Deuteronomy chapter 18. My text is what we find in verses
9 through 14. Deuteronomy 18, 9 through 14. When thou art come into the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to
do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not
be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer
of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter
with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer, which is to
communicate with the dead, at least in two ways. It could be
either way. One who worships the dead, and
there are those that still do that today that call themselves
Christians. Or one who worships with help from the dead. One
who claims to worship God with help from the dead. And we still
have those today that claim to be Christians. Yet God told Israel,
or no necromancer, for all that do these things are an abomination
unto the Lord. And because of these abominations,
now you ever wonder why did God drive these people out? They
and their ancestors were there first, even before Abraham. Man's sense of justice seems
to be a little offended here. Correct? And yet God says, for
all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord,
and because of these abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them
out from before thee. That is why. Because when you
have men and women of this caliber this caliber, there's a plethora
of other evil wicked things that always goes along with things
like this. They can never be isolated in
one little separate thing. And it goes on. Thou shalt be
perfect with the Lord thy God. We've heard about that this morning.
For these nations which thou shalt possess hearkened unto
observers of times and unto dividers, but as for thee, as for thee,
the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee to do so. Now as most of
you know, even some who may be with us live streaming this morning
may know, but for the benefit of those who do not know, my
title and my subject is this, nonconformity. Nonconformity. And I think if
you read the text, just these few verses, it's quite clear. God demanded of Israel. Yea, I say God still would demand
of Israel nonconformity. Don't live like these people
live. Is that not clear from what we
read? No dabbling a little bit. Leave
it alone. It's an abomination. This is
one of the reasons that God's driving these people out and
he has given you this land to possess. That is the context,
yes? That is the law, yes? Now let me ask a question. I
hope I can bring this full circle, ring of the round. Why is it
that in our day and age people, most people, maybe not all of
course, but why is it that people just admire what we would call
large churches? Why is that? Why is it that they
admire? I mean, in some places, you might
have two, three, 400 people. A larger city may have a large
congregation. We know there are some who actually
have their meetings, whether it's Sunday, Sunday morning,
Sunday night, whatever it is, in what looks to me like to be
a baseball stadium, where there are thousands of people. Now
I know why most of these people who would go to these places
and most of the people who admire such things, I know why they
say they like large churches. I will not try to go into all
of them to criticize that, but one of the main things is, is
because of the mindset of free will religion in our day, is
God wants everybody to be saved, and the more that's there, God
must be in that work. But don't despise the day of
small things. Don't despise the day of small
things. Here is why most people prefer large churches, because
you can hide in them. You can hide in them. You can
hide in them. And that's one of the things
that no doubt, I've been doing this for 36, almost 37 years,
that no doubt people become very uncomfortable with when they
come here. You realize for this small assembly,
and we've always been small, not quite this small, but we've
always been small, and we'll gain a few, lose a few, people
will die, and then people come, we gain a few, always been, but
why is it that they feel so uncomfortable here? They cannot hide. I mean,
bless God, you stay here any time at all, you cannot hide.
And if you open up to anybody at all about who you are and
what you think and what you believe and how you live, you are exposed
to everybody because there ain't but a couple handfuls of us.
I preached a message about Peter one time. Some of you may remember
it, and talked about Christ telling the disciples, get in the boat
and go to the other side. Well, on the way, Christ came
walking on the water, and Peter said, Lord, bid me get out of
the boat. Walk on the water. Well, I preached that message.
A certain individual was not here that Sunday morning when
I preached that message, but the next Sunday, they were able
to be here. When they come in, they said to me, I'm in the boat. And it popped out of my mouth
before I ever thought about it. I didn't say, well, I'm glad
you're in the boat. But it popped out of my head,
in my mouth, I said, Judas was in the boat, too. And I realized, and I left it
there. I realized what I'd said, but Mason, I thought, all right,
just leave it there. Now, I don't know, I have no reason to say
that was the reason, but that person is no longer with us.
You know what, because you can't hide. You can't hide when you
boast of yourself. You can't hide when you fall
flat on your face because somebody else is going to know about it.
Are they not? But in these big massive congregations,
you can show up every service and you can still go out and
live like you want to live and do what you want to do and nobody
bothers you unless you just quit giving your money to support
such things. And you say, preacher, what's that got to do with anything
of this? It's all about nonconformity. I used to hear preaching, and
I used to hear it often, especially if we had, in the religion I
was brought up in, that false Christianity. And it was called
Baptist, but it was false Christianity. And I used to hear preaching.
And especially if we'd have, we always had at least one revival
meeting a year. You had to have at least one
revival meeting a year. And as Tim James says, I guess
they found that in one come up of five verse six. And sometimes
we'd have two revival meetings during the year. And during those
revival meetings especially, somebody would always preach
on nonconformity. Why? Because none of us in the
church were living like we were supposed to be living. Now you hear what I'm saying?
Me and everybody else included. And later on, when I was very
young, I even did a little of that preaching myself. Yeah. But it was always limited to
one particular area of nonconformity. I'm gonna read you some verses.
Now don't you jump to any conclusions till I'm done with what I'm about
to say. But it was always zeroed in on
passages such as this. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. and I would preach and others
would preach and our revivals were filled full of, you better
get right with God. You better stop doing this, you
better stop doing that. But the problem is, this is being
spoken to Christians. This is being spoken to believers. But after all the kinds of believers
that we were in that day, we were all guilty of these things.
We put on a good show. We put on a good show. Here's
another passage. Let me turn to that one. And
I'm intentionally not letting you turn to them, because if
I tell you first, you'll say, oh, I know what it is, then you
don't listen to what I'm about to read. You think you already
got it. Now, I remember that passage. I was about to say it,
but let me just read it to you. See, us preachers think we got
the, oh, I gotta show you where it's in the word of God. You
realize that Christ, the Apostle Paul, none of them said turn
to Isaiah 55, verse four. Do you realize that? They didn't
have an Isaiah 55 verse four. They had Isaiah with that passage,
and they said it is written. Now, if you're really concerned,
go find it. Be like the Bereans and search
daily. See if these things were so. Let me read it to you. I
got all that as a side track, a rabbit track, as Earl used
to say. Let me read it. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Bilal? Or what part
hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath
he the temple of idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk
in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be their
people. And here it is, there was title after title. Wherefore
come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.
Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be
a father in you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith
the Almighty As I said don't you dare be supply What I said
the what I have just read to you is the Word of God And it
is warnings to us as believers to not conform to these things
But let me tell you something You are not Israel as Israel
was under that old covenant. You are those people that lived
and were an abomination to God. I am one of those people that
lived and was one of these abominations before God. Do you get what I'm
saying? We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We're not even beginning as in
a neutral state and going to a positive state. We began in
the negative, in the red, with demerits against God. We're that
group of people God warned Israel about. Do you hear what I'm saying? Do not misapply my words. These
passages clearly teach God's gospel called people of non-conformity. Do they not? Do they not? Thomas Brooks also wrote this.
To venture upon the occasion of sin and then to pray lead
us not into temptation is the same as to thrust thy finger
into the fire and then pray that it may not be burnt. I like that. In other words, as I said before,
don't stick your hand in the hornet's nest and then think
God's gonna keep you from getting bit. Now I am not preaching down to
you this morning, but I am telling you, we are all by nature, we
are those abomination people. Paul said in Romans three, we
proved before that both Jew and Gentile They're all under sin. The Jew had great advantage over
Gentile, but that advantage gave them no merit before God. As
a matter of fact, it only added to their judgment if they were
unregenerate and unbelieving. Yes, there is nonconformity,
but let me give you briefly three facts about nonconformity. I'll
mention the first two, try to go through them quickly. I want
to zero in on number three. The law gave Israel the command
to nonconformity. We just read it, did we not?
But the law provided no ability. As a matter of fact, the law,
God commanded in the law, you gotta go right, God, Mason, God
could have just drove those people out. and then let Israel safely
march over. But they had to go in and battle
those people, and whip those people, and run those people
out, and not be affected by it in the meantime. And I can't do that, and you
can't do that. The law gave Israel the command
to nonconformity, but it provided no ability to do it. As a matter
of fact, it put them right in the fire. Did it not? Number
two, that's still true today. That's still true today. And
God's law still stands today. Holy, just, and good. Christ
didn't come to annul the law, he came to fulfill it. And listen
to what Paul wrote. You know the passage. Read a
few verses. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. Even while he's writing, because
he said, I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If
then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
it is good. What's he saying? I cannot keep
the law. And that's the context. Don't
you dare run outside the context. Because when God Almighty saves
you by his grace, are you gonna say, well, I just can't believe
God. If you can't believe God, you're lost. You're unregenerate. Well, I will to believe God,
but I just can't do it. Mm-mm. Not if God saves you by
his grace. Now granted, we are given faith
in measure. But Christ said even if you got
faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can move a mountain. So that
lets me know two things. I don't have very much. But bless
God, if I can bow down to his son, I got some. If I want to obey his son, bow
to his son, serve his son, I've got some faith. So keep this
in the proper context. Don't do like one person. been
married multiple, multiple times, and then run back to Romans chapter
seven and try to quote Romans chapter seven to justify all
those marriages. Let me tell you something. You
be faithful to your spouse. You hear what I'm saying? You
be faithful to your spouse, and if you don't, if you get divorced,
it is sin according to the law, period. And Moses gave a man
the right to put away a woman under the law if he found out
before they actually were joined together she'd been unfaithful
to him. But Christ said God gave, God suffered Moses to give you
even that little caveat because of the hardness of your own heart.
You're not willing to forgive. And as they say, it takes two
to tango. It takes two to tango. Let me
read on what Paul says. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Is that a cop out or a
reality? It's a reality for God's people.
Look, for I know that in me that is, now here's where, in my flesh
dwells no good thing. But in my body does dwell something
good. One, the spirit of God is there.
if I'm one of God's. And two, there is a new man in
me that's created after the image of him that created him in righteousness
and true holiness. And that's the nature we'll have
in glory. Mason, it's already in here.
It's just side by side with the old one. And the old one's so
deceptive, it could put on a coat like the new one. Go on, look. For I know that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. But
what's he talking about? The law. Because the law demands
absolute obedience. You can't pick and choose what's
the easiest for you. There's some people got no problem
with fortification. Did you know that? They got no
problem with others, battle with that monster all their life.
And I just pick out one. Don't you look up there and say,
what's going on with Walter? I mean, I ain't talk about me.
I ain't there to tell you my problems. That might go on TV
too, mightn't it? Look, for the good that I would,
I do not, but the evil which I would not, that do I. Now if
I do that which I would not, it is no more I that dwelleth,
but sin that dwelleth in me. I find in the law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. Now that verse applies
to your whole life as a believer, but the context is legal obedience
to God. not believing God, not serving
God, not abstaining from stepping out on your spouse. Do you understand
what I'm saying? Because if you, thou shalt not
commit adultery. If you do that for righteousness
before God, you've got to love God with all your heart, mind,
soul, and strength. You've got to love your neighbor
as yourself. In Christ, we're allowed, we're
enabled to love one another, are we not? but we still don't
love one another as ourself. Now do we? And if you tell me
you do, I'm gonna tell you you're a big liar and I want you to
come up here and put a big L on your head. So don't come and tell
me you do. None of us love our neighbor
as ourself. I mean, the next time somebody gets cancer and
dies, and is dying, do you cry out? If you ever cry out to God,
let that be my child rather than theirs. Let that be their spouse. I mean, my spouse rather than
theirs. You ever do that? I want my family to die of cancer,
not my neighbors. How many of you have been at
work and somebody got laid off and you went and said, I'm not
saying this never happens, but how many of us run to the boss
and say, don't lay them off, lay me off? That don't happen
too often, do you think? Come on now. I find in a law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me, for I delight
in the law of God. And that's what he's talking
about. After the inward man, but I have something else there.
It's called the old me. So again I say, that's still
true today. Because Jeremiah, what Jeremiah
said, Jeremiah 13, 23, is still true of man today. Can a leopard
change his spots? Can a black man just change the
color of his skin? Then may ye do good that are
accustomed to do evil. So again, I say this, it's still
true today, the law demands nonconformity from us. But our problem is we
already starting out on the negative side. Do you understand what
I'm saying? We're already starting out as
the people who are the abomination. We best hope that it's God's
free reigning grace or we're already goners. We're already
goners. And it's still true today. Number
three, God's free reigning grace supplies all needed to nonconformity. Everything needed to nonconformity.
And I've got us as time's going. Listen, listen, listen. Your
flesh, that flesh that Paul talked about, that in my flesh dwells
no good thing, will never be non-conformed to this world.
Your flesh is of this world. And we say that over and over
and over again. Then you find a fellow believer
that's struggling with a failure or a fault. A conformity. A conformity. And you're so guilty
and embarrassed and I'm not telling you not to be. If you're not,
you got deeper problems than what you thought. But so tore
up, how could I be one of God's? You are an abomination to start
with. Look where you was in the get
go. And God still loved you and sent
his son to die for you. Sent his spirit to give you life.
Sent his gospel to quicken or not, but to convert your soul
to Christ? You think God's gonna abandon
you now because of your flesh? Let me give you these. Grace,
free grace, reigning grace, supplies all needed to nonconformity.
Four things. It freed us from the letter of
the law to serve in here. In here, in spirit. And you can
see that if you read Romans 7, one through six, Our old husband
was the law, but we're dead to the law by the body of Christ,
and we are married to another. That is to who? To Jesus Christ. And we do serve him. An absolute, physical, outward,
overt perfection? No. The flesh never does. But the new us does. And Paul puts it this way. What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? Now,
there is a sense in which we all continue in sin. And we continue
with sin. But you got to look at the context
of what he's talking about. And don't try to get so theologically
minded that you just totally lose grasp with the reality of
what we are and what God's word says. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? The answer is rhetorical. You
won't. It's rhetorical, you won't. But
you say, but preacher, you don't know me. I probably know you
a little better than you think because I know something about
me. And we've all sinned to come short of the glory of God. Some
of my struggles with certain sins may be different from your
struggles with certain sins, but they're all sin! They're
all sin! So what it, and now read this.
I don't have time to go through it. Look at what it says. Because
of who Christ is and what he's done for us, it says in verse
11, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Count it to be so. Because when
you look at yourself, you're not just gonna see the new man,
you're gonna see the old man too. Now am I telling you the truth
or not? So why don't you believe God? You reckon it to be so? And if God could pull you out
of the morass of the abomination that you are and set your feet
upon the solid rock, Christ Jesus, you think he still can't continue
to control you, to bring you around? Oh yeah, you may fall
flat on your face. And basically, Peter said, well,
if my brother sins against me, how often do I forgive him if
he says I repent? And Christ said, basically, every
time he needs it. Every time he needs it. Even
if it's, what was it, 70 times seven? Am I right on that? Now,
what's that? What is that? Somebody help me. 490? I mean, you ain't got much
more minutes in the day. This guy's got problems. But
if he's got Christ, he's your brother. How often do you forgive
him if he says, I repent? What do you do? Forgive him. Now I'm gonna tell you something. I don't wanna be one of them
fellas. But I do wanna be one of them fellas. Now you go figure
out what that means. I'd rather be that fella than
I would a Judas Iscariot. Hmm? I'd rather be that one that needed
490 forgivenesses in one day than a Judas Iscariot that all
we know. Of course, he was covetous, but nobody's seen that. Nobody's
seen that. The only thing he's really known
for is give it a kiss to Christ to betray him. But apart from the grace of God,
that is me. Grace freed us from the letter
to serve in the spirit. And somebody says, capital spirit
or little spirit, little s? Both. Both. You can't serve God apart from
God the spirit. But God the spirit works in the
spirit. Those that worship God must worship
him. What's the first thing? If all
you got's truth but it's not in spirit, it don't matter. You
worship him in spirit, that's a inward thing. An immaterial
thing, thing that you can't necessarily see out here. In spirit, but
you also has to have the truth. The truth, here's another thing.
This liberty to serve is an act of God. Those passages I read
to you that, you know what, we used to, when I was a little
fella, boy, I knew it was coming. Wherefore come out from among
them. You better not be going sticking off the picture show.
Don't you be smoking no cigarettes? Don't you get no beer and drink
it? Well, I could argue about some
of those things. As Tim James said to one fellow when he said
he never went to a picture show, never smoked a cigarette, and
never drank a can of beer, and Tim said, I didn't tell him this,
but I thought to myself, man, you've missed three of the best
things in life. Look at it, 1 Corinthians 6,
I didn't read it to you, These people, these Corinthians, were
those abominable people that God warned Israel about. Were
they not? We read the list. And such were some of you. Now let me tell you, in your
flesh you're still that, but we're not talking about us in
the flesh. We're talking about us in Christ
Jesus. And such were some of you, but
you washed yourself. Is that what it says? No, but
ye are washed. But you sanctified yourself.
No, let's read it like it says it because it says it like it
really is. Now if you washed yourself and
you sanctified yourself, you ain't got squat. I don't care
how moral you are. I don't care how many of these
abominations you've shed off, you're still abominable in here.
But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. Did you justify yourself? No,
you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. All things are lawful, but everything
ain't for my benefit. I'm paraphrasing, but that's
what he said, did he not? That's what he said. Number three,
true desire. That's to will, is it not? The
desire is to will. True desire and actual nonconformity, that's
to do, comes from God. For it is God that works in us,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So we both will
and do his good pleasure, do we not? When he works in us. And if you're what he is, he
is working in you. And he's doing that at the same
time that your flesh is out here lusting after everything that
we ought not be conformed to. Yes or no? That's just the way
it is. Now somebody says, I don't like
that. You don't like that because God's never truly brought you
to see what you really are and brought you to see the glory
of God in Christ. Because if he's converted, if
he's regenerated you and converted you, it don't take long before
you start to learn this lesson. You might not understand it,
you might be ashamed of yourself, but you don't get it, you just
wonder, oh, am I really one of God's? And it happens after years,
and we fall back into that thing, we start looking here, rather
than sitting in our affections in the right hand of God the
Father. Yes or no? We believe for years, but we
get right back into that rut of religion, and we start looking
at ourselves, rather than looking to Christ alone. True desire
and actual non-conformity is an act of God. He has to work
in us both the will to do. And I'll say pray for that. Cry
out unto God for that. Christ said, you ask the Father,
if it's something you need, what's he gonna do? He gonna give it
to you. So if you set back on your derriere
and lazy, he may just let you have the flesh. and you will stick your finger
in the fire. And you will get burned. And you may burn others. Don't use your liberty for an
occasion of the flesh. You got liberty, but don't use
it for an occasion of the flesh. But by love, do what? Serve one
another. Because if you don't, if we walk
in the flesh, we're gonna bite and devour one another. bite
and devour. Number four, our nonconformity
has much more to do with nonconformity to immoral conduct. Did you know
that? There are a lot of moral people
in this world but still don't know Jesus Christ. See it's not just okay I'm a
drunk so I'll quit drinking. And maybe if I got a little bit
of believing in God and Jesus and I go forward and pray a prayer,
I'm okay. It don't work that way. It don't work that way. God bows you to his son, then
he starts dealing with these other things. Now do you hear
what I'm saying? God first bows you to his son,
then you start dealing with these other things. And if you think
smoking a cigarette is a sin, then you ought not smoke one. And if God somewhere along the
line teaches you different, then you can smoke one or not smoke
one, and it don't matter. But if you think it's a sin to,
then don't do it. But now if you think it's all
right to fornicate, well, you're wrong, because it says don't
fornicate. It does not say thou shalt not puff on a Marlboro,
but it says don't fornicate. Am I telling you the truth of
God's word? I'm not trying to be funny. I know some of this
is kind of funny. I think sometimes if we really
realize the seriousness of it, we crawl up in a ball that scares
us half to death. But you understand, there are
moral people in this world, but if they've never been bowed to
Christ, their nonconformity to that part of the world is nothing
because they're conformed to the world's opinion about Christ.
I will not have this man reign over me. You see, I was always
taught that nonconformity to immoral things, but I was being
taught a perverted gospel back then. So I was as lost as the
abomination people. And didn't realize because I
had a false hope, I was one of the abomination people. Self-centered
self-righteousness. Our Lord says it in Luke chapter
16. You're they that justify yourselves before men. He said
that's an abomination in God's sight. Don't be conformed to
that. But how many times have you ever
said, or no, no, you don't, we don't even have to say it. Most
of us are so Calvinistically refined, we don't say it. But
we look at ourselves and say, boy, thank God, I'm not like
that fella. Huh? Ever looked at that politician
on TV, that one you despise the most? That's not loving your
neighbor as yourself, is it? But that one you despise the
most, and you say, thank God I ain't him or her. But you are. We're brothers and sisters by
nature. The only thing that makes the difference is what God has
done for us and what God is doing to us. And that's the only thing
that makes the difference. What about wheel worship? Paul
rebukes this strongly in Colossians 2, 13 through 23. Wheel worship. Folks, we are almost drownded by this wheel
worship today. How many times when I was back
there at religion was I ever warned about will worship? No,
I was told your will's your ticket to heaven. And they said now, the Armenians,
the free willer didn't used to say that, but now they're even
saying that. What is will worship? It is unwarranted
piety of choice. Thinking that your will is superior
to the will of somebody else. That's what will worship is.
It is a sanctimonious holiness about your will. That's what
it is. And folks, there are people who
preach more about free will than they do about the personal work
of Jesus Christ. Don't be conformed to that. Don't
be conformed to that. It'll damn you as much as robbing
a bank will. It'll damn you just as much.
And I'm going to be like the one preacher, I don't want to
be a legalist. God will save a drunk or a whore, but God don't
save a legalist. Well, that's not true either.
He saved Saul of Tarsus. Thank God he saved some legalists.
Huh? Thank God he saved some legalists.
Us preachers, we love to, you know, if you're going to throw
the grenade out there, make sure people got a place to run. Don't
stick it in their pocket. You understand what I'm saying? Christ warned the Pharisees,
you shut the kingdom of God up against men. There are some who
want to go in, but you try to hold them back. But he said,
you know what? The violent take it by force. That's what that
woman with the issue of blood did. She broke the law to get
to Christ. Ever consider that? She had that
issue of blood. She's supposed to stay out of
company. She broke the law, but for what
reason? To get to Christ. I'm telling you, run to Christ. I'm a preacher, I've been saved
40, 50 years. Run to Christ. Sum it up. Under law, nonconformity
was demanded. Under grace, whether it was back
then or even now, nonconformity is provided by the power of God
in Christ. The reason I'm not still out
there doing what I used to do and thinking like I used to think
and living like I used to live is because of the grace of God
in Christ Jesus. It's the only reason. Think about
it, Noah and Abraham had no law, did they? Nothing was wrote down. The only thing they did have
was what God had wrote in here. But there was no written, inspired
word for them to gauge, because what else is in here? The flesh. So there's nothing to gauge that
by. Conscience is a good thing, but it's not an absolute thing.
Because the conscience can be twisted and designed and moved
around, or it could be seared with a hot iron. Hmm I Gave you that I think I lost
it, but I want to read that to you one more time. I'll end with
that To venture upon the occasion to see in other words. I'm gonna
do this if it hair lips God I'm gonna do this and Then to pray
to God lead me not into temptation. I is the same as to thrust thy
finger into the fire, and then pray that I may not be burnt.
But you know, how often do we really do that? Don't we? I wonder how sincere we really
are in our prayers. Like, I think it was Ralph Barnard. You all forgive me if I mention
him a lot. I mean, if you don't like him, that's your problem. But he said, we sing songs that
make us lie to God. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how
I love Jesus. Of course, Ralph's also the same
boy that said, if I didn't have the Holy Spirit of God, I think
I'd stay about half tanked up all the time. I'm sure that went
over for them good old Southern Baptists he used to preach to.
I'm done preaching.