the true servant of Christ. And
when I was preparing this message, I realized that in the past few
months or years, I've been using that phrase quite often, the
true servant of Christ. And there's a reason for that.
We studied in our Bible class this morning the fact that many
deceivers have gone out into this world, seducers. And they're
not content just to believe error themselves. They must make every
attempt to seduce others into their ways of error, into their
evil doctrines. They're not content just to believe
it. They've got to—they're strong evangelists. They go forth getting
others to believe their false doctrines. And that's the reason
I say the true servant of Christ. That one whose feet is beautiful,
that one who is sent of God, that one who does know the true
gospel, that one who does bring the glad tidings and the good
news from a far country, the true servant of Christ. The true
servant of Christ has one aim, one sincere desire, in regard
to the people to whom he preaches. And it's not how many of them
there are. That's not it. That's not it at all. He would like to preach to a
large number of people for the glory of Christ, but not to satisfy
his ego. And neither also to increase
his responsibility. Actually, it'd be a lot easier
to pastor 15 or 20 people, be responsible for their spiritual
welfare. As we increase our audience and
our heroes, we increase our responsibility. Who's sufficient for these things?
I heard the story of a preacher who was holding a meeting in
a local church, and there weren't many people there that night,
and the pastor was apologetic. He was disappointed, and he turned
to the evangelist and he said, I apologize for the small crowd. The evangelist put his hand on
the pastor's arm and he said, this is all I want to give an
account for about you. We preach as those who must give
an account. And so the true preacher of Christ,
his aim is not numbers. His aim is not just to make friends.
And we love friends. I love you. It's so good to walk
up and shake hands and to hear, like Richard said, it's more
welcome home, Pastor. Oh, that's great. I love that.
Friends, friends are so precious. To see Paul in Virginia back
here after five months gone, I'm glad to see him. Friends, but that's not it. That's
not our goal. That's not the end. We can have
friends and they can perish. We can even love each other and
never see one another again. That's not the true preacher's
aim. The true preacher's aim is not to make you moral either.
He wants you to be. I tell you, it hurts deeply for
someone to say of a member of your church, that person's life
is just not what it ought to be, preacher. That grieves you,
doesn't it? For someone to come and say like this, I tell you,
that fellow, I may not believe what he believes, but boy, he
stands for the truth. He's an honest man. He's honest
in his dealings with you, puts out a good product. puts out
a good, does a good job, boy, that thrills you to death. But
that's not the end, that's not the goal. Our people can be straight
as a gun barrel and twice as empty. They can be straight as
a string. I'd just be honest with you,
I'd rather pastor people who got more troubles than know Christ.
If I had my druthers, you know, I'd rather preach to sinners.
I'd hate to pastor a bunch of Pharisees. That'd be an unhappy
lot, wouldn't it? Get people so moral, so heavenly-minded,
they're good for nothing. No earthly good, somebody said. And to make them doctrinally
straight. I've been in places where they
knew they could recite the five points of Calvinism coming down
their head at midnight, coming down the stairs on their head
at midnight. But oh, how empty their hearts. So that's not the
goal. But here Paul gives it in verse
1. He says, brethren, brethren, my heart's desire, that which
beats here in this chest of mine, my heart's desire, my prayer,
my petition, my agonizing intercession to God for my people is, that
they may be saved. I want to be your friend, but
I'd rather you know Christ. We have to be at odds. I want
you to be morally straight, but brethren, your morals won't save
your soul. Christ is the Savior. I want
you to know the doctrine. We're going to teach them. We're
going to have these Bible classes. I wouldn't make light of one
precious, glorious doctrine of God's sovereign grace. But brethren,
I want you to know Him. Paul said, Oh, that I may win
Christ and be found in him. Oh, that I may know him, know
him, and the power of his resurrection. That's the preachers. Now, verse
2 and 3. The true servant of Christ, that's
his aim, that's his desire. And if that's not his aim and
goal and desire, he's an imposter. He's a hypocrite. He needs to
move over and let somebody in the pulpit that will deal fairly
and squarely with the hearts of people. But also the preacher
knows some things, the true preacher. He said in verse 2, I bear them
record. Now stay with me here, I'm going to tell you something
that's so. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. In other
words, we know the true preacher has an understanding, he has
a perception. He's no fool. He's no fool. If he is, he shouldn't be preaching
if he doesn't have some perception, some discernment, some understanding.
You see, preaching is not the recitation of facts. It's the
proclamation of a person. Preaching is not just to the
ear, it's to the heart. Preaching is communicating from
God to men. We're ambassadors of Christ.
We beseech you in Christ's stead. We're not his vicars. I know
that, not his substitute, but I am his messenger boy. And I
got my gospel from him, Paul said. I didn't get it from me,
and I got it from him. And a true preacher has perception.
He knows people because he knows himself. God's let him see the
human heart. God's let him see the human condition.
God's let him see the human frame. I've had people say, Preacher,
you preach like you knew me. Well, I do. If I don't, I shouldn't
be preaching. I'll give you an example. I went,
you're reading your bulletin, a few nights ago down in Mexico
and preached a new place I'd never preached. Bested it a year
ago, but never preached there. And this man has not come up
under Walter's ministry. This man was what we call a freewheeler,
J.R. Minion. He was with another group. He got to hearing Walter came
to the school. He's been coming for a good while
now, and he sees grace. But he's pastor of the same church
there in Yucatan that he's been pastor of a long time. He's got
the same wife and family. I never met his wife. I'd never
been in the church. And Saturday night I went in
there and preached. And on the way home, I said to Walt, I said,
I believe he's growing in the knowledge of Christ. But I said,
his wife's a rebel, and the missionary and his wife laughs. How do you
know that? I said, I ain't been preaching
34 years for nothing. I've got some perception. I know
people. Paul knew people. He said, I
bear them record. I know them. And I know this
about them. This is what I know about folks.
I know that man by nature is a sinner. He's wretched, fallen,
and depraved. That in the flesh dwelleth no
good thing, yours, mine, or anybody else's. That we have fallen from
grace, we have fallen from God, we have fallen from truth, we
have fallen into a lost and depraved condition by nature, by birth,
by practice, by choice, by thoughts, in every way. But that don't
keep us from being religious. We are a religious race. We are
a religious people. Even though man is fallen and
corrupt, he is religion. He is religious. He loves religion. Go over to the heart of the heathen,
the heathen hot and taut in Africa, and he has a religion. He believes
in the spirit world, he believes in demons, or he believes in
spirits, he believes in gods. He offers sacrifices, and strangely,
many times, Charlie, blood sacrifices. No matter how you take the mafia
in this country, men who deal in prostitution, bootlegging,
gambling, murder, assassinations, they have the biggest Catholic
funerals of anybody that dies. They're religious. They wouldn't
dare bring a baby into the world without putting water on his
head. They wouldn't dare get married anywhere but in a church.
Huh? They're religious. Baptists are
religious. They're religious, and Methodists
are religious, and Presbyterians, everybody's religious. Go to
the rest home, and here are a hundred and fifty down in Madisonville,
Kentucky. I visit the rest home down there,
and here are a hundred and forty-eight, a hundred and fifty people when
I go down there. Good friends of mine own it and run it. Every
one of those people are religious. The older you get, the more religious
you get. They all got heaven on their minds. They had hell
on their hearts and minds for 75 years. They got heaven on
their minds now, you know. They're all religious. And these
television hucksters prey on that natural religious inclination
of men and women. And they design their songs.
They sing about heaven. They sing about happiness. They
sing about Jesus. They don't ever sing about sin
and man's need, man's inability. And their messages are designed
to appeal to the religious nature of men and women. They'll send
you a cross, or a little old fish to wear on your lapel, or
a red Bible with their pictures in it, and autographs, and underline
that which has to do with heaven and all these good... They know
you're religious. They know you'll send the dollar.
They know you'll support anything that smacks of being done for
Jesus. Christ said, I know them. They've
got a zeal for God. They're enthusiastic for God.
But now watch the next line, verse 2. Not according to knowledge. Not according to truth. Not according
to scriptures. They worship according to tradition. They worship according to what's
been handed down from their heritage, from their ancestors. Mama was
a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a Catholic, and so am I. Granddaddy
was too. I come from a long line of religionists,
and so did Saul of Tarsus. They have a zeal for God. They
have an enthusiasm for God. But it's not according to knowledge.
Our Lord said to those Pharisees, you do err. You err. You are
in error. You're wrong. You're away from
God. You do err. Not knowing the Scriptures. Not knowing the Scriptures. Just
because you memorized John 3.16 doesn't mean you know the Scriptures. Because you memorized a few verses
in this book, this is a big book. This book is God's Word as big
as God. Somebody says, well, I know my
Bible. You do yours, but you don't know God's Bible. There's
a lot of difference. We don't know anything like we
ought to know. What's that verse? If any man
thinks he knows anything, he doesn't know anything as he ought
to. We're not sufficient to think
anything of ourselves. Oh, Paul said they're so religious,
but it's not according to knowledge. It's not according to truth.
It's not according to scriptures. They laid the scriptures aside
a long time ago and started entertaining sinners on their road to hell.
About every television preacher and radio preacher and about
every pulpit preacher in this country laid the scriptures aside.
And he's preaching psychology, and he's preaching philosophy,
and he's preaching morality, and he's preaching everything
in the world. But Christ, you know it, I know
it, and they know it. Not according to knowledge. They
have a zeal, they have an enthusiasm, they have a religious nature.
It's not according to knowledge. Verse 3, what are they ignorant
of? They're not ignorant of their pet doctrines, they're not ignorant
of their prophetical views, they're not ignorant of the written word
per se, they're ignorant of God's righteousness. That's what they're
ignorant of. God's righteousness. Well, I
know when Jesus is coming, this will happen and that will happen.
Well, you know about God's righteousness. I tell you, if you don't know
anything about God's righteousness, you better hope Jesus don't come
anytime soon. You better hope he doesn't. Well, I know this, that, and
the other. I tell you this, what do you
know about God's righteousness? What do you know about God's
holiness? The Scripture says he's holy.
Isaiah said, when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord holy. I lifted up. Holy, holy, holy
is his name. And when I did, I saw myself
unclean, a man of unclean lips, dwelling amidst a people of unclean
lips, so far removed from God, infinity wouldn't describe it.
God's holy, immaculately holy, unchangeably holy. He will not
change. I am defiled and depraved and
dead in sins and I can't change. So how are you going to get those
two together? How can man be just with God? Job said. How can he be clean
that's born of a woman? Behold the moon, the sun, the
stars, they don't shine in God's presence. Even the heavens are
unclean in his presence. How much more filthy and abominable
is man that drinks iniquity like water. And you run around talking
about you've been baptized to be saved. God's going to kick
you into hell someday. You run around talking about,
you did this, and you prayed, and you sought the Lord, you
did... How much filthy and abominable is man that drinks iniquity like
water? God's extremely, immaculately,
unchangeably, infinitely holy! You can't make it, friend. You
can't make it. You just do all you can do and
you can't rise one inch out of your dunghill. You're still in
your cenoche of corruption. And the film on top of it is
too thick for you to move. God ain't going to come down
there. He's not going to come down there. He's not going to
change. Boy, I tell you, the true messenger,
he knows me, he knows people. He knows them. He knows himself.
How are we going to get to him? the righteousness of God. Here's
what they're doing. They're going about to establish
their own righteousness. Just one worm bragging on another
one. Just an old worm dressing up in worm's dress. He's still
a worm. He's still a worm. You know,
it's like old Lazarus lying in the tomb. You could go in there
and put perfume on him, but he's still dead. You could wrap him
up in all this fine cloth, but he's still dead. You can roll
a stone in front of the tomb so that it won't smell up the
community, but he's still dead. He's still dead. God's the only
one who can give him life. Verse 4, the true messenger,
he's got a message of good news. He knows verse 4, Christ, Christ
is his message, glad tidings, Christ is the end. What do you
mean by end of the law? He did away with it? No, sir.
No, sir. No, sir, that's not what it says.
The end of the law means the goal of something. The end of our making this special
effort is to accomplish something, you see. The means lead to the
end. So Christ is the goal of the
law. The law was given to point men to Christ. The law is a schoolmaster
that brings men to Christ. That's the law. The end of the
law is Christ. God gave you the law to show
you you need Christ. God gave you the law to reveal
your need of Christ, you see, and the sufficiency of Christ.
It's a teacher, a schoolmaster, a tutor comes and teaches you
this so you can get you a job and earn your living. That's
the end of her teaching, is to get you to know something. And
the law was given to get you to know somebody, to come to
Him. And the word in there is not
only as gold, but it's the consummation of the law as a way of life. It's consummation of the law
as a curse, as a covenant. Christ is the end of the law
as a covenant, as a curse. I'm no longer under the curse
of the law. Christ is the end of the law, ends its curse. And Christ is the consummation
of the law in that he fulfills the law. He said, I didn't come
to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. God's holy, righteous character
was met by Christ as a man. You say, Almighty God's not going
to change. I said, He's not going to change,
and I can't. So God, in the person of His
Son, came down here to where I am, and He was made in the
likeness of my flesh. He identified Himself with me.
Christ identified Himself with my God didn't change his nature. He took on my nature. That's
important. He didn't change his nature.
God didn't change his law. He didn't lessen the demands
of it. But two natures in one person. God became a man. Christ came
down here and took my place, you see, and met the law and
obeyed it, and the justice of God and satisfied it. And then
God saw that man, Christ Jesus, perfect. He raised him from the
dead, having finished what he came to do. And I was in him. He was my representative, you
see, and he met the law and obeyed it, and therefore I met the law
and obeyed it. And he met the justice of God
and he took every blow and every Every blow of his wrath in my
place, and God's justice says, that's all I want, that's all
I demand, I'm satisfied. Like when a man commits a murder
and they put him in the electric chair, the law, the justice,
justice and law stands and looks at him, he's guilty, guilty,
he's taken a life. You pull the switch and he dies. And the law
says, I'm satisfied. That's it. Justice says, I'm
satisfied. Can't do anything else to him,
says the Lord. He's dead. The soul that sins shall die! He's dead! Satisfied. I'm not
going to haunt him any further. I'm not going after him into
the grave. And God's justice and God's law,
and His holiness there, and Christ came down here, and every one
of His people were in Him. In Adam we died, in Christ we
were made alive. We're born in the image of the
earthly, we should bear the image of the heavenly. He came down
here, and he met that law, and he obeyed it, and every jot and
tittle, obeyed God's righteousness, and then he went to the cross,
and Justice looked at him, and he saw me, and Jay, and John,
and Paul, and Charlie, and all you ladies, he saw all of it,
and Justice says, pour it on him. And Justice poured it on
him. And he ached, my God, why have
you forsaken me? I thirst, my God. Oh, the agony
made his soul an offering for sin, and all the sins of all
believers of all generations were laid on him, and justice
and God's wrath poured out its wrath on him, and crucified him,
and humiliated him, and shamed him, and stripped him, and broke
him, and he drank every drop from the cup of God's wrath.
He drained it. And when he got through, he said,
it's finished! And he died, and Justice said, I'm satisfied.
I'm satisfied. Ain't no more I can do, and ain't
no more I want to do. And there's no more I need to
do. That's the reason I preach particular
redemption. That's the only kind of redemption I know anything
about. I don't preach it as a doctrine, I preach it as a deed. My Lord satisfied Justice. Now
then, when that man died in an electric chair, they didn't go
turn out all the murderers, did they? Because, see, they got
to die too. But I tell you, when my Lord
died for those whom he represented, God turned them all loose. That's
right, he turned them all loose. Because how he that spared not
his own son, how shall he not freely with him give us all things?
Huh? Justice says, I'm satisfied! All right, God raised him from
the dead, but he'd have never raised him if justice hadn't
been satisfied. He'd have never raised him. And he'd have never
taken his seat on God's right hand unless he's without sin.
He'd have never entered heaven unless a man's in heaven. Do
you know that? A man, a man, man, the man, Christ
Jesus. That very man of whom Job said,
how can man be just with God? He's not only just, he's seated
on God's right hand. That man, this man. If I'm in Christ, like you if
you're in Christ. But now you're not accepted because
you walked down an aisle. Now you can walk every aisle
in this country and finally walk those last steps to hell. Of
course, you shook a preacher's hand and made a decision. I tell
you, salvation is in Christ. Now, I trust Him and believe
on Him and receive Him and lay hold upon Him and have confidence
in Him and confess Him as my Lord and Savior, but He did the
saving, not me. He just filled my cup, my empty
cup. The only thing I did was receive
Him. And that was the gift of God.
Let me show you this and I'll quit. Somebody said some things. Moses said, verse 5, what did
Moses say? He said, The man that doeth these
things shall live by them. This is a clear statement. You
don't need college education to understand this. It's plain
as words. You can make it. He says, If you would be righteous
before God, keep the law. It's not the hearers of the law
now, but the doers of the law, the whole law, not part of it.
And brother, let me tell you something, he didn't tone it
down so you could keep it. He's not doing the best you can.
Moses says one thing. What does the law say? What does
Moses say? What does righteousness say?
It says that if you would live by doing anything, you've got
to do it all. If you'd be circumcised, In order
to have acceptance with God, Christ profits you nothing. You
are obligated to keep the whole law. Now, brother, let me tell
you something, and I'll say this as clear as I can say it. It's
either all grace or all works. Salvation is either all Christ,
somebody says, well, I know you've got to believe in Christ, but
just leave that but off there. It's got nothing to do with it. You've got to believe in Christ,
but you've got to pray. I beg your pardon. If you be
circumcised, Christ profiteth you nothing. If your prayer contributes to
your acceptance with God, Christ profiteth you nothing. It's Christ. It's all Christ. I know if a
man is saved, he will pray. I'm not questioning that. If
a man is saved, he will be baptized. I'm not questioning that. If
a man is saved, he will obey God. He'll want to all the way. He'll want to be perfect. He
won't be like Christ. He will read the Word. But salvation
is by grace. It's Christ that saves. And Moses
said, he describeth the righteousness of the law. It's the whole law. It's doing the whole law. It's
doing the whole law perfectly all your days. And you needn't
look so smug. It's not over yet. You say, well,
I'm saved because I've done this, that, and the other. No, you're
not saved. You're not over it yet. You're
still living. You've got tomorrow facing you,
boy. You've got next week on your
hands. And you've got old age on your hands when your mind
begins to wander and drift. Uh-oh. Who's going to keep you
then? What if you get to where you
don't recognize anybody like some folks I know? Don't eat,
can't read. Uh-oh. I tell you, no matter what shape
I get in, Christ is my righteousness. Whether I'm up or down, in or
out, Christ is my righteousness. Now Moses says that, but the
word of faith, look at verse 6, the gospel speaks on this
way, don't say in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven,
that is to bring Christ down, or who shall do anything to ascend
into heaven. What does the word of faith say?
The word of faith is near you, it's even in your mouth, it's
close as your next door neighbor. Closer than that. The Word of
God says, the righteousness of faith says, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, Jesus to be Lord. And if thou shalt believe in
thine heart, God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Our salvation is not in our descending,
it's Him, Charlie, descending. It's not in my ascending, He
ascended! He's already come, He's already
crucified, He's already risen, He's already seated. And the
word of faith is this, believe. Believe it. Believe it. Confess it. And let me tell you
something, I'm talking about believing all that the Word says
about Him. I'm not saying for you to believe Christ as you
understand Christ, but you believe Christ as God pictures Christ. How's the difference? Everybody's
got a Jesus. Paul says it's another Jesus.
You ever seen that scripture? You can read it sometime, 2 Corinthians
11, 4. They'll come preaching another Jesus, he said, another
Jesus. It's not to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ as you understand Him or even as your preacher
understands Him, but the record God hath given concerning His
Son. Who He is, what He did, why He
did it, where He is now. prophet, priest, and king, eternal
redeemer, surety of the covenant, risen, justifier, seated, mediator,
coming king, that in all things he might have preeminence, Christ
is all in all, Alpha and Omega, the lily of the valley, the first
among ten thousand, the bright and morning star, the chief cornerstone,
the bridegroom, king of kings, Lord of lords, blessed and only
potentate. Do you believe that? You believe
that? I believe that. If I didn't believe
that, I'd quit talking about it. I'd go shoot pool or something. But I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. What does the scripture
say? Verse 11 says, if you believe
it, you won't be ashamed. Now that says three things to
me. Number one, you won't be ashamed
to confess it. You won't be, Christ said, you
won't be ashamed of me. In my words, now you won't be
ashamed. Boy, you won't be ashamed of
your hope. And another thing it says to
me is this, you'll never be put to shame either. He'll never
be ashamed of you. He's not ashamed to call you brother. He's not
ashamed to call you brother. You'll never be put to shame. And I'll tell you this, brother,
it says this to me, you'll never be ashamed that you did confess
him. you'll be glad throughout eternity. The hymn writer says,
Ashamed of Jesus? Sooner far let heaven blush to
own a star. He shed the beams of light divine
on this poor darkened soul of mine. Ashamed of Jesus? That
dear friend on whom my hope of life depends? No, no. When I blush, be this my shame.
that I no more revere his name. Ashamed of Jesus, yes I may,
I may, when I have no guilt to wash away. That day will never
come. No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
no fear to quell, no soul to save. I may be, but not till
that day, and that day will never dawn. That's what the Word says. It says more than that, though.
The Scripture says, Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed.
Verse 12, it says there's no difference between the Jew and
the Greek. All have sinned. The same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call on Him. Verse 13, the Word of God says,
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, there's some more folks
had some things to say down here. Isaiah said, I preached it, but
not many folks believed it. Lord, who hath believed our report?
He was wounded for our transgressions. Christ said that. He said, let
another come in his own name, and him you will receive. I come
in my Father's name, and you receive me not. It's a lot easier
to believe error than truth if you're unregenerated. And even
when you're regenerated, there's a conflict in that area. But verse 18, I say, have they
not heard? Yes, they heard. the sound of,
in Psalm 19, the sound that's gone throughout all the earth,
the truth of God, the glory of God. I tell you this, I don't
think there's anybody here, I don't think there's anybody here
that can watch one of these modern-day religious programs or services. And not, as you watch the emotionalism
and the and the foolishness, and the bargaining. You do this
for God, and God wants you, and God wills, and you won't. And
the entertainment, and all the showmanship. You can't watch
that and in your heart say, that's not of God. Now you know that's
what you think, and I do too. It's just, that's unreasonable
to think that the awesome, holy, king of kings, lord of lords,
creator of heaven and earth, The almighty God, the God of
Moses, who said, put off your shoes, you holy crowd. He hadn't changed. He hadn't
changed. The God who said, Pharaoh, let
my people go. He said, I won't. You wish you
had. And he did. God of whom David wrote when
he said, he hath made us and not we ourselves. We're the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving.
The God of whom Solomon wrote in Ezekiel when he said, keep
your foot when you go to God's house. Don't be rash with your
mouth. Don't be hasty to pop off in
God's presence. He's in the heavens. Let your
words be few. If you bow, bow. Defer not to
pay it. The God of Isaiah saw holy, holy,
holy. And we got some female running
up and down here in an evening dress, you know, with sparkling
diamond earrings and diamonds big enough to choke a horse on
her hand, you know, driving a limousine parked outside, talking about
healing folks, believing in miracles. If you believe that's of God,
you're a nut. That's all there is to it. Isaiah said, it's holy! Holy,
holy. And covered like the angels in
the cherubim's face. And he said, oh God, I'm unclean. Preach the talk like that to
put him off the air. Sure nobody'd send him a dollar. They said,
we ain't gonna send that unclean fella a dollar. But he's got to stand and tell
them how good he is. If you put your hand on the TV,
he'll heal your soul. You put your head on that TV
and you'll perish with him. That's right, you'll perish with
him. You do it. You go to his meetings. And you're
aiding and abetting an imposter. And God will charge you with
his guilt. You believe that's of God, you don't know anything
about this book. And these silly religious talk shows with their
telephones call in and send us a dollar so we can buy another
yacht. I'm warning you. And I'm warning
me, John said, look to yourselves. Don't you lose what we've labored
for. You better run from them. If they come into your house
and bring not the doctrine of Christ, you better not bid them
Godspeed. God will charge you with their iniquity. If you believe
that stuff's of God, you better buy your Bible, because the one
you got hadn't done any good. Awesome. Daniel said, when I
saw the Lord, my comeliness melted into corruption. Peter, the chosen
apostle, standing in the presence of his master, said, Lord, depart
from me. I'm a sinful man. Paul said,
I'm chief of sinners, less than the least of all the saints,
not worthy to be an apostle. God have mercy on this generation. who've gone into a familiarity
with God that would make the devil tremble. He's got more
sense than that. Even the devil, when he came
into the presence of God with the sons of men, didn't open
his mouth till he was called on. Did you know that? That's
right. You read the book of Job. Even
the devil wouldn't do what this outfit's doing in this generation.
He didn't open his mouth until God said, Have you considered
Job? I'll let you speak now, bud. But no, we got a direct
line to him. Well, we got a direct highway
to hell is what we got, I'll tell you that. I hope God will
have mercy. I hope God will raise up in this
generation a prophet. I'd love to see that, wouldn't
you? Somebody come that dared, that had the courage to tell
men the truth, whatever it cost, whatever they did, whatever they
replied, tell me the truth, tell you the truth, and bring me to
my knees in the dust, throwing up my hands in helplessness.
And depending on Christ, if he could just shut me up to Christ,
maybe God will. Our Father in Heaven, thank you
for your word. Thank you for your word. If it
weren't for your word, we'd be left to listen to the voices
of this world. It's the voice of Satan, the
voice of every seducer that comes along. But you've given us the
book, and we're responsible to read it. We're responsible to
look into it. We're responsible to find out
who you are and what we are and what your righteousness is. That's
our responsibility. Lord, help us. We don't know. We don't understand. We've got
to have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand.
We've got to keep our feet. We've got to be careful that
we know the truth, that we're not misled. Lord, somehow in
your wisdom and will, bless this congregation and these who have
a willingness to hear and a desire to hear, and a humble heart and
a mouth stopped by your law, guilty, guilty. I don't know
anything unless you teach me, and I can't lead the people unless
you lead me. And Lord, there's no way I have
the natural wisdom or courage to preach Christ unless unless
you anoint us, anoint me and Jay and these other preachers
and all our people, anoint our ears and hearts, and shut us
up to Christ Jesus. We ask it, we pray it, like beggars
we beg for thy presence. In his name, amen.