I want you to turn to two places,
two places in the scripture. First, Timothy, chapter four.
We'll be dwelling there in a few moments. And also turn back to
Second Thessalonians, chapter two. I want to look at one verse here
in 2 Thessalonians 2, where we'll be dwelling in 1 Timothy 4. Now, I'm convinced from the Scriptures
that we are living in the last days. When Jesus Christ is returning,
I do not know. No man knows. No one knows. But he said himself that you
should be able to discern the times, that you should be able
to recognize some things that will be taking place before his
return. Now, I don't see any evidence
in the Scripture that there will be a great revival throughout
the land before Christ comes. I just don't see that anywhere.
Not at all. I don't see that, but on the
contrary, look here at 2 Thessalonians, chapter two, verse three. I see the contrary to that. Paul says, let no man deceive
you by any means for that day. He's talking about the return
of Christ shall not come. Except there come a falling away first. A falling away. Now look back at 1 Timothy, just
a couple of pages over. 1 Timothy chapter 4. A falling
away from what? A falling away from what? Now I say it, I fully believe,
I strongly believe that we are in these last days before our
Lord's return, because he said there'd be a falling away. And
look here in 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 1. Look at this. He
says, now the Spirit, talking about the Holy Spirit, speaketh
expressly, or that is clearly, undoubtedly, plainly, distinctly,
distinctly, that in the latter times Some shall depart, or that
is, fall away from the faith. The faith. The faith. Now, he said some. That means
people. He said in the latter times,
people or some people shall depart from the faith. But our Lord
said many. He said many, he said many false
prophets shall arise and shall deceive many people, many. And he said, because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. He said in another
place, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord. He said many, many that he never
knew in saving and salvation. He said many, some or many shall
depart. from the faith. Now, what is the faith? What
is the faith? Well, it means, and you're going
to see here in a moment, the gospel. Belief in the true gospel,
the true gospel, the gospel of God's sovereign, electing grace. It's God's gospel. It's God's
salvation. There's only one true gospel.
And I contend from God's word that many have departed from
that gospel. Many, very many people. Now, let me describe to you the
faith, what the faith of the gospel really is. The faith. What is the faith? Does it mean
believing in God? Does faith mean to believe in
God? No, not necessarily, because
the scriptures say the devil believes in one God. He does more than most people.
He shakes in God's presence. It's not just to believe that
there is a God, but it's to believe God. Now listen, I'm not just
making a play on words here. It's not to believe that there
is a God, although you must, but he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, that he is God, first of all. That's the
foundation of the faith, that God is God. Look over at 1 Kings with me,
the book of 1 Kings with me. This is a very fundamental, and
men like to call themselves fundamentalists. You're not a fundamentalist unless
you believe this fundamental truth of the faith, that God
is God. Not man, not the devil, God. You say, that's a very simple
saying. Well, very few people really
understand what I'm saying, what I mean by that. You see, Abraham
believed God, the scripture says, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness, for salvation. Not just in God, but true faith
is to take God at his word. God says, throughout his word,
if you start in the book of Isaiah, chapter one, and go all the way
through. Count the times where the Lord says, I'm the Lord,
there's none else. I am God, there is no other. Yeah, is there any other? No,
I know not of any. I am the Lord, there's none else. I am the Lord,
there is none else. That they may know from the rising
of the sun to the west that I am God, there's none else. I am
the Lord. Everybody knows that. Oh, no,
no, no. No, they do not. Look at this in 1 Kings chapter
18. 1 Kings chapter 18. You remember
this story when Elijah confronted the false prophets of his day
on this place called Mount Carmel? Now look down in verse 17. It
came to pass, well verse 19. Elijah gathered all the prophets
of Baal. There were 450 prophets of Baal
and the prophets of the grove, 400. That's eight hundred and
fifty prophets that he gathered together they gather them together
to this Mount Carmel verse twenty they gathered the prophets together
on the Mount Carmel. And Elijah. Was the only true
prophet of God. At this time the only true one
Elijah that's one against eight hundred and fifty false prophets.
I'm not just. I'm not trying to be exclusive
here at all, but I believe the ratio is much greater than that
now. I mean, much less than that. It's about 1 to 8,500. Everybody
and his brother is a preacher. But Elijah gathered before all
of these false prophets. In verse 21, all these false
prophets got up there on this mountain. And Elijah, the one
true prophet. And Elijah turned to the people,
verse 21, and he said unto the people, How long do you halt
between two opinions? Now, some of you say this is
God over here, and this is God over here. Some of you say God
is pretty much God, but man is in charge of his destiny. Some
of you say God is God, but some say the devil is in charge of
something. How long? Which is it? How long are you
going to halt between two opinions, he said? If the Lord be God,
that is, absolute, sovereign, ruler, creator, controller of
all things, if the Lord be God, we'd better follow him, hadn't
we? But if Baal, if Satan is God,
if Satan is in control of some mighty things and causing us
a lot of problems, we'd better follow him. Which is it? How long are you going to halt
between these two opinions? Well, the people didn't say a word,
didn't say a word. And you remember, look over and
look down at Elijah's prayer at verse 36. Elijah, remember
he said, now you prophets, you false prophets, you offer up
a sacrifice and you do what you think you're supposed to do.
And before your God, the God that you say is God, you do what
you think you ought to do before your God. And I'll do what God
tells me to do, the word of God. And they went through all their
emotions, you know. They were very charismatic. They
jumped up on the altar and cut themselves and screamed and hollered.
And Elijah started making fun of them. What's wrong with you,
God? He wants to and can't. If you let him, he will. Cry
a little louder. He's asleep, maybe. That's what
he said. And they got mad at this. He
was making fun of their God. Cry louder. He's asleep. Maybe
he's gone somewhere. He'll be back in the morning.
I'd cry, come on. Oh, and from the sun up to sundown,
they'd cry and scream. And every time he said something
to make fun of their God, they got even madder. Until they were
finally so exhausted they couldn't say any more. And they quit.
Because the agreement was that whichever God answered with fire
from heaven upon the altar, upon the sacrifice, that was God.
The God who answers by fire. And their God didn't answer.
No fire. Oh, they had a lot of fire in
themselves, you know. But like old Isaac said to his daddy,
here's the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb? I see a lot
of wood. That is wood, hay, and stubble. And I hear a lot of fire going
on, a lot of wildfire going on. I don't hear much lamb being
preached. Well, look at Elijah, the true
prophet's prayer here in verse 36. They came to pass at the
time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel,
let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that
I am your servant and I have done all these things at thy
word. Hear me, that this people may
know that thou art Lord, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again in mercy and grace." Reveal yourself to these people
that you're God. That this peanut God of this
generation is not God at all. He's a weakling. He's not God. He's a figment of their imagination.
Let them know that God is God. Verse 38. Then the fire of the
Lord fell. The fire fell. And verse 39, when all the people
saw this, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord! He's God! Yeah, He's God! He's
God. And you see, the only time, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Scripture says. The
fear of the Lord. And Paul said over in Romans,
he said there's no fear of God before there is. I don't see
or hear much fear of God before men's eyes these days. I hear
them talking about a God who wants to. I hear them talking
about the man upstairs. I hear them talking about the
God who is all love. He's your buddy. He's your co-pilot.
He's sitting in the car beside you in case something happens.
He'll take over. I hear God talked about like
that. I don't hear any fear. I don't
hear any reverence. I don't hear him talk about this
God who is too holy that the sun and the moon aren't pure
in his eyes. I don't hear that talk. But the scripture says
the fear of the Lord is the very beginning of all understanding
and wisdom. Right? I don't hear that. But
I tell you, only when a man comes to this realization that God
is God, that God is not a God of all love, that God is a consuming
fire. And it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of this living God in whose hands our breath
is and are all our way. When a man, when a woman sees
that God, then you'll fall on his face and not start jumping
up and clapping. You'll fall on his face. John,
when he saw Christ on the Isle of Patmos, what did he do? He
didn't say, Oh Jesus, oh Jesus. Oh, he fell on his face as a
dead man. And this is the reason I say
it's very clear that our generation is not preaching this God. I
don't see people coming down the aisle and falling on their
faces dead. I don't hear preachers talking
about this holy God, this sovereign God. I don't hear any reverence
out of people's mouths. I hear the good Lord this and
the good Lord this, and the creep don't ride, and the good Lord
will, and the creep don't... Oh, you don't use that name except
in reverence and awe. Back in the
Old Testament days, if you used that name in vain, he'd smite
you right there. Right? It's only by the grace
of God now. He doesn't do that now with people.
But profane his name wherever they go, especially preachers.
Profane his name among the heathen, he said. And to believe, the
true faith is to believe God. God. He says, I'm the Lord, there's
none else. And true faith says, yes. That's
right. God's God. Not Satan. He's God's
devil. Not man. I'm God's creature. God's God. That's true faith.
And true faith, when God says, I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And true faith says, yes, thy will be done. Thy will. Not man's will. God's will will be done. That's
true faith. And when God says, Christ is
the way, that none other name given under heaven, given among
men, whereby you must be saved, Christ, his person, his righteousness,
his shed blood, not your works, Christ in true faith says, yes,
he's the way. He's my only righteousness. My
righteousness, there are filthy rags God can't accept them. Only
Christ and what he's done, how he lived upon this earth, not
how I live, how he lived. That's true faith. That's true
faith. And listen to this. Look over
at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. True faith is to believe God
primarily, first of all, to believe God. Whatever he says, whatever
God says in this book is to believe it. Believe it. Everything. Not just what you
like. Everything. To bow to it, submit
to it, and believe it. Principally to believe that He's
God, that we're in His hands. That He does what He will, with
whom He will, when He will, how He will. It's His will. Shall
not I do with mine own what I will? God says, yes. Same way you and
I can do what we want to with what we've got. Nobody can tell
us what to do with our possessions. Same way with this God. And the
sooner we understand that, The sooner the better. Salvation. And true faith is this. It's
trusting Christ alone to save you. Look at 1 Corinthians 1
verse 30. It says, Of Him. Who? Of God. Of God are you in
Christ Jesus. Who's he talking about? He's
talking to the Corinthian believer. Chapter 1, verse 2, he says,
under the church of God at Corinthians, and every man is not in Christ
by faith. I heard a fellow, goodness gracious,
it was in the paper recently, last Friday's article. Some guy
was talking about the family of God, how they were all in
the family of God. It doesn't say that in the Scripture.
It doesn't say that. It says to the contrary. In the
book of Ephesians, He talks about, he said, you were sometimes children
of wrath, even as others are. But God, who in mercy called
us by his grace, has made us sons of God. Every man's not
a son of God. Gracious sakes, that's a perversion
of the scripture. Perversion. But he says here,
of God are you who? Believers. And the only reason
a man believes and has faith is because God gives it to him.
And it's of God, of his choice, of his pleasure, that anybody
is in Christ Jesus. You see that verse 30? Of God
are you, he's talking to the church of Corinth and all believers,
are you in Christ Jesus? You know what salvation is? Here
it is. Salvation is representation. Representation. Salvation is
being in Christ Jesus. I use this illustration this
morning, that the man asked another man, are you saved? Are you saved? And the man said, well, is Christ
at the right hand of God the Father? Is there a man at the
right hand of God the Father representing all the people that
he died for? All the people God chose, all
the people God loved? Is there a man named Jesus Christ
at the right hand of the Father right now mediating Interceding
for those people, praying to God, representing those. Is there?
Yes, there is. Then I'm saved because I'm in
Him. Here's the hope of heaven. Christ
in you and you in Him. That when God sees Christ sitting
at His right hand, He sees you. He sees you. And when God saw
Christ on the cross, He saw you, a sinner, and He punished your
sin. And salvation is having that
substitute, like I was just saying. It's having Christ come down
here and live a perfect life for you, which we can't do. We
can't do it. There's none good, there's none that doeth good,
no not one. All our righteousness, everything we try to do is full
of sin, got a false motive for self. We can't live perfectly
like God requires of us, so Christ came down here to do it for God's
people. And he did it, and then God took
that robe of righteousness off his son and placed it upon his
people, covered them in his righteousness, and he took those sins in that
people and laid them on him. God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. Who's he all? God is long-suffering
to usward. He said, Beloved, in 2 Peter,
Beloved, God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
of usward should perish. any of us, but we'll have all,
all to be saved, come to the knowledge of Christ, all, all
believers. And so Christ, everybody that's
in Christ is saved, is saved. Now it's obvious that not everybody
is in Christ. There's a hell, isn't there?
There's a hell. There's a place of punishment.
Now if Christ took my punishment, a man once said this, if Jesus
Christ died, for all of the sins of all men, then all men will
be saved. Every one of them. It's the blood
that makes atonement for the soul. The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all our... Now, if he died for all
the sins of all men, then all men and women will be saved. But there's a hell, Barbara,
isn't there? That means they're not all saved, isn't there? Well,
it can't mean that he died for all the sins of all men. Okay,
then if Jesus Christ died for some of the sins of all men,
Nobody's safe. Every one of them has to be paid
for, don't they? Cursing is heeded and tenured thought and all things.
Okay, nobody be safe. But if he died for all of the
sins of some people, some people are going to be safe, right?
Right. So salvation is having a substitute
and having a mediator, a man at the right hand of God pleading
for other men. Not all men, some men. And salvation is to be considered
by God Almighty as being in Christ. And this is what it's saying
here. Look at verse 30 again. Our God, are you in Christ Jesus? That is, it's God that decides
who gets in his family. We don't go down and stand in
the middle of an adoption agency and let children run around us
and decide who will accept us as their parents. And as children,
we don't get ourselves born again. And my little daughter didn't
up and decide to be my daughter. My wife and I got together and
decided to have a child. And Christ said to Nicodemus,
that Pharisee who's supposed to have known the truth, he said,
you ignorant of this? You're supposed to be a master
in Israel, don't you understand this? You must be born from above. If you're going to be born of
God, you're going to be a child of God. That means God's going to
have to give birth to you, doesn't it? Don't you understand that?
What do you know? Well, I can quote John 3. Oh, you must be born from above.
And it's of God. It's of God. You'd stop right
there, couldn't you? Of God. This whole thing's of
God, from first to last. He's the author and finisher
of the faith, the scripture says. But of God are you, that is,
every believer, every child of God in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom. Wisdom. What is salvation? It's
to know Him. It's to know God. How are you
going to know God? Christ must reveal Him to you.
Christ. He said no man knoweth the Father,
save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him to. And
He says it's up to me to reveal Him. Don't have to. He said about
the Pharisees, leave them alone. I didn't come to call the righteous.
I came to call the saints. I know who I've come to call.
I know my sheep. They know me. They'll hear my
voice and they'll follow me. I came here for a purpose. I'm
God. I'm the Son of God. All the things
that my Father do, I do. All the fullness of God in a
body. And of God. Of God. It's of God's will. God brought
Christ to us, and he brings us to Christ. It's of God. This
gives God all the glory, you see. It's of God, that you're
in Christ, who has made unto us everything we need in us.
Wisdom. Wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And it's of God, in Christ, when we see God's holiness
brought about on Christ on that cross. His justice. We fear this
God, don't we? And we come before this God asking
for mercy. Mercy. Save us. Lord, save us
that we perish. Not, I decide to accept Jesus.
No. Save us, Lord, that we perish. Righteousness. Oh, if you don't
hear anything else, hear this. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness. The only man ever, the only man
that God ever said, the only man to ever live on the face
of the earth that God Almighty said, I approve of you. Nobody else. He didn't say that
about anybody else. He said all, A-double-L, Abraham,
David, Peter, James, John, Paul, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But this man, this man, he said,
there, I approve of this man. I approve of this man. And by
virtue of that man, what he did, that perfect life he lived, God
had to take him in. God's holy, he can't have anything
to do with sin. But anybody who's this do and
live, and Christ did it, so God said, I approve of you, come
on, well done, good job, come on in. And because of this covenant
between God the Father and the Son, Christ said, no, I'm going
to give this. What I've done, this acceptance,
this approval by God, this righteousness, that's the word, righteousness
that I established as a man, I'm going to give this to those
that you loved and you chose. I'm going to give it to them.
Give it to them. They don't deserve it. They didn't do anything to
receive it, but I'm just going to give it to them. And he wrapped
that robe of righteousness and he took that sin. I'll say it
again. I'm just saying it again. Same old message. He took their
sin. and their old ragged robe of
righteousness on him. And then when God saw him, when
God saw him then, he saw a sinner. He was made sin for us. He knew no sin. He didn't know
any sin, but he was made sin. God made him sin. All the sins
of God's people, he was made that sin. And God said, the soul
that sinneth must surely die. And he put him on a cross and
killed Christ. I was crucified in Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ that liveth in me. Now, when God sees me, he
sees Christ. So that's salvation, righteousness,
and sanctification. Sanctification. Scripture says
he's exalted one chosen out of the people. Chosen. He's God's chosen and sanctified
and set-apart Son, set-apart for God's glory. And all those
in Him are chosen in Him, sanctified. And redemption, redemption. You
know what it means to redeem? Redeem? It means to buy, doesn't
it? It means to purchase, buy. If I go down, I've got a coupon.
Got a coupon. And I go to the store, and this
coupon says, in writing, you are entitled to one free a box
of cereal, and it's got the name on it, and offer expires, such
and such. And I go to it, and it says Kroger.
And I go up there, and I say, now, here, I want my cereal. And they say, well, no, no, no,
we don't, no, we can't do that. You better. You better. I've got a coupon. You better give me my box of
cereal. Got your name on it? Got the expiration date, and
we're long before that. Got the name of the cereal and
everything? Here! You better give it to me." They have to
give it to you. And when you've got it, it's
yours, right? They can't take it back. They
can't come to your house later and say, now you give that back.
No! Besides, you eat it anyway. They
can't take it back. And bless your heart, Christ
came down here. and shed his blood, his precious
blood, and every drop of it went to redeem a people. And he's
got the two pawns to show it. And when he goes up to God Almighty,
all of his people must be redeemed from sin. Must be. There's therefore now no condemnation
of the dead are in Christ. Who is he that condemns it? Christ
died. He got the coupons, the redemption
marks. You're bought with a price. You're not your own. You're not
your own. It's got God's name on it, signed,
sealed and delivered. Expiration date, eternity. Redemption. And people talk about
him, Christ coming down here to die and us making his death
effectual? That's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. That doesn't exalt the Redeemer.
It says that after he offered just one sacrifice, he sat down.
He sat down, having obtained eternal redemption for God's
people, having obtained it, bought, marked, signed, sealed, and delivered. Folks, there's no other good
news except him dying. John, it's no good news if you
tell me that he tried and his blood might save you if you'll
do what you can, if you'll believe strong enough. Oh, that's no
good news to me. But it's good news, an old bankrupt
sinner who has no goodness in him to recommend him to God. You come to him and say, somebody
did for you what you couldn't do. That's good news. Somebody
paid for your sins. Oh yeah, all of them. I don't
have to pay for any of them. God doesn't hold me accountable
for anything. No, no, no. He paid for us. That's good news.
That's good news. Who is this? It's Jesus Christ,
isn't it? Oh, I love him. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Well, why did he do
that? Not in our decision, not in the preacher,
not in anything of the sort. Let him glory in the Lord. And
that's the reason it's of God. It's all of God. Now, you see
that? You're glory in the Lord. You're
glory. You don't talk about anybody else. I don't talk about you.
I've got to hurry here. You want a pretty good indication
or evidence of a child of God? A lot of people claim to be Christians
out there. This is a pretty good evidence.
You go to somebody and talk to them, and if all they want to
talk about is, you know, they say, I got saved, or all they
want to talk about is what decision they made, how they joined the
church, and I did this, and I did that, and I did this, and then
old brother so-and-so, he was praying for me, and so I went
down to the front, and I prayed through, and I accepted Jesus. That's not the talk of the Son
of God. The Son of God talks like this. Unto Him that loved
us from the foundation of the world, and bought us with His
own precious blood. Unto Him that loved us and washed
us in His own precious blood. Unto Him be all the honor and
the glory, both now and forever. Amen. That's the way it is. That's the language and the talk
of a child of God. He did it. He willed it. He came
to do it. He did it. He'll finish it. That's
the language. Now look back at 1 Timothy. I've
taken much too long to get to it, but 1 Timothy chapter 1,
or chapter 4, I'm sorry. 1 Timothy chapter 4. It says
that the Spirit speaks very plainly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith. What faith? What I was just talking
about. What I was just talking about. Giving heed to seducing
spirits. Now that word spirit there, whenever
you see that in the scriptures, you'll see it over in 1 John
chapter 4, you see it right here, it's talking about preachers.
Talking about preachers. They'll give heed to seducing
preachers. Any slick, talking, smooth, acting,
tear-jerking preacher comes down the pike. People, Christ called
them Satan's ministers. transform themselves into angels
of light. He said many false Christ or
prophets shall arrive. He said they'll come in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves, ravening wolves. Paul
said they devour widows' houses. They come on the TV set and beg
and plead and talk these poor ladies out of their Social Security
checks, send them, promising them that God will bless them.
There's a fellow on TV now. His name's Tilton, Bob Tilton.
You thought Jim Baker was bad. You thought you got rid of somebody,
didn't you? Or we thought, this guy, Baker
doesn't hold a candle to this dude. He ain't makes no bones
about it. He says, make a vow. Make a vow. Send me a thousand
dollars. Make a vow, not a hundred, not
ten. You make a vow to send me a thousand dollars. You don't
have it? Get it. Send it to me. It gets mad. God has a wonderful plan for
your life. He's real. But He makes no bones about it.
He said, you send me a thousand dollars. And he gets mad, and
then he goes, blah, blah, blah, blabla, blabla, stirking tongues.
Send it! And Peele says, okay, sure, better. And look, and the phones are
ringing off the wall. Here's a thousand dollars. God
bless you, amen. This is what Paul is saying here,
giving heed to seducing spirits. Seducing spirits. People, especially,
Paul said, silly women. Now, listen, I'm not, I'm not
picking up. Paul, Paul Postle said it. I
didn't say it. I love Paul. Silly women. That
means women that sit around in their robes, with their hair
up and curled, watching soap operas. And this fellow comes
on TV, slick top, boy, he looks nice, handsome. Speckled hair. You've got to have speckled hair
to be an Avenger. I've never worked. I don't have much hair
at all. You've got to have speckled hair and slicked right back and
a three-piece suit on and talk like this. And they'll listen
to that dude. Sounds good. He looks good. Must be good hair. And he writes a big check for
a thousand dollars and her husband comes home, what did you do? Evil men, the Scripture says,
evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. Folks, we haven't
seen nothing yet. We haven't seen nothing yet.
Deceiving and being deceived. These fellows actually believe
in what they're doing. Yes, they do. And quote Scripture, Scripture
after Scripture after Scripture, quoting Scripture, twisting it,
contorting it. And people are giving heed, listening,
listening, sending money, listening to them, following after them. Paul said they're seducing spirits
and they're preaching, look at it, verse 1, doctrines of devils. Now, what are the doctrines of
devils? Some people say it's what I'm
preaching this morning. Mr. Swigert says it's what I'm
preaching this morning, doctrine of devils. They said it of Christ himself.
He has a devil. Didn't it? Well, let's go back
to where it started with the devil himself. Look back at Genesis
chapter three. You want the doctrine of the
devil it is? It's the doctrine of the devil. Genesis chapter
three. Look at it. Let's go back where
it started. It started with this, with Satan. The doctrine of devils. Satan himself preached a freewill,
health and wealth gospel. Health and wealth. He himself
preached a freewill, health and wealth gospel. You're going to
see this. Genesis chapter 3, this is where it started. Now,
verse 1. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman,
This is a question here, see the question mark at the end
of the verse? He said, yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? Did God say that? Did he say
that? And he must have been good to
look at. He wouldn't have come to him, would he? He wasn't a
snake with his tongue sticking out like that. He wouldn't have
been scared to death of him, would he? He didn't have horns
and a pitchfork. He had a three-piece suit on.
He had speckled hair. He said, as God said, I know it says that,
but is that what he meant? As God said, I know it says God
is holy. I know that, and one preacher
wrote in answer to a letter or article I wrote in the paper
on the holiness of God. He said, look, he said, everyone
knows the moral superiority of God. What we need to dwell on
is the love of God. Everyone knows the moral superiority
of holiness. Oh, my soul. But he said, as
God said, see, the first thing he did was to cast doubt upon
God's I know it says 11. I know it says that. Twenty-seven
times, preacher. I know that. But! Goats butt. Sheep don't butt. Sheep receive. Sheep eat the
Word. Sheep consume the Word. Sheep
feed upon the Word. Goats butt, butt, butt, butt,
butt! I know it says that God has chosen
the people from the foundations of the world, but I know it says
God is holy, but He loves sinners. He loves you. I know it says
He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and has chosen
whom He, but He didn't mean that. Doctrine of devils. Doctrine of devils, look back,
look at it, look at verse 4. He said, in verse 4, Genesis
3, verse 4, he said, And the serpent said to the woman, he
said, You're not going to die. You're not dead in trespasses
and sin, like God said. No, I know it says man's dead
in trespasses and sin. and that you cannot come unto
Christ unless the Father which has sent him doth." I know it
says that, but you've got, look at verse 5, God knows that in
the day you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened and you'll
be as God's, knowing you've got a free will. Yeah, I know it
says that, but you've got a free will. God knows that. He knows you've got a free will.
He limited his own so you can have a free will. And God's not
that holy, and you're not that dead. God loves you. Christ died
for you. Isn't that good news to him?
A thousand dollars. And she said, Tell me more, you smooth-tongued
devil. That's what I want to hear. Yeah,
I am somebody, aren't I? I like this. I don't like this
God that reigns over me, this sovereignty. I don't like that,
no. I got my rights. Who's this preacher saying he
is talking about God's rights? I got my rights. I got a will,
you know, to violate my free will. Well, I'll put it on top
of my church building. Satan is the father of lies,
and all of his preachers are lying on God. He says God loves
you. Scripture says God is angry with
the wicked every day. God hates all workers of iniquity.
Now, which is it? Who are you going to believe? They say God wants to save you
if you let Him. God says God will work, and who is going to
let it? Who is going to prevent it? Who are you going to believe? They say God has no hands but
your hands. He said, All these things have my hands made. Who are we going to believe?
They say, Jesus died for you. He said, I lay down my life as
sheep. Who are we going to believe? They say, accept Jesus as your
personal Savior. He says, we've got to be accepted
in Him, that He ain't up for acceptance or rejection. And
we are. And we're the ones on trial here.
Who's being judged anyway? They say, make your decision.
He says, you must be born again from above. that it's not up
to you to decide, it's up to God to decide. You say, what's the point in all
this, preacher? He that glorieth must glory in
the Lord. Now, either God is God, we started
out back there in 1 Kings 18, either God's God or I'm a little
God. And that's what Satan said to Eve, wasn't it? You're going
to be a God, you're a little God. God got his will. Yeah, you got your will. You
want to be a little God, don't you? You want me to charge you
on it? Yeah, that sounds good. No. God is God. See, everybody's so insistent
upon man's will and man's right. Who's on the Lord's side, Moses
said? That's what this whole thing's
all about. Not man's will or man's rights. Who is on the Lord's side? Now, understand me. The Scripture
says that God doesn't need any man. He doesn't need anybody
to be on his side, per se. But we better be agreeing with
and submitting to and worshiping the Lord our God and bowing down
before Him. The scripture says, he that exalteth
himself shall be abased. God hath purposed to stain the
pride of all glory. All glory. Well, look with me
real fast at 2 Corinthians chapter 11. The doctrines of devils have
God within man's hands, have God only able to do what man
lets him to do. That's the doctrines of devils.
Another big lie, another big lie of the devil himself. Listen
to me. Old Testament prophets, Old Testament
false prophets, they came preaching another God, a God of their imagination.
I wish we had time to run through Jeremiah several times, and Ezekiel,
and Isaiah, all the way through. Old Testament false prophets,
they preached another God, a God of their imagination, a God loved. They preached the same thing.
that God loves everybody and has a wonderful plan for your
life and so forth, and He wants to and so forth. Light on God. New Testament false prophets
preached another Jesus. Look here at verse 3 of 2 Corinthians
11. Paul says, I fear. I'm afraid. I'm worried by any means the
serpent, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, So
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh preaching
another Jesus, they're preaching another Jesus. They're saying
Jesus, aren't they, Joe? Everybody's talking about Jesus,
believing on Jesus, believing on Jesus. They talk about this.
Here he is, another Jesus. He tries and fails. He tried. He failed. I think it was Schuller. Might
as well have been, he lies about everything else, but he said
this. I believe it was Schuller. He said that hell is a ghastly
monument to the failure of the triune God to save men and women. He said that, that hell is a
monument to the failure of God to try to save some people. He
couldn't save them, and they went to hell. And Christ said, remember that
parable of building the tower? He said, who doesn't, when they're
going to build a building, sit down and count the cost, see
if they have sufficient to finish it. Lest they can't finish the
building, and everybody says, ah-ha, couldn't do it, could
you? And that's what men are going to have to do to this guy.
They're going to have to laugh at this guy. Couldn't save him, could you?
Satan's going to be able to say that. Ha-ha-ha! I got some! Couldn't do it, could you, God? It's horrible to even think about
such a thing. No. You see how God-dishonoring and
how abominable this sort of talk is. You see that? It all brings
God down to the level of a puny man. And it's Jesus who tried
and failed. He's just a man. There's whole
denominations built upon attacking the deity of Christ, the Jehovah
Witnesses. They've got nothing else to say but that Jesus Christ
isn't God. They go around from door to door
and all they want to talk about is He's not God. They've built
a whole denomination on fighting that. That there is no trinity and
that Jesus Christ is not God. Are we in the end times or not? They're preaching another Jesus.
He's just a man. He's no different than you. He's
just a man. He's a helpless victim and a martyr. He died, but maybe
he did it in vain. Maybe he did it in vain. You
don't want poor Jesus to die for you with no avail, do you?
They preach that Jesus is knocking at the door. It's cold and raining
out there. There's no handle on the door.
He's knocking at your heart's door. and you're in there living
it up and having a good old time, and he's begging you, and pleading
you, please open the door, please, poor Jesus. They preach a Jesus who came
to show you how to live, and they tell you, now believe on
Jesus. Believe what? What am I supposed to believe
about that Jesus? I believe he's a wimp is what I believe. And
I tell every one of these false prophets, cry out to that Jesus!
That's what these Jesuses do. Let's put the Jesus of the Bible
and yours up next to one another. See who answers by fire from
God's Word. Let's plug God's Word, see. Let's
stack this Jesus that they're preaching up against the Christ
Jesus, the Lord of the Bible. Let's stack them up and see who
answers by fire and sovereign grace from God's Word. Scripture says, and our hope
of salvation is in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. It says this, God
has made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The righteousness
of God in Him. Our only hope of salvation is
that God wills to save us and then He puts us in Christ and
makes Christ to be a sacrifice and a substitute and a scapegoat
for us, and now we're made holy, unblameable, unreprovable in
God's eyes in Christ. That's our only hope. That's
your only hope. That's my only hope. That's salvation. Yes,
it is. And look back at, we read 2 Thessalonians
2, and I'll quit on this. 2 Thessalonians 2, and every
one, every single person whom God saves, here's the difference.
If a man, if a preacher talks you into something and keeps
talking you into it and he convinces you, if he gets you to come down
the aisle by his smooth talking and persuasion and persuasive
words and so forth, enticing words of man's wisdom, which
Paul said, I don't preach that way, lest the cross of Christ
be made of none effect. With his excellent oratory and
his beautiful appearance and so forth and his weeping and
Like Jimmy, you know, just weeping. Thank you, Jesus. And everybody
just comes down, running down the aisle. Thank you, Jesus.
Another Jesus. But everybody that God saves,
God saves. That God chooses, whom God gives
eyes to see His glory and ears to hear, just like He had to
do when He came to this earth. He had to open the blind eyes,
He had to open the ears of the deaf, and those that hear His
powerful voice and give them faith to come to Christ, said
they weren't going to come unless he gave them faith. They weren't
going to come. Christ said, Come! And they came. They came. Every one of them, verse 13,
2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, every one of them are bound,
bound and determined to give thanks where thanks is due always
to God. Every time they opened their
mouths to God. Why? Because God had from the
beginning chosen us to salvation and called us, verse 14, by His
gospel. His gospel, the preaching of
this sovereign God that I've been trying to preach this morning.
I'm not very good at it, but it takes the power of the Holy
Spirit to make it effectual. The preaching of the doctrine
of Christ. John said it. I want 1st John
or 2nd John. If they abide not in the doctrine
of Christ, they're none of his. The doctrine of Christ and his
righteousness. I'm talking about this doctrine
of imputed righteousness of the sovereign Christ who imputes
or charges his life to some people and they're saved. not the doctrine
of devils and man's righteousness and man's will. Not that at all. And seeing then that we have
this hope, seeing then that this is our only hope, Paul said,
we use great plainness of speech. Somebody said this about me,
that he's direct. Oh, that's a real compliment.
Seeing then that this is men and women's only hope, and I
ain't out to get a big name for myself, obviously. I was telling
somebody the other day, you can't get a big name for yourself and
draw a big crowd by telling people they're worthless. You can draw a big crowd by bragging
on folks and telling them God needs them and if they'll send
a thousand dollars. Who wouldn't make a deal like
that? Who wouldn't make a deal? You send a thousand dollars,
God will bless you. Well, here's two. The devil blessed me with
one. Here, I'll sell my house so he'll give me a bigger one.
Who wouldn't fall for something like that? Now, I don't see any
such thing in Scripture. I just see the declaration of
the truth of who God is and what man is before this holy God and
His only hope of salvation. And this Christ, this Christ. And seeing that we have such
hope, and it's our only hope, we use great plainness of speech,
yet seek to please men. I'm not a servant of Christ,
not a servant, and neither are you. And we tell the truth because
we want to glorify Him and Him alone. Let's sing that song.