Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Judy. And thank you, folks, for being
with us here this morning. I pray the Lord will enable me
to preach His gospel in our pastor's absence. I consider it a great
honor to be asked to fill in for Brother David, and I pray
the Lord will just bless his word as we have an opportunity
to look at it together. I want to thank you for your
prayers. I've been really sick, and I
thought I'd be well by now, and David threatened me. Told him
I could miss any Sunday but this one, so I thought I better be
here sick or not. But anyway, it's still hanging
on, so I'm kind of standing away. Shelly sends her love and her
greetings. She's got it. She's down, no telling how long
it'll be before she gets back on her feet. But boy, it's one
of those bugs that gets you down and kicks you and kicks you and
kicks you while you're down and kicks you again just to make
sure you know you're no longer in charge. But I'm thankful to
be here. I pray the Lord will just give
us a good study in His Word. Turn to Romans chapter 3, if
you would please. Romans chapter 3. We grow up,
and I've mentioned this before but it's so true, we grow up
thinking there's a little good in every one of us, especially
us. We have that mindset. Our mama
calls us her darling good little boy and daddies tell all their
girls they're daddy's good little girls. We grow up believing that. We're rewarded for our good deeds. Dollars for every A we get on
our report card. And Christmas time better be good
or you're not going to get any toys. Things like that. And we're
encouraged to do good when we get out in the workforce. And
there's a principle of truth in encouraging our children to
do good. because there are rewards in
this life for those who do show enthusiasm and are involved in manifesting to their employers
that they have a desire to do well to make them a profit. And we used to be, I don't know
if it's still this way, we used to be those who showed a little
effort and worked hard they got promoted and so that's in our
minds as we grow up but when it comes to earning favor with
God for His unspeakable gift eternal salvation based upon
our good works we must be honest with those we are allowed to
preach to. The scriptures tell us For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
that's just a portion of the many, many times we read in the
scriptures where works cannot enter into the salvation that's
by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone. Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, But according to
His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. And so we must be honest with
those we have the honor of preaching to, to let them know God will
not accept any sinner based upon their works. We are saved by
grace through the perfect redeeming work of Jesus Christ our Lord
and our Savior. And so we, as God's preachers,
let our hearers know that no unregenerate man will believe
the Bible that teaches salvation by grace alone until God the
Holy Spirit gives us a new heart. We just won't. We just won't. to tell somebody they have no
good in them, and we don't limit that to just
one individual. That includes our parents, our
grandparents, our children, our grandchildren. There's no good
that God can see in any man, woman, or child that will move
him to bestow his grace upon them based on their good works. We have none. So here in Romans
chapter 3 starting at verse 9 we read this Paul writing under
divine inspiration talking about the Gentiles and the Jews he
says, what then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles,
that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are altogether become unprofitable, there is
none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open
sepulcher, With their tongues they have used deceit, the poison
of asps under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know. that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. That's what God says about each
one of us in our unregenerate state. If you look at Romans
chapter 8, here's a passage that every Arminian free will believer
needs to lay the heart, we read in verses 8, no, verses 6 through 8 of Romans
chapter 8, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God
and folks it goes all the way back to our daddy Adam and he
had the commandment that he could eat of the fruit of every tree
in the garden but of one tree Scofield's Dispensationalism,
a wrong right at the start. He places Adam in a state of
innocency. He was not innocent. Adam was
guilty. He had the law. In the day that
thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt surely die. And he ate
the forbidden fruit. And when he did, he plunged the
whole human race into condemnation. We come into this world with
Adam's fallen nature. drinking iniquity like water,
running from God, hating God. We cannot please God. There's
nothing that we can do to merit any favor with God. We're dead
in trespasses and sins, and the doctrine of total depravity is
seen all the way through the Holy Scriptures. We just don't
want to believe that until God quickens us, until He gives us
a new heart. And so this is where we start
as God's ambassadors, as His preachers. We want people to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that they might be saved. But
nobody's going to believe on Him according to the scriptures
until God gives us a new heart. And He does that under the preaching
of the gospel as it pleases Him. And until he does that, we'll
walk out of a church building where this truth is taught, shaking
our heads, saying, I don't believe a word of that. There's a little
good in everybody. All you have to do is fan that
little good, and it's going to burst into a flame of good, and
people could be saved by something they do. And that's what's in
the minds of all unregenerate people. Now, I want you to turn
over, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. God is absolutely perfect. Let me say that again. God is
absolutely perfect. And everything about God is perfect. Everything God has purposed is
perfect. God does not purpose anything
that He will not do. And when He does what He has
purposed, it's perfect. And as we consider a perfect
God, I would like for our minds to consider His perfect sacrifice
for sin. God purposed a way that man,
women, children, where we can find mercy with God. God delights
in showing mercy. But only one way. We cannot obtain
mercy with God unless we come God's way. And His way is Jesus
Christ or there's no way to Him. Jesus Christ is the one and only
way where God will show mercy on a hell-deserving sinner. And
Hebrews chapter 1 tells us something that we all need to lay to heart. Our Lord tells us, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how can they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? How can they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard? How can they hear without
a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? Now, we heard Brother Larry this
morning talking from 1 Timothy 3.16, On great is the mystery
of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh. And so we have
to tell people who Jesus Christ is before they can call on Him.
We have to tell people what Jesus Christ has done before we'll
believe that He is the one and only way to God, calling on Him
for this great salvation that God bestows upon His chosen people
through the merits of Christ alone. And so our responsibility,
my responsibility, and God help me not to take this loosely. God help me lay this to heart.
My responsibility is to tell you who Jesus Christ is, and
to tell you what He has done, who He has done it for, and the
results of what He has done. I'm telling you on the authority
of God's Holy Word, Jesus Christ is God Almighty. He is God our
Creator. He was manifested in the flesh,
but He's the very one, Jesus Christ is the very one who spoke
this whole universe into existence by the word of His mouth. just
exactly the way He wanted to create it. He didn't ask anybody's
permission or anybody's counsel. He created just exactly the way
He wanted to create it, and He just said let it be, and there
it was. He's God. He's the perfect God I was talking
about a while ago. Everything about Jesus Christ
is perfect. and we should be simply amazed
when we think about our God becoming a man and he became a man for
this purpose to suffer and bleed and die for his chosen people
as the supreme sacrifice for their sins God couldn't die but the God-man could And when
He laid down His life, He offered Himself as a supreme sacrifice
for the sins of His people, and He made that sacrifice to His
Heavenly Father. And God the Father accepted the
supreme sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave, and when He accepted
His Son's sacrifice, He accepted everyone for whom Christ died. I'm telling you the truth this
doctrine of universal redemption is a lie
right out of the pit. Jesus Christ does not love everybody
and he did not die for everybody and the proof is in what he accomplished
through his perfect sacrifice and I want us to look at that
this morning We'll look at some scripture to show that when he
laid down his life, he didn't try to save us, he got the job
done. Right here in Hebrews chapter
1, starting at verse 1, we read that God at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, but he hath in these last days spoken to us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds. Now look at verse 3. Speaking
of Jesus Christ we read, Who being the brightness of His,
that is of God's glory, and the express image of His person,
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on High. I'm not a well-educated man. I don't claim to be. But I can understand words, at
least as much as my Lord will give me an understanding of these
words. And verse 3 is not very difficult
to understand. It's speaking of the God-man.
It's speaking of Jesus Christ. And it says He is the brightness
of God's glory. Jesus Christ is the brightness
of God's glory. And here we were dead in trespasses
and sins running from God, hating God, drinking iniquity like water,
and He, in His loving kindness toward us, brought us under the
preaching of His gospel, and He commanded the light to shine
out of darkness into our hearts. This is God's doings. He commanded
the light Jesus Christ is the light. He commanded the light
to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. He gives us this understanding.
The glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. I didn't know
this the first 29 years of my life. I did not know Jesus Christ
was God Almighty. I just was having myself a good
old time. and using that name when something
went wrong I'm ashamed of it please forgive me I cry out to
God to forgive me that name meant nothing to me until God commanded
the light to shine and I saw the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ by divine revelation The pastor was preaching. He
was telling me that Jesus Christ is God's glory. He took me into
the scripture and showed me that Jesus Christ is God's glory.
He also showed me that we have this treasure in earthen vessels
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. My mind was just filled with
that light that Jesus Christ is the glory of God. Everything
about Him is perfect. And He became a man for this
purpose. To redeem me with His own precious
blood. Did you notice what verse 3 says? That Jesus Christ by Himself
purged our sins. How did He do that? He bore in His body, while He
hung there on the tree, our sins. He bore them in His body. God
punished him as my substitute in other words there he was doing
what God had sent him to do suffering, bleeding, dying under the unmitigated
wrath of God the Father let me show you Go over to Hebrews chapter
10. One of my favorite passages of
scripture. I think I took you here the last
time I was allowed to preach. Our subject this morning is God's
perfect sacrifice. Now if God is perfect and He
is, if what God has purposed is perfect and it is, then the
results of what God has purposed is also perfect. Jesus Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We read that in
the Holy Scripture. God's eternal Son, the second
person of the blessed Trinity, was purposed by God to be the
supreme sacrifice for the sins of His people way back before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. This was God's purpose. And Jesus
Christ came sent from God the Father to do His purpose. And what this wicked religious
generation does not believe is that Jesus Christ by His one
perfect sacrifice sanctified and perfected forever those who
were given to Him by God the Father in the eternal covenant
of grace. They don't believe that. They
don't want to believe that. They speak out against that even
though it's clearly stated on the pages of Holy Scripture.
and I'm telling you the truth. I've experienced it, and you
probably have too. Talk to people about the truths
of the gospel that gives God all the glory and assures His
people that nothing can be laid to our charge. That man had nothing
to do with that. It was all purposed by God, and
you'll find out in no uncertain terms who your friends really
are. Religious people hate that truth, and they'll speak out
against that truth. will let them. If that's what
they want to do, we keep preaching that truth because it gives God
all the glory. Listen to this, starting at verse
9 of Hebrews chapter 10, Then said He, our Lord Jesus speaking,
Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taken away the first, that
He may establish the second. Talking about the covenant. Took
away the old covenant of works, established the covenant of grace.
Then we read in verse 10, verse 9 stated clearly that He came
to do our Father's will. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This was God's will. Listen to me. This was God's
will. This was God's will when He sent
His Son to this earth. to sanctify, and that's just
a word that means to make holy, to sanctify His people with His
one offering for sin. Drop down to verse 14. For by
one offering, speaking of the same offering, for by one offering
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, perfected forever them that are sanctified. I am anything but perfect in the eyes
of the people of this world. But in the eyes of God Almighty,
through what Jesus Christ has done for me, He sees me without
sin. Does that bless you? Brethren,
that's the only way we can be without sin. is that the blood
of Jesus Christ will wash away every spot and stain and he promises
us that's exactly what his blood was designed to do to appease
God's anger to satisfy the holy justice of God and to remove
all of our sins as far as the east is from the west and God
looks upon his chosen people who are in Christ looks upon
us without sin. I swallow hard when I say that,
because I know my weaknesses. But I know God can't lie, and
that's what it says. Matter of fact, read on. It says
in verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
for after that he had said before this is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my
laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them
hang on I didn't write this but I believe it verse 17 and their
sins and iniquities will I remember want to say it with me no more
no more Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering
for sin. This is the only way that you
can be accepted in God's sight. The only way, but what a way.
Through Christ our Redeemer, who didn't try to remove our
sins, He got the job done. He took away all the sins of
His chosen people by His one supreme sacrifice. They're gone
forever. from God's sight forever. That
took place at Calvary 2,000 years ago. God remembers our sins against
us no more. Not one sin can be laid to the
charge of God's elect. Not because you were smart enough
to make a decision for Jesus, but because He by Himself purged
our sins. And I love to preach that. It's
so good. Turn to Matthew chapter 27 if
you would please. Matthew chapter 27. Our Lord
Jesus knew. He knew. When He was nailed to that cross, that He would be a stench in
the nostrils of His Heavenly Father. He knew that. He knew that God would have to
turn His back on Him. He knew that. Matter of fact,
when He prayed in the garden before He was arrested He prayed,
and great drops of blood, as it were, came from his brow.
He was so earnest in his prayer, saying, Father, if it be possible,
remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
Thy will be done. He knew that God was going to
turn His back on him, But he also knew there's no hope for
you unless he took and drank the cup dry. Unless he did exactly
what his father sent him to do. And he did it. He did it. That's why he's on his throne
of glory right now. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted
Him, and given Him a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things on
earth, things under the earth, and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Brethren, He's God on His throne of power right now. And because
God has forsaken Him while He was suffering the wrath of God
as our substitute, because of that, He promises never to leave
nor to forsake any of those for whom He died. So we read here
in Matthew 27, The last part of verse 46, where our Lord Jesus
said, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? I think it
was Martin Luther, trying to study that one portion of God's
Word, cried out, God, forsaken God, how can that be? And brethren,
I don't know how that can be, but I know that it's recorded
in God's Holy Word. Now listen to me. I told Pastor
David I would never preach this, but I'll ask him about it. When
our Lord Jesus was hanging there on that cross, suffering as our
substitute for our sins, He never ceased to be God. He
was still on His throne as very God of very God. He was still
God Almighty. And if that's true, and it is, was He pouring out His wrath
on Himself? I don't know the answer. It's
too deep for me. And Brother David encouraged
me just to believe it by faith. And the things that we can't
understand, leave them alone. So I'm going to leave it alone.
But I know this. Jesus Christ is aware of the
fact that God the Father had forsaken Him because He was made
sin for us and because of that He promises His chosen blood-bought
children I will never leave you nor forsake you that happened
already we were in Christ when God the Father forsook Him. We
were in Christ when Jesus Christ died. The soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. Jesus Christ died and all of
His chosen people died in Him. What I'm telling you this morning
is the price has already been paid for your sins. We just didn't
know it until God brought us under the preaching of His gospel
and enlightened our minds to the truth concerning His darling
Son and what He has accomplished for us. Nobody can lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. Brethren, we're free from the
wrath to come because Jesus Christ already took God's wrath as our
substitute. Rest assured, I'm telling you
the truth, there is not one thing that can be laid to your charge.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain, He washed it white as snow. Jesus Christ was made sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The scripture says we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
He was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. Nothing can be laid to the charge
of God's elect. Why? God has justified us. God has justified us. God has
justified us through the finished work of Jesus Christ when He
came to this earth. and because God has justified
us we have the blessed assurance from a God who cannot lie that
it is always well with the righteous and that's God's people Jesus
Christ was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him and if God be for us who can be against us? Brethren There's only one perfect
sacrifice. And if we turn a deaf ear to
this glorious gospel of God's sovereign redeeming grace for
his particular people, there's nothing but God's eternal wrath
waiting for you. Embrace this truth for the glory
of Jesus Christ. Tell others, bear the good news
Jesus Christ took care of my sin debt and purged them from
God's sight by Himself. People want to know why I come
to church. Why do you drive such a distance
to go to church? I'm not trying, I'm not trying
to earn my salvation. Jesus Christ did that for me. God's people have an attitude
manifesting their gratitude. We come to church because we're
grateful for what Jesus Christ has done for us. We want to hear
that again and again and again. We support the ministry where
the true gospel is preached because we want others to hear. I don't know how much longer
Judy and I have in this life. We're on the sunset side. Our
appointed time of departure might be getting pretty close. But
I know right here in Madisonville, under the ministry of Pastor
David, that if one of my loved ones should walk in this door
on any given Sunday, they're going to hear the true gospel
of God's amazing grace. I would like for this ministry
to continue, wouldn't you? I'd like for my children, my
grandchildren, we have three great-grandchildren now, I would
like to know there's a place where they can come and hear
the truth. That doesn't mean God will save them, That's the
only gospel, the true gospel, that God uses to enlighten His
chosen blood-bought children. Be steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, praying that our God might
be pleased to call our loved ones out of darkness into His
marvelous light. Amen.