The Gospel Of God

Theme: The Gospel of Your Salvation
“Him you also trusted, after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation…” (Ephesians 1:13)
Date: October 17, 2003 - Friday P.M. - (During a Gospel Meeting October 17 Through 19, 2003, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Speaker: Mack Lyon, Speaker on the In Search of the Lord’s Way Television Program
Main Scripture: 2 Chronicles 2:5; John 3:16; John 5:25-28; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-9; Ephesians 3:20, 4:4-6; 1 John 1:5, 4:8

Mack Lyon: Let me just say two or three things preliminarily. We’ll not be repeating these remarks during this series of meetings. This congregation has been so strong in the financial, moral, and spiritual support of the In Search of the Lord’s Way Television Program. We are exceedingly grateful for that. Some of the latest newsletters are out there in the foyer on that table with those books. The newsletters are free to you and I hope you’ll take one. It’s the latest issue. The next issue went to the printer today, so it will be out in a few days. If you’d like to be on the subscription list for this, just give me your name and address on a piece of paper and mark on it “subscription,” and I’ll know what it means. When I take it back to Edmond, Oklahoma, you’ll get one of the next newsletters and you’ll get them monthly. That is free to you. We want to keep all of you who are supportive of this ministry informed about what is going on and about our way of doing it. This church has been unusually supportive of the work and we’re just so grateful for that. Brother John Phillis, if you would come back up here just a moment, we would like to make a little presentation to the congregation. I’ll ask you to accept this plaque. [Written on the plaque:] “Given in grateful appreciation for your continued support and dedicated loyalty to the Search Television Ministry, broadcasting the Gospel since 1980, on television, radio, and the internet.” I hope you will take pride in displaying this somewhere in your building where the members will always know your support.

John Phillis: Thank you very much, Brother Mack. I gladly accept this on behalf of the Northeast congregation.

Mack Lyon [with some humorous introductory stories]: I’m going to begin tonight with another little ceremony that I sometimes do to make an explanation about some things that you may wonder about a little later. The reason I’m making such a “to do” about it is so that you will understand.

I had had a little bout with pneumonia and had a lingering cough that went along with it, so I had gone to the doctors. I had been to about three different doctors and they had given me this stuff to spray in my nasal [passages], and all that. You’ve been there and done that. But none of it seemed to have any effect.

I came upon these Halls Menthol Throat Lozenges, and that stopped my coughing. We usually do three Search television programs at a time in the studio. So I’d go to the studio and we’d have to do so many retakes because I’d be coughing. I’d get to coughing and I just couldn’t keep from it, and we’d have to do retakes and edits, and everything, and it took so long to do the program. But I came upon these little cough drops, and that stopped the coughing. So a simple thing—a little thing like a throat lozenge. I put it in my mouth and didn’t think anybody could see it. You can’t see it, can you? Good! You’re supposed to say, “No.”

But I had this letter from a lady out in western Oklahoma, a viewer of the television program, from around Mangrum as I remember. She said, “I always have enjoyed your television program so much, but recently I can’t understand a word you are saying. Your dentures are slopping so much that I cannot understand a word you are saying. If you’re too tight [stingy] to go get a new set of dentures, you can at least go to the pharmacy and get some of this goop that I use [to tighten the hold of her dentures to her gums],” and she gave me the name of it. So we stopped using the throat lozenge. I still use it once in a while, so if anything is making a clacking sound, you’ll know it’s not my dentures!

There was another lady over in Arkansas, around Fort Smith, who wrote me a letter, and she said, “Tell Brother Lyon that his hair piece was on crooked Sunday. Straighten his hair piece.” Well, we do three programs at a time, so that means it’s going to be crooked the next Sunday, isn’t it! She was not content with that; she called on the phone and said, “I wrote last week and it didn’t do any good. I’m calling this week to remind you to tell Brother Lyon that his hair piece is on crooked. Will he please straighten it?!”

Well, neither are my teeth dentures [his teeth are his real], nor my hair a hair piece [his hair is his natural hair]. They both grow there and they come naturally. Anyway, that’s all beside the point, but I just gave you a little introduction to this cough drop.

Another reason I use this cough drop is that I use it as a timer. When it’s gone, it’s time to quit the sermon! It’s a good timer, too! When it’s gone, it’s a reminder that the time is gone and I’m supposed to quit. I heard of the preacher who reached in his pocket and got a button and he used it for this purpose, but it didn’t melt very fast! That was a long sermon that day!

[Mack Lyon’s sermon begins.] Thanks again for your presence. The word “Gospel,” as you know, means “Glad Tidings” or “Good News.” And it IS Glad Tidings and God News that we have in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is a Gospel, or “Good News,” religion. We could use the word “Gospel” in regard to a lot of other things, but we don’t usually do it.

If you’ve been to the doctor and you’ve had some tests run, and Monday morning he calls you and says, “You know, the tests we ran last Friday morning all came out good, so you have nothing to worry about. You’re in good health.” Say! That’d be a gospel message, wouldn’t it! We wouldn’t call it a gospel message, because we don’t use it for that purpose, but it would be a good-news message or a gospel message.

If you’d just been admitted to the Honorary Society at school and you get a letter, or notice, and a certificate to that effect, that’s good news! That’s gospel! We wouldn’t say “gospel;” we’d probably say “glad tidings” or “good news” because we don’t use the word “gospel” for secular [worldly, non-religious] purposes.

You could be looking for a job somewhere, and you have looked about everywhere where they use your talent and skills, and you haven’t been able to find anything, and the mortgage payments are getting behind. Your mortgage company is beginning to get uneasy about you and you really need a job! Monday morning, someone calls and says, “You came by my place a few weeks ago and asked for a job but I didn’t have any use for you then. If you could come on by today, I’d sure be glad to put you to work today!” Say! That’d be a glad-tidings message, wouldn’t it! That would be “gospel,” but, again, we wouldn’t use the word “gospel” that way. We have reserved the use of the word “Gospel” for religious purposes: “Gospel music,” “Gospel meetings,” “Gospel literature, “Gospel programs,” and so forth. So we use it in regard to religion.

But not in regard to all religion! Islam is not a “Good-News” religion.

When I was at the University of Oklahoma studying the Philosophy of Religion, I had an atheist professor. He became quite annoyed with me. He kept saying, “You don’t know anything about anything except Christianity. So I’m going to teach you something about something else. Before you leave this class, you’re going to write me a book-length paper on Buddhism.” Well, I didn’t know anything about Buddhism when I began, not much to speak of, but by the time I got through and had written a book-length paper on Buddhism, I knew it pretty well. And there was one thing that was noticeable about it: the word “Gospel” didn’t appear in it! It isn’t a “Good-News” message! It isn’t a “Glad-Tidings” message! It isn’t a “Gospel” message!

And so it is with all of the other world religions, even Judaism. You know, you don’t even read the word “Gospel” in the Old Testament. Are you aware of the fact that the word “Gospel” does not even appear at all in the Old Testament, but it appears 101 times in the New Testament?

Many times, the word “Gospel” just stands alone. Paul said, “Brethren, I’ve preached unto you the Gospel,” [1 Corinthians 15:1; see also 2 Corinthians 11:7; Galatians 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Peter 1:12; 1 Peter 1:25]. Well, it just stands alone that way.

But sometimes it has an adjective that gives it a little description, or perhaps it has a prepositional phrase that focuses in on one aspect of the Gospel. For example, Paul spoke of the Gospel as “the glorious Gospel,” [1 Timothy 1:11]. He spoke of it as “my Gospel,” [Romans 2:16; Romans 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8] or “our Gospel,” [2 Corinthians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:14]. Of course, it was all the same Gospel, and it was everybody else’s Gospel who were preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, whether standing alone or described by an adjective or prepositional phrase, it is just the Gospel. Now the other times, when it is followed by a prepositional phrase or it is used with an adjective, that gives it some limitation. [Examples of the word “Gospel” followed by a prepositional phrase: “Gospel of the kingdom,” Matthew 4:23; “Gospel of His Son,” Romans 1:9; “Gospel of the uncircumcision,” Galatians 2:7.]

Tonight, we’re going to be speaking about the Gospel of God. I’m going to read to you a few verses from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. I’ll begin reading at verse 1 and we’ll read for a few verses [through verse 9]. “For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto youthe Gospel of God with much contention.”[He pauses and repeats] “…the Gospel of God with much contention.” [He continues] “…For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God.”

I was preaching on television one Sunday (I had devoted one whole month to the study of God). Some of you might have written and gotten a copy of one of those little books [I had written, called], Holy and Reverend is His Name. At the end of that month, Brother Bill Jones called me on the telephone. Bill Jones had been one of the Professors of Bible at Oklahoma Christian University for a good many years. He is now retired. But he called me and he said, “Brother Lyon, I don’t know whether you have noticed it or not in your studies,” he said, “but it’s been outstanding to me as I focused on these ideas that, from colonial days there has not been much preaching about God. There is just not much preaching in American religion about God.” And he said, “That would go for churches of Christ; that would go for all of the other churches in America since the days that the colonies were first settled.” So it isn’t a criticism just of us; it isn’t an observation just aimed derogatorily at churches of Christ. It’s been true in all of American religion. There hasn’t been much said about God from the pulpits and on television, and for that reason then, many of us have our own version of God.

A lady called me on the telephone the other day and she was talking to me about the plan of salvation. She had heard me read, or quote, Mark, chapter 16, verses 15 and 16: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; [but he that believeth not shall be damned.”] She said, “But I read in my Bible that I’m saved by faith alone.” I said, “Where do you read that?” She said, “Well, ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’ [quoting John 3:16].” Of course, the Bible does say that we must believe. Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; [but hethatbelieveth not shall be damned,” Mark 16:16].” Of course, we can’t be saved without believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. But she said, “But I was saved before I was baptized.” I said, “Well, then Christ didn’t know about that, did He?” And she said, “No, He must not have known about it when He said that, because when He said that, He did not know about my experience of salvation before I was baptized.” Well, I went on to try to press her a bit further with that, but when I did, she said, “Well, you and I worship different Gods, because my God is not going to judge me. My God loves me and He does not judge me.” So her God is “love,” but she believes that He is not her Judge.

But the Bible teaches us that God is going to judge us through His Son Jesus Christ to Whom He gave “authority” to pass “judgment” upon all men, “because He is the Son of man,” John 5, verses 25 to 28 [“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice.”]. So that being true, then, she has missed something about God.

Actually, I’ve often wondered: If in our personal evangelism and in our enthusiasm and our diligence about doing the work of the Lord—and we are to be respected for that and not condemned or criticized for it at all—but just remember that so many times in our enthusiasm in this kind of work, we go out to evangelize, and the first thing we want to do is teach our prospect, as we call him, that he must hear the Gospel, believe the Gospel, repent of his sins, and confess Christ and be baptized. Those “five” things! Well, he must do all of that alright, but we haven’t told him about God. We’ve told him he must hear the Gospel, he must believe in Christ, he must repent of his sins, he must confess Christ, and he must be baptized, but we haven’t mentioned God to him at all, have we?! And in some instances, that is true, and I wonder how many people have been baptized and have come into the church carrying their own idol. They have their own image about what God is and about what He’s like. It may differ from everyone else’s in the whole church! And so it may not be true, as Paul wrote in Ephesians, chapter 4, [verses 4-6], “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”It may be that we’re serving many gods. I may have my perception of God; you may have your perception; and for that reason, then we may be, well…, we may be worshipping many gods. We may be polytheistic, and not [believe in or know] just the One God.

Well, we’re going to study our Bibles, and we’re going to learn differently, aren’t we. We need to begin to preach and to say more about God, because not only in our times, but in times past, we have seen people who were polytheistic, and they displeased God.

Solomon begins to make preparation for the building of the temple and he tells that he’s going to have 183,000 skilled men and craftsmen that are going to work diligently on this temple. It took him seven and a half years and 183,000 men to build it. This temple was not a big building. It didn’t have a lot of space in it. It wasn’t any bigger than this auditorium [that seats about 300 to 350 people], I suspect.

Well, it was a costly thing! A few years ago, the Illinois Association of Architects said that it was probably the most costly building that human hands had ever built! You can look about the world and can travel in Europe and see some of the cathedrals that have been built to Christianity. You can travel in some of the Bible lands and see the ruins of some of the great temples that were built to the various gods even then, and in New Testament times as well. At Ephesus, for example, we visited the ruins of the temple built to the goddess Diana, and other places like that. The Temple of Diana was one of the “seven wonders of the world” at that time! Well, you think of those expensive temples—the Taj Mahal, with all of its jewels and all of the precious stones that went into building it. But there has never been a building comparable in price to this temple of God built by Solomon.

Not only that, but it was a beautiful temple! It was said that, being overlaid with plates of pure gold, it defied a person to look upon it with unshaded eyes in brightness of the sun. You couldn’t look at it! The sun shined off of those gold plates so that you couldn’t look on it with unshaded eyes. You’d have to have dark glasses or sloped glass or something to look through. So it was a beautiful thing!

Do you remember that the queen of the south came to see all of the work that Solomon did [see 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9]? Solomon expended all of that money when there were poor people that needed to be fed. He budgeted that money for the building of the temple and made this magnificent temple the way it was. And then even more than that, you might remember also that it was the most significant building ever built. It was the pride of the Jewish nation! I mean, that was God’s dwelling place. It was a very sacred place. It was a great building!

In 2 Chronicles, chapter 2 at verse 5, Solomon tells us why he went to that care and that expense and all of that trouble and built this magnificent temple. He said, “great is the building that I build because our God is greater than all gods,” [“And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods.”]. So they had their many gods in those days, and that’s all true. They had them in the New Testament days; we have them now. But God is greater than all gods.

Now, in this statement, “the house which I build is great because our God is great,” Solomon stated a principle that has always been involved in everything that we do: Man responds to anything in direct proportion to his estimate of the value of that thing! We all do that! Some of us are interested in children’s homes—providing homes for homeless children, and so we make large gifts. Others of us like Christian education—we make large gifts to that. Some of us are really sports enthusiasts. I have a friend of mine down in Texas that was going to pay my way to a banquet where I could sit at the table with the OU [Oklahoma University] football coach! And he did have the power to get me seated at the table with the football coach because he was a friend of mine! You know how he got that power, don’t you? I don’t know how much it was, but he thought that was important! It’s important to him to get to sit at the table with the head coach of football at OU. We got a winning team this year…so far! We’ve still got our fingers crossed. We’ve got a winning team and it would have been an honor to be there, and I love a winning team. I’m a graduate of that school, but, no, it doesn’t mean that much to me! So we get behind these things and we support what we really believe in…or do we? “The house I build is great because God is great!”

Another good example of that: Back in the early part of the 20^th Century, there was a black man by the name of Booker T. Washington who was struggling to build a school for the education of black people in Tuskegee, Alabama. It takes a lot of money; it takes a lot of work; and it takes a lot of initiative to do something of that kind. By having studied a little bit of history, knowing just a little bit of history of a hundred years ago about that time, you know that there was a far different attitude among people of the various races than there is now. There were many fewer people back then who were interested in education for black people than there are now! But he was trying to do the impossible! I have admired this man—he is one of my heroes because I admire a man who is willing to get in and to tackle the thing that is impossible. Nobody else can do it!

And so, he was working at it. He needed lots of help. He needed lots of money—it takes money to build and operate a school. He heard of a man up in Pennsylvania who was liberal and generous with his money. His name was Andrew Carnegie. There are lots of libraries built all across the country—the Carnegie libraries, you know. Carnegie was a man who was generous with his wealth.

Well, Booker T. Washington made an appointment to go and visit him. When he got there, he told Mr. Carnegie what he was doing and how he needed his help, and all that sort of thing. When he got through with his presentation, Mr. Carnegie reached down in the next drawer and pulled out a check book and gave the man a check for $5,000! Now you have to remember, $5,000 was much more then than it is now!

That would have been a generous gift! I certainly would not have turned it down! If you have a $5,000 check you’re going to give me tonight, if you don’t mean for me to take it for the Search program, don’t offer it! I will welcome a $5,000 check!

But Washington picked up that check and he looked it over. He sat there a moment and he said, “Mr. Carnegie, it’s obvious that I have not impressed you of the greatness of my cause.” And he gave him his $5,000 back! Then he asked for another opportunity to come back to speak to Mr. Carnegie again, and was given a date for that opportunity.

Washington went home; he did more preparing; he came back; and he again made his appeal; and this time he got a check for $500,000—one half million dollars! The Encyclopedia Britannica says that Mr. Carnegie gave him checks for $500,000 every year for many years following that time. Why? Because he was now impressed with the value of what the man was doing!

Our God is great! He’s a great God! Oh, how we need God today! But God is being attacked in our society. Right after the 9/11 incident [the attack by terrorists using commercial airplanes to fly into the Twin Towers in New York City, New York, subsequently collapsing them]—incidents, I should say—there seemed to be a surge, or a revival, in spiritual values and spirituality in America. But it was short lived! It didn’t last long. Soon after that, we began to read that people had lost their enthusiasm for God again, and we’d gone back into our normal life styles. One of the polling companies came up with a poll that said 45%—only 45%—of Americans have any confidence or trust in church or in organized religion. That’s fewer than half of the people in America who have lost their respect and their expectation for Christianity.

Right after 9/11 [September 11, 2001, the airplane attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City, New York], one Federal Court declared that the words “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance to our nation are unconstitutional. That decision is making its way to the Supreme Court. The effort is being made—at this very time I am speaking to you—the effort is being vigorously pushed to remove our national motto from our coins: “In God We Trust.” The intent is to make this an atheistic nation. One court has already said that the religion of America is atheism and that the government has no place mentioning God anywhere! God has been dismissed from our schools, and guns and knives and violence and fear have moved in. You know that! It’s in your newspapers; it’s on your news on TV, and radio, too. God is being removed from our country. There was a survey earlier this week on one of the networks: 92% of the people in America say they believe in God. That leaves only 8% that are pursuing this fight against God, and doing it successfully. Step by step, they [the 8%] are eliminating God in our country.

In Edmond, Oklahoma [where Mack Lyon and his wife live and work], the city seal is sort of a square shape. One corner has the oil industry depicted; the other corner is education; the other is business; and the other corner is a cross, indicating that these were the four foundations on which the city of Edmond was built. The ACLU took us to court, and we had to remove the cross because the government can’t have a cross on its city seal! People are trying to put God out of our nation completely and wholly! You say, “Well, they’ll never do it!” But they are doing it! Step by step—it is happening! The Supreme Court Justice in Alabama—you’ve heard of Judge Roy Moore—may go to prison, but he was forced to remove the Ten Commandments from where they were in the Justice Building in Montgomery.

How important is God to us? It’s important to those people [those 8%] to get rid of Him! How important is He to us to keep Him? What would we do—what would we give to keep God in the foreground and let people know about God and to preach the Gospel—the “Good News” about God? You see, God is “Good News” because God is love! 1 John, chapter 4 [verse 8] says, “God is love,” [“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”].

Madeline Murray O’Hare, who was known best for her work of getting God out of the school system, died an atheist, of course. In 1999, the Internal Revenue Service auctioned off her possessions so they could settle her indebtedness to the government. Her diaries were in that auction. Four times in her diary, she wrote in big letters, “Somebody, somewhere, love me!” “Somebody, somewhere, love me!” But God is love! She dismissed God! When you dismiss God, you dismiss love also—“For God is love.” It isn’t that God is loveable, or that God is loving. God IS love­—personified! Put God out—you put love out!

In 1 John, chapter 1, verse 5, the Bible says, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness,” [“This then is the Message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”]. God is light! You put God out and it’s dark! “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep,” or “covered the face of the deep,” [Genesis 1:1]. You know what dispelled that darkness? God said in verse 3, “Let there be light: and there was light.”You see, God dispels the darkness of evil.

We are in a terrible war against evil—it’s awfully close to our house! We [Mack Lyon and his wife, Lois] don’t have a storm cellar under our house. Lois is from Alabama and she wasn’t used to quite so many of them [violent storms or tornados]. Then a storm came, and she said, “What are we going to do when we watch TV, and the men on that TV say ‘If you don’t have a storm cellar, you get in a small room in the center of your house…’” a closet, perhaps? So she ran in and removed the vacuum cleaner out of the closet, and we got in the closet with a battery-powered radio. That’s one way [the battery-powered radio] they tell you where it’s [the storm/tornado] going. As they see the lights going out and the power going off, they know where the tornado is. And our lights went out! Let me tell you, it was dark! There were no street lights to shine in the windows, because they were out too! There were no lights—not even enough light from the little digital clocks! It was dark!

In a Gospel meeting, recently, where I had said these things, someone gave me a little note that said, “No darkness is so great that it can extinguish the light of one tiny candle.” But we have to let our lights shine. We in the churches of Christ are challenged tonight. This very moment, while we are here, we are being challenged to let our lights shine!

I’m about to close [my lesson]—my throat lozenge is about gone!

In the book of Revelation, the first chapter, John says he had this vision, some of which he didn’t understand. There was the mystery of the seven stars and the seven golden candlesticks. He didn’t understand that. So the Lord said to him, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches,” [verse 20]. And then He tells John in the first two chapters of Revelation to write these letters to the seven churches.

So, the Lord tells John to write these things, and He begins with Ephesus: “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for My Name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick [out of his place, except thou repent,” Revelation 2, verses 1-5].

You see, a church is a church of Christ as far as—but only as far as—it possesses the qualities of the church you read about in the Bible. When you don’t possess those qualities, the Lord “removes the candlestick.” Put a big sign out in front: CHURCH OF CHRIST, but beware that unless it possesses the qualities of the church of Christ, the Lord may come and remove our candlestick if we don’t rise up against the forces of evil and tell them [people in the Lord’s church and people in the world] about God.

God is the God of hope! He is our only hope! Woe unto them that go down to Egyptto buy the horses to fight their battles! [WoetothemthatgodowntoEgypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not untothe Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Isaiah 31:1.] Not enough strength there to win the battle [The Israelites sought the strength of men, but did not “look unto the Holy One of Israel,” and did not “seek the LORD.”]. Let’s go to God for our strength.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” [Proverbs 14:34]. Oh, what a challenge and what a task we have—to rise up and stand against the forces of evil today, while we have a voice and while we can speak up! That’s the challenge to the church today! But, you know, we’ll not think of it as bad news, because it’s out of the challenge of the necessity of doing the thing that great things are accomplished! When we have the boldness and the courage to do for God [to rise up and stand against the forces of evil today for God], God will use us and we will see the victory! That’s the Good News. God will supply our needs. [“But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:19]. Our God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, [accordingto the power that worketh in us,” Ephesians 3:20]. God and Christ Jesus are working on us, but They need us to work with Them. What great news God is to all of us!

Say, my friend, if you are not a child of God, you ought not go home tonight and put your head on your pillow to sleep until you have become a child of God. Don’t wait until you have to cry the cry of the atheist…

“Somebody, somewhere, love me!” “Somebody, somewhere, love me!”