Alright let's take the book this morning and turn to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew
chapter 16. 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to showing his disciples how
that he must go on to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests,
and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day then Peter took him
and began to rebuke him. Now that's something. That's a man getting God by the
shirtsleeve and telling him off and Peter calls him over and tells him off...
...and says it be it far from thee O Lord this shall not be to thee but he turned
and said to Peter get thee behind me Satan
thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God
but those that be of men then said Jesus unto his disciples If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels
and then he shall reward every man according to his work. Verily I say unto you
there be some standing here and there probably are some here this morning, which shall
not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Father,
bless the reading of your word may the Holy Spirit honor this word and may the
Holy Spirit confirm this word for what it is in truth, the absolute true
infallible word of righteousness. Bless it father, and may some unsaved
person find Christ the Savior this morning. Bless our friend that couldn't be
with us today. Now Lord, I'm thankful to see so many old familiar faces back with
us again for services and I pray you minister to them and it won't be just me
but You'll do the preaching, You'll do the teaching, You'll do the exhortation. We put all that
we have in your hands for safekeeping and blessing in this hour. We ask Thee
Father to save souls and edify the saints for Jesus sake, amen. Amen.
Now I want to talk to you this morning on 'Have You Counted The Cost?' except I'm going to
talk to you about it from a little different standpoint than you'd hear
talked about. The text I just read takes two things for granted. I read a text
there that said, "What is a man profited if you gain the whole world and
lose his own soul?" Now that text
two things for granted. Number 1, it takes for granted that you have a soul.
Now, maybe to a psychiatrist or a scientist you don't. Christ takes for
granted you do. Alright, number 2, The text take for granted that if you could
get the whole world in exchange for that soul, you'd make a bum deal. That is, if you
could get everything the Kennedy family has and everything all the national
fascism and socialism of the Popes and the dictators in the Comintern and the
USSR, all the fishes in the sea, all the fowls of heaven, all the diamonds in
South Africa, all the tea in China, and all the copper in Washington DC,
it wouldn't profit you anything. If you could get everything this world has
and have it and hug it your bosom and lose your own soul, you'd have a bad deal.
I'm gonna open the ledger book this morning and I'll tell you what I'm going to talk about.
I'm not going to talk to you about what you have to give up to receive Jesus Christ.
I'm going to go down the other side of the ledger and I'm going to show you
what you're going to give up if you don't accept Him. Now, when I say counted
the cost, I mean I'm gonna put it on the ledger this morning what it's gonna cost
you to go out of this door this morning as an unsaved man or woman. Now, I
know how Southerners look at. They say, "Well preacher, I can't live it. I just can't
live it." You know, what they're thinking, they're thinking, "If I get saved, I'm
gonna have to give up this and this and this and this and when the average
unsaved man counts the cost you know what he's counting? He's counting what it's going
to costs him if he gets saved. And I'm not gonna talk about that this morning, I
want to have you count the cost of what it's going to cost you if you don't
get saved. Number one, if you don't receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, it's
going to cost you peace of mind and peace of conscience and those are 2 of
the most valuable things you have. You know why America is sick? America has seared its
conscience with a hot iron. Do you know why a psychiatrist in America can get $35-
$45 an hour sitting down talking with people? I wish I could get
that much. You know, you know why they get $35-$45
dollars an hour talking with people? Because people are so sick
from a seared conscience and from sin, they'll pay that money to have somebody
pat him on the back and tell them alright. Well, there isn't a psychiatrist
in this country who doesn't have a standing-room-only and enough clients to
take care of seven days a week at thirty five bucks an hour. The country's
sick. You know why they're sick? They've lost a good conscience.
A man said a good conscience sleeps in a storm and America's conscience is
sick. Everybody's sick. One woman said to another woman, she said, Have you ever been
to a psychiatrist? The other woman said no. She said, What's
the matter with you are you sick? I mean, they get the idea, you know, if
you haven't been, there's something wrong with you.
2 ladies met each other one day going up to a psychiatrist office and one said
I'm feeling a little bit get to schizophrenic today. And the other one said, "That make
four of us!" And you know American people are sick because they fear their
conscience. Now, if you come to me and tell me about your problems and I say
well it's just a mistake or an error I'm putting a label on that bottle that
doesn't change the contents. The work of modern psychiatry is to make the disease
look less than it is. You can't change a bottle of poison by
putting bromo seltzer in the bottle. You got to label the thing right. I'd tell you how to
how to have a good conscience go to sleep tonight. First thing you do, is
trust Jesus Christ your Saviour and your conscience will quit killing you about it. Why
you got in Pensacola, you got 10,000 grown men who go to bed at night with
their conscience just killing them because they know they ought to trust Christ and
they haven't done it. They go out and get drunk. I would too if I were you. You say,
Pete, preacher, do you recommend liquor? If you're not going to get saved, it's just as
good as anything else. Of course, you can blow your brains out,
that's a quicker way. You can commit suicide slow or fast, man. Blowing your brains out
cheaper. You get a 30 ought shell for six cents. .08 cents. Prices going up .08 cents
is World War 2. .08 cents. And that isn't as expensive as liquor. You say, so what do
you recommending? I'm saying, before you have to judge yourself and deaden your
conscience with all this stuff, why don't you do what your conscience is telling
you to do, man? That Bible says, To him that knoweth to do good and do it not
to him it is sin. You don't call it an error, you don't call it a mistake.
You want to know how to sleep good? Before you go to bed at night, go out there in the backyard
or go in your bedroom someplace and shut the door and go through those things and
call them what the Lord call them. Say, That's a sin. I'm reaping what I sowed. That's
a sin. I ought to go to hell for that, but you been merciful to me. You saved
me and I'm born again and Lord forgive me and cleanse me. And go to bed with, uh,
self exorcism. Cast the devil out of yourself. Lay down at your bed at night and say, "Lord get
those demons out of me. Wash me in the blood. Get those unclean spirits
out of me in the name of Jesus Christ. You unclean spirit, "Come out!" Did you ever do that?
Well, it's cheaper than going to a nut doctor. Alright, number 2. Number 2. It'll cost you the
most enduring joy in this life. Now, Christians have problems and you see
many a Christian in sorrow and distress and tribulations and persecuted and cast
down... but not forsaken, not cast off. And I've been saved now 23... I'll be
saved 23 years next March. I'm a pretty young Christian. I just reached maturely
two years ago. I mean, as far as age goes. See? I mean two years ago I was only 21
years old. Now, I'm 23, see? And so I just gotten mature
but I'll tell you dying true. The most enduring joy I've ever have in this life,
27 years with the devil and 22 years with Jesus Christ,
the most enduring joy I've had in this life has been Him. It's been Him.
Now, I don't want to have you misunderstand me, I've had some other good things.
I've enjoyed life. I don't guess any man enjoys just living anymore than I
do. If he does, I guess I've never met him. But I tell you those things come
and those things go and the most enduring joy is Jesus. Always the same.
Everything else is transitory. Nature is transitory. Your family is transitory.
your friends are transitory. Why, listen, I sat and ate at the table with people that I
thought would be my lifelong friends that less than five years turn out on the way and
try to shoot me off the boards. And you have, too. I'm not complaining. That's just life,
brother, I'm not complaining. I just accept that and expect it. But Jesus is
enduring. You know, if you're unsaved, the grass always looks greener on the
other side of the fence, don't it? And you just try one thing to another and what
you forget is, if the grass is greener... the water bill is higher. Right? Right?
Sure, man. Sure. You know I've often thought in in
nights like this before all my children came to live with me, I used to spend a
lot of time with some of the men in the school, I kind of adopted them
for sons for a few years. And you know what we do? We'd go out there on that beach some
time at Port Moore or Alabama Point in the summer time we lie out
there under the stars on that beach, you know just like the hippies. I mean no blankets or
nothing, man. And we get a big fire going and fry some oysters or get some
mullet and fry it fresh on that beach, man, and put some of that Tabasco sauce on
it. (They didn't, but I did.) And then we lie down there in that Beach
at night you lie down there look at those stars at night with that old soft
breeze blowing and boy I'm telling you, I said to one of those boys one night, I said,
you know what those hippies are looking for all the time? They said, Yes. I said,
Well man, we found it! We got it. And you know when you cook that food knowing the
Lord gave you the food and when you eat that food
knowing the Lord gave you the ability to digest it and then you lie down the
Lord beach, by the Lord's ocean and look up there and see what the Lord made and
you know he's yours and you're his. YOU CAN'T BEAT IT! Hey listen, if you're unsaved,
you don't know what I'm talking about.
I mean, you get out there and enjoy nature but if the Lord isn't connected with it, it
won't stick with you very long. You don't get the riches of it. You don't get the
dregs of it. You don't get the essence of it, man. Unless you're just lying down there and
know it's the Lord and look around, you know... wait for a flying saucer to come by or an
unidentified flying object, you know. Well if it did come over, who'd care? I wouldn't
care. If I was lying there and one would come over< I'd say, Well, there's another one...
You know the most enduring joy in life is knowing Jesus and if you don't know
Jesus Christ, you haven't got a joy that endures. I feel sorry for these
hippie and the young kids trying to find it. I found it. I know where it is. In
Berkeley California, they don't say, 'Keep off the grass' anymore. They say Don't
smoke the grass. They don't say they don't have signs saying 'Don't step on the
flowers', they say 'Don't step on the flower people' Poor kid out there trying
to make a living, folks talk about the generation gap to see he's over here and
the older generation is over here and there's a gap between them. Do you know what
would bridge the gap? A rake. A hoe. A shovel. A trowel. And a hammer.
I'll bridge the gap. That would reach all the way from me to him, brother. Right over there.
You can't tell me any bunch of folks lying around the grass smoking pot
smoking grass and going up to the president's office and putting their feet up
on the table and spitting tobacco juice all over the school halls, you can't tell
me they're buying their own car insurance.
I don't... I bet they're not even paying for own gas. All right,
if you don't accept Jesus Christ as Savior you lose the most abiding,
enduring joy the world has to offer. Do you want to lose it? Count the cost.
Number 3. If you don't accept Christ as your savior, you sacrifice the only real
future hope that a man can have. Now, here we are 1971. In the last couple of weeks,
they voted red China into the United Nations. When they voted them in, we
should have voted out. Anybody knows that. Anybody knows we're not
going to, why, when that thing took place, somebody looks the United Nations and
says well maybe they work things out. People, there have been, listen, there
have been more wars on this earth since the United Nations
was founded than before it got there. There are five wars running right now and
there have been five since 1948 and any man that would place his hope in that outfit is
really sick, brother. They ain't gonna do anything. Why, we had a religious leader
come over here a couple of years ago and that poor deluded fella got up and
before television cameras on three continents, that fella got up there and he
said, "The hope of the world is the United Nations". My my my my my my
my my my my my my my. The hope of the world is the United Nations? They're not
my hope. They're not going to bring the kingdom in.
Now, I know what the hope is. I have Jesus. And he's in me. And someday he's gonna
lift me up and get me out of the United Nations. I like a recruiting sign
that was down in Canal Street in New Orleans.
There was a recruiting sign for the Navy down there and it showed four swabbies
you know, out there in their uniforms. Saluting and everything just clicked and white
and clean, you know, and one fella by it and said, "I want education." You know... The other fellow
says, "I want to travel" and one of them says, "I want adventure." And then
right across that an almost illegible print, somebody taken a big
black felt marker and written, "I want out."
{laughter}
Now, it's a real testimony, brother, that's from somebody who knows. What is your
hope in? Let me ask you, you're hoping in your family? How you know your family
won't desert you? How you know your family won't betray you? How you know
your family won't pile so many bills up over your head you won't be
able to pay you out? Is that what you hope is? Listen, when you reject Jesus
Christ, you go out that door abandoning the only
real hope any man or woman ever had. There is no real hope outside of Jesus
Christ. Do you realize that when you sit down to dinner tonight, or supper,
or whatever you call it, there's been 35,000 more people come into this
world than when you ate breakfast? That's not even counting the ones who died. 65,000 of
them died. When you sat down this morning at breakfast they begin to be born and
when you sit down at supper tonight at 5 or 6 they're 35,000 more people in this
world than when you set down. 65,000 of died while they were born or as they
were born after they're born but 35,000 got through. People people people people
people. Is that where you're going to put your hope?
It's like an ant bed. They just crawl across each other like
ants, man. Why, if 35,000 died today, you wouldn't even know their names. Do you put
hope in that? In the man who's like grass, the son of man who like the flower of
the grass? If you hope in the government... You're, you're not dumb enough put your
hope in the government, are you? Listen, if you want to see how the government take
care of folks, look at the American Indian. They sure took good care of him, didn't they?
I like what a kid said one time he said, My daddy's a civil serpent. {laughter}
He meant a civil service worker. But he said, "My daddy's a civil
serpent." Briefly, they just voted in the corporation tax in Pensacola
Folks put a lot of faith in that, you know. You know what that means? It means all the corporations
will raise their prices. You know that, don't you?
you know what you just voted in? You just voted a the tax in for yourself. That's all you
did. Folks are funny you know putting the faith in the government. You say, well
they put this tax on these corporations don't tax us. You put a tax on the
corporations, they just raise the price of it so you have to pay the extra tax. Anybody can
figure that out. You get inflation I'm not gonna put my face in any outfit like
that. A fellow wrote a book one time called, 'How I Made A Million Dollars' and
then the Internal Revenue wrote a book right after that saying, 'How We Got $800,000 of It'.
It don't pay to be a millionaire anymore,
Brother. I don't put my hope in any of these things. I don't put my hope in television or
science or all these modern inventions. I'm a real reactionary. I like what a
grandmother said to a grandchild one time. A grandchild said, "Grandmamma,
what did you do when you were a little girl? You didn't have any movies, and you didn't have
a television and you didn't have any cars." And she said, "Honey, we lived." We lived. A lot of truth
in that. Is your hope in your job? Is your hope in your job? You might lose your job
tomorrow. Some of you lost it already. A fellow went out to
the naval air station got working out there and they gave him his pay check and
he took one look at his paycheck and he said, "Well, I see the government got
another raise." You know what men have told me in this church. They've told me
when they got a raise, they made less money than before they got the thing. How
many of you know that to be so, let me see your hands! Look at that. There are
50 hands Isn't that weird? Boy, you'd be a fool to put your
faith in that, wouldn't you? Alright, the only sure hope for the future is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Someday he's going to come. Someday he's going to get me out
and he's got to get me out, the government's not going to help me, my
family is not going to help me, the United Nation is not going to help me,
and I can't help myself. He's gonna help me. And when you walk
out those doors as an unsaved man or woman, you throw away the only real hope
you can get. There is no other real hope. Go to the bank, borrow the money their in debt
up to the neck. Go the government. borrow the money. They're in $250 Billion
dollars. How can you borrow money from a bankrupt corporation? Alright,
number 4.) If you go out of this building this morning without receiving
Jesus Christ, it's going to cost you the highest manhood or womanhood that you got.
Did you know no man is what they ought to be until he's saved?And did you know no woman is
good as she could be until she's saved? I've heard men and women say well I think I'm
pretty good and I'm I'm a good as most folks. You're not at your peak. you're not
at your peak. You say, I'm as good as all these Christians. You could be better if you
got saved. I heard Southerners say, "Well, I don't believe in arguing the Bible, you know,
I don't believe in talking about politics or religion. Well, if you got saved, you'd have
enough manhood to do it. I talked to a fellow one time. He said, "There's
two things I never talk about. Politics and religion." A fellow here in this town.
I told him I thought you were more mature than that and he got real upset.
And he said, "What do you mean by that?" I said a man that can't discuss politics will not get
mad is a baby. He didn't appreciate that either. You know something I don't care how much
courage you got how much backbone you have as an unsaved man, you're never the
man that you could be if you were to get saved. Now, I know Rommel and Napoleon and
Charlemagne were great men. They weren't at their peak. They weren't at their peak.
A man is ALWAYS a better man for getting saved, a woman is ALWAYS a better woman
for being saved. You say, I know a lot of them that do this, that, and so forth and so on.
Yeah, but think of the mess you'd be in if you weren't saved.
There isn't a man a woman in this building and that wouldn't be a sorrier
man or woman if you had received Jesus Christ. And when you don't trust him, you lose your
highest manhood or your highest womanhood. There's something degrading about not
being right the moral issue. There is something devitalizing and about it to
quote a 20th century cliche. There's something that...there's something that is detrimental
about a man sitting in a chair and knowing in his heart that he is wrong and
ought to make it right and won't make it right. It sucks your manhood. It takes your
courage. It makes you less than a man. I talked
to a fellow one time challenging me to a fight and this and that. I just made fun of him. I
called him Charlie Brown and told him to go get a bottle and suck on it.
He was awful upset. And I told that fella I said, "You know what you think? You think a
man is a man that go around and get in a brawl with somebody. I said, "A man is a man
that will take responsibility, does not pass the blame off on somebody else
and be responsible for his condition and do what he can, what he ought to do and thank
God that God gives him what he can give him and what he can't do he doesn't
worry about, he turns it over the Lord. You know you're not a man, your Whistler's Mother,
man, you're a campfire girl." Oh, he got mad! Oh he got mad! You know, something I don't
care how brave you are or how much courage you got. You'd be a better man if you
were to get saved. And you'd have more courage if you were to get saved and
you'd be a better woman. You want to be less than a man than you ought to be? How
about you men here? You want to be half a man? Well, then, stay unsaved. I know
it's irritating to hear a fella talk that way. I go to these camps in the summertime, I
put it on them. I call them everything but white men. And you know something?
Some of those young man sit under there and they just stew under that thing and
burn under that thing and smolder under that thing, and boy, and you what happens? They get
right with God and go on and set the woods on fire. That's what
happens. I want them come around me at the end of
all those camps, last summer. A kid about 20 years old bull neck, you know
about a 17 inch neck. Shoulders come out of his ears, you know, look like he's
been playing, oh you know, linebacker for the Detroit Lions for about--is that a football team? I don't know... {laughs}
...umm... Green Bay Packers for 20 years. That old boy came around there you know,
when he came up there and he said duh he said, "You got me all upset." I said, "Good,
good." and he said, "You talk about this thing as
though there was something really exciting about it." I said, "There is." And he said, "I
wish I could do that." He said, "I wish I cared about that." He said, "I don't have the
courage. I'd like to get in on that stuff. It interests me." Yes it does and
you know something you could never be the man you oughta be by rejecting Jesus
Christ. Have you counted the cost? A fella takes out the ledger, opens the ledger and says, "Well, if I
accept Christ I'll have to give up this and give up this give up this and quit
doing this and quit doing this and start doing this and start doing this. Not
today. Some other time when I have a more convenient time I'll call for thee." And
over in the other side of the ledger it says if I don't trust Christ 'I'll give
up joy. I'll give up peace of mind. I'll give up a clear conscience. I'll give up
happiness. I'll give up for sure hope for the future. I'll give up my manhood. I'll
give up my womanhood. Have you counted the cost? You ought to count the cost before you
turn down an invitation. Alright, one time a teacher said to little boy
looking at his drawing, he's making a drawing, she said, "Honey, that line isn't
straight." And he said, "Well, I'll straighten out later." And she said, "Honey, a line that
drawn straight doesn't have to be straighten out later." See? The thing is to do
is to draw it straight to start with. You won't have to worry about getting it
straight later. So, the thing to do is start with Christ then later you won't have
so much to straighten out. Alright, last. It cost God's favor and eternal
life. When you walk out these doors this morning the same way you came in,
unconverted, unregenerate, alone in the world, without hope, without God, you go out
these doors in God's disfavor. I don't hesitate to say
it to you. John chapter 3 verse 36 says, He that believeth the son hath everlasting
life and he that BELIEVETH NOT the son SHALL NOT SEE LIFE but the wrath of God
abideth. Present tense. 'abideth on him'. Now, nearly everybody wants to belong. I've heard it
said that's why young people get in so much trouble in high school. They get in
high school and they get a gang spirit. Everybody wants to be accepted. Now, let
me ask you this: Are you willing to go out that door this
morning KNOWING that GOD DOES NOT ACCEPT YOU, that you're not in fellowship with
him. That He does NOT APPROVE of you and there's no togetherness between you and
your Creator? Well, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. I go out that door, He's
my father. I'm His son. I'm in fellowship with him
and I have his approval. And you can never get it unless you trust him as your
Savior. Young people--- they say they get in trouble cuz they hangout in gangs.
You know, they want to belong. Everybody wants to belong. I know some Christian that
just want everybody to accept them. They didn't want to have anybody for an enemy.
And they tried so hard. And they still have enemies, but they got a lot of people to
be their friends. Well, do you want to walk out that door this morning knowing
God is NOT your friend? it'll cost you God's favor. It'll
cost you eternal life. You'll incur the wrath of God. The wrath of God. You go out that
door this morning you say well Bro. Ruckman, if I were to get saved and they
expect me to do this and that and this and that. And where I work they call me 'preacher'. They make
fun of me. my relatives will probably get mad at me. Fella said to me one time if I were to
get saved. My home would break up. Fella said to me one time, "If I tried to get saved,"
he said, "My relatives give me a fit." I heard a fella say one time he said that
"If I were to get saved, I'd lose my job." A fella said to me one time over here near
Widdham School, he drove a beer truck. He said, "Preacher, if I to get saved I'd
have to make a different kind of a living I've got three children and I've
got to make a living. See driving this here beer truck." And so when you ask a
man to receive Jesus Christ he counts up that cost and he says, "If I get saved, I'll
have to do this and this and this." Let me tell you something, fella if you don't trust
Christ as your savior, you're gonna have to give up eternal life. You're gonna have
to get give up God's favor, and you're gonna have to feel the cup of wrath
poured out with fury upon those that aren't his children. I don't hesitate to
say that. I know that's a dangerous thing to say these days, but you might as
well say it. It's in the book. It's in the book. Oh, to live forever! Do you
want to give up eternal life? I look at a congregation of people here
this morning and some of you need vitamin pills. Your faces are white. You're
not getting enough liver. I look at some of you this morning and you're
nervous and upset. You're flunking your grade at school. There might be some of you here
this morning you got a social problems and family problems and education problems. I
can't solve. I don't even profess to be able to. I ain't that bright. I have enough trouble
trying to solve my own. I look at people here this morning some
you don't have enough money to pay your bills.
I look at people here this morning you got all you got every kind of problem
the word. You want this, you want that, you want the other thing like old Moses said
one time back in the book of Numbers, said that these people be almost ready to
stone me. I can't carry all these people like a nursing father carries a sucking
child. He said it's enough, man, it's breaking
my back. I can't stand it. All these needs and wants and yet you know
something? I've got an ace in the hole. I know one thing that EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND
CHILD IN THIS BUILDING WANTS and needs. You want to live forever? You said, "Not me.
Yeah. Yes, you. That's why you stay alive. Why don't you go off and die if you don't want to
live forever? You know a fella says, "I want money." You want it til you get it. Then,
you want something else. You say, "I want love." you want it until you get it, then you want
something else. The grass is always greener... You want
popularity til you get it, then you want something else. I can't imagine anything
any worse than being a notable movie star or television star.
I CANNOT imagine anything any worse. I really can't. No privacy at all. Somebody
poking a camera at your breakfast nook in the morning, take a picture what kind of
cereal you eat so they can advertise it on television set. You want all these things, but good
people, more than anything, you want to
live forever. Now, are you going to live
forever? Are you gonna live forever in fellowship with your Creator? I am. That's
my profession. Someday I'm gonna leave here, and when I leave here, I'm gonna live
forever and ever and ever and ever in fellowship with my Creator. Why? I did
what he told him what he told me to do. He said, "Ruckman, you're a sinner."
I said, "Amen." He said, "You're going to hell." I said, "Amen." He said, "You can't save
yourself." Of course, I didn't say it, you know, in so many ways like that, but all
kind of have a sense to us, you know. "And you're going to hell." "Amen."
"You can't save yourself." "Amen." "And my Son CAN save you." "Amen." "And will you trust him?"
"Yes, Lord. I will trust him." And I'm going. Have you counted the cost? Back during
World War II, October the 20th, D-day 1944, a Japanese ship sank a cruiser
called the Honolulu. Out in the Philippine Sea. And that Japanese ship put a torpedo
into that Cruiser and it sank. And down there on the third deck was a radio--
radio man third class, whatever that is I don't know the Navy well enough to know what that is,
a radio man third class and his name is Lee and Lee was down there three decks
below deck and that torpedo and when hit, it opened up a 25-foot hole in the side of
that Cruiser. And that water came in, that boy came out of his bunk screaming and
all the lights in the place off and he heard water and the floor was wet and he got
a flashlight on and found a hole there in the bulkhead about the size of
a pillow and the hatches were gone but the hole was there and he took the
mattress and stuffed it in that hole and stopped it and then he noticed about
fifteen little holes about the size of pencils in that room and water coming in
them. Then he remembered the battle phones on the intercom and he went over there and got
that intercom on all and got on there and everybody was on at the same time
and everybody was screaming and yelling and nobody could hear him and he began
to cry and scream over that thing and finally it got quiet enough where
somebody could talk to him. And the captain of the ship, a man named Thurber,
said, "Well, how's it going, Lee boy?And he said, "I can't get out I'm drowning." And
the captain said, "We'll do the best we can to get you out, but," he said, "I've
given the order to abandon ship." And he fainted. And when he fainted, he fell down
about a foot of water and revived him and he got up again and got on that
intercom and they got one of his friends there, a fella named Bill something or another, I
don't remember his last name and Bill got on there and said, "They're doing all they can to
to get you out Lee, but we have to abandon ship. I sure am sorry.
He said, "You got any morphine down there?" And there was some morphine in the first-aid
kit in one of those compartments. And he said, "Yes." And Bill said, "They called by
a destroyer to put a shot into the ship and finish it." And he said, "If I were
you I take some morphine and go to sleep."
He said, "I'll let you know I'll be the last one to leave the ship or the
captain said I'll let you know what we're going
do and maybe rather go that way and he said I'll try to have them make a
direct hit when they hit." And he fainted again, hit
that floor in came to again, got up on that intercom. When he got up, there was a
chaplain on there and the chaplain began to tell him some jokes. And he stood there
he said his brain began to swim again, you know, and he couldn't keep his senses
about him and didn't hear anything the man said and after about 15 minutes he began to
come to it and the chaplain was reading the Psalm 23. And he realized, he was
reading his funeral. And then he hung up that intercom waited around that floor
with that flashlight praying and praying and praying and the water getting higher
and higher almost up to his knees and after about an hour of that thing. He
heard the intercom again and he picked the thing up and a fellow said we called
a couple of tugs alongside. They're going to try to get you out. And he began
to scream, "Well hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" And that water get higher and higher
above his knees now. And he prayed and prayed and wept and wept. He said he
began thinking about his mom and daddy back home washing dishes and getting
food ready, knew he was getting delirious and after about two hours you're
clinking banging around there in the water up almost up to his waist and he got an
intercom said, "For God's sake hurry! For God's sake, hurry! I'm gonna drown. And
they said, "We tried to put a cofferdam over the overhead and we couldn't get it
over. But," they said, "there's a fire room right next to your bulkhead we'll try to
cut through the bulkhead from the fire room number four and try to get through there
to you." Another two hours went by and he walked around there that water got
up to his waist and he prayed and prayed and prayed and wept and wept and
wept and pretty soon somebody over the intercom got him when he picked up that
time he said, "You can't do it. You can't do it. I'm gonna drown!" They said. "Now, just
take it easy, take it easy. We're doing all we can." And they said, "Put your hand on
the wall." And he went over and put his hand that bulkhead there that began to
turn kind of warm. Somebody had an acetone torch on the other side of that
thing. And then, it turned pink and then it turned red and he began to scream and
thank God and run down that water now clear up near his chest and a shower of
sparks came through there and lit the place on fire there was oil floating on
top. The oil caught on fire. And he went under that water and then beat
off the water blow and tried to get breath and took the rest of the clothes
off the bed and smothered that thing and the water was about to his shoulders
they broke a hole about that big around and he dove
for that thing, tried to get through it, got cut getting through. It wasn't big enough for
him. He didn't care. And he's yelling, "PULL! PULL! PULL!" You know, and they yanked him
through there and got him through there all cut up and bloody. And they got him
out and he came out on deck and went to sick bay and got bandaged up and Lee
said after he got feel a little bit better he got out walking around the
back of that ship which is about four feet above the water and he said he
walked around there and saw a whole bunch of men lying there on the deck all
wrapped up and bandaged like mummies and blood soaking through their bandages.
And he met his friend Bill there in the deck there came up to him and said,
"Why Lee," he said, You're crying. You're crying," And Lee said, "Yeah," he said, "These men look
like the dying." And Bill said, "They are dying. They are dying. we'll put them over the side in a
while." And Lee said he walked around the deck of that ship look out there cross
the shore saw the destroyers, and the tug boats, the supply ships and he said
as he walked up and down that deck he kept thinking, "I wonder why the whole
Navy would take 20 hours out just to get me out of the place like I was in. And
I'll tell you, brother, I may spend an eternity in glory walking around and
wondering why God went to the trouble he went to to save an old God
forsaken-rascal like me but he saved me. And someday I'm gonna wash the sleep out of
my eyes from the Fountain of Life and wash the tears out of my eyes
from a backhand of a palm that was pierced and wounded for my
transgressions and bruised for my iniquities and I've never know gonna know what it's
like to have to drown under the wrath of God in a lake of fire. And if I you,
I'd count the cost. Let's pray. Father, we pray this morning for Souls
of men and women, boys and girls, bound for eternity. Lost, unprepared to meet God.
Help them to count the cost this morning of losing enduring joy and peace and
happiness and the clear conscience they need so badly and eternal life and the
only real hope this world has to offer. Lay this message in the heart. May
somebody here this morning walk these aisles and confess Jesus Christ as
Savior and pass from death to life to the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. We
ask it the name the Lord Jesus Christ and for his sake. Amen. Amen.
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