This evening? It's Thursday night. Many of you have worked hard. It's been a long day. Satan will tell you that your job now is to sit back and relax and fall asleep. God has told you to come because it's time for you to hear preaching. If your eyes get weary, remember whose side you're on. We have had a long day. We had a funeral in the National Cemetery this morning. It was quite moving. It's the first time I ever said amen. And bagpipes started playing Amazing Grace. It was beautiful. It's an interesting funeral that it was a Catholic family. The mother was dying. They called the priest in. She asked him some very important questions about life after death. and what was going to happen when she died. He got done giving his answers. She thanked him, he left, and she said, call the preacher. She said to her youngest son, who's a member of our church, she said, I'm here to hear the preacher. So I came and I told her what the Bible said about what happens. Not what I said, not what we have as a denomination, but what the Bible says. She was impressed by what was going to happen. And when I left her, I said, sister, you're going to heaven before I do. And when you see me, come give me a big hug. She said, I will, if you get there. So she kept her spunk right to the end. She was a wonderful person. And we had a very moving funeral. They decided to dispense with the Catholic priest for the services and so forth. And so I was impressed by that. And it made me feel good about being a primitive Baptist. I want to thank Elder Mann for inviting me. It certainly takes a lot of courage to have heard me preach before and still invite me anyway. And I appreciate that and appreciate his inviting me. I appreciate Elder Bowen making the arrangements and picking us up at the airport. We were supposed to drive, but due to last minute arrangements, I appreciate he and his wife even having a bag full of wonderful chicken salad sandwiches on the way. wonderful hospitality. I appreciate the other elders that are here this evening. I know they have many things to do. If you have your Bibles with you, please turn with me to the 5th chapter of James in the 20th verse. Let's read 19 and 20 in the 5th chapter of James. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. You know, I read that out of the Bible. And yet, when I first came among the old Baptists, that was not their conversation. Now, I didn't change it. I'm just glad to be here to watch it change. It was a time when they would not have preached from there. And I plan to try and preach from there, Lord willing, this evening. My subject is how to save sinners. You see, I'm in the soul winning business. Sounds funny in an old Baptist church in a way, doesn't it? Maybe. But I'm in the soul saving business. I want to win souls. This book here says, this verse says, let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death. Starts out in verse 19 by saying, brethren. It's obviously talking to those whose hearts have been tendered. If any of you do err from the truth, which means those of us that consider ourselves children of God can err from the truth. And one, convert him. Do you like the word convert? Are you in the conversion business? I am. I'm in the conversion business. Now, we don't used to say things like that, but we have to understand the difference between regeneration and conversion. Regeneration is when God takes clay and makes bricks. Conversion is when you build a house out of them. That's simple, isn't it? There's a little bit of Greek in there, astrifo, which means to come again. That's what, you know, you ever said something to somebody and they said, come again? Okay, that means convert what you just said and make it louder. Sometimes I get to be not too attentive to the time, and my wife will make a wonderful meal. My favorite, steak. I love steak. I've still got a few arteries that aren't all clogged up yet, so I like a big steak and green beans and whipped potatoes. And she'll make a meal like that, and I'll be late. I mean, way late. Now, that was a beautiful meal when it was warm, but it's not a beautiful meal when it's cold. Not to me, anyway. So I have to convert that meal. She regenerated it. I converted it. I put it in the microwave and nuked it for a few minutes. I said, it's good. It's good right on right then and there. Big old slab of butter on. Wonderful, you know? But it needs some conversion. But I'm not in the business of making children of God, and I'm not going to say that over and over again tonight. You all know I'm a primitive Baptist preacher, and you know what all Baptist preachers believe. I know I'm from a very strange state. I understand that. But we're no different there than most of you, probably. And I believe what your pastor believes, what Elder Bohm believes, these other elders. I shouldn't have to keep saying that tonight. So what we're talking about is not regeneration. I'm not here to make children of God, but I am here to convert them. And some of you tonight need conversion. There's some of you sitting on the pews, you haven't been baptized yet. I expect you to come down tonight. Oh, you think you're going to get off easy because it's Thursday? No, no, no, no, no. I've come a long way. Brother here said he was a little late, and I came from where I did. Yeah, but we were going at almost 600 miles an hour. And that was to the airport. But anyway, so there are some of you sitting here tonight thinking, well, this is not Sunday. They're not going to open the doors to the church. I just did. I just did. And while I'm preaching, if you get so converted, you want to join the church, and I'm still preaching, come sit down on the front, and we'll wait for you. It'll shorten the sermon, I can tell you that. I want some of you to join the church tonight. You've been born again by the Father. You've been made into bricks, but you're still laying in a pile. You're not a bit of good for anybody. You need to be converted and put in the house. Make those walls and raise the house. So there's some of you sitting there, I want you to do that. Some of you have been put in the house, but you're awful cold. Need to be more amens in the house. And if I preach better, maybe there will be. I'm not going to put all the blame on you, but some of you are sitting in the pews and you need to be converted too. Time for you to get a little heat. Get nuked a little bit here, see? So let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death. Now we're not talking about the grave here. We're talking about that separation from the Lord. There's two salvations in the Bible. There's two deaths at least. So we know then that I can't save somebody from hell, but there is a hell here on earth. Am I right? Some of you been through it? Maybe, yeah. I'm not the only one in here, am I? Sure enough, there's a hell right here on earth. And I'd like to keep anybody I can from going through that. It's my job to convert you. And I'm in the conversion business. I'm in the soul winning business. That shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. I want to look at three good things there. Number one, we convert them. Number two, we save them from error. Now we turn, we like to think, and I believe this is why I joined the primitive Baptist. We'd like to convert people from error to truth, not from error to dogma. or to what we believe, or to our opinion. I believe, and I hope and pray we're sincere in this, that we like to convert people from error to truth. I think that's a good thing to do. Anytime somebody's walking in error, and you can say, now wait a minute. Here's what the Bible says about it. Here's the truth of the matter. You've done a good thing. And the third thing is saving them from death. And the fourth thing is hiding sins. We understand saving them from a temporal death, a death here in this life to the things of God. But what about hiding sins? Do you all like to hide sins? I do. I love to hide sins. There's enough sin in this world, isn't there? Do we need to have more sin? No, I like to find somebody that's sinning in the world whose heart is broken and comes into our church and says, I don't know what to do. I say, let me tell you what the Bible says you ought to do. And they start living a better life. We have a lot of that in Orlando. We've had 21 new members this year. You'll probably hear that a lot tonight. Listen, I didn't have anything to do with it. I can brag about it if I want to. My Lord did it. I didn't do it. I didn't have a thing to do with it. I'm just as shocked as everybody else. People come up and say, wow, you've had all that growth. And I just act like, yeah, I know. But listen, I'm just as shocked as anybody every time somebody comes down that aisle. I prayed for four men that had been going to that church for five years that hadn't joined. Prayed my heart out. Went to church, they weren't there. Three boys came up and joined. I hadn't even thought about it. It's nothing to do with me. We've converted a lot of people down there. Men who used to do things they shouldn't do and women who used to do things they shouldn't do, they've stopped doing them. They're coming to me and they're asking, what does the Bible say about declaring bankruptcy? What should I do? I've got a problem. What should we do about the children from the two marriages? This one's had and that one's had. How should we treat that in our home when they come into the home and that's something left from the marriage before? How do we handle these problems the way the Bible would have us do it? Do you know what music that is to your ears? They say we don't have musical instruments. Listen, when they start asking me things like that, man, it's a symphony going off in my ears. People coming in, not dressed the way we usually dress, perhaps, not having the vocabulary that we have, but saying, brother, show us what to do. We don't want to go down this path anymore. We're hiding sins. Are they still sinners? Oh, yes, yes, yes. I am too. One sister came up and she said, Brother Glenn, if we join this church right now, what's expected of us? I said, well, first of all, sister, there's a $1,000 initiation. I said, no, never mind. Well, she asked, all right. I said, Sister, we expect you to try to follow the scriptures. We expect you to attend services and support the church. And we'll try to help you all we can. She said, Brother Glenn, I haven't always been a good. I said, stop right there. I don't want to hear anything about your past. I don't want to hear one word about your past. And I promise you, I won't tell you anything about mine. What I want to hear about your future. Tell me what you're going to do. And I'll tell you what I'm going to do. And the Lord will bless us, but not about the past, that day. Her and six other of her family members joined the church. Got to baptize seven that day. It was their third week at church. I'll tell you, that's the kind of thing that just stirs your heart. She didn't know all the doctrines we do, but she knew that this was a good place to come out of the storm. A good place to get help. They're there now. They're all cleaned up. Wonderful members. Wouldn't trade them for a thing. So we've been hiding sins down there. And I think we need to be involved in that business of hiding sins and teaching people Romans 10, we can go there for just a minute. By the way, I like to teach in an expository manner when I'm teaching to the same people week after week. I know that I won't be teaching that way to you, so tonight we're just going to worship with you a little bit, look around in the scriptures, and hopefully you will enjoy this. Chapter 10, verses 1 through 3, and by the way, I intend to leave enough time at the end of the service for those who will flock forward and choke the aisles. Chapter 10, verses 1 through 3. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Now this is the same man that said salvation is by grace. He doesn't have to explain himself. The Bible is taken as a whole. He's already said what he believes about eternal salvation. He's talking about a timely salvation, a now salvation, if you will. He says, I wish they'd be saved. For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Have you ever seen churches like that? Maybe on TV, the charismatic movement? You know, two gas pedals and no steering wheel? Lots of energy, but they don't know where to go. Well, Paul says, they've got a lot of zeal, but not according to knowledge. He said, boy, if we could get their zeal over here. Have you never thought that? Oh, I tell you, I watch them on TV. Of course, they got about 20 minutes of orchestra music. I'll just get you all stirred up. Preacher comes out in a big white suit with a $3,000 stick pen. I got one in mine. He makes $636,000 a year in Orlando, which is a little bit more than Old Baptist. He comes out like that, and all he says is, praise the Lord. And people stand up and raise their hands, fall out in the aisles. I thought, boy, I've got to preach my heart out, just to get an amen every once in a while. You know, I wish, well, someday I'd like to preach to that guy's crowd. Just, you know, I mean, once in a while, you'd like to see some of that zeal and energy. Paul says, well, these people have got it, but it's not according to knowledge. And in verse three, he says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. Now, put these words together. They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto, and I'm going to turn these words around, God's righteousness. It says the righteousness of God. He said, they being ignorant of this righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to God's righteousness. Does that sound like anybody you know today? Sounds like a lot of people I know that are trying to establish their own righteousness. They're trying to get themselves into heaven. Reminds me of the little boy delivering papers early one morning. He went by the hotel. There was a big banner out about the new evangelist in town. Man came out and he said, son, which way is the post office? Boy said, go right down here, two blocks left, you'll see the post office. Thank you. He said, excuse me, son, do you know who I am? Boy looked up, said, no, sir. He said, I'm the evangelist on the banner. I'm the big evangelist that's holding the big meetings. You've been such a fine young man to give me instructions, give me your name, and I'll leave a ticket for you at the gate, and I'll tell you how to get to heaven. Little boy said, you don't even know how to get to the post office. Well, that's right. Establishing their own righteousness. Now I'm going to do something that Brother Mann may have seen me do, and I do it everywhere I go. And I'm going to keep doing it everywhere I go. So just bear with me. I know some of you have seen this, but I want everybody to see it. The Lord gave it to me, and I'm so thankful for it, I'm going to show everybody. Two young men knock on my door. I open the door, and there they are, white shirts, ties, and bicycles. I'm not going to mention any names, but they're Mormons. Okay. I said, I'm not going to mention any names. They said, we would like to come in and tell you about salvation. I said, come in, please. Have a seat. The young one said, I'll take over. Or the older one said to the young one, you show him. You do this one. I must have looked easy. He took a big legal pad, and he drew a pit like that. And he said, that's the pit of hell. I said, whoa, that's bad. He drew a little stick man, and he said, that's you. Maybe he'd been talking to the neighbors. I don't know. So then he drew another man up here, and he said, that's Jesus. And Jesus wants you to come out of that pit of hell. And he is throwing you a rope. And you have but to grab. And he will pull you up out of the pit of hell. He said, could I borrow your pad? Now, mind you, I had not, this was not, I didn't know this before the Lord blessed me. Sometimes the Lord just bless you with good things, because you've been studying your Bible maybe, whatever, praying, and the Lord would just bless you out of his mercy. So here I am in a situation. How do I explain to two well-intentioned young men that I think their doctrine is a little different. And how do I do it with kindness and yet make my point? And so I said, let me see your paper. Oh, so I drew a little pit. I said, that's the pit of hell. He said, oh yeah. So I drew a little stick man Jesus up here. And I said, that's Jesus up there. God, he says. So then I drew a man down here laying down. He says, who's that? I said, that's me. He said, what are you doing down there? I said, I'm dead in trespasses and sins. I'm laying down. I said, now what kind of person would throw a rope to a dead man? He said, well, how are you going to get out of there? I said, like this. And I drew me a ladder. And I said, Jesus is going to come down and get me and take me up. That's what he did. He came down, got me on the ladder, put his everlasting arms, and took me up. The young one looked at the other one. He said, I like that. He said, let's go. He said, we'll be back. I haven't seen him yet. It's been years. So what are we saving people from? I want to save people from trying to establish their own righteousness. First of all, it makes you haughty to sit in a pew tonight thinking you're better than somebody else, thinking you're going to heaven and they're not because you found yourself in a pew and you did all the work of getting here. Let me tell you something. God blessed you to be here tonight. This is a great blessing. You ought to be thanking God. Oh, I may not preach so well, but you're with your brothers and sisters. You're singing the songs you're hearing. Three prayers already tonight. Now tell me, we should be haughty about this. I can be thankful for it. I don't use the word proud. I know what you mean when you say that, but I like to say thankful. I'm not proud of myself, but I'm thankful the Lord has blessed me. I'm not proud of my children. I'm thankful for them. I'm not proud of you, but I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for everyone. Well, there's not even an empty pew I see right off the heaven. So I'm thankful for everyone that came. And we ought to be thanking God that we're not trying out here tonight to see how upright we can sit, how good we look, and if we're going to have more stars in our crown, more jewels in our crown than the person sitting next to us who's been watching bad TV. No, no, we don't do that. We come with thankful hearts. Thank you, Father, for letting me be with your children tonight. What a blessing for the Father to say, you come be with my children tonight. Not your righteousness, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Everything I do is to say thank you. I do nothing for reward. How would you like to be in a church where you felt like you had to save your own hide? Their entire service is geared towards saving their own hide. I would like to save them from that. Somebody comes to me like last night. We were at a wake about 120 miles north of our home last night. A man said, I'm a confirmed Catholic. I said, we got one that does our newsletter. I'd like to save you from being so confirmed. Oh, the family carried on at the wake last night, kissing the dead body. I don't know how you feel about it, but it's strange to me. Yeah, this was my feeling exactly. And so I saw this and I'm sitting there like, whoa, what are you doing that for, you know? You're kissing the pod. The pea shelled out and went to God, you know? They're doing this and they're crying and they're running outside. Actually leaving the room, going outside, crying, come back in again. Eight o'clock, time to go. I said, everybody come here to the casket. They didn't budge. I don't know. Maybe they're used to the priest, but I said, come here, come, you know, so they get around. And I told him, I said, I have good news to announce to you tonight. Your mother is not dead. She's alive. She lives. This is the remains that we treat with respect because Jesus paid for it. So we treat it with respect. We're going to lay it in the ground with respect, because he's coming again. It's his. But the soul and the spirit is also his. He paid for that, too. And she's alive. I said, tonight when you leave this home, you are not leaving your mother here. She's left you days ago. And she's in home with Jesus now. And we had a prayer. And there was a mood. You could see it changed in the whole place. We saved them from error, because Paul said, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. At the end of that, he says, comfort you one another with these words. They never heard those words. I saved them last night from grief and agony, self-righteousness, doubt. Why did I do it? Because the Lord did so much for me. I just want to say thank you to him. And that's the way I did it. So, first of all, when it comes to saving sinners, I want you to be in the soul winning business. Because you need to save people from trying to establish their own righteousness. It's hard work. Number two, Acts chapter 2 verse 40. This is a very wonderful verse to me. One that you're familiar with and I know you know the whole story of Pentecost and Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost. 3,000 people about joined the church. That's more than we ever had at New Hope joined the church in one day. I'm hoping for the day when 3,000 will come forward. I'm going to baptize them all. It's going to take me all day. Brother came in and he said, Brother Glenn, you're taking in people you don't even know. I said, that's right. He said, well, there's getting a rumor started that you'll take in anybody. I said, who said that rumor? He said, I'm not going to tell you. I said, would you take a message back? He said, yes. I said, tell him it's true. I'll take in anybody. My job is not to sort them out in the water. It's to sort them out on dry land. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 13. Sort them out on dry land. So he sort the fish out. He said, what if the man comes and he's got this or that, maybe alcoholism? I said, well, show him the church for three months. Then we'll ask him to make a decision. Us or the bottle? I bet he takes us. But give him a glimpse of the church first, you see. So, we come to Acts 2, 43,000 people are here joining the church, and Peter says, and with many other words that he testifies and exhorts, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Number one, we want to save people from establishing their own righteousness. That's hard work. But number two, can we save people from the things that are going on out in the world? I'll give you some examples. Disney World. I hope you all come down and visit us. Don't go to Disney World. They're sponsoring every ungodly thing in Florida. They've changed our city. We had gay month last year where they put up homosexual flags all over the city. Disney World behind the whole thing. I could give you a list of things Disney is behind. I can save you from sponsoring that kind of thing with the knowledge that we have. So we want to save you from this untoward generation. You have no business in that place. We want to save you from divorce. The divorce rate is incredible. We don't speak up enough about our church. The other day, I was in Penny's buying some shirts. The lady said, you're going on a trip? Yes. She was helping me. All of a sudden, the place flooded with a wedding party. Oh, you couldn't even think. They were all jibbering and laughing and making fun. They were so just having the time of their life. We're getting married. We're getting married. Oh, honey, this would look good on you. Oh, this would look good on you. And I thought, you know, there's a 50-50 chance they ain't going to make it. And they're as happy as they can be. I'm going on a preaching trip, and all I told the lady was I was going out of town. We need to be more joyous, maybe, about what we do. But weddings are ending in divorce. And the divorce rate among Christians is almost as bad as the divorce rate among non-Christians. So we're not doing our job, obviously. Something's wrong. Church is lacking, and we're lacking. We can save people from that. Gangs, crime, I made a big list. Jail, TV, drugs, alcohol. Satan wants your homes, your children, your families, your church, your country. And it's our job to stop him. We want to save people from the things going on in this generation. I preached a sermon several years ago against the lottery. Do you all have the lottery here? Pathetic. Of course, we have in Florida, too. Anyway, I found a gas station that doesn't sell lotto tickets. I buy all my gas there. I'm tired of standing behind people who have a junk car that doesn't look like it'll make it off the lot, three kids hanging from the hips, buying a little half pint of milk. I don't know what she's going to do with all that, with a little bit of milk, and give them a $5 bill and take her change in lotto tickets. I don't say to her, ma'am, don't get your change in cardboard. Get it in dollar bills. Get some more milk. But I found a gas station. Now I don't have to do that. I preached a sermon. A young man got in touch. He said, I joined the church after you left. He said, I've been wondering about gambling. I'm addicted to it. He said, that sermon made me realize I got to stop. We need to preach against gambling. We need to preach against alcohol. We need to preach against defacing your body. Now, I know during World War II, a lot of you guys went off and got tattoos. That was real cool back then. You didn't know much about the church and got away from home and got a few beers and got a tattoo or something. But it's not all right. It's not all right. We got men in our church with tattoos. They'll readily tell you, it's not all right. We don't want the next generation to follow that. It was just something that was done back then. It wasn't talked against. This tongue piercing? That ain't all right. Belly piercing? We've got to preach against those things. We've got to save our young people from making horrible mistakes. Elder Mann's thing on scriptural romance. Our kids love it. I did it two nights in Bible study. Did I say Bible study? I did it two nights at church with our young people. They loved it. They came up after the first night and said, Brother Glenn, that's what we want to do. That's the way we want it. The parents were stunned. They thought, now, maybe Brother Glenn's getting a little, of course, I kept saying, this is what Thomas Mann said. I didn't say it. This is what Thomas Mann said. Now, I got this from the preacher's meeting, and Thomas Mann said that. I didn't say it. Now, I don't know. And I was with the parents now. This thing could, but the kids were right up there. They said, we want to do it. This is right. This takes all the pressure off us. It's what we've been looking for. The teenage girl that was getting ready to start dating was the biggest one saying, this is what I want. Dating is tough. So these are the kind of things we need. We can save other people with what we know. What we've learned in the primitive Baptist church will save other people. And so we need to work at that. Let's take a look at some other things. Oh, by the way, the Republicans are not going to save this country either. And neither are the Democrats. Neither is Rush Limbaugh. And neither is Clinton. The only thing that's going to save this country is a big dose of this Word of God. And that you get down here. So I'm going to admonish you to think about that. Now, who are we going to save? Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 1.21. We're not talking here about regeneration. We're talking here about conversion. 1 Corinthians 1.21. Keep those pages moving and it'll keep you awake. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. Notice he didn't say it pleased God by foolish preaching, by the foolishness of preaching. And by that, he means by the natural thing of preaching, not by a miracle or a sign or a wonder. But do you realize this is kind of foolish, isn't it? I mean, one man talking to a bunch of other people. That's kind of strange. in a setting in pews. I don't know if you may have heard this about the church in England. You know, the churches in England are going down very fast. And one of them decided to do something about it. And they said, what's wrong with our church is that we meet in a building that a lot of people are not comfortable in. So they decided to meet in a pub. And they talked to the owner. They rent half of a pub. Then they got there and they said, well, it's weird to be in this pub and one man standing talking to other people. Let's take away these and we put tables and let everybody converse. Then they said, well, singing is strange in here like this. So they stopped the singing. After about six months, you couldn't tell the side that was pub from the side that was church. because they had done away with everything that was like that. So we're looking for these people here who will come and listen to preaching, even though preaching is strange. I admit the church's other denominations are having a lot more luck with puppet shows and stuff like that. But anyway, he says here, the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. If you are a Christian and the Lord has tended your heart tonight, I hope you hear something here that will save you from error. I hope that when you go out the door, you will carry at least one thing with you and say, I learned something tonight about God and what he wants me to do, and I'm not going to do this anymore, or I'm going to start doing this. Let me give you a simple one. Right now, I've got your attention. Let me give you one simple one. 60 seconds or less. 31 chapters in Proverbs. One chapter a day. Today is the 18th. 19th, that's what I said. And so then, so then today you should read the 19th chapter of Proverbs. All primitive Baptists all over the country, we need wisdom. We need a lot of wisdom in the days ahead for the old church. So everybody read today the 19th chapter when you go home. Tomorrow read the 20th. If you fall behind and miss a day, that's okay. Don't worry about it, don't try to make it up. Just keep going, just keep going. Keep your Bible close and read the chapter that corresponds with the day on the calendar. That's not hard, is it? No, no, no. Everybody can do that. And we'll be doing it all over the country together. All the old Baptists reading the same chapter. And then next month we'll start again. And the next month again. And by 12 months, you've probably read each chapter at least 10 times. You're going to miss some days. That's OK. But you'll read each chapter at least 10 times of Proverbs. Do you know how wise you'll be? These are the kind of little things that we can give to believers to do. Things that we can work in harmony and follow the Lord. OK. He says believers, so that's what we're gonna, I'm gonna ask you to do that. When you go out the door tonight, you take that one suggestion with you, and thank God you learned one thing to do tonight that maybe will help you, okay? So we're looking for believers. Let's go to the second one. 1 Corinthians 7, 12. Who else could we save? Who else could we save? Well, but to the rest speak I, not the Lord. Chapter seven, verse 12, 1 Corinthians. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. I wonder how many, I'm not gonna ask you for hands or anything, but I wonder how many people were, one member of the family is a member here tonight, and the other isn't. That's okay. We have a lot of that at our church, too. I think that's normal. We take individuals, not necessarily families, and so one person becomes ready to join the church before another, or you marry somebody from another denomination, and so they'll visit you from time to time, and you go, we understand that. The Bible says, okay, let him not put away, and the woman which hath a husband that believeth not, And if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. And I want to go down now. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, else were your children unclean, but now they are holy. Listen, there's a saving that goes on by staying married together. There's a saving as these two who are not exactly equally yoked yet, but there's a saving by them trying. Come to church with me today. The marriage is trying. People are trying. So what I'm saying now is, if you want to save somebody, start in your living room. I appreciate these men that go to the Philippines. They got a lot of guts. I felt funny about coming to Virginia. I knew I could get good ham, right? But I didn't know what else you had. And if I went to the Philippines, I'd probably have one suitcase just full of food, because I'm going to be careful what I eat, you know? I appreciate these men, but what about you? We can't all go to the Philippines, but you have living rooms. You have family members that don't come to the church. Why don't you start trying to save them? Not for eternity, but save them here to what you have at the church. Start talking to your neighbors. You don't have to go to the Philippines. I'm glad somebody's going. But in Orlando, I'm just worried about Orlando. We've got a real mess down there. We're trying to save some of those people. Start where you are. You don't need a call from God to go on a missionary trip to Damascus. Start now. Start where you are. Tomorrow, tonight, go home and tell people, oh, you should have heard this wonderful preacher from Florida. Okay, so you gotta exaggerate. But anyway, the point is, talk about your church at work and at school. Talk about your church. Do your evangelizing right where you are. People have evangelized on beds of affliction in the hospital. Surely you and I, up and walking about, can evangelize where we are. So, let's start saving the people closest to us, our family members, we hope. Go to 922, I just couldn't pass this one up. To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men. I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. In other words, I just want to save somebody. If you say, well, I live alone, I don't have a family. I can't save anybody, save somebody, save some. How many people I wonder have been in the old Baptist church 30 years and never brought a visitor to church? Did I hurt you? I'm sorry. You know, I didn't mean to step on your toes, but come on. You can't come to the church year after year after year and never bring a visitor, never have enough excitement about your church that somebody would want to come with you. Surely, surely there is some way you could get a visitor here and maybe the pastor, if the Lord will break the visitor's heart, the pastor can get to him. And you will save a soul. You'll save them from trying to establish their own righteousness. You'll save them from casting about in the world and letting Oprah Winfrey make up their decisions for them. You'll save them from that. But surely we have to get them into the church. We have to introduce them to our pastor. We have to say, pastor, come visit. They're going to be at my house. I'm going to have a cookout, a cookout. I'm going to invite all my neighbors and my pastor. Some of you tell about all my neighbors and everybody about my pastor. You don't know what's going on. But surely we should invite our pastor when we have birthday parties. We should invite our pastor when we have cookouts and let him talk to the people. Maybe the Lord will work in the matter. That's evangelism. That's a form of saving souls. All right. Now I got to get on the preachers for a short minute. First Timothy. Just a minute, we're gonna leave 10 minutes for everybody to come up and join the church because we're gonna try to get you saved tonight. Not for eternity, but if we can send you out of these double doors tonight as a member of the church, you carry something on your shoulders that will prevent you from doing things you shouldn't do. I know, I stayed out of the church two years because I wanted to do things I wanted to do and I knew I couldn't do them in the church. The Lord just worked me over nine weeks a Sunday. And the next time I went to work after joining the church, they said, come on, we're all going to go get a drink. It's payday. I can't go. Why not? I joined the church. I was so happy inside I didn't have to go, but I made it seem like I wasn't. I was just being a chicken. I had to tell the boys, I wish I could, but my church, they don't allow that. But I didn't want to go anywhere. I'd been going for a year and didn't want to go. So there's a salvation that comes from joining the church. You can say, I can't do that. I'm a church member now. They'll call you Holy Joe and all that. That's all right. There's a salvation I want to send some of you out here with tonight. I want you to take it with you. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 16, the Apostle Paul speaking to a young preacher, and there's some young preachers in here tonight, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. That means the teachings of the church. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. One time I was talking to a man, he said, why do you keep bugging me about joining the church? Why do you keep telling me about salvation by grace? I'm not going to do it. I said, I used to do it because I wanted to convince you. Now I do it to keep you from convincing me. I'm trying to save myself. That's what I'm doing. I don't want to hear your argument, so you're going to hear mine. So preachers, you save others and you save yourself. But what is good for the preacher here is good for others also. Let's read it now and apply it to the congregation. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine continuing them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. There's some of you out there that have the key tonight to getting to the heart of one of God's little children. If you'll just act on what you know, what you've been taught by your pastor and other men. And if you'll go to work tomorrow or go to school tomorrow, thinking I've got the key to help somebody. And if you'll start the day with this prayer, Lord, send me somebody, put them in my way. Let me know when they step in my way, Father, that this is the one I'm supposed to talk to today. Father, I'm scared to death. Admit it. I'm scared to death. They're going to ask me questions I have no idea what they're talking about. But Father, if you'll put the right one in my way, I promise I'll do my best. You will be shocked how many times the Lord will send you and answer that prayer. And you'll be in the cleaners or the grocery store, maybe at the diner or whatever, and somebody will say, You're a Christian, aren't you? Yeah. How'd you know? Well, you ask the blessing. I hope you're asking the blessing before you eat out in public, too, at McDonald's and everywhere else. See? See? You got to do that. You don't put anything in your mouth, you know, without you asking the blessing. It's hard at school, right? But I have a tip for you. One girl told me, she said, I dropped my napkin while I'm picking it up. I said, the blessing. Until you've been in a high school cafeteria, have mercy on her. She had a point. Anyway, so ask the Lord to send you that one. that you can open a key because by taking heed to the doctrine, you'll save yourself and you may save somebody else. One of the things I miss about being a school teacher is the children I came into contact with every day that needed saving. And they were much easier to save than people who had been brought up under a certain dogma. They would come and say, Mr. Blanchard, tell us about Jesus. Wouldn't you love to hear somebody say that? Mr. Blanchard. Oh, I'll give you one good one. Air and Space Museum, got no interest in it. Where is that at? In Smithsonian. I have no interest in it. I had 40 kids with me, splitting headache. I didn't want to hear about kids. I wanted to sit there. I took about six extra strength buffering and a big old Coca-Cola. Got to get rid of this. I know that sounds bad, but you ought to be there with 40 kids, all right? Anyway, so I'm sitting there. I think I got an hour and a half of pure peace and quiet. I'm going to sit in the corner. Four girls came. I saw a shadow. I look up. Yes, what do you want? One of them said, Mr. Blanchard. This is whatever her name was. She's never been to church. We've been trying to tell her about God the way you tell us, and we're not getting it right. She doesn't understand. Would you tell us about God? Sit down, ladies. We spent the entire hour and a half talking about the Lord. Not absolutism and predestination and all that stuff, but talking about the goodness of Jesus Christ and how he saved his people. Not a lot of denominational type doctrine, just good Bible stuff. I'll never forget that. I don't know what happened to them. I don't have an ending for that story. Other than that, by my standing up for it in school, they knew who I was. And when they had questions, they know where to go. Some of you have had those same experiences. People sought you out because they saw the way you walked. That's all we're talking about. It's that simple. Now, all right, so how are we going to save these people? Let's go to, I'm not going to take you there. I'm just going to tell you because we got to go. There's a leper. Jesus heals the leper. Jesus turns to the leper and says, now, don't you tell anybody. Go show yourself to the priest. We're still under the law. Get over there and get yourself examined by the priest, by the rabbi. The leper starts going down the road. Somebody says, hey, don't I know you? You have to remember me. I had leprosy. Look at me. It's all gone. There's a guy over here named Jesus. I had leprosy, and he cured me just like that. He just said it. Somebody else came and said, what's all the commotion? I said, look, remember me? I was that guy yelling, I'm clean over there this morning at the market. Well, look at me now. That man, I don't know if he ever did get to the rabbi. The Bible doesn't say. But it does say that because he blazed it abroad, Jesus had to leave town. So many people flooded the little streets that Jesus had to go out in the countryside because the crowd was so big. When was the last time you blazed it abroad about Jesus Christ? I'm not talking about a little fire. That man talked about Jesus so much that Jesus had to leave town. If that's what it takes, let me tell you, I don't want you all to talk about Jesus ever. I don't know what it is. Reverse psychology, I guess. Jesus told him, don't you tell anybody you head straight for the synagogue. I don't know if the man ever made it to the synagogue. The crowd was so enormous. That man brought more people to Jesus than most old Baptist ministers. That's a condemnation on us, brother. That's not right. That leper just had a few moments with Jesus. We got the whole account in front of us and the apostles to bear. And we mumble about our Lord. How to save them? Blaze it abroad. You ever seen an Amway meeting? I never saw people so excited about soap in my life. Now, it's good soap. I mean, you know, the products are unbelievable. They're wonderful. But they're not salvation. Huh? They're not going to save you. They'll keep you clean. They're cheap, you know, comparatively. They're concentrated. I know all that. I've been to enough of those demonstrations. But the point is, it's not salvation. It won't get you to the other side of glory, you know. Ball games. 70,000 people flood into a ball game. 70,000 people that need exercise. Watching 22 people that don't need exercise. Exercise. It's crazy. And if it rains on them, they like it better. They come in there on Monday morning, dragging in, I need a weekend to get over my weekend. What happened? Florida State. Oh, you didn't see the game? No, I didn't see the game. Where were you? Church. Oh, poor guy. No, I didn't get rained on. Nobody spilled beer on me. I'm not hoarse. And I had a good night's sleep. Got to be with God's children, the people I'm going to spend eternity with. Poor me. Poor you. I would be you for anything. Now, if they can get that excited, Tupperware parties. Lord help. Excited about plasticware. You've got to be kidding me. And people sit in church. Listen, a man was putting up air for church, and he hired a contracting firm. They said, you're going to need, now this is Florida, you're going to need 12 air conditioners on the roof. He said, wow, I've never seen a church with 12 air conditioners. He said, oh, it's a church. He said, you're only going to need two. I thought it was a movie theater. The preacher said, well, what's the difference? He said, people don't get near as excited at church as they do a movie theater. That's right. That's right. People come out of a movie and they're just, wow. People come out of church and they're, oh, you know, there's a big difference. How are we going to save people? We need to get excited. We need to blaze it abroad about our Savior. You ever brag on your pastor? You ought to. God gave him to you. You ought to brag on the Lord. What a good pastor we've got. He's so good to us. He teaches us things. He'll come over to the house. Do you ever tell people about your church? What the singing, your singing tonight was beautiful. Who would add a piano to such thing? People come in and say, why don't you have a piano? Tell them the truth. We like it better without. Most of you can't point to the verse why we don't have a piano. I can. But most of you can't. You don't care. You just know it sounds better, don't you? It's more spiritual. It's more uplifting. Well, that's the way God designed it. Any rock and roll band or anything, when they want to do something dramatic, they stop the instruments and they go a cappella. So that's why we do it. Why don't you have Sunday schools? We love to have the young people in church with us. By the way, our young people love to be in church with us. You try to send them off to a trailer and they'll have your hide. They won't stay here with us. See what's going to go on. Somebody might join the church. They don't want to miss that. So you have so many good things to tell about your church. So many good things to go to work in. Hold your head up and talk about the primitive baptism. What the Lord has done for you and the good feeling that you have. Acts 10.48, by the way, I'm not going to go into any more of this. We stop right now. Acts 10.48, Peter said, it says in the Bible, he commanded them to be baptized. We're not going to give an invitation tonight. We're not going to give an invitation. This is not a birthday party. This is the church of Jesus Christ. This is where you come in and get your soul saved. And you get converted how many times? Four or five times a week, I hope. Maybe some of you have been converted twice tonight. You listened, you got converted, you fell out, went to sleep a little bit, come back in, somebody laughed, and you got converted all over again. So that's what we're all about. And I want somebody to come down tonight and make that long journey where East Wind, boy, every time I say it, people laugh. It's a strange airline. I took my life in my hands to come here tonight. And I want somebody to come up and join the church and tell us they want to be converted over and over. They want to get that refreshing they get here at this church. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful for this church. We're thankful, Heavenly Father, for thy word. We're thankful for that leper that blazed it abroad. Father, when I get to heaven, I want to see him. I want to see a man that couldn't stop talking about Jesus. Father, we're thankful for everyone that's here tonight, made the effort. And Father, if there's one here tonight that would like to join the church, we ask the Lord to strengthen them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Blessed Savior, calling Thee oppressed, Glory in every land, come to me and rest. Come, Lord, return me, I Your work will bear. ♪ Bring me every burden, bring me every care ♪ ♪ Come unto me ♪ ♪ Come to give me rest ♪ ♪ Take my yoke upon you ♪ ♪ Give me every burden and every rest ♪ We can only be proud of what we've done, proud of what we've done, proud of what we've done, proud of what we've done, proud of what we've done. Are you disappointed, wandering here and there, dragging change without end, loaded down with care? Do unholy feelings struggle in your prayers? Bring your case to Jesus, he will give you rest. Come unto me, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, If the ending were the end of the world, I want to leave him, I don't want to leave him, I don't want to leave him. My yoke is easy, and my burden's light. There's a business, there's a resting place, there's a social life, there's a home unmet. Party life, recourse, fun, spend some guilty friends. Come, come to Jesus, he will give you rest. Come, come to me, I will sing praise. Hail, my yoke upon you! Hail, ye heavenly blest! High above the meek and lowly, Thou art my trust, my light, Ah, my yoke is easy, and my burden's light. And my temptation, often conquered in, Has a sense of weakness, brought distress within. Christ will sanctify you, if you'll claim His best. In the Holy Spirit, He will give you rest. ♪ Come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come ♪ Now you're weak and cold and weary ♪ ♪ But trust in God, trust in God, trust in God ♪ ♪ Come, my hope is easy ♪ ♪ And I've heard on fire, I've heard on fire ♪