If you would turn back to the
book of 2nd Timothy, the third chapter, 2nd Timothy chapter
3, and I'd like to read the first nine verses. The first nine verses. This know also that in the last
days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fearless, despisers of those
that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof from such turn away. For of this sort are they
which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with
sins, led away with divers or different lusts, ever learning,
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and
Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they
shall proceed no further. For their folly shall be manifest
unto all men as theirs also was. Now then this morning, our text
is verse 5. Verse 5, having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof from such turn away." Now Paul
warns us of certain characters which will appear in the last
time. Now the like, these men that
Paul has mentioned here and their character has appeared in other
days, but we're led by his warning to believe that they will appear
in greater number in the last days than in any previous age
before. And Paul is just not using words
here just simply to fill up space. He says that in the last times,
perilous times shall come. On account of these individuals
that he here mentions, they're going to swarm like flies in
our day. And I certainly believe that
they are, and they'll make the times exceedingly perilous, these
kind of people. But why, then, should the apostle
point out the last days as so particularly perilous here? Why
should he mention that? Well, I believe that he does
this because even though men have always been these kind of
people in the world, The reason is they will have a form of godliness
in the last day, they'll have an outward open profession of
religion in the last day, but they'll not have the power of
true faith in Christ. They'll not have the power of
true godliness in their lives. So men would be as they always
were, but now they'll be covered over by the mask of profession. They'll get into our churches,
and they'll be covered by the mask of profession. And of course,
this is what would make the day so perilous. That is dangerous
to the people of God, to the church of God, lest we should
be ensnared and deceived by these people. Now, beloved, no man
can do as much damage to the church of the living God who
gets in and has made a profession but he has not the true saving
power of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. A lost man who gets
into the assembly into the living assembly of God, and we are living
stones. We are lively stones, Peter tells
us. We are a church that is alive
through the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if lost people,
those that just have made a profession, get into that assembly, they
can cause a lot of damage. And so this is what Paul is warning
us about. Now the word which is here translated
form, it signifies the show or the image of a thing. the show
or the image of a thing. Now these people had a form of
godliness. They had, they outwardly, they
put on a show. They put on an act. They were
actors and they could cover up what they really were by nature
by their show or by this which they put on as it were a garment. Now this of course in their case
was very dead and ineffectual because they were not of God. God had did no work in their
hearts, they had not been touched by the hand of God, they had
not been regenerated, converted by God's power, and therefore
was dead and ineffectual. Now then, this was in opposition
to the reality and life which is in the true believer which
is quick and powerful. A child of God has the power
of God in his soul. He has been touched by God. He
has been visited by divine power and he is alive unto God and
this is real and it's vital. It's substantial. Now it's very
easy, I think, to show the difference between the form and the power
because the one is the name. And certainly the form is the
name and the other is the thing, if you please. It's the real
thing. Now the one is the appearance
and the other is reality. It's reality. I hope this morning
that as I speak to you on this subject that God will be pleased
today to enable you to examine your heart or how we need to
examine our heart this morning as to whether or not our form
or our profession is just an appearance And there's nothing
real about it. There's nothing that is true
and vital and real and effectual about our profession or our form
of religion. Now the one is the body and the
other is the soul. Now Paul warns us and tells us
that some of these people who have not the true experience
of the grace of God are going to get into our churches. Now
Paul does not look at the future as what we might say with or
through the paint of rose color. He doesn't look at the future
with rose color glasses upon. Paul gives us here, he's no smooth-tongued
orator of a golden age. Paul is telling the truth. As
the Spirit of God reveals it to him, and he admits any words
about it, he tells us this is the way it's going to be. in
the last days. And certainly Paul gives us no
word, and the Word of God gives us no reason to believe that
things are going to get better than what Paul has told us here
in these verses. There are some that believe that
things are going to get better and better until this present
age ripens into a millennium. But it's not going to happen.
It's not going to happen. There is but one event which
will change the world, beloved, and that is the second advent
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't hope for anything to
get better in this world until the Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of Glory, returns to this earth. Now apart from the coming of
Christ, the world is more likely to sink into a pandemonium than
to rise unto a millennium. Oh it certainly is, according
to the Word. Now a divine intervention or
interposition seems to me to be the hope that's set before
us in the Bible. that Jesus Christ will come,
that that's the hope of the church, that's the hope of the living
body of believers on earth, that Christ is going to come back.
And this seems to me to be the only hope that is adequate to
the occasion even that Paul is speaking of here in this book
of 2 Timothy chapter 3. And we can let the politicians,
and of course at this very time the politicians are telling us
about what they're going to do. They're making all of their promises,
and we're listening to them. I hope we're not gullible enough
to believe them, but let the politicians do what they will. We know that according to verse
13, that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived, and so we're not looking for things to get
any better. Now they're going to spring up
in the churches a body of faithless and unsanctly professors of the
faith of the gospel, those who profess to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ but they deny the power, they do not have the power
in their soul. Now we may call these hard times
and yet I really believe that these are not the hardest times
that the church may face according to what Paul says here in these
verses and that it may come to the place where we'll need to
cry more mightily to God unto the Lord to keep us alive, keep
the church alive, than what we ever have before. Because, beloved,
listen to me. These are difficult and trying
times. I have heard of old churches
that have been split apart and churches that have been thwarted,
as it were, in the ministry of the gospel by those that would
get into the church that had only made a profession and had
not the power of God in their souls. Well, true religion is
a spiritual thing, but it necessarily embodies itself in a form. Now you listen to what I'm saying
here. I'm going to try to open up this
subject and maybe God will be pleased to use what we have to
say. Now Christian people fall into
a certain outward method of procedure, a peculiar outward mode of setting
forth their faith which becomes to true godliness what the body
is to the soul. Now the form is very useful.
When God saves a sinner, immediately there is a certain form that
appears in that individual's life. That individual begins
to do things that they didn't do before. That individual, the
Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 and 17, that all things pass away
and all things become new. Now this form which appears in
the life of a newborn child of God, this form sets forth, as
it was, what that individual has been enabled to believe whenever
he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and when he believed the saving
message of the gospel. And there's a form that appears.
Here's that individual, he begins to read the Bible where he didn't
used to read the Bible at all. And here's the individual coming
to the church services. Here he presents himself for
baptism. Here he comes for the Lord's
Supper. Here he does this, he does that, he does something
else. It's all together different. And this is a form. Don't you
see? And it is a very useful form
and it needs to be there and it must be there just as the
body, the soul must have the body in order for it to continue
to exist and to live. Now the form as we said is useful,
the form is necessary and I want you to hear me. Now if you give
both the form as modeled in the Word of God and the power as
bestowed by the Spirit of God, you do well and you're members
of the living family of God. And you might ask yourself this
morning, where did I get the form that is in my life? Where did I get it? Now, beloved,
it's very necessary that we understand that you don't get the form and
then you get the power. The power must come before the
form if it's going to be right. if it's going to be right. Now
beloved you cannot and I've known people down and I've talked with
a lot of them that have have led me to believe that their
situation or form that they started acting like a Christian and felt
like they would become one if they would just act like one.
Now I want to go on record here this morning to tell you that
there's no such thing as an individual taking up the form and beginning
to act like a Christian and become one by acting like one. You cannot
become a true child of God by acting like one. You must, the
power must come first. The regenerating, the quickening
power of God in the soul And then the form will come, don't
you see? But then you'll have the form
and the power. And these people, they had the
form, but they didn't have the power. And there may be some
of you here this morning that has the form, but you don't have
the power. Now, some people, as we said,
get the form before they get the power, and they're dead.
And they're spiritually lost. You say, well, we just act like
we're saved, don't we, preacher? That won't get the job done.
That will not get the job done. Now the body without the spirit
is dead, and what follows when the body is dead? Well, corruption. Corruption follows, and it's
so horrible that even love itself has to cry, bury my dead out
of my sight. So if you have the form without
the life of Jesus Christ being in you this morning, you're dead
regardless of what those around you might think. Decay and corruption. Things will only get worse in
your life. Without the power of God, you
may go on and you may put on a real good show. And you may
just, oh, you may excel everybody around you with your outward,
external religion. But my friend, my friend, you're
only going to be steeped further and further in the corruption
of sin. And Spurgeon said, the raw material
of a devil is an angel befit of holiness. Listen to me, you
can only make a Judas out of an apostle. And hear me out,
those who are good outwardly without real union with the Lord
Jesus Christ, they decay into the foulest things under heaven.
You know that some of the religious people of our day have been guilty
of the most, what we might say, the worst crimes that you read
about and hear about. People that professionally are
religious outwardly. Do you know that Jesse James'
father was a Baptist preacher? Do you recognize that many of
the crimes that have been committed in this world that we hardly
can stand to read about was committed by people who were religious
or identified with religious people? One Judas is an awful
weight for the world to bear. But, beloved, we have a whole
tribe of them in our present day in religion. A whole tribe
of them. And that's what Paul is warning
us about. Those who have not the power
of Jesus Christ in their soul, but have made an outward profession. Now, there are two things here
that I just want to spend a little time with. Two things and then
an exhortation. Now, here's the two things that
we'll talk about, and that is what these people had. I know
we've already mentioned it, but I want to go over it a little
bit. What they had and then what they
did not have. And then we'll give a word of
exhortation as Paul gives it here, and this is a very simple
outline. These people, now first of all, what did they have? Well,
they had this form of godliness. And what is this form of godliness? Well, it's a profession, we've
said that. And let me tell you something
about it. Let's go over this form. Let me say it this way, that
first of all, I think it's an attention giving attention to
the ordinances of religion. And this will bring it down,
I think, a little closer to home. Now, there are two ordinances,
as far as you and I are concerned, that are taught in the Bible.
And the one is baptism, wherein a figure, the believer, is buried
with Jesus Christ, that he may arise in newness of life. And
then there's the Lord's Supper, wherein in type an emblem The
believer feeds upon Christ and is sustained, his spiritual life
is sustained by his fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ in
his death. Now those who have obeyed the
Lord in these two ordinances have exhibited in their own person
the form of godliness. And every baptized person and
every communicant, everybody who comes and takes of the Lord's
table, they should be saved, they should be godly, gracious
souls, truly united and married to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
that's what ought to be the state of affairs. They ought to be
truly the saved of the Lord. Now, beloved, listen, but neither
baptism nor the Lord's Supper can secure this for a soul. Neither baptism nor the Lord's
Supper is going to get you saved. Neither baptism nor the Lord's
Supper make no difference how faithful you are in your attendance
to those ordinances They're not going to get you saved. Now where
there is not the life of God in the soul, through the Holy
Spirit in regeneration, these ordinances will profit you absolutely
nothing. They're just a form and there's
no power in them alone by themselves. Now there are those who have
been baptized and who come regularly to the table of the Lord, sad
to say, These people are guilty of presumption. These people
are guilty of falsehood and sacrilege and blasphemy. And we may be
sitting beside these very people on the Lord's Day. Only God knows. These people who have the form,
but they don't have the power. They're not converted. They're
not saved. They're not the Lord's people.
Now the next thing I'd like to say is that a form of godliness
involves attending a church. and attending church services.
Now those who are the professed people of God are accustomed
to come together at certain times for worship. Now they join in
common prayer, common praise, and in the singing of the hymns,
and they listen to the Word of God preach, and they mingle with
one another and have fellowship one with another. And this is
a very proper form, and it is full of blessing, and we're told
in the Word of God not to neglect the coming of ourselves together,
the meeting of the church. Now listen to me, a man can go
to heaven alone. He can go to heaven alone. But Christ's people are called
sheep, and one of the reasons they're called sheep is that
they love to go in flocks. And it would be better for the
Lord's people, now listen to me, dogs they do well separately,
but sheep do best in company. And God's people are to meet
together, they ought to meet together, and they ought to be
on their pilgrimage fellowshipping with God's people, meeting regularly
with the Lord's sheep. The sheep of Christ love to be
together in the same pasture and to follow the flock in the
footsteps of the Good Shepherd. They love to do that and they
want to do that. Now this form of godliness, as
we said, is a proper form and it's useful and there's blessings
that come through the obedience of God in this form. But now
listen to me, it is of absolute no value, though, without the
power of God. It does not do you any good to
say, well, I'm a member of the New Covenant Baptist Church and
I attend there regularly. It doesn't do you any good unless
the power of God is in you. Unless Christ dwells in your
heart by faith. Unless the Spirit of God has
come and quickens your dead soul and made you alive in the Lord,
then all of your coming and all of your sitting and all of your
singing and your praying is of no value as far as your soul
is concerned. Now the form of godliness, beloved,
is very profitable, but it's of no value unless you're saved,
unless you're a child of God. Now, then there is another thing
that I'd like to mention that goes along with this form and
that is religious talk. And I don't want to censor anybody
at all because when the people of God talk, And they have a
good testimony. The Bible says, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so, those whom he hath redeemed from the hand
of the enemy. But there are those out here
who borrow, as it were, their language from the people of God. They have not a true experience
to talk about, and they flavor their speech with godly phrases
when they're in company that will relish it. And they talk
and use the language of Canaan when they have no interest really
in the gospel. Now, as I said, don't get me
wrong because I wish we could revive the old habit where the
scripture speaks in Malachi, they that feared the Lord spake
often one to another. that ought to be revived and
certainly we ought to be speaking with one another and talking
to one another and fellowshipping with one another. Holy conversation
causes the heart to glow and it gives to us a foretaste, as
it were, of the fellowship of the glorified. Those, when we
get to heaven, I think there's going to be a lot of communion
going on, a lot of talking going on in heaven. But there may be
a savor of religion about a man's conversation, about what he's
got to say, and yet it may be a borrowed flavor. It may be a borrowed flavor. He may just be talking about
something that he heard somebody else talking about. He may be
talking about something he's read about. He may be borrowing
his language, don't you see, from somebody and getting it
second hand and have no true experience. I've heard a lot
of people talk that if you listen to them a while, you'll find
out that they don't really know anything about what they're talking
about and they've never had a true heart experience. Now that religion
which comes from the lips outward and does not well up from the
heart is not that living water which will spring up unto eternal
life. That's not the life and that's
not the language of a true child of God. Tongue godliness is an
abomination if the heart be destitute of the grace of God. Did you
hear that? Tongue godliness. is an abomination
to God if the heart is destitute of the grace of God. Now, next,
some have a form of godliness that is upheld and published,
as it were, by religious activity. Ah, my friend, the emphasis that
is placed on this in our day. Give them a job, that'll keep
them in the church. How many people you ever heard
say that? Oh, if we can just get these people active. If we
can get them doing something, then they'll be faithful to the
services. They'll have to come, you know,
because they're teaching this class or they're doing that.
And if you just get them busy, then they're going to be there.
They're bound to be there. Well, my friend, let me warn
you. of this, that you can be intensely active, very energetic
in the work of the church, and know nothing of salvation in
and through the grace of God. You can be just as busy, busy
as you can be. and yet not be saved, not be
a child of God, teacher, preacher, deacon, whatever. If you don't
know Christ, and you're just busy, and you're just doing something,
my friend, it's all in vain. I remember the words of David. He said, Search me, O God, and
know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Well, I want to inject life. And I've been going, all along,
I've been going, well, how did you get this form of baptism
and the Lord said, well, I saw other people, and they were being
baptized, I saw other people, they were taking the communion,
and my parents took the communion, they were baptized, and so therefore,
I just, that's how I got my form. My friend, if that's the way
you got your form, then you have a form, but you don't have the
power. You started on the wrong end.
You started in the wrong place. And the power, well, you don't
have the power. And then you say, well, I got
mine, preacher, when I begin to really look at it, I got it
on account of my marriage. on account of a friendship that
I had with somebody. You know, often times when young
people get married, Young couples get married. If one of them has
made a profession, and if they're members of a church, especially
this is so among fundamental circles. And some preachers,
they really press people hard about this. I remember on one
occasion, there was a fellow, a young man, who lived at Fairfield. And there was a preacher here
in town that called me up on the phone. And we just knew the
couple casually. know them real intimately. And
he called me up and said, I want to know if you think that so
and so is saved. Do you think they're saved? Do
you think he's saved? Well, he seemed to have knowledge
that the girl was saved. He wanted to know whether the
boy was saved or not. And I said, well, I couldn't
tell you whether he's saved or not. I couldn't tell you. There's
no need of you asking me. I couldn't tell you. But they,
I believe and I know that they pressured that young man until
he made a profession, an open profession of Christ so he could
marry that girl. They wouldn't have it any other
way. Now my friend, that boy has a form, but he, listen to
me, he don't have the power. Christ is not in his heart. He
does not know the Lord. He does not know Christ. But
he has the form. Everybody thinks he's as much
saved as anybody else because he made a profession. But my
friend, that's not salvation and we know that it isn't. And
so friendships and marriage, is that the way you got your
form? Is that how you got into the position you're in now? And
then, well maybe you just have a natural religious disposition. Maybe you somehow or other, you
know, and I believe everybody's got some religion of some kind.
Everybody's got a little bit of religion in them. And maybe
that's how you got your form. Maybe that's why you do what
you do, religiously. And maybe there isn't any power
in your soul. Maybe God's never touched you.
Maybe it's not real with you. Maybe you're not truly a heaven-born
child of God. Maybe what you've got, you didn't
receive it from heaven. Maybe it didn't come down from
God above through the imputed righteousness and merit of the
Lord Jesus Christ. How did you get your form? Ask
yourself that as we're going on here this morning. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. And beware of everything which
springs up in your garden that God Almighty has not planted
because it's a weed, my friend. It's a weed. If God didn't plant
it, it is a weed. It's not of God. It's not the
true thing. It's not the true wheat if God
hadn't planted it. Well, then there are those who
take up a form, I think, because of the respect that they feel
that it'll bring them. Oh, you know, there's a lot of
people feel that if they can just, you know, if they just
got this form of religion, that's all they really need. Everybody's
gonna respect them if they got this form. Now, listen, there
was a time when it cost something. for a man to be a professor of
religion. And there were fewer hypocrites
in that day. Whenever people, you know, when
it was costly, I mean, when people were persecuted for identifying
with churches and identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
but even the cross of our Lord Jesus now is worn as a declaration
by lost people in our time. We see it all the time, people
wearing a cross here. And you know the cross is the
instrument of our Savior's shame and death. And that's all forgotten,
and instead it is made now the badge of honor, a jewel wherewith
ungodly men may adorn themselves, and this is indicative of the
deceitfulness of the age in which we're living. People know nothing. Beware of seeking respect by
hypocritical godliness. Saying, well, I'll get some respect
if I join the church. My friend, honor gained by a
heartless profession of religion is in God's sight, I think, the
greatest disgrace. So never, never, never take up
the form of religion just simply to get respect. And next I think
it may bring ease of conscience to some men. There's some men
who, you know, they like to think like the Pharisees did. Thank
God we're not like other men. Or we go to church. Or I go to
church, you know. I mean, after all, I'm a member
of this church or that church. I do this, I do that. And they
like to think, God, they're just a little bit above the average
fella. A little bit. You know, and they've
got this kind of eases their conscience. We pray, we read
the Bible, you know, and we're busy. We're just religious as
all get out. We are. And that kind of eases
their conscience. Now these people, listen, these
people are with believers, but they're not really of them. Isn't
that true? They're not really of them. They're with them all
the time, but they're not of them. And this may be true of
you this morning. Of all the people, I think these
people are the hardest people to reach. And humanly speaking,
these people probably are the last that are likely to be saved,
humanly speaking, because they've hid themselves in a Baptist church
someplace and out of the reins of the shot and shell, as it
were, of the gospel of God's grace. Now you see, these people,
and I think it's like old Barnard said one time, he said that that's
the best place for a sinner to hide is in the church. Just get
in the church and hide there. And he's alright because he's
in the church, you know. And in most churches, the gospel
is not preached there anyway. So you just get in the church
and hide there and nobody's going to disturb you. You just go right
on, just go right on to hell. Nobody's going to disturb you.
Well we've tried to show you what Paul was talking about here
that these people had. Now let me just say a little
bit about what they did not have and press it home on you. I want
to make this as simple as I could. I want to press it home what
they did not have. They had the form but they didn't
have the power. They didn't have the power. Now
God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
soul of a man is the power. Did you get that? God himself
in the person of Jesus Christ in the soul of a man is the power
of true godliness. There is no such thing as a man
being godly apart from a relationship with God in and through the person
of Jesus Christ. There is no such thing. You say
my grandmother was godly and she didn't know a thing about
Jesus Christ. She wasn't godly. Not in God's estimation, she
was not godly. She might have been in your estimation
and the estimation of a preacher, but she was not in God's estimation
godly unless she had a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now then, this life is from the
dead that we're talking about. When Jesus Christ gives life,
He delivers the soul from eternal spiritual death. Life from the
dead. Have you been brought back from
the dead? Are you spiritually alive? Now then listen, this life is
in the soul of the elect by the power of the Holy Ghost. When
God regenerates the soul, God Himself, Christ is formed in
the heart. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now the Holy Ghost teaches a
man to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit gives the gift
of repentance and faith to those whom God saves. You know Jesus
said no man can come to the Father except the Spirit draw him. And
so the Holy Spirit, this is the power of God I'm talking about.
Nobody gets out. Listen, how are we going to get
out of death into life without power. Power. God's power. You know that only God can raise
the dead. Only God saves dead sinners and
makes them alive through the work of the Holy Spirit. A man
who is born of a woman is unclean and must be brought by the Spirit
of God, the power of God, to that fountain that's filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. The Spirit of God must do The
Spirit of God must operate. The Spirit of God must circumcise
the heart of the lost man prior to his being in the living family. Prior to his being saved and
knowing the Lord. Now, the Spirit of God, as we
said in Isaiah 40 and verse 6, 7, and 8. Let me read them to
you quickly here. These are good verses. Listen
to what they say. The voice said cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? Well, cry this, all flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The people is grass. Now there
are some things that are missing. in our day, in the preaching
of our day, things that ought not to be missing. And they are
missing. And these people, now listen
to me, if these people, if their folly is going to be manifest
unto men, the folly of these that get in under a false profession
and are masked with this form of religion, if this is going
to be discovered, then there's some things that we're going
to have to correct in our preaching. Men are crying, peace, peace.
when there is no peace. Men are exalted who have never
been humbled by the preaching of the Word of God. Men are built
up who were never torn down. Men are filled who have never
been emptied out. Men are given hope who have never
been without hope. Men are healed who have never
been sick. Men are saved who have never
been lost. Men are given life who have never
been dead. Never breathe their last breath.
And yet they're alive in the Lord. Everybody thinks they're
saved. Everybody thinks they're a child
of God. Men are given grace who've never been guilty. Never been
guilty as guilty sinners before God. Now the conduct of people
in religious circles today is the conduct that is produced
by the preaching of the day. Would you agree with that? You
got people that just have a form of religion, it's because they
never had any true preaching. It's because they never listened
to the Word of God as it was preached. True faith in Christ
and the knowledge of God, which is salvation, is the product
of true preaching and the Spirit's work. the work of the divine
spirit. Now many who have a form of godliness
are strangers then to the spirit of power. The spirit of power
from God. True godliness lies in spiritual
power and as they're without this then they're dead while
they live. They're dead. It's against the
law to bury them, but they're dead. These people that just
have the form of religion. They're dead. The churches are
dead. The preachers are dead. The sermons
are dead. There's no life. And that's because
the spirit of life and power is not there. Having a form of
godless denying the power thereof is, I believe, the sin of the
age and the sin which will ruin the churches of our day and back
in my time. And I could just go through it
with you. I wonder to many a day, what's wrong? What's wrong? What's
wrong with the churches? And that's exactly what's wrong.
Most of the people in them, and even Billy Graham himself, will
tell you that over 50% of the people that are in churches in
our day and time are lost people. He said it's gone too far. We'll
never be able to get it back. The world is ruined. Religion
is ruined. And it's ruined because the churches
are full of people that have never been born by the Divine
Spirit. God never has touched them. They
are not the saved of the Lord. And they are degrading the very
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want no more clouds without
rain. Do we? No more clouds without
rain. Peter said these people are clouds
without rain. We don't want any more sham,
mere pretense. We've had more than enough of
these things. We don't need any more of it.
The best show of many of the religious of our day is the outside. It's outside. It's the external. It's the external. Now, the most
religious people I know are hollow on the inside. There's nothing
real in today's religion. Folks, if you pray at all, pray
to God that he'll make you real through and through. That you'll
be real. From the heart out, this thing's
gotta come from the inside out, not from the outside in. And
you know, you may say, well preacher, I never did hear that before.
It's got to come from the inside out. A true relationship with
God is more than acting. It's more than acting. A form
of godless joy into an unholy heart is of no value to the soul
of that individual and no value to God. I've read that the swan
was not allowed to be offered upon the altar of God because
although its feathers were pure snow white, its skin was black. and it could not be offered upon
the altar of God. God will not accept that external
morality which conceals internal impurity. He won't do it. You
can have all of it you want, God will not take it. God will
not take it. There must be a pure heart as
well as a clean outward life. The heart must be affected. The
heart must be touched. The power of God must work within
a man. There's no value to a man or
God in a religion which is a dead form. No value. If your religion is without spiritual
life, what's the use of it? Can you ride home today in an
automobile that doesn't have any motor? Doesn't have an engine? Can you warm yourself in the
dead of winter? by a picture of a roaring fire
in a fireplace, a painted picture? Can you do that? No, you cannot,
my friend. Recently, listen to what I heard
recently. Recently I heard that they're
coming out with a video now that people that like fireplaces and
they don't have any, and they like to hear the sound of a fire,
Well now they've got this video that you can get, and it's got
the picture on your television screen of a roaring fireplace,
and got all of the sound, they got the crackling, the popping
of the wood, and all of it's right there. How foolish that
is, I mean really. Can you warm yourself by that
kind of a fire? No, my friend, you cannot. And
can you eat a feast off of a picture of a scrumptious meal that has
been painted? Can you eat a meal off of that?
Absolutely not. No, my friend, there must be
vitality and substantiality or else the form is utterly worthless. It's worthless. There is no comfort
in it. The form without the power has
nothing in it to comfort the soul, or warm the heart, raise
the spirit, or to strengthen the mind against the day of sickness,
or in the hour of death. If our religion is all form and
no Christ, what will we do in the swelling of Jordan? What
will we do when it comes time to die? What are we going to
do if all we got's a four? Well, what can we do about all
of this? And then the exhortation, I give
that to you and we'll close. He said, well, from such you
turn away. You turn away from these kind of people. Now what
he meant by that was, of course, you turn away from this philosophy,
this idea that the form is the important thing and that the
internal is not important. You turn away from this and you
preach against it, you stand against it as we have here today. Now I just want to say some things
here that I hope will be helpful to you. In exhortation, and Chet
mentioned that Paul is always exhorting the Lord's people,
and I want to exhort you today if you're here, and I hope that
I'm speaking to God's children here. And if I'm not, then I'm
speaking to those that are friends of the gospel and you're anxious
to hear and you're desirous to hear and you listen to what we
have to say. Number one, I want you to pray
to God. Pray to God that you'll never wear a sleeve that's longer
than your arm. You say, well what on earth could
you mean by that? Well, what I mean by that is
that you must never go beyond what is really and truly your
own. Don't ever profess something
that's not truly real in your life. Don't do it. It's deadly. It'll send your soul to an eternal
hell you may never recover from. if you profess something that's
not real in your life. It'd be better for you to go
to God every day as a lost soul and cry for mercy from God than
for you to profess that you've got something that's not real
in your life. It'd be better for you to just
go to the Lord every day. Lord, I'm a sinner. Lord, I'm
nothing at all. Lord, I'm empty. Lord, I'm a
sinner. Please save me and come to God
that way every day than to wear a sleeve that's longer than your
arm. My friend, you cannot do it. Well, you may say, Preacher,
I'm sure I'm a hypocrite. I've listened to you today. I'm
just sure I'm a hypocrite. And of course, there's going
to be people that hear the Preacher And sometimes they are poor honest
souls and they say, well preacher I don't feel nothing. I don't
feel nothing. And you probably feel ten times
more than you ought to. And that's the reason why you
say you don't feel anything. You're truly a child of God here
today. Now listen to me now. You say, well preacher I know
I'm a hypocrite after listening to you this morning. Well listen,
I want you to know that I never met a hypocrite who thought he
was one. I never met a hypocrite who thought
he was one. A man who was a real hypocrite
and would admit it. And so, listen to me this morning. He that feels himself condemned,
and you say, Preacher, I just feel condemned after listening
to what you've said here this morning. Well, he that feels
himself condemned may hope for pardon. He may hope for pardon. So, look to the Lord and trust
Christ. If you're afraid of yourself,
then I am not afraid of you. Ah, listen. Are you afraid of
yourself? You say, Preacher, I don't know
where I stand. Well, if you're really afraid
of yourself, you're not afraid to examine yourself. And you're
not afraid to really take this thing to heart and look at your
form and see whether it grew out of a power that was in your
soul. See whether it grew out of what
God done in you. Then my friend, there's hope
for you. If you tremble at God's word,
then I think you have one of the surest marks of God's elect
that there is. If you tremble at the word of
the Lord. Those who fear that they are
mistaken are seldom mistaken. They are seldom mistaken. It's
those people that are cocksure. Oh, I'm as much saved as I'll
ever be. I'm sure for heaven this brother's
already there. Oh preacher, you don't talk to
me like that. Why? Now I've got it all. I've
got everything there is. Well, let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall. But if a man is cautious, and
if a man feels he might be mistaken, then then I think there's hope
for him. And if you search yourself, and
if you allow the Word of God to search you, then it's well
with you. It'll be alright with you. If
the Spirit of God leads you to weep in secret, for sin and to
pray in secret for grace to overcome that sin. If it leads you to
seek after holiness, if it leads you to trust alone in the Lord
Jesus Christ, then you know the power of godliness and you've
never denied it. Ah, what goes on in the midst
of the night, in the middle of the night when you wake up? What
goes on in your soul? Is there a confession of weakness
and frailty? Have you ever been able to mourn
and lament over what you are by nature? What your daddy was
before you and what your granddaddy was and what your father Adam
was in the Garden of Eden, stole his master's fruit and got kicked
out of the garden. Have you ever been able to mourn
over your sin and what you are? Have you ever been able to pray
God give me grace to overcome what I am and to be what I ought
to be. Give me the grace to do that
which you would have me to be. Well then listen my friend, that's
godliness. That's true godliness in the
soul. That's what that is. Now beware of second hand religion.
It's not worth carrying home. And if you got a dose of it,
get rid of it. Get rid of it. Say my daddy,
you know he, and you know these authority figures. These authority
figures, they have a lot of influence on people. And you know, every man and woman
that has children, they want those children to be right. And they do some things sometimes
they oughtn't to do. They talk their children into
this and to that, into professions and so on and so forth. And my
friend, listen, this second-hand religion, it's a damning thing. And you end up with a form, but
you don't have anything. And what I'm saying is profess
only what you possess. Turn away from all of this idea
that a man's alright if he just professes. He's not unless he
possesses it in him. He's got to have it in his soul. Now rest only, listen to me now,
rest only in that which is given to you from above. Rest only
in that Because my friend, if it's not given to you, then it's
not of grace. And if it doesn't come from above,
it's not worth having. If it doesn't come from God.
So rest only in that which comes from above. Now you may be the
least in the kingdom of God, but it's better to be the least
in the kingdom of God than to be the greatest in hell. Isn't that right? Better to be
the least. You say, well preacher, I'd like
to be, I'd just like to be a child, I'd just like to know Christ.
Well my friend, I believe if you've got that kind of a heart,
that ere long you will know him. You'll know it. And I think that
if you are willing to examine yourself, lay this thing out,
and try to answer the question. I hope every one of you will
do it. I hope you're honest enough to do it. Are you honest enough
to do it? Where did I get my form? How did I get started in this
thing anyway? How did I get started in going
to church? How did I get started in baptism? How did I get started taking
the Lord's Supper? How did this happen with me? How did it? I hope everybody
here is honest enough to ask themselves that question. Is
it because there was something in here? God done something in
your soul and you know that he touched you and you know that
you were enabled of God to believe and to trust his son. and you
rest your soul on Christ, and all that follows after is because
of love toward Him. Because of what He's done for
you, you followed Him at baptism, you take the Lord's Supper to
remember Him until He comes again, and you're faithful and you come
because you love Christ, because God's done something in your
soul. That's what a real Christian
is. A real Christian is somebody that God's touched. and he has
the life of God in his soul. That's what a real Christian
is. He's alive to God. Christ is in him. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Well, let's have a hymn. Mike,
would you lead us