All right, a good morning, everyone. Our pastor's out of town and
in his place, we have Brother Eric Floyd, elder at the Hurricane
Road Grace Church in Ashland, Kentucky. And we're going to
have my brother Wesley lead us in prayer. And afterwards, Eric,
you just come on up. Our grace is with you, merciful
heaven and Father. We thank you, Lord, for another wonderful day,
another day that I am amazed. Thank You, Lord, for getting
us up, getting us out of bed, and bringing us here to hear
Your Word. Lord, we pray You keep Your hand
upon our pastor, and his travels, and the meeting there. Lord,
we pray for Ms. Floyd this morning, to get in
words, to get in wisdom, for us to hear from You, Lord. We need it. Our Heavenly Father,
pray also for us. All our family and friends that
do not know the true and living God of the Bible, it be not willed
have mercy upon their souls. They know the little G God of
this world very well, they do not know you Lord. Good morning. I'm thankful for the opportunity
to be with you this morning. I wish I could put into words
what your pastor means to us. We're so thankful for him and
Mindy and the fellowship we've shared over the years. I'd ask
you to open your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'll read the first three verses
of 1 Corinthians 15. Beginning with verse one, Paul
says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the gospel
which I preached unto you which also you have received, and wherein
you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory
that which I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I received."
How? That Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. Now, I have three questions. Three questions to ask you and
three questions I'd ask myself. And I hope the answer to these
questions will bring us great comfort. This outline, it's something
that's been on my heart for a couple years now. You guys, I know most
of you remember my father-in-law, Dale. Well, like most good outlines
we have, we've stolen from somebody else. But when Dale was up in
Cleveland Clinic, in fact, when we were driving back, I remember
Brother Paul calling and checking on him. But while we were up
there, he'd sent the women home. or to the hotel for the night.
It was getting dark, so he sent them home. And we sat there in
the hospital. And he said, Eric, I've had a lot of time laying
here on my back to think about some things. And he said, there's
three things, three things that stand out to me. He said, I've
spent time reading the Scriptures. I've spent time in prayer. I've
spent time just pondering. pondering these things, and he
said, here they are. One, am I a sinner? Am I a sinner? Two, did Christ
die for me? Did the Lord Jesus Christ actually
die for me? And three, is he? Is he my only hope? Am I resting
in Him and Him alone for my salvation? So here for just a few minutes
this morning, let's just ponder these three questions and see
what God's Word says concerning them. First, am I a sinner? Now, the Scriptures declare all
have sinned. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Back in Genesis, back in Genesis
2, 16. Turn back to Genesis 2 with me, would you? Genesis 2. Look beginning with verse 16. And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And the Lord
God said, It's not good that the man should be alone. I'll
make a helpmeet for him. Out of the ground the Lord God
formed the beast of the field. and every fowl of the air, and
brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle
and fowl, and every beast of the field. But for Adam there
was not found in health meat for him. And the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one
of his ribs, and closed up the flesh, and stead thereof. And
the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman.
and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because
she was taken out of the man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother, and shall cleave his wife, and they shall
be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. Let's read on here. In chapter 3, it says, The serpent
was more sudden than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said you'll
not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto
the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said you shall not eat it, neither shall you
touch it." She added. She added to God's work. Satan
took away from her, left something out, and she added to it. There's
air there, isn't it? And the serpent said of the woman,
you shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, you shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that it
was good for food and it was pleasant to the eye and a tree
to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof
and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did
eat. And the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew. They knew they were naked, and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron. They tried to cover their sin.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves.
They tried to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said, Where art thou? He said, I heard thy voice
in the garden. And I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee thou
wast naked? Have you eaten of the tree? Where have I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I
did eat. Adam disobeyed God. And God pronounced judgment,
judgment on Adam. Adam rebelled and disobeyed God. I don't know how many times I've
heard Brother Henry say, if you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong
on it, wrong on it all. Right there in the garden, Adam
disobeyed, disobeyed God. In Romans 5, 12 we read, Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, And death by sin,
so death passed upon all men." We're sinners by birth. David
wrote there in the Psalms, he said, the wicked are estranged
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. You know, there's a lot of things
we teach our children, but one thing we don't have to teach
them is how to lie. They don't have to be taught,
and we didn't have to be taught. We come forth from the womb. It's like weeds growing up in
the garden. You don't have to plant them,
do you? They're just there. And they grow taller than anything
else in the garden as well, without any effort on our part. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. We're sinners by birth. We're sinners by choice, by choice. God told Adam, he said, you can
eat anything in the garden but that one tree, but that one tree. Men talk about the Ten Commandments.
We can't obey one, can we? Not one. Adam broke it. Adam disobeyed
God. He took the fruit and he ate
of it. Paul, writing to the Romans,
he said, even when I would do good, evil is present with me. And we're sinners by practice. It's not what we do, it's who
and what we are. We're sinners. Turn to Romans
chapter 3. Let's begin with verse 9 of Romans
chapter 3. What then? Are we better than
they? No, and no wise. For we have before proved, both
Jew and Gentile, we're 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're all going out of the
way. They're together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they use deceit,
and the poison of asp is 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. The way of peace they have not
known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. We know that
whatsoever things the law sayeth, sayeth to them that under the
law that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world, all the
world become guilty, guilty before Almighty God. And listen, our
sin is pictured throughout God's Word. Yet men and women deny
that fact. They refuse to bow. They refuse to fall at their
feet as sinners. They have no need of Christ.
They have no need of a Savior because they're not sinners. Now, they'll say, I'm a Baptist,
or I'm a Methodist, or I'm a Presbyterian, or I'm a whatever. They'll lay
claim to a title real quick, but they will not lay claim to
the title of sinner. People can talk about religious
things. They can talk about religious works. They can talk about being
pretty good people, talk about things they've done for their
neighbor or their community. I've heard people say this, and
you have too, oh, I'm not perfect. Oh, I'm not perfect, but oh,
I'm no sinner. What does God's Word say? We're dead. Dead in trespasses
and sin. So-called churches even encourage
men and women to straighten their lives out, to get things into
order. Could you imagine going up to
one of those lepers and saying, get yourself cleaned up? That'd
be absurd, wouldn't it? Who did Christ come to save?
He came to save sinners, didn't he? The scriptures say this.
Paul, in 1 Timothy 1.15, he said, this is a faithful saying. This is a faithful saying. And it's worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy, the gospel, the
word of God, it's the truth. And it's worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world. He's God in human flesh. He came into the world. And he
came to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm the chief. He didn't say he came to try
and save. He didn't say he came to attempt
to save. He didn't say come to help save. To offer to save, as men would
have it. He didn't say, I came to partially
save. I'll do my part, and you'll do
your part." No. He came to save sinners. He lived, He died, He rose again. He's seated at the right hand
of God. He came to save sinners. Am I a sinner? Can I lay hold
of that title as a sinner? Second question, did Christ Did
the Lord Jesus Christ die for me? Well, here in the Gospel
of Luke, Luke 9, verse 11, we'll look at this a little bit later
in our worship service, but in Luke 9, 11, Luke 9, 11, it says
here that, and the people, And the people, when they knew it, they followed
him, he received them, he spake unto them of the kingdom of God,
and he healed them that needed healing. He healed them that
needed healing. Well, did Christ die for me?
Again, did Christ die for me? Am I in need? Am I in need of
healing? Can I take my place as a sinner
and fall at his feet and seek mercy? Am I without help, without
hope, without God in this world? Time and time again in the scriptures,
we see a needy sinner approach the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy. And I can't think of a time when
the results weren't the same. When a man or a woman came to
Him in need, truly in need, and asked for mercy, He's merciful. He was merciful to them. Remember
that woman with the issue of blood there in Luke chapter 8? She said, if I could just touch
the hem of His garment. She was in need, wasn't she?
She had spent everything she had. And it says she was no better. In fact, she was worse, wasn't
she? She just grew worse. Isn't that
what false religion does for a man or a woman? They spend
all their time and their effort, everything they have, and it
does nothing but make us worse. Just worse. Look at Luke chapter 7. Look
at beginning with verse 37 of Luke 7. And behold, a woman, a woman
in the city, which was a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat
at me in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster box
of ointment and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and
began to wash his feet with tears and then wiped them with the
hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with
ointment. When the Pharisees which bid him sought, he spake
within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would
have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth
him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, Master,
say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. One owed 500 pence and the other
one 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them loved him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast
rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
he said to Simon, See this woman? I entered into thy house. You
gave me no water for my feet. But she hath washed my feet with
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You gave me
no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not
ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you did not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom
little was given, the same loved little. And he said unto her,
thy sins, thy sins are forgiven. And they said it meet with him
and begin to say within themselves, who is this? Who is this? They didn't know who he was.
Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said unto the woman,
faith hath saved thee, go in peace to a sinner. He said, he speaks and says,
go. Go in peace. Did He die for me? Did the Lord
Jesus Christ die for me? Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Over in Romans 6, or Romans 5,
we read for when we were without strength, when we were without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Who died? Christ died. Who did he die for? He died for
the ungodly. Jesus Christ, the only begotten
Son of God, he died a death of shame under the wrath of God. The death of the cross, he bore
our shame, he bore our sin. We read this, without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. Philippians 2.8, let me just
read this to you. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. He died for his people as a sinner's
substitute for all God's elect. He died that he might be just
and justifier. And here in Romans 5.6, let me
just finish reading this. And then what the scriptures
say, he died for our sins. When we were without strength
to obey him, unable to keep his law, no ability to help ourselves,
no ability to do anything for ourselves, in bondage to the
law and unable to do anything about our condition, He died
for us. He died for his sheep. At the
appointed time, Christ died for his sheep. Much more than, much
more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved. That's what the scriptures declare. Save from the wrath to come.
Turn to Isaiah 53 one more time. Did he die? Did he die for me? Isaiah 53. Did he die for me? Surely, look at verse four, Isaiah
53, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We put our name every time, he
bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we did assume him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded. for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we're healed. All we like sheep
gone astray. Christ died for His sheep. We've
turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. He bore our sins. carried our
sorrows. Am I a sinner? Am I a sinner? We read that Christ died for
our sins. Did He die for me? Again, we
read Christ died for our sins. And then last, is He my only
hope? Is He my only hope? Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel The gospel I preach
to you, the gospel where I do stand, the gospel by which you're
saved. What is this gospel? Jesus Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. Is he? Is he? Is the Lord Jesus Christ
my only hope? Well, turn with me to one more
passage of scripture. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter
2. Here in Luke 2, look at the beginning
with verse 25 of Luke 2. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem,
whose name was Simeon. Now that name, Simeon, it means
hearkening. It means one who listens. We're told to be slow to speak
and quick to hear, aren't we? He was this same man. We read he was a just and a devout
man. Like Job, he was one that had
a reputation of avoiding evil. He was a just and a devout man. And he was waiting. He was waiting
for the consolation of Israel. He was waiting for the Comforter. And the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. By faith. By faith, Simeon was waiting
on the Lord, wasn't he? And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. He came into the house of worship.
Wouldn't that be a good place to seek Christ? Huh? Where His gospel is preached?
He came into the temple by the Spirit. He came by the Spirit. And when
the parents brought in the child Jesus to do after Him the custom
of the law, then He took Him up in His arms and He blessed
Him. And He said, look at verse 29,
Lord, now let Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Is Christ my only hope? Is He my only hope? You know,
by nature, we cling to things. We're quick to hold on to things,
aren't we? If you were around our house
a few weeks ago, that was very evident at our place. We were
cleaning out our garage. And me and the boys had stuff
stacked clean up over the cab of the truck, hauling it off
to the dump. Stuff we'd held onto, stuff I'd
held onto for a long, long time. And my brother-in-law, Adam,
he says that stuff's junk. That's his description of about
everything. And isn't that the truth about just everything we
cling to? It's junk. Because the stuff
that was in that garage two weeks ago, I don't miss it. It's in
the dump. I don't miss it a bit. I don't
need it. I didn't need it. We cling to
things now. The works of our hands. Oh, we
like to hold on to them, don't we? This world, if we're being honest,
If we're being honest, we cling to the things of this world. But we got a death grip on them,
don't we? And I don't say that. I don't
say that trying to make anybody feel bad or feel guilty. Because
I'm talking to myself just as loud as I can. It's just the
truth. It's just the truth. But in salvation. In the saving of a sinner, one thing, one person is needful. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ? He was there in Martha's house
over in Luke 10. And Martha, boy, she was busy
cooking and cleaning and just getting everything right. But
where was Mary found? She was sitting at His feet,
wasn't she? And Martha went to the Lord and said, can't you
say something to her about this? He said, Martha, you're busy
with much. But Mary, chosen the one thing,
the one thing that's needful, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus
Christ, sitting at His feet and hanging on His every word. Simeon. Simeon. When he saw the Lord, he took
him up in his arms. And what did he say? What did
he did he say this? Did he say, do you have any idea
how long I have been waiting in this temple? Or did he say,
you know, the community, the community knows me as a just
and an upright man. Now, He said this, he said, let
thy servant depart in peace. Depart how? Because mine eyes
have seen thy salvation. One reason, one reason, mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. He was holding Christ in his
arms. He was looking to Christ, looking to Christ. I ask you
again, am I a sinner? Oh, am I a sinner? Did Christ,
did the Lord Jesus Christ die for me? And third, is he, is
he all my salvation? Is he all my salvation? You know,
I can't, again, I can't think of one sinner in God's word that
came to Christ asking for mercy that did not, did not receive
it. If he was truly seeking the Savior,
he found Him, didn't he? He found Him to be merciful. Well, that's a scripture we read
earlier in Luke 9. It says, when they knew, they
followed Him. They followed Him. And He received
them. And He spoke unto them of the
kingdom of God. He spoke to them of the gospel.
And he healed. Who did he heal? All those that
needed healing. He did it. Why would a man or
a woman seek salvation anywhere else but Christ and Christ alone? Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. It doesn't work.