Sunday Night
Sunday Night - July 7, 2024
Well, good evening to you here in the chapel. This is our Sunday night service here at the First Baptist Church of Algiers, and we're located at 9559 in Florida Boulevard, Walcker, Louisiana. And I invite you to come and worship with us if you're in the area, we'd love to have you. I'm Brother Glenn Bond, I'll be with you tonight. Let's open our services in the Red Book, number 370, Not I But Christ, verses 1, 3, and 4. Not I But Christ, we are in love, it's holding, Not I But Christ, we sing, we come, we pray, Not I But Christ, in every look and action, Not I But Christ, in every look and word, Oh, do we say, from myself, dear Lord, Oh, do we lost in me, Oh, that it might be, No, oh, right, we're Christ, and it's in me, I'm with Christ, by every means of crying, Christ, I shake the milk to me, Christ only cries, for my soul can sit in, Christ only cried, only when my life is me, Oh, do we say, from myself, dear Lord, Oh, do we lost in me, Oh, that it might be, No, oh, right, we're Christ, and it's in me, Oh, do we say, from myself, dear Lord, Oh, do we lost in me, Oh, do we lost in me, Oh, do we say, from myself, dear Lord, Oh, do we lost in me, Oh, that it might be, No, oh, right, we're Christ, and it's in me, Amen. Our dear Father, we do thank You for bringing us back here, thank You for our blessings through the day, thank You for blessing the services as You have, and Lord, we come again one more time. I just come asking that You hold me up and give me words to speak. May You send my Holy Spirit Lord in me, and help me to speak, and send Him to each one that hears, to make the message effectual in the heart. Have mercy on us, Lord. I do ask You for our sick and afflicted and bereaved, Lord, for all our lost folks, Lord, that You heal, raise up, comfort, turn hearts, save sinners. And Lord, that's our purpose here is to preach the gospel, to call on lost sinners to look to Christ. And Lord, just give me grace to do that one more time, and take it home to hearts, Lord, according to thy will, help us, Lord. Bless us. Bless our pastor, continue to give him more strength day by day, wisdom, understanding, clear mind, all those things, Lord, we ask you for him, and bless us and keep us, and ask it in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. Well, I'm glad to be back. We glad to have Pastor back with us, and you know, he's been in the hospital a few days, and he told me he's feeling neglected, and he ain't nobody called him. So you've been holding off thinking the pastor ain't, ain't wanting to take your calls, or busy, or rest, and y'all give Pastor a call, tell him how much you appreciate him. And he'd be happy to hear it. Maybe you've been holding off. Yeah, just check, see if he's still alive. He appreciate hearing from you. So y'all give him a call. He appreciates it. But I'm glad to be here. I thank the Lord for His keeping grace, bringing us here. We look around at the world, the terrible conditions we live in, and we see the people being killed, and car crashes, and riots, and all those things, all across the world. And yet we, the Lord's blessed us with more or less peace and contentment, if nowhere other than right here in this building. So I appreciate it. I thank the Lord for it. We need to remember the small blessings that the Lord gives us. So yeah, all the benefits. What the Bible says, forget not all the benefits. So let's remember what the Lord's done for us, and let's not forget to be thankful that He's given us those things. So let's turn to number 399 in the Red Book, "Seek in the Lost." And I'd like this song to y'all sing it out, verses one, two, and three. Sing the Lord, say that He's dreaming, while there is on the mountain of spring. How much He's made, which He's dreaming, words of a master, singing today. Mowing upon the mountain, bringing the Lord back again, into the boat, the fiery beam. He's a true leader, for sinners, angels in their strength. Shaving the Lord's name, by into Jesus, so that we can find their sword. Sing the Lord, say that we shall be shown, showing the back to life evermore. Rowing upon the mountain, bringing the Lord back again, into the boat. Into the boat, the fiery beam, the fiery deaper. He lives the land, for sinners, angels in their strength. Thus I would go on, this is the mercy, following pride is from day to day. Cheering the faith and bringing the Father, fighting the Lord's death, Jesus the way. Mowing upon the mountain, bringing the Father back again, and again, into the boat, the fiery beam. Jesus the land, for sinners, angels in their strength. Amen. Amen. Y'all did good. That sounded good. Praise the Lord for it. That's a gracious song. I don't know, I'm not in any way musically inclined or any of that, but I know what sounds good to me. But I can't imagine somebody putting that music together with them words and that order and that arrangement. I can't imagine that, but I praise the Lord for those that can do those things. Well, I'm glad to be here tonight. I appreciate what the Lord has done for me and given me these messages. I know that when I look back on what the Lord has given me, I have to say that if the Lord hadn't given it to me, I wouldn't have it. So as we go day by day and I bring message after message, I am more and more able to see the hand of the Lord in what I speak. Because I know that it's not of me, so I praise the Lord for it and may the Lord use it because it's his word and not mine. He only puts me here to bring it out. So I've titled the message tonight, "Unbelief is idle worship." Unbelief is idle worship and I want to go into that a little bit as the Lord gives me grace and I'll just pray for me. I pray that the Lord will give me what he wants to say. We find in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 3 and 4, he says, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lust and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming?' For since the Father's fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. These people we have with us today, many will say these same things. Well, it's been 2,000 years since the Lord was here. He said he's coming back and it's been 2,000 years he ain't come yet. And I don't think he's coming. I think he died just like everybody else died. Nobody else has come back and I don't think he's coming back. And that's what the Bible says, scoffers walking after their own lust. Now the Bible tells us that a day with the Lord is like a year or a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. Time means nothing to God in 2,000 years. That's nothing with the Lord. It doesn't mean anything with him. Many people, you might say, atheist, ungodly people, they believe that. Well, he ain't came yet. The world's going on. There is no God that can come back. They consider that though Christ said he was God, well, he wasn't God. He was just another man. And today we see this big global warming thing and people think, oh, we're going to have to do something with the global warming. If there was a God, perhaps he could fix it. But there is no God. We have to fix it ourselves. And that's what man's trying to do. They're trying to fix it himself. But I believe it's part of God's plan and you ain't going to change God's plan. This global warming stuff is just a result of unbelief. Nobody believes in God. They don't believe that God's in control. They don't think God has power enough to do these things. Man thinks that he has enough power and enough ability that he can step in and take control. But he's deceived. He's deceived himself when man begins to believe that he can do it himself. It's the same as trying to push God off his throne and take over, take God's place and say, I'll do it the way I want. And that's what's happening. That's what's happening. The Bible says, the year of your father, the devil and the lust of your father, you will do. And whenever we see man attempting these things, which amounts to pushing God off the throne, it's only evidence of the true fact of this verse. Doing the lust of Satan, Satan's desire was to take God's place on the throne. That's what he wanted to do. That's his desire. That's the lust of his heart. And man is fulfilling the lust of Satan when he follows his own corrupt desires. And it seems so plain when we look at this global warming scheme. But let me ask you. Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe it's true? Do you believe there's a God? Do you believe God's Word? Do you? Or maybe you're like these that the Lord warned us about scoffers walking after their own lust and saying, where's the promise of his common? He said he was coming, where's he at? We ain't seen him. That's the heart of unbelief. When you finally figure it out, you'll find that you can't even draw a breath without God's power or God permitting it. You're not able. You can't do it. You'll see that all you're doing is serving an idol or maybe many idols that can't do anything at all for you. That's what we find ourselves serving idols. Listen what the Bible tells us when we turn away from God, Deuteronomy 4.28. And there ye shall serve God's, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. He says from there, that's from where you have ran off to in your unbelief, from where you have set up your idols. He says, but if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, that's us. Even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shall be obedient unto his voice, for the Lord thy God is a merciful God, he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he swear unto them. Now this is Deuteronomy, this is the Old Testament, this is way back, but it holds true. He says, ye shall serve God's, the work of men's hands, the work of your own hands. You've made these gods yourself, you've set them up yourself, you spend God's time worshiping these gods of your own making. All the time that you spend on something else, all the time that you go about in sin, loving the world, the things of the world and things in this life, this is the time that you should be spending seeking the Lord, worshiping God, the true God, turning away from these idols that consume all your time. As your duty, he says, if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord, I remember before the Lord saved me, there were many things that I would spend my time. I would fill up my days doing, I didn't want to seek the Lord, I didn't want to plead with the Lord, I wanted my way, I wanted to worship my idols, my gods, do what I wanted to do. And that's a natural thing, that's the natural heart, we get pleasure from worshiping our own gods, and I enjoy doing that, but all those things are going to take you to a devil's hell. You're going to have to forsake them, that's the natural man, following the natural heart, the natural will, the stubborn will, I want what I want, and I don't want to seek the Lord, that's what we are. I want what I want, I don't care about God, I don't care about God's laws, I want what I want. That's the natural heart, the natural will, exposing itself, shining forth. Now the Lord had to make me to realize that, that's part of the Holy Spirit's work in opening the understanding and shining the light, you come to see these things. And that's the natural heart, the natural man, that's every lost sinner outside of Christ. Now listen, here's the fate of those who will not turn, those who will continue in their idol worship, we find that in Ezekiel chapter 6 starting in verse 1. The word of the Lord came to me saying, "Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, and he's speaking to the land here, the inhabitants of all of this land." He says, "Behold, I, even I will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places, and your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel, before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease. And your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished, and the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." You shall know, now this gives us a vision, a picture of total destruction. And that's what hell is, it's total destruction. God is warning you about your idols, your idols of unbelief. You refuse to believe, and I'm telling you destruction is coming, and the Bible says, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord." You shall know. You shall know, did you notice, that's at the end of all of it that he says that? After it's all over, after everyone has been dislained and destroyed and tore down, he says, "Then ye shall know." When it's all passed and over and done and it's too late, when you finally come to know that the Lord's in charge, it'll be too late. Destruction will have already passed, and you will look back from your place in hell and acknowledge it, you can't get away from it. It'll be too late. I praise the Lord that there came a time in my life where I came to see and to understand that I was serving idols. I understood it. I came to know without a doubt. I knew that I was serving idols and I knew that I was leaving and turning and forsaken the Lord. And I knew that if I continued on, I would never see heaven, but only eternal hell. But what I didn't know at the time was that a sovereign God made me to know these things. A sovereign God intervened in my life. Look back there in Deuteronomy, he says, "But if from thence thou shall seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him." If from thence we have hope, you have promises held out to you. If from thence, where is thence? He's talking about from being scattered abroad in the world. Before the destruction comes, he's not talking about, while you're still there, bow down before your idols, before you can seek the Lord. You're going to have to turn from your idols. You're going to have to forsake them. You're going to have to renounce them and see them for what they truly are. You're going to have to repent of all that. Those idols are only something to consume your time, to keep you busy, to keep you from calling on the true God. He says, "If from thence, from wherever the Lord awakens you, and you come to yourself, and you find a need of salvation, if from thence, when you turn your eyes from your idols and look to the Lord, when you begin to seek the Lord, you've already turned. Your idols are behind you. When you begin to seek the Lord, when you begin to call on him, you may be hesitant. You may be halting. You may be looking back over your shoulders. You may be thinking of what you're leaving and looking forward to what you're going to. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord. Are you want to be saved? Are you still worshiping your idols? Are you chasing after the world and the pleasures of the world? Have you forsaken all your own will, your own desires, all the things that you love, all those things that consume your time? Have you? Have you come to see that your will is contrary to God's will? Have you? If you will ever stop for a moment, stop chasing the world, all the things of the world, turn off the TV, turn off your radio, your music, sit down for a minute, be still, let the Lord reason with you for a minute, think about the Lord instead of thinking about the world, instead of thinking about what music you want to hear or what TV shows coming on next. If you'll stop, clear that out of your mind and think about your soul. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord will open you on the standing a little bit. Call you to see the awful condition you're in. Begin to open your understanding. 1 John 2, 15 tells us 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. Now, that's every one of us by nature. We love the world. We love the things of the world. We love being a part of the world. All of those things did give us pleasure in this life. These are all just part of the world. And he says, love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. Somebody told me, I don't remember who it was or where I heard it, and he says, you hold on to the things in this world with a loose grip, with an open hand. You take them while you have them, you use them as you will, but if the Lord takes them away, you let it go. The Lord calls on you, you let it go. Don't you hold on to it? Let it go. The Lord calls you, let it go. Turn loose of all of it. Stop spending all your time doing all these things and begin to seek the Lord. Look what the Bible tells us about salvation. I know I listen to a few little messages from different churches from time to time, and always look for somebody that's talking about salvation, but I never hear anything. They always talking about something else. But when I come here, I want to talk about salvation. I want to call sinners to repent. Why? It's always the same. Repent. Call on the Lord. Seek the Lord. Why? Because that's the only thing in this life that has a true meaning. Everything else is going to pass away. Everything else is worthless. It's going to be gone soon enough. The only thing in this life that you'll take out is your salvation. You ain't taking nothing else out. You ain't taking your good works. You ain't taking none of that. If you don't have salvation, you go out empty-handed. So I preach salvation. That's the only thing that's worthy to be spoken on. But the Bible tells us, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." Now there's just two verses there that gives us a good description of salvation and what salvation's worth. When you love the world and the things of the world, all these things, you will never part with them to purchase that pearl of great price. No matter what it's worth, you don't see its value. You'll never part with it. You love the world. You love the things of the world. And this says, he sold all that he had. He gave everything that he had to obtain this one pearl of great price. And it's only by the grace of God that you ever come to see the value of salvation, the value of that pearl of great price. The things of the world have more value to you than that pearl and you would rather have the world and the things of the world rather than Christ and His salvation. That's every heart by nature. But look again. You say, "Oh, I do love the world and I can see that. And I love the world and the things of the world. And I cannot love Christ. And I cannot want salvation. It's not in me to do those things. But look what the Bible tells us. If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord, thou shalt find Him. When you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. And you say, "Well, I can't seek Him with all my heart. I can't do it with all my soul. I just can't do it. It's not in me." We'll seek the Lord as best you can. Call on Him, plead with Him. Don't stop. The Lord didn't give you that understanding for nothing. He's caused you to desire salvation. He's put it in your heart. You didn't do it. And so He's telling you, seek the Lord. Seek Him. Call on Him. You're going to have to devote time to seeking the Lord, seeking Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. And maybe you say, "Well, I can't find the time. I'm just not able to seek the Lord." We'll bring those problems to the Lord and ask Him for grace. Ask Him for help. You can't do it. You're not able. If left to yourself, you'll just wind up in hell. I really appreciated that Spurgeon's part about election. You know election, God's election, and predestination, and all that the Bible tells us, "All that is just as solid and as true as it can be. But none of it relieves you of your obligation and your duty to seek the Lord." It doesn't. The Lord works by means. If you're ever saved, and you can be elected from the beginning of time or eternity or whatever, we don't know how far election goes. But if you're elected, all that means is you're going to seek the Lord. You're going to seek the Lord. The Lord's going to prick your heart. He's going to move on you. He's going to bring you to where you are now, and you're going to say, "Oh, what am I going to do? I can't seek the Lord. I can't call on Him. I don't really have a desire. If from this, seek the Lord now. Turn from your idols, turn from your worldly ways, and begin to seek the Lord for sake of all. Just like this man that's bought this pearl, he got rid of everything. He turned loose of all of it just for the sake of that one pearl. How did that one pearl fit into life? What's a pearl going to do for your life? What is salvation going to do for your life? You think, well, with that pearl, I mean, he's going to be able to eat that pearl. That pearl's not going to keep him warm at night. It's not going to keep him dry in a storm. What is salvation going to do for you? Salvation as such is going to do no more for you than the pearl in that sense. The Lord has already promised you some manner of providing for you, caring for you, providing clothes, and all of that's already provided with Christ or without Christ. What's salvation going to give you in this life? It's not a whole lot in that respect, but the thing is this life is going to be gone. It's going to pass real soon. The salvation that the Lord gives you will be a great comfort to you through this life. And in heaven, pleasures forevermore at the Lord's right hand, I wish I could bring that out, the difference in the pearl and salvation. I wish I could bring that out. It is a great difference if we could get our perspective right. But if from thence you're going to have to devote some time to seeking the Lord. You're going to seek the Lord or you're going to go to hell. Bring the problems to the Lord, tell him, he says, if you'll seek him with all your heart, with all your soul, if you'll seek with an undivided heart, that means not when it's convenient for you, not when you take a break from your idols and run over here and read your Bible a few minutes, then run back to your idols. You're going to have to turn from your idols. You're going to have to leave them. You're going to have to have a desire after Christ. Do you have a desire for Christ? None of us, by nature, has a desire for Christ. It's not there. The Lord has to put it there. He starts with that concern for the soul. I'm going to go to hell when I die. Now you think that people know that if I'm not saved, I'm going to go to hell when I die. And I lived with that all my life. But it didn't mean anything to me. I wasn't concerned about it. I was able to push it out of my mind and not think about it. For 50 years, I knew that if I died, I'd go to hell. And why the Lord put up with me for 50 years in that state, I don't know. I raised him that he did. But the Lord in his time began to water that little bit of desire, that little bit of concern. And that concern grew, and it grew until the time where I could no longer push it out of my mind. And I couldn't get away from it. And the Lord began to deal with me. And he gave me that desire for Christ. And it's that desire. Without that desire for Christ, without that desire for salvation, you don't have anything. But when the Lord puts that desire there, you find yourself like this woman with ten pieces of silver there in Luke 15. He says, "What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not lie to candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together saying, "Your joys with me, for I have found the peace which I lost." You see, that piece of silver, it had great value to this woman. It was worth something. She had a desire for it. And that's the way it is with Christ. If she would have said, "Well, I ain't worried about that. There ain't nothing to me. I don't care if it's gone." And that's the way we are until the Lord puts that desire in our heart. We don't care. We are completely willing that this great blessing and great fortune be gone, be passed from us. I don't care about it. We don't realize the value of it. It's like giving a small child $100 bill. You don't know what it is. It's just a little piece of paper for him to play with. And that's the same way a law center is. We don't know the value of Christ. We don't realize what we're doing when we make light of Christ and salvation. And we say, "Well, I ain't worried about it. I'm going to go over here and I'm going to do this or that. It's what I want to do and I enjoy doing these things." We have no desire for Christ. That woman who lost a piece of silver, that silver was important to her. It was important. She made diligent effort to find it. It's just like Christ. If you don't want it, you ain't going to look for it. But when you want Christ, when Christ becomes precious to you, like this piece of silver was precious to this woman, it says, she saw it diligently till she found it. All her effort cleaning the house and sweeping the house and all around ever nook and cranny until she found it. It was rewarded when she found it. What does the Bible say? Seek and he shall find. Her efforts were rewarded. She found what she was looking for, but she saw it. And she saw it diligently. If you won't make the effort, if you won't seek, if you won't sweep and clean and do all that's within your power to do, then you won't be saved. You won't find any reward. You'll go through your life, die and go to hell. Consider the things in your life that are important to you. What's important to you? Think about it. What's important to you? What's your concern with? The things that you're going to have to deal with tomorrow that's important to you. What are you going to have to do? Think about these things. Think about seeking the Lord. Think about if you die today, who's going to do those things tomorrow? Who's going to do them tomorrow? All the things you spend your time on, who's going to spend time on those things when you're gone? If all those things die when you die, they weren't very important. They're not important. If it's important to the world, the world will quickly fill their spot, your spot. You won't hardly be missed. Why? Why, considering these things, why are you so dead set on the things that you're doing? They don't matter. They don't matter. What matters is seeking the Lord. Think of it this way, plainly and simply put. Who's going to worship your idols when you're dead and gone? How much simpler can it be put? Who's going to worship your idols when you're gone? God's warned you that if you don't turn from them, that he'll destroy you. You believe him? You think the Lord will give that to somebody else. He exempted you. You ain't going to happen to you. You believe the Lord? You believe there is a God? The devils believe in tremble. They tremble. They think about eternity. They know their destination. And they tremble. All they can do is tremble because they have no redeemer. They have no hope for salvation. They can't be saved. Their destiny is fixed. But you, you have hope. You have not only hope, but many promises. Promise after promise to urge you, to guide you, to give you hope. All these things the Lord gives you. And then you have all of God's warnings if you won't come. Listen to what the Bible tells us. We got a few minutes. Let me just read you a few of these here. Psalms 97, he says, "Confounded, be all they that serve braven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship him, all ye gods." Psalms 106, "They serve their idols which were a snare unto them." Psalm 135, "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands." Isaiah 2, "Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made." Isaiah 45, "They shall be ashamed and also confounded all of them. They shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols." The Lord has warning after warning about idols and idol worship. Will you heed the Lord's warning? Ezekiel 14 tells us, "A great warning." Let me read it to you real quick. It says, "Certain of the elders of Israel came unto me and sat before me." This is Ezekiel, "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols and their heart." Is that you? Idols in your heart. They have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? Are you holding to your idols and wanting to call on the Lord for salvation? Verse 4, "Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that seteth up his idols in his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols." Now that's a frightening thought. Matthew, Henry says, "He'll give them up to their own hearts. They'll leave them to their own selves, to be just as bad as they have a mind to be, till they have filled up the measure of their iniquity. If you set your idols in your heart and you want to hold to them and you want to come and plead with the Lord to save you and bring your idols with you, no, it ain't going to happen. The Lord will answer you according to the multitude of your idols." And that's a terrible thought. To be left to your idols, this is the height of hypocrisy about as much of a hypocrite as you can be. You have shut out the Lord and you've made your own gods and now you want to come and your gods can't help you, so you want to come to the Lord and get his help and drag your idols with you. And the Lord is not going to answer you. He's going to leave you deceived. He's going to leave Satan to take you, let him continue his work in you. If you blind and deceived and you will perish with your idols, you're going to have to turn loose of them. You're going to have to turn loose of them or go to hell. And I plead with you, ask the Lord to give you grace, to turn loose, to forsake them. Leave them where they at, walk away. Beg the Lord, not to leave you. You can't do anything of yourself if the Lord's given you grace to be concerned, beg him for more grace. Lord, help us. Our Father, I thank you for this time. Thank you for that word, for all like gracious promises. Thank you for such long-suffering, Lord. Long-suffering that you've not grown weary of us and cast us all out. I thank you for it. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for His most amazing life. The most gracious sacrifice for such a love center is me. Lord, help us. Bless us, keep us, go with us, Lord. Bless us through the coming week, if it be thy will. And I ask all this in Christ's name, amen.