If you will, turn back with me
to the scripture that Brother Wembley read a moment ago, Matthew
chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21. I preached from this particular
portion of scripture a few weeks ago on the subject, who is this? I want to pick up at verse 10,
if you will, where the question was asked. Our Lord rode into
the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. Our Lord Jesus Christ had come
into the city to be betrayed, denied, mistreated by the soldiers,
tried by Pilate, crucified and slain. And he rode triumphantly
into the city. And the people, multitudes of
them, the Scripture says, began to cry, Hail! Hail! Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest. And they began to put the palm
branches in front of him, and they made all kind of noises
and exclamations and tributes and so forth. And as he came
into the city, the whole city was stirred. Someone said the
whole city was moved and agitated and interested. And they began
to say, Who is this? Who is this? Who is this man? And somebody said, this is Jesus,
the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Now then, when he rode into Jerusalem
amid the acclaim of this multitude, and the whole city was aware
of him, they were made aware of him, it says the whole city
was stirred and agitated and moved. And they began to ask,
they began to inquire, who is this? Who is this? Doesn't it
seem reasonable to you that this would be the time, this would
be the time for Jesus Christ to go to David's tower, to Zion's
stronghold, and demand what was rightfully his? He had to sit
him in the palm of his hand. He had them crying Hosanna, he
had them crying Hosanna and praise to him that comes in the name
of the highest. Wouldn't this be the time for
him to establish his reign, his rule, his kingship over Israel? Do you doubt that he could do
it? Do you doubt that Christ could
have at that time, if this had been his will and his way, do
you doubt that he could have established right then a millennium
of kingship? He could have done it. And I
know that this is part of the emphasis today, that we need
a religious kingdom on this earth. We need a reign of Christ on
this earth, from Jerusalem, where everybody will recognize that
He rules and His laws are the laws of this earthly kingdom.
He could have done that. Or, at this particular time,
when He came into the city and everybody was praising and acclaiming
Him and asking, who is this? And He had them in His hand.
Wasn't this the time then to go to the Roman government headquarters,
maybe to Pilate's? Instead of going there bound
like a criminal, instead of going there with a crown on his head of thorns and
lashes on his back, this was the time to go and present to
Pilate and to Herod and to the Roman governors his right to rule along with
them. Kind of combine a church and
state situation. All authority was his, he could
have done that. But where did he go? Look at
the next verse. The multitude said this is Jesus, the prophet
of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went to the temple
of God. He didn't go to David's tower.
He didn't go to Zion's stronghold. He didn't go to Pilate's palace.
He didn't go to Herod's hall. Amid all this acclaim, amid all
this stirring and agitation and inquiry and recognition, our
Lord Jesus Christ went to the temple. He went to the house
of God. God is a spirit, and they that
worship God worship Him in spirit and truth. My kingdom is not
of this world. My kingdom is not of this world.
I'd rather be the doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell
in the tents of the wicked. I was glad when they said unto
me, the scripture says, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ made no
attempt to set up a carnal religious reign and kingdom. Now this is
what I'm hearing today. This is what some of the preachers
are saying. It's time for Christians to rise up and take what's theirs. It's time for Christians to establish
a moral government and reign and rule on this earth. Our Lord
Jesus Christ went to the temple, went to the house of God. It's
time for Christians to put Christians in office. I heard a man say
this the other day. Fifty-three percent of the people in this
nation are born again. It's time for us to block vote
and elect who we want to the presidency and the governorship
and the House of Representatives and the Senate. Our Lord went
to the temple. He went to the house of God.
The Lord God would not have me leave this place here and go
to the palace and make demands. The Lord would not have me leave
this place here and go on a crusade or a rampage to make patriotic
this nation. Now wait a minute. Listen to
this. Here our Lord came into the city.
Wonder who among us as preachers, or what we say is our faith and
our belief, would have done exactly as he did right here. We come
into the city amid all their claim. Here they are, they're
throwing palm branches, they're throwing their clothes, they're
hailing, they're hosannering, they're hallelujahing. Now this
is the time, dear brother, you've got them in the palm of your
hands. Make law demands, make moral demands, straighten out
the situation, get these people organized, build a university,
build a city of hope. Build a heritage village. This
is the time to do this. Go to the White House. Make demands
on the legislature. Capture the Senate. By the way,
the Lord went to the house of God. He turned away from all
of this sort of thing and went down to the house of God. He went to the house of God.
Well, let's read on. And Jesus went into the temple
of God. But he didn't find there what
ought to be found there. And this may be one of the problems
in our day. I see such a parallel here 2,000
years ago in 1980. Our Lord went to the temple and
walked in, and he surveyed all that he saw, all that he saw. He saw those who sold and bought. What does it mean, these that
sold and bought? Well, this was a special season.
You see, all this was special. It was a very religious time.
This was the time he rode into the city on the donkey. It was
prophesied in Zechariah, thy king cometh riding on an ass,
the foal of an ass. And it was the Passover. It was
a special feast. Jews were there, religious people
were there from everywhere. They were there from the whole
world. This was a special Passover time. This was a religious time.
This was a real time of revival. Men's minds were on religion.
Their thoughts were on religion. And when our Lord came into the
temple, it was full of people. And they'd set up booths. These
that bought and sold. You see, it was a religious time.
And people wanted religious souvenirs. They wanted religious trinkets.
They wanted something symbolic of the Passover. They sold sheep
to be sacrificed. They had goats in there to be
sacrificed. They sold rams and lambs, and they sold souvenirs,
and they sold trinkets, and they sold blue ribbons, and they sold
all these things. They bought and sold. Isn't that going on today? The buying and selling in the
house of God. Now if you'll write to me this
week, I'll send you my special little pen that's got a bulb
in the pocket and you squeeze it and it lights up and sings
this little light of mine. Or I'll send you a fish or a
bumper sticker. Or I'll send you a book. Buying
and selling souvenirs. This is a religious time. Get
in on the act quick. Everybody's getting in on the
act. Everybody's buying and selling, making merchandise of the things
of God. Buy you a little cross to hang
on your Bible or wear around your neck. Our Lord came in,
there they were with their boots, selling their trinkets, selling
their souvenirs, selling all of their reminders and memorials.
Buy you a bookmark. Buy you a special kind of Bible.
You just need one kind of Bible. That's the Word of God. And then
our Lord looked over there and he saw the money changes. Over
in the book of Exodus, for the support of the ministry, the
support of the temple, the support of the priest and the Word of
God, each Jew over 20 years of age was to give a half a shekel
every year at the Passover time, a half a shekel. Well, these
people from other countries didn't have a half a shekel, and even
some from locally. They had other types of money,
other forms of money, other types of exchanges. Perhaps a farmer
didn't have any shekels at all. He had some onions or corn or
beans or potatoes or a lamb or something. So these money changers
took advantage of this thing, and they set up their booths.
And when a man came in who didn't have a half a shekel, he had
a certain other gold piece. These fellows, this was an opportunity
to profit. So they'd change his gold piece
into so many shekels and keep out a percentage. They made money
on religion. I hear people saying all the
time, this religious thing is a money-making thing. It is!
It is! Get your guitar and three singers
and hit the road in a bus and I guarantee you'll make money.
But you'll go to hell for making merchandise of God Almighty's
gospel. You go ahead, buy you a $500
botany suit and two-tone shoes and a bow tie and get you a Bible
and go out and be an evangelist and lay hands on people and heal
them and take up a wash tub of money. You can make a fortune.
You can buy you a condominium in Florida and you can drive
two Cadillacs and your wife can wear furs and diamond rings,
but you'll go to hell. I promise you on the authority
of this book. Because you're a money changer, you're a covetous,
you're in this business for filthy lucre, and God will give you
your filthy lucre and damn your soul. He saw the money changers. I
see them. They're not interested in your
soul, they're interested in your pocketbook. There's one preacher from Virginia
you can turn the television on anytime, and I guarantee you
he'll be talking about buying a brick or a book or something
else. He's a money changer. Now let
me tell you something, friends. I know enough about the gospel
and the word of God that if God's in something, he'll support it. God will support it. You don't
need to beg any man in the flesh to do anything. God will support
it. And when you start begging people to support the kingdom
of God and the family of God and the gospel of God, you're
revealing one thing, your lack of faith in God. money changers. And then our Lord saw those that
sold doves. Now there's a key to this dove
thing. The dove was the offering for the poor. The poor. In other words, certain women
with certain problems had to bring certain sacrifices, and
they were permitted to bring a dove. My yard's full of them.
A lot of doves. And they're cheap. But certain
women, because they were poor, and certain people, because they
were poor, they couldn't afford lambs. They didn't have any lambs
or rams or goats. They bought a dog. Well, these
sorry thieves, they preyed on them, too. They don't care if
they can steal a thousand from you or a dollar from your Social
Security check. They're out to get what they
can get. And they preyed on these poor widows and poor people.
And they raised doves, Jay. They raised them. They bought
cages up in there. And they knew these people had
to happen. And they took advantage of the poor people. They took
advantage of them. And they sold these doves. And
our Lord stood there. He came to the temple, to the
house of God, and he saw the merchandising, and he saw the
booths, and he saw the souvenirs, and he saw the lucrative business,
and he saw the showmen, and he saw the money changers, and he
saw those sitting over there selling their doves and taking
advantage of ragged, poor people. And our Lord stood there in righteous
indignation, and he plaited a whip. And then it says, He cast out
all of them. You say, where's the whip? We
found it in John chapter 2. And he drove out, though this
is written in every one of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John. And he drove out them that sold and bought in
the temple. And he overthrew the tables of the money changers
and the seats of them that sold us. And he said, get out! It
is written, my house. shall be called a house of prayer." But you've made it a den of thieves. And I'll tell you, I'm a child
of God. I'm a son of God. And when I go to a city or a
town, there's a place there built in the shape of this building,
built with a bulletin board outside that says, The Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I've got a right to go in there
and worship. I've got a right to go in there and seek the presence
of our Lord. I've got a right to go in there
and sit and hear the glorious good news of his grace. I've
got a right to go in there and expect to find the Spirit of
God and the presence of God. But I go into them and I find
just what Christ found, a den of thieves making merchandise
of men's souls. I'm not trying to resurrect the
temple with its holy place, its veil, its holy of holies. Somebody
says, this is just a building. This is a building, but it's
not just a building. I'm not advocating the idea that
God dwells in buildings and God dwells in houses of stone and
brick, nor is God worshipped because a place is designated
as a place of worship. But I'm saying this. that places
and institutions called churches and assemblies of people calling
on God in prayer and worship, these places and these times
and these designated gatherings are not places for entertainment,
frivolity, and carnal business. It's a place to worship. It's not a place to recognize
the flesh. It's not a place to organize
fun and games. It's a place where men with heavy
hearts can come and have their burdens lifted. It's a place
where people with sin and the disease of sin can come and hear
about him who's the great physician. It's a place where those with
troubles and trials can come and be comforted. It's a place
where men can come and meet God. Have you not houses to party
in? I'm not against parties. I'm against them here. Have you
not fields and ball fields and gymnasiums to play in? Have you
not theaters and stages from which to entertain men? Then
do it there, not here. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
condemn money changing. Banks have to change money, but
churches aren't banks. Our Lord did not condemn the
selling of sheep and the selling of rams, but the church is not
the place to buy and sell. It's a place to worship. Our Lord did not go up and down
the street and turn over the tables of money changers and
drive them out of business and turn over the dove cages. He
did it in the temple, in the house of God. This is the house
of God. I read Mr. Spurgeon this week,
and he was lamenting the fact that at a certain church in his
city of London, a Baptist church, this was back in 1867 or 1868,
somewhere in there, the sermon I was reading, and he said he
saw the advertisement of the meeting. They were going to have
a meeting, a preaching service, and after the meeting They were
going downstairs and play games, and they were going to play musical
chairs. And Mr. Spurgeon said, can you imagine?
Can you imagine Peter, James, Paul, and John dancing around
musical chairs to the sound of an organ and plopping down on
one of them's vacuums? Can you imagine that? He said,
I know that same church the next week for the children is going
to have a Punching Judy show. Sounds like 1980, doesn't it?
He says, can you imagine? Can you imagine? In your wildest
dreams, can you imagine this going on in the pulpit where
thy bleeding sacrifice, O Lamb of God, is preached? Impossible! It can't be! And I asked this this morning,
can you in your wildest imagination picture the Apostle Paul giving
a prize to the oldest father present in the service at Antioch? Can you imagine? Can you wildest
dream? Can you imagine Paul the Apostle giving prizes to people
for coming to church, or prizes to people for winning souls,
or recognition to people on special days? Can you imagine Paul doing
that? Can you in your wildest imagination
in any way picture the early church with a ball team and Simon Peter
playing first base against the forces of Pilate and Herod? Can you imagine them meeting
on the ball field? Can you, in your wildest dreams,
imagine the early church? Can you imagine them having a
business meeting on Wednesday night and arguing about when
there's going to be a pencil sharpener, or a broom, or maybe
a vacuum cleaner? And just dividing over, just
having a real hiccup. Can you imagine the early church?
Can you even suspect that they'd call in a bonding company from
Rome to help them raise money to build a temple of worship?
Can you imagine them doing it? That's what we do. Can you even dream the Apostle
Paul, can you see him now as he goes down to Ephesus and he's
preaching, having a special meeting there, and he says, now this
is a limited offer, but if you'll be the first to write, I'm going
to send you a record that John Mark made. It's got all the good
songs on it. And if you'll send $10, now this
record costs $7.50, and the book with my life story costs $3.50,
and both together that's $13.50 or $14. I'm going to let you
have it for an offering of just $10. In your wildest dreams,
Bob, can you even think why he would say that would be an abomination
to him? It is, too, to every other believer.
To every other believer. And you can call it what you
want to, but I call it a den of thieves. And I've got scripture
for my definition. There's no way you could think
the Apostle Paul would sell candy door-to-door to raise money to
support Silas and Barnabas. There's no way in this world
that you can imagine the Apostle Paul, Peter, James and John having
a spaghetti dinner down at the church in order to send Paul
or Silas to the mission. Brother, I'll tell you this,
they may dig down and give all they've got, but they're not
selling anything. Ambition. This is what happens.
Ambition. Ambition for results leads to
entertainment. Entertainment leads to sensationalism. Sensationalism leads to the outrageous,
and the outrageous has led us into blasphemy. Blasphemy. You can go through this Bible.
And you'll find our Lord with a tender broken heart. You'll
find him weeping with a woman found in adultery. You'll find
him reaching out to a man called Zacchaeus. You'll find him troubled
and broken-hearted over Mary and Martha and their brother
Lazarus. But when our Lord came to the temple and he looked around
and saw these merchandising hucksters making merchandise
of men's souls and making his house a house of merchandise. Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated,
one of the only times in this Bible, his wrath. And he turned over their tables
and poured out their money and turned loose their sheep and
goats and drove out their doves and said, Get on! My house shall
be called a house of prayer. But you have made it in your
covetousness and in your ignorance and in your outrageous blasphemy
a den of thieves. All these things are so opposed
to spirituality and worship that one of them's got to go, either
the worship or this program that we've got today. And I'll tell
you which one's going. It's going to be the gospel.
That's the one that's been dropped, that's what's been dropped. The
preaching of Christ goes out when frivolity comes in. The
preaching of Christ goes out when merchandising comes in.
The preaching of Christ goes out when entertainment comes
in. Preachers today are foolish promoters
and the church today in the eyes of the world is a laughing stock. You know it and I know it. It's
time to do four or five things. I'll give them to you briefly.
Number one, it's time to rid the house of God of thieves.
Money changers, souvenir sellers, and hucksters. Our Lord exposed
them. He called them what they are.
And he drove them out. And I'll tell you this, if you
can't drive them out where you're worshiping, then you get out
and don't worship with them. That's the only thing to do.
The Apostle Peter at Pentecost called on the people, he said,
save yourselves! You can't save the denomination,
you can't save the Israelite nation, but you can save yourself
from this perverse generation. Get out! What fellowship hath
darkness with light? What fellowship hath Christ with
Baal? Our Lord said in Ephesians 5.11
through the Apostle Paul, have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Those who promote, keep company
with, and support thieves and hucksters will share their condemnation. The clowns today in their gaudy
robes and their silly hats are thieves. And the entertainers
and builders of monuments to themselves are thieves. Our Lord
called them a den of thieves. Secondly, it's time to rid the
house of God of the thieves. Secondly, it's time to rediscover
the book. Oh, what a precious treasure.
You read over in 2 Kings 22, don't turn to it now, we don't
have time to read all of it, but Hilkiah and Shaphan the priest,
they were cleaning out the house of God. Was it Josiah? Josiah had taken the throne.
And he said, get rid of the images, get rid of the groves, get rid
of the idols, clean out the house of God, clean it up, sweep it
up, we're going to worship again, we're going to preach again.
And as they were cleaning out all these things, you know, in
the house of God and ridding it of all the institutions and
promotions and programs and junk, somebody found the writings of
Moses. They found the book of God. And so they said, what is that?
And Hilkos said, believe it's God's word. And they began to
read it, and so they took it down to the king, and they read
the words of this book to the king. I bet they read something
about God's sovereignty and man's fall. And I'll be merciful to
whom I'll be merciful, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious.
That was in it. And they read how God is angry
with the wicked, and every imagination of man's heart is evil. And they
read these things. And the king began to rent his
clothes, and he says, My soul, go and pray to God for me and
for the people and all Judah concerning the words of this
book that you found. Great is the wrath of God that
is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened
to the words of this book. Somebody needs to find this book.
There's probably one laying around in the junior department somewhere
in most churches. It may be one the pastor's studying.
Yes, it could be. You can look through his books
on counseling and promotion and how to give an invitation and
1,000 sermon outlines. Oh, here's a Bible! Open on the
pulpit and see what it says. Well, I'll tell you this, if
you'll read it, you'll have some folks written their clothes.
They may do it in anger, and they may do it in repentance,
but it will sure split the congregation. Oh, we need to restore the book.
It used to be, Spurgeon said, it used to be when men debated
whether the six days of creation were literal days or periods
of time. Now they question whether God
even created the world. It used to be men argued over
general or particular redemption. Now they doubt there is a redemption. Men died in past days to preserve
and print the Bible so we could have one. Now we've got one and
don't preach it. Think about it. It's time to
rediscover the book. It's time to lay aside traditions
and programs and customs and human literature. It's time to
read and teach and preach the book, God's word. And then I'll tell you thirdly,
it's time to rid the church, the temple of thieves, and it's
time to rediscover the book, and it's time to restore preaching
to its right place. Preaching, preaching. Only a
foolish man will say, oh, we've got so much good music, we don't
have time to preach. That man is a fool. Oh, my soul, we've had so many
good testimonies and so much good program here, we just didn't
have time to preach for about five minutes. You need to get
rid of him as soon as you can. I've been so busy this week,
I've been visiting and I've been going to committee meetings and
I just didn't have time to prepare a message. We're going to have
a film." They'd get rid of him right now. Don't even give him
another shot. Preach the Word, said Paul. God
has chosen by the foolishness of preaching, preaching, preaching. The Church is built on preaching.
Go ye into all the world and preach, he said. Preach! Jesus
Christ, the Scripture says, began to preach. John the Baptist came
preaching. When our Lord left his disciples
on earth, the last words he said to them was, Go preach! He didn't
say, Go educate. He said, Go preach! He didn't
say, Go entertain. He said, Go preach! He didn't
say, Go organize. He said, Preach! We're doing
everything else but. He didn't even say, Go heal.
He said, Preach. Preaching needs to be first,
it needs to be second, it needs to be last, it needs to be all
that's in between. And whatever we have in the Church,
it needs to be built around the preaching of the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Let our churches be preaching
centers, worship places. It's time to recover the gospel.
Not a gospel, some gospel, any gospel, THE gospel. There's just
one. THE gospel. A French king turned
to one of his servants one day years ago, according to Spurgeon,
and he said, Why is a certain preacher so popular with the
people? And the servant answered, Your
Majesty, He preaches the gospel. That's a rare thing in France.
He preaches the gospel. I'll tell you this. You may not
believe what I'm about to say. This is so. The gospel of God's
redeeming grace, the gospel of God's eternal glory, the gospel
of Christ's substitutionary work is a rare thing in this country.
Now, there are preachers by the hundreds. You've got 200 out
here in Armco. There are preachers everywhere,
there are church buildings everywhere, but the gospel, the gospel, the
gospel of redemption, the gospel of free grace, The gospel of
elective grace, the gospel of effectual grace, the gospel of
substitution, the gospel of satisfaction, the gospel of Christ's active
and passive obedience, the gospel of Christ's righteousness, the
gospel that enables God to be just and justifier, the gospel
preached by Moses and Abraham and Isaiah is a royal thing. It's not being preached. You can say all you want to about
so-and-so, say some good things, he says some bad things too.
But so-and-so, he reads from the Bible, the devil quotes the
Bible. When he tempted our Lord, he
said, it's written, it's written, it's written. Don't be deceived
by men who quote the Bible. Find out what they're saying.
Who is man? Huh? That thou art mindful of
him. Better find the answer to that
question. Who is man? You won't find the answer to
that question in WMU meeting. You'll find it in the Word of
God. Who is man? What is man? What happened in
the garden? You know what happened in the garden? A whole lot happened
in the garden. And it's left its mark on you
and me, too. And it's influenced our past, present, and future,
what happened in the garden. Man sinned, man fell, man rebelled,
man died, man lost all contact with God, all interest in God,
all knowledge of God, and all love for God. He's in a mess. He's without hope, without help,
without God in this world. I'm not begging you to do anything
for God. I'm sure crying that God will do something for us.
There's nothing you can do for God. Pilate said, Well, I have
power to crucify you and let you go. You don't have any power
over me at all except it be given you from above. It's too late,
Adam, to talk about what you're going to do. You've already done
it. Now we're going to have to find out what God's going to
do. Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. If you will. Not a question of what you will
do anymore, you've already done it. It's now a question of what
will God do. What will God do? But I tell
you this, God's going to show mercy to somebody. Like Shirley
was singing a while ago, he's got some sheep. The Father gave
them to him. Where did he get his sheep? The
Father gave them to him. Where did he get his sheep? He bought
them at the cross. Where did he get his sheep? The
Holy Spirit knows them and is going out calling them. The gospel of God's righteousness,
which is Christ's obedience, His active obedience, His righteous
obedience, His full obedience, His obedience to every jot and
tittle of the law, the Word, the truth, inward-outward righteousness,
the passive obedience of Christ in His suffering, in His death,
the gospel of God's glory, salvation is of the Lord! The gospel of
God's Son, everything is in Christ. It's not in man, it's in Christ.
God's vested everything in Christ. He's turned everything over to
Christ. He's committed everything to Christ. He's given Christ
all authority in heaven and earth to give eternal life to as many
as the Father gave him. What will you do with Jesus?
You've already done what you will do. You've crucified him.
You've spit in his face. You said, I'll not have this
man reign over me. Here's the question this morning.
What's he going to do with you? You reckon he'll have mercy on
such as you and me? You reckon he will? I don't know.
I hope he will. But he doesn't have to. What
will he do? I'll tell you, that'll change
your church from a place of merchandise to a place of worship when men
realize the shape they're in, the condition they're in. where
their needs are. They'll quit trying to bring
things to God, and they'll come on their knees seeking mercy
from him. That's right. We'll quit trying
to impress men. What are we doing here this morning?
Am I trying to impress you to change your ways? Well, you're
not going to change your ways. Can the leper change his spots?
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Neither can you change
your ways. I'm hoping God will change your
ways and your mind and your manners and your motives and your attitude. And you ought to be crying to
God to change your ways. Are we up here preaching this
morning trying to impress somebody with what they ought to do with
Jesus? That's what the average preacher is doing. He's got the
music just right and the message just right and the organ playing
and the singing and everything to bring it down to this final
decision. Now, this is your decision. Will you accept Jesus? No. Christ
said, You will not come to me that you might have lies. No
man can come to me except my Father draw him. So what we need
to do is quit trying to get folks to do something for God, and
all of us meet on our knees and faces and pray that God will
do something for us. You see the difference? It's
a whole different ballgame. It's totally different. I'm going to bring my brother
to church Sunday, and I want you to do your best to win him
to the Lord." That's a hopeless case, you and your brother both,
both of you. I'll tell you what's not hopeless.
Our Lord said that which is impossible with man is possible with God.
And I'll tell you, if you can get in there and get a hold of
the horns of God's altar and pray, Lord, my brother ought
to go to hell, but I wish you'd save him. He ought to go to hell,
and I ought to go with him. But I sure would be much obliged
if you'd do something for him. I'm going to take him down to
hear the preacher. And Lord God, help the preacher to make him
mad. Help the preacher to strip him. Help the preacher to knock
his foundations of flesh out from under him. Help the preacher
to tear down his religious refuge. Help the preacher to expose him
to the wrath of God, because he'll never be saved until he
does. Now don't make my sister mad, I'm going to bring her to
church. I wish you'd make mine mad. I'll tell you the truth, that's
what's wrong with this generation now. I read a story the other
day. There was a weary traveler coming down the road, barely
putting one foot in front of the other. And he came to a man
in the village and he said, how far is it to Bedford? The fellow
says, it's ten miles. Oh, the traveler said, I'll never
make it. I'm so tired, the friend said, well, I didn't know you
was that tired, I'd have told you it was 7 miles. It's still 10 miles. And it doesn't
matter how mad you get, God still saw me. Boy, if I'd known it
was going to make you mad, I'd have told you it was 7. If I
thought that you was that tired, I'd have told you it's 5. No,
I told you it's 10. Whether you make it or not, it's
still 10. Whether God saves you or not, you're still lost. Whether
God Almighty gives you grace or not, it's still his to give,
whether you make it or not. You see what I'm saying? We don't
trim this gospel for anybody's brother, or anybody. But the hucksters do. They're
not interested in your soul. They're not interested in you
knowing God. They're interested in your money. And the numbers of people there,
and they're interested in a name for themselves. And our Lord
drove them out in his day, and somebody ought to help drive
them out today. In the last place, it's time
to return to the Lord. Old Joshua stood. Let me close
with this right here. I've kept you too long. Listen,
Joshua stood one day and said this. My friend, every generation
is a religious generation. I don't care if it was Joshua's
day or our Lord when he was here on the earth, or our day. Everybody's
religious, everybody's got a God, everybody's got a refuge. And
Joshua stood and said, if it seemed evil to you to serve the Lord, the Lord God,
the Lord, the King, Sovereign, then you choose you this day
whom you will serve. whether the gods which your Father
served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell. You just choose. You just choose. It seems evil in your sight to
serve the God of this Bible, the God of sovereignty, the God
of grace, the God of redemptive glory, the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who does as he will, when he
will, with whom he will. the God in whom you live, move,
and have your being, the God who can save you or damn you,
the God who can give grace or withhold it, the God who kills
and makes alive, the God who creates darkness and light, good
and evil. If it seems evil and wrong in
your sight to worship and preach and glorify that God, then you
choose whom you will serve, because you're going to serve some God,
whether the gods of your fathers over yonder on the other side
of the river or the popular present-day God in the land where you dwell, that little God that, like I
heard a preacher this morning, says, God wants so much to heal
you, God wants so much to save you, won't you let God do what
he wants to do? Now, you can serve that God if
you want to, but Joshua stood back and said, But as for me
and my house, We're going to serve the Lord, whatever he's
pleased to do. We're going to serve him in reverence
and fear and all before his face. We're going to serve him on the
foundation of what he's written. We're going to serve him through
the preaching of his glorious gospel. We're going to serve
him on the basis of his son's obedience and his son-shed blood. And we're going to seek him!
in mercy on our faces, if perhaps he will, in grace, hear our prayer. But we're going to keep calling.
We're going to keep calling. Charles Spurgeon wrote this 120
years ago. You listen to it. I don't hope,
he said, to reform the world or the Church. I don't hope to
convert the world to righteousness, nor the Church to orthodoxy.
It's too late. Certain brethren are hot to reform
their denomination. They ride out gallantly. They're
generally much wiser when they ride home. The Church and the world are
beyond me, but I'll use my power for some object within my reach.
I'll use my power for some object within my reach. If I cannot
destroy all the thorns and the thieves that curse this earth,
maybe I can clean out my own garden. Huh? That's pretty good. My own little
plot. Maybe I can straighten that out.
If I can't transform the desert into a pasture, Perhaps I can
put a little refreshing water on the plot where I live and
make two blades of grass to grow where no grass grew before, and
that'd be something. Wouldn't that be something? Preacher,
what's my place? That right there. That sums it
up better than I ever could. I can't convert Ashland, Kentucky,
and I can't change all the churches in this town. I can't drive out
all the thieves. My Lord was in one temple when
he did that. There were other temples. But
I'll tell you, he cleaned out the one where he was. He sure
did. He cleaned out the one where
he was. And after he left, went back to glory, the thieves might
have come back, but he cleaned it out that day, didn't he, Jay?
And I can do that, and you can too. I can seek the Lord. That to him that watcheth one
of them wrote, I'm going to Jesus, though my sins act like a mountain
rose, I know his courts I'll enter in, whatever may oppose.
Perhaps he will admit my plea, perhaps he'll hear my prayer,
but if I perish, I will seek and perish only there. I can
but perish, if I go, I'm resolved to try, for if I stay away, I
know I shall forever die. Seek the Lord. Call upon him
while he's near. It may be that you'll be an object
of His grace, but He doesn't need us or anything we can do.
We need Him desperately, desperately.