It's good to be in God's house today. We're truly a blessed people. That the God of heaven would come down and have anything to do with any of us here. To even think that we had any chance at all that the very God of all creation, that the very God that had glory in heaven, that had no need to come to earth, would come down and deal with a lawless sinner as we was, and do a miraculous supernatural work. And the heart of a sinner is beyond my comparableness, beyond my comprehension this morning, that he would come down and save an old wretched sinner from blackness at Kentucky and make him fit one day, hallelujah, to see his kingdom. It's not my kingdom, it's his. And one day I'll get to share it with him. And we're living way below our privilege this morning. If we just stop and think just for a minute that the very Christ of heaven would come and save an individual such as Joel Hyde and Jason Wilson! We ought to shout this place down! Amen! Whoop whoopee! Amen! Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord! May it be that I had yesterday, I'll get into the message if it's God's will. If it is, I don't have any idea anymore. With us, pray and ask God to help us. I'm glad I've been saved by the grace of God. There was nothing in me that deserved salvation. Not a very thing. I appreciate the hospitality, by the way. I appreciate you all putting me up and getting down here. Brother, I took me out to dinner last night. What a blessing. But before we went to dinner, he said, we've got to go over to the church. And God said, you have brother Hyde, you and him come over to the church and pray. And God met with us when we prayed. I'm glad God's still real, amen. He's still alive today. I didn't need Hollywood to make a movie that said God is not dead. I know He's not dead. He lives inside of me. I mean, there's something down there, there's something that stirs up. And I can feel Him. I know it ain't all about feeling. But if I couldn't be in here, I'd be checking up this morning. I'm glad it's a no-show salvation. You don't have to wonder here today. You don't have to play here today. You can know without a shadow of a doubt, amen. I'm glad I know that much. That's right. I don't know much, but I know that. I'm going to try to help you by the grace of God. But I can tell you, y'all have heard enough preaching over the past 27 years that Bella Hite's been here to save the entire world. That's right. The altar's open anytime. You know, sometimes these preachers, they just want to think they're in control. I'm not in control. The only thing I can tell you is you follow God. I was sitting on that back pew right there, sitting on this pew, and that precious girl singing every song. And I mean, I didn't think nothing about it. I thought, well, she's been around the house of God. That's as good as she has. Her mama tapped me on the shoulder. I don't think you care. She said, she has autism. She can't even talk. Sing every song to the glory of God. Hallelujah, boy, that made me, I mean, that just, that just whirled up inside of me, I thought, and we've got a bunch of dead Christians that won't even say saving grace, amazing grace, when they have the best voice like a mockingbird, and this little girl singing every one of them, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen! That's the glory of God this morning! If you don't know Him, you better come to Him! Time's running out! Amen! Woo! God help us. God help us. I'm not going to preach long, I promise. Luke, turn your Bibles, if you will. I better move on. Chicken's waiting. You get in. You get in the way of chicken and a Baptist, there'll be a fight break out. Hallelujah. That's right. I'm the only Baptist preacher you probably know wouldn't give you a dime for a chicken. I wouldn't. I don't like it. That's a side note. You can write it down later and think about it. I appreciate it brother. I have one more thing. One more thing before I get in the message. I want to say this to Brother Hyatt and his congregation. You have one of the finest men of God that I've ever met in my life. I can't say he's good because Jesus Christ said there's none good, no, not one. But boy, in my heart and my mind, he's pretty, pretty close. He has very good intentions. And I think he's got a good heart. And he's a strong man of God. And it is my complete, whole honor to call him my friend. You take care of him while he's here. And I pray God to do a work, and He's already doing a work. Lord, I'm just honored to be up here. I mean, it's just my honor to be here. I'm nothing and a nobody. I want you all to know that from the very first... I am nothing and a nobody. Just a sinner saved by grace, brother. That's all I am. And He called me to preach, and I've been trying to, but bless God, I am nothing. I preached that to Brother Dennis' message this morning, right on target. We're going to try to preach, y'all. Luke chapter number 23 and verse number 44. Luke 23 and verse number 44. And it was about the 6th hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. Black math, that's 3 hours. Three hours darkness. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the middle. And Jesus had cried with a loud voice, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, He gave up the ghost." What a powerful three or four verses there. Let's pray. God in heaven, I appreciate You today. I appreciate what I've been able to fill already. I'm glad I can feel You stirring down inside of me. I pray, Lord, that You can get me out of the way. and put yourself in the way. God, I need you today. There is nothing in me that's worth a dime. Only that part that you saved a long time ago, that's as perfect as it ever will be. Help me now, help me not to say nothing that be contrary to thy Word. I don't want to make anybody mad, but God, if the Word of God touches, it does. God, you help us to do everything in love. Help us now to dare and to have faith. Be one, God. No doubt in the congregation this time there's somebody on the brinks of heaven or hell. And I pray God, according to that word, that you draw him or her to you. God help us now in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to preach just for a little while on the plan of the cross. There was a definite plan even before the foundation of the world, before a star was ever created, before a plant of grass was planted from God's hand upon this earth. There was a plan that had to be put in place for the fallen generations that would come after. And I realize more and more every day That I am nothing. I realize more and more every day without Him I can't function. I realize more and more every day that my family needs Him. I realize more and more every day that if I don't have Him I won't pay my bills. If I don't have Him I can't do nothing. I can't feed my family. I need Him. And two, in that boardroom meeting in the sky a long time ago, which we have no idea how long it was, but there was a discussion made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, that there must be a plan for this man that would be created. Isn't that amazing? Now my feeble mind cannot comprehend that. But before anything was, this plan was set forth. Now there was a cause for the plan. What was the cause? First of all, we have to look at the wickedness of man. In Romans 5.12, everybody knows what it says. But one man, sin, entered into the world. The wickedness of man is raging even more so today than it ever has been. But through time, through that space of time, God knew that man would fall. Don't ask me how I know that. Brother Dennis preached this morning, if Adam had only just turned the other way and repented, I have no idea what would happen, but God in His infinite wisdom created man anyway, and He knew that he would fall. I don't know why He ever created us. That's my question, that as I get older, I don't know why He ever done it. The only answer is love. My children, I love my children more than life itself. And I would do anything for Him. It had to be love, brother Dennis. It had to be. It had to be because He wanted a lost man to choose Him. I know the Bible says He chose me, I didn't choose Him. But you have to make a conscience effort toward God, everybody. God will shine a little bit of light in the sinner's path, and he must walk into that light. I believe that. The wickedness of man. The cause of the plan was because of the wickedness of man. It was because of the waverings of man. Even now, I find in my last life, I waver. Sometimes I don't walk a straight path. You say, you admit now? The Bible says, confess you fault one another. Amen? In Proverbs 28, he says, if you hide your sin, if you hide your transgression, you're going to fall into temptation. But that person that repents and runs from it, What's the Bible say? He'll have peace. Amen. That's right. And so I waver sometimes. I mean, I've never seen such a church, a New Testament church, as we live in, that's wavering every day. this way and that way, just as the wind blows, and sometimes I'm the same way, I'll waver, get off on the wrong path. Somebody's already said it today, God will whoop me and get me back into the path. If He don't whoop you, you're not His son. The wavering, the cause of the plan. But we see the suffering of the cross, the procedure of that crucifixion where Jesus is getting ready to be, was one of the most terrible, cruel things that the Romans ever invented, am I? That process of when Christ laid upon the cross and they drove the nails in His hands and feet, that was a process that happened. And there was also pain of that process. Can you imagine the pain that our Lord suffered? Whenever I get pricked with a tick, I don't like it. An attack, I don't like it. They drove them through His hands and feet! And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, they didn't just lightly place that cross into that big hole. They shoved it down, I believe. You know why? Because to think of the weight of a man. I weigh about 199 pounds. And if I was on that cross, and the weight of that cross when I was nailed to it, drawn into that, can you imagine the pain? It would tear tendons and muscles. The excruciating pain. The process of the crucifixion was cruel. And those people that was hung upon the cross just like Christ had to push themselves up to get air enough into their lungs to breathe. And they did that constantly. And sometimes it would go on for hours. And we're sitting on a padded seat today. We're sitting in the cool of the air, got nice looking shirt and tie on. And we think of our Lord and the suffering, the cause of the cross, the suffering of the cross, the process, the pain, the procedure that went through. And finally, once that individual on the cross would struggle and struggle, he would finally just give up and die of suffocation! Can you imagine the strength that somebody would have to have to keep on pushing up the cell? Just to get enough air to breathe the next breath! Not to be comfortable! Brother Hyde and I got a call from Brother Terry Pace yesterday, and his wife's having trouble. We need to pray for her. Couldn't breathe! And I thought of this message today! And how if you can't breathe, there's something about it that's bad! Nearly a year ago, Almost a year ago, my dad called, said, I've got some bad news. I've got lung cancer. We met with the doctor the first time. He said, I've seen this case before. He said, I'm over 90% sure that you're not going to make it no more than six months. And I looked at the doctor and I said, I know somebody in heaven right now that don't like statistics and he can make his own. And I'm going to start praying to him. And for the last nine months, we've been dealing with that in the chemotherapy, in the radiation, and all through it, man, God's been faithful. He does all things well this morning. No matter if it's cancer, it is because of what He done on the cross, amen. The pain that He suffered, He suffered for all mankind. Nothing that we go through, brother Dennis, he hadn't already witnessed or experienced. If you're lost here today and have no idea what to do, he knows. He loves you today. He's saying, come, come unto me. He's saying, just come on, I'll talk to you. Yeah, but nobody else will. God will bless his name. He'll talk to anybody. the sufferings of the cross, the cause for the plan. Because of wavering men and the wickedness of man, there had to be a substitution on the cross. I'm reminded in the Old Testament, when God looked at Abraham and said, you're going to go to that mountain that I'm going to show you, and you're going to kill your only son. after he'd been promised that that seed would be as the stars, and he was going to kill his only heir. And Isaac, I think I would have broke down when Isaac said, Daddy, where's the sacrifice? Where's the lamb? Abraham looked at his son and said, God will provide. Amen. On the cross, a substitution was made for you and I today. A lamb was provided. Amen. I'm glad that he was a perfect lamb. And this sacrifice was perfect. And there's no need for anything else. Ain't you glad you saved today? A lamb was provided. Hallelujah. A lamb was provided and a lasting solution was presented. Hallelujah! Jesus said, I'm here and I'm going to present the solution one time and for the last time. Hallelujah. Amen. That makes me excited. About a month ago, I guess now, a month and a half, maybe, not very long ago, I was in my office and a lady said, I don't like the looks of that thing on the back of your neck. And I said, what in the world are you talking about? She said, there's a place on the back of your neck that don't look good. I said, well, I got to go to get a physical anyway. Get it checked out. My doctor said, I don't like it either. I said, all right. So I'm going to refer you to a dermatologist. Okay, great. Dermatologist said, we're going to biopsy this thing. Took a big hunk out of me. Three days later, I got the call. Melanoma cancer. I said, God and Heaven. Just got done with Dad, and now this. And I thought, I could have a pity party right now. Two weeks ago, they operated on me. I thought I was going to have to call Brother Hyatt and tell him I couldn't come, but the Lord helped me and let me be able to be here. And they cut it out and they say they got it all, but you know what? It don't matter. I looked at that doctor and he said, he said, you probably be all right. And I said, well, probably don't matter. I'm going to be all right. I said, I said, if this surgery don't go well, this is my doctor. Look at me. His eyes got real big, but you know, this is a difference. You know, we already talked about it this morning. I said, I'm going to a place where I have never seen it with my eyes, nor have I my ears, like Isaiah said, I've never heard about it. But one day I'm going to go and whether you get this cancer, whether I live, whether I die, I'm going to live forever. Amen. Why? Because of the substitution on the cross that was made for you and I. Hallelujah. We have made it. God help us the substitution on the cross. I'll try to get on The conclusion on the cross We read it to you here It was foreordained. Jesus' plan was foreordained. But there was also the fulfillment that had to take place for all things to be concluded in a way made for a sinner to get to Him. And when Jesus Christ Himself, bleeding, and they tell me, medical doctors now tell me that He probably had less than three pints of blood left in Him. And when that Roman soldier pierced Him in His side and thus forth came out water and blood and mingled with blood or whatever it said, you know what I'm talking about? That every drop of blood probably bled out of His body. And life is in the blood of the man. And man, you can't live without blood. That's why these medical doctors, if you've lost some blood, that's why they give you some blood. But one day, bless God, I had a blood transfusion with the blessing of Jesus Christ. And one day in my head, one day, I'm going to get the cleaning of my heart in my head. The conclusion of the cross and finally the saving power of the cross. Back up with me in that chapter. Amen. Same chapter, verse number 39. And one of the manufacturers, with your hands railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, take thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Does not thou fear God? Saying that thou art in the same condemnation. Our blessed Lord was crucified between two thieves. And they let a murderer go so they could kill and eat him. What a mess! And we're living in the same world today. We'd rather go to Hollywood and watch a man as the sin in the house of God and hear the preaching of the Word of God. Haven't we? Amen. And he said unto Jesus, O remember me when thou comest And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto them today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise. The thief's position was the same as Christ's. He was dying a condemned death. Right? The thief was condemned and they condemned the Lord. So the thief's position wasn't the same as Christ's. But the difference was that the thief determined it and our Lord Jesus Christ did not determine it. Yet they murdered him. Am I right? Right. The thief's position The thief made a proposal to the Lord. There was something inside of that one thief that realized, hey, this guy didn't do anything. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what you're going through today, but just like I have done in the past, I can blame everybody for my trouble. I can blame everybody. Everybody in the world for what I've done, what I have done, what I've said and what I did not say. I can blame everybody. I can blame everybody for my financial position if I had trouble with that. I can blame everybody for not having enough good enough house to live in or not good enough car to live in. But you know what? It never has been Christ's fault. You might be blaming Him for whatever happened. I don't know. I didn't blame him because I had cancer. I didn't blame him because my dad had cancer. I just said, God, hell. That's right. Amen. That's it. Maybe some of you, when I'm done here, you need to come up here and tell the Lord you're sorry for blaming him for your mistakes. You know sometimes I blame the Lord for my mistakes. Well Lord, if you hadn't had me do this, or I hadn't done this, or you hadn't made me do that, I wouldn't be in this. That's hard work, is what that is. Stand up for what you've done. Repent and let God satisfy you. And God be faithful and just to forgive you of all unrights. That's right. The thief's position, the thief's proposal, the thief's Paradise. Before His blood clots, He's with Jesus. I think before that set up in His blood, He's with Him. That's right. Why? Because He admitted what He was. That's right. Some of you need to admit what you are. Some of you need to admit where you are. Some of you need to admit where you ain't. That's just good old country talk. One of these days now, and it can't be too long, the eastern sky is going to open up. And we're going to see him come back. And when He comes out, I'm going up. Hallelujah. Hallelujah bless this holy nation. I'll be sharing this world in my corruptness. Bless your body. Y'all probably don't have no trouble with that, but I've got trouble with it all the time. I've got trouble with my flesh every day. I find it just like Paul said, it's a warfare. It's like Paul said, he had a phone and he decided that he asked Christ for God to take care of him. And God said, no, my grace is sufficient. How is it that he went to prison? Are you struggling? The plan of the cross was set forth out of love for all mankind. You don't have to be pretty. You don't have to be ugly. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to be poor. Because my Bible says that God has no respect of persons. In my part of the world, we call it, whatever's ailing you, God's got to cure. I don't know what's bothering you today. Some of you may just be lost. I don't know. Some of you may just need to come and experience the love of God. Amen. And He's full of love this morning. That's why He sent His Son down to die upon you. For you on that cross, the lonely cross. The plan of the cross was set forth. It's made. It's done. All you have to do is come and talk to Him. I don't know how to get saved. I don't know how to get saved either. I just said, God, I hate you. I'm weak and I'm tired and I need a word from you. Yes. Bless God, somehow or another, a supernatural work took place. Whatever you need to do this morning, this morning, if you need to come, you need to pray about something. If you're all here today, I beg of thee to come. If you need to talk to God and ask Him for forgiveness on something, come and talk to Him. If you're confused, if you're down, come and talk to Him. He's full of love this morning. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.