We find out that Jude is the half
-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, according
to history.
Now it's not certain what local church Jude
was writing to.
Most people believe he was writing to one
of the local churches there in Asia Minor,
which were referred to in Revelation chapter number
2 and Revelation chapter number 3.
But nonetheless, it is obvious that he's writing
to God's people.
It's obvious that Jude has a heartbeat.
He is a red-hot, fiery preacher that
pulls no punches.
He has no-holds-barred type of a
ministry.
He jumps in with both guns blazing, and
buddy, I mean, he just begins to chop
and let the chips fall where they may.
The theme of the book of Jude is
the theme of apostasy.
The word apostasy is the Greek word apostasia.
It means to depart from or to turn
away from the truth.
That's exactly what was happening in the 25
verses of the simple little book of Jude.
People had crept into the local church, and
false prophets and heretics and hypocrites had crept
in in such a way that they were
leading God's people astray, and they were preaching
false doctrine.
Now you turn on your radio, you read
your newspaper, and you turn on TVN, and
you'll find out those same apostates are alive
and well in the day and age in
which we live.
But the Apostle Jude had a ministry of
helping the people of God.
He wanted them to know that all of
heaven was behind them, and he wanted them
to know that they should go on in
the good grace of God, not let these
apostates destroy the local church, not let them
pervert the local church, but Jude gave these
people a discourse on how to keep living
for God in the midst of apostate times.
Now I want to give you a simple
outline tonight.
This outline is introduction.
I am not going to preach on this
outline but for 3, 4, 5 minutes.
So when I preach 5 minutes, don't get
excited because I'm going to get to the
message in verse 22.
Alright?
And so number one, look in your Bibles
at verse 3, would you?
Jude verse number 3.
And write down, for the sake of an
outline, what I call the contending for the
faith.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write
unto you of the common salvation, it was
needful, necessary, it was appropriate, if you will,
it was needful for me to write unto
you and exhort.
The word exhort means to shake up just
a little bit.
It is the same word the Apostle Paul
uses in 2 Timothy chapter 4 for preaching.
He says I should exhort you that you
should earnestly, with vigor, with enthusiasm, with excitement,
not be a deadhead about it.
He said you should earnestly contend for the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
And so first of all, by way of
an outline, he deals with the contending for
the faith.
Now ladies and gentlemen, we can contend without
being contentious.
And I want you to understand that according
to my Bible, from Genesis 1-1 to
Revelation 22-21, there are some things that
God's people ought to fight about.
There are some things that are worth living
for.
There are some things worth dying for.
And yes, ladies and gentlemen, for God's people
in this local church, there are some things,
ladies and gentlemen, that are worth fighting for.
For example, we ought not let the ACLU
and the NAACP tell us that we can't
preach the word of God.
I'm not going to give in to the
liberals, and I don't think we ought to
give in to the modernists.
I do believe we ought to preach thus
saith the Lord.
I believe we ought to be faithful in
our service for Jesus Christ.
I believe in the fundamentals of the faith.
I believe we ought to preach the virgin
birth and the blood atonement and the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus.
I believe we ought to preach the bodily
resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
I believe we ought to preach the soon
come again of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not afraid to open my mouth and
open my Bible in any church, no matter
the size, and tell them that I have
a copy of the infallible, inerrant word of
Almighty God, that it's perfect, that it's complete
from cover to cover and from quiver to
quiver.
And there's some things, ladies and gentlemen, that
is worth fighting for.
And Jude wrote to that local church and
said, what you need to do is realize
that there's some things that we should contend
for, and what we should contend for is
the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints.
And church, I do not believe that we
should give the faith over to the liberals.
I don't think we should give it over
to the modernists.
I'm not afraid of being called a fundamentalist.
I'm not afraid of what the world calls
me.
I'm a fundamentalist.
I believe in the fundamentals of the faith,
and everything in this world has fundamentals, including
this Bible.
And I believe God's people ought to stand
for the true fundamentals of the faith.
It's always worked in the past.
It works right now.
And when you and I and our pea
-sized brains are dead cold and six feet
in the ground, the fundamentals will still be
just that.
They'll be fundamentals.
And God's people need to draw the line
and earnestly contend for the faith.
And so, number one, he deals with the
contending for the faith.
But look, if you would, please, in verse
number five.
Verse number five of the book of Jude,
we deal then from verses five through verse
number ten, which we will not read, what
I call the corruption of the flesh.
The corruption of the flesh.
Notice, please, verse five.
I will therefore put you in remembrance that
you once knew then how the Lord, having
saved the people out of the land of
Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
And the angels which kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation, He hath
reserved in everlasting change under darkness, under the
judgment of the great day.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities
round about them in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication and going after strange flesh,
and set forth for an example sufferings of
vengeance of eternal fire.
Notice, please, verse eight.
Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh,
despise dominion, and speak evil of dignity.
So, in verses one through four, we have
the contending for the faith.
In verses five through ten, we have the
corruption of the flesh.
And basically, this is what Jude is explaining
to the people.
That these apostates, that these backslidden, no good
for nothing, low down, good for nothing preachers
that have trepped into the churches, and that
have preached false doctrine, that the reason they
have done this is for their own fleshly
appetite.
He said they're filthy dreamers.
And Jude warns the people about giving too
much credit to their flesh.
I want to tell you something, ladies and
gentlemen.
I'm saved by the grace of God.
I'm just as saved today as I ever
will be saved.
I will not lose my salvation.
I could swing over hell in a rotten
cornstalk, spit the devil in the eye, and
sing Amazing Grace.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I'm not so foolish as to think that
Greg Locke's flesh still can't rear its ugly
head.
I've got a flesh that I better not
give an inch, because every time you give
your flesh an inch, it will take a
mile.
I am capable today of doing things within
my body that I never thought I would
do.
And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, you
better watch out about the corruption of the
flesh, because your flesh has never been saved
by the grace of God, and it never
will be saved by the grace of God
until you die and kick up glory dust
on the streets of gold.
And Jude warned these people about the corruption
and the utter wickedness of our flesh.
And that's why the apostle Paul said in
Romans chapter 8, he said, when I want
to do right, I do wrong.
When I don't want to do wrong, I
still do wrong.
Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?
Thanks be unto God which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And one day as we sing the song,
we'll drop this robe of flesh and rise.
And so Jude warned them about the corruption
of the flesh.
But please also notice in your Bible, if
you would please, in verse number 11.
Verse number 11, he says, Woe unto them,
for they have gone in the way of
Cain, and ran greedily after the error of
Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying
of Corinth.
These are spots in your feasts of charity,
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without
fear.
Clouds they are without water, carried about of
wind.
Trees, whose fruit without fruit, twice dead, plucked
up by the roots, raging waves of the
sea.
Foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
And we could continue reading, but in verses
11 through 21, we have what I call
the condemnation of false religion.
You see, we have the contending for the
faith, we have the corruption of the flesh,
and now we have the condemnation of the
false religious system.
And he looks at these people and says,
I want you to be careful, church, that
you use the Bible as your rule of
thumb, that the Bible is your only authority
for faith and practice, that you stand upon
the fundamental, firm principles of the Word of
God, he said, because there is a crooked
religious system that cares more about money, that
cares more about numbers, that cares more about
their own fleshly appetite than they do about
a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And I'm going to tell you something.
Did you know right now in America, we're
selling more Bibles than we've ever sold before?
Right now in America, per capita, more people
are in synagogues and temples and mosques and
church than ever before.
And we've got more people since September 11th
who wave the flag and who wave a
Bible and who wear a religious t-shirt.
And I'm going to tell you the problem
in America, America's got just enough religion to
die and go straight to hell with.
Because religion has never saved a person.
Religion will never save a person.
For religion is what damns people to hell.
Because religion is me trying to gain God's
favor.
But I'm glad, ladies and gentlemen, you don't
have to have religion.
You have to have a relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and
Lord of lords, and Jude condemned false religion.
He said there's no substance to it.
He said they're like a tree that doesn't
have any fruit.
He said they're like a tree that doesn't
have any roots.
He said they're like big clouds that don't
have any rain.
He said they're like raging, foaming waves of
the sea.
And get it, who for them is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever.
He's speaking of this religious system that is
anti-God, that will never make it to
God's kingdom.
But please look tonight in your Bibles, if
you would, at verse number 22.
Because right in the midst of apostasy, right
in the midst of ungodliness and immorality, right
in the midst of Him telling these people
to put up your dukes and fight the
devil, to watch out for the onslaughts of
the devil and of your flesh, and to
watch out for the wayward people of the
world, after He goes through all of this,
notice what Jude says in verse number 22,
and of some have compassion, making a difference,
and others save with fear, pulling them out
of the fire, hating even the garments spotted
by the flesh.
Now unto Him that is able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory, of exceeding
joy, to the only wise God and our
Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever.
And then He encourages the church to say,
Amen.
This is what I call the compassion on
the Jews.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, the entire book
of Jude basically centers around two verses.
The entire book of Jude, as far as
key themes are concerned, it centers around verse
number three, to earnestly contend, but while we
are earnestly contending, it also surrounds verse number
22 that we are to have compassion on
those who need to be saved by the
grace of God.
And so in the midst of dealing with
contending for the faith, in the midst of
dealing with the corruption of the flesh and
the condemnation of the false religious system, He
now tells what God's people should have as
a local church is compassion on few people.
To have compassion on those who are without.
Do you know what the word compassion means?
It literally has the idea of love in
action.
You remember, please don't turn there, but in
the book of Mark, in chapter number nine,
Jesus came into a certain city, and the
Bible says when He looked on those people,
He was moved with compassion.
You know why?
Because they were a sheep having no shepherd.
They were scattered abroad.
There was no direction in their life.
They had no idea where they were going
and what they were doing, but they were
lost and they were scattered abroad.
And the Bible says that Jesus was moved
with compassion.
Did you know your New Testament Bible says
that four times about Jesus?
Four times.
And not one time does it say when
He was moved with compassion that He sat
down and let somebody else do the job.
No, no, friend.
You see, when He was moved with compassion,
that compassion compelled Him to do something to
reach those people for the cause of Christ.
And I'm going to tell you what the
walking shoes of the local church is.
The walking shoes, ladies and gentlemen of the
local church, is compassion.
Love with Jesus.
Do you know why we don't fill up
our churches in the day and age in
which we live?
Do you know why people drive by the
signs and the marquees of our buildings and
why we can pass out a thousand and
one gospel flyers?
Why we can beg people to come to
revival meetings and missions conferences and Bible conferences?
Why we can beg young people to come
fill up our youth groups so we can
preach to them and holler at them?
Do you know why people laugh at us
when we go to the grocery store?
Do you know why it is that we
can't get people to come to the house
of God?
Do you know why it is when we
go into our family reunions and we go
to our family gatherings?
Very rarely do we ever have an opportunity
to bring up the grace of God.
Very rarely do we ever have an opportunity
to share Christ with other people.
I'll tell you why, ladies and gentlemen, because
we have been so busy about shoving the
gospel down people's throats.
We have been so busy about giving people
standards and giving people convictions that we have
forgotten that if we are going to reach
a lost and dying world with the message
of the Word of God, it takes more
than just the message to get to them.
It's delivering that message in a proper spirit
and in a proper manner.
And if we are going to win people
for Jesus Christ in Troubled City and in
Aaron and in Tennessee Ridge and in Clarksville
and Dixon and the roundabout communities, we are
going to have to have love with Jesus.
And the reason people are dying and going
to hell is because we pay most sinners
lip service.
But they don't see any light.
Let me read you something tonight that I
wrote on a piece of paper that stirred
me when I read it just a few
weeks ago.
It's by Mr. C.H. Spurgeon, the Prince
of Preachers, the pastor of the Metropolitan Baptist
Tabernacle.
When he was 20, you hear me?
20 years old, he was preaching to between
7,000 and 10,000 people every time
he opened his mouth.
I'm telling you, here was a 20-year
-old young man who had the power of
God upon him.
But at the end of this ministry, I'd
like to read you something C.H. Spurgeon
said.
If sinners be damned, at least let them
leap to hell over our bodies.
If they will perish, let them perish with
our arms about their knees.
Let not one sinner go to hell unwarned
and unprayed for.
And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, that's
exactly what we're missing in our local Baptist
churches.
We get up and we beat the pulpit
and we tell people to be safe, and
we get up and we run around and
we pass our gospel tract and we beg
people to be safe.
But if there's one thing our society does
not see, it does not see a tear
in our heart and weeping in our eyes
when it comes to telling people about the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And if there's one thing we have lost
in our churches, it is a heart of
love.
It is a heart of compassion.
And I do believe in being confrontational.
I believe in preaching on sin.
Hey, I'm against sin.
I'm against every bit of it.
You say, why?
Because God's against every bit of it.
God's holy and God's righteous.
And I believe we ought to have standards.
And I believe we ought to be holy.
But you know what our problem is?
Sometimes all we see is the long hippie
hair.
Sometimes all we see is the bad clothes
and the earrings all in their face.
Sometimes all we see is the tattoos all
over their body.
Sometimes all we hear is the rap music
or the country music or the rock and
roll heavy metal music coming out of their
car.
Sometimes the only thing we see is the
wicked words that come out of their mouth.
Sometimes the only thing we see is the
Bud Light and the Michelob and the Budweiser
that's in their hand.
But what we fail to realize is that
person lives that way because there's something deep
within the inner recesses of their heart that's
called sin, ladies and gentlemen, that has never
been taken care of.
And if we're not careful, we will hate
sin so much that it will cause us
to hate sinners.
Now you hear me tonight.
I believe sodomy is a sin.
I certainly do.
I don't believe it's an alternative lifestyle.
I don't believe they were born with it.
I don't think it was in their genes.
I think it's all in their stinking heart.
They need to be saved by the grace
of God.
You don't know a bunch of people that
meet together down in Nashville and a bunch
of perverts come together and you say, well,
they're a church.
No, you don't know a church full of
perverts.
You don't know a church full of sodomites.
You just know some people that meet together
and say they're a church, but really they're
not.
Because according to the Bible, no sodomite, no
professing homosexual is born again.
But I'll tell you something, just as much
as I'm against homosexuality, just because I'm against
sodomy and I'm against lesbianism and I'm against
that perverted, wicked, vile lifestyle, I'm going to
tell you something, if we're not careful, we
will hate their lifestyle so much that it
causes us to hate sinners.
And I'd like to remind you, they've got
a need, ladies and gentlemen, that need for
sodomite is the same need you had when
you got saved.
It was the grace of God.
And if we're not careful sometimes, I'm telling
you, if there's one thing I hate in
this world, if there's one thing that bugs
me and gets my dander up, if there's
one thing I could beat the pulpit about
and shout and holler and yell, it's drinking
and drunkenness.
I mean, you can call it booze, beer,
wine, you can call it whatever you want
to, friends, but I'm telling you it's wicked,
it's vile, it's the worst thing that's ever
been belched out of the bellies of hell.
And I hate it.
I've preached in the rescue missions.
It's destroyed my family.
It's destroyed marriages in my family.
I've got an aunt right now who's in
hell because of a drunk driver.
And I'm going to tell you what, I
hate the stuff with a purple passion.
I know what it was like as a
15, 16-year-old teenager to wake up
with my head spinning off and eyes rolling
back at my head.
I know what it's like to drink that
trash and to be on that mess.
And I'm going to tell you something, I
hate it.
And it's wicked.
And it's vile.
But if we're not careful, we will hate
drinking so much.
And we will hate drunkenness so much that
we won't even lift our finger to help
somebody in the rescue mission who's a drunkard.
We won't even lift our finger to give
somebody the Gospel who's got vomit all over
their clothes.
And they don't smell like you do.
And they don't act like you do.
And they don't live like you do.
And if we're not careful, ladies and gentlemen,
our heart of no compassion will cause us
to damn more people to hell than if
we never even told them about the Gospel
before.
And we have this idea that we can
just shove the Gospel down people's throats.
No, you cannot shove the Gospel down people's
throats.
People want to see you live the Gospel.
People want to see you love them.
That's why your Bible says in Psalm 126,
5 and 6, They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, that was
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheep with
him.
Now, I'm going to tell you something about
an evangelist.
You may not know this, but you're going
to know it tonight.
An evangelist is one of these guys who
has a hard time with the issue of
compassion.
You see, a pastor can sit down with
people and talk to them about their problems
all day long.
But not most evangelists, at least the ones
I know, especially this one right here.
I don't have a whole lot of patience
for people.
I just tell them, hey, it's right, it's
wrong, it's up and down.
You know, it's good, it's bad.
And you either do it or you're not
right with God and this, that and the
other.
And so an evangelist, by his very nature,
has to be careful that he's not so
confrontational that he doesn't learn to love and
learn to have compassion.
But I'm telling you something, ladies and gentlemen,
did you know there will be more sinners
saved by watching you and seeing your life
and by the compassion that you have than
will be that walk this aisle and come
to this altar and get saved by the
grace of God?
In every church I preach in, there will
be more people saved by the life of
the Christians who love the Lord and who
put the Bible sneakers on and who walk
through life and have compassion and love and
concern for people.
There will be many more people saved and
brought into church that way than will ever
walk down the aisle of a fundamental Baptist
church and profess the Lord Jesus because compassion
makes a difference in people's lives.
There was a young man, the early 1900's,
his name was John.
John had a sister by the name of
Samuel.
Sandra went to a little Baptist church across
town.
She walked about two and a half, three
miles to get there.
Walked down a little old crooked dirt road.
She got to this little old Baptist church
and she went to Sunday school and she
heard a lady Sunday school teacher get up
and give the doctrine.
Sandra's heart was breathed on as we preached
on this morning by the Holy Spirit.
Sandra went forward after the service there at
Sunday school just before the preaching time and
before the choir was to stand and sing
their song.
She talked to that dear lady Sunday school
teacher and that lady Sunday school teacher led
that little girl to the Lord Jesus.
Sandra went home that day and she was
by herself and I think about this time
according to my reading she was about 16
or 17 years old.
She walked back to the house and that
afternoon over Sunday lunch she was eating and
her family noticed that she didn't eat too
much and didn't ask her much about it.
In the next coming days it just seemed
like she just kept slipping deeper and deeper
into discouragement.
Well, one Friday evening over dinner her daddy,
her little brother John, her mother was there
and they had several other children.
Daddy finally said, Sandra, what in the wide
world's wrong with you?
Ever since you went to that church a
week or so ago, man, you just ain't
talking much and you ain't eating much and
you ain't slept much and you just ain't
done much of anything.
She said, I know.
She said, I got saved just this past
week, Daddy, and I know the Lord Jesus
Christ is in my soul and I know
He's in my heart to stay and I'll
not lose my salvation, but I'll tell you,
it breaks my heart to think that some
of you are going to go to hell.
And on Sunday, we're supposed to be having
a big special day and I've been nervous
all week about asking you to come to
church, but we're having a Sunday school campaign
down at that little log cabin Baptist church
and I want to invite you guys to
come.
And Dad said, I don't think I'll be
going.
And Mom said, no, I don't think I'll
be going either.
And little John was about 10 or 11
years old at the time and he lifted
his head up off the table and he
said, you know what, Sandra?
He said, I think I'll go with you.
He said, I'll walk down to that little
Baptist church with you.
I'll go to your little Sunday school campaign.
Just a little kid.
He got up on Sunday morning.
He put his little old ripped blue jeans
on.
He didn't know much about clothes.
He didn't know how you're supposed to dress
to go to church.
He didn't smell real well.
He kind of licked his hand and laid
down his cow licks, you know, his hair
just sticking up and discombobulated all over the
place.
He still had his little eyes seeping junk
there in his eyes before he got up
and he was just kind of a little
smelly old kid, you know, and they were
poor and he didn't have a lot and
Sandra did her best to save her dress.
Every Sunday she wore the same one and
she had it all creamed and all ironed
out and pressed just nice and she tried
to dress up for the Lord the best
she could.
And so she took the hand of her
little 10 or 11 year old brother, little
John.
And little John with that little log cabin
baptized church that day and he sat in
Sunday school and they had a substitute Sunday
school teacher that day.
That Sunday school substitute teacher came in there
and she began to talk about John 3,
16 for God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
And she talked about the death and she
talked about the burial and she talked about
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And at the end of that service little
John's heart was stirred within him and he
walked up to that teacher as a 10
or 11 year old child and said, you
know what ma'am, this Sunday school teacher
you told us during your lesson that if
God spoke to our heart and that if
we believe that little black Bible that you
was preaching from to come and tell you
about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come and tell you that I wanted to
receive Him and you know what, Miss Teacher,
I'd like to receive the Lord Jesus.
There was a lady that came over from
the church building from their adult Sunday school.
She came to get her little boy out
of that little log cabin Sunday school room
and as she was getting her little boy
out she looked over at little John standing
over there and she told her little boy,
she said, that's exactly the kind of children
I don't want you playing with in Sunday
school.
That's exactly the kind of way I don't
want you to dress when you come to
church.
And publicly humiliated little John right there in
front of all the boys.
Right there in front of all the girls.
Right there in front of all of those
people.
And little John's heart was hurt.
His heart was broken.
That lady said, son, that's exactly why sometimes
I don't let you come into the Sunday
school class with the rest of the kids
because those are the type of children I
don't want you to be around.
And that lady with a mean, mean tongue
in her wicked mouth she turned that little
10, 11 year old boy and said, you
know what little boy, you're not supposed to
dress like that when you come to church.
You're supposed to give your best to the
Lord.
You're supposed to comb your hair and brush
your teeth and clean your body and you're
not supposed to wear your little britches with
your holes in the kneecaps and that's all
he had.
And she said, you're not supposed to come
to church like that.
That lady turned around and walked away.
Little John walked over to his teacher and
said, ma'am, I don't mean you any
disrespect but I'm going to tell you something
right now.
I'm only 10, 11 years old but if
I lived to be 100 years old I'll
never darken the door of another church in
my life.
I'll never come to another Baptist church.
I'll never go to a Methodist church.
I'll never go to another revival meeting.
I'll never go to Sunday school as long
as I live.
I will never go to church again.
And John kept his promise in the 1920s.
John Dillinger was one of the most wicked
men that ever breathed God's air.
And he robbed and banked in Terre Haute,
Indiana and all throughout Indianapolis.
He murdered.
He was a rapist.
He was a vile, wicked, ungodly man and
until his death he kept that promise and
he never went to church again.
And John Dillinger right now is in the
very fiery, flaming pits of hell simply because
one rude, snotty Baptist woman didn't like the
way a little bus did with bricks.
I'm going to tell you John Dillinger probably
could have been one of the greatest evangelists
that the world has ever known.
Perhaps he could have taken the mess that
we're in in America and pulled America out
of their wickedness.
Maybe he could have been another Billy Sunday,
another Sam Jones, another C.H. Virgin and
another D.L. Moody but we'll never know
because John Dillinger is in hell because a
lady had no compassion on somebody that was
left to be desired.
You know our problem isn't in our local
churches.
Our problem is the same problem in the
book of James in chapter number 4.
In James, excuse me, chapter 5 we find
out that a man comes to that local
church and the Bible says he has a
ring on.
You read that there and it literally has
the idea in the original that he was
weighted down with rings.
He was a very rich man.
Probably drove a Rolls Royce a Mercedes Benz
a Lexus some real fancy fat cat rich
type of a fella lake houses boat houses
and everything you can imagine.
And he shows up and James gives the
analogy that they give him the best seat
in the place.
And they give him a nice little leather
stool and say man plop your feet up
on here we won't preach to all who
won't keep you along around here.
All they wanted was one thing.
They wanted that tithing envelope to go clink
clank in the offering plate to the local
church to give a little money.
But then a less to be desired skid
row mission red light tin can alley district
bum comes walking in the back.
He has no gold on him whatsoever.
He has long greasy stringy hair all the
way down his back and he smells like
a pack of cigarettes and a Bud Light
liquor still.
They look at him and they say well
I believe we've got a seat here in
the back for you.
And they sit that man down there in
the back and that man sits there and
in his heart he knows those people don't
care anything about him.
In his heart he knows if he could
get out of that Baptist church bless God
he'd never darken the door of another church
except for that whenever again.
And know what James said when he put
his analogy together.
He said for God is not a respecter
of persons and how dare we be a
respecter of persons.
Because I've got news for you.
We like to pick and choose who we
think God ought to save and who God
ought not to save.
I want to tell you something.
If God was in the picking and choosing
business I promise you one thing He wouldn't
have picked you and He wouldn't have picked
me.
That's for sure.
I mean the lowest of the low.
Bless God the vilest of the vile.
And everybody in this room tonight who is
saved it is because somebody touched your heart
with love and with compassion and spoke a
kind word to you.
Maybe it was a mom and dad that
loved each other and they led you to
Christ.
Maybe somebody took you to a revival meeting
like they took me to over at the
Metro Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
Maybe somebody read the word of God to
you.
Maybe somebody gave you a gospel tract.
But you are here tonight under the sound
of my voice saved by the very Holy
Spirit of God on your way to heaven.
You've got a Bible in your lap.
You've got a good suit of clothes on.
And I'm going to tell you why.
Because somebody touched you and raped you and
how dare we think how dare we think
we can take the old gospel gun and
shoot up the sinners and beat their legs
off with a King James baseball bat and
we can beg them to be saved, but
yet they never see it in our lives.
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, the walking
shoes of the local church is too small.
Making a difference.
But notice what Jude said in verse 23.
Boy, I like this part too.
He said, and others.
See, there's some people you won't reach through
compassion.
There's some people that are hard-headed and
stubborn and willful.
And I mean, they are just big, fat
morons is basically what Jude said.
You can't reach them through compassion.
through love.
So here's what you have to reach some
people with.
And others, save with fear.
What that means?
Freak the devil out of them.
Scare them absolutely positively to death.
Save them with fear, pulling them out of
the fire.
Now, by the way, that's the only text
I had in the Bible to prove that
we're supposed to preach hellfire, hot brimstone sermons.
That'd be the very one right there.
He said not everybody is going to be
reached through compassion.
He said not everybody is going to be
reached through love.
He said there's some people they're so cold,
they're so hard, they're so indifferent.
You've got to scare them absolutely to death.
He said you've just got to get up
and rear back and preach the Word of
God and part their hair right down the
middle and tell them they're lost, they're going
to hell and they need to be saved.
Now, no doubt, some people get saved in
that fashion.
But you know what?
He said what's really going to make a
difference in the local church?
What's really going to put this church on
the map, spiritually speaking?
What's really going to fill the altar with
sinners and the baptistry with converts?
I'm not a big walker.
Robertsons enjoy it and they do it every
morning, about 7, 7.30, something like that,
walk a few miles a day.
I don't really walk.
But you know, I know a little bit
about walking.
I remember when I was in junior high
school, they wanted me to do track.
And I didn't really care much to do
track or anything like that.
But they told me, Coach Stanczak said, if
you're going to do track, if you're going
to keep up the pace, he said you
don't run track in cowboy boots.
I said I know, but I ain't going
to show up in cowboy boots and nothing
stupid.
He said well you don't run in your
dress shoes either.
People get on me all the time.
You know, I'm always going through dress shoes.
I go through about five, six dress shoes
a year.
And you know, Brother Robertsons had the same
pair of dress shoes not bothering him off
the last 12, 18 years.
I go through five or six a year.
That's because I golf in them and go
motorcycling in them and I climb up mountains
in them and I just kind of do
everything in my dress shoes.
Don't know why, that's just the way.
But he said listen, you don't run track
in dress shoes.
He said you run track in running shoes.
He said you got to get this, you
got to get this.
So I went out and I bought these
little Nike things in them.
Had little puffy deals in them and I
put them on, strapped them on and I
put my little clothes on, my little outfit,
little number on my back and we went
out there and we ran and we ran
and we ran.
We did it every day.
Every day we'd run a little more.
Every day we'd run a little more and
we'd walk it off and run a little
more and run a little more.
But you know what?
In order to run that, if I was
going to be effective I had the right
kind of shoes.
I had to have the right kind of
equipment.
I'm going to tell you something, if this
church is going to be effective, if this
church is going to win people for Christ,
if we're going to fill this building up
this week and see people saved and see
hearts put back together and homes put back
together and teenagers have the fire of God
in them, I'm telling you, you're going to
have to have the right equipment church, you're
going to have to have the right shoes
and the walking shoes of the church.
People are going to have to find out
that you love them.
You see, you can talk to people all
you want about Jesus, but until they see
you love them, you can't do it.
You can't talk good to them.
There's people in my family right now, I've
talked to them, I mean, they're like talking
to that microphone.
They're about that dead.
They're about that cold.
They've got about that much brain.
They won't listen to a word you say.
But you know what, little by little, you
show them love.
Call them.
Send them a thank you card.
Send them something for Valentine's Day.
You just love them a little here, you
love them a little there and pretty soon,
man, their hearts will melt like butter on
a pie next to your face.
And I'm telling you, people far and near
and by and large cannot reject the old
-fashioned way of loving people that Jesus has.
Hey, when's the last time it is if
you had a sinner at work and you
said, hey, let me take that for you?
You ain't got to pay for it?
You just go to work.
When's the last time Mr. Golfer, that he
took a sinner's friend out and just paid
for it?
It's kind of a golf course.
It's just love.
Hey, ma'am, when's the last time you
went down to your little show and you
just you just loved somebody?
When's the last time you found out somebody
was hurting you and you went down to
the grocery store and sent 50 or 100
bucks on them and just lost the whole
family and what you're doing?
Hey, you try that sometime.
Let's try it.
You'll find that's your problem.
You just kind of flutter away and you
say, I ain't going to spend those 50
bucks or 100 bucks on somebody I don't
even know.
You think I'm going to spend money on
somebody?
You think I'm going to buy them groceries?
Hey, you just wait until you get the
sickle, bless God, and you'll wish to God
somebody go down to CB3 and buy you
some groceries.
You throw it out, buddy, it'll come back.
Cast that bed upon the water, not many
days, you'll find it.
Given it, shall be given.
Good measure, shall be given.
shall be pressed down, shaken together, running over,
shall be given to your bosom.
For what measure you meet it, shall be
measured to you again.
Whatsoever you sow, that you'll also reap.
You sow compassion, you'll get compassion, but you
sow a mean, cantankerous, bitter spirit and guess
what?
Everybody who talks to you is going to
be mean, bitter and cantankerous because you will
reap what you sow.
I don't care who you are.
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we've got
a long way from the walking trees in
the local church.
You know what the local church did in
the book of Acts?
I'll show you Bible sometimes.
They sold things they had to take care
of God's people within the church.
Say, you really believe we ought to do
that?
Let's God just assure this quote was read
out of wood.
I believe that.
I believe you find out there's a brother
or a sister that's hurting in the local
church.
Hey, it ain't Uncle Sam's responsibility.
It ain't the welfare agency.
It ain't IRS's responsibility to buy them groceries.
Let's God, it's the local church's responsibility to
have compassion and to love that person.
And now, I'm not just talking about leading
people to Christ with love.
I'm talking about bringing particles back into the
church with love and not looking down our
big long pharisaical noses and say, well, I'll
tell you one thing.
If I was that person, I wouldn't have
done this.
If I was that person, I wouldn't have
done that.
And we come to church and we gossip
and we got a tongue from here to
the interstate and we slay this person about
sin in their life and slay this person
and we talk to everybody about the problem
but the person who's got the problem.
We don't love them more than anything.
We love ourselves is what our problem is.
We have no love in our heart and
we have no compassion and Jude said, local
church, if you're going to reach these people
for Christ, if you're going to bring these
wayward prodigals and these backstabbing people back into
the few, if you're going to fill up
the choir loft and if you're going to
have people to preach to on Sunday mornings,
he said the only way you're going to
make a difference in their life is if
they see you love them, if they hear
that you love them and they see your
tears.
Let me ask you a question.
When's the last time you've even thought about
shedding a tear for somebody you know that's
lost?
We're the most cold, hardened, and indifferent society
on the face of the earth.
Nothing moves us anymore.
Nothing bothers us anymore.
We don't have to We don't have to
I remember when I first got saved I
was living in a children's home in Murfreesboro
You may have been here before but I
remember when I was there I'd get up
at night and I'd pray I'd pray for
my dead man to be safe I'd pray
for my dad to be safe I'd pray
for my friends and the ill people I
was dealing with at that time and I'd
say I'd just weep for them and cry
I mean just like that I could sit
in a service when I was a teenager
and I could hear somebody sing a song
like Brother Robinson singing and I'd go to
all the feasts I mean I'd slip a
wig and I'd get to weeping and crying
and snotting and crying all over the place
I mean I could cry when I was
a teenager probably up to about the time
I was about 21 years old I could
cry at the drop of a hand I
didn't care what any service didn't make no
difference But you know all of a sudden
something begins to happen We call it maturity
of the Lord Stupidity is what it is
We get to the place where nothing bothers
us anymore We got this holier than thou
attitude We walk around with our noses up
in the air and if it was to
rain we'd all drown in about five seconds
for sure and we have the idea that
it's something wimpy to cry We have the
idea that if we're going to cry in
a service then you know it must be
the judgment of God If we're going to
cry in a service then nobody's supposed to
see us and you know we go off
to services and we hear singing and we
hear preaching and God paints a vivid picture
in our mind of people that we know
who are going to hell and we sit
there and we think to ourselves well somebody
else will reach them The preacher gets up
and begs people to teach Sunday school He
begs people to pick up the little snotty
-nosed bus kids He begs people to go
out here He begs people to do this
He begs people to do that and the
average Baptist sits in the fuses whether or
not talking to me talking to all these
people that are sitting around me and we
have the idea that somebody else is going
to get the job done You know what?
Your neighbor thinks the same thing Somebody else
is going to get the job done Somebody
else is going to get the job done
and because somebody thinks that somebody is going
to get the job done nobody gets the
job done because we don't even care anymore
It doesn't even bother us and if Angus
could sit and holler and yell jump up
on the pulpit and preach about flames and
hell and it wouldn't bother some of us
it wouldn't bother us at all All we'd
be worried about is it wouldn't be hurry
up and shut up so I can get
home and watch the ball game You could
care less if your boss is going to
hell You could care less some of you
ladies maybe that your husband is not here
tonight going to hell Mister, maybe your wife
is going to hell maybe your children maybe
your grandchildren whoever it may be and I'm
telling you we know people left and right
who are dying and going straight to hell
and we will never reach them without compassion
We're going to have to learn to love
people We're going to have to learn to
get over ourselves and get over our pride
and humble ourselves before the mighty throne of
God and say God give me a heart
full of love God give me a heart
full of compassion and give me a broken
heart for sinners to see them converted by
the grace of God Listen, I'm through and
I don't know in this building who tonight
needs this moment but I know I need
it and that's why God told me to
preach it tonight but I remember I was
in Michigan and a preacher came to me
and he said my Lord I've been a
minister for a long time this is really
one of the first revival meetings I ever
had I was still in Bible college and
I had cut some classes I was doing
some summer school and I cut about a
week and a half two weeks of summer
school to go to a revival meeting out
in Michigan and this is later and when
apparently this preacher told me he said but
Lock he said I've been preaching for a
long time he said you know every time
I'd preach for the first few years of
my ministry he said I'd preach and he
said I don't care if I was preaching
on Jesus he said I don't care if
I was preaching on the crucifixion he said
I could be preaching on tithing he said
he said I could be preaching on the
inspirational Bible he said I could preach on
anything before I got through he said I'd
start crying he said I'd phone a lot
of people he said I'd just be preaching
and start crying he said just right in
the middle of the sermon and I know
people like that and they cry like that
and so he said I'd just cry and
cry and cry all the time he said
one day that got to bother me the
pastor he said that got to stir me
up so bad in my soul he said
I thought that was a weakness not a
strength he said I thought that was kind
of something that you know just shouldn't be
there I thought maybe there was something in
my life and so he said I started
searching my life and he said I'll never
forget he said I got in my closet
one day in my office and he said
I began to ask the Lord to quit
making me cry by the time I got
up in front of people he said I
got sick of that he said by the
time I get up there's that message start
again cry and cry and cry he said
before I get through I got
all done he said so finally I got
tired of that mess and he said I
just pray God will take my tears away
he said I got up in the pulpit
the next Sunday he said I was dry
as last year's virgin he said I got
in the pulpit and I preached for the
next few months and he said it was
just cold and dead and formalitic he said
there wasn't any life to it at all
he said the more I preached and the
longer I preached it seemed like the deader
he got and he said after a while
he said I got tired of that he
said it seemed like the conversion started dropping
off he said it seemed like we hadn't
put anybody in the baptismal waters and stirred
them up he said man the buses started
rolling less people in he said it seemed
like the school wasn't doing any well all
of a sudden problems and sin started creeping
up in the churches he said after about
six months of that mess he said I
got tired of that he said I went
back in the office one day and got
back on my face and said dear God
forgive me for my lack of compassion forgive
me for my broken heart he said Lord
I see now that those tears and that
weeping is not a weakness of man but
it's a strength from God and he said
Lord give me the tears back and I'll
never forget what that old preacher told me
he said brother Lot when I got my
tears back we got our ministry back I'm
going to tell you the life blood of
this ministry is awesome now I'm going to
tell you what this community is tired of
they're tired of churches just inviting them to
come to church for the sake of having
numbers so we can write the story of
the Lord and tell them how many people
we've had in our revival this community and
every community I preach in is sick of
that they are sick and tired of just
being somebody that sits on a pew and
is a number so we can get up
and holler at them and scream at them
and say bless God look how many we've
had to come to church Tommy Rot on
that I'm going to tell you something friends
we won't have to beg you to come
to church we won't have to preach near
as much against the liberals and the modernists
and the new evangelicals if we're just one
of the last few I'm going to tell
you something I'm not a new evangelical bless
God I know I'm not you ask the
Robertsons buddy I preach on them birds all
the time I'm not one bless God by
the grace of God I never want to
be one and when I become one of
them new evangelicals and preach for anybody just
to preach for them when I become one
of them liberals and one of them modernists
I'm going to tell you something I'm giving
it up I don't want to get involved
in that mess I ain't going that route
but I'm going to tell you something they
got something we don't as fundamentalists you know
why their churches are booming well number one
because they ain't got no standards they ain't
got no convictions but I'm going to tell
you why their churches are booming and busting
because they know how to meet people where
they're at I don't exactly know where I'm
going with this message but I'm going to
tell you something the way we treat divorced
people in our fundamental Baptist churches is wicked
and vile we treat divorced people like they're
crazy like they got leprosy and like they
can't do anything we treat divorced people in
our fundamental movement like man you can't ever
do nothing again I understand there are principles
in the word of God about a man
of God being a pastor or a preacher
I ain't for none of these divorced preachers
I ain't for one of these guys messing
up on the east coast and going on
the west coast bless God a preacher got
one shot and when you blow it bless
God you blow it but for people in
our churches we almost have the idea that
they got AIDS or they got cancer just
because they've been divorced and they come into
our churches and I'm thinking of a church
right now that I preached in a couple
of occasions and I got a revival meeting
right now and for the past six weeks
I've been praying and praying dear God give
me the right words to cancel this meeting
because I don't mind being in a small
church but I don't want to be in
a small pastor and there's a difference between
a small church and a small pastor and
I preach for some small pastors and this
guy belittles everybody and he's down on everybody
and I'll never forget what he told me
he said ain't no divorced person ever going
to be a member of my church now
excuse me pal we're going to have to
learn to meet people where they're at and
heal some broken hearts and some mended spirits
and some wounded spirits because I'm going to
tell you we're not living in the good
old days anymore we're not living in the
glory days where Memo and Papo stay married
for 85 years bless me God we should
be but we're not we're not living in
the good old days when you turn on
the television and Lucy and whatever her husband's
name Ricardo was sleeping in two separate beds
we ain't living in that day no more
we're not living in the grand old glory
days we're living in days when people hurt
when people go to Dr. Bottle Stopper and
Dr. Ragamuffin's office like crazy where people are
strung out on Ritalin and strung out on
Prozac and kids are killing each other in
school and people are dropping out of school
and people are having babies murdered and I'm
telling you people just can't get along we're
living in the wicked days and I'm telling
you this ain't the glory days anymore and
we're going to have to take the Bible
and love people and nurture people and encourage
people and bring people along in the Lord
love you do not grow an oak tree
overnight and I've got real problems with that
because that's an advantage buddy Then
we be the millions of people who have
never heard a gospel message who are going
straight to hell.
You know what Jesus said?
If you're going to reach Him, you're going
to reach Him with compassion.
And compassion that happens to be, ladies and
gentlemen, the walk of healing.
The loving act.
It's the walking scenes of the local church.
And if this church is never going to
be what it needs to be for the
glory of God, you're going to have to
learn, you're going to have to learn to
love people who are going We won't give
up.