A couple of months ago, Brother
Todd Nyberg asked me to come over to the preacher's class
and give a lecture on hermeneutics, which I did Saturday a week ago. Hermeneutics is the discipline
of interpreting Holy Scripture, and it's a very, very needful
discipline. Sadly, few who preach know anything
about that discipline. The scriptures, particularly
now I speak of the Old Testament, are never to be spiritualized. Let me explain what I mean by
that. You read a text and you say, well, this is what I think
this means to me, or this is how I will apply the text, and
you ignore the historic, literal, grammatical context in which
it's found. and you just give it whatever
meaning you want. If you do that, then you do violence
to the word of God and destroy the authority of the word of
God. Having said that, while we interpret
the scriptures in their proper historic context, literally and
grammatically correct, given by inspiration of God, the scriptures
are always to be interpreted spiritually. always to be interpreted
spiritually. That is, to be interpreted as
giving some understanding of the person and work of God our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the accomplishment of redemption,
righteousness, and salvation for our souls by him. so that
everything in the Old Testament scriptures, all the events, all
the places, all the people, all the stories, all the miracles
speak in some way with regard to the person and work of Christ
and our salvation in him. This book was written not to
give us merely historic facts, but rather to show us God, our
savior. It speaks of creation, and what
it says about creation, literally true, literally true. A man who
believes in evolution is a fool. He's a blind, ignorant, willfully
ignorant fool. There's no question about that.
But if you read the first two chapters of Genesis and read
nothing but the fact that God has with omnipotent power created
the world sovereignly, You've done nothing to benefit your
soul and found nothing to benefit your soul. If, however, you read
those first two chapters of Genesis and God's creative power as a
display, as indeed they are intended, of God's saving mercy and grace
in Christ, then they take life. They have meaning. You follow
what I'm saying? We read the scriptures. I have two books
back in my study I've had since I was 18 years old. I had class
in Bible history. And they're very good books.
They teach Bible history very clearly, very accurately, giving
things in chronological order so that you can see how things
happen chronologically as they're recorded in the Old Testament.
They are not recorded chronologically. In fact, very little in the scripture
is recorded chronologically. And so we put things together
and learn the history. But if all you learn is the chronological
history of the scriptures, you've learned nothing to profit your
soul. the history of scripture. Everything
recorded in Bible history was recorded to show us how that
Christ must suffer and die and rise again and accomplish salvation
for us that remission, forgiveness, and remission of sins be preached
in his name unto all the world. Now that is certainly true in
the passage before us this evening in 1 Kings chapter 8. The temple
the priesthood, the sacrifices, the altar, the mercy seat, the
Ark of the Covenant, everything in the temple, all the services
of the temple portray spiritual things. Jerusalem speaks of God's
church, Jerusalem which is above. The temple speaks of our Redeemer
and all things done in the temple speak of his work of redemption.
We see Israel representing God's church, Judah representing God's
church, his elect, so that these things are to be understood in
a spiritual sense applying to us. My subject tonight is the
plague of the heart. Let's begin in 1 Kings 8 and
verse 37. If there be in the land famine,
if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be
caterpillar, if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities,
whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness be there. What's he
talking about? Obviously he's talking about
these physical plagues, these physical difficulties, these
physical pestilence and disease. But he's talking about more than
that. When God the Holy Spirit begins to deal with the sinner
in conviction, when God begins to work repentance in the heart,
He exposes the famine, the pestilence, the barrenness, and the disease
that plagues the city of man's soul. When God the Holy Spirit
first begins his work in you, he causes you to know something
about the plague of your heart. Look at verse 38. What prayer
and supplication so ever be made by any man or by all thy people
Israel, which shall know every man the plague, now watch this,
of his own heart. My goal in preaching to you is
to make you to know the plague of your own heart. The plague of your own heart. The doctrine of total depravity
is a doctrine clearly taught throughout this book. Man is
depraved. He's corrupt. He's vile. He's base. He's wicked at his
heart. From his heart proceed evil thoughts,
vain imaginations, fornications, adulteries, all the evil that's
done in this world. And through these facts revealed
in scripture, I presume everybody here would be in full agreement. Yes, sir, pastor, that's what
the Bible teaches. But Bobby, it's one thing to
know the Bible teaches total depravity. It's something else
to know the depravity of your own heart. I can teach you the doctrine
of total depravity. I can do that. I can't make you
know the depravity, the plague of your own heart. Only God can
do that. We shall know every man the plague
of his own heart and spread forth his hands toward this house. Spread forth his hands toward
the throne of grace where Christ sits today on the throne of grace
as that one who was portrayed in that house, in the holy place,
in the temple, on the mercy seat. Only when a person is made to
know the plague of his heart will he spread his hands toward
the Lord God in heaven in repentance and faith, seeking mercy. You can be talked into a religious
profession. You can be persuaded to join
the church. You can be talked into living
a religious life. But only when God makes you to
know the plague of your own heart will you spread your hands to
God in heaven and seek his mercy in Christ the Lord. Look at verse
39. Then hear thou in heaven, thy
dwelling place, and forgive and do, and give to every man according
to his ways whose heart thou knowest. Now watch this. For
thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children
of men. Every sinner who calls upon the
Lord God with sincere heart faith, knowing his need of grace, will
obtain grace, forgiveness, and salvation in Christ Jesus. Now,
look at verse 40. That they may fear thee all the
days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. Forgiven sinners, Forgiven sinners,
men and women who are made to know by the grace of God, the
plague of their hearts, men and women who seek the mercy and
grace of God in Christ Jesus, walk all their days upon the
earth in the fear of God. They live by faith, worshiping
God, seeking his honor, living in the fear of God, in the reverence,
worship, and faith in God our Savior. Now, the verse I've selected
for my text, verse 38, and my subject, the plague of the heart,
is found in part of Solomon's prayer, which he offered the
Lord God in the dedication of the temple. And this prayer the
king offered on his knees before God in the midst of all the congregation
of the children of Israel. Let me give you the background. The temple was finished and the
priest of God brought the ark of the Lord into the most holy
place with blood sacrifices, blood sacrifices that were too
costly and too numerous to be counted. Look at verse five.
and King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were
assembled unto him were with him before the ark, sacrificing
sheep and oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multitude. The priest brought the ark of
the covenant of the Lord into his holy place, into the oracle
of the house, into the sanctuary of the house, into the place
fixed for it by God or by the decree of God. to the most holy
place, even under the wings of the cherubims. These blood sacrifices
and the ark of God in the most holy place represented the accomplishment
of redemption by Christ Jesus, he who with his own blood entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. And then when the priest brought
the ark of God into the most holy place, we're told in verses
10 and 11 that the glory of the Lord filled the house. This pictures the glory of God
revealed in the gospel. And the glory of God is revealed
only in the gospel. The glory of God is revealed
only in the gospel. It is revealed in Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Turn to a couple of passages.
Hold your heads here in 1 Kings 8. Turn over to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 22. Here is God's glory. Write it
down. Here is God's glory. It's revealed
in this bright light that led Israel in the cloud, pillar of
cloud and pillar of fire that led Israel in the bright Shekinah
in the holy place. It was revealed as Manoah and
his wife offered a sacrifice and the smoke ascended up and
the angel of the Lord did wondrously in the smoke as it ascends up
to heaven. Here is the glory of God. It is not a dazzling light. Not that, not
that. It's more than that. The glory of God is the salvation
of sinners by the satisfaction of justice in the sacrifice of
his son. Have you got that? The glory
of God is the satisfaction of justice, the salvation of sinners
by the satisfaction of justice in the sacrifice of God's dear
son. It is God showing himself just
while still being the justifier of all who believe. Isaiah 45
verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come.
Draw near together, you that are escaped to the nations. Now
watch this. They have no knowledge. They are spiritually ignorant. They have no knowledge. Not they have a different understanding.
Not they have a different way. They have no knowledge. No knowledge of themselves. No
knowledge of God. No knowledge of grace. No knowledge
of righteousness. No knowledge of sin. No knowledge
of salvation. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Now, let me put that in plain
English for you. That means your brothers and
sisters, your mothers and fathers, your sons and daughters, your
neighbors and friends, your foes and your friends, all who are
real worship folks who think that God can't save without man's
help or man's permission. They pray to a God that cannot
save. Goes on all over Danville, Kentucky
all the time. Goes on all over the United States
all the time. Goes on in churches around the
world all the time. I don't personally know. I've
never personally had contact with anybody that I'm aware of
who worships stumps. I've never known anybody who
did. I don't personally know anyone who makes a god and calls
it god and worships that physically. But almost everybody I know has
made a God that's no God at all out of their own vain imaginations. And they call him Jehovah. They
call him Jesus. They call him God. But he's a
God who can't save without them. And they have no knowledge. They don't understand anything
in this book. They don't understand anything
in this book. Anything about God anything about
grace anything about salvation now, what's this verse 21? Tell
you and bring them near Let them you let them take counsel together
who have declared this from ancient time who have told it from that
time Have not I the Lord watch this there is no God else beside
me a just God and the Savior Anyone, anyone who wears the
name God must be a just God and the Savior. That is, he can only
save sinners justly. Now understand this. Everything
God does, he does in justice. If God saves you, it will be
according to his own law and justice. Not your fulfillment
of it, but his son's fulfillment of it. If God sends you to hell,
he'll send you to hell because you fully deserve it. And if
he takes you to glory, he'll take you to glory because you
fully deserve it in his son. God never does anything except
on the ground of justice. He says, I'm a just God and a
savior. Look here at verse 22. He said there's none beside me
look unto me and be you saved all the ends of the earth For
I am God and there is none else now look in Romans chapter 3
Almost chapter 3 2 more very very familiar text description
Romans chapter 3 Paul is talking about this matter of justification
Being made equal to God's demands in his law justification We're
justified freely by his grace, free with regard to us, freely
by his grace, but not free to him. We're justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation. Through faith in his blood to
be a justice, satisfying justice, appeasing sacrifice through faith
in his blood. For what purpose? To declare
God is love, love, love, love. God is love. Well, God is love,
but that's not why Christ died. It is not what's revealed in
the death of Christ, though it is only revealed in the death
of Christ. The reason Christ died was so that God might declare
his righteousness. his righteousness, so that God
might make everybody understand that for him to forgive Don Fortner's
sins, he does it righteously, only righteously. God won't take
you to heaven if you can't do it righteously. God won't forgive
you if he can't do it righteously. God will not save except righteously
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth. I've been saying this, telling
you, this is the revelation of God's glory. God's glory is the
salvation of sinners by the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ our
Lord, through the satisfaction of justice. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Let's see if I can make good
on that. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4. Paul speaks of those who believe
not. in whom the God of this world, and I see absolutely no
reason why our translators have translated that word God with
a little G as though it referred to the devil. Satan is never
called the God of this world, nowhere in this book, nowhere
in this book. He's the prince of darkness,
but not the God of this world. What's he talking about? He's
talking about God, just exactly what you would think he's talking
about if it hadn't been written in a little G. in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. Oh, God, I pray you will
not do that to any who now hear my voice. If God sends blindness,
you can't see. That's what it did to the whole
nation of Israel. Read the 11th chapter of Romans.
God sends blindness and men can't see. Now look at verse 5. For
we preach not ourselves. We don't preach from ourselves,
about ourselves, or for ourselves. But we preach Christ Jesus the
Lord. We preach from him, about him, and for him. And ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? In the
face of Jesus Christ. God commands the light to shine
out of darkness to shock all sinners to see the glory of God
And the only place you see it is in the face of the crucified
Redeemer who sits on the throne of grace The temple has been
built at Jerusalem And now the Lord God comes in in his manifest
glory. And then Solomon, upon the basis
of blood atonement, upon the basis of justice satisfied, upon
the basis of God's own glory, revealed in redemption, turned
and blessed the whole congregation of Israel. Look at verse 14.
And the king turned his face about and blessed all the congregation
of Israel. And all the congregation of Israel
stood. The king turned after sacrifices made, God's glory
is revealed, redemption accomplished by blood atonement, and the king
turns and blesses the people. And the people stood to receive
the blessing before God's king who he set over them. Even so,
God's elect, the Israel of God, in Christ Jesus, are blessed
of God upon the basis of blood atonement. God's blessings, all
God's blessings, all mercy, all grace, all life, all blessings
from God flow from the throne of God through the river of Christ
atoning blood to chosen sinners. And apart from blood atonement,
there is no blessedness. You understand this? Apart from
blood atonement, anything that comes to you from God is just
a curse. Apart from blood atonement, anything that comes from God's
hand to you and whatever you have comes from God's hand. But
if it doesn't come to you through the blood of Christ, it shall
be your everlasting damnation, not your everlasting blessedness.
grace, all life, all repentance, all faith, all forgiveness, all
righteousness, all justification flows to sinners through the
blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. And as Solomon blessed the people
of He extolled all the attributes of God. He said, the Lord God
of Israel, there is no God like unto thee. And he adored God's
greatness, his goodness and his glory as he had seen it and experienced. He said, Lord, you have now fulfilled
all your word to my father, David. You have done everything that
you promised Moses and the children of Israel You have not failed
to do exactly what you said you do and then he made his request
known to God Speaking for all the people he says in verse 56
Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel
According to all that he promised there hath not failed one word
of all the good promise And they concluded their worship service.
Look at verse 60. What a glorious day they had
All the people that all the people of the earth may know of that
the Lord is God and that there is none else. Oh, that's our desire, isn't
it? Oh, I want everybody in the world to know that God is God
and that there is none else. I'm often asked, why do you preach
like you do? Because I want you to know who God is. I want you
to know who God is and I want everybody to know it. And when
God gets done, everybody's going to know who God is. Everybody's
going to know there is no other God. He alone is God. Now, on
the eighth day, we're told in verse 66, he sent the people
away and they blessed the king and went unto their tents, joyful
and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done
for David, his servant and for Israel, his people. How I pray
that when we're done here today, you will go to your home joyful
and glad of heart for all the goodness God has done to you
and to his people, his Israel. You see, what God does to you
is his goodness. What God does to you is his goodness
if you're his. It may come in the form of pain,
horrible pain. It may come as a devastating
sorrow. It may come as a heartbreaking
experience. But if God does it to you and
you're his, he's doing it for you because you're his. Understand
that? Adore God for his goodness that
flows to you through the blood of his son Now I take Solomon's
prayer and his words in verse 38 The plague of the heart for
my subject this evening and I want to show you four things I pray
God the Holy Spirit will do the showing number one understand
this the heart of man is plagued with sin. I'm not looking for something
to say. I want it to settle in. Our text tells us plainly that
the heart of man is not whole and sound, but diseased, distempered,
plagued. The word plague might be translated
Leprous. The heart of man is leprous. Diseased. The disease and plague
of the heart is referring to indwelling sin. The sin of our
nature, which is found in and springs from the heart. Now when
I speak of the heart, when the word heart is used in scripture,
most of the time, it's not referring to this physical pump that pumps
blood through your body. I know lots of folks get upset
with the idea of fooling with the heart surgically, but it's
not referring to this physical pump. That's not it. It's referring
to the whole nature of man. Excuse me. It's referring to
your intellect, your emotion, your will. It's referring to
all that's in you, all that's the deep-seated part of your
nature. The heart is plagued with sin. This disease, this plague of
the heart, sin, is that which is ours by nature. We're all
sinners indeed. That is, we practice sin. We
do evil. because our hearts are evil.
A long, long time ago, I had a car stolen. I was just a boy.
Went to bed one night, came in late at night, parked my car
out front, left the keys in the car, left the windows down like
I always did. And I had been in bed a couple hours, got a
call from way down in the eastern part of the state. Police wanted
to know if there was somebody in the house that owned a 1965
Plymouth Barracuda. I said, yeah, I just know where
it is. I said, outside. He said, would you go look? I went and
looked and it wasn't there. I'd done one going inside, and a
couple of fellas decided to take my car for a joyride. And they
got caught, and I had to go down to my dad and get the car in
the middle of the night. But at that time, there was an
advertisement on television run by our good government, and they'd
show folks with keys left in the car. And somebody walked
by, and they said, don't make a good boy go bad. As if, somehow, because some
thief decides to take your car, you caused it, because you made
a good boy go bad. No, the fellow stole the car
because he was a thief. He stole the car because he was
a thief. He stole the car because he was a thief. Men do not become
sinners by sinning. They sin because they're sinners. Folks, don't become liars by
lying. They lie because they're liars.
You understand that? Because the heart's plagued.
Sin is the natural, hereditary plague of all the sons of men
in their heart. God calls every human being a
transgressor from the womb, conceived in sin, brought forth in iniquity,
transgressors from the womb. That's how God describes our
race. This plague is epidemical. We're all plagued with it so
that there's none that doeth good, no, not one. Listen to
how the Psalmist speaks as God looks down from heaven. You can
look at it later yourself. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. Corrupt are they, and they have
done abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon
the children of men to see if there were any that did understand,
that did seek God. Every one of them has gone back.
They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. All have sinned because all are
sinners. Yes, we sinned in our father
Adam. And we have all been sinning
since the day of our birth because iniquity is in our hearts. Listen
to what God says by prophet Isaiah with regard to the human race.
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole
of the foot, even under the head, there is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Isaac Watts, in one of
his hymns, said, I would disclose my whole complaint, but where
shall I begin? No words of mine can ever paint
that worst distemper sin. It lies not in a single part,
but through my frame is spread a burning fever in my heart,
a palsy in my head. Sin is the plague of the heart. It makes man loathsome before
God. The Lord Jesus describes us in
Ezekiel 16, cast out from the womb, that aborted child cast
out to lay and rot in the sun. And he said, I passed by you.
And he said, you were loathsome in your person. Loathsome in
your person. You have a picture of an aborted
child left in its blood, cast out in the desert sun. And your
heart breaks because of the child being aborted and cast out. But
you don't even want to get close enough to bury it after it's
been there a while. because it's a loathsome sight.
So it is with the heart of man. Loathsome, loathsome, an obnoxious,
hateful, corrupt, vile thing before God. And when it's revealed
to us, it becomes loathsome to us. So that we speak like Paul
and cry, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? The heart of man is described
by Ezekiel as deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? So dark is man's heart that it
has no light, but it's only darkness itself. So perverse is the heart
of man that it calls evil good and good evil in everything. Every man by nature Every man
by nature calls evil good and good evil in everything. There are no exceptions, no exceptions.
He has no concept of righteousness, of good. He has no concept of
sin and evil. His understanding is so depraved
that his judgment in all spiritual matters is always wrong. Now,
that's the heart of man, plagued. Secondly, Let me declare this
as plainly as I can. Blessed is that man who by the
grace of God is made to know the plague of his own heart. Lost, unregenerate folks don't. Oh, you who are without Christ,
you know something about doing bad stuff. You know it's wrong
to steal, adultery, to lie, cheat. You know it's wrong. You know
it's wrong. That's not it. No problem getting folks convinced
of that. And men think they're whole. when there's nothing whole
about them. They think they're righteous
when there's nothing righteous about them. They think they're
rich and increased in goods when they're wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked. And so they refuse to seek salvation. Salvation is never despised by
folks who need it. Faith in Christ is never despised
by folks who know they need a Savior. You who do not yet trust the
Savior, listen to me now, listen to me, From the youngest to the
oldest, you who do not trust Christ, you who do not right
now seek his mercy. It's not because you think you're
too bad to be saved. It's because you think you're
too good to need the Savior. It's not your sin that keeps
you from Christ. It's your imaginary goodness.
But when a man or woman is made to know the plague of his heart,
that man is blessed of God indeed. You see, only an awakened, regenerate
sinner knows the plague of his heart. Job said if I justify
myself My own mouth shall condemn me if I say I'm perfect It shall
prove me perverse if I wash my hands with snow water and make
my hands never so clean Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and
mine own clothes shall abhor me Look at Isaiah chapter 6 again
Isaiah 6 How does the center come to know
this Only as God reveals Christ in him in his glory Do you know how our Lord speaks
of this vision here in Isaiah 6 Yeah, I don't speak seven James
John chapter 12. He said Isaiah saw my glory Isaiah
saw my glory. What did he say? I In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting on a throne,
high and lifted up in his train through the temple. I saw Christ
sitting on the mercy seat. That's exactly what he's talking
about. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet.
With two, he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
was full of his glory. That is, Christ crucified declares
to all the earth, God's holy. God's holy. God's holy. I thought that said God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life. No! Christ crucified
says God's holy! God's holy! God's holy! He won't touch you! Except he'd
do it in holiness. You understand that? He's holy.
And the whole earth was full of his glory. Read on. and the
post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and
the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, when I saw Christ
sitting on his throne, the crucified Redeemer sitting on the mercy
seat, enthroned in heaven, then said I, woe is me. Read the previous chapters. The
first five chapters, Isaiah been saying, woe is you, woe is you,
woe is you, woe is you. Now he says, I saw God, and I
said, woe is me. Woe is me, for I'm undone, because
I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, and having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with tongs from off the altar, He laid it upon my mouth and
said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away. Thy sin is purged. If you care later to read this
same account in Second Chronicles, chapter six, the same account
of Solomon's dedication and his prayer, where he speaks of the
plague of the heart, There, by divine inspiration, it's recorded
this way. When everyone shall know his
own sore and his own grief. Because when you know the plague
of your own heart, you become a sore and a grief to yourself. a sore and a grief to yourself. I fear you don't have a clue
what I'm talking about, many of you. You still think you're good.
You still try to convince yourself you're righteous. You hear me talk, and you wouldn't
dare say it out loud, but you're saying to yourself all the time,
I just ain't like that. I just ain't like that. Larry
Brown, that's exactly what you're like. Just filth and abomination. Shelby Fortner, Bobby Estes,
Mindy, that's exactly what we are. Just filth. You understand that? Just filth. Oh, but I'm good. I'm not like
other people. Oh, I pray God won't let you
go to hell with that lie on you. I'm not like other people. You're
just exactly like everybody else. Me too. Just exactly the same. We all have the nature of our
father, Adam, and it's leprosy in the heart. Leprosy in the
heart, not on the outside, not something you can clean up with
medicine in the heart. And the only cure is the blood
of Christ and the grace of God in him flowing to us through
his precious blood. And if you ever see it, It will
become your sore and your grief. Read the first 20 verses of Lamentations
chapter 3 and read about a man who knew the plague of his heart,
his deceitful, wicked heart. Now thirdly, when a sinner is made to know
the plague of his heart, When a sinner is made to know
the plague of his heart. Ron, you won't have to talk him
into making a decision for Jesus. When a sinner is made to know
the plague of his heart, you're not going to have to sing 25
verses of just as I am and every head bowed and every eye closed.
When a sinner knows the plague of his heart, you're not going
to have to plant folks out in the congregation and get them to start moving
forward so other folks will be psychologically maneuvered to move forward and
make a decision for Jesus. The whole religious world operates
on the idea that somehow salvation is nothing but you deciding to
let your life be turned over to Jesus and start serving Jesus.
When a sinner knows the plague of his heart, He spreads his
hands before God and confesses his sin. He confesses his sin, hiding
nothing. He quit making excuses. You quit
trying to justify yourself. You quit trying to appear good.
And you confess your sin. Not to a preacher. Not to a soul
winner. Not to a priest. Not to a church. To God. To God. The sinner who knows the plague
of his heart confesses it. Because he needs help. He's got a sore grief in his
soul and he's got to have the balm of the great physician to
heal his sore grief in his soul. A soreness gives him grief, a
burden that weighs heavy on his heart. He confesses his sin. And one fourth thing, one fourth
thing, Every sinner who knows the plague
of his heart, confessing his sin to God, obtains mercy and salvation through
Jesus Christ the Lord. Everyone. Everyone. In this place,
people come in and go out and think things are kind of strange
because we don't tell sinners how to pray and what you ought
to say. Now repeat after me and say,
Lord, I've sinned. I'm a sinner. I know the wages
of sin and death. And you promised to give eternal
life to anyone who believes in your son. I believe in your son.
Save me for Jesus' sake. Most places these days, they'll
cut it down a little bit less than that. Just say, I believe
in Jesus. You're saved. Bless God. Go on your way. No. No, I'm not about to tell you
what to say before God. I'm not about to tell you what
to speak before God. I'm not about to. What I will
tell you is this, rip open your heart to God. Just before I got up here to
preach, I prayed, God, oh spirit of God, shine in each heart by your word and by the light
of the glory of God in the face of Christ. and expose us to ourselves,
make each to know the plague of his own heart, that we may
look to Christ for mercy. If any man confess his sin, if
any man confess his sin, The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses him from all sin. That's what the book says. That's
what the book says. Ralph Barnard used to say, honest
people don't go to hell. And I think he's right. Honest
people don't go to hell. Rip open your heart to God and
confess your sin. George Whitefield, wherever he
traveled, tried to minister to the folks around him and There
was one place he was staying in the States With some friends
he regularly visited and a servant girl in the house Came to him
one night just before he left and and said to him. Mr. Whitfield
How can I know the Lord and Whitfield said to her You go ask God to
show you yourself." And he left, didn't see her again
for months. And he came back to the same
place, and the same people entertained him, and the servant girl was
no longer there. She wasn't working for folks
anymore. And he missed her, and he said to the mistress of the
house, where is the young lady who's been with you for so long?
And she said, oh, after you left the last time, shortly after
you left, she's just been beside herself and has been ever since.
And Whitfield said, would you go get her for me? And she came,
and they spoke for a little while, and he said, I asked, I told
you just before I left to ask God to show you yourself. And
it appears to me that maybe he has. Now ask the Lord Jesus to
show you himself. Oh God, show me your Son that
I may ever know the plague of my own heart and walk before
you in the fear of God all the days of my life. And what I ask
for myself, I ask for these immortal souls for Christ's sake. Amen.