of grace. I'm going to read one
verse of Scripture here in Job 19, verse 28. And I hope the Lord will be pleased
to enable me to say a few things. And Job's doing the talking here. He's saying, and you should say,
this is what you should say, why persecute we him? You know,
build ad, so far, and Elihu, and he said, but you should say,
you should say this to yourself, why persecute we him? Seeing
the root of the matter is found in me. Why do you persecute me
when you know the root of the matter is in me? And in the margin,
it says, seeing and that what the root of the
matter is found in me, and the root of the matter is found in
me. And we often say, let's get to the bottom of this problem.
Let's get to the root of this problem. Let's get to the root
of this matter. And that means the beginning. Let's get back
down to where it's really at. The root of the problem. And
roots are so necessary so necessary in so many ways. In fact, they
said our Lord Jesus Christ shall grow as a root out of dry ground
and shall grow up before Him as a tender and a comely plant.
And He's the root and the offspring of David. He's the beginning
of even David's kingdom. And like a tree, a tree can do
without a lot of things. It can do without branches. It
can be trimmed up good, but it can't live without its roots.
Nothing can't live without its roots. Roots are essential to
life. Roots are essential to life.
If you plant a plant and if it withers, if the roots are destroyed,
it'll wither and die. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He's
the root and offspring of David. And this is the same way concerning
true Christianity. True religion, I like to call
it. True religion. And there is a true religion.
There is a true, true religion. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He talked
about there's the true grace of God wherein you stand. You've
received the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. So there is a true
religion. And just as roots are essential
to a plant, there are some things that are essential to true religion,
to man being a Christian. Some things that are absolutely
essential to it. There are some things that has
to be essential, some roots to the matter, if a man calls himself
a Christian or a believer. There's essential doctrine, there's essential experience,
and there is essential practice. All these things are certain
things that are essential to us as being believers, being
Christians. And let's deal with the first one. This root. This
root of the matter. Essential doctrine. The root
of the matter. The root of faith. Now, I tell
you, let me say this first. There are some things that are
not essential to the root of faith. There are some things
that are not essential. Prophecies, not essential. Understanding
prophecy is not essential. Understanding the deep things
of God is not essential. Chris Cunningham wrote an article
the other day, he says that, you know, a man don't have to
be really, really smart to understand the gospel, because it's a revelation. But you know, like election,
election's not essential. Believing in election is not
essential to be a believer. Election's one of the last things
that we got after we were regenerated. Election's one of the last things
we understood. Is that not right? Election is one of the last things
we've got a hold of. It's not necessary to believe
you're one of God's elect or be elect. You know about the
things about election. Very few people know about eternal
things when they're first regenerated. They're babies. They grow up.
You know election is not essential. That's not an essential doctrine.
I love it. I rejoice in it. Bruce Crabtree
preached on election, the sinner's friend, in our conference. The
perseverance of the saints. That's not absolutely necessary
for a person to believe. You know, you hear that saying,
once saved, always saved. And the way I heard it preached
most of my life, I didn't agree with it at all. Because they
said if a fellow made a profession of altar in their church or on
their altar, they could go back out in the world and they could
live there for 10 years, 5 years, 20 years, 25 years, and forget
everything about God and Christ, but it's because they saw him
make a profession. They said once they're saved,
they're always saved. But now I tell you, that's what's
called the perseverance of the saints. Saints persevere. They go through whatever they
have to go through and they persevere because God preserves them. But
perseverance is not necessary. No, no. But there's some things
that you must know that are distinct and they must be believed before
you can say you're regarded as a believer or as a Christian.
And one thing is the Trinity. You cannot be a believer and
not believe in the Trinity of God. And what I mean by that,
look with me over in 1 John 5. 1 John 5. You know, and why do I say this?
Because you know there's God the Father, there's God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost. And the doctrine of the Trinity
is necessary. And we preach the doctrine of
the Trinity all the time. And here in 1 John 5 and verse
7, look what it says. For there are three that by record
in heaven, way up there in glory, where God dwells, where Christ
dwells, where the Holy Spirit dwells, there are three that
by record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And what that means is when they're
in heaven, they bear record here on this earth to what is right,
what is true. The Father bears truth, bears
record to the truth here on this earth. The Word, the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know, that's capitalized, He is the Living Word, He's the
written Word, when it talks capitalized there, He's the Living Word,
the pre-existent Word by which God created the world and everything
in it. And watching in the Holy Ghost, He comes and brings the
things of Christ and takes the Scriptures and opens our understanding. Now listen to this, and there
are three that bear witness in the earth. And that's why they
record up there and then they come down here and bear witness.
The Spirit, the Holy Spirit bears witness to us, bears witness
to the truth, bears witness to our heart. And the water, and
the water, beloved, is not talking about baptismal water. He's talking
about the Word. The Word that washes us and cleanses
us. And the blood, that is Christ.
You see, the blood. These three agree in one. And
that's why it says that God bears record in heaven, and if we receive
the witness of men, and if we receive the preaching of men,
the witness of God, that God witnesses from heaven, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, This is the witness of God that
he testified of his son And also you got to you know, you got
to uh, I didn't say you had to understand it I can't explain
it I know there's one god, but he's in three different persons
There's one god. He's got three different offices
I can't explain that but I know that's what the scriptures teach
and let me show you you got Here's the and then all three of them
are god. Look in matthew chapter 3 And all three of them are god Do you remember when you really
realized that the Lord Jesus Christ was God Himself? That
He had a deity? That He was not just a baby in
a manger that come down here to do His best, dead level best,
to save a bunch of people? You know, He was just this little
boy Jesus and He couldn't do anything for anybody unless you
let Him? He didn't have any power, He didn't have any rights. He
was a wonderful teacher. We ought to follow His example.
And everybody that was a hippie, they would call themselves Jesus
people. You know, because Jesus wore long hair. They got these
pictures of Him with all His long hair and all that stuff. They all wanted to be like that.
They said, Oh, Bible, we've got to emulate Him and all this.
But beloved, He is God! And there's three gods, one God
and three blessed persons. Not three different gods. One
God, but he manifests himself in three different ways. And
here's how we understand that all of them are all God, all
have deity. Here's all three of them manifest
right here. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway
out of the water. He was raised back up out of
the water, raised back up. And lo, the heavens opened up
unto him. And there's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the heavens opened up to Him, and the Spirit of God descending
in the form of a dove and lighting upon Him. So there's Christ,
and there's the Spirit of God. And then a voice from heaven
saying, this is my beloved Son, and whom I will please. There's
the Son, there's the Spirit, and there's the Father. All three
of them bearing witness on this earth. To what? That they're
all God. And all three of them, and you've
got to understand this, all three of them work in our salvation.
Salvation is not done by just one, all three of them work in
our salvation. How did they do it? Well, God
the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. God the Father saved us on purpose. He chose us, separated
us from our mother's womb before we were ever born, and called
us by His blessed grace. And then the Lord, He sent His
blessed Son into this world. to bear the sins of all of His
people, to bear the sins of all of His elect, to bear the sins
of all those that the Father gave Him, and they guaranteed
that every one of them would come to Him. And then the Holy
Spirit comes, and He reveals Christ to us, and He takes the
things of Christ to us, and He makes the gospel known to us,
and He opens our hearts, He regenerates us, gives us a new heart, a new
will, makes us willing in the day of His power. And all three
of them, we pray to the Father in the name of the Holy Spirit,
and in the name of Christ, and we ask the Holy Spirit to come
be in our services. We do that every service. Oh
Father, oh God, and then Christ is called God our Savior. Why? Because He's the same as the
Father who is the Savior. Look under me and be saved all
the ends of the earth. Who said that? God did. Who's
God? God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost. They say, look unto me and be
ye saved. All the ends of the earth. And I'm not saying you've got
to understand it all. But I'm saying you believe it.
Let me tell you something else that's absolutely necessary to
doctrine. And that is the vicarious sufferings
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the vicarious sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus. And vicarious means done and suffered in the place of
somebody else. You know, you hear all the time,
you know, people live vicariously through their children. You know,
if you wanted to be a beauty queen and you couldn't be, so
you take your daughter and turn her into a beauty queen, so you
know you can live through your daughter. Or if you're not involved
in sports, and you never was good at sports, then you live
through your children through their sports. So people live
through their children. That's what it says, you know.
It's done for the others. And involve others in it. And
when we talk about the suffering and substitutionary death of
our Lord Jesus Christ, it means it was done or suffered for somebody
else. Taking the place of another.
Doing the work of another. The substitution of one for another. And that, you cannot, listen
to me, This is essential to being a believer as it is to breathe,
is to understand that Jesus Christ done the work, done the suffering,
accomplished salvation by Himself. And He did it not for Himself,
but for somebody else. He done the work for somebody
else. He lived a life for somebody else. He died for somebody else. He bore somebody else's sins,
not His own. And look what I'm telling you
over here in Isaiah 53. That's why it says, you know,
God made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the very righteousness of God in him. Oh, this is the gospel right
here. This is the gospel in Isaiah 53. You know, this is it. I never ever get tired of talking
about the substitutionary death of Christ. Of Him taking another
person's place, doing the work of another. The substitution
of one person for another. What does that mean? That God
takes somebody else and puts them in the place of somebody
else. A school teacher, she's not there,
so they have to have a substitute for her. She does the work of
the other person who's not there. She takes her place. But beloved
God put somebody, and our Lord Jesus Christ in the place of
those people that I was talking about, given to Him in a covenant
of grace. Now look what He said here in
Isaiah 53 and 3. He is despised and rejected of
men. a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised and we didn't
esteem Him. We didn't esteem the Lord Jesus
Christ. There was a time we didn't. We esteemed our own works more
than we did Christ. We esteemed our legalism more
than we did Christ. We esteemed our church going
more than we esteemed Christ. We esteemed our praying in Bible
reading more than we esteem Christ. That's how little we esteemed
Him. And then, beloved, when God opened
our hearts to the truth, watch this, surely He hath borne our
griefs. That's why He's acquainted with
griefs. And He carried our sorrows. And we said, yes, God stricken
Him. God has smitten Him. God afflicted
Him. But oh, here's why He did it.
But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we're healed. And all of us, like sheep, are
going astray. We turned every war into His
own way, and listen to this, and the Lord laid on Him, and
it says in the margin, made the iniquity of us all to meet on
Him. What does that mean? That means
that the sins of Adam, from Adam to when Christ came, to the last
saint that will be born and live on this earth, God made from
Adam all the iniquity of all his people, from Adam to the
day of the cross, and all the people from the future, that
all their iniquities, He made them all to meet on His blessed
Son. Made all our iniquities. How many of our iniquities? All
of them. All of them. And look what He said. And He
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before shears, he
is dumb, and he opened not his mouth. And look what it said
down in verse 10. This is it. Yet it pleased the Lord. And
that word pleased means to be satisfied. God didn't get no
joy out of crucifying His Son. God didn't get no joy and pleasure
out of laying on His Son the iniquity of us all. That means
that this is the way that God could be just. And it pleased
Him. It satisfied Him. The way to
honor Himself. He hath put Him to grief. And
listen to this. When thou shalt make His soul
an offering for sin. Here we go. He shall see His
seed. Whose seed? Us. Us. His elect. He shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."
Oh, the substitution of one person for another. And I tell you what,
his death was sacrificial, not for himself, but in the stead
of him. And that's what old Scott used
to say all the time. He was put there in the stead.
Have you ever seen him in your stead? Have you ever seen him
in your place? Have you ever seen Him dying
just for you and you alone? Have you ever seen your sins
upon Him? It's one thing for us to say
He laid on Him the iniquity of us all. But can you say, yes,
my iniquity was laid on Him. He bore my sin in His own body
on the tree. Yes, he took my sin. I see him there crucified for
me. I see him dying for me. That's
why Paul said, I was crucified with Christ. He finally saw that
he was identified with Christ. Before that, he was a Pharisee.
He said, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Jew above all Jews, exceeding
zealous above all the traditions of my fathers. Oh, listen, he said I had a pedigree,
I had my works, I had the rights of the law, I was blameless.
But! I count all of it dung, I count
all of it trash. Why for? Because Christ! That I may win Him. That I may
be found in Him. And I'm telling you, if you ever
see Christ dying for you, 6 o'clock in the morning one time. Years
and years and we had just moved to Tennessee. We had been here
about two years. We was living in a trailer. I
got up early one morning. Sitting at the kitchen table
looking out the window. And I began to think about my
sin in Christ, and I saw the Lord Jesus Christ bearing my
sin. I didn't see a physical Christ.
I didn't see a physical cross. I didn't see sin itself, like
it's something awful. I saw in my heart, in my soul,
in my mind, in my very soul, that the Lord Jesus Christ, He
Himself bore my sin. And I tell you what, it broke
my heart. What kind of human being must
I be that it took Christ, the Son of God, God's blessed Son,
unbozzled from His Father, the Son of His love? And how much
must He love me that He would take His own Son and take all
of my sin, all the sin that I was born with, all the sin I would
commit, and all the sin I will commit, that He bore every bit
of it. I ain't got over that yet. I ain't got over that. That's what it takes to save
a sinner. Oh, listen. That's what it means. Let me
ask you that. Have you ever seen Him in your stead? In your place? Bear your sin? Oh, I know you go to church,
and I know you pray, and I know you read your Bible, but have
you seen Christ crucified? Set Him down, they watched Him
there. Set Him down, they watched Him
there. Oh my, you have to see it for yourself. Let me tell
you another doctrine that's absolutely essential. You've got to have
the root of the matter in you. And that's justification by faith.
Justification by faith. What do I mean by that? Justification
is something that God does for us. And that's something that's done
in heaven, outside of ourselves. And justification means that
God Himself says, I justify them. I find no sin in them. I find
no guilt in them. They've obeyed the law. They've
kept the law. They're perfect. They're righteous
in every way. So I justify them. I clear them
of all guilt. I clear them of all sin. I clear
them of all charges. They're justified. They've never
done anything wrong. I've justified. And you know how do you understand
that justification? By faith. By faith. Look over with me in Romans chapter
4 and verse 25. Romans 4.25. You know, It says we're justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And oh,
listen to what it says here. Here we go back to the cross
again now. Listen to this. Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He is raised from the dead, but before that He was delivered
for our offenses. But oh my, He is raised again
for our justification. How can God justify us? Because
we don't have anything against us. If He was delivered for our
offenses, and God raised Him up again, and He was raised up
for our justification, how in the world can God come back and
get us for any offense that we've ever committed if Christ was
delivered for? That's what it means to be justified. God cannot
charge us for anything we've ever done because Christ bore
everything we did. And that's what justification
means. He was raised to prove to the whole world that saints
in heaven, saints on earth, and everything that God Himself was
satisfied with Christ and justified all of His people. Oh my! For by grace are you saved through
faith, and not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should vote. And this is the message of the
Reformation. You know, when the Reformation
started back in the 1500's, the 16th century, with Luther and
Calvin and Swingly, before that, Before that, they called it the
Dark Ages. You know why it was the Dark Ages? Catholicism reigned. Works reigned. And it was called
penance. And what you done for penance
is you'd go to the priest and he'd tell you what you had to
do. What kind of work or what kind of suffering you'd have
to go through to make up for your sins. Martin Luther would
lay in his cell. He'd lay naked on the floor in
his cell. And he would take a flog and beat himself on the back.
The blood would come out of his back. And he was at the Spanish
Steps, crawling on his knees up the Spanish Steps, doing his
penance. That was penance for him. He was on his knees, crawling
up these stone steps, and they got big dips in them. And he
was going up those Spanish Steps, on his knees, doing penance.
When he remembered their power being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. He got off his knees, And God
saved him and he took 95 theses and took it to the Church of
Worms and nailed it on the door and he attacked the Catholic
Church and they tried to kill him for years and years and he
died an old man. Ah, listen, I tell you what,
they had penance and they had works that you had to do. And
now they tell you, you go and say, well, you get in that little
old booth with that fella, and that fella, you tell him what
all you've done. He'll say, well, you say so many Hail Marys, and
you say this, that, and say all this other stuff. Cross yourself
15 ways to Sunday. You know. And they say, that
gets it all done. And then the suffering you have
to go through. And you can only be saved if you're in the church.
But oh, when the Reformation come, when Calvin and Luther
and Zwingli began to preach, and God taught them this thing
of justification by law, but they preached this is what they
preached. They preached the Scriptures alone for what we're to believe
and what we're to practice. The only thing, this is the only
thing we've got to believe. And the only thing tells us how
to live in this world. Church can't tell you how to
live. Church can't tell you what to
believe. This is for our faith, right here. And for our how we're
to live in this world. That's the only thing. That's
what they preached. You don't have to go to a priest. You don't
have to go to a rabbi. And so they preached the Scriptures
alone. We don't need them. They didn't need people. They
didn't even have Bibles back then. You had to depend on somebody
to tell you what the Bible said. And everybody and their brothers
got one. Now I've got two or three of them. I got three myself, and all of
them is good. All of them says the same thing. And I'll tell you something else
they preached in that Reformation. They preached grace alone. And
what do they mean by that? That grace alone, that there
was no merit in any work you ever did. And no saint can give
you any of his merit. That's another thing the Catholics
taught. They taught that if you live good enough, that's how
you become a saint. You live so good and you became
a saint, and then you have so much merit that you can give
some of your grace to somebody else. But oh, listen, grace alone,
no merit, no works, just grace. When you hear people say grace,
bud, They don't believe grace. Ain't no buts to grace. Ain't
no buts to it. It's either grace or works. No
middle ground. All of grace. Nothing else. And they preached also not only
the scriptures alone for faith and practice, grace alone, no
merit, no work, but Christ alone. And what they meant by that was
that He alone can save. He alone bore sin on the tree. He alone is the one that satisfied
God. He by Himself put away sin by
Himself. And I'll tell you what, He don't
need no help from me. He don't need no help from you.
He don't need no help from the church. He don't need no help
from a priest. And you don't need no help from
a preacher. Christ alone. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain. Oh, they preach the substitutionary
death of Christ and the only way that God can be justified
in saving a sinner? How can God? Let me ask you this.
And you've all heard this. You've heard me. Old Bruce said
this more. He said, I've heard that before. And I said, yeah,
you hang around and you'll hear it again. He said, I've heard
several preachers preach that. I said, yeah. I said, that's
the whole point about it. I'll try to say the same thing.
I said, just come back and I'll preach it again. But here's what
I'm telling you, beloved. How can God stay holy, stay perfect,
be absolutely righteous, and at the same time take a sinner
like me or you and justify us and clear us of
all guilt and all sin and all iniquity? How can He do that?
Justify it in saving a sinner. And what happens is that the
death of Christ declares the righteousness of God. God was
righteous. He's going to hold up His righteousness.
He's going to be just. But how He was is He put sin
on His own Son. And His own Son died for that
sin. His own Son bore that sin. And God declares that He's righteous
and now coming saving us. We're saved by the righteousness
and justice of God as we're saved by the grace of God. Ain't that
right? Huh? Oh, we're sin abounded. You know what it says? Grace
did much more abound. I'll tell you something about
fatalism. That's easy to understand. That's
why these fellas killed herself to kill a whole bunch of other
people. Fatalism. Fatalism is easy to understand. Everything
just... We're left to fate. We're left
to fate. Freewillism is easy to understand. Freewillism is very easy to understand.
You know, you've got to make your choice, and God gives you
an opportunity to make your choice when He gives you your chance,
and you cooperate with Him when He gives you your chance. That's
easy to understand. But salvation by substitute,
salvation of a righteous God saving sinners, now that's a
revelation. That's something that God's got
to show you. You can't get that. You can get free will. You can
get worse. You can get fatalism. But you can't get the death of
Christ and the righteousness of God unless He shows it to
you. Ain't that right? Alright, that's essential doctrine.
Let me hurry up and give you essential experience. And oh,
what's essential experience? If we, you know, have the root
of the matter in us. One of the first things that
we find out is, in our experience, is our sinfulness. Our sinfulness. And I tell you something, that's
another thing that you don't never get over. Do you? Your
sinfulness. You never get over your sinfulness.
Now what I mean, beloved, is that you know that you're sinful.
You know that your sin, you know that your righteousness is as
a filthy rag. Is that not right? You know that the tears you shed
got sin in it. The prayers you pray got sin
in them because you feel like you accomplished something. Now some feel their sin more
than others. But I know this, if sin doesn't
become exceeding sinful, the Savior won't be exceeding precious.
If sin doesn't become exceeding sinful, the Savior won't be exceeding
precious. It just won't be. Got to have
Christ. Got to have Christ. And we learn,
this is an experience now, we learn that God cannot be approached
by us or anything we do is acceptable to Him in ourselves. We know that in our flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Man has not will not come to
Christ until they love themselves. Get so sick of themselves. I
can, you know, Job said it this way over in Job 42. He says,
I abhor myself. I heard about you with the hearing
of the ear. My eye sees you. What happened? I abhor myself. I abhor myself. You all know
where Ezekiel's at? Look in Ezekiel 36. Isaiah, Jeremiah,
And then Ezekiel, look in Ezekiel 36. This is one of the covenant
mercies that God gives us. Ezekiel 36, 31. Oh my! A dear, dear, dear preacher
friend of mine told me the other day, He said, I feel so unworthy. I feel so incapable. I feel like
I'm so awful that I shouldn't even be preaching. If God don't do something for
me, I don't... He felt his inability. He felt his weaknesses. He felt
his powerlessness. What makes you feel that? But oh, look what He said here
in Ezekiel 36, 31. This is one of the covenant mercies.
This is what God said now. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and
your abominations. Is that not right? Oh my. And then let me give you
another thing. Oh, sinfulness, sinfulness, sinfulness,
sinfulness. Oh, to find somebody that's...
If you ever find a sinner, if you ever become a sinner, I guarantee
you, you're saved. That's the truth. Now, you know,
I don't know if you get that or not, but the minute you become
a sinner, a real bona fide, certified, Holy Ghost made sinner, you're
a saved man. You may not understand it, you
may not believe it. You may have to be a priest for
a while, but the minute you get lost, you're found. The minute you say, oh, I'm blind,
I can't see, you're looking, you're seeing. That's a language
only believers understand. And let me tell you something
else in our experience. Our communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ Again, some know more of this than others how to commune
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Some enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ
much more than others do. You remember when Mary and Martha,
they had the Lord Jesus in the house and some of the apostles
and Martha and them was fixing Him a dinner and fixing Him supper
and fixing Him a big meal. And Martha was just running all
over the house working, cooking, doing all kinds of things. And
Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, sitting
down. She wasn't doing anything, but sitting at Christ's feet.
Martha ran up to the Lord and says, Lord, tell Mary to get
up and help me. He said, I've got a lot to do.
I said, I'm busy. He said, Martha, Martha. Our
Lord said to her, oh, Martha, Martha. You're a convert. You're
worried about a lot of things. But I ain't fixing to take Mary
from her place. She has chosen the good part,
the better part. I'm not going to have her get
up and do anything. She's sitting in my feet. See,
Martha was as saved as Mary was. Martha was as loved of Christ
as Mary was. Martha knew Christ as well as
Mary did. But Mary had much better communion
with Him than Martha did. And it's like John. John leaned
on his breast. He was always called that disciple
whom Jesus loved. That's every time he's referred
to, he's referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And John laid
on his breast. And he enjoyed the Lord Jesus
Christ and was more intimate in relation with Him than any
other apostles. But he was no more saved, no
more knew Christ than Thomas did who doubted Him. So you see,
some people have wonderful communion with Him, and some folks don't. But because you don't have an
intimate, intimate relationship with Him, that don't mean you're
not saved. Huh? The root of the matter is this,
is to know that Christ is the only Savior, to believe Him,
trust Him, faith in Him is salvation. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Huh? And then let me give you
essential practice. I'm taking too long. Essential
doctrine, essential experience, an essential practice. Now fruit
is essential to being a believer. But let me tell you something,
it's not essential on a tree just set out. You know, a tree that's just
set out, fruit's not essential on a fruit tree. You don't set
out a tree, you didn't set out a tree this spring and expect
to go back and get fruit off of it this fall. Did you? Huh? And that's the way it is
with a believer. When God first plants a tree,
nobody expects fruit off that tree when it's first planted.
But like that fig tree, that thing was tended for three years
and they asked for one more year. That was a long time. And this
is what's essential. In practice, you know, they come
to that blind man that our Lord gave his sight and they said
to him, said, you know, he was a sinner. Give God the glory.
Give God the glory. He's a sinner. And that blind
man said, well, he a sinner or no, I don't know about that.
But I do know this, whereas I was blind. I was blind one time. Now I see. You all say what you
want to. That fellow gave me sight. And
boy, if you know that, huh? Oh, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. And let me tell you something
hurriedly, a root is a fixing thing. You know, God said we'd
be as a tree of righteousness planted by the rivers of water.
A root is a fixing thing. Wind doesn't carry you away. You're not carried around with
the, you know, fixed to God, fixed to His Word. And it's also
a quickening thing. You know when the sap goes down
out of the trees and they look lifeless all winter? And there's
times that we look lifeless. We have spiritual winters. And
we look lifeless. But in the spring, that root
starts putting that sap up. And I tell you, it quickens it.
And that tree starts coming back to life. Huh? And you know when
dead leaves, you know, some leaves will stay on a tree all winter.
And you know when those dead leaves will come off? is when
a new leaf pushes it off. And that's the way it is with
us. We'll have more dead leaves on us, but when that root starts
quickening, and when we go through our spiritual winter, more dead
leaves start falling off when the new ones come. And I tell you what, a root is
a receiving thing. What it does, it receives food
for the tree. All the food that that tree is
going to get through comes from its roots. And beloved, I tell
you what, where do we get our food at? We get it from sermons,
from messages, from hymns, from scriptures, listening to preaching,
to watching and observing God's providence, and oh my! And then it's the supplying thing.
The roots supply strength and food to the tree. And if we're
going to bear fruit, we must have a true religion that lives
upon God Himself. And let me say in closing, if
you have the root of the matter in you, where there's the root of the
matter, there's much ground and much reason for a person to have
some comfort. You're as equal to the greatest
and most grown Christian in lots and lots of ways. You bought
with the same blood. You adopted into the same family.
You're justified by the same God. You're cleansed by the same
blood. And you have the same coveted mercies as you may not
even know. And you're as rich as the richest.
And let me close with Isaiah 42 and verse 3. This is how gracious
our Lord is. Isaiah 43 and verse 2. 42 and verse 3, excuse me. 42 and
verse 3. Oh, there's lots of folks who
have a lot of trouble. You know, I don't seem like I'm
growing, seem like I don't know anything, don't seem like I bear
any fruit. Some don't feel like I'm living
for God's glory. But you've got the root of the
matter in you. Look what He said here in verse 3. Isaiah 42. A bruised reed shall
He not break. You know, you take a reed and
it's bruised. And it's real frail. It's bruised. It wouldn't take much to break
it. It's been stepped on. And it's just barely leaning.
He said that reed that's bruised. What did He say? It ain't going
to break. He said, it's going to see that
it don't break. And smoking flax. Flax has just got smoke coming.
It ain't even got no fire on it. This smoking flax. And that will be your profession.
Smoking flax and He won't put it out. He won't put it out. He is so tender and gracious
to His people. So everyone, how small your faith
is and how little you know or how much you know. There's going
to be a time that you're going to be like that bruised reed
and that smoking flax. And He ain't going to let you
break, and He ain't going to let the fire go out. He ain't
going to do it. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank You for all You do for us. Oh Lord, You've made us so wealthy,
You've made us so rich in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, more about
Him would we know, more of Jesus would we know, more of His saving
fullness see, more of His love who died for me. Oh, God, teach
us, instruct us, open our hearts and minds. our understanding
about the things of our Lord Jesus and His precious Word.
Make His Word open to us. Make it real to us. Make it effectual
to us. Make it a living, vital Word
in our hearts. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. Well, God willing, I'll
see you Wednesday night. Good night and God bless you. th th