I am the designated hitter because
Brother Bird is on the D.L. list tonight. If you have your Bibles, turn with
me back to Matthew chapter 11. The title of my message tonight
is The Believer Described. the believer described, and I'm
going to take it from two passages of Scripture here in Matthew
chapter 11. Verse 12 says this, And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force. Then in verse 19, the last sentence
says, But wisdom is justified of her children. Now in Matthew
11, 12 and in the last phrase of verse 19, we find a description
of the reactions and the effect upon the elect to the preachers
and the preaching of the gospel. When the gospel was preached
by John, it says that men went to Christ vehemently, passionately,
violently. And at the word of the Lord Jesus
Christ, their wisdom was justified in coming to Christ. Now, the
words that fall between these two passages, or these two verses,
describe the reaction of those who despise the preachers of
the gospel and the preaching of the gospel. Verse 12 and 19
account that The elect, on one hand, are violent and passionate
men who will not be withheld from the kingdom. And on the
other hand, they are described as children possessed of wisdom,
whose wisdom is justified because they believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, they believe the gospel. And the despisers are described
in verses 16 through 19, and they are categorized as mockers. of both the preacher and the
message, and are those who are worthy of greater punishment
in the day of judgment than Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah.
We find these words spoken to them, or of them, by the Lord
Jesus Christ in verses 21 through 24. Our Lord says of these, Woe
unto thee, Chorison! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes." The first thing I see in that verse of Scripture is
evidently God is not interested in the repentance of all men.
Because if He had been, He would have sent the gospel of Tyre
and Sidon. He didn't send it to Tyre and Sidon. But if He
had, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon at the day of judgment than for you, those who have
heard John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ preach. And thou, Capernaum, which are
exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if
the mighty works which were done in thee had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day." In Sodom. In Sodom. But I say unto you that it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment
than for thee. And this is always the case when
the gospel is preached. I touched on this last night
somewhat. It's always the case. Look with
me at Paul's assessment over in Acts chapter 28. In verse 23 it says, And when
they had appointed him a day, that is, Paul the apostle, there
came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified
the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out
of the law and Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning
till evening. And here is how it always works. And some believed the things
that were spoken, and some believed not. That's how it's always going
to be. Some are going to believe and
some aren't. Look over at II Corinthians chapter
2 just for a moment. I quoted this partially last
night. I find myself often quoting this as I preach the gospel anymore.
In II Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, Paul gives thanks unto
God Thanks be unto God which always, and you can underline
that because this is the case, always causeth us to triumph
in Christ. Always. Since you have known
Christ, you have never failed in the matter of the gospel.
You have never failed. I know we feel like failures.
But God has caused us to triumph. What is He talking about? And
maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge, the sweet aroma
of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a
sweet-smelling savor of Christ, a sweet-smelling savor of Christ
in them that are saved and in them that are lost, in them that perish. To God,
those who declare the gospel, believe the gospel, are always
triumphant. They always smell good to Him. even though those
who hear the gospel, some are perishing and some are being
saved, still smells good to God, always. To the one, we are a
savor or an aroma of death unto death. And to the other, the
savor of life unto life. And when we consider this fact,
as Paul did here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When we consider
this fact, when we stand up and tell folks the truth, when you
tell a friend, a neighbor the gospel, you're doing something
to them. Something's being done to them.
They're going to love Christ or hate Him. The words that you
speak are actually either sealing them one way or the other under
the wrath or the mercy of God. Think about that. So Paul says,
who's sufficient for these things? Why did God put this thing in
my hand? in my hand. But it goes on to say we speak
the truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact is we cannot disregard
the truth. We can't. We simply don't. The
preacher of the gospel does not employ the man-pleasing use of
religious tactics such as the invitation con of bait and switch,
or the lies of universal redemption or universal love of God, or
the exaltation of man's paltry, puny, pipsqueak, powerless, inconsequential,
impotent will, the preacher of the gospel declares Christ. He
declares Christ and adds sense to the words and then leaves
men alone. with God who made them, because
he knows that the message is the means by which God calls
His sheep unto Himself. He doesn't do anything else.
I know in this day and age, I was talking to some folks not long
ago, and they were talking about calling a pastor. They were in
a Southern Baptist church, and they were talking about calling
a pastor. And then they started talking about calling the pastor's
wife. And they were talking about all the pastor had to do, all
these things he had to do, and then all the things the pastor's
wife had to do. And I was sitting there, and
Debbie was sitting there. And of course, Debbie, you know, what we love
about the Cherokee people, they told Debbie, we don't want you
to do anything. Just take care of your husband. We'll take care
of the rest. Debbie does play the piano, but it took them almost
two years to find out that she did. She didn't tell anybody.
And so finally Crow discovered that she did, and now she plays
the piano. What is a pastor's job? preach
the gospel, feed the sheep. That's the pastor's job. Now,
the two preachers in this passage are John the Baptist and the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and both were preachers of the gospel. Both declared the message of
the law and the prophets and were themselves prophesied to
come. In Malachi chapter 3, both John and the Lord are prophesied
in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1 as the one who is coming to
announce the messenger of the covenant and the messenger of
the covenant who will soon appear quickly in the assembly. And
then in chapter 4 and verse 5, John the Baptist is prophesied
to come in the name of Elias. He said, I will send Elijah to
you one more time. One more time. And we know that's
the case, that John the Baptist is who he's talking about, because
in verse 14 of this very text here in Matthew chapter 11, it
says, ìIf you will receive it, this is Elias, which was for
it to come.î You say, ìHow can that be? How can John be able
to be Elias?î Well, I don't know. Don't ask me. But if you can
receive it, that's who it is. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear the word of the Lord. Both of these men preached
repentance because the kingdom of God was at hand. And we see
the word kingdom of God means the sovereign rule of God is
at hand. In our text here in verses 16
and 17, our Lord is speaking to those who respond negatively
to Him and to His message and to His manner of life. He is
also speaking to those who responded negatively to John, to his message
and his manner of life. Let's read verses 16 and 17.
It says, ìBut whereunto shall I liken this generation?î ìWhereunto
shall I liken this generation?î It is likened to children sitting
in their markets and calling unto their fellows and saying,
ìWe have piped unto you, and ye have not danced. We have mourned
unto you, and ye have not lamented.î That's how the Lord describes
that generation. Those responded negatively to
Him and to His message and to His life as well as John. So
this passage taken by itself, if you just read these two verses
of Scripture, it's a fairly accurate description of the triteness,
of the silliness, of the childishness, and the presumptive impudence
of the religion that covers the world in the day in which we
live. What they do is equivalent to the schoolyard theological
doctrine, or what I like to call the ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña
ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña
ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña
ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña
ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ña ñ Now, isn't that just precious?
Isn't that just precious? Have you ever seen the sign that
says, We Can't Spell Church Without You? The letter U. Have you ever seen that sign,
We Can't Spell Church Without You? Well, there's a whole lot
of things you can't spell without U. Do you know that? You can't
spell ugly. You can't spell ugsome. It can't
spell unbelief. It can't spell unholy, unnecessary,
unregenerate, useless, dubious, dullard, cruel, sluggard, stupid,
superfluous, pusillanimous, putrid, or ruthless without you. It can't
spell those words without you either. But our Lord here is
not specifically dealing with these folks in this manner. Our
Lord is not making a generic statement about pointless religion. That's not what he's doing. He
is speaking about an openly articulated attitude of those who reject
the gospel and the man who preaches it. This is seen in the connection
that our Lord makes with the next verse. Let's read verse
16 and 17 again, then with verse 18. It says, "...Whereunto shall
I liken this generation? It is likened to children sitting
in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We
have piped unto you, and ye have not danced. We have mourned unto
you, and ye have not lamented." Now look at that next word, for,
because. So he ties in what they are saying to be about John in
his message and Christ in his message. "...For John came neither
eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil." The Son
of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a gluttonous
man, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but
wisdom is justified of her children." This word, for, is a very important
word. It's a description that follows
through verse 19. And since verses 18 and 19 teach
us what is meant by the religious prattle of verses 16 and 17,
what are they really talking about? Is this just a gathering
of religious folks? in the yard and making these
statements. They're talking about, these folks, they're saying as
if Christ was talking or as if John was preaching. They're saying
this is what John says and this is what the Lord says. This is
what the Lord Jesus Christ says. Our Lord is disclosing the thoughts
of those who have heard Him and John and who are publicly mocking
Him and insolently boasting that John and His message and Christ
and His message have had no effect on them. That's what they're
saying. When they're saying about piping and mourning, they're
talking about John's message and our Lord's message. And they're
saying, it didn't have any effect on us. It didn't have any effect
on us. And there's an intimation that
Christ and John are upset by that. They're kind of proud of
the fact that these two fellows come, one from the wilderness,
who wouldn't have anything to do with them. One who came and
sat down in the houses of sinners and publicans and preached to
them. We didn't care. We didn't care
what they had to say. They didn't have any effect on
us whatsoever. Those who speak are speaking audaciously if they
were speaking as Christ and John and are saying that Christ and
John having preached are upset because these religious imps
were not affected by their message. They've piped, they're saying.
They've mourned. And they're all upset because
we ain't buying into what they're saying. That word force says
all that. That ties that to understanding. Now, what are they talking about?
The word piping refers to Christ and His preaching. Piping is
a pleasant sound. a peaceful sound, a beautiful
sound upon the mountains, a sound of good tidings, of good things
that publishes peace, that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion,
Thy God reigneth. It is the sound of the flute,
the sound of the flute, the melodious dulcet tones of good news for
ruined sinners. Christ delivered the gospel in
a congenial, joyous, and propitious manner to the ruined and the
lost. The only time he was ever hard
was on religion. Every other time he was sweet
and kind and merciful. He viewed sinners covered with
sin as sick and in need of help. The message was good news and
it was delivered in a liberal and a gracious spirit. That's
what these folks were talking about when Christ came and talked
this way to them. He said, that's just piping. You piped. We ain't dancing to your piping.
We're not going to dance to your tune. His message appealed to
the worst kind of sinners, publicans. And yet the message that he preached
did not sit in judgment of them as the religion of the day did. Our Lord went to the houses of
publicans and sinners. He sat at meat with them. He
drank wine with them. Not Welch's. He drank wine. Because they didn't call him
a grape juice bibber or a grape-o. They called him a wino. That's
what they called him. He sat with these folks, had
his feet washed by them, had his head anointed by street walkers. Now, people like Rahab the harlot. I love old Rahab. I'm glad she's
in Scripture. You know, she's never called
Rahab the Reformed, from the Old Testament to the New. She's
never called Rahab the Regenerated. She's never called Rahab the
Saint. The very last mention of her in the New Testament is
Rahab the harlot. Ladies, that's you. That's all of us. We're whore saints. That's what we are. We're whore
saints. And we won't leave the whore
behind until we leave them in the grave. Rahab, the harlot. The woman
who was a harlot, anointed the head of our Lord for his burial. She was a harlot. He never pressed upon these sinners
the religion and the regional convictions of pathetic religion
of the day. He required nothing of them but
to lean on Him, to gather around Him, to believe on Him, to believe
the gospel of grace, the gospel of liberty for the captives,
healing of the brokenhearted, insight for the blind. And what
was religion's response to such an want? To somebody who is kind and propitious
and likes sinners. and enjoys being
around them. Says they're the right kind of
folks to go down the river with. What's the response of religion
then and now? They said he's an antinomian. They said he is an antinomian. They, in effect, were saying
that he's no real preacher. He ain't no real preacher because
He did not rake sinners over the coals. He didn't lay down
the law. He didn't dangle the sword of
justice over their heads. He didn't skin their hides with
hot pincers of legal threats like the Pharisees did. He didn't
keep them in check with the law. He didn't keep them in check
with regulations. He said to the worst of the lot,
the laboring of the lot, the ruined of the lot, come to Me. Come to Me, you weary and heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn
of Me, and you shall find rest unto your soul. My yoke is easy,
My burden is light, and you shall find rest unto your soul." That's
what He says to sinners. And they said He was a glutton.
He's a glutton and a wino, just like the butts that He associated
with. They were saying, we will not
leave our message and our belief, our sanctified lives, and dance
to His happy little duty-free ditty. We're not going to do
that. We wouldn't go there. We wouldn't go where He went,
eat with the kind of folks that he eats with, kind of like the
old saying they used to say back in the fifties, lips that touch
wine will never touch mine, will never touch mine. I remember
those days of revivals when I was in a Baptist church as a young
boy and preachers getting up talking about drinking beer.
Boy, I tell you what, there's again that drinking beer. So
I was sure to try it as soon as I could find some rhino to
go downtown and buy me a six-pack. I was going to get me one, you
know. But they'd say, well, if you're drinking beer, it's a
sin. And if it takes you ten beers
to get you drunk and you drink one, you're one-tenth drunk.
And I used to think, what kind of thinking is that? If it's
a sin, does that make it one-tenth of a sin? Can I go nine without
making it all the way? These folks look at Christ's
message and say, you can preach your good news all you want,
but we know we are saved. How do they know? Because we
are not like the people that you associate with. That is how
we know we are saved. They are the ones who would stand
in church and thus pray with themselves, I thank thee, O God,
that I am not like other men, that I am not like other men.
Pipe all you like, they said. We're not dancing to your tune.
We're not dancing to your tune. We're dancing with the One that
brung us. That's what they were saying. Go ahead and pipe, Jesus,
all you want to. We ain't going to change. You
ain't going to have no effect on us. You hang around with the
wrong crowd, with the wrong kind of people. Now, the morning refers
to John in his preaching. And he was stern and austere
and aloof and not a social animal. And when it came to budding up
to religion, he just didn't do it. He refused to join in their
worship. He preached that they were commanded
to repent of their religion and their righteousness. He would
not go to their houses. He would not socialize with them. He lamented their self-righteousness. He called them snakes and vipers
and hypocrites. He would not embrace or give
credence to any religious thing they did. Nothing. And you won't
make somebody mad. Just discount everything they
do in religion. Just say, there ain't nothing
to that. You know, I've been a member of a church 29 years.
They'd say, there ain't nothing to that. I pray every day. There ain't
nothing to that. I read my Bible. There ain't nothing to that. I believe the doctrines of grace. There ain't nothing to that. It ain't about what you do. It's
about what's been done for you. Only about what's been done for
you. They say, well, if you go out
and do this, you know, you'll upset God. No, you won't. You're
not going to upset God. God's happy with you because
He sees you in His Son. He's happy. It's the glorious
gospel of God, the God of glory. And He is happy with His people. He's not mad at you. Well, won't
it change His relationship with me if I do something wrong? If? If? Please! Nothing you can do will ever
change His relationship with you. Nothing. Now, it may change yours
with him. But it will never change. I'll
tell you where you find God. Right where you left Him. Always. Always. John was tough. He was tough. He didn't give
anybody any quarter. He occupied his pulpit, and he
told his hearers the truth, and gave no quarter, and took no
prisoners, and then just disappeared and went back to wherever he'd
come from. And their response was what? Well, he has a devil. One man who's associated with
them, was kind and merciful to them, went to their house, they
said, he is a drunk and an antinomian. One man who said, ìAinít nothing
you do thatís worthwhile whatsoever.î They said, ìThat man has a devil. He preaches the doctrines of
devils.î How many times have you heard that said about what
you preach? He accounts that nothing in our
religion, they said, is of any value. He disavows the old-time
religion, but it was good enough for Mama and itís good enough
for me. He's hard and cold and He mocks our works and our worship.
He won't have anything to do with us. He don't ever come to
the house. The preacher just don't ever
come to the house. I don't come to my folks' house.
I love them. If I'm invited, I'll come, but
I don't show up. I told them, take care of your
own families, I'll take care of mine. He won't have anything to do
with us. He must be demon-possessed. But He can lament all He wants
to. We're not going to change. He
can mourn all He wants to, and He ain't going to make us cry.
We will not be sad. He will not make us sad, make
us mourn about the way we do things. We are righteous. Therefore,
He must be a Savior. That's their thinking. In effect,
Christ in His message and John in his message are two sides
of the preaching coin. That's what they are. On the
one hand, the preacher of the gospel has the only message that's
good news for a sinner. The only one. What's good news? If everything is already done. If everything is already accomplished.
If everything is already finished. Anything short of that ain't
good news, folks. You don't find words in the Gospel like shoulda,
woulda, and coulda. When a man preaches the Gospel,
when Gary preaches the Gospel, when I preach the Gospel, when
Rupert preaches the Gospel, when any man stands up and preaches
the Gospel, he's saying something. He's saying this. Something is
already finished. It's already done. All of God's
elect have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have been made eternally secure by the suretyship of Christ
before the world began. Those who are the elect of God
actually stepped into this world, though they were sinners, they
were never held accountable for their sin, because their name
was not on the debt. The surety's name was on the
debt. From since the world, before the world began, Jesus Christ
was the only one God looked to for the payment of His children's
debt. Because he didn't even consider
his children's debt anymore. He considered it the surety's
debt. And the surety came into this world. And the good news
is, you believe after you've heard the Word of Truth. What
is the Word of Truth? The good news of you're. You're
possessed. It's you. You just didn't know
you had it. Here's kind of like what happens when somebody preaches
the gospel of one of God's elect. The Holy Spirit calls them up
and tells them that they're saved. That's kind of what it's like.
I'm not telling you you can't be saved. I'm not going to tell you to
do something to be saved. I'm not going to tell you that
you might be saved. The Gospel says God has, by the blood of
Jesus Christ, saved His people. You say, well, how do I know?
Hang around. Keep listening. If you are one
of the elect, God will call you, and He will tell you, two thousand
years ago, on a lonely wooden tower outside Jerusalem, My dear
son took all your sins upon Himself, and I cut the lights out and
emptied Myself of My wrath upon Him. He came out alive on the
other side. forsaken of me for sure. And
then he did what was absolutely necessary that you would never
face death. He said, now I'll die. And the
Lord was satisfied. You didn't have anything to do
with it. You still don't have anything
to do with it. That's good news. Anything else
ain't good news. Tell a dead man he's got to do
something, it ain't good news. Tell a worm he's got to walk, he can't
do it. Tell a maggot he's got to fly,
it ain't good news. Tell a legless maggot he's got to walk, he's
got to take the first step, but he ain't got no feet, that's
going to be hard. The good news is that God's people are redeemed. They are redeemed. The only good message, the only
good news is the gospel. Our Lord said this for sinners.
I've already quoted it. Come unto me, in verse 28, all
you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. That's good news for sinners.
And that is not an invitation. Because the previous verses make
it clear that it's an ultimatum. The previous verses make it clear
that God has actually hid these things from the wise and the
recruited and revealed them unto babes. That no man can know the
Father saved the Son, and no man the Son saved the Father,
and he is whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Well, where
else have you got to go? Is that a choice coming to me?
If He shut every other door, it ain't a choice, folks. This
is it. His own place you can come. Come
unto Him. The gospel is a command from
the throne of God. An invitation can be disregarded.
I've disregarded many in my day and so have you. Even though
it said RSVP, I didn't RSVP. Command can't be disregarded.
It can only be obeyed or disobeyed. That's all it can be. The gospel is good news. And
for those who receive the gospel and for those who will not, the
gospel preacher's message is about the glory of God in sovereignly
saving the elect and rejecting the self-righteous religionists.
And you will find that truth throughout Scripture. Wherever
God saves His people, He kills the enemy. There are two sides
of this coin. It is always that way. I know
we who preach the gospel are accused of giving everybody a
hard time, religion a hard time. I wish I could give them a hard
time. They don't pay no attention to me. I give them a hard time,
you know what they say? They say, you have mourned and
we have not lamented. That's what they say. But every
minister of the gospel, beginning with our Lord Jesus Christ, sets
that forward. If you read the Old Testament,
every time God redeemed his people, it was at the cost of the life
of his enemies. And that is always the way. God
sovereignly saves his elect and rejects the self-righteous religionists. And the preacher is not upset
when those he preaches to do not believe. Unless, of course, he thinks
that he has something to do with their salvation. If he thinks
he has something to do with their salvation, he'll probably get
upset if they don't believe. Our Lord wasn't upset that these
folks didn't believe. He said, You're going to end
up worse than Tyre inside, and you're going to end up worse
than Sodom. And He didn't start wringing His hands over the banishers
of heaven and just weeping and say, Oh, we should let Me do
something for you. He said, I thank Thee, O Father, I thank Thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babe." God, the Lord Jesus Christ, thanked His Father
for that. He thanked Him for hiding the
gospel from some and revealing it to others. Why? Because that's
how the gospel works. We just read it in II Corinthians,
didn't we? It's a saver of life. and a saver unto death. And who
is sufficient for these things? There was a group of people in
John chapter 6 who didn't believe Christ. They wanted to be king,
but only because they wanted their belly fed. And he wasn't
about to be king on those terms, so he left. And they followed
him. And they came up to him and they said, Why did you leave us? He
said, Because you're seeking me for the wrong thing. And so
when they saw he wasn't going to be king for them, they said,
Well, can you teach us how to do that bread and fish thing? Can you teach us to do the works
of God? Can you teach us that? We'd like to be able to just
take some fishes and some loaves and feed ourselves the rest of
our lives like you did. He said, don't you understand this is
the work of God? That you believe on Him whom He has sent. That
you believe on Him whom He has sent. They didn't believe on
Him. They rejected Him. John 6, 35,
He looks at them and says, you know, I know you don't believe
on Me. I know. But let me tell you, all that
the Father giveth to me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is my Father's will, which is sent me of all he has
given me. I should lose nothing, but raise it up again in the
last day. He looked at those who followed Him around and harassed
Him and gave Him a hard time because they thought they were
the sheep of God. They quoted Psalm 100. They knew it by heart. We are the sheep of thy pasture.
And He looked at them and said, You know why you don't believe
Me? Because you're not My sheep. And that really tears me up,
fellas. I wish you'd believe Me. He didn't say that. He said, My sheep, hear My voice. And they follow Me. And I give
unto them eternal life. And no man is able to pluck them
out of My hand. In fact, My Father which gave
them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. The preacher is not upset with
unbelief. He rejoices in belief because
he knows it glorifies God. Religion builds her walls high
and firm. She will not have salvation by
grace and stands just outside, endeavoring to forbid others'
entrance. But when the gospel comes home,
when that blessed guided missile strikes the heart of one of God's
chosen, when it comes home to the publican and the sinner,
when dire need overrides the slavish, fear-mongering status
quo and the established standards of what religion says a real
Christian ought to be, violence erupts, it says. Violence erupts
in the heart of the awakened sinner and sink or swim, he will
get to Christ. He will get to Christ. If mama's
religion gets in the way, mama's religion bites the dust. If church bylaws and covenants
and creeds and confessions get in the way, they are kicked to
the curb. If the destitute world of works
and wills stand in the path, then they are trampled underfoot.
Theologians and doctrinarians, if they seek to add anything
to the gospel, are mocked and shoved aside as if they were
nothing, because the believer, once attacked, assaulted, by
the Holy Spirit. We'll have Christ. You ain't
got to invite Him, cajole Him, gang-save Him. You ain't got
to do anything. What you got to do is get out
of the way or get trampled underfoot. I'm coming through. That's what
that means. Get out of my way. It is Jesus Christ or I die.
Save me or I perish. I perish. From the days of John the Baptist
until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent
take it by force. Paul said, ìWhen the Lord saved
me, when it pleased the Lord to reveal His Son in me, the
first thing I did, I did not confer with flesh and blood.î
I didnít even go up to Jerusalem to the high muckety mucks and
see if they would agree that I was actually a child of God.
Listen to me, if youíre a child of God, you ainít got to talk
to nobody about it. You know youíre a child of God. In fact,
if you talk to somebody and they tell you yea or nay, they are
fools. Only a fool would give another
man assurance. Only a fool would. The preacher
might say, well, I don't know. That's between you and God, isn't
it? When all is said and done. When
the white-robed, blood-bought believers stand before God fully
accepted and beloved, beloved of the Lord, their ridiculed
belief in Christ alone will be declared to be justified wisdom. And those who accuse them of
antinomianism will be forced to declare that these were wise
unto salvation and true righteousness. And they stand, these publicans
and sinners and Rahab the harlot, these stand perfectly holy before
a thrice holy God. Those who have claimed that the
way of man is right will hide in caves and mountains and pray
for rocks to fall on them and crush their fearful, obstinate
heads. Those who mock the gospel of
Christ, the gospel of John, will bend knee and confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Those who have rejected
the truth and opted for their own merit rather than the righteousness
of Christ will be made to confess the wisdom of God and that Christ
is the wisdom of his children. God has made Christ to be to
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Find me anything
in there that is progressive, and I will give you a dollar.
I will give you a hundred dollars if you can find one of those
items that is progressive. Wisdom. What's that? The gospel
has made you wise unto salvation. What has it made you do? Stop
doing things and look to Christ. And what? And nothing. Nothing. Those who believe and preach
the gospel will be called libertines and madmen. Both. I don't believe you preached
the gospel until somebody calls you an antinomian. I don't believe
you preached it. And I don't believe you really
preached the gospel until some legalist calls you an antinomian, until
some antinomian calls you a legalist. It's just going to be that way. Some are going to say, you're
just an antinomian. Other people are going to say,
you're just hard and cold. Preach a cold, hard doctrine. But God's people are wise. They're wise because they believe
Jesus Christ. That's wisdom. You think the
world will agree with you? No. But every one of God's children
knows it so. Knows it so. Look over I Corinthians
chapter 1 just for a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I love the way this is worded. Paul was used of God to write
things that are so easily grasped and understood. Verse 23 says
this, And this is in opposition to the wisdom of the world, which
God has ordained that by that wisdom no man can know God. Do
you know God predestinated that? God predestinated that by your
wisdom you can never know Him. So I'm telling you, by your wisdom
you'll never know Him because it's predestinated. It's set
in stone, folks. That's what He says in verse
21, ìFor after that in the wisdom of God...î This is part of God's
wisdom. This is God's wisdom. the world
by wisdom and you're not God. That's part of God's wisdom.
He pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Now look at verse 23. But we preach Christ. We preach
Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, the religious,
they trip all over it. And unto the intellectuals, they
think it's stupid. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Wisdom is justified of her children. When you hear the gospel, all
I can say to you, believe. Really. God bless you.