Turn, if you will, in your Bibles
to the 28th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 28, the
last chapter in the book of Acts. I want to read verse 23 and 24.
Verse 23 and 24. And when they had appointed him a day, that
is Paul, There came many to him into his
lodging, that is, the house that he hired or rented, to whom he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets,
from morning till evening. And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. Now we wanted to make mention
of the fact that the Apostle Paul is being detained at this
time, and he is in a chain, and he's being guarded by a soldier.
But the desire was that they might hear what he had to think
about this sect of the believers. And so they said that everywhere
it's spoken against, we just wonder what you have to say about
it. We feel that you're the spokesman
for the group as it were, and so we'd like to know what you
have to say about it. And so when they appointed him
a day, they gave him a day, they assigned him a day, and said
we'll be here and we want to hear what you have to say. And so he goes on, the scripture
goes on here to say, there came many into his lodging. There
were many that came. I suppose the place was filled
and he began to expound and testify the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, both out of the law of
Moses and out of the prophets from morning until evening. Wherever the Apostle Paul is
found, he has but one errand in life. And whenever Paul preaches,
he has but one subject matter. Paul said to the Corinthians,
I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified." The cross of Christ was his one theme and
he hammered on the nail or the head of this one nail every time
that he got up to speak. Whatever mind, faculty, or ability
and power that the Apostle Paul had, he used it to glory in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brother, sister, we have not
strength enough for a dozen different things. As God's people, as God's
chosen mouthpiece to this generation, I say we have not strength enough
for a dozen different things. We do not have even enough for
two, two different things. What little strength we have,
let it be used in one direction. And that direction is, for me
to live, is Jesus Christ. And this was the Apostle Paul's
life. For him to live, he said, was
Christ. And to die was gain. Beloved,
you could have dropped in to Paul's lodging at any time during
the two years that he had his own hard house. and he would
be preaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. You would
not have been disappointed, those of you that love the gospel,
those of you that believe that the gospel is the children's
bread. You would have never went hungry.
if you would have dropped into Paul's lodging because all of
his preaching was about the Lord Jesus Christ. He was all for
Jesus and for Jesus only. The one topic he presented, of
course, in different ways. And we noticed when he was addressing
these Chief man among the Jews in Rome, it says in the text
that he expounded and that he testified and that he persuaded. Now these three methods we can
use very well today. We must expound, which means
to set forth, means to explain, means to make clear the gospel
in the very plainest possible language that we can. We must
also testify, meaning we must bear witness to the effect which
the gospel has had on our own heart and our own life. The telling
out of our own personal experience in the grace of God can be a
means of grace and salvation to those that hear us. Paul described
his own conversion He told the story of how the Lord had appeared
to him on the way to Damascus, and he did this so often that
Luke and others that were his companions must have heard it
several times. Indeed, it was a tale so worth
the telling that none could get tired of hearing it. Nobody ever
got tired, I'm sure, especially those who were believers, fellow
believers with the Apostle Paul. None of them ever got tired of
hearing him tell about how God had arrested him on the road
to Damascus and how that he was a chosen vessel, chosen by God
to be a witness and a testimony of the grace of God through the
Gentile world. Personal witness has often been
blessed of God, and we're not to forget it, to the salvation
of souls. Paul did not preach himself,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. So when he testified, when he
stood up before men and recounted the experience that he had had
in the grace of God, his conversion, it was not intended at all to
honor himself, but it was to glorify the blessed Christ who
had chosen and called him to bear his word throughout the
Gentile world. Can you tell us something in
your own experience which will prove that the gospel is at work
in your own life? Is there anything that you could
say if given the opportunity this morning? Would you be able
to give a reason for the hope that is in you and do it with
meekness and fear? Could you stand before men and
say, this is my hope. God has made a promise of eternal
life, which He promised before the world began. And I've laid
hold of it in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. My sins are forgiven. they're
put away because God is true to his word and I believe his
word. And he said that if I would believe
with my heart and would confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus,
then I would be saved and I believe that I am saved. Well, Paul did
not preach himself and so therefore he did not intend when he spoke
of himself to glorify himself but to glorify Christ. We love
when hearing of certain medicines or certain cures that people
have come up with to hear personal testimony of those cures. And
often in the mail you get some piece of literature where they're
talking about a new product that they've come up with. And then
they give all kinds of personal witness or testimony in those
articles as to the effect that these products had had upon their
life. And it's interesting. It's interesting
to read, especially if you have some of the problems that those
people seem to have had before they took the cure or before
they took the medicine. And so I believe, brothers and
sisters, that to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, and certainly
we love when hearing the people of God get up to speak, we love
to hear what they have to say. It's an encouragement, it's a
blessing, there's a power in it. And brother, sister, we should
speak of the Lord Jesus in a very happy, in a very grateful and
earnest manner and commend the Lord Jesus Christ as a savior
to our fellow sinners. And we ought to be doing that.
That should be our habit as the Lord's people. Yet this was not
all. that Paul did. Paul was not satisfied
to simply expound and to testify, so it is stated here that he
also persuaded them. He did not only expound the gospel
and explain the gospel the best he could in simple words and
simple plain English, or language, but he also testified and then
he persuaded these people. He prevailed upon them to win
them over to the faith. You see, their soul, their eternity-bound
soul, was at stake in this matter. Paul did not look upon this opportunity
as just being an opportunity to say his piece. just to get
something out that he had on his chest. Paul looked upon this
as an opportunity to preach the gospel to eternity-bound sinners,
those who were lost, those who were without hope in the world
to come, those who had no confidence in God's Christ. And so therefore,
He would persuade them. In a word, He entreated them.
He besought them. He implored His hearers to turn
to and to trust in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
I can hear Paul reasoning with these men. These men who believe
that the scriptures were inspired. Just think of this. These people
that were before the Apostle Paul, they knew something about
the Old Testament scriptures. They were learned in the scriptures. These were men that searched
the scriptures, thinking in them they had eternal life, not knowing
that those scriptures were testifying of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They did not know that, but these
men knew the scriptures, and so Paul reasoned with them out
of the scriptures. It says, out of the law of Moses.
Well, certainly there are, the gospel is found in the Old Testament. We remember how that the Lord
in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 18, I believe it's verse 15,
where he told Moses, the Lord's going to raise up a prophet like
unto you. And back in the book of Acts
chapter 3, we find that the brethren, when they preach, verse 22, it
says, For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall
the Lord your God raise up, like unto you of your brethren, like
unto me. Him shall you hear in all things,
whatsoever he shall say unto you. and it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. God said to Moses, I'm going
to raise up a prophet, and that prophet is my son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and those that will not hear him, those that will not
hear his word, those that will not believe the message of this
one that I'm going to raise up and send among them, Ah, they
will be destroyed from among the people through unbelief.
Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow
after, and as many have spoken, have likewise foretold of these
days. Now my beloved friend, this morning,
These people knew the Testament of Scripture. They knew it, but
their eyes were blinded. And as Paul later said, the heart
of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.
Their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should
be converted. These people are in an awful
mess because of the blindness of their hearts. And can you
not hear Paul take the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah and talk
to them about the sinless suffering substitute, about the man of
sorrows that was acquainted with grief. about that Messiah upon
whom our transgressions were laid by His stripes, we were
healed. And I'm sure Paul went all the
way through the 53rd chapter of Isaiah persuading these individuals
that Jesus was the Christ and that He came into this world
to die to save His people from their sins. Well, what was the
effect of all of this? upon these Jews. Well, verse
24 tells us what the effects was. Some believed and some didn't. Isn't that the way it always
is? When the gospel is preached, when the Lord Jesus Christ is
lifted up, when the message of the gospel goes out in the power
of the Holy Spirit, some believe. and some do not believe. Now,
beloved, none are such bitter enemies of the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ as those who by firm resolve determined to be
blind to its glory and dead to its power. These people were
determined that they were right. They were convinced that they
were right in their blindness. They were convinced that they
saw everything that there was to see in the Word of God, and
that there was nothing that they were missing. But my friend,
that is not the case. They were determined to be blind
to the glory of the cross of Christ and dead to its power. Well, we have come here this
morning. I'm sure that I have, and I'm
sure that there are others that have, with prayer on our hearts
hoping that we might be used of God to persuade you this morning
to believe the gospel. Others have prayed, I'm sure
of it. We have come here prayerfully
believing that God has power to save sinners, that God has
power to deliver those who are lost and to bring them out of
their blindness and the hardness of heart. And so there are some
that I'd like to describe to you who we would attempt this
morning to persuade in this message. First of all, I would persuade
those here to believe the gospel, those that believe the gospel
in their heads or notionally believe the gospel and yet not
receive it in their hearts. I would persuade those that are
among us just like that. Now, beloved, you say, well,
is that current? Is that something that's real? Are there those
that believe the gospel in their head? Are there those that are
like those Jews that believe the scriptures from cover to
cover and yet are not believing savingly on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, my friend, it may be a
strange thing to your ears, but it is the case. There are those
who say, well, I believe what the Word of God says. There are
those that believe and yet do not believe at the same time. Ask them, do you believe the
Bible? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
was sent of God into this world? Do you believe He came down here
with a burden? Do you believe He came down here
to finish the work? Do you believe that He came into
this world to accomplish something? Do you believe it? And they'll
say yes. I believe that. Yes, I believe
that. They say they believe the Bible.
Yes, they profess to believe it from cover to cover, and yet
they will not own that message of the Bible unto the salvation
of their souls. I would, this morning, persuade
them to believe the Word of God, the Gospel, in their heart. Whatever
we preach from this Bible, they won't question it. They will
not question it. If we preach the deity of Christ,
if we preach that Christ is God, no argument from them. They're
not going to argue about those truths. If we preach the need
for the new birth in the spirit, they are in agreement. They say,
well, yes, the Bible does teach that we must be born again, that
it's a necessity that men must be born again. Whatever doctrine
that you can prove, preacher, out of the word of God, they
give mental assent to it. They give mental assent to it.
They say, yes, they're not guilty of skepticism. They simply are
indifferent. Well, beloved, if God does not
wake them up out of their sleep, they will perish, even though
they have given mental assent to what the Bible says, even
though they say, we believe the Bible from cover to cover. Well,
I say this truth has very little power over them anymore. It's
been preached to them over and over again. Has very little power
as a medicine stored upon the shelf. Has no effect upon the
body. So the gospel stood away in the
minds of many. Not in the heart, but in the
mind. It has no effect on their lives.
No effect on their souls. It's just up here. just up here,
18 inches too high if you please, it needs to be in the heart. Now this is a sad misuse of the
divine revelation. for one to store it in their
heads when they're facing eternity, when there's a hell to be shunned,
when there's a heaven to be gained through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I say this is a sad misuse of
divine revelation. It's a misuse of the gospel. It has not been sent to us to
be without an effect. when the gospel was sent. Now
listen to it. Think of it. Think of it. God
in heaven, the God of mercy, the God of grace, the God of
love, the God of compassion, the God of heaven sent a letter
down here to you and to you. He sent this letter from heaven
down to you, my friend, telling you about his beloved son, telling
you about how he spared him not, but delivered Him up for us all
that we might through Him have all that God has for sinners
freely given unto us. God has sent you a letter, my
friend. What has been your response to the letter that God has sent?
all of the scriptures, how full the scriptures are of the message
of grace and the message of mercy and salvation. I say for you
to believe it in your head and not to believe it in your heart
is a misuse of the Bible. If you believe that Jesus is
the Savior, then why is He not your Savior? Why not? If you believe that He is, Savior,
if you believe that repentance and faith bring salvation, then
why? Pray tell us why have you not
repented and why have you not believed? Now my friend, you
say, well, you know, I don't know. I think you've got to receive
repentance and faith as a gift. I do too. I believe with all
my heart. But I want to tell you this, when you stand before
God in the judgment, and I would persuade you this morning, those
of you that say you believe all of this, and yet you've not out,
you've not stepped out and testified that you have taken the Lord
Jesus Christ at His Word and believe His Word. I would persuade
you this morning, when you stand before God in the judgment, I
want to tell you that it will be, you'll be dealt with as if
it was your responsibility to have repented and believed the
Gospel. Because the Bible says God hath
commanded all men everywhere to repent. God has commanded
you to repent and to believe the gospel. And so, my friend,
I would persuade you this morning to acknowledge you are accountable. And I would persuade you that
if you believe that repentance and faith necessary to the salvation
of the soul, that you would, by the grace of God, through
prayer and through seeking of the Lord and His power, Holy
Spirit power, that you would repent and believe. Now if you
believe there's a God who hears prayer, why do you not call upon
Him? Why are you not praying? You
believe that God hears prayer. Most of you here would say amen
in a drop of your hat. Amen. I believe that God hears
and that God answers prayer and yet you do not call upon Him. Yet you've not been stirred up
to call upon the Lord. I don't hear you calling on the
Lord. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved, the word of God says. That's what God says, but I don't
hear you calling on the Lord. I don't see you on your face
suing God for His mercy and crying out to Him that He would have
mercy. upon your poor soul. I don't
see that. I don't see that happening. Now
if you know you must be born again, why do you linger on in
your death? Why do you go on in your death?
Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ
shall give thee light. How is it that with regard to
the hearing of the word you come And you go, not once or twice
a year, but you come week after week. Yet you're unmoved, yet
you're unchanged. You just keep coming back. Keep
coming back. But you're unmoved and you're
unchanged. Nothing has happened. The message
of the gospel goes out. The power of God falls on the
meeting. But you're unmoved, you're unchanged. Some of you have heard the gospel
since you were toddlers. Now you're ready to go out into
the world, ready to leave your mother and daddy's home and go
out into the world. And yet you're not one inch closer
to the Kingdom of God now than you were when you first come
here to this place. Now if you tell me, listen to
me now. Some of you've heard the Gospel
many, many times. Now if you tell me that you do
not believe the Bible to be the Word of God, you do not believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God and that he
came down here to die in the room instead in place of sinners?
You tell me you do not believe that and you're willing to write
God Almighty a letter and tell him that he's a liar to his face
and that his son is a fake and a fraud? You're willing to do
that? Okay. Okay, I understand that
kind of I understand that kind of behavior. I understand that
Okay, okay, we'll accept that but if you say I do believe it
I do believe that God is God and that Christ is Christ and
the Holy Ghost is the Holy Ghost and I do believe That there's
power in the gospel to save a sinner, and I believe I'm a sinner then
my friend I do not understand. I do not understand that. I cannot
understand that for you not to receive the message that you
claim to believe, practically receive it into your soul. If some night you were to hear
one of your neighbors calling out of the street to your family
that your house was on fire, I would expect to see you if
I was in the neighborhood hurrying out of the house. Would that
be expected of those that were to hear somebody call, hey neighbor,
hey neighbor, your house is on fire. Wouldn't you expect to
see those inside to be scurrying out of the house, getting out
of the house? Well, you would do that unless you thought it
was all a hoax, that you thought it was all just a prank. Somebody
was trying to play on you. But if you believed it to be
a true alarm, all would be perplexed to see you turn over in your
bed and go back to sleep, would they not? Would that not be foolish? Well, here we are this morning,
my friend, and I came here to persuade you. I came here to
do all that I could, all that was in my power, all that I was
able to do to persuade you to leave the burning building. I
mean the building's on fire, my friend. Hell is real. God's
judgment is a real judgment, and it shall be upon you forever
and ever. How strange you act. How strange
you are. You will continue in your sin.
You'll die in your sin. You'll go to hell in your sin.
You'll suffer forever in your sin. Your act is suicidal. Oh, that you were wise. Oh, that
you were wise. Oh, that your ears were unstopped. Oh, that your eyes were suddenly
anointed with the eyesalve of God and that you were able to
see and your ears unstopped, able to hear. Oh, that you were
able to believe the gospel. Well, there are those who would
Another class of people who I would persuade. The first one was those
who say they believe the Bible, but notionally in their heads,
but not in their hearts. The second are those that I would
persuade who intend to confess Christ, but time has not come
for them to practice what they believe yet. Oh, we intend to
do it. You have resolved in your heart
that you will turn to Christ. Have you not resolved that? Have
you not resolved that? Has there not been a Sunday morning
sitting under the sound of the gospel that you said, I will
turn, I will, I'm going to, I'm going to do that. I'm going to
trust Christ. I'm not going to die in my sin.
I'm not going to die lost. I'm not going to perish forever
and ever. I'm not going to do it. I resolve to believe. Well, when you were a child,
did you not mean someday to love the Lord? When you were a child,
your parents were hopeful and felt that their prayers would
soon be answered on your behalf. But nothing's happened. Nothing's
happened. You say, well, it's just not
time, preacher. I just believe that there is
a time. I believe there's a time. And
I think you get saved when it's time. Well, I believe that too.
But today is a day of salvation. Today is a day of salvation.
But here you are. Still, with you it's all intention
and intentions. You say, listen preacher, there
are obstacles in the way. Preacher, there are things that
keep me back from, there are hindrances in the way. There's huge boulders in the
path, preacher, and I can't get around them to do what I know
that I ought to do. You know, there are others that
had to struggle in the way. Scripture says that they that
will have the kingdom of God must, they must with violence
take it. With violence take it. Well,
must I be carried to the skies on flower beds of ease while
others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?
Some of you people say, well, I'm not going to say it too loud,
but there's a problem over here with my family. There's a problem
with dad or mom. There's a problem here. There's
a problem there. My friend, you quit fooling around
with these little old problems. You think the devil ain't going
to stick something in your path to send you to hell? The devil
is out to get your soul in an eternal fire. That's what He's
going to do, and He's going to hinder you every way He can from
getting into the Kingdom of God. We know that men are saved by
grace, damned by their own will. But I'm here to tell you this
morning that it's never going to be easy to be a Christian,
to be a believer. And it's time now for you to
step out. How long? Halt you between two
opinions. How long shall Jesus Christ be
put off and the world be served? Prepare to meet thy God, O sinner."
Well, some of you, I'm afraid, are less hopeful now. This is
my own observation. Some of you are less hopeful
now than you were a year or two ago. You are becoming what I
call gospel-hardened. You're less hopeful now than
you were. Once the proclamation of the gospel pierced your heart,
but now it runs off of your heart Just like water off a marble
slab. Just runs right off, doesn't
have no effect. The sword of the Spirit is as sharp as ever,
but your heart has hardened like tempered steel. Like tempered
steel. May this day be your day of salvation.
Today, as we said earlier, is the day of salvation. Remember
that all days come to an end. Is that right? All days come
to an end, and the day of salvation, the day of grace will come to
an end. This may be the day that it'll
come to end. Is there anyone here that could
dispute that? It may be the day when the day
of salvation is over and there is no more opportunity to gather
in the old building down in Donovan Park to hear the gospel of the
amazing grace of God. No more opportunity. The day
all over. While there are others who are
seeking salvation that we would persuade, but they're seeking
it wrongly. They're looking at it wrongly.
Salvation, hear me, is by immediate trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you may feel that you have
to get good enough to be saved, but let me remind you of the
words of the old song that says that all the fitness that He
requires is that you feel your need of Him. You say, well, I'm
just not good enough. Do you think you can save yourself
and then come to Jesus? Is that what you're thinking?
You think, oh, well, I'm going to get a little better sometime.
You know, we're all going to get better. I don't believe a
word of it. I think we're all just progressively getting a
little worse all the time. And the more spiritual light
you have, the more you see how bad you are. And the more light
you get from here to eternity, it's going to just expose what
a wiggling maggot you are, and what a worm of the dust. God
spoke to old Jacob, who he called a prince on one occasion, or
on several occasions, and said, Fear not thou worm, Jacob. Jacob
was a worm, and you and I are one too. And we see more of it. We see more of it the closer
we get to the time when the Lord takes us out of this world. The
more spiritual light you have, the worse you are in your own
eyes. That's why you can tell whether you're a grown or not,
or whether you're a hypocrite. Now, if you're a hypocrite, you
think you're getting better and you're just out here talking
all the time about how good you are and how good you're getting.
Well, my friend, your speech betrays you. You're a hypocrite. You don't know nothing about
spiritual life until you loathe yourself and until you know something
about the foulness of your own heart and how wicked we are in
a state of nature. Do you think you can get better?
No, you're not going to do that. Do you think you can save yourself?
And then Christ will welcome you more? You must come to Christ,
old soul. You must be content to come to
Christ as a sinner. That's right. I'm telling you,
there's salvation for no one except sinners. Sinners, you
must be content to come as a sinner. Let that stay with you and in
your heart. All will be done for you if you
can come to Christ and trust Him as a sinner. All will be
done for you. All will be done for you. if
you can come as a sinner. Is that a true statement? If
you can come as a sinner, it'll all be done for you. Christ has
died. And in that word lies our life
and our salvation. Believing in Jesus Christ, you
have eternal life. Why will you follow the mirage?
and leave the lone whale in the desert from which comes the living
one. Why would you do that? Follow
the moroth. Well, I think I can. You know,
I'm working on it, preacher. I'm working on it. Listen to
me, my friend. Listen to me. Leave off. Leave
off trying to save yourself. Trust Christ. Next, there are
those who have given up on themselves and they're in despair. And I
would persuade you this morning not to stay in that state of
despair. Oh, it'd be wonderful if maybe
there's some others that would get there pretty soon. You say,
well, I don't know whether that would be healthy or not, preacher.
Well, I think it'd be healthy if some of the folks around here
would begin to despair a little bit. Maybe they would seek the
Lord. Maybe they would look more steadfastly
toward the Lord. Maybe they would try in their
own souls to study more and seek the knowledge of the Word of
God. There are those that have given up on themselves. It's
no use, they say. I cannot get peace. I will never
ever be pardoned. I'll never get rest. I never
will get rest. I'll never hear the voice of
God in my soul saying, I am thy salvation. I'll never hear it.
Oh, preacher, a child of God, I cannot hope to be. I might
as well hope to be the President of the United States of America
as to be a Christian. Well, therefore they're in hopelessness. They say that it's no use. But yet the Bible says in Romans
chapter 5 and verse 6, when you were without strength, Christ
died for the ungodly. Just listen to a couple more
verses there in Romans chapter 5. Please allow me to read from
verse 8. But God commendeth his love toward
us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more
than being now justified by his blood. We shall be saved from
wrath through him. For if, listen to this 10th verse,
for if when we were enemies, that's what we are by nature,
and you're despairing because you feel enmity in your own heart
toward the Lord. You feel like there's much between
you and the Lord. You're separated from God. But
if when we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life! Not by my life. Not by your life
after you get saved. But by His life! His wonderful
life. His glorious life. His righteous
life. His life! I'm saved by His life! Is that alright? Bless the Lord,
I'm saved by His life. I would persuade you this morning
to be saved by His life. I would not want to appear before
God having been saved by my own life, or by anyone else's life,
except the life of the God-man. But if I can come before God
saved by His life, then praise God eternity as well. Eternity
is secure. We have eternal life through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So then these verses in Romans
chapter 5 are precious. Now we're coming to a close here. Look to Christ. There's life
for a look. Scripture says, Behold the Lamb
of God. that takes away the sin of the
believing world. Behold, the Lamb of God takes
away the sin of sinners that are believers. I warn you this
morning that if you perish, and I'm here to persuade you, I'm
here to persuade you, if you perish in gospel life, you'll
perish with a vengeance. If you perish from the border
of salvation, you will, oh my friend, it would be better for
you that you'd never been born. You're close to the kingdom of
God this morning, and it would be better that you'd never been
born. If you go to hell with these words ringing in your ears,
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abideth on him. If you go to hell with those
words ringing in your ears, I say to you, your going down to hell
will be like a millstone sinking in the sea. you'll perish, and
that right hurriedly. These are the people I long to
persuade. Well, the last thing that I want
to talk just a little bit about, and I know the time is getting
away, I want to say I want to persuade you. I want to persuade
you. The question may be asked, but
is it right to try to persuade men? Is it right? Is it right,
believing what you believe and believing what this church believes,
that we would try to persuade men? Are not human hearts, somebody
says, too hard to be broken by so feeble a hammer as you? Are
you going to try to persuade these sinners? Yes, my friend,
you're right. I solemnly believe that you are
right. I believe that these hearts are
too hard for me to break. I believe they are. I never come
here with the idea that I could break your heart. I never come
here with the idea that I alone, that I could persuade you. But
if that's all that's going on here, then we struck out this
morning. But the Spirit of the Lord is
not straightened. Where divine power is, my friend, we can expect
things to happen. Now, brethren, I feel safe in
doing what Paul did. Paul persuaded men and women
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So will I. A gripper
said in Acts 26, 28, he said, almost thou persuadest me, Paul,
to be a Christian. You just almost persuaded me,
Paul, to be a Christian. Now, Paul, now just hear me now
just a minute. Don't shut your ears. to what
I'm saying. Paul wrote Romans chapter 8 and
chapter 9, these great verses on divine sovereignty. Paul wrote
Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2. Paul wrote the second chapter
of Thessalonians, great chapters on the doctrine of election.
Knowing therefore the care of the Lord, Paul said, we persuade
men. We persuade men, but I know,
and so do you, as Paul knew, that all human persuasion in
the world will fall short of the mark without the divine power
of God being there. I never, as I said, I never dreamed
that I could persuade anybody apart from the Holy Spirit. If
the Holy Spirit drive home the persuasion, then I believe the
souls will yield, and I believe there will be those that will
openly confess the Lord Jesus and believe on Him. The Holy
Spirit will do this. Do you believe that? Well, He
has done it, hasn't He? He has done it. There's some
of you around here that He's done it. Here's a fella that
He's done it. He is doing it. I believe that
He's doing it. You may not see any visible evidence
of it, but He is doing it. You know, Paul said over here
in verse 28, Be it known therefore unto you that salvation of God
is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. They will hear it. You Jews won't,
but they will. And those that God has chosen
will hear it. They will hear it. Well, He has
done it. He is doing it. He will do it.
He will do it. That would be a good motto, wouldn't
it? He will do it until the last
one of the elect is in the fold. Amen? He will do it. They will
hear. We asked him to do it, didn't
we? Didn't we ask him to do it? What were you doing in the last
prayer meeting you were in if you wasn't asking him to do it?
Mike, this morning when he prayed up here, asked the Lord to do
it! That's what he did. I believe it was in the Spirit.
I just believe it was. So how do you know? I can't prove
nothing. I'm just saying I believe it
was in the Spirit. Do it Lord. Do as thou hast said
and the Lord will do it. Therefore, O sinner, as though
God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead Be
ye reconciled unto God. I persuade you to think of Christ. Think of Christ. Think of Christ. Study His life. Read the four
Gospels and study the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Know what
is to be believed and why you are to believe it. Become serious. about your study of the Word
of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the reading and
hearing of the Word of God. Know who He is, whom you are,
to put your trust. Know who He is and why He deserves
to be trusted. I persuade you to know why. Incline your ears, sayeth the
Lord, God, and come unto me and hear, and your soul shall live. Trust Him. Trust Him. Come and hear and your soul shall
live. Trust Him, and then I would say
to you, avow that trust. Avow that trust. The language
of the Word of God is, he that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. I say to you
this morning, don't try to slip around to heaven by the back
road, but come out on the King's Highway. Come right out on the
King's Highway. We're marching to Zion. Marching
to Zion, that beautiful city of Zion. Come! Come, you that
love the Lord! Come and trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus. Father, in the name of Jesus,
for Christ's sake, for the gospel's sake, we plead the blood of the
Lamb of God over this message and over these that have heard
it. O Lord, may this place be filled with holy awe And may
you deliver sinners this morning. May there be movement in the
hearts of lost sinners. Do it! O blessed, blessed Spirit
of God, we bow before Thee. We submit ourselves in every
way we know how. Do Thou bring to pass Your good,
Your perfect will. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me.