Let's open our Bibles to Acts
chapter 11. The book of Acts. And we're going to chapter 11. This is just where we're going
to start. I've got just one statement I'd
like to read to you. It is at the end of verse 26. Acts 11, 26. The last sentence
of the verse says, and the disciples were called Christians first
in Antioch. Well, this is the subject I'm
going to try to deal with today. What is a Christian? And if God the Spirit would enable
me to do this, To answer this from the Word of God, at the
end of the message then I'm going to ask you this, are you a Christian?
What is a Christian? And are you a Christian? You
know the Word is only found three times in the New Testament. It is obviously here in chapter
11 verse 26. It's also found Later in the book of Acts, when
Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. That's Acts 26 and 28. And then
over in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 16, this is what Peter
says, if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. Now, what is a Christian? There's no question about the
fact that there's a lot of fuzzy thinking on this subject. No
doubt about that. I know lots of people believe
we live in a Christian country. I've heard it said we need to
go back to being a Christian nation the way we used to be,
but actually this has never been a Christian nation. I know there was a time when
our leaders and folks in this country seemed to have a greater
respect for God, a greater fear of God than is seen now, but
most of them weren't Christians. church, those early fathers,
founding fathers of our nation, they weren't Christians. I know for a lot of people, and
this is what you hear in society, they say a Christian is anybody
who's not a Muslim or a Jew or an atheist. If you're not one
of those, then you must be a Christian. To others, a Christian is somebody
who they got sprinkled as an infant, and when they're about
12 years old, they get confirmed in whatever church, whatever
denomination they are at age 12 or so, whenever, and then
they become a Christian. To other people, a Christian
is somebody who lives by the golden rule. tries to be a good
person, nice and decent, that sort of thing. Others believe
a Christian is somebody who's walked the aisle and made a positive
decision that they wanted to go to heaven when they died and
they don't want to go to hell. Others say a Christian is somebody
who's changed their outward life They've given up some bad habits
and they've taken on some good habits. Try to live right. Treat other
people right. What is a Christian? We've got
so many voices out here telling us what a Christian is. I think
maybe we need to listen to the voice of God. Let's hear what
God has to say on this subject. And that should, we need to turn
a deaf ear to every other definition of what a Christian is, pay attention
to what God has to say. Now as far as the word Christian
is concerned, obviously it means a follower of Christ. A follower
of the anointed one. The follower of the Messiah.
But even that's not an adequate answer. So let's answer the question
from the Word of God. God help you to listen, because
I'll tell you this. If you die without becoming a
Christian, it would have been better if you had never been
born. That's just so. If you die without being a Christian,
it would have been better if you had never made your mom and
daddy happy by being born into this world if you don't become
a Christian. I'm going to be simple. I want
the young people to be able to grasp what I'm saying, at least
the words that I'm using. We know only the Spirit of God
can take it home to the heart. But let's not muddle the subject. Let's not muddy the waters. Let's
just be honest, straightforward. I'll give you four things. You follow with me and see if
it isn't right. What is a Christian? Number one. Number one, a Christian
is somebody who has honestly, this is from the Word of God,
they face the issue of who God is. That's who a Christian is. They've honestly, from the Word
of God, they face this issue. Who is God? You see, God's not like we think
He is. God's not like we imagine He
is. God is who He says He is. And
in this religious age in which we're living, people bring God
down. Preachers, you listen to them,
they bring God down, make God be less than He is. You cannot
be a Christian unless you've got an accurate view of who God
is. That's just the way it is. If the God you worship, if He
can't do what He wants to do, If He wants to make everybody
wealthy and everybody healthy, if He's got some designs for
you that will never come to pass because you won't let Him, you're
not a Christian because number one, your view of God is all
wrong. This is where it starts. As a
matter of what is a Christian, it doesn't start with us, it
always starts with God. Everything begins and ends with
God. The Bible begins with God. In
the beginning, God. Not in the beginning, you. Not
in the beginning, the devil. Not in the beginning, man became
a sinner. But in the beginning, God created. Everything begins with God. Right
doctrine begins with God. In this matter of Christianity,
it begins with God. It begins with God. Number one,
God is a God of purpose. The Bible says, to everything
there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. Isaiah chapter 14, the Lord has
sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to
pass, and so as I have purposed, so it shall stand. Isaiah 14,
26, this is the purpose of Him that purposed, upon all the earth. This is the hand that is stretched
out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out, and
who shall turn it back?" Isaiah 46, God declares the end from
the beginning. from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure, I've spoken it, I will also bring it to pass,
I've purposed, I will also do it. We make our plans, we say
what we're going to do, I'm going to do this tomorrow, I'm going
to do that tomorrow, but things interfere with our designs and
they don't come to pass. But what God has purposed always
comes to pass. That's the God of the Bible.
This is the God we've got to realize is the God of truth. He's the God of salvation. There
is no Christianity unless we start right here. God is the
God of purpose. He's the God who does what He
wants to do. You ask most any little child
whose mind has not already been corrupted by free will, Arminian
religion, you ask them, what can God do? And they'll say,
He can do anything He wants to do. He can do anything He wants
to do. And that's exactly right. Out
of the mouth of babes and infants. That's the truth. Nothing unforeseen ever happens
with God. Ephesians 1.11 says, "...in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will." You got up this morning, there were several
things you wanted to do today. Maybe they'll be done, maybe
they won't be done. You do lack the ability to do
anything that you want to do, but God doesn't lack that ability.
God has all power. God has all dominion. God's eternal
purpose extends to everything. He can't be defeated. Even man's
actions are under the authority of God. Even man's vile actions
are under the authority of God. The most vile thing that's ever
happened in this world is the murder of the Son of God. The
Lord Jesus, He came into this world. He came to give His life
a ransom for many. But God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. And what did the world do? The
world of unbelief, the world of ungodliness. What did the
world do? All the world said, we won't
have this man rule over us. Therefore, they nailed him to
a tree. But that was according to the
purpose of God. Because all the Gentiles and
the Jews, they with Pontius Pilate and Herod, they gathered together
to do whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel before determined
to be done. God's purpose can't be defeated. I'm saying this, if your idea
of God is He wants to do some things but He can't do them,
His will is easily resisted, then your idea of God is altogether
wrong. You can't be a Christian. You can't be a Christian. Not
believing that God is helpless. Not believing that God can't
do what He wants to do. Because your view of God is wrong. You have lowered God. You have
brought God down. And if there's anything this
religious generation is guilty of, if there's anything the preachers
of this nation, most of them are guilty of is this, they brought
God down from His throne and they've been lifting men up.
That won't work. That is not Christianity. That is absolute paganism. That's heresy. God of the Bible
is the God who does all His pleasure. That's what He said. That's what
He said. And I'll tell you something else,
God is holy. Who is likened to Thee, O Lord,
among the gods, glorious in holiness, Exodus 15, 11. That's the most
sparkling jewel in Jehovah's crown. It's more than an attribute,
that's His very character. It's His very nature. It's that
quality of God that sets forth His purity and the virtue of
His divine nature. He's without spot. He's without
stain. He's without blemish. He can't
be polluted by sin. He loves righteousness. He hates
evil. Thou art a purer eyes. This is what Habakkuk said. Thou
art a purer eyes than to behold evil and cast not look on iniquity. God demands perfection and He
will not accept anything less than perfection. He will not. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Leviticus 22, 21. He's so holy
that the heavens aren't pure in His sight. He's so holy, He
charges His angels with folly. And I'll tell you something else.
God is sovereign. His sovereignty is absolute,
irresistible, and infinite. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what He did in heaven, on earth, in the seas, and in
all deep places. He does what He wants to do and
He doesn't answer to anybody. We all answer to somebody. We
answer to the government. We answer to law enforcement.
We answer to our families. And in all things, we answer
to God. But God doesn't answer to anybody.
He doesn't answer to anybody. What he does is right because
he's God. And he can do anything he wants
to do. But he can't go against his own holy character. We read he is the potter, we're
the clay. He molds everyone into whatever
it is that will fulfill his eternal purpose. He made you. He's provided for you. He made
you as you are. He gave you your IQ. He gave you whatever possessions
He's given to you. Whatever measure of understanding
and intelligence, He gave that to you. He made you. He's provided
for you according to His own goodwill and pleasure. He makes
some people rich and other people, they remain in poverty. He puts
some people in a position where they'll go up the ladder of success. He puts other people in positions
where they'll stay mired up, mired up in absolute poverty
all the days of their lives. Who maketh you to differ from
another? That's what the Apostle Paul
asks in 1 Corinthians 4. Why is it that you are here this
morning in your right mind, you're clothed, and you have some wisdom,
you have some understanding, and you have things that God
has given you? When other people, lots of people
are not in their right mind. What about folks that are severely
mentally handicapped? And here you are, God's made
you different. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? This is all God's doings. And everybody that God makes,
whatever level of intelligence, He makes them according to His
will to fulfill His purpose. God is sovereign in the spiritual
realm. He shows mercy to whom He will
show mercy. He showed mercy to Israel, not
to Egypt. To Moses, not to Pharaoh. Why
is that? Why did God love Jacob and hate
Esau? Why is that? That's His sovereign
right. That's why. If that's not the God you believe,
you don't know the very first thing about Christianity. You
have not got the number one yet. If you don't know who God is,
And that is the absolute charge that I level against most of
the preachers and most of the so-called Christians in our country
and in the world today. They are absolutely ignorant
of God. Ignorant reigns throughout the
world concerning God. Oh Lord, enlighten us as to who
You are. I'll tell you something else,
God is just. And because He's just, He will
and He must punish sin. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Nahum 1 verse 2, God is jealous
and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on His adversaries. He reserveth wrath for His enemies. He reserveth wrath for His enemies. And if you look at that passage
of Scripture, you'll see the word wrath is italicized, which
means it was inserted by our translators, because what He
reserves for His enemies is inconceivable and inexpressible. They just
use the word wrath, but really it can't even be expressed. What
God has reserved for His enemies. I'll give you some idea of what
God has reserved for His enemies. When our Lord Jesus died on the
cross bearing the sins that were not His own except amputation,
He cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Wrath,
holiness, vengeance, And if God's wrath caused him
to cry out that, how will a sinner ever endure his wrath? And yet
you'll have to. And God will miraculously preserve
every object of his vengeance. And he'll preserve them forever
in order to just heap on them more coals of wrath. There's
only one death that fully atoned for sin. That's the death of
the Son of God. That's the only blood that could
ever wash it away. Your blood won't do it. Suffering
a million years in hell won't do it. Just the suffering of
the Lamb of God to do it for His people. And thank God He's gracious and
merciful and forgiving. I'm asking you, have you ever
honestly and from the Word of God considered who God is? This is the God with whom we
have to do. Not a make-believe God who's
a sort of Santa Claus in the sky who wants you to have all
of these things and He wants to do good things for you if
you just let Him. This is the God who demands of
you, be ye holy for I am holy. You best set yourself to finding
out who this God is. Because I'll tell you, when you
face Him, if you're not altogether holy, He's going to say, depart
from me, I never knew you. You'll hear those words. What
is a Christian? It's somebody who's come face
to face and honestly considered this issue of God. Who got it? Number two. A Christian is somebody
who has honestly, from the Word of God, faced the issue of the
personal problem of sin. And it is a personal problem
of sin. You know what Christianity is?
It's the religion of sinners. It's for sinners. That's who
it's for. Our Lord Jesus came to save sinners. He called Matthew
unto Himself, and the Pharisees, they kind of made light of Him,
you know. He said, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. They said, we be not sinners.
They said, this man eateth and drinketh with sinners. Well,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm
chief. Have you ever really faced the
issue of your personal guilt? Your personal sin. Not the sins
of society, not social sins. Say, oh, I tell you, this world
is in bad shape. You're in bad shape. You see,
it's so easy to say, oh, society sins. Oh, the social evils of
the day. But this matter of being a Christian
involves a recognition of personal guilt. Now our sin and its consequences
have many results, but the essence of it is threefold. Watch this. Number one, we have a bad disease
and we can't produce a cure for it. We've got a bad disease and
we can't produce a cure for it. Sin is like a cancer. It's like
a leprosy. And all are infected. I know
the disease isn't quite so obvious in some, while in others it's
easier to see. But all are infected. Isaiah
wrote, I taught, we're teaching a few lessons out of the book
of Isaiah, and our very first lesson in Isaiah said Isaiah
addressed three things. In his book, he addresses three
things. He addresses Israel's idolatry, Israel's ignorance and Israel's
iniquities. I've alliterated those to make
it easy for people to remember. That's what he addresses. That's
what he preaches against. He raises the issues. These are
the three issues. Israel's idolatry, ignorance
and iniquities. And he begins by saying the whole
head is sick. The whole heart is faint. And this disease, this bad disease,
if it goes untreated, if you're not cured of it, you know what
the Bible says, sin when it's finished, what does it bring
forth? Death. That's it. Sin when it's
finished, it brings forth death. Not life, but death. It's already
brought forth spiritual death. For all of us, very soon it will
bring forth physical death. And if we are outside of Jesus
Christ, then there is going to be eternal death. We have a bad
disease, we can't produce a cure for it. Can the Ethiopian change
his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
Then may you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. We
got a bad disease and cannot produce a cure for it. Number
two, we got a bad record and we can't
get rid of it. I got a bad record. Can't get
rid of it. What is sin anyway? I know we think we know, but
the Bible defines it. Sin is the transgression of God's
law. It's the failure to be perfect. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. You see, the law of God examines
us. It not only examines what we
do, but it examines why we do it. That's why Christ said to
look on somebody to desire them, that's adultery. That's adultery. And he says, the anger with somebody,
that's murder. That's murder. I'm looking in
the faces of adulterers and murderers. There's no question about it.
That's what the Lord said. Well, I've never done anything
like that. You thought it. You thought it. You see, our
Lord, He gives an accurate understanding of what it is to violate God's
law. You're guilty in the court of
heaven. And here's the thing. Sins are
recorded. Sins are recorded. It goes in
a book. In the books of God, you've got
a bad record. You've got a bad record. Oh,
you've forgotten what you've done, what you thought, and of
course, most of your sins, you didn't even know you were sinning
anyway. But oh, they're going down in the record. You got a
bad record and you can't get rid of it. You can't purge the
record. You can't purge the record. At
the judgment read, the books were opened. The dead were judged
out of those things that were written in the books. We got
a bad disease and we can't produce a cure for it. We got a bad record
and can't get rid of it. We got a bad record due to the
fact we had a bad beginning. In the court of God, in the record
of God, we are guilty of Adam's transgression. For as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all sin in Adam. You sinner, due to Adam's transgression. That's in the record. So I don't
think that's fair. It don't make any difference
what you think. Your estimation of some being
not fair, your estimation is no good. God says you're guilty
by imputation. Adam sins charge to you. Like
it or not, you're born a sinner. You don't become a sinner when
you sin. You sin because you're born a
sinner. You're an offspring of Adam. Adam was your federal head. He's your representative. Well,
I don't like that. Well, you better like that because
as we fail through a representative, God saves us through another
representative. And that other representative,
he's the Lord from heaven. He's the man Christ Jesus. And I tell you, we've got a bad
record due to our own personal guilt. Not only for us and Adam
all die, but we are sinners because of personal guilt, personal transgression,
personal violations of the law of God, personal unbelief, personal
vileness. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. There is none righteous, no not
one. There is none that seeketh after
God. You and I are sinners not because we feel like we are,
but because God says we are. Now let me ask you a question. Is there anybody here, in and
of yourself now, is there anybody here that can honestly, according
to the Word of God, say, my record is pure? Ain't nothing in the
books of me. I mean, I'm talking about in
and of yourself. There's nothing recorded against me, preacher.
I've always been perfect. Well, you are an absolute fool
if you say that. You are a fool. We sin so much we don't even
know how much we sin. We just are sin. We are sin. Anything done for personal glory
and not for the glory of God is sin. Your record is impure. You got
a bad record, you can't get rid of it. You can't expunge it.
Oh, if I could just erase the record. Got a bad disease, can't cure
it. Got a bad record, can't get rid
of it. And number three, we got a bad
heart, can't change it. Boy, we're in bad shape, aren't
we? Got a bad heart, can't change it. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Some of you
will remember years ago there was a commercial. A teenage boy walked down the
street and there was a car parked there and he tried the door handle
and the door handle was unlocked. He went in and then the caption
said, don't help a good boy go bad, lock your doors. Wait a
minute. If he had been a good boy, he
wouldn't have done that anyhow. He wasn't a good boy. There are
no good boys. Not before God. There are no good girls. Hey,
the Bible says we came forth from the womb speaking lies.
David says, I conceived in sin. I was conceived in wickedness.
In sin did my mother conceive me. In other words, when I come
out of the womb, I come out as a sinner. We got a bad disease,
got a bad record, got a bad heart. A bad heart. The Lord says what
you're putting into your body is not your problem, it's what's
coming out of it. Ah, this is personal sin, personal
guilt. You ever dealt with it? And I'm not saying that how much
you have to feel your guilt, I'm not going to get into that,
but does it ever bother you? I mean, really bother you? Has
it ever kept you awake at night? Man, I'm personally guilty before
God. That troubles me. Troubles me. It's not about social evil. I
know perverseness is out there. Homosexuality has run rampant. They throw it, try to throw it
in our faces all the time on television. It's nauseating. Please don't become insensitive
to this. Sodomy is awful crime against
God. It's terrible crime. But the
social ills and the societal sins, that's one thing, but we're
talking about personal guilt. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. That's what that publican there
in the book of Luke said. I'm the sinner. Be merciful to
me. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. You know, he
didn't even say, Lord, this old self-righteous Pharisee, look
at this guy. He didn't even say anything about
him. He said, it's me, it's me. It's not somebody else. It's
not the national sins, the world sins, society sins, social sins. It's me, oh God. I got a disease
and I can't cure it. I got a record and I can't expunge
it. I got a bad heart and I can't
get another one. It's me. That's personal guilt. I'll tell you something. What
is a Christian? He's got a right view of God. He's got a right to yourself.
That's right. That publican said, be merciful
to me. I said, be propitious on account
of the blood. Here's the third thing. A Christian
is somebody who has honestly, from the Word of God, seriously
considered the only remedy for sin. Such is our condition, it's needless
to talk about self-help. If you go to these Christian
bookstores, they got lots of self-help books. They can't help
you. They can't help you. Because by nature, we're rotten
before a holy God. We got a bad disease, we got
a bad record, got a bad heart. It don't matter who you're talking
about. I'm talking about from the most upstanding, outstanding,
moral person in this congregation to the vilest person. Maybe there's somebody outwardly
wicked. I don't know your lifestyle. But we're all vile before God. That's the thing of it. It isn't
just the outward deeds. I mean, outward deeds are bad.
I certainly wouldn't make light of that. But outward deeds are
done because of inward rottenness. It just expresses itself. And
if you haven't expressed your rottenness and your defilement
to the degree of somebody else, thank God for His restraining
mercies. He hasn't given to you that freedom
to express or give vent to your depravity. So if you hadn't done
what somebody else has done, it's not because you're better,
it's only because God said, whoa, wait a minute. I'm not going
to let you do that. That's the only difference. We're sinners before God. Here's
the remedy. And I'll give you two things.
The only remedy for sin, now get this, is bound up in a person. The only remedy for sin is bound
up in a person. And that person is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not bound up in a set of
laws. It's not bound up in changing your ways. It's not bound up
in deciding to be a better person. There's only one person that
can do you any good. That's the Lord of Glory who
came down here to save sinners by the sacrifice of Himself.
His name is Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
God gave His Son. God gave His Son. The sinless,
spotless Lamb of God made under the Law to redeem them that were
under the Law. The Law of God pronounced us
guilty! Guilty! You've got a disease,
you can't cure it, you've got a bad record! That's what the
Law of God says. You're guilty! You've got a bad
heart, you're guilty! You can't change it. Christ Jesus
came into this world, perfect, pure, matchless Son of God. Christ the Lord. Now here's the second thing.
I said first thing is the only remedy for sin is bound up in
a person. Here's the second thing. The
only remedy for sin is bound up in a person and his sacrifice
for sin. Because that sacrifice satisfies
the demands of God. Remember, we started with God.
God's got to be satisfied. God's law's got to be satisfied.
God said, I'm a jealous God. I'm going to punish iniquity.
I'm going to pour out my vengeance. Somebody's got to suffer, bleed,
and die on account of sin. The only remedy for sin is bound
up in the person and the work, the sacrifice, the sin offering
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of death did he die?
A death of substitution. He did this. He did this for
his chosen people. Get this. He took our bad record. He took our bad record. He took
it all. All those sins that we hadn't
even committed yet, but God knew them all. He said, you just charge
them to my account. I'll take his record. That vile
record. Oh Lord, my record? Of my corrupt
thoughts? My impure motives? You can talk about what we do
and what we say and what we think. We're guilty on this part. Our
motives are wrong. It isn't just what you do, it's
why you do it. What an awful record. And the
Lord Jesus Christ says, I'll take that book. And all the records
of all the sins of my people, I'll take that. Just put that
to my account. And His beauties. His perfection. His obedience. Written in the
record of God. He says, now it's yours. That's your record now! I'll
take your record! You get my record. What an exchange. I tell you, if God hadn't said
it, it would almost be too good to be true, but this is the freeness
of salvation. It's all bound up in the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took us off the record. And by His death, He cured us. His blood is the remedy. I got
this awful disease. He can't get rid of it. But by
His stripes we're healed. And my record? Oh, my record
now? You see, He not only took my
record of sinfulness, but He said, here's my record of righteousness. And this is yours. The book of
God is open. James Ferguson Byrd. Perfect
righteousness. Lord, can it be? Can it be? Oh, it's the truth. For He hath
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. This remedy is bound up in a
person and his work. Now, let me give you this last
thing. Here's the last point. I said four points. A Christian
is somebody who has honestly, from the Word of God, obeyed
the Gospel commands. You say, what's that? Repent
and believe. You say, we can't do that. Well,
so it starts with this. We obey them because we've been
born again. been born in the Spirit. Have
you ever heard the expression, and I know you've heard this
expression, oh, he's a born again Christian. As if there's some
other kind. That's the only kind. That's
like saying, he's a praying Christian. Well, all Christians pray. Well,
he's a giving Christian. All Christians give. Well, you
know, he's a real loving Christian. All Christians love. And when it comes to this, All Christians have been born
again by the Spirit. Born again by the will of God.
Born again by the power of His Spirit through the Word of God.
And therefore, a Christian is someone who has honestly repented. What does that mean? Did an about
face. That's what it means. You turned around. He turns you. It says of people of Thessalonica,
they turn from their idols to serve the living God. They were
worshiping this whatever kind of idol. Anything is an idol
that is not God. Right? You can describe it any
way you want to. Some you are devoted to, love
more than the Lord. It is an idol. Turn from your
idol. That's repentance. You turn from
dead works. What are dead works? Works that
are done in the flesh that you rely on. You say, well, surely
the more I do for God, the more I'll get from God. You better
repent of that now. You better turn. That's not the
way of grace. God's going to have to turn you.
That's where he said, nothing in my hands I bring. I don't
bring anything. cling to the cross of Christ
Jesus is repentance. That's a gospel commandment.
Except you repent, you'll all likewise perish. And that's still
true today, isn't it? That hadn't changed. If we say
to people, listen, there's absolutely nothing now that you need to
get involved with. You don't have to be concerned
about because God's ordained everything and there's no need
for you to be concerned at all about your salvation. No need
to seek the Lord. We're not honest with people
when we say that. God is sovereign and He will
do His will. But whatever His sovereign will
is, I know what my responsibility is. If you don't repent, if I
don't repent, I'm going to perish just like others who perish who
don't repent. Whatever God's eternal purpose
is. Anybody in here believes in God's
eternal purpose any more than I do. And also, I believe we
are responsible to this God who is sovereign. We are responsible
to do what He tells us to do. And I pray to God He will give
us the ability to do what He tells us to do. Because if He
doesn't, we can't do it. Is that right? If He doesn't
give us the ability, we can't do it. Repentance is a gift of
God and faith is a gift of God. Faith. A Christian is someone
who is honestly, according to the Word of God, believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It's ceasing
to trust anything or anybody else for salvation except Jesus
Christ the Lord and His redeeming work. That's it. To trust His blood to wash your
sins away. Trust His righteousness alone
that justifies you before God. And I'll say this about repentance
and faith. They have a beginning. But they
don't have an end in this life. Isn't that right? They have a
beginning, but they don't have an end in this life. Faith is
not a one time thing. I have come, I am coming, I shall
continue to come to Christ. I have turned from everything
else to the Lord. I'm still turning from everything
else. I'm still repenting. Well, that's it. That's it. A Christian is someone who has
honestly faced the issue of who God is. They've honestly faced
the issue of personal sin, the personal problem of sin. They've
honestly, according to the Word of God, faced the issue of the
only remedy for sin. They've honestly, according to
the Word of God, obeyed the Gospel commands. Now, I'm going to ask
you this question. Are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? And by the witness of the Spirit,
by the grace of God, you know what I say? I am. I am. I am a Christian. Oh God, deal
with us in mercy. For Christ's sake, for His glory,
for our good. Well, let's sing a hymn.