In this sermon, the preacher shares various stories and experiences to emphasize the power of sin and the hope found in the gospel. He highlights the destructive nature of sin, showing how it can lead people down a path they never intended to go. The preacher also emphasizes the misery and heartache that can come from living in sin. However, he offers hope by reminding listeners that even the most wicked individuals can find grace and mercy with the Lord. He encourages the audience to never give up hope and to pray for those who have walked away from God.

When Michael was speaking and said he didn't want to take up the preacher's time, there's one thing about me I sure would let him preach. I'm not interested so much, I'd love to sit down and just listen to someone else preach. That's one thing about preachers, sometimes they get weary. When I get saved at first, the man who was my mentor said to me, never ever advertise yourself to preach. If God wants you to preach, He knows where you live. And that's a great statement. If God wants you to preach, He knows where you live. I was speaking to my wife not so long ago and she said there was someone on the phone from Scotland looking for you today. I says tell him I'll not be home for six months. But one of the things that many of you have been asking me about Northern Ireland, I'll save you any more problems, it's the nearest place to heaven you'll find on the earth. The roads are wonderful, driving deepens your prayer life. We not only live by faith, we drive by faith. Someone asked about the church and I pastor, am I like this in the church? Yep, I preach like this every time I'm in the pulpit. Our churches are slightly different in that we don't baptize right away, we want people to prove their salvation and their faith before we do it. We differ in that we have communion every Sunday in the Baptist churches back in Ireland. And like many here we believe in the power of prayer. You got to get the church back on its knees. Everyone keeps asking because of all that's happening in the world today and the state of the church, what is the answer? The answer is simple, the church needs to get back on her knees. And when the church gets back on her knees then she will experience the power of God. And who would not love to see a visitation of God in these days? What a day it would be if he came. And I want just to read a few verses tonight in 2nd Chronicles and chapter 33. Now I know to some of you I talk funny, but please remember you talk funny to me. And some words I pronounce, you pronounce them different. But then I pronounce them in English, I don't know how you pronounce them. And as I was saying yesterday, 2nd Chronicles and 33, I want to read a few verses. 2nd Chronicles, as I said to over the gym yesterday, it's one of those books that's full of big names that are hard to pronounce. And as we often say in Ireland, when you start to read and you come to a big word, you cough and then you start at the next word. When you come to the book of Chronicles, you cough the whole way through. And just a few verses, you know, the Lord led this in my heart last week. And I want to read just two verses at the beginning here. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. But did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. Go down to verse nine. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him. And he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. You know different cultures and different customs are very interesting. It's one of the things when you travel you have to fit into different cultures, and you're confronted with different customs. Some of the churches in Eastern Europe still have situations where the ladies sit on one side, and the men sit on the other. They sit to sing, and stand to pray. They do things sort of differently than we do them. In some of the churches you'll discover that the married ladies will wear a scarf. The unmarried will have no nothing on their head. It's good if you're a young man looking for a woman, because you just need to look over the church and see who's not covered, and take your pick. I often think of the custom of the marriages, where arranged marriages took place. And I've often wondered what it must have been like for an arranged marriage. Could you imagine standing at the front, and suddenly the person beside you lifts the veil. I'm sure there must have been a lot of boys had heart attacks at the front. Customs. And one of the customs that you find so often in the Old Testament, you almost are always had a name that had a meaning. You were given a name that had a meaning, and sometimes the meaning of the name is so instructive, and gives us so much information. And when you come to 2nd Chronicles, and in the 32nd or 33rd chapter, I want just for a moment tonight to speak about Manasseh. The first thing I want to suggest to you tonight is this. I want you to think about the great privileges enjoyed by Manasseh. The great privileges enjoyed by Manasseh. You see, Manasseh's mother was called Hepzibah, which means, my delight is in her. Suggesting that she was a God-fearing woman. His father's name was Hezekiah. Hezekiah means, strong in the Lord. And we know from Scripture that Hezekiah lived up to his name, for we are told in the second book of Kings that Hezekiah kept the commandments of the Lord. Now the picture that you've got to get clear in your mind from the meaning of the words is this. Manasseh was born into a home that had God-fearing parents. He had a mother and a father who feared the Lord. I'm sure he was brought up with all the privileges taught in the Scriptures, watching parents, listening to parents as they prayed. He had this tremendous privilege of being brought up in a God-fearing family up until the age of 12. Now the name Manasseh is an interesting name because it means to forget, to forget. And when you begin to get the picture, you'll discover this, but that's exactly what he did. He forgot. He forgot about the godly upbringing. He forgot about his godly parents. He forgot about his godly instruction. He forgot about God. Very easy to forget. I can be very forgetful. I'm very selective in what I forget. Sometimes it's very convenient. You know, before we were married, and this was when we sang in the gospel group, and we were asked one night about taking an engagement, and I opened the dairy, and it was a Monday night, and I said, that's all right. The girl that was going to be my wife, she says, it's not all right. I says, I have nothing in the dairy. It's all right. She says, it's not all right. Anyway, I say, well, it mustn't be all right, and I thought about another date, and when we get out, she said, do you realize why Monday night wasn't all right? I said, no. She says, we're getting married on Saturday. She hasn't let me forget it since. Now here's a young man, twelve years under biblical instruction. Now, I'm a firm believer. Some of you may want to disagree with me tonight, but you have a right to be wrong, but I'm a firm believer in bringing the children in the church. I'm a firm believer. I believe we need to train the children how to sit in church, because it's amazing exactly what a child can pick up. Amazing. I was telling them during the week that my son that's at home, he always argues with the grandchildren. He loves to argue with them, just likes good fun with them, and he was arguing with one of them, six-year-old, and he was arguing, and after a while of the argument, my son looked at the grandson, and he says, now you listen to me, I know everything. And my grandson just looked up at him, and he says, Uncle Mark, you don't know everything. And he looked at him, and he says, I do know everything. And he said, no you don't, Uncle Mark. And my son said to him, what do I not know? He says, Uncle Mark, you don't know when Jesus Christ is coming back. Now what I'm saying that for is this, where did he hear that? Where did he hear it? He heard it in church. Heard it in church. And I believe because of the age we're living in, that we need to instruct our children in the things of God. You're getting the picture. Here was a man who had great privileges, godly home, godly parents, but when he's 12 years of age, he forgets all about the God of his parents. When you begin to read into his life, you will discover that the man who had great privileges committed great sin. He committed great sin because he reigned over Israel for 55 years. But he was the worst of all the kings of Israel. He was the worst. He built the high places that his father destroyed. He erected altars to Baal. He worshipped the host of heaven. He prayed to the stars as if they were God's. He even built idols in God's temple. In fact, if people would not bow down and worship his idols, he would have them killed. He even went to the lengths of offering his own children as living sacrifices. Watch now. Not only was he guilty of committing great sins, but he led God's people into committing these sins. Now we're talking about a man who had a privileged upbringing. There is a statement, I'm sure that you've heard it quoted so often, sin will take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay. This can be seen when you understand the difficulties, when you forget and take the first step away. Because the first step leads you to the second step, and the second step leads you to the third step, and the third step leads you to the fourth step. You see, here's how Satan works. Just like he did with David, when David was where he ought not to have been, he should have been at the battle when he was on the rooftop. When he looked over and he saw Bathsheba, he saw she was a beautiful woman. Now listen to me carefully, because here's what Satan does. Satan presents sin as being attractive. He presents sin as being attractive. And what he did in David's case was this. He hid from David the final result of his sin. He did not let David see that his sin was going to lead him to murder. He's great at doing that. Sin will always take you further than you want to go. One of the, I think, eye-opening experiences I had was in the city of Johannesburg, in the pure white area of Johannesburg, preaching in the church down there that works in the poor area, feeding 80-odd children every lunchtime, working among the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the prostitutes, you name it. They work among them. I was in a home one day with the pastor of the church, 28 members of the same family in the same home. Every one of them was a drug addict, every one of them. Into another home where there was no furniture, just boxes, little children running about with nothing on their feet. And when the girl was talking, she said, they were alcoholic and they were drug addict, a combination of both. And then she said, sometimes he gets fed up with me and he brings in a prostitute and we all live together. What I'm trying to show you tonight is this. Sin will always take you further than you want to go, take you further. You'll notice something else about this man, Manasseh, and I'm only sort of introducing what I want to do tonight. But you'll notice the great misery experienced by Manasseh. You see, the Bible tells you the way of the transgressor is hard. The Bible gives us a principle that will never be altered, what you sow you reap. Sowing and reaping is a principle that will never ever be altered. And you read about Manasseh that the Assyrians came and they took Manasseh captive and they bound him and they imprisoned him. Now here's what sin does. Sin takes you captive. We always need to remind our hearts that we are not in a playground, but we are in a battleground. We are passing through. We don't belong here. Our citizenship is in heaven for whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus, who shall change our vile bodies. But so many people have got bogged down in this world. You'd almost think that they were never going to leave it. But you see, Satan makes you captive. You see, when Satan starts, he starts very simply, very simply. And it starts very simply. If I could just maybe give a little of my personal experience just to demonstrate what I'm talking about tonight. You see, the first time he introduced me to smoking a cigarette, it was dead easy. I could start it and stop it whenever I wanted. And the second time I did it, I could start it and stop it whenever I wanted. But you know what I discovered soon? I couldn't stop it. When I started gambling, of all the sins that gripped my life, gambling was the one. Seven days a week. Seven days a week. Now don't tell me I'm a fool tonight. I know I'm a fool. If you know anything about gambling, I don't know what it's like in your side of the water, but I'll tell you what it's like in ours. When you go in to, as we say, place a bet or put money on a horse, here's what you discover. There are five places to pay in, but there's only one to pay out. Now, you just think of it. You talk about being crazy. Look, in five places to pay in and only one to pay out. But here's what I discovered. I soon became addicted and I couldn't break it. I say to my shame tonight that I find myself at times robbing from the church to get the money to keep the gambling going. Why? Because once Satan gets his hands on your life, you soon become a captive. And we've got to realize tonight that in that big world outside, there are many who are held captive by the devil as well. And we ought not to look down on them because ergo I, but for the grace of God. I told the man at a conference that I remember one occasion before I was married and I married that long. I can't remember what it was like not to be married. And I remember when I used to leave her home at night, you know, in our country, while you don't start driving at 16, you're not even allowed to get a provisional license, so to speak, until you're 17. But I remember in those days when we turned that age, we didn't have the money for cars. And many as a night, I left their home, missed the last bus and had to walk it. Now, when you're walking home at one o'clock in the morning, the way I had to walk, you're walking home and you're saying, is it worth it? Is it worth it? And I'm walking home. And the way, with all the trouble that there is in our city, there are areas which are Protestant and there are areas which are Catholic. And during the hours of the night, when you live in the city, you know what area to walk in. But unfortunately for me to walk home, I had to walk from a Protestant area through a Catholic area and then to a Protestant area. And I'm walking up through the Protestant area and I hear these footsteps come behind me. And then there's a man walks alongside me and he says to me, hello. I said, hello. He said, where do you live? Well, if you're walking through a Catholic area, the last thing you're going to tell him is you live in the Protestant area. And the best thing to do when you're asked the question that you don't want to answer is respond with a question. And I simply said, where do you live? He says, nowhere. I said, what do you mean nowhere? Well, he said, if I can get a bench in the park or if I can get into the front of a door, I'll sleep there all night. And I'm a young believer and I start to tell him about the Lord. And he said, son, you don't need to talk to me about the Lord. I know all about him. I used to play the organ in the evangelical church. On one night when I was out of function, I was introduced to a social drink. And this is what it has done to me. I asked him if he would come to church with me, said he would. I met him the next night and sure enough, he turned up most holy man I ever seen. Holy coat, holy shoes, holy trousers, everything about him was holy. And I walked in with him to the back seat of the church. And you know what I discovered? Is that I discovered, if you want to get your congregation to sit at the front of the church, bring an alcoholic into the back because nobody wanted to sit with him. Nobody wanted to sit with him. You know, I was glad I brought him to church for four weeks later, he was blown up in a bomb explosion in the city, into eternity. But the point I want to stress to you tonight is this, that Satan can soon make you a captive. Can soon make you a captive. The other thing I want you to understand tonight, that through the power of the gospel, they can be set free. That's why I believe in preaching the gospel powerfully. I believe that the gospel is the answer. Because remember, Jesus Christ already defeated Satan at Calvary and he can break Satan's power in any man's life. Any man's life. Now watch this. Nearly got where I want to go to show you what I want to do. You can see the, the, the privileges he enjoyed. You can see the sins he committed. You can see the misery he experienced. Can you see the mercy that was shown to him? Because the Lord heard his cry. And the Lord restored him to his kingdom. And when you see what the Lord did, it brings you to this point. To realize all the magnitude of God's grace and God's mercy. There's the old hymn we sing back home. I'm sure you sing it here also. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary. I wonder tonight possibly, is there someone in this gathering who had all the privileges Manasseh had? But you forgot God. You walked out on God. When you were living at home, you were like the prodigal son. He was living at home, but his heart was in the far country. He couldn't wait to break out. He couldn't wait to get out. And when he hit the far country, the next picture you have is the hobbits that formed in the far country. And the hobbits that he felt in the far country. He walked out after all the privileges he enjoyed. Friends here's what I want to say to you tonight. For the child of God. Can you see the heartache that's pictured here? Because you see, I know that I'm talking to mothers tonight. And I know that mothers are very tender-hearted when it comes to children. And I know tonight that there are mothers sitting in this meeting who have brought children up in the things of God. You have instructed them in the Word of God. You've tried to point them in the right direction that they might walk with God. But tonight you have a heavy heart. Because like Manasseh, they have forgotten and walked away. Walked away. Mothers with broken hearts. As I said yesterday morning, I'm talking to you from experience. I left the mother with a broken heart. A broken heart. When I sit down and think about it now, it causes me to weep sometimes. What I did in my mother. I used to walk in at night. And when I would walk through the door, my mother and my father were sitting with the Bible open. And they were reading the Bible. And they were praying together. What an example I had from home. But I chose to forget. And walked away. Chose to forget. In fact, some are so burdened in their souls tonight. Maybe you've watched that son or daughter that you've held in your arms as a babe. That you've offered to the Lord as a child. That you've prayed over as they've grown. And have walked away. And have walked away. And have walked so far away that you've almost lost hope for them tonight. And you've got a heavy heart. Children sometimes forget. They forget. They forget God. There's a mother here tonight and you're like that. You see, I not only want you to see the heartache that's pictured here. Because I want you to see the hope that's presented here. Because as this man approached the end of his days, he found mercy with the Lord. What are you trying to tell me? I'm trying to tell you this. Don't lose heart. And don't lose hope. What has been emphasized over these days? Believe God. God, as Carol said today, He's not willing that any should perish. And when you pray for your loved ones, you're praying in the will of God. You're praying in the will of God. For God is not. God is concerned about your loved one. None of my wife's family were saved. None of them. None of them went to church. Not one. Her mother was going into hospital for operation. And we went down to see her mother before she went in the hospital. And my wife went over to her mother and put her arms around her mother's neck and started to weep. She says, Mom, if you don't come through this operation, you'll be in hell. And she wept on her mother's shoulder. Mom, Mom, if you don't come through, you're going to be lost. Her father was 86. Eighty-six years old. I actually was in the United States. And I got a phone call. And she said, Something funny has happened. I said, What do you mean? She says, a strange thing happened. She said, During the night the other night, my mother noticed the light on. Saw my father on his knees at the side of the bed and thought he had fallen out of the bed. And said to him, What has happened? He says, Nothing. I've just got on my knees to make my peace with God. Make my peace with God. You know what? Two months later he was dead. Two months later. Don't give up hope. Believe God. For God answers prayer. God answers prayer. I've seen it time and time again. There's an old boy when I went to my first church and they couldn't get him in through the door of the church. No way. A real drunkard. I went around to see him one day and I discovered that he had driven a big truck in his day. And we had a bus at the church at that time. And I, I went, I says, Johnny, you couldn't do me a favor, could you? His wife had been in the church for years. She'd give up all hope on him. I said, Johnny, you couldn't drive the bus for me next weekend. He says, I will pastor. So Johnny started to drive the bus. And then Johnny started coming to church. And then when we had a, we had a large tent we put up when I moved into that, my new church and what we did in the previous church. Every summer I moved in a different direction and put up a large tent and had evangelistic meetings. And we would use this bus and Johnny was driving the bus. He wasn't even saved. He started to drive the bus. In fact, he was out in the middle of the housing developments, getting everybody onto the bus. And he was driving the bus. And he was taken ill and he was taken to one of the large hospitals in Belfast. And one morning I get up and it was just like the Lord said to me, you need to go to see Johnny. You need to see Johnny. I jumped in the car, drove to Belfast. It was about 50 miles. And I walked into the ward and there were four beds in the ward. And Johnny says, pastor, before you go, I want you to pray for everybody in this ward. Because see that man over there, his minister came in yesterday and he prayed for everybody. I said, Johnny, the Lord has really led it in my heart to come and see you today. He says, pastor, you needn't worry. I settled it yesterday. Never give up hope. Never give up hope. Now watch this. You can see the heartache that's pictured here. The one that you've carried, you're born into the world. The one that you've instructed in spiritual things has forgotten and walked away. And you've got a heavy heart. There is hope presented here because there's none of them would be as wicked as Manasseh was. Yet he found grace and mercy with the Lord. Don't give up hope. Third thing I want to say is this. You need to get a habit that's practiced here. You need to start really praying for them. I'm not saying just talking about them. I'm talking about getting hold of the horns of the altar and holding on to the horns of the altar until God moves. Until God moves. Holding on. Holding on. The church nearby, there's a woman who was always silent. She'd just come in. She was faithful. She'd come in. She attended all the services. She left. And in the prayer meeting one night, she stood up. Something she never did. She stood up. And she just cried, Oh God, it's my boys. And they're not saved. They're not saved. Then what happened? The boys come in on Sunday night and get saved. Why? Because she believed that God could do it. We need to get on their knees. Are you concerned enough tonight to weep over them? Are you concerned enough tonight to really be determined in your soul? I don't want to be in glory on my children to be in a lost eternity. I want them to be with me in glory. I don't know why God has led this in my heart tonight. Because you see, there may be someone here tonight and you've kind of lost the burden to pray for them. You've almost given up hope on them. And God wants to challenge you afresh tonight. God wants to see if you mean business with him. God wants to see. There may be someone else here tonight. And as you cast your mind back, you can remember those early days. You can remember those Sunday school classes. You can remember the day you made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. But you've started to walk away. You're not like Manasseh tonight. Put your cold in heart. You've lost the fire in your soul. You know all the right things to say. How often have you heard this over this prayer of advance? You know the right things to say and when to say them. But before God tonight, you know your heart's cold. If you've been honest, you say, I've walked away. Oh, I remember the morning I got saved. I'll tell you. I remember the morning I got saved when I fell on my knees and cried on the Lord to save me. Away there, way back in that old hospital. And I remember getting up on my knees and saying, Lord, if you've really saved me, I have tried so often to stop these things. And I couldn't do it. But Lord, if you've really saved me, you'll have to set me free. Thank God I've never had a bed on since it and I've never had a drink since it because God set me free. Here's what God did. He didn't only set me free. He took from me the desire for it. Just took it away. That's our God. But hey, I remember how lovely it was in those days. How fresh my spiritual experience was. I was pleading for souls. I was witnessing the souls. I wanted to see everybody in my neighborhood come to Jesus Christ. And then as time goes on, you get into the groove. And the fire goes out. And you simply go through the motions. And maybe you need God to fire you up again. You need God to fire you up again. Because you're losing your way. And you might even lose your family. I said this one night at a meeting. After it was over, there was a girl and her father came down. She was weeping. A girl of about 21, 22. We went into a little vestry and I asked her what the thing was. She said when I was 15, I made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. When I was 16, I was singing in the meetings. She said I went to college. Got involved in her own company. Got away from the Lord. A whole lot of things I ought not to have been doing. But she says tonight God has touched my heart. And I want to get back. I want to get back. I said let's get down on our knees. And I said to her, Father, you pray. And I said to the girl, I'm going to pray. And when I pray, I said I want you to pray. Just tell the Lord as it is. Never forget it. She says dear Lord, it's me. It's me Lord. And I haven't spoken to you for years. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I met her two years later at a meeting. She came up but she was so changed I hardly recognized her. She says remember me? I said yeah. She says this is my husband. I said what are you doing here tonight? She says we're going to the mission field. Going to the mission field. And here's what I want to do tonight. I want you to be honest with your God tonight. Not with me, with God. I want you to be honest with God tonight. And I want you to search your heart and answer the question. Number one, am I really saved? If I was to die tonight, am I sure I would go to heaven? I'm not asking you, do you think it? Nor am I asking, do you hope? I'm asking you, do you know? Do you know? If you don't know tonight, I plead with you in Jesus name, don't leave this auditorium tonight until you have a personal meeting with Jesus Christ. I may be talking to someone here tonight, and the fire has gone out of your life. The devotion that we've been hearing about today, it's gone. You're simply going through the motions. But tonight, if you want to come and say, Lord, my heart is cold. Lord, I'm going through the motions. Oh God, set me on fire again for Jesus Christ. If you're here tonight, and you used to walk with the Lord and fellowship with the Lord and enjoy the Lord, but you've walked away and you've forgotten every blessing that the Lord has bestowed upon you. And tonight, like the prodigal son, Father, I have sinned and I'm not worthy to be called your servant. Lord, forgive me. Somebody here tonight. You know, it takes courage sometimes in a company, in a gathering to acknowledge your need, your coldness. It's difficult to acknowledge. I've lost the burden for my loved ones. I say a wee prayer, but I don't really believe God's going to save them. You need to get it settled tonight. You need to. I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to bow together in prayer. And if God has spoken to you in any of those three ways, I'm going to say tonight, would you not like to settle it between you and the Lord? Would you have the courage? When every head's bowed and every eyes closed, would you have the courage tonight to make a public confession, to walk to the front, to get on your knees between you and the Lord, to have a personal encounter with the Lord in this place tonight? Would you have the courage to do it? Let every one of us just bow our head, close our eyes. Or you may send a check or money order to Christ Life Ministries, Post Office Box 399, Vinton, Virginia 24179. To learn more about Christ Life Ministries or the prayer advances, or just to keep up to date with what is going on in our ministry, visit us on the internet at www.ChristLifeMen.org.