chapter 14, verse 16 and 17 and John chapter 16, verse number 7 through verse number 11. John chapter number 14, verse number 16, Jesus said, And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that's another of the same kind as I am, a comforter is one alongside to aid, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, that's the Holy Ghost, in other words, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you. He's always been He dwelt with them even in Jesus' day, and He shall be in you. And now 55, 54 days later, that happened on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost indwelt every believer. And then John 16, verse number 7 through 11, He said, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, is it expedient or necessary for you that I go away? For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more, of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. You may be seated tonight. We started last Sunday night dealing with a series of Jesus passing by. As we said, we have nothing new, but Paul or Peter said that I'll call something to your remembrance even though you already know it and may be well established in those areas but he said I'll keep you in remembrance of that and I felt like we needed to deal with this series just before the meeting on Sunday night, Wednesday night at least and see what the Lord does for us in these days. But Jesus passing by, now last Sunday night we dealt with the condition of every man before Jesus passed by. passes by. In other words, the first condition, of course we know Adam was without sin in the garden, God placed him there with a sinless, he was in the image of God, but when Adam sinned, he was thrown into sin and it not only threw him into sin, but it threw all mankind into sin. We're born with a sin nature, so therefore we're born that way, but thank God we're safe until we reach a knowledge of accountability. What age is that? We don't know, but it's a point where we know the difference between good and evil that the Bible speaks about in Deuteronomy 139, and it's also the tree I had to deal with in the Garden of Eden was a tree of knowledge of good and evil, evil is the devil, and good is God. You've got to have some understanding about God and the devil, about some evil and good when you reach the knowledge of accountability, but till then you're safe. Now when you reach that knowledge of accountability, you're responsible before God. And this is the condition we dealt with last Sunday night that you are in that condition. First of all, in that condition, you're dead. The Bible said in Ephesians chapter 2 verse number 1, you're dead in trespasses and sin. In other words, what can a dead man do? He has no consciousness toward God. Also, we said that the man is depraved. That means he's totally corrupt. He's rotten to the core. He said he's ungodly. In other words, strong for evil, weak for good, dead, depraved, but he also is dominated, dominated or controlled by the flesh, the world, and the devil as we read in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 and verse 3. In other words, they control what we do, whether we realize that or not. Watch yourself. You'll buy things in the store because you've seen it on TV. Commercials just keep buying those things and looking at those things just because the world wants it. Well, say if it's a If it's modest and godly, it's alright to do it, but don't let the world dictate what you do. I'm doing this because God wants me to dress this way. God wants me to walk this way. You remember we talked about that, the styles of the world dictate a lot of times what we say, because that's the condition of every lost man before Jesus passed by. He's controlled. He's dominated by the flesh, but he's also dominated by the devil. Because the Bible said we walked according to the prince of the power of the air. Prince is the ruler, power of the air is the demons. They have control over us and they make us do what we do. Somebody said, well I'm just doing my thing. I'm doing what I want to do. No, you're doing what flesh wants you to do. what the world wants you to do, what the devil wants you to do. But thank God when the Lord comes by in awakening and awakens you there is a certain amount of the fact that Jesus passes by at that time in a sense and the Holy Ghost comes by and awakens you and looses you from some things where you can not associate with that and still yet not be saved at that particular point in time. And so as a result You need to realize we are, though in that condition, once we reach a knowledge of accountability, we are depraved, but we are dominated, not only by the world and the devil, but by the flesh, Ephesians 2, 3 said, which means that flesh which is oriented to the spirit of disobedience, which is the devil in us, amen? And therefore, we are following Him, we are a servant to sin in that condition. But thank God when He comes by and even awakens it, helps you to be loose from some of those things. but you're still not completely loosed until Jesus passes by and you're really saved. So as a result, we're all, we're dead, we're, we're the every condition of every man. I don't care who it is, red, yellow, black or white, rich or poor, which side of the tracks you grew up on, what country you're from, it matters not. Every man who's reached the knowledge of accountability is dead. He's the, he's the, he's depraved, he's the dominated, but he also is deceived. The Bible said we were The God of this world hath blinded our minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel shine down their hearts, and we be saved. It also said, Jeremiah 17, 9, The heart's deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You don't even know your own heart. Heard many preachers a lot of times say, if I know my heart, whoop, whoop, whoop. You don't know your heart. Amen. You might as well as to mark it down. You don't even know it after you save all of it. There's still some recesses God's still working on. Amen. But definitely deceived in that condition and as a result every man is in that condition. He's dead, he's depraved, he's dominated, he's deceived, but he also is doomed. He's under the wrath of God and that wrath abideth on him, remains on him because he's not come to a point, place and time where he believed and as a result God, oh what a condition we're in and the sad part about it, most, most sinners today, most who've reached the knowledge of accountability are so caught up, many of them have already made professions of faith, been deceived by a profession, think they're okay And they're going to hold on to that and slip off into hell thinking they're okay. Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Deceived. Have we not cast out devils in thy name? Deceived. Have we not done many wonderful works in thy name? Deceived, is what he said. And doomed because the wrath of God is still on you. And many of them do not even know that that's the condition they're in. And the sad part about it is many who say they're saved don't care. Now most of them are not saved, we understand that. But the psalmist said, no man cared for my soul. But guess what? You ever feel like that sometime? Testified last Sunday morning they felt that way. Amen? Nobody cares about you. I want to tell you, even though you're dead and depraved and dominated and deceived and doomed, you're dear to the Lord. Because He loved you. For when we were yet sinners in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. You see, and then also it says, for He died for us. In other words, that ungodly goes with the verse before that. But He died for us. When we were yet sinners, actively engaged in sin by choice against the Holy God, He died for us. Why? Because He loved us. You see he painted a rough picture in Ephesians 2, verses 2 and 3, 1, 2 and 3, and as he did that, my, it looks like we've got no hope but God, verse 4 said, whose rich in mercy were we for with his great love he hath loved us. In other words, has shined unto us in this. is what he says. In other words, He died for us in that condition, He loved us that much. And so you are loved tonight, and you're graced tonight, you see. You're graced because God's given you light, and the light that lighteth up every man. No man's without responsibility because there's light. And so you're graced tonight, undeserved favor. We ought to all be in hell with our neck broke, as Brother Price would say. But folks, you're, you're graced tonight because of the fact He, He loved you enough to send you light. He loved you enough to send you, if you please, the seed, the Word of God across your path. And He loved you enough to send you a man, the human instrument that explained that. In other words, He sent somebody across your path. But He not only that, but He loved you enough that He sent, graced you by the fact that He sent the Holy Ghost of God across your path. And that's what Jesus said He was going to do in the text verse we read tonight. In other words, if we could come to a subtitle tonight in a series of Jesus Passing By, the first subtitle was, The Condition of Every Man Before Jesus Passes By, but now we can say here, in other words, we can say, The Work of the Holy Ghost in Every Man Before Jesus Passes By, and that means every mankind. man, woman, boy or girl that comes to the point of salvation and is genuinely saved, there's got to be a completed work of the Holy Ghost of God in their lives. And Jesus spoke about that comforter, another of the same kind of comfort that I am to you, a paraclete, one alongside the aid. And you realize something, His work must be completed. Not just begun, but it's got to be completed. Now many people have had the work of God short-circuited in their life by well-meaning preachers, by preachers that say, well let's just do this and you'll be okay, and you look up to them, you say they're preachers, they ought to know what they're talking about, and the work of God ceases in your life, and the devil takes over and whispers in your ear, when you get a relief and a release, and you'll say, and he'll say, peace, peace, whenever yet the work's not been completed. So we're tonight dealing with the fact of the work of the Holy Ghost in every man before Jesus passes by. Number one, first of all, the Holy Ghost, what does He do? He moves in our darkness. He moves in our depravity. He moves in our, in our deception, if you please, in our darkness, when we're darkened. In fact, we've got a typology in Genesis 1 too, Bible said, of course, in Genesis 1-1, God created heavens and earth, but in verse 2 it says the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Now that means those words, if you look at those, they mean that it was in a state of confusion, it was out of order. God put it in order in verse 1, but it got out of order in verse 2 and it became a mass ball of ice, I would say probably is what it amounted to. And somebody said, Oh, we don't believe in no gap theory. Well, I do. Amen. I believe, you see, God created man perfect, put him in a garden, and man fell, and as a result, he had to be redeemed. He had to become a new creation in Christ. And God created this earth in perfection that Job said the sons of God, which are the angels, shouted over for joy. But something happened. What happened? Well, Lucifer fell from heaven. he got the I willies and said I will exalt myself above the throne of God and God kicked him down to this earth and it became a ball, a mass of confusion without form and void and as we read Genesis chapter 1 we find there we come to that point of where we're in a, if we get to typology, we're in a mess and don't know it But he said, what did he say in Genesis 1, 2? And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. You see, whenever, now when you reach a knowledge of accountability, you may not know where that's at. I can't look back in my life and tell you right there, it's where I crossed from being safe to a knowledge of accountability. I don't know that you can. you might know you have a knowledge here, and you were safe here, if you look back, but there's a darkness in between there, I don't believe anybody can ever pinpoint exactly where it's at, amen? I can't pinpoint where it's at, but sometimes in that knowledge, when you reach the knowledge of accountability, you don't even know that, you don't even care where you're at. You don't even recognize where you're at, but God in His grace that sent the Holy Ghost moves in that darkness, and whenever God begins to move in that darkness, you sense something, but you don't know what it is. Has anybody ever experienced something like that? Oh yeah, we see a few that could have been standing on the edge of the earth about the time in Genesis 1-2 when he said that the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and about that time that he said the Spirit of God moved upon this earth. Could you have seen it? You couldn't have seen it if you... I know you can't stand on the edge of the earth at that time, you understand? But if you could have stood on the edge of the earth at that time and tried to look down in this ball of mass of confusion and out of orderness as God's Spirit moved upon it, you would not have seen a thing. You might have heard a rumbling, you might have heard a noise, you might have felt a shaking, but you wouldn't have known what was going on. I want to tell you there's a time in every one of our lives when God began to move before we even knew what was going on. And as a result, he moved in our darkness. That's God's grace to us, to come where we are and move in our darkness, move in our deception, move in our depravity, move in our doom state. As he held back that wrath of God, he moved in our dominated state and we didn't know who really it was. But he moves in our darkness. Now that word move, there is a word which means to brood over. It's like an old brood sow. We call them brood sows. It's what you used to call the old sow, brood sow. Broods over chum. I mean the chickens brood over their young. I don't know whether they use that word or not, but at least you know what I'm saying. It moves on them. It gives work to it. And there the Holy Ghost began to move upon this earth. I mean it brooded over this earth and something began to transpire. Something began to happen. Work began to come upon this cold mass earth. and there was a movement going on, and the same word that's translated move in Genesis 1-2 is translated shake in Genesis, or Jeremiah chapter 23, verse number 9, when he said this, it's the same Hebrew word, when he said, My heart within me is broken because of the prophets, all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness. In other words, it said, my bones shake. Listen, when God begins to move in your darkness, you're going to have some bones shaking. You better hope your knees knock to one another or you might fall down. You understand? But God's going to move in you. Have you ever had that experience where God moved on you in your deception? Now listen, you know what most people, what happens to most people, they honestly, when God begins to move in that condition and shape, boy, inside there's a stirring going on just like this old earth moving in that darkness. The first thing that's happened to most Baptists in America today, they've already made a profession at 10, or 11, or 12, or 13, or 14, and God moves on them at a later time in their life after they've reached the knowledge of accountability, and they begin to get bothered, and then what happened? That little voice comes just to keep you a little bit deeper in deception. What's it say? That's just the devil making you doubt. Did you ever have that happen to you? Have it happen to you? It's happened to me. Amen? It happened to you? You wouldn't want to tell me, would you? You're afraid I'd put you on record. He's got your own film, amen? He's shot. Watch your head or shake it, amen? Dan, it happened to you, didn't it? Sometime we're along the way. Oh, that's just the devil making you doubt. In fact, he uses human instruments sometimes, such as preachers, and they'll tell you, oh, everybody doubts. That's just part of it. That's not what God says, is it? You see what happens? We've been deceived. We've been short-chained. Somebody short-circuited the work. Well, the fact of the matter is they short-circuited the work before the work ever got started, amen? And as a result, whenever He begins to move and those bones begin to shake. Another word that's translated the same as the word moved, the Hebrew word moved and also shake is also found in the book of Deuteronomy 32 and 11 where it's translated flutter. It says, "...as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, and bareth them up on her wings." That word flutter is the same word there as the words shake and move. So you see that eagle They tell me that the eagle get up on their rock and they'd build that nest and as Mama Eagle and Daddy Eagle, I don't know who does what in that situation, but as they build that nest, they take the mud and put it in the bottom and they take some broken glass or something and put it in the bottom of that nest. And then whenever they cover it with down, they cover it with something soft, and they lay their eggs, and they hatch those eggs, and when those eaglets get big enough, that mom and daddy said, it's time to get out of the nest. It's time to do something. It's time for you to get a job. It's time for you to work. Okay? They didn't just keep them. pacified in a soft nest, they reached down and pulled all that down out, and guess what? Those little tender rear ends of those eaglets said, oh! Oh! And you know where they got? Up on the edge of the nest. Up on the edge of that nest and around that nest. And when they did that, then here comes old Mother Eagle. Oh, I lost my screwdriver. Come old Mother Eagle along, and Mother Eagle gets up on the side of that nest and flops those wings. And when that's fluttering, and it creates a breeze, and guess what? It blows a little eaglet off into the world, and down it goes tumbling, and it thinks, I'm a goner, I'm a goner, because it hadn't learned to fly yet. But mama knows it's time for her to fly. Boy, I wish some parents would learn that about their kids. Time to do something, amen? Don't never, don't never do all the work. Teach those kids that are early age to get out and do something, amen? Because you're hurting them if you don't. Amen? Amen, you're hurting them if you don't. I feel sorry for T.R., amen. He'll be mowing the yard next week now. But the thing about it is, they kick them out and the little eagle, it thinks it's goner, it's goner, and it goes fluttering down there, and it's over a big rock. See, they build on a big rock and they head down to the ground below. I don't know what it's saying, but all at once, they think I'm a goner and there's nothing, but all the time Mother Eagle's got his eye. her eye on him, and she's circling around, and just before the little eaglet hits the ground, mother swoops up under that little eaglet, and buries it up on her wing, and soars up to new heights. And the little eaglet snuggles up next to mother eagle and says, boy, I've got it made now, and about that time, she makes a die though, and off goes the little eaglet again. She's teaching it to fly, and she watches it, and she trains it to fly, and they think they're God. I won't tell you when God takes you and begins to get you and push you, flutters you out of your little, say, a cushion nest, your little soft cushion profession. Now most somebody's going to come along and try to build you up and say, your profession's okay, it's okay. Oh, I'm trying to tear up professions, amen? If your profession can be tore up, it needs to be tore up. I know somebody down at the camp this year said he despised preachers that would try to shake somebody up and make them doubt their salvation. Lord, help, I won't tell you what. The Bible said that in Matthew 24, 24, even the devil, who is really incarnate in that Antichrist, he's going to do wonderful things that would deceive the very elect if it were possible. It's saying it's not possible, amen. So you see, that eagle flutters over and those bones shake inside when God begins to move in your darkness. He does. That's God's grace to you. Oh, it's God's grace to get the down out of your nest. I mean, we want to be pacified and content, don't we? I like it. I wish I'd never been bothered. I wish he'd have left me alone. No, you don't. Amen. You better be glad God bothered you. You say, but boy, it's been a long, hard trip. It might be a long, hard trip even further, but I want to tell you the only hope you've got is to be saved by the grace of God, and if God didn't shake you out of that nest, and if some preacher can do it, listen, you didn't have nothing to do with it. to satisfy, amen? You see what I'm saying? So He moved in our darkness. That's the God's grace of the Holy Spirit. He sent Him to do that. That's what we call Holy Ghost conviction. Godly sorrow, a work of reproval, whatever you want to call it, it don't matter. It's God getting you out of your apathy and unconcernedness and lets you know something's not right down inside. You need You're out of order, you're in confusion, you're in a state like the earth was at that time. So the Spirit of God moved on the earth in that darkness. And so the Holy Ghost of God will shake up you in your darkness. And you know something? He was working on you a long time before you ever even knew He worked on you. Amen? Before you even knew it was Him. So what does He do when He moves in our darkness? He's positioning us where we need to be. whenever we reach that knowledge of accountability, and especially after the accountability comes, and He shakes up our bones on the inside. You see the Bible said in 1 Corinthians 2, verse number 14, well He's positioning you to receive that knowledge of account, but He's also positioning you to receive light. That's what He's doing. He's getting you out of that nest so you get to the place you can get hold of the light. You know what light is? Truth. That's all light is. I mean, we use the word light a lot. because God gave it to them years ago, the road of life. But it's just the road of truth. The truth, in other words, 1 Corinthians 2, 14, he said, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. You see, the things of the Spirit of God has got to be given you by God Himself. A lot of people know about God, but they don't know about the Spirit of God. The natural man can't discern the things of the Spirit of God. But God moves in that darkness. In other words, He moves to get you to receive light or truth. You see, the Bible says there's a light of conscience that's inside Romans 1, 19. He said, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has showed it unto them. There's a light of creation outside. He said in Romans 1 20, He said, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. You see, He's positioning you to receive light. How does He do that? By dealing in your conscience inside. by dealing in the creation outside that lets you know there's a God. But He's positioning you to receive the light of the gospel. That's why He moves you out of that net. That's why He pulls it down from under you. That's why He flutters over you. That's why your bones shake in your darkness. He's getting you ready to receive light. Light of the gospel, for instance, I Thessalonians 1.5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. As ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. So it's the light of the gospel. So he positions us to receive light. That's God's goodness. That's God's grace to us. Though the Holy Spirit sent to us. And so he also positions us not only to receive light, but for the work of reproval. And that's what we must have in our life. You realize something I call that's called many things, the Holy Ghost conviction, it's called godly sorrow in one way, I know one of them is the emotional part and one of them is the factual part, but it still can be called interchangeably and it would be alright. It's also called the sanctification of the Spirit, or the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And so therefore he, he, he positions us for that work of reproval that he spoke of in John chapter 16 verse 8 through 11 that we read there a while ago and he said, I'll send him, when he's come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come in essence. You realize something, a shake-up in our darkness is necessary to receive light, to receive truth, because you see, light is truth. Jesus is the day star of II Peter 1, verse 19, when he said this, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, Whereunto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your heart. Thank God for light that shined in our life. May God help you not to just receive some false light that the devil wants to give you, but let the Lord do a complete work of reproval in your heart. Now that can happen and you not understand all the words, but when I preach on it, you'll know what happened and that's what we're dealing with. tonight. He positions you for the work of reproval and then he works that reproval. John 16, 8-11, he said when he's come he will, not might, he will, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is It's come in other words and so therefore it's Holy Ghost conviction Conscience and creation is good. It helps you to know there's a God, but it will not Convict you it takes the Word of God for you to can be be convicted It takes a human instrument that God uses to bring that word Bible said in Hebrews chapter 4 verse number 12 He said, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the divining asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You see, when Adam died in the garden, the spirit lay upon his soul as a dead corpse, And it's like the Old Testament sacrifice. They had to discern whether there was any imperfection in there. They had to take the knife and go down inside between the joint and the mara. In other words, bone and the mara. But oh, listen, when you are born, you're born dead spiritually. And when, God, you are positioned for light, and God begins His work of reproval, and that Word begins to come down inside, it begins to move, your bones begin to shake as it comes down inside there. It's letting you see that you've got a dead corpse you're carrying around. dead in trespasses and sin, and you need to be saved. And God's so gracious to continue that work if you'll not let the devil short-circuit that work. Amen? So the work of reproval, we must let go and let it finish and have its way in our lives. Now, there's five English words that's translated from one Greek word. And the first time, of course, or one time it's translated reproval here is from a Greek word, and I'm not worried about the Greek word, but I wrote somebody the other day and said, you've got to have a time when Holy Ghost conviction comes upon you. And he said, it's only one time in the Bible it said conviction. He said, you must be reading the NIV or something, and because they did translate it, I wrote back and told him what the five words were that were translated from the same Greek word, and to understand that Greek word, you need to know all five definitions in English. See, he quoted me what the old Webster said about it, and that was all right for that English word, but his five English words that is translated there. And so these first of all is translated reprove in John 16a when he said when he the Holy Spirit has come he will reprove the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment. Now the word reprove in English it just simply means to lay blame on somebody. with the purpose or intention of correcting the problem. You see, when the lights turned on inside, we're put in the position to see ourselves and we're exposed to our real condition. And what's the first thing we want to do when that happens? How many of us want to see ourselves? I'm not putting you on the spot, okay. How many want to see ourselves? Do we want to see ourselves? Don't want to see herself do it. You see, what's the condition we are? We're dead. We're depraved. We're dominated. We're deceived and doomed. And then you spring all that out. I mean, man, we're in a mess. And don't want to admit it. Why? I grew up on this side of the track, not that side of the track. I'm a white man, not a black man, as some people try to say. But watch out, Hannah, because this goes all over. But still, that's right. Some people would do that, wouldn't they? Folks, I want to tell you, God, when He begins to lay blame on you, it's for the purpose and intention of correcting you. That's all He does that for, but we want to pass the buck. Adam, where art thou? You know, where are you? God knew where Adam was, but Adam didn't know where Adam was. Hiding, because he'd eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, didn't he? And you know what Adam did? Adam tried to blame God. and blame the woman that God gave. Well, really, he's blaming God. Why, God, if you hadn't given me that woman, I'd still have been in there in the garden when everything had been all right. He didn't say it that way, but that's what he said, huh? Right? Hmm? That's what he said. But see, he said, Adam, Adam, where are you? I want you to get honest with where you're at. You know, God wants you to get honest where you're at. Where are you at? Have you ever really got honest with yourself and honest with someone you can depend on and say, man, I tell you, that's exactly how I am, like he said, lost and undone. And when God shakes those bones inside moving in that darkness, he's bringing you to that place to lay blame on you for the purpose of correcting it. You see, what happens though when you're in a church service sometime and you hear these messages for the first time, like we've just talked about happening in another church, we'll not call that name right now, but you begin to preach the truth. Some begin to kick up and say, oh, listen, salvation's easy, salvation is this, salvation is that, trying to justify their own nothingness. Amen? It's what they want to do. You see, you remember back years ago when people stand up and testify in our first missions conference when people begin to testify Y'all remember what happened? We had a preacher standing right over here, got up and told, tried to assure us where he was saved. Well, you know why he did that? He wasn't trying to tell the testimony, he was trying to prop up himself, think I'm okay. And then there's a preacher's wife right over here, got up and stood up and said something, and one of the ladies come out who had just announced she's lost, and they come out and said, she just told us how lost she was. You know? Boy, I tell you, that's what we want to do. And usually, if we can't justify what our position is, we'll blame somebody. I know what's wrong, it's that Edgar Pascal's fault. Amen. Brother Dusty, you'll get the problem, blame, I'll get the blame. Brother Charles got it for messing me up, amen? And you'll get the blame, you know. That's alright, I'll get the blame for it too, but the thing about it is, what doesn't matter? You see, what difference does it make if you let God finish the work? He wants to lay blame on you, not to hurt you, but that you may correct it, amen? Dan had some brothers. Now, I don't know his brothers that well, but Dan was the youngest. They probably did you in a lot of times, am I right? At least you thought they did. But sometimes you'd probably go and say, Daddy, he's doing this to me! You wanted to lay blame on him! For one reason, Billy's not up front, I can't do it to him. Travis is not here, so. But you want to lay blame on your brother, your sister, something, I could do it to Barry and Marty, amen, and Randy. There they are over here just grinning like possums, amen. You know, we've done it to you before. But you'd lay blame, Mama, he's a-doing this, Mama, he's a-doing that. You know what you was doing? You wanted Mama or Daddy to get ahold of them. You was laying blame on them to see if you could get them in trouble. That right, brother Gary? You've had it happen with yours, I know. And you'd say, oh hush, go back there. They learned it didn't do much good to blame one another. Am I right? You know what I mean. Right, Bill? But you know what? That's what we want to do. We want to blame somebody for the problem we are. Well, I tell you, it's my upbringing. If my mama had done better, and it would be good if mama had done better. If my daddy had done better, it would be good if daddy had done better. But still, whenever we stand before God, a man must give an account of himself. Every man has light, and if man does not respond to the light of God of conscience and God of creation, he'll never have light of truth, and he'll stand before God, and he can't blame mom and daddy, or he may, but it's going to fall right back at his feet. Nobody to blame but me. But me, in other words, because, but we want to blame somebody. And so when you begin to get bothered and shake a lot of time inside that bone gets sick. Some people said when we first came here, you know, well, I've got to get out of this. I mean, he's preaching heresy. He's preaching something new. He's preaching something different. And they want to run off over yonder and blame me for what their condition they was in. And they get off somewhere else and things quieten down. And they feel better. My fault. You understand what I'm saying? Folks, all I did was try to be a light turner on her to tell you this is what real salvation is. And when it does come, that tells you, you open up the room, and whoo, huh? You see the out of orderness, amen? Out of orderness, amen? I don't know this kid. I'll use you for an example. Have you ever told Trey to clean up his room a few times and he didn't do it? What'd he do? He probably said, I'm not picking on you, Trey. I'm just trying to get across a point that you might understand. Because a lot of times you clean up your room and clean it up now. And he'll straighten up two or three things and shut the door and come outside. I see you grinning. Uh-huh. We got one right here that's guilty. Amen. And you shut the door. Did you clean up your room? In other words, you probably got your finger snapped behind you, you know. I cleaned up my room, and you may think it may look pretty good, but if somebody comes and opens the door, Nathan, it's not cleaned up, huh? It's in a mess, huh? Listen, when God opens the door, we want to close the door real quick. We don't want nobody to see our out of orderness. We don't want nobody to see our real condition. And so as a result, we want to blame everybody else for the problem, and we'll go off and blame everybody else. But listen, what you need to do is say it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's my problem. And what's what God wants to get you to? He's not trying to hurt you. Remember, He loves you. Remember, He's long-suffering with you. He's just trying to get you to see yourself so that you'll come to Him that He might straighten up your room and it'll stay straight from year on out. Amen. But we don't want to. We don't want to do it. Got another one over here. Amen. But the thing about when He lays blame on us, it's for the purpose of correcting it. Not to hurt you. It's not to get you in trouble like brothers did. Say, how'd you know about that? Well, I had a sister, amen. She always did that to me. Amen. Get me in trouble, you know. Well, Lord help us. But see, he lays blame on you. Aren't you glad God laid blame on you one day? Didn't feel good when it first started? That Wednesday night when you went out of here, you didn't like it, Miss Wanda. You wouldn't have ever told me that. I didn't even know it that night. Down deep, he could have left that off. Let's see, the narrow way. Let's see, the plowing farmer. What did he call it that day? The law of the harvest. That's what he called it that night. He's called it several things different times, but the law of the harvest. As you begin to see the narrow way, in other words, is what it amounted to. But as God began to come close in searching, We won't push it off, don't we? I'm talking to you. Don't we? Did you try to? Did it help? I'm glad you didn't run. Glad you didn't run. Because if you'd run, where would you be now? I know we're not where we need to be, and I'm not trying to pick on anybody. I'm not calling your name because this is going to the Philippines and India and everywhere else. God lays work, He reproves you. He lays blame on you with the purpose of correcting you because He loves you. He loves you. And the only way He's ever going to get you to come to Him for life is to get you to see you can't do it yourself. To get you to see you have nothing good in you. To get you to come to the place you've got to junk all those old voices that you've been listening to. We've all listened to them. Amen? We've all listened to them. And we'll do it again and again if we're not careful. So He lays blame on us. So He said, that's one word, reprove. Another word is rebuke. He uses the word rebuke and I think it's 1 Timothy 5.20. where he talks about, it's written to the saints, but he said he will, those that sin, rebuke before all that others may fear. Now he's talking in context to the saints of God, but the same word translated reprove is translated rebuke. Now rebuke means to lay blame on sharply and sternly. with authority. It means to reprove sharply and sternly with authority, and only God has the authority. He gave it to the preachers to preach it, but when God speaks in your heart, man, it sounds like it's coming from the preacher sometimes, and you don't want it, but it's God coming in there sharply and sternly, and folks, He's got the authority. But remember the word reprove means laying blame on for the purpose of correcting you, not to hurt you, but He wants to help you. And there's another word that's translated, Matthew 18 is translated from that same word. In the English it says to tell a fault. He said when you see some brother that's done sin, he said you go tell him his fault, to him. in Him alone. Now he's talking about church discipline there, talking about how to get people back where they need to be, but tell a fault. You know what the tell a fault means in English? It means to give evidence of. And what God does when He reproves you of sin, of righteousness and judgment, He gives evidence of the fact that you don't have anything if you don't have. He gives evidence of the fact you need Him. He gives evidence of the fact there's a judgment to escape. but a righteousness to gain. Amen. He gives that. Now how does he do that? Evidence first of all by lip. Alright? Your lip tells. What did he say? By the foolishness of sin that men are saved. I don't say that nowhere in the book, does it, amen? Well, I want to tell you what, a lot of people think it's singing today. They've got a God of singing. They'll travel far and near to singing, but they don't want to hear no real preaching. They used to call it hide-skinning preaching, but I want to tell you, you skin hide, there won't be no more to skin. You only skin something one time, amen? But by the foolishness of preaching that men are saved by lip, and it's also by testifying, telling what the Lord's done for you. That's why sometimes you need to stand up and tell what the Lord's done for you. I mean, if He's done anything, now sometimes I know what happens when that happens. Some people want to stand up. and try to justify their own means and try to tell what the Lord's done for them, to try to make it look like I'm okay, I'm like the rest of you. And sometimes it just shows from one end to the other what they really don't have. I mean isn't that awful? But it happens, it happens everywhere. But singing is not the way, it's by preaching and testifying. Did not the woman at the well go back in the village and the Bible said that men came out and believed because of her testimony? They had other human instruments sometime across their path. They had heard about the Messiah. They had a foundation. They had fuel for fire, if you please, or fearful fire. They had something there in their life because the woman did too. We know the Messiah's coming. So they had something, but she went back and testified. And it gave evidence that something's real. about this. Now a lot of people can talk, and a lot of people don't know how to walk. You see we've got a lot of people, we've experienced some people who had to talk, amen, and they didn't have much of a walk, amen. We've experienced that. You get fooled by the talk a little while, but after a while if there's no walk to match the talk, you can say there's too much talky-talky and not enough walky-walky, amen. Isn't that the way, and you come up with something, say something's missing. So you give evidence by lip and by your life. Let your fruit, by your fruit your own, your life ought to show forth the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. In some degree it'll come forth. He said let your conversation in I Peter 1.12, let your manner of living be that that becometh the gospel in essence. be honest and upright before the Gentile, before the lost one, that whereas they used to see you as you lost and how you lived before, now they'll behold your good works and the only thing you can ever do good is what the Lord's done in you. They'll see evidence in your life and glorify God in the day of visitation. In other words, when God visits them with Holy Ghost conviction and the work of reproval, they'll let God work in their life and bring them to the end of their self that they be saved also, amen. So let your light so shine before men that others may glorify him, is what he said, by life and by lip. Another word is a word for that is reprove, rebuke, tell a fault. And there's another word which means to convict. In John 8 it talks about convicted in their consciences. Only time that word's used in the English Bible, the King James Bible, convict. But it does mean convict. To convict means to prove guilty, does it not? It means to prove guilty. And that's what happens when you have over there, what do you call, used to call them that, now you can't call them that. What do you call them over at the prison? You used to call them convicts, didn't you? Because it's convicted, amen? Now they probably call them inmates. You'd probably call them a whole lot without going into all that, okay? But you've got to use a politically correct word now, haven't you? Inmates not to offend. But they're convicts because they've been convicted. And that's what God wants you to do. He's doing to you through this work of reproval is to prove you guilty before God of sin against the Holy God. Yes, I'm dead. Yes, I'm depraved. Yes, I'm dominated. Yes, I'm deceived. Yes, I'm doomed. Oh God! I can't do anything myself without you. I'm a goner. Amen. Convicted. And then also convinced is another word. In Titus it talks about convincing the gainsayers. Convinced means to persuade by argument using the evidence at hand. Remember it? Persuade by argument using the evidence at hand. Well you say why in the world do you argue with God? Why does He argue with you? Because you argue with Him. He says you're lost. I'm not. He says you're lost too. You know I'm not. I'm not. Right. I mean I mean we argue with God. We don't want to get honest about what we already really know down deep in our heart. Amen. I see those looks, amen. But we argue with God. Evidence at hand says something's real about this. As you see some people's life, who are living a different life, and it's not a put on, it's not the old egoistic style, it's not all those old things, but it's the work of God in their life. And you say, I want what they have, or better yet, I want who they have, amen. And God convinces you of the righteousness of God. And so when He talks about when he talks about he'll reprove. So really you take the five English words and define the word reproval. It means if you add all of them together, it means this is a basic definition. This is what God does in holy ghost conviction or godly sorrow or sanctification work of the spirit or that work of reproval. It means to lay blame on with a purpose of correcting it sharply and sternly with authority using evidence at hand to bring you to a settled persuasion. and approving you guilty before a holy God. Persuasion, I need Christ, I need the righteousness of God, and I'm guilty before God, and I deserve the judgment of God that's on me. I deserve it. Someway, somehow, and that God brings you to that. You might not have ever had all those terms when it happened to you, but I'll tell you, when we preach on it, you'll not kick and buck against it. If you've got the Holy Spirit, He'll guide you into that truth. But if you don't have that little shaking comes in there, it's God still moving in your deceptive heart. It's God moving in your darkness. Oh, and God's so good to move. God's so good to position you to receive life. God's so good to have you in a place where you have truth. God's so good to get you in a place where there's an open door, a striving spirit, and preachers of righteousness. that's coming by. Amen. And He'll reprove of three things He said in John 16, He'll reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Three different things that's got to be and it's got to be complete and let me say this, it don't matter where you're at, what age you were, whether you were 8 years old and I'll give you way benefit of the doubt, or 20 years old, you've got to have that work done. And most preachers try to tell you, well, get them saved early or they won't have all those sins to deal with. I'm going to tell you what, God's going to show you how guilty you are. I don't care if you're eight years old, and I'll use that figure, all right? I don't care how old you were. God's going to bring you to the place to where He's going to wring you out with the reproving work of God to let you know that you're guilty before God. You're just as wicked as the man in Harlem, if you please, who's done everything. Why? Because it's a sin He's reproving you of, laying blame on. It's not lying, stealing, drinking, adultery or murder. Even though He may deal with that if you make that an issue, and He may use that to get to the root problem, but too many people are picking the fruit off the tree, and the tree root needs to have the ax laid at the root of the tree. Amen? And if you need that, I've got one over there in the garage. It's a couple of families that give me. Amen, I've got it hanging up every time I walk in the door. Lay the axe at the root of the tree, amen. And that root, sin is not lying, stealing, drinking, adultery, murder, but it's unbelief. John 16, 9 said of sin singular, because they believe not on me. Now we can get up and preach on sin, all right? We can do that. I've been here 20 years and I've never preached on ever sin in the Bible, amen. You may think I have, but I haven't. I mean, it's 726 and I don't even know what they all are. Amen? You realize I don't even know what they all are. That's what theologians say. I don't know whether that's right or not. Amen. But 726, and if the devil can get you to start marking off sins, man, you're going to be busy. If you marked off one a day, you'd have over two years before you'd ever get done. Amen. And then by the end, you're going to have some more. And they're multiplying. Amen. You see, he don't care how long you pick the fruit off, how long you deal with the fruit of the tree. He don't want the axe laid to the tree. But God said, I'm sending, the Lord Jesus said, I'm sending the Holy Ghost to lay the axe to the root of the tree. He's going to put the axe down where the rubber meets the road. He's going to put the axe to the root and they'll sin because they believe not on Me. The little word on means to come to one place in a time with a purpose. The only way you can ever come for a saving purpose is if the Holy Ghost of God brings you there. You see, you're in bondage in the sanctifying work of the Spirit or Holy Ghost conviction. is to loose you, lay blame on you, with the purpose of correcting you, get you to the end of yourself, where you realize that I've never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. But that ain't all of it. He comes back and He shows you the judgment. I'll put it last, even though it's last, I'll put it second. because of the reason that I think too many people deal with the judgment, never even deal with the sin, never even deal with the righteousness of God. But the judgment, he said of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Listen to what God's saying. You think you're going to get by? You think you're good enough to get by? Look at Lucifer. He was God's right-hand man. He was the right-hand man, in essence, the high, stark angel in heaven, and God sent judgment upon him because he sinned, and if God punished him, he won't let you get by, If you have sin, then we've all got sin. Amen? Therefore, we need a Savior. We need righteousness. And it's not your righteousness, by the way. It's not Jesus' set of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more. You know something? Whenever we're talking about Jesus, He's the righteousness of God. 1 Corinthians 1.30, He said that He's made unto us righteousness. And He's the righteousness you need. Did not the Bible say in 1 John 5.12, Richard, what does that say? If you don't have the Son, you don't have life. If you don't have the Son of God. If you don't have righteousness, you don't have life. So the righteousness he's talking about is the Son of God, who is Jesus. You need Him. And He's hidden in the bosom of the Father. And He said, I have righteousness because I go to my Father, and you see me no more. In other words, he said, you're going to need somebody to convince you of righteousness. Now, for three years, we've walked these hills, we've seen miracles. He's talking to his disciples in context. You've seen the righteousness of God embodied in me. You never had any question, boy, I'm the righteousness of God. But now I'm going to go to my Father and you won't see me anymore. You're going to need somebody to convince you of the righteousness of God that's required. He said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no case enter in. No wise enter in. You're not going to make it, He said. And they are a country mile ahead of every one of us today. None of us in here can even hold a tie of shoelaces to what they are as far as their righteousness, self-righteousness. But that's not it. It's got to be the righteousness of God. And he talked about the Jews in Romans 10 where he said the Jews, his own people, his own brethren, Paul said, go about to establish their righteousness. self-righteousness, their own righteousness, and will not submit to the righteousness of God. You see, they rejected Jesus, He came unto His own, and they received Him not. They would not submit to Jesus, the righteousness of God. And as a result, they went to hell, those that were alive in that day and time. Any man who will not submit to the righteousness of God, who is Jesus Christ. Now, some people say, righteousness means to walk right, act right, and spit white. Well, I've got news for you, if he is your righteousness, you'll want to walk right, you'll want to talk right, you'll want to spit white. And if you don't know what that means, I'll explain that personally after a while, all right? I'll wipe that white spit out of my mouth, amen? But the thing about it is, it's white spit, not black spit. Okay, I get close enough. But he says, that's what you need is Him. And He will reprove. See, when He starts shaking in there, you want to run. You want to close the door. You want to cover up the confusion. You don't want Him to see my room, in other words. My room, you're inside. No, no, I don't. And sometimes it even gets so personal as God begins to open that door that you'll even look around to see if anybody else sees what you see. You may not catch yourself doing it, but you'll do it sometime. I wonder if he knows what that's me he's talking about. I'm not talking about anybody, but may God take that word and come down inside and let you see. Sorry. He's laughing now. Had no implication. Okay. He, uh, I better move on. But he is the righteousness that you need. And he said, I will reprove. He said, and he will reprove. of sin, of righteousness and judgment. And you know what? That's got to be complete. I don't care if you've been in church 30-something years, 40-something years, 30-something years, 20-something years, been a church member all that time. I don't care what you've done. You can preach all these years, do all this. You can be a preacher's wife. You can be a Sunday school teacher. But listen, if there's never been a time and a place for the Holy Ghost of God to lay blame on you, moved in your darkness, positioned you to receive light, and reproved you of sin, of righteousness and judgment, laid blame on you with the purpose of correcting it sharply and sternly with authority, using evidence at hand to bring you to a settled persuasion, I need Jesus, I can't do it, I'm convicted, I'm guilty, I deserve the judgment of God. And let me say this, God don't save you to keep you out of hell. God don't save you to keep you out of hell. Many people have that, and that's what they make their profession on. But I want to tell you what God says, wait a minute, I want to convince you of righteousness. Sure, you need to know about the judgment of God, and it may loom up to you more than one, but you need to come to the place to where you see Jesus. He's hidden in the bosom of the Father, and it takes the Holy Ghost to reveal Him to you. And listen, this has got to be a completed work in every person before Jesus passes by. Amen? We need Jesus to pass by. You need Jesus to pass by. We need Him greatly to pass by, and you hope badly, sure. But there's got to be a completed work of reproval, Holy Ghost conviction, Godless sorrow, which will work in man everything that's needed so he can obey the Gospel and be saved. And when Jesus passes by, the work will be complete. And you won't have to worry about it anymore. Now we're going to deal more with it when Jesus passes by. In other words, that work when He passes by. What does He do? What does He give you? What does He give you? I'm not going any further. But has there ever been a time and a place where you really saw yourself lost and undone? You see, it's one thing to think it and another thing to experience it. It's one thing to be, to just believe it and say, well, I believe that, but yet when God makes it a reality in your heart, what we need is the reality of the lostness. Many say they're lost, but we need the reality of that lostness. Lost, lost, undone. I remember Brother Clifford Rice making this statement back years ago. He said he lived in Ashland, Kentucky, up in the mountains areas, up around that area, West Virginia border. And he said that one day he went down to the pool room. He was going down to the pool room. He knew if he kept sober, he could clean them out. He could clean them out. He'd win all their money, he said. And so he headed down there. Because he had a grandmother that had been preaching to him day in and day out, he lived with. And they saw her life was something different. He said, on the way down there that day, he said, all at once, He said, it just hit him. He said, it hit him that if you don't, what would happen to you if you was to get a cue stick wrapped around your head? And he said, I turned around right then and began to deal with the situation at hand. He said, for three days and three nights, he said, I was up and down the hollers and hills and crying. And one time he was walking by his aunt's house up the holler from where he lived, he said, and said his aunt hollered out and said, Gordon, what's, that's you? He said, yeah, what's wrong? I'm lost, I'm lost, I'm lost. He said he heard her say, he just lives right down the road, he can't even find his way back home, he's so drunk. Lost, lost, lost. But she had no idea what he was talking about. But what I'm saying, you've got to get to that place to experience that. And don't try to work up what somebody else had, it's gotta be yours. So you see, we're dead, ever conditioned, we're dead, we're depraved, we're dominated, we're deceived, we're doomed. But thank God we're dear to the Lord. We're loved and graced as He sent us life, as He sent us the seed, as He sent us truth, in other words, as He sent us a man of God, as He sent us the Holy Spirit, and He positioned us, moved in our darkness and positioned us to receive light, positioned us toward the work of reproval, and then reproved us of sin, of righteousness and judgment, And if He's doing that in your life, let it be complete. It's got to be complete. And it'll be worthwhile to continue until He completes it, to stay true. Stay put until God does it. Don't go off and try to say, well, I'm just gonna give up on it. Don't do that, please. It's so easy to do. I know we get frustrated. If you think you're frustrated, I'm older, amen, because God's got to do the work. And I believe we've got the promise from what's been told me today by the hospital bed. We're gonna see God move. We're gonna see the light of rain. We're gonna see God move. And then they made this statement, it's as good as done. Now, that don't mean it'll be tonight. Could be. Don't mean it'll be tomorrow, but it could be. But it's good as done. It's good as done. That's why, because God's promise. And you know what? God keeps His promises. Amen? And He said He'll reprove you of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now, some of that, if you'll continue, that's a continual, that's a conditional promise in the sense, if you'll continue, you shall know the truth. Let Him finish in you what He started. Let him keep moving in your darkness. You've still got some darkness he moves in. You don't understand it all as he gives, as sometimes you say, but I pray the Holy Ghost conviction will be so heavy in the days to come that people will fall out under, under Holy Ghost heavy conviction and let God do a work, finish a work in hearts and lives that'll be complete for God's glory. Father, I pray that you'll pass by. We need you to pass by. and do for us that that's needed. I plead the blood upon this place asking just your will be done. Help us tonight, Lord. Help us to be sensitive to you and Lord, help us to understand, overlook any mistakes I made and anything I said that wasn't right, Lord, just take that away and move on hearts tonight. Move in darkness tonight. Position for light. Position where they can receive the truth that they need, whatever they need, Lord. then reprove them of sin, of righteousness and judgment, because Lord, when that's done, you'll pass by, you'll do a work, it'll be a complete work, it'll be real salvation. And we'll thank you for what you do, for we ask it in Jesus' name, for His sake we pray. Heads bowed, eyes closed.