In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of repentance and the consequences of rejecting God's message. He shares a personal experience of being shown the Bible and led to repentance by his basketball coach. The preacher references the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, highlighting the sinful behavior and judgment that occurred there. He also mentions the concept of reprobate minds and how pushing away the opportunity to repent can lead to being incapable of salvation. The sermon emphasizes the need for repentance and the transformative power of God's grace.

Open our Bible tonight, please, to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark, chapter number 6, please. The Book of Mark tonight and chapter number 6 in your New Testament Bible. So good to see you. Thank you all for coming. Appreciate all the visitors. Appreciate the preachers that are here. Appreciate you folks from Valley Drive and appreciate you Wicked Baptist on the back row. Amen. Thank you everybody for being here tonight. And certainly we appreciate everybody that's here from the balcony to the main floor. Thank you for coming. God bless each and every one of you. Let's stand tonight, please, out of respect for God's Word. There's a lot of ground we have to cover. B.R. Lakin said, blessed is the preacher whose train of thought has a caboose. Well, mine does. And so we've got to get started so we can get finished tonight. I have a new message that I just put the finishing touches on just a little bit before the service this afternoon and some things that I've been just a little bit burdened about that I'd like to share with you. And I hope it'll be a great blessing. I'm going to preach the Bible tonight as I see the Word of God and I believe it'll be a help to you. Now, I'm very well aware of the fact that in a crowd this size, regardless, you know, there's not a whole lot of people here, but there's quite a few of us. I'm very well aware of the fact that the subject at hand tonight is a subject that is very controversial and it is a subject that maybe not everybody is going to agree with me on every point of theology that I preach on tonight. But I remind you, I'm going to preach the Word of God tonight. I'm not going to preach something that's microwaved and something that I've borrowed from somebody else, but we're going to use the Word of God. And if anytime in the sermon, not during the sermon, but when the sermon's over I say something that is against the Word of God, I'll be certainly glad to talk to you about that after the service. There's preachers here tonight, but I'm not looking for any meetings. As a matter of fact, there's a few I'm trying to get out of, like next week. Just kidding. But the truth of the matter is this, I realize not everybody is going to agree with what I'm going to preach on tonight, but tonight I'm going to preach and I'm going to do my dead-level best to stay within the confines of the Word of God. And so I believe I'll be fair in preaching the Bible and you being fair in seeing if I do. All right? Mark chapter 6 and verse number 1. Mark chapter number 6, please, and verse number 1. The Bible says, And he, that's Jesus, went out from thence and came into his own country, and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, For whence hath this man these things? What wisdom is this which he giveth unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judah, and of Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty works, save that he laid his hand upon a few sick folk and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching, and he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits, and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only. No script, no bread, no money in their purse, but be shod with sandals, and not put on two coats. And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart then, take off the dust under your feet for testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached that men should repent. And tonight, from Mark chapter 6 and many other portions of Scripture, I preach the simple sermon, the most controversial subject in all of the Bible. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads and hearts and pray and ask the Lord to bless our time together tonight. The most controversial subject in all of the Bible. Now, dear Lord Jesus, tonight you know my heart. I do not in any way, shape, or form preach this sermon because it is controversial. I preach it because it's in the Bible and the Spirit of God has asked me to preach it tonight. So I pray that I would preach it in the right spirit and in the right manner. And Lord, that You would help my friends, this congregation before me, as they listen to the Word of God. And Lord, I pray for the one tonight that has come to our service but has never come to the Savior. I pray You would convict them of the urgency in their heart of receiving the Lord Jesus. And then for God's people tonight, I pray that You would stir us through the Word of God. And Lord, we have already been stirred by the sin. But even more so than stirring us or continuing to do so, we pray that You would change us tonight through the preaching of the Word of God. And Father, I'll be careful to give You the honor, the glory, the praise, and I want to uplift Jesus Christ tonight because He said Himself, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me. And so Lord, tonight use the pages of the Word of God. Burn deep within our hearts, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. In 1875, there was a man by the name of Dr. William Booth. William Booth, as you know, started an organization called the Salvation Army. And I thank God that it's still around today. Certainly, it's not the fundamental organization that it was at one time, but it still helps a lot of needy people and a lot of homeless folks. But here's a man that started a rescue mission type of a ministry. He was a man that had compassion. He was a man that had heart. And in 1875, William Booth said this. He said, the danger of the 20th century will be... Now, obviously, you know, by sake of time and for sake of history, this is the illustration that I give, but we're already past the 20th, into the 21st century, if you can believe that. But yet, he said, the danger of the 20th century will be, number one, politics without God. Number two, education without the Bible. Number three, happiness without holiness. Number four, heaven without hell. Number five, conversion without conviction. And number six, William Booth said, the danger of the 20th century will be regeneration without repentance. And in Mark 6, Jesus Christ does a very, very controversial thing. He goes back to his hometown. He goes back to the town that he was raised in as a young lad, if you will. He goes back to the town where he was reared in Joseph's house, not his father's house, because his father was God, and he said, I am my father one. But he went back to that town that everybody knew him to be from when he was a little boy and when he was a wee little tank and when he was a preteen and when he was a teenager. And so he goes back, and I'd like to remind you, this is right after Mark 5, where he performed three of the greatest miracles of his ministry. He cast devils, over a thousand devils, out of a man's body, healed a lady that had an issue of blood, and he raised a little girl from the dead by saying, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And all three of those miracles were performed by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Mark 6, he had the same miracles that in his heart and in his mind that he wanted to perform to those who had seen him grow up. And so he goes back to this town, and he's walking around, and he's wanting to heal the people, and he's wanting to raise the dead, and he's wanting to do all of these miracles. And the people come to him, and they hear him preaching on the Sabbath day, and they hear him preaching in the synagogue, and they say, Where has this man amassed such a wealth of knowledge? He is well beyond his years as far as maturity is concerned, and they do not understand the principle of the God-man. They merely see him as a prophet. They merely see him as a preacher, as a man, as a healer, as a teacher in the synagogue. And the Bible says, when they seen him, because if you will study your Bible, you will find out that most people in the Bible that served in the temple were over the age of 40 years of age. And so here is Jesus, and in their estimation, He was what we would consider, or what most people consider me, just a little whippersnapper that doesn't know a whole lot. And so they look at Jesus, and they say, What does this guy know? So they hear him preach, and they say, Where has he amassed this wealth of information? And the Bible says, because of his background, because of his age, and because of the knowledge that he had, they were offended in and at him. Well, Jesus still wanted to perform a lot of miracles, but you know what your Bible says? They limited him. It's not that he could not. It's that he would not because of their lack of faith. It has the same idea of Psalm 78. The Bible says that they limited the Holy One of Israel. Now, we don't think about setting limitations on God, and certainly we know that God can do all things, but He would not avail Himself to do the same miracles that He had done in the other towns because the people would not listen to Him. They would not heed to the message of the Word of God. They would not listen to what He had to say. And so He left that city, and when He left that city, as He was walking out, notice what your Bible says He did. Mark 6, verse 12. If you look at the end of verse 6, it says, And He went round about the villages teaching. Now notice, He's leaving town, and He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. Now, please understand, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus gave His apostles what we consider apostolic power. But I'm going to tell you today why there's no such thing as a prophet, and why there's no such thing as an apostle. You watch TV and the rest of them cooks on TV, and they say, Apostle so-and-so. They say, Prophet so-and-so. And they talk about picking up rattlesnakes and a bunch of crazy stuff like that. And they talk about doing all of these miracles and drinking poison and speaking in tongues. Did you know at one time people did have those powers? They were called the apostles. They had apostolic power given to them by God, but the apostles are dead, and apostolic power died with them. And we do not have to have those types of signs and wonders. And I promise you, and I'm glad I don't have to handle a rattlesnake. All I've got to handle is an incorruptible Word of God tonight. And so Jesus went to this town. They wouldn't listen, so He said, Fellas, come here, I'll tell you something. He gave them some power. He said, don't wear two coats, just wear one. He said, just get you some sandals. He said, don't take your sermon note, get your script. He said, don't take a staff, don't take a book satchel. Don't take any food. Don't worry about packing pimento cheese sandwiches or anything like that. People will take care of you along the way. They were itinerants, just like Brother Robertson and myself. They traveled from place to place, and God's people met their needs as they saw fit. So Jesus said, I'm going to send you fellows out two by two. I don't want you to go by yourself. I want the two of you to be able to preach and pray and knock on doors and this, that, and the other. You know the story. And Jesus said, I want you to go to a town, and I want you to preach a particular message. Now, He did not yet give them the message. He just said, I want you to go preach. And He said, when you get there, He said, I want you to preach with all your heart. I want you to just rear back and preach the Word of God and say, Thus saith the Lord. You have to pound the pulpit fine. If you don't pound the pulpit, fine. If you preach fast, fine. If you preach slow, fine. He said, I just want you to go, and I want you to preach, Thus saith the Lord. And He had not yet given them the message. He just told them to preach. He said, and when you get there, you will preach this message that I'm fixing to give you, and if they receive you, wonderful, glory, fine, hallelujah, amen. But if they do not. If that individual, if that nation, if that county, if that province, if that church, if you will, if those people will not receive the message that I am about to give you, then you walk to the edge of the town, and you stomp off the dust from your feet. And that will be a symbolization that the judgment of God is going to come upon those people, that there will be no blessing in their homes, there will be no blessing on their teenagers, there will be no blessings in their synagogues, there will be no blessing on their marriage. You walk to the edge of town as a man of God and dust off your feet, and the judgment of God will fall upon them. And God says, furthermore, as a matter of fact, if that town that I send you to does not heed to the message of the Word of God that I'm fixing to give you, notice what Jesus said would be done to them. Verse 11, And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when you depart hence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony not for, but notice, against them. Verily I say unto you, That's Jesus saying you can bank on the fact that it's going to come to pass. It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Jesus said if that county, if that country, if that province, if those individuals don't listen to what you have to say, shake off the dust from your feet and in the day of judgment, in the judgment of the nations, and that in the day of judgment, in the last days as we draw to the end of the book of Revelation, God said, I will have more patience. I will have more mercy and I will be more tolerable with Sodom and Gomorrah than I will with the nation or the individuals that did not heed to the message that I'm about to give you. Can I remind you what Sodom and Gomorrah was filled with? It was filled with Sodomites, dear neighbor. It was filled with the Romans chapter 1 crowd that did not like to retain God in their knowledge and God gave Him over to reprobate minds and God sent those angels in there and said, Lot, you better get up and I'll tell it out of here. And Lot begged his family to get right and they didn't. He got his wife and his two daughters and they left and she even looked back and the two daughters committed incest. And so really, only one man basically made it out of the entire city and he walks out and God destroys the whole place. You know why? Because their wickedness came up before the nostrils of God and it stunk to it. And it was ungodly and it was vile and it was wretched and it was something that made the heart of God break and made the stomach of God turn. And by the way, that sin still upsets a holy God. No matter what the liberals, no matter what the modernists and the democrats say, it's not something you're born with. It's something you choose and it pulls the pulse and you can be saved from it and such were some of you, but now you're lost. And so Jesus said, in the day of judgment, the group, the individual, the nation, the country, the people, the church, if you will, you understand the application, that does not receive this message I'm about to give you. When they don't receive it, you just go ahead and shake off your feet as a testimony against them. And in the day of judgment, I'll be more tolerable, if you will. I'll have more patience with a bunch of perverts. And a nation full of wicked sodomites. And I will with this nation. What was the message He gave them? Well, please look at verse number 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent. Repentance is the most overlooked and most abused terminology in all of the Word of God. Now, let me just, for the sake of an outline tonight, write down a few things. I believe this message will be a help if you write some things down. Let me tell you, first of all, some things that repentance is not. You know, sometimes we have to explain to ourselves what something isn't so we will know what it is. You understand? Let me tell you what repentance is not. Number one, repentance is not religion. You see, repentance is not just dressing right, and walking right, and looking right, and going to church, for example. There may be a Roman Catholic here tonight. And you know what? You're as just as welcome in this revival meeting as any Baptist that's here. But you know what? Being a Roman Catholic is not going to get you to the Kingdom of God. You see? Because the Roman Catholics have the idea, if I pray to Mary and fall down and kiss the statue's feet, and if I talk to a priest, and if I count the rosary beads, and if I do enough Hail Mary's, and if I do all of these religious things, then surely, God understands my heart. And yes, God does understand your heart, but what you must understand is repentance is not religion because you can be religious and go to hell. Did you know, ladies and gentlemen, if you study the New Testament, and there's much that can be said tonight, and for time's sake, I've got a long ways to go, but did you realize if you study your New Testament Bible, I only realized this last week. I made this statement in Danville over at Brush Harbor Baptist Church, and we've got some folks from there tonight. But I made this statement, and it was the first time I ever made it. It was the first time I ever realized it. Did you know that Jesus preached a lot of sermons? He preached some compassionate sermons. He preached some very loving sermons. He preached a sermon on the mountain to His disciples in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And He just took His disciples up into the mountain, and the Bible says when He brought them out of the mountain, there were great multitudes waiting to hear Him preach. Everywhere Jesus went, they wanted to hear Him preach. But I'm going to be honest with you, Jesus preached some pretty scathing and scolding sermons in His ministry. But you know what I found out last week in my ministry as I started the Word of God? I began to go through the Bible and see all the times that Jesus preached a scolding, scathing message. And you know what? Never one time did He preach that to the drunkard crowd. Every time Jesus lifted His voice and beat the pulpit as it were, every time Jesus preached a message that was strong and straightforward, it was always to the religious crowd. Because they cared more about the traditions of men than they did the doctrines of the Word of God. And you can be religious, but that doesn't mean you're repentant of your sins. And so religion is not repentance. Write this down, number two. Remorse is not repentance. You can be sorry for something you have done and still not be saved by the grace of God. For example, you can get a car and you can run a stoplight and run over a little old lady walking across the street with her dog and got a bag of groceries in her hand and just completely annihilate her. You can run over her and you can feel bad about that, but that doesn't mean you're going to the kingdom of God because religion is not repentance and remorse is not repentance. Weeping and crying. People have the idea that if you weep and cry at the altar, then man, if you don't weep and cry, you've never been saved. And sometimes we equate feelings with faith. But I'm not saved by feelings. You know, sometimes I wake up and I don't always feel saved. But I don't have to feel saved to know I'm saved. I know I'm saved by the grace of God because the Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'll be honest with you, I don't always feel married, but I've almost been married for six years. I could look at you and say, well, you know, I just don't really feel really that married. And you say, well, why don't you feel married? Well, for this reason, for this reason. And I could tell you I don't feel married, but I know I am because I've got the certificate that says May the 25th of 1996. I believe I got that right. I did. May the 25th of 1996 that I got married. I've got a ring on my hand to prove that. I don't always feel married, but I know I am. I've got the record to prove it. And I don't always feel saved, but I know I am because, bless God, I've got the record to prove it right here. And repentance is not religion. Repentance is not remorse. It's not feelings. It's not crying. It's not being sorry for yourself. It is more than that. Number three, write this down. Repentance is not reformation. Repentance is not turning over a new leaf. You know, you can turn over every leaf in the field and still die and go to hell. You can quit smoking. You can quit drinking. You can quit chewing. You can quit fornicating. You can quit looking at things and listening to things. You can quit all of that and go straight to hell because repentance is not reformation. My daddy, he's one of these speakers. He used to be a speaker, but he kind of had some trouble and this, that and the other. And I'll give you the whole illustration. But he's one of these speakers or he was for a while. He's still in the program. He's in there. You know, Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. Maybe he's in that next time. I'm not really that much against it, but I remember I was sitting with him over dinner one day and he was telling me about some kind of stuff and that kind of cut my eyes, you know. And I probably shouldn't have. I just kind of rolled my eyes, you know, just kind of within myself. I thought, oh brother, here we go again because that's all he ever talked about. And he looked at me and he said, son, he said, what is it that you got against Alcoholics Anonymous? He said, don't you believe in reformation? I said, oh, I believe in reformation. I said, God reformed my life. I said, He changed me and did a lot for me. I said, but you know what, Daddy? I said, you can go to N.A. if you want to. I said, you can go to A.A. if you want to. I said, you can go to Triple A. I said, you can go to A.B.C. D.E.F.G. if you want to, but if a person doesn't get saved when they come out of that program, they'll be just as much a drunk and just as much a drug addict as they ever were before they went in because reformation is not what's changing a person's heart. And so my daddy said, Greg, he said, what is it that you have against Alcoholics Anonymous? I said, I'll tell you what I got against it. I said, you take this scenario, for example. I said, let's drive down the road. And I said, you know, if we pass by a bar right now, you'll start salivating all over yourself. I said, man, you'll be slobbering. You'll be thanking yourself. Keep both hands on the steering wheel. I don't need a Budweiser. I don't need a Bud Light. I don't need a Michelob. I don't need no Middle High Light. I call it Low Light. I don't need none of that stuff. I don't need no Jim Beam. I don't need no Winchburg Lemonade. And I said, every time you drive past a liquor joint, I said, you got to fight the urge to go in that thing. I said, but every time I drive by a liquor joint, I say, thanks to Calvary, I don't go there anymore. And I said, daddy, it's not just reformation. I said, reformation doesn't mean that you've been saved. I said, I don't have to drive by a cigarette machine and say, I want a cigarette. I say, no, I can do the very same things I used to do, but I don't want to do it anymore because God changed my heart. Repentance is not reformation. But ladies and gentlemen, I want you to understand, there is something that repentance is. By the way, for the sake of an outline, you can also put down repentance is not restitution. You steal something, you take it back, and you can take back everything in the world. You can take back every bad thing you've ever seen. Take back every bad thing you ever stole, something like that. You know, you stole something from Wal-Mart, you go back and weep and cry, but that doesn't mean you're going to heaven. So, repentance is not those things. What is repentance? Well, repentance is real simple. It's the age-old definition. It's been around for years and we're going to prove it tonight from the Bible. It is a change of mind that results in a change of your actions. Did you hear me? It is a change of your mind that results in a change of your actions. You know, it's a sad thing that this is such a controversial debate among fundamentalists. I'd like to remind you, if you roll back the curtain 30 years in our movement, there wasn't one controversy over the issue of repentance. 30 years ago, if you didn't have any preachers that disagreed with anybody preaching on repentance and when a preacher got up and said, turn from your sin and turn to Christ, the whole crowd will throw up their hankies and say, glory to God, hallelujah, he's exactly right. But you say it nowadays and you'll lose meeting after meeting after meeting and you'll lose friends and you'll start getting and they'll say, well, if you preach for him, you can't preach for me and blah, blah, blah and if you really believe that and if you really believe that and they'll give you this whole big story line and they wrote 15 umpteen million trillion billion books, if you will, exaggerationally speaking. They've written all these books on why repentance is not a part of the gospel. You remember Luke chapter 16? There was a man called the rich man. Bible says he died and went to hell and in hell he lifted up his eyes, verse 23. And he said, Abraham, I've got good news for you, pal. He said, I've got five brothers up there and I can't go to them but you know what, you can send Lazarus, he can go back from the dead and he can preach unto them. And if he goes back and preaches to them, he said, they'll get right. He said, no, no, if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, they ain't gonna be persuaded no one rose from the dead. He said, no, no, you send them up there and they will repent. You know, it's a terrible thing that people in hell tonight believe in repentance and fundamental badness preachers all over the country don't do it. If people in hell preach on the doctrine of repentance and fundamental badness argue over the doctrine of repentance. I'm gonna preach tonight three things about repentance that will be done and go home. Number one, I want you to see the command to repent all over the Bible. The command to repent. You write down four people in your notes tonight. Number one, John the Baptist preached a message of repentance. You say, why don't you talk about Jesus first because John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He was his cousin six months before him. A child of Elizabeth and the Bible says that he was filled with the Holy Ghost in the womb. That's one of those things I don't quite understand in the Bible, but I'll tell you this. He came out and he was a red hot preacher. Everywhere he went, he didn't have to beg crowds to come hear him preach. The Bible said all of Jerusalem and all of Judea went out to hear this man called John who was a Baptist. And he would get up in that pulpit and he would preach thus saith the Lord. And he would preach the word of God. And he didn't get up there and he wasn't flashy. He didn't have a big microphone system or anything like that. He was a man that wore camel's hair and he ate locusts and wild honey. Here's a big old bushy haired, big old eyed fellow that would get up there and you know what he said? You know what his message was? The entire message of his ministry? Matthew chapter 3 verses 1 and 2. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand. John the Baptist preached on repentance. And he was the table setter, if you will, for the ministry of Jesus. Well, number two, write down, why did Jesus preach on repentance? Because Jesus preached on repentance a lot. As a matter of fact, in Mark chapter 1 in verse number 15, Jesus said, Repent and believe the gospel. Why did not Jesus just simply say, Believe the gospel? Why did He say, Repent and believe the gospel? I'll tell you why. Because until you change your mind about some things, you won't believe the gospel. Until we have put out of us that which we've learned all of our lives and until we're quickened by the Holy Spirit and see our need of turning, if we never turn, if we don't repent, then we're not even equipped to believe the gospel. So Jesus said, Repent first and believe the gospel. Basically, they're two sides of the same coin. Repentance and faith are inseparable. You cannot separate the two. You've got to have both for salvation. And then here in Mark chapter 6 in verse number 12, Jesus told him what to do. He told him to go out and preach on repentance. You remember Luke chapter 13? The Bible says two terrible things happened. That Pilate had mingled some blood with some of these martyrs with some of these people that had died. And Jesus said in Luke 13, 3, Except you repent, you'll all likewise perish. And then, hey, here's one that really hits close to home. He said, Or on whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew in them fifteen men. You know what Jesus said? There was a tragedy there in Jerusalem and that day there was a big tower that fell down and killed fifteen people. Sound familiar? September the 11th. We had two big ones come down and killed a whole lot more than fifteen. And Jesus used that tragedy of a tower coming down as a springboard to preach on... He even repeated it again in verse number 5. Yea, I say unto you that except you repent, ye shall all likewise... So Jesus Christ preached on the doctrine of repentance. Of turning from sin and turning to Christ. Now, it may be trite to say so, but if it was good enough for Jesus to preach on it, it's definitely good enough for Greg Lott to preach on. That's for sure. So John the Baptist preached on the doctrine of repentance. Jesus preached on the doctrine of repentance. And by the way, that was the first message that Jesus ever preached. Matthew chapter 4 and verse 17. From those days Jesus came preaching and sang, Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But the Apostle Paul, you write that down, the Apostle Paul preached on the doctrine of repentance. Acts chapter number 17, the Apostle Paul was at his best. It was almost as if the Apostle Paul had just had a supercharge from the Holy Spirit of God. He jumped up on a rock in a place called Mollish Hill and there was a bunch of educated so they thought, but really they were uneducated because they served so many different gods that just in case they missed one, they put up a sign that said, To the unknown God, just in case they missed one. And so Paul used that occasion to preach the Word of God. And he said, That one that you ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. And he began to preach the faith of the Lord. And I mean, he started all the way back in Genesis through Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. He preached through the prophets. I mean, the majors and the minors. He preached through the Psalms. He preached all over the place. And he brought them down right to the very end of the sermon. And he said in Acts 17.30, And at the ignorance of these times, God hath winked at, but now hath commanded all men everywhere to what? Repent. The Apostle Paul had a message of repentance. He said in Acts chapter number 20, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Then you write down the Apostle Peter. If anybody ever preached on repentance, it was the Apostle Peter. I mean, Peter knew what it was to have a life that was changed by the glorious grace of God. He stood up on the day of Pentecost. He began to preach and we know that 3,000 people were saved in the first sermon. The Bible says in Acts 2.38, a verse that the church of Christ, the Camelites, take out of context, but it's a beautiful verse if you read it how it's supposed to be written. Acts 2.38, he said repent and be. Because you have repented, he said repent and be baptized for the remission of sin that your sins may be blotted out and the Bible says ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. He preached up and one of the first words out of his mouth was repent and get right with God. Acts 3.19, his second sermon, he said repent ye therefore and be converted. Now I'm not real smart, but I'm not real stupid either. Doesn't that stand to reason then that you can't be converted unless you do repent? He said repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. You see, he said that was just under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Oh, it was under the influence of the Holy Spirit, alright, but I'd like to remind you 17 years later in 2 Peter 3.9, he said the Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Some men can't slacken. But His long suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and the acknowledging of the truth. So John the Baptist preached on repentance. He commanded it. Jesus preached on repentance. He commanded it. The Apostle Paul preached on repentance. He commanded it. David preached on repentance. He demanded it. The Apostle Peter preached on repentance. It was a demand over and over. How can you discount something that is mentioned in the Bible over 175 times? You cannot discount that. Over 175 times. Hey, we believe God threw the world into existence just because we have Genesis 1.1. That's the only verse I need to prove to you that God made everything we see. I only need one verse to prove to you the dynamic divine love of God, John 3.16. That's the only verse I need. That is the only verse I need. That is the only verse I need to prove to you the love of God. And you're going to tell me that there's over 175 verses in the Word of God that refer to a man or a woman or a teenager or a boy or girl turning from their way and turning to God's way. You can't discount something like that when God repeats Himself over and over again. If God means it, He says it once. If God really means it, He says it twice. But if God wants you to get through your thick head, He'll say it over 175 times. And still, there's some people with such thick heads that don't believe what God's telling them. There is a command to repent. Number two, the controversy over repentance. Now here's the real crux of the message. It's easy to read through the Bible and preach and shout and have everybody say amen and say here's the command to repent. But number two, what is the controversy over repentance? Why is it such a big deal anyhow? Why is it that people make such a big deal over the issue of repentance? Well, there's three major arguments that all people give, at least the people that I meet, the people that I talk to and preach to in the books that I've read. Okay, three major arguments. They say number one, these aren't alliterated, sorry, but they say number one, the first reason we argue and we have a great controversy and a fight and a dissension about the issue of repentance is they say, and when I say they, I'm talking about those who do not believe in it. They say number one, that it's a work. Now, there's not a person in this room that believes more than I do that you are saved by grace or saved by faith and by the grace of God. I believe that. You believe that. Everybody in this room believes that. Now the Bible says in Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, notice something about that faith and about that grace. For by, get it, grace are you saved through faith. Now notice, and that, the word that is referring to the two things God just told us we need to be saved. That, the grace and the faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of words. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Why does God say that? Because if I save myself by my grace and by my faith, when I got to heaven I'd tell everybody what a super-duper Christian I was. But when I get to heaven I don't have one thing to brag about. Because it wasn't my faith that saved me. It wasn't my grace that saved me. It was God giving me the faith that I needed and it was God shedding upon His grace in my heart and He gave me the faith to be saved and He gave me the grace to be saved. And that's as far as my Calvinism goes by the way. That's exactly right. I believe everybody can be saved by the grace of God. Every, every, everybody. And so He gives me the grace and He gives me the faith. But wait just a minute. Everybody always says that's a gift, that's a gift, that's a gift. You're exactly right. Now write down 2 Timothy 2.25 in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure would grant unto them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Repentance is given by God also. Somebody says, well, if you have to repent to be saved that means you've got to work to be saved. No, no. I don't work up faith to be saved. I don't work up grace and mercy to be saved. And I don't work up repentance to be saved. God gives me that ability. He gives me the Holy Spirit that Ephesians 2, 1 through 4 quickens me. I'm dead. I'm depraved. I believe in total depravity. I mean, I'm wicked. I'm vile. I didn't love God. Didn't want to love God. Neither did you, by the way. We were wicked and every time we drove by the church house we'd toot our horn and rebellion to God. We could have cared less. But there was a time that I could not choose God. There was a time I didn't even want to choose God. But God quickened me through the Holy Spirit and put something within me called old-fashioned Holy Spirit conviction. And by the way, if you've never been convicted, you've never been saved by the grace of God. That's exactly right. And so He convicted me. He awakened my conscience. He awakened my heart. And when He did that, He gave me all the grace, all the faith, and all the repentance I would need to turn to Him. But He's not going to make me turn. He's not going to make me believe. He's not going to make me get saved and make me get right. You know why? Because the Holy Spirit of God is a perfect gentleman. You know what gentlemen do in a conversation? They'll talk to you. They'll shake your hand. They'll be cordial. If they have to rebuke you, they'll rebuke you. But after a while, a real gentleman is not going to pester you. I say that reverently. He's not going to bug you. He's not going to keep tapping you on the shoulder. He's got better things to do with his time. And the Holy Spirit of God is a perfect gentleman. He'll talk to you. He'll rebuke you when he needs to rebuke you. He'll tap you on the shoulder. But you keep turning them away, friend, and there'll come a day he'll take that gift away and you'll have no opportunity to repent. You won't even want to repent. That's why you have Romans chapter number one. Reprobate. Incapable of ever being saved by the grace of God because they pushed the gift away for the last time. And so the controversy, number one, is they say, well, it's a work. Well, it's not a work. It is a gift from God. It is a gift that I can accept or a gift that I can reject. Now, here's the ridiculous argument they say. Number two, not only is it a work, they say, number two, it's never mentioned in the Gospel of John. That's a funny thing to me. And by the way, honestly, before the Lord tonight, that is one of their biggest arguments. I mean, there are volumes of books written on the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is one of my favorite Gospels. But here's why they say it's such a big deal. They say, well, you know, you have the synoptic Gospels as they call them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then you have the evangelistic Gospel. You have the Gospel of John. Well, they're all Gospels and they're all evangelistic, but I understand what they mean as theologians. They say that the most evangelistic of the four is the Gospel of John. Twenty-one chapters, wonderful book for salvation, wonderful book for Christian growth. And you know what? I'm on the same page with them. It is the most evangelistic book. Jesus led more people to crash in the Gospel of John. He performed more miracles in the Gospel of John. He did more wonderful things through the power of the Holy Spirit of God through the Gospel of John. He did some wonderful, wonderful things in the Gospel of John. And it's very evangelistic. He tells His disciples, I want you to bear not some fruit, not a lot of fruit, not many pieces of fruit. He said, I want you to bear much fruit. It is a fruit-bearing book. And so here's what they say. Because the word repentance or repent is not mentioned in John's Gospel, which is the most evangelistic, then obviously, by the fact that it's not mentioned, it's not important for salvation. I'd like to remind you the word rapture is not mentioned in the Bible, but we sang about it tonight because we believe in it. I'd like you to take your Bible and show me where the word Trinity is ever mentioned. The closest reference you ever even had to the Trinity is 1 John 5, in verse number 7. There are three that bear record in Heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And I believe that. That's all I need. But the word Trinity is not there. But I know that I believe in the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. I'd be a fool not to believe that tonight. So they say, well, you know, the Gospel of John never mentions the word repentance and so therefore it's not in the Bible. I'd like to remind you that the word God is never mentioned in Esther, but that doesn't mean he's not there. He's in the whole book. But the word Jehovah, the word Lord, the word God, the word Jesus, the word Adonai, none of those words. Not one reference to God is made in the entire book of Esther. And you'd be the biggest fool on the face of God if you were to say that God wasn't in the book of Esther. He worked providentially all the way through it. And so it's foolish. They call it the argument of silence. Well, because John was silent about it, then, you know, it must not be something that's very important. Now, you know, they may have some relativity when they talk about that. That's fine. I don't care if he's ever mentioned in the Gospel of John or not. But did you know what? Here's the great thing about it. Now, I'm getting stirred up. I've got goose bumps three deep right now. I'm going to tell you something. You know, you read the Gospel of John and it doesn't say repent, repent, repent, repent. But did you know out of all the Gospels, Jesus changed more lives in the Gospel of John than any other gospel that was there? Although he never mentioned it one single time, it is evident more in the Gospel of John than in any other book in your life. There was a lady who we don't even know her name. Thelma. Martha. Martha Sue. I don't know what her name was. It wasn't important. She was a dirty, rotten, filthy, wretched, vile sinner. And she met Jesus one day. She was a Samaritan. She was a half-breed. She was a dog considered by the Jews, if you will. And she said, what are you being a Jew speaking of being a Samaritan and a half-breed? And Jesus met that woman and they began to talk. You know the first thing Jesus confirmed her with? Her sin. Boy, that's real unpopular in the day and age in which we live, but we're not running for office preachers. We're trying to preach the Word of God. And we've got this idea that if we're going to reach people, we can't talk to them about their sin. You won't reach people unless you do talk to them about their sin. Or, you know, what's that guy, Robert Shooter out there at the Christian Cathedral. He gets up in this big old long nice robe and he says, ladies and gentlemen, the problem in America are the preachers who preach on sin and hell and condemnation. No, Mr. Shooter, the problem in America is the false preachers who won't preach on sin, who won't preach on hell, and who won't preach on condemnation. That's what the problem in America is. The problem in America from the White House, the church house, all the way down to your house because we won't deal with sin. That's why we're the creatures that we are. And Jesus dealt with that woman's sin before anything else. And He said, you've said right. You don't have a husband and you've been living with five women. I like that. The Bible says that she believed out of Christ through the Messiah. And guess what she did? The Bible says that she went back home and kept on fornicating. She went back home and she kept shacking up with that man she'd been living with all them years. Then she just jumped the line apart because she went back to the house and got full-fledged stone-cold drunk and said, Glory to God, I met the Messiah at the well and I prayed some sinner's prayer and I looked at that guy and said, Amen, I can do a thing or both too. If you believe that tonight, you ought to sue your brain for non-support. Because you know good and well what your Bible says. It says she ran back, now I like this, and told the men of the city. Why does your Bible say that? Because that's who she knew most in the city. So she went back and told the men of the city, Come see a man that told me everything I've done. Is not this the Christ? And she didn't go back to become a fornicator. She went back and became a soul winner and brought the whole town to Jesus. And the Bible says many believed because of her testimony. And you can study the Gospel of John and life after life after life after life was changed and they don't have to say those persons repented because it is evident in their life that they repented. And so for time's sake, we've got to keep going. They say number one, it's a work. They say number two, it's not mentioned in the Gospel of John. And they say number three, nobody can repent of all of their sins. You heard that one? I've heard that in a blue janitor one time. They said, well, Brother Locke, I know you believe in that repentance business. I was preaching this preacher's fellowship about two years ago in Alabama. Actually, it was probably about three years ago because I was a staff of evangelists at the time. I was preaching this preacher's fellowship and I said something about repentance. And this guy came to me at the service and I'm telling you, he gave me the runaround. I mean, he put me in a mill, squeezed me together real tight. And he said, nowhere in the Bible. Here's what he said. He's a good friend. I know this guy. I love this guy. He said, Brother Locke, nowhere in the Bible does it say that a person has to repent of their sins in order to be saved. I said, can I remind you what Matthew 1.21 says? And she shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The very name Jesus means that He'll get you out of the mess that you're in when you get saved. The very name Jesus implies the fact that He changes you when He saves you. He shall save His people not in, not around, and not because of, but from there. You see, I'm saved from the power of sin. I don't have to be dominated by wickedness. I can be dominated by the Word of God if I want to. I've been freed, I've been loosed from the penalty of sin. I'm not going to hell tonight, and I thank God for that. Not you, not me, not the devil, not the president. Nobody can take me out of the hands of the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. I could swing over hell on a rotten cornstalk and spit the devil in the eye and sing Amazing Grace. I've got salvation, and it's not moving tonight. And thank God one day, I'll be saved from the presence of sin. Right now I'm saved from its power. I don't have to be dominated by it. Now, I still have a flesh that I've got to fight every single day, don't misunderstand me, because the Apostle Paul did. And if Paul had a problem with his, I promise you, I've got a problem with mine. And I have been delivered from the penalty, and thank God one day when I drop this world afresh and rise up into the skies as we sing, I'm going to be delivered from the eternal presence of sin. I'll never see it again. No weeping, no crying, no death, no dying, no sorrow, and thank God, no sin in that land. And that's why it'll be perfect, because in the book of Genesis everything was perfect until sin crept in. And that's why heaven's going to be perfect, because the Bible says in Revelation chapter 17, nothing shall enter in that defilement. We have defilement because of sin. And so, they say, well, you know, nobody can repent of all of their sins. Nobody can get on their face and say, you know, Lord, I'm coming to you right now by faith, and I'm going to confess this. God's not your Pope. Nowhere in your Bible does it tell you that we have to confess all of our sins. It never says that. We'd be crazy to think we could even remember them. I can't even remember all the bad stuff I've done today. I can't remember all of my sins. The point is not that I'm repenting of my sins. The point is, I'm repenting of sin, period. I'm repenting of the fact that I've grieved the heart of God, that I've broken God's ten commandments, that I'm a reprobate, that I'm ungodly, that I need to be saved. I'm not repenting of all these little peddly things that I've done. I'm repenting of the initial fact that I need Jesus Christ. And I'm turning from my way, and turning to His way. That's what it means to repent. I change my mind about me, realizing I am nothing, I am nobody, and I turn from what I want and turn to what He wants for me. That is repentance. And so there shouldn't be a controversy, but guess what? There is. There's a pretty big one. But I'll give you number three as we close tonight, because our time is quickly fleeing away. Number one, the command to repent. Number two, the controversy over repentance. But number three, here's my favorite part of the whole subject. The change because of repentance. The change because of repentance. Now, I've been accused several times in my ministry of preaching that we change our life and get saved. Now, I don't mind being quoted, I just don't like being misquoted. I've never said that one time on ministry. Brother Robertson's been with us two and a half years. I've never one time in my life said, you've got to change and get saved. Because you can't change and get saved. But you get saved and God will change you. Somebody says, well, I'll tell you what, but I'll kick my habits. I'll quit drinking, I'll quit fornicating, I'll quit messing around. I'll kick a few habits and then I'll get saved. No, no. You get saved and God will kick them dirty, rotten habits for you. You don't turn over a bunch of new leaves and say, I'll tell you what, God, I'll quit this and quit this and quit this. And when I live a perfect life, then I'll get saved. You'll die and go straight to hell. No, you'll never get saved if you try to live a perfect life. You do not change and go to God. You go to God and God will change you through the process of sanctification. I believe with all of my heart a person who is saved, a person who has been willing to turn from their way and turn to God's way and say, you know what, Lord, I've been wrong, I've been walking the wrong road. A person that is willing to do that, when they get saved by the grace of God, they will stay willing to do that and God will change their life for time and for eternity. I wouldn't give you the flip of a wooden nickel and you heard it right out of my mouth. I wouldn't give you the flip of a wooden nickel for somebody who says they know the same Savior that I know, but they never have any desire to live for God whatsoever. They never come to church. They never read their Bible. They never care anything about God. I mean, the preacher comes and visits them and it's almost like he's the FBI. They lock everything down and pull out the bulldogs and they poke through the window. You knock on the door and they say, nobody's here. You're some kind of moron on a seminary. They don't care anything about the things of God whatsoever. They watch things. Now, I'm going to tell you something. I am not scared of a person who lays in bed at night and says, you know what, I said something today that wasn't right. Man, I drank some alcohol today and I know that was wrong. Because I'm going to tell you something, I believe a Christian can drink, but I don't dare believe that a Christian can stay drunk. I believe a Christian can commit fornication and adultery, but I don't believe they'll live in adultery and live in fornication. I'm not scared of a person who messes up and gets right with God and God bothers them about it. I'm scared of a person who can live in sin and it never bothers them whatsoever. Well, I'll tell you one thing, God don't ever spank me. I can get away with anything I jolly well please. That's because God don't spank the devil's children. God will spank His own and if you're saved by the grace of God, He will wear you out. He'll carry you to the woodshed and tear you all to pieces when you get unright with God. When you begin to go down that long, dusty road of sin like that young man did in Luke 15. You know what's one of the main themes and morals, if you will, of the story in Luke 15? It's not the fact that the boy left, it's the fact that the boy came home. You know why? Because he was the son of the Father. You may get messed up in sin for a while, but bless God, you won't live in it. You will come home one day and you'll get right with God. And I believe a person that's saved, I believe repentance is something that is not a one-time deal, it's a lifetime deal. Because I'd like to remind you, Jesus said to the church in Revelation chapter number three in verse number 19, as many as I love, that's you and me, I rebuke and chasten. He told the church, be zealous therefore and repent. Second Chronicles 7.14 is, As my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my faith, get it and turn. Same word, repent. And turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, we'll forgive their sin, and we'll hear their land, a verse that we preached on and quoted last night. I'm going to say something for you. I don't understand everything in the Bible, but I do know this, when a person gets saved by the grace of God, God gives them new desires, He gives them a new heart after the things of God, and they will be a new creature in Jesus Christ. I go to some of these camps and go to some of these places, and I'm telling you, you meet some of these kids, and I mean, they were supposed to have been raised in Christian homes, and I'm telling you, they act worse than some of the public school kids I preach to. We get these kids, you know, they're 16, they're 17, they're 18, they're 19, they're 20 years old, and they've been raised in a Christian home all their life. And we send them out, and in 30 days, they're wicked as the devil. They turn 18 years old and they bow their backs like a Benny Rooster, and they say, I'm moving out, I won't live anywhere, I won't do anything I want to. I don't care if they were raised in 55 Christian families. You give somebody an opportunity to live for God that's saved, and buddy, they'll take that opportunity, and they'll live for God. And I'll tell you why we got some of these kids that are 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 years old who don't care anything about God. I don't care if their daddy's a preacher, and if their daddy's a deacon, and if their mama can sing like an angel in a choir law, I'm gonna tell you something, the reason a lot of these kids turn out the way they do is because they've never been saved by the grace of God. And we filled our churches, and we filled our schools, and we filled our youth groups with a bunch of people who say, glory to God, I'm saved by God's grace, and I can live any way I want to, not according to this Bible, you can't. Because if you got something that'll let you live any way you want to, you did not get what I got when I got saved 10 years ago. Because I got something that put some brakes on my wickedness. I got something that slowed me down, dear friend. And those Christians say, well, I just can't do anything now that I'm saved. I can't drink, and I can't smoke, I can't fornicate, I can't do this, and I can't do that, and they talk about all the things they can't do. And I can't go to hell either. I can never be lost again either. I don't have to worry about the devil every day of my life either. I don't have to worry about looking at cops over my shoulder and wondering when they're gonna put me in a padded little wagon again and carry me down to the police house. I don't have to worry about that anymore. I don't have to worry about my mama staying up late at night. I don't have to worry about being put in a children's home anymore. I don't have to worry about waking up at three or four o'clock in the morning, my eyes flipping, whipping back in my head, not knowing who I've been with, what I've been doing, and why I'm the fool I'm out there. I don't have to worry about that stuff anymore. And there's some things I can't do, and it's because I don't want to anymore. Because God changed my heart. There was a teacher in Sunday school one day, she stood up and she said, boys and girls, today, we're gonna learn about repentance. Is that all right, boys and girls? And they all shook their heads, there's about four fifth graders. And she said, now, repentance is something that we don't really understand a whole lot about. She said, I'm gonna do my best to give you the definition. And she wrote some little old nominal definition up on the board. She said, does anybody think they can add anything to that? Little Junior jumped up and he said, yes. He said, repentance means you're sorry for your sin. And she said, well, that's pretty good. Little old Susie, just about the time his backside hit that side of that little seat, buddy, she jumped up and stood right in her chair. And she said, no sir! It means you're sorry enough to quit your stinking sin is what it means. That's what repentance is. Sam Jones used to have a message called quit your meanness. He said, buddy, I was mean as the devil before I got saved, but something happened to me the night I got saved. He said, I quit my meanness because God did a new thing in my heart. I'm gonna give you an illustration and we're gonna be done. I don't know about you, but I'm not a real big doctor fan. I hope there's no doctors in here tonight. I'm not a doctor, I'm not even a nurse yet, but I hear a lot of people talk about doctors and PhDs. By the way, I got a PhD. Preach hellfire damnation every time I get a chance. I got a BA, I've been born again, amen. Just one time, thank God for that. It's all I needed. And you know, I talk about doctors and sometimes I have to go to the doctor. I don't like to. And people say, who's your family doctor? I don't have a family doctor. I go to whatever doctor I'm sick at when I'm on the road and I find different ones. And I've never cared much for doctors. And I'm sorry, I've never cared much for dentists or anything like that. I've had straight teeth all of my life. And unless I get hit with a baseball bat, I'll have them to the day I die, thank God for it. I don't like dentists. I don't like doctors. I don't like nurses. I don't like none of them. They're good people, they can be saved, but I just don't like being around them. Now, I like being around them in church, but I don't like being around them where they work, amen, because I know what's coming. I don't like that. They stuck something up my nose not too long ago when they was checking my throat for these little nozzles that I got that I was telling you about the other night. They stuck something up my nose and man, they pulled a trigger on that thing. And I'm telling you, I thought they shot more stuff up my nose than I've ever had in my life. Not by my leg, I got the shaking, I got the twitching. And I was wondering why they tied my arms down to the side. I'll tell you why, because he knew I'd bust his wife if I could get my hands free. They shoved that stuff up my nose. They took a camera on the end of a thing. I don't know, that thing was longer than that microphone. That thing must have been two and a half, three feet long. And they had a camera and a light on the end of this little bitty old tiny thing. And he said, we're gonna numb you up real good. And he said, I'm gonna shove it up your nose all the way down your throat into your vocal box. And I thought, that's exactly why you tied me up, buddy. He did, buddy, he shoved it. And I'm telling you, I don't like going to the doctor. I don't like being strapped down in a dentist chair. There ain't much you can do when a man's got a needle in your mouth. What are you gonna say, leave me alone? Buddy, he'll poke you to death, what he'll do. And they put shots in your mouth and do all that stuff. And I'll tell you one thing I've never liked about the doctor. You go and you get a physical. And I usually go about, I don't know, it's probably been a little more than a year. You know, I suppose I'm healthy. I'm still pretty much just a little old runny kid, 25 years old, got a lot to learn, a lot of growing up to do. But I still go every now and then about every year and a half, two years, get a physical. And they say that I'm healthy for the most part and this, that, and the other. But you know what I hate about physicals? You go in there and they put that silly little robe on you and you're about to freeze to death. And you go in and you sit down on this little bed and they come in and they start taking all these tests. They say, can you breathe? And can't nobody breathe when they put that cool little stethoscope on the back of your back. You can't breathe, you can't even hardly do nothing. And you're trying to breathe and they say, take a deep breath, take a deep breath, take a deep breath. And they do all this. And you know, they do all this elbow stuff. And then they look in your ears. They look in your eyes. They look in your nose. And then they start writing as if they really saw something in your ears, in your eyes, and in your nose that tipped them off to what your problem is. That's why they're practicing medicine. They're practicing on you and practicing on me, amen. And so they get in there, they're writing all this stuff down and on, they're doing all this, that, and the other. Here's what I can't understand. If there's one thing I hate about a doctor, it's when he comes in with that little rubber hammer. You know what I'm talking about. He'd be all right if he hit you in the face with it, but he doesn't, does he? He says, cross your legs. And you get up there and you sit down in that little chair and you're about to half freeze to death and you're embarrassed already and you cross that leg and he comes over and he picks up that little hammer and he touches around with his finger. You ever notice that? And he kind of pops here and pops there. He knows it's not the right spot. He's just waiting on you. And he rears that thing back with his wrist and it don't even take much. He just gets that little, what they call a reflex rod. And he hits that little area and buddy, I'm telling you, pew, pew, pew, there goes that leg. I've been in a doctor before and I thought to myself, you know what, wouldn't it be great if he did that and I kicked him square in the face? And so, you know, I try to kick him, you know, but you just can't get that leg up that high, that rope wrapped around you. And so I'm sitting there and he comes in there and hits that thing and I'm telling you, I've been to the doctor on this and when I was a kid, I'd tell my mama, I ain't gonna move when that man hits me with that stupid hammer. She said, oh, yes, she will. My mama's been a doctor all her life. She's a chiropractor now. She's been a orthodontist. She's been all kinds of different things and nurse's aide and all that kind of stuff. She said, oh yeah, it's a reflex. She said, it's natural. You got to. And I said, no, no, you watch. And so he'd come in there. Buddy, I'd hold that leg back. I'd stiffen up that muscle the best I could. I'd grip my teeth and hold on to the side of that thing and I'd think to myself, come on, big boy, hit me in the leg and see what happens now. I wanted him to hit me with that thing. He could have hit me with a sledgehammer and I was determined I wasn't gonna move. I wasn't gonna budge. That leg wasn't going anywhere. And so you know what he'd do. He'd come in there and he'd get to talking to you. And you know, here I was, just attention. How you doing, Greg? I'm doing fine, how you doing? And I'd be gripping the side of that chair and you'd look a little tense. Yeah, I'm a little tense. And he'd come over with that little hammer. He'd say, cross your leg. I'd cross my leg. And in my mind, I'm thinking, you know what? You may have went to school and you may know right where to hit me, but you ain't gonna move me today. It ain't going anywhere. And guess what would happen when that man would find that little spot and he'd put it there between his fingers and he'd go, oh, that's it. He'd say, and he'd pull that thing back. What'd he take from it? Take that reflex rod. And guess what? Kapoosh! There goes that leg right up there. You can try to hold it back all you want to. You cannot hold that leg back when that man hits that spot. You know what we call that? We call that a reflex. I'm gonna tell you something, friend. April the 17th of 1992, 8.30 at night, the Metropolitan Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee. My basketball coach took me in a side room and he opened a King James Bible and got me down on my face. And he said, son, I'm gonna show you some things in the Bible. And he read me through the Romans Road and said, I'm gonna pray with you. I said, no, you're not. I know what I need to do. I grew up selling magic. And I got on my face that night in that little Sunday school building. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, I prayed and I scrawled and wept like a baby. You don't have to weep to get saved, but this preacher did. And I wept my way to Calvary that night. And when I got up, when I was on my knees, I couldn't read my name in boxcar letters, but when I got off of them, I could read my name, title D, dimensions in the sky. I knew I'd been saved and I ain't never doubted. You can believe what you want to. I've never doubted it one single time since that night. Maybe you have. That don't make me more spiritual than you, but I never have. I got it that night and I know I got it. But something happened to me the night I got saved. God found a soft spot and He took the refresh rod of the conviction of God's spirit. And He smoked my heart. And I tried to hold back. And I tried to do my own thing. And I tried to live my own life. But I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, when the reflex rod of the Holy Spirit of God hits you in just the right place, you can't help it. You will change. You will be different. You will change your life. And you can hold back all you good and jolly well, please, but that leg's just gonna go everywhere because God's gonna change your life whether you want Him to or not. Because that's what it means to be saved. Not from hell, but saved from your condition. And I'm telling you, the night the reflex rod hit me, pow, something happened in my life. And you can sit there and grunt. And you can sit there and chew briars like a billy goat. And you can cross your arms and roll your eyes and puff like a magic dragon. And say, well, that ain't never happened to me. That's because you've never had the reflex of repentance. That's because there's never been a time when the Holy Spirit of God, boop, put you in just the right place. Put you in just the right spot. And you knew it was the real thing. It was the real thing. And tonight, we've dealt without a doubt with the most controversial subject. Your heads are bound, please. Your eyes are closed. You have done a superb job of listening tonight, and I thank you so much for that. I'm not a prophet, nor a son of a prophet, and I don't pretend to be one. I can't tell the future. A lot of things I don't know, but I do know this. I do know there's somebody in this room tonight. The Spirit of God is doing His best to hit you with a reflux rod of conviction. And He wants to change you. It's not your religion, it's not your remorse, it's not your regret, it's not your restitution, it's not any of those things. It's a willingness to turn from your way and turn to God's way. Jesus said, repent and believe in God. And as sure as this pulpit is wood tonight, I'm not as foolish as to think that in this room, with the people that are here, I'm not so foolish to think that everybody's saved. I don't believe that for a minute. I believe there's somebody here tonight who needs to do exactly what we spoke about and preached about and talked about tonight. They need to respond to that conviction. I didn't ask you if you're wicked, I didn't ask you if you're religious. I asked you, have you been saved? Have you been saved? You're gonna have to respond to that conviction and turn from your way in life and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ who can really and truly be the only one that gives you life and life worth living.