It's like I told Brother Henry
Mahan one time, that when a man starts at Genesis and preaches
through Revelation, he doesn't leave you much to talk about. That's just about spot I'm in
this morning. But I go ahead and do what I
do anyhow, and trust that Walter will do what he has to do. Want I'm not going to ask you
to do this now, but I'd like for you to read and think about
the eighth chapter of first Kings And this eighth chapter of first
Kings You know you don't have to do it at all do it all I beginning about verse 28 and
read it on through It's quite a lengthy chapter Read it on
through to verse 66 This is Solomon's prayer at the
dedication of the temple and Throughout this prayer, and
I'm just going to hit a couple here to begin and then go to
what I want to talk to you about He's speaking of God's forgiveness. And he says in the very beginning
of the prayer, asking God to hearken and to listen. And then he says in verse 31,
if any man trespass against his neighbor and an oath be laid
upon him to cause him to swear and the oath come before thine
altar in this house, hear thou from heaven and do. and judge
thy servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon
his head, justifying the righteous, and so on. Then if you drop down,
you see constantly these words, and forgive, and forgive, and
forgive, and it goes on and on and on. He also constantly reminds
these people, reminds God, I guess, or he asks
God to bring to their mind the commandment, the commandment,
the commandment, the commandment. You've got to remember that this
was under the law. But look at what happens down
in Verse 62, after this prayer,
of Solomon it is said, and the king and all Israel with him
offered sacrifice before the Lord. All this prayer, this forgive,
forgive, forgive, command, command, command. They offered sacrifice
unto the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen. and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the children
of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. I simply refer you to that for
this purpose, that the prayer would have been worthless apart
from the sacrifice. Even the desire. Even the hope would be dead,
apart from the sacrifice. Now, go back to Acts 13, 38.
And in this passage, you have More of that which I spoke of
last Sunday. Chapter 13, and it's very brief,
and verse 38, and Paul is preaching in Antioch of Pisidia, and he
says, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, through this
man, now who's he talking about? Well, he's talking about Christ.
He said, for David, after he had served his own generation
and so on, but he whom God raised up again, raised again, saw no
corruption. This was Christ, of course. So
then he said, be it known unto you that through this man is
preached the forgiveness of sins. And by him, by him, all they
that believe are justified from all things from which he could
not be justified by the law of moses i said last sunday the
most difficult thing for god's people to do and i'll keep in
mind i said god's people all men have not faith that's what
the scripture says all people are not god's people I'm talking about those who have
had, and I'm going to use the word, and I know some of my brethren
don't like it. I'll use the word. To be a part
of the people of God means that you, in your soul, conscience
and mind, now I won't separate those things right now, and I'm
not going to this morning, but you know what I'm talking about,
your whole being. have an intimate experience in the grace of god
i mean something that that you know about not until that happens can you
say i'm a child of god you cannot take it for granted there are those as i mentioned
last sunday the preach well there you have you have god's people
in time That's now, they can be born again. But you have eternal
election, which means you can live all your life without any
knowledge of Christ and no knowledge at all of the Word and no hope
in Him. And when you leave this earth,
you're the elect of God and you go right to be with Him. That's
not true. It is nowhere in this book. There are those who believe that
the church is the ship of salvation. And when some of these children
are born, you'd call on Walter or me and Walter. And some Sunday
in church, we'd bring up this little baby that's just a few
days old and put some water on his head with our finger or her
head and baptize him. And the child right then with
the sponsor is in the church. and is saved. That's a lie. That's a lie. And we've got a
lot of Baptists around that believe that. They don't baptize the
babies. That's true. But let me tell
you, as soon as they can get the little kids into the water,
they'll take them. And I don't see much more difference
of baptizing a baby than I do of a five-year-old child in the
waters of baptism. That's exactly right. Now that's
just all there is to it. I'm talking about an experiential
thing. Something that his spirit witnesses
with our spirit that we are the children of God. You say, well
I don't have that much assurance. Now I'm not talking about assurance
either. I'm talking about God's word and the purpose of Christ's
death. That's what I'm talking about.
It has nothing to do with my feeling. Oh, I saw a ridiculous thing
on, I was going for Henry this morning, and they had some fellow
down in Huntington wanted everybody's money. I'll send you a lapel pin. It has something about being
for life, and I don't know what all. He's gonna send him a lapel
pin, a little book, and this and that and the other thing.
And you send me, and you can become a member of our organization,
and we're gonna win the world for Christ. You know what that
man is? He's a crook. He's a crook. He's a liar. He's stealing people
blind. And then it had a little clip. And everybody was standing there
with their hands up in the air, jumping up and down like a bunch of a
bottle of Mexican jumping beans. That's not worship. That's not
worship. When you come before God, you
bow down. You bow down. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached the forgiveness
of sins. Now you have to hear Paul again
when he's speaking about his conversion and his call and his
ordination into the service of Christ in Acts 28.18. Paul didn't
have an ordination board. Here's what he says. Here's the commission that was
given to him, and Paul is testifying to this. What is the purpose
of his ministry? What is the purpose of his preaching?
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive what? The forgiveness of sins. Listen,
if that happens, you're going to know it. You're going to be
aware of it. Inheritance among them that are
sanctified. There's a word that I'm going
to start preaching on all these days Although the trouble of
it is it's these words are so misused that you have to get
on people's case in order to show how they're misused They
don't know the meaning of them Sanctified separated by faith
that is in me. That's how they're separated
and This is the work of the Holy Spirit. This separation is the
work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Our forgiveness
is in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And that has
nothing to do with our person, appearance, or work. Hear what Paul says to the Ephesians
in chapter 1 and in verse 7. In whom? In who? In Christ. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, what? The forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace. This is the hardest thing for
God's people to accept, that they are now forgiven. That God doesn't have a big stick
over your head, going to beat you into the ground when you
fail. There is always a sense of guilt. I shouldn't say always.
There are many times a sense of guilt and shame and condemnation. Always in the heart and in the
mind of God's little children. And I'm telling you that it's
not true. It's not true. The forgiveness
of sins, according to what? According to the riches of His
grace and not the meticulous obedience that you might perform
to some law or laws. Our redemption is in Him. He's
the only ground of forgiveness that is ever shown to any of
us. How do I expect to be saved?
Through Christ, brother. How do I know that I'm a child
of God? He said so. You know, it goes
back to him. I told Walter on the phone the
other day. Christ is the central figure of anything that we've
got to say. If he's not, we're not preaching the gospel. Now
that's just it. Now you can get up here and of
course to preach the gospel is to preach the election of grace. Now, there is a gospel, and put
that word in quotes, that is preached today that Paul says
is no gospel. Here's the verse. I marvel, he says to the Galatians
in Galatians chapter 1, he said, I marvel I'm amazed at the fact
that you are so soon removed from Him. See, from Him. That called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel, which He says is not another. It doesn't amount to anything.
But there be some that trouble you. And they surround us. So you say, well Earl, why do
you always have to pick on people? I'm not picking on people. I'm
just telling the truth. And if that sounds like picking
on people, I'm not even sorry. There are some that would trouble
you, he said, and pervert. What does that mean? Turn it
to opposite ends. Make it opposite of what it is.
They would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, now
I didn't say this, this is the Holy Spirit speaking through
Paul the Apostle. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. You want me to put it in plain
words? Let him go to hell. That's exactly what it means.
And he repeats himself. Yes, sir. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Now, to
be removed from the gospel is to be removed from Christ. Yes,
sir. And to be removed from Christ
is to be accursed. condemned of God. Now, what were
these people teaching in Galatia that Paul got on fire so about? Well, they had a church. And they, of course, Paul was
in Rome when he wrote this. But he, I'm not sure, in Jerusalem. He had gone back there. He comes
along here and he heard, he heard that there was something going
wrong in Galatia. That there were people over there
causing trouble. Heard a man say one time, well
I'm not going to be anywhere where the pastor's a dictator.
Oh listen, when it comes to the word and doctrine, this pastor's
a dictator. Absolutely. Absolutely. If it's contrary to God's word,
you show it to me. You show it to me and we'll talk. But as far as this book is concerned,
it's to dictate our lives and our doctrine. Now, Paul heard
that over there in Galatia, where he had established the church
and had preached there and set before these Gentiles the gospel
of God's grace. Lo and behold, some old Jews from Jerusalem came
in. Now these fellows professed to
be children of God through Jesus Christ. Remember that. These
were not outwardly, not professedly, of the old Pharisee organization. They were supposed to have accepted
the doctrines of grace. Well, here they come. And I can
just see them, they had all of their paraphernalia on, you know. Their high mitered hats, well
some people still wear them today. Their robes and their phylacteries
and the whole nine yards, they were all decked out, these guys
were. They came in, you know, they never smile. You know these people. And they walked in and they said,
now look, it's true that Christ is our Savior, but it is Christ
and the law. You've got to keep the law. Your
children, your male children must be circumcised, and you've
got to keep the law. That is, and they were talking
about the law, not just the law of circumcision. And let me tell
you, if any man insists that you keep one law, no matter what
it is, you're obligated to keep it all. That's what the book
says. Just one. You're obligated. Now, he, this
was quite a row. Now, don't you dare misunderstand
me, some of you who are new to my speaking. Don't misunderstand
me. Some works are the result of
forgiveness, regeneration, and conversion. But never are they
the cause of them. Never. So the effect of anything,
write it down. It's good stuff. The effect of
anything cannot be greater than the cause that brought it. Never. So they were having a good one
at Galatia. And Peter, and you older ones
know this account, Peter had sided with these self-righteous
Jews. Like Tim James said, he went
over and sat with these people with pork chops on his breath.
And it was so serious that Barnabas, Paul's bloody preacher, went
over with that bunch. Now, this was serious. And this division was vital. It was vital that they be called
back to the spiritual truth and the health that they experienced
in the beginning. Now, Paul didn't turn away from
conflict. He didn't turn away from conflict.
Therefore, I assume that the Spirit of God condones conflict
when it's for the right purpose. Well, I didn't want to say anything.
I thought it'd cause some trouble. Maybe it ought to cause some
trouble. Yes, sir. You know, well, I just sort of stay in
the background, keep my mouth shut. My grandfather always said
that an empty barrel made the most noise. He also said that
still water ran deep. But you remember, still water
is always stagnant and full of toad's eggs. So, the truth was in question
here. Now, hear again these words.
Paul the Apostle, again in Galatians. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ. What is the faith of Christ?
It's the fact that Christ had full confidence and faith in
God the Father that if he would die for the sins of his people,
God would receive these sinners. And that's exactly what God did
by the faith of Jesus Christ and not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now, it's an impossibility that
the conscience can have any real rest until the forgiven sinner,
I said forgiven sinner, sees the ground of his or her
forgiveness. You've got to see the ground
of it. There may be, you may have in
your mind, I hope not many, but there are some that may have
in their mind some thoughts about the mercy and the goodness of
God, and about the readiness of God
to receive sinners and forgive their sins. They may have thoughts
about that. However, until the convicted
soul is led to see and to understand, and I'm not sure I can do that,
I think that's the Holy Spirit's work, led to see how that God
can be just and the justifier of sinners. See, that's a tough one. How
that God can be just and the justifier. That's what's the
matter with our inability to accept the fact that we're forgiven. If God were just, he'd punish
us. That's really the basis of what we think. And God is absolutely
just. He is absolutely just and can
be none else. How can God be a just God and
yet a Savior? Until you get that in your mind,
you're going to be a stranger to that peace which passes all
understanding. Because you're always looking
inside. And you can't find anything there that would please God.
Doesn't even please you. How can it please God? Doesn't please me. When the Holy Spirit opens the
mind, of the regenerated sinner, that one that knows and feels
and is convinced that sin can never enter into the presence
of God, that sin, wherever it's found, meets only the justice
of a sin-hating God. So until God's way of dealing
with sin is understood, and believed, all you're going to have is spiritual
pain and misery. There's going to be no peace.
Sin is a reality. Sin is real. I know that today
we don't think much of it. Dare I say this in an old school
Baptist church? Back in the beginning, God took
skins of animals and clothed Adam and Eve, and they've been
trying to get out of their clothes ever since. You're right. It's a common thing to see international
nakedness on television. You're right. That's a common
thing. And if I don't accept it, I'm
a conservative. Well brother, let me tell you
I'm a little more than that. I'm a little more than that.
You take the conservative and underline it 15 or 20 times.
I'm talking about theology now. I'm talking about Christianity.
Yes sir. You say, well, isn't that law?
No. No, that's what God has taught
us. When our Lord and his followers
found the Gadarene demoniac naked, that's what the book says, running
amuck in a cemetery, screaming and hollering, Christ cast the
demons out of him. That's why he was doing it. He
was full of demons. When Christ cast the demons out
of him, the community found him clothed and in his right mind. So I figure anybody who takes
their clothes off is nuts. Now, we smile at that. Well, you say, well, Earl, you're
76 years old. Yeah, I am. And I felt this way
for 60 or more of the 76 years. And I don't mean that to sound
boastful, but God brings conviction to us. And you don't walk willy-nilly,
hopping from bed to bed, or walking in fellowship with the Egyptian
society that's around us. God help us. Condemn that which
needs to be condemned. And trust God for everything
else. I'm trying and I may not get
it done. But sin is a reality. God's absolute holiness is a
reality. God cannot look upon sin. How then can he look upon me? Conscience is real. When the scripture says, if our
heart condemn us not, it's talking about conscience. If our heart
condemn us not, we have peace toward God. Well, you can believe
this, that a child of God's heart can condemn him. And that will
result in a loss of peace. You see, you know these things
by experience. You can't know a road unless
you've been down it. And let me tell you this, a judgment
to come is a reality. Justice has to be satisfied. The penalty of sin must be paid. The conscience must be purged
from dead works. Must be. and the devil silenced. Now, how are we going to do this?
How is this going to be done? By the cross of Jesus Christ.
Paul said this, he said, I am crucified with Christ. In other words, when Christ was
nailed to that cross, I was nailed there. The word he uses is ego. The intrinsic self I don't want
to get into this too deeply. The being that is, the being
that you are, or was, let's put it that way, as you were born,
that being, that ego was nailed to the cross with Christ. That's
something that the child of God must realize. We were dead in trespasses and
sins, now we've been crucified with Christ and we died with
Him. Even we're buried with Him, that's
what the book says. And raised with Him in newness
of life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Amen. Never. This is the only ground of forgiveness
by God, by grace, or through faith. The crosswork of Christ in the
atonement is the only ground on which God, a just God, and
a justified sinner can meet. You see, this just God is absolutely
holy. This sinner is but a justified
sinner, and we meet on the common ground of Christ as substitute,
as our surety. In the atonement, sin is condemned. The blood of Christ condemned
sin. He died for sinners. Justice is satisfied because
the penalty has been met. Mercy and truth have kissed each
other The law is magnified how is that
true? Well the law says the soul is
the soul that sinneth it shall die He Christ being sinless being
perfect. It's insofar as the law is concerned
It didn't take pilot to say I find no fault in this man. God had
already said it and Whether Pilate did or not doesn't matter. But
what I'm saying is that the whole ground, the whole base, the foundation
of forgiveness is the fact that he bore our sins, all of them,
in his own body on the tree. He died for us. The garden, way back in Genesis
now, the garden of contentment is gone. And the tree huggers and the EPA are never going to
bring it back. It's gone. It'll never return. The garden of contentment and
bliss is over. There's a ray of light in that
darkness. We read also that God created
a covering, and I mentioned that, for the man and his wife, and
that he promised in that darkness that one would come. Even back
there. The coming one that would bruise
the serpent's head, although the serpent would bruise his
heel. Genesis 315, I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel. That was the promise of Christ.
Way back there. Now, you might want to answer a question.
Maybe I've probably asked it before. But if you've heard me
ask this, just toss it out. Did God Almighty curse? I said curse. Now there
were results of Adam and Eve's fall, but did God curse them
in particular? Was a definitive curse. I told
the woman, in sorrow shall thou bear your children. In sorrow
shall thou bring forth children. And he said, in dying thou shalt
surely die. Was that spiritual death? Did Adam die spiritually? The
very moment he succumbed to sin. The very moment. Well, how, how,
how, what could, what, what, what, God was there? Yes, God
was there. and he took skins and made clothes. He created a covering for Adam's
sin and for Eve's sin. He did. Well, how'd he do that?
By sacrifice. By sacrifice. Now, this is the thing that I'm trying
to say. We're prone to focus our attention
on things, and not on Christ. Included in those things are
actions, words, conditions that surround us, circumstances, and
we focus on that, and by focusing on those things we miss Christ. We miss Him. I wish it didn't take so long
to learn that. We struggle for answers when
we've never even learned what the question is. The question is, upon what do
you base your redemption? That's the question. And answered
by the word of God, there is no hope other than in Christ.
The only thing you're going to find by looking inwardly, you
say, well, I don't like the things I do. I don't either. But you know when I do them?
When I walk in the flesh. Yeah. That's when I do them. So if you walk in the spirit,
You'll not fulfill the deeds of the flesh. No. He died for us in our place as
our substitute. He died so that we might never
die. I don't believe in death for
God's people. I don't believe in that. Well,
is there sorrow? Sure there's sorrow. My soul,
I'd be a heartless creature if I said there wasn't sorrow. I
told you yesterday, I walked out on these hillsides with some
pretty good friends. What good would it have done
if I had been unable to do my work? What good would it have
done to be torn up with sorrow and being torn up with grief
publicly when there was enough grief right there in front of
me? But that doesn't mean you don't
feel grief. Now, we need to remember Romans 5-6.
And some of you that don't know it ought to listen to it. For
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
good people? No! I mean, the fair sisters
of the county are sitting in high-domed cathedrals this morning
on plush pews, dressed to the hilt, and have no more knowledge
of Christ than if they'd never heard His name. And that goes
for the men, too. No, Christ didn't die for good
people. He died for the ungodly. the ungodly. And I was one of
that kind. But God commendeth his love.
This is what scripture says, Romans 5, 8. But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, we hadn't
reformed, we hadn't joined the church. Oh, we may have done
that, but it didn't do us any good. We were just as evil and
wicked as we were before. I've known some Baptist deacons
that were as mean as dirt. I've known some preachers that
weren't very much better off. And they love me for making statements
like that. But you see, in that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Nobody would consider us worth
dying for. You know, Paul says in this passage
previously, for a righteous man, some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, not when we were righteous.
People die for children and babies and for their friends. But he died for his enemies. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. That's the ground of our forgiveness. That's the ground of it. This
is part of the record. that God gave of His Son. Now
the question is this, do you believe that record? Or is your
mind filled with nonsense about religion and about who does what
and when and where and how and they did this and got by with
it and somebody else. I'm not talking, that's nonsense. Until the law does a work in
your heart and you realize you're condemned before God, I have
no hope of salvation for you. That's just the truth. And you've
heard me say it many, many times. You say, well, I don't have any
interest in this. It's just all negative. No, it's not negative.
Christ is very positive. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. I'm not talking about religion.
I'm not talking about church membership. I'm talking about
reaching out to Christ. Walter said this morning, and
this is not criticism, he spoke of those being in heaven
and worrying about those on earth, or those that didn't make it.
Let me tell you, I don't worry about them now. That's true. I don't worry about
them now. So I'm sure I won't worry about
them then. Am I concerned about them? Sure.
But I'm talking about hand wringing, constant, constant. It's God's
business. Yes, sir. Don't you think that? That's it. Don't you think that? It's God's business, and I'm
satisfied that he doeth all things well. Amen. Everything he does
is right. And it matters not. I know some
people cannot accept, I've got family that can't accept that.
They think I'm horrid. But that's just the way it is.
I don't mean to be harsh, but I mean to be firm, and I mean
to tell the truth. Are you satisfied? I told you the other night, people
are, you know, I found this to be true. Can I, did I tell you the story
about the girl that hugged me in the Kroger store? Didn't I tell you that? I have
weird experiences. You see, I'm like the fellow
that says my face, I don't mind it because I'm behind it. It's
the one in the front gets the jar. But I was going down the
aisle in Kroger's one day and here come a little blonde girl.
I don't know how old she was. Anybody under 50 is a kid. So,
she was just a young woman. And she came up and put her arms
around me and hugged me. And that's unusual. Because this
visage does not promote those things. And I said, young woman,
do I know you? She said, no. I said, what's
your name? What did she tell me? Sarah. Sarah. She said, Sarah? And I
said, Sarah what? Sarah Elizabeth? And she just
grinning all over. I said, Sarah Elizabeth who?
And she gave me her last name and I've forgotten that too.
But She said, no, I thought that you looked like you needed a
hug. I'll tell you, this is a crazy
world. And that's on tape. All right, Edith, you can quit.
Now, this so amazed me. Can you believe
that I was tongue-tied? Well, I know some men would have
run. And others, well, we better not
even discuss them. But you see, and I'm serious about this, we can't
judge by appearances. I'm not an unhappy person, but
I'll tell you this, that I found in my lifetime of work that not
many people are happy. We live in an unhappy world.
There's very little happiness here. And what happiness there
is here depends entirely upon vacation, upon where you go,
the movies you see, how many times you eat out during the
week, and what your plans are for next month or next weekend,
going here or going there, doing this or doing that. That's where
happiness lies to the 99% of the people in existence today.
And it ain't so. It's not so. Paul said, godliness
with contentment is great gain. He said, I've learned in whatsoever
state I am therein to be content. I said that to one fellow, and
he said, well, I figure I've been content in the state of West
Virginia, and that's about as good as you can get. But contentment,
happiness, cannot depend upon what happens. I gotta quit. But is Christ sufficient
for you? Are you still looking for something
in yourself, or something in the world, or something in your
ways, or in your works, or your feelings? You'll never find anything. And even if you thought you did,
it would just be a loss. It would just hinder you. Even
if you did. Christ is sufficient for God.
And I can test to the fact