And I'm going to read just three
verses out of chapter five, Ephesians chapter five, and talk to you
about a glorious church. Ephesians chapter five, and verses
25, 26, and 27. Ephesians 5, 25, husbands, love
your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church. honorable church, a church held
in high esteem by God, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. As you read through the New Testament,
you'll find that oft times the Bible speaks of a local church. And this is a local church. And there are many local churches. The book of Ephesians was written
to a local church in the city of Ephesus. A local church is
very important. It's an assembly of people who
profess to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now a local church,
it may be that within a local church there are unbelievers,
because no local church is immune from a mixed group. That is,
most churches, and when I talk about churches, I'm talking about
somewhere where the gospels preach, churches have both wheat and
tares in the congregation. I hope you're a believer, and
I certainly am thankful to see you this morning having appeared
and attending this local church. But we must not be naive. And we must not be ignorant of
the fact that not all of us are the true people of God. And I don't know who the true
people of God are that are here this morning. Only one I've got
some confidence in that they know God is me. And sometimes
I ain't so sure of myself. So, wow, you make that admission? Yeah. I long to have a full assurance,
and sometimes I do, but not always, and that's just being honest.
And I think especially preachers ought to be honest with the congregation. But I hope that you're found
beneath the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you've been
washed, truly a child of God, that you rest in the Son of God. And I'll tell you, my own profession
of faith is this, Christ is my Savior. I'm just a poor sinner
and I'm nothing at all, really. I'm nothing at all. I'm no better
than anybody here. In fact, in some ways, I suppose
I'm worse. I'll tell you, read what the
Apostle Paul wrote To Timothy, he said, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Now listen to him. And this is
an apostle. He came to save sinners and he
said, of whom I am chief. Well, he was a holy man. Oh,
he's holy in Christ. But he was just a sinner saved
by grace. The new pope in Rome, they called
him His Holiness, the Holy Father. He's not holy. Nobody's holy
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I assure you, nobody is holy
who believes in salvation by works. who believes in salvation
by rituals. I've never seen so many rituals
go on in their meetings and so forth and so on. The conclave
and all of that stuff. And I don't want to get too hard
on the new pope. I'll tell you this, I've never
heard him talk about Jesus Christ and him crucified. Never heard
him talk about salvation by the free grace of God. I hear him talk about social issues
and political issues. Any man who professes to be a
preacher of the gospel but doesn't preach the gospel, he doesn't
know the gospel. And I must add this, and then
I'll move on, but the other pope, the pope who just died, I don't
question his sincerity. But he didn't know God. And when he died, he found out
that he didn't know God. It's sad, so over a billion people
follow that false religion. But that's not the only false
religion there is. There are Baptist churches that
are full of false religion. Not much difference, really.
Oh, not as much ritualism and not as much ceremonialism. But
they don't preach the gospel of the grace of God to sinners
through the dying and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus our Savior. I'm honored to be associated
with this local church where we can come together and know
the Bible is going to be opened. And we're going to read from
the Word. I want to hear what God has to say, don't you? I'm
not interested in what the denomination has to say. I'm interested in what my God
has to say, and He has spoken through His Word. He tells us of salvation by grace,
doesn't he? That's what this book says. For by grace he is saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. I want to hear what God has to
say about salvation. How can this sinner be saved?
That's what I want to know. I don't want to know what the
church, the Catholic Church or Roman Catholic Church or any
other church has to say. I want to know what the Word
of God has to say. I want to hear Him. Lord, speak, speak to us through
the book. And I'm thankful that when we
come out here to this building, and this building is not a church,
but when the church assembles here, we come together to read
and see what our Heavenly Father has to say. And we can rejoice
in Him and worship Him and reverence Him and honor Him. And I want to know what he has
to say for sinners. Does he have a good word for
sinners? People who are poor in spirit? People who are spiritually bankrupt? People who are heading out into
eternity? You're going out to meet God,
and I tell you, a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and counting beads and all that
sort of thing, it's not going to do you any good. Only one
who can help you seated upon his throne of glory, Christ Jesus
the Lord. And he got there by way of a
bloody cross. I wanna hear what God has to
say. That's why we come together. We're not here just to occupy
time. I'm not trying to entertain you
as you go out into eternity. I'm trying to warn you, I'm trying
to speak the truth to you, tell you about the Savior. If you
have any interest whatsoever, listen to what the Word of God
has to say, and listen to what the preacher of God's Word has
to say. We come together to honor our
Lord, and I'm here to help you. Not help you find a better way
of life, I'm not here to help you with your finances or with
your family troubles. The Lord helps with matters like
that. Don't misunderstand me, but my
job is to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, that's
what the preacher's duty is. That's what my responsibility
is. That's why you brought me here
10 and a half years ago, is to preach the gospel. This is a
local assembly. Now, there may be some chaff
in here, and no doubt there is. Wheat and chaff. I tell you what
I want some assurance of, Lord, in my wheat. That's what I want
to know. And then there's what we call,
the Bible calls, the universal church. It said, I tell you,
hold your place right, just turn back a page or two to chapter
three and verse 15. Chapter three, verse 15. Of whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That's the whole
church, that's the universal church. That's the Lord's family
in heaven, that's the Lord's family on earth. That's the universal
church. And I want to be in that church
for sure. Like that passage I read to begin
with out of Revelation chapter 7. There's the whole church having
ascended to God and their bodies have been raised and there they
stand before the Lord and clothed in white robes and having palm
branches which signifies they're honoring the Son of God. I want
to be there. Don't you? I don't want to miss
that. I'm not just going to go through
the motions of being religious. That won't cut it. That won't
do it. And I bet you some of you, and
perhaps some of you who are watching, every once in a while you get
a little concerned and say, you know, I've got to do better.
And then you get out from under the sound of the gospel and you
just go back to whatever else it is that you do. Things are
important. When I leave here, I wanna still
be loving the gospel of Christ. Don't you? I don't want this
to be a passing thing, something that I'll get over. You see,
you can get over religion. You can get over walking an aisle. you can get over joining a church. But I'll tell you what you cannot
get over is the Spirit of God doing a work of grace within
your heart, showing you you're a sinner. You need the Savior,
and the only one who can save you is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who saves sinners by His incarnation, by His death, by His resurrection,
by His ascension back to heaven. He's the only one who can help
you. And I want you to look to Him.
I don't want you to perish. I want you, along with myself
and all the rest of the saints of God, to be in that group that
I read about to begin with. All those people gathered together
in glory. Who are these? Angel said, you know, these are
those robed in righteousness. These are those whose garments
have been washed. What does that mean, preacher?
It means they've come to Jesus Christ, his poor sinners, and
been washed in his bloody death. He represented a bunch of sinners
when he died, and he reconciled them to God, and I hope to pray
Isaiah in him when he died. And I believe I was. I believe
I was. I'm vitally interested in this
universal church. It's so wonderful, it's so glorious,
You know, so far in the book of Ephesians, Paul has talked
about the blessings that God has given to this, what I'll
call the universal church. Chosen in Christ, predestinated
to the adoption of children, accepted in the beloved, redeemed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus, blessed with all spiritual blessings. I want in on those things, don't
you? I wanna be a part of that. I
wanna know God. This is life eternal to know
Thee, the only true God. Do you know God? That's what Christ said. You
wanna know what eternal life is? to know God and his son whom
he sent. That's what eternal life is.
Do you know God? Do you know his son? Well, the only way you can know
God is to know his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't wanna miss out on this
universal church. I don't wanna miss out on that
Those who are members of that church, and I know we're not
all together now by any means. A lot of them been in heaven
a long time. Abel's been there hundreds and
hundreds of years, thousands of years. Abel's been there,
and then his dad and mom been there. And one of his brothers
Seth's been there, and then Enoch, and then Noah, and just go right
on through the New Testament. But there's a lot of people whose
names are not in the New Testament. They're there too. And they're
unknown to us, but they're not unknown to God. He loved them
with an everlasting love. You see, here we are, and I'm
persuaded there are people here who love the Lord and love Christ
Jesus. I can't know your heart, but
I'm persuaded that there are people here and people who are
watching who love the gospel of Christ. You have eternity
in view, and you say, you know, I'm ready, I'm ready to meet
a holy God. Well, how are you ready? I'm
ready because I'm in Christ, that's why I'm ready. I'm in
Him. I've been washed, I've been forgiven,
I've been pardoned, I'm righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
I'll tell you what, we'll all be there together. We want you
to be with us. That's what I want, you to be
with me. When we all get together Praise the Lord in glory. What's the ground of your confidence
that you're going to be there, Jim? Jesus Christ suffered, bled,
died, and rose again for sinful people. I'm one. I'm one. You say, well, preacher,
don't you call me a sinner? If you don't take the title of
sinner, ain't no hope for you. I can tell you that right now.
Because Christ Jesus came to save sinners. He came to save
the ungodly. He came to save people without
strength. Now, if you got strength, if
you can do it yourself, you imagine that you can do something to
put you in God's favor, well, One of these days, you're gonna
find out that you're wrong, and you're gonna be dead wrong, dead
wrong. The best thing God could do for
you right now is to show you that you're spiritually bankrupt,
and you're just a mercy beggar. That's all you are. Oh, God, make me to be a mercy
beggar, to say, Lord, I need you. I need you. I'm no good. I'm no good. I put a good face
forward and I dress up. I'm trying to live halfway right. But Lord, you know in my heart,
I'm a vile person. My thoughts, my imaginations,
my motives. So you may think you're a good
person, but just examine your motive. And an examination of our motives
will kill us all. That'd just show us what we are.
Why do you do what you do? Well, I'll tell you why most
of us do what we do, because we do it for self. Which means
in our world, self's in the center. That's terribly wrong. We're
all messed up. Do you know that? We're a messed
up people. but I have a glorious gospel
for messed up people. It's the gospel of the grace
of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me show you here
what the church is by nature. Here's the first thing. What's
the church by nature as you go back over here in chapter five? What is the church in her origin? Well, we're just as depraved
as anybody else. We're just as sinful as anybody
else. Between the brightest, you think
about this, between the brightest saints in heaven, they're all
the same, between the bright saints in heaven and the most wicked people in
hell, There's no difference except the difference grace has made. Can you handle that? Between the bright saints of
God, glorious, holy, righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ, between
the saints of God in heaven and the damned in hell who are wicked,
who hate God, who despise the Lord, who would not believe,
would not repent between the saints and the wicked. The only difference between them
is the difference God makes. Now for some people, that's too
big a pill to swallow. They kind of get choked on it.
But that is the truth. That is the truth. You see, the saints in heaven,
by nature, just as depraved, just as sinful, just as wicked
in this life, I'm talking about inwardly now, as those who are
perishing in hell, as they were. See what the word of God does.
Tell you what the grace of God does. Somebody said death is
the great leveler. Well, it does level everybody.
But I'll tell you, the grace of God is the greatest leveler
because it makes the people to whom the grace is shown, makes
those people to know they're no better than anybody else. You ladies, I'm sure you're virtuous
and you're fine, upstanding, you moms. We love you, we're
thankful for you. But you can be a good mother
and a fine individual and die without Christ, you're gonna
perish in hell along with everybody else that's down there. You see, here's the problem,
S-I-N, that's the problem. And this is what, this is the
church's, that's what we were originally before we were brought
to see the grace of God and the kingdom of God. Romans chapter
three verse 12 says they're all gone out of the way. altogether become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. You hear that? No, not one. Preacher, I'm a
good person. You're not a good person. You're not good so as that God
can call you good. You're good so that I can call
you good. I say you're a good people, you're
a fine person, you're a fine woman, you're a good woman, you're
a good man, good boy, good girl. But you see, my definition of
good is not the same definition as God's. God's got a whole lot higher
standard of goodness than I do. His standard of goodness is perfection. Now, are you perfect? Well, I'm
not perfect. Well, then you're not good then. You can hang on to your so-called
goodness all the way to the grave and then appear before God and
say, well, I've been a good person. And I'll tell you, he's gonna
cast you into hell now. I'm a bad person. by nature. And really, so are you. So are
you. We all wandered from the Lord,
some going one way, some going another way. Some going after wildlife and
wickedness and drug abuse and profanity and a promiscuous lifestyle,
some go that way, that's terrible. And then some go the way of religion,
and they try to live right and do right and be right, and they
think, well, because I'm trying to do right and be right, that
the Lord will look on me and say, well, you know, that's a
pretty good person right there, I'm going to take him into my
heaven. Don't work that way. You're wrong. I wouldn't give you a license
to go out here and sin. As far as I know, you don't need
a license to do that. We ought to try to live right. But that's not the way of grace.
That's not the way of salvation. Not of works. Not of works. We've all wandered down a different
road, but it's always the wrong road. The previous pope said
this, there's good in every religion, and there are many religions,
he said, that can get you into heaven. Well, he speaks contrary
to the word of God. There's one door, there's one
way, there's one truth, there's one gospel. It's not the gospel
of the Baptist church. It's not the gospel of the Roman
Catholic church. It's not the gospel of the Methodist
church. It's the gospel of the grace
of God descended through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
only gospel there is. God's gospel. God's gospel. Tell you what, we just, the church
by nature, we're sinful. We're sinful. But I'll tell you
what the verse says here, what this passage of scripture says,
that the church was bought with a price. Here in 525, it says
that Christ gave himself for it. He gave himself. He didn't
give his throne for us. He didn't give the silver and
gold of the world for us. What did he give for us? Himself. You say, well, I'm going to be
good and God will save me. Salvation is a whole lot more
expensive than anything you can pay. What did it take to save sinners
like me, like you? What did it take? It took the
Son of God, leaving His crown in glory, leaving His throne
of universal sovereignty over all, and He came down here and
joined Himself to our humanity. That's what it took. But it took
more than that. Here He lived the life of perfection,
exposed to every nasty thing they could do to Him and accuse
Him of. but right along he lived perfectly. It's going to take more than
that though. He had to die. He had to die. Do you understand that? He had
to die. He had to die for our sins because
our sins deserve death and God demands death for sin. Therefore, the son of God had
to lay down his life. John chapter 10 says, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He had to die for
his sheep. He had to die to save us. That's
what it took. What's it gonna take to satisfy
God? Death. Whose death? The death of a God man. Ain't but one of those. That's
why he came. He took our nature. He gave himself. He gave his
life. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. The church is bought with a price. He came in the fullness of time. If you can, if you can kind of
pull yourself up out of the mud, yourself, and wash yourself off,
clean yourself up and make yourself presentable to God, pray tell
me, why'd God send his son into this world? Huh? Anybody got
an answer for that? Why'd God bother to send his
son? If we can do something or other to clean ourselves up,
You have no earthly idea how holy God is. And he will not accept anything
less than holiness. And you can't produce it. Well,
then how preacher, how can I come to God? How can I be saved? How
can I be a member of this universal church? Well, this is Christ's
specialty. He saved the undeserving. He
washes the filthy. You see, it says here in verse
26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word of God. The word of God, the scriptures,
the gospel. Well then, what is the result?
Here's the church glorified, verse 27, quickly. that he might
present it to himself a glorious church. You know, every day,
the Spirit of God presents us to Christ. Here's a blood-washed
church. Every day, Christ presents us
to the Father in his work of intercession. But there's coming a day when
the Lord Jesus is going to present the church to himself. That's
what it says, to himself. Purged and perfect. Justified
now, glorified then. A glorious church, having neither
spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing. I like that thought, purged and
perfect. Now, I said back toward the beginning of the message,
I want to be a member of this family. I want to be a member
of this church. I want to be washed in the blood
of the Lamb. And by the grace of God, I believe
I am. Now, what about you? What about you? Salvation's by grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Come to him just as you are. I know that song by Charlotte
Elliott that she wrote many years ago has been abused and misused,
but it's still true, just as I am, without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for
me. And that thou bidst me come to
thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. That's my testimony. Well, let's sing the closing
song.