A Pattern for Good Works

Beginning, he says, the most influential church in the world today is the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. That's a mighty big start. Did you hear what I said? The most influential church in the world today is the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.

He goes on to say in his article that more churches copy the First Baptist Church than copy any other church in the entire world. There's no doubt about that. You know, I used to wonder why God had put me on the scene across the country, preaching up and down the country.

I could understand why Lee Robertson preaches across the country. I could understand why John Rice does. But I couldn't understand why I did.

What part would I have to play? And then one day at dawn dawned on me, there's only one John Rice, there's only one Lee Robertson, there's only one Bob Jones. I take it back, there's Bob Jones III, Bob Jones II, Bob Jones I. In fact, they pray down there in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Bob III. And so anyway, we, but there's only one Bob Jones.

But you know, all across this country, there are a bunch of little jack houses having troubles and splitting churches. One fellow I recall in California, and he said, I came to the pastor school, came back home, did what you said. My church has voted me out.

Now what you going to do with me? And, but honestly, it's the truth. Did you know what our church does? Churches all over America do. Did you know that? I just listed a few things and some are humorous.

I got off the plane in a distant state recently, and the pastor met me at the airport. But usually they meet me, they take my bags and take me to the car. And the pastor met me and he said, right in the waiting room, he said, Dr. Iles, would you be seated here please? I thought he was going to send me back home because it was right there in the waiting room where folks were waiting to catch the plane and come back.

And I said, all right. So he said, put your bags down, I want to talk to you. Now he said, get your pen, get your pen and a piece of paper.

Well, nobody ever let me like that before. He said, get your pen and a piece of paper. Well, I got me a pen and a piece of paper.

He said, now write down what I tell you. I said, okay. He said, stay in Crete.

And I wrote down, stay in Crete. He wrote down, he said, Russian roulette. And I wrote down, Russian roulette.

And he said, how to fire the preacher. And I wrote down, how to fire the preacher. And he kept calling off sermons, titles of my sermons.

He called off about 25. And I said, look, I can't preach that many while I'm here. He said, these are not the ones for you to preach while you're here.

These are the ones you can't preach while you're here. He said, I've already preached them. And I said, come to think of it, I'd better take the next plane back home because there's nothing left.

But you know, all across the country, that's the way it is. One fellow, one fellow, my tapes go out. Oh, all across the country.

Many, many states, the preachers get my tapes. And one fellow said not long ago, he said, I quit getting your tape. But he said, after two or three weeks, he said, I had to get your tapes again.

Every sermon I preach here goes all across the country, even up into Canada. Up in, what's that big college in Alberta, Canada? Big one up there. Yeah, Prairie Bible Institute.

And they have a Jack Hyles night up there. Some of the students get together and hear every sermon I preach. They hear it up there.

And this fellow said, he said, I stopped getting your sermons, but he said, I decided it's better to pay that much money than have to study. And so he said, I preach. And he honestly said, I preach every sermon you preach the next Sunday after you preach it.

Now I'm not for, not necessarily for that, but if a fellow is going to preach somebody else's sermons, he may as well choose mine. And, uh, but anyway, uh, what I'm saying now is going out too, by the way, and I'll get it. But, uh, I'm saying that this is the most copied church.

So Elmer, Dr. Elmer Towns says, uh, I was in a, I go to church after church, after church and brother, we don't use just as I, just as I am anymore. Uh, so much, but church after church and, and the invitation time comes and the choir saying just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee O Lamb of God, come and come. And, uh, wonder where they got that.

Well, they didn't get it that well. They don't sing it that well. Wonder where they got that singing just as I am, like they're only being heard chariot race.

Got it at first Baptist church in Hammond. Last week, one of the funniest things ever happened. And one of the most humiliating things ever happened happened to me.

I was in a trove Pennsylvania. And, uh, so I got there just a bit late. Well, actually I could have made it in time for the start of the service, but, um, uh, I wouldn't have had time to shave.

And so I told the pastor, I said, look, uh, he said, I'll come in and get Dr. John Rice at the six 15 service starts six 45. He said, if you want to stay in shave and freshen up and change, I'll, um, I'll come back and get you. And I said, okay, come back and get me, please.

About seven. It's only a five minute drive to the church or five or six minutes. Get me at seven.

And, uh, that means I can get there by five past seven or 10 past, and I'll be able to hear all, but a few minutes with Dr. Rice would actually start preaching about seven and I'll be able to hear all, but his introduction of his sermon. Well, the church didn't have a vest of you. They'd brought an old school building and they'd cleaned out the entire, all the walls out.

And you just came in from the outside. Now, a lot of you are ahead of, you know what I'm going to say? And this really happened. And so I got there and Dr. Rice had just begun preaching.

Well, he preaches an hour, as you know, and he hadn't preached for five minutes. So I, uh, I walked up and the usher said, Hey fella, you can't go in. And I said, why? Well, he said, uh, you can't go in while somebody is preaching here at our church.

Well, I said, it's, it's Franklin out here. He said, doesn't matter. He said, you can't go in.

Oh, shut up. And, uh, so, uh, you're enjoying this, aren't you? And, uh, so, uh, I said, uh, but, but look, I said, I, I, I'm the, he said, I don't care who you are. He said, you can't go in fella.

Of course he didn't know me from Adam. And, uh, there I was standing out in a drizzling rain, no place to sit out on the front porch of the church. And I said, uh, is it this way all the time? He said, didn't used to be, but said, our pastor went over to Indiana to some kind of a pastor's meeting.

And it's been that way ever since he got back. I stood out there 55 minutes outside and, uh, waiting for my time to come in. And to my dismay, we're the most copied church in all the world.

Did you know that all across the country, people are having letterheads made and the letterhead has, uh, the people out in front of the church building. Nobody ever heard of that until we started it 12, 13 years ago. We had a picture of our people out in front of the church and put that up on the letterhead.

And now we get letters all the time with pictures of the audience, a congregation out in front of the church building. Uh, I was out in California several months ago. And, uh, uh, so during the, between the service I was preaching last and between the services, I decided to walk downstairs, walk up down the hall, pray a while in a lonely hall.

And a fella came running down to the hall. I never saw such an ugly fella in my life. And he's, he, I didn't, I wasn't expecting to see anybody.

And I want you to know he had made for the fist look good and that's ugly. And, uh, so, uh, he came running, he came running to the hall and scared me to death. I thought he was going to attack me.

I said, who are you? He said, and kept on going. And somebody was having a program for the kids and they were using silly Billy. Wonder where they got silly Billy.

They got silly Billy from the first Baptist church of Hammond, Indiana. I carry a little, I carry a little tape recorder. I use it for a dictaphone machine.

It's about, it's about that big from my hand up. Not even that big, little Norelco tape recorder, but I use it for a dictaphone. And so I'm, I'm writing a book on prayer.

And, uh, so I was in a service not long ago and I was, I was, uh, dictating back in the back in the corner. Usher came back and said, no, we don't allow tape recorders in this service. I said, where'd you get the idea? He said, Dr. Jack Hyams.

And then he grinned. He knew who I was. Where'd he get the idea? Uh, first Baptist church in Hammond.

Did you know that the bus ministry in America was started basically right here? I can recall when our bus ministry was advertised as the largest bus ministry in the entire world. You know how many we had? 600 in attendance. Right.

The world's largest bus ministry, 600 people attending. I'm sure this morning we had well over 2,000. And now churches all across the country.

Oh my, there are dozens of churches, scores of churches that have over 600 folks riding on the buses. Now I am, I was in, in, let's see, flying through Atlanta, Georgia, from Atlanta to here. I either stopped in Louisville or Cincinnati somewhere, Charlotte, somewhere between Atlanta.

And, uh, I picked up, it was on Saturday, picked up a newspaper and it said certain, certain Presbyterian church invites you to Old Fashioned Day tomorrow. Presbyterian church. And, uh, and then had listed all the things going to happen.

Guess what they were? Kerosene lamps and lanterns in the service tomorrow night. Old fashioned pump organ. Uh, uh, hallelujah offering and all of it.

Wonder where they got that? Did you know that literally thousands of churches in America have Old Fashioned Day? Where did it all start? Started, well, as far as getting nationwide, started right here at the First Baptist Church in Hamlin. I, um, I was in Western Pennsylvania last week, as I said, and a man said to me, he said, he said, we're on the verge of revival in Western Pennsylvania. He said, wonderful.

He said, you know that nothing has gone on in the Pittsburgh, West Virginia area. In fact, the largest, largest Sunday school in Pittsburgh for a Bible-believing church right now runs 350. 3 million people in greater Pittsburgh, the largest Bible-believing Sunday school averages 350.

And the fellow said, he said, I came to the pastor school at First Baptist Church of Hamlin. I came back home with my battery charged and became a one-man public relations committee for the pastor school. I begged people, bribed people, and got them to come.

And he said, now, Dr. Howell, honestly, he said, the only thing that Western Pennsylvania has had in this generation has been the influence of the pastor school at First Baptist Church of Hamlin. Well, you say you're bragging. No, I'm not bragging.

I'm telling you what other people are saying. At a certain university in this country, they, they say I've written a new book. Have you heard about it? The new book I've and they don't like me very much.

And they say that Dr. Howell has written a new book and the title of it is the 10 greatest soul winners in America and how I won the other nine. No, I didn't do it, but I'll tell you what you can say if you want to. Honestly, they came from the influence of this church and this tape is going around the world and you can laugh at it, make fun all you want to, but I'll tell you what, um, the, the churches in this country are looking to us.

Now, what am I saying? I'm, by the way, I picked up a church newspaper yesterday and they, and on the headline, it said we're building, well, it was the sword of the Lord, uh, in Tampa, Florida. I'll be at that church, but we can't connect. Tampa, Florida.

They're building what? Baptist acres, wasn't it? Baptist what? Faith city. Faith city. Yeah.

Faith city. What are they going to have? College, high school, grade school, senior citizens, uh, faith city. I picked up a paper from down in Kentucky not long ago, and the fellow that said there said, so the night I preached my sermon on my vision, but it was my vision.

Remember that sermon I preached on my vision, huh? Five things we're going to do. Every one of them, he had the same vision I had. Same one I had.

We both been eating onions on our hamburgers at night and had the same vision I had. Five things he said, we're going to start a college. We're going to start us a high school.

We're going to have grade schools all over this area. We're going to have some senior citizens apartment. And my vision, and he called his Baptist acres.

Wonder where he got it? First Baptist church, Hammond. Now I'm not trying to build you up tonight. I'm trying to stir you up to show you that when we have a fall program, the whole world has a fall program.

I was, and I forgot about this, honestly, and most of you folks won't even know what this means, but a few of you will. I went to use the restroom in a big church out in Colorado not long ago. And I wasn't preaching there.

I was touring the place and went in the restroom and opened the door and a big fellow about nine feet tall was standing there. And I bumped into this fellow and hit him right about the midsection and began to look up and on the top, it said, this is Yserp Yibu. Huh? How many remember Yserp Yibu? That's booby prize backward.

It's a fellow we gave away here about eight years ago in the old auditorium even. Nine years ago in the old auditorium, we gave him away to the worst class. I recall John Penley got him most every Sunday, if I recall, and called him Yserp Yibu.

That means, that spells booby prize backwards. And really, Yserp Yibu almost caused me to have a heart attack a few days ago. And where'd he get it? First Baptist Church, Hammond.

Stuart Epperson. Stuart Epperson owns three or four radio stations. He's a wealthy man.

And by the way, I baptized Stuart Epperson in the Jordan River. And he's about six foot seven inches tall, big giant of a fellow. He came to visit our church recently after the service on a Sunday night.

He'd never been here. After the service on Sunday night, Stuart Epperson came to me in the fellowship hall and he said, man, it's good to be here. He said, your church is everything I've heard it was.

And he said, to think, I'm at the church where it all started. And I said, what do you mean? He said, this is where it all started. I said, where all of what started? And he said, this is the place where the big church movement in America started.

Now I haven't told you not anything that I've said. I'm telling you what other people are saying. I'm telling you what I've seen, what others have said.

Now then, as I said, Dr. Towns said the world's most copied church. I wandered back, my mind wandered back as I read with the Towns. Let me just stop and say this.

Somebody might think I'm bragging tonight, and I just want to make it very clear that I am. I just want to really give you some real fodder. I am.

Just so happens I'm proud of my church, and it just so happens I happen to think it's the greatest church in the whole world. And it just so happens that I'm bragging about my church tonight. I've said this across the country.

I said it the other day to Brother Vineyard. I said, I believe the greatest collection of Christian workers in the world today at one place are at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. I mean that with all my heart, and I'd gladly say it.

Now what I'm trying to say is this. My mind wandered back to the room 11 of the Widener Inn at Bill Rice Ranch, where one night I decided to resign the church. Oh my, the battles were so many, and it looked like there's no way in the world to clear up the thing here.

And I just felt like I could not stay, and I decided that I'd resign the church. And God kept me awake all night that night, and on my knees, God spoke to me. He said there ought to be a model church in America.

There ought to be some big First Baptist church, downtown church, that fights a battle and becomes a great soul-winning church, and a pattern for churches all across this country. And there has not been seven days passed from that day until this, I'll take it back, from I'd say a year after that until this. There's not been a seven days passed.

But what people have not written me, or called me, or come to see me, and say, we are modeling our ministry after First Baptist Church of Hammond. Now that means, that means folks, if we stop, think how many others stop. If we do not have a great fall program, think how many others.

People look to us, and they say, for example, Brother Vineyard told me, he spoke down at the Sword, had a bus lecture or two down at the Sword anniversary, where I've been speaking for a few days, and somebody asked him, they said, how do you get along with Hiles? He said, fine. He says, what's the difference in working for Hiles and Falwell? Well, he said, it's just as simple as this. He said, at Falwell's church, I was the mean fella, and Falwell was sweet.

And he said, at Hiles's church, he's the mean fella, and I'm sweet. I haven't noticed any sweetness on his part. But that's what he said.

Dirty bric-a-brac-a-pac-a-lomer. But anyway, that's what he said. Now, the honest, simple truth is, folks want to know.

Folks want to know. Folks want to know. They're saying, what's going on? We have Baptist City, somebody has Baptist Acres, somebody has Faith City, and we have Old Fashioned Day, other folks have Old Fashioned.

Listen, old timer. Did you know the old timer is all over America? The truth is that the stock in the mob company has gone up tremendously since we invented the old timer. Did you know? Did you know there are folks all across America who've gone on high-calorie diets, trying to gain weight, so they can have a pee-wee at Vacation Bible School next year.

I mean, it's all over America. We've got pee-wees all over America. And old timers all over America.

Why? I'll tell you why. Again, I say, we have got to keep going. If we don't, then we're going to hold the blood of America on our hands.

There's not a church in this country that has the opportunity that we have to influence this nation and save it for God and for good, for decency, and keep it from being destroyed by the wrath of God, the judgment of God, like the First Baptist Church of heaven. Now, tonight I'm talking to you as your pastor, and I do this about once or twice a year before our fall program. I'm calling you tonight to arms.

I'm calling you tonight. Now, we haven't had much going on this summer. We've had a lot of folks saved.

We've had a good summer. Best we ever had. But as you know, we haven't had the push.

We haven't had the pressure. I haven't scolded you. I haven't said, let's get with it.

Let's do it. Let's move. Let's go on.

Let's not quit. Let's go forward. Let's go higher.

I haven't said much of that in the last few months. And now I come tonight to call you as my people to arms. It is time again, as the Bible says, and David, it's time for the kings to go forth to battle.

It's time for us to give a concerted effort. It is time for us to launch into a great fall program. Tonight I'm taking this hour as an hour, maybe giving up a little bit of evangelism and the usual type service so we can have more of it next Sunday and more the next Sunday.

And I'm calling you young folks tonight to get your friends and get your neighbors and get the folks in your neighborhood. I'm calling you boys and girls tonight to get your playmates and folks in school with you and get them in Sunday school. I'm calling on you couples tonight to get your friends and get them in church this fall.

I'm calling on you bus workers tonight to get out and shake the bushes and fill up your buses. I'm calling on you Sunday school teachers tonight to launch a program, the like of which you've never launched before and get the attendance up and you superintendents and all of us committed each person committing himself to realize there's more to it than having a big attendance. Listen, the least thing in this world to me, I mean this, the poorest reason in this world for having a big fall program is to try to win that that plaque that says we're the largest Sunday school in the whole world.

Who cares about that? Who cares about that? But I tremendously care about us reaching everybody we can for God. Did you know there are boys and girls in Chicago by the hundreds of thousands that know nothing about the plan of salvation. You walk over to Chicago, you walk down the street in Hammond sometime and just stop some people on the street and ask them, do you know if you died you'd go to heaven? And see what they reply.

Well, I do pretty good. I don't bother anybody. I mind my own business.

I'm a pretty good husband. I'm a pretty good fellow. I don't do anything to hurt anybody else.

The honest simple truth is you can be a pretty good fellow and go to hell. You can be a good husband and go to hell. You can be a good wife and go to hell.

You can be honest and go to hell. You can be a church member and go to hell. You can tithe and go to hell.

You can read your Bible every day and go to hell. The honest simple truth is the average person in this town doesn't even realize that salvation is by grace, through faith, and nothing else, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if they're going to find out, we're going to have to tell them.

We're going to have to tell them. And because of that, I called you. But more than that, I call on you because what we do this fall, churches little and big all across this land will be doing it in months and days and years to come.

That means when you bus workers go out, and knock on a door, it's not like a bus worker in Ames, Iowa, going out and knocking on a door. It's not like that. It's not like a bus worker in Buffalo, New York, going out and knocking on a door.

When the bus workers of First Baptist Church of Hammond go out this week to knock on doors, you are a pattern. If you don't believe it, let me prove it to you. Churches call me wanting our staff members, I mean our ladies.

Of course, Brother Fisk goes out and teaches soul winning, probably average every other week, won't you? Dr. Billings travels around the country teaching schools, and Brother Vineyard goes around the country teaching the bus ministry, and I preach once or twice a year places myself, and tell about our church, and folks want. But that isn't it. Do you know what, do you know what, let's see, you have the third largest church in all the state of Michigan is? It's the Calvary Baptist Church in Hazel Park, Michigan.

They have their annual workers' banquet. Big thing. Last year we probably had 800 people there.

Guess who spoke two years ago? I did. Guess who spoke a year ago? I did. Guess who's speaking this next, this week, I think it's Friday night, at the large, famous Calvary Baptist Church, Hazel Park, where Dr. David Allen is pastor.

Guess who the speaker for the banquet is? Faye Meredith. Yeah, little old runt. She's going to speak.

Yeah, one of our ladies is going to speak. You know why? They heard me, and they said, there's got to be something better up there. Yeah.

Why? I asked her what you're supposed to do, and she said, they said, to ignite the workers. She looked like she didn't know what ignite meant. I said, Faye, that means set them on fire.

Or in her language, set them on fire. Well, Mrs. McKinney, the other day, went to the largest church in, let's see, well I guess the largest church, the second largest church in all the state of Missouri, and taught. In fact, I told her, I said, I've sent your books ahead, and I've got your reservation at the airport.

I've called ahead to have someone meet you. That's what she always does for me, and so now that I'm doing the secretary of work, and she's speaking around the country, well, the least I can do is do up my job as a faithful secretary. I told Mrs. Meredith this morning, I'll be glad to take care of getting her ticket, and sending her books ahead, and so forth.

But I'm saying, why? Why do they want somebody from First Baptist? I'll tell you why. They want to ignite the workers. That's exactly why they want.

And if we do the job, we've got to keep going. We've got to keep moving. No time to stop.

I was thinking, I'm going to surprise you for a minute, and I'm going to embarrass you. Well, I hope I do. I've been thinking, this church has grown all these years, now listening, from 700 in 1960 average, a little over 700, to 5,912 last year, without a single theology professor, without a single college professor, without a single college student, without Bob Jones University and Tennessee Temple graduates teaching in our high schools.

Did you know what, and I say this honestly and kind, did you know that the faculty members alone, we're going to find out whether you're as good as our people or not. I was thinking, with all the men here on the platform, and all the college professors, and all the high school teachers, and all the grad school teachers, and all the preacher boys, it's a disgrace and a shame for us not to have a dozen folks ready to walk the aisle every Sunday night before we ever walk in this room. Here's what you do.

Now let me say this. Our people, I'm not saying our people lay down and quit. I'm saying, you keep on.

But you folks that have come in here, you better set the pattern. I mean you folks that have your doctor's degrees and your master's degrees and your bachelor's degrees from these great colleges and universities, if you don't step right in here and start soul winning and bring folks down the aisle, well then you're not worth much. No you're not.

Uh-uh. No. I'm saying everybody ought to, everybody, nobody, ladies in the house, I teach theology in the college.

That's no excuse for soul winning. Not soul winning. No substitute.

Well, hey, what now? I'm helping little boys and girls in the grade school. Well, okay, but that's no excuse. That's no substitute.

Not at all. Not at all. I'm saying the people of this church who've been working through these years, keep it up.

Don't quit. Don't quit. Stay going.

Those of you that just come in now, you take up the burden too. You bring folks down the aisle too. Don't you leave it to the bus workers and a few deacons and a few Sunday school teachers to be better soul winners than you folks who've had the opportunities of going to Christian colleges and majoring in Bible and preparing to serve God full time.

I don't have any confidence in your Christianity if you're not out winning souls to Christ and getting folks down these aisles. I mean, I'd be ashamed if I were you to have some students, one more folks than I, and you students, by the way, I'd be ashamed to be dedicated to full time Christian service and not be out witnessing and bringing folks down the aisle. I'm saying we ought to run 10,000 in Sunday school this fall if we'd utilize the power we have.

No excuse for it. None. I mean, men like are on this platform, trained men, full time workers for God, men like are on our staff and our bus staff and our college staff and high school staff and deacon board and Sunday school staff, all of us ought to be a part of the soul winning activity.

Not only what, if the day ever comes, if the day ever comes when a person thinks he's not supposed to be a personal soul winner because he teaches in a college, I'll close the doors on that school. I'll do it. The day ever comes when a person says, my way of serving God is teaching in the grade school.

We'll go out of the grade school business. We're not building a substitute for soul winning. We're building a supplement for soul winning or we'll close the doors.

I'm simply saying the whole world is looking at us. Let the pastor of this church examine himself tonight and say, I'm going to go forward this fall. Let the staff of this church examine itself tonight.

Everyone say, I'm going to go forward this fall. Let the administration of our schools examine themselves tonight itself tonight and say, I'm going to go forward this fall. Let the faculty of our college examine itself tonight and say, I'm going to go forward this fall.

Let the faculty of our high school and grade schools examine themselves and say, I'm going to go forward this fall. Let the student body of Hiles Anderson College say, we're going to go forward this fall. We're going to go higher and higher and higher and higher and do greater things for God than we've ever done before.

I call you tonight to give your best to God. Give your best to soul winning, bringing folks to the church and getting visitors to come and bringing folks down these aisles. Why? Because we need to reach people, but more than that, because we're a pattern church.

A pattern church. Bus workers, you're pattern bus workers. Sunday school superintendents, what you do, other churches do.

Teachers, what you do, other churches, teachers, other churches do. And I say this, and I say it as I've said so often, I believe America, as sure as I'm standing here, America is headed straight for hell. I sat night before last on a plane.

I've never been on a rougher ride in my life. I'll tell you what, that tornado that came through here on Thursday night, the front continued down this way and we came, I was on a little DC-9 plane, small jet, and I'll tell you, we bounced all over the sky. I thought for a time or two we were just gone, that's all.

The plane almost turned over. So I got on the plane and right beside me, I was next to the aisle and right across the aisle in the aisle seat beside me was a big colored fella, six feet, ten inches tall. I looked him in the stomach and said, hi.

And so we began talking and I said, you play basketball, don't you? He said, yes. I said, you play for the Harlem, I know, I didn't, I said, who do you play for? He said, I'm trying out for the Harlem Globetrotters. And he said, I played for the number one team in the NAIA, small college division, no, small college division, NCAA, Tennessee A&I or Tennessee State.

Big fella. We got to talking and he got to telling me what he learned at college. This is a Southern college.

I don't know whether you know it or not, but the South goes last because it's newer and they're more fundamental Christians in the South than in the North and less a Catholic influence in the South than in the North. But this is a Tennessee State University. And he got to telling me what they taught and what's going on.

And I got to discouraged, I didn't know what to do. I got discouraged because I stopped realizing that it is gone South. I got discouraged because I stopped to realize that, that, that, that the schools, the universities are gone and they are feeding the high schools and grade school with teachers.

Our country is about gone. Now, the only thing in this world that's going to save this nation, now listen to me carefully. And I've said this before and I've preached it across the country.

Remember the story of Lot and Sodom? The Lord said, I'm going to destroy Sodom. Abraham loved Lot because Lot was his nephew and he grew up in his own home. Abraham came to God and said, God, don't destroy the city of Sodom.

And the Lord said, I must. Abraham said, Lord, if I could find 50 righteous people, would you not destroy Sodom? And the Lord said, I wouldn't destroy for 50. And you recall the story, Abraham searched all over Sodom.

How long it took? I don't know. It may have taken weeks or months. I don't know.

Abraham came back and said, Lord, I couldn't find 50, but said, Lord, I love Sodom. Please don't destroy it. Lord, if I could find 40, would you spare the city? And the Lord loving Sodom too said, Abraham, I'd spare it for 40.

How long it took Abraham to scan the city? I don't know. Abraham went out and tried to find 40 righteous people, came back to God and said, Lord, I couldn't find 40 righteous people. But Lord, I love the city.

Don't, don't destroy it. My nephew Lot is there. Don't destroy it.

If I could find 30, would you spare Sodom? And the Lord said, Abraham, if you can find 30, I'll spare Sodom. Abraham went out. How long it took? I don't know.

But he came back and he said, Lord, I couldn't find 30, but oh God, he said, could I ask you please, if I could find 20, would you not destroy Sodom? And the Lord said, Abraham, if you can find 20, Abraham went out and couldn't find 20. He came back and he said, dear Lord, I couldn't find 20. But he said, don't think I'm presumptuous.

But Lord, if I could find 10 righteous people, would you spare the city? And the Lord said, I'll spare it for 10. Abraham went out and could not find 10 righteous people in Sodom. Now, why was Sodom destroyed? Yes, because of homosexuality.

Yeah, homosexuality is as dirty as the hell from which it came. And I get a little weary these days of getting dirty, nasty letters from people getting on with the cause I fight homosexuality. Well, brother, if you're sitting in this audience tonight and you don't like it because I fight homosexuality, either you're going to sit here and like it and take it and lump it or find yourself some little sister preacher who's probably a homosexual himself and join up with the gay church.

But it's not the homosexual people that destroyed Sodom. No, the drunkards, no, the adulterers, no, the liars, no, the thieves. Sodom would not have been destroyed if Abraham could have found 10 righteous people.

And what am I saying? I'm saying if Lot had won nine others, Sodom would not have been destroyed. Don't you recall that Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt? Do you know why she turned to a pillar of salt? Because in the book of Numbers chapter 18 and verse 19, we have the words, a covenant of salt. And in second Chronicles chapter 13 and verse five, we have the words, a covenant of salt.

And if you recall in the old Testament, Leviticus chapter two, verses 11 to 13, the Lord gave us the instructions for building a meal offering, a meal offering. And the Lord said in the meal offering, you have to have salt, but you can't put leaven. Why? Leaven is a type of sin and salt is a type of righteousness or preserving.

And the Lord said in the meal offering, he said, uh, in the meal offering, no leaven, but you've got to have salt. Now, if you recall in Matthew chapter 13, in the, I think it's about, about, about verse 33, in the, in the parable of the, of the, uh, leaven, don't you recall that the woman, listen carefully, the woman came and hid leaven in the meal. What's that? That's a woman coming to the meal offering and putting leaven.

What's the bad woman a symbol of in the Bible? Bad, false religion. And what's the leaven a symbol of? Sin. So what does it say? That as the end time approaches, the wicked churches are going to bring sin and put sin in the meal offering.

Now, follow me. If we don't get enough salt in this country from the good churches to counteract the leaven from the bad churches. Now hold it.

Are you awake or asleep? Back up. The bad, for example, she says she hid the leaven. She concealed it.

Nobody could see it. She hid it. That's what the devil does.

Do you know the devil takes things and hides them? Let me, let me just give you an illustration. Do you know one of the biggest communist conspiracies in America today is a little program for children called Sesame Street? You say, what? I know it's hidden. It's hidden.

Sesame Street is nothing in this world other than a communist effort to take our boys and girls and make communists out of them while they're little. If I had a child young enough who wanted to watch Sesame Street, I'd sell my television set for him and let him watch it. Well, you say, I just can't understand that.

Okay, you just hang around, brother, until the communists take over this country, and then you're going to understand some things that you wouldn't hear me preach about because you wanted your ostrich head in the sand. And when our country is gone, I mean gone, then you'll look back and you will find out what caused it to be gone. It's hidden.

Now on one side, the dirty National Council of Churches, and the dirty liberal churches, and the dirty war council, and the politics, and the oxnums, and the forays, and the buttricks, and all the liberal crowds are trying to infest America with leaven. And we're gone if we don't get some old-fashioned churches that infest America with salt. The battle is salt versus leaven.

We've got to get some salt. Anybody here ever have an old-fashioned smokehouse? I don't mean where you go out and smoke now. I mean an old-fashioned smokehouse.

Part of your home is one. As I've said before, there is a scripture that says it's okay to smoke with only one brand. It's wrong to smoke Pell Mills, and Winston, and Salem.

But camels are scriptural. It says in the Bible, Rebecca lit off her camel. And that's the only one that's scriptural.

Anybody ever have a smokehouse? What did you do to a smokehouse? You took some ham and cured the ham. You say, was it sick? No. You put salt on the ham and hung it in the smokehouse, right? And what did it do? The salt preserved it.

That's what the salt did. And you'd go out in the wintertime, and you'd need some good old country ham or a good old slab of bacon. Anybody here ever eaten a dry salt bacon? Ah, you poor people.

But what was it? Preserved. How? With salt. The only thing in the world that's preserving America today is the fact that we have some old-fashioned born-again Christians left here.

Over in Revelation chapter 14, on in chapter 16, it talks about an angel coming with a sickle. And the angel, another angel cries, thrust in your sickle, for the earth is fully ripe. And the word ripe means rotten.

It is fully rotten. Why? Because leaven has made it so rotten. When the world gets fully rotten, the angel thrusts in the sickle, and then the Armageddon battle can come.

The only thing that's keeping Armageddon from coming on this world tonight, the only thing that's keeping the war from breaking over tonight, the only thing that's keeping our country from going to hell tonight, is the fact we have a bunch of fundamental Christians. Some of these folks that are griping because our college students witness on the street. They'd better thank God if our college students don't witness on the street.

They're going to go down the drain with all the rest of us. We've got to get out. We've got to work.

We've got to build a church here. We ought to go to 10,000 in Sunday school. We ought not to stop.

We ought to give our best. The eyes of this nation rest on this church. We're a patterned church.

We've got to do it. No choice in the matter. No choice at all.

Why? Look, if you would, in 2 Thessalonians sometime, chapter 2, where it says, the mystery of iniquity has already worked. Only he who now hinders that mystery of iniquity shall hinder, that's the Christian, the Holy Spirit in the body of the Christian, shall hinder until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming.

What's keeping the Antichrist from coming tonight? Born-again Christians. What's keeping the Tribulation period from coming tonight? Born-again Christians. How? We're the only salt this whole world has when we're called out at the rapture.

That's why the Tribulation's going to come. The world will get as sorry as the devil who inspired it. Then the Antichrist shall be turned loose, and the man of sin, and the false prophet, and the blood shall be the horse's bridles, and the hailstones shall fall from heaven weighing 116 pounds or so.

And then shall men try to kill themselves, and serpents, and all kinds of deadly creatures turn loose on this world, and locusts coming, and half of this world's population killed, and war such as the world has never seen before, and famine is coming. Why? Because God's people are gone. That's why.

I've given my life, and I mean this, I've given my life to going up and down this country trying to get God's people to go soul-winning so we can get enough salt to keep God from destroying this nation in our generation. I don't think we're going to ever have a great sweeping revival that's going to maybe, maybe convert everybody in America. I don't think the Bible prophesied that.

I don't think we're going to stem the tide. I think our colleges are going to destroy our school system, and I think that America will be destroyed from the college's classroom desk. I don't think there's any stopping it, but I do think we can get enough righteous people to savor this country to where God in heaven will look down and say, I can't let America be destroyed, there's too much salt there.

That's why Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt. She turned to a pillar of salt because there wasn't enough salt there in Sodom to keep the city from being destroyed. And that's why God came to David and said, I'll make with you a covenant of salt.

That's why God came to Abraham and said, I'll make with you a covenant of salt. And I'll say again, there's more to it. There's more to it than just us.

If the average church in America doubles their attendance in the fall program, it'll hurt, it'll help few people but them. But if this church keeps going forward, it'll help the whole world, the whole world. And we've got to do it.

The other night, I flew to Dallas, Texas, was spent there with a pastor of the Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, where I pastored six years and eight months. When I left that city, resigned that church, one person of every seven who lived in that city called me pastor. I doubt if any church since Jerusalem has ever completely saturated a town like that town was saturated.

One person out of every seven in that town called me their pastor. We had as high, in a little town, a little over 20,000 people. We had as high as 3,163 in Sunday school.

We baptized, now get this, we baptized over 700 a year and didn't have one bus route. Now you think about that. Over 700 a year, we baptized for three years in a row and didn't have one single bus kid.

We even had order in our services. We didn't have any switchblade knives, we didn't have three murders a year, we have 15 around here. How's the church doing now? Pastor said we were up in attendance last Sunday.

We had 450. I told the people, this is not, I said, Miller Road is not where I ought to pastor. But I said, I'd like to come down here about three months and get you back up to a thousand.

Just stir the old crowd again. Brother, God is debtor to nobody. God doesn't owe this church a thing.

All we've got to do is say, well, it's First Baptist Church. God's not impressed with the name of this church. And God will not bless us because of what we did last year.

We've got to do it this year. Deacons, you are a reproach to the cause of Jesus Christ if you're not a part of the soul winning, growing ministry of this church. Sunday school teachers, you are a reproach.

By the way, you are also a traitor to your nation. We've got a chance here. We've got a chance.

Let me give you a statistic or two. Wake up. I know it's hot.

I know what we're going to do about this temperature in here. I don't know what, but for the gym, we're going to have to figure out some way to wake up the crowd without giving them pneumonia before next Sunday. We have had over 8,000 different pastors come to our pastor school.

An intelligent guess by another pastor in America, I get this, an intelligent guess by another pastor in America says that each pastor who's been to pastor school is averaging 300 more, average 300 more in Sunday school than he was before pastor school began. Do you know 1, 2, 3, 4, 5? Do you know how many people that is? 2,400,000. Do you know that if we can get that many people, righteous people in America, do you know maybe God looked down and said there's too much salt to destroy America? Now I'm saying this, I'm saying that if we set back on our loss and our past and our victories of last year, we will die.

And by the way, let me say a word to you teachers too, you school teachers again. Do you know that you won't get your salary if this church doesn't keep growing because it's the growth of this church that keeps our schools open? Who put up the building? First Baptist Church. If we don't keep after people, I mean after people, we'll die, we ought to die.

The next Sunday is the opening of our fall program. I challenge you, I beseech you, I beg you, I exhort you, I plead with you. Every person in this room, do your best.

Do your best. May I say just a word to the unsaved? Tonight if you're not saved, you're one reason why this country is about to perish. I'm in America, the Bible says it's not by might nor by power but by my spirit, saith the Lord.

It says some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the Lord our God. America saved will not be because of big army, though we ought to have a big army. America saved will not be because of our stockpile of bombs, though we ought to have a big stockpile of bombs.

America saved will be because of the righteous people of this country getting enough salt spread across this nation to keep God from destroying. And so I call on you unsaved people, come to Christ. You folks who are saved but never have as much as even been baptized in God's dear name.

What in the world is wrong with you? A country is going to the devil and you won't even obey Christ in the first step of salvation or after salvation. Others of you ought to join this church tonight. So I call three invitations tonight.

First, I call on those of you that have no church home and those who've not been baptized to obey Christ and get in the church and get baptized. I call on those of you who've never been saved to trust the Savior. And I call on every member of this great church tonight to rise up and have the greatest push for God we've ever had to set the pattern in this nation for our kids and theirs.

Our Heavenly Father, I pray from the heart of the pastor to the heart of every person on the staff, to the heart of every person who teaches in our school, to the schools, to the heart of every person who sits on our deacon board, to the heart of every person who works in a Sunday school class, to the heart of every person who calls themselves members of First Baptist Church. I pray conviction and challenge shall settle and we shall launch a program that will be a challenge and a pattern for churches as we have in the past. God make it so.

Our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. A hundred of you ought to enter these contests.

A hundred of you. If you don't need the prize, you ought to enter them anyway. A hundred more ought to enter these contests.

People ought to say, I'm going to bring visitors every Sunday, every Sunday, my neighbors, folks at work. And they ask you a question. How many of you folks have some neighbors tonight, people that live in your neighborhood, that you believe you could get to come to visit our church sometime in the next eleven weeks? You believe you could.

And you'd say, Brother Hiles, I'll try to get someone in my neighborhood to come with me at least once in the next eleven weeks. Would you raise your hand, please, in your neighborhood? God bless you. You can lower your hands.

I want to have anyone say, Brother Hiles, I have some folks at work that I believe would come with me if I tried hard enough. And sometime in the next eleven weeks, I'm going to try to get my folks at work to come with me to visit my church. Would you lift your hand, please, all over the building, folks at work, all over the building? God bless you.

You can lower your hands. I want to have anyone say tonight, Brother Hiles, I have some schoolmates, some at school that I believe I could get to come with me. In the next eleven weeks, I'm going to try to get them here, somebody with whom I study at school.

Would you raise your hand, please? Would you raise your hand? You may lower your hands. How many of you would say, Brother Hiles, I have some relatives whom I believe will come with me during the next eleven weeks, and I'm going to do my best to get my relatives here? Would you raise your hand, please? Would you raise your hand, please? Thank you. You can lower your hands.

How many of you would say, Brother Hiles, I'm a deacon of this church. I'm on the deacon board. And I'm going to enter this fall, in the next eleven weeks, I'm going to enter into the soul-winning visitation church Sunday school growing program of this church.

Would you raise your hand, deacons? All the deacons. All the deacons. Thank you.

You can lower your hands. How many of you say, Brother Hiles, I teach a Sunday school class here, and I am going to do my best to help save my country by building a pattern class and a pattern church. I'm going to do my best this fall.

Would you raise your hand, please? Would you raise your hand? You may lower your hands. Every head is bound. How many will say, Brother Hiles, I am on the faculty of one of our schools, and I am going to enter into the soul-winning business and the church-building business, and I am going to do my part, not only my job at school, but I'm going to be a part of the soul-winning ministry of this church.

Would you raise your hand, please? If your hand isn't up, come and get your check tomorrow. You can lower your hand. Thank you.

How many of you would say, Brother Hiles, I'm a student at Hiles-Anderson College, and I am going by my class, my bus route, some way, I'm going to try to get people to the services to hear the message of Christ? Would you raise your hand, college students? You may lower your hands. How many will say, Brother Hiles, I go to Hammond Baptist High School, and I'm going to do my best to do my part in the fall program for Jesus' sake and for the sake of my country? Would you raise your hand, please? God bless you. How many will say, Brother Hiles, I have not been included yet, but I am a member of this church, and I'm going to do my best to bring some loved ones and friends to our services and to do my part in this fall program? Would you raise your hand, please? Our Heavenly Father, thousands of people have been represented tonight by these hands.

Now, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pray that you would help us to have the greatest fall program we've ever known. In Jesus' name, I pray that a patterned church shall continue to rise upon this corner, and may we, in the name of the Christ who died, that we might live. Tell others.