In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of our actions in either exalting or trashing the name of God. He shares a personal experience of encountering disruptive visitors in a service and how Daniel Nash rebuked them, resulting in four of them dying within seven days. This incident led Charles Finney to recognize the need for God's intervention. The preacher also highlights the lack of desperation and reverence in some people's approach to God, calling for a deeper commitment to living out our faith.

2 Samuel chapter number 12, King David has committed the great sin that even this day we look upon as the greatest sin, the greatest mistake of his life, sin committed with Bathsheba and then killing Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite. And if we poll any congregation that knows anything about the Word of God, I believe that we would all agree in the poll of the congregation that this was the greatest sin, probably the greatest remembered thing about King David. And so without having to labor a long time in that since we've already covered so much of that ground, we're going to go back into this text of Scripture again and bring out yet another fault the Lord has given us from the text of Scripture. And particularly tonight, I would like to begin reading where we left off last night in verse number 12, where the heart of the message was last evening. If you'll stand with me, please, we'll read these Scriptures together. And you follow along with your eyes as I read audibly. And then we'll pray. You can be seated after that. But let's respect the Word of God. 2 Samuel chapter number 12, verse number 12, For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. And Nathan departed unto his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David. And it was very sick. Let's pray. Father, we come into your presence again this evening. Lord, we are needy, needy people. Our hearts are heavy, Lord, for the burden of this text is upon us, and the burden of our hearts that we must make right things before you. And we know that these are unusual hours, unusual times for us. And as many times as we've been to church, as many times as we've been in invitations, as many times as we've come and confessed our sins before you, we feel an anticipation that this time is different than we've ever been before. This is a different hour than we've ever seen. Anything we've seen beforehand, before this time, is not compared to our anticipation of this hour. We believe that you want to do something for us, and that you are calling us to yourself. Oh, how we hope it is true. And Lord, in hoping so, we pray that there be no one who would disobey or would hinder the work of us coming close to thee, but that each person that is here in the sound of my voice would have their hearts open, ready to receive thy word, ready to forgive, ready to be forgiven, ready to confess, ready to seek the face of God, and ready to come into that unfamiliar place. Lord, make us so sick of where we are. Lord, make us nauseous in our stomach. Make us weary of staying in the same shape where we have been so long. I pray that no one in this place would be comfortable in the lifestyle they are living right now, but all of us would be eager to leave behind where we are and draw closer to thee. And God, I pray that you will empower us. Without your power, I can't preach. The Word of God will not go forth. It will not touch the hearts of people. I need thy power. I need thy touch, O Lord. I pray, O God, for fresh oil to run from my head and to drip from my chin. O Lord, may the power of Christ rest upon me. Let me preach these moments with great power, with great unction, not because I deserve, but for thy name's sake we pray. And Lord, help us then to move and to deal with thee as you deal with us. And all things whatsoever you touch our hearts with, let us come boldly to thee, and humbly that we may fall quickly at thy feet and confess, You are right, O Lord, and we are wrong. We have sinned against thee. And then cleanse us, O Lord, I pray. Purge us, wash us, I ask. And then let us rise to bring glory and honor to thee through our lives. Help us, dear Lord, with these things, I pray. Forgive us of our sins. Cleanse us, purge us, wash us white. Use us now. Take us up in thy hand. And use us, Lord, as it pleases thee most. Get glory and honor out of our lives, O Lord, we pray. In the end, we shall worship you and praise you for all that is done in Christ Jesus' name, we ask. Amen. You can be seated. I had several people last evening after the message come and say that they had things they were going to bring and things they were going to lay upon the altar. And I thought I might clarify just a moment in the closing hours of the service, the closing moments of the service last night. I spoke about a revival meeting where many people getting right brought their old CDs and their clothes and things that were worldly, things that had no honor to God in them. And they brought them to the altar, and we took them out and burned them. Of course, that's been 22 years ago, and I still remember it. Well, today we've had some trash come in, and we thank the Lord for it. We've bagged it up because we don't want to give glory to the trash. Amen? But I want to leave it up here so you can see. It's coming, and the time's coming. We're going to burn. I'm thinking to myself that there are others who want to do that and want to participate in that, but we're not pushing, never have even asked you to do that. So we're just going to leave this on the altar for the night, and perhaps others will bring in some things as the Lord deals with you about them, and we'll take them out and burn them possibly on tomorrow evening after the service. We don't want to take away from the time in here. This is what God's working and doing in here. We're not taking away to do something different, but we're not going to put this trash in anybody else's hands. Amen? So I don't want you coming up here and shuffling through it. It's not a yard sale. It's not a rummage sale. We're not fixing to stack up your shelves with CDs, but I appreciate the things that have been brought. Some articles of clothing have been brought, and I assume that in bringing that, someone has made a decision to change their lifestyle and to honor Christ with what they wear. People look at me all the time and say, well, I don't see anything wrong in that. Fine. Say you should. But if someone has, I figure the Lord has said something about it to them. And I'm thankful to that, aren't you? And it's so much better when the Lord says something than it is when we say something. And so I want you to know, whoever has brought these things, I want you to know that that's not an easy choice that you've made, but it's one that Christ will honor. Just be sure you do it for the right reasons, not for mom and daddy, brother, sister, preacher, or anyone else. Do it for the Lord, and the Lord will bless you. And I promise you that. And so I'm thankful, aren't you? I hope others have brought your junk that's in your heart and left it also. Many things need to be slain upon this altar. Amen. And probably, if you want to leave after the service, go get yours and bring it back. That'll be fine too. Amen. Probably some of you just go get what you've got in your car and bring it in. Amen. And put it on the altar, and that'll be a good thing too. I'm just exhorting you, right? Paul said we should exhort. And so I'm just exhorting you to do the right thing. Amen. Amen. Well, there's not a lot of amens tonight, but that's fine with me. Me and Brother Williams have the time, ain't we? All right. Remember the policy. If you'll nod your head this way and say amen a lot, nobody will think you're guilty. Some of you think it's prayer time. Every time I start talking, you go, we'll pray later, amen? Stick your heads up and listen. Say amen a lot. Try to keep the person next to you awake. Amen. Last evening, the Lord let us deal with a subject that has burdened my heart for many months, not just these days, but months. I have been plagued with the verse of Scripture. Paul said, we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. And the hidden things. I didn't labor a lot last evening on the life of Achan, because I have preached that here before. But Achan sinned by taking something, putting his hands out to take something that God had told him not to touch. And you know what Achan did? The same thing that man always does. He took it and hid it. And he tried to keep it from being seen and being known, even to his own family, his wife and children. It was in their house. And even though it was in their home where they lived, they were unaware of the sin that was around them. And so, Achan's sin cost Israel 30,000 men, if my memory serves me correct. 30,000 men. Secret sins have always cost. In the beginning, with Adam and Eve, the secret sins, they had done something they thought no one knew they had done. The first thing they did was go to hide and to cover up. And so they made themselves aprons of fig leaves. And do you know that it cost them the fellowship of God? And if nothing else, if there were no other cost involved, that would be the greatest cost. Because as saved people, see, we're saved eternally. We believe that, right? Once you're saved, I mean, once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, it's eternal. You're saved forever. There's no losing your salvation. Nothing like that. We don't believe that kind of thing. And you could commit the most heinous, the most awful, dreadful sin, but if you're saved, you're saved. However, any little bit of sin, if you want to put it in degrees and measurements, any little bit of sin breaks fellowship between you and a holy God. For you cannot come into holy presence of God with sin in your life. And so that is probably the most costly thing ever to be in the life of a believer. I want to try, if I could, just to put into words from the probably, I think probably the most poetic prayer of the Scriptures. Not that David was trying to impress someone, but the power of his language when he speaks. When David sees himself in a most awful condition, and by the way, if I were to take the time and give you the text of Scripture in the historical context, the reason for the text of Scripture that I'm about to quote to you, Psalm chapter number 63, verses number 1 and 2, that was in the time frame of him reaping what has been sowed in the Scripture that we're talking about right now. And David got so far from God, so far from God, still a child of God, still trusting the Lord. He got so far from God that he cried out from the place where he was. And I illustrated this to the teens not long ago, that David, you can hear the tone of his voice. Now, some people like quiet religion. I don't understand that exactly, but it's like, you know, everything you do in life that's fun, exciting and joyful all has noise to it, and then you come to church and fall asleep. I don't get that, man. I like noisy church where people say, Amen out loud, and preaching's loud. I want to make sure that nobody falls asleep, but maybe small children, anything, you know. But anyway, when David... It's just a little side note. It's commercial, I'm sorry. But it didn't cost you anything, so quit complaining. When David cries out from the 63rd Psalm, it's as if David's not sitting somewhere leaning over and saying, Oh God, Thou art my God. No, no, no. You see the desperation in his language. You can feel him as if he's... You know when Peter was sinking in the sea as he's walking by faith to Christ, and he begins to look around, losing sight of the Lord, he begins to sink. Do you think that Peter looked up from the water as waves were starting to crash over his head and said, Oh Lord, this ain't turning out like I thought. I'm being serious. You know it's not true because when he's sinking, have you ever sunk in water? Have you ever gone down? Have you ever been in water? You don't go down like... People think that Peter's standing there and all of a sudden he starts... Are you kidding me? I've walked off the 8 foot pool and act like I'm walking and all of a sudden, within a half a second, you're 4 feet under water. I can hear Peter going down going, Oh! It's like desperation. You don't know desperation. You know when... No sense of desperation with some people. They want to... You know, I'm in the worst shape of my life. Oh Lord, this ain't turning out like I thought. I'm going for counseling. It's not right. When David realizes he's so far from God, in the heart cry, Psalm 63, verse number 1, he cries out, Oh God! Oh Lord, my God! Early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for Thee. In a dry, thirsty land where no water is. To see Thy power and Thy glory. So as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. You see, when David gets in desperation, he's not sitting around looking for a counseling session. He's crying out in desperation. And the longing of his heart is to see the glory of God again. To see His power like he's seen it in days gone by in the house of God. And there used to be glory in the house of God. There used to be a glory about the house of God. Bear with me with my folly of remembrance, but I can remember in days gone by when men would be seen walking the street and come to church property and take their hats off. Not church men, just men. Take their hats off while they're walking across church property because they knew that they were on the Lord's grounds. Get to the other side of the property, put their hats back on and continue on their way. I've seen cars pull off. I've seen this with my own eyes. A car pull off. Don't know who the people were. Stop. Pull off. Got out to the church driveway and picked up a beer bottle and threw it in the back of their truck and got back in and drove off because they knew it shouldn't be laying there on the driveway of church grounds. Now, we sit out there and throw our cigarette butts down in the church parking lot. Despise the grounds. There's no holiness to it. There's no glory to it. I want to show you what happens as sin progression takes place in life and as things begin to get worse and worse. And that's what's going on in this text of Scripture. Last evening, we dealt with the secret. Tonight, we're going to deal with the shame found in verse number 14. Notice the words of the Lord here as He speaks through the prophet Nathan. Because by this deed, thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. I want to use that phrase tonight that He gives in verse number 14 and talk about the shame. The occasion that has been given. Now I want you to understand what the writer here is talking about or what God's talking about as He preaches to David. Your sin has affected more people than just you yourself. Because this deed. You have given a great occasion. You have opened up a big door for men to blaspheme the Lord. Of course, the word blaspheme in this text of Scripture means to hate or despise or even to mock the Lord. By this deed. What's the deed? We know that it's the sin He committed with Bathsheba and the sin of killing Uriah the Hittite. This is all wrapped up in the actions that He took to do in His flesh and He did them secretly, thinking in the power of His kingdom that He was able to get by with it. And God rung up His number and said, because of this deed... God's upset about something. Do you all understand the context of Scripture here? God's upset. God's a loving God. Yes, and God gets upset, angry, furious. And God brings out His wrath and His judgment. And He does that, so in this text, He's upset. And so He looks at David and says, David, do you understand that you have cost Me? David later, maybe if the Lord will lead us tomorrow, we'll go into later events of David's life, but just let me throw this one out at you. Later, David is running for his life. And in his faraway state, do you hear what David prayed in the 63rd Psalm? To see Thy power and Thy glory. Why? He hadn't seen His glory in a while. Why is David not seeing the glory of God? Because he opened up a door that caused the glory of God to be abused, hated, and mocked. Do you see this? God's preaching to David. He's using this man of God. I don't know how I picture Nathan, but I picture him rugged a little bit and probably blonde hair like me and about six foot two. And every time I see him look at David and say, that thou art the man. Every time I read that text of Scripture, I can see it almost as if he stirs up... He was probably Irish too. And he probably got red-faced. And I can see him get stirred up and pull out that long finger and say, thou art the man! You say, oh, you don't speak to a king that way. A man of God don't care if it's a king or a carpenter or a mechanic. He's a man of God. He's got to answer to somebody higher than you. You say, well, you don't know what kind of salary I make. Hey, I'll put my $7,000 a year up next to yours any day. Got nothing to lose. Y'all understand what I'm saying? Huh? You with me so far? I didn't come here for your big salary. I come here for the glory of God. Amen? I can see Nathan get stirred up and red-faced when he talks to Him and says, thou art the man! Why? The glory of our great King is at stake because of the deeds that you have done. The glory of our great King. There will come a day when David is praying and saying, you know, I wish I could see His glory again. I wish I could see His glory again. I wish I could see His glory again. I think I've told this here some years ago or some time ago at some other meeting. A time years ago, back in the early 60's I believe it was, when my grandfather was preaching in North Carolina at Thickety Baptist Church and a drunk man passed the church. The town drunk. The community drunk. Everybody knew him. He passed the church while my grandfather was preaching and he pulled off down the road, turned around and came back walking to the church. He got saved. Later he gave me his testimony and said as he passed that church, the Holy Spirit of God came up in the car with him and said, you return to that church tonight and get saved or you'll die before you get to the stop sign. And he said, I pulled in the next driveway, turned around, pulled my car up in the church. He said, when I got out of my car, little country church, stick built white building, he said, I could hear the preacher preaching inside in a most rugged and loud voice, you're going to hell! You're going to hell! He said, I snatched the door open and ran down the aisle. And he said, just before I got to the altar to fall upon my knees, he changed his message and began to cry, you don't have to go there! You don't have to go there! And he began to preach Jesus and the man fell on the altar and he got saved. He told me his testimony. Gave me his Word. This is what happened. Can you imagine a day when the house of God had the glory of God about it in such a way that a man, a lost man, driving by the building got under Holy Ghost conviction, had not even heard the preached Word of God, had not heard a sermon, was not on the seventh verse of Just As I Am, was not being begged and pleaded by soul winners, but driving by the building! So much of the glory of God hovered on that property that it reached out into the street and grabbed a lost man and shook him up and told him he must get born again. Could you imagine His glory returning to this house in such a degree that men driving down Highway 90 begin to turn in the parking lot and come into these doors to fall upon their knees and say, I must get saved or else I'll die before I get to Highway 57. The glory of God once stood in the house of God. Men knew it. They'd get under burden at their house and not know what to do. And they'd go to the church. There wouldn't even be planned services. And they would walk up to a church and stand in front of a church hoping to find someone. And imagine that a sovereign God was so in power and in charge that He would have someone there by chance perhaps that would lead someone to Christ. They came to the house of God because the glory of God dwelt on this place. There have been days gone by. Do you know what our houses of worship are known for these days? Our secret sins that have gotten out. And the glory of God is at stake because of the deeds that we have committed with our lives. A church like this one has a reputation. When I came here, I've only been here for just over two years. I came here, I think, when Isabella was about a week old or so. She turned two in June. She might have been a couple of weeks old. Came here for the first time. So I've only been here for a couple of years. When I came here, do you know that it didn't take long before several people informed me of the reputation that the church has? And then people out in the world will tell me, well, did you know? Well, did you know? The glory of God that is supposed to be upon this place has been affected. Why? Why? It's not God's fault. It's the deeds of the people that go here. Not just to pick on, but it's the pastor's. Our pastor come here and inherited the mistakes of every pastor that's ever stood here on this property. Not to mention that we inherit, as preachers, we inherit the sins of preachers around the world. Do you know that in the past few days, some church ordained as a minister? A man who was on the list of... Somebody help me. Do you know? No, he's on the sex offenders list. And the community is outraged because he's a child molester who served his time, got out, got in church, and has now been ordained as a minister. And so they're picketing in front of the church because they don't want anybody in their community that's going to stand in the pulpit that has that kind of... You say, well, what about the grace of God? I want to say to you, there's something about the grace of God you need to know. You can trash it and cause men to die and go to hell because of your actions and your deeds. Go to heaven and enjoy the grace of God. But God forbid you send 50,000 to hell because you trashed the grace of God through your own lifestyle. I'm sure there's a place for everyone to minister. And I'm sure that pastoring a flock, being the shepherd over lambs, is not the place for someone who has had that kind of a story. But what is our story? What if God were to enter in this building tonight and name your sin? And in naming your sin, He looked and said, let Me tell you, the problem is, He said, your sin's been forgiven. You came to the altar and you're forgiven. But He said, let Me tell you what's happened. You've cost Me a great deal because you have assaulted My glory. Now people, you've opened the door for people to hate Me because of your actions. I spoke with a gentleman not too many days ago who looked at me and said, I don't believe there's anything wrong with alcohol. Okay. Alcohol wasn't a matter of discussion, so I didn't argue with him. And all in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, do you know the problem is that alcohol's not the problem, but that it trashes the glorious name of God for someone to be a Christian and have that kind of a thing. Do you see what happens? Paul the Apostle said in 1 Corinthians 6, I want to say it's verse number 12, all things are lawful unto Me, but all things are not expedient. I could drink. I'm over 21. I could go to a bar and order a drink right now. However, what am I going to do when someone looks at me staggering out of rumors and stares at me and sees me standing there trying to get my key in the door and to crank my car and drive out of the parking lot in that state and say, well, I thought that was that evangelist that claimed to be a man of God. You say, well, what I do is my business. You're exactly right. What you do is your business and God's. So you better take care of your business. I'm just saying this, when you try to witness to someone, and I'm sure somebody in here has probably had this kind of occasion where they tried to witness to someone and they want to turn the events and say, well, you say you're a Christian, but I know that you do this. Your witness is destroyed. Don't tell me how to live. I know you have anger issues. Don't tell me how to live. I've heard your bad language when you get mad. Don't tell me how to live. I've heard what you said about so-and-so. Don't tell me I need to get saved. I've heard your gossip. Don't tell me you need to get saved. You ever heard anybody say that too? You know what they're really saying is, don't tell me about Jesus. He ain't making no difference in your life. They're slandering God because of your sin. It's not what God did. It's what you're doing that's causing God so many problems and so much disagreement. Paul said, I can do a lot of things that are lawful. Imagine this twice in one letter. I Corinthians again in chapter 10, verse 31, if my memory serves me correct. He says again, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. I can do things. I can go and do and enjoy everything you say. I can do those things. They're lawful. I can do them. There's no problem, except it's not the best thing for me. It's not the best thing for God. So here's the occasion that has come. David has committed a sin that he believes is just his own sin. Again, let's reference his prayer in Psalm 51, if you'd like to look at it yourself. Psalm 51. He makes a statement here that I believe comes when he realizes the effect that he's had. God deals with him. And God says, you committed this sin twice. He says, you took Uriah's wife to yourself. Twice, he says, you took the life of Uriah. And then God says, you caused men to blaspheme Me. They're laughing at Me. They're hating Me because of what you've done. Why? I'm the one that made you king. I'm the one that called you. I'm the one that ordained you. I'm the one that put you in position. I'm the one that blessed you. You're standing where you're standing because of Me. And then you do this. And you sin. And I'm the one that gets hated for it. So David makes this statement in Psalm 51, verse number 4. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. Someone asked me, The preacher, why does he say that? Because he sinned against Uriah, and he sinned against Bathsheba, and he sinned against the nation of Israel. And I said that because now David's dealing with the root of the problem. Help me with this. Just say you get into a spat with someone. Disagreement. In the disagreement, two or three people hear you argue and fuss, and then you take it home, you tell your family, your spouse, and your friends, what you think and how you feel and what happened and who said, and they said and I said, I'm right and they're wrong. You're always right, by the way. We all agree with you. You're always right. No problem for us to agree with you on that. You're always right. And so you tell your family, and you tell your wife, and you tell your preacher, and then all of a sudden the Holy Ghost begins to deal with you, and you believe it's time to get right. So you go back to that one individual and you say, Hey, man, I'm sorry for the disagreement we had. It's all better now? Yes, sir. We're all friends now. Thank God. Hold it. Problem. You caused the war in 10 or 15 different families. They all went home and told their families. They're all telling everybody what you said, what you did, how you acted, how you behaved. They're all telling everybody. It's talk. It's got into the community. There's people at Walmart that don't even know you. They know what you did, how you talked, how you acted. I mean, it's crazy. It's spreading like wildfire. One day, 25 years from now, you're going to be sitting in the doctor's office, and the nurse is going to stick her head in and say, Hey, are you that guy who said... You know what I mean? It's everywhere. It's going to follow you the rest of your life. And you go back to that one person, you make it right. You ain't got to the root of the problem yet. You've got a whole group of people now that have been affected, and that's not even the root of the problem, because after it bleeds through all that, there's one in the rudiment of the whole thing, there's one who is the one who gets all the slack when it's over. In the eternal scheme of things. Are you all still listening? There's one. I was pastoring. My secretary looked at me, and we were talking about filing systems. I was trying to get organization, because I have an aneurysm if there's none. And so I was looking for some sense of organization. And so I looked at her, and I said, This, do this, this, this, and that. And she said, Well, at work we do this, this, and that. And I said, Well, I don't want to do it that way, because I can't think like your work people think. I want to do it this way, so I'll know what's going on. And she looked at me and said, In a hundred years, it won't matter anyway. And I looked at her, and I said, It will too, because everybody's still going to remember I killed you. You can see why I'm in evangelism now. About four days is all I can last at one church before I'm about ready to kill half a dozen other people. I'm trying to deal with my sin, but they say confession's good for the soul. Amen. So, you know, people make a statement like that. Oh, in a hundred years it won't matter. Well, that's funny. In a hundred years, history keeps telling them the tales of the sins of God's people. I wish we could go back in time, Brother Brooks, and stand in the throne room of David when he's an old man. Remember that text of Scripture that says when he got to that place and that age where he was cold and his body would not be warmed, and there was no way to excite him and get him encouraged and come up, and he was laying there dying in his bed of his castle. There he laid a king who was once great, who was once the boy with the sling and the five stones taking out Goliath. There he lays a pitiful old man. I wish we could walk back in time, Brother Miller, and just go up beside the bed and just stop and ask him, do you think it will matter in a hundred years what you did? Because now we stand 2,600 years later, and we're still telling the story of the sin of this man. Do you know where it comes back to? People don't look down on the greatest king of Israel. They look down on his God. It's been used as an occasion to despise God. So here again, I want to just throw this out at you. If we could somehow or another expose your sin tonight, I wonder if God walked in here and exposed your sin, if God would look at you and say, this thing has affected me. Your sin has affected me. Your sin has caused an occasion. I want you to ask yourself this question. What are the things I'm doing in my life? What kind of occasion will these things bring for my Lord? Let me give you a bunch of Scriptures real quick. I want to try to go through them as quickly as possible, so I've marked them down and tried to write down and print as many of them as I can. So if you want to read them, you can, but I doubt you'll be able to keep up. Just listen closely. We talk about Paul's reference to the Scripture as he said, all things are not lawful, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 31, he says this, Wherefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Do all to the glory of God. Do all to the glory of God. And this is my point of the message, that every one of those sins are an occasion to destroy the glory of God. And let's not lose that thought, because we want to see the glory of God at the house of God. We want to see the glory of God manifested in His house, right? We want to see His glory. It's His name that is at stake. And let me say this, you may have heard somebody at times say a statement similar to this, I don't care what anybody thinks. You ever heard that? Huh? Y'all listening? Any of y'all ever made that statement? Well, a God like we serve, why does He care what everybody thinks? Except 30 times in the Bible that we're holding in our hands tonight, 30 times He referenced things being done for His name's sake. What we are doing affects His name's sake. In other words, His glory is injured by our actions, or it's exalted by our actions. So I made some references to this, and I just wanted to try to read a few of them to you if I could. In Psalm chapter number 23, verse number 3, this is a very familiar passage of Scripture. Psalm 23 has been quoted by people that don't even know Jesus, never have even been to church. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. And this is a very impressive passage of Scripture, poetic, hangs on the wall of people all around the world in different languages, this great Shepherd's Psalm. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Verse number 3 says this, He restoreth my soul, He leadeth me in the path of righteousness, help me finish this, He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake. Why does He choose to lead us in a path of holiness and righteousness? Righteousness, by the way, is doing right because it's right. Let me think of a name. Bob Jones Sr., I believe it was, made the statement that had been remembered and quoted around the world. He said, Do right! Do right! Do right when the stars fall. Do right. Meaning never let anything change you from your track. Don't let anything deter you or lead you astray. God says that it's little sheep who are being led by a great Shepherd that He has chosen a path of righteousness. So a preacher, why is it so important to have all those things you're talking about and to give up sins and to give up those musics and those clothes and those languages and those actions? And why is it so important? For His name's sake. For His name's sake. If He's going to lead us, He will never choose to lead us in a place or in deeds or actions that will cost His name glory. Ask it about everything you do. For instance, whoever has given up the dress and things that are contained up here in these things. These are very hard choices to make. And it's going to be even harder when people look at you who claim to be Christians and say, It's okay, there's nothing wrong with that. Just be sure that you can go back to your knees and justify it according to His name's sake. Because all things are lawful for me, but all things are not the best. All things are not good. I've been trying to teach the teens to quit choosing between what's good and bad. In teen church. Y'all with me? I've been trying to teach them. And it'd help me if y'all would quit teaching them to make choices between good and bad because we're past that. These children have said they've got saved. We don't choose between what's good and bad, young people. We choose between what's good and best. And we always choose the best. I want to see a group of young people grow up to be the elite. The best of the best. The Gulf Coast, Mississippi shaking. Earth shaking around the world. Trembling young people that go out into all the world and preach the gospel. And everywhere they go, men look at them in astonishment. And men glorify God that is in them. I want to see that. We're never going to see that with kids who live down with the turkeys. We're looking for kids who want to fly with the eagles. Amen. Quit choosing between what's right and wrong. My little two-year-old baby can choose between what's right and wrong. Shame on you for being saved as long as you've been saved. And you're still struggling over your little decisions of right and wrong. Shame on you. Did y'all get that? I can back up. I'm good at Rewind. If y'all didn't get it, I can say it all again. Shame on you for being saved as long as you've been saved. And you're still choking over making right and wrong decisions. For His namesake, we don't choose between good and bad. We choose between good and best. And we always choose the best. Help me if some of you parents agree right now while these young people are sitting around you. It's hard for you to agree when they leave teen church and go back home and look at you and watch you try to make decisions between right and wrong. And half the time, you're choosing what's bad instead of what's good. And they're wanting to start choosing what's best instead of what's good. It's hard for a young person to have to be the one who leads in the household. Say amen right there. Come on now. Go ahead and help me out a little bit. You know it's right. It's a shame. Y'all hear me? Hey! I said it's a shame. It's a shame that in a church house where people have met the grace of God, we've got to tell them to quit lusting. It's a shame that in the household of God, in the household of faith, where men have met the grace of God, where the hand of God's mercy has reached down in the muck and mire of sin and has lifted them up out of the pit of sin and has set them up on a solid rock and established their goings, it is a shame that we've got to come in here and tell you to quit having jealousy. It's a shame. We've got to come in here after you've been saved all this time and know the love and grace of God. You've met the mercy of God. It's a shame! We've got to come in here and tell you to quit lying. Hey, man of God, there's a man who claims to be a man of God. He pastors a church in Pickens, South Carolina. Claims to be a man of God. You listening to me? There's a man of God up there, stands in the pulpit every week, and he lies all the time. And a man who is a bug sprayer, goes around pesticide and killing bugs and stuff, met one of his deacons, whose name is Joe, and said, what's going on over at that church? And he told him a spiel of what that preacher had been getting up telling everybody. And that bug sprayer, man in the world, looked at him and said, you know what the problem is? He said, your church is blind. Your pastor is a sot liar. He would rather climb a light pole and tell a lie as to stand on the ground and tell the truth. And he looked at him and said, and Joe, you don't realize what's happening is, but it made your church look stupid. Now, it would be all right with me if you all would gang up a group, let's go up there and whip him. But I imagine God probably could get there before we can, and God will deal with him. Do you see that the church is under the assault in the end? In the root of that, Brother Carson, God is under assault. Men are going to hate God because of a lying preacher. After knowing the grace of God, somebody is going to have to stand up and stick a finger in his face and say, stop lying. Smack him on the hand and say, stop lying. Why are we having to preach like that at a church where people have been saved? We don't want to preach enough about it. But there's lying. There's stealing. People taking things that don't belong to them. There's jealousy. You might as well say amen. Else I'm going to bog down right here. We're never going to get to all them other good Scriptures. It's over right here if you all don't help me out. But we come up in here, we have to deal with lust in the church. Can you imagine that? That inside the church, a man looking at a woman who doesn't belong to him, a woman looking at a man who doesn't belong, flirting going on in the house of God and passing and handshaking and congregation fellowship, and you don't know all the nasty things and thoughts that are running through people's minds in the church house? God help us. No wonder we aren't having the glory of God. We've assaulted His glory with our deeds. Are you listening still? I received an email today. I loved it. Someone listened to the sermon online. I guess it's already made it to the online section. Somebody listened to the sermon online. I appreciate that, brother. I thank you for it this time. Last year I wasn't excited about it, but this year I'm excited about it. I got an email today. Somebody listened to the sermon and said, I agree with everything except one part. One part I'm having a problem with. And he said, I cannot believe that you would believe it. And I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember exactly how he said it. He said, Do you mean to tell me that men don't lust after their own wife? And he's joking, of course, at the end of the email. I laugh. I laugh because that man said it's funny. Yeah, that's what I mean. You look at married couples sitting in a church house and act like they don't know the person sitting next to them, but they just have the biggest time, fun time, exciting time, and giggle and laugh with somebody that doesn't belong to them and joke around and poke with somebody else. That's terrible. In the house of God? The one place I should be safe with my wife and my family is in the house of God? I'm talking about people who have had to leave a church because a preacher flirting with a man's wife and offering a relationship with a man's wife. I'm talking about preachers who are having to leave. We got word of a preacher who had to leave because a couple in the church got together, joined themselves together in a covenant, and the man said he was going after the preacher's wife and the woman's going after the preacher himself. I'm talking about in a Baptist church. I'm talking about pure ungodliness. Do you see how God gets upset and says, Look what you're doing to my name. I offered my son on Calvary as bloodshed. His life was an offering for your sin. And look how you're treating me. After the message, last night I was confronted with someone who said, Preacher, deal with pornography. My first thought was, Should I have to? But since then, others have come and said, Preacher, deal with pornography. I'm dealing with pornography. I've dealt with pornography. Last night at the altar I dealt with pornography. You say, I don't want to be a part of a church like that. You're not going anywhere else and finding where people are dealing with it. They're doing it and not telling anybody. It's secret sins. And it's ungodliness that interrupts the flow of life in every other direction. A person who ever gets locked into that evil and wicked thing is controlled in many, many, many other areas of their life. And you can't even begin to know how many demons of hell have filled the hearts of men and women over that kind of trash. We expect the Spirit of God to be able to enter in to a service here and to touch the hearts of lost men and women and bring sinners to salvation. But He cannot come in because the house is filled with other spirits and these other wicked demons and spirits and devils have received the glory in these services. God help us. We'll face an attack for dealing with what we're dealing with right now. There'll be an attack on us physically, mentally, spiritually, financially. The devil will get mad about you dealing with the stuff you're dealing with. But it's time we deal with it. It's for the glory of God! It's for the glory of God! It's time you deal with your sins for the glory of God! While we're on them devils and the Spirit of God is enabling me to preach there, I'm going to stay there for just a moment. But those devils are the ones who control the fights and spats between the husbands and wives. Those devils are the ones that plant the seeds of doubt in your mind. Those devils are the ones who plant the deceit in your mind. Those devils are the ones that teach you how to sneak behind and get around to do what you want to do. I've seen people set a course watching someone else and know where they're heading and set a course to go after them so they can just bump into them at the right time in the right place in the church so that they can greet them with a smile. That's a stinking devil in your heart that builds that up. That's a devil that's controlling you. Are you listening to me? That's a devil that controls you and sets it in your wicked mind what to say and how to joke and how to be in the right place at the right time so that you can interact in some wicked deed! Those are devils. It's devils that cause you to fight against preaching. It's devils that cause you to fight against authority. I heard a man not too long ago that stood up against a pastor. And he stood up in such a way and went out and made mockery of him in the community. And he went out and he mocked him and got people out of church. And he came by and he talked bad about him. And he rose up and touched the man of God. Not too many days later, he's laying in the hospital. And he's sick and afflicted. And someone comes and they say, Why don't we have prayer for him? I looked at my wife and said, I'm not praying for him. God's got His hand against that man for what he's done. Devils have come up in his heart. And God's dealing with him about what he's doing. How he's running his mouth. I'm not praying for you when you don't tithe. I'm not praying for you when you run your mouth. I'm not praying for you when you let demons control you. I'm praying God get glory. God get glory. God get glory. And I'm letting God deal with you the way He needs to. One thing as a parent, I never have been able to understand or appreciate is me correcting one of my children and somebody coming up to me and telling me how I should deal with my own child. And the one thing I'm not fixing to do is to go up in the house, in the throne room of a holy righteous God and tell Him how He ought to deal with you. Judgment has been laid off for too long. People don't fear God. People can rise up, go home and talk bad about God and about the preacher and about the service. And they can run their mouths and there's no judgment against them. And everything's good. Matter of fact, they can quit church, cause trouble, run to another church, get in there and get a raise. Everything's good. They get a raise. They get a job promotion. Everything's still good. They can stir up trouble in that church, go to another place. Everything's still good. But see, I thought for a long time, I looked at God and I said, God, why don't you judge them? Why don't you judge them? Why don't you judge them? Because if you don't judge them, they're not ever going to be shook up. And God said, because you and your preacher buddies won't get up in the pulpit and preach on it. You may think, what in the world is he talking about? But there's probably somebody here tonight who's thinking, he's talking about me. And you're right. Daniel Nash is a guy who I respect greatly. He's a man in heaven now. He was a prayer warrior. He was a preacher, actually a pastor, and he went through some eye disease and infection in his eyes. And the doctors put him in darkness back in those days and didn't have medications that they knew how to deal with whatever he had. And so they just told him because the eyes hurt him so bad in daylight that he should go into two weeks of darkness. So he rented a cellar facility from a neighbor's house to make his residence, and he stayed there in the cellar house. And while he was there, he says during that time period, he learned to talk to God in a way that he never had been able to talk in fellowship with Him before. He'd become a prayer warrior. Anybody ever heard of that term prayer warrior? An old term we don't talk about either because nobody prays anymore. Just thought I'd throw that out. It's another one of them free commercials. Now back to regular program. Daniel Nash is praying and he gets to praying and he visits a service where a man named Charles Finney was preaching. And God put it upon his heart while he's in that service, and God says to Nash, He says, you're going to become Charles Finney's prayer warrior. You're going to pray for him. That's your ministry. I'm giving you a ministry to pray for that man of God. He left his place of pastorate and his ministry and he began to go around with Charles Finney and began to pray for him in his meetings. God began to move so great in the services. Daniel Nash, they would decide on a place. Charles Finney would be praying and Charles would say, We're going over such and such place to start a revival meeting. Daniel Nash, just about two weeks before the revival meeting would start, would go to that place and get down on his knees somewhere there in a room, boarding house or whatever, and find a place and begin to pray. He fasted and prayed so many times to a time and place where he had stayed on his knees in a fetal position, face down on his knees on the floor. He had stayed there so long, so many times, his body to lock up down there, and he would stay in prayer for so many days and weeks that when they would find it, he wasn't responsive, wouldn't come to the door. They would come in and find him exhausted and locked up down on the floor. Men have gathered him up out of the floor and laid his frozen, locked up body down on the bed and the doctor nurtured him back to health and then he'd go back to praying again. Imagine a man that prayed that much. I want to visit this grave up in New York sometime and stand there. I just want to see it. He was called the Prince of Prayer. Most people in Charles Finney's meetings never knew he existed. He just prayed for the meetings. Charles Finney was a guy who was never greatly used and wasn't really attractive and really couldn't draw a good crowd, but when God started using him, putting His hand upon him, people were coming, hundreds and thousands of people were coming and attending the services and thousands and thousands were being converted everywhere that he had meetings, every place that he went, souls were being saved, lives were being changed. And Daniel Nash was on his knees praying for him during those meetings. Daniel Nash went to a town one time. Nobody knew he was there. He'd never announced it. Walked up to a boarding house, rented a room facility and went into the room, locked himself in the door and began to pray. And the devils of hell got so mad, they stirred up drunks in the bar and they didn't even know why because they didn't know who Daniel Nash was, but they knew that prayers were going up and those spirits got in those men so wicked and so bad, they would stand outside Daniel Nash's room and fire off shotguns and break bottles and throw rocks against the side of the house, those devils hoping to interrupt the prayers of Daniel Nash. True story. Daniel Nash very seldom attended the meetings, but one day in the meetings, he came in and he sat down in the service and he sat off to the side because no one even knew who he was. In the service there were, I want to say it was four, it was maybe four or five men that sat in the service that were just full of hatred and full of the devil and despised the preaching and they began to interact with the preacher and to talk back to him in an ugly way and to interrupt the service and to interrupt what God was doing. And they were just disruptive and laughing and joking and mocking. And Daniel Nash stood up from the front of the building and turned and rebuked them and told them that God was going to save them or kill them in seven days. If memory serves me correct, in seven days, four of them were dead and three of them were saved. Charles Finney broke down in tears and looked at Daniel Nash and he said, Oh, I wish you had not done that. Because now you've put God in a bad position. God's going to have to move. And do something. Are you listening to what I'm saying? Our problem in a sense is like this. We don't want God to judge because it's going to make everybody look bad. We want an easy religion and a slight religion that don't really hurt people and don't rub anybody the wrong way. And so we have mockers in our own homes that laugh and joke against the words of God. And there's not enough power and glory of God in our lives and in our relationship to even get on our knees. I dare say there's not one of us in here tonight that could bow a knee and say, God, take vengeance upon that man and that God would do something. Do you want to know the devils of hell are so mad and furious about that right now that we would even danger to do that? That we would try to even attempt to do such a thing? That He's got in the hearts of men and women and He's begun to manipulate your minds and make it look as if you would be out of the will of God if you were ever mean-spirited like that. But yet the judgment of God is so few and far between and so confused with so many other things that are going on that there's no fear of God. You know what we have a fear of? Getting caught. You listening? I hope my wife don't find out. I hope Daddy and Mommy don't find out. I got Mama. Mama's on my side, but I hope Daddy don't find out. I hope the preacher don't find out. It's so foolish. Nobody even thinks about whether or not God finds out. Solomon said, remember again that Solomon is the product of the sin that we're talking about in 2 Samuel chapter 12. Solomon was the second baby that came from Bathsheba. The first one died. Solomon was the second. And Solomon became the king after David's death. And remember that Solomon pinned down. Can you imagine Solomon? He's the smart man, wisest man that ever lived according to the Scripture. Can you imagine that as his pen fell on paper and he began to write the proverb, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. Brother Putney, don't you think Solomon probably thought of Daddy and Mama when he penned those words? No fear! We're taking our bows, stretching back, and thrusting our arrows into the glory of God and assaulting God with every deed that we commit against His name. He leads us in the path of righteousness for His namesake. Let's continue. I only have a couple more pages of verses I want to give you. Psalm 2511 For thy namesake, O Lord, pardon my iniquities, for it is great. Psalm 30, verse 3, For thy namesake, lead me and guide me. Psalm 79, 9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy namesake. Psalm 106, verse 8 Nevertheless, He saved them for His namesake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. Psalm 143, verse 11 Quicken me, O Lord, for thy namesake. For thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble. Ezekiel chapter 20 Ezekiel had a phrase he liked. He used it four different times. In chapter 20, verse 9, he quoted the Lord as saying, I wrought for my namesake. In chapter 20, verse 14, the Lord said, But I wrought for my namesake. Chapter 20, verse 22 And wrought for my namesake. Ezekiel 20, verse 44 When I have wrought for you for my namesake. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 22 I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy namesake. Does anybody get the idea? You say, well, I don't care what people think. But hold on a minute. God does. God cares about His name. In the days of our grandfathers, the name was about all a man had. Some of you can remember those days. Some of you probably grew up during those days when a man only had his word. Huh? Now a man's name is trash. Men don't stand good on their debts. Men don't take care of their family. What do you all get quiet for? I haven't been preaching that long. An hour and 15 minutes. Dry up on me now. You haven't heard the rest of the story. A man's name is dirt these days. Christian people used to be able to say, well, hey, I'm a church member down there at such and such church. And that used to be a good thing. Now they think, oh man, if he says he's a church member, he is sure enough a crook. I remember when I was young, my dad was a preacher. He went to the bank, tried to do some business and sat and talked to the president of the bank back when there used to be one to talk to. And he's sitting around in the bank. He's talking to the president. I was sitting there beside him and Dad's trying to talk to him about some business. And he said, he said, just want to borrow some money on 90 days. He said, we've got some things to take care of. And he said, I've got some work going on. But he said, I just need some money for 90 days. He wrote down his profession and all the things he was doing. He wrote on there that he was a pastor of and he named the church. And then he said that his second business was he was a painter. And the man stopped, looked across the table at him and said, Mr. McDarris, he said, I'm going to be honest with you. I was told when I started this business, he's turning that paper and sliding it back across the table. Never trust preachers or painters. And he said, you're out on both ends. Have a good day. Names matter. Names matter. And the name that matters the most is the great name of our God. As a matter of fact, he said it's so important to him that one day, ever knees shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and ever tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory, what about that, of God the Father. Christ said with His own mouth, everything I do, I do for the glory of my Father. Now, I want to ask you a question I've tried to throw out to you several times through the message. And just bear with me here one more time while I make our closing here and our arguments for invitation. The deeds that you are doing, the deeds that you're committing, the things that you're doing, either exalt the name of God or they trash the name of God. There's no neutral ground. You're either doing something that's exalting the name of God or you're doing something that's trashing the name of God. You say, you know, I preach along these lines about everywhere I go. This is my method of preaching. We had some visitors in the service one night and ladies in the service and they all had long-sleeved dresses on, real high collars, and all of them had their hair in a bee's nest up on the back of their heads. You know what I'm talking about? I don't know what you call it. I'm not trying to be ugly. Well, I had an aunt that looked like she always had a beehive on the back of her head. I didn't tell them how long her hair was. It was just up there. And here they approached me after the service and I go and change my coat because I sweat so much in laboring of preaching and I change real quick to put a coat on to keep my body heated until it can cool down naturally. I try to return to the front of the church or somewhere where I can be available in case people need to talk to me or pray or comment in some way. And so I was sitting there in the service and I changed my coat and I was sitting there and I made myself available and here they come approaching me and they were coming with such a stern look. Oh, it scared me in a way. I hadn't seen that stern look since I'd crushed Mama as a child. And it all put the fear of God in me because I thought this could go either way. This could be a bad thing or this great Sanhedrin is fixing to kill me. I didn't know which way it was going to go and so I just kind of started and looked up in there and I saw them coming at me and this spokesperson must have been the grandmother of the situation. She was in front and she boldly walked up to me and had her thick family Bible wrapped up in her arm and she looked at me and said, I perceive that you're a holiness preacher. I said, yes, ma'am! It's the only way I could see this going good. Amen. Just agree with her. I am a holiness preacher. I'm not talking about denomination. I'm talking about holiness before a holy God. I know you don't like it because nobody's told you in a long time that you live trashy and wicked and you ought to get right with God. I ain't talking about how tight your neck collar is and how straight your tie is. I'm talking about your stinking, dirty heart that needs to get right before a holy God. Somebody should have told you a long time ago. To your shame, I'm telling your children and they're looking at you thinking, why in the world is Daddy and Mama living like that? And you'll go home and try to tell them you're right and I'm wrong, but I used the Bible and you didn't. You look at your life's deeds. You examine yourself. The deeds that you're committing. Are they exalting the name of God? Or are they destroying it? And let me speak something in the sense of a rebuke. Having a bus ministry does not make us holy. I don't want anybody to make a foolish mistake of coming up here and bowing in front of God and telling Him how good we are and telling Him about all of our ministries because that's all junk if our hearts are dirty. So I want you to just get past that real quick. I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to help you as a friend. Not invitation time. Nobody's praying right now I don't think. But just between us right here, I'm just trying to help you. Don't be stupid. And come bowing up here saying, well, you know God that I work on the bus ministry and we're bringing in so many hundred kids and we're seeing people saved every week. And I work in the prison ministry and I work in the Sunday school department and I work in the Christian school because all of your righteousness is filthy rags and they're going to mount a hill of beans if you're trash in the name of God. Do you think God ever listened to David come into His presence and say, well, God, I am the King. Oh, no, friend. There's only one King. Just be right in your judgment when you look at yourself. We dealt with everything last night. If I thought I believed that for half a minute, I'd be eager to move on to something else. But I don't pick these sermons. I just preach them. So, I just want you to listen. We're living in the dirt line instead of the skyline. We're making choices and decisions. Again, I want to say, there's people, men, women, boys and girls in this room have done the same thing David's done, climbed up on the pinnacle of their high roof, gazed upon the things that the world has to offer, and have reached forth their hands to take it to themselves against the holy, righteous God. If God is ever to come and move again, He'll come in judgment. And this is His words to the people. Judgment begins in the house of the Lord. Judgment starts here. You want to look and say, well, preacher, why don't God go out there and knock the breath out of some of them sinners? Because He can't until first He knocks the breath out of some of us saints. Last night I asked you a question. Are you willing to pay the price of confession? Losing your pride to admit you're wrong? Sure, we're saved by the grace of God. The only good thing about us is His righteousness. Not our own. I know that. But looking at us as Christians, we've dirtied ourselves. We've mucked ourselves up in mud. We're covered in trash and sin. And it's no wonder God doesn't move upon us. We want God to start a revival in us. But He won't start a revival in us while we live in the way that we are. Are you willing to pay the price of confession? Are you willing to pay the price of chastity? Judge yourself this moment as we enter into this invitation. The deeds that you're committing. And if God be so speaking to you, some of you probably hear His voice as He's used this man of God with His long pointed finger to say to us, these deeds that you've committed have caused great occasion for men to hate our Lord. Shame on us. Heads bowed. Minds closed.