1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, says
this, 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, Though
I preach the gospel, and I do, I do confidently say that, I have
nothing to glory For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is
unto me if I preach not the gospel." There is a great need for a recovery
of the gospel. in our day, the gospel. I would have you now turn over
to Galatians, chapter 1. We'll look at a few verses there
in a moment. There's a great need for a recovery of the gospel. The so-called gospel today is
not the gospel. I say that But without hesitation, all of
the psalms, or most of the psalms that go by the name of gospel
singing, are not gospel. Most of the preaching is not
gospel preaching, and the methods that are used in so-called churches
are not methods that belong to the Word of God, the gospel.
There is a great need for a return to the gospel. And when I say gospel, I clarify
it by saying the gospel of God's sovereign grace, mercy, and glory. Today's preaching emphasizes
entertainment. Men and women go to church, so
to speak, the great reason being they want
to be entertained by the singing, by all of the drama, and they
pay someone to do these things for
them, pay men to pray for them, to preach to them, to sing to
them. Today's so-called preaching emphasizes
entertainment, and I ask, is this the gospel? Today's preaching emphasizes
a mere mental agreement to some facts which, if you will You
are a Christian. You are saved. Mental agreement
to facts instead of a revelation of a person to the heart. A confrontation with a person,
meeting a person. They emphasize the belief in
facts. Look at Galatians 1. Paul, in
speaking of the gospel, Verse 12, he says, I didn't receive
it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Verse 16, to reveal his Son,
when God revealed his Son in me. The gospel is the revelation
of a person, the meeting up with a person. a confrontation with
a person, a vital union with a person, not believing doctrine.
And even those with sound Orthodox doctrine may not have heard the
gospel. The gospel is a hard work, and
that's my next point. Today's gospel emphasizes a mere
changing of a man's ways. Today's gospel only changes a
man's ways, not his heart. One of the leading evangelists,
Billy Graham, who has held many, many so-called evangelical meetings
all over the world—he held a great meeting in one place, or that
is, a large meeting in one place, and they took role of all of those who came
forward and made their decision, you know, all of these who supposedly
got saved. And they followed it up later.
They always tell these people who come down the aisle to see
Billy or to get safe. They tell these people to go
to church, and they give names of those churches that were there
in that meeting. And they did a follow-up of this
There were many, many, many, many people who made their profession
of faith, and what they found afterward is that less than three
percent, after several weeks and months went by, less than
three percent of those who came forward were still attending
a church, so-called church service somewhere. And I ask, was that
the power of God? Was that the gospel which the
Scripture says is the power of God unto salvation? Is that the
gospel, what they're preaching and doing? Changing of ways. Today's preaching
emphasizes or puts, makes heaven, makes heaven the primary concern
of men and women. It has people wanting to go to
and seeking after heaven, not Christ. David, the psalmist, a man after
God's own heart, said, whom have I in heaven but thee? David said, in other words, the
reason I want to go to heaven is because you're there. Of course,
Christ is there. That's what he said in Psalm
27, too. He said, One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. And behold the beauty... What are you going to do while
you're there, David? What are you looking for when you get there, David?
The beauty of the Lord. I'm looking for Him who loved
me and washed me from my sins in His own blood. But today's
preaching puts an emphasis or the chief concern is missing
hell and going to heaven. Today's preaching calls for decision. Today's preaching calls for man
to make a decision. It doesn't speak of, doesn't
preach a relationship with a person, a revelation of a person, a divine
work of the Holy Spirit. They totally leave out the Holy
Spirit of God, except afterward to get some
kind of second work. They leave out the first work,
Brother Stanton. which is to convict of sin and to point to
Christ and give a need of Christ and faith in Christ, they leave
that out entirely and make salvation dependent on man making his silly
little decision. Today's preaching calls on man
to do something for God. The prophets of old, when they
cried unto God, they cried out for God to do something for man. They cried unto God to do something
for man. Today's Gospel calls on men to
stand up and be counted. Stand up and be counted. Make
your decision. Come forward. Join the Church.
Be counted. Become a Christian. The Gospel
commands men to bow down and worship. The gospel, the word of God says,
be still. All this shouting and hullabaloo
and all this commotion going on in the name of religion today,
they say that's really the movement of the Holy Spirit. Everybody
getting loud and proud, you know. Listening to a preacher this
morning on the TV, and man, he was arrogant and proud and loud,
too. All this commotion and hullabaloo
is going on in the name of religion when the gospel, when the good
gospel said, the word of God says, be still and know that
I'm God. The people that Jesus Christ
saved, the conversions, the people he came across, when they met
him, Deborah, they sat down and shut up and listened to him speak. Scripture says, God is in the
heaven, thou art upon the earth. Let your words be few. God is in his holy temple. Let
all the inhabitants of the earth keep silence before him. Today's gospel calls on people
to make a noise. The gospel says, Today's gospel emphasizer talks
about an offer, an effort on the part of God Almighty to do
something, an effort, an attempt, God trying to do something for
men and women. Is that the gospel? Is that the
gospel? Do you find any gospel in that? The gospel talks about a purpose
which cannot be thwarted. The gospel talks about a covenant
ordered in all things and sure. The gospel talks about a blood
atonement that actually saves. A successful, sovereign Savior. Today's religion is devoid of
the gospel. And the great need in our day
is a return to the gospel. the gospel, a recovery of the
gospel. I contend without apology that
the average preacher in the average pulpit throughout the United
States of America doesn't have the foggiest idea of what the
gospel of God's sovereign grace is. The gospel of God's sovereign
mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ. I just said it in a sentence. They don't say the words at all. There's a great need for a return
to the message preached by the prophets of old, the apostles
of old, the early church fathers. There's a great need for a return
to the message that was used by God to the saving of the masses. The message used by the Apostle
Peter at Pentecost would save about 3,000 people. That's Pentecostal preaching.
Let's find out what he said and return to it. You know what he
said? He declared and lifted up and
extolled and honored a high Lord, a sovereign Lord seated on a
throne and men in his hands. and how that he will be merciful
to whom he will, and gracious over whom he will, and save whom
he will, and how that all men were in the hands of this one
they thought was named Jesus, whom now God hath made Lord."
And God used that to save thousands. We need a return to that message.
We need a return to the message that reveals God in his holy
and sovereign character. It glorifies God. A message that lifts God up,
high and lofty, the high and lofty Lord Jesus Christ that
has Him seated on the throne, not a baby in the manger, not
a man lying helplessly in the arms of some woman, or not a
man knocking at anybody's heart's door, but a Lord high and lifted
up, seated on the throne. We need to return to that message. We need to return to the message
that breaks man's proud heart. The number one need of mankind
in our day is to be broken before God. Salvation is to be
broken now. Damnation is to be broken later. Look at 1 Peter chapter 1 with
him. 1 Peter 1, he says, here's the
gospel, 1 Peter 1, and he's quoting from Isaiah 40. 1 Peter 1, he's
quoting Isaiah 40, 1 Peter 1.24. Look at it, 1 Peter 1.24, he
says, "...for all flesh is as grass." Peter pulls no punches, minces
no words. He declares what God's Word says,
and he says this about man. This is what God's Word says
about man. This is what preaching ought
to return to—what God says about man. All flesh is grass. The glory
of man, the religion of man, the goodness of man, the righteousness
of man—grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower falleth thereof." This is the gospel, he said. This
is the gospel. And over in Isaiah 40, he says,
crying to the people, Behold your God, the Lord God will come,
and with strong hand shall rule. And his work is before him. His
purpose is before him. His covenant is in his mind.
His people are before him, his sheep, and he'll save them. Call his name Jesus. He shall
save his people, the great shepherds on the trail of his sheep, and
he'll find every one of them. All flesh is grass. That ought
to break man's proud heart. The Bible doesn't say anything
good about the natural man, nothing, zero. But modern-day preaching
has nothing bad to say about man, and not much good to say
about God—not much that's in keeping with God's Word, anyway. Now, the results of the gospel—the
results of the gospel, the declaration of God's holy and sovereign person. holy, just, and sovereign person.
The gospel starts there. As with the word of God, in the
beginning, God. John's gospel, John 1, in the
beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word
was God. Oh, the word of God starts with
God. True preaching of God's word
starts with God. The gospel starts with God, Romans
1. Paul says, I'm separated under
the gospel of God, God's gospel, and it's a gospel that speaks
of God, who he is, where he is, what he has done. It doesn't
start with man, what man must do. The gospel starts with God,
what he has done. The difference between what's
preached today and what the gospel says is two letters, N-E, two
letters. The gospel today says, do, do,
do. The gospel says, d-o-n-e, done,
done, done. The results of the gospel, the
declaration of who God is, the declaration of who man is, what
man is, and the declaration of who Christ is and what Christ
has done and what Christ must do and what the Holy Spirit does. The results of this gospel, the
gospel, will do this. The results of this gospel will
do this every time, if it's preached. It will first of all give man,
give men, give women a sense of, will give men and women a
knowledge of, a sense of, some good sense of, the awful, dreadful,
terrible person of God Almighty. Awful. Dreadful. Terrible. Those are Bible words. The great and terrible God, the
Scripture says. The jealous God. God whose name,
Isaiah says, is jealous. Believe me. Have you ever, outside
of these walls and other places where they preach the New Gospel,
have you ever heard a man stand up and say, God is terrible? God is dreadful. God is awful. No, because they're not familiar
with God's Word. They're not familiar with God's
person and his character. But the preaching of the gospel
will give men and women a sense of the awful and dreadful and
terrible person of God. As I said, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And then it will break a man
or a woman. It will break them. Gone will
be the proud bargaining sinner. Gone will be the proud patronizing
sinner who thinks he's doing God a favor by coming to church,
who thinks he's doing God a favor by letting him in his black heart. who thinks he's doing God a favor
by joining up his church, who thinks he's really gracing the
place by his presence. Gone will be the talk and the
notions of such proud sinners patronizing God. That will be
one of the results of preaching the gospel. People in here who
have truly heard the gospel don't feel that they do him God a favor
by coming to church, but they esteem the attendance of the
gospel and the reading of God's word and the fellowship of the
saints as the highest privilege on earth of which they are worthy
of. And not that they're gracing
the place, but they're They're defiling the place by coming,
that they're less than the least, chief of sinners. That's what
the gospel produces. And there's a great need in our
day for preachers who declare a high and holy God, a dead sinner,
and a Christ who alone can save. You ask me what the gospel is
in three short terms. That's it. A high and sovereign
God. A dead sinner in the grave, and
a Christ alone who can save, who must save. A great need for
a return to preaching that. Preachers who tell men to hit
the dust, not stand up and be counted, hit the dust. And there's a great need for
preaching that will cause men and women to cry out for mercy. Cry out for mercy. You know,
the preaching of the gospel, it will make, instead of men
and women, instead of preachers begging men and women and trying
to find somebody that will let Jesus or let God or or open their
heart trying to find some members of men who would just preach
the gospel, folks would be calling on them. Folks would be calling
them up for some answers. I think A's gospel is phony. No God and no fear. God doesn't need to be feared.
The Supreme Preacher today is all love. Scripture says perfect love casts
out fear. God loves me and Christ died
for me, like men are saying, I have nothing to be afraid of,
do I? That's what they're preaching
today, but it's a phony. It's a phony. We need to preach
the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible. We need
to preach the God that Scripture declares Him to be. as Scriptures
declare, not as men think he is. That's what he said in one place.
He said, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself.
Thou thoughtest, he said, but I will reprove thee. We need
to preach the God of the Bible as Scripture declares him, not
like men say he is. But as he is, we need to preach
the scriptures, God's Word, and declare man as God says he is,
not as men think they are. We need to declare man as God
says he is. Helpless, hopeless, damned, doomed,
defiled, without hope, without God, without strength, dead in
trespasses and sins. And I say with my pastor, is
there a prophet, is there a preacher in our day with the boldness
to tell men what they are? Is there a prophet, is there
a preacher with the boldness to declare God who He is, who
knows God? You know, a man will preach God
if he's ever met Him. A man who knows Christ, not some
Jesus. Find me a man who's not calling
Him Jesus, a man who finds out that you don't call the Lord
of glory by His first name. Find me a man who's quit calling
Him Jesus. Find me a man who does not take
that name on his lip. If he's going to address Him,
call Him, Lord, my Lord. As Thomas found out, my Lord
and my God. None of them called Him Jesus. None of the messengers of God
called him Jesus. That was his name of humiliation.
I don't care who calls him that. They didn't, and neither will
any man who's ever seen him in his glory. Call him Lord. Lord. Find me a preacher who'd
quit calling him Jesus and calling him Lord now. If they ever met
him, they will. Find me one. Is there such a
one? There's a few. You know, men
are compromising in our day. Men are compromising God's greatest
glory. Men are compromising that which
gives God the most glory, His character, His sovereignty and
salvation. That which gives God His greatest
glory, electing a people. compromising that. They're compromising
His Son, and I tell you, God is not taking it lightly. And this is the height of wickedness,
where our Lord said to a bunch of people who said, we preached
in your name. He said, you're a worker of iniquity,
the worst sort. And God, and I read to you there
in 1 Corinthians 9, 16, where Paul said, woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. And I'm telling you, Based on
that verse, based on what I hear today, based on what's going
on today, woe is pronounced upon preaching today. Woe is because
they're not preaching the gospel. It's a negative message, you
say? Read the prophets. Go through and read the prophets.
Isaiah and Jeremiah, woe was denounced upon their generation,
wasn't it? Because the masses reject the
gospel. The masses reject the gospel,
and a few are called and chosen to believe it. But we need a
recovery of the gospel in our day. As Paul said, and I say with
the Apostle Paul, necessity is laid on me. Necessity is laid
on me. Necessity to preach the gospel,
not just to preach. I don't have to preach. Matter
of fact, I really don't want to. Most men I know that I have any
confidence in at all, they really don't want to be up here. They didn't ask for this. They
didn't seek it. They didn't take it upon themselves
what Paul said. I didn't take this to myself. But necessities laid upon me.
If I'm going to speak, what am I going to speak? Woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. The gospel. the gospel. Heard someone commenting on a
message they heard and said it was interesting. Well, that's
not enough for a message to be interesting. Was God honored and glorified
in it? Was God lifted up? Was the sinner
brought down into the dust before this holy God? Was Christ pictured
and declared and shown forth as the—was he lifted up? That's
the only way men are going to be drawn to it. Was Christ in it? No, there wasn't
much Christ in it. It wasn't worth preaching. It
wasn't worth hearing. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Necessity is laid upon me. Why? Because God demands it. Amy,
God says preach, go into all the world and practice humor. Good Christian humor. Go into
all the world and entertain. Go into all the world and make
members and disciples. Preach the gospel, he said. Preach
the gospel. He said, just preach. Just preach. Ezekiel preached,
but they're dead bones. Preach. But what we ought to
do something, you know, bring a physician in, bring in some,
you know, some singers, and bring in some holy, you know, do something
to get this thing going. It's dead. This service is dead.
Just preach. Just preach. What about a little quartet?
Just a little quartet on something. Just preach. That's it. Preach. Preach my word. And watch me. give life. God demands it. The gospel concerning
God's Son. God demands it, Terry. God demands
it. He said, I want to hear about
my son. Like David said to those two runners that came with him
with the message. One of them came running, remember?
And David said, what did you say? He said, a commotion. Oh,
we had a big old time, and there's a victory in Jesus. And David said, What about my
son? David said, I don't know much,
or that runner said, I don't know much about that. I don't
know. David said, Step aside. I want
to hear about my boy. And another one came running,
and he said, What about my son? And he said, The enemies of my
Lord the King be as that young man. Crash died, in other words. They talk about Jesus being the
reason for the season in Christmas. I tell you what, Christ is the
reason for it all. Every day is the Lord's Day,
especially the day we call the Lord's Day. If this is the Lord's
Day, who are we going to talk about? Well, Mother's Day landed on
it, so we'll talk about Mother's Day. No, it's the Lord's Day.
We're going to talk about who? worship the Lord. God demands
it. Men and women need it. Men and
women need it. Necessity is laid upon me. Necessity
is laid upon you to hear it. God demands it. Men and women
need it. What do you need to hear? The
evils of abortion? Well, you know that. The corruption
of our political society? You know that. What do you need
to hear? All right, here's the gospel.
All right. Four things. Four things. Here's the gospel. Four things.
Number one, salvation is something God does for the sinner. Period. is something God does for the
sinner, period. Not Ann, but period. Turn over to the book of Jonah
with me, OK? The book of Jonah. Try to find
that little book there in the Old Testament. Daniel, Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Find that. I've just listed those
books for my sake. Jonah. The book of Jonah. Find
it. Salvation is something God does
for the sinner, not what man does for God. Oh, no. Oh, no. That is not the gospel. The gospel
is what God does. Period. Period. Jonah chapter 2. Like Jonah.
Like Jonah. Mankind is in a bad condition. Look at it. Jonah 1 says that
they took up Jonah, verse 15, and cast him forth into the sea,
and the sea ceased from her raging. Verse 17, Now the Lord had prepared
a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of
the fish three days and three nights. People say, I don't believe
that story. Well, it doesn't matter. It's
true. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
referred to it. It's true, and it happened. Verse
1, Jonah 2, verse 1, Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God
out of the fish's belly. Verse 2, I cried by reason of
mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly
of hell, cried I. Thou hurt'st my voice. Thou hast
cast me into the deep and the midst of the sea. Floods compassed
me, billows weighed. Some people say he died. Jonah
died. Now, that'll work. The sinner dies. The sinner is
dead. He was cast out of his sight,
verse 4. Verse 5, waters compassed me
about. The depths closed me around,
weeds wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottom, down
to the bottom, rock bottom. Rock bottom. Jonah, if you'll
take the first step, Jonah, if you'll just take the first step
out of that whale's belly, God will meet you halfway. Jonah was lost. Jonah was gone. Jonah was good as dead, wasn't
he? Jonah was helpless. Jonah realized,
he found out by God's mercy, that he was helpless. Jonah, if you'll just cooperate.
Cooperate. He was hopeless. And Jonah cried
unto the only one that could do anything for him. He cried
unto God, who is God, to help him, to get him out, to
save him. Jonah was lost. We knew if there
was a return to preaching the gospel, men and women would get
lost. It would be like telling that to some people. Would you
get lost? I would say it to some, but I
know they already are. Barnard used to say, I'm not
trying to get people saved. I'm trying to get people lost.
We've got a bunch of preachers preaching today, running around
trying to get people saved. Men can't get people saved. That
whole shipload of men could have dove in, tried to rescue Jonah,
and he was gone. Who's going to rescue Jonah?
God. Who's going to help Jonah? God. Jonah, tell me your theology.
Jonah, tell me your help. Jonah, what's—who's going to
save you? Verse 9, last part of verse 9,
salvations of the Lord. If I'm going to be saved, Jonah
said, God's going to have to do it. Now, find me some preaching
that brings a man down to that condition. And find me a preacher
that hollers, yeah, holler, salvations of the Lord, not asking men to
do anything, but just tell it. John and Ezekiel didn't ask those
bones to do anything. Huh? Did he call on men to call
on God? No. He said, Blow, O Wind. Blow, O Wind. Salvations of the
Lord. And what happened? The Lord spake
unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on dry land. Jonah
was saved. Why? the Lord's snake, deliver
him from being down in the pit. He's one of mine. Deliver him.
And the fish. It's a miracle. See, salvation's
a miracle of God's grace. God's work takes a miracle. Takes a miracle. Somebody said
that that old whale vomited him out because he couldn't stomach
a Calvinist. Well, like Jonah, every man and
woman is helpless, hopeless, and dead before God. Salvations of the Lord. Salvations
of the Lord. Let me give you a few things
under this that Charles Spurgeon gave years ago. All right? I
have a few more minutes. Charles Spurgeon gave one of
the greatest messages ever preached on Jonah 2.9, and he gave these
four points concerning salvation of the Lord. Now, these are sub-points,
Sherry. You're a note-taker. Sub-points
on the point number one. Spurgeon said, Salvation is not a man planning
to get saved someday. Oh, I'll get saved. I'll make
my decision. You can plan it all you want to, and it'll never
happen. Oh, I'm going to almost persuade a stallion at a convenient
time, a group of saint, at a convenient time, when I get ready, when
I get older, when I get married, I'm going to say, you don't do
it that way. You might die tonight. Let me get my house in order. Salvation is of the Lord in His
planning, His purpose. God Almighty purposes salvation. Everybody that's saved, God Almighty
purposed to save them. When did He do it? Ephesians
1 verse 4 says, "...according as He had chosen us in Christ."
When? Before the foundation of the
world. 1 Thessalonians 2 says, we're bound
to give thanks unto God, brethren, beloved Lord, because God hath
when chosen you. When did God choose? When did
God decide to save? That God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. Salvation is God—salvation began,
commenced to get started when God Almighty, before the world
began, said, I'm going to save a people. Not when a man decides, but when
God decided. That's when salvation started.
Salvation is of the Lord in its planning. Number two, salvation
is of the Lord in its application. Look at Galatians 1 there, in
its application. When will a man be saved? When
will a woman be saved? When they're pleased to do so?
When they decide? When they decide? When will a
man or woman be saved? Look at verse 15. When it pleased
God, Paul said. When will a man be saved? When
it pleases God. No one else. In its application, it says,
when it pleased God, verse 15, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me, not me calling on him to get in the cart before
the horse. It's him calling you. Salvation
comes when God calls me, not vice versa. I call him just because
he called me. How? Why? By his grace. By his grace. Salvation is of
the Lord in its planning and its application. Salvation is
of the Lord in its sustaining power. Its sustaining power. The Scripture says, Peter said,
we are kept, how? If we pray all night. Or if we
just remain faithful to the end. If we just Keep on keeping on. Peter said we're kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation. Ready to be revealed. Kept by the power of God. Salvation
is of the Lord and it's sustaining power. The only reason you're
going to get to heaven, Joe Park, if you get there, will be by
the power of God Almighty. The only reason. I mean a whole
N-L-Y reason. You know that, don't you? Jonah
Parks. Thy people, when will a man be
willing? You say, a man's got to be willing.
When will he be willing? A man's got to decide. Well,
when will he decide? He's dead. When will he be willing? Thy people, Scripture says, shall
be willing. Oh, yeah, let's see their need
of Christ. Let's see who God is. And now, if you want to use
the word, they'll receive Him as their Lord and bow to Him,
believe Him. When? Thy people, Psalm 110.3,
shall be willing. When? In the day of thy power. That's the reason I don't beg
anybody to do anything. But just preach. Pray. The Lord saved so-and-so. I can't. I can't. Salvation is of the
Lord in its ultimate perfection. Perfection. Christ said, I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. What God does is forever in His
perfection. And it brings me to point number
two. concerning the gospel. Salvation is something God does
for man, not vice versa. Number two, salvation is something
God does on purpose. Something God does on purpose,
not an accident. It's according to his eternal,
sovereign purpose. They are called according to
his—Romans 8.28—called according to his what? Say it. Purpose. Noah, I got a plan for
you. I got a purpose for you. Abraham,
I'm busy. No, you're not. You're coming
with me. Moses, I can't speak. You're gonna. David, well, I'm
just a little shepherd boy. You're gonna be king. And no matter what man tries
to do to thwart God's purpose, God says, I've spoken it, I'll
do it. I've purposed it, it'll stand.
Come hell or high water. Satan or his demons, or man for
that matter. God does what he does on purpose
and nothing and no one can stop it. I like that. That's the gospel. There is no
other. A God who saves on purpose. Old
Barnard, I believe, was asked a woman one time, she said, Brother
Barnard? No, he asked her. When she was
asking about election, he said, Well? He said, Are you saved? She said, Oh, yes. Yes, I'm saved. Yes, I'm saved. He said, Well,
who saved you? And she said, He said, Did you
save yourself? No, she said, Oh, no, no, God
saved me. Brother Margaret, God saved me.
I didn't say that. God saved me. He said, Well, and he took about this long to
answer, that old slow North Carolina drawl. He said, Well, did he
do it on purpose or was it an accident? He said, well, why? On purpose?
He said, that's an action. That whatever God does, He does
on purpose. Everything. Down to the everything
that writhes or wriggles under God's sky. In the sky. God controls and
does everything on purpose. Purpose. Thirdly, salvation is
in the—listen. Here's the gospel. Salvation
is in the person and the work of Jesus Christ only. Salvation is in the person and
the work of Jesus Christ. It's not in keeping the law.
It's not in our baptism. It's not in our works. It's not
in our decision. It's not in our faith. Salvation
is in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
Christ's righteousness, not ours. It's Christ's sacrifice, not
ours. It's Christ's prayers, not ours. It's Christ living now for us,
not us living now for him. Salvation is in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me give you these, ask
you these two questions here, and this will, this ought to
Shut up men and women to salvation in Christ alone. These questions
ought to shut them up. Ask somebody that. Two questions. Number one, how much of the law
do we need to keep to avoid condemnation? How much of the law do we need
to keep? Let's just ask it, John. In light of our society, the
civil law, how much of the law out there do we need to keep
in order to avoid prosecution? How much? Most of it. What if
a man was convicted of breaking a law and went before the judge,
and the judge says, uh, you've broken the law. But he said,
but I kept most of it. Yeah, but you killed a man. Well,
I didn't steal. And I wasn't speaking. How much of it? And spiritually
speaking, how much of God's law does a man or woman have to keep
in order to avoid condemnation from God? How much? Well, I'm
doing the best I can. Men and women are going to say
to a thrice holy God, who's less than the judges of our earth.
whose justice stand is less than ours. They say, I'm doing the
best I can, doesn't that account for something? Scripture says,
Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. All things. James said
to offend in one point is to be guilty of the whole law. Didn't
he? All right? Can we keep it all? Can we keep it all? Well, I've
kept it to the best of my knowledge. That's not all of it. We don't
know the whole law of God. It's not just what we think,
nor what we have revealed to us. It's what we don't know about. Those who would be under the
law, they need to search it diligently. and make sure they're keeping
every jot and tittle, or else God's going to condemn them.
Isn't that right, Steve? Yeah. Second question, how holy do
we have to be to enter heaven? Well, he's a pretty good fellow.
Let him in. What God's going to say? Well,
he's all right. He has his faults, but God says, I'm holy. Be ye—what? Can you say the word? Perfect. I'm perfect. All right, those
two questions. How much law do you have to keep? How holy do you have to be? Guilty. Christ says, all right, I've
kept it all. Christ says, I have come down
to do this for some people, my people, my chosen people. Christ came to live a lie, and
he said, I have kept the law in every jot, tittle, not just
action, but word, not just in deed, but thought. and motive. And he went above and beyond
that, Janette, above and beyond that. He magnified—he made it
honorable. He loved above and beyond what
he was called on to do. Christ said, I've kept it all,
every jot and tittle of the law. And he says, I'll give this righteousness
to some people. And Christ said, I'm as holy
as God, I'm equal to God, God will accept my person and all
those that are in me. Buddy, I'm running to Christ. If asked what my hope of heaven
is, Christ, Christ, Christ. Blood, blood, blood, and Christ
paid for my sins, which must be paid for by his blood. And
lastly, fourthly, salvation is not a pastime. Salvation is not a pastime, not a part-time
thing, not a hobby, not a hobby. If I go—some of
you do something, and my daughter takes some lessons on a certain
day, piano lessons, and she'll go on that one day. Take other
things. Some of you do in just one day
a week. You know, that's a hobby. Salvation's not a hobby. It's
something you do one day a week. Salvation is a lifetime—it's
a life. Salvation is a person becoming
a disciple of the living Lord. Not a part-time thing. Now, I'm
telling you, based upon God's Word in 1 John 1, If anybody
leaves the gospel, I don't care if they've listened
to it twenty years. Stand? They went out of from
us. Because why? They're not of us. Because Philippians 1, 6 says
this. Paul says, I'm confident that he that hath begun a good
work in you will perform it, perfect it, will finish it, until
the day of Jesus Christ. People that start following Christ
will be following him the day he comes. People who are listening
and hearing and loving the gospel will be listening and hearing
and loving it to the day Christ comes. They won't leave. You
can't run them off. You can't run them off. If I
get some people saved, or people join up with a church, they'll
leave for various reasons. But if God vitally joins a people
to Jesus Christ, you can't run them off. You can't run them
off. It's not a profession, it's a
position. It's not us possessing, it's
him possessing us. He said, you're mine, but I'm
leaving. You ain't going nowhere. I like
that, don't you? You're not going anywhere. Peter
said, I'm going fishing. Christ said, go tell Peter. He's
not going anywhere. But, but, but, but, ain't no
buts about it. But God said, come on back here. It's a permanent thing. It's
not our decision to do anything, but it's a permanent decision
made by God Almighty to save a human being and change him
into a Christ child. Now, we need a recovery of that
gospel. Brother Joe, you have a song?