In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of completing the task at hand and not leaving it unfinished. He shares personal experiences of staying committed to evangelistic campaigns until the very end. The preacher also discusses the need to examine our motives when deciding to take on new tasks or opportunities. He warns against using God's will as an excuse for our own desires or to escape from difficult situations. The sermon concludes with the preacher highlighting the difficulty of discerning God's will and the importance of relying on simple principles, such as doing the job at hand.

We now present Dr. Bob Jones Sr., internationally known evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University, who during his earthly ministry was one of God's great warriors for the faith. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sittings and my uprisings. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Do not have to be near me to know me. Thou compass'd my path, my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, oh Lord, thou knowest it altogether. That is, he does not know what I say, he knows the meaning of what I say. You know, God knows when we say something, what we mean by what we say. You know, I used to have associate me in my work as a secretary years ago, a Filipino boy. I always would wonder what he meant by something he said. He would say something, and I knew there was something back in what he said I'd find out maybe two weeks later what he was talking about. But that's not the way with God. He knows what we mean when we say it. He understands. The other day I was talking to a fellow that told me the Lord is leading him to a certain thing. Well, I knew the Lord wasn't leading him. I just knew it. I knew it, he's a nice fellow. I knew the Lord wasn't leading that fellow that way. And I had another talk with a young fellow yesterday. And as I probed him to him yesterday, I found out that he had created a condition. And from this condition he was looking for an escape, see. He was trying to sell himself on the idea the Lord had led him. Now, he could have fooled me ordinarily if I just talked to him one time for a minute or two. He didn't mean to fool me. He was fooling himself. He's a nice fellow. He didn't mean to do anything wrong, see. But he himself didn't know the meaning of what he was saying. He didn't know. So many people don't know what they mean when they say things. You know, man has a depth to his soul that it's hard even these psychiatrists, you know, try to explore. Great many of them don't know all they think they know about the soul of man. Somebody asked me years ago what I thought about psychiatry. I said, I've been practicing ever since I've been a preacher. Started out in the country. Fellow come around to see you and you give him the Word of God and probe in there and you're going to pull things out. He'll help you pull them out afterward. So when I talked to this fellow yesterday, I knew God wasn't leading him. He created a condition. He's not a creator, not an immoral condition. He just created a condition. But back to that condition he created was a pride. He said so in the midst of conversation. Had too much pride to say anything about this thing to anybody, see. The Bible says pride doeth before destruction. Strange about people. You know, people say things to you and you just listen to them, go on, he means so and so. Well, as a matter of fact, he may not mean that at all. He may think he means it and may never mean it. But God knows what we say and why we say it. And you can think things and be sincere and be wrong. You can say things and think you're speaking the truth and not be right. Did you know it's the hardest thing in the world for a man in analyzing his own impulses to know what God wants him to do? It's so easy sometimes for us to try to sell ourselves. To try to sell ourselves on what we want to do and persuade ourselves to believe that the Spirit of God's leading us. And sometimes we try to sell ourselves on the idea because we wish to escape from something we don't want to meet. We try to convince ourselves that we ought to do something else and we folks who are Christians move into the realm of piety and try to deal with ourselves that way. You know, God helped me so much as a young fellow by giving me two or three very simple fundamental little principles that have pulled me through. There's one thing. First, do the job at hand. Do the job at hand. The best preparation a man can make for any day in the future is to do the job at hand. Never leave it unfinished. Don't leave it unfinished. Don't walk out and leave an unfinished job. Do the job at hand. Never leave it unfinished. I learned that in my life. For instance, if I'm in an evangelistic campaign, my business in that place is do the job at hand. And not walk out in the middle of it. Wait till the last benediction is said. The last word, amen, is heard. Do that job. I've lived that kind of life. Never quitting it till it's done. Never leaving it unfinished. And God will keep you busy that way. And you don't have any problems. You don't have any problems. There are no problems for a man like that. He's doing the job at hand. And the man that does that always has another job. And then, you know, I've learned a few other little things too. When a thing comes up that I want to do, I ask myself, why did I want to do it? See? Why did I want to do that? Why did I want to go that way? See? What's the reason for it? What's driving me along? Well, you know, we Christian people say, well, I think the Lord's leading me. Now, sometimes the Lord does overrule our mistakes. He does that for us sometimes. But now, don't slander God. Don't slander God. I've heard people, good people, that meant well, really slandered God by talking about the will of God. When they were doing something, because of conditions they'd created that God didn't approve, or because they were doing something that they wanted to do, because they enjoyed doing it, or because they were escaping from something that was too much of a routine. How many times out here at the school, in the grinding routine, I've been up against that? How many times I sat in my office all exhausted? I'm a preacher. Preaching isn't as hard on me as the grinding routine. It isn't hard on Bob Jr. either. How many times I've sat there in my office with a burden so heavy I could scarcely carry the load? Staggering on me. Terrible struggle. I've sat there with that burden on me. And some of you come to me and be an opportunity, you know. Get on a boat, maybe, and go around the world. Build up a good issue, say you need the rest. Be nice. Safer than planes, maybe. Go talk to yourself, you know. So easy. Then I say, well, why am I doing that? I'm tired of trying to escape, trying to get away. So we folks spend our lives saying things and folks don't know why we say them. Now the Bible explains it. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Now God knows the heart. Now we can establish certain principles and learn from experience that a man says a thing because he has a certain type heart. But God is the only one in the universe that can fathom the depth of the heart. So he knows the words in my tongue, see. He knows. Thou art acquainted with my ways. He knows all about it. Thou comest my path, my lying down, and so on, my getting up, and all that. For there is not a word in my tongue, not a single word I have uttered. What? But lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all, dear. Thou knowest what I say, the meaning of what I say, why I say it. Thou knowest all about it. God knows why I'm talking to you now. God knows any motive that may be in my mind. You know, men and women, we live in a terrible universe. You can't get away from God. You can't get your thoughts away from him. He knows what you're thinking. You know, other people may not know. They will know someday if you keep thinking along the line long enough. Because as a man thinking in his heart, so is he. And we usually do what we keep thinking about, see. So God knows what we think. And he doesn't know what we say. He doesn't know what we say. He knows the meaning of what we say. You know, man gets up, you know, sometimes and says something. Sounds good, doesn't it? Wonderful fellow we say. God says, I know why he said that. I know his purpose. You know, men and women, it searches me when I talk to you like this. I'm an awful human sort of fellow. Sort of this eats in on my heart. I've always preached to myself straighter than I preach to anybody else. I hear an expression sometimes that worries me a great deal. I've heard people say, I'm doing this for the glory of God. The glory of God. And I don't want to be critical. But you can't help but use what little sense you have. And cash in on what little experience you have. And when a man tells me he's doing something for the glory of God, he may even think so and not be doing it for the glory of God. He may be honest. He may have sold himself on that idea because he wanted to escape from something and get away from something. Or get out of something. And he sells himself on that idea. So many times people do that. The glory of God, they say. For the glory of God. Did you ever stop to think that if you did everything for his glory, you'd live on a very high plane? That's what we ought to do. What shall we do in word or deed? In word or deed, we should do for the glory of God. We ought to talk for his glory. Sing for his glory. Preach for his glory. Work for his glory. You know, somebody told me not long ago about a man called to the church. And he said, I'll be glad to change for a thousand dollars increase in salary. I'm getting over yonder so much. If you'll pay me a thousand dollars more, I'll be glad to come. But I can't, I wouldn't feel justified moving for just what I'm getting. You know, a man told me that said we gave him a thousand dollars more in the other church. You know, a little chill went up and down my back. You know, they talk about evangelists being out for money. A very few evangelists ever made any money. Very few of them. You can count on the fingers of your hands if evangelists ever made money. But you know something, men and women? When I went into evangelistic work, if any man ever told me that I'd ever get a hundred dollars for any meeting I ever conducted, I thought he was crazy. And I'll tell you, as God's my judge, if I know my heart now. And I'm talking about people saying what they mean, mean what they say. Never in my life have I accepted an evangelistic invitation with the idea of what I could get out of it. I want to know does God want me to go. Now, I'm trying to be honest with you while I'm talking about the emotion. Well, it's a subject that probes into all of us, doesn't it? Wait a minute. What do you work for? What do you stand for? Are you doing your life job for the glory of God? Glory of God, people say. I do it for the glory of God. I've shuddered when I knew some people to say that. Because I knew that they couldn't mean it because I knew other things about them. Makes all the difference. You know, it's so easy for us to fool each other. And ourselves, too. We can deceive ourselves, too, at the same time. Tell you what let's do. Let's ask God to search us. Let's ask God to help us be honest. Let's tell God we don't want to deceive anybody. And we don't want to deceive ourselves. And tell God that we know He knows what we say and what we mean. He knows a word in my tongue. It's an awful thing, men and women, to live in a universe where we can't escape from God. We meet Him on every road, in every room, in every place, in the business office, everywhere. A great, wonderful, omnipotent God. Sees, knows, hears, understands. What a God. Father, we're so sorry that we've ever sinned against you. And if there's any sin unconfessed, help us to confess it now. And for fear there might be some. One sin that we might have forgotten. We confess them all now. We poor, weak, frail, sinful people. Dealing with an omnipotent God. We beg for mercy and forgiveness. God's been so good to us. Keep us faithfully in everything. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You have just heard Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., internationally known evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University, who during his earthly ministry was one of God's great warriors for the faith. This program is sponsored by Bob Jones University.