They Led Him By the Hand

If we are effective in doing
what we set out to do, then we don't have to tell people
what we're doing. But I'm going to tell you anyway,
and then try by God's grace to do it. And that is apply what
I read to you a few moments ago from Acts chapter 9 to our present
religious situation. I think we need to preach to
our day. I think this is one of the failures of ministers
today, is they're not preaching to their generation. They're
not making an application of the Word of God. The Word of
God in a history book is not very effective to make. Talking
about the prayers of Moses and the faith of Abraham and the
revelations of the I need those prayers and that faith and those
revelations personally. Now, we run into this man Saul
of Tarsus back here in chapter 7 at the stoning of Stephen,
when Stephen had preached in Acts 7, verse 54. Now, note this
carefully. Acts 7, verse 54, when they heard
these things, when they heard what Stephen preached, they were
cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their But he, being
full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly in the heaven
and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand
of God. These weren't the rabble, the
paupers, the drunkards, the dregs of the gutter gnashing their
teeth on this man Stephen because of what he preached. These were
religious people, devout religious Jews. And he said in verse 56,
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God. And then they cried out with
a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one
accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him to death. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." There he
is. His path of hatred and persecution
continued in chapter 8. Look at verse 1 of chapter 8.
And Saul, this young man, was consenting unto his death. He
agreed with the death, the stoning, the horrible death of Stephen.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church,
which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad. throughout
the regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles. And devout
men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over
him, as for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, entering into
every house and hailing men and women, committing them to prison. Then we come to chapter 9, verses
1 and 2, and Saul is shown here in his extreme opposition to
this man, Jesus Christ. In verse 1 of Acts 9, Saul, breathing
out threatenings and slaughtering against the disciples of the
Lord, went to the high priest and desired of him letters to
Damascus. He wanted to go clear out of
town and find these people. to the synagogue that if he found
any of this way, of this way, of this way, whether they were men or women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now, you would judge
by reading, if you read only this account right here, if that's
all the information you had on Saul of Tarsus, you'd come to
this conclusion, that he was a profane, political, power-mad
heathen, wouldn't But that's not so. In fact, Saul of Tarsus,
in his opinion and in the opinion of his associates, was a moral,
religious, God-fearing man. He was an Orthodox theologian. He was the star among the Pharisees. He said, I was born of the tribe
of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, and
concerning the law of God I was blameless. Saul had no quarrel with the
creation story. I hear the fundamentalists say
today, we believe in the blessed book. Saul did too. He had no quarrel whatsoever
with the creation story. He would have not been a liberal
As far as creation is concerned, he would have been an ultra-conservative.
He would have accepted, he would have adopted, he would have taught,
he did the creation just like it's taught in Genesis 1 and
2. He knew about the fall. He believed in the fall of Adam.
He knew all about it. He was a theologian. He had no
quarrel with verbal inspiration. Saul believed the book from cover
to cover. Remember, the New Testament had
not been written. God used him to write most of
it. But he believed the scriptures. He was a student of the scriptures.
In fact, Christ said of these Pharisees, you search the scriptures,
in them you think you have life. These people believed the scriptures.
They defended the scriptures. They fought for the scriptures.
Saul would have accepted Jonah's story. Just like it's written,
the flood, no question whatsoever. He had no quarrel with the law
of God. He believed there shall be no other gods. He believed
you were not to take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
He was a defender of the law. He said, you take the law of
God and stack my life up beside it and I'll come out, he says,
blameless. That's exactly what he said.
He had no quarrel with the Sabbath day. He had no quarrel with worship. None whatsoever. He was an orthodox,
religious, moral, zealous contender for his faith. Saul's wrath and
opposition revolved around one issue, not the inspiration of
the Scripture, not whether there's a heaven or a hell, not whether
or not the Bible is God's Word, not whether or not God created
the world, no sir. Not whether or not Jonah was
really swallowed by a great fish, or whether there was an art and
was a flood, he would have been right on your side. What was
the issue that brought forth his wrath and his opposition,
his hatred? Who is Jesus Christ? That's what
it was all about. Who is he? What did he do? Why did he come into this world?
That was the problem. Saul knew of the birth of Christ,
he knew he was born in Bethlehem, he knew he was raised in Nazareth.
Saul knew of his followers, sinners, publicans, harlots. Saul knew
of his doctrine, he knew what Christ taught. I and my Father
are one. Before Abraham was, I am. The
Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. Yes, sir, he
knew what Christ taught. He knew of his power, all the
Pharisees did. Nicodemus, one of their spokesmen,
said, No man could do what you do except God be with him. Saul
knew of his death on the cross of Calvary. Saul had heard reports
of his resurrection, for he said to one great king, This was not
done in a corner. I'm persuaded you know about
it. He said, I knew about it. I knew about it. But there was
just no way, no way under God's heaven that Jesus of Nazareth
was going to be bowed to by Saul, worshiped by Saul, and received
by Saul as his Lord and Savior. No way. Saul was a Jew. He didn't need anyone to reveal
God to him. The Jews are all God's children.
Does that sound familiar? We don't need a revelation, we
don't need a prophet. Are not all men the children
of God? That's what Saul thought. We are all sons of Abraham. Abraham
is our father. What meaneth this man to say,
You don't know God? Saul says, We do know God. Do
we not have our temples and our synagogues? Do we not have our
chapels and our cathedrals? Do we not have our churches and
our meetings? Do we not have our houses of
God? We know God. We are all children of God. What
meaneth this man, Jesus Christ, to say, You are of your father,
the devil? No wonder they got angry. You
don't know God, he said. You don't know God. This generation
knows God. Everybody knows God. That's what
the signs all say. Smile, God loves you. God's the
father of all men. We're all sons of God. We're
all children of God. Don't you know about the fatherhood
of God, preacher, and the brotherhood of man? Everybody's a child of
God. That's what Saul said. Why, he said, I don't need anybody
to reveal God to me. I know God. I don't need anybody
to bring me back into a relationship with God. I never left God. I
don't need anybody to make me a son of God. I'm already a son
of God. And then Saul says, I'm a moral
man. I'm not only a son of God, I'm not only a child of God,
the father of us all, but I'm a moral man. I don't need mercy.
Oh, I may need a little help, but I don't need mercy. I may
need a little push here and there and something added here and
there, but I don't need mercy. I only need to be recognized
for what I am, a sincere, religious, moral man. Saul would have prayed
like that Pharisee in the temple, God, I thank thee, I was born
in a Christian home. I thank thee, God, that I've
never done what other men have done. I've never said what other
men have said. I thank thee, Lord, that I am
better. than others. I'm not an adulterer,
I'm not an extortioner, I'm not unjust. I fast, I tithe, I pray,
I give alms to the poor, I go to church, I read my Bible. I
don't need mercy. I don't need mercy. That was
his quarrel. I don't need anyone to make me
a son of God, I'm already a son of God. I don't need mercy, I
need to be recognized. That's all! And then he was a
devoutly religious man, devoted to the traditions handed down
to him by the Fathers. You know, my friends, what I
fear as much as anything in the world? I fear being bound without
investigation and without revelation to what I've been taught in the
past. Because I know that there's a way that seems right to man,
And the way is destruction. I know that our thoughts are
not God's thoughts. I know what seems logical to
us. I know what seems wise to us.
I know what seems right to us. I know what seems orthodox to
us. It is not of God. I tremble about this. You know
that woman, when Christ stood at Jacob's well? And he said,
if you ask me, I'll give you living water. She said, listen
to her, are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us
this well? Saul held on to his tradition.
Another one said to him one time, why, you're not fifty years old,
have you seen Abraham? We've got our customs and our
mode of worship and our form of worship and our creeds and
our doctrines that have been handed down to us and I'm afraid
on many occasions have been swallowed without investigation, without
searching the scriptures, without determining, is this really what
God says? We take what we believe, we take
what we've been taught, we take what we want to believe, and
we start searching the scriptures to prove it. Isn't that right?
That is right. We take our doctrines, we take
our customs, we take our traditions, whether it's Baptist or Methodism
or Presbyterianism or Campbellism or Catholicism or whatever the
ism, we take our systematic theology and we take our creeds, hand
it down to us by our sainted old grandparents and parents,
and we try to prove them by God's word. That's what Saul did, he
accepted everything that was handed down to him, he was a
devoutly religious man devoted to the traditions of his fathers
and the customs of his religion, and he wasn't about to change
for Jesus Christ or anybody else. No such. But he was a righteous
man. He needed no mediator, he needed
no righteousness fulfilled by another, especially one of free,
unmerited grace. Grace is for the guilty, and
he wasn't guilty. Mercy is for the miserable, and
he wasn't miserable. The most difficult man in this
world, the most difficult woman in this world, the most gospel-hardened
person that ever lived, is a person in religion. That's so. We see that right here in the
life of this man, Saul of Tarsus. There are advantages to being
born to Christian parents and taking the Church all your lives.
There are some advantages. Yes, sir, Paul said, Timothy,
from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures that are
able to make thee wise unto salvation. You're not saved already. God
has to do a work of grace for you. Too often we get wrapped
up in our sprinkling and confirmations and catechisms and teachings
and in this rut of religion, and we grow up a sect in the
traditions and we're never born again, we're never regenerated,
we're never brought to a living encounter with the Son of God.
And when we get wrapped up, wrapped up in this religious background
and heritage, it's a false refuge. You're saved just like the drunkard,
or you're not saved at all. You're saved just like the harlot,
or you're not saved at all. You're saved just like the lowest
thief that ever lived, or you're not saved at all. You come to
Christ as empty-handed as any sinner that ever came to Christ,
or you don't come at all, and that's what kept Saul away. He
could not come that way. He was a righteous man, he was
a religious man, he was a devout man, he was a clean man. But he hated Jesus Christ. Oh,
how much like present-day religion is this example, solid Tarsus.
And my friends, there are just two things God can and will do
where you are concerned, if any of you are here tonight. And
that is leave you in your false refuge. Leave you there. Leave you in your false refuge
of religion. Leave you to die in your blindness.
Leave you to die in your tradition. Leave you to die in your religious
orthodoxy and meet you at the judgment. And here you say, Lord,
I preached, I did many wonderful works, I built churches, I cast
out demons, I did all these things, I never knew you, I never knew
you, I never knew you. God Almighty can leave you to
establish your own righteousness, and then when you come to the
judgment, expose it as filthy rags to you for the first time. If your righteousness does not
appear unto you as filthy rags here, it will there. And if it
does here, it won't there. God can leave you in your pride
and leave you in your blindness and leave you to defend your
religion and your denomination, defend it, defend it to the death,
and then judge you and send you away from him, or do what he
did for Saul of Tarsus. What did he do for him? Well,
he broke him, he humbled him, he brought him down. And this
is what God is going to do for every one of his own. Every one
of them. He's going to bring them to the
path of conviction. He's going to bring them through
the path of repentance. He's going to bring them down
the path of humility. He's going to bring them down
the path of subjection and submission. He's going to bring every one
of them that way, no matter where he finds them. No matter where
he finds them. Oh, Saul began this journey riding
in splendor. Where did he finish it? In the
dust. But it's the best thing that
could have happened. He began this journey. Oh, he
left Jerusalem, going to Damascus, the important, recognized, outstanding,
well-known, famous Saul of Tarsus, leading his army in a battle
against Jesus Christ and these sovereign gracers. He started
that way, and he wound up in the dust. He wound up on the
ground. He started the journey calling
Jesus Christ an imposter. He wound up calling him Lord.
That's right. That's got to take place. You
might say, I've always believed in Jesus. No, sir. No, sir. That's too long. You might have
believed in the God of your imagination. But you haven't always believed
in him who is Lord. He has to be revealed. He has
to be revealed. If you've never been lost, you've
never been found. That's so. I'm not asking you
to pinpoint a day or an hour or a moment or a place or an
event or a feeling or an experience. I'm asking you this. Have you
ever been lost? If you've never been lost, you've
never been found. Have you ever been stripped?
Saul had to be stripped. God Almighty's children have
got to be stripped, they've got to have the fig leaf apron ripped
off before they'll be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
They've got to see themselves as they are before they'll see
him in his glory. That woman that was down at his
feet, bathing his feet with tears and drying them with the hair
of her head, and that religious, you see the difference? There
she was, off the streets. Everybody knew her, the men in
there knew her. And there she was, bathing his
feet. And he turned to her and said, Woman, your sins are forgiven.
And this Pharisee, Simon, looked at him and said, under his breath,
probably to somebody, I said, Now, if that man were really
a prophet, he'd know that woman's a sinner. And he wouldn't let
her touch him. And Christ knew what he thought.
He said, Simon, let me ask you something. Say your own last
thing. He said, Simon, if two men were in debt to the same
man, one of them owed him an enormous sum, half a million
gold pieces, and another owed him twenty. Say he forgave both
of them, just counseled both deaths. Simon, which one of them
am I going to love him the most? Well, Simon said the one to whom
he forgave the most. Simon, you've spoken the truth. Even a natural man's got that
much sense. And Simon, I say this to you, I came in your house
and you didn't even give me any water to wash my feet. And this
woman has bathed my feet with tears. And Simon, I came in your
house and you didn't give me a kiss of greeting. This woman
kissed my feet. And Simon, when I came in your
house, you ignored me completely. You didn't give me any anointment
for my head, and this woman has anointed my feet with precious
oil. Simon, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are all
forgiven. He didn't finish the statement,
but you can finish it. And Simon, you sit up there in
your religion and in your piety and in your self-righteousness
and in your smug traditions of religion and perish and go to
hell. The publicans and the harlots
enter heaven before you. You're going to find them in
heaven and yourself shut out because you've never been broken.
Yes, sir. He'll do one of two things. He
has to. Christ Jesus in glory has to
be the theme of our song. All the crowns have to be laid
at his feet. He will not share his glory.
Every voice has got to say, unto him who loved us and washed us
from our sin, they've got to. And before they ever sing that
song there, they've got to learn it down here. This is where you
learn it. And God Almighty, every one of
us are religious by nature, every one of us. And if God Almighty
leaves you in the tradition you were raised in and the custom
you were brought up in and the false refuge in which you've
hid yourself and the cover is too short and the bed is too
narrow, he can leave you there or he can operate on you, and
if he operates on you, he's got to cut your foundations out from
under you. He's got to expose you. He's
got to humble you. If you won't be exposed and won't
be humble to yourself, That's who he deals with, yourself.
Saul started out the journey riding in splendor and wound
up on the ground, wallowing in the dust. Saul started out calling
Jesus Christ an imposter. He wound up calling him Lord.
He started out seeing all things. He wound up seeing nothing. This
is something else God does for the people he saves. You say, I'll take all these
things I've learned from my youth up. You ain't learned nothing
until you meet Christ. You've got to start all over.
That's right, you've got to start all over. You don't know anything.
But you mean to tell me if I meet Christ, if I come to a real,
vital, living relationship with him, that I can't use what I've
learned? That's exactly what I'm saying,
because you've learned wrong. Saul of Tarsus was blinded. He started out seeing everything
and wound up seeing nothing. And God Almighty, before he let
him preach, he sent him off into Arabia for three and a half years
to start all over. You see, the Bible is not a book
that a natural man can memorize and rationalize and learn. It
has to be revealed. And everything in this book has
to be learned in its relationship to Christ. A person who does
not know Christ does not know the scriptures. I don't care
how much he can quote, I don't care how much doctrine he knows,
I don't care how orthodox he is, if he doesn't know Christ,
he doesn't know the Word of God. And so, Christ is the Word of
God. He told those Pharisees, you
air, you don't know the scriptures because you don't know the power
of God. He took his disciples and he took the scriptures and
showed them the things concerning him. Moses wrote of me, so how
can you understand Moses if you don't know me? Isaiah is the
gospel of the Old Testament. How can you understand Isaiah
if you don't know Christ? This is what God will do for
you. And I'll tell you, it's the best thing that will ever
happen to you, to lose all your religious knowledge and all your
religious tradition and all your religious custom, and fall down
at the feet of Christ and say, I'm blind, I'm in darkness, I'm
a child, I'm ignorant, Lord, start me out right, start me
out at the cross, and I'll go from there. You don't arrive
at Christ through doctrine. You started wrong. You're going
to teach your children religion, you're wasting your time. You've
got to start at the cross, teach them Christ. That's right. You arrive at doctrine through
Christ. You start at the cross and go from there. You don't
start out here and go to the cross. Preach Christ to them. Paul,
Saul of Tarsus, began the journey of a leader. You know, I was
looking at this verse the other day, and somebody in the study
was talking to me, and I read this scripture. In Saul, verse
8 of Acts 9, it says, Oh, what a humbling experience, right
in the full view of all those men. Here he is down there on
the ground, blind. The great leader, the great opponent,
the great Pharisee, the righteous man, on his expedition to do
away with this name of Jesus Christ and carry on the religion
that he had been taught by his fathers. And God Almighty was
pleased in his grace to bring him down. And here he is down
in the dust, and he got up and he dusted himself off and wiped
off his eyes and opened them, and he couldn't see. And this
great man who started the journey as a leader, it said, and they
led him by the hand. Don't you know the humility of
that? Can't you see the humility? These fellows weren't anything
to him, they were just his instruments of wrath. These soldiers that
were with him, these paid hirelings. These people that were beneath
his dignity to associate with or have anything to do with,
these people that had not climbed his ladder of knowledge and his
ladder of accomplishment and his ladder of righteousness,
they took him by the hand. And that's what God will do. He'll take an instrument that
you hold in utter contempt and he'll lead you by that And he sure will. Our Lord said
in Matthew 18, in verse 1, at the same time the disciples asked
the Lord Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven? And the Master called a little child, and the scripture
says he set that little child right in the middle of them.
Let me tell you something, you doctors of divinity, let me tell
you something, you masters of divinity, let me tell you something,
you orthodox theologians. I say unto you, except you be
converted and become as little children, you shall not enter
into the kingdom of God. Yes, sir, if a man won't be humble,
he'll be judged. If a man won't be broken, he'll
be damned. If a man won't be brought down
low. Old Naoman had the leprosy, and he came to the prophet of
God, and he said, I've come for you to heal me. And the prophet
of God looked it up there, there's that general, there he is with
his gold braid and his fine uniform and all these hirelings behind
him. Standing there with his medals
clinking and clanging on his chest and his sword by his side,
the Prophet of God said to his servant, said, Go out there and
tell him to go down to the Jordan River and dip seven times. And
boy, Naaman got angry. He stomped his feet. He went
off in a rage, the Scripture said, a rage. Who does he think
he is? Who does he think he is? Why,
he said the rivers in Damascus are far better than the rivers
down here, this muddy Jordan. Who does he think he is? But
I'll tell you this, before he was cleansed, he went down. The way up is down. The way up
is not up. The way up in this world is up,
but the way up in God's world is down. That's right. God will
break you, God will break you. God saveth such as be of a broken
heart. God is known to them of a broken
heart. God saveth them that be of a
contrite spirit. God resisteth the proud. God
giveth grace to the humble. Before God Almighty will save
a man, religious or otherwise, or a woman, he'll break them.
That way he gets the glory. This is the keynote. This is
the vital area. This is the missing note in present-day
preaching. Now, I don't know everything,
but I know this. I know this is the missing note. People are
being saved today who have never been lost. I'm not saying, like I said a
moment ago, I'm not saying you've got to pinpoint a day or an hour.
I'm afraid of that, too. I'm afraid of extremes. I'm afraid
of people who can take you back to the place and the day and
the hour. What scares me is they put too
much emphasis on that place and not enough on Christ. They put
too much emphasis on that experience and not on him who saved them.
Now, Saul could take you to the place, but not many of us have
that type of experience. But I'm saying this, if you've
never been lost, if you've never been a sinner, if you've If you've
never been broken, if you've never been without hope, if you've
never been without God, if you've never been stripped, you've never
been saved. Christ has never become your
hope. Christ has never become your refuge. If you've never
seen your false refuge, how can you flee to a real refuge? If you've never been a manslayer,
how can you flee to the city of refuge? If you've never been
stripped in the searchlight of God's law, gazing down upon your
nakedness, how can you wrap yourself in the covering of Christ? People are being pronounced saved
who've never been lost. And preachers wonder, why aren't
my people, why aren't our people faithful to the services? Why
don't our people give? Why don't our people love each
other? Why don't our people love Christ? Why don't our people
worship Christ? Why don't our people seek Christ?
They've never been down there where that harlot was. That's
right, they've been there. If they was ever there, if they
was ever there, they'd love him. If God ever canceled their debt,
if they ever saw their debt, if they ever saw themselves mired
up, head over heels, bankrupt, and God came in mercy and said,
My son, I pardon you. Boy, they'd love him. You couldn't
run them off. You couldn't run them off. If
they ever saw them, you've never been in the pig pen, have you,
the prodigal son was? You've never been broke, you've
never had to eat the husk that the swine rejected, have you,
prodigal son did? And I tell you, when he came
home, broke, hungry and homesick, and his daddy put his arms around
him and said, You're my son, and everything I've got is yours,
you couldn't have run him off that place. He knew what he was,
and he knew what he deserved, he knew what his father gave
him, and he lived his life in deep thanksgiving and appreciation. There are people accepting Christ
as their Savior from hell. Watch this now, this is so. People
today are being saved who have never been lost. People today
are accepting Christ as their Savior, who never have bowed
to him as their Lord. Now, Saul of Tarsus, one word
popped out of his mouth first. Who art thou, Lord? Who art thou,
Lord? And then, Lord, I know Christ
is our Savior, his life and his obedience is our righteousness,
his cross is our justification, his resurrection is our assurance,
his intercession enables us to be accepted by the Father. I
know that. He's our Savior, our only Savior. His blood cleanseth
us from all sin, his blood makes atonement. But I'm telling you
this, if Christ is not your Lord, he's not your Savior, he's Lord of creation, he's Lord
of providence. He's Lord of salvation, he's
Lord of life and death, all authority is given unto me in heaven and
earth, all power over all flesh is mine, he said. If you've never
bowed to Jesus Christ as your Lord and your sovereign King,
you've never met the Christ of the Bible. That's so, he's Lord. It's the Lord, Eli said, let
him do what he will. The Lord, Job said, giveth and
the Lord taketh away. The Lord of glory. Bow unto him
as Lord. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let me tell you
something. This Bible knows nothing of a doormat named Jesus. This
Bible knows nothing of a poor, weak failure, a defeated reformer
named Jesus. Nothing. He knows something about
Jesus the Lord, who for a season was humiliated, who for a season
was in subjection even to his parents, who for a season was
bowed down under temptation and trial, who for a season was in
subjection to the law and fully obeyed it. But he did that for
his people. And when he died on that cross,
he said, it is finished, and he went back to the Father's
right hand where he reigned. till his enemies become his footstool. Now, listen to me. I wouldn't
shock you, but this is what God's Word teaches. The Lord Jesus
Christ is not trying to do anything. Now, you think about that a little
while. If he's trying to do anything which he can't do, he is not
Lord. And he does not have all authority
over all flesh. If he can be defeated, if he
can be resisted, if he can be frustrated in anything he sets
out to do, in anything he wills to accomplish, he is not the
Lord. He is what this generation says
he is. He's God's messenger, boy. And he came down here and
tried to save people, and they wouldn't let him. He's up there
in Heaven crying his eyes out, because folks won't let him have
his way. He's that little old silly stupid superstar they sing
about who didn't know where he came from or why he came or where
he was going or what he did. That's not the Christ of the
Bible. The Christ of the Bible is the one who stands on the
bow of the ship and says to the raging, foaming waters, The Christ of the Bible is the
one who said to Peter, when Peter said, How are we going to pay
our taxes? He said, Go down there and throw your line in the water
and pull out a fish, and you'll find a coin in the fish's mouth
and go pay your taxes. The Christ of the Bible is the
one who stands outside Lazarus' tomb, dead for four days, decaying,
stinking, and says, Lazarus, come out of there! And he gets
up and walks out. That's the Christ of the Bible.
The Christ of the Bible is one who, even while he was hanging
on that cross in submission to men's hatred and the devil's
attack and God's wrath, said to a thief, today you'll be with
me in paradise. How can that be? Because I'm
Lord of paradise, and I'll take in whom I will. I've got the
keys of hell and death, that's what he said. I've got the keys
of hell and death. The Jesus of the Bible, the Lord
of the Bible, is the one who says, The Son quickeneth whom
he will. That's him. And I'm telling you
this, that's who Saul met on the road to Damascus. He'd heard
about that little peanut Jesus, you know, he didn't have any
use for him, he was an imposter, he was a failure, he died on
the cross, he didn't care what they said about the resurrection,
he was going to put him out of business. But he met the Lord,
and God put him out of business. He went plum out of business,
he fell on his face, and he looked up with sightless eyes, and he
said, Lord, what do you want me to do? He became a slave. That's when
he became a slave. And before God saves you, you'll
become a slave. That's right, you'll come down
off your high horse, God will bring you down. God doesn't need
your help. Is this too hard? God couldn't
save Saul of Tarsus, but he could save that broken mass of flesh
lying in the blind darkness of the dust. He could save him. God's got to break you. The Lord
Jesus is not going to ride that wild ass's coat until he breaks
him. And when he breaks him, that
coat will walk up to him and say, put your yoke on me, Lord. Put your yoke on me. That's right,
that's what even folks Our preachers can't demand that or they wouldn't
get folks walking down the aisle and raising their hands, joining
the church and being baptized and kissing them goodbye next
week. But this is what I want to see.
I want to see God do for me and for you what he did for Saul.
What no human power can do, what no power of persuasion can do,
what no logic can do, what no doctrine can do, what only Christ
can do. And that's break a proud heart.
And when you break it, you don't have to break it again. I'll
tell you something, men are professing faith in Christ who are not in
love with Christ. He said this, turn to 1 Corinthians
13, and this is almost unbelievable. If the Lord didn't say it, I
wouldn't believe it. But this is what it says over here in
1 Corinthians 13, you say, I've spoken in tongues. I know I'm
saved, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not love, I'm a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. I know I'm saved, I've got the
gift of prophecy, I understand mysteries, I have faith, though
I have the gift of prophecy and understand mysteries and all
knowledge and have faith so that I'd remove mountains and have
not love, nothing. I tell you, I've given thousands
of dollars to the Church, I've stripped myself and my family
to take care of the poor, I've even taken persecution where
I work for what I believe. Read the next verse, "...though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to
be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Love for Christ, it's a whole
lot more than speaking in tongues, it's a whole lot more than being
able to preach, it's a whole lot more than memorizing doctrines,
it's a whole lot more than giving you tithes and offerings, it's
a whole lot more than that. It's a living, vital, all-consuming,
personal union with a person, Jesus Christ. When he becomes
your mother and father and brother and sister and husband and wife
and He becomes your life, your ambition, your occupation and
everything. He becomes the very beat of your
heart, the thought of your mind, the compassion of your soul first. And he said, if you can't come
to that place, you can't be my disciple. That's what he said.
That may be hard to this generation, but I'm telling you this, God
hasn't changed, he's the same yesterday, today and forever,
and he hasn't changed his way of saving sinners yet. And that's
why he brought Saul. And Saul said, I'm a pattern
to them who shall hereafter believe. And God Almighty put him in the
dust, God Almighty put him in darkness, God Almighty put him
in the hands of simple men, and they led him off. But thank God
the Lord taught him. And then this, this is what troubles
me. People are being saved who have
never been lost. People accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior
from hell and refusing, refusing to value him as the Lord of their
lives. People are professing to be saved who do not love Christ,
they demonstrate that by their actions they don't love Christ. Their families are first, their
jobs are first, their homes are first, their ambitions are first,
their pleasures are first, their social life is first, anything
is first! If God sweeps his way in there
some way, it would be all right if he got time for him. And then
last of all, people are professing the presence of the Spirit of
Christ who do not manifest the fruit of the Spirit of Christ.
Of any man being Christ, this Bible says he is a new creature
and the fruit of the Spirit. Did you ever notice, turn to
Galatians 5, just a moment. Have you ever noticed when it
talks about the fruit of the Spirit, it does not say the fruits
of the Spirit? Notice that? Galatians 5, verse
22, look at it. But the fruit of the Spirit,
it doesn't say fruits. It says fruit. It's like the
five links in the chain of redemption, whom he foreknew, he predestinated,
whom he predestinated, he called and he called and he justified
and he justified and he glorified. You can't have one without the
other. And the fruit of the Spirit, not fruits of the Spirit, is
love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness and goodness and
faith and meekness and temperance. This is the, not fruits of the
Spirit, this is the fruit of the Spirit. One of the chief evidences of
a saving union with Christ. Now listen to me. Other than
faith? You know what they are? The chief evidences of a saving
union with Jesus Christ, the first one is this, I mean other
than faith, other than a confidence in Christ, the first is an interest
and a concern for divine things. An interest and a concern, I
mean a real interest. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst they shall be filled. That's what's You have not because
you ask not. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. These things will be added. Seek and ye shall find. Ask and
it shall be given. Knock and it shall be opened.
An interest and concern for divine things. Just ask yourself tonight,
What are you interested in? What are you concerned about?
What is your primary concern and your primary interest and
your primary consideration? What is it? Is it Christ and
his kingdom? I know we have to live in this
world, I know we have to support our families, I know we have
to pay taxes, I know we have to do these things, we have to
cultivate friendships, but what is your chief concern? What is
your chief interest? That's an evidence of a saving
union with Christ. I tell you, when a fellow really
falls in love with a woman and wants to marry her, She becomes
the thought of his heart. He wants to be with her. When
he's at work, he's thinking of her. When he's out on a golf
course, he's thinking of her. When he's down at the ballgame,
he's thinking of her. He's always thinking of her, writes little
notes, calls on the phone, picks up little presents, all these
things. He has one object, and that's to win her love. He doesn't
resign from life, but she's his chief thought. And I'm saying
this, if a person's brought to love Christ, to be vitally united
with Christ in a saving union. You don't have to go knock on
his door on Monday and ask him why he wasn't in church on Sunday. You don't have to sit down with
him and prove to him that he ought to support the kingdom
of God and preach sermons on giving. You don't have to. That's
like telling that boy, you ought to take that girl a box of candy.
You ought to take her one. That's the thing to do. Is it
the thing to do? Not if he loves her. You don't
have to tell him. You don't have to beg him to read
her letters. Here's a letter from your girl. Well, if I get
time, I'll look it over. He'll read it five times before
he lays it down the first time. And that's what a person loves.
Christ, He loves His Word. You know something? You know
how He'll make your eyes light up? You know how He'll make your
eyes light up? He'll talk to you about your
children, and your eyes just light up. Now don't blame me. You love them, don't you? And
you know how to make a child of God's eyes light up, talk
to him about his Lord. Yeah, boy, he don't get tired
of that. He doesn't get tired of that. Oh, tell me some more.
What did you say about him? Tell me some more. How great
he is, how good he is, how merciful he is. Walk a mile to hear somebody
preach about Christ. I wouldn't walk two feet to hear
most sermons I hear today. But I'd sure walk a mile to hear
a man preach about my Lord. Another evidence of a saving
union is a growth in grace. He who groweth not knoweth not
God. And I'll tell you the third convincing evidence of a saving
grace, saving relationship with Christ, is continuing in Christ. Now, I'm telling you this. Now,
you listen to me. I may not get preached to you again, who knows?
But I'm going to tell you the truth. If somebody offers you
a little money and it comes between you and Christ, you love that
money more than you love Christ. I've had people sit here in this
church and say they love the gospel. And somebody came along
with another job offer in another town, a little bit more money,
and they packed up and left. And you know what I said in my
heart? They love that job, and they love that money, and they
love that prestige more than they love the Lord. And they
talk about they live in a town where they can't find anybody
to preach the gospel. We're still preaching it here.
Come on back home. That's right. Come on back home. Whatever you
love most is your God. That's right, whatever it is,
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, that's your
God. That's your God. If a man loves Christ, he'll
continue to love him. He'll grow in grace. John said
if they'd been of us, they'd have stayed around. But it's
evident they weren't of us. Why do you say that, John? Because
they left. They left. I'm not saying you
have to stay here, but I'm telling you this, you'll find where the
Gospels preach. I'd rather live on $50 a week
than live in a home that you could pick up the cat by the
tail and throw it in any direction and it would go through a crack,
and hear the gospel and fellowship with God's people than to dry
up on the vine somewhere in a $100,000 mansion and wind up in hell.
What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and
lose his soul? You have to hear preaching. Faith
cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. That's how people
grow, the milk of the Word, the milk of God's Word. The whole
thing boils down to this, is who is your Lord? I know everybody's
accepting Jesus as Savior. They're saved, they believe he
died on the cross and was buried and rose again, and they're all
fixed up and they're going to heaven when they die, they've
made their peace with God, but somebody's your Lord. Somebody,
it may be money, it may be pleasure, it may be self-righteousness,
it may be your family, it may be your children. I know somebody's
your Lord. Somebody dictates who you are and what you are
and what you do. And whoever that is, that's your
Lord. Whoever runs your place is your Lord. Whoever's on the
throne is your Lord. Whoever comes first is your Lord. That's who your Lord is. And
whoever your Lord is is the one you're going to spend eternity
with. If it's Christ, you spend eternity with Christ. That's
what the Word teaches. And that's the reason our Lord
said, when you go out and preach, you tell people to sit down and
count the cost. They may not want this gospel.
They may not want it. But let him by the hand. You
ever been there? Let him by the hand.

They Led Him By the Hand

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They Led Him By the Hand

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