I know we have a problem because
of the sin that we still have within us, and often times we
compare ourselves with others, and the Word of God tells us
that's not wise. Have you ever noticed in the
commercials how when they're trying to sell an item, they'll
compare it with another item? They really bring out the bad
things about the other item. Well, that's just the way the
world is. And in our unregenerate state,
and we still have that problem, we just, in arrogant pride, think we're better than others.
And we'll talk about others. Oftentimes, not everybody does
this, Oftentimes, we all bring out the bad in them, trying to
exalt ourselves before them or before the ones we're speaking
to. And it's just not a good thing. We
just have that tendency. And our Lord warns us not to
do that. And we heard a little bit about
that in Sunday school this morning, We're to love the brethren, and
I know sometimes, and you've probably experienced this, people
will come over and visit us, and when they leave, they start
telling others how poor the house is kept or something that they
have found wrong, and it'll get back to you. You know, just forgive
them. We're to forgive those who just
speak against us. for Christ's sake. God has forgiven
us for Christ's sake. Now God demands perfection. And we all fall short of that
mark. Perfection belongs to God alone. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. And if we compare ourselves with
Jesus Christ, we all see that we just fall short of perfection. So turn with me, if you will,
to Matthew chapter 26. In our unregenerate state, all
of us build up false props that we lean on, and it's the responsibility
of God's preachers To tear out those false props that we're
leaning on so that we lean only on Jesus Christ. One of those
false props in our unregenerate state. We think that our good's
gonna outweigh our bad. What good? There's no good in
any of us. That rich young man that came
to our Lord, called him good master. He said, why you calling
me good? Only God is good, are you calling me God? And we were
talking about that just a moment ago. Goodness is something that all
of us like to see in one another, and especially our children. But in the eyes of God, and he
tells us this in his word, there is none good, no, not one. So we have that false prop and
there's so many different ones, baptism, church affiliation,
monies we put in the offering, the list goes on and on and on.
I'm not putting down good works, good works do accompany salvation
and we should get baptized and I believe Children of God should
join a gospel preaching church. And I think we should support
the church and pray one for another. But those things accompany salvation. They don't contribute to salvation.
Salvation is of the Lord from start to finish. And man contributes
absolutely nothing to the glorious salvation that's found in Christ
and only in Christ. Now here in Matthew chapter 26,
I want to start reading at verse 17, and read down through verse
25. The Word of God says this, starting
at verse 17 of Matthew 26. Now, the first day of the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him,
Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?
And he said, Go into the city, to such a man, and say unto him,
The Master saith, My time is at hand, I will keep the Passover
at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now
when the evening was come, he, that is our Lord Jesus, sat down
with the twelve, and as they did eat, he said, Verily, I say
unto you, that one of you shall betray me.' And they were exceeding
sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord,
is it I? And he answered and said, He
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. The Son of Man goeth as it is
written of him. But woe unto that man by whom
the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born. Then Jesus, which betrayeth him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? He saith unto him, thou
hast said. Now it was written in the Old
Testament that there would be one that would betray the Lord
for 30 pieces of silver. And the Scripture had to be fulfilled. And Judas Iscariot was that man
who was appointed to betray our Lord
Jesus. Now I chose that word deliberately
God appoints all things. Our time of birth, our time of
death, everything happens according to God's eternal decree. Nothing happens apart from His
permissive will. And our Lord Jesus said it would
be better for that man if he had never been born. Now I realize
that people don't like to hear that, but it's true nonetheless. I don't know why people have
so much problem believing that the whole mass of humanity is
one big lump of clay, and our wonderful sovereign God is the
potter that forms the clay as it pleases Him. And all of God's
children who were chosen in Christ, and we heard that read in a scripture
reading this morning at the men's meeting, as found in Ephesians
chapter 1 and other places also. I don't know why it's difficult
for people to believe that the potter has the right to do what
he will with his own. Forms of clay as it pleases him,
and we're vessels of honor which God has prepared unto glory. Now there are those who are vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction, and I know that we fit ourselves
for destruction. I know that. We harden our heart
in our unregenerate state. But God also hardens the heart.
He tells us that. And He raised up Pharaoh to destroy
him. You all believe that? It's taught
in the Word of God. Pharaoh couldn't do anything
but what was determined for him to do. And God determined that
to show His power that His name will be declared throughout all
the earth. Now, it is the responsibility,
like I said earlier, for God's preachers to tear out those false
props. And it's also the responsibility
of God's preachers to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. We must preach the gospel. That
is a must. And God takes the gospel and
makes it effectual as it pleases Him. Now, I've titled this message,
Lord, Is It I? Now, I guess probably people
would find fault with wording it that way, saying it's not
grammatically correct. And I'm certainly not one to
correct anybody especially myself, for speaking in a way that's
not grammatically correct. But I wouldn't change the Word
of God. I don't care what people say. And the Word of God tells
us plainly. The disciples ask Him this question,
Lord, is it I? So I want to take that question
And I want to apply it to myself and to you and to anyone else
who might hear this message that's being recorded. I want to apply
that to some biblical truths and ask myself, is it I? So turn to Galatians chapter
one, if you will, please. Galatians chapter one. Now, false
preachers must be exposed. They're not only deceiving the
souls of men and women, but they're robbing God of His glory by taking
their false gospel and making the cross of Christ meaningless,
of none effect. Trampling underfoot the blood
of Jesus, counting it an unholy thing. In other words, a common
thing, common to everybody. and despising the spirit of grace. They're all liars. I had a preacher
look me right in the face one time and said, you could be one
of God's elect and never hear the gospel and never believe
the gospel and wake up in glory. I said, I don't believe that
for one little bit. The word of God tells us that all of God's children are
going to come to Jesus Christ. All of them. He's not going to
lose any. Under the preaching of the gospel,
He sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and the Spirit
of God is our teacher, taking the things of God and revealing
them to us. He enlightens our minds to His
truths and makes us willing in a day of His power to come to
Him. So these false preachers, they need to be exposed. All
of them, including those who follow them, are liars. All of us in our unregenerate
state are liars. All men and women when they fell
on Adam, coming to this world with Adam's fallen nature, running
from God, hating God, cursing God, at least, maybe not with
filthy words, but at least in our rebellion against him, refusing
to believe the record he has given to us of his son. Now there's
only one gospel, only one. And there's a curse pronounced
upon any who would dare to preach another gospel. So I take this
very seriously. We must tell people who Jesus
Christ is. He's God Almighty. He's Lord
of all. He's our creator. And God sent
him into this world to do something. to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. He came to do the will of God
the Father, and He did it perfectly. And when He laid down His life,
He laid down His life for the sheep, not the goats. Our Lord Jesus did not die for
Judas Iscariot. He died for His sheep. He didn't
die for Pharaoh or the Egyptian army. He died for His sheep. And when He laid down His life,
when He willingly shed His blood for the souls of His children,
and we just got through singing about it, He redeemed us, purchased
us. with His precious blood. We're
not our own, we're bought with a price. And that price was what
Jesus Christ paid in full for the sins of His people. Do you
think for one moment that our Heavenly Father, which gave those
people to Christ conditional upon what Jesus would do for
them, would refuse to enlighten the minds of those that He promised
to Christ? Every person that experiences
the miracle of the new birth is God showing His hand in a
miraculous way, fulfilling His promise to His Son, and giving
that person, that man or that woman, to His Son by divine revelation. So there's only one gospel, and
Jesus Christ, when He laid down His life He was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. He came
out of the grave and He ascended to glory. Several days after
that, He ascended to glory and sat down at the right hand of
the majesty on high. And He made us to sit together
with Him in heavenly places. And He's coming back for us.
He's coming back at our appointed time of departure, or when He
returns to catch us all up to be with Him in glory. And we're
gonna see Him in all of His glory, face to face. Now that's the
gospel. But here in Galatians chapter
one, starting at verse six, The Apostle
Paul, writing on a divine inspiration, is rebuking these Galatians because
of their weaknesses in the flesh and wanting to be circumcised
after the manner of men, after the gospel had been presented
before them. He says, I marvel, verse 6, I
marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. And verse eight says, but though
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. God pronounces a curse on any
who would dare preach another gospel. Now I know many of God's
preachers have been called out of those false churches who were
preaching another gospel. But that curse was removed from
those men because of Jesus Christ and his perfect redeeming blood
for them. Now, remember this question. Lord, is it I? If you believe you had anything
to do with your salvation, this curse applies to you, to me. God will not accept anything
but what His Son offered. And Jesus Christ paid it all,
all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain
and He washed it white as snow. Now brethren, if you believe
in universal redemption, then the curse of God is resting on
you. You're under his curse. If you
believe in the universal love of God, same thing. God does
not love everybody in spite of what these modern day preachers
are saying. He loves his own. He loves us with an everlasting
love, and with loving kindness he draws us unto himself. Now
I mentioned earlier that God demands perfection. Has God pronounced
a curse on all who have sinned? Yes. Yes. We come into this world
cursed. We're cursed people. And we need,
we need to be delivered from that awful state of hating God
and sinful imperfection. So, let me ask you this. Is this applied to you? Is it
I? Do we know that we were involved
in nothing but sinful activities? And I don't care how religious
we were, or how much we put in the offering plate, or how faithful
we were to that religion. If we don't believe the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, that applies to us. Is it I? Look at Galatians
3, 1 through 10. Galatians chapter
3, starting at verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Now let
me ask you, is it I? Do I think I could be made perfect
by the flesh now that I've begun in the Spirit? Do I believe that
I'm progressively getting more and more sanctified? Or do I
believe that Jesus Christ, by His one offering, sanctified
His people and perfected them by that same offering? Jesus
Christ is everything to an enlightened child of God. Everything that
we need to take us from that awful pit God dug us out of,
right into the presence of the King of Kings is found in Jesus
Christ, and only in Jesus Christ. Verse 4, Have ye suffered so
many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that
ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith.
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham, For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Now I didn't like this,
but I believe it. I believe that everything in
God's holy word is true. Do I understand it all? Of course
I don't. Neither do you, neither does
anybody else. But God gives us the understanding
as it pleases Him, and we mature in the faith. We grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
we don't understand something, we confess that we don't understand
it, but we never say, I don't believe that. I had a fellow
tell me, He came into the services with two of his sons, and I preached
a message not only pointing us to Christ and His love, but also
pointing out that love is one of the attributes of God, but
so is His wrath. And I dealt with several scriptures,
and then pointed our folks to Christ, who is our only hope,
who is our peace, our joy, And he wanted to know after the services
if he could come over the next day and talk with me. And I said,
sure. And we sat down at our dining room table. And the first
thing I asked him, and I learned this over the years, I didn't
do this early in my ministry, but I learned this over the years.
I held my Bible up and I said, do you believe this is the holy
inspired word of God? He said, yes, I do. So I said,
then let me share a few scriptures with you. And I just, the Lord
gave me the knowledge of where they were, and I just started
pointing him to several scriptures that dealt with the wrath of
God. And then he said this, and I've shared this with him before,
I'm pretty sure, but he said this, well, I believe some of
it is inspired. I said, well, how do you know
which is inspired and which isn't? He said, well, God will tell
you. I said, yeah, just like he told
Joseph Smith and Mary Becker Eddy and all those other false
preachers. Well, he got up and left. Needless to say, he didn't
come back. But this is what I was saying earlier. False preachers
have to be exposed. And we have to point to God's
word and show our hearers that this is what the word of God
says. Do I believe the word of God? Is it I? Well, if we believe God, it is.
If we believe God, then the truths that He has in His Word are very
dear to us, whether we understand them completely or not. If we
believe God chose us in Jesus Christ before the foundation
of the world, then it is I that God has revealed that to. If
we believe that in Jesus Christ, faith is a gift from Him that
gives us an understanding and embraces these truths for His
glory and His glory alone. If we believe God our Father
has already punished us in our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is I that this is reserved for. We believe God. Abraham
believed God and was imputed to him for righteousness. We
believe that God himself delivered his son for our offenses and
raised him again for our justification. Does that thrill you? To know
that God will not even lay one thing to the charge of His elect? That all of my sins, past, present,
and future were laid on my substitute and God has already punished
me in Him? Do I believe that? Yes, I do. Can I explain how God can be
just and justifier of those who believe. He's just in everything
he does. And he justifies his people through
the merits of Christ alone. And we rejoice in that whether
we can fully understand it or not. I'm being as honest as I can. and wanting you to apply this
question to yourself. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
by himself purged your sins? Lord, is it I? Did he purge my sins? His word
tells us that he did, by himself. Do we believe that Jesus Christ,
by His perfect obedience to the will of God, sanctified and perfected
us forever? The Word of God teaches that
in Hebrews chapter 10. Do we believe that when Jesus
Christ came out of the grave and ascended to glory and sat
down on his throne in glory that he has made us to sit with him
and in him in heavenly places? I believe that. Can I explain
that? No, I can't explain it to the
satisfaction of anybody who does not believe the gospel, I don't
have to explain it to you. God is the one who gives us faith.
Do you believe that? Do you believe faith is a gift
of God? I believe that. I believe that He gives us faith
to embrace these truths for the glory of His darling Son. And
His darling Son gets all the glory whether we believe it or
not. Now, look at Galatians. This third chapter, verses 13
and 14. And remember this question. Lord,
is it I? Verse 13 says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Is it I? Do I believe this? Do I believe that when Jesus
Christ hung there on that cross, that he took that curse upon
himself? Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. So the curse that's on us when
we come into this world, the curse of those preachers who
were preaching a false gospel, that curse was laid on Jesus
Christ. And He redeemed us from all of
that, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child,
and forever I am. Now brethren, God is the only
one who can reveal these glorious gospel truths. And he must do
that. So I want to take you over to
1 Thessalonians 1. Preacher's voice is important.
Yes, God uses men who preach the gospel and the gospel as
instruments to enlighten his children. So that when God delivers a sinner
under our preaching, the preacher knows that's God's doings, and
the saint of God knows that's God's doings. So that God himself
receives all the glory. Anything wrong with that? There's
something wrong if we don't give him all the glory. So here in
1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, and remember this question, Lord,
is it I? Starting at verse 1, we read
these words, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, under the church
of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the
Lord Jesus Christ, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the order is right. Grace
comes first and then peace. Jesus Christ is our peace. But
until God by his sovereign power bestows his sovereign grace upon
the people that we have the honor of preaching to, until he enlightens
the mind, there's no peace. There's no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked. But Jesus Christ is every believer's
peace. He's every believer's joy. It's
joy unspeakable and full of glory when the Lord reveals what Jesus
Christ has done for us. And here's what the result of
that revelation is. Verse 2. We give thanks to God
always for you all. making mention of you in our
prayers. We will thank God for what He
has done for us, and we will thank God for what He's done
for others that we're here about. Remembering, it says in verse
3, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor
of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. These Thessalonians, they had
heard the gospel preached, and God had revealed it to them. And the testimony that went out
from them was known all over the country. Other preachers
were talking about them. Look at verse 5. 4 Knowing brethren, beloved,
your election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in a Holy Ghost, and
in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among
you for your sake." So the gospel came to them. The word of God
came from a preacher. The word of God came in truth. But God made it effectual. It came in power. God's power. the power of God, the Holy Spirit. And when that gospel was revealed
to these saints that we're reading about here in 1 Thessalonians,
the enlightened mind just rejoiced. These people started destroying
all of their false props and their things that they were believing
in, getting rid of them, burning them. And it was made known. How was it made known? Other
preachers had witnessed it. They had come there and preached
to them. And it was known by these preachers what these saints
of Thessalonica had done, how they had received us, how they
had destroyed their images, their false gods. You know, we have
a dear, beloved brother and pastor friend, David Edmondson, who's
getting invited to other churches in different parts of this United
States and maybe out of the United States as well. And these people that he's preaching
to them, they're hearing about this church. They're hearing
what God's doing here. The testimonies going out from
the preaching that Brother David is preaching And they're hearing,
well that's the gospel he's preaching up there in Madisonville. We
ought to be thankful the Lord is broadening his horizon, getting
him to different churches. Because saints are hearing about
us and rejoicing and giving God the glory. That's what happened
here in Thessalonica. That's what's going on here.
And so these men and women in Thessalonica They were worshiping
God in spirit and in truth. Is there any other way to worship
God? You can't worship Him in your
unregenerate state. He won't receive it. And you
can't worship Him if you believe a false gospel. The spirit of
truth, the Holy Spirit of God, that He puts in our heart, and
the truth go hand in hand. You can't separate them. So that's
what happens to every child of God that's enlightened by God
the Holy Spirit. God sends the Spirit of the Son
into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, and gives us faith to believe
on Jesus Christ. as is plainly set forth on the
pages of Holy Scripture. Brethren, and I quote Brother
Henry Mahan, believing is no small matter. This is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he hath called. Now, look
at the last part. of this first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. Verse 10 is what they were doing. They were waiting for Jesus Christ,
and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. The name of Jesus Christ, one
of them, He has many names. One of them is the Deliverer. He delivers us. He's not trying
to deliver us. He's not trying to get our attention. He's not trying to get you to
make a decision for Him. Jesus Christ is on His throne
in Heaven, and He's working all things after the counsel of His
own will. And this is the will of God,
that you believe on Him in whom He hath sent. All that the Father
hath given Me shall come to Me, He tells us in John chapter 6.
And Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. He will
never leave us nor forsake us. He which hath begun the good
work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Do I
have faults? I have more than I can even Count
myself. But Jesus Christ took care of
all of those faults, all of those sins, all those shortcomings. Faith, God's gift to his chosen
people, embraces Jesus Christ, knowing that when this is all
over, whether it's my day of departure or whether it's when
Christ comes back, I'm gonna be with Him forever. I can't even imagine what joy
that's going to be. Jude put it this way, unto Him
that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, both right now and
forever. And that's why we gather here
on a regular basis. To hear this glorious gospel
that stirs our hearts to worship our blessed God in all of His
glory for this unspeakable gift, eternal life. Is it I? Do I believe? Am I in the fold? Am I looking for His coming?
Do I rejoice in Him and give Him all the glory? longing for
that day when I'll stand before Him dressed in the perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ and be in His presence for all
eternity. There's another side. We're going
to hear these words Well done, thy good and faithful servant.
Enter into the joy of the Lord. But others are going to hear
this. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I pray, I pray that we can take
these wonderful biblical truths and answer this question honestly. Is it I? Do I believe the gospel? Am I giving my God all the praise
and all the glory for His sovereign grace and His sovereign mercy
bestowed upon me for the glory of His darling Son, Jesus Christ
the Lord? Answer that honestly. Is it I? Amen.