search them. I mean go through
them with a fine tooth comb. For you think in them scriptures
you have eternal life. That's like that man that came
to Christ. He looked in the scriptures and
saw the law and said, I've done that. I've got no problem with
that. I'm in good shape with that.
And he said, oh, you think you've got eternal life when you look
at Moses and all things you do. But if you'll search them, you'll
see that they are they which speak of me and testify of me.
And then he says, when you look at them, he said, and you see
them, you know what you do? You will not come to me that
you might have life. Oh, my. I mean, our Lord told
him, he says, you do err, neither knowing the scriptures nor the
power of God. Let me tell you something else that shows you
that salvation is impossible with men, but how a man can be
saved. Material blessings won't do it. Material blessings won't
do it. I don't know of anybody, anybody
that's more blessed than I am. Material blessings, I don't care
how much you've got, how much you possess, How big your house
is, how much money you got in the bank, and none of those things.
Not one of those things will save you. And people count, you
know, people say, well, I can't count my blessings. No, you can't. Not if they come from God, you
can't. But if they come from man, you can sit down and count
them. Count how many rooms you got in your house. Count how
many cars you got. How much money you got in the
bank. Go in your closet. Count how much suit you got.
How many clothes you got. You can count everything you
got. But you can't count God's blessings. Huh? You see, Israel left Egypt rich. They left there rich. And then
God took them into the land of milk and honey. But you know
what they did? They continually and constantly
forgot God and spoke evil of God. I'm going to tell you something. I hope you don't take this the
wrong way. But prosperity and wealth is
more harmful to man than poverty is. Demoth hath forsaken us, having
loved this present evil world. That man said here in verse 21,
look back over in our text in verse 21. Oh, look at what it says, then Jesus
beholding him loved him. Some people think this was Saul
of Tarsus, because he's a very wealthy young man. And Jesus, beholding him, loved
him. And he said unto him, Thou lackest one thing you lack, one
thing you lack. Oh, I've kept all these from
my youth up. Go your way. You go about your way. Sell whatever
you have. Give to the poor. Give it away. Find all the poor people you
can. Make their life better. Make their life easier. And you
shall have treasure in heaven. Come, take up the cross and follow
me." And watch, he said, he went away sad. Went away grieved,
for he had great possessions. Oh, he had everything his heart
could desire. How hardly shall they who have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. Do you know Judas? Judas
was the first treasurer of the church. He was the first treasurer. He kept the money bag. Kept the
money bag. And it wasn't enough for him
to carry the Lord's money. And the money that they had to
buy food and things with. He coveted it. He coveted money. And 30 pieces of silver, he sold
the Lord Jesus Christ to his enemies. For 30 pieces of silver. Walk with Christ, talk with Christ,
sit with Peter and John and James. How awful, how awful to perish over nickels and dimes
and houses and lands. How awful it will be for people.
That's like that rich man. Every day he fared sumptuously.
And there was a poor man laid at his gate full of sores and
the dogs licked on him. And that rich man went in and
out there in his purple robes and his carriage, went in and
out of his house, in and out of his gate and there lay Lazarus,
poor! And God took that rich man and
put him in hell. And the scripture says that poor
man was taken. Do you know how awful it's going
to be? How awful it will be that people
are going to perish over just a little of nothing. And I tell you, it will take
much more than prayer. People, you know, I believe in
prayer. I really do. Thank God He's answered prayers.
He's answered prayers for Kyle and Annie. He's answered prayers
for people in this congregation down through the years. He's
answered so many prayers. And I tell you, you know, people
say this, I know I'll be alright because Mama's prayed for me.
Mama prayed for me. I've heard her pray for me. She
said, Mama prayed for me. I know I'll be okay. And old mama will say, you know,
when she gets ready to go into wherever she's going, she'll
say, surely, surely they won't be lost. I've prayed for them
for years. And the last service I went to,
where they didn't preach the gospel, that was one of the things
that the preacher got up and said, you gonna let your momma's
prayers be in vain? And talk to individuals whose
momma was laying there, you gonna let your momma's prayers be in
vain? Your momma prayed for you, you
better accept Jesus now. You gonna let her prayers go
unanswered? And I'll tell you a fella that
really knows how to pray. Oh, he knows how to pray. And
all the Pharisees loved to pray, standing in the marketplaces.
But an old man stood up one day and said, I thank you, old father,
that I'm not like other men. I'm not like other men at all. I fast two times a week. I give
a tithe. I give 10% of everything I've
got. And I'm done, I don't commit,
he started talking about all the things he hadn't done. But there was a man there that
didn't have nothing. He only said just a couple of
words, Lord, oh God, be merciful to me. Listen to it, we'll be
right back where we started. The sinner. I don't care what
that Pharisee thinks. I don't care what he feels. I
don't care how he prays. I know this. I don't care what
he thinks about me. I don't care if he thinks he's
better than me. I don't care if he thinks he's going to heaven
before me. All I know is that I'm the sinner right here, right
now. And would you be merciful to
me. And persuasion and programs won't do it. Anybody ever heard of Charles
Finney? He done more damage, him and
John Wesley done more damage to the gospel. Two of the most,
and Jacob Arminius, but they done damage to the gospel that
the people's paying for today. He was a lawyer, and he decided
he was going to be a preacher. And he was the first man who
ever had an altar call. He took a bench, a church bench,
and he turned it around backwards and called it a mourner's bench.
And he believed this, and if you don't believe me, you look
it up, get on the internet, get anywhere and look him up. Charles
Finney taught this, that man could be morally persuaded to
accept Jesus if you just deal with him in the right way. He had the moral ability to come
to Christ and if you could ever get him to make that move and
talk him into it and persuade him and he come to that mourners
bench then he'd be alright. He'd be alright. And I tell you
what, that stuff and I was caught up in that. I was caught up in
that. And I've got to hurry. I know
I'm taking too long. I'm wearing you out. I'm wearing
you out. I don't mean to wear you out.
And it'll take more than judgments. Me and Joe was talking about
this. I'm going to tell you. God doesn't use tornadoes and
earthquakes and plagues to bring men to Christ. He may send something
to you that'll make you start coming to hear the gospel. But
He will save you through a judgment. Touch won't do that. Egypt and
all the plagues down in Egypt, it never saved one Egyptian. They say the devil does bad and
God does good. But I want to read something
to you, and then I'm going to wind this thing up. I'm going
to read out of Amos. I won't even have you look at
it, but I'm going to read this to you. Amos 4, 6. And I also
have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. What he means
is that I sent a famine. And I said, you had, we wanted
bread and yet you not returned unto me. Also I'm withholding
the rain from you when it's just three months to harvest and all
your crops just withered up. And I caused it to rain in the
city and rain on another city. But where you is at, I just let
it dry up. And I tell you where, so they
went into cities to drink water, but they were satisfied. Yet
you haven't returned unto me. I've smitten you with blasting.
I've sent all kinds of storms and blastings. I've called mildew
to be in your homes, mildew to be on your crops, mildew to be
around you. Your gardens and your vineyards
and your fig trees and your olive trees increased and I sent a
worm to eat all the fruit right off of it. And yet you've not
returned unto me. I sent among you pestilence.
After the men of Egypt, flies and locusts, and after the men,
your young men, I've sent them off to war. Just like in America,
sent them off to war, and they come back all slain, killed thousands
and thousands of them. I took away your horses and made
you walk. I made the stink of your camp
to come up to my nostrils, yet you've not returned unto me.
I've overthrown some of you as God overthrew Solomon and Gomorrah,
and you as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, yet you've
not returned unto me. Therefore thus will I do unto
thee, O Israel, because I will do thus unto thee." Now listen
to it, prepare to meet thy God. God can do... He can cause... He can... You know, we ain't
had no rain in a long time. God can go for years and just
not get a drop. You gonna get upset at Him? You think a drought's gonna cause
anybody to come to Christ? You think a famine's gonna cause
anybody to come to Christ? Well, salvations of the Lord.
I'm going to look at John 6 and I'll wind this up. I know I've
wore you out. Look in John 6 with me. Let me
give you a couple of things here. I might not save this for tonight,
but I ain't going to. I'm going to get it done. I want
you to look at something with me. Salvations of the Lord. With God, all things are possible.
I'll tell you what it's going to take for a man to be saved.
It takes the divine decree. Look what it says in verse 37.
Divine decree all that the father giveth me shall come to me God
decreed that all that the father giveth me shall come to me And him that cometh to me I will
him no wise cast out and he says they shall come they gonna come
and then there's the diverted divine determination look in
verse 38 and For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of him that sent me. Christ came determined
to do God's will. And this is the will, this is
the Father's will, which sent me. I come down to do this will,
and this is His will which sent me. Of all which ye have given
me. That's God's determination now. I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again in the last day. God determined that. And then the Divine Deliverer,
look at this. He says, they will come to me,
they shall come to me, and I will not cast them out. And I should
lose nothing. Our wills and our shells. I love
God's shells and God's wills. I'm going to tell you something,
a Savior saves. A Savior saves. Call His name
Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. A Redeemer redeems. And then
look what here, I'm going to show you something here in verse
45. Here's a divine declaration, verse 45. It is written in the prophets,
now listen to this, they shall all be taught of God. You say the preacher teach them?
God said I'll teach you. I'll teach you. That thief on
the cross, how did he know who Christ was? How did he learn
to call on Christ? How did he do it? He sat on that
cross, cussing Christ like the other was, then all of a sudden
he said, Lord, where did he find out Christ was Lord? And he said,
remember me. When you, you're a king, come
into your kingdom. How did he find out he was a
king? How did he find out he was a king? How did he find out
he was Lord? They shall all be taught of God. And then look at verse 44, and
I'm done. A divine, you gotta have a divine
drawing. No man, no man can come unto me except the Father which
hath sent me. Draw him. Oh, if God reaches out after
you, believe me, you're coming. Huh? And I'll raise him up at
the last day. If a man is saved, if he's ever
changed supernaturally, miraculously, it'll take an act of God. And
you can have all the insurance policies that the preachers can
give you and talk to you about, and all your professions and
all your experiences, you can have every one of them. But not
one of them will save you. Only God. Only God. Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name, glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for your great and abundant mercies. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for your word. And
Lord, you said that you'd send it where you would, and you'd
cause it to prosper as you would. And you told me and told us all
that it'd never return unto unto us void, it will accomplish what
you sent it to do, whether salvation or judgment, whether to tender
a heart or harden a heart, whether to open eyes or blind eyes, it'll
do what you sent it to do. And so Lord, we trust you to
do your work, whatever it may be, salvation or judgment, grace We're a damned nation. Lord,
it's up to you. You do what you will. We thank
you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.