Good morning, everyone. Good to see you. Welcome to church. I'm happy to be here. I feel like I've been gone a long time, even though we were here last week. Just the days have been long. Am I right? Good grief. We had camp. Camp was awesome. Camp was fun. We all had a good time. I know our kids had a good time. Am I right, kids? Yeah, they're still getting the dirt off of them, so that's cool. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. And I don't know for sure that this would be the best name for the message, but right now I want to call the message Contending with Almost. Contending with Almost. I tell you that I've spent two weeks at church camp. And you know, church camps like a revival. I mean, no matter what camp you go to, if you're serious, if you're away from the world, your phone doesn't work very well, which is stressful for me, but you're, it's like a revival. And I tell you what has just been bothering me is this almost right and almost true and almost sanctified and almost for God. And that's what I want to contend with. Almost. So, Matthew 7. Before we begin, let's just go to the Lord in prayer. How about that? Dear God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for this church. Thank you for waking us up and giving us another day. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us here. I pray that you bless this time, bless this church, bless the service, bless everybody that comes out, Lord. I pray that you'd be with those that are getting ready and getting around and I pray that you'd help everything go smooth and get them out here. I pray that you'd bless them for it. I pray that you'd bless us all for being here. I pray that you'd use this time, Lord, help me to say the right things and forget the wrong things. And God, I pray that you just use this message. It's all your word, and I've not crafted and devised and spent as much time on it as I'd probably like to, God, but I know that it's all your word, and I pray that you'd bless it nonetheless. I pray that you'd be with everything that's done here today. Thank you very much, Lord, for this church, for the spirit, for the word, for all that you've given us, Lord, for the truth. I pray that you'd help us to love it. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew chapter 7, let's look, let's read a few of the verses. We're not gonna read it all, but let's start in verse 13. And we'll read some of it all the way through the chapter, through the end. Verse 13 of Matthew chapter 7. It says, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. The very next verse, after we talk about the straight gate that's narrow and precise and specific, is, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them. I'm not preaching on this specifically today, but verse 19 says every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And so I'm stealing this from somebody else and I don't even know who said it, but there's no such thing as a nothing tree. You're bringing forth fruit, either good fruit or bad fruit. Nobody's just not bringing forth any fruit. Well, there's just no fruit. We can't tell. That's not right. Verse 20, Wherefore, by their fruit ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now, you know, the Bible says elsewhere that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Right here it says, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. So apparently just saying, Lord, Lord, is not exactly calling on the name of the Lord. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not. For it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." I want to talk about, and I'm just going to say this right away, because I want to make this point right away, and I may not get back to it if I don't. But at the very beginning, we started out in verse 13, enter ye in at the straight gate. Now everybody here probably knows this, but everybody I ever meet doesn't know this. So let me tell you, that is S-T-R-A-I-T. It's not S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T. And that's a misnomer that we throw out. You've got to walk the straight and narrow. We've all heard that terminology. But that would make me think, you gotta walk the straight and narrow, and these words are in here, straight, narrow. It's a misnomer though, because that would make you think, well you need to stay on the right path, and walk the right path, and do the right things, and not veer to the left or the right, and all that stuff is right, that's what you need to do to be sanctified, to serve the Lord, but that's not salvation. S-T-R-A-I-T does not mean one, you know, uncurving path, it means narrow. straight, like the straight of Gibraltar or the straight of, you know, whatever. There's a bunch of straights. I don't know any of them, but a straight is a very narrow, little just entryway. Just there's only one little sliver of a way. All right. It doesn't mean you got to stay on the path. It's not that great. And then you just got to get right in that one little bitty just net. It's narrow. All right. It's precise. It's specific and almost won't do. Almost is not the straight and narrow way and again It's not straight and narrow as then you got to walk the right path It's straight as in narrows. You got to take the right door the narrow right little door. There's only one way Straight is the gate narrow is the gate the way that leads to life you there be that find it So you got all these people just running into these doors and paths and ways, but there's only one little right one that's saving anybody But there's a ton of way and path and you know broad is the gate and wide is the way that leads to destruction. Many there be which go in there at. But straight and narrow is the opposite of that. It's just one little bitty way. So I want to make the point here because what we're doing is contending with all most. And almost, there's the broad gate and the wide path. It encompasses, you know, just a flagrant apostasy, just, you know, spitting God's face. That's certainly in the broad gate and the wide path. But you know what else is just as firmly secured in the broad gate and the wide path? It's almost right. Almost right is not the straight and narrow. And that's what I want to talk about. I'll say this, God's Word demands a specific and precise and appropriate response. And no response is a response. If you don't respond to God's Word when it's pressed upon your heart, and the Bible says the Spirit is truth, and you're going to need to respond to the Spirit. You don't have to respond to my preaching. You don't have to respond to Pastor Turk's preaching. You need to respond to the Spirit. But I tell you what, the Spirit will speak to you through the preaching, through the reading of the Word, and through the still, small voice. And that still, small voice will have a lot more to say. It'll be a lot more distinct if you'll read and listen to the preaching. So you need to respond to the still, small voice. It's got to be a very specific, precise, appropriate response. And I don't know, but the response you give right now today might be your last. I don't know. I don't know how many responses you'll, you know, God's not required to ever convict your heart ever again. God's not required to come back around. You know, my dad used to say this, I didn't put this in the message, it just comes to me, but I think he had a coach or something that would say to him, you'll never pass this way again. And he said that to me growing up, you'll never pass this way again. And what it means, it could be applied to a lot of different things, but basically it means like, you better do this right. You better do your best. You better give your all because you're not going to get another chance. Even if you come back and do this again, you're not passing this way again. This is the only time. As far as the response to God, I don't know how many chances you're going to get. We talked to one of the guys at the camp, and his testimony was that God worked on his heart, and pulled on his heart, and tugged on his heart, and he said, no, no, tomorrow, tomorrow, another more convenient time, I'll put it off. And then for 10 years, God didn't pull on his heart and tug on his heart. I can't imagine. I can't imagine. The Bible says that your sins have separated you from the Lord, and that's where you're at. You get to the point where God's not even convicting you and not even working on you. Let me tell you, you can't get saved whenever you want to, but you won't get saved until you want to. So you need to get lost and want to be saved, but then God needs to be calling and pulling on your heart. He needs to grant you repentance, and there's a lot in that. So you better respond appropriately when you're given the opportunity. God's not required to come back around and convict your heart again. And if we all died and went to hell, that would be just and right and fair, and it'd be a just weight and measure, because that's what you deserve. We don't deserve to be saved. Did you guys know that? You don't deserve to be saved. You're not good enough for salvation. I'm not good enough for salvation. There's nobody that's good enough for salvation. If we got what we deserve, if we paid for our own sins, what would we get? You know what I hear more often than anything else? A chance. If I got what I deserved, I'd get a chance. That's not right. That's what you think. That's what you've been taught. That's what you told yourself. I deserve a chance, Lord. You don't deserve a chance. You deserve nothing. Be clear. Put it in your mind. It'll help you respond appropriately when the Holy Spirit comes knocking on your heart. If you already know, I deserve nothing but hell. Know that. Just take it in and know that. Again, God's not required to convict your heart again. And convict is in the Bible one time, it's in John chapter 8, and it comes from the heart. And I'm not going to read to it, but it talks about when, you talked about this the other day, when the woman's caught in adultery and Jesus stoops down and starts writing in the dirt. And I don't know what he wrote, I don't know if anybody knows for sure what he wrote, but the Bible says that one by one they begin to leave because they were convicted in their heart. So conviction is going to be in your heart, alright? I'm not going to be able to preach you convicted, I'm just going to preach you the truth. But it's all going to be in your heart, and the response is in your heart, and it needs to be appropriate, and it might be your last chance. I don't know. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to tell you the truth. You know, I want to make God's Word, I want to make receiving God's Word, I want to make dealing with and handling God's Word so serious that you're afraid to do it wrong. You say, I'm going to make sure to do this right. That's the way it ought to be. Amen? So I'm not preaching against just reprobate haters of God. I'm not preaching against the swine that you best not cast your pearls before, lest they trample them and turn again and wring you. I'm preaching against another God that many Christians have accepted as A-OK. They call him Jesus. They put him in the church. It sounds good, but it's not Jesus Christ. It's almost right. It's almost separated. It's almost for God. It's almost the truth. And frankly, it's disgusting. 1 Corinthians 10 20 says, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. So I want you to know that when you take the Lord's name in vain, when you say this is for God, but it's not what God said. In fact, it's, it's perhaps even opposite or against what God said. You're not sacrificing to the Lord and God's not going to say, ah, I'll accept it just because you've, you've got sincerity. I'll accept it because you think it's right. No, he won't. He won't accept compromise. He won't. He'll accept exactly what He said, and He won't accept anything else. And if you're offering something other than what He said, you're not offering it to God. And you're not offering it just to God in vain. You're not offering it to God. You're offering it to devils. That's what you're doing. Idols, devils. It's idol worship when we worship the Lord in a way that He says not to worship Him. So if we're going to serve the true and living God, then if we're going to serve the true and living God, let's do it the way He says to. And if we're not, then let's just not pretend. Let's not put His name on something else. Because when you put the name of God on something else, besides what God said to put it on, you're worshipping idols. You're not worshipping the Lord. You're not doing it God's way. It insults God. It's an affront to God. It's a shame. I'm going to read a verse to you. Psalm 106. It says in verse 34, They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works. And they served their idols, which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a-whoring with their own inventions. their works, their inventions, their thoughts, their ideas. Therefore, verse 40, was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them. So if you're doing it according, you know, it says they were mingled among the heathen. They learned their works. They served their idols. It was a snare unto them. You know, probably a lot of people were serving, and sacrificing, and thinking that it was all right, or thinking this is close enough to right, this is acceptable. But the Bible says it was a snare unto them, and what they ended up doing was sacrificing their sons and daughters to these devils that they're worshiping, because you can't put Compromise in front of your kids and expect them to turn out fundamental All right You can't show your kids that you have faith in the world and its institutions and its provisions and expect them to trust the Lord someday You can't show your kids some ecumenical blue lights church and expect them to end up being independent and fundamental. They're not going to do it Your kids are going to stray a little bit, just like you've strayed a little bit. I mean, whoever's following you is going to take it to the next degree. It's going to take it a little worse. It's going to do it a little worse. And it's just the way it is. If you've got today's religion, you don't have Jesus Christ. The world hates Jesus Christ. Religion hates Jesus Christ. And the world and its religion hate the truth. They the world the devil wants you to do everything but embrace the truth repent of yourself receive the Lord He wants you to worship. He wants you to go to church. He wants you to lift your hands in the air He wants all of it the whole nine yards, but not unto the Lord He'll let you worship and sacrifice them to devils And if you don't have the Lord Jesus Christ and exactly what he said in a straight and narrow precise Specific way then you don't have the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible says in John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. Psalm 119, nine says, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Psalm 119, one 42, thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and thy law is the truth. Psalm 119, one 51, thou art near O Lord and all thy commandments are true. I got two more. John 14, 6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. 1 John 5, 6 says, This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. So in those verses, what it says is the Word is truth, God's commandments, God's precepts, God's Word, God's law, the Holy Spirit is truth, and the Lord Jesus Christ is truth. And that's what you need to receive is the truth. And if you receive something else other than the truth, something that's just really, really, really close to the truth, you've not received the Word, you've not received the Holy Spirit, you've not received Jesus Christ. Psalm 119, 130 says, The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. We talk about walking in the light, and this is not in the message, but the light is the truth, and the Holy Spirit is the truth. And if you're walking in the light, you're just minding God. You're just obeying God. You're just obeying the Holy Spirit. If you've got today's religion, if you've got today's compromise, then you've got almost truth. You don't have the Lord. You've got an idol. 1 Corinthians 10.20 says, But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, I already read this, but it may be in here a few times. They sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. The almost Christianity of today is idolatry. That's what it is. And if you don't love the word of God, if you don't love the still small voice, then you don't love the Lord. You've not received the truth. And I'm not trying to, you know, this is a hard thing. Who can hear it? But let me just tell you, I've spent two weeks at church camp and I'm sure we're filled up with God loves you. God wants to save you. God, God doesn't want you to die and go to hell. You know, you, hell was not made for you. We're filled up with that. But what we're missing is you don't deserve to be saved. You don't deserve any of it. You don't deserve Jesus Christ to come to this earth and live a righteous life and be tortured and die in your place. You don't deserve Him to die on the cross. You don't deserve Him to pay for your sins in hell for eternity as if forever. You don't deserve any of that. You don't deserve for Him to raise from the grave and beat death in hell. You don't deserve for Him to sit at the right hand of the Father and make intercession for you. You don't deserve it, and I don't either. And when you know that, you'll be a lot better off. But this, this almost Christianity of today that says you deserve it is a lie and it is not worshiping the Lord. It is worshiping devils and idols and it is a shame to God. And it is probably the reason why we're not blessed. And I don't, you know, I think we're blessed, our church is blessed, but could we be more blessed? My family's blessed, but could it be more blessed? Yeah, is the answer. We could be more right. We could be, we could get the almost out of our lives and God would just abound the blessings on us. I'll tell you something else, too. You know, this is a good analogy. Mr. Almost Right or Mrs. Almost Right will ruin your life and ruin your family just as fast as Mr. or Mrs. Wrong will. So that's the problem, is that, oh no, Christians, we don't want what's wrong, we just want what's almost right. But I want you to know that it's binary. It's like zero and one. There's not like, well, it's a 0.5, it's pretty close. No, it's either right or it's wrong. It's either God's way or it's your way according to your imaginations and your desires, and that's not right. You know, Christianity today, I believe, is satisfied with almost right and almost truth and almost Jesus and almost worship and almost separation and almost serious and almost saved. Unfortunately, and I believe that and we cannot give our kids almost and expect them to turn out, right? Like I said, you can't give your kids, you know blue lights Compromise Church expect them to turn out fundamental. You can't give them good enough and expect them to turn out exceptional You can't give them, you know DC talk and breaking Benjamin whoever those guys are and expect them to turn out on you know How great thou art and come thou found you can't expect to give them compromise and expect them to not embrace compromise and You can't give them sissy examples and expect them to turn out as men that are going to stand for the truth. You can't give them lady leaders and expect them to not all be in the transgression. You can't give them your judgment and expect them to follow God's way. You can't give them your faith and show your faith in the carnal institutions of this world, in the medicine and in the TV. Listen, thank God for medicine. Thank God for communication. But if you put your faith in the things of this world, don't expect your kids to put their faith anywhere else. If you say that you have faith in the Lord and you turn around and exemplify that you have faith in man and man's strength and man's arm and man's wisdom and man's provision and man's institutions, then you don't have faith in the Lord and your children see it. They know it. You can't put your kids in sour, bitter places with sour, bitter, God-hating people and expect them to turn out sweet and lovely. That's the truth. You know what if every trial and every trouble and every time the mic doesn't work the devil's Afflicting us then you can't expect our kids to believe in victory It's not the devil all the time. The devil's never been in the life of Bo Ballard. I'm certain of it. He's not omnipresent. There's billions of people on this earth. I'm influencing almost none of them. He's never been in my life. You know what the devil in my life is? My flesh. Almost right is the devil in my life. What I like, what I want, what I think is acceptable and okay is the filthy, wicked devil that I need to cut out of my life. That's what you need to cut out of your life. You can't give your kids a universal, invisible, we're all part of the church and expect them to appreciate and love a real local New Testament Baptist church. They won't. They won't understand it. I don't know ten Christians that understand the true local New Testament church. I'm talking about friends I know. I could probably get together ten preachers or something that are the salt of the earth kind of preachers and some of them don't even get it. You can't give your kids that, oh yeah, you get to, we're all just part of God's church. I just love the church. Everything's the church and expect them to really appreciate the fact that the church by definition is necessarily local assembled and called out. If they think everybody's the church, then they're not going to see any reason to locally assemble and be called out from the world. You can't give your kids your ministry. And how many times have we heard this? I just, my ministry and thank goodness for my ministry and his ministry. And you know what? I'm pretty sure I don't have a ministry. It's the Lord's ministry. And if you teach your kids about your ministry, then you know what they're liable to have is their ministry. Or they're liable to say, I don't need a ministry. No ministry. Because what ministry should we be pouring into and giving ourselves to is the Lord's ministry. We should minister to the Word of God, to the things that God says to do. We should minister to what we think is right and compromise is what we're ministering to. Job 14.4 says, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Your terms, your way, your judgment, your best, it'll clean nothing. It'll save nothing. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain to build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. If you start out all wrong, if you start building on sand, it doesn't matter what kind of a tremendous thing you build, it's gonna fall. It's all in vain. It's all in vain. Except the Lord built the house, it's in vain. You could put it all together. You can run all the bus routes. You can knock all the doors. But if you compromise the Lord's truth, it's all in vain. If you start out wrong and build in vain, it's all wood, hay, and stubble. There's no gold. There's no silver. There's no precious jewels. There's none. I'll tell you, and I'm not even into the message hardly, but the world hates Jesus Christ. The world is fine with compromise. The world loves your compromise. It wants Christians to do everything in the name of Jesus. Just please, please do it with compromise. Would you just please not do it according to the word of God? Just compromise, and the world will be fine. They'll let you go on, and it's no problem. The world hates Jesus Christ. Religion hates Jesus Christ. Today is a day of much wickedness, much wickedness, much sin, and perversion, and murder, and filth, and debate, and deceit, and backbiting, and hate, and apostasy, and just departing from the truth. But it's not a day of much preaching, is it? It's a day of the Lord loves you, and everything's great, and you don't have to change anything. You know, if you're going to worship the Lord and your religion, is contrary to what God says. Nobody believes in your hands lifted high. Nobody believes in the verses you cry out loud and the songs you sing. Nobody believes it if you don't do it God's way. If you come and you clearly represent the world and fit in with the world and you just mesh with the world and it's just perfect, you're not doing it God's way. He doesn't like it. He's not appreciating it. He's not looking down and blessing it. all the wickedness in the world today, and it seems like we're letting up on the hard preaching, and we're letting up on telling the truth, and we're letting up on making sin exceeding sinful. And what I'm trying to do today is make almost right Exceeding sinful because that's what it is. It's exceeding simple, you know religion Crucified Jesus Christ and the whole world doesn't have any problem with the religion that crucified Jesus Christ With bar Jesus with all the false prophets that they don't dare they didn't put those guys to death They don't care about those guys what they care about is Jesus Christ. You said why is that? Why is the world not attacking? You know Buddha or or Allah or whatever? Well because the Holy Spirit is true. I And the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, is reproving the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And so every person in this auditorium, every person out that door, every person under God in this world is being reproved of something by the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit is telling them about Jesus Christ, is pointing them to the truth, and Jesus Christ is the truth. And you'll either receive it and love it, or you'll hate it. And that's why the world hates Jesus Christ, because the world hates the truth. The world doesn't hate Buddha and Allah, because the Holy Spirit is not pointing to Buddha and Allah. The Holy Spirit is pointing to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. I don't know whose word this is. I'm going to take it. The truth. It might be mine. Who knows? So, let me tell you this. If you're scared to die, you're scared to die, you're worried about dying, you don't have any peace in your soul. That's what the problem is. And what you need to do is get lost So that God can save you. You need to stop trying to get saved. You just need to get lost. God will do the saving. You just got to get lost. What you need to do is come to God's terms. And you know, whatever that may be. And don't be surprised if you, if you have to get lower and hit harder than anybody else. Because you don't know how low they had to get or how hard they had to hit. And you don't know if they did either. For all you know, they got religion. They got the world's compromise. They got almost right. They got almost there. They did everything. They came down to the altar. They prayed a prayer. They cried. They cleaned it up. Everything except dealt with God. Everything except. said, God, I'm dead. I gotta die right here, right now, on this altar, on this pillow, on this bench, wherever I'm at, I am dead, and Lord, if I don't deserve to live, I don't deserve to be thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants. Just die. Don't try to be saved. Try to be lost. Just try to get yourself lost and just throw yourself at the feet of the Lord and He'll save you and He'll give you assurance. That's the recipe. That's what you've got to do. There's not a prayer you can pray. There's not an altar you can pray at. There's not anybody that can teach you. There's not a recipe of verses that we can put you through. You just have to agree with the counsel of God against yourself. You know, the Pharisees wouldn't not agree with the counsel of God against themselves. And as a result, they had a lot of religion. I mean, everybody thought they were right. They tithed their mint and eyes and cumin. And he said, hey, don't stop doing that stuff, but you've got to get the inside of the cup right first. You've got to change what you're relying on. You'll never get clean, you'll never get born again, you'll never get saved until you just die. Until you just die before the Lord and let Him save you and Him clean you and Him birth you of the Spirit. That which is born of flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, right? And you're going to be cleaned through the Word and through truth. Not through some formula, not through some man showing you something. It's going to be you Dying at the feet of the Lord and he'll make you whole he'll raise you up that which is born of the flesh is flesh That was born of the Spirit of Spirit. You're fit for nothing I've already said this but you don't deserve to be saved. You know what I deserve. You know what I'm fit for fiery hell That's right. That's what you deserve. That's what you're fit for the fearful How much of this are you on the fearful the unbelieving the abominable the murderers the whoremongers the sorcerers the idolaters and all liars? She'll have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death So it's appointed on a man once to die, and your body's as good as dead. I don't know how much time you got left, minutes, years, days, I don't know. But your soul is an eternal, it is an eternal thing. And not just allow it to perish and die. But I'm gonna tell you what, you're on that list a few times. And if you wanna go through the 10 commandments, I bet you broke every one of them. You know it, and I bet I have too. Because what you deserve and what you're fit for is hell. You deserve, you don't deserve to be saved. You don't deserve anything. You fall down broken and dead before the Lord, And He saves you according to His mercy, and His timing, and His way. And that's what you've got to do. You've got to trust the Lord. You're going to say, God, I've done all the recipe. I've filled out all the blanks. That's not salvation. Salvation is die to self. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered in the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." You know, one of the desires of the flesh and of the mind is to be right and to be settled and to have peace. I believe that we desire peace. I believe that men crave And I don't just mean like physical, is everything quiet? Can I lay my head down? You crave that, but I'm talking about eternally, internally, you crave peace and rest. And if you come up with some counterfeit peace and some fake rest, you didn't get it. You can rest in that. You can take peace in that. That won't save you. A man who had everything said it was all vanity. So what you need to do is just get so lost that God can save you. You just need to come to God's terms, whatever that may be. And again, like I said, don't be surprised if you gotta fall farther and harder and lower than anybody else ever had to fall. Because in your eyes it should be that way. In your eyes it should be, I am the most disgusting, filthy, wicked bum. I never knew it and I see it now. I see myself as a sinner. Now I have everybody in here and everybody that we could meet before sundown would agree, yeah, I'm a sinner. But what you need to do is see that you're filthy and wicked, and that means you deserve hell. That's what you deserve. You don't deserve a chance. You don't deserve another shot. You don't deserve a period of space. You deserve hell. And whatever you get besides hell is grace and mercy. My goodness. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within, full of dead men's bones. This is religion. This is almost right. This looks good to everybody, but it's not the real thing. And of all uncleanness, Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." There's only one way. There's only one way. It's God's way. The way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That's Jesus Christ. Hey, I want you to know this. You're more filthy and wicked than anybody. That's what I believed. When I got saved, that's what I believed. I was the most filthy, wicked, shameful, lowest bum you could imagine. I got saved. That's why I got saved. Because I wasn't saying, God, I'm just not quite good enough, Lord. I want to be good enough. I want to be saved. It needs to be God. I am so far from anything that resembles right. I am so far from anything that resembles satisfactory. And I just want to trust you. Salvation. That's what it is. Luke 14. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not. I'm going to skip that one. This one. Matthew 22. Then saith he to his servants, verse 8, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished with guests. You're not going to be good to get into this wedding. It's not because you were good. Bad and good. Everybody's called. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeths, for many are called, but few are chosen. The point is, everybody's called. Everybody's invited. There's only one way to come. You've got to come the way you're told, in the manner you're told. You've got to have the wedding garment. I believe that represents the righteousness of Christ. The white robes of perfectly white raiment, which represent the righteousness of Christ. It's not that you need to understand. It's not that you need to learn. It's that you need to meet the terms. Man is unable to come to God on his own terms. You will not come to God on your own terms. God is not obligated to convict you and call you. If you come to God on your terms, What you've done is, it's sheep's clothing, is what it is. It's a false profession. It's sheep's clothing, because you're not a sheep. You know, it says, enter in at the straight gate. Wide is the gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. That's works, that's baptism, that's keeping the commandments, all the things, that is also You doing it according to your own wisdom and your own way, and I'm pretty sure this works. I trust these preachers and they said this works. Listen, if your assurance isn't coming from the Lord, then it's not assurance. I shouldn't even have to tell you that. If your assurance isn't from the Lord, you don't have assurance. And for me to even have to say that should be like, yeah, you're right, Brother Bo. Or it should be like, oh my gosh, you're right, Brother Bo. Because assurance should come from the Lord and nowhere else. Everybody's called. Everybody's invited. But you've got to come the way you're told. You've got to have the wedding garment. You've got to be clothed in the white raiment of Christ. Otherwise, you're coming in sheep's clothing, inwardly a ravening wolf, is what the Bible says. You know, I'm gonna close it up, I'm done, but I'll tell you this. Salvation, it's not that you have to be changed, and you gotta change, and you gotta separate, and you gotta worship the right way, and do everything right, and be right to be saved. That's not right, alright? You don't have to do anything to be saved, but you gotta trust the Lord, you gotta come to the Lord, you gotta fall down broken, you gotta see yourself as a worthless, filthy, wicked sinner. I'm not exaggerating. This is not hyperbole. You can't say, yeah, I'm a sinner. I know Jesus paid for my sins. I know He rose from the grave. Jesus, please save me. Amen. There's my insurance. That is wrong. If you didn't die, then you weren't born again. And if you don't have some assurance from the Lord that I went to God and died on His altar right before Him and He made me whole. I didn't even know how to do it. And He saved me. He made me whole. Then you don't have assurance. You don't have to be changed to be saved. That's not what it is. You don't have to change anything in your life. But if you won't change, You won't be saved. If you won't allow God to change you, if you won't allow God to work on you, if you won't allow God to have His way in your life with your heart, as you get saved, once you're saved, you continue to let God have His way. You get sanctified. You get cleaned up. He reproves you of righteousness and He uses you. But if you won't allow God to change you, if you won't come His way according to His terms, then you're not coming. You're not saved. That's the truth. Here's the problem, almost right is just A-OK with almost all the churches, almost all the Christians, almost right. But when you're almost doing it according to God's word, I don't believe you. God doesn't believe you. If I don't believe you, God's probably not even able to look on it, all right? And when you come to God and you're firmly planted in the transgression, out of your place, doing things against his will, against his word, clearly against his word, well, Brother Bo, This is 2022. It doesn't matter, alright? And I'm not trying to tell you to do everything right. Don't do everything right, but quit putting God's name on it. That's all I'm saying. Either worship the Lord the way the Lord said, or just don't. Just don't. Because when you worship God, but you're not worshiping this God this way, you're offering, sacrificing unto idols and unto devils. That's what I want you to know. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for your word. Thank you for this time. I pray that you bless it. I pray that you'd bless every heart in here, bless the ears, give them ears to hear God. I pray that you'd help us, Lord. Help us to, all of us, Lord, to be attentive to the still, small voice and attentive to the details and attentive to what you want us. Lord, help us to just mind you. And I pray that you'd bless us and use us for us, Lord. Help us to have pride in the fact that we mind you, in the fact that we don't have something that we found that's good. We have something that you gave us and we're gonna keep it. Thank you for it, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Can I add something to that, too, real quick? Please. I just want to say just one thing. He mentioned that you died on the altar. You died to self. I just want to say surrender. It could all be summed up in that. Surrender. So none of us... I can say for myself anyways, I'm sure... I know that I don't know that entire Bible. I've read it, but has it all soaked in? Have I memorized it? there are some sins that may be sin that I don't completely understand or know about. But the sin that I do know, and whenever I surrendered to the Lord, whenever I put my faith and trust in Him, the sin that I did know was sin, I recognized was sin, and I took God's side against myself. I think that's a pretty good way of summing it up. Surrender. Just surrender. That's what it means. When we try to lead someone to the Lord, when we are sharing the gospel and that's what we're trying, the message we're trying to convey to them. Surrender to the Lord. The things that you know are sin, admit they are, recognize that they are, and let God be your Savior. Anyways, I just wanted to say that. Let's take a break.