In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of forgetting oneself, fighting against one's sinful nature, and forsaking sin in order to live a successful and victorious life as a child of God. The speaker emphasizes the need to be filled with the Spirit and to rely on Jesus, as without Him, we can do nothing. The sermon also warns against following men or movements, but rather encourages listeners to follow their Savior. The speaker emphasizes the need to fight against the flesh and die to self daily, using biblical references to support these principles.

Also, they'll have to leave tomorrow, but Brother Dwight played the accordion a few moments ago. I hope that you'll get to meet him. Some of you, I'm sure, know him. He's been here on a couple of occasions. Wonderful, wonderful friend. We've not got to see each other over a year. And they were in New Hope, Minnesota, this past week. And my wife and I flew back in. We were in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. She went to Texas for a few days. I went to a Bible conference in Alabama. And we met back, and he said, hey, let's meet together at Crackle Barrel. And I said, all right, Baptist preacher never passes up Crackle Barrel. I said, so let's meet there. And they said, listen, we're going to Duluth. And I said, why don't you come with us to Chittag? Just one night, why don't you come to Chittag and come to the service? And so I appreciate him and his dear wife coming. And I hope that you'll get to know them as well. Colossians, chapter number 3, and verse number 1. The Bible says, if you didn't be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affectional things above, not all things of the earth, for ye are dead. Verse number 3, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Now look at Romans, chapter 6, and verse number 1, would you? Romans, chapter 6, and verse number 1, where the Apostle Paul says what? Shall we continue in sin? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Listen to his answer, God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And I want to bring you a simple message entitled, Why Don't You Just Drop Dead? Thank you very much, you may be seated. Let's bow our heads and hearts and have a word of prayer, shall we? Now Father, I pray that you would help this congregation as they listen to the Bible at this time. And I pray that you would help me as your servant for the hour to preach the wonderful, wonderful word of God. Lord, no doubt the devil would love to do nothing more than to interfere and distract and hinder our hearts tonight from hearing the Bible preaching. So I pray, Lord, that you would bind him through the blood of Jesus Christ. And I pray the word of God would go forth as a great fire and as a great hammer. And Lord, we thank you for the promise that your word will not return void. Lord, we're here just kind of preparing for what we're going to be doing all summer. So Lord, work in our hearts this week and give us the revival as your staff people for this camp that we so desperately need, in Jesus' name, amen. You won't be saved very long before you realize that Christians have a lot of battles they have to face. I mean, we've got a lot of desperately wicked, ungodly enemies in the Christian life. For example, the Bible says in the book of James, chapter 4 and verse number 4, speaking spiritually, "...ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, is a friend of the world is the enemy of God." I'll tell you what I like about the Lord. When he preaches, he does not beat around the mulberry bush. He just beats the cotton-picking mulberry bush to death. God said, if you're my friend, you're the world's enemy. And God said, if you're the world's friend, you're my enemy. And that's just about as plain as anybody can put it. He went on to say in 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15 through 17, "...love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of light, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passed away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abided forever." Can I ask you a real pointed question? Why would you want to live for something that the Bible says one day is going to pass away? And so one of the greatest enemies, not the greatest, but one of the greatest enemies, no doubt, that we have as children of God and Bible believers is the world, which the Bible says we are supposed to be separated from. But there's also a great enemy, and who we'll call the devil. The Bible says in John, chapter 8, in verse number 44, "...Year of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father he will do." He didn't say you'd think about it. For an unregenerate lost man, it's just natural for him to be in sin and to do the will of the devil. So he said, "...Year of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father he will do." He was a murderer from the beginning in the boat not of the truth. Why? Because there is no truth in it. When he's speaking the lie, he's speaking of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse number 4, "...In whom the God," by the way, that's a little g, not Jehovah God, not Jesus Christ, but the God of this world, the devil, "...In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." And then, of course, one of the pet verses, if you will, on the devil is 1 Peter, chapter 5, in verse number 8, where the Bible says, "...Be sober." Not speaking physically, if you will, but spiritually, "...Be sober, be vigilant." Why? Because your adversary, adversary of God, adversary of man, your adversary of the devil, "...As a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." And no doubt, as Bible believers, we have a desperate, desperate enemy in the world. We have a desperately wicked enemy in the devil, but the greatest enemy that we have, no doubt, is sitting in the pew with us tonight, and before you tap your buddy, I'm talking about you. It is your wicked, godless, unregenerate flesh, because although you've been saved by the grace of God, you've got a flesh that still struggles with godlessness. You've got a flesh that still struggles with sin, and I'm sorry to tell you, dear friend, you're going to have that flesh till the day you drop it and kick up glory dust in the skies. Now, I believe, you believe what you want to, but I believe that God wants His people to be victorious. We sing songs like Victory in Jesus, like we don't know what Victory in Jesus is all about. I think God wants us to be happy. I think God wants us to be biblically and scripturally excited, or else Nehemiah would not have said in Nehemiah 18, "...Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." And I go to a lot of churches, and people come to church, and they're all down to the mouth, and it looks like they've been sucking on lemons and pot-sour persimmons, and God died last week, and He can't pay their bills. But Malachi 3.6 says, "...I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob shall not be consumed." So, I believe that we serve a God that wants us to be excited and wants us to be victorious. I'll go even farther since I'm preaching here this week and say this. I believe God wants you to be godly, soul-winning, souled-out, separated, staffed person this year and this summer at this camp to lead boys and girls to Christ, have a victorious testimony, if you will, and have a domineering effect upon these children. You are not here to impress them. You are here to impact them. And in the Word of God tonight, we are going to deal with five very simple principles that, without a doubt, will make you a very successful, not only Christian, but will make you a very successful counselor and staff member this week. Number one, I want you to write it down. Somebody once said that a short pencil is better than a long-term memory. First of all, the first successful principle, if you will, of life in this issue of dying to self is, number one, very simply, you're going to have to forget yourself. Now, tonight, I hope you're not looking for anything deep. I hope you're not looking for anything grandiose and greatly educational or theological. It's going to be biblical, but it is not going to be deep. It's going to be very simple, all right? I'm from Tennessee. I'm simple-minded. So you've got some simple-minded preachers coming to you tonight, all right? So, number one, you have to forget yourself. Now, regardless if it's fundamentalism or not, as I travel as an evangelist, and Brother DeWine, and I'm sure Brother Duffy is an evangelist, knows this. You start getting up in churches and pulpits and telling people to forget themselves and, friend, they'll throw you out on their ear. I mean, we are living in a day when everybody says, Me, me, me, and they want to serve themselves and they want to pamper themselves. But can I remind you what Job said? Job said that he sat down in sackcloth and ashes. He shaved his head like a marine and said, I abhor myself. Can I tell you a spiritual principle? The closer you get to God, the less you're going to think about yourself. And the world and the sociologists and the humanists and the social gospelists, if you will, and these psychologists and all these counselors on the radio and TV, they say pamper yourself and love yourself and do more for yourself. Friend, I don't need to pamper my flesh anymore. It is already wicked. It is already ungodly, and I need to forget about me. I remember when I first got saved by the grace of God, somebody came to me and they said, Greg, did you know that you have the little adage, joy, Jesus, others, and you? And did you notice where the you was? That's right. You were at the bottom of the totem pole, and if you want real joy, bless God, that's where you better stay. I think we ought to have God first. Matthew 6, 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things, daily needs and daily provisions of life, all these things shall be added unto you, and then after we are servants of Christ, we are servants of other people. So number one, forget yourself, but number two, here's the big one, you're going to have to fight yourself. Somebody says, well, I've saved a lot. I'm just not a very violent person. That's fine. You say, well, I just don't like blood and gore and guts on TV and on Hollywood, and neither do I, but I'm going to tell you something. If you're saved by the grace of God and you are going to do anything for God this summer or for the rest of your life, you're going to have to pull out the big guns, you're going to have to pull out the big swords, you're going to have to pull out the big knives, and you're going to have to fight, fight, fight your wicked, godless flesh. And do you know why most people are dominated and dictated by their flesh? Because they give in on the fight. Because they're not willing to fight. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 31, I die daily. Paul said, listen, when I wake up, when my bare feet hit the floor, I look my face square dab in the eyeballs and say, Paul, sorry to tell you something, son, you're going to have to drop dead today. You're not going to be dictated and dominated by Paul. You're going to be dictated and dominated by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God. And you are going to have to fight your flesh for the rest of your life. Now, here's just a real simple version, a real illustration. It's not even really that spiritual. Think about something for a moment. Most of you have jobs, and if you go to a Bible college, usually if you're not married, you know, you just kind of have a job that you're just loaded down with. You have schoolwork that you're loaded down with. You have classes, let's say, as I did at Ambassador, about 7 o'clock in the morning. You work late, you get in, and all of a sudden you set the alarm clock so you can have devotions and get some breakfast, and so you can get up and take a bath and get ready and wash clothes and all that kind of stuff, and so the alarm clock goes off about probably about 5.30. And so at 5.30 in the morning, you hear, and, and, and, and so you wake over, and instead of rolling over to bed and say, Oh, glory to God, I'm ready to pray for every missionary around the world. I'm ready to read Psalm 150, I'm ready to read all 150 chapters of the Book of Psalms. I'm ready to give all my money away to Almighty God, and I'm ready to get on the phone and witness to every lost family member I got. If you wake up that way every morning, I need to know what kind of Prozac you're on, because I don't, all right? But here's usually what you do. At 5.30 in the morning when it goes, and, and, you usually hit S-N-O-O-Z-E, snooze, because that's what you want to do. You want to go back to bed. And so you hit the snooze button, and five minutes later, and, and, and, it goes off again. So what do you do? You wake up? No, you reach over and hit the snooze button again, because you want to stay in bed, and your flesh says stay in bed, but you know you've got to get up. And I thank God one day when I get to heaven, Brother Dallas, there'll be no and, and, and in the Kingdom of God, all right? And so that's a real, just kind of a secular illustration of how you're going to have to fight your flesh. But spiritually, it's much deeper than that. Spiritually, it's much more domineering than that, if you will, because your flesh does not want you to be a victorious Christian. Your flesh wants to dominate you. It wants to dictate you. And you say, well, can I remind you, Brother Locke, that I am from a Christian Bible college, and I'm working at a Christian camp, and I can remind you that you've got the same flesh that anybody else across the face of God's earth does. And there's been many more that are much more godly and much more wonderful than you and I and the work of the Lord that have fallen because they did not fight their flesh. When my brother and I were younger, we lived on a farm that was run by a fellow. He probably lived, I don't know, he probably lived to be about 110 years old. He just recently died, I guess. You know, my brother was telling me about it. He's about 95 years old, and we knew him. His name was Mr. Hughley. He gave us the rights to a farm, and our farm was across the street from his farm, and we had a great big old three-story barn, and we had a little, a little kind of like a, I don't know, a big strawberry grove or something like that, and we had a sinkhole, and somebody says, what is a sinkhole? Well, if you don't know what a sinkhole is, they're really interesting. You just kind of put your trash in. You go back two weeks or two days, depending on how long it's been in there. You go back a couple of weeks later, and the trash is gone. Where it goes, I don't know. That's why they call it a sinkhole, but my brother told me, you keep running your mouth, son, I'll tie you up and gag you like a cow, and I'll throw you in there, and you'll be gone in two or three days as well. And so I had a brother that didn't love me too much. But anyhow, we had a big, big pond that was connected by a little stream that went to another pond. And my brother and I took it upon ourselves that we were going to take a little BB gun and go out and collect snake skins. Now, before you ladies turn me off and don't take any more notes, all right? I'm not a big snake lover, okay? And probably most of you, some of you nutty girls, you might like snakes, and you like the snake handling and all that kind of stuff, all right? I don't care for snakes, but I'd much rather have a snake than a spider. There's five kind of spiders I hate. Big ones, little ones, dead ones, live ones, rubber ones. I hate the suckers. They scare me to death. I don't like black ones. I don't like green ones. I don't like poisonous ones, non-poisonous ones. I can't stand a spider. I made that statement not too long ago in a church, and I got in the pulpit the next night, and they had a great big old rubber spider right up there in the pulpit. I canceled the meeting. Just kidding. But anyhow, I just can't stand them. They scare me to death. They get on my nerves, and I get to eebie-jeebies whenever I start thinking about spiders, all right? But snakes don't bother me. And so we would collect these snake skins, and we'd get some three or four foot long, longest one we ever got, probably five or six feet, something like that. And we would find them, and it was interesting to me that when you find a snake skin very rarely, if ever, will you find a segment of a snake skin, another segment of a snake skin, usually you find it either in half or you find it all intact. When I was studying for this message a couple of months ago, I began to do a little bit of a study about the life of a snake. Do you know why the snake has to shed its skin? Because the flesh of a snake does not grow at all. It is dead, if you will. And so inside of that snake's body, depending on the science, he goes out and eats a bird. He eats a rat. He eats a pig. He eats a dog. Thank God if he eats all the cats in America. But anyhow, he comes back, and the nutrients, the nutrients inside of that snake's body, it says, grow, grow, grow. And his flesh says, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere. And so the snake says, well, I know how to fix you. And so he finds himself a rock. He finds himself a big thing, a little thicket of sticks. He finds himself a little hole that's probably maybe half an inch to an inch smaller than him so he can get inside there. And he begins to work. And every muscle in that snake's body is for one purpose, to contort itself and to contrict itself. And from the back to the front to the middle to the back, he is working and working and grunting and moving for one purpose, that he may be bigger than he's ever been before, but he can't grow because he's got a flesh. He can't grow until he first learns to drop the flesh. And so he works and he sweats and he groans and he pushes and he slithers until finally he gets the flesh dropped so he can get bigger. And may I remind you that Peter said in 2 Peter 3, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and this flesh wants to inhibit you from growing. It wants to stop you. It wants to slow you down. And until you learn spiritually to drop the flesh, you will never grow, grow, grow like God wants you to do because your flesh says, no way, Jose. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to tell you tonight, you are going to have to learn to fight. Can I just give you something by way of green stamps? Guess where... This is kind of interesting. Guess where the snake begins to shed its flesh, Brother Duffy. I began to read and I thought to myself, well, maybe he kind of starts from the tail end up, you know what I mean? Maybe he kind of starts and then he kind of cuts himself in half and goes this way and then cuts himself in half and goes this way and I was just kind of interested, where does he start? And did you know that 99.99.9% of the time, do you know where a snake starts shedding his flesh? His limbs. Because he knows if he can get the flesh off of his limbs, it won't be any problem to pull it off the rest of his body. Now, can I remind you that most of our problems as God's people are mouth problems, talking about things and saying things we have no business talking about. You know how many I know your tongue is so wicked tonight because God put it behind some iron bars called teeth to keep that thing in your throat so it wouldn't jump out and hurt somebody. Can I remind you what James said? He said your tongue is a wall of fire. He said it's wicked and he said it's vile and without the help of the Spirit of God, no man can tame the tongue. It says in Ephesians 4 in verse number 29, let no, not a, not one, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which edify it, the Bible says, or we're supposed to speak to the edification of other people. Can I remind you your tongue is for two things and two things only? It's for the glory of God and for the good of man. And many times we're gossiping and we're slandering and buddy, we carry a King James Bible around and we wear the right clothes and we look the part and talk the part and sing the part and act the part but we get on the telephone and we got a tongue from here to the interstate and we talk about this person and we slay this person and we say, hey, do you hear about her? Do you hear about him? And we talk about things that we have no business talking about and I believe if we can get our tongue under control, my dear friend, it will take care of just about the rest of this godless flesh that we've got. But can I remind you that once it begins to come off his lips, where logically and naturally is it going to come off? It's going to come off of his eyes. If you've ever watched a National Geographic program, I kind of get into those programs. I like National Geographic. I like Unsolved Mysteries. I don't know which one I like better but I like them both, alright? But if you watch National Geographic and you watch a snake shit his flesh, he's just like a shark when he's eating. He kind of closes his eyes and gets these little lid looking things and the flesh just comes right across the top of his eyes and David said in Psalm 101, verse number 3, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside and shall not cleave to me, says God. You know why most of us get in such a bind with our flesh? It's because of what we look at. It is what goes into our eyes that burns in the back of our head, if you will, like some kind of computer chip, some type of plate and we never forget it. We can do all of the praying we want to and most of the time when we are praying it's when the devil will bring that back and you will never forget what goes into your eyes. Every week this year except one. Every week so far this year except one. I have heard about people, whether they be deacons, whether they be laymen, whether they be people in the ministry, not of the ministry and yes, many of them even preachers, I have heard every week but one and that's when I was at the Enocho Baptist Church just a few weeks ago and the reason I didn't hear it there is because it was a little church. Every week people that fall through internet pornography. Now, can I remind you more than likely you're not going to set up a big conference table in your room, I know that and you're not going to have all your laptop equipment and your printers and your HP and all this kind of stuff but can I remind you that if I could jump on your laptop mister or if I could go to your little PC in your house it wouldn't take me but about 15 minutes to see every hit you've ever made on the internet and by the way, if I can't see it can I remind you what number 2333 says be sure your sin will find you out. They have a little thing that they call GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out and the reason sometimes we can't control our wicked godless flesh is because we're looking and we are feasting upon the wrong things and by the way, it's not just fellas nowadays that you have to preach about on pornography. I mean, we sit on TV and people look at junk on the internet and magazines and movies and all kind of stuff they ought not be putting in their eyes and I'm telling you ladies and gentlemen you will never get your flesh under control until you tell it to die. Somebody says, well I'll tell you what Brother Locke, if I could just one time if I could just one time involve myself in sin I would be satisfied and if you believe that you ought to sue your brain for non-support. You give your flesh an inch it will take a mile every single time. You can't tell your flesh here, have a little here. You can't pamper your flesh because the more you pamper it the more it whines to be pampered. The more you buy it the bigger of an appetite that it gets. Let's say just for a moment that we came here tonight and everybody was starving to death. I mean they hadn't fed you. I mean you've not had anything to eat in two or three weeks and if I brought a pepperoni pizza up here and put some of that cheese on your forehead your tongue would beat your brain slap out to get to it. I mean you were starving to death. And so let's say that I brought a bunch of Papa John's pizzas. I figure Papa John's everywhere, alright. And so I bring a bunch of Papa John's pizza up here and I just lay them jokers all out across this platform and we move the pulpit out of the way and I mean there's pizza after pizza after pizza after pizza. And so I give you a great big old glass of water and you guzzle it down and say man I was thirsty but I sure am more hungry I gotta have something to eat. And so I give everybody a plate and a napkin and people start coming by and they start grabbing the pizza and they say whoa wait just a minute. You get one pepperoni the first time and two pepperonis the second time. That's it. Not a whole slice just pull the pepperoni out. You have to put a slice back. One pepperoni that's it. So you put a pepperoni in your plate and you walk back and sit down. You say you would be so ignorant to do something so silly because all you're going to be doing is feeding my appetite that that one pepperoni is going to make me want the whole pizza. Exactly. And that one time you give into your godless flesh is going to make your flesh want more more more until you destroy your spiritual life and that brings me to my third point. Number one you're going to have to forget yourself. Forget all about you. Start thinking about him and start thinking about others. By the way you are not here this summer for you you are here for the children. You are here to help people not to hurt people. And so number one forget yourself. Number two fight yourself. But number three you're going to have to forsake your sin. I don't know why we have this idea many times that just because we're saved we can live any jolly way we please. Hey, that's not New Testament Christianity. You see we have a problem. We are 1 John 1-9ers if you will. Now 1 John 1-9 is just as inspired and just as much as in the part of the inerrant Bible is John 3-16. And I thank God for 1 John 1-9. I've claimed it. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I thank God for it. But I think sometimes we come at a revival meeting or something like this and we run down 1 John 1-9 Oh dear God please forgive me. And you get off your knees and two weeks later you're right back in the same mess you ever were before you had that revival meeting. What was wrong? You confessed it but you didn't forsake it. I mean here you were on your face and more than likely you knew good and well in the back of your mind that you were going to go do it again. Hey friend that's not forsaking. That might be agreeing that it's wrong but that's not getting to the place where you say God I've offended you I'm hurting my testimony I'm hurting other people God please forgive me and confess it and leave it at the altar and forsake it and get it out of your life because that which you do not forsake will eventually be that which destroys your spiritual life. You know that? You know why we have such a high divorce rate in America? Seventy-five percent among what they call quote evangelical Christians because people do not know how to forsake their sin. They don't know how to forget themselves and they don't know how to fight their flesh and we have this idea that hey I'm a peripheral superman I'm a big spiritual man I'm a big spiritual lady and I can whoop sin and let me say no you cannot whoop sin. If sin is something so wicked and so vile that it can send you to hell before you get saved then don't you think for one moment that it won't destroy your spiritual life friend because it will. Sin has always become a ruiner and the Bible says when lust is conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. I received a letter in the mail probably I don't know about six months ago. I won't tell you the fellow's name but he lived close in the proximity of where Dwight and I went to school at Ambassador Baptist College and he wrote me a letter I'll call him Trent that's not his name. Trent wrote me a letter about six months ago I knew Trent when Trent was eighteen when actually he was seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen or so when I was in school and I found out that Trent was going to be getting married and he was going to be getting married to a young lady where I'd preached in a revival meeting in Mooresboro, North Carolina and this lady walked down and said she got saved but to be honest with you I think she did it to appease the preacher because her life never changed and she was crooked as a dog tying her leg and she was just kind of quote religious and so he kind of fell head over heels with her and said listen I got to marry this girl and he didn't ask me about it didn't have a whole lot of counsel about it as a matter of fact he left this other church another previous church so he could run out and marry this girl and so they got married found out after they were married she was several years older and he knew that I mean like ten or twelve years older than him something like that she'd been married eight times and four or five of her marriages were still in divorce court she wasn't even divorced for some of them and so he married this lady and she had two children and he did the best he could and I remember I was in a revival meeting in North Carolina and I remember I went to their house and man they fed me steak and I mean we had family devotions and they prayed with me and I mean we just we just had a time I mean it was good and it seemed like everything was going well and it seemed like their family was growing it seemed like she really was growing and man he was excited and I thought man he looks kind of weird here he is you know he's only nineteen years old he's married this twenty eight or twenty nine year old lady but I mean man he's been a good dad he's been a good husband man they were in the house of God almost every night they were construction workers but every night man they'd come into their grunge he's a little bit late for church but they'd come in to hear me preach they'd come to the altar together and pray and I thought man the Lord's really working in our hearts and I got this letter he said brother he said on the outside he said man we were all jolly well and we all looked real good he said but I'm just writing you to tell you to tell people across this country that I tried to beat the system but I guess I was wrong he said man he said my life's in a shambles he said I've been on all kinds of drugs and medication he said I've been to psycho wards and all this kind of stuff he said man we've got a divorce and he said right now he's twenty one years old he said man we've had a divorce and he said she hates my guts and man I don't want to be around her and my mom's having all kinds of problems with my dad and this that and the other he moved matter of fact to the state of Minnesota and I mean he was just in a mess and he said tell people all over this country for the life that I thought I could beat the system but I guess it was wrong and might I announce to you you'll be wrong too there's never been anybody that's been able to beat the system there's never been anybody that's been able to flirt around and mess around with sin and not get bitten in the end I read a story obviously not true but makes a good illustration and analogy for our message tonight an elderly gentleman was crawling up to the top of a mountain when he got there there was a rattlesnake to meet him he jumped back and kind of startled the rattlesnake said say mister I won't bite you he said I'll tell you what he said how about picking me up and wrapping me around your neck and taking me down to the bottom of this mountain he said cause you're crazy he said you're a snake and he said you're biting he said no I won't he said I'll make a deal with you he said you put me around your neck tomorrow morning he said cause it won't take you but a couple of hours to get down he said it might take me a couple of days and some old eagle or some old chicken hawk will pick me up feed me the little babies and so he said you pick me up put me around your shoulder he said I promise I won't bite you I won't so much as lick you I won't slither at you I won't rattle my tail we'll just have a good time of fellowship I'll tell you what it's like to be a snake you tell me what it's like to be a human and man that next morning he convinced him man they got up had eggs and bacon together man they walked down there he put him around his shoulder I mean they talked and walked all the way down there and finally the old gentleman said listen I really appreciate your friendship he said say mister I appreciate your friendship too boy you've been real kind to me he took him off and he laid him down they said their goodbyes the old man turned around the snake bit him right in the leg obviously being an older gentleman he could feel that venom shooting through his veins and he fell over and he was about to have a cardiac arrest and he reached out and grabbed that snake and with his last words he said why in the world did you lie to me he said you made a solemn vow that if I would pick you up and fellowship with you all the way down this mountain for a couple of hours he said you promised promised that you would not bite me and the snake said I sure did he said I made that vow he said I made that promise but can I remind you mister you knew exactly what I was before you ever picked me up to take me off the mountain and friend I'm going to tell you something it will bite you in the end every single time Proverbs chapter 28 verse number 13 Bible says he that covered his sin shall not prosper let's quote that part again alright listen very closely he that covered his sin shall not prosper that means any man woman boy and girl tall short fat skinny hair on their head or bald as a cue ball it makes no difference God said if you hide your sin you will not prosper but he said at the end of the verse who so confessed it there it is and forsaken on him should God have mercy there was a little boy and little girl sitting in a Sunday school room teacher came in and said hey boys and girls we're going to talk about a fancy word today called repentance does anybody know what repentance is and little boy shot up his hand in his Bible he said yes ma'am this man it means you're sorry for your sin little Susie jumped up and said no sorry Bob it means you're sorry enough to quit your sin and friends that's what real repentance is that's what real confession and real forsaking and tonight you better forsake your sin I don't know anything about it somebody else might not know anything about it but that doesn't make a jolly well difference whatsoever if God knows about it that's what counts and you will not prosper this summer you will not prosper in any relationship and you will not prosper in your relationship to God if I regard iniquity my heart the Lord will not hear me Psalm 66 18 and tonight you need to forsake your sin I want you to take your Bibles please and turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 would you the book of Ephesians and chapter number 5 in Ephesians chapter 1 chapter 2 and chapter 3 the apostle Paul through the inspiration of the Spirit of God is uplifting the Lord Jesus Christ and he is speaking and preaching if you will about the church in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 and 12 we have the ministerial gifts which would be the evangelist the pastor the teacher and the foundational gifts of the Old Testament such as the prophets and this that and the other but in Ephesians chapter 5 he begins to talk about the blessedness and the victory of the Spirit-filled life would you please look at Ephesians chapter 5 a well-known verse verse number 18 he says and be not drunk with wine we're in a success now by the way that don't mean you can't be drunk with wine if it's not an success all right all drinking drunk we'll not deal with that tonight he says and be not drunk with wine we're in success but be filled with the Spirit now in my Bible there is not a period after the word spirit you know what that means that means the thought continues into the next verse here's an evidence you've been filled with the Spirit verse number 19 speaking to yourselves and songs and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody and your hearts to the Lord now if you're supposed to forget yourself if you're supposed to fight yourself if you're supposed to forsake your sin can you do that on your own no because number four you're going to have to be filled with the Spirit you are going to have to have some help not only this summer at camp but you're going to have to have some help for the rest of your life because Jesus said in John 15 5 for without me ye can do nothing and no doubt that doubly talks about the fact of fighting and forgetting and forsaking your sin because you cannot do that on your own now get the analogy would you you would be appalled tonight if a drunk man came in interrupted our service not because he came in because we would want to help him spiritually no doubt but let's say that he came down to the front row vomit all over his clothes great big old beard hanging down to his knees and I mean he came in with a big old fifth of liquor in his hand and he came walking down and he stunk to high heaven he was kind of staggering around and he laid down there man brother just make a vow amen I mean just acting a blooming fool and just laughing and carrying on and just kind of ridiculing everything we're doing tonight now would that not appalled you shake your head yes or no yes that would bother you and if it didn't bother you I think what in the wide world is wrong with you that would bother me as well I mean that how how irreverent for somebody to come to the house of God drunk somebody to come into this camp session tonight when we're preaching the Bible drunk but can I remind you that in the same verse in the same analogy God says don't you be drunk with wine but if you come to church if you come to chapel if you come to the Lord and you're not filled with the Spirit of God according to the same verse you're just as irreverent you're just as ungodly and you're just as wicked as the low down good for nothing crooked dirty vile bum that comes in with drink all the and God says hey don't you be dictated and dominated by some intoxicating outside substance he says but likewise you be dominated and dictated by the intoxicating substance if you will of the Spirit of Almighty God you see when a person drinks I wish I didn't have to tell you but before I got saved by the grace of God I know what it's like to wake up at four and three three or four o'clock in the morning with eyes rolling back in your head vomiting all over your clothes it's not a happy sight it's not a healthy thing but you know a person that's drunk you know why they always swerve off the road they talk about seeing pink elephants and purple water buffalos and all this kind of stuff they're crazy because that drink dominates their thinking that drink dominates where they go how they act and what they say and God says don't be drunk with wine he says but basically in the same verse if you get filled with the Spirit of God it will dominate your thinking it will dominate where you go and what you wear and how you act and what you listen to and what you say and what you sing he said be intoxicated or drunk if you will with the Spirit of Almighty God and it also says in this verse it literally means be ye being filled not a one time deal a lifetime deal now I've got all the Holy Spirit of God I'm ever going to get when I get saved I don't care what Benny Hinn says the rest of those crooks on TV I don't need more of the Holy Spirit of God and I don't need a second blessing and the first one I got saved by the grace of God I got all the blessing and all the Spirit of God I'm going to need the Spirit of God wants more of me he wants me to surrender myself he wants me to be a surrendered servant and Romans 12 1 and 2 Christian and I don't get more of that he gets more of him he gets more of me and he fills me on a continual basis and my testimony will show as to whether or not if I've been filled with God's Spirit or not one more place we need to go tonight John chapter 21 would you turn there please the gospel of John chapter number 21 my wife was talking to a lady not long ago in the Broadus Memorial Baptist Church in Concord North Carolina and I had her do the invitation take a lady in the back who was interested in being saved by the grace of God this lady after she got saved she said Mrs. Luck what do I do now she says what do I start reading I'll tell you what I love to see new converts new converts are interesting to me I mean you get a new convert and you strap him with a big red banner that says Jesus saves and tell him to jump out 25,000 feet from an airplane without a parachute and bounce for the glory of God most of them would do it I'll tell you who bothers me it's those people's been saved for three or four five ten fifteen twenty years and think that God the world the government everybody else owes him a favor but as a newborn believer in Christ I think the best place to start the gospel of John I mean twenty one chapters packed full of doctrine twenty one chapters packed full of the deity of Christ I mean just real simple I mean it starts basically with the Lord Jesus Christ and his deity and then goes in John chapter three and talks about Jesus and Nicodemus he must be born again it's a wonderful wonderful book a discipleship book now as you get to John chapter number 21 we meet up with a fellow that no doubt in the New Testament had a mouth that was shaped like a foot his name was Peter and he was all the time putting his foot in his mouth and Peter in chapter number 21 verse number 18 is speaking with Jesus and as he is speaking with Jesus Jesus begins to give him for lack of a better word some new revelation upon what's going to take place in his life he's saying Peter one day somebody is going to take you to a place you don't want to be around people you don't want to be with and kill you in a way that you do not wish to die whatsoever and so Jesus is giving Peter this speech this revelation and look what Peter says and look what Jesus says to him in verse number 18 barely barely or truly truly I say unto thee when thou was young thou girdest thyself and walkest wither thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not this make he signifying by what death he should glorify God and when he had spoken this he saith unto him now here's the command follow me then Peter turning about see the disciple whom Jesus loved following which also leaned on his breast itself speaking of the beloved John and said Lord which is he that betrayeth thee Peter seeing him sayeth to Jesus Lord and what shall this man do verse number 22 Jesus saith unto him if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee second time the command is given follow thou me number one you're going to have to forget yourself number two very simply you're going to have to fight yourself and I'm sorry to tell you you're going to have to do that for the rest of your life as a child of God number three if you're going to be successful and victorious and joyous and excited and happy you're going to have to forsake your sin you're going to have to do all of this with the filling of the Spirit so that you may simply follow your Savior I did not say follow a movement I did not say follow a man and no sir I did not say follow a Bible college I said you're going to have to follow your Savior you know why we've got so many people falling because their eyes are fixed on men and when the man falls so their faith crumbles and they look to this person and they look to this preacher and they look to this evangelist and this pastor and then they're looking and they're following them and they're listening to everything they say and when that person falls their faith crumbles but if you keep your eyes fixed on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the lovely Lord Jesus and do what Jesus told Peter two times in four verses follow thou me since he will never fall and he will never fail you he'll never leave you he'll never forsake you and the Bible says he's a friend that's thicker closer than a brother you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ and you will not be a discouraged and a defeated Christian but you'll be somebody that's victorious because you are following the Son of God everywhere that he leads you you have a simple humble submissive willing spirit to do what it is that God wants you to do we went to school with a fellow by the name of Kevin Byer I had a revival meeting scheduled with Kevin in September out in South Dakota and he called me the day and said brother Locke I'm going to have to cancel I said something I did something you heard something like that he said no he said the Lord's been working on my heart he said I'm going to Australia he said I've been trying to be submissive to the will of the Lord for some time now and he said God's been working on my heart there's a picture of a man that is willing to follow the Savior graduates from school goes out start a church man starts it from nothing I mean starts from bare bones now it's going gangbusters bandit ties are up the orphans are up the people are coming whoa God's working in Custer South Dakota but God says go to Australia and he says okay God that's what I'll do but you know what Peter's problem was Peter had what I call the people syndrome and I meet a lot of people in my travels that have it they look at other people and say you know what what about them hey preacher I would be more faithful to the house of God I wouldn't read my Bible more I'd do more writing that person did what's right and can I remind you the old Tennessee Negro spiritual it's me it's me it's me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer not my brother not my brother not my sister not my dog and my cat for that matter it is me oh Lord and so many times we look at other people other men and other ladies and we say what about them when God says listen don't you worry about their sin don't you worry about their devotional life you get your life fixed and you get your life straight and you follow thou me and we've got too many people worried about everybody else's sins when you should be dealing with your own listen I'm through let's say for a moment speculation preaching alright let's say that we're all part of this the animal kingdom and we kind of shrink ourselves down to the size of a bunch of little ants and so we're crawling around the ground and you say kind of nasty kind of is but just listen to me tonight alright and so we shrink ourselves down and we meet up one day with a caterpillar now there's only two things that I can think of that are good for a caterpillar brother Robinson only two number one the first thing that's good for a caterpillar is some bass do like them I don't know why bass would like one of them slimy nasty hairy antennae looking things with a thousand and fifteen legs on the bottom of their belly I don't know why but some bass do like them the only other thing I can think that's good for a caterpillar is to see him on a sidewalk step on him and watch the green juice shoot out alright amen and I'd much rather do B than I would A okay I like to watch the green juice shoot out because I'm not much of a fisherman but let's say we shrink ourselves down and we see Mr. Charlie the caterpillar one day he's climbing up a tree and Mr. Redneck Robin comes down and lands on him he's from Tennessee Mr. Redneck Robin comes down and lands on him and says hey Charlie where are you going he says well to be honest with you I'm just going to spend some time by myself and he says no wait a minute he says let me interpret that for you what you really mean to say is nobody likes you because you're an ugly hairy slimy looking ugly caterpillar and nobody wants to be around you nobody loves you obviously you can't get a date this that or the other and so you're just going to go spend some time by yourself because you're lonely and you're just kind of a person that just goes from place to place and he says listen you can interpret it any way you want to I'm just going to spend some time by myself and so he flies away well over the next couple of hours Scamp of the Squirrel and Alligator and Road of the Rabbit and just about everybody else in the whole animal kingdom knows that Charlie's so ugly and so nasty nobody wants to be around him and so all of a sudden Mr. Billy the Blue Jay comes down he flies down he sits down on a limb and he says be honest with me Charles he says it's the real reason you're going to spend some time by yourself it's just because you're ugly and nobody likes you and he says you're not going to believe this he says but if I tell you the real reason why I'm going to spend some time by myself you're going to drop your teeth and he says sure I don't have any anyhow I've got a beak and so he says listen he says I'm going to die you're going to what he says yeah I'm going to die he says that limb up there might take me a while to get there he said I'm going to crawl up the end of that limb and spin what's called a cocoon and he said I'm just going to die inside that cocoon he says okay and so they all watch him and buddy he goes out there and takes him a while he goes out to that edge of that limb he gets his little spinner going spins himself a cocoon and stays in there for about two months and from the inside out that caterpillar completely dies but there's something that's still alive inside of that little cocoon and after a couple of months all of a sudden Mr. Scamper's curl is running around he sees that thing start shaking and he sticks his little finger in his mouth and holds it up and says man it's not a very windy day it's kind of still out here I wonder there must be something moving in there and all of a sudden the bottom begins to come out and little threads start falling here and little fibers start falling here a little bit of crumbs and crust starts falling there and all of a sudden this little blob just comes falling out of there and everybody's looking and all these animals all around are thinking to themselves whoa what's going to happen here and right before it plummets to the ground it smashes itself and busts itself asunder on the sticks below it spreads its wings and no longer an ugly charlie caterpillar now it's a beautiful spotted butterfly and instead of ridiculing everybody says ooh ah look at charlie you know what the difference was? charlie would have never been everything that God fully intended for charlie to be until he first died. Learn to die. And can I please remind you that when you live a separated Christian life there are going to be people that do not understand you. There are going to be people that come up with all kinds of excuses. There are going to be people that come up with all kinds of rebellious remarks and ridiculing remarks that are going to bother you but you've got to get to the place in your Christian life. Matthew 10 38 when you take up your cross daily and follow him and you call out to the edge of the limb of life and you die to your ambitions and you die to your goals and you die to your pride and you die to what you want and you die from the inside out but there is something alive inside of you called the sweet precious holy spirit of God and one day you will mount up with wings as eagles the bible says in Isaiah 40 31 and instead of ridiculing people will look to you as a godly consistent faithful testimony but you will never be everything that God fully intended you to be until you first learn to drop dead spiritually. And I'll tell you what we need tonight. As we stand here we don't need a revival meeting. We need a funeral. We need some people that will say God I'm in a mess. I'm tired of playing games. Look I'm here to serve not to be served this summer and if you're going to have to have that type of kind of attitude you're going to have to be like the apostle Paul and die on a regular not a monthly not a weekly not a yearly but a daily basis and tonight you're going to have to drop dead if you are ever going to be what God fully intended you to be. Your heads are bowed your eyes are closed please there's no one looking and no one talking. I'm going to ask our instrumentalists to come if they would please thank you for listening so well tonight as we begin our services appreciate your kindness to me. Just in the quietness and solemnness of this moment why don't you just...