Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 815 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Patrick Dyer: Turn to Isaiah chapter 6, please. We pulled up to Buddy's today and I don't know, we were just talking to the kids on the way there and pulling around that road. And right when I pulled into our parking space, I don't know what it was, but something came to my heart. It said, God is holy. It's not a...well it is a profound statement because He is.

The next thought that came to my mind was something Phil said recently. He said Charles Finney when he'd come into a meeting, he would preach on the holiness of God for several weeks. He didn't give an invitation. He preached on it. He told people about how holy God was until great conviction would lay on the people. They didn't have to get out of their seat and walk forward. They fell down right where they were. I'm not Charles Finney, and I don't know all the theology. I can't give you great words, but the same Christ is here tonight.

( congregational amens ).

And I believe the burden is the same. Folks, I guess the question I want to ask you is are you holy tonight. Are you holy? It's not a hard question. It's not science. It can be hard on the carnal ears, the religious ears. Let me ask you tonight. Are you holy?

And when I ask you this I mean one day you're gonna stand before a holy God, a Son that...He was holy. He was in Heaven with his Father and He came down here and became like us, as a human. He didn't sin. He didn't do anything wrong and your sin put Him on a cross and made a holy God's life be taken from Him.

I can't say it perfectly, but do you understand what I'm saying? You're gonna stand before this Christ one day 'cause He's alive. He's alive in Heaven and He's sitting on a great throne. You're gonna stand before Him. You're gonna see the nail marks in His hands and His feet and His side, and you're gonna stand before Him and He's gonna look at you in the eye. Is this clear tonight, folks? Don't leave this meeting.

I thought last night...I reached over and asked my father when Phil was talking about that "Left Behind" series. I said, what do they tell people about today? You're left behind? What does it matter? You say to people the Lord might come ten years from now, but you've got a second chance. You don't have a second chance tonight. You leave this building...we've got many people that are gonna be on the road during the busiest traveling holiday of the year. I ain't trying to scare people. This is reality though. You're gonna be on the road with thousands of other people in vehicles. Every year people's cars...they get in wrecks. They die. You don't have a promise. God does not in this Bible give anyone, a human being a promise of tomorrow on this earth.

( congregational amens ).

If you can do it, then I want you to show me where it is, but you're not gonna find it 'cause it ain't in there. The only promise you have is if you bow the knee to Jesus Christ tonight if He's so working in your heart and then He'll give you eternal life.

( congregational amens ).

Then you have a promise of tomorrow.

( congregational amens ).

I don't listen to a whole lot of preachers on TV. To be honest with you I was at my sister's house this week and I turned one or two of them on and it made me sick. They're telling people lies. I don't know. I ain't gonna judge them. God'll take care of those folks.

You know, some of the folks, it's not just eternal life that you need. You see we need Christ. We need His holiness. We need His righteousness. We need everything that He is because when we stand before Him, if your sins aren't blotted out by His blood, He's gonna cast you into the lake of fire. He has to. A sinner not covered by His blood, can't stand before a holy God. It's not right, and it won't be tolerated.

You can have fig leaves. You can say, well, I was part of church. I sat under Brother Thomas. I sat under this. I did too. I sat under Brother Thomas all my life, and these men, and that's not gonna be an excuse. I believe tonight I can say with a blessed assurance that I have the eternal life of Christ living in me. Do you have it? It's a fair question, isn't it? I'm not prying into your life. I'm not asking you to stand up and raise your hand if you do. I'm asking you to answer and be honest with yourself. And if you say, well I don't know, that's not a good place to leave there tonight.

( congregational amens ).

Ask God. Ask Him. Examine yourself in the light of the Word we've heard this week.

( congregational amens ).

We've heard clear, crystal clear Word. There's none of us have an excuse tonight. I understand we have a mixed multitude, and I don't want to pick ripe fruit and those things. But I ask you tonight, can you leave this place knowing that if you die, if you breathe your last breath, that you have the life of Christ in you? Because if you don't, that's the last thing you're gonna know until the resurrection. Then you're gonna stand before a holy God. And then you're gonna have to answer for your sin. What's gonna be your answer?

I thought of that song, "Just as I am without one plea..." "...Simply to Thy cross I cling..." Only the blood, only the blood can save you tonight. But we've heard it so perfectly, I'm not gonna try to re-say what's been said this week. Y'all heard it. It was wonderful. It was perfect, and it's the truth.

( congregational amens ).

Young people, they'll tell you to reason these things out, think about 'em. No. It's the truth. You've heard the truth this week, and the truth'll set you free if you humble yourself...and not just young people, old people too. Every one of us need it. Every human being needs what has been talked about this week, the blood of Christ to be applied to your life if you want to go on.

Well, I guess I'll read the scripture now. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple." (NKJV). Have you seen the Lord sitting on His throne? I have. I haven't had some great--the night I was saved, the night that Christ came into my life, indwelt me--that might seem strange to some of you. If it does, you need to be born again.

But I remember the service. I was sitting our there, and the anointing was coming forth, and it was a powerful service a lot like we heard last night. It was called...I remember it, I won't forget it. It was called, "A Storm is Coming" much like what we heard last night. And I sat there and every time that they'd speak it would...suddenly the Lord, He opened the eyes of my heart. Someone's prayer was answered. Thank you for praying for me.

( congregational amens ).

I sat there and I said, oh God...I don't know you. I've come to this church all my life and heard anointed Word and I don't know you. And I'll tell you, I'd have knocked someone down trying to get up here 'cause it's good to give a profession. If God has done something for you, there ain't nothing wrong with giving a profession for what that is. That's all this is.

But you need to cry out to the Lord and He saved me--He saved me. I'll tell you what, I stood up here...I stood right there, and the best I can explain it is, He shed His love abroad in my heart and He showed me that I was not deserving. What it is...I saw the holiness of God here and I saw...He showed me as real as you and I are sitting here what I am.

( congregational amens ).

What I am and what you are, folks and it's...Phil said it...he said that level playing field. I had nothing--I had nothing. He could have left me like that. He could leave you like that and He'd be just and righteous in His decision to do that. But He don't want it. In His sovereignty, you're here tonight, and you've heard Him speak, and you have a responsibility to give an answer. What's your answer tonight? Are you holy?

When I mean that I don't mean in that have you lived up to something. I mean do you have the holiness of Christ? That's what I'm talking about. It says, "Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." That's an awesome sight, isn't it? You know that same God is here tonight.

"And one cried to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: Woe is me, for I am undone!" That came to my heart that night. I said that. I said, oh God. I'm undone. I don't have anything. I can't stand before you. What happens now?

He said, My blood covers your sin. I took care of your sin. Do you have that assurance tonight? It's a fair question and it deserves an answer. God's put you in this place and put this answer forth to you, and there's a yes or there's a no. There's not well, I feel kind of holy. That's not gonna cut it. You must be born again. Jesus Christ said that. It's in this Word. "Ye must be born again." (KJV). And with that new birth there's a realization of that. It's real to you. You can't deny it. Maybe the experience is different for some or more for others, but God living in you is real. Is it real to you tonight that God lives in you? If it isn't, He's here tonight.

( congregational amens ).

You have another opportunity, another chance. You say, well, I might choose Him next week. I heard a man say, I'm not ready yet. I have things to do. Oh no! You don't understand--you don't understand. You can't walk out of here with that attitude. It's a lie. It's the enemy. Phil wrote an article on that. That's a lie. It's saying, well, I got another chance.

A lot of doctrines preach you've got another chance. You've got another...they make it even seem like hell's another chance. When you leave here you'll be alive. Your soul's immortal. Lies, it's not true. The lake of fire...if you're thrown into that lake of fire, that's it. It's over. Oh, God doesn't want that to be for you. Maybe there's other people out here that He hasn't chosen. That's the truth. There is...there's people that He hasn't called in. Some people have never come under the sound of the gospel.

Most of us here have never been that way. We don't have all that many visitors. Most of you here tonight, 80 percent maybe, 90 percent of you have heard the gospel preached over and over and over, and it's been anointed. It ain't been no dead word. It's been real life and it's time to make a...I don't want say make a decision. It's time to choose. What is it?

You can't keep coming in here and sitting under the sound of the ministry because it says He won't stand long for that. I can't quote the scripture perfectly, but He won't forever strive with you. Yes, the spirit will not always strive with you. I don't know. I just... I'm concerned. I'll tell you what I was concerned with when I was thinking about this. It's been on my heart all day long. I didn't even open a Bible today. I didn't look up a bunch of scriptures, because I'll tell you, you can read this Bible for yourself. Read the Word. Read what it says. It talks about a holy God. It talks about a wonderful Lord and what He's done for us.

But I tell you what, I was concerned for young people. And I'm not the only one that has this burden. You grow up in this church, and you hear the Word, and somehow we start thinking...we, 'cause I did it. You start thinking, well...you know I don't have such a bad life. I haven't ever done anything wrong. I haven't murdered anybody. I haven't committed fornication or adultery like we heard the other night.

But see the point wasn't about what physical adultery, was it? It was your heart turning after something other than God, anything other than God. Not just fleshly things, anything. Does your heart yearn after something else? It's time to come back. It's time, folks. We need to hear this...not just the young people. All of us, though. There's people who've grown up...I guess I consider myself still a young person. I am compared to some, not to others. No offence.

( laughter ).

But seriously, you grow up and you think, well, there's something good about me. I can keep coming in this place. There's nothing good about any of us.

( congregational amens ).

We were born...I had the thought, and mothers, don't get mad at me. You know your babies are sinners.

( congregation amens ).

Or this Bible's wrong. Your babies...my babies...I got three of 'em sitting over here. I cry out to God for 'em, 'cause I want 'em...I can't save them. I tell them the same thing I'm telling you. Even though they're little, I tell them they need the Lord, they need to cry out to Him. I told them before they need to listen. Oh Lord, help...that's a dad's concern is some don't listen. I know you're looking tonight, but do you hear what's being said? There's prayers going up for you that your ears, the eyes of your heart will be open to this message.

( congregational amens ).

And you know why? God's got a purpose. He said that promise was unto our children and our children's children. Don't you see? God brought your parents, and you're not gonna get in on their salvation. That salvation has got to be applied to you, and you've got to bow your knee to Christ. And I think He's calling some of you. Ask the Lord to take all the religion. I ask God to make you miserable. That's what I ask Him. I ask Him to make you miserable, take your peace from you, take everything away from you, that you might cry out for Him.

( congregational amens ).

And the Lord's gonna answer that prayer. Praise the Lord.

( congregational amens ).

-- Brother Benjamin Johnson: Praise God! I appreciate His faithfulness tonight to reach out. I appreciate His love and mercy, because He is reaching out. I hope you can see it. I hope we all can see it, because He's reaching out to those that need salvation. But He's reaching out to every one of us in this meeting to draw us to His self in a greater way than we have been, and to draw some that have never come into the door. That's what's needed in some lives.

You know Stephen...his speech he gave before the Sanhedrin there for which they stoned him when he was finished...one of the things he said to 'em at the end of it, he said, "ye stiffnecked...in heart and..." mind, "...ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." That was what they were guilty of. They were guilty of resisting the Holy Ghost. It's one thing to be ignorant. It's one thing to be in darkness, but it's another thing to resist when the Holy Ghost comes in love and who reaches out and to do like this and say, no! To push that back and resist it, that's another thing. That's a serious thing.

And I believe the fact that the Lord...He's drawn every night. I know you've noticed that. There's been an opportunity given every single night for people to come. And there's been some services last night where just a couple came. And the fact that the Lord is still reaching out tonight tells me He's interested in some people here that need Him. And they've been resisting. They've been resisting the Holy Ghost, but He is still reaching out because He's that merciful to us. He is that faithful. He said He is long suffering, not willing that any should perish. He is the one that's faithful, and He's reaching out tonight.

But you know the problem is just what Patrick was talking about there. Do we really see our need? Paul spoke about those. He said, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ...should shine unto them." See there's something he's trying to blind your eyes...but it's for a reason. It's to keep the gospel from shining to you.

When the Word would come like it has tonight and show you what the problem is and reach out to you and try to touch your heart...if you find that there's something in there that says well, I don't really understand. I don't see how this applies. That isn't right. It's over-dramatized. I'm not like that. You're blind. Your eyes have been blinded by the god of this world who is trying to keep the gospel of Christ from shining unto you. I praise God that there's a power greater than him here tonight.

( congregational amens ).

The power of Christ is greater than his power. Greater is He that's in us. Flawed as we are, messed up as we are, incapable, unqualified as we are to try to give out the Word of Life, in spite of all that, there's a greater One that's in us than he that's in the world...than he that holds people in bondage. And I praise Him for that tonight. I thank Him for that.

( congregational amens ).

This problem with not seeing the need, not having our eyes opened...I don't know sometimes of any person or any group of people that it's harder to open eyes for than people that have grown up in church. They can be the hardest people in the world to open eyes for. Beth and I were talking about this. We went out to dinner a while back for our anniversary and we were talking about some of these things because you grow up and you don't have a history to look back on like somebody mentioned.

I don't remember who said it. But you say, well I haven't committed adultery, I haven't killed anybody, I haven't told any big lies...little lies, yeah sure, but not big. We don't see the problem. The problem is God is not gonna judge you relative to everybody else. There's not a standard that's on a curve here. He's not gonna compare you and take the top 5 percent. That's not how it works.

He has a standard. It's perfect righteousness. That's the standard. It's perfect holiness. That's what you're gonna be compared to...not the person next to you, not the people you see on the news or the people that are in the prisons. That's not who you're gonna be compared to. We're gonna be compared to His perfect holiness. I can't match that. I can't stand up before that.

Isaiah couldn't stand up before that. I don't know how much he really got it. I mean he was serving the Lord. He was doing what he knew to do, but I don't know how much he got it until he had that experience. God had to do something unusual to shake him, and wake him up and realize, my God, this is the One that I'm serving. This is the One that I'm supposed to represent. When I go before people, I'm not just giving out my ideas and my philosophies. I'm supposed to be giving out the Word of a God that I can't even compare to. Oh, how am I gonna do that? I've got unclean lips. How can I give out a perfect Word like that? He realized God's gonna have to do something for me that I can't do for me. But praise God, He did!

( congregational amens ).

Amen. He sent that angel to touch him on the lips, to purify him. He can do that tonight. But we've got to see the need--we've got to see the need. We don't need to compare ourselves to somebody else. Jesus tried to get this through to the Pharisees on many occasions. He talked to 'em a lot. There was one occasion where he said, you read in your law where it says thou shall not kill. So you say, well, I haven't killed anybody. Check. I'm good on that point.

He said, no. That's not how it works. He said, have you ever hated anybody? If you've ever hated anybody, you're a murderer because that's what leads to it. If you've ever even had that rise up in your spirit where you've had a violent hatred against somebody or something and you wanted to lash out, that's the seed of murder, folks. All that does...if you've ever even had to suppress it, it doesn't matter if you've acted on it or not...if you've ever even had to suppress it, that's just proof that it's there. It's in your nature.

He said, the law that you read in the law where it says thou shall not commit adultery, and you say, well, I've never committed adultery so I'm good there too. He says, have you ever looked at a woman...I mean so much as looked at a woman to lust after her? I mean there's a good reason he used that example. He knew good and well nobody there could claim innocence. Does anybody here, can you raise your hand and claim innocence on that point? The fact of the matter is...the fact that we've ever even had to battle that shows that that's what we are. That's our nature.

( congregational amens ).

The God that gave these laws, the God that said thou shall not murder, God is not like us. He's not a bigger version of us and He gets mad sometimes and He has all these impulses but somehow He's bigger and stronger so he can suppress 'em and keep 'em under control. He's not like us. That is not in His nature. He is perfectly holy. In Him is light "...and in Him is no darkness at all." That's what God is.

( congregational amens ).

He's not like us, folks. He's not having to hold back all these impulses. Yet we find 'em in us, if we're honest. If we can be honest at all...it doesn't even take much honesty...if we can be honest at all, we find those things in us. And if you've ever even had to battle that, that's just proof that it's there and all it would take is the right circumstances, and it would come out.

And it's only...if you haven't fallen into some of those things, it's only the mercy of God that He's guided your circumstances that you haven't been in a place where you could have fallen into that, because otherwise you would have, and I would have too. And we've fallen in areas...we can all find things.

Jesus gave a parable about the one that He forgave that owed this massive amount of money, mind-blowing amount of money, and this other one that He forgave that just owed Him a little bit. And He said, well, which one do you think is gonna love Him more? And then His disciples said, well, I guess the one to whom You forgave the most. And he said, yeah that's right. That's the way it works.

That's why Jesus told the Pharisees...he said, I'll tell you, the harlots and the publicans will go in the kingdom of heaven before you will, because you can approach them on the Word of God and say, it says thou shall not commit adultery. You're a sinner. They have no argument for that if there's any respect for the Word of God at all. You can't deny that.

But you go up to somebody who's grown up in church who hasn't committed adultery, who hasn't killed anybody, and try to...sometimes it's the hardest thing in the world to try to show 'em in the Word that you've got a need. I pray that God will open eyes tonight because we can do a lot of the right things. We can learn culturally. It can become a culture, a church culture. You know how to act. You know what to say. You know how to come in here. But God's not gonna look at what you do. That's the point that I want to make. God never looks at what people do externally. It's always the heart that He's looking at.

( congregational amens ).

It's always the heart. He told Samuel that when Samuel went to anoint Jesse's sons and he saw 'em come in one by one. Oh yeah, this guy looks great. He's impressive looking. Surely he's the one. Finally God told him. He says, you look on the outward appearance. That's what man does. That's all you can do, but I look on the heart. I'm looking at things differently here. God wants you to know He's looking at your heart tonight. I'm not gonna ask you what you've done or haven't done, because it's irrelevant to the question. Have you surrendered your heart or not? That's the question.

I want to read something. I read this a while back, but I thought about again as Patrick was speaking. It's in Luke chapter 17.

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