Doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. If you look at the fossil record, you don't see gradually evolving forms of life from one form gradually to another to another. You see many different forms of life existing at the same period in time. According to the geological record, it sort of makes you think that maybe everything was made all at the same time. And so people said, well, that doesn't make sense. So now they have another period. They call it the Big Bang. And they've decided that, you know, it does look like things sort of came suddenly. So there was a cosmic explosion in the universe. Now, we don't know how the universe got there, but in the universe, there are all these gases and they exploded and they blew the worlds into existence. Makes sense to me. Oh, there was this beautiful building and I find it fascinating how they constructed this building. They gathered together some wood and they got some flooring, some carpeting, and they got some finished materials, and they got some drywall, and they got some electrical wiring, and some fixtures, and they put it all together in a big pile with a bunch of paint and some fuse, and then they put a big stick of dynamite under, and boom! They blew up this building into existence. I don't know anybody I could get to believe that. But the universe is far more complex than this building, but they don't want to believe that God made it. It just sort of blew up into existence. I heard on the news today the name Francis Crick. Fifty years ago, he and another gentleman were credited for discovering DNA. Francis Crick stopped believing in the theory of evolution because he said the facts just didn't fit it. You know what Francis Crick became a believer in? He said there's too much intelligence to the design of the earth and too much intelligence in the design of man. Remember, he figured out DNA, which is our genetic code, which tells what one person's going to be like and how they're going to be formed and made. And Francis Crick, this Nobel Prize winning scientist, came to believe that life exists on earth because aliens from another planet brought it here. I wonder what he'd say as to where the aliens came from. Well, probably other aliens brought them to that planet. Who were brought to that planet from yet another planet by other aliens. Now listen, that stuff is stupid. It doesn't even make sense. It doesn't pass the most basic test of honest science. But you know why people believe that? Because they do not want God to be the creator. Because if he's the creator, he's the owner. And he is the boss. And he is in charge. And by the way, watch out for this term, divine design. Sounds good to me. I believe in divine design. Except what they mean by that is we see that God made everything, but we're not sure how he did it. He may have done it over long periods of time so that we who are Bible believers accommodated to the thoughts of modern science, because we don't want them to think that we're silly or that there's anything absurd or ridiculous or unscientific or uneducated or unintelligent or unsophisticated about us. And so we just know that God did it. We don't know exactly how, over what time period, or in what manner, or how it all took place. Well, let me tell you something. If you'd read your Bible, the Bible tells you that in six literal days, God spoke the world into existence. It is science that is absurd when it disagrees with the Word of God, not the Word of God that has to accommodate itself to science. And I believe the Bible, everything that exists is made by God. He could have given the answer of creation, but he didn't. He could have given the answer of Coronation. Who art thou, Lord? I'll tell you who I am. I'm the King of Kings. For the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6.15, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Or in Revelation 7.14, these shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Or the Bible says in Philippians that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I don't know about you, but I get irritated and sometimes a little bit discouraged as I look at the mess that the world is in. I get somewhat discouraged looking at the mess that fundamentalism is in. And I've often said that a preacher in his lifetime will either change his crowd or change his convictions. You're not going to be able to run with the same people 25 years from now that you run with now unless they, unless you accommodate to the change that seems to come to so many people out there. And I'm a little bothered by it. I'm a little irritated. I'm glad we have the man in the White House that we do now. And I stand behind him and I thank God that he has the courage to do what he'll say he does. I believe he's a And I believe he really prays and asks God for guidance. But in spite of his best efforts, we've got a bunch of liberals on the courts and we've got a bunch of folks trying to make it hard for people to do right. We have folks that are all bent out of shape because somebody was going to send boxes of food and humanitarian supplies into Iraq that actually had Bible verses on them. And this has been the subject of great discussion in the media and on talk shows because anybody knows it'd be a terrible thing. to send Bible verses into a foreign country. They don't mind sending pornography into the house of Americans via satellite television, and they'll fight to the death for the right of free speech to put garbage on the airwaves. They don't mind that. But you let somebody stand up like President Bush did before his election and say that the philosopher who had most affected his life was Jesus Christ, and everybody gets all nervous and all upset. How dare they bring faith into our secular world? And I look at it and I see what the drug pushers are doing and the pornographers are doing. And I see what happens in our courts and in our halls of government. And I sometimes wonder how long we'll be free to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I've got some good news for you. Even though it looks bad now, He is the King of Kings. And He is the Lord of Lords. And I read the last chapter of the book, the good guys win. And we are on the winning side. He could have given the answer of creation. He could have given the answer of coronation. He could have given the answer of incarnation. He could have said what the Bible says in John 1 14 and the word became flesh. And dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Son of God. Good verse for Jehovah's Witnesses. Because the Bible says in Isaiah, I am the Lord, that is my name and my glory will I not share with another. This is a vital doctrine. We mess up some things if we don't understand it correctly. Who are you, Lord? Well, on my mother's side, I'm the son of man. And on my father's side, I'm the son of God. I'm man from my mother's side. I'm God from my father's side. That's what the centurion said who oversaw the crucifixion of our Lord. He said, surely this man was the son of God. Now, listen to me very carefully. Our Lord is not part God and part man. And it is never correct to say, well, that was the human part of the Lord or that was the divine part of the Lord. You may say this behavior of our Lord demonstrates his humanity or this behavior of our Lord demonstrates his divinity. that He's not part man and part God. He is all God and all man at the same time. And you cannot divide the natures of Christ. People get in a lot of trouble when they do that. Recently, the last 10-15 years, people have said, well, you know, the blood of Christ was just human blood. They said that word blood in the Bible really just means death. Now, these, by the way, are the folks that want us to have four hours of Greek studies on every word we preach on. And if there's a Greek word for death, the word phantos, and there's a Greek word for blood, the word hymus, and they are not the same words. And I believe the Spirit of God knew the difference between those words and whatever word he wanted in the Scripture. But they say that that that was his blood was just human blood. I got an article from a fellow, he's the chancellor of a theological seminary. And at that time, I was trying to be friendly towards him and thinking maybe, you know, I could have some friendship, fellowship with him. And the article said, you know, the blood of Christ, that's just a metonym for his death. It stands for his violent, sacrificial death. And so I called up the man. I said, man, is that really what you believe? I said, I think that's going to cause some trouble. And I hope that's not what you really believe. And he said, well, what do you believe? I said, I believe that the blood of Christ is incorruptible. And he said, Where do you get that? So I took him to Peter and showed him, you know, being born again, not incorruptible, but incorruptible by the blood of Christ. And I showed him that. And he said, being born again, not incorruptible by the silver or gold, but by the precious blood of Christ. And he said, Well, I'd have to look that up in the Greek and see what it says. So he did. You know what it says? For the word corruptible, it means that which tends to corrupt. It's a good thing he had a theological education. I wonder what he would have thought it meant otherwise. And he said, well, that would argue for your side. But if his blood was not corruptible, what about his other bodily parts? What about his fingernails? I've since spent many a sleepless night pondering The profound theological ramifications of his question. What about his fingernails? I said, that's the trouble with you academics, you have to slice everything in pieces and put it into a box somewhere. You know, there's some things the Bible doesn't say. And what it doesn't say, I don't know for sure. And I can have an opinion about it, but it's only my opinion. But what it does say, I've got to believe whether it matches with what I think about what it doesn't say or not. I think the reason that no system of theology absolutely fits the Scripture is that while the Bible was given us as what is our source of theology, it was not primarily written to be a book of theology. It was primarily written to be a book of instructions and marching orders for the army of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've said the answer to your question is the Bible doesn't say anything about our Lord's fingernails, but it does say that His blood is incorruptible. And the Bible tells me in Acts 20, 28, that the blood of Jesus is the blood of God. I got in another argument or discussion, excuse me, with a theologian from the same place and he published a paper and it was just some preachers I knew and I wrote an answer to it because I didn't want young preachers to be led astray. I hardly ever do anything like that, but I called him to make sure I understood what he was saying and then I sent a copy of it to him before I sent it out to make sure that if he thought I'd misquoted him or misrepresented him, he had a chance to correct that. He faxed it back and he said, thanks for the warning. But he said to me that you hang too much on that one verse. And he said, by the way, don't be scared of these theologians. Just read your Bible. Most of them don't, so you'll be in good shape. He said, well, we know that some sacrifice could be made without blood because in the Old Testament there was a meat or a meal offering. So there was some atonement that was made without blood. I said, no. Those sacrifices never washed anybody's sins away. The Bible says it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. And I didn't even know where it said that. I knew it was in Hebrews somewhere. In fact, after I got off the phone, I went to look it up. I read chapter 1. It wasn't there. I read chapter 2. I read chapter 3. I read chapter 4. I read chapter 5 and chapter 6 and chapter 7. And I thought, dear Lord, was I wrong? Am I going to have to change my theological position? Did I miss something here? By the way, I'm glad that was my attitude. See, if it's not in the Bible, I'm going to change it. It's not what I think that I've got to find support for in the Scripture, it's that I have to support what the Scripture says. And I read chapter 8 and chapter 9, and I got finally to chapter 10, and it said it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Now you'd think a theologian would have known that, don't you? And this man went on to talk so that I asked him a question. I said, is it possible for somebody who believes what I believe to be saved? And he said, not if they understand the full implications of it. Because I believe the blood of Jesus is the blood of God. If I really understand that, I'm not saved. You know why? He thinks I'm denying the humanity of Christ. And that's because he's trying to divide the natures of Christ. This part is divine, and this part is human. No, there isn't a human part, and there isn't a divine part. He is all God, and he is all man at the same time. And his blood is incorruptible, not because that fits some scheme of my theology, but because that is what it says. in the Word of God. You know what the Lord said when He came to Mary afterwards? He said, flesh and bones. You know why He didn't talk about His blood? I believe because His blood was in heaven where it is now, still making atonement for the sins of all mankind who believe on Him. He's not part God. He's not part man. He's all God. He's all man. He is the God-man. If He's not man, And who is that lying in Bethlehem's manger? If he's not God, then why does the angel say, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord? If he was not man, then who was baptized by John in the Jordan River? And if he was not God, then why did the Spirit of God descend like a dove and say, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased? If he was not man, then who was that that was tempted in the wilderness? If he was not God, of whom does the Bible say that he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. If he was not man, to whom did the leper bow and say, Lord, if thou wouldest thou couldst make me clean. And if he was not God, then who was able to say, I will be thou clean. If he wasn't man, who touched the brow, the hand of Peter's wife's mother. And if he wasn't God, then who made the fever leave? If he wasn't man, who was that asleep in the bottom of the boat? And if he wasn't God, who came out from the bottom of the boat and looked at the waves and said, peace, be still. If He wasn't man, who stayed up all night on the mountain to pray? If He wasn't God, then who came walking on the water to see the disciples on the stormy sea? If He wasn't man, who stooped down and wrote in the sand? And if He wasn't God, who said to that woman, taken into adultery, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. I used to wonder why the Bible said that Jesus didn't condemn her. I'll tell you why. Because the Bible says He came not into the world to condemn the world, that the world to Him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus didn't have to condemn her. She was already condemned. She acknowledged her sin. But he said, I got good news. There is a salvation through a Savior that can take care of your sin. He wasn't man who stopped in the midst of the crowd and said, Who touched me? And if it wasn't God, who and that woman who'd had the issue of blood for 12 years? An ancient scriptural reference to Hillary Clinton's health care program. Really? The Bible says she'd had an issue of blood for 12 years and had spent all she had on many physicians and was made none better but worse. That sounds like a government health care program to me. If it wasn't God, when she came forth trembling and told him all the truth, who was able to say, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. If it wasn't man who continued on from that incident to the house of Jairus, And who was laughed at as he said, she's not dead. She's just asleep. And if it wasn't God, then who said to leave the Kuma and raised her from the dead. If he wasn't man who stood all day and taught the multitudes, if he wasn't God, then who took five body loads and two fish and fed the entire crowd that had gathered around. If he was not man who wept outside the tomb of Lazarus. And if he was not God, who said, with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth, and he that was dead. I like that. He that was dead. We never talk about death in the past tense. If you said to me, Brother Olette, is your grandfather still living? I'd say, no, both my grandfathers are dead. I wouldn't say they weren't dead. I'd say they are dead. From a human perspective, they are and will continue to be dead. We never talk about death in the past tense. But you know, when the Lord comes into our lives, he raises us from death into life. And the Bible says you are dead in your trespasses and sins. He is quickened and he has made alive. I like what Dr. Hudson said. He said he went to do his first funeral sermon and he wanted to read the Bible and find what Jesus said at funeral so he could give the same words of encouragement that the Savior gave. But he said he couldn't find anything because he read through the whole scripture. And he found that our Lord broke up every funeral he ever attended, thou raising the dead man back to life. Death doesn't exist too well in the presence of our Savior, the living Son of God, the God-Man. If he wasn't man, who washed the disciples' feet? If he wasn't God, who said, this is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you. If he was not man, who sweat as it were great drops of blood? If he was not God, who said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. If he wasn't man, whose beard did they pluck out? If he wasn't God, who said, Destroy this temple? And he spake of the temple of his body, and in three days I will raise it up. If he wasn't man, who hung on the cross and said, Woman, behold thy son and son, behold thy mother. If he wasn't God, then who said, It is If He wasn't man, then who said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And if He was not God, who said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. If He was not man, whose body did they place in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea? And if He was not God, who rose triumphantly on the third day? He's all God. He's all man. He's the God-man. He's our Savior, the incarnate Son of God. He could have given the answer of creation. He could have given the answer of coronation. He could have given the answer of incarnation. But He didn't. Who art thou, Lord? I'm the Creator of the universe. But He didn't say that. I'm the King of kings. But He didn't say that. I am the God-man. All God and all man at the same time. But He didn't say that. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus. And His name, the Bible says, should be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. He could have given the answer of creation or of coronation or of incarnation, but He didn't. He gave the answer of salvation. It's as if He was saying to Saul, who has become the great Apostle Paul, there's a lot of things you need to know about Me. And I'm going to take you on the back side of the Arabian Desert so that none of these theologians mess you up. And I'm going to teach you, myself, and tell you all that you need to know so that you can be the human instrument I used to pen some 13 or maybe 14 of the 27 New Testament books, and so that you can be a great church planter and an example missionary, and so that tremendous foundational doctrines of the Word, of the faith of God will be given through you to the church forevermore. But he said, before you need to know anything about that, before I teach you about that, there's one thing that you need to know. I'm Jesus, and I'll Save you from your sins. If you'll let me say it, one of the great concerns that I've begun to have about our independent, fundamental, separated Baptist churches is that we no longer are really excited about getting people saved. It's as if we now have, like the Catholics, some traditions that we hold to. And being a soul one is one of those traditions. And so, we always put it up there and we always have it sometime in the schedule. And we always say that we do it. But I remember when I was young, I'd go to a meeting like this and you could hardly give out a track at a motel because everybody had already been talked to. I remember I'd go to a big conference, and I'd want to win somebody to Christ while I was there, and I'd talk to the maids, and I'd talk to the folks at the desk, and I'd talk to the people around, and the waitresses in the restaurant, and all of it, I'd have been witness to it, and I'd run into them, and they'd say, oh no, I just did that yesterday, there was this preacher came in here, he gave me this pamphlet, and he prayed with me, and I trusted Christ as my Savior, and I used to go to preacher's meetings, and they'd talk about winning somebody to Christ in a gas station, And they'd talk about witnessing to somebody down at the McDonald's. And they'd be talking to the waitress. And not everybody would listen. And not everybody would pay attention. But they'd try with everybody they could. And I believe now that there are dozens, if not scores, if not hundreds of fundamental preachers who really do very little to get people saved. We say that we believe in it, but we don't practice it much anymore. May I tell you something? I think if you have a regular time to go soul winning, and you go out every week and that's all you do, you are not right with God. I go out a regular week. If I get home on time on Wednesday, and I almost always do, I usually preach that Monday, Tuesday, come back Wednesday. And Wednesday before church, my wife and I go make some business and try to win some people to Christ. Thursday morning, I go out and make hospital visits and make some other visits, try to talk to some other people about Christ. And Thursday night, I go out again. And Saturday morning, I go out again. I'm real busy. I've got a lot to do. I preach a lot of meetings and I've got a lot of things that take my time and occupy it. But I want to tell you, there is nothing that God has charged me to do that is more important than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says, let your light so shine. It doesn't say make it shine. It doesn't say charge the batteries up. It doesn't say make sure the filaments of the bulb are hooked together so that they're going to glow when the current comes through. It assumes that you are the light of the world. And if there's not sin or selfishness or some other problem blocking it, then when you go around, it's automatic that the light is going to shine. And I'm here to tell you, everybody you ride on an airplane with ought to know that you're saved. Everybody you stand in line with at a grocery store ought to know that you're saved. And everybody that you work with ought to know that you're saved. And everybody that lives in your neighborhood ought to know that you're saved. And now to hear from you, that His name is Jesus and He'll save them from their sins. About a year ago, I was going into the YMCA. I exercise. I know it doesn't look like it. I exercise so much they have special equipment for me. They have a straw with a potato chip. I'd eat it and I'd do bench presses with that. It was a Thursday night. I'd been out soul winning. I had to teach a late class at our little Bible Institute. And I had just enough time to squeeze in my workout on the Nautilus machines. I'd try to exercise on those on Thursdays and Saturdays. I had a NordicTrack ski machine I'd try to go on at least three other times a week. I used to jog, but I caused that earthquake out in California. And I really am a healthy fat man. I have a low heart rate, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, low intelligence. Well, the last qualifies me to be a fundamentalist. There are a couple of guys standing there as they went up to the YMCA and I took a couple of tracks out and said, here's some good news. It tells you how to be sure you're on your way to heaven. And they took him and I walked past him. And the Spirit of God said to me, not an audible voice but an impression in my heart, you could win those guys to Christ if you wanted to. But I didn't want to. I had my schedule to keep. I had my agenda that I wanted to fulfill. I had all the little things to check off on my to-do list. I had to get my exercise in and get back and teach my class. And I stopped and turned around and went back and said, guys, I can tell you what's in that tract in a few minutes. They said, OK, and I gave them the gospel. And a few minutes later, they both trusted Christ as their Savior. Then I had this thought as I went away. Do you know why I don't lead more people to Christ than I do? And do you know why you don't lead more people to Christ than you do? And here's what God said, and He said, it's because you don't want to. You can lead those people to Christ if you wanted to. I suspect this is the case. I stopped and got gas. I drove over this morning from Saginaw. And I got here early enough to get a biscuit at McDonald's and get some gasoline. And saw Brother Lake, Pastor Lake, great guy. Pastors a good church in Flint. I was coming out of the gas station. He went in after me. I don't know, but I bet you saw one of those on the counter. I know I gave one to the lady. I didn't know he was going to be there. I wasn't doing it because he was there. If he'd gone to the McDonald's, he'd have found I left some people behind the counter. One of those, he'd found I left a couple of them in the restroom when I left. I wasn't even sure he was going to preach this message at that time. I just think I'm supposed to do that. Do you understand? It's the gospel we're talking about. It's the only thing that makes a difference between where people spend eternity. It's what we're supposed to be doing if we don't do that. There's no way we can call ourselves obedient children of God. But it's been so long since someone's been serious about it, we don't even think of it anymore. And we can pass by a hundred people and never talk to them about Christ. I told you this story before, but I didn't tell you the end because I didn't know it until a couple of weeks ago. I have a friend who's an attorney, a wonderful Christian attorney. His grandparents emigrated from Syria to the United States. So his father was a first-generation United States citizen. He was dark-skinned, swarthy, cussed, drank. They called him the Turk. My friend Mike Thomas said, my father never spoke to me except to yell at me, and he never touched me except to hit me when I was a little boy. But his dad was working at Buick in Flint, And he went to the restroom, and there in the stall, tucked inside the toilet paper dispenser, there was a little pamphlet. He picked it up and said, What must I do to be saved by Evangelist John R. Rice? He read it, didn't quite understand or think too much of it, tucked it in his wallet. And over the course of the next few weeks, he'd take it out and read it and put it back and take it out and read it and put it back. And one night, Mike Thomas, about 11-year-old boy, was lying in his bed there in Flint, Michigan, and he heard his dad say, I'm saved! I'm saved! I'm saved! Mike Thomas said, he got up the next morning, he saw the kitchen counter was filled with empty beer and whiskey bottles. He thought, man, Dad sure tied one on last night. He said, Mom, what are all these empty beer bottles here for? And she said, your dad took all of his booze and poured it down the kitchen sink. Well, why did he do that, Mom? Well, she said, he says he's saved. Well, Mom, what's saved? And she said, I don't know. It has something to do with Jesus. It has everything to do with Jesus. Next Sunday morning, Mike Thomas' dad came into his room and said, Get up, son. We're going to church. And they didn't go to the Greek Orthodox Church. They went to the Grace Bible Baptist Church on Red Arrow Highway in Flint, Michigan, now called the Great Lakes Baptist Temple on Maple Road, the south end of Flint. And after a couple of weeks, Mike Thomas got saved. And now he witnesses to his clients. And now he tries to win people to Christ. They come in to him for advice. Wouldn't you like to get paid $150 an hour to tell people about Jesus? And he's learning the Christ, and he has a Bible study in the public schools. And in that Bible study, he's had people saved that are now preparing to serve God full-time. And a few years back, was invited to speak at the graduation of the Carmen Ainsworth Public High School, where he had attended as a boy. And he said, I want to tell you the most important things that I've ever learned. And he told me a couple things like money can't make you happy, and that what matters in life is what you give away to others. And he said, I learned these things from my friend, and I'd like to introduce you to him. His name, he said, is Jesus Christ. And when he said that to those hundreds of people at that public school graduation, they stood up and applauded. Because somebody put a little tract in the toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom of a factory in Flint, Michigan. Here's the part I didn't know until a couple of weeks ago. About a month ago now. Mike Thomas had a man who'd been in his church, who'd retired and moved up north, and he had him come down to have him work on his wheel, do some estate planning. And as they're talking, Mike said, you know, I know you're a Christian, you've been in my church, but I've never heard your testimony. How'd you get saved? The man said, well, you know, I used to work at Buick in Flint. He said one day I was in the restroom and there in the stall, somebody had put a little pamphlet inside the toilet paper dispenser. It was entitled, What Must I Do To Be Saved by Evangelist John Rice. They said, I read that and I got saved. Mike Thomas said, You're kidding me. He said, That's how my dad got saved. And then a little while after that, Mike Thomas was to speak at his church on a Wednesday night. Pastor was gone and he asked him to speak. And there weren't many people there. One visitor. During the service, maybe because we're a little smaller crowd, a little more informal, Mike was saying, well, you know, tonight, why don't you tell me how you got saved? Tell me how you got saved. Tell me how you got saved. And one of the fellows said, hey, Mike, I've never heard your testimony. He said, you've never heard my testimony? Oh, he said, I thought everybody knew my testimony. And he told him the story I just told you. And the visitor's eyes got wide, and his jaw dropped open. And he raised his hand and he said, I know why I'm here tonight. He said, I used to work at Buick. He said, one day I was in the restroom. in the stall and there in the toilet paper dispenser there was a tract entitled What Must Tattoo to be Saved by John Rice and I read it and he said that's how I got saved. Somebody's got to answer to God for that. I wish it was me. I'll tell you what I've been doing, I've been putting tracts in the dispensers of toilet paper in restrooms. You know why? Because His name is Jesus, and He'll save them from their sin. And I believe with all my heart we're going to run into all kinds of people in heaven who are saved because of sinful acts of obedience that we never knew the results of. But we'll be amazed to see what God does. Doesn't the Bible say we cast our bread and the waters, and it will come back to us after many days? Doesn't it say that God's Word will not return unto Him void? Doesn't it say that the Lord wants to seed every place? The trouble with us is we only want to sow it on the good ground. But that's not where the Master wants it. He wants it some places that it has not a chance in this world of ever bringing forth fruit. He wants it by the wayside, the pathway. He wants it on ground that has stones just a few inches under the surface so that it'll never amount to anything. He wants it on ground that is so thorny that it'll grow but never bring forth fruit. And He wants it on the good ground, too. God wants the Gospel everywhere. It's our job to tell Him His name's Jesus. He'll save you from your sins. The Robinsons may remember this man. Lady named Roberta Parrish came to our church and that saved me to get baptized. One day Chrissy and I were out visiting and we stopped by her house on Gallagher Street. Not a real nice area, but there are not many nice areas in our town. And I was going to talk to you about baptism. It's one of those houses, you know, you step over transmissions and bumpers and all kind of car parts and I got to the front door finally said please use back door. So I stepped back over the parts and went to the back door and I'm not Christian. I and her husband Ralph Parrish was home. You know Ralph Parrish. And I talked to him and he wasn't interested. I mean I felt like he's under conviction. I shouldn't say he wasn't interested but he wasn't willing to trust Christ. And I pressed as far as I thought it was right to press. I mean, I bowed my head and prayed and said, Lord, please speak to him and convict Ralph that he needs to be saved. And I held out my hand and said, Ralph, if you're willing to trust Christ as your Savior, I'm holding out my hand. I want you to take my hand. And he didn't do it. So I got in the car to leave. And he came running out after me. I thought, oh, brother, now he's mad. He was agitated. He made a motion for me to lower the window, so I did. That's enough for words to get through. I said, yes. What can I do for you? He said, would you pray that prayer with me? I need God. On welfare. Unemployed. Out of work from General Motors. And he got saved. And you know what? He came to church the next Sunday. And the Sunday after that, he got baptized. And not long after that, he bought a suit at a garage sale for five bucks so that he could be an usher. And he started being an usher and being a greeter. And then he started bringing his friends. And maybe about a month or two months after he got saved, I visited some of the friends. And when I went to their house, they'd been to our church, they looked at me and they said, what in the world happened to Ralph? I said, what do you mean? They said he won't drink anymore. He won't smoke anymore. He won't play cards anymore. He says it's against the church rules. Amen. If you just start out obeying the church rules, you'll get them figured out after a while. The Bible says that. It says, Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. I tell our people, your standards are higher than mine. Live by yours. If mine are higher than live by mine, you'll stay out of trouble. I saw the day where he got his job back at General Motors, and I saw the day where he moved away, and I checked his giving record in the last years in our church. This was probably 15 years ago. He gave $6,000. Not bad for a guy in welfare. What happened to him was somebody just told him about Jesus and Jesus saved him from his sins. One day, a long while ago, Chrissy and I were out visiting. Actually, we were out shopping this time. We met a deaf couple who had been to our church before we had a deaf ministry. And they, by signs and notes, let us know that they had a relative dying of cancer. They wanted us to go visit. And so we went to see a man named John Brethauer. And John Brethauer listened to the gospel and he got saved, but he was ill, didn't get out of the house except to go to the doctor's. So we went home and never saw him again. You ever wonder about people like that? Let me just give you some free thoughts since I was told I didn't have to hurry. It is not my job to figure out whether the people I give the gospel to are sincere or not. It is my job to be sincere in giving them the gospel as clearly as I can in the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, the sower didn't worry about the soil. He just put the seed every place. You get it? Same source, same seed, same system, different soil, different results. Now, I know there's a way you can just manipulate people into saying something without trying to be sincere yourself, and I'm against that, and everybody ought to be against that. But I'm afraid because some people do that, some of the rest of us use that as an excuse to only give the gospel to people who sit on their porch saying, what must I do to be saved? We say, well, they weren't ready, and they weren't sincere. Well, how do you know? I mean, some of you I've led to Christ that seemed the most moved and the most genuine. And I thought, damn, we got a live one this time. I never saw him again. And some people I led to Christ said, OK, yeah, all right, I'll come. They're still there? I don't know. But I led that guy to Christ. Maybe six months, 10 months later, a man in our church by the name of Wayne Goetheker came to me and he said, Preacher, I'm not going to be able to go soul winning this week. And I led a couple to Christ last week that I thought would be here Sunday. They didn't come. I really thought they were sincere. He said, Would you be willing to go by and follow up on them this Thursday? I said, Sure. And he gave me the name and address of Teddy and Gene Partlow. I went to the house and I saw Gene there and Teddy and I said, Boy, I'm sure sorry you folks didn't come Sunday. But the gaffer told me he trusted Christ. He said, You're going to come make a public profession of faith. I hope nobody got sick. And Gene said it was a bad week for us, preacher. She said, on Friday, I had a miscarriage and on Saturday we buried my father. I said, I'm so sorry. And I said something really stupid, which is not uncommon for me. It's another way, you know, I'm a fundamentalist. I said, was your father saved? Now, what if she said no? Or I don't know. Then what do I say to her? How do I comfort her and encourage her? And she looked at me real strangely. She said, yes. Yeah, my dad was saved. And then she said, You saved my dad. I know I never saved anybody. But you might want to fuss with Paul, who was inspired by the Spirit of God to say, I'm all things to all men, that by all means I might save some. Before you get too bent out of shape about her statement. The Bible messes up a lot of our ideas. And I said, Who is your dad? She said, My dad was John Brethauer. She said, I was there the day you and your wife came to the house. She said, I didn't want to talk to you, so I went in another room. I had no idea she was there. And she said, it's the strangest thing. She said, after you came, my dad never cussed anymore. She said, he used to cuss all the time, but after that day, he never cussed anymore. She said, and he never read the Bible, but after you came, he wanted to read the Bible all the time, but his eyes were bad and he couldn't read it, so I had to read it to him. She said, chapter after chapter. She said, not only did my dad stop cussing and start reading the Bible, he wouldn't even let my brother cuss. He used to cuss all the time himself, but after you came in, wouldn't let my brother cuss, my brother wouldn't quit cussing. And so he kicked my brother out of the house. And then she said it again, yeah, my dad was saved. You saved my dad. I was driving in a little Volkswagen Rambit with a sunroof. And I got out in the car, and I wanted to shout. I looked up through the sunroof, and I said, dear God, I hope you just let me do this the rest of my life. I don't care if I pastor a big church or a little church. I don't care if I'm known or well-known, but if you just let me tell people about Jesus the rest of my life, and I want you to know I'm 50 years old. I've been pastoring the same church for almost 28 years. I've been in full-time Christian work for 30 years. I've been licensed to preach for 34 years, and I've had a lot of wonderful blessings, and God's been good to me. I've traveled lots of places. I've preached at a lot of meetings that people would think are a great privilege, and I think they're a great privilege, but I've never done on anything more important or more exciting than tell somebody about Jesus. Somebody gave me a tape. I hope this guy's not a bad guy. If he is, don't tell me. They gave me a tape of a guy named Dave Reaver. Dave Reaver was about 19 or so, maybe. Maybe 20 when he got drafted into the Vietnam War. Just been married a few months. He was a Christian. Tried to be a good testimony. Fellow soldiers made fun of him. They called him preacher and missionary and evangelist. So he took the three that gave him the most grief and he named them pervert number one and pervert number two and pervert number three. It's fairly good nature but trying to be a good testimony. One day he had a phosphorous grenade in his hand to clear out a section of kind of swampy jungle. And the grenade exploded. They don't know if a sniper's bullet hit it or if the grenade malfunctioned. But it blew off all the fingers on that hand. It blew off his nose and his ear. It blew off all the two fingers on the other hand. It covered him with this phosphorous material that was tremendously flammable. And Dave Reaver jumped into that water to get some relief from the torment of the flames. that the first words out of his mouth after that grenade exploded were these, God, I still love you. Even in that moment of what we'd call tragedy, he knew instinctively the one thing Job didn't get right. Job's one mistake, the Bible says, was that he justified himself rather than God. Dave Reaver wanted to say to those unsaved companions of his, God's still a good God. When I'm in trouble and I'm having a hard time, it's not my job to justify myself or to tell you I don't deserve this or to get you to feel sorry for me. It is my job to say God is good. They took him away in a helicopter. They thought he was dead. Tried to jam his dog tags between his teeth, but he made a noise and they realized he was alive. So they got him to a hospital, cut his chest open to operate, and when the air hit some of that material again, he burst into flame. It was a long time before they let him look in a mirror When they did, he was devastated, depressed, horribly. Couldn't believe it. Unrecognizable. He was in a ward with a lot of other men. And he wondered, what's going to happen when my wife sees me? And one day, another man's wife came in. This man had lost a leg and an arm. He was lying there in the hospital bunk and Dave Reaver watched as this man's wife came in and looked down and saw the mangled body of the man she had married. And she took off her wedding ring and she threw it on the bed and she said, I married a man, not a cripple. And they thought, oh, my, just married a few months. I look so terrible, look far worse than that man looks, what's my wife going to say? And finally, the day came, she went in. And she looked at the name at the end of the bed to make sure she had the right person, that's the only way she could tell. She walked up to the head of the bed and she leaned down and she kissed the only spot on his face that wasn't covered by a bandage. And she looked at him and she said, Welcome home, Davey. He apologized for his appearance. She said, Ah, Davey, you never were very good looking anyway. I thought about that story. And I think of what God sees when he looks at me. We think it wrong. We say it right. We think it wrong. All of our righteousness is filthy rags. We think that means our bad things are bad. It doesn't say our bad things are bad. It says our good things are bad. The best we have is filthy rags in the eyes of God. But He looks down on us, and He loves us, not because of who or what we are, but because of who He is. And He loves us so much that God the Father is willing to give His Son. And God the Son is willing to hang naked on a tree and bear the sins of the whole world and be separated for three hours from His Father with whom He had known eternal, unbroken fellowship and run from the lips of our Savior, that awful crime by God. My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And if we believe in the Lord Jesus, we can be saved. I'm glad He loves me. I think we ought to tell everybody His name is Jesus. He'll save you from your sins. You know, there was a day, Dr. Vogel, when in most communities the largest, most impressive church was an independent, fundamental Baptist church. It's not anymore. Southern Baptists and Charismatics and Willow Creek types have found out how to get big crowds. They just sort of, most of them, went in the entertainment business. And their crowds are bigger, and their offerings are bigger, and their buildings are bigger. Sometimes if we're not careful, we get a little intimidated by that. Sometimes we wonder if maybe they've got something that we don't. Let me tell you, they've got a lot of things we don't, but they didn't come from here, you don't want them. See, they're trying to build a crowd and we're trying to build a crowd, but we're trying to build a crowd so that we can recruit from that crowd soldiers to serve in the army of Jesus Christ. And entertainment makes nice crowds, but it makes lousy soldiers. But I love this verse in the Bible. Some of them have healing services and we don't. Some of them claim they've had miracles and we haven't. Some of them have people that jump up and run all around the place. Say some special word of knowledge came to them, and we don't. But I love what it says about John the Baptist in John chapter 10 and verse 41. John did no miracle. Neither have I, neither have you, and neither have those other rascals. But all things that John spake of this man were true. You know what? I don't have to do a miracle. I just have to tell the truth about Jesus. Heavenly Father, help us to let people know His name is Jesus and He'll save them from their sins. Help us to recognize we'll never do a miracle, but we can tell the truth about Jesus. Your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed. Nobody's looking around.