If you will turn there to Romans
chapter 10 and wait on me just a minute, I have got a couple
of more passages that I want to read to you. I want to refer
to them in the message. One is found in Mark chapter
8 and verse 36. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? The parallel passage to that
is found in Luke chapter 9 and verse 25. The Lord says it this
way, For what is a man advantaged, what is he benefited, if he gain
the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? Lose himself. In our text in Romans chapter
10, if you will turn there with me, and beginning in verse 1
through verse 4, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to
God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth." I want us
to think today about mainly verse 1, the apostle's burden, his
desire for Israel, for his lost kinsmen. One thing you and I know for
sure from the Word of God, that the Lord has a people. We often talk about that, don't
we? He comes to save His people from their sins. A people that
the Father has given to Him before time. Chosen in Him. And those people will be saved. Those people will come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They will die physically, but
they'll never die spiritually. Their body goes back to the dust,
but their souls, their newborn souls will rise to heaven at
last. Now, there's no doubt about that
in our mind. If anybody has any doubts about
that, then go to the Scriptures and read them carefully. And
you'll find that in the Word of God. All that the Father gives
to me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in no
wise cast him out. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me, and this
is the will of Him that sent me, that of all that He has given
me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them, and they follow me. And listen to this, I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Isn't that wonderful? A child could understand that.
A newborn baby in Christ can see that and rejoice in that.
My Father which gave them to me is greater than all, and no
man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands. If there
are some passages of Scriptures that you've looked at, and you're
not sure what they mean, and it seems on the surface to indicate
that a child of God may be lost at last, then take those passages
that is not so plain in your own mind and bring them here
to John chapter 6 and to John chapter 10 and these plain passages
that plainly teach beyond doubt that the Lord gives eternal life
to His people. And at last they shall be brought
home to heaven. Sometimes in our own experience,
and I think most of us who have been on the road very long, we've
had this experience that we wonder. Sometimes we have fallen into
doubts about it all. We have gone through a dark valley. We have been climbing a steep
hill. And we think, will we ever get through this? Will we ever
get over this trial? And temptations come. And we
grow weary. And sometimes, for some reason
or another, we may fall into doubt. Am I one of His or not? Has a work of grace begun in
my heart or has it not? Have you ever had that problem?
And you've been made to examine yourself. Do I believe Him? Or do I not? Do I love the Lord
or do I not? Has He begun a work or has He
not? But one thing we can know for sure, brothers and sisters,
if He has begun a work in your heart, it may seem impossible
with you and your present condition and experience that you're going
to make it. But if He's begun a work of grace in your heart,
you have this promise. that he'll finish that work.
Now, in your own experience, you may not see how. You may
not see how. Peter said, If the righteous
scarcely be saved. Will the righteous scarcely be
saved? Not with God. But I tell you,
in our own apprehensions, sometimes we are. You ask poor Jonah when
he was in the belly of that fish down at the bottom of the mountains.
Are you sure you're going to be saved? And you know what he'd
have probably said? I don't see how. I don't see
how. You ask Lot when the fire began
to fall from heaven and burning up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
and he was fleeing for his life. Lot, are you sure that you're
going to make it? Sometimes I wonder. I don't see
how. Sometimes it seems impossible,
doesn't it? And with man it is impossible,
but not with God. In our experience, sometimes
we are spiritually saved, but not with our God and not with
our Savior. Paul and his crew were on that
ship and went for weeks and never saw the sun. They were in some
kind of a typhoon. They finally threw all their
food overboard, all their wires, all their tackling of the ship.
And he said, all hope that we should be saved was taken away. All hope, Paul? Is your case
hopeless? In and of themselves it was hopeless. They couldn't save themselves
or they couldn't save the shield. But was his despair groundless? Yes, it was. They landed safe,
did they not? With man it's impossible, but
not with God. He has a people. He has a people. And He will save His people.
That's true. That's true. And it's also true
that God uses means to save them. He uses His gospel to save His
people. He uses their hearing the gospel. He uses their belief in the gospel. He uses repentance. He brings
them to faith. He uses their struggles. He uses
their trials and their heartaches. God uses means to save His people. Listen to Zechariah chapter 13,
verse 8 and 9. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut
off and die. Oh, that's a fearful thing, isn't
it? Two parts shall be cut off and die. But listen to this,
but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring them through
the fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and as
gold is tried in the fire. I will try them. And they shall
call on My name, and I'll hear them. And I'll say, this is my
people. And they'll say, this is my God.
This is my God. Through the fire. Through the
fire. And listen to this. I will leave
in the midst of thee that afflicted and poor people, and they shall
trust in the name of the Lord. The Lord's church is a little
flock. And it's not afflicted flock.
And Jesus Christ is touched with the feelings of her infirmities. In all her afflictions, He is
afflicted. And there is coming a day in
which He will deliver her out of all her afflictions. Brother Wayne said in his prayer,
there will be no tears. There will be nothing to cry
about. There will be no heartaches. There will be no sorrow and pain
and death. He is going to save her out of
all these things. And this brings me to my text.
One of the afflictions and one of the greatest griefs that the
Lord's church bears in this present world is a burden for the lost. It's a burden for the lost. You
say, Bruce, is that not an affliction? Why, sure it's not an affliction.
And we'll see that in just a minute. When the Lord sent His church
out to preach the gospel, He said, go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. And I imagine as those men and
women went out, don't you imagine they took a degree of this burden
with them? This desire and this prayer for
God to save the lost? They went into Syria, they went
into Samaria, they went into Asia, Rome and Spain and Africa,
and they took this burden with them. That the lost might be
saved. And you know you and I have our
little worlds, don't we? We have some missionaries that
we support down in other places in this world. But we have our
own little world that we go into. We have our families, don't we?
And we preach the gospel to them. We have our neighbors. We have
our communities. We have our co-workers. We have
our friends that we preach the gospel to. And brothers and sisters,
I think there are times when you and I feel at least a degree
of this burden that this man felt. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Oh, what a change in this man! What a change in this man! He
was Saul of Tarsus, the destroyer He was a self-righteous man.
All he wanted people to be was moral. All he was interested
in was ceremonies. All he wanted men to do was glory
and trust in themselves, to look good, to be good. But I tell you, there is not
a word about that here, is there? There's not a word about going
out and getting converts just to make them more moral. To be better citizens and to
have better homes. I'll tell you what he concentrated
on here. Salvation. No sooner had the
Lord saved him than he began to seek the salvation of others. Though sooner had the Lord taught
him to value his own soul, and he began to value the souls of
others. He wasn't going out teaching
people to do something for God, was he? That's what he preached
before. No, now he went out to preach, you
must be born again. You must be saved from your sins. You must have a righteousness
that you didn't work out and can't work out. You must believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of poor sinners. Oh, it's not mere religion that
he went preaching. It's about teaching men to be
zealous for God. But he went out to preach. You
must be saved. You must be saved. I remember
when you start with the book of Isaiah, and as you read that
book, you'll notice the first five chapters, Isaiah was always
saying, Woe unto you. He just kept saying that. Woe
unto you. Woe unto you. Woe unto you. And you come to the sixth chapter,
and he got a vision that changed his message. And he saw the Lord. He saw His glory. The Lord was
high and lifted up. And these holy angels were flying
around Him. And the angels were looking upon
the Lord of glory. And when they did, they covered
their faces. And they said, Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord of hosts. And Isaiah said, I saw His glory. And you know what he said? He
changed his whole message. He was no longer worn to you,
but now he said, worn to me. Worn to me. I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. But he said, I'm a man of unclean
lips myself. I'm just like everybody else. What made him see that? He saw
the only one that was different from everybody else. That was
the Lord of Glory. And there He stood in His humiliation,
in His guilt. And the Lord took a cold from
off that altar where the sacrifice had been burnt. And He touched
the lips of Isaiah and He says, Your sins are purged. Your iniquities are forgiven. And then the Lord said, Who are
we going to send? Who are we going to send to preach?
And Isaiah says, You are my assembly. He's got a message now, hasn't
he? I don't know what good it would
do for a man to go out and preach until he's experienced forgiveness
himself. Why would a man go to preach
something when he don't know anything about being saved himself? Oh, no sooner had the Lord Jesus
saved the Apostle Paul, then he says, now I can go preach
to others. Now I've got a burden. Now I
know what it means to be saved. I just wonder, I just wonder
why denominations send people out to preach. when they don't
even believe in salvation. Brothers and sisters, I don't
mean to be critical or negative, but the Mormon Church has the
greatest missionary program right now in the world. But they know
nothing about being saved. They know nothing about Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, who is God. They don't even believe
that we're justified by faith in Christ alone. It's like these
poor Pharisees and scribes that passed land and sea to make one
convert. But what did they preach? They
didn't preach the new birth. They knew nothing about it. They
didn't preach that you had to have the righteousness of somebody
else. They were seeking their own righteousness.
What did they preach? I'll tell you what they did.
They brought themselves under greater condemnation. and made
their converts to for more the child of hell than themselves. But it wasn't so with this man,
was it? Oh, it wasn't so with this man. No, he said, my heart's
a disheartened prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. They've got to be regenerated. They've got to be born again.
They've got to be washed in the Savior's blood. We'll see some
more of that in just a minute, but look at this desire, this
word desire. Webster says it's a longing,
something longed for that would make one happy and give one delight
to obtain. Webster said it's an emotion
or an excitement of the mind directed to the attainment or
possession of an object from whence pleasure is expected. Paul said, I have this longing,
I have this expectation, and if it is accomplished, it would
bring me great delight. What is it that they might be
saved? And I want you to turn back to
chapter 9 just for a minute. I want you to notice how intense
this desire became in this apostle. Look here in chapter 9. This
is one of the most amazing passages I think the Apostle Paul wrote
in his epistle, at least upon this subject. Look here how this
desire, how intense it was. Romans chapter 9, and look in
verse 1. I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. My conscience also bear me witness
in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness There is a burden
upon my heart and my spirit, great heaviness, and continual
grief, continual sorrow in my heart." Boy, that's amazing, isn't it? Don't you imagine that this somewhat
hindered his joy in the Lord? Here's a man that had the full
assurance, and he lived in the daily assurance that his salvation
had been secure. He says, I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded, he's able to keep that, that I've committed
unto him against that day. In other words, Christ is not
going to lose me. My salvation has been eternally
secure. And when he comes down to die,
he said, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness. And he said, I desire to depart
and to be with Christ. He lived in the assurance of
his salvation and in the joy of it. But don't you think that
this was somewhat of a counterbalance? Don't you think that this sort
of dulled, as it were, his joy and his rejoicing? Because every
day he had this continual grief Every day he had this heaviness
of heart. And what was it? That these people,
his kinsmen, might be saved. Oh, I read this, brothers and
sisters, and I wonder about myself. Do I even care if men and women
are saved? When I read this about this great
apostle, what a burden he had for the souls of men. It seems
like everything that I do and think is about me. It's about
my troubles. It's about my duty, at best about
me and mine. But here was a man that carried
a continual weight upon his heart, a grief in his spirit daily for
men and women that they might be saved. And I tell you, he
makes an amazing statement here that commentaries have been trying
to figure out for hundreds of years. But to me, and I trust
to you, it's so simple. Look what he said in verse 3.
This weight was so heavy and this sorrow so great, I could
wish that myself were accursed from Christ. I wish that I could
be damned for my brethren. for my kinsmen according to the
flesh." Isn't that amazing? Some have said there is no way
that that could mean what it seems to say. That Paul would
never want to be damned because that would have been contrary
to the will of God. And he knows by his being damned would have
no merit to save these people. He is not even talking about
the will of God. He knows there is no merit in
His suffering. Laying all that aside, what is
He saying? He is just expressing unto us
how He feels about the children of Israel. Oh, they hated Him. But He loved
them. They wanted Him to be damned.
And here He says, I am willing to be damned if it would save
you. He knows it won't, but He's just telling us the grief and
the burden and the love He feels. If it could be possible, He said,
that my eternal separation from Christ would save them, then
I'm willing to be damned. Oh, isn't that amazing? That's
all He's saying. He's just opening up to us the
desire He has for these people. Moses felt something of this when the Lord was threatening
to destroy Israel and blocked their names out of the book.
Moses said, if you are going to block their names out, block
mine. Isn't that what he said? Was
that rebellion against God? Why, not at all. Not at all. He was just showing the burden
he had for his people. that He loved them, that He cared
for them, that He had this heavy burden for their salvation. Here is what Jeremiah said. Oh,
he said, If you will not hear, if you will not hear the gospel,
and you do not believe the gospel that I am preaching to you, my
soul shall weep for you in secret places, and my eyes shall weep
sore and run down with tears for your pride. That's a burden,
ain't it? That's a grief. And I tell you,
there's times in our lives, if we feel any of this burden for
the lost, that I know we hampers our rejoicing, even in Christ
our Lord. It did this man. When I consider this apostle
and his burden for the lost, You know, I think he had the
heart of the Master. I think he had the heart of the
Master. This is the way Christ felt, and this is the way he
teaches his children to feel towards the lost. And I say he
had the heart of the Master for this reason. He knew the value
of his own soul. The Lord Jesus taught a soul
was more valuable than the whole world. If a man could gain the
whole world, nobody has ever done that, have they? But if
you could, the Lord said, if you could gain the whole world
and lose your soul, what would you give in exchange? Would you
be advantaged? Not if you lost your soul. You
know, we go all of our lives, we go through our teenage years,
And we don't even know we've got souls. We think we're just
bodies living for the pleasure of this flesh and the world.
We don't even know we have souls until the Lord awakens us and
makes us aware that we have souls. When the body dies, the soul
shall live on. There's something that every
man and woman and boy and girl has in common without any distinction,
and that's our soul. I tell you, look on outward,
and there's distinction in us. I remember when the boys, Justin
and T.J. came, and when Terrence introduced
them that night in the prayer meeting, I remember how you introduced
them. Aren't these pretty boys? And they are pretty boys, aren't
they? And you're pretty. You're pretty people. You're
handsome people. But I tell you, we know some
people that's not so pretty, don't we? Let's be honest. There
are folks that are rude and repulsive. There are folks that are mean. But when you get beyond the appearance,
when you get beyond what you can see and hear in the mere
attitude, there is something that all of us have in absolute
common. And there is no extinct extinction
in us whatsoever. And that is we all have souls. And when you come to the soul
of a man, one soul is no more precious than another soul. They
are all worth more than the world. And if a man loses his soul,
what does he lose? He loses everything, doesn't
he? A man may lose his health. We
may lose our wealth. We may lose our job. We may even
lose our families. But if we have our souls left,
but if we lose our souls, we've lost everything. Somebody's lacking
the soul to a computer. And I think it's good. I think
it's a good analogy. We have computers. You have the
little cabinets. Then you have your monitor, your
screen, and you have your little board. What's those boards you
type on, Baker? Keyboard. And you have your little
mouse. But that's things we can see,
isn't it? Those things are just extensions
of the hard drive that you can see. If you shut off the hard
drive, If your heart drive goes down, these other things can't
even function. You know what really feels? You
know what really hears? You know what really does the
thinking? That's the soul. The body is just an extension
of our souls. You take the soul away from the
body, it's dead. It doesn't function. What we
are is not just what you see. The most vital part of us, the
chief part, brothers and sisters, the best part you can see, that's
our souls. When the rich man lifted up his
eyes in hell, here's what the Bible said about him. He lifted
up his eyes in hell, being in torment. And he saw Abraham. How did he see Abraham? His eyes
were in his body decaying in the grave. But the Bible says
he saw. You know where sight originates?
In the soul. In the soul. He was still seeing. And he said,
my tongue is tormented in this flame. But his tongue was in
his mouth decaying in the grave. No, it wasn't. That feeling originates
in the soul. And Abraham said, Son, remember
that you in your lifetime. How could he remember? His brain
was decaying in his head in the grave. No, the memory is in the
soul. The soul is the chief part of
us, is it not? And it's the best part, brothers
and sisters. And if we lose our souls, we've
lost the best part. We've lost the chief part. We've
lost ourselves. The Master said this in the second
passage that I read to you. What is a man's advantage if
he gains the whole world and loses himself? What he calls
the soul in one place, he calls our self in another place. What
is the soul? It's ourselves. If we lose the
soul, we lose who we are. And I tell you, when we begin
to see this, And when the Lord begins to awaken us to this,
that I have a precious soul and I'm about to lose it, oh, I tell
you what, that's serious, isn't it? That's serious. And Paul
was awakened to this, I have a soul. And when he saw his soul
had been saved by the Lord, that his soul had been secured by
the Lord, I tell you what, he rejoiced. It made him so happy,
but in turn he went out and said, I love the souls of others. You love your own soul. Think
about that for a minute. Do you love your soul? What would you give in exchange
for your soul? Have you learned to value your
soul? What would you give in exchange
for someone else's soul? You know what the Lord Jesus
Christ gave for the soul? This teaches us to value the
soul, to put an estimation upon it. What did it cost to redeem
the soul? It cost everything that heaven
had. It cost the glory of heaven,
the power of heaven, the will of heaven. It cost the Son of
God everything He had. When He redeemed the soul, He
had nothing left, nothing to spare. He gave Himself. If you want to put a value on
a man's soul, there's where you value it. Go to the cross. There's
where you value your soul. What's your soul worth? What
did it cost to redeem your soul? The blood of God's own dear Son.
And I think when we learn to value our own soul, then we'll
learn to value the souls of others. Oh, my heart's desire and prayer
to God that they might be saved. And he says here in my text in
chapter 10, he says here in verse 2, For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And he tells us
in verse 3, "...for they being ignorant of God's righteousness."
What does that mean? Well, to be sure they were ignorant
of how righteous God was. God is holy. But they didn't
really believe that. That's why they stood in the
temple and bragged about what good people they were. If you
ever see the glory of God, if you ever see the holiness of
God, you won't be bragging about your own goodness. Now, I'm telling
you, that would put a stop to that. But they did that. But they were
ignorant of how holy God was, how righteous that He was. They
were ignorant that God demanded them to be righteous. Be you
holy, for I am holy. What does God demand? He demands
perfection. Somebody says, I can't supply
perfection. No, you can't. But that doesn't stop Him from
demanding it. And He'll damn you if you don't have it. Why
can't you supply? Why can't you supply what He
demands? Well, I'm a sinner. I'm a fallen sinner. Is that
His fault? Who made you a sinner? God made us upright. He made
us holy. We made ourselves sinners, did
we not? We lowered the standard, but
He'll never lower His. He'll never lower His. And people
think, there's people who think, we see them all the time. They
think that if they'll keep certain convictions, that they please
God. They meet God's demand, God's
standard of righteousness. My poor dad told me just before
he died, well, years before he died, he always hung on to this.
He said, you know, I've quit every bad habit. that I've ever
had. I could have said, you still
got a real bad one. Bragging on yourself. He even
said, you know, I quit drinking coffee to have caffeine in it. It's just not good for your body. Donny Bell's telling me about
a thing, maybe it's his sister that quit using deodorant. It'd be awful to be around somebody
with a conviction like that, wouldn't it? On a hot day, medium. I fast twice a week. Where did
you get that? Where in the Word of God did
you get where He requires you to fast twice in a week? But see, just a bunch of convictions.
But aren't us working out a bunch of personal convictions? That's
not what God demands. But they were ignorant of that,
you see. They were ignorant of that. If I wear long clothes
and I'm a lady, or I wear a long sleeve if I'm a man and keep
my hair cut real short, and I look righteous and I sound righteous,
I'll please God. They were ignorant of what God
required of them. But here's what I think the Apostle Paul
was getting at. They're ignorant of the righteousness of God.
They're ignorant that God has supplied the righteousness that
He demands them to have. Isn't that wonderful? God demands
a righteousness, and it has to be perfect. No mere man can work
out this righteousness, so God sent His Son, and He worked it
out Himself. And now God gives it freely to
those who believe in Christ for Him. With a heart, men believe
unto righteousness. Now that's pretty simple, but
that's Paul's burden. He said, I see my kinsmen and
they're ignorant. They're ignorant. And this is
what they're ignorant of. And I want under God to bring
them to the knowledge and faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So they can say with me when
they look at the law and its demands, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. Instead of looking at the law
and saying, oh, I can keep that, you look at the law and say,
guilty. Guilty. Before God, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I haven't done that. I haven't
loved God with all my heart. I haven't loved my neighbors
myself. I'm guilty. But oh, you look at the end of
the law, you look beyond the law, and you see the man, the
Savior, Jesus Christ, who was not guilty, but did always those
things that was pleasing in His Father's eyes. And there you
look up to Him and you say, there's a righteousness that I need.
And that's what God's provided. And what do you do? You simply
believe on Him for it in your heart of hearts. You say, Bruce,
that's awful simple. Yes, it is. But that's the simple
truth this whole nation of Israel was ignorant of. And if you're ignorant of it,
you'll stand lost. And my heart will weep for you.
My heart will weep for you. One more thing in conclusion
is this. If you have a desire for the salvation of poor lost
souls this morning, if you're burdened, if you're grieved,
and you're grieved to the point that it's really hindered a lot
of your joy and a lot of your happiness in this world. It's
grieved you to the point that you just really can't participate
in a lot of things some people participate in. I don't judge
God's people. Some are more lighthearted than
others. Some are more given over to entertainment of this world
than others. Not a sinful entertainment, but they seem to get along and
be much happier in this world than some of the other God's
children. Some of God's children can't get their mind off of the
lost. Everywhere they go, they're that continuous orator. Oh, there's people who are lost.
There's people who are perishing. And they have precious souls.
And Christ is able to save. Oh, would to God. Would to God
that they were saved. Let me give you some advice.
I was talking with a young man the other day. He called me.
I won't give you his name. You wouldn't know him anyway. He was standing
down on the street corner with his Bible. And he said, there's
a restaurant here. And I feel like I ought to just
go in the restaurant and stand up and read Romans chapter 3.
And he said, What do you think about me doing that? I said,
Well, I can't tell you what to do. But I would advise against
it. I'd advise against it. And here's
why. Here's why. If we're not careful, we'll take
this burden this grief, this sorrow that we feel for the lost.
And if we're not careful, it will cause us to do unwise things. It will cause us to cast our
pearls before the swine. And if we're not careful, we'll
even bring a reproach or a shame upon our Savior's name. Well, to get up in the middle
of the rest and begin to read Romans chapter 3 will probably
get you thrown out of the restroom. And can you really blame the
owner for doing it? What's he going to do when you
get up and read Romans chapter 3 and a Muslim comes in and gets
up and reads Habakkuk chapter 4? See what I'm saying? Here is my advice. Here is my
advice. Do like Jeremiah. Weep in secret
places for the lost. Set your heart upon not so much
the world being saved, but individuals being saved. Get alone. Pray and ask God to
get you alone with somebody that you know is lost. It may be a
family member, it may be a co-worker or a friend, but ask the Lord
if He will, if He's pleased, to open a door for you or somebody
else to speak to that individual. And I just about bet you if you'll
be earnest in seeking Him, He'll make a way for you to speak to
that person or somebody else. You'll be amazed how that happens.
You're limited, dear soul, You're limited as to what you can do. You can sow and you can water,
but you cannot give the increase. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. And you cannot, you cannot interfere
with that work as you would want to, as you long to see people
saved. You're limited. You are limited. And if you try to go beyond those
limits, you're going to start acting unwisely. Preach the gospel one-on-one
if you can. Hand out tracts. Hand out tapes. Do everything you can to see
people saved. But the best way is the way Christ
Himself did it. Look at the times He got people
alone. And every time he got somebody
along, it always turned out good. Didn't it? You get in a crowd
of people trying to talk to one person in a crowd, and you're
going to lead to confusion most of the time. Mocking or questioning. But you get one-on-one. And boy,
you've got them hooked then. Nicodemus came to the Lord by
night. And I bet you the Lord had something
to do with his coming when he did. What would have happened
if a whole bunch of Pharisees came with him? It would have
been chaos. But he got him himself. The Lord waited by a well until
a woman came to draw water who had five husbands and was living
in fornication then. And he waited until his disciples
went into the city. And then he started a conversation.
Get people by themselves. And you talk to them that way.
And God bless you as you do it. Bunyan, dear old John Bunyan,
one of the greatest writers since the apostles, in my opinion.
He sat under some good preaching. He said all it did was made him
self-righteous. And one day, while he was at
his work, He was walking down the street and heard two old
ladies talking about the love of Christ for their souls. And
he said, that went home to my heart. And out of that, he was
converted. God bless you. Let's pray. Oh,
Father, wise and good and gracious Father, Oh, we thank you that
there is such a thing as salvation. How necessary it is. We must
be saved. We must be saved. Oh, you bring us into this world.
You start life in the womb of our mothers. A life that will
never end. Souls that will never die. We
cannot escape it, Lord. We have souls. We cannot escape
it. They're eternal. And if we lose
them, oh, if we lose our souls, we've lost all. Oh, Savior, Lord
Jesus, the Son of God, save us. Save us. The only Savior, poor
man's soul, save us. Save me, Lord, this morning.
Save those who are gathered here. Save us, Lord. Oh, come to send
in tender mercies to wean us from this world and to wean us
from sin and its pleasures. Bring us to Yourself in our hearts,
in our conscience, in our souls. Bring us to You, Lord, and wash
us and give us life in our souls. We have died. Sin has killed
us. Oh, save us, Master. Save the
poor lost here this morning. Give them ears to hear, hearts
to believe, and be saved. We thank you for this day. We
thank you for the food the dear ladies prepared for us. Thank
you for the dear brothers and sisters, our loved ones, our
family. In Jesus, our Lord's name, amen. I don't know what happened to
the air conditioner, but it's obviously quit. Hot, ain't it? Did it quit, Turner? They ought
to check that thing. Lord bless you.