for joy. Glory to God and praise and love
be ever, ever given by saints below and saints above the church
in earth and heaven. That's what we just studied. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin. Sets the prisoner free. Luke chapter 7. Go with me to
the Gospel of Luke chapter 7. The continued study through this
blessed Gospel. The Gospel of Luke. This is actually
the longest of the Gospels. I know Matthew has more. verses
or more chapters, but this is actually more, it's longer, more
words. Luke chapter 7, look at verse
31 through 35. The Lord said, Whereunto then
shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they
like? They are like unto children sitting
in the marketplace, calling one another. and say, We have piped
unto you, and ye have not danced. We have mourned to you, and ye
have not wept. But John the Baptist came, neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He hath the devil. The Son of Man is come eating
and drinking, and ye say, Behold, a gluttonous man. and a winebibber,
a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all,
aren't you? All of you. All of you. These are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Word of God. That makes it vital, doesn't
it? As Moses just We just heard and
said, these aren't vain words. This is your life. Ours and our
children. It's of eternal importance that
we hear and believe. In studying God's Word, I ask
and pray to the Lord to give me a message, not just a sermon. A sermon is mostly to the head,
but a message, a story, is to the heart. Brother Gabe and I
were talking about this thing of preaching, and we tried to
put our finger on what is true preaching, a message. We seek
a message from the Lord. Here's the difference. A message,
if it's from the Lord, is going to touch your heart. It's not
just going to inform your head. It's going to reach your heart.
It's going to reach your heart. It's going to be simple. It's
going to be plain. It's from the Lord. Our Lord
preached that way. It wasn't hard to understand.
That wasn't it. People didn't like it. They understood. So a message from the Lord will
be plain. It will be very simple. In the power of the Holy Spirit,
not human reasoning, not words of wisdom. But the Lord will
take it and operate on the heart. And it will be for God's glory,
100%. We've got four points, okay? Very simple. Four simple
points, but sobering truth. And this, what we just read,
Not many verses are there. Our Lord is the one that said
all this. And He's grouping all human beings
under two headings here. They're all children. They're
all children here. Alright? All people are either
the children of God or the children of the devil. We just look at
that. All people, number two, hear
the truth, all of them. Number three, all respond one
way or another according to what's in them, life or death. And fourthly, all will justify
God. All will justify God, either
in their salvation or their condemnation. Alright, that's the fourth one.
Very simple. Very simple. Now, as I said earlier, we may
know that we're a child of God. John says this over and over
again. 1 John. Do you ask, are you interested? Am I a child of God? Do you? To the children of God, this
is very serious. It really is. We come here because
we're serious about it. I say we, because I am. Only God's children ask, seek,
and knock. I want in. I want what you have. Ask. Seek. Call. They call. They really do. They don't quit
calling until they answer. All people are the children of
God or the children of man, or the devil. We're all sons of
Adam. We're all born of Adam. We're
all sons of men. Chosen by God, some are adopted
by God, some are born again by the Word of God, some are the
children of God. The rest, God leaves them alone. They're just the children of
man. And Christ calls them the children
of God of this world, Satan. Look at verse 31 and 32 again.
The Lord said, Whereunto shall I liken the men of this generation,
and women, young people, to what are they like? They're like children.
They're all children. Rather than when it's all said
and done, every one of us are just children. What are children? Children are
dependent, totally dependent. Children are ignorant. Children
are needy. Children believe somebody. Children
are influenced by somebody. Children are following somebody.
Children. I just read in 1 Corinthians
8, it talks about knowledge puffeth up, charity edify. And he went
on to say, if any man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing. They're just
children. That's what the Lord called His disciples, didn't
He? That's what He called them, little children. Does that offend
you? John Cecil is 80 years old. He
turned 80 today. Does it offend you that the Lord
called you a little child? Are you still not like a little
child when it comes to the thing of God? Didn't our Lord say,
except you receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, you
won't even see it, let alone enter it. Little children are receptive
to what you say. Little children are excited about
it. Little children believe you, trust you. Little children...
They react. Don't they? Here's the difference, alright?
The children of God and the children of men are the devil. Those who
are children of God are born of God. Born of God, born of
His Word, born of His Spirit. That's how they're born. That's
how they're created. New creatures. Half. Preaching
the Gospel. One way. All of them. Same. I
don't believe that, then you're not born of God. That's what the world says. I
don't have to hear that. I don't have to believe that.
I'm a child of God as much as anybody else. No, you're not.
There's not one child of God that doesn't say, I was born
by the Word of God. I heard the Word. Like. Children of God, like children,
are alive, okay? The children of God live in Him. They know this. In Him we live,
we move, and have our being. He's God, we're His people. We
know that. We get our breath, the God in
whose hands our breath is, and all our way. The God we just
read about in Deuteronomy 32. He is God. I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. But no, people
of the world, children of Satan say, no, God didn't want that
to happen. God wasn't in there. God didn't
do that. Well, that's no God at all, and that's your false
God that he mentioned there, he said. And it's provoking to
God. God said, I do all these things. They say, no, He didn't. Well,
you said. And such were some of you. You
were in false religion. You say, God didn't have anything
to do with that. But God. I've chosen you to reveal I am
God. They live. They live. Alright? Alive unto God. People
of the world are dead. Dead to His Word. Dead to His
voice. Children develop and grow, don't they? Children develop
and grow to grow up to be like their parents. So do the children
of God. Be like Christ in all things.
Scripture says that which is flesh is flesh, but that which
is spirit is spirit. We grow up into Him in all things.
Listen to me, and you'll understand what I'm saying. To grow up in
Christ in all things is to grow in grace and knowledge of Him.
To know Him, to want to win Him, to be found in Him, to be consumed
with Him, to want to be like Him, to everything about Him.
Christ is your life. He is your life. He really is
your life. You're not concerned with much anything else. You
really want to know Him and be found in Him. There is a difference.
Oh yes, we believe in Jesus, but... No, what do you mean,
but? But there are other things. Oh
no. And another thing, God created
the universe and everything in it, of Him, to Him, through Him,
for Him, because of Him, unto the praise of His glory, everything!
And everything that hath breath, praise Him! Glorify Him! Thank Him! Oh, but we're not
of God. You're not of God. You're the children of Satan. John said they are of the world,
and they speak of the world. and the world hears Him. Those
who are of God speak of God, they speak of Christ, and God's
children hear them. He that is of God heareth God's
Word. That's all they want to hear.
That's all they want to hear. They are all taught of God. Our
Lord said in John 6.45, He's quoting Isaiah 54.13, They shall
all be taught of God. All thy children shall be taught
of the Lord, and great will be the peace of thy children." And
Christ paraphrased it, because He wrote it, He can. He said,
they shall all be taught of God, and every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father comes where? Christ said, it comes
to me. He follows me. He believes me. She doesn't fall in love with
me. I give her this love for me.
She follows me. She wants me. She's my bride.
There's the difference. Led by the Spirit of God, which
is called the Spirit of Christ. People of the world, they are
taught of man. In Isaiah 29 verse 13 it says,
their fear, God says, their fear toward me is taught by the precept
of man. I don't know if you understand
that. Their fear, meaning false religion, people that say they
believe God, don't fear God. Because preachers have told them
so long, you have nothing to fear. God loves you. Jesus died for you. There's no
right, there's no wrong, there's no sin. God made you that way.
It's okay. He loves you anyway. Man said
that, God didn't say that. God's people fear the Lord. They
fear the Lord. They tremble at His Word. They
don't argue with His Word. They tremble at His Word. They
believe His Word. Paul said, the way they call
Harrison, that's what I believe. I believe all that the prophets,
the apostles. They're taught of God. Children,
as I said earlier, play. There's an old saying, the only
difference between the men and the boys is the size of their
toys. Isn't that right? What do little boys grow up doing?
Playing with trucks and cars and bulldozers. I saw a bulldozer
at Wal-Mart. TJ Maxx. Oh man, I'd still like
to have one. I can't have a big one. Little
boy girls, what do they play with? Does it change? Get older? I've got a big truck. It's got a Cummings in it. It doesn't change. Girls, what gives
them joy? What is it that gives them joy?
The people of the world, it's things. Men, it's things. Women, it's
children. It's family. It's home. It's
all this stuff. God's people. It changes that. It changes that. Their affection
is set on things above. I mean, this is real. I'm not
making this up. This is so. If you hold a meeting
where the gospel is preached, where Christ is preached on Friday
night and Saturday night, there's no place they would rather be
than right there. And they'll forsake everybody
and everything to go after that one thing. Life! We're talking about life here.
What you live for, what you talk about, what you pursue, or rather
who, is your life. Right? God's people are alive
under God. They find their joy in the Lord.
It's not fake. I know what religions say. I
know that. But they reveal that it's not by the other things. They don't do one thing. God's
people really do it with one thing. Some of you have been
hearing this message for 45 years, 50 years. What do you want to
hear this morning? You want me to sing? No. So get
that over with. Get to the preaching. Preach
Christ. Preach the Word. Why? That's
the life of God's people. That's what He put in them. They
have it. All hear the truth. All hear the truth. And verse
32, he said, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.
This is the children of God speaking to the others. We have piped
unto you, and ye have not danced. We have mourned you, and ye have
not wept. That's the Word of God, you know. The Word of God
is full of joy. The Word of God is full of sadness.
The Word of God is a message of good news. The Word of God
is a message of bad news. The Word of God is full of promises,
lest we despair. The Word of God is full of warnings,
lest we present. The Word of God is full of woe,
woe, woe. The Word of God is full of rejoice,
rejoice, rejoice. Do you know? Have you heard it? All of it? Do you tremble at
the woe? Are you convicted by the condemnation
of Scripture? Are you? Does it make you mourn? Our Lord said, Blessed are they
that mourn. They shall be comforted. How? By the Word, by the Gospel. Here's the good news. The Gospel
is not good news unless you've heard the bad news. We've piped, you haven't danced,
we've mourned, you haven't wept. There's a response. Paul said
in 2 Corinthians, he said, Go over here with me, I don't
want to misquote. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm supposed to write it down,
I'm supposed to memorize it. But the gospel is to say... Oh,
here it is. 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2. Here it is. 2 Corinthians 2. Alright, look at it. Verse 14. Thanks be unto the
God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. See, Paul said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you. He said, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. Didn't he? Did he? Yes, he did.
Did God's true preachers still do that? Yes, they did. And maketh
manifest the savor of His knowledge. Savor! Sweet smell, taste of
His knowledge. By us in every place, preachers,
we're unto God a sweet savor of Christ and Him that are saved.
and in them that perish, to one with a savor of death unto death,
the other a savor of life unto life." There's the difference. That's what he's talking about.
There's the difference. A savor, all hear the truth.
Paul said, have they not all heard? Yes, barely, the sound
has gone to the end of the world, the truth. And all respond some
way or another. No response is a response. No response. You go up to a dead
man. You say something joyful, he
won't respond. You say something sorrowful,
he won't weep. You say something, play some happy music, he won't
dance. Tell him the saddest tale you've ever told, he won't mourn. All right, all respond to the
truth, to the Word. And our Lord said, we've piped
and you haven't danced. Now, the Scriptures is not condoning
or condemning dancing. Do you hear me? It's not condoning or condemning
dancing. Not advocating or forbidding
dancing. The Scripture speaks about some
dancing. But, and you know what, if you play the right music,
in privacy, I don't care who you are, whether it's Tommy Dorsey or
whatever, you're going to move if there's life there, aren't
you? You're going to sway and move to whatever flips your switch,
whatever beat it is, right? If there's life there, Alright? This gospel is called a joyful
sound. Blessed are they that hear the
joyful sound. Alright? Listen to me. There's mercy with the Lord. God is merciful, gracious, ready
to pardon, forgiving, passing by transgressions. Pledges in
mercy. All them to call on. Mercy! Buddy, somebody needs mercy. We'll start dancing. Really? The chief of sinners. That's why we say this gospel
is only for sinners. Grace! free gifts, a gift of
salvation to somebody that's poor, doesn't have anything,
doesn't know anything, can't do anything, helpless, hopeless,
doomed, damned, pardoned, pre-pardoned, all your iniquities purged completely. Listen to me. Good news! There
is therefore now no condemnation of them in Christ. Who is He
that condemns? God is justified. Who shall lay
anything in the charge of God's elect? Christ died! Does that mean anything? If your body is not moving, and
I don't think we should really, that's what Pentecostalism does
and all that, but your heart ought to be leaping a little
bit right now. If there's life there, If there's a need there,
if there's a love for the truth there, if you're a sinner there
and you hear about mercy, your heart's going to skip a beat. If you love Christ, I'm going
to talk about the only begotten, well-beloved Son of God. This
morning, we're going to talk about Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. Him that died for us. Him that
came, the Son of God. The blessed beloved of His people.
But if you're His beloved, you're going to say, yeah, tell me more.
Oh, you're beautiful. If I start doing anything else,
no, get back to Him. Right? It's marriage, it's a
union. People of the world? Oh yeah,
yeah, we believe that. With pipes, there's righteousness,
full, complete, perfect righteousness to cover your sinful soul, to
make you acceptable. accepted in the blood, completely,
wholly unblameable and unreprovable before the eyes of an all-seeing,
holy and righteous God, a perfect righteousness, whereby God will
say, come on in here. Anybody? As one fell in here, I remember
distinctly that I preached on this passive righteousness. Passive
righteousness. Like that prodigal son came crawling
back, and the father, the first thing he said was, bring the
best robe and put it on him. And this brother wasn't a brother.
Well, he was a brother, but he didn't know it. He said, he came
to me later and he said, that's the sweetest thing I ever heard
in my life. And he started dancing. His heart
started dancing. You know the first time dancing is mentioned
in Scripture, you know what it was? Miriam and some women, after
the Song of Moses, after the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, when
Moses told the people what all God had done for them, bringing
them out of captivity and bringing them into the Promised Land,
and all He gave, fed them and clothed them and washed over
them and all that, and Miriam got a temple and stood out in
front of everybody and said they were dancing. They were so happy.
Why? Because of what great things
God had done for them. Second time, the law of first
mention, you should always consider that. The first time was right
after the song of Moses. You know, they're singing that
song in glory right now. The song of Moses. What is it? I've just been telling it to
you. I've just been preaching it to you. Some of you are smiling.
And if you could, you would. You'd dance. Your hearts would
leap. The second time was when David, was bringing the ark in. Remember? David was bringing the ark in.
The priests were carrying it on their shoulders. And David
was so happy. That the ark, the worship of
God, the true worship, the mercy and truth of God, the mercy seat
and the ark of the covenant was going to be where He was. That's
the gospel. And David was so happy to have
the gospel where he lived. It was at Obed-Edom's house.
Now it came where he is. It's there forever. And he can
go and hear about it and watch the high priest offer up. And
David started dancing before the ark. Do you understand what
I'm talking about? Some don't, I can see it in your
face. The next time Vansing's men said
scripture, they brought Solomon in to crown him. They brought Solomon in to crown
him. They said everybody in that place was dancing. That's Christ. Do you remember the story of
in Acts chapter 3, the man that brought him in and laid him by
the gate of the temple called Beautiful? That's this place.
This is a beautiful place. This is a heavenly place. And
some of you are sitting here right now, brought here, laid
here. Our children brought in here and laid here. Alright? Sitting by the gate, not in it,
by it. Asking alms. Give me some money. Give me something. I need this.
I need that. Simon Peter said, you need one thing. He said,
now look at me. In the name of Jesus Christ.
Do you know what he did? He leaped. He said he went into
the temple of God leaping. What's he going in there for?
To worship God, for calling him out of darkness. We've danced, I mean we've piped
and you haven't danced. Did you read those warnings of
our Lord in Deuteronomy 32? How'd that make you feel? Huh? You know, it's hard for me to
read those things. You know that? You know why?
Because I'm guilty. All of them. But I've got to stand up there
and read it. And it scares me. Does it scare you? To this man
will I look, the Lord said. He is poor and contrite and hard
and trembled, that might work. To this man will I look in love,
in mercy, in favor, in grace, in pardon, in mercy, in forgiveness. Look unto me and be saved, he
said. All the ends there. I am God,
a just God and a Savior. I am just and justifier of all
them that believe on me. You need a Savior? Are you guilty?
Good news. All that mourn, Christ died. And our Lord said in our text,
He said, they all justified God one way or another. It says that
common people, in verse 29, justified God. They were baptized. They
repented. And down in verse 35, wisdom
is justified of all her children. All men and women someday are
going to bow the knee and confess with the tongue. You know that. You know God is true and every
man is a liar. You know that. Do you see how
that God has made foolish the wisdom of this world? Do you?
Do you not see that the wisdom of God is Jesus Christ? in the
power of God. Do you not see that? Wisdom is
justified by children. Everything that's been said this
morning has been from God's Word in it. It's not my thoughts,
not my opinion. It's God's Word. This is wisdom
from above. He said, set your heart on this
thing. It's not veins. It's your life. Is it? Is this
wisdom? Do you justify This wisdom. Do you say, this is true. It's
all true. I need this. Wisdom justified
over people. And you know, they judged the
preacher too. John. John came abstinence. They said, well, he has a devil.
Christ came eating and drinking. The public is a sinner. They
said, he's a sinner. What, they're both? What John
did was show us that we don't need the things of this world
to be happy and joyful. When he was a babe, he leapt
at the sound of Christ coming. We don't need this sound. You're
not condemning eating and drinking, because our Lord came eating
and drinking. But John shows we don't need this thing. We
need to know Him. We need to win Him. After all
these things, do the people of the world say eating and drinking
and this and that? Yeah, God's people, they're going
to live on Him. They need Him, alright? Our Lord
came eating and drinking this thing, showing us. Not just temperance,
but showing us there's no evil in this thing. It's not that
which goeth into the mouth that defiles a man. There's nothing
you put in this mouth that can defile you. Ooh, boy, the people
heard that. The Pharisees didn't like that
a bit. Why? Because that's what they
were trusting. We've never done any of these
things. And you're going to split hell wide open. Because your salvation is dependent
on one thing. Jesus Christ. Now, do you believe that? Doesn't that make you happy? All right, that's the best I
can do with that. May the Lord make it clear. All right, let's
sing a closing hymn, Brother John. What number? 51. Raise the Savior, ye that
know Him. Who can tell how much we understand
with number 51? Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us, He's for conflict,