I didn't know he was going to
preach everything in the Bible. I suppose we could turn to Luke
and read the genealogies. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 12. at an outstanding conference.
I hope I'm not the one bad apple. Hebrews chapter 12 is a chapter given to inspire. We don't have time tonight to
read the entire chapter, like for you to, when you get home
and get alone in a quiet place, to sit down and read it carefully
and prayerfully. The apostle has a lot to say
here to inspire and to encourage and to motivate. It's a chapter making us aware
of the purpose of God and the goodness of God, even in his
chasteness. He lets us know that we're going
to be chastened, but it's for our good. He said, you spank your children,
you correct your children for your own reasons, your own selfish
reasons most of the time. But he said, God does it for
your good, for your good. And also in chapter 12, he gives
us some warnings about indifference, carelessness, careless living,
a proud spirit. He says in verse 14, follow peace
with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
How can I do that? How can I produce that? Look
in this next verse. Looking diligently. That's how
you're going to do it. Looking diligently, lest any
man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. And he goes on to
say, you don't want to be found with Esau, who sold his birthright. You don't want to be found in
that day crying and pleading for repentance and not hearing
God answer back. You don't want to go there. And
you don't want to go to Mount Sinai. You don't want to stand before
that mountain. You don't want to hear that voice. Moses stood there. Moses stood
before that mountain. I want you to think about that
for a minute. Moses stood there and he said he exceedingly quaint. You don't want to go to that
mountain. Don't run to the law for mercy.
It can't give it to you. Don't run to Sinai for peace,
the law can't give you. Don't run to that mountain that
burns with fire, covered with a veil of darkness and smoke.
You don't want to hear his voice there. But listen to this, verse
22, you are come unto Mount Sinai. And unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And to an innumerable company
of angels, I'm used to seeing about 25 heads. And we've got
a pretty good crowd here tonight. Can we by faith enter in to what's
gathered around us tonight? and innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, you name the names, David, Seated, looking, listening. To the spirits of just men made
perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant. And to the blood of sprinkling
that speaketh better things than that of April. Boy, that encourages
me. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh, verse 25. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Whose voice then
shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more
I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet
once more, signifyeth the removing of those things that are shaken,
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, that's what I want, let us have grace
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
For our God, and that's who He is, our God is a consuming fire. Do you believe that? A consuming fire. A while back,
my oldest daughter came down to visit with us, brought her
three children. Our auditorium is nowhere near
this size, but I do have a chair. And there's a door that kind
of goes back into where we have a makeshift nursery and a fellowship,
a place to have fellowship. And the platform where I preach
is very near the chair. And so when it come time for
the meeting, the two littlest ones, the two girls, Katie and
Carmen, were on their way back to the nursery. And when they
got right up, I was seated in my chair looking over my notes,
getting ready to preach. The oldest of the two girls stopped
and kind of went like that when we leaned down. She wanted to
whisper in my ear. And so I did. And when I bent
down, she said, Papa, she said, are you going to say the words
this morning? It was a tiny thing, but it'd be You gonna say the words? Boy, I thought about that. I
thought about that. And I broke closed up. And my
voice got squeaky. And I said, I hope so. I hope
I can. Oh, the realization of that said
into my heart. Let me tell you something. He
has the words. That's who you need to hear speak.
He has the words. In John 3 verse 34 it said, For
he whom God has sent speaketh the words. He's got the words
of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. In John 17 verse 8, I heard David
read a while ago, For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest unto me. I gave it to them, and they received
it, and they rejoiced in it. He has the words, words of wisdom
and words of mercy and words of peace and love and grace,
words that unlock the mysteries, words that lift up the hands
that hang down in the feeble knees Words of glory, words of
power, words of life. In the beginning was the Word. He has the words because He is
the Word. I tell you the desire of my heart
tonight is that somewhere in this message you'll quit hearing
me and start hearing Him. You'll start hearing him. Running through a crowd came
a leper. And from what I've read recently
about the lepers is that it's a rotting from the inside out. And I can almost picture this
leper. He's not supposed to be there.
He's supposed to be out in the leper colony. But he heard about
this woman. And I don't believe the Scriptures
even say that he ran, but I picture him running. He didn't want to
be stopped. He fashioned his eyes on Him
that he tried to get to, and that's where he went. And he
saw nothing on either side. He fashioned his eyes on Christ,
and that's where he went. And he ran to Him with that rag
in his half-eaten lips, gone, and muddled out the words, Lord,
if You will, You can make me clean." And then he curled up at his
feet and he listened to the words. I will. I will. There was a centurion. He sent for the master. The people
he sent delivered the wrong message. And when he learned that the
master was on his way to his house, he sent him back out again
with another message. And he said, you don't need to
come here. You don't come here. I'm not
worthy for you to enter into my house. You don't need to come
here. Just say the words. Just say the words. And lying down there on a cold
slab of stone in a dark hole. Three days in the tunnel. Everybody give up. His own sisters
give up. Until the Lord of Glory walked
up from that tunnel and he said, Lazarus! And he came out. You know why
he came out? Because he has the words. And he's seated in such a place
that he has the authority to speak the words to dead sinners. That's why I preach. I tell you,
knowing what I know about myself and what I know about you and
what I know about fallen man, I wouldn't waste my time if I
wasn't convinced that seated at the right hand of God is one
who said, the day cometh and now is when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. And so when he gets toward the
end of chapter 12 and he talks about receiving that kingdom,
that's what he's talking about. Don't refuse him that speaks! And you won't if he speaks to
you. You won't if he speaks to you. I'll tell you, he spoke to me.
And I heard him. And I've got some words prepared
tonight, some words I studied and carefully arranged. Maybe if it pleases him, he'll
take these words and make them his. I hope he does. I tell you this, if you ever
hear him speak, you're going to hear him through a man. That's how you're going to hear
him. And you won't have any problem distinguishing the difference.
That's exactly right. I sat under a man for years and
years. One of the most well-known preachers, I guess, in this country. Attended a preacher school, went
down pastored a church, wrote articles, bulletins, preached. Preached all over the country,
preached down in Mexico. Heard thousands of preachers. And one night I went over to
Todd's Road Baptist Church, and I know Todd. He had some bouts
with cancer, and he was in the hospital. Wondered, why am I
having this cancer? Why am I having this trouble?
I'm pastoring a church. I'm doing what God sent me to
do. Why in the world would He cause
this thing to come on me and this suffering to come on me?
I'll tell you exactly why. So Henry Mahan could come down
to your church and that I might go over there one evening and
hear that man preach on the prodigal son. And Henry wasn't in his
prime anymore. He'd had some problems. suffered
a stroke, his memory about gone, and his preaching nowhere near
what it was when I sat and heard it. Didn't make a bit of difference. Not a bit of difference. He started talking about that
father coming out to that son. Just like that. Just like that. God flooded my soul. How can he do that? Because he
has the words. Don't refuse him that speaks.
Don't refuse him that speaks. Oh, his voice shook that mountain.
He stood on that mountain and he spoke for God and he spoke
in holiness and justice and wrath and vengeance. And that place
began to smoke and burn and melt and quake. And those people said,
Moses, you go talk to God. I don't want to talk to him.
I'm scared of him. I'm scared. I don't want to go.
You go. You go. Oh, but now he speaks in grace
and mercy. And we go to Mount Sinai. to
go to Mount Sinai. And then he talks here about
a shaking. He said God shook that place and he's going to
shake it again. And if you have time, I don't have time tonight,
but if you have time, read the book of Haggai chapter 2, because
that's where this reference of shaking comes from. And he's
not talking. I always thought that was talking
about the end of the world. And I suppose you could apply
it to that. But that's not what this shaking's
all about. In Haggai, he said that shaking,
to which Paul refers here, is a shaking of the nations, that
the desire of the nations might come. And when he does in that
place, and by that shaking, he said he's going to, in that place,
he said, I'm going to give peace right there. And he said, I'm
going to shake things up. I'm going to shake them up. We're
pretty shook up right now over the economy and the president
and everything else that goes on. We're shook up. Somebody
gets a sniffle, we get shook up. I think I got swine flu,
whatever that is. Somebody was talking to me about
free will the other day. I said, you can't by your will
even even deter germs. What are you going to do before
the living God? You can't even shun a coming
cold. And you're going to defeat the
will of God. There's going to be a shaking up, my friend. He
shook me up. And he's going to shake you up.
And he's going to shake the nations up. And when it gets done shaking,
here's what he's going to accomplish. Everything that can't be shaken
is going to remain. You want to remain? There's only
one place, only one place you can be, and that's in Christ. Receiving that kingdom that cannot
be moved. Cannot be moved. Well, how do
I receive this kingdom? How do I get in this kingdom?
You have to be born into this kingdom. The only way to get
in. Nicodemus, I know we think we can go to seminary and get
in, but you can't get in that way. Nicodemus tried it. He didn't
get in. He just stopped him. He said,
Nicodemus, he said, you must be born again. Except you be born of water and
of the blood, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. You can't
enter the kingdom of God. And I'll tell you this, you can
take this text, I don't have time tonight, but you can take
this text, and it's as broad as your revelational stretch. You can apply it to creation.
He says over in Hebrews chapter 1, talking about the superiority
of Christ, and talking about creation. Listen to this. Hebrews
chapter 1, verse 10. And thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. And they all shall wax old as
doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and
they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. He's going to fold this whole
outfit up. snowy owl. Let me tell you something
I know about creation. I'm not a bit worried about global
warming. I'm not worried about any of those things. Because
I know what creation is being sustained for. Do you? I'll tell you what it's waiting
on. It's waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. And just
as the pastor said, when that last son comes in, fold her up. Lay it aside. Lay it aside like an old bastard.
And I know this, it applies to that old economy of Israel. Somebody
asked me the other day, where does religion get these ideas
about cathedrals? I went to Washington D.C. not
too long ago and the National Cathedral, you can stand clear
on the other side of Washington D.C. and see that thing. We went past it, and we were
two blocks away. He couldn't get it in a camera.
Couldn't get it in a view of a camera. Where do they come
up with this stuff? Where do they come up with these
ideas for a priesthood and a high priest and robes and linen and
candlesticks and all this stuff? Where do they come up with this?
Special tables and incense burners and little kids running around
and puffing incense. Where do they come up with this
stuff? Right here in this old-time Jewish economy, that's where
they come up with it. They won't carry it over. They
won't carry it over. And they don't understand that
God's already shook that thing up, and it's gone. It's gone. You know why it's gone? Because
it could be. Because it could be. That's exactly why it's gone.
Oh, where is it? Hebrews chapter 8. Listen to
this. He has the words. I sat and talked
about the Jews all night. I was telling somebody about
them the other day. And I read to him Romans chapter 9, Romans
chapter 10, and Romans chapter 2. And I just went on and on
and on, took him over to Philippians and was showing him over the
house, showed him all these things. And he said, well, just in case,
he said, I'm not saying anything bad about the Jews. They're gone! They're gone. God shook them,
and they couldn't stand the shaking. But what remained? Israel. Spiritual Israel. It stayed. It took the shaking. It took
the shaking. In Hebrews chapter 8, he says down here in verse 13,
in that he said, that's who had the word. Don't take my word
for it. In that he said, a new covenant,
he, listen to this, he hath made the first oath. He did. I didn't
have anything to do with it. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. And as our brother read to us
there in Hebrews chapter 10, he said, he taketh away the first
that he might establish the second. That old Jewish economy is gone. It's gone. And you can apply
this to your own experience of grace. I told somebody the other day,
I said, look here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and I sat down and
I read him these things. I said, Paul absolutely determined
to sit down and set his mind like a plant. I am not going
to use this world's philosophy and reason. I'm not going to
sit down and reason with you on any human logic. I ain't going
to do it. And I'm not going to sit down
and use worldly philosophy on you, try to get you to do something
for God. God said if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. I wouldn't tell you. Why would
I tell you? I own it all. It's mine. Do something for God. Do something for God. Our own ideas and philosophy,
Paul said, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Why
not, Paul? Because he said, I don't want
your faith to stand in the wisdom of me, but in the power of God. In the power of God. And so I
preach. I'm not the apostle Paul. not
a writer of scripture, every now and then he'll let me write
a bulletin article. And I find there for mistakes. I preached the other night down
there and I could just tell by the look on somebody's face I
said something wrong. After the service, I said, all
right, what did I say? Oh, he said, Pastor, there's
nothing wrong with your message. It was a great message. We rejoiced
in the message. But you're not from Taylor, Louisiana.
You're from Taylor, Arkansas. You don't want your faith to
stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And so I
preach as plain and as simple And with the smaller words, I
don't have any big words anyway, but the smaller words that I
can use, as plain illustrations as I can find, because I want
your faith to stand in the power of God. And it'll stand. And it better, because he's going
to shake it up. Huh? That's what I told this
fellow. I said, God's going to try this
faith. This faith's going through the fire. I said, if all you
got to profession, if all you got to decision, better not make
it here. You better not stand before God
and start declaring these things because it's going through the
fire. And everything that's not of
God is going to be shaken off. You can apply this to your own
experience of grace. You can apply it to the church
as a whole. The church as a whole. Oh, there's
a shaking up going on right now. Just shaking, shaking, shaking.
And when all the shaking gets done, the things that cannot
be shaken are going to remain. I'm encouraged with this chapter.
I'm telling you, I read this chapter, and I read it again,
and I read it again. And boy, I tell you what, there's
some encouragement here. There's some encouragement here.
I don't need encouragement when everything is going smooth. Boy,
when this shaking starts, I need to know what it's all about.
And that's what I'm trying to tell you tonight. The place to
be is in Christ. How do I get in Christ? By new
birth. How do I experience this new birth? Through the preaching
of the gospel. You can't find me a place in there where he
talks about this birth that he don't talk about hearing the
truth, hearing the gospel of Christ. They're as together as
they can get. Paul was so clear to the Thessalonians,
he said, God has from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit. There's your new birth. And believe
the truth. Isn't that something? We're unto,
he said, he calls you by my gospel. Oh my. I love to watch folks
when they listen to the gospel. They come in and they do this,
you know, for a while. And every now and then you'll
tell a story or something, you know, and they'll perk up and
listen, and then they'll go back to counting ceiling tiles. And all of a sudden, all of a
sudden, God takes a word. Just a word. I don't expect men
to come in that door. to understand everything I say
to you. I don't understand half of it. And all of a sudden, instead
of looking around, they start hanging on the back of that pew.
And they're just like this. Next thing you know, they come
up and they say, Pastor, I'd like to be baptized. That man's faith can stand in
the power of God. Ain't that what you want? That's
what I want. That's what I want. You have
to hear the truth. I'm going to lay these aside.
I've lost my place anyway. I'll tell you what I preach.
I preach the person. The person. I'm standing before
you tonight as a person. Jesus Christ is a person. He is a person. He's flesh and
blood. Take your fingers and stick them
in the hole. Stick your hand in my side. I'm
a person. And that person did everything
God required of me. He kept that law in every jot
and tittle. And he kept it in motive, and
he kept it in thought, and he kept it in deed, and he kept
it with all the love that God has in his heart. And then he
went up to Calvary and he was made sin. You want me to soften
that down? He was made sin. Who knew no sin? that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Huh? Ain't that what I saw? And that's what I preached. And
God looked on him and he saw the travail of his soul and he
was satisfied. I'm not even satisfied with what
I do, let alone God. God was satisfied with His work. He was satisfied with His person. He was satisfied with His accomplishment
and His offices and everything that He did. And to show us and
to prove to us and to give to us hope, He raised Him from the
dead. And He didn't just rush Him into
glory, but He let Him walk around. And He let some folks see Him.
Above 500 at one time, so nobody could deny it. And then he didn't run into glory,
but he ascended up and they stood there and watched. Here's what I'm telling you.
Somebody told me years ago, there was a baseball player, maybe
some of you have heard of him, Babe Ruth, He was in an awful slump and
they were making fun of him, the great Babe Ruth. He got disgusted
one day and determined and he walked up to that plate and rumor
has it he took that back and he pointed it where he intended
to hit that ball. And the first ball come across
that plate, he put that thing out of sight. That's what I want to do every
time I stand up to preach. I want to point to him. Because
that's where I'm headed. That's where I'm headed. And
that's where I commit you and this message into his hands. Maybe he'll speak. Wouldn't it
be something? Wouldn't that be something? It was something to me. So with
that, thank you.