No time for preaching. which gets more unpopular as the old fashioned preaching
of repentance. My pastor once said that the
scriptures are full of Warnings. Full of warnings. If we'd only
open our eyes, we'd see on every page, on every hand, warnings. Warnings lest we presume. Lest we presume. And on the other
hand, the Scriptures are full of promises. Promises last three
digits. Warnings and promises. So, every true message from God
must contain both. Must contain warning and promises. Must contain the bad news as
well as the good news. I said this, that the good news
is not necessarily the good news if someone has heard the bad
news. In other words, a man who has never heard, never believed
in his heart, that he's condemned before God. And the news of good
news of a Savior, of redemption, means nothing to that man, does
it? Means nothing. And then on the other hand, Brother
Scott Richardson said this, he said, since I heard the good
news, I never heard any bad news. Well, that's just it. Because
there's no communication in Christ. But for a man to stand up and
say boldly, emphatically, and dogmatically, from God's Word,
repent or perish, that's considered by our civilized society to be
crude, isn't it? To be old-fashioned, to be harsh,
negative, bigoted, obsolete preaching, isn't it? This is what John the
Baptist came preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. This is what the Lord himself came preaching, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This has always been
the message of every true prophet and every true preacher from
the beginning of time, the beginning of time. Noah's message was of
destruction, wasn't it, but safety in the ark. salvation in the ark. Destruction
coming, salvation in the ark. You see? They'd have no need
of the ark if they didn't see destruction coming. And the reaction
from people has always been the same from the beginning, and
the reaction is the same now. That is, to kill the prophets
and disciples. Away with them. We don't want
that. We don't need that. Away with them. Christ said it. We read there in our study. In
Matthew 24, how Christ said that these things were the beginning
of sorrows, well, immediately after that, He said, and they're
going to get you. But He said in Matthew 5, rejoice. Rejoice when you suffer persecution.
Rejoice. It's tough, though, isn't it?
I don't want an argument. I don't want people to come down
on me. I don't like it. I'd just as soon avoid it. But
where the gospel, where the glory of God is at stake, they're going
to come down on me. So be it. And Christ said, Rejoice!
Rejoice! But the reaction has always been
the same, and it will still be the same. Why? It really is puzzling when you
stop and think about it. Why are men who reject the gospel,
reject the truth? Why do men reject death? First and foremost is because
men refuse to be called sinners. We be not sinners. It's always
been that way, and it will always be that way. To call a man a
condemned, judged sinner, worthy of damnation
and hell. See, the prophets came prophesying
not smooth things, didn't they? The people would have it so.
Prophesying is smooth things. People want to hear smooth things,
but the prophets didn't come prophesying that. They didn't
come prophesying the restoration of the kingdom. Men and women
want to hear that. People love to hear about power.
They love to hear about prophecy and so forth. They didn't come
preaching that. They came preaching the restoration,
or not the restoration, but they came preaching the kingdom, the
one who reigns, the dominion of the king. But men will not
have this man reign over them. They wouldn't come preaching
peace, peace, when there was no peace. But that's what men
want. They want to hear a way out of
their troubles. Men aren't so much interested,
and see if this isn't so. yourself. Men and women aren't
so much interested in hearing how they can get rid of this
sin as they are getting out of trouble. Just get me out of this
mess, and I'll believe God. I got myself like Cain, like
Esau, right? They have a form of repentance,
and we're guilty. But it's mostly for getting caught.
It's mostly for suffering the consequences. It's not a repentance
over what they've done and what they are. That's not it at all. Well, God's true prophets have always
come preaching judgment, preaching truth, preaching righteousness,
preaching all these things, and the world calls them hard things.
Who can hear it? Hard things, sin, death, and
hell. Who can hear that? And here's the whole problem. Here's the dividing line between
the world and the believer, or the world and God's Word. Here's
the dividing line, right here. Sin. What does the Scripture
say? Your sins have separated you
between you and your God. Right, Terry? Sin. A wrong view
of sin. This is where it all starts.
It's what Spurgeon said, if you're wrong in the fall, you'll be
wrong on it all. If you miss what happened in
the garden, you'll miss it all from there on out. If you miss
the tea, you'll miss the oolah. If you're wrong on sin, you're
wrong on it all. A refusal to believe that I'm
just not that bad. And that brings a man to believe
that God's just not that holy. And it doesn't just take the
blood. You ask a man or a woman, Ask
yourself this, perhaps there's someone here, and I prepared
this message, this Sunday morning message, in hopes that somebody
might hear it for the first time. You ask a man or a woman, according
to the Bible definition of a sinner, you ask them, point blank, are
you a sinner? We need to ask ourselves that.
Are you a sinner? Do you deserve the condemnation
and wrath of God for your rebellion against this holy God. Do you? You ask a man or a woman that.
Ask them that. Ask them, according to the Bible,
are you cursed? Are you under the curse of God
Almighty? That's what Scripture said, doesn't
it? As many as there are of the works of the law are under the
curse, right? Ask a man or a woman, are you
condemned to die? What does the Scripture say?
The soul that sinneth, it must surely Ask anybody, is there
any goodness in you, any soundness in you at all, anything that
could recommend you to God? That's what Scripture said, from
the sole of our feet to the top of our head. No soundness in
you, nothing good about us. You ask somebody, are you righteous?
Is there any goodness in you? Are you righteous? Scripture
said all our righteousness are filthy righteous. Ask yourself,
ask somebody, do you have any good? None good. Does God accept
your person? God's no respecter of the person. It's sad to say, but this is
the truth. He asks the majority of people these questions, and
they won't answer it according to Scripture. Will they? Will
they? Do we? What does the Bible say
a sinner is? It says we're a transgressor
of the law. a transgressor of the law, to offend in one point,
to be guilty of it all. Right? I may not have done this,
but it doesn't make any difference. If you haven't broken it here,
if you've broken it over here, you've broken it all. Right? Worthy
of hell. Under sentence of death, that's
what a sinner is. The soul that sinneth, it must
surely die. We're under the sentence of eternal damnation and death
by nature. That's what it says. Scripture
says we're deserving of eternal hell. It's appointed unto me
and wants us to die, and after that, what? Judgment, right? Judgment. That's old-fashioned preaching.
Ain't nobody wants to hear that. Well, I don't want to hear judgment
either. That's the reason I'm preaching about it now. I don't
want to hear it later. I want to hear my judgment already taken
care of, now. I want to hear that I've already been judged,
and there's no judgment left for me. And if a man doesn't
hear this now, he'll hear it too late then. Judgment will
come. There will be judgment for him.
You know, everything will be settled. All questions will be
settled in a man or a woman's mind when you settle this sin
issue. They will. All questions. The character
of God. When we finally see that God
is absolutely holy, that he's too pure-eyed, too pure-eyed
to even look upon iniquity, can't have anything to do with it,
can't have a spot, not a blemish in his holy presence, can't not
even look on it. When we see that, we won't have
any problem believing that we're condemned. We won't have any
problem there. the requirements of the law.
When we see that God is spirit and how he looks on the heart,
he doesn't look on the outward countenance, he looks on the
heart, the very thoughts and intents of the heart, we don't
have any problem seeing how that the law requires perfection in
thought even and word and deed. I'll clear up those questions
as well. When we see that God, that all
men, that we by nature are dead in trespasses and sins, that
our will is bound by this nature, that we are bound only to do
what our evil, wicked natures allow us or tell us to do. When
we see that, we'll have no problem believing that we don't have
a free will, will we? We'll have no problem seeing
that it's His will that's being done on earth as it is in heaven. And this thing of religious charity
or tolerance with all sorts of manner of doctrine and so When
we see, if we would realize that the world is condemned, and that
the gospel, that blood, without the shedding of blood there's
no omission of sin, that without imputed righteousness there's
no sin, when we see this, that our only hope, our only help,
our only salvation itself is in the hands of a sovereign Lord,
that salvation is in what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us
on the cross. Salvation is in that and that
alone. We'll have no problem with this thing of religious
tolerance. Oh no, we won't be more concerned with making people
feel good about what they believe, but rather we'll be wholly taken
up with that they see the truth. It's not love to leave a man
in his error just because it might hurt him to tell him the
truth. Paul said, have I become your enemy because I tell you
the truth? Love is telling a man the truth. When it hurts, it
hurts. Well, you see, here's what I'm
getting at. Here's the text here in a moment. The reason the Lord Jesus Christ
came. The reason the Lord Jesus Christ
came. The only reason. that the Lord
Jesus Christ came down to this earth. Why did he come? Why did
God take on a body and come down to this world? Why? Most people
really don't know the answer to that question. They'll say
something about sin, but they really don't know the answer.
They think he was an example or something. But the reason
he came, the gospel, the angels gave this herald when he was
born. He came to what? Save. his people from their sin. His name implies it. Jesus, Savior,
Christ, Messiah, Deliverer. He's called the physician. And
he said, the well don't need a physician. Rick, most people
are okay, aren't they? They don't need. They're all
right. The well don't need a physician,
but Christ said, there's some sick folk down there, and I'm
coming to get them. His name is Redeemer. Terry,
if a man's not in bondage, he doesn't need to be redeemed,
does he? If he's not in prison, he doesn't need a deliverer,
does he? He doesn't need to be delivered from captivity. He's
not captive. He doesn't need to be redeemed. Well, let me go through the Scriptures
here with you. Turn to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis
chapter 6. I ask you, I ask myself this,
are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Garnet, are you? I mean worthy
to be condemned. I'm not talking about having
some faults. I'm talking about by nature being under the condemnation
and wrath of a holy God. Rebellious against this God by
nature. I know, I'm a man. I know how
this goes against the grain, the natural man. The natural
man is a fair shake by nature, aren't we? We're all Arminians
by nature. And this goes against our grain.
I'm not that bad. Well, look at Genesis chapter
six, verse one. It came to pass when men began
to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born
under them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair, and they took them wise of all which they
chose, and the Lord said, My spirits will not always strive
with man." Then down in verse 5, "...and God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and in every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil every day." Is that you? And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I'll destroy man whom I've created from the
face of the earth, those man and beast, creeping things, and
the fowls of the air. It repents me that I've made
them. But Noah found grace. He said, Ah, there's a good man.
There is a good one there. Yeah, the Lord finally found
one. He looked all over for a good man. Everybody else was evil
but Noah. And we may be saying the same
thing about ourselves. All this whole world lies in wickedness.
Homosexuals and all in San Francisco, they had it coming. We got it
coming. Look over Genesis chapter 8.
Look at this. This is after the flood. Genesis
8, look at verse 20. See, Noah found grace, and was
Noah any better? No, Noah, after he got off a
boat, he got drunk. The Lord just sovereignly bestowed
grace upon Noah. That's the only difference. Verse 20, And Noah built an altar
unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean
fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled
a sweet savor at sacrifice. See, Noah was in the ark. That's
the reason he was saved, and afterward, the only thing that
kept him saved was the ark, the sacrifice. This is a picture
of Christ, the sacrifice. The Lord smelled a sweet savor,
and he said, listen to this, this is what the Lord said after
the flood, listen, verse twenty-one, I will not again curse the ground
any more for man's sake. or though the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth." Who's he talking about? There's nobody left. He killed
all the wicked people. Oh no, no, no, no. Noah's still
living. He said, though, even though,
the imagination of man's heart, even though Noah over there.
Why, in just a day or so, he's going to get drunk and lay naked
in his tent. What's his hope? Not his goodness. His hope is the same as ours,
that we've got a Savior. We've got somebody to get us
out of this. Does that offend you? Look at Psalm 14. Psalm 14. Look at it. Psalm 14. Let's establish
this fact. If we don't have it established
in our minds, I hope the Lord will establish it. What we are.
Psalm 14, look at verse 1. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. That's the way we live. That's
what we say day in and day out. God doesn't exist. I'm living
my life for myself. That's what we say. If we don't
say it in so many words, we act like it. They are corrupt. They've
done abominable works. There's none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any. That did understand and seek
God. They're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy,
stinking. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Who's that talking
about? All. Any. None. None. Look at Isaiah chapter
one. Look at this. Isaiah chapter
one. Here's the warning. Here's the
bad news. This is the bad news. I'll get to the good news in
a minute. Isaiah chapter 1, look at this, verse 2, "'Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth, the Lord has spoken.' And he said, "'I
have nourished and brought up children, they have rebelled
against me.' The ox knows his owner and asks his master's prayer,
but Israel, my people, does not know, my people don't consider."
They're a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corruptors. They've forsaken
the Lord. They've provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger.
They've gone away backward. Why should they be stricken anymore?
They will revolt more and more. Why? Because the whole head's
sick, the whole heart's faint, so is the foot, even to the head.
There's no soundness in it. Wounds, bruises, fructifying
sores, they've not been closed or bound up or mollified with And I'll turn over here real
fast to Isaiah 64. Isaiah chapter 64. He continues
here, and he says in verse 6, we're all as an unclean thing.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all do fate as
a leaf. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away. Haven't they? They've taken us away. Away from
God, away from worshiping God, away from Christ. There's none
that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold
of thee." I mean really take hold of him. We consume because
of our iniquities. To sum us up in a word, and this
is the most ignominious title a man could have, sinner. We're full of it. Bernard used
to say, preach for a verdict. I'm preaching for a verdict this
morning. I want to establish right off the bat, I want to
establish a verdict, and everybody hears mine. Barnard said if you
preach clear enough, if you preach for a verdict, men will go away
with one of three reactions. They'll get mad. I don't want to have that. I'm
not that bad. They'll get sad. Or they might get glad. Mad,
sad, or glad, which are you? Does that make you mad? Does
calling you a hell-deserving, rotten, filthy, stinking sinner
make you mad? Oh, preacher, that's negative
preaching. That's Bible preaching. Oh, I can't think. If we say
we have no sin, it's because we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. Does that make you mad? Or does calling you an evil,
wicked, filthy, sinner, condemned, worthy of damnation make you
sad? to make you mourn your estate,
huh? To make you sad? Oh, preacher, that's me. That's
me. Tell me how I can get out of
this mess. Well, I have this to barter. Whoever gets sad will
get glad. Christ said, blessed are they
that mourn. They'll be comforted. They'll
get glad, all right. Blessed are they that mourn.
They'll be comforted. The gospel, like I said before,
is only glad tidings for sinners, sinners, sinners. And somebody
said, a sinner is a precious thing, a sacred thing. The Holy
Spirit has made him so. When you ask the average person
out there, ask ourselves, our self-righteous self, are you
a sinner? Well, you know, I'm not that bad. I'm bad. I'm not
that bad. It doesn't make any difference
if you're that bad, if you're a little bad. in this holy God's
eyes. But it doesn't say that we're
a little bad. It says we're that bad, doesn't it? That bad. It's only good news for those
who have heard that they're that bad, you see. Right? Joe, are
you that bad? Yeah, you're that bad. Only the
sick need a position. Only captives need freedom. Only
a sinner needs a Savior. If we ever lose sight of this
fact, that we're sinners, no good, hell-deserving wretches,
we don't need Christ. And we'll go on to other things.
It's just the way it is. Even saints. We don't refer to
ourselves as saints, ever. God does. We are sinners. We always have been, we always
will be. We'll never rise above it. My
pastor always says, don't ever lose your sinnerhood. That's
your only hope. Your sinners have not only separated
you between you and God, but it's the only thing that will
recommend you. Don't ever rise above your sinnerhood.
Oh, we don't want to be sinners. We want to be made like Christ,
yes. And I've bent over backward to show the other side. to show
our need to be like Christ, to act like Him, to want to be like
Him. But this is it in a nutshell. Sinners. This is our only place
to be. The Son of Man came to seek and
to save that which is lost. Now, if we're not lost, if we
can take a step, it's always amazed me what men think lost
is. Anybody that's ever been lost
knows what it means, that they're totally without help. Unless
somebody comes and gets me, I'm a goner, right? That's what it
is, lost. You ask old Mephibosheth, are
you lost? Yeah, I'm going to die unless
somebody comes and fetches me. You see, that's what it is to
be lost. And a man that can take a step to God, he ain't lost,
is he? But Scripture says we're without
God, we're without help, we're without hope, we don't know where
God is. Do we? How can I? The eunuch says, except
some man show me. How can I know what this is saying,
except some man show me? But by nature, we say, I can
figure this out myself. I'll make it. Leave me alone.
I'll be all right. All right? And Christ said, leave
him alone. The sinner, he came to seek and
to save. This may be the reason us believers
get cold and dead and dry when it comes to hearing the gospel.
We rise above our sinnerhood. See, this doesn't make sense.
We get cold and dead and dry in hearing the gospel. Man stand
up and hear the gospel. His only hope that Christ came
to shed his blood, to impute his righteousness, to save sinners. If a man has risen above the
state of needing that, And it'll fall off his back like water
off a duck's back. The days you feel real bad, Henry, Sunday
morning you come in here feeling awful bad, or if you hear a little
bit of good news, it's good news, isn't it? Good news. Well, this brings me to my text
after 30 minutes. 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy chapter
1. That's enough of the bad news.
1 Timothy 1. Look at this. Now, I'm not saying
you have to be a drunk to be saved, but I will say this. God doesn't
save good people. He doesn't save good people.
Brother Charlie Payne preached a message one time entitled,
Good People Need Not Apply. Good people need not apply. God
saves no goods. Who'd Christ die for, Terry?
Ungodly sinners. sinners, ungodly. That's who
he died for. Died for the ungodly. Are you
ungodly, Rick? Are you ungodly? Now, wait a minute, preacher.
Oh, my soul, you see how self-righteous we are by nature? If that rises up in you just
a little bit of indignation, that just shows you what we are
by nature. self-righteous Pharisee. That's
just a little bit of indignation. Barbara, you're no good, you're
no better than a harlot out on the street. Oh, a preacher. That's what the Scripture says,
isn't it? Christ said this about the Pharisees.
He said, Sodom and Gomorrah are going to have it easier than
you. But wait a minute, preacher, they were moral, and they lived
good lives in Sodom and Gomorrah, That's what he said, wasn't it?
Why? They reject God's salvation. I'm not this bad, and God's not
that holy. Christ is not everything. I've
got something to say about this. I've got something to do in this
matter. Well, look at verse 15. God's Word is faithful. God's
Word is true. What this book says is the only
thing that matters. Well, this is a faithful saying.
This is a true saying. Why? Because God said it. Because
he started saying it from the very beginning. You're a sinner.
You're going to hell unless somebody gets you out of this mess. So
I'm going to send my servant, whom I elect, my rod, the rod
of Jesse, the stem, the righteous God, our righteousness, I'm going
to send Him, I'm going to send a substitute to get you out of
this mess." This is a faithful saying. God said it from the
very beginning. That you're a sinner, you need a Savior. It's faithful,
it's true. It's true. Why? Because it actually
happened. It's not only true because God said it, but it happened.
What? Christ came to save sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. worthy of all acceptation. Now,
this is not asking for men to accept this. Oh, no. This is what people have us believe.
There it is. There is a picture. Accept Jesus
as your personal Savior. Oh, no. That's not what they're
saying. It says, this is a faithful and
true Savior, and it's worthy. Everybody ought to hear this.
It's worthy of all acceptation. It's not asking for our acceptance.
Uh-uh. Christ is not on trial here.
We are, you say. See where the whole thing gets
backward? Sinners. This is where it starts. Sinners.
How can a... This just boggles my mind. How
can a sinner... What does God need with a sinner
to accept Him? That's blasphemy of the worst
sort. What does God need with a man to accept or reject Him?
Now here I am, you worms, please accept me. My son, the long-suffering Lord
of salvation, he ought to step on this religious mess and just
put it out of his sight, shouldn't he? But he's gracious, he's merciful.
Long-suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish.
But this is us by nature. What he's saying here is this
is something worth hearing. It's something worth believing. It's
kind of like the king's proclamation. Hear ye, hear you. You know the
king, when he sent his herald out with a message, did the herald
go out and say, Y'all excuse me, please, I'd like to have
your attention please. If you don't mind, I won't bother
you very long, but the king, he wants me to tell you, would
y'all receive, listen up please, okay? Would you, would you receive
this? The king says that everybody
who doesn't bow to him today is going to have their head cut
off. I know that's hard. Harold comes out and says, listen
up! Hear ye, hear ye! There's the message and it goes
on down. Huh? Oh yeah. He's not asking for
acceptation. He said, you better listen up. That's what that's
saying there. This is worthy to be heard. You
better listen up. It's kind of like Adam when God
was telling Adam. Adam, you can have every tree in the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're not
to take it. And the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
What was Adam doing? Was he chewing gum? Lookin' around? Huh? I bet you he was listening. What? Adam? Yes, my boy. Steve. He was listening,
my boy. Because what was about to be
said was words that were to be heard. And to be received. Noah. Here's a prime example. Noah
came through. Everybody went by that boat.
He was in that boat. Joe, now come on, buddy. You better get
in this boat or God's gonna rain judgment. It's coming, Judson,
it's coming. Joe, you better get... Oh, Noah.
Joe, it's worthy to be heard now. I'm telling you the truth.
You better get in the ark. Oh, no, in that range, boys. See, that's what this is saying.
This is the faithful, true saying. God said it from the very beginning,
and it came to pass. And it's worthy to be heard.
People better listen up, because why? Because we're sinners. This
is the message. Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. You know, this used to mean something,
this word Christ. You go over in Jerusalem right
now and mention, Christ is here! You'll get some ears perking
up. But men use it now to curse with. Christ doesn't mean a thing,
that word Christ. It used to mean something, Rick. And that's the sense in which
John was saying over in 1 John, that if any man believed that
Jesus is the Christ, they knew what that was saying. If any
man came out publicly and said that that Jesus of Nazareth down
there, the carpenter's son, was the Christ, the Messiah, the
long-awaited, appointed one, God's chosen Redeemer, he's the
one, everybody knew. There was a dividing line. The
man either believed that or he didn't. Oh no, not that, no. And the Jews today, what does
Psalm 2 say? Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The people being the Jews. They
imagine, they still imagine today, a vain thing, that the Christ
has not come. He hasn't come. The Jews today
don't think he's come yet. And they flat out reject Jesus
Christ as the Christ, don't they? Flat out reject him. Oh no, Jesus
of Nazareth wasn't the Christ. Christ has yet to come. He came. This is what the Apostle Paul
said. This is worthy to be heard. He came. He's already been here. He left. He's coming back. Believe
it. Believe it. Believe it. Christ,
Messiah, Jesus, Savior, the scapegoat, the sin offering, the substitute,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, has come. Has come. Why? Why'd he come? He set an example. Look at the
text again. First Timothy 1, verse 15. He came in the world to save. See, he didn't come to try. That's
what men would have us believe, wasn't it? He came to try. He
came to make men savable. That ain't what the Scripture
says. That ain't a faithful saying. That ain't worthy to be heard,
is it? This is the faithful saying.
He came to save, and he did just that. He saved. He saved eternally. He didn't come to show men the
way. He came to be the way. He didn't come to convince men.
He came to ransom them. He came down to pay the price.
He said, Father, I got the price here. What does it require? Your
blood. I got it. Here it is. It's paid. Man, no condemnation. I paid
the price. He didn't make an installment,
did he? Here, I'll make the installment of my blood. Now men later on
come on and make a down payment with their faith. That's not
it. He came to save, didn't he, with his blood, the blood that
makes atonement for the soul. Christ came, brought that blood
before the Father, laid it on the mercy seat. There it is now.
Let him go. OK. He didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom. He came to manifest the kingdom.
He came to manifest the spiritual kingdom. He said, My kingdom's
not of this world. God's going to destroy this thing.
My kingdom's spiritual. And they that worship God, worship
him in spirit, rejoicing me, and put no confidence in anything
this flesh hath to do." He didn't come to help out. He came into the wilderness as
a good shepherd and picked up his sheep and put them on his
shoulder. He didn't say, now, I know you're
lame, you're hot, you're blind, you're there, I know that, but
just come on. Oh, no, he came to pick them
up and carry them all the way home. all the way home. He didn't come to give us a crutch,
he came to carry us. He didn't come to be an example,
he came to be a substitute. And the scripture says this is
a wonderfully glorious, faithfully true saying, worthy to be heard
by all men who are sinners. That Christ came, he's been here
already. He came, he And in him we live
and move and have our being. Our only hope is salvation. He
came to save. He saved some people. How about
you? Did he come to save you? Well, he came to save sinners. You see, it all comes right back
to this, doesn't it? It all comes right back to this. Sinners,
not good people. No goods. Not moral, immoral. Not religious, irreligious. Not
scribes, but the profane. Not Pharisees and Sadducees,
but publicans. Sinners, harlots. And this is
something you can hang the weight. That's the reason we want to
clarify from the beginning. We want to establish from the
beginning a verdict. Are you a sinner, a no-good wretch? Then Christ came to save you!
Where's Donny Bell when I need him? Charles, are you a no-good, wretched
sinner, huh? Jesus Christ came here to save
you! Well, I don't know. I just don't know if I believe
it. I just don't know. You close
the book and go home, that's it. That's what it says. I'm just not willing to believe
it. Who'd he come for, then? I just can't believe that he
came for me. Well, yes, sir! Christ continually, time and
time again, says, Why is it that you do not believe? I came. This is why I'm coming here.
No other reason. I didn't have to come here into
this mess. Why would I take upon myself
all this grief and sorrow? and mockery and hatred and scourge
and all that. Why would I do that? I don't
need to. You need me to come, though.
Are you a sinner? Huh? Barbara, if you're no good sinner,
if you know better than that harlot, Christ came to save you.
Whoopee! It's something to make you shout.
Talk to it. This is somebody. to make the
desperate with despair, no matter how bad you are. That's who he
came to save. Goodness gracious, you're looking
at the man. Paul said this, let's go on here, he said, he came
to save sinners of whom I am the chief. Now we can't get a
hold of this, but the apostle Paul, there was a little group,
if we were back in that day, this little group right here
meeting together, in the name of Christ, and I was preaching
to you, I was over here preaching Say if I was preaching Noah's
Ark, or preaching the serpent lifted up on the pole, and that
being Christ, or whatever, the Passover, preaching these things,
the door may burst open at any time, and the Apostle Paul will
walk in and grab our wives and our children, and every one of
us, and drag us to jail, and beat us, and flog us, and kill
us. The Apostle Paul, that's what he did. That's exactly what
he did. He burst into little assemblies
like this. There's one. God saved that man. Christ came
to save that man. That's the reason he said, I'm
the chief. You're looking at the worst one of them all. And
me, I hesitate to always keep bringing this up, but I was in
the gutter. I didn't give a flip about God
or Jesus Christ. I was so anxious for the service
to get over so I could go out and have my merry time out in
the world. Just, I didn't want this stuff. My parents made me.
I was just ready and glad when that got over, so I'd go out
and party. But God. Now, this is the only
thing I want to do. I came to say no good-byes. No
good-byes. You know good-byes? No good-byes. Look over here
at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. First Corinthians, chapter six. First Corinthians six, verse
nine. Paul says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves of mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. But look at verse 11. Look at
verse 11. And such were some of you. So as us, what? Henry? But now you're washed. Washed
in the blood, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.
You're no longer these things. Oh, you are inside. You'll never get past that either.
Inside. But there's a new man, a new
creature created in Christ Jesus, holy, unblameable, unapprovable,
no condemnation because of Christ. God is now just and a justifier
for them that believe in Christ. And Christ, and the Apostle Paul
said, I'm the chief, yeah, I'm the chief. But verse sixteen,
look back at the text and I'll quit. He said, how be it for
this cause, because I was the chief of sinners, because I was
the worst one of the bunch. This will give some old sinner
some help here. He said, because I was the worst
one of the bunch, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering. See, he saved the worst one of
the bunch, so nobody'd despair, you see? The worst one! And I
was a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him, the
life everlasting. Paul was a pattern of how that
God saved the worst sinners. He was the worst. He said he
was injurious. perjured persons, so forth, blasphemer,
persecutor. Paul was a pattern of how God
saves the worst sinners. He's a pattern of how God saves
those who aren't looking for Him. So Paul wasn't looking for
Him. He was looking to kill people
who believed in Him. That's who God saves, people who aren't
looking for Him. He, uh, no, I don't need to clarify that,
do I? The Holy Spirit makes a man seek the Lord. Yes, he does.
But by nature, none of us are seeking God. Paul was a pattern,
how that God saved by personal contact. That God saved by grace? Boy, Paul knew this if anybody
did. If God didn't save him by his grace, He sure ain't done
nothing to deserve his salvation. On the contrary, he's done everything
else to deserve damnation. Well, he's a pattern after that,
too, in life, in labors, in faith, and a pattern in death. The Apostle
Paul, when it's all said and done, he said, I'm ready to depart.
Paul did fight. He said, have a desire to depart
and be with the Lord. Bill, did that make you mad?
Did it make you sad? I hope it made
you glad. We're no good. I mean no good. And nobody out there is any good.
Ain't nobody. Scott, you know, if Scott was
up here, an old gray-haired man, some reason age, people receive
age, but he'd say you ain't worth spitting on. Well, I said that,
it'd be real crude. Well, I just said it, didn't
I? But we're not. We're not worth
it. We're not worth the fire and hail it takes to burn us.
That's old-fashioned. That's crude. That's just the
way it is. But if a man will reach that
point, They've got some good news for him. Don't we, Joe?
They've got some good news. Christ can't save that person. No good. And you can hang your
soul on that. Why is it that you don't believe?
It's either one of two things. You're just self-righteous, don't
think you're that bad, or I don't know. What the other one is,
you just don't believe. You just don't believe. That's
what it says in black and white. He came to save sinners. I don't
know about you, but I'm a sinner. So I just believe Christ came
to save me. I'll close with this. Spurgeon
said, you know, if God said, if God used, I've used this before,
but if God used the name Charles Haddon Spurgeon in the scripture,
he said, I couldn't, I wouldn't believe it. And he said, if God
said it's a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus
Christ came in the world to save Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He said,
I just, I wouldn't believe that's me. He said, I think he was talking
about another one. There bound to have been another
one somewhere named Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And I just have to
believe, knowing myself, what I am, that he wouldn't have come
to save me. It has to be somebody else, not
me. But he said what? He said, As
far as I know, that's me. I know that's me. I just believe. It's not presumption that you
believe God. It's faith. It's faith. So let's believe
Him. Let's take Him at His Word and go from there. Then the assurance
comes. Then the peace comes. Then the
comfort comes. You start there then. I believe, Lord, if that's
what You say. Yeah, that's me. I believe that.
Now prove it to me. Say unto my soul, I'm not salvation.
He will. He will. The promise will come. The comfort will come. Let's
bow. Stand with me. Let's bow for
prayer. Our sovereign Redeemer, we thank
you for not only the warnings and not only the words of conviction,
And Lord, if you don't convict us, we will not come to Christ.
But we thank you that Christ died and came to save sinners.
That's us. That's us. Lord, save us or we
perish. Lord, we believe. Now help our
unbelief. Give us peace that comes with
knowing that Christ did indeed die to save sinners. In his name we pray. Amen. You're
dismissed. Yeah, that's it.