Also, they'll have to leave tomorrow, but Brother
Dwight played the accordion a few moments ago.
I hope that you'll get to meet him.
Some of you, I'm sure, know him.
He's been here on a couple of occasions.
Wonderful, wonderful friend.
We've not got to see each other over
a year.
And they were in New Hope, Minnesota, this
past week.
And my wife and I flew back in.
We were in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
She went to Texas for a few days.
I went to a Bible conference in Alabama.
And we met back, and he said, hey,
let's meet together at Crackle Barrel.
And I said, all right, Baptist preacher never
passes up Crackle Barrel.
I said, so let's meet there.
And they said, listen, we're going to Duluth.
And I said, why don't you come with
us to Chittag?
Just one night, why don't you come to
Chittag and come to the service?
And so I appreciate him and his dear
wife coming.
And I hope that you'll get to know
them as well.
Colossians, chapter number 3, and verse number 1.
The Bible says, if you didn't be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
God.
Set your affectional things above, not all things
of the earth, for ye are dead.
Verse number 3, for ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God.
Now look at Romans, chapter 6, and verse
number 1, would you?
Romans, chapter 6, and verse number 1, where
the Apostle Paul says what?
Shall we continue in sin?
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound?
Listen to his answer, God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin
live any longer therein?
And I want to bring you a simple
message entitled, Why Don't You Just Drop Dead?
Thank you very much, you may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and have
a word of prayer, shall we?
Now Father, I pray that you would help
this congregation as they listen to the Bible
at this time.
And I pray that you would help me
as your servant for the hour to preach
the wonderful, wonderful word of God.
Lord, no doubt the devil would love to
do nothing more than to interfere and distract
and hinder our hearts tonight from hearing the
Bible preaching.
So I pray, Lord, that you would bind
him through the blood of Jesus Christ.
And I pray the word of God would
go forth as a great fire and as
a great hammer.
And Lord, we thank you for the promise
that your word will not return void.
Lord, we're here just kind of preparing for
what we're going to be doing all summer.
So Lord, work in our hearts this week
and give us the revival as your staff
people for this camp that we so desperately
need, in Jesus' name, amen.
You won't be saved very long before you
realize that Christians have a lot of battles
they have to face.
I mean, we've got a lot of desperately
wicked, ungodly enemies in the Christian life.
For example, the Bible says in the book
of James, chapter 4 and verse number 4,
speaking spiritually, "...ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye
not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God?
Whosoever, therefore, is a friend of the world
is the enemy of God."
I'll tell you what I like about the
Lord.
When he preaches, he does not beat around
the mulberry bush.
He just beats the cotton-picking mulberry bush
to death.
God said, if you're my friend, you're the
world's enemy.
And God said, if you're the world's friend,
you're my enemy.
And that's just about as plain as anybody
can put it.
He went on to say in 1 John,
chapter 2, verses 15 through 17, "...love not
the world, neither the things that are in
the world.
If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of light, is not
of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passed away in the lust
thereof, but he that doeth the will of
God abided forever."
Can I ask you a real pointed question?
Why would you want to live for something
that the Bible says one day is going
to pass away?
And so one of the greatest enemies, not
the greatest, but one of the greatest enemies,
no doubt, that we have as children of
God and Bible believers is the world, which
the Bible says we are supposed to be
separated from.
But there's also a great enemy, and who
we'll call the devil.
The Bible says in John, chapter 8, in
verse number 44, "...Year of your father, the
devil, and the lust of your father he
will do."
He didn't say you'd think about it.
For an unregenerate lost man, it's just natural
for him to be in sin and to
do the will of the devil.
So he said, "...Year of your father, the
devil, and the lust of your father he
will do."
He was a murderer from the beginning in
the boat not of the truth.
Why?
Because there is no truth in it.
When he's speaking the lie, he's speaking of
his own, for he is a liar and
the father of it.
2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse number 4, "...In
whom the God," by the way, that's a
little g, not Jehovah God, not Jesus Christ,
but the God of this world, the devil,
"...In whom the God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them."
And then, of course, one of the pet
verses, if you will, on the devil is
1 Peter, chapter 5, in verse number 8,
where the Bible says, "...Be sober."
Not speaking physically, if you will, but spiritually,
"...Be sober, be vigilant."
Why?
Because your adversary, adversary of God, adversary of
man, your adversary of the devil, "...As a
roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour."
And no doubt, as Bible believers, we have
a desperate, desperate enemy in the world.
We have a desperately wicked enemy in the
devil, but the greatest enemy that we have,
no doubt, is sitting in the pew with
us tonight, and before you tap your buddy,
I'm talking about you.
It is your wicked, godless, unregenerate flesh, because
although you've been saved by the grace of
God, you've got a flesh that still struggles
with godlessness.
You've got a flesh that still struggles with
sin, and I'm sorry to tell you, dear
friend, you're going to have that flesh till
the day you drop it and kick up
glory dust in the skies.
Now, I believe, you believe what you want
to, but I believe that God wants His
people to be victorious.
We sing songs like Victory in Jesus, like
we don't know what Victory in Jesus is
all about.
I think God wants us to be happy.
I think God wants us to be biblically
and scripturally excited, or else Nehemiah would not
have said in Nehemiah 18, "...Neither be ye
sorry, for the joy of the Lord is
your strength."
And I go to a lot of churches,
and people come to church, and they're all
down to the mouth, and it looks like
they've been sucking on lemons and pot-sour
persimmons, and God died last week, and He
can't pay their bills.
But Malachi 3.6 says, "...I am the
Lord, I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob shall not be
consumed."
So, I believe that we serve a God
that wants us to be excited and wants
us to be victorious.
I'll go even farther since I'm preaching here
this week and say this.
I believe God wants you to be godly,
soul-winning, souled-out, separated, staffed person this
year and this summer at this camp to
lead boys and girls to Christ, have a
victorious testimony, if you will, and have a
domineering effect upon these children.
You are not here to impress them.
You are here to impact them.
And in the Word of God tonight, we
are going to deal with five very simple
principles that, without a doubt, will make you
a very successful, not only Christian, but will
make you a very successful counselor and staff
member this week.
Number one, I want you to write it
down.
Somebody once said that a short pencil is
better than a long-term memory.
First of all, the first successful principle, if
you will, of life in this issue of
dying to self is, number one, very simply,
you're going to have to forget yourself.
Now, tonight, I hope you're not looking for
anything deep.
I hope you're not looking for anything grandiose
and greatly educational or theological.
It's going to be biblical, but it is
not going to be deep.
It's going to be very simple, all right?
I'm from Tennessee.
I'm simple-minded.
So you've got some simple-minded preachers coming
to you tonight, all right?
So, number one, you have to forget yourself.
Now, regardless if it's fundamentalism or not, as
I travel as an evangelist, and Brother DeWine,
and I'm sure Brother Duffy is an evangelist,
knows this.
You start getting up in churches and pulpits
and telling people to forget themselves and, friend,
they'll throw you out on their ear.
I mean, we are living in a day
when everybody says, Me, me, me, and they
want to serve themselves and they want to
pamper themselves.
But can I remind you what Job said?
Job said that he sat down in sackcloth
and ashes.
He shaved his head like a marine and
said, I abhor myself.
Can I tell you a spiritual principle?
The closer you get to God, the less
you're going to think about yourself.
And the world and the sociologists and the
humanists and the social gospelists, if you will,
and these psychologists and all these counselors on
the radio and TV, they say pamper yourself
and love yourself and do more for yourself.
Friend, I don't need to pamper my flesh
anymore.
It is already wicked.
It is already ungodly, and I need to
forget about me.
I remember when I first got saved by
the grace of God, somebody came to me
and they said, Greg, did you know that
you have the little adage, joy, Jesus, others,
and you?
And did you notice where the you was?
That's right.
You were at the bottom of the totem
pole, and if you want real joy, bless
God, that's where you better stay.
I think we ought to have God first.
Matthew 6, 33.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness.
And all these things, daily needs and daily
provisions of life, all these things shall be
added unto you, and then after we are
servants of Christ, we are servants of other
people.
So number one, forget yourself, but number two,
here's the big one, you're going to have
to fight yourself.
Somebody says, well, I've saved a lot.
I'm just not a very violent person.
That's fine.
You say, well, I just don't like blood
and gore and guts on TV and on
Hollywood, and neither do I, but I'm going
to tell you something.
If you're saved by the grace of God
and you are going to do anything for
God this summer or for the rest of
your life, you're going to have to pull
out the big guns, you're going to have
to pull out the big swords, you're going
to have to pull out the big knives,
and you're going to have to fight, fight,
fight your wicked, godless flesh.
And do you know why most people are
dominated and dictated by their flesh?
Because they give in on the fight.
Because they're not willing to fight.
As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 31,
I die daily.
Paul said, listen, when I wake up, when
my bare feet hit the floor, I look
my face square dab in the eyeballs and
say, Paul, sorry to tell you something, son,
you're going to have to drop dead today.
You're not going to be dictated and dominated
by Paul.
You're going to be dictated and dominated by
the Spirit of God and by the Word
of God.
And you are going to have to fight
your flesh for the rest of your life.
Now, here's just a real simple version, a
real illustration.
It's not even really that spiritual.
Think about something for a moment.
Most of you have jobs, and if you
go to a Bible college, usually if you're
not married, you know, you just kind of
have a job that you're just loaded down
with.
You have schoolwork that you're loaded down with.
You have classes, let's say, as I did
at Ambassador, about 7 o'clock in the
morning.
You work late, you get in, and all
of a sudden you set the alarm clock
so you can have devotions and get some
breakfast, and so you can get up and
take a bath and get ready and wash
clothes and all that kind of stuff, and
so the alarm clock goes off about probably
about 5.30. And so at 5.30
in the morning, you hear, and, and, and,
and so you wake over, and instead of
rolling over to bed and say, Oh, glory
to God, I'm ready to pray for every
missionary around the world.
I'm ready to read Psalm 150, I'm ready
to read all 150 chapters of the Book
of Psalms.
I'm ready to give all my money away
to Almighty God, and I'm ready to get
on the phone and witness to every lost
family member I got.
If you wake up that way every morning,
I need to know what kind of Prozac
you're on, because I don't, all right?
But here's usually what you do.
At 5.30 in the morning when it
goes, and, and, you usually hit S-N
-O-O-Z-E, snooze, because that's what
you want to do.
You want to go back to bed.
And so you hit the snooze button, and
five minutes later, and, and, and, it goes
off again.
So what do you do?
You wake up?
No, you reach over and hit the snooze
button again, because you want to stay in
bed, and your flesh says stay in bed,
but you know you've got to get up.
And I thank God one day when I
get to heaven, Brother Dallas, there'll be no
and, and, and in the Kingdom of God,
all right?
And so that's a real, just kind of
a secular illustration of how you're going to
have to fight your flesh.
But spiritually, it's much deeper than that.
Spiritually, it's much more domineering than that, if
you will, because your flesh does not want
you to be a victorious Christian.
Your flesh wants to dominate you.
It wants to dictate you.
And you say, well, can I remind you,
Brother Locke, that I am from a Christian
Bible college, and I'm working at a Christian
camp, and I can remind you that you've
got the same flesh that anybody else across
the face of God's earth does.
And there's been many more that are much
more godly and much more wonderful than you
and I and the work of the Lord
that have fallen because they did not fight
their flesh.
When my brother and I were younger, we
lived on a farm that was run by
a fellow.
He probably lived, I don't know, he probably
lived to be about 110 years old.
He just recently died, I guess.
You know, my brother was telling me about
it.
He's about 95 years old, and we knew
him.
His name was Mr. Hughley.
He gave us the rights to a farm,
and our farm was across the street from
his farm, and we had a great big
old three-story barn, and we had a
little, a little kind of like a, I
don't know, a big strawberry grove or something
like that, and we had a sinkhole, and
somebody says, what is a sinkhole?
Well, if you don't know what a sinkhole
is, they're really interesting.
You just kind of put your trash in.
You go back two weeks or two days,
depending on how long it's been in there.
You go back a couple of weeks later,
and the trash is gone.
Where it goes, I don't know.
That's why they call it a sinkhole, but
my brother told me, you keep running your
mouth, son, I'll tie you up and gag
you like a cow, and I'll throw you
in there, and you'll be gone in two
or three days as well.
And so I had a brother that didn't
love me too much.
But anyhow, we had a big, big pond
that was connected by a little stream that
went to another pond.
And my brother and I took it upon
ourselves that we were going to take a
little BB gun and go out and collect
snake skins.
Now, before you ladies turn me off and
don't take any more notes, all right?
I'm not a big snake lover, okay?
And probably most of you, some of you
nutty girls, you might like snakes, and you
like the snake handling and all that kind
of stuff, all right?
I don't care for snakes, but I'd much
rather have a snake than a spider.
There's five kind of spiders I hate.
Big ones, little ones, dead ones, live ones,
rubber ones.
I hate the suckers.
They scare me to death.
I don't like black ones.
I don't like green ones.
I don't like poisonous ones, non-poisonous ones.
I can't stand a spider.
I made that statement not too long ago
in a church, and I got in the
pulpit the next night, and they had a
great big old rubber spider right up there
in the pulpit.
I canceled the meeting.
Just kidding.
But anyhow, I just can't stand them.
They scare me to death.
They get on my nerves, and I get
to eebie-jeebies whenever I start thinking about
spiders, all right?
But snakes don't bother me.
And so we would collect these snake skins,
and we'd get some three or four foot
long, longest one we ever got, probably five
or six feet, something like that.
And we would find them, and it was
interesting to me that when you find a
snake skin very rarely, if ever, will you
find a segment of a snake skin, another
segment of a snake skin, usually you find
it either in half or you find it
all intact.
When I was studying for this message a
couple of months ago, I began to do
a little bit of a study about the
life of a snake.
Do you know why the snake has to
shed its skin?
Because the flesh of a snake does not
grow at all.
It is dead, if you will.
And so inside of that snake's body, depending
on the science, he goes out and eats
a bird.
He eats a rat.
He eats a pig.
He eats a dog.
Thank God if he eats all the cats
in America.
But anyhow, he comes back, and the nutrients,
the nutrients inside of that snake's body, it
says, grow, grow, grow.
And his flesh says, no, no, no.
You're not going anywhere.
And so the snake says, well, I know
how to fix you.
And so he finds himself a rock.
He finds himself a big thing, a little
thicket of sticks.
He finds himself a little hole that's probably
maybe half an inch to an inch smaller
than him so he can get inside there.
And he begins to work.
And every muscle in that snake's body is
for one purpose, to contort itself and to
contrict itself.
And from the back to the front to
the middle to the back, he is working
and working and grunting and moving for one
purpose, that he may be bigger than he's
ever been before, but he can't grow because
he's got a flesh.
He can't grow until he first learns to
drop the flesh.
And so he works and he sweats and
he groans and he pushes and he slithers
until finally he gets the flesh dropped so
he can get bigger.
And may I remind you that Peter said
in 2 Peter 3, but grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and this flesh wants to inhibit
you from growing.
It wants to stop you.
It wants to slow you down.
And until you learn spiritually to drop the
flesh, you will never grow, grow, grow like
God wants you to do because your flesh
says, no way, Jose.
And ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to tell
you tonight, you are going to have to
learn to fight.
Can I just give you something by way
of green stamps?
Guess where...
This is kind of interesting.
Guess where the snake begins to shed its
flesh, Brother Duffy.
I began to read and I thought to
myself, well, maybe he kind of starts from
the tail end up, you know what I
mean?
Maybe he kind of starts and then he
kind of cuts himself in half and goes
this way and then cuts himself in half
and goes this way and I was just
kind of interested, where does he start?
And did you know that 99.99.9
% of the time, do you know where
a snake starts shedding his flesh?
His limbs.
Because he knows if he can get the
flesh off of his limbs, it won't be
any problem to pull it off the rest
of his body.
Now, can I remind you that most of
our problems as God's people are mouth problems,
talking about things and saying things we have
no business talking about.
You know how many I know your tongue
is so wicked tonight because God put it
behind some iron bars called teeth to keep
that thing in your throat so it wouldn't
jump out and hurt somebody.
Can I remind you what James said?
He said your tongue is a wall of
fire.
He said it's wicked and he said it's
vile and without the help of the Spirit
of God, no man can tame the tongue.
It says in Ephesians 4 in verse number
29, let no, not a, not one, let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth
but that which edify it, the Bible says,
or we're supposed to speak to the edification
of other people.
Can I remind you your tongue is for
two things and two things only?
It's for the glory of God and for
the good of man.
And many times we're gossiping and we're slandering
and buddy, we carry a King James Bible
around and we wear the right clothes and
we look the part and talk the part
and sing the part and act the part
but we get on the telephone and we
got a tongue from here to the interstate
and we talk about this person and we
slay this person and we say, hey, do
you hear about her?
Do you hear about him?
And we talk about things that we have
no business talking about and I believe if
we can get our tongue under control, my
dear friend, it will take care of just
about the rest of this godless flesh that
we've got.
But can I remind you that once it
begins to come off his lips, where logically
and naturally is it going to come off?
It's going to come off of his eyes.
If you've ever watched a National Geographic program,
I kind of get into those programs.
I like National Geographic.
I like Unsolved Mysteries.
I don't know which one I like better
but I like them both, alright?
But if you watch National Geographic and you
watch a snake shit his flesh, he's just
like a shark when he's eating.
He kind of closes his eyes and gets
these little lid looking things and the flesh
just comes right across the top of his
eyes and David said in Psalm 101, verse
number 3, I will set no wicked thing
before mine eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn
aside and shall not cleave to me, says
God.
You know why most of us get in
such a bind with our flesh?
It's because of what we look at.
It is what goes into our eyes that
burns in the back of our head, if
you will, like some kind of computer chip,
some type of plate and we never forget
it.
We can do all of the praying we
want to and most of the time when
we are praying it's when the devil will
bring that back and you will never forget
what goes into your eyes.
Every week this year except one.
Every week so far this year except one.
I have heard about people, whether they be
deacons, whether they be laymen, whether they be
people in the ministry, not of the ministry
and yes, many of them even preachers, I
have heard every week but one and that's
when I was at the Enocho Baptist Church
just a few weeks ago and the reason
I didn't hear it there is because it
was a little church.
Every week people that fall through internet pornography.
Now, can I remind you more than likely
you're not going to set up a big
conference table in your room, I know that
and you're not going to have all your
laptop equipment and your printers and your HP
and all this kind of stuff but can
I remind you that if I could jump
on your laptop mister or if I could
go to your little PC in your house
it wouldn't take me but about 15 minutes
to see every hit you've ever made on
the internet and by the way, if I
can't see it can I remind you what
number 2333 says be sure your sin will
find you out.
They have a little thing that they call
GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out and the reason
sometimes we can't control our wicked godless flesh
is because we're looking and we are feasting
upon the wrong things and by the way,
it's not just fellas nowadays that you have
to preach about on pornography.
I mean, we sit on TV and people
look at junk on the internet and magazines
and movies and all kind of stuff they
ought not be putting in their eyes and
I'm telling you ladies and gentlemen you will
never get your flesh under control until you
tell it to die.
Somebody says, well I'll tell you what Brother
Locke, if I could just one time if
I could just one time involve myself in
sin I would be satisfied and if you
believe that you ought to sue your brain
for non-support.
You give your flesh an inch it will
take a mile every single time.
You can't tell your flesh here, have a
little here.
You can't pamper your flesh because the more
you pamper it the more it whines to
be pampered.
The more you buy it the bigger of
an appetite that it gets.
Let's say just for a moment that we
came here tonight and everybody was starving to
death.
I mean they hadn't fed you.
I mean you've not had anything to eat
in two or three weeks and if I
brought a pepperoni pizza up here and put
some of that cheese on your forehead your
tongue would beat your brain slap out to
get to it.
I mean you were starving to death.
And so let's say that I brought a
bunch of Papa John's pizzas.
I figure Papa John's everywhere, alright.
And so I bring a bunch of Papa
John's pizza up here and I just lay
them jokers all out across this platform and
we move the pulpit out of the way
and I mean there's pizza after pizza after
pizza after pizza.
And so I give you a great big
old glass of water and you guzzle it
down and say man I was thirsty but
I sure am more hungry I gotta have
something to eat.
And so I give everybody a plate and
a napkin and people start coming by and
they start grabbing the pizza and they say
whoa wait just a minute.
You get one pepperoni the first time and
two pepperonis the second time.
That's it.
Not a whole slice just pull the pepperoni
out.
You have to put a slice back.
One pepperoni that's it.
So you put a pepperoni in your plate
and you walk back and sit down.
You say you would be so ignorant to
do something so silly because all you're going
to be doing is feeding my appetite that
that one pepperoni is going to make me
want the whole pizza.
Exactly.
And that one time you give into your
godless flesh is going to make your flesh
want more more more until you destroy your
spiritual life and that brings me to my
third point.
Number one you're going to have to forget
yourself.
Forget all about you.
Start thinking about him and start thinking about
others.
By the way you are not here this
summer for you you are here for the
children.
You are here to help people not to
hurt people.
And so number one forget yourself.
Number two fight yourself.
But number three you're going to have to
forsake your sin.
I don't know why we have this idea
many times that just because we're saved we
can live any jolly way we please.
Hey, that's not New Testament Christianity.
You see we have a problem.
We are 1 John 1-9ers if you
will.
Now 1 John 1-9 is just as
inspired and just as much as in the
part of the inerrant Bible is John 3
-16.
And I thank God for 1 John 1
-9.
I've claimed it.
If we confess our sins He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I thank God for it.
But I think sometimes we come at a
revival meeting or something like this and we
run down 1 John 1-9 Oh dear
God please forgive me.
And you get off your knees and two
weeks later you're right back in the same
mess you ever were before you had that
revival meeting.
What was wrong?
You confessed it but you didn't forsake it.
I mean here you were on your face
and more than likely you knew good and
well in the back of your mind that
you were going to go do it again.
Hey friend that's not forsaking.
That might be agreeing that it's wrong but
that's not getting to the place where you
say God I've offended you I'm hurting my
testimony I'm hurting other people God please forgive
me and confess it and leave it at
the altar and forsake it and get it
out of your life because that which you
do not forsake will eventually be that which
destroys your spiritual life.
You know that?
You know why we have such a high
divorce rate in America?
Seventy-five percent among what they call quote
evangelical Christians because people do not know how
to forsake their sin.
They don't know how to forget themselves and
they don't know how to fight their flesh
and we have this idea that hey I'm
a peripheral superman I'm a big spiritual man
I'm a big spiritual lady and I can
whoop sin and let me say no you
cannot whoop sin.
If sin is something so wicked and so
vile that it can send you to hell
before you get saved then don't you think
for one moment that it won't destroy your
spiritual life friend because it will.
Sin has always become a ruiner and the
Bible says when lust is conceived it bringeth
forth sin and sin when it is finished
bringeth forth death.
I received a letter in the mail probably
I don't know about six months ago.
I won't tell you the fellow's name but
he lived close in the proximity of where
Dwight and I went to school at Ambassador
Baptist College and he wrote me a letter
I'll call him Trent that's not his name.
Trent wrote me a letter about six months
ago I knew Trent when Trent was eighteen
when actually he was seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen
or so when I was in school and
I found out that Trent was going to
be getting married and he was going to
be getting married to a young lady where
I'd preached in a revival meeting in Mooresboro,
North Carolina and this lady walked down and
said she got saved but to be honest
with you I think she did it to
appease the preacher because her life never changed
and she was crooked as a dog tying
her leg and she was just kind of
quote religious and so he kind of fell
head over heels with her and said listen
I got to marry this girl and he
didn't ask me about it didn't have a
whole lot of counsel about it as a
matter of fact he left this other church
another previous church so he could run out
and marry this girl and so they got
married found out after they were married she
was several years older and he knew that
I mean like ten or twelve years older
than him something like that she'd been married
eight times and four or five of her
marriages were still in divorce court she wasn't
even divorced for some of them and so
he married this lady and she had two
children and he did the best he could
and I remember I was in a revival
meeting in North Carolina and I remember I
went to their house and man they fed
me steak and I mean we had family
devotions and they prayed with me and I
mean we just we just had a time
I mean it was good and it seemed
like everything was going well and it seemed
like their family was growing it seemed like
she really was growing and man he was
excited and I thought man he looks kind
of weird here he is you know he's
only nineteen years old he's married this twenty
eight or twenty nine year old lady but
I mean man he's been a good dad
he's been a good husband man they were
in the house of God almost every night
they were construction workers but every night man
they'd come into their grunge he's a little
bit late for church but they'd come in
to hear me preach they'd come to the
altar together and pray and I thought man
the Lord's really working in our hearts and
I got this letter he said brother he
said on the outside he said man we
were all jolly well and we all looked
real good he said but I'm just writing
you to tell you to tell people across
this country that I tried to beat the
system but I guess I was wrong he
said man he said my life's in a
shambles he said I've been on all kinds
of drugs and medication he said I've been
to psycho wards and all this kind of
stuff he said man we've got a divorce
and he said right now he's twenty one
years old he said man we've had a
divorce and he said she hates my guts
and man I don't want to be around
her and my mom's having all kinds of
problems with my dad and this that and
the other he moved matter of fact to
the state of Minnesota and I mean he
was just in a mess and he said
tell people all over this country for the
life that I thought I could beat the
system but I guess it was wrong and
might I announce to you you'll be wrong
too there's never been anybody that's been able
to beat the system there's never been anybody
that's been able to flirt around and mess
around with sin and not get bitten in
the end I read a story obviously not
true but makes a good illustration and analogy
for our message tonight an elderly gentleman was
crawling up to the top of a mountain
when he got there there was a rattlesnake
to meet him he jumped back and kind
of startled the rattlesnake said say mister I
won't bite you he said I'll tell you
what he said how about picking me up
and wrapping me around your neck and taking
me down to the bottom of this mountain
he said cause you're crazy he said you're
a snake and he said you're biting he
said no I won't he said I'll make
a deal with you he said you put
me around your neck tomorrow morning he said
cause it won't take you but a couple
of hours to get down he said it
might take me a couple of days and
some old eagle or some old chicken hawk
will pick me up feed me the little
babies and so he said you pick me
up put me around your shoulder he said
I promise I won't bite you I won't
so much as lick you I won't slither
at you I won't rattle my tail we'll
just have a good time of fellowship I'll
tell you what it's like to be a
snake you tell me what it's like to
be a human and man that next morning
he convinced him man they got up had
eggs and bacon together man they walked down
there he put him around his shoulder I
mean they talked and walked all the way
down there and finally the old gentleman said
listen I really appreciate your friendship he said
say mister I appreciate your friendship too boy
you've been real kind to me he took
him off and he laid him down they
said their goodbyes the old man turned around
the snake bit him right in the leg
obviously being an older gentleman he could feel
that venom shooting through his veins and he
fell over and he was about to have
a cardiac arrest and he reached out and
grabbed that snake and with his last words
he said why in the world did you
lie to me he said you made a
solemn vow that if I would pick you
up and fellowship with you all the way
down this mountain for a couple of hours
he said you promised promised that you would
not bite me and the snake said I
sure did he said I made that vow
he said I made that promise but can
I remind you mister you knew exactly what
I was before you ever picked me up
to take me off the mountain and friend
I'm going to tell you something it will
bite you in the end every single time
Proverbs chapter 28 verse number 13 Bible says
he that covered his sin shall not prosper
let's quote that part again alright listen very
closely he that covered his sin shall not
prosper that means any man woman boy and
girl tall short fat skinny hair on their
head or bald as a cue ball it
makes no difference God said if you hide
your sin you will not prosper but he
said at the end of the verse who
so confessed it there it is and forsaken
on him should God have mercy there was
a little boy and little girl sitting in
a Sunday school room teacher came in and
said hey boys and girls we're going to
talk about a fancy word today called repentance
does anybody know what repentance is and little
boy shot up his hand in his Bible
he said yes ma'am this man it
means you're sorry for your sin little Susie
jumped up and said no sorry Bob it
means you're sorry enough to quit your sin
and friends that's what real repentance is that's
what real confession and real forsaking and tonight
you better forsake your sin I don't know
anything about it somebody else might not know
anything about it but that doesn't make a
jolly well difference whatsoever if God knows about
it that's what counts and you will not
prosper this summer you will not prosper in
any relationship and you will not prosper in
your relationship to God if I regard iniquity
my heart the Lord will not hear me
Psalm 66 18 and tonight you need to
forsake your sin I want you to take
your Bibles please and turn to the book
of Ephesians chapter 5 would you the book
of Ephesians and chapter number 5 in Ephesians
chapter 1 chapter 2 and chapter 3 the
apostle Paul through the inspiration of the Spirit
of God is uplifting the Lord Jesus Christ
and he is speaking and preaching if you
will about the church in Ephesians chapter 4
verses 11 and 12 we have the ministerial
gifts which would be the evangelist the pastor
the teacher and the foundational gifts of the
Old Testament such as the prophets and this
that and the other but in Ephesians chapter
5 he begins to talk about the blessedness
and the victory of the Spirit-filled life
would you please look at Ephesians chapter 5
a well-known verse verse number 18 he
says and be not drunk with wine we're
in a success now by the way that
don't mean you can't be drunk with wine
if it's not an success all right all
drinking drunk we'll not deal with that tonight
he says and be not drunk with wine
we're in success but be filled with the
Spirit now in my Bible there is not
a period after the word spirit you know
what that means that means the thought continues
into the next verse here's an evidence you've
been filled with the Spirit verse number 19
speaking to yourselves and songs and hymns and
spiritual songs singing and making melody and your
hearts to the Lord now if you're supposed
to forget yourself if you're supposed to fight
yourself if you're supposed to forsake your sin
can you do that on your own no
because number four you're going to have to
be filled with the Spirit you are going
to have to have some help not only
this summer at camp but you're going to
have to have some help for the rest
of your life because Jesus said in John
15 5 for without me ye can do
nothing and no doubt that doubly talks about
the fact of fighting and forgetting and forsaking
your sin because you cannot do that on
your own now get the analogy would you
you would be appalled tonight if a drunk
man came in interrupted our service not because
he came in because we would want to
help him spiritually no doubt but let's say
that he came down to the front row
vomit all over his clothes great big old
beard hanging down to his knees and I
mean he came in with a big old
fifth of liquor in his hand and he
came walking down and he stunk to high
heaven he was kind of staggering around and
he laid down there man brother just make
a vow amen I mean just acting a
blooming fool and just laughing and carrying on
and just kind of ridiculing everything we're doing
tonight now would that not appalled you shake
your head yes or no yes that would
bother you and if it didn't bother you
I think what in the wide world is
wrong with you that would bother me as
well I mean that how how irreverent for
somebody to come to the house of God
drunk somebody to come into this camp session
tonight when we're preaching the Bible drunk but
can I remind you that in the same
verse in the same analogy God says don't
you be drunk with wine but if you
come to church if you come to chapel
if you come to the Lord and you're
not filled with the Spirit of God according
to the same verse you're just as irreverent
you're just as ungodly and you're just as
wicked as the low down good for nothing
crooked dirty vile bum that comes in with
drink all the and God says hey don't
you be dictated and dominated by some intoxicating
outside substance he says but likewise you be
dominated and dictated by the intoxicating substance if
you will of the Spirit of Almighty God
you see when a person drinks I wish
I didn't have to tell you but before
I got saved by the grace of God
I know what it's like to wake up
at four and three three or four o
'clock in the morning with eyes rolling back
in your head vomiting all over your clothes
it's not a happy sight it's not a
healthy thing but you know a person that's
drunk you know why they always swerve off
the road they talk about seeing pink elephants
and purple water buffalos and all this kind
of stuff they're crazy because that drink dominates
their thinking that drink dominates where they go
how they act and what they say and
God says don't be drunk with wine he
says but basically in the same verse if
you get filled with the Spirit of God
it will dominate your thinking it will dominate
where you go and what you wear and
how you act and what you listen to
and what you say and what you sing
he said be intoxicated or drunk if you
will with the Spirit of Almighty God and
it also says in this verse it literally
means be ye being filled not a one
time deal a lifetime deal now I've got
all the Holy Spirit of God I'm ever
going to get when I get saved I
don't care what Benny Hinn says the rest
of those crooks on TV I don't need
more of the Holy Spirit of God and
I don't need a second blessing and the
first one I got saved by the grace
of God I got all the blessing and
all the Spirit of God I'm going to
need the Spirit of God wants more of
me he wants me to surrender myself he
wants me to be a surrendered servant and
Romans 12 1 and 2 Christian and I
don't get more of that he gets more
of him he gets more of me and
he fills me on a continual basis and
my testimony will show as to whether or
not if I've been filled with God's Spirit
or not one more place we need to
go tonight John chapter 21 would you turn
there please the gospel of John chapter number
21 my wife was talking to a lady
not long ago in the Broadus Memorial Baptist
Church in Concord North Carolina and I had
her do the invitation take a lady in
the back who was interested in being saved
by the grace of God this lady after
she got saved she said Mrs. Luck what
do I do now she says what do
I start reading I'll tell you what I
love to see new converts new converts are
interesting to me I mean you get a
new convert and you strap him with a
big red banner that says Jesus saves and
tell him to jump out 25,000 feet
from an airplane without a parachute and bounce
for the glory of God most of them
would do it I'll tell you who bothers
me it's those people's been saved for three
or four five ten fifteen twenty years and
think that God the world the government everybody
else owes him a favor but as a
newborn believer in Christ I think the best
place to start the gospel of John I
mean twenty one chapters packed full of doctrine
twenty one chapters packed full of the deity
of Christ I mean just real simple I
mean it starts basically with the Lord Jesus
Christ and his deity and then goes in
John chapter three and talks about Jesus and
Nicodemus he must be born again it's a
wonderful wonderful book a discipleship book now as
you get to John chapter number 21 we
meet up with a fellow that no doubt
in the New Testament had a mouth that
was shaped like a foot his name was
Peter and he was all the time putting
his foot in his mouth and Peter in
chapter number 21 verse number 18 is speaking
with Jesus and as he is speaking with
Jesus Jesus begins to give him for lack
of a better word some new revelation upon
what's going to take place in his life
he's saying Peter one day somebody is going
to take you to a place you don't
want to be around people you don't want
to be with and kill you in a
way that you do not wish to die
whatsoever and so Jesus is giving Peter this
speech this revelation and look what Peter says
and look what Jesus says to him in
verse number 18 barely barely or truly truly
I say unto thee when thou was young
thou girdest thyself and walkest wither thou wouldest
but when thou shalt be old thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird
thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not
this make he signifying by what death he
should glorify God and when he had spoken
this he saith unto him now here's the
command follow me then Peter turning about see
the disciple whom Jesus loved following which also
leaned on his breast itself speaking of the
beloved John and said Lord which is he
that betrayeth thee Peter seeing him sayeth to
Jesus Lord and what shall this man do
verse number 22 Jesus saith unto him if
I will that he tarry till I come
what is that to thee second time the
command is given follow thou me number one
you're going to have to forget yourself number
two very simply you're going to have to
fight yourself and I'm sorry to tell you
you're going to have to do that for
the rest of your life as a child
of God number three if you're going to
be successful and victorious and joyous and excited
and happy you're going to have to forsake
your sin you're going to have to do
all of this with the filling of the
Spirit so that you may simply follow your
Savior I did not say follow a movement
I did not say follow a man and
no sir I did not say follow a
Bible college I said you're going to have
to follow your Savior you know why we've
got so many people falling because their eyes
are fixed on men and when the man
falls so their faith crumbles and they look
to this person and they look to this
preacher and they look to this evangelist and
this pastor and then they're looking and they're
following them and they're listening to everything they
say and when that person falls their faith
crumbles but if you keep your eyes fixed
on the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords the lovely Lord Jesus and do what
Jesus told Peter two times in four verses
follow thou me since he will never fall
and he will never fail you he'll never
leave you he'll never forsake you and the
Bible says he's a friend that's thicker closer
than a brother you keep your eyes fixed
on Jesus Christ and you will not be
a discouraged and a defeated Christian but you'll
be somebody that's victorious because you are following
the Son of God everywhere that he leads
you you have a simple humble submissive willing
spirit to do what it is that God
wants you to do we went to school
with a fellow by the name of Kevin
Byer I had a revival meeting scheduled with
Kevin in September out in South Dakota and
he called me the day and said brother
Locke I'm going to have to cancel I
said something I did something you heard something
like that he said no he said the
Lord's been working on my heart he said
I'm going to Australia he said I've been
trying to be submissive to the will of
the Lord for some time now and he
said God's been working on my heart there's
a picture of a man that is willing
to follow the Savior graduates from school goes
out start a church man starts it from
nothing I mean starts from bare bones now
it's going gangbusters bandit ties are up the
orphans are up the people are coming whoa
God's working in Custer South Dakota but God
says go to Australia and he says okay
God that's what I'll do but you know
what Peter's problem was Peter had what I
call the people syndrome and I meet a
lot of people in my travels that have
it they look at other people and say
you know what what about them hey preacher
I would be more faithful to the house
of God I wouldn't read my Bible more
I'd do more writing that person did what's
right and can I remind you the old
Tennessee Negro spiritual it's me it's me it's
me oh Lord standing in the need of
prayer not my brother not my brother not
my sister not my dog and my cat
for that matter it is me oh Lord
and so many times we look at other
people other men and other ladies and we
say what about them when God says listen
don't you worry about their sin don't you
worry about their devotional life you get your
life fixed and you get your life straight
and you follow thou me and we've got
too many people worried about everybody else's sins
when you should be dealing with your own
listen I'm through let's say for a moment
speculation preaching alright let's say that we're all
part of this the animal kingdom and we
kind of shrink ourselves down to the size
of a bunch of little ants and so
we're crawling around the ground and you say
kind of nasty kind of is but just
listen to me tonight alright and so we
shrink ourselves down and we meet up one
day with a caterpillar now there's only two
things that I can think of that are
good for a caterpillar brother Robinson only two
number one the first thing that's good for
a caterpillar is some bass do like them
I don't know why bass would like one
of them slimy nasty hairy antennae looking things
with a thousand and fifteen legs on the
bottom of their belly I don't know why
but some bass do like them the only
other thing I can think that's good for
a caterpillar is to see him on a
sidewalk step on him and watch the green
juice shoot out alright amen and I'd much
rather do B than I would A okay
I like to watch the green juice shoot
out because I'm not much of a fisherman
but let's say we shrink ourselves down and
we see Mr. Charlie the caterpillar one day
he's climbing up a tree and Mr. Redneck
Robin comes down and lands on him he's
from Tennessee Mr. Redneck Robin comes down and
lands on him and says hey Charlie where
are you going he says well to be
honest with you I'm just going to spend
some time by myself and he says no
wait a minute he says let me interpret
that for you what you really mean to
say is nobody likes you because you're an
ugly hairy slimy looking ugly caterpillar and nobody
wants to be around you nobody loves you
obviously you can't get a date this that
or the other and so you're just going
to go spend some time by yourself because
you're lonely and you're just kind of a
person that just goes from place to place
and he says listen you can interpret it
any way you want to I'm just going
to spend some time by myself and so
he flies away well over the next couple
of hours Scamp of the Squirrel and Alligator
and Road of the Rabbit and just about
everybody else in the whole animal kingdom knows
that Charlie's so ugly and so nasty nobody
wants to be around him and so all
of a sudden Mr. Billy the Blue Jay
comes down he flies down he sits down
on a limb and he says be honest
with me Charles he says it's the real
reason you're going to spend some time by
yourself it's just because you're ugly and nobody
likes you and he says you're not going
to believe this he says but if I
tell you the real reason why I'm going
to spend some time by myself you're going
to drop your teeth and he says sure
I don't have any anyhow I've got a
beak and so he says listen he says
I'm going to die you're going to what
he says yeah I'm going to die he
says that limb up there might take me
a while to get there he said I'm
going to crawl up the end of that
limb and spin what's called a cocoon and
he said I'm just going to die inside
that cocoon he says okay and so they
all watch him and buddy he goes out
there and takes him a while he goes
out to that edge of that limb he
gets his little spinner going spins himself a
cocoon and stays in there for about two
months and from the inside out that caterpillar
completely dies but there's something that's still alive
inside of that little cocoon and after a
couple of months all of a sudden Mr.
Scamper's curl is running around he sees that
thing start shaking and he sticks his little
finger in his mouth and holds it up
and says man it's not a very windy
day it's kind of still out here I
wonder there must be something moving in there
and all of a sudden the bottom begins
to come out and little threads start falling
here and little fibers start falling here a
little bit of crumbs and crust starts falling
there and all of a sudden this little
blob just comes falling out of there and
everybody's looking and all these animals all around
are thinking to themselves whoa what's going to
happen here and right before it plummets to
the ground it smashes itself and busts itself
asunder on the sticks below it spreads its
wings and no longer an ugly charlie caterpillar
now it's a beautiful spotted butterfly and instead
of ridiculing everybody says ooh ah look at
charlie you know what the difference was?
charlie would have never been everything that God
fully intended for charlie to be until he
first died.
Learn to die.
And can I please remind you that when
you live a separated Christian life there are
going to be people that do not understand
you.
There are going to be people that come
up with all kinds of excuses.
There are going to be people that come
up with all kinds of rebellious remarks and
ridiculing remarks that are going to bother you
but you've got to get to the place
in your Christian life.
Matthew 10 38 when you take up your
cross daily and follow him and you call
out to the edge of the limb of
life and you die to your ambitions and
you die to your goals and you die
to your pride and you die to what
you want and you die from the inside
out but there is something alive inside of
you called the sweet precious holy spirit of
God and one day you will mount up
with wings as eagles the bible says in
Isaiah 40 31 and instead of ridiculing people
will look to you as a godly consistent
faithful testimony but you will never be everything
that God fully intended you to be until
you first learn to drop dead spiritually.
And I'll tell you what we need tonight.
As we stand here we don't need a
revival meeting.
We need a funeral.
We need some people that will say God
I'm in a mess.
I'm tired of playing games.
Look I'm here to serve not to be
served this summer and if you're going to
have to have that type of kind of
attitude you're going to have to be like
the apostle Paul and die on a regular
not a monthly not a weekly not a
yearly but a daily basis and tonight you're
going to have to drop dead if you
are ever going to be what God fully
intended you to be.
Your heads are bowed your eyes are closed
please there's no one looking and no one
talking.
I'm going to ask our instrumentalists to come
if they would please thank you for listening
so well tonight as we begin our services
appreciate your kindness to me.
Just in the quietness and solemnness of this
moment why don't you just...