Do you ever wonder why our youth could fall to the place of dope and go on down from there? It is because they are going deeper into the cup. They have not yet found that which would quench the thirst of the soul, so they go deeper and deeper into the cup of sinful pleasure. A great percentage of the youth are ruined even if they turn to Christ and Christ works miracles on them. They will never be what they could have been if they had not gone through the operation the devil has taken them through. I mean physically and mentally.

However, with all of the ruination going on, men of today are like the men of Jesus’ day. They call the doctrine of Jesus hard. (We need to “peck on our heads” a little bit and see where the hard is!) There is nothing about the doctrine of Jesus that is hard! THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR IS HARD! I suffered more physically, spiritually, and mentally by following the doctrine of the world than I ever have by following the doctrine of Christ. I was a believer of the world’s gospel, and so were every one of you who are saved. I believed that was the right way to go. However, when I got my eyes opened, I saw exactly what the Scripture means when it says the way of the transgressor is hard.

Even though the doctrine of this world is heralded as a doctrine of good news, modern martyrs are not in the Church---they are in the world. A martyr is one who holds right on to something until death. The world has had more martyrs than Christendom has ever had. That is why it has a greater influence and more people believe in it. Several hundred died today as martyrs for the world. They hung right on to the world’s doctrine and laid down their lives as believers even though that doctrine robbed them of health, wealth, home, family, and everything that was good.

Right now, the lives of millions of youth are being spent holding in the ways of sin. They run night and day. Two hundred miles is not too far to go have a night of riot.

It is sad to see the young turn from Christ. I realize they are blinded, and I am not speaking against their wisdom in that sense. Young people, when you turn from Christ, I know what you are doing. You are taking up the devils’ trading program for a diet of husks and sawdust at the expense of you body and health, and maybe even at the cost of your soul in the end. The devil has an expensive trading program. It really costs!

If we are going to live for God, we must have a divine teacher, and where can we find a better one than Christ? Furthermore, we must have a divine revelation, and if the Scripture is not one, where are you going to look for one? You are going to have to have divine authority for your soul. You are going to have to know God’s will for your life. If the Scripture is not the divine Book, where are you going to find one?

When the devil says, “Just give up reading the Bible. Don’t believe that stuff any longer. The Bible is too hard to understand: and after all, how do you know that it is God’s will? How do you know that it has anything to do with your present day? The Bible was written hundreds of years ago,” you nee to ask, “What, then? You want me to quit Jesus and you want me to quit the Bible, Mr. Satan, but do you have a book that will bring me comfort, consolation, and be a lamp unto my feet?” The devil does not have anything to offer!

Before you give up the Bible, know where you will turn for help, succor, strength, and comfort. Just mark it down, everything may be going well now, but just down your road of life there is going to be plenty of trouble come your way. It happens to everyone. You may not need that comfort, succor, and help right now, but that does not say you will never need it.

I like to take the Bible and put it right on the devil. Thank God, we can turn to the Bible for help and succor and strength!

The Bible says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The devil says, “Shut up the Bible and quit the Lord. Be your own shepherd.” When you start shepherding yourself, you are going to end up exactly where the prodigal did, in the hog pen. Isaiah 53:6 states that “All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned everyone to his own way,” and, oh, the pitiful condition mankind is in! In Matthew 9:36, Jesus looked on the multitudes with compassion because they were as sheep without a shepherd. God did not make us to be our own shepherd. Jeremiah said that it is not in the ways of man to direct his own steps. Whenever we get the idea that we can direct our own steps, we are heading for nothing but ruin.

The Bible gives the only cry that will answer the thirst of the soul of man: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat.” The devil says, “You don’t have any thirst that you can’t slake in the mud puddles around you feet in this old world.” So, men are down drinking out of the mud puddles of the earth trying to slake their thirst. They can drink every one of them dry and they will still be thirsty! Down in the heart of everyone there is a thirst for God, as David said, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.” The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for all mankind. “Ho, EVERYONE that thirsteth, come…”

The Bible says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” The devil says, “When you are in trouble, dry your won tears and be a man. Get yourself out of that difficult position and snap your fingers in the face of the universe.”

The Bible says, “Come unto me [Jesus], all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The devil says, “Lie down in the thorns and pillow your head on the stones. Rest in the wilderness. Don’t let the wild beasts worry you. Take a moment’s sleep, if you can get it, in the desert.” He cries, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace.

The Bible says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” The devil says, “Your mansion is the cold, dark grave. Jump into it and rot away.” The grave is the best rest, the devil offers people. However, there will be no rest in the grave, because the part of you that is restless does not go into the grave. Nothing but the fleshly body goes into the grave. The real you inside that is troubled, frustrated, hungry, thirsty, and cannot be satisfied moves out of the when the experience called death comes upon you. The unsaved spirit will wait in a place of torment until the second coming of Christ when the body will be raised and the soul will move back into the body, and you will be dispersed to the lake of fire to burn forever where the worm never dies.

Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful, is the gospel of the world, and how many are believers of it! [ The End ]