Boy, that song was so good. Bible lesson. Hopefully, by God's grace, answer it and ask the question,
am I a child of God? If you're like me, if you haven't
had the gospel preached to you very long or been confronted
with the God of the Bible, you've asked yourself that question
probably more than once. Am I a child of God? And we keep good company when
we ask ourselves that question. One of the great men of time
past, I think the greatest as far as
the spirit of Christ was concerned, John Newton, asked, "'Tis a point
I long to know, and oft it gives me anxious thought. Do I love
the Lord, or no? Am I his, or am I not?' But some
few months ago, I was at a Bible conference,
and I sat and wanted a new preacher there, and some people that I'd
known for a while but hadn't really got a chance to know them.
And this is how this message came to be born, sitting across
the table from them, and they introduced me to one man, and
never laid eyes on him before. And the first thing he asked
me, he just set his elbows on the table and he said, can a
man be saved and not be a Calvinist? And I knew he had both. His attitude,
he'd been laying in wait for me. And sure enough, somebody
told me later, said he'd been waiting a long time to get you
hemmed up because of some things I had preached. And I knew he
wanted to fight, and I wasn't I didn't want to fight, especially
not in a place where we're supposed to worship and honor and glorify
God. And I said, well, all I know is that a man can't be saved
and not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ without believing the
gospel. Call it what you want. He kept
going to argue. And then later, it got on my soul. And I used
to hear these men talk and the letters they'd write to me and
the things they would say, and I'd say, In light of what they're
saying, I'm probably not even a child of God myself. And it
really troubled me, Rick. I stayed up all night, several
nights, and finally one morning, about three o'clock in the morning,
I began to ask myself, am I a child of God? Am I really in light
of these men? So, but in order to answer this
question to myself and maybe to you, Am I a child of God? I ask myself some other questions
in order to find out the answer. But in asking questions, I had
to eliminate some questions that you dare not ask yourself. If
you ever or I ever ask myself if I'm a child of God, I dare
not ask another man. I dare not ask another man. Another
man can't tell me if I'm a child of God or not. No matter how
highly I esteem him, how spiritual he may be, I cannot go to any
man, any human being, and say, Do you think I'm a child of God?
And these people that are going around trying to give assurance
to other men, what they're really doing is trying to give assurance
to themselves. And I dare not ask myself this question. Do
I have enough knowledge about God? Do I look to see how much
I know about God? Do I know enough about Him? When
the Scriptures themselves plainly say, that he's past finding out. Oh, how unsearchable are the
riches of the judgment and the wisdom of Almighty God. They're
unsearchable, they're past finding out. And if thou could ascend
into the heavens, no matter... George said this one day, he
said, this knowledge is too wonderful for me. And the more I find out
and study about God, the more I understand that He's inconceivable
and incomprehensible, and the only way He can be known is in
His own life. God can only be known by God.
So I don't ask myself, do I have enough knowledge about God? I
don't ask myself if I have enough knowledge of the Word of God. I quoted more scriptures and
quote chapters at a time in my preaching back when I was an
unconverted fundamentalist preacher, Pentecostal preacher. When anybody down home wanted
to know what something in the Bible was, where it was, they'd
call me on the telephone. Your brother Donnie would tell
you. So I couldn't look to that. Well, do I know enough about
the Bible? Do I have enough knowledge of the Word of God to see if
I'm a child of God? And I dare not ask my feelings,
I don't question my feelings. I surely couldn't question my
feelings to say, well, I feel sane. I feel sane. Or I don't feel sane. Well, sometimes
I feel real sane, sometimes I feel real, real far out. And I don't, I don't look back
on experience. I don't look back on experience,
though I'm like you, I've had experience. I had an experience
when I was really confronted with the truth, and it was either
bow to it or go to hell. And I've had lots of experiences
down through the years in God and His providence. If you look
back from the time you can remember anything, every one of us has
got a book full of experience of God and His providence, even
before we were brought to the truth, that we can look back
on and say, that was God's hand in my life to bring me where
I am now. But we don't look to those. And
I've had lots of experiences. And I surely, surely don't ask
myself, well, am I a Calvinist? Am I a Calvinist? What about
men and women before John Calvin? John Calvin turned over his grave
if men used his name the way they used it now. It'd be a sight. Wouldn't that
be a sight? Wouldn't Paul be a sight, saying, now we're, and
you know that we're whatever they call Calvinistic in doctrine
or Calvinistic in creed, but we were grace believers. We believe the gospel of the
grace of God. We believe God high and holy,
almighty, and omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. We believe God does
what he will, when he will, for whom he will, and how he will.
We believe man is lost and dead and depraved and hell-deserved
and has a will and a nature that's against God, and if God won't
invade his will and invade his heart and bring him into the
dust, he'll go to hell and do what the lion is right at. We believe those things. But
wouldn't we be a pretty sight, putting up and saying, now this
is what we believe, and whenever you learn this point here, and
learn this point, and this point, and this point, and arrive here,
and say, I fully understand all that, then you can stand up and
tell everybody you're saved. Wouldn't we be a pretty sight
doing that? Oh, boy. I hear men talk that. It amazes
me, Brother Paul, that the Church has survived preaching. It amazes
me that men and women Like you all, survive some of the preaching
that some of us preachers do, especially me. I give thanks. I've got a message when I get
back home, I'll preach to the church. I give thanks for because
of all the years they've had to put up with me and my learning,
my struggling, my falling flat on my face. So if God does anything
for anybody, it's going to be despite us preachers. I'll tell
you that most of the time. But I want to come back to the
question, am I a child of God? How in the world am I going to
know? How am I going to find out? Who's going to tell me? Who can assure me that I'm a
child of God? Where am I going to get that
answer? Well, there's only one place you and I can find it.
Only one place I can find it, and that's from God's Word. The
only warrant of faith that we can have in this world is what
just right here is saying. We can't go around feelings.
This is it. Either believe God or not. Huh? So, beloved, from God's Word,
I ask myself, see, James says, "...by his own will begat he
us with the word of truth." Our Lord Jesus Christ said, "...if
ye continue in my word," as Paul read this morning. And our Lord
Jesus, except you believe I am He, God esteemed His Word more
than His own name, exalted above His own name. And who esteemed
His Word so much that He manifested in the flesh, and we beheld His
glory as the glory of the begotten of the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. And we're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. And this is the Word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. So from God's Word, from God's
Word as I face myself, and I want to be saved. I really, truly
want to be saved. I want to be a child of God in
this world. I don't want to be a child of—I
don't want to be distinguished by the way I dress. I don't want
to be distinguished so much by the way I walk. I want to be
a friend of God as Abraham was. I want to know God, if He can
be known. If I can, if I can know Him,
if I can have a relationship with Him, if I can, even if there's
not a heaven after this world, if I can know God, I want to
know Him, want to be one of His children. So from God's Word,
I ask myself two questions to find out if I was a child of
God. And the first question is this, am I a sinner? Am I a sinner? Why in the world
would you ask that? Because God's Word says that
he came to seek and to save that which was lost. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to save sinners. That's what Paul
said. We haven't even read a verse, have we? That's what Paul said
here in verse fifteen. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Boy, I'm going to put a good
ground here because I sure enough am one, huh? God's Word says
that's the reason I ask the question. I hear men talking, I'd say,
why don't you tell me something about a sinner in need of a Savior? That's what I need. Huh? And beloved, when I ask myself
that question, I come up with the answer. I said, yes, I am.
Yes, I am. How do you know you are? First
of all, God said I was. God himself said I was a sinner.
Whether you say I'm a sinner or not, my wife tells people
I'm a pretty good feller, which she's impolite in a way. But
I'll tell you something. I'll tell you something. No matter
what anybody else says, it's what we know about ourselves.
You know the story very well in Luke chapter 7 where the centurion
sent a servant to tell the Lord Jesus, I've got a servant here
that's going to die. He's sick. And they said, Master,
come down here. He's sick. And he said, this
man is worthy. I said, he's built synagogues
for us. He's gave alms to the poor. He's done all these things.
The servant, Lord Jesus, went down there because they talked
about how good this fellow was and how worthy he was. And Lord
Jesus went down there to heal the man's problem. When he got
down there, the man come running outside and said, Master, Lord,
I'm not worthy that you should even come under the roof of my
house. If you'll just speak your word, my servant will be healed."
So all those folks talked about what a fine man he was. They
talked about how generous he was. They talked about his religion. But he knew himself. He said,
I'm not worthy that you should come under the roof of my house.
He knew himself without worrying about himself. It's what we know
about ourselves and what God knows about us. And God said,
we've proved before, both Jew and Gentile, that all is under
sin. All has sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that seeks after
God. There is none that understands it. Every war has been out of
the way. We've all been dead and become
unprofitable. And with our tongues we've used
deceit, and with our seed we've been switched to shed innocent
blood. And there's been no fear of God before our eyes, and God
said that about us. And when I read that, I read
my life's history. I read my life's story when I
read Romans chapter 3. God himself came down looking
for a good man. And God goes looking for something. If it can be found, you better
believe he can find it. He came back to his own glory
and said, there's none on topside of God's earth that's good. And
that's what God said about me. So I know I'm a sinner because
God said I'm one. I know I'm a sinner because my
own conscience says I'm one. Even before I was converted,
my conscience was telling me I was a sinner. I'd do things
and I'd say, I'll never do that again. My conscience would smite
me, Terry, until I think I'm going to die sometimes. I'd do
things and I'd feel so guilty I'd make all kinds of promises
to my wife, to my children, to myself. And that's one thing
about our heart, it'll always promise more than it can perform.
Oh, then again I'd do it. My old conscience says that I'm
a sinner. My spirit just says that I'm
a sinner. Everything I do says I'm a sinner.
Every step I take, every breath I breathe, every time I move
my hands, every time I open my mouth, every time I look through
my eyes, every time I hear with my ears, it tells me I'm a sinner. My actions tell me. The way I
treat my wife, and both the lovers I love, the Lord loved the church
and gave Hisself for it. The way I treat her, the way
I treat my children, the way I treat my brethren in church,
the way I treat my God tells me I'm a sinner. I don't have to lie and steal
and cheat and commit adultery and rob in order to prove that
I'm a sinner. Adam in the garden. He never
done anything that men are calling sin. He was naked standing in
that garden. He didn't smoke, he didn't drink,
he didn't chew, he didn't read filthy books, he never watched
pornography, he never had a television, he never had liquor, he never
had nothing, but he was there. And yet he sinned, and by his
sin, all of us became sinners. What was it that had done that
made him a sinner? Something in his heart said I
don't want God to be my God. So it's something about us. I'll
tell you my own actions and experiences tell me sometimes, sometimes
I can, sometimes I feel my sins so awful and horrible I smell
it coming out of my pores. Sometimes it's just like a stench
that rises before me and I don't want to be, I just want to go
back in the woods, get under a brush and lay down and just,
oh God, stay in the dirt and not even touch the ground in
public because my sin just pours out of me. It's an awful stench. And I've never in my life—and
I'd love to do this one time before I die, God helping me—but
I've never done anything, said anything unselfishly and entirely
for the glory of God. But oh, Paul, wouldn't you like
to say one word, think one thought, do one deed, and it be purely
for God's blessed glory? Oh, my soul, my soul. The Holy
Spirit tells me I'm a sinner. With His come, He came to convince
me. He's convinced me beyond a shadow
of a doubt that I'm a sinner. He's convinced me. He's convinced
me. My son, you couldn't get my son
and my daughter to think a bad thought about their daddy now
that they've grown up. You couldn't get them to say
a bad thing about their daddy. You can't convince them that
there's anything wrong with me. God's Holy Ghost has convinced
me I'm a sinner." Huh? The death of Christ our Lord,
John, on that tree, that tells me I'm a sinner. What an awful
sinner I must have been. It must be that it would take
the death of God Himself and the person of His Son in order
to save me. My wife, children, friends, and
loved ones, all of you, you'll tell the truth on me. Say, yeah,
he's a sinner. And I'll tell you something about this business
of knowing I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner when I feel like
I'm a sinner, and I'm a sinner when I don't feel so sinful. Let me tell you something. I'm
ashamed of it. I'm ashamed of sin. I'm ashamed
of being a sinner. I don't blow in it. I'm embarrassed
by my sin. I'm so ashamed of it, I'm embarrassed
by it. And if there's one thing I could
have in this world, it wouldn't be to be wealthy. God knows I'd
like to have more money. I wouldn't want to have a bigger
car, better an automobile. I wouldn't want to have a great
big home. I wouldn't even want to see my
children converted. If I could have one thing I want
in this world, it'd be this, that I'd never ever sin again. And I said, my blessed God, if
I could have one thing, I'd never sin again. And it's awful. It's an awful burden to know
that there's something in you that's so against God, and so
against true righteousness, and so against holiness, something
in us that's so intrinsically evil that I'd un-God God if I
could. That's an awful thing to know.
Yes, I'm a sinner. Like Omaphibosheth, when David
fetched him, he came, fell down before the king and said, Why
would thou take notice of thy servant such a dead dog as I
am? Oh, just a dog. And I'll tell you what else.
I'm not only my sinner, but I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite
too. I'm a hypocrite. I was building,
when we was building our house down home, a fellow was building,
helping build a house, say, one of them's up on a ladder one
day out on the gable end of the house. And I was preaching a
meeting where I am now. I used to preach a lot of revival
meetings, back before we called them back in, revival meetings.
And I asked them to come meet me that night, said, and they
said, where are you going to preach on? I said, I'm going to preach on the strange
things of the 80s. That's where I said, I'm going
to preach on the strange things of the 80s. He said, well, I
said I would come, but there's so many hypocrites in church.
I said, well, come on, two more won't make a bit of difference. And beloved, I tell you, I'm
a hypocrite. I am. You say, how in the world? Well, because I say one thing
and I do another. Act like when I'm happy a lot
of times when I'm sad. Act like everything's fine when
sometimes everything seems wrong. That that I wouldn't do, that's
what I would do. That that I would do, that's what I don't do. That
that even I hate, I'll end up doing it. That that I love, I'll
put off doing it. I know what to do, but how to
perform it, I don't know how to do. There's an awful long
warning in my memory. With my mind, I serve the law
of God. In my mind, I delight in it,
that there's something in here, something in here that brings
me into captivity to sin, and I have to cry out, O wretched
man that I am, who shall ever deliver me? And not only am I
hypocrite, see, because I say one thing and do another, but
I expect from others what I'm not even willing to do myself. That's an awful thing. What a
miserable, wretched bunch of people the human race all of
us are. Beloved, I don't want to use
my depravity. I don't want to use my sinfulness,
my sin nature as an excuse for my sin. I don't want to use the
grace of God as an excuse to sin. I bear the blame. I bear the blame for what I am
and what I do. I bear full responsibility for
it. No one makes me sin. No one twists
my arm and makes me do it. And yes, beloved, I'm a sinner.
And if God don't save me, I'm going to hell and justly so.
Justly so. And my second question, just
ask two. My second question's this. Do I believe with all my
heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And have I trusted
my soul with Him? Have I really entrusted my soul
with it?" Why do you ask that question?
Because, again, the Word of God said, He that believeth on the
Son hath life. He that believeth not the Son
hath not life. And, beloved, do I believe with
all my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, equal Yes,
the Word of God said that through faith in him I could and would
be saved. John 20, 31 says that all these
things were written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you might have
life through his name. Let me show you something in
John chapter 9. John's Gospel chapter 9. Paul
was talking about this the other night. He said some awful good things
about it. I'm glad he did. I'm going to use them this morning,
right now. You know the story about the
man here in John 9 that was born blind. Born blind. They wanted to know who sinned.
Did his mother? Who sinned that this man was born blind? Our
Lord says, neither one but for the glory of God, that God may
be glorified and given him sight. Our Lord opened his eyes. He
got in all kinds of fictions after that. They put him out
of the synagogue. His own mother and daddy turned
against him. They said, because they were afraid that they'd
get put out of the church if they owned up that Christ had
opened his eyes. He went out witnessing, I was
born blind, but now see, you know, you're going to be his
disciple. He had a great, great religious experience. I mean,
if you're blind, somebody opened your eyes. That's some kind of
experience. But look here now. Down in verse
30, 35, Jesus heard that they had cast
him out of the synagogue, and when he had found him, he said
unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answer said,
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe
you." And he worshiped him. Now, I can't do any more than
that. I can't. I can't do any more
than that. I can't. I can't do any more
than that. I cannot do any more than just
believe that I'm the Son of God and just worship Him. I can read
all the books that I can buy, and I can sit and read my Bible
until I wear the pages out of it, where it's all said and done.
I can't do any more than that. can just believe in the Son of
God and worshiping can do any more than. You said read the
Bible. Philip jumped up in the chariot
with him and said, do you understand what you read? How can I accept
some man who guides me? He began to preach unto him the
Lord Jesus Christ and his doing and dying. And you've heard that
and I heard that. And the best and most blessed
news that I ever heard in my life was that Jesus Christ died
to put away sin once and for all by the sacrifice of himself,
that I would never have to face my sin ever again before God
Almighty. through believing on Him. By
the most glorious news I ever heard, that Ethiopian eunuch
said, while he was driving along, there was a pond or something
there, and he said, why hinders me from being baptized? He said, if thou believest with
all your heart that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God, you
may. He said, I believe. I believe. I believe every time I hear somebody
preach the gospel, my hands and my heart go straight up like
this and say, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe,
I believe. Yes, I believe. When the devil
comes and says, oh, you're this, I say, I believe. I believe,
I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And I believe that, I
believe that if I cast my soul on him, I'll be all right through
time, any sort of thing. That if I had 10,000 souls, that
he could be trusted with every one of them. Huh? Oh, beloved, I believe what
God said concerning his son. Paul said, Be it known unto thy
foremen, brethren, that through this man is present to you the
forgiveness of sins, and that all who believe. They'd be justified
from all things for which it could not be justified by the
Lord Moses. And the question is, not how
much I know, but who I know. That's it right there. Not how much I know, but who
I know. It's not my knowledge of him, but it's his knowledge
of me. He said, I know my sheep. I know
them. And he said, we're known of God. If he knows me, I'll be all right. You know, I may end up losing
my mind. I spent 18 months in mental hospitals and sat in dark
rooms for days and days at a time, couldn't even go out into the
light. Didn't want to see nobody, talk to nobody, didn't have sense
enough to talk to anybody. And I may get like that again
before I leave this world. They may put me off in an asylum
someplace. I may get Alzheimer's disease,
and I may forget what it is to even wash your face or brush
your teeth. I may not even remember my name,
how to go from the living room door to the back door. But then
how's my knowledge going to do me? I'm not discussing here that
we don't have to know anything, but I'm telling you that the
Reverend is here knowing us. Does he know me? I may be sitting
in a wheelchair one of these days with slobber drooling down
my chin onto my lap. Don't know my children, don't
know myself, but if he knows me, when they carry me out to
the graveyard and put this old carcass into the ground, it'll
be all right, I'm telling you, because he'll get me out of the
ground. He'll put me there. He'll bring
me out because he knows me. I knew you before you was formed
in the belly. I knew you before you was put
in your mother's womb. And I told you, and I ordained
you. And Paul said it when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and covered it
in His grace. Got a little man in our church
that sits right there every Sunday morning, every Sunday night,
every Wednesday night. Little old bitty fella. You put
his name in boxcar letters on the side of this building, bright
bold red letters he couldn't read. Fifty-eight years old. Can't read, can't read. Call on his blessed master. He
couldn't sit down and tell you what John Calvin believed. He
can't tell you what Spurgeon believed. He can tell you, I
believe on Jesus Christ. If he don't save me, I'm going
to hell, and justly so. He can tell you that God in his
blessed grace saved him if he hadn't. Oh, what a wonderful
God it is that came by my way one day. That's what he'll tell
you. Oh, beloved, listen to me. If you don't get anything else
I've said today, The Christian profession and
experience is never more than coming to Christ. Never more
than that. To whom coming? As under a living
stone, to whom coming? That's always in the present
tense. I don't know nothing about English or grammar or nothing
else. But to whom coming? That means you're just constantly
coming. We've got to grasp where we're at and keep going, you
know. We just stand at the door of
mercy. Just stand there. Just keep it going. Just keep
it going. To whom? Coming. When I feel
good, I go. To give thanks. When I feel bad,
I go. When I feel weak, I go. When
I feel poor, I go. When I feel rich, I go. When
I feel sick, I go. When I'm healthy, I go. When
there's trouble in my heart, I go. When there's peace in my
mind, I go. No matter what the situation,
just keep coming and coming and coming and coming to Him. Never
more than that. Never more than that. And the
question, have I come to Him? Have I come to Him? People say, well, when did you
come to the doctrines of Calvinism? Or when did you come to the doctrines
of grace? When did you come to Him? Or have you come to Him? Not even so much when, but have
you come to Him? Have I committed myself to Him?
Oh yeah, there ain't no place else I can go. To whom you gonna
go? Lord, who are we going to go
to? There's nobody else. I know whom I believe, and I'm
persuaded that he's able to keep that that I've committed unto
him against that day. And, beloved, I know. I know
that a child of God this much. I know this much about one. I
know that we all desperately need the Lord Jesus Christ to
be our Savior. We don't just want Him to, though
we do want Him to, but we need Him to be our Savior. We need
Him to be our Redeemer, because we can't save ourselves, and
we won't be saved without Him. And, beloveds, in answering these
questions, I've turned from myself to Him. I'm nothing. He's everything. I'm absolutely
nothing. I don't know anything. You see
the laces in them shoes right there? See the buttons on that
shirt? You say, oh, so insignificant.
I owe everything I am and have in this world, and for time and
eternity to come, to the buttons on my shirt and the laces in
my shoes, entirely to the grace and blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ. I mean everything. I've turned from my righteousness
to His righteousness. I have none except His. I've turned from my works to
His works, from my sin to His righteousness, from my obedience
to His obedience. and searching and looking in
the Bible, I know that I don't trust my prayers but His grace.
I don't even trust my own faith but His faithfulness. I know
all to be done with self. We cast ourselves entirely on
Him for all time and eternity to be like Paul said, Knowing
that I might win him, that I might be found in him, and I'm pressing
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. He's the start mark, and he's
the finishing mark. If you don't start with him,
you won't end with him, but if you start with him, you'll sure
believe you'll end with him. He's the author and finisher
of our faith, huh? Oh, beloved, he's the prize in
the race. He's the crown for the fight.
He's the trophy of God's blessed grace. People say, well, he's
a trophy of grace. Christ is the trophy of God's
blessed grace. There, he's the trophy we're
going to receive. He's the reward that we're going
to receive. Beloved, I want to be saved.
I know I'm speaking for every child brought here this morning.
I want to be saved. I want to be saved by Him. I
want to be saved His way. I want His will over my will. I want him to be Lord. I want
him to be best. I want Him to willingly reign
in my life. I want Him to choose my family. I want Him to choose my friends. I let Him choose where I'm going
to live. I let Him choose how much money
I'm going to have. I let Him choose the clothes
that goes on my back. I let Him choose everything about
my life. I let Him choose what I should
experience and when I should experience. Everything in this
life he's lured over, and I'm just tickled to death that he
is. He's not no paper king or pretender after throne. He's
running this outfit, and the difference between a believer
and an unbeliever is the believer bows down, takes the yoke over,
up his yoke over the neck, and they say, boy, that yoke sure
is easy, and that burden sure is light. Huh? Oh, beloved, I need him and I
want him. Old John Dunn said this, as the
first Adam's sweat surrounds my face, may the last Adam's
blood my soul embrace. And you all know the story of
old Jack the Huckster, don't you? You've heard that lots of
times, haven't you? Old Jack the Huckster. You heard that? I know some preachers that got
absolutely mad. They can't stand this. They can't
stand this illustration, said it's too simple. Oh, you know
about old Jack. That's what I'm talking about.
God ain't going to let us be no more than a sinner. You get used to
it, it ain't all you want to in this life. You want to hear
it, you're going to keep coming right back to this. I'm a poor sinner and
nothing at all. Jesus Christ is bald enough,
huh? But old Jack the Huckster, poor
man, run around the country in little old villages selling little
old pots and pans and trinkets and things like that. And then
one day when he's going around the country, there's some women
out hanging their clothes out or something, and they were singing
a little old ditty, you know, I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. And old Jack, as
he was going about, you know, he began to think about them
women singing. He began to sing that little old song, I'm a poor
sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.
And after a while, God began to use that on his heart, and
God saved him. And boy, he determined He quit
his swearing and drinking, but began to regularly attend the
worship, and to hear the gospel preached, and coming in, you
know, and he determined, he said, well, it's time I'm going to
join the church. I want to be identified with God's people. I want to
join up, be identified with the Lord's people on this earth.
So he went to the preacher. Went to the preacher. And the
preacher said, well, I'll tell you what. Tell me what you can say for
yourself. He said, well, I can't say much. I can just tell you
I'm a poor sinner, nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all
in all." He said, well now, Fred, he said, is that all you've got
to say? Can't you tell me more than that?
No, Jack said, I can't tell you any more than that. So that's
my confession of faith. That's all I know. I'm a poor
sinner, nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all.
So the preacher said, well, I can't, I can't, I can't turn you away
from church fellowship, but I'll tell you this much. You'll have
to come before the church meeting and the members will have to
judge you to see if you're all right or not. Now boy, that reptile
told him he's wrong. Got to judge you to see if you're
right or not. Wouldn't you hate to, wouldn't you hate to, Wouldn't
you hate to have to go to a service and confess faith in Christ,
and say you're saved, and they bring you up here in front of
everybody, and the preachers stand here and ask you a bunch
of questions, and deacons, and you, and all y'all sitting out
there in judgment, and by what they say. Well, I just don't
know how to thank them. I don't know. I had an experience. They
called it like mine. Ah, boy, I tell you that. ain't three
kind of people in this world. Hot shots, big shots, and ought
to be shot, and people do that ought to be shot, I'm telling
you. So old Jack, you know, he was
a saved man, saved people, and they'll put up with a lot. And
he was a young believer, so he went to the church meeting, and
there sat some good old-fashioned deacons. I just see him, I just
see him sitting there, you know, I thought he'd be that stern-looking. Even when I'm mad, I can get
him in a long beard and say, no, you know nothing. Why don't
we remove stonks on this fellow? So we've been knowing him for
years, and he's just out there stealing off the people and selling
cheap goods for price to price. He wants to be a church member.
We're going to fix this fellow up. So they began to ask for
Jackson. They began to see where they
could find the fault with him. So Jack stood up, and when they
said, Jack, just stand up and state your experience, he said,
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all
in all. Some old deacon said to him,
was that all you got to say? He said, yep, that's it. That's
it. And the preacher said, anybody
else got any questions for old Jack? Well, Jack said, don't
you have many doubts and fears? Old Jack said, no, no. I never
can doubt but that I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. I
can't doubt that. If we take that one, tell me
it's so simple. The gospel's so simple. Only way it's ever
complicated is if we complicate it. Holy Ghost don't complicate
it. God don't complicate it. Christ
don't complicate it. We're not the ones that muddles
the water, makes the clear, good, crystal clear, fresh, life-giving
water. We'll muddy it up. Huh? They said, Jack, don't you ever
doubt? No, I can't never doubt that I'm a person or nothing
at all, for I know I am. And I cannot doubt that Jesus
Christ is all, and all in all. For He says I am, and how can
I doubt Him? Well, someone said to him, said,
well, Jack, sometimes I lose my evidences. Well, you don't
lose them if you feel like you got them. You know, you quit
looking for evidences and look to Him. Look to Him, and I sometimes
lose my evidences and graces, then I get very sad. Old Jack
said, well, I never lose anything. For in the first place, I'm a
poor sinner, and I don't have anything. I'm just a poor sinner with nothing
at all, so nobody can rob me, because I don't have anything.
I'm just nothing. And in the second place, Jesus
Christ is my holy mouth, and who can rob Him? He's in Heaven,
I can't never get any poorer, for I'm always nothing. And he
said, I always have everything in Him. So how could I be sad? Then another asked him, said,
Jack, don't you sometimes doubt whether you're a child of God?
And oh, I'd love to come to this place. Well, he said, I just
don't understand you, but I can tell you I never doubt that I'm
a poor sinner, nothing at all. And Jesus Christ is my all in
all. And Oliver said to himself, but sometimes I make great advances
on the road to heaven, and then I feel real good about it, and
then I go back again, and that causes me trouble. But old Jack
said, I never go forward, for I'm a poor sinner. I'm always
poor. And poor sinner, nothing at all, and I can't go back,
for Jesus Christ is my all in all. And blessed be God, he'll
never go back, and so I'm saved. I love that old Jack in my church
down home, wouldn't you? Got a couple of them down there,
really, to be honest about it. Got a couple of them. But, beloved,
I'm telling you, you can't get any higher than this. You can't
get any smarter than this. You can't be any more than this
right here. And that's the glorious simplicity of the gospel. Huh? Old Jack was spiritual enough,
but them old deacons didn't trip him up. He was smart enough for
that, wasn't he? The Lord won't let you go from
this, and may God help us to drive down our stake right here
and keep coming back to this. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. That's the whole purpose of the
gospel. That's the purpose of the Word, the purpose of the
preaching, and the work of the Holy Spirit, is to bring men
to where they're sinners and nothing at all. And Jesus Christ
is all in all. And the older I get, the more
I'm conscious and aware that that's what I am, just nothing,
and He's everything. This is where old Paul started
out. He started out as a sinner on a Damascus road. And he got
to be an old man, and have learned to live. And you know what he
said? Come right back where he started.
This is a faithful saying and word of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. And if this isn't enough, then
I'm not a child of God. If what I said this morning is
not so, then I'm not a child of God. I'm not going to make
it any more complicated than that, God helping me. I'm an
absolute sinner, and I've got to have an absolute Savior. God makes the gospel simple enough
that men who can't read can understand it. that the deaf, men who can't
hear, they can hear it. Men who are physically blind,
they can see it. And the people that can't speak,
they can still call on His holy name. And people that's in bed
and crippled and can't walk, they can still arise and go to
Him. Huh? And we used to sing that old
hymn, we still sing it down home. More about Jesus, what I know.
More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness to
see, more of His love who died for me. The more of Him I learn,
the more I see just how desperately I need Him, and what an awful
sinner I am. What an awful sinner. Brothers,
that's not enough. If you need any more than that, I'm not going to let no preachers
or churches or Denominations, anybody bring me an end to any
kind of bondage, I'm going to stay like, I'm going to be like
old Jack. I'm going to be like old Jack, I'm just going to...
Just ask me some questions. Go ahead, start questioning me. See if I got what it takes. Well,
let's see. Do you believe in sublapsarianism,
superlapsarianism, or extralapsarianism, or do you believe in the hypostatical
union of the tripartite God who... You don't know what I said, do
you? I was a barbarian, speaking in tongues. And I am a poor sinner. Oh, if
you knew what a sinner I was. If you just knew, just knew. The things that goes on in my
heart and my existence. I've sinned so against God over
the years. You just knew what an officer
said. It don't matter if you know or
not. God knows I am, and I know I'm one. And I'll tell you something.
When it comes time for me to leave this world, the only place
I'm going to find any comfort is in Jesus Christ. I'm not going
to look back and see if my faith was strong enough, if I preached
pure enough, if I was faithful enough. I'm not going to... I
don't look at those things now. When it comes time to die, The
only thing that's going to matter is Jesus Christ rising in our
honor. That's all that's going to matter. Let's sing, I think it's 256
in the book. That be all right, Paul? It's well with my soul. Let's
stand together and sing that. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, We'll sing number first verse
and the last verse, or the third verse, I'm sorry. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows blow, It is well with my soul. with my soul. Third verse. I see, oh the bliss
of this glorious hope. I see in my heart that the hope
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul.