I want you to notice in verse
7, 2 Timothy 3.7 talks about people ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And then it talked about Genesee
and Jambrese, those who were the two magicians that withstood
Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds
reprobate concerning the faith. I want to talk about the truth.
The subject of my title this morning is the truth. The truth. Truth is rare to find on this
earth. And truth is always truth. There's
never no gray area in truth. Truth, because it's so rare,
it's precious. Very precious. And not only is it precious,
but it's powerful. The truth, our Lord Jesus says,
if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. It's very
powerful. Truth is powerful. And not only
is the truth precious and powerful, but it's also pure. Wherever you find truth, it's
pure. Ain't that what Paul said, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God? You reckon God would give us
anything that had any error in it? The truth, in fact, our Lord
Jesus Christ says that heaven and earth would pass away, but
not one jot or tittle would fail in God's Word. And I know this,
that men and women want honesty. in their daily lives. They get
up every day, they want honesty in their daily lives. They want
truth from people they come in contact with. But there's one
place that they're not interested in truth. And that's in the Word
of God. They don't want truth from the
preacher. They want truth from every place else, but they don't
want it from the preacher. Wives want their husbands to
tell them the truth. Don't deceive them. Husbands
want their wives to be honest and be truthful, be faithful. Parents want their children to
be truthful. Catch them in a lie, you get
on them real quick. You don't want them to lie. Our
son, our grandson, Aidan, goes to a school down in Knoxville
and they have to sign an honor statement. And they have a whole
list of things that they must sign and honor. The first one
is no lies. They don't never lock
us. Locker down there, everything's
open. Nobody has a lock on their locker. Honesty. Honesty. Have to sign an honor
statement. The first thing is you're honest.
Catch you in a lie. Catch you stealing. You're in
trouble. People want honesty. They want
truth. Students want their teachers to be honest with them. Patients,
if you go to a doctor, you want your doctor to tell you the truth.
Tell me the truth. I want to know what's going on.
And when you go to borrow money or anything like that, you want
the lender to be honest with you. You don't want no hidden
fees, no hidden things to come find out that they told you that
there's going to be this and it turns out being something
else. And I tell you, an employee, he wants honesty from his employer
and employees from their employers. Buyers from sellers, sellers
from buyers. In every walk of life, we want
the truth. We demand the truth from those
we come in contact with. We want truth. And when you find
out a person is dishonest and can't tell the truth, and can't
be trusted, you really steer clear of them, don't you? I know
people that if their lips are moving, they're telling a lie.
If their mouth is moving, they're lying. I know people like that. And I tell you, when I find somebody
like that, I just don't want anything to do with them. If
you can't trust them, why have anything to do with them? And homes have been wrecked.
Businesses have gone bankrupt, lives have been destroyed, relationships
have been broken because someone demanded honesty and truth and
didn't get it and said I can't take it anymore. But this puzzles
me that people will demand truth and look for truth in everything
but the religion. And they'll look for truth and
demand truth from everyone but the preacher. And that's what
the scripture says. That's what the scripture says.
Romans 1.18 says they hold down the truth. They hold it down. They got the truth but they hold
it down. They suppress it. And they do that in unrighteousness.
And Paul says that they change the truth of God into a lie. And let me show you, just go
over to your left, a couple of books. Look at 2 Thessalonians
with me for just a moment. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
That's why I'm talking about the truth. The truth. I want the truth. I heard Ralph
Barnard say years and years and years ago, If there's any truth
in this world, I want to find it, and when I find it, I'm going
to sit down and sit under that fellow that's telling the truth.
If I can find somebody telling the truth, that's where I want
to be. If I can find somebody being honest, that's where I
want to be. And he also made this statement.
He said, honest men don't go to hell. Honest men don't go
to hell. What did he mean by that? God
makes his people honest. He makes them honest first and
foremost with himself. And secondly, he makes them honest
with themselves. They know exactly what they are.
They know exactly what they're capable of. They're not fooled
in themselves whatsoever. And they certainly, certainly
are honest with God and before God. I know that. But look here
what the Apostle said down here in verse 8. Let me show you a
couple of things about the truth. And then that wicked, this is
Satan himself, when that wicked shall be revealed whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming. Him whose coming is after the
working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and with deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." Now listen
to this. You know why this happens? Because they receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. Receive not the love
of the truth that they might be saved. And then look what
else he goes on down there to say. And for this cause God shall
send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned, listen to this, who believed not the
truth, but instead had pleasure in the unrighteousness against
the truth. And they said they resist the
truth, destitute of the truth. So I want to talk about the truth.
J.C. Ryle said this, he is your best
friend who tells you the most truth. And by God's blessed grace
today I want to tell you the truth. I believe I have told
you the truth for years and years and years and years and years.
I want to tell you the truth. And I've told it and I want to
tell it again. You know the scripture said in Psalm 51 verse 6 says
God demands truth. In the inward parts. In the inward
parts. And let me give you some Bible
truths. I think I got six of them. I think I got six truths. That you love it. I love it. I don't resist it. There was
a time I was destitute of it. There was a time that I didn't
love it. And I certainly didn't know it. But let me give you
six Bible truths, six truths. And the first one is this. It's
true that men outside of Christ are utterly and absolutely ruined
by sin. Utterly and absolutely ruined
by sin. What do I mean by that? I mean
that he's ruined by sin. When something's ruined, there's
nothing good about it. When something's ruined, that
means it's not worth anything. And a man outside of Christ,
sin has so ruined him and so destroyed all of his faculties
and his abilities and his understanding and his knowledge. And I tell
you, man, you know, preachers say all the time, people are
out there looking for the truth. We just need to take it to them.
There's not a soul on the top side of God's earth that ever
looked for the truth until God took him the truth. No, but I
wasn't looking for the truth. I was looking for feelings. I
was looking for my works. I was looking at my self-righteousness.
I was looking at what I could do to get on God's good side.
But I tell you, beloved, that man, every part of his faculties,
every member of his body is full of sin and used to sin. The heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? With the mind, they serve the Lord. See, with their
eyes, they look. at anything but God. And with
their feet, they go anyplace but to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They use it to go everywhere. With their hands, they sin. With
their lips, they use it always to sin. With their tongue, they
use it to sin. And everything about them, and
everything about a man outside of Christ is tainted and despicably
bound and tainted and ruined by sin. Let me show you what
God said about it. Look in Psalm 14 with me just
a moment. And that's, you know, there's
only one way in the world a person will become a sinner. I've been
preaching this for years and years and years and years and
years and years and years and I know it about myself. But how
in the world does a man become a sinner? I can't make you a
sinner. Even the Word of God can't make
you a sinner. The church can't make you a sinner.
Only God the Holy Ghost can make a man understand what he is before
God. Look what God said about this
business. The fool has said in his heart,
there's no God. That means that there's no God
for me. They are corrupt. They've done
abominable works. Now listen to this. You say,
well, I've done some good things. God said there's none good. The
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and see God. Now listen. And he said, what happened to
everyone going aside? They're all together become filthy.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Why? Why is man in this condition
before God? Because of our first parents.
Because of Adam and Eve. That's how we became sinners.
By one man, by one man, sin entered into this world. And by that
one sin, that man died spiritually before God. God cast him out
of the garden and says, now listen, you can't come into my presence
anymore. Without you having a sacrifice,
without you having an atonement for your sin. You can't come
into my presence ever again. I've communed with you and I've
fellowshiped with you, but you decided that you wanted to be
free of my power, free of my commandments, free of my will,
free of my purpose. And so listen, you get out of
here. And you're not coming back in paradise ever again. And he
put him out, and by that one man's sin, when the scripture
says that all have sinned, where'd we sin at? We sinned in our father
Adam. And we inherited his nature.
When he was put out of the garden, we don't want him born again. And we inherited his nature. We have everything. Our son told
us yesterday, he says, the Lord said, my race is what? He said,
his wife's race. And I said, if you bow down to
anything at all, it's in spite of me and your mother. Now that's
the truth. If any of your children are my
children or you're anybody else's children about anything, it'll
be in spite of you. No matter how good you are and
how well you try to raise your children, it'll be in spite of
us. You know why? Sin. S-I-N. S-I-N. And why is sin so abhorred to
God? Because God's holy. God is holy. He is holy. And I know this about
folks, and this is what preachers do, if you don't brag on people,
and talk about what fine bunch they are, and we're so grateful
to have you, and we're just so pleased to have you in the service
today. And God just is so, you know, God loves you, I love you,
and God does too. And if you don't just brag on
people, and coddle people and tell what something they've done,
something they accomplished last week or something, you know,
and tell them what, you know, if you don't do that, you know
what they do? They won't come. They'll go someplace
where somebody will. But I'll tell you something,
the more you can convince me of my sinnerhood and sinfulness,
the more you drive me to Christ. That's right. That's right. Now
I'm going to tell you the second thing. Second truth. And you
know, this is the thing about it. How many of you ever got
a ticket or got in trouble with, you know, got stopped and got
a ticket and you didn't feel guilty about it? Or you broke
the law some way or another and you didn't feel guilty about
it? Well, you see, that's the way
it is before God. God Law says that you're lost and you're a
sinner. Born that way, live that way, die that way. You may never
feel the guilt, but that does not change what God says about
you. You don't have to. You may never
ever feel the guilt of your sin. Your conscience may never ever
bother you. But God says you're guilty. God
says you're condemned. God says you sin and come short
of His glory. And whether you ever come to
a love of the truth or a knowledge of the truth, that's one truth
we'll all face in eternity. Right? And here's the second
thing. You must be, if you're ruined
by sin, then you must be born again. You must be regenerated
by the Spirit. Look over with me in John's Gospel
Chapter 3. John's Gospel Chapter 3. And
you know, a man must have two births to enter into the kingdom
of God. Two births. And why must a man be born again?
Because he's, like I said, he's born wrong the first time. He
has a relationship to his father Adam. So how in the world can
I have a relationship and be united to Christ? How can I become
a child of God? It's by a new birth. It's by
being born again. The flesh, our Lord Jesus says,
the flesh is nothing and the man is dead spiritually. Look
what he said here in John 3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Truly, truly, your honor, very, very rarely I say unto
thee, you must be born again or you can't see the kingdom
of God. You got to be born again. And all Nicodemus said, how in
the world is this going to happen? I'm an old man. Can I the second
time into my mother's womb be born? Our Lord answered, except
a man be born of water. And that's the word. Just like
in a natural birth, there's water. Natural birth, there's water.
I remember when Mary was having doogie, she was standing washing
dishes, and it was about 8 or 30 in the morning, something
like that, and the water broke. Way to hospital we went. Water. And that's what he says here,
the water. You gotta have the water. Just like in a natural
birth, you have the water, the word of God. That's the scriptures.
And then he says this, And then he's got to be born of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit takes the Word and He comes and the Word cleanses
you. The Word washes you. The Word
by the blood of Christ and the power of Christ cleanses you
from all sin. And the Word comes and gives
life and it's the seed of God. And the Holy Spirit plants that
seed in your heart. And he says, well that which
is born of flesh, if you could be in your mother's womb, you'd
be just like you was when you was born the first time. And
he says that that which is born of the Spirit, he becomes a spiritual
person. Now let me tell you something
about the new birth. When a man is born again by the Spirit of
God and God creates life in that man, he's dead and it's a resurrection. Our Lord says the hour is coming
and now is with the dead. What kind of dead? Spiritually
dead. Shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that
hear, what happens to them? They live. They live. And when he says they
live, that means when God regenerates a soul, he brings into existence
a person who never existed before. He brings into existence a spiritual
person, a person that's in the heart, that's inside you. And
that person never existed before. And you know as well as I do
that when God regenerates a man, he starts seeing things and hearing
things and believing things he never knew, heard or believed
before. He has a heart now that wants God. He has eyes now to
see and understand the scriptures. That's why it's called a resurrection.
And our Lord went on to tell Nicodemus, you must be born again.
And I know this, he says, a man can receive nothing except it
be given him from heaven. And I know preachers tell people
all the time that you've got to repent and believe. And then
God will give you life. No, you can't do that. Dead men
can't repent. Dead men can't believe. Life
must come first. Life has to come before you'll
ever repent. Life must come before you'll
ever believe. It's called a new creation. If
any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. And oh, just like I
said sin affects the whole man, this new birth affects the whole
man. It affects the mind. Now the mind and the will and
the understanding and the affections, they want God. They want Christ.
They want the things of the Spirit of God. It affects our attitude. It affects our understanding.
It affects our outward life and our inward life. I tell you what, it makes a man
who was against God, for God. It makes a man who was for self,
turn against self. It makes a man who was self-willed,
to desire God's will. It makes a man who was full of
pride, it puts him down in the dust. It takes a man who bragged
about himself and all that he accomplished, it'll make him
turn around and say, I ain't never amounted to nothing, and
if it wasn't for God, wasn't for Christ, I wouldn't have nothing,
know nothing, can do nothing. And I'll tell you, it affects
every part of our being. It affects our eyes, our mind,
our heart, everything. And when a person is born again,
has this new person that comes into existence, he don't think
the same, he don't act the same, he don't view things the same
way. All of you that's been born again,
you know that. It's one of the most mysterious things. Well,
how in the world does it happen? Well, I'll tell you this. When it happens, you'll know
it. When it happens, you'll know
it. One of these days you'll be sitting there and all of a
sudden you'll say, I see. I see. I see! Well, these days you'll be sitting
there and you'll say, Oh me! Oh! Oh! Boy, what's going on
here? I understand what the preacher
said now. And I don't understand it, but
I enjoy it. It don't make me mad to be called
a grasshopper. It don't make me mad to be called
a worm. As long as you tell me that Christ
Grasshoppers and worms, thou worm Jacob, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. You don't mind being called a
sinner as long as you tell them about Christ who came to save
sinners. Oh, you had a heart that couldn't
be touched by the things of the Spirit of God. And God comes
along and He takes the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit. He
reaches in there and He takes out that heart of stone. And
all of a sudden you've got a heart that can be touched with the
Word of God, be touched with the Spirit, be touched with the
Scriptures, be touched by the things of God. Which you never
could before. Oh, it makes you utterly and
absolutely a person that you wouldn't recognize. I can't go
back and recognize what I was. If I run into myself, when I was lost, I wouldn't recognize
myself. That's what a radical change
is. That's why radical change happens.
I cannot imagine, and listen to me, the cause of this change
I cannot imagine, going back to the world, going into a place
where they don't tell the truth on God. I can't imagine me trusting myself in any way.
It's just God has so affected our understanding and our minds
and our hearts and our wills that beloved... Did you feel
like it was a burden to come here today? Did you feel like that it was
hard on you to come here to hear the truth? No, was there some hunger in
you, some thirst in you, some desire in you? That you said,
I need to go and worship God. I need to go and share the word.
I need to go and be with the Lord's people. I need to go and
be here something that will bless me and strengthen me and help
me and encourage me. You can't be helped and strengthened
and encouraged unless you've got a heart that's for God. A heart that knows God. A will
that loves God. A will that holds God. Oh, and I'll tell you, I know
this much about it. It'll change your attitude about
yourself. It'll change your attitude about
people around you. It'll change your attitude about
the scriptures. It'll change your attitude about
everything. If you're stingy, you'll be generous. If you was hateful, hating one
another, you'll start hugging and loving everybody. You'll
say, oh, I love these people. I love to be around these people. Oh, I got to hurry up. I've taken
too long on that part. But oh my, believe me, if you're
ruined by sin, you've got to be twice born to the kingdom
of God. And I'll tell you something else
that he talked about. These people that's destitute
of the truth and love the truth. Let me tell you, there's three
truths I want you to deal with. The Scriptures alone. Now what
do I mean the Scriptures alone? Ain't that what he said over
here in 2 Timothy 3? He said, all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. And look what he said here. He
says, you know, in verse 15, That from a child I have known
the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ alone. You know the scriptures,
the scriptures alone, what do I mean by that? You know we don't
have a creed here, we don't have a constitution, we don't have
bylaws. There's a lot of churches have
that. They have a constitution, they have bylaws, they have all
this stuff that you got to go by. We don't have that. Well, how in the world am I supposed
to know what I'm to believe? The Bible. Well, how in the world am I supposed
to know how I live in this world? The Bible. That's just a long and short
of it. When's the last time I told you
how to live? Except live for Christ and live to the glory
of Christ. When was the last time I told
you how you ought to dress? When was the last time I told
you what you ought to drink, smoke, or chew? When was the
last time I told you what you could eat and couldn't eat? When
was the last time I told you where you should go and you couldn't
go? Our Lord Jesus said He's the
shepherd of the sheep and if the Lord Jesus Christ can't take
care of His sheep, I certainly can't. And I tell you what, the only
issue between men in this world is Christ and you. And I do know this, that when
I won't find out what I'm to believe, I go to scriptures.
When I find out how I'm supposed to live, I go to scriptures.
And I tell you, men want their traditions, they want their rules,
they want their standards. I don't know how many people
talked about their standards. I tell you what, we've let our
standards down so low that anything can get by. But oh, beloved,
Just give me the scriptures. Tell me that's what I know to
believe and that's what I live by, by God's grace. And then
that second thing is this. These are the three things of
the Reformation. Grace alone. What do I mean by that? That
salvation is by grace alone. That means that works before
or after our new birth. Before or after our conversion.
Do not add anything whatsoever to our salvation. God saves by
grace, free grace, powerful grace, sovereign grace. For by grace
are you saved, and that love of yourself. Grace was given
us in Christ before the world began. If you say but, there
ain't no buts. There's not a work you can do
before grace to get grace, not a work you can do or not do to
get God to take it away from you. Grace is all we're going
to have. Grace! You say, but I believe
I've got to do it. No, you don't have to do anything.
Christ did it all. Whatever condition that you would
have in order to be saved, Christ made every condition. God said
be obedient, Christ was obedient unto death. Christ said, love
me. Christ loved enough. God loved
enough for every one of us. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. And I want, by
God's grace, I want to live to His glory. I want to have good
works. I want to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to be gracious. I want
to be kind. I want to be, you want to be
loving. You want to be generous. You want to be forgiving. You
want all these things of Christ in you. But you know that none
of those things contribute to your salvation. And if you have
any good works at all, it's God which works in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure. Everything we have, we have to
attribute to Him and His grace. I believe that with all my heart.
Don't you? Oh, I tell you, men right here,
they love a lie on this point. They like the Pharisees. They
like this, do and you shall live. That's what they like, do and
then you have life. But oh, there's some Pharisees.
John Gil talked about Pharisees. Let me give you three or four
Pharisees that he talked about. Talked about doing things. There's
the Shechemite Pharisee. You know who he is? He's that
Pharisee who kept the law for profit or for advantage to get
honor for men. And you know what they'll do? They'll sound a trumpet before
they do anything. And you know why you can recognize
them? They'll have Christian-owned business. You know how you can
recognize them? They start talking about all
that they've done and all that they've accomplished and how
many times they've gone to church and how faithful they are and
all that. They'll start talking about what they do. They want
the honor of men. They want to be bragged on to
men. And they go around. And I tell you what, and you
see this in the paper, a Christian woman wants to babysit for children. Listen, if you have to put Christian,
and I don't mean to offend anybody, but if you have to put Christian
in your title, if they get somebody to trust you, You just go on and be honest.
Go on and be like you are. Folks will take you the way you
are. Ain't that right? Now he's got a business. You
got rode out on the front of it, a Christian owned business. Perhaps you got on Wall State
over there, you know. Owned by a good fine Christian
man. That's Shechemites Pharisee. And then there's old Pharisee
Lenten blood. He walks around with his eyes
about half shut because he's scared to death that he's going
to look on somebody and lust after them. And he walks around
with his eyes about closed. He runs into walls and he knocks
a knot on his hands and stuff like that until he starts bleeding.
He busts his head. That's old Pharisee Latin blood. Y'all go to Matthew 3 and John
Gill's commentary and you'll find these. You know, and I'll
tell you something, the duct is not committed with the eyes,
it's committed with the heart. That's where it's at. And then
there's old Dashing Pharisee. We're talking about grace now,
grace alone. There's old Dashing Pharisee.
He walks along and he's so deep in thought, he's so deep in meditation,
he's so deep in his religion, he's walking along and he stumbles
over everything all the time. Dashes his foot against stone.
And then there's the Pharisee of fear. He does what he does
because he's scared to death he's going to be punished. He
don't want to be punished. Everything he does, he does it
out of fear. He don't want to be punished. He used Jesus as a fire escape.
And there's the old depressed Pharisee. He went boat over,
doubled over. You know, he just, I'm going
to do something just so bad. I want to show my humility. He
just walks like that all the time. We don't want to be one of those. So our true scripture alone,
faith and practice, grace alone, no works before or after our
conversion can have any effect, nothing whatsoever. And then
Christ alone, there is no other name. given among heaven, under
heaven, where by men must be saved. There's only one Savior,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. One man who put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. One mediator between
God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't talk to God? Come to
Christ. You want God to talk to you?
You gotta go to Christ. God won't have any dealings with
you apart from His blessings, son. You want acceptance with
God? There's only acceptance in the
beloved. You need somebody to take up your case before God?
Christ is the advocate. You need somebody to pay for
your sins? Christ was the sin offering.
You want somebody? You need a sacrifice? God said,
He told Adam, He said, Adam, you're going to have to have
blood sacrifice. And Abel offered a sacrifice. And by that sacrifice,
God testified that he was righteous because of the gift that He offered. And I tell you what, Christ alone
is a man's only hope and plea. Will you have Him? Would you
have Him? Would you have Him? And let me hurry up and tell
you this. Here's another truth, here's another truth. That without
fruit there's no faith. No fruit, no faith. No fruit,
no faith. Our Lord Jesus said, well let's
just look at, keep 2 Timothy, look at John 15 with me just
a moment. John 15. You know without fruit there's
just no faith. And when I'm talking about fruit,
we're talking about the fruit of the Spirit. That's what we're
talking about. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit,
neither can a good tree bring forth corrupt fruit. Look what
our Lord Jesus said here in John 15, verse 1. I am the true vine. It's one of the I am's of Christ.
And my Father is the husband. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, He takes it away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purges it, he prunes it, he works on it, he chastises
it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I
in you. Now listen to this. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more
can you except you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. Now, Henry Mahan said something
years and years ago, and I wrote it down. He says this, we have
no right to claim the presence of Christ without the Spirit
of Christ. We have no right to claim the
presence of the Spirit without the fruit of the Spirit. You
see, Faith without works is dead. Faith works by love. And that's
why Paul said, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.
You know, I tell you, the fruit of the Spirit is the first one.
You know what it is? The first fruit of the Spirit is love. Second, gentleness. Third good. Boy. And I'll tell you this, and I'm
going to hurry on. Beware of a gospel and your reception of a gospel.
that does not change and improve your life. Ain't that right? And then let me tell you this.
Here's the truth. Here's the truth. There's a judgment
to come and a hell to go to if you don't
receive the love of the truth. You say, Preacher, that's awful
tough. Is it not the truth though? I don't know. Me and Todd and I was talking
this last week. And a fellow, he asked him, telling
about another preacher we know. Asked him what he preached on.
He said, I preached on hell. He said, did you do it with tears
in your eyes and your heart broken? Because you don't want nobody
to go. And if we can ever talk about hell, and people going
to hell, and it not bother us, I can't imagine. But it's going to happen. It
has happened. It does happen. You know, I know my father, it's
impossible for him. He had to go. He just couldn't
be near them. And God in His sovereign mercy
puts it in our mind, but we can't grasp it, can't enter into it. But oh my, surely God doesn't
punish people, He's just too good. Well, I know this, God
is so holy, and God is so good, and God is so righteous, that
He can't abide sin. And He needs to have a world
without it. He's going to create a new world
and a new heaven. The only thing that dwells in
that new heaven and new earth is righteousness. Righteousness. That's the only
place. And I don't want anybody. God,
I don't want anybody in this building this morning. I don't
want you to go. I want you to know Christ. I
want you to come to Christ. I want you to believe Christ.
I want you to trust Christ. I don't want to go and look at
you, go to the funeral home and look at you laying in your casket, and knowing that you wasn't a
believer, knowing you never trusted Christ, knowing you never believed
on Him. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I don't. Just don't. So don't. Don't go. Don't go. Don't go. Come on, go with the rest of
us. Just come on with us and go to Christ who gives us life. Come on with us and just go to
Him who made satisfaction to God's holiness and justice. Mary told me before I left this
morning, she said, I want you to wear that suit when you preach
my funeral. I dread it, but I'll be able to stand over
her and see her in no fool way where she's at. You know why? Because she knows
Christ. She trusts Christ. She has the
peace of Christ. And I know Him. And because I
know Him and I know she knows Him. Wouldn't you love to do that?
Wouldn't you love to go to bed and say, oh my. Say, whatever
happens tomorrow, I'll be alright. I'll be good. I'll be fine. I'll
be fine. I mean, so please don't go to
hell. Please don't perish. Don't do that. If I had anything
to do with it, there'd be not one soul that I've ever preached
to with God. But I don't have nothing to do
with that. But God does. No, God for Christ's sake, open
hearts, bring people to Christ. Let me give you this quickly
to tell you. Some ways to tell if you love and receive the truth.
Let me give you some ways to tell if you love and receive
the truth. He talked about those who are ever learning, never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth, those who resist
the truth, those who receive not the love of the truth. How
do I know I've received the love of the truth? Well, first of
all, let me show you this. Look in 2 Thessalonians 2.13.
I'll show you. Look what he says down in You
see, they received not the love of the truth, but look what Paul
said about the Lord's people in 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We are
bound always to give thanks for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation
through sanctification of the truth. And what else does it
say there? Belief of the truth. How do you know that you love
the truth? God chose you to believe the truth. If you believe the
truth, you know why? God sanctified you, called you
to believe the truth. I'll tell you another way. You believe the truth. You believe
it. God brought the truth to you
and you believe it. I'll tell you another way you can tell
by your attendance of a gospel ministry and support of that
church. When you find a gospel, And you
find a place where they're preaching the gospel of grace, the gospel
that saves sinners, the gospel that gives God all the glory,
the gospel that'll keep you sane. When you find that and you attend
that place, you say, well I got to hear the gospel. And you attend
and support that gospel. That's a wonderful way to know
I've told the truth. But I tell you what, when you
can't tell the truth from error, and believe all preachers are
all right and the like, then you don't know the truth. If
there's two gospels, then there ain't no gospel. But I tell you, whenever you
receive the truth, you'll love it, you'll rejoice in it, and
you'll cast your soul on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what
Christ said about himself? Truth. You want to know the truth? I'm here. You want to know the
truth? It's me. That's what he said. It's me. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to
be here this morning, and I pray that you'd be pleased to bless
the Word. It's your Word. Holy Spirit, you've got the power. So bless the word and power. And everything that was said
and done, it was so unlike you. Please forgive me. Thank you for the grace. Thank
you for the strength. Thank you for the hope. Thank you. Blessed be your name. Amen. Amen.