Two Roads Two Destinies 07 Ireland st.chapel — Worth Ellis

Two hundred miles to the east of Homestead, Florida, lies a little island of Spanish Swells, about a mile long and a half mile wide. It's a private farm, sort of like a paradise, and a little off the coast of Florida.

Frank and him, they are from, originally from Bermuda, and they are Portuguese by nationality, Christians by birth, that is, Uyghur. Frank is a good preacher, an excellent preacher, a far better preacher than he seems.

Emily is south of Forty-Ten, filled with wild rice that just inflate down this wood. We are on the Spanish Swells, and we go on a fabulous vacation. We're on that island with a thousand or so people, and I suspect that is the greatest thing I've ever seen.

It's a marvelous place to go, one of the most exciting times I've ever had, the most spiritual, refreshing experience in the island of Spanish Swells. I'm delighted to have Frank, and in the will of God, I will personally come back here and be back here to preach for a little while.

Jesus Heals the Woman Bound by Infirmity

Now, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, verse 11. And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and couldn't know why it lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity.

And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the room of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which ye are not to work, and then therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.

The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his oxen, his ass, and his soul, and lead away from worry? And what about this woman? She and the daughter of Abraham marked these words, whom Satan hath bound, though these eighteen years be loose from this bond of distress.

The Veiled Gospel and the Devil’s Power

Second Corinthians, chapter four. First you take Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. If you've got the Galatians, they're back up a little. Second Corinthians, chapter four, and verse one. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, forhealing the word of God which he collects, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, that if our gospel be veiled, if it is veiled to them that are lost, and whom the God of this world hath blinded the soul of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on the dead.

This morning, with the help of God, we shall continue our series of subjects or studies on the subject of Adam. We started last Sunday evening, and we considered the origin of Satan, and learned from the word of God that he was created originally as an angelic being called Lucifer, who acted as a protective covenant for the presence of God.

It is because he aspired to a place that God had not created him for, and because of self-will and pride, he was deposed from this position. And, although he morally fell, he has not yet been physically banished out of heaven down to earth.

This banishment of the devil out of the heavenly spheres over our heads awaits us in Revelation chapter 12, when at that time the devil shall be cast down to the earth. We learn of the authority of the word of God, which is our only book of reference, that the devil operates in the heavenly spheres primarily as a mortal being, and he is essentially a religious being.

He operates mainly in the sphere of religion and not in morality. You will find him in the church today far more often than you will in the brothel, the saloon, or the pool room. Remember that whenever Lucifer fell, he said, He won the position, the authority, and the power of God.

He wields over this world in which we are now living today power that is absolutely astonishing. Whether we confident with human reasoning or not, the word of God teaches that the devil is the controlling power and the ruling authority of all of the kings of this world.

Although he operates and exercises his power within the permissive will of God that is identified and manifested for us in the incident of Job and God gave Satan so much growth and then no more growth, but the power he wields today in the world is absolutely fantastic.

Satan’s Bondage of Unsaved People

Now, today as we move on in our subject on the doctrine of the devil, we're going to discover that not only does he wield unusual power in this world, but he wields unusual power over the lives of sinners.

This morning, we're going to talk about the work of Satan among unsaved people, his object. In regards to your life, his design upon your life as an unconverted person. And then, tonight at 6 30, with the help of God in the Lord's will, we're going to speak of the work of the devil among God's people.

We'll find out tonight why there's so few people at the midweek prayer service, and why there's so few people who are really faithful to God and the purest sense of the word. We're going to notice this morning that he exercises his power over unsaved people in a twofold way.

First of all, he has the power to blind people, and secondly, he has the power to blind people. Now, we read a moment ago in Luke's Gospel, chapter 13, of a woman who was a Lord healer. It says this, that she was bowed over.

She was a hunchback, walking around year after year after year, bent over and could not straighten herself up. And the Lord laid his hand upon her, and he learned immediately. Now, don't ever forget that any time a poor, crooked sinner is saved by the grace of God who's made straight, he's going to show it.

He will glorify God. No truth needs to be more emphasized today than this one. No transformation, no regeneration. For one to render lip service to Jesus Christ and to be an intellectual believer in the miscordant of Jesus will not change your life.

It only makes you a religious hypocrite. But, to find out if you are lost and going to hell with an influence of the latest fire, I'd be convinced only according to the word of God that Jesus Christ died and opened the door to the presence of God for you.

And, if on your way down this road to the gates of death and hell, you repent, return, turn to your own life, receive Jesus Christ, step into this door, then you'll be saved by the grace of God. And, people today are bound by the devil.

He finds sinners in so many different ways. Generally speaking, we have brought before us here a picture of the devil and his work of finding people with the change of skins of various kinds. We won't go into detail.

I'm not going into any tirade against cigarettes or against whiskey, because, if I did, it wouldn't help me to quit smoking nor drinking even once. If you get saved, real good, by the grace of God, then, Lord, then, if you'd want to and you want to, I'm going to take both of them away from you.

You see, my friends, the message is a gospel. It's not a negative message. God doesn't ask you to give up anything to be saved. He says, receive and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

The super-message of God's redeeming grace is a positive message that God loves you, and Christ died for you. I don't know what it is that's binding you this moment, but you are bound. How many opportunities have you had to become a Christian?

How many times has your heart ever been stirred and you feel like, this is it, I really ought to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior? And yet, Sunday after Sunday, many of you, year after year after year, you still sit in your seat as if you're staring out of Satan's eye, and you seem to be bound by invisible things that keep you from moving.

Well, the devil not only binds people to keep them from stepping in through the door. Notice the door here? You know what it means? It means, rather, an exit, I should say, from this dog world. In the meantime, the death and destruction.

Jesus said, I am the door, by me it's in and in and in. He shall be saved. Problems sliced out upon the cross. The death of Jesus satisfied the judgment of God against us. God raised him from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on a physical cross is God's stamp of approval upon the sacrifice of Christ to take our sins away. All doubt has been forever removed that the death of Jesus satisfied the judgment of God against us.

All doubt has been forever removed that the death of Jesus Christ is that which paid for our sins, and not only for ours but for all of them, for every one of them. For, I'll tell you, O dear colleague, there's a word of God without a single positive statement that says this, yet I believe the Bible teaches it, that if the death of Christ had not been that which perfectly satisfied God's judgment, made it possible for God to justify the likes of you and me and still be just in self, if the death of Jesus did not pay for sin, then God would have led his body to rock and Joseph's tomb.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ to take away sin. That's why, in the book of the Acts, you'll find that the emphasis in the gospel preached in the early apostles is placed more on the resurrection than it is on the death of Jesus Christ.

It is the blood of Christ that takes our sins away. It is the resurrection of Christ that proves that the death of Jesus is that which saves us. So, if you believe that Jesus died for you and God raised him from the dead, God will give you eternal life.

Faith in the Heart and the Promise of Salvation

Now, God does not, for one moment, place any emphasis or importance on your intellectual understanding of this truth, but your heart acceptance of it. Faith that saves never rests in the brain. The past is polluted, and it always rests within the lament.

That's what the Bible means when it says that thou shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believes, and the right perception of the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

The difference between the heart and the mind in the word of God is not that there are two ways to believe. You can only believe that one organ in your body has your mind. The heart, in your language, and mine is synonymous with the affective, but in the Bible, the word heart is used to distinguish between the outward shell of your personality and the real you.

You see, you can tell me something, and what comes out of your mouth, I don't know that it's what's in your heart. How often we've learned this, very sadly, and what comes out of our mouth oftentimes reflects nothing at all of that which is really in our heart.

So, it's not the heart that man believes, but it's literally within the brain that he is speaking of the real person, and faith, primarily, is in the inward being, and the object of faith is Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God.

This is the record that God has given throughout the eternal life. This life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life. He who has not the Son of God has not life. Believe all the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

As many as receive him through God, to them God gives the right to become his children, even to them that believe on his name. This is the gospel, all right? But, when you hear it, you are bound. Now, there you sit.

Religious Tradition as a Barrier to Salvation

I don't know what's keeping you from touching the Lord Jesus. Now, there are so many different bonds that Satan enslaves unsaved people with. We are accustomed to thinking, for example, of a baker who broke the sins of life, does tremendously awful immoral deeds in acts of our depraved flesh.

But, I mean, there are bonds that hold people from trusting Christ, that empower an authority over the life of an unsaved person. Then comes all immorality. Obviously, there are bonds that hold people at a bike-like grip, that have extra-God-like powers to control your life, to keep you from coming to Christ, and all of the immoral acts that have ever been or ever will be committed.

I believe, for example, the bond of religion can keep people from being saved. The most difficult people in the world to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ are those because of strong traditional heritage, because of various kinds of religion.

And, I have met people in Protestantism, in other segments of professing Christendom, because of some particular religious backgrounds are so well-inspired in their tradition of bringing up that they are held in bondage.

I had a man tell me on one occasion, after I became a Christian, I was working on a construction work. That's a full acreage, blasting, piercing, squaring, pipe-drilling, welder. And, when I got saved, I was working for this fellow.

He was a foreman, and I was talking to him one day about how wonderful it was to be saved. He said, it's got to be, man. He said, anything can do. What that thing would have is, son, that you must be good for everybody.

I said, praise God it is. But, the problem is, everybody's not good. I said, darling, you need to be saved. He said, you know, I believe you're right, and I believe what you've got is right, because you can change a man's life.

You have got to do the right thing. So, he said, dear, never forget it. I'd rather die and go to hell, and change my religion and break my mother's heart. And, that's exactly what he did. He died, and he went to hell.

Is that on his own confession? I wasn't judging him. Strong religious tradition. I'll tell you, nothing gets a hold on a human heart like religion. Do you know the reason the Jewish people, in the days of the apostles, were so hard to get saved?

So hard to reason? They had a God-given sacrifice, a God-given priesthood, a ritual, a ceremony, and a temple. And, everything else, it came from God. And, let us never forget, the only God-given religion the world has ever known is Julius.

There's never been another religion given from the God of heaven except Julius. But, what the big Jewish people failed to understand is that when Jesus Christ was rejected, the Son of the Living God, and God manifested in a body of human flesh, that God cut the nation of Israel off.

The chapter in the book of Romans, distinctly, declares this, and cut aside the nation of Israel, and then the gospel goes out to the Gentiles, and primarily to Satan, which is mainly the Gentiles that are being saved.

All those Jews and Gentiles were on the same base. He had declared all of the kids that they might have mercy on all, and now the law, the sacrifice, the ritual, and the ceremony has been forever gone away with.

And, it claims that Jesus Christ has saved, because Romans 5 and 10 declare that Christ is the end of the law, or 10 and 5, rather, declare that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that believes in it.

Christ’s Future Reign and the Gospel to All

Now, thank God, in the coming days, as Jesus comes back to this earth, and the dead in Christ's life first, and those who are living, and alive with Jesus comes upon us to be with him. Great tribulation runs its course at the end of tribulation of seven years on this earth.

The devil will be bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit, and Jesus Christ shall sit upon the little throne of David in the city of Jerusalem, and reign for a thousand years. And, at that time, God will again pick up the nation of Israel, and he'll bless the earth with peace.

But, you see, my friend, the gospel today goes out to whosoever will. But, I'm trying to make this point very clear that some of the strongest chains today to keep people from being saved are religious chains of traditional heritage and culture that people just cannot see to shake off.

Unbelief as a Chain

I think of another chain, I believe, that binds people, and it is unbelief. I believe the longer you wait to believe on Jesus Christ, the harder it will become. There are people who, when they were first awakened and heard the story of the gospel, their hearts were sensitive, and they were tender to the message.

But, the more you hear it, the harder it is to believe. And, I believe unbelief is quite a tremendous chain. That longer you put off the salvation of your soul, it forces another and a larger link. And so, perhaps you're sitting out here this morning with a chain of unbelief leading to death like an octopus leads to life out of a diver and various ships.

But, I am confident of this, that if you'll only make a move toward God, if you'll only believe that Jesus died for you and took the burden you take, that perhaps some of you might need just to get up out of your seat and say, I'm going to kill this thing in a moment, to do the power of the devil in a moment of your life, and he will set you loose.

Jesus Christ will set you free. He can untie those chains, no one else can. And so, we learn, first of all, that in the exercise of his authority, and remember this, the devil in the Bible is called the God of this world, the God of this age.

The Lord Jesus Christ three times referred to him as the ruler or the prince of this world, and he is the one who has you under his control. Now, he has the power to bind, but secondly we read that he has the power to blind.

The Devil’s Veil and Distorted Ideas of Salvation

Notice here in 2 Corinthians 4, that's where we should be, in verse 3, I change the reading in this passage a little for this reason. It gives a better sense. It is, if our gospel be here, and it's really, if our gospel be veiled, it is veiled to them that are lost.

Notice, "...in whom the God of this age," that's the devil, "...has blinded not the mind but the thoughts of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine under them.".

Now, the word is corrected and rendered, the word here, by the word veil for this race. There is a difference between that which is hidden and that which is veiled. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not hidden, because to hide something you have to conceal it so you can't find it, or can't see it at all.

I'll give you an illustration. Suppose you know a person from time, and you retain wisdom, let's say, until later, and then tragedy comes into her home, and maybe she loses her husband, and you attend the funeral service to show your sympathy towards this person, and you see her at the service, she has a veil over her face.

Well, underneath the veil you see a protrusion in the center of the veil that sticks a little further out than the other parts of the contours of the face, and you know that's her nose. Down here you see another, and that's her chin, and you know these are the cheekbones, a little bit of cheekbone in the eyes.

And now, her features are not concealed, but they are veiled, and when you veil something, you don't hide it, you distort it, you make it unrecognizable. So, you see, the devil listens. The devil doesn't deny the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he converts to the distortion.

He hangs a veil over the door, and he does this by putting wrong thoughts in the mind of people. Many years ago, I was down in South Florida in the city of Darien, Georgia, having a meeting, and I was staying in a motel.

A young man who worked around the motel, I asked him one day, I said, What are you saying? He said, Yes, sir. He said, I've been baptized. Well, now, that's what he thinks is salvation, because he had nothing else to say.

I asked the person on one occasion, Are you saying, Oh, yes, sir. I remember one time when I walked down the aisle, and I took the priest's hand, and they signed me up, and I joined the church. Now, to some, that is salvation.

To others, I talked to him later on one occasion, and he said, Well, I'm bound to be a Christian while my little baby was dying. The doctor had given him up, and I just turned into my bedroom in a desperation.

I looked down on the side of my little baby, and I poured out my heart to God, and God spared my little baby. I'm bound to be a Christian. So, you see, they're all thoughtless. I thought that, well, it takes its place upon salvation, and it's on the gospel.

And, look, in order to deceive people, and deceive people from seeing the spirit-saving gospel of Jesus Christ, the devil doesn't break the door from breaking it out, but he weaves a veil of baptism and emotionalism, hand-raising, eye-walking, card-signing, assigning, hand-kicking, everything else in the world you can think of.

And he makes a veil and hangs it over the door, and you go on and have it the rest of the night. And whenever a man comes to pray, well, listen, pay close attention. When I stand here and tell you this, learn only a product of the word of God, and if you want to be a Christian, I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done, and God doesn't either.

And I tell you a little product of this book, if you admit that you are lost, and you believe that Jesus died for you when you were touched to death, and Christ will take your sins away and receive them right where you sit, you'll be saved right there.

You can do it without even thinking about it. You'll be saved right now, right where you're sitting. You say, that's impossible. You know why? Because that's the clear gospel with no veil over it. It is crucial to intoxicate.

So, if I give you some tremendously confused system of metaphysics, whatever that big word means, or some other kind of tongues-and-philosophy of life, or even if I tell you to get on your heads and knees and roll the peanuts on the end of Main Street, one end of the other, you'd be saved while you'd be out there rolling the peanuts on the middle of the road.

So, when I tell you to be saved right where you're sitting, let God have all your sins forgiven. Uh-uh. No. Uh-uh. Can't do that anyway. Why? What do you mean? Because that's exactly what it is. And that's the way you get saved, you see?

But now look, the devil has blinded the mind. He's blinded the thoughts of people. And he gives people real talk about being saved. That ain't the way I hear it. That can't be true. You've got to have a certain kind of feeling.

Emotionalism and the Search for a Saving Feeling

Now, come on, preacher. Some of you have got to have a wonderful feeling to get saved. What on earth are we going to do with all these people? I'll tell you what. You listen. You listen to what I'm going to say.

The essence of thy word is love, and it gives understanding. I think the single greatest turning point to the gospel of Jesus Christ in America today is emotionalism. Hyper-emotionalism. People who will not believe they are saved without a special kind of feeling.

I remember once I was having meetings. I'll never tire of telling this fascinating story. Down among the dear, lovely Indians in Southeast and North Carolina, where my dear brother Venus Brooks, who's now in the glory, beholding the face of Jesus Christ.

We used to have some of the most wonderful meetings. Once, seven weeks long. Once, six weeks long with the sinners hanging out in the middle, and so many people coming to hear the word. But, there was one lady coming, and she would slip out the door every night when I had my back turned, shaking hands with somebody.

She would slip out the door, and so I was just Well, I'm afraid I was a little bit mean, really. I knew she was going to sit in her husband's car, and not only was she sitting in the car, but she would slide all the way down in the seat down behind the back, so the bridge couldn't see up.

Not always, every night, I'd go out and knock on the window. Ah, Miss Maggie. But, she would slide up out of the seat of her home, really. Well, we had a good time. But, you know, one day a lady said to me, isn't it awful about Miss Maggie?

Miss Maggie was a retired senator, too. Now, she said, you know, Miss Maggie is pitiful. I said, what's wrong with the woman? She looked normal to me. She said, you don't know her problem. I said, no, what is it?

She said, Miss Maggie has been going to revival meetings in Robertson County for 40 years, everywhere they have one, and every time they have a meeting, she walks down the aisle trying to get a feeling to tell us she's sick.

She's been doing it for 40 years. Where did she get that? You can't find it in the Bible. You can't even find that in the Bible. It's just a little catalog, which is apparently what some people preach.

Who gave this poor woman the fault that when you get saved, you're going to have a certain kind of healing? Who gave it to you? The devil. The devil. How do you break the powers of the devil over the life of a sinner?

Only the Word of God will do it. Brother Venus went away to Philadelphia to preach, and he said on a Saturday afternoon before he left, he said, I'm afraid Miss Maggie will never get saved. And, you know, when he and Miss Lucindale go by the yard, I felt so totally moved.

I said, Lord, I'm going to take her on. I went and got my New Testament. I was flying over Miss Maggie's house, and I do believe the cold was waiting on me. I knocked on the door, and there she came to the door.

We stopped in the house, sat down on the couch there, and I began to talk to her. I took my Bible out, took my New Testament out. I opened it to John 1, 12. As many as received him through them, God built a life of becoming children.

He was in it, and he was on his way. She said, Mr. Worth, I believe that. I know you do, Miss Maggie. I said, why don't you get saved? She said, I would love to, but what about that feeling? I said, what feeling?

She said, that feeling you got to get when you get saved. I said, well, what kind of feeling is it? She said, I don't know, but you got to have it. I said, surely. How long have you been looking for it?

She said, 40 years. It's a tough, long time to look for a feeling, don't you think? Well, bless her heart. Now, some sinners, I believe, you really got to get down to earth with them. It gets real personal.

And so, I just slipped over a little, and she slipped over, and I slipped over, and she slipped over, until I had to pull her hands up in the corner of the house. So, I took my New Testament out, and I stuck it under her nose, and I said, now, Miss Maggie, would you read that to me?

I'm a friend. I have confidence in the Word of God. I'll do you a favor. I will give you a dime for a dozen, my friend. But if I can get you to read this Bible, you'll get paid. The Word of God, that's what she prayed for me.

God just kind of sends in his mercy to preach the truth for sinners like me and not angels. They can do a much better job, except they don't know the joy that our salvation brings. Angels ain't nothing but shame.

Angels haven't been delivered from sin. They can't tell the story like us Christians. So, I stuck that Bible under that poor woman's nose, and I said, what does that say? It said, as many as receive him, so them days be the power to become the sons and children of God.

I said, Miss Maggie, what does it say? As many as receive him. If you receive him, what will you be? I'll be a child of God. I said, well, why don't you do it? She said, well, what about that feeling?

So, I stuck that Bible under her nose, and I threatened her with God in heaven. I said, Miss Maggie, bless your soul. Look, don't you dare take your eyes off of that verse. And, I stuck it as close as I thought was right.

She would do the job, and I made her read it over, and over, and over, and over, and over. I would be surprised if I made that poor lady read that verse 25 times. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, I know one thing, the word of God, but I wouldn't.

And so, pretty soon, she said, Mr. Wood, I believe that. I said, I know it. The problem is you ain't got it. I believe that Jesus can't catch him. You can believe he's got you and go to hell. You know, the gospel never saves anybody.

You know, some of you people doubt your faith and don't know for sure whether you've got a relevant faith or not. You know all about the gospel. You know all the answers. You believe every word in the Bible.

But, you can't for the life of you if you can't sing all the time and you really don't see Jesus Christ. That's the whole problem. But, see, don't you dare. She said, Mr. Wood, I believe that. I said, I know you do.

She said, I believe everything in the Bible. I said, I know you do. I said, now look. Let me ask you this. I said, Miss Maggie, now you don't know what a pitiful sight it is to see a poor woman, a poor woman of 70, who for 40 years has been walking church house.

She must have worn out half a dozen cartridges. Now she's got a field. I said, Miss Maggie, that's the way to never find the minds of sinners. You get it? I said, Miss Maggie, look. I said, you'll believe the promise of the world.

She said, look, I believe in the Bible, child, before you were born. I said, I told you, well. I said, well, look. You believe the Bible, do you? I said, okay. If you believe the Bible, do you believe this?

If you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, right where you're sitting, He will be tied to you and you will accept Him in your heart as your Lord and Savior. I said, do you believe that God will save you and take you to heaven where you have to feel the love?

I said, well, bless your soul. I said, now we're getting close to the end. I said, there's only one decision you've got to make. What's that? I said, you've got to make up your mind and let's do it right now.

Whether you want to die and go to hell trying to get a feeling or receive Jesus Christ and go to heaven and take the things you'll never have anymore. The moment I said it, she said, I'll stop you. And the tears came down her cheek.

She got me on that wicked piano. Now, you're talking about Franklin. You ain't heard nothing. While the two of us went over there and she played that piano, and we sang, That dear soul was saved sitting on a couch with her eyeballs healed on the Word of God after 40 years trying to get a feeling and tell her where she was saved.

The Natural Mind Blinded by the Devil

Now, there's no salvation apart from the Spirit. Don't you ever forget. Now, the devil burns spit. It's your fault. It isn't that he doesn't keep you from seeing it, but he just tortures you. He perverts your judgment.

He gives you wrong thoughts. I remember reading a few years ago, I was in the city of Augusta. We lived there for a while, and they were having a mass. Come on. One of the respected golfers was there, and he was doing a little interview for the television section of the newspaper in the city.

And he gave this little story about how the court game goes. He said, if you want to play golf, this is where you start. You go down to the golfing floor, a foot store, and buy you some shoes, and a cap, and buy you a bag, and if you're rich enough, buy you a car, or a pushcart, and buy everything you need.

And you go, and you eat, and you go out, and you get on the first green there where you drive off, and he says, you get where you think you ought to be, and you stick your feet in the ground, take your glove on, and have a ball with it, and he says, you take your golf club, and he says, you square away, and you catch the ball, and he says, you come back, and you swing it, and follow through.

And he says, when you get through, everything you've done is exactly better than what you should have done. Because nobody was ever born a God. You have to learn. I said, what a, what a, what an illustration of the energy of the natural mind to understand the way of salvation, which simply means this, listen carefully, I don't want to be misunderstood, and I don't mind if you don't believe what I say, but heaven knows I don't want you to understand what I'm saying.

I can make you believe it, but I don't want you to be in doubt about what I'm saying. You're an unsaved man or woman, and you've figured this thing out, and you've got it all thought out about the way you get saved to be sure that anything that's ahead is wrong.

That's the reason the Bible, God gives it to us to show us how to be saved, because the natural mind with which you are born with is shouted by the devil, who gives you wrong thoughts, and the veil over the north, and if you want to know what kind of condition you're in, I was a boy many, many, many, many more years than I even like to think about, and I ain't going to tell you how many I'm sure, but we used to have parties.