Open with me, if you would, to
1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. My intention, sometimes
my intention is to make something brief, and it doesn't always
turn out that way. So if it does not, I'm going
against my intention. I want to be as brief as I can
be because I want to be clear and to the point. I have something
that I want to be candid about this morning. This is a little
different. I pray this is a blessing. I
believe this will be a help. I do believe it'll be a help.
This has been a help for me. It's a practical help, all right,
a practical daily use for every believer. First Peter 3 verse
15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts And be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Be ready always
to give an answer to every man that ask you A reason of the
hope that's in you with meekness and fear. Now every God called
sinner, every single one, is what he is by the grace of God. Everyone. We are all in this
flesh just sinful, ignorant, dead flesh. That's all we are.
God, in His time, comes to each one of His people. It's a work
that He does, by His Spirit, in His time, through whatever
means He sees fit. And He comes to each person,
and He quickens that person from spiritual death to spiritual
life. All of a sudden, this person's
been living a life of spiritual deadness. Life, spiritual life takes place. He opens that person's eyes to
the truth. Until that moment, a person has
no idea what the Bible says, it's a closed book, can't understand
it, and then all of a sudden, they start to see some things.
They start to understand what the Lord has written in His Word.
Even though they see, as the scripture says, through a glass
darkly. Meaning, even though these eyes
cannot fully enter into the fullness of the things of God, cannot
fully see the entirety of it, but even so, God convinces each
person that the truth that they do see is indeed the truth. We don't see it in its fullness.
We don't see it in its entirety, but God's people are convinced. The Lord may start dealing with
somebody, and they're just not convinced, and they're searching,
and they're looking, and they're trying to make sure, and all
of a sudden, they become convinced, God has revealed the truth to
me. And no, I don't understand it
in its fullness, but what I do understand, this is the truth. God's revealed the truth. So,
in excitement, this is what we see as it takes place. in excitement,
in thankfulness, in a love and a concern for other people's
souls, they run out and they try to tell everybody they can
this truth that God has revealed to them. That's the natural response. They see their family members.
They see people dying. They see people lost, knowing
they're going to go meet God. So they run and they try to go
tell them this truth that God has revealed to me. I want you
to know about this. The only problem for me is they
cannot quite figure out how to put it into words. They want to tell everybody.
They just don't know how to say it. They just don't know how
to say it. Now, a man from another state,
who is very dear to me, is currently experiencing this. And I heard
him ask another man, he didn't ask me, I was just sitting there,
listening to their conversation. But he asked another man, he
said, are asking me what we believe. They want me to explain to them
what we believe. He said, I'm trying to answer
them. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to find the words to say what
it is that we believe, but I just don't know what to say. I just
do not know how to say it. So here was this question. He
said, could you tell me something to say? And I was sitting here
listening to this going, this is excellent. This is wisdom.
This is humility. This is... Could you tell me
something to say? Tell me how to say this. I know where he is. I still experience
that to this day. How do I say this? How do I... best, briefly, quickly describe
to someone what God has revealed to me. If I have one quick moment
in time, how do I put it into words? Alright, so I was sitting
there listening and his question obviously got me to thinking,
how would I answer him? I didn't answer him because he
didn't ask me. But I was sitting there thinking, if he asked me,
what would be my answer to him? As simply as I could put it,
what do we preach and believe? What makes it different? If it's
so different and everybody needs to hear, what do we preach and
believe? Verse 15 says, be ready always
to give an answer. Give an answer. Okay. I have
two answers. Two answers for us. Now, there
is only one answer. There's only one answer. From
a practical point of view, though, from a real daily situation point
of view, when somebody in reality comes to you and is asking you
to answer this question, what do you believe? What do we preach
here? What we're getting at is, how
do I put this into my own words? How do I put what we believe
into my own words? So in that sense, every single
one of us has our own answer to what it is we believe. Okay,
I want to tell you the answer. I have two. First, I want to
tell you the answer that some believing men gave who lived
in a period of time called the Reformation. They gave a good,
clear, to the point answer. And then after that, after I've
given much thought to this and prayer to this, I want to give
you my answer in my own words. And this is my hope from this.
I hope this will help you as you search for your own words
and your own answer. Now, I don't know specifically
who the man or the men were who said this, but men like Martin
Luther and John Calvin, this was the answer that they held
to. This is the answer we held to.
Same one. This is what they said. Scriptures
alone. Faith alone. Grace alone. Christ alone. The glory of God
alone. That was their answer. That is
a good answer. That's a good answer. Scriptures
alone. I mean that separates what we
believe from every other belief out there. Scriptures alone. Those Bereans were more noble
than the Thessalonians because they searched the Scriptures
daily to see whether these things were so. They didn't just take
a man's word for it. They searched the Scriptures.
Scriptures alone. When it comes to the authority
for what we believe and the source for what we believe, the answer
is the Scriptures alone. We believe the Scriptures alone.
where every man and woman goes wrong and falls into false religion. That error of false religion
is, and our Lord's the one who said this. He said, they do err
not knowing the scriptures. Not knowing the scriptures. They
follow what a man says instead of what God says. The Apostle
Paul said, This I confess unto thee, that after the way that
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing
all things which are written in the law of the prophets. Not some of the things, all of
the things. Scriptures alone. If it says
it, we believe it. Faith alone. Faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith alone. What do we believe? We believe
Him. We believe every word that has
proceeded out of His mouth. We believe His promises, these
glorious promises. We believe them. We believe that
He came and He lived and He died to totally put away our sins.
We believe that He's able to keep every promise and keep us
all the way to the end. We believe Him. We believe Him. We believe that this faith is
all God requires of His people. And we believe that faith is
the evidence that we are one of God's people. Nothing added
to it. Faith alone in Christ, alright? Grace alone. We believe that even the faith
we just mentioned is not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. Every single
thing is the gift of God. It's all the gift of God. Salvation is by God's free gift
alone. Alone, apart from any work of
man. All false religion Every single false religion that there
is, which is every religion other than what this word says, there's
only one gospel. There is only one truth. And
all false religion is built on a person's work in some way,
shape, or form. If a person believes that he
or she has to earn salvation, then that person believes a lie.
Salvation is not earned. Salvation is by grace alone. It's the free gift of Christ alone. Scriptures alone. Faith alone. Grace alone. Christ alone. Christ
alone. Christ is all. When it comes
to our salvation, Christ is always the answer. Christ is the only
answer. Who were we chosen in to be saved? Christ alone. Who dealt with and suffered from
and put away all the sin of all of God's people? Christ alone.
Who satisfied the wrath of God? Christ alone. who redeemed us
back. You know, that's the glory of
the gospel to me, is that Christ would not only put away all of
that sin that we committed and pay that debt in full, but He
reinstated us back to where we were in the beginning, redeemed
us back, made us accepted in the Beloved. Who did that? Christ
by Himself alone. All the glory goes to Him alone. That's a great question. Who
gets the glory? Who gets the glory? We do not
share the glory with Him. We don't take any credit whatsoever
in our own salvation. I want to repeat that a hundred
times. We don't take any credit whatsoever
in our own salvation. None. None. No credit. If any man glory, let him glory
in the Lord. All right, so that's a wonderful
answer. That is a wonderful answer to what we believe. More importantly
than just what we believe, that's what God's Word declares, whether
we believe it or not. It's really, you know, when somebody
says, what do you believe, that's really not the issue. The question
is, what did God say? And if I'm one of his, he'll
cause me to believe it. Scriptures alone, faith alone,
grace alone, Christ alone, the glory of God alone. All right,
now, I want to give you the same answer. My answer is no different
from that. I want to give you the same answer in my own words.
I have three statements. Because I am a pastor, it probably
comes up a little more often for me than for most. You know,
people ask the question, what do you do for a living? And it
opens up the conversation. When that happens, usually I
start right here. You know, they want to know what
is sovereign. That throws them for a loop. Sovereign grace.
Usually I start right here. We preach and we believe that
God is actually God. God is actually God. I mean actually God in everything
that that means. Turn with me if you would over
to Joshua chapter 2. This is Rahab receiving the spies. Joshua 2 verse 9 says, And she said unto the men, I
know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror
is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. when you came out
of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites
that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion and Og, whom you
utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these
things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
He is God." That was revealed to her. For the first time, I've seen
God. I mean THE God. The Lord your
God, He is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath. That's
what this entire book says about Him. The entire book. The message of truth simply declares
that God is God. God is God. The absolute, almighty,
all-controlling God is God. He's God. Apart from any action
or any reaction from anybody or anything, He's God. No matter
what, He is God. Nothing or no one can let Him
be God. Nothing or no one can stop Him
from being God. If He wants to kill, He kills. If He wants to make alive, He
makes alive. He does whatever He purposes
to do in the armies of heaven, the inhabitants of men. None
can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou? He's God.
He is the potter. Everything else is the clay,
including us. He's God. I want people to know
that. If I get that small window of
opportunity, that's one of the first things I want people to
know. God is God. I mean God. The God we're all
gonna have to go stand before is God. He's God. All right, here's the second
quick statement. Salvation is finished. I want
people to know that. God is God. Salvation is finished. It was by grace alone, through
faith alone, accomplished by Christ alone, to the glory of
God alone. And that's where we leave it.
That's where we leave it. Salvation is finished. It's finished. The gospel is not an invitation. That's what I would love to be
able, if the Lord would let me, I'd love to convey that on television
to whoever can hear it. The gospel is not an invitation.
I want to do it kindly. I want to do it tenderly, I want
to do it in a gentle way, but I want to do it as the oracles
of God. With all dogmatic fact, this
is how it is. Salvation is finished. The gospel
is not an invitation. The gospel is a declaration.
It is a declaration. It's a notification. Now, I said
I wanted to be brief and I'm messing that up. So just listen
to this Titus three. Titus three says. This is Titus
3, 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. Saved is past tense. By the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, He saved us. If it was not finished, honestly
finished. If Christ didn't finish it, then
there would be something left for us to do. But Paul said to
Titus, it's not by works of righteousness which we have done. There's nothing
left to be done. Salvation is finished. Believing
is an evidence that God has given faith. Coming to Christ is an
evidence that God the Father is drawing. I will tell men what
God has told me to tell men. Come to Christ. Our Lord said,
come unto me. Knowing that no man is able to
unless the Father draws him. Coming to Christ. A sinner will
come. That's not by works which we
have done. I know that. But a sinner will believe. He
will. And he will come to Christ. And
those are going to be evidences of the Father's doing and the
Lord's doing. Baptism is a confession of what
Christ has finished, finished. He said it's finished. So to
say that salvation is not finished, that's to steal the glory from
Christ and to deny the reason he came, the whole reason he
came. God is the sovereign God. ruling, reigning. Salvation is
finished. Christ accomplished what he set
out to do. Successful Savior. Here's the last thing I want
people to know. Christ came to save sinners. I want them to know that God
is God. I want them to know that salvation is finished. And I
want them to know that Christ came to save sinners. Sinners. Real, actual sinners. The kind of people that make
you scratch your head over. The kind of people that you naturally
say, it's sinners, but it's not Him. He came to save sinners. Sinners. Most people preach and
believe. To me, this is a light bulb statement. Most people preach and believe
that Christ came to save those who are not sinners. That's not what we preach. That's
not what we believe, and it's because that's not what God said.
That's not what God said. 1 Timothy 1.15 says, This is
a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. What do I believe? I honestly
believe I'm just a beggar who can tell another beggar where
he found bread. That's it. Romans 5 says He came to die
for the ungodly. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. He said that He would have mercy
on whom He'll have mercy. And this is who He said He'll
have mercy on. Sinners. Sinners. There are very few sinners
in the world. There are not many. Just a handful.
Just scattered. They're just scattered. A few
here, a few there. And God's going to call out every
single sinner on this earth. And if the Lord would open our
eyes to see what that means, I mean, every person on earth
is a sinner. But only God's people get a glimpse of their sin and
start to cry out, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. Scriptures alone, faith alone,
grace alone, Christ alone, the glory of God alone. God is God,
salvation is finished, Christ came to save sinners. I honestly
hope the Lord will give us, we're heading into 2018, and I hope the Lord will give us many
opportunities to witness the truth to somebody in 2018. I
hope every person here will get more opportunities than we've
ever been given before. And I pray the Lord will be with
us and give us the words. Give us what to say at that moment
in time to tell somebody the truth. I pray to be of his spirit
and that the Lord will call out a sheep. I pray he'll cause him
to. He'll arrest him. Almighty love
arrest that man. Calls him to cry out for mercy.
All right, you're dismissed.