Open your Bibles with me to Galatians
chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. And I do
want to take this opportunity to thank you all so much for
your accommodations for us and all the wonderful food and the
homes that's open, the wonderful fellowship and the conversations.
It has indeed been a blessing. And I pray that some way have
been some blessing to you. Today I want to, my message is
titled, The Gospel Defined. The Gospel Defined. I think that a preacher of the
gospel defines the gospel regularly and consistently. But I want
to define it today. in a very particular way. And
he says here in Galatians 1, in verse 6, I marvel, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel. Paul stood in absolute astonishment
and wonder that anyone would be removed from Christ, be removed
from the gospel. And he says it's another gospel, which is really not another gospel.
There's no good news in it at all. There's no saving power
in it. And there'd be some that trouble you, trouble your mind,
trouble your heart, trouble your relationship with God and would
pervert the gospel of Christ, pervert it, twist it. But though
we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. That is strong language, ain't
it? He called them dogs, evil workers. And as we said before, so say
I now again. I am going to repeat this. I
want to emphasize this. If any man, if any, preach any
other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him Be
accursed. Let him be accursed. Now, there
is another gospel. But you've got to know the gospel
of the grace of God. The gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. The gospel of sovereign grace,
which is the only gospel there is. You've got to know it. You've
got to know it before you'll ever recognize the other. But it's really a perversion
of the gospel. Now I'm sure that these men who
came and troubled these saints here just like preachers today,
I'm sure these false preachers and false preachers with this
other gospel, they talk about the gospel. They use words that
we use. They talk about the gospel. They use the word gospel. They
read from the scriptures. They use a Bible. They'll talk
about sin. They'll use the term salvation.
They'll talk about eternal life. And of course, they've got to
talk about Jesus. Got to mention Jesus. But let
me give you some points of another gospel, compared with the gospel
that we believe. Another gospel deals with heaven
and hell. The Gospel of God makes Christ and sin to be the issue.
Not heaven and hell. Christ and sin. God. The Scripture says that thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sin. And the other Gospel. Another
Gospel tells men that God needs them. He has no hands but your
hands, no feet but your feet. Cannot get by in this world without
you. But the Scriptures tells us that
men need God. Another gospel tells and exhorts
men to believe facts. You believe you are a sinner? You believe in Christ, the death
of Christ, the burial of Christ, the resurrection of Christ? Yep,
well you are saved. Those are facts about the gospel.
It exhorts men to believe facts, but the gospel tells men to trust
a person, to believe a person, bow to a person, embrace a person. Another gospel presents Christ
in such a way that men should pity Him, feel sorry for Him.
He was so mistreated at the hands of men, so abused at the hands
of men after being such a wonderful person. But the gospel tells
men that the Lord Jesus Christ pities them They're the ones
that are in the pitiful condition Christ is the Lord on his throne
Today's gospel another gospel tells men to make a decision
for Jesus Satan cast a vote God cast a vote You by your free
will and your power and your own ability you cast a deciding
vote Jesus wants to be into your heart where you'll accept him
and And I don't understand that language. How do you go about
accepting Jesus? How do you open your heart and
let Him in? That's an impossibility. But
that's what they say. Satan casts a vote for you. God
casts a vote. Now you cast a deciding vote.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, He decides who shall be saved. Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh that He, He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. And the question is not whether
you'll accept Him or not, but will He accept you? There's a
preacher banged on my door one day, had an article in the newspaper
about God doesn't love all men, and that salvation is what Christ
does for men, not what men do for Christ. He banged on the
door and he says, did you write this and stuck something in my
face? And I said, well, tell me what it is first. And he said
that, and he says, you know, there's people that, you go around
here telling people that Jesus doesn't love everybody and that
it's not you accepting Him, but whether He accepts you or not.
He said, there's a woman in our church that read that and said
she wasn't going to believe in God anymore because if God was
that way. And he said, have you accepted
Jesus? And I said, no sir, I haven't. He said, you're lost then, you're
not saved. And I just turned around to him,
I said, well how did you do it? How did you go about accepting
Him? How was that operation done? How did you go about accepting
Jesus? How did you go about letting
Him into your heart? Oh, today's gospel, another gospel,
tells me to do something for God. Do something for God, gotta
be out working for God, gotta be out witnessing for God, gotta
be out giving tracts out for God, gotta be out knocking on
doors for God. But the gospel says God must
do something for us, for you. And today's gospel, it excites
the flesh. It has people swaying their hands,
giving Jesus great big hand claps. The music's just right. Got people
crying, waving their hands, tears streaming down their face. Close
your eyes. Oh, and going on all of that
rigmarole. But the gospel, the gospel of the grace of God, it
deals with the heart. It excites the spirit, not the
flesh. It slays the flesh. Puts the
flesh down. And it makes the soul Christ
conscious. It makes the soul God conscious.
And oh, that's what the gospel does. It deals with the issues
of the heart. And the gospel, today's gospel
declares that everybody, God loves everybody and wants to
save everybody if they'll just let Him. But the gospel declares
sovereign mercy and grace as free. Jacob have I loved, and
Esau have I hated, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Oh my soul! And then it says, it's not of
him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but it's of
God that showeth mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will have compassion upon whom
I will have compassion. And today's gospel, another gospel
is a sermon to the head. To the head! The intellect, if
you can agree with things, you'll be alright. But the gospel is
a message of grace to the heart. A grace to the heart to cause
the heart to worship and lift itself up to God. Lift itself
up to God in Christ. And another gospel exhorts men
to join the church. Join the church. Join our church.
And if you join the church, and that's what they say, just as
long as you come to church, that's all that matters. Where do you
go to church? Have you ever joined the church?
They tell if you join the church, everything will be alright. But
you can join every church you've ever attended and not be joined
to Christ. The gospel exhorts men to be
joined to Christ. I've been pastor where I'm at
28 and a half years, a little over 28 and a half years, and
we do not have a church membership. Nobody's, we organized and we
had a charter membership and after that folks come and they
stay there. You know what keeps them coming?
We've had people there for 25, 26, 27 years. Never have come
to the front and say they want to join. You know what keeps
them there? The gospel keeps them there. I've never excluded
a church member. Never dissembled a church member.
Out of all the years I've been there, I've never had to exclude
anybody, never had a church meeting, never had a business meeting,
never called anybody on the carpet, never embarrassed anybody over
something they've done. If the gospel and the gospel
of Christ and the Spirit of God and the sovereign mercy of God
don't do something for a man's heart, me doing something for
him ain't going to change him at all. And if the love of God
and the love of Christ don't keep you cleaving and believing,
you just well save your breath to cool your coffee. Huh? And oh, today's gospel, you know,
you can join the church, but we preach to be joined to Christ,
be united to Christ. And today's gospel tells men
their works will be weighed someday. And their good works, if they
outweigh their bad works, If they tip the scales in the good
direction, you'll be saved. But, O Beloved, we preach that
all men have already been weighed and found wanting." William Tyndale,
who was martyred in 1436, in the preface to his English translation
of the Scriptures, he said this, that the Evangel, the Gospel,
signifies. It is the good, it is the merry,
it is the glad, it's the joyful tidings that maketh a man's heart
glad, maketh him sing and dance and leap for joy. And it does,
it fills me with joy. And oh beloved, is the gospel
important? Is the gospel necessary for a
soul to be saved? Is the gospel necessary to be
believed? That's what Paul said here. He
says, you know, if you leave the gospel of Christ, go to another
gospel, a perversion of the gospel. He says, if I or an angel come
preach another, don't you even listen to it. Do you know the
gospel? Paul says, woe is me if I preach
not the gospel. Do you know the gospel? Have
you ever heard the gospel? Let me give you five words in
conjunction that constitute the gospel, that define the gospel
the way I understand it. And we declare the gospel and
define the gospel because there is but one gospel. Just one.
One gospel. And let me give you these words.
The first one is sovereignty. You can't preach the gospel without
preaching who God is. And who is God? He's sovereign.
He's almighty. One who reigns. He is solitary
in His attributes. He is solitary in His character. No one is like God. No one. He has to humble Himself to behold
the things that are in heaven. Why does He humble Himself to
behold things in heaven? Because He's above everything,
even in heaven. And beloved, I've heard once,
yea, twice, that all power belongs unto thee. People told me all
my life that God has all power. I heard that with the ear. The
second time I heard it, I've heard once with the ear that
all power belongs unto you. The second time I heard it, the
Holy Ghost spoke it to me, and now I know that all power belongs
unto God. In Him is life, and He's the
fountain of life. And beloved, everyone who knows
actually knows God, knows that He's sovereign. You cannot know
God and not know He's sovereign. You cannot know God and not know
that He's almighty. You cannot know God and not know
that He has all control and all power in heaven and in earth,
in hell and all deep places. It's an impossibility. There's
only one way He makes Himself known. And if He don't reveal
Himself that way to a soul, they don't know Him. Now let me show
you Psalm 135, just a minute. You say, preacher, that's tough.
Well, how does God reveal Himself? How does God make Himself known? And that's how we distinguish
between the false gospel and false preachers and true preachers. A man that presents God as God
standing here, He wants to do something for you. He stands
and He'd like to save you. Will you let go and let God? Look at Psalm 135 verse 6 5 looks
to me verse 5 For I know that the Lord is great and that our
Lord is above all gods Whatsoever the Lord pleased pleased, that
did he in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And no man can say unto him, What doest thou? And that's
how Paul addressed them when they would question God. He says,
Who art thou, O man that replies against God? And oh, when God's
presented in His true character and nature, and men, the proud
voices of men that says, Oh, I may go to church. I may attend
the gospel. People say down home, I'm going
to surprise you and come to service one of these days. Like they're
going to do us a favor. Oh, my soul, if they ever see
who God is, their mouths will shut up, and they'll shut down,
and they'll be grateful to have an opportunity together with
the people of God. And here somebody declared God
Almighty. And oh beloved, God so guarded
His character, that He became flesh, that men might know Him,
not like they thought He was, but as He actually is. God said,
you thought I was altogether one like you. But He said, I'm
not. He's so beloved. He's not like we thought He was. He's not this weak, pitiful,
helpless, hand-tied man that can't do anything unless your
will unties Him. And God came in the person of
His blessed Son. And when He lived on this earth,
He lived a holy, sinless, blessed, full and obedient life to God.
If you want to see God's sovereignty, see Christ. What did He do and who did He
do it for? For His people. Everything He done, He done for
His people only. Why did He call Lazarus and not
somebody else out of the tomb? He walked on the water, fed multitudes
to show that He is the bread from heaven. called a hypocrite
a hypocrite to his face, true and right and just and holy.
And he says, if you've ever seen me, you've seen the Father. No
man can come unto the Father but by me. And oh, beloved, if men don't see
the sovereignty of God, or I should say the sovereign God, then salvation
will be by chance, by merit, or a debt that's owed to men. And I don't know if they do this
up here or not, but they do this down home all the time. Preachers
say this, and people have told this, and I've heard folks say
it all the time. They say, the way you preach,
God, He don't even give man a chance. They say, God can't be God without
giving man a chance. They say down home, He wouldn't
be just. He couldn't send a man to hell
without at least giving him a chance to be saved. I wonder where they
found that out in the Bible. That's why I ask them, where
did you find that out in Scripture? Salvation is not by chance, it's
on purpose. God hath called us and saved
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. God don't give everybody in Africa
a chance. God don't give everybody in America
a chance. There's people in hell that's
never heard the name of Jesus Christ. And what do you say about that?
It's the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth good.
And I ain't worried about what God's going to do in Africa.
I'm not worried about what God's going to do in Princeton, New
Jersey. I'm concerned about what God's going to do with me. Is
He going to save me? And I'm concerned about my children.
Will He save my children? People worry about what He's
going to do in a foreign country. What about us? What is He going
to do with us? With our children? Folks want to argue about God
giving men a chance and arguing over where He's going to send
somebody here to save somebody there. Oh my soul, what about
you believe in the Gospel? What about you bowing to Christ?
What about you submitting to the sovereignty of God? Oh my. You can bargain with an
equal. You can even argue with him. But there ain't but one thing
you can do to a sovereign. And that's bow. Get down and say, Amen. Be still, he says, and know that
I am God. And when God reveals Himself,
and that's the only way He can be known, by Him revealing Himself,
by a revelation, men will quit arguing with Him, and they'll
shut up, and they'll bow down. Now that's all there is to it.
And all beloved, all they submit to God's right to save whom He
will, and to do what He will with His own. Somebody here a
while back had a little boy, and they named him Charles. And they said this about it.
They said, of course, believers pray for their children before
they're ever born, because they know they're going to come out
of their mother's womb, sinners. Armenians don't do that. They
ain't gonna pray for their children until they get to the age of
accountability. But we pray for our children,
we even pray to have children. Pray for our grandchildren before
they're born. But this fellow had this child,
they named him Charles, and he prayed and he said this publicly,
he said, I pray that he's a Charles Spurgeon. and not a Charles Manson. Because
you see, it's in God's hands whether it be a Spurgeon or a
Manson. And I like it like that. I love
it like that. I'm glad that there's... My life,
my will, my salvation, my eternal destiny, my relationship with
God is not in my ability, my will. My salvation depends on
God who created this world and upholds it by the Word of His
power, on His will, on His purpose, on His grace, on His grace. And oh, beloved, in seeing God,
you see yourself. And that's my second thing about
the gospel. Seeing God's sovereignty. God
is God. God is God. And bless His holy
name that He's God. He's not a pretender after the
throne. He's not a paper king. He's not trying to be God. He
is God. And oh, and sin. Sin, sin, sin. Sovereignty and sin. You can't
preach the gospel. Define the gospel without sin.
Preaching sin. How did we become sinners? How
did we become sinners? Look with me over Romans chapter
5. How did we all become sinners? You know, sin is not a misfortune.
Man's not a victim of circumstances. If we can change a man's environment,
that won't change his nature. Educate a man, it won't change
his nature. Sin is not a misfortune. Man's not a victim of his circumstances
or his environment. Man doesn't just need a shove
in the right direction towards God, no. No, no, sin, sin is
a horrible thing. Look in Romans chapter 5 and
verse 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world. Sin, singular, sin. That's the
way God do sin. Entered into the world by one
man. And by that one man, that one sin, death passed by that
one sin. And because of that, death passed
upon all men. Why? Because of all this sin.
Where did we sin? We sinned in our father Adam.
And I brought my children into this world. When they come into
this world, my son was born a sinner. My wife, she was born a sinner. I was born a sinner. You see,
I don't have to do a thing in the world to become a sinner.
Born that way. And you know, the same way you
become a sinner, you don't have to do it, that's the same way
you become Save sinner. You don't do anything to become
a sinner, and you can't do anything to become a righteous man. God's
got to do it. God made man upright, but He
sought out many inventions. And you know, sin has become
illnesses now. People, you know, language changes
so much over the years. People say now, well, he's got
issues. That means that he's got problems. He don't have sin,
he's just got problems. If you're a drunk now, you go
to rehab. If you're a drug addict, you go to rehab. You got some
kind of escape. It's an illness. It's a sickness.
It's a genetic thing. But God calls it S-I-N. And when Paul went to describe
what it was, he said it's exceeding sinful. Sin is such a horrible
thing. Such a despicable thing. And
if a man says he don't have sin, he makes God a liar. And if a
man say he does not sin, right now, I mean we can't even attend
a worship service without sin. The tears that we shed, they
have sin in them. The prayers we pray have sin
in them. We can't read the Scriptures
without sinning. Our minds are wonder. We can't
pray without sinning. If it wasn't for the Lord Jesus
Christ, there would be no hope for any soul on the topside of
God's earth. Because beloved, everything we
have is tainted with sin. We're like the leper. We've got
to go around with our mouth covered. Unclean! Unclean! Unclean! And oh, where in the world can
you go where your sin isn't? Have you ever been anywhere where
men weren't sinners? Have you ever been anywhere where
men didn't sin? There are three families here
that's got 14 kids between them. Have any of you all ever taught
your children to lie? Have you taught them to hate? Have you taught them to be proud? Taught them to be self-righteous?
Taught them how to have unbelief? To steal? No. You don't have
to do any of those things. That's just natural to them.
There's water running down here. You know when something happens
in the home, which one of y'all done that? It wasn't me! I didn't do it. Well, who done
it? I don't know. Well, I'll whip all of you. They'll
all, everyone stand up before their one, take the blame. Why
is that? You know, I'll tell you, beloved,
for from within, out of the heart. And all my that's why we don't. You don't have to teach somebody
to hate. It's natural for him to do that.
And they passing laws now call them hate crimes. How do you
legislate people to keep them from hating? What's going to
keep you from hating? What's going to keep pride from
running out of your eyes and ears and mouth and lips? What's
going to keep that from? Pride. For from within, out of
the heart. And you know, if you was to start
cataloging sins, if you was going to catalog sins today, if you
said, what's the worst sin that you can think of right now? In
your mind, what's the worst sin a person can commit? You know what God says about
it? For from within out of the heart proceeds evil
thoughts. Everyone of you has probably
said adultery. But God said an evil thought. Pride, blasphemy, adultery, fornication. And let me tell you, this sin
is an attitude. Sin is an attitude. That's what
it is. Sin is what makes our children
grit their teeth at us when we get at them. Sin is what makes
husbands and wives get frustrated and aggravated with one another.
It's a nature, it's a principle, it's an attitude. Sin is what
says, who does he think he is talking to me like that? Sin
is an attitude, it's a principle, it's a nature. And it was demonstrated
in the garden when Adam says, I'm going to eat that fruit even
if it causes me and my wife and my children that I'll ever have,
causes us to be separated from God forever. I'm going to have
my will and I'm going to have my way. And it's demonstrated at the
cross, we will not have this man reign over us. Save yourself!
If you're such a wonderful person, such a Savior, save yourself!
Come off that cross. Laughing at a man, mocking a
man dying. That's how awful sin is. Oh,
the pain. And I remember when I was a young
man in Vietnam. Oh, I hated God with a passion.
I hated Him. Oh, I hated Him. I was mad at
the world. I was bitter at the world. I
was mad at the government. I was mad at God. I was mad at
my colonel. I was mad at my captain. I was
mad at my gun. I was mad at everybody. I was a miserable creature. And
I'd stand and say there ain't no way there can be a God and
let a war like this go on. No way there can be a God and
let a man suffer in his mind. No way there can be a God and
let all these people get killed. No way. And then when God in sovereign
mercy opened my heart to see why there's war, why there's
rape, why there's murder, why there's hatred, why there's enmity,
why there's prejudice, why there's sickness, why there's death.
When God opened my heart, there's one answer to every bit of it.
S-I-N. As long as there's sin in this
world, men are going to fight. As long as there's sin in this
world, men are going to die. As long as there's sin in this
world, there's going to be pain. As long as there's sin in this
world, everything that can happen is because of S-I-N. And bless God one of these days,
He's going to do away with this world and all the sin in it,
and He's going to create a new world where nothing dwells but
righteousness. And Christ sits on His throne.
I'll be so glad, won't you, to be done with this? Be done with
sin? And then there I was. I was mad
at God. And you know what made me mad at God? Sin. Pride. Rebellion. Self-righteousness.
I thought I knew more about how to run the world than He did.
You've never thought those things. You've never felt those things.
Man's not sick, he's guilty. Guilty. And then let me give
you another word. Sovereignty and sin. Satisfaction. Here's God. He's God. He got
all power. He'll have mercy upon whom He'll
have mercy. He'll have compassion on whom
He'll have compassion. And oh, let me tell you something
about that, because He'll do it, line up, get in line for
that mercy. Oh, say, I want your mercy, Lord.
And then there's sin, this horrible thing called sin. This horrible
thing called sin. Well, how in the world is this
holy, sovereign, righteous, infinite, immaculate, august God, how can
He have anything to do with these men called sinners? This awful
rebellious people. Well, He has to have His holiness,
His righteousness, His justice, His law, His character upheld,
and He must be satisfied. And the only thing that can satisfy
God is perfection. It must be perfect in order to
be accepted. Must be. He cannot accept anything
less. Now, how in the world can God
be satisfied? Is there anybody on the earth
that can satisfy Him? Can you satisfy His hope? That
sin that we committed in Adam, just that one sin. You know why
babies die? Not because they themselves have
sinned themselves by their own acts, by their own thoughts. But an infant will be born if
he lives a minute. He's alive for a minute and he
goes. Why does he die? Because of Adam's sin. So how
in the world can life be given to dead sinners? How can God
accept these sinners? How can a sovereign, holy God
have anything to do with them? He must be magnified. He must
be honored. He must have His satisfaction
to His character. And oh, God can only be satisfied
with Himself or something equal with Himself. Well, what is equal
with Him? Look over with me in Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53. You say, what's your creed? Isaiah
53. What's your faith? Isaiah 53. What's your confession of faith?
What confession of faith do you all believe in up there in Lantana
Grace? Isaiah 53. You see, beloved, God's holy law says do and live. Don't and you die. Now, so how
in the world can God in His holiness and righteousness and His law
that He has not repealed, love me with all your heart, love
your neighbors as yourself. Those two things has got to be
done. Our Lord said that. The whole law is on those two
things. And he read that this morning. It's not my nature to
love. Well, my nature is to love one
thing, me, and those that's close to me. My children, my wife,
my family. That's my nature, to love herself.
So how in the world can God, who must be loved, and I must
love you, like myself? And God ain't gonna settle for
any less. He's not going to settle for less than that. He has not
backed up one iota. He ain't lowered it down here
and says, well, if you'll do the best you can in loving, if
you'll try to love, if you intend to love, if you have a desire
to love, He doesn't say that. Well, look what it says here
in Isaiah 53 and verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. Who's Him? The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, He hath put Him to grief.
Who did? God put Him to grief. When you
make His soul an offering for what? Sin. Who made His soul an offering
for sin? God did. Christ did. And He shall see
His seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. That's the
only thing that can prosper in this world is what's in the hands
of Christ. And that's the will of God. And he shall see, God
shall look down and see the travail of his soul. God shall see the
travail of his soul, the pain of his soul, the labor of his
soul, and watch this, and shall be satisfied. You see, beloved,
Man cannot satisfy God. It's an impossibility. And God cannot die. Man can die,
but he can't satisfy God. So how is God going to satisfy
Himself? He became a man. God became a man. Made His soul
an offering for sin. And as a man, He was able to
die. The sinless man. The holy man. The Son of God. The eternal,
blessed, holy Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. He became
a man. And as a man, He is able to die.
And as God, He was able to satisfy God. And bless His holy name. Now,
God can see all the travail of His soul and He says He's satisfied.
There's an old CMA saying down there, I wonder if my Lord is
satisfied with me. No. No, but I tell you He's satisfied
with Christ. Satisfied with His blessed Son.
And oh beloved, and that's what Christ did. God made His soul.
There was three people satisfied. God was satisfied with Christ.
Satisfied with His life. Sinless. This is my beloved Son
in whom I'm always well pleased. Satisfied with Him on the cross.
Our Lord said it is finished. And He gave up the ghost. Satisfied
with Him for the atonement that He made, He came on the third
morning and raised Him from the dead. Satisfied with the atonement
that He made and set Him at His own right hand with all power
and majesty and heaven and earth. Beloved, after He by Himself
purged our sins and turned over, exalted Him and gave Him a name
that's above every name. He said, You sit here until I
make all your enemies your footstool. Oh, He's satisfied with His Son.
And not only is He satisfied, but Christ is satisfied. Christ
was satisfied to do the will of God, the purpose of God, to
accomplish the salvation that God gave Him to do. I finished
the work that You gave Me to do. Now glorify Your Son with
the glory I had before the world was. And then, beloved, do you
know who else is satisfied? Sinners are satisfied when they
see God satisfied. Old Scott Richardson used to
make this statement all the time. He says, God's got to do something
for Himself before He can ever do something for us. Do you know
the death of Christ was first and foremost for God? God had to be satisfied before
He could ever do anything for a man. God had to be satisfied. He had to do something for Himself
before He could do anything for us. And that's why He came in
the person of His blessed Son. Christ is the end of the law.
The fulfillment of the law. For what? For righteousness.
For righteousness. And so, He is satisfied. He saw
His sheep. He said, I'm satisfied to do
this for them. I'm satisfied to do this for
them. And then let me give you another word. Substitution. Sovereignty, sin, satisfaction,
and substitution. You know everybody at a substitute. But again in Isaiah 53, here
it is again. Oh my soul. Sin must be put away
if we are going to be accepted of God. And the only way we can
have our sin put away is somebody else to put it away. We must
have a substitute. And the only suitable substitute
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what it says in verse
4 of Isaiah 53. Surely, surely he hath borne
our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But watch it, he was wounded
for our transgressions. He had none of His own. Bruce,
for our iniquities, He had none of His own. Chastisement of our
peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we're healed. All
of us like sheep have gone astray. We turned to everyone to His
own way, and oh, the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all,
laid them on Him, put them on Him. All the sins of all of God's
elect, of all the ages, came marching and met on the Lord
Jesus Christ that day on the cross. And that's what caused
Him to cry out, My God, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? Because sin was on Him. And oh
beloved, everyone who is ever saved in the Scriptures was saved
by a substitute. Adam was saved by a substitute.
Abel was saved by a lamb that was offered pointing to Christ
Abraham Saved by a substitute Isaac was saved by a substitute
Israel when they was coming out of Egypt they were saved There
was a quarter of a million lambs slaughtered that night when there's
coming out on the Passover but God says when you slay the lamb
consider it all one lamb and One lamb got all that blood shedding. They come out of Egypt by a sacrifice,
by a substitute, saved by another. And look in Genesis with me,
22. This is one of my favorite, favorite things in the Scriptures.
I tell our folks down home after they've looked at it, Probably,
I don't know how many hundreds of times, but I keep still telling
them, I said, it's still one of my favorite things. And they
still enjoy it as much as I do. I was born wrong, lived wrong,
and will die wrong, unless my sins are paid for.
And let me tell you this, we must be punished for our sins.
God cannot clear the guilty. We must be punished for our sins
and sins, the consequence of His death. And we got to die.
Not only must we be punished for our sins, but we got to suffer
death for our sins. So how can we be punished for
them and suffer death for our sins? In a substitute. In a substitute,
God punished His blessed Son, so now I've not got by with any
sins, I've been punished for them. I'll never die for sin
again because I died to sin and died for sin in Christ. Preachers
say all the time you need to die to sin, die to sin. You can't
die to sin. I died to sin once in Christ. Huh? Look here in Genesis 22.
Everybody knows the story. Where Abraham and Isaac started
up the mountain. Isaac had the wood on his shoulder,
had the fire, had a knife. Typical of our Lord
Jesus Christ going up that mountain going up to the cross and his
father taking him up there and going up there into the worship
And we'll come again gonna be raised from the dead and the
sons carrying his own cross Got the fire. They're gonna face
the wrath of God may get up there and Isaac is not just a little
boy. He's probably 20 21 years old and they strap him Abraham
straps him down on the altar and Straps him down. And that boy lays down on that
altar, willingly submits to his father. And Abraham drew back
the knife to slay his son. It says there in verse 10, And
Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his
son. And the angel of the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ, called unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham, I am here, Lord. Don't lay your hand on
that lad. And oh my, look down in verse
13, Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket. A
ram. That alleged ram, a lamb without
spot, without blemish. How did he get there? Who put
him there? Watch this. And Abraham went
and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering where
at? In the stead of his son. God said, Donny Bell, come up
here. I'm going to punish you for your
sin. All the sin you've ever, you're going to die. You're going
to die for it. I'm going to punish you for it. I'm going to pour
my wrath out on you. I'm going to pour my wrath out
on you. I'm going to take my sword of justice and I'm going
to plunge it through your heart and I'm going to slay you. I'm
not letting you get by. I cannot stand the thought of
you having sin and getting by with it. I'm going to punish
you. You're going to die for your sin. And when He called
me, and called Abraham, and called Abel, and called your name, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, Here am I. Here am I. And because of His infinite worth
and value, He was God. Sinless man. That sin offering
that God made Him to be. God took that knife, and swore
to justice. Put it all the way through his
heart. And the blood came out. And he said, I told you I was
going to punish you for your sin. And Christ bowed His head
and gave up the ghost and said, I told you He was going to die. And He died. Now, I come off Mount Calvary. Dead. Punished. God's wrath poured out on me.
Third morning, Christ got up out of the grave. When He got
up out of the grave, I got up out of there with Him. God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. And when He ascended
to glory and sat down, I went up there with Him and I sat down
with Him. Law comes and says, let me look
in his heart. Let me look in his mind. Let
me look in his will. See if I can find any sin. See
if I can find any disobedience. I can't find any. I can't find any. Why? Because of Christ. Oh, beloved. He became, before God, what I
was, a sinner. that I could become before God
what He is, righteous. It's an absolute exchange. He became what I am that I could
become what He is. He took my sin that I could have
His righteousness. And He gives us a righteousness
that allows us to stand in the presence of God for eternity.
God cannot look on us now and find any sin. He looks at us
and sees us righteous in His Son. And all you go through the
Scripture, Jonah, all the men on that ship were saved through
a substitute Jonah being thrown overboard. But Rabbis was let
go, Christ was put in his stead. Christ was put in his stead.
Oh, thank God for substitution. Substitution. Even now, even now, even now, as sorry, as sorry as I am, as
sorry as I am. Whenever I sin and come to my
master, when Satan goes before God and accuses me, You know,
the Lord Jesus Christ don't tell the Father. He said, well, He
intended to do good. He's got it in His heart to do
good. He wants to do right. No, no. You know what our Lord
does? He pleads His own righteousness. He pleads His own merit. He says,
see these wounds in my hand? See this wound in my side? Let Him go. He never pleads that. When He pleads our cause before
God, He never pleads us. Even the wrong that we've done.
Don't even mention it. Our sins and iniquities are gone.
He says He don't remember them anymore. If you ever remember
a sin you've done, it's the devil that's brought it to your mind.
God never remembers sin. And when Christ pleads for us,
do you know what He pleads? His own righteousness. His own
merit. His own death. His own wound. What else could he plead? What
else could he plead? He couldn't plead that you're
doing the best you can. He didn't mean to do that. And then last of all, I'm through.
I took too long. I'm sorry. Submission. Sovereignty. Defined in the Gospel. Sovereignty, sin, satisfaction,
substitution, and submission. Oh, we submit to Him. We submit
to this blessed Gospel. We submit to God as Sovereign.
We're like Eli. When God said, I'm going to kill
you two sons, Eli said, it's the Lord. Let Him do us seemeth
good in His sight. He's the Judge of all the earth.
He must do right. We submit to His way of salvation
through the doing, the dying, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him alone. We have no other plea. No other
plea. and that Jesus died, that He
died for me. We submit to the Lord Jesus Christ
as our righteousness, our plea, our hope, our sacrifice, our
only righteousness. We're like that leper that came
down off the mountain and we bow down before Him in worship
and we say, Lord, Lord, we acknowledge You as Lord, as Sovereign, as
God Almighty. If You will, if You will, it's
Your power. If You will, You can make me
clean. Let me ask you, is this the gospel
of your salvation? Is this your only hope before
God? Christ Jesus the Lord? Do you
enjoy God being sovereign and almighty? Do you delight in that? Do you rejoice in Christ? and
enjoy Him who did everything for you and
asked nothing from you. I believe as much as God has enabled
me to. I do. Brother Clay, thank you
all again so much.