Yeah. Yeah. God knows us. He knows what we are. He knows also
what He meant us to be. And upon the difference between
these two states, what we are and what He meant us to be, upon the difference these two
states, he founds his testimony concerning us. Now, he's too loving to say anything
needlessly severe. He's too true to say anything
untrue about us, nor can he have any motive to misrepresent He loves to tell of the good
and not of the evil. And at first, after creation
of man, creation of all that we know and see and determine,
the world, the planet, and so forth, He declared them good,
in particular, man who he created after his
own image. When he created man after his
own image, he declared him to be good. And if he does not do so now,
it's not because he would not, but because he cannot. If he does not declare us good
now, it's not because he would not, but it's because he cannot. Our text says that when God looked
upon the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his
way upon the earth. Now, the divine testimony of
God concerning us this, that man is a sinner. He bears witness
against us and not for us. Now, these things may sound trite
to you, but they're true and need to be considered. He bears
witness against us, not for us. testifies against us and says
that there is none righteous, no, not one. Turn over there
to the 14th Psalm, if you will, or I think, Psalm 14. First couple of verses of that
14th Psalm. Listen as I read. God testifies against not for
us. The first verse says, "'The fool
has said in his heart, there is no God.'" Of course, you know
that that means, "'The fool has said in his heart, there is no
God for me.'" That's corrupt, fallen human nature's attitude
towards the divine Creator. There is no God for me, the fool
has said in his heart. No God for me. There may be a
God in the heavens that rules and reigns and controls and sustains
and things of that nature, but he's not for me. There's no God
for me. Now listen to the next statement.
They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that do it good.
The Lord looked down from heaven. upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and did seek God. This is God's
testimony concerning us. This is God's witness against
us, not for us. He looked down upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand. Did he find
any that understood? Did he find any that truly sought
God, third verse says, they are all thrown aside. They are altogether become filth. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. God looked down upon the children
of man, and he concluded that there was none that doeth good,
No, not one. So we can conclude that man is
a rebel, he's lost, he's gone astray, and he's a hater of God,
and he's corrupt. Not a sinner occasionally, but
a sinner always. Not just occasionally. but a
sinner always. Not a sinner in part, but a sinner
in the whole. Not a sinner in part with many
good things about him, but only a sinner with no compensating goodness
about him. There's evil in his heart, as
well as in his life. In fact, the scriptures say that
he's dead in trespasses and in sins. He's a breaker of the righteous
law of God. Man has fallen, not the man or
that man, but the whole human race. All in Adam have sinned. and all in Adam have died." That's
God's testimony concerning you and I this morning. That's God's
witness against us, not for us, that all in Adam have died. Now, it's not that just a few
leaves have faded, or a few leaves have
been shaken or blown off of the tree. But the whole tree has
become corrupt. The root as well as the branch. That is the flesh, the old man. That is, each man as he is born
into this world is corrupt. All flesh, that's what our text
says. all flesh. He looked down upon
the children of men to see if there were any that doeth good.
No, not one. So, in each man as he's born
into this world, he's corrupt, corrupt. The very moment that
flesh is given life comes into this world. He's corrupt. That's God's testimony against
us. Now, the outer—listen to me here
this morning. I want you to see this. The outer
life of a man is not the man. That's not the true man, the
outer life of the man. That's our problem. That's the
problem of this generation. That's the problem—well, that's
been the problem of all generations. Through this conclusion, and
it's a false conclusion, it's a false premise to build a poet,
that the outer life of a man is the true man. But the outer
life of a man is not the true man. That is, judge whether a
man is right with God because of
his particular standards or morals or character and so forth. That's
not necessarily true. Listen. Just as the paint on
a piece of wood is not the wood. Just as the green moss on a hard
rock is not the rock itself. Just as a picture of a man is
not the man. It's only a skillful arrangement
of colors which look like the man, but is not the man himself. So it is the bearing of the soul
towards God Almighty. This is the true state of man.
His relationship to God, that's the true state of man. It's not
the outward picture of man, which indicates or gives true evidence
and witness as to the relationship that he has with God, that's
not it at all. It's the bearing of the soul
towards God that gives the true state of man. Now, the man that
loves God with all of his heart is in the right state. He's in
the right condition. The man that loves God with all
of his heart. Now, the man that does not love
God with all of his heart evidently is in the wrong for the wrong
relationship with God himself. Any man," the Apostle Paul said,
"'Any man who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ.'" Now, this is
a terrific statement. "'Any man that loves not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let that man be damned.'" That's what Paul
said. If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let that man
be cursed, let him be damned forever. A man may think his life is a
good one, and others might think the same, but God counts him
guilty. not only guilty, but he counts
him worthy of death and hell. You see, the outward good cannot
make up for the inward evil. Good deeds done to his fellow
man cannot be set off against his bad thoughts. One thing I want you to remember
here this morning is this. The outer life of a man is not
the man. That's not the true man. Just
as the picture of a man is not the true man. It's only the artist
or the photographer's arrangements, colors, that makes it appear
to be like the man, but it's not the true man. God's testimony then concerning
us is this, that he, whosoever he might be, that does not love
him with all of his heart, indeed does not love him at all, That's God's testimony against
us. Don't love him with all of our
hearts, and as a matter of fact, a man left to himself doesn't
love God at all. That's a solemn charge against
human kind. Doesn't love him at all. You
know it's a terrible sin. Not to love your neighbor. God
counts that as a sin. If a man doesn't love his neighbor,
that's a sin. You know that? That's right.
If you don't love your neighbor, that's a sin. That's a greater
sin if you don't love your parents. If you don't love your parents,
that's a greater sin than what it is not to love your neighbor. But not to love God is a greater
sin than the other two. Man doesn't love his neighbor,
that's a sin. Man doesn't love his parents,
that's a sin. Man that doesn't love God is
a greater sin still. He doesn't love God. Now, man need not try to say a good
word for himself or plead not guilty unless, now listen, unless,
there's a catch to that. He need not try to say a good
word for himself or to plead not guilty unless he can show
that he loves God with all of his heart and all of his mind
and all of his soul and all of his strength. Man need not try
to say a good word for himself or to plead not guilty unless
He can show that he loves and that he has always loved God
with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his body
and all of his strength. Now, if he can truly say this,
if there's anybody here this morning, if you can truly say
that, that you love God now and you have always loved God with
all your soul, strength, and body. If you could say that,
well, you're all right. You're all right. You haven't
got any problems. If you could really, genuinely, truthfully,
before God say that, then you're all right, because you're not
a sinner, and you don't need any pardon, and you'll find your
way to God's kingdom without the cross, and you can go there
without a savior. Now, that's the truth. If you
can truly say that nowhere, Can anybody bring up any evidence
against you in regard to your disloyalty and unfaithfulness
to God that you have loved God supremely, supremely every minute
of every hour of every day of your life? I'm saying you're
going to always do that. You can prove that. You've got
a good case. Well, then you can find your
way. to the kingdom without the cross. But if you can't say this, I'm
talking about God's testimony concerning us, and that's the
charge against us. That's the first charge that
God has against us, is that we do not love him with all of our
hearts. He looked down upon the children
of men to see if there was any that doeth good, and his testimony
concerning what he saw was this, there's none that do us good,
no, not one. No, not one. But if a man would
want to defend himself and say, well, I don't want to plead,
I don't want to plead guilty, I want to plead not guilty, because
I've loved God with all my heart, I've done that all of my life.
Well, then you can go into the kingdom without the cross. You're
not a sinner. But if you can't do this, If
you can't say this, then your mouth is stopped. I read those
verses to you last week, I believe it is, where it says in the Book
of Romans that the whole world, that every mouth shall be stopped
in the whole world if you become guilty before God. So, if a man
can't say this, his mouth is stopped and he's guilty before
God. Now, the day in which we live, this time from of the resurrection
unto now, I believe. This is man's day. This is man's
day, when man's judgment prevails. But God's day is coming, when every case shall be tried
on its true merits. Then the judge of all the earth
shall do right, and the sinner shall be put to shame." See,
this is man's day, man's day. Man says, I'm a good fella, and
his neighbors say, well, certainly he's a good fella. He's not,
he's certainly not, he certainly wouldn't go to hell when he died.
He's too good a fella to do that. That's man's opinion of other
men. Sometimes we give false opinions. false testimony concerning somebody
else when we judge them by this outer life. We judge them by
this picture that we see and we feel everything's all right
because of something outward that we see. And we make our
judgment, determine, well, I'm sure that everything is man's
day, man's day. Right now, but God's day's coming. But God's going to have his day.
Now, you believe me in that matter. God's going to have his day,
whether we like it or whether we don't like it, God's going
to have his day. And he's going to judge every case according
to its true merit, not according to that outward thing. Not according
to the, just as I said, because the varnish on the wood doesn't
make the wood. The judge of all the earth is
going to do right, and the sinner is going to be put to shame.
So, the first charge, then, against us is that our hearts are not
right with God. That's God's first charge against
us. Our hearts are not right. We
don't love Him with all of our hearts. We've transgressed, we've
failed, we've broken down the relationships, between God and
man have been broken because of our disloyalty, our unfaithfulness,
because of our repentance. And he's pronounced us, he's
pronounced us guilty, he's pronounced us under wrath, he's pronounced
us the children of the devil. That's what we are, outside of
Christ. So the first charge that God
has against us is that the heart is not right with God. Now, the
second charge that God has against us is this. The heart is not
right with the Son of God. You see? He said, your heart is not right
with me, God the Father. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God, no God for me. They're all corrupt. They've
all went their own way. Everyone has hath sought out
his own way." Now, it says, the heart is not
right with the Son of God. Now, it is this second charge that
God has toward us concerning his testimony that is the crowning,
crushing sin. And it carries with it, more
condemnation than all of our other sins put together. God charges us. He says, your
heart is not right with my son. Now listen, God has a controversy with this, with the human race. God has a controversy. I'll tell
you what that controversy is. I'll tell you the issue of the
controversy. Now, the issue is not that we
went to the liquor store and bought a pint of liquor. It's
not that we went to the Hollywood show. Those things are wrong. Granted, those things are wrong,
but that's not the controversy and that's not the issue. The
issue that God has with this lost world is this. Their hearts
are not right with his Son. That's the issue. Any other issue
apart from that is wrong. I know there's so many brush
fires that's got to be put out in order to get down here to
the main issue. And some, you know, they stick
up this and say, well, your problem is, your problem is that, well,
you're drunk. Your problem is that you've done
this. Your problem is you've done that.
Your problem is that if you don't do this, well, you've got to
do this. And there's all kinds of little
fires breaking out everywhere, little sores on the flesh. And
man gets to, he begins to combat these little fires and begins
to spread and put them out, you know. And his time and energy
and thinking is consumed. And he's off to the real issue.
You know what the issue is? The real issue is this. God says,
my charge against you and the lost world is this. Your heart's
not right with me and your heart is not right with my son. This
is my beloved Son whom I send into this world, and ye have
crucified Him. Your heart's not right with my
Son. You don't believe on my Son. That's the charge I make against
you. And that's the charge, brethren, that God will make at His day. This is man's day, but God's
day's coming, and when that day comes, That's the charge that
God's going to make against you. Maybe your heart's not right
when you meet God the Father, and you'll never believe He's
on my side. That's right. Let me read three or four verses
of Scripture here to you. John, chapter 3. John, chapter
3. I want you to turn with me there
if you can hardly find it. John, chapter 3, verse 18. God 3 at 18, listen to this. "...that he that believeth on
him is not condemned." This is what I want you to see. You see,
I said that God's second charge against us was what? That our
heart was not right with God, or with the Son. Which is saying
that we do not believe upon the Son. He that believeth on him
is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already."
Why is he condemned already? Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The crowning, crushing
sin that's going to be so worthy of condemnation Is that saying
right there? Of not believing on the Son of
God. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. He's not judged. But he that
believeth not is judged already. Why? Because he hath not. He hath not. Underscore those
words. He hath not believed in the name
of the Only Begotten Son of God. That's God's testimony concerning
us. We haven't believed in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know, I hear a lot of people,
you know, and I believe, I've always believed, not for the
saving of your soul. You've never, you've never, you've
never came and brought yourself under his subjection and his
discipline, his lordship. I know most people, everybody
believes in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Historically, or
they believe some fact about him. They believe that he existed
or even exists right now. But that's not what I'm talking
about. And you know that's not what
I'm talking about. Everybody in the United States, they say,
well, this is a Christian nation. Maybe it is, I don't know. But
Christ doesn't rule here, that's one thing for sure. He's not
the Lord of this nation. But nevertheless, everybody in
this nation, I suppose, have been confronted with this question.
Do you believe on the Son of God? And it's just rolled off
of their lips without any thinking whatsoever. Yes, I believe. Why,
certainly I believe. But their lives have never been
changed. Now, when a man believes in the
name of the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, his life's
changed. Life's changed. He loves God. He loves him supremely with all
of his heart. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he's conscious of his insincerity, and he's conscious of his sin,
conscious of his unfaithfulness. He disloves him, and so forth. He wants God to be pleased in
Christ, and he's obedient to it, these things. Well, listen to this another
verse over here. The book of Mark. The book of Mark chapter
16. This verse 16. Mark 16 and 16, I believe. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Now listen to this. But he that
believeth not, believeth not what? Believeth upon the Son. But he that believeth not shall
be damned. Then turn with me to 1 John,
1 John chapter 5, verse number 10. Verse number 10. It says, "'He
that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar.'" Why? Why has man made God a liar? Now, listen to me. Some of you
here this morning, you're making God a liar. Now, that's all there
are to it. Now, I'm going to be frank with
you. If you're making God a liar, you're going to have to ask him
for it, not me. If you think about it a little bit, I'm talking
plain. This is what you call plain talking.
But I'm telling you, if you don't believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're making God Almighty a liar. Now, you can't
get any plainer than that. And if you're offended, you're
going to have to be offended. That's all there is to it. If you expect
me to come around and apologize to you because I called you a
liar, you'll never get it. You'll never get it. Listen now,
because God said it. God said it. Now I'm just quoting. Listen to what it says. And he
that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. And he that believeth not in
God, He that believeth not God hath made God a liar, because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." Now, that's
plain. That's plain. If a man doesn't
believe of the Lord Jesus Christ, the saving of his soul, he's
made God a liar. And I'll tell you where all liars
will wind up. I'll tell you where all liars
will wind up. They'll wind up in a bottomless
pit. 11th verse says, and this is
the record, and this is the record, that
God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written.
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe
on the name of the Son of God. Such is God's condemnation of
mankind. The great love of God that would
send His Son to be so degraded and humiliated,
suffer and be despised, be condemned by this world. Oh, I'll tell you, it's because
this is the basis of God's condemnation to this lost world. The basis
of God's condemnation is the gospel. of the world to his son. That's
the reason that the issue that God has, the controversy that
God has with this world right now, that you haven't believed
on my son. You don't believe it. You don't
believe the record that I gave you concerning my son. You don't
believe it. A man doesn't believe it, he's
going to wind up in hell. That's all there are to it. That's it. And I say that with
tears in my heart. A man that doesn't believe it, Thank God a lot. And it's only
a matter of time. It's only a matter of time. What
he's doing, when you don't believe it, he's saying, leave me alone.
Just leave me alone. This God business, this Bible
business, this preaching business, this church business, this holy
business. I'm tired of it. I'm sick of
it. I don't want to hear no more
of it. Just leave me alone. That's what you're saying, and
God's gonna leave you alone? He'll leave you alone, and one
day, he'll drop off. He'll drop off, because you made
God alive. He left you alone. This is a divine verdict. It's
not a human one. It's not one that I made. It's
not my verdict. I didn't make it. It's a divine
verdict, not a human one. It is God, not man, that condemns. And God is not a man that he
should lie. This is God's testimony concerning
us. We know that this witness is
true, and we ought to receive it. We ought to receive this
witness, this record. God gave us a record of His Son. And if we don't receive that
record, well then, we have to suffer the consequences. One more reason, now, and one
more charge that God is making against humankind, God's testimony
concerning us. Number one is that your heart
is not right with me. Number two, your heart is not
right with the Son of God. And number three, number three,
now, There are several inspired sermons found in the Scriptures,
sermons that were addressed to the Jews and the Gentiles alike. In fact, there is a sermon here
in the book of Acts. Let me see if I can find that
real quick. I think maybe in the third chapter
of the book of Acts or the second chapter of the book of Acts. Now listen. This is an inspired sermon by
Peter. And the result of this sermon
to these Jews, Gentiles alike, was that their hearts were pricked. Their hearts were pricked. And
it was 3,000 of them saved at that time. Now, what was the
essence of this inspired, simple gospel sermon? Well, you just
have to read it yourself. But if you take my word for it,
it has to do with the simple story of the life, death, the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's what it has
to do with. of the life, the death, the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, and it concludes with these awful words found
in verse 36. And this is the third charge
that God has concerning us. He says, "...therefore let all the
house of Israel know assuredly," now listen, "...that God hath
made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, O Lord and Christ."
Oh, I'll tell you, when this inspired preacher concluded
with these awful words, which must have sounded like a trumpet
of doom to those who heard it, I'll tell you, it'd be awful to have someone tell you with
authority that you have broken the whole law of God. Someone
just like David of old came to David. He confronted David and
he said, David, you're the man. He put the finger right in David's
face and he said, you're the man. You remember the story.
told him about the, he said, now there was a fella out there,
he said he just had one little old sheep, and he said, just
a little old lamb, that's all that he had. He said he thought
the world of it, he said he headed it, he said, didn't have any
children, just had that little lamb. And he said it was his,
and said, my, what companionship and what comfort he could derive
from that little lamb. And he said, over here's another
fella that had thousands, thousands, thousands of them. And he said,
you know that fella that had thousands, thousands of them,
he went over there and he stole That little lamb off that fellow
over there, it killed him. What do you think of that man?
Why, David said, as sure as God lives in heaven, he said, I'll
have that man's life. Who is that man? And David said,
you're the man. You're the man. Now, listen.
It'd be a terrible thing for someone like David, the fittest
baker under iron oaks, or right in our eyes to say, you're the
man, you've broken God's law. Now, that, boy, I'll say it'd
make you wilful. It'd make you wilful. But listen,
it would not be near as terrible or as awful as being told, you
have crucified Jesus Christ. You have crucified my son. That's
what God, that's God's charge against you. That's it right
there. That's his third charge. want
everyone to know is that the whole house of Israel should
know this one thing. Lord assures they that God hath
made that same Jesus whom he hath crucified. He crucified
the Lord Jesus Christ. He crucified him. Terrible, isn't
it? Oh, I'll tell you. Listen to
this. The sin of crucifying the Lord
of The sin of crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ is greater
than breaking a thousand of God's laws. When God judges every case in
its true merit, in its true life, we'll find out that breaking
a thousand of God's laws will not carry with it the condemnation
of crucifying his son. He charges us. He charges you
and I, every son of Adam, every daughter of Adam. He charges
us all with crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to see
something else here. He hath declared also that there is deliverance in
him whom you pardon." That's what he said. He said, the only
way that you can be delivered from these charges that I have
against you is in him whom you pardon. So you see, there's life
in that man. That's the gospel. Life in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the nails that
fastened the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross also lets out a
pent-up stream of divine love that flows upon the murderers
of the Son of God. You and I, we were there. We
were there. We were there in those men by
representation. We'd have done just exactly what
they'd done. We'd have shouted, killing. We'd
have said, give me the hammer and I'll drive the first thing.
You know, it was a believed gospel that melted the heart of these
self-righteous kids. A believed gospel. The gospel
must be believed. The gospel won't mean anything
until it's believed. That's the reason I say we've
got We've got to believe upon the only name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We've got to believe upon his,
we've got to believe upon that name. It's the believed gospel
that melted the hearts of these self-righteous Jews and nothing
less. But the good news of the gospel,
of God's free favor, God's free grace, Condemning the sin, yet
pardoning the sinner, will in our day melt the hearts of poor
sinners. Now, God doesn't ask any preparation
of any kind whatsoever from you or me. He doesn't ask no preparation. Them small fires burning out
there is preparation business. That'll keep you busy. That's
the trouble with most churches today. They've got so much do's
and don'ts and buts and all of that that they keep men from
Christ rather than bring them to Christ. God doesn't require
any preparation on your part, legal or evangelical, outward
or inward, to become a sinner. He that will not come as he is
shall not be received. Is that right? He that will not come as he is
shall not be received. It is not the humble seeker or
the earnest users of the means of grace, nor any of the better
class of Adam's sons and daughters. It is sinners that Christ welcomes. A man doesn't come that way,
he won't be received. Most people try to dress themselves
up before they come. Oh, I'll change my mind about
this, and I'll change my mind about that, and I won't do this,
and I won't do that, and then I'll start reading the Bible,
or I'll start praying, or I'll start doing this or something
else, and then I'm sure that I'll be acceptable. God will
accept me now because He sees I'm making an earnest effort
to be a Christian. No, God will never receive you.
God will never receive you. He'll never receive you until
you come just like you are as a sinner, see? Come just like
you are, God's charge against you and He's charged against
me, that our hearts are not right with Him, our hearts are not
right with His Son, and ultimately we have crucified the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we're guilty sinners, worthy of death and worthy of
hell. And He said, Come to Me, and
I'll pardon you of your transgressions and of your sins through Him
who you have killed. Now, there's life in the living. There's life in the Lord Jesus
Christ.