I don't really have a text this
morning. I have several scriptures that
I want to read to you. But I first want to make some
comments. People come here for all kinds
of reasons. And I'm saying here because this
is where I am. I could say the same thing in
San Diego or Lord willing, if I go to Kansas City, I can say
the same thing there. People gather for all kinds of
reasons. Some come out of curiosity. This
church has a reputation for preaching and teaching subjects considered
by most to be deep, dark secrets and things better left alone.
Things like predestination. eternal election, particular
redemption, and not the least of which is the absolute sovereignty
of God over all things. These are not commonly preached
in our land today. And I remember when I first opened
this book with a desire to know what it said and discovered these
subjects in its pages. And not in isolated places, but
all through the book, just kept coming up with these subjects.
And when I asked the elders of the church for help on these
subjects, they told me that the secret things belong unto God. The secret things. And that these
things were of no value to study and talk about to others and
would only cause division and controversy and lead to trouble. What I come to see in time is
that these doctrines in every age were cherished by true believers. They were cherished. Now, I had
to go back where the mothballs was and the dust was still on
the books at the bookstore to find just a few of the old writers. But in those few, they spoke
about these things and dealt with these subjects. And they
cherished them. It wasn't called the hated doctrine
of election. It was called the beloved doctrine
of election. Now, brethren, the Bible is a
book of revelation. It's a book of revelation. It
was not written to be hid, nor did God overlook the fact that
foolish men would scoff at these truths. In 2 Timothy 3, verse
16, he says this. I want you to listen to it. All
Scripture. How much of it? All. All Scripture. What about predestination? All Scripture. What about election? All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine. That word means teaching. Teaching. It's profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. How much of it is? All of it.
Well, what about the Old Testament? All of it. There was no New Testament when
Paul wrote this. I find the book of God to be
called the children's bread. They delight in it. Peter, rather
than telling his heirs to ignore it, calls it a more sure word
of prophecy, whereunto you do well, he said, to take heed to
it. Until the day star arise in your
heart. Until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your heart, which is Christ. That's 2 Peter 1,
verse 19. Back in the book of Deuteronomy,
he said this, the secret things belong to God. And the revealed
things belong to His children forever. Now the secret things
which are not for men to know are not written in this book.
They're not in here. If God wanted you to know these
things, He'd put them in here. They're not for you to know.
Our Lord told His disciples in plain words when they asked Him,
He told them, it's not for you to know when I'm coming back. Ain't that what He said? And
yet men like this idiot Everybody was looking at yesterday, the
end time is going to come and all these people are going to
disappear. Well, this morning the only one who disappeared
was him. The secret things which are not
for men to know are not in the book. Paul said when he was caught
up into the third heaven, he said, I saw things not lawful
to utter. They are not mentioned in this
book. Why? Because they are not important.
There was a time when the beloved John rode on the Isle of Patmos,
and the Lord said, put your pen up. Wonder what, reckon what
he was about to write about. Not for you to know. Not for
you to know. That's right. These secret things
are not things written in this book. Things that are written
in this book are written for your admonition. That's what
he said. And they're profitable to you. And you do well, Peter
said, to take heed unto." He told John, he said, of these
things which he did right. Now, not the things he told him
to put his pen up, but on the things which he did right, he
said, seal not the sayings of this prophecy, of this book. Don't you seal them up. And without
apology, I preach and teach the whole counsel of God. And some
come out of curiosity, and I'm glad they come. I'm glad they
do. I don't care why they came. Come on. Who knows what God's
going to use in His providence to bring somebody in here to
hear? Who knows? Some come to please a friend
or a relative or a husband or a wife. I'm glad you're here.
Glad to see you. I tell them that. Shake their
hand. I'm glad to see you. I am glad. I'm glad they came
out. And some come out of duty. It's
Sunday, so we have to go to church. Well, that's not much of a motive,
but I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. And then
some come to argue and debate. And that's the saddest case of
all. But even for those, when they come, I'm glad. I'm glad
they came. Because nothing effectual in
you will ever take place until you're here. until you hear. It says this
more than once in this book. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing. Hearing. Someone said not long ago, well,
who does he think he is? That's what one of the fellas
out in San Diego invited somebody to come and he said, well, I've
been over there before and y'all just think you know everything.
And I told him this when I was there in one of the messages.
I said, I don't think I am the only one over here that knows
anything. I know I am. I don't think that. I'm not debating
about that. If any of these churches around
here knew anything, they'd be preaching it, wouldn't they?
How can you know Him who is preeminent with the Father in creation,
providence, and salvation, and then hide that knowledge in a
corner? It's not possible. Those who see the glory of God
proclaim the glory of God. You couldn't have shut that cripple
up. He went into that synagogue. He didn't go in there like this.
He went in there leaping and jumping and praising God. He
saw something nobody else saw. Can you imagine trying to close
the mouth of blind Bartimaeus? That whole outfit couldn't shut
him up. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. And if he did that before he
had eyes, once he had eyes, there was no stopping him. Oh my. That cripple, he didn't know
anything. He'd been crippled for, what was it, 27 years or
37 years. Laid him down there at the pool
of Bethesda. Laid him down there every time. Somebody carried
him down, but nobody put him in the water. Christ came to
him, lifted him up, told him to take up his bed and walk.
And then everybody run around trying to get him to say something
different than what actually happened. He said, well, I don't
know what you're talking about, but I'll tell you this. This
man came to me, and I was crippled, and he healed me. He healed me. And that's what that blind man
told them when they started in on him. I don't know anything
about it, but he said, I can tell you this much. I was blind,
now I see. Now I see. They'd preach it if they saw
it. If they knew anything at all about a redemption that redeems,
they'd rejoice in it, wouldn't they? They'd sing about it. Oh, and if anybody around here
knew anything at all about sovereign grace of God, they'd preach it. These churches around here that
I'm acquainted with, They major in man. Man's works and man's
value and man's glory. That's six, six, six. That's
what that is. Man, man, man. That's all that
is. I'm rarely asked by somebody
when they do find out I'm a preacher and find out where I go. I'm
rarely asked what we preach or what we believe. The first question
out of their mouths is how many people you got? What difference
does that make? What a privilege it'd be if we
just had one son of God in this place. Huh? Wouldn't you like
to be with him? Oh, I would. He's the apple of
his eye, he said. Oh, my soul. Ain't none other
name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be
saved. So it looks to me like somebody
would be interested in what that name is. I tell you, we live
in a day of superstitious, ceremonial, intellectual, legalistic religion. And she wears the attire of a
prostitute and stands on every corner, drawing in her unsuspecting
victims who go in there and then go like an ox to the slaughter.
That's right. I was reading in the Proverbs.
I can't give you chapter and verse, but if you'll read through
those first two or three chapters, you'll see it in there. It talks
about those who go to her house do not return. Do not return. All to all those that God arranges
in His providence to hear me. Whatever your reason is for being
here, here's the real reason. God arranged for you to be here
and arranged for me to be here. That's right. That's right. And to you, I make four bold
claims. I do this in San Diego. By the
grace of God, I'm going to do this in St. Louis. I've done
it in Mississippi. I've done it in Houston. I did
it in Danville. And I'll do it anywhere else
by the grace of God that he gives me opportunity to speak. I make
four bold claims before me. And I hope you'll put away whatever
else is on your mind this morning and listen to these four things.
Here's my first claim. This is a bold claim. I claim
by the grace of God to know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? I'm a Baptist. I don't make much difference. I don't make much difference. I claim by the grace of God to
know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, which makes me
a son of God, a son of God. My friend, the Gospel is a person.
He was begotten of God in old eternity in purpose and decree.
Paul said, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
A person eternally begotten of God To whom God charged all things,
trusted all things, put all things into His hands, all glory, preeminence. In Revelation chapter 5, God
holds in His hand a sealed book. It's a book of all God's purposes
and decrees. It's a book of all God's purpose
and grace in the redemption of a people for the glory of His
name. And in this book is all things
that shall be in time. I want you to think about that.
He held this book. It was closed and it was sealed. This is everything that's ever
going to be, John, is in this book. Everything. Everything in this book. And
they looked around in heaven for somebody worthy to unloose
the seals just to look in the book. And nobody was worthy. Nobody was worthy. It was a sealed
book. Sealed with seven seals. Sealed
with the holy perfections of God. And none were worthy to
take the book, not even to look on the book, because none could
fulfill what was written and purposed and do so and still
maintain the harmony of God's holy character. They couldn't
do it. They couldn't do it. But at last one was found, the
lion of the tribe of Judah. He was as a lamb slain, it said,
before the foundation of the world. He looses the seals. He opens the book. He accomplishes
the will of God. Not a sparrow, that's what he
told them, not a sparrow falls to the ground without your father
was purposed in this book. And when it falls to the ground,
It's in blessed harmony with the holy character of God. Even
the changing number of your hairs on your head. He loosens the
seals. He opens the book. He accomplishes
the will of God. And then in the fullness of time,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. And as a representative
man, Jesus Christ obligated Himself to the law on our behalf. become
a servant to it, obligated to it, observed according to it,
looked at with discretion. And as a man accepting that he
had no sin, he kept the law of God so purely and so perfectly
and so completely that he exalted it and honored it and gave to
it its rightful place. You can't lift the law any higher
than Christ lifted it when He obeyed it and when He died according
to it and raised it up. There it is. Here's the law.
Here's the law. It's in its rightful place now.
And then as our substitute bearing our sins and His own body on
the tree, He stood before the bar of holy justice and drank
the cup the Father gave Him to drink, and He drank it all. He
drank it all. Hell's fury and hell's vengeance
poured out on Him without mercy, without reservation, and without
limit. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? No answer. No answer. By His own blood, He entered
in once into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God
for us and obtain, Paul said, eternal redemption. The old prophet said if God should
mark iniquity, who could stand? If God come here this morning
and began to be a big screen here and God just, John, looked
on your heart and put all your thoughts up here, well, you'd
crawl under that pew. Sure you would, and I would,
and anybody else. You'd be under that period. Oh,
I didn't want anybody to know I felt that. I didn't want anybody to know
I felt that way. If God should mark iniquity,
who could stand? Anybody here? We stand in Christ. We stand in Him. Oh, I tell you, having accomplished the redemption,
our Lord ascended back into the heavens where He is seated now
at the right hand of God, expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. This is more than a point of doctrine with me.
This is my hope. This is my hope. And I claim
to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as such, a
son in joint error would cry, and he said, all things work
together for your good. I make that claim. That's a bold
claim. I claim that. I believe that. Old Ben Franklin went down to
hear one of the old grace preachers. Somebody asked him one day, said,
why don't you go down there? You don't believe what he preaches.
He said, no, but he does. And I'm telling you, I believe
that. This is my hope. If this ain't so, I'm going to
hell. This is my hope. And then the second bold claim
I make to men and women is that God has called me and put me
in the ministry. I claim to be an ambassador of
God. Who does he think he is? I think
I'm a preacher. That's what I think, unless I'm
deceived. I believe that by the revelation
of God in me. The revelation of Christ in me. I believe that. Isn't that what
Paul said? That was his biggest confidence
in the ministry. He said, God who separated me
from my mother's womb when it pleased Him to reveal His Son
in me that I might preach Him among the heathens. I believe
it by the revelation of Christ in me that enables me to understand
and know in my heart what God's testified concerning His Son. You can't preach what you don't
know. Brother Bernard said any morning you can come back from
somewhere you hadn't been. I always get a kick with my son-in-law. He's been over in Iraq seven
times. He went back Saturday again. And he listens to these young
men who've been to boot camp and then came home and hadn't
been anywhere. And they start talking about everything that's
going on over in Iraq. And he just sits back and listens
to them. And then when they leave, he just laughs. He said he's
never been to the United States. He don't know what he's talking
about. You can't preach what you don't
know anymore and you can come back from somewhere you haven't
been. He who knows mercy can preach mercy. He who knows grace
can preach grace. He that knows what sin is, being
convinced of sin, He can get down and reason with you about
sin. He can get down where you live, where you think, where
your motives are, where your affections are. He can talk about
that emptiness. He can talk about that sin. And
then He can talk about that grace. He can talk about that mercy.
And He can preach that love. I believe my calling by the revelation
of Christ in me. And I believe my calling having
the consent of my pastor and other preachers of longstanding
and faithful ministries. And then thirdly and most importantly,
the Lord confirmed my calling by putting me into the ministry.
He put me in it. I didn't promote myself. I wasn't
out there raising my hands, send me, send me. I was hiding. That's where I was. God put me
in the ministry. And I tell you, I fear for men
who hunt ministries and promote themselves. They're in great
danger of putting themselves in the ministry. You don't want
to put yourself in the ministry because everything in the ministry
depends on God's presence and God's power. You'd be like that
fella who ran. He outrun the other guy by hours. Man, he was gone like a shot.
He ran up there to bring news to David. He just wanted to be
the one to tell the news. And he got up there and David
said, what's the news about my son? I don't know anything about
that. He said, well, you stand right
over here. They waited on the other guy. He had something to
say. Oh, I tell you what. Beware of that man, because without
God's will and power, he can do nothing. And the fourth reason
I claim to be a preacher sent from God is that he's confirmed
my preaching by the hearts and affections of God's people. They
hear this gospel and rejoice in it. And they come, and they
don't only come, but they bring others to hear it. I might come
and hear it out of some old traditional honor for the church, but I tell
you, I ain't going to bring my best friend unless I believe
the man preaching the truth. I'm going to bring my kids, and
I'm going to bring my wife until I'm convinced he's telling the
truth. And if he touched your heart, he can touch theirs. And
I say that assuming that you know God has to speak through
me. He's confirmed that. And then here's the third bold
claim I make. Turn with me to Ezekiel. Let
me show you something over here in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 3. The third bold claim I make to all
that I preach to I claim to be a watchman, said of God, in a place to warn
you, and warn men of impending doom, and warn them of the dangers
that surround them, and the dangers of this world. Look here in Ezekiel chapter
3. Look down here in verse 17. He said, Son of man, I have made
thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the
word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, thou
shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest
to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life. The same
wicked man shall die in his iniquity. But his blood will I require
at your hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked,
and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he'll
die in his iniquity. But thou hast delivered thy soul." A watchman. Now, this is the
point of anger and offense. When I warn men and women about
the true character of God, they get mad. I tell them, God, the
God of the Bible is not the God. Brother Barnard said, I want
to preach to you today the God of the Bible. But before I can
preach to you the God of the Bible, I have to kill your God. Your God is not the God of the
Bible unless your God is exactly as God reveals Himself in this
book, holy. I will by no means clear the
guilty. Well, I just don't think the
Lord would send a good man to help, but there's none good. There's none good. I just don't think the Lord would
hide Himself from somebody that's seeking Him. There's none that
seeketh after God. I just don't think if a man had
some understanding and he tried to, there's none that understandeth. God's God. He's not going to
change. He's not going to change. It's
a point of anger and offense when I warn men and women about
the true character of God. Paul said, knowing the terror
of the Lord. He said, I persuade men. There's
terror involved in knowing the Lord. I tell you, it was terror
to me when I woke up one day because I'd been told my destiny
was in my hands. And at any time I could choose
this, at any time I could make my decision, at any time that
sacrifice was ready for me. And then I come to find out my
destiny is not in my hands, it's in His hands. And that I've done
everything, everything in rebellion against Him who holds my life
in His hands. I'm running around spitting in
His face and scoffing at His Word and rebelling against the
Gospel. Oh, and he holds my life in his
hands. That's all he has to do. It's a point of anger and offense
when I warn men and women about the true character of God and
the true character of man, the wickedness of this world and
the dangers of false religion. But to be faithful to my God
and to your souls, I must tell you the truth, and the only way
to tell a man the truth is to tell the man the truth. If he
gets mad, he gets mad. If he gets glad, he gets glad.
If somebody has to be offended in this, I'd rather it be you
than God. You see what I'm saying? I'm not up here to offend you,
but I'm telling you there's dangers out here, and most men and women
come in here not aware of them. Well, I don't mind you preaching
on sin. You have to harp on it. Well, I'm with Henry. Angels
in heaven, they're always pictured with harps. If they got to harp
on something, I harp on that. Man ain't nothing but a wiggling
maggot. That's how he's represented in
the Scripture. Job said he's a worm. Jacob, he called a worm. You look the word up. I challenge
you. It means wiggling maggot. What
he is, he glories in the flesh. He assembles where the corruption
is the greatest. And man is, according to Job,
full of trouble. He's an unclean thing, abominable
and filthy is man, he says, that drinks iniquity like water. He
calls him ungodly. He says his hands are not clean.
And he's a worm. He's a wiggling maggot, non-righteous,
non-good. And I warn you this, before you
go and stand before God that all your righteousnesses, all
of them, all of them raked up and put together are nothing
in the world but filthy rags. Don't wait till that day. Don't
wait till you're laying over there in the hospital. Don't
wait till you're over there and can't pray and can't open your
mouth and can't think and full of medicine and die and go out
and meet God. Think about it now. Listen to
the warning now. Preachers are watchmen. They're
watchmen. God's holy and just. He will
by no means clear the guilty. And He won't bargain. He won't
compromise. He won't give ear to your excuses. He won't show compassion or mercy
at the expense of His justice and righteousness. All those
who will not trust in Christ must stand before Him fully exposed. Somebody asked me one time, well,
what was the purpose of God in Christ being naked on the cross?
Because that's how you're going to stand before Him. No covering. No covering. Christ is our covering. Christ is everything. David danced one time before
the ark. You remember that? He danced.
And Saul's daughter, his wife, mocked him. She said, look at
him. Look at him. Out there, nothing
on but an ephod, the king. Look down on him. He said, I'll
be yet more vile than that. He stood out before that ark,
which is Christ. Christ. And he danced naked before
that cross, saying that I have no other righteousness than Christ. He said, I'll be yet more vile
than that. Oh, man's a falling creature. All those who will not trust
in Christ must stand before Him fully exposed, the thoughts and
intents of his heart revealed, naked before the all-seeing eye
of God, judged by that man who gave himself to shame and spitting
and gave himself to the cross of humility. gave Himself to
satisfy, honor, and exalt the law of God. He tells us in Acts chapter 17
that Christ in His infinite righteousness is the measure of all justice.
God has set a day in which He'll judge this world in righteousness
by that man. That's what He says, ain't it? A man is a fallen creature, cursed
of God. He carries in his nature the
condemnation of God. And worldly religion only puts
on you the blinders so you don't flinch when the warnings come.
That's all that's about. If our gospel be in its head
to the lost, in whom the God of this world... You remember
what blinders were, don't you? John, some of you all remember
what blinders was on a horse. Keep them from flinching. Pull
the old milk wagon or bread wagon down the road Had these big old
blinders on him so all this stuff going on on the side didn't make
him rear up. Take off. Put these blinders
on. That's what religious blinders,
that's all that is. That false gospel keeps you from
flinching when the warnings come. And I tell you, each time the
warnings come, they do less and less damage. Pretty soon it just
rolls off like water off a duck's back. Doesn't even affect you. There's nothing more fearful
to me than a person who cannot stand to retain God in his memory. Stops his ears. He defends the
vipers. Oh, my soul. He defends the vipers. He eats with the hogs and he
prefers darkness to light. And our Lord said, because I
called and you refused, I stretched out my hand but you didn't regard
it. You said it, not all my counsel treated it as foolishness and
would not be warned." And he said, now I'll laugh at your
calamity and I'll mock when your fear cometh. And your fear is
coming. It's coming. When your fear cometh
as a desolation and your destruction comes as a whirlwind. We was
watching the weather channel the other night. And it showed
this tornado and this man was filming it and he didn't realize
how close it was. And he was out there filming
it, and man, it just took him. He was gone. They found him over
there 300 or 400 yards away from there. He was standing there
with a camera, and that thing just swallowed him up. That's
what he said. Your destruction is going to
come like a whirlwind. In the hour you think not, God
is going to snatch you out of this world and set you before
Him. Now what are you going to do?
What are you going to do? You better take heed to the warning. Then he said, you'll call on
me, but I won't answer. You'll seek me early, but you
won't find me, because you hated knowledge and did not choose
the fear of the Lord. Now listen to this. Therefore,
you shall eat of the fruit of your own way. God's going to
let you have your way. You've always wanted it. He's
going to let you have it. Here it is. And be filled with
your own devices. Why will men and women defend
that which dishonors God and makes the crowning work of Christ
of none effect? Why do they do that? I tell you
this, I have absolutely nothing to gain in telling you this except
to see you delivered from this present evil work. And then lastly,
and I hope on a more positive note, I claim to be a pastor
of this assembly. to lead, oversee, and teach the
children of God that he's put in my care. And I do it with
joy. I'm here because if I didn't
want to be here, I wouldn't be here. And nobody twisted my arm. And nobody said, now if you don't
go, it's really going to look bad. Nobody told me that. These
fellas come up to get me, and the ladies was out in the parking
lot crying because I was leaving. Is that right? I do it with joy. I'm here because
I want to be. I'm here because this is where
I believe God sent me. And I love it here. Pastor, why
do you talk so plainly and sometimes harshly to us? Because I have
to give an account for your soul. That's why. what will I leave unsaid for
a temporary peace? What would you have me hold back? What would I be willing to compromise
to keep you coming? I tell you this, it's not my
intention to purposely offend anyone, but I'd rather offend
you than God. And I take you to record today
that I've not I've not coveted your money. I've got people here,
individuals, who give nearly as much as everybody else altogether. And I preach as hard and as strict
to them as I do to you. Yes, I do. I've not coveted your
money. I've not coveted your approval. I preach to you as plainly as
I do to those who give nothing at all. And I don't beg for your
presence. You come here because you want
to be here, I hope. And I've not promoted myself
or talked about building some great work. I preach Christ to
you. I preach Christ to you. And that's
what this book says. Through this man, through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And I've
done my best to exalt the God of the Bible in His character
and attributes as they're revealed in the person and work of Christ.
And I've warned you time and again of the wiles of the devil
and of his influence in this world and worldly religion. Will
you look to Christ? Look to Him. Look to Him. Will you trust in Him? God did. God did. I tell you, God vested
more in Him than He can afford to lose. I'm going to trust in
Him. I'm going to trust in Him. And
I tell you this, when man can look, when he can see, when God opens
his eyes, he'll look. He'll look. And if men could hear, they'd
obey. For faith cometh by ear. They'd
obey. And if they could understand,
they'd come to Him without delay. You don't have to beg somebody
who hears the truth. They're terrified in their soul.
I don't see any fear. I agree with Paul. There's no
fear of God before their eyes. Most of the people I preach to
are like that. They just sit and listen to you like you're
up here talking about a science lesson or something. Speculating
on the beginning of the Mars or what, you know, talking about
something just as unconcerned and untouched. I'll tell you these things. I
preach sometimes to get loud and get angry and get crying
and everything else because I believe these things. These things are
real to me. And I pray God will make them real to you so we can
rejoice in them.