There are three outstanding reasons
for preaching the gospel. There are three outstanding reasons
for preaching the word of God, the word of redemption, the word
of salvation. Number one, and this is of greatest
importance, to declare and promote the glory of God, to declare
and promote the glory of God's grace. The gospel is called by
the Apostle Paul, the gospel of God's glory. And then in Exodus chapter 33,
Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. I want to see your glory. And the Lord said, Moses, I will
cause my goodness, which is God's glory, to pass before you. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. We preach the gospel to declare
and to promote the glory of God. the glory of God's grace. And
then I want you to turn to the book of Ephesians, because I
want you to read with me, beginning in chapter 1 with verse 6, why
we are saved, why we are He says in Ephesians 1, verse 6, that
we're saved to the praise of the glory of His grace. He's
been talking about God blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, according as He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children to the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's why He saved us. And look
also at verse 12, if you will. He said that we should be, and
He's been talking about making known unto us the mystery of
His will. in whom we have obtained an inheritance,
that we should be to the praise of his glory. That's why he revealed
the gospel to you. That's why he gave you an inheritance
reserved, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, that you
might be to the praise of his glory, not to the praise of the
glory of some preacher or some denomination. or some special
evangelistic crusade, but that you might be to the praise of
His glory." And then on further, in verse 12, he talks about us
trusting in Christ. Verse 13, hearing the word of
truth. Verse 13, being sealed with the
promise, the Holy Spirit of promise. and giving us a pledge of that
inheritance, a token of that inheritance, verse 14, the last
line, unto the praise of His glory. So we preach the gospel
of Christ to promote the glory of God. We preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ to declare the glory of God Almighty. If God
saves people tonight, it'll be to the praise of the glory of
His grace. If He takes you to glory, it'll
be to the praise of the glory of His grace. If you adjoin air
with the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the endless ages of eternity,
it'll be to the praise of the glory of His grace. And if nobody's
saved here tonight, we'll still preach the gospel to the praise
of the glory of His grace. God's mercy is going to be glorified
and God's justice is going to be glorified. And then the second
reason why we preach the gospel, if you'll turn to Romans chapter
10, we preach the gospel not only to declare and promote God's
glory, God's glory, and any gospel that does not promote God's glory
is not the gospel of God. Any gospel that does not promote
God's glory and praise His grace is not of God, is not the gospel
of God. But secondly, we preach the gospel
to bring men to a knowledge of Christ and eternal salvation. This is the way God saves sinners
through the preaching of the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. And our Lord Jesus Christ told
his disciples that to go into all the world and preach the
gospel, and he that believeth, he that believes what you preach
and is baptized shall be saved. And he who does not believe what
you preach shall be damned. And in Romans 10, verse 13, it
says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. If a man feels himself to be a sinner, he feels himself
to be without hope, without help, without God, without Christ,
he feels himself to be in need of a Savior, in need of a mediator,
in need of an atonement, a helpless, hopeless creature, and sees Christ
as the only hope of the sinner, and can see his blood making
atonement on the mercy seat of glory for his sin, and calls
upon God for mercy, shall be saved. But look at the next verse. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? A man can't call on an unrevealed
Savior. A man can't trust an unrevealed
Redeemer. How's a man going to call on
someone in whom he doesn't believe? And how's he going to believe
in someone of whom he's never heard? And how are they going
to hear without a preacher? In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
21, the Apostle Paul says, For after that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That believe what? That believe
what's preached. And then the third reason for
preaching the gospel, number one, is to declare and promote
the glory of God. We declare and promote the glory
of God in the day of famine and in the day of plenty, in the
day of revival and in the day of darkness. And we preach the
gospel to bring men to a knowledge of Christ. And then thirdly,
we preach the gospel to lead all men. without excuse, and
deliver our souls' responsibility. I want you to turn to the book
of Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 33, Ezekiel 33, verse 8. Now you listen carefully to this.
We, as ministers of Christ, have a responsibility to deliver our
souls' responsibility. It is the responsibility of God's
people to preach the gospel, to witness. Christ said, You
shall be my witnesses. We have a responsibility, we're
debtors to all men, to declare unto them the gospel. In Ezekiel
33, verse 8, God says, When I say to the wicked, O wicked man,
thou shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked
from his way, That wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but
his blood will I require at thine hand. You say, that's Old Testament
scripture. It's all right. Paul quoted it
in the New Testament. He said, I have not ceased to
warn you and preach the gospel from house to house, and my hands
are free from the blood of all men. That's what Paul said. He
felt that he had a responsibility to warn them, and after warning
them, he said, your blood is not on my hands. That's what
he's talking about. Look at verse 9. Nevertheless,
if you warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it, and he
does not turn from his way, he'll die in his iniquity. He'll die
in his sins. And Christ said, if you die in
your sins, you can't come where I am. But you have delivered
your soul. The man who's done the preaching,
the man who's witnessed, the man who's prayed, the man who's
been faithful to his friend, the man dies in his sins, but
you've delivered your soul because you've warned him. Turn to 2
Corinthians chapter 2. Now this is an important scripture.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Verse 14, 2 Corinthians 2, 14, it says
here, Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph
in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by
us in every place. Everywhere I go, God makes known
the gospel. Where I preach Christ and His
crucifixion and His death and His substitutionary work, we
always triumph in Christ, and God makes known the Savior of
His knowledge by us in every place. For we are under God a
sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and we got something
for them that perish too. We've got something for those
that believe and something for those that don't. We've got a
ministry to the saved and a ministry to the lost. There's nobody neutral
in this matter. Watch it now. To the one, to
the lost, to the unbelieving, to the perishing one, we are
the saver of death unto death, death upon death. We add to their
condemnation. The gospel which we preach adds
to their condemnation. They'll never forget we were
there. They'll never forget what we said. They'll never forget
the invitation we extended. They'll never forget the warning
which we sounded. We add to their condemnation.
And to the other, and to the believer, we are the saver of
life unto life. Everybody here tonight is going
to remember this message. Those who go to heaven will thank
God for it, and those who go to hell will curse God for the
day they heard it. We're going to add to their condemnation.
And he says, who is sufficient for these things? Whose shoulders
are broad enough to carry this kind of responsibility? Who on
earth is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is Christ. None of us are. It's too great,
too weighty, too vast, too important. We take it too lightly. That's
one reason why it distresses a sincere God-called minister
to stand up before people with the weight of the Word of God,
the burden of God's Word on his heart, and see people laughing
or turning through a songbook or passing notes or chewing gum
or doing some foolish thing when we're dealing with the souls
of hell-bound sinners. That's what distresses a real
minister of God when people find other things to do instead of
attending the house of God on the Lord's day. We are the saver
of life unto life to some and death unto death unto others. Now look back at Proverbs 1.
And who's sufficient for these things? I'm not. But our sufficiency
is Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ. We beseech you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. But there's nobody going to leave
from the presence of a Spirit-filled message unaffected. You'll be
affected for glory or affected for hell. But everybody's going
to be affected. Now, number 1, Proverbs 1, verse
24, God says, I've called you. I've called you. Because I have
called you, no man will ever be able to stand at the judgment
and lay the blame for his condemnation on God Almighty, because every
son of Adam has been sufficiently warned and sufficiently called. If you'll follow with me through
the Word of God, I'll show you some of the ways that God warns
sinners, that God calls sinners. First of all, in the book of
Amos, in the little book of Amos, it's right before Jonah, and
it's right after Joel, one of the minor prophets. First of
all, God warns men, God calls sinners. God warns sinners by
acts of judgment and providence. God's voice is heard in sickness,
God's voice is heard in death, God's voice is heard in famine,
God's voice is heard in war, God's voice is heard in flood
and earthquake and all manner of things that we term accidents. God's voice is heard. God is
there. He says in verse 6 of Amos 4,
"'I have given you cleanness of teeth.'" That's famine. I've
given you famine in your cities, and want of bread in your places,
and yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." You
ought to have heard God's voice in that famine, he said, but
you didn't. You ought to have seen God's hand when he goes
on down, he says in verse 7, I've withholden the rain from
you when it was yet three months to the harvest. And you know
what that did to the fields, don't you? They planted the seed. Harvest was three months away.
The seed was just little bitty, little bitty things growing out
of the ground. And it didn't rain. And they
died. And there was no harvest. And God said, yet you did not
return. unto me," verse 8. And then he
said, I've smitten you in verse 9 with blasting and mildewed.
In verse 10 he said, I've sent among you pestilence after the
manner of Egypt. I've killed your young men with
a sword, verse 10, yet you have not returned unto me. I've overthrown
some of you like I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you've
been like a firebrand plucked out of the burning. How many
of you can say, Oh, one time I had an awful close call, awful
close call, and God said, You were like a firebrand plucked
out of the burning, and yet you didn't return to me. You didn't
call on God. And then he says in verse 12, I've warned you, I've spoken
to you, I've called you by every act of providence, therefore
thus will I do unto thee, prepare to meet thy God. And not a God of mercy, but a
God of wrath. Not a God of salvation, but a
God of judgment. You get ready to meet God. There's
another way that God calls men, turn to Romans chapter 1. leaving
all men without excuse. In the first chapter of Romans,
verse 20, it says here, "...because that which may be known of God
is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For
the invisible things from the creation The invisible things
of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power
and Godhead, so they are without excuse. The sun and the sky,
the stars, the moon, the trees, the plants, the animals, the
birds, The rivers, all of these things are testimonies of God's
wisdom and God's power and God's creation. And God says, people
see these things, the heavens declare the glory of God, the
firmament showeth His handiwork, and yet they don't believe. And God says they're without
excuse. I'll tell you another way that God warns sinners. Turn
to Romans chapter 2. In the 2nd chapter of Romans,
verse 14, here's another way that God warns sinners. Here's
another way that God speaks to man. The voice of God is heard
in acts of judgment, in acts of providence. The voice of God
is heard in the things that are made, and the voice of God is
heard in the conscience. In Romans 2, verse 14, listen,
when the Gentiles, that is, the heathen, which have not the law,
they don't have a written law, they don't have the Ten Commandments,
and yet they do by nature. The things contained in the law,
they know it's wrong to kill, they know it's wrong to steal.
And when they do by nature, these things written in the law, these
having not the law are law unto themselves, which shows the work
of God, the work of the law written in their hearts. There's a light
that lighteth every man that cometh into this world. There's
conscience. their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts
the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. Another way that God speaks to
men is by his law. Another way that God speaks to
men is by his gospel. So there are many ways. God says,
I have called, I have spoken to you, I have spoken to you
with the voice of judgment, I have spoken to you with the voice
of providence, I have spoken to you with the voice of conscience,
I have spoken to you with the voice of nature, and yet you
haven't returned unto me. Look at the next verse, the next
line. And you refused. Now, men can
and do refuse the voice of God. I believe in invincible grace. I believe in irresistible grace. I believe that when God sets
His love and affection upon a sinner and calls him by His grace with
an effectual call, that he shall be willing in the day of God's
power. But I also believe that God calls
many, many people. Many are called and few are chosen. I believe that men can and refuse
God's call. They can and do refuse God's
call. Moses stood with the people of
Israel. He was on his way to the Promised
Land, and he had married this young woman, and he was talking
to her father, his father-in-law. And he told this father-in-law
how that God had dealt in grace with the people of Israel, and
how that God had dealt in mercy with the people of Israel, and
how that God had promised them a kingdom, and God had promised
them a place of rest, and God had promised them a place of
mercy, and how that God's hand was leading them through the
wilderness to this place of beauty. And he turned to his father-in-law
and he said, Come on and go with us. We'll do thee good. And his father-in-law stood there
for a few moments and thought, and then he said, No, thank you. I'll stay where I am. And God
calls me, and God sends his messenger, and God sends his minister, and
God sends your friends, and they tell you what great things God's
done for them, and how that through Christ they've been redeemed,
and they've been forgiven, and they've been delivered, and they've
been saved. Now that God leads them day by
day by his grace and the recipients of his mercy, and they're on
their way to a kingdom of glory, eternally to live with Christ.
And they say to you, come and go with us. And the majority
of them answer, no thank you, I'll stay where I am. God says,
I've called, but you have refused. Now look at the next statement.
God says, I stretched out my hand, and you haven't regarded
it. You said it not at my counsel.
You wouldn't listen to my warnings. You wouldn't listen to my reproof.
Now then, verse 26. One of these days, God's going
to cease to call, and God's going to withdraw His mercy. That's Bible. He says, I will
also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh,
when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. There
was a day when you had called, I would have heard you. If you
had sought me, you would have been found. But now you are going
to call, and I will not answer. I've withdrawn my mercy. Now, my friends, I don't know
a great deal about spiritual deadlines. But I do know two
or three things, and I'll give them to you briefly. First of
all, I don't have one single scriptural example of God dealing
at great length over a period of a number of years with any
individual, and that person finally coming to a saving knowledge
of God. Now, I've never found one scriptural
example of God dealing over a period, over a long period of time, over
a number of years. Most everybody whom God saves
in his Word have come face to face with the gospel of Christ,
and they've either received it or refused it almost right there. Almost right there. The second thing I know is this. Most examples in the Word of
God, the man is confronted With a day of decision, the man is
confronted with a personal commitment. It is like Moses stood that day
and Joshua and cried, ìWho is on the Lordís side? Let him step
out right now!î And the rest of them went to hell. And then
Iíll give you something else. The Word of God seems to imply
that there are three deadlines that men can cross. Number one,
the unpardonable sin. Christ spoke of that himself.
He said one day he'd cast out demons, and the people said he
cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub. He cast out devils
by the prince of devils. And Christ said, now you listen
to me. You can speak against me. but whosoever shall speak
against the Holy Ghost, it will not be forgiven him in this world,
nor in the world to come." That's pretty clear. When you speak
against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven you in this world,
nor in the world to come. That's a deadline. That's a deadline. The second deadline, over in
the book of I or II John, it talks about a sin unto death.
A sin unto death. Christ tells us to pray for one
another when we sin, but he said there is a sin unto death. I do not, I do not command you
to pray for the forgiveness of that sin, implying that the person
who is in that sin will be physically destroyed and his soul will be
saved. We have examples of that in the
book of Corinthians. A young man was committing incest. And God Almighty had him killed
that his soul might be saved in the day of judgment. And then
the third deadline that the Scripture talks about, and I have several
examples of this, is sinning away a day of grace. You say, do you believe a man
can sin away a day of grace? This is a day of grace. And if
you don't receive Christ today, if you don't bow to Christ today,
if you don't fall in love with Christ today, then you've sinned
away this day. And this is a day of grace. It's
not a day of judgment. You're not now at the judgment.
You're not now in hell. You're not now without God in
eternity, so it must be a day of grace. And tomorrow you may
be dead. Tomorrow you may be in the grave.
Tomorrow you may be in hell. So if you don't take Christ today,
you've sinned away this day of grace. But there are people who
went on living. After sending away their day
of grace, listen to a few examples. There was Ephraim. God said of
Ephraim, leave him alone. Don't talk to him anymore. Ephraim
has turned to his idols. Just leave him alone. God says to the Holy Spirit,
leave him alone. God says to the prophets, leave
him alone. God says to the apostles, leave
him alone. God says to all of his people,
leave him alone. He said of the Pharisees, the
disciples came to him and they said the Pharisees, the religious
leaders, were angry because of what he said. He turned to them,
the Master, the Lord of Glory, and said, leave him alone. Leave him alone. The religious
leaders don't like what you preach, Lord. They don't like your sovereign
message. They don't like your substitutionary
work. They don't like these things,
and they're talking about them. He says, you leave them alone.
They're blind leaders of the blind. And when the blind lead
the blind, they both fall in the ditch. You leave them alone. And I'll show you two or three
other examples over in the book of Romans where God has left
people alone, living people, religious people. He's totally
left them alone. Look in Romans 1, verse 24. These
are the people that change the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image. They worship idols. They worship
the creature rather than the Creator. And in verse 24, it
says, God gave them up. You talk about, I might give
up on you, but that won't influence you too much. The people of your
family might give up on you and say, ìWell, heíll never amount
to a hill of beans. That wonít influence you too
much.î They might not either. But I tell you, when God gives
you up, youíre in trouble. And then we go on here in verse
25. It says, ìThey changed the truth
of God into a lie, and they worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator. selfish, covetous. They worshiped
the creature, they worshiped possessions, and flesh, and money,
and land, and houses, and all these things. They sold their
soul for a morsel of meat. Verse 26 says, God gave them
up unto vile affections. They became homosexuals, they
became perverted, and God gave them up. In verse 28 it says,
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient. So I have a number of Bible illustrations
where men and women and young people were brought face to face.
They were brought to grips with the gospel. They were brought
face to face with the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of
evil. They were brought face to face
with whether to bow to Christ or bow to their own wills, whether
to bow to Christ or bow to their own pride and flesh. And they
said, we'll take our pride, we'll take our wills, we'll take our
flesh, and God gave them up. One day there was a young man
by the name of Esau. And this young man was the oldest
son of Isaac. And he was, by the fact that
he was the oldest son, the heir to the father's position. Back
in Old Testament days, the father was the priest of the home. The
father was the spokesman for the home. The father was the
leader of the home. The father was the controller
of the finances of the home. He was a man whom his wife called
Lord with respect and reverence, and his children with respect
and reverence. God led the family through him.
God blessed the family by him. When he died, his firstborn son
took his place. This was called the birthright.
His brothers looked to him, his sisters looked to him. He was
the family leader. He was God's man in that family. And this boy Esau came in from
a hunting trip, and he was hungry and tired and thirsty. And his
brother was sitting there, Jacob, eating some bowl of beans or
something. And he said, I want some of that.
And his brother said, give me your birthright and I'll give
it to you. All right, he said, you can have it as far as I'm
concerned. You give me the bowl of beans and you can have the
right to the birthright. And God said he sold his soul. For afterwards he sought repentance
with tears, but he never found it. He came to a day of decision. He came to a day of confrontation
with God. He came to a day when he weighed
the value of his soul and the value of his flesh. He came to
the day when he weighed God and the kingdom of evil, and he tossed
God aside. And he never had the opportunity
to ever weigh it again. I think that occurs quite often,
and men and women go on through life just living a living death,
because God never again speaks to them. God never again calls,
for He says in verse 28, ìSomeday youíll be in trouble.î He says,
verse 27, ìYour fear will come as desolation. Your destruction
will come like a whirlwind. Distress and anguish will come
upon you. I donít know when it will be.
It may be a day of great sorrow when God visits you like He visited
Egypt at midnight.î It may be a day of death when you're lying
on a bed, and a doctor stands above you and shakes his head,
and friends gather about your bed, and the clock on the wall
begins to tick louder, and your breath begins to come harder.
It may be then that you'll turn your eyes to heaven, and God
won't be there. And God says it may be a day
of judgment, it may be in hell, but He said you'll call. And
I won't answer. I won't answer. I don't know
a great deal about hell. I do know there's more to hell
than fire. Everybody I hear preaching on
hell seems to emphasize the fact that there's fire in hell. I
don't know. Lord Jesus Christ called hell a furnace of fire.
He called it an everlasting fire. The rich man in hell says, I'm
tormented in this flame. But I know there's something
about hell that's worse than fire. Christ said, fear not them
which can kill your body, and after that, no more that they
can do, but fear him who's able to cast you body and soul into
hell. So hell is not only bodily agony,
but it's soul agony. And I know there are four things
in hell that are never mentioned from the pulpit. There are four
things that make up hell that are never mentioned from the
pulpit. Number one is memory. Memory. When the rich man cried
from hell, Father Abraham sent Lazarus to dip his finger in
water and touch my tongue. I'm tormented in this flame.
Abraham said, Son, remember. Remember. All through the ages of hell,
men will remember. They'll remember sermons, they'll
remember gospel meetings, they'll remember prayers, they'll remember
hymns, they'll remember verses of Scripture, they'll remember
the good things, they'll remember the sunshine, they'll remember
the cool fresh air, they'll remember the green grass, they'll remember
the fallen leaves, they'll remember, remember. I'll tell you something
else about hell, and that is hell is separation from God. If all there is to hell is separation
from God, that's hell enough. Separation from everything that's
pure and everything that's holy and everything that's good and
everything that's clean and everything that is holy and love, separation
from God for eternity, never! to hear His voice or see His
face or come into His presence. That's hell. And then I'll tell
you something else about hell. Hell is unfulfilled lust, unfulfilled
desire. The Scripture says over in Revelation
22, ìHe that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is unholy,
let him be unholy still.î The drunkard has a taste for his
whiskey, and he satisfies that thirst and that desire with intemperate
drinking. All of the gambler has a thirst
to gamble away his money, and he satisfies it in gambling. The adulterer and adulteress
and the whoremonger has a thirst for lust and he satisfies it
on the streets. Everybody has a desire and a
thirst for evil finds some fulfillment on this earth. The drug addict
takes his drugs, but in hell there won't be any drink. In
hell, there won't be any drugs. In hell, there won't be any pleasure. In hell, there won't be any light.
In hell, there won't be any satisfaction. And all of these fleshly desires
will be left there. The believer is going to be without
those. For he's going to lay aside this body of death. He's
going to lay aside these desires that are contrary to perfect
holiness. He's going to be just like Christ.
But the unbeliever is going to take a natural body to hell. That's right. That's what this
Bible teaches. And that's going to be hell.
That's going to be hell. You talk about the DTs on earth. The DTs in hell are something
else. Never, never satisfied. And I'll tell you something else
about hell that's never mentioned, and that is, hell is truth realized
too late. The rich man in hell said, Father
Abraham, I got five brothers still on the earth. I don't want
them to come here. He's turned into a missionary.
He wasn't a missionary on earth. He lived with those brothers
all those years. He wasn't too much concerned
about their spiritual condition. But now he's in hell, and there
are no unbelievers in hell. There are no doubters in hell.
There are no agnostics in hell. There are no infidels in hell.
There are no unbelievers in hell. Everybody there knows that there's
a hell, and everybody there knows there's a heaven. And everybody
there knows that Christ is the way to heaven. And everybody
knows that unbelief sends a man to hell. And everybody knows
that the cross is the way of life. And everybody knows that
people on earth without Christ are going to hell, and hell is
truth realized too late. I didn't know. I didn't know. God says that day, O Dawn, I've
called you But you refused. I stretched out a hand of mercy,
and I said, coming to me all you that labor in a heavy laden,
I'll give you rest. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they'll be like wool. Would you come to me? Would you
kneel at the cross with all your sins and all your needs and all
your doubts and all your despair and all your guilt? Will you
come to the cross? Will you come for cleansing?
Will you come? Uh-uh. All right, he says. All right. One of these days,
you're going to call. One of these days, when your
fear cometh like a whirlwind, you can't stop a whirlwind. You
can't say, Go away, whirlwind. You can't stop the whirlwind
of God's judgment. One of these days, the whirlwind's
coming, and you're going to call! And you're going to say, Oh,
God have mercy. God says it'll be quiet as a
tomb. Oh, God have mercy! I won't answer you. You're going
to seek me, but you're not going to find me. For I've withdrawn
my mercy, I've withdrawn my invitation, I've withdrawn my plea. The Scripture says today, if
you will hear His voice, Harden not your heart as in the provocation
when your fathers sinned against me and died in their unbelief. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. Our Father in Heaven,
make the warning like a sharp sword, piercing the heart to
the deepest part of the heart, and let us fall upon our knees
in contrition, in repentance, in submission, and on Jesus Christ
as our Lord and our Savior, our Redeemer. Bring men to confess
Him, to publicly identify themselves with Him. In His glorious, matchless
name we pray. Amen.