A husband is a rare thing. A
husband is a rare thing. A husband. The word comes from
a root word that means master. A good master is a rare thing.
The master of the house. The husband. He provides for
it. He takes care of it. He protects
it. He nurtures it. He'll give his
life for it. Blessed is the man that findeth
a good wife, for he findeth a good thing, Solomon declares it. And
blessed is that woman who finds a husband. A husband is a rare
thing. The title of my message this
morning, Five Husbands or One. Five or one. If you choose the
five, you can never have a husband. You may sleep in the same bed
with them, but you'll never have a husband. If you choose the
one, you'll have a husband and you will despise the five. Brother Don, that sounds a little
puzzling to me. Turn to John chapter four and we'll solve
the puzzle. John chapter 4. Our Lord Jesus is dealing with
this Samaritan woman. She didn't know it, but he was
her husband and he had come to marry her. She didn't know it, but he had
espoused her before the world was. And he said, I've come now
to take the names of Balaam out of your mouth, and you'll no
more call me my master, you'll call me my husband. John chapter 4, verse 16, Jesus
saith unto her, go call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that sense
thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. I reckon so. I perceive thou
art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain. This is astounding to me. This
is astounding to me. I'm going to show you spiritual
significance to these five husbands in just a moment. But here's
this old gal. She's a salty old dog. She's shacked up with five different
men. And as soon as it's exposed, she starts fussing about religion.
She starts arguing religion. I know, I come from religious
folks just like you do. Don't tell me I'm not a Christian.
Don't you do that. I'm as religious as you are.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. We've always worshipped
God this way. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Believe
me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Now watch this. Ye
worship ye know not what. I told you you've had five husbands
and the one you're sleeping with now is not your husband. You
worship, you know not what. You worship here and there, worshiping
this way and that, and you don't have a clue what you're doing.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Salvation
is that which is portrayed in everything involved in the way
of worship God gave to the Jews, in the way of worship God taught
the Jews. You said we worship God in this
place? He said, honey, listen. The hour is coming when true
worshipers shall worship the Father in the Spirit, worship
God in the Spirit. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him. God is Spirit. and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. This is something we know. We know what we worship. Did
you ever wonder who the Samaritans were? Where they came from? Why the Jews had no dealings
with them? We read their origins as a mongrel
race back in 2 Kings chapter 17. when Shalmaneser, the king
of Assyria, conquered the ten tribes of Israel and carried
them away into Assyria in bondage. He dispersed the Jews throughout
his realm. He sent them to this place and
that so they wouldn't all be congregated in one particular
place. And he sent people from the land of Assyria to keep and
to cultivate the land of Israel. These Assyrians were pagans. They were smart, but they were
pagans. They were well-educated, but they were pagans. They worshipped
idols. They worshipped all kinds of
gods. Now, they were respected people. They weren't folks down
in New Guinea who ate one another. These were Assyrians. They weren't
folks who ran around the jungles in Africa with bones in their
noses. These were Assyrians. They were smart folks, kind of
like Americans. They were real smart folks. They
were kind of like Europeans. Brilliant people. Only problem
was they were pagans. They worshipped stumps, and frogs,
and dogs, and goats, and apes, and men, and women. They worshipped
anything that moved or might possibly be made to look like
it moved. They'd make a god out of it. They worshipped it. But
they were brilliant folks. Well, he sent these Assyrians
into the land. And they brought their gods with
them. They were sent from five sections
of Assyria, and each one brought the god that represented his
section of Assyria. And the Lord God was not feared
among them, though they were dwelling in the land God gave
to his people Israel. And so the Lord sent lions to
get their attention. And the lions began to devour
the Assyrians, and the Assyrians sent back to the king of Assyria
and said, send one of the Jews priests down here, so he can
teach us the manner of the God of the land. We don't know the
manner of the God of the land. And so the king of Assyria, Shabanizer,
got one of the Jews priests and sent him down to teach his people
in Israel the way the Jews worshipped, not to teach them to worship
God. That wasn't their interest. to teach them the manner of the
God of the land. To teach them to act like they
worshipped God. To teach them to fake it. They
wanted a priest to teach them how to fake worshipping God. And he did. He came down and
taught them the manner of the God of the land. And in time,
these Assyrians intermarried with the Jews who lived in this
area of Samaria. They became from then on known
as Samaritans. Samaritans, a mongrel race with
a mongrel religion. A mongrel people with whom the
Jews had no dealings. If you care to read in Ezra chapter
4, you'll remember that in the days of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel
and Joshua and Ezra when they were rebuilding the temple in
Jerusalem, these Samaritans came. And they said to Zerubbabel and
Joshua, said, we brought a work crew up here. We're going to
help you build the house of the Lord. And Zerubbabel didn't even
get off the ladder. He said, go back home. We don't
want you. We don't need you. We don't have to have a business
meeting about this thing. We're not going to join hands with
you or let you join hands with us. And they rejected the Samaritans
not because they were a mixed race. That wasn't the problem.
Moses, you will remember, was married to a woman who was of
another race. She was a Midianite. That wasn't
the problem. But being a mongrel race, they
had become a mongrel religious people. A people with a mixed
religion. and Zerubbabel and Joshua and
the leaders of Israel who were faithful and serving God in their
day said, no, we won't have anything to do with you Samaritans. And you can't have anything to
do with us. We're here on God's business doing God's work. And
they went away in a huff. and wrote letters, and accused
the Jews of everything under the sun, and they opposed them
from that day until the day in which we live now. They were
opposed to them, fighting them on every hand. The Samaritans
were a people who didn't know what they worshiped, like multitudes
in our day. They represent sham conversion. They represent false faith. They
represent religious hypocrisy. Let's look at this passage in
John 4, verses 16 through 22. The Samaritan woman was now thoroughly
confused. She perceived that the Lord Jesus
was a prophet, but she didn't understand a thing he was saying
to her. She was clueless. She knew that
the Jews' religion excluded the possibility of her being saved. She said, what are you doing
talking to me about water? The Jews don't have anything to do
with us. And here you are talking to me about salvation. She knew
that the Jews' religion precluded her being saved because she worshipped
different gods in different places and in different ways. And the
Jews, by profession, worshipped Jehovah alone, who alone is God. Yet the Lord Jesus is talking
to this woman about salvation. eternal life, acceptance with
God, and with the same breath, he's telling her that her religion
is a religion of uselessness, ignorance, and idolatry. Wow. Boy, if he could have just gone
to Bible college, if he could just have gone to seminary somewhere,
he would have learned never to be so blunt. You just don't talk
to people that way. If he could have just been a
politician for one term, he would have learned the art of compromise
and the trick of talking out of both sides of his mouth, like
politicians and preachers do at every age. These days, when
preachers are confronted with plain, stark contrast, I mean,
black and white contrast, I mean, contrast that any kindergarten
child look at and says, something's wrong with one of those, if not
both of them. not preachers. No. Oh well, you know, we have
to have a spirit of ecumenism about these things. There are
some things we just have to be willing to compromise and get
along with folks for the greater good. We just have to do that.
And so they find excuse in this vague unexplainable thing called
compromise and ecumenism by which they can point to places where
they are in agreement rather than places where they're in
disagreement and learn how to get along and serve God all together
as one people. Our Lord Jesus wasn't such a
man. I've got to give a fellow credit. Years ago I've told you
before Shortly after we moved into the building here, I was
sitting in my office back here, and I got a call one day. I don't even
know whether they have it or not. They used to have a Campbellite
Preacher's Seminary at the Campbellite Church here in town. And I think
their lead course was Fortner 101. I get calls from them every
year about September, middle of September, some of the young
preachers wanting to take me over for something. And this
fellow called, wondering if he'd come out and visit. And I said,
well, it's Monday morning, I got a little time, sure. He came
out, and I saw him get out of his car, He had a stack of theology
books, and he was armed to the teeth. And he sat down, and I've
got to give him credit. He had learned one thing that
was so. He said, well, he looked at it, and he said, I guess you
won't mind me calling you a Calvinist, will you? I said, no, if you
don't mind me calling you a Campbellite. And if you know the difference,
you know it. If you don't, you don't. That's
all right. But he said, before we get started, Mr. Fortner,
I presume it's safe to say that we can't both be saved, isn't
it? I said, you're dead sure right. No possibility. One of us doesn't know God from
a billy goat. And there are not many folks who have enough sense
to realize that. You worship two different gods. You worship,
they may have the same name, but they're two different gods.
You worship on a different basis. You approach God with a different
righteousness, with a different hope, with a different atonement.
You can't both be saved. You may both be lost, but you
can't both be saved. I said, you're dead sure right.
Well, our Lord was just that plain. He said, you worship you
know not what. Rather than compromising by the
standards of modern religious and political correctness, He
would be considered a rude, uncouth bigot. It's time we had some. It's time
we had some. Instead of dodging the issue,
instead of attempting to be polite, the Lord Jesus seems to have
stopped the Samaritan woman right in the middle of her words and
with purpose. He does so to drive home the
truth of God to her heart. His intent, his intent is to
destroy her religion in herself. You can't do that. If your religion
can be destroyed, I'm here to destroy it. Did you hear me? If your hope can be destroyed,
I've come here today to destroy it. If your refuge can be torn
down, it is a refuge of lies, and I pray God will give me grace
by His Word and by His Spirit to tear down your refuge of lies,
that you may flee for refuge to Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Our Lord Jesus lays the axe to
the root of the tree. He goes to the very core of our
religion. and tears up every foundation
of her religious house. He says to her, as she's attempting
to defend her religion, ye worship ye know not what. He looked at
her and he said, honey, don't talk to me about your religion.
You don't have a clue what you're talking about. You don't have
a clue. You don't have a clue what you're
talking about. He said, woman, I'm telling you this. You don't
know God, and you don't know anything about God. You don't
know anything about his worship. You don't have any idea who his
people are. You know nothing of his salvation. And then he
proceeded to tell her, all who truly worship God, if you would
obtain God's salvation, you've got to know who God is. Now mark that down. It's worth
remembering. If you would obtain God's salvation,
You've got to know who God is. You can't worship an unknown
God. It can't be done. It can't be
done. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard preachers. I've heard them on television.
I don't listen much on television. You just flip through the channels,
and as you're sliding by, they say this stuff so often, it pops
out. When I was first saved, I didn't know who God was. You
didn't. I didn't know what Jesus had
done. You didn't. But you trusted him. And folks
say amen and send him a hundred dollars. But it's nuts. It's
nuts. You can't worship God if you
don't know who he is. Salvation is not a leap in the
dark. True worship is based upon and
rises from the revelation of God in Christ in your heart. Now I have a question. Question
I want you to answer, and answer honestly. Do you know who you
worship? Do you know who you worship? Do you? Or is your religion a
religion that has been passed along to you by mama and daddy?
Or a religion that you have been raised up in and accepted because
you were raised up in it? a religion that you have received
by tradition from your fathers, or a religion that you've received
because some man talked you into it. This, I'm here to tell you,
there are many false religions. Most are. All but one are. False religions. Many false husbands
to your soul. Many who would rob you of everything
and give you nothing. That's what a false husband will
do. He'll take everything from you and give you nothing in return. He's just a whoremonger. That's
what the religion of the age is. It's the religion of adultery. It's the religion of idolatry.
The Samaritans were a mongrel people with a mongrel religion.
Now, I remind you what we read in 2 Kings 17. It was just about
750 years before our Lord's conversation with this woman that the ten
northern tribes of the Jewish nation were taken captive by
the Assyrians. Turn back there, if you will,
2 Kings 17. These people, as I told you,
brought their gods. Five are named here from five
different sections. And they intermingled with the
Jews. They did nothing to try to stop
the Jews from worshiping Jehovah. They didn't. They didn't try
to do that. They didn't try to do that. That would be a futile
battle. That'd be a futile battle. You
start arguing with fellas about their gods, they'll defend their
gods quicker than they'll defend their wives. I mean, tell you,
buddy, they'll go to war with you over their gods. They'll
go to war with you over their gods. So the only way you can
work around that is to get them to mix the worship of their God
with your God, and to mix the worship of your God with their
God, and then we can get along just fine, because neither of
us know what we're doing. And this is what happened in
Samaria. Look at verse 29, 2 Kings 17, 29. Howbeit every nation
made gods of their own, and put them in houses of the high places
which the Samaritans had made, Every nation in their cities
where they dwelt. Now let's look at these gods
for a minute. The men of Babylon made Succoth-Benoth. This was
a god. Now you're going to think I'm
lying to you, but I'm not lying to you. I'm telling you the truth.
This was a chicken. This was a chicken. They worshipped
chickens. This was their god. Pleiades,
the seven stars, the women of Babylon and Assyria, in the worship
of this chicken god, prostituted themselves at least one time
in their adult lives in the temple of Venus to any man at his word,
at least once in their lives, in the name of worshiping their
chicken god. The men of Kuth made Nergal. Nergal was a dog. A dog. Whoever heard tell of
worshiping a dog? These folks here. A dog. He was a symbol of hunting and
power in the field. Read up. And the men of Hamath made Ashima. Ashima, the god of Hamath, was
worshipped under the image of an ape or a goat. But it was a strange ape and
a strange goat. He was worshipped under both
images. He had no hair, no fur. There were just apes and goats
just skiing on him. And the Avites, verse 31, made
Nibhaz and Tartak. Nibhaz, again, was a dog, but
a dog representing a demon. Tartak was a jackass. He represented
the prince of darkness. And the Shepharvites burnt their
children in fire to Adramelech and to Enamelech. That is, to
Adramelech, the sun god in the form of a man, and to Enamelech,
the moon god in the form of a woman, the gods of Shepherdim. So they
feared the Lord. Isn't that something? They worshipped
Jehovah. They worshipped Jehovah. Said
they did. And made to themselves the lowest of them. Made to themselves
the lowest of them. Where do preachers come from?
Now you know. The lowest of them. No wonder
they're crooks. They made themselves of the lowest
of them, priests of the high places. Brother Don, you sound
like you don't have any respect for preachers. Ralph Barney used
to say, you ought to put a ten-cent bounty on them. I think he had
the bounty too high. They made priests of the low
places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high
places, verse 33. They feared the Lord. They worshipped
Jehovah and served their own gods. These five gods, like the
five husbands of this Samaritan woman, were all false gods of
whoredom. Those men were not her husbands.
They just took and never gave. Sound like manhood in America
today? I'm so thankful. My son-in-law, you have a daughter,
you want her well-wed, oh, I'm so thankful for him. So thankful
for him. There are not many husbands in
this land. Oh, you young ladies, wait till
you have one and don't settle for less, but enough of that. The Lord Jesus, who was her husband,
had come to marry her, but in order to do so, he must rip her
from the arms of her lovers, and he's about to do so. After
a while, the southern tribes of the nation That is, the people
of Judah were taken captive, and they were carried away into
Babylon for 70 years. But these northern tribes, while
they followed after the evil ways of the children of Israel,
the ten northern tribes, these southern tribes never lost their
distinct identity as Jews, and they refused to worship the gods
of the Babylonians, and in time returned to the building of the
house of the Lord. when Judah was delivered from
Babylon and they began to build the temple in 70 A.D., sorry,
in 450 B.C., the mongrel Samaritans, again, I remind you, offered
to help. And the faithful said no. With the Samaritans, they
got upset and they just, from that day on, opposed the Jews.
With them, it was a matter of offended pride and offended religion. Now, I've been at this a little
while. I've been at it a little while. I hear preachers tell
me they, you know, meet with opposition in churches and meet
with opposition here and there. There's no way on this earth
to tell a man he's going to hell and him like it. You just can't
do it. It just can't be done. You can't
tell a man that his God is a good luck charm and nothing more,
and him like it. Nothing makes the matter. Nothing.
Several years ago, Brother Ralph Dale was pastoring in Yankinville,
North Carolina, He called me up. I'd known Ralph for years.
He said, Brother Don, could you come help me out in a meeting?
And I hadn't heard from him in a long time. I said, Ralph, I'd
be glad to. He said, where are you? He said,
I'm pastoring West Yadkin Baptist Church in Yadkinville, North
Carolina. I said, that's Southern Baptist Church? He said, yeah.
I said, if I come down there, Ralph, I'll help you plumb out.
And he said, well, come on. Something's happened. So I went
down to preach for him. I'm not stretching this one bit
in the world. Not one iota. I went down, I preached for him
on Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night.
Wednesday night I got a call from him. He said, well, Brother
John, you helped me out. How come? Because folks won't be
confronted. They won't be confronted and like it unless God does something
for them on the inside. And then something happens. You
see, the Samaritans, like the people of this world, had many
gods, many gods. many religious ceremonies, many
different names for their religion. And yet, like the religions of
the world today, the Samaritans all embraced each other. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? They all
got along fine. They got along fine. Several years ago, there's a
local Presbyterian preacher, I hope he hears this, I hope he does,
came to town. Gonna start a new church. And
claimed to believe the gospel of God's grace. So I went and
looked him up. Found his office. Invited him to come over. I invited
him to come to our fellowship dinners. I invited him to come
over and visit with us. I invited him to come to our
conferences. There's lots of fellows like this. I've written
to them and said, you come, I'll pay your expenses. You won't
cost you a dime. I just want you to meet some other preachers
who preach what you say you believe. Man, you talk about getting quiet.
I never heard from him. Next time I saw his name, I talked
to him, hadn't talked to him in years. Next time I saw his
name, he and the folks at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church
were getting together for some kind of a youth rally. He's head
of the Ministerial Association. And I started getting letters
from him, inviting me. I said, I'll tell you what I'll
do. The first time you have somebody
there to speak at your Ministerial Association that's got anything
at all to say for the glory of God, you contact me and I'll
be there. and I haven't heard from him.
How come? Because they're not interested
in God's glory. They're interested in promoting one another, in
promoting themselves, in enriching themselves, in deceiving the
souls of men, in taking from you that they may have for themselves
honor and prestige and power. Well, do you think that's what
preachers are doing? If you don't know it, you're a fool. You're
a fool. that pretend to worship Jehovah,
and they have all kinds of different religions. Some of them are Catholic,
and some of them are Buddhist, and some of them are Baptist,
Independent Baptist, and Southern Baptist, and Northern Baptist,
and American Baptist, and Free Will Baptist, and other Baptists,
just all kinds of Baptists. There's a bunch of them. I used
to go to Kentucky in the dark. The regular Baptist, and the
Baptist, and this kind of Baptist, and that kind of Baptist. But
they all have one thing in common. And they had the same thing in
common with these Samaritans. All the Samaritans' religions. They
had their five different sections with their gods representing
each section. But they all had one thing in common. As do the
religions of Danville, Kentucky, November 9th, 2008, right here
on Sunday morning. Same thing. They had a centerpiece. A centerpiece. I had never heard
tell I'm a south side boy from North Carolina and I wasn't raised
with too much and didn't have much class or clout growing up. Shortly after we moved here,
went to visit Linda and Diane and you had just gotten a focal
point. I had never heard tell of a focal point before in my
life. Didn't have a clue what one was. If you don't know, it's
all right. It's okay. It's a place that
gets your attention when you walk in the room. Focal point. All the religion of the world's
got a focal point. Pick up a mirror and you'll see
it. Pick up a mirror and you'll see
it. The religion is built around you, your will, and your work,
your enthusiasm, your devotion, your money, your time, your influence,
your name on the tote board to give us prestige. The religion's
centered around you, so they don't dare do anything that might
displease you. Don't dare say anything that
might displease you. And we'll have a service. What
do y'all do for the young people? Well, we preach to them. I mean,
what do you do special for them? That's special. What do y'all do for senior citizens?
Well, we preach to them. I mean, what do you have special
for them? We preach to them the same message
we do to the young people. They hadn't outgrown it yet.
But don't you have something special for the single folks,
for the divorced moms and the divorced dads and the perverts
in this group? Yeah, we have something special
for everybody. It's called free grace. Nothing else. Nothing else. You're just not
keeping up with the times. Oh, God be blessed, we're not. And we don't plan to. Every man
worshiped as he chose, just like men do today. Talk to your neighbor.
Go talk to any of them. When you go home, I dare you,
I dare you, go to the first house you come to and talk to them
about what they did at church this morning. Every man does
exactly what he wants to. They worship exactly as they
please. If we don't like the way God
teaches us baptism, we'll do it another way. If we don't like
the way God says for us to observe the Lord's table, we'll do it
another way. Or don't do it if it bothers you. We don't like
these days preaching becoming passé, you know. That's a fancy
word. That means it's outdated. Passé. We're going to talk now. We're
going to have meetings now. Discuss things. Don't you let
preaching become outdated. Gospel preaching. This is God's
means of saving sinners. Man-centered religion is designed
to please, entertain, and indulge the lust of men. And that's the
reason men do what they do in churches all around the world.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man. Larry Brandt, it just stands
for reason. You come to church Sunday morning, Sunday night,
and Tuesday night, you know that counts for something. You know
it does. Man, I read my Bible three times
a year. Don't you tell me that doesn't
count for anything. No, this stands for reason. Man, I used to be
a drunk and I quit drinking. I hadn't touched a drop of alcohol
in 40 years. You know that stands for something.
It's got to. It just stands for reason. There's a way that seems right
to a man. A way that teaches you to live
righteously by the measurement of men. It'll teach you to be
an honest citizen. It'll teach you to pay your taxes.
It'll teach you to cease from adultery. and cease from fornication,
and cease from drunkenness, and cease from tobacco, and alcohol,
and firearms, and anything else anybody might find any pleasure
in. There's a way. There's a way. Seems right to
a man. Look at me. Man, I have cleaned
up, and I'm living so good. There's hope for you. There's
hope for you. Not much, but a little. But a
little. You can do it if you will. All
you have to do is will your way into it. That's all. Just make a decision for Jesus.
It'll be alright. There's a way that seems right
to a man. It may be the Catholic way or
the Protestant way. It may be the Baptist way or
the Buddhist way. But it seems right to a man. It's called the
way of will-worship. Will-worship. That's what Paul
calls it, Colossians 2.23. The Spirit of God calls it...
He calls those folks will-worshippers. Why, nobody worships their will. Let's sit down and have a talk
about that. You know nobody worships their will. Your will, there
ain't nothing free about it. Your will is perverse and corrupt
as your heart is, and you want to talk about that? Your will
is going to act according to your nature, and it can't act
otherwise. Free will. Free will. Everybody, you hear
it on the news now. I believe God gave man free will.
Man can do what he wants to. God never gave man anything free
except grace. Everything else you got cause
you earned it. And your will is in bondage. Your nature's
in bondage. You're dead in trespasses and
in sins and you can't change it. Only God can change it for
you. Religion is man-centered. All
free will works religion is idolatry. Men may claim to fear the Lord,
to walk in integrity. They may incessantly talk about
Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit and blood redemption and salvation
by grace. But anybody who makes salvation
depend on your decision, your will, Your work is declaring
to you that you are God, you're your own Savior, and that salvation's
in your hands, and that's will worship. It's idolatry. The religion
of this age seeks to establish righteousness, teaching men to
do so by something they do, to make atonement by something they
do. that they can't just trust Christ alone. They can't rest
entirely on the blood of Christ alone. They can't look to God
for grace alone. They've got to have something
that they can look and say, there, I did that. There's a way that
seemeth right to man, but the ends thereof are the ways of
death. And one more statement, and I'll
wrap this up. If you would be married to Christ, If you would
have Christ as your husband, you must abandon forever those
five husbands that hold your soul in bondage. You must have
your conscience purged from dead works, the works of religion,
to serve the living and the true God. You must come out of Babylon. lest you be partaker with her
and with her sins. You must abandon the faults and
cling to Christ alone. You must like Paul or Saul of
Tarsus. Oh, what a devoted religious
man he was. Rex, if I remember correctly,
you were raised in real strict religious background, weren't
you? Those landmarkers were nothing compared to Pharisees. Do you
know what Paul called his religion? Do you know what he learned to
call it? Everything he had learned all
his life. I mean his whole, do you remember what he called it?
He called it dung. That ain't gutter religion, that's
outhouse religion. He said it's dung. Oh, you can't do that. I count it but dung for one reason. I've got to have Christ. I've
got to have Christ. I've got to have Christ. Does God require that of us?
Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. You may think I'm stretching
this, but that's not the case at all. The Holy Spirit calls
the preachers of works, religion, dogs. Brother Russell told me
last night he raises dogs and sells them. Well, do you know
there are folks who tell you if you do that you can't tithe
on it? You ever heard that? Yeah, you
can't. You can't sell dogs, you can't
tithe on the money, because God said don't bring the price of
a dog into my house. He wasn't talking about the dogs that walk
on four legs of bark. He's talking about the kind of dog we saw
on television this morning that had a backward collar on. He's talking about
the kind of dogs that teach you to do something to win God's
favor. They're called the concision.
Beware of dogs. Those dogs referred to under
the law, you should bring not the price of a dog into my house,
were male prostitutes. Is that what Paul? Is calling
these preachers a free will works religion? Read it for yourself
in Philippians chapter 3. Beware dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Folks
who tell you to do something. Do something. Get right with
God. Do something. God's servants tell you to wait on the Lord.
Seek the Lord. Call upon Him while He's near.
2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14. Be you not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? Now, I know you've heard this
all your life. This is called for separation.
It is, but not the kind you think. Not the kind you think. We've
got a whole community of folks who live about 20 miles from
here, right down the road, who think that's what it's talking
about. you know, and they split up because some of them wear
buttons and some of them wear zippers. They don't have nothing to do with
you. You got zippers on your breeches. How liberal you. That's not what it's talking
about. Don't go in the store and buy
groceries where they sell alcohol. That's not what it's talking
about. That's not what it's talking about. Let's see what it's talking
about. And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? He's talking about religious
association. He's not talking about being
a member of the country club out here. He's not talking about
being a member of the boys club. He's not talking about any of
that stuff. He's talking about being part of their religion. What
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the
temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk with them, and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing. And I'll receive you, and will
be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.
People say, well, I just, I go down there to that church. I
know they don't preach anything, but I go down there for the fellowship. I like what the fellow said years
ago. He said, if you're going to have fellowship, you've got to be
in the same ship. Fellowship. I don't have any
fellowship with Armenians. It had nothing to do with them.
I just didn't have fellowship with the Buddhists. Now I can
play ball with them, and I can sit down and go fishing with
them, but I can't even fellowship with them. I just can't do it.
Don't you respect the religion? No. No. The Lord Jesus demands that we
identify ourselves with Him alone as Savior. Do you know in the
Old Testament it was possible for Gentiles to be numbered among
the children of Israel. Did you know that? They sure
could. All they had to do was be circumcised and abandon their former religion.
Ruth the Moabitess became Ruth the Jew. And she said to Naomi,
thy people shall be my people and thy God. shall be my God. Where you lodge, I'll lodge.
Where you go, I'll go. And where you die, I'll die.
Naaman the Syrian went to Elijah to be healed of his leprosy.
And that mighty Syrian was commanded of Elijah to go down to the River
Jordan and wash seven times. And he was demanded thereby to
abandon the pools of all his Syrian peoples. and be bathed
in the dirty river Jordan in obedience to God, identifying
himself with those people who crossed that river into the land
of God's promise. And when he went back to Syria,
he took a long caravan with him, and he carried all the soil of
the land of Israel that two mules could carry back to Syria with
him. And when he worshipped God, he
worshipped God on Jewish ground. He worshipped God on an altar
of earth that God had made. An altar of earth pointing to
Jesus Christ who alone is our Redeemer, our Substitute, our
Savior, our Sacrifice, who alone is our acceptance with God. If
you would follow Christ, You burn the bridges behind you,
and you identify yourself with God's people in the waters of
baptism, confessing Christ. And if you're not going to do
so, I'll tell you what you'll do. I promise you. I promise
you. In time, you'll find a reason,
and you'll go back worshiping chickens. and dogs and apes. You go back to worshipping your
will. I promise you will. When Spaniards went to Mexico, Cortes
landed there. Do you know what he commanded
his men to do? Do you know what he commanded them to do? You've
been down there, driving that museum. Burn the ships. What? Sir, how will we get back to
Spain? We're not going back to Spain.
This is it. Burn the ships. I call you, oh
may God call you, to burn the ships. Confess Christ. Leave your cistern. setting on
the empty well of the world's religion with its polluted wallers,
and follow the Son of God. Follow Christ. Trust Him alone
as the Lord, your righteousness, your sanctification, and your
redemption. Trust Him alone as the Lord,
your husband. My husband, What else do I need? Amen.