I read the other night, talked
about it a little bit, and I'm going to read it again. It's
in the second chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. In the seventh verse there. The
fifth verse of that second chapter. that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we
speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. That
is the mystery of the gospel of grace, is what he's talking
about. That's what's been revealed unto
us, the gospel. That's how we come to know the
gospels, because it has been revealed to us by the Spirit,
which none of the princes of this world knew. They didn't
know about it. If they hadn't known it, they
would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written,
Ear hath not seen, eye hath not seen, or ear heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. Hymn number 365, chapter 2. We have here in these scriptures
that I'm about to read to you a dark side and a bright side. And we'll talk about the dark
side first. And I read verse 9 where it said,
But as it is written, it's what has been said before by the prophets
of old, and that's been recorded in the Old Testament. I have
been written by the finger of God, by the way. As it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard neither hath entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit." Now, we have here the perfect inability the
incompetence, the helplessness of the natural man. I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither has entered into the heart of a man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us. Now, what is said here is that
the natural man, prior to regeneration, the natural man is helpless and
hopeless to grasp, to apprehend to understand or to retain the
things of God. The natural eye hath not seen,
the natural ear hath not heard, and neither has these spiritual
truths of God Almighty entered into the heart of a man. Now, when the truth of God particularly
concerning the mystery of the gospel of the grace of God, when that is brought to bear
upon the natural man's heart, his heart is dead set against
the truth of God. Now, I know that you will agree
with that because that was your experience prior to God revealing
who Christ was to your heart and who he is and what he done,
your heart was dead set against him. And so we come to this. It sounds like it's a hard statement,
but it's truth. The truth of God, as it is brought
to bear upon man's natural heart, is hated and despised. And certainly there arises a
question, why is this? Well, this is so because of the
very nature and the disposition of the heart. And I read to you,
or quoted part of it to you this morning from Genesis chapter
6 and verse 5, where it says that God saw the wickedness of
man was great. He saw the wickedness of man,
that it was not normal, but it was great in the earth. And it
says that God came to this conclusion, that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, the heart is so desperately
wicked and no man can know it. It's so bad that there is nothing
natural that can affect the change in his heart in regard to spiritual
things. As a matter of fact, over in
the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 17, it says this, it says, The
heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, and
who can know it? Now, that's the natural man's
heart. Now, it says it's desperately wicked and who can know it, and
it's deceitful above all things. Now, here we have the challenge
of God Almighty to the prophet Jeremiah, And who can answer
that challenge? Nobody but God himself. He says
that the natural man, that his heart is wicked above all things. And that's to say that man is
more wicked than even the devil. Man is more wicked in his natural
state. than the devil is himself. It says his heart is deceitful above
all things, even above the devil's wickedness, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who can know
it? That's the reason why, that the
eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath entered into
the heart of man, the truth concerning God's salvation. It's the nature
and the disposition of the natural man's heart. All men are that
way. They are that way from their
birth and will be that way until their death, unless God intervenes,
unless God reveals these things unto them. That's what it says.
It says, Neither hath entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed
them unto us. It's got to come by revelation.
Well, over in Matthew chapter 15 is another description that
our blessed Lord gives of a man's heart. It's 17, and we'll start
reading there at verse 9, I believe. Matthew 15. I said 17. Matthew
15. Look up here in Jesus in verse 16, Jesus said,
Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not understand that whatsoever
entereth in the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast into the
draft? They came to the Lord Jesus with
these questions. Verse 11 of this chapter says,
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that
which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man. Then came his
disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees
were offended when they heard this saying? There was nothing
good in them. Their heart was bad and they
were offended because he said that. And he answered and said,
Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up." Let them alone. Let the Pharisees alone. They
be blind leaders of the blind. If the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall in the ditch. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, Declare unto us this parable. Jesus said, Are ye also
without understanding? Don't you understand that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth, goeth out in the belly, and is passed
out into the draught. But these things which proceed
out of the mouth, where do they come from? They come from the
heart. The heart, the disposition and
the nature of the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, desperately wicked and deceitful
above all things, and who can know it? These things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. Now listen to this, for out of
the heart proceed evil thoughts. This is what is in our hearts
by nature, naturally, apart from quickening, apart from the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the mystery of the grace of God. The heart proceeds evil thoughts,
murders. You don't have to shoot somebody
to be a murderer. You don't have to commit the
physical act of adultery to be an adulterer or an adulteress,
or fornication, or thefts, or false witnesses, blasphemies.
All these proceed. Wrath of the heart, foresee evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witnesses
and blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man." See what I'm saying? We have our Lord's
description here. These words came from the mouth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. who is none other than God himself,
and we have this description of a man's heart. Now, if that's
so, then we know why. We know why that there's some
believe and some don't believe. We have our Lord's description
of a man's heart. What is the heart? What is the
heart and soul of a man? Primarily the heart, what is
it? The human heart is a fountain of sin. It's the fountain where
all this sin comes from, this adultery, this blasphemies, this
thefts, the murders and all that. It comes from this one source.
There's a fountain filled within us and it's filled with all this
iniquity and wickedness and evilness. Our Lord looked down. And he
said, there's none that do it good, they're all wicked. What
is the heart? It's the seat of the affections. That's where the affections lie,
and that's the source of that which comes out. Where are the affections of the
natural man fixed? Well, you know yourself. They're
fixed upon the things of this world. They're fixed upon anything
and everything earthly and evil and wrong and devilish. The Bible
says that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, for they are foolishness unto
him. That's the dark side of the picture,
Bob. That's the reason why he said
that these things have not entered into the heart of a man. His eye can't see them. He can't
understand it. He can't hear them. We couldn't
either. This is a picture of us prior
to the quickening. We couldn't understand the mystery
of the gospel of grace. We always thought, every one
of us, always thought we'd done what our mama said. She said,
if you're a good boy, maybe you'll go to heaven when you die. We
always thought that. And if they wanted to entice
you to do something, they'd say, well, I'll give you this if you
won't do that. Be a good boy. Well, the natural man, he cannot
receive these things of God. He cannot comprehend them. He
can't take them in. and something more that's greater
than that. He hates those things. He hates
those things. Down deep in his heart, he despises
the things of God when it's declared unto him that he is no good,
no account, there's nothing good about him, he's saturated with
sin, he's full of evil from the top of his head to the bottom
of his feet, and he can't do nothing to gain God's favor.
And if God doesn't open his eyes and open his ears and open his
conscience and open his heart by the revelation of the Spirit
of God as to who Christ is, he perfectly despises and hates
the true and the living God. That's all there are to it. You
say, well, I don't believe it. Well, I don't care whether you
believe it or not. I believe it because God said it. That's right. That's the way He is. Your mother,
your father, and your children are like that. if they are yet
in rebellion against God. If they have not pulled the white
flag down and say, I surrender, and laid their weapons down and
received and believed on Him, they despise and hate the God
that you love. That's hard talk, but it's the
truth nevertheless. That's the truth, so help me
God. No, sir, they cannot comprehend it. They can't understand it.
Oh, and they discard altogether. They cast these things out of
their sight. Don't want to hear about them. We don't want to
hear this fellow. We don't want to hear him. That's
all the natural eye and the natural ear and the natural understanding.
That's all it can do. It can't do anything else. That's
the dark side of the picture. Now, if you'll turn with me to
John Chapter 12. John Chapter 12. There's a little verse there
that I want you to see. It has reference to those whose
eyes have been opened. It says here in this 19th verse, it says, The Pharisees
therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. the Lord Jesus. And there were
certain Greeks among them, Gentiles, that came up to worship and ate
at the feast. The same came, therefore, to
Philip. You remember Philip, one of the
Twelve Disciples. He's the one that went to the
side of the Ethiopian eunuch when he was in his carriage.
God miraculously took him to that place where he was at and
he was reading the scriptures. Do you remember that? He was
reading the scriptures over in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53. And Philip asked him, he said,
do you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I unless
some man teach me? And Philip began at that very
scripture and began to preach unto him Jesus. Before it was
over with, they come by to buy some water there. And he said,
there's water, what hinders me from being baptized? And the
Ethiopian, or Philip told the Ethiopian eunuch, he said, if
thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. And he said,
I do, I believe. The revelation of who Jesus Christ
is that he came to save sinners and I'm a chief sinner. And immediately
they took him over there and baptized him. That's the same
Philip. The Philip which was of Bethsaida
of Galilee and desired him saved. These Greeks now, they came up
to worship at the feast and they desired a Philip. They said,
Sir, Sir, we would see Jesus. We would sing, Sir, we would
see Jesus. This, my dear brethren, this
is the longing, desire of every
heaven-born soul in entering a free grace place of worship
where a God-appointed and God-sent minister stands up to declare
his word, a desire of that heaven-born soul, says Sirs, we would save
Jesus. That's who they want to save,
Bob. They want to save Jesus. All right. Well, according to
the book of Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1, Chapter 1 and verse 17 and 18. It says this. Remember, Paul down here, he's
talking about those that were chosen in Christ as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundations of the world. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Christ Jesus himself, according
to the good praise, to the praise of the glory of his grace, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. Now listen, here in the 17th and 18th verse he says
this, he says, We cease not to give thanks for you, you brethren
at Ephesus. We make mention of you in my
prayers unto God. We make mention of you. We call
out your name. Your name is known at the throne
room of God because we pray for you. We pray to this end that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
you the spirit of wisdom and the revelation in the knowledge
of him, in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
to the saints." Oh, isn't that something? Look over there in
Galatians now. Just turn back a little bit there
to the first chapter of the book of Galatians. There's something
there. In that 16th verse, or 15th verse,
Paul's talking about when God saved his soul. He said in verse
13, you've heard of my conversation. You've heard of my conduct, the
way I conducted myself in times past in the Jewish religion.
You fellows know about that. How but beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wicked. See, at that time when Paul had
that attitude towards the Lord Jesus and them, ragged followers
of his, Paul hated and despised the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He actually hated and despised
it to the extent that he would get people and put them in jail. And he stood and held the clothes
of the coats of the men who stoned Stephen, that deacon, that preacher,
when he began to He said, I see heaven open up here. I see the
Son of God. He began to preach it. They got
stones and they stoned him. Paul despised, perfectly despised,
perfectly hated the Son of God before Christ was revealed to
his heart. He said, you heard about me.
You know about me. You heard of my conversation,
my conduct, how I acted, how that beyond measure. beyond the
ordinary. I persecuted the Church of God
and I wasted it." And he bragged about it, but not here. And he said, I profited in the
Jews' religion above many of my equals in years, in my own
nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my
fathers. But when it pleased God, not
when it pleased Paul. Paul was on the road to Damascus
to kill a few more of them. When God intervened, stopped
him dead in his tracks. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me, by His grace,
to do what? to reveal His Son in me. Now, I want you to notice that
it's not the revelation of the Son of God to me. That's not what it says. It doesn't
say that it's a revelation of His Son to me or at a distance
from me. or not even near me, but He says
to reveal His Son in me. That's redemption revealed. When
God reveals His Son in us, He reveals His redemption. He reveals
how God can be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
You've got to believe something, brethren. Men are not going to
live and die and go to heaven with an empty head. They're going
to have some knowledge of who saved them and how He saved them. And God does something to their
hearts. He makes their hearts soft. I remember when Clyde, one time
he'd come here for two or three years, He'd come very faithful
and sat with his wife, and he listened, and he listened, and
he listened. Never made too many comments, but one night he called
me on the phone, and he said, you know, preacher, he said,
God softened my heart. That's scriptural too. God softened
my hard heart. He opened my eyes, opened my
ears, opened my understanding of what God's doing. He was revealing
these things to us. I hath not seen here, neither
hath entered into the heart of man the things that God hath
prepared for them that love him, but he hath by Spirit revealed
them to us." If you know Him in pardon and forgiveness, well, then you're favored by
God. favored over and above. Why didn't
He do it to these other people? Why didn't He do it to you? You're
as bad as they was, all of us. I couldn't have been much worse
than what I was. He's revealed things. What did
He reveal? Everything concerning redemption,
but one thing I'll say and then I'll quit. He says that there
was a righteousness prepared for the people of God. And He
revealed that righteousness. You see, God requires a righteousness. That's what the law is. The law
demands that it be kept. The law of God has got to be
obeyed. It's got to obey every jot and
every tittle of that law. And anyone with common sense
knows that most of us never even attempted to obey it, let alone
obey it. Let alone, most of us never even made an attempt. We're
guilty of that. But God said it's not the hearer
of the law, that's the doer of it. Who's the doer of it? Our God, in glory, prepared and
planned a righteousness. And that righteousness is found
in Him. That's where our righteousness
is, in Him. See, we have a righteousness.
He wrought out a righteousness for us. He obeyed every jot and
every tittle that long. I heard a fellow on the radio
late the other night. I was listening to the radio,
and the fellow was preaching. He was talking about the Lord
Jesus, and he said, He's such a wonderful person. Wonderful,
wonderful person. Oh, he said, There's none like
Him. None like Him. There never has been none like
Him. There never will be none like Him. And he went on and
re-numerated the good things about the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's the only thing to say about Christ. The Lord's
good things. He can't say any bad things. He's never done any
bad things. But he said this that stuck in my mind, and I
thanked the Lord when I heard it. He said, He never had an
unkind word to anybody while he was on the face of this earth. And I said, My son. And I began
to think about all the unkind words that I've had. But he never
had one. He never had an unkind word.
Never had to have a thought of a kind thought and a kind act
of the Son of God. It had to be that way to bring
about a righteousness that would stand us in good stead with God.
See, he hath revealed a righteousness, and it was prepared for the people
of God. Not a righteousness now which
sinners may avail themselves to, if they will. Oh, no. It's not a righteousness
that will embrace the offers of the gospel. It's a righteousness
that is prepared for His people, for His people that He chose
unto Himself. It's not offering Jesus Christ
out there like I'm offering you. I have a handful of pencils and
I say, here, you want a pencil? You're free, you want a pencil?
That's not the gospel. The gospel is the righteousness
of God prepared for His people. Certainly, I've preached the
gospel to anyone who'll hear. I know that the majority of them
won't hear. Most of the time, nobody hears it except those
whom God has worked a work in, and I don't quit just because
they don't hear. I don't know who's going to be
saved and who's not going to be saved, but I know there's
some going to be saved because God chose a people unto himself,
so I never get discouraged. Just keep on keeping on. Well,
it's a righteousness of faith revealed in the gospel, a righteousness
brought out by the Lord Jesus Christ for his prepared people.
It's called the righteousness of God because God designed it. It's called the righteousness
of the law because the law required it. And it's called the righteousness
of Jesus Christ because he performed it. He wrought it out for his
people. See? These things he revealed
unto us. Isn't that something? Revealed unto you. You didn't deserve it. I didn't
deserve it. It was grace, wasn't it? It was God's mercy. He showed
mercy. He showed mercy. Oh, I may never
have another good day in my life. I don't know. I hope I have a
lot of them ahead of me. I may not have any. I may not
have any. Maybe I'll be going downhill
from now on in. I don't know. I may wind up like David and
say, ask for my house, Lord. All's not well. But I wind up
saying, there's a covenant that you made
with me that's certain and sure. Got that? The covenant of God. Sure covenant. A covenant that can't be disannoyed.
The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the stipulations of that
covenant. God made him known to my heart. I love him. I wish I loved him
more. I pray, Lord, help me to love you more. Help me to give
you what's due you. I want that. I desire that. But we see Jesus. One verse here
I'll read to you in the book I just thought of. In the book
of Hebrews, I think it is. Second chapter, I believe. Yeah,
second chapter of the book of Hebrews. Listen to this. Talking
about the Lord Jesus. And verse 7 says, Thou hast made
him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownedst him with glory
and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. That's the Lord
Jesus. for in that he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put
under him. There is nothing that is not
put under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him, but listen to this, but we see Jesus. We see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels. for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. That is, every man that God chose. But we see Jesus. We see what
he did. We see who he is. This stand
will be dismissed.