The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his101/doright.arj/DORIGHT.TXT

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"DO RIGHT" by Greg Estep

     Ephesians chapter 4. One of the commissions given to any
pastor or preacher or evangelist is to exhort people. I'm an
exhorter. Not an extorter! I didn't say that. But an exhorter.
I'm to exhort you. I'm to push you. I'm to kick you, you know, to
get you to do what God wants you to do. To stimulate you, you
know, and there's negative and positive stimulation. Some
preacher beat you all the time and say, "Boy, God'll knock you in
the head if you don't do right. God'll knock you in the head if
you don't do right." And that's true, but there's another side of
it, too. If you do right, there's a reward. There's purpose in
it. It's positive, too, more than just negative.

     Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7: "But unto every one of us is
given." Something is given to us. "But unto every one of us is
given the measure of the gift of Christ." All right, some of the
things that Christ gives are mentioned in verse 11. "And he gave
some, apostles." He picked out 13 and maybe even more of them.
"And some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and
teachers." What was the purpose? "For the perfecting of the
saints." That's the purpose for a pastor and a teacher. That's
the purpose for an evangelist. That's the purpose for prophets.
"For the perfecting of the saints," to make you perfect, more
perfect than what you are. So, I'm to exhort you on to
perfection. Paul says in Thessalonians, "God hath not called us
to uncleanness but to holiness." And as a minister of Jesus
Christ, I am to exhort you to holiness. I am to exhort you to
perfection. He says, "Be ye perfect, even as I am perfect. Be ye
holy, even as I am holy.

     Now, I realize we're never going to attain sinless
perfection in this life. But that's no reason why we ought not to
strive for the mastery. First Corinthians chapter 9, I'm  to
bring this body into subjection. And a preacher and a teacher is
to exhort you constantly. Now, if I just exhorted you once a
year, chances are that wouldn't be enough. Because you're under
pressure day by day to do wrong, to take shortcuts, to do it the
easy way, and, you know, just to get by. You need to be exhorted
daily and weekly and monthly--all the time--to do what's right.
Every time you turn around a Christian is presented with a
problem, whereby there are two ways of handling the problem.
Either the easy, convenient way of getting around it, or taking a
shortcut through it, so you can get through it. Or the right way
where you have to face it and trust God to get you through it. So
the pastor and teacher is for the perfecting of the saints, "for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ." How long are we to do this? Verse 13, "until we all come
in the unity of the faith."

     Well, I tell you what, I've got a lifetime job, I can see
that right now. It's probably going to be a long time before
anybody comes to any unity of the faith--until everybody believes
the same thing and the right thing. "Until we all come in the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto
a perfect man." Well, as long as you're imperfect and I'm
imperfect, I'm going to exhort you to be perfect. So I lifetime
job, and you have a lifetime listening post. I mean, you're just
going to hear all the time. "Unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ." Verse 14: "That we henceforth be no more
children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may
grow up into him." Talking about the body of Christ, the saints.
"May grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even
Christ."

     As long as there are people around trying to deceive you and
trying to trick you and trying to throw you off the foundation,
preachers are to exhort you in the truth and in what's right, to
keep you steadfast in the truth, and to keep you in the purpose
of God's will. And as long as there is the slightest chance of
you being deceived, somebody has to exhort you to listen, to
study, to know, to do what's right, so that you won't be
deceived. And the minute you get out from under the preaching and
the exhortation of the word of God, it becomes easier and easier
and easier for you to fall into traps and lies and deceptions,
and to do the wrong thing that's displeasing to God.

     But he says, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up
into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom
the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the
eifying of itself in love." I am to preach and to exhort so that
the whole body, right here in this local body, I might exhort you
to do right, might exhort you on, might exhort you on, might
exhort you to stay in the right path. And you know what that'll
do? That'll exhort others to do right. That'll exhort others to
stay in the right path. And we'll help one another.

     If I set the right example, and you set examples, and we all
follow the example of Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ, this body--
we may never ever get all that bunch out there to come into the
unity of the faith--but this body can come into the unity of
faith, unto a perfect man. And we can supply each other's needs
and be a blessing to one another and enjoy what there is to enjoy
in this life.

     Do you want to enjoy life? What I just read to you is where
you enjoy it. It's doing what God wants you to do, being
perfected, being edified, so that you are not thrown about, and
not tossed about. And when you're tossed about, you're unhappy.
You're unstable. In James chapter 1, he says, "A double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways." He doesn't know where he's
going or what he's doing. James 1:8. And I'm to exhort you into
one faith, into one belief, into one purpose in your life. I'm to
exhort you. And that's what I'm going to do here this morning.
I'm going to exhort you to do right.

     This message here is probably the most important message
I've ever preached. I mean, you can preach messages on salvation,
you can preach messages on the second coming, on eternal
security, all kinds of things you can preach, folks. But the most
important message for God's people is "do right." Just do right.

     You know what that'll do? That'll help others to do right.
It'll condemn them who are doing wrong. It'll bring glory to the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know why? Because every pressure out
there, every influence out there is to do wrong. It's to do
wrong.

     All right, my text is found in James chapter 4. James
chapter 4, verses 13-17. The message is just "Do Right." Dr. Bob
Jones Sr. said, "Though the stars fall from heaven, do right. Do
right." I'll tell you, the stars are going to fall from heaven in
Revelation chapter 12. It's going to be hard to do right then.
Thank God, I'm going to be delivered from that thing. I'm not
ever going to have that kind of a problem to face. But I've got
problems I've got to face, and every time I'm faced with a fiery
trial, and I'm faced with a problem, it's a contest between who
I'm going to listen to--God or the devil. Am I going to serve
Him? Am I going to do what He wants to do, that I might bring
glory to Him? Or am I going to compromise and take the easy way
out, and do it the world's way, or the flesh's way, and just to
please them?

     James chapter 4, verse 13: "Go to now, ye that say, To day
or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a
year, and buy and sell, and get gain." Well, that's America for
you. That's pure capitalism. You know, just coming and going,
just buying and selling, just to get gain. Now, there's nothing
wrong with that, as long as it's mixed with the right attitude of
God, the right motive with God. The thing you don't want to
forget is that God still pulls the strings.

     Verse 14: "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow."
In other words, the most important thing in your life is not to
buy and sell and get gain. Now, if God gives you a job and gives
you that, you are to do it, but you are to do it knowing that
it's for the Lord and from the Lord, that He's given you that
ability. "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For
what is your life?" Is it just buying and selling and getting
gain? Is it just coming and going? Is that all it amounts to?
When you get to the end of your life, is that all you'll have to
look back on, is just a life of, "Well, I went here, and I went
there, and I've seen the Taj Mahal and I've been to the Holy
Land, and I made a good living, and I left my kids a good will--"
is that all there is? Is that all you've got to say for the end
of your life? Is that all you ever accomplished?

     He said, "What is your life? It is even a vapour." Well,
then what's done here and now for the here and now is not going
to last long. And it's going to go up in smoke. Did you ever hear
them say that? "Boy, that guy's life went up in smoke." And
that's going to be true of a lot of Christians. Their life is
just going to go up in smoke, because they took the easy way out
and just decided to live for the here and now, and said, "Well,
phooey on the future, I'm not going to worry about the future,
I'm not going to worry about Christ, I'm just going to worry
about myself and take care of myself now. So I'll go to now and
buy and sell and get gain."

     James says, "What is your life?" Is that all it is? Just
merchandise and just money? "What is your life? It is even a
vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will." What's the
Lord's will on the thing? "If the Lord will, we shall live, and
do this or that." Is it the Lord's will that you're concerned
with?

     All right, he says in verse 16, "But now ye rejoice in your
boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore [verse 17] to
him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
Father, you bless the message now, Father, and help us to
understand, Father, these things. Lord, the things that I am
preaching here and talking about here this morning, many times I
fail to do. Lord, I'm not only preaching to these people, I'm
preaching to myself. Lord, I admit many times I want to do right
and don't. I'm like Paul. That which I would I do not, and the
thing that I would not, that thing I do. O wretched man that I
am, who should deliver me from this body and flesh of sin? God,
many times I've wanted to do right and didn't. Lord, I thank you
by your grace and by your power, for the things that I've done
right in the last eight or nine years. I thank you for the things
you've showed me that were right, that I wouldn't have known to
do right, unless you showed me. God, now, impress upon us here
this morning the importance of doing and the penalty for not
doing right. You bless us now and be with this sermon, I ask it
in Jesus' name, amen.

     All right, he says, "To him that knoweth to do good and
doeth it not, to him it is sin." If you know to do right and
don't do it, it's sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Sin
is am abomination in the sight of God. He hates it. The Bible
says God hates all the workers of iniquity. So, if you know--if
you have knowledge--to do right, and don't do it, it's a sin. So
the exhortation, the thing that I want to impress upon you this
morning, that, no matter what happens, no matter what influences
come to bear, no matter what pressures are put on you in this
life--do right. Do right.

     And, believe me, it isn't easy to do. It is not easy to do.
Everything in this life, the influence in this life is, "Well,
there's a more convenient way to do it. There's an easier way to
do it." And God doesn't put down any easy way. Now some things
are easy to do. Some things aren't as hard as other things to do.
But, I'll tell you what, you take, like, raising a little child.
There's nothing easy about that. It's not easy. It is hard to
raise a child according to the Scriptures. "Train up a child in
the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from
it." It didn't say teach him the way to go--it said train him in
the way to go. You teach them, and they may not listen. The Bible
doesn't say teach him in the way he ought to go; it says train
him.

     You know what training is? That's like Fort Benning. That's
training. You put them in there and say, "We're going to do it
this way, and you shut your mouth, and that's it." That's
training. You get them out there on the football field, you train
him. The guy says,  "Well, I want to block this way." The coach
says, "You block the way I tell you to block, or OUT. Because I
know more than you know." And God says, "You do it my way, and
it'll work." But it's never easy. It is never easy.

     I tell you, there's them kids, man. And the Lord says,
"Train him up in the way he should go. And when he is old, he
will not depart from it." He says, "Spare not for his crying,"
you know. He says, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the
child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Just all the time, foolishness. All the time, foolishness. Of
course, the more you've got, the more it's compounded. The more
fools you've got running around you. And you think, "Well, how in
the world can I do it? God has said to do it this way." Well,
listen, folks, God is faithful who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able. Now, if He has given you one,
two, three, four, five, six kids, He'll give you the power to
train them the way that they're to go--or He wouldn't give them
to you, Amen? Now don't you accuse God of unrighteousness. That's
what the devil tried to get Job to do.

     You say, "Whew! Boy, I just can't handle this much!" Well,
it's hard, isn't it? It's hard. It's a fight. It's a battle. And
some of you folks, now, you're kids are grown now, and you can
think, "Whew! It's over! They're all gone, man! I don't have to
do it any more."

     You, but you may not have to raise kids, but you still have
to put up with the influences and the pressures of life to do
something wrong. And if you own a business, or if you work,
there's always that influence--always that pressure to do wrong.
I've talked to people in their homes, and I've exhorted them to
get saved, and exhorted them to become a Christian, and I've had
them sit there and look me right in the face and say, "Preacher,
if I'd get saved, I'd have to quit the job I'm working. Because
there isn't any way to make money on my job without cheating."
And I've had them say that to me.

     You go down here to Delco Marain, they cheat on the hour.
They cheat on this, they cheat on that, they bank up on Monday
and Tuesdays so they can play cards the rest of the week. And if
a couple of guys don't bank up, the rest of 'em get mad at him
because it makes the other guys look bad. And if you try to do
your job right, some guy who doesn't want to do his job right is
going to hate your guts. You go out there and you give your
employer 18 hours work like you ought to give him, and the rest
of the guys are loafin' and layin' off and stuff like that, they
get mad at you and say, "Hey man! Slow down! You're working too
hard! You're making us look bad!" You know what the Bible says?
"To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it's
sin." It isn't easy. It isn't easy to do right. It's always
easier to do wrong. It's always more convenient to do wrong.

     Well, "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to
him it's sin." Do right. Do right.

     No matter what, do right. Bob Jones Sr. said--and a lot of
the quotes I'm going to give you here are going to come right out
of a couple of his books. I would recommend you get any kind of a
thing you can get by Bob Jones Sr., and read it--especially the
little book on "Things I've Learned by Experience." That thing is
just loaded with good Christian philosophy--if there is such a
thing as philosophy. But it's just the experiences of a man who's
lived dealing with people for 70 years--60 or 70 years on this
earth--and some things he's come to see as a result of his life
in preaching the Bible and ministering to people all over
America.

     And he says something like this. "The doors to the room of
success always swing on the hinges of opposition." He says
something like this. He'll say, "Duties never conflict. If God
gives you the duty to raise children, or He gives you the duty or
responsibility to pastor a church or to preach, or to teach a
Sunday school, or to minister to people or to work at a job,
He'll never give you duties that conflict. He'll never put too
much on you that you cannot bear. He'll never give you more
duties than you can manage." Now, you may add some duties onto
your duties, you know, that may cause duties to conflict--but God
won't. God won't. He'll put only on you what you can handle and
what you can take care. Duties never conflict.

     He said something like, "The greatest ability is
dependability." If we only ever have 50 to 100 people in this
church, and never get any bigger now, than I'd rather have 50 or
100 who are dependability, than 1,000 that you couldn't depend
upon for five minutes. What's the sense, you know, in getting us
a register board and saying, "We had 999 in Sunday school," if
you can't count on them to be there Wednesday night to pray for
the work? Amen? What's the sense? I'd rather have 50 to 100 that
were dependable, that I could depend upon to witness, that I
could depend upon to back me up and back the Bible up when the
pressures come to bear and the influences come to bear, and that
wouldn't sell out for a mess of pottage, brother. I'd rather have
somebody who's dependable. It's always that thing of "doing
right." "Though the stars may fall," Bob Jones Sr. said, "Do
right." And it's never easy to do right, as far as the flesh is
concerned.

     You say, "Boy, there's got to be an easier way to do it than
this. There's got to be an easier job than the one I've got.
Everybody's on me at work, I'm always getting in trouble. Every
time I want to read my Bible." One fellow was telling me the
other night they jumped on him at his job because he was reading
his Bible too much. I said, "Do you have the spare time?" He
said, "Well, there isn't anything else to do. The other guys,
they sit around reading Playboy and all those stuff." He said,
"They jumped on me for reading the Bible. They said, 'You read
too much on your job.'"

     Well, I said, "Listen, you'll just have to play it by ear
and be careful. If they say you're reading too much and not
fulfilling your job, you do right. Do what's right. Go ahead and
give them the time. Find something to do." And it isn't easy to
do. The old flesh says, "Well, boy, they're reading it. Why can't
I read it?" Well, do right. Do right. That employer who pays you,
and as long as he doesn't ask you to do something contrary to the
will of God, go ahead and do it. You have time to read your Bible
outside of your job. The man isn't paying you to read the Bible.
He's paying you to work. Duties never conflict.

     The story is told about a young man who went off to college
and spent some time in college. And he had a sweetheart back at
home, and he never failed to write his sweetheart a letter. I
mean, he'd write her one time a day, sometimes two and three
times a day. See, he enjoyed that. That was a responsibility he
loved to fulfill. And yet, every one in a while he'd send his
mother a postcard. Now, you know what that was? He had two duties
there, and he was fulfilling one--and he wasn't fulfilling the
other one. He should have been fulfilling both. Duties never
conflict. Duties never conflict. If God has said, "Pray without
ceasing," "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He said, "You shall be
witnesses unto me." He says, "Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together." He says, "Minister unto the saints." Those
are duties that God has given to you and me--and they'll never
conflict. They won't conflict with my job that God has given me
and put me in; they won't conflict with my family that God has
given me to have. If I'm submissive to God and say, "All right
now, Lord, I want to find out how I can do all of this," the Lord
will show me.

     And I understand the problem. Week after week after week, I
think, "Well, I just can't get it all done. I just can't get it
all done." And then the Lord says, "To him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. To him it's sin." If
God has given me a family to raise, then that duty will not
conflict with the duties of my job, the duties of my ministry,
and the duties of my own personal relationship to God--or He
wouldn't have given them.

     Now, if I've added them unto myself, then I better alleviate
myself of those duties. I have certain duties. I have duties to
work and to make a living for my family. If a man doesn't supply
for his own family, the Bible says he's worse than an infidel. So
I have that responsibility. He says, "If you don't work, you
don't eat," 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. So I have a job, and I try
to perform that.

     All right, the Lord has also put me in the ministry. Now
some of you sitting here know good and well that I didn't want
in. About three months ago, you asked me to start a church, and I
said, "Absolutely not!" Because I felt I had enough to handle.
But God convicted me and showed me beyond any--well, what else
could you say? After all this--showed me beyond any shadow of a
doubt that this is where He wants me. So I know that this duty--
God hasn't put me here to make it impossible for me to still
raise my family and still perform my job, if I'll trust Him. Now
that's the catch. If I'll trust Him, I'll be able to do them all.

     Sometimes I spend half the day worrying about how I'm going
to get them done, and then I just waste half the day, when I
could have got some things done! I just fret. Are you a fretter?
You say, "Boy, how am I going to do all this, you know?" And you
walk and pace, you know. "How am I going to take care of all of
them kids, you know?" "How am I going to raise that family?" "How
am I going to get out there on visitation?" "Boy, I don't know
how I'm going to do it. I've got a job doing it..." And there you
are, you know, fretting, worrying. The Bible says, "Be careful
for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, make
your requests known unto God, and the peace of God that passeth
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus."

     You know what my problem is? Instead of praying, I'm pacing.
I ought to be praying. I should be saying, "Lord, look at this
mess you've got me in!" Amen? Talk straight with Him! If you
think it's a mess, tell Him! Tell Him! Say, "Lord, look at this
mess you've got me in. You put me down here and put me into all
this mess I can't handle, and I can't take care of it."

     He said, "I know you can't. That's why I gave you the Holy
Ghost, stupid!" Amen? That's just about the answer you'll get.

     He'll say, "Now, look! I put you in that situation that I
might get the glory. If I put you in a situation that you could
handle, you'd take the glory! But I'm going to put you in a
situation that you can't handle, so I can handle them for you, so
you will give me the glory for it." Amen? So I can quit pacing
and quit worrying and quit fretting and just trust the Lord.

     Turn back to Psalms. Psalm 37. Worry is sin, folks. And I'm
the biggest sinner in the bunch. I'm the biggest sinner. I'm
chief of sinners. When it comes to worrying, I worry about
everything. I'm worrying about the well out here. I don't know
what we're going to do about the well. I'm worrying about the
sewers back here. I'm worrying about--" I wish you'd pray now
that they don't deliver that stupid water bottle. We can bring
water in. We don't need to pay them seven dollars a month to have
electric water, amen? Now, I called that Crystal Water Company
last week and told them to bring it out; well, they haven't
brought it out. My wife said last night, you know, finally, after
six days of keeping our mouth shut, she said, "Why'd you order
that?"

     I said, "I don't know. It just seemed like the right thing
to do."

     She said, "Well, we can bring water in. Why pay them seven
or eight dollars a month just to have water?"

     And it finally hit me. You know, we don't need it. We don't
need it. It's just a waste of money. Now I want you to pray that
I can call them over in the morning to get that thing cancelled.

     Worry about that, you know. And worry about this, and worry
about the bookstore, worry about my house. Psalm 37 verse 1,
"Fret not." "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be
thou envious against the workers of iniquity." I'm always saying
about the lost people, "Man, they haven't got the worries I've
got, they haven't got the problems I've got." That's right!
They've got the problem of going to hell. I haven't got that one.
They are forsaken in this life, they are alone in this life. The
Bible says that without God and without hope in the world. They
are at enmity against God; there is a wall of partition up
between them and God. I haven't got a wall. If there's a wall
there, I've built it--not God.

     "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou
envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be
cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in
the Lord, and do good." Amen? Do good! Just do right! Though the
stars may fall and the pressures may come to bear, do what's
right. It'll all come out right in the end.

     "Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the
land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Amen? "But I'm just not
making enough money. I just can't get it all together. I've got
all these bills to pay off, all these taxes." Fret not thyself.
Trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good.

     You know what you get to thinking about? "Boy, I'm just not
making enough money. What am I going to do? I'm going to have to
get out here and try to work up another job, and do something,
you know." Duties never conflict. Do good. Just do what the
Lord's called you to do. If you can handle all of that, you'd be
doing good. Don't add anything to it. Do good. "Trust in the
Lord, and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily
thou shalt be fed."

     "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee
the desires of thine heart." "Fret not thyself, but trust in the
Lord, and do good."

     It's not easy to do. Number one, it costs something to do
right. If I've just exhorted you to do right and didn't tell you
that, you know, it wasn't going to cost you something, I'd be
lying to you. If I tell you to do what's right in the situations
that you face and the problems that you face, I can guarantee you
some things. I can guarantee you it'll cost you something. Nobody
ever did right who didn't pay for it somewhere down the line. The
Bible says, "All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution." Paul says, "We're afflicted on every side, yet not
distressed." But your afflictions are there! The afflictions are
there. It costs something.

     Listen! God had a choice to make. What He created fell. It
fell into the abominations of sin and corruption; it fell into
the hands of the archenemy, Lucifer himself. God had a choice to
make. But He did right. "For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should
not perish." You know what the Lord did in the situation? He did
what was right. But you know what it cost Him? It cost Him His
own Son. It cost Him something to do right. He came down here in
the form of a man. The Bible says that God was in Christ
reconciling Himself to the world. He came down here in the form
of a man, and lived amongst His own people. He came unto His own,
it says in the book of John. He came unto His own, and His own
received Him not. They called Him a demon-possessed madman. They
rejected what He said. They didn't believe on Him. They didn't
receive Him. He had all the signs and all the credentials, and
all the right everything that He should have had. He even came to
the point where He said, "Look! If you don't believe what I say,
at least believe the works that I perform." And they wouldn't do
that. They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't believe the signs and
wonders that He had. "He came unto His own." What happened? "His
own received Him not." "He was forsaken of men." Forsaken! He
didn't even have a place to live! He said, "The foxes have holes.
And the birds have nests. But the Son of man hath not where to
lay His head." Lived in the mountains. Lived by Himself. Over
there in John chapter 6, He told them the truth. He began to
preach to them over there, and it says, "From that time forth
many of His disciples departed from Him."

     They said, "My, this is a hard saying! Who can receive it?
What new doctrine is this?" And then He went ahead and told them.
He told them the truth anyway. He did right. And they all
departed from Him--except for twelve of them. And one of them was
a devil. And before it was all over they all departed from Him.
You know what He did? He just kept doing right. He just kept
doing right. He did what was right. He went to the Garden of
Gethsemane and cried and agonized out there. He said, "Father,
not my will, but thine be done." He said, "If it be possible,
lift this burden from me--Matthew chapter 26." He said, "If it be
possible." It wasn't possible. It wasn't possible. He came to do
the Father's will. He did right, and it cost Him something. He
was humiliated, He was shamed, He was beaten, He was whipped, He
was scourged, He was tormented, He was forsaken of man, forsaken
of all of those who professed that they loved Him. Peter said,
"Though all men forsake thee, I won't." And he forsook Him. He
said he didn't even know Him! And the Lord Jesus Christ knew what
was going on all the time. Forsaking Him them.

     How would you like to be just flat left alone by everybody?
What if just everybody in this assembly and all your friends and
all your relatives, and everybody that you've ever known, that
had anything to do with you, just suddenly just forsook you--
completely! And nobody would come to your aid when you were in
trouble. Now, He was in trouble. He was in trouble with the
authorities. They came after Him with spears, knives and staves,
the Bible says. He was in trouble. And everybody forsook Him.
Everybody forsook Him.

     What'd He do? Did He quit? Did He call down the legion of
angels? He could have. He didn't deserve to be where He was. He
did what was right. He didn't compromise, He didn't cut any
corners, He didn't take any shortcuts. You know what it would
have cost us if He had? We would have never been saved. The Old
Testament saints would have perished. The whole thing would have
perished. Destroyed. There would have been no atonement to
placate the wrath of God. It would have been destroyed. The whole
creation. All of the souls destroyed. He said, "All souls are
mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The whole thing would
have had to have been destroyed.


     But when He faced those situations, when He faced those
pressures, He went ahead. They pounded a crown of thorns down on
His head. They whipped His back, ploughed His back, the Bible
said. Turn to Isaiah 53. The Bible says He died, the just for the
unjust, that we might be the righteousness of God. He did right,
but it cost Him. It cost Him. I'd be a fool to stand up here and
exhort you and exhort you to do right and tell you it's not going
to cost you something. It's always going to cost you something.
Isaiah 53:3: "He is despised and rejected of men." You know why
He was despised? Because He did what was right. You know why He
was rejected of men? Because He did what was right. The Bible
says in the Book of Matthew, "When all men speak well of you,
there's a problem. You've got a problem. When all men speak well
of you, you're not doing what's right." "He was despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows."

     The Bible only says one time did He ever rejoice in the
Spirit. ONE TIME in His whole ministry did He ever rejoice in the
Spirit that was spoken of outwardly. He rejoiced in the Spirit
and said, "Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and
prudent and has showed them unto babes. Even so, thou thought it
good in thy sight." But He rejoiced in the Spirit. No other time
do you find it said that He rejoiced in the Spirit. A man of
sorrows.

     You say, "Why did He put up with all of that? Did He deserve
it?" No. "Did He have to?" No, He didn't have to do it. Now, He
had to do it if we were going to profit from it. If we were ever
going to gain anything from it, He had to do it. Now, He didn't
have to do it for His own benefit. What He did, He did for your
benefit and for my benefit. "Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins." He loved us. He loved us.

     "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him."
Can you think of times as an unsaved individual you hid from
Jesus Christ? The One who came to die for you? The One who
suffered for you? The One who bled for you? The One who took the
hatred and the shame. "We hid our faces as it were from Him. He
was despised, and we esteemed Him not."

     There are times in your life and in my life when we esteem
the heroes of this world more than Jesus Christ. And you know
what they did for us? They entertained us for a short period of
time that they might money off of us, that they might get glory
from us. And He never asked for anything. He never asked for
anything.

     Verse 4: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our
sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." You can't do right
and get away with it. If you do right, you'll pay for it. I'm
going to encourage you to do right; "to him that knoweth to do
good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." But I'd be a fool to
stand up here and tell you that if you do right, you're going to
make out--because you're probably not. If you continue to do
right, there's going to be trouble, there's going to be pressure,
affliction, and influence upon you.

     And it seems like so many times, when we determine to do
right, the most immediate affliction comes from our immediate
family. Jesus Christ said, "A prophet is not without honor, save
in his own house and in his own country." In other words, you
might receive honor from others, but, chances are, your honor
won't come from your own house. And it seems like, just as soon
as you purpose to do right, it's your own relatives and the
closest ones to you who hurt you the most. You know, they want to
see you be the right kind of individual--but they don't want to
see you become a fanatic. They don't want to see you go all the
way, see? You know why? Because it condemns them. It condemns
them, because they're not going all the way. He lost friends.

     It's the purpose of God (Romans chapter 8) that you be
conformed to the image of His Son. You know what that means? That
means that He is going to try to pattern your life just right
after the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that means? That means
He's going to give you a ministry; He's going to give you people
who are going to follow you; He's going to give you the same
kinds of troubles He gave Him. The devil's going to be after you,
just like he was after Him. The world's going to hate you, just
like it hated Him.

     He warned us about it in the Book of John. He said, "If they
hated me, they'll hate you." God's trying to pattern your life
just like the Lord Jesus. You know what that means in the end?
All of them forsook Him. He was despised of men, a man of
sorrows. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him
it is sin." It costs something to do right.

     It cost the apostles. Not only did it cost God to do right,
cost Him the precious life of His Son, it cost the apostles. Let
me read you this. The apostles were called out by the Lord Jesus
Christ in the infancy of the Church to spread the gospel and
spread the good news. Then He called Paul out to preach to the
Gentiles. And, listen, every one of them died for it. The only
one whom they can't find specifically who died for his faith was
John. And, yet, you know that he got in trouble, because the
Bible says he is on the island of Patmos for the word of God and
for the testimony of Jesus Christ, over there in Revelation
chapter 1. He was in jail. He wound up in jail.

     Listen to this roll call: Stephen--Acts chapter 7, stoned
and murdered because he did right. Two thousand other Christians,
the historians say, died with him at that time, in the
persecution that took place there in Jerusalem. James--beheaded,
Acts chapter 12. You know what he was doing? He wasn't a
criminal. He was doing what was right. It costs to do right. It
cost God, it cost the apostles.

     Philip--crucified, 54 A.D. Matthew--murdered with a halberd.
It's a part of a sword, like a sword. He was slain with that in
60 A.D. James the Lord's brother had his brains beat out with a
club. Matthias was beheaded. Andrew was crucified. Mark was
dragged to death. Peter was crucified. Paul was beheaded.

     You say, "Why did it happen to them?" They did right. They
did what was right.

     You say, "Whew! Boy, it sure don't sound like doing right is
going to get you anywhere!"

     Well, it may not get you anywhere in this life, brother, but
it'll get you somewhere in the next life. Paul said, "I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a more
exceeding weight of glory." It's going to cost you something in
this life to do right. It's going to cost you your friends, it's
going to cost you your reputation, it's going to cost you maybe
your job, maybe your income. It may cost you every precious thing
you ever had in this life! But still do right! Still do right.

     It costs something to do right. It cost the Christians in
church history to do right. You read about the Waldensians and
the Albigensians, and all those bunch--the Lollards, the
Pauliceans, and all those Christian groups that were called
fanatics and heretics by the Papists and by the Romanists and by
the world. They were hated. You know why they were hated? Because
they wanted to get together as a group and worship God in Spirit
and in truth. And they were not going to bow down to the images
of Popery. They were not going to take the Mass. They were not
going to raise up children for the priesthood or the nunnery, or
all that other business. They wanted to have a faith that was
bounded in the word of God, and nothing else--and they weren't
about to compromise what they believed. You know what it cost
them? It cost them the blood of thousands. The blood of thousands
upon thousands of them were slain in France and Italy.

     This particular bunch I want to talk about this morning was
two cities in the lower part of Italy at that time called
Callibria. And there was a group of Waldensians who moved into
that area. And the area that they moved into, folks, was nothing
but wilderness and forests. It wasn't anything anybody else
wanted. And they asked permission from the lords of that area of
Callibria--right on the heel of the boot in Italy--to move in
there and build up a small community for themselves. They
promised not to bother anybody. But they wanted their own
community; they wanted to make their own way. They wouldn't ask
for anything. And the lord said, "Sure, go ahead."

     They moved in there, and before long they had converted a
wilderness and a forest into a garden of Eden in the sense of
production and in the sense of things growing--stuff like that--
and a place of habitation for people. And they grew and, of
course, they didn't join with the Catholic Church. So the priests
in that area went to the lords of Callibria and said, "Look! This
bunch of heretics down here are not going by the Mass, they're
not sending their children to us, and they're not bowing down to
the Pope, and they're not taking the Mass. They're heretics!
They're causing trouble!"

     And the lords of Callibria said, "You leave them alone! We
allowed them to go in down there, and they've taken a barren
place and wilderness and they've turned it into a productive
thing. And they're not hurting anybody; they're not harming
anybody. And they've been a real blessing to us." At that time,
the Waldensians were actually paying tithes to the landowners--
which was going into the coffers of Rome. They said, "Look! We've
got people down there now sending us money off that land. They're
sending us tithes that are going into the Pope's coffers. Look,
it was never coming in before. What are you complaining about?
You priests are richer because of those people down there. You
leave them alone!"

     So that kind of cooled things off for awhile. The
Waldensians went on there for years, and grew, and multiplied.
And they decided to form two communities. So they formed a
community called St. Zist, and another one called LeGuard. They
had these two cities. When they established these communities,
they decided at that time that they wanted some trained pastors
and teachers in there to teach them their faith and to preach to
them. So they sent off to Geneva for trained pastors and teachers
to come there and to help them.

     I guess at that time in the 14th Century--that was before
Calvin--Geneva was a stronghold of Protestantism and the
Scriptural movement and anti-Papist movement. So preachers and
teachers were sent down into these two areas.

     And they began to preach and teach the word of God and train
the people and train the children in the way of the Bible and in
the way of the religion of our God.

     And the priests really got infuriated! So they wrote to Rome
and said, "These people don't pay tribute to Rome. They don't bow
down to Rome and the Pope." And so the Pope sent a cardinal down
there by the name of Alexandrinus. And this man was a butcher. He
was just a killer.

     And he went to St. Zist and said, "Now, you people have got
to bow down to the images! You've got to have the Mass here. And
if you don't, we're going your property and your lives away from
you." This took place in the morning one time when this man came
there.

     They said, "Give us until noon to make our decision, and
we'll give you the decision at noon."

     So the cardinal left the town. When he went out, the people
in there said, "There's no way in the world we're going to bow
down to these demands. We're not going to have the Mass. We're
not going to send our children off to the monasteries, and all
that business. We're going to do what's right." So they fled to
the forest in the area.

     Well, at noontime, this cardinal Alexandrinus came back into
this area, and came back into the town--and all the people were
gone. And, brother, he was mad! He was stark-raving mad. So he
called in the troops. He called in the troops that he had at his
disposal, and he said, "I want you to go out into that forest and
find those people. I want you to kill every man, woman, and
child--no matter what you find out there!"

     Well, those soldiers went into the forest. Man, they
thought, "Easy pickin's!" You know how soldiers are! They
thought, "Those heretics are out there; they're against our God,
they're against our Pope. We're loyal to the Pope. We're going
out there and we're going to kill them for the Pope."

     Of course, the priests blessed them and blessed their
instruments, and told them they'd get rewards in heaven; the more
Protestants they killed, the more rewards they'd get in heaven.
So those guys are out there to kill those Protestants.

     Well, the poor half-armed Waldensians fought back, and
before it was all over with, more of the soldiers were killed
than the Waldensians. They protected themselves and their
families, and resisted the army.

     Well, that made the Catholics just that much madder. So that
cardinal wrote back to the Pope and told him what had happened.
And so the Pope put out amnesty for all criminals and all crooks,
and anybody who was considered an outlaw at that time, that he
would give them amnesty if they would join in with the troops of
this area to completely wipe out the Waldensians in this area.

     So they had all this army, and all these robbers and killers
and murderers and pirates and everything you can think of back at
that time, given complete amnesty to be sent out against these
people. And, folks, you read it in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the
things that they did to those people when they caught them. It
was atrocious. It was terrible! They killed them, they crucified
them, they hacked them to death, they did everything you could
think of. You know why that happened? Because those people were
trying to do what was right. They were doing what was right. They
knew to do right--and they sacrificed their lives for it.

     And they pretty well wiped out all the people from St. Zist,
so this cardinal said, "Now, we're not going to let this business
happen again at this other city." And what had gone on here at
St. Zist was unknown to the people of LeGuard. So he went into
LeGuard. And, as soon as he went in, he closed off all the exits
around LeGuard to make sure these people didn't get out. And he
made the same ultimatum to them. He said, "You must fall down to
the images of Rome; you must worship the Pope; you must perform
Masses; you must get rid of these Bible teachers and preachers
who are teaching you heresy; and you must allow us to set our
preachers and teachers over you."

     And they said, "Well, what about our brethren over at St.
Zist."

     And the cardinal lied to them and said, "Oh, they met all
our demands."

     And the people didn't know what to do. They didn't know what
to do. So they prayed about it, and prayed about it, and said,
"Well, we don't want to go against what the other brethren did.
Maybe we ought to do it." But when they prayed about it, the more
they thought about it, the more they knew it was wrong. And they
came back to the cardinal and they told him, "No matter what it
costs us, we worked hard for this property, and our families here
have worked hard. But our allegiance to God and our allegiance to
the Bible is more important than allegiance to the Pope and to
heresies and to lies. We will not submit to your demands!"

     And, folks, they wiped out the whole community. They just
killed them all.

     What they did was this. The cardinal said, "All right, get
30 of the leaders and bring them down here. We'll put them on the
wrack and make them examples to the rest of the people." So they
put 30 of the leaders on the wrack, and they stretched them. And
men died, being completely pulled apart on the wrack. The
Catholics did that to try to get the other people to submit to
them.

     And, yet, the heroics and the tenaciousness of the
Waldensians--even the ones who were tortured--were such that the
people gave God the glory. And the men who were tortured told the
people not to give in, under no circumstances, that they weren't
to give in, no matter what.

     And the people didn't give in, and before it was all over,
they completely killed everybody in the community. Wiped them
out. Killed them to every man, woman, and child.

     It costs something to do right.

     There just isn't any way I could stand up here and say, "Do
right!" "Do right!" "Do right!" and tell you that you're going to
get away with it. The Bible says, "They that live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution." Time and time again, people back
in those days, and every people in these days--there's
persecution taking place down in Central America and Latin
America now, against the missionaries down there. Communist
persecution in Africa and Asia is taking place right now. But
missionaries still go because it's the right thing to do. God
called them to go, so they go. Many of them don't leave; when the
Communists come in, they stay. You know why? Because they don't
want to leave their flocks behind; they don't want to leave the
people whom they've led to Christ behind. They don't want to
leave them defenseless. They want to be an example. Many of them
died. Many of them were martyred. It costs something to do right.

     Next thing I want to say is, it's wrong to do wrong to get a
chance to do right. He says, "To him that knoweth to do good and
doeth it not, to him it is sin."

     Listen, folks, you do right. And if nothing good comes from
it in this life, don't worry about it. It's not your position or
my responsibility to evaluate the situation, and to see whether
any good comes out of what we're called to do, and what we're
told to do. You know, we may take a child, and we may train him.
We may teach him, and we may handle him. And we may do everything
we can for him; we may pray for him. And, in all truthfulness,
sometimes it doesn't turn out right. It just says, "When he is
old, he'll not depart from it." You know what you can do? You can
just trust God. There's nothing else you can do. You've done
everything you can do, and you know to do. You have to leave the
rest to God.

     Don't do wrong to get a chance to do right. You just do
right. It's wrong to do wrong in order to get a chance to do
right.

     Listen, is it right for us to put away the King James Bible
and start using the Living Bible and start using the R.S.V. just
so we can get people in here? That's wrong! I may say, "Look, we
just don't have enough folks in our meeting. We're just not
having people come. We need to have more people come. We need
more opportunity to preach them the gospel. If we can't get
people in, how are we going to preach them the gospel? So, let's
just cut a few corners--perhaps not be so hard on the doctrine."
That's wrong! It's just wrong!

     It is always wrong to do wrong to get a chance to do right.

     Back here in the early seventies, Jack Van Impe came to this
town, and they had a meeting amongst the cooperating churches as
to where they would hold the meeting. And they finally decided on
a couple of churches; they suggested holding it in some Bible-
believing churches. But it was finally decided on by the majority
of the churches that they would hold it at the University of
Dayton Arena. Now, you know who got the money for that? You know
who got the rent for that place for that meeting? You know where
it went? It went to promote Catholic schools.

     You say, "Well, it's the biggest one in town!"

     "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it
is sin." I don't care what it is. I don't care what it is. I
don't care if it's the biggest place going. I don't care what it
is. If all you've got to use is a Roman Catholic building, you'd
do better to put up a tent. You'd do better to get you some
property and be like Billy Sunday--build a wooden tabernacle, and
preach that way.

     They just had this James Robison crusade. I know he's a
great preacher, and I know he preaches the gospel. And where'd
they have it? Same place, wasn't it? Wasn't it the U.D. Arena?
Who made the money off it? The money that Protestant, Bible-
believing people put into the support of that crusade--where did
the money go to pay for that building for one week? And how much
do you suppose it cost for that building for one week? You know
where the money went? It went to the University of Dayton. You
know what the University of Dayton is? It's a Roman Catholic
institution.

     I didn't go. I didn't go.

     I went one time to see Van Impe. And, as I sat out there and
I looked around there and saw those seats--and I know what those
seats are used for; they're used to promote Catholic sports, and
all that business, and promote world activities--I thought to
myself, "Even if they had taken a small place, I believe God
would have blessed it more. Even if they had taken a smaller
place."

     And then, if they had taken the money--I'm sure some church
would have gladly allowed them to use the thing, or use their
auditorium--they could have taken the money and had ten times the
follow-up of what they had.

     It's never right to do wrong to get a chance to do right.

     Thirdly, it pays to do right. Now, I've said it costs to do
right. Well, it pays to do right, too. It pays to do right. He
says, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown
of life." Now, the payment may not come through in this age, but
it pays to do right. You raise your children like you know God's
told you to raise them, and He's got to back up His promises.
What are the promises in Christ Jesus? Are they "maybe"? They're
"Yea!" and "Amen!" "Yea!" and "Amen!" SO BE IT! That's it! It's
not "Yes" and "No." It's "YEA" and "AMEN"--the promises in Christ
Jesus.

     I've got the promise that if I'll do right, it'll work out.
"All things work together for good." "God is faithful, and will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able." Do right.
Just do right.

     You stand here, and there is pressure to bear upon you for
serving God, and you'll look down the road, and you'll say,
"Well, I wonder what I'm going to accomplish for doing right? It
looks like I'm going to lose my job. It looks like I might lose
the ability to support my family. Looks like I'm going to lose
this, and lose that." Do right.

     "Trust in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of
thine heart. Trust in the Lord, and thou shalt be fed; thou shalt
dwell in the land." Trust in the Lord! Trust in the Lord!

     Meschach, Shadrach, and Abednego trusted in the Lord. There
wasn't anything else to trust in; they didn't have any fire
extinguisher. They didn't have any way of getting out. They
trusted in the Lord.

     Joseph trusted in the Lord. Moses trusted in the Lord. And
it looked bad for a time. But out on the other side, it all came
out right. Trust in the Lord.

     It pays to do right.

     Doing right for the Christian assures him of his
inheritance--Colossians chapter 3, verses 1-25. It insures him of
the reward promised at the Judgment Seat of Christ--1 Corinthians
chapter 3, verses 6-15. It pays to do right. It pays to do right.

     The problem is, the payment sometimes isn't in this life.
But everything down here is temporary anyway. The things that are
seen are temporal. The things that are not seen are eternal.
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for; the substance of
things not seen. I know there's something out there that I'm
going to get that's better than what I've got right here--if I
just do right.

     Last off, let me say this. You can't do wrong and get away
with it. Now, it's going to cost you something to do right. Yet
you've got something coming to you if you do right. But, still,
some people say, "Well, it's just going to cost too much." No,
it's still worse to do wrong. You can't do wrong and get away
with it.

     Back about 300 or 400 years ago, you've heard the expression
"He's afraid to face the music"? Back around 200 or 300 years
ago, the story takes place in China. The emperor had an
orchestra, his own personal orchestra. And in this orchestra were
hand-picked men. Now, one man who had some influence with some
people high up got into that orchestra who could not play. But he
got in there. And his instrument was the flute. And whenever the
orchestra would play for the emperor, or for the functions of the
royalty there, he would sit with the rest of them, and he would
act like he was playing--but he never played anything! And he
just mimicked it. Just imitated it, see?

     And he was making a good living--comfortable living back
then. He was doing all right. He never dared play a sound, or he
would sound all out of discord, and everything.

     But, for some reason, the emperor decided that he wished to
hear each member of his orchestra play a solo in front of him.
And it suddenly hit that fellow that he was going to have to face
the music.

     And he went to a private tutor and tried to get lessons to
learn how to play that flute in a hurry. And he just had no
talent, no ability. No matter how much time they spent with him,
he couldn't get the thing right.

     And then he feigned sickness--putting it off, putting it
off.

     And, I'll tell you what, you know what it finally drove him
to? He was so afraid to face the music that he finally took his
own life, and poisoned himself. He was afraid to face the music.

     You can't do wrong and get away with it, folks.

     "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap." If you sow unto the flesh, you
reap corruption. If you sow unto the Spirit, you reap life
everlasting. You can't do wrong and get away with it.

     Now, let me ask you something. Is there something in your
life right now you're facing? Some pressure, some thing in life,
some decision that you don't know which way to go? Do right! It
pays to do right. In the long run, it pays better dividends. Paul
said, "I am persuaded that the sufferings of this present time
are not to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in
us. For our light affliction is but for a moment, which worketh
for us a more exceeding weight of glory." You can't do wrong and
get away with it. You need to do right.

     Listen to me now. Honestly, if there is something in your
life this morning that's wrong, and you know it's wrong, and you
know you ought to quit, you know you ought to right, bless God,
you come to God right now. You get down here on this pew down
here in front, and you get it right with him right now, and do
right. Do what's right!

     You say, "Well, I just can't, Brother Greg!" YOU CAN! "I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!" Did He lie?
Is that a lie? Or is that a promise that's precious and true?