We're glad for the presence of
visitors in the service this evening. I see a number who are
here tonight who are not members of this church, so let me express
unto you our happiness for your presence, and we hope you'll
come back again and worship the Lord with us. There's only one
aim of this forecast, and that's to draw the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're not seeking the praise of men. We're not seeking the
popularity of this world. If we were, we'd seek it a different
way. Because the gospel never has been popular, it is not now,
and it never will be. And if you were seeking popularity,
you would sure seek it another way. It's not found this way.
Being true to the souls of men does not make you popular with
men. Did you know that? It does not. It does not make
you popular with men. And this military and this church
is not seeking the praise, acclaim, applause, or commendation of
this world. It's seeking the praise of the
heavenly prophets to whom we are responsible. We've come to
do one thing, that is, to declare His word and be truthful to the
souls of men and look to God, the Holy Spirit, for a constant
job purpose, to do His work, waiting on the Lord. And you
cannot fail in that respect. So when you come to this church,
and when you come to hear this preacher, and when you come to
join with us in worship, you're coming for one reason, and that's
not to be entertained. We don't entertain sinners on
their road to hell. We'll leave that up to other
folks. We're not here to entertain sinners. We're not here to tickle
ears or scratch backs. We're here to preach the truth
and trust that the Holy Spirit of God will accomplish His mighty
work of grace in your heart and bring you to faith in Him. Now,
everybody here tonight knows whether or not you have failed.
Everybody will, and no question about it. You know whether or
not you're saved. I'm not talking about everybody
here knows whether or not he's a member of the church. You're
members of the church. That's true. Most of your members,
somebody's church. And I'm not talking about everybody
here knows whether or not he's been baptized. You know that.
You know that. And you know whether or not you
made a confession of faith. You know that. You know whether
or not you made a decision. You know that perfectly well,
whether or not you've had experience. But I'm talking about this. Everybody
in this congregation, It's saints who've been born again of the
Spirit of God, know who saves you, and what you were saved
from, and what you're saved to. Now, to the Greek, that's foolishness,
and to the Jew, it's a stumbling block, and to the worldly wise,
it's just a lot of poppycock. But the people here tonight who
know what it means to be lost, who know what it means to be
in the valley of despair, who know what it means to be in the
horrible pit, who know what it means to be in the mire of grace,
helpless, hopeless, dependent on the mercy of God. And God
in grace has reached down and lifted you, and saved you, and
washed you, justified you. That's not foolishness to you,
and it's not a stumbling block to you, and it's not poppycock
to you. It's truth, the glorious truth
that's the power of God's salvation to everyone that believes it.
the glorious truth of the power of God. My dear friends, salvation
is a glorious experience. Salvation is a wonderful thing.
Nothing in all this world could happen to you that would be more
important than the salvation of yourself. Nothing, nothing
in all this world could occur in your life that would be as
important or as wonderful as the salvation of yourself. It
eclipses everything else. The high point in your life from
beginning to end is when you met the Lord Jesus Christ, because
after you meet Him, it influences everything you do, everything
you say, every place you go, everything you even think. It
influences your attitude, your motives, your character, your
habits, everything in your life. The highest point in a man's
life is when he meets the Savior, not when he shakes some preacher's
hand, not when he joins some church. You can join the church,
and it'll have absolutely no effect on your life. You can
shake hands with a preacher, and it'll have absolutely no
effect on your life. You can be baptized, and it'll
have absolutely no effect on your life. But you cannot come
to grips with the Spirit of God in the salvation of your soul
through the death of Jesus Christ without it absolutely changing
the course of your entire thinking, of your entire life, of your
habits, of everything about you from death to birth. And you
know whether or not it happened. You know whether or not it's
taken place. And if it hasn't taken place, I trust that this
shall be the day of your salvation. Now I'm going to speak to you
tonight on four awakening truths from the word of God. I guess
four of the most important points that any preacher could take
and preach from. Here are four mighty, great awakening
truths from the word of God. Now hear them tonight, will you?
and think with me, and let's trust that the Spirit of God
will make it real in somebody's heart. May He do it. Now, first
of all, the first great awakening truth that we found in the word
of God, and I believe that's one of the foundation stones
of all the rest of us, and if a man's wrong on death, he's
wrong everywhere. Now, this is important. If a
man's wrong on this truth, he's wrong everywhere. He cannot help
but be wrong. And that is on the condition
of every sinner out of Christ. The condition of every sinner
out of Christ. Now, suppose someone were to
come to you tonight, wherever you're sitting, whoever you are,
whoever church you belong to, however long you claim to have
been a Christian, whatever theology you have. If you're not a theologian,
you know this. And that is the true condition
of every sinner out of Christ. Because one day the Spirit of
God showed you that that was your condition. Now, if you don't
know this, you're not saved. I wouldn't hesitate to say that. You say, you say that all the
time. You say, if a man doesn't know
this, he's not saved. Well, there's some essential
things that a man must know in order to be saved. There's some
essential things, and this is one of them. And if you don't
know this, it's because you've never been saved, because this
is where the spirit of God begins in bringing a man to salvation,
and that is the condition of every sinner. out of Christ. Now, what is that condition?
If somebody asks you to put in one word tonight, put in one
word, what is the condition of every sinner out of Christ? Would
you say unhappy? Well, he's unhappy, some of them
unhappy, some of them happy. That wouldn't be it, would it?
What would you say? The word taken from the word
of God to describe every sinner's true condition out of Christ,
such as plain and as clear as any unlawful or independent,
is the word P-A-D-C. That's what God's word says. The sinner out of Christ is as
dead spiritually as a corpse is dead spiritually. The reason
the evangelism today is all wrong is because it's laid on the foundation
that sinners are alive and they're not the dead. The reason that
most preaching today and most organization and promotion in
the name of Christ is wrong is because it's built on the foundation
that man is alive and he's not, he's dead. You can't have true
evangelism and true worship and true preaching unless it's laid
on this Let me show you that from the
word of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 2. You can't witness
it. You can't deal with sinners scripturally
unless you know this, that that sinner with whom you're dealing
and to whom you're talking is dead. He's dead. He's dead in the first place,
isn't he? It doesn't mean partially alive,
it means absolutely without life. And the sinner is dead. Now look
at 1 Corinthians, chapter 2 and verse 14. The natural man... And that's the sinner. That's
the man out of Christ. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He will not receive them. Why?
He has no spiritual capacity to receive them. He's dead. The
natural man will not receive the things of the spirit. It
doesn't say he might receive them. It says he won't receive
them because they are foolishness unto him, and neither can he
know them because they are spirits of the spirit. Now look at Ephesians,
chapter two and verse one. Here, the apostle Paul is talking
about what we were, and what God has done, and what we are
now. In the second chapter of the
Feast, the thing begins this way. And you, my brethren, and
you who have faith, and you who have called to the Spirit, and
you who have washed in the blood, and you who are redeemed by Christ,
and you who are the children of God, you see, that's who he's
talking to, and you have equipped them. What does the word equipped
mean? to make a lie. You've heard people
talk about some quick and deceit? That means folks that are lying,
folks that are dead. And you have these things alive
who were dead in the first place. That's the condition of every
sinner out of Christ. And if you go out to witness
to a sinner and tell him about the gospel and about the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only one who can awaken him and give him spiritual
understanding is the Spirit of God, because he's dead in great
passion. Now, you turn with me to John,
chapter three, and see what the Lord said about it. John, chapter
three, and verse twenty-seven. We're still sowing seeds. We've
been sowing a long time here. Then we're going to keep on plowing,
keep on sowing, keep on watering, trusting God to give me increase
in good faith. You see what? It's with faith
not, he said. Go back to John, Chapter 3, verse
27. Hear me. And Jesus answered and said,
a man can receive nothing except it be given him from Him. A man can receive nothing. You
know why? Because he's dead, dead in sin,
separated from life, isolated from God, absolutely, completely,
totally without spiritual life. Now turn, if you will, to Matthew
16, 17. Matthew 16, 17, and listen to the Lord again. Christ, the son of the living
God." Verse 17, Jesus answers, he said on the 8th, Matthew 16,
17, "'Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, blest, and blood hath
not redeemed it unto thee.'" Brothers, you are here tonight,
and you say, Christ is the son of God, and He's your Redeemer,
your Lord. You say it not because flesh
has revealed it to you, because flesh cannot reveal it to you.
A man can receive nothing unless he gets it from the hand of God.
Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but my Father which
is in heaven." You know the reason that we have so many different
ways of salvation today? It's because that in our colleges,
and in our seminaries, and in our pulpits, the preachers and
leaders of the religious world today do not believe that man
is dead. They'll tell an old sinner, the
way to be saved is to join my church. You come down and unite
with our church, and we guarantee you that God will save you. The
way to be saved is to come down and give the preacher your hand,
and say in your head that you believe what he's preached, and
take his hand and tell everybody you want to join the church and
be baptized, and you're saved. And the only reason in the world
why man will preach that is because he does not believe that sinners
are dead and must be awakened by the Spirit of God and brought
to salvation. All over this world, we've got
a half a hundred different ways of serving. One church teaches
you must be confirmed at a certain age, and then you must memorize
the Catechism, and then you must make your confession, and then
you must do a certain amount of penance, and so forth and
so on. You know the reason they teach
that? It's because they do not believe that the sinner is dead.
If they believe that the sinner is dead, they should quit doing
the gospel and wait on God to christen him and bring him to
life. And the only reason these preachers are ranting and raving
over the radio, talking about baptism for salvation, church
membership for salvation, all these different things for salvation,
is because they do not believe that the sinner is dead. And
the reason that even our Baptist preachers up and down this country
are seeking to pull and to pry and to plead out of the sinner
a decision for Christ is because they, too, do not believe that
sinners are dead. It's the dead that preach the
gospel, and they will be brought up to the Holy Spirit. Turn to Colossians, if you will.
Chapter two, verse nine and ten. Colossians two, verse nine and
ten. Now, listen to this verse. Just read it. Colossians 2.9.10. The whole second chapter of Colossians
is teaching one thing, that the sinner who is saved is complete
in Christ. That nothing needs to be added
to it. Now, I believe that public confession is essential to obedience,
and I believe that all of my heart, a man who's saved, will
make a public confession that he's saved in Jesus Christ. I
believe that baptism is a distinction to obey. I would not enemize
the importance of baptism. I say it to anybody here tonight,
and God has saved you, and you've not followed your Lord and believed
in baptism, you're a disobedient child of God. The Lord suffered
the distinction of the obedience, the peace, for the happiness
of the youth of the Christian heart and the fellowship and
communion of the Lord Jesus. I say church membership is important. It's commandment of the Lord,
and if you love Him, you'll keep His commandment. For those things
do not add to my salvation." Nothing can add to salvation.
Nothing can add to the gift of life. Nothing can add to that
which has been purchased for me by Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. I am completely in Him. Now,
listen here, this is Colossians 2.9. For I am healed in Christ,
well and all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You're not dealing with some
little messenger of God when you deal with the Lord. He's
God. A man said to me the other day that he knew a family of
close by who didn't believe Jesus was God. Well, he's not saved.
He claims to be saved. He's a priestess in this gospel
assembly up here on the side of 13th Street, and he doesn't
believe that Jesus Christ is God. He believes that when Jesus
shed His blood on Calvary's cross, it was just the blood of a human
being. Jesus is God. And you can't be
sane unless you believe in that God. No ifs and ands and buts
of that. He's God. And in Him dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead body. Now watch verse two. That's the reason I believe in
particular redemption, not that. I'm complete in Christ. I'm complete. And everybody who's in Christ
is complete too. And everybody who's out of Christ,
I don't care whatever else he believes or whatever else he's
got, he's incomplete, and he'll always be incomplete. And that's so, folks. In Him, you're complete. In Him
you're complete. Don't tell me anything needs
to be added to Him. I'm complete in Him." He's made
us a new version. Righteousness. Thanks for teaching. That's it. Bless your heart,
what do you think? My Lord, my Father turned His
back on Jesus for whom He should have done it. Huh? Does that
mean anything to you? It doesn't to the fellow that
believes that Christ tried to save on the cross and couldn't
do it. It doesn't mean anything to him. It doesn't mean the same
in the world. The man who believes that when
Christ went to the cross, He did His best to make salvation
possible, but He couldn't make it a texture, and He tried His
best to save people just to save them that's left in their hands,
and they've got to do something to add to His death doesn't mean
the same to you. Christ's death is no effect to
you. But to the man who believes that in Christ there is everything, It means something to me. You
know why? It means that when Christ came on that cross of
Calvary, and God turned His back, and Christ cried, My God, My
God, why has God forsaken Me? And the answer comes back to
my heart by the Holy Spirit, because on that cross He became
you. You see? He became you. And when my father turned his
back on his son, it was because that was me on that cross, dying,
bleeding, suffering, there in the hell that I so richly deserved."
That's the way he turned his back. He never forsook him any
time during his earthly life. He never forsook him any time
during his earthly life. He never forsook Him. Anytime,
for all that cause, He became seen for every one of those whom
the gods have seen. He became seen. Why is it that God can look on
me now? No, not for a disciple. It's just that God can't look
on the seen. God can't fellowship with the seen. And God can't
have anything to do with sin. And the only reason God can look
upon me and I can fellowship with Him and have any relationship
with Him is because I'm already crucified with Christ. I live. Nevertheless, the life that I
live, I live in the Son of God. Christ lives in me. And the only
reason God can look on me and love me and bless me is because
He sees not me, but He sees Christ. Do you see the difference? And
the cross, He saw me, and He said, He's got it. But now He
sees my heart, and He loves me. He loves me. And you want all over this country.
I've seen it with my own eyes. And I don't care if you get me
with it, it's still so. It's so. And whoever takes me
through with it, it's so! Anybody that adds anything to
the death of Jesus Christ, the salvation, he has not seen himself. And everybody who believes what
he preaches will go to hell with him. Now, this Bible says we're
complete in him. We're complete in him. And you
cannot touch him and him alone if you touch something else.
You cannot be partially on Christ, partly on Christ, but to be saved,
you must be completely on Christ. He must be your all and in all. He must be the preeminent one. He must be through Christ. And when you see this, and when
you are born again, and when you come to trust Him, and when
you see what He's doing in you, I tell you, these other things
go for his head. They go for his head. They pass away. They lose their ground. They
lose their trust in Him. for Christ is all-encompassing,
all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing,
all-encompassing, all-encompassing. that we don't know what salvation
is. Now, let me ask you something.
When is a man saved? Huh? When is a man saved? Oh, I know when a man comes to
a spiritual salvation. That's when Christ is revealed
to him. I know when a man comes to know himself in his heart
that he's saved, and that is when the Spirit of God so troubles
his heart, and brings him to conviction, and brings him to
his knees before Jesus Christ, and he's touched with precious
blood, and God speaks to his heart. So when is he saved? When is he saved? When is a baby
born? When it cries, when it comes
into the world? When does it begin to leave?
It'll hold out to take place in a baby's birth. It's perceptual. And every time that the mother
gives it life, it carries it, then it's the time that it's
born. But when does the baby leave? Nobody knows. You don't
know, and I don't either. When does a man save? Salvation
is your saving. It's how you began in eternity. You know that? You know that? If you're a believer in faith,
you're looking for the Word of God and find out that salvation
is not something God thought up, and God picked up about forty
years ago. You come to see salvation's an
eternal matter both ways. Both ways. Now, how long has
Jesus been slain? Well, you say two thousand years,
but that's not so. The Word of God says He's the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. It's always been
a thought in the mind of God. For whom was he slain? Well,
you say, everybody who believes on him. That's whom he died for,
that's true. All right, when was he slain?
He was slain before the foundation of the world. Then how long those
people been in Christ? They've always been in Christ,
you see? Now, come on, let's do some thinking, let's look
in the mirror of God. You were in Christ? Did you were
in Christ tonight? Because you were in Christ when
He died 2,000 years ago. If you were in Christ when He
died 2,000 years ago, you were in Christ when He was slain before
the world began. That makes television a little
bit more real, a little bit deeper, a little bit richer. How long
have you been in Christ? I've been in Christ ever since
God put me there. When did God put you in Christ? I've always
been in Christ. Now, there was a day when the
Spirit of God called me in time, there was a day when the Spirit
of God revealed Christ to my heart, there was a day when I
came to save and faith in Him, and that day I'm calling everyone
of you like this is it too. But as you get saved, you look
back and you see what a wonderful God and His wonderful salvation. He's been working this out for
me since eternity. The reason people preach that
the Lord has part of him teaching baptism, church membership, salvation,
that lets a man have an easy conscience and go to hell is
because they don't know the condition of himself. He must be a real
Christian. He must be Christian. I got to
a church on Friday night up in the mountains, and a preacher
came up to me and said, You have to do for the soul. I don't believe
it's possible to preach the word of God as it should be. And I
do believe it's true. I do not believe it's possible.
For this reason, he has said, if it's left up to me to explain
anything about this Bible, I'm to do for my men the simplest
part. But the thing about it, it's not left up to me to explain
the truth. It's left up to the Holy Spirit
to reveal it and to apply it to your heart, and no matter
how deep the need or how far down you're going to the need
of God's Word, the Spirit is able to make you understand it,
you see? And the rest is history. Oh, I just noticed a second good
thing. Now, you first of all, you think that man's dead. Thank you. You learn how to pray
when you find out a man's dead. You learn how to pray. You learn
how to face the truth. When you get on your knees and
ask God to save one of your loved ones, if not more, make better
need and say something that'll convince Him. or give me words
that are convincing, and have somebody else words that are
convincing. No, you don't pray that way. You say, Lord, thank
you, God. Lord, speak in this spirit. Lord,
let me finish up. Come in mighty power and change
in me. Make it over again. That's God's
work. God's work. You learn how to pray, and then
you learn how to pray. You learn how to pray. If you
don't learn how to pray, you'll find out how to pray. And then you
learn how to pray. You've been trying to get the
place to serve God so long, you don't know what it means to depend
on the Holy Spirit. You've been single to the place
so long, you don't know what it means to depend on the Holy
Spirit. When you learn to depend on the Holy Spirit, there are
five steps to your teaching. You'll teach how to acquire the
place, and you'll teach how to get the place to do things for
God, and you'll just take the gospel and beg God to do something
for the place. Oh, I've noticed the second thing.
What is salvation? The second greatest personal
condition of man. Now, what is salvation? What is salvation? What is salvation? The Catholics say that if you
give up a child up to the time he's seven years old, it will
have no success. You know why? They mean by that
that the boy's feelings fill his mind, and so he's sent upon
his mind to the darkness and to whatever they say is failing
the Catholic Church, that that child will always remember it
and will always believe it. But he won't. He won't, unless
the Holy Spirit puts a new heart into his heart. the world, but
does that change it? Does that change it? Does it
even make sense to you? You take a child in a basket,
throw it from where you came up, and you keep hammering and
drilling and heaping him the things he's got just to eat,
and he expects them to fall to his face, and they will fall,
and he expects them to fall, and he expects them to fall,
and he expects them to fall, and he gets them upon his mind
and upon his conscience, and he believes them, and believes
them, and believes them, they'll die. Is that teaching? It does
not. It does not. I've said over and
over again from this point forth, and I'll continue to say it because
it's so how the Lord dictated it through the pen of the apostle
James when he said, you believe in one God, you believe in the
other. The devil believes in seven gods, and it's just believing
that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and died on the cross
and raised from the dead that that's all it took to save me
and this whole world would have been saved by now. But believing that in your head
will change you. Believing that in your head will
change you. Believing in that in your head
will not transform you. Now, what is salvation? In the first place, salvation
is a resurrection from the dead. It's the resurrection from the
dead. Now, what do you say, by the way of the teaching? You
who are dead, you who are dead, you who are dead, Let's see what
the Lord says about this. John, chapter 5, and verse 24. Now, listen good. John 5, 24
and 25. Listen good. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word, he that heareth my word, and the Lord
Jesus is not talking about hearing of the news here as I do, there
are a lot of folks who have heard the word with these ears that
have never been heard. You know what some of you think?
Some of you think that here the gospel's understandable. That's
not right. Some people think that you hear the gospel, that's
to understand the gospel. But the Jews heard the gospel,
but they never understood it. It was a stunning gospel, wasn't
it? The Greeks heard the gospel, but they never understood it.
It was a foolish gospel. There's a whole lot more to understanding
the gospel than just hearing a preacher preach the gospel. The gospel can only be understood
as the Holy Spirit reveals it to your heart. That's the only
way. And the Lord Jesus said, he that
heareth my word, and that's not just the man that hears with
the outer ear and it rolls off his back like water off a boat's
back. That's the man that hears down in his heart. He that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent me, and everlasting
life. What kind of belief is that?
Did you know the word, believe it, down in John the third, chapter
36, is the same word for obey it? Obey it. If you think you love me, which
is not the matter. You prove your love for me, your belief
in me, by doing what I say. Now, listen to this. That man
that hears my word and believes it on me, that is saving faith. everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation, because what happened to him? He has
passed from death unto life." What happened when that man heard
my words? He passed from death unto life. I let him read it better. and
even have applied it to the resurrection of the physically dead, but it
does not apply to a physical resurrection. It's all about
a spiritual resurrection which is a very, I can't believe it,
hour is coming, and now is, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear it shall live. Now, if that means just hearing
it easily, that means everybody lives, but that's not certain.
It means here and now. It means that we are affectionate.
It means that we are interested in it. It means that we are over
the power of God. Our God is all-pervading, omnipotent,
and we are only certain in power, and in the name of God, and in
what is good. with that instrument through
which we receive that which God has already done for us. And
that thing that is the instrument through which we receive what
God has done for us is not a work, it's the gift of God. Faith is
a gift of God. And that work that God has done
in your life is not complete Now, what's the time for Ezekiel? Chapter 16. Ezekiel 16, we're
still on this truth. What do you establish? First
of all, it's a resurrection. A resurrection. You'll be alive
spiritually. You'll be dead spiritually. You'll
be dead spiritually. You'll have a Christ. You'll
be alive spiritually, and the Lord Jesus is in you. And when I passed by thee, and
I saw thee polluted in thine own blood, polluted, oh, what
a picture of a place, what a picture of a place, polluted in thine
own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
live, yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
Now, that's what I'll do. I'm alive. I won't get polluted,
but now I'm alive. I won't get polluted in my blood."
And he came by and said, And my Lord Jesus stood outside
the grave and said, "'Lazarus, come forth!' Somebody said that
he hadn't called Lazarus' name and had just said, "'Come forth!'
There was a dead body that was in the grave in Jerusalem with,
"'Come forth!' So he designated Lazarus, and he said, "'Lazarus,
come forth!' I listened to him. I made it up to people like Samuel,
and there were many more like him, but still The people that
love manhood, they should put perfume on their bodies, and
make them smell better, and they should put clothes on, and make
them live better, and they should do all manner of things, and
eat fine, and make themselves food, but they should make them
good. That's what the Lord says. And,
I'll tell you, we can go out and we can sign sinners up to
all kinds of cards. I will not blink, and I will
not curse. And I will not swear, and I will
not go to the sick to go, and I will not say, and neither will
you. And you make them smell bad,
but you can't make them listen. And you can go out and bring
them into your church, you can get them to make protection with
food, and with food you can get them baptized, and with food
you can get them in the way of affidavit, but you can't make
them listen. The only one who can keep life
here and give food is God the Father's Son in whom we living. Salvation is a resurrection. And once those people are resurrected,
let them come. You take out their life. Life
after death will be buried, and still alive. You remember? Oh,
I never forget. Life after the Lord, so you can
take away everything. Now that grave, what it will
be, bury me, bury me, bury me. Life after death, you won't go
back to the grave. Oh, no. Oh, no. I want to live."
And I said, you listen to me, my friend, when the Holy Spirit
of God ever gives you spiritual life, you'll be a spiritual man
or woman of faith, and faith will have to come out in rose
and hog time, beg you to come to church. Not if you live. Faith will have to go out and
beg you to worship God, not if you live now. didn't come to the services for
the place of a whole year. Exactly. Now, that's the loop that could be
defective. Personally, I think if a man
misses the services of that house for a month without any justifiable
reason, it's to cause something lacking in his soul. That's true. You mean to tell me that you
can lay away from the worship of God and forsake the ascending
of yourselves with God's people to worship Him who have made
you here? The fourth great law of heaven,
throw it on you. If that's salvation, I wouldn't
have it. That's it. I wouldn't have it. If it hadn't
done anything to your life, if it hadn't done anything to your
soul, if it hadn't done anything to your mind, if it hadn't brought
you to the foot of salvation, it's called to worship, and to
bear, and to love, and to live for years, twenty-four hours
a day. It's not salvation. It's just
a bunch of relations. You drop it, you won't take the
hell with you. That's it. Salvation's a revelation. You
never forget where it happened, and you never forget who did
it, and you never forget what you were brought to, and you
never forget what you were brought to. It's you. And then there's the next thing.
Salvation is a new creature. Turn to Galatians, chapter 6,
verse 15. Galatians 6, 15. And Paul's been writing to this
church at Galatia. He's been taking them over the
curve, for this fiction, grace would work. And all Paul's made
it work on. It comes down to the end of the
picture. Verse 15 says this. Now, listen,
you people. Verse 14, Some of you glory in a building,
some of you glory in an organization, some of you glory in a denomination,
some of you glory in a program, some of you glory in a fellowship,
some of you glory in this and glory in that, numbers, reports,
additions, dictations. It's because you never met the
Lord. He equipped it, everything else.
I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. God said He had called them.
He had given them Asia, He had given them Asia. They were glowing
in their knowledge. They were glowing in their doctrine.
They were glowing in their work. They were glowing in their gift.
They were glowing in their hard work. They were glowing in their
false preachers. They were just having a good
time. God foretold that I should slowly
take an evil eye to anything that the cross would mount. God
with the Lord was crucified unto me and unto the world, making
so in Jesus' name. He was circumcised, and if he
had anything, no one circumcised him. But what? But what? A new creature and this creature. For the mayhem, you make too
many demands on people. You're too hard. Listen to me. When you wake up in hell, you'll
wish I'd been a little bit harder. That's it. And nobody's in hell
that'll say this creature is too hard. We're not too hard. We're not hard enough. We're
not hard enough. If you didn't come to worship
God with the Apostle Paul in this court here, if you didn't
worship God, the priest don't get paid, and you didn't have
a good enough reason to satisfy the mastermind that brought him
here. The physical things of your life
is passed away, the material things of your life is passed
away, but your immortal soul will forever. Man, you've got
to take ease to the things of your soul and the welfare of
your heart. You will forever. Somewhere,
even heaven and earth. Even heaven and earth. Now, let me tell you a secret.
Here's what happens when God speaks to man, that when he says, I will put you among the heathens,
and I will gather you out of all your senses, and I'll bring
you into your own land, and I'll sprinkle clean water on you,
and you'll be clean. With all your senses and all
your heart, until I send you a new heart, will I give you
a new heart?" A new heart? What kind of heart is that? It's
a heart that hates pain, and a heart that loves life. A heart
that hates pain. I'll take that old stoney heart
out of you, and I'll give you a new heart. It's just as I'd
hoped. Since you've made that perfection of faith, has anything
changed about you? Huh? Has anything changed? Now, listen to me. This old man
just seen, he's got a hard stone. It's a hard that's filled with
watches, it's filled with envy, it's filled with jealousy, it's
filled with hatred. It's filled with malice, it's
filled with division, it's filled with a loss of faith. And all
that's believing in this world will never change that heart.
It takes the power of God, and when God gives you a new heart,
the new heart that He gives you is a heart that's filled with
love, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost. according to him. My kingdom's not need and right. My kingdom's not handshaking.
My kingdom's not denominationalism. My kingdom's not organization.
My kingdom is law and peace in the Holy Ghost, because the Lord
is there. And if you received a new heart,
a new heart, and you know what's inside of you, you'd put on pretty
show in the air for people. You make folks believe you're
Mr. Somebody. Now, I met a whole lot of Mr.
Somebody's that turned out to be nobody, and you make folks
believe you're somebody, but God made you a devil-bear hypocrite,
and your heart's all wrong, and filled with hatred, and malice,
and envy, and jealousy, and murder, and it's not a new heart. A new
heart's filled with love for God, and righteousness, and purity,
and filled with hatred for the things of this world. Now, listen
to me. And the thing that caveman hates
most is hypocrisy. He hates that worse than anything,
because that's what his God hates, and he's got a nature like his
God. Now, listen to me. A new spirit that I put in you,
a new spirit, and I'll take a little bit of stone of iron out of your
flesh, and I'll give you a harvest. That's all I can do for you.
You know something? Back in the days when we used
to in the flesh, and it didn't depend on the spirit. If you
tried to do the work of the Holy Spirit, you'd get a lot of folks
to make decisions, and you'd plead with folks, and you'd say,
don't you want your wife to have a Christian husband, and your
children to have a Christian daddy? Don't you want to meet
mother and husband? The man that saved you today walked the aisle,
and this, that, and the other. And you got a lot of folks to
make decisions. You came by to shake hands with them, and this
is what was going through your mind. I wonder how long he'll
last. And I'm like, you might write
a book. You might write a book. Where
are all those folks that made decisions? Huh? Where are they? John said if
they'd been of us, they would have continued with us. And you'd walk by and shake hands
with them, hone down the line, and you knew down in your heart
that it wasn't real, that it wasn't And you were worried about
whether or not they'd come to church, and whether or not they'd
yield, and whether or not they'd resurvive, and whether or not
they'd pray. And the preachers and the deacons had to run around
conserving the results of the revival. Now, that's just an
invented term that was originated by saints, conserving themselves. Who ever heard of a human being
conserving the results of the Holy Spirit's work? You know
why you thought that? You knew it wasn't genuine. But
listen to me, when you preach the gospel and depend on the
Holy Spirit to make it effectual and bring a man to salvation,
and he comes confessing that God has saved him, that Nehemiah
was waiting him to be saved, that God has saved him, and God
has saved him, and God has made him over again, you don't have
any doubt about that man. And you say, you'll be around. He'll love the Word, he'll pray.
It's not up to me to conserve the results, because I didn't
get the results. God got them, and it's up to
Him to conserve them. And salvation's real. And if you just aim up the flag,
I'll wait on the Holy Spirit to do it, too. I've seen too
much counterfeit religion. I've seen too much handshaking
fossilized. I've seen too many people join
churches and then never see them again, and that's not salvation. And the man that's been raised
from a spiritual grave will walk with the king. A man that's been
made a new creature will walk with the king. A man that's been
brought from darkness to light will walk with the king. And
you set him off on a desert island, and he'll still walk with the
king. And you isolate him from every preacher, and every evangelist,
and every program on earth, and he'll still walk with the king
because he knows the king. I've seen so many tragedies.
I've seen families. I've seen mothers and daddies.
You know what I'm talking about? With five or six children in
the family, and they start them off with Sunday school. And some Sunday school teacher,
when the preacher gives an invitation, some Sunday nudges them and says,
don't you want to go? Don't you want to go? Don't you
want to go to heaven? Don't you believe in Jesus? And
the little fellow said, yes. And he comes down to the front,
and the preacher is baptized, And he baptized it all out, one,
two, three, four, five, six. And they all come to church for
a while, but then they grow up and they get sixteen years old,
and all they've got for profession, they haven't got the Lord. All
they've got for distinction, they haven't got the Lord. And
you wonder why they don't want to come to church. And you wonder
why they don't want to worship God. And you wonder why they
don't love the Bible. And you wonder why they're not
like they used to be. And that's the last you see of
it. I am telling the truth. The last you see of it. The last
you see of it. And they carry their names on
the membership rolls of this church till they die and go to
hell. The last you see of it. And folks,
that's not funny to me. That's tragedy. Because we were more concerned
about the report that we make to the annual association than
we are of an individual soul. We are more concerned about numbers,
numbers, addition, decision, profession, in order that the
players might get to know it, than we are about an individual's
hired soul. a man that'll dabble with an
eternal soul and give it a false assurance is a criminal. And
the only thing wrong is they can't hang you. They can't hang
you. There's a law against it. There's
a law against it. I rule the day, and I weep over
the day that I ever gave people false assurance. May God have
mercy on me and forgive me. it was in ignorance. For above
you get the light, you better walk in it. You better walk in
it. You better let God's faith in
there, and you better quit going out here giving them false assurance,
and telling them all they have to do is believe what you say.
They better believe something else, not what you say. They
better repent. That's still in the Bible. They
better come to an end of themselves. That's still in the Bible. They
better come to saving, obedient, enduring faith in Jesus Christ. That's still in the Bible. That's still in the Bible. That's still there. And I'll
tell you, this thing is salvation. You get mad at a preacher and
quit God, that's because you never met God. You get mad at
a preacher and you won't go to church, that's because you never
met God. You get mad at a preacher, and you won't give your time
to God. That's because you never met God. You get mad at a preacher,
and you won't do this, and you won't do that, and you won't
do that. That's because your religion's in a preacher, and in a denomination,
and in an organization, and it's never been in Jesus Christ. And
that's so. I tell you, retaliation's real.
It's real. And the only folks who get mad
at that kind of preaching is religious people that aren't
The sinner knows it's real, and the sinner knows if he ever gets
real salvation, that's the kind he wants. It'll make him over
again. It'll make him over. It'll make him over. A new creature,
a new creature. I notice the next thing. I'll
close in a minute. What are the means that God uses
to awaken sinners? What are the means? Well, I'll
tell you what they aren't, first of all. God doesn't use oratory
to awaken dead sinners. No, sir. You stand outside the
grave of Lazarus and deliver Lincoln's Gettysburg address,
or Peter's sermon on Pentecost, or Paul's message on martyrdom,
and Lazarus never moves. I preached the sermon in Chattanooga,
Tennessee one time. I gave an illustration along
about the first 45 minutes of the sermon, and I went on preaching.
And a friend of mine came up after the sermon. He said, Henry,
you know what? He said, if you had closed that
sermon after that illustration, he said, you'd have had them,
and you'd have got a lot of decisions. And he said, you didn't quit.
You went on preaching, and you lost the crowd. Now, that's not
silly to some of you, but it's silly to most of you. That's
right. If you quit, and that's what
the average preacher thinks of preaching is. It's to build up. They say, now, that's the kind
of service that gets people ready. You know what that means, don't
you? That means to build them up in the energy of the pledge
to such a place that the preacher can come along with his oratory
and with his illustration. and build him up to the point
of emotionalism and sentiment and fear, and he didn't get anything
out of it. There's a book down here at the
bookstore on sixty-five ways to give a gospel invitation,
and not but one way, and that's preach the truth and invite hungry-hearted
sinners to come to the Savior. That's all there is. And he'll
ever tell you this, your oratory might get him to make decisions,
get them to read, and get them to cry, and get them to mourn,
and get them to feel sorry, because they're not on their road to
meet Mother, and all of those things, but it'll never get them
saved. The Holy Spirit of God must awaken sinners. I must tell
you, personality doesn't get sinners saved. Intellect doesn't
get sinners saved. What is it? Let's look at First
Corinthians 121, see what it is. 1 Corinthians 121. What are the means that God uses
to get people to cry? 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
9, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9 and 10. First of all, here
are the means. Now, watch it, people. This is
important. What are the means that God uses to get people to
cry? 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse
9 and 10. That's the natural life. Fear
hath not heard. That's the natural end. Neither
hath it entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared
for them to love Him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. Yea, the Spirit searches all
things, the deep things of God. What man knows the things of
a man, things of spirit within that man? Even so, the things
of God knoweth no human being, only the Spirit of God. And there
you have it. There you have it. I tell you, this natural eye
will never see the gospel, this natural ear will never hear the
gospel, this natural heart will never understand. And that's
the Spirit of God in His grace and power. You talk about praying
for revival. Revivals are the acts of God. You read the Bible. Every one
of us is the act of God. A soul-saving season is an act
of God. A mighty manifestation of the
Spirit is an act of God. Let us hold on to the horns of
the altar and pray that God will be pleased in His grace and in
His mercy to send us a time of harvest. But until He does, let's
sow, and plow, and water, and plant, and sow, and plow, and
water, and plant, and in due season we'll reap if we faint
not. But you know what we're doing
today? Preachers are sowing a little bit. and they don't see any harvest,
and so they take the harvest in their own hands, and they
pull green apples, and they go out and reap the harvest themselves. That's right. It's too hard to
wait on the Spirit. We're too impatient to wait on
the Spirit. We're too carnally-minded. We
love flesh and glory and applause too much to wait on the Spirit.
So we're going to do the Spirit's work hard. No, let's never do
that. Let's preach the truth. We're
dealing with immortal souls, and if God be pleased to work
on a sinner a year, let God work on him. If God be pleased to
work on a sinner two years, let God work on him. Joseph Hart,
who wrote so many of the hymns we've seen, was under conviction,
and all I have to do is take his word for it. I can't say
I do not know, but he says himself he was under conviction eleven
years before God sent him. Now, how many of you would be
content to pray for him eleven years, and preach to him eleven
years, and wait on God to save him eleven years? Not many of
you. You'd go out the first week he
manifested a little interest, and pull him down the aisle to
get a decision out of him, so you could report him as a member
of your church. It's a sin and disgrace not to
report the decision. and deceit. That's awful. Whole knower he'd have been an
outcast, and this day he preached 120 years, he didn't have any
deceit. That's right. The Lord Jesus would have been
a failure as an evangelist, you know that, Brian? That's right.
He preached three and a half years, he didn't have God for
120 members of his spiritual church. Isn't that awful? We just had
120 members. We'd run our hang in our gates. What happened to
Paul and Basil? Well, they're depending on God now, and they
quit depending on the flesh, and they can't find all those
folks they got when he's in the flesh. Now, sir, if you will, briefly,
Isaiah fifty-five. Isaiah fifty-five. That crosses
the brain, I know it does. It crosses the brain, but it's
love. It's love. If it makes me mad, I think it
is so, because I've still got an old nature, and that old nature
rebels against the new nature. And something so, it'll generally
make the old natural man very mad, if it's so. And don't just
get mad at something just because it's so. Don't get mad at it,
just receive it and agree with it, because you know it down
deep in your heart, you know it. Everybody here tonight knows
good and well, down deep in your heart, you know that salvation
is something God does for men. Now, you know that. You've seen
enough of this little old easy-beliefism that makes people church members
for two weeks, and makes people givers for two weeks, and makes
people Bible readers for two weeks, and then at the last you
see them, you know better than to say that's salvation. Now,
you know that. If you'd be honest with your
soul and honest with God, you'd know And you know good and well
that salvation, everywhere it's described in this book, is described
as something that changes a man's entire being. Entire being. Isaiah 55, verse 11. So shall
my word be that goeth out of my mouth, it shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I plead, and it shall
prosper In the same way, too, I sin. That's the means God uses
to bring people to Christ. First the volition, and then
the Word of God. He won't use your personality.
You can grin all day, and you can dress up pretty all you want
to, and He won't use your oratory. Oh, He's such a good preacher.
We just love to hear His oratory. God never used a man's oratory.
If your intellect won't use it, you have to bring in the Christ.
He uses the work of the Spirit and the word of God. The work
of the Spirit and the word of God. Last of all, we quit. There
are some great truths that God uses. There are some great truths
that God uses. Well, they're not so old, but
I know this. I know this. The Scripture said, And you know Gray Harris did
not always speak of wisdom. Not always. Balaam was an old man. God had
to preach to him through a donkey to get him to understand anything.
A man's age does not mean that he knows a whole lot, and a man's
youth doesn't mean he doesn't know anything. The Holy Spirit
is the revealer of truth. And I don't care if you live
to be five hundred, you'll never know anything about the gospel
unless the Holy Spirit shows it to you. And a man's age doesn't
equip him to be any better preacher than a man who's seventeen years
old. I had a boy preach over in Cincinnati that's nineteen
years old, and it's amazing what God's shown him. It's amazing. He knows more about the Word
of God than any pastor I've ever had. And I've had some pastors
that were pretty old men. You know the difference? They're
depending on their personality, intellect, and oratory. He's
depending on the holistic. And God taught it to them. God taught it to them. And I
tell you young people, don't be ashamed of your youth. God
Almighty will teach young as well as old. Teach a young man
with an open heart, a whole lot more He'll teach an old man with
a closed heart, too. That's all. God Almighty will
do more for a young man with an open heart than He will an
old man with a closed heart. He'll do more for a young man
who's seeking the pleasure of the Lord and the glory of the
Lord than He will an old man who's seeking the popularity
and pleasure of the people.