I would say that the greatest and the most awesome
word in the Bible is God. David said, I will extol thee,
O my God. Again, he said, the beginning
of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Come, he said, magnify
the Lord with me, magnify his name. Let us exalt his name together,
for holy and reverent is his name. For that we might have a fear
of the Lord. a respect and an awesome reverence
for the name of God. The Lord will not hold him guiltless
but taketh his name in vain. We might discourage the flippant
and careless and over-familiar use of the word God. The Lord God is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before
him. Then I would say that the blackest,
the most terrible word in the Bible, quite the opposite. The grandest,
most awesome word is God and the blackest Most hated, most
terrible word is sin. By one man, sin entered this
world. And death by sin. All the death
and disease and darkness and depravity, corruption, is all
because of that one thing, sin. There's nothing wrong with God's
world except for sin. Exactly right. When God removes
sin from it, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,
which was brought about by sin. It'll be a perfect world. Your
sins have separated you and your God. All this sin that comes
short of the glory of God, the soul that sinned, it shall surely
die. Oh, my sins, David said, are
ever before me. I hate them. And I would say the saddest word,
really the heart-rending, the heart-rending word, the saddest
word. What would you say the saddest
word in the Bible is? Well, I would say it's the word
depart. He said, in that day, many shall
say unto me, Lord, we preached in your name and attended church
Cast out devils and built all these wonderful things in your
name. Depart. Depart from me. I never knew you. Can you think
of anything more horrible? Can you think of anything more
terrible than to stand before the living God in the last day? You know, you and I, we count
on another day. I don't care what it is. We count
on another day. There'll be another day. There'll
be another day. We're just tuned that way. We're programmed that way. Put
it off. There'll be another day. There
always is, isn't it? Well, this is that last day at
the judgment to stand before God and hear him once for all
finally to say, And then I would say probably
the most precious, sweetest word in all the Bible is the word
Jesus Christ our Lord. To you that believe, I have a
sign in there in my study, one of my children gave me. The sign says, to you that believe,
he is precious. And none other name unto heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved." Jesus, oh, how sweet
the name. Jesus, every day the same. Jesus,
let all saints proclaim his wonderful name. Charles Spurgeon wrote
this when he was only 18 years of age. I think this is a masterpiece.
Not just because he was 18, but if he'd been 80 when he wrote,
he'd be a masterpiece, or 800. What the hand is to the lute, what breath is to the flute,
what is fragrance to the smell, what the spring is to the whale,
what the flower is to the bee, that's Jesus Christ to me. what
the mother is to the child, what the compass is in pathless wild,
what the oar is to trouble wave, what is ransom to the slave,
what is water to the sea, that's Jesus Christ to thee. Everything. That's the sweetest word. To
you that believe, precious. And he gets, as Mike said in
his prayer, a little sweeter every day, doesn't he? The name
of Christ, a little more precious. How we love thee, Jesus, Christ
our Lord. Well, one other word, I suppose
the happiest, happiest, most joyful word in the Bible is the
word saved. Saved. And I'm not talking about
Somebody comes in from Sunday school and says, I saved today. Or we have a big revival meeting
and get everybody down there and say, well, we had a hundred
saved today. I'm talking about saved. I'm
talking about happy as the man whom thou choosest and causest
to approach unto thee. I'm talking about happy as the
man to whom God will not charge sin. I'm talking about blessed
are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God. I'm talking
about blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. I'm
talking about blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled. I'm talking about saved. God
saved. Holy Spirit saved. By grace saved. Because that means to be forgiven. That means to be forgiven. in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, to be
saved. That means to have peace with
God, not a concocted peace, not a personally made peace, not
a truce, but peace. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace. And he made peace by the blood
of his cross. That's the peace I'm talking
about, that peace that he made by a generous and perfect offering
To be saved is to be free, free from bondage, free from the curse
of the law, free from the law, O happy condition. Jesus has
died and there is remission, and Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. To be saved is
to be free from the penalty of sin. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ. Who is he that condemneth? Christ is died, yea, rather is
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes
intercession for us. To be saved is to have eternal
life. To be saved is to be a son of
God, and being a son of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ. No, my friends, to be saved is
no idle religious profession. To be saved is no meaningless
denominational affiliation. To be saved is no mere moral
reformation. To be saved is no mere doctrinal
position. To be saved is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath
sent. Now if you will turn to 1 Peter
chapter 4. There are four statements in
regard to being saved, four statements made in this Word that I want
to deal with this morning. I know there are many of them,
many of them. It's an inexhaustible silo. It's an inexhaustible seat, the
treasure of the Word of God. We don't even begin to commence
to get started. to reveal the treasures and riches
of the world. It's like the old lady in Ireland,
you know, had been brought up in that little old grass-roof
house and little bitty farm and had to skimp and save all of
her life, never had anything, never had anything. Never had
enough of anything, not enough salt or lard or flour or cornmeal
or anything. Just bare, existed on bare necessities. Somebody took her over to the
seashore. She had never been out of her
town, away from her father. Took her to the seashore and
stood and looked out over that Atlantic Ocean. Never seen it
before. And she looked as far as her
eyes could see with water, water. And her response was this, I'm
so glad to see something that there's plenty of. And somebody standing behind
her said, yes, and granny, you're just looking at the top of it. Just the top of it. And that's
the grace of God. That's the mercy of our God.
That's the riches of His Word. That's the treasures of His grace.
Abundance. Indescribable, inexhaustible
abundance. I'm just playing around ages,
Bob, I know it. We know in part, we preach in
part. But that which is perfect has
come. Think why we're going to be awed and amazed at the overflowing
grace of God. Our Lord said, as this offends
you, wait till you see the Son of Man lifted up where he was
before. Whew! We're going to have to
have glorified bodies, Charlie, to take it. We're going to have
to have a glorified mind to even look upon it. It's going to have
to be done with all of this world and every attachment and sin,
even to comprehend it. But here are the four statements,
saved with difficulty, saved by failure, saved by hope,
and saved by losing. The first one is found in 1 Peter
4, 18. Will you look at that? 1 Peter
4, 18. Verse 17, 1 Peter 4 says, For
the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
And if it first begin at us, where shall the end be of them
that obey not the gospel of God? If the righteous scarcely be
saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner, the wicked appear,
if the righteous scarcely be saved? What does that word scarcely
mean? Well, it doesn't mean barely
saved. It doesn't mean if the right, that's what we usually
think of that, boy, we scarcely missed that train. No, it doesn't
mean by the hair of your head or the skin of your teeth, because
we're going to enter glory triumphantly. Psalm 24 said, Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, and be ye lift up your everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. And when the King of glory comes
in, we're coming in. See, the believer's not scarcely
saved in the sense that he's barely saved, just barely saved. And then it doesn't mean there's
any uncertainty about his salvation. That's not what it means at all.
We're complete in Christ. If you're in Christ, you're complete.
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we're
complete in Christ. Well, what does it mean? Mark
it down in your Bible. The word here is difficulty.
It's difficulty. If the righteous be saved with
difficulty. Difficult. This thing of salvation
is no easy matter. It's no easy matter. If the righteous, though they're
not righteous in themselves, they're righteous in Christ,
they're righteous in God. But if they, if you right here,
these people right here, us, me, you, anybody, if Paul, Peter,
James, and John are saved with difficulty, difficulty, where
shall the self-righteous, unbelieving, religionist, salvation by word,
where are these folks coming in? If these people whom God
himself, by the work and power of his Son, through the person
and work of his Beloved, by the power of his Spirit, through
the perfect obedience of Christ and the death of Christ on the
cross, with difficulty save us." What do you mean difficulty?
Where's the difficulty? The difficulty lay with God. Brethren, in order for God to...
This is what Job kept asking, how can man be just with God?
How can he be clean that's born of a woman? The moon it shineth
not, the stars are not clean in God's sight. How much more
abominable and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water?
How can God be just and justify the ungodly? How can God be true
to his attributes and his holiness and take us to glory? That's
difficult. People that talk about salvation
being easy and simple, It was easy for me, it's a gift. But
my friends, it's the most profound mystery in heaven and earth.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified by the Spirit, seen of the angels, believed all in
the world, preached to the Gentiles. That's a mystery. Every attribute, every law, every
requirement of God's holiness must be perfectly met. God will
be God in your salvation or God will be God in your damnation,
but God will be God. That's what I'm talking about.
The difficulty lay with God. And Almighty God, in order to
solve this difficulty and to meet this need, gave his only
begotten Son. That's why Christ came. That's
why Christ came. God's not trying to do anything. He's doing what he set out to
do. I hear these preachers forever saying, now you do this, this
is what God wants you to do. You're going to do what God wants
you to do. We don't have a little silly,
powerless God sitting up there wanting things that he can't
bring to pass, he said, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my
pleasure. The Lord doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. But this thing of redeeming sinners,
it was a difficult thing. It took the death of God's Son
to satisfy every attribute of God. I'll tell you another thing,
the difficulty lay with us. What about us, our lack of will?
Our Lord said, you will not come to me. You will not. How are you going to get that
sinner to come to Christ? Willingly, when he won't. Lovingly,
when he hates Him. Permanently, when he's so changeable.
That's pretty difficult. All these preachers are trying
to do it. They promise them heaven, they promise them two cars and
the gods, they promise them a well body, they promise them a new
home, they promise them financial security, they promise them all
these things, trying to get that rebel to love a God he hates,
to come to Christ that he despises. Men love darkness rather than
light. How are they going to love light?
We're lovers of self more than lovers of God. To be saved, you've
got to be a lover of God more than self. Is that correct? Christ
said, if you love father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife,
your own life more than you can be, you might as well. I have come in my Father's name,
and you receive me not. Let another come in his name,
and him you will receive. How are you going to turn all
that around? It's no mere decision. It's no mere profession. It's
no mere walking around accepting Jesus. It's a regenerating work
of God. It's a new birth. It's passing
from death to life. It's Christ being formed in you. And that's what this thing, if
the righteous, if the redeemed, if the believers scarcely, with
difficulty, with all the powers of heaven, arrayed against the
forces of hell, if even the power of the Spirit of God must raise
the dead, quicken the dead, make an enemy a friend. And that takes a new birth. It
takes a miracle of grace. It takes a miracle of God. If
any man be in Christ, he is not the same man revitalized, he's
a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he's
not the same man with a different doctrine, he's a new creature.
He's not the same man with a different denomination, he's a new creature,
created in Christ Jesus. That's true. Difficulty. I'm not preaching a little easy-believe-ism,
and I don't apologize for not preaching it. It can't get the
job done. That little easy believism, that
little pressing down the aisle and joining the church and getting
baptized and giving you tithes and turning over a new leaf,
won't satisfy God's love. It won't honor God's holy justice. It won't give the sinner a heart
of flesh. It won't make him love what he
hates and hates what he loves. God literally must raise the
Lazarus from the dead. That's difficult. They said,
well, who can be saved? He said, with men, it's impossible. That's how difficult it is. But
with God, it's possible, because all things are possible. All right? Secondly, turn to
Luke 7. Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7, verse 50. Luke 7, 50. And he said to the
woman, Thy faith hath saved thee. Thy faith hath saved thee. Brother Mann, you're just talking
about God did it. By His power, God did it. By
His will, God did it. Yeah, but do you remember I said
this? I said, that man who hates God
will love Him. And that man who won't come will
come in the day of His power. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of thy power. And our Lord was out there preaching
one day, and there was a woman in the group that heard Him.
And she had ears to hear. She really heard Him. The rest
of them just heard words. She heard him. And then some
fellow named Simon invited him to his house to eat with him,
and so this woman overheard it. And when the Lord left to go
to Simon's house, she went to her house. And she got a rich
treasure, all she had. She got an alabaster box of precious
ointment. It was so valuable in those days. And she tucked it under her arm
and she started to go to that place where she knew he was eating
dinner. Well, the religious leaders were
all up here in the chairs of honor and it was a special place
and the people sitting around the walls listening to them talk
and the guests were out here around a place eating, they reclined
to eat. They reclined on cushions and
pillars with their feet out, and the door opened, and this
woman came in, because she was known, well-known in the town. These Pharisees knew her and
the people knew her, and she came in and And she didn't look
around. Her eyes were focused in one
place. She was set on one person. Her eyes were on him, Christ
Jesus. She had that little box of alabaster. And she came walking
through that crowd. And I just imagine you could
have heard a pin drop because of who she was, a noted sinner. And she came down and knelt at
his feet and she began to sob all you could hear in that In
that hall were her sobs. You've heard people cry. Sob. Sob. The tears streamed down
her face and she kissed his feet. His feet were wet with her kisses
and her tears. And he never moved. He lay there.
Everybody watched. And then she unplanted her hair.
The women had long hair then. And she unplanted it. She sat
down her alabaster box and then she dried his hair, his feet
with her hair. Dried his feet and kissed him
again. And the Pharisee up there turned
to his buddy and he said under his breath, he said, I told you
he wasn't a prophet. I told you he was a phony. If
he were really a prophet, a holy man, he wouldn't let that woman
touch him. Well, our Lord knew what he said. He spoke in a whisper,
and then the voice of Christ came over that place. Simon? Yes, master. I've got something
to say to you. Say on, master. Here was a man who had a debtor,
owed him a lot of money, an awful lot of money, and he forgave
him. And he had another man that owed
him just a pittance, a small sum, and he forgave him Which
one am I loving the most? Well, he said, I suppose. You
know, you can't pin down an intellectual. You just can't. They won't say
absolutely. I suppose the one to whom he
forgave the most. He said, you've well said. You've
well said. I came into your house tonight
and you didn't meet me at the door and give me a kiss, which
was a common act of courtesy. This woman, since I came in,
has not ceased to kiss my feet. And Simon, when I came in your
house, you gave me no oil to anoint my head. She has broken
open this box of ointment and poured it over my feet. And you
gave me no water to wash my feet, and she's bathed my feet with
tears. Wherefore, I say unto you, her sins, which are many,
are all forgiven." And that's all he said, but you know what
he was implying. Well, what about this woman?
Well, I can tell you this about her. It says, he said, she kissed
my feet. She bathed my feet. She anointed
my feet. In other words, this woman came
to him. Her tears fell on him. Her tresses were tiled for his
feet. And you can talk about faith,
all kinds of faith, the strength of faith, the time of faith,
the power of faith, but the chief objective of faith is Him. That's what I'm saying, Him. All these people, Simon and all
the rest of them, were taken up with their theology and their
questions, and I'm not discrediting interest in theology, I'm interested
in it, but I'm more interested in Him. You don't arrive at Christ
through theology, you arrive at theology through Christ. They
were interested in position, they were interested in tradition,
they were interested in the right custom. I'm interested in the
right way to do things, decency and in order, but I believe if
I know Him, I'll do them that way. And this woman, he turned
to her and said, Woman, thy faith hath saved you. I know that faith's humble, I
know that faith's reverent, I know that faith is loving, I know
that faith is bold, I know all that, but Christ is the object
of faith. And if I were to exhort you to
anything today, anything to which I could exhort you, I would exhort
you like this woman. Come, humble sinner, come! Amid a thousand doubts and fears. and fall at the feet of Christ. Find your place there and stay
there. I don't care what winds blow. I don't care what conflicts arise. I don't care. Let the religionists
argue religion. Let the dead bear the dead. But
let me worship Christ. Just leave me alone with Him.
Okay? That's faith. That's saved by
faith. Romans 8, 24. Romans 8, 24. Listen to this.
Now this will help. I think somebody talked to me
about this last week. Saved by hope. Saved by hope. Romans 8, 24. It says in verse 22, we know
that the whole creation groaneth And travaileth in pain together
until now, and not only they, but also, but ourselves also,
which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves,
grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, namely the
redemption of our body, for we're saved by hope. We're saved by
hope. Now, when the world uses the
word hope, and you children, a lot of times you use the word
hope. You say, oh, hope, it doesn't rain. We got a ball game coming
up. I hope it doesn't rain, we're going to have a picnic. Somebody
gets sick, you say, I hope he doesn't die. I hope he gets well. Our fruit trees bloom out, and
we say, boy, I hope it doesn't frost. Well, that's not a hope, that's
a wish. That's a wish, that's a desire. That's a wish, and so we're not
saying, I wish I'm saved, I desire I to be saved, but true hope,
true hope is based on expectation and has a reason. When you say,
I have a good hope, we're begotten again unto a living hope. We have a good hope through grace. This is not the same thing as
a wish, not we're saved by wishing. or we're saved by desiring, we're
saved by hope. Let me see if I can help you.
Turn to 1 Peter 3, verse 15. In other words, I'm saying that
the believer's hope, he that hath this hope in him, the believer's
hope is not a wish or desire, it's an expectation. I expect
to be saved. I expect to be saved. And I have
a reason for it. 1 Peter 3, verse 18, listen.
Verse 15, verse Peter 3, 15, got it? "...but sanctify the
Lord God." In other words, reverence God, exalt God, look upon Him,
consider Him to be holy in your hearts, have a right attitude
toward God, be humble before God, and be ready, watch it now,
be ready always, at all times, to give an answer. to every man
that asks you a reason of the hope that's in you. See, hope
has a reason. It has a reason to hope. I can say I hope it rains when
I see the storm clouds overhead about ten feet deep, you know,
black as coal, lightning flashing. I might have some reason to hope
for rain. But the believer has a reason
for the hope, and here are the reasons. I'll give you four or
five. Number one, here's my reason for hope. Number one, God delights
to show mercy. You know the reason I hope to
be in heaven? Because somebody's going to be in heaven. Isn't
that a good reason? You mean a man? A man's already
in glory. There's one mediator between
God and men, and that's the man, Christ Jesus. See, I have a good
reason, I hope to be saved, I hope to be in glory, I hope to be
in heaven, and I have that hope because God is love, God is merciful,
God delights to show mercy, there are people in glory. You know, when, when, when, was it Phillip? Stephen, it was
stone. He looked up and saw Christ at
the right hand of God. He saw the man, Christ Jesus,
at the right hand of God. All right, secondly, I have a
hope, and here's the reason. God has promised salvation in
his Word. I read it a while ago. He said,
and this is the record. God has given us eternal life,
and this life's in his Son. That's the record. God's promised
it in his Word. He's promised life. And then
thirdly, Here's my reason for good hope, is that Christ has
died. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
died for sinners, and I'm a sinner. And He arose and He ascended
and He intercedes for sinners, and I'm a sinner. That's a good
hope. Christ is at the right hand of God. And then God throughout
this Word has vowed with an oath in His own name. that he would
have a people like Christ. He said, Whom he foreknew, he
predestinated, and he conformed to the image of his Son. And
whom he predestinated, he called, and he called, he justified,
and he justified to glory. That's the reason. So you see,
this hope is more than a desire. It's more than a wish. It's an
expectation based on a reason, a lot of reasons. All right,
here's the last one. Lest I weary you. Let's move
along. Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16. The Bible says we're saved with
difficulty. But those difficulties are met
in Christ. We're saved by faith. God made
us willing. We believe. Come to Christ and
love him. We're saved by hope. It's a good
hope. It's an expectation with good,
solid foundations and good reasons. But we're saved by losing. Matthew
16, 25. Now watch this. Verse 24, Jesus
said to his disciples, if any man, any person will come after
me, that's believing on Christ, loving Christ, receiving Christ,
let him deny himself, deny his own righteousness, his works,
his own flesh, take up his cross, That's a symbol of death, that's
submission to Christ. Take up his cross and follow
me. For whosoever shall save his
life will lose it. What are we talking about there?
Whosoever will save his life. Well, I'll tell you, there's
some reproach that goes along with this gospel. There's some
offense that goes along with this gospel. Our Lord said, they'll
cast you out of the synagogue. Whosoever will kill you will
think he does God a service. There's some identification that
goes along with this gospel. There's some cost as a result
of that identification. A man says, well, like Nicodemus. Nicodemus admired Christ, spoke
well of Christ. He came to Christ. He said, good
master, we know you teach your come from God. No man could do
these miracles without this except God be with it. But I tell you,
when the fight was going on and when this conflict over what
Christ was teaching and preaching and saying, Nicodemus was still
sitting in there with the Pharisees. In our Sunday school lesson last
Sunday, it said Nicodemus was speaking for Christ, but he was
one of them. Nicodemus saved himself from
any offense, he saved himself from trouble, he saved himself
from persecution, he saved himself from this hatred, he saved himself
from this identification, but he damned his soul. This is what
Christ is saying here. It's connected with verse 24,
"...if any man will come after me." To come after Christ is
to leave. It's to leave the world. It's to leave the compromise. It's to leave the Pharisees.
It's to leave the traditional. It's to leave the accepted. It's to come after Him. And if
you come after Him, you take up your cross. See, He carries
His. His cross is a symbol of death.
He died on that cross. And your cross is the same thing.
It's a symbol of death to your ambitions, if the conflict with
Christ, to your family if the conflict with Christ, to your
church if it conflicts with Christ, that's right, to whatever if
it conflicts with Christ, that's letting, by which the world is
crucified unto me and unto the world, and follow me. And this is what I'm saying,
and you say, well, it's, you know, I mean, I mean, you spare yourself the
trouble, well, lose your soul. Spare yourself the trouble, that's
what Christ is saying. If a man will save his life,
his pleasure, his existence, his possessions, and these things,
and refuse to be counted with and identified with, Paul said
to Timothy, he's sitting up there in prison writing to Timothy,
and he said, don't be ashamed of the gospel, don't be ashamed
of me, God's servant, but you also be ready to be a partaker
of the afflictions of the gospel. Well, I just, I can't take it.
Then lose your soul. Whosoever will save his life
will lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life Here's the key,
for my sake. Don't just become a religious
fanatic, don't let folks cut out paper dolls on Sunday, not
go on a picnic on Sunday, and not wear shorts or pants, not
cut your hair, let your sleeves go up. Don't just be ridiculous
for your sake. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake, my sake, for the gospel. There you got a real
conflict on your hands there. Because 1,000 errors will walk
together. But error can't walk with truth and won't walk with
truth and won't let truth survive if they can put it out of business.
Be identified. That's what Joshua said. He said, I don't know about the
rest of you, but for me and my house, we're going to serve the
Lord. Well, he said, you'll save it.
But he goes on and said, verse 26, well, what are you profited
if you gain the whole world and lose yourself? Say you gain the
best job in the community, the most influence, your name in
the paper more than anybody else, a spot at the country club and
first name basis with the governor and all that. What have you gained?
What have you gained, 10,000 worlds? Not identified with that 13th
Street bunch. All right, that's OK. Let everybody
choose his own lot in life. But I tell you this, it's not
that bunch of 13th Street, it's their God. It's their God, that's
who you hate. It's their grace gospel, that's
what you hate. I don't want to be identified
with that. No! Why? Tell me why. Ain't nothing as ridiculous as
Catholicism. Kissing a man's toe, Huh? Rubbing a stone? Counting a silly
bunch of bees? Huh? Nothing silly as that. That's
the most awful infantile thing I've ever thought of. Or the
Church of Christ dousing people in a bunch of pool of water and
saying they're saved. That's stupid. But we'll be identified with
anything, won't we? Seven-day Adventist, keeping
a day. And you say, keep a day? What's days with God? What time
to God? Is it 1130 to God? Well, mountain
standard time or Pacific Coast time? What time is it with God?
Well, I got up at 4 o'clock to have my devotion. Was it 4 o'clock
to God? That's stupid. We'll be identified with anything
on earth but the truth. God is God, and men are lost,
and Christ is the only Savior, and salvation by grace through
faith by the act of our Almighty God. Men hate it. I believe it. And they can shoot,
and if they shoot at you, I won't shoot at me. Don't put Charlie
in jail and leave me out. Oh, I'd be ashamed if somebody
was taking some errors for the gospel I wouldn't be back there
hiding in a closet somewhere, wrapping your satin and silk
around you, saying, well, let him take it. He's the one who
preaches it. I say, you shoot me, too. If you're going to shoot
him, shoot me. I love that same Lord. Huh? Save your life and lose it. An
old missionary came back from Africa way back on the days of
Spurgeon. He buried a wife and three sons
on the mission field. And he returned to his home alone,
white-haired, just a few days to live. And he commented to
someone, if I had my life to live all over again, I'd sail
on that same ship, go to that same place, and walk that same
path, and visit that same cemetery and weep those same tears, for
all that I've lost is gain for Christ's sake. Whosoever will save his life
will lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake shall gain glory, all glory. Let's sing 127. Man of sorrows, what a name,
what a name.