Now let's look at Amos, the 8th
chapter again. The nation Israel often disobeyed
the Lord. They rebelled against his word
and against his prophets. And yet the Lord continued to
send his prophets to warn them, to upbraid them, and to invite
them. The nation Israel was a stiff-necked
nation. They withdrew from God's government. They tempted the Lord. They even
followed for a time other gods, and yet the Lord restrained them. He would not suffer them to be
without a prophet. He would not suffer them to perish.
But now, in this scripture, He saw that the labor of his servants
was useless, it was in vain. He saw that no fruit was produced
from his work. His name was profane and his
kindness despised. And therefore the Lord announces
through the prophet Amos final vengeance. He said, I will not
again pass by them anymore. I will not again pass by them
anymore. I will take my word from them. They will be permitted to go
on with their singing, which will be nothing but howling.
They will be permitted to go on with their feasting, but it
will be turned to mourning. They will be cut off suddenly
without warning. The sun will go down at noon.
darkness will cover the land in a clear day. For he says,
I will send a famine. Verse 11. Not a famine of bread. Not a famine of bread. They'll
prosper materially. And not a thirst for water. They'll
enjoy good health. Their eyes will be fat and stand
out. They'll have plenty to eat and
plenty to wear and plenty to drink. But there will be a famine. hearing the word of the Lord.
And they're going to realize it. And they're going to wander
from sea to sea, from the north even to the east. They're going
to run to and fro just to seek a word from the Lord. And they'll
not find it. They'll not find it. Men deprived
of light, wandering about in the darkness. Men deprived of
truth, left to themselves. There's no worse judgment that
can fall upon me than for God to leave me to myself. There's
no worse judgment that can fall upon me than for God to leave
me to my way and to my thoughts, most especially in regard to
spiritual matters. There's no judgment with which
God can visit me that could bring upon me greater affliction or
greater condemnation than just to leave me alone. Now you can
call it what you will, you can call it judicial blindness, and
it is called that by many, judicial blindness, dead while we live. The bail over the word when the
law is read, you can call it reprobacy, some people do, reprobate,
reprobate. You can call it a spiritual deadline,
that's all right too, crossing a line. coming to the place where
there's no more mercy. If somebody says, well, there'll
be another Sunday, will there? There'll be another sermon, really? There'll be another opportunity,
perhaps. Call it what you will, but it's
my greatest fear to go ahead and use in abundance this which
I have in an indifferent, careless manner and one day come up without
it. One day like King Saul to realize
that the Spirit of God has departed. To awake like Samson and go out
to challenge the Philistines and realize that there's no strength.
It was like that, no strength. To arise, to go out to engage
the enemy and realize suddenly that God is not there anymore.
To come here and open this Bible and read it and sing and preach
and walk away knowing that God wasn't there. No word from the
Lord. This happened to Ephraim. The
Lord said, Ephraim is turned to his idols. He's turned to
his idols. He'd done it before. But this
time, three words. Leave him alone. Now that's what
you don't want to hear. Ephraim is turned to his idols.
He'd done that before, and God had shown mercy. God had dealt
tenderly and graciously. But this time, God says, leave
him alone. Leave him alone forever, Lord. forever. Leave him alone
for good? For good. Don't take any word
to him at all? No word at all. Leave him alone. The Pharisees. Our Lord talked
with them. He answered their questions.
He dealt with them on matters into which they were inquiring.
And one day he said to his disciples, leave them alone. They said,
Lord, they were offended. These men were offended by what
you said. Our Lord had preached the gospel
of grace and the truth to them for year after year, almost three
years, month after month. And then he finally said to his
disciples, leave them alone. Leave them alone. And when our
Lord stood before Pilate, he had spoken, he had conversed
freely, he had preached, freely preached, talked to the people.
But when he stood before Pilate, he what? Answered not a word. No word from God. Not a word.
There'd been a time if Pilate had sent for him and said, are
you a king? He'd have got a message. What
is the truth? Christ would have told him. But
this time he said, what is truth? Answered, not a word. Not a word. I will not pass by them anymore. Leave them alone. In the book
of Romans, you have this three times. Romans chapter 1, if you
want to hold the text there and look with me at Romans chapter
1, it says here three times, and this is so final. It says in verse 24, God gave
them up. God gave them up. His long-suffering
and patience had reached an end. God gave them up, verse 24. Verse
26, God gave them up. Verse 28, And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, he gave them over to a reprobate
mind. Now brethren, several of the
prophets have spoken about this. This is not something I just
picked up out of Amos and read it. I will not pass by them again. I will not deal with them in
mercy again. They'll have no word from me. There'll be a famine.
Not of bread, not of water, not of health, not of finances, not
of materialism. They'll have plenty of that.
They won't hear a thing from me. Now, David feared this. Let's look at some scripture.
Psalm 51. And we have several of the prophets
who talked about this state, this famine. In Psalm 51, verse
11, David says this, Psalm 51, 11. Lord, cast me not away from
thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Don't take
your Spirit from me. Don't take your spirit from me.
And then if you'll read Isaiah, Isaiah 29. The prophet Isaiah
was troubled about this state. This was his fear. Isaiah chapter
29, verse 9 through 11. It says here in Isaiah 29, verse
9, stay yourselves and wonder. Isaiah 29, 9, cry ye out and
cry. They're drunken, but not with wine. They stagger, but
not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out
upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes. The
prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the
vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that's
sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, and say,
Read this, I pray thee. And he said, I cannot. It's sealed. There's no word from God. He
said, I can't get anything out of it. And then Jeremiah lamented. It turned to lamentation. Lamentation,
chapter 2. This is the lamentations of the
prophet Jeremiah. Chapter 2 of Lamentations, verse
9. Lamentation 2, 9, right after
Jeremiah. Her gates are sunk into the ground.
He hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes
are among the Gentiles. The law is no more. Her prophets
also find no vision from the Lord." There's no message. There's
no word from God. Micah. Go back to Amos. You're
holding the text there, and the little book of Micah is right
after Jonah. Amos, Jonah, Micah. Micah chapter
3. Micah 3, verse 7. You have it? Then shall the seers
be ashamed, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all
cover their lips. But there's no answer. There's
no answer of God. There's no word. And this is
what Amos says in our text. Days are coming. I'll send a
family. Now, here are three questions
I want to ask. What does this famine mean? Secondly,
what are the signs of it? What are the signs, especially
in an individual? This may be a famine that will
come to a nation. It may come to a nation. It may
come to a world. It may come to a nation. It may
come to a community. It may come to a church. It may
just come to an individual. This is trifling with the things
of God until they're removed. It's an indifferent, careless
spirit and attitude toward the message of God until it's taken
away. What does it mean? Well, here's
the first thing that it means, the three or four things. Number
one, it means, and I judge from this scripture here, that preachers
can go on preaching. He talked here about their songs
in the temple in verse 3. He talked about their feast.
It means that preachers can go on preaching, go on preaching,
but without the power of the Spirit of God, without a message
from the Lord. Now, I've heard a lot of preaching
in these 30 some odd years that I've been in the ministry. I
said this when I went out the door to Ed Robinette one day.
He smiled, shook my hand, said, that was a blessing. God spoke
through you. And I said, Ed, I know when I'm
preaching. I know when I'm preaching, and
most other people know it. And I know when I'm not preaching.
I know when God's there, and I know when God's not there.
And you do too. And you do too. And brother,
let me tell you something. This famine of the Word of God
doesn't mean that preachers can't go on preaching. We got a lot
of material here. A lot of material. There's material everywhere.
There are sermon outlines by the thousands. You can buy them
by the thousands already fixed up, dressed up, and almost preached.
You can find illustrations and stories and poems and all this
stuff, and you can wear your robes and get everything, all
the conditions and environment and the feeling and the atmosphere
and all of that, and have yourself a religious service. You can
go on, but no power, no message, no answer from God. He said over
there in Thessalonians, he said this in chapter 1, Brethren,
I know your election of God, for our gospel came not to you
in word only. It has to come that way. A fellow's
got to preach it. We've got words of vehicles of
thought. They carry the message. So a
man's got to preach in words, but words won't save. Words anointed,
words inspired, words enlightened, words illuminated will save.
Our gospel came in power, in the Holy Ghost. And this famine
is for the gospel, or the words, to go out, but no power. No conviction,
just to the head, not to the heart. No revelation. Men see
doctrine, not Christ. No regeneration, or they'll make
decisions, but no regeneration. No comfort, no growth, no glory. Ministers are allowed to go on
preaching, all in the energy and strength of the flesh. But
God doesn't speak, and no heart is warmed, and no spirit is moved,
and there are no real conversions. And then a second mark of this
famine. Preachers are allowed to preach
without any power, without any word from God, and assemblies
are permitted to gather, and they do gather on the Lord's
day, but Christ is not present. He's not there. You know, my
friends, I hate to give the impression that I have grown indifferent
to success or indifferent to how many or numbers. It's not
that at all. I'd like to see us have to enlarge
this building. I'd like to see us have to put
balconies all the way around. I'd like to see us expand. I'd like to see multitudes come
and hear the Word. But I'll tell you this, if the
Lord's here, I'm as happy as a kid with a bubble gum machine.
I'm just as happy and contented. If he's here in his power and
in his presence, I don't care if we got five. And if he's not
here, I'd rather not have five thousand. I care about his... You know, one time his mother
and father, when our Lord Jesus was just a lad, they'd been to
Jerusalem. And they left Jerusalem, they
were going home. And Mary thought that Joseph
had the Lord Jesus Christ with him, and Joseph thought Mary
thought he was with Mary. And they traveled a whole day's
journey. You can read about it in the
second chapter of Luke. They traveled a whole day's journey,
and she came to Joseph and says, where's the boy? Well, he said,
I don't know. I thought he was with you. She
said, I thought he was with you. And the scripture says they traveled
a whole day's journey supposing that he was in their midst. And
they looked around. He hadn't even been there all
day long. I wonder if this may be true of a lot of our gatherings.
We're so conscious of numbers. We're so conscious of noise. We're so conscious of impressions. We are so conscious of these
things, and I believe we ought to forget them, and just sue
for His mercy, and plead for His presence, and seek for His
power, and that other stuff will be taken care of. The songs are
sung, the scriptures are read, we go through the motions, we
play in church like children, you know. The more you offer,
the bigger crowd you can get. The more you're willing to return
to them, the more they'll give to you. The more you can entertain
them, the more folks will come out. But oh, for the abiding
presence of the living God. Oh, to know that we approach
this pulpit anointed, and you pick up those books anointed,
and that Bible falls open, and just the light of heaven shines
upon those words, and it reflects right into your soul that Christ
was there. Oh, and we go away from the service
knowing that He was with us. He spoke to us. And that's what
this famine is. You have a service, but He's
not there. He's not there. And I'll tell
you the third mark. The Word is read. The Bible is
read. Now, there's some folks that
can read the Scripture, and some folks that can't. The Word is
read, and there's no application to the heart. Haven't you read
the Scripture at times in which it wasn't any different from
reading anything else? But then haven't you read the
Scripture at times when it just seemed to burn into your soul?
It seemed to reach right into the very innermost being of your
soul. It seemed to just set your heart
on fire. The disciples one day, our Lord
was visiting with some of his disciples after he arose from
the tomb, and he talked to them about the Word of God. And when
he left, one of them said, didn't our hearts burn? Didn't our hearts
burn within us while he talked with us? Brethren, what profit
is it to carry a Bible if it doesn't burn in your soul? What
profit is it for me to read it? What profit is it for you to
read it? What profit is it for anybody
to preach it if it's not made alive, if it does not live, if
it does not burn in your heart? I think sometimes, and I tell
folks this, don't load me down with Scripture. Don't just cover
me over. Just read a little something
and see if it burns in my heart. Save it burns in my soul. The Word of God is read, but
there's no application to the heart. That's a famine. Oh, it
fits in with our doctrine, but it doesn't do anything for our
souls. I'll tell you, the fourth mark of this famine is the ordinances. The ordinances. Gospel ordinances. Baptism. The Lord's Supper. They go right on observing them.
but without the presence and power of the Lord Jesus Christ,
without the instruction and the inspiration. In other words,
they become meaningless rituals. Ritualism is so deadly and so
dangerous, when we can mechanically This is a deadly, this is a terrible
danger when you can go into the presence of God and come away
not remembering that you were there. You really hadn't been
there, you'd been in a ritual. If you can go about something
that has to do Some kind of service, and this is, I know preachers
hold funerals, and they conduct services, and revival meetings,
and Bible conferences, and you attend all these things, and
a sign of a famine is when you can go through the motions of
this thing, the Lord's table, you can take up the bread, and
take up the wine, or go into the pool, or these different,
and there's no follow-up blessing. You've got a ritual on your hands.
You've got a ceremony. You've got something you can
do without thinking. It's like driving a car. I remember I was
on the radio down here at WCMI for years and years and years,
every morning, for 20 years. I was on the radio. But down
here for a long time, and I'd get up at a certain time, 7.30,
I'd take my shower and shave, put on my clothes, get my message,
my notes, and get in the car and drive down and park in the
same place by that station at the Galloway building, get out
and go down to the basement, into the recording studio. I
did that Monday through Friday, every Saturday morning. I wasn't
on the air. But I'd get up, and first thing
you know, I'd be parked right down at that radio station. And
I'd sit there behind the wheel for a minute and try to think,
what am I doing here? And it dawned on me that this
was Saturday, and I'd been doing this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday. I did it on Saturday, too. I
could do that asleep. And I'll tell you this, when
we come to the place, even when you men meet and study for fellowship
and prayer and Bible reading for the service, better be careful. It's not a ritual. See what I'm
saying? If it becomes a ritual or a ceremony,
you're in a famine. I'll tell you another thing,
the formality of prayer. Turn to 1 Kings. I want to show
you something. Here is 1 Kings 8. 1 Kings 8, verse 28. And if you come to this place,
if you ever get in this place, let somebody else officiate.
If you've got a Sunday school class, or if you sing special,
or you folks that play this, and it becomes like driving in
that parking lot on Saturday morning. It becomes a ritual,
it becomes something that doesn't fire you and inspire you and
drive you and illuminate you and bless you. Please, let somebody
else take it. Because you're in the famine
and you're taking everybody else through the desert with you.
That's right, you're taking them through the desert with you.
And a lot of you are in danger of losing your first love. You've
been, I know what I'm talking about, I can observe it. I can
observe it. I can see an indifference and
a carelessness and a routine and a kind of going through the
motions. You've been doing it so long. You're like the soldier
that cleaned his gun so many times he did it one night in
his sleep. That's the deadliest, dangerous thing you can get into
when you're handling the things of God. You're handling dynamite.
I've preached for 33 years. I give 15,000 sermons. I'm as
acutely interested and and inspired and zealous, right now bringing
this message more so than I was when I brought my first one.
If I ever lose that love and that enthusiasm and that excitement
and that zeal, I'm going to get out from here and let somebody
else up here. Because you'll suffer for it. I won't be the
only one to suffer for it. You'll suffer for it. And I've
watched this happen. I've watched people get mechanical.
I've watched deacons get that way. You ought to resign, you
deacons, or get out. when you lose your joy and your enthusiasm
and your zeal and your interest in people. You ought to get out.
Sunday school teachers, singers, anybody that doesn't prepare. I see folks that prepare for
other things, but the things that God... Well, I've been mechanically
doing it. I can just step in there and,
you know, nothing to it. That's exactly right. Ain't nothing
to it. If something ever gets to it,
you'll do it differently. But you're in a famine, there's
nothing to it. Listen to this old, listen to Solomon as he
prays here in 1 Kings 8, verse 28. Yeah, he's talking to the
Lord. Have thy respect under the prayer
of thy servant, will you, Lord? And to his supplication, O Lord
my God, hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant
prayeth before thee. In other words, Lord, listen
to me. Will you listen to me? that thine
eyes may be opened towards this house night and day, even towards
this place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there,
that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant
shall make towards this place. Lord, hearken thou to the supplication
of thy servant, hear him pleading with the Lord. Thy people Israel,
when they shall pray towards this place, hear thou in heaven
thy dwelling place, and Lord, when you hear, forgive." Oh,
that pleading. Well, do our prayers sound like
that? Do our prayers sound like that? Here's Solomon pleading
with God to hear him, pleading with God to reveal his spirit,
his presence. Do our prayers sound like that?
My friends, what we need to learn is there's no necessary connection
between outward ordinances and inward grace. You can have all
the outward signs and motions and ritualisms and not have any
inward presence or grace or power whatsoever, just like you can
have clouds without rain. While you can go outside and
the clouds be just heavy up there, extremely heavy, but it be as
dry as a desert down here. And you can have a Bible and
the instruments and the singing and you can have the praying
and the offering and the preaching and you can have all of these
things and still not have the inward presence and power and
joy and life of God. That's the signs of a famine.
That's the signs of a famine. Well, how does it manifest itself
in the individual? That's the second thing. And
as I said, this famine may come to a whirl. He may withhold his
word from the world. He may withhold it from this
nation, this community, from this church. Or he may be blessing
everybody around you, everybody around you, and you may be in
a famine. Now, how does this famine manifest
itself to me personally? All right, here it is. When the
word preached does not speak to my heart, to my heart, Christ
said they have eyes. They have eyes, but they don't
see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have hearts,
but they don't understand. Now, the Word of God is described
in the Scripture as a fire that burns. Well, here's my question.
Does it burn my soul and my heart? The Word of God is described
as a hammer. We went down to Mexico one time and visited a
little church out in Ticaro. The pastor there is Jose. And
he was preaching, and we got there a little bit late. He's
teaching a Sunday school class, what he's doing in the main auditorium
in the little building. And we got there a little late,
so we went around back, and there was a young man who was teaching
a children's class. And the class of children looked
like about 20 or 25 little boys and girls, little old dark Mexican
Mayans, sitting around there, barefooted, you know, on little
rough benches. a log cut and hacked and turned
upside down, you know, and he stood there and he had him a
little pulpit, and he had a hammer, a little old hammer like this,
looked like a toy hammer, and then he had a light bulb, and
he had a mirror, and he had a knife. And I was standing over there
against the tree watching him, I was wondering what he was going
to do, because I couldn't understand a thing he was saying. But Walter told
me he was teaching those children about the Word of God. That was
his subject that morning, the Word of God. And I watched him
and I saw him pick up that hammer and hold it like this and just
talk to him, you know, and talk to him. I knew what he was saying.
He was saying the Word of God is a hammer. It breaks and it
crushes. That's what the hammer does.
And he was telling them. And I ask this question of you
and of me too. Has the Word of God become to
me a hammer to break my prejudice and break my pride and break
my arrogance and break my haughty spirit? The sacrifices of God
are a broken heart. Has He ever broken your heart? No believer ever stands so tall
as when he's bowing at the feet of Christ. He's standing taller
than he'll ever stand when he's broken. I know, we like to throw
out our chair. We're proud people. Pride, we're
stinking with it. It permeates us from the top
of our head to the bottom of our feet. Most of our thoughts
are of ourselves. Did you know that? We wonder
how we look and how we come across and how people receive us and
we're so, such ego maniacs. But I'll tell you, the Word of
God will break that. You'll be crying, I'm less than
the least of all the saints, I'm the chief of sinners, I'm
not worthy to sing, let alone preach. Hammer. And then that
fellow held up that little light bulb. I knew what he was talking
about. The Word of God is a light. It enlightens the understanding.
It reveals the mystery of the gospel. It reveals the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. It reveals how God can
be just and justifier. It enlightens the mind and the
eyes and the soul and the heart. You ever got any light? I mean,
other than the light of human reason. Have you ever learned
anything that you thought God taught it to you? Or you know
no more than everybody else in religion knows? Huh? You learned
any secrets from the Lord? You don't learn God's secrets
in a dark room. He has to turn the light on.
You don't know any more. A lot of people in this town,
religious people, don't know any more than everybody else
knows about religion. Just what their carnal, natural
minds can lay hold on and comprehend and grasp. Every blinded Pharisee knows
everything you know. Christ said why. He said, I told
you earthly things and you don't believe. What are you going to
do if I tell you heavenly things, huh? You couldn't see them. It takes light to see heavenly
things. Come on now, think about it.
This famine, when the words preach, when the fire burns, does it
burn my heart? When the hammer crushes, does
it crush my heart? When the light shines, have I
been enlightened? Lord, I just know what everybody
else knows. I know Jesus died. Yeah, why? Why? What did he do? What was the glory of it? What's
his redemptive character and redemptive glory? What's it all
about? And that fellow held up that
mirror, you know, and you know what he was talking about then.
We see ourselves in the mirror of God's Word. And then he held
up that sword. And I could see he was telling
him how the sword of God pierces right down to the deepest part
of the heart. It gets right between the bone
and the marrow. That's how piercing it is. It's
a sharp, two-edged sword. Well, I'm in a famine. If this fire, if you're around
fire, if it is fire, it's going to burn. Heat, you're going to
feel the heat. It's going to burn. It's going
to have an effect. If you get around a sword, it's going to
cut. If you get around a hammer, it's going to break. If you get
around a light, there's going to be some understanding. And
yet, so many folks can get around this book here, and none of these
things happen. Well, it's just one explanation.
God's not speaking, John. God's not speaking. There's a
fellow talking, but it's not God. You go to church and you
hear sermons, but it wasn't God talking. Because brother, when
God talks, there's some consequences. There's some eternal consequences. And then secondly, here's a sign
of famine for the individual when we begin to have a sense
of satisfaction. Satisfied with our spiritual
growth. Satisfied with our knowledge.
satisfied with our attainments, satisfied with our understanding,
no more hunger and thirst. Where is the joy that once I
knew when first I found the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing
view of Jesus and his word? There's a time I'd have walked
ten miles to hear a sermon. There's a time I'd done anything
just to hear something from God's Word. But the hunger and the
thirst is not there. I've memorized a few scriptures.
I know some doctrine. I've arrived at a safe, sound,
doctrinal position. And inquiry and study has become
a wearisome task. I've arrived. It's hard to bless
me anymore. It's hard to bless me. I'll tell
you where I am. I'm not near as tall as I think
I am. I hadn't grown nearly so much as I think I have. I'm dead,
twice dead and plucked up by the roots, and I don't know what's
happened to me. I don't know what's happened
to me. This I have against you, he said, you've left your first
love. You're in a famine. I'll tell you another sign of
a famine for the individual is when he can absent himself from
the assembly of the saints. from the worship of the Lord,
from the hearing of the Word, without feeling a terrible loss. You know something? One time
when our Lord arose from the tomb, he appeared to the disciples. He appeared to ten of them. You
know, Judas was dead. But he appeared to ten of them,
and one wasn't there. And the Lord appeared to them
and talked to them and revealed himself to them, And they went
and found the absent brother, Thomas. And they said, Thomas,
the Lord is risen. And he said, I don't believe
it. I don't believe it. And I won't believe it unless
I put my hands in his side and my hands in the nail points in
his hands and feet. Now what's wrong? What happened
to Thomas? He wasn't there when the Lord appeared to them. And
he lost the blessings that the Lord revealed to them at that
particular gathering. Does this still excite you? I
was glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the
Lord. What about over here in Psalm 84? Let's turn to Psalm
84. Psalm 84 verse 11. Psalm 84 verse 10 it is. David
said to me, for me a day, Psalm 84 10, a day in thy courts is
better than a thousand anywhere else. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give
grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. O Lord God, Lord of hosts, blessed
is the man that trusteth in thee." If I miss a worship of the Lord,
I feel a sense of great loss, do you? Terrible loss. I miss
something. I've missed something. And then the famine is in full
drought and full swing for the individual when the Word of God
becomes a source of controversy instead of comfort. When the
Word of God becomes a source of argument, not inspiration,
when I'm more concerned to prove my doctrine than to prove myself. When I'm more interested in convincing
a man of election than making my own election and calling sure,
I've got me a famine on my hands. The means of salvation have become
a means of deception. Well, you say, how can this be
prevented? Turn to Psalm 51. How can such a famine, how can
such a drought be prevented? I will pass that way no more,
God says. I will not again visit them.
There will be a famine here in the word of God. How can this be prevented? I
didn't say how can it be restored after it's come. I doubt. Now
listen to me. I don't know. I just don't know about this,
but I'll be honest with you what my thoughts are about. A man
who carries the banner of Christ and lays it down, I doubt he'll
ever pick it up again. I'd like to think differently,
really, but I don't believe he ever will. Impossible to renew
them to repentance, you know what I'm saying? A man who for,
call it what you will, I've known preachers that carried the banner
of Christ for gain glory, material advantage, what you will. They've
laid that banner down, and they've gone their way, and they've prospered,
etc., etc., and then they've come back to pick it up. It's
not there. It's not there. And this, I tell
you, I tell you it's dangerous to trifle with the things of
God. It's dangerous to trifle with
responsibilities. It's dangerous to travel where
that has to do with the king. I have a responsibility, I have
a testimony, I have a message, I have a gospel, and I just lay
her down because it interferes with my social life or my or
my business life or my ability or desire to get ahead or my
advantages and so forth. I'll come back and pick it up.
This is a temporary divorce, a temporary separation. Well, I can't find that here.
I can't find it. I don't find Saul doing it. I
don't find Judas doing it. I don't find Demas doing it.
I don't find anybody I find Samson prayed that God would use him
one more time, and he did. He killed him while he was using
him, but one more time, one more time. So that's the reason I
say if you pick up the banner of the King, be prepared to carry
it. If you pick up the gospel of
the Son of God, be prepared to stay in the battle. There's no
discharge in this war. There's no leaves or furloughs. We're in the King's army. But
I'll tell you how to prevent it. If you say, if you fear,
I fear like my greatest fear. Paul said, lest while preaching
to others, I become a castaway. I don't want to be a castaway.
Lord, David prayed, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. I don't
want to lay this banner down. I want, Lord, keep that joy. Restoring them. Here it is in
Psalm 51. I think there are five or six
things I can give you just briefly, quickly. is verse one, Lord have mercy
upon me. According to thy loving kindness,
according to thy multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Here's what I'm saying, I'm seeking
mercy and not justice. I don't care how long I've been
believing on Christ, and one of our men said it in his message
last night, we start at the cross, we stay at the cross, we continue.
It's continually coming to Christ as a sinner, as a needy creature.
Paul said, I haven't arrived, I'm not perfect, I press forward
seeking to lay hold upon that for which Christ has laid hold
upon me. It's always a seeking and searching and hungering and
thirsting and panting after God. And it's always for mercy, it's
for mercy, not justice, it's for pardon, not pity, it's based
on His loving kindness. I never come to the place where
I deserve anything. I may preach 20 years and have
the power of God upon me, and I may preach next week and be
left alone. Why? Because of several reasons. I'm no longer a child, no longer
seeking His mercy, no longer seeking His grace. I've lost
out on my own. I feel a sufficiency. I feel
maybe a strength of my own, and God's not going to put up with
that. We're going to stay on our knees. We're going to stay
at the foot of the cross. We're going to stay as dependent
children. waiting on his grace. So he's going to leave us alone.
And then he acknowledges his sin. Look at verse 3. I acknowledge
my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Brethren,
let me tell you something. We preach as dying men to dying
men. There's none of us up here preaching
down to anybody. We're sinners saved by God's
grace, chief of sinners. Don't ever lose sight of that.
Don't ever before God claim to be anybody. holier than thou,
there's nothing more obnoxious. Our Lord God, when he was here
on this earth, he turned his back on proud Pharisees and found
his company with sinners. I want to be where the Lord is
and he still finds his company with sinners. I got a little
article in the Bulletin there about some churches get to the
point where a sinner wouldn't dare wander in, he'd feel uncomfortable
with all those righteous people. all those good people. I want
sinners to feel comfortable here. Not comfortable in their sins,
but comfortable knowing that they're among friends who understand
them. Let's stay right where we are
at the feet of Christ, acknowledging what we are. You see, stay where
you are, acknowledging what you are. A sinner, a sinner. God hates pride, and I tell you
that a lot of kinds of pride is pride of faith, and that's
pretty bad. And his pride of race, and that's
worse. And his pride of place, and that's
even worse. But brother, that pride of grace,
that's the worst pride there is. Because everything I have,
God gave me. Everything I know and everything
I ever hoped to be is by his grace. And why in the world I
ought to ever be proud of my grace? And then the fourth thing, justify
God in his holiness. In verse 4, against thee, thee
only, have I sinned, and none this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear when
thou judgest. God, however you deal with me,
whatever you do with me, it's right. You're just in your holiness. I think sometimes when we think
we're nearest to God, we've never been so far away. And I think
sometimes when we think we're far from his presence because
of our sins and our guilt, we've never been so close. I think
so. When we're the weakest, that's
when we're the strongest. And when we're the strongest,
we've got the solution, we've got the answers, we've got the
world by the tail on a downhill pull. We're the farthest away
from God we've ever been. Justify God. This is King David
talking here. This is King David, this is the
man after God's own heart. This is the man God deisted with
and talked with as a friend to a friend. This is the man God
let in on his secrets. This is the man God took into
his secret council chambers. This is the man God took into
his secret mysteries. This is the man that God Almighty
said twice in his word, his heart beats with my heart. And listen
to Him. God have mercy. I acknowledge
my sin. You're just and holy. You're
just and holy in your righteousness. And find out what true holiness
is while you're at it. Find out what it is. I know what
most folks think it is. It's an outward thing that everybody
can see. But real holiness is an inward
spirit that only God can see. Look at verse 6. Thou desirest
truth in the inward parts. In the hidden part thou shalt
make men of no wisdom. Look at verse 10. Create in me
a clean heart. Renew within me a right spirit. Look at verse 17, the sacrifices
of God, a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Ain't no
human eye can see a broken heart, but a sovereign, holy, infinite
eye of God can see it. There's no human eye can see,
you can see the results of a right spirit, you can't see it. Only
God. Now that's holiness. That's God's
holiness. That's David's holiness. It was
an inward holiness. And then find out this. Acknowledge
the source of this holiness and this righteousness. Look at verse
7. Lord, you purge me. You purge me and I'll be clean.
You wash me. I'll be whiter than the snow.
You do it. Today's message is directed only to the sinner to
do this and do that and do the other. David directed his prayer
to the Lord and cried unto him to do what he couldn't do. And
then in verse 12, Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. My joy, restore my joy. My joy
has been damaged and uphold me with thy free spirit. And then,
brethren, use the means. Look at verse 13. Then will I
teach transgressors thy ways. Sinners shall be converted. Verse
15, O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth will show forth
your praise. My greatest fear, my greatest
fear is not to lose my health. That's going to go sooner or
later. 15, 10, 15, 20 years. My greatest fear is not
to lose my job. I just believe if I preach the
gospel, I'll have somewhere to pray. My greatest fear is not
to lose my financial support. I just believe the Lord who fed
the sparrows and fed Elijah with the ravens, that he never will
suffer one of his children to be begging bread. I don't believe
that. Old David said that. He said, I'm old. I've been young,
but I'm old now, and I've never seen God's seed begging bread.
I never. I believe God put something on
the table. And I don't fear the loss of crowds here, I just honestly,
I don't fear, but I do fear God leaving us, leaving me. I fear that. I don't want him
to take his Holy Spirit away and not give us a message and
not give us a word, not speak to and through us and in us.
Don't you? Don't you fear that? I fear indifference. I fear laying down that banner
that he's trusted me. He's trusted me, putting me in
the ministry. He trusted you, put you in the
ministry. He gave you a treasure in an earthen vessel. And I tell
you, if we just read that Psalm 51 and stay there, and stay there. Don't be so high and mighty and
haughty. Growth, spiritual growth, is not so much that which men
see. Spiritual growth is that relationship
with God, growing up in Him. Let's lay aside these things
that are going to crumble in our hands someday, and let's
lay hold upon Christ. Walk with Him, talk with Him,
feast upon Him, fellowship with His people, see if He'll be pleased
to Take not His Holy Spirit from us. Because if we lose it, we
lose that. We've lost everything worth having. Our Father, take this message
and use it for me and for each one of these who have heard it
tonight. Give us ears that hear. Your Word promises, promises,
precious promises throughout Your Word. But Lord, their warnings,
take heed, brethren, lest they be found in you an evil heart
of unbelief. Examine yourself whether you be in the faith.
And all of these warnings come to us. The gospel was preached
in the wilderness, but it didn't profit them not being mixed with
faith. And they came to the very threshold
of the promised land and could not enter in because of unbelief.
Lord, anoint us. Visit with us. Empower us. Illuminate
us. enlighten our minds and hearts,
and do a mighty work of grace for each one of us. For the glory
of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.