Donny Bale had a similar setup
there in Crossville when Gabe and I preached there, I think
the first of July or some point there. But I did the same thing
there, but he had turned it on and set it down, and I laid my
Bible on it. So the recording sounded like.
Thank you for the reminder, John. So good to be back with you again
today, and I pray that the Lord might be pleased to meet with
us and send His Spirit, and that we might see Christ, that He
might be high and lifted up. I sure appreciate that reading,
Paul, and I sure appreciate that song, Gabe, prepared my heart
to worship God. In our day, religion makes little
of man's sin. You know that, and so do I. Much
is made of man's will, much is made of man's works, and much
is made of man's worth, but little is made of man's sin. I hear a lot today about what
men do for God, don't you? We're doing this and we're doing
that. My mind immediately goes to that day of judgment when
men and women will stand before God and they say, Lord, haven't
we done this and haven't we done that? We've preached in Your
name. We've cast out devils. We've built big churches. And
the Lord said, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Did you
know that Religion can be works of iniquity? And then he said
this, I never knew you. I never knew you. My, what horrible
words to hear. Does God not punish sin anymore? I know that's not a pleasant
thought because we're all sinners. But has something changed since
the Bible was written? You'd sure think so, hearing
the average preacher preach. Has the Almighty Judge forsaken
His holiness and His justice to simply become one who loves
everyone and excuses everyone's sin? Has God changed? Today, men and women alike who
have never read the Bible, never attended church, are quick to
tell you that they believe that if they treat people as they
ought to be treated, and if they act responsibly and morally and
do the best that they can do, that God gives them a well-deserved
pat on the back and entrance into heaven. Only one problem with that. We
can't treat people like they ought to be treated, and we can't
act responsibly and morally, and we can't do the best we can
do. And even if we could do good,
God requires perfection. It must be perfect to be accepted. No wonder the Scripture is clear
in the fact that we cannot do. what God requires of us. Somebody's
got to do it for us. And that's who we're here to
talk about this weekend, that one who does for us what we cannot
do for ourselves. I'm interested in him. I want
to hear him, about him. Turn with me if you would to
the Old Testament book of Ezekiel chapter 18. Ezekiel chapter 18. I quote this verse often in my
preaching, but I have to confess to you this morning that I'm
guilty of quoting only part of the verse. Sometimes we do that. But, Look at Ezekiel chapter
18 and verse 4 with me. Here God says, Behold, all souls
are mine. As the soul of the father, so
also the soul of the son is mine. And the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. All souls belong to God. You
know, I got to thinking about that. All souls do. Oftentimes we think in our minds,
those who profess Christ, those who make a profession of faith,
their souls belong to God, but no. Ezekiel, the Spirit of God
through Ezekiel says, all souls are mine. All souls belong to
God. The soul of the son, the son
of the father, the son of the mother, the son of the daughter,
all. All means all, doesn't it? All souls belong to God by right
of creation. As the Creator of the soul, as
the upholder of the soul, as the judge of the soul, God can
do what He will with the soul. Yours, mine, and everyone else's. There are no codes of law to
guide God. None. His will is His law. And he doeth according to his
will, the scripture says, in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what are you doing? God, what are you doing? God
says, all that I will to do. Gabe said last night, read Psalm
115, John did too. Our God is in the heavens and
He's done whatsoever He has pleased. Whatever the Lord pleased, that
did He. That's not hard, is it? Folks just don't believe it.
His will is His law. Every being who's ever lived
on earth and whom God breathed in the breath of physical life
belong to God. Now, not in a saving way. but
in a way of possession and in a way of ownership. And that's
why the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 20, verse 15, is it not lawful? He asked that question. Is it
not lawful? Is it not right for me to do what I will with my
own? Teresa and I have a poem that
we've worked all our married life. provide for our children and
all. And if I wanted to go, when I get home, if I wanted to go
home and paint it purple, or pink, or some strange color,
if someone came up to me and said, why are you painting your
house that color? I'd say because it's mine. And
I can do with it what I will. But we won't afford God that
same right It's right for the Lord to do
what He will with His own. It's lawful. God has the right
as God. God has the right as Creator. God has the right as the Sustainer
of all things. All belong to Him. Despite their
rebellion, despite their sin, none can flee from His absolute
right as God to do what He will with His own. Why? Because all
souls belong to God. For what purpose did God make
these souls? Well, God, from his own word,
tells us. He said, I have created him,
or them, for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. And again, he says, this people
have I formed for myself. that they shall show forth my
praise. You know, this is not about us.
We sometimes think it is. My mom used to tell me often,
David Lee, that's what she called me. She said, you think this
world revolves around you? And you know what? I did. But
it doesn't. It doesn't. I found that out. God revealed that to me. Now
what does God say in our text concerning all souls that belong
to Him? Does God tell us that our souls
will be fine if we treat people as they ought to be treated?
Does God say that as long as we act responsibly and morally
that it will be well with our soul? Does God tell us that our
souls will be saved if we simply do the best that we can do no
matter how short we come of the glory of God? Is that what God
says? No. God doesn't say that at all.
God said, all souls are mine. But that's not all He said. He
said the soul that's in it, it shall die. You know, I've seen signs and
bumper stickers and heard people say, and I know you have too,
God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. That's not true. Men think they're so clever with
their little catchy sayings, but most of them are not true. If God said it, that settles
it. Doesn't matter if you believe
it or not. Our faith or our lack of faith in no way changes the
truth. You and I are not in the equation.
The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass. As I have purpose, so shall it
stand. Where does it say anything about
us in that verse? God did not say, Surely as I
have thought. If someone will only believe, it shall come to pass. God didn't
say, surely as I have purpose, if someone would just exercise
their will and help out a little bit, my purpose will stand. That's not what God said. We play no part in the will and
the purpose of God. We're just recipients of His
mercy and grace. God will have mercy on whom He'll
have mercy. You know what? I love that. Because He may have mercy on
me. If He will have mercy on whom
He'll have mercy, maybe I am one of those recipients. As we said last night, we will
not come to Christ that we might have life. By nature, our will
is always contrary to the will of God. Did you hear me on that?
By nature, our will Not the will of God. Usually
just the opposite. Pilate, speaking of Christ, said,
this man's done nothing worthy of death. I'll chastise him. I'll release him. You know, it
was a custom that a prisoner during the Passover would be
released, and Pilate was going to release the Lord Jesus, yet
the people cried out, away with this man, and release unto us
Barabbas. You know, Barabbas was a murderer. Here we see that men by nature
prefer a murderer over God. I didn't say that. That's what
God said. Pilate willing to release the
Lord Jesus said to this crowd of haters, I find no fault in
this man at all. And what did they cry? Crucify. nail him to the tree and put
him in the middle to show that he was the worst of all three.
This is God we're talking about. Man, you want to see something
of your depravity by nature? Something of your will? And Pilate released unto them
him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, that being
Barabbas, whom they had desired. but he delivered Jesus, now listen,
to their will. And you wanna say something to
your will? There it is. I don't think I'd be bragging
about my free will. Our will's not to bow to Christ.
Our will's not to come to Christ for life. Our will is not to
have him to reign over us. Our will is, if we could get
our hands on him, we'd kill him. Oh, preacher, now you're being
a little bit strong there. No, I'm not. That's what God
says. And these folks proved it. What wretched and depraved sinners
we are. And the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. Those who think God is too good,
too loving, too forgiving to punish sin know nothing, absolutely
nothing of the holiness and the justice of God. God's justice
is as much a part of His character as His love, as His mercy, as
His grace, His long-suffering, His goodness, and even His forgiveness. Because God is holy, He will
by no means clear the guilty. No means. Under no circumstance. His holy and strict justice will
not allow Him. All my life, a man stood and
told me, God loves you. Never told me anything about
the holiness of God. that God's gonna punish sin?
Unless they can provide perfection? Nobody told me that. And I remember
very vividly, 1986, you were there. A 10-year-old young man,
look at him now. I tell Gabe all the time, I really
look up to you. But I heard some men come and
tell me about the true God, the true Savior. And I told Teresa,
I said, somebody finally told me the truth about God. Told me the truth. That's the
truth. Men and women today declare God's
goodness to be more of a weakness. Men have reduced the sovereign
love of Christ to nothing more than frailty. You can tell by
the way they talk, the man upstairs, or the little old man upstairs.
That's just blasphemy. They declare that God loves everyone
and beg sinners to love Him back. What blasphemy. An awakening
it'll be when men and women go out into eternity and find out
that God is not at all as they perceived Him to be. God warned us when He said, these
things you have done because you thought that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. But I will reprove you and set
things in order before your eyes. To some, God has done that now.
To some, God will do it later in eternity. And it'll be too
late. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts
than your thoughts. The problem men and women have
today is they haven't been taught correctly. Thank God. Listen, if you attend this church,
thank God that God has sent you a man that'll tell you the truth
about Himself. Men and women today haven't seen
the depths of their sin and depravity, and most everyone will agree
that they're not perfect. Oh, I know I'm not perfect. But
none will agree that they're depraved. I'm not perfect, but... I'm not all that bad. I'm a pretty
good guy. I treat people as they ought
to be treated. I act morally and responsibly. But I tell you, you tell a believer
and they'll agree. They'll say, yep, that's me. There's only one thing that believers
don't really agree on, and that's who's the biggest sinner. They'll
say, no, I'm the biggest sinner. And the other one will say, no,
I am. But we agree with God that we're
sinners, don't we? And that we're depraved. And
that if God don't do something for us, we're doomed. Oh, that God might do something
for you if you're without Christ. Would you turn over to the book
of Psalms with me? You may want to stick your marker
here. Psalm 19, if you would. I want to just show you a verse
here. Psalm chapter 19. I don't know that I ever considered
this verse before, but in light of what we're talking about,
I want to just for a minute, Look at verse 12, Psalm 19, verse
12. Here the Psalmist David asked
a very revealing question. He asked, who can understand
his errors? What we know is nothing compared
to what we don't know. A lot of times when people try
to tell you how much they know, they really reveal how much they
don't know. Astronomers tell us about the
undiscovered stars in the vast universe, the unknown galaxies,
and no doubt it exceeds our understanding. It just boggles my mind. When
you talk about traveling at the speed of light, how long it takes
to even get outside our galaxy, you begin to fathom with these
little finite minds of ours a little bit of just the vastness of God
and his creation. But we don't know much. Yet the
vast universe is no less comprehensible than the depths of our depravity.
Who can understand his errors? Well, we'd sooner predict the
grains of sand on the seashore than the number of sins in a
man's life. We're as full of sin as the ocean
is full of salt. And how much we sin really is
not the question that David is asking here. The question is,
who can understand their errors? Who can understand their sins? You know, we cannot not sin. I don't understand that. I want to do what's right, but
that which I want to do, I don't do. And that which I don't want
to do, that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who's
going to deliver me from the body of this death? And thank
God, Paul answered his own question. He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ. That's who. If I don't have a
substitute, if I don't have someone to stand in my place before God,
perfectly keeping God's law, perfectly satisfying God's justice,
I'm a doomed man. And you're a doomed man or woman
if you're hearing me this morning. We cannot not sin, I don't understand
that. But before we can understand
anything about our sins, some mysteries have to be revealed
to us. And I use that word revealed on purpose. It's got to be revealed
to us. The first mystery that must be
made known to us is the fall of man. You said it last night. If we're wrong about the fall,
we're wrong about it all. We just are. Until we understand
something of the fall of our first parents, we'll never understand
our sin. And until I know how much my
ability and my will are debased and depraved, until I can see
and understand how much my will is in bondage to my nature, and my judgment is bent towards
sin, it's just not possible for me to know the extent of my guilt. You either. This is not a popular
message among those who think themselves to be righteous, but
because of disobedience and the fall of man, we're a wreaking
mass of corruption. And that'll offend some people.
I remember Brother Scott Richardson said at a conference one time,
I can't remember if this was a conference before I was there,
if I heard this myself, it doesn't really matter. And some folks
got offended, but he said, we're no different than a warm bucket
of spit. And people go, that's gross.
And as gross as we are in the eyes of God, a mass of corruption. God describes our condition this
way, from the sole of the foot even into the head, there's no
soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores that have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment. You can think pretty graphically
there according to that description. And that's how God sees us outside
of Christ. I am acquainted with a super
religious, arrogant man who's so fond of himself that he once
told me that he would love to have a window to his heart so
that everyone could see his good intentions. My grandmother used to say, good
intentions pave the road to hell. I suppose that's right. Our good
intentions, our imagined righteousness, our distorted way of thinking
will not allow us to see our sin. They'll not allow us to
understand our errors. And I confess to you this morning
that I thank God that I don't have a window to my heart that
you can look upon. I'd run out those back doors
and run as far and as fast as I could if you could see into
my heart. And I tell you, if there's a
window to my heart that you could look in, the first place I'd
run would be to Lowe's or somewhere else to buy some shutters. Our hearts are deceitful above
all things. How many things? All things. They're desperately wicked. How
wicked? Desperately so. They're wicked
to the extreme and the worst degree. That's what desperately
means. Let me quickly give you some synonyms for desperately.
Seriously deceitful. That's what our hearts are. Seriously
deceitful. Severely deceitful. Critically deceitful. Dangerously deceitful. Chronically deceitful. Get the picture? And then this
question follows, who can know it? We certainly can't. We can't enter into the depths
of the wickedness of our hearts, our own hearts, or the hearts
of others. But God can, and God does. God said, I, the Lord, search
the heart. I alone try the reigns. The Hebrew
word for reigns means the mind. God, only God knows our hearts
and our minds. What does the scripture say about
our minds? It's enmity against God. That word enmity means hostile. Our minds and our hearts are
hostile toward God. The Lord looked down upon man.
And He said, every thought of a man's heart is only evil continually. Not only evil, but only evil
all the time. That's what God says about our
hearts. And only He can give man, every
man, every woman, according to his ways and according to the
fruit of his own doings. Only God can fully understand
our errors. Only God can fully understand
our sin. Only God can know the condition
of our souls. And what does God say about them?
He says, behold, all souls are mine. The father's soul, the
son's soul, the mother's soul, the daughter's soul. Your soul,
my soul, they all belong to God. And the soul that sins, it shall
die. Not it might die. It shall die. So what hope do we have? If we're
all sinners, if we all sin continually, if our minds and our hearts are
only evil continually, what hope do we have? I've got to find
someone. that I can stand in their place,
or that will stand in my place, and that I'll be seen as they're
seen. And that's going to take a perfect
man, because God accepts nothing but perfection. It must be perfect. It must be perfect to be accepted. Our only hope is that if God
will not give us the wrath, the judgment, and the justice that
we deserve, and that He gives us His mercy and His grace and
His compassion, and that's found in one place and one place only. I'm so thankful that God has
revealed to me that I'm a sinner. Why? Because it was sinners that
our Lord came to save. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save good people? No. Those that are well have
no need of a physician. But those that are sick do. Oh,
it's a faithful saying and worthy of all our acceptance that Christ,
God the Son, came into this world to save sinners. Those same ones
that are sick from the sole of their foot to the top of their
heads with those wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that hadn't
been doctored up. Secondly, it will be needful
for us to understand the mystery of what God's law reveals. What
folks don't understand about the law is, is that all the law
of God's got to be kept. I've heard people say foolish
things like, well, I do pretty good on eight out of ten of the
Ten Commandments. I've never kept a one of them.
Not perfectly. That's what folks don't understand.
God's law doesn't only have to be kept, it's got to be kept
perfectly. If we offend the law in one point,
the scripture says we're guilty of the whole law. And there's a spiritual side
to the law, a heart side I call it. The law of God says, thou
shalt not kill. And the spiritual heart side
of the law says, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And
you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
You've heard it said of them of old that thou shalt not kill,
but whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Well, I've never
killed anyone. Maybe not physically. The law of God says, Thou shalt
not commit adultery. The spiritual heart side of the
law says, He that looketh upon a woman to lust after her commits
adultery already in his heart. My! God's law is Inflexible. It's strict. We're guilty outwardly and inwardly.
We're guilty of outward sins and we're guilty of inward sins.
And if we hadn't done it, we've most certainly thought it. We
know that by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, because the soul that sins, it shall die. And so death passed
upon all men and all women for all, for that all have sinned. But, there's that precious word
again, the gift of grace is also by one man, Jesus Christ, who
has abounded unto many, not all, but to many. The wages of sin
is death, but there's an exception. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. I had a man recently told me
that he was having difficulty with believing that God would
send anyone to hell. He says, well, the scripture
says that his mercy endures forever. And I said, who does His mercy
endure forever too? There's no love. There's no mercy.
There's no grace outside of that which God has in Christ. And
if you and I aren't in Him, I'm telling you, there is no mercy. There is no grace. There is no
forgiveness of sin. There's no love. Smile. God loves you. Maybe He don't. Maybe He don't. If you're not
in Christ, He don't. And to have an understanding
of how black sin is, we must by the holy law of God see how
bright and holy God is. Just like I was telling you last
night, the pearl or the diamond never glistens with such beauty
as it does when it's held in front of a black backdrop. And that's what the law of God
does for the believer. It provides that black backdrop. My. It reveals the blackness of our
sin. It reveals the brightness of
Christ's redemption. It shows us what Christ did for
us that which we could never do for ourselves. In Mark chapter 8, the Lord began
to show and teach His disciples how He must suffer horrible things
and be killed. And after three days, rise again.
He was teaching them of the cross. He was showing them the gospel
of substitution. That's our message. Christ is
doing for us what we cannot do. We cannot do what God demands
of us. Christ has to do it for us. That's
why our message is so singular. There's one mediator between
God and man. The man Christ Jesus. You're
not going to have any mediation with God apart from Him. Because
there's only one mediator. Isn't that right, John? Just
one. Christ is the basis for our acceptance. And the question is, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Not just that
He did, but how did He? How that Christ was made to be
sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the only basis of our
acceptance. Our sin has separated us from God. Our sin has hid
His face from us. Our sin is why He won't hear
us. What hope then do we have? My hope is that He always hears
His Son. I'm accepted only in Christ,
the Beloved. When the Lord began to tell His
disciples of all that He must suffer, Peter began to take issue
with the Lord on the matter. His disciples just didn't understand.
Much like we don't. There's none that understand
it. Peter said, let's don't talk anymore about suffering. He said,
let's don't talk anymore of sacrifice. Let's don't talk anymore of death,
dying, burial in the grave. Let's talk about love. Let's
talk about living. Let's talk about building a kingdom
here. And the Lord rebuked Peter. Matter
of fact, He rebuked him pretty strongly. He said, Get thee behind
me, Satan. Thou savorest the things of man,
not the things of God. What are you savoring this morning? Men today like to talk about
love, don't they? They say, God loves you and wants
you to love Him back. They like to talk about living,
but they don't like to talk about sin. They don't like to talk
about dying. It's a true saying. Everybody
wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. They don't like to talk about
dying. They don't like to talk about suffering. They preach that God wants you
to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. God wants you to be happy. God
wants you to have nice things. He very well may, but that's
not the issue. They talk about all they're doing
for God. They talk about building a ministry. They talk about building
an earthly kingdom. Someone asked my pastor, Maurice
Montgomery, one time. I happened to be with him. I
heard it with my own ear. They said, Brother Montgomery,
what do you attribute the success of your ministry to? And if you
knew Maurice at all, he was a man's man. He stopped for a second. He said, well, I don't have a
ministry. And they were a bit shocked.
He said, God has a ministry. He said, I just tend to a few
sheep. in Madisonville, Kentucky. You see, beloved, both self and
Christ cannot reign. No man or woman can serve two
masters. He'll cling to the one and hate
the other. Most will serve their own selfish needs. And the believer,
however, takes up his cross and he follows Christ. How do we
do that? Well, Christ said that we must
deny our sinful selves. We deny our self-righteousness. We must deny any godliness in
and of ourselves. We must deny worldly lust. Oh, there are things that are
very appealing in this world. But I can tell you this, at the
age of 65 now, that things have just lost their
luster. They have. That's God's doing. God's going
to wean His people from this world. We must deny the pleasures of
this life and this world. Men today, I tell you just the
opposite. What do they say? Go for the gusto. I don't know
what gusto is, but it don't sound too good. They say, oh, if it
feels good, do it. That's serving self. Our Lord
Jesus said, take up your cross and follow Me. However shameful
and painful it may be, with grace and humility and patience, self-denial
through the suffering and death of self, take up your cross and
follow Christ. Why? Because of the soul that
sins, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. And
unless our sins put away, we're going to die in our sin. Yes, the wages of sin is death,
but, but, but, but the gift of God is eternal life. And that
gift is in His Son. And that's what we're going to
preach. We're going to preach Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. All souls are mine, God says. The soul of the father, the soul
of the son is mine, and the soul that sins, it shall die. But
you know what it says in the next verse. Did you mark Ezekiel? I mean, look at this. The very next verse of what he
says. Verse 4, Behold, all souls are
mine as the soul of the Father. So also the soul of the Son is
mine, the soul that sinneth it shall die. Verse 5, But if a
man be just, and do that which is lawful and
right. Well, you've been telling us for 35 minutes now we can't
do that. And you can't. But there's one
who did for his people. My, my. If a man be just and do what's lawful and right,
he shall live. Thank God that Christ has done
for me that which is lawful and right. That which I could not do for
myself. Amen.