Many times. But it applies to
the message, the message is entitled, excuse me. The wisdom of sovereign
grace, the wisdom. Of sovereign grace. Look at verse
18, the first Corinthians, Chapter one. The apostle says the preaching
of the cross. Is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
or being saved, the preaching of the cross is the power of
God. For it is written, it is written, I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise. This is what Brother Rick read
in Isaiah 29. He says, I'll destroy the wisdom
of the wise. Do you remember when a book,
when he read that a book was delivered to some learned men,
some wise, and they said, it's sealed. We don't know what it's
saying. This is the case with men today,
so-called wise. It is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? It's as if Paul is mocking them
here and saying, come forward. Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
in the wisdom of God, in his infinite wisdom, the world by
wisdom knew not God. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Verse 22, for the Jews,
the religious, require a sign, and the Greeks, the intellectuals,
seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,
a man or a tree. Under the Jews, it's a stumbling
block gets in the way of their religion, their duties, their
self-righteousness. Under the Greeks, it's foolishness,
too simple, not enough, more to it than that. But under them
which are called. There's some Jews and Greeks.
Christ is the power of God, the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness,
what the world calls foolishness, that is preaching of God, this
gospel of God is wiser than man, and the weakness, what men think
is weakness, that is the gospel. The gospel of God is stronger
than man. You see, you're calling, brother, how that not many wise
men, after the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble
are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world,
or those things or people that the world calls foolish, to confound
the wise. God chose the weak things of
the world, weaklings, meek. The world considers meek to be
weak. God has chosen the meek to confound things which are
mighty and base things. of the world, simple people of
the world, things which are despised, God has chosen, yea, things that
are not to bring to nothing, things that are, that no flesh is glory in his
presence. But of God, through his mercy
and grace, are you, some of you, in Christ Jesus, who is made
unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. and redemption. That he did all this to fulfill the scripture and
to bring to pass this, according as it is written, he that glories
must glory in the Lord, in him and him alone. Now, we are living in a time
much like this time that we read here. We are living in a modern
day Greece, a modern Rome, with its sports and its pursuit of
the intellect and learning and so forth. Greece, where men and
women are consumed with learning, with the hearing and the telling
of some new thing. We're in that day, aren't we?
A day where our society has come to the conclusion that education
is going to be the savior of our children and ourselves. If
we just educate the people enough, then we'll be all right. We'll
get ourselves out of this mess that we're in. But, consequently, in this day
full of people who pride themselves in being very wise and very prudent,
very few people, indeed, have much for the simple preaching
of the gospel. Obviously, it's not a thing to
be desired, or else we'd have a packed crowd, wouldn't we?
Because that's all we preach here. Very few people have any
real interest in the truth of the gospel. Now, if I announced
over the radio and the television and the newspaper that this morning
I was going to preach, that I had insight into the revelation of
John, I had insight and I was going to preach, bring a series
of messages on the revelation, on the prophecies. I ventured
to say we'd have more people than we have now. Perhaps a packed
crowd. If I was going to give a talk
on some deep and weighty things, we would
have more people. But just proclaiming the gospel,
not enough. It's not enough. You know. My four year old daughter. Knows
more than the average theologian and professor. My four year old daughter knows
more than the average professor at the average seminary. Yes,
she does. I'll prove it. Here's a here's
an illustration. One time we were coming. We're
walking out of the church house. And this was totally unprompted.
She just looked up at me and said, Daddy. She said. God's our only hope, isn't it? Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklings, thou hast ordained praise. Praise, that's praise,
that's how you worship God. God is our only hope, not what
I do. Not what you do. Not what I don't
do. Or what we don't do. Not what anybody does for me.
Only what God does for me. He's our only hope. Our only
hope. It's totally. Our destiny, our
hope, our future is in God's hands and His alone. She, at
least in her head, understands that much. Men don't. He took the wisest of men they
don't understand that do they fully feel like that their destiny
is in their own hands. Another time I'll prove it again
by her. Another time she heard a woman.
Say something about. Being lucky. This woman said sure was lucky.
And she said later on to us. She said. I forget if it was
the man there or myself. And she said, Mom, doesn't that
woman believe in God? My, my. And it's true. People that ascribe things that
happen to mere luck or chance, they don't believe in God. I was telling that Paul thanked
Timothy's, was thankful for Timothy's mother and grandmother that they
had taught him the scriptures that were able to make him wise
unto salvation. Now look over at Matthew chapter
11 with me. Look at our text here, Matthew
chapter 11. Matthew 11. Matthew 11. is speaking here. And he's he
just finished upgrading. The mighty. Cities of Corazon and Bethsaida
and Capernaum, and he said that. If the mighty works that had
been done in them, that is, Christ had come. And if the mighty works
he had performed in them had been done in those baser cities
such as Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, they would have repented long
ago. But these wise people, these intellectuals, they didn't receive
him. And so, in verse 25, our Lord
says this. At that time, after he upbraided
those cities, he spoke out to his father. It says he answered,
or he prayed and spoke out and said, verse 25, Matthew 11. I
thank you, O Father." Another place it says, he rejoiced in
spirit. He rejoiced. I can just imagine, I'm not,
he rejoiced in spirit, another place says. I just imagine he
smiled, and perhaps holy laughter. I thank you, Father, that you've
hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in your sight, and it's wise. That's what Apostle Paul wrote
there in 1 Corinthians 1. It's the wisdom of God to do
such a thing, to take the wisest of men and present something
before them, and they're not able to figure it out, and take
the dumbest of men and women and the simplest and reveal it
to them, and they understand. Who could do such a thing, present
such a riddle? to two groups of people, wise
and unlearned, and the unlearned figured out in a wise camp. God,
that's it, and his wisdom. He says, I thank you, Father,
that you've hid these things. What things? What is he speaking
of? What things? The simplest of
things, the fundamentals of the faith. People claim to be fundamentalists. They're not fundamentalists.
We're fundamentalists. Fundamentals of the faith are
this. God is God. Nobody else is. That's the very
foundation of the faith, isn't it? They're not even touching
on that. The character of God, clear from
the scriptures, clear all the way through the scriptures and
from the scriptures, yet most are very confused as to the character
of God, aren't they? Very confused. Are you with me?
Most are very confused concerning the character of God. You ask
the average person to describe God, and they will first and
foremost say he loves people. That's not the primary character
of God Almighty. The primary character of God
Almighty is he's holy, unapproachable by sin or sinful people. Holy. That he's just. He will not clear
a guilty man. Won't do it. Won't just say,
I love you, so I forgive you. Won't do it. His justice, his
holiness has to be satisfied. God is immutable, the same God
who killed the man for reaching up and touching the ark. The
man innocently, so to say, innocently reached up. The Ark of the Covenant
was on that cart and it was falling. The man reached up to steady
it. God killed him for touching, putting his defiled hands on
his ark. That same God is the same God today. He hasn't changed. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. To change means what? If you
change, if valid, if you're different tomorrow than what you are today,
what does that mean? That means that you have become better or
worse. If you change, if there's a necessity
of change, that means something is lacking, right? God doesn't
change. He's perfect from the beginning.
There's no need. He doesn't learn anything. He
doesn't forget anything. He doesn't change. He's the same.
He never changes. That same God rules today. And you touch his gospel. You
try to enter his presence with defiled hands, that is, with
your works. He'll kill you. He'll kill you. You try to approach God any other
way than the way he said, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. By faith
in Christ and faith in Him alone, not by what you do or what you
don't do, but totally looking to Him, trusting in Him. If you
fail to do that, He'll kill you and send your soul to eternal
damnation. That's the same God. The same
God. He's not all love. He is love,
yes. Yes. But not completely love. Not all love. I mean, that's
not His whole character. Most people believe God is impotent.
that he tries to do things and can't because men won't allow
him to do so. That's not the God of the Scripture.
My four-year-old knows better than that. And Christ said, I
thank you, Father, you've hid these things, the character of
God, from the wise and the prudent, and revealed them unto babies.
Babies. I thank God he did that. And
you'll see in a minute why. These things, what things? Themselves.
Not only are they ignorant of God, but they're ignorant of
themselves. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Nobody knows it. They think they do. But they
have deep understanding of the mysteries of the universe. They
don't even know themselves. They don't even know that they're
capable of going out and molesting a child or murdering somebody.
It's within everyone. This deep-rooted sin, nature. Don't even know themselves. Think
they're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
When in fact they're poor and miserable and naked and blind
before God Almighty, God says, I see you from the sole of your
feet to the top of your head. There's no sadness in you. Except
by my restraining grace, you'd be another Charles Manson. That
says, oh no, I'm perfect. God lifts his hand and what does
he do? What does everybody think? The average serial murderer.
was always a good neighbor, wasn't he? Everybody said, I knew him,
he seemed like a fine fellow to me. Right, he was no different
than you, but by the grace of God. And men are ignorant of
this, ignorant of that, that they are capable of, this within
themselves. Ignorant of themselves, think
we're something when we ain't nothing. Boy, we think we're
something, don't we sometimes, most of the time. We ain't nothing.
We die tomorrow in this world. won't even remember our names. We think we're just sick. We
think that there's something wrong with us, that we could
get straightened out, you know, we can get to God. Scripture
says we're dead, dead, stinking dead. Scriptures, we think that
we see when God said we're blind. And he said there's none blind
that those that think they see. Men think they know something.
He says, you think you know anything, you don't know anything. You
think you know something, you know nothing yet as you ought
to know. What is it you ought to know? That you know nothing.
That's what you ought to know from the very outset. I don't
know anything. God teach me. I'll teach you
now. I'll teach you something. I'll teach you everything. You know, the fear of God is
the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? Scripture says, if you want
to learn something, if you want to start, the only starting place
for it all is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is
the very beginning of all wisdom and understanding. If a man wants
to know anything, he's got to start by fearing God on the throne. The Scripture says concerning
this generation, no fear of God before their eyes. They completely disregard this
word, completely forget it, women preachers. Forget what Paul said. Who gives a flip what the Apostle
Paul said about women being forbidden? Who gives a flip? I'm going to
write my little article. That's the attitude of this generation.
Who cares what God says? This is what I think. No fear
of God. The fear of the Lord is to say,
thus saith the Lord. This is what God says I want
to bow to. manifest that lack of fear for
God by what they do and say and don't do and say. They're ignorant
of the character of God. They're ignorant of the character
of themselves. God has hid these things from them in his wisdom.
He's hid these things from them. They're ignorant of the way to
God Almighty. The way to God. It couldn't be
any simpler. It could not be any simpler.
Paul said to the Corinthians, Satan They said, I'm fearful
that Satan will blind your mind from the simplicity that's in
Christ, that your whole hope of salvation, your whole eternal
destiny lies in the hands of somebody else, not you, somebody
else. So drop everything you're doing
to try to get to God. Drop it and look up. Hold on to Him and Him alone.
Don't trust anything, not a feeling, not a duty, not anything. The
only way to God is to have Jesus Christ have a hold of you, and
you have a hold of him. Only way. The only way you're
going to get into this holy, awesome presence of God is to
have him have his righteous robes wrapped around you, where this
holy God can't see your evil nature and your evil heart. To
walk into his presence covered with that righteousness. Well, the men still insist upon
trying to work their way to heaven by works of morality or the law,
digging back into the old Testament scriptures. And Paul says, if
you're going to keep it one point, you've got to keep it all, all
of it, and to offend in one point. I mean, picking up sticks on
Sunday, Saturday. Pick them up, you're dead. If
you think it's going to recommend you to God or not, condemn you
to God. All of it, you've got to keep it all. But men are ignorant
of that. God's hid it from them. Bless God, Nancy, He didn't hide
that from you. Men are intent on working their
way to heaven instead of just believing Christ. They're intent
on personal holiness and deny their own sinfulness. You see,
all of this thing of salvation. All of this thing of salvation
and God's dealings with man has something to do with this, the glory of God. All of salvation and all of God's
dealings with the universe, all of history and all of the future
and all of time and eternity has something to do with this,
the glory of God. That and that alone. The glory
of God. Find out something about that,
Terry Kinsley. You'll know the mystery of the universe. And
you'll know the gospel. The glory of God is where? Where
is it to be seen? In the face of Jesus Christ. It's glorious, yes. It's blessed
what God does to his people to take an old drunk out of the
gutter like me. and make him stand up here in his right mind,
deliver, take seven devils out of him, clothe him in his right
mind. It's glorious, yes, to eat the
glory of God, the glory of God's feet in the face of Jesus Christ.
Let me illustrate that. A man can reform himself very
easily, just quit. A man can up and quit all his
bad ways. Does that mean that he's saved? You know, God Almighty has done
a wonderful work. Well, God has restrained him.
Yes, that's good, but that's not the glory of God. That's
his own doings. He just got smart and realized,
if I don't straighten up, I'm going to be a miserable bum all
my life. He said, I'm going to straighten up. The glory of God. So listen, here's the wisdom
of sovereign grace. In order for God to manifest
His glory, remember now, I said it all has something to do with
His glory. Stay with me, please. Please stay with me here. This
is going to be a blessing to God's people. In order for God
to manifest His glory to the fullest extent, and God never
does anything halfway, it's always to the purpose of giving Him
all the glory and all the honor. In order for him to manifest
his glory to the fullest extent, he has to show the greatness
of man's depravity. You know, if I want to, Deborah,
if I want you to really esteem me highly, some way or another
I'm going to have to gain your respect and your awe by showing
my superiority in intellect and talents and whatever. And if
she sees that in me, which she'll never be, but if she does, she'll
be the man that was here recently. Brilliant man. Brilliant. He
knew more than, he forgot more than I'll ever know. Handled
himself so well. Brilliant man. Yet a meek, but
he had my respect. He had my respect. In order for
God to get all glory and all the honor and all the praise,
he's going to have to make us see just how low down and worthless
and helpless and weak and frail and ignorant and blind we are,
and just how glorious and how beautiful and how all-wise and
how omnipotent he is. You see, contrasts. That's what
he does, contrast. And the Scriptures are full of
contrasts. He said, you are from beneath, I'm from above. As the heavens are higher above
the earth, so are my ways higher than your way, and my thoughts
than your way. He calls men grass. How many of us esteem grass very
highly, cut grass? Why, you burn it. You don't have
any esteem for it at all. It gets in your way. We do all fade as the leaf, the
scripture says. We're all as grass, fit for the
burning. Grasshoppers, worms, nothing. That's a description
of mighty man in the scriptures. That's man from the scripture.
God is showing us just how much higher he is above us. You know,
let me say this carefully. Is there really any value at all in the life of a
human being to God Almighty. I mean, really, come on, let's
think, let's think about it. Is there now really? What do you say? Man in his best
state, the best man to live on the face of the earth, says all
together, vanity. Useless. What's that mean? Worthless. I don't need words. I don't need
worms, folks. You can have all the worms. Andrew
can play with worms if he wants to. I don't need worms. I just
don't need them. That's us to God Almighty. That's us. It really is that. And here is the glory and the
grace of God that he just condescends to look upon a worm with favor.
That's grace. That's glory. He doesn't need
something, but he reaches there. according to His glory and His
mercy and His grace, reaches down and pulls up a worm, a despicable
worm, and makes a son out of it. That's the glory of God. So God
shows us His glory by showing us the greatness of our depravity
and our worthlessness and our guilt and our misery. And then
God shows us his glory by showing us our utter insufficiency or
helplessness to save ourselves. Mephibosheth, when he came into
King David's presence, he said, Who am I? How could you show
such mercy and grace to such a, what did he call himself,
a dead dog? He said, boy, he didn't have
such a very high opinion of himself. Oh, he knew himself. And that's
us. How could he? David says, what
is man that is mindful of him? What is man that God would be
mindful of him, or that he would visit him? Come down here in
his midst, in this worm-infested mass, and become one of us? A dead dog. You take a dog that's
been hit by a car. Let's be real graphic. You take
a dog out in the middle of the highway that's been hit by a
car. He's paralyzed. He's laying there waiting to
die, waiting on another car to hit him. He's dead, for all practical
purposes. He's helpless, isn't he? He's
helpless. He can't drag himself across
that street. He's gone. I've done this. I've saved an
animal like this before. Now, the only way If I go out
there and pick up that dog and bring it back, he's not going
to get there any other way unless I go out there and save him,
pick him up and bring him back home and nurse his wounds and
make him better and so forth. Then, who gets the glory? I do. All the glory. All the glory. And that's us. If God, for all
his honor and his glory, if he'll show us By His mercy and grace,
if you'll show us, we're dead dogs in the middle of the road,
waiting to get run over and sent to hell. Is that too hard and
too crude? That's just the way it is. It's
just the way it is. But it's that God in mercy goes
out and picks us up and brings us home with Him and heals our
wounds by His stripes. It makes us, we'll be like that
dog. We'll follow Him around the rest
of our lives. wagging our tail wagging his tongue for his glory
when you're ready Like that, and everybody's seen
him. Old Billy Bob knows he's the best cat there ever was.
Because that cat was a goner. We rescued that cat from certain
destruction. And he loves us. Oh, he loves
us. He'll let us do anything to him
on it. Anything. Stuff him in a basket. Anything. He loves us. Why? We rescued
him. And God's going to get the glory
from the people he rescued. All the glory. He did it. I didn't
know. No, surely you didn't. No, no,
no. I didn't do it. He did it. He did it. And in order for God to manifest
his glory to the fullest extent, he had to show us the great variety
of characters of man that he's able to save. To the utter, uttermost,
the uttermost, Paul said, I'm a pattern. I'm a pattern how
God saves a chief, the worst, the worst of the bunch. I'm a
pattern. Here's a man. who despised the mention of Jesus
Christ, hated it, and went out killing everybody because they
worshipped this Jesus Christ. And just the turn of a hat, he's
extolling and honoring and giving all glory to that name. He says,
there ain't no name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. Jesus Christ, what a name! Who
did such a thing? God did it. That's how. Go to
the uttermost. Show the utter depths of depravity,
the wildest and the vilest. That's who God saved. Why? To
give him all the glory. When it seems that, oh God, he
never saved that fella. Why? He never saved him. I don't despair of anybody. And
if you'd seen me some time ago, you wouldn't despair of anybody.
I mean anybody. Well, and upon these grounds,
we can see the wisdom of God in choosing the methods and choosing
lowly people and hiding himself and his ways from the wise and
the learned, from the scholarly and the prudent. Listen, turn
over to Isaiah with me. Turn to Isaiah chapter 23. Isaiah
chapter 23. Isaiah 23. said in one place, no flesh should
glory in my presence. No flesh. Nobody. Nobody. There's only one man that's ever
going to get any glory. That's the God-man, Jesus Christ. No other man, no other human
being, no other created thing is going to get the glory. No
man. Look at this. Here's the purpose. God has set His mind to this,
and what God determines will be done. And He says in verse
9, The Lord of hosts has purposed it, that means it's a sure thing. He's purposed to stain the pride
of all glory. God is determined, set to stain the pride of all
glory. I don't care what form it takes,
down, down, and to bring into contempt
to reveal how utterly foolish and contemptible, oh, the honorable
of the earth." You see that? That's God's Word, it's not me
saying it. But oh, how men admire themselves. We're included, we're included.
We do something. We make a little something, a
little two-bit quilt, or we think we're something. We do something,
anything, anything. like our children, you know,
paint a little picture. We're just puffed up with pride. Boy,
I'm just the greatest artist that ever lived, aren't I? That's
all of us. No matter what we do, we think
we're something. Men admire themselves and their
wisdom, me included, and their learning and their accomplishment
and their strength. Oh, so-and-so, boy, he can just,
he can take down a man with one arm. Big deal. Oh, so-and-so right now is in
a nursing home and somebody has to put his fork in his little
mouth. Beauty. Women admire their beauty.
Boy, you let a little car wreck take care of that. Oh boy. Talents. A king. A glorious king such
as King David. There was never a king upon the
face of the earth like King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel,
the sharpest man upon the face of the earth at this time, a
man after God's heart, kind, compassionate, loving, tender,
intelligent, wise, understanding man, a glorious creature, a man. Walking around one day on his
roof, sees a little girl down there. A king now. A king. A ruler of
nations. Ruled by passion within him. And had a man killed and went
to great extremes to gratify himself for a moment. Not very strong, are we? An astronomer. A man who can name a star. Rick,
we stand out there in your And look at the stars. There's some
men that can name those stars. Yes, there are. There's some
men upon the earth that can name those stars. Wow! They don't even think about the
one who put them there. Some don't even believe in a
God who made them. That's not much wisdom if you ask me. A
historian, a man that can give you dates and figures all the
way back to the very beginning. Well, their thoughts of the beginning. But they don't think of his story.
They don't think of the one who it's all about. Where it all
started. A lawyer. These lawyers are clever
fellas, aren't they? They know all the loopholes.
They can dig down deep into the law and turn it inward and outward
and examine it upside down. The lawyer. A lawyer. Clever
fella, isn't he? He didn't even think about the
lawgiver. The one it all came from. It all started with the
lawgiver. the one that wrote it. You'd
think they'd admire the one who wrote it. A physician, and this
really boggles your mind, a man can look into the human body
with all its complexity, with all its... David said, I'm fearful,
I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. If you've ever, you nurses,
this body, consider the brain, the brain, what the brain is,
a mass. of nerves and blood vessels and
a jelly-like substance. But yet the brain, what a creation
the brain is. How glorious the brain is, the
human brain. And it just develops from a little
seed. It just moves. It's there with
all those capacities to do these great things, the brain. Yet
a physician can... God, who? No, it just evolves. That's what I believe. You are a fool, man. You are
a fool. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Hath not God made these people
appear to be so very foolish, the wise and the prudent, and
revealed it unto babies? Man, see how much education do
you have? How much education do you have? 12th grade. You know more than the average
physician and lawyer and doctor and astronomer. You know the
mystery of the universe. Men who have 20 years of education
or more. My, my. You thankful? Aren't
you thankful that God does it this way? Huh? I'll show you
something. God has brought the counsels
of the world to nothing. Nothing. God has made foolish
the wisdom of this world. Now I ask this question, where
is the wise man? Paul asked that question. Where
is the wise man? Where is Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Darwin? Where are they? Dead. Facing the God they ignored. God has hid these things from
the wise and prudent to give himself all the glory, to exclude
all boasting, to bar all human wisdom from his presence. Because,
listen, if anyone were saved, in whole or in part, in part,
by our own wisdom or our own prudence, then we might be able
to take some of the credit, just some of it. That's not giving
it all to God, it's some of it. You can't even say you believe.
God gave you that belief. You can't do it. But no true
wisdom is hidden from the wise. Let me illustrate that. If I
were going to patent an invention, a great invention, I came up
with it, I thought about it. Nobody else has. And I was going
to patent this invention. Now, I would certainly hide it
from those who wanted to steal it, wouldn't I? I'd hide it from
them. I wouldn't. Nobody's going to
get the credit now. Nobody. I made this thing, and
I'm going to get all the credit and all the money and all the
glory and everything that comes with it. I'm going to do it.
Not you, not anybody else. And I'd hide it from them. God
has hid these things from the wise and the prudent, lest they
steal the glory. Well, I figured this thing out
myself. No, it ain't going to be that way. It ain't going to
be that way. And listen, I do this also. I would take that
invention. I would take it and I would show
it to somebody really appreciate it. Really appreciate it. I'd go down where somebody would
just say, wow, that's the greatest thing I've ever seen. Boy, you're
smart, aren't you? Yeah, I am. Whoa, now you're
something else. And that's who God shows the
gospel to. Wow! Glory be to God! You're everything, aren't you?"
Yes, I am. If I want to feed somebody, I'll
feed somebody hungry. I'll take food where they need
it. If I want to give somebody something to drink, I'll go where
somebody needs it. I'll take good clothes down to somebody
that's naked, and they'll appreciate it. You see the wisdom of God
in this thing? And this too, I would go to those who would
ensure its success, ensure its success. I would go down to somebody
who's guilty, guilty as a charge. No hope, is there? No. You're
gone, aren't you? Lost, aren't you? Can't save
yourself, can you? No. I'm going to save you. But to the man who's not lost,
who's not guilty, who's not, you know, he'll help himself
a little bit. God helps those who help themselves, you know.
No, he doesn't. He helps those who cannot help themselves. Thus giving all the glory. You
see the wisdom of God in him? The glory of God in him? Whatever outward advantages men
seem to possess, whether it be diction, intellect,
whatever it may be, talents. As to the things of God, we're
all right like this. We're all level on the same exact
plane. And every human being on the
face of the earth is totally dependent upon the grace of God
to give them understanding. The revelation of the Holy Spirit,
1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2, the natural man receives not
the things of God. No foolishness to him. Foolishness. Neither can he no
one. He can't do it. Spiritually discerned. God must. You're all alike, aren't you?
He reached down and picked one up. And then just gives him his
mind. Goes down there and picks up
another one. Gives him everything he has.
His mind, his will. It's all of God, you see. All of grace, 148 million percent
grace. Grace, the gift of God, grace. And God does this, hides these
things from the wise and prudent and reveals them unto babies.
And stay with me now, this is going to comfort you. He does this in his wisdom to
open the door to the worst and the lowest. If nobody but the
wise and the prudent and the rich and the highly esteemed
could be saved, then only those who had the greatest abilities,
only a man like Alan Jellett could be saved. He figured out,
I can't. A dumb old railroader. A dumb
old railroader can do those things. The greatest part of mankind
would have to give up hope and despair if it was by Figuring
it out on their own, but still you see your calling. Still you see your calling. You
see your calling. Not many wise men at the place,
not many mighty. The truth is exactly the opposite
of this. In order to have us think about
this now. In order to have a people as
the fans of the sea and the stars of the heaven, he chose the poor,
the ignorant, the lowly. Who's that? Everybody. Some don't
know it, but everybody is. Yes, he chose that no flesh should
boast and that more may go in, more people. He hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babies, and
this is the most glorious point of all. To make salvation for the believer
sure, sure, to make it sure. Now, bear with me, bear with
me. If it depended, if salvation now depended on man's wisdom
or strength or anything having to do with this creature, it
would fail, wouldn't it? It would fail. Take the best
man ever lived, Adam. Didn't work, did it? Didn't work.
God said, now it's up to you, Adam. In essence, that's what
he said, it's up to you. He failed. Now, Rick, what if
God said, it's up to you now, Rick. I've done all I can do
for you. Now it's up to you. What would
you say? Oh, I'm gone. Wouldn't you? That's just hopelessness. I know
God says, I've done all there is to do for you. Now you have
all hope, he said. You have all hope. Like I said,
this brain is a bowl of jello. One high fever and we'll turn
into a raving lunatic, an idiot. Just one little raising of the
temperature will send this great intellect into a frenzy. Right? One little, and we're idiots. Right? One smile blow and we're
comatose. And then what? A few short years
and everybody in here, every wise man, every wise woman, a
few short years from now, you're going to be like this little
four-year-old. You're going to be like a little child. Somebody
that will take you around. You won't even know anybody or
anything. You won't even know yourself.
Hardening the arteries. So what are you going to trust?
Where's your hope lie? Now. Look at Romans 4. and I'll quit."
Romans chapter 4. Now, where is your hope? In light
of all this, where is your hope? Your hope of salvation. Romans
chapter 4, verse 16. Look at this. Therefore, it is of faith that it might
be that his faith is just trust, looking to somebody else, depending
on somebody else. It's of trust in someone else
that it might be by grace. And look at this, to the end
that the promise might be sure. If it's left up to me, I'm goner,
but it's not, it's up to him, so I'm saved. I'm sure, I'm sure
for heaven. As if I was already there. Yes,
I am. I don't care if they've misused
that. I am. I'm seated with Christ in the
heavens. Now, if they'd say that, I'd listen, I'd say, that's a
good statement. If they'd say that, that my standing,
my hope, depends totally upon him, him alone, not what I have
to do. But because he lives, I live also. If they'd say that,
that's a good statement. I'm as sure for heaven as if
I was already there. In Christ I am there. I am there,
seated with Him. It's of grace, you see. It's
of the gift of God. And the gifts and callings of
God are without what? Repentance. He doesn't take them
back. What He gives is forever. And if He gives you salvation,
it's yours. It's of grace that the promise
might be sure. It's not left up to nothing.
Rest. Rest in the finished work of
Christ, in the person of Christ. You see, Adam was the wisest
man that ever lived, yet he failed because he was of the earth,
earthy, and that's you and me. But the second Adam is the Lord
from glory. He can't fail. He just can't
fail. He didn't fail. He came down here and lived the
perfect life, and he took that life and charged it, put it right
on some people, the people he chose, and they're saved because
of that. And he took their sin and put
it upon himself and took it away and removed it. completely died
in their place. He rose from the grave and went
back to the Father to mediate, to intercede for those people,
just to ensure even more that they would be saved. And he sent
the Holy Spirit to teach them the very things we're listening
to this morning. Sends the Holy Spirit and instructs
them and reveals all this, and gives faith in Christ, causes
them to look and trust in him, and preserves them until the
day that they die. It's grace. It's of grace. to the end, that the promise
might be sure, sure, sure to all of us, all of us, the little
weak ones and the older ones. I thank God. How about you? I thank God he gives these things
to us. I don't, I just really, I fool
you. Well, no, maybe I don't. You
may think I'm wise, but I don't know. Oh my, ten hours coming
up with what men, it takes some men thirty minutes. I thank God
he hid these things from the wives and revealed them to babies,
to nobodies, to nothings. Sinful men and women. I see my
calling. How about you? You see your calling? You wise? I don't call you. Forget it. Forget it. Think of something,
and I don't call you. Forget it. You're left. You're
lost. You always will be. But if you
be converted by His mercy and grace and become as a little
child and sit and listen to another one, preach the gospel, salvation
is for you. And it's sure. It's a grace to
the end that the promise might be sure to all that believe for
the glory of God, for our eternal salvation. Let's sing this hymn, number
229, Sherry. Tell me the old, old story. If
nobody else wants to hear it, tell it to me. All right? Tell
me the old, old story as to a little child, because I'm weak and weary
and helpless and defiled. And tell it to me slowly, that
I may take it in, that wonderful redemption, God's remedy for
sin. Tell me the story often, because
I forget it so soon, and I fall asleep when I do hear it. The
early dew of morning is soon passed away at noon. Tell me
the old, old story. You all want to hear the old,
old story? Tell me the old story. Tell it to me softly with earnest
tones and grave. Remember, I'm a sinner whom Jesus
came to save. Tell me the story always if you
would really be in any time of trouble a comforter to me. Tell
me the same old story, not a new one, an old one. when you have
caused to fear that this world's empty glory is costing me too
dear. Yes, and when that world's glory
is dawning on my soul, tell me the old, old story. Christ Jesus
makes thee whole. Tell me the old, old story of
unseen things, of love, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His
love. Tell me the story simply. as to a little child. For I am weak and weary, helpless
and deprived. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus. Sing the second one as the last.
Tell me the story slowly that I may take it in. That wonderful redemption, God's
remedy for sin. Tell me the story of him, for
I forget The early dew of morning isn't passed away at noon. Tell me the oral story. Tell me the oral story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his life.