I want you to take your Bible tonight
and turn with me in the Old Testament,
if you would, to the book of Isaiah,
Isaiah chapter 53.
Am I closer to God tonight than I
was this time last year?
Have I grown at all?
If God took me out of my chair
and stood me up against the wall in
the throne room of a holy God, have
I grown an inch spiritually for a holy
God?
Am I growing for God, or am I
stagnant for God, or am I shrinking for
God?
Am I reading my Bible more than I
read last year, or am I reading my
Bible less than I read last year?
Am I praying more than I was praying
last year, or am I praying less?
Am I doing more?
Is my life consumed with serving God, or
is my life consumed with serving me?
Who's getting all the attention at my house?
Does God get any attention, or am I
focusing on myself?
I want to know how I'm doing with
a holy God.
I want to know what's going on.
I want you to take that burden with
you.
Are you going to church Sunday out of
spiritual routine, spiritual habit, because you just feel
better?
Do you use your church pew for a
psychiatric couch and your pastor for a therapist?
Do you just go to church because it's
the Sunday thing to do, and I'll feel
better if I go, and if I don't
go, they're going to send me one of
those little postcards that say, I missed you
on Sunday.
I don't want my Sunday school teacher to
call me.
I don't want one of the deacons to
call me.
So I'm going to go, not because I'm
in love with the Lamb, but because I'm
caught up in a spiritual routine, a religious
habit.
You see, God knows what's in my heart,
and He knows what's in your heart.
We ought to carry that burden.
Well, how am I stacking up?
If I'm measured in the throne room tonight,
am I growing?
What am I doing for God?
Secondly, what is my motive in my local
church?
Am I help carrying the load of that
local church, or am I the burden of
the local church?
Is someone having to carry my weight spiritually?
Is someone having to feel my place on
the field of battle in these last days?
Whether you understand it or not, whether you
can appreciate it or not, we are at
war.
America's at war, but the church is at
war.
The Bible teaches clearly that we're battling the
principalities and the powers of the air.
We're wrestling against things we cannot see.
If there's ever been a day that you
ought to know God personally, it's this day
and hour that we're living in.
You can't go to heaven because your wife
is a Christian.
You cannot go to heaven because your dad
is a Christian.
You can't go to heaven because your son
or daughter is serving God.
Every man and every woman, every teenager and
every young adult, we have to give an
account to God on our own.
Therefore, the third element of this study is
not only how am I stacking up, what
am I doing in my local church, but
do I even know that I'm really saved?
How many are in our churches on Sunday?
Our lost people.
B.
R.
Lakin talked to me one day while he
was there in Asheville.
I spent some time walking with him and
praying, and he told me he was convinced
that one of the greatest mission fields in
the world was the average Baptist church on
Sunday morning, because there are so many people
walking in religious habits but not serving God
in their hearts.
Now, where does that bring you and me?
Why are we here tonight?
Well, first of all, let me just let
you understand something.
You're in this tent tonight because God had
a plan.
There's not an accident under the old gospel
tent tonight.
God doesn't operate on accidents.
God's bigger than accidents.
God's sovereign.
That's a big word that means he's in
charge.
He is in charge.
He has a plan, he has providence, and
he has purpose.
I cannot go home and repent of this
service any more than you can go home
and repent.
I can't go home and say, God, I'm
sorry, you spoke to me under the tent
tonight.
I can't repent of light received, and neither
can you.
But we need to understand that God has
allowed all of us to gather here tonight
because he's got a purpose.
I'm convinced that that purpose is the imminent
return of his son, that at any moment
Jesus could come.
And according to the scriptures, that the church,
the believer, the saved, the born again, whatever
term you want to use, that we ought
to be getting ready to go see him.
The Bible says that there's going to be
a great marriage celebration.
He compares the church, the believers coming home,
to a great marriage ceremony and a celebration
of people coming in for a wedding.
And he said for that reason that when
you go to a wedding, you wear your
best garment.
You don't wear something dirty.
You don't wear something raggedy.
You wear the very best you've got.
You don't wear what you've been working in
the garden planting those greasy cut short beans
and Kenny Beck potatoes and big boy tomatoes.
No, you're going to go up, you're going
to take a shower, you're going to clean
up, and you're going to put on your
marriage clothes, the very best you've got to
go to the wedding.
The Bible says spiritually when we know that
the King is coming and we're going to
the wedding that we ought to get our
garments without spot and without wrinkle.
That means that I don't have my religious
clothes rolled up under my bed all wrinkled
up and I just drag them out to
go to church on Sunday and then when
I go home Sunday night I take off
my church clothes and I roll them up
and stick them under the bed and then
I live like the world through Monday through
Saturday.
You see, God knows how we're living.
God knows how we're behaving.
God knows how we're living our lives when
no one's with us and shall be speaking
to the church for us to get ready.
Isaiah 53 and verse 1 read, who have
believed our report and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed.
I'm really convinced tonight that the church, the
faith, the believers, I'm convinced that we have
a credibility problem.
I'm thinking that the people we work with
and the people we live next door to
and the people that we shop with and
the people that we eat with in the
restaurant and they find out we're Christians and
we're going to church and we're going to
a meeting and we're going to go be
in our church on Sunday.
I really believe that a lot of those
people have second thoughts when they look at
us.
They wonder.
I wonder if they're real.
I wonder if they're putting on a religious
act or if they really do try to
serve God.
After all, they work with us.
They know us.
They know all about us.
Isaiah 53, 1 asks, who have believed our
report and to whom is the arm of
the Lord revealed.
Not only does the world have a problem,
not only does the world worry about if
we're real or genuine, but the sad part
is in the church today that we're having
trouble with our own children.
The kids that have grown up in church,
have they grown up seeing the power of
God?
Have they grown up seeing moms and dads
on the altar?
Have they grown up in your church and
in my church hearing the men talk about
how much they love Jesus and hear the
women of the church talk about how much
they love serving the Lord?
Or have they grown up hearing us playing
games at the foot of the cross, choosing
up sides, politicking in the house of God,
getting mad at each other, talking and gossiping,
spreading rumors on each other?
What have they grown up with in the
house of God?
Have they seen mamas and daddies come home
from church on Sunday and take that black
-backed 1611 Bible and lay it up on
the counter and then walked in the living
room and sat down in the recliner and
kicked that lazy boy in low and turned
on the race or the braves or golf
or football and about church time looked down
at the watch and said, You know what?
My back's just giving me a fit.
I don't believe God wants me to go
sit on that old hard queue and hurt
myself.
And I have had a rough week.
After all, I don't really like the way
things are going over at church lately.
If I was in charge, we'd be doing
things a little different over there.
If they'd listened to me, they wouldn't be
having all these trouble.
Hand me that TV channel changer and let's
see if I can find something that'll make
me feel good.
I don't want to hear any of that
old Bible preaching.
And those kids are picking up on that,
that 14-year-old boy, that 8-year
-old girl, that kid home from college, they're
listening to mama and daddy talk.
And they're there all week long and they
see that Bible laying there on the counter,
and then they hear that same dad walk
down the hall Sunday morning.
Has anybody seen my Bible?
I laid it on the counter last Sunday.
Oh, there it is right where I left
it.
I wonder if our children even believe our
report.
I wonder if they believe it when they
say we love the Lord.
When's the last time we had a family
altar?
When's the last time they came in and
found mom or dad praying?
You see, before I get home, Jesus could
come.
Before I get to the car, Jesus could
come.
And God loved you enough, and God loved
me enough that he let me come under
this old tent tonight and say, before you
have to face me, why don't you stand
up here in the Holy of Holies and
let me see how you measure up.
Let me see if you've gained any weight
this year.
Are you still on milk?
Are you trying to get in the meat
of the Word?
Are you an encourager in your local church?
Are you a discord sower?
Are you praying hell off the back of
your preacher?
Are you the hell that he's having to
live under?
You say, Brother Sexton, we won't be back
Monday night.
Isn't that amazing?
God's the one that called me to preach.
Isn't that amazing?
You say, well, you won't pay the bill.
Isn't that amazing?
I don't own this.
All this has been dedicated to a three
-time holy job that don't belong to me,
a church don't belong to me, and old
trumpet don't belong to me.
Hey, it's not that quick
your life can end, that quick the trumpet
can sound, and any minute God can just
take me by the nape of my neck
like a little old bunny rabbit and just
hang me right up in the Holy of
Holies and turn them holy eyes on me
and say, Ralph, after I saved you, what
did you do with my grace and mercy?
Do you remember where you were when God
saved you?
Do you remember that crowd you ran with
the night God saved you?
Remember the night before you got saved, where
you were, what you were doing?
Some of you had your hand around a
bottle of wine.
Some had your hand wrapped around a fifth
of liquor.
Some had a 24-pack of blood.
Some was doing drugs.
Some was living in ungodly and wickedness, the
past description.
And God saw you in that the night
before he saved you and walked right by
you the next night, looked down in that
miry pit and said, well, that's just exactly
what I've been looking for.
Let me just go down there and get
her.
Let me go down there and get you,
picked you up, started wiping the mud of
the world out of your mouth, cleaned out
your ears, wiped out your eyes, kissed you
with Holy Ghost mouth-to-mouth with the
sense of patience, breathed life into you that
was dead in trespass and sin and resurrected
you to newness of life.
And you're sitting in an old tent tonight
instead of in hell.
See, if God had left you alone, you
wouldn't even be alive tonight.
God left you alone, you wouldn't be alive
tonight.
Hey, you wouldn't even be alive.
Your life had already been over.
Some of you wouldn't be alive, but you'd
be curled up with HIV and AIDS and
syphilis and gonorrhea, nervous system shot because of
drugs and alcoholic rehab centers and drug centers.
And God Almighty got right down in the
middle of your hell, got right down in
the middle of your old miry pit, invaded
your nightmare, picked you up and loved you
to righteousness and made a new creature out
of you.
The Lord can say so.
In spite of you, in spite of me,
I'm believing I'm an Episcopalian pastor, but I
don't save anybody.
If God picks me up tonight, if God
were to pick you up and take you
into the throne room and stand you up
against the wall, and he said, Ralph, here's
where you were last May.
See that mark on the wall?
That's where I measured you.
I don't believe you've grown any in a
year.
See, my wife, for years, we got a
closet in the house when we remodeled.
We cut out a piece of sheetrock out
of the kitchen wall, stuck it in that
closet.
That's where Beverly and Mark and Kent were
growing up.
I'll just say 1980, 1982, 83.
There's Mark, there's Beverly, there's Kent.
Now in the living room, we got a
big old rough vacuum beam, and on that
beam it says, Ian, and Preston, and Sophia,
and Scarlett, Savannah, and Winston.
We're raising another generation of wall markers, and
if something happens and nobody grows, you get
real scared.
Your mark's not gone up in a whole
year.
We better call the doctor.
We better get them over and get a
bone scan and an MRI.
We better get some blood work done.
We better find out what's going on, because
there's something mad wrong.
It's been a year, and there's no growth
in glory.
God's got you engraved in the palm of
His hand, but He's got a mark on
the wall where you've been growing.
Who hath believed our report?
Does your wife even believe that you're saved
or that you're a man of God?
Does your husband believe that you're a woman
of God?
Do your children believe?
Do your parents believe?
Do your grandchildren believe?
What about your best friend?
Some of you got best friends.
If they died tonight, they'd go to devil's
hell, and you didn't love them enough one
time this week when the conversation was going
on that you just went over and said,
you know, I love working with you.
You're a good friend.
I don't want you to ever, ever forget
how much I love you and how much
God loves you.
I hope we get to spend eternity together.
You don't have to preach them a sermon.
Just let them see that you love them.
Let them see that old hot tear rolling
down your cheek because you was up all
night praying for them, because you was over
there in the Holy of Holies lifting weights,
glory to God, working out, saying, God, cut
me another steak, pass me them taters, give
me some jubilee tea.
I work with lost people.
There's an old dark world out there.
Load it on me, God.
Give me a little more.
I won't bore you, God.
Clean me up.
God, get me out of the way.
Purify me.
Sanctify me.
Separate me.
Get the world off of me.
Clean me up.
Let me feel like it used to feel
when I knew you were number one in
my heart and love.
There's room at the cross for the church
to get right.
We can't have revival, but it's not going
to start in the world.
It's going to start with God's people.
It never fails when we have a meeting
like this that one church will be the
key.
That's a sobering thought, but God uses people.
But one of the churches that's working in
this meeting, for some reason, God will let
them get under the burden, and they'll back
up under the rock of ages, and they
won't come up for air until this old
tent comes down, because they'll say, God, if
not now, when?
If not here, where?
If not us, who?
God, don't leave while you're this close.
We've not been this close in a long
time.
Who's going to pay the price?
Who's going to believe our report?
Are you ready to meet God?
A few weeks ago, a few months ago,
I guess it is now, I was in
the office having a staff meeting.
My church family's heard this story.
The secretary buzzed, and she said, Pastor, I'm
sorry to interrupt the staff meeting, but there's
a man out here that says he needs
to see you.
And I said, someone's got an appointment?
And she said, no, no, this is not
that kind of deal.
Said, it's an emergency, I guess.
Said, he's really crying.
And said, he's got to see you right
now.
And I said, well, sure.
I said, let me come out there.
And I went out there, and I went
out into the little waiting area, and when
I came down the hallway, I heard that
man crying out in the waiting area.
He was crying.
And when I walked in, he was doing
like this.
Oh, God.
What have I done?
Oh, God, please have mercy on me.
Oh, God, please.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
God.
Oh, God, God, please.
Oh, God, what have I done?
I walked in the room, and I said,
sir, could I help you?
And he grabbed me.
He just ran at me like a drowning
man, just grabbed me.
And it startled me for a moment.
He said, I got to talk to you.
Oh, preacher.
Oh, God, please help me, preacher.
Oh, you got to pray.
Oh, preacher, preacher.
Oh, God, please help me, please.
I said, well, sure.
I said, the preachers of the church are
back here in the back.
Just come back here in the room, and
all these men will just gather around there
and pray.
We got back there in the office and
closed the door, several of the staff members.
And he started telling this story.
He said, brother Ralph.
He said, oh, brother Ralph.
He said, oh, brother Ralph, I watch you
on TV.
I listen to you on the radio.
He said, this isn't my church.
He said, I can't go to my pastor.
Oh, God, what have I done?
What have I done?
Oh, God, what have I done?
He said, I can't go tell my preacher.
I'm too embarrassed.
Oh, brother Ralph, I'm a deacon in my
church.
Oh, brother Ralph, I'm a Sunday school teacher.
Oh, God, oh, God, what have I done?
Oh, God, have mercy on me.
And I said, well, sir, just tell me
what's the matter.
He said, oh, preacher Ralph, preacher Ralph, oh,
God, please help me.
Oh, brother Ralph, he said, I just left
the doctor's office.
The doctor told me I've got AIDS and
I'm going to die.
Oh, God, please, brother Ralph, please have mercy.
Oh, please.
Oh, preacher, please, would you pray for me?
Oh, God, help me.
What have I done?
I said, sir, what have you done?
He said, I'm a deacon.
I'm a deacon.
I'm a Sunday school teacher.
I know better.
But then at work, at work, oh, there's
a pretty lady come to our work and
said, oh, God, oh, I got to spend
time with her at work and talking and
talking.
And I started lusting in my heart, oh,
God, help me, Jesus.
I'm sorry.
Last year, last year, oh, preacher, I asked
her out and I met her.
We went to a motel one time, one
time, one time, that's all, preacher, one time,
that's all, that's all, preacher, just one time.
I just went in the motel one time.
Oh, God, what have I done?
I didn't know she was a drug user.
I didn't know she had sold her body
before the people in the world of lesbianism
and homosexuality.
And oh, God, I didn't know, I didn't
know.
I got AIDS.
Oh, God, preacher, what have I done?
I'm going to die.
And I know better.
It's just one time, just one time.
And then he stopped and he said, oh,
preacher, oh, God, oh, God, Jesus, what have
I done?
The doctor said for me to bring my
wife in.
Oh, God, preacher, I may have killed my
wife.
Oh, God, oh, God, I've killed my wife.
I've killed the woman I love.
Oh, God, have mercy on me.
He collapsed on the floor crying.
We gathered around him and prayed.
And while he was praying, he prayed something,
I'll never forget as long as I live.
You know what he prayed?
He prayed this prayer.
He was praying for God not to let
his wife die, not to leave his children
orphans.
And he said at home, I got a
little boy, two years old.
And this is what he cried.
We were all praying.
And all of a sudden he just started
screaming out loud this phrase, God, God, please
don't treat my baby like David's baby.
God, oh, God, don't treat my baby like
David's baby.
Church, I'm saved.
You're saved.
This isn't Superman on my shirt.
I'm a sinner saved by grace.
I can go and mess up in 30
minutes what I've worked for for 30 years.
Any of us can.
Any person here can destroy.
We can't.
One of us both say I'd never do
that.
No, you only reason you're serving God.
Only reason you're in a tent meeting tonight
is God's mercy and God's grace.
We can't boast in our righteousness.
It's his righteousness.
I'm going to tell you what we can
do, though.
We can understand that Jesus is coming, that
we're all going to be held accountable for
our lives.
God knows who's here tonight.
And you've been sprinkled and you've been baptized
and you think that's salvation.
God knows who's joined the church and you
think that's salvation.
And I'm going to tell you, none of
those things are salvation.
There's not enough candles in America to get
you into heaven.
Only thing that gets you into heaven is
the royal red blood of Jesus Christ being
applied to your own black sins and having
them washed whiter than snow.
And after you're saved, yes, you can mess
up.
Yes, you can backslide.
And yes, you can get under an old
cloth and say, God, I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
You can be saved.
You can be living right.
You can be living clean and you can
be not growing.
You can just be going to church, taking
care of business, and living in a spiritual
rut.
We're going to open these old-fashioned altars.
And if God's spoken to your heart, if
God's dealt with you as a Christian, as
a man of God, a Sunday school teacher,
a deacon, a leader, some of you are
gifted writers.
There's three or four of you tonight.
I know God's given you the talent to
write.
We desperately need Christian journals again, accounts of
meetings, testimonies.
But where's your talent?
Some of you are supposed to sing in
the choir, but you got your voice on
the pew.
Some of you are supposed to be in
the prayer room, supposed to be praying at
home, but it's been a long time.
Some might be under this tent tonight.
You're a backslider.
You're out of fellowship.
And I know without any doubt tonight there's
people under this tent that you've been around
God and God's people all your life, but
you've never been saved.
That's just the way it is.
That's life.
With heads bowed and eyes closed.