I have absolutely no desire whatever
to be a part of the religious world around me. I don't have
any desire to be accepted or approved of or in any way identified
with the churches around us. I don't want this church to be.
I do make a pointed effort Whenever I meet a preacher who claims
to believe or even seems to give any indication of wanting to
understand something about the gospel of God's free grace, I
make every effort to stretch out our arms to him and bring
them into the blessed fellowship of the gospel. I don't think
there's been one in the last 25 years that I've met anywhere
in the country that I didn't immediately invite him to come
here and visit with us in Danville, come to one of our conferences,
get to know other gospel preachers, and tell them I'll pay your way
and take care of your expenses, and by that I mean you folks
will pay your way and take care of his expenses. You'll just
want to embrace them all we can. When Southern Seminary I hired
Al Muller to be the president and had a big spread in Lexington
Herald talking about going to teach the doctrines of grace
and all that stuff. I had known the name for a while. I wrote
to him and called him twice. Wrote to him twice, called him
twice. Come down here and visit us. We want to embrace anybody
who claims to believe the gospel of God's grace. wrote to the
history professor down there, Tom Nettles, called him twice.
Because we want to open the door to anyone who claims to believe
God's free grace. And yet at the same time, we
will do nothing. I will do nothing. And God helping
me as long as I am pastor of this assembly, we will do nothing
to identify ourselves with this godless, reprobate generation
in which we live. Now, I've got a sermon, a message,
I believe, from God that's popping to get out. Turn, if you will,
to Zechariah chapter 7. That which the Word of God calls
godliness is the worship of God. Get this notion out of your head
that godliness has something to do with whether you fellas
have long hair or short hair. Get the notion out of your head
that godliness has got something to do with whether you have a
glass of wine with your meal or don't have a glass of wine
with your meal. Get this notion out of your head that godliness
has got something to do with whether you eat pork or just
eat beef or just eat grass. Those things have got nothing
to do with godliness. Godliness is the worship of God
Almighty. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. And if you ever come to worship
God Almighty, trusting Jesus Christ alone as your wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, you will find
the great gain of sweet contentment that you never imagined was around. Blessed are they who, being born
of God, worship God in spirit and in truth. Blessed is that
person who, trusting Christ as his Savior worships God, ever
coming to God by faith in Jesus Christ. But when the Bible speaks
of a form of godliness, the reference is to the mere practice of religion. A form of godliness is going
to church. A form of godliness is engaging
in religious activity. A form of godliness is paying
your tithes. A form of godliness is saying
your prayers. How few there are who know the
blessed, sweet contentment of godliness, what multitudes there
are who cling to a form of godliness, denying the power thereof, the
gospel of God's free grace, and will perish in hell with their
form of godliness. Now that's exactly what we find
in Zechariah chapter 7. Two years after they had begun
to build the temple in Jerusalem. Two years after the foundation
had been laid in the temple. And two years before the temple
was finally finished, the Jews who had recently returned from
Babylon sent a delegation to the house of God. Sent a delegation
to the house of God to pray. and to inquire of God's priests
and God's prophets, Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah, the prophets
of God in Jerusalem in that day, concerning their worship. They had a question about worship,
a question about their religious practices. Look at verse 1. And
it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, that the
word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth
month, even of Kislev. Now this is two years after Zechariah
had his first vision back in chapter one. When they had sent
unto the house of God, Cherezer and Rejimelech, and their men,
this delegation of men, to pray before the Lord, and to speak
unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts,
And to the prophet saying, should I? These men come as representatives
of the whole nation and speak of the nation as one man. Should
I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these so
many years? I've been doing this for 70 years
now. In the fifth month of every year,
observing a fast, and weeping, and mourning, separating myself
from pleasure, and food, and drink, in service to God. Should I continue doing that?
They've been in Babylon for 70 years, during those long years
of captivity. Now remember, they had no temple,
no altar, no ark, No mercy seat. That meant they could not, according
to God's law, observe the ordinances of divine worship. God required
that he be worshipped in Jerusalem on the mercy seat by the sacrifice
and the blood sprinkled on that mercy seat. And you can't worship
me any other way. And when men bowed to pray in
other places, they were instructed to bow toward Jerusalem, not
because there was something holy in Jerusalem, but because the
mercy seat representing Christ was in Jerusalem. And so these
folks were in Babylon these 70 years, with no temple, no outward
ordinances of worship, which were established by God and His
law. But while they were in Babylon, they devised forms of worship
for themselves. Wasn't that good? Isn't that
a wonderful thing to do? We can't obey what God has said
for us to do. Our circumstances won't allow
that, so we certainly ought to do the best we can. They devise
forms of worship. And the walls of the temple were
now about half done, and it looked like they were sure enough going
to have this temple erected. So this delegation comes to God's
priest and his prophets, seeking counsel from the Lord about how
to worship Him. Now that's commendable. That's
commendable. If you want to know how to worship God, you better
come find out from somebody who has been taught of God, who will
give you the Word of God. If we would worship God, we must
learn from God Himself how to do so. We were driving down to
College Grove Friday. Brother Bob and I were talking,
but a man had asked me, he says, who's that fellow sitting right
on the second row there? And I told him. I said, I got
a call from him about six years ago. He said, Brother Fortner,
my name's Bob Duff. I've been in these religious
organizations all my life, teaching Sunday school, and God laid me
on my back, and I was forced to watch you on television. I
wonder if it would be alright if I come out there and sit down
and see if God might teach me something about the gospel. Very
sense. Commendable. These fellas came
to God's house. You remember what our Lord told
the woman in Samaria? The hour cometh and now is when
true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is spirit. and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We must worship God if we would
worship Him by His Spirit, in His Spirit, in our spirits spiritually,
and we must worship Him if we worship Him at all according
to revealed truth. There's no other way to worship
God. to attempt to worship him in
any other way is to spit in his face and he won't have it. We are the circumcision which
worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. But while these Jews were in
Babylon they had established and regularly observed some religious
traditions, ceremonies meticulously maintained ceremonies. They kept
good records. Just two of them are mentioned here, but they
had four. They had four. Ceremonies that God never commanded.
And they called the observance of these ceremonies, worshipping
God, fast of the Lord. And now they ask God's priests
and his prophets, should we maintain our form of godliness? Looks like the temple is sure
enough going to be rebuilt. Looks like we're going to once
more have the altar and the ark and the mercy seat in its place.
We're going to worship God and keep His law like Moses commanded
us to do. Should we maintain the way we've
been worshiping God? Should we throw this away or
incorporate it in the worship of God? Should I weep in the
fifth month separating myself as I have done these so many
years? Let me tell you what the feast
was. They had experienced some things, and they had witnessed
some things. Some things that were of great
significance in the history of Israel. Some things that were
of great significance in the history of the Jews' religion.
And they, on the seventeenth day of the fifth month, kept
a solemn fast, fasting and humbling themselves in remembrance of
the day that the Chaldeans came and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. On the ninth day of the fourth
month, every year, they kept another fast, weeping and mourning,
separating themselves from food and drink in remembrance of the
destruction of Jerusalem itself. And then the seventh month, they
held another fast in remembrance of the murder of a fellow named
Gedaliah and 80 men with him. when the rest of the remnant
of the Jews who were scattered in the outlying areas around
Israel were taken into bondage. And on the tenth day of the tenth
month, they kept to fast commemorating the siege of Jerusalem. Did you hear those things? Well,
the things which they made their holy convocation. and their solemn
feast, the things in which they gloried were their shame. They wanted their children to
remember what happened when they were carried away to Babylon.
They wanted their children, their sons and daughters, to remember
what happened when the temple was destroyed and Nebuchadnezzar
and the Babylonians had treated them with such cruelty. They
wanted them never to forget And how could it better be remembered
than by making it a part of religion? All these solemn feasts may at
first glance appear to be commendable, but do you know in all the law,
in all the word of God, are you listening? Do you have any idea
how many fasts God required? Anybody? Just one. Just one. God never required
any other holy convocation, any other fast except that which
was observed as a part of the Day of Atonement in Leviticus
chapter 16. And that fast has to do with
the redemption of our souls by Christ Jesus being applied to
our hearts so that now when Christ has died, having made atonement
for our sins, he comes and speaks peace to our souls and we, mourning
for our sins, find liberty in him and go free. When these fellows
established another fast, they said, boys, that's not the only
way to God. No, they didn't say that. No,
they didn't say that, Don. You know they didn't say that.
No, they didn't. Not verbally. But darling, everything they
did said it. Their whole religious practice said, wait! God will
have something we can do. And they put their hand to the
work of making themselves accepted with God and had pleasure in
it. The religion, God said, was your
pleasure. You labored in it. You loved
it. Because it makes you feel good
about yourself. The religious traditions were
horribly evil. The customs and traditions they
established and observed were the beginning of Pharisaism.
They paid great attention to formalities and external worship.
They invented and maintained a form of godliness, but the
power of godliness they knew nothing about. They strictly
tied the mint and the anise and the cumin of religion, but they
knew nothing of mercy, compassion, and justice in Jesus Christ. They multiplied ceremonies to
themselves and ceremonies without any warrant from the Word of
God, whatever, but they multiplied them. They observed feast days
and fast days and holy days that Moses never commanded. Religious
feasts and practices of their own pleasure, and they called
them worshipping God. One of the most astounding things
I read in this book, one of the most astounding as far as acts
of men are concerned, when Aaron And the children of Israel were
waiting while Moses was up in Mount Sinai. And they, uh, oh,
well, God's killed him. Do you know what brother Aaron
did? He said, fellas, go gather me up your gold. Get your wife's
earrings and your rings and your necklaces and bring them to me.
And he melted the gold and formed two golden calves. And he said, these be thy gods,
O Israel. And you know what the next word
is? And he proclaimed a feast to
Jehovah. They, with their religious words,
talked about worshipping God, but all they were doing was worshipping
themselves. The work of their own hands.
Look at verse 4, Zechariah 7. Then came the word of the Lord
of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land,
and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the
fifth and the seventh month, even though seventy years, did
ye at all fast unto me? Even to me? Only to me. And when ye did eat, and when
ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for
yourselves? This is exactly the text of which
the Apostle Paul was referring in 1 Corinthians 10 31, when
he writes by divine inspiration, whether therefore you eat or
drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do it to the glory of God. If in this place, if in this
place, we do anything in the exercise of religion except for
God's glory, we haven't worshipped Him. That's all there is to it. Well, that'd take care of most
of our committees, wouldn't it? It sure would. That do away with
what church does. Church house wouldn't have to
be open seven days a week to keep people from spending time with
their families. No it wouldn't. You don't have to have softball
teams and baseball teams and football teams and tailgate parties
and missionary societies and women's missionary societies
and men's missionary societies and clubs for the alcoholics
who want to get sober and for the divorcees who want to find
a wife. Nope. Nope. It do away with it. Brother Don, you talk about shutting
the church houses down. I wish I could. I can't tell
you how I wish I could. The Lord God Almighty calls all
such religious activity sin. Sin to be exposed and condemned
by His faithful servants. He declares that all such religious
practices, though solemnly performed in His name, are but an outward
show of the flesh in will-worship. That's all. Deeds of sensual,
selfish pleasure and gratification. Turn back to Isaiah 29. Isaiah
29. Our Lord Jesus said of the Pharisees,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their lips, and honoureth
me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. This is the passage he quoted,
Isaiah 29.13. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people
draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips honour me,
but have removed their heart from me, and their fear toward
me, is taught by the precept of man. All that's taught among
them as ordinances of divine worship, and doctrine to believe,
is the precept of man. I tell you what you do, and I
urge you, don't debate and fuss with religious people. Don't
do it. But whenever someone tries to convince you of some religious
tomfoolery, ask one thing, just one thing. Whatever the doctrine
is, Whatever the practice is, whatever the ceremony is, whatever
the mess is, just ask one thing. Show me that right here. My mama's always done this. Churches have been doing this
for a hundred years. This is the way everybody does
this. What's that got to do with worshiping
God? What's that got to do with trust in Christ? Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity
have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me,
and have walked after vanity, and are become vain. Now learn
this. Learn it well. With regard to
all doctrine, with regard to all religious custom, with regard
to all religious practice, no matter what it is, no matter
how much it is loved, no matter who delights in it, no matter
how universally it is accepted, if it is not based upon it, it
has not end. And I didn't say it by mistake,
I said it on purpose. If it is not expressly written in the
word of God, Oscar Bailey, we've got no business doing it. It's
an abomination to God. And it ought to be to us. It
ought to be to us. Turn to Nehemiah chapter 4. This
is talking about the same thing we see here in Zechariah. They've
come to rebuild the temple. They've been laid waste for 70
years. There is a house I have driven
by for 35 years, between Lexington and Ashland, up the other side
of Moorhead, Kentucky. You ever notice that gray cinder
block house sitting over there, darling? It's on the right-hand
side of the interstate. First time I ever saw it, it
was empty, but fairly new, fairly new. I don't know if it's still
standing there or not. It's been a long time since I
drove up that way. Last time I drove by there, there was still
some rock standing there. Roof caved in. Debris grown up. Trees and brushes so high you
can't hardly see where it was. Just a mess. Here's the temple
that's been laid waste for 70 years. Cage and den of every
wild beast. Heaps upon heaps of ashes laying
there for 70 years. And we're reading Nehemiah 4.10,
And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of the burden
is decayed, and there is much rubbish, so much garbage, that
we are not able to build the wall. What a description of the
church of the 20th century. There's so much rubbish and garbage
in the church today that the foundation can't be laid until
the garbage is recognized and carted off to the garbage dump
where it belongs. We cannot build a wall of hope
on religious rubbish. We cannot erect a wall of security
on a pile of garbage. If we would worship and serve
our God, we must clear the house of the trash. Now hear the word
of God. Our only authority, our only
authority for faith and practice, our only standard is and must
be this blessed book. People these days talk about,
I guess, I don't guess, I know it is because they like to sound
brainy, they talk about credo religion. Let me ask you a question. You folks here are better educated
than I am. Any of y'all know what creedal
religion is? Preachers love it. Folks think
they're smart, don't they? They talk about creedal religion.
That means religion based upon historic creeds. And they're
bad about this because we don't have a creed. We don't have a
confession. We haven't adopted one and ain't going to. Oh, you
ignoramuses. Let me tell you what people will
do with a confession. If many women will ignore what God Almighty
wrote in this book because it doesn't suit them, just because
your grandfather and grandmother and their grandfather and grandmother
got together and wrote something else, you think they're going
to pay attention to that if it doesn't suit them? More than
that, once you write down a creed and say, this is what we believe
and this is what we're going to do, and you say, uh-oh, Looks
like God said we ought not do that, ought not believe that.
You know what folks will do? Not once in a while, not most
of the time, every blasted time. Oh well, that's not really what
that meant. Let's look at our creed. That's exactly what I'll do.
I'm telling you what I've observed in my lifetime and in history.
Look at verse 7, Zechariah 7. Should you not hear the words
which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets? Didn't you
pay any attention to Moses? Didn't you pay any attention
to Elijah? You should have heard what they
said. When Jerusalem was inhabited, and in prosperity, and the cities
thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the
plain. He was talking this morning about
the privilege God's given us and what happened with those
Jews who despised those privileges. That's exactly what he's talking
about. You should have listened to God's servants. You should
have paid attention to what God told you. The churches of our
day are what they are and they do what they do because they
willfully choose to ignore the Word of God and choose to supplant
the worship of God with their own sensual pleasures. I keep getting asked, and every
now and then I'll back up and I'll try my best to be nice because
I know I ought to be. Folks will say, Brother Don,
you think all these folks are deceivers or just deceived? Yes. Yes. Instead of gospel preaching,
Preachers these days, little old Junebug preachers that jerks
around like a Junebug with a boy holding the strings. Preachers
promote them or tolerate them. Instead of preaching, they have
plays. And you can pack the house with a play. Just get the little
kids to dress up like angels and stand up here and sing some
silly song. Get everybody in the community to come. Or get
grown men with doctor's degrees and their wives to hold a candle
and stand up and make a living Christmas tree and sing this
little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. I might pay
to see that. And then lock them up in the
nut house. Instead of prayer, we've got
business meetings. Instead of praise, we have our programs.
Instead of believers' baptism, they splash a little water on
a baby's face and call it baptism. Instead of the Lord's Supper,
now we have vespers. Doesn't that sound good? Special
time with vespers. Instead of the garments of God's
salvation, we have religious tapestry. Instead of God the
Holy Spirit, we have committees. Instead of worship, we have ways
and means. Instead of bowing in the presence
of Christ by His Spirit in churches everywhere men bow before crosses
and crucifixes and pictures of a limp-wristed effeminate thing
they call pictures of Jesus and images of angels. The Lord God
required Israel to keep just one solemn fast. One solemn fast
on the Day of Atonement. Turn back to Isaiah 58 again,
what we read earlier. Is not this the fast that I have
chosen? Verse 6. This one fast. He didn't say, is not this a
fast? This is the fast that I've chosen. God says this is the
fast that I've ordained. There's not any other. The Pharisees
established twice a week fasting. Twice a week. The Jews in Babylon
didn't do that, but they just had four a year. But the Pharisees
had twice a week. God, fast. We fast twice in every
week. And we pay tithes of all that
we have. And we want everybody to know how good and godly we
are. Boy, it feels good. Boy, it feels
good. This is the fast that I've chosen
to loose the bands of wickedness. to undo the heavy burdens, to
let the oppressed go free, and that you break every oath. Do
you know what that's talking about? In connection with the
Feast of the Day of Atonement, every 49th year, God established
something in Israel. Bobby, they never one time observed
it. It was a centerpiece of God's
law and not one time in their history have they ever observed
it. Not one time in their history. Called the year of Jubilee. And
this fast that began on the day of atonement in that 50th year,
it was a fast to undo the heavy burdens and a fast to let the
oppressed go free and to break every heavy yoke It is not to
deal, or is it not to deal, thy bread to the hungry. Your brother's
been in bondage, in imprisonment, sold himself off because of hunger
and need, and now I establish this fast to pass out bread to
the hungry, that thou bring the poor, who's lost everything,
those that are cast out, bring them into your house. And when
you see the naked, cover him up, cover him up, and
that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Now these verses
vividly portray the conversion of a sinner by the almighty grace
of God, by the regenerating, convicting work of God the Holy
Spirit, when he gives life and faith in Christ. You see, when
Christ is revealed in you, oh, may God reveal His Son in you.
Aren't you sick and tired of empty religion? Aren't you sick and tired of
clinging to a religious profession and a religious creed and going
to bed at night scared to death of meeting God face to face?
Oh, may God reveal His Son in you when He does. When He gives
you life and faith in Christ. The bands of wickedness. that
holds you in bondage and captivity under the sentence of death shall
be loosed from you in your heart." I came to Him in chains of bondage no man can
describe. And immediately upon Him speaking
peace to my soul, The chains broke loose. He set me free. The heavy burden of guilt and
sin that oppressed me and made me born is taken away. My oppressed
soul has been set free. My hungry soul is filled day
after day with bread, even the bread of life. My poor soul is
enriched with all the riches of His grace. And my nakedness,
all my shame and sin, is covered in the perfect righteousness
of God's dear Son with the garments of salvation so that I am no
longer put to shame when I see what
I am. I confess my sin before God and
no longer put to shame. And I'm no longer ashamed before
God. No longer confounded. Verse 8,
Isaiah 58, Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and
thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness
shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be
thy reward. Verse 11, And the Lord shall
guide thee continually. Tell me you, who have been set
free by Christ. Is it not true? He shall satisfy
thy soul when everybody else is dying of thirst, and make
fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and
like a spring of water whose waters fail not. Then you will
find rest in Christ. and finding rest in Christ, you'll
call the Sabbath a delight. You who have cherished and found
pleasure in your religious works, in your religious goodness, in
your keeping the commandments as if you did, in your observing
the right way as if you did, in your ceasing from sin as if
you did, Oh, no. No, no, no, no. Then, when you
have found rest in Christ the Sabbath, you will call God's
Sabbath a delight. Religious folks try to keep Sabbath
days. I cry for them. I really do.
I hurt for them. But I laugh at them. Well, I'm
keeping the Sabbath day baloney. There ain't no such thing. Even
if the Sabbath were on Sunday, you ain't keeping it. Find me
a man who measures up what God requires in Sabbath keeping.
I'll tell you who that man is. He is that man who does nothing
on the Sabbath day. I mean nothing, Skip, absolutely
nothing. And if he even picks up a stick
to warm himself by his own fire, he's dead. Why was God so strict? Because
God will not be worshipped. He will not be approached by
men. And men will never find acceptance
with Him, except when you cease from your works and rest in Jesus
Christ, His darling Son. Zechariah 7, verse 8. These men refused to hear God's
prophets of old, but God speaks to them once more. The word of
the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord
of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, show mercy and compassion
every man to his brother, and oppress not the widow nor the
fatherless, the stranger nor the poor, and let none of you
imagine evil against his brother. in your heart. What's this talking
about? All men by nature prefer sackcloth
to the righteousness of Christ. They prefer to put on an appearance
of religion. We love it. We love idolatry. We love it. We love self-righteousness. We love it like a hog loves mud
and mire. We love it. It's just our nature.
Everybody, oh, we want to do something so we'll look religious.
Do something so folks will think we're religious and good. Do
something to convince ourselves that we are. We love it. We love
it. God hates it. And I do too. But these folks,
they did all these things and Zechariah says this is what God
requires. Execute true justice. That's what the fast on the Day
of Atonement was all about. Justice is satisfied by the sacrifice
of God's darling son. And true justice is executed
when with David we take our place before God and say, Lord God
Almighty, if you send me to hell and my wife and my daughter and
my grandchildren and my mother and my father and my brother
and my sister, If you send me to hell, it's right. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be clear when thou judgest. What does God require? Show mercy
and compassion. And that which is written about
it, and sadly, sadly, I didn't find anyone who suggested anything
on this passage to the contrary. That which is written about it
says, well, this is what God requires you to do. He requires
you to be a good neighbor and be merciful to your neighbor
and be compassionate to your neighbor. And that's good. By
all means, do that. Do that. Be merciful to men.
Be compassionate with men. But that's not what this is talking
about. This is talking about the execution of true justice. Behold, Jesus Christ, God's darling
son, in the place of wretched sinners slain. Behold, there's
mercy and the compassion of our God. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but He loved us. and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And let none of you imagine evil
against his brother in your heart. Being redeemed by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ our Savior. Recognizing that we are one with
him and one in him. each esteeming the other better
than himself. But the cause of wrath, look
at verse 11, if you go to hell, you'll go to hell for the same
reason these folks were destroyed. If you perish in your sins, you'll
perish for the same reason God sent Israel into Babylon. But
they refused to God spoke by the prophets. He spoke by the
prophets. He spoke by the prophets. He gave His word. He gave His
word. He gave His word. And they did this. Are you going
to hear that? I ain't going to hear it. They pulled away the shoulder. You folks, they know you folks
out there Odd folks. They know you folks that are
on that hill, y'all strange, y'all troublemakers. Brother
Dodd, excuse me, I don't think I want to have too much to do
with you folks down there. Word's out. They pull away the
shoulders from God's people and God's cause and stop their ears
and would not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as
an adamant stone. lest they should hear the law
and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his spirit
by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath
from the Lord of Hosts." And God destroyed them. But there's something still about
that heart of adamant stone. It's just a legend, but it's
a great legend. Years ago, the naturalist, they
called scientists in those days, the naturalist said there was
just one thing that would dissolve that stone. The blood of a lamb. And there's just one thing that
will dissolve the heart hardened by willful rebellion, I believe.
And that's the precious blood of the Lamb of God sprinkled
on that heart. God do it for you and for me,
for Christ's sake. Amen.