In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of being a thankful people in a reprobate day. He reads from the 65th Psalm and emphasizes the blessing of being chosen by God. The preacher shares a personal anecdote about speaking at a Baptist school and facing opposition for his message. He emphasizes the need for individuals to be saved by God and not just make a profession of faith. The sermon concludes with a call for prayer and a preview of the next message on the folly of knocking at a door that God has shut.

Multitudes of our church members are not batting very well when they are thus tested. I believe that every organization of a church that doesn't function in services like this ought to be done away with. I cannot conceive of a Sunday school teacher who could sleep at night if all the students in the class were not here every night, they didn't have both legs broken or working or something, or the WMU or the training union or the brotherhood or any of the 10,001 organizations we got now trying to pump up the old head cow. And I think we ought not to get discouraged, but we ought to rehaul the whole machinery. For if our machinery don't function, we better swap it off and get some that will. Amen. Though we're being greatly tested, I am. I dearly love this godly pastor and his wife. I wish I could have been a help to them. I hope he'll get some sense. He's the hardest working man I've seen lately doing what he ought not to do. Amen. What he ought not to do. Now, it's been a test of me. What shall I preach? And I won't know the judgment, what the Lord's purpose was here. But for better or worse, we've been speaking this week on the text in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and 5, and we're quoted afresh tonight. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate. If he's rejected you, of course, he's not in you. Last night we spoke on my conviction, and I tried to enforce it by the word of God, that this generation has passed into a season of reprobation. Multitudes about us commit what we call the unpardonable sin every day, and there are numbers increasing day by day. And the reason, of all reasons why we believe that is true, is that men are not seeking after the Lord today, either those who profess to be Christians or those who don't profess to be Christians. The one thing that would break your heart if you followed the evangelists around was people who do not hand after God. I do not pay a great deal of attention to the acts, good or bad, of men, but I do think it's very, very, very important what their desires are, what they're looking for, what they're running at. The best man I ever saw could depict the pieces in many different directions. But thank God a Christian whose tasted of the Lord is bound to be a fellow that's running scared for more of Christ. I cannot understand the generation of so-called Christians who say I'm all right. I believe it's far into Christianity. And if I'm speaking a little truth that we do live in a day of people who seem to be pretty well satisfied with themselves and their relation or lack of relation to the Lord, if that be true of people who at least tell me they're Christians, we need not wonder that those who make no such claim are full of excuses and alibis but are not seeking the Lord. That's a terrible state, if it be true, and I think maybe it is, because the one unanswerable reason why this generation is not characterized by a hot and a holy and a persevering seeking after the Lord is that God has to create thirst and then supply. Men and women are not thirsty for God now. That's the most terrible thing we can face, because the only one who can make men thirsty after holiness ain't making men thirsty after holiness now. It seems that God has left this generation of church members and otherwise to pursue everything else except him and go on to hell. Tonight I wish to speak on the subject, a thankful people in a reprobate day. A thankful people in a reprobate day. You'll not turn to it, please. I've fudged on you. I have it marked. I want to read one verse of scripture in the Old Testament and then a passage in the New, in the 65th Psalm and the 4th verse. There is a ringing, blessed hallelujah, praise the Lord, verse of scripture. It reads like this, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and callseth to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. Oh my, in the setting of the Old Testament where God elected a small insignificant nation and made them his chosen people, elected them out from among all of the nations. Then to read about how every time a false prophet came to town they went whoring after him and departed the formal worship of Jehovah God. Now all of the calls to revival in the Old Testament days were nothing more or less than a calling of the people from going through the motions and giving lip service instead of heart worship to almighty God. In a setting like that where the apostle Paul will remind us that the whole outfit would have been his Sodom and Gomorrah except that God remembers his covenant. Oh, to have lived in Old Testament days and to read this verse and say glory, glory, glory, hallelujah. I have a lot of evidence and hope to believe that this text includes me. Blessed is the man whom God chooseth and callseth to approach unto him that he might dwell in the courts of the land. It would have been blessed to be one of the people when the Lord was dealing with an elected nation blessed of whom individually died or inhaled a knife for the holy gospel. But the scriptures say it was not mixed with what thus they died. It would have been blessed to have been one of the few who followed Caleb and Joshua and believed God instead of took counsel of their fears and their carcasses rotted in the wilderness and there inhaled a knife. What a blessing it would have been. What a cause for presence it would have been. Oh, how they would sing hallelujah. Hallelujah, amen. They had some evidence in those awful days that they were one of those who in spite of the way the elect nation went to hell, they were those whom God had caused to approach unto him. And there is a thanksgiving message like that in the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 there is another man praising God, giving thanks, saying glory, hallelujah, amen. And in the message tonight we'll see he's doing it in the awfulest context, in the most terrible, terrible context perhaps in the entire bible. And in this awful context we'll read it in a little bit, where men have been given a strong delusion, such a strong delusion by the judgment of almighty God that they can't believe the truth, they can only believe the lie. And they've been done that way because they did not receive the l-o-v-e letter of the truth that they might receive. And God almighty, because they didn't l-o-v-e the truth, brought them to the place they couldn't believe it if they'd had it, and they could only believe a lie, and it did that in order that they might be d-e-ad. That's exactly what the scripture will read in a moment, in that awful context. We'll read verse 13. The apostle Paul says in this context, I've painted a dark picture, he said, of the time of antichrist and the time leading up to it, but I'm bound to give thanks. Verse 13, we are bound to give thanks always, we are bound, you couldn't keep us from it, just bless God, it bubbles and it bubbles and it bubbles, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, that's all you got to do, just give him a chance, that it's saved in the old testament, time would praise the Lord, and anybody that's saved in this awful day we're living in now, brother, he'll be full of bubbling praise, thanking God that God saved. Thanking God, thanking God, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, I won't be in that crowd with any hope on me, folks that the Lord loves, and we're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, why? Because God has chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Where unto? He didn't just fix it so he hoped you'd stumble on it, where unto? He called you, thank God, called you to what? Called you to what? Belief of truth, thank God he calls me, he called me, he chose me, he appointed me the way, the spirit, and the truth of God, and then he didn't just run off and hope that we'd stumble on it, but bless God, he called you out of that awful atmosphere by our gospel, called you to what? To the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's something to thank God about, and anybody that's experienced it, brother, he'll never get over it, he'll never get over it, he'll never get over it. A thankful people in a reprobate age. I want tonight your indulgence as we go through the scripture briefly and get a description of the days that Paul is living in when he wrote these blessed words. I want us to get a new conception or have our old conception refreshed if we can on how wonderful it is to be snatched out of a day like Paul's day or a day like our day and called unto the obtaining of the glory of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you what fact I wish that it could burn in our souls again that it is sure enough something to be a child of God in this awful day. What a blessed, blessed privilege. Oh, praise the Lord for the sight that may be in any of us that he's called us out of the black atmosphere of the day in which Paul wrote in the days just like it only was. We've been called unto the obtaining, bless God, of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Does the New Testament teach that there was to be a falling away from the true faith of the gospel? Yes. Verse 3 here in this chapter says, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the sin the son of perdition. In first Timothy at chapter 4 now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot arc. They were all church members remember now. Every one of these people that made a profession of faith I'm going to give you a description of Paul's day religiously wise. Then we turn to second Timothy and we read from the same man the apostle Paul this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men. What kind of men? Men with the names on church rolls ladies and gentlemen that's what he's talking about. Not the drunkardly bootlegger but professing Christians men shall be lovers of their own self covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient appearance unthankful unholy reads like the description of the membership of a southern baptist church today. It is too. Without natural affection truth breakers false accusers incontinent despises of those that are good traitors hiddy high-minded pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof brother you'd better if you don't want to go the same hell they going to from such turn away from such turn away from such turn away read what the apostle Peter said is in just the testimony of Paul. The apostle Peter will tell us in his epistle in the second chapter of the second book we'll find it here in a minute in the second chapter but there were false prophets also among the people even as that shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that brought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction they'll bring them into our organized churches that's what he's talking about amen and many shall follow their pernicious ways many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom that we approve shall be evil spoken of or let the apostle John tell us in the second chapter first John little children it is the last time and as you've heard that antichrist shall come even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from why why why why why is it typical i'm a southern baptist i talk about my kin folks what's the explanation of the fact that the church has to have a thousand members now to have 500 and some to school and 200 of them will be below the age of church membership that's part for the brother remember that if you depart from a church that preaches the gospel you've departed from christ now listen to me remember that a church member who has sent himself from the preaching of gospel is going to split hell wide open he's quit christ he's apostatized he never knew him to start with he just thought he did what happened to him they went out but they were not of us they never were god's people or if they had been of us they would not have turned our churches into places to go and flick out like we worship god on sunday morning then go to the beach and ten thousand other things the rest of the lord's day no god's people don't do that way but this is talking about a falling away a falling away now may i ask you this question and answer it the best i can i don't know what your theology area is and if i cross you just forgive me you apologize and i'll forgive you but here yeah when did this fall away take place it took place while these epistles were being written every day it's been going on now for nearly two thousand years this departure from the gospel is nearly two thousand years old and brother it's speaking words every day when did this fall away take place well read again second timber three and one and five this no in the last day's perilous time from turn away i've already said the temp you turn away from that out there you go along with that christ it's going on there it's beginning there i'll read again the last verses that i read you they went out promised and so forth there are many antichrists going to come and antichrist is coming now there are many antichrists whereby we know that is the last time the falling away from the true faith of the gospel was even underway before these epistles were written but brother barn and what about the new testament teaching that this falling away was to take place in the last days that's right but the last days in the new testament means the day between the first and the second coming of jesus christ we've been in the last days ever since jesus went back to glory we'll be in the last days till he comes back now hold on the scriptures speak of the times past hebrews chapter one god who in times past at now in these what last day spoken to us into his in his heart now the teaching of the way is that this awful falling away from the true faith of the gospel even started in the days of the apostles and it's been going on until this good and it's getting worse and worse and worse and it's gonna get worse until antichrist appears when i was a boy i was given to god to be a preacher before i was born i didn't know about the left i say but i was an infidel when i was saved had been claimed to be one for four years and i was an infidel because i had to have some sort of peace and i knew if i got saved i'd have to mind god and that meant i'd have to preach this generation tell me they got saved but they never have been obedient to the lord i don't understand those that sat the prayer i'll tell you what fact i don't believe a man say if he's still bucking god spitting amber juice in god's face and telling him i ain't gonna mind and the issue between me and god was i knew if i ever surrendered to god i'd have to do as well if that ain't salvation you tell me what it is and i knew as well for me was to be a preacher and i wasn't gonna be one of these little old hitchhiking preachers like i've been for 39 years not on your life but when i was a kid i i didn't know nothing about it i i was gonna have to be i gonna have he's gonna have to be a preacher go to hell and you're gonna have to do whatever god calls you to do go to hell too i don't know what he calls you and i i used to preach when i was a kid on the farm and a chicken would die a cat would die a dog would die something we'd always have a big and it's a kick in their cat or whatever it was oh my daddy mother owned it i preached the funeral brother none of the other kids got preached to and i was a stem winding preacher in them days and i remember that our favorite cat died and we had the biggest funeral that's ever held on old man jim barnard's farm i'll tell you that we put on all the rousers and i preached the funeral quick and we took that cat out and back and i was the fond of the cat that when we buried that i left the teal end of his teal sticking up i wanted to go out and check on the cat every once in a while and i did and you wouldn't believe this folks but the more of the days passed every day go out and just pull that teal just a little bit see if the cat was still there and i know you won't believe it but the smell was a little worse the longer the time went now the cat wasn't a big death ten days after we put him in the ground except the tail end of his tail but he smelled a lot worse and this was in the big death of god and it was when this falling away first but it smells so much worse it smells so much worse this appearance of antichrist ain't gonna happen just like that without warnings i'm going to make an announcement i know you'll appreciate it it's warm weather no it ain't it's cold it's fall at one o'clock today summer skedaddle and paul took charge that's right well it looked to me like it had been hot up till one second before one o'clock and then it got cold but it didn't and antichrist didn't hear it yet in person but he's standing there has the world been existing in a state of falling away from and apart from the true face of the gospel of jesus nearly two thousand years no world's tearing itself to pieces tonight it's been dead to god for a long time and a dead carcass smells worse the longer it's dead that's why this world is steeped in filth tonight so far as the generality of professing christian the world and it's the world over is concerned been in a state of apostasy from the apostolic faith and has been since new testament day i start you with this terrible truth the basic principles of the gospel are not believed by professing christianity today they have not been believed and taught all these years there have been individuals who believe the gospel there have been local congregations and groupings of congregations who believe the gospel but for nearly two thousand years what we call christianity has really been anti-christian ladies and gentlemen for nearly two thousand years organized christianity has been preparing itself to welcome with open arms the antichrist when he takes charge that's that god's truth ladies and gentlemen if you are saved out of this awful anti-christian spirit that's now erupting and threatening to wipe our churches off the face of the earth you'll join the psalmist who says whom god chooses and causes to oppose you don't of course we're bound to give thanks beloved brethren of the lord because god has in the beginning on the salvation through the sanctification of the spirit and the belief of truth and has called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the lord jesus christ in other words i believe that if the apostle paul were to come back and preach today in our organized churches the majority of every church we've got would reject this message and refuse to hear it every visitation of god's holy spirit you testament days has been afflicted intervention of that to call people back to the true faith of the gospel we thank god for every one of them but it's been over a hundred years since we've had anything like that in the world it's alone without this thing of people and now every church that was born in the reformation has apostatized from the gospel the very last one there is no more similarity between what baptists believe now and what they believed 50 years ago between a bird and an animal we have come from the face of the gospel that challenge is enough is that's the reason i know ain't about christian in this world today i'll never get over praising god without such a hellish atmosphere to pick them up and change them by grace put a new song in their heart now i want you to listen to paul's description here of this day you see i compares with our day in the second chapter of second second ceteronian chair let me read it now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our lord jesus christ and by our gathering together under him that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter it from us as at the day of christ is at hand let no man deceive you by any means that they shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man can be revealed the son of position who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called god or that is worship this is the religious setting so that he has god fitted in the temple of god showing himself that he is god remember you're not that when i was west yet with you i told you these things and now you know what was holy that he might be revealed in his time for the mystery equity does already work only he now prevents will prevent until he be taken out of the way and then shall that which is when they reveal whom the lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming even him whose coming is asked to be by after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all blessings and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish why because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved what god do about it nothing oh no because men and women receive not the love of the truth do you wonder brother barns tells me i know i'm right that if you quit a church that's true to the gospel and you still got some you quit christ you quit christ i've just got to speak i suppose in the inner circle of this church since the beginning i've been doing my dead level best to say something to get you alarmed about the unfaithful condition of your churchmen they quit christ you can't tell me david breaks at least you don't preach the gospel i know he does and if he does all these church members with the names on the road they are in danger of hell fire that's right you tell me you love so but quit frowning at me so go after and put your arm around and warn they on that road to hell how you know brother barns they don't love the truth the only way a felon gets saved is he got come where he loves the truth because they receive not the love of the truth love of the truth that they might be saved they go to get it and because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause the next verse shall send them strong delusion how strong shall it be and this is something that's going on when paul was preaching and it's going on today only words shall send them such strong delusion that they'll believe and the reason they'll be turned over with such a strong delusion that they'll believe the lie is in order that they all may be damned who all shall be damned amen who believe not the truth and who had pleasure in unrighteousness amen a christian's got no business being in a church that doesn't believe lock stock and barrel keep preaching live the truth of the gospel of christ amen and a fellow that wants to get saved got he better not mess around with a church that has departed from the gospel faith and where it's not taught and it's not preached for i'll tell you ladies and gentlemen that do so is to bring god's strong delusion on men and women and fix them so they'll believe a lie and they'll believe a lie so that believing the lie they'll be damned and the ones will be damned are the folks who believe not the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness that was the situation in paul's day and for nearly two thousand years by and large except for you've got people here there and everywhere actually got through little movements in every generation little handful here little handful brother david here he's never had but a family thank god he's had them oh how blessed it has been one of them one of christ's little flock in such an atmosphere ladies and gentlemen i face you tonight i face you tonight with the wonder of being a child of god in an atmosphere where men have been given up such strong delusions they believe the lie they believe the lie that they may be damned as god turned this generation over to such strong delusion that it believes lies instead of truth that everybody shall be damned who do not do two things first love the truth brother that strikes awful close to home and who have pleasure in unrighteousness in such an atmosphere glory hallelujah we're bound to give thanks couldn't keep us from giving thanks if in the day we live in now when everything under god's shining sun except truth is being proclaimed nearly and believed by the multitude when the most foolish things out of hell get the biggest following in this generation where the truth is despised witness the empty houses of the lord on sunday night in this generation where people take back in unrighteousness witness the carnival spirit of this infer hell generation in that awful atmosphere thank you lord that just shows me and put in my path the work of the spirit in the word of truth is election is not salvation it's unto salvation god picks out of such atmospheres that he didn't do it the whole outfit would go to hell but he picks out his trophies of his wonderful grace and monuments of his love and blocks their road to hell with the striving convicting wooing converting power of the holy spirit as he takes the truth and he calls me makes it real to men and women calls us to the attainment of the glory of jesus christ that's god's people in this awful hour thanking the lord praising the lord that in a generation that's gone wild over everything except god call you heard it you knew it was god talking to you faith comes by hearing you said that's god that's god's truth and then just think about it that's god's truth so that's a thankful people in a reprobate day blessed is the man whom god chooses and calls us to approach his throne mr spurgeon said after he got saved he went preaching one day and the preacher was wandering saying nothing about like me i guess he said he couldn't follow him and so he just sat there having lost track he's just trying to trace to trace his salvation paul said thanks be unto god for his untraceable gift so you start out the traces oh brother spurgeon said you know i sought the lord he did as a young man he sought him for years and years he went to preaching place at the preaching place he's reared in the godly home and all of that had to go to a little old free methodist chapel on a snow-bitten day and hear a lame one just quote a verse of scripture laugh and live mr spurgeon said well bless god i look and i live and he said oh it's so wonderful not trying to trace it he said i found out i sought the lord i learned about it and then i found out the reason i sought him was he first taught me and he said i felt love in the heart of the lord and said i love him but i found out we love him because he first loved us and he said every direction i went in i found out that the reason i saved was god saved he did it years ago a big rich contract in the state of mississippi claimed to get converted under my little ministry and after some years he began to pour many thousands of dollars in my ministry and we had a big five-fold tent and everything goes with we held association-wide city-wide meetings for many years and he footed the deal and i got to be with him a lot one day we were riding down the highway going somewhere and we got in a fuss we got in a fuss he said ross i love the lord more than you do i said can't be i know i love him more than you do we really went after each other his wife used to phone all the hotels in memphis and nashville and knoxville and st louis finally she'd find him he'd go and rent the whole floor of a hotel fill up a bathtub and all the rooms full of whiskey and invite everybody in the city that loved whiskey and partying to come he footed the bill he gets a drunk he didn't know where he was and he finally traced him down go get him bring him home over and up that kind of life he lived and one day he claimed god saved him he said fellas mean as i was i know i love the lord more than you do i said no prayer i never got drunk my life i never pulled on those parties but reared in a christian home trained in the sunday school training union of baptist churches educated in a great baptist college president of the infidel's club in that baptist college my senior year and in spite of that god saved me you can't tell me honey you can't tell me anybody god saved he'll never get over he'll never get over boy i tell you the reason the lord saved me because i such a fine fellow yesterday every friday night in that great baptist school i speak to 300 young baptist students that join the infidel's club and if you couldn't get a guest speaker i'd speak and shake my fist and i'd curse god and i dare him if he didn't like what i said to come down and do something about boy we had more fun cussing god and making fun of god than a barrel of mussels and god saved me god saved me i didn't accept christ god saved me i didn't just make a profession god i didn't join the church god saved me blessed is the man that god calls it to approach under him to hear him be the brother for saving the sinner i think you understand while our heads are bowed brother carter will you just lead us we don't need the music in the first verse this will be our closing prayer this will be the invitation pass me not oh gentle savior hear my humble cry while on others thou art calling thank god even in this awful day in which we live the god of all grace still calls sinners while on others thou art calling do not pass me by why would you sing that first verse that's the closing prayer that's the invitation you can sing it you can pray it right where you are you can pray it right where you are every head bow tomorrow night god willing we're continuing the messages on this awful theme i covet great crying to god on the part of god's people that the word may yet be honored and the holy spirit will discover me and split men's hearts open tomorrow night i speak on the folly of knocking at a door that god has shut to and will not open and saturday night when god called the sinner the last time those of you who are christians wait upon the lord and ask him to honor his word yet i'll be honest with you i don't like for the devil to whip us i just don't i if i could lick him i would but the lord couldn't lick him and let's call on him amen good night god bless you