I thought about this, about what
I would title this message tonight, and I thought we'll all pull
a Tim James on you. You know, Tim always, if I go
to the website and look at his, there's a lot of just one word.
So we got one word that titled this message, and the one word
is prerequisites. Prerequisites. Now I don't want
to insult your intelligence, but I've learned not to take
anything for granted. And I'm going to tell you what
a prerequisite is if you don't already know. I think most of
you already know that. But let me show you how I arrived
at this message. You know, we have a TV ministry
in Albany, and it gets out quite a bit. We get quite a bit of
response from it. Most of it is kind and positive
from all over South Georgia, covers that area. I think up
from where Macon, Georgia is, below Macon, all the way down
to Valdosta, where you go into Florida. And it covers some over
in Alabama too. So we cover a wide audience.
It comes on every Sunday morning. But once in a while I'll get
an email or a letter from somebody who's a little upset about the
things I said. I've told people one time I got
a call, this was years ago though, I got a call from a fella who
told me he said he didn't like that predestination thing. And
I said, oh, he said he didn't believe that predestination.
And I said, oh, you don't believe the Bible. And he said, oh, I
believe every word in the Bible. I said, well, predestination
is one of those words. And I said, what you better do
is go find out what it means according to the Bible. But anyway,
this fellow, he wrote me an email. And he started off, you know,
if you write an email, you know, you got the subject line. The
subject line read, what you should preach, but I know you won't. So I knew this was not going
to be a positive, encouraging letter. So anyway, he wrote that
and he started talking about, and he used John chapter 3 quite
a bit, he started talking about the issue of repentance. And
what he said, I do not preach, is I do not preach repentance
as a prerequisite, that was his word, to enter salvation. That's the way he put it. Repentance
is the prerequisite to inner salvation. Now, you know what
a prerequisite is. It's a precondition. It's a condition, it's a qualification
that we must meet in order to attain a desired goal or something
we want. In this case, salvation. In other
words, if you want salvation, this man is saying, you have
to meet the condition. You have to meet the prerequisite. that which is required beforehand
to enter salvation, to attain that particular desire or goal.
And so I began writing him back because the Bible tells us, sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that's in
you with meekness and fear. And I tried to do it with meekness
and fear. But anyway, that's humility. But anyway, well, and
I started off the letter this way, you know, I introduced myself
and said some kind things and said, we need to study the Bible.
We need to get back to the Word of God. You know, so many people
who claim to be Christian, they don't study the Bible. And when
they do, they do it with the prejudices of of one who is unregenerate. We know that no one's going to
understand the scriptures until God opens their minds, opens
their hearts, opens their eyes. Isn't that right? So I wrote
back and I said, well, first of all, I do not teach that repentance
is a prerequisite to inner salvation. I don't preach that. Your pastor
doesn't preach that either. Brother Allen doesn't preach
that either. That repentance is a prerequisite to enter salvation. And the second thing I told him
is this, the reason that I don't teach that repentance is a prerequisite
for entering salvation is because it is not a prerequisite for
entering salvation. And if it is, we're all doomed. Am I right? And he quoted John chapter 3,
verse 3. In fact, he sort of messed it
up a little bit, Look here in verse 3, Jesus answered and said
unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God
certainly would include salvation. He can't see it. Now we know
that he's talking about spiritual eyes here that we don't have
by nature. Do you know that on our own, we will not even be
able to see or know or understand what it is we're to repent of? What is repentance? It's a change
of mind, isn't it? It's a change of mind that filters
down through the new heart that God gives us that results in
a change of action. Repentance is not just feeling
sorry for your sins. Even lost people sometimes feel
sorry for their sins, folks. It's a change of mind about who
God is. It's a change of mind about who
we are. And it's a change of mind concerning
how God saves sinners, who Jesus Christ is. But here's the point. And I told
this man this, I said, now you understand that the argument
here is not, does God require faith to enter heaven? The answer is yes. Does God require
repentance? The answer is yes, but not as
prerequisites, not as preconditions. Listen to this. Christ said this,
except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Is repentance
necessary? Yes, it is. Or you'll perish.
If you don't repent, you'll perish. Listen to this, John 3.36, He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. If you don't come to faith in
Christ, what does that tell you? You'll not see life, that's eternal
life. You'll not, the wrath of God
abides on you. Is faith necessary? Is repentance
necessary? Yes. In fact, faith and repentance
go together. Somebody said it's like two sides
of the same coin. And did you know this? Any repentance
that you can muster up out of your old fleshly nature before
you come to faith in Christ is legalism. And I'll tell you why
it's legalism. Because it'll drive you to seeking
and maybe finding relief and salvation somewhere other than
the sovereign grace of God in Christ. People find relief out
of all kinds of things. Some people find relief in their
decisions, in their confessions, in their baptism, in their church
going, in their tithing, in their charity. What gives you relief
from the burden of sin? Christ said, come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. What gives
you rest? Well, I made a decision when
I was 12. Is that what you get? Rest from
your sins? Oh, I joined the church. I've
never missed a Sunday. See my pen? Is that what gives
you relief and peace and rest? Confidence? My friend, that's
legalism, isn't it? That's a stench in the nostrils
of God. That's iniquity. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. I tell our folks all the time,
I don't want to end up like those fellas in Matthew 7, 21 and 23. They said, we preached in your
name. What am I doing tonight? What does brother Jim do every
Sunday and every Wednesday? What does brother Alan do every
Sunday? We preach in his name. But is that my peace and my security? The fact that I'm preaching?
No. It's the Christ who I preach.
You understand? Now that to most people is not
a big deal, but it's a big deal to us, isn't it? It means everything
to us. Well, faith in Christ, repentance,
I like to say repentance of dead works, repentance of idolatry,
are required in salvation, but not as prerequisites. But they
are required as God-given means. and ways by which he brings us
into salvation. That's what they're required
at. So I got to thinking about it. What are the prerequisites
for salvation? What are the prerequisites for
a sinner entering the kingdom of God? And I've got three. Here's number one. I want you
to turn to Romans chapter nine. Number one, the first prerequisite
is God's sovereign, electing, merciful grace before the foundation
of the world. Choosing His people unto salvation. Now you can't get any more prerequisite,
you can't get any more pre than that. That's pre-creation. Isn't it? That's in eternity,
as you say, old eternity. That's in eternity past. Look
at it in Romans chapter nine. He's talking about God's electing
grace here, folks. I tell folks in Albany all the
time who ask me about this, they say like the fellow that didn't
believe, they say, well, we don't believe in that election. I say,
well, it's in the Bible. Why do you preach election? It's
in the Bible. Do we have a choice? Would you
like your pastor to pick and choose and say, well, I'm gonna
preach this, but I'm gonna leave that out. Would you like for
him to do that? I wouldn't. Well, here it is. Verse 13, as
it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It is Jacob got what he didn't earn
and deserve, and Esau got what he did earn and deserve. That's
what that's saying, justice. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He saith to Moses,
here it is, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. There's
your prerequisite. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. And just in case you missed the
point of that, look at verse 16. So it's not of him that will. The prerequisite is not the will
of the sinner to believe or repent. That's not the prerequisite. In fact, if you believe the Bible,
you'd have to say that if God came down and gathered the whole
fallen human race and said, now it's up to you, you have the
choice, you decide whether or not you want to come to me or
not, the whole world would turn thumbs down. If God had not chosen
His people in Christ before the foundation of the world unto
salvation, none of us would choose salvation. That's what the Bible
teaches. There's none that doeth good.
There's none that seeketh after God. They've all gone out of
the way. Look here, and he says, it's
not of him that wilt, nor of him that runneth. It's not our
works. It's not our changing our course
of life. It's not even our repentance.
Because our repentance, before God brings us to know Christ,
our repentance is no good. It's just legal, legal dung in
the eyes of a holy God. It's of God that showeth mercy.
There's the prerequisite. God's sovereign mercy. Isn't
that right? God's sovereign mercy. God is
the source of salvation. Not you, not me. God is the originator
of salvation. Not you, not me. Look at John
17. This is the high priestly prayer of Christ. Listen to how
he puts it. And he speaks. of a time when
the prerequisite was set in the everlasting covenant of grace
made between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit before time,
when God chose a people in Christ and gave them to His Son. You
see, that's the prerequisite. We have to be given to Christ.
Look at John 17.1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. Isn't that clear? That's clear. We won't turn there, 2 Timothy
1, 8 and 9, Paul talks about the salvation, the gospel, the
salvation which was given us, God's elect, in Christ Jesus,
when? Before the world began. There's
your prerequisite. That's the first prerequisite.
God, the scheme, the plan, the glory of salvation was conceived
in the eternal mind of God, the Godhead, before the foundation
of the world. That's pre-everything. How long
ago did that happen? I don't know. I can't measure
it. It's eternity. But I'll tell you what, that
gives us some comfort, doesn't it? to know that we're marked
out for salvation and it doesn't have anything to do with who
we are or what we do or what we decide. It is totally a sovereign
work of God. Why did God choose me? Why did
God choose you? There was no reason in it. In
fact, there was every reason in us to damn us forever. That's
why old Newton wrote Amazing Grace. Most people who sing Amazing
Grace, it's not so amazing. It's just for people who rise
up above the crowd and show themselves to be better than the rest of
that bunch who won't repent. But that's not the case in the
Bible. That's the first prerequisite. Well, here's number two. Righteousness
had to be established. When God chose a people, He didn't
just arbitrarily choose a people without anything else in His
mind. He chose His people in Christ. Look at Ephesians chapter
1. You see, God is a just God, folks. And I want to tell you something.
This modern day false gospel that places salvation conditioned
on the sinner, they have lost sight of the fact that God is
a just God and He must be just. Listen, I heard a man say one
time that God didn't have to send Christ to die for our sins,
He could have just snapped His fingers and redeemed us. That's
a lie! You see, God is going to be glorified
in the salvation of His people. That means every attribute of
His nature, His character, who He is, is going to be honored.
He's going to be manifested, working consistently together,
and His highest glory, that you see His highest honor, is in
the salvation of a sinner through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what the Bible says?
It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell,
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are what? Complete in Him. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. Now when did that take place? And doesn't it say all
spiritual blessings there? It doesn't just say some of them
and it didn't say any spiritual blessing if you'll do your part.
Does it? No. All spiritual blessings.
Doesn't that include faith in Christ? Doesn't that include
repentance? Includes everything. And how
did that happen? Verse 4, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. You see, we've got
to be set apart and made blameless before God in love. Now, people
talk a lot about the love of God, but God's love without God's
justice is empty. See, He chose us before the foundation
to be holy. That means to be separated out.
sanctified and without blame. Now, how am I going to be without
blame? I'm a sinner. How about you? How are we going
to stand before God and be without blame? Somebody said, well, we're
saved by grace. We are, but God actually looks
upon his people and declares them and beholds them as blameless. Now, how's that possible? Well,
before him in love, look at verse five, having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of
the glory of his grace. Now here's the key, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the Beloved. It's only as we stand
in Christ. Now what did Christ have to do
to make us holy and without blame before God in love? Look at verse
7. In whom we have redemption through what? His blood. He had
to die. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. You see, here's the prerequisite.
God had to choose a people in Christ. Christ had to come and
become incarnate, the Word made flesh, dwelling among us. He
had to keep the law perfectly, without blame. He did. He came as the surety of His
people. That means all the responsibility
of our salvation, of our sin debt, was imputed, charged, accounted
to Him. That's what it means when it
says He was made sin. And He had to, as our surety,
He had to come and pay the debt as our substitute. He had to
take our place under the wrath of His Father as a guilty person. And He was guilty, literally,
legally guilty. Why? Because He was made a sinner?
No, because He was made sin. Our sins were laid upon Him.
He bore our iniquities. Our sins were imputed to Him.
He's our surety. And all the conditions and all
the prerequisites of our salvation were placed upon His shoulder.
That's what Isaiah 9-6 means when it says the government was
on His shoulder. The weight of the government
of grace was squarely on the shoulders of the God-man. Aren't you glad? And what did he do? He suffered
unto death, even the death of the cross, shedding his blood
to put away our sins, to purge our sins away, washed in the
blood. That's what that means. That's
not talking about the baptistry, it's talking about the cross.
The enmity that God had toward his people was totally removed
by Christ on the cross. He died the death that we deserved
and earned. And out of His death, remember
He was buried and what happened? He was raised again the third
day because of our justification. Because of righteousness established
by the cross. That's the prerequisite. Romans
5.21 says that as sin has reigned unto death, that means sin demands
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. How can God literally, really,
and legally look at me as sinner and declare me righteous, not
guilty. It's only as I stand in Christ,
washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness imputed.
And here's what it says, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father.
You see, my believing is not my righteousness. But I believe
in Christ who is my righteousness. Now to most people, that's not
such a big deal. But to us, it's everything, isn't
it? My repentance is not my righteousness. I repent of ever thinking that
anything or anyone could be righteous for me. except Jesus Christ,
the Lord my righteousness. You see that? Nothing I do, nothing
I stop doing, and listen to this now, nothing that the Holy Spirit
enables me to do makes me righteous before God. It's totally, you see this is
what sets Christianity apart from all false religions. It's
totally, 100%, a work done for me by the God-man, by Christ. Now that's what the Bible means
when it says Christ is all. That's not just some emotional
poetic thing that gives you tingles. It may give you tingles, that's
okay. But it means something. It means He, Jesus paid it all. all the debt I owe. God didn't
enable me to pay it. But He enabled me to see that
Christ paid it. Righteousness has to be established. And it was on that cross when
He died for my sins. And that was so sure and certain
to happen in time according to God's sovereign, merciful will. that He even justified the Old
Testament saints based upon that same righteousness before it
actually happened in time. And you know how that could be?
Because all the promises of God in Christ are yea and in Him,
amen. That's the second prerequisite.
Here's the third one. Turn to John 3. Finally get to
John 3. Now I'll start my message. I
just wanted to wake you up. Here's the third prerequisite.
John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the king. There's the prerequisite. You
see, Christ's righteousness, now listen to this. And I've
been trying to emphasize this in messages recently. It's what
I was taught when I first come here to 13th Street Baptist Church,
when I was in the preacher school back in the early 80s with Brother
Mahan, and this was just drummed into our minds. I remember, Jim,
one of the first books we went through, we went through the
two-volume set of John Gill's Body of Divinity, and boy, it
was all the way through this. Now, here's what it is. Christ's
righteousness imputed is the only ground of salvation, but
it's more than that. Well, what more is it? It's the
source of spiritual life. You see, you cannot have spiritual
life, salvation, where sin is charged. Because that's death,
isn't it? You've got to have righteousness.
Now, when we turn to Romans 8.10, it makes this statement. This
body, and it's talking about, I believe, this physical body,
the body is dead because of sin. That's why we're all getting
older. That's why we get sick. That's why we're going to, like
Brother Charlie, die and go on to be with the Lord. This body
is dead because of sin. We see it every day. We feel
it every day. Young people think they're going to live forever.
They're not. This body, But the Spirit is life. Now that's spiritual
life given in the new birth because of righteousness. You see what
he's saying there? It's because that Christ established
righteousness that God's elect are born again by the Spirit
and given spiritual life. You see that? Because without
it, there is no spiritual life. It's the source of spiritual
life. Well, think about it this way. God's Word teaches us. I
wrote this man these things. I said, God's Word teaches us
that we all fell in Adam, ruined by the fall, and thereby are
born spiritually dead. Is that right? Why do we have
to be born again? Because our first birth was in
death. Now, what is spiritual death?
Well, it's the absence of spiritual life. And you know what I believe
the main evidence in the Bible of spiritual death is? It's ignorance
of and unwillingness to submit to God's way of salvation, unbelief. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, They're
spiritually discerned. And I told that man, I was writing
this, I said, do you believe this? What is the natural man? He must not think he's a natural
man, whatever that is. That's all of us by nature, isn't
it? Unregenerate, as we're born in Adam, ruined by the fall.
If left to ourselves, we receive not the things of the Spirit
of God. Apart from the new birth, we cannot see the kingdom. We cannot see the true and living
God. We cannot see ourselves as we
really are, totally depraved. We cannot see the reality of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We can't even
see what it is we're to repent of. Apart from the new birth,
we cannot see the holiness and justice of God against us. You
know, when God, the Holy Spirit, when we're born again, He gives
us eyes to see. Remember He told the disciples
that, blessed are your eyes, they see. Blessed are your ears,
for they hear. Jeremiah 31, He told the unbelieving Jews under
the old covenant, He said, here's the way it is today, you all
break the covenant, but He says there's coming a time when it's
not going to be that way because the new covenant, they're not
going to break it. He said, I'm going to give them a new heart.
What is the heart? It's the mind, the affections,
the will, the conscience. What is the new heart? It's the
heart that's been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's
the new birth. And we can't see that until we're
born again. Apart from the new birth, we
cannot see God's way of salvation in Christ by His grace. The Bible
teaches that if left to ourselves, our own wills, our own choices
as to whether or not to believe or repent, we would all refuse.
Now why would we refuse? Because by nature we hate the
light that exposes our darkness, John chapter 3. Our natural state
is that of being spiritually dead. We must be born again.
There's the prerequisite. You've got to be born again.
And the old writers used to talk about the new birth spiritual
life. They called it this and I like this. It's the resurrection
life of Christ imparted. That's what's imparted. Righteousness
is not imparted, but the resurrection life of Christ is imparted whereby
we have knowledge taught by God. He said, you, they'll all know
me from the least of them to the greatest. They know what
he said. It's a desire, new desires. Desire to look to Him as the
author and finisher of our faith. Look over at John chapter one.
See, this is the new birth. And how does the new birth come
about? Look at John chapter one, look at verse 11. John 1, 11, it says, he came
into his own and his own received him not. Now that's a good description
of all mankind by nature. Verse 12, but as many as received
him. Oh, somebody's received him. As many as received him, to them
gave he the power. Now the word power there means
the right or the privilege to become the sons of God. If you
claim to be a child of God, what right do you have to make that
claim? What right do I have to make that claim? Well, even to
them that what? Believe on his name. What is
His name? It's that which identifies and
distinguishes Him as the one true Savior of sinners. His glorious
person, God-man, God in human flesh, God with us, and His successful,
finished, redemptive work on the cross to ensure and secure
the salvation of all for whom He died and was buried and rose
again. And it says in verse 13, which
were born, not of blood, not of pedigree, nor the will of
the flesh, I believe that's the works of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but born of God. You see that? Now let me conclude with this.
Now God's Word teaches. that both faith and repentance
are required as they are both gifts of God's grace, not the
product of man's so-called goodness or free will, but they are gifts
of God's grace given to us by the Spirit from Christ in the
new birth. They both proceed from the prerequisite
provided by God, the new heart, new life, the new creation. Neither faith nor repentance
are natural to any of us. They're miraculous. You know,
a sinner saved by grace, a believer, is a walking, talking miracle
of God's power and grace. You know, when we're born again,
it's a literal resurrection from the dead. Raised from the dead
spiritually. Now, I told this man this in
conclusion. When you make repentance, or
faith, or any other grace or gift of the Spirit, the prerequisite
for entering salvation, or a condition we must meet in order to attain
salvation, you make it a work. One of the things he told me,
he said, now you see there, he said, repentance is not a work,
but it is a prerequisite to enter salvation. Well, he just made
it a work. Those who are saved enter salvation by the grace
of God through the work of Christ. Christ's work on the cross to
justify us and His work in the new birth to sanctify us, His
righteousness is the ground. And neither faith nor repentance
are prerequisites for entering salvation, but both are God-given
means and instruments by which God's people are brought in to
the salvation that he freely and fully, graciously gives. No, you're not going to be saved
without faith, nobody is. You're not going to be saved
without repenting, nobody is. But I'll tell you this much,
if you ever come to believe and repent, you'll know, you'll know
that salvation is all of the Lord. And none of it of you or
me. All right, Brother Jeff. if you would turn with me to
page 340. 340, Nearer Still Nearer. Stand and we'll close out this
evening by singing this. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to
thy love. my savior so precious thou art. Hold me, O hold me close to thy
breast. Shelter me safe in that haven we say, we have taken our place. Nearer, still nearer, love's
benign trace. me. me. me. still. All is calm, all is bright.