Before I begin, I want to take
just a minute and say thank you to those who provide the marvelous
special music that we have here. That prelude, Ann, was just magnificent. It doesn't just happen that they
get up and sing these songs, they prepare and they practice
And we appreciate it. I'm sorry that we don't say thank
you more, but to Kara and Matt and all those, to Rich when he
plays his horn. Thank you very much. It's a great
blessing. It sets the tone. Reading the Scriptures and hearing
those hymns of praise sets the tone for worship. And I'm thankful. I know I speak for all of you
in that. Let me introduce this message You may think this a little unusual,
but I'm going to do it by giving myself a compliment. Are you ready for it? And I got this from an old actor
who played a gangster in the movies, and he turned to this
really despicable guy. and said the most horrible thing
I guess he could think to say to him in the movies at that
time. This was in the twenties or thirties, I don't know. But
I am going to give it about myself as a compliment. And that compliment
is that I stand before you this morning as a no-good, low-down,
dirty, rotten skunk. You say, wait a minute, that's
a compliment? If that's a compliment, well, I'd sure hate to hear the
worst of it. Believe me, you would hate to hear the worst
of it. Look with me in Isaiah chapter
1 for a minute. You think, is it really that
bad? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Since I found out what God's
Word says about me, low-down, dirty, rotten skunk,
it would be a compliment. I'm going to read this in the
first person because it's how I take it. In Isaiah 1, verse
2, it says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the
Lord has spoken. He says, I've nourished and brought
up children. And you're one of them, and you've rebelled against
me. Verse 4 says, Ah, sinful nation, you are a people laden
with iniquity. And I had this thought, if you
were to take every sin that I've ever committed and just say we
assign it one milligram of weight. That's just insignificant, a
milligram. If you took all those sins that I've committed and
gave them all one milligram of weight and put them on an aircraft
carrier, it would sink the boat. That's how laden, burdened with
iniquity I am. It says here that I'm a seed,
the child of an evildoer, the children of corruptors. Now,
I knew my grandparents and my parents, I found out in time. That's right. They were wicked.
My granddad was tried for murder once. He got off because he had
some friends on the jury. That's what I think. He never
admitted it, but I'm pretty sure he did it. And I'm just like
him, a murderer. It says, You've forsaken the
Lord. You've provoked the Holy One
of Israel to anger. You've gone a way back. And what
that means is the Lord says, go this way. And I spend my whole
life just doing this, just going as far this way as I can, backwards
from the way I ought to go. Verse 5 says, why should you
be stricken any more? It doesn't do any good to be
beaten. You'll just revolt more and more.
And here's the reason why. It's because your whole head
is sick. I'm telling you, my whole head is sick. It's not
just that I hear what I want to hear, it's that I see only
evil. I speak only vile things. My brain is sick. It thinks the
most awful things. It doesn't think the right way.
It's twisted. It's sick. It's a mess in here
by nature. My whole head is sick. And it
says, your whole head is sick and your whole heart is faint.
My heart doesn't beat, but with every beat is another evil desire,
is another thing it wants to do that it ought not do. My whole
head and my whole heart. And then it says, from the sole
of your foot even to the head, there is no soundness in you.
It's all unsound. It's always, I never think it
the right way. It's always backwards. It's always
wrong. It's twisted. It's sick. The whole head is sick. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head, there's no soundness but wounds and bruises, putrefying
sores. If you could cut away part of
my head and open it up, all you'd see was pus and scabs. and just corruption. It says,
those wounds haven't been closed, they're not bound up. I'm not
even trying to make it better by nature. I'm perfectly content
to be this sick description I've given you. Now, turn over to
Romans 3 with me. And I doubt if anybody has enjoyed
this little expose about what and who Bob is by nature, because it's ugly,
isn't it? It's ugly. It's unpleasant. It's
even disgusting and vile. But it's about to get a whole
lot worse. It's going to get a whole lot
worse. Because God's Word not only rightly
describes what I am as I've just read it to you, but all this
I describe, describes you too. It's you too. I'm sorry. Every single person
in this room, it's you too. Look at Romans 3 verse 9. He says, what then? Are we better
than they? Hey, are you better than me?
Are you? That's the question right here
that's being asked. Are you better than me? God gives the answer,
no. And no wise. But we have before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all understanding.
I don't care if you're a I don't care if you're a Sharon or a
Coffee or a Greenleaf or a Jew, a Gentile, a Baptist, a Catholic,
black, white, yellow, I don't care what you are. It says right
there, we're all the same. All that stuff I said about me,
I'm sorry, it's true about you, too. We're all under sin. Verse 10, as it's written, there
is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands.
There is none that seeks after God. We are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable.
There's none that do us good. No, not one. Our throat is an
open sepulcher. You know what an open sepulcher
is? It's a grave with a dead body in it. If we open our mouth,
it's like death comes out. The stench of death is on our
breath. It says, "...with their tongues
they have used deceit. The poison of ass was under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." I have
this thought about the first time one of my children came
home from school, and we're just sitting around, and all of a
sudden, this curse word came out. It was like, what? Where
did that come from? And of course, we wanted to think,
well, they heard it at school. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't,
but they didn't have any trouble saying it. And you say, what was wrong? Well,
we spent, you know what happened? We spent years trying to teach
them to say those words and finally they said it. No, no. We spent the next rest of their
lives trying to go, don't say that. Don't talk like that. Where'd they get it from? It's
from the inside out. The problem's not outside, it's
inside. The problem is not what's going
to happen when you send your kids to school and all they're
going to be exposed to. The problem is what those other
kids are going to get exposed to by your kids. By my kids. The problem is not out there.
It's in here. Pick it back up here. I've lost
my place. Verse 13, their throat is an open sepulcher. Verse 14,
whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their way. The way of peace have they not
known? And here is why. There is no
fear of God before their eyes. By nature, we don't have no sense
to be afraid of God. I suspect that at this point,
there may be somebody in here who'd like to speak up and say,
hey, pal, you may be that bad, and some or all these other people
may be that bad, but not me. Not me. I'm not perfect, but
I'm not as bad as all that. And if you're tempted to think
that or much less say it, I ask you to hold your tongue just
a minute. Don't speak and don't protest. Stop your mouth for
a minute. Just listen before it's too late. We all have broken God's law. And you start with the first
one. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind and soul. Simple law, right? Simple law. How in the world can somebody
do that when their whole head is sick? when the heart is rotten
to the core. A natural man who claims he's
kept that law is out of his mind. Every believer here is ashamed,
but admits before God, I'm guilty of that. I've not loved God,
much less with all my heart, soul and mind by nature. I haven't
done it. You see, the purpose of the law
is not to enable natural men to justify themselves, but rather
to expose us as the guilty sinners we are. Take any of them you
want. Don't murder. Now, let's be honest. Is there anybody in this room
who at some point hadn't wanted to just get a hold of somebody
and go, huh? Somebody had done something to
you and you hadn't had the thought, man, if I could, I'd take care
of them. Huh? Am I the only one here who
thinks that way? No, we're all murderers, aren't
we? And we've all broken the law.
But that's what the law is for, to show us what we are by nature,
to expose us. As the guilty sinners we are,
Romans 3 there, look at verse 19. Now we know, if you were
tempted to say something a minute ago, now we know that what thing
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
why? That every mouth may be stopped. Don't say anything. Don't claim
you're better than us. Stop it. And that all the world
become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin." Remember this. God's law exposes us, makes
us guilty. That's what its purpose is. Now,
there's a term for this condition, and maybe you children have heard
it before and you didn't know what it meant, but it's called depravity.
And when Pastor Todd uses that word, that's what he's talking
about, is this is what we are. Guilty, dead in sin, whole head
sick, heart wrong. But a common term in the scriptures,
a simple term for all this, somebody who suffers from this condition
of sin, guiltiness, is the simple word, lost. Somebody who's in
this shape is lost. And by nature, we're all lost.
Now, we think of something that's lost as it's misplaced. You can't
find your keys. I put my glasses down forever
now. I can't find them. So I went and bought six pairs
and put them all over the house. But all that's needed, you see,
In the world's definition of lost is that you sort of got
off your track. You went camping or hiking and you forgot your
compass and you got off somewhere. And I remember what the Boy Scouts
taught me. When that happens, just walk
in a straight line until you hit a creek or a stream, follow
it downstream, and eventually you're going to come to something
where somebody is. Well, that's not Bible lost. Bible lost is
a whole lot worse than that. means three things really. First
of all, if you take a piece of paper and light a match to it,
and if I hold it here a minute and it starts to burn up and
eventually I let it go like that and it burns all up, you know
what it is? It's perished. Forever. You're
not ever going to make that piece of paper come back again. It's
perished. The second meaning of this word
lost, Bible lost, is if you took a stone and you just ground it
down to powder. That stone is destroyed. It's
gone forever. It's not ever coming back. And
if you had, the third thing it means is if you had a pet and
that pet stopped breathing and it died and it starts to rot
away, it's dead. It's lost to you forever. You're
not ever going to get that pet back, are you? And that's the
three things it means. And you see, when Adam ate, when
he disobeyed God, he perished. His innocence was destroyed and
he died spiritually. He was lost and so are we as
the sons of Adam. We're all lost. We're sinners.
Now turn to Philippians 3, to our text, and let me give you
some good news. There's some good news. You see,
thank God there is something that can be done for those who
are lost. The Bible lost. In Philippians
3, verse 8, the Apostle Paul said, Yea, doubtless, I count
all things but lost. He said, I had a bunch of things.
I was a rich religious guy. I persecuted the Jews and, I
mean, the so-called Christians. And I got wealthy and I was well-schooled. I was brilliant intellectually
and intelligently. I could write and all these things.
He said, But I count all those things but lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things, and I don't care, I do count them but nothing
but dung, that what? That I might win Christ. And
then look at this. And be found. Oh, when something's
lost, what's it need? It needs to be found. Found in
Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. You see,
there's Bible lost and then there's Bible found. And Bible found
means three things. And this is the heart of the
message and it won't take much longer. But turn with me to Luke 15. Luke chapter 15. Every child in here this morning
can understand what Bible found means. You really can if you
listen to me. The first sense of this word
is to see and find. To see and find. That's what
it means to be found in Christ Jesus. Our Lord gave a simple
parable illustrating this gospel found. In Luke chapter 15, pick
it up in verse 3, we read, And he spake, that's our Lord, spake
this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having a hundred
sheep? If he lose one of them, one of them is lost. does not
leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after that which is lost
until he find it." It's the same word. This sheep is lost. It's gone. It's out there in
the wilderness, all on its own, helpless. And when he hath found
it, he laid it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh
home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying
unto them, Rejoice with me. For I have found, there is the
Bible, found, I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto
you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repented, more than over the ninety and nine just persons
which need no repentance." The gospel really is this simple. A sheep, it wanders off. Do you
know how it gets lost? It just puts its head down and
starts eating grass. And it eats grass and pretty
soon it's gone over the hill and the whole flock's over here.
He just goes off eating grass and he comes to a stream and
he goes along eating grass and then he comes to a rocky spot
and there's not much good grass here and he goes up and he gets
some grass there and pretty soon he's in the snow and then he
goes over the other side and he's lost. He's just munching
grass. It's just like us. We're born
into this world and we just go through the world munching grass.
We're just lost as a goose and don't have any idea where we
are. A sheep wanders off, it's lost. The shepherd, knowing the sheep
is lost, does this. Do you know something about shepherds
that's interesting? They have a flock of sheep. Do
you know they give every one of them a name? Every single
one of them has a name. And when the shepherd looks up
and one of the sheep is gone, is lost, he calls it by name.
He calls out. Whatever the sheep's name is,
he calls it out. He says, pretty boy, Bob, Joe. He calls him by name. That's
what he does. And do you know what happens when a lost sheep
hears the shepherd's voice? You know what they do? The only
thing a sheep can do starts bleeding. It answers the call. I'm lost. It's what the sheep does. It's
all it can do. And you know what happened? Soon
as the Master, the Shepherd, hears the call, it goes, it sees,
and it finds the sheep, picks it up, puts it on his shoulders,
and brings it home. That's Bible found. That's Bible
lost and Bible found, to see and find. You see, the lost sheep,
which is redeemed and saved. was done so from certain death
in the wilderness. And God's people are the lost
sheep, and Jesus Christ is the great shepherd. Simple faith. Is that hard? That's not hard. It's simple, isn't it? It's a
child in here who doesn't understand the principle that we just went
over. Simple faith believes the truth of that gospel. And only
false religion makes the part of the sinner more complicated
or more important than it is. God does not need man to do anything. Lost sheep do one thing, they
buy. They cry only because God's lost
sheep do one thing. They cry for mercy. And it doesn't
even have to be out loud. The help me doesn't even have
to be out loud. We're going to come back to that in about five
minutes, OK? And you might rightly ask, how
can a perished, destroyed, dead thing, a lost thing, even cry
out? It's a good question and one
we're going to answer right now. Gospel found, in the second sense,
it not only means that the shepherd sees and finds, it means to obtain. A shepherd only goes to find
his sheep, the ones he owns, the ones he bought. If a shepherd
in another country or a far land has lost a sheep, that's That's
another matter. But the Great Shepherd goes to
find the sheep he bought, that he obtained, the sheep he owns.
And he owns them because he bought them. How and when did the Great
Shepherd, Jesus Christ, buy his sheep? The only price of sin
is what? Death. God told Adam, in the
day that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Christ
Jesus of Calvary died. And do you know what he died
for? He died for his sheep, for the ones that were perished. He died for them. Why? He never sinned. Why would he
die? He didn't sin. No, he didn't deserve to die.
No. But his lost sheep deserved death
for what they had done. They all sinned. And our Lord
said, The Good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. So Christ the Good Shepherd obtained
some sheep. He bought them. He paid the price
of sin so they could live and go free. And at Calvary, Christ's
sheep are obtained. They are found. Do we see the
vital importance now of admitting what we are? If you can't admit
you're a lost sheep, you have no claim to the one who comes
to obtain them. If you can't identify with me
and the rest of us in here and say, we're nothing but sinners.
It's what the law teaches us. I'm sorry you can't have any
part in the shepherd that came to obtain you. If he didn't pay
the price, you're still under your own sin. Now, the third thing that this
means, gospel found, you see, Christ not only sees and finds
his people. He obtains them, he pays the
price, he redeems them. The third thing it means, found
in Christ, means Christ gets to beget his lost people. He begets what was lost. Now
you say, what does that mean? Well, turn over to 2 Corinthians
5 and let me, I think this will help you, show you in the Scriptures, the key to this wonderful truth is really in our text, and you
stay with 2 Corinthians 5, but I'm going to remind you what
our text said. Paul said, I suffer the loss
of everything for this one thing, that I might be found in Christ.
That's the key, in Christ. Oh, Mark's Sunday School lesson,
you nailed it this morning. It's in Christ. Everything, everything
we need, everything we hope to have is in Christ. We're redeemed
in Christ. Everything's in Christ. And this
begotten is in Christ. You see, by nature, we're lost
in this world. If we're ever to be found, it
will only be in one place, or should I say, in one person.
Our text says, found in Him. And let me see if I can illustrate
this. Lost means perished or destroyed
or dead. We don't need fixing up or cleaning
up. We need life because we're dead. Bible lost is dead. Perished,
destroyed. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. Being found means we need life. And if we're in Christ,
that's exactly what we get. Do you see in 2 Corinthians 5
verse 17? Therefore, if any man be in Christ," and there it is,
he is what? A new creature, a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. In Christ, that's what born again
means. Made new. The old sinner's dead. The new man's alive in Christ. Turn to Romans 8. Back a few
pages. Man always overestimates himself
and always underestimates the power of God. And just as God
gathered up some dust, he gathered up some dust in Genesis and breathed
life into it. And there was a man, Adam. He
had life. That's what it said. That's not make-believe. That's
what happened. Just as that happened, he called his name Adam. God
by Spirit gathers up what's in Christ, and Christ has life. And there's a new birth. And
you know what he calls his name? The new Bob. The new Brian. Oh, the new Ann. The new Lynn. The new John. It's a new person. That's why Paul said, there's
a war going on in me. I've got this old dead guy I'm
dragging around, and there's a new man in here. I've got two
natures. You know, the only person who
denies having two natures is the person who only has one.
Think about that a minute. You see, what it says, therefore,
the amazing principle is called the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus. There's two laws in this world.
There's the law of God that condemns us. And there's this law of the
spirit of God in Christ Jesus that gives us life. I've never
seen this law before, and yet here it is. Look at Romans 8,
verse 1. We read, I'm sorry, Romans 8,
verse 1. We read, There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are, here's the term, in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit, here it is, the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. That made me free from the law
of sin and death. The first law condemns me. This
new law gives me life, makes me alive. It's Christ begetting
His people, finding His people. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin
in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." Verse
9. But you are not, you God's people, His sheep, are not in
the flesh. They are in the Spirit because
of this new law. If so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of His. And if Christ be in you, The
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because
of righteousness. If the spirit of him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also raise you up, quicken your mortal bodies,
by his spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren," and
remember it says here, brethren. That's brothers and sisters.
Hang on to that term. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors
not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after
the flesh, ye are going to die. But if ye through the Spirit,
this new law, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, this new law,
you know what they are? They are the sons of God. Sons
of God. That's why Christ calls us brethren.
We're brethren. We're brothers and sisters actually
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how can that be? Mark
told us this morning. We're one with Him. If you're
in Christ, you're one with Him. I hate picking on you again,
Jamie, but bless his heart, that child that's coming is in you.
It's one with you. And you're one with Him. It can't
be separated. It'd be foolishness. And you see, we are the children
of God if we're found in Christ. If we look up in your concordance
all the things that are in Christ, you're going to find a world
of things. And it's not time to look them
up, but trust me, here's a partial list. All power is in Christ. All truth is in Christ. Wisdom
is in Christ. Grace is in Christ. Mercy is
in Christ. Faith is in Christ. Love is in
Christ. Righteousness is in Christ. Life
is in Christ. And turn to 2 Timothy 2 with
me. I'll show you one more thing that's in Christ. You see, just as God gathered
up dust, breathed life into it and made Adam, God by His Spirit
gathers up what is in Christ and begots His people. He makes
them brothers and sisters in Christ, the very children of
God. He finds, He saves that which
was lost. 2 Timothy 2, verse 10 says, 2 Timothy 2, verse 10, we read,
Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. You see, salvation is in Christ.
All that adds up to salvation, being saved. And notice it says
who they are. They're called the elect. I'm
sorry if people get distressed over this term, religious people. But it's right there, doesn't
it say? The elect's sake? Well, who are the elect? Boy,
that's the question of questions, isn't it? And I can answer it,
though. They're the lost whom God chose
to find, to obtain, and to begat in Christ. And the question of
questions is, am I one of the elect? Are you one of the elect?
And only time will tell. But look at Romans 10 a few pages
back. Here is a very familiar scripture
and one which clarifies who is elect and who is not. Romans
10, verse 13, "...whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved." It's right there. If salvation is in Christ, which
we just read, it says here, "...whosoever shall call upon his name." That
seems simple enough, doesn't it? Turn over to Isaiah 30. Stay
with me here, I want to prove these principles in the Scriptures.
I'm going to get to a very important place. You see, the elect, they
call upon Christ. We just saw that. Just like the
sheep, when they're lost, they buy. They buy. The lost sheep
of Israel, the lost sheep, they call on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They have new life in Christ.
When it says that He begats them, He gives them life. Dead things
don't cry out, do they? You've never been to a funeral
where they open the coffin and the guy said, so long. You never heard
that, did you? Because he's dead. And dead people
don't cry out. But those that were lost and
are found in Christ, they'll cry. They're like that sheep. I mean, we were all going through
this life munching grass, and one day He gave us life and we
went, I'm lost. I need help. Isn't that what
happened? In Isaiah 30, look at verse 19. For the people shall dwell in
Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will
be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he
shall hear it, he will answer it. I promise you this. There's
no excuse. People say, well, if I'm not
one of his elect, it's not my fault, right? Oh, yeah. If you don't cry, it's all your
fault. But on the other hand, if I cry, it's because He first
called me. That's what this Scripture is
saying. He says, I'll call you. He said, when I do, you'll call
me back. You'll call me back. Turn to
Jeremiah 24. This is all through the Scriptures. I mean, you can take just the
book of John and prove this same point. I'm going all over the
Old Testament and the New Testament to show you it's the truth, the
simple truth of salvation in Christ. It's all through the
Bible. Where God gives life in Christ, the sheep cry out and
they're heard of him. In Jeremiah 24, verse 7. He said, When they cry, I'll
answer and I'll give them a heart to know me. that I am the Lord,
and they shall be my people, and I'll be their God, for they
shall return unto me with their whole heart." Now, John 5, did you catch that
term, their whole heart? They cry with their whole heart.
We'll be found in Christ when we call on Him, when we seek
Him with our whole heart. And let me see if I can illustrate
this for you. Let me tell you what will not work. What will not work. If you've got children, you experience
this sometime in your life. When maybe your son just pops
his sister. Just lets them have it. Pow!
And you're determined you're not going to have any more of
that. So you sit them down and you say, Are you going to tell
me what you did? And you're going to apologize.
You're going to be sorry. Ladies, I've got some sympathy
for you because at some point in the last few years, I figured
a really important principle out. You know why your child
will do that? If you've been married to, you
don't even have to be married to a man. If you've ever dated one, you
know this principle is true. The two hardest things in the
world to get a man to say is, I'm wrong and I'm sorry. It's
true, isn't it? It is true. I admit it. Trying
to get better about it. And you know what? You can lecture
them. You can tan their hide. You can
put them in the corner. You can do all this. And you
may wind up at this place where finally they go, yeah, I did it and I'm sorry. And what they really mean inside
is, I'm glad I did it and I wish I'd done it twice. Isn't that
the truth? That's what's going on in that
sick little head. And if God doesn't do something,
if He doesn't find them, begat them, give them a new heart,
it'll never change. They'll go through this life
like that. And let me ask you something, when they give you
that, does that work for you? As a parent, does it work for
you? Of course not. What in the name of common sense,
much less the justice of God, would convince us that what modern
religion is preaching, to come down front here and say, yeah,
I'm sorry, I did some stuff I know I shouldn't have done it. But
Jesus died for all the sins of all the world. And, you know,
I'll give you some money and I'll go in that pool and then
I'll live a better life. Is that going to work? With a
holy God, when the offense is, we killed His Son. We took nails
and We drove them through the hands and spear in the side.
We crucified His Son. He's not having that anymore
than you're having that business of your kids with a false apology. No, it's got to be the whole
heart. I'm sorry. What in the Scriptures
the examples of it is, the publican came into the temple And I'll
tell you what, God had called him. He'd answered and he was
in the temple. And he was going, oh, he's smiting
his heart because he wants it to be his whole heart when he
cries, Oh God, be merciful to me. I found out I'm a sinner.
I'm lost. That works. There's a blind man sitting by
the road and he hears he's blind, his whole head's sick. He's blind. And he hears. How did he hear? Christ had called him. He heard. And when the Lord came by, this
man heard Jesus of Nazareth coming through. He says, Jesus! And they say, will you be quiet?
And he says louder, Jesus! And they said, hush! And he went,
Jesus, our Lord! He said, that's what I said.
Have mercy on me! I can't see! I can't see! My head is sick. I'm blind. I'm
dead and trespasses in sin. And you know what happened? The
Lord stood still. And He turned and He said, see. You know what that man did? He
got up and followed Christ. Why? Because he was in Christ.
He found out who his Lord was. He followed Him. And the illustrations go on and
on and on. There was a woman who had an
issue of blood. She was dying. She wasn't too proud to get on
her hands and knees and crawl in the dirt through the stinking
feet of that mob and reach out and touch the hem of his garment.
And what did he do? He said, virtue goes out of me.
She didn't even cry out loud, did she? Doesn't say a thing
she said. He had mercy on her. It was a lady who came to our
Lord. Her child was dying. Oh my! Child was dying. And she said, I feed you. And
he said, you know, it's not right to give the children's bread
to dogs. He called her a dog. Do you know
what? When he called her a dog, she
said, that's exactly what I am. She heard him call and she answered
and said, just give me the crumbs off the table. That's all I need.
You made her child well. It's with the whole heart. This
half-hearted stuff is not going to work. It simply will not work. Look at one more scripture here.
In John 5, verse 40, we read, And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day." One more scripture, Psalm 95. See verse 1? If this ever happens
for us, what we will say So come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let
us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us
come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful
noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God.
He is a great King. above all gods. Verse 6, we read,
O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the
Lord our Maker, for he is our God, and thank goodness we are
the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today,
if you will, hear his voice. Don't harden your heart this
morning. Don't go, I'm not that bad. You may be talking about
these folks, and I'm not that bad. I'm not perfect, but I'm
not that bad. Don't harden your heart. Bow before him. Where does God
look for the lost? Where he knows he'll find them.
Where he put them before the foundation of the world. In Christ.
When does he find them? In the fullness of time. Is it the fullness of time for
you this morning? Today is the day of salvation. It may never
come again. Seek him while I may be found."
Why does God do it this way? If we could find ourselves, then
we deserve some credit for it, wouldn't we? But since we can,
and the only way is to be found in Christ, he rightly deserves
all the glory for it. I recently visited Brother Henry
Mahan. And he was telling me about a
message he preached. And he got excited and went in and said,
here was my conclusion. And I said, can I have that?
I want that. He said, sure. I said, I think
it's going to fit with the message that I'd like to bring. And let
me read it to you. He said, take this word to heart
and rejoice. He said, it's my very own testimony.
He said, I sought the Lord and then I found out. that all the
time it was he who sought me. He says, I waited for the Lord
and I found him. And afterwards, I knew that it
was actually he who found me. And he said, I called on the
Lord and asked him to save my soul. And then he said to me,
before I formed you in the belly, I loved you, sanctified you,
and called you. Oh, what a joy to be in Christ
Jesus, found in him. May the Lord bless his Word.