Thank you for the wonderful music we enjoyed this morning.
I told them in the first service, it's just a joy to be here today and to preach at First
Baptist Pickens.
You won't recall this, but I preached here about 120 years ago, it seems like.
Fred had been your pastor for a short period of time and he asked me to come and preach
revival and that was many, many, many gray hair ago.
So thank you for the opportunity to come and be with you again this morning.
I love your pastor, not just because he's my friend, we've been friends for a long time.
I say this with every ounce of honesty I can muster this morning.
I don't know a man with more integrity, impeccable character and a man of conviction, compassion
than Fred Stone.
You're just blessed here at First Baptist Pickens to have him as your pastor.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me this morning to the book of Exodus chapter 34.
I'm going to preach just three verses, verses 6, 7, and 8.
And I want to talk this morning about what you need to know about God.
What you need to know about God.
Let me set the message up for the three verses we're going to read by just giving you a little
bit of background.
I know probably everyone in this room is pretty familiar with the book of Exodus.
You know, I'm sure how it began.
They have gone in search of food because of a famine in the land of Canaan.
They get there and they discover that Joseph is in charge.
And so he invites the entire family to come and to be house guests in Egypt.
Their intention is to return to Canaan after the famine is over.
But they become very comfortable in the land of Goshen, an area there in Egypt.
And Joseph dies.
Another Pharaoh comes.
And I'm confident that probably several Pharaohs came and went.
And suddenly the scripture tells us a Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph.
And when that happened, these people who had been house guests and privileged guests in Egypt
suddenly become slaves.
And slaves are badly, badly mistreated.
If you're a parent, you can just imagine what it would be like to have your baby boy snatched from your arms
and immediately taken to the river now and submerged there in the water.
And that's what happened.
These people were living miserable lives as anyone does who's in slavery.
And in chapter two of the book of Exodus, they cry out to God.
They say, God, please remember the covenant you established with our father Abraham.
God hears their prayer, is moved with compassion, chapter two tells us.
And he began to put into place a plan that 80 years later would deliver them from the hands of Pharaoh.
He raised up a baby boy who escaped death in the Nile by being raised in Pharaoh's own household.
His daughter rescued him from the Nile River.
At the age of 40, he killed an Egyptian and had to flee to Midian.
There God worked on his heart and character and developed him into the man
who was ripe for the job of leading millions of Hebrews out of the land of Egypt.
Well, you know the story, right?
He comes and ten plagues later, Pharaoh is not only willing for them to leave,
he's adamant.
You've got to get out of here and do it tonight.
And so they flee.
They get to the Red Sea.
God parts the waters miraculously.
Pharaoh has a change of mind and heart.
The water is sweeping and crushing his army.
And they're off to Mount Sinai.
When they come to Mount Sinai, God speaks to Moses and said,
Moses, I want to establish another covenant with my people.
And the covenant is pretty simple.
I'll be their God.
They'll be my people.
I'll bless them and I'll prosper them, protect them,
even as I have to this point in the journey.
All I ask is, they have no other gods but me.
Moses goes to the people.
They immediately agree.
And it looks like they're set for smooth sailing.
But Moses goes up on Mount Sinai, gets the Ten Commandments,
and just as he's ready to come down the mountain,
God directs his attention to what's happening below.
These people who should have been so grateful to God,
who had seen God move in such a miraculous way,
instead of following God in the 30 minutes, figuratively speaking,
that Moses has been gone,
they've already had a change of heart.
And they've taken their gold earrings, melted them.
He's fashioned a God of gold in the likeness of a calf.
And they're bowing and worshiping this God of gold.
God strikes 3,000 dead,
and others are severely stricken with a plague.
And sometime later, God speaks to Moses and says,
Moses, I'm willing to forgive them.
I'm willing to give them another chance.
Come back up on the mountain.
I'll re-give you the Ten Commandments.
But there's something you need to know about me.
And that's going to be the focus of our attention this morning,
that message that God delivered to Moses.
It's a famous message.
In fact, you read these words in the Psalms,
in the book of Jonah,
and in other places in the scripture,
stand with me as we read together.
Exodus chapter 34, verse 6, 7, and 8.
Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed,
Yahweh, Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth,
maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations,
forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin.
But he will not leave the guilty unpunished,
bringing the consequences of the father's wrongdoing
on the children and grandchildren
to the third and fourth generation.
Would you bow with me this morning
as we go to God in prayer?
Father, I pray today that these words we have just read
would burn in our mind and heart.
I pray God that you'd etch them indelibly in our soul.
Because Lord, we know that just as surely
as Moses and the Hebrews needed to be aware
of those things you revealed to Moses about yourself,
today we likewise need to live every waking moment
completely aware of who you are.
So show us this morning.
Give us a clearer picture of yourself
than maybe some of us have ever had before in our lives.
It is our prayer in Jesus' name,
and for his sake we pray.
Amen.
You may be seated.
God, in this message to Moses,
reveals eight things about himself
that I want to draw your attention to this morning.
The first thing God says to Moses
is, Moses, you and the Hebrew people need to know
I am a God of compassion.
I am a compassionate God.
I am guessing like myself,
just about every day that you live,
you will pick up a newspaper, a magazine,
you will cut on the news in the evening,
you will drive your car to work,
and you will engage people all throughout the day.
And in the course of a day,
most of us see not one,
but a number of things that concern us.
Things that sometimes break our heart.
Have you ever gone into a restaurant
or you're near a school and you see a child
and the child's not clothed properly
for weather conditions?
Have you ever seen that?
You just know this is a neglected child.
I know school officials tell us constantly,
you hear it on television,
that a large portion of children
from Friday until Monday,
they don't eat properly,
they don't have valuable nutritional foods in their home.
And you hear that,
and it just bothers you
because we don't see any child be without food.
You cut on your television,
you see war-torn areas
and children who have been made orphans
because of the deaths of their parents.
And that breaks your heart.
You hear people at work
and they tell you about their situation.
I was on the phone with a person just two days ago
and they were telling me about a sad, sad situation.
A mother who had lost her son
and had lost her husband
in the same week to COVID.
And you hear that,
just breaks your heart to hear
those kinds of stories.
You've come to a traffic light at an intersection
and there sits a man perhaps in a wheelchair
or he's on crutches
and he has a sign and he says,
I'm homeless,
I'm helpless,
I'm a veteran of the service
and I need help,
I'm penniless.
And those kinds of things at times,
while we know some are scam artists,
we know a lot of those folk
are just in a horrible, horrible situation
and it breaks our heart.
In fact, you know what I'm going to guess?
Every person this morning in this room
has seen something sometime
in the last few weeks,
in the last few months,
that has perhaps even brought you to tears.
You've maybe even prayed about it.
You said, God, intervene in these people's behalf
and help them.
And you've cried crocodile tears.
But you know the difference in concern and compassion?
You can be concerned
and you can get emotionally involved
and you can shed tears,
but you don't have to do a thing.
But compassion is different.
Harold Songer,
who was a theologian at Southern Seminary,
decades ago,
wrote a book on Colossians
and he picked that word compassion
from chapter three in the book of Colossians
and this is what he said about it.
I've never forgotten it.
He said,
compassion is impossible
without involvement.
You see,
you can't have compassion
and see that child
or see that adult
and say,
boy, that's terrible
and boy,
something ought to be done about that,
but do nothing.
You can be concerned,
but if you have compassion,
you have to act
in that person's behalf.
And that's what God does.
In Exodus chapter two,
the Lord heard the cries of his people
and the scripture says,
God acted in compassion.
He raised up a man named Moses
and through 10 plagues
led them out of the land of Egypt.
And that's what happened
when God saw the sin
and the plight of the world
because of our sinfulness
and sent his son Jesus
into our world.
And so God is,
first of all,
a compassionate God.
But I want you to notice
the second thing about God,
and I love this.
He says,
I am also gracious.
Now I want you to think
for a minute.
What does it mean
to be gracious?
And don't even think theologically
about the word grace
for a moment.
That obviously is accurate.
But just think about someone,
a person you know,
who is gracious.
In fact,
if you think about it a minute,
you know what I suspect?
That most people in this room,
you'll get an image
of somebody
who they're the epitome
of graciousness, right?
I think of a lady
in my first church
by the name of Mrs. Edna Poole.
She was just the embodiment
of sweetness.
I mean,
she was always kind.
She was always making you feel good.
She always,
nothing ever displeased her.
You couldn't do anything wrong
in Mrs. Poole's eyes.
You know somebody like that?
I bet every person in this room
has had an experience
where someone
has shown you grace.
A spouse,
a child,
an employer,
an employee,
a teacher.
My 11th grade teacher
in El Paso, Texas
who taught me chemistry,
Dr. Crawford,
he was a gracious,
gracious Southern gentleman.
You know how I know that?
He promised me
the last day of class,
he said,
if you'll promise me
you'll never touch chemicals,
I'll give you a D plus
in this class.
I didn't earn that D plus.
He gave it to me.
It was by his grace
and his mercy
I got out of chemistry class
because I knew nothing
about chemistry,
but he was a gracious,
loving man
and knew I was doing the best
that I could do
under circumstances.
Some of you are married
to gracious spouses,
right?
You've lost your cool,
you've lost your mind maybe
and you've said some things
that were just irritable
and they were critical
and they were mean spirited
and you thought to yourself,
she or he should never forgive me
for what I just said.
But they do anyway, right?
And that's a form of grace.
God says,
I am a gracious God.
Here's a third thing
I want you to see about God
and boy,
you ought to remember this
as long as you live.
I am slow to anger,
he says in verse six.
I am slow to anger.
You know,
if we did a survey this morning
what we'd find right here
at First Baptist Pickens,
there were some of you
who were raised
in moderate churches
and the guy never raised his voice.
And some of you
maybe were raised
in liberal churches
where the pastor said
God is pretty tolerant
and he gave you an image of God
that wasn't accurate
according to the scriptures.
And some of you,
like myself,
were raised in fundamental
very, very conservative churches.
And back in my day,
and I'm nearly 70,
back in my day,
if you were conservative,
most every preacher
was pretty loud
when he stood up
in the pulpit to preach.
In fact,
my recollection
as a child,
it doesn't mean
it was accurate.
I'm sure those guys
were gentle
and kind-spirited.
But you know
how I remember guys
in the 60s
who preached
in conservative
fundamental churches?
They always seemed
to be mad about something.
I mean,
they would preach
and preach so hard
and it didn't matter
what the subject matter.
They could preach on love
but they could do it
as though they were mad, right?
They were angry.
And so I developed
an image of God
if I'm honest with you
and here's my image of God.
I saw God
as this Western gunslinger
and he had two
white pearl handled pistols
and he had itchy trigger fingers.
Have you ever seen
the old Westerns?
They start doing that motion
with their fingers.
They're like,
go ahead,
make my day.
Draw it,
I'll shoot you dead.
I remember the first time
I ever used a word of profanity
on the playground,
I thought for sure
a lightning bolt
would come out of the heavens
and hit me in the top of the head
and just kill me
right there down the spot.
Because I just thought,
man,
God is looking for me
to mess up
and the second I mess up,
the hammer's gonna fall
and I'm gonna be dead
as three o'clock
in the afternoon.
Any of you ever
had that kind of image of God?
You know what the Bible says?
The Bible says,
God is not quick
to pull the trigger.
God says of himself,
I am slow to anger.
I am long suffering.
And you see it
in the scriptures.
The psalmist often cry out
because they've been asking God
to help him
and he says,
God,
how long will you go
without punishing
these evil people,
right?
We also know it
from personal experience.
You know I know it
from experience
because I know
how I've lived
and if God were quick
on the trigger,
I'd have been dead
a long time ago.
And the truth of the matter
is I suspect
a lot of you
in this audience
wouldn't be here either,
right?
So God is slow to anger.
Let me show you
a fourth thing about God.
He says in verse six,
the latter part of the verse,
I am rich in faithful love.
Let's talk about that
for a minute.
What does it mean
to be rich?
I'm going to put you on the spot.
How many in this room
are rich?
I mean,
you're just filthy,
just admit it,
you are filthy rich.
Anybody here filthy rich?
I mean vulgar wealth.
Any of you got that?
I figured you wouldn't
own up to it
even if you did.
I know one of you
doesn't know.
I'm just teasing.
Let me just tell you though,
most of us in this room
would say
if we were honest,
I'm okay.
I'm paying my bills,
got a little money
in the bank,
I'm doing all right.
I got food on my table,
roof over my head,
clothes on my back,
I'm all right.
There would be
some of you in here
if you were honest,
you would say,
I'm a little bit in need.
I got a little bit more
month than money.
I think I'll make it
but I don't really know how.
Some of you
are well off.
You not only have enough,
you can take care
of some of your wants
as well as some of your needs.
And even if you're retired,
you see yourself
making it to the end
without a lot of trouble.
But do you have
unlimited resources?
No, we don't.
Even those of us in here
who are doing pretty well,
we're probably not
in that category.
To be rich means this.
It means you have
not only enough,
it means you're never
going to run out.
And you've got
not just more than enough,
you've got way more than enough.
Something catastrophic
can happen,
you're still good to the end.
I doubt there's anyone here
this morning in that category.
Maybe so.
But probably not.
How many of you know
the name J.K. Rowling?
There you go.
These young people all do.
A lot of you older ones.
She's the author
of the Harry Potter series.
She published those books
and went from being
a poor person,
lived in a small apartment
with her daughter,
had divorced,
to a very, very wealthy woman.
In fact,
after those books
became movies,
it may surprise you
to know this,
she is the first
billionaire author
who is female
in the history of the world.
They had her on a show
because she actually
went from being very poor,
couldn't pay her bills,
to very, very, very wealthy,
a billionaire.
And they asked her,
was it a difficult adjustment
for you mentally
to adjust from having
very little to having a lot?
And she said,
yeah, it was.
She said,
in fact,
I remember the day
I turned the corner.
I was in a super expensive
department store
in London
and I was looking at purses.
This was an extravagant
department store
and she said,
I was looking at purses,
all of them,
which were a couple thousand
dollars and more.
And she says,
I'm looking at these two purses
and I like this one
and I like this one.
They're just about alike
except the color is different
and I can't make my mind up.
Do I get this one?
Do I get that one?
And she said,
all of a sudden it dawned on me,
why are you in a frenzy?
You can not only buy
this pocketbook
or that pocketbook,
you can buy the store
if you want to.
You can buy everything.
You're never going
to run out of money.
That's what it is
to be rich.
God says,
Moses,
you need to understand
I am rich
in love.
I like that song
that Brother Hester wrote
this gentleman
saying a moment ago,
about God's love for us.
God is rich
in love,
isn't he?
It's never going
to run out.
Let me tell you something.
If you've never
come to understand this
and you can
put this in your mind
and heart
and really believe it,
cling to it,
it'll change how you live.
There is nothing
you can do today,
not one thing
you can do today
that will make God
love you
any more
than he already does.
And there's nothing
you can do today
that will make
God love you
any less
than he already
does.
The scripture says
in Romans 5, 8,
but God demonstrates
his love toward us
in that while
we were yet sinners,
enemies of God,
Christ died
for us.
Isn't that an overwhelming
statement to think about?
We say that so often
in church,
I'm afraid it doesn't even
ring in our minds
what that really means.
Let me illustrate
it for you.
Suppose I ask you
right now to take out
a sheet of paper
and a pencil
and I said,
here's what I want
you to do with
nobody looking,
move apart a little bit
and with nobody looking,
I want you to put
the names on a sheet
of paper of every
person you know
today for whom
you would be
willing to die
if you had to.
You know what I
believe about you?
I don't think
there's a person
in the room
that probably
wouldn't have
at least one name
on that sheet
of paper.
In fact,
my guess is
you'd surprise
yourself.
My guess is
when you got to
really thinking
about it,
you would be
amazed about
how many people
you would be
willing to give
your life for
today
if you had to.
But let me ask
you a second question.
On that same
sheet of paper now,
flip it over
and put the names
of those people,
you would be
willing for your
son or your
daughter to die
for.
And I'm going to
also venture a guess.
You can't think
of a single name.
There's not a person
alive you would
let your son or
daughter,
you'd die for
plenty.
You wouldn't let
your son or daughter
die for any.
My friend,
Isaiah tells us
in Isaiah 53,
it pleased God
to bruise his
son for us.
One of the most
mysterious verses
in the Bible.
I can't get my
head around that.
It pleased God
to bruise his
son in our
stead.
And then
fifthly,
he goes on to
say,
I am also rich
in truth.
I am also rich
in truth.
1 John 1,
5 says,
God is light
and in him
is no darkness.
That's how it
reads in the
English text.
If you look it
up in your
Bible,
you know how
it reads in
the Greek text?
There's only one
word difference.
Here's what it
says if you
transliterate that.
It says,
God is light
and in him
is no,
none,
darkness
at all.
Now you
English teachers
are having a fit
right now,
right?
You can't say
no,
none.
It's a double
negative.
But in Greek,
it's acceptable
and it's
because it's
used for
emphasis.
In other words,
what John is
saying is this.
Listen,
I knew Jesus.
I walked to
Jesus.
I touched
Jesus.
I fellowshiped
with Jesus.
And I'm telling
you this,
if you examine
his character,
every inch of
his character,
every inch of
his being,
there is not a
trace of darkness
in him
anywhere.
Isn't that
remarkable?
How many
times do you
think you
sin a day?
You ever
thought about
that?
I don't know
about you,
but I can get
behind slow
traffic and sin
three times
before I get
to the office
in the morning,
right?
God,
in all of
his existence,
in all of
eternity,
has never had
an evil thought,
has never spoken
an evil word,
has never done
anything of an
evil nature.
He's perfect.
He's so unlike
us.
He's perfect.
So he says,
Moses,
you need to be
aware.
I am rich
in truth.
Now how's that
going to play
out?
It means he's
going to be
holy like you
and I cannot
imagine holiness.
It means he's
going to be
just and we'll
talk more about
that in just a
moment.
And then there's
a sixth thing
he says.
He maintains
faithful love to
a thousand
generations,
verse seven.
It's one thing
to love somebody.
It's another
thing to maintain
love for somebody.
Let's just be
honest.
I don't want to
show a hand or
shake a head.
Have you ever
met anybody that
you loved them
when you first
met them but
five minutes
later,
no,
not so much.
Some people,
a little bit
up go a long
ways,
right?
And you can
take them in
small doses but
not major chunks
of time at a
time,
right?
We like to
love on a
seasonal basis.
If you're good
to me,
you do what I
say,
you act in
accordance with
my will,
then I like
you.
But you
don't,
man,
you'll be the
flavor of the
month.
Pastors have
found that out
a lot of times.
When I first
started pastoring,
I had an older
pastor come to
me and he just
said,
can I give you a
tip on something,
buddy?
I was about 25
years of age,
fresh out of
seminary.
I said,
what's that?
He said,
be careful about
the guy who
helps move your
furniture into the
pastoring.
He'll be the
first guy to
help you move
it out.
In other words,
people can turn
on you pretty
quick.
When I pastored
in St.
Central,
North Carolina,
there was a
man who had
served before me
who had just
had a heart of
courage and
great,
great man of
God.
When he was
unpopular,
he opened the
doors of our
church to all
races.
And boy,
there were folks
who got mad about
this one lady in
particular.
She wrote him
hate mail.
She wrote
editorials in the
paper.
She did everything
she could to make
his life miserable
before she finally
up and left the
church.
I came as the
next pastor.
All that was
history now was
all behind us.
Church had a good,
healthy relationship
to all the races
and everything's
found no longer
issue.
This lady came
back to our
church.
She sat there
for a few weeks
and then she
came and said,
I think I'd like
to come and
join the church.
One of the
deacons overheard
her.
And he came to
him and he
said,
Pastor,
I'm not telling
you not to
let her join,
but I want to
tell you something.
You better be
careful about her.
Says,
you'll be the
flavor of the
month if you're
not careful.
And he told me
all that happened
to the former
pastor.
So I was
guarded with her.
Well, she kept
coming and guess
what?
Over a period of a
couple months,
she joined.
She just loved
me and my wife
to death.
Every time she
had a party at
her house, we
were the honored
guests.
I was going to
be the next
Billy Graham.
I was the
greatest thing
since last
spread.
She hugged me
and loved on
me until one
day, about a
year and a half
later, I came to
the church and
said, you know
what?
I think if the
church is going
to continue to
grow, we need
to relocate.
I became the
voice piece of
Satan himself.
She hated my
guts, turned on
me just like
that.
The last Sunday
she was at our
church, she sat
according to that
building right here
on the front row.
She came in with
a bag from a
grocery store,
didn't know what
was in it,
shoved it under
the first pew,
sat through the
whole song service,
participated when
it got time for
the message and I
stood up to
preach.
She reaches
on the pew,
pulls out the
grocery bag,
sits it up on
the pew beside
her, pulls out
yarn and some
sewing needles,
and begins to
yarn while I
preach.
Broke my heart,
tore me up.
I had a hard
time getting
through that
message.
Thankfully, she
left that day,
never came back.
But I want to
tell you something.
God says I'm not
like that.
I don't love you
when you're good.
I love you all
the time.
365 days a year,
throughout all
eternity, I
maintain faithful
love to a thousand
generations.
There's a seventh
thing I want you
to see, and boy,
you're going to
love this.
He says, I
forgive wrongdoing,
rebellion, and
sin, in verse
7b.
I forgive wrongdoing,
rebellion, and
sin.
Now let's just be
straight.
I am going to ask
you to raise your
hand.
We'll see how
transparent you can
be.
Any of you here
ever been guilty
of wrongdoing?
Raise your hand
high.
Yeah.
I hope everybody
in the room's got
your hand up.
You just did
something else
wrong.
Anybody ever
rebelled?
Now you know
what rebellion
means, don't
you?
Rebellion doesn't
mean you made a
mistake.
That's what we,
I made a mistake.
No you didn't.
You rebelled.
Rebelling means I
know what to do,
I'm not going to
do it.
I deliberately,
willfully say,
I'm going in
this direction.
You want me to
go in that
direction?
I'm going in
this direction.
That's the
difference in
just messing
up, isn't
it?
That's willfully,
deliberately
singing it
against God.
He says,
I forgive
wrongdoing,
I forgive
rebellion,
I forgive
sin.
You know
why that's
good news
for us?
Because every
one of us
in this room
are sinners.
For every
one person
that's ever
been born
save Jesus,
all have
sinned and
come short
of the glory
of God.
There's none
righteous,
no not one.
Isaiah 53,
6 says,
Oh,
we like sheep
have gone
astray.
Listen to
this.
We have
each one
turned to
his own
way.
Remember
that song
Frank Sinatra
made popular,
I did it
my way?
That's the
problem with
sin.
We want to
do it our
way instead
of God's
way.
But God
says,
Moses,
understand
this,
let them
know.
They need
to know
about me.
I am a
God who
forgives
sin.
I forgive
wrongdoing.
I even
forgive
rebellion.
When they
shake their
fist in my
face and
they just
refuse to
do it my
way,
I will
still forgive
that.
Boy,
what a great
message from
God.
And then
here's the
last thing.
I will not
leave the
guilty unpunished.
He says at the
conclusion of
verse 7,
I will not
leave the
guilty unpunished.
And what
he's implying
is this,
I am
just.
I am
just.
He wanted
to make
sure,
even though
they understood
all these
good things,
they understood
that I am
just,
I will not
leave the
guilty unpunished.
I close this
story,
it's embarrassing,
but it's the
best way to
illustrate the
point I'm
trying to
make.
So at my
expense,
I tell this
story this
morning.
I'm about
38 years old
at the time.
I'm pastoring
Western Avenue
Baptist Church
in Statesville.
It's 1987.
And there
in 1987,
they came out
with a new
Camry.
They changed
it from that
little square
Camry car,
some of you
will remember.
They changed
to a more
rounded look.
It had a
seat belt that
came across
automatically and
fashioned you.
Man, it made
you feel like
you're a big
shot, right?
It's still just
a Camry, but
I loved it.
I knew the
one I wanted.
I'd seen it on
commercials.
It was wide,
had beautiful
hubcaps,
wheels,
and it
had a blue
velour interior.
Doesn't sound
like much now.
Boy, it was a
fancy thing then,
right?
That's the one I
wanted.
I went to the
car lot, a truck
had just pulled
in, I saw it.
I told the guy
that sells me, I
want the one
right up there
on the top of
that truck, but
it's on the
top.
That's the one
I wanted.
Bought that car,
was so proud of
it.
A few weeks
later, we lost
our minister of
music.
Our personnel
committee heard
about a guy in
Gastonia, North
Carolina, and we
decided we'd go
over there and
hear him, meet
him, take him
that.
We went in
two cars, there
were about eight
of us all together,
one staff person,
six committee
members, and
myself.
So we'd get in
two cars and we
go over there.
I'm in my 87
Camry.
I'm so proud of
that Camry, if
you hadn't picked
up on that yet.
And this other
guy who was
chairman of the
committee, he had
a mid-80s Olds
Mobile 98, about
as long as this
middle row in the
auditorium.
I mean, you had
to go to the
airport to turn
the thing around.
Remember those?
Get about 10
miles per
gallon, just a
big, big, big
old car.
So we finish our
meeting, we're
out in the
parking lot, we're
standing around
chewing the fat.
You would think
we're a couple
17, 18-year-old
kids.
I'm saying, man, I
love my car.
It's got a button
you can push and
it'll send extra
gas to the
carburetor and
it's for power
situation.
He says, that
little runny
foreign car?
He says, I want
you to know I
could blow the
doors off that
thing.
I said, no, you
couldn't.
Yes, I
could.
We argue like
two little
schoolboys, right?
So we get in the
car.
We're all laughing
and having a good
time.
We get in the
car, half of them
in my car, half of
them in his car.
We head back to
Statesville.
77 takes you all
the way to
Statesville.
You get to
Interstate 40.
You get on
Interstate 40, you
go about a mile and
a half.
You get off the
exit and right
there's our
church, right?
So we're coming
back on 77
heading north and
I turn to the
people in my car,
about four people
in my car and we
get up here to the
cloverleaf connecting
us from 77 40.
I said, fasten your
seatbelts because when
we come off this
cloverleaf, I'm going
to blow his doors
off.
So we come off the
cloverleaf and just,
I'm not going to do
it for long, but I
just for a second, I
stomp on the
accelerator.
I mean, I push it
through the floor
board.
We fly past this
guy, right?
We're waving to him
as we go by.
We just fly by him
like he's standing
still.
I get to this bridge
just maybe a quarter
of a mile down the
road where I'm
beginning to slow up
because my exit's
coming up and as I
do, I look down at
my speedometer and
it's 94 miles an
hour.
Shame to say that,
94 miles an hour.
I let off the gas and
just as I do, I look
in the left-hand lane
of the oncoming
traffic and there's a
highway patrolman.
Brake lights are
everywhere.
But I figure, hey, I've
only got to go a half a
mile and I'm going to
get off the interstate
and I'm not going to
run from him.
I'm just going to
conveniently disappear.
I'm going to get down
to the bottom of the
stop sign and I'm going
to go across to the
service road and my
church is right there
and I'm in the clear.
So I just, I didn't
violate the speed
line.
I just went down to the
stop sign, crossed the
road.
He's got to come
across a hundred
yards of terrain, right?
So I go up through the
parking lot of this
restaurant, get over the
big hill and I'm home
for, I'm about a quarter
mile from my church, half
mile from my church at
most.
Just as I'm several
hundred yards past that
hill, I look up and out
of nowhere, this police
car gets airborne and sets
down a couple times hard,
blue lights flashing and I'm
just, I want to puke just
to be honest with you,
right?
No, that's a word you're
not supposed to use when
you preach but that's how
I felt that moment.
I pull off the side of
the road, he comes flying
up behind me, he starts
getting out of the
patrol car, I'm getting
out of my car because I
don't want the people
inside to hear what I
know he's going to say
to me, right?
So I go walking back to
the patrol car, he's
getting out of the car,
he's putting on his
smokey the bear hat, he's
walking toward me and he
takes about a step and he
looks up and when he
does he says, put me
pastor?
And I said, Carol, I
know him, he's Carol
Ward, he's been out of
the patrol car and a
member of our church.
I just walk over to the
passenger side of the
patrol car and he says,
what are you doing?
And I said, I'm getting
in the car so you can
write me that ticket.
He says, what were you
doing?
I said, I was showing
off, acting like an
idiot, I'm sorry.
And he says, looks me
dead in the face.
He says, your face
tells me you are never
going to do that again.
Are you?
And I said, no, sir, I'm
not.
And I haven't, I'll be
honest, I haven't.
He says, go get in your
car and go home and don't
do that again.
Yes, sir, thank you.
I get in my car and
everybody's laughing.
You going to jail?
That was Carol Ward.
He didn't, he didn't find
me.
He didn't find you.
In the meantime, we've got
to tell you this, while we're
standing on the side of the
road, that other car with the
other four people in it, they
come by and they're going,
I'm standing on the side of
the road with Carol at the
time.
I get back, man, they're
razzing me.
I get back home, my wife
gets on me.
She plays Holy Spirit for
me.
Any of you men ever have
wives do that?
You know, you could have
lost your ministry.
You could have killed those
people.
And all of that, she was
right.
I just sat there and took
it.
Two days later, I get a
letter from a state firm
agent who, by the way, was
in my back seat.
He says, don't worry, I'm
not raising your rates, but I
just want you to see what
they would have been had
you gotten the ticket for
what happened.
It went up astronomically.
Now, I want to tell you, I
am so grateful to Carol
Ward for his showing me
leniency.
But I want you to understand
this perfectly clear.
That is not justice.
Any teenager in this room who
had gotten stopped driving
that crazy would have gone to
jail.
That was not justice.
I was shown favoritism because I
was his pastor.
Because he knew me.
At best, because he thought,
this is not characteristic of
this guy I know.
But it's still not justice.
And I want to warn you because
I think there are a lot of folk
out there who think because I
grew up in church, I hung out
at church.
My name's on the roll, First
Baptist Pickens.
I showed up there a whole lot.
They think when they stand
before God, God's going to look
at them and say, oh yeah, I
remember you.
Yeah, you were there all the
time.
Come on in.
It's okay.
I'm going to give you a pass.
The Bible says he can't sweep our
sin on the carpet.
You know why?
Because he is rich in truth.
Because he is holy and he is
just.
He is not a doting grandfather.
He is going to find us guilty
of sin.
You say, well how can he forgive
us?
Because while he finds us guilty
of sin, he pays the penalty
for us.
He does the unthinkable.
He steps from behind the judge's
seat and comes in the form of
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and sheds his blood on the cross
that you and I can have eternal
life.
The Bible puts it this way.
All we like sheep have gone
astray.
We've each one turned to his own
way.
And the Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.
He takes my sin and transfers it
to his son.
I close by telling you this.
This book I hold in my hand is my
copy of the scripture.
But what if it weren't?
What if this book were the history
book on the life of Ralph Carter?
You could turn to page one and you
could read on page one where I was
born on December the 18th, 1951 to
Ralph and Doris Carter.
You'd read within a few pages.
I have a brother and a sister,
Teresa and Ricky.
You'd read about my childhood,
attended 13 schools in 12 years
because my dad was in the military.
You'd read some things that fascinate
you, some that would bore you to tears.
You'd read some things that say,
well, you know, he's an okay guy.
He's a guy I'd like to hang out with.
And then you'd read some things where
you'd say, well, man, that was a good
thing he did.
But I want to tell you, you'd read a lot
of places that you'd go, what?
You'd read some of those pages that we
try to keep closed where you'd say,
why did Fred Stone have that guy come
preach?
My goodness, he's not a guy who should
be standing in the pulpit preaching.
Why did we get him?
There's some things in this book,
if they were open and you came and read
them, I've got to be honest with you.
I'd be humiliated to death.
Things I just wouldn't want anybody in
the world to know about.
Thoughts I've had and actions I've taken
and things I've said.
I don't want nobody to know those
things.
But if it was open in the presence of
God and I was judged out of what is
written in my life's book, in the
presence of God, I wouldn't just be
embarrassed.
I would be eternally condemned.
And the only hope I have is that
someone else has paid the penalty of
my sin for me.
And that one is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if he's never, ever pardoned you
of your sin, I want to tell you
something today.
I don't care what you've done, he
will.
All you need to do is ask him, Lord
Jesus Christ, forgive me of my sin.
I know I'm not worthy of sin.
I know I can't get there by attending
church, by giving my tithe, by singing
the choir, by being good, because I just
can't be good enough.
I've already messed up too much.
So I plead for your mercy.
I plead for your grace in my life.
If you've never done that today, I'm
going to ask you to consider doing that
right now.
To right now as we have music played,
one of your staff will come and stand here
at the front.
I'm going to ask you to slip out of your
seat and just come to the front.
You may need to talk to him.
You may just want to come and kneel here
at the altar.
The one you really need to talk to is God.
And just say, God, I just need you in my life.
I'm begging you for salvation today.
Would you come?
Let's stand.
Let's have our music.