Now, for the next six weeks,
I'm going to be talking with you about what really matters.
What really matters. I hope you'll bring your Bible.
And I'm going to ask you this morning to turn to several passages
of Scripture. First of all, let's just go to
Genesis 1.1. Genesis 1.1. Something happened to Saul of
Tarsus on the Damascus road that he never got over. And that something
must happen to you and to me if there's ever going to be a
change. And that something that must happen is a God thing. It's
something God does. Not something you do. It's something
God does. And so I doubt that there are
five people in here who have not been in church, been religious,
something religious about you, you are counting on something
religious that you have done. Let me just start off by saying
you need to find out what really matters. And I would say this
to you, your religious activities do not matter. What you do really
doesn't matter. What matters is what God does
to you and in you and through you. That's what really matters.
Now, Genesis 1-1, then we'll go to the Gospel of John. Just
one verse here in Genesis. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. Now let's go to the Gospel of
John, chapter 1. Let me hear the Bible leaves
turning. The Gospel of John, chapter 1,
verse 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were created by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. Now let's turn over a few pages
to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. In verse 19, circumcision is
nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. In other words, it doesn't
matter. But the keeping of the commandments
of God. Now let's go over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation or creature. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. And now let's go to Galatians
chapter 6 and verse 15. Listen now. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision."
Well, what really matters? A new creature. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, a new creation. These words are amazing. coming
from the Apostle Paul, the former Saul of Tarsus. Because for him,
over 30 years, circumcision was everything. That was the Jewish
message. Except you be circumcised, you
cannot be saved. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
As touching the law, he says, I was blameless. I was clean
as a houndstooth. I was without blame on the outside. I was a good moral person. I was religious. I persecuted
the church in my zeal for religion. So circumcision was everything
to this man. But something happened. Something
happened. Has something happened to you? Something happened to this man.
He came to see what really matters. Have you? You still hanging on
to stuff? Have you come to see you must
be born again? You must be made by God a new
creature. That God must come to you. And
he has nothing to work with as far as the material is concerned. There's nothing for you to offer
God to help him fix you. I'm not talking about where Christians
differ this morning. I'm talking about what really
matters. There are people in here who believe in sprinkling.
There are those of us who believe in total immersion. We differ
there. But that doesn't matter. Some are Baptists. Some are Catholics.
But that doesn't matter. I'm talking to you about what
really matters. Some of you can drink wine and
be okay. Some of you can't drink it at
all. But that's not what really matters. Talking about what really
matters. Talking about how do you become
a Christian. The answer to what really matters
is a new creation. There must be a new creation. Amen. And the only creator that
I know of is God Himself, a new creation. And then a faith, not
a dead faith, but a living faith that works. The demons believe
in tremble. Salvation is not by works. We
know that. Or by grace are you saved through
faith. What kind of faith? A faith that
works. And that faith is not of yourself.
It's the gift of God. Even the faith that you have
must come from God. You are hopeless in and of yourself. That's why we so often say, lay
the shotgun down, surrender. You can't save yourself. A new
creation with a faith that's active and a faith that works
out of love to Jesus Christ. I serve Him because I love Him.
Not a service that's trying to gain acceptance. Because Jesus
has already paid it off. The debt has already been paid.
You can never work enough to gain acceptance with God. That
is a sovereign act whereby God accepts us in Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1.6 says that. The answer to what really matters
is then a new creation that works by love. and keep the commandments
of God. Not changing your ways. Not laying
down the bottle. Not laying down the crackpot.
Not an attempt to keep the Ten Commandments out of a fear that
God will damn you. But first and foremost, you must
be regenerated, born again. You must be subjectively acted
upon. And this, I think, is where we've
probably lost the gospel in our churches and in the United States.
We're always telling men that they must do something when the
truth is man is dead and inactive toward God and God must come
to him and give him life. And that's why some of us are
so happy about this message of God's free and sovereign grace
that we have been regenerated, we've been quickened, we've been
made a new creature in Christ Jesus and it's something God
did. So when we talk about what really matters, we say a Christian
is a new creation. And what does that mean? It simply
means this, a Christian is a work of God. The only people that
are Christians are people who have been worked on by God. The
Bible says, and the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2,
you were dead and I quickened you. I made you alive. But in
the 10th verse, he says this, we are his workmanship. We are
God's workmanship. Created. Created. That means there was no matter
there for God to work with. We were created. We are God's
workmanship created. See, you don't need a little
push. You need to become a new creation. And you're not a creator. Oh, it's a good thing when man
steps back and says, nothing in my hands I bring. I come just
as I am without one plea. And what we've created in this
nation and in our churches is what I call juicy fruit gum salvation. People come down the aisle wanting
to help Jesus out. Jesus doesn't need any help.
He's King of kings and Lord of lords. None can stay His hand
nor say unto Him, What doest Thou? And you've heard me say
thousands of times and a thousand more before I get to heaven.
I found Jesus. He wasn't lost. You were lost. I was lost. And He left the 99
and came after us and found us and lay hold on us and put us
on His shoulders and took us back to the foe. And we give
Him the glory and the praise. That's why we sing, Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. Who would ever have thought of
this if God had not revealed it? I know the Gospel is true. It is such a spectacular story. No one would have ever thought
of this. No way. I say, I don't want to go down
to that church. Nothing but a bunch of hypocrites down there. You're
right about that. I mean, we are. We're all wearing a mask.
But we're new creatures. We're new creatures. My friends,
despite of our problems, we're works of God. Isn't that true?
And you know, the Brunite folks who are here with us today, many
of you visiting with us today, the folks over at the mission,
the pastor himself, I'm a work of God. I'm a work of God. And it's amazing to me. It's
the most amazing thing on earth that I am a child of God. And
you know what? I haven't got over it yet. Some
of you got over it too quick. Whatever happened to Saul of
Tarsus on the Damascus road, he never got over. He was just
always saying this, I was a blasphemer. I was injurious to the church,
but I obtained mercy. Anybody like that here today?
I obtained mercy. I used to think as a kid, you
know, the longer I was a Christian, the better I'd get. I found out
that, you know, it's like somebody going to prison. In prison you
learn a lot of new sins. I'm of this opinion. The longer
I live, the meaner I get. In my flesh dwells no good thing. But I've been born of the Spirit
of God. I have a new nature too. And
that new man is pressing on the upward way and loves holiness
and righteousness. And those two me's are at war
with one another. My flesh and my new man. Those of you who have followed
me around have heard me say, first time I went to Niagara
Falls, I tell this about the men of grace. This is the way
I usually introduce them. First time I went to Niagara
Falls, I said, God did that. The first time I saw the ocean,
I said, God did that. The first time I went to Mammoth
Cave, I said, God did that. The first time I went to the
Petrified Forest, I said, God did that. And every time I hear
men of grace sing, I say, God did that. God did that. We are wonders of the grace of
God. Now are we the sons of God, John
said, and it doth not yet appear. what we shall be. But we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. So, I'm saying to all of you
today that God alone can make a Christian. And we just leave
it there. God alone can make a Christian. God alone is Creator,
a new creation. Now, no church can do that. There is no magic holy water
that can do that. No morality that can do that.
And those of us who are converted know that's true. How many times
have you told the Lord this? Okay, I did it again. But that's
it. Somebody says, so-and-so relapsed.
How many times have you relapsed? I'm not just talking to drug
addicts in here. I'm talking to me and all you folks who've
never used drugs. How many times have you told
the Lord, I'm never going to do that again? And what's wonderful
is, He never looks at us when we come back and go, not you
again. He's always there to forgive us. In considering what really
matters, let's note this, that Paul says circumcision availeth
nothing. In other words, externals do
not matter. Those external things that you
do in religion, they're null and void as far as God is concerned
and as far as the saving of the soul. I don't care what you're
doing religiously. It doesn't matter. It just doesn't
matter. And in the early church, circumcision
had become this bone of contention in Acts 15. And the apostles
said it's not necessary. Boy, that gets a lot of people's
dander up when I say baptism is not necessary to salvation. When I say, no, it is not you
taking the grape juice and the bread into your mouth and digesting
Christ with gastric juice. You could eat all the communion
bread and drink all the grape juice and still go to hell. It's
true. Because externals don't matter. You have to have something much
more than that. The bug that is in the apple
or the worm in the apple is much deeper. It is much deeper. and observing the Lord's Supper
can't take that worm out of the apple. In the book of Galatians,
the Apostle Paul and the Galatian churches had lost the gospel.
And he said to them, if someone comes preaching another gospel
in the Corinthian letter, he said to the church at Corinth,
you seem to receive him. He said, I've espoused you to
one husband, even Jesus Christ, and you're to have a single-mindedness
toward Jesus Christ. You know when a man is unfaithful
to his wife, when he looks at another woman. You know when
a saved person is unfaithful to God when he looks to another
God? It's very, very true. We're to
have a single-mindedness toward Jesus Christ. I know what people
say. You know, I'm always preaching
Christ. I hammer middle seat. If you've heard me, you've heard
me. You folks really don't have to come back next Sunday to know
what I'm going to preach because it's going to be the same thing.
It's going to be Jesus Christ. That's it. Because that's really
what matters. A new creation. External things. Ceremonies. Some of you are big
on ceremonies. I'm glad we kind of get happy
in here because it messes up a lot of people who are used
to that spooky Halloween music at church. It kind of shakes folks bold
a little bit when they come in here and somebody is just tippled
to death about being saved. Because you're supposed to sit
stoic in the congregation with a stare and make a few outward
gestures. But never raise your hand. I
noticed a lot of hand raising in here. That's a good thing. So things that are external just
don't matter. In fact, it's nothing. Some of
you have a cross around your neck. That's not the path into
heaven. I've seen several mafia leaders
in the news and they have a cross around their neck. Now, there
are three areas, I think, where people go wrong with regard to
what really matters. One is ceremonies. The other
is what we abstain from. You know, as a kid, I never went
to the show until I was like 19. And then I snuck out and
I saw Pat Boone. And I think the movie was State
Fair, and I knew I was going to hell. I sat there with my
girlfriend and watched that movie at the drive-in out on Gratiot.
The reason I went to Gratiot is because our church was at
8 Mile and Van Dyke. I knew if I drove to Gratiot
and saw the movie, probably none of the church members would be
there to see me. I never played cards. My kids won't play cards
with me. I never played pool. I never had a phys ed class.
Because you had to wear shorts. That'll send you straight to
hell. Obstaining, abstaining, abstaining. But I'll tell you
this. I'll tell you what abstaining
people will find out about themselves. You think you're so good. And
you'll judge other people. You can't go to the movies and
be happy. You can't play pool and cards and be happy. Get that
smile off your face. You see, people who trust in
externals, those things don't matter. They just don't matter. And then there's moral codes,
secret society. You know, I know I'm going to
probably mess up here. If you're a Protestant, you may
be in the Masonic Lodge or something and, you know, wear the ring
and crunch the fingers and I'm probably getting on somebody
here a little bit. You know, Masonic Lodge, okay, do a lot
of good things. So does Rotary, do a lot of good
things. But that ain't going to get you to heaven. Or being
a member of a church. You know the story. Makes you
no more Christian than walking in your garage makes you an automobile.
You know that's true. You don't go to church and say,
I'm a Christian. Something magic happens. The
truth is that the God of this Bible must walk this aisle and
come where you are and do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
Somehow we've got beyond this thing that salvation is a miracle
and a wonder. And we've lost the wonder of
it all. That's why there's not much shout in the church. Ceremonies,
moral codes, they just don't matter. People have told me for
almost 50 years now, I'm keeping the 10 Commandments. Really? I'd love to do this. I'd love
to do this. Name them. Most people who give that answer,
that's a religious answer, they don't even know the Ten Commandments.
One lady said to me, well, I know one of them because my grandmother
always used to quote it, every tub must sit on its own bottom.
To this day, I really don't know what that means. How can you
keep them if you don't even know them? And one man said to me
this, well, I mean, like, 60%. You know, keep six of them. You say, Pastor, people don't
actually believe that. Ask yourself that. How much time
do you spend talking about the Ten Commandments and being good? I'm telling you, it doesn't matter.
You must be made a new creation by God Himself. God's going to
have to get you and create you anew because you're off base.
I've heard people say this. Well, you know, Pastor, I had
a good time with my mother. Bless her soul, my mother. You
can't go to heaven on your mother's coattail. And she might have
been a wonderful mom. I had a wonderful Methodist grandmother.
The godliest woman I've ever known. And she had a great deal
to do with me seeing beauty in Christ. But Ma Nanny couldn't
take me to heaven. Only God could do that by making
me a new creature. You see, don't miss the essential. What I'm trying to get you to
this point where you're thinking this, you know what? I'm religious, but I've never
experienced what that man's talking about. I want you to think about
that as we do these messages on what really matters. And then
many of you have your own moral code. It's whatever's right for
you. You know, you follow this thing
of, it's relative. Everything's relative. If it's
right for me, it's right. Some of you go the food route.
Some of you smoke. Some of you, you don't smoke. Some of you, you know, who smoke,
don't think that'll take you to hell. It may get you to heaven
sooner. But there are many things that just don't matter. And I lived in a church where
I don't smoke, I don't drink, You know, I don't chew. You know
the rest of the story. Don't run with girls that do.
Abstaining from stuff has nothing to do with salvation. You can
just abstain. Have you noticed that people
who abstain too are miserable people? And they want you to
be miserable. They're always trying to get
you to abstain. And one of the reasons, and many
times this comes up in conversation, many times people are shocked
when I say this, but one of the reasons I tell folks it's okay
for me to have a glass of wine because sin doesn't come in a
bottle. Sin's in the heart. For some of you, you can't drink
wine. You can't drink it because off you go. You know, there are
many things, there are so many things that we can enjoy in moderation. But if you can't do it in moderation,
then it becomes sinful. Amen. I want this church to be
a balanced church. I don't want you running around
telling people you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't.
One of the reasons we're not a Baptist church is because I
would say to people as a young man growing up and even as a
young preacher, I would say things like, I'm a Baptist. When they
would ask me, what are you? And I'd say, I'm a Baptist. I
don't say that anymore. Because they would always say
back to me, oh, you don't smoke. You don't drink. You don't go
to the beach. You don't play pool. Well, I'm
telling you, your name ought to say something. And so when
we got ready to name this church, we called it Grace Gospel Fellowship. That's what we do here. We fellowship
together about this marvelous gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace. That's right. That's what we
do. There are many things that just do not matter and what you
abstain from is not going to get you to heaven. I want to
just ask you as we close here, where's your confidence? Where
is your confidence? Where is your confidence? Where
is your hope? Who is your anchor? My friend,
you need an anchor in this life. I do. I need an anchor. Because life isn't so hot. This stuff happens. And most
of it happens in my head and in my mind. You know, I'm struggling
with all kinds of stuff. Anybody else in here struggling?
But I got an anchor. I got an anchor. And my anchor
holds. And my anchor is Jesus Christ.
And here is all of my confidence. It's in Jesus Christ. And the
Apostle said this, God forbid that I should boast or glory
save in the cross. In the Christ of the cross. The
one who died at Calvary. I want to challenge you this
morning with this question. What really matters to you? What
really matters with God? Jesus Christ is the apple of
His eye. And any message in any church
that distracts in any way from the centrality of Jesus Christ
is not a gospel church. We lift Christ up. And we say,
look and live. Look to Him. Not to the church. And you can see how in religion,
how churchanity and denominationalism distracts from Christ. I know
there are churches named the Church of Christ, but you go
inside and He's not central. He's something, but He's not
all. You know, we often say here, we're a church where everybody's
nobody and Christ is all. That's true. Christ is my hope. I'm complete in Christ. I'm trusting
Christ alone. I dare not trust myself. I dare
not. I am not trustworthy to get me
to heaven. I'm fickle. And you are too. Stop lying. You know, it's amazing
how down I can be. And come in here and began to
praise the Lord and praise and worship. Anybody else like that? That's why we come together.
And I sat there and thought, ooh, you're already here. And
we had church before I ever got up. We had already excited the
angels in heaven before I got up to speak. Because there was
praise in this place. I'm saved by Jesus Christ alone.
Here's one of the old hymns that the church used to sing. Not
the labors of my hands can fill thy laws demands. Could my zeal
no rest but know. Could my tears forever flow. These for sin cannot atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring.
Simply to Thy cross I cling. Naked, look to Thee for dress. Helpless, look to Thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let
me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood from
Thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. cleanse
me from its guilt, its power. Is that your confidence today?
That's mine.