Turn now to the book of Isaiah, chapter 55. Isaiah 55. I'm going to read for a text,
verses 6 through verse 11. Isaiah 55, verses 6 through 11. And the Prophet says, Seek ye
the Lord. Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found. It's not an experience that we
seek, it's a person. Not a doctrine that we seek,
it's a person. The Almighty, Eternal, Invisible
God. Seek the Lord. Call ye upon him
while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way. Now that's not just talking about
a person who lives in the gutter.
That's not just talking about a person who is a drunkard or
a murderer or a blasphemer or a bigot. That's talking about
a religious man who has pursued his own way of righteousness,
which is wickedness. There's no greater wickedness
than to seek to be found accepted of God by our own doing. The
men who crucified the Lord were men who were seeking God by their
own way, their way. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. What does he think about himself,
about sin, about God, about Christ? See? And let him return to the
Lord, to the Lord, to His way, His will, His righteousness. And God will have mercy on him.
And to our God. For He will abundantly multiply
His pardon far. Now see, the far When a sentence
begins with a far, you see what it's there for. F-O-R, far. He's
going to talk about what he's been talking about. He's going
to explain what he's been talking about. Let the wicked forsake
his way. His way. His way. And his righteousness. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts. And my ways are not your ways,
saith the Lord. And how far apart are his ways
and our ways. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, that's pretty good, that's pretty good distance.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, what you think is
not what God thinks. There's a way that seems right
to me, but the end is destruction and death. Man's way is not God's
way. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so infinitely higher than the earth, so are
my ways, my ways. higher than your ways. I don't
do things your way. Your thoughts are not my thoughts
and your ways are not my ways. I don't do things logically as
men consider and purpose and plan and think God ought to do
them. Thou thoughtest I was altogether
such a one as thyself, he said. My thoughts are higher than your
thoughts. Now William Cowper wrote a hymn 1774, that goes like this. God moves
in a mysterious way. Our ways are not mysterious.
Our ways are earthly and carnal, logical to us, natural. But He moves in a mysterious
way. His wonders to perform. Not our wishes necessarily, nor
our wills, but His wonders, His ways. He plants his footsteps
on the sea and he rides upon the storm. Deep. We're so shallow today. Our preaching's
so shallow. Our giddiness and foolishness
and ignorance is so shallow. But deep in mysterious minds
of never-failing skill, God treasures up his bright designs and he
works his sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, and how we do that, how we do that, how we limit
God, but trust him for his grace behind a frowning providence. He hides a smiling face. We need
to be reminded again and again that our God accomplishes His
divine purposes in regard to His glorious kingdom and His
beloved Son and His eternal will for His sheep. God accomplishes
His purpose and His ways and His will in His own way. for his own glory. He brings
it to pass when he will, for whom he will, in the way that
he will. Now, he said in Isaiah 46, my
counsel will stand. All flesh is grass, and the glory
of man as the flower of the field that fadeth. But God said, my
word will stand forever. My counsel is going to stand. He said, I'll do all my pleasure. That's God. The God we hear about
today is a God who wishes and wills and desires, but can't
accomplish his desires or his will. We have tied the hands
of God, they tell me. But the God of the Bible says,
I've spoken it, I'll bring it to pass. None can stay my hand
or say unto me, what doest thou? He said, I've purposed it, I'll
do it. He worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will, the salvation of a sinner or the condemnation of one, the
raising up of a Moses or the casting into the sea of a Pharaoh,
of whom he said, I raised you up for this purpose. I raised you up for this purpose,
that I might show my power indeed. son of perdition from the beginning. That's what the Word says. See,
that's God. Somebody says, that's not my
God. That's what I've been saying. That's not your God. That's not
the ways of me. That's not the thoughts of me.
We have made us a God like Aaron made a cave. But no one made
the eternal God, therefore he is in subjection and obligation
to no man. He is and he was and he always
will be. He said, I am. The one that comes along second
is in subjection to the one who is here first. That's right. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. Moses says, show me your glory.
God said, all right. I'll show you my glory. I'll
show you my goodness. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will.
He said, I dried up the sea. He said, I turned the rivers
into a wilderness. I hung a sackcloth over the sun.
And I made the brightness of day to be as the midnight. Can I not save whom I will? Where
is your God, David? Our God's in the heaven. What's
he like? He hath done whatsoever he pleased.
Nebuchadnezzar came back from the field, and he said, My senses
returned to me. My understanding returned to
me. I'd been insane. I boasted about my powers and
my kingdom and my will, and I found out that the Most High God ruleth
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth,
and giveth it to whomsoever He will. God maketh rich and God
maketh poor. God killeth and God maketh alive.
God said, I create good and I create evil. I create light and I create
darkness. How the Lord do these things?
We have no power to create anything. We have no power to alter or
change anything. We're the sheep of His pasture.
We're the work of His hand. And every soul in here tonight
will glorify either his salvation and his mercy or his justice. But everybody's going to glorify
God. Even the wrath of man will praise
the Lord. Even your anger will praise the
Lord. Even your rebellion will work his purpose. When they crucified
the Son of God, he said, you did what I determined before
to be done. He was delivered according to
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of an all-wise God, who purposed
and planned his sacrifice, and to whom it was made. And who,
when man planted him in the earth, God raised him. And set him on a throne, and
says he'll reign till every enemy has made his footstool, and I'll
send him back to execute judgment. And I'll judge the whole world
by this man Jesus Christ, whom I raised from the dead. The living God will not conform
to the patterns of men. The living God will not conform
to the ways determined by men. They'll set up what they think
is a Sabbath day, and he'll walk through a field and pick corn
on it. They'll tell a man he can't carry
his bed on the Sabbath day, and he'll tell him to pick it up
and walk. A man hasn't walked in 38 years. They'll tell him, you must wash
your hands before you eat, and he'll eat without washing his
hands. They'll tell him, the Jews are your chosen people,
and he'll save a woman of Canaan. Years and years ago, over in
England, there were two very solemn Christian gentlemen, Reformed
Calvinists, and they had a friend who was
spending a week with them before sailing for China. He was going to China to work
for the government. He was going to be there for
many, many years. They were troubled about him
because he was not a believer. And they prayed for him and prayed
for him and prayed for him. And they thought, well, this
week while he's visiting with us, we'll take him to hear some
of the renowned, famous Reformed brethren. And there were a lot
of them in that day. So they started on Monday night,
Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, and took him
to all of the different places where these men held forth. He
wasn't moved by any of them. There was one preacher left of
some fame, power, but he was an eccentric type preacher. His
name was Roland Hill. And it saved him to last because
he was unpredictable and strange. Nobody knew what he was going
to say next. He didn't conform. He didn't fit the pattern. He
didn't follow the ways prescribed by most of the reformed Calvinists. But he was the only one left.
He was a humorous man, plain-spoken man, and they said occasionally
a bit vulgar. And they prayed as they started
for church that night with their friend who was going to China.
Lord, help Mr. Hill to be sane and sensible
tonight. Help him not to be too far out,
too strange and plain. When he preached at Surrey Chapel,
they sat down with their friend between them, and I'll tell you,
Mr. Spurgeon said Surrey Chapel that
night was nothing like they were accustomed to. The people sang
and rejoiced and praised the Lord, and Mr. Rowland Hill was
plainer and stranger and more eccentric and humorous than ever.
And they were so embarrassed. And they left the chapel with
their friends, their heads hanging low, too embarrassed to speak
because Mr. Rowland Hill had disappointed
them so much. And as they walked down the street,
the friend broke the silence, and they both looked at him.
He had big tears running down his cheek. And they said, what's
wrong? He said, God spoke to me tonight. That wasn't the way we planned
it. How could God speak to you through Roland Hill? He's supposed
to speak to you through the Reformed brother, who is so starched and
solemn and serious. He's supposed to speak to you
when we sing the Psalms, not the hymns. God won't work your
way. He just won't do it. You get
it all fixed up and say, now here's the pattern, God. You
can work now. He'll go over here in the strangest
way. I heard another story one time
years ago, true story, a believer, a man up in years. He had children. Some of them were unbelievers.
They didn't love his gospel. They didn't love his God. His
grandchildren were not saved. They didn't know God, had no
interest in the gospel. And he was so concerned for them,
but to no avail. He prayed for them and he talked
to them some, but they weren't interested. And he grew older,
and he knew he was going to die before too long, and so he had
it all planned in his mind. He had it all fixed up, and this
is what he thought. He thought, now when I come to
die, I'll be lying on my bed, and my children will be gathered
about me. The doctor will tell them that the old man doesn't
have much longer, and they'll come from far and near, and they'll
gather around my bed. And as they stand around my bed,
I'll give such a good witness and testimony, I'll sing the
old hymns that I used to sing. And I'll quote scripture. And
I'll witness to them, and they'll be impressed. And they'll turn
to the Lord. But it didn't work out that way.
This man who knew God and who loved God died with a brain tumor. And his last days were days so
wracked with anguish and pain and suffering that he never sang
anything. And he forgot all the scripture
he ever knew. He only wept and tossed about on the bed and prayed
to die. His deathbed was a scene of great
trouble. You can't put God in a mold. God will not, and being God cannot,
do things your way, because my way and your way is not His way. The God of men's imaginations,
and that's generally the God that men preach in this day,
is the God of their imagination. Well, I'll tell you what I think,
so you can be sure that's wrong. The God of men's imagination
works as they design and as they expect and as they plan for him
to work. They can get all their churches
together, some famous, well-known, renowned evangelist with great
credentials and influence and success in the past and organize
all the choirs and organize all the counselors. at a huge football
stadium, have about 155 or 60 churches cooperating, and bring
all the people together and put their champion in the pulpit,
and their mighty preachers behind him, and their great singers
and organists and choir, and they can say, now God, you can
work. But he never has. You read the revivals of the
past. You read about the Welch revival, the New England revival,
the revival under Luther. Isn't that right, John? You've
read those things. It doesn't work that way. You don't plan
God's purpose. You don't plan God's ways. The
living God will not, will not operate in the framework of the
creature. He can't do it, John. Not in
be God. Our ways are not His ways. Our
times are not His times. And until we submit to His ways
and His thoughts and His times, you can forget it. Oh, He'll
let us play church. We've been playing church for
years. He'll let us go through the motions. He'll let us play
religion. He'll let us do this and let us do that. Turn us loose
to go our way. But He'll work when He will.
I'll tell you, now listen to me. I'm talking about the God
of the Bible. I'm not talking about the living
God. I'm not talking about the God of our imagination, the God
of the Bible. Listen to me. The God of the
Bible would create a man in his own image and give him dominion
and rulership over a whole world, give him a woman by his side,
and then permit them both to fall into sin, depravity, and
death. and stand by while they fall.
You say God didn't know that was going to happen, then he
ain't God. God didn't permit the fall, then
he's not God. Somebody else is. There's a power
greater than the power. That's right. He permitted that
man and woman to fall into sin in order to fulfill a purpose
which he counseled in his eternal will before the world was ever
built or the foundations laid to redeem a people and make them
in the image of his Son. That's what he said. Christ is
a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. There's an everlasting
covenant that was made before that covenant was made with Adam. I don't know why God permitted
the fall, I just know that he did. The last thing I need is
a God I understand. The last thing I need is a God
I can comprehend. That's the reason I challenge
this world of preachers and religionists and tell them their God is not
the God of the Bible, because their God is a God they understand. This God will leave Israel, his
chosen people, in Egypt for 400 years. 400 years. in slavery, back-breaking slavery. He left them there for 400 years,
and then allow the very man whom he intends to use to deliver
them to try to do it by himself, and have to leave the whole country
in disgrace, hated by both sides. That's right, Moses, 40 years
old. Now this is when we use men.
This pastor's too old, but that one's too young. So we'll get
one, I'd say about 40, in the prime of life with the credential.
Now God will use him? No, he won't. Moses was 40 years
of age. He was second in command in Egypt.
He had all the riches and treasures behind him. He was the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. That's the logical one to lead
Israel out of Egypt. No, sir. God humiliated him in
that character. Even turned Israel against him.
They said, who made you the judge over us? The Egyptians were down
on him, and the Israelites were down on him, and he left Egypt
broke, penniless, with a shepherd's staff. And God put him on the
backside of a desert for 40 years and let him sit there and watch
a bunch of manger sheep until he was 80 years old. We would
have retired him then. Who wants a pastor 80 years old?
Send a man 80 years old to lead 2 million people out of Egypt?
He can't do it. Exactly. He can't do it. And he had to find that out.
When you can't do it, God can. And that's when God will do it
for you, when you can't do it. Almighty God will leave Abraham
childless till he's almost 100 years old. This is the man he
took out one day and showed him the sky and said, count the stars.
He said, I can't count the stars, there are millions of them. He
said, so shall your seed be. I don't have a son. And then God will resist any
efforts on the part of Abraham to get one. It's the God of the Bible. I
don't understand God. I know you don't. Good thing
you don't. That shows you're creeping up
on some understanding of who he really is. Almighty God will take Joseph
into Egypt. How will he do it? Certainly
not our way. He takes him into Egypt by way
of a pit with all his brothers turned against him. Took him
down into Egypt as a slave, and old Joseph worked his way up.
He worked his way up. Through integrity and honesty
and hard work, he worked his way up until he was the chief
steward in Potiphar's house. Now we almost got him on the
throne. All we had to do was get him elected. But that's not
God's way. So... Potiphar's wife got interested
in him, he turned her down, and they threw him in prison. Now
we're right back where we started from. We never will get Joseph
on the throne. Now he's in jail, now he's humiliated,
now he's been accused of raping his boss's wife. That ain't a
candidate for the throne. Not your candidate, but that's
God's candidate. You see what I'm saying? God
put him on the throne. I could spend the night talking
about things like this. Almighty God will allow Satan
personally to buffet Job and break him and bruise him and
crush him and turn his life into mourning and everybody against
him to accomplish his purpose. And then God will turn his mourning
into joy. Weeping endures for the night.
But joy comes in the morning. God's joy. God's joy. But you got to go through God's
night to enjoy God's joy. That's not our way. We don't
want to see anybody cry. We don't want to see anybody
suffer. We don't want to see anybody in trouble. But you don't
wear the crown until you've walked the way of the cross, even the
Master. God will pass by the pride of
Jesse's household and go out there on the side of a hill and
choose his king, a lad that everybody else thought
couldn't possibly be God's choice. My ways are not your ways, says
the Lord. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so my way is higher
than your way. God will make Judas an apostle,
elect him treasurer of the Church, give him all the funds to carry
in a bag, and then allow his greed to be his downfall. God will allow Satan to sift
the chief apostle, Peter, the spokesman of the whole group,
allow Satan to try him and sift him, and even let him sit by
a fire and warm his hands and deny his Lord, and then make
him the greatest preacher of his day." God sent him to a seminary, all
right, didn't He? God sent him to a seminary. God will leave Saul of Tarsus
in false religion. even leading him to consent to
the death of gallant men, and wait till he's over forty
years of age, and then call him to be his servant. Let him preach
eleven or twelve years and let his enemies kill him. Let his enemies kill him. Let
Paul cry from a prison cell, all men have forsaken me, only
Luke is with me. At my first trial, nobody stood
with me. Even some of my preacher brethren
seek to add to my bonds. Think about that. Then let him
be martyred. God will allow Paul and Barnabas
and John Mark to fall out and fuss and go their separate ways
to accomplish His glory. Turn to Romans chapter 11. When
you think you got it all figured out, read this scripture. Read
this scripture. When you get the religion all
in line, feel like you got it all fixed up, God talks to you
and you talk to God, and you get that little sentimental emotionalism
going pretty strong, just pick up Romans 11.33 and read, Oh,
the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
in his ways, as finding out. Oh, who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Have you? This Lord I'm talking about.
You know the mind of the Lord? Who hath been his counselor?
Or who hath first given to him? You given anything to God? I
gave him my heart. Did you? Or did he give you a
new heart? Who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed to him again? Did God drive a bargain
with you? You exchanging things with God?
You giving God a dime or two, and he's blessing you for it?
Is that the God you're talking about? Why, it says here, for
of him and through him and to him are all things. He said,
if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. To whom be glory forever and
ever. But preacher, what do you think's
going on today? Well, I'll tell you this. Seems
to me that God's preachers today, those who speak for God, now
God never left himself without a witness. God never left himself
without a witness. Somebody today is speaking the
truth. Somebody today is preaching the
gospel. Somebody today is God's messenger,
or plural, messengers. And I do know that his messengers
have always been ordinary men. Now you go through the word,
ordinary men. He didn't find them loafing.
He found them all occupied. They're men of clay, like the
apostles of old. They're weak vessels. They're
men. And they're conscious, and remain
so, of their inability, and of their weaknesses, and of their
constant need of His grace and His power. They're not professionals. They never are. They're not recognized. They never are. They're not lauded
by the world. They never are. They do not have
the credentials recognized by the world and meeting the standards
of the world. They never did. You can't find
one. He finds them by the seashore.
He finds them among the sheep, as a shepherd. He finds them
here. He finds them there. They're the least of all the
saints. They're the chief of sinners. But they're men who
are sincere and serious-minded and dedicated to one task, and
that's to preach Christ. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
2. They're not out to build a name,
except his name, but certainly not a name for themselves. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse
17, the Apostle Paul says, we're not as many, and the false prophets
are always many. Many false prophets have gone
out into the world, many deceivers, Peter said, but we're not as
many. We're not as the many. which corrupt the Word of God,
deal deceitfully with the Word of God, use the Word of God in
religion to accomplish their purposes. And that's what the
TV rich evangelist con men are doing. They're using the Word
of God to accomplish their own goals and purposes. That's exactly
right. They offend no one. They find
something that everybody's against and they major on it. They're
not preaching the character of God and the glory of God and
the sinfulness of men and the effectual substitutionary work
of Christ and the glory of Christ and the need of redemption and
how God can be just and justifier. They're dealing with issues,
civil issues, political issues, social issues. They're not dealing
with spiritual issues. If men get right in their hearts,
they get straightened out on the outside. But these men of
God, they do not corrupt the Word of God, but as of sincerity,
sincerity, sincerity, as of God, scent of God, with the glory
of God as their objective, obsessed with the glory of God, in the
sight of God, not in the sight of men. They're not trying to
please men, or win their friendship, or win their support. Paul said,
if it please men, I'm not God's servant. And they speak of Christ. They
preach Christ, Christ, Christ Jesus, the Lord, who He is, what
He did, why He did it, where He is now, His glory, His gospel,
His kingdom, His sacrifice, His deity, His resurrection, His
intercession. They preach Christ. Don't just
preach about Him. They preach Him. They identify
Him. They glorify Him. God's preachers
are preachers of Christ. They're not promoters. They're
prophets. They're not entertainers. They're prophets. They're disturbers
of Israel. They don't soothe the flesh.
They trouble it. Comfort the hearts. And the comfort
is not in their words, but in His. There's a difference, woe be
unto the person that can't recognize it. Well, who are God's people? That's
God's preachers. They're unique, unusual. They're men who play a one-string
fiddle, and that's Christ. They're men who tell the same
story over and over and over again and never get weary of
it. They're men who identified with
the people. They're among the people, they're
of the people. But they're servants of Christ. Who are God's people? Well, God's people today, as
I see it, I'm watching these things take place. God's people
are being called out. And most of them are being called
out of religion. Because everybody's in religion.
Everybody in America's in some kind of religion. Everybody in America's got some
kind of denominational preference, some kind of religious background,
some kind of heritage or ancestry, or some kind of claim on God.
You know that, and I know that. And if God, when God finds His
people, He finds them in religion most of the time now. In every
denomination. Look round about you in this
congregation. I can look out here and I can see people who
were raised Catholics, Mormons, Church of Christ, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Camelite, Southern Baptist, Primitive Baptist,
Methodist, Presbyterian, and nothings. That's right. Some old, some young, some rich,
some poor, some educated, some not so educated, some straight-laced,
and some sensual. Some married, some single, some
divorced, some strong, some weak, but all foolish things of the
world. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Now,
I'll read your name. If you're one of his own, if
you've been called out, I'll read your name. And you'll recognize it. He said
in 1 Corinthians 1, 26, you see, you're calling, brethren, brethren,
brethren, you're calling. Who called you? God called you.
Now that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen. You didn't
choose Him, He chose you. He chose you in Christ, too.
He chose you in Christ before the world began, he said, and
he chose you to salvation. And he had chosen, whom hath
he chosen? The foolish. But God had chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the smart addicts
and the wise, folks that got all answers. And God hath chosen
the weak things, weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty, and the base things. This is not
our way. If you want to reach Ashton with
the gospel, you've got to go over here and get some famous
football player and bring him to town so the young people will
listen to him. He'll lead them down the path of destruction. Well, if you get all the preachers
in town, and the businessmen, and the mayor, and the city council,
and we'll all go together, and we'll all sit on the platform,
and we'll show them how we're for Jesus, and that'll influence
people. That's not what God says. That's
your way. It'll just influence them to
go right on down that same old road of dead religion that they've
been walking all the time. God has chosen the weak things,
the despised, the things that are not, to confound the things
which are mighty." Watch verse 28, "...and the base things of
this world, and the things which are despised."
Well, who is he? Well, he's from Nazareth. Nazareth! Nazareth! Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? I'm not going to hear him." No,
I figured you wouldn't. The things which you despise
that God chose. I had a meeting out in Texas
a few years ago. The preacher came to him and
said, what are you doing tomorrow for breakfast? I said, not anything.
He said, you want to have breakfast with me and a young preacher?
I said, I guess so. He said, he wants to pick your
brain. What did you say to me? I said, well, all right. So we
went to breakfast, and we exchanged the common courtesies, and we
sat down. We ordered, you know, and we were drinking coffee.
And he looked over at me, and he said, which seminary did you graduate
from? I said, none. He never asked me another question. Not another question. I didn't
have anything he wanted to hear. That's our way. That's when we lost God. That's
when this generation lost God. When they became enamored with
and influenced by the high and mighty and the credentials of
man. You know, you can't get to be
pastor of the average church unless you go through the required
so forth and so on. It doesn't matter if you know
God. Oh, my, my, my, hath God chosen
the things which are not which are not, Mr. Nothing from no,
Mr. Nobody from nowhere hath God
chosen to bring to naught the things that are." Why? Watch
verse 29. That! No flesh. No flesh. No flesh should glory
in His presence. And I promise you, no flesh is
going to. I'll tell you, I did I did this
and I did, I'm somebody, I mean the church would be fortunate
to get me. It'll be blessed when you leave. If I can help you, you'll hurt
us. That's right. But of Him, of
God, totally of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
All of God's people have one, they have one identity. They're like the woman with the
issue of blood, whose life was draining out of her, and she'd
wasted all that she had on all this quackery and nothing called
religion in the world. And she said, oh, if I can just
get to Him. I got I have one hope. I have one hope. If I can just
get to Him and touch Him. And that's your one hope. That's
my one hope. If I can swim through this sea
of confusion. If I can be delivered from this
perverse, wicked generation. If I can be delivered from these
people who think they've got God in a box. If I can close
my ears and never hear him say another word, and if I can just
get to Christ and hear him authorized and anointed and ordained of
the Father to speak for God. God, who at sundered times in
divers manners spake to our fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken to us by his Son. If I can get to Christ. I don't want to hear somebody
talking about Him, I want to hear Him talk. Paul said in Philippians 3, Oh,
that I may win Christ and be found in Him. That I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection. I count all these things, my
accomplishments, my heritage, my ancestry, my religion, my
professions, I count all my righteousness but dumb, but rubbish, but loss,
that I may win Christ and be found in Him. A thousand times better not to
come into this world than to leave it without Christ. And thirdly, there's a fourfold
struggle going on in everybody whom God saves. I know that a
lot of people walk in the aisle, They've got their little ritual,
they've got their little altar call, they've got their little
superstitious way of fixing people up for heaven. They have all
the singing and then the preacher gets up and rants and raves and
talks about politics and abortion and pornography and all these
things. And he says Jesus two or three times. Now he says,
every head bowed and every eye closed. You won't go to heaven
when you die, raise your hand. Amen. God bless you. Come on
down here and shake my hand. Pray the sinner's prayer. They
come down, thousands of them. You're saved. I'll send you a
book, how to get straightened out, and send us a little money,
and we'll build another building. And we're all fixed up. But I
know this. God's saving some people. And in every one of my
meet, there's a struggle. a fourfold struggle. Now you
can write this down. This is a fourfold struggle. And this war is going to be fought
and won by the king. He's going to conquer you. If
he saves you, your one wild ass is cold, he's going to break.
That's exactly right. He's going to break you. If the
king rides you, he's going to break you. He's going to hold
the reins and you're going to go his way. And it's a four-fold
struggle, and I'll tell you what it is. Number one, it's his righteousness
or mine. That's going to be settled. His
righteousness or mine. This is going to be settled once
and for all. It's not easy. Because a natural man is a proud
man. And he thinks he's good. He thinks
there's somebody that he's better than. That's right. He's a proud man. We can't face
this. We all do fade as the leaf. Our
comeliness and beauty is faded, and even our righteousness is
a filthy rag. We can't face that. That's too
hard to face. The only way in the world a man
will ever buy that or believe that is to have a regenerated
heart. So-called good people are being
saved. That's right. I went down to
Louisiana to preach in a meeting. School teacher there played the piano. She was the
finest lady in the community. Finest lady in the church, everybody
thought. Preached down there with another
preacher for three or four days, and last night of the meeting
we stood to sing the last song, and she came down the aisle weeping. And she said, the Lord has saved
me this week. He's revealed to me my sin and
my guilt and my evil, my wickedness in the churches. They couldn't understand that.
They couldn't understand that. But you know what? She fought
that battle during that week over his righteousness or mine.
The righteousness of Christ. clothing me, my filth, my guilt,
my shame, my wickedness, in the sight of God. I'm not talking
about yourself, I'm talking about His sight. You say, I'm good
as you are, I'm sure you are. But one lump of coal's just the
same color as the other. That's like one lump of coal
says, I'm white as you are. You sure are. Exactly. One murderer's just guilty as
the other, and one's just innocent as the other. He said, you're
not smart to compare yourself with yourself. That's what Paul
said. You're not very smart. What you want to do is see yourself
in the light of God's holiness. And that's a, that's a different
story. Then you'll cry, unclean, unclean,
unclean. His righteousness, here's the
second battle, is this. His regeneration. You know what
regeneration is? It's a new creation. It's a new
birth. It's creating life where there
was no life. It's a new man created in Christ
Jesus. That's regeneration. Now here's
what we're fighting. His regeneration or my religious
decision. Everywhere I go, I run into people
who say, well, I saved back when I was nine or ten years old.
I walked down the aisle and made a profession. Now, I've gotten
away from the Lord, and I haven't been to church like I ought to,
and I haven't lived like I ought to, and I haven't had much interest
in the Word. But I saved back then. Don't
you tell me I wasn't saved back then. I saved. God did something. And they hold on to that old
profession like a bulldog holds on to a bone. And that's all
it is, is a bone. Ain't no meat on it. And they won't give it up. But
I'll tell you this, if you ever find out what salvation is, you'll
give it up. If you ever find out salvation
is not a decision, it's a new birth. Salvation is not an act
of your will, it's an act of God's will. Salvation is not
when you opened your eyes, it's when God opened your eyes. Salvation
is not when you saw the creatures, it's when you saw the Lord in
His glory. Salvation, not when you thought
it was wrong to take drugs or drink liquor or do this, that,
and the other. When you thought you was a sinner in the sight
of a holy God, and He was just and righteous in damning you.
That's when it took place. When you came under new management.
Not when you made your decision. It's when He accepted you and
the Beloved, not when you condescended to accept Jesus. going to have
to give it up. I was preaching over in North
Carolina. You talk about, you talk about a blessing. I was preaching over there with
Bill Sasser in a meeting three or four or five years ago, staying
in the pastor's home, and I noticed, his wife's one of my dearest
friends now, but I noticed then that there was something wrong.
I didn't know what it was, but I just felt uncomfortable. And one morning we got up and
we were having some coffee and she was gone. She'd taken the
car and left. She went somewhere, I found out
later, where she went riding around. That's while Bill and
I were out in the yard walking along, here comes that car around
the bend into the church parking lot. She got out of the car,
smiled from ear to ear, tears of joy on her face, and ran up
and grabbed us and hugged us and said, it's settled now. God
has saved me, I see Christ." She had been under conviction. She had had an older sister.
See, she's another one of those folks that grew up in a religious
home and made a profession of faith, went to the Baptist church
and the Sunday school and the BTU and Wednesday night, good
girl, married a preacher. And then God saved her. You can't hold on to an old experience
that stays old. Now you just keep on holding
on to it now. You just keep holding on to it. You just keep holding
on. If you got to go back two days to prove you saved, something's
wrong. I don't care a birth certificate around to prove I'm living. Just
pinch me. I feel it. Well, when the Lord
saved you, it doesn't matter when, the fact that He did is
it. I'm not asking you, I'd forget when. Paul didn't say, I know
when I believe, he said, I know who. And old John Newton said,
if I hadn't loved you before, let me start right now. That's
the place you better come to. Salvation is a person. Salvation
is regeneration. Salvation is a new creature.
Don't you sit there in your religiosity and piety and look back on an
old decision that you made thirty years ago and call it salvation. You see, repentance is a state,
it's not an isolated act. Faith is a state of being. I
have believed, I am believing, I will believe or I never believe.
Right? I am in Christ, I have been in
Christ, and I will be in Christ, or I never was in Christ. If
you can quit, you never knew Him. That's right. This salvation's a growth. Anything
that's living's growing. This thing's not growing. You
say, are you growing? Growing bald? Yeah, I'm changing
every seven years, somebody told me. Growing new cells? I try.
That's right. Growing. All right, thirdly,
here's the next thing. Watch it now. Here's a struggle
going on in those whom God saves. An experience of grace. An experience
of grace. Love. What you read. And this
is not a sentimental hogwash love. This is a genuine love
for God and truth and Christ and the blood and the people
of God. the experience of grace, the
life of grace, or the doctrines of grace. Now, which one you
got? How many people learn Calvinism
who never learned Christ? I've had some dealings with them, and they haven't been pleasant.
How many people learn the ways of God who never knew the will
of God? Psalm 103 said, to Israel he
revealed his judgment, to Moses his will and his way. How many people have a full head
and an empty heart? What is it, grace in letter or
grace in truth? What is it, grace in letter or
grace in experience? See what I'm talking about? The reality of Christ, the peace
of Christ, the rest of Christ, the joy of Christ. If you don't
have that joy, peace, and rest of the person of Christ, you'll
quit sooner or later. Maybe later, but you'll quit.
I watch them. You'll quit. Because the hardest
thing in the world is to live what we call a Christian life
without Christ. You'll quit. I was out in Oregon
in a meeting, reached every night, Sunday morning, over in this
pastor's church, came back home, and he called me on the phone.
He said, Brother Henry, he said, the Lord has saved my soul. He said, I've been preaching
15 years. And he said, I had a head full
of knowledge and doctrine. I studied the scriptures, been
to college and Bible school, but he said even when I was in
Bible school, I used to tell my professors, there's something
missing in my life. And they'd say, oh, no, no, no.
You believe Jesus died on the cross, buried and rose again?
Yes, sir. Well, you're saved. You just need to work for the
Lord. Get busy for Jesus. Get out there and serve the Lord,
win souls. That's all you need to do. Oh, Satan's putting doubts
in your mind. All the doubts aren't Satan-inspired. And he said, the Lord has, he
said, all the time he was preaching, I was sitting there thinking,
I don't know that Christ he's preaching. I don't know that
Christ. I know about him, but I don't
know him. And he said, I want you to know God saved me. And
I said, what are you going to do? He said, I'm going to tell the
church in the morning. I called him back on Tuesday
or Wednesday, I forgot which. I said, what happened? He said,
they fired me. can't afford to have a saved
pastor. We'll listen to him when he didn't
know God. That's right, the mechanics of
religion. You can succeed in religion a
lot faster if you don't know God. That's exactly right. You can,
I know what I'm talking Before I ever learned the gospel, I
was a preacher, and moving up mighty fast. Involved in some
of the biggest religious goings-on. One time, the president of the
college where I was going recommended me to go to England with Hyman
Appleman and have charge of all his music and song-writing. I
didn't even know the gospel. But I didn't know I didn't know
the gospel. Some of the most successful religious
leaders of this day don't anymore know the gospel. That's right. They don't ever preach it. Never
preach it. And that's what I'm talking about.
You know the doctrines of religion, and you can be successful in
religion without having an experience of grace and no Christ. And the fourth struggle, and
I'll quit. Here's the final battle. Here's
where God's sword pierces your heart and kills you. Slave, the
slaying of the Lord. And that's His Lordship, His
Lordship in my life, or my ambition. Can't have both. No man can serve
two masters. Isn't that right? He's going
to be Lord. I mean, He's going to be Lord of all, or He's not
going to be Lord at all. This is the final battle. That's
when he slew Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Here was
this proud, haunted, arrogant, successful, religionist, riding
a white horse, followed by a whole band of men, the talk of the
religious world, the toast of the town, much learning, sat
at the feet of Gamaliel, and Almighty God unhorsed him and
put him in the dust. As Scott said, made his headquarters
in the dust. And he looked up and said, What will you have me do? Ask the Lord. What will you have
me do? Whatever it is, you're my Lord.