20 years ago, I think 20 years ago in May, I went down to Ashland on my way over to Lexington, Kentucky. I'll get these adjusted in a minute. On my way over to Lexington, Kentucky, I was going to a Bible conference over there, and I had met Brother Mahan Let's see, I was 19 years old, 1969, right after his son Robbie was killed. Heard him preach a couple of times and wasn't around him any for several years.

And then I got to hearing about this fella down in Ashland and you know how rumor mills go. Fellas talked and yacked and talked and yacked. I'd heard lots of things about it. And I was 26 years old, 25 years old, and man, I had the world by the tail on a downhill pull. I knew exactly what was going on. I'd been pasturing for about four and a half, five years, and I stopped by to see if I couldn't straighten that old man out on a few things. He was, I guess, 48, 49 years old at the time, and we chatted, and he was very patient, very patient, far more than I would have been with me. I'd have put myself out on the pavement in a hurry. But he was very patient. He listened to all the things I had to say.

When I got done, he said, now Don, before you leave, I want you to understand something. Because all these things you've been talking about, we believe, we practice, they're important to us. But that's not the issue. And that's not the message. He said, I want you to see something. And he turned to Colossians chapter 1 verse 11, and he said, read those last words. And I read them. Christ is all. He said, no, that's the message. And that's the issue. He said, we preach Christ. And I thought, that's awfully simple. not exactly what I'd expect from a fellow who's been studying and preaching all these years. And I kind of pushed it out of my mind and went on down here to conference and listened to fellows talk about Baptist doctrine and this issue and that issue and squabbling about this, that and the other.

And a month later, I was laying in a hospital bed, nearly dead and quickly dying with cancer, the doctors thought. And I spent 21 days laying flat on my back with those words ringing in my ears. Christ is all. We preach Christ. And I've never before, and I never have since, made a vow before God. But I made one. I made one. I wasn't trying to drive a bargain with God. I was frankly comfortable with the fact that I might die any time. And I was comfortable with the fact of God's providence. But I made this commitment. I said, Lord, if ever I open my mouth to preach again, and as often as you give me opportunity and breath to preach, I'll never preach anything else.

I realized I'd been spinning my wheels in the sand doing nothing for the good of men's souls or the glory of God, just defending my doctrines, dealing with our little issues and setting things straight. Now, I do not mean to imply in any way that doctrine is insignificant. I do not mean to imply in any way that those things should be neglected, that the scriptures clearly reveal. Obviously, that is not so. But I do want you to understand that the message of the gospel and the issue of the gospel is Jesus Christ crucified.

Now I have for the past several weeks preached to you on and off about the preeminence of Christ. The apostle told us in Colossians 1 in verse 18, he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. Now, I have no hope of ever expanding the depths of that rich, rich text, but I can't leave it alone. I keep coming back to it. And I want this morning to talk to you about the preeminence of Christ in preaching. And I've chosen this subject for a number of reasons, as you'll see as we go along.

But I want you to look with me again in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 23. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 23. In all likelihood, we will deal with this matter of our Lord's preeminence in the next several weeks on other occasions as well, but this morning I want to talk to you about Christ's preeminence in preaching.

Now, look at what the Apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 1, 23, writing by divine inspiration, the Apostle Paul speaking for all apostles, speaking for all preachers, all true apostles, all true preachers. He says, we. Notice he didn't say I, he said we. And if you read verse 12, you'll notice that in this context, he's particularly talking about Apollos and Cephas, or Peter and myself. He said we, we the apostles of Christ, the preachers of God, we who are sent, called, ordained, and given to be messengers of God Almighty, we preach Christ crucified. All of them do. All of them do.

Now, the thing I want you to see this morning is this. Christ is, and must be, preeminent in all true preaching. We do not preach moralisms. We declare, as we go through the scriptures, those things required of men by God Almighty. We declare that which God declares to be right, and that which God declares to be wrong.

But folks ask me sometimes, why don't you preach against this, or preach against that? Because I'm not here to preach against anything. I'm here to preach Christ. We don't preach politics, gun control, capital punishment, or any other thing. We don't preach against things like abortion, pornography, homosexuality, though we detest them. We detest them, abhor them as horribly evil indictments of our generation, horribly evil evidences of God's judgment upon our age.

But we're not here to preach against those things. The fact is, now listen carefully, listen carefully, if you could stop all abortion right now, If you could stop all pornography right now, if you could go down to this theater and shut down the movies that most of you folks send your kids to watch, and they need to be shut down, they're abhorrent, they're absolutely abhorrent, but if you could shut them down, if you could shut them down, if you could put an end all together to homosexuality in our society right now, you will have done nothing for the spiritual benefit of the nation. Did you hear me? You will have done nothing for the spiritual benefit of the nation.

But, if God is pleased, if God is pleased to give this world, this nation, you and me, an understanding of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, insofar as those people who know God are concerned, you just all say goodbye. Let go, let go, because those who are born of God, those who know God, know that which is evil, and they cling to that which is good, for they delight in Jesus Christ the Lord.

We don't preach against things and preach for things. I had a good friend of mine, he'll get this tape and I'm sure he'll understand what I'm saying. He wrote to me this week and said, do you have any facts on abortion? I never wrote anything on either issue, and I'll tell it now. I don't ever intend to. Don't ever intend to deal with it. That's not what God sent me to deal with. My message is Jesus Christ crucified. You might say, well, aren't you just afraid to speak your mind concerning those things? Just wait and see. Just ask. Ask anybody. I'm not afraid to speak my mind to anybody about anything, but I'm saying to God not to speak my mind, but to speak his mind, as is revealed in this word.

That man must not be considered a faithful gospel preacher, whoever he is, whatever name he wears, whatever his relationship to you. that man must not be considered a faithful gospel preacher who does not preach Christ always. Underscore the word always. Preachers are given this responsibility and this responsibility alone. The gospel we preach is Jesus Christ. We do not merely preach a Christ-centered gospel, as I told you a few weeks ago. We preach Christ, who is the gospel. The gospel we preach is Jesus Christ. There is a huge, huge difference. We're not simply saying Christ is the main thing. He's the only thing. We're not simply saying Christ is what you ought to preach most of the time, he's what you must preach all the time.

Christ crucified is the message God has sent us to preach. I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter 1 for a moment. And we're going to look at several passages of Scripture this morning, and I want you to see them. I want you to see that I'm not here just being there, I'm not here just filling in time. I want you to understand something concerning the responsibility of God's servants and God's Church to preach Jesus Christ crucified in this generation.

Romans chapter 1 and verse 1. The Apostle Paul writes, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. I could spend a little time there." Well, I believe I will. He didn't say, Paul, doctor, so-and-so. He didn't say, Reverend Paul. He didn't say, this man who has this string of degrees, or this man who has this great influence. He said, Paul. Just Paul. Just Paul.

A friend of mine, Brother Jack Shanks, got a letter from a preacher And he was always just known as, like the rest of us, just nobody. Called him by his first name like everybody else. He got a letter from him and had on his letterhead, Dr. So-and-so and signed, Dr. So-and-so. He was so disappointed. I liked it better when you would just call him by his name, just Larry, just Larry. Most of us doctor's degrees don't fit anyhow. I recall several years ago, a friend of mine, I was down in Greensboro, North Carolina at a conference and my pastor by the town of Davis met him and he said, I understand that somebody has given you a D.D. Dr. Degree. And a fella got on his sheepishly and said, well, yeah. And he started to explain it and he laughed and he said, Gary, son, it's like putting whipped cream on fried onions. It just don't go. And it don't go on most of us.

Just a servant. That's what God's people are. Bond slaves to Jesus Christ. Called to be an apostle. Certainly called to this distinct office as an apostle. The one who is ordained of God to take Judas' place. But the word apostle has this application as well. Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be a messenger. Messenger. Separated. Separated by God's hand, and separated by determinate choice. Separated under the gospel. Not a gospel, but the gospel. under the gospel of God which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord. What's the gospel? That there is one concerning his son. concerning his son, who came into this world according to the flesh as the seed of David, who came here and was demonstrated to be the son of God by his resurrection from the dead, having satisfied the justice of God for us. The gospel is concerning his son.

When our Lord Jesus began his public ministry in the synagogue at Jerusalem, look at Luke chapter 4 for a second. Luke chapter 4. In verse 18, his sermon was all about himself. Listen to what he said. He said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, quoting from Isaiah, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

As you read the writings of the Apostle Paul, you sing numerous passages, where it's obvious that the Apostle Paul considered the preaching of scripture, and the preaching of Christ, and the preaching of the gospel, and the preaching of the law, and the preaching of God's message, he considered all those things to be one and the same thing, he called it preaching Christ. He said in Acts 20 when he spoke to the Ephesian elders, he said, I am not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God, for Christ is the counsel of God. This book, this book is all about Christ. Good to God I could communicate that to this generation, particularly communicate it to you who are listening to me now. This book is all about Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the message of the book.

I recall a reading years ago, a comment by John Gill, you remember where the lady came with an alabaster box and she broke it open and the smell of the perfume filled the air where the woman was and the Lord was sitting. Gill said that's a pretty good picture of the work of a gospel preacher. He said this book is an alabaster box containing spite and very precious. Jesus Christ and him crucified. We come into the house of God, and the preacher's responsibility is just to break open the book. And as he preaches Christ, the sweet aroma of Christ crucified fills the air. That's what we're to do, to preach Christ crucified.

I'm bringing this message to you, at least in part, because I want to prepare your hearts and mine for the meeting coming up this weekend. The Lord willing, we will have the blessed privilege of hearing God's servants proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. Ten men preaching the gospel of God's grace. What a privilege. What a privilege. Pray for God's blessings on the Word. Pray that as they come, and I know what they're going to preach, they're going to preach Christ crucified. As they come, that God will anoint them and you. That God will enable us to hear his word with hearts anxious, to hear God speak with hearts like a sponge ready to absorb water as it pours out from heaven upon our souls. Pray for God's blessings on it. Recognize what their responsibility is and pray accordingly.

We preach Christ crucified as we open the scriptures. Look at some scripture with me. In Colossians, or 1 Corinthians chapter 1 again. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to see that the Apostle Paul considered that to be preaching, true preaching, that to be gospel preaching, that to be biblical preaching, which declared Jesus Christ crucified. He says in verse 17. Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of done effect. In verse 23 he says, we preach Christ crucified, under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness, but under them which are called of God, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Now notice as you read those passages, Paul considered the message of the cross, the message of the gospel, and Christ crucified all to be the same thing. He says in verse 2 of chapter 2, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. I determined when I come to preach to you, to preach to you nothing else but Christ crucified. I determined not to come to you as the man sent from denominational headquarters to keep you in line with your denomination's doctrine, but I came to declare to you Jesus Christ crucified." That's the message.

Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 5. Paul was compelled to defend himself to the Church of Corinth, because many false prophets, many accusers came along and had falsely accused Paul of devious motives for preaching to them, of devious motives as a false apostle and a false prophet. And Paul simply says this, after having said, he said, your opinion of me just doesn't matter a hill of beans. But I want you to understand this. We preach not ourselves. We don't come to talk about ourselves, and we don't preach for our own benefit, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. We've come here not to serve ourselves, but to serve you according to the will of God in preaching Christ and him crucified.

Now, this is the one thing that all of God's servants have in common. We have buried gifts and talents, we have different personalities and characteristics, we have differing spheres of ministry, but all true gospel preachers have one message, just one, just one, Christ crucified.

I'll tell you what I do when I want to know what a fellow is preaching. And I'm not being sneaky about it. I just, if I want to know what I was preaching, I don't say send me some tapes. Now, everybody's got their candy stick servants. Well, Horton, he's a Sovereign Gracer. He wants to hear Sovereign Grace. We'll go get one on Sovereign Grace. I'll tell you what I do. I say, how about you give me the last three sermons you preached. Give me the last three. I don't care whether it's on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I don't care whether it's on Friday morning or 1 o'clock in the morning. Whatever it was you preached last time, that's what I want to hear, because that's what you preach. That's what you preach.

God's servants have one message. Jesus Christ crucified. I recognize there are no apostles today in the official capacity of an apostle. Those who claim to be apostles are deceivers. No one today has any supernatural gifts of the apostles. that no such thing today as a man speaking in tongues in the New Testament sense of the word. This foolish gibberish and nonsense that's sweeping through the world called the charismatic movement is satanic, it is not of God, it is not speaking in tongues. You read Acts the second chapter and you'll find out that those men all heard the gospel preached in seventeen different languages from men who had never learned those languages. That's what it is to speak in tongues. It is to preach the gospel in a foreign language by the supernatural gift of God the Holy Spirit, without having learned that language. That's all it is, no more than that.

Nobody today has the gift of miracles. Nobody. So don't you believe folks can actually be healed by these miracle workers? I know they can. I know they can. I don't have any question about that. None whatsoever. But that's not the gift of miracles. That's the gift of devils. Sorcery and witchcraft and demonism is real. And you don't just find it in the occult shop, you find it in churches all over the world. All over the world. I'm telling you, nobody has these gifts, for they were given to apostles alone, and the apostles died a long, long time ago. They're not anymore.

Nobody today has a special revelation from God. Let me tell you what that implies. When a fellow comes along and he says, I have a word from God, a word from God, these fellows are implying they have an additional revelation from God Almighty that contains the same authority and demands the same obedience from you as the inspired word of God. In other words, the canon is not complete. God's still giving his word, only you can't read it. I've got to get it and give it to you. And my word from God is, you send me your money, and I'll be all right. That's just about what it amounts to.

I'm telling you, nobody has those apostolic gifts, but every man who is called God. Every man who is sent of God, every man who is ordained and gifted of God to be a gospel preacher has the message of the apostle, we preach Christ crucified.

Now let me make four or five statements with regard to this business of preaching, and I'm not going to keep you very long, but I want to make these five statements, and I want to show you from the word of God that they're so. I want you to follow me through the scriptures.

Number one, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. True preaching, true preaching, this is a profound statement, but true preaching is God speaking to men through the heart of a man, the lips of a man, the life of a man and the personality of a man by his word concerning himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. What it is. Preaching is not a mechanical thing. Preaching is not just studying the right doctrines, getting all your notes in order, getting everything lined up, getting everything done in a homiletical fashion, though all those things are perfectly all right. Preaching is not just standing up here and reciting a lecture about doctrine or reciting a lecture about biblical facts. Preaching is the declaration of God to his people through a man by his word concerning his son.

One reason why God requires his servants to be men of specific character is God speaks through the whole man, through the whole man. That's the reason Ron Wood doesn't preach like Don Fortner, and Don Fortner doesn't preach like Larry Criss. God doesn't preach through just the lips, he preaches through the whole man, through the whole man, through his whole personality, through his whole character. And as God speaks, or if God speaks, folks who hear that man, hear God speak.

Listen to what Paul says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20. We are ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors for Christ. You know what an ambassador is? The Merle Hart president of the United States, he says, I'm going to make Don Fortner to be ambassador to Iraq. And he gives me a message to take down to Hussein down in Iraq. And I go down there with the message, and I take a peek at it and look at it, and I say, wait a minute, wait a minute. Maybe I ought to, what I ought to do is word this thing a little different. What I ought to do is take off some of the rough edges. Merle must have been a little upset when he wrote this. He must have had other things on his mind when he was writing this. Surely he didn't mean for it to be said just this way. And what I do is I alter the message.

to suit the man to whom I'm going to deliver the message, but when I've altered the message and delivered that message, I have failed to be an ambassador, for I've not delivered my message to the man he sent me to deliver it to. You understand that? I'm God's ambassador. That means by God, sir, if God gives me a message, I've got to speak. Got to deliver it. I'm not here to improve on it. I'm not here to take the rough edges off of it. I'm not here to somehow make it more appealing to you. I'm not here to somehow persuade you to get in line with this message. I'm here simply to tell you what God says. That's all. That's all.

We then are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God. All right, the first thing then is this, true preaching. Is God speaking through a man by his word to you about his son, about his son. We tell men that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. We beseech men to be reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And if any preaching's done, God does it. God does it.

I've told you many times, that first time I preached up in Dingus, West Virginia, my friend, Gary Vance up there. He was a pastor there then. It's been a long time ago. He was called on to pray, and he prayed in his simple but blessed manner. He said, Lord, Brother Don's come to preach to us. He just demanded, Preach him, Lord. Preach him. Oh, if God will let me be a mouthpiece for him and speak through me. The prophet will come to your soul. The prophet will come to your soul. But if all you hear is me, it'll be a matter of indifference whether you hear me or not, quite honestly. So I ask you, as you prepare to come here, If you take this business of knowing God and worshiping God seriously, pray that God will speak through his servant.

Secondly, the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified, when attended with the power of God the Holy Spirit, is the effectual power of God unsalvaged. The preacher is nothing but a vessel, a mouthpiece, a pipe through whom God speaks. The power of the message does not in any way depend upon the preacher's diligence in study, his diligence in prayer, his eloquence in speaking, his His persuasive power, his learned rhetoric, his logic, his reason, his philosophy, it does not in any way depend on those things, though God may be pleased to use those things. The power of the gospel doesn't depend on whether the preacher is an emotional man who preaches with great passion or whether he's a man who just kind of talks to you and never gets too excited about what he says. The power of the gospel is not in that. The power of the gospel. is God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit.

The apostle writing to the Corinthians back in chapter 2 of 1st Corinthians, he said, I brethren came to you, came not with the excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. That is, Now Paul, understand he was a trained lawyer. He was a, maybe not understand anything you said. He was a man who was trained a master in communication. But listen to him. He says, I determined not to preach to you with learned excellency of speech. How come? How come? Look in verse three. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling."

Not in weakness and fear of your face. Not in weakness and fear of what you might do. Oh no, in weakness of flesh, in fear before God, in much trembling, handling the things of God for the souls of men. He says in verse 4, My speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power. Here's the reason, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

You see, if your faith stands in Don Fortner's ability to speak to you and persuade you and convince you to believe these things. You say, well, he's a good man, he's so persuasive, he's such a good preacher, and I love to hear him, and I believe him. If that's the case, then when dawn's gone, your faith's gone. You've got to find somebody else in whom to put your faith.

But we come to you declaring the Word of God with simplicity, with simplicity, that your faith should stand in the power

The apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, and he said, knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. And we know it, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. The preaching of the gospel is God's means of communicating his grace to chosen sinners by the power of his Holy Spirit applying the word.

Our fellows say, well, we believe in God's sovereignty, and we don't believe in the use of means. We don't believe that man's responsible to preach, and man's responsible to believe. We believe if God's going to save his people, he'll save them with or without preaching.

Now, you listen carefully. I wrote those articles and the hymns in today's bulletin, because they are very, very important. I hope you'll take them home and read them carefully. God could if he wanted to. If he wanted to, Bobby could grab you by the nap of the neck and drag you to heaven with or without your will on the basis of Christ's atonement, if that's what he wanted to do. But that's not his purpose. God Almighty has ordained by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That makes preaching absolutely necessary to salvation. Preaching is the means by which God gives life to dead sinners. It's exactly right. I'm not fetching that off the top of my head. You can read it in 1 Peter 2, verse 23. We are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

That means the preaching of the gospel is absolutely vital to the saving of men's souls. This is the reason that we give ourselves relentlessly to this blessed work. This is the reason I don't hesitate to call on you to support the Grubers in Africa, or Bill Clark in England, or any other man preaching the gospel of God's grace, because this is the business God has put in our hands. And without it, nobody will ever be saved. Nobody.

But what about God's purpose? God has purposed to save sinners through the preaching of the gospel. What about particular redemption? Christ will save his redeemed people through the preaching of the gospel. What about the irresistible grace of God? God's irresistible grace comes to sinners when the gospel of his grace is proclaimed in the power of his Spirit. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It's impossible for a sinner to be saved apart from the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Folks say, well, I believe a man can be saved without the gospel. You don't believe a man, you believe a man can be saved by the gospel. I believe a fellow can be saved without the gospel. To say that a man can be saved without the gospel is to say he can be saved without Christ. Christ is the gospel. Christ is the gospel.

The word of God is quick, powerful. sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing as thunder, soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." And right following that, the Apostle writes in verse 13 and says, "...for all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

Do you reckon he was confused? Do you reckon somehow there's not a right to the Hebrew? He wrote down verse 12 in chapter 4 and then he went to bed and he got up the next morning and forgot where he was and wrote down verse 13? I don't think so.

But in verse 12 he speaks of the Word of God. And he speaks of the Word of God not in personal terms as it is spoken of in John chapter 1, but he speaks of the Word of God in terms as a thing. It is the Word of God. sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of thunder's soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Then he turns right around and says, "...all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we had to do."

What's he saying? The Word of God and Him with whom we had to do cannot be separated. They cannot be separated. If Christ works among men, in the hearts of men, he works by the word.

I'm not going to spend any time on it, but I want you to get this third thing as well. This same message, the message of God's grace in Jesus Christ the Lord, is the message by which God approves corrects, comforts, inspires, and instructs his saints in righteousness.

The apostle writes to the Ephesians and says that God has given pastors, teachers, for the perfecting of his saints. These are God's gifts to his church for the edifying of the body of Christ, for the building up of God's saints.

You see, nothing so inspires devotion as the gospel of Christ. Nothing more severely reproves our sin and unbelief. Nothing ministers comfort to our souls like the doctrine of Christ crucified. Nothing promotes holiness like the message of God's rich, abundant, free grace flowing to sinners through the blood of Christ. Nothing promotes humility like the knowledge of Christ who gave everything for us that he might lift us up to be the sons of God.

Christ is our hope for salvation. Christ is our rule of life. Christ is our motive in godliness. Christ is the only inspiration believers have to devotion and consecration.

I'll tell you what, I'll give you a challenge. You go through this book and find a single place in all the New Testament, even one, even one, where a believer was encouraged to do something because the law said, do this or suffer loss. Find me one place.

I'll give you a challenge. It's not in this book. Somebody said, well, don't you think we can use the law to kind of guide folks along? Yeah, folks who don't know God. Don't you think we can use the law to kind of inspire folks to do what's right? Yeah, folks who don't know God. That's the only inspiration they've got. But don't you think you can use the law to get folks to be devoted to Christ? No. Won't happen. Won't happen. You can't scare up devotion. You can't scare up righteousness. You can't scare up godliness. You can't scare up consecration. It comes by the knowledge of Jesus Christ crucified.

I want James Lee and Norma Rankin to walk in love with everybody in this congregation. That's my goal. I want you to love God's people. Now, how are you going to inspire that? How are you going to inspire that? How are you going to get these two people, who have a family of their own, to devote themselves to this family? How are you going to get these two people, who have bills and debts and obligations, approaching retirement, got to get things in line. How are they going to get these two people to devote themselves to the family of God?

I want to take you to a picture in John chapter 13 with the Son of God and a towel wrapped around His waist, kneeling down at your feet and washing your feet. And He said, Now you go do what I've done to you. Oh, I just thought I had served the church. Oh, how bad I was mistaken when I thought I'd done my part. How horrible a mistake I was when I thought I had done a lot. Oh, no. No, I haven't done anything for you. I haven't done anything for you, but that's the motive, and that's the pattern, and that's the example. I call on you to yield.

How on earth are you going to get somebody to be generous who has a tough time paying his bills? Actually, that's a bad illustration. That's the general rule. The fellow who has a tough time paying his bills is the most generous fellow there is. But how are you going to get somebody to be generous? and give to the gospel, give to the cause of Christ. How are you going to inspire that kind of devotion to cause a man to take what he needs and his family needs and give it for the fervor of the gospel?

Well, boy, if you don't tithe, God'll take it out of your hand. You show me that in the New Testament, I'll preach it. Until you do, you got no right to. Boy, if you don't tithe, you don't tithe, you'll lose. You'll lose by not doing it. Or if you give, oh boy, if you give, God'll give you more. You'll wind up with more money to make your head start with. Show me that in New Testament and I'll preach that to you. But that damning heresy's not there. That's called covetousness, not godliness.

Well, how on earth are you going to get folks to give? Prove now the sincerity of your love. Proof it. That's it's Oscar Bailey. He professes to love Christ. All right, prove it. Here stands Don Fortner. He professes to love Christ. All right, let's see it. Let's see it. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. Now prove the sincerity of your love. He did, didn't he? Didn't he? Now prove the sincerity of your love.

How on this earth do you persuade men and women to devote themselves, to consecrate themselves to Jesus Christ. Where is your motive for godliness? Here it is. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, No diviners nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you washed. But you sanctified. But you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

You're not your own. Hey, Chris, you're not your own. You're not your own. You got no right to claim it. You're not your own. But you've been bought with a price. Precious blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

You say, well that won't work. You're exactly right, it won't work. Except with believers. Except with believers. And buddy, it'll work with you and me if we know God. If we know God. I quit a long time ago trying to pump and prime and push and pull and get folks to act like Christians who gave no evidence of being such. I quit a long time ago trying to get folks to come to church who had no desire to come. I quit a long time ago trying to get folks to think they knew God. when there's absolutely, absolutely no evidence whatsoever they've got any concern for the things of God. It just ain't so. It just ain't so. I'm telling you, folks who know God are ruled, governed, and motivated by the love of Christ. It's exactly right. And we preach Christ. This is the fourth day. We preach Christ when we preach him in the fullness of his redemptive grace and glory."

I want to be crystal clear in this. I want you to understand. That man does not preach Christ. Maybe sometimes the best way to say things is to say it negatively. That man does not preach Christ. He does not declare the glory of his person as God and man. He does not.

That man does not preach Christ, who does not declare emphatically with clarity how that Jesus Christ, as our representative, has fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of chosen sinners, having obeyed the law of God in their room and say.

That man does not preach Christ who preaches conditional righteousness. Our righteousness was established by Christ's obedience.

That man does not preach Christ who does not preach the glorious efficacy of Christ's atonement. Jesus Christ died in the place of his people, having made a sacrifice of infinite value because he is God and man. He died having made a sacrifice of infinite value for the total satisfaction of the justice of God, and finished the work of redemption for all his people. By his death, He has effectually secured the everlasting salvation of every soul for whom he died. You can call that anything you want to call it, but anything less is damning heresy.

That man has not preached Christ who does not preach the efficacy of his atonement.

That man has not preached Christ who does not declare his glorious, sovereign dominion as king on his throne with power over all flesh. before whom one of these days very soon every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess his Lord to the glory of God."

You've not preached Christ until you've preached him in his glorious lordship, ruler of everything. That means he has his way everywhere with everybody, always. And let me give you one last thing. This last statement comes from 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16. I take Paul's words for my own. I make this statement because I want to convey to you the great burden of my soul, the intensity with which I do this work to which God has called me. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. Folks ask me, how do you do what you do? How do you give that time to it? How do you keep the schedule to do that? Oh, I ain't done anything. I've got nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not, but don't end it there. Oh no, oh no, if I preach not the gospel, woe is unto me.

I sometimes hear men say we ought not take ourselves too seriously. I'm sometimes told, Don, you take the work of the ministry too seriously. And my answer is, impossible. Impossible. Impossible. You see, if when I preach, now listen to me, if when I preach, I preach not the gospel, Bobby Estes, I would be unfaithful to your soul, unfaithful to the glory of God, unfaithful to the word of God. And thus, I would be guilty of your blood in God's judgment.

I'm preaching To eternity bound many women, I look at your faces, young and old. I sent three of Rex and Debbie's kids back there, David and Teresa's girls. I'm going to meet those faces in judgment one of these days. Yours too. And I've got news for you. You're going to meet my face in judgment. at the bar of God. And if I have been unfaithful and failed to declare to you the glorious gospel of God's free grace, Jesus Christ and him crucified, then I will be damned forever with you, and that fact will be the torment of my soul forever.

But if I have faithfully declared to you the truth And I have. And you know it. In that day, when God casts you forever into hell, this face and these words will torment your soul in the dark regions of hell forever if you believe not the gospel. That's exactly right. If by the power and grace of God I am enabled to give myself faithfully to the work of the ministry and faithfully preach the gospel to you according to the scriptures, both the Old and New Testament, Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel 33, 1 Timothy 4, 6, 10, if I faithfully give myself to this work and faithfully preach the gospel to Lindsay Campbell, that according to God's word I will both save myself and you."

Now, I ask you to pray for me. Pray for those men who will come here Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to preach the gospel to us. Pray for an outpouring of God's Spirit upon the preaching of the word, for the salvation of sinners. Pray that God will speak to your heart. Pray that God will speak to your heart. Pray that God will call his word to minister comfort, edification, strength to his saints. Pray for the reviving of God's Church.

I have no question that the greatest difficulty, even in God's true Church, The greatest hindrance, even among God's true people, is the man standing where I'm standing this morning. Preachers, all of us, have a tendency to cast the blame for coldness and indifference and dryness and barrenness on you. It ain't so. It ain't so. If blame is to be placed, it's got to be placed right here. where the preaching is done. You see, true preaching is as much a spiritual exercise as prayer, praise, or the most elevated heights of worship. True preaching is. It's not a mechanical thing. But true preaching can exist only where preparation is made with diligence, both by the preacher and by the people of God.

Let us be laborers together with God. One in the hands of God. As I prepare to preach, and these brethren prepare to preach to you next weekend, pray for us. May God be pleased. Oh, may God be pleased. Ten times. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. May God be pleased ten times to open the mouth of his servant and speak to our hearts. Amen.

Okay, Midge, you come read some hymns.

Now, the Lord willing, tonight I'm going to be preaching to you from Isaiah 66, verses 7, 8, and 9, and I've got a message. I've got a message that we need. I do and you do. We'll be preaching to you on the subject of Zion's travail. You plan to be here tonight.