We can go out of this place and
be able to tell others. You really missed something.
I hope. God will bless us. John chapter 16. Here's our text. John chapter 16. Now on Sunday
mornings I endeavor to prepare a message That is a very basic
gospel message with the possibility of having visitors. We had none
here. No one has been here before this
morning, but I always try to prepare a little more basic and
simple gospel message on a Sunday morning. A very clear message
that I can preach in no uncertain terms so that people will go
out of here having heard the gospel very clearly. I endeavor
to do that every single Sunday morning, but as it is, as in
God's providence, we have no visitors here. I can never be
sure when we will, but we need to hear the same simple gospel
every time we come here. It's the same thing that saved
us in the beginning, and it's the thing that keeps us now,
and comforts and encourages us. But I hope, if God will bless
this message, I hope this will be one that you can take readily
go to, in tape form, and be able to pass it out to someone and
say, this is what we believe. I hope so. I hope after hearing
this, also, there will be no doubt in your mind as to how
God saves sinners. How he saved you, if indeed you
have been saved. Now, we've been studying through
John. We were in John. We were in John 16 in the Sunday
evening services. I hope you recognize that. If
not, where have you been? John 16 is where we left off
the last time we studied into this paschal discord. And I came
to verse 8, verse 8 through 11, and read it, and I thought, I
can't save that for Sunday night. No way. Everybody needs to hear
this. This is the gospel. This is a
very clear summary or description of the gospel. So I'm going to
bring that this morning, what would have been this evening's
message this morning. But first of all, I want to lay
the foundation in a very brief summary of what the Lord has
been talking about. If you've been here, you may
remember, but the Lord has been talking about the coming of the
Holy Spirit. coming of the Holy Spirit to
his disciples. And after he leaves, he says
somebody is coming. And he's telling them, in this
passage here, John 16, he's telling them of what the Holy Spirit
must do and will do for them now that he's leaving, now that
the Lord himself is leaving these disciples who were so dependent
upon him for everything. He's telling them that someone
else is coming. someone with equal power and
a different task to perform, who's going to come and do these
things for you. He must do it. It's expedient, he said there
in verse 7. It's expedient that I go away,
because if I don't go, this one will not come to you. And right
here he gives a brief description of what the Holy Spirit is going
to do for all who will be saved. It starts in verse 8 and goes
through verse 11. But before we go to that, Before
we look at that, I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter
2. Keep your place there, and let's turn over to 1 Corinthians,
chapter 2. This is a very, very, very familiar scripture to everyone
in here, 1 Corinthians 2. The first thing I want us to
notice about what the Lord is about to say, about the summary
of what all he's going to say here in John 16, 8 through 11,
is that the summary of it all can be said in this way. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It's in His
hands. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
been said, it's not of him that willeth or of him that runneth
or doeth or worketh or whatever, but it's of God that shows mercy.
It's of God. Salvation is completely in the
power of God. It's in His hands. It's in His
will, His purpose, His working. It's in no way dependent upon
man. No way, no way dependent upon
man's will, man's decision, man's actions, or even man's faith. No. Because God must even give
that faith, the proper faith. And we're going to see that in
a moment, a little more of that. But salvation is the work of
the triune God. Salvation is the work of God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father
must elect, must choose a people. If God didn't purpose to save
a people and decide who was going to be saved, nobody would be
saved. It's very plain. Because man is dead in trespasses
and sin, he's unable, unwilling to choose God. He cannot do it. He's dead. God must decide. God must purpose. God must elect. God must plan this thing of salvation. God must love a people freely.
God must decide. It's not in our decision. Oh,
no. We decide for evil. That's our
nature. Salvation is in God's decision. It's in God deciding
to save some people discriminately. It's in God's decision. It's
the work of God the Son. The Son had to come down here
and do for us what we cannot or could not do for ourselves.
That is, live a perfect life that God demands of us. It's
called righteousness. We saw that so many times there
in Psalm 71. that we must have this righteousness,
this perfect life that God demands of us if we're going to be in
his presence. We couldn't do it. No man has
ever been able to, but one, the God-man, the perfect man, the
sinless one, Jesus Christ. He came down and lived that life
to perfection. God looked at him and said, I
approve of this man. And Christ imputed or charged
that righteousness, took that life that he lived. and gave
it to different people, the people that God had elected, the people
God elected. And then He went to that cross
and paid, those sins had to be paid for, the sins of all those
people had to be paid for, had to be punished because God is
just, God is holy. He will by no means clear the
guilty. So Christ had to go to the cross then and take all of
those sins upon Him and be punished for us because of those sins.
And then the Holy Spirit has to come. And this is what Christ
is talking about here. This is the third person of the
Trinity. It's his work. This is what he's
talking about right now. This is what we're going to dwell
on, the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to come and
do some things that we cannot do for ourselves, or else, if
he doesn't, we're lost forever. Now, look here in 1 Corinthians,
chapter 2, with me. Very, very familiar to most of
you, I know, but here's the first point. Salvation is a revelation. of the Holy Spirit of God. Salvation
must come to you. You don't go to it. It comes
to you. That's what Paul said in the
book of Romans. He said, no man can ascend up to heaven and say,
who must bring him cross down? No, he must come to you. In this
work of the Holy Spirit, he must come to us and do this work.
Or else we're lost. We're dumb. We're ignorant. We're
dead. We're dumb. Now look at it with
me. Let's read verse eleven of chapter two. Now it says, What
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? What man knoweth the things of
a man? Does anybody, let me illustrate this very simply. I'm thinking
of a number. I'm going to write it down. I'm thinking of a number between
one and one trillion. I've got it written down right
there. I'm thinking of this number. Somebody would like to make a guess? That's
ridiculous. It's impossible. How could we
know with such a vast number of statistics? No man can find
out God by searching. Nobody can understand God. Nobody
can know the things of God. His ways are past finding out.
Unsearchable, the Scriptures say. Who, how can a worm know
anything about God? How can a man know anything about
God? How can an ant know what's going through my mind? It can't.
Infinitely more is the gap or the distance between us and God. John, we don't know God. Mortal men don't know anything
about God. Consequently, they come up with
all sorts of imagination. This is the reason people are
dancing around totem poles. This is the reason they come
up with all sorts of... What do you think God's like? Well, I
just... I don't know. The Hindus have a god for everything, a
god of water, you know, and they give him some figure. A god of
fire, a god of earth. God, Dr. God, Dr. God. The number
was 242,532,468. There's not a person in here,
not even by chance, that could have guessed that. No way. No way. And no man knows
the things of a man. You don't even know what I'm
thinking. How are you going to know what God's saying? That's what
he's saying right here. The natural man, what man knows
the things of a man, save I tell you. Now you know, don't you?
You would have never known that, Sharon, unless I told you. Never!
I mean, you could from... It would have taken you, you'd
have to go through every number, wouldn't you? It would have taken you a long
time to figure that out. Man, that we'll find out, God,
unless God reveals Himself to us. And this is very simple,
what this is speaking of. He says, "...even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." No man is going
to know God, or know himself, or know Christ, know the gospel,
know anything about this book, unless God Almighty teaches him.
God the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, that's who he's talking
about, the Spirit of God. Look at verse 14, "...because,"
this is one reason, "...the natural man doesn't receive the things
of God, his foolishness." Henry, the thing that God in mercy and
grace has revealed to us has been the wisdom of God, the depth
of the wisdom and the power and the glory of God, this great
mystery, indescribable riches and glory and wisdom of God. They think, that's back foolishness.
Don't they? This old gospel preacher. Well,
y'all, you want to go here preaching on Saturday night? That's foolishness.
See, it's foolishness. Not only are they dead and unable
to understand it, but they've got this will that is bent toward
the things of this earth and against or opposed to the things
of God. That's foolish. It's repulsive
to them. They've got all these things
going against them. But if God the Holy Spirit comes to a man
and makes him interested and then sits him down, like you're
sitting right here. It starts unfolding these things,
didn't it? Then he'll see. His eyes will begin to open.
His ears will begin to unstop. His heart will begin to receive
it. And he'll see, too. Hey, it's not foolishness after
all, is it? This is glory. This is my salvation. A natural man doesn't receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto him.
And he can't know them because they are spiritually understood.
God has made foolish the wisdom in this world. Men like to sit
down and figure and rationalize and reason things out. The scripture
plainly says you can't. You can take a lawyer, the smartest
man upon the face of the earth, a doctor, a senator, a congressman,
an astro-nuclear physicist, set him down and put before him a
verse of scripture like in the Hebrews, he taketh away the first,
he may establish the second. It made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be. What does that mean, sir? Doctor so and so. What does this
mean? What does that mean? Propitiation. He's a propitiation
for our sin. I don't know. He sat down. A man who owns a service station.
A farmer. An unlearned twelfth grade education. The mysteries of God opened up
and revealed to that man. He understands. Why? Of his own
self? No! No! God has to reveal it. God has to reveal it. Why? Why? Well, the reason salvation is
not in our wisdom or in our understanding or our works is that no flesh
shall glory in his presence. Nobody is going to be able to
stand before God someday and say, I did it! I got here! I made it! I worked my way, I
worked my way to heaven. I figured this thing out. I've
got it now. I know how God sees. I know how. I figured this thing
out now. I've got it. God must know. No, that's not.
No boasting. No boasting aloud. All boasting
excluded, the Scripture says. Not of the will of the flesh,
or the will of man. Not in the wisdom of the flesh,
or the wisdom of this world, but of God. Salvation is of God. Of God. And all self-glory must
stop, because to God be the glory. God is jealous. He's not going
to share his glory with anybody. Not a mere mortal man. No, no. No way. And all men and women
are alike at the mercy of God's sovereign disposal of this salvation. Right? All men and women are
alike. They're at the sovereign mercy
of God. And it's disposal of it. Nobody
can claim it or earn it. Everybody's alive. The reason
being, he said, except you be converted and become a hero. You've heard this over and over
again. And I'm looking in the film. You've heard this over
and over again. Do you know it? Is it going to something else? Except we be converted. This
is what he's saying. Except we be converted and become
his little children. Sitting there to listen to the
same thing over and over again and find something new in it.
We're not even going to get in the kingdom of heaven. Is this
old? Is it old? Have you heard it before? I just
go on to something else I hadn't heard before. Deep. No. No, it's not being a little child,
is it? It's not being a little child. A little child is interested
in the same things. Simple things. delights in several
things. That's what it is to be a child
of God, to delight in the simple things, or the basic things. The old, old, tell it to me.
The old, old story, tell it to me again. I'm a little child,
I forget to say it. If somebody's got this down,
man, I'd be glad to. It'd be a lot easier to go out
there and see it than somebody else tell it. I'm not sure I
understand it. Do you? I'm not sure I understand
this thing yet. Righteousness. Imputed righteousness. You could
spend a hundred years on the incarnation of Christ, couldn't
you? And not touch the hem of the garment. Well, we need to
be taught by God. This is a revelation of the Holy
Spirit. A revelation. And it ends up, this revelation
ends up in saving faith. And this faith, this revelation
is called the gospel. This revelation, this teaching
of the Holy Spirit is called the gospel. And here we have
it in John chapter 16. Go back to the text there. John
chapter 16. Here we have the gospel. Very
clear. Very clearly. Anybody who hears
this tape, go and hear the gospel. Give this tape to somebody. John
chapter 16, look at verse 8. Now, Christ is talking to his
disciples here, and he says, when he has come, and talking
about the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit has come, he's going
to do three things, basically. He's going to reprove the world
of sin, reprove of righteousness, and of judgment. The Holy Spirit
is going to reprove the world of three things. Righteousness
and judgment. Now listen to me. Let me illustrate
something. Our judicial system is a farce. We have no justice. A man can
commit murder. I read a statistic where the
average murderer is out in seven years. They say your man commits
murder and they say we sentence you to life in prison. Seven years? You said life! I really didn't mean it. See,
there's no justice. Our judicial system is a farce. There's no
justice, really. At any rate, this is what we
say. This is what our justice system,
judicial system, says. Our motto is, a man is innocent
until what? Proven guilty. This is what we
say. A man is innocent until proven
guilty. And here's the process that they go through. Okay, here's
a man who's been charged with a crime. And they say he's innocent. Why they put him in jail, I don't
know if he's innocent, but they put him in. Somebody comes along
with enough money and bails him out, and he's out on bond, out
on bail. Then the trial comes along, and
the witnesses and the accusations and the evidences and so forth
are brought against this man. And according to the evidences
and the accusations and this and that and the other, the proof
of this man's state, he is either convicted or let go. Now, if
he is found guilty, there's a judgment, there's a sentence to be passed.
If he's found guilty, there's a sentence to be carried out,
a judgment to pass. He's sentenced to prison or death,
electric chair or whatever. And this is much like modern
theology today, though. Men think we're innocent until
finally at the judgment we're proven guilty. Till God finally,
he looked so hard, he finally said, I, it's just too much against
you old boy, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to, I might send you
to hell, it's too much against you. Isn't that right? That's
the way modern theology has this thing worked out. Innocent until
proven guilty. And you know it's so. Every mother's
son is a good boy. I don't care. Charles Manson's
mother probably thought, well he's just a good boy, he just,
you know, he's made some mistakes. Right? Have you ever gone to
a funeral of anybody that wasn't saved? Anybody! I mean, that rebel boy,
the outcast of society, a guy who just lived his life and just,
the scum of the earth, go to his funeral and a preacher will
get him into heaven on him. He made his decision on his deathbed,
he accepted Jesus and he's in heaven, God accepted him. God's
thoughts are not our thoughts. God's ways are not our ways.
He's talking right here about some things that men don't even
talk about. Righteousness. Sin. Judgment. When's the last time you heard
anybody even talk about hell? Goodness gracious. Here's what
the scripture says. Everybody's guilty until proven
innocent. That's what God's word says.
Guilty. But no guilty until proven innocent. You're going to have to come
up with some evidences. You're going to have to come
up with somebody to get you off because you're guilty. You're
going to the chair, man. You're going to die unless somebody
gets you off because you're guilty. That's everybody. That's what
the Word says, doesn't it? And this work here to prove us
guilty is the work of the Holy Spirit. That doesn't make sense. You'd think the Holy Spirit would
lead to comfort, and all He does. But the first thing He does is
prove to us, you ain't, you got no hope, do you? First thing
the Holy Spirit does is prove us, reprove us of sin. Not mistakes. Sin. This awful iniquity that fills
our veins and our bodies and our lives. That God that is a
stench in God's nostril, this attitude, this state of being
that is every one of us. Sin. Not sins. He didn't say
sins, did he? Plural. He said sin. Sin. What we are. The Holy Spirit
must come to somebody. Nobody is going to be saved without
this. Unless you come to see something of this. I can't take
that for granted. Unless you see it, you are a
sin. before this holy God, and he is highly displeased with
you. Unless you see that, then the
Holy Spirit has not worked upon you for saving work. But he convicts,
he convinces of sin and guilt. Modern theology tries to make
people, tries to convince people of God's love. How do they approach
men with the gospel, huh? God loves you, and Christ died
for you. That's not how the scriptures
work, is it? No. Sin. That's what he says here.
When the Holy Spirit will come, he'll convince, reprove men of
sin. That's the first thing he does,
Rick. Sin. It's old-fashioned. People don't
like to hear it, but it's the first step in salvation. And
the Holy Spirit's got to do this. Convict us. We're sitting right
here right now, probably, in all probability, feeling pretty
good about yourself. Be honest. I don't see anybody
weeping when I talk about sin in our state before God. I don't
see a tear in an eye. That's how hardened we are to
it. That's how the Holy Spirit must come to us every time the
gospel is preached, to show Christ and this gospel don't mean a
thing to us. If our sins don't grieve us, then the cross is
not going to comfort us. Do you see the necessity of this
work of the Holy Spirit every time? Does it at least make sense
in your head? I think it does. But the world
likes to take men and set them aside and show them the love
of God, and Christ died for the universal redemption, they call
it. No mention of sin. You're a sinner,
aren't you? Oh, yeah, let's get that over
with. Yeah, you are a sinner. OK. Now, God loves you. Now,
let's deal with this thing. What are you talking about, sin?
What do you mean? What does it mean to be a sinner?
What's that got to do with anything, right? That's what we need to
do. This sin question's got to be
answered, doesn't it? In men's hearts of... Henry,
everybody you run across at the station wants to argue with you.
Ain't no sinners, are they? Have you met a sinner yet? No,
they're saints. That's how men and women think
about the Scripture. Well, there's sinners and then
there's saints. You know, God talks to sinners and then he
talks to saints. This is for you sinner people
out there. Christ is safe. See, people are ignorant of this,
aren't they? The Spirit hasn't moved. Sin. But this is the teaching of the
Holy Spirit. Now, I don't want to take too long, but let's turn
over to Romans chapter one. Turn to Romans chapter 1. Like
I said, this is as much for those that may hear this on tape as
it is for you. Maybe more so. God will use it. This is the
teaching of the Holy Spirit, and he does it through this book.
And the reason people are convicted of sin and are ignorant of it
is because nobody is in this book. Preachers are preaching
this book, Arthur John. They're not going through this
book verse by verse. This is the whole problem. If
God's going to speak to somebody, going to reveal the truth to
somebody, He's going to do it through His book. And He's going
to do it by them sitting down, like the noble Berean, and searching
the Scriptures. And God revealing to their understanding,
their mind, and then bringing it down into the heart, and the
very being, and say, yes, yes. That's what it says, and I believe
that. I believe that. Now, the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. Now, you say this is talking
about homosexuals and this and that and the other. No, it says
the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness, doesn't
it? All ungodliness and unrighteousness. That's every one of us. We're
still full of ungodliness and unrighteousness. We're still
very, very much unlike God, aren't we? And unrighteous, right? So the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against that. Look at verse 28. And it says,
these people, they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
Well, that's not me. I'm a good Christian. No, wait
a minute. Are you living your life every
waking moment? of every waking hour, of every
day, for the glory and the honor, and thinking upon God, singing
to yourselves in songs and spiritual melodies, and thinking about
God. You're just in a spiritual frame
of mind, oh God, and never any thought of foolishness crosses
your mind, never an idle word comes out of your mind. We live our lives now, to be
honest, and everybody hears this. Be honest with yourselves. We
live our lives, for the most part, without thinking about
God. Without thinking about Him. We
don't like to retain God in our knowledge, do we? Let's be honest. No, we don't. We like to retain
us in our knowledge. We like to think about me. What
can I do for me today? We don't wake up and say, what
can I do for God today, do we? No, what can I do for me today? That's not wanting to retain
God in your knowledge. That's what that is. Wrath of
God. Right? Right? It says God gave him over
to a reprobate mind. Mind void of judgment. Our mind
is very much still void of judgment, isn't it? Yes, it is. Look at
chapter two. He says, verse one, You're inexcusable,
old man, whoever you are that judges. You judge another, you
condemn yourself. Judges, you do the same thing. Now, we look down upon the harlot,
don't we? Yeah, we do. We look down on
promiscuous people, don't we? Have you ever looked at another
woman with lust? A woman, have you ever looked
at another man with lust in your heart? Christ said you've committed
adultery. You know better than that harlot
who does it for a living, right? Right? Right. Right? He says there's no difference.
None whatsoever. Look at verse 16. Because here's
the thing about it. Verse 16. Romans 2. There's coming
a day when God's going to judge the secrets. The secrets of men. Oh my. The secrets of men. The thoughts
and intents of the heart. That what they're talking about?
Oh, that was all right until he said that. You know, I never drank, smoked,
chewed, cussed. I've always been in church and
never run out in my wild mouth. But secrets, now, oh, it's serious, isn't it? It goes a
lot deeper, doesn't it, than just the flesh? Yeah, it does.
The secrets of man. How's he going to do that? By
Jesus Christ. See, God's got a perfect standard.
He's got a man. that he's going to judge everybody
by. We've got to have standards of
judgment, don't we? We've got to have standards.
Our laws have got to be perfect so we can hold somebody up against
it and see if they stack up. Christ is the standard of God. He's the perfect, holy, righteous,
spotless man. The only one who ever lived.
And in a day, it's coming to day, Henry, when God's going
to stand every man up. And then stand Christ beside
him and say, now let's see how you stack up. Did you do what he did? Did you
not do what he did? Did you look like him? Did you
walk, talk, think, act, fulfill righteousness like this man?
Did you? Let's see how you look. That's what they're saying. It's
coming a day when God's going to judge the secrets. And we
may look pretty good to this old world right now. It may look
pretty good this time. And on Sunday morning. I tell you how I want to stay
in him. In him. Not beside him. I want to be like some of your
little children that get under your mother's robe, you know,
in the morning. Did your child ever do that?
Get under your robe? I want to be under that robe.
And when God sees, where's Paul? He's right here. I can't see
him. He's wrapped in my righteousness. All right, let him in. You see?
I want to stand beside him because I stand beside him and I look
real bad. Real bad. And God sees right through me.
X-ray vision. Sees my heart. I may look pretty
good to everybody. Not God. God doesn't even look
at that with countenance. He doesn't. He's looking on the
heart. On the heart. Well, that's what the Holy Spirit
teaches. That's one of the things. And look again at verse 4 of
chapter 3. Look at it. Here's the thing. You say, a
man may say, I'm not that. I just don't believe. Verse 4.
Chapter 3 of Romans. Let God be true in every man.
A liar. A liar. A liar. He said in verse 10, there's
none good, there's none righteous, no, not one. No. Look at verse
12. We like to say he's a good man.
But look what this says. Verse 12. It says they're all
gone out of the way. David said this twice. Two different
songs. They together become unprofitable. That means God doesn't need anybody. unprofitable. They get in the
way, as a matter of fact. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Right? And I ask you, has God the Holy
Spirit convinced you of this? Of this sin? Has he? Are you
one of those condemned sinners? Are you one of these people?
Does this describe you perfectly to a T? I sure hope so. This is who God's
Holy Spirit taught. They should all be taught of
God. If not, if you hear this by way
of tape, and if you hadn't already turned it off already, if you
don't think this is talking about you, throat is an open sepulcher,
tongues of you who deceive, the poison of ass, mouth full of
cursing and bitterness and destruction, all of these things, none righteous
If you don't think that's talking about you, then you make God
a liar. You're saying, no, God is not
true. I am. God is a liar. I am true. Scripture says, let God be true,
and every man a liar. Now, if you don't believe that,
throw this book away. Throw this book away. But if
you do, the Holy Spirit has taught you that, and you're a blessed
man and woman. Blessed. I've told you. I've used that
illustration of Mindy telling me one time that I smelled offensive
before. I perspire very heavily up here,
and one Sunday night I didn't change my shirt, and I started
to come to church, and she said, wait a minute. And she told me,
it didn't say it this nicely, but she said, you're kind of
offensive right now. You need to change your shirt.
And I got offended at that at first. But she was helping me out, wasn't
she? Who would want to come here?
Who would want to come here? Good message. Why wouldn't I? And I might go home
and think, why didn't anybody respond to that message? Why
didn't everybody say, quick to get to the door? Well, she was
giving me a phone call. I smelled bad, to put it very
bluntly, very directly. I smelled bad. God, the Holy
Spirit, does you a great favor in telling you, you smell bad
to God Almighty, doesn't he? Oh, your sins, even your righteousness
is filthy rags to God. Because we come in, we can just
garble and come in, work this life out, Sunday school pens,
you know. Here I am, God! Look pretty good,
don't I? The Holy Spirit in grace and
mercy comes. He'll say, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. You
better take them old rags off. You better take them off. You
better get naked. Those rags, you see, they stink
to God. You're offensive to God in that.
Offensive. Oh, you got to have good clothes
on. You got to have a perfect righteousness. That brings me
to my next statement. Verse 9, he says that the Holy
Spirit will convict us of sin because they believe not on me. And this is the chief sin that
the Holy Spirit convicts us of. Unbelief. Unbelief. You say,
I believe in God. No, wait a minute. The Scripture
says the devil believes in God and trembles. Is the devil saved? No. We say, well, I believe in
Jesus. Well, now wait a minute. Scripture
says this, too. Many believed on him, but he
did not commit himself because he knew what was in him. Right?
He said, you get your belly full so you follow me. You're in this
thing of what you can get out of it. He knew. But Jesus is
my Lord, someone may say. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord. Right? Isn't that what the Scripture
says? This people, he said, draws near
to me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me,
far from believing that he is Lord, that he is the Lord, our
righteousness. And this brings me to my next
point here. Salvation is not believing facts, not believing
that Jesus, a man named Jesus, came and lived and died and went
to the cross and died and was buried and actually rose again.
Not just believe facts. The devil believes that fact,
doesn't he? All the demons. Demons said one time, we know
who you are. You're the holy one of Israel.
Men don't even know that. That he's the holy one. But they
knew. They said, you've come to torment
us for a time. We know who you are. Salvation is not confessing with
the mouth. Scripture says what? With the
heart. Man believeth unto what? What's
the word? Righteousness. Is it important? Is it important now that we know
something about this? Righteousness? Well, he says this is the second
work of the Holy Spirit, verse 10. He will convict or prove
or convince of righteousness, verse 10. Righteousness, because
I go to my Father. Righteousness, because He's got
to convince us of what it is. Or rather, who? Who? Right? Romans 10? He says, let
me turn over there real fast and show you some things. Romans
10. He said, Paul said, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now listen, folks. There's a lot of people out there
interested in religion. A lot of people want to get to
heaven. Right? You may be a fool if you
didn't. Pops pie and a squat and a sweep by and by, you know,
play golf. And, you know, whatever you want to do, just perfect.
Heaven. Everybody's got some notion of
heaven. Everybody wants to get to heaven. Paul said the thing,
that's not the thing we need. We don't need. My heart's desire
and prayer to God is not that you might get to heaven, but
that you might be what? Saved from your what? Sin. He'd just been talking about.
Sin. He said, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They're real religious. But it's
not according to knowledge because they're ignorant of this one
vital thing, John. Now, they're real zealous, real
religious. And I do, I bear people record. They're going about it,
saying it's so sincere, but sincerity doesn't save people, does it?
Else the Moslems and the Hindus would be the most saved people
on earth. But, you see, they're ignorant of this thing that they
need to know and believe down in their heart. Righteousness. Who it is. What it is. Why do
we need it? Our lack of it. This goes hand-in-hand with sin,
doesn't it, Rick? If they don't see their sin,
they don't see their lack of this righteousness. If they don't
see their sin, they think they've got a righteousness, right? That
God accepts them. No, they've got to know something
about this righteousness. What is that? Twofold. Like I
said, you've heard this before, but it's twofold. They're ignorant,
first of all, of God's personal righteousness. He's holy. Yes,
the average man and woman on the street describe God. How is God? They say, God is
love. No, the scripture speaks more
of God's holiness than anything else. And I had some ignorant
preacher here in town make this statement. He said, well, everybody
knows that God is morally superior. He's ignorant. A preacher, he's
ignorant of God's righteousness, holiness. You know the meaning
of the word holy. You think it just means morally
superior? That means that, you know, if
I'm more morally superior than you, then I'm holier than thou,
right? No! Holiness, it's indescribable. God is holy. I don't know what it means. It
means indescribable. He dwells in law inaccessible. That means perfect, pure, spotless,
cannot look, think, be in the presence of iniquity or sin,
anything imperfect. That just touches the meaning,
doesn't it? That's a whole lot more than morally perfect, spotless,
and pure. We can't even look at the sun,
can we? We can't go outside and put our
eyes on the sun for a minute. He said the sun doesn't even
shine to God. The sun is dark compared to God. I hear these people talking about
dying and seeing a light. Oh, no! They didn't see that
light. God, who is light, they didn't
see that. If they, when they woke up, they'd
be blind. Right? Holy, they're ignorant. Men are
ignorant of this holiness that God will not by no means, can't. I've given this illustration
before. A surgeon demands that his surgical room be germ-free. He demands everybody scrub to
perfection. No germs are allowed, else they
might infect. They might infect the environment. Germs might come in and ruin
his operation, cause infection and so forth. God's heaven is
a perfect hole in his pockets. No sin allowed. None. Not a speck. Not a microscopic organism. Not
a smell of sin, let alone an action. Right? They're ignorant
of that, and they're ignorant chiefly. of God's imputed righteousness,
which is what? Which is who? Christ. You may know that verse there,
Romans 10. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. I hope you know the meaning of
that. I hope you know the meaning of this name. Jehovah Sidken. You know the mystery of the universe?
You know that the gospel is in this name? Do you know that your
eternal destiny depends upon this name? Jehovah Sidkenu. Do you know it? I hope you do.
I believe most of you do, but perhaps someone that doesn't,
it means the Lord, our righteousness, our standing before God, our
covering, our acceptance, our substitute, our mediator, our
intercessor, our representative, our high priest, our standing
before God Almighty, our righteousness. It's more than just a doctrine. It's a person. Christ, our righteousness. I don't, I've made a mistake
before of maybe giving an impression of belittling doctrine. Oh no, the gospel is the doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If any man abide not in the doctrine
of Christ, he's none of his. What is the doctrine of Christ?
It's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must understand
something about it. You must. Is that not what Romans
10 says? Huh? Is it necessary or is it
not? Let God be true now. And every
man an ignorant liar. Got to know something about it.
Not perfectly. Not be able to, like I said,
articulate it or speak it, put it in the exegeticals at the
word for it. form, but you've got to at least
know that you can't stand before this holy God unless Christ represents
you. Unless Christ did what he did
for you, that you're not going to make it. That's what that
righteousness is. And he said this. Look at this. Look back at the text. I've got
to pass over a lot of notes here. Look at verse 11. Well, verse
10, he said, I have a righteousness because I go to the Father. I
go to the Father. Why? Because he had to go and
represent a people. Righteousness. He had to go and
present his blood. He had to go and present that
sacrifice that he made on the behalf of God's chosen people. He rose from the grave, not just
to show that he could, but he had to go back to the Father
with that blood, like the high priest of old, and put it on
the mercy seat, and cover the broken law that's in that ark.
Right. A man approves. He has to sit
down at the right hand of God, and now he has to speak for you.
And the Holy Spirit teaches us this. It shows us Christ, our
righteousness. And lastly, the Holy Spirit teaches
us judgment. Judgment. Judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged. And this is comforting. Listen
to it now. Please bear with me. Judgment. First of all, this
judgment, no man calleth Jesus Lord. But how? Anybody quote
that? No man called it, he said it,
put by the Holy Spirit. Nobody can call Jesus Lord. What does he mean to be Lord?
Judge, doesn't he? Isn't it Lord? They call them
Lords over in England, don't they? Lords of Parliament? That
means they're the judges, right? They're the rulers of the land.
No man calls this Jesus, this same Jesus, ultimate. absolute Lord, Judge, Ruler,
all things in his hand. But how? By the Holy Spirit showing
him who he is. Showing him who he is. John said,
I was in spirit on the Lord's day, didn't he? Didn't John say
that? He said, I was in the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, on the Lord's day. What did the Spirit show
him there in chapter 1? Oh, he showed him Christ. He
fell on his face. He showed him the Lord in all
his splendor and glory. And, oh, Henry, buddy, if he's
going to save you, he's going to do the same thing. Right? He's going to show you the Lord.
Not only the Lord your righteousness, but the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Not just in statement of faith. Yes, Jesus is our Lord. in mind, in heart, in attitude,
in feeling, Lord, Lord, right? Lord, convince men that He's
got the keys, hell and death, right? Convince men that all
what judgment is committed into His hands, that you don't answer
anybody but Him. He's got to convince us of that,
doesn't He? or else we'll appeal to all different things. There he is, right? We ought
to see that he, God, has made, he's all. But wait a minute,
I want to appeal over it. No, you're going to get into
heaven. Right there is the one you're going to have to see.
He's all. He's made unto us all things
of God. He's Lord. Nobody, nothing. No thing, anything, everything
answers to this one person, right? And listen to this. He says of
judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. You
see a particular redemption? Say, how in the world do you
get that out of there? See, you like that doctor, don't you?
Oh, let me tell you. My soul hangs on it. My soul
depends upon that blood effectually putting away my sins. Now, how
about yours? If that blood didn't put away
my sins, then I still got them. And I'm in a heap of trouble.
The Scripture says, though, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from A-double-L-all our sins. Now, judgment and the Holy Spirit
takes It shows us this is the consolation. This is the bearing
witness with our spirit that Christ is Lord, that He's Savior.
This is the bearing witness that judgment has been accomplished.
My sins are gone. Johnny would mean joy, any peace,
any joy unspeakable, any consolation in this life. I'd take me a gun,
boy. But no, there's therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ. Why? I've
been judged. And the prince of this world
can find nothing in me. And Henry comes up to me every
day. And this is what tears me and throws me for a loop. Doesn't
it, you? Clyburn does. He's the accuser of the brethren.
I saw you. I heard what you said. What did you say? You're looking
at that. I got you. Right? That's what
he says to you, doesn't it? What's your hope? According to
this world, you know, you better repent of every one of them. I told you, oh, what was it?
Lord, forgive me. I heard you. What'd he say? He says we've
got sins of omission, secret sins we didn't know about. What's
your hope? What's the gospel? What's the
good news? They're all gone. Judge! And Satan can find nothing
in me. Nothing. I've been judged. And this is what it means, Henry,
to mortify your members when he comes to you. This is what
it means to resist the devil. We can't fight him on his grounds.
We're not wrestling with flesh and blood. Principalities and
powers. We're wrestling with somebody
who's a lot smarter than us, can twist us and turn us Turn
us whithersoever he will, right? What's the answer? What's our
defense? I'll step on the head of the
devil, they say, these religions. Paint a face of a devil on a
blunt. Now, y'all step on that devil. They're doing that. They're doing
that. Telling little kids that. Our only defense is to say, You're
judged. Satan. You've got nothing in
me. I've got a righteousness. Now,
if you want to accuse me, go to Christ. See what he says about
me. You go see him. Like I said one time, you call
him up. My prayer. Lord! He doesn't look at me again. Damn! This old bully is a bother
to me. And he says in the gospel, oh,
I took care of that old boy, and I'm going to have to come
and get him again. And he says to us like old Bunyan. You know,
Bunyan loves to close with this. Bunyan, one time, he said in
his pilgrim's progress, he said a Christian was walking toward
that celestial city, and he looked up ahead. The evangelist had
told him what path to travel. And he looked up ahead on that
path to Celestial City, and on either side there were two big
lions, mouths this big, razor-sharp claws this long, blood drenching
from their mouths, roaring on both sides of the way. And he
thought, Oh no, oh no, I'm never going to make it. And that's
what Satan is. Doesn't the Scripture say he's
like a roaring lion? He's walking to and fro in the
earth seeking whom he may devour. And we see him at times, and
he confronts us at times as a roaring lion. Doesn't he? And Bunyan said the closer he
got to those lions, he thought, I can't get there, but by this
way, it's a straight and narrow way. I can't go here, I can't
go there. I've already tried that, and he messed up. He saw his
only one way. He says, I've got to get there.
Here's this line. What am I going to do? He walked up there, and
the closer he got, he saw that they were on chains. Both those lines had chains around
their feet. And they were roaring and roaring
and roaring, but they couldn't reach any farther than that path. He walked through the middle
of them. Oh, they were screaming and growling and roaring. He
was scared to death. But they couldn't touch Him. Christ is the way. He can't touch
Him. The Holy Spirit, if you'll bear
witness with your spirit through this gospel, He'll show you of
judgment, how that you've been judged, and boy, you're talking
about joy. This is that peace that somebody was asking me about
the other day. This is that peace. This is the only way you're going
to get it to. Only way. Only way. Well, I hope the Lord will bless
that. Let's sing a song.