Surprised in Zion

Great God in heaven, I come unto you now and I plead with you Lord on behalf of the souls of men that you sent your dear son Jesus Christ to die for. He shed his very blood and offered himself up as a sacrifice and atonement for sin. Great God in heaven, your arm is not too short to save.

Pray Lord that these folks here hearing this message won't just hear the shaky voice of an old preacher but someone will hear your voice as it comes to them with power, authority, and majesty. Open hearts I pray and pour your grace in there Lord. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. Well it's a hot night friends and I have a hot message for us tonight but it's a message many you won't like but it matters little to me if you don't like me or you don't like my message because most folks don't like me anyhow. Why I lost 98% of my givers years ago when I began to preach pointed and searching sermons designed to glorify God and awaken lost sinners.

I've had the good deacons of a baptist church threaten me for saying unless you repent you will surely go to hell even if you are the chairman of the deacons. I've had a church see revival and stiff me. I labored there four days preaching my heart out for free.

They didn't give me any offering or honorarium but God got the glory and they saw God come down and it bothered a good number of them. Listen friends I care about your soul and I'm going to be honest with your souls tonight and I hate to even say it but there are multitudes today going to hell from a church view. They're like the hypocrites spoken about in scripture of the sinners in Zion who are afraid.

If a person claims to be a Christian but they live in a way of sin then that course of sin is evidence against their profession. Those who have experienced a work of grace upon the heart through a supernatural act of regeneration by God's spirit will live in a way of obedience to God through a godly life. He who claims to be a Christian but contradicts that testimony by a mouth filled with profanity or a stomach filled with booze and a life given only to self-gratification is a hypocrite.

They profess that they know God but in works they deny him says Titus 1 16. A born-again believer is the person spoken of in Psalm 119 1 through 3. Blessed are the undefiled in the way that walk in the way of the Lord. They also do no iniquity.

The person who says he is a Christian but lives in a way of sin will be rejected at the day of judgment so says Jesus. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. The only believed gospel of modern evangelism has made false converts who only have a hope of heaven but their hope is only a hole in the wall.

There's nothing behind it. Men who are saved by God will love God and they will serve God in a life of obedience to him. Herein is love that we keep his commands so says 1 John 5 3. If a professing Christian is living disobedient life to God they are not born of God.

He that commit the sin is the servant of sin so says John 8 34. So it is true that a course of external sin is evidence of an unconverted individual. If you say you are Christian and you live with your sex partner outside of marriage then you are a fornicator even if you're madly in love and both attend church.

The course of sin in your life proves you are an unregenerate individual. This applies to sins of omission as well as sins of commission. If you claim to be a Christian but you refuse to spread the gospel in your lifetime and you haven't witnessed anyone in years you're not saved yourself even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

If men live in a way of disobedience they are not Christ's sheep for his sheep hear his voice. To live in the neglect of known duties as spreading the gospel and to practice known evils is evidence against you as the commandment as your own condemnation which will happen at the judgment. If you are a profane person a liar an adulterer a drunkard you fall into the same company of the sons of Eli those who were Hophni and Phinehas who were called the sons of Belial that knew not the Lord.

Judas is one of the twelve but he lived in theft he was a thief so says scripture and Demas though a co-laborer of the apostle Paul had his rotten apostate heart exposed at last Demas has forsaken me haven't loved this present evil world. Those church members who live in a course of sin must be awakened to their danger of dying in their sins and being cast into hellfire for this will condemn them if they live in a course of sin they must go the way of all the ungodly. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity so says Psalm 125 5. The Bible has a great deal of warnings for those who live in a known way of sin and one way of sin is enough evidence to damn them.

The fate of the ungodly it's a terrible fate if you are an ungodly religious person then pay heed to these warnings for the wicked who are compared they're compared to an unruly sea but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked and we read of the awful surprise and shock of the hypocrites who are found out the sinners in Zion are afraid of fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings and in the book Job we read the terrible fate of the wicked the terrors take hold on him as waters a tempest stealeth him away in the night the east wind carrieth him away and he departeth and as a storm hurleth him out of this place Job continues to describe the fate of the ungodly who serve their sin how oft is the candle of the put out and how oft cometh their destruction upon them God distributed the sorrows in his anger they are as double before the wind and as chaff that the storm carrieth away the hope of the hypocrite friends is clearly stated in God's word for what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him but I fear the most terrifying scripture which describes the fate of an unconverted person is found in Job 18 18 which declares he shall be driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world imagine yourself you're on a sunny beach on a sunny day or you're playing golf on a beautiful golf course or you're out taking a morning walk when the pain grips your chest and your legs become cement and you crumble to the ground stone dead from a heart attack then the demons grab hold of your soul as you are driven from light into darkness as you're chased out of this world into another world you were quite unprepared for but Jesus calls hell outer darkness and that's what it is friend and you go from light to that darkness quicker than you can snap your fingers I'm being honest with you with your souls tonight friend I don't want you to go to hell I don't want you to go there even from a church pew or even from a pulpit you can be active in a church reform yourself in many ways but if there remains but one evil way then there's ungodliness if a man lives in a way of sin it not only renders his profession suspicious but it's full evidence against him if there is a rotten spot in your life and you refuse to turn it over to God and seek his grace to forsake it and turn from it then that is proof in itself you are not subject to God's authority and if you're not subject to his authority he won't allow any rebels in his kingdom he will not run up the flag of peace upon your soul while you still have a shotgun pointed at him listen to me friend you'll be at the day of judgment before thrice holy God who's the righteous judge of all the earth just one way of sin known about and indulged in will damn you because if you're living in a way of sin that is enough to expose all your pleas and pretenses of claiming to be a follower of Christ Jesus living in a course of lying or stealing or profanity or drunkenness or fornication they're just a few of the damning evidence they'll follow you into eternity and stack up against you as proof and evidence against your sincerity even if you steal clear of great transgressions and you hope that on that day God will not insist on small things you are deceived because even though the sin that you live in is small it's still big enough to damn you one small leak still sinks a big ship a 22 caliber bullet will kill you just as quick as a missile if you're bucking God in one area of your life that you refuse to give to him he will be the one thing that brings his gavel of justice down upon your head in the end that there is contempt toward God in small sins there is enough rebellion to God wrapped up in little sins he'll damn you for sure God's word in Proverbs 19 16 declares he that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul but he that despiseth his way shall die some settle upon a false bottom of religion when things are going their way if a man is willing to serve God in ordinary circumstances where his liberty and safety is secured he is all right but he will excuse himself when things get too hot when there are great difficulties so he must be excused because he will not risk confiscation of his goods or prison or death for his profession of faith unregenerate religious men cannot be counted on or even trusted though they may be ready to own their own fault by being ashamed and shedding some tears but soon when the temptation returns they are as bad as before so was king Saul who was a prideful sinful man who kept on trying to kill David but confessing but never repenting and forsaking his sin though he repeatedly shed tears he tried to kill David very soon afterwards Saul lifted up his voice and wept after one such episode of attempted murder he even promised his son Jonathan as the Lord liveth he shall not be slain but as soon as king Saul got an invitation from the Zephytes he was pursuing David again David was always dodging Saul's spear there's no trust in such men who hide behind religion and live in a way of sin if they live in ways of sin they're yet dead in sin and fall into the category of the ungodly they know nothing of true biblical repentance the apostle Paul states in 2nd Corinthians 7 10 godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of you are under a power and that power is the power of darkness upon your soul you're a slave to your sin friend your trouble is you just made a decision and joined the church without ever experiencing a work of grace upon the heart through regeneration you must be born again please don't stay religious and lost in the days of Wesleyan Whitfield the predominant ministry was an unconverted ministry men wore white collars but they did not wear the robe of righteousness through the new birth George Whitfield cried out against the unconverted ministry of his day and he was pelted with rotten eggs and rocks for it but he also saw revival on two continents his main message was he must be born again when Whitfield was a student at Pembroke college he was a member of John Wesley's holy club where these religious young students met on a regular basis to have nights of fasting bible reading and prayer oh Whitfield even visited prisoners and widows he gave alms even denied himself decent food and warm clothing all in the name of his religion but he like John Wesley at the time they were just lost religious folks then he discovered while reading a book that his friend Charles Wesley loaned him a little book written by the Scotsman Henry Schugel and the title of that book friends was the life of God in the soul of man while Whitfield read that book the light came in and flooded his soul with the fact that to be saved meant one had to experience God to where the life of God was in the soul of man this completely transformed George Whitfield's life thrust him into a globetrotting ministry whereas one theme was he must be born again and it was the fuel of the great awakening Gilbert Tennant and others took up that theme and rode horseback all over New England in fire of revival followed them everywhere God honored the preaching of the doctrine of regeneration and he blessed two continents in shaken revival and he still blesses the preaching of that doctrine a day he must be born again I wish I could save you friend but I can't save you any more than you can save yourself I can't pry open your heart with a crowbar only God can open your heart and bring conviction of sin and show you reveal to you your great perilous position of dying outside his son's redeeming blood I don't care how long it's been since you made a profession I don't care how long you've been a member of a church if you've never been washed in the blood and born from above you'll surely bust hell wide open when you die even if you are the pastor of a big baptist church all I can do is bring a warning to you and pray that God's spirit and God's grace will hit you like a sledgehammer awaken you to your danger of damnation in the devil's hell I know this friend I know God is full of mercy in a day of grace he can save the biggest sinner in this drunken lust-filled town tonight if you'll only own up to your guilt and feel your need of him and become a seeker of him God reasons with you tonight friend listen come now and let us reason together sayeth the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they should be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they should be as wool listen friend Jesus came down here so we can go up there he was born he walked among men doing good he fed the hungry he healed the sick he gave sight to the blind why he gave sight to old blind Bartimaeus he even raised the dead to life and he was taken by cruel hands arrested falsely accused he was wrongly convicted badly beaten humiliated spit on sentenced to die a criminal's death where he was crucified on that cross at Calvary yes he died he was buried and on the third day he rose again he appeared to many before he ascended back into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of the father and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross and he has a message to sinners in need of mercy Jesus stood and cried if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink a he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water listen friend the gospel is for the hungry the weary and the thirsty are you hungry for God are you sick and tired of your dirty rotten sins are you thirsty for Christ then come come to him surrender all you are to all he is and own him as savior and lord you don't have to wait till you're better listen master you just come as you are come as you is but God's love runs so deep that the very last page of the bible still has his gospel plea and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hearer say come and let him that is the thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely