1 00:00:00,580 --> 00:00:04,460 The backslider in heart, filled with his own 2 00:00:04,460 --> 00:00:08,940 ways, and a good man shall be satisfied 3 00:00:08,940 --> 00:00:09,820 from himself. 4 00:00:10,780 --> 00:00:14,420 The backslider in heart, filled with his own 5 00:00:14,420 --> 00:00:19,420 ways, and a good man shall be satisfied. 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:26,720 I'd very much rather talk on any number 7 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:31,040 of subjects I could think about, rather than 8 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:33,400 to talk about the problem of backsliding. 9 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:38,240 It is age-old and it's universal, and 10 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,280 the Bible has much to say about it. 11 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,140 Therefore, I think it right and proper for 12 00:00:45,140 --> 00:00:50,020 you, something of what the Bible tells us, 13 00:00:50,940 --> 00:00:54,400 both of warning and encouragement, backsliding. 14 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:58,740 Now, the causes of backsliding, or maybe first 15 00:00:58,740 --> 00:01:01,200 I should define the word before I go 16 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,760 any further, for some strange reason which I 17 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:11,060 cannot at the moment identify, become a funny 18 00:01:11,060 --> 00:01:13,260 word in the day in which we live. 19 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:19,000 Even ministers like to say that being Baptist 20 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,460 they couldn't backslide and have a laugh out 21 00:01:21,460 --> 00:01:21,740 of it. 22 00:01:21,740 --> 00:01:24,440 Or they like to say, being Methodist, I 23 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:26,220 believed in backsliding and practiced it. 24 00:01:26,580 --> 00:01:30,280 All that kind of corny, lame humor has 25 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,460 grown up around the word backslide, backslider, backsliding, 26 00:01:33,580 --> 00:01:35,580 those terrible words. 27 00:01:35,980 --> 00:01:39,280 So whatever silly and thoughtless men may do 28 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,240 with this word, remember one thing, God never 29 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:45,200 jokes about it, never takes it lightly. 30 00:01:47,100 --> 00:01:51,260 Backsliding, I think, came from the back where 31 00:01:51,260 --> 00:01:54,400 it said, Israel slideth back like a backsliding 32 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:54,840 heifer. 33 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:58,080 The thought was, and I've seen it as 34 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:00,280 a lad on the farm, as an animal 35 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,840 started up a slippery bank and got partway 36 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:12,200 up and then lost, lost track, control, and 37 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:15,840 traction, they call it, and slipped back. 38 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,240 After many plunges and efforts did they get 39 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:18,400 up? 40 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:20,440 Sometimes slide back and can't get up at 41 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:20,720 all. 42 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:24,540 Well, the man of God with no intention 43 00:02:24,540 --> 00:02:27,920 at all of being facetious, said that Israel 44 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:29,920 was like the animals that he had seen 45 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:31,580 trying to climb up a slippery hill. 46 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,980 They went and worked hard at it and 47 00:02:35,980 --> 00:02:38,800 pushed and then slid back as many steps 48 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:41,800 as they had gone up, and eliding Israel 49 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:43,480 to this backsliding heifer. 50 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,000 Now the causes of backsliding are mainly two, 51 00:02:49,100 --> 00:02:51,200 being the fickleness of the human heart. 52 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:55,120 It would be a wonderful thing if you 53 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,560 and I could remain what we were, but 54 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,060 it would also be a most damning thing, 55 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,200 how sad our state by nature is. 56 00:03:06,140 --> 00:03:08,560 The man was lugubrious and tears stained him. 57 00:03:09,700 --> 00:03:12,460 Nevertheless, said truth that was as true as 58 00:03:12,460 --> 00:03:15,840 the throne of God, our state by nature 59 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,620 is sad, and if we could not change, 60 00:03:20,490 --> 00:03:23,900 we would be automatically doomed to remain in 61 00:03:23,900 --> 00:03:26,780 that sad state while the ages spend themselves. 62 00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:30,820 But our ability to change our mind from 63 00:03:30,820 --> 00:03:33,920 worse to better is our hope. 64 00:03:34,860 --> 00:03:37,280 The call of God in repentance is a 65 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:38,800 call from worse to better. 66 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,620 And if we could not go from one 67 00:03:41,620 --> 00:03:44,620 state to another, we would be frozen. 68 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,480 We would be morally static and would be 69 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:47,800 damned. 70 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,660 But because we can move, and it is 71 00:03:50,660 --> 00:03:53,200 possible to go from one moral state to 72 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,040 another, we can go from bad to good 73 00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:59,240 and can get right with God even though 74 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:01,900 we were wrong before, can get good though 75 00:04:01,900 --> 00:04:04,360 we were bad before, can become holy and 76 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:05,580 unholy before. 77 00:04:06,900 --> 00:04:09,620 But that same ability to go from one 78 00:04:09,620 --> 00:04:11,580 moral state to another and to change our 79 00:04:11,580 --> 00:04:15,540 mind is also not the cause of backsliding 80 00:04:15,540 --> 00:04:17,579 but the technique by which it operates. 81 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,160 Now, we switch from one... 82 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:22,000 You watch that, watch it in children. 83 00:04:22,620 --> 00:04:24,880 When they're tiny, they have one ideal. 84 00:04:25,100 --> 00:04:27,200 When they're nine or ten, they have another. 85 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:29,620 When they're in their mid-teens, they're twenty 86 00:04:29,620 --> 00:04:30,980 -one, they still have another. 87 00:04:31,580 --> 00:04:34,020 We switch from one interest to another. 88 00:04:35,300 --> 00:04:37,400 And people can do that in themselves. 89 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:43,380 And this changing from one fad to another, 90 00:04:44,300 --> 00:04:49,020 shifting from one thing that interests us to 91 00:04:49,020 --> 00:04:53,460 another thing that interests us, all this is 92 00:04:53,460 --> 00:04:58,780 at least a reason back of the probability 93 00:04:58,780 --> 00:05:02,500 or ability of backsliding. 94 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:05,760 The only thing we really stick to as 95 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:09,440 a rule is something that nature or circumstance... 96 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:11,840 We have to eat and drink and sleep 97 00:05:11,840 --> 00:05:14,120 and do all that nature forces us to 98 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,720 do or that some strong instinct within us 99 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:18,740 forces us to do. 100 00:05:18,740 --> 00:05:20,940 As long as the human race goes on, 101 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,500 there'll always be love and marriage and all 102 00:05:23,500 --> 00:05:26,420 that because it's a deeply rooted instinct in 103 00:05:26,420 --> 00:05:27,540 the human... 104 00:05:27,540 --> 00:05:29,920 And there'll always be a desire for food 105 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:32,500 and always be a desire to protect ourselves. 106 00:05:33,220 --> 00:05:34,320 These are instincts. 107 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:36,160 They lie in human nature. 108 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,600 And the result is we stick to something 109 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,540 that we are able... 110 00:05:42,540 --> 00:05:45,560 We're able to follow it because we don't 111 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:47,440 have to do anything to follow it. 112 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:52,960 But anything that requires attention and careful painstaking 113 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:56,460 labors, we tend to turn away from it 114 00:05:56,460 --> 00:05:59,740 and usually do turn away from it if 115 00:05:59,740 --> 00:06:00,160 we can. 116 00:06:00,460 --> 00:06:02,300 I just wonder if we had a count 117 00:06:02,300 --> 00:06:05,440 on the North American continent of all the 118 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:08,280 people who took or started to take and 119 00:06:08,280 --> 00:06:09,420 didn't go through with it. 120 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:12,000 I'd hate to embarrass you fellows by asking 121 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:13,840 the men in this congregation to stand. 122 00:06:13,940 --> 00:06:15,500 All of you who started out, I took 123 00:06:15,500 --> 00:06:17,520 six lessons, six piano lessons. 124 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:21,020 Yesterday I spoke to a group of Convention 125 00:06:21,020 --> 00:06:22,520 of Church Musicians. 126 00:06:24,020 --> 00:06:30,440 But anyway, I didn't continue with my piano. 127 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:32,440 And how many more of you are like 128 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:32,620 me? 129 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:35,500 Because it's not instinct with us. 130 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,580 I found no instinct waking me at night, 131 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:40,120 pushing me toward the piano. 132 00:06:40,300 --> 00:06:41,540 I found no such instinct. 133 00:06:42,540 --> 00:06:44,400 And that isn't in us. 134 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:47,620 Certain people have something that's so strong in 135 00:06:47,620 --> 00:06:49,680 them that it almost amounts to... 136 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,500 We call them natural-born musicians. 137 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:54,780 And they'll have some kind of musical expression 138 00:06:54,780 --> 00:06:56,140 no matter what. 139 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:57,780 And they don't have... 140 00:06:57,780 --> 00:06:59,980 Because it's in them, but it's not in 141 00:06:59,980 --> 00:07:00,720 the most of us. 142 00:07:00,740 --> 00:07:02,200 That's just as sure as you live. 143 00:07:03,180 --> 00:07:05,480 And the result is we don't do what 144 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:06,120 becomes... 145 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,100 Notice what's painstaking and what isn't pleasant. 146 00:07:10,100 --> 00:07:13,060 We tend to follow what is easy and 147 00:07:13,060 --> 00:07:13,360 golden... 148 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,800 And outside of taxes and certain other duties 149 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:20,800 that are forced upon us from the outside, 150 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:23,100 either by nature or by law, we tend 151 00:07:23,100 --> 00:07:25,000 mostly to do what we like to do 152 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:26,940 and what is natural to us. 153 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:31,060 And of course that is the fertile soil 154 00:07:31,060 --> 00:07:32,020 where sex-lighting grows. 155 00:07:34,230 --> 00:07:37,410 People under some great pressure of bereavement or 156 00:07:37,410 --> 00:07:39,210 fear turn to... 157 00:07:39,210 --> 00:07:40,950 And for a while go ahead. 158 00:07:41,310 --> 00:07:43,310 But the instinct is not in them. 159 00:07:43,750 --> 00:07:45,410 The instinct is all the other way. 160 00:07:45,810 --> 00:07:46,730 And it's irksome. 161 00:07:47,130 --> 00:07:49,390 The irksome that's reading your Bible and praying, 162 00:07:49,830 --> 00:07:53,110 it becomes a painstaking thing and something that 163 00:07:53,110 --> 00:07:53,930 isn't natural. 164 00:07:54,470 --> 00:07:57,030 And so we turn away a little at 165 00:07:57,030 --> 00:07:59,370 a time until shortly we're gone back. 166 00:07:59,770 --> 00:08:01,490 And if we had every man in Chicago 167 00:08:01,490 --> 00:08:03,310 stand and every woman... 168 00:08:03,310 --> 00:08:06,670 The evangelistic pressure had made some step toward 169 00:08:06,670 --> 00:08:07,090 God. 170 00:08:07,090 --> 00:08:09,890 And now today have forgotten all about him, 171 00:08:09,990 --> 00:08:12,310 and they're drinking and smoking and living. 172 00:08:12,470 --> 00:08:13,830 There's no God in heaven above. 173 00:08:14,370 --> 00:08:16,470 I tell you, it would be a shock 174 00:08:16,470 --> 00:08:17,970 we wouldn't get over if we could see 175 00:08:17,970 --> 00:08:20,370 them all in some park maybe standing like 176 00:08:20,370 --> 00:08:20,530 so. 177 00:08:21,410 --> 00:08:26,180 Tier on tier, or rank on rank, I 178 00:08:26,180 --> 00:08:27,440 think is a better military word. 179 00:08:28,140 --> 00:08:30,820 But if you were shocked and horrified at 180 00:08:30,820 --> 00:08:33,419 how many sometime have made a step toward 181 00:08:33,419 --> 00:08:36,620 God or maybe even met God, but because 182 00:08:36,620 --> 00:08:41,480 serving Jesus Christ is contrary to nature, our 183 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,480 state by nature is sad and it does 184 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:44,960 not miss. 185 00:08:45,220 --> 00:08:47,520 So the fickleness of the heart turns us 186 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:50,300 away, and people do backslide like the heifer. 187 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:53,200 And then there's the inherent evil of the 188 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,260 human heart, the cause of backsliding. 189 00:08:57,420 --> 00:09:00,700 The whole constitution of a human being is 190 00:09:00,700 --> 00:09:01,980 against... 191 00:09:01,980 --> 00:09:04,060 Now there are two things you must remember 192 00:09:04,060 --> 00:09:06,780 here, that if man were what he originally 193 00:09:06,780 --> 00:09:11,040 was, if man were now what we originally 194 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,100 were, made in the image of God without 195 00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:17,740 sin, then it would be perfectly natural to 196 00:09:17,740 --> 00:09:19,560 serve angels in heaven above. 197 00:09:20,100 --> 00:09:22,840 And the seraphim beside the throne have no 198 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:23,920 trouble serving God. 199 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:25,900 They've nothing in them to pull them away 200 00:09:25,900 --> 00:09:26,140 from. 201 00:09:26,180 --> 00:09:27,420 They're made to serve God. 202 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:29,280 And when they're made to serve God, they're 203 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:31,040 doing a thing as natural to them as 204 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:33,040 a duck when it goes to the water 205 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:35,000 does a thing natural to her. 206 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:37,200 A bear in the wintertime curls up in 207 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:39,880 his den, he's following his nature, and the 208 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,480 holy angels above follow their nature to serve 209 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:42,960 God. 210 00:09:43,540 --> 00:09:44,820 And if you and I were what we 211 00:09:44,820 --> 00:09:48,660 should be, unfallen and without this taint and 212 00:09:48,660 --> 00:09:51,620 stain of sin, we would be able, and 213 00:09:51,620 --> 00:09:53,560 the average would come natural, would flow out 214 00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:56,040 like a fountain from the pressure beneath. 215 00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:58,380 But we're fallen. 216 00:09:59,580 --> 00:10:02,400 I wrote and said that whoever got down 217 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,400 on his knees and said, Our Father who 218 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:06,640 art in heaven was doing the most natural 219 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:07,480 thing in the world. 220 00:10:07,580 --> 00:10:14,530 Somebody wrote along, I am not responsible for 221 00:10:14,530 --> 00:10:16,550 people when they don't read what you write, 222 00:10:16,670 --> 00:10:18,910 all of it, or read something into it, 223 00:10:19,410 --> 00:10:20,950 or if they're too dumb to understand it, 224 00:10:20,990 --> 00:10:22,490 I'm not responsible for that. 225 00:10:23,050 --> 00:10:24,770 So I don't worry too much about it. 226 00:10:24,930 --> 00:10:25,990 The quarter said, get rid of me. 227 00:10:26,050 --> 00:10:27,770 I was a modernist because I said when 228 00:10:27,770 --> 00:10:30,530 a man prayed, if the truth were known, 229 00:10:30,530 --> 00:10:32,790 he is doing the most natural thing in 230 00:10:32,790 --> 00:10:35,730 the world, but not by his fallen nature, 231 00:10:36,470 --> 00:10:38,250 but because it was made in the image 232 00:10:38,250 --> 00:10:38,890 of God. 233 00:10:39,350 --> 00:10:41,270 When a man turns his face toward that 234 00:10:41,270 --> 00:10:44,370 which anciently he did in Adam, and which 235 00:10:44,370 --> 00:10:47,530 he should be doing now, but which sin 236 00:10:47,530 --> 00:10:51,670 has robbed him of the power, so both 237 00:10:51,670 --> 00:10:52,950 my critic and I are right. 238 00:10:53,730 --> 00:10:55,990 Sin made our nature so when we pray 239 00:10:55,990 --> 00:10:56,830 it's not natural. 240 00:10:57,390 --> 00:10:59,970 We have to walk all the accumulated ages 241 00:10:59,970 --> 00:11:02,590 of sin if we say our Father who 242 00:11:02,590 --> 00:11:03,130 art in heaven. 243 00:11:03,730 --> 00:11:07,450 But if that sin hadn't come, anything to 244 00:11:07,450 --> 00:11:09,810 override, we'd simply raise our voices, and like 245 00:11:09,810 --> 00:11:12,450 the bird we'd sing God's praises without effort. 246 00:11:13,930 --> 00:11:16,310 Turn away from God and cool off, and 247 00:11:16,310 --> 00:11:18,990 go back, change their minds, or at least 248 00:11:18,990 --> 00:11:20,010 change their hearts. 249 00:11:21,770 --> 00:11:23,190 And it all begins with the heart, the 250 00:11:23,190 --> 00:11:24,390 backslider in heart. 251 00:11:24,570 --> 00:11:26,070 Now that's not there by accident. 252 00:11:26,650 --> 00:11:28,670 The backslider in heart it says. 253 00:11:29,410 --> 00:11:31,590 Remember that backsliding begins with the heart. 254 00:11:32,530 --> 00:11:36,170 People blame other circumstances and say, it's my 255 00:11:36,170 --> 00:11:38,010 home life, it's the place where I work, 256 00:11:38,090 --> 00:11:40,730 it's the school, or it's because I was 257 00:11:40,730 --> 00:11:42,610 ill, or it's because I had to work 258 00:11:42,610 --> 00:11:45,310 too much, it's because I didn't have time. 259 00:11:45,710 --> 00:11:47,610 Those are external things. 260 00:11:47,710 --> 00:11:49,090 Backsliding begins in the heart. 261 00:11:50,470 --> 00:11:52,750 The backslider in heart shall be filled with 262 00:11:52,750 --> 00:11:55,910 his own ways, and always it begins with 263 00:11:55,910 --> 00:11:56,010 the heart. 264 00:11:56,010 --> 00:11:59,590 And the order of discovery is this, first 265 00:11:59,590 --> 00:12:00,570 God knows it. 266 00:12:01,210 --> 00:12:03,550 God knows when my heart's cooling off better 267 00:12:03,550 --> 00:12:06,130 than before I do, and then the individual 268 00:12:06,130 --> 00:12:09,090 finds it out, and then the church finds 269 00:12:09,090 --> 00:12:10,830 it out, and at last if he continues, 270 00:12:11,050 --> 00:12:11,810 the world finds it out. 271 00:12:11,810 --> 00:12:12,870 That's always the order. 272 00:12:13,770 --> 00:12:15,770 The world finds out a man has backslidden 273 00:12:16,090 --> 00:12:17,490 and gone back on his faith. 274 00:12:18,110 --> 00:12:19,950 The church knew it before the world found 275 00:12:19,950 --> 00:12:21,750 it out, and the individual knew it before 276 00:12:21,750 --> 00:12:23,710 the church found it out, and God knew 277 00:12:23,710 --> 00:12:25,430 it before the man found it out. 278 00:12:26,070 --> 00:12:27,730 But it all begins in the heart. 279 00:12:28,450 --> 00:12:29,250 Now what is the heart? 280 00:12:30,130 --> 00:12:32,670 Well, he's one who's losing interest in the 281 00:12:32,670 --> 00:12:35,730 things of God, and gradually going back to 282 00:12:35,730 --> 00:12:38,530 the old ways, or new and more refined 283 00:12:38,530 --> 00:12:41,390 sins than the ones he used to do. 284 00:12:41,950 --> 00:12:44,470 But the point is he's losing interest, he's 285 00:12:44,470 --> 00:12:45,150 cooling off. 286 00:12:45,210 --> 00:12:46,750 The fires of his heart are not as 287 00:12:46,750 --> 00:12:50,050 hot as they were a few weeks or 288 00:12:50,050 --> 00:12:53,230 months or years before, and his love toward 289 00:12:53,230 --> 00:12:54,090 God is cooling off. 290 00:12:54,550 --> 00:12:57,210 This, I say, is backsliding in heart, and 291 00:12:57,210 --> 00:12:59,970 he's losing interest in communion with God. 292 00:13:00,650 --> 00:13:02,090 If you don't do as well as you 293 00:13:02,090 --> 00:13:05,450 used to, then the only kind and honest 294 00:13:05,450 --> 00:13:08,050 thing I can say is that you're a 295 00:13:08,050 --> 00:13:10,750 backslider in heart, because as much as you 296 00:13:10,750 --> 00:13:13,790 loved before, you will love to pray as 297 00:13:13,790 --> 00:13:15,670 much as you loved to pray before. 298 00:13:16,150 --> 00:13:18,070 But if you do not love to pray 299 00:13:18,070 --> 00:13:20,210 as much as you used to, then what 300 00:13:20,210 --> 00:13:22,350 conclusion can I arrive at? 301 00:13:22,410 --> 00:13:24,070 I don't like to say these things. 302 00:13:24,210 --> 00:13:25,650 I wish I didn't have to. 303 00:13:26,270 --> 00:13:28,310 But what conclusion can a man arrive at? 304 00:13:28,770 --> 00:13:30,670 If a doctor takes a blood count and 305 00:13:30,670 --> 00:13:34,490 finds the blood count way down, what can 306 00:13:34,490 --> 00:13:34,750 he say? 307 00:13:34,750 --> 00:13:36,010 He says, this man is not in a 308 00:13:36,010 --> 00:13:37,010 good state of health. 309 00:13:37,550 --> 00:13:39,610 Or if he runs other tests and finds 310 00:13:39,610 --> 00:13:43,850 that the man's health is bad, what honest 311 00:13:43,850 --> 00:13:45,050 thing can a doctor do? 312 00:13:45,050 --> 00:13:48,550 Pat him on the shoulder and say, I'll 313 00:13:48,550 --> 00:13:50,110 meet you on the golf course Saturday. 314 00:13:50,290 --> 00:13:51,250 Everything will be all right. 315 00:13:51,370 --> 00:13:52,110 Bill, keep cool. 316 00:13:52,230 --> 00:13:53,250 That doctor would be. 317 00:13:53,670 --> 00:13:56,630 And what a traitor to his own profession. 318 00:13:57,190 --> 00:13:58,990 There's only one thing for him to do, 319 00:13:59,470 --> 00:14:00,550 and then the findings. 320 00:14:01,170 --> 00:14:03,050 And if the findings say that he's not 321 00:14:03,050 --> 00:14:06,870 well, that his state of physical health is 322 00:14:06,870 --> 00:14:09,350 poor, the doctor says, I don't know that 323 00:14:09,350 --> 00:14:11,210 he'd have to go into all the details 324 00:14:11,210 --> 00:14:13,370 and tell it in Latin, but he ought 325 00:14:13,370 --> 00:14:14,870 to tell him, well, but you're not in 326 00:14:14,870 --> 00:14:16,130 as good a shape as you ought to. 327 00:14:16,130 --> 00:14:16,830 Listen to me now. 328 00:14:16,930 --> 00:14:19,410 You take this prescription, or do this, or 329 00:14:19,410 --> 00:14:21,070 go to Florida, usually, they say. 330 00:14:21,730 --> 00:14:23,390 Or do something for yourself. 331 00:14:24,030 --> 00:14:27,150 But the point is, the honest man will 332 00:14:27,150 --> 00:14:31,210 tell a patient if he finds, runs tests 333 00:14:31,210 --> 00:14:32,650 and finds that their point of health. 334 00:14:33,250 --> 00:14:35,690 Now, if you do not love prayer as 335 00:14:35,690 --> 00:14:38,250 much as you once did, now what can 336 00:14:38,250 --> 00:14:38,970 I do about it? 337 00:14:38,970 --> 00:14:39,950 I didn't do that. 338 00:14:40,010 --> 00:14:41,310 I hope I didn't. 339 00:14:41,310 --> 00:14:44,030 If I'm an honest physician, I can only 340 00:14:44,030 --> 00:14:46,370 say to you, you better go to the 341 00:14:46,370 --> 00:14:47,030 specialist. 342 00:14:47,610 --> 00:14:49,310 There is a specialist who deals. 343 00:14:50,050 --> 00:14:51,710 Your temperature is way down. 344 00:14:52,110 --> 00:14:54,090 And if it is, there is one that 345 00:14:54,090 --> 00:14:54,690 can heal you. 346 00:14:54,770 --> 00:14:56,910 I can't, but I can tell you where 347 00:14:56,910 --> 00:14:57,490 there is one. 348 00:14:57,710 --> 00:15:00,650 And they're losing of our individual communion with 349 00:15:00,650 --> 00:15:01,250 God. 350 00:15:01,950 --> 00:15:04,010 Read your hymns in the old hymn book 351 00:15:04,010 --> 00:15:06,910 and see how sometimes they, how once they 352 00:15:06,910 --> 00:15:09,270 loved the fellowship with God. 353 00:15:09,270 --> 00:15:11,250 Communion was sweet to them. 354 00:15:11,970 --> 00:15:13,590 But we've got so many things now. 355 00:15:13,690 --> 00:15:16,930 And to crowd out communion, we have radio, 356 00:15:17,150 --> 00:15:23,670 television, newspapers, magazines, and all around over the 357 00:15:23,670 --> 00:15:26,410 country, and long trips and all that. 358 00:15:26,590 --> 00:15:33,280 And the tendency is to, I insist, are 359 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,080 only external aids to the devil. 360 00:15:36,580 --> 00:15:37,960 They're not the causes. 361 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:40,340 The deeper than that, it lies in the 362 00:15:41,980 --> 00:15:42,080 heart. 363 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:44,940 And when a man is backslidden in heart, 364 00:15:45,020 --> 00:15:47,000 he tends to get a little bit bored. 365 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,440 If a glowing earnest Christian bores you a 366 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:52,580 little, if when you're in a little group 367 00:15:52,580 --> 00:15:55,180 drinking the coffee, put it together, or your 368 00:15:55,180 --> 00:15:57,940 soda, and somebody brings up the thought of 369 00:15:57,940 --> 00:16:00,140 God, if it bores you a little or 370 00:16:00,140 --> 00:16:03,000 embarrasses you, you'd better look to your own 371 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:04,020 heart, my friend. 372 00:16:04,100 --> 00:16:05,740 Seriously, to your own heart. 373 00:16:06,580 --> 00:16:10,700 Because whenever religion bores us, we may be 374 00:16:10,700 --> 00:16:13,120 sure that we're wrong inside. 375 00:16:13,340 --> 00:16:15,080 Now I'd like to qualify that. 376 00:16:15,260 --> 00:16:17,800 I want to be as honest and realistic 377 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:18,420 as possible. 378 00:16:18,860 --> 00:16:21,140 So I will say that some explain religious 379 00:16:21,140 --> 00:16:21,480 bores. 380 00:16:22,060 --> 00:16:23,980 And they have a way of introducing religion 381 00:16:23,980 --> 00:16:27,500 into the most impossible situations, and do it 382 00:16:27,500 --> 00:16:32,950 without any spontaneity whatsoever, but only because they've 383 00:16:32,950 --> 00:16:34,270 been trained to do it. 384 00:16:34,370 --> 00:16:37,150 Like trained seals, they bore an archangel. 385 00:16:37,750 --> 00:16:40,830 But if an honest, happy-hearted Christian turns 386 00:16:40,830 --> 00:16:43,130 and talks about God, and it bores you 387 00:16:43,130 --> 00:16:45,550 or embarrasses you, you're in the wrong company. 388 00:16:46,170 --> 00:16:48,570 And if you're bored with spiritual talk, not 389 00:16:48,570 --> 00:16:50,730 religious chit-chat, that'll bore anybody. 390 00:16:51,170 --> 00:16:53,910 But if you're bored with spiritual conversation on 391 00:16:53,910 --> 00:16:56,130 the wrong inside of your heart, then the 392 00:16:56,130 --> 00:16:58,910 best thing to do is to remember it 393 00:16:58,910 --> 00:17:01,690 and admit it, acknowledge it before. 394 00:17:01,790 --> 00:17:04,250 And then I notice another symptom of this 395 00:17:04,250 --> 00:17:07,650 backsliding in heart is the developing of a 396 00:17:07,650 --> 00:17:10,369 critical spirit toward other preachers. 397 00:17:11,369 --> 00:17:17,490 If he isn't a Paul Reese, why, some 398 00:17:17,490 --> 00:17:20,710 people, they want to hear, I don't know 399 00:17:20,710 --> 00:17:21,390 what they want to hear. 400 00:17:21,490 --> 00:17:23,310 God knows I never could quite figure it 401 00:17:23,310 --> 00:17:23,490 out. 402 00:17:23,569 --> 00:17:26,250 I guess it was an archangel with David's 403 00:17:26,250 --> 00:17:26,490 harp. 404 00:17:26,970 --> 00:17:29,030 Playing good on this man gets up and 405 00:17:29,030 --> 00:17:31,890 the poor deliverer in a few blunders tells 406 00:17:31,890 --> 00:17:34,170 us his simple heart out about God and 407 00:17:34,170 --> 00:17:34,990 the things of God. 408 00:17:34,990 --> 00:17:36,610 God can say he's all right, he's all 409 00:17:36,610 --> 00:17:39,590 right, and he'll come in small numbers, but 410 00:17:39,590 --> 00:17:43,090 no zeal or enthusiasm unless he's an extraordinary 411 00:17:43,090 --> 00:17:43,250 preacher. 412 00:17:43,490 --> 00:17:46,450 I tell you, we could well afford to 413 00:17:46,450 --> 00:17:50,630 humble ourselves and listen to anybody that had 414 00:17:50,630 --> 00:17:51,270 anything to say. 415 00:17:51,730 --> 00:17:53,350 Anybody at all. 416 00:17:54,130 --> 00:17:56,110 I think we ought to pray, God, give 417 00:17:56,110 --> 00:17:58,390 me a heart so sensitive that I'll get 418 00:17:58,390 --> 00:18:01,070 help from anybody, except, of course, from the 419 00:18:01,070 --> 00:18:02,350 hypocrite and the pretender. 420 00:18:02,430 --> 00:18:03,870 Nobody can get help from them. 421 00:18:03,870 --> 00:18:06,890 Nobody can get help from the self-exploiter 422 00:18:06,890 --> 00:18:08,430 and the man of, I don't want to 423 00:18:08,430 --> 00:18:09,350 get help from them. 424 00:18:10,250 --> 00:18:11,930 I don't look to the devil for my 425 00:18:11,930 --> 00:18:14,530 help, but any honest man of God. 426 00:18:15,410 --> 00:18:17,330 Look when Spurgeon went to the Methodist church 427 00:18:17,330 --> 00:18:19,790 and sat in the balcony in a stormy 428 00:18:19,790 --> 00:18:21,330 night and only went in because he wanted 429 00:18:21,330 --> 00:18:22,330 to get out of the storm. 430 00:18:23,010 --> 00:18:24,810 And the Methodist class leader who was tall 431 00:18:26,310 --> 00:18:29,530 rose and exhorted the congregation to look straight 432 00:18:29,530 --> 00:18:31,950 to Jesus and be converted. 433 00:18:31,950 --> 00:18:34,130 And says, I went in there a sinner 434 00:18:34,130 --> 00:18:35,550 and when I went out I could have 435 00:18:35,550 --> 00:18:38,870 sung there's a fountain filled with blood with 436 00:18:38,870 --> 00:18:40,450 the best saint in the church. 437 00:18:40,690 --> 00:18:42,390 And he was converted by hearing a man 438 00:18:42,390 --> 00:18:44,550 who had no reputation, a class leader, if 439 00:18:44,550 --> 00:18:46,190 you please, a layman who was leading a 440 00:18:46,190 --> 00:18:46,610 prayer meeting. 441 00:18:48,740 --> 00:18:52,040 I'll illustrate that truth by a dozen anecdotes 442 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:53,820 if I cared to do it, true ones 443 00:18:53,820 --> 00:18:56,420 of people who've been helped by the simplest 444 00:18:56,420 --> 00:18:57,340 -hearted people. 445 00:18:57,860 --> 00:19:00,800 And remember and sometimes repeat, maybe a bit 446 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:03,960 monotonously, of the time I heard a solo 447 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:05,180 that I'll never forget. 448 00:19:05,700 --> 00:19:08,200 The song, and the singer was not a 449 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:09,100 high-class singer. 450 00:19:09,860 --> 00:19:13,020 The singer was a long, thin, dried-out 451 00:19:13,020 --> 00:19:15,240 Texan who looked at the sun a long 452 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:17,220 time and weathered. 453 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,420 His skin was weathered, every part about him 454 00:19:21,420 --> 00:19:22,060 was long. 455 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:23,500 He would be, he'd have made a good 456 00:19:23,500 --> 00:19:26,260 cowboy if he just had the equipment on. 457 00:19:27,940 --> 00:19:31,240 And his voice was what they call that 458 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,620 is, he could stay on pitch, he could 459 00:19:34,620 --> 00:19:37,300 carry the tune, but it was gravelly. 460 00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:40,920 It was an awful lot of very low 461 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:43,260 growling static coming in along your radio. 462 00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:45,780 And he had that kind of voice, but 463 00:19:45,780 --> 00:19:47,200 he was a dear Christian brother. 464 00:19:50,980 --> 00:19:53,080 He was from down Texas somewhere and became 465 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:55,580 an Alliance preacher, a sweet Christian brother, all 466 00:19:55,580 --> 00:19:55,820 that. 467 00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:57,720 And he stood up to sing. 468 00:19:58,280 --> 00:19:59,980 And I knew what was coming because I 469 00:19:59,980 --> 00:20:01,500 knew what kind of voice he had, but 470 00:20:01,500 --> 00:20:04,540 that morning, put his head off and sang, 471 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,420 I've found a friend, oh, such a friend. 472 00:20:08,220 --> 00:20:09,620 He loved me, I knew him. 473 00:20:11,610 --> 00:20:15,750 From 28 years ago and to this day, 474 00:20:15,910 --> 00:20:18,590 when I think of my good old lanky 475 00:20:18,590 --> 00:20:21,010 brother singing, I've found a friend, oh friend, 476 00:20:21,410 --> 00:20:23,350 my head instinctively bows. 477 00:20:24,250 --> 00:20:26,750 I heard something, I heard a voice from 478 00:20:26,750 --> 00:20:29,270 a man who couldn't have sung, we wouldn't 479 00:20:29,270 --> 00:20:30,250 let him sing here. 480 00:20:31,110 --> 00:20:33,910 He couldn't sing anywhere where Christians have any 481 00:20:33,910 --> 00:20:35,430 standards or taste. 482 00:20:35,990 --> 00:20:38,530 But the Holy Ghost, through the voice, a 483 00:20:38,530 --> 00:20:42,070 gravelly voice of a long lean Texan, no 484 00:20:42,070 --> 00:20:45,350 cowboy, just a long lean Texan, wanted to 485 00:20:45,350 --> 00:20:47,770 tell people that he'd found such a friend. 486 00:20:48,410 --> 00:20:51,990 Brethren, we ought to be careful lest we 487 00:20:51,990 --> 00:20:58,850 become too, because the tendency to criticize unkindly. 488 00:20:59,050 --> 00:21:00,590 Now if it's a question of trying to 489 00:21:00,590 --> 00:21:01,950 improve, that's another matter. 490 00:21:01,950 --> 00:21:03,710 If it's a question of trying to push 491 00:21:03,710 --> 00:21:06,430 the standards up and write and preach and 492 00:21:06,430 --> 00:21:08,470 pray and talk and exhort to try to 493 00:21:08,470 --> 00:21:10,450 get people to do things better, to help 494 00:21:10,450 --> 00:21:12,970 the choir to raise its standards, that's another 495 00:21:12,970 --> 00:21:14,930 matter and that's perfectly all right. 496 00:21:15,410 --> 00:21:18,470 But if it's just carping criticism and assaults 497 00:21:18,470 --> 00:21:20,030 the use of it, I don't care to 498 00:21:20,030 --> 00:21:20,470 hear him. 499 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:27,760 Because if a man writes or sings and 500 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:31,520 he's a sincere man, then he ought to 501 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:33,780 warm my heart with his sincerity. 502 00:21:33,780 --> 00:21:35,740 If I'm not backslidden. 503 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,080 And still, we can be in this state 504 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,540 and still keep up appearances. 505 00:21:43,540 --> 00:21:46,880 Oh, if all the church people who are 506 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:49,280 entering churches this morning who are only going 507 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:51,160 there to keep up appearances, I don't mean 508 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:51,600 be hippity. 509 00:21:51,980 --> 00:21:53,800 It's not a deliberate effort to deceive. 510 00:21:53,940 --> 00:21:54,740 No, no, not that. 511 00:21:56,340 --> 00:22:00,920 But shame or duty or fear or social 512 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,900 pressure or something else brings them, they're not 513 00:22:03,900 --> 00:22:05,480 there because their hearts are warm. 514 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:08,260 They're there only because it should be. 515 00:22:08,980 --> 00:22:10,860 They are where they want to be on 516 00:22:10,860 --> 00:22:11,720 the Sabbath day. 517 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:15,480 And if all who are thus present in 518 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,800 churches who are nevertheless cooling off in their 519 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:21,580 hearts or have cooled off and do not 520 00:22:21,580 --> 00:22:23,900 have in their heart what their presence is 521 00:22:23,900 --> 00:22:27,000 to show that they have, many a pastor 522 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,020 would spend the afternoon on his face weeping 523 00:22:30,020 --> 00:22:32,900 between the porch and the altar, crying, Oh, 524 00:22:33,060 --> 00:22:35,000 I've done or haven't done that my people 525 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:35,860 are in such a condition. 526 00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:40,980 Solomon here has a tragicomic word. 527 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:45,740 He says he shall be satisfied from himself. 528 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,280 And I've looked that up and I find 529 00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:49,200 it means you get nothing. 530 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,720 That sounds funny, but, brother, it isn't funny. 531 00:22:52,620 --> 00:22:54,760 The backslider in heart will soon get enough 532 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:55,400 of himself. 533 00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:57,580 Now, how does he get enough of himself? 534 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,000 Well, he gets enough of himself with his 535 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,420 attempts to pray and he finds how heavy 536 00:23:04,420 --> 00:23:06,400 and embarrassing it is to be devout. 537 00:23:07,180 --> 00:23:10,280 He's asked to pray and he tries to 538 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:14,020 be devout, but his heart is long ago 539 00:23:14,020 --> 00:23:14,840 broken to a ship. 540 00:23:15,860 --> 00:23:17,900 And he's like an instrument that's ready to 541 00:23:17,900 --> 00:23:19,580 be plugged in where there's no power. 542 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,940 And he plugs in dutifully, but I tell 543 00:23:22,940 --> 00:23:24,440 you, he can get enough of that before 544 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:25,160 very long. 545 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:27,600 If I was broken with God in my 546 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:29,980 heart this morning, I'd not come around or 547 00:23:29,980 --> 00:23:32,440 anybody to help me because it's embarrassing. 548 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:34,140 A man gets enough of that after a 549 00:23:34,140 --> 00:23:34,440 while. 550 00:23:35,180 --> 00:23:37,860 We get enough of our own hollow testimonies. 551 00:23:38,300 --> 00:23:41,360 They're false and the word's dry, and yet 552 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:43,460 we daren't stop talking because we've got a 553 00:23:43,460 --> 00:23:45,500 reputation for being good Christians. 554 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:47,220 A lot of people have a reputation for 555 00:23:47,220 --> 00:23:49,180 being good Christians in churches and then they 556 00:23:49,180 --> 00:23:51,440 secretly break with God. 557 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:54,640 And there is a lack of communion there. 558 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:58,500 The fires have burned low and they're hardly 559 00:23:58,500 --> 00:24:01,900 able anymore to feel any sense of God 560 00:24:01,900 --> 00:24:02,660 at all. 561 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,120 And yet they have to keep it up 562 00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:07,700 so they may even allow themselves to get 563 00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:11,480 elected to boards and to young people's groups 564 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,320 and choirs and all the rest. 565 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:19,540 And I still am afraid that the whole 566 00:24:19,540 --> 00:24:21,940 thing's hot because their heart has slipped away. 567 00:24:22,900 --> 00:24:25,900 Friends, let me ask you this question. 568 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,300 You've been married ten years, six years, five 569 00:24:29,300 --> 00:24:30,760 years, whatever it is. 570 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:35,100 Let me ask you, if you positively knew, 571 00:24:35,220 --> 00:24:40,420 lady, really knew, that deep in his heart 572 00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:45,100 your husband had no care for you at 573 00:24:45,100 --> 00:24:48,340 all, that deep in his heart were secret 574 00:24:48,340 --> 00:24:52,720 wishes that he's fighting down, that he might 575 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:54,500 be rid of you from the necessity of 576 00:24:54,500 --> 00:24:57,180 being where you are, how would you feel 577 00:24:57,180 --> 00:24:57,660 about it? 578 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:00,500 That's backsliding in heart. 579 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:01,500 He's not going to tell you. 580 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,920 And I suppose in almost every instance it's 581 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:05,600 just not true. 582 00:25:05,740 --> 00:25:08,240 I'm merely making up an illustration here. 583 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:10,000 But the point I want to make is 584 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,520 that we want the love of people's hearts. 585 00:25:13,220 --> 00:25:16,120 We don't care so much about the external 586 00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:16,860 things. 587 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,160 It's the love of the heart. 588 00:25:19,900 --> 00:25:24,060 And so when God finds our hearts are 589 00:25:24,060 --> 00:25:26,720 slipping and we won't admit it to ourselves, 590 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,320 in our secret moments we won't admit it, 591 00:25:29,900 --> 00:25:31,780 but we've gotten to a place where if 592 00:25:31,780 --> 00:25:34,820 we told the truth we're bored with God's 593 00:25:34,820 --> 00:25:37,540 religion and we wouldn't say it, we wouldn't 594 00:25:37,540 --> 00:25:40,360 admit it, we'd be ashamed of it, but 595 00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:40,840 it's there. 596 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:42,920 What do you think God thinks about it? 597 00:25:43,220 --> 00:25:47,960 Jesus in the book of Revelation said, You've 598 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:49,380 left your first love. 599 00:25:49,500 --> 00:25:51,020 That is your first degree of love. 600 00:25:51,180 --> 00:25:54,280 And he chided that church because he found 601 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,240 happening way back there in the second century. 602 00:25:57,940 --> 00:26:01,420 He chided that church because it was losing 603 00:26:01,420 --> 00:26:02,440 its affection. 604 00:26:02,980 --> 00:26:05,200 But it didn't say so. 605 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,240 Not an elder in the Ephesian church never 606 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:09,200 stood to preach. 607 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,920 Not a deacon that ever passed the plates. 608 00:26:13,540 --> 00:26:16,320 Not a member of the Ephesian church. 609 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,120 Would ever dare to get up and say, 610 00:26:19,220 --> 00:26:20,120 I'm tired of God. 611 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,020 I'm weary of this whole business. 612 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:23,140 Not a one. 613 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:28,580 Their past testimony, logic, all the rest made 614 00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:29,560 them keep quiet. 615 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:32,900 But the heart of Jesus, long it wasn't 616 00:26:32,900 --> 00:26:35,620 there, chided them. 617 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:38,480 He said, I don't feel the warmth I 618 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:39,280 used to feel. 619 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,320 Your smile is not, your breath not so 620 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:41,880 warm. 621 00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:46,860 The tone of your voice not so affectionate. 622 00:26:46,860 --> 00:26:48,040 But I miss it, he said. 623 00:26:48,620 --> 00:26:49,720 You've left your faith. 624 00:26:51,650 --> 00:26:53,310 A man will get enough of that after 625 00:26:53,310 --> 00:26:55,630 a while, trying to keep up religious appearances 626 00:26:55,630 --> 00:27:00,230 with a hollow testimony and trying to talk 627 00:27:00,230 --> 00:27:04,230 with enthusiastic Christians about God and seeming to 628 00:27:04,230 --> 00:27:05,130 enjoy it. 629 00:27:05,750 --> 00:27:09,470 Years ago, he talked about something like this 630 00:27:09,470 --> 00:27:12,830 and he said that it was like a 631 00:27:12,830 --> 00:27:14,550 man trying to last seen the point. 632 00:27:15,490 --> 00:27:17,690 Had you ever seen anybody do that? 633 00:27:17,690 --> 00:27:21,250 That waxy look with that waxy smile? 634 00:27:21,870 --> 00:27:25,550 That somebody we appreciate or honor or turn 635 00:27:25,550 --> 00:27:26,750 and make a pleasantry? 636 00:27:27,410 --> 00:27:29,450 And we say to ourselves now, that's a 637 00:27:29,450 --> 00:27:31,890 wonderful man and he's gone and we ought 638 00:27:31,890 --> 00:27:32,490 to smile. 639 00:27:34,150 --> 00:27:35,310 Or even chuckle. 640 00:27:35,930 --> 00:27:38,770 How many a hypocritical chuckle I've made for 641 00:27:38,770 --> 00:27:39,090 a joke. 642 00:27:40,350 --> 00:27:43,010 And Rader was bold enough to use that 643 00:27:43,010 --> 00:27:43,870 in spiritual things. 644 00:27:44,350 --> 00:27:45,870 Maybe he won't hurt this morning. 645 00:27:45,870 --> 00:27:47,910 He said, laugh at a joke when you 646 00:27:47,910 --> 00:27:49,670 hadn't seen the point or when there wasn't 647 00:27:49,670 --> 00:27:50,770 any point, I might add. 648 00:27:53,170 --> 00:27:55,950 But trying to talk about God and prayer 649 00:27:55,950 --> 00:27:59,150 and all the spiritual things when your heart 650 00:27:59,150 --> 00:28:00,890 isn't in it, a fellow will get enough 651 00:28:00,890 --> 00:28:02,110 of that after a while, brother. 652 00:28:02,790 --> 00:28:04,050 Sure as you are, the next letter in 653 00:28:04,050 --> 00:28:05,570 heart, he'll get enough of himself. 654 00:28:06,330 --> 00:28:07,930 I pray that he may soon. 655 00:28:08,050 --> 00:28:10,090 I pray that we may soon. 656 00:28:10,830 --> 00:28:13,110 For unless of ourselves, I'm afraid there's not 657 00:28:13,110 --> 00:28:13,750 much help. 658 00:28:13,750 --> 00:28:16,390 But I pray we'll get enough of ourselves. 659 00:28:17,470 --> 00:28:21,110 And then that constant church attendance was bored 660 00:28:21,110 --> 00:28:21,550 with it. 661 00:28:21,650 --> 00:28:23,910 And how many there are, I repeat, that 662 00:28:23,910 --> 00:28:25,490 are in church this morning that are here, 663 00:28:25,930 --> 00:28:28,090 maybe not here, but some churches at any 664 00:28:28,090 --> 00:28:28,970 rate, bored with it. 665 00:28:29,350 --> 00:28:32,510 But they've heard somebody say, don't send your 666 00:28:32,510 --> 00:28:33,430 children, take them. 667 00:28:33,470 --> 00:28:36,370 And they steadfastly determine they're going to follow 668 00:28:36,370 --> 00:28:37,590 that, and it's good and I'm glad they 669 00:28:37,590 --> 00:28:37,890 do. 670 00:28:38,430 --> 00:28:40,090 But oh, it would be so much better 671 00:28:40,090 --> 00:28:41,790 if they enjoyed it. 672 00:28:42,350 --> 00:28:44,750 So much better that they're going to church. 673 00:28:44,870 --> 00:28:46,830 I have been forced to go to religious 674 00:28:46,830 --> 00:28:48,450 meetings that I didn't want to attend. 675 00:28:49,070 --> 00:28:50,790 I knew that there was nothing there for 676 00:28:50,790 --> 00:28:52,870 me, that I couldn't contribute anything. 677 00:28:53,470 --> 00:28:56,810 And I have gone nevertheless because circumstances compelled 678 00:28:56,810 --> 00:28:57,230 me to. 679 00:28:57,330 --> 00:28:58,910 But I'd get enough of that pretty soon. 680 00:28:59,790 --> 00:29:00,510 Really, I would. 681 00:29:01,390 --> 00:29:02,870 If I had to be doing something I 682 00:29:02,870 --> 00:29:04,590 don't like to do, brother, I'd get bored 683 00:29:04,590 --> 00:29:05,510 with that right early. 684 00:29:06,250 --> 00:29:07,990 He'd get enough of himself. 685 00:29:09,050 --> 00:29:10,710 And this constant, you don't want to go 686 00:29:10,710 --> 00:29:11,070 really. 687 00:29:11,250 --> 00:29:12,610 If you had your way, you'd turn over 688 00:29:12,610 --> 00:29:13,590 and go back to sleep. 689 00:29:15,310 --> 00:29:17,250 That's an evidence of something I don't like 690 00:29:17,250 --> 00:29:17,910 to think about. 691 00:29:18,110 --> 00:29:20,930 And in this matter of giving, God's warm 692 00:29:20,930 --> 00:29:22,610 -hearted people give spontaneously. 693 00:29:22,870 --> 00:29:23,630 They love it. 694 00:29:23,730 --> 00:29:24,430 They love it. 695 00:29:25,070 --> 00:29:26,770 They don't put their hands up and sing, 696 00:29:27,070 --> 00:29:29,670 when we asunder part, it gives us inward 697 00:29:29,670 --> 00:29:30,110 pain. 698 00:29:31,030 --> 00:29:35,890 But they give joyously because it's a pleasure 699 00:29:35,890 --> 00:29:36,610 to give. 700 00:29:37,730 --> 00:29:39,970 I got a big check for mission. 701 00:29:40,170 --> 00:29:42,330 That is for relief over on the other 702 00:29:42,330 --> 00:29:43,090 side of the water. 703 00:29:43,270 --> 00:29:44,730 The eve of the day before Thanksgiving. 704 00:29:45,590 --> 00:29:47,070 And the brother who sent it wrote this 705 00:29:47,070 --> 00:29:48,470 half-humorous note. 706 00:29:49,130 --> 00:29:50,470 He said, I want this to go for 707 00:29:50,470 --> 00:29:51,090 such and such. 708 00:29:51,150 --> 00:29:52,370 And he said, I'll buy my turkey dinner 709 00:29:52,370 --> 00:29:53,570 better Thanksgiving day. 710 00:29:54,190 --> 00:29:55,710 Well, now, there was no hardship there. 711 00:29:55,810 --> 00:29:56,730 That was spontaneous. 712 00:29:56,930 --> 00:29:59,010 That came out of a heart that wanted 713 00:29:59,010 --> 00:29:59,510 to serve. 714 00:30:00,050 --> 00:30:02,750 But this everlasting sitting down and taking out 715 00:30:02,750 --> 00:30:04,990 that dollar out of the ten, that ten 716 00:30:04,990 --> 00:30:06,770 out of the hundred, that hundred out of 717 00:30:06,770 --> 00:30:09,230 the thousand, and yet not enjoy doing it. 718 00:30:09,370 --> 00:30:11,010 I'd get enough of that after a while, 719 00:30:11,170 --> 00:30:11,690 wouldn't you? 720 00:30:12,590 --> 00:30:14,430 If I wasn't a Christian, I wouldn't tithe. 721 00:30:14,570 --> 00:30:17,130 Not all the things and button pushers that 722 00:30:17,130 --> 00:30:19,370 come along and try to show that if 723 00:30:19,370 --> 00:30:21,430 you tithe, you'll have more money than you 724 00:30:21,430 --> 00:30:21,590 did. 725 00:30:21,650 --> 00:30:23,770 If you don't tithe, all of that low 726 00:30:23,770 --> 00:30:26,970 -grade effort to get people to give, it 727 00:30:26,970 --> 00:30:29,730 isn't Christian, it isn't spiritual, it isn't decent. 728 00:30:30,990 --> 00:30:33,210 What kind of people would you, if you 729 00:30:33,210 --> 00:30:36,610 brought your offerings to God's house, knowing that 730 00:30:36,610 --> 00:30:38,790 if you did, you'd be more prosperous than 731 00:30:38,790 --> 00:30:41,590 if you didn't, knowing that you'll have more 732 00:30:41,590 --> 00:30:43,490 than if you didn't tithe, and you tithed 733 00:30:43,490 --> 00:30:44,390 to get more? 734 00:30:44,670 --> 00:30:46,510 What kind of people would you be? 735 00:30:47,170 --> 00:30:49,710 No, you people have proved better than that. 736 00:30:50,110 --> 00:30:52,030 You know when you separate a ten-dollar 737 00:30:52,030 --> 00:30:55,030 bill from your wallet and put it in 738 00:30:55,030 --> 00:30:57,650 the plate or give it, you know you're 739 00:30:57,650 --> 00:31:00,370 out ten dollars, but you know that God 740 00:31:00,370 --> 00:31:04,210 takes that ten dollars and transmutes it into 741 00:31:04,210 --> 00:31:06,930 everlasting blessing for the world to come and 742 00:31:06,930 --> 00:31:08,870 your heart's joy as to do it. 743 00:31:09,790 --> 00:31:15,720 But giving, giving when out of habit, a 744 00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:17,380 man will get enough of that after a 745 00:31:17,380 --> 00:31:19,280 while, and I pray the sooner the better. 746 00:31:20,980 --> 00:31:28,000 And when you're cheerful, keep spiritually cheerful and 747 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,740 relaxed when you're enjoying. 748 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,400 Galatians 6, it says, Brethren, if any man 749 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:35,900 be overtaken in a fault, ye of which 750 00:31:35,900 --> 00:31:37,820 are spiritual, restore such a one. 751 00:31:38,340 --> 00:31:40,240 It points out that the words used there 752 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,860 are medical terms, and they mean when an 753 00:31:43,860 --> 00:31:45,700 arm gets out of joint, a shoulder gets 754 00:31:45,700 --> 00:31:47,380 out of joint, it gets snapped out for 755 00:31:47,380 --> 00:31:47,540 you. 756 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:50,580 One of my boys was hurting football, and 757 00:31:50,580 --> 00:31:54,280 he slept in a brace for a long 758 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,980 old years until that arm could get so 759 00:31:56,980 --> 00:31:58,000 it wouldn't snap out. 760 00:31:58,620 --> 00:32:00,120 I knew a dear old brother who used 761 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:01,300 to be in the church here who had 762 00:32:01,300 --> 00:32:02,900 a knee that would go like that on 763 00:32:02,900 --> 00:32:03,300 him. 764 00:32:03,300 --> 00:32:04,360 How painful. 765 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:10,020 And the Holy Ghost likened backsliding to a 766 00:32:10,020 --> 00:32:11,840 knee out of joint. 767 00:32:12,260 --> 00:32:14,220 And to keep cheerful and smiling as though 768 00:32:14,220 --> 00:32:16,000 nothing was going on with a knee out 769 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,840 of joint, that takes more heroic ability than 770 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:20,160 I do. 771 00:32:20,660 --> 00:32:23,700 If I'm not cheerful inside, don't expect me 772 00:32:23,700 --> 00:32:25,160 to be cheerful on the outside. 773 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,420 Don't you bring any Norman or Dale Carnegie 774 00:32:29,420 --> 00:32:31,560 books and tell me to relax and be 775 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:31,840 cheerful. 776 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:33,060 I can't be. 777 00:32:33,860 --> 00:32:36,580 If my heart isn't singing, I can't sing. 778 00:32:36,900 --> 00:32:39,160 If my heart isn't cheerful, I can't look 779 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:39,480 cheerful. 780 00:32:41,460 --> 00:32:43,440 Maybe you can, but I pray that you 781 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:43,940 can't. 782 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:47,840 An uncheerful soul trying to be cheerful, you 783 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,380 get enough of it after a while, the 784 00:32:49,380 --> 00:32:50,280 Holy Ghost says. 785 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:53,200 He'll be filled with his own. 786 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,440 Oh, I pray that God will do us 787 00:32:56,440 --> 00:33:01,300 the inestimable favor of going from heart to 788 00:33:01,300 --> 00:33:04,820 mind and soul to soul and finding us 789 00:33:04,820 --> 00:33:07,560 this morning, finding and locating us this morning 790 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,000 with a geiger, finding us this morning. 791 00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:15,380 And if there's a cooling off in there, 792 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:18,260 find it and cure it. 793 00:33:19,220 --> 00:33:23,840 You remember when Jesus looked upon Peter, it 794 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,240 says, And Jesus turned and looked upon Peter, 795 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,020 and Peter went outside and wept bitterly. 796 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:31,360 I don't know what Jesus said. 797 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,280 I guess he didn't say anything, for it 798 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:34,720 doesn't say he did, and I can't do 799 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:35,080 it. 800 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,800 He simply turned and looked at Peter. 801 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,420 The little woman said, Are you one of 802 00:33:40,420 --> 00:33:40,920 his followers? 803 00:33:41,060 --> 00:33:42,020 And Peter said, No. 804 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:42,760 She said, I think you are. 805 00:33:43,220 --> 00:33:44,440 He said, I'm not. 806 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:46,040 She said again, You are. 807 00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:47,620 Your speech be raised. 808 00:33:49,060 --> 00:33:51,760 Then he said, I'm not a Christian. 809 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:54,860 I'm going to do something no Christian would 810 00:33:54,860 --> 00:33:55,180 do. 811 00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:57,480 So he cursed. 812 00:33:58,740 --> 00:34:01,560 He said, If I'm not a Christian, I 813 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,040 may get arrested along with Jesus. 814 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,260 So in order to prove that I'm not 815 00:34:07,260 --> 00:34:09,080 a Christian, I'm going to curse. 816 00:34:09,199 --> 00:34:09,900 And so he cursed. 817 00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:13,639 No, he's not. 818 00:34:15,900 --> 00:34:17,560 Jesus did, and it was just before he 819 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:17,880 died. 820 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:22,639 Jesus turned and looked at that cursing apostle, 821 00:34:23,820 --> 00:34:26,239 a sharp man with a keen eye. 822 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:28,420 He wasn't well-educated, but he was a 823 00:34:28,420 --> 00:34:29,600 genius in his own right. 824 00:34:30,199 --> 00:34:32,080 And he looked up into that face for 825 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,420 once, and what he saw in that face 826 00:34:35,420 --> 00:34:40,260 of hurt and pain and sorrow and longing 827 00:34:40,260 --> 00:34:43,500 and love was too much for Peter. 828 00:34:44,540 --> 00:34:46,940 He dashed out of the house, dashed out, 829 00:34:47,659 --> 00:34:51,179 hurried out of the house, and stood outside 830 00:34:51,179 --> 00:34:55,260 somewhere, and with his face in his hands, 831 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:57,040 wept bitterly. 832 00:34:57,420 --> 00:35:03,040 The Greek language indicates an uncontrolled torrent of 833 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:03,400 weeping. 834 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:06,840 And Jesus said a word. 835 00:35:07,220 --> 00:35:13,350 He never just looked at Peter. 836 00:35:14,450 --> 00:35:17,230 I wonder if the tender Jesus this morning 837 00:35:17,230 --> 00:35:19,290 won't look at you. 838 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:39,070 Oh, Jesus, look on us by 839 00:35:39,070 --> 00:35:45,310 love, by undying affection, a love that a 840 00:35:45,310 --> 00:35:47,210 few hours later would die also. 841 00:35:48,210 --> 00:35:52,070 That love hasn't lost any of its content, 842 00:35:52,450 --> 00:35:53,950 no weaker, no smaller. 843 00:35:54,950 --> 00:35:57,090 As big as God is big, and as 844 00:35:57,090 --> 00:35:58,650 eternal as God is eternal. 845 00:35:59,550 --> 00:36:02,590 Oh, Lord Jesus, we're thy sheep. 846 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:06,620 And the world is big, and the devil 847 00:36:06,620 --> 00:36:08,760 is going about like a roaring lion. 848 00:36:10,380 --> 00:36:14,080 The temptations are strong, and the flesh is 849 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:14,400 weak. 850 00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,280 And maybe some of us are cooling off 851 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:18,340 inside our hearts. 852 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,120 Please, Lord, before it's too late, help us 853 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,180 to get enough of it quick before it's 854 00:36:25,180 --> 00:36:25,600 too late. 855 00:36:26,180 --> 00:36:28,620 Please, Lord, don't let us harm in the 856 00:36:28,620 --> 00:36:29,320 backsliders. 857 00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:33,500 People that have lost their conscience can no 858 00:36:33,500 --> 00:36:36,500 longer grieve because they can. 859 00:36:37,100 --> 00:36:41,360 No longer sorrow that they don't feel sorrow. 860 00:36:42,260 --> 00:36:45,780 Oh, we plead, look at us again today 861 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:47,460 in our hearts. 862 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:53,080 We're no better than Peter, but maybe, Lord, 863 00:36:53,460 --> 00:36:57,620 some who like Peter have sneaked out of 864 00:36:57,620 --> 00:37:01,640 discipleship, or at least inwardly they have. 865 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:03,940 Look on us, Lord, and break our hearts. 866 00:37:04,780 --> 00:37:06,420 Look on us and make us weep. 867 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,820 Give the grace of tears this morning, Lord 868 00:37:09,820 --> 00:37:11,660 Jesus, a few tears. 869 00:37:12,340 --> 00:37:15,160 If we knew that we could have this 870 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:19,520 morning $10,000 offering plates for the church 871 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:21,260 and permissions, we'd be glad. 872 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:23,760 But if we knew instead we were to 873 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:28,180 have 10,000 tears of grief and repentance 874 00:37:28,180 --> 00:37:30,500 and penitence and faith and hope and joy, 875 00:37:31,100 --> 00:37:34,420 we'd lay the $10,000 away and take 876 00:37:34,420 --> 00:37:39,000 the tears that we might weep because we 877 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:39,660 can't weep. 878 00:37:40,820 --> 00:37:42,420 Oh, help us this morning.