I don't know whether you're aware
or how aware you are, but Antichrist is showing himself to a great
degree in our age, in the age in which we live. In our public schools, there's
something known as common core. That's where the government,
the federal government is trying to instill these common core,
I wouldn't call them necessarily values, they're anti-Christ,
certainly trying to push anything to do with Christianity out of
our public schools and actually taking the values of the United
Nations and instilling them into our schools instead of parents
or local government or state government being in charge of
schools. The feds are attempting to take
over. And to me, that's nothing more
than Antichrist at work. And we're going to see more and
more of that. The federal government already
is on church turf. I would invite them out to step
off of church turf. They have no business on church
turf. But this is the world in which
we live. in antichrist world. Who art
thou, Lord? And what wilt thou have me to
do? Two childlike questions. And Jesus said, except you become
as little children, you will have no part in the kingdom. Today, I wish to address religious
folks If you're here and religious, just so you know, I am talking
to you. The prostitute, the drug addict,
the adult or fornicator, you will perish in your sins, but
I'm going to give you a break this morning. I'm going to take aim at church
members. Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholic, congregation. Church
of God. Church of God in Christ. You're
the target. You must be born again. You must
have an encounter with the living, sovereign Lord Jesus Christ. In order to go to heaven, you
have to have a Damascus Road experience. I don't mean exactly
that way. But you must go from death to
life. You must be quickened. You've
got to be regenerated. There's no doubt in my mind that
we have padded our church rolls with people who don't know Christ. I myself have been one of them. And even after It is important
where you go to church. It is important what you hear. The Apostle Paul said, for me
to repeat myself in the book of Titus, to me it's not grievous
and for you it's safe to keep pounding the Gospel of the glory.
The Gospel of free grace. The gospel of election. The gospel of predestination.
The gospel of effectual calling and perseverance of the saints. The gospel of greater is He that's
in you than he that's in the world. The gospel of we can do
all things through Christ who strengtheneth us. The gospel
of of I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father's hands. The
gospel of it is well with my soul. The gospel of when I think
that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can
take it in. That on the cross, my burdens
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's love? Died He for me who caused His
pain. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
is the Savior's love for me. Down at the cross where my Savior
died, there where for cleansing from sin I cried, there to my
heart was the blood applied. Glory to His name. A Holy Spirit revelation. A Holy
Spirit quickening. Have you experienced that? Has there been a God intervention
in your life? You see, this man Saul, the Apostle
Paul, was just such a man as many of us were at one time.
And maybe some of you here today, you came over to take a look
at what the old bar, now a church building, looks like. And we're
glad to have you. But you're without Christ. You
have a religious pedigree. But you're self-righteous. That's
the way Saul of Tarsus was. He was a self-righteous person. I know of nothing that God hates
more than self-righteousness. Because God, you see, came in
the person of Christ in order that we might have a righteousness. And then you and folks, religious
folks, try to duplicate that and God won't have it. Who art thou, Lord? Saul of Tarsus
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Highly religious. He had a very
high estimate of his own character. Do you? As a child of God today,
I have this constant thought. Woke up with it this morning.
Oh, wretched man that I am. How good God has been to me. Yes, I do know Christ. Yes, I have passed from death
unto life. But I guard against any sense
of haughtiness. Amen. Where God does not get
all the glory. Here's the Pharisee. He's on
his way to Damascus. And he has letters from the high
priest. The high priest. Notice it wasn't the president
or the leader of the country. It was from the high priest.
Had anything to do with religion. Is that right? He had authority
from religion to put these Christians out of business. He felt armed
with great power. He had the backing of religion.
And he went on his way to kill Christians. By the way, just
in passing, lest I forget, if you heard the Scripture reading
this morning, you know and heard from Scripture that those very
Pharisees that the Apostle Paul was at one time a part of, Tried
to kill him three times in that chapter. Murder in the name of
religion. Going to put these Christians
out of business, and then when Saul of Tarsus gets saved, they
want to kill him. You know, if you read your Bible
at all, you'll find two groups of people. Religious. and prostitutes and those kind
of folks. You also find out that Jesus
hung out with sinners. Jesus wasn't a Baptist. I know
that hurt some of you. In case I missed some of you.
And he wasn't a Presbyterian. He wasn't the first Methodist.
So, whatever you are, get off of it, because it will take you
to hell if you don't. Who art thou, Lord? You need
to know the answer to that question. Because without the answer, you'll
perish. I'm Jesus whom you persecute.
Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee. Here's the way the Pharisees
talk. I thank thee God that I'm not as other men are. And especially
this publican. The tax collector. And then the Pharisees always
tell you how good they are. They always brag on themselves. I wouldn't do that if I were
you. God's not happy with that. It's to God be the glory. The
Bible says that the publican stood afar off. If you ever come to Christ, you'll
come there unworthy, bent and broken, in desperate need of
a Savior. He stood afar off and smote upon
his breath. God, be propitiatory. God, be the appeasing factor. Let there be a substitute. Be
the propitiation for my sins. Satisfy Your justice in a Lamb. God, be merciful to me, the sinner,
like there were no others. Like I'm the only sinner in the
world. That's the way you come. It's
not my brother or my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing
in the need of prayer. That's the way you come to Christ. The Apostle Paul in Romans 10
said the Pharisees go about to establish their own righteousness. Is that what you're attempting
to do? You'll never do it. You'll never produce a righteousness
that will satisfy God. Only God can produce a righteousness
that satisfies God. And He did in the person and
in the work of Jesus Christ alone. Somebody say, Amen, because that's
the heart of it. You will never establish a righteousness
that pleases God. Your best is not good enough. Trying hard is not good enough. The law demands perfection. And you go about to establish
your own righteousness and you know this is true. Every religious
person in here who has not come to Christ alone in faith knows
this is true. You go about to establish your
righteousness. You set it up and it falls down.
You set it up and it falls down. You make a New Year's resolution
and before the 2nd of January, it falls down. So, here's Saul of Tarsus on
the way to Damascus. He's going to put these fanatic
Christians out of business. He'd let them know who Saul of
Tarsus was. that Saul of Tarsus was greater
than Jesus of Nazareth. But it only took a few seconds.
You know, the Holy Spirit is a fast worker. It doesn't take
the Holy Spirit very long. When He says, Leave! Life happens. Regeneration power. The manifestation of Jesus Christ
Himself from heaven will soon subdue anyone. That's why... And I believe He was here today
already. What a worship service. What
a time of praise we've had today. That's because Jesus drew near. And when He draws near, things
happen. You see, you don't come to Christ
on your own. Come and find you. And I know
I've been saying this for 50 years, this year. I hear people
often say, I found the Lord! I found the Lord! And they're
sincere. But the truth is, you didn't
find the Lord. He wasn't lost. He found you. How true. Saul inquires with a sacred curiosity,
who art thou, Lord? And then he surrenders and cries
out, what wilt thou have me to do? It seems as you read these passages,
he seems to cry, I give up my weapons. I submit to be your
servant. You have conquered me. Somebody said, you know, I got saved. Took Jesus as my
personal Savior. And about ten years later, I
made Him Lord. You don't make Him Lord. He's
already Lord. In fact, you've got it reversed. The first thing He does is set
up His Lordship in the sinner's heart. And you bow. And then
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He becomes your Lord and Savior. And then your desire is, what
wilt thou have me to do? Many times I have heard that
I preach a message that gives people a license to live like
hell. People don't need a license. Know what I preach is this. The
first thing Jesus does in saving the sinner is conquer them. And
sets up His Lordship. Sets up His throne in their hearts. That's the first thing He does.
I know some of you have experienced this. Jesus set up His Lordship
in your heart and you have these strange, weird feelings. Here
you are. in an inner city building that
once was a bar, loving it. Where used to, you would never
have thought of coming over here. You found the fanciest buildings.
The most appropriate places. You've been conquered. You fell
at the feet of Christ. And that's what it means to be
saved. Only raise me up and give me
something to do in Your service." That was his cry. For I will
gladly undertake it. Let me tell you this, if the
Lord has saved you, He has called you for purpose. One of the greatest
things about Ms. Pam's death last Wednesday and
God giving her life back was there is no doubt in my mind
that God has a purpose for that gal. I hope I'm in on it. Because people don't die and
get life back unless God does it. Who art thou, Lord? Tell me who
you are. And that's what salvation is. This is eternal life that you
might Know God in Christ. Seeing God in
the face of Jesus Christ. And when that happens, there
is this longing to obey. Jesus said, My sheep hear My
voice. And I know them. And I give unto
them eternal life. And they follow Me. The sheep
follow. It's not a straight path. The
sheep follow like this. But the sheep do follow. Who art thou, Lord? If any would
be saved, you must be brought by divine grace to be in earnest
inquire after the knowledge of Christ. Is that what you want? Who art
thou, Lord? Reveal yourself to me. If you
don't have a revelation of Christ, if He doesn't reveal Himself
to you, you're going to be a phony religionist. You are. There must be and will
be a willingness to be taught. Saul of Tarsus is eager to be
taught. He wants to know. Do you want
to know? I'll tell you this. The Apostle
Paul, after 30 years of preaching in the book of Philippians, said,
Oh, that I might know Him. Well, wait a minute. Paul, don't you know Him? Yes,
I do. And no, I don't. Do you know
what is going to take up heaven's eternity? Getting to know Him. While the ages pile themselves
one on top of another, He's going to be revealing the riches of
His grace and mercy to us in Christ Jesus. Boy, if you get
bored now, you wouldn't like heaven. If hearing grace to you
is boring now. I think Saul of Tarsus asked
this question with deep anxiety. Who art thou, Lord? What right,
what power do you have? To save. I hope to live a few days when
men and women are anxious to understand the truth. Because
when there is that holy anxiety, to know the truth. That God has
invaded history. That God is a God of grace. A
few weeks ago we were playing at our golf outing. I'm a horrible
golfer. but I love to be asked questions
about God. It's an amazing thing. I hope
you are inquiring about God. God invaded history. God came
down to earth. God came down here for a purpose. For a reason. God in human flesh
to take my sins in His own body on the tree of the cross. I want
to know more about that. God, the Heavenly Father, imputing,
charging, and accrediting all of my filth to Him. God punishing
Him in my room and stead and place and punished Him to the
point that Jesus said, It's done! It's accomplished! All their
sins are paid for. willing to learn. I want to know
more about that. That never gets old to me. I love to hear people's testimony. To those who know Him best, I
love to hear your story of how He saved you. How He brought
you from death to life. From darkness to light. What
God is doing in your life. The Bible says, search the Scriptures.
And I was convicted as I studied for today's message. We don't
have our baptismal pool yet. And I'm going to tell you, as
you search the Scripture and you come to know Christ, you're
going to want to be immersed in water and say to the world,
He's my Lord. He's my Savior. He died for me
on the tree of the cross. He was buried for me. He arose
again for me. We're going to get busy about
that. He's able to save because He's
the Son of Mary and yet the Son of God. He is man, your brother,
touched with the feelings of your infirmities, yet He's God
eternal. When Ms. Pam was dying Wednesday,
I'm such a baby. I try to picture myself as a
man of God. Maybe a little bit to you. But
when she was dying, and I knew she was dying, I needed a big
God. And I knew He was big enough.
I didn't know exactly what His will was. But I remember thinking
and crying out, You are the eternal God! That's what I said. You are the eternal God. Don't
let her die. My God is so big. And I'm going
to tell you this too. I also had a consciousness if
she died, He would be there. It's good to know God. It's just
good to know God. And that He always does right.
What a way to live! God always does right. Because He's righteous. He's
Prophet, Priest, and King. Prophet, you must be taught by
Him. as prophet. He's priest. You must be washed
by His blood sacrifice. He's King. He's King of kings
and Lord of lords. I think it most interesting that
the Apostle Paul didn't say, I take you as my personal Savior,
where's the decision card? He didn't do that. He said, who
art thou, boss? Have you ever been knocked on
your duff by Almighty God? Have you ever been brought down
low? You can't fall out of bed when
you're sleeping on the floor. There's only one way to look
and that's up. Who art thou, boss? I am Jesus, the one you persecute. What a revelation that was. Oh, what a revelation that was. Oh, you are that one who was
the friend of publicans and sinners. You are that one who hung out
with the worst of the worst. You're that one. No doubt it
gave him hope. You know, if God the Holy Spirit leaves us
alone, We'll be such liars. We're such fakers. We're so phony. And especially when it comes
to religion. We act like we're better than
we are. We pretend stuff. You are here and a member of
some church. And your family have been whatever
they've been for years and years. And you have pedigree. But you
have never come to know the living Lord Jesus Christ in the free
pardon of sin. That's what needs to happen today.
That's why I'm talking to you. If I can make you mad, maybe
I can make you glad. Maybe someone in here will begin
to think, that preacher described me. I'm a Saul of Tarsus. I'm religious. But I'm such a
hypocrite. Whatever happened to Paul...
I know one thing that happened to Paul on the Damascus Road. He experienced repentance. Repentance
is a godly sorrow. You've lived all your life shunning
Jesus Christ. God in the flesh, who died in
the sinner's stead, and it's nothing to you. Or, it's something but not much. It's something like this. Often in my 50 years, I have
said, are you a Christian? Oh, I'm a Catholic. That isn't
what I asked you. Oh, I'm a Baptist. Oh, I'm a
Presbyterian. Wrong answer. Hell will be filled with religious
people. In fact, even at the judgment
People are going to say things like this, Lord, Lord, liar,
liar, pants on fire. You're calling Him Lord, but
He's not your Lord. Lord, Lord, have we not done? Have we not done? Have we not
done many wonderful works? Of course, in Your name. The bypass is you do it in the
name of Jesus. Watch this. Watch what you do
in the name of Jesus, but deep down inside, it's not about Jesus
at all. It's about you. It's about your
church entity. It's about your religion. And
let me say to all the Calvinists here, be careful that you don't
get puffed up in your Calvinism. Now it's getting quiet. Because,
you know, John Calvin supposedly started the Presbyterian Church.
And I use that term occasionally. Ms. Pam doesn't like for me to
use it. So now I don't use it since she's had a heart attack
around her. Calvinism. But I use that for brevity. But there is no doctrine that
ought to produce pride in any man. Whatever the doctrine is. God didn't elect you or choose
you because you were better than someone. In fact, when God looked down
from heaven, He couldn't find a good person. And it is not doctrine that takes
you to heaven. It's Christ alone. You come to Christ and He teaches
you His doctrine. Not the other way around. That's
for all the theologians here. The knowledge of Christ will
lead you to complete submission. I surrender. You've heard me
say this for 34, 35 years. Those of you who've been around.
Hoist the white flag. Lay the shotgun down. Surrender. Fall at His feet. You're wretched
and blind and poor and miserable. You need a Savior. You need a
Redeemer. You need a substitute. And then,
to all of us here, and this is my great inquiry, especially,
it seems like, after the events of the past week. What do you
want done? I really want to know. What do
you want me to do? What do you want me to do as
pastor? What is it we're doing here, not doing here, that we
need to do? The balcony's empty. It should
be full. There are seats in this place empty. It should be full. I'm getting especially concerned
about our kids and our youth program here, our nursery. I'm having tremendous thoughts.
We graduated three from the daycare. What night was that? Friday night. They walked across this stage.
That was here. It was only about 40 people,
but three graduates. And they had cap and gowns. And I said to him, so we should
have done more. Should have had everybody here.
Should have had the church here. You should have been able to
see that. We've got it on film. But I went home saying this. Our daycare, when you prick it,
it must bleed with the blood of Christ. Those preschoolers need to have
Scripture read to them. They need to memorize Scripture.
They need to be taught the Bible. Everything that goes on over
there at that building, 35 East Shuron, you ought to just barely
prick it, and it bleeds with the substitution at work of Jesus
Christ. He's honored and glorified. This
whole thing is not about us. It's about Him. What would you have me to do?
I'll tell you the best way to find out what the Lord wants
you to do is get a Bible and read it. And God will speak to
you. It's often said that maybe I ought to be a little
kinder And to be honest with you, I
try to be. And then I read the Bible. And Jesus said to the Pharisees,
you snake. I don't think I've ever called
you a snake. But Jesus did. You generation
of vipers! You whitewash the outside and
are full of dead men's bones on the inside. I didn't say that.
Jesus said that. And the Pharisees picked up stones
to stone the woman taken in adultery. Many of you in here have come
out of prostitution. There'd be no hope for you were
it not Jesus the Savior of sinners. I said to somebody, we're going
to have a Bible conference preaching grace in the hood. This was a
churchy person. And they go, what did you say?
I said, preaching grace in the hood. Jesus came into the world to
seek and to save that which was lost. He said, well, people don't
need a physician. It's sick folks. Amen. He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. And so the men that are coming are coming to preach grace in
the hood. And we want to invite all the religious people we can
invite to our conference, to hear the church. We want to find
every prostitute in Pontiac, every drunk. Amen. Why are some of you looking at
me like, well... I'm going to tell you this. I
was here I was here, I left early from the graduation. This would
happen nowhere but except at Archer. I left early to go home from
the graduation to check on Miss Pam. I saw a guy coming around
the corner, he came around the corner, and he came up in our
entrance there and urinated. It would only happen here. Say, Pastor. Yes, He did! I gave Him a little... Hey! We're in the right spot. This
is a big fishing hole. And what I long to see here is
men and women, boys and girls, come to know Christ. And let me tell you this, He's
a greater Savior than you are a sinner. I know some of you
are sitting back there thinking, I've done too much and gone too
far. Oh, you wouldn't even think that
way if God the Holy Spirit hadn't showed you that. To me, that
means God's doing something with you. God's speaking to you. It's
you that I'm talking to. And here's the invitation. Come,
just as you are. Come to Christ. I'm not talking
about up front. I'm talking about come to Christ. You can come
to Christ right where you are without moving a muscle. Right
where you are. Trust Him. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you see your filth,
your sinnership? Trust Him. And then it's going
to leak out on you. Yeah. If Christ ever gets inside
of you, it's going to leak out on you. At some point, You're
going to walk this aisle and say, He saved me! Maybe today. Maybe saved you
last week. But I do know this. I do know
this. God, something's happening here. Something's happening with me.
I know that. I know all of this has purpose
and reason. I know that and I'm thrilled
by that. I get to preach my brother's
funeral. What an honor. I was thinking about that this
week. I talked to Ronnie, I don't know,
a few weeks ago. Life was tough. He told me some things. I have
some things I can tell His family to comfort them. I got to preach
my mother's funeral. My mother, before she died, told
me some religious things that she no longer believed that she
and I had some differences about. I don't know what God's doing,
but He's doing something. And all things work together
for good to them that love the Lord. To them who are the called
according to His purpose. This is not just a church in
the mix. This is a church that really
and truly God's doing something with. I believe, since I've been home with Pam,
I've got to watch a lot of religious services. And I have been shocked
wonderfully shocked by some people. I would never have imagined these
guys would have started preaching grace. But I have seen at least
three men that I know at one time did not preach grace. I
saw them preaching and heard them preaching. God's doing something. God is doing something. This
is His message. It is a grace message. It is. All right, let's stand
together and praise our God.