I've been thinking a lot about
this. I think sometimes preachers suppose, assume, and take for
granted a great deal when it comes to those to whom we preach. And I also think that those who
consistently hear preaching suppose, assume, and take for granted
a great deal about the preachers that they hear. I know to many,
this sounds arrogant and somewhat haughty to say, but the average
church goer, the average hearer, and the average preacher or pastor
really knows very little about the truth of the scriptures.
The Jewish nation, the chosen nation of God, the nation God
gave his law to, had it all pretty much wrong. The Pharisees, the
scribes, the Jewish lawyers, the experts of the law, who I'm
talking about, really didn't understand why God gave his law. They thought that God gave the
law for men to keep. They thought that man could be
saved by keeping the law. But God gave the law to show
man that he couldn't keep it. And God gave the law to show
man that the law was weak through the flesh, and that flesh being
our own flesh. The Lord told the Jews, he said,
search the scriptures for in them in the scriptures. You think
you have eternal life and they are they which testify me. They
didn't see that. And then he said, and you will
not come to me that you might have life. And it says that in
your Bible, John chapter five, verses 39 and 40. In the scriptures, you think
you have life eternal. They talk about me. They're all
about me. You miss that. Now, it's a mistake for us to
assume that everyone that hears the Bible preached is well acquainted
with the scriptures, well acquainted with the gospel of Christ and
the salvation that's found in Him alone. Preachers suppose
that their hearers know the elementary truths concerning man's lost
condition. They suppose that most know how
sinners are saved and who it is that saves them. But sadly,
they don't. Very frequently, those to whom
we preach have no understanding of those things. For example,
very few people in this world know that they are born into
this world, alienated from God, their creator. You'd be amazed
at how few people know that. Most men and women are under
the impression that God loves everyone and that Jesus Christ
died to save everyone. Well, that's what we've been
told ever since we were wee lads and lasses. Most folks believe
that there's no reason and there's no alarm or concern because every
man and woman will eventually wind up in heaven. Now, they
may have to experience purgatory first, but they will eventually
get to heaven. After all, the little old man
upstairs that people refer to as God loves everyone, and he
wants everyone to love him back, and in most cases, somewhere
in their life, it'll do that. You know, I have never attended
a funeral, and more than likely, you haven't either. Never been
to a funeral where the deceased was said to be in hell. Everybody
is supposedly better off after death. I remember Brother Montgomery
asking a local funeral director that. I remember myself asking
one in Texas that very question. He'd been a funeral director
for almost 60 years. Told me he was fixing to retire.
I said, I've got to ask you a question. He said, sure, what is it? I
said, in your 60 years of providing funeral services for folks, has
anyone ever been lost? And kind of shook his head and
said, not one, not one. But you see, these things couldn't
be further from the truth. Men and women are born spiritually
dead. They are dead in trespasses and
sin. They've offended God. Their minds
are enmity. They're hostile toward God. They
will not come to God in order to have life. They will not have
God to rule over them. They don't want anything to do
with God. Men and women don't understand how this came to be.
Men and women have no idea how they wound up in this spiritually
dead condition. And I first and foremost blame
preachers for it. Men and women have not been taught
the truth of the scriptures. Men and women don't know what
it is to be lost. Well, that's no big deal to be
lost. As far as most folks concerned,
there's always time to be saved. That's something they can do
right before they die. Well, there's no promise of tomorrow. There's no promise of this evening.
There have been many a man and a woman that have woken up one
morning and had no idea that that day was their last. Being
lost is a horrible, horrible thing. Why would anyone want
to be lost? They must not know what being
lost really is. You see, being lost is being
without Christ. Being lost is having no hope,
the scripture says. Being lost is being without God
in this world. Being lost is being an alien
from God's kingdom. Being lost is being a stranger
to the covenant of God's promises. What is it to be without Christ?
I'm telling you, few really know. Jesus Christ has been made some
things to those that have Him and to those that know Him. And
to those that have Him and know Him, these things are the most
wonderful thing, wonderful things in life. Jesus Christ has made
unto us wisdom. If Jesus Christ is wisdom and
a lost man or woman is without Christ, then that lost man and
woman has no wisdom and is in spiritual ignorance and darkness. That's what this book teaches.
But men aren't telling men and women the truth. Our Lord said
just that. The Pharisees asked the Lord
Jesus, where is thy father? And Christ said, you don't know
me or my father. And they didn't. He said, if
you'd known me, you should have known my father also. The Lord
said, I and my father are one. And it was then that the Jews
took up stones to stone him again. It wasn't the first time they
attempted to stone him. They didn't know who Christ was.
And the Lord asked them, he said, many good works have I showed
you from my father, but which of those works do you stone me?
And they said, well, for good work, we don't stone you, but
for blasphemy and because that thou being a man, that's all
they saw him as, a man, you make yourself God. He was God. They didn't know it. And most
men today and most women today don't know it either. Few people
in our day know these things. That's why there are churches
on every corner of every town and every state in America. Everybody
believes something different. Everybody has a different opinion
of who God is. And I'm always brought to mind
the fellow that told me one time, he said, well, now, Brother David,
you know, we're all spokes in the same wheel and Christ is
that little center hub and all of us come together in Him. No,
we don't. No, sir, we sure don't. Jesus
Christ has made unto us wisdom. Jesus Christ has made unto us
righteousness. Now these are not just little
terms that we quote and feel good about. That's what the Word
of God says. He's made unto us righteousness.
Christ is our holiness, our purity. So a man or woman without Christ
is unrighteous and unholy and ungodly. They're unclean in God's
sight. That's what it is to be lost.
It's not just to be on a list. Oh, I'm on the save list and
I'm on the lost list. No, it's to be without God, without
hope in this world. It's to be unholy and unclean
in God's sight. It's to be ignorant without any
wisdom. It's to be ungodly without any
righteousness. Jesus Christ has made unto us
sanctification. What does that mean? It means
that Jesus Christ makes us clean and he sets us apart. That's
what sanctification is. It's the act of being made holy. And that'll mean something to
you if you ever see that you're unholy. Jesus Christ is our holiness. God requires perfection. Do we
really believe that? That's what he says. God requires
perfection. God requires holiness. Without
Christ, we cannot be perfect or holy. That's what it is to
be lost. To be lost is a horrible thing.
Horrible. Jesus Christ has made unto us
redemption, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Without Christ, we're not only without wisdom, and we're not
only without righteousness, and we're not only unclean, but we're
under the curse of God's holy law and His holy justice. That's
what it is to be law. We're under judgment and eternal
condemnation. Did you know that? We stand accountable
before God for every law, which is on the books of God. And we
have broken every one of them. Every single one of them. For
to offend in one point is to be guilty of the whole law. Isn't
that what the Bible says? Do we believe the Bible? To be
without Jesus Christ is to forever be lost. Jesus Christ is the
believer's sin offering. Without Christ, we have no high
priest. Without Christ, we have no sacrifice. Without Christ, there is no atonement. Without Christ, we have no entrance
into the Holy of Holies. We're outcast, outside with no
way in. For without the shedding of blood,
His blood, there is no forgiveness. There is no remission of sin.
To be without Christ is to be without a mediator. There's only
one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Christ
Jesus. Do you know these things? It's
a matter of life and death. If you are without Christ, you
don't have anyone to represent you before God. You have no advocates. You have no go-between. You know
it's said that a man who represents himself in a worldly court of
law has a fool for a client. However, though considered a
fool, there have been fools who represented themselves in the
courts of man and won their case, whether it was on a technicality
or something else. However, the man or the woman
who stands before God in judgment on that day when we stand before
God and give an account of the things that we've done in this
body without having God's chosen mediator is much more worse than
a fool because there's no opportunity at all for redemption for them,
none. Absolutely none. There's no one
to present their petitions. There's no one to declare their
appeal. There's no one to stand before
God. They're without wisdom. They
stand before God without righteousness. They stand before God without
sanctification. They stand before God without
redemption. All those things they have in
Christ, and without Christ they don't have any of them. They
stand before God without a substitute. They stand before God without
a blood sacrifice. Our Lord said, no man comes to
the Father but by me. Without Christ, there is no hope.
All hope is gone. Without Christ, you have no hope
for sin being forgiven. You have no hope for mercy being
given. You have no hope for grace. For
grace is in him alone. He that believeth not on the
Son of God, the wrath of God abideth on him. Preachers aren't
telling men and women that. Shame on them. I'm not supposing
anything this morning. And I'm preaching as if you've
never heard the gospel. I'm not assuming anything. I'm
not taking anything for granted. Woe unto me if I preach not the
gospel. God gives his watchman, his preachers,
a tremendous responsibility. You think about the responsibility
you have of telling men and women the truth, that their soul, their
life, eternity depends upon it. God gives his watchman this tremendous
responsibility. God says to the prophet Ezekiel
in Ezekiel chapter three, verse 17, he said, son of man, I've
made thee a watchman into the house of Israel. Therefore, hear
the word at my mouth and give them warning for me. Preaching
has a lot to do with warning sinners. He said, when I say
unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest them not
warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked man from his wicked
way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
but his blood will I require thine hand. Yet if thou warn
the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his
wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered
thy soul. Now this is why I do not suppose,
assume, or take my preaching and your hearing for granted.
I stand before God responsible to tell you the truth. So what
is it to be lost? Is it really a big deal? Yes,
it really is. by nature, by inheritance, by
birth and practice, all of us are lost. All we like sheep have
gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to everyone under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Now
they're just in a few sentences. We see that that applies to every
single one of us. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. No difference between the Jew
and the Greek or the Gentile, for all have sinned. We're all
in the same boat together. There's none that doeth good.
There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
seeketh after God. How many? None. Not a one. How many are lost? All. One-syllable
words. All are lost. None are good.
We're born condemned. We're not born good little boys
and girls. I'm as crazy about a baby as
the next one. I've got grandchildren. I've
acted a fool over them. Glad to act a fool over them.
But we go, oh, ain't he precious? Or ain't she precious? Oh, they're
just perfect, aren't they? No, they're not. We're not born
into this world good and then go bad. We're born into this
world bad, born condemned. This is the condemnation that
light has come into the world and men and women, little boys
and girls included, love darkness rather than light. Why? Because
their deeds are evil. And unless God intervenes in
the life of a boy and a girl or a man or a woman, it'll never
be any different. Paul said in Ephesians 2, verse
8, for by grace are you saved. It's not by works, it's not by
a decision, it's not by walking an aisle, not by being baptized,
not by joining the church, not by giving your heart to Jesus.
No, the sinner is saved by God's grace. And that grace is found
in one place and one place only, and that's in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Whose grace? There's only one
who truly has grace to give. Noah found grace where? In the
eyes of the Lord. Jacob said, let me find grace
in the sight of my Lord. That's where it is. Moses told
the Lord, by you going with us, Lord, it shall be known that
I and my people have found grace in your sight. And the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The
glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. That's where it's found. Paul
wrote, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace
of God, which is given you by Jesus Christ. And Paul went on
to say, it's by the grace of God that I am what I am. For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes, he became poor that ye through his poverty
might be rich. Our Lord said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. And it always is. It always is. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace. This grace is God's grace. And
it's found in the Lord Jesus Christ, nowhere else. I wish
every preacher was telling folks that. There's no grace from God
apart from Christ. There's no love from God apart
from Christ. There's no forgiveness from God
apart from Christ. There's no mercy from God. There's
no salvation. There's no eternity of life apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of God is the gift
of God. It can't be earned. It can't
be deserved. And it's definitely not merited.
The gift can only be given. How are the lost saved? Just
one way. through Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. You know, our Lord was pictured
in the lamb slain when the Lord killed a lamb and covered the
nakedness of Adam and Eve. That's a picture of Christ. Christ
was pictured when Abel offered the blood sacrifice as opposed
to Cain's sacrifice of works. Christ was pictured in the Passover
feast in the land of Egypt. Christ was pictured by the manna,
the bread that fell from heaven. Christ is that life-giving water
that flowed from the rock. That rock was Christ. Christ
was pictured in the brazen serpent that was lifted up and all who
look to Him will be saved. You search the scriptures and
in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which
testify of me. Christ is a prophet like Moses.
He's a priest like Melchizedek, and he's a king like David. You
see, he fulfills every single office for the believing sinner.
Jesus Christ is the child of God's prophet, priest, and king.
He's everything that I need, and he's everything that God
requires. Why wouldn't you come to him?
When our Lord Jesus went to the cross, he paid the debt of sin
for those that God gave him before the foundation of the world.
Christ endured the wrath and the judgment and the condemnation
of God that was upon us. That is good news. That's not
nothing to be upset about. That's something to be happy
about. For the soul that sins, it must die. Christ died in the
room instead of those that God gave him. Death no longer has
dominion over us. It's not anything to get mad
about, this is something to be joyous over. Even when we were
dead in sin, God had quickened us together with Christ by grace,
are you saying, Ephesians 2, 5. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken, make alive your
mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you." Why wouldn't
you want him? Why wouldn't we? The Holy Spirit
came into this world. Our Lord promised to send us
a comforter, and that He did. And the Holy Spirit calls out
God's sheep, calls out these people given to Christ, redeemed
by Christ, ransomed by Christ. And how does He call them out?
By what I'm doing this morning, by the preaching of the gospel. God had chosen you by what the
world calls the foolishness of preaching. And he does so to
save them that believe. Once you believe, the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. But
you have to believe. And the Holy Spirit regenerates
those sinners and gives them true repentance toward God. You know what? I truly am sorry
for my sin. I know not like I ought to be,
but I am. This true repentance toward God
and the true faith in Christ brings us to believe this gospel. We know that there's nothing
that we can do. God reveals it to us. God convinces
us that there's nothing, absolutely nothing that we can do to merit
God's being mindful of us. Not a thing. And they not only
believe the gospel, but we love the gospel. Not only do we believe
Christ, but we love Christ and we long to be like Christ. Has
God shown you these things? If he has, then you can never
be lost in that good news. All my life I was told if you
can merit salvation, you can lose salvation. Well, I can't
merit it because my salvation's in Him and what He's done, so
I can't lose it either. Boy, that's good news. Has God
shown you these things? If He has, you can't be lost.
For those who believe are kept by the power of God. How are
they kept, Linda? By the power of God. None can
pluck you from His hand. The Lord Jesus said that. It
was His hand that created all things. None can stay in God's
hand. That simply means you can't put
God in handcuffs. People like to think that you
can. None can stay His hand. None can say unto Him, what doest
thou? Our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever He's pleased. And friends, if any man be in
Christ by divine election, by divine purchase, by divine power,
by divine intervention, he's born again and he becomes a new
creature, a new creation. You know, that's the first scripture
I ever memorized, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. I loved that scripture. You know why? Because I knew
that the old me had to die. And I knew that God had to make
me new so that all things would pass away and behold, all things
would become new. I needed to start with a clean
slate. I knew that I had to be conformed
to Christ's image, made perfect in God's sight, presented to
God, unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. So in closing with
me, I want to turn you to Mark chapter 10. And I want to endeavor
to answer one last question. Somebody would say, what was
his text this morning? And you'd say, no, he was all
over the place. But we're talking about the scriptures. We're talking
about the Bible in its entirety. We're talking about God's word.
Mark chapter 10, this statement is found in verse 25. It's made
in three of the four gospel accounts. And our Lord Jesus said in Matthew
10 verse 25, he said this, he said, it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. Now I've read a lot of commentators
that have said that the entryways in the city of Jerusalem was
called the eye of a needle and that it was difficult for a camel
to get through there. It's not impossible, but it's
very difficult. That's not what the Lord's talking
about. He said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle, one like you sow with, than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of God. And after this comment, the disciples
begin to look at one another and the scripture says they were
astonished beyond measure. And they asked that question
that I'm asking you. They said, who then can be saved?
Who? Who then can be saved? If it's
harder for a rich man to get into heaven than it is for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle, who then can be saved?
Now, there's two questions asked in this chapter. The first question
was asked by the rich man. It's a question that men and
women still ask. He asked, what must I do to be
saved? In Matthew's account, he said,
what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? And then
the second question is the one here asked by the disciples,
who then can be saved? And the amazing thing is that
our Lord answered both questions with one answer, verse 27. He says, with men, it is impossible,
but not with God. For with God, all things are
possible. And there you have it. That is
the real issue. Who then can be saved? The disciples
asked this question because they believed wholeheartedly that
the kingdom of God was a material kingdom. Most all the Jews did. They thought that the kingdom
of God was an earthly kingdom, a kingdom of worldly power. They
were betrayed by their own conversation, revealed by their hearts. They
often asked the Lord things like, Lord, when will you restore the
kingdom to Israel? And you remember John and James'
mother, she came to the Lord and she said, when you come into
your kingdom, let my son sit on your right hand and on your
left. That's what they thought. And that's why they are astounded.
It's hard for a rich man to be saved. If a rich man can't be
saved, who then can be saved? They reasoned in the new kingdom,
we'll all be rich. God's kingdom will be restored
to us. And that's when the Lord said,
with man, it's impossible. Why is salvation impossible with
man? I'm gonna give you three quick
things and I'm gonna let you go. The first reason that salvation
is impossible with men is the strictness of God's law. The Lord said to this rich young
man in verse 19, he said, you know the commandments. Do not
commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, don't bear false
witness, defraud not, honor your father and your mother. But he
didn't hear the law. The scripture asks us that question.
Those of you who would desire to be under the law, do you not
hear the law? Do you not hear what the law
is saying? He didn't hear the law. The young man thought he
heard, but he didn't. In verse 20, he said, master,
all these things I've observed from my youth. He didn't hear
the law. The law says you've got to keep
the law perfectly. The law says if you offend in
one point, you're guilty of the whole law. He didn't hear it.
Then the second reason salvation is impossible with men is because
the corruption of man's nature. We've already discussed that
in detail. The natural man and woman hates God. By nature, we
hate the God of the Bible. We hate the living God, not the
God that we've imagined, not the God that we think is altogether
one like unto ourselves. No, not that one. We like that
one. Not the God that we've conjured
up in our mind. We hate the God that rules and
reigns and governs and judges. The natural man is enmity, hostile
toward God. We're not subject to the law
of God. Scripture says, neither indeed can we be. We can't be
in subjection to. We will not have this God to
rule over us. We want to be our own boss. We
want to be our own God. Amen or oh me, but that's the
truth. This was Satan's problem. This was our first parent's problem.
And this is our problem. We want to be our own God. And
the third reason salvation is impossible with men is because
of divine justice. The demands of God's justice
is plain. God will by no means clear the
guilt. The soul that sins, it shall die. No ifs, ands, and
buts about it. God's divine justice requires
it. And sin, when it's finished,
brings forth death. God has, God will, and He must
punish sin. He's gonna be a just God. He
must be. How do we know that God will
punish sin? Well, He spared not His only Son. He spared not His
perfect Son. That's how we know. You see,
God's justice executed judgment on Christ because Christ took
the sin of all God's elect upon himself. He was paying for the
sin of his elect. He had no sin of his own. He
knew no sin. How do we know that God's holy
justice is gonna punish sin? Because it killed his own son. Holy justice extracted against
me is deserved. That's what I deserve. But it
could and would never pay for one sin. You see, with men, it's
impossible. The strictness of God's law wouldn't
allow it. The corruption of our nature
prevents it. The divine justice of God won't
accept my payment. Thank God the Lord didn't stop
there though. He said, with men salvation is
impossible, but with God, all things are possible. So I won't
assume, and I won't suppose, and I will not take for granted
that you know these things, because it's God that has to reveal them
to you. I can't. God didn't have to save
us. We live in an entitled world.
Everybody seems to think that. But I do know this, God is a
God who certainly delights to show mercy. And it's of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed. Now hear this if you don't hear
anything else. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed because His compassion fails not. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. Isn't that wonderful news?