[0:00] Oh, I'll pull this thing off again. I'm always pulling these clamps off of these things. Anyway, guys, it is good to be saved. And, you know, what I always wonder about Christians is why do they see somebody in the world and be envious of them?
[0:15] What do they got? We have Jesus Christ, and that is good. I'm going to talk to you this morning about something as soon as I get this all connected. It's a viewpoint that we may not have.
[0:29] If we go to Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9, and there is a great truth here, and you have quoted it, I am sure.
[0:43] When you're witnessing to somebody, verse 27, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
[0:57] Let's bow our heads and let's talk to the Lord. Father, we thank you now, God, for your goodness and your grace and your very great kindness, God. You are, listen, just like we sang, God, that second stanza is all about you.
[1:08] You are the one that rescued our land. And as the pastor said, there was a time when in God is our trust. That was known here. And, Father, bless this church.
[1:19] I thank your people. Folks in churches like this one, they've not abandoned those things, but our country has. They've turned away from it. We pray, God, that the 4th of July would be more than just some fireworks and beer and whatever else it is, burgers to everybody around us.
[1:35] But, God, that we would think about our freedom. And we ask you for your mercy on our country. We may not be able to ask you to bless us, but we can certainly ask your mercy.
[1:47] As Moses did in Numbers chapter 14, when you said you were going to kill all of Israel, he asked you to pardon them. And you did. And they're still here today. So, God, you are the God.
[1:59] You said you delight in mercy. And you said in judgment, remember mercy. And so, God, please, remember mercy with our country and with all of our people. Have mercy on us, please, God, because you are such a good God.
[2:11] What a merciful God you are. So, be with us. Be with us as a nation. And be with us, these folks that came to church today. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.
[2:23] That is a, you know, I tell folks I'm not a Calvinist. But that says this, and as it is appointed unto man once to die. You know, you could put that one in that predestination because everybody here is going to die.
[2:34] In fact, are you not dying now? Tell me this, when you leave here two hours from now when I'm done preaching, aren't you going to be closer to a hole in the ground when you leave here than you were when you came in?
[2:46] Yeah, we're dying. We're dying as I speak. I don't know if I told you guys, you know, I preach a lot and I'm always every week in a church. So, I can never remember if I said it to somebody two days ago or yesterday here or two days ago someplace else.
[3:00] But years ago, I don't even remember where I was, but there was a doctor. And this doctor was a physicist and obviously he was a non-believer. And so they, you know, I'm a doctor.
[3:12] I'm two doctors. I got two doctor's degrees. You heard about me. I'm a paradox. But anyway, they wanted me to deal with this physicist, you know, because they, I don't know, must have thought I had a good chance.
[3:26] So, we're talking and I said, Doc, tell me how you think this all came into being. Could I help you people? You know, sometimes we're intimidated by science. Oh, well, you know, science.
[3:37] Science? A dust cloud blew up? Boy, that makes me want to throw my Bible out. A dust cloud blew up? That's how they start? That's science?
[3:48] Man, I got a better hope than that. Guys, and of course, it didn't really blow up. It kind of blew in because when the smoke cleared, there was all these universes. And I said, if evolution is true, you see this pulpit?
[4:00] If evolution is true, we could take this pulpit out in the middle of a field somewhere, put a quarter stick of dynamite in it, blow it up, and when the smoke clears, we got a three-bedroom house. I don't think that's going to happen.
[4:12] But that's science. And so, he started with a dust cloud. He did. He started with a dust cloud and it blew up and he went through all this stuff. And, you know, then this tadpole climbed out of a pond. It became a monkey, climbed up in a tree, hanging by its tail.
[4:24] Its tail fell off. It hit the ground, became a college professor. And I'll be honest with you. I'm doing what you were doing. But he was telling me this stuff. I was doing the best I could. And chuckled.
[4:34] You say, oh, that was disrespectful. The last thing on earth I want him to think is that anything he says could be taken seriously. But he knew what I wanted. He knew what I wanted. And so he goes, okay, doc, what do you believe?
[4:48] And you ever notice that crowd, whenever they want something out of you, they tell you to be tolerant. And they're never. And you'll never meet an evolutionist that'll say, well, you believe in creation?
[4:58] I believe in evolution. They'll say, I believe in creation. You believe in evolution? That kind of thing. And that's what he said. He said, he says, tell me how you think it came to being.
[5:10] But don't tell me that you believe that God just spoke the universe into existence in seven 24-hour days. Talk about challenge your faith. And I thought, you know what?
[5:21] If I say yes, he's going to think I'm the dumbest guy on the planet. So I said, no. Six. I don't think God created the world for it in seven days.
[5:33] If God made anything on the seventh day, it was iced tea. They just sat back and did. He looked at what he had done. Ladies, you women that are married and your husband finally fixes something or he builds something.
[5:45] What does a man do when he's done fixing something? Looks at it. I did that. I waited 10 years, but I did that.
[5:58] I did that. He has to look at what he did. Woman, come here. Look at that. Look at that. You know what you told me to do? Yeah, you fixed the kid's bed three years after he went to college. But, and so you know what God did?
[6:11] He spoke the universe into existence. And he just sat back on the seventh day and rested and said, hey, this is all right. This is good. And so, so, so the doc gave me what he believed and I gave him what I believed.
[6:21] And then I said something to him that absolutely, literally turned him pale. I said, doc, there's only one difference between what you believe and I believe.
[6:32] And when I said that, he looked at me because there was hardly anything we, we'd agree on, except that we're both in the same room. And if you studied Descartes, you're not sure of that. And so, and I said, I said, there's only one difference between what you and I believe.
[6:48] And he said, this is one? I said, yeah, just one. He said, what is it? I said, the Bible says, and as is a point on a man who wants to die and after this is a judgment. I said, doc, five seconds after you die, you're going to believe everything I told you.
[7:02] Isn't that true? Let me ask you something. Madeline Murray O'Hare, the woman that was the atheist, the guy that God kicked out of school. She's a, she's a Bible believer today, isn't she? You say she's dead.
[7:12] That's what I mean. Um, Yasser Arafat, he's probably down there in hell having a Bible study with, with Madeline Murray O'Hare. Uh, and they, and they got their doctrine more straight than you got yours now.
[7:24] And so we talk about people going to die. Look, everybody's going to die. Now, now this is how we, this is how we describe giving the gospel. Everybody's lost and we need to go save them from hell.
[7:38] There's a, um, I may say something about it tonight, but there's a little CD, uh, back there. It's called Scottish Preachers. And the way I came about, uh, possession of that is, is people give me a lot of stuff.
[7:51] No, not money, money. Why not money? Okay. But they give me something they wrote. It's kind of like a nightmare on paper. And they send me the manuscript of a book. You say, well, why do you think that?
[8:02] Guys, I'm writing five books now. I don't have time to read somebody's book. And, and it's, you know, so, so people give me stuff and I go, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I, I put it away because if we have a wood burner and times get tough.
[8:13] But, um, uh, this, I'm in Oklahoma and this lady comes up and it's nothing more than a little silver CD like you buy at Walmart and it's, and with a really fancy, a black magic marker.
[8:26] And it just said Scottish Preachers. And she hands this to me and she goes, uh, my son made this and he said, you can do anything you want with it. And I thought, you don't want to be here when I do what I want to do with it. But I told the lady, I, we're in Oklahoma and I said, uh, when we finished this meeting, we got a night drive.
[8:43] We like the night drives and we'll drive till three or maybe three o'clock in the morning. And so we left and I said, we'll listen to this. We got a night drive. We have the big motor homes, 40 feet long and a pickup behind us.
[8:54] So we get down the road and I put this thing in and I am telling you some people, literally one 30 in the morning, we're driving East on I-40. We're listening to this and both of us are crying. And it's, it's just a montage of Scottish Preachers.
[9:08] But, but one of the Preachers makes this statement. He said, we talk about, we're going to go someplace like a missionary is going to go to a foreign field and, and liberate these people from their sin. And this guy says, they love their sin.
[9:22] They don't want to be liberated from their sin. Let me ask you something, guys, go ask a lost guy if you'd like to trust Christ and come to church today. They don't want to be liberated. They like what they got.
[9:32] And probably tell me, has everyone here ever done something that you had to prepare for? You know, we, we have that trailer and it sits beside our house for nine months.
[9:46] During that nine months of school, I fly to my meetings and then the day after school is out, we take off. It was 22nd, I think today, this year. On the 23rd, we took off one couple of years ago.
[9:58] We left immediately. I mean, as soon as the, the, the, the graduate of an evening service and as soon as graduation happened, we took off and drove 300 miles, spent the night in a closed gas station in Nevada desert.
[10:10] And so we go, we do not let it sit for nine months. And then the day we have to leave, just walk out and hook it up to the truck.
[10:22] It probably takes us two weeks to get it ready to go. It's been winterized and it's got antifreeze and all the lines, not the stuff that'll poison you. This stuff is, you could drink it if you want and you never freeze.
[10:33] So it must work. But you got to clear the antifreeze out and, and there's, you know, Kathy's bringing stuff in for the kitchen and, and, and clothes and I'm bringing stuff in. You know, I got some work that I brought with me.
[10:44] And so what we're doing is before we leave to come on the road, like here, we get that thing ready. You don't have to put your hand up. Have you ever gone on vacation?
[10:56] I'll bet you didn't wake up one day and said, you know what? I think I'll go on vacation right now and just walk out the door and get in the car and go on vacation. And if you've done that, I don't want to be around you when you do it. Don't you usually prepare?
[11:10] I fly a lot. I prepare. I say, I get the suitcase. I say, Kathy, fill it. Works great. But what I'm saying is, and I got news for you.
[11:23] Going on vacation or hooking up a trailer and traveling out preaching or whatever you have ever prepared for is not as important as preparing for that.
[11:36] Right? And we look at this world and we say, we've got to talk to them about the fact that they're going to die. And you know what they're doing? You say, they're on drugs and they're drinking and they're partying.
[11:47] Don't you know why? Because they believe that verse and they don't want to think about that verse. And many times our preachers, we berate everybody like you're not doing enough.
[12:00] Now, I am a believer in this. I saw you got tracks out there. I got mine in my pocket. Your pastor went to dinner or breakfast, pops out a track. I think all of you should have tracks and pass them out.
[12:13] But we talk about this lost world. We need to take the gospel to them and we do. But aren't they dying? Don't they know it? I mean, if you stop somebody on the street and said, do you know that you're dying?
[12:28] You think they go, really? Don't they all know they're dying? Then I think they owe themselves something. Listen, if you are ever in a building, I don't know if you have them or not.
[12:42] But I advise, guys, I'm not a safety guy. I know these people, you know, you've got to be safe about everything. But some churches have electric, have emergency lighting.
[12:53] So if the power goes down at night, these lights, battery lights come on and you find your way out. I don't know if you ever thought about this. But if the lights go out and it gets dark and lights go out and you can't see anything, you'd be shocked at how many people panic.
[13:07] So I was talking to a preacher's meeting, a group of preachers. And here's what I said. One Sunday night, you ought to practice getting out in the dark. I said, one Sunday night, when you're done preaching, when you're ready to dismiss people, say, look, folks, we're going to turn all the lights out.
[13:26] And we're going to leave here under the light of the emergency lights because they shine at a different angle and different shadows. So your people can experience one time walking out of the building in the dark for safety's sake.
[13:40] And there was a preacher there, a good friend of mine for years. And he had a building they just put up maybe two years earlier. And the next time I saw him, he said, I did what you told us to do.
[13:52] He said, we turned the lights out after service one Sunday night and had everybody leave. And I found out all of the batteries in our emergency lights were dead. You said, that's awful.
[14:03] No, no, it's not awful. That's why you practice. You change the batteries. You make sure they're working. And if you ever go into a building, you want to make sure where the exits are.
[14:14] Okay, because like you're in a restaurant, you need to know where the emergency exit is because they're going to try to make you pay for the meal. And so you need to know how to get out of there. All right. I believe this, guys.
[14:26] I believe every lost person on this planet. Are we not hearing on television all the ads? Guys, you deserve the best. You deserve hell.
[14:39] Isn't that true? Boy, listen. You know, Dr. Ruckman told us many years ago, he said, you hear people saying, you'll see him protesting. We want justice. Hey, you don't want justice. Justice would have put you in hell.
[14:52] You'd have stood before God without Jesus Christ and you'd have gone to hell. Isn't that true? But guys, if everybody is dying, why aren't they preparing for that?
[15:04] I think they owe themselves at least trying to find out what's going to happen when I die. People who prepare to go camping. People who prepare to go to school. People who prepare to just go to the grocery store.
[15:16] We prepare for everything we do. Is that not true? You're not going to prepare for dying? You know, you might be sitting here saying, you know, on the way home, I got to stop at the grocery store. You might not make it that grocery store.
[15:27] You might arrive at the truth this verse before you get to the grocery store. Isn't that true? Now, if that happens to you and you've trusted Christ, you already prepared.
[15:38] But every man owes it to himself. I'll explain it this way. Some years ago, a doctor friend of ours bought Kathy and I a cruise. And I never knew anything about a cruise, you know, get on a ship and catch something.
[15:55] But we get this cruise. I'll be honest with you. I think we're like 4,500 people on this boat. I've never seen 4,500 people so efficiently processed getting signed in and get to the room.
[16:09] I've never seen anything. I mean, you're staying on a long line and you aren't there 10 minutes. I said, man, this cannot be run by the government to run this good. But we get to our cabin.
[16:20] So we had a cabin. And you know what the first thing they did before they cast off the line? Do you know what they did? They had what they call a lifeboat drill.
[16:32] And you know it by two things. Here's how you know that the ship is sinking. There's a horn that blasts, I think, like seven times. Seven times. And then you'll hear maybe the crew members screaming, we're all going to die.
[16:43] And that's how you can tell the boat is sinking. And what they made us do is they made us, everybody had like, you go to this deck at this number of lifeboats, like one, two, three, four. And so at each lifeboat, not maybe as many people as are right there.
[16:58] We're standing in little groups. And in front of us, every one of us, there's a member of the crew. They showed us how to put on our life vests. They showed us how to row the boat down, how to get in it safely, and then how to drop it all the way to the water.
[17:14] I've never been in a lifeboat. I have never needed to put on a life preserver. Whoa, what a waste of time. No, no, no, no, no. If you ever get on a boat, you owe it to yourself to know what to do if it sinks.
[17:31] And what they were preparing us for is if we sink or have to get off this boat, abandoned ship, we wouldn't run off in panic saying, where do I go? We'd know what to do.
[17:41] Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me tell you about a story. It's a book. I think it's called The Last Man Off. And this young man got on a fishing boat.
[17:53] And, you know, I read a lot. And this book, there's a lot of fishing goes on up to the Bering Sea up by Alaska. This boat was going the exact opposite direction. It was fishing in the waters of Antarctica.
[18:06] And it's far from land. And he says he'd never been on a fishing boat. He was going to get on this. And they're gone for months, okay? And I'll be honest with you guys. You know what always bothers me when I look at a boat?
[18:19] Water is coming out of it. I thought water isn't supposed to be in it. But it's taking on water. And so they're always pumping water. So the boat is sitting there.
[18:31] And he sees a lot of water. It's a fishing boat. It's not a big boat. I don't know if it's the longest from here to that back wall of that foyer. But it's pumping a lot of water out. And literally they knew that it was leaking when they left the port.
[18:45] But they had life jackets. The life jackets were in a bin with a padlock on them. No one said, no one even knew how to get the key to open it.
[18:58] And no one took those life jackets and showed anybody. Now you say, well, I know how to do it. Guys, you need to practice it once. Let me tell you why you panic. If you ever panicked at something, let me tell you why.
[19:08] You ever see like a post office box? Bunch of boxes. That's how your brain is. And on every one of those little boxes is an instruction.
[19:23] You're in a car. And you go to this thing. It says, how do you get out of the car? Pull the door handle. You say, I got one of those? Yeah. And you really don't have to use it. Every time your mind goes that automatically.
[19:34] What do you do when you pull the door handle and it comes off in your hand? And you're sinking in water. So you got a box that says, what do you do when you can't get out of a car sinking in water?
[19:46] And if you're not prepared for it, you open it up and it's empty and you panic. So this guy gets on this boat and it's taking on water all the time they're fishing.
[19:57] And he said, we would be sitting in the mess, in eating, and there was about this much water, about an inch of water, would just be going back after a couple of days. It wasn't there when he started, but after a couple of days, about an inch of water is going back and forth across the deck where they're eating.
[20:14] He said, finally, there was so much water that we'd eat and had to hold our feet off the floor. And he said, we're down there. And he said, I'm a little worried. And he said, I wake up one day and I'm the only man on the boat.
[20:30] They had abandoned ship. The boat was sinking. Nobody woke him up. There was no emergency lights. Nobody told him how to get. The lifeboat was gone.
[20:41] Nobody told him. The life jackets were still locked up. And everybody saw that boat was sinking. And they got on the lifeboats and got off. And nobody even woke him up.
[20:52] But guys, they said, oh, those people were so irresponsible. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Didn't he owe it to himself to tell somebody, where's the key for that lock?
[21:06] And when they open it, say, now you can lock them all up, but I'm keeping this one in my room. It's going to stay with me. If there were lifeboats, didn't he owe it to himself to go to somebody and say, how do we crank this down?
[21:21] How do we get it? Guys, guys, we talk about how we owe the world the gospel. Don't they owe it to themselves to say, I'm going to die someday. I'd better get ready. Guys, we need to be prepared.
[21:34] But every man owes it to himself to say, I want to know how to go to heaven. Did you ever meet some of those people? Well, I mean, you lead them to Christ like that. You just meet them. We were dealing with a guy one time.
[21:46] Kathy and I were in our early 30s. The guy was 51 years old. So he was very old. And he's home and he's alone. And we give him the gospel. And he says, I'd like to do that right now.
[22:01] Well, how many times does that happen? And I went, you want to do that now? He goes, yeah, can I do that now? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can. I said, you want to do that here?
[22:14] He goes, yeah, yeah. Can I do that here? I said, yeah, yeah, you can. You know what I want to say? Where'd Cain get his wife, Smarty? I'll know I'll get all them animals on the boat.
[22:26] Because that's what they say, isn't it? But he didn't. And he just got down on his knees. We got down on his knees at his couch. And he trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. You say, why? He owed it to himself to know what's going to happen when he dies.
[22:42] Do you know why you got saved if you're saved? Because you thought about dying and you wanted to be prepared. Is that not true? Now, are you going to tell me no one outside this building doesn't think that they're dying?
[22:54] Why are they not prepared? Partying until it happens and taking your mind off it isn't going to stop you from dying. And every man owes it to himself to be prepared to die.
[23:05] If you study World War II, the most prominent bomber in World War II was the Boeing B-17. But the bomber that ended the war was also built by Boeing.
[23:17] And it was called a B-29. And, you know, most, if you look at your car, you got a windshield and a hood. And most planes have a windshield and then they got a nose. But the B-29 was like a big greenhouse.
[23:30] From the top, it was like the end of a hot dog. It just was round and it had all glass. And the B-29 dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki. And after the war was over, Boeing had a bomber that they didn't need.
[23:45] So what they did is they took the wings and the tail assembly, got rid of the fuselage, made a fuselage twice as big, so it was a double-decker, and made it a transport plane, like the later Boeing 707.
[23:59] So it would carry passengers. And it was prominent. They called the B-29. It was called the Stratofortress. This was called the StratoCruiser. Four props, four engines, and double-decker, and they would take airline passengers.
[24:15] And it would make runs from Los Angeles, I don't know if you've ever heard of that, to Hawaii. Now, I fly that a lot of times coming in from the Pacific, and that's about a four-hour flight on a jet.
[24:29] But it's about an eight-hour flight on a prop-driven plane. And you might have trouble, and that plane might have to ditch in the Pacific.
[24:41] And so they've got to be prepared. Well, here's what they came to find out about the StratoCruiser. If it had to ditch, you know, a plane, it hits, and then it kind of goes like this, nose deep, and it comes back up.
[24:53] And they said when it goes down like this, for some reason, the tail, the whole tail assembly, the whole back half of the fuselage would snap off. So it would come nose down, and when it came back like this, the water would just rush in, and everybody died.
[25:11] So there was one of those who was coming back from Hawaii. I cannot remember the problem. I remember reading this back in the 70s. I can't remember what the problem was, but they were beyond the point of no return.
[25:24] They're flying from Hawaii to L.A., and they were far enough out that they couldn't fly back. But the pilot knew whatever this mechanical problem was, he wasn't going to make it to L.A. They're going to have to ditch in the Pacific, and he knows what happens to that plane.
[25:36] He knows the tail's going to break off. He knows it's going to fill with water. And, guys, he's going to be the farthest from the door. Is that not true? Everybody's going to die. So he called the Coast Guard.
[25:47] He could keep it in the air. He was actually, it wasn't ditching emergency ditch. He was going to do that on purpose, but he could keep flying it. And he called the Coast Guard. And so during the night, they rendezvoused.
[26:00] He flew toward the ship. The ship flew toward him. And when the sun came up, there was a Coast Guard cutter. And what the Coast Guard cutter did is they made two parallel lines of foam.
[26:10] They put about six inches of foam on the surface of the ocean, and that foam acts like rocks for the waves. It made it smooth. They made kind of a makeshift water runway, so the waves weren't bad when this guy ditched it.
[26:24] But the tail's going to break off, and it's going to fill with water, and they're all going to die because that's what always happens. But just before, a few flights before that flight, the pilot had been to a safety convention, whatever it was, about that plane, and they told him what it does.
[26:41] And you know what they say when you're on a plane? You know, you make sure your seat belt is fastened. You take your head like this and go, I'm going to die! Or something like that.
[26:54] That is not what this guy told him to do. Get out of your seat. He didn't want anybody in a seat strapped into a seat when he ditched his plane. He said, folks, you know, they all knew they were going to fly all night because he was burning the fuel off.
[27:10] They knew he was going to have to land on the water. They knew he was going to ditch it. They had to get out of a plane, how long ever it would float. And he said, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to ditch the Pacific. And he said, this particular plane has a quirk that when it ditches, the tail assembly breaks off, and water rushes in, and everybody dies.
[27:27] So he said, when I tell you, I want you to get out of your seats, and everybody walk to the front of the plane. They literally crowded in, like somebody trying to get into a fair or something.
[27:41] He said, I want all the passengers at the front of the plane standing. So I saw this, I saw a magazine, and there was a guy on the cross guard cutter who was taking pictures. And you can see that little bit calmer water as it's coming down, and you see them coming down, coming down, coming down.
[27:57] Did it with wheels up, because the wheels caused it to flip. And to be honest with you, the scariest thing, if you were the pilot, is it didn't just come to rest, but it literally did.
[28:07] The whole greenhouse, the nose went underwater. Can you imagine being a pilot? And it's like, you are the aquarium. And when it went like that, the tail snapped off, just like he knew it would.
[28:23] And then after the nose went down, it came back up, but it stayed in the water like this, and no water got in, because he was prepared.
[28:35] He had them all stand to the front, and the weight of the people on the front of the plane made it nose heavy, and no water went in. And everybody in that plane lived. Why? Somebody's prepared.
[28:48] Don't you think this, if you ever fly? You know, I have people that go, are you afraid of flying? And here's what I think. The guy in the cockpit probably wants to get home. And he can say, well, you're, my passengers are my first concern.
[29:02] We're his second concern. He, look, if he gets himself down, I go with him. He's got to get the plane down. He's not going to say, I'm going to try to get this plane to the ground from row 10 and up.
[29:15] He wants the whole plane to get down. I'm just with him. But they're prepared. Guys, you owe it to yourself to be prepared to die.
[29:27] I've always said it this way. If you're not prepared to live, you're not prepared to die. And I'm looking at some people, you're prepared to die. That's why you're prepared to live.
[29:38] Isn't that true? But you owed it to yourself. We always say, well, we owe it to them. Yeah, we owe it to them to go out and get them. But you can understand something. They owe it to themselves to one day say, you know how I got saved?
[29:51] First, let me tell you how I got lost. Because if you can't get lost, you can't get saved. Nobody witnessed to me. Nobody ever gave me a gospel track. Nobody ever asked me to go to church. I think Christians, I was around Christians before I got saved.
[30:05] I didn't know it until after I got saved. But they wouldn't witness to me. And I think it's for one of two reasons. Either they're afraid that I wouldn't get saved or they're afraid that I would.
[30:16] And so I'm sitting at a bar one night. All my friends are gone. There's a party or fight somewhere. And I'm sitting in this bar. I'm about 19 years old, maybe 20.
[30:27] And I said, Sam, one of these days you're going to die. Where are you going to go? Doesn't that sound like a witness? When I say nobody witnessed to me, actually, the first person to witness to me was me.
[30:37] The first person I witnessed to was me. I got lost talking to myself. I said, Sam, one of these days you're going to die. Where are you going to go? I said, what do you got to do to get to heaven?
[30:49] You got to keep 10 commandments. I don't know them. You need to keep the golden rule. I'm a goner. It took me five seconds to realize I was going to hell. When I realized I was going to hell, and I knew I couldn't do anything about it, I made two changes in my life.
[31:05] Now, guys, is it not a beautiful day outside? Yeah. Is it not usually a beautiful day outside? Yeah. Blue sky days, I call these. Green grass, blue skies.
[31:17] You got these things with these red flowers on. I mean, it's gorgeous. When I knew I was going to hell, I tried to take a mental picture of all the blue sky days. I would look at a day like this, and I would try to take a mental picture of it so it was in there.
[31:31] You say, why? I figured when I go to hell, the only thing I'm taking with me is my memory. And maybe when I'm in hell burning, I'll remember a blue sky day because if there's any relief in hell, that'd be the only relief there is.
[31:43] The second thing I did, I quit taking God's name in vain. I used to cuss bad, you know, and I did a lot of bad things. I didn't change anything that I was doing. I didn't quit drinking or anything like that. I just quit taking God's name in vain.
[31:55] And here's why. I told God this. You made a way for me to go to heaven, the Ten Commandments. It is not your fault that I broke them. I'm going to hell. But you made a way.
[32:05] I could have gone to heaven. So in appreciation, I'm not going to take your name in vain anymore. And I still lived like an immoral animal. And then somebody invited me to a Baptist church like this one.
[32:18] It was just like this one, except there were 5,000 people in it. Now, guys, that's either a big church, an aircraft carrier, or the capital of South Dakota.
[32:31] And I went to this church, and they called me a sinner. I knew that was true. They told me I was going to hell.
[32:41] It didn't bother me at all. I knew that when I came in the door. They told me I could be saved. And I knew they could, because there were a lot better people than me. I couldn't be saved. I knew I couldn't be saved. And God finally dealt with me.
[32:52] And I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. You say, I can say I stand before you saved. I stand before you, having prepared for the day I die.
[33:06] You owe it to yourself. I'll be done. One more. You got some Chick Tracks out there. You know what my favorite Chick Track is? Looks like this, only it's purple.
[33:21] And it says, The Fool. It's got a little jester right here. That's my favorite track. You know why? There's this king in the story. There's a king. And he's got a jester. A jester's, you know, this guy's got all the problems of the state and the kingdom take care of.
[33:34] So he has this jester come out and just make a fool of himself and entertain him. And one day he says to this jester, You're the biggest fool in my kingdom. I don't think there's a bigger fool in my kingdom.
[33:46] I'll tell you what I want you to do. He takes his scepter. I mean, the symbol of his power. He takes the scepter and gives it to the fool and says this. I want you to go all through my kingdom.
[33:58] And when you find a bigger fool than yourself, give him this. Okay, sir. I'll sort of do that. And off he went. And he's gone like a couple of years. And he can't find a fool that is bigger than himself.
[34:10] So defeated, he goes back to the palace. And he says, I got the king's scepter. I got to give it back to him. And they said, Oh, he's dying. So what?
[34:21] Oh, yeah. He's gotten ill. I think he had COVID. But he said, he's dying. And he said, well, he said, but he found out you're here. He wants to see you.
[34:32] So the fool goes in and here's the king. He's in the bed and he looks like somebody dying. And he says, he says, my friend. The foolish is my friend. He said, I'm going on a long journey. And I can't take you with me.
[34:46] But I won't be here anymore. And the fool says, well, have you prepared for it? And he said, no. And the fool said, well, then take this back.
[34:57] You're the only guy who knows a bigger fool in the kingdom than I am. Guys, you owe it to yourself to be prepared to die. If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you are prepared to die.
[35:10] Is that not true? If you have not trusted Jesus Christ, look, I didn't say be a Baptist. Baptist, being Baptist that never got anybody to heaven. There's a place in hell for Catholics.
[35:22] There's a place in hell for Muslims. There's a place in hell for Mormons. There's a place in hell for Jehovah Witnesses. They don't know it. There's a place in hell for Baptists. Now, it's probably over here all by itself because even there, they won't fellowship with anybody else.
[35:38] But you can go to, you can be a Baptist, man. They dunk you in that water. That doesn't fireproof you. Well, I want to join a church. Listen, somebody said hell's going to be so full of church members, their feet will be sticking out the windows.
[35:51] Well, I'm an American. There's a lot of Americans in hell. You know what you need to do? Look, Jesus Christ, every bad thing you ever did was put on him. And he went to the cross.
[36:02] And every payment you deserved for your sins, he took on the cross. And then he died. And then he proved something that we have all said. Have we not at one time or another all said, you can't keep a good man down?
[36:17] He came back up. You know, I tell people this, guys, if you try thinking. I know it's hard for you to think without a remote, your TV remote in your hand. But what good is a religion?
[36:30] If it can't get the founder out of a hole in the ground. Do you understand that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church, is a pile of dust today? Do you understand that Judge Rutherford, who started the Jehovah Witnesses, is a pile of dust today?
[36:45] Confucius is a pile of dust today. Buddha is a really large pile of dust today. Why would you want a God that has to fear the name Hoover?
[37:03] There went your God. They buried, this is the word. They murdered Jesus Christ. We say die. They murdered him.
[37:13] Is that not true? They murdered Jesus Christ. And then they put him in a grave. You know why? The guys say this, I buried my mistake. I had a problem.
[37:24] I just got rid of the guy. They buried their mistake. And three days and three nights later, he came out of the grave. Never tell people that the gospel is Jesus died for your sins.
[37:34] That's not the gospel. According to 1 Corinthians 15, died for your sins according to the scripture, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scripture. The resurrection is as much a part of the gospel as the death on the cross.
[37:48] And we were over there. We were over in Israel, I told you, in 2014, and we went to the tomb. I believe it's the tomb. I believe it's the tomb for several reasons. Number one, Calvary is behind a bus station.
[38:03] They parked their buses there, and the backdrop, Calvary is about maybe 30 feet tall, right in there. And you can see the place of the skull. Right around the corner from it, there is no graveyard.
[38:17] There is no cemetery anywhere near Calvary. The cemetery is three miles away on the other side of the city. But around the corner, there was a garden. And in that garden, there was a tomb.
[38:30] And the Jews, what they would do when somebody died, is they'd take them and put them in a tomb. And they'd leave them there for about a year. Because, you know, you've got a sudden death. They don't have a place to put the guy. So they put them in a tomb.
[38:41] And then they'd go prepare a grave. And they'd take the decaying body and bury it. When they found this tomb that they say Jesus Christ was in, forensic scientists came in and swept it.
[38:55] And they said, there is no DNA. There is no dust from anybody having ever decayed in that tomb. Because my Bible said it was a new tomb that no man ever laid.
[39:07] And now I say this. I don't care if they buried 14 goats in it after he was dead. But when he came out of that tomb, somebody there said, that's pretty important.
[39:18] Let's not bury anybody in that one anymore. The founder of our religion is not a pile of dust. The founder of our religion is in heaven right now, seated at the right hand of the Father. Is that not true? And if you drop dead right now, what would you trust?
[39:32] You wouldn't trust your baptism, not us. You wouldn't trust your baptism. You wouldn't trust your citizenship. You wouldn't trust the fact that you might have been raised in church. You know what you'd trust? The death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a full and complete payment for your sin.
[39:46] A guy came to my office one time. He was doubting his salvation. I've seen some people. I've done that myself about him. But he wasn't sure what he would say. And I said, okay, let me ask you a question.
[39:58] I said, what if you drop dead right now? You drop dead right now. You know the scene we all see in our head. You're at the door of heaven knocking on the door. Let me in, let me in. And I said, so you drop dead right now, and your soul goes to heaven.
[40:09] You knock on the door and say, can I come in? And they say, why should we let you in? And he'd say, I said, what are you trusting? And he said, well, all I'm trusting is the death, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, payment for my sin.
[40:23] I said, man, have I got bad news for you. He said, what? I said, if you weren't saved, you just got saved. Right? I'll show you.
[40:38] Many years ago, Dr. Ruckman showed us this when I was in Bible college. I was down south. I was preaching. There was a young man there by the name of Bill. Bill was 20 years old. Bill couldn't get the gospel.
[40:50] Wasn't a bad guy. Probably living like any other lost man. But Bill didn't understand the gospel. So after the service, they brought Bill to me. And he just, you try to explain it to him.
[41:02] He couldn't get it. So I took two pieces of paper. If you're dealing with somebody, this is a good way to do it. I said, Bill, I said, this piece of paper is you.
[41:14] This piece of paper is Jesus Christ. I said, I asked him. I said, now, Bill, have you ever lied? You ever told a lie? He goes, yeah.
[41:25] I mean, if he said no, that would have been his second one. Yeah. I said, okay. I said, you're a liar. Isn't that true? I said, Bill, you ever cheated anything?
[41:40] Yeah. I said, so you're a cheat. I said, you're a liar and a cheat. Bill, did you ever steal anything? Now, he's getting a little scared because he doesn't know how far this is going to go.
[41:53] But I said, you ever steal anything? He said, yeah. So you're a thief. I don't want to keep talking to this guy. Now, and I said, I gave him, I let him off the hook.
[42:07] I said, Bill, aren't there other sins that you've committed that we don't even have to name? You just, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I put a bunch of squiggly lines. I can't speak in tongues, but I can write in tongues.
[42:22] And I said, Bill, you know what these are? You guys, you know what these are? Forget about Bill, guys. Put yourself over here. I said, Bill, these are sin lists. Lists of sins you've committed. I said, you are a liar.
[42:34] You are a cheat. You are a thief and other things. And that's how you're going to show up. And I said, this is Jesus Christ's sin list, and he's never sinned. Is that true? And to get into heaven, you've got to look like this.
[42:48] And you look like this. I mean, he got that. He realized that is putting him in hell. So I tore the names off.
[43:04] And I took Bill's sin list. I said, Bill, when Jesus Christ went to the cross, he took your sin list. Do you know why they crucified Jesus Christ?
[43:17] They thought they had Sam Gipp. They thought they had you. They thought they had Bill. Jesus Christ took our sin list and went to hell with it.
[43:30] And when you get saved, God gives you the power that they believe in Christ become the sons of God. You get the righteousness of God. And I said, Bill, I said, do you guys see what salvation is?
[43:44] Trading sinless. When you got saved, you accepted what Jesus had done. You know how we're getting into heaven? I'm going to knock, and they're going to look out, and they're going to see him.
[44:01] We go to heaven disguised as Jesus Christ. He went to the grave disguised as us. I am telling you, it might have only been 50 watts, but whatever light bulb was in Bill's head, it came on.
[44:18] And he said this, I want that. I want that right there, right now. And he got down on his knees and pinned all his sins on Jesus Christ.
[44:33] He traded sin list. I don't even know if Bill's alive today. It was about 20-some years ago. He might be dead. But I know this from that moment. He was ready.
[44:44] He owed it to himself. He owed it to himself to get ready to die. Is that not true? You ready to die? I don't believe it. Don't worry.
[44:54] I don't believe anybody here is going to get killed, a car wreck, or choking a chicken bone, or whatever today. I don't believe anybody in this room is going to be dead by tonight. How many times did you come to church and you knew it wasn't going to happen?
[45:05] But it can happen. You need to be prepared. You owe it to yourself. Yes, we owe the world the gospel. But the world, they prepare for everything else.
[45:15] Do they not? Didn't Hillary have the fireworks prepared for when she won the 2016 election? Wasn't she prepared? Yeah. Guys, we prepare for everything.
[45:29] You better be prepared to die. Because if you're not ready to die, you're not ready to live. I'd like you to stand with your heads bowed. Your heads bowed, your eyes closed.
[45:41] I want you to go back. I don't know what day it was and I don't know how old you were, but go back to the time in your life when you bowed your head and trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. There's one thing you've got to do before you get saved.
[45:53] Know what it is? You've got to get lost. That day in that bar when I thought, what do you got to do to get to heaven? Ten Commandments. I can't do those. That day, up to that moment, I never thought about my eternity.
[46:07] That day, I said, I'm going to hell. That was the day I became lost. I don't know. It was a year or two. I knew I was lost before I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.
[46:21] I was in a Baptist church. I came in a Catholic and I walked out a Catholic. But I walked out a saved Catholic. The fact is, I wasn't a Catholic much longer because I wasn't a Bible-believing church so I could learn something from the Bible.
[46:35] But that is all in the future. Where would you go if you died right now? Every one of you. Answer that question. Where would I go if I die right now? Now, if you just said heaven because you trusted Jesus Christ, isn't that good?
[46:52] Thank Him for salvation being so free. If you say I'm saved and don't mention Jesus Christ, you're not even saved. If you can't remember a time when you knew you were lost and had to trust Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, maybe you need to do that today.
[47:08] I say it this way, guys. I really believe what I'm about to tell you. Church is a terrible place to go to hell from. Go to hell from a drunken party.
[47:21] I know guys that have done it. Go to hell from being out, as we talk about this time of year, defending our country and our freedom. I know you're still going to hell, but I mean, go to hell from some other place.
[47:33] Can you imagine being in church where all you had to do when the music started was get on your knees and trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? It's not a shame, people. It's not a shame to come to church lost.
[47:46] But it sure is a shame to be that way. And so if you're here this morning, are you prepared to die? Well, yeah, because I've been good. You're not Jesus Christ. I didn't hear his name in that.
[47:57] Well, I've been baptized. No, you talk about yourself. I don't hear Jesus Christ. Well, I'm a member of this church. You can go to hell with that church membership just like a Baptist can go to hell with theirs. You need to remember a time, not when you got saved.
[48:10] You need to remember a time when you were lost. You need to remember, when you're out in the water, you don't call for help until you realize you're grounded. Can you remember a time when you were lost?
[48:24] Think about your sins. Oh, I'm not as bad as, I know you're not as bad. You may not, maybe not as bad as me. But you have lied. You probably have cheated. You might have stole something. You did something that violated the law.
[48:37] And if you die right now, you go to hell. Not because you're not as good as me, because I'm not good. Because you're not clean as Jesus Christ. White as driven snow.
[48:49] I'm going to have a word of prayer. Pastor's going to come. Maybe somebody today will come and bow their knees and say, I want that. I want that right there.
[49:01] I want that now. Father, thank you for your goodness and your grace. God, there's a world out here. In our country right now, people are preparing for tomorrow.
[49:14] They're preparing. They're going to have burgers and hot dogs and whatever they're going to drink. And they're going to shoot off fireworks and talk about how much they love America and how much they're thankful for their freedom. People are going to celebrate tomorrow, God.
[49:27] With the items that they prepared to celebrate with. And those same people aren't preparing for death. I pray for my fellow citizens.
[49:38] I pray for the people in this country. I pray for anybody in this church. God, get them lost so you can find them. Let them see as good as they are.
[49:50] That won't do. Let them know that whatever their name is, calling that name at the gate of heaven will not open the doors. They've got to go as Jesus Christ.
[50:03] Speak to the hearts, God. And if you have spoken during this message, now it is time for your people to do something. And these folks that are saved, let them realize what they're resting in.
[50:15] Let them realize how much they deserve hell and how they'll never go there. And it wasn't their baptism. It wasn't their citizenship. It wasn't their righteousness. It was they trusted you.
[50:27] This is the day. In Jesus Christ's name I pray. Amen.