When Moses asked God to show
him his glory, the Lord God said, all right, Moses, here it is. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. And whom I will, I harden. God's glory is His sovereignty
displayed in the salvation of His elect. God's glory is His
sovereignty displayed in the salvation of His elect. And God
displays that for us again and again and again in our own lives,
in our own day, and in his word so that we cannot miss the display
except we are willfully ignorant and blind our own minds to his
word. Rex read that passage in Daniel,
Belshazzar, who took the holy vessels of the Lord's house. and took his concubines and his
prostitutes and his wives and all the folks who were with him,
and they drank toast to their gods and mocked the God of Israel. And for that, God sent him to
hell. Do you know who gave him the
cups? You remember what Rex read to begin with? His father, Nebuchadnezzar. brought the holy vessels out
of the temple in Jerusalem into his pagan idol temple in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar led his son to
hell by his own deeds. Another man, another king, by
the name of Hezekiah, a godly man, man who served God, feared
God, had a son by the name of Manasseh, who despised God. Manasseh, though, was converted.
He spent the bulk of his life living in rebellion, walking
contrary to the law of God, promoting idolatry. His son Ammon followed
his father's example to hell. But he had another son, who was
just a boy, just a small boy. When his father died, his name
was Josiah, and that son was the object of God's mercy and
grace. And we see in the display of
the family God's sovereign glory in having mercy on whom he will
have mercy. Let all to whom the Lord God
is gracious lift their hearts in utter devotion and praise
to God, He chose me. He redeemed me. He called me
by His grace. He made me His. Took one out
of a family, one out of a family, and calls Him by His grace. And
the one He takes is the most unlikely in the eyes of men to
be the object of His mercy. That's called grace. Free grace. And it comes through Him whom
God sent into the world to be the Savior of the world. That's my subject this evening.
The Savior of the world. Open your Bibles to the book
of 1 John. 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. verse 14 1st John chapter 4 and verse
14 the Apostle John writing by divine
inspiration speaks as an apostle of Jesus Christ as an inspired
messenger sent from God to give us the story the meaning of the
story of Jesus Christ and him crucified And we have seen and
do testify, we have seen and do testify that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world. Our Lord Jesus was not
born at Bethlehem merely to influence men toward moral goodness. He was not born at Bethlehem
merely to bring about social justice. The Christ of God did
not clothe himself with our nature simply to become a physical monarch
sitting on a throne over in Jerusalem. Oh no. Our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world in our nature. God in our flesh. God manifest
in the flesh. God incarnate. He was born for
this one specific purpose. The Father sent the Son to be
the Savior of the world. Christ Jesus came here in human
flesh. Jesus Christ, God the Son, took
on Himself our nature, took our nature into union with Himself
so that He could be the Savior of the world. It was not possible
for God to save sinners, except by Christ becoming one of us. I'm not looking for something
to say, I want that to register. It was not possible for God to
save sinners, except by God's own son becoming one of us. The father sent his son to be
the savior of the world. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. That's the good news. We are sent of God to proclaim
to poor sinners everywhere. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. This is the only cure for the
malady of sin. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. This is the only remedy for all
the evil that's in the world. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. I don't know how to find a proper
balance between being good, loyal patriots and being good, faithful
believers. But I want you to understand,
I want you to understand, don't take carelessly your responsibilities
and privileges as a citizen in this free land. Do everything
you can within reason and the exercise of your rights and privileges
as a citizen of this land to preserve what liberties we have
left, to preserve what integrity yet stands. But don't ever imagine
that the remedy for the evil of this world is in the ballot
box or in the legislature of our land at any point. No, no. The only cure for the malady
of this world is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Our
business as the church and people of God is to make known God sent
his son to be the Savior of the world. Expand your energies,
expand your energies, expand your energies to make me this
one thing. God sent his son to be the savior
of the world. Let men find Christ and all else
takes good place. Let men find Christ, and everything
else is corrected. Let men know the Son of God,
the Savior of the world, and every other problem is solved. Every other problem is solved.
The apostles of the New Testament were sent by their victorious
Lord to proclaim the good news of the gospel, that salvation
was accomplished in and by Him. And they declared that they were
eyewitnesses to that which they were commissioned to preach.
Through the miracle of the incarnation, the merit of his righteous life,
the efficacy of his vicarious, sin-atoning death, the Son of
God has become the Savior of the world. Now, these two things
are always to be joined together and must never be separated.
We have seen and do testify. We have seen and do testify. Let no one testify to that which
he has not seen. Let no one testify to that which
he has not seen. We ought to know whereof we speak
before we speak about anything. You're never to testify to something
that comes to you secondhand. Especially with regard to this
book and the things of God. We like to treat the word of
God like we would a book on biology or a book on diesel mechanics.
You study it and you can get this thing figured out and we
discuss it with just as much careless flippancy. Don't treat
sacred things with such contempt. We are to testify of that which
we have seen, nothing more and nothing less. That which God
has caused us to experience, nothing more and nothing less. If you want to describe something,
the flavor of some food to someone, The only way you can do it is
to taste it first. Everything else is just guesswork.
And if you want to describe anything in this book as it is revealed
in this book to anyone, first you've got to taste it yourself.
Someone asked whether Ralph Barney went down years ago, I heard
I heard Ralph say this in a message. He was preaching down in Texas
and somebody asked him, said, Brother Barnard, do you believe
everything in the book? He said, I don't know. I haven't experienced it all
yet. And that's exactly right. You
only believe what you know from experience. and you only testify
of that which you know from experience. We have seen and do testify that
the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Ananias
told folks when he was giving a defense of his ministry at
Jerusalem, he said, Paul told him, said, Ananias came to me
and said, God has chosen you to be his witness, that you should
see his just one. and hear His voice and be His
witness to the Gentiles under the uttermost parts of the earth.
You can't be witness to what you haven't seen. You can't testify
of that which you have not personally seen. Would to God I could persuade
this generation of preachers to testify of what you see. My dear friend, Brother Harry
Graham, I remember years ago, said to somebody last night,
He said what Bible colleges and seminaries do, for the most part,
is produce polyparits. You know what a parit is, don't
you? You teach it to say cracker, and it'll say cracker. Say hello,
and it'll say hello. You just keep on teaching it
words, and it says the words. It doesn't understand the words.
It can't construct a sentence. It can't form a thought. It simply
repeats what's been heard. And preachers, by and large,
are just polyparitic preachers. They repeat just what they've
heard. They don't do any thinking. They don't form any thoughts.
They don't speak at all from experience from the Word of God.
Would to God he would teach us to testify of that which we have
seen for ourselves. Having seen it, however, you
who have seen, you who have seen, Go testify. You shall be witnesses
unto me, the Lord God says. Witnesses to me. Martyrs who laid down their lives
for the master. Witnesses to me. If God causes
the light of the sun of righteousness to shine in your soul, It is
not for your benefit alone. He causes the sun to shine in
your soul that you might let your light shine before men that
they may see the glory of God and give glory to him as you
do. It is our business as God's people
in this world to testify of those things that we have seen and
tasted and experienced for ourselves that the father has sent his
son to be the savior of the world. I've said this many times. I
don't know whether I can get it said clearly or not. I can't find any reason I can't
find any reason why God leaves any sane sinner in this world
one moment after he's converted, except that he should bear witness
to his elect who are yet to be called by his grace. What else is there, Bill Raleigh,
for God to do for you before you can go to glory? Tell me. What else is there for
God to do in you for you to go to glory? We are chosen, we're
redeemed, we're justified, we're sanctified, we're made meet to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. There's
no reason for God not take us to glory right now, except that
he condescends to use such things as we are, sinners saved by his
grace, to call out his elect in days yet to come. What a reason to live. What a
reason to live. What a reason to live. To live
here. To testify what we have seen. The Father sent the Son to be
the Savior of the world. Let me make three statements
and I'll be done with my message. First, I want you to see that
this world is a sinful, guilty, cursed world in need of a Savior. Turn to John chapter 3 for a
moment. Here is the character of the
world. Here it is. I'm going to give
you the character of the whole world in one brief sentence. The character of the whole world.
The United States of America, the Republic of Mexico, Santa
Dominga, Soviet Union, what used to be Soviet Union, Russia, Great
Britain, China, the whole world, the whole world, the whole world
lieth in wickedness. The whole world lieth in wickedness. Now let me tell you something.
This will come as a shocker. This will come as a shocker.
It always has, since the fall of our father Adam. All things
are so much worse today. No, they're not. They are not. They are not. Well, the Bible
says, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days
of the coming of the Son of Man. They ate and drank and married
and were given in marriage. That's what folks do who live
in this world. They eat and drink, they're married, they're given
in marriage. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing
wrong with that. That's how we live in this world.
What our Lord was saying is, as it was when God destroyed
the earth in Noah's day, so it shall be when the Son of Man
comes. Man don't change. The whole world
lieth in wickedness. You mean Brother Don, folks aren't
more wicked now than they were a thousand years ago? No, and
they're not more wicked now than they were 50 years ago. The whole
world lieth in wickedness. The whole world lieth in wickedness. We have more rapid means of communication. We know more. We are exposed
to more. But man hasn't changed. Man hasn't
changed. When John says that Christ is
the savior of the world, he's simply telling us that the grace
of God is not limited to one nation. The Jews thought that
God didn't save anybody except Jews. Once in a while, they'd
be proselyte brought in, but that was just a rare occasion. They would pray like this, God,
I thank you that I'm not a dog, a woman, or a Gentile. And that's
just exactly what they thought about Gentiles, that they were
racially bigoted people, just like we all are by nature. Well,
I'm not. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. That's just the way we are. We
deal with it, but that's the way we are. And our Lord said,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God has his elect everywhere
in this wicked world. everywhere in this wicked world.
He's got them in the barbaric heathen tribes of New Guinea.
He's got them in the coast of Africa. He's got them in Australia. He's even got some in Danville,
Kentucky. God's got his elect everywhere. The whole world lies
in wickedness. And God sent his son to be the
savior of men lying in wickedness, scattered among all the nations
of the earth. Look in John chapter three. Our
Lord speaking to Nicodemus about this. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Verse 14. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. This is not just an optional
thing. God, I told you before, could not save sinners, but by
the coming of His Son in human flesh. God could not save sinners,
but by the sacrifice of His Son at Calvary for the satisfaction
of justice. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up for
this purpose. Verse 15, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Somebody said
to my good friend, Brother Herbert Wilson, many years ago, he said,
you folks don't believe in whosoever will. And Herbert said, well,
where did you get that idea? We most certainly do. What we
don't believe is whosoever won't. God sent his son to be the Savior
of the world, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. Verse 16, for God so loved the
world. Obviously not everybody in the
world. I don't know why that's so difficult,
folks, to get hold of. If he loved everybody in the world,
he sent his son for nothing, for some folks are in hell anyway,
and his love's of no benefit. Oh no, it's talking about God's
elect wherever they're found throughout the world. God loved
a world of lost sinners, people scattered in every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue, whom he's determined to save. He loved
the world of his elect so that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, He could have done that easy.
God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved. Our father Adam was
created in uprightness and righteousness. Adam was created a perfect man. But when Adam sinned, he plunged
the whole world into sin and death and darkness. And since
the fall of Adam, the character of all men in this world has
been established in wickedness, so that the wicked are estranged
from the womb. They come forth from the womb,
speaking lies. That's the nature of human beings. You don't have to teach any man
wickedness. No mother ever had to teach her
son how to lie. No father ever had to teach his
daughter how to be proud and arrogant and selfish. No, no,
those things are just as natural as breathing is to a man. The
wicked come forth from the womb speaking lies. We come forth
estranged from the womb, born as rebels against God, full of
wickedness. If there's anything plainly revealed
in the word of God, It is the universal depravity of our race,
the universal depravity of humanity. The Old Testament, though it
is a record of God's grace, is a record of man's sin. God created
Adam and Adam sinned. God destroyed the world with
a flood because the imaginations of man's heart were only evil
and that continually. God graciously delivered Lot
from Sodom, and Lot watched Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed
by fire because of sin. And yet Lot's wife turns and
looks back, and she's turned to a pillar of salt, because
that which was in Sodom is in us all by nature. God graciously
delivered Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, and Israel soon forgot
his goodness. God sent his prophets. Turn to
2 Chronicles chapter 36. You'll have this in your reading
tomorrow. God sent his prophets generation after generation to
warn the world of sin, but men wouldn't hear them. They wouldn't
hear them. I get weary of hearing how bad
things are. And I, and I know I stated, I
stated plainly because it needs to be stated, but we ought never
look at things as though somehow God's purpose is not being accomplished. God's will is not being done.
This has always been the state where nobody hears God's preachers
today. They never did. They never did. Whatever made
you think they did. Nobody hears God's preachers.
God sent his prophets generation after generation to his people
Israel and Judah. And they mocked them. They despised
them. They said, go your way, we won't
hear you. Look at this, 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verse 15. The Lord God of their fathers
sent to them by his messengers rising up the times and sending. because he had compassion on
his people and on his dwelling place, that is, Jerusalem. But
they mocked the messengers of God and despised God's words
and misused God's prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against
his people till there was no remedy. So it was when our Lord
Jesus came into this world, and his apostles were sent forth
to preach the gospel, the world was utterly corrupt. The religious
world, you think we've got money-grabbing hucksters now? You think we've
got money-grabbing hucksters now? The priest in Jerusalem,
the whole line of priests, the whole line of priests, You do
remember there was no mercy seat back behind the veil. You do
remember that, don't you? There was no Ark of the Covenant.
It had been gone for a long time. There's nothing there. But they
pretended. They pretended. They kept up
the charade. They pretended to keep the Passover
every year. Every year. I've often thought
I would like to have been standing and looking inside when the Lord
split that curtain that separated the holy place from the most
holy place when he died at Calvary when his head is finished. I'd
like to have seen the look on that priest's face. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, I've been caught. Why
did they do it? Just for the shekels and the
provision they got by their service in the holy place. And that was
the way with the religion of the world. Everything was corrupt. The politicians, all like the
priest, took bribes, said, what will you give me? I'll do it.
The world was corrupt. Read the first chapter of Romans.
You'll see the generation into which the servants of God were
first sent to preach the gospel of God's grace. The apostles
of the New Testament tell us plainly of the evils of the world
to whom they first preached, men and women who suppressed
the truth in unrighteousness. Because they worshipped and served
the creature more than the creator, a people God gave over to reprobate
minds, to practice openly sodomy, just like we have today. Just
like we have today. To promote openly sodomy, just
like we have today. That's exactly the situation
into which God sent his apostles in the beginning. A world where
there was none that did good, No, not one. The corruption and
sin of the world is stated in Scripture, and it's verified
by history. I don't know why, except because
men refuse to believe what they know to be so. They refuse to
acknowledge what they know to be so. You see, if I acknowledge
that everybody in the world is corrupt, and depraved. If I acknowledge
that everybody in the world always has been corrupt and depraved. If I acknowledge that everybody
lives with his fist shoved in God's face, saying, God, if I
would, if I could, I'd kill you. Everybody, if I acknowledge that,
Mark, I've got to acknowledge that's me too. That's the reason
people, they refuse to acknowledge it. Read your history books.
Read them. Just go read one. Go check any
history book you want to out of the library, written by anybody.
And you read a history of sin. Sin. Even when you find somebody
writing a biography of somebody they admire, you read a history
of sin. Ambition, pride, and greed, and
covetousness, and malice and envy and strife and hatred. The history of the world is a
history written in blood because it's a history of sin. This one
thing I know, the world Christ Jesus came to save is a world that lies in wickedness.
Lies in wickedness. Here's the second thing. The Lord Jesus is the only Savior
of the world. He's the only Savior. He's the
only hope you have. He's the only hope you have.
You can forget your psychology classes and you can forget your
Classes about all the nonsense that goes on about man's moral
goodness and your easy steps to recovery from one thing or
another forget that nonsense Forget it. Forget it. You mean
by the Don you fell off not go go to a area Well, they might
help you stay off booze, but that's about it That's about
it. They're not gonna help you They're
gonna help you. They can't change your heart
They can't change your nature They can't give you peace with
God. They can't give you peace in your heart. Oh, I feel so
much better about myself now. I don't do things I used to do.
Does that give you any peace? It may give you a lot of pride. It don't give you any peace.
Try taking that with you when you go to the doctor and he tells
you you've got about six days to live. Take it with you. Boy, I got sober. I quit doing
stuff I used to. I don't steal anymore. I don't
act like a I don't act like those fellas down the road. See if
that gives you any peace. Go ahead and take it with you
if you want to. See if it gives you any peace.
The only Savior there is for a wicked world is the Son of
God. The Son of God. Jesus Christ
incarnate. You see, the only way God can
save sinners I'm using that word deliberately. A word of ability. A word of ability. So while God
can do anything, God can't do anything contrary to his nature.
He cannot lie. Is that what the book says? Is
that what the book says? God cannot lie. God cannot exercise
mercy at the expense of justice. God cannot forgive sin at the
expense of righteousness. God cannot save sinners at the
expense of holiness. The only way God Almighty can
save sinners is by sending His Son in human flesh to live in
righteousness and die under God's wrath for the punishment of sin
in His own body as one made sin for us. so that God might be
just and the justifier of all who believe. You understand that?
You understand that? God the Father sent His Son to
be the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ, God the Son. Jesus Christ, God incarnate. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh,
is the only one who can do your soul good. Only one who is himself
man can suffer in the room instead of man. Only one who is himself
God can satisfy all the demands of God's infinite holiness, justice,
and truth. And Jesus Christ, the God-man,
Jesus Christ, the God-man, performed righteousness of infinite worth
righteousness of infinite worth for sinners throughout the world. He performed righteousness of
infinite worth for sinners throughout the world. And then he bare our
sin in his body on the tree. And Jesus Christ, the God-man,
when he was made sin for us, suffered all the wrath of God
in our room instead at one time. At one time. Watch this. Watch me now. More eagerly than a thirsty man
drinks ice-cold water, with one tremendous draft of love, he
drank damnation dry. He drank it dry, so that God
declares, fury is not in me. The sword of justice wore itself
out on the Son of God and he swaddled it up so that it is
done and justice is satisfied. How can that be? How can a man
bear all the fury of God's wrath and justice, all our hell in
three hours on one afternoon? Because that man is God! That man who died in our stead
is God in the flesh. God in the flesh. He sent of
the Father to be the Savior of the world on an errand of mercy
to which he was commissioned before the world began. And this
is what God says about this one whom he sent to be the Savior
of the world. shall not fail. He shall not fail! He who came to save will save
every sinner in this fallen, wicked world He came here to
save. Every sinner given Him by the
Father in covenant love. Every sinner who calls on Him
in mercy. Oh, Brother Don, I wish I was
one of God's elect. Do you now? Do you now? Believe on the Son of God and
eternal life is yours. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Believe on the Son of God, and
there's the proof of your election. Believe on the Son of God, there's
the proof of your redemption. Believe on the Son of God, there's
the proof of your calling. Well, not now, I don't think
I will. Well, I wasn't talking to you. I wasn't talking to you. No, no, I'm talking to folks
who need Him. I'm talking to folks who need
Him, and I'm here to tell you That if you hunger and thirst
for him, he hungers and thirsts for you more. If you want his
mercy, he all the more wants to be gracious. He is more willing
to save than any sinner ever was to be saved. More willing
to have mercy than any man ever was to seek his mercy. Now the
apostle said, we've seen this. And we testify to it. This one
here, he's the savior of the world, sent by God to do the
job. Well, how do you know? One day,
we watched him go down in the water, being baptized by John
the Baptist. And God spoke from heaven. And
God said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Pay attention to what he says.
And we walked with him through the world, and we saw this man. We saw this man take five little
loaves of bread and a few small fishes, and he just kept breaking them. And he fed 20,000 people.
And it took up 12 baskets full when he got done. And I just
don't think a man could do that. I don't think a man could do
that. We saw him on three different occasions raise the dead by his
mere word or will. On three occasions, we saw him
raise the dead. Now, this is not done in secret.
This is done openly. There were lots of folks who
saw it. The Jews wanted to put Lazarus to death because he had
raised him from the dead. The Jews who were trying to maintain
their status quo in the religious world because Lazarus was raised
from the dead tried to kill him. This is not done in a corner.
Everybody knows about these things. We saw him. Three of us did when
he went to the Mount of Transfiguration and he was transfigured before
us. So that we saw a man, a man in whom the glory of God
shined like the Shekinah glory. filled the tabernacle and filled
the temple such as that the priest could not minister in the holy
place because of the brightness of the glory. We saw him of whom
Moses and the prophets spoke as Moses and Elijah spoke to
him. We're eyewitnesses of his majesty. We're eyewitnesses of
his majesty. We testify to you that which
we have seen and that which we know. Christ is the Savior, the only
Savior of the world. Now let me tell you what I know
about Him. Let me tell you what I know about Him. This is the Savior you need. This is the Savior you need.
He so thoroughly saves sinners that He causes the sinner saved by His grace
to have peace with God, trusting His blood and righteousness. Trusting His blood and righteousness.
Trusting His blood and righteousness. I have nothing to fear from God. Nothing. Brother Claus, I would be ashamed
to look you in the face if you knew everything about me. I couldn't look you in the face.
I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. But I
can God. I can God! Because God really
knows everything about me. He knows His Son has put away
all my sin and made me perfectly righteous. And God can require
no more than what God gave me in His Son. And that's enough
for me. Oh, may God make this Savior
yours. Amen.