20 verse number 9, one verse again that I want to read tonight. We are continuing in a series that we've been on Wednesday night. That's Thoughts from Jeremiah, but the thought we're dealing with is the time Jeremiah quit, and using that as an application for us. May God help us not to quit. Wherever you're at, seeker or saint, may God help us not to quit, but continue on for His glory. Jeremiah chapter 20, verse number 9. Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 9, Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. Let's pray again. Father, help us tonight to see truth. Help us to rightly divide the word. I plead the blood in asking that your will be done. Forgive me what I've sinned against you. You've heard the request tonight. We thank you for answered prayer. We thank you for what you've done and doing. and going to do. We pray you'd touch in accordance to your will and these other needs that we've mentioned tonight, the needs of our church, the need of you coming and doing a work in our lives, the spiritual need, the physical need, souls that's hanging in the balance and Lord, don't even know condition they're in, awaken them to their need and speak to their heart, help our brethren to stand for what's right and practice what's right, and Lord, just manifest yourself in these days that you might get glory. Be with all of our missionaries, help them to preach and practice truth. I pray for our country, our leaders, that you'd help them to make the right choices and decisions, and then when it's all over and done, Lord, help us just to be where we need to be and stand and, and keep on standing where we need to, even if we have to go in the days to come. I plead the blood again asking that your will would be done. Help us now to be sensitive to you. Give us something that will encourage us, something that will challenge us. May we see something or someone tonight that would help us to continue, not to quit, but to go on for your glory. We'll thank you for what's done. I want to say I love you. Help me to love you more day by day. Help me to walk in your willing way and we'll praise you for what is done, for we ask it all in Jesus' name, for His sake we do pray. Amen. You may be seated. As we said, we've been dealing with the thoughts from Jeremiah. The thought we're dealing with, of course, from this one verse that we read is the thought, the time that Jeremiah quit. I don't know how long it was, but he said, he said, I'm just not going to make mention of his name anymore. What brought him to that? He spoke the truth. to the religious leaders even and they smote him and put him in stocks and he had to speak to them again. They didn't like it of course and the people were upset with him. His familiar friends were looking for him to make a slip up so they could bring a charge against him. And all those around him were just, he was alone is what it amounts to in a sense. And yet he wasn't alone because when he said, I'm going to quit, God's words began to stir inside and the Lord showed up and manifested himself to him. And as a result, he saw something and felt something. And he said, I just can't stay quit. I believe I'll just, I could not stay. I couldn't stay. And in that condition, that mode of being in idle, I had to get up and get in gear and go on for God's glory. Well, I say we need to see something, we need to feel something, and of course I'm not talking about something, if you're looking for a feeling the devil will give you one, but I'm talking about something from the Lord, a manifestation of Him, where He manifests Himself someway, somehow to you, but yet there's some people or some things or who and what, I guess you could say, that we need to see that will help us to continue. Now listen, you, you may think you're not going to quit. You may, you may get to full of pride like Peter did and said, I won't deny you, but he did before daylight. And, and you may think you won't quit, but you don't know what you'll do when you get in a certain position. condition or certain surroundings. You don't know what you'll do for sure. You need to say, Lord, I don't want to quit by the grace of God. For your glory I want to have strength to continue on and do what I need to do. But to do that we're going to have to see something and we're going to have to feel something, if you please, and most of all see something. The Bible said in the book of Proverbs chapter 29, verse number 18, Where there is no vision the people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy is he. Now, the word vision there means a mental sight. In other words, you need to have a mental sight of something. You need to see that. And the word perish there means to let go, to let loose. Now, if we don't get sight of some things or someone, we'll let go and throw in the towel and quit. So I said, as we begin looking at this, what would, what, what can help us to keep on keeping on? I said, if we ever get a good look at the Savior, it'll help us to keep on because, and that's to see His journey, how He traveled farther than anybody, and then see His job, how He went to the cross and He didn't, He didn't back up. He didn't go halfway. He went all the way for us and, and drunk of the cups of, the cup of the dregs of sin, my sin and your sin, and then we see His joy. He did it for joy. not the joy of the cross, but the joy set before Him of when He'll present it, present the saints back to His Father one day and then He can put them on display as well before the devils, demons of hell and say, look, this is who I came, this is why I came. May not be many in one respect, but yet this is why I came and is worth it all. In fact, what, what, He said, if you, what should it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his own soul? So if I see the Savior in order to help us to sat, by the grace of God, I don't want to quit. If I see his journey, I see his job, I see his joy. Then if I see the saints that we dealt with another night, those who've gone on home, the cloud of witnesses that's around us, Hebrews chapter 12 speaks about. And then those who are helpful, want to help you do this and help do that. And when you see them like that, you say, I don't want to quit. And then you see those that's hungry. I mean hungry for the Word of God, just can't seem to get enough, not only of milk but they want some meat, they want something to keep on and that, that's, that's a thrill to me and it helps me to say, Lord help me not to quit by your grace and then I see those that's hurting because they are. some hurting saints out there, they need somebody to stay with them and love them where they are and what they're going through because you see when they're hurting, they'll come through it. If they're saints, they'll come through it. And if they're seekers, they'll still come through it too as well. But if they're saints, they'll come through it and they'll be stronger than they ever were before. They just need somebody to love them and stay with them. So by the grace of God, when I see the saints, I don't want to quit by His grace. And then I said the other night, I said, when I see the sinner, I don't want to quit. I think about the sinner, you think about the eternality of the soul. When God leaned over Adam that he made there, that dust, that form and he breathed in his nostril the breath of life, he became a living soul. That soul will live somewhere forever. Now death is this separation and a man who who says he, eternal death, the wages of sin is death, that's separation from God in the lake of fire, but the sto-, the soul still has life there, if you please, still has consciousness, has a remembrance. You remember we talked about that in Luke 16? And so therefore, when I see the, the eternality of the soul, they're going to live somewhere forever, it says, hey, we need to carry the Gospel to them. And then I say, I think about the sinner and see the sinner, I think about the essentiality of The only hope for them is to be saved. I know they're safe until they reach a knowledge of accountability, but they, they, they must be saved. And yet their minds are blinded, the Bible talks about. Their heart is calloused or hardened, if you please, and they've been deceived. All of us were that way at one time, and yet what we need to do is carry the Gospel so that God's Holy Spirit can take that Word and prick that heart and awaken them to their need so that they might be saved. I'm talking about the salvation. And then I think about the equality of salvation for the sinner. It tells me that I, I, I don't need to quit. I need to continue on for God's glory, because it doesn't matter who they are, red, yellow, black or white, it doesn't matter whether it's rich or poor, what, which side of the track they're on, it's still, they must be saved and, and, and it's the ground is level around the cross. And so when I see the sinner, I say, Lord, help me not to quit. Help me to go on. When I see the Savior, when I see the, the saints, when I see the sinner, it's a vision in which we don't want to let loose, throw in the towel and quit. But when I see the seeker, and I know a seeker is a see the seeker, it says, hey, I don't, I don't, I don't want to quit by the grace of God because I know what it's like to be there and go through some things and, and seemingly no one cares in, in a sense. And, but you realize something, the Bible has much to say about seeking. And, and first of all, what most people Romans chapter 3, verse number 11 says, There's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. And you know, that's true. That's the Bible. But he's talking about the man in his natural condition before the Spirit of God ever comes and stirs him and awakens him. In other words, man in his natural will never stir himself up to take hold of God, never stir himself up to seek God, because he's dead, separated from God, and, and no consciousness toward God, ungodly, without strength, he said. And boy, that's a pretty bad, sad condition to be in, no consciousness toward God, and, and sinners actively engaged in sin by choice against the Holy God, and, and you realize we don't seek God in that condition. but when the Lord comes, I'm talking about what the Bible says, it says in Matthew chapter 6 verse number 33 when Jesus was there on what we call the Sermon on the Mount, Mount of Beatitudes, He made this statement to that group, and I know His disciples were there, but listen, all of His disciples wasn't saved, they were meant followers, but yet it's more, He's speaking to more than the eleven that were saved, if they were all there at that time, I don't know, but He said in Matthew 6, 33, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. In other words, if God said, no man seeks, and yet He told them to seek, now is that contradiction? No, it's not contradiction. It means that God's Spirit's got to come and stir you and awaken you, and then He said, you seek. You seek the Lord because He stirred inside of you. You may not have understand the stirring that came when it happened, but He wanted you to seek the Lord with all your heart. I'm talking about what the Bible said, Deuteronomy 429 in the Old Testament, it said, But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him. That's a promise of God if you'll seek Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. You say, I don't know that we do that. Well, He said you will find Him if you seek Him with all your and all your soul, Proverbs 8, 17, the preacher said this in Proverbs, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. Well, I know that can mean early in life, but yet and still I know that a lot of people in the Bible were saved later in life. Nebuchadnezzar was one of them, amen. Even the Manasseh, wicked, ungodly king was another one, amen. and, and you realize what it, what amounts to is you seek, you get a, your priorities right. What's the issue? Salvation. You need to, in other words, you need to take inventory. What's the most important thing in your life is being saved? In other words, some things need to be put on hold so that you might seek the Lord with all your heart. You need to do that. He said in Jeremiah chapter 29, verse number 13, And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye search for me with all your heart. Search, Like I told you the story about the preacher went and looked for his coat. Boy, I can identify with that. And wife says, it's in the closet. I looked and went back and she'd come out with it. And I said, where'd you find it in the closet? And she said, I said, well, I looked. She said, but I searched. Amen. In other words, she searched for it. And what's what Jesus, the Bible says about you, search him with all your heart. Matthew 7, 7, Jesus said this, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Now the tense of those verbs mean seek and keep on seeking. Don't stop. Keep on seeking. In fact, striving, straining every fiber of your body to enter in. And the Bible says you'll find him. So when I see seekers and realize this condition, the Lord said you'll see, but then I see them and I realize there's a problem. You say, what's the problem? There's obstacles in the way. Amen? And when I see sinners with obstacles before them, it makes me want to say, I don't want to quit. there's too much at stake, amen? There's too much going on. In other words, they're hindered by obstacles. You say, what's the obstacles? Well, sin's an obstacle and we all are full of it, amen? Hebrews 12, verse 1 says this, and he's writing to the saints in Hebrews 12, verse 1, but yet there's still an application to us. He said, Wherefore, seeing we are all so accomplished about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. In other words, that's to the saint, he said. There's a sin that's besetting you. You need to lay it aside if you're going to run the race right. Well, if a saint has that obstacle of sin, don't you know the sinner has even a more obstacle, a larger obstacle, if you please, of sin that's before them? And we need to not quit, but continue unhepping them at a time when they're hindered, in other words, by these obstacles that's there. therefore we need, and by the way, Adam's nature was depraved and so we've all got that problem and so we're, we're hindered by that. Seekers are hindered by obstacles that's placed there. And he's also sent not only sin, but the devil, Satan himself. hinders you. The Bible talks about that. I mean over and over and where we've dealt with that from time, but the Bible says in II Corinthians 11, 14 he talks about Satan, I mean when he's talking about the false prophets he said, I know marvel for Satan himself has transformed into an angel of life. He comes and gives you what seems like truth and you being deceived and hardened heart and in other words blinded minds and deceived and all that, it causes you to say, hey that sounds logical, that sounds right. and he can make it look like it's right and sound right, and as a result, leads you astray. Throw an obstacle out there that hinders you from getting through the straight gate. By the way, many, when they turn from the broad way to the narrow way, they just make that as a profession of faith because they've been stirred. There's even a change in their life. But folks, don't be content with that. Thank God for the change in your life. If you don't believe it's better, I'll ask you why. ask your husband, amen. It, it is better, but you need to get through the straight gate and the obstacles are along that way. Jesus told someone one time, thou art not far from the kingdom of God. I remember Brother Charles Shipman telling somebody about somebody one time, he said, he's not far from the gate, but he said that the way from where he's at to the gate's like this, and all kind of obstacles in the way, just like a, like a maze, if you please. And so that's what it is. Satan is an obstacle. Sin is an obstacle, if you please. And I'll tell you something else that's an obstacle is self. In fact, you know that's the biggest obstacle you've got to overcome is just old self. I know sometimes we say the devil, the devil, listen, it's just you. A lot of times it's just me. Amen? I mean, we, we want to get blamed past it all. Lord, that, Lord, that wife you gave me, Adam, said it's caused me that problem. You are the problem. you know, blame somebody else. Well, somebody said, where would Adam have been if he hadn't been for Eve? He'd have still been in the garden sitting under the trees, eating of the tree of life. Amen. Amen. And wouldn't have been happy. I mean, not good for man to live alone. But the thing about it is, you can't blame somebody else all the time because it's basically just me. standing in the need of prayer. Self is the real obstacle you've got. And did you know something? A self is full of desires of the flesh. I mean, that's nature. It's Adam's nature. Self's full of preconceived ideas. In other words, you know what God's like, don't you? We've got him in a little box, and yeah, you've got the idea God's just a big old bully going to bop you off the first time you get out of line. That's what most of us thought. And mommas and daddies probably use a lot of times God as a, like a traffic cop trying to stop you from something. If you don't quit that, God's gonna get you. You know, don't do that, amen. They get wrong preconceived ideas about what God's like or who God is and preconceived ideas of what salvation will be like. In other words, but really the biggest obstacle of all as far as the seeker being hindered is just, oh, number one self. And did you know what, what really makes it that way? Ephesians chapter 2 says this, verse number 2, and of course we've read that many times and used that many times, but he said there in Ephesians chapter 2, verse number 2, I've got it somewhere here written down anyway, he said, Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. And we've used that scripture to tell you that this world of rebellion, age of, spirit of this age is controlling us before we get to the place that God looses us. And the prince of the power of the air is the devil and the demons of hell controlling us. Every person's law has demonic forces after them, there's no doubt about it. But it also says this in verse number 2, he said there not only about the course of this age or this world, but he walks according to the prince of the power of the air, and then it's defined the prince of the power of the air as the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. You know who the children of disobedience are, those that's in unbelief. and he's saying that we have the spirit of the Prince of the power of the air working in us, just the old self. So you see we're, we're dominated that way. We may not even have any influence around us like we think we have, but we're so geared with that spirit of disobedience, a spirit of the Prince of the power of the air in us because we're children of disobedience and we're the number one obstacle we've got to overcome and get to the Lord Jesus on that narrow way that we seek the Lord, right? I mean that's, so you see, when I see the seeker and I see they're hindered by obstacles, seeing Satan himself, it says, hey, they need somebody to stay with them and encourage them to keep on. There's hope, there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a freight train, amen. You need to keep on keeping on for God's glory. So when I see the seeker and realize there's a problem of being hindered, it makes me not want to quit by the grace of God. And also when I see the seeker and realize they're hurting, There are the people that's hurting, that's seeking, I understand that. Been there, his expression is, but it's due to religious world, the religious world's action. And I don't tell you it makes you feel like it, it makes you feel like you're just out of place. It makes you feel like sometime when you see some of that crowd and the things they say to you, it'll make you feel like a second class citizen. Amen? Anybody ever feel that way? I mean, you feel that way sometimes around the religious crowd. They'll make you feel that way, and it, and that causes hurt, if you please, and what we need to do is stay with them during that time. And also, your own family sometimes will hurt you. They make you, look at you and make you think you're an oddball. You're an oddball. I remember one time somebody announced over at Southside that they was lost. And I'll tell you what, you'd have thought somebody died in the family just because they announced they was lost. And when they finally propped back up on nothing, they was tickled to death. Mama, I'm talking about, and Daddy was tickled to death. I think she was about 50 years old at that time, 45 or something like that. And you know what? She died and went to hell. She's already there. said, you're judging. I'm fruit inspecting. Amen. She dealt with it and backed up and went with what she didn't have. And her mom and daddy was, oh, they was tore up. I'll never forget it. They was shook up to the core. They wept and they was just like somebody had died in the family. But when she said, I'm okay, I just bothered and everything's okay. They smiled and went on their way. Folks, I want to tell you, when you tell somebody you're not saved, even your own family will look at you like you're an oddball. Why? You know you are. You go to church. You pay your tithe. You do this. You do that. And it makes you feel, even though it may not always be so, the devil will try to make you feel that way around them, and most of the time it's so. I want to tell you, when I see that, it makes me want to harness up and fight. because I don't want to see you hurt any more than you're already hurt, because I know what it's like, amen. And that's why I want to stay with you and give you a place of refuge. Why I told that Russian missionary, really a Russian preacher, that's a missionary, I sent word to him. I don't know what he'll do, but I said, if you need a place of retreat, we've got one, amen, and we'll stay with you and love you. Of course, he's probably been hit so much, he don't know whether I'm telling the truth or not, amen, in that sense, because just the word I sent to him. We know you're hurting and therefore we need somebody to pray. In fact, the business you think, and stay with you, you think sometimes that nobody really cares anything about you. You'll get to a place that'll look like nobody does, not even the preacher, amen, and the one who loves you, amen, and sure not even think Jesus does, who sure loves you, amen. And you'll get that. The devil isolates you and pulls you apart and makes you feel that way. And you know the expression I've used many times, every banana that gets pulled from the stalk usually gets peeled. I mean, they don't have them on stalks anymore, but back when I was a boy, they used to have a stalk hanging up in the store. You all remember it? And people would reach up there and grab a banana in the old country store. You know what they did with it? They peeled it and ate it, throw the banana peel in the way, and eat the banana. Amen. And so every banana that gets pulled from the stalk usually gets peeled. So all you need is somebody to encourage you to stay with the stalk, to stay where God's spout is, to stay where the truth's at. and continue for God's glory. But you think sometimes nobody cares for your soul. The psalmist said that. He said, I looked on my right hand, and behold, there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. I didn't have a place of shelter or security. No man cared for my soul, is what the psalmist said. And boy, you'll get that way sometime when you're going through those things. If you hadn't, just wait, you'll get there. You'll think no man does. And you wonder, in other words, you get to the point you can count them on one hand that really, really cares about you. Amen? I could do that back years ago. Count them on one hand. I didn't have to use all of them, amen? Didn't have to even get to the number five to really say that's where it's at. they're few. But may God help us to be one of that one on your hand, to stay with you until the Lord does something for you, because you, and I can't quit by the grace of God. You need someone to love you and stay with you where you are and that's why I can't quit by the grace of God. when I see the seeker that's hindered, I see the seeker that's hurting, and I see the seeker that's hopeless. And I know there's a sense you've got to get to the end of yourself, I understand that, but I want to tell you what, we need to encourage you to let you know there is hope, and let you know that there is help on the way, if you please. In other words, there's an open door. We still have freedom. And I thank God for the freedom we've got in America. There's an open door. There's a preacher of righteousness. There's a striving spirit. It may not be striving as much as what we would like for Him to do, or as much as He has in the past, but He's going to strive one day. and when he begins to strive and he shows up and manifests himself, things will not make any difference. You'll lose all those feelings you've got on your shoulder. You'll push them away and try to get to him, I pray you will, and until then, in other words, I'm saying there's some hope. We need to be like Abraham was. You need to be like Abraham was. When Isaac was to be born in Romans chapter number four, it said this in Romans chapter number four, verse number 18 through 20, 18, 19, and 20. He said this, Romans chapter 4, verse number 18, he said, Who against Stoppis? Abraham. Here he was, 99 years old, and according to all indications, his wife's womb had been dead for years as far as procreation was concerned, and he was past childbearing age at this point in time. and his result he said, verse 18, Who against hope believed in hope, that they might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, and considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, 99 is the actual age, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, what did he do? He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. In other words, he said, God, you told me, and I know whatever you tell me, it's going to be all right. We'll just keep on going for the glory of God. So we, I know that's not salvation. I know that was about a boy being born in the land, but the principles are the same. When you need to come to the place where against hope, you believe in hope. And all we can do is encourage you, there is hope. I mean, there's hope, there's help on the way. And you say, but preacher, I, I, I just, I can't do it. I just can't have it. I know that in yourself. You can't have it, I understand. But I'm going to tell you what, He can. You can't do it, but He can. Amen? In other words, in fact, it's impossible with you, but all things are possible by the Lord. What He told the disciples after there the rich young ruler walked away, I want to tell you what God said in His Word, I Thessalonians 5, 24, He said, Faithful is he that calleth you who will do it. Philippians 1, 6, He said, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Christ. I know it's written the same. But listen, He began a good work before you ever got saved, and you who are not saved, He's begun a good work in you. If He stirs you and He gives you any kind of desire to move toward Him at all, you ought to thank God for it, and rejoice over that, and realize that He that begun will do it. I know it's conditional, but He still will do it. In other words, that, that condition is what he said in the book of, book of John chapter 8, verse number 31 and 32, to those that believed on him. There, they said, we believe on you. And he said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. In other words, if you continue, he says, you'll come to a point that you're saved. And that's what he's saying to you through Philippians 1, 6. He that hath begun a good work will perform it. Thankful is he who calleth you who will do it. In Hosea chapter 6 verse 3 I've got part of it on the wall and it says, Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord, and then it says, He is going forth, is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain. He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain. and the former rain unto the earth. Takes that for a crop to come. We've got the first fruits and it's not just the grains of wheat. We've got the first fruits and we believe God sent us here for a harvest and we're looking for that harvest and we'll just keep sowing and planting and plowing and reaping what little we can until the time comes for the great harvest to come, amen, the latter rain comes. I'm talking about hope. That's why I can't quit by the grace of God. When I see the seeker, if you please, that's hindered and, and they're, and they're, they're, they're hopeless and they're, they're hurting, I, I, may God help us not to quit by the grace of God. And then I also, I see something else when I see Satan. I tell you, it makes me not say, I don't want to quit, by the grace of God, because Satan is a deceiver. John 8, 44, it said, Jesus said this about Satan. He said, he talked about the people, said, you're of your father the devil, and the lust of your father he will, you will do. and then he tells what Satan's like. He was a murderer from the beginning, and a bold knot in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he's a liar, and the father of it. And when I see Satan, I think about a fact that he's a liar and he'll lie to you. He'll lie to you. Not only will, He has. He'll lie to you about sin. In other words, He'll say, sin's not too bad. You ought to just try it. It won't hurt you. One drink won't hurt you, but I'm going to tell you what, one drink will lead to two and two will lead to four and four will lead to more. Amen. And then wind up drinking a half a pint, and a pint, and then a fifth, amen, and then you go to the moonshine gallon, amen. I'm talking about you can't stop it, you get hooked on that, because sin, he'll lie to you and say it won't hurt you. It will hurt you, it will kill you. It'll keep you separated from God forever, and he's a liar, and I don't want you to be deceived, I want to tell you the truth about that. He'll tell you that sin won't hurt you, and one joint won't hurt you, and a little marijuana won't ever hurt anybody, or a little dope won't hurt anybody. Take a little here and a little there. It'll be all right to tell a little white lie, I mean, He leads you astray. He'll lie to you about sin. In other words, it will, it'll bind you and carry you off captive. Amen. In other words, He uses the same channel that He's always used, and from the beginning, and He still uses it. Well, you say, it looked like He'd changed tactics. Why does He have to? It works. In fact, the tactic said he used on Eve is what he said in I John 2, verse 16, the Lord told us here. He said, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. That's the three channels that the devil used on Eve to tempt her and sheep her took. And that's the three channels he uses today on you. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He does it every time. Why does he need anything else? They work. They get us. And so therefore, he's lying to you. they'll put the billboards out there and make it look like at the, at Maker's Mark, even that bad stuff would make it look like it was good. Amen? Out driving down the road and they have, oh, they're having such a time out there and using sexual things to advertise it, right? And then, but they don't show you the, the rectomes and, from that stuff. He's a liar. He ain't never told the truth. in his life. He's just a liar. And all things, in other words, all these roads of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life lead to sin. And in God's sight there is no big sin and little sin. Sin is sin. It's all the result of the root problem of unbelief and yet He comes to reprove of sin because they believe not on me. They need to be safe. Satan's never told the truth about sin. He'll lie to you and sin will carry you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay. He'll lie to you. And when I see Satan and see that he'll lie to you about sin, it says, hey, by the grace of God, I don't need to quit warning others about the awfulness of our adversary, the Satan, if you please. He'll lie to you about sin. He'll lie to you about yourself, about self. You say, well, what do you mean? Well, he'll carry you to one extreme or the other. He's an extremist. He's a ditch operator, amen? Liberty's where we need to be in Jesus, but he'll carry you one side and say, well, you know, you're a pretty good fellow, get you lifted up with pride. That's pride of life. And yet what does the Bible say? Romans 3.10, there's none righteous, no not one. And then Romans 3.12, he said there's none that doeth good, no not one. And the devil tell you, you're pretty good. You hadn't done nothing too bad. You hadn't ever murdered anybody. You hadn't ever committed adultery. You hadn't ever robbed a bank. You hadn't bought about the candy bar you stole in the drugstore, local drugstore, huh? What about the money you got off the table belonged to your sister, your brother, your mom? Oh, well, that don't count, does it? But he camouflages all that, right? He'll lie to you about those things. I'm talking about self and say, you're a pretty good person. Listen, the Bible said there's none. He'll get you to one stream. He'll lift you up with pride. But then if he can't get you lifted up with pride to get you, make you quit seeking the Lord, In fact, the business, I remember when I went to A.D. Vaden, that time he told me I was pretty good. And I liked it. And I don't know whether I'm saved or not. He said, well, Brother Edgar, you go to church three times a week, you pay, you tithe, and you like me, in so many words. And my spiritual suspenders began to pop. He realized, I didn't know that at the time, but it happened. I want to tell you, there's none good, no, not one. The devil lied to you and he used people to do it, amen. Preachers many times to do it. But the thing about it, if he can't get you up that ladder or over at that extreme on that side of being good, he'll tell you how sorry you are. Why are you sorry, little down rotten thing? Well, you ought to just agree with him and tell him. That's the way I really am, but God wants to do something. If you'll get him to tell him that, it'll help you get him off your back in a sense because we are that way. But yet you're not an uh-oh. God made you like you are. I mean, you get to feeling sorry for yourself because I don't have this, and I don't have that, and I don't look this way, or I don't look that way. I want to tell you what, is I said, God never made an uh-oh. You know what an uh-oh is? That's when, if you ever made a, made something, made a mistake, uh-oh, God never made an uh-oh. I don't care what you look like, or what you are, you're not an uh-oh. Now, there's nothing good in us, I understand that, as far as God's concerned. There's no spark of divinity in us, but you're not an uh-oh. You're somebody that God made, created so that He can come and save you and recreate you and make you a child of His, amen. But the devil's an extremist. He'll get you, lie to you about yourself. You're pretty good or you're pretty bad. One extreme or another. I don't want to tell you we are all bad. Agree with him and go on and realize something that God will do something for you. And so by the grace of God, when I see him lying to people about themselves or about self, it says, hey, don't quit but continue so that people have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. as they seek Him, because Satan is a liar. He'll lie to you about sin. He'll lie to you about self. He'll lie to you about salvation. In other words, he'll tell you that there's some other way. You, you, there's another way. You don't have to be so narrow-minded. I want to tell you, we ought to be so narrow-minded that a flea could sit on a bridge of our nose and kick us in both eyes at the same time. Amen? Because Jesus is narrow. God is narrow. The way is narrow. Amen? We need to stay that way. And of course, there's only one way to be saved. And how many people do you know, badness included? Well, we're all trying for the same place. I'm going to tell you what, if you're trying, you ain't going to make it. It's got to be a work of God. I'm talking about, you understand what I'm saying, if it's in your own strength and power. Now you need to strive. You need to try in that sense. I mean, get what I'm trying to say. But if it's just you and you alone, you're never going to make it. You realize, in other words, He'll cause you to worship idols, if you please, if He can get you that far. You say, well, I would never do that. He'll cause you to come to the place to where you want to work your way into heaven. I was talking to a man the other day and talked to him a good while and he was of the Mennonite religion. The Mennonites believe you can lose your salvation. Listen, anybody who teaches you can lose your salvation is depending on works to get them in and works to keep them. Boy, that's pretty plain there. And that's another way, the devil lie. Well, if you just, be like one time we had some connections over at Southside to the, I forgot what it was, Seven Day Adventist, I believe it was. And you know what the man said? He said, if I could just give up my cigarettes, that's all I like keeping me out of him. That was his thinking, you see. He really thought. He'd been taught that. And listen, I want to tell you what, it's not sins that keep you out of heaven, it's the sin of unbelief that you've never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when you're saved, there's some other things will go and it's time for that he might get glory, but listen, it's not your works that get you there. He'll lie to you and say, well, if anybody's going to make it, you'll make it. somebody say, well if anybody's going to make it, my mama's going to make it, or my daddy, and it wasn't really depending on real salvation when they said that I'm talking about. You see, He'll cause you to try to work your way. He'll say, well if you need to be baptized, if you're baptized, that'll be all right. Well if you, if baptism washed away your sin, I'd hate to be the old cow downstream that drunk the water out of the creek, amen, because it just killed the old cow. but it's not living good, it's not baptism, and He don't care if you even believe the basic truths about salvation, about the Lord, about the Bible, if you disbelieve Him in the head, if He can keep them out of your heart, keep your heart hardened, if He can just get you right up to the point of salvation, and I believe there's so many got that close. and yet embraced something that wasn't real and turned and walked away. And that's when I see him lying about salvation, I say, Lord, help me not to quit. Help me to keep proclaiming the truth about salvation. Help me keep on and say the issue is salvation. And in other words, you see some of this easy believism crowd, the devil used them to make you think that salvation is just saying some prayer. Why, somebody wrote an article one time, we had 33 that prayed the prayer last week. God. Our babies pray prayers, amen. Now lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Wasn't that what most of us learned in the day? Nothing wrong with teaching your children to pray, but listen, it's not praying a prayer that saves you. It's not even called the sinner's prayer. What the sinner prayed in Luke They call that the sinner's prayer. Sure, one sinner prayed it, but he said, God, be merciful. Merciful is the same root word as the word propitiation, which means he was saying, God, and he smote his chest with as much as, look up and oh God, be merciful to me. In other words, be, be, you're my sacrifice. You're my substitute. You're my mercy seat. And boy, I tell you, when you've got that much understanding, I believe the Lord will work in you too. Amen. Lachiti, he went away justified. The Bible said, but it's not praying a prayer of the devil to lie to you. He'll say, all you've got to do is open your heart, the knob's on the inside. You've got to open it, I've got news for you. There isn't no knob on the inside. Who opened Lydia's heart? The Lord did. Amen. Those pictures that we've been portrayed and put up in homes with a knob on the outside and Jesus is knocking at your door. And by the way, Revelation 320 is not even talking to a sinner, it's talking to a church. Behold, I stand at the door, and I know the Lord wants to come in, but He's got to work in you, and make your ground good, and bring you to the end of yourself, and work repentance, and produce faith, and then you'll be willing to open the door if you could, but still He's got to open, and you'll rush to Him. because His work. He'll get the glory. Amen. But the devil will lie to you, say it's just open your heart, let Jesus come in. That's not so. It's a lie of the devil. In other words, in other words, he'll get you to bypass repentance and accept your repentance. Jesus said twice, Luke 13, 3 and 13, 5, if you accept your repentance, ye shall all likewise perish. He'll lie to you. He'll lie to you. Lies, lies, lies. And if you don't repent, you'll go to hell with him one day, the one who lied to you. So I don't want to quit because I was deceived for so long. In other words, I don't know a lot now, but I know some truth. And because of what truth we do know, I want to warn others about old Satan and all of his tactics and what he wants to do to destroy you. In other words, he'll try to tell you there's some other way. I want to tell you what, there is no other way. I heard an illustration one time about a boy, I don't know, about an eight-year-old boy was up in a building and had been caught on fire on the first floor. He was on the second floor at the window, and he had the window open, and the fireman was out there with the net underneath him, that, you know, that, I don't know what they call a net, but you know what I'm talking about, that thing, sort of like a trampoline, I guess, but they catch him, and they was trying to tell him to jump, we'll catch you. And they told him the building's on fire, all the first floor's on fire, there's no way out except that window. and we're here to catch you. And it wasn't that long of a jump, but the boy would, he would try his best and reach up and he'd get hold to the window sill and catch himself just before he tried to jump out. And even his daddy came and pleaded with his son, son, jump, jump into the net, they'll catch you. And this is the way you need to come. And he said, oh, but daddy, I'll find some other way. And daddy said, there is no other way. And he turned and went back in the building and it fell and burned him and consumed him because there is no other way. Now that was a, that's a story, I understand. But I'm going to tell you what, there is no other way except through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if Satan lied to you and said, oh, there's many ways to heaven. You know the woman that was caught, what was it, she was, I can't remember, Acts 16, it just comes to mind. that, that she was some kind of a sorcerer or what not. She was a girl that was making money off of telling people's prophecies and things, and people used her for money. And she come up behind Paul that day and those that were with him in Acts 16 and said, in English reading says, Oh, these men will show you the way of salvation. And I always wondered, why is it Paul turned and stopped her, cast the devils out of her, and brought to naught the works of all those that was behind her? And why did he stop her if she's telling the truth? These men show you the way of salvation. You know what the Greek says? These men show you a way of salvation. Our translators put a the there. I want to tell you there's a whole world of differences, a difference between heaven and hell, between the way and a way. Amen? Because there is no a way. It's the way. There is no other way. And the devil will lie to you. You've got to come God's way. And there's no other way. You realize something, there's only one way. John 14, 6, what did Jesus say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Romans 1, 16, Paul said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it, one way, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And in Galatians chapter 1, verse 8 and 9, Paul said this to the church at Galatia, Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, Let him be a curse. Paul said, we preached you the truth. Let him just go on to hell if he preaches any other way. And then he said to them again, as I said to you before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received. And he's talking to the true saints of God who had received their gospel by power, not word only, but power and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. He said, if they come with any other gospel, just let them go on to hell. Paul was a pretty, pretty narrow-minded preacher, wasn't he? But there is no other way. And I want to tell you what, Satan will lie. When I see Satan lying to you about sin, about yourself, and about salvation especially, it says, hey, I don't want to quit. He's worse than a rattlesnake. And we ought to warn people if you know where the rattlesnake's at. Amen. What you need to do is say, yeah, you're going to have problems like Jeremiah did. People are going to come on every side. They're going to talk about you. They're going to make fun of you. They're going to try to undermine you. They're going to look at you like a calf hunting a new game or like you oddballs and all that. But what you need to do wherever you're at is say, by the grace of God, I must continue. I don't want to quit. I want to go on. Because if you hadn't seen the Savior, ask God to show Himself to you. I've seen the Savior's journey, His job, and His joy. I've seen the saint, those that's going on home, those that's helpful, those that's hungry, those that's hurting. I've seen the sinners, and think about the essentiality, the eternality of the soul, the essentiality of salvation, and the equality of salvation. I've seen the seeker, and I realize they're hindered. I realize they've been deceived. In other words, I realize that they have been hindered, and they are hopeless, and they are also hurting. And it says, hey, I don't want to quit. But when I see Satan and how he'll lie to you about sin, about self, and about salvation, he says, hey, by the grace of God, Lord, I don't want to quit. And Jeremiah said, because I've seen that and felt that burning inside my bones, I could not stay. I couldn't stay, quit, is what he was saying. May God help us to, if we've even thought about throwing in the towel, help us to say, Lord, forgive me, and continue on by the grace of God, even as a seeker, wherever you are, and then let God show you something on the narrow way, and it's narrow before the cross, it's narrow after the cross, but let God show you something, show you himself, show you others who are out there that's depending on you. If you quit, they'll quit, and if they quit, somebody else will quit, amen, and it has a snowball effect. like a domino effect, right? May God help us to put our hand to the plow and plow. We don't know everything, but may God help us to walk in the light we do have, and He'll give more light, and we'll continue on, and He'll carry you all the way to the cross, through the straight gate and all the way home. And the light you're seeing is not a freight train, amen, because it's God's goodness to you. May God help us to, not to quit, but to continue on for God's glory in the day in which we live. that you'll expose error, reveal truth. I plead the blood. Lord, I know it's so easy to get so caught up in preconceived ideas. We got caught up in what mom and daddy taught us back years ago, or at least what we thought they did, or the preachers of former days, but yet we found out it didn't match the truth, didn't match the Book. Lord, we need to junk anything that don't match this Book, and ask you to show us what matches this Book, and walk in that light, and Lord, just continue, as you said, and knowing that there is no other way. Oh Lord, I pray you to help the seekers to seek you with all their heart, waken them to their need, stir them, help them get their priorities straight, help them to, Lord, to be so after you, desiring you that, Lord, that we'd see you show up as you said you would, if you'd see, ask and you shall find, seek and you, and you shall find, and ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened. Lord help us in that mode. Seekers and saints to keep on keeping on for your glory and Lord just help us to see something and cause man without a vision will perish, throw in the towel and quit. Help us Lord. Give us grace. I know it's got to be grace. us not to be lifted up with pride to say, I won't quit, but say, by the grace of God, I don't want to quit. I want to keep on keeping on because it's too much at stake. My family, my life, my children, my church family, those you've placed under our shepherding, our shepherdhood, if you please, oh, God, help me tonight. Help me to be what I need to be and continue with truth and stay there that you might get glory and we'll thank you for what's done. For we ask it all in Jesus' name. For his sake we do Heads bowed, eyes closed, altars opened. Will you mind the Lord tonight as she plays?