I'm preaching in 13th Street
tonight, and I'll probably have to drive back to Ashland, get
in a motel, and take a shower, because I probably won't get
a nap today. For an old fellow, that's tough,
not to get their naps. Appreciate that song. Your voice,
all the voices are wonderful. You know the song, Christ is
All. You need to look it up. I think your voice in that song,
but you think so. I think it says, I entered once
a home of care where age and poverty were there, yet peace
and joy with all. I asked the aging widows whence
her aging widowhood's defense. She cried and answered, Christ
is all. Get that song. And then when
you record it, send it to me. I want to hear it. Thank you all for your welcome.
It's been great to meet new faces and new folks and see some old
friends. Bookends, and it's just been a real pleasure. I've been
looking forward to meeting Jason. He said I don't look like my
picture on Facebook. Well, that's on purpose. We'll turn back to Malachi chapter
3. If you know about the book of Malachi, this is our Lord
confronting His people with their horrible dissension and debale
and ugly worship. Offering up injured lambs, polluted
bread, a lot of emotion, crying over the altar, lord said he's
going to rub their faces in the excrement of their sacrifices
they continually accuse the lord of lying to them and then our
lord promises the coming of the lord jesus christ who will come
suddenly into his temple he'll be a refiner of fire purifier
of silver and he'll purify the sons of levi in case you don't
know who that is that's you who are members of the body of the
lord jesus christ the royal priesthood And then he says, The reason
you aren't consumed, and he speaks, of course, to that remnant according
to the election of grace, though they deserve because they're
doing exactly the same as the rest of the people are doing. You're not going to be consumed
for one singular reason. I don't change. I don't change. The hymn writer
wrote, despairing of what he saw going
around him, change and decay all around I see. O thou who
changest not, abide with me. Bob Dylan wrote, the times they
are a changing. And they are, as far as we can
see. But I think we're looking in
the wrong direction. Generally speaking, the older
generation is resistant to the ways of the newer generation.
That's just the way it is. A wise man wrote, say not thou,
what is the cause that the former days were better than these?
for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. I confess that what I see going
around me is troubling to me and as every preacher in every
generation I have been occasionally tempted by the flesh to wonder
if perhaps I could temper my message a little so somebody
might want to hear me and say, well, why would you do that?
Because I'm a human being Paul did that, he did those Jewish
ceremonies hoping to get those Jews to listen to him, but they
didn't listen to him either. We're often dismayed about what's
going on around us. I looked up the word dismayed
in the Hebrew language and I found that it means basically being
anxious because of a horizontal view. It's being anxious because
we look at the circumstance rather than lifting our eyes to him
who sits on the throne ruling and reigning in all things. I
am a human being with very active flesh struggling with my spirit
daily. I have said over the years that
man has lost his moral compass, but that's not true. Upbringing and societal restrictions
and social mores and regional prohibitions and that which is
legally forbidden, that's what governs people's behavior. Government
and religion seek to declare what is moral and what is not
by legislation, but these are merely vain efforts to deal with
what increasingly they are unable to control or change. The fact is that man, as he is
born in this world, doesn't have a moral compass. Not one at all. And that's proven by the fact
that as soon as he is born, he comes forth from the womb speaking
lies. He drinks iniquity like water.
His God is his belly, the scripture says. And that simply means that
what sustains his existence, what he must feed is his thirst
and his hunger. A maggot cannot live on fresh
flesh. He thrives and lives and is sustained
on the smorgasbord of corruption. You put a maggot on a live flesh
and it'll just fall away, has nothing to eat. The entirety
of the human race was ruined by what is described as Adam
doing this very thing, doing what he wanted to in spite of
God's prohibition. Our Lord said, in the day you
eat of that fruit, you shall surely die, or in dying, you
shall die. and we have four letters, four
words that settle the whole thing as far as our utter ruin and
condition. Scripture says simply about him,
and he did eat. He did eat. You look around you,
the works of the flesh are painfully apparent, there's no doubt about
that. And know this, it's not a new thing. It's not a new thing. God's prohibitions that men are
seemingly plunging into with abandon in these days, seemingly
without shame, were addressed in this book 3,500 years ago and 2,000 years ago in the New
Testament. That simply means that the problems that the preachers
were dealing with then is what we're dealing with now because
nothing changes. Shall the 21st century preacher,
the preacher of the gospel mold his message to fit the mores
of his time or that he might seem relevant?
Shall the preacher and believer of the gospel seek a global ecumenical
message that will embrace what God has always prohibited in
order to cry peace, peace when there is no peace? Should the
truth be discarded because the lie is more palatable and become
the norm? And the lie has always been the
norm as far as humanity goes. Since the fall, it's what men
believe is the lie. It was preferred in the garden,
wasn't it, to the truth. Eve was deceived, but Adam wasn't
deceived. He openly believed the lies that
the serpent set forth in the beginning. The Lord said, ye
shall surely die. The servant said, ye shall surely
not die. And what did they believe? They believed the lie. Now the
prediction and the prophecy of scripture is that things will
wax worse and worse. And the love of many shall wax
cold. We're seeing evidence of that in our day. But this is not change. This
is the fulfillment of prophecy. This is what God said. Man from the beginning, like
water, has sought the path of least resistance. He always will. Like water, he is fit perfectly
in whatever shape, container society has assigned for him,
or whatever shape, container society has made of itself. And
like water, it's always a downhill run for him to the lowest possible
place. That's humanity in a nutshell. Back in the Garden of Eden, the
blame game started, victimization started. You know, today, nobody's
responsible for anything. Nobody is. Nobody's responsible
for their own actions. Something caused them to do it.
Back in my day, Skip Wilson, you remember? I'm dating myself,
how old black and white TV is, you know? Remember Skip Wilson?
Remember what he said? The devil made me do it. The
devil made me do it. Well, everybody says something
else made them do it. That didn't start recently. When Adam was
confronted at the Garden of Eden, he said, that woman you gave
me made me do it. And when he confronted the woman,
she said, that serpent you made, that's my problem. So that continues
even today. But nothing has changed, nor
will it till the Lord makes all things new. And that will be
some change. Bob Dylan was wrong, and so partly
was the hymn writer. Decay is indeed all around, but
not change. Nothing has changed. God has not changed. He said
that right here in this passage. These sons of Jacob are not consumed
because I have not changed. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. The hope of the sons of Jacob,
your hope and my hope this hour is that God won't change. God
won't change. That's the guarantee that will
not be consumed, that he won't change. If he has not punished your sin
and visited your iniquity with stripes and the sovereign substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be the recipient of divine justice,
where mercy and grace are not even in the vocabulary. God has
chosen some to salvation. That hasn't changed. He's chosen
some to salvation and not others. God has made of the same lump
some vessels of mercy and some vessels of wrath, some made for
glory, created for glory, and some created to destroy. That's the mark of the human
race. The Lord has made all things
for himself, even the wicked for the day of evil. He made
them for the day of evil. Wicked is not some strange thing
that crept upon the Lord. Before we're introduced to Adam
and Eve, there's the serpent there. He's always in the garden. My brother made some fine points
on that last night when he was talking about the sovereignty
of God. Very fine points. Man is not even allowed to ask
why. I had no problem in understanding
the sovereignty of God the first time I heard it because I lived
with a man named Bill James for 19 years of my life. Ex-cop,
tough as nails. 19 years I lived with him and
I never asked why. Never. No matter what he said
I did or tried to do or God not to mess up, but I never said
why, because I would have got it right across the mouth and
knocked away from the table had I said why. I understand sovereignty. God says you can't ask why. It's
none of your business. It's none of your business. God
does as he pleases in heaven and earth and all the deep places.
He never takes counsel with anyone and he doesn't give account of
his matters. I remember many years ago in a place called Biafra,
I think it was, children were dying and some Lutheran preacher
stood up on TV and some TV show or some news show and said somebody's
gonna answer for this. Who? God? God ain't gonna answer
for it. God's not gonna answer for it.
He doesn't give a count of his matter. Scripture says he does
according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand and none can
even presume to ask why. God is the sovereign ruler. And
that simply means that he rules absolutely and completely. He's
the controller of all things and the manipulator of all his
creatures to do his will, to fit within his providential scheme
to bring all things to their appointed end. All that rise
and wriggles upon the face of this earth, God controls everything
and everyone. You are his property. You are
not your own. You are his property and he will
do with you exactly as he sees fit. And let me tell you this,
it'll be right. It'll be the right thing. Why?
Because he's God. And the judge of earth shall
always do right. Nothing has changed. God has
not changed. I hear men talk like he has. I saw a thing on Facebook this
morning where that Osteen fellow, that silly little nobody, Silly
little namby-pamby wimpies. I'd like to take him out back
and whoop him real good. And I'm an old man, but I'd take
him. He said something like, you must
allow God to expand you. You must give him permission
to expand your faith. Poor God that, poor God. God has not changed. He says,
the reason you sons of Jacob are not consumed is because I
don't change. You can find peace at the foot
of a sovereign and nowhere else. The work of the Holy Spirit has
not changed. He still convinces men of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment. Sin because of unbelief, of righteousness,
because Christ has gone to the Father, of judgment because the
prince of this world is judged. He still does that. He still
takes the things of Christ and reveals them to the elect. He
still informs the elect through the preaching of the gospel that
they have been redeemed. Not that they can be. That's
not good news. Good news when you tell people
that God has redeemed them. Well, how will you know if they're
elect? You'll know if they're elect if they find an interest
in that. You don't have to worry about results. You read Isaiah
chapter 52 in verse seven, it starts out with this, that the
gospel says, God is sovereign, thy God reigneth. And then in
chapter three, it talks about the victorious, vicarious death
of the Lord Jesus Christ in Psalm 54. I mean, in verse chapter
54, it talks about all the things that these benefits that God
gives to his people, no weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper. And then in chapter 55, it says, ho! That little
word means you're at the point. Ho! Anybody out there thirsty? Does this interest you? If it
don't interest you, I have nothing for you. I'm not, you know, you
say, well, I don't believe in God. He's not losing any sleep
over it, trust me. And he don't believe in you like
some people say. Hope, is what I'm saying, interest
you. Would you like to drink this
and feast on this? Carl, a man never will, but the
elect will. They'll show up. You say, well,
how will anybody know? If Christ is in you, Barnard,
you say he'll leak out on you. And that's the truth. The Holy
Spirit hasn't changed. He informs the elect that they
have been redeemed and justified and sanctified by the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his job. That's his function
here in this earth. He's the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
for Christ says, I'll send you my Spirit, and when I come. So
he's the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, where in Christ dwelt
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And the Holy Spirit refuses to
glorify himself. He's not going to make you talk
about the Holy Spirit. He's going to make you talk about
Jesus Christ. He's gonna bring you to that place. He bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And he does
that through the preaching of the word of God. The preaching
of the word of God. I remember many years ago, a
lady and her husband had come to our church there in Cherokee,
North Carolina in the backwoods. I'm on the trout stream, y'all.
Tucked up against the mountains. We only get four hours of sunlight
in the wintertime. This time it's dusky. But they
sat down and they'd been to every church on the reservation trying
to find something. Every one of them they'd walked
away empty. That morning, I heard her husband sit down there and
I preached to him a lecture. The wonderful, beloved, loving
doctrine of electing grace. And she hit her husband on the
thigh. I said, that's it. Out loud, everybody heard it. That's it. Why? because in the
wonderful working of God's grace God had implanted in her heart
his word written it and when she heard it she said that's
it and the elect know that that's it because the Holy Spirit opens
their eyes and their minds he bears witness with them he hasn't changed He's not gonna
make you act like a fool. He's gonna make you believe on
Jesus Christ. Nothing has changed. Man has not changed. He cannot
change any more than the leopard can change his spots or an Ethiopian
change the color of his skin. Everyone born is conceived in
iniquity and born in sin. Stone cold dead as they step
from their mother's womb. None that do good, none that
are righteous, none that seek after God. Man is corruption
and putrefaction wrapped in a comely package. His heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked, saith the scripture from head to toe.
There is no soundness in him, nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that are neither bound up nor mollified
with ointment. Man is a lie. He's not just a liar, he's a
lie. I'm a lie. Now, I don't know you young preachers,
I envy you in so many ways because y'all still have the testosterone.
Y'all full of beans, you know, and I appreciate that. I appreciate
that. But one of these days you're going to be standing in the pulpit
preaching and you say, I hope to God these people never find
out what a fraud I am. Really? Man is a lie. Don't trust him. Don't trust
him. Not only a liar, he's a lie and
he's lighter than vanity. How light is that? Man is lighter
than the ether. He has no weight and no substance. There's nothing to him, nothing
to him whatsoever. At his best, he's worse than
ever can be imagined. He's a lie and a liar, liar to
the vanity. He's filth, he's stench, he's
depravity personifying. He is a sinner. Repulsive to
God. A rebel from cradle to his grave.
He is a God-hater and a lust-lover. And that has not changed. And
it will not change. Nothing has changed. Sin has
not changed. Men may endeavor to give the
works of the flesh new names. I've heard some new ones lately
that really crack me up. I heard a guy talking about him
and his wife had two other women living with them and they all
make love to each other. You know what he called that?
You know what God calls that? Fornication and adultery. You
know what he called it? Polyamory. Man, polyamory, polyfidelity. Words like addiction, disease,
normal behavior, that's what people call it. Everybody does
it, they say that. The sin has not changed. If a
cat has kittens in the oven, that don't make them kittens
biscuits, it just don't. A pig with a bow on his head
don't make a beauty queen. A snake that sheds its skin only
produces a bigger and more deadly snake, that's all it does. Religion
wrapped in Egyptian linen, fine Egyptian lism doesn't make it
holy. Fornication, adultery, perversion, lying, backbiting,
lascivious, thievery, murder, inordinate affections, and unbelief
are what they really are. They're sin against the holy
God. They are sin and they are worthy
of capital punishment. When you woke up this morning,
what your first thought you had is worthy of death. You say,
well, I thought about Jesus Christ. Not with an unsinful heart, you
didn't. Because there's always evil present with you. Always,
with every thought and deed and thing you do, evil is present
with you. What I'm doing right here, what
our brother did at the piano beautifully with the singers
with him, that's enough sin in that to send 10,000 worlds to
hell. We can't do anything good because
we're sinners. We're sinners. It's rebellion against God. There
is no minor sins, no little sin, because there's no little God
to sin against. Sin is rebellion, manifest hatred for the enmity
toward God. Sin is breathing death. That's
what it is. It's walking death. And it will
receive the maximum punishment for its criminality. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. Nothing
has changed. Salvation has not changed. Salvation,
what a word. We talk about it a lot. That's
an important word in this book. From Genesis 1 to Revelation
22, that's what this book is about. The salvation that God
has wrought by Jesus Christ for the glory of his name's sake.
for the praise of the glory of his grace. But all religion talks
about salvation, but the word itself presupposes something. You realize that? We can say
it and it becomes commonplace to say it about salvation. But
when we say salvation next time, think along these lines. What
does that really mean? To be saved. It presupposes an
inescapable situation. Now think about that. So next
time you think about salvation, think, well, what am I saying?
That whatever this salvation is had to do with someone that
was in a situation they could not escape. They couldn't do
anything about. Circumstances beyond their control,
a hopeless estate. Salvation, what does that mean?
It means to be delivered. It means to be rescued. It means
to be ransomed. It means to be saved. People
say, well, come down the aisle and you'll be saved from once.
It's just become a thing to embrace. No, if you've been saved, it's
because you've been captive. If you've been saved, it's because
you have been in fetters and chains. If you've been saved,
it's because you were in a situation that you could not do anything
about. That is salvation. So when we talk about salvation,
let's be clear in our own minds what we're talking about. You
are not saved. And God doesn't save you if he
hasn't first put you in a situation where you need saving. Read the Old Testament. Read
the Old Testament. When God rescued his people,
it's because he put them in a fix to start with. over and over
again. The elect are in captivity because
God intends to save them. That's why they're there. Israel,
where are you gonna be? Well, we're God's people. You're
going, the Medes and the Persians are coming after you. Babylon's
coming after you. They're gonna hold you captive.
Well, what in the world are we gonna do? Fear not, I'm gonna
deliver you. Well, why didn't you just do
it without any, because you didn't need delivering until I put you
in a situation to be delivered. This is salvation, and it's not
change. If a man is saved, it's entirely
from pole to pole, from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end,
the work of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is of
the Lord. Christ alone is the Savior. God
is only just to justify sinners because God has made Christ to
be sin for them and made Him to be righteousness for them.
Christ has propitiated God for their offense. Salvation is for
those whom God has chosen to save out of a fallen race. And
He chose them before they existed, before the foundation of the
world. And no one else did He choose. He chose them for those
whom He had predestinated to be conformed to the image of
His Son. Salvation is not by man's will.
It's not by man's genealogy. It's not by the will of some
other creature. Salvation's of the Lord. God
saves men. Better, He has saved men. He has redeemed men because He
has loved men. He will be gracious unto whom
He will be gracious. He will show mercy on whom He
will show mercy and whom He will, He hardened us. You mean God
does that? Well, yeah, He's God. He's God. Salvation is by grace alone through
Christ alone. Christ alone satisfied the law's
demands and his death redeemed his chosen. Salvation has not
changed, nothing has changed. And we diminish it when we talk
about it in any other terms of God saving us from a situation
that we could not help ourselves. Salvation's not changed. The
message of the gospel's not changed. from the first beast slain to
cover the sinful first pair of human beings, till this day,
the message of Christ to be in him crucified still stands. The
preacher of the gospel is determined to know nothing else. Substitution,
satisfaction, and imputation are the cornerstone of the gospel
message. Out of a fallen, depraved race, God chose a people to save.
Yeah, he did. Christ Jesus came into the world
to die in the room instead of those people. And by his blood
death, he met every requirement for those people. And in doing
so, Christ redeemed, justified, sanctified, and saved those people.
These things are done. They're finished. Ain't nothing
left to do. Those people will be called by
the gospel. That's still a wondrous thing
to me. God would raise people like us. which history is like
us. Stand up on our back legs and
tell you about Jesus Christ. Pride, weakness, frailty, doubt,
they're weeds that grow strongest in the pool pit. They are. Why would he call somebody like
me? So you'll be sure to understand that if God has saved you, it's
by his grace. Can't be by me. Can't be by Jason. Can't be by Scott. Can't. No
way, gotta be by grace. Well, how do I know? Well, look
at my preacher. Gotta be by grace. Look at him. Ain't nothing in
him that's worth a hoot. Gotta be by grace. The gospel
has not changed. Gospel. We're bound to give thanks
always to you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, is it important to hear
the gospel? Of course it is. It's absolutely important to
hear the gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. How does that work? Really well. I don't know. Don't
ask me about specifics. I don't know. This is a mysterious
and wondrous thing. I heard a fella came to me one
time, he was a preacher, he said, it was anyways, it is a grace,
believing in sovereign grace. Yeah, I believe in sovereign
grace. I said, well, I'm glad to hear that. Then he asked this question,
he says, you believe a person has to hear the preaching of the
gospel to be saved? Oh, I hate it when people ask
questions like that. I knew where he was coming from.
And so I said, why do you ask? Generally, when people ask me
a question, I'm open to conversation. I like to converse with people,
but I also look in their eyes and look at their face and look
at their body language when they ask the question. Generally,
when people ask me a question, I ask them a question. They preach,
Brother James, what do you believe about imputation? And I'll say,
well, okay. Are you asking me for my opinion? They'll say, yes. And I'll say,
well, am I asking you for your opinion? They'll say, no. I said, so if I give my opinion,
you're not going to give me yours, right? That usually is a conversation
they don't ask anymore. But that fella says, well, I
don't believe a person has to hear the gospel we say. Now I'm
not putting God in a shoe box, but I'm telling you this from
cover to cover, you'll not find warrant for anything other than
hearing the gospel. God called men up to preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the good news, to publish salvation,
to say unto men, thy God reigneth. And that's how it works. I told
that fellow, I said, well, if you believe that, go back to
your pulpit Sunday morning and get up there and hold your Bible
up and go. We don't need to meet anymore.
Y'all go home, read your Bible. Go home, read your Bible. that
ain't gonna do it. You know what the sweetest thing
on earth is? What we're doing right now. It's the finest of
things. This is wine on the leaves, well
refined. A feast of fat things. When God's
people, some who have never met before, can sit down together,
smile at the same time, Laugh at the same time and cry at the
same time. Rejoice at the same time together
because they're blood-bought brothers and sisters who just
haven't met. And they love each other. They
love each other. I'll miss you when I go. I'll
miss you like I miss my children. I'll miss you. And I'm always
glad to see you. And the ones I've met this time,
the next time I see you, it'll be like, oh man, I can't wait
to see you. Why? Why? Because of the gospel,
this wonderful, wonderful message that has not changed. And the message is all for the
glory of God's grace, to the praise and the glory of his grace. And the response to the gospel
has not changed. Paul summed it up when he said,
some believe and some didn't. That's how it works. What happened
to church just last Sunday, preacher? Well, some believe, some didn't,
and that's how it works. The legalists will hear the gospel
and call the preacher an antinomian. That hasn t changed. Or he ll
say that the message opens the floodgates of sin. That hasn
t changed. Or he ll scandalize the preacher
as one who says that we ought to sin so God can show more grace. He ll say that, but that hasn
t changed. The rebel will hear the gospel of election and charge
God with unfairness. That hasn't changed. The rebel
will hear the gospel of predestination and retort, God, well, God can't
hold me responsible if he made me the way I am. He'll always
say that. The rebel will hear the gospel
of God's sovereign will as being always accomplished and say,
well, I believe in whosoever will. It's gonna happen. The
rebel will hear the truth that God hates some men and loves
others, and he'll quote John 3 16. And you know what the elect will
do? They'll believe after they hear the word of truth, the good
news of their salvation. The good news that Christ has
saved them. It's your salvation, you see.
God give it to you for the world world. And the gospel alerts
you to the fact. The Holy Spirit, as it were,
picks up the phone and calls you and says, you were redeemed
2000 years ago, saved, sanctified and justified before almighty
God. Isn't that good news? Indeed it is. Nothing has changed. The never-changing, ever-enduring
Word of God says, My son, fear thou the Lord and the King and
meddle not with them that are given to change. One of my favorite verses in
all of Scripture simply because it just piques my interest and
twists my head and I try to think it out and I can't ever get a
hold of it because it speaks of eternal things and I'm just
a mortal man. God says, I know that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should
fear before him. Now listen very carefully. This
will float you both. That which hath been. is now. And that which is to be has already
been, and God requireth that which is past. What does that
say? Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. For I am
the Lord. I change not. therefore you sons
of Jacob are not concerned. God bless you. Thank you for
having me. See you when it's time. God bless you. For more good preaching, I'm
gonna put a plug in for our church in Tennessee. If you're on Sermon
Audio, our preacher is