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You know this world is full of
preachers, but just a few were chosen. Stay tuned for Treasured
Heritage, a preaching program spotlighting those servants who
have gone on to glory. Isaiah 5417 says, this is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord. And now, Treasured Heritage. One of the things that we've
said through these years, stay in the right crowd. Stay in the
right crowd. Stay in the right crowd. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in
his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a
tree planted in the river of water, that bringeth forth its
fruit in the season. His leaf also shall not wither.
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Notice two of those,
two of those, two of those five conditions for prosperity and
success have to do with the right crowd. Blessed is neither what
walketh not in the counsel of God, that there is the wrong
crowd, nor standeth in the way of sinners. There it is again,
the wrong crowd. Two of the five deal with running
with the wrong crowd, or with the right crowd, or not running
with the wrong crowd. I don't care who you are. I don't
care who you are. Wrong crowd will ruin you. Wrong
crowd ruined the best Christian in the New Testament. As far
as I know, the best Christian in the New Testament was the
Apostle Peter. He was the first listed. Every time they listed
apostles, it was always Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Peter,
Andrew, James, and John. Peter was the first, one of the
inner circles. And when they were mentioned,
it was Peter, James, and John. Always was. For as I know, Peter
was the greatest Christian of his day and the best preacher
in the world of his day. But Peter cursed and swore and
then denied the Lord. Why? Denied the faith. Why? I'll
tell you why. Because he warmed the devil's
fire. He was in the wrong crowd. When
Peter got in the wrong crowd, he cursed. Now listen, if Peter
cursed when he got in the wrong crowd, you can curse when you
get in the wrong crowd, too. If Peter denied the Lord in the
wrong crowd, you can deny the Lord in the wrong crowd. If Peter
denied his faith in the wrong crowd, you can deny your faith
in the wrong crowd. Now, you listen to me. There
are people in this church right now who have drifted away from
God, and you're backslidden, and you're away from God, and
I'll bind you somewhere along the trail. You got in with somebody
who wasn't good for you in the wrong crowd. I was talking to
a mother the other day, and she said, Pastor, my daughter's gone
astray. I said, What happened? She got in the wrong crowd. I
was talking to a father about a son in Hammond Baptist High
School that had gone astray, and he said he got in the wrong
crowd at Hammond Baptist High School. And let me make it clear
and plain, there is a wrong crowd at Hammond Baptist High School.
I say there is a crowd that you should shun at Hammond Baptist
High School. Now, if you're in that crowd, you ought to have
enough decency to get right or get out, one or the other. But
the honest truth is, there is a wrong crowd, and if you get
in the wrong crowd, you're in for trouble. Practically all
the trouble we face as God's people has somewhere in its foundation
getting in the wrong crowd. Look at Eve in the Garden of
Eden. Eve, she got with the devil and the devil led her astray.
She was in the wrong crowd and a whole race fell because she
got in the wrong crowd. Look at Abraham. Abraham went
down into Egypt. and never should have gone into
Egypt. And down in Egypt, he got Egypt in his blood. Later,
he took himself Hagar, because Sarah was childish, and her womb
was barren. And Hagar came, and Ishmael was
born. And the trouble that is happening right now, taking place
in the Middle East tonight between the Arabs and the Jews, is the
fact that Abraham had two boys. He had one by Sarah, who was
his child of promise. He had one by Hagar, who was
the oldest child. And because Isaac was a child of promise,
Isaac had a right to the land, and because Ishmael was the oldest
child, he said he had a right to the land. And till this day,
the sons of Ishmael, that's the Arabs, and the sons of Isaac,
that's the Jews, are fighting in Palestine, and this whole
world is rocking and reeling in uncertainty tonight. Why?
Because Abraham got in the wrong crowd, that's why. Now, you're
not a better Christian than Abraham. And you know I've been a Christian
in Peter, and you know stronger than Eve. Eve who lived in the
Garden of Eden, Eve who had never sinned, Eve who fellowshiped
with God every day, got the wrong crown, and her life and yours
and mine was affected. Lot got the wrong crown. Lot
was a Christian. Lot had a righteous heart, and
he was a just man. He was just before God and had
God's imputed righteousness covering his sin. What happened to Lot?
Lot got in the wrong crowd. Why? Abraham took him down into
Egypt, and there in Egypt he came out of Egypt, but Egypt
never came out of him. And Sodom was a lot like Egypt.
So when Lot and Abraham parted company, Abraham said, you take
what you think you ought to have. And Lot chose the well-watered
plains towards Sodom, went down to Sodom, he was saved, got in
the wrong crowd, ruined his life. ruined his family's life, his
wife turned to a pillar of salt, he fled the city as the city
was being destroyed, went out to a little town called Zoar,
and there he had incest with one daughter and she brought
forth a son. born by her own father, whose name was Moab,
and this other daughter. She had been an incest with this
other daughter, and she brought forth a son, born of her own
father, whose name was Ammon. And the Moabites and the Ammonites
are causing trouble till this day, and the nations of this
world are being pestered and haunted tonight. Why? Because
Lot got in the wrong crowd. I mean, if Abraham got in the
wrong crowd, it affected us thousands of years later, and if Lot got
in the wrong crowd, it still affects this whole world, and
will, until the end time. If that be the case, then you
getting in the wrong crowd is going to affect your kids, too,
and your grandkids, and their kids, and theirs, and theirs,
and theirs, and theirs. I'm saying if there is one thing
in this world you ought to underline in your Christian life, that
is, don't run in the wrong crowd. Look at Balaam. Balaam, that
wonderful preacher. Don't you sell Balaam shark.
He was the Billy Graham of his day. I mean, at one time, Balaam
was the famous preacher, and he was the fellow who was known
all over Israel as the most famous of all. And he stood, and yet
he, like many others, decided he had run the wrong crowd. Oh,
said Balaam, I can go down to Moab. I can be as good a preacher
down there. Nobody can be as good a Christian
in the wrong crowd as he can in the right crowd. Oh, but you
say, I trust my daughter. Well, you couldn't trust Peter,
and you couldn't trust Abraham, and you couldn't trust Balaam,
and you better not trust your daughter. Oh, you say, my son,
he can go to the University of Indiana. He can take it okay.
And you've got a hole in your head. He can't take it okay.
There's no way in this world that you can get in the wrong
crowd to still turn out right. The wrong crowd ruined Lot, the
wrong crowd ruined Abraham, the wrong crowd ruined Eve, the wrong
crowd caused the race to fall, the wrong crowd caused the Middle
Eastern trouble, and the wrong crowd will ruin you. I don't
care who you are, wrong crowd will ruin you. Oh, you say, I'll
go to a liberal church. Grandma went there, and Grandpa
went there, and Uncle George went there, and Aunt Sue went
there. And what are these liberal churches going to do if all the
good folks get out? They're going to go to hell like
they're going to go if all the good folks stay in. The liberal churches
have already gone to the devil. You stay in them and you're going
to end up bad. Now get out! Get out! Oh, but you said with
a hound, you won't hurt me. My Bible says, touch not the
unclean thing. Come ye out from among them,
be ye separate, saith the Lord. Wrong crowd will ruin you. Wrong
crowd will ruin your kid. Wrong crowd will ruin your family.
Wrong crowd, some of you folks here in this area. You come out
every once in a while to slum it to your house. I mean, of
course, you go to the first liberal church in podunk Chicago, or
you've got some cold, dead liberal church you go to. Every once
in a while, you come out to slum it a little bit, and your whole
house is hollering and screaming and bellowing and snorting and hit the pulpit
and make a lot of noise. But you go back to your old,
dead, cold church. That's where your money goes,
you hypocrite. That's where your influence is,
your backslider. And you're in the wrong crowd.
And don't be surprised. When your children grow up and
go to the devil and break your heart, why? Because you reared
your family in the wrong crowd, that's why. You better get you
some red-hot, fundamental, Bible-preaching, hell-fire-and-brimstone, soul-winning,
Christ-honoring, Bible-preaching, fundamentalist church, and get
your family there. Oh, you say, well, a little uncouth,
but come on, you'll feel welcome then, you'll feel at home. Just
come on in. But you say, I don't like all the noise. No, it's
not the noise you don't like, it's what we holler you don't
like. You don't mind J. Reuben's hollering, and Stokely
Carmichael's hollering, and the Communists' hollering, and you
don't mind that. No, the trouble is you've got
a black heart, and you're not right with God, and you're trying
to play both sides of the fence. You've got one foot on one side
and one on the other. You're half in and half out and
half on and half off, half hot and half cold, sort of a milk
and cider kind of a halfway Christian. What you ought to do is realize
the wrong crowd will ruin you, wrong crowd will ruin your family,
wrong crowd will ruin your children. Get out of it and touch not the
unclean thing and come out from among them, saith the Lord. That's
what ruined Balaam. That's what ruined Naomi. Naomi
and her husband, Elimelech, had two children. They were Bethlehem
of Judah. A famine came. They wanted to
feed their family. They left the will of God in
Bethlehem, went down to Moab, and there outside the will of
God. They went to sojourn. They stayed for ten long, wretched
years. Her husband Elimelech died. Her son Malan died after
he had married a heathen. Their son Chilian died after
he had married a heathen. And because of being in the wrong
crowd, They were wrecked, and Naomi came back, and her face
was scarred by sin, and her life was wrecked by sin. She left
three graves back there. She left the grave of her dear
husband, Emelech. She left the grave of her oldest son and her
youngest son, Malan and Chilian. There she left those three graves.
She went down with four. She comes back by herself. When
she got back, they said, is this Naomi? She said, don't call me
Naomi anymore. She said, Naomi means pleasant.
Call me Mara. That means bitter. She said,
I went out full, but I came back empty. And she comes back with
her face marked by sin and bitterness in her life and her boys in the
grave and her husband in the grave. Why? Because she got in
the wrong crowd, that's why. Look at Ahab. Ahab married the
daughter of the king of Sidon. Ahab, who wasn't really a bad
man, just sort of a henpecked kind of a fella, who let his
wicked wife run him. Ahab could have been a good king,
but he wasn't. Why? He got in the wrong crowd,
that's why. Look at Solomon. Solomon was
a good man. Solomon had all kinds of potential.
Solomon's father was David. Solomon was the wisest man in
the entire world. Except one thing. What happened?
He ran with the wrong women. He dated the wrong girls. Young
people, you listen to me. You young men listen to me. Don't
you dare, don't you dare, don't you dare date wicked women. And don't you young ladies date
bad boys. If you can't find a Christian
husband, be just an unclaimed blessing the rest of your life
and don't ever get married. If you can't find a godly wife,
then don't you get married. Don't you sell yourself short.
It'll wreck you and ruin you, as it did Ahab for life, if you
married the wrong person or get in the wrong crowd, or as it
did Solomon, who married heathen wives and they turned his heart
from God and wrecked his life and the kingdom was divided.
Look at Jehoshaphat, a good man. A born-again man, I think one
of the finest kings potentially, but he made an alliance with
Ahab and went to get Ramoth and get rid of Ahab. Then he went
in business with another heathen king, and finally his son married
Athaliah, the wicked daughter of Ahab, and Jehoshaphat's life
was ruined, and his son Jehoram's life was ruined, and the whole
kingdom was ruined. Why? Because Jehoshaphat got
in the wrong crowd. Over here in Chicago, there's
a place called Moody Bible Institute. Moody Bible and Moody Church,
founded by that great, wonderful Dwight L. Moody, that great evangelist.
Dwight L. Moody had two headquarters. One
was in Northfield, Massachusetts, and one was in Chicago. He had
a school, schools in Northfield. He had schools in Chicago. But
Dwight L. Moody figured he had to center
his attention on one. He had a son. His son was a gifted
young man. And Dwight Elwood, he came to
make his headquarters in Chicago and left his son to operate the
schools in Northfield, Massachusetts. But his son wanted to run with
the wrong crowd. His son had the famous Henry
Drummond to speak up in Northfield, Massachusetts. Henry Drummond
was, oh, I don't know, you'd call him a liberal. He did believe
in evolution. And I think perhaps he had liberal
tendencies, though his name was not linked with liberalism in
his day. But Dwight Moody's son had Henry Drummond up there,
and then later on he had William Rainey Harper, who was the president
of the University of Chicago, and the fellow that took that
fundamental blood-bought school over here, built on the sacrificial
dollars of God's blood-washed people, University of Chicago,
which now is a center of paganism and atheism and communism. And
the man that changed it was named William Rainey. And William Rainey
was invited by Moody's son to go to Northfield, Massachusetts.
Why? Well, Moody's son, he wanted to have the acceptance of the
scholarly world. He didn't want to be considered
a nut and a nitwit. Brother, you better just be thankful
you run the nuts and the nitwits and the screwballs. Anytime this
old pagan world that nailed Christ to the cross loves you, there's
something wrong with you. You don't need the applause of
Harvard. I don't want Yale. Somebody said,
Purdue Extension won't accept our credits. Well, bless God,
we won't accept theirs either. Why? I don't want a heathen,
pagan, bunch of God-rejecting, Bible-hating, anti-Christ crowd. I don't want that crowd to accept
us as being scholarly. We've got more scholarship than
our big toe at Hiles Anderson. These heathen schools with these
long-haired blue-jean-wearing, hip-hugging, co-educational dormitory
school have on their whole campus. I want you to know, brother,
we need some old-fashioned scholarship and decency and integrity and
propriety. We need to teach our kids in
our colleges how to dress and how to wear their hair and how
to say yes, sir, and no, sir, and yes, ma'am, and no, ma'am.
and how to eat with manners at the table, and how to respect
authority, and how to respect their moms and their dads and
their teachers and their pastors, and how to be good, obedient,
law-abiding members of society once again. And I'm simply saying,
if Dwight Moody's son wanted to be accepted by the University
of Chicago crowd, and the Henry Drummond crowd, and the evolution
crowd, now whoever here is of Northfield, Massachusetts, whoever
here is of those Northfield schools, Moody Bible Institute still tonight
believes the Bible is the Word of God. And yet up yonder where
they tried to kowtow, Moody's son got in the wrong crowd, and
the wrong crowd ruined him, and the wrong crowd ruined Peter,
and the wrong crowd ruined Balaam, and the wrong crowd ruined Abraham,
and the wrong crowd ruined Lot, and the wrong crowd ruined Naomi,
and the wrong crowd will ruin you. Come ye out from among them
and be ye separate, saith the Lord. There was a young preacher,
all kinds of potential. Pastored a great, soul-winning
church in Canada. He was one of the great, great
evangelists in Canada. His name was Chuck Templeton.
Chuck Templeton decided that he was going to get the endorsement
of the National Council of Churches. Brother, I just as soon had the
endorsement of the Communist Party. and the National Council
of Churches. But, he said, I'll preach the
gospel within the National Council. I'll become the evangelist representing
the National Council. Look out, Chuck! Look out, Chuck!
You're headed down. You're in the wrong crowd. You're
not going to be better than Peter was. You're not going to be better
than Abraham was. You won't succeed where Lot failed. You won't succeed
where Naomi failed. I was in Canada recently watching
television news. There came a talk show on after
the news, and they said we have as our guest Chuck Templeton.
And there was that man who's now middle-aged, was a young
evangelist, used to be on fire for God, built a great church
up in Canada, and they interviewed him. And they said, what are
you doing now? Oh, he said, I'm writing a script for Hollywood.
They said, well, didn't you used to be an evangelist? He said,
yes. They said, do you still believe
that? No, he said, I don't believe the Bible anymore. He used to
preach revivals. He used to preach the new birth.
What happened to him? Wrong crowd. That's what happened
to him. Got in the wrong crowd. Wrecked his testimony. Wrecked
his ministry. Now he's out in the world. Doesn't
even believe the Bible or the plan of salvation he used to
preach. I saw one girl. I saw one girl in Hammond Baptist
High School ruin a dozen girls because they ran with her and
they shouldn't have run with her. I have seen perfectly loyal,
hardworking church members spend some time with critical people. And I've seen them resign their
classes, resign deacon boards, lay out of church on Wednesday
night, and quit the jobs they're doing for God. Why? Because some
critical people got their hands on. Listen to me. A person that
spreads anything to you about somebody else is not your friend.
He's not your friend. He's the wrong crowd, or she's
the wrong crowd. And I've seen it happen again
and again and again and again and again. Good people get affected
by the wrong crowd. You sing mighty well, and I love
you, and I'd love to cut up with you, and I'm glad you're in my
choir. But not a one of you can run the wrong crowd and stay
right. Deacons, 107 of the finest men. I love them. They're my
buddies, and I love them. And they're great guys, and they
work with me, and help me carry my load, and put up with my temperamental
fits, and so forth. 107, the finest men in the world.
But deacons, I don't care how long you've been a deacon. I
don't care who you are. You get in the wrong crowd and you're
in for trouble. Sunday school teacher, you get in the wrong
crowd, you're in for trouble. You professor at Hiles Anderson
College, you decide you want to study under the Karl Barth
type or the Emil Brunner or Reinhold Niebuhr for a while so you can
get some scholarship so we'll be recognized by that kind of
institution. You're headed for the wrong crowd.
You're in the wrong crowd. You can't stand it. You can't
take it. You better run with God's blood-bought, fundamental,
born-again, lame-brained, screwball, narrow-minded, bigoted, hated,
persecuted, lied-about, fundamental people. That's the crowd that
you ought to run with, and that's the crowd that will keep you
right, and the wrong crowd will take you into sin and wreck your
life and ruin you, as sure as I'm standing behind this book.
Well, now a few observations. One, don't run with the wrong
crowd, even to help them out. Oh, you say, there's a certain
fella or a certain young lady, and I'm going to get with her.
She's not a good Christian. She's not what you ought to be,
but I'm going to help her out. No, she's going to ruin you.
He's going to ruin you. Did you know that right and wrong
put together to the equal amount always comes out wrong? Did you
ever have a dog, a little house dog, maybe a poodle that's real
neat and clean? Or maybe some kind of real nice
dog. You bathe the dog every day and
put Chanel No. 5. Look, spray some of that on
yourself while you're at it, would you please? But Chanel
No. 5, and the dog is spoiled, rotten.
And the kids eat hamburger, but the dog eats good, specially
prepared diet, and so forth. And the kids eat pizza, but you
wouldn't get the dog into that. It's not good for the dog. That
kind of dog. But one day, one day the dog's outside to take
care of some business. So, now there you go, you're
judging me again. Anyway, dog's outside, now he's
fertilizing the neighbor's yard. And so, here comes an old stray
hound dog. He's an addy dog. He's as dirty
as all get out. What happens? Your cute little
perfume-scented poodle runs out, runs off with that addy dog.
And so, they're gone for four hours. They come back in. And
your little poodle has got that Adidog all bathed, doesn't he?
Huh? Huh? And the poodle, the dog comes
back in, that old Adidog, he is all clean and in good shape,
and his fur is all combed, because boy, that poodle sure did a lot
of good to that Adidog. You know that's not the truth.
There never has been a clean dog and a dirty dog run off together,
but a clean dog didn't come back dirty. Why? Because bad conquers
good when it's equal. Dirt and cleanliness, when they
meet, come out dirty. Clouds and sunshine, when they
mingle, come out cloudy. Sin and righteousness, mingled
on equal amount, always comes out bad. That means that you
should never be one-on-one with a sinner. Never be one-on-one
with a sinner. You go with the wrong guy, and
you'll be the wrong girl for long. You go with the wrong girl,
you'll be a bad guy before long. You make your best friend, so
that's what she ought to be, what he ought to be, and you
won't be what you ought to be very long. Why? Because they'll
influence you. And that leads me to say this,
repeat this, don't be one-on-one with anybody. Now somebody says,
Brother Hiles, I have a son. My son got in trouble at Hammond
Baptist High School. And my son, he's smoked, he took
a drink, he's been cursing some, he was expelled from school last
year, now he's going to go back to school this year. How do you
expect my boy to make it? Nobody will be a friend to him.
May I say this? No one single person ought to
be a friend to him. And if you had a child that was
living right, You would not want your child to take a friendship
one-on-one with a child who's been that deep in sin. That's
a problem. Okay, now what's the answer for
it? Here's the answer. A crowd of good kids may accept that
one in your crowd, but don't you accept him personally as
one of your good friends. Did you hear me? I said a crowd
of good kids. can take that young person and
give that young person another chance. But one-on-one, you're
going to lose nine times out of ten. When I came up north,
I had a ten-gallon hat. I expect it may have been 12,
14 gallons. I never did fill it up to see
how much it would hold, but it was a big thing. Any of you folks
remember that hat I used to wear? When I first got here. Great
big ten-gallon hat. And the North wasn't going to
change me. I'll bind you one thing. After the time I've been
here six months, everybody up here in this area is going to
wear ten-gallon Texas hats. I'll guarantee you. Why? That's
what I wore in Texas. These little miniature things
you wear up here. It's a disgrace and a shame.
When I go back to Texas, I blush and say hail Mary full of grace
seven times. And I go back, ashamed of wearing
those little old tans that you wear up here and call them hats.
And I wore it. And I said, I'll keep on wearing
it. Nobody's going to stop me wearing my Texas hat. Oh, but
after about a month, I'd go out to O'Hare Field and everybody
goes. I'd walk down the street and
everybody goes. I go to St. Margaret's Hospital. You know
who that is? Who's that? That's Reverend Hia. He's a cowboy
pastor now, first after his church. You know what that hat is? I gave
it to take to the orphan one time, not an old-fashioned day,
and I haven't worn it since. Why? I got in the wrong crowd. Perfectly good, honest, law-abiding
rebel started running with Yankees. Johnny Murphy's dad over here
is a preacher. I preached for him when Johnny
was how old? A year old, John? Twenty years ago, I guess. I
preached for him down in a little town called Freer, Texas. It's
a place that God hadn't even discovered yet. And down in Freer,
Texas, they taped that sermon. I played a part of that tape
the other day. They gave me a copy. I played a part of that tape.
You would not believe my accent. You wouldn't believe it. Why
did you folks call me? You never heard a more ignorant
fella in your life than a bad accent. What's happened to me?
I got in the wrong crowd. Wrong crowd. You've heard me
tell about that time when I was going with a girl years ago.
I was in high school. I went to W.H. Adamson High School. And the girl went to Woodrow
Wilson High School. And we went to a football game.
W.H. Adamson High School played Woodrow
Wilson High School at a neutral site, the P.C. Cobb Memorial
Stadium. And I took that girl. We agreed to sit on the Adamson
side. In those days, one team's fans sat on one side, all the
other team's fans on the other side. So she went with me, and
we sat on the Adamson side the first time. The last half of
the game, we went over and sat on the Woodrow Wilson side. Well,
boy, in the first half, I was yelling up a storm, hey, whoo,
hey! On O'Cliff High, on O'Cliff High,
we call ourselves O'Cliff High and Adamson High. I'll say, fight
on for your fame, throw the ball around the end, a touchdown sure
this time, rah, rah, rah! On O'Cliff High, on O'Cliff High,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, okay. And so isn't that something? But anyway, try to control yourself. Try to control yourselves. We
ought to give the invitation now. No doubt about it. We'll
never rise to this height again in this service. So, at that
time, we went over on her side. I was the only Adamson fan on
the other side. We had a ball carrier named Nick
Lanza. Boy, he was a big fullback, a bruising fullback. Nick Lanza
broke through the line for ten yards, and I forgot what side
I was on. I went, ahhh! So, next time Nick Lanza went
through the line, I said, Yay! And the next time I said, Whoopee!
And the next time, I felt it on the inside. I was wrong. Wrong crowd. Wrong crowd. Wrong crowd changed my... And
that's why you don't say prayer in the restaurant. when you're
in the wrong crowd. That's why you don't take your
Bible to work. That's why you won't say grace at work. That's
why you won't witness at work. Why? You're hopping over the
devil's crowd too much. Get off the Woodrow Wilson side
and get on the W. H. Adamson side where you can
cheer for the Lord Jesus Christ and take a stand for him. Now
I'm saying wrong crowd, wrong crowd. Something else. Satan
deceives you while you're in the wrong crowd to make you think
you're all right. You know why? When you're in the wrong crowd,
you look pretty good in comparison. And so you take pride in it. Young man goes to a worldly university. And so his mother says, my boy
will make it. My boy will make it. Yes, he
will. I trust my boy. He goes down there. So she comes
back to me and she says, my boy's doing a good job. I got a letter
from the dean of men down there that said he's the finest boy
in the dorm. I hate to say this, but that ain't much compliment. I mean, Al Capone could be the
finest boy in some of these dorms around here. But they don't have any decent
kids much down there. Here's a kid that's high for
what he ought to be, compromised. He can just drink beer instead
of whiskey and smoke cigarettes instead of marijuana. He's a
pretty good kid. And so because he looks pretty good in comparison,
he's tranquilized. to think he's all right. But
he's on his way down. And after a while, he'll trade
that cigarette for marijuana and that beer for a bottle of
whiskey. Before you know it, the wrong crowd will ruin him.
Another observation. It is the crowd that influences. The crowd. You can bring someone
who's weak in the faith into the right crowd. That's why it
says in Romans 14.1, him that is weak in the faith receive
you. See, talking about the congregation. Didn't say make your best friend
with him, but receive him in the congregation. He's weak in
the faith. That's the reason for Christian education. That's
why we have Hammond Baptist grade school. There may be somebody
in Hammond Baptist grade school, several somebodies, that not
what they ought to be, but the rules are righteous rules. And
the crowd is for righteousness. And the teachers are for righteousness. There may be some kids, and there
are some kids, shouldn't be in Hammond Baptist High School.
But the teachers offer righteousness, and they're for what we preach,
and most of the kids are. And that's why we have Howells
Anderson College, for the same reason. Listen, folks, one reason
you shouldn't run with the wrong crowd, we can't compete with
the wrong crowd. Did you know a liberal preacher
will come near winning, making you like him, than a fundamentalist
preacher? You know why? Because he's not against anything
except the fundamentalists. He's not against anything. His
fellow stands up and says on Sunday morning, it doesn't matter.
This Bible is a good book, but we believe in having love in
our hearts toward all men. And if you believe or don't believe
the Bible, well, we'll receive you in love, charity towards
all. Well, sure, everybody's going
to like him. The guy gets up and says, if you don't believe
this book, you're lost. If you haven't been born again,
you're going to hell. You've got to come to Christ.
There's no other way. I can't compare with him. You
go to a liberal preacher on Sunday morning, come to hear me on Sunday
night in six months, you'll like him better than me. Probably
in six minutes. By the way, don't come to hear
me on Sunday morning and him on Sunday night. He's watching
TV. God's not against anything. We
can't compete with the liberals. No way in the world we can. We
can't act this way. Why? We hate some things, that's
why. We hate sin. We hate the devil.
We hate hell. We hate the liquor traffic. We
hate the marijuana traffic. We hate the communist communism.
We hate the filth that's ruining America. And there's no way in
the world that you can run with the wrong crowd without thinking
they're nicer than we are. People oftentimes say, You know,
who would ask if somebody in heaven could have the conviction
of Brother Hyle and the love of that pastor down the street?
All the way. You can't have love without having
conviction. You can't love God unless you hate sin. You can't
love heaven unless you hate hell. As his son used to say, you can't
love flowers unless you hate weeds. You don't love your kid unless
you're chasing him? You don't love your church unless you're
chasing him? What I'm trying to say is simply this. If we
run with that crowd, we'll learn to like that crowd. I was at a certain barbershop
here in town a long ago, a couple of years ago, I guess. You folks need to know the definition
of that term, haircut. See me after the service, I'll
show you in the dictionary a term you've never heard before. Better still, I've got some scissors
in my office, I can demonstrate for you. Or I can put it out, either way
will be fine. But I was in a certain barbershop,
and there's a fellow sitting up there getting a haircut, and
there's another fellow sitting beside me, and we got to talking.
Well, the nicest fellows you ever saw in your life. I know
the barber was nervous. He kept almost cutting the ear off of
the guy, his hair was cutting him. We started talking about
the Cubs. I said, you reckon the Cubs will ever win? And this
fellow said, I don't know. I don't know, but I'm not going
to give up. And I said, me either. We sat there for 15, 20 minutes,
and we had the nicest conversation. He's one of the friendliest guys
I ever met. Boy, what a nice guy. He didn't know who I was,
and I didn't know who he was. We talked and talked and had
a nice conversation. Poor old Barbara was about to
have a seizure. The poor fellow getting his hair cut ought to
have insurance. And so it came time to leave, and the barber
said, I'd like you fellows to meet each other. He said to me,
he said, this is the fellow that runs the tavern over here on
the corner of State and Soul. That's a big one. And he said to the tavern owner,
this is Jack Hiles, pastor of First Baptist Church. I don't
know whether it was the fainting that caused us to fall on the
ground or the butting heads as we fell toward each other. I'm
not sure what it was. That's one of the nicest guys
I've ever met in my life. If you really want to meet a
nice guy, go over there. Nice guy! Now, the honest truth is, sin
has an allurement with which we can't compete. We can't compete
with it. You know why? Because our joy
comes as a result. Our joy is in the end. Every
day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. But the best day you will ever
spend in the world is the first day. The first and worst, worst,
you get the bottom. With Jesus, it gets better and
better and better, you get the top. That means the entrance, our
entrance cannot compare with theirs. Our introduction cannot
compare with theirs. Our vestibule cannot compare
with theirs. Our hors d'oeuvres cannot compare
with theirs. nowhere in the world. And that's
why I say don't run with the devil's crowd. You know, you can oftentimes
tell who I've been with, where I've been out preaching, can't
you? I come in here on a Wednesday night after being gone, and I
say we're glad to have our visitors. Or I sing, windows of heaven
are open, open. The blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart
since Jesus made everything." And that's really mimicking. I shouldn't do that because that
would not do justice to anybody. But I look like that. You know
who I've been with. Or I come back and I say, neighbor,
neighbor, by the way, neighbor. And you know who I've been with. Our crowd affects us. It affects
us. And your crowd affects you. And
that's why, young people, you ought not to run with the wrong
crowd. And that's why adults, when somebody comes to you and
starts to run down something and says, well, it's just here
at First Baptist, not like it used to be, say, get on! They're
your enemies, not your friends. He said, well, are you talking
about me? I probably am, if it applies. I'm trying to help you.
I'm not mad at you. I'm trying to help you. I don't want you
to backslide. I don't want you to quit serving God. I don't want you
to be in force for the wrong crowd. I want you to stay busy
for God, stay active for God, and stay out of the wrong crowd.
And I'm going to tell you in a few minutes what the wrong crowd really is.
See, I see it so often. I see it. I see a young lady, one of our
fine young ladies. I see her come in the balcony
up here, or come over here, or come back in the back, and I
see her walk in. And some guy with a leather jacket on, he
hadn't got a tie on, and he's got long shaggy hair. And you
can tell he's not the right kind of person. And I watch her. And that young lady, soon I begin
to worry about her. And soon she drifts back toward
the back of the building. And after a while, she doesn't
come to Teenage Soulwinning. And after a while, she drops
out of the youth activity. And after a while, she goes to
another church on Sunday night. And before you know it, she's
lost to the cause of Christ. Why? Because she got in the wrong
crowd, that's why. I stand up here and I see our
young people drift away and drift away and drift away and drift
away. Why? Wrong crowd. That's why you parents,
if you've got to sell your house to keep your kid in Hammond Baptist
School, you sell the house. If you've got to sell your car
and get a bicycle, you sell it and get a bicycle. Don't you
ever come to my office and say, I can't afford to send my child
this year. Take in washing, mow yard, shovel snow, but you keep
your kids in the right crowd. Now the question comes, what is the wrong crowd? One
of the wrong crowds, any idler crowd. Any idler crowd. Any crowd just hanging around.
That's the wrong crowd. Brother, if you haven't got something
to do, then find something to do. Any idle crowd. My mother used to say to me,
God bless her son, when they sit down to chat, you come home.
When the activities are over, you come home. Any idle crowd. What is the wrong crowd? The
critical crowd. The critical crowd. Anytime you're
with a bunch of folks, start criticizing, they're the wrong
crowd, and get out of it. And have enough courage to tell
them, I'm not going to listen to criticism. I'm not going to
do it. But you should know how it's true. Well, don't you think
there are enough things true that are good without you? One fellow said, do you eat with
your mouth or do you shovel coal with it? Don't you think there are enough
good things true if you talk about those? Very idea. sitting around spreading,
trying to run down somebody and criticize somebody, that Billy
Goat religion. She's a good lady, but, he's
a good man, but, I love our pastor, but. Oh, cut it out! Talk right
for a change, and if somebody starts telling you, running down
this person or that person, they're not your friend! They're the
wrong crowd! And just as sure as a young person will go down
and be ruined in the wrong crowd, you'll be ruined in the wrong
crowd. And before you know it, you'll lose your joy, you'll
lose your excitement in church, you'll lose your thrill about
the songs, you'll lose your thrill about the invitation, you'll
set back the other critical spirit yourself. Why? Because you ran
with the wrong crowd, that's why. What is the wrong crowd? The sinful crowd. It's the crowd
that smokes cigarettes. It's the crowd that drinks beer.
It's the crowd that tells dirty jokes. It's the crowd that runs
down Jesus. It's the crowd that hangs around
the tavern. It's the crowd that hangs, the drugstore cowboy crowd
that hangs around the drive-ins. It's the crowd that smokes marijuana.
It's the crowd where the girls wear their slacks and shorts
and look like the heathen world. It's the long-haired hippie crowd.
It's the sinful crowd. Get out of it! The bad crowd
will ruin you. What is the wrong crowd? It's
an any-idler crowd. It's a critical crowd. It's the
sinful crowd. It's the secret crowd. It's those that are hiding
something. The crowd's hiding something
from mom and dad, it's the wrong crowd. The crowd's hiding something
from the school administration, it's the wrong crowd. The crowd's
hiding something from the preacher, it's the wrong crowd. Who is
the wrong crowd? A crowd that slips out during
prayer, goes out and hangs out down here at the parking building
like a bunch of heathens, that's the wrong crowd. Who is the wrong
crowd? The crowd that goes up while
we're having service sometime and set up here on these steps,
teenagers, set up here on these steps and hide and are not in
church, that's the wrong crowd. Who is the wrong crowd? The crowd
that gets back behind the bar and smokes cigarettes, that's
the wrong crowd. Who is the wrong crowd? The kind that shows you
dirty magazines and says, look at this, that's the wrong crowd.
Don't you mess with it. It'll ruin you. It'll wreck you.
Get out of it. Don't touch the crowd. Come out
from among them and be a separate, saith the Lord. What is the wrong
crowd? The wrong crowd's a rule-breaking crowd. It's the crowd that promises
they won't play rock music as long as they go to Hammond Baptist
High School and then go out and break the rule and play the rock
music. They're the wrong crowd. It's the rule-breaking crowd. The crowd thinks it's smart to
break the rule. The crowd thinks it's cute to get around the law. That's the wrong crowd. Now,
there are some folks especially vulnerable to the wrong crowd.
I'm going to give you a few of them. Less attractive young people
are more vulnerable to the wrong crowd than most anybody. I mean,
young people, maybe a young lady, dates don't come very quickly
to her. She don't get many invitations
before she knows that the wrong crowd wants to entertain her.
She's very vulnerable. Watch it, young lady. God has
somebody for you if you'll wait for Him. And God will honor you
if you'll just wait. Don't you sell yourself short.
One lady came to my office and she said, go to the house, I'm
going to get married. And I said, are you sure it's the right one?
She said, he meets every qualification I've written down for my husband.
I said, what are they? She said, just one, he's a male. No, no. Second vulnerable people. New
couples in an area. New couples in a church. We have
parasites sitting in this room tonight that'd love to get to
you and tell you all the things wrong they can tell. And everybody
that's new, these polecats and serpentine people, they'd love
to get anybody that's new and say, let me tell you about Brother
Vineyard. Let me tell you about Brother
Dave. Let me tell you about Brother John, the one that sleeps all
the time on the platform. Let me tell you about Brother
Bordway. Let me tell you about Brother Fisk. Why don't you just tell them
to shut up and say, let me tell you about Jesus. They're the wrong crowd. The wrong crowd. And new couples
in a church. First time somebody says, hey,
go out and eat with us after the service tonight. And so you
go out. You want to meet somebody new. You're new in the church.
You go out and eat. And you have a wonderful time.
And then they say, we're so glad to have you with us. My, we're
delighted to have you. And we just love our church and
love our pastor. But would you pray with us about
one thing? I would suggest a right cross
to the jaw or an upper cut to the chin. Maybe a real juicy
spit in the face might be OK. In love, of course. Somebody else that's vulnerable
to the wrong crowd is people that like to socialize in abundance.
There's some people just love to have couples over. Look, when
you have couples over, you have your activities planned. This
sitting around and just whatever comes up, wrong things will come
up. And before you know it, that's one reason why sometimes WMS
circles in a church. Not here, thank God, but in some
churches, WMS circles. Before you know it, become gossip
sessions. Why? Because the program's not planned.
That's why sometimes couples get together, a group of couples,
and have a little couple club or supper club. We've had them
here. And I don't know if any trouble's been caused by it,
but a little supper club. And before you know it, the thing's
not planned, and they get in huddles, and they luff the fellowship,
and they luff to talk. And before you know it, they
say things about folks they shouldn't say. And before you know it,
That becomes the wrong crowd. Who else is vulnerable? I'll
tell you. Young people too old for their
age. Young people too old for their age are vulnerable. A 13-year-old
girl who's prematurely developed into a lady is vulnerable. A
young man, 13 or 14 years of age, who has the physique and
the build of a 17 or 18-year-old young man, he's exceptionally
vulnerable. It's the wrong crowd. They should especially watch
it. Who else? I hate to say this, but retired
people are very vulnerable. They don't have much to do. And
the fish aren't biting. And there's not enough folks
around to play shuffleboard. And there's nobody playing ball
down at the park. And you can't find anybody to play checkers
with. And before you know it, you gather around in the little
group. And that's one reason why older ladies ought to watch
it. Who else is vulnerable? Ladies whose husbands have enough
money where you don't have to work and they can sort of spoil
you and you don't have a lot of extra time on your hands.
You're vulnerable for the wrong crowd. Men are vulnerable who
have businesses that are successful and operate independently of
the businessman. And you can play golf all the
time if you want to. You don't have to be at the office.
Your work's only going to go on anyway. You better watch it.
The wrong crowd is lurking in the shadows for you. I'm thinking now of a man, one
of the finest deacons I ever had in Garland, Texas. Wonderful young man. Wonderful. I can see him now in the choir
laughing. He didn't say amen when he got happy, he just laughed.
He wouldn't say glory to God, he'd just go, When somebody gets
saved in a real hard case, he'd go, big good looking guy. He got in a certain business
that was red hot. He made a million dollars. He
didn't have to go to work on time in the morning. He didn't
have to work late in the evening. He could go around and invest
his money and made a lot of money lending money to people. I saw
him one day in church. I saw his face. He didn't laugh
like he'd been laughing. I could tell he was in the wrong
crowd. Somebody had been criticizing the church. Somebody had been
criticizing the preacher. He never hurt me except my heart
broke. But he hurt himself. He was in the wrong crowd. I
could tell him. Before long, he got catty-whumpless.
He didn't like anything going on. He didn't trust his preacher.
He didn't trust the church. And before I knew it, he was
gone. Now then, what's happened? That sweet little family with,
I think, six children. Not a one of them worth shooting.
They're grown now. Not a one of them worth shooting. Not a
one of them. Children gone. None of them serving
God. None of them going to church
much. Families all in sin. What happened? Wrong crowd. Wrong
crowd. Wrong crowd. Wrong crowd. You better watch it. The wrong
crowd's after you. The wrong crowd's looking for
you. Wrong girlfriend, wrong boyfriend, wrong business associate,
wrong business partner, wrong church, wrong denomination, wrong
people within the church, little cliques and groups within the
church that like to tell you some juicy gossip that they know.
Oh, there's something better than that, thank God. You stay
in the right crowd. You keep your kids in the right
crowd. My mother is in the hospital.
Had cataract surgery this week. 88 years old. She had a fuss. First day she
was there with her roommate. Guess what? It was over. Me.
Guess why? Roommate didn't like me. Can
you feature that? I never have understood why anybody
so non-controversial and so bland as I am would have anyone. But
to me, I'm the most lovable person I know. And so anyway, I miss
Lyle when he's sick. He's sick and I sure miss him.
He's the only friend I've got here. And I don't like him when
he's here and I don't like him when he's gone. But anyway, I walked in and I said, Mother, how do you feel?
She said, my blood pressure went up. I said, why? She said, you should have heard
what she said. She came to church here one Sunday morning, and
somebody wanted her to Christ, and she didn't want to get baptized.
But she happened to get in the cycle. It's like a washing machine.
When you turn the thing on, it don't stop until you get dry
after you get baptized. And somebody told her to go out
that door. She didn't know what was out
that door, and she went out that door. Somebody told her to go
up those stairs. She didn't know what was up those
stairs. She went up those stairs. Somebody told her to put this
on. She didn't know how to put it on. She just put it on. Somebody
opened the door, and there was the water. And so she got offended. She's
not a bad lady. She just happened to get in the
wrong line. You get in the wrong line around here, there ain't
no way to get out. And so she got offended. So I went up there. I walked
over and I said, I understand you're mad at me. She said, you're
mad at me when you hear this story. She told me this story. But one thing I'd learned, I'd
learned she didn't have any relatives. And I'd learned that she had
the cataract removed and I'd learned that she had nobody at
home to take care of her when she got home. Up in years, her
husband's dead, no children. And I walked over and I said,
I understand you're going to go home tomorrow. She said, yes. I said, would
you let me hire somebody to come and take care of you? She said, you mean you'd do that
for me? I said, of course I would. I
said, you're a fine lady. And I said, why don't you do
it? She and my mother had had it out the first day. I mean,
they had it out. I wouldn't say that mother threw
things, but I know mother. And I would say that she is somewhat
biased toward me. I would not say that she's violent.
I just was sure there were no guns around her bed. And the
lady got sweet. And you know, we became good
friends. And when she left to leave, I was there, and she said,
I'll be calling Mrs. Hiles to see how you're doing. You know what happened to that
lady? Somewhere along the trail, she got in the wrong car. And
somebody said some things about Mrs. Hiles. And she got in the
wrong crowd. It'll wreck you. It'll wreck
me. When I became pastor of this
church, Jim Lyons and I went down to Anderson, Indiana, to
the state American Baptist Convention meeting. Can you imagine me going
down there to the American Baptist Convention meeting, belonging
to the National Council of Churches? You know why I went down there?
Because I had met the state secretary. He was the nicest guy. He was
the sweetest fellow as he rejected the Bible you ever heard in your
life. He was the kindest fellow who didn't believe in hell. And
did you know before, I went down there and they even introduced
me as being a new pastor and I stood up on the platform in
that American Baptist Convention and they even asked me to lead
the prayer of dedication for the new pastors in the state.
And I didn't even have enough sense to know what I was in till
they had the message. And they said, now the annual
convention message will be brought by Reverend Mrs. Miller. I said, Jim, what are we in? And it shook us up. And we took
off. And we ain't been to none of
their meetings no more. Because we just didn't really
appreciate the fervor of Reverend Mrs. Miller, who preached on
the subject of why white folks and black folks ought to marry
each other. I'm Dr. Jack Hyams. I've written
24 books, 5 million sales. I preach all over this country.
I conduct a big pastor school. I'm president of a college. If
you ain't impressed, hurry up and get impressed. I'm about
finished here. I read my Bible every day. I
wear Bibles out to the dozens. I walk with God as best I can,
and God knows I do. And I almost got sucked in myself. You're the wrong crowd. If Reverend
Mr. somebody had preached that morning,
I wonder what I'd have done. Huh? You've been in the wrong
crowd? Been letting your kids go with
the wrong crowd? Huh? I'm talking about little league
baseball. I'm talking about brownies. I'm
talking about girl scouts and boy scouts. Why are you saying
when I was a kid I was a boy scout and I'll die for them?
When I was a kid I was a boy scout too, Troop 107, fire station
in Oak Cliff in Dallas. But back in those days, brother,
you'd just as soon come near having a Christian boy scout
master as you would an unchristian. And I went to Boy Scout one night,
and a lay preacher was our scout, and I said, Mr. Davis, you don't
find it that way anymore. I'm saying, brother, the world is
blacker than it used to be. And you are not going to rear your
children in the wrong crowd without having heartbreak one of these
days. Come out from the wrong group, and be assembled. Touch
not the unclean thing. 65 years of age I'll be sitting
up here and you'll be out there and some of these little children
sitting here on the front will be grown and they'll have their
own children and one will be an evangelist wife and one will
be a teacher at Hammond Baptist High School and we'll look at
them like we looked at these three young ladies that stood
here tonight and say it's worth it It's worth it all. I know some fall to the wayside.
I know some don't become what we hope and dream they'll become.
But there's a way they can. And there's a way they will.
And one ingredient that is necessary is the flea. Who's gonna preach the Bible
and never compromise at all? Who's gonna give their heart
and soul to spread the gospel? We appreciate you listening to
Treasured Heritage. Tune in at the same time every
weekday to hear God's Word.
Running with the Crowd
Series WZYN Treasured Heritage
| Sermon ID | 415251224352713 |
| Duration | 59:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Language | English |
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