In chapter 5 Galatians, I'm going to start reading verse 13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other. So that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, adultery, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. You ought to underline the word do right there. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. All right, I'm going to stop the text there. Chapter 6 is a very powerful chapter. It goes on to say in chapter 6 that, We are not to be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. I would love to say to you that the values, the true American values that we, I, my generation and behind me enjoyed growing up, has been lost in this idea today, this political idea that all is equal and that it should be this American dream that you've heard of, I've heard of this, is a lie. I'm saying that as an opinion of mine, it's a lie. It's a false hope, it's a farce. I said in Sunday school this morning, it used to be valuable and honorable for a mom and dad to seek for their children a higher education, to find success in some employment, some career, and push them towards that. I told two men yesterday in a convenience store, They happened to be talking about old times and one of them said something about their papa growing tobacco and that made sense to me. My grandpa, he grew tobacco and he cooked it himself and made it for pipe tobacco. And then I made this comment. I've made it here, I think, before. If the economy did crash and everything went south, we have raised a generation of young people. Thank God there's still a few gray heads still around. But these young people today wouldn't even be able to plant a tomato plant and keep it alive. They wouldn't know how. It's come down to a place where college is a farce and a trap. I've seen the young teenage kids graduate from school and leave a solid Christian home, a solid Christian God-fearing Bible-believing church, come back four years later and their minds all warped. They're believing all this weird stuff. And I'm troubled by it. I don't know about you, but it concerns me. It really does. I work in the education system, I told Sonny Stu this, 8th grade science, playing a video. And in the video, Hollywood celebrities narrating this video, telling 8th grade students that after the Big Bang, dust and water mixed together and it evolved into life. We used to say, no. We used to have a sign around our neck as Christians, not literally, but our presentation was this. Not for sale. Not for sale. Amen. People used to say what they meant, meant what they said, and believed the Word of God. And if they said it, people knew they meant it. Because their life backed it up. They were consistent. I don't know. Whatever happened to the statesmen? My goodness. I mean, look at the political platform today. There are no statesmen. There are no God-fearing men. There are no men and women with values, with biblical values. You get mad at me if you want to, but I'm just going to tell you what I think is going on right here, and then I'm going to go on to the house. I love you this morning, and I'm going to say it over and over. The truth will set you and I free. The only thing that's going to help you and I and help this country is Jesus Christ. We need revival. We need God's people, those that are called by His name, to humble themselves and to pray and seek the Lord, depart from iniquity, turn from their wicked ways, that God may hear from heaven. Realize there's conditions before God responds. Conditions must be met before God responds. The old timers would say, when we return to God, God will return to us. I think the old timers had it right. Amen. I believe they had it right with no education, no intellect. They had enough sense to know that if their heart would turn to God, God would turn to them. Amen. God never rejected any individual, any group, or any nation until they rejected Him first. Jeremiah chapter 2, Jeremiah the prophet was preaching to his own people. They are now captive by Babylon. They were driven into captivity and this was the will of God. It was the sovereign will of God. What was happening to God's people was they were reaping what they had sown. Amen. A lot of people think today we get a free pass because we're Americans. Well, if we get a free pass, then the Jews ought to get a free pass. But God said to the Jews in Hosea chapter 4, basically, I'm done with you. He said, tell the prophets. Brother Jimmy said, tell them to go back home. I'm not listening. And there were 400 years of dead silence. God didn't send a preacher, a prophet, anything. And Amos said before it all happened, he said, there's a famine coming, not of rain, not of food, but of hearing of the word of the Lord. Amen. And we live in a day today where we've got an abundance of so-called preachers and churches on every street corner, men declaring themselves to be men of God. They have Bibles, they have intellect, they have degrees, but yet nobody seems to be changed. There's no conversion. Amen. I believe with all my heart that true salvation brings conversion of the soul. Amen. I don't believe you can get saved and leave the same creature that you was. Behold, all things are become new once a man is in Christ. You can't be saved and stay in sin. The Lord saves you from sin. He don't save you in it, but He saves you from it. He tells us here that we have liberty, but we are not to use our liberty as an occasion for the flesh. And before I move on much further, I want to say something about that. We as Baptists, and I've learned this from other places I've pastored, not so much from Antioch, but I've noticed this, you talked about some of this this morning, that a lot of people, especially in the Baptist church, because that's all I'm used to, that's all I've seen, have become as the Pharisees, and their legalism and the reason and the way they do this is they present their message as this. If you don't do it like I do it, if you don't go where I go, if you don't sing the songs we sing, if you don't wear the clothes we wear, then God don't mess with you. don't use you, God don't even come to your church. And that's the way the Pharisees were. They got so mad at Jesus, they fussed at Him about His disciples eating on Sunday and pulling corn on Sunday. Hey man, Jesus said them that would get in the door can't get in because you're standing in the way. They were creating laws that weren't even laws of Moses. Amen. That's what people are doing today. They're setting up all these rules and all these orders and saying, do it my way. The Catholics say you can't go to heaven unless you're a Catholic. And the Islams and the Muslims say you can't go to heaven unless you go their way. And I know Baptists that say you can't go to heaven except you're a Baptist. They're even talking about the Baptist church. Who ever heard of such as that? Amen. Jesus is the head of the church. Amen. He gave the keys to the church. He put His name on it. What am I saying? You won't go to heaven because you signed and agreed up with the church and said, I agree with you. You won't go to heaven because you were baptized. You won't go to heaven because you learned memory verses and Bible verses. I won't go because I've got credentials or that I was ordained. If anybody goes to heaven, he'll go on the account of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong to a group of people. Amen. He said, you've got liberty, but don't use it for power in the flesh. You remember Paul said that I'll allow no man to have power over me. No man to have power over me. Amen. What was he saying? He said, I'm the servant of God. God called me, God's going to use me, and God's going to call me out of here one day. He's in charge, He's the boss, and we answer to Him. Amen. What am I saying to any of y'all this morning? You don't answer to me. I don't judge you. Paul said, is Christ divided? He said, was Paul crucified for you? Amen. Christ is not divided. Amen. The Bible said He's one God, one Lord, one mediator, one high priest over the house of God. There's only one way to God. He is the way. One God in heaven. One salvation. One way to repent. Amen. It's a one-way highway for Him. And that's the only way to God. It's through a man named Jesus Christ. Amen. Praise the Lord. Then he talks about envying each other and devouring each other. And then he goes on to summarize the law. And Jesus summarized the law. He said all the law and the prophets were until John. He said then from John forward, the gospel of the kingdom is preached. If you drive down the road at some charismatic movement and they say prophets so and so is going to be here this week, then you know they're lying to you. Amen. If you go down the road and see a church sign that says Apostle so-and-so is running our revival this week, then you know they're lying to you. Amen. Who are the apostles? Those that have seen Him for themselves. They saw Him in the flesh. Amen. The apostles died out with Paul. That's exactly right. Amen. The prophets died out with John. And Jesus, amen, He's the great prophet. Oh yes, great prophet and priest and king. And we don't need prophets anymore. The Bible said faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How can they hear without a preacher? And how can you preach except to be sent? You know what your kids need, you know what Dedicate needs, she needs a preacher in her life. I want her to get education. I want her to be successful. I want her to play ball and hit home runs and do all those things and make Betty proud. I want her to do those things, and I'd like to enjoy it with her. But I tell you, friend, from the depths of my heart, I mean what I'm about to say this morning, I'd rather that child grow up poor, head man, not even learning her ABCs. A man not knowing the right hand from the left hand. But just like many of them, the Bible said they didn't know the right hand from the left hand. But when Jonah preached to them, they got down in sackcloth and ashes before God and asked for repentance and forgiveness. And God forgave that bunch of people. And He blessed them. And they weren't even smart enough to know the right hand from their left hand. I'd rather her have that and leave this world and know that she knew the Lord. That's right. A lot of people, they want to refer back to self-righteous, pharisaical ways. Do it my way. Amen. Who in here thinks you've got it all nailed down? You've got it all figured out this morning. I didn't think I'd get a response right there. I got news for them, all that intellectual crowd. Ain't none of them got it figured out. Hey man, I'm a work in progress and so are you. I don't see how God puts up with me. Some people done got their nose so high in the air they think they're doing God's service. Hey man, they're God's right hand man somehow or another. I know preachers that's like this. I've told you, I know them. They run in little circles and little cliques. The only preaching they like is their own in their own little circle. That's right. They think God can't use nobody but them. And if the Lord couldn't use people that had something wrong with them, He couldn't use none of us. Amen. There's something wrong with everybody in this building. And I'm glad God is the potter and we're the clay. Amen. Praise the Lord. He's a merciful God. Ain't you glad He's patient with you? I'm glad He's patient with me. I don't deserve to be standing here this morning. I don't deserve this privilege to stand in this pulpit where great men have stood. and preach this same gospel, to be called a preacher. John was a preacher, Jesus was a preacher, God made me a preacher, and I ought to be thankful that God would put me in the same category and let me preach the same gospel. And the least of us, the Bible said, he that's last shall be first, and he that's first shall be last. He talked about John being the greatest born of women. He said, but yet, He that's greatest among you, let Him become last. Amen. Let Him go to the bottom. Thank God this morning for His good spirit. If you be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now, I'm not here to criticize our faith. Baptist, I hope you understand, I'm not against it. I think, I'm like another preacher, if you're going to go ahead and you ought to go first class, you might as well be a Baptist, right? And I believe, for the most part, everything they believe. Especially the original Baptist. But now, these days, you say that word, you say Baptist, and people say, what kind? Yeah, I mean, it devalues itself when it gets divided like it is. The worth of it, and you know, what we can say about its worth, this morning, used to, people could truly put confidence in, if you said that, if you said that word, Baptist, then they knew what you were. That's not so much the case now. So my hope is not in the Baptist denomination. And if yours is this morning, then you're not complete. The Bible said we're complete in Him. We're complete in Jesus. If you're trying to find satisfaction, you young men, I'll tell Riley this this morning, I think he's found the best one he could find. That Miss Brooke's gonna make him a good one. She's gonna whip him into shape, I'm sure. Amen. But if he's looking to be complete and satisfied in her, he's gonna find out a couple years. Amen. He made a mistake thinking that. I'm not saying she's going to be an insufficient wife, but what I'm saying to you is, no man finds completeness in a spouse, or in a friend, or in a job, or career, or anything in this world. You will be complete in him or you won't be complete at all. So what do I say to young folks that's going to get married? You better make sure you completed Jesus before you marry her or him. Because her or him is going to let you down somewhere down the road. It's going to hurt your feelings. That man is going to make a big mistake somewhere and you're not going to be able to believe that sweet little woman that you married, Riley, could mess up that bad. But I'm going to tell you, she's cut off the same old hunk of clay as everybody else is. And the first time I saw her, I thought she was growing wings. I thought she was an angel sent from God. Amen. But when them babies got here and things would get sideways, I found out there's a side of that woman I didn't want to deal with. Amen. Praise the Lord. That's right. Before I married her, I was saved by the grace of God. And I want to tell you something, what's kept us together is because we're complete in Him. And I don't want to try to live without her. But I'm telling you this morning, she didn't make me complete. The Lord made me complete. And that's why I can appreciate and love her, is because I am complete in Him. The Bible tells us here, that what unbelievers do, I told you you should underline that word, do. These are things and characteristics of what unbelievers do. Why did I ask you to underline that word? I think it would be a good idea for you to do that. They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. We can go back and define that and study that word out, especially in its Hebrew definition. What this is teaching us is they which do such things are they which continually, constantly, over and over do these things. It is their nature to do these things. Now everybody that's saved in this building can and is capable of committing or doing any of these things. So does that mean God kicks you out when you do? I mean, let's go all the way down to adultery, fornication, idolatry, witchcraft, murder. There were murderers hanging beside Him on the cross. He saved one of them. I don't believe there's anything you can do that cannot be forgiven outside of dying in unbelief, which is blasphemy. That's what that is. Amen. And once you believe as a Christian, you can't unbelieve. Once you believe, you'll always believe. Once you put faith in Him, there'll always be faith. Will you sin? You probably will. You don't have to. The Bible says, my little children, these things are right under you that you sin not. Hey man, if we had to, He wouldn't have put that in there. But He's telling us not to sin anymore. Don't do it anymore. The Bible preaches perfection. If it don't, then it's not a perfect Bible. And He's not a perfect God. As a matter of fact, there ain't even no sin, not the least of sin. It's going to even enter into heaven. So God said, don't sin. Don't do it. What if we do? Probably will. You better be glad that verse don't end there. Amen. Say, preacher, I'm not perfect. I'm not either. That puts us in bad shape, don't it? I mean, if we look at it from that perspective, God says you've got to be perfect to go to heaven, and I'm not perfect. What in the world are we going to do? There ain't nobody in here perfect. How are you going to get there, Jimmy? You're not perfect. You better get somebody that is. Amen. You better get you a good lawyer that can plead your case that is perfect. Amen. He said, these things I write unto you that you sin not. Don't sin. But if any man do sin, The if right there, He doesn't say when you do it, He says if you do it. So He's still telling you don't do it. But if you do it, He said if any man do sin, he has an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous and He's the propitiation for our sin and not for ours only, but for the sin of the whole world. What does that mean? That means He's the Savior of the whole world. Does it mean the whole world is saved? No. It means the whole world, if they get to heaven, they'll have to go through Him because He's the only Savior they've got available. There is no other Savior. He's the Savior of all men, the Bible said, especially to them that believe. In other words, He's the only way to God. Judas could have been saved. He had the same opportunity the other disciples had. The same opportunity. But listen, this morning, man is saved by faith through grace. The idea of this hyper-Calvinistic idea now that's taken another halt in our society. I really believed all that stuff was dead and gone, but evidently it's not. There's a great revival of it now. And their idea is, we ain't got anything to do with our salvation. God elects us, chooses us out, picks us out, and decides who He's going to save and who He ain't. And that's called hyper-Calvinism. Now all of us, as Baptists, we have elements of Calvinism in our doctrine and in our faith, but their idea of that is carried to an extreme. They've got hung up and run off in a ditch. The Bible said, Make your calling and election sure. If you didn't have anything to do with it, how could you make it sure? You're getting quiet in here, but I want you to listen. I'd rather you be quiet and you listen to what I'm saying. Make your calling and election sure. We're saved by faith through grace. Grace is the heaven side. God don't need to fix anything in heaven. Everything in heaven is perfect. And God's grace is perfect. And always sufficient according to the Scripture. But we're not saved by disgrace. We're saved by faith through grace. The faith is on your end. That's on your end. So yes, you've got something to do with it. God gave you that faith. He dealt every man the measure of faith. You couldn't even believe in God unless He gave you some faith. That He gave you His faith, put it in you, and if you get saved, you'll exercise that faith in the finished work of Calvary. That'll be your part. Amen. And everybody that goes to heaven will go to heaven the same way. Y'all believe that? They'll go to heaven the same way. I do not believe the Pope will go to heaven because of the Pope. As a matter of fact, if that's what he's relying on, he won't make it at all. That needs a big amen behind it right there, because that's the truth if I've ever told it. I love you this morning. I've got friends and family that's caught up in that stuff, but it's legalism. It's nothing less or nothing short of what the Pharisees were doing. Ceremonialism, acts of righteousness, cleanliness, the denomination of the holiness. And I don't believe holiness should even be considered as a denomination because the Bible calls it a Bible attitude. It's not a denomination. Baptists are supposed to be holy. Amen. We're all called to holiness. We're not called to uncleanliness, but to holiness, the Bible says. We're called to holiness. Amen. But even they will look at you and they'll say cleanliness is righteousness. Outward cleanliness. So the closer and the less I can quit doing, the closer I get to God. Do you know there's people out there that think if they quit watching TV, If they quit wearing shorts, if they quit going swimming, if they quit going to the beach, if they quit going to the honky-tonk, if they quit this, if they quit that, and quit everything and shut themselves up in a little room somewhere and become clean on the outside and quit doing all these worldly things, they think that merits favor with God. Do you know a sinner can quit doing all those things and still die and go to hell? An alcoholic can quit drinking, that don't mean he's saved. A man with a vulgar mouth can quit cussing, but that don't mean he's saved. You quit a bunch of things and still be lost. Salvation is not quitting something. Salvation is you repenting toward God, telling God you're sorry for who you are, agreeing with God that you are a sinner, and having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And with a heart, man believeth unto righteousness. If you don't come that way, you won't go at all. It's just a tad after 12. The clock's ticking. Time's getting short on you as an individual, on our families, and on our country and our world. Mamas and daddies, you better get something at home going. I'm talking about something strong and very solid in the Lord. You better be preaching and teaching it at home. Because I'm telling you, the education system is not for you. It's a godless world we live in. Anti-God. Anti-Bible. They're going to push this stuff down your kids' throats. They're going to tell your children they've got to accept these lifestyles and these alternate theories. But I'm saying to you this morning, I don't have to accept none of it. on the authority of God's Word. I don't have to go along or sympathize with any of that stuff. If it's sin, I believe we ought to call it sin. If it's right, we ought to call it it's right. We ought to stand on it. And I'm going to tell you this, if we all quit and go to the house and join up with that crowd and quit going to church and quit believing the Bible, God is still going to be God and the truth is still going to be the truth. People not believing it's not going to change it or weaken it. Amen. So I'm just going to stay with it. Old John the Baptist, he'd have lived longer if he'd have just quit preaching so hard. Yeah. But I say hard. It really ain't hard. He just preached the truth. It's either the truth or it isn't. There ain't no such thing as hard and soft preaching. It's either the truth or it ain't. So this morning, I love you. And I want you to go free. I don't want you to leave here in bondage. I don't want you to leave here still doing those things that you've always done. See, unbelievers, they just keep on murdering. They keep on lying. They keep on stealing. They keep on envying. He said, but the fruit of the Spirit are these. And He gave us a long list of the fruit of the Spirit. He didn't say fruits plural. He said fruit singular. Go back and look at it again. Why? What that means is this. When Miss Bird got saved, she got the fruit of the Spirit. She got everything the Spirit had to offer. She got it. Amen. And when I got saved, I got the same thing she got. That's right. It's the fruit of the Spirit, and everybody gets the fruit. Everybody gets the fruit. Now some people exemplify little qualities of the Spirit more than others, but you all got the same fruit. And I preached on the witness this morning in the broadcast. You better make sure that witness is in there. And I'm talking about the witness of the Spirit. Make sure it's in there. Stand to your feet. Come on back and give us a song. Everybody stand, please. I appreciate your tolerance and your prayers this morning. It's going to come to a day when a man preaches the truth of God's Word, He doesn't power, and He's going to thank people for not killing Him, for letting Him stay alive. Perilous days, we talk about perilous times, and I believe we're entering the twilight of that. The old timers would say, we're living in the Saturday evening of time, and the sun is going down. And I think we're in the twilight of perilous days. Matthew 24 gives us a lot of insight on what's going to be happening, what's going to be going on. People can get all wrapped up in that and get discouraged. Jesus said, there's a lot of these things going to go on men, and they were so desirous of wanting to know what was going to happen right before He'd come back. They wanted to know what the signs would be. And Jesus alluded to some of these things that were going to take place If you look at them for face value, on the surface, very discouraging. Bad things happening. Evil men, seducers just getting worse and worse. Deceivers deceiving. Liars lying. People quitting on God. Turning away from God. Hating God. Denying God. Rejecting God. All these things is going to be going on. And they're going to intensify and get worse. And Jesus said that. But He didn't tell the men to be discouraged by this. And if you look at it for just what it is, it is discouraging. But He said, look, when you see these things, don't be discouraged. He said, when you see these things, lift up your head. Look up, He said. Lift up your head and look up for your redemption draweth nigh. So while the world keeps getting more evil, that means I'm getting closer home. And I'm rejoicing this morning. Thank God He's still God. Thank God He's still on the throne. And there's still hope, amen, for you and your family and for tomorrow in a man named Jesus Christ. No matter how bad the world gets where sin abounded, grace did much more abound this morning. Don't let the devil lie to you.