I have really, truly never had
a crossword. I truly haven't. Turn with me to 1 Timothy, chapter
one. 1 Timothy, chapter one. Let's read verse 15. This is a faithful saying. Faithful,
faithful. And everybody ought to accept
it. Everybody ought to believe it. And that is this. That Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Save sinners. of whom I am chief, howbeit because
Christ came to save sinners, I obtain mercy. God gave me mercy
for Christ's sake, that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should believe
hereafter on him to life everlasting. Now unto the king Eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, honor and glory forever and ever,
amen. I asked myself a question, and the reason I ask this question,
because as I know me, I know me, and I ask this question, am I
a child of God? Am I a child of God? Do I belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever asked yourself
that question? When you know yourself, you know how weak, how frail,
how helpless with all the things that goes on in your mind and
all the things that you say and do, all the meanness that's in
you, all the corruption that's in you. I have to ask myself sometimes,
Lord, do I really, really, am I really yours? How could I be
your child and say the things I say, do the things I do, act
the way I act? How could I do that? Like John Newton himself, he
said, Lord, disappoint, I long to know. It oft gives me anxious
thought, Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? Huh? Now, when I asked myself
that question, I thought, I got a lot of thought about it. And
I asked myself some other questions. But to find the answer to this
question, am I a child of God? I tell you somebody I won't ask.
I won't ask another man. I could not dare ask another
man. Another man can't let me know
if I'm a child of God or not. He can't do that. And I certainly,
certainly don't ask how much knowledge I have of God. My knowledge
of God is so limited, so limited. Paul said, oh, the depth of the
riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God. His ways, his
ways are past finding out. And I tell you what, I don't
ask how much I know about His Word. About His Word. I believe His Word, don't know
a lot about it. And I certainly don't question
and ask how my feelings are. My feelings in this meeting have
been all over the place. They've been up here and they've
been down here. I have been very high, and in
my lifetime I've been very, very low. I've had days where the
sun shined all day long, and I've had days where it was just
nothing but darkness. I've had lots and lots of experiences,
so I don't trust an experience. I've had some experiences that
I hope nobody else ever has to have them. I really do, I really
do. But am I a child of God? Am I
a child of God? How in the world am I gonna know
if I'm a child of God? How am I gonna know it? Where
am I gonna find out? How am I gonna find out? Who's
gonna tell me? Who can give me assurance? Who
can give me a comfort that I'm one of God's children? One of
those that was redeemed. One of those whose blood's been,
sins has been taken away. There's only one place, one place
that I know of that I can find out whether I'm a child of God
or not, and that's from God's blessed holy word, from his word
alone. They've already mentioned this,
by his own will, by the will of God himself, by the will of
God, by the power of God, by the grace of God, he hath begot
us again, BY THE WORD OF HIS BLESSED TRUTH. I KNOW THAT. AND
BEING BORN AGAIN, I'VE GOT A CORRUPTABLE SEED. I WAS BORN WITH A CORRUPTABLE
SEED. BUT BY AN INCORRUPTABLE SEED
WAS BORN AGAIN. AND THAT'S THE WORD BY THE GOSPEL
WHICH IS PREACHED UNTO YOU. BUT TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION FROM
GOD'S WORD, I ASKED MYSELF TWO OTHER QUESTIONS. I ASKED MYSELF
TWO OTHER QUESTIONS. AND THE FIRST ONE'S THIS. Am
I a sinner? Am I a sinner? What did it say
there? This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world,
bless his name, to save sinners. And it almost makes me cry every
time I read that. Because I know what I am. Why ask that? Why do I ask myself
if I'm a sinner or not? because God said that he sent
his son into this world to save sinners. And I tell you what,
I don't know what you are, I don't know how you act, I don't know
how you feel, but I know what I am. God's word said he saved
sinners, and I want to be saved. I really, really, really want
to be saved. Not because I'm afraid of going
to hell, but I want to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ throughout
eternity. I want to enjoy Him in this world
and especially in the world to come. But yes, I'm a sinner. God's Word says that I'm a sinner.
He said that I was born not righteous. I had no understanding of God,
no fear of God. Not only does God's Word says
I am, but my own conscience, my conscience tells me that I'm
a sinner. What my conscience tells me proves
to me that I'm a sinner. It tells me when I do something
wrong and it shows me, oh my, does your conscience ever bother
you? Do you ever have to go back and say because you said something
or done something, say I got to go back, I'm so sorry I done
that. You know what caused you to do
that? Your conscience. My conscience says I'm a sinner. And my experience says I'm a
sinner. I have no idea, I have no idea
how many sins I've committed in my life. No idea. There's so many sins that I commit
that I don't even conscious that I commit them. That's how sin,
we sin and we're not even conscious of how much we sin. We're ignorant
of it, we don't even know what we're doing. And oh my, my my,
my actions, my actions say that I'm a sinner. That what I do
as a person, as in my actions, my hands, my feet, my eyes, my
ears, my hands, my actions say I'm a sinner. I have never in
my life done anything unselfish and for the glory of God. Never
done anything unselfish. If I do anything, I want to be
known for it. If I say something good to you,
I want it to be appreciated. So I've never done anything unselfish
and for the glory of God purely. Never in my life. Never in my
life. I'd like to do it one time, but I don't expect to, because
I know me. The Holy Spirit says that I'm
a sinner. You ask my wife, you ask my children,
you ask my friends, you ask people that love me, and they'll tell
you, yeah, he's a sinner. I know He is. I've watched Him.
I've heard Him. I've seen Him. I see where He
goes. I see what He says. I see how
He acts. And I'm a sinner whether I feel
like it. I'm a sinner whether I don't.
I'm a sinner. Now listen to me. I'm ashamed
of it. Oh, I'm so ashamed of it. I'm
ashamed of my sin. So ashamed of my sin. I don't
glory in it. I don't glory in it. I'm embarrassed
by it. I'm so embarrassed by it. And
with love, love, love, nothing would please me more than to
cease from it. It's an awful, awful burden to
know that there's something in you. There's something in you
that's so so intrinsically bad, so intrinsically awful that if
sometimes the things that goes through your mind about God scares
you to death, scares you totally to death. Oh, I'm a sinner. You know, when Mephibosheth was
brought into the presence of David, he said, Why would thou
look upon a dead dog as I do? Not just a dog, a dead dog, a
corrupt dog, a stinking dog, rotten dog. Why would you look
on me like that? And when that woman went to talk
to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask for mercy for her daughter,
Our Lord said it's not fit to take the children's bread and
feed it to dogs. I don't mind being a dog. I don't
mind being a dog at all. You can call me a dog all you
want to. Won't bother me, won't offend me, won't hurt me. I'm
not done. Oh, listen. I'm a hypocrite. I really, really am a hypocrite. You know what a hypocrite is?
It's somebody that puts on sometimes. I say one thing and I'll do another. And I expect more from others
than what I'm willing to do or give myself. Oh, listen, when I would do good,
evil gets right there with me. When I have the will to perform,
I don't find out how to do it. That that I love, I do not do
it. That that I hate, that's exactly
what I do. I see a war, I see a great war
going on in my members. And I know that in me, that in
my flesh dwells no good thing. But listen to me now, I don't
wanna use my depravity, I don't wanna use my weaknesses, my depravity,
my awfulness as an excuse for my sin. I don't wanna use the
grace of God as an excuse to sin. I bear the blame for what
I am and I bear the blame for what I do. No one, no one makes
me a hypocrite, no one makes me a sinner. I have to bear the
blame for every bit of it. And if God don't give me grace
and God don't save me because I'm a sinner, there'll be no
hope for me whatsoever. None, none. My second question, my second
question. Do I believe, do I believe with
all my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do I believe
that with all my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Huh? And have I trusted Him with my
soul? Huh? That's why Paul says there
is a faithful saint. Oh, Christ came to save sinners. I throw up both hands to say,
Lord, save me. Save me. One thing I do not want
to do, I'm 72 years old. One thing, and I ain't got long
for this world. If I lived to be 90, I'll tell
you this, I ain't got long for this world. And one thing I don't
want to do is I do not want to miss Christ. I do not want to
miss the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to do it. I want
to be found when God brings me to the end of my journey, brings
me to my last breath, brings me to my last step. I want to
be able to say, oh God, he found me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Found me right there. TRUST IN
HIM, BELIEVE IN HIM. AND THAT'S WHY HE SAID, FOR THIS
IS THE REASON, BECAUSE HE CAME TO SAVE SINNERS. FOR THIS REASON,
GOD GAVE ME MERCY. YOU KNOW, I'VE BEEN PLACES, AND
WE SAY IT AROUND HERE, BUT I'VE BEEN PLACES WHERE PEOPLE WERE
SO POOR, SO POOR THAT THEY SAT WITH A LITTLE BEGGING BOW. begging
bowl. They got a little bowl. They
don't like these folks standing around out on the street here
and asking for money, but they had little begging bowls. And
they said on the street, they're deaf, dumb, or blind, or something.
And that's what they call them, begging bowls. That's what I
got. I'm a begging bowl. See my begging bowl? Lord, please
have mercy. Fill my bowl up with mercy. Do I believe with all my heart
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and have I trusted Him?
The Word of God said this, said this, that if I believe on His
blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that if I believed on Him, God
would save me. that I would be saved. Look with
me in John chapter nine. Look with me in John chapter
nine. Down to verse 35. God said that if I believe on
him, I could and would be saved. But look what it said. You all
know the story here. The man is born blind. They throwed
him out of the synagogue. And they, and he, when Jesus
heard in verse 35, that they had cast him out, and listen
to this, and when he had found him, Christ went to find him. God, Christ found him. And said
unto him, dost thou believe on the Son of God? He added and
said, Lord, who is he? Who is he? Lord, that I might
believe on him. And our Lord said unto him, thou
hast both seen him, and he it is that talketh with thee. And
he said this, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. I believe. Oh, I believe. You know, when that Ethiopian
eunuch, somebody referred to it, he was riding along, been
up to Jerusalem to worship. He was riding home, riding in
his chariot, reading the scroll. And Philip got up there and began
to preach to him. And they came to this place,
and there was some water. And he said, what doeth hinder
me from being baptized? He says, do you believe? He said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. What is it to believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? That means that you believe
that he was with God that he was God. He came into this world
as a man, as God's Son, sinless, holy, and acceptable. And I believe
with all my heart that Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, is
God's only Son, perfect in all parts from eternity to eternity. I believe Him. I believe Him.
And I tell you, I've got to have Him. You know,
Peter said, I believe that we'll be saved by the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I believe concerning God,
concerning His Son. Let's look in Acts chapter 13.
Look in there with me. I believe. Oh, how I believe. Acts 13, 38. Do I believe with all my heart
that the Lord Jesus, Son of God, and have I trusted, trusted my
soul with him? Be it known unto, verse 38, be
it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man, this priest unto you, listen to this, the forgiveness
of sins. forgiveness of sins. And by Him, by Him, all that
believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. You know, the question It's not how much I know, but who I know. It's not my knowledge of him
that I trust in. I trusted his knowledge of me.
He knows me. Trusted his knowledge of me.
And when he, the way I know myself, the way I abhor myself, It's an amazing thing. No wonder
we're saying amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a
wretch like me. Grace taught my heart to fear.
Grace brought my heart to believe and taught me everything. But when you know yourself, then you know, it's not how much
you know, but it's the fact that he knows you just like you are. just like you are. And have I
come to Him? Have I come to Christ? Have I
really come to Him? Peter says, to whom coming? And
I tell you what, I believe that our experience and our profession
is never more than coming to Christ. I have come, I am coming,
and I'm gonna just keep on coming, and keep on coming, and keep
on coming. I'm gonna keep on coming. You
know, a man in a wheelchair, a crippled man, a blind man,
and a deaf man can all go to Christ and hear His voice and
speak to Him. Deaf can hear His Word because
you don't. You only hear and experience
right here. A blind man can see just like
we do by faith. And a crippled man can get up
and come to Christ the same way we do. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that a blessing? And oh, listen, have I committed
myself to him? Have I really, really committed
myself to him? Oh, there ain't nobody else I
can commit myself to. Not with my soul, not with my
soul. I know whom I have believed. Oh, beloved, how I need, need,
need the Lord Jesus Christ. I need my Savior, I need my Redeemer. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
to be my Savior. 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
365 days a year for the rest of my life. I need Jesus Christ
to be my Savior. I cannot save myself. I cannot do anything to make myself any
better in the sight of God. I have no hope without Him. I
just don't, I just don't. Have I turned, have I turned
from myself, myself, and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have I left off my righteousness
and realized that there's only one righteousness worth having?
That's it. Have I called all my works dumb
and call His works glorious and beautiful and blessed? Have I left off my obedience
and bowed to His? Am I trusting my prayers or am
I trusting in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I look to my faith or do I
look to His faithfulness? Huh? Oh, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Oh, to be done with self. Anybody in here would like to
be done with self? Just be done with self? Be done
with self? And cast our, myself? You feel like you could cast
yourself on Christ for all time and eternity? and say, I want
to win Christ, I want to be found in Christ, I want to know Christ,
I've got to have Him if I don't have nothing else in this world.
We'll lose the most precious things to us so many times in
this life, but one thing we don't want to lose in part with, and
that's our best to save, is the Lord Jesus. Oh my. He's the prize for the
race. He's the crown for the fight.
There's a fella, an old man, he's gone now, the Lord called
him home. And he always sat right there where Angus is sitting. But he's on this side, he's on
this side where Aubrey's sitting. And he brought me my, put my
water in a glass for years and years. He had a speech impediment,
and if you'd wrote his name across this building here, he couldn't
have read it. And when he spent money, he had to take, trust
the people to give him the right change back. He called me up to his house
one day, and he had a hog house, big old hog house, had it full
of hogs. Ain't nothing stinks much worse than a hog. But we
went up to his hog house, and he had five-gallon buckets. We
turned them buckets upside down, and we sat down there. Here's
a little old bitty fella. He said, Brother Donnie, he said,
see these hogs? I said, yeah, yeah. He said,
you know, he said, I'm worse than any of these hogs in this
building. He said, I don't, he said, I don't know He said, I've
never felt like this before. He said, I feel like I'm garbage.
I feel like I'm the sorriest, I'm the filthiest, I'm just the
awfulest human being that ever drawed a breath. He said, do
you reckon I could be saved? Here's all I could do to say,
well, it feels like the Lord's done something for you, but I
never said a word. I just said, well, I pray for
you, but I knew right then and there when he started talking
like that, God done something for him. He done something for
him. And him and Brother Henry, every
time Brother Henry would come down, him and Brother Albert
sat together, they had the best times together. Brother Henry
loved him, loved him, loved him very much. Tell you another thing
about him one time. His first time Brother Mahan come
preach for us, he tore our playhouse down, oh my. Oh. But anyway, Brother Albert
said something ugly about it. And I was standing outside my
study, my office, and asked Brother Henry to go in there with him.
And he was crying like a baby. And he said, Brother Henry, please,
please, please forgive me. I said something awful about
you one time, told him what he said. He just laughed, didn't
even laugh, said, that's all right, that's okay. And it just
broke his heart, you know, to apologize, to say I'm sorry that
I even, I said something ugly about you. How many of us would
do that? But oh my. Now I'm gonna close
with this right here. I won't, to be saved by him. I want to be saved his way. I want to be saved by his will. I want his will to be over my
will. I want to bow to his lordship. I want him to be boss. I want
him to rule my life. Rule my life. I want him to choose
my family. I want him to choose my friends.
I want him to choose my relationships. Lord, you choose where I live. You choose how much money I have.
You choose everything for me because your choice will be just
exactly right. Oh my, I want, whatever I experience
in this life, Lord, you order it. If you want my heart to break,
break it. If you want me to be in the dust,
put me down there. If you want my house to burn
down, burn it down. It belongs to you to start with. If you want to take the most
precious thing in my life right out of it, just reach and get
it, go ahead, Lord, it belongs to you anyway. Just take it, just take it, it
belongs to you. What do we got that he didn't
give us? What do we know that he didn't teach us? Oh Lord, you caused me to live
like you will. Caused me to want and win to
experience what I should in my life. Lord, I need you. I want you. Lord, command what you will,
and then give what you can command. As the first Adam's sweat surrounds
my face, may the last Adam's blood my soul embrace. Ask this old man, Jack the Huckster,
What's your experience, Jack? I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. And that's enough. That's enough.