Will You Also Go Away

We know who asked this question.
It was the Master himself. I know that all of the Bible
is the Word of God. All of the Bible is God-breathed.
All of the Bible, all of the Word of God, all scripture is
profitable. But somehow, for me personally,
when the Lord speaks or when the Lord asks a question, such
as this question, I have a double interest. My attention is directed
quickly because the Lord himself asked it. Will you also go away? I not only know who asked this
question, but I know to whom the question is addressed. He's
speaking to his twelve disciples. He's speaking to the elite. He's
speaking to the elect. He's speaking to the twelve.
Peter, James, and John. That's right. I know, now listen
to me, I know that the righteous shall hold his way. Scripture
declares that. I know the Lord says of his people,
I know my sheep, I give them eternal life, they'll never perish. I know that this is written in
the Scripture, they shall not depart from me and I shall not
depart from them. I know that he that hath begun
a good work will perfect it in the day of Christ Jesus. And
I have no fear that Christ could lose one whom eternal love did
choose. But we must not this grace abuse. Let me not fall. Let me not fall. I consider it an abusing of the
grace of God to grow careless, as some do, and presumptuous,
as some do, and high-minded, as some do, and imagine or even
think that it would be impossible for me to turn from the Lord.
It is not impossible. That's the reason our Lord gives
us this word. He turned to his twelve disciples. After the multitude had listened
and walked away, he turned to the twelve and he said, will
you also go away? I know who asked this question,
it was the Master. And I know to whom he addressed
this question, to his twelve disciples, to the elect, to the
chosen, to the elite, to the inner circle. And I know why
he asked this question. First of all, it was a time of
declaration. Look at some verses. In verse
41 of John 6, he had declared his deity. He said in verse 41, the Jews
murmured at him, it says the Jews murmured at him because
he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven, and they
said, why is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it that he said this man
that we know when he was born and where he was born and to
whom he was born? We passed the carpenter's shop
where he grew up many times. We know him, we know his mother
and daddy, we know his brothers and sisters. How is it that he
said, I came down from heaven? This was the issue in that day.
Christ said, I and my Father are one. And then they took up
stones to stone him. And he said, many good works
have I done among you, for which of these do you stone me? They
said, we're not stoning you because you've done good works, we stone
you because you're a man and you say you're God. He had declared
his deity. That babe in Bethlehem has within
that little body God Almighty. That young man in the carpentry
shop working alongside Joseph is God in the flesh. He made
the world. He was in the world. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. That man on the cross in flesh
and blood, bleeding and dying, that sinful flesh, the likeness
of sinful flesh, that marred form has within it God, God tabernacled
in human flesh. Just like that tabernacle in
the wilderness, God came down and dwelt in the Holy of Holies,
his presence. Jesus Christ is our tabernacle
in whom God dwells. He declared his deity. And then
verse 37, go back up a little bit, he declared his purpose.
Now watch this. He declared his purpose, why
he came. Now the one who came is God. He says, I'm the bread
from heaven, I'm God. God in the flesh. Philip said,
show us the Father. He said, you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. He is God. And then he declared his purpose.
He said, verse 37, all that the Father giveth me. shall come
to me. The Father hath given me a people,
sovereignly given them to me. He given them to me according
to his wisdom. He hath given me a people and
they'll come. And him that cometh I'll in no wise cast out. Verse
38, I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, the will
of him that sent me. This is not a reformer coming
to do the best he can. This is a redeemer coming to
do what God sent him to do. This is not a reformer coming
to try to get men to straighten their lives out and live for
God. This is a redeemer that came
down here to accomplish a task that was purposed and planned
and put in his hands as surety before the world began. I didn't
come down here, he said, to do my will, but the will of him
that sent me. Now watch it. Well, what is his
will? And this is the will of him that
sent me. This is my Father's will, verse
39, this is his will, that of all which he hath given me I'll
lose nothing. He declared his purpose. But
I'll raise him up at the last step. It was a time of declaration. He declared his deity and God. He declared his purpose, came
down here to do my Father's will. Came down here to redeem a people.
I came down here to call a people. And I'll call them. All right,
next, he declared man's inability. Verse 44, and they griped about
this, and verse 44, he said, No man can come to me. To come
to Christ is to believe on him, to receive him, to embrace him,
to come savingly to him. And he says, A man can't do that.
He won't do that. He doesn't have the will to do
that. Well, that's my father drawing. That's my father drawing. That nail laying on the table
is dead, lifeless, cannot move. And I pick up a magnet, and I
put that magnet down against that nail, and the nail jumps
right up to the magnet. I draw, I draw the nail with
the magnet. Unless my Father exerts that
power, that drawing influence, that work of the Spirit, that
regenerating work, that nail will lay right there forever,
forever. No man can come to me He declared
man's inability. He declared salvation as a revelation. Look at verse 45. It's written
in the Prophets, it's written in the Scripture, and they shall
all, every one of them who come to me, they shall be taught of
God. Taught of God. Not taught by
the Baptist Catechism or Methodist Westminster or Dutch Heidelberg
Confession, but taught of God. Every man that hath learned,
that hath heard and learned of the Father, God taught. God taught,
cometh to me. God taught. Now, that's the key,
that's important. Taught of God. All right? He had his time of declaration.
And I don't want, we should not stammer or stutter on these things. This is what he taught. in an unembarrassed, bold fashion. I'm God. I came down here to
do my Father's will. And his will is going to be accomplished.
All that he giveth me, they'll come. This is the will of him
that sent me, of all which he hath given me, I'll lose nothing.
And you can murmur all you want to. They murmured against him.
He said, No man can. He doesn't have the will, the
power, he doesn't have the interest. All men are in heaven, but not
in Christ. They're interested in meeting Mother, but not the
Redeemer. They're interested in, you know, a good reputation,
but not a revelation. They're interested in those things
by nature. But no man comes to Me, to Me. You can get religious
people to talk about doctrine, or talk about preachers, or talk
about denominations, or talk about good social work, or talk
about all these, but you can't get them to talk about Christ,
because Him they know not. No man can come to me except
my Father draw him, and that he shall be taught of God. Every
man that hath heard and learned of the Father, he comes to me,
to me. It ceases to be just religion
and becomes a person, becomes worship. It becomes allegiance
not to a system, to a person. It becomes a relationship not
to a social order or to a denomination, but to a person. allegiance to a king, a person. Watch this. It was a time of
declaration. He declared that. He declared
it. Then it was a time for decision.
Look at verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. who so eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I raise
him up at the last day." Let's read some more. My flesh is meat
indeed, my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. That's giving me some
problems. of understanding that and how
to preach it, what Christ means by eating his body and drinking
his blood. I'm not talking about cannibalism
here. Actually, you could have drunk
his real blood and perished. In cannibalism, you could have
taken a bite out of his flesh as he was hanging on that tree
and perished. Those men who were down casting lots for his robe,
the blood of Christ actually dripped on them. That man that
drove that nail into his hand, whether it was here or here,
I don't know, it doesn't matter, but drove the nail into his hand,
the blood spurted out on that man. No magic, that's human blood. No magic in that. What did Christ mean then? This
is a beautiful metaphor, referring spiritually to the person of
Christ. It's not the body and what we
put into this body that we're talking about. It is the soul
feeding on Christ as the bread of life. It's receiving Christ
into ourselves. In other words, as I sit down
to the table, this flesh is hungry. This flesh is weak. This flesh
has been fasting, doing without food, growing weaker and weaker,
and it'll finally die if I don't put some nourishment in it. So
I take bread, and I put it in my mouth, and I chew it up and
eat it, and I take milk and I drink it, and that bread and milk is
digested in my body, and it begins to go through every part of my
body, in the bloodstream. It begins to furnish life. It begins to furnish nourishment.
I take it into myself. Well, this thing of eating the
body of Christ and the blood of Christ is not the body feeding
on him, but the soul feeding on him. He becomes my bread,
which gives me life. He becomes my drink, which gives
me life and satisfies not only my thirst and my hunger, but
meets my need. And Christ begins to permeate
my whole being. Now, a hungry man does not satisfy
his hunger by talking about bread. And a lot of people are big talkers
about Jesus Christ. They preach about him and talk
about him and sing about him, but a hungry man can sing about
food and talk about food and die. And a hungry man does not
satisfy his hunger or meet the need of his body by becoming
an authority on food. It's like I said a while ago,
some people sit and argue for an hour whether they put the
nail here or here on the hands of Christ. They become authorities
on how high the cross was. Some say it was just they could
reach out and the spear, just reach out and touch him, say
he's hanging high up, and they'll argue for days over that. Men can become authorities on
the scriptures and on the doctrines and not eat of Christ and die,
starve to death, starve to death. I've been in Bible conferences
and listened to preachers preach and went out hungrier than when
I came in. authorities on food. A man can
be an authority on food and die of malnutrition. A man does not
satisfy, now watch this, a hungry man does not satisfy his hunger
and meet his need by associating with people that are well-fed.
I run around with some well-fed people, but I still have to eat.
I still have to eat. Do you see what I'm saying? When
Christ Jesus, our Lord, said, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, he was talking about the soul feeding on him, receiving
him, to as many as received him. Not talk about him, not become
an authority on what he did, not become an authority on his
doctrines, and not associate, just associate with people who
do feed upon Christ, but myself. It's by receiving Christ into
my soul, into my heart. The reality of his incarnation
is in me, the reality of his death is in me, the reality of
his resurrection is in me, the reality of his intercession,
the reality of his presence, feeding upon Christ. This is
what he's saying down here in verse 63. It's the Spirit that
quickens it, the flesh prophet, it's nothing. I can take the
wafer, I can take the wine and put it into this natural body.
And I might as well eat a banana as far as it meeting the need
of my soul. I'm not being blasphemous. I might as well drink a quart
of liquor for all the good that it would do, unless I can feed
upon with my soul and with my heart and with my mind and with
my affections, unless I can feed upon the person of Christ and
let that bread do what it's supposed to do, represent him. And let
that wine do what it's supposed to do, represent him. And I'm
simply, in my flesh, representing what I have done in my soul by
faith to feed upon a person. It was a time of declaration.
He declared clearly his doctrine. He declared it clearly. Let's
sound a clear note. Let's sound a clear note so people
can distinguish what's playing, a trumpet or a saxophone. Let's
sound a clear note, let's not be bold or bashful, let's not
be bashful or embarrassed, let's be bold about this thing. Who
is Jesus Christ? What did he do on that cross?
Where is he now? What is his purpose? And let's
be bold in the declaration and force me into a decision. Time
for a decision. What is a decision? Will I believe
this or not? Our Lord said, you go into all
the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. It's decision time. Will I believe this? Some didn't. It was a time of defection, a
time of declaration. Our Lord declared who he is,
what he came to do. It was a time for deceit. Do
you believe that? Are you willing to receive him
as he revealed in the Word? Not just any Jesus. You just
can't take some clay and make your Jesus according to your
specification. Here's the one here. Here he is, revealed in
his Word. Do I believe that, or do I not
believe it? Well, it says here in verse 60, "...many therefore
of his disciples, when they heard this," they said, this is a hard
saying, hard saying. Who can understand it? And down
in verse 66, "...from that time," the time of declaration, "...from
that time they went back and walked no more with him." when they heard him declare who
he is and what he came to do, what is involved in salvation,
when he really defined redemption in words that at least in their
heads they understood that salvation is a work of God in the heart.
Salvation is not a ceremonialism, but it is communion with God,
a vital union with Christ, a work of God in us and a work of God
for us and a vital union with a living Lord. These people who
had followed him, these people who had cried, Hosanna, these
people who had cried, No man spake like this, these people
who were interested in his words, these people who had been his
disciples, and for a time had walked with him and hung on every
word, it says they went back and walked no more with him.
They began to leave, they began to turn away. And that's when
he turned to the Twelve, and he said, Will you also go away? We do all within our power to
keep people in our assemblies, even to compromising the message,
even to softening the message. We do everything in our power
to get people to follow Jesus. And our Lord, when he declared
these things, declared his purpose and his person and his glory,
they began to walk off. To none of them did he say, I'm
sorry, I'll be a little easier now, you come on back, don't
be offended, don't leave me. To none of them did he say that.
But rather, as they began to leave, he watched them go, and
then he turned to Don Fitzer and Dick Pennington and Charlie
Payne and Ronnie Craig, and he said, you want to go too? Are
you going too? Are you going to leave me? Are
you going to leave me? And what was the reply? Now watch
it. To whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? That's where I'm shut up to.
To whom shall I go? I don't have any doubt, but the
Lord asked me the same thing this morning. Will you go away?
Will you go away? And I want to be able to say
with the disciple, to whom shall we go? I've looked this thing
over. Now, wait a minute. Now, shall I go to the law? Shall
I run to the law? I'll run and look at the law.
That law doesn't have anything for me but condemnation. That
law doesn't have anything for me but conviction. That law doesn't
have anything for me but failure. That law doesn't have anything
for me but a whip. That law doesn't have anything
for me but an accusation. I know what the law says. You
who would be under the law, do you know what the law says? If
you ever, if you ever found out, you talk about the law, the Ten
Commandments being your rule of life, if you ever find out
what it says, you won't want it as a rule of life. Ain't no
way. You know, I was reading something
the other day. Somebody said the Ten Commandments are the
rule of life. Well, you know, the amazing thing
is, Abel, who offered a sacrifice with which God was pleased, then
he had no rule. Enoch, who walked with God, and
the Scripture said he pleased God. Well, by what rule? He had
no Ten Commandments. Abraham, who believed God, counted
to him for righteousness, he had no rule of life. Noah, who
being warned of God of things not seen, made an art and saved
his house, he didn't have a rule. Think about that. He didn't have
no rule, because Ten Commandments weren't given. Why did they walk? By the law of faith, love, knowledge
of the Lord. And where shall we go? Run to
the Lord? Well, shall we run to this emotional evangelism?
Well, they say a lot of good things. They say a lot of bad
things, too. There's nothing there but fleshly
glory. Shall I run to the orthodoxy,
to the doctrinal orthodoxy, to these fellows that have all of
the theology right, and they have all the hairs not only split
but quartered? And they know what everything
means. And I sit and listen to them talk about all their isms
and ologies and all these things, and I go to sleep, because it's
nothing but dead-letter theology. There ain't nothing there. Shall
I run to the cave of depression? I want to show you something.
Turn to 1 Kings 19. I never did see this before,
but I tell you it was a blessing when I looked at it the other
day. 1 Kings 19. had encountered the prophets
of Baal, and he'd whipped them. And God had honored his word.
God sent the fire down to burn up the altar and the sacrifice.
And Jezebel, verse 1, she heard what Elijah had done. She said
this, she said, I'm going to put you, Elijah, right where
you put my prophet. I'm going to do the same thing
you did for them. And he ran, he ran, he ran. He left his servant
in a little town and he ran. He was frightened. I understand
that and you do too. And he ran and hid in a cave.
And it says in verse 9 of 1 Kings 19, And he came hither unto a
cave, and he lodged there. And, behold, the word of the
Lord came to him, and said to him, What are you doing here,
Elijah? What doest thou here, Elijah? You've got no business here in
the cave of doubt, in the cave of depression, in the cave of
fear. He said, I thought I was the only one left. God said,
well Elijah, I've got 7,000 men I've reserved to my glory who've
never bowed the knee to me. You're not by yourself. You needn't
run to the cave of depression. What are you doing here? You
who are looking to the law for salvation, what are you doing
here? You who are looking to emotional, fleshly evangelism
for salvation, what are you doing here? You who are running to the cave
of depression, what are you doing here? There's nothing here. Listen
to them. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of life, Thou hast the words, look at it, of
eternal life. Now let me ask you something.
Think with me a moment. When you think of eternal life, I'm not going to say what do
you think of, but I'm going to ask you this. Of whom do you
think? Eternal life. Now, when you think
about eternal life, I think about Christ. Because of this, when
we think of eternal life, spiritual life, the life of God in the
soul, who alone can give it? Who alone can sustain it? Who
is that life? Turn to 1 John 5. Look at this,
1 John 5. Who is that life? Who can sustain
it? Who gives it? What is it? Joe
spoke on this Wednesday night. Look at 1 John 5, look at verse
11. This is the record that God hath
given us to us eternal life. This life is in his Son. He that
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God,
that's Christ. I don't care if he's got a profession,
if he's got a doctrine, if he's got a moral standard, if he's
got good standing in the church, if he's got a certificate of
enrollment in the assembly, he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. That's what the disciples are
saying to the Lord here. He said, will you go away? Will
you? Will you go away? To whom shall
we go? I go to the law and it pronounces
me guilty. I go to the flesh and in the
flesh dwelleth no good thing, no peace, no joy, no security. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the word. of eternal life. And we believe
and are sure, we're sure, we believe this and we're sure of
this, we're convinced in our hearts, not just a mental acceptance
of some facts, but we're sure that that Christ That Christ, now you hang on
that a little while, that Christ, not a Christ, not a Redeemer,
not a Messiah, that Christ, that Christ of whom the Father spake,
that Christ of whom the prophets preached, that Christ which the
ceremonies typified, that Christ, that one in whom the Father gave
or invested life, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
Father, that prophet of whom Moses wrote. We're convinced
you are that Christ, of which the woman of Samaria spoke when
she said, I know that the Messiah is coming. He's coming. And we're sure you're that Christ.
And we're sure you're God, the Son of the living God. Now, I
want to give you four things in closing. This is something
that I brought out in the meeting last week down in West Kentucky. I think God gave me these four
things to think on. And I want you to ask God for
the grace to understand them. I want you to ask God for the
grace to receive them. I want you to ask God for the
grace that you might be enlightened. And I'm telling you, Peter stood
and spoke to that religious crowd. You know, at Pentecost, he was
speaking to Jews, people from all over the world, that had
come there on a religious pilgrimage. They had come for a religious
holiday, a religious feast. They were there for the purpose
of worshiping God, whom they didn't know. And Peter cried,
save yourselves, save yourselves from this perverse generation. Perverse. He wasn't talking about
sexual perversion, he was talking about religious perversion. You
can pervert anything. And he was talking about religious
perversion. Save yourself from this untoward,
this perverse, this twisted generation. claiming to worship God, whom
they don't even know, eating bread and calling it salvation,
going through the motions and performances of religion and
calling it worshiping God. God's not interested in meats
and drinks and robes and colors and crosses and those things.
God's not in those things. God created Adam and Eve and
put them naked in the Garden of Eden. There was not a pew
or a cushion or a candle or a stained glass window or anything else.
They walked with God. I'll tell you, we better do some
thinking now. We better do some thinking about
this twisted religious generation in which we live, with all of
its symbols of sacredness and solemnity and religion. God is
not in that stuff. My kingdom is not to eat and
drink, but to do the will of my Father. They that worship
the woman said, we worship God in this mountain, you worship
God in that city. He said, God is a spirit. They that worship God worship
him in spirit, not in trinkets, in spirit, not in form and ceremony,
in spirit and truth, and truth. Let me tell you this, four things. A person will never know, will
never know the true God, the true and living God. until his false gods and his
idols and his false idea of God is destroyed. You call these
gods and idols by whatever name you will, you might even call
them Jesus. But it's a false conception of Jesus. It's a false
God. David wrote in Psalm 50, verse
21, you thought I was altogether such a one as yourself. God said
that. You thought that I was altogether
such a one as yourself. One of the ladies brought out
in our Bible study this morning, the Jews and the Amorites and
the Philistines and all those people, all of them had God. And when they discussed their
gods, like they said to David, where is your God? Our God is
down here. Our God does this. Our God does
that. Our God does that. David said,
our God is in the heavens. Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, earth, and the seas, and all deep. He
identified his God. And Christ said eternal life,
John 17, verse 3, is to know the living God. I've got to ask
God by his powerful spirit and through his word, Lord, destroy
my false conception of thee. Destroy my idols. Destroy my
false idea of Christ. Reveal thyself to me. Paul, who
had religion, Saul of Tarsus, My soul, till he was 40 years
of age, he's one of the most religious, devout, consecrated
men of his day. born of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrews, fasting, tithing, going about the ceremonies,
moral, blameless concerning the law, but he said, I didn't know
God. Well, who were you worshiping?
Worshiping God. Well, what God were you worshiping? My idea
of God, my conception of God. And one day God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, was pleased to reveal his Son in
me. That's got to happen for me and
you, that I may know Christ, that I may know him. Well, preacher,
everybody knows God. I beg your pardon. Christ said,
You neither know me nor my Father. But those people were reading
the scriptures. Those people were going about
the ceremonies. Those people were coming to the
temple. Those people called him Jehovah. But him whom they called
Jehovah was not Jehovah. Now, you think about that. The whole world is talking about
Jesus, and the whole world is accepting Jesus as their Savior.
But somebody is Lord of this outfit, and his name is Jesus,
too. But he's not that little superstar
they're talking about. He's not that little inferior
character. He's not that little reformer
that failed. He's not that little fellow that's
crying his eyes out, sweet little Jesus, because you won't let
him have his way. That's not he. Secondly, a person will never
see the Son while he looks to another Jesus. No way. Our Lord said, he that seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, seeth him, seeth him. Who he
is, seeth him. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11-4,
they'll come preaching another Jesus, another spirit, another
gospel. And a man is not going to see
the Son in all of his glory and beauty and saving power as long
as he's looking at that other Jesus. That's right. And then thirdly, a person will
never flee to Christ. Now, you listen to this. A person
will never flee to Christ, savingly, completely, until he has nowhere
else to go. That's so, until he has nowhere
else to go. He's got to be, in Galatians
3.23, he's got to be shut up to faith. Shut up. And that's the reason. You say,
well, why did God let me go all my years in all of this flesh
religion and all of this form and ceremony? Well, God in his
purpose lets you try all these things to show you that nothing
but Christ could meet the sinner's needs. That's right. That's the
reason he lets you do it. That's the reason he lets Saul
of Tarsus go 40, 45 years and try this and try that and try
the other. Finally, God shut him up to, Lord, what will you
have me do? That's the reason the disciples
came to that. They said, to whom shall we go? And some of you
have Whatever has been offered in religion, you've tried it,
haven't you? You've tried getting a little
water sprinkled on your head when you was a baby, and that
didn't do you any good. And then you tried being confirmed,
or whatever they called it, when you were 12, and that didn't
do you any good. And you tried to make a profession under some
high-pressure evangelist when you was 15 or so, and that didn't
help you any. And then you tried to rededicate
your life. They preached a good sermon on
serving the Lord, and you rededicated your life, and that didn't do
you any good. And then you started reading your Bible and praying
and studying your Sunday school lessons and took a class even
and tried to do that, and that didn't do you any good. And you
tried all these avenues. It shows you there's nowhere
to go but to Christ. That's when you'll fall on your
face and you'll cry, Lord, save me or I'll perish. Reveal yourself
to my heart. Do something. Do for me what
I can't do for myself. I've tried everything else and
nothing can meet my need. And now here I come, in my hands
no price I bring, no offering, no peace offering, nothing to
exchange, nothing to bargain. I'm not bargaining, Lord, I'm
begging. Break my heart. Cut my false
foundations out from under me. Strip these rags of flesh off
me. I'm begging. I'm begging for mercy. Lord,
be merciful to me, a sinner. Ain't nowhere else to go. Nowhere. I know there's nowhere else to
go. One man said last night in the Bible study, if I didn't
have this place to come to hear the gospel, I wouldn't go to
church. You say, that sounds cruel. No, no. No, I'm not. I'll tell you. I'm not going
to slop with the hogs. I'm one of the King's sons. I'm
going to eat his food. I can't be happy. I just tell
you, I can't be happy eating on the double hill when
I've ate at the King's table. That's right. The fourth thing. A person will never worship. I'm talking about worshiping.
I don't know whether we know much about this, but I want to.
A person will not worship the living God until God tears down
his religious playhouse. That's right. Our Lord went into
that temple, and there they all were. You talk about an organized
band, now that was an organized band. He went in that place,
the house of the Lord, and there they were selling things. There
they were selling doves and lambs and exchanging money. arranging
for people to buy this, you know, on credit and all these different
things. And our Lord plaited him a whip
as he surveyed that crowd. There they were. You know, I
think he's thinking today when I read some of these things in
the paper about some fellow's going to come to church and have
a puppet show and Some other crowd is going to come, and they're
going to have this, and they're going to pass out cards, and
people are going to sign a card and pledge to give so much next
year, and they're going to all figure it out. Now, he pledged
to give this, and he gave that. Now, let's add it up. Can we
make men's meat? Can we pay the pastor, and the
assistant pastor, and the organist, and the piano player, and the
youth director, and the choir director, and the church visitor,
and can we do this? Can we meet our Lord stood there
and pleaded that with? And he got it all ready. He laid
it across their backs, and he said, You have made my house
a den of thieves. My house shall be called a house
of prayer. Today it's a playhouse. It's
a playhouse, it's not a house of prayer. People don't come
to the house of God to worship, they come to the house of God
for a thousand different reasons except to pray and to worship. And I'll tell you this, before
a man is going to worship the living God, God is going to tear
up his religious playhouse. And he's going to fall on his
head. You know, I read a story over there in 2 Kings, sometime
you can read, just jot down this reference, chapter 22, verse
1 through 13, King Josiah, King Josiah, began to reign in Jerusalem. He followed Amos, the king, and
Ahab and all these wicked fellows, and Josiah began to reign. And
he told the priest, Hilkiah, he said, you fellows go down
there and clean out the house of God. Go down there and clean
out all the trash out of the house of God. Go down there and
take the carpenters and the brickmen and the workers and clean out
the house of God. We're going to worship the Lord
again." And one of those fellows, Shaphan or something like that,
came to him and said, King Josiah, while he was cleaning out the
house of the Lord, he said, Hillcow found a book. He found a book. He found the book of God, he
found the Bible. And King Josiah said, he did,
he said, read it to me. And it came to pass, verse 11,
when the king heard the words of that precious book, he rent
his clothes. He rent his clothes and he said,
verse 13, Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people
and for all Judah. concerning the words of this
book that is found, great is the wrath of the Lord that is
kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened to
the words of this book, to do what God has written. I'm telling
you this, would God in this day that some God-loving, Christ-honoring
people would, in cleaning out the house of God, discover that
God put a book in this house? He put a book here. And our fathers,
blessed earth, thrown us a curve. They departed from this book.
My teachers in school threw me a curve. They departed from this
book. That's right. They departed from
this book. And one day, I was sitting around
reading this book, and I found out they lied to me. I sure did. I found out that they lied to
me. I found out that they told me
what they thought instead of what God said. And that scares
me. And what I want us to do here,
I want us to dust off this book and worship God. See what it
says about him. Now then, here comes the question.
After our Lord said all that, he turned to his disciples and
said, If that's not what you want,
you go with them. And I'm asking you, are you going to turn away
from that? Are you going to leave? I hope not. Let's pray.

Will You Also Go Away

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Will You Also Go Away

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