I turn with you to that seventh
chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. I preached there this morning in regard to the government of
God, that the children of Israel were an earthly people, you know,
and the contingence of the mercy of God toward them was conditioned
upon their trusting and believing in Him.
These blessings were conditional. If they would do so-and-so, He'd
do so-and-so. But we're a heavenly people,
and our blessings are not conditioned upon what we do, but our blessings
are conditioned upon what He's already done. He finished the
work on our behalf. So we love Him. We love Him who
first loved us. love our God and our Savior,
our Lord Jesus. We're not ashamed to own Him
and acknowledge Him. And in our down times, we acknowledge who
He is. We pray to Him and thank Him. And in this ninth verse, Notice
this, 9th verse, that 7th chapter. I think I read it this morning,
but I'll read it again. It is at the conclusion of those
verses that we talked about there. Know therefore that the Lord
thy God, He is God. He is God. And over here in the
6th chapter, he says in the 3rd verse, Hear therefore, O Israel,
and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee. and that
ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath
promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey."
Listen to this fourth verse. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, one God. One God who has manifested Himself
in three persons, yet He is one God. We believe in the one God.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one
God. And here I read to you, Know
therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God,
faithful God, faithful, faithful God. One thing that astounds
me is, in regard to the faithfulness of God, Immutability. Immutability. That means that God, in His character,
He's unchangeable. He can't change. That's what
it means. It means He can't change. Not that there's a possibility
of Him changing. It means He can't change. He
can't be faithful one day and unfaithful the next. He's immutable. He cannot change. God can't change. He's immutable. I am the Lord
thy God, I changeth not. Know therefore that the Lord
thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and
mercy with them, with them that love Him, not with them that
don't love Him, I said the surest evidence of
saving faith is perseverance. I'm not talking about people
that said they once loved him, but now they don't persevere. They're nowhere to be found.
You can't find them. They're disinterested in his
cause and in his claims. Yeah, I'd persevere. It says,
with them that love him. and keep his commandments to
a thousand generations. Perseverance is the surest evidence
of saving faith. All right? If the lovers of God
are comforted in verse 9 that I read to you, what about verse
10? If the lovers of God are comforted
in verse 9, Then the haters of God are called to hearken to this
warning note in verse 10. And repaith them, talking about
God now, and repaith them that hate him to their face, to destroy
them, He will not be slack to him. I remember talking to one of
my boys one time, years ago, and he was agitated with what
I had to say. It bothered him, what I had to
say. And he, in despair and disgust,
said to me, Why don't you cut me some slack?" They must have
got that from the Bible, didn't they? Cut me some slack. That is, take up on that a little
bit. Give me some looseness there.
Cut me some slack. Our Lord said He will not cut
anybody any slack that hates Him. That's what He's saying
right here. He said, He will not be slack
to him that hateth him, he will repay them to his face. Now, I believe in accordance
with the holy word of God. I believe that the time is coming
when God will personally deal with his enemies. And I say, according to the Bible,
that a man that does not love him is his enemy. And if he's an enemy, then you
can say he hates God. Yes, sir. How awful the thought
that anyone of the seven billion people alive on this planet Earth
today should be a hater of God. Listen, "...and repayeth them
that hate him to their face, to destroy them. And he will
not be slack to them that hated him He will repay him to his
face. A hater of one who is said to
be, and who is, light. Light, the light of the world.
The light of the world is Jesus. He is said to be, and one who
is light, and one who is love. He's the very fountain of all
good He's the author, the Bible says, of every perfect gift, one whose liberal hand, whose
generous hand supplies the needs of every living creature. The Bible says he hears the cry
of the ravens when they're hungry. And he quenches the thirst of
the wild ass. This God that the Bible talks
about, the infinitely good and only wise and perfectly, infinitely
holy God, the Lord of all power and all might, the Lord who only has the right
to rule, and no limit to his right to do that ruling. The
creator of the ends of the earth, one who has power, the Bible
says, to destroy both soul and body in hell. It's an awful thought,
isn't it? To think that they are those
among the seven million people on the earth that hate God. If you don't love God, you're
a hater of God. Now, that's the truth, so help
me, God. If you're not for Him, you're against Him. That's what
the twelfth chapter of the book of Matthew says. It says in verse
28, our Lord speaking, says, But if I cast out devils by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into
a strong man's house and spoil his goods? That's the Lord. He
enters into the strong man's house and spoils his goods, except
he first Bind the strong man. He binds the devil. And then
he'll spoil his house. Now listen to this. You see,
in this chapter, verse 22, Then was brought unto him one possessed
with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him inasmuch that
the blind and the dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were
amazed and said, Is not this the son of David? And when the
Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out
devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. And Jesus then,
knowing their thoughts, goes on down in verse 30 and says,
that is not with me is against me." Our God. Just think now of anyone
being a hater of such a one as the one God. Now, we know that
all who are not lovers must be haters. We know that. If he's not a lover of God, he's
a hater of God. You see, most people, most people
may not see this. Out of those seven billion, out
of those that you talk to and I talk to from time to time,
most people may not see this, that they're haters of God. And
that's strong language, isn't it? That's strong language. to
tell a man. And I tell you, it takes some
holy, holy boldness for a man to tell another man. I perceive
by your action and what you say, you're not a lover of God, but
you're a hater of God. I know we're not to set in on
judgment. I know that. That is, there is such a thing
as righteous judgment, and when the facts are all in, then we
can judge. We know red from black. We make
a judgment. Most people don't see this simply
because they don't want to see it, and very few, very few, of
the seven billion people on this planet Earth would be disposed
to own themselves to be absolute haters of God. It will be rare
that you and I will run across one who will own himself to be
a hater of God. Men are not disposed to do that.
That's because of their nature. That's because of their nature,
because they're estranged from God and far off from God. They hate the light because their
deeds are evil. They won't come into the light.
And they're not disposed to own themselves to be absolute haters
of God. Now listen, there's no neutral
ground. To this question, we must either be for or against. There's no middle ground. For
or against? You're for him. If you're not
for him, you're against him. If you're for him, you love him.
If you don't love him, you hate him. That's it. That's hard. That's hard and difficult. I
don't know that I could get by with this, apart from this church. Because you believe the truth.
You believe what the Bible says. But there's very few churches
that believe what the Bible says. And you could go in a lot of
sovereign grace churches over the country and you preach like
I'm preaching tonight. And I'm sure that there'll be
some of them there to raise their hackles. I don't think a preacher
ought to be telling folks that they hate God. Well, our Lord says, He's going
to repay them that hate Him, and He's going to repay them
to their face, not behind their back, but it's going to be eyeball
to eyeball, nothing hidden. It'll be in the open, and He'll
pay them. The fact is, now, I said that
there's no neutral ground to this question. We must either
be for or against. And the fact is, people are not
slow in showing their true colors either. It happens frequently that the
heart's deep-seated enmity and hostility comes out, and it comes
out in the hatred of God's people. Because I hate preachers. I hate this God business, this
religion business. I hate these people that comes
around knocking on your door trying to get you to go to church.
I hate that. Comes out against these people,
against these words, against these worship. Truth is, they hate God Himself. That's what's behind it all.
They hate God Himself. It's not you. You are the nearest
thing between them and God. And it's not really you, but
it's the God that's behind it that they hate. They hate God. They hate God Himself. They hate
His rule. Who is he to tell me what to
do and what I can't do? Who is he? Who's boss? That's
the big issue in this religious world right today. Who is the
executive officer of this planet? Who pulls the strings? Who's
boss? Who is it? God's boss, isn't
He? He's boss. He runs the show. Men hates His authority. I say, well, the Bible doesn't
teach that, talking to somebody. And invariably, when you talk
to somebody and they get on this subject of religion, invariably
they're going to tell you something that's just not so, something
that's not biblical. And if you turn to them and say,
well, that's not in the Bible. I remember talking to a fellow
just in the last year or so, and I told him, I said, well,
what you're telling me, I said, that's not how God saves sinners. Salvation is not by decision. Salvation is not by chance. Salvation is not in a plan. Salvation is not in a scheme. I said salvation in a person. That's the Lord Jesus. I said
that's where it's all in Him. Before it's over with, you know
what He told me? And I don't resent what He said. Because
what he said was about 90% true. He told me, he said, you need
to study the Bible. And I immediately agreed with
him. I said, you said it right. You
said it right. I don't study it as much as I
ought to. So I admit that. I said, that's your problem.
But I know that. I know that. I know that salvation
wasn't in a system, and salvation wasn't in a plan, and salvation
wasn't in baptism, and salvation wasn't in church membership.
Salvation's not in decision. Salvation's in a person, and
that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. They hate His rule. Well, there must be other ways
you can get to God. No, there's not. Only one way
that you can approach God, and that's through a substitute,
and that substitute is of the providing of God Himself, who
provided His Son. And you've got to come to His
Son. You've got to bow to His Son. You've got to bow to His
scepter, to His rule, and to His authority. You've got to
do it. No other way. I don't like that. Well, that's because you hate
God. Huh? Because you hate God, either
for Him or against Him. Huh? The carnal mind, the Bible
says, that's the natural mind, the carnal mind, the book of
Romans, the carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be, is what the Bible says.
That natural mind, hostility, hostility. And this inmate that's
in the natural mind comes out of the mouths of these whenever
any reference is brought up in regard to God
or His people. Inmate. I said that this enmity
and hostility and this hatred is quick to show its colors. God declares that He will cut
no slack with them that hate Him. He will repay to His face. Now this is a most solemn And
I believe that this is one truth that needs to be pressed to the
limit in our witnessing and in our preaching, that God will
repay. Judgment, judgment is coming.
Men don't like to hear it. even profess not to believe it,
but is so nevertheless." Most people now, and all of us can identify with
this to a degree. We all are the same. We come from a fallen stalk. We come, the root of the tree,
the root of the tree is a rotten stump. That's where we came from. We came from Adam, decayed in
Adam. And all of us, one time or the
other, prior to regeneration, in that state that men view us
as natural men, the natural mind, well, we and these of our day
now, persuade themselves that God is too good, God is too kind,
God is too merciful, and God is too benevolent to deal in
stern, strict judgment with these creatures. That's what they say. God's too good to do that. They
forget, though, that God's ways in government are as perfect
as his ways are in grace. They imagine that the government
of God will pass over or deal lightly with their evil practices
and their sins as evildoers. God will just turn His head and
look the other way, or He'll pass over it, just touch it and
leave it, you know. Now, this is a most miserable
and fatal mistake, and every man who will not heed the warning
of God will find it to be a miserable and fatal mistake, because, God
said, He will repay them that hate him to their face." Now,
it is most true that God, in His rich, sovereign grace and
mercy, can forgive us of our sins, cancel our guilt, justify
us perfectly, and fill our hearts with the spirit of adoption whereby
we shall cry out, Have a Father!" That's so, but this is another
thing altogether, altogether something else. This is grace
reigning through Jesus Christ, or grace reigning through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. It is God in His wondrous love,
marvelous, marvelous, indescribable, His condescending love providing
righteousness for poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinners who know
and feel and own that they have no righteousness of their own.
And that's a hard way to go for a poor sinner. For a poor sinner. Someone said,
one of the old writers, John Trapper, one of those old fellows,
said, A sinner is a sacred thing, for God has made him so. If God
ever makes a man a sinner, he is a sacred thing. And he'll
own himself. He'll own that he himself has
no righteousness. He'll own that. And he'll own
that he never in himself can provide one. He'll own that. Never could have it. And he'll
own that God has provided a means whereby he can be just and justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus. just and justifier to every poor,
broken-hearted sinner who believes in him. You ask, how is this done? Well,
was it passing over sin as though it was nothing? As though God
was indifference to our sins? Our evil thoughts, our neglect,
our despising and hating Him, our never giving Him a minute
of our time, soaking and basking in the providential
mercies of God, the sun shining on us, eating God's food, drinking
God's water, wearing the clothes that God provides and living
in houses that God has provided for us, and yet not give God
the time of day? You ask, how is this done? Does
God do this by passing over sin as though it was nothing? God
hates sin. He hates sin. Well, someone said,
in this twentieth-century religion, said, God hates sin, I agree
with you, but he loves the sinner. How can that be? How can that
be? That man that's outside of the
Lord Jesus Christ is not covered with the righteousness of God,
who's yet in his sins. What is he but sin? He's sin
all over from start to finish. God is angry with the wicked
every day. How is this done? How is God
just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus? By passing
over sin as if it was nothing? Nothing? Is it nothing? I talk
to people every day. They have no idea, conceived
or preconceived, as to what we're talking about here tonight. No
idea. Poor, pitiful, pitiful people. Intelligent people. Intelligent
people. Far more intelligent than I am. But bless God, it's not just
for the intelligent people. It's for poor, common people
as well. Listen, did all this come about
by relaxing the claims of God's divine government? Was it by
lowering, by bringing down the standard of divine holiness in
some remote way? Is that how he went about it?
No, no. It's just the reverse, just the
opposite. Never was there or could there
be a more terrible expression of God's eternal hatred of sin
than the cross. The measure of God's hatred towards
sin can only be really seen as you see Him hanging on the tree.
And the measure of God's love to the sinner can only be seen
as you see Him hanging in your state and place and room, bearing
your shame, bearing your guilt, covering you with His own blood,
washing you and cleansing you. Never was there or could there
be a more terrible expression of God's eternal hatred of sin,
or of His inflexible, unswerving purpose to condemn sin and to
punish sin. There, on that tree. Oh, listen. To see the true character of
the holy, holy holiness of God, a man must look to the cross. God's holy, holy. He's not going to treat sin lightly. He's not going to look at it
as if it were nothing. Sin! God hates sin! God must punish sin! or the sinner cannot go free. Ah, to see the true character
of His holiness, a man must look to the cross and listen and cup
his ear and listen to that bitter cry that comes from the Son of
God that broke through the darkness and said, Hast thou forsaken me?" Have
you ever think of that? My soul, my soul, never had such
a question been asked before, never had such a question been
asked since, and never shall. And this is the righteous ground. This is the imperishable foundation
of the throne of God's sovereign grace. This is how God can be
just and justifier, to send His Son, the only begotten of the
Father, the Son of His love, the Son of His bosom, to send
Him here on this earth to condescend and become a man and walk here. on this earth, be hated and despised. And at the end, they take him
with cruel and wicked hands and create this awful, awful physical
pain and inward, inward soulish pain that makes him cry with
a bitter cry. My God! My God! Why is he forsaking me? The only ground. This is the
only ground on which he can forgive sin, pardon sin is better. The only
ground on which he can pardon sin and constitute us perfectly
righteous in a risen and glorified Savior is the ground of the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way God will
deal with us, on the ground of perfection, the ground of the
sacrifice, the ground of the shedding of the blood, on the
ground of established righteousness, on the ground of perfect obedience,
on that ground. Ah, listen to me now and I'll
quit. Has Jesus the Lord Our Redeemer, the captain of our
salvation, the spotless, holy, perfect man, the only perfect
man that ever walked upon God's earth. Seven billion now? How many billion have died and
gone to the grave in the past 6,000 years? How many? A number no man can number. They
all lived and they died. They walked upon the face of
this earth. They knew about dirt. They walked upon this dirt. They
lived under the dirt and they lived under the rocks. But this
man, Christ Jesus, is the only perfect man. that ever took a
step, whose feet has only touched that earth, the only man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, the only perfect
man who ever walks the face of God's earth, had he, the only perfect man,
God manifest in the flesh, as much God as if he's never been
as much man as ever of God. Had he to suffer for sins, the
just and the unjust, and shall wicked evildoers, unbelievers,
haters of God, be saved and be blessed and taken to heaven because
God is too good, too kind, too benevolent to send sinners to
hell? Huh? That don't make any sense,
does it? Why, if God would, if He's too
good to send sinners to hell, why all this inconceivable sorrow
and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, if God is too good to
send people to hell. Are you and I lovers or haters? Lovers or haters? I love Him.
I love Him because He first loved me. I haven't seen. But I heard of
Him. I've read of Him. And what I've
heard and what I've read, I believe with all my heart and all my
soul. I trust Him. I trust my soul to Him. I hope you'll trust your soul
to Him. I hope you'll be a lover of God. A lover of God. It'll mean something. It'll mean something when things
start to go dark for you. I know that. And you're not able to communicate. You're just able to have a blank
stare in your face. You don't know straight up. There
he lay. Listen, if you're a lover of
God, I'm going to tell you this, on the authority of God, you
cannot lie. He said, I'll never leave you. I never leave you. When everybody
else walks out of the room, when your sons and your daughters,
we better step out and all. When the doctor says, well, we
better leave this to himself. When his wife says,
his hand is cold and clammy, I better let it go. I'll never leave you, and I'll
never forsake you. My God will experience that.
Those who are lovers of the Lord Jesus, He won't let you go. Life
ain't worth living without Him, I'm telling you. Listen to me. I'm an old man. I ain't no boy. I've been there and been back.
I know what this is all about. I know what it's all about. I've
been through it. And one that's been through it,
let me tell you, it ain't nothing. This is where it's all at. This
is not a lifestyle. He is our life. Not a lifestyle. This is our
life. You say, well, you go your way and I'll go mine. There's
no other way to go. He's our life. I am the resurrection
and the life. And he that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. Believer's style is
this. He'll forsake us. Huh? He'll
forsake us. God help us. We love Him because
He first loved us. Nothing about us. Ain't nothing
about old Pat. Ain't nothing about old Bob,
and Gary, and Glenn, and Carl, and these fellas. Ain't nothing
about them that constrain God to look over and have a sober
mercy. Ah, no, they're sinners just like the rest of us. That's right.