1 Samuel chapter 2. And while
you're turning, let me mention that Sister Ruby, James, took
her up to the hospital this afternoon. She was hurting under her rib
cage and hurting around her chest and took her up there. They've
done a chest x-ray, didn't show anything, so they're going to
do a CT scan, but as far as I know, she's still up there waiting
on that scan. And also, We certainly want to
remember Bill and Dorotha. Dorotha and Bill. To go first
thing Monday, go up and get some more blood. He's just in bad
shape. Very weak. Very weak. 1 Samuel
chapter 2. You know, when I first started
preaching over there at Faith Chapel back in mid-70s. And then when they called me
the pastor over there, we had a big split. Dorotha was one
of the ones who stayed, her and Kathleen, Elder, her family.
And so we went from false doctrine to true doctrine, together, together. And the Lord did that. That's
the Lord's doing. I've known folks a long time, and it hurts
me to see them in such a condition. But the Lord knows. The Lord
knows what He's doing. Before we read, let's do pray
for these folks. I'm just going to read three
verses of scripture tonight because that's all I'm going to preach
from, deal with. Verse 22 down through 25. Now
Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did unto Israel
and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation. And he said unto them, Why do
you such things? For I hear of your evil doings
by all this people. Nay, my sons, no, my sons, it
is no good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to
transgress. If one man sin against another,
The judge shall judge him, but if a man sin against the Lord,
who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them."
That's one we'll deal with. The title of my subject this
evening, When God Gives Up. When God gives up and He turns
a man over and He abandons a man. And last week we were introduced
to Hophni and Phinehas. They were priests before the
Lord, and they were the ones who received the sacrifices of
Elkanah when he came to worship the Lord year after year after
year. Eli, their father, was the high
priest, and the priest couldn't enter the ministry, couldn't
enter the priesthood. They could serve the tabernacle,
but they couldn't be in the priesthood until they were 30 years old
and could only stay in it until they were 50. And if there was
any blemish in them, they couldn't even enter it. But they had lots
of servants and lots of ministers around the tabernacle. And these
two men were raised around the tabernacle. They watched their
father go through the morning and evening sacrifices and all
the sacrifices that were brought. But they had no regard. for the
things of God, for the holy things of God. They were called sons
of Belial, sons of the devil, sons, worthless sons. That's
what that word means, worthless, absolutely worthless. We say
around here every once in a while, not worth a salt goes in his
biscuit. That's the way these two fellas was. They wasn't worth
the salt that went into one of their biscuits. That's what God
says about them. That's what God says about them.
And to be called, be a son of Aaron, and of the tribe of Levi,
and to enter the priesthood, my what a great blessing it was.
You find in the New Testament that's what Zechariah, John the
Baptist's father was doing. He was waiting on the, doing
his turn at the tabernacle, or at the temple at that particular
time. So they had a ministry, but what a great, great blessing
to be a priest. and enter into the priesthood
because God ordained you to do it. And you know he had lots
of ministers around him. And there's one thing about the
Lord's people, and this is one thing that they done like Elkanah
went. The Lord's people, there's no
greater blessing, no greater blessing than to be able to come
to the place where God set aside for us to worship. That's one
of the greatest blessings that God can give a man on this side
of heaven, is to have a place. You know, they had the tabernacle.
That's where God met with me. God set us out a place, and we
gather here together. And we gather here to worship
the Lord. And we gather here, and what
a blessed thing it is to have a place to come, and a place
to people of the like mind and like heart and like spirit. And
that's what David said, this one thing have I desired, this
even will I ask, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
and behold the Lord the King in His beauty and dwell in his
house forever. He said, that's what I want to
do. That's what I want to do. And then here's another great
blessing if God's given it to you. And I know there's some
here this way. To be raised in a Christian home. I mean a Christian home. I mean
where people are the real thing. And that your family has made
it their point in life and their life, it's their life to attend
the worship of Christ. to attend the gospel of Christ.
And their whole life centers around that worship of Christ
and the meeting together. Their lives, that's their life.
That's their life. I heard one of these politicians
say, you know, Christ is the most important part of my life.
He's not the most important part of my life. He is my life. He
is mine. I have no life apart. And oh,
to be raised and then, you know, to have your mother and your
father pray for you. and to bring your children and
hear the gospel, and they sit and pay attention and be respectful.
What a blessing that is. What a blessing. What a blessing.
And I'll tell you, beloved, but I'm dealing with these two wicked
sons of Eli. Oh they was raised as they was
seeing their father, yet they held no sense of awe. We have
these great blessings, they had this blessing of being in the
priesthood. Yet they held no sense of awe for that which God
appointed them to do. No sense of awe for the sacrifice.
No sense of awe to be in the tabernacle. No sense of awe when
they walked in there and washed their feet in that labor. No
sense of awe when they took those sacrifices. And in fact, they
used their office to fulfill their own sinful lust. They abused
the sacrifices and abused the Lord's people. Look what it says
up here in verse 17 about them. They were young men, called young
men. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before
the Lord. Oh, that's where sin's very great,
before the Lord. And look what it says here now.
Eli was very 22. Now Eli was very old. He got
to be an old, old man. He was old when Hannah was there
praying. He thought she was drunk. And
how they lay with the women at the tabernacle. That's how they
regarded the things of God. Lay with the women at the door
of the tabernacle. And he said unto them, why in
the world do you do such thing? Why do you do such thing? For
I hear of your evil doings by all these people. People come
and tell me what y'all are doing. sons, it is not a good report
that I hear from you. You make the Lord's people to
transgress." Now listen to this, if one man sinned against another
the judge shall judge for him. But if a man sinned against the
Lord who is going to entreat for him then? Now listen to what
happens here now I want you to pay attention to this, notwithstanding
they hearken not unto the voice of their father because the Lord
would slay them. God gave up on Hophni and Phinehas. Hophni and Phinehas. They wouldn't
listen to the father. Why wouldn't they listen to the
father? Because God intended to kill them. That's why. It
doesn't say because they wouldn't listen to the Father that God
would kill them. No, they wouldn't listen to the
Father because God already intended to slay them. You see, this whole
thing here, God didn't punish them because they wouldn't listen
to the Father. They wouldn't listen to the Father because
God had already given up on them and and reprobated them and said,
I'm going to kill you. That's why they wouldn't listen
to the Father. God didn't punish them for not listening to the
Father. The punishment and judgment on God was on them, and that's
why they wouldn't listen to Him. Their hearts, their resistance
was the result of God's judgment. Their hearts became so hard they
were beyond repentance. Now, I'm going to deal with a
subject tonight that it's obvious in the Scriptures. Here's an
example of God's judicial hardening, God's reprobation, God abandoning
a man. And that's what happens to these
two men right here. Do you know why they didn't listen
to their father? Because God said, I'm going to
kill you. My judgment's on you that you ain't even got sense
enough to hear what your father says. You ain't got sense enough
to care about what God thinks. You ain't got sense enough to
know what in the world's going on. And why you don't is because
I intended to kill you from the beginning. You say, God don't
kill people. If he don't, who does? Now, I'm
going to give you two things about reprobation. And that's
what he says here. They hearken not unto the voice
of their father, because, because, why didn't they listen to their
father? Because the Lord would slay them. Now there's an eternal
reprobation. Let me tell you about that. There's
an eternal reprobation. You can go through the scriptures,
you can go through the New Testament, you can go anywhere you want
and you can find it. God looked. on the fallen race of humanity,
the fallen sons of Adam. And what he did before the world
began, he chose a people unto salvation. He elected those people,
chose them in Christ, gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
what about the rest of them? He left the rest of them to perish
in their sin. He just left them to do what
they was going to do naturally, and that's what you and I would
have done naturally had not God chosen us unto salvation. He
just left the rest of them to do what they would do naturally,
to perish in their sin. You see the reprobate, and a
reprobation means God abandoning a man, giving up on a man. The
reprobate receives justice. He receives justice for his life,
for his sin, for his hatred of God, his resistance to God, his
disregard for God. But the elect, they receive mercy. They receive grace. And here's
the thing, neither one of them are treated unfairly. The just,
the wicked, is not treated unfairly. God gives them what's coming
to them. And the elect, he treats us fairly. How does he treat
us fairly? In the Lord Jesus Christ. By
punishing Christ in our room and in our stand. So there's
an eternal reprobation. And you know it's, in Acts chapter
4, you've heard it before and you've looked at it before, where
it says that God cause them raised up a people against your holy
child Jesus to do whatsoever thy hand before determined to
be done." Now, what is he saying? He said, I raised up kings, I
raised up judges, I raised up men, I raised up religious people
to do one thing, to go against His Son, and to crucify His Son,
to lie on His Son, and mistreat His Son. God said, I determined
these men to do this thing. And I tell you, and here's another,
you know, God, because the Lord will slay them. And then there's
a temporal aspect to reprobation. Now what do I mean by that? It's
not eternal, but the gospel is preached. The gospel is preached.
Christ is preached. Do it here, hopefully, three
times a week. Last week, we had five preachers
that just absolutely preached the gospel. Oh, how they preached
the gospel. And then when they preach the
gospel, we're calling on men to repent. And God commands all
men everywhere to repent. And we tell them to come to Christ.
God bids men to come to Christ. But what do most people do? They
continue in their rebellion against God. They continue in rebellion
against His sin. And that results in continuing
hardening and hardening and hardening. And what this ultimately reveals
is God's eternal reprobation. He leaves a man alone. That's
how dangerous it is to come. Listen, I heard old Barnard say
one time, if you don't intend to hear the gospel and believe
the gospel and come to Christ, he said, I would get on me a
train, and then I'd get on a boat, and I'd go to Africa, and the
darkest part of Africa, and I'd find me a place to hide, and
I'd go to where, because I don't want the light of God, I don't
want the light of Christ. And I tell you, this just reveals
when it's all said and done, it comes out if a man refuses
the gospel and walks away from the gospel and don't want nothing
to do with the gospel. I've run across two or three
people that attended services here quite a while, and now you
mention anything to them and they say, well, I just wasn't
interested, just wasn't interested. You know what that means? God
made their heart was hard to start with. And the gospel just
made it harder and harder and harder and harder. The same sun
that melts wax hardens the clay. The same sun that causes corn
and tomatoes and beans to come forth and squash also brings
weeds right along with those good things too. And what do
you do with the weeds? Same thing God's going to do
with it. And God meant to slay Hophni and Phinehas. And you
go through what they said and what they did and the things
that they did. God meant to slay them. And they hardened their
hearts against God's warnings. Eli warned them. People around
the tabernacle warned them. And they come told their daddy,
said, your sons, this is what they're doing. And they didn't
pay any attention to that. That never moved. He finally
gave them over to final condemnation. God abandoned them because he
was slave. And you got examples all the
way through the scriptures. Let me show you one over here
in Genesis 15. Genesis 15. Let's just look at
a couple of them in Genesis 15. Now God's given Abraham, in verse
13, God's given Abraham what's going to happen to his descendants
and what he's going to do about those descendants. And he said
here in verse 13, God is speaking to Abraham, or Abram. He said,
know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict
them for 400 years. That's what we dealt with last
Sunday night, Jacob going down into Egypt. They're going to
stay down there for 400 years and they're going to be greatly
afflicted. And then look what God says, and also that nation
whom they shall serve, I'm going to judge it. And afterward, they're
going to come out with great substance. And He said, and thou
shall go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shall be buried in a good
old age. But listen to this now. But in the fourth generation,
they shall come hither again for the iniquities of the Amorites
not yet full. God says their sin and their
sin. He gave them 400 years. They dwelt in the land of milk
and honey. And God gave these Amorites and
these heathen people 400 years. When He took Ezra down, He gave
them 400 years to repent. Do you reckon they did? He said,
Oh no, when they come out of there, their iniquity is going
to be full. And you know what God is going
to do with them? He said, I'm going to destroy them. I'm going
to kill them. I'm going to destroy them. Why? Because they would
not repent. Set up their idols. Set up their
false worship. And I tell you, look over here
in Joshua. Joshua is right after Deuteronomy.
And back over to your left. Joshua is just right there, right
after Deuteronomy. And look in Joshua 11. Here's
another instance of what happens. Look what he says here in Joshua
11 in verse 17. Excuse me, verse 18. Joshua made a war a long time
with those kings. There was not a city that made
peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants
of Gibeon, all other they took in battle. Now listen to this
now. This is what I'm saying. For it was of the Lord to harden
their hearts. that they should come against
Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly, and that
they might have no favor, no mercy, no grace, but that He
might destroy them as the Lord commanded." Well, did God harden
their heart? That's what it says. God ain't
trying to harden them, He just hardens their hearts. You remember
what He said to Pharaoh? He said, Pharaoh, you thank your
son. Moses went down there and told
him the Lord sent him down there, and the first thing out of old
Pharaoh's mouth is, who is the Lord that I should obey? That's
the first words out of his mouth. Who do you think you are coming
to me and telling me who is this Lord that you're telling me that
I should obey? And God said, you know what I
did, Pharaoh? I raised you up. I raised you up for one reason,
to let everybody know how powerful I am in destroying you and your
whole nation. And that's what he did. He said,
I raised you up. And they said, I will have mercy on whom I will.
And whom I will, he hardeneth. Ain't that what he says? Whom
he will, he hardeneth. And that scares me. Surely that's
what I was going to preach. And I said, well, I'm going to
deal with a little reprobation. And she said, that's scary. It is
a scary thing. If there's an election, there
has to be a passing by. If there's an election, there
has to be a reprobation. If there is grace and mercy,
then the other side of that coin is God's justice leaving a man
to himself. And there's more people left
to themselves than you and I could ever imagine. And what's the
scariest? This is another thing that's
scary to me. that people will come in here, we have three services
a week, and people will come in here and they'll just visit
every once in a while. They'll just come in every once
in a while, maybe once every two or three, four months or
whatever, and they'll come in. And if God's not pleased to open
their heart, and reveal Christ to them. Do you know every time
they hear the gospel and don't come to it regularly, it just
hardens them a little more and a little more, unless God does
something really for them. And that's why it's so imperative
we constantly and continually say, Lord, come to Christ, come
to Christ, come to Christ. And that's in old, in Exodus
8, 32, it says there that Pharaoh hardened his heart. And then
in Exodus 10 and 1, it says that God mostly said, Moses, go down
and talk to Pharaoh now, for I've hardened his heart and hardened
all of his servants' hearts, but they ain't gonna hear you,
but you go anyway. Ah, and I'll show you hardened.
And even in our Lord's ministry, look over here in John 12. Look
what happened in our Lord's life, in our Lord's ministry, John
12, 37. Oh, this is, you know, I've known lost men and I've
talked to them. I've talked to lost men. They're
gone now. Some of them's already gone and I've talked to them.
They would come here fairly regularly and say, you know, why don't
you believe the gospel? Why don't you, you know, you
come and, and why don't you believe? He said, well, there's just,
you know, most of them say, well, I just, I just, I just don't
said, you know, uh, Not much interest. And I say, well, what
are you going to do when it comes time to die? He said, well, you
know, I'll just, I'll just die. And they die. And listen, and
I tell you what, the scripture says that there's no bans in
their death. There's nothing, no restraint
in their death. They can die in peace. They can
die with some comfort. They can die thinking that I'm
all right. That's a dead giveaway of reprobation
that God so reprobated a man that he can go out into eternity
without any fear and face God like that without any fear. I
don't want to face God outside of Christ, I'll tell you that.
Do you? No, I don't want to face God
outside. But look what it said here in
John 12, 37. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, listen to this, yet they believe not
on him, that the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled
which he spake from Isaiah 53, who hath believed thy report
and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed. Listen to
this, now, therefore they could not believe. Did you see that?
They could not believe because that Isaiah said again, he hath
blinded their eyes. Who blinded their eyes? God did. And he hath hardened their heart,
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. And I
mean that's people that was listening to Christ that God said that
about. Look over here in John 10, 24. It's just come to my
mind here. Here's another one of those instances.
You know, people absolutely presume that they're all right with God,
that God's a certain way. And, you know, they're in their
mind He's a certain way. But they've never read enough
of the scriptures or never heard enough preaching to understand
that God's not made by man's imagination. God is who He says
He is. And look what He said here in
John 10. Verse 24, Then came the Jews round about him, and
said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt, and hold
us in suspense? If thou be the Christ, just tell
us, tell us plainly, tell us your Our Lord answered them,
I told you, and you believed not. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not. Why? Because you're not of my
sheep, as I said unto you. Here's the difference. You can't
believe, you don't believe, because you're not my sheep, and here's
the difference. My sheep hear my voice and they
don't. My sheep see me, they don't. My sheep follow me, they
don't. Christ made a distinction right
there. Oh my. And you know what Thessalonians
said? God would send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie and then what's going to
happen to them? They might be damned. God shall
send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie and
be damned. And we need to understand something
about this truth or this doctrine of reprobation. Now listen to
me, we need to understand something about this doctrine of reprobation. Now it doesn't mean that God
takes innocent people and makes them wicked. That's not what
it means. God doesn't take innocent people and makes them wicked.
God didn't take Hothni and Phinehas and turn their hearts against
their father, and God didn't make them sin the sins that they
sinned. God just brings judgment. They
did what they did because of what God willed. He said, I'm
going to kill you, and I'm going to harden your heart that you
do these things. But He don't take innocent people
and make them wicked. And I tell you what, first of
all, ain't nobody innocent, so He can't take innocent people
and make them wicked. nobody innocent. And they sinned
so against light, and God gave them up. Look what he said over
here in 1 Samuel 3. Look what he says here. This is what Samuel has to tell
Eli. For I have told him that I will
judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth. because
his sons made themselves vile, and he didn't restrain them.
Didn't restrain them. Didn't restrain them. You know, in Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, if you haven't ever read that, and it's been
a while since you have, you might ought to. When Christian was
going through the interpreter's house, there was a man held in
an iron cage. He was held in an iron cage.
And Christian stopped there and said, what are you here? What's
this about? He said, I have so hardened my
heart that I cannot repent. I'm bound in this iron cage.
They never get out. The iron cage of my will, my
sin, my rebellion, my hatred. I've so hardened my heart that
I can't repent. Esau sought repentance with tears,
but there was no place found for him to have repentance. Now
God didn't create, now listen to him about reprobation. God
didn't create sinful creatures in order to destroy them. He
didn't do that. He didn't create sinful creatures
in order to destroy them. If He had, He would have destroyed
us. But He created righteous men and MADE righteous men and
MADE them righteous in Christ in order to BLESS them. And the
only way he can bless them is for Christ's sake and what Christ
did. And God's mercy, oh listen, God's mercy restrains the sinfulness
of the human heart. If God's mercy did not restrain
the sinfulness of most men's hearts, can you imagine what
a man would be like if God just let, no man is sinful. Not one
of us is sinful as we're capable of being. We're all capable of
some of the awfulest things that you could imagine. that all he
restrains. And this should terrify a lost
man. If God abandons a man in his sin, you know how far he'll
go? He'll go just as far as he possibly
can deep into sin. And we see it all around us.
See it all around us. Just look at all the drugs, and
look at all the lying, and look at all the stealing, and look
at all the adultery, and look at all the divorces, and all
the things. God just leave a man to himself,
and he'll destroy himself. with me in Romans 1. You know
this is a, this is a tough subject but I mean it's necessary. And that's what we are dealing
with now. God, they would not hearken to the voice of their
father because God, because God was slaving. He didn't slay them
because He wouldn't listen to the Father. They wouldn't listen
to the Father because God. He said, I'm going to kill you.
He done hardened them so that they would not listen to anybody,
not even God Himself. But look what it said here in
verse 28, Romans 128. NOW LISTEN TO THIS, AND EVEN
AS THEY DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, OR IN
THE MARGIN IT SAYS TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD, THEY DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN
GOD OR ACKNOWLEDGE GOD IN THEIR MINDS. WELL, WHAT DOES GOD DO
WITH A MAN WHO SAYS, I DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOU, I DON'T
WANT TO RETAIN YOU, I DON'T WANT YOU IN MY MIND, I DON'T WANT
TO BOW TO YOU, I DON'T WANT TO SUBMIT TO YOU. WHAT SHOULD GOD
DO TO A MAN LIKE THAT? WELL, THIS IS WHAT HE SAID. God
gave them over to a reprobate mind, listen to this, to do those
things which are not convenient. Oh, listen, sin is deceitful
and sin grows and increases until it will come and utterly destroy
them. And when men will not have God,
he abandons them to their idols and abandons them to their sin.
And what it is, and it is expression, of His judgment when He does
that. Hophni and Phinehas increased in sin not by the permission
of God but as an act of His judgment on them. God didn't just permit
them to do that, they did what they did because God already
judged them and reprobated them and they couldn't do anything
but what they did, but sin. They couldn't do anything. They
couldn't do anything. Now God, look over here in verse 21 of
Romans chapter 1, God commands obedience of all men. He commands
men to turn from their sin and to follow Him, follow Him. And
look what it says here, because that, now listen to this, that
when they knew God, they knew God. That's a statement, ain't
it? When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. They wasn't thankful to God,
but they became vain in their imaginations. And their foolish
heart was darkened. And they said, oh, we're just
too wise to fall for that religion. We're too wise to admit we're
sinners. We're too wise to admit that
we need Christ. We're too wise to admit that
we got hard hearts. We're too wise. And God says,
you're just a fool. You're just a fool. Oh, my. When
men refuse. He pulls back His restraining
hand of grace and mercy. And the human heart is capable
of all manner of sin. All you've got to do is look
at history. Look at the history in the 20th century. the Roaring
Twenties, and then Prohibition. People kill one another over
whiskey. In our day, they're killing one another just by hundreds
a month over drugs, shooting one another down like dogs. The
Nazis, look what they did. They exterminated six million
Jews just because they were Jews. I'll tell you what to look at
you won't see man left to himself to take the Lord Jesus Christ
They bring him in there put a blindfold on him and slap his face and
say tell me who it was It's mochi take a crown of thorns think
and cram it down on his head to blood runs cross Then they
take off his clothes and they put a purple robe on him, put
that crown of thorns, and a fella gets him a reed, what you get
out of a pond, an old reed you get out, and he gets down like
this. Hail, King of the Jews! And then they call some soldiers
over, and they take a cat-of-nine-tails, and they rip that thing off his
back, and they began to lash him 39 times. And you could count
every rib he had. You could see all of his ribs,
and his flesh was just tore all to pieces. And the fellas rushed
up and got a hold of his beard and went to fucking hell. And
they said, oh, Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. Crucify
him. Crucify him. Crucify him. When
they nailed him to that tree, one of them hollered out, oh,
he saved others. Others can't even save himself.
If you be the Christ, come down off that tree, save yourself.
And they mocked, and they derided, and they mocked, and they derided.
And while they were doing that, there were some soldiers right
at the foot of his cross, right at the foot of his head. Our
Lord had a garment on that had no seams in it. It just had the
head around it, and he pulled that thing over, and no seams
in it nowhere, woven. Do you think that was the judgment
of God on those men who did that? And here's the kicker. You know
what them Jews said? And they paid a fella 30 pieces
of silver to lie on him. And they tired men to lie on
him. But the kicker was, they said, let his blood be on us
and on our children. In other words, we don't care
no more for him than we do spitting on the ground. We ain't worried
about what God's gonna do to us for what we did to that imposter. When they knew God, what did
they do to him? Didn't glorify him as God. We're
too wise to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. We're
too wise to believe that man's God manifests in the flesh. We're
too wise to believe that he's dying for sin. Oh, what's the
result of this hardening? The sinner falls more and more
in love with his sin. And he just goes deeper and deeper,
like Hophni and Phineas did. They didn't restrain themselves.
And here's the second thing that happens to the result of this
hardening. The hardened man will not seek Christ. The hardened
man will not seek Christ. You know, God's sovereign, and
man's responsible. And the only one he's responsible
to is God himself. Salvation is God's work, but
he also commands men to turn and to trust Christ. When Paul
went and preached on Mars Hill and preached the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, you know what they said? We'll hear this babbler
some other time. That's what they called babbler.
Call him a babbler. We'll hear this babbler some
other time. That's what they thought about. That's what they
thought about his message. And the person who continues in sin
becomes more and more and more hardened. Delay, delay is deadly. You know what God said? Today,
if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day
of occasion. God gives a man up. That's a
bad place to be in. I wonder how many, well, I'll
just tell you about my family. Grandfather died when he was
56. My dad died when he was 60. He told me, D.B., he said, don't
talk to me about Jesus. Me and him done got this thing
worked out. Died with that old man. My mother, she didn't want
to know nothing about God. Talked to her, and she said,
oh, I'm fine. The uncle that I lived with for years went to
see him, and he was 85 years old, had cancer and fixing to
die. Me and Charlie Pennington went, and we talked to him. He
said, oh, I'm not worried about nothing. Brother. Died when he
was 57 years old. Drank every single day and gambled
every day of his life. He hadn't been dead a year and
his son took a shotgun blow to his head. That's what reprobation
does to him. God in his sovereign mercy reaches
out, out of a brand, somebody, just like a fire, an old sorry
fire, and he reaches in there and brings him out of, say, this
is gonna be mine. Out of a whole generations of
reprobated, he reaches in there and gets one. If you got any
children, like I do, and you got grandchildren, you start
praying for them. Pray for them. I hope you've
been praying for your grandbabies before they're born. So God have
mercy on them. God bring them up and do something
for them. Because I'd hate to think that
either one of my children or grandsons or great-grandson would
end up being hardened and hardened until God says, I'm going to
let them along.