Well, I talked to you here some
time ago in regard to a verse here in the third chapter
of the book of Genesis and mentioned to you that at the fall of man, man got something that he previously
did not have and got a conscience to know evil, to know good and evil. And it says in the seventh verse
of that third chapter that the result of an enlightened
conscience or an awakened conscience caused him to see himself. It says that the eyes of them
both were open and they realized something,
seen something that they had not seen prior to this. It says
that they knew that they were naked. They found out something
that they had not known prior to this, and it had to do with
their conscience. They knew evil, which they had
not previously known because there was no evil to know. But
now, because of their disobedience toward God, they have a conscience,
and their conscience Their conscience drove them to
do something. Drove them to attempt to cover
their nakedness. See that? And they knew that
they were naked, and so there was something they had to do
about it. And so they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves aphids. And all at once they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day and Adam and his wife did something there. They did
something that they had not previously done. They did not do this before
because they had now got something that
they had not before. They ran from God. They hid from
the presence of God. When prior to this, they welcomed
God. They looked forward to the communion
and fellowship that they had daily with God. They enjoyed
His presence, enjoyed His fellowship. But now, the result of this conscience
did something to them. Caused them to be afraid. caused
them to be a coward. They cowered out of it. They
had an enlightened conscience as to who they were. Now, an
enlightened conscience as to who we are, apart from divine
faith of who He is, will never drive us to Him. Now, they had
an enlightened conscience as to who they were, but not an
enlightened conscience as to who He is. If you just have an
enlightened conscience as to what you are, the only, or the
effect of that, the end result will be that it'll make a coward
out of a man, and instead of driving him to God, it'll drive
him away from God. The essential ingredient that
he needs is divine faith in who God is. He can find out who God
is. Then this enlightened conscience
will drive him to God rather than away from God. Well, this 9th verse tells us who God is. It tells us that He's a loving
and kind and merciful and gentle Father, forgiving Father. In the last three words of the
ninth verse, it tells us that He's a gentle and kind and loving
and forgiving Father. Where art thou? He came looking
for Adam and Eve. That gives you some idea of who
God is. God came looking for them. Well, what I'm trying to say is this. Men, apart from divine faith,
apart from the knowledge of who God is, will never come to God,
but will hide from God. Our Lord Jesus said in the book
of Matthew, He gave a full and free invitation to all. The invitation is not directed
to one or two, or to one race, or to one creed, to one color. But the invitation by the Lord
Jesus Christ is directed unto all men. He said, Come unto me. That's the invitation. Look how full it is. Look how
wide and open this invitation is. It embraces everybody. Come unto me and I will give
you rest. That's the invitation that's
given unto all men. I will give you rest. But men
will not come to Christ. They will not come to Christ.
Though a lot of men know that they're wrong. I don't suppose there's anybody
that doesn't know that they're wrong in their attitude and relationship
toward God. They know that. They know that. They have a conscience now which
they previously did not have. They got this through their first
father, Adam. They inherited this along with
everything else. But they've got that. They've
got a conscience. And their conscience tells them
that they are not in a right relationship with the God who
made them. But still they will not come to God. Instead of coming
to God, they run from God. Is that not right? They're like
Adam. When he found out what his problem
was, that he was naked, instead of his nakedness, instead of
his condition, driving to God for mercy and for a hiding place,
he went the opposite direction. First he tried to remedy, his
condition himself with his own hands, his own works. He said, I'll get the needle
and some thread here, and I'll get some fig leaves, and I'll
sew me a girdle here, I'll sew me an apron, I'll sew me a coat,
and that'll hide my nakedness. But that did not satisfy his
conscience, because his conscience, as I've told you time and time
again, Demands perfection. And that wouldn't satisfy his
conscience. So when God came and said, Adam,
where art thou? He ran and hid. He was hiding. He went in the opposite direction
from God. And all men, all men, irregardless
of rank or station or creed or education or otherwise, All men run from God rather than to God. And why is this? When the invitation
is throughout the pages of the Bible, Come unto me and I will
give you rest. Why is it that men will not come
to Christ? They'll come to a ceremony, won't
they? A man will come to a ceremony,
but he won't come to Christ. A man will come to a program
of religion, but he won't come to Christ. A man will come to a system of
doctrine, but he won't come to Christ. Why? What hinders men
from coming to Christ? Well, let me just mention a few
things here. that hinders men from coming
to Christ. These men that are hiding from
God, they are hiding from God. And if they are ever found, God
will have to go where they are and seek them and ferret them
out and bring them out from their false refuge and bring them into
the land of enchantment and the land of peace. He'll have to
do it because they're running from God. Do you remember the
Apostle Paul? He wasn't Saul of Tarsus then.
He was a very religious man. He would embrace a system of
religion and would die for his religion and would fight for
his religion. As a matter of fact, He embraced
this system of religion to the extent that if there was any
opposition to his religion, he was for putting them in jail
or killing them. Well, you know he was on the
road to Damascus with a paper in his hand, a list of names
of some people down in Damascus. who were, as the Bible refers
to them, people of the way. And he was going down to stop
them, because they were in opposition to his religion. His religion
was a religion of regulations and rules. And he said, these
people are against Moses, And he said, we've got to stop them.
Well, you see, he wouldn't come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
would embrace a system of doctrine. He would embrace a system of
religion, but he would not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But
if he ever comes to the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus must come
where he is and tear down his refuge. his hiding place. Bring him out of his hiding place
and bring him out into the open into the land of peace. God must
do that. And that's what happened. God
came where he was. There he was going down the road
on that donkey, camel, I don't know, some sort of beast of burden. God, like a thunderbolt, struck
him and knocked him off, onto the ground, into the dust, from
whence he came. He cried out, Lord, who art thou? He said, I'm Jesus, whom thou
persecuted. He said, Lord, what will you
have me do? God came where he You see, men will come to ceremonies,
men will come to programs, men will come to a system of doctrine,
and men will come to religion, but they won't come to Christ.
And if they ever come to Christ, it will be because Christ comes
for them. Well, why will men not come to
Christ? Well, first off, it is because
every man's will is in bondage You remember in one place our
Lord said, ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Ye will. It is something that
has to do with a man's will. Ye will not come. He said, whosoever
will come. But ye will not come. He said,
come unto me, and I will give you rest. But ye will not come
that ye might have life. You see, the natural mind, you
and I know these things, the natural mind is enmity against
God, against God's holiness, against God's truth, and against
God's grace. The natural mind, the carnal
mind, is against these things. So his will is in bondage to
sin, and he will not come. And secondly, he will not come
because he loves the world. The Scriptures say that men love
darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil. You see, to ask a man to love
what he hates, and to hate what he loves, is to do what? Is to ask the impossible. He
will not do it. He loves the world. He's got
to be renewed. He's got to be changed. He's
got to have a heart that's agreeable with the mind of God. And we'll get to that in just
a minute. I won't talk to you about an honest heart. What an
honest heart will do. Or he'll not come to God. He'll not come to the Lord Jesus
Christ because his will is in bondage to sin. He'll not come
because of the love of the world. And he'll not come because, I've
already mentioned this, the traditions of religion. Man is religious
by nature, but he's not righteous by nature. He will invent a God
to worship if he can. and will bind himself to laws
and to rules and to forms and to regulations, but he will not
worship the God of grace nor seek the mercy of the God of
grace. He will not do it. And fourthly,
he will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there
are professions of faith Men make professions of faith and
they have religious experiences. Someone said the best place to
hide from God is in the church. That is, the best place to hide
from God and from the gospel of redemption is in the church. That's where most men are hiding
today. They're hiding in the church.
They've got their names on the book. They were taken in. You'd be surprised of how many
churches are full of men and women who grew up in that church,
who are the fruits of daily vacation Bible school. Now, I'm not criticizing
daily vacation Bible school at all, but I do know that many
churches the design of their school is at the end of the five
or six days of teaching that they might draw out professions
of faith from these children. And they get 16, 15, 18, 20 professions
of faith from these little children. And I'm not saying that all of
them are false, It may be something that's genuine.
I'm not saying that. I'm not setting in on judgment
time. But for the most part, for the
most part, the churches are made up of these that have been taken
that way. We slip up on their blind side
and talk them into making a profession of faith. And that's wrong. I've run that road, and I've
seen the result of it. Talking people into making a
profession of faith. Talking people into saying, yes,
I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these people are hiding
now from God and hiding from the gospel of the redemption
which is found in God's Son, they are hiding in the church.
Hiding behind their what? They're a little old five-cent
profession that they made when they were 10 years old or 8 years
old or 12 years old or 5 years old. They're hiding. They're
hiding. You see, you say something to
them, they say, well, I know that I'm saved. Fred was telling
me about a fellow this morning. He said, well, I know I'm saved.
Fred said, how do you know you're saved? Well, he said, I made
a profession. Years and years and years ago,
and I remember the profession that I met. I remember how I
wept. Wept all day and wept all night. See, what's he doing? He's trusting in that experience
that he had 25 years ago. He's hiding in that refuge. Right there is where he's hid.
And the sorry thing about it, this fellow really believes it
so. He's satisfied. He's not concerned about how
he stands today. He's concerned about what happened
25 years ago or 45 years ago. See? He always goes back to that
very place, to that very spot, and he remembers the tears. See? Experience. Experience. He's
hiding in his experience. And I've oftentimes said, and
I believe I'm right in this thing, If a man has got to go back 25
years ago to find some evidence that he's saved, he's 25 years
too late. If he's got to go back to yesterday
to find some evidence that he's God's child, he's a day too late. If he hadn't got it now, If he
hadn't got the witness of the Spirit now! You see, it's now! Who am I trusting now? Where
am I hiding now? Well, you see, men will not come
to the Lord Jesus Christ because of these professions of faith
that they made. Why? Pat McGinnis told me one
time, and he don't mind me saying this, he told me one time, that
he was hiding. He was hiding in the church.
He was hiding in his good works. And he said that he just hoped,
he hoped and he prayed the best he knew how that he could die,
if he was going to die. And when he died, he'd die right
there in the church, here Lord of God, for fear that if he didn't
die under this atmosphere of religion, that he'd die lost.
It's going to be right there. Ignorance. Ignorance. Well, this is the most humbling
charge, I guess, that one can bring against today's religionists. But Jesus Christ said, Ye neither
know Me or My Father. Paul said, They have a zeal for
God. but not according to knowledge. You see, in our ignorance, now
listen to me, listen to this, in our ignorance, our wicked
hands, these right here, on order or by authority from our wicked
hearts crucified the Lord of Glory. Ignorance! You see what I'm talking about?
Oh, my soul, men and brethren this evening, what shall we do? We must come to Christ, that's
all we can do, in true repentance and faith. But you said, preacher,
no man can come to me except my Father which sent me, draw
him. That's true. What then can I
do in light of this? You can cry mightily unto God. Who can tell? God may not turn
us away. He may come where we are and
do something for us. That's the only hope we've got
is in God. I know we won't come to God unless we're aided by divine
power. We won't come to God. Where does
that leave you? Well, that leaves you at the
mercy of God. That's where it leaves you, at
the mercy of God. You're at the mercy of His court.
What can you do? You can beg Him to come and do
something for you. That's all you can do. You see,
He's not obligated to do it. God's not obligated to do this
for you or do it for me. He's not obligated. He don't
have to. He's not in debt to us. He's not our debtor. God
doesn't have to do it. Where is His mercy? You see that,
Darrell? Where is His mercy? He may come. He may come and
do something for us. We can't do anything for sale.
You say, well, I can do this now. Well, all you're doing is
being religious. You can reform. You can turn
over a new page. You can quit this and you can
quit that. You can determine to read your Bible. And you can
determine that you're not going to do this and you're not going
to do that. And you can make certain vows and certain oaths.
And you can make professions. And you can say, I'll believe.
And you can say, I'll be baptized. And you can be baptized. And
you can join the church. And you can shake hands with
every Christian in the church and say, brother, sister, pray
for me. But you can die and go to hell
in that state. Brother, that's not salvation.
Salvation is in trusting wholly and solely your soul in the hands
of a merciful God in Christ Jesus. Just trust in Him. Just trust
in Him and Him alone. Nobody else, not yourself, not
your church, not your religion. Just trust in the Lord Jesus.
Well, I told Mike, he asked me, I had a text here, and I said,
well, I'll try to find one in the 13th chapter of the book
of Matthew, so turn with me. And let me tell you, just to
make a few statements here about an honest heart now, about a
man who, well, I'll try to give you some evidence here of a man
who has come to the Lord Jesus. In this 13th In this 13th chapter, he talks about the sower. He said, Behold, a sower went
forth to sow, in verse number 2, verse number 3. Behold, a sower went forth to
sow. And when he sowed, some seeds
fell by the wayside. And the fowls came and devoured
them up. That's the birds in the air. Some fell upon stony places where
they had not much earth. And forwith they sprung up because
they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they
were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.
Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked But
others fell into good ground. That's a good heart. That's an
honest heart, an honest heart. Some fell into good ground, or
an honest heart. Brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold,
some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. And who hath ears to hear, let
him hear. And the disciples came and they said, Well, we've got
ears to hear, but we don't understand what you're talking about. He
said, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, Listen to this, Because it is given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. That's
the disciples. It's given unto you. The design
and purpose of God from eternity past is that you might know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it is not given."
That's a hard verse of scripture, isn't it? It's not given. Who's going to talk in here?
This is the Lord Jesus Christ going to talk in here. And he
said, if it's my purpose and design that you might understand
and know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but it's not
the design or it's not the purpose, that these others might understand. So he said, I'm speaking here
in parables. Alright, now look down in verse
23. But he that received seed into
the good ground. That's an honest heart. A man
that has come to God knowing who he is himself, knowing that
he's ruined and he's hopeless, knowing that he's a sinner against
God, knowing that he's vile and feeling the awful, awful heaviness
of his guilt of sin against God. And he's come to God. And the
reason he's come to God is because God's come to him. God's come
to him and he's worked something in his heart, repentant in his
heart, and he's come to God. This man has an honest heart. And I'll tell you this, a man
who's come to God in the Lord Jesus Christ has an honest heart,
and this man will approve. He'll give his whole consent. He'll put his stamp of authority
and his stamp of approval upon being justified wholly for Jesus'
sake and not on account of his own works, whether his works
are legal or whether his works are evangelical. But he'll wholly
approve of being justified 100% for Jesus' sake. You see, an honest heart will
rejoice in the way of salvation as soon as he understands it,
an honest heart. He'll rejoice in it when he understands
it. He may not understand it from
the beginning. There's not many people like
this fellow that I found over here in the book of Luke, the
first chapter. There's not many like him. I've
never run across many like him. Look what it says in the first
chapter of the book of Luke here. I'll try to find it. In verse
number 3, listen to this. Chapter 1, verse number 3. Not many people like this, but
there's some. What I'm saying here is an honest
heart will rejoice in the way of salvation as soon as the understanding
God's got to make him understand it. And when he understands it,
he will not buck and rebel and kick against it. He'll approve
of it. I say there's not many like this
fella here that the Scriptures speak of in 1 and 3. It said,
It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of
all things from the very first. perfect understanding of all
things right from the beginning. Not many like that. I certainly
was not like that. I still don't understand a whole
lot of things. There's more things that I don't know than what I
do know. But what I do know, what I do
understand, God made me to understand. And one thing I understand is
the way of salvation. God has made me to understand
the way of salvation, and I approve of it. I approve of it, and I
believe in it, and I wholeheartedly back it. I'll tell you why. An honest heart will rejoice
in the way of salvation as soon as he understands it, because
it provides a way in which mercy can be exercised consistently
with the righteousness That is to say, I understand
how God can be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
I understand that God's justice and holiness is satisfied in
a substitute. I understand that. God poured
out His wrath upon the Lord Jesus. He had no sin. He was made sin
in our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He, in His own body on the tree, bore our sins, our substitute,
our Redeemer, our representative. And He hath given me freely His
righteousness. Now God can be just with me and
forgive me and accept me on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ. who is my substitute and my redeemer. You see, a right spirit would
revolt at the idea of receiving mercy in a way that would leave
a block upon the divine character of God. It's the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, when an
honest heart a proof of how God saves sinners. An honest heart will prove of
the salvation wrought in and by and through the blood, the
sweat, the tears, the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll
say, Salvation is of the Lord, an honest heart, a good heart,
this seed that falls on Oh, may God be pleased to see that this,
and I know most of us here, most of us here are Christians. Maybe
we're all Christians, I don't know. Most of us are Christians.
Most of us, most of us have good hearts, good hearts. You understand what I mean? Honest
hearts. A heart that God has done something
for. God hath reached down where we
were and implanted something there of himself, and makes us
agree with him and disagree with ourselves, makes us approve of
what he's done and how he did it, makes us glory in the Lord
Jesus Christ as our blessed Redeemer. I thank God. I thank God to hear
on a Sunday night, on a Sunday night, when it's zero outside,
and cars won't stop, and most people, most people, almost,
I'd say 98, 99% of the people are more concerned about keeping
their bodies warm tonight than they are to have their souls
be warned by the gospel of the Holy Spirit. More people are
more concerned about that. And I'm thankful for you, the
blessing of God, that it showed your faithfulness. That's the
reason I believe you've got a good heart. But if there's some here, maybe it's hiding. Maybe it's
hiding. Hiding in the church. Maybe he's hiding in his profession.
Maybe he's hiding in his religion. Maybe he's hiding in his doctrine.
May it please God the Holy Spirit to come where he is and take
sticks, take swords, and break his refuge. Break this that he's
hiding in and expose him, expose him, that he might come out,
be led out into the land of peace. May God help us. Will the Lord
bless us.