The Far Country

Now this morning I'm going to bring a salvation message. It's something that people who are saved love to bring because they want, like Paul said, I would that ye were as I am, except for these bonds, these chains. And before we get to Luke chapter 15, I was just thinking, many people sitting here probably are parents or will be parents one day and you have a little, I've got four little children and some of you have way more children than I have. Mine are better looking than yours, I'm sure. But when you have a little child and you love that child, I often wondered with Adam and Eve, when Eve held a little cane, the first little baby in her hands and saw those little fingers and saw those little eyes, I wonder if she realized that this would be the world's first murderer. And it must have been heartbreaking when her little child grew up to be that way. In the Bible you have a lot of rebellious children of parents who at least tried to follow God at some stage in their life. Noah had Ham, you have Eli who had children that God rebuked him for and eventually died because of his children and what they did at Shiloh. And then you've got Samuel, we assume that he did rebuke his children. The Bible, he isn't rebuked because of that, but his children did not follow his ways. David had at least two children, one too great, an Absalom and a Donniger and so on. But to me the saddest, and of course you have other examples, but to me the ones that are the saddest in the Bible would be the children of Hezekiah and the children of Josiah. Because, and I've actually, I've wept sometimes reading the Old Testament, then Kings and Chronicles and so on. Because here you have people that God said of both of them almost the exact same words, that nobody turned to the Lord, nobody followed the Lord like these kings. Before them or afterwards, there was no king that followed the Lord like these kings. Both of them had almost exactly the same words that were spoken of them and yet their children rebelled against God. Here you have probably the two godliest kings outside of David that ever lived in the Old Testament. One of them was prophesied of 11 generations before that he would be a king that followed God with all his heart. And yet these two kings had children that did not follow God. And I've wept, wept when I've read, thinking of Manasseh, the child of Hezekiah and Josiah's children. In Hezekiah's case, it must have been interesting. Yeah, you've got his son Manasseh who was born late in his life, after his sickness I believe, and he was the worst king of Judah that ever existed. He was so sinful. Hezekiah's father at that stage, Hezekiah's father was a very evil man and he filled the land with idols and basically the temple was closed and the Levites were not in office and they were not supported and he basically became like of the worst kings of Israel. And Hezekiah came along and he cleaned it all up, he reinstated the daily sacrifice, he cleansed the temple, he started the Passover again, and he fixed the doors of the temple. He was a man who cleaned ship, he followed God and he trusted God. He was not perfect but he trusted God. And yet his son did not follow God. And Manasseh, born late in his life, must have seen a father and this father talked about, probably about how God protected him from Sennacherib, talked about the importance of following God's word and God's law, talked about the importance of knowing God and so on. And yet Manasseh did not follow God. But after all his wickedness and evil for which God said later it was one of the reasons why God destroyed Judah, he was taken away by the king of Assyria to Babylon. I don't know why he was taken away by the king of Assyria to Babylon, but when he was taken to Babylon there he humbled himself and he called out to God and God heard him, the scripture says, and God took him back to Jerusalem. And the wonderful thing about this is that when God took him back to Jerusalem, we read in 2 Chronicles 33 verse 13, then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. You see beforehand he didn't know that God was God. He grew up with a godly father. He grew up in a land that the temple had been cleansed and the Passover was there and people were serving God and the Levites were lifted up and were encouraged by his father as Josiah did as well. But in spite of the fact that he grew up in a godly environment where people were fearing God and turning against evil, he did not know God. And he did not know that God was God until God did the personal work in his life and answered his prayers. Now when I was a little child, I remember not thinking much about church and so on at four years old, but as I grew up I was unsaved until the age of around about 19 years old, 19, 20 years old. I was not a Christian. I had asked Jesus into my life a few times, but I just wanted a ticket to heaven and to escape hell. And there was no fruit. Everything that the Bible says must be in a Christian's life was not in my life as far as the fruit that must be there. But I was a bit of a Pharisee on the outside. I went to church. I memorized many scriptures. I memorized chapters of the Bible. I read up to 20 chapters of the Bible per day and yet I was not saved. I witnessed to Muslims and yet I was not saved. But I remember sitting in meetings, in conferences, and there was one thing that was beautiful in those days. You must realize, South Africa, many years back there was a Bible in every desk of every public school. They used to spank us at schools. If you do not lift up your little cap to the teacher that was walking past, you were in big trouble. That was the school that I went to, a big public school. If you lost something, eventually you got a hiding, a spanking. And we actually had a lot of fun with that. We even volunteered to get spankings at times, and that was something that was honorable at school. But there was a fear of God. They did not, in South Africa before 1994 and even afterwards, play sports on Sunday. Not only did they not play sports on Sunday, but there was no girls at these big stadiums where they lift up their legs and get thrown into the air. We did nothing of that. In fact, it was in the front page of the newspapers in the late 1990s, the very first time one sports team had girls that they hired. The front page of the newspapers were what had been going on in America for many, many years. And I remember going, and these things are just laws on the outside. It does not save you, but there was something of a fear of God and a reverence for the Bible. And I remember going to camps, and people used to go to rooms at Christian camps. People used to take each other by the arms, and there were groups of people early in the morning, sometimes through the night, that would pray to God and ask for God to be present in the meetings where the preachers would preach. And when they prayed in this way, I remember as a young person, I was not saved. I used to kick a soccer ball. It was wonderful. I used to kick the soccer ball outside, throw a rugby ball around, play touch rugby. You guys wouldn't know too much about that. You play something else in America. But at the end of the day, I remember doing all these fun things, throwing water balloons, enjoying myself with my friends. But I'd walk into those meetings, and as the preachers would preach, after the atmosphere was saturated in prayer that I sometimes did not know about, I would sit there in the meetings, and I would realize there's something here greater than the preacher. There's something here greater than just someone preaching a correct sermon, as opposed to a hypocritical false prophet sermon. The person who is standing up there behind him is God. And I would realize as an unsaved person that it wasn't just the Word of God that was being preached, but there was a God behind that Word who created heaven and earth. And the presence of God was so intense in those meetings that as an unsaved person, I could not deny that God existed, and that I was not dealing with a man, but I was dealing with the one who would judge me eternally when I died. You know, I've met people in Baptist churches in America who have said that they've been in Baptist churches, independent Baptist churches, etc., for 13 years, and that was the first time, 14 years, 15 years, 16 years, was the first time where they ever sensed the presence of God in a sense that they knew that God was there. And so you have people like Manasseh who grow up in a godly environment, but they don't know that God is God. And there has to come a day when God does a work in their life and they get saved, and when God shows to them that He is real. Now, in the Bible we read in Luke chapter 15, verse 11 to 13, we read a certain man had two sons. And this certain man had two sons. He's a picture of God in the Bible. And in verse 12 we read, And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living, not just to one person. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with a righteous, righteous living. I'm not going to give you a sermon on the prodigal son, but what I'm going to do this morning is I'm just going to focus on two words, two very sad words in here. He took a journey into a far country. There are many people who are in a far country, far away from God, not caring about God in any way, shape, form, or size. Some of them do not have godly parents or parents who are not perfect but at least care for them and want them to be saved and want them to follow Jesus. When I was at public school, we had 900 kids around about in the high school. A lot of them played a lot of sports and did different things, but weekends was party time. It meant you went and got drunk. It was a boys-only school. There were girls' schools nearby. I did not go to the parties, even though I was unsaved, luckily, blessedly. Monday in geography class was the time that they liked to talk about what happened at the parties. They would talk about this person throwing up and that person throwing up and how they did things with girls and evil stuff that they would do. Every Monday it confused me a bit, even as an unsaved person, because the stories were exactly the same. It was just in a different place or with different people. That person threw up this time. That girl did this with that guy this time. What was very sad to me is I had a friend at school. I mean, you sit next to people and you're friendly, and this particular person, his father used to pay for his parties. He used to pay for the drink and he would come to the parties with his child and he would get drunk with his children while they slept around. That is what some people out there are like. They do not care if their children are rebellious against the Holy God. Praise God, I remember the first time I came to America, or one of the first times I came as a saved person to America, I went to a conference in New York and there I heard a song, which many of you probably will know, thank you God for a Christian family. I know many people sit in Christian families and think their parents are hypocrites because they get irritated at times and things like that, but I want to tell you, thank God, if you have parents, even though they might not be perfect, that at least want you to follow Jesus. There are things out there you don't want to know. I've sat down with Satanists or children involved in Satanism who said that their parents would beat them up if they did anything else. How precious when someone wants their children to follow God, loving parents, but how sad when you have loving parents who want you to follow God and you're in a far country. I remember in South Africa there was a family and there are many families like this and they had several children, they used to sing, and they went across South Africa, they had beautiful voices and one of them was a very strong boy, good in sports and running around and throwing balls and stuff like that, very funny, the girls liked him for some reason, a very good looking guy, although I personally think no guys are good looking, but in his case they said he was, and he was very popular and I remember we were friends at camps and so on and I used to joke with him and I used to play sports with him with the other young people and I had a lot of fun and then I didn't see him for a few years and eventually I came to a church and I was preaching in this church in South Africa and I saw that family again and I walked up to them because I had not seen them for a few years and I saw of the children there with the mother and father in that church and I walked up to the mother and I asked them where that son was and she burst into tears and she said, Roy, her tears were rolling down her face in front of all the people there, my son is in a far country, he's gone to the far country and I've seen many mothers weep, they might have six children, they might have eight children, they might have five children and one child often, one child decides to go to the far country and they weep at this child who grew up in Christian camps, who went to church for so many years but decided at some stage, well maybe I don't even know if God exists and I'm going off on my own to enjoy the world and they weep. You know, we're a lot different from the 1800s, in the 1800s a lot of people died, early 1900s, more people died in World War I and World War II from Spanish Influenza than died from bullets, millions of people died. In the 1940s in Ireland, over one million, perhaps up to 1.5 million people died because of the Irish famine. In the old days, it was very common to not have a mother, to not have a father at some stage in your life because people would die. And Charles Alexander, he used to go around with tori, oratory as he would preach and someone sent him, Charles Alexander, a cutout from a magazine, a poem and he kept it with him until one day he was standing where he had to sing a solo and he saw a whole lot of railway workers in this congregation of people and so he took out this song and it was this famous song, Tell Mother I'll Be There, in answer to her prayers. And I'd like to read that to you today, When I was but a little child, how well I recollect, How I would grieve my mother with folly and neglect, And now she's gone to heaven, I miss her tender care, O Saviour, tell my mother I'll be there, Tell mother I'll be there, in answer to her prayer, This message blesses Saviour to her bear, Tell mother I'll be there, heaven's joy is with her to share, Yes, tell my darling mother I'll be there, Though I was often wayward, she was always kind and good, So patient, gentle, loving, when I acted rough and rude, My childhood griefs and trials she would gladly with me share, O Saviour, tell my mother I'll be there, When I became a prodigal and left the old roof tree, She almost broke her loving heart in mourning after me, And day and night she prayed to God to keep me in his care, O Saviour, tell my mother I'll be there, One day a message came to me, it bade me quickly come, If I would see my mother ere the Saviour took her home, I promised her before she died for heaven to prepare, O Saviour, tell my mother I'll be there, He stood up and sang that as a solo, and a lot of people came to him afterwards in tears, and one man was an engineer and he was weeping, and he said that at his mother's deathbed he had promised her that he would follow Christ, and he said ever since then he'd been following Satan, he said nothing, he'd listened to many messages of many preachers, and not one of them had touched him, but when he heard that song, and remembered his mother's prayers, and his promise to his mother, he realized God was speaking to him, and he came back or came to Christ, in those days, I don't know if you knew it, it's hard to explain to young people what it feels like to not have cell phones, I remember those days, especially in South Africa, we got everything a little later than America, even the bad stuff sometimes, and there was a time in American history where 1 in 25 people divorced, that's 4% of the population, most people growing up had their mothers, unless their mother died, nowadays it's totally different, we have broken families everywhere, now not every mother is a godly mother that you would want to see in heaven, or you will see in heaven, I remember in South Africa recently, I've got a friend there, and this friend, his mother used to be terrifying to him, his grandmother was saved, and prayed for him a lot, but his mother hated Christianity, hated the Bible, hated everything about that kind of stuff, and encouraged his son not to follow Jesus Christ, and this friend of mine, he decided to make a lot of money, and so he went out, and he became reasonably rich for a young man, and did well for himself, but he had a great emptiness in his life, and eventually came to the point where he hated himself so much that he wanted to take his life, and so he stood up in his room, and he got the rope ready, so that he could jump off, and basically kill himself by hanging, and when he did this, as he was about to take his life, and enter into eternity, and go to the flames of hell forever, the phone rang at that moment, and it was his granny, and his granny said to him, wouldn't you like to come to a Christian camp, and he thought, maybe that's God, that's God I don't love, and my mother hates, and so he went to that Christian camp, and he came to the first meeting, and a friend of mine that I grew up with, who went into drugs and partying before, he got wonderfully saved by Jesus Christ in one moment, God saved him, my friend was preaching, and he was listening, and as he listened, he wept as he realized that God was speaking to him, that this God that my mother's against, and that I never thought was real, this God is real, and he met with God, but you know, he begged the organization I work in, not to go back to his mother, in the holidays, while you're at Bible college, you went to Bible college afterwards, and they send you back to your parents, and he said, I don't want to go, he wept asking them not to go, and they said, you have to go, and so he went up there, and he came to his mother's house, and in his mother's house, he thought something had changed, because his mother said, it's wonderful that you've become a Christian, for about 30 seconds she was talking like this, and suddenly he had a little bit of hope in his heart that she had changed, and then she took his Bible, and she threw it on the ground, and she shouted, she said, you are a hypocrite, you are fake, there's no such thing as Christianity, and at that moment, something broke inside him, he felt like hating himself, he felt like going back to his old life, he went outside, and he just wept, in fact, he sat in front of me a few days afterwards, and he was just convulsing, and shaking as he wept, as he talked about what it meant to have a mother that hated his Christianity in such a way, that he had hoped for, for a few minutes, not everybody has parents that want you to go to heaven, not everybody has parents and mothers who you want to say, tell mother, I'll be there, but of those people who do have parents, who want you to go to heaven, who pray for you, or at least have somebody older that loves you, and wants you to go to heaven, I've seen three types of responses, from children, or attitudes, or way of dealing with life, from children who do go to a far country, first of all, in many, many houses, and I've been to hundreds of towns across South Africa, and other countries, in many houses, I've seen young people, the one child or two children, who decide to go out into the world, and destroy their lives spiritually, in parties, and different things, some of these children hate their parents, some of them have a reason, some of them don't, but some of the sweetest parents you'll know, they'll come in there, and I'll listen in the room next door, as someone's in front of me, as a young person will go up to their mother, who's weeping, weeping, because last night she could not sleep, because he was, or he or she was at parties, and was doing evil things, and he'll walk, or she'll walk up to that mother, who was weeping, and it was the tears rolled down her face, and say, I'll tell you what I did last night, and I've seen so many times young people, who do not care, they so love the world, and so hate their parents, but then there's people who are ashamed, they act all nice, they go to church, they have nice clothes, and behind their parents' backs, they do things they shouldn't, sometimes it's not as bad as parties, but in the world, in their heart, it's the things they look at, the entertainment they allow into their lives, the filth, I've sat down with ministers, and these ministers will tell me, how wonderful their children are, and how they follow God, and I'll walk outside, where ministers cannot see, and I'll see the young people, and the child of the minister, that he's so proud of following God, with his nice clothes, and his nice hymns, and his testimony of salvation, doing evil things, taking drugs even, around the corner, behind their parents' back, but at least these people have a little bit of shame, for what they do, and try to hide it from their parents, some pretend to give up parties, some go out, and they taunt their parents, and their parents know that they're doing terrifying things behind their parents' back, and then they come to a point in their life, and this often happens, it amazes me, they come to a point, where they want to have the respect of their parents, but they want to carry on with their bad life, and so they will carry on with the bad entertainment, they'll carry on with the things that are wrong, and even the parties, and the drunkenness, and everything else, but they'll tell their parents that they've reformed, they'll tell their parents that they met with God, they'll tell their parents that they've changed, they'll go to church, they'll start to wear nice clothes, they will sing hymns, and their parents believe them, I've met many people like that, one of the things I meet a lot in America, in Europe, and South Africa, and many places, is what you call the anti-pharisee, I call them the anti-pharisee people, they're not for Christ, they're against the Pharisees, they're against being a hypocrite, oh, you meet this on the street, oh, you meet this in churches, and they say I want to be real, I don't want to be a person like I grew up, I used to grow up, and I had all these rules on the outside that was forced on me, I had to sing hymns that I didn't like, and I had to wear clothes that I didn't like, and I had to do things that I did not like, and I was a hypocrite because it wasn't part of my heart, then I came to the point where I'm real, because I am who I am, boy, I've met a lot of people, and they think that makes them a better person, you know the only thing that can make you a better person is a relationship with Jesus, but of these anti-pharisee people who want to be real, I find two types of people, those who admit to being unsaved, I've come to the point where I'm real, and I just want to admit I'm not saved, and that's it, but then I've met people who actually claim to be saved, and they sit in churches, even conservative churches, with people around them, and they just say I am saved, because Jesus died for my sins, and therefore I'm free to do these things, amazing grace, some of them have experiences, boy, some of them have experiences, the Bible says in Proverbs 18 verse 2, a fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself, I sometimes think when these people sit in front of me, and they say to me, Roy, I'm basically discovering myself, I'm coming to who I really am, I'm not being a hypocrite anymore, I am being me, but the Bible says that's a fool, because if you're discovering yourself morally, then all you're discovering is your sinful nature, and it doesn't make you a better person, I often think of that song, will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by, there's a better home awaiting in the sky, Lord, in the sky, and I know it probably has its own meaning, but my feeling when I listen to that hymn, or that song, and I read the words, I've often thought over the last 16, 17 years, since I got saved, and I've thought of the people who made tree houses with me, as I grew up, the people that kicked the soccer ball, and the people who went to church with me, and the people who were at camps, and the people sitting here in this hall today, will the circle be unbroken up in heaven? The Bible says that two will be on a bed, and one will be taken, and one will be left, the Bible talks of people who physically are very close to each other, but spiritually they're far from each other, and one day there's going to be separation, I have wept and wept, thinking of some people that I loved growing up with, that might be in hell one day, when I'm in heaven, a lot of people have experiences, I've met people who say, well, I'm real now, I used to be this hypocrite who had laws, and I used to do all these rules that my parents gave me, but now I'm real, they even sleep with their girlfriends, but I know I'm saved, how do you know you're saved? Even though the Bible says no fornicator will enter him, oh, I know I'm saved because the Holy Spirit works mightily in my life, you have experiences, I've met people in England, and I'll sit down with them, and I'll say, Roy, I sleep around, I get drunk, but you know what? I'm a Christian, I say, how do you know you're a Christian? Roy, I'm a Christian because I sense God's presence in my life, amazing, obvious presence of God, and in the old days when God's presence came, where sinners were, they felt bad, nowadays where sinners carry on in their sin, and they feel God's presence, they feel good, it doesn't make sense, not from the biblical perspective, you can love a Jesus, a Jesus, but be far from the Jesus, I met a young man, and this young man, I've met many like him, lied to his parents, rebelled against his parents, went to worldly parties, did evil things, and he told me, Roy, I must be saved because I sense God's presence, it's an amazing peace that goes through my body, the peace of God which passes understanding, God's presence, I've met Satanists who say they have the peace of God, my grandfather when he got saved, on my dad's side, the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed, I like what Libra ended a few years back, we had a discussion several years back, about the fact that there's the sins of the Christian and Colossians, and there's the sins of the unsaved, and as a saved person we can fall into that, which is transgression of the lower line, stealing, committing adultery, all those things, but there's things that are unchrist-like in our life after salvation, and these things we're going to, through life, be putting aside that we might put on Christ, but there's people who live in the sins of the unsaved, they live in it and they think they're going to heaven, because Christians, they say also sin, because they get a little irritated sometimes, it's totally wrong to get irritated, but that's not the same as hating someone, it's totally wrong to get irritated, but it's not the same as committing adultery or lusting, it's not the same, if you live in those things my friend, transgressions of the law, if you live in it, not like David fell into it once, you live in it, you're on your way to hell if you die today, and that's not the same. My grandfather, when God set him free, his name was Jack Daniel by the way, and he was a chain drinker, his wife was leaving him, my granny, because he was a drunkard, but he broke every bottle when Jesus set him free. I've met people who said they got saved a few times, and eventually they got really saved, he said, well first of all I had 10 bottles a day of drink, and I went down to about 3, but then when I got saved he set me free. I wrote a little song, I once was a drunkard who thought he was good, in honor of my grandfather, I sent my family through hell on earth, my pride kept me back from the foot of the cross, but Jesus, oh the loving Jesus was seeking his sheep that was lost. How could the king die for a slave? How can creation deserve what he paid? All of grace, salvation so free, that's what we preach, but offered with pierced hands, offered with pierced hands for me. I cared not for Jesus, rejected his word, I spent my lifetime on pleasures absurd, then one day in darkness while sitting alone, Jesus came knocking, calling me home. How beautiful. There's a movement out there that believes in free grace, what's confusing to me is how much of the conservative church, at least conservative on the outside, has started to believe exactly the same thing, in their doctrine. Obviously grace is free through Jesus Christ, but it's not a grace that gives you an excuse to sin. If you are playing TV games, that have naked woman almost that you're playing with, and it's continuously what you are consuming, even if you do not sleep or do evil things with naked woman, you are partaker of the same thing. It's got so ridiculous nowadays, you've got, I'm not going to mention the organization, that used to be respected across America and the world, but these people were going to witness at a party, where women were offering themselves to men in an evil way. And a newspaper reporter went to try out this new establishment, and when he was there, he wrote it was on the front page of the newspaper in South Africa, he wrote that he was very cross, because there was a Christian there from this organization, who was wanting to witness to them and hand out tracts, and he said another Bible bashing Christian, until that person came up to him, handed him a tract and said party for Jesus. I've sat down listening to sermons of that organization, that used to preach the truth, where they've talked from the Bible, how God wants us to party because of grace. What grace? You know, in the Old Testament, you have something that you have in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, you realize that when the Passover happened, it did not mean that God set them free from the slavery of Egypt, to be their own property. God clearly said that the sons, the firstborn of Israel were His property. Later, He swapped them with the Levites, to be consecrated unto Him. You're not set free to be your own property, you're set free from sin to be God's property. That means your hand. That's why in the New Testament, Corinthians, it says you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your spirit and your body, which are God's. God owns your body. You cannot do with your body what you want. That's why God says, yield your members unto righteousness. Your hands are supposed to be used as a Christian, for righteousness. Your eyes are supposed to be used for righteousness. And I meet Christians who watch movies, where Oh My G-O-D is in those movies. And they tell me, it's like a blue dress. You believe a blue dress gets you to heaven? And I believe a blue dress doesn't get you to heaven. We have different opinions about the Bible. I said, if the Bible says thou shalt not murder, are you going to murder anyway? Because it's your opinion concerning that verse? That's how people now deal with entertainment. In the Old Testament, we have in Deuteronomy 12, verse 11 and 13, and the verses around that, we see that God chose a place in Israel to put His name. And He said, you're not allowed to sacrifice at any other place across the whole of Israel. Except that place. And so we came, and when they went into Israel, into Canaan, then God showed them the place that He chose for His name, and it was Shiloh. It was not Jerusalem. And Shiloh became the place of the tabernacle, and was the only place they were allowed to sacrifice from all over Israel, if they were sinning against God. Samuel met with God at Shiloh, twice. But God rejected Shiloh, because of sin. Even if He put His name there, that did not mean, because He put His name there, that it was not vulnerable to be rejected by God. And in Jeremiah 7, verse 4 to 10, we read of the Israelites, and they think because they have the place where God placed His name, Jerusalem, they were free to sin. Because they didn't have Shiloh anymore, they had Jerusalem, they could do what God rejected Shiloh for. And so we read, trust ye not in lying words, saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. And then this question from God, will ye steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense under barren, walk after other gods whom ye have not known, and come and stand before me in this house, in the temple, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do these abominations. You know what they were saying? They were saying, we've got the temple, the temple, the temple, the temple where we do sacrifice, that frees us to do sin. Do you know how many people today say exactly the same? Jesus died on Calvary, and the cross frees us to sin. Rubbish. God says a few verses later, Jeremiah 7, verse 12, but go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. The grace of God is not an excuse to sin. It is the power to set you free from a life of sin. I prayed to God many times to become a Christian. And I like, I fill myself with all these little laws on the outside. But there was a day when God set me free. He did not make me perfect. There was grace that hated sin in my heart. It was not a grace that said, you are now free to do sin. Titus 2, verse 11 says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation that appeared to all men, teaching us that denying, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, the great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace teaches us to deny worldly lusts. In Titus 3, verse 3 to 6, I'm not going to read it all, but it talks of the lust that we used to live in before we got saved, not afterwards. Romans 6, verse 2, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. It's the words of God. A lot of people are anti-lordship salvation. Now, I don't know about the term. The only reason I know about it is because people are against Paul Washer, they're against Ray Comfort, they're against a whole lot of people because they call them lordship salvation followers. And I think I agree totally with Richard Owen Roberts who said that it is lunacy to think that you can accept Jesus as Savior just to get to the heaven where you reject him as Lord. In fact, in my Bible, in Luke chapter 19, verse 14 and 27, we read of people who rejected Jesus and it says, but his citizens hated him and sent him a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. And this was repeated in Luke 19, verse 27. People who reject Jesus reject him to reign over them, not just to save them. You can accept him as Savior and you've got to help if you carry on in your life of sin. You are like a sheep. Every single one of us are born iniquitous, a sheep going astray, doing our own thing, living outside of God, outside of his life, spiritually outside of his authority as God. And we might sit in church doing this or we might go to parties doing this, but we are walking away from God and we cannot just say, Jesus Christ, please come into my life and then carry on walking away from him and say, no, I'm a Christian. Repentance is not just turning from not believing God to believing in God, as these people say. You reject Christ, you reject him as Lord. People are unhappy and salvation has so much become about happiness. When you sit down with young people and they say why they rejected the churches that they were in and the laws that were in those churches, it's because it was unhappiness that was driving them insane, they say, because of all the laws that they had to keep and it wasn't, and they were not real, as I said before. But I agree with Roy Comfort years back in one of his old books where he said, happiness is not the issue, righteousness. They say 60% of the people that you will tell, if you don't accept Jesus, you will not be happy, will say, well, that's great because I'm happy already. There are more and more unhappy people out there, but I've even spoken to ambassadors of the United States Embassy at their houses and I've sat down with them and I said, listen, I'd like to tell you about Jesus Christ and they say, I don't want Jesus Christ. And before I could even say some false doctrine to them, they spurted out themselves. I'm happy enough already. I've got a wife, I've got money, I'm enjoying myself. Well, how do I need Christianity? But it's not about happiness. There was a guy who went to Bible college and used to go to parties and used to get drunk as a six-year-old. He used to throw up. He told me of how he got drunk as a little six-year-old. He got into trouble at that stage and it sounded like the geography class in school. Everything that they talked about except the wickedness with women was happening at this party and eventually they threw up in that war and they threw up in that war. And many years later he got saved, but he used to go to many parties and do many evil things. And he said, Roy, in that time before the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and then I felt empty. Before God started to work in my life, I had no seeking after God and I didn't care. In fact, I enjoyed myself immensely. It was wonderful to be a sinner. I enjoyed being a sinner. I was happy being a sinner. I didn't need Jesus to make me happy. I was perfectly happy doing what I was doing. It was very enjoyable. And that's actually how it is to many of them until they mess up their life. Unless their lives are messed up already by their parents and others. But there comes a time happily in some people's lives, not everybody. I thought to myself, in India, I don't know if it's less than 3% of the population in India call themselves Christian. In England it's about the same. I have met people in England when I played soccer with young people there and I told them afterwards, sit down, I'm going to preach to you a message. And I've asked them questions about the Bible and these teenagers in England don't even know the name of Jesus. In England, some of them know the name of Jesus and the only thing they know about him, I questioned them deeply, is that he's a swear word. Don't think it's your right to come on a conviction of the Holy Spirit. There are people who go through their entire life and die who have never heard the name of Jesus. There are people who have gone through their entire life and they do not come into a message or into a place where God radically convicts them of their sin. The cross of Jesus Christ shows God's holiness and it shows God's love. There has to come a day where we are awakened, as John Wesley used to say. I quote, by the way, the Calvinist and the non-Calvinist. You have to be awakened because you sleep. You don't realize your need. You don't realize who you are. You don't realize where you're going. You don't realize why you're going there. You don't realize that what you're doing is very evil. Whether you're sitting in church as a proud religious person who said a few prayers to escape hell and now you're religious there in church with no life and no fruit, or whether you are a party goer on your way to hell because you don't care about God or your parents or anything else, whichever one it is. There has to come a day if you're going to be saved where you realize that what I am doing is wrong. Only the Holy Spirit can stop in your life but you can reject it. Luke chapter 15, verse 17, read of this youngest son who had asked his father, give me that which was for it to me, who went away and lived, spent his living basically in righteous living, what his father gave him, who eventually found himself in a pigsty longing to eat with the pigs the food that was given to the pigs but not allowed to. And there came a day when suddenly he came to himself, came to himself. You know why I like that? Apart from a few other things are all these people who say, well, you know, I eventually am myself. I'm discovering myself. I'm true to myself. You can do that and go to hell. You have to come, there's one mention in the Bible where someone truly came to himself and that's when not that he discovered that he was a hypocrite because he had a lot of laws and now he had to go and live in freedom to be able to be himself and not be a Pharisee. No, this person who came to himself realized that he was going the wrong way, that he was doing the wrong thing and that God is holy and that God hates sin and compared to God, not compared to other people that who I am and what I've done is deserving of hellfire for eternity. I deserve it. And the only hope I have is Jesus Christ. He came to himself. He realized what I'm doing is stupid. Most people I meet here who talk about their lifestyle, they justify it. This guy came to himself and realized I've been stupid. We are all equal before the law and all equal before the cross. Barbarians, Greeks and Jews, Romans says. You might be a barbarian who goes out and discovers every lust that you could possibly find in your body and enjoys yourself in it. You might be a Greek who fills yourself with intellectual arguments about everything in life against God, for God, you name it. You might be a Jew who has all these rules in the outside but you don't know God on the inside and all of you are equal before God because all of you are born sinners and all of you have done sin. Religious or barbarian? And I'd like to ask a question. What prevents us from coming to ourselves? Sometimes it's a false foundation. There was a guy who went to parties, by the way, for like 20 years. Got drunk almost every weekend. And when someone came to him and said to him, you're not a Christian, you need to get saved. He said, yes, I am. Because when I was seven years old, I said a prayer and I asked Jesus into my life. And he said that was what kept him back for 20 years from getting saved. There's people sitting in churches that do not go to parties, they do not get drunk every weekend, but they said a little prayer and they did not get saved and there was no fruit. Whenever anybody comes in and said, is there fruit in your life? According to the Bible, they say, well, seven years old, I got saved. Now, there are seven-year-old people who get saved. But there's an awful lot who don't. A false foundation experiences, oh, not only can you be a drunkard and you can, or not a drunkard at parties and doing evil things and looking at pornography regularly behind your parents' backs. I struggle to understand how people can do that regularly and say they're saved. I'm sorry, I just have to say it. I've met so many people who call themselves Christians today who regularly for years and years and years are in pornography and everybody wants to love them. I understand how David could fall into sin, but I cannot understand how someone could live in sin and call themselves a Christian. Experiences, people sitting in churches, they do not have, I had 20 people sitting in front of me a year back from a conservative background. I asked them their testimony. About half of them had a different, testimony's different. Now, there's different ways you come to the point where you realize you're a sinner and you're out of help and you need Jesus Christ, but at least that must be there somewhere. So many of them said, I was just the culture of the church that I was in. I was against it. I was rebellious against it and then one day I came to the point where I realized my church is correct and I submitted to them and my life has been different ever since. I said, but that sounds like a Mormon testimony. That sounds like a crisis of culture and when I actually said that, oh boy, the Christians have stood against me because it's our culture, our culture. Of course, if they were against our culture, now they're for our culture. They must be saved. If they had something that changed their life. I could not believe the people that stood against me. I said, what about the fruit that God says must be there? Not just that they're suddenly on fire. And the free grace doctrine says, there's an umbrella over your head and I can do what I want under it because God does not see my sin because of the cross. Jesus hates sin. God hates sin. Jesus died not to give you an excuse to do sin. Jesus died to set you free from the life of sin. But why do people not get to ever think of God? Sometimes they've never heard the truth, but many times the word that is sown by God and by preachers and by witnesses and by tracts and by the Bible and even what they heard when they were a little child gets stolen out of their heart. We read in Mark 4 verse 15, and these are they by the wayside where the word is sown. But when they've heard, Satan come at them immediately and take it away that which was sown in their heart. Satan, and I've seen this, I'm sure most of you have seen this someplace many times. And the Bible talks about it. Satan comes to take your time so that you do not think about God. In Proverbs 2, there's people in the Bible, this is the wicked day, God is not in all their thoughts, okay? But Proverbs 2 verse 17 talks of a strange woman which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God. So this was a woman in your life which used to be taught about following God. It's not just somebody from some, and a lot of times when people from conservative churches go out into the world into the far country, they'll go with a girl from a conservative church with them to some place and live with them. They don't often get someone who never went to church. But the Bible says in Proverbs 5 or 6 of another woman that, similar lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. This woman that is in your life, the Bible says, is keeping you from thinking deeply about the ways of life, the path of life. She's keeping you from thinking about your sin before God and where you're going and true salvation to Jesus Christ. The Bible says there are people who will keep you from thinking about the truth in your life. Sometimes, I've seen with young people, they will have computer games. Listen, I play chess and a few things. I'm not against all games out there, but that's what they basically, they come out of a little conviction in church, they sometimes think about God, but they fill their life with games and entertainment and movies, and so they block out the Holy Spirit's working in their life. And I've seen this many times. They don't think about God because they're enjoying the games all the time. And one day, they might go to hell and it was the games plus their sin that sent them there because they never thought about God. I remember once I came to, and I've met many people like this too, in a city in South Africa, about 3 million people. And I went to this one church, I think I preached there if I remember right, but I went to the one house of a person in the church, one of the elders, and his son liked the daughter of the minister and they were not very good in all the things they did. They started listening to heavy metal together. They had a lot of bad stuff that they did. And the father said, could you please speak to my son? And so I said, okay, I'll try. And when I came there, the son was sitting in the living room. This girl was there and there was another friend there and they were just talking to each other continuously. And when I tried to interject and say something about God, they would give me about three seconds and then they'd be talking to each other about a whole lot of different things. And I realized that if I talk too much now, they're just gonna think I'm absolutely rude. I'd have to force myself shouting almost to talk to them. They're so busy with each other, they don't have time to hear something about the word of God. And of truth. But then one day that a girlfriend dropped him. That was glorious. And he was weeping and the minister in the church turned against him because you know, it's my daughter and your son is evil. That often happens that way, unfortunately. And I came to the house again and there this weeping young man was sitting and I sat next to him and he gave me a few hours. Because the girl was out of his life. But until then, he had no time to ponder the paths of life. That's what the Bible says. Lest thou should ponder the paths of life away as immovable. In that house, by the way, he was into such evil stuff, including Satanism, that his father came out of. I don't like to become like a charismat, but there was this demon that came on my bed, pushed me down into the bed. Physically, sometimes they scream above your head and the only thing they would make go away was the name of Jesus Christ. There was a guy in South Africa. His father was a pastor. His father, when they were five or six years old, the father, his wife, their mother died. And the new wife that he married, the second marriage did not like those children and he chucked them out into the street. And so six and seven year olds, they were on the street. Their father was a pastor and they turned eventually to partying, drinking, drugs and Satanism. And the one brother stood once and he got gloriously saved. He stood on the top of a building and while the drugs and partying was going on around him, the demonic voices came around and into his head and said to him, you've got to commit suicide right now. Took him to the edge of the building, told him to jump out. And in front of him, there was an hallucination, not really hell, but he saw as it were, hell open up before him and he could not jump. Or he had to jump, sorry. He was told to jump. And as he stood there, told by these demons, he could not resist them to jump and he was about to take his life. He realized that he could not remember the one name in heaven and earth that could save him, the name of Jesus Christ. And then suddenly, as he was about to jump and die and being held for eternity, he remembered the name of Jesus and there he called out in that drunken, evil, satanic party. And in one moment, Jesus saved him. And he became a preacher. And he joined our mission in South Africa. But he had a brother. And this brother tried to follow God at times, but there was a woman in his life. And he said, I want to follow God, but I can't because she has such control over me. You don't have to get into satanism. There are things that keep you from God though. It can be TV games. It can be movies that just keep you, fills your life. Music can fill your life. I've sat down with people, almost 12 hours a day, they're listening to rock music. And you come in and you tell them something about Jesus. And they look a little bit sad because they realize God's talking to them in some way. And then they put the music back on. And they do not ponder the paths of life. Torrey had a brother who was an agnostic and drunk. And every time he sent him, or Torrey sent him letters and tried to say to him something about Jesus, he would reject them and say, don't talk to me again. And he eventually just prayed. And he prayed for many years. And then it came to a point where he said, I'm just going to trust God after about 15 years of prayer. And his brother who always rejected God came to his house for a few days. And then his brother got sick. Remember, he'd been praying all those years. And when his brother got sick, he had to stay for a few weeks. And in those few weeks, he saw Torrey's children, saw these little children that loved Jesus, saw these little children that knew God. And after 15, more than 15 years of rejecting God, not wanting to hear anything about God, in that time when God brought him to a standstill, he had time to think about God. In that time, he got saved. There was a man in South Africa, and I'm sure you know in Africa, we have these witch doctors. Some of them are very funny. Some of them have no power at all. They do the weirdest stuff and nothing happens. But some of them really have power. In the Bible, you'll see that there were people in Elijah's time who used to cut themselves as they were one. They sought blood. That's one thing you'll find in Satanism is there comes a point where they need blood to have power. We find in the Bible, we find it in life. And we don't glorify that. We don't talk about it much because we talk about Jesus, but it's evil, basically, what Satan wants. There were child sacrifices in the Bible, even Israelite kings who would sacrifice their children because that's what the gods wanted. In South Africa, there's one friend of mine. He's an evangelist and preacher. And many years back, he was unsaved. And he used to go to the witch doctors and he used to be a thief for about 15 years of his life. And so he had what we call Muti in South Africa. It's a bottle and it's got stuff in. And it's not always blood and stuff, but it has a little bone in, in his case. And so when the bone used to fall to the one side, he knew he was allowed to go and steal stuff from certain houses and he wouldn't get caught. And when the bone fell the other way, he knew he wasn't allowed to. And he found out later that it was only of godly Christians sometimes that he wasn't allowed to go there. Now, I know very godly Christians who have been broken into by thieves. That's not a rule, but in his case, that's hard work. And so he had this Muti and literally for 15 years, the police would not see him. He would steal things in front of them and they would not even see him. He would go on through his life and had this strange power. And eventually though, his Muti started to lose his power. But by the way, I preach in one church in South Africa where a young child from the Sunday school went missing after Sunday school. The pastor died of cancer a few years after I preached there. He was an old friend of mine and my dad's. And they found the strewn body of that little Sunday school kid who went from Sunday school in a graveyard because witch doctors needed the body parts for whatever they did. And so this guy, after about 15 years, he had this Muti and it was losing its power. And so he went, the one witch doctor said to him, you have to go over the border to Mozambique to a very powerful witch doctor. He came then to Mozambique, our neighboring country, went to the witch doctor and the witch doctor said to him what is said through the years in the Bible in many different places, we need your child to be killed, your daughter. He looked at this witch doctor and he said, no, I'm not gonna give my daughter. And he went back and he thought, well, I can just carry on doing what I used to do. I can just go thieving everywhere and it'll be fine because I'm a great guy. And he got caught the very first time he tried to steal something and he went to jail. And you know what happened in jail? It's a very interesting thing. God brought him to a place where he was not just running around. He had time to think about God. And there was a Bible given to him. And he read that Bible and he realized that it was an Adam who fell, that we children of Adam and that we're going our own way and we've done our own thing. And compared to God, we deserve hell for eternity. And my only hope is Jesus Christ. And there in that prison where he was brought to a standstill so that he had time to think about his state before God, there in that prison, he met with God. And he became a friend of me. There was a girl in the far country. She came from a conservative homes and her parents used to weep. Her mother used to weep as she went to parties and got drunk and slept around and did evil things. And though they prayed and though they talked to her at different times, she would not listen to them. She was so going this way, going that way, filling her life with entertainment that she never had a chance to think about God, to think about eternity that she had heard it so many times. She was not pondering the powers of life because all that her life was filled with. And then as a young person, she had cancer. She was dying. And on her deathbed, people came to her and she said, I'm so thankful that I have cancer and that I'm dying because I never thought of God in all that entertainment. But now as I have cancer and I'm dying, I've realized my state before God and he saved me through Jesus Christ because God brought me to a standstill. Do you think it's a joke filling your life with entertainment, with movies, with games, with whatever else you do behind people's backs? It's keeping you from thinking about God. And if you die that way, in a thousand years, you will still be longing for one drop of water. But now you can be in church and be in a far country in your heart. You can stand right next to Jesus and be on your way to hell. Judas walked around with Jesus almost everywhere. Even when many disciples left him, he carried on following. But he was far from God in his heart. You can sit in church. You don't have to go to parties. And you can be far from God in your heart. There was an older brother. There was an older brother. And we read that when this son came to himself and he realized that he could go back to his father and he came to his father and his father saw him a long way off this younger brother and ran to him and hugged him and declared that this person who was dead is now alive, forgiven, gave him a robe, gave him a ring, gave him a, I won't call it a party because that would be against the message, but gave him a feast. So God does when he saves you. You become his child. You're one with him. You have life inside you. It's, you're a new person. There's an older brother and he was angry. We read he would not go in verse 28 of Luke 15. Therefore his father came out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, lo, these many years do I serve thee. And then he says these words, neither transgressed I thy law or commandment, sorry. And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. If I was their father, I'd say, well, I gave you my son to die for. But he said something. I never transgressed your commandment at any time. There was a rich young man who came to Jesus and he said exactly the same thing. He asked Jesus, good master, how may I inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, keep the commandments. And he said, I've done that for my youth. That's not the truth. There's not one person living who has not sinned against God. But there are people who think that they're good through keeping the commandments. And you get the churches. And in these churches, you'll have young people. And I was one of them for many years. Many times I asked Jesus into my life as a ticket to heaven. Because my parents or because my friends got saved or my parents wanted it or something. I love my parents. Out of tradition. I didn't want to go to hell. I wanted to please my parents. I wanted to be in with my friends. But not because I was a sheep gone astray. Not because I was living unto myself and deserving hell for what I'd done. Not wanting to surrender to the king. Who alone by free grace in Jesus Christ could save me. So many people are proud they come to God as good people wanting to be saved from hell. Until I agree with my dad, until you come with nothing but your sin, God cannot save you. I remember the day I came with nothing but my sin. Yuck, it was wonderful. The first time I stood before God as a sinner. I'd prayed so many times, Jesus come into my heart and nothing happened. I added to this false foundations, reading the Bible and tracts and everything else, praying through the night. But there came a day when I came to God with nothing but my sin. My only hope was Jesus. And I wanted a relationship. And he saved me. When you come to God like that, the Bible says he gives you a new heart. Isaac 36 verse 26, a new heart also will I give you. You don't like Peter talks about and prophet talks about. You're not a pig anymore. That you wash yourself on the outside by stopping the bad stuff in your life. But on the inside, you're still a pig. You still desire the mud. Your nature has not been changed. When God saves you, he doesn't just say you're forgiven. He changes your heart. And then there will be fruit. And 1 John 5 verse 13 says, these things have I written unto you, that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. The Bible says that if you are saved, if you have eternal life, there will be certain things in your life. And I'm amazed that our people come and they argue about that. They say, Roy, different people have different ways of getting saved, have different fruit of getting saved. I said, whoa, wait just one moment. I agree that some have fruit 30 fold and from 70 fold and some 100 fold. But I do not agree that when God says that these things will be in your life, that they're not going to be there. Let's just quickly look at a few of them. 1 John 2 verse 4, he that saith, God can't say it clearer. I know him and keepeth not his commandments. He's a liar and the truth is not in him. Young man, old man, you're saved. When you were saved, when you receive a new heart, that when Jesus comes into your life, you start to keep his commandments. Before I was saved, I tried to do God's commandments. Out of tradition, out of fear of hell. When I got saved, when Jesus came into my life, for the first time in my life, I didn't just go to church, read my Bible, hand out tracts. I loved Jesus because he'd come into my life. I was a new person. And when you love him, what he says is important. That's a sign of being a Christian. They didn't love God on all of him. And the sign that you love God is that his commandments, what he says is precious. If you say, I love Jesus because I worship and I sing and I hand out tracts, but I don't really care about what he says because you love him. Because there's something that changed in your heart, then you're not saved. That's what the Bible says, not Droid Daniel. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar. You lie if you say you know God and what he says is not important to you because there's something that happened in your heart when you got saved. 1 John 2 verse 11. He that hated his brother is in darkness. That means you're unsaved, by the way. I've heard people say, well, this doesn't talk about salvation. It talks about discipleship. That's not what 1 John 5 verse 13 says clearly. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life. All the old preachers understood that for many years back of the great revivals. 1 John 2 verse 11 to 1 John 3 verse 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. You know what? It doesn't say we know that we've become disciples. It says we know we passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. I remember before I got saved, I used to go to camps and I loved Christians because they kicked the soccer ball. I love Christians because they could make fire at night. I love Christians because we could take water balloons and we could throw it at people and it smashed into people. It was absolutely amazing. I love Christians because they were friendly, but I did not love them because they love God. I did not love them because they had what I had. But when I got saved for the first time when I went to camp, I started to realize as I sat down with people, I made mistakes at times, but I started to realize this is someone who also at some stage in his life passed from death unto life. This is someone that the Bible is real to him. This is someone that something has happened in his heart and he loves God and Jesus' word is important to him. And I love him. Something in me loves him. I didn't have that before I was saved. The Bible says that's how you know you passed from death unto life. The Bible is clear. It's not Roy Daniel judging. It's God just saying it. 1 John 2 verse 27, But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. That's one of the 11 areas of tests in 1 John of fruit that must be in a Christian's life if you have eternal life. This anointing is not being led to go to China. I've met people who are led to go to China, but they disobey almost everything that Jesus said in his word. Romans 8 verse 14, For as many as are led of the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Again, I've met many people who say they're led of the Spirit and I've been led at times, but they disobey the rest of Scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 says clearly that religious people who inside their hearts do not know God, religious Jews, when they read the Bible, the Scripture, the Old Testament, there was a veil on their heart in reading the Scripture. But when it shall, this is the words that are used, when it shall turn to the Lord, that veil is taken away in Christ. And then it says, we behold in the Scripture, by the way, the image of the Lord changed into the same image, from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. See, when you save, the Holy Spirit comes into your life. And when you read the Bible, it's different. Now, I'd like to qualify because Satan can also talk legalistically to people's hearts. This does not mean that suddenly you understand the entire Bible. It does not mean that there's no boring parts or that you always feel something amazing when you read the Bible. John MacArthur said that it's when you read the Bible, suddenly some parts of it, something in you, it feeds you. It's like a light shines upon it and some parts of it, you start to understand like you did not understand before. It's like food to your heart. Charles Spurgeon said, in case you think it's only me that says these things, the Bible says it. The old preachers said it. If the Bible is dry to you, you will be dry one day in hell. Dale Moody said there came a day, the day beforehand, the Bible was a dry book to me. He said, but the next day it was alive. And he said, I'll tell you the difference. I was born of God. He said, but first I surrender. The Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You're not saved if you love the world. By the way, you can sit in church and not go to a party and love the world. Anything in life that's more important to you than God's Word is the world to you. You've got to count the cost. The Bible says that. The Bible says that as you come to the end of the sermon in Luke 14 verse 33. When my dad, who was a rebel and ran away from home, he doesn't like me telling all the details, he says, and I won't. When my dad was a rebel and ran away from home as a young person, away from his drunk father, his brother got saved. And when he saw his brother get saved and have a relationship with God that was a true relationship, that loved Jesus, he said, I want to have what that, what my brother has. I want to have this relationship with God. And so he went to meetings and there was a famous preacher that was preaching and it happened to be a person who loved God with all his heart, soul and mind. I remember as a little boy sitting at his feet and looking up at this person who loved Jesus. And this person was preaching when my dad said, my dad came under conviction and my dad wanted to have what his brother had. My dad wanted to have what that preacher had when other people he started to see in his life. My dad stayed afterwards and another preacher came and sat next to him and sat next to him and said to him, listen, Keith, I want to tell you something I've heard about you and I've heard of the things that you do, but I want to tell you, you're not just going to get a ticket to heaven. You can't just waste God's time and waste my time by praying here so you can have a ticket to heaven or carrying on with your life, doing your own thing and going your own way. Keith, you've got to count the cost and I'm going to leave you here for a while so you can count the cost. My dad sat there and in a sense, he'd already counted the cost. There was nothing in life that he wanted to hold on to. There was nothing in life that he wasn't willing to give up to have Jesus. Now, I want to clarify this. You don't have to build a church to get saved. You don't have to go around the world seven times as a missionary to get saved. You don't have to do one work to get saved because Jesus did everything on Calvary. It's a finished work, but you cannot hold on to sins that God says is the sins of an unsaved person and say, Jesus, I want to save you. I want to carry on doing these things. And I'm not talking about the sins of a Christian we lay off later, like becoming irritated and so on. The rich young man, the rich young man came to Jesus. And I mentioned him earlier, but I'll tell you one thing. Jesus showed him, you not only have not been keeping the commands of Christ, there's something that you've been breaking before that you've broken before of my commands that you are still breaking and that you're not willing to give up. So he walked away from Jesus, though he loved him with no eternal life. Because there was something that he had broken, that he was broken, and that he was not willing to give up. His love of money. Luke 14, verse 33, after saying, count the cost here. So likewise, whosoever be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. What pennies keep you from God's riches? A girlfriend, your pride, and your own goodness. Sitting in church and thinking, what will the other people think? They realize I'm not as good as I've made myself to be. That's not worth it. There was a man, and this man was on a ship where the ship sunk. And in the old days before the Titanic, they didn't always have enough lifeboats in many Western countries. And this ship did not have enough lifeboats. And so in the water, there were many people who were swimming who were not in a lifeboat. And one man did not want to die. I don't know if you've noticed that some of us don't want to die when we're drowning. And basically, this man started to swim towards one of the full lifeboats. And he came to the lifeboat. But that person, that was the people on the ship, realized that if he got on, they might not make it. And so there was a guy with an axe. And he took his axe and he cut off the hand, one hand of that man. And then he went in the water and the blood was in the water. And he started to swim with one hand and the other hand off. He swam towards the ship again, not wanting to die. And he put his other hand onto that ship and they took the axe and they cut off his hand. And they saw him go into the water. And then he lunged forward with two arms and no hands. And he came forward and eventually came to that ship and he took his teeth and he bit into the side of that ship. Because he didn't want to die. And then they took him into the ship and somehow find a place for him. Because they couldn't do it anymore. Now God's not asking you to chop off your hand to get eternal life. But he does ask you to give up the life where you live unto yourself. Surrender to the king.