Stan, Tom's going to come and
lead us in the hymn on the back of the little handout. It should
be in your pew there. Good evening. Good to see everybody. We have gathered in this chapel,
having come from far and near. We are weary from our travel,
some good news we long to hear. So to him who is our preacher,
we would make this one request. Prove yourself to be the teacher
of the one who'll give us rest. Tell us not of self-salvation
Through an act of man's free will It will bring no consolation
Having heard, we're hungry still Oh, we long to see the glory
of our God in Jesus' face. Tell us now that blessed story
of His free and sovereign grace. Tell us how we didn't inherit
Adam's sin, depravity. Neither virtue, good nor merit
is in our ability. But the prophets and apostles
have declared the blessed word. In the law and in the gospels,
salvation is of the Lord. Tell us of the one in heaven
who before the world began. Purpose that His grace be given
to our race of fallen men. Tell us of predestination, how
that God upon His throne made a sovereign free election of
the souls He calls His own. Tell us of the Christ, Lord Jesus,
who has died for God's elect. His blood ransoms and releases
them from sin and its effect. Everyone for whom He suffered
shall be saved and justified. And at last they shall be ushered
into heaven to be His bride. Tell us of the Holy Spirit, blessed
gift of God to men. God's elect are without merit,
yet by Him are born again. He will find them undeserving,
but he'll cause them to believe and will make them persevering
till the goal they all achieve. Please be seated. I am so thankful to be able to
say tonight that we have two preachers with us that have done
what we just sang for me. And I know they have for many
of you. They've been a blessing sent from God to preach the gospel
to sin sick souls. And I'm so thankful for Todd
and for Joe. and they don't need any introduction
from me, but I'm grateful that they're here. I'm grateful you're
here. This is a sweet time of fellowship between our churches.
Those of you that are visiting, we're very, very thankful that
you're here. I want to open this meeting by
reading a familiar passage of Scripture from 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. We'll begin reading in verse
18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of
God. We've come here this weekend
to hear Christ crucified preached. And Todd and Joe, we've been
praying for you all that the Lord would would bless you with
liberty and with clarity and conviction and bless us with
ears to hear and how dependent on him we are for this to happen. Verse 19, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? We're not here to hear the wisdom
of man. We're here to hear the word of
God, the message of who Christ is and what it is he came to
do in saving his people. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign. We're not looking for some sort
of outward sign or emotional experience. The Greeks, so they
seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world
and the things which are despised hath God chosen." How do I know
if God's chosen me? because he's made me to be foolish. He's made me to be weak. He's
made me to be base. He's made me to be despised. Yeah, God have chosen the things
which are not. He's made me to be not to bring
to not the things that are that no flesh should glory in his
presence, but of him. of God Almighty, are you in Christ
Jesus? If we're going to be placed in
Christ, God's going to put us there. Who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory
in the Lord. That's what we've come to do,
preach the gospel that Christ might be lifted up. He said,
and I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. Oh,
that Christ will be lifted up. our hearts will be drawn in faith
to him. That's our hope this weekend.
All the other stuff, the meals, the fellowship, the things that
we enjoy. That's that's that's extra. But the reason we're here
is to hear about Christ. God be pleased to give us years
to hear. Let's let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're We're thankful that you've provided this opportunity for
us to meet in this place. We're thankful for the sweet
fellowship that we enjoy with our brothers and sisters from
other places and Lord for for the blessing of growing us together
in thy grace and knitting our hearts together in the love of
Christ. Father, we confess to you that
our greatest need is to have our sin put away. Our greatest
need is to find our hope, our rest, all our salvation, our
sanctification, our redemption, our wisdom, our all and in all
in thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for these
two men that you've sent us. We ask Lord that you would bless
them with the power to preach. We pray that you would give us
ears to hear. We pray that Christ would be glorified. and that
we would be the true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence, Father, in
our own flesh. We ask it in Christ's name, and
for his sake, amen. If you find your hymnal, we're
going to sing number 212, nothing but the blood, nothing but the
blood, number 212. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not for good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus All precious is the flow That
makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the
blood of Jesus This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow, That
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Please be seated. We're going
to have some special music now, brought to you from Bri Weishi
and Rebecca Vincent. O Lord, my Lord, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds I see the stars. I hear the rolling
thunder. My heart will love the universe
this way. Then sings my soul, my Savior. And sings my soul, my Savior
God to Thee. Then I look down from lofty mountain
branches And hear the drum and feel the gentle breeze Then sings
my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art ? Sings my soul, my Savior God,
today ? ? How great Thou art, how great Thou art ? ? And when
I pray that God His Son not sparing ? That on the cross my burden gladly
bearing He bled and died to take away my sin And sings my soul,
my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art. How great Thou art. When Christ shall come with shout
of affirmation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall and then proclaim, my God, how
great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, how great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, It's a blessing to be here. a blessing to be among those
who profess to know our Lord, have an interest in His word,
His gospel. It's been a blessing to be with
these two brothers for the past couple of days, the past day,
I guess. As is common, we stayed up last
night all the way until today. It was 1230 or so before we finally
decided to break up and go to bed last night, talking about
the things of the gospel. And it is a testimony, I believe,
of the power of the grace of God, that he can move people
to go to the expense of putting on a conference like this. Some
of you have gone to substantial expense just to get here. and
for nothing more than to hear a couple of men preach each other's
three times. I mean, I understand why they
can sometimes pack football stadiums. It's exciting in the flesh. Or
concert halls and things like that. How in the world do you
get a bunch of people together to listen to two men preach who
have no significant name in the world? That's a remarkable thing
if you ask me. Now, I will apologize in advance
for a lot of throat clearing. I took an antihistamine, but
evidently it was the Iowa dose and not the Florida dose. And
my voice is kind of weak, but we have these things, so that
will work out all right. Would you open to Hebrews chapter
7? Now, having been on a plane just
a day ago, I'm wondering if I shouldn't give a pre-flight lecture. Make
sure your cell phones are fully powered down or in airplane mode. And your pews are in their fully
upright and locked position. No, I was thinking about that
with my cell phone. I thought, boy, if that thing
goes off while I'm preaching, that's really going to be bad. So we'll
try to avoid that. Hebrews chapter 7, we'll begin
reading at verse 24. But this man, now you notice
the words man are in italics and that's because there is no
distinct Greek word in the New Testament right there. You know
the New Testament was originally written in Greek. But that doesn't
mean that the word doesn't belong there. It was just their way
of writing. After all, if you have to write
out everything by hand, you leave out any words that any sane person
would already know belong there. But actually, we can get more
particular than just the word man. Because what he's talking
about is priests. He's not talking about, the context
here is he's not talking about men in general. And so really,
we could read, but this priest, Because that's what we're talking
about. What's a priest? Is he a guy in a robe, a specially
designed clerical outfit so that you can identify him no matter
what he is? No. A priest is simply someone
who speaks to God in behalf of men and represents men to God. He is a mediator between God
and men and the one through whom men are to approach God. That's
a priest. Now there are many in our day
who claim to be priests after that sort, and they are all liars. There is no special priest class
among the people of God. We are all priests to offer sacrifices
of thanks and praise. But none of us is a priest qualified
to represent someone else's case in the presence of God. We can't
meet the standard for that kind of priest. But this priest, He's
different from all the priests that came before him in the old
covenant law of the Israelites, even though all of those priests
had been put in place by God. And what they were doing had
been commanded by God, yet their priesthood never accomplished
anything. Their sacrifices were offered
in the presence of God in behalf of men, never put away a single
sin, not one. That is, they accomplished nothing
eternal. But this priest. And I like that,
but this priest. Whenever you see that word but,
you're changing direction. You were going this way, but
now you're gonna go this way. These priests never put away
sin, never offered good sacrifices, and they couldn't continue because
they kept dying, and they'd have to have a new one. But this priest. And oh, what a priest he is. If you ever get an understanding
of the glory of this priest, it will blow you away. I don't
know, you know, you can't just use normal language to describe
what it'll do to you. If you ever come to understand,
but this priest, there's something different about him. He stands
distinct from all others who were priests by the ordination
of God or even those priests who nowadays take it or usurp
that position to themselves. This priest, because he continueth
ever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Now can you imagine if the eternal
destiny of your soul was hanging upon the efforts of someone else. And then that person died. Maybe
you'd gotten to where you kind of trusted him. You'd gotten
used to what he was. And you thought maybe he can
do it. But before you die, he does. And now they've got to
put in another one. Was he any good? Can he get the
job done? And so they were constantly in
distress. those who had trusted in the
priests of the old covenant, because, and they're speaking
of the high priests, because no matter how good they were,
as we use the word good to describe men, no matter how good they
were, they died. And another priest would have
to be put in place, and who knew what kind of priest he would
be. But this man, he has an unchangeable priesthood, because he continueth
ever. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost, that come to God by Him, seeing He
ever liveth, to make intercession for them." Now, it is common
when people have special meetings like this, we preachers are in
the flesh and we think about what we're going to preach and
what do we think would be the right time to preach this. Everybody
always wants to wind up a conference with a humdinger of a message,
you know. I mean, that's just what we are in the flesh. Really
wrap this up just like at a concert. They've got one song they're
going to play at the end that's just really going to bring the
people to their feet. And even we might think those in terms
of spiritual things, I've got one in which I really want to
seriously urge and exhort the people to lay hold of eternal
life in Christ Jesus. And I was thinking along those
lines and I thought, wait a minute, why not start out that way? I'm
not saying it's going to be a humdinger to message. I'm not. I'm sorry. What I'm getting at is I want,
if the Lord will enable me, the Lord will do something with this.
Urge everyone here to call upon the name of the Lord and find
his salvation now. Then you can enjoy the rest of
the conference on a level you wouldn't have before. And that's
not the only blessing you'll get out of it, but that would
be one nice one to start out with. I want us to turn our attention
to this priest. Now, preaching should always
have a sense of urgency about it. It is not religious entertainment. And we should never look at it
that way. That's an easy thing to do at conferences. To come
and try to watch a gospel show. To see who can put together the
best outline. I know if those thoughts arise
in our hearts, if they ever did consciously, we'd put them down.
But it's amazing how deceptive our hearts can be. And we're
sitting there, and we're not even looking for the right thing.
We're not looking for God's message. We're looking for a great sermon.
And there's a difference. There's a difference. We don't
want to look at it as religious entertainment, though it's fine.
I think it's wonderful if people are truly spiritually entertained
by the gospel. We should be. It's wonderful
stuff. But we don't. Anytime entertaining the people
becomes the focus, truth is pretty quickly out the door. It's not
merely the transference of information, though it involves that. But
you can transfer a lot of information and nothing happens. It's not
merely the moving of the emotions. I hope your emotions are moved.
I would hope that when you hear about the Lord Jesus Christ,
it would move you. It should. It should move you
to tears that it took the slaughter of the Son of God to save your
soul. It should move you to tears of joy that He was willing to
do it and He was successful in it. But you know something, our
emotions are part of the flesh and sometimes they're just plain
broken. And nothing moves them. But you know something, that
doesn't change the truth. It also doesn't change whether or
not you're under it and saved by it. Say, oh, I went to hear
the preaching and I just, I mean, I wasn't moved. Well, yeah, that's
kind of sad, but it doesn't mean you're lost. It doesn't mean
you're lost. It doesn't say whosoever shall
feel good about the name of the Lord, shall be saved. It doesn't
say whosoever has momentous religious experiences when the gospel is
preached shall be saved. It says whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's an objective reality
that we hope gives rise to subjective experiences. But the subjective
experiences come and go. The objective reality never changes. Preaching is the delivery of
a message. Our brother read, by the foolishness
of preaching, God saves them that believe. And the way it's
worded there, it's not so much talking about the mode as what's
being preached. By the foolishness of the message
that is preached. We brothers were talking last
night, and we all agreed, what we believe is crazy. No sane
person would believe what we believe. The things that we hold
to be true and even take for granted are beyond rational belief. If you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are trusting the eternal destiny of your soul
to someone you've never met and you've never even met anybody
that met him. And the only record you have of him is what those
people who lived 2,000 years ago wrote down about him. That's
all you've got. Now, I'm talking about in the
flesh. That's all you've got. You wouldn't trust a $100 bill to
that. It's a message, a message of
wisdom and power from God. It's a message from our Creator,
and that should always interest us. Whatever is said by he who
made us should grab our attention. It is the message from our judge
who has our eternal destiny in his hands. I want to know what
he thinks. It is a message from the king
and that merits our attention. Preaching should never be entered
into lightly. It should never be listened to
lightly. Let us never go to worship, whether
we're the speaker or the listener, with the attitude that we're
doing something light or frivolous. Let us never preach nor hear
as though our souls were not hanging in the balance of God's
truth, because they are. It's a shame and a sham what
has become of so-called gospel preaching. It has become religious
entertainment. It's become spectacle. May God help us that this week,
that's not what it'll be. That God will be pleased to enable
us to preach that message from God and hear it as a message
from God, as the writer said, buy the truth and sell it not. Now this is an urgent message,
therefore, He is able to save them to the uttermost that come
to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them. First of all, I would like us to notice a meeting that you
cannot avoid. One of the most, I say one of
the most, the most sobering thought is this. Someday you will come
face to face with God. You and it's not going to be
that long. I want you to think about that
a minute. We're all happy about coming here to the meeting. I'm
glad you are. Consider this solemn truth. It
will not be that long. You will stand before God one
way or another. Nobody here is going to escape
that. You will come to God, willingly or unwillingly. You're going
to face Him. And when you face Him, all truth
will be revealed. It says, I believe the King James
words, that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
That doesn't mean we're just going to show up there. The word
actually means we will all make manifest at the judgment seat
of Christ. We will be shown and seen for
what we are. And that applies to everyone
here. It applies to you, the listener, and me, the preacher.
There are some here who are advanced in years. It applies to you. There are some of you here that
are quite young. You children, you young people, I know, remembering
what I was like as a child and young person, I was one once,
and counting, well, you don't have ceiling tiles, but we did.
Counting ceiling tiles and things like that occupied my attention
during church, or just daydreaming, anything but what was being said.
But if I could get your attention for a few minutes and impress
you with this truth, that before very long you will stand in the
presence of God and be seen for what you are. We all know that the Lord shall
appear in the last day. It says in Acts chapter 17 verse
31 that the Lord has appointed a day in which he shall judge
the world in righteousness by that one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's given testimony of it
by raising Christ from the dead. Now they, most of them, when
they heard that, they mocked him. Do you know something? That
didn't change the truth. That God has appointed a day.
Now I don't know what day that is. I don't know if it's tomorrow. I don't know if it's 10 million
years from now. God knows when it is. His calendar is already
written out. And when that day comes, everyone,
small and great, shall stand before God. You're going to come
to God. And then in Hebrews 9, verse 27, just turn a page or
two over to that. You see, we talk about judgment,
the day of judgment, and it's really easy for us to put that
way off. That's going to happen way out yonder somewhere. And
they don't think about it. Even though the scriptures never
did say it's way out yonder, that's the way people think of
it. Well, how about this? As it is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the judgment. How long is it going to be before
you die? I remember, I was seven or eight years old, in church, daydreaming. Just anything but
what the preacher was saying. But for some reason or another,
and I was about half asleep, but in that semi-consciousness of deep daydreaming,
it came through like a thunderbolt. And remember, I'm seven. Someday
you're gonna die. I'm not kidding. I'm straight
up in the pew there. And that was 53 years ago, 54
years ago. I'm a little closer to whatever
day that's going to be. And you youngins, you think it's
far off. I can't believe I'm 60. Saw a
post on Facebook, said I thought it was going to take longer to
get old. You look at the people around
you and you see them kind of wrinkled up and weak and not full of vim
and vigor. Do you realize it wasn't that
long ago we were just like you? It won't be long. You'll stand before God. You
will come to God. So the question is not whether
you shall come to God. The question is, is how's that
going to turn out? What's going to be the outcome
of you coming to God? Because it's going to happen.
What will be the result? Shall it be a meeting that ends
in destruction or salvation? Sadly, there are some of you
who are coming to God right now in a way that you think will
lead to eternal life. but it will end in eternal death. You say, how do you know? Well,
I'm playing the odds here. In any crowd this size, even
though virtually every one of you professes to believe the
gospel, in a crowd this size, there's gonna be some Judas's.
There's gonna be some who traveled with us for a while but left.
There'll be some that might travel with us all the way until they
get buried and then they leave. Why? That's just the way things
are. There's a big difference between
saying you believe and actually believing. It is so easy. The Bible says
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Who can even know his own heart?
There's only one who knows the heart of man and that's God.
And the only way He reveals your heart to you is through the preaching
of the gospel which is called the Word of God. And it says
the Word of God is alive, it's sharper than any two-edged sword,
it's active and it pierces to the heart and reveals those things
you'll even hide from yourself. That's why when someone's preaching
the gospel, oh listen, If you want to know where you stand
with God, listen to the preaching of the gospel, it will tell you.
I hear preachers tell people they're
lost or tell them they're saved. I have no right to tell you either
one. Now, if you tell me, I don't
believe any of that gospel, I can say, well, then what the scripture
says is you're lost. Nonetheless, I don't have the
authority to tell you you're lost, I don't have the authority
to tell you you're saved, but I'll tell you what will tell
you, and that's the gospel. You might fool me. You might
show all kinds of joy about believing the gospel. And you might hear
the gospel and say amen at all the right places. And you may
have convinced yourself you believe it, and you come to me and tell
me so, and I'll say, sounds good to me. It doesn't mean anything. The whole gospel preaching is safety
for your soul because it reveals your heart to you. Some of you are on a broad road
that leads to destruction. There's a way that seems right
to a man, but the ends thereof are death. There's a broad road with many
lanes on it, and many people are on it. Morality. Some of
people are trying to come to God through their morality. We
see it all around us. Maybe you're doing it. Say, I'm
not such a bad guy. Yes, I've made some mistakes,
but I'm better than the next guy. And I'm trying hard. And I'm not only trying hard,
I'm doing pretty good. And you think in the end that
God will weigh your good deeds and your bad deeds. Say, well,
it may be a close call, but the good deeds do outweigh the bad,
so come on in. That's not how it works. That
road leads to death. Some of you may be walking the
road of reformation. You see that there is much in
your life that is horrible. Maybe you've acted horribly.
You've hurt many people. Maybe you were an alcoholic or
are an alcoholic, and now you've sobered up. You know, I think
that's great when a guy sobers up. Really, there's nothing wrong
with that. But salvation is not a matter
of sobering up. There shall be sober people in
hell as well as drunks. There shall be sober people with
their 30-year sobriety pill right here. And I mention that simply
because that's one of those reformation sins or sins from which people
reform themselves and think they've accomplished something. inside
of God, it doesn't matter what it is that you have reformed
from. If you think your reformation gains you traction with God,
you're not on the road of life, you're on the road of death.
As much as it may seem like life to you, there's the road of church,
the road of preacher. Oh, I was saved under so-and-so's
ministry. There were people who listened
to the Lord Jesus Christ and said, I believe, and in the end,
perished. Imagine that. There is a lane on this broad
road that leads to destruction for sovereign grace Baptist preachers. And there's some people on it.
Do I know who they are? No. I pray to God it's not me. Are you one of these? Are you
on one of these lanes? People say all religions lead
to God. Yes, they do. With terribly different outcomes
once you get there. So the first thing to pull away
from this scripture is a meeting we can't avoid. We're all going
to come to God. Secondly, God, the second point
that I draw from this, God is of the opinion that you need
saving. God is of the opinion you need
saving. And you know what? If that's God's opinion, it's
the truth. Now, I may have an opinion that's
wrong. God's never had an opinion that's wrong. How do I know that
God believes that you need saving because He designed salvation
and sent a Savior. Now, I don't know whether He
sent Him specifically for you, but I do know this, God doesn't
waste His efforts. He does not engage in fruitless
endeavors. He does not make solutions for
problems that don't exist. If there is such a thing as salvation,
it's because you and I need it. If there's such a thing as a
Savior, it's because you and I need one. In all of the gospel, in all
gospel preaching, there is that which lifts us up and that's
which puts us down. It's a message that accomplishes
both. The Lord said, I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. And he won't make you alive unless
he kills you first. He's not going to heal you unless
he wounds you. And the truth of the gospel is this. It's founded on the premise that
we are in so much trouble. There's nothing we can do about
it. And God had to engage himself to come to our aid. The cross
is not a testimony simply of God's love for his people. It
is an undeniable testimony of what wretched people they are
that nothing less than the slaughter of God's perfect son could save
them. You measure the seriousness of
a disease by the power of the medicine necessary to cure it.
You go to the doctor, you say, I got a headache. They say, here,
take some aspirin. And if the headache's all you
got, it goes away. A little bit of aspirin is fine. You go in
and say, I got a headache. They say, give you some aspirin.
Didn't do it. Well, here, take some of this. That's not taking
care of it. Doctor starts to get a little more concerned.
Well, how long has this headache been going on? And starts looking
for other symptoms. And they put you under a machine,
take a picture inside, and behold, there's something growing inside.
And all at once, medicine has to be something more than a bare
aspirin. Well, friends, God sent His Son,
His precious Son, and slaughtered Him. And I like using that word because
that's what it was. It was a slaughter, a sacrifice,
a tearing limb from limb, a slitting of the throat. Referring to the
types of pictures in the Old Testament, those sacrifices,
the picture of the sacrifice of Christ. A brutal, merciless
destruction. That's what it took to save someone
like you. Gibson, I'm proud to be a Christian.
Why? There's no pride for you in it. I'm proud of the Savior. But how can I be proud of the
fact that I'm quite willing to let someone else pay the price
for my wickedness? That's exactly what a believer
is. He is willing to be blessed with all spiritual blessings
in the heavenly places at Christ's expense. To receive what he never
worked for and throw off on someone else the punishment he deserved. Where is the occasion for pride
in that? I'm a good Christian man. No such thing. Oh, it brings us down. It says,
He's able to say to the uttermost them that come to God by Him.
This is a message for you. Don't duck it. Don't say it's
for the person in the pew next to me. Don't say it's for the
person I invited and they're here and I'm sure glad they're
listening to this message of the gospel because they need
it. You need it. You say, well preacher, I've
already called upon the name of the Lord. You still need it.
You still need saving. You say, how do you know? Because
you aren't like Christ yet. There's some more to be done. You're
perfectly safe. There's more salvation to be
done on you. More work to be accomplished. And we're confident
that if he's begun that work, he'll finish it. But there's
finishing to do, isn't there? You need it. We need God's salvation. In the
gospel, there is a wonderful word of promise, but it is based
on a horribly insulting truth about what we are. Sinners worthy
of hell, unable and unwilling to do anything about it. This salvation, what is it? Well, it's not salvation from
low self-esteem. not salvation from bad habits
or mistakes you've made in your life. Do you know what you need
to be saved from? It's not what, it's whom. You need to be saved from God.
See, that doesn't make any sense. God's the one doing the saving,
yeah? But he's the one you need to be saved from. One preacher
put it this way. God saves us from Himself, by
Himself, for Himself. So I thought we were going to
be saved from sin. Well that's what gets me in trouble with
God. Yes, He's going to save us from
sin and that's going to save us from God. It's going to save
us from what Christ endured in behalf of His people. You behold
the cross, and if the Lord has given you eyes to understand
what goes on there, that's what God's going to do to every sinner
who comes before Him in sin. That's why our Lord said, don't
fear the one that can kill your body. That's as far as they can
go. You better be afraid of the one
that can kill your body and take your soul and body and cast it
into hell. And that's not the devil. It's Him. Fear God. If you fear God, you don't have
to fear anything else. I have to be saved from God. I have
to be saved from the sin that's put me in trouble with God. Sin
condemned me. I need justification. Sin killed
me. I need life. Sin corrupted me. I need righteousness. Sin alienated
me. I need reconciliation. Sin deceived
me. I need truth. What's the answer
to all that? He is able to say to the uttermost,
them that come to God by Him. Salvation is to the uttermost.
I don't need someone to start something for me to finish. I
don't need someone to finish what I've started. I need someone
to start it and finish it and take all the steps in between.
I need a salvation that begins
The very process of me being made like unto the Lord Jesus
Christ and I need a salvation that will not stop until that
is accomplished. And I need a salvation that even
once that is accomplished will keep me that way. I love the Greek word here that's
translated uttermost. It's a combination of the Greek
words for all and the Greek word for complete or accomplish or
perfect. It's all perfection. as though
saying perfect, which should have been enough for itself,
or complete, which should have been enough for itself. It's
as though they said, well that's not going to be enough to say
it's complete. It's all complete. The salvation spoken of here
does not merely transfer my eternal destiny from hell to heaven.
It declares me righteous and makes me righteous. It forgives
my rebellion and reconciles my heart. It passes over my corrupt
nature and in time will make me like Christ. That's an uttermost
salvation brought about by a glorious Savior. You and I are unable
to perform any of this for ourselves. I cannot change what I am, much
as I would like to. If you're perfectly happy with
what you are, I have serious reason to doubt
that you've ever been shown what you are. We can't do it. We're unable,
and God the judge is unwilling. God as judge has no inclination
toward salvation. Now I realize you cannot divide
up God's person, but God represents himself in Separate offices because
that's the only way we can grasp it. We can only grasp him in
one aspect at a time God the judge It was full of
justice and holiness has no inclination to pass over sin So you got some
Bible on that? Yeah, I will by no means clear
the guilty. I got some history on it, too
one day his own beloved son was charged with sins and that he
himself never committed, but they're charged to his account. If there was ever a time God
was going to cut somebody some slack, it would have been then.
He didn't. And if God wouldn't spare his
own son as he bore the sins committed by others, do you think he'll
spare you when you bear sins committed by yourself? We're unable, the judge is unwilling,
but God our Savior is both willing and able to save them that come
to God by the Lord Jesus Christ. By one act, Christ has proven
His willingness to save and His ability to save. By what one
act? Well, everything, we call it
all one act. From His conception within the
womb of His mother Mary, until His glorification at the right
hand of the Father. That's all one big act. I don't
mean an act like a performance. One big action. And all that
together is testimony of this. He is willing and He is able. He proved His willingness by
coming down to where we are. Coming down to us in every sense
you can think about that. Not just where we are geographically. taking upon him our sins and
miseries. He says, I am a worm. It's good news for thou worm, Jacob. People of this earth, they're
willing to do charitable works, but they're not willing to become
poor to do it. They maintain their riches, and from their
lofty riches, they dole out something to the poor. The Lord Jesus Christ left the
throne of glory and came down here and lived with us as us,
groveling in the mess of this world that we've made. And that he's able is proven
by this. He's back on the throne. How do you get from where we
are to where he is? Well, I know this, however it's
done, I can't do it, but he did. Because He went from the depths
of the sin and death that was mine and under His own steam
as it were back to the throne at the right hand of the Father.
And anybody that can do that can save even me. He is able
to save them to the uttermost. He entered in once into the holy
place, that one not made with hands, and obtained eternal redemption
for his people through the offering of himself unto God. Now, I said
you will come to God. The only difference is what shall
be the outcome. And so far as our perception
of things is concerned, the difference is, is how do you get to Him?
And if you come to Him by Christ, You shall be saved. And it shall
be a glorious meeting when you come before God. And you shall
be judged and your sin shall be sought and it will not be
found. Someone will bring it up and
the Lord says, I don't remember that anymore. For there are sins
and iniquities I will remember no more. And someone says, but I saw him
do it. And they'll say, open the books. It's not there. And
if it's not in the books, it ain't so. You will be made manifest. And
by the inexplainable grace of God, what shall be manifest is
someone as righteous and holy as the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
You will be without fault and full of joy in the presence of
God. If you come by Christ, What does
it mean to come by Christ? And we'll wrap it up with this.
It means to come on His merits. You can't come by Christ with
a price in your hand, with your own righteousness in your hands.
Say, I'm gonna come by Christ, but I got some change in my pocket.
When I get up there, we'll put that up there first, you know,
and then say, okay, you pay the rest. No, sir, not gonna work. His merits. Well, let me ask
you, do you really want to try to argue your case with God based
upon what you've done? Oh, God, how could I have done?
Put away what I've done. I don't even want to know about
it. I certainly don't want to tell Him about it. His merits,
and secondly, His name. Means come to God in the name
of Christ. Now, there's an authority in that name, But I like to look
at it this way also. There's a persuasiveness in that
name. Imagine, Todd, somebody come up to your house, knock
on the door. You open it up. You don't even know. They say,
I'm hungry. Got something I can eat? Maybe
you're not even in a good mood that day. You say, why should
I give you anything? You say, well, Aubrey sent me. Everything's different now. Aubrey
said, you're a generous man. And you got food in the counter,
in the cabinets, and a heart to give it. Can I ask something?
Would you turn down a request like that? No, you wouldn't.
I wouldn't. Somebody come to me in one of my children's names.
They'll be received like my child. Come to him in Christ's name.
No merit of your own, no authority of your own. that you speak the
name of Christ into the Father's ear, you have endeared Him to
yourself. Now, I'm not trying to set forth
God as some ogre that has to be bribed. I'm just trying to
use some human experience that you can identify with to see
how this thing works. That song says, how sweet the
name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. Much sweeter does it sound
in God's ear. He is able. He is that. You aren't. I'm not. He is. His name holds power. It holds
persuasiveness because of what he's done. May God grant a blessing
to his work. That's a blessing. Thank you,
Joe. Hebrews chapter 12 verse two
tells us to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. He's the alpha and the omega,
the beginning and the end. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set
down at the right hand of God. That's where he's at right now.
This is my beloved son. In him, I'm well pleased. Let's stand together. We're going
to sing number 475. Number 475, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Tom, if you need a break, now's a
good time to use the facilities. We'll sing this congregational
hymn and then we'll have some special music before Todd comes. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through