199, Christ receiveth sinful
men. Let's all stand together. 199. Sinners Jesus will receive. Sound this word of grace to all
who the heavenly pathway leave. All who linger, all who fall,
sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain,
Christ received his sinful man. Come, and He will give you rest. Trust Him, for His word is plain. He will take the sinful last. Christ receiveth sinful men. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ receiveth sinful men. ? Make the message clear and
plain ? ? Christ, receive us in full ? Now my heart condemns me not,
pure before the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spot,
satisfied its last demand, sing it o'er. or again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receiveth sinful men. Christ receiveth sinful man,
even me with all my sin. Purged from every spot and stain,
heaven with him I enter in. Sing it o'er. and or again Christ
receive a sinful man make the message clear and plain Christ
receive a sinful man please be seated Sinful men are the only men that
the Lord will receive. Sinners are the only people that
need a Savior. Let's open our Bibles together.
Jennifer, so good to have you back home. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter
12. And while you do that, I so hesitate to make any announcements
about people because everybody knows everything about everybody.
But you all know Bert had a car accident on Monday just up the
road from here and broke his sternum and is in a lot of pain. But he's home, so he'll be recovering
from that for several weeks. Also, Clarissa was in the hospital
this week with a kidney stone, and I just talked to Peggy a
little while ago, and she passed the stone today, and she's home.
So she's doing well. I'm looking forward to starting
ninth grade this week. And Lauren Culver's dad, Dan,
had his open heart surgery Tuesday. It was very successful. They
did a triple bypass, and he's doing well and recovering. Lauren
will be here Sunday. matter of fact she's gonna be
singing for us Sunday Tom all right y'all have your Bibles
open to Hebrews chapter 12 beginning at verse 1 wherefore in light
of the fact that all these Old Testament Saints believed God
They believed God. The Lord gave him faith. Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth
so easily beset us. What is the sin that doth so
easily beset you? It's the same sin for every one
of us. It's the cause of all of our sin. It's unbelief. That's the sin that does whatever's
not of faith is sin. And that's what we struggle,
isn't it? That old man of unbelief. And
so the Lord says, set aside every weight and the sin which does
so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us. And what is belief? Looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The Lord Jesus Christ has sat
down. No Old Testament priest ever
sat down. His work was never finished.
One piece of furniture conspicuously missing in the Old Testament
tabernacle and temple was a chair. But in heaven, there's a throne. And the Lord seated, he finished
the work. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
weary and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin and unbelief. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
We're so very thankful that we can come before a throne of grace,
knowing that we have a savior, an advocate, a sin bearer, a
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, who stands in our stead and presents
himself on our behalf. Oh Lord, we pray that you would
enable us in this hour to set our affections on him. to rest
in him, to rejoice in him, to look in faith on his accomplished
work and on his glorious person, and find the hope of our salvation
completely bound up in thy dear son, that he get all the glory.
Lord, we thank you for protecting Bert in the accident, and we
know, Lord, that you work all things together for our good
and for your glory. And we thank you for the testimony
of faith that you've given to Bert, Jennifer, and the kids.
And Lord, we pray for your hand of strength and healing to be
upon our brother and for you to give him full recovery. Thank
you for the successful surgery that you gave to Dan on Tuesday
and pray that you would continue to strengthen him and enable
him to return to the ministry of preaching your gospel. And
Lord, we thank you for little Clarissa. We ask that you would
protect her and we pray that you would be pleased to have
mercy upon her. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's join our voices again and
all stand together. We'll sing hymn number 23 in
the Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number 23, Pass Me Not. Let's all stand. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior,
let me hear your gracious call. I'm a guilty, helpless sinner,
Savior, at your feet I fall. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ, so rich and free, Grace of God, so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. ? Pass me not, O mighty Spirit
? You can cause the dead to live ? Speak the word of saving power
? Give me faith and make me live ? Love of God so everlasting
Blood of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not a poor lost sinner. If you will, you can save me. Reach down with your hand of
mercy. Saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so everlasting. ? Blood of Christ so rich and
free ? Grace of God so strong and saving ? Magnify them all
in me Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with me
to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. We saw from Isaiah chapter 53
on Sunday that our Lord was numbered with the transgressors. And that's
the only place the Lord is going to ever be found, is among the
transgressors. But you understand that that
also is a reference to the circumstances that Christ was crucified in. He was put on a cross between
two transgressors, two malfactors, two thieves, as the scripture
describes them. And those two men represent all
of mankind. And so I've titled this message,
Which One Am I? Which one of those two malfactors,
which one of those two transgressors, which one of those two thieves
do I identify with? Because you're going to identify
with one or the other. Now we live in a world that is
caught up in putting all their attention on diversity. I guess
this recent situation with Google has resurfaced the subject of
diversity and everybody's trying to figure out how to get along. Really what they're doing is
they're trying to achieve what we have. They're trying desperately to
achieve what we have. I hope the world can learn how
to tolerate one another. I hope they can figure out a
way to get along. But to love one another regardless
of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of culture, regardless
of language. The world's never going to have
that. They have to desperately work toward having some sort
of peace among themselves. God's people, God's people have
it. Revelation chapter 5, the scripture
says that God has a people from every people, every nation, every
tribe, every tongue. And he's brought them together
in Christ. And what a blessing it is that
we don't have to worry about diversity in the church. I was
talking to Horace yesterday. Horace and I are the same age,
just met him at a store. And we started talking, and I
asked him where he was from, and he said he was from a small
town up in North Florida, and he and I were the same age. And
so he said, well, he said, I was born there. He said, but my daddy
got in a fight with a white man, and he hit him, and we had to
move the whole family back in 1955 to Atlanta. And I thought, you know, how
evil, how evil all types of prejudice are. And what a blessing it is
that God's people don't struggle with that. That we don't have
an issue with those things. The world has a diversity problem,
don't they? Why is it, why is it that we
don't look at those things? Why is it? Because the Lord has
knit our hearts together in Christ, identifying with one of those
two malfactors. You're going to be identified
with one or the other. And I so want, I want you and
I want me to be able to know that the Lord has had mercy on
us, and he's united us in Christ, and that really, the world looks
at skin color, they look at ethnicity, they look at language, they look
at race, they look at all those sort of things. But we look at
two things. There's two kinds of people in
the world. There's God's elect, and there's the reprobate. That's
it That's it There's there's there's the people of God. There's
those that the Lord has saved and there's those that he's left
to himself to themselves You have your Bibles open to
Luke chapter 23 look at look at verse 33 and when they were
come to the place which is called Calvary and There they crucified
him with the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other
on the left. That's it. All of humanity. Doesn't matter what generation
you're of, it doesn't matter what language you speak, it doesn't
matter what gender you are, all of humanity fits into these two
male factors. One on the right and one on the
left. That's it. That's the only difference
that there is between men. Everything else is just contrived
differences that men have that really don't matter. It really
don't matter. One on the right, one on the
left. Now what was the difference in these two men? They were both
thieves. The word malfactor means evildoer. They were both evildoers. They
were both deserving of the death that they were experiencing. The judgment that had come upon
them, they were both worthy of it. What did they have in common?
They had a lot in common. Neither one of them had ever
done anything for God. And after the Lord showed mercy
on one and left the other to himself, they looked just like
they did before. They really, you know, they were
the same. And so it is between those that
are on the right side and those that are on the left side. We
don't look to the outward appearance of a man to try to figure out
which one he's identified with. And if you look to your outward
appearances in order to try to figure out I had somebody tell me this week,
after I brought that message on Sunday, that there's no such thing as
a good Christian. They listened. I don't know what
they heard, but they came to this conclusion. I'm a good fruit-bearing
tree. That's what they told me. I'm
a good fruit-bearing tree. A man who's looking at his outward
behavior and outward appearances in order to try to figure out
which thief he identifies with. Verse 34, Then said Jesus, Father
forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they parted
his raiment and cast lots. Now, whoever the Lord was praying
for, Whoever he was praying for for
the father to forgive he wasn't is offering a general prayer
for everybody If that be the case, then everybody would be
forgiven because every prayer that the Lord ever offered to
the father was answered So whoever he's praying for The father forgives
them now one of the reasons I know that he's praying for me Is because
the Lord has revealed to me That I don't know what I'm doing Don't know the depths of my sin.
I Have no I have no idea you know one of the one of the Analogies
that the Lord gives us all throughout his word about a sinner is a
leper and One of the conditions of leprosy is that it attacks
the nervous system one of the reasons why lepers are so maimed
and their pieces of their bodies are falling off is because they
injure themselves and they don't know it and Their nervous system's
been destroyed. And that's the way the Lord,
that's the way we are, aren't we? We're so accustomed to sin. We're
so used to it. We do it without any thought. We're not bothered by it. You know, the religious, oh,
I'm just so convicted for my sin. I feel so bad. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. They don't have a clue. They
don't have any idea that the Lord Jesus Christ knew what sin
was. He knew the shame of it. He knew
the weight of it. He knew the wrath that it deserved. And He suffered the full penalty
of God's justice for the sins of His people. And God saw the
travail of His soul and God was satisfied with what He suffered. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. And the people stood beholding.
And the rulers, also with them, derided him, saying, He saved
others, let him save himself, if it be Christ, the chosen of
God. The only way that he could save
others was by not saving himself. But they couldn't see that. They
couldn't see it. the soldiers also mocking mocked
him Coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying if thou
be the king of the Jews save thyself If you're a king come
down from there now these verses are important because they set
the Spirit of God set them in contrast to the confession that
one of these Malfactors one of these thieves one of these transgressors
is about to make about the Lord Jesus Christ So the natural man
couldn't see who he was or what he was doing And verse 38, and
a superscription also was written over him in letters in Greek.
That's the common man's language. In Latin, that's the language
of the intellectuals. And in Hebrews, that was the
religious language. And so the Lord is declaring
to the whole world, this is the King of the Jews. Jesus the king
of the Jews and what they say They said to Pilate don't put
that up there Put up there that he said he's the king of the
Jews and what Pilate say what I've written I've written Oh,
here's a here's a man who had no interest in the things of
God and yet God was controlling everything that he that he did
And the Lord was controlling this confession that was placard
on the cross. Verse 39, And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ,
save thyself and us. Now, Mark tells us that they
both did that. They both did that. These men
were suffering the cruel death of crucifixion, just like our
Lord was. And and they hanging on the cross
knowing that they had but but hours left to live Both railed
on the Lord Jesus Christ and said if thou be the Christ Save
yourself and save us by the way while you're at it They were
mocking him as what they were doing But The other answered
and rebuked him and said, dost thou fear God? Dost thou not fear God? Now what is it to fear God? Do I fear God? Do you fear God? Is it a slavish, cringing kind
of fear where we're just afraid that God's going to strike us
with lightning if we think or do or say something that's not
pleasing to Him? Is that what it is to fear God? These men were both dying. They
had but hours left to live. They were going to draw their
final breath in just a little bit. And they were going to stand
in the presence of a holy God. And what this one malfactor was
saying, are you not afraid to stand in the presence of God
without an advocate? Without a substitute? Without
a sin bearer? Now the thought of that scares
me to death. The thought of having to stand
in the presence of a holy God and answer for myself? We used
to think we were witnessing for the Lord by going around saying
to people, what would you say if somebody, if you died and
you stood before the Lord and the Lord asked you, why shall
I let you into my heaven? What would you say? I wouldn't, and then of course
you had to have an answer for that question. I wouldn't say
anything. I wouldn't say anything. If the
Lord Jesus Christ didn't speak for me on my behalf, if he didn't
step up to the plate and represent me, if he didn't stand in my
stead and say, Father, that's one of mine, I died for him,
I've got nothing I can say. One way or the other, the thought
of standing in the presence of a holy God without a savior,
That's a, that's a horrible thought. And that's what it is to fear
God. And the natural man doesn't fear God. He, he, he, he doesn't
think about dying. He doesn't worry about it. He,
he, he thinks, you know, things are just going to go on like
they are forever. And, um, and the child of God,
he realizes death is coming. It's coming quickly. It really
is. Just a few more sunsets. Michael
and I were talking about this before. And you say, well, you're
old. Yeah, maybe. But it's coming quickly, I promise
you. The Lord says it is. Life is a vapor. We're just here for a little
while. But the natural man doesn't see it, does he? He doesn't think
about it. He doesn't consider it. And if he does consider it,
he thinks, well, I'm good enough to be able to stand in the presence
of God. Dost thou not fear God? You know, people get sober-minded
when they face death, don't they? But they still don't fear God.
Go on YouTube and look up Steve Jobs' final testimony. It's on there, it's on there. Listen to what, it speaks out
of his own mouth. He's telling about his experience
with death. And he's saying that all the
wealth that he's accumulated has left him with nothing but
a twisted life, and he had all of his priorities out of order,
and the only thing, now he's about to die, and the only thing
now that matters is his relationships with people. Now that's his parting testimony. He had no fear of God. No fear
of God. Your relationships with people
don't matter. Not when you die. It doesn't
matter. There's only one thing that matters. That's your relationship
with Christ. Does He know me? Is He going
to stand in my stead? Is He going to represent me before
God? That's what it is to fear God. And this one thief feared God,
and the other had no fear of God. People get religious when they
find out they've got some sort of terminal illness and they're
going to die. But they're just doing religion in order to have
something to present to God in hopes for their salvation. Truth is, truth is, if a person
came back from hell, they would not fear God. They wouldn't fear God. You see,
the fear of God is a work of grace in the heart. When the
Lord's pleased to reveal Himself. That's what happened to Isaiah.
I know I quote from Isaiah chapter 6 a lot, but Isaiah didn't have
a clue that God was going to have mercy upon him. He didn't
even ask for mercy. He just said, my eyes have seen
the King. I'm dead. I'm a dead man. I've seen the Lord. And in light
of who He is, woe is me, I am undone. You see, the fear of
God only comes when the Lord's pleased to reveal Himself. Because
you can't see yourself for what you are until He sets you in
contrast with Him. That's what, that's what you,
you know, that's what Job came to conclude when Elihu preached
the gospel to Job and Job said, behold, behold, behold, I see
something I never saw before. Elihu and what you just told
me and what God has spoken to my heart about. I am vile. I'm vile. What did Peter say
when Peter saw the Lord? Depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful
man. I'm a sinful man. Daniel, the
prophet of God, when he saw the Lord, his comeliness, his beauty,
that's what that word means, or his strength, was turned into
corruption. So that's what it is to fear
God. God reveals the glory of Christ,
and you realize, I've got no way I can stand in His... For when we were yet without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Now most people think
a person is either godly or ungodly. And they make a moral judgment
out of whether or not a person is godly or ungodly. And they
conclude that ungodliness is some sort of moral depravity,
it's some sort of corruption, it's some sort of impurity, it's
some sort of licentious living. That's the ungodly. That's not
what ungodly means. Ungodly means not like God. That's
what ungodly means. Christ died for the ungodly. Ungodly means that he's holy.
I'm unholy. He's righteous. I'm unrighteous. He's immutable. I change all
the time. He's godly. He's godly. I'm ungodly. He is omnipotent. I'm impotent. He's the creator. I'm the creature. There's no
point of reference between me and him. I've got nothing that's
like God. I am ungodly. Now, that's who Christ died for.
Most people don't consider themselves to be ungodly. They consider
somebody out there that's doing some horrible thing to be an
ungodly person. I'm a godly person. I go to church.
I read my Bible. I pray. I do all these things.
I'm godly. Well, if you're godly, Christ
didn't die for you. If you're godly, Christ did not
die for you. He died for the ungodly. He died
for those who cannot see any point of comparison between them
and God. What did the Lord say about the
natural man? You thought that I was altogether as thyself. You fashioned in your in your
darkened imagination an idol of a God that looks like you And the reason you've done that
is because I've not made myself known to you Lord reveal yourself
to me and when you do there's only one conclusion I can come
to I'm ungodly I'm not like God in any way. He's omniscient. He knows everything. I don't know anything. I don't
know anything. I can't do anything. I don't
have anything. I'm completely dependent upon
Him. I'm ungodly. That's who He died for. He died
for the ungodly. Now you suppose that this Malfactor this thief look let's
go back to our text. Do you suppose he believed himself
to be ungodly? You know he did You know he did
look what he says But the other answered him rebuked him in verse
40 saying dust I'll not fear God seeing thou art in the same
condemnation and we indeed justly we justly we deserve what we're
getting and You see, if the Lord makes himself
known to you, if he just reveals a glimpse of his glory and you
come to conclude that you're ungodly, then you'll know that if he sent you to hell, that's
his prerogative, that's his right. You know, Lord, I don't have
any claim on you at all. I don't have anything to present
to you that would, that would, that would obligate you to save
me. I'm completely dependent upon
your mercy. What does thief say? We get what
we deserve. What does Syrophoenician woman
say? The Lord ignored her when she first begged for mercy. And
then when he did speak to her, he called her a dog. What'd she
say? Truth, Lord. That's what I am. I'm a dog. And I'm not asking
for a seat at the table. I'm not asking for part of the
children's food. Oh, but if I could just park
myself as a little dog underneath the chair of one of those children
that's dropping crumbs down on the floor, I'll lick those up.
That'll be fine. She knew she was ungodly, didn't
she? What about when David fetched Mephibosheth and brought Mephibosheth
back? What did Mephibosheth say? What
would the king have to do with a dead dog like me? I'm ungodly. Why would you want to do anything
with me? What did this thief say? Which
one do you identify with? Are you ungodly? Do you believe
that you deserve death and you deserve hell? God gave it to
you if God gave you what you deserve You know baby people want God
to be fair to them You don't want God to be fair That's the
last thing you want Let him save himself and save
us while he's at it that'd be a fair thing to do if he's God
The right thing for him to do would be to save himself and
save us. That's what I would do if I was God. And what'd the other one say?
We're getting what we deserve. But that man has done nothing
amiss. He's done nothing amiss. He's perfectly righteous. And
the only hope that I have to have any righteousness before
a holy God is if He presents His righteousness on my behalf.
The only hope that I have that the law is going to be satisfied
is if He satisfies it for me. I've never been able to keep
one of God's laws one time. No knowledge I have, no performance,
nothing that I've ever done is going to earn me any favor with
God. That man who's done nothing amiss
is going to have to stand in my stead. And then what does
he say? Lord, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, the
scripture says, his visage was like no man. In other words,
he didn't even look like a man anymore hanging on the cross.
He had been so beaten and pummeled that you couldn't tell it was
a human being. And the thief is standing there,
is hanging there looking at him and concluding that he's God. He's God. He's the Lord of glory. He's the creator and sustainer
of all of life. And the only hope that I have
is bound up in him. How do you know that? What made the difference? Well,
Paul asked that question, who made thee to differ? What do
you have that you've not received? You know that he's Lord people
talk about making Jesus Lord. They talk about lordship salvation
they talk about following after the Lord and and and living a
life that that you know you There's there's books in Christianity
in in Christian them about it Lordship salvation and you know
people they talk about well, you got Jesus as your Savior,
but you don't have him as your Lord That's not possible And
what are they doing? They're looking at the outward
performance of people who call themselves Christians and they're
making judgments about whether or not Jesus is Lord of their
life. If God's made you to be a malfactor, you just bow, say, Lord, Lord,
you, you've got to remember me. Your kingdom, I know, is not
of this world. When you come into your kingdom, Lord, have
mercy upon me. Remember me. And nobody in all
of scripture has more assurance of their salvation than what
the Lord Jesus said to him, this day, this day, you shall be with
me in paradise. Which one am I? Which one am I? Scriptures are
full of this comparison that's given to us, beginning with Cain
and Abel, isn't it? Just like these two malfactors,
so it is with Cain and Abel. They represent all of mankind. There's only two groups of people
in the whole world. Only two. Only two. Cain represented one
and Abel represented the other. And Cain, who was a tiller of
the ground, and Abel, who was a tender of sheep, they both
brought their sacrifices. Adam, I'm sure, had told them
all about his sin and what God required. And Cain, the scripture
says, took the fruit of his labor and brought it before the Lord,
and the Lord had no respect for his offering. Abel, on the other
hand, brought the firstling of his flock, and he shed blood. What was the difference between
Cain and Abel? It wasn't that Cain was more virtuous or Abel
was more virtuous than Cain. You say, but Cain was a murderer.
Why do you think Abel was making a sacrifice? Why do you think he was bringing
an offering? Because Abel knew that God looked at the heart. You think that there weren't
times when Abel had anger toward his brother without a cause?
You think that Abel did not consider himself to be a murderer before
God? Yes, he did. That's why he's bringing a blood
sacrifice. In hopes that the Lord would see the blood and
pass by him. And here they are, ones bringing
the fruits of his labor and the other bringing a blood sacrifice. And it's still the same, isn't
it? Nothing's changed. What about Isaac and Ishmael?
Ishmael was 14 years old when Isaac was born. Abraham had raised
Ishmael as his only son Grooming him as the one that was going
to that was going to establish the promises of God Abraham loved
Ishmael He taught him how to fish he taught him how to hunt
he taught him how to tend to the sheep he had he had told
him about God he had he had spent many many nights sitting and
talking with Ishmael and And then when Isaac was born,
God said, put the bondwoman and the child of the flesh out. And Isaac was the child of promise. And here we have an allegory.
Scripture tells us in the book of Galatians, an allegory of
law and grace. Works and grace. And the child of the bondwoman,
the child of the flesh could not inherit the promises of God. It had to be the child. That's the only difference. One
was a product of man trying to help God out and the other was
a child of promise. It's the only difference. The
only difference so whether we're talking about it Whether we're
talking about Cain and Abel or whether we're talking about Isaac
and Ishmael or Jacob and Esau Isaac favored Esau over Jacob
Yeah, and Why he was a Isaac J Esau was a hunter Jacob was
a mama's boy Jacob was a liar, too And don't you remember when
Jacob comes back and tries to bribe Esau into, and Esau said,
keep your gifts, we're brothers. Esau showed more virtue than
Jacob. What made the difference? Jacob
I have loved, Esau I have hated. That's the only difference. What about Peter and Judas? You
see, all throughout the scriptures the Lord gives us these two representative
men that represent all of mankind. And as we look at these stories,
we're forced to identify with one or the other. What was the
difference between Peter and Judas Iscariot? At the Last Supper, when the
Lord said, One of you is going to betray me. All the apostles
said, Lord, is it I? And I'm sure that. When Peter
did betray the Lord. That Peter thought, yep, it was
me. It was me. I know the other disciples
were thinking it was going to be me because I'm so impetuous. But it was Judas, wasn't it? And what made the difference?
They both did the same thing that night. And the Lord said
to Peter, Peter, you're going to deny me three times, but be
of good cheer. I've prayed for you. I've chosen
you. I've prayed for you. There was
no difference in the behavior of Judas and Peter. Peter denied him with cursings. How do I know which man represents
me? Well, let me tell you a sure
way not to know. A sure way for you not to be
able to tell the difference is to look for evidence in your
life. As soon as you look to yourself
for evidence to see which one you identify with, You're either going to be horribly
confused, disappointed, or you're going to have to lie. But that's
what men do, isn't it? They look at their knowledge,
they look at their behavior, they look at what they do and
what they don't do. Well, you know, I used to do
this and now I don't. Good thing you don't do it. You
shouldn't have done it when you were doing it But a whole lot
of folks have had religious experiences and quit doing bad things And there's a lot of virtuous
people in this world that do a lot of good things who don't
know the Lord So, you know, we can't look at our behavior or
for evidence in our lives to try to figure out which one we
identify with and And then you hear things like,
Robert and I were talking about this the other day. Well, we
don't do these things in order to be saved, but we do them because
we are saved. Do what things? Do what things? You see, looking to what you
do as the evidence of your salvation is no difference than looking
at what you do as the cause of your salvation. You're still
looking at yourself. You think those goats that the
sheep and the goats separated before the Lord? Lord, we did
many wonderful things in your name. We cast out demons. We preached the gospel. We had
soup kitchens and all sorts of good things. We've been do-gooders
all our lives. What the Lord said, depart from
me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. And what
did the thief, what did the malefactor say? Lord, remember me. The only
hope of my salvation is that you remember me. Not anything I've ever done for
you. Neither one of these thieves
ever gave a dime to the church. They never did anything for God. Which one am I? Am I a mercy beggar? Am I ungodly? Am I completely dependent upon
Him to remember me? Or do I have a claim on God?
Do I have something that I can offer God to obligate Him to
save me? While we were yet without strength,
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Both these men were ungodly.
One of them knew it. The other one didn't. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the revelation of truth that you've given to us in your word
about the glories of Christ and about his accomplished work and
about our unworthiness and our inability. And oh, how we pray
that you would be merciful to remember us. Cause us, Lord,
to hear thy voice say, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number nine. Let's stand together.
Number nine. ? Tis not that I did choose thee
? ? For Lord, that could not be ? ? This heart would still
refuse thee ? ? Hast thou not chosen me ? ? Thou from the sin
that stained me ? ? Hast cleansed and set me free ? of old Thou
hast ordained me, that I should live to Thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found, that You should choose to save me, a sinner
strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, for
Christ paid the dreadful toll. "'Twas Sovereign Mercy called
me, and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, to heavenly glories blind. My heart owes none before Thee,
for Thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first. That wasn't the next one. That
was the next one.