Sunday Night
Sunday Night - July 28, 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 I'm glad to be back with you. Let's open our service tonight in the Red Book with page number 60, cleanse me verses 1, 2, and 4. Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my laws, find great, see him, hear me, some wicked way in me. Find me from every sin and send me free, My praise be Lord, for cleansing me from sin. O fill thy word and make me pure within, fill of me with fire, where once I burn with shame. Grant my desire to magnify my name. O Lord, revise, revival comes from me. Send a revival, start the work in me. Try where the first thou will so find thy name. For blessing thou, O Lord, thy hungry queen. Amen. Dear Father, we do come one more time to the throne of thy grace, pleading Lord for mercy. Help us, Lord, give us thy Holy Spirit, send him among us, Lord, to awaken our people. Help, Lord, give me grace to stand here one more time and to speak, and Lord, may I speak according to thy will, and not have any part of myself in it, but Lord, give me grace to speak what you would have me to say. Bless the words, Lord, take them home to the hearts of our people, O Lord, help us. Don't leave us to ourselves. For Lord, left ourselves, and we can find nothing but hell and destruction. So go with us, Lord. Go before us. Prepare the way, prick hearts, cause our people to be concerned and to seek thy face. Help, Lord. Bless the sick, the afflicted, Lord, all those on a prayer list. We ask you for them. We ask you for all these here, Lord. Ask for prayer for those that want to be saved, those that are calling on thy name. We ask you for them. Have mercy, Lord. Bless us, guide us, keep us, and ask it all in Christ's name, amen. Well, I do thank the Lord for these songs, and that song cleansed me, seems like a gracious thought to me that the Lord would cleanse me yet one more time, but I do want to mention that we still have many means that we're using to get out the gospel, the printed messages, the CDs, the flash drives. So if you want any of these things, especially the printed messages, we send them out free and postpaid, anybody that wants them, if you want to know what we have, the different titles, we have a list of those things, and there's four or five hundred titles, there's something on every subject. And the printed messages are great messages, you can read it, put it down for a minute, pick up where you left off. It seems like the reading, the printed messages never go out of style, never get old the method. So if you're interested, give us a call, and we do have the CDs and flash drives. So think about those things, and think about also you want to be saved, think about coming and joining us here on Sunday night. The Bible tells us don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, don't forsake it. He says, so much more as you see that day approaching, and you look around and you tell me you don't see that day approaching, you better open your eyes. But I thank the Lord for it, that we have the gospel, we can come, we can plead with the Lord, and it's like I said this morning, you do what the Lord tells you and he'll save you. It's plain and simple to me, you call on the Lord, you plead with him, he'll save you. You want to be saved, you want to avoid that coming time, you call on the Lord. Let's take our red song books now and turn to number 90. Why should he love me so? And that's a question I'll never understand. It is one, two, and three. And that's a question I'll never understand. Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Why should he love me so? Amen. And I believe that's a question that we'll be able to ask throughout eternity, why should he love me so? To me, it's something that I can't begin to understand. I don't know why the Lord would love me, but I praise the Lord that he does. I thank him that he called me, brought me, made me one of his. But I want to speak tonight, I've titled a message, the power of God in salvation. The power of God. We don't understand the power of God. I don't, I can't understand the, you might, I guess we can say the infinite power of God. The Bible says that he has all power and when we consider the work, the creative work of God, we can see a great power there. We consider that he made all the universe and flung all the stars into their places and all those things and consider the vast distances between the stars. It's just beyond my ability to comprehend. And we think of God saving a center. Most people, I believe we don't realize that salvation is by power, it's by God's power. Christ told us there in Matthew 22, 29, he said, "You do error not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." You don't know the power of God. And when you consider salvation, you have to consider your problem is that you don't know that power. You don't understand it. It's by salvation, it's by God's power, it's not by your power. The Lord has to do it, your power don't mean a thing, and the only power you have is what the Lord has imparted to you, has given you. And when you compare that little bit of strength that you have to all the power of God, it's insignificant, can't be found. But the Lord is gracious in that He gives us power. We have, He gives us power to walk and to move, to go about our lives, He gives us power to draw a breath, He gives us power to get up out of the bed in the morning, He gives us power to go to work, all those things. But whenever we consider that power is, or salvation is by power, you have to consider that you're powering near enough, you can't do it. You don't have the power to save yourself. You don't have power to forgive your sins. You don't have power to impart a righteousness to yourself. You're not able. The Apostle Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." He said, "It is the power of God unto salvation." The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Listen to everyone that believeth. It's the power of God. The gospel is the power of God. It brings the power of God. It brings it to you, it makes you, you might say, a part of it, the power of God. But when you come here and you hear the gospel preach and it doesn't move you, you're very inclined to say, "Well, that doesn't look like much power to me, the gospel of Christ." It doesn't look like much to me because you sit here, you don't believe, you're unmoved, and there's no power there for you. You don't see your condition. You see in the dark, you don't understand what a little bit you do see. You can't understand it, but when you see yourself as God sees you, when you begin to see yourself as corrupt, depraved, a needy sinner, ungodly, unholy, when you begin to see that, then you'll realize that much power is needed to save you. Much power. Now, I don't think I can begin to even understand how much power is required to save a sinner, to put away sin, those things, but just consider that Christ, God Himself in Christ, had to die to make that available to you. How much power is in Christ? I said all power is given to me, all power, and then He had to die. It kind of seems to me that it takes all the power of God to save a sinner. Now, that's a wonder to me. Look at the power of God. We see the universe, how the Lord created all the universe, and we all take that for granted. And scientists will explain it away and say, well, it was a big bang, and it all happened in an instant, and it's just been happening ever since. And they will belittle it and make it to the point where some man could have mustered up the little bang and the matter and whatever it took to do it, and some man could have done it, and it ain't a great deal. I believe it's a big deal. But look there at the power of God in raising Lazarus from the dead, and you find that story there in the 11th chapter of John, and I'm not going to read it, but let's just consider a few of the things the Bible tells us. We find Lazarus dead in the grave, already in the tomb, been there four days, the Bible tells us, four days, and was beginning to rot. The flesh was beginning to decompose. He was beyond the hope of anything that any doctor could do. Beyond hope, what can be done, and you consider that the doctors of our time to be much greater than the doctors back then, but even today, what can a doctor do for somebody that's been dead four days? He can't even put any hope of anything in somebody that's been dead four days. They talk about, "Oh, oh, oh, so-and-so." He died on the table, but we brought him back, and while he was heart quit beating for a few seconds, and they were able to revive him. But four days dead in the grave rotting beyond hope, but Christ, by the power of God, all he had to do was say, "Lazarus, come forth." That's all that God had to do, all Christ had to do. He said, "Lazarus, come forth." And Lazarus, his body brought itself together, renewed itself, his spirit returned, the power of God lifted him up and brought him out of the grave, the power of God. Look at old Lazarus, after he was revived, he came out of the grave. It says he was still bound, hand and foot. He couldn't have walked out, but he came out, bound, hand and foot. The Lord said, "Lose him and let him go." He came forth from the dead. We have that portion there, I forget where it's at, about the valley of dead bones. He said, "Can these bones live?" The Lord's able, the Bible says he's able to raise up children of Abraham, living bodies from the stones. God's power is not limited. We limit the Lord. Lazarus couldn't bring himself out of the grave. He couldn't do anything, even if when he was laying there in the grave and the Lord said, "O Lazarus, come forth in all the strength and vitality," he came back into his body. He was still bound, even if he would have just woke up and became alive. He was still bound. He couldn't come out, but the Lord even brought him out. Not only did he bring him back to life, bring his body back together, but he brought him out of the grave by the power of God. Now whenever I think about salvation and we look at the power of God, you find that a lost sinner is just as unable to do anything just as unable as Lazarus was, just as unable. Did Lazarus beg and plead with the Lord to raise him up? No. It was the Lord's purpose, the Lord put life into Lazarus and brought him out of the grave. Lazarus never even asked. He didn't pray. He didn't beg the Lord. He didn't exert any effort at all. Now this shows the Lord's side of salvation, just how sure it is. And just how much effort the Lord puts into it, and though we say the Lord put effort into it, with all the power the Lord has, it takes, I believe, very little of the Lord's effort to save a sinner. All the Lord had to do was say, "Lazarus, come forth," and he came forth. Now you may think, "Wow, that's what I need God to do for me." I need him to do that for me, but I want to tell you, if you're ever saved, you'll say that. That's what the Lord did for me. That's what he did for me. Now this doesn't show any part of man's duty or man's responsibility in coming to the Lord. It doesn't show it here in this example, but it's still there. It's there. Repentance is a part of man's responsibility, but we don't see that here. It's not shown, faith is a part of man's responsibility, but it's not shown. Seeking the Lord is your responsibility, but we don't see that here. But yet Lazarus was still saved. Did Lazarus get by without that? Did he? Was he exempted? Lazarus did not get by without repentance, without faith, without seeking the Lord. He didn't. Now I can't tell you where it was or any of that, but I see God's Word and what the Lord does, and that's what the Lord requires. And so if Lazarus was saved, then he went through all those things. He did, just as sure as any of us do. Repentance is necessary. Christ said, "Except you repent, you'll perish. No exceptions. If Lazarus was saved, there was repentance." But now think about it. Just the same as Christ came of his own free will and raised Lazarus up, the Bible tells us that repentance is a gift. And if Christ gave Lazarus the power to come forth, he also gave him repentance. That's a gift, the Lord has to give it. Why would you think that he would give the life without the repentance and the faith and all these other things? It happened. I don't know where, nor how, or any of that, but I believe it happened. The Bible is silent there, but God never changes. He doesn't. What you need to know when we think about these things, what you need to know is written in God's Word. It's written down for you, and it says repent. It says believe. It says seek the Lord. It says come and reason together. It says ask and he shall receive. Are you doing these things? Look at that other thing that we're told there that I read just tonight, he says, and let me read it for you again, you that want to be saved. Let me read this. One other thing that you seem to overlook, Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Don't forsake it. Don't forsake it. You want to be saved? You're listening by internet? You're not doing what the Lord's telling you. He says don't forsake the assembling together. Where you at? The Bible tells us in second chronicles, he says if my people shall humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I'll forgive their sin. We all know the verse. We all know it. This one of the things the Lord requires of us is required just as much as repentance when he says except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. It's required of you. If you want to be saved, you're going to have to turn from your sin, from your wicked ways. You're going to have to or go to hell. Now to turn from sin, that doesn't mean we become perfect beings. It doesn't mean we become without sin. But it's like it says here, turn from your wicked ways. Your wicked ways. What are your wicked ways? I can't tell you what your wicked ways are. That's between you and God. For some it might be drinking and chasing women and those things. For others it might be forsaking the assembling together. It could be just that simple. I don't know what the Lord knows. And whenever you begin to get honest with the Lord, the Lord will show you those. Those things make you to know it and you're going to have to acknowledge it to the Lord. Whatever it is, instead of spending your time doing these things, these wicked things the Bible calls them, you need to begin to spend your time seeking the Lord and calling on His name and the Bible says when you seek Him with your whole heart, you'll find Him. The Lord will save you. And when the Lord saves you, you'll look back at all the things that you went through and all the things the Lord did and you'll find that you're just like Lazarus. You didn't do a thing. Everything that you did, the Lord Himself put it within you just like He did with Lazarus. He put it in you to come to Him, to seek Him, to call Him. Now don't try to push all the blame off on God. You're concerned about your soul. You're going to have to seek the Lord. You're going to have to come. It's your duty to come. This is salvation from man's side. That's all the effort you have to put in to seek in the Lord and come and pray in and beg and just like those two blind men we spoke about in prayer meeting. Suppose they would just say, "Well, if the Lord is going to heal my eyes, He'll come find me, He'll come over through the crowd and chase me down and heal my blindness." And that's now what happened, the Bible says, that they followed Him. I don't know how far they followed Him. And I don't know what kind of crowds they had to struggle through but being blind men. No matter what it was, it was surely a difficult thing unless they had somebody to guide them, take them by the hand, lead them and I don't see that. The Bible says it was too blind men and they followed Him. Best they could, the Lord gave them grace. The problem with you is you think you have power to do some of this. You think you might have power to seek the Lord. Do you think you got power to call on Him? And you don't have power to even take a breath except the Lord give it to you. We are helpless creatures. We are God's creation. But don't think, "Oh, well, I'll just wait here until the Lord comes by and gives me grace to call on Him, or grace to pray, or grace to seek Him," or any of that. Let me ask Him, "How do you know when the Lord gives you grace to seek Him, or to call on Him to plead with Him? How do you know? What does it feel like? How can you tell?" I don't know but I'll tell you this, if you're concerned for your soul, if you're concerned even the least little bit, the Lord's giving you grace. You better turn to the Lord. You better begin to seek Him. You've received grace and you don't know it, you don't realize it, and you're not acting on it, and you wonder why the Lord hasn't saved you. God has brought you here tonight to hear this. You're on the Internet, the Lord has given you grace to hear, breaking your heart one more time, putting one more little desire in your heart, a desire for your soul. I don't want to go to hell one more time, one more opportunity. You don't realize that it's God doing it. You think that it's just something that comes over you? Look back at Lazarus, dead in the grave, didn't know anything, and it's just like you. You don't know thing, when the Lord moves upon you, you don't know it. The Bible tells us Ephesians 2-1, it says, "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." This is the apostle Paul talking to the redeemed people there, those that are saved. He says, "You hath he quickened. You who were dead, you were dead, just as dead as Lazarus, but you've been made alive. The Lord came by and quickened you. The Lord did that. He came by. He put a thought, a desire in your heart to be saved. The Lord did that, didn't come from you. The Lord put it there, and if you find it there and you find that desire in your heart, you better plead with the Lord for more desire. You better plead with him to not leave you. Plead with him, did he have mercy on you? Did Lazarus know when he was dead in the grave? Did he know when the Lord gave him grace to come forth? He didn't know anything. He didn't know anything. He was dead. He was dead just like every lost sinner. And when the Lord restored him to life, even then, he was not able to come forth out of the grave on his own power. The Lord had to bring him out by the power of God. You're bound. Every lost sinner is bound by Satan. You're bound by Satan, and he keeps you under his power, and he keeps you deceived. He deceives you. He tells you, "Don't worry about it, you'll be saved soon enough. You don't worry about it. Everything's okay. He's preaching a hard message tonight, but don't you worry about it. That don't apply to you, but he's lying to you. If you're never saved by the power of God, then you'll die, and you'll drop into hell. You will. No exceptions, no ifs, no buts. It'll happen to you. A real literal hell, there is a place, and it's a terrible place, and it's going to happen in due time. You ever think about maybe have to have surgery or something, something that you dread the thought of, and it's scheduled for a certain day, and you dread the thought of it, but yet that day it gets closer, and it gets closer, and you dread it, and you dread it, and you hope it's something will happen, and ultimately you won't have to go through it, and you keep dreading it, and you dread it, but finally that day comes. And you have to go through it. And that's the same thing here. Hell is coming. It's coming. And you've got to seek the Lord, or you're going to end up in that place. It's going to happen. And I can't tell you much about power. How can you define power? I don't know it, I can't tell you what the Bible says, then God has all power. God has all power. He tells us in Romans 13, 1, that every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, and then He says the powers that be are ordained of God. The powers that be, those who have the power over you, your parents, the police, the government, they have the power over you, and these powers are ordained of God. God has blessed them and put them there, and you're to obey them. All power comes from God, and those that have the power over you receive their power from God. Now you might think that, oh no, we elect the politicians, and we vote for the sheriff and the mayor, and these things, and certainly we do. And that's part of man's side, of man's responsibility. But ultimately that power comes from God. Think about it. Do you really know what power is? How great God's power is? Think about what it takes to restore a dead rotting body back to a healthy life. What does it take for God? It was nothing. When Christ, all He did was say, Lazarus come forth in all that power of God came about in His life, and Lazarus came forth. But what about you, if you were to try that, what would happen, nothing? Everybody would laugh at you. Think about what power is. Revelation 4, 11, He says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created for the pleasure of God. Every one of us are created for the pleasure of God. God made all the heavens, the earth, He made each one of us. We didn't evolve from a monkey or some chemicals that come together back a million years ago, like man would have you believe, but God created man. And God breathed life into man. You read it there in the second chapter of Genesis, and God made the heaven, God made the earth, and He said, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. He says, all these things is my handmade. God said that all those things have my handmade, and all those things have been, but to this man will I look even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. Now when you consider all the power of God and the majesty of God and the holiness of God, and He says to this man, well I look, I'll take notice of this poor, corrupt, wicked, ungodly sinner that is a poor and of a contrite heart the Lord will take notice of, and nobody else, the proud man, he won't take notice, the unrepentant man, he won't take notice. But the poor and the contrite spirit, one that trembles at the Lord's word, He says to him, well I look, you want to be saved? This is what you ask the Lord for, ask Him, the Lord created, He has the power to create, He has the power to pull rotting flesh together, He certainly has the power to give you that poor, contrite spirit. Don't think that you're going to muster it up, come to the Lord and ask Him for it. That poor and contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. You want to be saved, ask the Lord for it, ask Him. The all-powerful God can give that to you. He made everything, He made you form the body, all the intricate complexities of the human body, the nerves, the thoughts, the understanding. He created it all, don't you think He can give you a poor, contrite spirit? Certainly He can. Without a doubt He can. He is able. I'll just say that, He is able. We can't understand the power of God. We can't, I can't. I like to think back when I think of the power of God and creating the universe. I like to think that God began with nothing and what is nothing. Let me try and describe nothing to you and I can try but my mind cannot comprehend this. But if you take the whole universe with all the stars and the planets and the gas and the meteors and everything that's in it and you take everything out of it until you have just a great void, nothing, not the tiniest speck of anything and you have this infinite void and then you think God created that infinite void and then He filled it. Now what was there before the infinite void? My mind cannot comprehend that. I'm not able, but you think about God's power and then you think, "Well can the Lord give me that contrite spirit, that broken heart make me to tremble at His Word?" And I don't know about you but that seems much simpler than to create a universe. He started with nothing and I don't believe we can begin to understand what nothing is the power of God is so great that it can't be measured and the power of God we consider the power that it takes to save a sinner if it costs the Lord Jesus Christ, His life it takes a lot of power to save a sinner but the Lord is not short on power. He has plenty, He has all power. We tend to think that, "Well the Lord can't save me, I'm not wicked enough, I'm too wicked or I can't believe, and we can just make up," you might say, "a whole book of excuses of why I'm not saved, why the Lord hasn't saved me." And you think somewhere back in your mind that you have to do something to be saved. You don't have to do anything to be saved, just like Lazarus didn't have to do anything. Now surely you say, "Oh, well this morning you told us we have to seek the Lord and we have to do this and we have to do that," but you're confusing things. Those things won't save you. There's nothing that you can do to be saved. There's nothing that you can do to cause God to have a favorable thought towards you. Nothing. Nothing you can do to cause God to save you, not even to make Him think about saving you. You can. There's nothing you can do. God works by means and whenever you consider a sinner, the Lord finds you in His sight as wicked and ungodly and there's nothing in you that appeals to the Lord, nothing. But when He comes and He begins His work in you, you will begin to see that wicked, ungodly nature that you have because that's what the Lord does when He comes. When He opens the understanding, He shines the light, He causes you to see and when you see it, you'll begin to plead with the Lord to get rid of it because it's an undesirable thing. Doesn't matter how wicked you are, whenever you see what you are, you won't like it and you'll begin to plead with the Lord. Now in our darkened, untouched state, we love sin. We love the wickedness. We love those things. We can't see them. We can't see the awfulness of them and we live our lives apart from God, separate from God and we continue in sin until the Lord moves on. And if the Lord never moves on you, you'll never be saved. You'll continue in sin until you die. It's just like Lazarus if the Lord had not come upon him and moved on him and did his work there, Lazarus would still be in the grave. He would have never come forth. Why didn't Lazarus come forth sooner? Why wasn't he raised from the dead before Christ got there? Because he wasn't able. And you're not able to save yourself. You're not able to do a thing. You can't do it. You want to be saved? Do what the Bible tells you. He says, "Come and reason together." He says, "I ask and ye shall receive." He says, "Call on the name of the Lord." He says, "Seek the Lord." We have a whole book full of things that the Lord tells us. He says, "Don't forsake to assemble together." You want to be saved? I'm going to be honest with you. I don't believe you will ever be saved if you won't come to church. I don't think so. Now, if you can't come to church, that's another story. But if you're able to come and you won't, you won't be saved, it won't happen. You want to be saved? Begin plead with the Lord that He'll give you grace to do what He tells you. Just do what He tells you. Our Father, I thank You now for this time. Lord, I thank You for Thy word, for Thy gracious promises. Thank You, Lord, for the power of God to save. Lord, I thank You for saving an old center like myself. Lord, there's nothing in me, no reason for You to take notice of me. But Lord, for Thy own purpose, You reach down and pluck me out of the clutches of Satan and gave me grace to look to Christ. Lord, I thank You for it. And Lord, I do ask You to, Lord, move upon the hearts of our people, those that hear, Lord, just like You moved upon my heart one day, have mercy on us, Lord. Turn the hearts of our people, cause them to look to Christ. Lord, help us, bless us and keep us. Go with us, Lord, through another week and just go before us, guide us and keep us. And I ask it all in Christ's name, amen.