Robert Coker "Ye Must be born again"- May 2017 Conference

And Lord, as you've got on your altar here, this do in remembrance of me. Father, we do this in remembrance of you because you're the one that came to glorify God and glorify yourself and saving lost souls. But Father, within the name of Jesus, I commit the work of this message unto you and ask that you establish my thoughts. I ask you to open the ears of my brothers and sisters, open their minds, their hearts to receive, perceive, Lord God, and to hear, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Whenever I preach, I always tell people don't believe anything I tell you. You need to check the words yourself. You need to know it yourself. That way you know if I'm incorrect. So I would urge you to not believe me, but you check what I say with the word of God. The reason I'm bringing this is my sermon is titled 'You Must Be Born Again.' The reason this is something very close to my heart is because for years I thought I was saved, but I was lost and hellbound. I thought I was born again, but I was so involved in drugs and perversion and criminal life that there's no way that I was saved. But I know God's been with me the whole time, from my birth, from a little child when I knew that I was outside playing at three and four years old and asking mom and dad, 'Who's God? Where did God come from? Who made God?' I always knew there was a God, but I didn't know Jesus. He was just a name, just some figure, some guy. But I knew there was a God. Jesus said, 'So you believe in God, believe in me also, for I come bringing the words of God.' So our primary text today is John chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. If you want to turn to it you may, and then we're going to go from there. And in a way, I'm going to step on some sacred cows here, but that's okay. Sometimes sacred cows need to be stepped on because that sacred cow can be a golden calf that we worship. John chapter 3: 'There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.' Jesus said you must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven. You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. So we got two understandings there: to even see the kingdom of heaven, to see and understand and receive the things of God, you must be born again. To enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again. So what is it to be born again? There's something very crucial, and I'll submit to your consideration that it is the most primary key understanding of a Christian man or woman's walk: what it means to be born again. The most single important understanding. Without being born again, you go to hell. Without being born again, you go to hell. So we absolutely must know what it means. Now we're admonished in the word and by preachers and by pastors and by each other to be right with God. But now it's no one else's responsibility to be right with God but each of our own. Why? Because we alone will stand before God for our own judgment. We're not going to be able to say, 'Well, Mom and Daddy said this,' 'Well, the preacher said this,' 'Well, this is what my church taught,' 'Well, this is what I read on the internet.' We're not going to be able to say that because we've each had the ample opportunity to get in this word of God and read it for ourselves and listen to wise men and wise women share with us of what it means, of the Holy Spirit to teach us. So no one is responsible for their own salvation but themselves. We're told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. That means not that we can save ourselves, but that we work it out. We work out our salvation. It's a process. We're working out our salvation. What does it mean? How do we act? What do we do? How do we behave as a born-again child of God? 2 Corinthians 13:5: 'Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate?' What does the Book of Romans say? Chapter 1 says if God will turn you over to a reprobate mind, if we know not to maintain God in our mind, if we do not look for him, if we reject God, he'll turn us over to a reprobate mind. So we're told to check ourselves. We're told to examine ourselves. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to examine ourselves. I'm going to tell you right now, as a man that was lost but I thought I was saved. And why did I think I was saved? Because I had said a sinner's prayer. I'd repeated it after people. I'd had an emotional experience. I had cried. And I thought I was saved because of the moment of the experience of that prayer. I'd asked Jesus into my heart, but my heart never changed. Never changed. I didn't go to church. I didn't seek God. I didn't care for God. I made a god up in my own mind that allowed me to do my dope, that allowed me to do my perversions. And I would get down and pray, but I still continued with no conviction of sin or anything. So I submit for consideration: I was lost as a house cat in the storm. I was no more born again than anyone. I was lost, even though I went through some motions of prayer. I was religious. I would pray before I ate. I'd sit and we'd do our drugs and talk about God. But guess what? We'd never talk about Jesus. If you don't know Jesus Christ, you're lost. Because everybody talks about knowing God. The pope talks about knowing God. But does he know Jesus Christ? It's not important that we know Jesus Christ. What's important is that he knows us. Because doesn't he say there's going to be many that stand before me? I'm paraphrasing. He says there's going to be many that stand before me and say, 'Lord, Lord.' He's going to say, 'I don't know you.' Now listen here, deliverance people. And they're going to say, 'But we cast out many devils in your name. We've healed people in your name. We've done mighty works in your name. We've sat with you.' He's going to say, 'Get away from me, you wicked servant, for I never knew you.' So we see there's a religion that we can engage in. We can get real busy doing our religious things. We can be at the church every time the doors are opened. We can sing in the choir, drive the bus, preach the messages, play the piano, collect the tithes. We can be faithful. We give 20, 30, 40 percent of our earnings every time and think we're doing good. But we can still be lost because we're not born again. I'm telling you, the sinner's prayer does not save you. And that is a golden calf today in evangelism, in modern Christianity. Now I'm not saying people can't be saved through a mechanism of saying the sinner's prayer, because that sets the conditions up of them being broken enough for God to move in their life and the Holy Ghost to come in and save them. But salvation is the work of God, not of man. Let's look to the original fall. By one act of rebellion, one act of rebellion by Adam, not Eve. Adam, because Adam was in charge and he allowed his wife to take that fruit. He did not stand between the serpent and his wife to protect her and exert his authority and headship. He allowed her to take the fruit, and then she turned to him and gave it to him because he was right there with her. So it's Adam that's at fault, not Eve. He was the weaker vessel. But that one act of rebellion, that one act of neglect, that one act of not exerting his rightful authority, all of creation that God said was very good was thrown into death and destruction. One act of rebellion. So I ask you, how can repeating a prayer after someone remove all the sins of a person of a whole life? That they are soaked in their sin, they're marinated in their sin, they're eaten up with their sins. How can repeating a prayer, how can coming to an altar and kneeling down and crying, how can that remove the sins of a lifetime when one act of rebellion threw all of creation into death and destruction? I submit to you, it cannot. So what saves us? Titus 3:5: 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' So he saved us according to his mercy, through the mechanism, through the vehicle of the washing of regeneration. So what is regeneration? That's something you got to get a hold of. To be regenerated, I'd said the sinner's prayer, but I was never regenerated. I was still lost. I was still the old Rob Coker. I wasn't a new creature. I didn't come under conviction. I thought I was right. I made up stories and lies about Jesus Christ and I promoted that because I thought I was somebody smart. I thought I was the most powerful warlock anybody ever seen. I stood against all the witches where I lived. I tell them that too. But I thought I was saved because I'd said a sinner's prayer, but I was lost. I was not coming under conviction. So that tells me the Holy Ghost was not indwelling me. Ephesians 2:4-9 says, 'But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Now who quickened us together with Christ? God. Salvation is the work of God, not of man. For by grace are you saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Who did that? Did I do that? Have I raised myself up so I can sit in heavenly places with God? No. God did. God raised us up to sit in heavenly places. It's the work of God, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. We're saved not to be saved from hell, folks. We're saved for the glory of God. We're saved that God can say, 'Look, these are my people. You couldn't get them, Satan. They're mine. You couldn't take them. They're mine. Nothing could separate them from me. Nothing.' And when we get caught up, whenever that happens, the church goes up, all the heavenlies are going to see we couldn't defeat them. We could not defeat that word of Jesus Christ. He said the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. And I'm telling you, the gates of hell shall not prevail. And they're being sprung wide open right now. That's why we're under such attack, because the gates of hell are creaking open further and further. 'For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.' Boy, I've led 5,000 people in the sinner's prayer. How many of them are really saved? How many of them are false conversions? Read the parable of the seed, Matthew 13, and you'll see true and false conversions. My aim: to be born again is to be born from above, born of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God, not of man. Now get a hold of this, folks. Again, I'm not saying that a person cannot be saved by the power of God after they have repented and come into a broken state and said that prayer, and God honored that out of their brokenness, because the sacrifices of God are a broken heart and a contrite spirit. God hears the cries of a broken heart. It's from brokenness and dying to self that God's power works. There's a rich young ruler that came to Jesus. He came up to Jesus and says, 'Good Master.' And Jesus said, 'Why do you call me good? There's none good but one.' So what stands in the way of our coming to a state of brokenness? Because I'm submitting to you, you got to be broken before God moves in your life. Before God says, 'Okay, this is mine.' That old pot's got to be smashed for God the great Potter to make your new pot. You can't put new wine in old vessels, right? Because it'll burst. Just can't do it. Now listen to this. This rich young ruler, I'm going to just turn to it and read it here. Mark 10:22. I'll read it. Verse 17: 'And when he was gone forth into the way, Jesus there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?' Is that our key? Is that what we seek? Eternal life. To inherit it. He didn't say earn eternal life. He said inherit eternal life. Eternal life is given. It's given to the children of God, the sons and daughters. And Jesus said unto him, 'Why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God.' This is Jesus Christ speaking. He'd gone through all this area. By this time he'd healed thousands, he'd fed thousands, he drove out thousands of demons. And as it says, there's no book that can contain all the things that Christ did. We only have a little idea of what he did here. He says, 'Why you calling me good? There's none good but God.' And you know who that was? That was God speaking to them and telling them. Verse 19 says, 'Thou knowest the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother.' And the young ruler answered and said unto him, 'Master, all these have I observed from my youth.' Let me ask you, have you observed those things from your youth? Have you never stolen? Have you never borne false witness? Have you always honored your mother and father? Have you committed adultery even in your mind? Have you killed in your mind? I don't think there's anyone here that can answer in the affirmative to that. So we by no means are even equal to the righteousness of this young man. And he answered, verse 20, and said unto him, 'Master, all these have I observed from my youth.' Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said unto him, 'One thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come, take up thy cross, follow me.' And the young man was sad at that saying and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. Now listen. Jesus looked around and saith unto his disciples, 'How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God.' Verses 24 and 25 are the key verses, but you have to have the other to understand. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answering again saith unto them, 'Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Verse 26: And they were astonished out of measure. They couldn't believe it. They just couldn't wrap their mind around it. They were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, 'Who then can be saved?' Because they saw this young man righteous. And Jesus said, 'Man, riches can't get you in there.' He says how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And they were astonished. 'Who then can be saved?' And Jesus looking upon them saith, 'With men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible.' Again we see that you cannot save yourself. There's no amount of deeds, works of righteousness that you do that can save you. Only the power of God can save you. Washing of regeneration is a key principle to remember. If you're an evangelist, if you evangelize, you go out in the street, remember regeneration is the key. What does regeneration mean? It means that something new is born. Something like a seed falls to the ground and it dies, and the life that was in that seed grows up at that point and it becomes a new living plant. It's regenerated. It contains the life within itself to become a new plant, but only after it dies can it become a new plant. Jesus said, 'Except the seed fall the ground and die, it produces no fruit.' You got to die to your old self. You got to die. You got to come to the end of yourself and realize there's nothing I can do to save me. Nothing I can do. Brother Will spoke to that. He finally just said, 'Take it, God.' And that set it up to get you free. Quit fighting it. We fight God because of our religiosity. We fight God because of our self-righteousness. We fight God because we have a sense that we're good people. But the Bible says right here, there's none good. None of you people here, including myself, are good people. There's not a good person in this church. There's not a good person in Oxford, New Jersey. There's not a good person on this planet. We're decent folks, but we're not good. Bible says there's none good. So I'm not going to argue with Jesus. What do we do? We compare our sense of goodness with other people. 'Well, you know, I didn't do that kind of stuff. I'm not out in the gang. I'm not out there shooting dope on a corner. I'm not stealing and cheating on my wife. I'm not doing these things. I'm not like them.' And they're doing the same thing. 'Well, I'm not like him.' Right? We have our own sense of self-goodness, and that's called self-righteousness, which is nothing but filthy rags. Our sense of goodness is self-righteousness. When you realize you're not a good person, then you are ready to receive a savior. Because you don't know you need a savior. And you realize, man, you can't do nothing to save yourself. I got to have something more than anything I can do. His name is Jesus Christ. Romans 12:2 says, 'Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now how can we do that? How can Rob Coker transform himself? How can I renew my own mind? I can't. None of us can renew our mind, can we? Ephesians 4:21-24: 'If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.' How can we renew the spirit of our own mind? Can I do that? Can any of you do that? No. Who renews us? Let's go back to Titus 3:5: 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' The Holy Ghost is the one that renews our mind. The Holy Ghost is the one that transforms us. We don't. 2 Corinthians 5:17: 'Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.' Have you become a new creature? Do you hate the things that you used to love? Amen. I'm asking you, do you hate the things now, despise the things that you used to love? I used to love a good shot of dope in my arm. I hate that. I hate it. I used to love to drink and smoke. I can't stand to be around it now. I don't hate the person, but I despise that activity. I despise it. I truly do, even though I allow myself to be around it sometimes. Have you been regenerated? Have you been transformed? Have you been made a new creature? Have you been renewed in the spirit of your mind? Has the Holy Ghost come and taken ownership of you? We're bought and paid for. Have you been sealed with the redemption? In the parable of the seed and the sower, Matthew 13, you've got four types of converts, four types of experiences: seed by the wayside, the seed in the rocky soil, the seed in the bushes, and the seed sown on good soil. Now in this parable, the seed is the gospel. The sower is Jesus Christ. And what is the soil? It's the heart. If you've ever planted anything, you don't take your apple seed and go, 'Well, I think that'd be a good place to put it,' and throw it as you're walking down on the side of the road. You don't do that. Birds will come by and snatch it up, eat it. You don't find a rocky outcropping and say, 'Well, that's pretty safe. It's going to get plenty of sun. It's going to get plenty of rain. There's some other bushes and some grass there. I'm going to put it right there.' You poke it down in there. It may spring up, but because there's no depth of soil, it cannot develop a root in itself. So the first time it rains hard or the sun really comes down, the new little plant that sprung up dies because it's got no roots. It's got no soil to put a root down in. Then you got the seed that's put in with the bushes. And it'll spring up, yeah, but it's going to be choked out because all the other bushes are taking the nutrients out of the soil, taking the rain. It's not getting any sunshine. That represents those people that have had the experience of God and they're going through the religious motions, but they produce no fruit because the cares of the riches of this world choke out the fruit. There's only one of those experiences that produces fruit. Now what did Jesus say? He says if the tree produces no fruit, it's good for nothing but to be chopped down and thrown into the fire. What's he talking about there? I'll let you answer that yourself. Wow. Now if you planted a seed on good soil, what did you do? You cleared out everything else from around it. You took a spade or a shovel or whatever you're using, a garden tool, and you broke the soil up and you made it soft. You maybe put a little fertilizer in with it, stuff like that. Then you planted your seed, put the soil back on it. But the soil was broken up. The heart of man has to be broken. By man, I mean mankind. The heart of man has to be broken. Our hearts have to be broken to receive the gospel. God hears the cries of a broken heart. He doesn't hear the cries of a sinner. He doesn't hear the prayers of a sinner. The Bible says that until that sinner cries out to God from a broken heart. Brokenness, brothers and sisters, is a blessing from God. To be broken is a beautiful thing. Because it's like, I remember when Worley was preaching on the alabaster jar. We're like the alabaster jar. We're beautiful on the outside, very gorgeous, very precious. But we're fragile. And when we're broken, that sweet oil gets off its scent. But not until it's broken. So God has to break our alabaster jar, and then we can give off that brokenness. And it's a good scent to God because then he can move in the midst of the brokenness. He says, 'I can work with this. I can take this. I can do something with this now.' Go back to John chapter 3. It says the Holy Spirit comes from where it wants and when it wants. You don't know where it's coming from and when it's coming. That's how it works with salvation, brothers and sisters. That's why it's always important to keep preaching the gospel, to keep sharing the gospel, because you don't know that person that you think is lost and gone, there's no hope for them. They might come to that moment of brokenness, at the utter end of themselves, and everything comes into play. And they know just instinctively because the Holy Spirit tells them, 'Cry out. Cry out to me. Cry out to God. Ask forgiveness.' And this is a personal experience. That's how it happened with me. Broken on the floor, crying out to God to die. I didn't say a sinner's prayer. There was no altar call. There was no preachers involved. Nobody leading there. It's just myself, naked in my sins before the living God. And I begged and begged and begged for God to kill me. That's all I wanted to do was die. God answered my prayer. And after some time, I got up on my knees and I realized I was still alive. And I put my hands up in the air. I says, 'God, you didn't take my life, so I'm just going to give it to you now. I don't want it anymore anyway. You do with me what you want.' And that was the moment God said, 'Yes, it's time. It's the time.' The Holy Spirit came and indwelt me, and I got born again. Because something happened on the inside of me. And from that moment, January 27, 2007, my life has changed. I hate the things I used to do, even though the old flesh sometimes says, 'Why don't you go do it again?' We all deal with that, don't we? Again, John 12:24-25: Jesus said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.' So the question is then, how do you get born again? How do we get born again? That's the key point. How does this happen? We got to realize Isaiah 64:6 says, 'We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.' All our sense of self-goodness is filthy rags. It's abhorrent to God. For me to think, 'Oh, I'm a good person. Look at the things I've done. I'm preaching somewhere now. I'm going to a jail, preaching to the prisoners. Oh, I'm doing a good thing. Oh, I give my offerings. I put them in ministries. I give them to people.' That's my sense of goodness. That's a work of righteousness. That's nothing I can do to save myself. Remember Jesus said, 'Why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God.' 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, 'Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.' What is the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow? Godly sorrow is when your dog dies? Godly sorrow when you wreck your car? Godly sorrow when someone you love turns their back on you, doesn't want anything to do with you anymore? That's worldly sorrow. What is godly sorrow? Here's what it is. It says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Here's how I evangelize when I get the opportunity. I say, 'You think you're a good person? You want to take a good person test? Church, let's take a good person test today. Who here has ever told a lie? You don't have to raise your hand or say 'I have' or nothing. Who here has ever told a lie? Every one of us has told a lie. So what do you call somebody who tells lies? A liar. So that makes you a liar. Good person? A liar? Who here has ever stolen anything? What do you call somebody who steals things? A thief. So that makes you a thief. Have you ever taken God's name in vain? That's blasphemy. God's giving you every good thing you've ever had in your life. Every good thing, just like Will was talking about. He gave the people that turned to the whoredom of Baal in Hosea. He gave them every good thing, and they took it and gave it to Baal. And we take God's name in vain. And we can say we take God's name in vain by saying 'Oh my God.' That's a vain use of God's name. Get a hold of that. That's how easy. 'Oh my God.' 'OMG.' Taking God's name in vain. God will not hold those faultless who blaspheme his name. So that makes you a blasphemer. So far, good people, you're lying, thieving, blasphemers at heart. So how can you be a good person? Isaiah 53 says Jesus took upon himself the iniquities of us all. And what are our iniquities? It's the breaking of the law, the Ten Commandments. So our lies, our thefts, our blasphemies, our adulteries are the things that crucify Jesus Christ. Because if we had not been that wicked sinner, that unclean thing, we would not have had to have Jesus Christ die in our place on the cross. So in effect, y'all crucified Jesus Christ. Each individual here has crucified Jesus Christ and enjoyed doing it. Because I enjoyed my lies. I enjoyed my thefts, my blasphemies, my adulteries. I enjoyed them. I took pleasure in them. So you crucified Jesus Christ. You are personally, individually responsible for the crucifixion of the King of Glory. Let that sink in for a minute. You crucified Jesus Christ. You're responsible for his death. No one else. Not the Jews and the Romans. They carried it out, but Jesus died for your sin. So therefore, you crucified him. If you're out acting crazy somewhere, you're with a bunch of crazy people and you start running your mouth and somebody pulls a gun and caps you in the head, but somebody steps in front of it that loves you and takes the bullet for you, who killed that man? Who killed your friend? Was it the man that pulled the trigger? Yeah. But ultimately, it was you because you were acting the fool. Somebody was going to kill you, and somebody sacrificed and laid their life down for you. John 15:13: 'No greater love hath any man than to lay his life down for his friends.' He did that for you. So you killed that man. You have crucified Jesus Christ. Let that sink in for a minute. You're personally responsible. And guess what? God's going to hold you personally responsible because you killed his only begotten son. You crucified him. That's godly sorrow. That pricking in your heart right now. What are you feeling right here? That convicting voice in your mind telling you, 'True, I'm guilty.' But us born-again people have that forgiven. What about the rest of the world out there that doesn't care? They're walking around with the blood of Jesus Christ on their hands. They don't even know they need a savior because they're standing in their self-righteous religion, if they even have any. That's godly sorrow, brothers and sisters. When you realize that you crucified Jesus Christ. Acts 2:36-37: When Peter is given one of the greatest sermons of all time, 3,000 people were converted that day in less than a three-minute sermon. He says, 'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.' Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?' They were pricked in their hearts. 'What shall we do?' Peter said, 'Repent, and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.' Repent. What is repentance? Repentance is more than just turning direction. You know, we can go out and go grab something to eat and go to the Washington Diner, and somebody says, 'No, let's go to this other diner.' Okay, we've changed directions. But have we repented? Repentance means you have penance. You're repentant. Now one of the evidences of salvation, of being born again, is not that you repented once, but that you're continually repenting. Because you're continually coming under conviction of what you're doing is not right, or what you're thinking is not right, or what you're looking at is not right. Sometimes you can ignore it. You can get a demon like I had for watching those wicked TV shows at work. And I got a demon cast out of me last night called Calini. Praise God for brothers and sisters that love me enough to get on the rug and pray for me. Thank God for you. Because I'll allow that devil to get my mind watching this stupid stuff. And I knew better the whole time, but I went ahead and did it. Oh, me. Psalm 34:18: 'The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.' What does contrition mean? You've come under obedience. You've come under conviction. You're contrite. You've humbled yourself. You're in contrition. When a child comes and admits to his father or his mother, 'I've done something wrong,' and they come to you and they tell you that, that child is in contrition. He's contrite because he's about to receive the punishment that he knows he or she knows she deserves. Psalm 51:16-17: The prophet, the king, the priest, King David. What a wise man. 'For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering.' Works of righteousness. 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' Psalm 147:3: 'He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.' 'For I am the Lord that healeth thee.' Are you getting the picture, brothers and sisters? God saves us, not a prayer. So what's our cry to God then? How do we do it? This is a memory verse everyone should have memorized. Give me a second. Yes, sir. Just keep going. I guess you can hear me good enough. Say that you never tested the other. Oh, well, y'all heard me. I don't need it now. I haven't used it. Rec. Don't worry about it. That's okay. That's good. No, no, I don't need it. They can't hear you in the back. Okay, now I got to get this thing back in. Thank you, Brother Will. He won the whole time without it. I guess y'all heard me anyway. First John 1:9: 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Romans 10:13: 'For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.' And now here's the key verse right here. Here's one of them. Of course, we've established now, I've established biblically with the gospel, that just repeating a prayer after someone is not going to save you. Having an emotional experience at the altar is not going to save you. Perhaps God can see and he'll move in that situation, but the Holy Spirit's got to come. When the Holy Spirit's ready, when God's ready, you're going to get saved. He, when he's ready, you're going to get saved. We can't force it because the Holy Spirit comes and goes as he wishes. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, 'If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.' Our bodies are the land. Our hearts are the soil. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit. What do you make temples out of? Rock and timber, plaster, whatever. So we see that we're the land. And it says that also speaks to a group of people that was given to God to Solomon at the dedication of the first temple by God. 'Here's what you do when things get rough. Here's how y'all act.' Now we're spiritual Israel. We haven't replaced Israel, but we're spiritual Israel. And God has given us that because we're his people. We're called by his name, aren't we? Christians. So we're called by his name. If we do these things, if we humble ourselves, man, humble yourself. You're not a good person. If we pray and seek God's face, it's prayer and fasting and truly seek his face. Seek his face in this Bible right here, because he'll show you. And then turn from their wicked ways. Turn from them. That's repentance. You're repenting. You have remorse because you realize your sins have crucified Jesus Christ. Don't you see that you've crucified Jesus Christ? This is then an if-then statement. God says, 'If... then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.' Now I don't know if you're born again or not. I don't know. God's speaking to you to let you know if you're not born again, you're hellbound. I don't care how many times you go to church. I don't care how many devils you get cast out of you. If you're not born again, you're lost. So I ask you to seek God. Pray of your own state of salvation. What are some evidences of salvation? One, you come under conviction. You can ignore it, but you come under conviction. You know this is not right. You don't need to do it. You know you're going to pay a price later. Two, you see, you read this Bible. You study it. You come to love this book. It's not just a dust magnet anymore. It's not something you put your iced tea on as you're eating. You pick it up and you read it and you seek God in it. Another one is you tell people about Jesus. You tell people about who Jesus Christ is. Because if someone has laid their life down for you, if someone has saved you and you truly love that person, are you not going to want to tell people about him? You're going to want to tell people about him. You're going to share Jesus the best you can. And he'll give you a way, and he'll put people in front of you. And I would say another thing is, again as I repeated earlier, it's not that you repent once, but that you're continually repenting. So how do I close this out? As you're out evangelizing, as you're dealing with your family and they say, 'Oh, I said that prayer. I said it when I was nine years old at Bible camp.' There's been no change in their life. You're called not to say, 'Well, did you really mean it when you said it?' You're called to say, 'You made a confession. You made a profession of faith, and you need to be held to it. Your life is not compatible with what this Bible says. You need to look at this Bible and you need to get yourself right with God, because you might not even be saved. You might be hellbound. And life is but a vapor. You may die tomorrow.' There ain't nothing wrong with putting a little fear of God in people, speaking that to them, because God will get your attention. God will get your attention. So I pray that you've received what I've spoken today, because this is truly from my heart. Because I know from personal experience, I had said that prayer many times, many times, that I was lost. I was hellbound. But it wasn't until this seed of Robert Coker fell to the ground and died, and I cried out to God to kill me. I wanted to lose my life. And when, after that moment, when I again, to repeat this for clarity's sake, it's when I got up on my knees and I just, I put my hands up to him and I just did it automatically. I wasn't thinking about it. I says, 'God, you didn't kill me, so I'm just going to give you my life.' Amen. Have you given God your life completely? Have you given him your affections, your emotions? Have you given him the friends and people of your life? Have you given him your work? Have you given him your life? Have you given your all to God? If not, you need to examine yourself to see if you're in the faith, except you be proven reprobate. So Father, I pray in Jesus' name that this message, dear to my heart, God, I pray that I was able to convey it properly to my brothers and sisters here. Father, I pray that they'll take it and they'll apply it. They'll examine themselves. And that we'll continue to examine ourselves, because we can veer off course very easily. We can veer off course. We don't want to veer off course, Lord. We want to stay true to the path. We want to keep our hands on the plow, Lord God. We want to be worthy workmen. That's what we want to be, Lord. So Father, I pray in Jesus' name that you just take us all and you bring us to a new level of understanding, a new level of service to you. As Brother Dennis has prayed, you give us a heart of a servant. The servant being our service to you, Lord, to serve our brothers and sisters. And Jesus said that he who wants to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven shall be least on earth. Jesus washed the feet of the very man that was going to betray him for 30 pieces of silver, and he knew it was going to happen. How more servile, how more humble can a person be? I can't even imagine doing that. But Lord, you did. You're our model, O Christ. You, Jesus Christ, are our model of goodness. Not other people, not what we think is right or wrong. But you, Jesus Christ, you're going to be the standard by which we're measured when we stand before Christ, before you, Jesus, because you're our judge. You're going to be the one on the great white throne, because God has given all authority and all judgment unto you. So Father, I pray that we take this message and we can do what it is you lead us to do with it, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.