Turn back with me now to 2 Timothy
1. I'm going to use verse 12 as
my text, where Paul said, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day. And my subject this morning
is a godly persuasion. I remember years ago going down
to Lake City, Florida, to preach with a group of young men there.
And we went, and they were holding their meetings. They didn't have
a building, and they weren't meeting in somebody's home, but
they were using a Seventh-day Adventist church. And they met
on Saturdays. And so they let us use the building
on Sundays. And when I pulled up there, the
name of the organization that owned the church was there on
the sign and the address and everything there. And I kept
looking around. There wasn't any kind of a notification anywhere
that we were meeting there on that Sunday. And so several of
us young preachers were talking to one another about, well, how's
anybody going to know we're meeting here? So somebody asked them,
you know, don't you think we ought to put out a little sign
on a stake or something out here saying that we meet here at such-and-such
time? Oh, he said, if they're God's elect, they'll know where
we meet. That's not how Paul talked about
his conversion. He said, I was persuaded. I was
persuaded. He wasn't saved without names.
opened his head up and poured the truth in. He didn't just
lie on his bed one night and get this vision, or he didn't
have some big experience. The Apostle Paul was taught of
God. That's what he said. I was taught
of God. You can read about it over in
Galatians chapter 1 where he talks about his conversion. He
said, I conferred not with flesh and blood. After that, when the
Lord revealed His Son in me, And I was taught of God, he said
immediately. I conferred not in flesh, but
didn't have any need to then. But he was taught. He was taught. And he heard. And he was persuaded. And that's my hope, that some
of you, by the grace and mercy of God, will hear something of
what I'm saying this morning. Something of what I'm saying.
And God will create an interest in your heart. and stir you up,
and you'll be persuaded to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe
I can say with the Apostle Paul, as he said to the church at Rome,
as much as in me is. I think about this a lot. I stand
before men, and I lay claim to be a preacher. You know, if you
ever just sit and consider your own profession before men, You
claim to be the elect of God. You think about that for a minute.
You think about how unbelievers hear that and how they can say,
you mean to tell me that the sovereign God of glory chose
you? I ask myself that same question
all the time. Raise up stones and make children
unto Abraham. You mean he chose you? That's unbelievable, isn't it? Why do we get upset when folks
just start shaking their heads? I can't hardly believe it. Apart from his spirit, I couldn't
believe it. I lay there with a side of my sins, and I was
convinced beyond all shadow of a doubt, there's no way in the
world God could have me for anything. Yeah, you, you. That's something there. One of God's elect. One of God's
elect. As much as in me is. That's what
Paul said. I think about this standing up
before men. How shall you hear without a
preacher? I lay claim to be a preacher. Huh? Men laugh, don't they? They
laugh. Who's he think he is? Huh? He ain't been to seminary. They
ought to call them cemeteries. He ain't been to seminary. Where's
his credentials? He's got no letters after his
name. Who does he think he is? Who
gave you the authority? What makes you right and everybody
else wrong? Where do you get your authority?
God, He said, who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by His grace to reveal His Son in me that I might preach
Him among the healed. That's where Paul said he got
healed. That's where I got mine. And that's where you'll get yours. As much as in me is, Paul said,
I am ready to preach the gospel to you. Now, I am not the apostle
Paul. I am not an apostle. I have never
been caught up into the third heaven to see and be taught by
the Lord in person. I have not been given any supernatural
gifts to cause the blind to receive their sight or raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers. I don't have any supernatural
gifts. I can't speak in many foreign languages. I can only
speak in my own. I write some articles in the
bulletins and publish them. A few people read them. God never
inspired me to write scripture. Paul wrote half the New Testament.
I don't consider myself an apostle. I don't consider myself with
any of their gifts. But I'm like the Apostle Paul
in that I lay claim to be a preacher of the gospel. I don't promote
myself. I'm not like Ralph Barnard, Henry
Mahan, or Don Fortner. My ministry doesn't reach out
worldwide into nations where it's even forbidden so much for
somebody to name the name of God, let alone preach his gospel.
I don't have their gifts. I don't have their abilities.
I don't put myself on that level. I don't consider myself way up
here. I'm way down here. I've never promoted myself. I've
never so much as asked anybody for an opportunity to speak.
I don't feel worthy to speak. Paul said this was one of the
greatest men of the New Testament. He said, I'm not even worthy
to be called an apostle. Nobody who preaches this gospel
who has been sent of God has any worthiness in themselves.
Paul got red in the face just trying to defend himself before
unbelievers and their false targets. Just trying to defend himself
because he knew what he was by nature. God in His providence takes carry
that. He lays whatever promoting there
is on the hearts of those who ask me to speak and upon the
hearts of those who come and hear me. But I do lay claim by
a burden laid on my heart by God to be a preacher. I lay claim
to be a preacher by the opportunities of God's providence and open
doors He's given to me. I lay claim to be a preacher
by the recommendation of a local church and its pastor and its
elders. I lay claim to be a preacher by the revelation of Christ in
me that enables me to understand the Word of God and teach others.
I lay claim to be a preacher. And that's what I mean when I
say as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach, as much as in
me is. To preach the gospel is to preach
Christ. And the only thing that separates
a missionary from an evangelist, we talk about these apostles
and we talk about evangelists. God has put in his church apostles,
prophets, evangelists, missionaries, pastors and teachers. The only
thing that separates these men is geography. It's just geography. They all
preached Christ. You can read about every one
of them in this book. Their ministry was all the same.
It didn't matter what they were. Their ministry was all the same.
They all preached Christ. The only thing that separated
them was the type of the ministry. Some were missionaries. Some
were apostles. Some were ordained of God to
write Scripture. But they all preached the same
thing. To Him give all the prophets witness. And I tell you this, they all
preach Christ. There's nothing else to preach. You mean you
don't preach election? Sure I do. We're chosen in Him. I can't preach election apart
from Christ. You're chosen in Him. According
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
You mean you don't preach predestination? Yes, I sure do. I preach predestination. God has predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. You can't
preach predestination apart from Christ. You mean you don't preach concerning
the believer's walk? Yes. As you have received Christ
Jesus, so walk ye in him. You can't preach the believer's
walk apart from Christ. We walk by His righteousness.
We walk by faith in Him. How are you going to do that?
What about justification? He was raised again for our justification. Ain't that what it says? What about baptism? We are buried
with Christ in baptism into death, that life as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also
should walk in newness of life. The Lord's table. His body, His
blood. Glorification, raised up with
Christ to be with Him where He is, to know Him as we are known,
and to be like Him. Christ, that's all they had to
preach. There's nothing else to preach. There's nothing else
to preach. And my doctrine, for the lack
of a better explanation, folks say, well, what do y'all believe
over there? I don't know what to tell folks. Come sit down
and listen for a while. You'll know what I preach. If
you don't like it, go somewhere else. I preach Christ. I don't have any quick definitions
for that. I don't have any three-letter
instructions about how to preach Christ. You've got to come and
sit down and hear. This thing with Paul was something
that he was persuaded of. He didn't just hear two or three
words. That's it. That's it. I'm all fixed up. I think what he said, he said
he was persuaded. He came and he sat down and he
heard and he was taught. God caught him up into the third
heaven and taught him. Taught him. But I don't care
if you learn it here or there, you've got to be taught. You've
got to be taught. And my doctrine, for lack of
a better explanation, is Calvinistic. But I don't preach Calvinism,
and I wouldn't cross the road to argue with you about it. Not
one point of it. I wouldn't cross the street. I wouldn't waste my time. I get
calls and things sometimes from people. Can you explain this? Can you tell me what this means?
Could you do... And it's points of doctrine. Points of doctrine. And they
debate back and forth about it. I listen to them on the Internet
all the time. That's vain jangling. That's what that is. The gospel
of which Paul was not ashamed, of which he said was the power
of God unto salvation, and to which he was separated to out
of Judaism, was the gospel concerning God's Son, made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead." Now, let me tell you something. I was pastoring a little church
down here in South Louisiana. And had been there for a pretty
good while. And had established a little
church down in Ameet, Louisiana. And I used to go down there one
time a week and preach for them. Whatever the off night was. I
think it was on a Monday I'd go down and preach to them. And
they were about 200 miles from me. They were clear over on the
Mississippi border. And I was talking to my oldest sister.
Y'all met her, Evelyn. And she had a boy that was down
there on a project. He worked for the Department
of the Interior or the National Park System or something. And
I hadn't seen him in years and years and years. I hadn't seen
him since when he went to college other than maybe just at a funeral
or something for a few minutes. Didn't know anything about him.
He didn't know anything about me. Everything he remembered
about me he remembered back when we were just teenagers. I heard that he was down in Biloxi,
Mississippi on a bridge project down there representing the federal
government. And she told me where he lived
and so on. And so one day I went down there,
and after the services there and they meet, I drove over to
visit with him. And I sat down there in his house,
and we talked and talked and talked and talked. And finally,
the conversation come around to what in the world was I doing
in Alexandria, Louisiana. And I said, well, I'm pastoring
a church there. And boy, his head just went down to the floor
like this. All his memories of me was as
a rebellious teenager. That's the picture he had in
his head. He just could not picture me as a preacher or pastor of
a church. And the more we talked, the more
silent he became. And so he said, and I went on
and on and on for a while. After a while, he said this. He said, I want my children to
have some religious influence. He just loved my dad. My dad
was a very religious man. And he had a lot of effect on
his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They
all loved him. And he said, I want that. I want
that for my children. He said, I've always been jealous
of that in your dad. Everybody in this family knew
that he loved them and cared for them. And he wanted that.
He wanted that. He said, I want my kids to have
that. I want them to have that religious
influence. And I want them to believe in
God. But he said, this world is full of religion. It's full
of preachers and priests and bishops and rabbis. How can I,
a person with no knowledge of these things, just a common working
man, how can I know the difference? How can I know the difference?
And this is the only answer I knew. This is the only answer I knew
then. That's 25 years ago. It's the only answer I know now.
You never will, apart from the grace of God. You never will. You just pick you one. You just
pick you one out of frustration. You'll go this one, that one,
this one, that one, this one, that one, and pretty soon, just
out of frustration, you'll pick one. that suits your personality
the best, and suits your knowledge and traditions the best, suits
your ideas and concepts of God the best, and you'll be satisfied
and you'll settle down in it, and you'll die and you'll go
out to meet God in your sins. You never will, apart from the
grace of God, know the difference. You never will. Paul was on his
way to hell. He was a Pharisee. He was religious. He was zealous. He was committed.
You can't question anything he did. He'd make the most religious
man in our day look sick. He said, you think you've got
something to glory in? Let me tell you something about
glory. I circumcised the eighth day after the law. You want glory
in the law? On the eighth day when I was
an infant, my godly parents took me down and had me circumcised
according to the law of God. And they trained me up. I was
a Pharisee. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
You want to talk about blood salvation, I can take you and
blur it all the way back to Abraham. Whatever it is you have to glory
in, I'm more. I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Nobody was his equal. Touching
the righteousness of the law, this outward obedience we like
to brag in and like to feel good about, he said, I blame us. I can't ever say that. Even when
I went to church, I can't say that. He could. I was blameless. Blameless. But he was on his way to hell.
He didn't know God. He didn't know God. He knew the Scripture. You could
start talking about Isaiah. Isaiah was one of his great grandparents.
He could tell you all about Isaiah. He could tell you about Haggai. He could tell you their whole
life history. He could tell you where they were born, where they
were raised, how the government was, who the kingdoms were in
that day. He could tell you anything you
wanted to know about it. But he didn't know God. That's what I'm saying. That's
what I said to him. That's what I'm saying to you.
You never will, apart from the grace of God. You'll never know
the difference. You'll never know if I'm telling
you the truth or some jack-legged preacher down here in some city
down here in Arkansas, unless he's telling you the truth. You
ain't going to know the difference. You never will. You'll just find
something that suits you. He alone can take away the questions
and confusion and mysteries to which all men are ignorant. Oh, listen to this. Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. That's
the only answer I know. And I'm going to give you four
things that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that
I know. I don't have any doubts about
it whatsoever. None. No reservations. I'm going
to give you four things. And the first thing I know is
that all men are shut up to the things of God by a sovereign
work of revelation. Now, that's just so. And you
can read all you want. And you can think you understand
all you need to know. I got a letter from a Reformed
Baptist man the other day. I forget where he was from. He
was somewhere out west. I want to say Montana or Wyoming
or somewhere like that. who had been in the Reformation
movement and was a hard shell all his life. And he said, I began listening
to you all on Sovereign Grace, on Free Grace Radio. He said,
I began listening to those messages. He said, thank God. Thank God. He said, I learned the truth.
He said, my whole salvation was wrapped up in Calvinism. All
together, wrapped up in Calvinism. And then he said, I heard a man
say, probably Henry Mahan, one of them, he said, Salvation is
in Christ. It ain't in Israel, it's in him. It's in him. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
2, verse 7. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the
world under our glory. which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, that is, mankind, any man, the things that God hath prepared
for them that love him. But God has. God has. What did God do? He revealed
them. Isn't that what this is? You studied them? You searched
them, and in your searching, you thought you had a hope just
in the fact that you searched. In the activities of looking
and searching and learning and all those things, you thought
you had salvation. God hath revealed them unto us
by Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things. Yea, the deep things
of God. God revealed them to you in a
person. in a person. Oh, just hang on
now. Just stay right there in 1 Corinthians. He alone can take away the questions
and confusion and mysteries and all these things. Look down here
in verse 12. We receive not the Spirit of this world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. Revelation of the Spirit leaves
no doubt in the believer that everything He now sees everything
he now feels, everything he now hopes in, is by the free, sovereign
gift of God. I'm telling you, when God convinces
you of truth, no man is going to unconvince you. He's not going
to do it. Because you see it for yourself. Oh, Simeon, he said, Oh, he said,
Now let us thou thy servant depart, for I have seen thy salvation. He held that boy in his arms.
I've seen him. Try to convince Simeon. You and I are shut up to the
things of God concerning the gospel, to a revelation of God. He said, The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
understood. And then here is the second thing. This divine
revelation comes by way of a new birth. You can't have a revelation
apart from a new birth. I'm tired of hearing about it.
It just ain't so. It's not scriptural. You can
have anything in an experience. Satan will give you anything
you want. I heard Brother Bernard say one time, if you want a good
feeling, pour some warm honey down your back. That will give
you a good feeling. You can get good feelings by listening to
good music. That's why churches incorporate so much of it. They
want you to feel good. This divine revelation comes
by way of a new birth. Except you'd be born again, you
cannot see. That word is perceive. Sit down with somebody sometime.
How many times have you done it in the last three weeks? Sit
down and talk and talk and talk and talk and say, see here, and
read it to them, read it to them slow, emphasize it, underline
them, highlight it. I stand up here every week and
I preach to you and I get loud on some points and I repeat some
points and I do it on purpose, but it doesn't do a thing to
convince you. It's got to come by revelation and that revelation
has to come through a new birth. Except you be born again Nicodemus,
you cannot perceive the Kingdom of God and you can't enter into
it. Oh, we know who you are. You're
a teacher. You don't know anything. That's just the truth. And that's
the way we need to go. If we just come understanding
how ignorant we were, open that book and bow before God and say,
I don't know anything. And I can't know anything if
you don't show it to me. And he'll show it to you. Oh, it comes through a new birth.
That which is flesh is flesh, it can't know, cannot make peace,
cannot understand, cannot receive anything from God. Man's dead
spiritually. None that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. The way of peace they've not known. No fear of
God before their eyes. All together become unprofitable.
They prefer darkness to light and sin to holiness, rebellion
over peace, night over day, hell over heaven, tradition over truth. He doesn't require motivation,
instruction, reformation or change of mind. A lost man needs a new
man to put in him. That's what he needs. He's dead. He's dead. He needs a new creation. He needs
a new birth to enable him to receive the gospel promises of
Christ. Revelation comes by new birth. Listen to this. Peter said, God
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. Huh? We're born to a hope. That's how you got it. That's
how you understood it. That's how you perceived it.
That's how you received it. Begotten again unto a lively
hope. To as many as received him, to
them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name." Now listen, who were born. They were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God. And then thirdly, I have no doubt
about these things. The new birth is always accompanied
by the preaching of the gospel. Find me a place anywhere in there
where it is not. It always is. In 1 Corinthians 4, verse 15,
Paul told the people of that church, he said, you may have
10,000 instructors in Christ. I don't know how many people.
It sounded to him like a multitude was trying to teach them, first
this way and then that way. They were so confused and mixed
up by worldly philosophy and ignorant questions, unanswerable
questions that men asked, they didn't know which end was up.
And Paul told them, he said, you might have 10,000 instructors
in Christ, but you ain't got that many fathers. And he said,
I have begotten you through the gospel. That's how men are born. That's how you're begotten, through
the gospel. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. In 1 Peter 1, verse 18. Peter said, for as much as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver
and gold from your vain conversation, that was required back under
the old law, redemption money. And you received these things
from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who barely was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. who by him do believe in God,
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, under unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. For all flesh is grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower fadeth away. But the word of the Lord, that
holy word by which you were born, that incorruptible seed, endureth
forever." Now, hear what he says here. And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. No being born again apart from
the preaching of the gospel. I'm telling you, it just don't
happen. Now, you go crawl in your solitude
or your closet and then come away talking about some experience
that you had, but I'm telling you, by the Word of God and by
the testimony of men of whom I have no doubt. You might doubt
me, but don't doubt him. This was a writer of Scripture
who said this. This was an apostle who said
this. This is our Lord who said that to Nicodemus. Don't doubt
them. And they said it takes the gospel.
The gospel. Not another gospel. It's always
attended and in conjunction with the preaching of the gospel.
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit. That's the new birth and belief
of the truth. Isn't that what he told Osthessalonians?
He said, I know your election of God, because when the gospel
came, it came not in word only, but in power. It comes through
the hearing of the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10. We shut up to a revelation. You're
not going to understand this book. Now, you go turn your TV
on and listen to old Haggis stand up there and babble all he wants
to about prophecy, and you listen to first this one and then that
one, and you listen to these men and they'll babble on forever,
and none of them will make any sense. You won't come away from there
with any wisdom whatsoever. None. My wife and I heard on there
last night this group of idiots have all got together and decided
that the Mayan calendar is going to declare the end of time. And
now they're having a lottery, and if you win the lottery, you
can go down there with them and be preserved in some cave somewhere.
Huh? You're going to take that over
the gospel? This world gobbles that up like
fresh turkey coming out of the oven on Thanksgiving. God will
say, just ease it up, ease it up. And you preach the gospel
to them. What do you think he is? Oh,
I tell you, Peter said, if you tasted, if so be you tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Listen to this over here in Romans
chapter 10. He said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Anybody, regardless
of race or color, country, male, female, rich, poor, bond or free,
learned or ignorant, old or young, religious or heathen, whosoever
shall call upon the name, the Lord our banner, the Lord our
righteousness, the Lord our peace, his name, who he is, the perfection
of his character, the reputation of his person, the honor of his
name. Calling upon him who is manifest
in Christ alone to be just and justifier, righteousness and
peace, kissing one another. Calling upon that name, that
one name, that only name, through whom God will make himself known.
Who said it? I don't care who it is. You shall be saved. This irresistible,
unstoppable, undeniable, incorruptible, accepted, approved, crowned, seated at the right
hand of God, whosoever shall call upon that name will be saved.
But here are four questions you're going to have to come to deal
with. You're going to have to come to terms with them. I'm
telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. How
then shall they call on Him in whom they had not believed? You
ain't going to do it. You're going to call on another
Jesus by another spirit. That's what you're going to do.
You're going to wind up in that day. Those men weren't just out
there speaking to the wind. They cried to Him. Had not we
done many wonderful works in thy name? Had not we preached
in your name? He said, Depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Boy, it makes me tremble. I don't know what it does for
you. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? We are not born into this world
with an inherent knowledge of that name. Religion doesn't preach
and declare that name. Tradition doesn't declare his
name. Every tradition they passed on,
our Lord called it vain tradition, didn't he? Is that what he said?
This vain tradition received by your fathers. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. How shall you, born in sin and
darkness and ignorance, call on Him in whom you have not believed? And how shall you believe in
Him of whom you have not heard?" Thousands, I'm telling you, thousands,
hundreds of thousands. I was looking at a little map
on Free Grace Radio the other day. I don't know how many preachers
are represented on there. I never took time to count them.
But I'm telling you, there's a swath through the middle of
this country, about a third of this country, and there's not
even a church or a testimony in it anywhere. Right up through
the middle. Just vacant. Nothing. A state the size of Texas, and
there are two or three churches. Texas is as big as most countries.
Three churches. How many you got in Arkansas?
Huh? Not very many. How many in Mississippi? How are you going to hear? How are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? Thousands sitting over there.
Can't hear. Can't hear. No opportunity even
for them to hear. And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? I didn't ask these questions. The apostle
asked these questions. How are you going to hear without
a preacher? Now, and here's the big question.
How's he going to preach? Except he'd be sinning. Huh? Now, are you ramming around? If I'm not, you need to get me
out of here. You need to get me out. Because that makes you
an idolater. That makes you children of a
false prophet. That's how serious this thing
is. How are you going to hear without a preacher? How's he
going to preach except he be sent? But oh, if he's sent, hear
him. Hear him. He's not preaching
foolishness. He's pointing you to the Son.
He's pointing you to life. He's pointing you to the way.
Hear him. Hear him. How shall you hear without a
preacher? How will you call without faith? How can you have faith
without hearing? Faith cometh by hearing. How
will you know the difference unless God in His sovereign grace
is pleased to send you the right man with the right message at
the right time? I believe that. I believe there
is a time. And those times, He said in His times, He is going
to show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings
and Lord of lords. Both times are in His hands,
the times of your conversion, the times of your death, the
times of your birth. He hath determined the times
before appointed and set the bounds of their habitation that
they might seek Him. The times are in His hands. And
if that be so, how precious is this time right here, right now. Hear Him. Hear Him. Look and listen and consider.
What is faith? Faith is a godly persuasion. That's what Paul was saying.
What was he persuaded of? He was persuaded of whom he believed. What was he persuaded? That which
he had committed unto Him. What did he commit to Him? Everything
he had. Everything he had. Isaiah laid
there, saw himself as nothing when he saw the Lord over there.
And Isaiah, he said, when I saw the Lord, he said, and saw Him
high and lifted up and in His glory, he said, I'm a man of
unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. And the angel took the coal from
the altar and laid it on his lips. And the Lord asked this
question, Whom shall I send? Send me, he said. I can tell
them. I can tell him, I've seen him.
I've seen him. Don came to me, he said, would
you be willing to go down to Taylor, Arkansas and preach to
that group? Seen me? I've seen Him. I've seen Him. You can't tell
what you don't know anymore when you come back from someplace
you haven't been. I've seen Him. And I'm telling you, there's
life in the Son. He that hath the Son hath life. You can have religion. You don't
need the Son for that. You can have your professions,
you can have your refuge, you can have all those things, but
you can't have life unless you have the Son. And that life is
to know Him, and to know Him is to know His Father. Have you
been so long time with me, Philip? Have you not seen the Father?
It's all in Him. That's the gospel, best I can
preach.