I met John Claude many years
ago by God's sovereign grace and his providence, and then
had the blessing of meeting Wendy, his dear wife, a few years. Well, the first time we met in
the flesh was when you both came out to visit us when we were
out in Oregon. And our hearts were just knit
together right away, right away. And you always feel like when
you meet saints from afar, or saints that you haven't met before,
that you feel like you've known them for your whole life. It's
just incredible. And, well, we all have the same
Father, and the same Spirit, and the same Savior, so. Brother
Jean-Claude, it's an honor to have you here, to preach and
proclaim the gospel, to have you and Wendy here. You come
and preach Christ to us, brother. Good evening all. Thank you,
Wayne, for these kind words. It is a real privilege and honor
for me to have been invited to this 22nd International Annual
Conference in Almonte. It's great to be with you, to
see you again after two years absence. And I look forward to
a time of blessing, just visiting with each other. Wendy and I
have been in the US for several weeks now. We're nearly to the
end of our stay, but we have been really blessed. And I would
be really hard put to tell which place It's been the best blessing
and I don't even want to get into that. And so it is very
good to see you. I know this is streamed, isn't
it? This is live streamed. So I want
to greet also two very dear friends who are not with us. here in
this building because they cannot, by reason of age, be with us,
but they have said they will follow the time together, and
people who really love the gospel and have a special heart for
the same area in the world as I have, Africa, so I really want
to greet them in the Lord's name. But we've come to look at the
Word of God, and I would like to invite you to turn with me
to Isaiah, the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 53. And during this time
of conference, I want to look at the Gospel in three words.
And so this is quite simple. As I read the passage, you will
see that we would need a whole lot more words to describe the
passage. But we have to be selective,
and I want to bring three particular words. One tonight, and then
we'll go on tomorrow and Sunday. So Isaiah 53, and I hope you
won't be put out by the fact that I read from the new King
James Version, but the old King James Version is just too much
for a Frenchman. Isaiah 53, verse 1, who has believed
our report, and to whom as the arm of the Lord been revealed.
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. and we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we
did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried out our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to
his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before his shearers, he silenced. So he opened not
his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land
of the living. For the transgression of my people,
he was stricken. and they made his grave with
the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had
done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When
you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand, he shall see the labor of his soul and
be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous
servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul
unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors. And he bore the sins of many
and made intercession for the transgressors. And this is the
word of God. This evening I'd like to look
into this first word, which is sinfulness. Here we find sinfulness,
especially in verse six. In verse six, all we like sheep
have gone astray. And we know these words so much. We're familiar, for many of us,
with these words. We have to be very careful not
to slide over them and keep the power of the words. Now, there
are several reasons why I want to bring this. This is sort of
a recap for many of us. But often, we need to come back
to the bare-bone gospel, I would say. We tend to make it complicated. The gospel is not, but it is
full and it is rich, but not complicated. But we make it,
we tend to make it complicated. And the reason, one of the reasons
for this is that today the world around us uses words in a very
sort of loose way. And in the religious circles,
it's very similar. And I would say most universally, we don't care
so much for words, for the meaning of the words, for the power of
the words. And we tend to think that people
understand what we say, but they don't. They don't. And often
we will use a word and people will take another word. I deal
with publishing books and translate some books by some very faithful
men. And one thing I've noticed is
that if you take a book, say, of the 17th century, the English
language is quaint, but it's very precise. And I've worked
on some books of very godly men who live today, some of them
friends. words, the same word will be
used for several meanings. And it's very difficult when
you translate because you've got to translate through several
words. So we need to be careful and
we need to come back to say, well, this is what this word
means. Because we tend to get the teeth
out of the word and it doesn't have any power. And the result
of that is that when somebody comes to see the light of the
gospel by God's grace, and God works in him and her, these words
are marvelous. But little by little, they lose
their real power. And then the next step is that
the life with the life of union with the Lord becomes kind of
tarnished. It doesn't shine so much. And
whereas if we see, for instance, this word, sinfulness, the real
power of it, then our Christian life, our Christian living, That
is our witness, our living Christ, where he has placed us, will
get his shine again under God's grace. So this is really a reason
which I see that in my own life and I see that very often around
me. So this is why I want to spend time here. See, it's three words, so it
will be sketchy, obviously. But what is the gospel and what
it isn't? Because that is important. Another
reason is that I find I meet with people who
have been well taught. And some people who can express
the truth very correctly and precisely the truth of the grace
of God, I mean. The grace of God in Christ alone. And people have been well taught,
biblically taught. And maybe you place yourself
into that category. But at that point, there seems
to be something missing because we stay and we get content with
just an intellectual knowledge. By that I mean knowing the facts
about what God has done in Christ. And that is just not enough.
Because if we stay with the facts which are true, I'm not talking
about kind of weird teaching. No, facts which are true. But
if we stay at that level, then that burning relationship with
the Lord, very quickly gets cold, gets cold. And there is not this
sort of pulsating, vibrant relationship, this living the Lord in front
of this hostile world. And some people will say, well,
this is just religious. No, it isn't. It isn't. Because
the Lord has left his church on earth, not so that we worship
him here. If all the believers were taken
to heaven, the worship would be a whole lot better and more
powerful. No, it is in order to leave a
witness and to take the word to this world, because that is
the weapon he uses. So we need to be careful about
that. We know something about the truth. This is shown in our conversation. We tend to slide into a sort
of using jargon, pet phrases. You ask a question or you say
hi in the morning and you know the person said, by the grace
of God or more than I deserve, I'm better. That's what you know
before they say. Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't
use these phrases. But let us beware of them being
just phrases. This is very important to my
mind. And I see that in myself. If
ever this is not a danger which has touched you, beware because
it will come. And you may be the exception
which proves the rule. So another thing is that when
we come to that, Very often, we slide into a hardness of spirit. We focus on the facts of truth,
and we become doctrinaires. That is that the only thing we
know is correctness. But we forget that the gospel
deals with men and women of flesh who are dead in trespasses and
sin, and the gospel where the power of the spirit brings them
to a new life. So this sort of hardness of spirit
is so very unlike the Lord Jesus' spirit that it actually brings
a sort of caricature of the Lord. It is so easy to condemn people.
It is so easy to write them off and send them to hell. when they're
still walking on this earth. So we need to be very careful
because such an attitude, my friends, will bring those who
are tainted by it, us, into the spirit of the Pharisees, being
better than others. And frankly, we know better than
others. You say, but I've been a Christian
for all these years, and the Lord has used me, and so on.
Yes, it may be true. I'm not questioning that. But
were the Lord to take his hand ever such a little of us, my
friend, we wouldn't have anything to envy of the devil. Because
that is only in the power of the Lord and his spirit that
we can walk in his way. because these ways are not ways
of the flesh. No, so we need to have more of
these, like the old, the old Christians, the old believers
used to say, bowels of mercy. Now this is an old expression.
You may think that's too quaint. Well, when we read in our Bible
that the Lord was moved with compassion, Mark chapter nine,
I think, is one place. The expression was that his bowels
were constricted. And you can, now as I've said
it, you felt what it is, haven't you? Yes, that is it, that is
it. We need more of that, more of
that. So let's look at what the gospel is and what it isn't.
And we want to point to the fact that the gospel gets hold of
a heart and which is grappled by the gospel under
the power of the spirit, will lead to a transformed life. Now there again, there are people
who work out in order to produce a transformed life. That is not
the gospel. We know that, but the gospel
produces a transformed life, not a perfect life. This is important
to underline because it is new creation. Now, the one who is
impacted, the one who has a life of Christ in him cannot walk
just in ways of the flesh. But there will be things manifested
visibly in his life which the flesh cannot produce. And when
we see that, And we know that there's something more than the
flesh. Some years ago, I think it was here, looked at with you
with the meeting of Jesus and Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus, we
know that the spirit is working in his heart already, although
he's probably not yet a believer, a new person. Why? Because he
refuses impossibility. Do you remember he couldn't see
Jesus? So what did he do? Like a rich man, did he get his
bodyguards to make a way for him to see Jesus? No, he ran
to the tree, went in the tree. Impossibility was not an option. Well, you know that the flesh
doesn't do that. The flesh doesn't do that. So
the consequence is that The Spirit of God is already at work, and
He's at work in every heart which is renewed, and that impacts
the life. The old men, again, used to say,
I can't hear what you say, because what you do speaks too loud.
And they had something in it. So let's see this sinfulness
in verse six. Because the gospel is good news,
that's what it means. But the good news starts with
bad news. It starts with bad news. We can only speak of salvation
because there is perdition. And the question is, what does lost
mean? Being lost, what does it mean?
Is it just a religious concept? Or is it just one part of a system
of salvation, religious system? And all this section in our text
here helps us to see what is the meaning of being lost. I
remember somebody very close to me years ago would say, yeah,
the gospel is great. It's really great. It's a message
of salvation for all the sinners. The problem was that that person
didn't see herself as a sinner. So it was good for others, but
frankly, I'm already not lost, which is not really laughable. I mean, we smile, but anyway. So here in verse six, we see,
what is it? It is to have gone astray. to
have gone astray. That means to go here and there
and back here and you don't know where you're going. There's nothing,
there's no guide. There's no real focal point. In fact, somebody like this is
not in danger to being lost. That person is already lost. He doesn't know his way. He's
astray. And this is really a true picture
of man by nature. The men of this world, look at
them, all those experts and scientists we have. They go one way, you
wait just a few years, and they'll go the other way. No, it is this, one day they
go to one place, next day they go to another one, and they do
exactly the opposite, and then they come back to the beginning.
James speaks about that sort of spirit when he says, some
people say, well, I will go to such a place and I will do business,
I'll stay there a year and so on, and then I'll come back.
That is the world, it's going all over the place. And as one
piles up the years, one realizes that this is what the world is
made of, promises which have no real substance. And you're
coming to sort of electoral sort of times there. And you will
hear the promises. You already hear them. And you've
heard them so many times. And it is a wonder that people
believe them. And being lost is that you have
no kind of marker, no marker at all. led astray. And on top of that, there are
many merchants. There are many merchants coming
and trying to take you all their own way. And in the process,
they get rich, of course. So when one is led astray, when
one is without any sort of bearings, then there's great danger. There's
great danger. Isaiah continues, or Isaiah brings
some more color to the pictures. He speaks of all we like sheep,
like sheep here. And what Isaiah, the verdict
he gives is even deeper than that. Yes, man is astray, man
goes without a goal in life, and he faces death without really
knowing where he's going. But he adds, like sheep. And we've all seen a flock of
sheep, at least in picture. But this doesn't show us animals
which are going all over the place. No, no. Sometimes you
see that in pictures or maybe videos. You have a whole flock
of sheep and they follow a certain pattern. They follow each other.
And it's like a river, a big river with a lot of currents
and movement which is very precise. So why does the flock go into
this particular direction or follow this movement? Because
there is a shepherd. There is a shepherd. In biblical
times, and sometimes still today, the shepherd will go in front
of the flock and lead the flock. And therefore, the flock knows
where to go, knows where to go. So when does the sheep begin
to go astray? When? When there is no shepherd? When the sheep finds itself on
its own, and especially when the contact with the shepherd
is lost. And once this is lost, there's
no way the sheep can find the way, just no way by itself. It is not paid for that. And
man is such a creature, such a creature. You look the way
Man is constituted, and straight away it comes to our mind, the
words of the psalmist, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And sometimes
you switch on the news and you hear that there's been a great
discovery about something, the makeup of man, and you say, oh,
I would never have imagined that. Well, somebody's imagined it
before. We're only discovering what is thought and created,
what the Lord has created. So it's wonderful. Everything
has got order, function, design, and so on. But now, you look
at this man, wonderfully made, and really it is. And you look
at the way he lives. You look at the way he lives,
and there is straightaway all these pulsions, all these things
driving this man to places and states which are ridiculous,
even to his own hurt. Everything shows that he's lost. He doesn't know where to go.
Why? Because he has lost the link with the source of life. There's no life now. He's just
kind of like a piece of coal, very hot at the beginning, and
then it goes down little by little. There's no more contact. He's
lost. And death is the only answer,
the only destination for that. Isaiah is even more precise here. We all, we like sheep, have gone
astray. All. There's something which
is always surprising to see, and even in oneself. It is how we can see face to
face, we can come face to face and really see the truth, understand
it, and yet not be touched. In one way or another, there's
something in the human being, there's this sort of characteristic
which pushes us by nature to think we're different. We're
different. And for instance, you remember
Peter. Peter said, oh Lord, even if
all these forsake you and abandon you, I won't do it. I won't do
it. And the Lord had to show him
that he was the first one to do it. He was the first one to.
So there's something written in us by the impact of sin which
makes us think that we are different. And it is so universal that the
word brings that up regularly. Yes, Lord, if all forsake you,
I will not. Many people can go into weird
ideas about salvation, but I will not. As soon as you think that,
you're already there. And the perdition, that is the
state of sin, is absolutely universal. My friend, you may be the walking
the way of the Lord for decades, for longer than I've lived. But
by nature, this is what we're made of. And this is what the
Lord has come to deliver us from. It is absolutely universal. And
we need to underline consistently that all, we were all, led astray. We were all, as it says, like
sheep, all have gone astray. No exception, not at all. But
then ISI is even more precise. It continues by saying, we all,
like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, everyone, everyone, God doesn't stop at just the
universality of sin and therefore perdition and damnation. No,
because even if man believes the universality of sin, there
is still this thing which tries to unhook my own responsibility
in saying, well, I'm part of the race. It's collective, it's
communal. But therefore, my own personal
guilt is diminished. I'm not that bad after all because
everybody is the same. The human mind, my friends, is
twisted. And we don't even begin to understand
to what point until we look in the word of God. No, not at all. individually, each has followed
his own way. And this shows us that there
is a dynamic which pushes man to turn always around himself,
around himself. In one way, he's gone astray
with regard to the creator and not knowing where he should go.
Also, at the same time, he has this sort of focal point to follow
his own way. But because he's such an inconsistent
creature, now that he has lost the real bearing, then he goes
his own way, but it's to and fro and back and this. So everyone,
and it is really personal, personal, each will follow his own way.
And this shows us that this tyranny of his own
way, his own will, the worship of himself prevents him to obey
the living God. And this is why there is so much
war in him, in his heart there's so much hatred with what God
wants. Such is, my friends, the guilt
of the human being, of you and me, by nature. And this is what
Isaiah brings out. Now, I know it's not very pleasant
to dwell on these things, but as I mentioned, the good news
has to start with the bad news. You can't cure a fatal disease
with just a sort of sticky, whatever you call it, a bandage. You just don't do that way. No. So what is this state now? It is a spiritual death. This
is a spiritual death. And where do we see it? We see
it here. Well, we see it in many ways,
but especially in verse one. What is the direct consequence
of this rebellion? It is that we look at the first
verse, who has believed our report? And this is just a Hebrew way
of saying nobody has. Nobody has believed our report,
our message, no. So Isaiah and God, of course,
shows that in his natural state, as he comes out of the womb,
man cannot integrate, cannot accept at all the good news of
what God has done in Christ. Now this is the best message
we can hear because our sort of Yeah, the horrible side of our
life. The terrible side of our life.
The fact that we cannot reach our ideals, whatever they are,
faces us all the time. And yet we hear this news that
there is a way out. Now if there is fire in a building,
you don't have to tell people many times where the exits are. There will be a stampede. But
here, not so, not at all, no. Because he cannot even understand
it. It's different currency, it's
different language, totally. And this is why Paul explained
that the natural man, the man who has just his reason, he cannot
even understand, he cannot hear, he cannot really follow what
the Lord has done, what the Lord does in salvation in Christ. Because man measures with the
wrong standard, with the wrong tool. Now look at chapter 52
verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. And then we continue, just as
many were astonished at you So his visage was marred more than
any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he
sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths
at him, for what has not been told them they shall see, and
what they have not heard they shall consider." Now, Isaiah
shows that the Messiah will come in a certain way, and he will
accomplish a certain work. We will see that later. But he
comes with power. The work of his hands will prosper. And this is a word which comes
very often. It means bring it to completion.
And he will touch, as we read in that 52nd chapter, he will
touch all the peoples of the earth. There is not one nation
today, my friends, despite what man can say. There is not one
nation which has not been touched by the gospel. Not one. Because that is the promise of
God. No. And he will touch all the people
of the earth. He will accomplish perfectly
the work which has been assigned to him. And if you say that to
man, then this, The man to whom you're talking about this will
expect to see this great warrior, a great chief, somebody who will
conquer. And our Lord is a great conqueror,
yes. But it doesn't come in this way,
not at all. The Jews expected somebody who
would get the Romans out of Palestine, Peter. was not expecting somebody
was going to go to the cross. Not so, Lord, not so. See, man wants the one who will
come and reign over the whole world. Don't we have that today?
Don't we have that today? He will come and reign for so
many years in a certain place and so on. That is not God's
work, not at all, no. Because God doesn't work like
this. Are the sheep gone astray? So he must take his sheep and
bring it to death. He will put his sheep to death
so that the sheep may not go astray. That is how he does. Man has got the wrong yardstick
and because of that, Because of that, and linked with his
rebellious heart, this makes that he cannot see. He's totally
incapable by nature to see the truth of what God is doing. We've
seen him, and we've not even esteemed him, but he was doing
the greatest work. He was doing what God had to
do. Death must come. So he takes
his sheep, he takes his lamb to death. But men are there say,
hmm, he deserves it, he deserves it. People say, oh, he must die
for his sin. If he is a Christ, let him come
down from the cross and save himself. My friend, because he
is a Christ, he cannot come down from the cross. If he comes down
from the cross like this, he's not the Christ. He's not the
Christ. Many false Christs say, you know, come with me, let's
do this and that. No, no, the cross. But men look at that and say,
this is the greatest strategy in the world. No, it is the greatest
victory in the world and in history. So man has got the wrong yardstick
and a rebellious heart, and that prevents him. God has to work
a work of new life, a work of regeneration. So man is dead
to what God does and what God has done. Who has believed? Nobody has believed, even Isaiah
the great The prophet Isaiah, he speaks so clearly. Some people
call him the evangelical prophet because he's so clear. Who has
believed our report? Nobody. Nobody. And then you
see Jesus himself comes and they say, oh, he has a demon. He has
a demon. The Apostle Paul, so clear. Romans,
I mean, it's there, isn't it? hard to read and to understand.
Yes, but he's there, very clear. No, no, he's talking about let's
do whatever because grace will go over this and let sin abound,
that grace abounds even more. No, people don't understand the
twist and so on. And often these are religious
people. It's not so much the Romans who
put Christ to death. Now, the consequences of that.
because God has to reveal these things. Otherwise man cannot
see. You and I cannot see these things. And you may say, well,
now I'm a Christian, I see them. But there's so many things, my
friends, we don't see. Don't you have that sometimes
as an experience? The preacher says, bring something
out. Sometimes it's just reading the
word. And you say, all these years, I've read that passage,
I've never seen it. What is it? Have you become more
clever? No, no. We think we have, but
we haven't. No, he has revealed it. He has
revealed it. He has to reveal this and to
give the life which actually can see the light. Because we
have no light. We cannot produce life and light. No. So what are the consequences
of that? Because we could continue for
a long time on that subject. The text in Isaiah is so rich.
As I was reading it, I felt like having the wrong size shirt,
you see, because you see, oh, I could speak on this and this
and that. No, we haven't got time. Well, I have time, but
maybe you don't have. But let's see some consequences,
because it's very good to have knowledge, and it's very bad
to have just knowledge. Sin, my friend. is not a misfortune. It isn't. If we hear what is
said around us in the world, and often in religious circles,
and even in Christian circles, the state of mind is something
which has kind of fallen on him, just like this. You know, like,
well, one day you've got a flu, or one day you get such a disease,
you've not looked for it, it's just gone, just like this misfortune. And it's a bit like a natural
disaster. You see, you go your business
and suddenly there's an earthquake. Well, you've not asked for it.
You've not done anything for it. It just comes like this.
And if you listen to what people say, this is a case with sin. And this is a very dangerous
lie because it transforms man into a victim. That is, somebody
who's done nothing about it and who is to be pitied. And the
result of that is that that man is free from the guilt of sin.
It doesn't come from him. And this is so prevalent around
us, and maybe it has tainted your view of it. No, sin is not
like this at all, not at all. Whoever doesn't live according
to the will of God, whatever it is, has decided to. has decided to. That is a real
time of decision. Yes, I know the truth. And often
you have, even among brethren, sometimes you see somebody going
the wrong way. And you say, brother, sister,
have you seen, do you realize what you're doing? Yes, I know.
But still there's something. And we call it by all kind of
nice names. But it is just that I've decided
to go my own way. It's not misfortune. It is really
my heart, my heart. This is not, therefore, the message
of the Bible. No, the sin of man is rebellion,
rebellion. And it is a state. It is something
we are. Somebody has said it's kind of
nuclear. It's in you and it radiates in
you. And there's not one part which is not touched. and there's
not, you can cut an arm, it's still there. It's still there. Man is a sinner even before he
sins. Some people say from conception.
My friends, philosophically I would say it goes even further than
that. Just the fact that both my parents are human, I am a
sinner. Like we say, even before I was
a spark in my father's eyes, I'm a sinner because he is a
sinner. That's only what he can produce. No, we are sinner before
we sin. And the thing doesn't come from
outside at all. No, it is there. It is residual
in the heart. And we cannot get rid of it by
ourselves. So, the one who believes biblical
truth cannot blame anything else in order to escape his own guilt. Now, the one who has been saved,
yes, the sin and the guilt of it has been put on another's
shoulders. But it is still his guilt, his
guilt, his sin. And therefore, my friends, there's
no place for any personal glory. None whatsoever. These guys say,
oh, they're such sinners. Well, maybe they are in circumstances
and maybe they've got a makeup which is opening them to certain
sins which are maybe more obvious than others. But that is not
sin, it's sins. But sin is the same. It's the same. It's a state before
God. State of rebellion, state of
putrefaction, state of being odious to God. And there is no
personal glory at all. One other thing also is that
any cooperation with those who deny The total responsibility
of man is impossible. I cannot say man is totally responsible
for his sins and walk in harmony with somebody who says, well,
no, he's a victim. Something has come to him. So
you see, today, we're surrounded by this message. And if we believe
the Bible, we cannot walk with these people. There's no possibility,
not at all. So this is one consequence. Another
one is that sin is universal in the absolute. And this is
true on the personal level. This is true also on the sort
of community level. There is not one man who is spared
by sin, none whatsoever. And also, there is not one part
of man which is not tainted by sin. Therefore, there's not one
part of man, one even side of man, which can contribute to
salvation. And therefore, my message when
I go and gossip the gospel, or share the gospel, or whatever
you call it, cannot make an appeal to what is tainted. Not whatsoever. And so therefore the fact that
sin is universal, sin touches everything, that sin is from
the foot right to the crown, directs my own message, my own
methods. You see, if I follow what the
word of God says, learn it and follow it, I cannot appeal to
anything in man, because there is nothing. Oh yes, there is
a capacity of choosing. Man is a free agent, yes. But I cannot say, man, you need
to choose God. Because man, being twisted, being
separated from the source, from the fountain of all good, cannot
cannot will, cannot want what is good. And God is good. God
is good. So yes, I'm able to choose. But
because of my nature, I will always choose naturally what
is not good. What is according to me. So there
is free agency, but not free will. And this is because sin
is universal, absolutely universal. And that will free us from using
gimmicks and things in order to get the results. Yes, in conversion,
emotions will be sometimes touched. And there will be an act of the
will, yes, but there is before that a new life which is given. And therefore the will is in
a sense a new will. And I don't need my nice music
to kind of prepare people and these endless appeals and all
these things which are actually insults to such a great being,
you see. No, just say the word. And this is so much better, so
much easier. You don't have to find things
and gimmicks, not at all. If one is quite imaginative,
that can be quite easy, but others, some of us are not so good at
that. No, but then come back to the word. Come back to the
word and just say the word. You know, in churches and maybe
Well, we're not immune to that. There is a lot of distrust of
the Word of God. Now, I guess you're all awake.
This is shocking to say that. How can I say that? We love the
Word of God and so on. Okay, why do we use other means
to help the Word of God? Is the Word of God not enough?
Does the Spirit need a little help? No, no. The word and the spirit brings
life. So you see, this is a consequence
which is very real. And in myself, I want to grow. I want to love the Lord with
all my heart. I want to serve him more in whatever
way we can express that. Am I going to try to find what
is dormant in me and try to fan it to a flame in order to come
to something which is pleasing to God? No. because anything that could be
pleasing to God in me is tainted by sin. Redeemed by Christ, if
I'm Christ's, but it's tainted by sin. So I'm not going to try
that. No. What will I do? Go to the
Word and live according to the Word. See, often we say we need
to fight against sin, and in a sense, There's nothing totally
wrong with that. But I think there would be a
whole lot of fighting and failure which would be avoided if we
were just obeying. Obedience is better than sacrifices. Obey the word of God. But if
you don't know the word of God, how can you obey what is said?
So we need to be very careful about these things and to go
back to what really God has done. You see, God has done something,
but man cannot grasp it by himself. Therefore, I go to the word of
God. And even the word of God, I can't understand it. And you
know enough people who are experts in the Bible, some of these commentators,
and they know these words, you don't even know what they mean.
And some of them are not necessarily false. but they don't know this
word, the power of the word. So we go to the word, and even
going to the word, we know that there is nothing in us, from
us, which enables us to understand what God says, apart from his
spirit, apart from his spirit. So this is why this union with
Christ, which the spirit affects, in the life of the believer is
so paramount, it's so central. It's so central. Well, another consequence of
this is constant humiliation and a constant gratitude. Gratitude. I think there is one question
which typifies the real Christian. And that question is, why me? Why me? I can understand that
God will save somebody if he pleases so, but frankly, why
me? Why me? And you see people in
the streets and they're far better than you. Or you can put it this
way, they're far better than me. Yes. They deserve, if I could
say it this way, more. But it is not according to merit,
not at all. No, why me? And here it's more
this question of trusting just the truth and not going to the
Lord of truth will prevent me from being given over, being
overtaken, being swept off my feet by the spirit of gratitude
and the spirit of humbleness. Why? Because I can understand
better than the other one. And I know more of these words.
But that is not the case, no, not at all. It is the Lord and
there's nothing of me in it. And to the last day and beyond,
there is nothing, nothing. And we have a beautiful parable
of that. You will recall that in the garden, the man, his wife,
the woman and the man sinned, and God confronted them, and
the serpent was there. Now, if you look very carefully,
In Genesis chapter three, the Lord gives, the Lord God gives
the first expression of the gospel, that the seed of the woman will
crush the serpent and there will be, there's this hope. Now, to
whom does God speak when he says that? To the serpent. The man and his wife are there,
they're spectators. There's nothing taken of them.
They're not even part of the deal. The deal is not between
God and the serpent. Believe me, it's between the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But you see, here, they're
there. There will be beneficiaries,
and they are already by grace, but they have no part in it.
And therefore, what subject have I to glory? What is better in
me? It's of no account. No account. I might understand better than
others because I've read more, because I've been able to really
grasp what others have said. But this is just accumulated
knowledge. That is not union. That is not union. So therefore,
a consequence of seeing this truth will make me humble. and not even be proud of being
humble, which is often the case, isn't it? We can twist everything. Well, I can twist everything.
No, that will make me humble, that will make me grateful, grateful. Oh Lord, I don't understand it,
but by faith, that faith which you have given me, I just believe
what you've said. I just believe what I said. And
then, also, this will fire my heart to persuade others. Because I haven't got any more
reasons to be touched by the grace of God than they have.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray. And I will try to persuade
them. If I could save them, I would
save them. You see what I mean? You know
it's not possible, but you see the spirit? If I see that salvation
is the salvation of somebody who is sinful, And that will
give me a heart to go out and to follow the mandate which Christ
has given to his church. And something maybe we need to
think more and more as we go by. So you see, we have this
word which shows us that there is sinfulness. And this is the
beginning of the gospel. This is part of the gospel, of
the good news, that there is nothing at all in man which can
be used for salvation. And I just pray that each one
of us can see this by the help of the Spirit and give glory
to God. Amen.