Oh, that's a great introduction. I enjoyed that. I want to break something here just for a start. Haven't you enjoyed this good service tonight so far? I know you've been enjoying it, and I'm gonna put a stop to that if I can. I tell you, I've enjoyed the good singing, If the Lord had given me that talent to sing like that, I'd make the biggest fool out of myself a person could ever make. I'd sing all night if I could sing that way. I'd stop people on the street and ask them if I could sing to them. I enjoyed the good singing, praise the Lord, and the good preaching of my brother, Dr. Hudson. It's been a wonderful blessing to me and it always is to come here to this place where the Lord is blessed in such a wonderful way. You know, I've been here several times. I don't know exactly how many times. And I don't have the slightest idea in the world what I preached on when I've been here before. Some preachers, you know, keep an accurate record. They know what they preached and where they preached it and everything. I never did do that because I never dreamed in my fondest imagination, I never dreamed I'd ever be asked to come back to the same place the second time. So I have no idea what I preached on before and probably have preached what I'm going to preach tonight. Doesn't make a great deal of difference. However, I only have about three sermons. I have about 1400 and some odd titles, but I only have about three sermons. Every once in a while, somebody writes me and asks me, will you preach on such and such a subject? I always say yes, because I just move a title over there, same sermon, but different title. If somebody asked me to preach on nuclear energy, I'd say, why sure, be glad to. And I just move one of my titles over there. I'm kind of like a fellow that He started out to preach and he had three sermons. And so help me, the text for the third one, when he got to the third one, the text was, behold, two woes are past, the third is yet to come. And I just have about three sermons, so it really doesn't make any difference if I'm gonna preach three times, I'll get all of them in while I'm here. I had to pray a little bit about which one to use this evening, and I had to pray a little more about which one to use tomorrow morning. But tomorrow night I got it made. I know what it'll be tomorrow night when I get through in the morning. But I tell you, I just love preaching. I don't mean just preaching myself, but I love preaching and I mean that. I guess the Lord knows how much I need to hear people preach and preach the Bible. And I love to hear preaching. I thank God for the good message tonight. I just love all kinds of preaching. I love country preaching, and city preaching, and long preaching, and short preaching, and strong preaching, and I love weak preaching even. I ought to. I've been listening to that now 49 years to be exact, Brother Bobby. 49 years. And I just love to be where God's people are. And I'm glad to be here with you folks tonight. Now, I preached three times yesterday, and quite a few other things to do, and very busy this morning, five hours getting down here, and you know, it's almost my bedtime. When I get old, I'm not gonna be able to do what I'm doing now. Preach three times, and then take off somewhere the next morning, but I'm trying to get it done while I'm young. because I can't do this when I get old. So if I go to sleep now while I'm preaching, while you wake me up, I want to read to you tonight out of the blessed word of God. And don't you thank God for the Bible. I thank God for this wonderful book, and every day I say to myself it's more precious to me than it's ever been before. And I really mean that, and I believe that with all my heart. I love the Bible. I thank God I have a perfect book. God's inspired and holy word, and I love it, and it means so much to me. And I just thank God for the privilege of just reading the Bible. I want us to read tonight in Mark chapter 2, and may the Lord speak to our hearts out of his blessed word tonight. Mark chapter 2, we shall begin reading with verse 1. And he entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. I'd like for you to remember that expression, it was noise that he was in the house. Because it's talking about a special house that Jesus was in, in the city of Capernaum. And straightway many were gathered together. insomuch that there was no room to receive them. No, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was. And when they'd broken it up, They let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and take up thy bed and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, and took up the bed, and went forth before them all. insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw it on this fashion. You know, it's a beautiful thing to see the picture in the Bible of the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, of course, he was born in Bethlehem. He was raised in his younger years on this earth in the city of Nazareth. But in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 13, there is a very, very strange thing set forth. You read, and leaving Nazareth he went to Capernaum and he dwelt there. So really the hometown of Jesus while he was on this earth was the city of Capernaum located at the north end of the little Sea of Galilee. Those who sought to harmonize the Gospels have said that about three-fifths of the earthly ministry of Jesus, the parables he taught, the miracles he wrought, And the great things Jesus did, about three-fifths of it took place around the little sea of Galilee, and most of it around the north end in the shadow of old Mount Hermon at the north end in the little city of Capernaum. Many miracles took place there. Jesus was and is, thank God, a miracle worker. Many miracles took place around the city of Capernaum. I love to read of these miraculous things that took place under the ministry of Jesus. I read of the centurion's servant who was wonderfully healed at Capernaum. He came to Jesus with his case and told him about his favorite servant who needed to be healed. Jesus said, I'll go to your house. The centurion said, Oh, I'm not worthy to have you come to my house, but speak the word only and he shall be healed. Jesus said, I've not seen so great a faith in all of Israel. And he spoke the word. And from that same hour, the Bible says, this man's servant was wonderfully healed. I love to read of the miracle of the fish with a coin in his mouth. You know, Jesus kept the law. Jesus lived under the law of a foreign power. for Rome ruled the world. And one day they came to Peter and said, do you and your master pay taxes? And Jesus said to Peter, go put a hook in the water and catch a fish and you'll find a coin in his mouth and pay taxes for me and for thee. What a miracle. I love to read of the man of the unclean spirit, so full of demons at Capernaum in the synagogue. Until he cried, the demons cried, let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou most holy son of God? But Jesus spoke to the demons in that man and cleaned him up and straightened him out and set him on his way of redeemed soul. I love to read of the miracles of Jesus at Capernaum. It was in the side of the city where one night on the stormy sea that Jesus came walking on the water, and Peter walked on the water, and miracles took place. Hard by the city of Capernaum on those grassy slopes, Jesus performed what the Bible students say is his greatest miracle. The feeding of the 5,000 men beside the women and children with just a little handful, the lunch of a lad, he increased it and fed the multitudes. But here's a miracle before us tonight. The healing of a man born of four. What a thrilling, thrilling thing this is. You know, I think it took place in the home of Simon Peter in the city of Capernaum. Simon Peter lived in Capernaum. Simon Peter saw a miracle take place in his home. It happened to his mother-in-law. I've heard folks discuss whether Simon Peter were the first Pope or not. Well, that's the most foolish discussion I ever heard in my life. The Popes practice celibacy and they're never married. And Peter had a mother-in-law. And a man that get a mother-in-law and not get a wife is a fool. And he wouldn't have sense enough to be a Pope. So that's a ridiculous discussion to start with. But one day Jesus came to the home of Simon Peter. and his mother-in-law lay sick of a fever and he touched her and he lifted her up and she was gloriously healed and a miracle took place in the home of Simon Peter. Oh the news got out. You know when the news gets out that miraculous things are taking place. That's one reason people come to this place by the hundreds and are saved by the score in this place. The news has gotten out that Jesus works miracles in this place and the word got out. They came to the home of Simon Peter. Perhaps they said, we want to see this woman who lay hopelessly ill of a fever. And the Lord touched her and raised her up. And the whole house was filled with people. And the whole yard was filled. But out there in the city somewhere, there was a lame man. He could not walk, he was a paralytic. Perhaps from his mother's womb, he'd never walked a step. And perhaps he said, oh, I'd give anything in the world if I could go to the home of Simon Peter today, where Jesus' teaching and preaching and miracles are taking place. There were four neighbors. These four neighbors said, we'll take you to this home of Peter. We'll take you to where Jesus is. We'll bear you to the Lord Jesus. And so they did. The Bible says he was born of four and they brought this man to where Jesus was. Here are four men. that were convinced of one great truth. They were absolutely convinced. If we can get this man to Jesus, Jesus will know what to do with him. So he was born of four. He was brought to the home. Oh, how I would have liked to have been there. If you were to say to me tonight, preacher, of all the miracles Jesus wrought, other, of course, than the miracle of Calvary, and the miracle of His glorious resurrection out of the grave when He conquered death. Of all the miracles He wrought, I wish I could have been there, but I'm torn between two. I do not know where I'd like to have been, up on the mountain, up on the top of the house, when they broke open the roof. Maybe I'd like to have been up there and looked down through that broken roof into the upturned face of the Son of God. Oh, but then I think, no, I'd like to have been down there where Jesus was. And when He looked up, He saw four anxious faces who were determined against all odds and against all opinions to get a man to Jesus Christ because they knew what he could do for them. You know, I love these four men. You talking about a quartet. Now here's a quartet. These four men, you know they could have done like a lot of folks do today. When they got to the home and they couldn't get the man in the house, they could have given up. A lot of folks do. Do you know I hear people who are describing athletic contests and so forth talking about second effort? Here's men who failed in what they thought they would be able to do, to take him through the door and into the presence of Jesus. But they wouldn't give up. Up the stairs, the side of the house they went, and up on the roof, and began to tear a hole in the roof. I know what some people said. I know this as well as I know I'm standing in this pulpit. Now I don't read between the lines, I just read what it says. And I don't want to add anything, but knowing human nature like you know it and I know it tonight. Somebody must have said, now if you tear that up, it's going to cost some money to get it fixed. I know somebody said that. And I know beyond any shadow of a doubt, somebody said, now wait a minute, I've never seen anything done like this before. This is absolutely new to me. I know somebody said it. And listen, I don't have the slightest doubt in the world, but what somebody said, now brethren, wait just a minute. Has this been voted on? But these men could not be stopped. Listen, God give us some Christians tonight who cannot be stopped. These men did not say, we'll give up. Others might have said, we'll wait a while. Maybe he'll come out after a while. We can get his attention. But I remember that the Bible says, work for the night cometh when no man can work. So they didn't give up, they didn't wait a while, they acted immediately. Like Jude 23 says, snatching them from the fire. Here was a compulsion, here was an earnestness, here was an urgency. that would not take no for an answer. And here are men who said, we're going to get this man to Jesus. You know, Jesus majors in hard cases. I'm preaching to somebody tonight that has a loved one or a friend or neighbor that's hard to win to the Lord. Some of you have tried and tried and tried until you've almost given up. Oh, I'll tell you, the Lord taught me a tremendous lesson a good many years ago along this line. My wife and I had gone to Canton, Ohio to hold a revival meeting. After the first service, There came a man down here and called for me and he said to me, preacher, there's a man out here in a hospital, a veterans hospital. I want you to go with me to see this man. I want to get him saved. I said, I'd be glad to go. He arranged to pick me up in a little bit at the motel where Ms. Malone and I were staying. And he no sooner turned till somebody came to me and said, now, Ms. Malone, that man has taken preacher after preacher, and Christian worker after Christian worker, and this man that he's interested in has never shown any interest, and he's never been able to get anywhere with him. And if you don't want to go, you don't need to go, you're going to be busy enough." Then I made up my mind I was going for sure. So he came in a little while, picked me up, we drove out to the veterans hospital. So help me, when we walked in, he started down the hallway, he'd been there many times, to this room, he knew where to go. So help me, a nurse came running out of the room with her white uniform on, and she said, if you're going to see John today, You better be careful. He's in an awful mood. This fellow just kept walking right on into the room. And I very bravely just kept walking right behind him and right on into the room. There he lay. I can see him now. He had this iron gray head of hair. He was a veteran of World War I. This been many years ago. There lay tossing his head and cursing until the air was blue. There was a pitch of water that had been thrown off of a table down onto the floor. When this man walked in, this man named John on the bed said, Are you here again? And he began to curse and he said, I've told you, I don't want to see any preachers. And he made the air blue with profanity. This good man walked up to the bed and he said, I brought a preacher Malone. I want him to talk to you because we want you to be saved. The man would hear nothing of it. Finally, the good man said, let's have prayer. While we prayed, he tossed his head to and fro on the bed and flung his arms and used profanity. The man said to me, who'd been there many times, he said, come on preacher, I guess here's one that will never be able to win to the Lord. And so we walked out and we got in his car and drove in almost silence back to the motel. When I went in the motel room, I said to Ms. Malone, I said, you know, we are here to get people saved. We are here for a revival. We are here for a week in a revival campaign to get people saved. And I just talked to a man I couldn't win to the Lord anyway in the world. Oh, my heart seemed to break. My wife and I got on our knees by the motel bed and we began to pray. I got up off of my knees and called a taxi and told him where to take me. And one hour from the time I walked out of that room, I walked in it again. That man began the same thing all over again. Now listen, he'd heard the Romans wrote, I guess, a hundred times. He'd heard Saul Winters give him all the verses over and over again. I walked up to him, and I think the Lord led me what to say. I said, have you ever known a Christian, a real Christian, in your life? He said, paused for a moment, then he said, yes. I believe my mother was a Christian. I said, where is your mother? He said, my mother was in West Virginia. I said, but where is your mother now? He said, if there is a place called heaven. My mother went to heaven. I said to him, John, wouldn't you like to meet your mother in heaven? Those big old sockets where his eyes were sunk deep in his head began to swim with water. And in a moment with trembling lips, he said more than anything in the world, And in a moment I heard him pray, God be merciful to me a sinner. I want to say to you tonight, Jesus majors in hard cases. You take them one after another. That woman flung at his feet guilty of adultery was not an easy case. But to her he said, go and sin no more. The woman who married him into wealth, who had five husbands now living with another man, was not an easy case. But when she went running from Jacob's wealth, she went crying to her community. Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. It was not an easy case of the man on the cross. See him nailed to the cross and his partner on the other side of Jesus cursing the Lord and saying, if you be the son of God, come down from the cross, save thyself in us. And then this man cried to Jesus, Lord, remember me. And Jesus said, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Oh, what I'm saying to you tonight, the Lord majors in hard cases. It wasn't an easy case that night on the streets of Jerusalem when a man in his long robes who fasted twice a week and prayed three times a day, and gave tithes of all he possessed, and yet had never known what real salvation was, and had never known Christ. And Jesus said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. And three times you read that Nicodemus, the one that came to Jesus by night, was a friend of the Lord. Let me say to you tonight, my Jesus ragers in hard cases and He can save anybody. Oh, tonight if we might believe like these four men believed, Our responsibility is to get him to Jesus. Jesus will know what to do. Jesus won't fail. Jesus has never lost a case. And four men came. I'd like to use tonight hurriedly an outline I heard many, many years ago. I don't think it's mine. I preached it so long and made out like it's mine that sometimes I believe it is, but I don't really know that it is. But I'd like for you to look tonight for a moment at a helpless one. Here's a man that cannot walk. You say to that man, come let's go to the Gospel Light Church. He cannot go. He cannot get to where Jesus is. He is absolutely impotent in his body to get to Jesus. No way! He needed the help of someone else. And I want to say to you tonight, there are folks that tell us, you don't have to do anything about people, let them come to church like you came. If they want to get saved, let them get saved like I got saved. And there are folks that say, if God's going to save somebody, He doesn't need us. Listen, they don't get that out of the Bible. They get that by performing some kinds of hermeneutical gymnastics, but they don't get it out of the Bible. This Bible teaches that men need someone to bring them to Jesus. I see Jesus come to the pool of Bethesda. There's a man and impotent folk lay around that pentagonally shaped porch. These five porches filled with people. Once a year the Bible says The waters were troubled by an angel. The first one in, just the first one in, was healed. One day Jesus came, stepping up onto those porches, and He looked at a poor, crippled man, and He said to him, Would thou be made whole? Listen to his pathetic answer. He said, Sir, I have no man. When the waters are troubled to put me into the pool, would I be made whole? Why, I've scrabbled across these rocks and stones. I've wanted to be in the waters so badly, but I have no man. and my body is crippled and I cannot move. Sir, I need a man to put me in the pool." Look at the man, the Ethiopian eunuch, riding across the desert when the Holy Spirit had said to Philip, go join yourself unto Him. He's reading Isaiah 53. the John 3.16 of the Old Testament. And Philip said to this man, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said to him, how can I except some man should guide me? I need a man. I need a man that cares to get me in the pool. I need a man that cares that will explain to me that this is the Lamb of God that take away the sin of the world. I want to say to you tonight, This Bible teaches there is a human responsibility in getting people saved. I went to hold a church one time some years ago in a large town, a very large church, and the preacher said to me on a Monday night, auditorium out like this, probably this many people there on a Monday night. He said to me, now, Brother Tom, you know, our area is different. And I wonder how many times I've heard that. He said, we don't do things here you don't like to do in some other places. He said, for instance, now, we don't ever speak to anyone during the invitation. He said, if people come, if the Spirit of God caused them to come well and good, but we don't speak to them. I didn't answer him. I gave an invitation that Monday night and right down here on the second seat, second pew and the end seat sat a young lady. She lifted her hand and asked for prayer because she was unsaved. Right back their ways a big tall man lifted his hand and over here another man. I started to speak to the young lady. She had her handkerchief drying the tears but when she saw me coming She made it to the altar, and down to the altar she came. I went back and spoke to a man, and I said to him, you're a Christian, would you like to be saved? He said, I'm a Presbyterian, but I've never been born again, and I want to be saved. And down to the front he came. Listen, these folks say, well listen, if God is going to save someone, He doesn't need us. I want to say to you tonight, I believe this Bible is the holy word of God. I believe God spoke these 66 books, and I believe every word is the impeccable Bible, the inspired holy book of God. But when God got ready to write this Bible, He spoke to 38 of 40 men on three different continents over a space of 1,500 years and said, you write what I tell you to write. God used men to write the Bible. when God would perform the greatest miracle this world has ever known anything about. And that is when deity would become infest in a human body, when the Lord would work the incarnation. He said to a little Jewish maiden, I'm going to bury your body. And that holy thing which shall be born of thee is conceived of the Holy Ghost. And the work of God was wrought by the use of a human body. And don't you ever tell me tonight this Bible teaches that God doesn't need people in the matter of soul winning. God always uses people, always has, always will. Someone said to a great missionary many years ago, sit down young man. If God wants the heathen saved, he'll save them. But let me tell you, that kind of a teaching will put the heathen in hell. And that kind of teaching will let people in your town and mine go to hell. Here's a helpless one. He never would have been to Jesus, except four men said, we're going to get him to Jesus. We know Jesus can meet his needs. I like these helping ones. I could speak all night on them. A young man came to me one time after I'd preached on this and said, are the men, these four named in the Bible? I said, no, they're not named. But after he left, I said, bless God, they're gonna be named from now on. So I named one of them prayer. You know, prayer enters into soul winning. Somebody said, why, yeah, prayer ain't got anything to do with saving, winning people to the Lord. Oh, yes, it has. Paul said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, pray for all men and for kings, for this is good and acceptable, that God would have all men to be saved. Let me tell you, here's one man evidently that said, oh, I believe if I pray to a holy God, my heavenly Father, he will hear me and he will help me in this. I thought I'd name one of them Compassion, because without a heart that's in it, like the preacher preached tonight, There'll be no people wanting to Christ. I thought I'd name one of them Determination. Listen, you get four people together, four men, and I'll guarantee you one of them will talk in a high, sissy voice like a woman. And he'll say, when the going gets rough, I think we better go back home. I guarantee it. But one old boy said, we're not going to quit. You mean you're going up those steps and you're going to break through that roof knowing it's going to cost money, never been done this way before, and it hadn't been voted on? You better believe it. Up he went, and all determination began to break through the roof. Thank God for people who won't stop. Why, we tell our folks at Emmanuel Baptist Church, when you go out visiting, you come back, don't come back telling any bad story. If you get snake bit, dog bit, if you fall down, get your nose hung in the door, somebody slaps you, keep your mouth shut, don't tell anybody. Devil will pour enough cold water on the meeting without listening to all of that business. Well, everybody's so hard-hearted. You know how it is in this day and time. So we tell them to tell that. One night after visitation, it was a Monday night visitation, there were two middle-aged ladies sitting in the visitation group. And we said, anybody have a good call tonight now? Winsome by the Lord, tell us about it. One lady stood up, I can just see her now, holding a Bible, and her partner was sitting down, and her Bible in her lap, these sweet Christian ladies. And this lady said, we went to a home tonight, and she said, we started to knock on the door, but she said, pastor, Before we could really knock on the door, the door opened, and a man stood in the door. And the man said, come on in, ladies. I've been waiting on you. So he said, she said, we're a little bit afraid, but we walked in. Said the man said, now, sit down over there on the couch. I can just see these two ladies sitting on the couch holding their Bible. Man stood up in the middle of the floor, and he said, Now ladies, Monday night is my night to watch television. Said I wouldn't give you a nickel for it the rest of the week. Monday night is my night. He said every Monday night, week after week, he said knocking on my door. He said, tonight, I sat here, trying to look at my TV, and I was so nervous, my hands were shaking. And I said to myself, why don't they come on and get it over with? And he said, now, ladies, I want to tell you something. He said, if you will leave me alone for one Monday night, I promise you that I'll come and I'll hear your preacher preach. Oh, I tell you, I've never shouted in public, but I came awful close to it. Listen, that's what we need. Oh, I don't mean to be unethical, but I mean we need some people who are absolutely determined that those we love and our friends and neighbors are not going to hell. We're going to stand between them in hell. I believe tonight with all my soul that a little old circuit riding met this preacher who's now in heaven by the name of W.H. Campbell. One day must have said in his heart, if Tom Malone goes to hell, he's going over me. and he stood before me and he loved me until one weekday morning I heard him preach and I went to the old-fashioned mourner's bench where the Lord saved my soul. God, give us some people who are determined. You know, we started our church 42 years ago, the last Sunday of last month. I didn't know, if you can believe it, I knew a lot less then than I know now. And I just thought, you know, I'd be real pious and I said to our folks, now, you give me the names of your friends and neighbors, I'll call them. Boy, they gave them to me. So help me, I was going 16 hours a day. One day, an old, old veteran man of God came to see me. He said, preacher, would you come back in one of the back rooms, there's a tavern building that's out of business. We bought it and the first auditorium had been a dance floor. He said, would you come back in one of the little back rooms? Went back there. I sat down, he stood up and took his Bible. He turned to Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 and 12. where it said he gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers and evangelists and so forth for the work of the ministry, for the equipping of the saints. He said, do you love these people? I said, with all my heart, and I did and I do. He said, if you love them, quit mistreating them. I just about to cry. I said, dear brother, What am I doing? He said, they're giving you all these cards and you don't give them any. And you're going 16 hours a day. These people need to be going. So I got me some cards. And sure enough, very next service, here they came. Would you call on so-and-so? Yes, I will. And will you call on so-and-so? And we've been playing cards in our church ever since. Let me tell you, God wants some people. I remember somebody gave me a little yellow card and had the name of Raymond Cummins on it. He was in my church yesterday. This has probably been 35 years. He comes every Sunday. He drives 70 miles round trip to come to church. And is there Sundays and Wednesdays not a more faithful man in his family than this man? They gave him his name. I think it was 84 North Astor Street. I found 84 North Astor Street in the cold winter day and pulled up in the driveway and I could tell nobody's using the front part of the little old house, little humble home. And so I started around the back. So help me now, there was in the backyard the biggest dog I've ever seen in my life. I first thought it was a pony, but I later found out it was really a dog. He was chained to a big stake in the backyard, but that chain reached just exactly to the knob on the back door. So I started the back door and that dog said to me, you ain't going to that door. I said, yes I am. because I just got through giving a lecture to my students. And I mentioned to them, if you have the power of God, dogs will run under the porch and get out of your way. I said, I'm going. He said, no, you're not. I said, yes, I am. And you better leave me alone. I'll kick your jaw off. And you're not going out the door. You say, you mean dogs talk? I'm just telling you the message he got over to me. He said, you're not going. I hate to tell you this, but I didn't make it to the door. I rammed that card back in my pocket, went back and got him a car in his wintertime, wintertime in Michigan. Listen, that's when you can find out whether you're really saved or not. You don't need any Bible to find out if you'll spend a winter in Michigan. You'll find out whether you're saved or not. Got in that car, level ground, so help me. I couldn't get it to move. We yielded to spinning. An old devil got talking to me, and the devil said, I bet the neighbor's looking at you. Look at that fool preacher. He couldn't get in the house, now he can't get his car out of the driveway. I finally, after about 30 minutes, listen, I worked up a sweat in sub-freezing weather trying to get that car out of the driveway. You're not gonna believe this. I know you're not, I'm gonna tell you anyway. I'm not preaching right now, I'm telling you the truth, so help me God. About three days later, the Lord seemed to say to me, not out loud, but the Lord seemed to say to me, you better go back to 84 North Astor Street. Went back, walked around the backyard, There he was! Same speech, nobody home. Said, you ain't going out the door. I didn't get to it. Here's where it's going to take faith on your part. I got it back to my car and got in the car. So help me, it took me 30 minutes to get out of the driveway. Level ground, frozen, I couldn't get out of it. Old devil said, oh boy, what a fool you are. But the neighbors were peeping out among the shades and said, look at that food preacher. Same thing all over again. About three nights after that, I was sitting at the supper table and I said to my wife, I said, you know, there's a home over here, 84 North Astor Street, and there's some people there that I haven't been able to see, and there's the biggest dog there I ever laid my eyes on. I said, I'm scared to go back. Would you go with me? She said, yeah, I'll go with you. Went in and out and see the little home now. They were building it, you know, and living in it too. And the petitions had the studying in, but no plaster, no plasterboard, anything. You see one room, the other. My wife and I had the wonderful joy that night to lead that dear family to the Lord. One year later, the phone rang, and Ms. Malone was at home and answered it right away. And that young, that mother, young she was then, said, my baby is ill. My wife rushed to the hospital and stood with arms around her while they watched the little baby, a year old, go out to meet the Lord. Oh, I can think tonight of her relatives, one by one, that came and were saved and were baptized. Her maiden name was Tarket, and her father was Blind. Oh, Blind Dad was saved and baptized. Brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins. Oh, listen. I thank God a million times that I went back the third time. Oh, listen, I believe there's a man in that crowd that was determined, and of course, one of them must have had faith, faith to believe the Lord can save anybody. There were hindering ones, and I'm going to close in a moment or two. There were folks who were critics. You always have them. You always have them. Now we have them in our church. We've had them in our church 42 years. I've even learned to love them. I don't want to get do without them. It wouldn't be like home. Why they, like the preacher said, they spit in the drinking fountain and they mess up the wall and break up the furniture and you can't control them. One of my deacons about that high, 70 years old, came to me one time out of breath. He said, preacher, you gotta do something about these kids. He said, they go three ways at once. And he said, I'm too old to run. I've been listening to it 42 years. There'll always be the critics. But let me tell you, the Lord was pleased. And the Bible said when he saw their faith, These hindering ones, they were in the way. Somebody says to me, what do you do when you have somebody around that opposes you? I do what I used to do when I was on the farm. When I was hoeing corn or plowing cotton, come to a big rock right in the middle of the row of the stump, just plow around it, keep going. God doesn't want some critic to stop a child of God from doing what the Lord wants them to do. Thank God the healing one was there. With this, I'm through. I was in St. Petersburg, Florida years ago speaking at a conference like this. A man and his wife had driven 200 miles to come to that conference. And he said to me, preacher, would you come to our motel room this afternoon for just a little bit and pray with my wife and I? I said, I'd be glad to. I went to the room and he said, you know, I want to win somebody to the Lord while I'm in this conference. And he said, I don't want a day to go by I don't get somebody saved. I want you to pray with us. We got down to the three of us in the room and prayed. I didn't know all this went on until afterward, but he went out that afternoon, drove into a filling station, and told a man who came out to fill up his tank, and he asked the man, he said, can you tell me how to get to heaven from St. Petersburg, Florida? The fellow started scratching his head and said, I guess you can get there from here, but I don't care. I just don't know which way you take to get there. And he started talking to him about the Lord. Man finally said, he said, as you can see, cars are coming in here, we're busy. He said, I can't talk to you anymore. My preacher friend got in his car and drove off. And he didn't know what God was doing. But that night, just before the service started, nobody was back in the offices, all offices closed. But a man in the church, for some reason, said, I better go back. I need to go back. He went back and heard a phone ringing. He picked it up, and the man said, is this a church where there's a conference? He said, yes, it is. He said, is there a fellow named Malone preaching there? My friend had told him I would be preaching that night. He said, yes, he is. I said, how do you get to your church? He told him how. I didn't know what was going on, but I was up just getting ready to preach. And I saw a man in coveralls and a young man with him in coveralls. And the ushers brought him in and they stood back there for a moment looking over the audience. And finally, the man in the coveralls pointed to someone. And the usher came around and found my preacher friend and his wife and seeded the man with grease on his coveralls and his 16-year-old son named Paul seeded him by my preacher friend. when the invitation was given that night, and people came, and they came, and the preacher came with them, and they were wonderfully saved. That man said something to me. He's standing there, a big man, about six foot three or four, and he said, looked up at me, coveralls on, grease on him. He said, preacher, could I say a word? And I said, why, sure. And he came up, and his son Paul stood down there, and his name was Harmer, H-A-R-M-E-R. He told the folks what his name was. He said, I run a filling station over here. He said, in fact, I own several filling stations. He said, we have two Cadillacs. He said, Paul, you know, this is all true. He said, I made lots of money. but said, nobody ever came to my place, talked to me like a man did today. And he began to weep. And he looked at that crowd of people and he said to them, he said, there are thousands of harmers, people like me, that are waiting for somebody to come. And, oh, my heart broke when I thought of that man just crying out for people to go to unsaved people. May the Lord help us to go and to win them, shall we pray. Our Father tonight, we love Thee. We love You because You saved us when we were so unworthy. And we still are, so undeserving. But Lord, we believe in you tonight. We believe you can save anybody in this world. We don't believe that the man that breathes is beyond the hope of being saved if we'll do what we ought to do. So Lord, tonight speak to our hearts, to my heart, and the heart of these precious people, and do great things for us tonight, and help us to win those you put on our hearts. For Jesus' sake, amen.