And the title of my message this
morning is this, Is the Gospel a Command or an
Invitation? Is the Gospel a Command or an
Invitation? Now here it says in verse 16,
A certain man made a great supper and bade many, and said he was
serving suppertime to say to them that were bidden, Come,
for all things are now ready. That word bait or bid is the
same word. It could be used as invite. But now every one of those that
were invited or bidden to come, the supper was made for them.
They all began to make excuse. Everyone who was invited didn't
come. But then he sent the servant out to bring him in. That servant was commanded to
bring him in. them to come in. And I want you to look with me
real quick over in 1 Peter chapter 4. Let me show you this. Let
me get into my message. But the gospel, a command, 1
Peter 4, 17. Is the gospel a command or an
invitation? Here we see what an invitation,
the results of an invitation. And we also see the results of
a command. But here in 1 Peter 4.17 it says
this, For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God. And every time we preach, every
time you meet here, judgment is being done. Judgment is being
done every time the gospel is preached, every time we meet,
every time God is served. Not only that, but every time
somebody goes by and doesn't attend, Find someplace else to
go or something to do. Judgment's being done. We're
all being judged. Judgment begins right here. Judgment
begins with the gospel. Now, God judges men through the
gospel and your response to that gospel and your response to the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you walk away from here today
without Christ, the judgment of God's on you. And that's why
we preach that judgment's finished in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
now the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
Now watch this. If it first began at us, what
shall the end be of them that obey not? Obey not the gospel
of God. He didn't say those that were
invited to the gospel, but them that obey not the gospel. He
said, How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of them
that publishes glad tidings of good things, but they have not
all obeyed the gospel. Now, beloved, I say that the
gospel is a command. It's not an invitation. And there's
two classes to whom the gospel comes as a command. Two classes. First of all, it comes as a command
to the preacher. It comes to the command as a
preacher. Paul says, Woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. I mean, you know, it's woe is
unto me if I preach not the gospel. He says, God has allowed us to
be prudent and trust with the gospel, even so we speak, seeking
not to please men, but God which ties our hearts. Now, man, you
know, I can do something else, but if I've got to preach, I've
got to preach the gospel. This is not something we're playing
at. I'd say, you know, I wouldn't be in a fellow's shoes for 10,000
worlds like this who doesn't preach the gospel of the grace
of God in Christ. Wouldn't do it. And if we don't,
if we don't preach the gospel, and the gospel comes as a command
to us, we have no options in this business of preaching the
gospel. And if we don't, then we're not the servants of Christ.
And you find in the Word of God, the preacher is the dominant
figure, and the preaching of the gospel is the most important
work. Now, I know nowadays the preacher is not the dominant
figure. Singing and singing groups and
choruses and entertainment is the dominant figure today. The
preacher comes in last with a 10 or 15 minute sermonette. The
rest of the service is taken up with bragging on people, The
oldest, the youngest, the babies, the grandmas, the singles, everybody's
got to be recognized. But the fellow that was sent
to preach and prepare the way of the Lord, he was a preacher.
Christ our Lord was a preacher. The great commission given to
all of us was this, go ye into all the world and preach, not
share the gospel. Not debate the gospel. not argue
over the gospel, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.
And Paul told Timothy, preach the word, be it in end season,
out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. And oh, no wonder he said, how
beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of them that publish
glad tidings of good things. I loved it when Brother Bruce
was here. He walks up there. I see them
beautiful feet walk up here, and they publish such glad tidings
of good things. Jacob lifted up his feet. Then
we have access by Christ into the presence of God. And then
he talked about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ on this
wise. Oh my, he preached the gospel
to us three times. Oh, how beautiful was His speech.
And I'll tell you the second part of it. Two groups. The preacher
and you. You are commanded to believe
the gospel. All who hear it are commanded
to believe the gospel. Now, let me tell you something.
If it's not a command, if it's not a command, then how will
God judge men if He don't command them to do what He says? Huh? How will God bring vengeance
if it's not that? Now, there are several things,
several things the average preacher and soul winner keeps and harks
on and preaches about that are totally unscriptural, totally
unscriptural. First of all, they hark on love. This is how they say it. And
I know all of you have heard this said by somebody one time
or another. My God is a God of love. My God is a God of love. There was a fellow one time,
I watched him being interviewed, and he hates God with a passion,
made a movie against God, hates Christ, ridicules God, makes
fun of God, despises God. And he was being interviewed,
and Bill Maher is his name, and he has been interviewed, and
the preacher, he's not a preacher anymore, he's a politician, but
anyway, he said this, and when the fellow got through belittling
God, blaspheming God, doing everything but cussing God, The preacher
said, well, all I know is this, that God loves you, and so do
I. God raised Pharaoh up for one
person, for one purpose. That was to drown him in the
Red Sea. God, he says, if any man hates my son, here's some
folks who was bidding to come, and they began to make excuses,
and he being angry. And oh, they say, my God is a
God of love. So whatever love is, they set
the standard for what love is. And then God rises to whatever
their standard of love is. But the Scripture says God is
love. That's His nature. And I'll tell you what He loves.
First thing He loves is His Son. And how you treat His Son is
how He's going to treat you. Second thing is He loves righteousness. He loves holiness. He loves truth. He loves His Word. He loves his
people God's always and you know love when the preachers preached
in the book of Acts They never told anybody that God loved them
And when you find love mentioned in the scriptures is always connected
with God acting and his love manifested towards his people
God commended his love toward us us in that while we were yet
walk sinners Christ died for us here. It is love not that
we love God, but that God loved us It's in His Son into the world. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love and with cords of loving kindness have I drawn thee. And then the second thing they
say is accept Jesus. How in the world do you do that?
How's that done? Somebody tell me how do you do
that? How do you go about accepting Jesus? If He's offered to you,
If He's presented to you, which one is? How do you accept Him?
Do you reach out and take Him? Do you say, I accept you? I accept
you on my terms? I accept you for what? What are you accepting for? What
are you going to do with Him when you accept Him? What are
you going to do with Him? How are you going to handle Him? And then the word invite. An
invitation. You know, the word is not used
in the Scriptures at all. Invite or invitation is not used
in the Bible at all. Not used in the Scriptures at
all. Only used, invited. Invited is used three times.
Samuel invited Abbas to come and eat with Saul. Absalom invited
his brethren to come at the sheep shearing. And Haman said, told
his wife, I've been invited To eat with the king and the queen.
That's the only time the word invite has been used in the scripture.
But people stand and tell you, God invites you. Christ invites
you. Now, beloved, I'm going to tell you something. As a man,
and we as men, we plead with you. We beseech you. We urge you. And invite you to
come hear the gospel. Come hear the gospel. And we
urge you and plead with you and beseech you to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. But God doesn't do that. We as
men do that. God said this, look. He wasn't
going to lead as a command. Look. That's in the imperative. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. I'm a just God and a Savior. And I have sworn in my righteousness
That every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to
confess. And all beloved, God said this,
is my beloved son, hear him, hear him. And who hath believed,
I report. Now let me tell you something,
four things a sinner needs. If you're here and you're a sinner, the four things a sinner must
have in order to be saved. First of all, he's got to have
the power. You've got to have the power to be saved. Where
do you get that power at? Where do you get the power to
know God? Where do you get the power to come to God? Where do you
get the power to believe on God? Where do you get the power to
understand the Scriptures? The power to believe the Word
of God. Secondly, you've got to have the price. Your sin and
redemption must be paid. You've got to pay for the sin
that you've committed. You've got to have the price.
You've got to have the price of redemption. You've got to
have the price to offer God to His offended judges. You've got
to have the price to pay God for what you've done against
Him. Thirdly, you've got to have the ability. You've got to have
the ability. And the Scripture says we're
dead and trespassed as sin, and where was the death? They didn't
get the ability to do anything. You've got to have the ability. And He has neither of these.
Only God has. You've got to have the will.
Where do you get the will? You've got to have the will?
Where do you get the will? Where do you get the will to come? People say, I believe whosoever
will shall come. I do too. That's what the Bible
says. But where in the world do you get the will? Where does
that will come from? That will to come to God. That
will to come to Christ. Where does that come from? And
I'll tell you what, the sinner has none of these things, but
God has the power, God has the price, God has the will, God
has the ability. All that the Father giveth me,
what are they going to do? Shall come. Him that cometh to
me, I shall in no wise cast out. And everyone that the Father
giveth me, I'll raise him up at the last day. And our Lord
says, and you will not come to me that you might have life. Our Lord Jesus stood and said,
I thank thee, O Father Lord in heaven, that thou hast hid, hid
these things from the wise and prudent. And what he said, but
you revealed them unto me. Now I tell you, beloved, men
may change and pervert the gospel. And time may change most things,
and it does. It's changed us. We've grown
older. We see our change come to change
and decay before our very eyes every day. And men may change and perverse
the gospel, but some things time cannot never change. Time will
not change until time ceases to be. And the first one is,
man is still a sinner before God. Man is still a sinner before
God. Not before one another, before
God. David said, it's against thee only and only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. Secondly, Christ is still the
only hope for sinners. He's the only Savior, the only
hope for sinners. Christ. Not Buddha, not works,
not merit, not church attendance, not baptism, not shaking the
preacher's hand, not coming to the front, not praying through.
Christ! And God's Word has not changed. They can keep on making the Bible
more palatable to the natural man, keep changing the words,
keep taking it down and taking it down and taking it down until
an idiot can understand it as far as words go. But it's not
words that men don't understand, it's God and their sinfulness
they don't understand. God's Word has not changed. And
fourthly, God's way of saving men and sinners has not changed.
God is not never. The way He saved Adam, that's
the way He's going to save you. The way He saved Abraham, that's
the way He'll save you. The way He saved Noah, that's
the way He'll save you. Ain't that right? The way He
saved Jacob, that's the way He'll save you. The way He saved Israel
out of Egypt, that's the way He'll save you. The gospel, here's the thing
too, beloved, the gospel is still the power of God to save. The gospel is. And bless His
holy name, He still sends more men forth to preach the gospel.
And wherever He goes, and whenever a man preaches the gospel, he
leads a trail of life and death. To one, we're a saver of life
unto life as we preach Christ. And to other, we're a saver of
death unto death. And let me say this before I
get into my message. The attitude, the attitude that
you have in hearing the gospel, the attitude you have in hearing
the gospel, take it or leave it, do with it or do without
it, and the attitude you have toward
the preacher tells whether you're converted or not. That's right. Watch your attitude
toward the gospel. The hearing the gospel. Hearing
it. Coming and hearing it. And your attitude toward the
preacher. Let me ask you four questions. It won't take me long. First of all, what is the gospel?
What is the gospel? I said we're preaching the gospel.
Three words make up the gospel. I learned this from Henry Mahan
when I first met him. Three words constitute the gospel. The first one's sin. We are a people in trouble. What
are we in trouble over? Sin. S-I-N. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into this world, death passed upon all men. Why? For that all
has sinned. All has sinned. We sinned in
our father Adam. We was born sinners. We don't
start to become sinners when we get to a certain age of accountability
and begin committing sins. We commit sins because of what
we are. We're sinners. A man lies because
he's a liar. A man steals because he's a thief.
And, beloved, whether you ever steal anything, but, beloved,
I'll tell you this, the very fact that you own something that
don't belong to you, that makes you a thief in your heart. You
see, sin is a nature. Sin is a principle. People always
want to talk about sins. You've got to quit your sinning.
But beloved, you can't quit your sinning because you are what
you are by nature, a sinner. And the only thing that can save
us from our sin is Christ. We are beloved sinners, born
from the top of our head to the sole of our feet, from the inside
of our heart to the outside of our flesh. All have sinned. No place you
can go on topside of God's earth where you won't find people who
have sinned. Look with me over in 1 John. Look in 1 John chapter
8 with me, just a minute. 1 John chapter 8. 1 John chapter 1 in verse 8. Excuse me, John chapter. Oh boy. Yeah, 1 in 8. Look what it says here. If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth not in
us. You ever heard anybody say, I
have no sin? John Wesley believed that he, you have sinless perfection. Now watch this. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful. And not only that, but He's just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now watch this. If we say we
have not sinned in what we do, we make Him alive, and His Word's
not in us. Oh, surely, surely you wouldn't
deny that, would you? Oh, my. And I tell you, there's
two groups of people that sinned in this world. Two groups sinned.
Man sinned, and angels sinned. You know angels sinned? You find
in the Scriptures that angels sinned. They rebelled against
God. God cast them down. They're bound
in chains. But let me tell you something.
There ain't no gospel for angels. Christ didn't come here for angels.
Christ did not take upon Himself the nature of angels, but He
took upon Himself the seed of Abraham. There's no salvation
for an angel. There's no angel sin, but God
bound them. Beloved man sinned, and God provided
a Savior for them. And sin was demonstrated more
in the garden and at the cross than any place else in the universe.
When Adam says, I'll not have this man reign over me, I'll
not obey him, I'll go ahead and eat of this fruit. All he was
saying was that God is keeping me from my potential. God's keeping
me bound. God's not letting me have any
glory. God's not letting me have my
free will. He wants me to be subject to
Him, and I don't want to be. And then when they tell Christ
to the cross, they said, we will not have this man reign over
us. That's the issue. Who's going to reign? Who's going
to rule? Whose rights is this going to have? Yours or His?
And oh, beloved, there's a gospel for men who have sinned. Our
Lord Jesus says, you know, they that are whole need not a position,
but they that are sick. You go learn what this means.
I'll have mercy. I'll show mercy. I don't want
your sacrifices. I don't want you to bring me
any sacrifices. Sacrifices of God are a broken heart and a
contrite spirit. He will not despise. But he says
this, He said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. And, oh, beloved, let me tell
you the second word. The first word is sin. The second
word is satisfaction. The second word is satisfaction.
Now, God's holy law, it will be, it must be, it shall be honored. You know, when God said, Love
Me with all your heart, you think He changed that because He wasn't
able to do it? Did he repeal it because he said,
well, bless their hearts, they can't love me, so I'll just change
the law. God's not like our Congress.
God's not like our legislators. God's not like these politicians.
God's not like preachers. He don't change. He don't pass
a law to make up for the one we failed over just because we
failed. He ain't going to repeal it. He ain't going to change
it. He says love your neighbors yourself because we don't have
the ability to do that. Does that mean he's just going
to, well, I'll just mark that out. They ain't able to do it.
Huh? Is it because he says a man honor
your father and your mother. And he says, well, these poor
kids, you know, bless their hearts. I feel sorry for them. So I'll
just block that out too. God said I'll have another man's
wife. I said, my committed adultery. Oh, well, bless their hearts,
they couldn't help that. That's just their old flesh.
They couldn't help doing it, so I just blot that out too.
That's what men do. But God hasn't repealed and hasn't
changed one of His laws. Just because we don't hear His
demand, He still demands protection. You're going to love me, or you're
going to be damned. You're going to love your neighbor
as yourself, or you're going to be damned. You're going to
not lie, going to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth
all the days of your life, or you're going to perish. You're
going to honor your father and mother. You're going to respect
them, care for them, uphold them, speak good to them, honor them
with every breath you breathe, or you're going to be damned. Oh, me. What are we going to do? Now we know that whatsoever the
nation law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped. And what? The whole world becomes
guilty. But oh, listen. Our Lord Jesus
said, Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets,
but I have come to fulfill. And heaven and earth shall pass
away, but one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law. And God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law. Now wait a minute. God's righteous
justice that demands that the soul that sinneth must die. How's
that justice going to be satisfied? How's that law going to be honored?
How's that law going to be magnified? Who's going to keep that law?
Who's going to magnify that law? Who's going to satisfy that justice?
The judge of all the earth. He must do right. The wages, the wages of sin is
death. Everybody that sins, they're
going to get their wages. But the gift, gift, gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I'll tell you
how. Satisfaction is going to be given.
Here's my third word. Substitution. Substitution. You know what that
means? Somebody else took our place. Somebody else took our
place. Man can neither honor God's holy
law and man cannot satisfy God's justice. They that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Can the Ethiopian change the
color of his skin? Can the leper change his spots?
How then can you that are accustomed to evil do good? And oh, beloved,
so here's what we have to have. We have to have a substitute.
We have to have a redeemer. We have to have someone to buy
back our lost inheritance that we lost in the garden. And beloved,
this substitute, and there's only one suitable substitute,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. When God said, Behold the Lamb
of God, a lamb was always put in the stead of those who sinned. Do you know when Christ our Passover
was sacrificed for us, when God brought Israel up out of Egypt,
the first thing that had to be done was the lambs had to be
slain. 250,000 lambs or more that night,
but God says one lamb. And they took that blood of that
lamb and they put it over in the little of that door and on
the post. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. And beloved, that's what it took.
It takes the blood. God said, when I see the blood,
God took Christ, who knew no sin, who did no sin, who knew
no sin. And what did He do? Made Him
to be sin. How did He make Him to be sin?
By charging our sins, the sins of His people. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And, oh, God made Him to be sin. And, oh, beloved, I just got
through saying we're sin. God took Him and made Him to
be what we are. And then He took His and made
us to be the righteousness of God in Him. Christ got my sin
as my substitute. And that man, from the day he
was born, Till the day he is crucified on that cross, he said,
which of you can convince me of sin? The Father spoke from
heaven and says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And our Lord Jesus spoke time
and time again about my hour has not yet come, my hour has
not yet come. And when he says, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why was he forsaken of God? God
has to forsake every man who has sinned. And he forsook his
son because sin was found on him. And God's wrath was poured
out on him. He tread the fierceness of the
winepress of the wrath of God by himself. Who is this that
cometh up from Edom, his garments dyed red? It's he that tread
the fierceness of the winepress of the wrath of God alone, and
with him he brought salvation. And there was none to help him.
And oh, beloved, that substitutes our Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself,
He Himself, He Himself bore our sins in His own body, in His
body on that tree. It was a body that was offered.
It was a soul that was poured out. Christ was made a curse for us
to redeem us, to buy us out from under that curse. Oh, listen. Man cannot satisfy God. It's
impossible. Days that are in the flesh cannot
please God. But I'll tell you one thing man
can do. He can die. God cannot die, but only God
can satisfy God. So what happened was, God prepared
Christ the body as a man so He could die. But he was also God,
and as God, he was able to satisfy God. As man, he is able to bear
our sins. As God, he is able to satisfy
God. As man, he is able to fulfill
the law. As God, he is able to satisfy
the justice of God. And I really stand. Oh, he offered
his sinless humanity upon the altar of his divinity. Christ
honored and fulfilled God's law. Christ satisfied God's justice.
The scripture said in Isaiah 53-11, God said, I saw, I see
the travail of his soul. I see the burden of his soul,
the pain of his soul, the agony of his soul. When he prayed till
his sweat became as it were great drops of blood, when he said,
my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? God saw the travail of that soul.
He said, I'm satisfied. I don't want any more. I don't
need any more. I require no more. And Christ
is our substitute before law and justice. Romans, look with
me with it real quick in Romans 10.4. Let me show you this. Oh, what a verse of Scripture
here. What a verse of Scripture. You know, Christ is our substitute
before the law and justice of God, before God's law that demands
perfection. Well, Christ rendered satisfaction
and perfection to us. Justice demanded death. Christ
died. Christ died. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Romans 10, 4. For Christ is the
end of the law. When you get to the end of something,
can you go any further? When something's end, it's over
and it's done with. When you get to the end of the
line, you can't go no further. For Christ is the end, the goal,
the fulfillment of the law. Now watch this. For righteousness,
righteousness to everyone that believe. He's the end of it. He's the
end of its justice. He's the end of it as fulfillment.
He's the end of it as dying for the penalty of it. He's the end
of it for commandment. He's the end of it as a covenant.
And He's the end of it as a curse. That's the end of it. And that's
the gospel. Now, let me ask you my second
question. I told you what the gospel is. Three words. Satisfaction,
substitution. Now, gospel invitation or command. Do I have an alternative? Do
I have an alternative? No. Our Lord said, Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. Now, what kind of alternative
have you got now? What's your option? You know, you call now,
you know somebody on the phone, they give you a dozen options. You know, you want Espanol, American,
you want to speak to somebody, you want this, if you want to
click this one, click two, click three. I got on a thing the other
day that had nine different things. Nine options. I had nine, only
ten numbers on the phone, and they took the first nine options. God don't give no options. No,
no, no. He don't give you no options.
You don't get to press a button and say option 1, option 2, option
3. You don't get no options. No
options. Look over in 1 John 5 with me
just a minute. 1 John 5. Our Lord Jesus said,
He that saveth his life, What does he mean by that? You save
your life from committing to Christ. You save your life for
this world. You save your life for pleasure. You save your life
by wanting your rights. You save your life by wanting
your free will. You save your life by saying,
God, I'll come to Him at any time I want to. You go ahead
and save your life. Our Lord said you'll lose it. But if you lose your life for
my sake, give yourself away to me. Lose your life. Lose your
pleasure. Lose your free will. Lose your
chance. Lose your rights. Lose everything
that you do. Lose your righteousness. Lose
your power. Lose your rights. If you lose
your life for my sake in the gospel, you'll have life. Yeah? No options. Look at what
he said here in 1 John 5.10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath a witness in himself. Oh, I've got the witness that
I believe, don't you? I've got the witness in myself
that I believe. Who witnesses to me? The Spirit
Himself bears witness with me that I'm the child of God. Now
watch this. He that believeth not, God hath made him alive.
Because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
This is the record right here. This is it. This is the record. And this is the record that God
hath given us eternal life, and this life's in his Son. Given
it to us. And he that hath a Son, what
does he have? He has life. And he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. Now, there ain't no options right
there, are there? Do you see any options? Do you see any other
way? And oh, a man who still exercises
his options. Well, I exercise the option,
I'm going to live the way I want to. That man who says, I'll be
Lord, I'm going to choose to make my own decisions. That man
who chooses the option, I'll go where I want to go. I'll do
what I want to do. I'll spend my money the way I
want to spend it. I'll choose the friends I want
to choose. I'll worship the way I want to
worship. That fellow has not obeyed the gospel yet. You boast, I have no options.
I ain't got nothing to do, but I can't do anything else but
come to Christ. You know when you'll come to Christ? When you
can't do anything else. Until that, when you run out
of options. And we all exercise them options,
don't we? We exercise them options all
the way up till God gives us up, till He takes them all away.
We exercise the option of us doing the best we can. We exercise
our option of, you know, we got some good works, we got our options,
you know, we got our free will, we got our options, that I'm
gonna go to church one of these days, we got our options, I'm
a pretty moral fella. We got our options, I went to
an altar one time, we got our options, I was baptized one time,
still got the certificate. We got our options. I don't know
if I'll go worship this morning or not. I don't, you know. Got
our options. I don't know whether I'll believe
that gospel or not. We got our options. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Oh, my. Oh, Mr. Bunyan, you know,
he talked about a fellow who was called Mr. Face both ways. How do you face both ways? Oh,
lots of people do it. They face the world, and they
face religion. They face their own righteousness,
and they face the righteousness of God. And you know, they just
face both ways. You know, wherever they're at,
that's the way they're facing. Whoever they're with, that's the way
they're facing. Wherever they're at, that's the way they're facing.
They face the world, and people have got just enough religion
to make them miserable in the world, and enough world in them
to make them miserable when they're in church. Have any of y'all like that?
You've got enough religion in you that you're miserable out
in the world, and you've got enough world in
you that you're miserable when you're in the service. Surely you're not like that.
And oh, I'll tell you something, beloved. You know why they call
an Adam's apple this thing here, and a man or woman, you don't
want to have an Adam's apple? That's because they'll swallow Adam's
apple every time. Yeah. You know, they'll rather
have Adam's apple as to have the gospel, as long as they got
an option. And the Titanic, let me tell you this, and I'll move
on. The only thing they was interested in when the Titanic went down
is they put up a list of people. Saved, lost. It didn't matter
who you was, you went running to that thing. Are they saved
or are they lost? Saved or lost. It didn't matter
who they was. Are you saved or are you lost? Boot Black might
have been saved. And a Lord might have went down,
but it didn't make any difference. Saved or lost. And oh, let me
ask you this, third question. Why is the gospel a command?
Do you have an alternative? The gospel's sin, satisfaction,
and substitution. Why is the gospel a command?
First of all, it's keeping with the honor and character of God.
You know, God's a sovereign. For you or me to question Him
is an insult. Who art that old man that reposed
against God? When Moses went down and told
him to let his people go, he said, Who is the Lord? Who is
the Lord that I should obey him? And I'll tell you something,
a sovereign doesn't ask or beg or invite. He tells, he doesn't plead, he proclaims,
he doesn't question, he commands. And that's what that That Lord
in Luke 14 says, you know, those that were bidden, they all with
one consent have been to make excuses. They lost their lives
because of their wife, because of their oxen, because of their
land they bought. They lost their lives. That's
where their hearts was. And Christ said, the Lord says, go out and
bid them, bring them, compel them, bring them. And if the
Holy Ghost don't bring us, we're not coming. We're going to make
our excuses. And the gospel. Being a command
gives authority to His servants. You know the reason preachers
don't have any authority anymore? Because they don't represent
a God of authority. So God doesn't have any authority.
He doesn't have any power. He's a beggar. Man's got all
the power. God doesn't have any man. Man
is made way high. God's made way low. God's the
one who has to beg and plead to let him do something for you. But that's not the way it is.
He said, I have all authority in heaven and earth. If souls
are not saved, I'll tell you this without any qualms, and
this is the gospel I preach wherever we go, and everybody we know
preaches this gospel, the men we know. If souls are not saved,
we're still going to preach the gospel. The ability or inability
of the sinner doesn't lessen the gospel as a communion. Just
because you don't have the ability or the inability doesn't change
the gospel, does it? You know, over in Ezekiel 37,
down there it says four different times God told Ezekiel, He said,
go down there and preach to those tribes, and four times Ezekiel
said, I did. as I was commanded. And because he had authority
and God commanded him, those dead, dry bones came together,
had flesh put on them and life put in them. How? Because God
sent a preacher and gave him a message and commanded him to
do it. And all men are commanded to
praise God, all men are commanded to repent, all men are commanded
to honor the Son, and all men shall stand before the judgment
seat of Christ and give an account of the things they've done. And
the gospel is a command, and I tell you what, listen to me,
if you don't hear anything else I've said today, listen to this.
The gospel has a command, and if it comes to you as a command,
then I'm at liberty to do what the gospel tells me. You can obey a command. We're going places all the time,
and we'll be driving along where it says, that's 35, 35 miles
an hour. Here you are going 55. The Lazarus. Christ said, Lazarus,
come forth. Dead men don't come forth. Dead
men can't live just by the voice of somebody. If Christ gives
him the command, he had the ability to come out of there. He had
the ability to live. Stretch forth thy hand. That man had
a paralyzed hand. He's all up here, shriveled up
and all that. Christ said, reach forth your hand. He couldn't.
He couldn't do that. But with the command comes the
ability and the liberty to do it. Christ said, look and live. You can look and live. Stretch forth your hand. If Christ
tells you to, you can. Huh? Oh, he said, take up your bed
and walk. He ain't walked in 38 years. But he took up his bed and walked.
Because Christ told him to. With the command comes the ability
and the liberty to do it. Now, why don't you? Huh? And
what's the obedience required? My last question, and I'm done. God said, hear His Son. This
is my beloved Son, hear Him. Come hear the Gospel. God has
spoken through His Son. And the second thing is, and
look over here in 1 John 3.23. I'm going to show you this. The second obedience required,
not only is hear His Son, this is my Son, hear Him. God has
spoken unto us through His Son. 1 John 3.23 says this, and this
is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son
Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment. And the third confession, third
thing is this, confessing. Confessing. What shall be is
confessing. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness. With the mouth, confession is
made unto salvation. And he that believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. And I'll tell you something,
until you confess Christ and confess the gospel publicly by
believer's baptism, there's no reason to believe that you're
saved. Until you confess publicly by believer's baptism, Say, I
trust Christ. I believe Christ. Until you do
that, you have no reason to believe you're saved. I have no reason
to believe you're saved. Nobody else does. You don't either.
But you're afraid. Well, you're afraid. I know you're
afraid. You're afraid to get off that
old ship freewill. You're afraid of getting off that old ship.
Well, I've got a profession. I confessed when I was 14 years
old. That old ship of doing the best I can, that old ship of
experience. You wouldn't believe what I just
experienced. I felt these goosebumps. I sometimes
watch a movie and get goosebumps. Cold wind blows across me and
I get goosebumps. And that old ship of tradition.
Tradition, that's not what my mom and daddy believed. But if
they didn't, they believed wrong. And if you don't get off it,
if you don't get off that old ship, you'll go down with it. And the fourth thing that obedience
requires is to obey His Word. By this shall all men know you
are My disciples, if you continue in My Word. Then are you My disciples
indeed. Now, beloved, why won't you obey
the gospel? Why won't you believe Christ?
Why won't you? Why won't you? As they say in this modern vernacular,
the ball's in your court. Why won't you believe the gospel?
Why won't you obey it? Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for your goodness, your grace,
your mercy to us. Thank you for your gospel. God,
bless it to our hearts. Bless it to our understanding.
Bless it to faith today. Oh, bless it to faith. Oh, Father,
please enable men to come forth and confess Him. God, You're
the only one that can do it. We leave it in Your hands. If
there is any salvation you'll save, you must do it. If there is any faith, you must
give it. If there is any life, you must produce it. And so we
are shut up to you, but we do pray and beg and plead and urge
men to come to you. God bring them for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Let's turn in our hymn
books. I think it's number 52. I believe
it's what it is. No, no, only trust him.
What's, I don't trust him. 252, stand with me. 252. 252. Thank you.