The Gospel Our Trust #2 — Ernest C. Reisinger

Now tonight, if you'll look to that little text that we tried to get to this morning in the most desperate way, we'll start there again. We were talking this morning about our trust. And I did say the layman's trust, but I think I'll say the Christian's trust.

I think that would be more apropos. The Christian's trust. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And before we look to the book, let's look to the author of the book. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, thou hast said that thou art the light of the world.

Shine upon us tonight. Shine out of the darkness into our hearts. And make the glorious gospel real and vivid and precious to those who know it. To the extent that we might be little lights to seek to shine forth that gospel that gives light to the blind on their way to perdition.

The Christian’s Trust Is the Gospel

Help us to that end. Use this hour of fellowship and worship and preaching to that end. We ask it in thy precious name. And for thy sake, amen. I think without resting the text, restraining the text, it's very obvious that our trust is the gospel.

But as we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, and I believe the next part of it encompasses our task to speak, and so we speak. If we've been entrusted with this trust, what is it? It's the gospel.

What are we to do with it? We're to speak it by life and by lip. Our task is to speak the gospel. I didn't mention it this morning, but I did look at this bulletin. Your pastor is most thoughtful in not doing things halfway, and certainly this ties into our purpose for our meetings, this bulletin.

And I must confess that I don't usually read what's on the back of the bulletin, so I don't want to scold you for it. But I did read this one because I was interested in the subject, witnessing. And let me commend that to you, that what's on the back.

I'm not going to say much about it. But let me, let me, allow me to commend it to your spiritual good and challenge. And not only that, the verse from the beginning, because that's what I want to talk about tonight.

Our task is to speak it. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. One thought that came to me about that as I read it, about one by one. You know, every one of us here tonight, we were one by one.

We didn't come in wholesale. God doesn't save people wholesale. You can't get saved for your neighbors. When you came, you came by yourself. Or there may have been others that did the same thing, but you came.

You walked that road to meet the Savior alone. Now our task is to speak, so we speak. I'd like to consider three things about our task tonight. First of all, somebody, I think once when I was speaking on a layman's trust, and I was pressing home the idea that the gospel presupposes, if the gospel is good news, it presupposes bad news.

And I mentioned this morning that the gospel, the pre-bad news that the gospel supposes, is certainly the character of God and our relationship to his demands, namely his commandments. Somebody said to me, well how about the cross?

The Cross Satisfies the Law of God

Paul preached the cross. I would remind you tonight that I think one of the sad things of our generation is we are missing the first message of the cross, is not the love of God. The first message of the cross is the law of God being satisfied by the Son of God.

The first message of the cross. Our attention has been drawn so much to the human side of the cross, and thank God that is one side. If you were to ask me or I were to ask you tonight, how do you know, dear sister, that God loves you?

Most likely you would say to me, Christ died for me, and he evidenced his love for me on the cross. That's our side. But I would remind you tonight that there's no love on the divine side of the cross exercised.

The wrath of God is exercised. And it is as though God the Father took the sword of divine justice and sheathed it in the bosom of Jesus. That's the picture from the other side. God's law was satisfied.

Those holy demands were satisfied. Never did God or has God to this moment mitigated his law. Never. Every sinner out of hell tonight is responsible 100 to keep the commandments 100%. Not partly the commandments.

That's why in the book of Acts you see Peter's first sermons was repent. Why repent? Because they were guilty of a broken law. Repent. Now, so the first message of the cross is the law of God. The first message, justice was satisfied.

God's holy righteous demands were met in our behalf. Now, the layman's task or the Christian's task is to speak this great message by life and by lip. And I'd like to speak tonight about three things about this.

Our motive for it. I don't know if I'll get this far. Secondly, to really consider together our message. If we're to speak, what is the message that we speak? We've touched on it a bit, even in this morning.

And the second, our methods. What is the motive of witnessing? As I see the challenge from Holy Scripture, and I don't think anyone can open the Bible and even take a cursory glance at the New Testament without seeing the command to witness.

How far do you read before you come to the text? Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And I wish I could get some dear Christians to believe that Westchester is in the world. Carlisle is in the world.

Pennsylvania is in the world. Too long we've associated that text with Africa and South America. Thank God they're in the world too. Africa and China and Japan and South America's in the world. But my dear brother and my sister, Westchester's in the world.

The man you'll go to the office with tomorrow is in the world. The fellow that delivers the milk, he's in the world. The mailman, the bread man. The fellow that you buy your shoes from is in the world.

And I'm convinced tonight, or practically convinced, that these people who have such a great interest in foreign missions and no interest in the missionary project at home, I wonder about, I wonder, I question whether it's nothing more than a sentimental attachment.

I'll never forget I was in York, Pennsylvania, speaking to the Christian business and professional women. Well, I better not go into that. But I came away very sad because of their great, some things they said about York, Pennsylvania, when they were pressing the idea of some missionaries in Arizona or somewhere else.

Now thank God this includes them all. And I believe the man that's really and truly and sincerely interested in foreign missions, and if he can't go, now there is that special calling to that field. I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about the place for you and I as we sit in the pew and we're here. I believe if our true interest is in foreign missions, we'll be interested in the people in Westchester. What's our motive for this speaking and living the gospel?

The First Motive for Witnessing: God’s Command

I think here we have two motives, and I want to emphasize tonight the order. Because too long I've heard man's poor need so pressed out in the front that it becomes the predominant challenge and motive for you to go, man's need.

I spoke at a missionary conference to a group of men, about 150 men, and it started on Friday and ended up on Sunday, and they were, if it hasn't changed from that, if it hadn't gotten off the same note then, they have a broken hearts denomination by now.

Because they were drumming up a trip to Haiti so that men would get a broken heart. They said if you go there and see it, you'll have a broken heart. Now there's a measure of truth in this, and I don't want to deny this, nor belittle it by any means.

But this idea of going there, and before I spoke I scrapped my message because I feel that there was another note on the piano that had to be sounded a little bit, and I wanted to get on that other note.

I remember a missionary doctor who was fresh back from the jungles of South America stood up before me, and he was tired and weary and worn, a blessed man. And he said, gentlemen, I'm back from the field.

He said, I wish I could give you some glamorous stories of conversion, tell you all about the great numbers that I've pointed to Christ. But he said, I can't. I can't tell you about that. But he did tell us how he ministered medicine, how he ministered to their bodies, how he ministered the gospel.

And when he sat down, I thought about what I'm going to tell you tonight, that our first motive, because I talked about motives for witnessing the gospel, motives for the ministry, motives for a Christian service, motives for witnessing.

Now I believe man's need is a motive, but I don't believe that's the first motive. And if that's your only motive tonight to witness, you won't be doing it very long. You'll soon throw in the towel. You'll quit.

That doctor would have quit. But if you have it straight, the first motive to witness the gospel, you won't quit. Because the first motive, I believe, to witness the gospel is the clear, plain command, the will of God.

How am I going to get a broken heart for the fellow that has the Cadillac convertible and the blonde? My natural compassions don't go out to him so much, do they? I don't have to go to Haiti. Going to Haiti to get a broken heart is not going to help me with that fellow.

But he's just as lost. But let me tell you something. If on my knees in the morning I cried out to God to know the will of God, and I heard the voice of Jesus say through the scriptures, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

If that's motivating me hour by hour during the day, I will see that man as lost. I will see that man, regardless of his physical conditions, I know our natural tendencies go out. But we're talking about spiritual verities tonight.

We're talking about the spiritual aspect of the ministry of the Church. Our natural tendencies do go out to people who have natural needs and physical needs, and rightly so. I don't want to belittle that.

But I say tonight there's a greater motive for propagating the gospel than man's need. The greatest motive for propagating the gospel, the greatest reason why I want to witness this, because if you're a Christian tonight, I know there's one thing that's prominent in your heart.

And that is, Lord, I want to do your will. I know you don't make it and you stumble and fall and you fail and you don't quite make it. But let me tell you tonight, if that isn't the voice of your heart tonight and hasn't been since the day you were saved, I question whether you've ever been twice born.

And I have good reason to wonder if you've ever been born again. Because if there's anything that ever happens to the Christian heart, he wants to be like Christ. He wants to do the will of Christ. Oh, he doesn't make it.

He didn't quite make it. I know that. But if you could take back everything and strip him down to that inward beat and desire of his heart, it would be do the will of the Lord. So if you have that, and then you're moved by this, you won't be discouraged when somebody laughs at you.

You won't be discouraged when they don't all flock to Christ, because when you go back, if that's the way you started off in the morning, I think of these fellows, our dear friend that works in rescue mission work, and that's a hard work.

Both of them here this morning. It's a hard work. And if the only thing it motivates him are those poor drunken men, he'll soon be discouraged and quit. Or he'll become so wrapped up and dead and cold it'll just be a formality.

But if he hears the voice of Jesus now and then say, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, he'll go. They spit on him. If they curse him. If that poor missionary doctor sees nothing happened, he'll press on because he's heard the voice from heaven say, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

The Second Motive for Witnessing: Man’s Need

The second motive, of course, is the need of man. The second motive is the need of man. I believe, and I believe that I'm here tonight because somebody had a compassionate heart for me. Somebody cared.

If I'd have lived on your street, most likely you'd have said, no hopes for that man. But somebody cared. And I don't want to minimize the other aspect because there are two motives. I'm only emphasizing the order, and I do believe the order is important, that our first motive ought to be to obey the Lord.

To obey the Lord. And the second, the need of man. Compassion. As my Father has sent me, said Jesus in John 20, verse 21, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. What did he do? First, the Father's will.

I am come to do thy will. In the book it is written of me, I am come to do thy will. But he was compassionate because that will included this. That holy will of God included compassion. And I see one who time and again, you read it in Mark chapter 1, verse 41, he was moved with compassion.

Mark chapter 5, verse 19, compassion. Mark chapter 6, right on down the line. Mark 8. At least in those three chapters, on four chapters, you see that's what I'm talking about. That Jesus was moved with compassion.

I say to you tonight as a layman, it's the cry of my heart more than one occasion. I don't know much about this, experimentally, but it's the cry of my heart tonight, and I hope it's the cry of your heart.

Oh Lord, give me a little of that compassion. Help me to care. Help me to just keep from running roughshod over people and things and go on about my way. Help me to care. Help me to care. The second motive.

The Message of Trust and Turn

First is the God's command, the will of God. Second, man's need. Now then, our message, and I want to camp here a little bit, spend a little more time here. You say, why? Because I do a lot of listening.

You know, I do just about as much listening to preachers and evangelists and so on as I do preaching. I'm mostly on the receiving end of this thing, see? And I hear so much about trust Jesus. Trust Jesus.

Trust Jesus. And this is kind of like a one-note piano. And people get the idea that this is all there is to it. And they forget there's another aspect, and that is turn. The message is not only trust, but turn.

Not only trust, but turn. I'm talking about repentance. I hold in my hand that confession that I spoke so highly about this morning, and I want to read you a little section from it tonight. I'm talking about turn and trust.

Trust and turn. This idea that you can trust Jesus as your personal Savior and live like you please is from the pit. Let me tell you that. Somebody said, I was talking about this once, and somebody said to me, one of those nice ladies, dear lady, came to me, you know, she had one of those funny hair combs.

I don't know what you'd call it. It looked like a firecracker went off in a mattress. Anyhow, she had one of those. Now, they're all right. I'm not criticizing those, but that's what I thought it was.

And she was talking to me about this, about when I was pressing the law on some of these things, and she thought I had a new kind of a gospel, you know. And she thought I was surely wrong, and that dear soul did want to straighten me out in the worst kind of way.

And she said to me, Mr. Risinger, she said, and she's a nice little thing, and she said, Mr. Risinger, she said, do you know what Acts 16 .31 says? I said, I believe I do. I said, let me try. I said, Acts 16 .31 says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

And she gave me a hundred. I said, may I ask you a couple questions? She says, oh yes, turn about, it's fair play. I said, who said that? She said, St. Paul. And she thought I was trying to be facetious, or had some tricks I wanted to pull.

I said, no, St. Paul, right. I said, who did he say it to? She said, the Philippian jailer. I said, one more question, ma 'am. I said, what condition was the Philippian jailer in when St. Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?

She says, oh, she said he was down on his knees, crying out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I said, lady, you find me somebody like that, and I'll run up to him with a Bible and tell him John 3 .16, or I'll tell him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

But I said, lady, there was a holy work done. God had used that sword to bring that man to a place of need. A place of need. That man wanted to repent. He didn't only want to trust, he wanted to turn.

That old penitent fellow that beat on his breast, he didn't only want to trust, he wanted to turn. Both. Trust and turn. Let me read to you what it says about repentance. Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace.

The doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the gospel as well as that of faith in Christ. Now the point I want to make is that there are two things mentioned there. Repentance and faith in Christ.

That's trust and turn. By it a sinner, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, and this is the point that I think we need to emphasize, Jesus Christ is not a fire escape. These people trust Jesus as their personal Savior and never have any change.

A fellow called me to come to a church and speak to his young people. He said, Ernie, we've got a lot of young people. Will you come and speak to them? He said, they've all been converted, but he said their life hasn't changed, and I believe you might help them.

The Lord might use you here to help them. I said, huh? What'd you say? He said, their life isn't changed. He said, they're all saved, but he said there's just no change. And the text came to my mind, therefore of any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Doesn't matter how old he is, he's still new. Old things pass away, behold all things become new. Doesn't say maybe they'll become new, they ought to become new, there's some change. You see, what had happened, somebody had given these people the fuller brush treatment, you know.

Now the fuller brushes are all right, nothing wrong with them, there aren't any fuller brush salesmen here, I hope you use them and I hope he sells a lot. I'm not meaning that, but when we're dealing with souls, we're not selling fuller brushes.

There's a little difference. And this idea, you run up to somebody and say, give them a verse, all of sin comes short of the glory of God. You believe that? Yes. And you go up a little farther and you say, the way to sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

You believe that? Yes. And you go right on down the line, the first thing you know, you pronounce them a Christian before they leave. And they're all saved, the only thing is, their feet's still headed in the same direction it was when you came, to hell.

And that's what happened to Sulla when we come, there was no change, there was never any change in their life, there was never any repentance, there was never any turning. So somebody says, oh, well why do you talk about this?

Yes, there's a change, my dear. And we not only turn from the danger, not only, but buy it a sinner, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but of the filthiness and odiousness of his sin, as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God.

And upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ, to such as are penitent, so grieves for and hates his sin, as to turn from them all unto God. Oh, I wish I had time to read this all. But you read it when you go home, will you?

I want to go on. Oh, it's good. And I'll tell you, it makes my point. If I miss the point, you go home and read it and you'll get it. If I miss it tonight, if I don't get through to you, read the Westminster Confession of Faith on repentance.

And you'll see what I mean by our message must be trust and turn. Easy to remember. Two T's. The two T's, trust and turn. Then I hear somebody say, don't you know what Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says? For by grace are you saved through faith, and it is a gift of God.

I say, yes, I know that verse. Do you know verse 10? Huh? Well, you better read verse 10. Because verse 10 will teach you something. That it's a free gift, but it's received with empty hands. Hear that.

Nobody savingly closes with Christ with a handful of sin. Whether it's nice sin, it may be his profession. It may be his pride. I don't know what it may be. But I say, when you come to Christ for that free gift, you come with empty hands, brother.

Nobody comes to Jesus and says, well, I want Jesus, if... Uh-uh. You're not ready to get saved. They say, well, I'd like to trust Jesus, but... You're not ready to get saved. You just go on a while. I want Jesus, and I want something else.

No. You're not ready. You just keep on going. I'll talk to you later. When Moses is finished with you, then I'll see you. You want to look at Moses a little bit. You want to visit Mount Sinai a little more.

Oh, if he ever does that work. That necessary prior work of the law. If he ever does that, and you see Jesus then, you'll say, I want Jesus. I want him. He's my only hope. He's my only hope. I want him with no hands, no hips, no butts.

It's a free gift, but it's received with empty hands. Then there's another thing about our message. Never forget, my dear Christian friends, that our message must reach the whole man. Our message must reach the whole man.

How can you expect a man or a woman or a boy or a girl to savingly receive what they haven't seriously considered? Eh? I believe the gospel must reach our intellect. Never forget, I was sitting at a banquet where I was speaking once, and there was a dear old Presbyterian divine sitting beside me.

And he loved to study the etymology of words. And he was giving me the full treatment on the etymology of words that evening, as we waited, and I enjoyed it. But he got to one word, and I put out both ears like antennas.

And he says, you see, and he'd been talking about the word whole and holy. And he says, you see, in a nice Scottish tone, he says, you see, Brother Reichsinger, he said, I'm afraid we are not addressing the gospel to the whole man today.

And I listened. He said, it must reach the whole man if he'll be saved by this message. He said it must reach his intellect, because that's what he thinks with. He said it must reach his emotions, because that's what he feels with.

He said it must reach his conscience, because that's what he discerns with. Ah, but then he said, it must reach his will, because that's what he decides with. What do you think is the root thing that happens in conversion?

Conversion Changes the Root: The Human Will

If you understand this, it'll help you with the message. I'll tell you what, if you understand the root thing that happens in conversion, you won't ever talk to anybody about quit, stop their drinking.

Some of these ladies find out that I was a drunken carpenter and they think I've got a golden key to get their husbands to stop drinking. I know it'd be much nicer to live with. It'd be nice if you'd stop drinking.

But you'd better stop talking to them about stop drinking for a while, because let me tell you, the root thing, if you ever learn the root thing that happens in conversion, you'll go for the roots, not the truth, not the fruits.

Don't go around trimming the trees. Get to the bottom, right to the bottom, and I'll tell you where that is. That's in his old rotten will. It needs a supernatural change. He's free, all right. You say, oh, don't you believe in free will?

You bet I do. He's free to act according to his nature. That's how free you are. He's not free to become a pigeon, not free to become a hog, but he's free to act according to his nature. Now, let me ask you a question.

What kind of a nature did we get from old Adam, our grandfather, eh? Huh? What kind of a nature was that? Sinful. So even when we do nice things, we don't usually think of plowing as a sin, do we? I open my Bible and I read in Proverbs where it says, the plowing, this verse bothered me until I understood this point, the plowing of the wicked is sin.

Do you think of plowing as a sin? Do you think of practicing medicine as a sin? Do you think of practicing law as a sin? It can be. It just depends why you're doing it. You don't think it's a sin for me to build schools, do you, or hospitals, but let me tell you, it could be.

I could be sinning in every brick that goes in the wall. Sin, sin, sin, sin, because God Almighty's more than interested in what I do. He's interested in the reason I do it. You people that have just associated sin with certain immoral things, you've got to come to God's books and find out that sin can be not only that which is obviously evil, but sin can be that which sometimes appears to be good.

And so I say tonight that the gospel, our message that we're entrusted with, and this task that we have to spread it and speak it, we ought to understand where we're trying to go. Oh, I don't have any platform for getting there, but you ought to at least know where we're trying to go.

We're trying to get to people's will, and I'll tell you where that'll drive you, my dear. That'll drive you to God, to pray that the Holy Ghost will do a holy work and change his willer. If anything will ever drive you to prayer, my dear, it'll drive you to prayer when you see that that woman's will needs to be changed.

That man's will needs to be changed. You see, back of every commandment, hear me, the back of breaking every commandment is the shortest definition of sin that I know. I spoke to a group of intervarsity students last year at an intervarsity conference of about eight colleges, and I wasn't there the second day they were pressing me on a definition for sin.

Mr. Riesinger, what is sin? Give us a definition. Now, they wanted me to list a whole lot of things. I knew what they were after. Tell us what sin is. You know, they wanted me to go down a line and say smoking and drinking and all that business.

Now, I don't think I—somebody asked me not too long ago, Mr. Riesinger, do you think it's a sin to—do you think—no, he said, he said, do you think you go to hell for smoking? I said, no, it doesn't make you smell like you've been there, though.

So I'm not talking about that. I gave them a definition of sin. I gave them a definition of sin. I'll tell you what I said. I said it was short. It's a short definition. Two words. I will. That's it. That's where God the Holy Ghost has to go.

You can't get there. You don't have the wherewithal to get in that area. That's why you've got to pray, brother. You see, the man who steals, he breaks the commandment that says, thou shalt not steal, doesn't he?

But back of that commandment, he hears the voice from heaven say, thou shalt not steal. But he says, I will, I will, I will. And he steals. Oh yes, he broke a commandment. But what was back of that? That's the sin I was telling you about.

The same one that's back every sin you ever committed. You young people, when you hear that commandment I mentioned this morning, honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long upon the lands which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

And in the New Testament we see, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is the first commandment with promise. There's a promise there. When you break that, yes, you're breaking the commandment, but what else are you doing?

Why do you break the commandment? And you're guilty. Well, I'll tell you, because you've got that little sin that I'm talking about. I will, I will, I will. You see, that's why when we say somebody, we read in the paper somebody committed adultery or they murdered.

We say he's a murderer, because he did that. Ah, no. He did it. He's a murderer in his heart. That's why he did it. We probably all know some chronic liars, and we usually call them liars, because they tell lies.

But that's not just exactly right. They're liars, that's why they tell lies. And you see, that's where I'm talking about. It has to go tonight. Now aim your message there. To the intellect, yes, to the emotions, yes, to the conscience, yes, to the will.

Christ Must Be Received as Prophet, Priest, and King

There's one more thing about the message, and I don't think I'll get to the methods tonight. There's one more thing about the message that I feel is vitally important in our day, and I touched on it a moment ago, but I'd like to come back to it, and that is to say this idea that we trust Jesus as our personal Savior and live like we please.

Do you know you want to be a Bible Christian? Yes. Do you know that that's not in the Bible, where anybody ever trusted Jesus as their personal Savior? Did you ever know that? Now, I wouldn't want to be misunderstood here, and I'm going to be a little tedious, and I'm going to go a little slow, because I want you to get this point.

I believe our generation needs it, and if it were not for the fact that I was backed up by things like this and the holy men of old, I'd be scared, because I'm a novice, but I could appeal to great men for what I want to say tonight on this subject.

Nobody can ever think with proper ground that they can trust Jesus as their personal Savior, and that's all, live like they please, because he's not offered that way in the book. Do you know that his Saviorhood is only one of his offices?

Now it's proper for you to speak of him as your personal Savior. I wouldn't want you to stop that. I'll do it, too. It's proper for me to open up the Blessed Him book and sing of him as my Savior, because he is.

He is, and he's my personal Savior, and if you're saved, he's your personal Savior. Now in that sense, it's all right. But the point I want to make is that this is one of his offices, his Saviorhood. It would be just as proper for me to open up the hymn book, if there was such a hymn, and sing of him as my personal advocate, because he's that.

Or if I would go down the street and say, if you trusted Jesus as your personal advocate, in a sense it would be proper. And so there's a sense in which to speak of him as my personal Savior is proper.

I could sing of him as my personal mediator, because he's that. But the point I want to make is that I'm not saved by one of his offices. He that hath the Son hath life. And when you have him, you have all of his offices.

And this is the vital point, that the only way Jesus Christ is offered in the Bible is prophet, priest, and king. And if you have been closed with him as such, you have closed with a Christ that you've contrived with your own mind.

But you have not closed with the one that must be revealed by the Holy Ghost, because the one in the Bible is the only one the Holy Ghost will reveal. And the one in the Bible is prophet, priest, and king.

His priestly aspect is his Saviorhood, certainly, because this is the work of the priest. He sacrificed for me on the cross. He presently intercedes for me tonight. I'm glad somebody prays for me when I don't pray for myself.

He's praying for me now, that's the work of the priest. The prophet is to guide and instruct and teach, so I must want him to teach me, instruct me, and guide me. But bless your heart, tonight he's king, and the king is the one to rule and to reign over you.

And don't you ever offer anybody any other kind of a Jesus but that. Let me read you, would you Presbyterians condescend to listen to a Baptist statement? I know you would when I tell you who the Baptist is.

Old Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he was almost a Presbyterian. Listen, listen, this is a statement from Old Spurgeon's book about what I'm talking about. What I'm trying to say tonight is that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and our message must be this.

Our message, I see more souls butchered in all kind of Christian institutions over this very vital thing, and this is why our people, our young people in our church, we don't know if they're saved or lost, they don't give any evidence of it, and we don't know.

And we don't want to discourage them to think that they may not be saved and say anything, and yet we can't tell anybody, oh my son John, he's living for the Lord. We don't have to go to the young people, we go to the older people too, and we don't know if they're saved or lost, no evidence.