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Stay in Crete
By Dr. Jack Hyles
Electronic Printing
by FFEP
"To Titus, mine own son after the common
faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ our Saviour. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest
set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city,
as I had appointed thee."--Titus 1:4, 5.
"That the aged men be sober, grave,
temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise,
that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not
given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young
women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be
discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be
sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in
doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that
cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed,
having no evil thing to say of you."--Titus 2:2-8.
Paul is writing a letter to his young
preacher boy. Now Titus was on an island called Crete, and he was
discouraged.
Many preachers are here this morning. You
understand a little about Titus then. All of us have been there. Titus got
discouraged. The offering was down. The Sunday School wasn't going too good.
The deacons were giving a little trouble. The people were complaining. The
ladies were gossiping. The prayer meeting crowd was off. Folks were calling
Titus a nut and a fool. It was a difficult situation. Titus had a desire to
leave. These conditions caused Titus to write a letter to Paul and say,
"Now, Brother Paul, I would like for you to find me another place."
I have some preacher boys, and I get more
letters from those preacher boys, saying, "Brother Hyles, I believe my
ministry has ended here. I think God is through with me here. I have been
here two months now, and I think I have about finished my work. I have
preached up all my sermons. Would you recommend me somewhere else?" Usually
such letters are written on Monday morning or late Sunday night!
I think Titus was like that. He was writing
Paul and saying, "Dear Brother Paul: I appreciate your recommending me down
here at Crete. This was a good situation. The salary was good, but I am
having it a little rough now, and if you don't mind, I wish you would
recommend me somewhere else."
So Paul is writing back to Titus to explain
that he cannot recommend him somewhere else, that he ought to stay in Crete
in spite of the fact that Crete is a difficult place, a hard place to stay.
Paul is writing to tell him that he ought to stay there and fight the battle
for God.
Now many of you are in difficult places
today. Dr. Rice, you would be interested in this. One dear brother came to
the conference last year and he got iron in his blood and grit in his craw
and went back to preach what he ought to preach. He started doing thus and
so and standing for right and before long the associational missionary came
down. He brought a lawyer with him and caused trouble. This preacher said,
"I had to leave the church. And do you know what I did? I started preaching
in a barn." I asked, "How is the ministry?" He answered, "Fine. God is
blessing. I am to baptize eight next Sunday night."
That is what these conferences do. Anyway,
you come to places like this after being discouraged at home, and you get
encouraged. That is what this is for- -to encourage us.
I was in the paratroopers in World War II.
The very thought of my ever getting up in a plane and jumping scares the
daylights out of me. I fly a great deal. When I get up in those planes
34,000 feet and look down, I say, "Man alive! How did I ever jump out of one
of these things!" But I did- -well, I was pushed out nineteen times! Do you
know why I could jump? Because there were seventeen other fellows on the
plane about to jump, too. And if they were in the same shape l was in, it
wasn't too bad.
So it is good to go aside and find fellows
who have it rough, too. I am sure that many, many of you today are in rough
situations. You are having it difficult. You have cried many tears lately.
The burdens have been heavy; the problems many.
That is the way it was with Titus. He was in
Crete. He wanted to come back. So Paul wrote Titus a letter. "Titus, I left
you in Crete for this cause, 'that thou shouldest set in order the things
that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.'"
Actually Paul, in the letter of Titus, is
trying to explain why he wants Titus left in Crete. I think the key phrase,
the key sentence, in Titus is, "For this cause left I thee in Crete." Then
he goes on to explain what to do in Crete, what to preach to the old ladies
and to the old men, and to the young ladies and young men. He explains what
Titus ought to do in Crete and why he should stay there.
Now there are three things Paul told Titus in
so many words about why he ought to stay in Crete. In the first place, Paul
said, "Titus, you need Crete. You need Crete." In the second place, he said
in so many words, "Titus, Crete needs you ." in the third place, he was
saying, "God needs you in Crete."
Notice, first, Paul said, "Titus, you need
Crete. Now I know the going gets rough." We come to a meeting of preachers
and we laugh, we play. But there are many heartaches and burdens; there are
tears and broken hearts; there are nights of weeping and nights of
loneliness. There are times, you preacher friends, when nobody understands.
I mean there are going to be times (if there are not already times) when you
are not right with God. But there are going to be times and there are times
when nobody understands.
Even your own best people won't understand.
They are for you. They say to you, "Now, Preacher, we think you are fine,
but why do you do like you do? We get out of one mess, then in another. Why
do you do like you do?"
You go home and your wife says, "Honey, I
don't want to see folks against you. Can't you preach the same thing and not
be quite so tough? Why do you have to be so mean?"
And your mother sometimes says, "Son, Mamma
loves you and Mamma hates to see you unhappy. Mamma hates to see you suffer.
Son, isn't there some way you could preach the same thing without making so
many folks mad at you? I don't want folks to get mad at you. You are not as
mean as everybody says you are. Now, Son, couldn't you just ease up a little
bit?"
You come home and your wife doesn't
understand; the kids can't figure you out; the dog won't wag his tail at
you. There is nobody at all who approves and you wonder if it is worth it.
So you write Dr. Rice a letter and say, "Dr. Rice, I think my ministry is
over here. Would you pray about recommending me somewhere else?" Dr. Rice
writes back, "Now you behave yourself, and you stay in Crete." Brother, you
don't think it, but you need to stay in Crete because it is the best thing
for you. It is best that you stay in Crete. You need it.
I have noticed that all great men have had
times of brokenness. In Dr. Rice's biography we read where he had some times
when it seemed like his ministry was gone. He had some times when it seemed
like he faced a critical point in his ministry, it seemed like everything
was gone--times of discouragement.
For example, Dr. George W. Truett had a time
when his heart was broken. He shot one of his best friends accidentally on a
hunting trip, which almost broke his heart. But that was the mellowing thing
that made his ministry, made God's breath upon him.
Take Mr. Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon left the
Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland. The group voted to censure him.
Only seven folks voted for him when he was censured officially. Of course,
the same Baptist headquarters has his picture now in the vestibule, but they
would still break his heart if he were alive today. He was voted out. He had
heartbreak. Not only that, but in Surrey Music Gardens packed with
thousands, someone cried "Fire" and in the stampede several folks were
killed. It broke Spurgeon's heart. This matter of Crete, the difficult
place, the hard place, the rough going, was one of the things God used to
make Spurgeon what he was.
Charles G. Finney had his Crete. Finney's
pastor was named Dr. Dale. Dr. Dale was a good fundamental man, but like so
many good fundamental men today. Dr. Dale ordained Charles G. Finney. Finney
came to the place in his life when Dr. Dale said, "I am ashamed I laid my
hands on Charles Finney, ashamed he is my son in the ministry." It broke
Finney's heart. It was his Crete, but it was one of the best things that
ever happened to him.
Jonathan Edwards was pastor of a thriving
church. When he preached against dancing and unconverted church membership,
the leaders in the church got together and voted him out. It broke his
heart. It seemed as if his Crete was more than he could stand; yet it was
one of the things that made Jonathan Edwards.
Now, dear friends, if John Rice and Charles
Spurgeon and George Truett and Billy Sunday and Dwight Moody and Charles
Finney and Jonathan Edwards needed their Crete, I think Jack Hyles needs
his. We ought to do as my Mamma used to say, "Son, quit your crying and open
your mouth and take your Black Draught like a big boy." Now it is all I ever
took. Black Draught medicine, it was claimed, would cure anything- -anything
from falling hair to in growing toenails to ptomaine poisoning to lumbago.
And Mamma served it on the wrong end of the spoon! Did you ever take Black
Draught on the wrong end of a spoon?
I would say, "Mamma, I have a headache." "0.
K., open your mouth, Son." It is the most awful tasting stuff I ever tasted.
She would say, "Open your mouth, Son." And I would say, "Mamma, I don't want
to." She would say, "Stand up and take your medicine like a big boy." I sat
there with my lips puckered and my eyes rolling with tears and opened my
mouth. I learned to take my Black Draught like a big boy. Now we are going
to have to do the same thing today.
Some of you preachers will go home and whine
and corn -plain and yelp and cry and moan and groan because the deacons are
trying to chase you off. Now you just sit up and take your medicine like a
big boy. Behave yourself. Stay in Crete. You need to stay there. It will do
more for you than all the good times, all the happy times, all the big
times. You will pray more, care more, cry more, grow more, get more, and
bless more in those times of sorrow, heartache, bereavement and seeming
defeat than any other time in your life. So if you are facing some tough
times today, you stay in Crete.
I was reading the other day of Ronald Creech,
one of our good friends, in Durham, North Carolina. Ronald Creech has taken
a real stand for God in his area. Some of the lit-tie lean Christians, maybe
they are broadminded, decided they were going to get rid of Ronald. They
tried, but Ronald can't be got rid of. He wouldn't leave.
What happened? A little group of folks sued
him; now most of the people who followed him had to leave the church
building and have services outside. The church was roaming the streets
trying to find a place to meet. But they were having folks saved right
along, and the power of God was there. Old Ronald was facing a battle, but I
will guarantee you one thing: there will be a different Ronald Creech who
comes out of this than went into it. Why? Because it is his Crete. And he
needs it. Now the Court of Appeals has given the church back its building.
I was with a fellow down in West Memphis,
Arkansas, who was in this conference last year. He went back home and
stirred up some trouble. Listen! There is enough trouble to stir up at home.
Well, you say, "I don't know what to preach against." Just look, man: there
is enough meanness in your town. Preach a series of sermons on the meanness
that is going on, and you will stir up some trouble. Listen, If you have the
dancing out of the high school, work on the square dancing in the junior
high school for a while. If you can get that out, work on the
one-two-three-kick in the elementary schools. Do something, brother. There
is enough meanness going on, enough devilment going on in your town for any
prophet of God to keep in a scrap most of the time.
So this fellow left the conference and went
back to West Memphis, Arkansas, and he had some of the wrong men down to
preach in his church--I should say some of the right men. So he had to get
excommunicated. He went and got him an old night club and converted the
night club and is preaching there and now he is having about as many folks
in the night club as he had down in the church building, and he doesn't have
to be worried about the associational missionary.
I am just saying this: Difficult times when
you can get in a scrap for God will make you if you will just stand up and
fight. You need Crete.
I can say this for my own little ministry: In
my life the biggest things that ever happened to me, happened in times of
sorrow. One night Dad had just come home--many nights, but this one night in
particular, Mamma and I waited for Daddy on Saturday night to come home but
he didn't come. Finally about four o'clock in the morning we heard a noise
down the street. Daddy had hit a tree. He had come in drunk, and had a flat,
and didn't even know it, he was so drunk. He hit a tree and the car was
ruined. Mamma's heart was broken. Daddy came in and Mamma talked and cried.
She tiptoed out in the backyard and got a bottle of whiskey out of the car;
I saw her break it on a rock in the backyard so Daddy wouldn't have any
more.
I began to cry- -a little kid of about ten or
eleven years old, and I said, "Mamma, why can't Daddy go to Sunday School
like other daddies?" My heart was crushed and broken. It seemed that Mamma
and I just didn't know what in the world to do. But it wasn't but a few
hours before God spoke to me about getting saved. Through that little
experience I came to Christ.
Then one day when I was a teen-ager, I came
home. Mother called me in the room and said, "Son, I have something to tell
you."
I said, "What, Mother?"
"Daddy is leaving this morning."
Daddy was sitting on the bed, and I said,
"Daddy, you are not going to leave."
Daddy said, "Yes, Son, it has got to be this
way."
It was Sunday morning. I went to church that
night brokenhearted. In that time God spoke to my heart about being a
preacher.
God uses those sorrowful times, God uses the
tears, God uses the Crete experiences, God uses the difficult times to work
on you and get you right.
I thought the world had ended when I buried
my father. I thought the sun would never rise. I thought that life was over.
I complained to God. Yet whatever little success God has given me in the
ministry and blessing in soul winning is because of what happened on the
grave of my daddy.
Now let me tell you something, preachers:
Quit giving up. I get tired of preachers giving up every time they have it
rough. I get sick of some old backslidden, skinflint of a deacon coming to
the preacher and saying, "We are going to try to chase you off." The
preacher, too sweet for his own breeches, gets up and says, "Well, I guess I
had better leave. I don't want to cause any trouble."
What do you mean- -you don't want to cause
any trouble? You cause him all the trouble you can. You chase that fellow so
far they won't ever know who he was. You put him in orbit. I know what you
will do. You will say, "Well, I don't want to cause any trouble. My wife is
having heart trouble, the kids are getting complications, and I am getting a
little ulcer myself. I just believe it would be better if I moved on and the
church would have peace."
Yes, they will have peace. That fellow will
run that just like he ran it while you were there, and he will kill somebody
else's wife, and somebody else's kids, and ruin somebody else's family, and
ruin somebody else's health. Don't you leave that fellow to ruin some other
good man. You stay there and fight the battle, and don't leave until the
battle is won. I mean, stay in your Crete and fight and do the job for God
when it is hard; stay when it is tough; stay when it is rough; stay when
they try to chase you off. In God's good name, stay.
Sure, you will have trouble. Sure, you will
have rough going. Sure, they will try to chase you off. But don't fold your
little wings and get out. Stay there and fight the battle for God. You need
Crete. You need those experiences. You need it tough.
I wonder sometimes what we think Christianity
is. Let me picture it a minute. Go to the city of Ephesus in the first
century. Come to Corso Street, the street on which the big arena and the big
athletic contests were held. See the great crowds and activity as fifty or
sixty thousand or more people gather together for a great athletic contest.
See them as they get off their chariots or camels and park them, tie them;
see them as they walk down toward the great stands of the great arena. See
them as the men of the concession stands try to sell their refreshments.
Great crowds are coming in and thousands of people are in the great arena on
Corso Street in Ephesus.
See them as the mayor of the city and the
city councilmen gather in the press box high above the stadium. See them as
the people gather in the city of Ephesus for the great athletic contest and
as they start the contest and have someone throw the javelin, and the great
javelin contest gets under way.
There are a few races and a discus throw,
etc., and after a few preliminaries, now you come to the main event. And the
crowd will scream, "Bring on all the Christians! Bring on the Christians!"
Over in the corner somewhere is a little
huddle of God's people, redeemed by Calvary's blood, saved by His marvelous
grace, who love not their lives unto death. They are huddled in a little
corner. Down here on this end of the arena is a cage. In that cage there are
several big ravenous lions who have not had one bite of food for an entire
week. Their cage is down here on this end. The crowd begins to chant just
like you would chant, "We want a touchdown! We want a touchdown! Or block
that kick! Block that kick! Or we want a home run!" Then comes the great
chant, the main event, "Bring on the Christians! Bring on the Christians!
Bring on the Christians!"
Down here on this end are the lions; someone
opens the door and they push them in. Among that little huddle of Christians
is a tottering gray-haired man, a dear grandmotherly saint, a young man, a
young lady expecting a baby, a few little children- -not very
important-looking people, not very well dressed, not very stately, not very
influential, not very wealthy. They come into the arena and as they look at
the great crowd they realize what is going to happen. Somebody pulls a rope
and the lions, who have been starved for seven days, are turned loose. The
lions come toward the Christians and have their breakfast. In a little
huddle the Christians begin to pray and sing:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace bath bro't me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
Those little Christians in Ephesus in the
first century bowed together in a little circle on their knees in prayer as
the lions came and as the people roared with delight and joy, "Kill the
Christians! Kill the Christians!" Death came as the lions ripped their
bodies to pieces and broke their bones into powder. The few Christians died
for Jesus Christ.
That is where this thing we are in started,
dear friends. Early Christianity was a religion of martyrs. Yet we groan
today. We think the preacher has to be chaplain of the local Masonic Lodge;
he has to be the blesser of the Civic Clubs, the trigger-puller every time
there is a turtle race in town. He is somewhat of a cross between
grandmother, Santa Claus and Old Mother Hubbard. He is a holy water blesser.
He walks down the street with his sweet little smile all week long and
blesses the people, and folks say, "There goes the Reverend, boys and girls.
Grow up and be like him. He is a sweet, kindly man who never says anything
negative. He never raises his voice or lets his temper go."
Yes, and lets the whole world go to Hell. He
doesn't tell anybody about sin. He lets the night clubs run rampant. He lets
the boys and girls go into adultery. He lets the town go to Hell. He lets
the skid rowers go on their mad plunge i ward Hell. He lets broken homes
continue and broken lives and broken hearts and broken futures and broken
dreams down the cesspool of his own indifference and coward preaching. "Let
them go to Hell," he says. "I am saved.
Somewhere between the first century and 1961
we have definitely lost the thing that made Christianity what it was and the
thing that Jesus intended for His people to be and 1 like. God help us to
realize we have not been called to Sunday School picnic, but to fight a
battle for God. Y( need to stay in Crete and fight the battle.
You are not going to see any Red Seas parted
until ti Pharaohs get after you. Everybody wants to see the R Sea parted,
but nobody wants the Pharaohs chasing them.
Everybody wants to see the Son of man
standing at the right hand of God, but nobody wants to get stoned as Stephen
was.
Everybody wants to go to the third Heaven,
but nobody wants to get chased out of Lystra as Paul did.
Everybody wants to see Leo the lion get
lockjaw, but nobody wants to bow and pray with the windows open and go with
Daniel into the lions' den.
Everybody wants to see Jesus standing in the
fiery furnace, but nobody wants to refuse to bow down and worship the golden
image and get put in the fiery furnace.
Everybody wants to see God's blessing and
power. Everybody wants to see revival. "Lord, send a pentecostal revival."
Yes, if God did send a pentecostal revival you would be put in jail as were
Peter and John; they would stone you as they did Stephen; they would laugh
at you as they did Peter. They would mock you and persecute you and hang
you. I am saying that not a single preacher in this building today but what
does not need a good old tough, scrappin' battle such as Crete to make a man
out of you. You nee Crete. Titus needed Crete.
In the second place, not only does Titus need Crete,
but Crete needs Titus. "Paul, could I go home? Paul, it is cold and lonely.
Paul, you yourself said they were a bunch of slow bellies. And Paul, among
these slow bellies over here --it is hard, rough. Paul, could I go somewhere
else? Could I move on to a more lucrative field? I feel my work is done
here."
Paul said, "Titus, you stay in Crete not only
because you need Crete, but because Crete needs you."
Fellows, listen today. Neighborhoods around
this country by the thousands have no gospel witness whatsoever. People
write me by the hundreds who hear me on the radio station and say, "Brother
Hyles, we don't have any place to go to church." "Brother Hyles, do you know
of a soul-winning church near enough to us where we could go? We live in
Montana. We live in Washington, D. C. We live in New Jersey. We live in
Texas. We live in Oklahoma. We live in Georgia. We live in Idaho. We live in
Michigan. We live in Indiana. Brother Hyles, we don't know a soul-winning
church where we can go." Ah, places across this country need preachers.
Old Dr. Scarborough used to say down at
Southwestern Seminary as he looked out at his class of preachers, "Young
men, be resurrection preachers ." They would look bewildered. And Dr.
Scarborough would say, "Go after these old dead churches and resurrect them.
Set them on fire for God. Give these neighborhoods a place to go to church."
"Listen, Crete needs some young preachers
today. Crete needs some young men who are aflame for God, who are afraid of
nobody but God, seek nothing but souls, love nothing but God's will, hate
nothing but sin, fight nothing but the Devil. John Wesley used to say, "We
will go out to these towns and start new churches ."
My little girl, Becky, is nine. My little
girl, Linda, is almost four. David is seven. My little Cindy is twenty
months old. David is going to be a preacher, I think. He was going to be an
ice cream man, but I have about talked him into being a preacher now! I
asked him the other day, "David, what are you going to be?" He said,
"Preacher ."
David and Becky got to the office the other
day. They turned on the recording machine. 1 don't know how, but they turned
it on, and David and Becky were having a service. I played it back after
they were gone. Boy, it was a lark! It was almost sacrilegious. If they
weren't so young it would be a sin.
David said, "Well everybody, we are glad to
see this big crowd. Would you all stand and sing and shake hands and get
acquainted?"
Becky said, "Amen! Glory to God!"
David said, "Now then, do we have any
visitors here?" Becky answered, "I am one."
He said, "Where are you from, young lady?" "I
am from Texas ."
He said, "We are glad to have you. Amen."
"Amen," she said.
Then he said, "Now we are going to sing a
solo."
He got up and brother, be warbled it! He
tremoloed it. He sang, "Amazing Grace. . . !" Boy he really hatched it up.
When be got through he said, "Now I am going to preach ." You talk about
preaching! I never heard such preaching. That old recording machine just
shook! He said, "If you don't get borned again, you are going to burn
forever and ever in Hell where there is fire and it is hot fire, too."
And Becky said, "Hallelujah! Amen! Glory to
God!" Then he said, "Now all you heathen bow your heads. We are going to
have an invitation. If you want to get saved, come on down here."
Old Becky said, "I am coming." She came down.
And he said, "Do you want to get saved?"
"Yes sir."
He said, "Kneel there and pray it through."
"0. K." And she prayed and he said, "0 Lord,
help this dear old sinner woman to get saved."
She said, "Hallelujah! 1 am saved now!"
David said, "Are you sure you are saved?"
"Yes sir, I am sure."
He said, "Folks, this lady just got saved."
Becky said, "Glory to God!"
Boy, it was terrible, it really was. I saw
myself finally as others see me. Now I wonder where he got that?
But you know Becky, Cindy, Linda and David
are not going to be at home forever. One of these days Becky is going to
marry some fellow and go off to Seattle, or San Francisco, or Portland, or
Washington, or Norfolk, or Winston-Salem, or Miami, or Orlando, or
Birmingham, or Atlanta, where her husband will get a job. I hope there is a
good church where she can go. I hope that in the little town where they
settle there will be a gospel-preaching, soul-winning, Hell hating,
Christ-honoring, sin-fighting church. And I hope she will be able to see
somebody saved every Sunday. My little girl Becky, nine years old, almost
ten, has never been to church on Sunday without seeing somebody saved. Not
one of my children has ever been to church on Sunday without seeing somebody
saved. I hate to think that Becky would have to rear her family in some old
cold, dead church.
But what are we going to do? How are we going
to get them? I know how we are going to get them. When fellows like you go
back home and tell your deacons you are going to preach what God tells you
to preach. Tell them by God's grace you are going to preach what God says to
preach and build some soul-winning stations. Get off your blessed assurance,
out of your luxurious office, and get out here on the street corner and
knock on doors and go from house to house and tell folks about Jesus and get
them saved and bring them down the aisle on Sunday and build the saints in
the faith and preach the Bible and stand for God. If we could raise a
generation of young preachers around this country like that, we would have a
station in every town in America where the truth is preached and souls get
saved. So Crete needs Titus.
One fellow said to me, "Brother Hyles, if God
should call me up North of the Mason-Dixon line, I just am not interested."
I guess I am an ambassador for the North now, but some of you fellows who
are down here where there are good churches on every street corner, did you
ever stop to think that there are towns of thousands of people in America
that don't have a single church that believes the Bible is the Word of God?
Did you know there are cities with twenty-five and thirty and forty thousand
people that don't have one single soul -winning witness in town? I am just
saying this:
Because it is hard does not give you a right
to fold up and quit. Stay in the battle. Crete needs you. That hard place
needs you.
Let me say this, too: Don't let Crete change
you; you change Crete. I have been in Crete. I have had tough things, but I
haven't had any bad things. Nobody has yet crucified me, nobody has spit at
me yet. Oh, I may have been spit at, but I ducked! But we have been in a few
places that were rougher than we are used to.
Listen to me now. When you get to these tough
places, just say, "Dear Lord, by God's grace I need it, I can take it. I
will fight it because I need it." And Crete also needs you.
Look what Paul told Titus to preach. In
chapter 2, verse 2, he said, tell "the aged men be sober [that means don't
drink], grave [that means don't tell dirty stories], temperate [that means
don't eat too much], sound in the faith [that means fight liberalism,
modernism, neo-orthodoxy and all the rest of it], in charity [that means
teach them to love God, love Him enough to serve Him], in patience [that
means to keep on serving God when the going is rough]."
And he said tell the old women, this means
the W. M. S., tell the "aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as
becometh holiness [tell them to straighten up and live clean], not false
accusers [tell them to use their tongue right and quit yakking], not given
to much wine [tell them to quit going to their social clubs and their civic
parties and drinking their little cocktails, their canasta clubs], teachers
of good things." And he says, "Teach the young women to be sober, to love
their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at
home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not
blasphemed."
"Young men likewise exhort to be sober
minded." That means to be careful what you read. Keep your mind clean. Quit
looking at naked women, and women, you quit going naked. "In all things
shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness,
gravity, sincerity, Sound speech [quit your cursing, dirty jokes, lying, all
of your bad talkin'] ...
Now he said, "That is what I left you there
for." He said, "You have a bunch of slow bellies over there." He said, "Tell
the old men to straighten up. Get the old ladies to quit gossiping. Get the
young ladies to keep the houses and to quit working downtown to make a
little more money. Tell them to wear enough clothes. Tell the young men to
keep their minds clean and pure." He said, "The meaner they are, the more
they need you ."
Anybody can go to a place where all the
Christians are doing real good and make it fine. I had a church in Texas
with three hundred soul winners, 4,128 members when I left. I never saw a
bunch of folks in my life who loved God any more. We had several people who
won souls every week and some won folks every day. One man won over two
hundred a year. Two or three folks won 150 people a year to Christ. Over
three hundred won somebody in a year. Twenty-five or more won somebody every
week. Boy, you could come to our church and say, "Jesus saves," and folks
would shout "Amen!" I mean it was just an utopian situation. Anybody can
serve God like that.
When the going gets rough, when the deacons
breathe down your throat, when people are living in sin and they want to
chase the preacher off, if you cut loose on this matter of sin and if you
teach the boys and girls they ought to live right and dress right and act
right and be good witnesses at school; and you teach the men they ought to
take down those dirty calendars and quit reading that sexy literature and
keep their minds clean; and you teach the young ladies they ought to dress
right and walk right and sit right and live right and drink right and lead
right; and you teach the old men they ought to come to church and be
examples; and teach these old ladies to quit gossiping and get right with
God; and just because you have a gray hair in your head it doesn't give you
an exemption from visitation and witness -ing and soul winning- -when you
bear down on that thing, you may as well make up your mind that a committee
will see you within thirty days. You just get ready for them. Put the coffee
pot on and make some doughnuts; they are on the way to see you!
Paul said, "Titus, I am not saying to ease
up; I am saying to speed it up and fight the battle for God."
I asked my little boy, "What are you going to
be when you grow up?"
"A preacher."
"Are you going to be a real good,
hard-hitting, sin-fighting, Hell-hating, Christ-honoring, soul-winning
preacher, or a pussyfooter."
He answered, "I am going to be a
pussyfooter."
Sometimes I don't blame him.
Paul said to Titus, "Crete needs you."
Listen, dear friends, if you don't change your town, there is no use in your
being in your town.
Dr. John Rice down in Waxahachie, Texas,
twenty miles north from where I was born, was in a revival campaign. Many of
the young folks were going out to lover's lane. Dr. Rice one night
announced, "I am going out to lover's lane tonight after the service and
take down the car license of every car out there, then tomorrow night in
this mule barn I will read off the number of the car license of everybody in
lover's lane tonight." That would cause a stir wouldn't it?
Where is that old stuff today? Oh, we garnish
their tombstones. We say about Billy Sunday, "Let's garnish his tombstone.
God bless the memory of Billy Sunday, that wonderful preacher of the Gospel.
Oh, God give us more Billy Sundays ." Well, why don't you preach like Billy
Sunday did? If we are going to brag on Billy Sunday, let's do the best we
can to try to encourage Billy Sunday-type Christianity. Ma Sunday told me
before she died, "Jack, when Billy preached he didn't have an outline; he
had a sign board with figures an inch high. The reason was that he didn't
get close to the pulpit, so he couldn't see his little outline. He ran by
the pulpit every once in a while, and he had to have a sign instead of an
outline." Yes, we garnish their tombstones.
Dr. Rice doesn't think he is as old as I
sometimes make it sound like he is. I don't think he is real old either. I
think he is a young man, but he is not twenty anymore. He is not twenty-nine
anymore. But he won't be dead five years before some of these little fellows
who won't even speak to him on the street will be preaching a series of
sermons out of his books and talking about "the great John Rice."
Dear friends, do you know what we need? We
don't need some fellows who like Billy Sunday; we need some little Billy
Sundays scattered all over the country. We don't need some fellows to talk
about the great Moody; we need some fellows who will act like the great
Moody where they live. So Crete needed Titus.
The next thing very quickly and that is, God
needs you in Crete. The writer Ezekiel said there was nobody to "stand in
the gap" (Ezek. 22:30). The psalmist said, "I looked on my right hand.
..refuge failed; no man cared for my soul" (Ps. 142:4).
God needs you in Crete. God needs somebody in
Crete. Let me say this: if you will stay after sinners and be faithful to
God, God can use you in Crete. It would be a good thing today if some
preachers here could go home and get kicked out of your churches for Jesus.
I am not saying you ought to try to; I am not saying you ought to; but I am
saying some of you ought to, if you got kicked out for Jesus.
I was in the 82nd Airborne Division,
stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, but I never saw combat duty. But
some of the fellows who did, came back from overseas and showed their
wounds. One fellow would say, "Well, I have a plate in my head. I got it in
Okinawa." Another fellow would say, "I got some shrapnel in my leg and it is
still there. I got that in Iwo Jima." Another fellow would say, "Well, see
this empty sleeve? I lost my arm over in the Belgian Bulge." One fellow
would say, "I have got an imitation foot or a wooden leg. I lost my leg in
Normandy."
They would look at me as if to say, "Well,
how about you?" I would say, "I got dish pan hands on K. P. while you all
were over there." Sometimes I wished I could have a broken leg. I got to
where I wished I could have a piece of shrapnel or a plate in my skull, or
an artificial limb or something because I was so embarrassed.
Now won't we little 4F Christians who let sin
run wild and loose in our town be ashamed when we stand before Jesus? Paul
will say, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. I got these
old lumps down there at Lystra. How about you, Stephen?" Old Stephen will
say, "Well, I got stoned outside the city. I too got a few lumps for Jesus."
How about you, John? "Well, I was out there a long time; I was awfully
lonely on the isle of Patmos." James will say, "I was beheaded." Philip will
say, "I was crucified." Matthew will say, "I was clubbed to death." James
the less will say, "My brains were beaten out." Andrew will say, "I was
crucified with two of the poles sticking in the ground diagonally." Mark
will say, "I was dragged to pieces." Paul will say, "I was beheaded." Jude
and Bartholomew will say, "I was crucified." Thomas will say, "I was killed
with a spear." Luke will say, "I was hanged." John will say, "I was a
fanatic and exiled." We little old twentieth century preachers will say,
"All we have is a little mimeograph ink on our hands when we put out the
bulletin every Saturday morning." Ah, God give us some preachers again!
Wouldn't it be a good thing if every little
child could be raised to listen to a preacher who loved God and loved
sinners and got them saved?
Wouldn't it be a good thing if once again the
boys and girls in our country could hear the old-time preaching that some of
you used to hear? I go to preach in places nowadays and folks say, "I used
to hear that when I was a kid." Now when our kids grow up they will have to
say, "I never heard that. I never heard that." And the reason is that there
is just not much preaching going on today- -the right kind of preaching.
When I was a kid they used to ask, "Where are
you going, Jack?" "I am going to preaching." But now they say, "I am going
to church." Why? There is no preaching. They used to say, "How many boys and
girls are going to attend preaching today?" Now they say, "How many of you
boys and girls are going to attend church today?" Why? The preaching is
gone. The churches are building great big educational buildings to house a
thousand, and an auditorium to take care of three hundred. Why? Preaching is
gone.
I am saying, God needs some preachers to go
to Crete. When Charles G. Finney was in Rochester in a revival the school
principal got mad at him. The teacher tried to run him down, criticize him
and cuss him. And Charles G. Finney was praying and the power of God fell.
One day a boy was in the high school giving a talk and he fell under
conviction and got on his face and began to weep and confess his sins. When
that happened, the entire class began to weep and confess their sins. The
principal was called in and the teacher said, "What are we going to do?" And
the principal said, "I don't know what to do. What can we do?" And the
teacher said, "Well, I don't know." The principal said, "Go call that
preacher. He is the only one who can help us." And he did. The revival broke
out in school. Isn't that wonderful? Now compare that with our baccalaureate
sermons today.
As you look back at those difficult days, you
will find the sweetest times of all were the years you spent in Crete. Titus
looks back from Heaven today and I am sure Titus can say, "Crete was the
best place I ever was in. I needed it, The people needed me and God needed
me in Crete."
When I left Texas and went to Hammond, it was
the hardest thing I ever did. I mean it was the hardest thing I ever did in
my life. I had a church of people who were my babies, my little children. In
almost seven years, we had seen the church grow from a building worth six
thousand dollars to over half a million dollars. We had seen the church grow
from forty-four members to over four thousand, They were my babies. I loved
them just like I love my own flesh.
Before my wife and I left Garland, I was
supposed to preach my closing sermon on Sunday night. I couldn't do it. I
left town that afternoon. I didn't even go back. I still owe them a sermon!
When I got to the city limit sign I couldn't see the road. I began to cry.
When we saw the sign, "Garland, Texas," both my wife and I began to weep. I
stopped the car, turned around in the middle of the road and started back.
My wife said, "What are you going to do?" I said, "I am going to go back. I
am not going to Hammond."
She said, "But the Lord led us there." I
said, "I don't care. I am going back. I am not going." We cried. We turned
around and stopped and I said, "Sweetheart, I think I will go into
evangelism. (The church had already called a pastor). You can live in
Garland and I will preach in revivals. We can still live in the same place
and have our old friends and see our converts." We cried some more sitting
there in the car. But realizing God was leading us, we took off again for
Hammond.
When I got to Hammond I walked into the
auditorium and sat down in the seat on the platform. It didn't fit, Dr.
Rice. The seat didn't even fit. I was used to sitting in a chair about like
these over here. Our auditorium in Texas was just plain as vanilla. We have
four walls and a roof, and as long as we stayed dry and warm we didn't care
what we had. I sat down. I felt like a king who had just walked up on his
throne. I mean it just didn't fit,
Looking behind me I saw a pipe organ. I had
never pastored a church with one. And the building was high, with a big
dome. Way up at the top was a sign, "God is light." But there wasn't enough
light in the building. It was dark in the building.
I went into the office. It was big and didn't
fit. I made a garage into an office and that is where my office was in
Texas. The office was pretty and had this glass brick and imitation flowers,
a big desk and everything. But when I sat down it just didn't fit. The seat
didn't fit, the desk didn't fit, the auditorium didn't fit, the chair didn't
fit. I got in the pulpit and it didn't fit. So I sat down and cried. And I
said to myself: What does a fellow do the first day he is pastor of the
First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana? I don't have anything to do. Here
I am- -with a church and nothing to do,
I reached in the drawer where there were some
cards. I picked them up and found they were prospects. I took off and went
visiting. As I knocked at a door a very refined lady came to the door, a
lady in her middle fifties. I said, "How do you do? My name is Hyles."
And she told me her name.
She said, "What part of the South are you
from?"
I said, "I am from Texas, and I just got here
and I am homesick, but I want to tell you about Jesus ."
She said, "I am very busy and I must go, I
must leave. I don't have time."
I said, "Could you just let me tell you about
Jesus?"
She said, "Well, go ahead but I have to
hurry. I can't take much time to listen."
I told her about Jesus. I was on the outside
but I had my hand on the screen door. As I told her about Jesus, I said,
"Could I pray before I leave?"
She said, "You must hurry. I must go."
I cried and prayed and as I prayed a warm
tear hit my right hand. My eyes were shut. I was crying, but I knew tears
couldn't go out that way, and I knew it wasn't mine, and there wasn't
anybody there but me and her. And so I gathered it must be her tears. Man
alive! That was the sweetest tear I ever felt in my life! She prayed and
came to Christ. Later she was baptized.
I went back down to the church and walked
into the auditorium. It was bright and light as you can imagine. I sat down
in the chair and the chair was a perfect fit! I got behind the pulpit, and
it was made to order! Those organ pipes were the prettiest things I had ever
seen in my life! I went in my office and it looked like a garage made into
an office! I sat down at the desk and the chair was so comfortable, and the
desk just fit! Why? Because I was doing the thing that God had called me to
do.
Whether in Hammond, or in Garland, or in
Tennessee, the thing God has called me and you to do is to get people saved.
And when we do it, everything fits.
You see, if it is rough going where you are
today, you need it, and they need you, and God needs you there.
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