Thank you, Brother Jimmy.
Brother Sika slipped up to the platform to
rebuke Brother Jimmy and I for dressing so
much alike.
Same color ties, suits, and that's a sign
of maturity, Brother.
Amen.
Some of us look mature with gray hair
and all that, but some of us aren't.
No, I just had to pull that on
Brother Paul.
So he'll pull one on me the next
time he gets me.
I had it all set for sunny tonight.
I don't see him in the building.
Is he here?
He's not here yet.
He's had good reasons today not to be
here.
But we were together a couple of weeks
ago, and I kept seeing him drag out
this big old Bible.
I mean, that thing was big enough that
I'd have to have somebody carry it for
me.
And I mean, he kept hanging, dragging that
old Bible around.
And I kept pulling my glasses all out
and off and on, you know, and put
on.
And I couldn't figure it out until finally
one day I figured out what that thing
was.
It was one of these giant print Bibles.
And you know, Sonny and I have been
friends for a long time.
He said, Man, I can't handle this business
of these glasses.
It just tickled me.
You know, he was trying to save the
day of buying glasses.
He didn't want anybody to think he'd passed
39.
Isn't that something?
So I planned to preach on vanity tonight.
But he's not here, so I'll change my
sermon until he gets here.
The man that ordained me to preach, he
told me this, Brother Paul, this is good
stuff.
He told me, he said, You know, you
can be ignorant, but don't be stupid.
I said, What do you mean?
He said, Well, he said, A man that's
stupid is a man that'll go to an
old folks' home where everybody's over 95 and
preach on dancing.
He said, That's being stupid.
He said, So what I'm really saying to
you when you preach, be applicable.
You know, make it apply.
Now, when Brother Jimmy asked me to come,
my first thought was, you know, I wanted
to come because I just love to come
down here and fellowship.
Have some good times with people, friends.
And get to preach a little bit.
But as the time drew closer and closer
and closer, and I just began to pray,
Lord, really, what do you want me to
do?
Down at that meeting.
The Lord began to make it very clear
what he wanted me to do.
And I want to pursue that this week.
And there's two things that I'm going to
ask you to do.
This is what I've asked people for 30
years to do.
And I've never seen it fail.
I've asked them to do two things.
I've asked them to come.
In other words, be in the meeting and
just obey God.
And, folk, I have seen some meetings in
my day.
I have seen God move in my day.
And when I look back over those many
times that I've seen God move, it's been
because the people have been there.
It was with the people that were there.
And it was because they obeyed God.
Now, you could say a lot more.
There are many different ways you could say
just what I got through saying.
But if you'll be here, if you'll be
in the meeting, and you'll do what God
tells you to do, I promise you that
God will manifest His glory.
And I'm going to tell you, His glory
is sufficient.
If you need anything more than His glory
to satisfy your life, my dear friends, it's
not God.
It's not God.
The glory of God satisfies the life.
Amen.
The glory is not the manifestations of God.
The manifestations are not what satisfy.
The glory of God is what satisfies.
That's right.
And let me say it again.
If you need anything else other than that,
and then, folk, it's not God.
But now when you have the glory, there
may be some few little manifestations here and
there.
You know.
Amen.
Use this.
Amen.
God doesn't pass by without some manifestations.
I was thinking about that old prophet of
God, you know, that got saved, got full
of God, and they threw a dead man
in on his bones, and that man came
alive years later.
So when the glory is around, there's a
few manifestations.
But you can't tell what they're going to
be.
But I'm telling you that God will reveal
Himself if we get the glory here.
And you come and do what God tells
you to do, and the glory of God
will be here.
Now, for me to be comfortable in my
message, I have to start at the beginning.
Every time.
There's no way for me to start anywhere
else than the beginning.
And a man, a person, has to be
reduced right down, right down to the bedrock
or right down to the beginning of things
for me to be comfortable.
And I want to begin there tonight.
I have had it confirmed in the mouth
of two witnesses that I'm supposed to go
this direction tonight.
And I'm not, you're not giving me a
hard time.
I'm having a hard time with myself, because
the devil talks to you, you know, so
much.
But back some years ago, right after I
got saved by the grace of God, I
got saved on Saturday night, and on Sunday
morning, I became a little confused in my
thinking.
I really did.
Because when I went to church on Sunday
morning and saw the crowd that I saw
there, it shook me because I saw some
people that I had actually lived like the
devil with, and this sort of shook me,
especially when I found out that there were
leaders in the church.
And this really bothered me.
It really did.
And a year later, a little over a
year later, I went off to Baptist College
to go to school, and I was a
little more disturbed because I got in this
college, and I began to run into a
lot of preacher's kids.
And this really disturbed me.
And I watched them live, and I watched
the kids on that Baptist College campus live,
and this disturbed me a little more.
And then I became a pastor of a
Baptist church, and I would watch people come
down the aisles, and they weren't shouting necessarily,
but they were crying, and they'd leave puddles
of tears when they'd come to the altar
and weep.
They'd leave puddles of tears.
And that really bothered me because the tears
didn't bother me.
I thought, man, anybody in the world saved,
that old boy is saved.
That old girl is saved by the grace
of God.
I mean, that looked good to me, but
it wasn't six months until I would have
a real spirit-filled preacher come along and
preach the word of God.
Now, I'm not talking about a lot of
law.
I'm talking about the word of God because
man can live up to what man can
shell out.
And these preachers would preach the gospel, and
those very people that I saw down there
weeping, leaving puddles of tears, would get offended
by the word of God, and they'd fall
away.
And they'd just fall away, and that really
shook me.
And Martha and I were blessed with four
kids, and at that time three, and they
got up to the age where they started
asking questions about how to be saved, how
to be born again, how to come to
Jesus, and this really began to shake me.
And I asked God for some real help.
I asked God for some real help.
And to my amazement, God began to help
me, and I didn't know it.
And one night I got a telephone call
from Martha, and she said, Your mother's dying.
And this really shook me because she was
the number one prayer warrior and a great
blessed Christian to me.
And I got home, and there she was.
The doctor was there.
My sisters were there.
My brother was there.
And I went in the room where she
was, and she was dying, and she was
right at death's door.
And I sat down beside the bed and
took her hand, and I heard her talk
to Jesus.
And I heard her invite Jesus to take
her home.
And I'll tell you, the glory of God
was so in that room, I've been around
a lot of the glory of God since
that day.
But, folk, I've never seen or heard or
felt or observed the glory of God anymore
in my life.
I mean, the glory of God was just
there, right there in that place, as she
invited Jesus to take her home.
And we thought Jesus was going to take
her, and God spared her and didn't take
her that night.
But it was amazing.
It was something else.
As I watched this saint walk right up
to the door of death itself, of death
in the face, and my dear friends rejoice
and praise God, and just invite Him home
to take her, and Him to take her
home.
And it just blessed my heart.
That night passed on, and about two weeks
after that, I was called to the bedside
of a dying man.
His eyes were sunk deep in his head.
His little old hands were so skinny.
And I was standing beside his bed, and
there I held that little old skinny hand,
and his little old trembling voice said, Oh,
preacher, I've been in the church for 66
years, and it's come time to die.
And he said, There's nothing here.
He didn't have to tell me.
My friends, death had come for its prey.
Death had come for its prey, and there
I was aware, my friends, there was nothing
in this world to die by.
Now, I still was not aware that God
was putting things together for me.
So I went off up in a church
up in north Louisiana for a meeting.
And I was up there preaching, preached on
Sunday, to a full house on Sunday morning.
And half a crowd on Sunday night, and
on Monday night about half that crowd on
Sunday night, and I went to my room
brokenhearted, and I just fell on my face
on the floor, and I began to cry
out to God, and I said, Lord, what's
the problem?
There's something wrong with the crowd that'll show
up like Sunday morning, then Sunday night, and
then Monday night.
And I said, Lord, I want to see
it.
And God began to unravel the truth to
me.
And he said, They'll not come to me
that they might have life.
He said, Then they'll take the word of
God.
Now, take the word of God, and prove
that they have eternal life.
But he said, They'll not come to me
that they might have life.
And I began to see that there's a
lot of people who have a religion to
live by, but it's not going to do
when it comes time to die.
Now, they got a lot of religion tonight.
They can shout.
They can run.
They can dance.
They can hop up on the pew.
They can have this experience, and they can
have this deep understanding of God.
And my dear friends, it'll do to live
by, but it's not going to do when
it comes time to die.
Jesus won victory over death, hell, and the
grave.
And the Bible says, Let us examine ourselves.
Prove your own selves, whether you be in
the faith.
Well, examine yourselves whether you be in the
faith.
Prove your own selves, knowing that your own
selves, how that Christ Jesus is in you,
except you be reprobates.
And I came out of that room that
night, a different man.
I quit asking people if they were saved.
I quit asking them if they were saved.
I started bringing people face-to-face with
another issue from that day to this day.
Another issue.
And I want to bring you face-to
-face with that tonight.
And I realize I have friends that I've
preached to many, many years.
And I would even ask you, and I'm
not questioning your salvation, but my dear friends,
for God, for your sake and God's sake,
you ought to go through it one more
time.
And I'm going to ask you this question
tonight.
This simple question, face-to-face.
If you walked out of this building, this
old tavern, I think, got out there, right
outside this door, and your heart locked on
you, and you died tonight, where would you
spend eternity?
Where would you spend eternity?
You say, well, Brother Manley, I'd spend eternity
in heaven.
I'd go to heaven.
I want to ask you one other question.
Then how do you know you'd go to
heaven?
Young man, young lady?
Mother, Father, how do you know you'd go
to heaven?
He said, examine yourselves to see whether or
not you'd be in the faith.
Why, Brother Manley, I'm saved.
If I died tonight, I'd go to heaven.
I'd go to heaven.
I know I'd go to heaven.
Now, here's what I find.
As I talk to people across this country,
been in evangelism, I'm fixing to start my
30th year in evangelism, in about two weeks.
And I've asked this question many, many years.
How do you know you'd go to heaven?
This is what I found.
People will say, why, Brother Manley, this is
number one.
I'd go to heaven.
They'll say, I'd go to heaven because I've
had an experience with Jesus.
That's what they tell me.
That's the number one thing they'll say.
I've had an experience with Jesus.
Some of them will say, well, I've been
born again.
Basically, they're talking about the same thing.
I've been born again.
I've had an experience with Jesus.
Others will say, well, Brother Manley, I'll tell
you what, I know if I died tonight,
I'd go to heaven because I have believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've been saved because the Bible says, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved.
And I believe, and I know I'm saved
because I have faith in Christ.
I have walked down the aisle.
I've made a profession of faith.
I've declared I have faith in Jesus.
Others will say, well, if I died tonight,
I'd go to heaven because, preacher, I tell
you, I have made a commitment to Jesus.
Now, that's the big thing today.
That's the big thing.
Have you made that commitment to Jesus?
Now, what I'm asking you is this.
If you died tonight, how do you know
you'd spend eternity in heaven?
How do you know Jesus Christ is in
your heart?
Now, people tell me these different things.
I want to examine them for just a
minute.
Why do people say, well, I have been
born again, or I have had an experience
with Jesus.
Therefore, I know if I died tonight, I'd
go to heaven because I've had an experience
with Jesus.
Now, what I want to ask you to
do is just think with me a little
bit.
You say you've had an experience with Jesus.
On what basis, or what premises, or on
what foundation are you establishing your thinking?
When you say, I've had an experience with
Jesus, how do you know you've had an
experience with Jesus?
How do you know you've had an experience
with Jesus?
Let me just reason with you a little
bit.
Did you see him?
Did you taste him?
I'm not being facetious, really.
I'm just reasoning with you a little bit.
Did you taste him?
Did you hear him?
Did you smell him?
Did you feel him?
Now, when you say you've had an experience
with Jesus, what are you talking about?
Let me just drop a word in right
here.
Did you know the devil can give you
anything in this world but Jesus?
He can give you any kind of experience
you want, but he cannot give you Jesus.
But he can give you an experience.
I remember this from years ago.
A doctor called me one day from Houston.
He said, Brother Manley, I've just met the
most spiritual woman I've ever met in my
life.
He said, you've got to meet her.
My wife and I and a friend got
in the car, drove from Beaumont to Houston.
When we got to Houston to the house
where we were going to meet this doctor
and this spiritual woman, the doctor came in
first.
And he said, Brother Manley, after calling you,
I left my office, and he said I
had the most glorious experience with Jesus I've
ever had in my life.
And I said, well, won't you tell me
about it?
He said I was driving along in the
car, and he said the Lord just came
down and got in that car.
And he said it was so real, he
said there were just waves of glory, sensations
running all over me.
And he said, man, he said it was
one of the most glorious feelings I've ever
had in my life.
He said, what did you think about it?
I said, if in your ignorance that manifestation
to your senses was God and you yielded
to it, it's because you're ignorant you're in
good shape.
But I said, friend, let me tell you
something.
If it wasn't God and you yielded to
what you felt that you thought was God,
I said you are a ruined man.
And my dear friends, in two weeks that
man who was supposed to meet a holy
God turned hellish and left his wife and
married another woman without even getting a divorce.
When you meet God, you become holy, not
hellish.
And my dear friends, what happened was that
doctor had an experience with the forces of
hell.
And because it was supernatural and it felt
good and was joyful, he thought it was
God.
And then he received the word with joy.
And then, my dear friends, that joy lasted
just a while, and then it was gone.
Because they heard the word and they received
it with joy, that's definitely the experience of
a person having heard the word of God
and responding to the word and had a
joyful experience.
But my dear friend, the root, which is
Jesus Christ, the son of the living God,
was not even there.
But that person could take you to an
experience and said, I met Jesus, I've had
an experience.
I can tell you, I know I'm saved
because I've had an experience.
And they could give you a deafening experience,
but my friends, there's no sign of Jesus
in that experience.
Now what I'm trying to tell you tonight,
you say, I've had an experience with Jesus.
I've been born again.
If you died tonight, you'd go to heaven
because you've had an experience.
But I'm asking you, on what basis are
you grounding that experience?
On what basis do you feel that that
experience really was with the living son of
God?
Other people say, well, if I died tonight,
I'd go to heaven.
Which I know I'd go to heaven because
I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have walked down an aisle.
I have confessed it so.
I have accepted Jesus.
That's an interesting experience.
Jesus was at Jerusalem at the Feast of
the Passover, performing miracles.
And listen to these words.
Many believed in his name when they saw
the miracles which he did.
But Jesus did not commit himself to them,
because he knew all men, and needed not
that any should testify of man, for he
knew what was in man.
Now, I could go four or five different
directions, but I'm just going to go a
couple.
Many believed in his name.
That word, believe, my dear friends, literally means
that they made a public acknowledgement of the
fact that they accepted Jesus Christ, the son
of the living God, but he did not
commit himself, because he knew they are.
Now, these people could tell you of the
time when they believed in Jesus.
When they walked down an aisle and made
a decision, basically speaking.
They could tell you of the time when
they said they believed in Jesus.
Now, here's the way I'll deal with it
tonight.
Jesus did not commit himself to them.
You know why?
Because, my dear friends, it takes a state
of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, the
son of God, for Jesus to commit himself
to a person.
I'm not going to spend much time on
this, but I'm going to drop it in
while I'm passing by.
There's a crowd today that, not dealing with
thousands, but millions of people across the world,
that, my dear friends, tell you that what
you need in the church is signs and
wonders.
That if they see signs and wonders, it
will build people's faith, and then they will
see the reality of Jesus Christ.
And upon that basis, they have faith to
believe in Jesus Christ as the son of
God, and they flog by the thousands to
be converted.
And, my dear friends, that is not the
Bible way.
That's not the Bible way.
And thousands, millions of people are making professions
of faith in our day upon the basis
of signs and wonders and miracles, and they
are calling it salvation.
And there are many of them right here
tonight sitting here listening to me talk.
Christ the children of hell.
Amen!
And some of you, my dear friends, have
been enamored by it, fascinated and magnified because
you think it's God to see signs and
wonders.
Brother, the Bible says when the Holy Ghost
is come, he will reprove the world of
sin, of righteousness and judgment, of sin because
you believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my Father.
What happens when the Holy Ghost comes is
he takes a knife and he stabs that
sinner right through the heart and nails him
to the floor.
They repent and they believe on Jesus.
And that's the basis of conversion, not signs
and wonders.
And when God saves people, the result of
God's presence will always be signs and wonders.
But it's the result of, not the means
to.
A lot of people say, well, Brother Manley,
I have believed on Jesus.
Hundreds of thousands of people.
Millions of people have done that.
There's no sign they're saved.
Let me ask you, young lady, young man
back there.
If you died tonight, what makes you think
you'd go to heaven, young man?
Father, you say, I believe on Jesus.
Saving faith is not only repentance.
You see, repentance has three aspects, three aspects
of truth to it.
Conviction, contriction, conversion.
Conviction means a person comes to the true
knowledge of themselves.
And I want you to know a nine
-year-old child is just as hell bound
as a ninety-year-old drunkard.
And when the Holy Ghost shows that nine
-year-old child that he or she is
a sinner, that person is just as much
a sinner as a ninety-year-old drunkard.
Because people are not sinners because they sin.
They sin because they're sinners.
And the Holy Ghost, when he brings conviction
on a sinner, they know they're a sinner.
They aren't lost because they've lied or told
a story or even committed adultery or gotten
drunk.
You're not headed to hell because of that.
You're headed to hell because you're a sinner.
Because you sin, you're a sinner.
And you're sinning.
And when the Holy Spirit comes, he convicts.
And when you see yourself, true knowledge of
yourself, then there is a godly sorrow, a
state of sorrow, a change of mind about
yourself and about God.
And then there is conversion.
And that means a choice in your heart.
So I mean, come to Jesus, folk.
Sink, swim, live or die, go to hell
or heaven or whatever.
I'm coming home.
Amen.
You say, I believe in Jesus.
I believed in Jesus.
I've gone down an aisle and the preacher
asked me, was I coming as a sinner?
Yes, sir.
He said, I believe in Jesus.
Yes, sir.
But my dear friends, unless you repent and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt
not be saved.
What I'm asking you, what I'm really asking
you, if you died tonight, where would you
spend eternity?
You say, well, Brother Manley, I made a
commitment to Christ.
I understand that he's the Son of God.
Did you know I can never remember not
knowing that Jesus Christ was the Son of
God?
I was born almost in the church, reared
in the church.
I can never remember a day that I
didn't love Jesus.
And I was a drunkard by the time
I was 18.
Amen.
But believing in Jesus and loving Jesus, my
dear friends, is not a state of mind
or an understanding of the mind.
Knowing Jesus Christ is a moral condition of
the heart.
Knowing the person of Christ.
And it's more than a commitment.
What would you say?
Well, you know, I wouldn't be a bit
surprised if you wouldn't like to ask me
that question.
Brother Manley, what would you say?
What would you say to that question under
the circumstances tonight?
If you asked me if I died tonight,
I'd tell you I'd go to heaven.
You say, well, Brother Manley, how do you
know you'd go to heaven?
I'd tell you, I know I'd go.
You might want to make it simple and
say, well, Brother Manley, did you have an
experience in your life?
And I'd say, yes, sir.
Amen.
I had an experience.
Well, Brother Manley, you said you can't trust
an experience.
I didn't say I was.
I'm not trusting an experience, but I had
one.
But I've had some better ones since then.
Now, I'm not trusting an experience.
And right there in that seat, I believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, walked down the
aisle, and confessed it.
Why, Brother Manley, you can't, you can't really
trust that totally.
That could have been in the head, not
in the heart.
I know that, and I'm not.
Amen.
Why, Brother Manley, what can you trust?
You can, you can trust Jesus.
And with the Word of God and with
Jesus, there's some things you can find out.
How do you know that experience was real?
So you say you believe you were, you're
really saved, and you had an experience, and
you believed on Christ, and you say you
believe you're really saved, you made a commitment
to Christ, you say you really believe that
you're saved.
How can you really count on that and
know that you're saved?
Well, there's a way I put it to
the test.
And I'm going to put it to the
test just a little bit.
Just a little bit.
One test is very simple.
If any man be in Christ, he's a
new creature.
All things are passed away.
Behold, all things become new.
You see, I know, I know that experience
was real.
I know that night that Christ came into
my heart.
Not because I have an experience, not because
I feel like it.
Not because I confess Christ as my Savior.
I did all of that.
But my dear friends, along with that, not
apart from the other, along with that, that
night, my dear friends, Christ made me a
new creation.
That night.
Not the next night.
Not the next year.
That night, He made me a new creation.
I mean, I became a new creation.
All things passed away.
Behold, all things became new.
That did not mean that I became a
perfect person and I quit sinning.
It did not mean that at all.
But my dear friends, the nature of God,
the God that the world cannot contain, took
up residence in my spirit.
My spirit and His spirit became one spirit.
The things that I loved and liked and
enjoyed and delighted in, I could no longer
like, love and delight and enjoy anymore.
I became a new creation.
And my dear friends, I haven't been able
to backslide it out.
I haven't been able to educate it out.
I haven't been able to get Him out.
Ever since that, amen.
He's there.
And I know that I'm saved because I'm
a new creation.
I know that was real because I'm a
new creation.
That's not all.
I know I'm real.
I know He's real.
And I know Christ is real in my
heart because, my dear friends, of another reason.
And I'll tell you this one lives as
real in my heart as anything I know.
If He be without chastisement, wherefore all are
partakers, then are ye bastards or illegitimate and
not sons.
What does that mean?
Boy, I'll tell you something.
If He be without chastisement, wherefore all are
partakers.
And I'm not taking this verse out of
context either, brother.
I mean this is right in the middle
of the context.
That if you are a saint, if you've
been saved, if Christ is in your heart,
if you are really born of the Spirit
of God, it means, my dear friends, God,
a sovereign God, corrects you and enlarges you.
Not just corrects you, He enlarges you.
He has taken on the responsibility of maturing
you as a child of God.
He has taken on that responsibility.
He, my dear friends, is working in your
life.
And He's working there to enlarge you and
correct you.
To bring you in a perfect child of
God.
And if you're born of the Spirit of
the living God, He's there doing that work
in you.
And so, if you're saved, you've sinned, but
you do not enjoy it.
You do not delight in it.
You do not take pleasure in it.
And you do not get away with it.
If you're a child of God, you do
not get away with it.
There's no way you can get away with
it.
So, there's another way I know I'm saved.
And this one was a little mystical.
And I like this one, and I'm going
to deal with it a little bit, and
then I'm going to preach.
And Romans 8, the 16th verse.
Young man, young lady, tell me something.
If you died tonight, where would you spend
eternity?
Where would you go?
Listen to this verse, if I can get
to it.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God.
Does that mean, my dear friends, that you
feel like you're saved?
No, sir.
Does it mean that you understand that you're
saved?
Not necessarily so.
Now, let me lay something on you.
What's the deepest, and you can tell a
lot of your friends this story.
What's the deepest, what's the deepest experience a
man can have with God?
His spirit bearing witness with your spirit, you're
a child of God.
You know what I believe the deepest experience
a man can have with God?
Is knowing God.
He can know God.
I mean, he can just simply know God.
Just simply knowing.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
Brother, there's nothing that will surpass just knowing
God.
Yes, sir, just simply knowing God.
You say, brother, man, I don't understand what
you're talking about.
Yeah, I know, some of you don't.
Because you don't know.
But if you know, you know, you know.
You know what I'm talking about.
Amen, I mean, you just simply know God.
I mean, my dear friends, the angels do
not even know Him.
They just know God.
How does God know something?
Does God have to think to know?
Huh?
Well, if God's spirit and your spirit's one
spirit, you're really a child of God and
you're right.
Remember, you're right with God.
You're a child of God and you're right
with God.
Why don't you know something like God knows
it?
Huh?
Sure, you know it like God knows it.
Yes, blessed God, you know it like God
knows it.
If you're really born of the spirit of
the living God.
You know it just like God knows it.
Yes, sir, brother, that's something to shout about.
Yes, sir.
You know it like God knows it.
You know you know God.
I'm not talking about understanding.
Understanding is a result of knowing.
When you know God, you know you know
God.
But what you understand, you understand what you
know.
You'll never...
My dear friends, you couldn't tell it.
Amen.
You only tell what you understand.
You don't tell what you know.
Holy Ghost has to tell that.
And I want you to know, my dear
friends, when you're really saved, really born of
the spirit of the living God, there in
your spirit, His spirit bearing witness, with your
spirit, your child of God, that's knowing God.
I mean knowing God.
I mean to know God.
People have known God so deeply and so
realistically that they have gone to the stakes
and listened to their own flesh.
Fire!
Singing praises to an almighty God.
Brother, that's knowing.
Yes, sir.
Smell their own flesh.
And you can know God like that.
And it's amazing a little ten-year-old
child can know God like that.
Yes, sir.
They know God.
So you know that you know.
Now, the trouble about this is this.
If you're not right with God, you got
sin in your life, you can't know.
If God told you to do something, you're
not doing it, you don't have that knowing.
Yes, sir.
But I want you to know if you're
right with God, you have that knowing.
Now, I want to preach.
I won't have to preach for about five,
ten minutes.
Now, if you know a thing is sin,
I'm going to set up the premises for
what I'm going to say.
And then you listen to it carefully.
If you know a thing is sin, and
you can enjoy it, delight in it, take
pleasure in it, and God does not correct
you, you have every reason in the world
to doubt whether or not you're saved.
Yes, sir.
If you know a thing is sin, and
it's possible for you to do some things
that you do not know it's sin, but
if you know a thing is sin, and
you can do it, enjoy it, delight in
it, take pleasure in it, and God does
not correct you, you have every reason in
the world to doubt whether or not you're
saved by the grace of God.
Now, I'm going to take that statement and
make it applicable.
If you can take the Lord's day and
desecrate it, you can take the Lord's day
and desecrate it, enjoy yourself, take pleasure in
it, delight in it, and God does not
call you to hand on it and correct
you about that sin.
You know it's sin, and my dear friends,
God doesn't haul you in on it.
You have every reason in this world to
doubt whether or not you're saved.
If you can take and know the Bible
teaches that you're not supposed to steal, and
you can take the tithe and offering, God's
money, tip God like you would a shoeshine
boy, prosper, delight in it, and God does
not correct you, you say, Brother Manley, you
mean to tell me you ought to doubt
whether or not you're saved?
Yes, sirree.
You say, Brother Manley, you're preaching salvation by
works.
No, I am preaching a salvation that works,
and there's no other kind of salvation.
And there's growing in grace.
That's why I'm giving you this little leeway,
just a little, if you know a thing
is sin.
That's all the grace I'm giving you.
Amen.
But my dear friends, that's enough.
That's enough.
Jesus had a bunch of Pharisees.
They came to him and said, We are
of our father Abraham.
He said, Yes.
If you were of your father Abraham, you'd
be doing the works of Abraham.
James said the same thing.
He said, You say you've got faith in
Jesus Christ.
He said, And there's no works.
He said, Your faith is not real.
Amen.
Come on now.
Yes, sir.
Your faith is not real.
My dear friends, listen.
If you know it's sin to drink a
gallon jug, a cup of wine, or beer,
my dear friends, and you know it, and
you can enjoy it and delight in it,
and take pleasure in it, and God does
not correct you, I'll guarantee you, you have
every reason to doubt whether or not you're
saved by the grace of God.
Amen.
If you know it's sin to dip, chew,
or smoke, and you can do it and
enjoy it and delight in it, and take
pleasure in it, I'll guarantee you, you have
every reason in this world to doubt whether
you're saved or not.
God doesn't correct you.
You say, Brother Manley, I agree with you
about the rest, but not that smoking.
Let me tell you something.
I haven't changed my message.
I haven't changed the message.
Ever.
You've been following me.
I haven't changed the message.
You know, I've lived long enough to see
a bunch of you go through a lot
of crises.
And you've gone, you've watched me go through
a lot of crises.
And your crises haven't impressed me.
But in that you've come through them has.
Amen, son.
And I hope it's the same with me.
Amen.
Yes, sir.
I've seen some of you try to get
away with some things.
I've tried to get away with some things
myself.
Amen.
But I'm going to tell you something.
If you know it's sin to gossip and
criticize and slander and tell tales and find
fault, and my dear friends, you get by
with it and enjoy yourself and take pleasure
in it, and God doesn't correct you, you
better check up and see whether or not
you're born of the Spirit.
Amen.
The most tragic portion of Scripture in the
Bible, to me, is that portion where it
says, in that day, many will say, God,
we have preached in thy name.
And Jesus will say, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.
Lord, we have cast out devils in thy
name.
The Lord will say, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.
Oh, Lord, we've done many mighty wonderful works.
Jesus will say, depart from me, you workers
of iniquity, for I never knew you.
Let me ask you tonight.
If you die tonight, seriously, I trust you
won't.
I trust we won't.
I trust God will bring us all back
tomorrow night.
But friend, if on the way home, that
old heart locked, young lady, I'm talking to
you, young man, mother and dad, if it
did, if it locked, where would you go?
Where would you spend eternity?
Jesus said, you're not coming to me that
you might receive eternal life.
Give to Jesus.
Young man, tonight, where would you go?
Are you giving?
Amen.
Thank God tonight for the message.
God has spoken.
Christ.