I had told no one what I planned to speak about this morning. I think it's remarkable that our brother gave up that hymn about how the Lord has lifted us. And then when the brother led in prayer, he acknowledged that we have no strength to lift ourselves or anyone else. That's exactly what I want to talk to you about this morning. Weakness versus power. We live in a very strange culture, and I, for one, am very disillusioned with it. I have a lot of sympathy with the young people today who say the establishment is rotten. I rather suspect they might be more than two-thirds right. We live in a very strange culture, and one of the strange things that we practice in this country is that we never admit that we have any problem. It's almost impossible to get people to admit that they have problems. It's almost impossible to get anybody to admit that he has a weakness of any kind. When we meet each other, we get put on that sage smile and show our lovely white teeth and say, fine, fine, everything is fine. And it isn't. And you know it isn't, and I know it isn't, but this is the way we have to do it. This is expected in business. A man may be on the verge of bankruptcy, but he's got to show by his own personal life and then by his business life that he's making it. He's doing fine. He may have to go in debt for a new mint coat for his wife, but he puts one on her so that all of his competitors will know or think that he's doing fine. Even as big a company as a company that was going to make this great airplane, they admit that they're bankrupt, and so what do they do when they're bankrupt? Go out and try to borrow a quarter of a billion dollars. Now that's the modern way. There's nothing modern about this. I was just reading through the book of Nehemiah just recently, and I noticed that Nehemiah, who was the king's cupbearer, was a little disturbed because his face was sad in the presence of the king. So I looked this up. And I saw from ancient history that the Medi-Persian emperors, of which this man was one, Cyrus, Darius, the Mede, was the king before Cyrus came into power, and then he was followed by Xerxes and Artaxerxes, and Artaxerxes longed among us, and the few of the rest of them. And they all had exactly the same silly custom. They never allowed anybody... to look unhappy in their presence. Now, if that wouldn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will, because if you came into the presence of the king with anything but a big happy smile, they took you out and cut off what should have been smiling. Just... We can't have a man in the kingdom that doesn't smile. because everything is fine, was it? Well, you find out how fine it was as soon as a stronger king came along, and it wasn't very long after that either, that the Greek emperor, Alexander the Great, came in and just wiped out the whole thing. We don't like to admit that we have weaknesses. We don't like to admit that we have problems. We don't like to admit, and we sometimes will not admit, even though our closest loved one, that we have difficulties. We don't like to admit. So you aren't going to like anything that I have to say this morning. That suits me just fine. I never like for people to enjoy a meeting when I speak. I'm always sure that if they enjoyed the meeting, something was wrong. I certainly did not give them the Word of God if they went out perfectly contented and feeling that they had it made. So, as you turn to Romans chapter five, we'll get started on this very unpleasant business of finding out that we haven't got it. Romans chapter five. Verse six, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. My dear old friend Mr. A.N. O'Brien was preaching the gospel in a German neighborhood many years ago. I always think of this story when I read this verse. He was trying to talk to a German fellow after the meeting one night and to help him to see his need of a Savior, and he read this verse to him. And the German fellow didn't know English too well, said, I don't know what is that ungodly. So Mr. O'Brien turned to a German woman sitting there, and he said, many tell him what that is in German. And she said, that's got lost. Oh, nine, he says. I'm not so bad as all that. And he got up and went out of the room. He wouldn't have that kind of thing. He wouldn't accept that at all. Don't tell me that I'm ungodly. I'm thankful to tell you that he came back the next night deciding that he was ungodly and accepted the Savior of ungodly sinners. On Friday night, My wife entertained the group of ladies in our home, and I made the mistake of coming home a little too early. I thought they'd be gone, so I got trapped while they were having dessert, and the ladies were just talking a shriek, and I sat and listened, but I was kind of glad for one thing. There was a Japanese lady in the group. You know, we've had a nice work going among the Japanese women in Colorado Springs for some years now. I think something over sixty have met the Lord altogether. Many of them who were formerly Buddhists. And this lady was one of those. She got to telling about how when she first came to the meetings, I was the first preacher that she ever heard. She was invited by... Grace Watson to come to the meeting. And she said, when you got up on the platform, she didn't call it a platform, she says, when you got up in front and started to talk, right away you said, everybody is a sinner. And she says, I don't like this. So I said to Grace Watson, I'm not going back there no more. That man, he told me I sinner. And Grace said, well, you come back again anyway. See what he says next time. So the next time I said that people were sinners. I said this every Sunday for four Sundays. And she got mad at her by the minute. She told us this. She said, I got so I just couldn't stand it. I said, what's the matter that man say we all sinners? She says, if I sinner, maybe all right, I sinner. Okay, so I sinner. I good sinner anyway. And then she says, I keep coming, and he tells me, there are no good sinners, all sinners, bad sinners. And she said, I don't go back no more. She says, it takes the Lord five years to make me say, okay, so I sinner. I listen now to the gospel. It took a Japanese sinner five years to believe that she was a sinner and ungodly and who needed Christ as her Savior. But I tell you, she's the live one now. Let me tell you something, Christians. Don't be in any hurry to get people to make a profession. You plow deeply. Get that plow of the law deep into the hearts of souls, hearts of sinners until they are plowed up. and then give them the gospel. This superficial thing that we've got today, wouldn't you like to come along? You're a fine fellow. I'm sure you'd make a good Christian. Why don't you come on and get on the bandwagon with us? That's abominable. Even all this talk about making a decision. You could no more make a decision for the Lord than you could fly out that door. It takes the Spirit of God to do something... in the soul of a person who is totally without strength. And I don't expect you to believe that until the Spirit of God makes you feel it. Well, when the Spirit of God really convicts you of sin, you will know that you have no strength whatever. Well, you say, I know I don't have much. I'll admit that I have weaknesses, you know, don't we all? There's no disgrace about that. But to admit that I'm a sinner and to admit that I have no strength, well, all right, I'll give you another bombshell. Look at chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. Verse three. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. The flesh means your fallen nature, your evil nature. Now most people do not believe in the total depravity of man, and especially mamas of cute little kids. I've had several of them take me apart about this. Come to me after the meeting and say, you mean to tell me that my sweet little angel is a sinner? You know I've gotten to where I just tell them, you wait about six years and then talk to me about this. You still think he's a little angel when he's about... About the age of six, then I'll be willing to talk to you about it. Maybe you've got something here that I don't know anything about. But I never heard any mother of a six-year-old bragging that she's got a little angel. And I never heard any parents of youngsters say, well, our boy's almost old enough to go to school now. I guess we'll have to teach him why. No, you have to wail a towel out and to keep him from it. And he didn't get that all from his mother's side of the family either. You and I have a born-in weakness, and that weakness is that we cannot keep God's holy law. But look further down. Verse seven, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Here's another weakness. You not only do not subject yourself to the will of God, But you couldn't if you wanted to. You couldn't subject yourself to the will of God if you wanted to. It is utterly impossible for a human being born a sinner until God does something within his soul. It is impossible for him to please God. Look at verse eight. So then they that are in the flesh cannot. please God. I believe in the total depravity of man. I believe that man is totally without power to do anything to please God. And I believe that repentance is necessary because that's exactly what repentance admits. Paul said in the twentieth of Acts, we preach repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you never repented of your sin and your sinful condition, you never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to argue with me about that after the meeting, I'll be glad to talk to you about it. I think I can prove this to you from Scripture. If you never repented, you never believed. Our repentance is not a work to be done in order to be saved. It is not a part of salvation, but it is the preparation It is the bringing of the soul into a position where he is willing to let God do for him what he now finds he cannot do for himself. You know what most people think? They think they need just a little boost from God. They're not doing too badly. They've just got a little extra they can make it. On the way up here this morning... I passed, I was going the other direction. I wasn't going that fast. I passed a number of racing cars. They were all headed for the racelay down here south of Denver. And I happened to know a couple of young fellows who were interested in racing. I heard them talking the other day about this, and they were telling me the things that they did to give that car just that little extra boost. One of them revamped his exhaust system so that the gases could get away, wouldn't back up. And he felt this gave him a little power. And the other one shaved the head. I'd have nothing to do with your tonsure, you know. That's the engine. And another one, he said, another fellow had put on some kind of a gadget that forces the air into the carburetor, a supercharger, I think he called it. All I know about cars you can put in a thimble. But these fellows, because they want to give that car that extra boost, are doing these little things to give it just a little more than the competitors. That's what many people think they need. In order to be right with God, in order to be a Christian, they feel, I'm not doing too badly, but I do need a little extra. Maybe joining the church wouldn't hurt any. Maybe they'd give me a little help. Maybe if I attended a few more meetings, that would do it. Maybe if I just can loosen up a little on my pocketbook and give a little more freely, maybe that'll make me a little more ready for God. All the time what they don't know is they are a walking corpse. That's what he says, Ephesians chapter two. You hath he made alive who were dead in sins, in trespasses and in sins. Did you ever hear of anybody who was slightly dead? And God says we are dead in trespasses and in sin. That's why we've got to have something from outside ourselves altogether, or we are hopeless. I'm so glad that I can tell you that our blessed Lord Jesus assumed that very weakness. Maybe you never noticed this passage. Second Corinthians chapter thirteen. Second Corinthians thirteen and verse four. Referring to Christ himself who is mentioned by name in the third verse. We read this. For though he was crucified through weakness. yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Let me speak tenderly to you about this. Do you recall that our dear Lord, in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweat as it were, grape drops of blood falling down to the ground, that he cried out in the agony of his soul, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And do you recall that an angel came and strengthened him, the Creator of the universe, the God of heaven, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, chose humanity. He never ceased to be God, but He became as truly man as you and I. And this included the taking of the actual place of the sinner. He was made sin for us. This is more than bearing our sins. This is actually being counted as a criminal. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was crucified in weakness. But he was raised in power. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, Romans one tells us. And our living Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to your utter helplessness. Don't take the Lord Jesus for a crutch. You're insulting him when you do that. Don't say that you want the Lord Jesus to help you to be a Christian. You're insulting him that way. If you have never done so for the first time this morning, say, Lord Jesus, I have no strength. I can't please God in any sense of the word. I acknowledge my helplessness. I take thee for my Savior." You know what will happen? Not only will God clear the record, but immediately He will put within you the source of all power. I have no patience whatever with these people who are always looking for a new injection of power, who feel that they need some kind of new experience. religious experience, emotional experience usually, because they think that by going through this, they will get something that they don't have. If you have Christ, you have all there is. Because in Christ, God has wrapped up everything that He has to give. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He Himself is the power, and His Holy Spirit indwells every true believer. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians, the next book over from where we were, past Galatians, Ephesians the first chapter. Verse eighteen says, The eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. He's saying here that the same power that raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and this certainly is supernatural power. We have a saying, where there's light, there's hope. A doctor will work all night to try to save the patient as long as that patient is breathing and as long as the heart is beating. But when that patient dies, his shoulders sag from weariness and he comes out to see the distraught family and he says, I'm sorry. We did everything we could. Why doesn't he go back in and raise that person from the dead? Why, because only God can give life. And that's exactly what he does. As many as received him to then gave he the right to become the children of God, which were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. I was born from above when I received the Lord Jesus as my Savior, and God put within me His Holy Spirit, and the same power that raised up Christ from the dead is the power that has given me new life and the power that works in us today. Now, if you're not prepared to admit your total weakness, If you're not prepared to admit that you have nothing to offer God, then you are not prepared to receive the Lord Jesus as your only hope. Maybe that I'm talking to someone here this morning who is willing to admit this. Maybe I'm talking to someone this morning who has tried. Usually they say I tried it. meaning religion, some kind of religious system, perhaps membership in the church, perhaps the ordinance of baptism in the Lord's Supper. They've tried it. Perhaps you're one of those. And you may be willing this morning to admit that you are totally without strength. If so, there is one thing that you can do. as many as receive Him. Let God do in you what you cannot do for yourself. And I don't want to pass from this because many of you here this morning have already done what I've just been talking about, and you agree with me one hundred percent. You had no strength. You found it out. You admitted it. You received the Lord Jesus Christ. and you know something about the power that works within us. But you say, I am still so weak. You don't say it out loud. You don't say it to your husband or wife. You don't say it to your friends. You don't say it to the other Christians when you come together here in the meeting. You adjust that smile when you turn off the ignition and climb out of your car. Get it all fixed. Come in. Shake handle everybody. And say, how are you, brother? Fine, fine. And both of you are alive. And you know it. Because none of us are fine. We're glad we're saved. We do have eternal life. We are on our way to heaven. But we've still got plenty of problems. And the sooner we admit it, the sooner we're going to get something done about it. In the sixth Psalm, David said, I am weak. And maybe you don't think that took some grace. For the King of Israel to say, I am weak. He goes farther than that in the hundred and ninth Psalm, I think it is. He even says his knees are weak. Now kings are not supposed to have weak needs. Preachers are, that's why they put this thing up here. You can't see the needs. You can't tell how weak we feel. But for a king to be weak, well, you wouldn't dare to admit this. How do you expect your armies to follow you if you admit that you're weak? How do you expect your people to be satisfied with your rule over them if you admit that you're weak. But you see, David got into God's presence. When you got into God's presence, you learned to be honest. That's why I like to hear a man pray. I'm not much interested in hearing him talk, but I do love to hear him pray. I'm not sure where a man stands. I like to get him on his knees. Because somehow, or other, it's awfully hard to be a hypocrite. when you're conscious of being in the presence of God. Well, he'll start out with a little recitation, you know. We've got our little formula. We've got our little format. We've got certain things that we think sound religious, and we say those, and then pretty soon he begins to forget himself. He forgets that I'm there. He realizes I'm in the presence of God, and then he begins to say what is really so. That's what Job did. Job said, Now mine I see as he wherefore I abhor myself. And Isaiah saw this. He was passing out woes like candy in the fifth chapter of Isaiah. But when he got to the sixth chapter, he saw the king high and exalted upon his throne. And then he said, Woe is me. Woe is me. Not only woe to all the rest of the sinners, but woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. Solomon was a great man. Solomon was trained from babyhood to be the king. David had promised Bathsheba, I suppose, as a recompense for his shabby treatment of her, that her son should one day sit on the throne. Solomon was trained for that. must have known all that was ahead of him. Then the day came when Solomon was to sit on that throne, and God appeared to Solomon in the night. And Solomon said to God, I am but a little child. I know not how to go out, nor to come in. give me wisdom that I may rule over this thy so great a people who is great not Solomon oh yes Solomon was great the Lord Jesus said are greater than Solomon is here Solomon was great but I mean Solomon was not great in his own eyes because he was in the presence of God I'm but a little child he was forty years old I don't know how to go out and come in. That means I don't have sense enough to go out doors and get back in out of the rain. And he'd been trained for all those years to be a king. What does it amount to in the presence of the great God? The Apostle Paul progressively became smaller in his own sight. His first statement about himself is, I'm the least of the Apostles. Now, that's a very humble thing to say, but after all, if he is the least of the apostles, he's still an apostle. That still puts him pretty high up on the scale. Then a little bit later, he said, I'm less than the least of all saints. Now, that's getting down pretty far. And finally, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. That's the last thing that Paul ever said about himself. I wonder... what you would say if people said this about you. Second Corinthians chapter ten. Second Corinthians chapter ten. Verse nine. that I might not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. I wonder what you'd say if somebody said he makes a mighty poor appearance, and he's hard to listen to. That's what they said about the Apostle Paul. I haven't felt too badly about criticism of my preaching since I first read this verse. Everybody's bound to come in for some of this. His bodily presence is weak. Chris Austin, who lived shortly after this, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote about him that although he was only three cubits high, He touched the sky. Three cubits was four feet and a half. He really was a shortage. That's why they called him Paul. His original name was Saul. He was named after the great king of his tribe. I mean, who came from his tribe. King Saul came from the tribe of Benjamin, the same as Paul did. And so his parents called him Saul. They wanted him to be like great King Saul, I suppose. But when he got saved, he said, well, let's just lay aside all this shame about Saul business and just call me Paul. Just call me Shorty. I'm a little man and I don't make much of an impression. And then they added to that the dishonor of saying his speech is contemptible. You see, he was brought up in the Hebrew language and then he learned Koine Greek. And undoubtedly he spoke with a very pronounced accent. Later on, God gave him the ability to preach in many languages. And by the way, tongues in the Bible are always languages, not this kind of gibberish that you hear today. The Apostle Paul had ability to speak in many languages, and yet they said his speech is contemptible. What would you say? A young man said to an older preacher, I wish you'd pray for me. He said, what do you want me to pray for, son? He said, I want you to pray that I'll be able to overcome my pride. Well, he said, what in the world do you have to be proud of? And the young man got insulted. He wasn't being honest at all. If he really wanted to get over his pride, he would have been glad to hear the old man say that. We're not honest with each other. What do you got to be proud of? Paul says to the Corinthians, What do you have that you didn't receive? All right, so you got more intellect than the average. That's just fine. Where did you get it? God didn't ask you whether you wanted to be born of a couple who had superior intellect because you inherited it. He might have allowed you to be born into a house of half-wits where you think it would have been then. All right, so you do have more money than the rest of them. How did you get it? You say you earned it. Who gave you the ability to earn it? Who gave you the breaks, and you know you had them? Who made you what you are? Even Confucius, the Chinese heathen philosopher, said, I am the son of all the personalities that have ever crossed my path. You and I have nothing about which to be proud. Certainly we have no reason to hide our weakness. Paul accepted all this, turned away from this, and talked about other things. And then when he got to chapter twelve, he said, Verse five, Of such and one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory. That means to boast. But in mine infirmities, I have nothing to brag about but my weakness. That isn't in Congress. If that isn't a paradox, I have nothing to brag about but my weakness. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. What did he say that was the truth? He said that he asked the Lord three times to take his weakness away from him, and in verse nine he said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in mine infirmities or weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. Turn back to the book of Isaiah. Will you please? My wife and I have been reading the prophets together and enjoying them. And just this week we were reading in Isaiah and we came to this lovely forty-first chapters. And I want to share this with you. It was a help to me. Verse twenty-eight, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? Well, you say, of course not. God wouldn't be weary. God wouldn't faint. I'm the one that has the weakness. All right, read on. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the things. And to them that have no might, he increases strength. He doesn't give it to you all at once. If he gave you strength all at once, you wouldn't know how to use it. But to those who have no might, not those who have a little, those who have no might, for them he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail, utterly fall. But they that wade upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Where did they get their strength? That's the strength that God gave them in verse twenty-nine. So it is renewable. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Keep silence before me, O islands. and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near. So if you want strength, you as a Christian who must admit that you have problems, who must admit that you have weaknesses, who must admit that you haven't done nearly as good a job as you had hoped, your hope, your source is to come to this one who gives strength. and who alone can give strength and receive and receive again and again and again. Renew your strength. Wait on the Lord. Don't start a day without a little time with the Lord. That's pure conceit. To think that you can make it without spending some time with the Lord before you start the day is pure conceit. You know you can't do it alone. What you ought to do tomorrow morning is say, my Lord, this is Monday, and you know what Mondays are for me. I can't face this day myself. I have no strength. And then tell the Lord your weaknesses. Tell him that you can't tell the truth. You know you can't. Tell him that you can't get along with other people. You know you're hard to live with. Tell him that you're impatient. Tell him that you've got rotten thoughts. You see, the high priest's work is preventive, but in order for him to help us, we must come to him acknowledging what we are. That's why he says in the book of Hebrews, let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Boldly to the throne of grace. That word boldly is made up of two words, one for speaking and the other common word for all. It simply means come into the presence of the high priest and say the whole thing. I don't say this to other people. You'll always be sorry you did. Don't tell other people you're weak. But get alone with the Lord and tell him exactly what you are. And then come.