Psalm 27, the Psalm of David, who said in verse four, one thing,
one thing. My interest is not divided. My objective is singular. one
thing, just one thing. Here's a man who had a great
deal, who'd seen a great deal, who'd done quite a number of
things, but it all comes down to one thing. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I pursue, that
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may dwell in His presence,
in His favor, and in His love, that I might behold the glory,
beauty, the delight of the Lord that I might inquire or learn
in his temple. And verse eight, when thou saidest,
when the Lord said, you seek my face, seek ye my face, a person's character is revealed
in his face. The glory of God is revealed
in the face of Christ Jesus. You seek my face. Well, my heart said to thee,
Thy face, Lord, will I seek. I'll do it. I'll do it. A missionary said that he had
spent many years preaching to the Indians the gospel of Christ
Jesus, trying to get across to these savages what this thing of salvation
really is, what it means to know God. And he said one night he was
sitting in his tent reading the word of God, and the tent flap
was raised, and the chief stooped down and came in. And the chief
had his prize bow in his hand. And the missionary looked up, wondering what the chief had
on his mind. And the chief laid the bow down
in front of the missionary and backed off, rather proud of himself
and smiling, and he said to the missionary, Chief, give his bow
to Jesus. Well, the missionary didn't know
how he was going to handle that, but he looked at him and he said,
Chief, he said, the Lord Jesus doesn't want your bow. Jesus no want my bow, fine bow. No, no, he said. Doesn't have
any use for it. The chief picked it up and went
out the tent flap and was gone a good while. The missionary
just sat there trying to read and thinking about that incident. He hadn't sat there long till
the tent flap raised again. Here came the chief, had his
moccasins, fine, hand-crafted, hand-woven, deerskin moccasins,
treasure. Big smile on his face. He said,
as he laid them down in front of the missionaries, said, Chief,
give his moccasins to Jesus. Missionaries said, Chief, he said, I don't know
how to tell you this, but he said, the Lord's not interested
in your moccasins. I had moccasins. My treasure, my moccasins. They give up something, give
up my moccasins. I know, he said, but what use
does the Lord have for your moccasins? Well, he went through the same
procedure after I came back in this time. got his headdress,
all those beautiful feathers, each one meant something. A hunting trip, a victory, an election he won or something,
you know. Took off that headdress. And
it was a strain for him, an awful strain, parting with
that headdress. But he laid it down in finality
and backed off. Looked up to Missionary, said,
Chief, give his address to Jesus. Missionary knew he was going
to have to handle this carefully. That was it. That was the last
thing he had, the last thing he'd part with. Well, he said,
Chief, he said, I admire your generosity, and
I think I know what you're doing, but he said, this is not the
gospel. This is not it. I'm sorry. He
said, the Lord Jesus just does not have any interest in and
use for your headdress. I'm sorry, just take it and leave. That's all he had. He picked
it up. ducked out of the teepee, and he was gone this time for
a long time. And the missionary sat there
thinking, well, my ministry here is a failure. I just haven't been able to get
across to these people what it is to come to Christ, what it
is to know God, what it is to receive the Savior. It's a hard
work and a hard submission and a hard surrender. They still
don't see. They're still wrapped up in their
materialism. They still want to buy their
way into the favor of God. They still want to give something
in exchange for God's favor, God's reward. And he sat there
dejected and broken in spirit, wondering if it's time just to
quit and go home, when the tent flap opened again. And there
he stood, no moccasins, no bow. no headdress, big old tears on
those tanned, wrinkled, weathered cheeks. And he said, missionary, me give meself to Jesus. And the missionary said, that's
it, Chief. That's what I've been preaching.
That's what I've been preaching. Salvation. is a living union
with Christ Jesus, a heart union. And what I'm preaching tonight,
what I'm trying to get across in this message tonight, is totally
contrary to today's religion. It's as foreign to today's religion
and evangelism as anything can possibly be. The way I believe
and the way I'm thinking and the way I believe that God's
word directs our thinking is contrary to today's religion.
I mean almost all of it. We're the product of our preaching
today, whether we admit it or not. What men are in religious
circles is what they've heard. What men believe, whether you
admit it or not, what we believe What we believe about God and
about sin and about salvation, about repentance and faith and
heaven and hell and eternity and death and judgment and meeting
God, what we believe about these awesome subjects is a result
of what we've heard. And it's made impressions upon
our minds and hearts that we're not even aware of. Somehow the preaching of the
last hundred or hundred and fifty years, I don't know where it
started, maybe it started with Finney, maybe it started with
Dwight L. Moody, but it was carried on
by those men, Moody and Sunday and Finney and all the rest of
them, has given our whole generation, this whole United States of America
with its religious tradition, it has given us a false idea
of the living God. We've got a wrong idea of God.
got a whole total false concept of the thing called sin. Most
people don't have any idea whatsoever of what sin is. And what our Lord said to the
religious Pharisees of His day can be said over and over again
in this day. He looked at them and pointed
his finger in their faces, and they were graduates of universities
and seminaries and schools of theology. They were men who read
the scriptures, who prided themselves on their knowledge of the scriptures,
who kept the Sabbath day, who went to the temple, to the synagogue,
and went through all the motions and kept the holy days and feast
days. He said to them, you don't know
God. You just don't know God. In my generation, when I listen
to the leaders, to the leading religious voices, I listen to
them, and I know they don't know God. They have a God, and they
read from this book, but the Jewish leaders read from this
book. And they were scholars, and they were scribes, and they
were translators, and they were men who were schooled in the
traditions of this book. And they thought they called
on the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. They would not only
be killed for what they believed, but they would kill for what
they believed. But he said, you don't know God. That's the problem,
you don't know God. And the reason that I know that
my generation doesn't know God, there's several reasons. Number
one is this, there's no fear of God and no reverence for God
before their eyes. There's no fear of God in this
day. There's no reverence for God.
There's no awe and reverence in the presence of God. That's what the scripture says.
They do not fear God. In the Old Testament, worship
and the fear of the Lord were almost synonymous. It is said
Abraham feared the Lord. This was a man who was God's
friend. This was a man to whom God spoke
face to face as a man speaks to his friend, but he feared
God. He stood before the Lord in fear
and trembling. David feared the Lord. Jacob
was one who feared the Lord. But my generation does not fear
God, and the reason is they've never heard the God of the Bible.
They never heard of Him, and they never heard Him speak. And
you know that's true. The light way in which Preachers
today deal with the living God, the light and frivolous way in
which they approach God. The light and frivolous way in
which they consider their responsibilities. The very fact that men will compromise
what they know to be so when they get up to preach shows they
don't fear God. They fear men, but they do not
fear God. You could take John the Baptist
and throw him in prison, but he'd still preach the glory of
Christ. You could take the Apostle Paul
and put him in fetters and chains in a dungeon. The Word of God
was not bound. He said, I'll still preach what
I believe. You could lock Bunyan up in a prison on a bridge, but
he's still going to preach what he knows to be so. But this present
generation threatened to cut his salary, and he'll cut his
message. That's so. You know it's so, and I know
it's so. That shows they don't fear God.
They fear men, they fear the denomination, they fear the association,
they fear the directors, they fear the superintendents, they
fear the deacons, they fear the disapproval of other preachers.
But they don't fear God Almighty. They don't fear God. No fear of God. And today, my generation, most
everyone, jokes and makes light of spiritual matters. And I get
very angry about this. I don't understand. You've got
enough to joke about without joking about God. Preacher jokes are the favorite
jokes told today. Did you know that? And you know
why? Because people have lost all
respect for preachers. Preacher jokes, heaven jokes,
hell jokes, any kind of jokes. And let me tell you what, this
is true not only from the pulpit to the back row in the pews,
this is not only true of the people, it's true of the preachers.
Tries to be a comedian when it comes to spiritual matters. And I'll tell you why. Why preachers
do this and why people do that. They avoid getting serious about
spiritual matters lest they get in an argument. So they joke
their way through. You've got a bunch of preachers
together. I don't care if it's a ministerial association or
a ministerial dinner or whether it's some kind of conference
or something. There's going to be jibes and jokes and funny
sayings and all kind of, you know what they're avoiding? They're
avoiding any serious discussion. One reason, because they're empty
as a gun barrel. And the second reason is they
don't want to get in a fuss. They say there's two things you
don't discuss in this day and age, and that's religion and
politics. Both are pretty serious. Who's in the White House is pretty
serious. And who goes to hell is pretty
serious, I think. But we'll joke about it. But
we're not going to get serious. Not going to get serious. That
means they don't know God. A man who's not serious about
a thing is not interested in it. And you approach someone in this
generation, it doesn't matter whether in pulpit or pew or whatever,
it's like one of our members said to me one night, the pastor,
when he was a member of another church, the pastor came to his
home and he and his wife said, we've got some questions to ask
you about the scriptures. Oh, he said, let's don't get
into that tonight, let's play some cards. I don't want to fool with that. And this is where we've gotten
to. And you know this is so. And the preachers are just adding
to it every day. It keeps growing like a big mountain.
It just keeps growing. It's not getting smaller. It
keeps growing. That's the reason. I listen to these men around
here who preach. Charlie Payne and Bob Coffey
and Paul Mahan and David Akin, John Chapman, Tom, and the rest
of these fellows that preach around here. I listen to their
tapes, and these men are saying something. They are flat saying
something. They're preaching the Word of
God, but they're not getting much of a hearing. These men
are standing in the pulpit, having prepared and studied and worked
on messages and presented them to people, and there's a whole
hum, you know, out there in these little places, and a few people
come, and nobody hears anything. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell
you one of the reasons. There's not many lost people
today. A sinner's hard to find. Did
you know that? A sinner is a scarce article. I mean a real, genuine,
bona fide lost sinner is a scarce article. They're hard to find.
They're hard to find. I'd just almost take a ten to
one bet that you wouldn't find a whole lot of real sinners in
this congregation here, after all we've heard. I mean real
sinners. I mean candidates who are worthy
of God's wrath. And if they were to discover
tonight that they were lost and on the road to hell, they'd put
up a big argument. A big argument. They'd say, now
wait a minute, I'm a gracer. I believe the doctrines of grace.
Whoa, here, hold it! Hold it! I go to church every
Sunday, you know. We've got no defense, except
Christ. There's no defense. God is just
when He condemns. He's clear when He charges. We've got no defense. Let every
mouth be stopped. Stop! Right there. Stop it! And
all the world becomes quite guilty before God. That's a hard thing
to find, is a guilty man. And when you find one, you'll
find one seeking the Lord. Get out of his way, because he's
going to find the Lord. Don't lie to him. He'll jump
on you, because he wants the truth. But my generation doesn't
want the truth. They love to be deceived. They
love to have it so. They like deception. They feed
on it and feast on it, because it's their nature. The people
today make a decision. They make a decision. Sure, I'm
a Christian. I made my decision. I made it
years ago. I got fixed up. I've made my
decision. I've made my profession. I've
taken care of my religious obligation, and I'm going on with matters
of living in this present world. I've taken care of this thing.
It's back yonder. It's out of my mind, out of sight,
out of mind. I've fixed it up with God, and
I'm saved. Don't try to shake my foundation. That's what a dear friend of
mine said. Don't shake my foundation. You can't shake Christ. He's
unshakable. Now, your foundation can be shaken,
but He can't be shaken. He's a rock. He's a stone. He's
a triad stone. God laid Him. You didn't lay
Him. God did. You can't shake Him. He's immovable,
unshakable. I made a decision for Jesus when
I was young. That was a long time ago, wasn't
it? Well, I'm saved, I just grant you this, that people who have
not worshipped God anywhere or any way today or this week, haven't
worshipped God any day or any way, haven't taken down the scriptures
and read them and fall on their knees and cried to God, men and
women who haven't made any effort whatsoever to seek the face of
God this whole week will look at you and say, sure, I'm saved,
I just drifted away. I've heard that so many times.
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm alright. I'm sane. I've just, you know,
got a little indifference. I've got a little cold. Got a
little careless about my church attendance, but I'm alright.
I've just sort of drifted away. I've made my peace with God.
Everything's alright. I'm not afraid to die. I've made
my peace with God. Where is this union with Christ?
Where is this heart that beats with the heart of God? Where
is this father-son relationship? Where is this I crown to him
and he speaks to me? Where is this? Where is this
discipleship that our Lord talks about? I didn't say it, Christ
did. He said, if you're not willing
to forsake father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, and me,
you can't be my disciple. There's no place for you in my
circle. No place for you. If you put
your hand to the plow and look back, there's no place for you.
There is in religion, but not in my kingdom. There's plenty
of places for you in the pulpit. There's places for you in the
deacon's office. There's places for you in the
classroom. There's places for you in man's religion anywhere
according to your gifts and gift of gab and fluent speech and
the money you give. Plenty of places for you. Churches
that roll out the red carpet for you just to drop in once
in a while and favor them with your colossal presence. But there
ain't no room for you in my kingdom. That's what he said. Ain't no
room for you. Christ is all and in all, but
he has no part with you. You have no part in this matter.
You have no part. And I think it's only fair to
tell this generation that their preachers, their hirelings, they
hired them. They went out and got them. They
set up their schools to train them. Now, you've got to be a
personality, and you've got to be a a good speaker, and you've
got to be a person that can get along with people, and you've
got to be a pacifier, and you've got to be a counselor, and you've
got to be all this different thing. But I tell you what you
need to be is a prophet. That's all you need to be. But
they've hired them, and these preachers have pacified them,
and you're saved. You're saved. You're just a carnal
Christian. The lady wrote to us last week
to get a tape. She gave an illustration about
a friend of hers who had been praying for her father. Oh, I
forget how many years. A long time. Praying for her
father years and years and years. He had no interest in the Word.
Isn't that correct? No interest in the Bible. No
interest in God. And not long ago she was talking
to him and he said, Oh, I'm saved. He said, I made a profession
back there when I was a young fellow. I'm saved. I'm all right. And she told her friend, said,
maybe I've been praying wrong. Maybe he is saved. He's just
a carnal Christian. Maybe he's just drifted. See
now, she's brainwashed. The preachers, the hirelings,
the hucksters of today, Nobody's lost. Nobody's under the judgment
and wrath of God. Everybody somehow is saved. Everybody
somehow is going to heaven. Everybody is going to heaven. Morris Montgomery heard me give
an illustration one time. I made this statement. A funeral
director in this area here said to me one time, he said, well,
he said, everybody's saved. He's just joking, you know. He
said, I never bury lost people. He said, everybody that comes
in here in the box is on his way to heaven. Everybody. He said, they all say. That's
what they say. And Maurice thought he'd give
that a try. So he was in a funeral recently. He told me this last
week. He said, I was in a funeral recently. I had two funeral directors
there. And he said, I looked at those
two funeral directors, and one of them I knew real well. And
I said to him, I said, George, I have a preacher friend in Ashland,
Kentucky that says a funeral director told him that he never
had buried a lost man. Have you? The funeral director looked at him
and said, not according to the preachers. Not according to the preachers.
They all get in some way. They'll make a way somehow. He
said, that's just so. Today, most people label under
the impression, now listen to me, I'm telling you the truth,
I've listened to this thing and thought about it and weighed
it, and it scares me to death. Because eternity's long, death
is sure. Death is sure, I'm going to die. It's dawned on me in the last
few years that I'm going to die. Did you know that? that suddenly
become real to me as I bury so many of my friends from this
congregation, people who've been with me most of my life, people
who are so close to me, and I'm watching them die. And it suddenly
dawned on me, I'm going to die. And that before long. And death is real, and judgment
is sure, and eternity is long, long. It's too long to play with
it. It's too long to take anything
for granted, anything for granted. It's too long to hold on to tradition
and ignore truth. It's too long to be embarrassed
to seek the Lord. It's just too long. And we have
most people kind of laboring under the impression that God
is sort of always there. Did you know that? God's always
there. You believe that? Why go open
the door? If you're a lost man and in your
darkness and in your sin, you open the door, there's God. He's
standing out there waiting. He never moves, He's just always
out there waiting. He's still there. Preacher said He's out
there. Ain't no handle on the door.
Just check and see if you still are, God. I'm going to get saved one of
these days. You believe that? I don't believe that. I don't
believe God's standing around waiting on you to get saved.
I don't believe God's standing around waiting on you to accept
Jesus. I can't believe that. I don't believe he's that important.
You are to you. You are to your wife because
she don't want to be a winner. And you might be to the man you
work for, but he could find somebody worth cheaper. But you're not
that important to God. No, you're not. Your whole family
ain't. God's just standing out there
waiting on you to accept Jesus or get religion. We have, we
have, this generation has God waiting on men. The Bible has
men waiting on God. There's a lot of difference in
that now. You find anywhere where God waits on anybody in here.
But I find over and over again, wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. I hear it all the time. Wait
on the Lord. It may be He'll show mercy. That's what David
said. Was it Joab pulled out his sword
and he said, let me kill that so-and-so. And David said, don't
do that. It may be that the Lord will bless me because of that.
Maybe. I don't know. Barnard got in all kind of trouble
down at the park. All kind of trouble. The Baptist
of this town rose up in arms. And you know what he said? You
wouldn't believe it. But you know what he said? I
was there sitting on the platform, 1951, down at City Park. Led
to singing for three weeks while he prayed. Every night nearly
he'd say this. At the end of his message, every
night he'd say this. He'd say, now friend, I don't
know whether God will save you or not, but you better seek Him. I don't know whether God will
save you or not, I just don't know. I can't guarantee you God
will save you, but I can guarantee you one thing, if you're saved,
He'll do it. And boy, they got mad. You ought
not say that. You ought not say that. I guarantee you if a man seeks
the Lord, he'll say, can you really? Can you guarantee God
will save a man? We have God pleading with men
instead of men pleading with God. We preachers have made a
beggar out of God Almighty. We've made a beggar out of the
King. He's not a beggar. One day our
Lord came down from the mountain, and you follow His journey in
that word, and you won't find Him pleading with men. You'll
find men pleading with Him. You'll find the Canaanite woman
who comes to Him, and she said, Have mercy upon me, Lord, and
He answered her, not a word. And she continued to cry. And
the disciple said, send her away. She's crying after us now. He
said, I'm only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
She said, Lord, have mercy. She wouldn't quit. She wouldn't
leave. And he said, it's not right to give the children's
bread to dogs. She said, that's right too. But
she said, I'm your dog. You're the master. And dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Our Lord said,
woman, great is thy faith. I haven't found faith like that
in all of Israel, be it unto you as you desire. We have God pleading with me
instead of men pleading with God. Our Lord came down from
the mountain one day, and there was a leper, a scroungy, crusty,
scaly leper, unclean, who wore his whole body and face covered,
except for the eyes and And he'd go around hollering, unclean,
unclean, unclean. Nobody come near him, unclean.
But when he saw the Lord, he came and fell at his feet, crawled
to his feet, lay there at his feet. And he looked up in his
distress and in his living death and in his wretched condition,
and he said, Lord, O Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. You can, if you will. You hear about talking like that
today? I can't find any lepers to begin with. And when I do
find them, they're not at Christ's feet. David Atkins preached over
at Gary Shepherd's church, I listened to the tape, and he said this,
he said, it's bad, it's bad to be a sinner. But it's worse to
be a sinner and not know it. That's bad. And that's the shape
my generation's in. It's bad to be naked. Boy, it's
bad to be naked before a holy God, but it's worse to be naked
and think you're clothed. That's worse. That's awful. It's bad to have the cancer of
sin eating at your soul and destroying it, but it's bad. It's worse.
to have the cancer of sin eaten on your soul and think you're
well. That is bad, but that's my generation. I'm all right.
I'm all right. Who told you it's all right?
Who told you it's all right? Where'd you find out it's all
right? I made it up. Don't worry about me. I wish you would. Old David said, it's bad to be
on the road to hell. It's bad to be on the road to
hell. I'd hate to be on the road to
hell. That's bad enough. But to be on the road to hell
and think you're on the road to heaven, that's worse. That's
worse, isn't it? It's bad not to know God. That's
awful not to know God. To be without hope, without help,
without strength, without God in this world, not to know God,
that's bad. But you know what's worse? Not to know God and think you
do. That's a whole lot worse, to have you an idol. That's a
whole lot worse. I'll tell you another thing we
have in this day. We've got the impression that God's out there.
Just outside the door. They've got a song. He's just
outside the door. No, He's not. You're outside
the door. He's not just outside the door.
He's on the throne. He's the King. This is His show
and He's running it. And I want to have a part of
it. In it and of it. I want desperately, as Paul said,
to win Christ and be found in Him. I want to know God and know
Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection. I'm not satisfied
just to have religion and say a few pretty words and do a few
pretty deeds, I want to know the living God. And I'll tell
you, there are folks sitting right here tonight, and there
are folks I preach to all the time. And I'm going to throw
this your way, and you think a whole lot about it. You think
a whole lot about it. This is commonly accepted in
our day. We have men and women who have
been exposed again and again and again to what we call the
gospel. They've been exposed to it. They've
been exposed to it through preaching, through the printed page and
several other ways, through the Bible, through the witness of
friends. They've heard and been exposed
to something about Jesus Christ. Maybe a great deal. Maybe a great
deal. And they haven't closed with
Christ, they haven't embraced Christ, they haven't expressed
a saving interest in Christ, they haven't laid at his feet
as a repentant believing sinner. And yet they're confident, they're
quite confident, that they've got plenty of time. That's right,
they're quite confident. They're quite confident that
heaven waits to rejoice at their acceptance of Jesus. They're
quite confident that though they've heard the gospel again and again
and again, and though they've listened to it again and again
and again, they're still not decided for Jesus, but someday
they will. Someday they will. Someday this
thing's going to get all straightened out, and when they decide, God's
going to be standing right there waiting. What does this mean? Listen. God said, I have called, and
you have refused. I've stretched out my hand, and
you ignored it." Proverbs 124. You set it nought, my counsel.
You just pushed it aside. And you wouldn't have my reproof. Now, I will laugh at your calamity. When your calamity comes, when
your trouble comes, I'm going to laugh at you, God said. I'm
going to laugh at you. I'm going to mock you. When your
fear comes, when fear grips your soul, when fear lays hold of
you, when the death rattles in your throat, and when you're
facing death and the doctor says you're not going to make it,
God says, I'm going to laugh at you and mock you when you
really get scared. Listen, when your fear cometh
as desolation and when your destruction comes as a whirlwind, When distress
and anguish comes upon you, distress and anguish grips your soul,
you're going to call on Me. And every preacher I know will
be right there to give you assurance. Well, he called on God, and I
believe he's all right, Mama. I heard him call on God. It says,
Whosoever shall call on them Lord shall be saved. I heard
him call on God. I heard him say, Lord, Lord,
have mercy. God said, though, but you're going to call on me,
and I'm not going to answer. I will not answer. That's what
God said. I know what the preacher said,
but this is what God said. I'm not going to answer you.
You're going to seek me, you're going to seek me, but you're
not going to find me. That's what it says right there.
Point one, you hated knowledge. Why? You didn't choose the fear
of the Lord when you had your faculties and your knowledge
and your understanding and your youth. You didn't fear God. You
didn't choose the knowledge of God. You chose materialism. You
chose business world. You chose the financial world.
You chose the educational world. You chose the social world. You
chose all these. That's what you chose. You chose
it and you're stuck with it. Therefore, eat the fruit of your
way. There it is, verse 31. Therefore
eat the fruit of your way. That's what you chose. You planted
that tree, eat it. Now that just does not sound
like to me that Almighty God is sitting around waiting on
a bunch of folks to decide whether or not they're going to let Him
into their hearts. I've looked through the Bible over and over
again. I've asked other preachers to
do this. And they have, and almost invariably, they'll tell me,
I can't find it. What is it you're talking about?
I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, dealing
with the same fellow over and over and over and over and over
again, trying to get him to believe the gospel. I can't find that
in here anywhere. I find God coming to Zacchaeus
one time. I find him passing the blind
Bartimaeus one time. I find him hanging on the cross
beside that thief, one time. I find Paul going to Lydia, one
time. I find him going to Philippian
jailer, one time. I find the eunuch riding down
and Philip getting in the shack, one time. You go all the way
through this. And when these people heard the
gospel, they said, that's it. I'll bow down. I'll bow down. And all of them came from different
backgrounds. All of them came from different
traditions and different customs. And none of them said, well,
I just can't afford to leave the old mother church. That's
where mama and grandmama and all of them, you know, labored
and worked and laid the bricks and put up the... No, this place
was the son of God. But the son of God that's preached
in this day, not worthy of much consideration. You can compare
him with grandma's church. But I'm telling you, when you
meet the living God, when you meet the Christ who has the demands
on a man's soul, it's committal or condemnation. He said today
is the day of salvation. Now is accepted time. When you
hear it, you better believe it. Because you may not hear it again. What's that say over there in
2 Thessalonians? Let's see if we can find it. 2 Thessalonians. Chapter 2, you
listen to this. 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2, there
it is right there. He said, in 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2,
talking about that wicked one, Satan, Antichrist, verse 9, says,
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with power
and signs and lying wonders, lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth." He didn't
say they didn't ever hear the truth. He said they didn't love
it. They didn't love it that they might be saved. They didn't
love it. They didn't embrace it. They
didn't receive it with affection that they might be saved. And
for this cause, they didn't quit religion. God will send them
strong delusions, and they'll believe a lie. Anything anybody
tells them in the name of Jesus, they believe it. And they might
be damned for believing that lie. Who sent them strong delusions? God did. Why did He do that?
They hated knowledge. They didn't love the truth. They
wouldn't receive it. They wouldn't believe it. Today is the day of salvation.
There's no debate. There's no argument. Christ is
King. God has declared it. Not a question
of if you'll acknowledge Him as Lord. It's when will you acknowledge
Him. Will you do it now or will you
be forced to do it? Let me ask you four, five, or
six questions. Just think on these questions
a little bit. Just briefly. Is this thing of eternal life,
is it an offer or is it a gift? Is it something God's put on
a shelf and the passing world is going by with all their millions
of people and God is over there waving, trying to get somebody's
attention, saying, hey, here's life, will you take it? Is it
an offer or is it a gift? Bible says it's a gift. Gift
of God's eternal life. Even faith's a gift of God. Even
the goodness of God leads men to repentance. That's a gift.
And that's the reason I'm saying since it's a gift, folks ought
to seek the Lord. I'll seek the Lord. That's what
David said, one thing I desire and that will I seek after. Lord,
you said seek my faith, that's what I'm in the business of doing,
seeking your faith. Not seeking assurance, I'm seeking
Christ. Here's the second question, is
salvation by chance? Or is it by divine choice? Bible says it's by choice. He
had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Salvation is not by chance. Whether or not Christ will have
a bride is not left to chance. Whether or not heaven will be
populated by a people like Christ, that's not left to chance. That's
all been decided and decreed by the will of the Heavenly Father.
And I want to be a part of it. That's what I'm saying. I'm going
to seek it. I want to sing in that heavenly
choir. There's going to be one. I want to live in that heavenly
place. There is some people who are
going to live there. I want to live there. There's
going to be some people like Christ. I want to be one of them.
And I'm not going to leave it up to chance. I'm going to cry.
I'm going to be like Jacob. I'm not going to let you go.
You bless me. I'm going to seek the Lord. I'm going to make it
my business to find out what this book says about God Almighty
and salvation. I'm not going to defend the Baptists
or the Methodists, or I'm not going to keep them offending
either one. They just don't make a whole lot of difference. It's
Christ. Is salvation by the will of man
or by the will of God? Whose will? We're saved by somebody's
will. Well, the Bible says it's by
the will of God. Of his own will begat he us.
We're born, born into the kingdom of God, not of the will of man,
not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God. It's
not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, it's of God
that showeth mercy. So I'm going to him. I'm going
to seek him. I'm going to camp on his doorstep
until he does something for me. How about you doing that? That's
what I'm saying. Salvation by the will of God. I'm not trying
to get you to do anything for God. There's not anything you
can do for God. You can't add anything to Him
or take anything away from Him. Your going to heaven won't add
anything to His glory, and your going to hell won't take anything
away from His mercy. No, it won't. by the will of God. Is salvation, fourthly, is salvation
a one-time experience? That's what everybody tells me.
Well, I was saved back then. I got saved. I hope I don't have
to hear that one more time, that somebody got saved. We're being
saved. You didn't got saved. You might
have got saved out of the creek from drowning. But the Bible
says we have been saved, we are being saved, and our salvation
is nearer than when we bleed, I'm telling you the truth. Salvation,
is it a one-time experience? Or is salvation a lifetime union? This is the reason so many people
are at liberty not to worship God. This is the reason so many
people are at liberty to deny their responsibilities as believers. This is the reason so many people
take liberty with the things of God, because they got saved. And the preacher told them, if
you ever got saved, you couldn't be lost. And they're counting on that.
But salvation is not an isolated experience. See, repentance is
not an isolated experience. Repentance is not a one-time
shot. Repentance is a state of being.
I have repented, I am repenting, I shall repent, or I've never
repented. Faith is a state of being. I am believing. If I stop
believing, I never believed. I love Christ. I am loving Christ. I will love Him more. If I don't
love Him more, I never loved Him. Is that right? That's what
Scripture says. Whose house we are, if we continue. If we continue. And the Baptists,
it started back yonder with walking to the front. That's where it
started. It started with people walking
to the front and settling the matter. I'm settling the matter.
Kind of like a transaction down here on earth, and heaven's supposed
to comply with that. The preacher sticks out his hand
in the name of God, and you shake it, and that's supposed to be
an agreement between you and heaven, but heaven's not in on
it. Everybody that's doing anything about this is down here, and
the only one really concerned about this thing is there. So
the place to settle this contract or compact or agreement or testimony
or profession is not down here, but up there. That's what's got to be settled
between you and God. You just can't, you and Brother
Tom Harding can't settle this thing now. Somehow Christ's got to be in
on it. And since He's the only mediator between men and God,
it'd be a good idea for you to let me get out of it and let
Him get in on it, wouldn't it? But everybody barbies me because
I don't give an invitation. The gospel ain't no invitation,
it's a command. An altar calls, not salvation.
I tell you, every time you get people down here, you're getting
them in trouble is what you're doing. They're trying to settle
heavenly matters on earth. They're trying to draw up contracts
with God by drawing one up with a preacher. And it won't work,
Bob, it just won't work. God's not in on it. And the whole
shooting match, Billy Graham and Falwell and all the rest
of them with their old same six and seven, every head bowed,
every eye closed, that is except the personal workers who are
looking around who are going to pounce on you as soon as they
see your hand. Every head bowed, every eye closed.
And you, God bless you, I see that here. And what difference
does it make whether you see it or not? You're not in on this. That man
needn't raise his hand in your presence, or both hands, or walk
down the aisle. You can't do anything for him.
You can't forgive his sins. You can't write his name in the
book of life. You can't save him. Leave him alone. Preach
the gospel to him, and maybe he'll look to God. Maybe he'll
go home and fall on his face and say, God have mercy on me. And he might hear from the Lord.
And I'll tell you this, if and when he does, You've got your rock. If and
when he does, you've got your believer on your hands. That's right. If and when he
does, you've got your gracious, regenerated, renewed Son of God
that will tackle the forces of hell with you, with a switch,
because he believes God. That's right. I've just been
amazed at how good a job God does when he saves sinners. and
how sorry a job my friends do if converts don't last. Next question. Am I regenerated
because I believe or do I believe because I'm regenerated? Think about it now. That's what
the average preacher says. You're born again when you believe.
Is that right? You're born again because you
believe? How did you believe before you was born? How'd you see before you had
eyes? How'd you hear before you had ears? Men aren't regenerated because
they believe. They believe because they're
regenerated by the power of God's Spirit. That's so now. I told
you it's against everything anybody's saying. It's totally... You folks
that come here and listen to this, don't you tell anybody
what you believe. They'll laugh at you. But it's so. In our effort, here's
what's happening, in our effort to get people saved and on their
road to heaven as quickly as possible, quickly as possible,
without any embarrassment. Now, we don't want to embarrass
you. Never head bowed, never eye-clobed. We don't want to
embarrass anybody. We want it without embarrassment.
We can't stand for anybody to get under conviction. If they
see a tear, wipe it away. Effortlessly. Just a quick decision. What happened? What happened
to the sinner seeking the Lord? What happened to that? Listen
to the scripture, and I'll quit. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. Blessed are they that keep His
testimonies and seek Him with their whole heart. That scripture
you read tonight in Ezra, another scripture from there, the hand
of the Lord is upon them that seek Him. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found. Call ye upon him while he's near." I found several things here I'll
give you just briefly in closing. Those who seek the Lord, David
said, seek Him in truth. Truth. He said, David wrote this
in Psalm 145, 18. Listen to it. Psalm 145, 18.
They seek the Lord in truth. in truth. Psalm 145 verse 18
says here, the Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him. To them
that call upon him in truth. In truth. And then Jeremiah said, those
who seek the Lord seek him with the heart. You shall seek me
and find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's
my objective. And then the prophet in Chronicles said
this, those that seek the Lord, seek Him continually. 1 Chronicles,
or 1 Chronicles 16, 10, 11. Continually. A lot of people
get religion on weekends, and some on holidays, and some in
special services, and some when they get sick, and some when
someone dies. But those that seek the Lord
in truth seek Him continually. And those that seek the Lord,
Isaiah said, seek him humbly, remembering the pit from which
they were digged. And David said in our text, those
that seek the Lord, seek him with a single purpose, one thing
have I desired and that will I seek after, that I may abide
in the house of the Lord. And those that seek the Lord
and find him, seek him while he may be found. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, Isaiah 55. And then, last of all, and certainly
the most important statement of all, those who seek the Lord intelligently
seek him in Christ. Because our Lord Jesus said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father
but by me, in Christ. This is the reason the apostles
preached Christ, preached Christ, preached Christ, preached Christ.
Christ is the fountain of all grace. He's the source of all
mercy. He's the one foundation. Christ
in you, that's the hope of glory. Set your affections on Christ.
Seek Him. Our Father, anoint Your Word,
O God, in this day. Send forth somebody to disturb
us, to shake us. Men are asleep in Zion, indifferent,
careless, away from the living God, and
know it not. We pray to you to know it's somebody's
heart and somebody's lips in our day. Send them forth like
you sent John the Baptist, Elijah of old. And do not pass us by, but like
our brother said tonight, let us hear thee speak through thy
word in power to our hearts. Oh, that we may win Christ and
be found in him. Lord, lead us to seek thee. and seeking Thee to find Thee,
and finding Thee to love Thee, and loving Thee to adore and
worship Thee all the days of our lives. We pray for Christ's
sake. Amen.