Two Legs or a Piece of an Ear
Dr. Dennis Corle
Dr. Corle is the Editor and Publisher of Revival Fires
“Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.” (Amos 3:12)
The children of Israel were in an unequal yoke and in bondage at the same time. They were marked for judgment, as were the people that had oppressed them. God is speaking through His prophet Amos. He said, “...As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear...”
He is talking about something that’s been ravaged by the enemy. We have a helpless sheep, and a lion has partially devoured what was precious to the shepherd. Rather than let the lion finish it off, rather than let him have the last few bites, He is going to pull it out of the mouth of the lion, just like a shepherd who loved that sheep would tenderly pull what was left out of the mouth of the lion. He’s not going to say, “Well, it’s almost all gone, so who cares?”
Have you ever stood beside the casket of somebody you loved? You and I are smart enough to know the real person is gone, but there is something precious about that housing, that body, what is left, something precious about that image. You don’t want to desecrate it. You don’t want anybody mistreating the remains of your loved one. There is something valuable even though their person is already gone to glory.
A shepherd that loved and cared for the sheep, he didn’t want the lion to get them to start with. He’d rather have them alive and intact and undamaged, but if the lion took one of the sheep and killed and ravaged it, and all that was left was two legs or a piece of an ear, the shepherd would fight the lion to salvage what was left. He wouldn’t give up or leave behind that beloved little lamb.
There wasn’t much left to Israel in this situation, but God was not going to give up on them. Sometimes we look around at the condition of America and think there is not much left, but we’d better not give up, because God can do quite a bit with two legs or a piece of an ear. God still cares even though something has been damaged and mangled.
In Luke 15:4, the Lord Jesus was talking to some Pharisees when He said, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Did you notice the tenacity of the shepherd, his desire? In the text he says if he finds it alive, he picks it up and carries it back and rejoices and puts it back in the flock. What if he finds it dead? What if he finds it wounded and damaged? Do you think he just walks away?
Too often, you and I look at things that are marred and devoured by the devil and say, “That’s broken. You can’t use it.” But God looks at it and says, “If it’s intact, I can’t use it. It needs to be broken.”
The Bible says the shepherd goes after that which is lost until... until nightfall? Until he got tired and cold and discouraged? Until he heard a wolf howl? No, that’s the hireling that doesn’t care anything for the sheep. He flees because he is a hireling. He’s not going to fight for those two legs that are left. He’s not going to fight for that piece of an ear. He’s not going to jeopardize his own safety in an attempt to salvage something that’s being devoured. We’d better get back to the business of salvaging what is left. Instead of criticizing the damage, we’d better salvage what we can. Instead of giving up because it’s in bad shape, maybe we ought to fight the lion that’s seeking whom he may devour and pull two legs or a piece of an ear out of his mouth in order to salvage the little bit that is left.
In John 10:11, Jesus is speaking of Himself and said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Do you realize the huge price He paid and how little He got in return out of the best of us? Has it ever dawned on you that when you got saved, God didn’t get much? I’m glad for young people that grow up in a Christian home and get saved at five years old. My children got saved very young. They never tasted alcohol or experienced drugs growing up.
But everybody doesn’t have that testimony. Do you remember where you were when God saved you? He didn’t get much, folks. We better be thankful somebody was trying to pull two legs or a piece of an ear out of the mouth of the lion. The enemy had just about finished you off. You were nigh unto gone. The grace of God and somebody that cared made a difference in your life and eternity.
David was standing before Saul trying to convince him that he was prepared to go down into the valley of Elah and fight Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. He reminded Saul that when he watched his father’s sheep, a lion and a bear had come and he had to fight for the sheep. We are not talking about a soldier here, but a young lad, a teenage boy. Watch what he said in I Samuel 17:34-35. “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock.” The lion and the bear each took a lamb out of the flock. David could have said, “Well, that one is gone. Too bad, but we still have this many. No use going after a bear. The lamb’s probably already dead, probably too mangled to live.”
No, the Bible says in verse 35, “And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.” What shape do you think those sheep were in when he got them out of the mouth of the lion and out of the mouth of the bear? They were in bad shape, but David thought they were still worth fighting for. He was not about to let the lion or the bear devour what was left unchallenged. He was not willing to let them take those sheep without a fight.
“...And when he arose against me...” When you start trying to take something out of the mouth of the lion, he is going to attack. First Peter 5:8 gives us an application. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” He’s on the prowl, out to devour souls and testimonies. He is out to devour our marriages and our children. He is out to devour our walk with God. He is out to devour our ministry. The lion is ferocious and he devours all that he can.
In this text, there wasn’t much left to Israel, but he is not going to let the lion have those two legs, or a piece of an ear. That’s not much, is it? The shepherd cares about it, even if all he has left is a piece of an ear. He extracts it from the lion’s mouth. He is not going to stand there and watch him finish it off and devour what is left. God is telling us, “Don’t give up on these folks whose lives are pretty mangled. Leave nothing behind. If you can’t save the life, at least show respect to the remains.”
I believe we have some kind of a protocol like that in the military, where a fallen comrade is not left laying there to rot. They don’t let the enemy have his body. His fellow soldier is going to bring him home. Pay him some respect.
We are pretty good critics in our generation, but we are not much on salvaging two legs or a piece of an ear. We are not much on fighting the lion that destroys the sheep. Instead, we are pretty good at finishing them off when the devil has them mangled. We are pretty good at doing them in when they are already in bad shape. What happened to that compassion Christians had back in the 70’s when I got saved? What happened to the burden we had? Whenever we would be tickled to death to get two legs or a piece of an ear, no matter what shape lives were in, to get someone saved and bring them to church and encourage them to grow in grace? Where did that go?
That was back when we were in storefronts. We weren’t much, didn’t think we were much, but we were having revival and we were thrilled to pull anything out of the mouth of the lion. Whatever was left, we’d gladly take and cherish it. We had a love for souls. Don’t let the lion have any more than he has already got. It would be a wonderful thing if we had a revival of that today in independent Baptist churches.
I assure you the shepherd didn’t want the sheep to wander from the flock. He did not want the lion to get one of his lambs to start with. He would fight to prevent that and we should as well, but if the damage is done and if the lion has attacked, and if they are damaged and marred and scarred, you may find there’s not much left, but it represents something precious to the shepherd. You and I ought to salvage what we can. If you can’t save the whole sheep, at least salvage what is left.
Most of us are like the priest and the Levite on the road, when the old boy was lying there half-dead and the good Samaritan finally came along. He had already been exploited. He had been beaten, robbed, stripped of his clothing. He was lying there half-dead. The priest came by. You know, a man of the cloth, a religious guy, somebody in the ministry. He passes by and looks at the fella, and he is so mangled, in such bad shape. “What could I do for him? He is too far gone. I’m really busy. He is awful repulsive looking. I have a suit on. I wouldn’t want to dirty myself with him.” It doesn’t matter that he is half-dead. Maybe he could be nurtured back to life. Maybe something could be done to help him. He passes by on the other side. The Levite comes along who labored in the ministry. He looks at him and passes by on the other side.
Then the guy who had the least motive to do anything, a Samaritan. There was bad blood and prejudice between the Jews and Samaritans. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, she said, “...How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” (John 4:9)
This Samaritan stopped to help, and poured oil and wine into his wounds. He bound him up and put him on his beast and took him to an inn and gave his own money and did all he could. It didn’t look good. There wasn’t much left. He was half-dead and could never reciprocate this kindness, nothing he could do to say thank you. The Good Samaritan was not even sure he would make it, but whether he makes it or he doesn’t, I’m going to do all I can. He may die in spite of me, but I’ll do my best.
Some of us are about like Peter when he saw the sheet let down with the unclean beasts on it and he was told to go to the Gentiles. “But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.” (Acts 10:14) The scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus because He ate with publicans and sinners. Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He said, “Some of you have your own righteousness. I can’t help you, but these sinners know they are lost. I came to deliver them out of the mouth of the lion. I know they are in bad shape and there is not much left, but I came to pull two legs or a piece of an ear from the lion’s mouth. I’m going to salvage what I can.”
Don’t discount the value of what’s left. “It’s only two legs. It’s only a piece of an ear. This guy is half-dead.” If I understand my Bible, in Genesis 1:1, God started with nothing. By His Word, He spoke worlds and universes into existence. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Let me ask you a question. If God can create everything you see and know about and start with nothing, I wonder what He could do with two legs, or a piece of an ear? I wonder what He could do with what is pulled from the mouth of the lion?
When I got saved, God didn’t get much more than two legs or a piece of an ear. I’m not proud of where I came from. I was a bouncer in a barroom and a drug addict. When God saved me, I had a hard time carrying on a coherent conversation. My mind was that fried. I couldn’t really keep my thoughts together, but I guess God could do something with two legs or a piece of an ear. I assure you He didn’t get much, but God has done so many good things that I am always in amazement. He didn’t start with much more than a piece of an ear, but God has saved thousands and thousands of souls and allowed me to be a part of it.
You’d be surprised what God can use. God can use what you think you can’t use. People will sometimes look down on someone with sin or baggage in their past, but God could use three murderers to write the Bible. I’m not justifying anybody’s sin. I’m just telling you God is a loving God, a forgiving God, and He wants to salvage and use what is left while Christians trample it under foot. Some of you think you are holier than God. God can use stuff that you can’t use. You don’t have a heart for people, do you? “Because there’s nothing left but a piece of an ear, just cast that aside and let the lion have it. Who cares? There is not much left.” Maybe you were fortunate enough to grow up in a Christian home and never strayed, but I assure you, even if you never got out in sin, God didn’t get much when He got you either, pal. You are still a sinner saved by the grace of God just like the rest of us. We are but dust. We are wretched sinners, even those who didn’t have to be retrieved from the mouth of the lion. We are not so hot, even if we think we are.
Did you ever notice what God chooses to use in I Corinthians 1:27-28? “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:” Notice the word chosen. It didn’t say God settled for. If I have chosen something, it means there were other options. God chose the weak things over the strong things. He chose the foolish things over the wisdom of the world. He chose the things that were despised over the things that men exalted and elevated. Why? If all God has to work with is a piece of an ear, then everybody is going to know He did it. If all He has is two legs, everybody is going to know it wasn’t the two legs that did it. God used them, but it was God at work here.
This isn’t about me or you. It’s about God getting glory. Don’t be discouraged. Your life may be a wreck, but God will take two legs or a piece of an ear and use it to save lost souls and bring glory to Himself. He’ll do something with it that will shock you, and shock all the critics and skeptics, as well.
When I was lost, there were two people in my life that absolutely were not willing to let me die and go to Hell. That was my mother and dad. My dad was the first one in our family to get saved. Two weeks later my mother got saved. Six months later I got saved. They worked on me and prayed for me and witnessed to me. The more they witnessed to me, the angrier I got. The more they prayed for me, the more miserable I got. I was under deep conviction, but I didn’t know what conviction was. The only thing I knew was that I got in a state where I couldn’t enjoy my sin anymore, and it made me mad, but they wouldn’t let me alone.
My dad had about as much tact as a wounded buffalo. I’d sit down at the kitchen table. My dad would look at me and say, “Denny, if you don’t get saved, you are going to die and go to Hell.” I’d come home at two o’clock in the morning, and my mother would have a big meal warming in the oven. She’d get it out and put it on the table. When I’d sit down to eat, she’d get the Bible out and start reading the book of Revelation, back there where the locusts come out of the pit and sting men for five months and they want to die and can’t die. She’d tell me, “Now Denny, if you don’t get saved, you are going to miss the Rapture and this is what is going to happen.” I ate a big meal at two-thirty in the morning, go to bed after listening to that, and I rolled around all night with those things stinging me in my dreams.
When I finally got saved, I went back to Small Tube Products where I worked and started witnessing to everything that moved. I had a locker full of Gospel tracts and gave them to everybody. There were three men I witnessed to on the job that I had worked with for a couple years. All three of them said, “I’m already saved.”
You forgive me, but that made me kind of angry. I said, “You are, huh? How come you didn’t tell me? You thought God wouldn’t have a filthy sinner like me, would He? I’m not worth your effort or your time. You already had me consigned to Hell. God wouldn’t have a guy like me.” All that’s left is two legs. Nothing but a piece of an ear. Why talk to him?
My dad got saved when he was 39 years old, after he had a heart attack. He had been witnessed to numerous times and he believed all the facts, but he wouldn’t get saved. That is pretty young to have a heart attack, 39. The doctors told him, “You won’t live more than a year. You may not live six months.” That put the fear of God in him. Some guys he worked with had witnessed to him, and one of them was a lay preacher in a little country church. Dad went down there the Sunday after he got out of the hospital and heard Chuck Nycum preach. He came back home, got a Bible, went over in the woods and sat down under a hickory tree and read the Gospel of John. That Sunday afternoon he asked the Lord to save him. There wasn’t much left when he got saved. He was 39 years old, only supposed to have six months to live.
But when God saved my dad there was a big turn-around. No more cigarettes in the pocket, no more beer in the refrigerator. He started going to church every service. He started witnessing to his family and praying for his brothers, and working on me. Over time he became the junior church preacher, a faithful soulwinner, tithed, gave to missions, and God let him live another 16 1/2 years. God took what was almost over and got 16 and a half years of service and soulwinning and labor out of his life. My dad was not a religious guy or a church goer when I was growing up. He drank on the weekends, and liked to fist fight at the bars. There wasn’t much left when he asked the Lord to save him, but God took what was left and did something miraculous and supernatural. God didn’t write him off.
Do you know how many times you and I have disappointed God? Do you know what shape you’ve been in sometimes and nobody knew it but you and God? Don’t look at me so pious? The only thing holding your halo up is your horns! You don’t fool anybody. Do you know how patient God has been with you? Do you know how little He got when He saved you and me? Do you know how little He gets most of the time? Do you know how much more the lion gets out of you than God does sometimes? Even now, if our hearts have strayed, when we cry out to Him, He’ll take two legs or a piece of an ear and tenderly pluck it out of the mouth of the lion. He’ll use and bless and empower that little bit that’s left and do something with it.
My Uncle Donnie was a drunk. When my dad got saved, he started praying for all his brothers. I never heard him pray that he didn’t pray for Donnie, Barry, Bob, Outch and Cecil. He was serious about getting his family saved. I had witnessed to my Uncle Donnie. God had already called me to the ministry. I was the preacher in the family. I had witnessed to my Uncle Donnie at least 15 or 20 times. He was never arrogant. He would just hang his head and say, “Denny, I’m not ready.”
I said, “Donnie, you are not getting any younger. This is urgent. You need to get saved.” I had witnessed to him many times and couldn’t win him. I guess I started to think he might never get saved.
But my dad was unwavering. My Uncle Donnie got sick and went to the hospital for a couple weeks. My dad went to see him on Monday after work. He cleaned up, grabbed his Bible and went to the hospital, witnessed to Donnie, read the Bible to him, prayed for him. He tried to win him to Christ but he wouldn’t get saved. Tuesday as soon as he got off work, he showered, grabbed his Bible, went to the hospital and read the Bible to Donnie, witnessed to him, prayed with him. He wouldn’t get saved. He went on Wednesday and Thursday and did the same. Finally Friday night, he came home from work and was really burdened. He got cleaned up, grabbed his Bible, went to the hospital and walked into Donnie’s room. Donnie was sitting on the edge of the bed. He said, “Donnie, your health is bad and you don’t know how long you have. You know you need to get saved.”
My Uncle Donnie looked at my dad and said, “I know that, Arnie. I’m going to do that tonight. I’ve been waiting for you to get here.” What if he hadn’t showed up one more time? What if he had given up on two legs or a piece of an ear? Donnie was 57 years old and drinking had destroyed his health. Most of his life was gone. He didn’t own a home, couldn’t hold down a job, drove junkers, and many nights slept in the car. There wasn’t much left, but somebody cared and was not about to let the lion have what was left. Somebody was willing to fight for what was left and pulled that one from the jaws of the enemy.
Do you even remember? Some of us have been saved too long. We’ve forgotten where we came from, haven’t we? Do you forget that God didn’t get much and still doesn’t have much in you and me? If God does great things, glory be to God, because it’s all Him.
When Jesus saved that thief on the cross, there wasn’t much left. Just moments before facing eternity, the one thief, after observing the Lord Jesus, said to the other that railed on Him, “...Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42)
Did Jesus say, “Too late. There is nothing left. You wasted your life, so you can’t get saved now. I’m not going to let anybody get saved on their deathbed.” Now, I’m not encouraging folks to wait that late. I’m just saying that you don’t know how good our God is, do you? You’ve forgotten. Some folks have become such Pharisees. Jesus said to him, “...Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” He didn’t get much. The guy couldn’t go soulwinning. He couldn’t become a church member or even get baptized. He couldn’t make a public profession or serve the Lord. But Jesus still saved him. There wasn’t anything left, no opportunity to live for God. All He got was two legs or a piece of an ear, but He was glad to get it. That’s what He died for, what was precious to Him. Maybe it ought to be precious to us, too.
Old Lazarus was already saved when we hear about him in Luke 16. He didn’t have much, did he? Here is a guy that didn’t have good health, didn’t have any friends, didn’t have any influence. He didn’t have any money, didn’t have a house and didn’t have food, but God still used him. You say, “What do you mean God used him?” That rich guy didn’t get saved, but when the rich man got to Hell, who was it he asked for? “Send Lazarus,” that two legs and the piece of an ear who sat at my gate. Why didn’t he ask for his rich banker friends? Because none of them cared for his soul. The only guy that ever cared for his soul was that old boy out there that didn’t have much. He was wasted as far as this world is concerned. He was despised, but he was a testimony for Christ, a witness. There was treasure in that earthen vessel. The rich man never took notice until it was too late. God loved and used Lazarus even though there wasn’t much left.
That prodigal left home proud. He was going to show them all how it’s done. It was a willful act, but it was a bad, bad decision. Everybody thinks they’re right. If they didn’t think it was a good choice, they probably wouldn’t make it, but it’s not built on Bible principle and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and it is taking you down. This boy left home saying, “Give me what is mine.” He took off for the far country, went and spent it all. He squandered all he had in a dissipated life, found himself in a hog pen.
When that boy came to back down the road he was probably thirty pounds lighter than he left, in rags for clothing, but that daddy sitting on the porch recognized his boy’s walk. He saw him come over the brow of the hill. He didn’t write him off because there wasn’t much left. He had wasted his inheritance and shamed the family. He had lost it all and wrecked his life. That father jumped off the porch and ran out and scooped that boy up in his arms and put a kiss on his cheek and said, “My son was lost, but he is found. He was dead. He is alive.” He said, “Get a robe and a ring and a pair of shoes, and kill the fatted calf. We are going to make merry.” He didn’t say, “Son, you’re not welcome here anymore. Nothing left, you’ve wasted it.” He wasn’t concerned about what had been wasted, but what was left. He was glad to have his boy back.
I don’t know what has happened to us in fundamentalism. We are almost as bad as the Catholics and the Lutherans, almost to the place where we don’t care anything about anybody unless they can contribute. You might be shocked at what they could be used of God to do if you’d salvage that two legs or piece of an ear and quit worrying about what their resources are. Quit worrying about your projections, what you think.
In Matthew 20, the parable of the labourers, the Master is calling labourers into His vineyard. The work day started at 6:00 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. (This is before unions.) He went out before the 12 hour work day began and hired labourers. Then he went out the third hour of the day, nine o’clock in the morning, and hired more. He went out again at the sixth hour, high noon, and hired more. He went out at the ninth hour, three in the afternoon and hired more. Then he went out at the eleventh hour. He is still hiring labourers with one hour left in the work day. There are a lot of applications to that. I mean, God will take the last couple years of somebody’s life and use them. We can be just hours from the Rapture and God will save and use somebody. He is calling labourers till the last hour.
Everybody is despairing over the day and hour in which we live. “Well, it’s the last days.” I believe that. I believe Jesus is coming. I believe we will have the privilege to experience what every generation of Christians from Paul to us have anticipated. If you are in the last lap of a foot race, that’s when you give it the finishing kick. That’s when you exhaust every last ounce of energy.
If it is a Nascar race, you don’t go in for a pit stop and take your time on the last lap. That’s when you blow the engine trying to take the lead. Dale Earnhart went out in a blaze of glory. He was pushing. Like him or not, the last lap of the race coming up to that turn, getting close to cross the finish line, that’s when he crashed. That’s not the time to ease up. I’d rather crash and burn on the last turn than be sitting in the pits when the race ends.
“There is not much time left.” I believe that, but it ought to produce urgency, not despair. God can do quite a bit in a little space of time and He can do a lot with nothing. He’s proven that again and again. When God called Moses, he was 80 years old. He had killed a man. Some of you would have been convinced that God can’t use him. “Do you think it is okay to kill people?” No, I’m just telling you God used a forgiven sinner who had killed somebody, and used him pretty marvelously. I think he was the greatest leader of the Old Testament. God never justified Moses’ sin, but He did forgive and cleanse the sin. He did take what was left and used him marvelously because it was consecrated to God.
What do you think Jonah looked like when he came out of the whale’s belly? Jesus, making reference, says, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) What do you think he looked like and smelled like? He didn’t go home and shower. He hit the ground when that whale spewed him out and made his way to Nineveh preaching the message. I assure you there wasn’t much left. One of the greatest revivals of the Old Testament is recorded in that Book and God used a guy that came out of a whale’s belly, bleached by the digestive juices, half-dead, who had gotten in that shape by stupidity and rebellion and disobedience. God still used him. Two legs and a piece of an ear is quite a bit when it is in the hand of God.
In Jude verse 23 the Bible says that you and I are to be “...pulling them out of the fire.” Ephesians 2:6, talking about those of us that are saved, says we are seated in Heaven. Positionally, in Christ, I am already there. In other words, I am as sure of Heaven as if I had already arrived. On the other hand, those without Christ are presently seated in Hell. Positionally, they are already in the fire. Unless they get born again, they are just as sure of Hell as if they had already arrived, and you and I are to be pulling them out of the fire.
As a young convert, I liked to hear Dr. Oliver Green on the radio. Every day in his prayer he said, “Lord, save the soul that is nearest Hell.” Pulling them out of the fire. Pulling them out of the mouth of the lion, taking that mangled carcass, tenderly extracting it, fighting the lion with everything in you to salvage what is left, two legs or the piece of an ear.
When Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well of Sychar, there wasn’t much left. That was apparent when the disciples walked up, and asked in disbelief, “What seekest thou? What are you talking to her for? What does she have to offer? Do you know what kind of woman she is? Do you know what she’s done? She’s been married five times and now she is shacked up with a guy she is not married to.” Jesus never justified sin. As a matter of fact, He put her under deep conviction by facing her with her sin. She repented and He forgave her. Then He removed her sin as far as the east is from the west, buried it in the deepest sea, and used her to get a bunch of people saved the same day. She dropped that waterpot and left that old boy high and dry she had been shacked up with, went into town and said, “Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” Many believed on Him because of her word. Others said, “We are not going to believe it because you said so, but we’ll come and see Him for ourselves.” Still she is the one that got them there. She didn’t win them, but she got them to come to Jesus. When they heard Him, they believed, not because of her word, but because of His Word, but it was her word, her testimony, her changed life that got them there. There wasn’t much left when Jesus found her, but He must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because there was an old sinner at the well of Sychar. There wasn’t much left, just two legs or the piece of an ear, but He must needs go through Samaria because he cared, and because, as bad off as she was, her soul was still worth more than all the world.
What has happened to us in fundamentalism? That maniac of Gadara wasn’t much to look at. As a matter of fact, he was pretty scary and threatening. The Bible tells us that he is naked. He’s got a legion of demons in him. He’s ferocious. They couldn’t bind him with chains and fetters. He had supernatural strength. He’d just break them off, naked, living in the tombs, marring his body, cutting himself, crying out, tormented and miserable, till Jesus showed up. Jesus didn’t look at him and say, “Oh, that guy has great potential. He could really contribute.” No, it wasn’t about what he could contribute. It was about what Jesus could pull out of the mouth of the lion, rescuing what was left.
After he met Jesus, we find him sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. He wanted what every believer wants, to be with Jesus What a difference salvation made. No one would have ever imagined how God could save and change and use that poor old guy. He said, “I want to be with you, Lord” and Jesus said, “No, not yet. You go back home and tell your friends what great things the Lord has done for you.” The old boy went back and revival broke out in his homeland when they saw the transformation, when they saw what God had done with two legs and the piece of an ear, when they saw how God had transformed that dissipated life.
You might be surprised. I think maybe we’ve gotten out of the business of seeing what God can do. It’s all about what we can do or what someone can do for us. Our society is so far to the left that when you and I win souls to Christ today, it is a long journey back to normal, then another long journey from normal to spiritual. They don’t even understand things that you and I grew up with that were normal in society. They have been so programed with lies, their thinking is so distorted that when they get saved, it’s a long journey just to get them back to normal. Normal ain’t spiritual.
Even after they were dead, hopeless, gone, do you realize how many dead people Jesus raised back to life? He raised Lazarus from the dead and then used the guy for His glory. A crowd gathered because they wanted to see Lazarus. Do you think it is because he looked so good? No, it was because was dead and now he’s breathing, up walking around and talking. Do you remember what his sister said? When Jesus said, “Roll away the stone.” She said, “Lord, by this time he stinketh. He’s been dead four days. He’s already begun to decompose. There will be a terrible odor.”
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He can take two legs or a piece of an ear and do something miraculous. He can raise the dead back to life. It’s my job to get out there and salvage everything I can. It’s His job to put life in it. It’s His job to transform it, and He is well able.
In Elijah’s day, Judaism was in bad shape. First Kings 18, Baal worship was prevailing. Eight hundred fifty false prophets to one man of God. The people were halting between two opinions, double-minded. The altar of God had been broken down. Ahab was king. Jezebel, his wife, the first lady, and the land was under the judgment of God. Elijah could have just walked away, or God could have said, “I’m done with them.” No, He raised up somebody and Elijah went into an impossible situation. All he did was challenge the false prophets because they didn’t have a living God. Then he repaired the broken down altar, and prepared the sacrifice and drenched it with water and prayed a 63 word prayer and the fire of God fell and consumed the sacrifice and the wood and lapped up the water. Now they were no longer halting between two opinions. The people said, “The Lord, He is the God.” Revival broke out. There wasn’t much left, but when someone was ready to face the lion, revival broke out.
When the great awakening took place here in America in the 1700’s, there wasn’t much left. There was much formal religion, but not much true Christianity. It was mocked at and scoffed. Our God is the God of the impossible. He is well able to get it done.
Revelation 3:1-2 talks about the church at Sardis. “...thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” You are just alive in name only. “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die...” There is a bunch of other stuff in the mouth of the lion, ready to die. Don’t let him have it. Don’t let him have the old time religion. Don’t let him have good old-fashioned Christian music. Don’t let him have our standards of holiness. Don’t let him have our King James Bible. Don’t let him have fundamentalism. Don’t let him have our soulwinning zeal. Don’t let him have the bus ministry. Strengthen the things that remain!
Revelation 3:11, talking to the church of Philadelphia, He said, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast...” He said, “Don’t let the lion have anything else. Don’t let him have that last two legs or the piece of an ear. Whatever is left, don’t let go of it. Don’t let him have it. I don’t care what hour you live in.”
I’m trying to beg you not to give up on lost people just because their lives are a wreck. I knocked on a door in Michigan. Nobody came to the door. I knocked again and again. Nobody came. I said, “I’ll knock one more time. Maybe nobody is home.” When I knocked the fourth time I heard somebody coming down the steps. The guy opened the door, kind of spooky-eyed and said, “Yeah, what do you want?”
I said, “I’m a preacher holding a revival here in the area. I am out visiting and wanted to stop by and talk to you a minute.”
He said, “Who sent you?”
I said, “I guess God sent me,” because it was a cold door, and I didn’t have a card on him.
He said, “Do you know what I was doing?”
I said, “I don’t have a clue.”
He said, “I was up in the attic with a rope stretched over a rafter, getting ready to hang myself.” He said, “When you kept knocking on the door, I wanted to find out who it was.”
I said, “If I was you, I wouldn’t do that, buddy.” I gave him the Gospel and that boy got saved. There wasn’t much left, but it would be a good thing if we showed up before they got the noose on their neck. It would be a good thing if you showed up right before the lion devoured the last of what’s left, if you fought to pull what is left out of the mouth of the lion. Hey, don’t give up on sinners. Don’t give up on the backslider.
If you are backslidden today, don’t give up on yourself. I know it looks like a long way back, but James 4:8 says it is only half as far back. God said, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...” You’ve wandered far away from God, but it’s not as far back as you think. For every step you take toward God, He moves closer to you. Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t give up on that backslider.
Don’t give up on revival. “Well, there just aren’t many of us left.” I know, but when Jonathan went up between the two rocks and wrought that great victory of the Philistines, he knew the principle. God is able to deliver by many, or by few. It doesn’t matter. It’s not about how many. It’s about how big God is. It’s not how big the crowd is or how important you are.
Don’t give up on America. I know it’s in bad shape. Christianity is in bad shape. The altar is broken down. Do you understand how precious this country is? Do you understand it’s been the hotbed of missions and Gospel outreach for over 200 years? Do you understand what our country is, what it’s built upon? I know it’s been ravaged by the lion, but I’m not giving up. I’m going to pull out the last two legs or piece of an ear if I can, because it is still precious, and I’m thankful for what is left.
Don’t give up on the old time religion. I can’t believe how many preachers have given up on the old time religion. They are dropping like flies. Everybody is just buying into all this new junk. Give me that old time religion. You can have all this new stuff. You can have all your technology and preppie garbage. Give me the Holy Ghost and revival and the King James Bible and a couple people to go soulwinning and a pulpit to preach and I’ll be happy. Don’t worry about giving me a crowd. I’ll try to get one on my own, just give me the liberty to go after them.
Do you remember what Jesus said when the boy brought his lunch and gave it? Jesus took and blessed and brake and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. Five thousand men were fed besides women and children. Do you remember what He said? “Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.”
You say, “Boy, things are in bad shape.” I know, but there are still some fragments that remain. Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost. Be willing to fight and struggle with the lion to pull out that last little bit, what has not been devoured. That represents something precious. I know there ain’t much left, but it’s still precious. I want to salvage all I can.
In the 70’s when I got saved, we were in storefronts. I remember when we were real glad to get two legs or the piece of an ear, but we don’t seem to be interested in those people now. We want to market the rich people in. Now we have nice buildings and padded pews and air conditioning. We’ve got dignified speakers, not leather-lunged preachers that rear back and preach the whole counsel of God. They are above preaching in store fronts or under a tent or on a street corner. We wouldn’t want to do that. It would destroy our dignity.
Go ahead and reproach that two legs and the piece of an ear, but it is still precious to me. You can scoff at me for trying to salvage what is left, but we’ll let God take care of that when we face Him and see how He feels about it. I remember those days when we were having revival. I remember the all night prayer meetings. When is the last time you had one of those? I remember going after old wicked sinners and winning them and being thrilled that somebody got saved. I remember whenever we were just glad to get anybody saved, even if they were near death, if there was not much left. Some of them, we found out there was a lot more left than we thought, once God got ahold of them. We might be surprised.
Somebody needs to get back to caring enough to salvage that two legs or the piece of an ear. God cares. Maybe we should, too. Maybe if we’d get back to that, we’d see some genuine revival.
The children of Israel were in an unequal yoke and in bondage at the same time. They were marked for judgment, as were the people that had oppressed them. God is speaking through His prophet Amos. He said, “...As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear...”
He is talking about something that’s been ravaged by the enemy. We have a helpless sheep, and a lion has partially devoured what was precious to the shepherd. Rather than let the lion finish it off, rather than let him have the last few bites, He is going to pull it out of the mouth of the lion, just like a shepherd who loved that sheep would tenderly pull what was left out of the mouth of the lion. He’s not going to say, “Well, it’s almost all gone, so who cares?”
Have you ever stood beside the casket of somebody you loved? You and I are smart enough to know the real person is gone, but there is something precious about that housing, that body, what is left, something precious about that image. You don’t want to desecrate it. You don’t want anybody mistreating the remains of your loved one. There is something valuable even though their person is already gone to glory.
A shepherd that loved and cared for the sheep, he didn’t want the lion to get them to start with. He’d rather have them alive and intact and undamaged, but if the lion took one of the sheep and killed and ravaged it, and all that was left was two legs or a piece of an ear, the shepherd would fight the lion to salvage what was left. He wouldn’t give up or leave behind that beloved little lamb.
There wasn’t much left to Israel in this situation, but God was not going to give up on them. Sometimes we look around at the condition of America and think there is not much left, but we’d better not give up, because God can do quite a bit with two legs or a piece of an ear. God still cares even though something has been damaged and mangled.
In Luke 15:4, the Lord Jesus was talking to some Pharisees when He said, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Did you notice the tenacity of the shepherd, his desire? In the text he says if he finds it alive, he picks it up and carries it back and rejoices and puts it back in the flock. What if he finds it dead? What if he finds it wounded and damaged? Do you think he just walks away?
Too often, you and I look at things that are marred and devoured by the devil and say, “That’s broken. You can’t use it.” But God looks at it and says, “If it’s intact, I can’t use it. It needs to be broken.”
The Bible says the shepherd goes after that which is lost until... until nightfall? Until he got tired and cold and discouraged? Until he heard a wolf howl? No, that’s the hireling that doesn’t care anything for the sheep. He flees because he is a hireling. He’s not going to fight for those two legs that are left. He’s not going to fight for that piece of an ear. He’s not going to jeopardize his own safety in an attempt to salvage something that’s being devoured. We’d better get back to the business of salvaging what is left. Instead of criticizing the damage, we’d better salvage what we can. Instead of giving up because it’s in bad shape, maybe we ought to fight the lion that’s seeking whom he may devour and pull two legs or a piece of an ear out of his mouth in order to salvage the little bit that is left.
In John 10:11, Jesus is speaking of Himself and said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Do you realize the huge price He paid and how little He got in return out of the best of us? Has it ever dawned on you that when you got saved, God didn’t get much? I’m glad for young people that grow up in a Christian home and get saved at five years old. My children got saved very young. They never tasted alcohol or experienced drugs growing up.
But everybody doesn’t have that testimony. Do you remember where you were when God saved you? He didn’t get much, folks. We better be thankful somebody was trying to pull two legs or a piece of an ear out of the mouth of the lion. The enemy had just about finished you off. You were nigh unto gone. The grace of God and somebody that cared made a difference in your life and eternity.
David was standing before Saul trying to convince him that he was prepared to go down into the valley of Elah and fight Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. He reminded Saul that when he watched his father’s sheep, a lion and a bear had come and he had to fight for the sheep. We are not talking about a soldier here, but a young lad, a teenage boy. Watch what he said in I Samuel 17:34-35. “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock.” The lion and the bear each took a lamb out of the flock. David could have said, “Well, that one is gone. Too bad, but we still have this many. No use going after a bear. The lamb’s probably already dead, probably too mangled to live.”
No, the Bible says in verse 35, “And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.” What shape do you think those sheep were in when he got them out of the mouth of the lion and out of the mouth of the bear? They were in bad shape, but David thought they were still worth fighting for. He was not about to let the lion or the bear devour what was left unchallenged. He was not willing to let them take those sheep without a fight.
“...And when he arose against me...” When you start trying to take something out of the mouth of the lion, he is going to attack. First Peter 5:8 gives us an application. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” He’s on the prowl, out to devour souls and testimonies. He is out to devour our marriages and our children. He is out to devour our walk with God. He is out to devour our ministry. The lion is ferocious and he devours all that he can.
In this text, there wasn’t much left to Israel, but he is not going to let the lion have those two legs, or a piece of an ear. That’s not much, is it? The shepherd cares about it, even if all he has left is a piece of an ear. He extracts it from the lion’s mouth. He is not going to stand there and watch him finish it off and devour what is left. God is telling us, “Don’t give up on these folks whose lives are pretty mangled. Leave nothing behind. If you can’t save the life, at least show respect to the remains.”
I believe we have some kind of a protocol like that in the military, where a fallen comrade is not left laying there to rot. They don’t let the enemy have his body. His fellow soldier is going to bring him home. Pay him some respect.
We are pretty good critics in our generation, but we are not much on salvaging two legs or a piece of an ear. We are not much on fighting the lion that destroys the sheep. Instead, we are pretty good at finishing them off when the devil has them mangled. We are pretty good at doing them in when they are already in bad shape. What happened to that compassion Christians had back in the 70’s when I got saved? What happened to the burden we had? Whenever we would be tickled to death to get two legs or a piece of an ear, no matter what shape lives were in, to get someone saved and bring them to church and encourage them to grow in grace? Where did that go?
That was back when we were in storefronts. We weren’t much, didn’t think we were much, but we were having revival and we were thrilled to pull anything out of the mouth of the lion. Whatever was left, we’d gladly take and cherish it. We had a love for souls. Don’t let the lion have any more than he has already got. It would be a wonderful thing if we had a revival of that today in independent Baptist churches.
I assure you the shepherd didn’t want the sheep to wander from the flock. He did not want the lion to get one of his lambs to start with. He would fight to prevent that and we should as well, but if the damage is done and if the lion has attacked, and if they are damaged and marred and scarred, you may find there’s not much left, but it represents something precious to the shepherd. You and I ought to salvage what we can. If you can’t save the whole sheep, at least salvage what is left.
Most of us are like the priest and the Levite on the road, when the old boy was lying there half-dead and the good Samaritan finally came along. He had already been exploited. He had been beaten, robbed, stripped of his clothing. He was lying there half-dead. The priest came by. You know, a man of the cloth, a religious guy, somebody in the ministry. He passes by and looks at the fella, and he is so mangled, in such bad shape. “What could I do for him? He is too far gone. I’m really busy. He is awful repulsive looking. I have a suit on. I wouldn’t want to dirty myself with him.” It doesn’t matter that he is half-dead. Maybe he could be nurtured back to life. Maybe something could be done to help him. He passes by on the other side. The Levite comes along who labored in the ministry. He looks at him and passes by on the other side.
Then the guy who had the least motive to do anything, a Samaritan. There was bad blood and prejudice between the Jews and Samaritans. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, she said, “...How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” (John 4:9)
This Samaritan stopped to help, and poured oil and wine into his wounds. He bound him up and put him on his beast and took him to an inn and gave his own money and did all he could. It didn’t look good. There wasn’t much left. He was half-dead and could never reciprocate this kindness, nothing he could do to say thank you. The Good Samaritan was not even sure he would make it, but whether he makes it or he doesn’t, I’m going to do all I can. He may die in spite of me, but I’ll do my best.
Some of us are about like Peter when he saw the sheet let down with the unclean beasts on it and he was told to go to the Gentiles. “But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.” (Acts 10:14) The scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus because He ate with publicans and sinners. Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He said, “Some of you have your own righteousness. I can’t help you, but these sinners know they are lost. I came to deliver them out of the mouth of the lion. I know they are in bad shape and there is not much left, but I came to pull two legs or a piece of an ear from the lion’s mouth. I’m going to salvage what I can.”
Don’t discount the value of what’s left. “It’s only two legs. It’s only a piece of an ear. This guy is half-dead.” If I understand my Bible, in Genesis 1:1, God started with nothing. By His Word, He spoke worlds and universes into existence. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Let me ask you a question. If God can create everything you see and know about and start with nothing, I wonder what He could do with two legs, or a piece of an ear? I wonder what He could do with what is pulled from the mouth of the lion?
When I got saved, God didn’t get much more than two legs or a piece of an ear. I’m not proud of where I came from. I was a bouncer in a barroom and a drug addict. When God saved me, I had a hard time carrying on a coherent conversation. My mind was that fried. I couldn’t really keep my thoughts together, but I guess God could do something with two legs or a piece of an ear. I assure you He didn’t get much, but God has done so many good things that I am always in amazement. He didn’t start with much more than a piece of an ear, but God has saved thousands and thousands of souls and allowed me to be a part of it.
You’d be surprised what God can use. God can use what you think you can’t use. People will sometimes look down on someone with sin or baggage in their past, but God could use three murderers to write the Bible. I’m not justifying anybody’s sin. I’m just telling you God is a loving God, a forgiving God, and He wants to salvage and use what is left while Christians trample it under foot. Some of you think you are holier than God. God can use stuff that you can’t use. You don’t have a heart for people, do you? “Because there’s nothing left but a piece of an ear, just cast that aside and let the lion have it. Who cares? There is not much left.” Maybe you were fortunate enough to grow up in a Christian home and never strayed, but I assure you, even if you never got out in sin, God didn’t get much when He got you either, pal. You are still a sinner saved by the grace of God just like the rest of us. We are but dust. We are wretched sinners, even those who didn’t have to be retrieved from the mouth of the lion. We are not so hot, even if we think we are.
Did you ever notice what God chooses to use in I Corinthians 1:27-28? “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:” Notice the word chosen. It didn’t say God settled for. If I have chosen something, it means there were other options. God chose the weak things over the strong things. He chose the foolish things over the wisdom of the world. He chose the things that were despised over the things that men exalted and elevated. Why? If all God has to work with is a piece of an ear, then everybody is going to know He did it. If all He has is two legs, everybody is going to know it wasn’t the two legs that did it. God used them, but it was God at work here.
This isn’t about me or you. It’s about God getting glory. Don’t be discouraged. Your life may be a wreck, but God will take two legs or a piece of an ear and use it to save lost souls and bring glory to Himself. He’ll do something with it that will shock you, and shock all the critics and skeptics, as well.
When I was lost, there were two people in my life that absolutely were not willing to let me die and go to Hell. That was my mother and dad. My dad was the first one in our family to get saved. Two weeks later my mother got saved. Six months later I got saved. They worked on me and prayed for me and witnessed to me. The more they witnessed to me, the angrier I got. The more they prayed for me, the more miserable I got. I was under deep conviction, but I didn’t know what conviction was. The only thing I knew was that I got in a state where I couldn’t enjoy my sin anymore, and it made me mad, but they wouldn’t let me alone.
My dad had about as much tact as a wounded buffalo. I’d sit down at the kitchen table. My dad would look at me and say, “Denny, if you don’t get saved, you are going to die and go to Hell.” I’d come home at two o’clock in the morning, and my mother would have a big meal warming in the oven. She’d get it out and put it on the table. When I’d sit down to eat, she’d get the Bible out and start reading the book of Revelation, back there where the locusts come out of the pit and sting men for five months and they want to die and can’t die. She’d tell me, “Now Denny, if you don’t get saved, you are going to miss the Rapture and this is what is going to happen.” I ate a big meal at two-thirty in the morning, go to bed after listening to that, and I rolled around all night with those things stinging me in my dreams.
When I finally got saved, I went back to Small Tube Products where I worked and started witnessing to everything that moved. I had a locker full of Gospel tracts and gave them to everybody. There were three men I witnessed to on the job that I had worked with for a couple years. All three of them said, “I’m already saved.”
You forgive me, but that made me kind of angry. I said, “You are, huh? How come you didn’t tell me? You thought God wouldn’t have a filthy sinner like me, would He? I’m not worth your effort or your time. You already had me consigned to Hell. God wouldn’t have a guy like me.” All that’s left is two legs. Nothing but a piece of an ear. Why talk to him?
My dad got saved when he was 39 years old, after he had a heart attack. He had been witnessed to numerous times and he believed all the facts, but he wouldn’t get saved. That is pretty young to have a heart attack, 39. The doctors told him, “You won’t live more than a year. You may not live six months.” That put the fear of God in him. Some guys he worked with had witnessed to him, and one of them was a lay preacher in a little country church. Dad went down there the Sunday after he got out of the hospital and heard Chuck Nycum preach. He came back home, got a Bible, went over in the woods and sat down under a hickory tree and read the Gospel of John. That Sunday afternoon he asked the Lord to save him. There wasn’t much left when he got saved. He was 39 years old, only supposed to have six months to live.
But when God saved my dad there was a big turn-around. No more cigarettes in the pocket, no more beer in the refrigerator. He started going to church every service. He started witnessing to his family and praying for his brothers, and working on me. Over time he became the junior church preacher, a faithful soulwinner, tithed, gave to missions, and God let him live another 16 1/2 years. God took what was almost over and got 16 and a half years of service and soulwinning and labor out of his life. My dad was not a religious guy or a church goer when I was growing up. He drank on the weekends, and liked to fist fight at the bars. There wasn’t much left when he asked the Lord to save him, but God took what was left and did something miraculous and supernatural. God didn’t write him off.
Do you know how many times you and I have disappointed God? Do you know what shape you’ve been in sometimes and nobody knew it but you and God? Don’t look at me so pious? The only thing holding your halo up is your horns! You don’t fool anybody. Do you know how patient God has been with you? Do you know how little He got when He saved you and me? Do you know how little He gets most of the time? Do you know how much more the lion gets out of you than God does sometimes? Even now, if our hearts have strayed, when we cry out to Him, He’ll take two legs or a piece of an ear and tenderly pluck it out of the mouth of the lion. He’ll use and bless and empower that little bit that’s left and do something with it.
My Uncle Donnie was a drunk. When my dad got saved, he started praying for all his brothers. I never heard him pray that he didn’t pray for Donnie, Barry, Bob, Outch and Cecil. He was serious about getting his family saved. I had witnessed to my Uncle Donnie. God had already called me to the ministry. I was the preacher in the family. I had witnessed to my Uncle Donnie at least 15 or 20 times. He was never arrogant. He would just hang his head and say, “Denny, I’m not ready.”
I said, “Donnie, you are not getting any younger. This is urgent. You need to get saved.” I had witnessed to him many times and couldn’t win him. I guess I started to think he might never get saved.
But my dad was unwavering. My Uncle Donnie got sick and went to the hospital for a couple weeks. My dad went to see him on Monday after work. He cleaned up, grabbed his Bible and went to the hospital, witnessed to Donnie, read the Bible to him, prayed for him. He tried to win him to Christ but he wouldn’t get saved. Tuesday as soon as he got off work, he showered, grabbed his Bible, went to the hospital and read the Bible to Donnie, witnessed to him, prayed with him. He wouldn’t get saved. He went on Wednesday and Thursday and did the same. Finally Friday night, he came home from work and was really burdened. He got cleaned up, grabbed his Bible, went to the hospital and walked into Donnie’s room. Donnie was sitting on the edge of the bed. He said, “Donnie, your health is bad and you don’t know how long you have. You know you need to get saved.”
My Uncle Donnie looked at my dad and said, “I know that, Arnie. I’m going to do that tonight. I’ve been waiting for you to get here.” What if he hadn’t showed up one more time? What if he had given up on two legs or a piece of an ear? Donnie was 57 years old and drinking had destroyed his health. Most of his life was gone. He didn’t own a home, couldn’t hold down a job, drove junkers, and many nights slept in the car. There wasn’t much left, but somebody cared and was not about to let the lion have what was left. Somebody was willing to fight for what was left and pulled that one from the jaws of the enemy.
Do you even remember? Some of us have been saved too long. We’ve forgotten where we came from, haven’t we? Do you forget that God didn’t get much and still doesn’t have much in you and me? If God does great things, glory be to God, because it’s all Him.
When Jesus saved that thief on the cross, there wasn’t much left. Just moments before facing eternity, the one thief, after observing the Lord Jesus, said to the other that railed on Him, “...Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42)
Did Jesus say, “Too late. There is nothing left. You wasted your life, so you can’t get saved now. I’m not going to let anybody get saved on their deathbed.” Now, I’m not encouraging folks to wait that late. I’m just saying that you don’t know how good our God is, do you? You’ve forgotten. Some folks have become such Pharisees. Jesus said to him, “...Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” He didn’t get much. The guy couldn’t go soulwinning. He couldn’t become a church member or even get baptized. He couldn’t make a public profession or serve the Lord. But Jesus still saved him. There wasn’t anything left, no opportunity to live for God. All He got was two legs or a piece of an ear, but He was glad to get it. That’s what He died for, what was precious to Him. Maybe it ought to be precious to us, too.
Old Lazarus was already saved when we hear about him in Luke 16. He didn’t have much, did he? Here is a guy that didn’t have good health, didn’t have any friends, didn’t have any influence. He didn’t have any money, didn’t have a house and didn’t have food, but God still used him. You say, “What do you mean God used him?” That rich guy didn’t get saved, but when the rich man got to Hell, who was it he asked for? “Send Lazarus,” that two legs and the piece of an ear who sat at my gate. Why didn’t he ask for his rich banker friends? Because none of them cared for his soul. The only guy that ever cared for his soul was that old boy out there that didn’t have much. He was wasted as far as this world is concerned. He was despised, but he was a testimony for Christ, a witness. There was treasure in that earthen vessel. The rich man never took notice until it was too late. God loved and used Lazarus even though there wasn’t much left.
That prodigal left home proud. He was going to show them all how it’s done. It was a willful act, but it was a bad, bad decision. Everybody thinks they’re right. If they didn’t think it was a good choice, they probably wouldn’t make it, but it’s not built on Bible principle and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and it is taking you down. This boy left home saying, “Give me what is mine.” He took off for the far country, went and spent it all. He squandered all he had in a dissipated life, found himself in a hog pen.
When that boy came to back down the road he was probably thirty pounds lighter than he left, in rags for clothing, but that daddy sitting on the porch recognized his boy’s walk. He saw him come over the brow of the hill. He didn’t write him off because there wasn’t much left. He had wasted his inheritance and shamed the family. He had lost it all and wrecked his life. That father jumped off the porch and ran out and scooped that boy up in his arms and put a kiss on his cheek and said, “My son was lost, but he is found. He was dead. He is alive.” He said, “Get a robe and a ring and a pair of shoes, and kill the fatted calf. We are going to make merry.” He didn’t say, “Son, you’re not welcome here anymore. Nothing left, you’ve wasted it.” He wasn’t concerned about what had been wasted, but what was left. He was glad to have his boy back.
I don’t know what has happened to us in fundamentalism. We are almost as bad as the Catholics and the Lutherans, almost to the place where we don’t care anything about anybody unless they can contribute. You might be shocked at what they could be used of God to do if you’d salvage that two legs or piece of an ear and quit worrying about what their resources are. Quit worrying about your projections, what you think.
In Matthew 20, the parable of the labourers, the Master is calling labourers into His vineyard. The work day started at 6:00 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. (This is before unions.) He went out before the 12 hour work day began and hired labourers. Then he went out the third hour of the day, nine o’clock in the morning, and hired more. He went out again at the sixth hour, high noon, and hired more. He went out at the ninth hour, three in the afternoon and hired more. Then he went out at the eleventh hour. He is still hiring labourers with one hour left in the work day. There are a lot of applications to that. I mean, God will take the last couple years of somebody’s life and use them. We can be just hours from the Rapture and God will save and use somebody. He is calling labourers till the last hour.
Everybody is despairing over the day and hour in which we live. “Well, it’s the last days.” I believe that. I believe Jesus is coming. I believe we will have the privilege to experience what every generation of Christians from Paul to us have anticipated. If you are in the last lap of a foot race, that’s when you give it the finishing kick. That’s when you exhaust every last ounce of energy.
If it is a Nascar race, you don’t go in for a pit stop and take your time on the last lap. That’s when you blow the engine trying to take the lead. Dale Earnhart went out in a blaze of glory. He was pushing. Like him or not, the last lap of the race coming up to that turn, getting close to cross the finish line, that’s when he crashed. That’s not the time to ease up. I’d rather crash and burn on the last turn than be sitting in the pits when the race ends.
“There is not much time left.” I believe that, but it ought to produce urgency, not despair. God can do quite a bit in a little space of time and He can do a lot with nothing. He’s proven that again and again. When God called Moses, he was 80 years old. He had killed a man. Some of you would have been convinced that God can’t use him. “Do you think it is okay to kill people?” No, I’m just telling you God used a forgiven sinner who had killed somebody, and used him pretty marvelously. I think he was the greatest leader of the Old Testament. God never justified Moses’ sin, but He did forgive and cleanse the sin. He did take what was left and used him marvelously because it was consecrated to God.
What do you think Jonah looked like when he came out of the whale’s belly? Jesus, making reference, says, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) What do you think he looked like and smelled like? He didn’t go home and shower. He hit the ground when that whale spewed him out and made his way to Nineveh preaching the message. I assure you there wasn’t much left. One of the greatest revivals of the Old Testament is recorded in that Book and God used a guy that came out of a whale’s belly, bleached by the digestive juices, half-dead, who had gotten in that shape by stupidity and rebellion and disobedience. God still used him. Two legs and a piece of an ear is quite a bit when it is in the hand of God.
In Jude verse 23 the Bible says that you and I are to be “...pulling them out of the fire.” Ephesians 2:6, talking about those of us that are saved, says we are seated in Heaven. Positionally, in Christ, I am already there. In other words, I am as sure of Heaven as if I had already arrived. On the other hand, those without Christ are presently seated in Hell. Positionally, they are already in the fire. Unless they get born again, they are just as sure of Hell as if they had already arrived, and you and I are to be pulling them out of the fire.
As a young convert, I liked to hear Dr. Oliver Green on the radio. Every day in his prayer he said, “Lord, save the soul that is nearest Hell.” Pulling them out of the fire. Pulling them out of the mouth of the lion, taking that mangled carcass, tenderly extracting it, fighting the lion with everything in you to salvage what is left, two legs or the piece of an ear.
When Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well of Sychar, there wasn’t much left. That was apparent when the disciples walked up, and asked in disbelief, “What seekest thou? What are you talking to her for? What does she have to offer? Do you know what kind of woman she is? Do you know what she’s done? She’s been married five times and now she is shacked up with a guy she is not married to.” Jesus never justified sin. As a matter of fact, He put her under deep conviction by facing her with her sin. She repented and He forgave her. Then He removed her sin as far as the east is from the west, buried it in the deepest sea, and used her to get a bunch of people saved the same day. She dropped that waterpot and left that old boy high and dry she had been shacked up with, went into town and said, “Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” Many believed on Him because of her word. Others said, “We are not going to believe it because you said so, but we’ll come and see Him for ourselves.” Still she is the one that got them there. She didn’t win them, but she got them to come to Jesus. When they heard Him, they believed, not because of her word, but because of His Word, but it was her word, her testimony, her changed life that got them there. There wasn’t much left when Jesus found her, but He must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because there was an old sinner at the well of Sychar. There wasn’t much left, just two legs or the piece of an ear, but He must needs go through Samaria because he cared, and because, as bad off as she was, her soul was still worth more than all the world.
What has happened to us in fundamentalism? That maniac of Gadara wasn’t much to look at. As a matter of fact, he was pretty scary and threatening. The Bible tells us that he is naked. He’s got a legion of demons in him. He’s ferocious. They couldn’t bind him with chains and fetters. He had supernatural strength. He’d just break them off, naked, living in the tombs, marring his body, cutting himself, crying out, tormented and miserable, till Jesus showed up. Jesus didn’t look at him and say, “Oh, that guy has great potential. He could really contribute.” No, it wasn’t about what he could contribute. It was about what Jesus could pull out of the mouth of the lion, rescuing what was left.
After he met Jesus, we find him sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. He wanted what every believer wants, to be with Jesus What a difference salvation made. No one would have ever imagined how God could save and change and use that poor old guy. He said, “I want to be with you, Lord” and Jesus said, “No, not yet. You go back home and tell your friends what great things the Lord has done for you.” The old boy went back and revival broke out in his homeland when they saw the transformation, when they saw what God had done with two legs and the piece of an ear, when they saw how God had transformed that dissipated life.
You might be surprised. I think maybe we’ve gotten out of the business of seeing what God can do. It’s all about what we can do or what someone can do for us. Our society is so far to the left that when you and I win souls to Christ today, it is a long journey back to normal, then another long journey from normal to spiritual. They don’t even understand things that you and I grew up with that were normal in society. They have been so programed with lies, their thinking is so distorted that when they get saved, it’s a long journey just to get them back to normal. Normal ain’t spiritual.
Even after they were dead, hopeless, gone, do you realize how many dead people Jesus raised back to life? He raised Lazarus from the dead and then used the guy for His glory. A crowd gathered because they wanted to see Lazarus. Do you think it is because he looked so good? No, it was because was dead and now he’s breathing, up walking around and talking. Do you remember what his sister said? When Jesus said, “Roll away the stone.” She said, “Lord, by this time he stinketh. He’s been dead four days. He’s already begun to decompose. There will be a terrible odor.”
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He can take two legs or a piece of an ear and do something miraculous. He can raise the dead back to life. It’s my job to get out there and salvage everything I can. It’s His job to put life in it. It’s His job to transform it, and He is well able.
In Elijah’s day, Judaism was in bad shape. First Kings 18, Baal worship was prevailing. Eight hundred fifty false prophets to one man of God. The people were halting between two opinions, double-minded. The altar of God had been broken down. Ahab was king. Jezebel, his wife, the first lady, and the land was under the judgment of God. Elijah could have just walked away, or God could have said, “I’m done with them.” No, He raised up somebody and Elijah went into an impossible situation. All he did was challenge the false prophets because they didn’t have a living God. Then he repaired the broken down altar, and prepared the sacrifice and drenched it with water and prayed a 63 word prayer and the fire of God fell and consumed the sacrifice and the wood and lapped up the water. Now they were no longer halting between two opinions. The people said, “The Lord, He is the God.” Revival broke out. There wasn’t much left, but when someone was ready to face the lion, revival broke out.
When the great awakening took place here in America in the 1700’s, there wasn’t much left. There was much formal religion, but not much true Christianity. It was mocked at and scoffed. Our God is the God of the impossible. He is well able to get it done.
Revelation 3:1-2 talks about the church at Sardis. “...thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” You are just alive in name only. “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die...” There is a bunch of other stuff in the mouth of the lion, ready to die. Don’t let him have it. Don’t let him have the old time religion. Don’t let him have good old-fashioned Christian music. Don’t let him have our standards of holiness. Don’t let him have our King James Bible. Don’t let him have fundamentalism. Don’t let him have our soulwinning zeal. Don’t let him have the bus ministry. Strengthen the things that remain!
Revelation 3:11, talking to the church of Philadelphia, He said, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast...” He said, “Don’t let the lion have anything else. Don’t let him have that last two legs or the piece of an ear. Whatever is left, don’t let go of it. Don’t let him have it. I don’t care what hour you live in.”
I’m trying to beg you not to give up on lost people just because their lives are a wreck. I knocked on a door in Michigan. Nobody came to the door. I knocked again and again. Nobody came. I said, “I’ll knock one more time. Maybe nobody is home.” When I knocked the fourth time I heard somebody coming down the steps. The guy opened the door, kind of spooky-eyed and said, “Yeah, what do you want?”
I said, “I’m a preacher holding a revival here in the area. I am out visiting and wanted to stop by and talk to you a minute.”
He said, “Who sent you?”
I said, “I guess God sent me,” because it was a cold door, and I didn’t have a card on him.
He said, “Do you know what I was doing?”
I said, “I don’t have a clue.”
He said, “I was up in the attic with a rope stretched over a rafter, getting ready to hang myself.” He said, “When you kept knocking on the door, I wanted to find out who it was.”
I said, “If I was you, I wouldn’t do that, buddy.” I gave him the Gospel and that boy got saved. There wasn’t much left, but it would be a good thing if we showed up before they got the noose on their neck. It would be a good thing if you showed up right before the lion devoured the last of what’s left, if you fought to pull what is left out of the mouth of the lion. Hey, don’t give up on sinners. Don’t give up on the backslider.
If you are backslidden today, don’t give up on yourself. I know it looks like a long way back, but James 4:8 says it is only half as far back. God said, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...” You’ve wandered far away from God, but it’s not as far back as you think. For every step you take toward God, He moves closer to you. Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t give up on that backslider.
Don’t give up on revival. “Well, there just aren’t many of us left.” I know, but when Jonathan went up between the two rocks and wrought that great victory of the Philistines, he knew the principle. God is able to deliver by many, or by few. It doesn’t matter. It’s not about how many. It’s about how big God is. It’s not how big the crowd is or how important you are.
Don’t give up on America. I know it’s in bad shape. Christianity is in bad shape. The altar is broken down. Do you understand how precious this country is? Do you understand it’s been the hotbed of missions and Gospel outreach for over 200 years? Do you understand what our country is, what it’s built upon? I know it’s been ravaged by the lion, but I’m not giving up. I’m going to pull out the last two legs or piece of an ear if I can, because it is still precious, and I’m thankful for what is left.
Don’t give up on the old time religion. I can’t believe how many preachers have given up on the old time religion. They are dropping like flies. Everybody is just buying into all this new junk. Give me that old time religion. You can have all this new stuff. You can have all your technology and preppie garbage. Give me the Holy Ghost and revival and the King James Bible and a couple people to go soulwinning and a pulpit to preach and I’ll be happy. Don’t worry about giving me a crowd. I’ll try to get one on my own, just give me the liberty to go after them.
Do you remember what Jesus said when the boy brought his lunch and gave it? Jesus took and blessed and brake and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. Five thousand men were fed besides women and children. Do you remember what He said? “Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.”
You say, “Boy, things are in bad shape.” I know, but there are still some fragments that remain. Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost. Be willing to fight and struggle with the lion to pull out that last little bit, what has not been devoured. That represents something precious. I know there ain’t much left, but it’s still precious. I want to salvage all I can.
In the 70’s when I got saved, we were in storefronts. I remember when we were real glad to get two legs or the piece of an ear, but we don’t seem to be interested in those people now. We want to market the rich people in. Now we have nice buildings and padded pews and air conditioning. We’ve got dignified speakers, not leather-lunged preachers that rear back and preach the whole counsel of God. They are above preaching in store fronts or under a tent or on a street corner. We wouldn’t want to do that. It would destroy our dignity.
Go ahead and reproach that two legs and the piece of an ear, but it is still precious to me. You can scoff at me for trying to salvage what is left, but we’ll let God take care of that when we face Him and see how He feels about it. I remember those days when we were having revival. I remember the all night prayer meetings. When is the last time you had one of those? I remember going after old wicked sinners and winning them and being thrilled that somebody got saved. I remember whenever we were just glad to get anybody saved, even if they were near death, if there was not much left. Some of them, we found out there was a lot more left than we thought, once God got ahold of them. We might be surprised.
Somebody needs to get back to caring enough to salvage that two legs or the piece of an ear. God cares. Maybe we should, too. Maybe if we’d get back to that, we’d see some genuine revival.
