<TITLE>16. Par 137-144</TITLE>L-137 Now, what if I'd say, "Oh, I can't do it. Cause, I'll tell you why. She'd divorce me, and I got... Oh, I'm a preacher. See what that'd do? They'll take me out of the pulpit, if she'd divorce me. 'A divorced man, oh!' I got three children; I couldn't think of that. But, boy, I..."? Well, if that's the way it is, you're still legal. It's not legal basis that I married her upon. It's not legal basis that makes me live true to her. It's because I love her. I don't have to do anything. I do it willfully because it's a love affair. And if you love your wife, you'll do the same thing.

L-138   And if you love your wife like that, with phileo love, what ought you to do to Christ with agapao love, which is a million times stronger, if you really love God? If I knowed tonight I could go out and get on a drunk, if I knowed tonight I could run around and be immoral, if I knowed, tonight; if that was even in my heart to do so, and I went and done it, knowing He would forgive me, I wouldn't do it. I think too much of Him. I love Him. Sure. Certainly.

L-139   That's the reason I wouldn't sell my experience to any denomination, (no, sir), no Assemblies of God, no church of God, no Pilgrim Holiness, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic. I wouldn't take anything that could be offered, for this experience. Because, it never come by man. It come by God. No, sir. I wouldn't sell my birthrights for any Elvis Presley's rock-and-roll, or for his fleet of Catholics, or his Cadillacs, or his million dollars, and so forth, he gets each month. No, sir. I love Him. And if I... Long as I love Him like that, I'll stay true to Him. And if God has called me and elected me, He has placed something in me, and I love Him.

L-140   I remember Mr. Isler. You all know him, most all of you. He's come out here, state senator of Indiana; come here, play his guitar. When my baby had died, my wife had died, and all of them laying up here on the graveyard. And I was going up the road, with my hands behind me, crying. He jumped out of his little, old truck, and come put his arm around me, said, "Billy, I want to ask you a question." Said, "I've heard you preach till you almost fall in the pulpit. Heard you on the street corners and everything, crying out for Christ." Said, "Now He took your daddy. He took your brother. Snatched them both, and they died in your arms. There he die. Your wife died, holding your hands. And your baby died, and you calling on Him to help you. And He turned His back on you. What do you think about Him."

L-141 I said, "I love Him with all that's within me. If He sends me to hell, I'll still love Him." He's just. I don't say that; twenty-six years has proved it. That's right.

L-142   If you love Him! Not a duty, that, "I can't do this, and I can't do that." You love Him too much to do it, because He has chosen you. You never chose Him. He chose you.

L-143 You said, "I sought the Lord, and sought the Lord."
"No man seeks God." It's God, seeking man. You might be seeking a favor of Him, but God has to change your nature before you can even seek after Him. Because, you're a sinner, you're a pig. That's right.

L-144   And some of you people going to church and just living by your membership, go out here and do everything in the world, and then still go back and say, "Yeah, I belong to the church." Well that's a long ways from belonging to God. Certainly. I don't... But, you see, people doing that, you can tell. Oh, they're good church members. That's true. You can still be a church member and do those things, but you can't be a Christian and doing them.


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