heaven. I can't hardly sit still and keep my mouth shut. My, my, my. All right, let's get our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. This is it. These are your hard verses, but they're very important. You know, people, sometimes I think people wonder why you just be so negative all the time, why you keep harping on this. You know, everybody's okay. Don't worry about it. Well, everybody ain't okay. And the reason that we have to keep preaching on this is because so few are doing it and because so many are believing this lie that the unrighteous are going to heaven somehow. You know, I'm up to my eyeballs with Baptists and their security and their false skew on everything about God, sin. Forgiveness, what it means to be saved. People don't even know anymore what it means to be saved. It's just so mixed up and scrambled up that why everybody's going to heaven. Even and especially in Bible-believing Baptist churches. Hoop and holler and carry on about stuff that they don't even have. Let me tell you something this morning. You can spit at me and you can chuck it aside if you want to one more time. But it may, in one of these times, it'll be your last time. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, that's what we're gonna read here this morning. Now, I didn't say that and that's not my opinion and that's not my observation from watching people. That's what the scripture says. Salvation does something about your sin Not just what you've done in the past, but it does something about what you're gonna do in the future. Because it changes you on the inside. It's a miracle. It ain't just getting religion and it ain't just joining a group and it ain't just turning over a new leaf or conforming to a certain class of people because you have to or feel like you need to. Salvation is a work of God that happens in your soul. There's, you know, Seth talking about fear. You can't serve God with fear, out of fear. But fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. You can't approach God, you can't find God unless you're first fear. You need to realize that you're condemned already. Jesus didn't come, he said, I didn't come to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved. Came to rescue the perishing. They were already perishing. You gotta understand, you're lost to start with. And the only way to resolve that is to be born again. Read a scripture. 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse nine through 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Well, he didn't stop there because that's so, that's sort of generic and everybody can read into that what they want to. So he just went on and explicitly named sins that are gonna keep you from heaven. Baptists, you better listen. It doesn't matter how many times you've been baptized, how many times you've made a profession of faith. It doesn't matter what a dozen preachers or all the preachers in the state of Missouri say about you. If you're living in these sins, you're going to hell. And that's a fact. And that's God's word, not my word. Doesn't matter what you've done in the past. It doesn't matter what you feel right now. It doesn't matter what you intend to do. You've got to deal with your sin. And you have to forsake your sin. I mean, you do. All that's works. Well, just believe that while you're falling into the gates of hell, because that's what's gonna happen to you. You better listen to the word of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. And in case you don't understand what that is, that is gay, feminine, homosexual people. nor thieves, nor covetous, oh my, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. See, that ain't all about hate. That's about truth. That's about the state of things between God and man, between God and you. Know ye not. Now the question put to these people here by the apostle, that clearly indicates that they know in their hearts that these things they're doing are wrong. in the sight of God, and that people that do them are not going to heaven. No, you're not. I mean, that says, I know you know this, but I'm gonna tell you again. Why are you doing this that you know is wrong? Why are you allowing this and coddling this and okaying this and accepting this and tolerating this when you know the high cost of it Now the church at Corinth was a lot like the churches now, I believe. Most of the people in the generation who first heard the gospel and were saved, they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified. We read it in the scripture there. So he's talking to this church, and he's talking to some of the people in the church who know better than this, who are not doing this anymore. But they're tolerating people who do. They've got a man sitting in the church with them, with his father's wife, shacking, living in fornication, openly, brazenly, proudly, without any conviction, without any problem, and they're all glorying about it. Who's glorying about it? These people who are washed and sanctified and all of that. They didn't continue in their wicked practices, they were washed and sanctified, but they tolerate these wicked things in their converts, their converts, and other people in their families, yeah. And anybody that comes to the church, they're just, you know, and I'm, and they, you know, We've had this issue in the past. People come to the church who are doing some of these things. And I've had people in the church write up and say, you know, I mean, we've lost people from this church because they wanted me to kick them out and not let them come to church. because they were living in these sins. No, that's not what I'm preaching here this morning at all. That's why I'm preaching what I'm preaching. They didn't come to church and get instructed in the way of righteousness. They came to church and got comforted in their sin and coddled and told that they're all right and just hang in there and don't worry about it. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 2, and you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. He's talking about that man that had his father's wife. Puffed up. He uses that phrase five times in 1 Corinthians. These people were proud of of the fact that they thought they were doing better than Paul and the other apostles at preaching the gospel and winning souls. And they're actually oiling their slide to hell. And it's obvious if you read the book of 1 Corinthians and study it, you'll see that that was the attitude of these people. They thought they were doing a better job than Paul and the rest of them were doing. They had attained to higher levels because they were more loving and they were more patient. And they were more, you know, tolerant and acceptable to these people who were not repenting. They didn't, you know, they weren't just coming to church and seeking the Lord. They weren't coming to church and getting under conviction because there was no preaching that was going to put them under conviction. The Word of God. Everybody was preaching what they thought and their love and kindness and all of this. And they thought they had found a better way to get people to serve the Lord and live for the Lord. And all they were doing were greasing their slide to hell. Self-deception doesn't need any help from foolish church members who would hug and cuddle them into believing they're okay with God and headed for heaven while they're still practicing their sin. Self-deception don't need any help. You know, the nature of a sinner is to persist in indulging his own lust and desires and charting his own course. Ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do. I can figure this out. I'm gonna do what I feel. I'm gonna follow my heart. And the Bible says you're a fool if you do that. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. Now, even though everybody else but himself can see that it's obviously foolhardy and destructive and useless, he'll still press on in his way. The way of a sinner, that's the way it is. He can't convince himself that what he's doing is wrong. He's never going to convince himself that what he's doing is wrong. He's never going to talk to himself and say, this is wrong, son. You better quit it. It's wrong. No. The only way that he's ever going to find out it's wrong is when somebody preaches the word of God, just like this verse right here, that tells you exactly what is wrong. The unregenerate nature is a great obstacle to a sinner because he cannot convince himself that what he's doing is wrong. And an unregenerate person is very much like a hen. Did you, you know, a lot of you've had chickens and so have I. You ever mess with a brooding hen? You know what she'll do? She'll sit on fake eggs until she keels over. Because she is so determined by nature that that's the way it's going to be. I mean, she's going to do it and they're never going to hatch. Why does she keep doing it? Why can't she understand they're fake and they ain't going to hatch? You know, there's a flower I was reading yesterday. There's a flower called Stapelia. It smells like dead flesh. It stinks to heaven. The bees won't land on it. So it draws flies and the flies lay their eggs on it thinking that they're providing for their offspring because you know the life cycle of a fly. A fly lays its eggs in dead flesh and it makes maggots. They hatch, they're maggots, then they turn into flies, and then they come and light on your potluck and your dinner on the grounds outside where your food's not all sitting there uncovered. Then they go back to the dead flesh and lay their eggs and they hatch again, but they lay them in this flower and they never hatch. And the flower is just using the flies for pollination to reproduce its noxious species. And so, how much like sinners is that? You know, you live your life keeping on doing the same rotten things that always turns into a stink. And you can look at history for 6,000 years and it's always been that way. And it's still that way today. And yet, ain't gonna give up. Just like that hen sitting on them eggs. It ain't gonna work, but you ain't giving up. It ain't never worked for anybody, but you're gonna try again and again That's the insanity of sin. And then they can come to church and find out that it's okay. Just keep on doing it. God loves you. God loves you. God will forgive you. You'll make it. I mean, did you pray the sinner's prayer? Have you been baptized? Do you read your Bible once in a while? Are your mom and daddy Christians? And they sow that comfort in their heart that they're going to make it all right. Sad day. It's going to be when we stand before God. No wonder it says twice that God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. In heaven, there's going to be tears until it's all done. And then there'll be no more. But all the tears are going to be shed because of all the deceit, self-deceit, the deceiving by others, and the foolishness that people have done while they're here on earth. There's a spider that when you take away its egg sack and throw it a little piece of cotton, it'll cling to that worthless little piece of cotton with the same kind of fondness that it did for its egg sack. That's how sinners are with their sin. Won't turn loose of it. can't convince themselves that what they're doing is wrong or that it's going to hurt them. You never think that going in, entering in to drinking, entering in to drugs, entering in to fornication or adultery. You don't think that it's going to hurt you. Covetousness, something that's rampant, much more than the adultery, the fornication, the drugs, the drinking. covetousness. It's idolatry, the Bible says. And yet it's everybody's problem that we don't ever talk about. We like to talk about drunkenness, gluttony. We like to pick on certain sins like that, and that's where we focus. But what about covetousness? They're not gonna inherit the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. Not gonna inherit the kingdom of God, not going to heaven. People who are habitually covetous, always a-wanting something, always a-looking, always a-reaching, always a-grabbing, a-hoarding, You believe that? Wonder how many people believes that people like that are not saved. I doubt if one out of a hundred believes it. But that's what the scripture says. Like I said, it's gonna be a sad day when we stand before God. Because you see, we just make it up as we go. We make up our own religion according to our liking as we go. And if our problem is gonna be okay, whether it's drunkenness, adultery, fornication, what about thieves? They're listed in there. Oh my. People are so very easily deceived from within and from without. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17, nine. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 3, this is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all. Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil. In other words, it's always the same. There's one event unto all. It works the same way every time. There's no exceptions. There's no special people that are excluded from this thing here. It always works this way. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live. And after that, they go to the dead. They seek after vanity with as much zeal as they do anything and as anybody ever does about anything. They seek after vanity. and refuse to be convinced that they're wrong. Just think about it. What are you seeking after in your life? What's your life about, really? You think, well, one of these days when I get old like you, then I'll get serious about serving God and then I can spend my time and do things for the Lord. But right now, I've got, man, I've got money to make. I've got things to do. I've got places to go and goals to achieve. Vanity, it's all vanity. You don't take care of this business. Everything else is nothing, doesn't count for anything. So the worst thing that can happen to a soul, you listening to me, is to have some professor of religion or some preacher comfort them in their sin and their wicked ways and encourage them to entertain some hope of going to heaven when they die while they continue in their sin. Because the word of God says plainly, that is not the way that it's gonna happen. What are you talking about? I'm talking about Plano every day. People just like they are, just like they are right here. And I've sat with people, you say, why would anybody do that? Oh, I've sat with them on visitation while they tried to convince somebody that they're saved. I've seen people say, no, I'm not saved. If I die, I'm going to hell. Well, was there ever a time in your life when you called upon the Lord, when you realized Jesus died for you and you called on him to save you? Well, I was baptized. Well, why'd you get baptized? Well, because I went forward Oh, so you called on the Lord. Well, now the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So see, don't you believe that? You called on the name of the Lord, you know, 35 years ago when you were a kid, and He saved you, and so you're really saved. You just need to rededicate your life. I don't know how anything could be more wicked You know, anybody that don't have any more knowledge of the Word of God, or understanding about sin and what it is, and how to resolve the issue, and how to find peace with God, if they don't know any more than that about it, they need to be quiet. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And everybody else, keep your mouth shut if you don't know what you're talking about. If you think it's all right to live in sin and you're gonna go to heaven that way, shut up! You don't know what you're talking about. And don't listen to people who tell you otherwise. Your conscience won't agree with it. You may say with your mouth, and you may try to embrace it, but you still, when you go to bed at night, you're still facing your sin. And when you're facing death, imminent death, or possible death, that ain't gonna do for you. The sins named here each prove that a person is not a child of God if they're living in these sins. Now you understand, living in these sins. How can a fornicator who sins against his own body imagine that he or she is at peace with God and will end up in heaven without forsaking their sins? How can you imagine that? Well, he or she is made in the image of God and then take that body that belongs to God who made it and sustains it. It won't live another second without God's mercy. Your life, the life of your body is in God's hands. Nothing else, nobody else. It's not in your hands, that's for sure. You could drop dead in the next five seconds right there where you're sitting in the pew. One little blood vessel, pop. One little misfire, one little thing go wrong in your body and you could die right where you're sitting. And we all know that. And take that body. This belongs to God. He made it. He made it in his own image and likeness. And take that body and use it for unlawful and unholy and unclean and unbridled pleasure. Take it and do that. And then you think if you drop dead in the next five seconds, Jesus is gonna welcome you into heaven and say, well done, now good and faithful servant. It's one of the most dishonorable things a person can do to God. So how can a person live? in that sin and keep repeating the act and expect to be welcomed by God into what He has prepared for them that love Him. That's what Jesus said. He's preparing that place. Heaven is a place that's being prepared for those that love Him, not those that dishonor Him and ignore Him and blaspheme Him and spit on His face. So how could you be not deceived? No, you're not. No, you're not. These things, that's madness. That's insanity to think that if you died, you'd go to heaven. This deal of asking people, do you know if you died tonight, if you'd go to heaven or not? Well, there needs to be some clarification there. How can an idolater who serves and worships and honors deities that are not God expect to be accepted with God? You worship your gods all your life that ain't God and then you expect to go to heaven with God? What? to give all your love and adoration and service to another and still expect to be accepted by the one to whom it all belonged in the first place that you stole it from and gave it to somebody else. The idolaters are not going to heaven. Say, I'm not an idolater. Well, you're an idolater if you think God is willing to accept you in your sin. You're an idolater. That's a key element of idolatry is that sin's okay. Not such a big deal. Don't have to worry about it. I mean, we're all sinners. We sin every day and thought, word, and deed. We was born sinners. We're sinners by nature. We got this old sinful nature, this old flesh. God can't blame me, I'll be okay. You're an idolater. You ain't a Christian, you ain't a believer in Christ. You don't believe the gospel. Amen. I stand on that. And I double dog dare ya to take the scripture here and show me different. And I guarantee you I can take the scripture and show you where you're wrong. Who's going to change? Who's going to believe it? Who has believed our report? Well, we'll find out when we stand before God. How can an adulterer... Wait a minute. One more thing I want to say there. A common thing about most idolatry is that it is keen. on the injustices suffered by men, but unconcerned about the injustices suffered by God. Have you ever noticed that? What's Gandhi all about? What's Buddhism and Hinduism and all that? What's that all about? Oh, social justice and righting the wrongs. Even the Catholics are big on, you know, social justice. Boy, people are just so mistreated and so wronged and God gets the blame for it. Why does God let all this happen? Men do the wickedness. Men bring the evil upon everybody with their sin and their selfishness and their pride and their ungodliness and then blame God for it. Thank God it's wicked men who won't listen to this gospel that we're preaching this morning. Now, how can an adulterer possibly think he's saved and on his way to heaven when a vow means nothing to him or her? And the Bible says clearly and emphatically that they won't go to heaven right here. How can you believe that you will? But they always do. I don't know if you've ever noticed it or not, but every adulterer that I've ever known thinks they're going to heaven. Somehow they've convinced themselves that they are right and God understands. At least that's what they tell everybody. I don't think they feel that way in their heart. If they do, they are reprobate. But to give to another what you promised exclusively to one, well, it's lying. You lied. It's stealing because you've taken away from somebody something you've given to them. that's bigger than money and bigger than, and more important than things. And it's covetousness altogether. It's lying and stealing and covetousness altogether, plus the sin of fornication also. That's what adultery is. And in a lot of ways, it's worse than murder. And yet, thank you going to heaven. Got people in the church here living in adultery? And it's okay? And you're okay with it? And you think they're going to heaven with you? They take the Lord's supper with you? You baptize them? I know a church not far from here. Baptize somebody here a while back while they're living in fornication. Baptize them, make them a member of the church while they're living continually in fornication. And they know it? Knew it. It's the same as idolatry, and it's just as offensive to God. Idolatry we're talking about. It's the same as idolatry. God uses it in the word of God, synonymous with idolatry. I mean, that's how he puts it. To violate and disregard all the Lord has said about a man and wife being joined together and to mar the image of God and destroy all the lives that are touched by this sin, all for the desires of a wicked heart. How under heaven. Can a person continue in that kind of sin and think they're going to heaven? I bet they always do. I know people that have committed adultery repeatedly and sit in church through the whole, every episode, never repent, never ask for forgiveness, never acknowledge their sin in any way. Just swap husbands, swap wives and keep it going. It's ungodly. Wretched mess and God ain't got nothing to do with it. I Know of preachers that have swapped wives with somebody in the church You know leave their wife and divorce their wife marry a woman in the church and just keep on preaching I've known them that have run off with somebody in the church and come back and there was a church in Virginia where they actually brought him back and gave him a raise and Now, what do you reckon everybody in the church is doing? What do you think? I mean, come on, it's common sense. Be honest, be real. What do you think that does? What do you do? Now, is that pastor going to preach on this verse? Or a bunch of other verses in the New Testament, in the whole Bible? I mean, if you read the Bible, you're going to run into this often. And it's going to be crystal clear to you and you're going to have trouble. So what do you do? Well, you quit reading the Bible. You just turn it into a party and a rock concert and an emotional fix for everybody every week. You become their emotional pimp to fix everything in their emotion. Give them the thrill every week. and call it church and say everybody's good. And boy, it's gonna be good when Jesus comes and we can go to heaven and be with Jesus. But in the meantime, forget about that. We got plenty to enjoy right here, right now. Absolutely everything about an adulterer says that he cares nothing for God. How could you expect? Know ye not that a person like that shall not inherit the kingdom of God? How can anybody think that? You know, it astonishes people sometimes when they hear this kind of stuff coming from what they call us, the Baptist Church. You know, what in the world? Never heard a Baptist say that stuff. Well, the truth's the truth. Amen. I don't care what kind of name you want to put on it. But Baptists have ruined themselves with their permissive doctrine that gives license to sin. Thieves, covetous, and extortioners are all in the same species. Did you know that? Covetousness is nothing but theft in its early stages. You know, we preached on the Ten Commandments years ago, and I said to you, you know, go to the bottom and start up, and that's the progression of sin. Very clearly, covetousness, and then lying, and then stealing, and then adultery, and then murder. That's the order that it goes in. That's the progression that it goes. You want something? You'll lie. You'll eventually lie. You'll do whatever to get it. Then you'll steal. And if you'll steal, you'll steal somebody's wife or husband. Yeah, and if you'll do that, you'll murder. What is most, you know, you see all this in the news about a man kills this woman and the kids or kills this man and woman and Every time I see that, I know what's happening. That's what brought it on. You want to get yourself killed? You go messing with somebody else's wife. I mean, you're in more danger of getting yourself killed there than any other way. That's the way it works. Covetousness is nothing but theft in its early stages and extortion is Theft fully developed. I mean it ain't just stealing with your hand. It ain't taking that loaf of bread with your hand or piece of bread. It's that putting your mind to it. Putting a plan to it. Getting some fun out of it besides. Making sure that, I mean, if you steal like a thief, we think of a thief sneaking in and stealing, like a shoplifter. You want to do it out of sight. Extortion is when you do it in open sight with their knowledge to just smash it in their face. Extortioners ain't going to heaven. Thieves ain't going to heaven. Covetousness speaks very loudly of discontentment, a warped sense of justice. Why does everybody have this Robin Hood attitude about everything? You know, it ain't fair for the rich people to have everything. It's not fair for some people to have so much and others to have so little. I kind of come into popularity with the hippie generation and everything and all of the Upturn everything the communist ideas socialist way of thinking Yeah, what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too if I want it that's covetousness That's a covetous spirit a way of thinking They're not going to heaven you think that way you're covetous same as an adulterer same as a fornicator same as a thief same as a murderer and If you think that way. If you look at other people and say, I'll just take some of that because it ain't fair for them to have all that and me to have none. Nevermind that they did it, they sowed, they planted, they harvested it, they did the work, it was theirs, they earned it. And even if they didn't, it's still theirs. You got no right to take what's not yours. So if any man loved the world, it speaks loudly of discontentment and a warped sense of justice. It speaks of love of the world, supreme selfishness, and the things of the world. I mean, covetousness is about the world. It's about things in the world, things you see with your eyes. That's what you want. So if any man loved the world, the Bible says, the love of the Father is not in him. How can that man expect to go to heaven when he dies without the love of God in him? You're not. Beside all that, the scripture calls covetousness idolatry in Colossians chapter three and verse five. Effeminate and abusers of themselves of mankind, speaks of sodomites. Some people don't understand what that word means. We had a lady come to church a few years ago, and I mentioned that word in the message, and on the way out, that's what she asked me. She said, you said something about sodomites. What is that? Well, I was kind of taken aback, really. I thought, my goodness. So a sodomite is a homosexual, a gay. Yeah, queer. You know, whatever you want to call them, all these modern terms, the Bible calls them sodomites. Effeminate. Abusers of themselves and mankind. Homosexuals. You know, they're not going to heaven. They're not going to heaven. But they're pastoring churches now. Yeah. Now, I don't know if it's still this way, but a few years ago, there was a church in Washington, D.C., Calvary Baptist Church, that was pastored by two lesbians at the same time. Do you think they think they're going to heaven when they die? Of course they do. What I'm saying right now is enough to, it'll inspire enough fury in somebody like that who would hear it to kill me. They would try to kill me. A lot of preachers are afraid to say these things because of all the ire that's out there. You want to kill me? Why do you think they wanted to kill Jesus? Let me ask you that. I mean, have you ever just pondered that question just a little bit? Why did they want to kill Jesus? What did he say that made them want to kill him? Read Matthew chapter 23. It's very plain what he said to them. You hypocrites, you generation of vipers. You serpents, you children of the devil. How shall you escape the damnation of hell? That's what he told them. You think you're going to heaven because of all of what you do and what you think you are? And you're all clean on the outside and on the inside, but you're full of dead men's bones. Corruption, rotten. Well, instead of looking in the mirror and saying, you know, he's right. Because that's what the word of God teaches. Know what they did? They wanted to kill him, and they did. I always wondered about John Wesley. I've said this so many times, but I've read about him, and he went back after he got really born again. John Wesley's story is interesting. He went for years as a preacher and a missionary. Started a holy clubs and everything, and he was still not converted. And he got on a ship in the ocean and was about to go under because the storm was about to sink their ship. And there was some Moravian Baptists on there. They were different back then. And they were singing in the midst of the storm. And he said, the worse the storm got, the more peaceful they became, and the more terrified I was. And he said, I realized they had something that I didn't have. And he got born again. So he went back home to his father's church where he grew up, and he got on a tombstone and preached to them, and they tried to kill him. What was he saying to them? That was my question. What was he saying to them? Well, I believe it was something like on the order of what I'm saying to you this morning here. Everybody thinks they're going to heaven, but you're not living in your sin. And if you don't repent and forsake your sin, Jesus said, ye shall also likewise perish. There's no explanation why a person that's sodomized with this kind of perverted desires would honestly think they're going to heaven except that they have no regard for the word of God or for the God who created them. See, they don't know God at all. They don't use the scripture at all. The scripture has no authority in their life or they would be done with that immediately if they really believed in God and in Jesus Christ. But they don't, you see. They're idolaters because they imagine God to be something that He is absolutely not. And sexual perversion is almost always a part of pagan idolatrous worship. You realize that. It always has been. All you got to do is just look at pictures of the temples in India and everywhere in the world where their pagan worship went on. It's nothing but nakedness and perversion. It was what they worshipped. What does drunkenness cost you? Well, that's in there too. What do you lose by it? Nothing? Can you just do it and get away with it? It don't cost you nothing? Well, I can march a whole platoon of people that I've known in my life to you to look at. Just take a look at their lives. See what it costs them. What do you lose by it? You lose your health. You lose respect. You lose friends. your family, you lose your wealth, if you have any to start with, and you lose heaven. Because drunkards are not going to heaven. What's a drunkard? It's somebody that gets drunk. Repeatedly. Drunkenness keeps you from being ashamed. It keeps you, it profanes your self-respect. What? It's something that I never did get into because I watched them do it. I was there when they did it. I was in the middle of it. And I thought, man, what in the world? Me, as ignorant, green, as dumb as I've always been. And I would look at it and say, that is the most foolish, stupid thing I've ever seen. Why would I do that to myself? I couldn't imagine not being ashamed of myself when I got over it. It profanes your self-respect. It breaks down your resistance to evil. Now I can read you some scriptures. Back in Proverbs it makes it very clear. We can also read you scriptures of episodes where kings got drunk. Cost them their lives. Where kings got drunk and it cost them the kingdom. where I know where a man got drunk and it cost him his life and his wife and everything. In the Bible. And I've seen it over and over all through my life. Who in the world would argue in favor of drinking? Who would defend it? All the people in the churches now. The Bible doesn't teach total abstinence. Oh, so you can mess with a serpent. That's what it says. At the last, it biteth like a serpent. So you're gonna play with a snake, are you? And you're gonna win. You're smarter than everybody that's ever lived. You're smarter than all the people who've been destroyed by it through all the years. No, it's gonna get you. It'll get you. It'll destroy your life unless you run from it immediately. It's one of the greatest evils on earth. And it's wrought more destruction and death and woe and sorrow than just about anything else. And especially if you include drugs with it because they have the same effects and the same consequences. Amen. Same reason people drink whiskey is the same reason people take drugs. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Your troubles. Lack of peace. Lack of contentment. Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? You don't even know what happened to you last night. This bruise, this cut. The scrape. Who hath all that? Who hath redness of eyes? Who is it? What's the answer to that question in Proverbs 23, 29? He that tarrieth at the wine. Yeah. It says, look not on the wine when it stirreth itself awry, when it's red in the cup. Stay away from it. Don't look at it. Stay away from it. Bible don't teach total abstinence. I mean, you know, it says take a little wine for thy stomach saying Jesus turned water into wine. What a bunch of fools. Liars is what you are. If you fall for that, if you promote that, you're a liar. You know better than that. You know it ain't no good for you. No matter what. You know the destruction of it is far worse than any possible good that can come from it. And anybody that won't tell you that, don't care for your soul. Drunkards are not going to heaven. Will drinking send you to hell? Yes, sir! Will adultery send you to hell? Yes, sir! Fornication, thefts, covetousness, all of any of that sends you to hell? Yes! I read a book many years ago and it was Baptist, Baptist, Baptist. And this is what it said. There is no sin of the flesh that will send you to hell. The only sin that will send you to hell is unbelief. What a bunch of hogwash. What a bunch of confusion. What does this say? Does your Bible say that? Is there anywhere in your Bible that it says that? Unbelief is the only sin that will send you to hell. No, you're condemned already. Why are you condemned already? Everything about it ruins everything about a man, and if it's not forsaken, it'll bar him from heaven too. Then there's one more here, and I'm on a hurry here. We're getting close to the end here. Revilers, also named here, the kinds of people who are not going to be in heaven. Boy, now here's one. We've been talking about drunkards and we've been talking about all these other filthy sins, but revilers are also named here. These are people who treat other people disrespectfully. Take that pill and swallow it. Look it up in the dictionary and see if you can figure out a different thing that it means. Revilers. It's people who treat other people disrespectfully. These are people who are habitually running their mouths about other people, criticizing, condemning, railing on them. It's people who talk to others with disrespect and contempt. Not going to heaven. Ain't gonna be nobody like that in heaven. Hallelujah! I'm glad there ain't gonna be nobody like that in heaven. I've had enough of them here in this world. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. It is people who talk to others with disrespect and contempt, and there'll be nobody like that in heaven. If God has never done anything in your soul to deliver you permanently from sin, and you're continuing in these kinds of things, you are not converted. I don't care how you grew up. I'm talking to my grandchildren, I'm talking to others that are here, I'm talking to whoever else is listening or might hear this. You're not converted if God hadn't done a work in you. If you have never been born again, and you will not see the kingdom of God, I'm telling you. God, Jesus came to take away our sin, and that is what he does every time he saves a sinner. St. Corinthians 517, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Behold, all things, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. A profession of faith, or a sinner's prayer, you listenin' to me, never saved anybody, it'll not do in you what the Spirit of God does through the Word of God when faith is born in your soul. And when you truly believe that this is what the Scripture says and teaches all the way through, If when you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you'll yield to Him just like Saul of Tarsus did on the road to Damascus. You'll yield! You won't continue on in your sin. There'll be a big change. It'll be on the inside, not on the outside. I mean, you're not gonna put a phony face on and keep going and continue doing what you're doing. It's not just gonna be a phony mask you put on. It's gonna be from the inside out. And when that happens, you'll be finished with the sinful lifestyle. You'll be finished with it. Amen. If I didn't believe that, I'd just quit. I ain't got nothing to tell anybody. If ain't no hope for us, if ain't no deliverance from sin, and if we can't be, if there's nothing that God will do for us to help us fight this battle and win, then what have we got to hope for here today? Is it really? Is it really just a light thing that don't affect anybody and we just come to church and give some money and give God a thumbs up once in a while and then just live our life doing what we please. If we want to commit adultery, just do it. If we want to get drunk, just do it. If we want to steal something, just do it. You think we can get by with that? Well, if you do, you're an idolater and you've got no hope. You believe God and what he says. Just in this scripture I've read this morning. You're gonna have to turn from your sin. You're gonna have to repent. I did. I had to. I tried it too. I tried to figure out a way where I could have it both, have them both. Where I could hold on to what I wanted to do and still just go to church and be a Christian, but not be one of them fanatics, not be like them people. I didn't want to identify with them over the top people who just thought everything was wrong and all of that. That was my view of things. And you wanna know what I found out? That is the most miserable way to live. I mean, you're gonna end up, it is gonna bring so much trouble in your life that you don't even know what's coming. And I came to a place where I stood one day and I, out behind my house, and that's what I, I said, Lord, I am not gonna do this anymore. I'm through resisting and fighting and pushing back. I surrender. I yield. And my heart yielded. And that's when everything changed. And I ain't had no trouble since then with all of this. Somebody said, I drink as much as I want to. I don't like to say things that way, but that's the way it is. I don't want to. I don't want to. And it's not because I feel like if I do, God's gonna kill me. I can't because somebody's watching. Or I can't do it because if somebody finds out, I'll be so ashamed. No, I don't do it because I don't want to. Because God saved me. I belong to God. All I care about is pleasing Him. I just want to please Him. I want to do what's pleasing in His sight. And He tells me in this book how to do it. And then He put the Spirit of God in me and gave me the power to do it. Baptists run away from that. Oh, you're preaching sinless perfection. We all know that everybody sins every day in thought, word, and deed. And if you say that you're not sinning, you're a liar. We got scripture on you, you fool, you fool. Mercy. There's going to be tears. There's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when they stand before God after saying all that stupid nonsense, wicked nonsense, speaking out of their own wicked heart and experience. You're hearing that from people who have never experienced it for themselves. They only preach what they know. That's all they know. They know they still do it. So they're not gonna tell you there's a way out because they haven't found it yet Such were some of you these people some of these people had found They found the truth. They believed the gospel and they were delivered from their sin. They were adulterers They were fornicators. They weren't drunkards. They were sodomites But they weren't now They were washed they were sanctified. They were justified and they were walking. How are you going to present your body, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, if you keep on in these sins that defile your body, that defile your soul? How are you going to do that? You ain't. It's not sinless perfection. But it's the beginning of it. You hear me? Here's you another verse. Ephesians chapter four, verse 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith. This is the goal. This is where we're heading. This is that mark of the high calling that in Christ Jesus that Paul was pressing toward. This is it. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man. That's what it says. So, I'm not preaching sinless perfection, but I'm telling you this is the beginning of it. That's the goal. That's what we're headed for. That's what God's got in mind for us. To bring us to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Christian? What? What is a Christian? Well, it means to be like Christ. And that's what the scripture's saying here. We're supposed to be like Him. We're supposed to be conformed to the image of His Son. And by the way, that's what predestination is all about. We were predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. And so God starts working on us. And all this stuff goes out the window. Sin will no longer have dominion over you. Roman chapter six, what about that? And you will be made an overcomer. Sin for sin shall not have dominion over you. Don't say, I can't help it. It's just, I can't break it. I can't stop it. I just, it's me. It's part of me now and I can't stop it. I was born this way. I have these desires. Don't tell me that. The Bible says something different right here. Sin, and that's what it is. And until you acknowledge it, that it's sin, it's transgression against the law of God, it's offense against God, until you recognize that what you're doing is that, you ain't about to do anything about it. But when you do, sin shall have no... longer have dominion over you. You'll present your body a living sacrifice, like it says in Romans chapter 1, 12 verse 1, acceptable unto God. And then in Romans 2, 12, 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So your mind is going to be renewed when you're born again. And you'll no longer be confused about what is sinful and what is not. And you'll prove what is acceptable unto God. You see, here's how you tell if a person's really repented or not. They'll quit arguing about what's right and wrong. You'll not hear out of their mouth, well, I just don't see nothing wrong with that. I mean, I don't care what you say or what that preacher says, I'm gonna do it no matter what you say. You won't hear that out of somebody who has really repented of their sin. They're gonna be proving what is acceptable unto God and what is His perfect will. Everything's gonna be tried by that in their mind. If it don't please God, if there's any question about it, then I'm not gonna do it. They don't say, show me, I wanna see, show me a verse. Show me that in the Bible. You ain't gonna hear that out of people who've turned from their sin. You hear that, you know, they haven't repented. They're still bent on doing their own thing, having their own way, and continuing in their sin. Don't continue to try to deceive yourself about your soul. And if you're living under the dominion of sin, don't keep deceiving yourself. And don't end up in hell forever because you believe your own lies and the lies of other people. Here's what I'd do this morning. Buddy, I'd slide to this altar as fast as I could. And I'd beg God for mercy. And I'd give it up. And if you can't do it here, you better do it as soon as you get home. I mean, I'm calling you today. If you're here, or anybody that's listening, you cannot live in continual, habitual sin and go to heaven. That means if the trumpet sounds, you're left. You're doomed. That means if you die in a car wreck on the way home today, you're doomed forever. And that ought to strike some fear into your heart. And if it doesn't, you have no fear of God. You're nowhere near. You're nowhere near the kingdom of heaven. You're not even close to entering in. Jesus said to that one, He said, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. But you're far from it if you're not afraid to continue in your sin. Amen. Let's stand. I thought a lot about what to preach today, you know. The things we're facing this week, you know, there's no way of knowing just how things shake out. I'm expecting to be back here in a couple of weeks, but, you know, You gotta be realistic about things and you gotta face reality. And, you know, if something had happened, that'd be my biggest concern. Is that some of you gonna be lost. Sit and heard me. I preached as hard as I could. I did the best I could. Did I? That's my question to myself. Have I done the best I can to show you, to convince you, to persuade you, to set an example before you of what it is to believe in Jesus. I mean, that would be the thing that I'd be most concerned about. I've watched other people, you know, that love the Lord. I remember my father-in-law, that was his big concern. I know so many others, you know, that that was the thing they were concerned about more than anything. They wanted to talk to all their family because they wanted to tell them one more time. Don't fool around. Die and go to hell. Watch your back of your heads. Back of your heads. And close your eyes. Anybody here this morning? Say, Lord, say, just pray for me. I ain't gonna tell nobody and I ain't gonna call you out. And I ain't gonna put no pressure on you. I mean, I don't do that stuff. I'm just gonna ask you, if you're here this morning and this rung your bell and you're not ready to meet God, won't you just raise your hand just to say to me, please pray for me. Amen. Anybody else? Amen. Alright. Take it seriously. I know. It's hard to... That first step is always hard. Because the devil is right there, right now. Saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. Be still, be still, be still. Don't do nothing. Don't show no sign. Don't let anybody know. Salvation is very simple, but it's not easy. Man, you've got to storm. The violent take it by force. The kingdom of God. You've got to do violence to yourself. You've got to overcome yourself. You've got to say no to yourself. You've got to say you're wrong to yourself, and that's mighty hard to do. And when you see this reality of all this and the truth, You better do it. I had to do it. I had to come to that point where I had to lay down my pride and humble myself before Him. And there's nobody ever entered in without doing that, and you won't either, so that's the deal. Father, I pray today for those who raised their hands, and I pray You'd help them and help them to understand the truth about this. Understand the simplicity of it all. You died for our sins. You were raised again according to the scriptures. And Lord, you live that we might be saved. You took our place, Lord you. You're our Redeemer. You're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so there's not a soul in here that you don't care about and that you wouldn't welcome. He that cometh to me, you said, I will in no wise cast out. And I pray these would come to you quickly and not tarry and give the devil opportunity to talk him out of it or to put it off. I pray they'd forsake their sin and come to you, and find that peace and forgiveness that only comes from you. Help them to realize that you're waiting, and you're calling, and you're welcome, and that they're looking to you. Please continue to work in hearts as we leave here this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.