In this sermon, the preacher discusses the doom of the people and the judgment that God is meting out against them. He emphasizes the need for true conversion and the recognition of one's own sinfulness. The sermon also touches on the defiance of the people and their refusal to acknowledge their wrongdoing. The preacher concludes by mentioning the promise of hope and deliverance for those who turn to God.

Turn to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 13. Jeremiah chapter 13. I want to begin tonight by just encouraging you a bit. I know oftentimes what is encouraging to some may be a source of agony to others. And understand tonight that what I'm sharing with you is really couched in a great deal of love and concern and compassion. My spiritual gift is prophecy, even though I have been assessed when I go out in the meetings as a teacher. And some people are gracious enough to say I'm a teaching prophet. But I really seek to communicate God's truth in a very loving, in a very compassionate way. And yet many times I know it doesn't come across just like that. So tonight if you're sitting here and you hear what you're about to hear in the next few minutes and you think Brother Curran is kind of rough and he's ugly and he's too confrontational, please understand that that's not my intention. That's not my motivation, even though it may come across that way. I want to speak to you tonight along the lines of conversion, true conversion. And I guess if I could give the message a title, I would entitle it, The Plight of Man and the Power of God. I want you to look with me if you would at Jeremiah chapter 13 and verse number one. The Scripture says, Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle and put it upon thy loins and put it not in water. So I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time saying, take the girdle that thou hast got which is upon thy loins and arise and go to Euphrates and hide it there in a hole of the rock. And so I went and hid it by Euphrates as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass after many days that the Lord said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates and take the girdle from thence which I have commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates and digged and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it. And behold, the girdle was marred. It was profitable for nothing. So the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Thus saith the Lord, after this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people which refuse to hear my words which walk in the imagination of their heart and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them shall even be as this girdle which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me for a people and for a name and for a praise and for a glory that they would not hear. Therefore thou shall speak unto them this word. Thus saith the Lord, God of Israel, every bottle should be filled with wine and they shall say unto thee, do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? And what you're looking at here is the people thought that God was saying to them, you're gonna be prosperous. I mean, your vineyards are gonna give forth abundance of grapes, that you might have a large amount of wine. I mean, all your bottles are gonna be filled, but see the bottle that God is referring to here is their own lives before him because he's going to judge them with spiritual drunkenness. And then it says there in verse 13, then shalt thou say unto them, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land. Even the kings that sit upon David's throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord. And I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but destroy them. Hear ye and give ear, be not proud. For the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before He caused darkness, before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. And while you look for light, He'd turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness. I trust tonight that we'll be able to complete this message, but just some things once again that are weighing upon my heart. You see in the text that we just read that God is judging Judea and Jerusalem because of their pride. Basically the picture of the girdle, it is saying this, that God just as the prophet left that girdle in the hole of the rock. And over a period of time, it marred itself. So God says, I'm going to back off of you. I'm going to turn you over to the lust of your own flesh. I'm going to deliver you up to your own sin. And you're going to be intoxicated as a manifestation of my judgment by your own pride. A lot of people these days have a real problem with judgment. Talking about judgment. Reflecting upon the judgment in the Bible. But it's interesting, brethren, that better than a third of the Bible's theme is judgment. And here in this text, we find that God informs Jeremiah of how Judea and Jerusalem have corrupted themselves by pride. Their pride has been revealed through their refusal to hear and heed God's warnings against their wicked imaginations and idol worship. He shows the prophet through the marring of the girdle how he will judge the people. Now let me just give you three points here tonight. Number one, I want you to consider with me the defiance of the people. The defiance of the people. And secondly, we're going to look at the doom of the people. The doom of the people. And then thirdly, hopefully we'll be able to spend more time on the promise or the hope, the encouraging part, and that is the deliverance of the people. First of all, note the defiance of the people. And I want to just move through this part of it very, very quickly. For already I've told you why God is unleashing His judgment against these people. In verse number 10, you notice that they refuse to hear God's warning. God says, this evil people which refuse to hear My words. Can you imagine with me tonight to think that a person's everlasting eternal joy or everlasting misery are determined by listing should sober each one of us to give our undivided attention to the Word of God. There's a lot of people tonight that don't think that preachers monitor their congregations when they preach. Well, I can't speak for everybody, but I can honestly say that this preacher does. I watch what you're watching or what you're doing. I can tell if somebody is deep in thought about something, their mind is wondering, or if somebody has distracted them, or perhaps they're writing down something that maybe has no relevance to what's being said. And I'm not telling you that to judge you or to judge other people, but I fight for your attention. You know, it was said of Charles Spurgeon that when he preached, he had the ability in the middle of a message, if he saw a little child losing interest in his sermon, he was a master theologian, but if he saw just a little wee child losing interest in his sermon, he had the ability to stop in the middle of his message, tell a very humorous story to recapture the attention of that small child and then without missing a lick, he could just flow right back into the message and present the Word of God to the entire congregation. Now, I don't have that ability, but I tell you, friend, what I do find in Genesis through Revelation, it's very, very important how we listen to the Word of God, because your future and your eternal future is dependent upon how you listen to God's truth. These people refused to hear God's warning. Furthermore, you find they pursued what they dreamed in their heart in verse 10. It says there that they walked, in other words, the word walked there means their pattern of living was characterized by idolatry. So they walked in the imagination, or it means the stubbornness of their own hearts. Matthew Henry said it like this, Whatever their fancy led them, they denied themselves of no gratification that they had a mind to. In other words, what they were thinking in their heart, they're living out in their practice. The idols that they had set up in their mind and hearts, they're worshiping by the way they live. Their whole life is spent, it's consumed in following, pursuing other gods rather than Jehovah. And you find furthermore that they practiced idolatry in verse 10, where it says there that they walked after other gods to serve them and to worship them. Well, I'll move very quickly, and I wanted to share with you a few thoughts under the second point, and that is the doom of the people. There are four things that you find here, and I wish we had time to elaborate, really do each one justice. But you find that there are four things, and it's sort of a process, a progression, this way that God is meting out judgment against these people. First of all, he said, I will make them drunk in verse 13. God says, behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness. Now listen to what spiritual drunkenness entails. It once again is a judgment of God that God sends upon an arrogant people who refuse to hear and heed His Word. God punishes their pride by giving them up to their own passions to control them. Now what I want you to understand tonight is these people while they were professing their knowledge of Jehovah, and while God would even go so far as to say that they are God's chosen people, they are God's covenant people, yet many of these people were mere professors. They did not know the Lord. They did not know Jehovah in saving reality. And so here the vast majority of them that are incurring the judgment of God have merely acknowledged that they know Him, but they do not know Him in reality. They have not been converted. And so here is God judging this people that have so much light and understanding, and yet refuse to walk in His ways. God says, I will make them drunk. I will fill the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness. And spiritual drunkenness is a whole different message. But notice something else God says in the way of judgment. In verse 14, He says, I will dash them. And haven't you found that many times that is the outcome, the result of being intoxicated by anger, by sin, is that oftentimes violence, yea, even domestic violence, is the fruit. You know, you would be amazed tonight to know how many families in what I would assess as good fundamental churches that believe the Bible to be the Word of God and uphold the truth from Sunday to Sunday, how many right now are going through violence in relationships in those homes. I'm not talking about just emotional, friend. I'm not talking about just mental abuse, but I'm talking about fathers rising up against their sons, and sons rising up against their fathers. I mean, this is a growing epidemic today. And I would hope that this is not occurring here at Calvary, but listen, friend, flesh is flesh no matter what face you put on it, and no matter what environment it lives and worships in. I think we would be shocked tonight to know what some things are occurring in homes, even the best of homes in our own church. Things that are being said. Things that are being unleashed in the way of emotional manipulation. Perhaps even physical attacks, assaults are transpiring. May I say to you tonight that that oftentimes is nothing more than the culmination or the manifestation of God's judgment? You see, it didn't start like that. There's a progression. You've been made drunk. Drunk by your own anger. Drunk by your own self-absorbed ways. And it's revealed itself now in an outward, in a very overt expression of anger, as perhaps you have literally assaulted, perhaps in young people here, you have attacked, you have brutalized maybe your own sibling. I pray that it hasn't happened here. But then he says something else. He said, I will destroy them. In verse 14, God said, I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy. But destroy them. Once again, you see it, friend, they're intoxicated. They're under the control of something else, namely their own sin. They're engaged in this violence in society, as well as domestic violence. And here is God behind it, allowing them to have their own ways. And they're inflicting such harm that many of these people are being destroyed physically. But then they find one more thing, and this is what I want to camp out on tonight. Another revelation of God's judgment is in verse 16. He says, I will cause darkness. Before He caused darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while you look for light, He turned it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. God says, give glory to the Lord your God and before He caused darkness to come upon you. I want to just take for a few minutes the liberty of sharing with you five different stages in this process of darkness that God meets out against the prideful people that do not know Him. As I said before, they have a great understanding of truth. They know the Bible, they know God to some measure. They're ever learning, unfortunately, but never able to come to knowledge of the truth. And yet they're not yet in the kingdom of God. Well, here's what will happen if you suddenly cast aside your faith, spurn the truth of God in experience, and go your own way. First of all, I want to just underscore the darkness of insanity. The darkness of insanity. You know, the Bible tells us in Job chapter 12 and verse 20, He removed away the speech of the trustee and taketh away the understanding of the agent. You know, we kind of make a joke, do we not, at times? You know, if somebody forgets something, or they can't recall something that seems to be of great importance, then we make a big joke about that. Well, they're having a senior moment. But you know, friend, the older you get, I think this is one of the reasons why older people, the chances of them coming to Christ are so tremendously diminished. It's because they lose their ability to reason. Woe to those who lose their ability to think. Do you realize tonight, according to Matthew chapter 13, that there are two things that a sinner has to experience before they can know the Savior? First of all, they must hear the Word of the Gospel. And secondly, they must understand it. And if a person loses their ability to understand, they cannot be converted, friend. I believe in an all-powerful God. I believe in a God that intervenes and can move upon a person's soul to bring them under deep conviction and show them the Savior at any moment. But I tell you, friend, if you lose your mental faculties, you are at a real disadvantage to press into the kingdom of God. Sadly today, through accidents, through age, through addictions, or through affliction, many people are losing their ability to grasp things, especially redemptive concepts, intellectually. William Jay said it like this, How soon may the understanding be eclipsed? Religion can only operate through the medium of thoughts. And therefore, while you have your mental powers, employ them. I remember years ago, I was asked to visit a man in a hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina. We were living there at the time. And I got real close to this family, and so this man's brother was dying of cancer. And he said, would you go by and talk to him, Brother Don? And I said, I'd be happy to. And so two days later, I went up into the cancer ward of this hospital, and I walked over to this guy's bed, and he was very alert, he was very coherent. And I talked to him for a while, and then I asked him, I said, Listen, I said, can I share with you how you can know where you'll spend eternity? He had no objections. So I went through the gospel with him, made it as simple as I could. I felt like I covered every base as far as the human element is concerned. Presented to him what God required for a person to be saved. And so afterwards, I said, Don, is there any reason why you can't trust Christ as your Savior right now? And he said, No, there's not. And I said, Would you like to receive the Lord? And he said, No, I'm not ready. Well, I said, Can I pray with you? And he said, Certainly. And so I prayed for him, and prayed with the family there. And then I left, and two days later, I came back into that room, and this man had lost his ability to think and to reason. He was in a coma. I'll never forget, as I looked in the bed, he was all curled up like a pretzel. The pain was so excruciating, they could not give him enough drugs to medicate him enough to give him some relief, some comfort. And he laid there in that state, and clenched his fist, and literally beat the side of his leg to try to relieve some of the pain by inflicting pain. The man never came out of it. The next day, he passed into eternity. I tell you, I encourage you tonight, you know, you may say, Well, I'm a young person. I mean, I have my mental faculties. Listen to me, friend. There are so many young people today that for some strange reason, they're losing their ability to understand. And some people have attributed it to environmental pollution. And you know, we talk about SARS, and we talk about the West Nile virus, and the Canadians are very concerned about that, being that there's such a growing element of those viruses there in that country. But listen, there are over 300 diseases right now worldwide, friend, that there's no biological, no medical explanation for. They've just not hit the press yet. And many of them, they attack the mind. If you lose your ability to think, I tell you, friend, it's impossible to be converted. This is a darkness, the darkness of insanity. Let me share a story with you here. The story is told of how Geraldine had been the sweetest girl of the family. She was very obedient and hated to act against her parents' wishes. She had great respect for them, and especially for her mother, of whom we may believe on good grounds that that mother was a child of God. When she was about 19 years old, Geraldine met a boyfriend with whom her parents were not pleased at all, mainly because he despised the truth. John turned out to be more and more an opponent of all those who upheld the gospel and was the enemy especially of the people of God. Every time he came to see Geraldine, he argued with her parents until at last they grew tired of it. They hoped that Geraldine would never get married to this young man, foreseeing that he would either drag her along with him, or if she upheld and defended the truth, she would have a most miserable married life. However, Geraldine would not listen, neither did she want to break the engagement. Then both Geraldine and John made a secret agreement, namely, not to argue about religion anymore, but to pretend. They had given in and to act as if they were convinced of the truth. Nevertheless, they promised each other to break with God's word and his institutions as soon as they were married. Now, the parents could not object to their daughter's marriage any longer. The day for the church wedding was set. The officiating minister hoped that they would faithfully attend the church and that the Lord's blessing would rest upon them. He presented them as it was and as the custom of the Bible, a wedding Bible, which they accepted. After the ceremony, they went by train on their honeymoon immediately. As soon as the train had left the station, John said to Geraldine, we are going to execute our plan and throw the Bible we received from your minister out the window right now. They both began to tear up the Bible in small pieces and threw the torn word of God out the window of the moving train. What an awful deed! But God, who beholds all that we do, who marketh our iniquities, and shall render to every man according to his works, also beheld what Geraldine and her husband had done. Now listen to the story. Before they arrived at their destination, Geraldine behaved strangely and began to talk incoherently. She did not seem to know what she said or did anymore. The doctor was called in and diagnosed insanity. They returned to their new home immediately in the hope that Geraldine might get better. But instead of becoming better, she became totally insane so that she had to be brought to an asylum. She never recuperated, but stayed in the asylum until she died. Yes, as the person who made this comment of this illustration said, the Lord marks our iniquities and shall render to everyone according to his deeds. How clearly was this visible in the life of Geraldine. I want to give you a second darkness, though, to consider. There's not only the darkness of insanity, but there's the darkness of impenitence. Brethren, listen to me. I don't mean to frighten anyone, but I've got to preach the truth here. Do you realize there can come a day if you continue to hold out on God? Spiritual pride keeps you out of the kingdom of God. Your self-righteous disposition. Do you realize there can come a day in your life when you can lose the ability to repent of your sin? Your heart can become so hard that you can't repent. Listen to the words there in Hebrews 6, v. 4-6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, if they shall fall away, if they shall, the idea is, apostatize, cast off truth and go back into the world, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance. Here is a sad day when a sinner, a religious sinner, has trifled with truth for so long that it loses its sacredness in the eyes of that person. They want it their way. They want the best of two worlds. They want to follow Jesus Christ, yeah, but they're more content in being a fan than a follower of Christ, because they still at the same time want the things of the world. I think of Esau as an example of this. The Bible tells us that he sought repentance. And he sought it carefully with tears, friend, but there was no repentance given. There's a third thing I'd like for you to see. Another darkness. There is what I will call the darkness of God's departure. The darkness of God's departure. In Genesis 6 and verse 3, God says, My spirit shall not always strive with man. Dr. Harry Ironside, the former pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, gave this story. It has been confirmed by a Church of England clergyman who knew all the circumstances. A young woman who had been brought up in a Christian home and who often had very serious convictions in regard to the importance of coming to Christ, chose instead to take the way of the world. Much against the wishes of her godly mother, she insisted on keeping company with the wild crowd who lived only for the passing moment and trying to forget the things of eternity. Again and again, she was pleaded with to turn to Christ, but she persistently refused to heed the admonitions addressed to her. Finally, she was taken with a very serious illness. All that medical science could do for her was done in order to bring about her recovery. But it soon became evident that the case was hopeless and death was staring her in the face. Still, she was hard and obstinate when urged to turn to God in repentance and take the lost sinner's place and trust the lost sinner's Savior. One night she awoke suddenly out of a sound sleep, a frightened look in her eyes, and she asked her mother alarmingly, Mother, what does Ezekiel 7, 8, and 9 say? Her mother said, What do you mean, my dear? She replied that she had a most vivid dream. She thought there was a presence in the room who very solemnly said to her, Read Ezekiel 7, 8, and 9. Not recalling the verses in question, the mother reached for her Bible. As she opened it, her heart sank as she saw the words, but she read them aloud to the dying girl. Now listen to what they say. Ezekiel 7, 8, and 9. God says, Now I will shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee. I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will recompense thee for all thy abominations. And mine eyes shall not spare, and neither will I have pity. I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thy abominations that are in the midst of thee, and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth. The poor sufferer with a look of horror on her face sank back on the pillow, utterly exhausted, and in a few minutes she was in eternity. Once more it had been demonstrated that grace rejected brings judgment at last. You know the Bible tells us in Hosea 4 and verse 17, Ephraim hath joined himself to idols. Leave him alone. Ephraim hath joined himself to idols. Leave him alone. But thank, friend, in the midst of all of our sincerity, all of our faithfulness to church, if we continue to be endeared and entrenched with idols, there may come a day where God says, I'm going to leave them alone. I remember back some months ago, Brother Dan Willard told me, he said, You know, Brother Curran, one of the things that God used to motivate me into the kingdom of God and to repent of all my religiosity and my hypocrisy was at the end of one of the meetings one Sunday morning. Pastor T.P. had preached a message. It was very searching, very solemn. My heart was gripped, brethren, and I came to ask Pastor if I could say a word. And that's all I quoted was Hosea 4 and verse 17. Ephraim hath joined himself to idols. God says, leave him alone. And Dan said, Brother Don, he said, Did that cut through my conscience like a hot knife through butter? And he said, it wasn't long after that before I embraced the Savior in spite of all my spiritual pride. Oh, brethren, listen to me. We don't toy with God. We don't do it. And I would have to say that one of the easiest places to go to hell would be right here at Calvary Madness Church. So much truth. We're wallowing in truth, friend. But I ask you, has God ever changed your hearts? Is it all just a veneer? Is it cosmetic? Or are you converted? Well, there's a fourth stage of darkness, and that is the darkness of death. The darkness of death. Let me ask you a question. I don't believe in this preoccupation with death today that there's a lot of people, sadly, in public schools, you know, there are classes on death. It seems like they're just inundated with thoughts about death. They seem to accept that as just a normal part of living, you know, is to dwell on death. And I don't believe that. I don't think we ought to spend a lot of time thinking about death. But I think every now and then, just to allow it to cross our mind and let it be served to the Lord to remind us that we'll be in eternity before we know it is a very healthy thing, a very sobering thing, and something that can motivate us to evaluate ourselves to see how we really stand in the light of God. You know, David talks about walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 10, For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. I had a good friend of mine whose dad passed away last year. He said, Brother Don, I went to see my dad every day for the last three weeks of his life. And he said there toward the end, almost every day my dad would look up at me and say, Things are getting so dark. Every day there was an increasing darkness. Things are getting so dark. I've asked some doctors about that since then and some seem to think that as the circulation begins to decrease, of course, the blood flow decreases there and therefore you suddenly begin to see a shutting down of your faculty such as your sites. I don't know. My friend said, You know, I almost wonder when my dad would say that if this wasn't the valley of the shadow of death. There is the darkness of death. Death is darkness, friend. And then there's another stage of darkness. And this is the most sobering. It's the most alarming. It's what we find in our very text here in Jeremiah chapter 13. You see the progression here in verse 16 of what I just went through when the prophet says, Give glory to the Lord your God before He caused darkness to come upon you. Before He caused darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while you turn for light and you turn it into the shadow of death. And then it says, And make it gross darkness. What is gross darkness, friend? I'll tell you what it is. It's outer darkness. It's the darkness of eternity. It's what the Bible says in the book of Jude. The blackness of darkness forever. It is interesting in the life of our Lord in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 12. It says the children of the kingdom, these particular children that were unfaithful are cast into outer darkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 22 and verse 13, there was that person who came in that was not an invited guest, that did not have a wedding garment on. And the Lord said to His servants, Take him and cast him into outer darkness. And in Matthew 25 and verse 30, there it's referring to the unprofitable servant. And once again, they are directed to cast him into outer darkness. Dwight Moody tells the story of how one evening while he was walking, a man shot past him like an arrow. The man recognized Mr. Moody, and he said to him, he said, Mr. Moody, can I be saved tonight? And Moody says, of course you can. The man says, Mr. Moody, the devil's coming for me. He's coming to take me to hell at one o'clock. My friend, you're mistaken. Moody says, I thought the man was sick. But he persisted that the devil had come and laid his hand upon him and told him he might have until one o'clock. Won't you go up to my room and sit with me? Moody sends some men up to his room to sit with him. Here's the report. Moody said at one o'clock the devil's came into that room. And all the men in that room could not hold him. He was reaping what he had sown. When the angel of death came and laid his hand on him, oh, how he cried for mercy, but there was nothing he could do. How many of you remember a radio evangelist by the name of Oliver Green? Anybody? I think his program was the Old Time Gospel Hour or the Gospel Hour. Of course, he published just hundreds of tracts. You know, God really used this man. And I met his brother Jack Green and Jack to me was even a better preacher than Oliver if there was such a thing because both of them were outstanding men of God and what preachers of the Word of God. Well, Oliver Green said he got a phone call from one of his supporters asking him to go to a hospital in Greenville to visit a man that was dying, a relative of this man. And so Mr. Green said, I went to the hospital a couple of days later and when I went up the elevator and the elevator opened up, he said I could hear this screaming. He said, I've never heard a man scream like that. And he said, I walked down the hallway toward the room that they had given me, you know, where this man was to stay and he said to my amazement, he said, I found that the man that I was to visit was the man that was screaming. And he said, when I looked into that room there on that hospital bed, he said that man had tucked his knees underneath his chin and he had his fists clenched around the sheets and three hospital orderlies could not restrain this man as he is begging them, keep my feet out of the fire! Keep my feet out of the fire! And he said in sheer horror, he said, I watched that man die like that. They could not get this man's body extended for burial. The pain was so intense. You know, Maurice Rollins said he was a medical doctor who came to Christ under Daryl Dunn's ministry there in Chattanooga. He wrote the book Beyond Death's Door. He said you'd see a lot more of that these days if people weren't so drugged up with medication. Well, finally, I give you the good news tonight. There's the deliverance of the people. The deliverance of the people. Verse number 15. God says, hear and give ear. Oh, brethren, listen to this. This is very good news. What does this mean when God says give ear? Hear and give ear. You remember Jesus said, take heed and beware. What the phrase here means is you listen as if your life depended upon it. God says you better listen to My eternal truth. Because once again, your eternal destiny will be contingent upon you hearing and heeding what I tell you to do. Secondly, God says in verse 15, be not proud. In other words, do not resist My truth. You know, I'm amazed these days, friend, when we hear certain preachers or we hear certain things preached, there's a resistance many times that comes up in our spirits. I get into some churches sometimes and I can tell, you know, when I preach some revival truth or if I preach evangelistically, there are certain people that boy, you can tell there's a resistance that they just throw up. They're prejudiced against that truth. They're bitter against that truth. They don't want to hear that. And yet, that's the very thing that God has ordained to deliver them. And yet, the devil's got them duped into believing that there's a preacher who's just trying to make them miserable when he's not. He cares for their soul. But here's the third thing. God says in verse 16, give glory to the Lord your God. That's it. You say, well, give glory to the Lord our God? I mean, is that what it means to be saved? To be converted, Brother Don? Yes, friend. Generally speaking, that is a blessed phrase there. Well, let's expound it in the light of the entirety of the Word of God. What does it mean to give glory to the Lord our God? Well, it means that I'm trusting in another and not in myself. Because you see, friend, if I'm depending upon my own merits, then who gets the glory? I steal the glory from my God. And so many people these days, they think their religion or their denomination or their morality or their righteousness or some other thing will win them heaven. And yet, that's what's getting the glory or they're taking the glory from God. And God says there's only one way. It's through My Son. Well, I don't know about you, but I really appreciate Ray Comfort. I really appreciate Ray Comfort. He's always coming up with ways on how to get into the minds of sinners. Present the truth. Well, I want to emulate that ministry. I really do. I'm getting more and more of a burden to see lost people come to Christ. But I want to close tonight by giving you four points. Biblical truths. But friend, I want to tell you something. If you embrace these things, you've got to lay aside your glory and your way of salvation to accept another way and another person that He might get all the glory. This is how you give glory to God. Four things. Number one, you've got to understand tonight. Oh, listen to me now. I don't want anybody to amen this because this may be for you. You've got to understand that you are a filthy, rotten, hell-deserving, putrefied sinner. No one can ever know, ever taste of the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ in a place that has not felt the pain of their own sin. And I want to ask you something, brethren. Have you ever in your life known God working in such a way that He shows you the blackness and the depravity of your hearts? There are many people who have prayed a prayer and it's an intellectual decision, but yet they've never recognized their need of Christ in their spirit because they've never been brought to the place that they are separated from God because they're a sinner before God. They're a sinner as an affront to God. Spurgeon said that on one occasion, he was soul consumed with these murderers that nailed Jesus to the cross. And he said, the Scripture so gripped me that I thought of these men and I thought of how they nailed the precious Son of God to the cross. They murdered the Lamb of God. And he had that on his mind. And one night in a dream, he became very conscious in this dark room that there was one of the murderers of Jesus before him in that room. His hair stood on end. He was overwhelmed with this conscious reality that this man is a murderer of Christ. And he says, I felt, he said, I had such a hatred in my heart for him that I felt for him. And he said, finally I grabbed ahold of this man and I put my hands around his throat to strangle him. And he said, suddenly I awoke and I realized that I had my hands around my own throat. I'll tell you something, brethren. You put the Son of God on the cross. Until you see that, there's no redemption for you. You've got to understand that, listen, you were born a sinner. You were a sinner by nature. The Bible tells us in Psalm 51 and verse 3, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. But you're also a sinner by choice. In Psalm 58 and verse 3, We go forth from the womb speaking lies. Listen, nobody has to teach you to tell a lie. Isn't it amazing? As soon as you were born, you begin to grow up. It was just a natural thing. And you spoke out of the abundance of your own heart these lies. So you've got to understand that you're a sinner. Secondly, and I hope that you've tasted some of this because if you haven't, you're probably still outside of Christ. You're merely religious. God has every right to throw you into hell. Every right. You say, not me. I'm not so bad. I mean, listen, I know I'm a sinner like everybody else, but I'm not really deserving of God's wrath. Listen, God has every right to throw you into hell. And do you realize that one of these days, if you go to hell, your own loved ones, your own family members, according to the book of Revelation, will stand after their glorified state. They will stand on God's side and they will rejoice exceedingly in your damnation. Because justice has been wrought. They're worshipping the King now. You mean to tell me, preacher, that a father will rejoice over the damnation of his son? Yes. Yes, friend. God has every right to throw us into hell. Thirdly, you've got to abandon all hope of saving yourself. You can't do it. I don't care how good a home you were raised in and how much you've depended on the religion of your parents. Or you say, well, I'm not so bad. I mean, listen, I remember going to church from just being a little kid all the way up until now. I mean, certainly that's got to count for something. No, friend, it counts for nothing. Nothing. You've got to abandon all hope of saving yourself. You can't save yourself. You can't do it. And then fourthly, you must repent of your sin and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Now you say, I already know that preacher. I mean, I've known those words for years. But friend, let me tell you something. It's amazing those who suddenly over all their life they've been so religious, they're ushered in the Kingdom of God. They look back and say, how can I be so blind? I heard it. I shared it with others. I sang about it. But suddenly, the reality of conversion came to the soul. And they stand back and say, thank You, God! Thank You You did something for me. I couldn't do it for myself. And guess what they're saying when they make that remark, when they declare that statement? I give you all glory. Give glory to the Lord your God before He caused darkness. Before He make it gross darkness. I ask you tonight, have you ever come to grips with the fact that you're a sinner and a stench in the nostrils of God? That God has every right and it will be His good pleasure to someday cast you into hell. Have you ever abandoned all hope of saving yourself? And have you repented of your sin, letting God topple all of your idols, sin and sports and sex and self, all of your idols, to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in a simple, childlike faith? That's salvation. And that, friend, is how we give glory to our God. God gets all the glory. I can't take one ounce of the glory from Him for that was something God did. I trust God's done that for you. I hope He has. As an elder here at the church, you know, Pastor and I, we talk quite often. We share things with great love in our hearts for people, but sometimes, he and I both, we wonder, are some of our folks really in the Kingdom of God? It's a burden, friend. We're not standing in judgment, but we have a responsibility to watch over your soul. Are these kids really in the Kingdom of God? I hope that you are. Shall we pray? Father, thank You tonight for Your Word. Oh Lord, we are so grateful for Your truth. Lord, as You said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, of the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Lord, make these truths real to our hearts. And Lord, I pray tonight that we'd all recognize that this is not about us. It's about You. And Lord, I pray that there would be those here tonight that would get beyond just the sense of alarm that the preachings caused them. They'd get beyond the Speaker. Beyond how it was delivered. And Lord, really look to the Lord their God. And Lord, I pray, give full assurance of faith if there are those who are in the Kingdom. And yet, Lord, there's that ongoing plague of doubt. But Lord, if there are those present here tonight that have never known the Lord Jesus, and they've depended on everything, even the best of things, religious things, as a substitute for Christ, I pray tonight that they would lay aside everything that would stand between them and the Savior and give glory to the Lord their God. Thank You, Lord, for this truth. Would You be glorified, Lord, through all that's been said tonight and the outcome and change lives if there's any lives that will be changed, Lord, I pray that You would be glorified. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.