The Bible says in he, and that's the
man Jacob, whom we'll study tonight, he rose
up that night and took his two wives
and his two women servants and his eleven
sons and passed over the four day box.
And he took them and sent them over
the brook and sent over that he had.
And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled
a man with him until the breaking of
the day, and when he saw that he
prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow
of his thigh.
And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint as he wrestled with him, and
he said, Let me go, for the day
breaketh.
And he said, I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What is thy
name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel.
For as a prince hath thou prayed with
God, it was me that hath prevailed.
And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me,
I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou
dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place,
Peniel, for I have seen God face to
face, and my likeness preserved.
And as he passed over Peniel, the sun
rose upon him, and he halted upon his
thigh.
Go back to verse twenty-seven, if you
would, please.
It will be our text.
So the Bible says, and he said unto
him, and here's our subject for tonight, What
is thy name?
Thank you so much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads in hearts and pray.
And ask the Lord to bless our time
together tonight.
What is your name?
Now, Father, please help me tonight as I
preach the Bible.
Lord, I am a nothing and a nobody,
and I need the help and the divine
intervention of the Holy Spirit of God upon
me as I preach thus therefore from this
pulpit.
So help me tonight.
And then, Lord, help these my friends at
the Double Springs Baptist Church as they listen
to the Bible.
And, Lord, I pray that you will do
tonight what only you can do.
I pray that you'd meet the need of
every heart.
And, Father, that tonight you will do what
my sermon cannot do.
And so I pray that you'd go in
and out of these pews and aisles, and,
Lord, you'd speak to our hearts, and you
would condense us tonight.
Comfort us where we need comforting, and, Lord,
change us certainly where we need changing.
Use the word of God as a mirror
tonight.
Show us who we really are and what
we need to do.
And we'll thank you for it.
For it's in Jesus' name we ask it
and pray.
Amen.
Let's suppose tonight that before the service I
passed out some ink pens and some little
white three-by-five cards.
And on those little white three-by-five
cards, let's suppose when I got in the
pulpit tonight, like I am right now, I
were to look at you and say, I
want you to pull out your three-by
-five card, pull out an ink pen, and
I want you to number one through ten
and write down your top ten favorite characters
in all the wonderful word of God.
Now, you can go from Genesis 1-1
to Revelation 22-21, and you can pick
any person, any character, any man, woman, teenager,
boy or girl in all the Bible, and
you can put them as one of your
top ten favorite Bible characters.
Now, there's no doubt in my mind somebody
would write down the man David because he
was a man after God's own heart.
There's no doubt somebody would write down one
of my favorite characters in the Bible, that
wild, spooky-eyed preacher by the name of
John the Baptist.
No doubt somebody would write down the Apostle
Paul.
No doubt somebody would write down John the
Beloved.
Somebody would write down Shadrach, Meshach, Nebednego, Myshach,
Yershach, Nebungalow, whatever you call them, somebody would
write their names down.
Somebody would write down perhaps the name of
Joseph.
Perhaps somebody would write down the name of
Noah or Moses or Abraham or something like
that.
And I can promise you one thing, I'm
not real smart, but I promise you, and
I don't think I'm real stupid either, I
don't believe there'd be one person under the
sound of my voice who'd pull out a
pen and a three-by-five card and
write down the word, Joseph.
Because before Genesis chapter 32, I'll be honest
with you, you wouldn't have spit on this
fellow if he was on fire because he
really was a young man who cared about
one person, and that was himself.
He didn't care about his family.
He didn't care about Jehovah God.
He didn't care about the Bible.
As a matter of fact, he was a
young man that ran from God.
He ran from himself.
He ran from his family.
And up until Genesis chapter 32, here was
a young man who cared about one person,
and it was himself.
But I want to show you a couple
of things about this man's life.
But if we are going to understand Genesis
chapter 32, we must get the context to
where he is in his life.
A couple of chapters before this, we find
out that God comes down to a man
by the name of Isaac with his beautiful
wife, Rebekah.
And He says, Rebekah, you have conceived, and
you're going to have some boys.
But God did not say that there are
two boys, two twins in your womb.
He said, Rebekah, there are two nations in
your womb.
He said there's going to be bitterness and
anxiety and animosity and turmoil that are going
to be frustrated.
One's going to fear the other, and so
on and so forth.
And there's going to be great, great trials
between these two boys.
And then God made a remarkable prophetic statement.
He said the eldest is going to serve
the youngest.
Now, in all American culture, we say within
ourselves, well, so what?
Well, so this.
That was a big deal in the Old
Testament economy because the eldest, even though they
were twins and they were born at the
same time for the most part, the eldest
boy was born seconds and moments before young
Jacob.
And he had all the right blessings, benefits,
and privilege of being the firstborn.
And God tells us that the eldest was
actually going to serve the youngest.
And you know that when Rebekah went to
the hospital and those boys were being delivered,
the Word of God tells us that the
hand of Jacob reached forth from the womb
and grabbed the heel of his brother Esau.
And from that moment, you mark her down,
those boys couldn't stand one another.
They argued and fought and fought like a
bunch of cats and dogs.
They didn't look alike, act alike, smell alike.
They didn't even have the same taste, the
same likes or dislikes.
These boys were 180 degrees diametrically opposed the
one to the other.
The Bible tells us that Esau was a
hairy man.
And if the Word of God says you're
hairy, you're hairy, friend.
And so here's this hairy fella.
And the Bible says he was a man
of the field.
That means that he liked to grow crops.
He was a farmer.
He was a hunter.
He was one of these fellows that liked
to get up about this time of year
at 2.30 or 3 o'clock in
the morning when it's freezing cold and put
deer skin all over him, get a muzzle
on him, shimmy up a tree like an
anemic squirrel and wait for the big one
to get away.
That's the way that Esau was.
But his brother was just the opposite.
His brother didn't like to kill things.
His brother liked to cook things.
He was one of these little lip-wristed
mama's boys who ran around with a Don
Juan suave hairdo and a little white apron.
And he just was kind of a pretty
little prim and topper, had nice manners, ate
with one hand on the table, no elbows
on the table, had a napkin in his
lap.
And those fellows just could not get along.
I mean, one of them was a daddy's
boy and one of them was a mama's
boy and they fought and fought and fought
all throughout the Bible.
Well, you know that Jacob lied and was
deceptive and deceived his older brother Esau out
of his birthright.
Then two chapters later, we know that he
lied and deceived and was deceptive and his
mother Rebekah helped him come up with this
little concoction and he deceived his way into
receiving the blessing.
And now, in two chapters in your Bible,
he steals a birthright that did not belong
to him.
Two chapters later, he steals a blessing that
did not belong to him.
And there was a great big problem in
their family.
It was the problem of favoritism.
The Bible tells us that Rebekah loved Jacob,
that Isaac loved Esau.
They knew it, the boys knew it, God
knew it, everybody else knew it, and it
caused even more animosity in the hearts of
these two boys.
But you see, one day Jacob did something
rather foolish.
He pushed his brother's last button.
And his brother gets home, finds out not
only has he stolen the birthright a couple
of chapters and a couple of months and
years earlier in the Bible, but now he
steals the blessing.
He had the gall to go behind his
back, to lie to say that he was
Esau, and to have his father, whose eyes
were dim and he could barely see, had
his father give him the blessing that rightfully
belonged to his oldest brother Esau.
And Esau said, listen, that's it, I'm going
to be avenged of my birthright.
I'm going to be avenged of this blessing.
I'm going to kill him.
I'm going to slice his throat, and my
food will taste sour in my belly, and
my pillow will be rock hard at night,
and I'll get no sleep until my brother
is a dead man.
Rebekah heard about that.
She ran upstairs and she said, Jacob, pack
your dirty dead son, get your shoes on
and get out of town.
Don't you come back in five days.
Don't you even come back in five years.
As a matter of fact, don't you ever
look back because your brother will never be
happy until you're dead, laying in a ditch
somewhere.
He'll never be happy until you're nothing more
than an old, bloody, cold, dead carcass.
And the Bible tells us that Jacob packed
his bags and he ran for the high
country.
Now, there are several things I do not
know about him.
I do not know how old he was
when his brother Esau vowed to kill him.
I have no idea.
I don't know if he was 18.
I don't know if he was 20.
I don't know if he was 35.
But I do know this.
He had no wife.
He had no children.
No heritage.
No houses.
No land.
Absolutely, positively nothing.
He was just a young man on the
run.
I do not know how long he has
been running.
But it has been for some time because
when we catch him in Genesis chapter 32,
he's got two wives, two women servants, and
11 sons.
So I don't know how long he's been
gone, but he's been as busy as a
Bible bumblebee, that's for sure.
And the Bible says that he's got a
large family.
Now, notice what the Word of God says
in verse 22, would you?
Genesis 32 and verse 22.
And he rose up that night and took
his two wives and his two women servants
and his 11 sons and passed over the
four jayboxes.
That's a little crooked river, if you will.
And the Bible says he took them and
sent them over the brook and sent over
that he had.
Now, notice verse 24.
It's key to the text.
And Jacob was left alone.
Notice it again.
And Jacob was left alone.
And there wrestled a man with him until
the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not
against him, he clutched the hallow of his
thigh, and the hallow of Jacob's thigh was
out of joint, and he wrestled with him.
And so the Bible tells us that he
takes his wife and his women servants, his
concubines, if you will, and he takes his
children, anybody and everybody else that's with him.
He sends them over the four jayboxes, and
he comes back across and nestles down in
the cold, cool mud of the waters of
the jaybox river.
The Bible says that he's going to kind
of settle down for a long winter's nap.
You must remember he's under much frustration He's
been under much pressure, and there's been many
problems, and he's trying to get a little
bit of rest, but no rest was given
him that night because the Bible says there
wrestled with him a man.
Now please understand, at the beginning of this
story, he did believe it to be a
mere man, but by the end of the
story, he realized that he had gotten in
a fight with somebody bigger and better than
he was.
He did not call him a mere man,
but he named the place in Yale for
I've seen God face to face.
And I'll remind you, most of the theologians
will agree, this is what we call a
Christophany or a Theophany.
It's not an angel of the Lord.
It's the angel of the Lord.
It is an Old Testament appearing of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus Christ did not come into existence
in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 2
out of the womb of the Virgin Mary.
He's always been God.
He's God right now.
He'll forevermore be God.
And the Jehovah of our Old Testament is
the Jesus of our New Testament.
And the Bible tells us that Jacob and
almighty God were wrestling and arguing and toiling
and laboring until the brink of death.
Now Jacob was giving him a pretty good
run, if you will.
The Bible tells us that as they were
rolling around in the mud and bleeding and
hollering and just kind of walking back and
forth, the Bible tells us that the God
of the Bible reached forth with His sovereign
fingers and touched the hollow of his thigh.
If I can say it this way, He
touched his hip.
His hip was dislocated.
His hip hopped out of stockings with his
head down south.
And the Bible tells us that no doubt,
great excruciating pain was in this man's body,
but he kept on fighting.
He just had some bulldog tenacity, man.
He came to the end of his rope,
he tied a knot, and he kept on
fighting, and he kept on arguing, and he
kept on rolling around until the breaking of
the day, until the wee early hours of
the morning when the sun began to come
up on the horizon.
Now notice what your Bible says.
This is key to understanding the message tonight.
Notice, please, in verse number 25.
And when He, this is the angel, almighty
God, showed that He prevailed not against Him,
He touched the hollow of His thigh, and
the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of
joint as He wrestled with Him.
Now notice, and He said, this is almighty
God speaking to Jacob, and He said, let
me go for the day breaking.
And He said, I will not let thee
go, notice, except thou bless me.
That's a marvelous thing, ladies and gentlemen, because
if you study your Bible, you will find
out this is one of the first times
in the life of Jacob that he cared
anything about the blessing of God.
He always served Himself.
He was always a lying, defective, conniving young
man, and here was a fellow who finally
realized that he had bitten off more than
he could chew, he was tired of running,
he was tired of waking up every morning
with no peace, with no joy, with no
relaxation.
As empty as a burnt out volcano, here's
a man who went to bed at night
with no peace, he dreamt about no peace,
he woke up with no peace, and he
finally got tired of that, and when he
realized that God was calling him, when he
realized that he was wrestling with God, he
says, listen, I will let you go, but
it will not be until you give me
your blessing.
Now we can say anything we want to
about the life of Jacob up to Genesis
chapter 32, but this was a turning point.
This was a pivotal point in the life
and in the ministry, not just of one
man, but an entire nation of people called
the Israelites, God's chosen people, the Jews, and
it all centers back to this one focal
point in your Bible, Genesis chapter 32, when
Jacob said, I will let you go, but
it will not be until you, the God
of the Bible, bless me, a little insignificant
peon that needs your power.
Now hear me tonight, if I were to
take a vote, if I were to ask
you tonight, how many of you desire God
to bless your family?
How many of you desire God to bless
your wife?
How many of you desire God to bless
your kiddos?
How many of you desire God to bless
your marriage?
If you have any brain matter between your
two God-given earlobes, you would raise your
hand, and no doubt, 100% of the
people I'm preaching to tonight would say, I
want God to bless me.
If I can say it this way, Jacob
was praying for personal revival.
As Brother Robertson said this morning, we cannot
control national revival.
We can't even control local church revival, but
we can control whether we have revival or
not in our hearts.
And Jacob looked at him and said, Lord,
I'm sick of running.
I'm sick of the fear, and the doubt,
and the anxiety, and the frustration.
Would you bless me?
Fill me with your Spirit.
Give me revival.
Give me your power.
Whatever you want to call it.
Jacob was tired of living for himself, and
he wanted to start to live for God.
And so just this voice, as Jacob gave
God an ultimatum, so God gave him one.
Notice what your Bible says, before God ever
blessed him, in verse number 27, would you
please?
He just says, I'll not let you go
until you bless me.
And notice what God said, and he said
unto him, What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
He said, thy name should be called no
more Jacob, but Israel.
For as a prince, hath thou power with
God, and with men, and hath prevailed motives.
And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me,
I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou
dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there.
Jacob said, Well, before I give you my
name, he said, What's yours?
And Almighty God looked at him and said,
Wait a minute.
I'm not the one on trial here, Jacob.
He said, Do you want revival?
Yes, sir.
Do you want me to bless you?
Yes, sir.
Do you want me to do something in
your family and in your marriage like I've
never done before?
Yes, sir.
Do you want to be incubate of filth
and filled with the spirit?
Jacob, let me ask you a question, son.
Do you really want my blessing?
And I believe he said with all of
his heart, and I believe he meant it,
Yes, I want you, the God of heaven,
to bless me.
And God said, All right.
If you really want my blessing, let me
ask you one small, simple question that has
one small, simple answer.
What is thy name?
Now, we read that rather generically as we
peruse through the Bible and we think within
ourselves, You know what?
That's not a real big deal.
And you know what?
It was a very big deal.
God was not interested in the surface name,
Jacob.
He knew what his name meant.
It's kind of like in the Garden of
Eden when God said, Adam, where art thou?
He wasn't looking.
He knew where he was, but he was
going to play a silly little game for
a while.
And so when God said, What is your
name?
He knew his name was Jacob.
He was not looking for a surface answer.
He was not looking for Greg or Steve
or Don or John or Billy Bob or
any other name.
He was not looking for a surface answer
for God knew what the word and the
name Jacob actually meant.
If you believe anything you want to about
that Bible sitting in your lap, Jacob knew
what his name meant as well.
And I do not believe Jacob kind of
bowed his back.
I don't believe he began to cross his
arms and huff and puff like the magic
dragon and say, well, what's it to you,
big shot?
I don't believe he did that.
I believe with fear and trembling he bowed
his head, his knees hit that glass, his
palms began to get sweaty, but couldn't talk,
almost like he was sucking on cotton swabs.
He had cotton mouth.
And he looked at God and he said,
My name is Jacob.
And I believe with all of my heart
that was a defining moment in this man's
life.
You know what God was trying to get
Jacob to do?
To get honest about who he was.
Do you know what Jacob knew about his
name?
The word Jacob in your Bible means deceitful
child.
And Jacob had known all of his life
that he was lower down than a snake's
navel in a wagon track.
He knew good and well if he were
to die at that moment, you'd have had
to put him in his casket with a
corkscrew.
He was so crooked.
He was wicked.
He was vile.
He was deceptive.
He cared about no one but himself.
And the Bible tells us that God said,
Jacob, you owe my blessing.
Jacob, you owe revival.
Then you better get honest about who you
are, what you are, and where you are.
And God never blessed him until he simply
died.
And do you know why many of our
fundamental Baptist churches are not experiencing old-fashioned,
heaven-sent, heartfelt revival in the day and
age in which we live?
It's simply because we harbor sin in our
hearts and we won't get honest about who
we are.
We change everything.
We relegate sin to nothing more than problems
or habits or good in the making or
a myth at that.
And we get to the place where we
will not get honest with God.
We will not turn from our wicked ways
as we preached on from 2 Chronicles 7,
14 this morning.
And we get to the place where we're
stale, we're cold, we're formalistic, we're no better
than a Catholic church, and we have the
idea that man is us for and no
more.
And it doesn't make any difference if we
have revival or not.
And I'm telling you, we'll never see one.
We'll never have one.
We'll never experience one until we fall on
our face in old-fashioned humility and get
honest with the God of the Bible.
And if you're not willing to get honest
tonight, you're not willing to have revival tonight.
I wonder what your name is tonight.
I wonder who's going to have to fall
on their face and say, Dear God, you
know, before I ever tell you, that I
am bitter in my heart towards somebody.
And I'll tell you what, ladies and gentlemen,
doctors tell us more and more, it's not
what we're eating that's killing us, but it's
what's eating us that's killing us.
It's been said that adultery has slain its
thousands, but may it be said that bitterness
has slain its kin.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wonder tonight if you're
going to have to confess that your name
is bitter.
I wonder tonight, mister, if you've got a
hot-headed temper, you say, Well, I only
blow up every now and then at the
house.
That's all right, but I don't want to
take the shotgun one time and go off
the road somebody's head and clean off their
shoes.
What you can say in a fit of
fury and a fit of rage can ruin
your marriage forever, ladies and gentlemen.
And I wonder if there's somebody in here
you've got a hot-headed temper.
I wonder if there's somebody in here you're
going to have to confess the fact that
you've got some things in the house you
know you ought not have.
I wonder if there's some young people on
the side of my voice you're going to
have to fall on your face and say,
Dear God, you know my name.
I've been disobedient to my parents.
I've not been listening.
I've been huffing and puffing and mad and
cussing out of my breath when I have
to take out the garbage and do this,
that and the other thing.
And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, from
the back door to the front, we're going
to have to get to the place where
we get honest with God about who we
are and about what we are and about
all the mess that we've involved ourselves in
as young people.
And if we never get honest, we'll never
get revived.
I was preaching a Revival meeting two years
ago at the Great Baptist Temple of Memphis,
Tennessee.
To make a long story short, God got
in on that first week and I'm telling
you, He came down in a mighty way
and He began to work.
We had 15 or 16 adults saved in
the very first week of the Revival meeting,
baptized in the meeting and added to the
church.
It was a marvelous, marvelous thing.
The preacher was about 85 years old at
that time and his name was Dr. John
Lamar.
He had many, many health problems but he's
in heaven now and doesn't have a one.
Amen.
And I remember when I got there, he's
85 years old and two years ago I
was some 24-year-old whippersnapper about like
I am now and I showed up to
preach at his church and he thought to
himself, I wonder if your mother knows you're
this far from home.
Amen.
And I showed up and I'll be honest,
it was one of the greatest Revival meetings
I've ever been in in my life.
He called me a couple of months ahead
of time and asked if I'd come and
he said, you be careful when the preacher
tells you that because buddy, you're getting a
cancellation and that day I got one.
Well, I wanted to be a man of
my word so I called him back and
said, Dr. Lamar, I said I'll be there
on such and such a day.
He said, well, amen.
He said, I need to tell you two
things about my church.
He said, number one, we're not big and
number two, we ain't got no money.
And I said, wonderful, we're going to get
along fine.
I said, I'll preach to five people, sit
them all down, tell them all to shut
up and pay them all and let me
preach to them, amen.
I said, so we're going to get along
just grand.
Man, I showed up and God got in
on that first service and I'm telling you,
we had a marvelous time.
People were saved, baptismal waters were served.
At the end of the week, he said,
Brother Locke, I've been reluctant to ask you
this but I just wondered, can you stay
another week?
Well, to make a long story short, man,
we had a two week revival meeting.
Man, we got back and God came down
the second week just as well as He
did the first week and I had to
cancel the camp about a week in advance
or so so I could go back.
I couldn't go the very next week because
I was scheduled to fly to Providence, Rhode
Island.
Man, we got back and it was almost
like they just kept the meeting going.
I mean, the Spirit was still there.
People were still getting saved.
You're talking about a wild man.
You think I'm a little crazy.
I'm telling you, this 85 year old preacher,
he needed some rhythm about like I do.
I'm telling you, he was wide open.
I'd get in the pulpit and he had
this big old black back Bible under his
arm, big old family Bible and I'd get
in the pulpit to preach and he had
a cane and he's just real old feeble
guy, eyes weren't working real well, you know.
And when I was a preacher, he'd take
that cane preacher, take that Bible and he'd
wave them back and forth whenever he got
happy.
He'd say, hey man, little buddy, hey man,
little buddy.
Now, if you can't preach through that, you're
dead anyhow, amen.
I'm telling you, he got like, stirred me
up, man, that cranked me wide open.
I wanted to preach all night, but he
was doing that.
And so, man, I was just a preacher
and people didn't say, well, I got up
in the pulpit on Wednesday night and I
was a preacher and I don't remember what
it was and about 10 minutes into my
sermon, a fellow comes walking to the back
door.
Now, let me stop and say this, I
knew he was going to be late.
They told me that he worked at a
diesel garage, he was a diesel mechanic.
They said when he comes, he'll look like
a grease monkey and buddy, he did look
like a grease monkey, I'll tell you that.
They said, but he needs to be saved.
His name is John.
His wife was there who he was in
the process of getting divorced from.
His little girl, little boy, whichever it was,
his father was there.
They'd been praying for months, if not years,
that John would be saved, that John would
be saved, that John would be saved.
And he didn't care anything about church and
to my knowledge, this would have been the
first time he ever knocked on the door
of the great Baptist temple on Overton Crossing
Highway there in Memphis, Tennessee.
Well, as I think that he come walking
in, I'm telling you, from his head to
his toe, he was a grease monkey.
I mean, you've never seen a man so
greasy in your life.
But I didn't care, I was just glad
he was there and greased and all.
I wanted him to get saved, man.
He could have slid down the altar for
all I cared, all that grease, man, I
wanted him to get right with God.
And he was sitting there and I got
to preaching.
And I just, you know, had myself a
good time and his face, honest, his face
got red as a rose.
You've never seen anything like it in your
life.
I've never seen a man's face so red
in my life.
I thought the guy was bad.
I thought he was going to beat the
devil out of me when I got to
the pulpit.
I mean, that vein popping out of his
neck, his eyeballs look like a glorified road
map, that's the bloodshot.
And there he stood about the third row
to my left and I mean, that face
was just so red, that head was shaking
back and forth.
And I was thinking, this man is crazy.
He's demonically possessed.
Something is bad wrong with him.
And I'm going to tell you the honest
truth I've never told you.
Man, I got happy and I hit that
pulpit and about the time I hit that
pulpit, he went, and passed out right in
a few.
I thought, oh, that's preaching there buddy.
Amen.
That's preaching in the floor.
Man, that's preaching there.
They never taught me that in Bible college,
but I still like that trick.
And so then he went and just passed
right out on the floor.
And you know what would happen tonight if
somebody on this side of the building passed
out while I was preaching?
Everybody on this side of the building would
look over there.
That's just natural.
We're naturally born rubberneckers.
We got to turn our rubbernecks around and
see what's going on.
That's why people drive five miles an hour
and back up traffic for 25 miles when
a cat got run over.
That's what happens on the interstate because we're
rubberneckers by birth.
And so all the rubberneckers would turn around
looking at what was going on.
And since they were looking that way, I
figured I'd hop over here so they'd start
looking over at me.
They didn't pay any attention to me one
bit.
I mean, I could have stood on my
head and called the peanut butter and quoted
ABC's backwards and they wouldn't have remembered one
thing about it.
They'd say, what about John?
Passed out over there.
I didn't know what the fellow's problem was.
He had Crohn's disease, I found out.
It causes great abdominal pains and then he'd
get in a pressurized situation and get under
condition or something and get nervous and BOOM!
He just passed out right during that sermon.
BOOM!
He did.
He just passed right out.
So everybody was picking him up.
You know, his dad and a couple of
guys were dragging him to the back door
and I thought, you know, this ain't gonna
work.
So I did something.
Matter of fact, I've never done it since
and if I ever have to do it
again, I'll think about it because I'm telling
you it really cramped me up.
I stopped.
I stopped my sermon right in mid-sentence
so we could pray for that.
And I'm gonna be honest with you, I
preach fast.
That's quite obvious.
I preach fast.
You listen fast.
You get done before I do.
You sit there and don't leave before I
finish my sermon but I'll tell you one
thing, you get me to stop while I'm
preaching, that's like putting the brakes on a
747 at 35,000 feet, amen, just stop
the whole thing.
I'm telling you, I've never done that in
my life.
So I said, Bob, let's just stop right
here.
I said, I'll finish my sermon in a
minute.
I said, we didn't pray for this fella.
I said, nobody's paying attention to me and
I said, rightly so.
I said, let's pray for John.
And so he started to slip out.
I said, let's bow our heads and close
our eyes.
And so we did and I had my
eyes open like that.
You say, brother, you ought not do that.
You ought to close your eyes and bow
your head.
The blessed God of the Bible says watch
and pray and buddy, I've been watching and
praying.
I'll tell you that right now.
And so they slid him out the back
door.
You've never seen so many ambulance workers in
your life.
I believe they had the FBI and CIA
there to put that fella on a leather
gurney and take him down to the Memphis
hospital.
Everybody in the world was out there.
What a commotion it was.
Well, I jumped back in the sermon I
finished, gave the invitation, God bless that night
and I didn't figure out I'd ever see
that guy again ever, ever, ever.
Well, the next night I was a preacher
and about 10 minutes into my sermon I
guess he walked through that door.
But this night there was a great transformation.
He didn't have a little grease on him.
He had on a black suit, black pants,
black coat, white shirt, solid red top, had
on a black Bible, wire rim glasses, had
his head all slicked back, had on some
black slick shoes and I thought to myself,
one night he comes looking like a Greek
monk and the next night he comes looking
like an independent Baptist evangelist.
I'm telling you, what a transformation.
I thought somebody got to him in the
hospital and led him to Jesus and I
thought, what in the world has happened to
this guy?
And he comes in and sits down in
the same spot where he was the night
before.
And I'm thinking, move over a little bit.
That's a bad spot.
And so, I got to preaching that night
on the raising of Lazarus from the dead
like I mentioned this morning, and I was
talking about how Jesus raised him from the
dead and I got to the end of
the sermon and the last part of the
sermon, the last part was God wants to
revive His people.
And I preached on that when we get
revival, there's some grave clothes that we're going
to have to get rid of.
There's some grave clothes and some napkins that
we're going to have to throw away.
And I preached on all of this.
And honestly, your preacher will understand this, he
was running shotgun sermons.
He didn't have much of an outline.
You just pull the trigger and let the
bullets fly all over the building.
I'm telling you, I preached on things that
night.
I never preached on.
I mean, that's the only thing I didn't
do was cut off my legs and preach
on walking and I thought about it halfway
through the sermon.
I mean, I just preached on movies, I
preached on dancing, I preached on worldly music,
I preached on drinking, on smoking, on shacking
up.
I preached on everything you can imagine.
I just did it all along.
I figured, you know what, we're halfway through
the second week and we've already taken the
love off and we might as well just
go ahead and preach.
And man, I tell you, I just preached
and preached and had myself a glorious, glorious
time.
And when I got through, when I came
to the invitation, I said, hey, don't you
head bowed and eyes closed and I didn't
even get a chance to have the people
stand up yet.
And the pianist came, the organist came, they
started playing just as I am, something like
that and I was inviting the people to
come.
I mean, I hadn't even really gotten the
invitation yet and all of a sudden, boom,
he popped up.
Excuse me, excuse me, pardon me, excuse me.
And man, he makes his way out of
that key and I've never seen it in
my life.
I wish I'd see it every week of
my life.
I've never in all my ministry seen somebody
literally skip to the altar.
Have you seen that?
I'm telling you, that fellow played skip to
the altar in a Baptist church.
I'm not charismatic.
I'm telling you, he was in an independent
Baptist church.
Can you imagine that?
And he skipped to the altar.
See, he wasn't in a Baptist church all
of his life.
He didn't know he wasn't supposed to act
that way.
And so, he skipped down there and he
fell on his knees and I mean, this
fellow got to pray and nobody was helping
him.
Now, I'm going to tell you the honest
truth.
I know some people say, yeah, you know,
Jim Angus, you said the truth.
Well, it's either the truth or it's a
lie and I'm going to tell you the
gospel truth because I've never told you.
I've never seen a moron so big in
my life.
He came down there, he fell down on
his face and there was a big old
rail.
I don't know what it was, some kind
of big cherry wood banister, one of these
deals here and it kind of came over
this way and it was right at the
top of the altar and it was wonderful
to stamp on like that while he was
preaching.
Well, that fellow didn't stamp on, I'll tell
you what he did.
He pulled his head back like Woody the
Woodpecker.
He had his forehead lined up with that
thing and during an invitation in a Baptist
church, he was mumbling something I didn't know
what he was saying, a bunch of mumbo
jumbo coming out of his mouth.
He pulled his head back and went, boom,
boom, boom, boom and he was beating his
head on the altar of that Baptist church.
Everybody who hadn't been paying attention, boom, eyeballs
blowed up like gilladeen sausage cakes, man.
all them little old ladies who hadn't been
paying attention started paying real close attention.
The preacher was about to flip his wig.
This guy, and I'm thinking, somebody help this
guy.
Counsel him, pull him out of here and
do something.
But nobody was helping and I knew there
wasn't nobody else going to come to the
altar while that guy was down there doing
that and so I figured, well, if they're
not going to take the initiative, I might
as well and so I leaned over to
help him.
I was just going to help him or
put a pillow between him and the altar
to do something.
I mean, I was just trying to help
the guy.
I've never seen anything like it in my
life.
Well, you've been in a lot more meetings
than I have.
Maybe you've seen crazy people like that, but
I haven't.
And so I come down there to lean
down to help him and I knew his
name and so I started calling his name.
John, let me help you.
What can I do?
Can I pray for you?
And about the time I got real close
to him, he threw himself back on his
legs.
He threw both his hands in the air
and I'm so glad he didn't have a
microphone because, buddy, he didn't need it.
He scared me and everybody in the building.
He threw both his hands up in the
air and after I had just pinched on
every bit of worldliness I could imagine, I'll
never forget in a million years what that
man said.
He lifted up his voice in front of
all those people and said, Oh, God!
Oh, God!
I'm a fornicator!
Everybody just kind of fucked up.
Oh, God!
Forgive me!
I'm an adulterer!
Oh, God!
Forgive me!
I'm a drug addict!
Oh, God!
He started pulling cigarettes out of his pocket,
laying them on the altar and I was
waiting for the switchblades to come out.
Man, I was getting nervous.
He started confessing everything under heaven.
I mean, he confessed things in public that
I didn't think he was supposed to live
for about in private.
I mean, he talked about it all.
I mean, his wife over there, his dad
over there, everybody just kind of looking around.
After about 30 seconds of that stuff, I
said, Preacher, this guy needs some spiritual help.
Maybe somebody can counsel the Preacher.
He got up with his little cane.
He walked over to his little Bible and
he set that fella down in the front
row.
A couple of deacons came around and they
all started playing out loud.
Man, I'm glad God could hear about it
at the same time.
And they all started playing around that fella
and finally the Preacher opened up his Bible
and started going through Romans 3, 23, Romans
6, 23, Romans 5, 8, Romans 10, 9,
10, and so on and so forth and
10 and 13.
And man, he just began to preach to
them on the Romans road.
And I remember old John turning around and
got down on his knees and they played.
And I don't know, this was all four
or five minutes by this time people had
come forward.
You can imagine.
I'm telling you, God broke through that night
after he had spilled his guts in front
of everybody.
And old John got saved.
And you can think anything you want to
about me, but when you're 85 years old
you can do anything you jolly well want
to.
And I'm going to tell you what that
Preacher did.
Now, he's in heaven tonight and I'm telling
you, he can't defend himself, but I'm telling
you the honest truth.
That Preacher got up off his seat.
He had that little old cane in his
hand and after old John got saved, that
Preacher turned around and went, Whoopee!
Man, I never heard anything like that in
my life.
I wanted to say, Whoopee too, but I
was scared people would think I was too
dignified to do that, you know.
He said, Whoopee!
Man alive!
That place got wide open.
Then it's like God knocked the honey dish
over and the bees started swarming all over
the building.
And man, I mean, people just started coming
and coming and coming.
Well, old John, he hadn't been saved 30
seconds.
I mean, he was a new Preacher in
Christ.
Thank God for new converts.
New converts pay the bills and get the
job done.
It's been bad to spend 30 years who
thank God owes them a favor that gives
us trouble in our local churches.
And old John got up and he looked
up at me and he said, Hey Preacher.
I said, Yeah?
He said, You had not come up there
in so long.
That's what I thought.
I thought, Oh boy, even so, I'm coming
to Lord Jesus right now.
I thought, if he's going to say all
that down there without one of these, what's
he going to say when he's got one
square in his mouth?
And he gets up there and he had
a songbook in his hand.
And the reason I remember he had a
songbook is because he made so much racket
with it he was so nervous.
And he got up and put that songbook
in his hand and he jammed it all
back and forth.
He was preaching that microphone.
Man, he was scared to death.
You know, he never spoke in front of
a little old ladies club much less a
church.
That church probably had thirty people on the
song.
I bet that night we had a hundred
and thirty, a hundred and forty people there.
Man, the preaching was ecstatic.
They'd never seen anything like that in their
life.
Man, God was working.
And it wasn't because of me.
And they begged me to stay another week.
And I said, if I keep canceling meetings
I'm going to be out of a job
for him.
I can't call another evangelist.
And all of a sudden he's like the
Holy Spirit just arrested him.
He dropped that songbook, grabbed ahold of the
side deck to open up to fix the
microphone.
Took a breath and he said, you know,
I don't know a whole lot about church
and this God thing.
He said, but I know one thing.
It sure does feel good to come clean
with God.
You know what John had that night?
Now, he was pretty unorthodox in what he
did but I'll be honest.
But you know what John had?
John had a Genesis 32 experience.
He told God, and I wonder who in
this building tonight is going to have to
get honest and right with God before the
double springs Baptist church.
You know, we go to some churches and
they're so divisive.
There's so much pride and bitterness and animosity.
You can't get the termites and the cells
of this wall to fellowship with the termites
and the cells of this wall.
Well, he took my seat.
Well, he took my spot in the choir
lounge and people argue and bicker and fight
and cud.
You know why we put babies in the
nursery?
Because they're babies plus God and that's the
way they act the way we do.
And the average Baptist church is nothing more
than a glorified nursery room.
We got so many babies in our Baptist
churches they won't get right with God.
They won't hug each other's neck and shake
each other's hands.
Well, I tell you one thing.
I was in a revival meeting not long
ago.
It is the only revival meeting I've ever
been in that I canceled myself halfway through
the meeting.
I hope I don't have to do that
this weekend.
But it's the only meeting I've ever canceled
myself.
I had to go through Wednesday night and
fly to Pensacola, Florida for a youth retreat
and they were going on through Friday and
they had another evangelist in.
I went through Tuesday.
I called that girl on the phone and
said, you finish up on Wednesday.
I'm flying to Pensacola the day early.
I'm getting out of this mess.
You'll never see anything like it in your
life.
People wouldn't even go out to eat with
us because they found out that another family
in the church was going out to eat
with us.
Arguing.
Fighting.
The preacher got up one night and he
was working on this lapel mic saying, he
said, excuse me, my own, he said, can
you hear me?
And a fellow stood up behind my wife
and said, we can always hear you.
I'm telling you, you're talking about fighting.
You're talking about a cat fight.
I'm telling you, it was a mess and
a lot of our Baptist churches are that
way.
If not, actually taking place in our hearts.
And I wonder how many people in this
room are going to have to get right
with God for somebody before we can have
revival.
I wonder if people are going to have
to swallow your pride and come forward.
You know, there's people on the side of
my voice, honest, I don't know you, madam's
house cat, you don't know me.
You know, there's people in this building right
now.
It's been a long, long time since your
knees have revisited that altar right there.
I mean a long time.
You say, well, what's that got to do
with revival?
It has everything to do with revival because
if you're not willing to get honest, you're
not willing to have revival.
I'm telling you, friend, how many people do
you know that really get honest with God
in their life?
I want you to let your fingers do
the walking and go to your New Testament
tonight.
Hebrews 11.
I want to show you something marvelous.
Before I say it, I love the Word
of God.
I want to show you how minutely inspired
and preserved it is.
Don't you ever let some knothead tell you
that words in the Bible don't mean something.
I'm telling you, words in the Bible mean
something.
And I'm talking about this Bible I'm holding
right here in my hand, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm not ashamed of the King James Bible,
the Word of God.
And I want to show you how minutely
inspired and preserved it is.
Hebrews 11.
Now I've got to tell you something about
Hebrews 11.
It's what we would refer to as the
Hall of Fame.
Now, how many of you in this building
like any kind of sports?
Would you slip your hand high in the
air if you like any kind of sports?
Alright, God bless you.
I don't like a whole lot of sports.
I'm not real good at them.
I like to golf, but when I golf,
it's goo.
But nonetheless, you know, all major sporting events
have what we call a Hall of Fame.
Believe it or not, baseball has a Hall
of Fame.
Football has a Hall of Fame.
Can you believe this?
NASCAR.
Can you believe that?
NASCAR has a Hall of Fame.
Now let me give you my theology on
NASCAR if I may.
If I'm going to get in a car,
bless God, and drive 500 miles, I ain't
getting out the same place I started.
I promise you that right now.
But nonetheless, even NASCAR has a Hall of
Fame.
Now notice what your Bible says in Hebrews
11, would you?
Now you remember who we've been preaching on
tonight.
Jacob, right?
But I've been preaching on Abraham, Moses, and
Noah.
I've been preaching on Jacob.
Notice what happens in verse 21, would you?
Hebrews 11, 21.
By faith, Jacob...
There's our culprit.
By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying,
blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped...
Now notice how minutely detailed your Bible is.
Leaning upon the top of his staff.
Somebody says, well brother, let me explain that
to you, son.
He was an old man getting ready to
die and that's why he was leaning on
the top of his staff.
And I'll give you credit.
He was an old man getting ready to
die and I promise you you'll never convince
me in a million years that the reason
he was leaning on the cane is because
he's old.
I'll tell you why he was leaning on
his cane because God never let him get
over the night he touched him.
That's why.
You remember the end of the story, where
the Bible says that the sun went down
upon him and he halted upon his staff
and from a young man to a middle
-aged man now to an old, gray-headed
Christian gentleman with one foot in the ground.
God never let Jacob get over the night.
You see, whenever he walked the dogs, whenever
he walked the kids to school, whenever he
went to Wal-Mart, whenever he went to
the temple, everywhere Jacob went he had a
vivid reminder of the night God touched him.
Everywhere Jacob went, he remembered, this is what
I had to go through and endure to
get the power of God on my life.
You know what, don't feel sorry for Jacob
because if we could resurrect him from the
glory land, put a suit and tie on
him, stand him behind this microphone and right
here in this pulpit, I believe he'd say
a million times over and over and over
again, I'd rather leap into heaven than leap
into hell any day of the week.
Here was a man who was mightily, evidently,
miraculously touched by God and he never got
over it.
You know what I find out about God's
people?
You ever get to a place in your
life where you fully surrender to God?
You ever get to a place in your
life where you fully sell out and you
turn your back on the world?
You spit in the eyes of the devil?
You don't worry about what friends and families
and relatives and neighbors and associates think and
you really come to God and you really
get honest and you confess your pride and
you confess your laziness and you confess your
bitterness and you confess this, that and the
other thing?
You confess your worry, you confess your doubt,
your fear, your frustration.
If you ever really get honest with God,
He'll touch you in such a way you'll
never get over it to the day you
drop dead.
Never, never, never.
And God never let Jacob get over the
knife.
You hear me, ladies and gentlemen?
Until we get honest, we'll never get that
heavenly touch.
Until we fall on our face and get
honest, we'll never, ever have God bless us.
I want to give you this illustration that
we'll be through almost two years ago now.
I was preaching a camp.
It was the Victory Baptist Youth Camp in
Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Jack Daniels, currently.
You could smell that mess a mile away
when you drove across the county line.
I flew from Chetek, Wisconsin, the camp that
I was in.
I closed up from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
night.
Closed up on Wednesday It's my wife, Melissa,
goodbye Thursday morning.
I said, I'll be back on Monday to
start camp again on Monday night.
I flew home and got a little car
that my stepfather had gotten for me, a
little vehicle.
I drove to the mountains of Lynchburg, Tennessee
and I got there, I suppose, maybe about
4 or 35 o'clock in the afternoon
and the service that night was going to
begin about 8 o'clock or I guess
maybe about 7 or 30 or so.
As soon as I got off the airplane,
I'm telling you, I thought a bunch of
Tennessee spring lizards jumped in my throat and
I couldn't hold it.
I was sick.
I didn't feel good.
I was running a fever and as much
as I love to preach, I live for
about 40 or 45 minutes a day.
I'd rather preach than eat and sleep and
I preached and forsaken both of them and
I'd do it a thousand times again.
I love it, but that night I didn't
feel like doing the preaching.
That night I was tired and weary, not
for my trip.
I was just sick and couldn't figure it
out.
I very rarely get sick and I thank
God for that.
But when I did it, I get it.
I was just sweating and tired and wore
out and couldn't get my thoughts together.
My mind was all discombobulated and I was
just absolutely, positively ill.
And so I went to the youth director
and I said, listen, I don't want to
be one of these snotty evangelists that don't
have a fellowship with anybody.
I said, but I'd appreciate it if I
didn't have to come to supper tonight.
He said, don't you worry about it.
We didn't bring you here to fellowship with
anybody.
We brought you here to preach.
He said, if you're tired and weary, he
said, don't even come to song service in
the skit time.
He said, you'll be in the pool but
at 8.15, just show up then.
I said, well, I'll probably show up about
10.45, maybe 8 o'clock.
I ended up getting there about 8 or
so to get some of the songs and
some of the skits.
And so I went back to my room
and I was praying about what God wanted
to preach and I was sucking down honey
and lemon juice and hot water and peppermints
and Hall's cough drops and all kinds of
things.
I was just working on trying to get
myself to feel better.
And I was praying, Lord, what do you
want me to preach?
What do you want me to preach?
And God laid on my heart a message
that I had just preached at Staff Training
Revival, that meeting I just left in Wisconsin
from Romans chapter 1 on God's greatest enemy,
the reprobate.
Now, it's a difficult sermon to preach to
adults, much less to a boatload of teenagers
who you've never preached to and never seen
in your life before.
And so, you know, I'll be honest, and
if you're a preacher, be honest.
You know, some preachers sometimes, and I find
myself doing this, we think we know what
we ought to preach better when God knows.
We think we know what we ought to
preach and where we ought to preach it
and how we ought to preach it and
God knows better.
So what I did in my room there,
I kind of opened my Bible and I
said, now look at there, God, you talk
about an outline, whoo, I had to get
them down the aisle.
Now, that right there's a verse, and boy,
look at that illustration right there.
And I knew in my heart if I
preached any other message but Romans chapter 1,
it was going to be the biggest mess.
I knew it was going to be a
fall.
I knew it wasn't going to be good.
I knew God wasn't going to save a
person.
I knew I'd been a disobedient preacher if
I didn't preach on Romans chapter 1.
Sure as I know, it's pulpits made out
of wood.
I knew God wanted me to preach that
sermon.
So I said, okay, Lord, if that's what
you want, I pray, Lord, forgive me for
my bad spirit.
Forgive me for my reluctance and lack of
faith.
If you want me to preach it, I'll
preach it.
If it's a prop, it's a prop.
But if you want me to preach it,
I'll preach it.
I got there that night and I did,
just like you said.
He kept his word.
I got in the pulpit exactly at 815.
Exactly at 815.
They'd given me a sheet when I got
up there on the mountain of all the
names of the teenagers that were there.
And I didn't know the teenagers.
They didn't know me.
I didn't know their needs.
I'd met a couple of them before at
the Tennessee Statewide A.C.E. Convention that
the Rodgersons and I were privileged to minister
in just a couple of years ago.
And so I met a couple of them,
but I didn't know these kids.
And I prayed down through the list, you
know, and I didn't know their needs.
I didn't know their family situations.
But I know this, and I hope you
remember from the illustration.
There was exactly, you hear me right, exactly
98 kids in attendance.
There were about three or four churches that
came together.
The biggest of them had been Victor Baptist
Church in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
That's where I was going to be the
following Sunday.
And all they did was have me come
in Thursday and Friday.
That was it.
They'd already had camp Sunday night, Monday night,
Tuesday night, Wednesday night.
And I was just coming in to finish
you up Thursday and Friday, the last two
concluding sermons of the week.
That was it.
Two shots is all I had.
And I got in the pulpit that night
and stared those 98 teenagers in the face
and I could barely say a word.
I mean, I was so sick.
My throat was so messed up.
I said, young people, open your Bibles to
Romans chapter number one.
They opened up to Romans chapter one and
I got to preach.
Now I have to say, by the grace
of God, the more I preached the more
it began to open up.
And I wasn't able to project that much.
I wasn't able to move around.
They didn't have a lapel mic and so
if you can believe it, I stood still
like a totem pole behind that pulpit the
whole time.
I didn't feel like being up there.
And here I was preaching, belaboring, telling these
young people about what it means to be
a reprobate.
And basically, the whole sermon deals with conviction.
What happens when you turn conviction away for
the last time and God pulls away the
welcome mat from the door of salvation and
you go to hell as sure as a
Martin to his gourd?
That's basically the sermon I preached that night.
Well, it was exactly nine o'clock when
I quit preaching and sat here bowed and
eyes closed.
I had preached exactly on the nose 45
minutes.
And I began to get to the invitation
and Miss Warren, the youth director's wife, came
up and she began to play just as
I am with that one plea on the
piano and she played about two, three, no
more certainly than three stanzas and I believe
it was about two.
She was playing these two stanzas and you
know, it wasn't a long invitation as far
as that part was concerned and the moment
she started to play, I said, young people,
if you need spiritual help, if you don't
know Christ, you leave this building right now
and go to the back.
Somebody will sit you down outside and show
you from the Bible how to be saved.
And immediately a young man and a young
lady walked to the back and in my
heart I said, thank you Lord, this must
be why you want me to preach that
sermon.
That young man and that young lady could
get saved or get assurance or get something
taken care of in their life.
But that's not at all why God wanted
me to preach that.
After she played her couple of stanzas, maybe
one or two young people had come forward.
No big emotional appeal, nothing like that.
And so I just felt like the Lord
was through.
I felt like we ought to just close
her down.
He told me to pray and get rid
of the service and turn it back over
to Him.
You know, to pray and dismiss as far
as the service part and the preaching part
and the invitation was concerned.
So I did.
She was done.
I said, you can go back to your
seat.
I prayed.
I turned around and I began to give
the invitation, begin the service, begin the whole
kit and caboodle back over to Brother Lord
Warren, the youth director there.
And I was saying right then, Brother Warren,
I'm through.
The service is yours.
And while that praise was coming out of
my mouth, a young lady stood up out
of the corner of my eyesight in the
front row.
She turned behind me and tugged me on
my jacket.
I turned around.
She looked at me and the youth director
and said, may I give a testimony just
before the invitation is concluded and done with.
I said, young lady, if that's what God
wants you to do, Brother Warren, is that
alright with you?
He said, that's fine.
He said, just keep it short and keep
it in the corner.
Now hear me.
I walked through that crowd of 97, because
one of them was in the pulpit, teenagers.
I went to the back and I sat
down in a metal folding chair and didn't
open my mouth one more time during that
whole service, that whole invitation that whole time.
Didn't say another word.
He sat down in a folding chair expecting
her to be done in just a few
seconds.
And she was.
She did not take a long time.
There was no more music.
There was no choir.
There was no special music.
There was no evangelists begging people and coercing
people and giving hot dogs and hamburgers away
if you'd come for it.
None of that.
Now young lady got in the pulpit and
got to quivering and she said, everybody in
the Christian school that I go to knows
me to be loose with my morals and
my behavior when it comes to boys.
I'm always talking about what I can do
or what I have done or what I
will do.
And she said, especially to the cheerleader in
the locker room.
She said, God has convicted me about that
tonight.
And she said, I want you to forgive
me and keep me accountable.
Now buddy, you tell that to a preacher.
That's one thing.
But you say that to 97 of your
peers and I'm telling you that takes a
rod iron backbone to do something like that.
And I mean, I was amazed.
I mean the kids all sit there just
dumbfounded and she got up there and apologized
to everybody for her rotten sorry testimony.
She had no sooner left the pulpit and
sat down that a young man to my
right jumped up and I mean, it was
almost like he was chewing on matchsticks and
drinking gasoline.
You've never seen somebody so excited in your
life.
He come flying up to the pulpit.
He got down behind that thing like a
wild spooky evangelist and his mom and dad
were sitting right there on the second row
and he turned and looked right at them
and he said, Mom and Dad, he said,
I've been looking at some dirty magazines and
he said, when we go back home under
my bed and in my closet in between
the mattresses there's some girly boots and some
dirty magazines and me and my friends have
been looking at them and his buddies were
there that night and he started calling out
their names.
Under the pews they go, buddy.
And I mean, he looked at them and
he said, Mom and Dad, I've never heard
a teenager talk like this in my life.
God give us more of them.
God bless this kid.
He said, if you spank me harder than
you've ever spanked me before and if you
drown me from every privilege I've ever had
or ever will, he said, I don't care.
He said, I just gotta get right with
God tonight.
And man, I'm telling you, it started right
there.
We didn't have a stick of music and
kids got up from all over that building
and started coming to that altar and I
mean, there was weeping and crying.
People started getting in that pool pit, forgive
me of this, forgive me of that.
People started crossing the room, hugging each other's
necks.
We had moms and dads get up.
You hear me?
We had moms and dads get up and
apologize to their teenagers for arguing in front
of them at the house and not having
a testimony of godly Christian parents on them.
How do you, get up and say, fellas,
the other day before school closed, he said,
I told a rotten joke in the locker
room and God convicted me about that.
He said, that's not my character.
That's not customarily like me and the Holy
Spirit has just been ringing my bell about
that thing and he said tonight in Bullock's
message, man, it just so convicted me.
He said, I'm sorry about that, fellas, I
want to get right with God.
We have some teenagers standing up.
You talk about mean kids.
You talk about some jerks of teenagers.
You let me preach to a hundred teenagers
and you put them all in there and
I don't have to know one of them.
And buddy, by the time I get through
preaching, I can tell you all of them
that listen to the world of the music.
I can tell you all of them that
hang around the wrong crowd.
I can tell you those who love preaching
and those who don't.
And buddy, there was four or five boys
over here, they were so full of the
devil you could see the demons swapping behind
their eyeballs.
I mean, they were wicked.
And I mean, they sat there and they
laughed and popped their bubble gum and chewed
their fingernails and dug their nose and they
wouldn't listen to anything the preacher had to
say.
But buddy, I'm glad the Holy Spirit can
preach a whole lot better than I can.
Because man, when that thing broke loose, those
boys stood up and out loud said, man,
we've been fakes and we've been phonies and
man, they all, four or five of them
darted out the back door.
Somebody went out there with a Bible, showed
those fellas how to get saved.
Two or three girls got up.
A couple other guys got up.
We had 15 teenagers saved by the grace
of God with no music.
Can you imagine that?
People kept coming and kept coming and kept
coming.
People kept getting right and getting right.
People kept hugging each other's necks.
I'm telling you, the altars were flooded with
kids.
They were weeping.
They were crying.
I mean, they were crying for lost loved
ones.
They were crying for sin in their hearts.
And kid after kid after kid came to
this pulpit.
Now, you hear what this preacher is telling
you.
I told you there's 98 teenagers.
Now, in attendance there was about 125 or
130 people because we had preachers and college
workers and preacher boys and counselors and cooks
and janitors and all that kind of stuff.
So we had about 130 people there.
But out of the 98 teenagers that were
there, you hear me, all 98 of them.
All 98 without exception came to that pulpit,
preacher.
And either number one confessed something openly to
their friends to get right or number two
gave verbal praise to God.
I gave that invitation at nine o'clock
with two stanzas of an invitation music with
no other singing, with no announcements, with my
mouth closed sitting with my Bible closed in
a chair in the back of the building
and nobody stood in that pulpit as far
as the leader was concerned.
The Holy Spirit took over that meeting.
I gave the invitation exactly at nine o
'clock and we closed it on a mountain
a half a mile from a Jack Daniels
liquor joint with 98 teenagers and we closed
that thing down at twelve, twenty, three hours
and twenty-two minutes on a mountain with
98 teenagers.
All of them came to that pulpit and
gave verbal praise to God.
The kids got saved by those scores and
I'm telling you God's Spirit was marvelously at
work that night and one of the greatest
meetings I've ever been in was with 98
teenagers.
You say, my, my, Brother Grimley, that must
have been one blistering, blazing, stirring sermon on
the reprobate and I hope you're not so
naive as to think it was my sermon
that did that.
I'll tell you what it was.
It all started with a 17-year-old
young lady who got in the pulpit and
told God, you want revival tonight?
You want God's blessing tonight?
You better answer this question, what do you
need?
There you are.
Stephanie, head down please, have the eye closed.
Thank you.