studies of true godliness. I was contemplating on yesterday just the thoughts of the imagery really, just the imagery of this allegory here, this fellow true godliness. So far we've watched him trying to gain entrance into the house of riches and trying to gain interest into the house of poverty. And just in my own mind, I think these allegories are meant to stimulate imagery. And so in my own mind, I've been just conjuring up images of this fellow, true godliness, him going to these places and trying to gain entrance. And I was just realizing again how very and completely applicable the Salogory still is, still true. True godliness, true godliness. We just don't see that much, do we? And one of the quotes that I used in the message this morning talking about how that if you measure the people's profession by their real virtue, actual true godliness, he said, virtually find no Christians at all. But Benjamin Keech understood that and wrote this allegory depicting that in such beautiful, beautiful conversations that he allows us to eavesdrop on these conversations between true godliness and these occupants of the house of riches and then the house of poverty. So we take up again today on chapter, sorry, on page 85 of the book, you have the version I have, the modern reproduction. And poverty has given his expression there for the last couple of pages. Poverty has expressed himself concerning true godliness and has certainly, of course, denied him access to come in and then also expressed himself rather boldly and powerfully and even with threats of violence, he has expressed himself. against true godliness. So now, true godliness responds to him, and I like the wording, bottom of page 84, godliness says, I shall now undeceive you. I like that expression, undeceive you. That was the main thrust of the message this morning. The point is to undeceive those who may have been deceived by what I call gospel hucksters. So, true godliness sets about to undeceive him. And he begins by saying, as to those indolent companions, sloth and idleness, who would not wish you to labor for the good either of your body or soul. They have in part brought you into this poor and miserable condition. How many have they brought to beg their bread from door to door? How many have they stirred up to rock steel? commit horrible murders, to uphold them in their loose, lazy, and ungodly lives, by which means they have brought, and daily do bring, a number of men and women to the gallows. Unfortunately, now in our culture, Benjamin Keyes, if he had lived now, he couldn't write that, because unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Men may steal, and rob, even commit horrible murders, be lazy, ungodly, do nothing either for their body or their soul, and there will be no law executing a punishment against them. Almost none. Almost none. And even when they are prosecuted, the punishment never, ever fits the crime anymore. But in that day he did, and Benjamin Kish says it. But the greatest mischief they do is the souls of men. For they cast thousands into such a deep sleep that they will never wake till they lift up their eyes in hell. What a great tragedy. What a great tragedy. And we have a whole culture full of these people now. He said they will not suffer them to labor to find out their danger till it's too late. And others, when they do perceive their woeful condition, are hindered by them from endeavoring timely and in a right manner to get out. Who does that? Sloth and idleness does that. They many times cry, Lord help us and Lord have mercy upon us. But they never strive to take hold of the offers of His grace and mercy by cleaving to Christ and leaving their abominable wickedness. It is the idle soul that suffers hunger who shall beg at harvest and have nothing. Though there is bread enough and to spare in God's house, yet they will not suffer you to seek for it, but cause you to cry, yet a little sleep, yet a little slumber, yet a little folding of the hands to sleep. Is it not said, notwithstanding your case is so unspeakably urgent, you cannot through sloth and idleness rise up? You are just ready to drop into ruin and yet will not endeavor to deliver your own soul. Oh, remember that word in Matthew 25, 30. Take the slothful and unprofitable servant, bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is impossible for me, even me, to exaggerate. The depth into which our culture has slumped through idleness and sloth, we have truly a world around us where work has become almost an anathema. You see what's happening in the country regarding all these federal employees who've been simply asked to come back to work. They're on the payroll, and they were simply asked to come back to work. And it is a thing of outrage to me that they would dare to be asked to actually have to come in to work anymore. Such is the state of our culture around us. Sloth and idleness abounds. And may we as God's people set a higher bar and an example for the unbelievers in this generation. And then in the next paragraph, he takes up number three. Number one and two was sloth and idleness. He responds now to number three, which is Mr. Lightfingers, He is a thief, and if you follow his dictates, he will bring you to the gibbet, which is a gallows for hanging people alive, according to Webster. Besides, he says, no thief shall enter into the kingdom of God, Mr. Lightfingers. Of course, we have Plenty of that. And as I said, far from being punished, we actually have laws now in many of our big cities to protect those light fingered people. And such is what sin does. But then number four comes along, wasteful. Oh my goodness. Wasteful. His brother, that is the brother of light finger, is almost as bad as he. It was this vain fellow that brought the poor prodigal to eat husks with the swine. You remember the story in Luke chapter 15. It is he who not only causes you to waste and foolishly spend your money, but also your precious time, which should be improved for the good of your perishing soul. Poverty Can it do you any harm to be taught to become a better husband and not to consume the little you sometimes get amongst righteous company, which might be a great comfort to your poor wife and children? I'll tell you, I am moved. I confess that I am moved often by waste. I know that I have been a typical American and I too I'm not careful. I'm sometimes wasteful, and I grieve that. But the level of waste that has become standard in our nation is shocking. I'm in these schools, as you know, every day, and I watch if I happen to arrive just after they've called a class back to their classroom from lunch. I'm appalled at the barrels full of food that are thrown away constantly, every day, in every school, in every county, in every part of this country. It's the same thing. The sheer volume of food thrown in the garbage every day, but not only food, clothing. Every Friday, some of the schools, every Friday, they gather up all the coats and shoes and clothes that have been left and they line them all the way down the hall and they parade the children class by class through the hall and say, tell them, look there, look and see if you see anything that belongs to you. They seldom ever pick up anything. And so at the end of the day, all that's put in huge bags and hauled off to either donate or to be thrown into trash. Very expensive clothing. And this happens every week. I can't imagine what the budget must be for some of these families, rebuying these clothes constantly, weekly, and they just leave them anywhere, everywhere. It's appalling, and it's a sin. We can say, well, that's a terrible practice. It is a terrible practice, but that's not the worst of it. It's a sin, and we have come to accommodate it rather than Punish it. We have come to accommodate it. Wasteful has driven many into the house of poverty. Let me now appeal to my neighbor morality, whether there is any ground for you to refuse to entertain me, because I teach you to be content with mean things. hard fare and put you upon severe labor and tell you not to run into debt unless you know how to pay. That list of descriptions right there struck me being the child of a World War II veteran and living my childhood in that immediate post-World War II period, I thought of how graphically that sentence describes the whole generation of my parents. Refused to entertain true godliness. He says, ask Morality. Ask my neighbor Morality. Is it a problem? Why would you not entertain true godliness? because he will teach you to be content. We were taught, my wife and I and our generation, we were taught specifically not to be content. We were taught to never be content with your life as it is. Always you're trying to be something else, something bigger, something more, have more things. refuse to entertain me because I teach you to be content. I teach you to be content with hard fare, meager means. I teach you to be put upon severe labor. I teach you not to run yourself into debt. My generation was appallingly guilty of that. Continues to be, continues to be. And so generations to follow us have done the same. These are the things that true godliness says he would teach poverty to do. And that he could confer with morality and ask him Ask morality if there's any grounds to refuse this instruction. Well, as I say, we've had a whole generation who has rejected it. That was number four, wasteful. Number five, ignorance is a murderer and has destroyed millions of souls. Now, we, this congregation, we certainly don't have to stress this point very much. We can get probably a resounding amen from most all, every one of this congregation, that ignorance is a murderer. and hath destroyed millions of souls. Though there was a time, indeed, when God seemed to wink at this ignorance, Acts chapter 17, verse 30, that is, He did not lay, as it were, His hands immediately upon him, He now is left altogether inexcusable because God hath offered you a sufficiency of life to bring you to the true knowledge of salvation, the necessity of faith and true godliness, if you would escape the damnation of hell. I have come to believe that ignorance today is not just something we tolerate. I think it is something we actually encourage and bolster. I was I'm having a conversation with a lady this week. Her church here in Coweta County has just started a new, we needed another, counseling center. And she is being instructed to become a counselor certified in this counseling center. So I got the information from her, just the names, you know, what the name of the place is. And then I did a little research, found them, found them online. found the new center and the new crew. And the man who is the head of it, the man who started it, is a member. In fact, the counseling center is now outreach of this particular church that I won't name here in the county. And I researched the man that's the organizer of it. His resume is appalling. So I saved the link to that resume. And the next time I saw her, I gave it to her and I asked her, I said, you know, you need to read this. You need to look at this. You need to see who this man is and what it is exactly he believes. And this is what she said to me. What does it really matter? What does it really matter? Hmm. Ignorance. Appalling ignorance. It doesn't even matter anymore what anybody believes or where they came from or what they are or what they're doing. It just doesn't matter anymore. We've reached a level of ignorance that I say is destroying millions of souls. It's a murderer. And this is a church, Baptist in name, starting a counseling center with a man that is appallingly ungodly. And the response from those who are under his tutelage is, what does it really matter what he is? Such is the ignorance in which we Number six, and we'll conclude because we have a nursing home service. I found unbelief. He takes up this man, unbelief. I found unbelief the other day with riches. And indeed, I can come to no one's door, but that I find him within. Now some of these characters may or may not be in every house, but this one is in every house. Unbelief is in every house. We're born unbelievers. He affirms that all my promises are fictions. Being unseen things, they have no reality in them, or things to which you can never attain. And if you could, yet they could not answer your present necessities. If you would give credit to such a notorious liar, murderer, and blasphemer, who certainly, in a sly and treacherous manner, seeks to stab you at the heart, who can tell it? Or rather, who can tell you? Are Christ's promises of grace and peace here and glory hereafter fictions because they're not seen with external eyes? He will tell you also, ere long, if you will believe Him, that there is no God nor devil, heaven nor hell, because not visibly seen with the eyes. He may suggest the one to you as well as the other. Come poverty. And I bless the Lord that there's so many places here I've circled. I went through my copy and I circled in this one dialogue how many times he appeals by name to poverty. He is pleading. He is urgent. He is doing all he can do to try to rescue this man. I was blessed with that and encouraged to think how we need to have such an attitude. He's talking along there. He's talking about, you know, about unbelief. He's talking about his condition. He's talking about what he does to him, what he'll have, what he will do to him. And then he reaches out and he says, come, Popper. Please listen to me. Thousands of my children, by blessed experience, have found my promises, no fictions nor idle fancies, but things full of reality, marrow, and fatness. Oh, taste and see how good the Lord is, and why may not you obtain these glorious good things? namely union and communion with God, partner of sin, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, as well as others. Why shouldn't you have these things? Come, poverty, please. They were commonly given in the time of the gospel poor. Come, poverty. There he is again. Come, poverty. These things are thine, as sure as God is in heaven, if thou wilt but let me in. He's pleading. Poor Lazarus understood them and experienced the sweetness of them and shall through eternity. And then lastly, have you no need of those good things of mine because they may not so directly answer your outward necessities? Are not the necessities of your soul more to be minded than to get store of meat and drink and clothes and silver and gold? Are all these things to the love and favor of God an interest in Christ and a right to the Kingdom of Heaven? What are all these things compared to that? How soon, alas, may your life be gone and what good will these things do you then? Do you not see they perish in the using, and as they are corrupt, so likewise they can never satisfy nor fill the desires of your soul, nor do they suit the necessities thereof? Consider, can any of these things make thy soul happy? Can gold or silver enrich it? Or the rarest worldly datings feed it or wine cheer it? No! Poverty! See, he keeps using his name. He's pleading. He's entreating. No! Poverty! Listen to me. If thou hast the things of this world in abundance, yet till thou lettest me in and makest me thy chief companion, thy soul be miserable. What is it to have plenty of all good things and no God, no Christ, no pardon, no peace, but contrary-wise, the curse of God, horror of conscience, and ruin at last? Thou wilt poverty! He's crying out to him. Thou wilt poverty! Become more happy if thou dost open thy door to me, and thou and I dwell together than the poorest monarch of the earth. the proudest, sorry, proudest monarch of the earth. Thy comforts, inward peace and joy will excel others, and thy riches be more abundant in quality besides the rare and excellent quality of them. Nay, and thy glory will be far more transcendent, and besides it will abide with thee in all eternity." He is pleading. Pleading. with poverty, pleading earnestly. You hear him, come poverty, come poverty, poverty, poverty. He keeps calling his name and pressing him with gospel demands. Isn't it interesting that the enemies of the truth discount us as being hyper-Calvinist and saying we have no love for souls. Men who have held to the doctrines of grace from all time have been men with a passion for souls. Great burden for sinners. You can read this over and again. Read it for yourself. Just read it out loud. Read it over again and you can hear, you can hear the passion in Benjamin Keech's voice pleading, pleading, pleading with this man, poverty. And so do we, I hope. So do we plead with sinners, plead with sinners. Well, he presented his arguments. He's not just a bundle of emotions and hot air. He's presenting his case thoroughly, well-reasoned, using examples. But he's pleading. All along, he's pleading. May we be imitators of dear Benjamin Giesche as he pleads with this sinner of poverty. We'll take up next week more of the occupants in the house of poverty that are hindering him. Any comment or questions from today's reading?