Now, the Lord has been so good
to us. I was thinking this morning about
his grace and his mercy, undeserved and unmerited, how good he has
been to his people here. First of all, in convicting us
of our sins. It's not every man that realizes
that he's a sinner and needs a Savior. Most people are blind
to the fact that they are guilty. Someone said to me just a few
days ago, talking about an individual who had departed this life, well,
this individual's been a good person, never done anybody any
harm. And I suppose if you can say
that about somebody's picture, I suppose they're all right. Yes, if you've never been convicted
of your inability, of your need, and of your guilt, and of your
sin, then you depart this life without
hope, without Christ. And then God has been good to
us in revealing to us our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He
has brought us to trust Christ, and to depend upon Him, and to
rest in Him, and to believe on Him. and to know that our salvation
is perfected by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And then God has been good to
us in bringing us out of showmanship and out of Arminianism and out
of easy-believism. I know there are a number of
people who are in these things who are quite sincere. I'm sure
that they're sincere. But I'm glad, I'm thankful in
my heart, that God has brought me out of that particular realm. I'm delighted that he has. I
do not miss it. And I give him the glory and
the praise for having revealed to me the shallowness of this
type of evangelism, this type of preaching, this type of religion. I don't miss it. And then, fourthly,
I rejoice, I thank God, and I think in this order. First, in convicting
me of sin, opening my eyes to my guilt, I can pray and pray
sincerely, God forgive me of my sins, in revealing Christ
my Lord and Savior. I have a strong, a strong hope
in Christ. I know that salvation is totally
in the Lord Jesus and in what he did for us, not what we have
done for him. And I'm glad that God has brought
us out of this false showmanship, and that's what it is. And fourthly,
I rejoice and thank God for teaching me the gospel of sovereign grace.
Back several years ago, God revealed to me the truth of his sovereignty,
of his power, and of his might. and of his purpose. The trials
through which I have passed in the last two or three years,
I don't think I could have borne them if I had not realized and
been taught by the Spirit of God the purpose of God and the
sovereignty of God. I'm not saying that I could not
have endured them, but I don't believe that I could. The thing
that gives me strength in every trial is relying totally on the
belief and confidence that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh
away, blessed be the name of the Lord, and that he makes no
mistakes, that whatever he does, he does it on purpose for his
glory and for our good. Now, you can take that and apply
it to any trial and to any conflict and to any situation. I don't
care what it is, whatever it involves. The most severe financial
loss, the most severe personal loss, the most severe loss as
far as health or happiness is concerned. God did it, and God
did it on purpose, and God did it for His glory, and God did
it for your good. And then I thank God that I learned
that the doctrine of total depravity was true. I used to wonder what
was wrong with me and what was wrong with everybody else. I
used to wonder what was wrong with the human race. I used to
wonder Jesus Christ is perfect, Jesus Christ is holy, Jesus Christ
is truth, Jesus Christ is salvation, Jesus Christ is life, Jesus Christ
is the answer. Why don't men believe him? I
couldn't figure out why. But I know now why they don't,
it's because they don't see these things in him. They are blind,
they are dead, they are deaf, they are totally depraved. They
do not have any understanding. They call the bitter sweet and
the sweet bitter and the truth lies and the lies truth. Man
is warped and twisted and perverted from the fall in the Garden of
Eden. I know now what happened. And I can understand man's behavior. He loves darkness. He hates light. He loves evil. He hates good. He loves sin. He hates God. All
of this is born in him. And he has to be born again.
I used to didn't know what the new birth really was. But I realize
now what it is. I know that man has to be given
new life. He has to be given a new nature
by regeneration, by the divine power of God. Election is true. Cannot doubt it. Cannot question
it. It's true. God has chosen a people. God has a people. The Bible said
if it were not for election, if it were not that God had left
us a remnant, we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. If God didn't choose
us, we wouldn't have chosen him. If God had not loved us, we would
have never loved him. I said this afternoon at a funeral,
we're not suns, we're moons. The sun has no power to give
light from itself. It reflects, it responds to the
light of the sun. Take away the sun, the moon is
a dead object. It's a dark object. You take
away Jesus Christ, and we've got nothing. Everything that
we have, we get from Him. We reflect it. We respond to
it. There's nothing in us. Nothing
at all. No light-producing power. And the particular redemption
of our Lord, and the invincible call of the Holy Spirit, and
the perseverance of the saints, these are all indisputable, undeniable
truth. I know there's some people who
who dislike these doctrines, who do not preach them, and who
speak quite strongly against them. I'm not going to say that
these people do not know God. I'm not going to say that they
are not saved. I'm going to say this, and I
believe it's true, that once having been exposed to these
things, rightly preached and rightly presented, and I know
even the truth in some people's hands, using it as a club, brings
resentment. I know that the way some of us
preach, we almost make ourselves enemies of the cross. We take
that which is so, that which is beautiful, and we make it
ugly. That which ought to be received
with thanksgiving, we preach it in such a way that people
resent it. But if a person hears the truth of God's Word, rightly
presented in the power of the Holy Spirit, I believe that if
God's Spirit dwells in that person, he'll receive it. I really do. I believe if it's
presented from one in the leadership and under the guidance of the
Spirit, it'll be received by the other if he has the same
Spirit. Now then, these doctrines of
sovereign grace, of total depravity, of election, a particular redemption,
the invincible call, the perseverance of the saint. These are indisputable,
they are undeniable, because first of all the scriptures teach
them. Now the scripture says, I am the Lord, I create light,
I create darkness, I the Lord do all these things, none can
stay my hand or say unto me, what doest thou? I will have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. The scriptures teach God's sovereignty. The scriptures teach man's depravity. There's none good, no not one.
There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone aside. They all together become unprofitable. The Lord God looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there was any that
did do good, and he found there's none good, no not one. This is
the condemnation, that light has come into this world, but
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. The Bible teaches the doctrine
of divine election. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. Christ said to his disciples,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath chosen us unto everlasting
life from before the foundation of the world according to the
good pleasure of his own will. The Lord Jesus Christ taught
the doctrine of particular redemption He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. A group of Pharisees came to him and said, if you
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you, but you
believe not. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. I said unto you, my sheep hear
my voice, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man can pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I pray not for the world. I pray
for them that thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me." The Scriptures teach the doctrine
of divine call, of irresistible grace, of invincible grace. The Lord, the Son, quickeneth
whom he will. You who were dead in trespasses
and sin hath he quickened, made alive. The Bible teaches the
doctrine of perseverance, except those days be shortened, none
would be saved. The very elect would be deceived.
But he says, for the sake of the elect, the days were shortened.
We are kept by the power of God through faith. He that hath begun
a good work in you is going to finish that work. Now the scriptures
teach these doctrines. We cannot deny it. We cannot
dispute with the Word of God. These doctrines are true. But
not only does the Scripture teach them, but history teaches them.
Every major confession of faith, every confession of faith of
every evangelical denomination of history, every one of them,
through the years, have taught these doctrines. Now, the Christian
Church in this nation, which is actually offspring of the
Church of England. The Church of England, the Church
which was, I think, originally born or organized during the
reign of Henry VIII, when their 39 Articles were drawn up, there isn't a Calvinistic preacher
in the world that could not sign his name to those Articles, those
39 Articles. Not a one. I wouldn't hesitate
one minute, except in the matters of church government and in the
matters of baptism, to incorporate the doctrinal position of the
Church of England into this church right here, to use it as our
confession of faith. I wouldn't hesitate one minute.
It's outstanding. The Church of England produced
men like Isaac Watts, John Newton, John great men. And then the Westminster
Confession of Faith, the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, is practically
the same one that we adopted here back in 1955 when this church
was organized. The Westminster Confession of
Faith teaches all of these doctrines. The London Confession of Faith,
the Baptists of London met somewhere in 1640 or somewhere around there
and drew up a Confession of Faith. And I had a copy of it, read
it slowly and studiously, and devoured it. And that Confession
of Faith is as solid in these doctrines as any that you could
read. The Heidelberg Confession of
Faith, that's the Reformed churches of the northern part of our nation. The old Christian Reformed, the
Dutch Reformed, the Netherland Reformed. and these other reformed
churches. You could subscribe to their
confession of faith in its entirety except for the sprinkling, and
except for their various means of church government and discipline
in the churches. The Philadelphia Confession,
which is the Baptist Confession, the New Hampshire Confession,
watered down, I admit that, but nevertheless sufficient, sufficient,
And then right down here in Louisville at the Southern Baptist Seminary,
back many years ago, they printed what they call an abstract of
principles. I read it a few months ago and
it is just great, just absolutely great. If we didn't have, we
had our Bibles and we didn't have any other confession of
faith, we didn't have any other articles of faith, I'd adopt
that one. Without question, I'd adopt it. It's just as clear
on these doctrines as any confession of faith you've ever read. The
one that Louisville Seminary has today and always has had
since its founding, its organization. And even now, when a new professor
is hired at Louisville Seminary, they call the student body together
in the chapel. They have a table up on the platform
with the president various heads of the various departments. These
men are seated there with a new professor, and when he is, when
they've had the prayer and the speech and so forth, he is called
up there to that table, and he is given a pen, one of these
old quills that you dip in ink, old-fashioned quills, and those
abstract principles are put before him, and he says to the president
and the student body, I accept these principles, I sign my name
to them, I believe them." And he signed them. Every professor
won several signed this year, some more signed next year. You
say, but they don't believe them. I'm not, that's not what I'm
contending right now. I'm simply saying that the Scripture
teaches these doctrines, and I don't care if you join the
Christian Church, the Church of England, the Lutheran Church,
the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Reformed
Churches, and you go back in their libraries and dig out their
confessions of faith and their articles of faith and their catechism,
they'll teach you exactly what I'm preaching tonight. And what
I'm saying is that the people who are in these churches and
not preaching these things ought to be honest and resign. They
ought to be honest and get out of these bodies and organize
a new denomination. Or they could go in some of the
newer denominations like the Church of God or the Holiness
or Pentecostal or some of these because they're not old enough
to have a confession of faith. They didn't even exist back when
these denominations existed, and they don't have anything
like that. Now the third thing. The Scripture teaches these doctrines.
History teaches these doctrines without question. Any man who
knows anything about the history of churches and religion and
Christianity knows that this was the Actually, now it's hard
to find what we call a sovereign grace man. Nowadays, you know,
if somebody moves to a town, they write me and they say in
Memphis or in Nashville or in Knoxville, they write me and
say, my husband's been transferred to Knoxville. Do you know of
anybody in Knoxville that preaches these doctrines? And I write
back and I say, no, I don't know anybody in Knoxville that preaches
those doctrines. You know anybody in Memphis?
Yes, I know a young man in Memphis that has a fine church that you
can go to his church and hear this doctrine. I said, Dr. Magruder
in Louisville, do you know anybody in Louisville that preaches this
message? No, I don't know anybody in Louisville
that preaches this message. But back 200 years ago, a fellow
had to hunt an Armenian. They were the ones that couldn't
be found. Every man, they may have drawn to these doctrines,
they may have been so dull that nobody wanted to listen to them,
they may have read their sermon, they may have been dead in their
doctrines and dead in their beliefs and dead in their worship and
dead in their evangelism, but brother, they were dead right.
They were dead right. They had the doctrines. They
may not have had the Spirit, they may not have had the fire,
they may not have had the evangelism, but they sure had the doctrines.
And as Spurgeon said, there wasn't a child in his church seven years
old that couldn't recite the five points of Calvinism. So
history teaches them. Now personal experience teaches
them. Let me point out three things.
First of all, there's only one place that a man will truly worship. You say, where has worship gone
in this day? Where has worship gone? Why is
there no spirit of worship? Well, there's only one place
that a man really will worship. You know where that is? That's
at the throne of a sovereign God. That's the only place a
man will really worship. Now if you turn to Psalms 50
and look at verse 21. Psalms 50, verse 21. Now watch
this. Psalms 50, verse 21. These things, hast thou done, and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. What's wrong today? I'll tell
you what's wrong. Man has tried in his sermons
and in his mind and in his writings and in his religion and in his
churches, he brought God down here. And people will argue with
an equal. They'll argue with an equal.
Somebody come in and say, Brother Mayan, why in the world didn't
you do this? Why in the world didn't you do that? Brother Ronnie,
why in the world don't you do so and so? Well, because I didn't
know. Well, you ought to study. You
ought to learn these things. See, you'll argue with an equal.
Why did God bring this into my life? I don't see why God would
permit this to happen to me. I've served him. I've given to
his church, I've been faithful, why should this happen to me?
See, you've got a little God, you'll argue with him. And then
you'll bargain with the little God. Peanut God, men will bargain
with him. Say, now Lord, if you'll let
me get my promotion this month, I'll tell you, I promise to give
more to the church. I'll tell you what I'll do, God,
if you'll give me a promotion, Then I promise that from now
on, I'm going to give $5 a week more to the mission and to the
church. If you'll let me accomplish what
I've set out to do. You don't talk that way to a
God who's sovereign. You talk that way to an equal.
You say, Ronnie, I'll tell you what you do. You come over and help
me cut my grass, and I'll come help you cut your grass. Is that
a square deal? See, we'll bargain with an equal.
But a sovereign God, Lord, if you don't take my job away from
me, that's your business. Men will argue, they'll bargain,
they'll debate with an equal, a weakling, but I'll tell you
there ain't but one thing to do before God who holds your
life in his hands, who holds your family in his hands, who
holds your eternal destiny in his hands, who can give faith
or withhold it, who can save you or damn you, who can take
you to heaven or to hell, and that's fall on your knees and
worship. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. Why? Because God's not the God
they've been hearing about and the God that they've been preaching
is not a God. He's an idol. He's an old silly
granddaddy sitting up there in heaven hoping somebody will let
him in their heart. And then the second thing, there's
only one place to find a certain hope, a certain hope, and that's
at the throne of sovereign mercy. Turn to Psalm 115, verse 3. They said, David, where's your
God? Psalm 115, verse 2. Our God's
down here in the temple of Diana. Our God is down here in the temple
of Jupiter. Our God is down here in some
other temple. We worship this God, the sun
God. We worship the high priest of
the sun. Where's your God, David? David
said, verse 3, Psalm 15, our God's in the heaven. And he hath
done whatsoever he pleased. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men. And they have mouths, but they
can't speak. Our God can speak, and the world
will burn up. Their gods have eyes, but they
don't see. Our God sees even in the darkness. Whither shall
I flee from thy presence? I go to heaven, thou art there.
I go to hell, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, thou art there. Even
the darkness is light about thee. Our God hath done whatsoever
he pleased. Now I want to show you something
that I looked up several years ago that was a blessing to me. I wrote it down as one of, I
think, my better sermons on the subject, It Pleased God. Turn
to 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter 12. Now David said, Our God is in
the heavens, and I'm going to describe him to you. I'm going
to give you some way by which you might recognize him, identify
him. He's done what he pleases. That's
the way to tell the true God, the living God, the God of heaven. He does what he pleases. Now,
what did it please him to do? I sat down with a concordance
one day and I found out in 1 Samuel 12, 22, it says here, the Lord
will not forget his people for his great name's sake, because
it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Now if you, we
call ourselves the people of God, the sons of God. How did
we get to be the people of God? It pleased Him to make us His
people. How did I get to be a son of
God? It pleased God to make me a son. Now turn to Colossians
1, 19. Here's something else it pleased
God to do, and this goes through the Scripture. Watch it as we
read it. Colossians 1, verse 19. It says here, For it pleased
the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. It pleased
God to make him our surety. It pleased God to make him our
representative. It pleased God to make him our
head. It pleased God to put in Christ
all fullness, all that we need. Now turn to Isaiah 53, 10. Here's
something else it pleased God to do. Isaiah 53, verse 10. It
says here, yet it pleased the Lord, to bruise him. He went to Calvary's cross, but
who sent him there? The pleasure of the Lord. He
suffered under our guilt and our sins, but who sent him there?
The pleasure of the Lord. He was our substitute, our redeemer,
our atonement, but how'd he get to that place? It pleased God
to put him there. It pleased the Lord. Then Paul
said, and I'll quickly move on, Galatians 1.15, he said, It pleased
God to reveal his Son to me. A blasphemer, injurious, a despiser
of Christ, it pleased God to reveal him to me. And then 1
Corinthians 1.21, I read tonight our text, It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now then, the third thing. The
Scripture teaches these doctrines. History teaches these doctrines. Personal experience teaches these
doctrines. For the only place a man will
really worship is at the throne of a sovereign God. The only
place that a man can find a certain hope, a confidence, is at the
throne of a sovereign God. And there's only one place to
find comfort, and that's at the throne of a sovereign God, a
God of purpose. A God who does nothing by accident,
but works all things according to the good pleasure of his own
will. I'll call as witnesses three men. First of all, there
was Eli. And Samuel, the young prophet,
came to him and Eli said, Samuel, God's been talking to you, hasn't
he? Samuel said, yes, sir. He said, what did God tell you?
Samuel said, I'd rather not say. Eli said, well, the Lord do the
same to you if you don't tell me. And young Samuel said, well,
I'll tell you, but it's going to upset you. Eli said, you tell
me what the Lord told you. Samuel said, the Lord told me
because of your son's rebellion, he's going to destroy them, both
of them. All right, this man Eli now is faced with the loss
of both of his children. This man Eli is faced with a
broken heart. with the destruction and the
wrath of God falling upon his house, what's going to be his
reaction? Where is he going to reach to get something to hold
to? Where is he going to go to find
some place of comfort and peace in this tragic situation? Listen to it. It is the Lord,
let him do what seemeth good in his sight. You see where he
went for his peace? See where he went for his comfort?
He went to the sovereignty of God. God cannot do wrong. Everything
he does, he does for his glory and for our good. I called Job.
They'd come in one at a time and told Job how that his sons
had died and his daughters had died and his cattle was dead
and his wealth was gone and his property destroyed. He was wiped
out. Here's a man at one time was
up on a mountain Two hours later was in the depths of despair
having lost everything Where does he go? Where does he reach? He said the Lord giveth the Lord
taketh away Blessed be the name of the Lord. I called the Apostle
Paul to witness Paul, who said over here in the book of Corinthians
that he suffered as no man has ever suffered for Christ. He
bore in his body the marks of Jesus Christ. He was three times
scourged. He was beaten with rods four
or five times. He was stoned and left for dead
outside the city of Lystra. He was shipwrecked. He was in
the deep floating on a block of wood for a day and a night.
He was put in prison. He was forsaken by false brethren,
he suffered something terrible. But listen to him, where does
he go for his comfort? He said, all things work together
for good to them who love God, who are called according to his
purpose. There's no other place you can turn. All right. Now
we love this gospel of grace. We're thankful God revealed it
to us. We would not turn back. It is the answer. It is the truth.
I could not go back into this showmanship, into this phoniness,
into this false religion, into this religion with no depth and
no foundation, because the Scripture teaches what we believe. History
teaches it. Personal experience teaches it. We love this gospel. Now then,
we want to preach it. We want to share it with others.
How are we going to do it? How are we going to preach this
gospel in order that we might present the sovereignty of God
and yet press upon man his personal responsibility? If a man is saved and taken to
glory, it's because God did it, right? But if a man goes to hell,
it's not because God did it. If a man is saved, it's God's
fault, right? We know that. Salvation is of
the Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord and of Him only. Isn't that true? But if a man
goes to hell, is that God's fault too? No, that's not true. If a man goes to hell, it's his
own fault. If he goes to heaven, it's because
God had mercy on him. If he goes to hell, it's to pay
for his rebellion and his sin. Now those two things are true.
And we've got to preach it so that we do not lay the responsibility
for damnation at the feet of God. It's got to be laid at its
rightful place, at the feet of man. Now the glory for saving
men, the praise for redeeming men, is laid at the feet of God. Our crowns will be put at His
feet. Brethren, men go to hell. because they're sinners, not
because of any insufficiency in the power or the blood of
the Son of God. Secondly, we've got to preach
this gospel and present repentance and faith as the gift of God.
The goodness of God leadeth me to repentance. If you're here
tonight and you have repented and you are repenting, if you
are a penitent person, you have to say, God gave me repentance. Repentance wasn't born in my
heart. It's not because I'm any different
from anybody else. Who maketh thee to differ, the
scripture says. Where is that? In 2nd Corinthians
chapter something. Who maketh thee to differ? Who
maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou hast
not received? If I am a penitent sinner, God
made the difference. Faith. Faith's the gift of God.
The disciples prayed, Lord, increase our faith. The centurion, who
was no theologian, Yet he knew the source of faith, because
he said, Lord, help my unbelief. Faith and repentance are the
gift of God. And yet, we're going to have
to preach so that we command all men to repent. The Bible
says that God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And
God commands men to believe the gospel. A man is not due any
praise for believing what's so. A man is not due any credit for
believing what's true. He's due some criticism for denying
what's true, but he's not due any credit for believing what's
true. It's three minutes to eight.
You say, well, I believe that. Hooray for me. No, not hooray
for you. You ought to believe it. That's
what time it is. Well, I don't believe it, Preacher.
Now you do a little criticism, now I know you're playing the
fool, you say, it's Freeman's day whether you believe it or
not. You say, God's on the throne, I believe it. Well, he's on the
throne whether I believe it or not. You see what I'm saying? And we've got to present the
gospel and command men to repent and command men to believe. Now
watch this. We've got to present the gospel
of how God can be just and justifier And yet at the same time preaching
in such a way that we call upon men, as Paul said, I persuade
men. I beseech you, be ye reconciled
to God. I beseech you, brethren, present
your body a living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable
service. Knowing the terror of the Lord,
I persuade men, he said. We've got to preach the gospel
of God being just and justifier and effectually satisfying His
justice and putting away our sin and honoring His law. That's all beautiful. That's
all well and good. But we're going to have to put
men on the precipice of a Christless eternity, as Jonathan Edwards
did, so that they held on to the back of their pews and cried
for God to keep them out of hell. We've got to preach so that we
can persuade men to flee the wrath to come, to seek the mercy
of God, to call on the name of Christ, to beg to be delivered,
to take the kingdom of God with violence, to seek first the kingdom
of God. We want men to understand the
doctrines, but doctrine won't save. Christ is the Savior. A man will never learn Christ
from doctrine. but he'll learn doctrine from
Christ. And I'm afraid Spurgeon used
to complain in his day of men who preached about the gospel
but never got around to preaching the gospel. And Augustus' top
lady told about an old preacher, Dr. Geise, who lived in his day. He was a learned theologian.
He'd spend hours in his studying. He prepared his manuscript for
every Sunday morning and every Sunday night. And he just wore
the people out with these long expositions on the doctrines
and theological studies in the divine mysteries of the doctrines
of grace. And the church kept getting smaller
and smaller and deader and deader and no converts. And this is
a true story. And one Sunday morning he got
up to pray. In that old church, the children
were there and the parents were there because it was the Lord's
Day, it was the Sabbath, and everybody had to keep the Sabbath,
first of all, by going to church, but everybody who was there wished
he wasn't there and didn't have to endure the dry, dead, two-hour
sermon from old Dr. Garcia, who was on his last leg. And the old man stood up for
his pastoral prayer, and one man up in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
who pastored a Baptist church, used to pray 22 minutes every
service. That's how long he prayed. He
was pastor of the church, and one of the members said, you
could get your stopwatch out, and when he started praying,
Our Father, you could click it, and 22 minutes later, exactly,
you could click it when he said Amen, and that's exactly how
long he prayed. 22 minutes. And old Dr. Gosher began his
sermon, or began his prayer. And he prayed, and he prayed,
and he prayed. And finally he brought that prayer
to a close and opened his eyes. He was blind as a bat. Couldn't
see a thing. And the old man began to tremble,
and he began to weep, and he began to rub his eyes. And he
still couldn't see. He was totally blind. He had
all his manuscript there, and he couldn't see a word that he'd
written. He couldn't see a word that he'd prepared. And he realized
he was possibly preaching his last sermon. And so he stood
there with tears streaming down his cheeks, and he began to tell
how that Christ loved him and died for him. And he began to
tell his experience. He began to preach not out of
his head, but out of his heart. He began to preach not from his
manuscript, but from his personal relationship with Christ. And
he began to plead with the sinners there, before they got as old
as he was, and standing on the brink of eternity, to turn to
the Son of God. And the power of the Holy Spirit
fell on that church for the first time in thirty years, and people
began to stream down to the front, and fall on their faces there
at the front, and weep, and cry, and beg God to show mercy. Revival
swept through that church. And as two of the deacons took
the old man by the arm to lead him out of his pulpit for the
last time, take him back there to study, one of them said, isn't
it a shame, he didn't go blind 20 years ago, isn't it a shame
to think that we could have been hearing messages like that for
all these years instead of those dead, dry, cold, legalistic,
theological manuscripts. Brethren, Isaac came to the top
of Mount Morau with his father, and he said, Father, here's the
wood, here's the altar, here's the fire, where's the lamp? And brethren, I've read a lot
of sermons where I could find here's the doctrine, here's the theological exactness,
Here's the preacher in the pulpit, here's the congregation in the
Sabbath day, but where's Christ? I picked up a preacher's bulletin
before I left home. I was sitting reading it. One,
two, three, four pages of a bulletin, printed in small type, single
space. The gospel, Jesus Christ, the
blood atonement, the cross of the Son of God, how to be saved,
wasn't in there on any of the four pages. Here's the organization. Here's the promotion. Here's
the theological training. Here's the minister. Here's the
crowd. Where's the Son of God? Where's the cross? Where's the
blood? Where's the life? It's not there.
Somebody said, well, I wasn't preaching on the cross, and you
ought not have been preaching. Somebody else ought to have been
up there preaching. But I wasn't preaching an evangelical message,
and please move over and let somebody up there that will preach
an evangelical message. People are going to hell. The
people who are listening to us preach. Last Wednesday night,
I preached to a man down in Owensboro. And Friday afternoon, he was
working over at the GE plant. He was a head plumber, and he
was bending over a boiler. And that thing exploded and blew
him through a plasterboard wall. He was critically injured, severely
burned, over 50% of his body. His nose was split off and laying
down on his chin. His lip was split all the way
up through his cheek. And he was put in intensive care
and critical condition when I left there Saturday morning. He heard
me preach Wednesday night. Brethren, we're talking to people
who are going to hell. We're talking to people who are
perishing under the wrath of God. And here we are trying to
split hairs and quarter hairs and find out what the fourth
leg and one of the seven horsemen or four horsemen or some other
horsemen in the book of Revelation means during the days of tribulation.
It don't make a bit of difference. But it does make a difference
whether that man who's bending over that boiler knows Christ.
It does make a difference whether that boy who shoulders his gun
and goes to face the enemy knows Christ. It does matter whether
that young woman or young man who's listening to you preach
knows Christ. That does matter. You can't gather sheep without
a shepherd or a body without a head. You can't have a bride
without a bridegroom or a feast without the bread. You can't
grow branches without the vine, a well without a spring. You
can't offer a sacrifice without the lamb, and you can't have
a kingdom without a king. Paul sets the example for us,
and I'll quit. I've got some more points I'll
tell those fellows about, but I'm going to quit tonight. I
preached to you too much anyhow. In 1 Corinthians 1.23, Paul was
a man of one subject. Paul shunned not to declare the
whole counsel of God, but he summed it up in one sentence.
He said in 1 Corinthians 1.23, I preach Christ crucified. I preach Christ crucified. In
the cross you will see God's sovereignty as nowhere else.
In the cross, you'll see human depravity as nowhere else. It's
spat in his face. Oh, man shows his hatred and
contempt for holiness at Calvary, Worcester, any other place. You
want to convince men of their depravity, take them to the cross.
If they can't see it there, they can't see it anywhere else. Forgiveness
of sin is found at the cross. Hell, we're brought face to face
with hell. At the cross, Christ said, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's the essence of hell, to
be separated from God. Heaven is at the cross. He says
to the thief on the cross, today thou shalt be with me. That's
heaven. You want to preach heaven, preach the cross. If you want
to preach faith, preach the cross. If you want to preach love, preach
the cross. Love one another as I've loved
you. If you want to preach...