to be able to believe the gospel,
to hear the gospel, to rejoice in it. And we did not do so because
we decided to do so, but we did so because the Lord brought us
to the place where we couldn't do anything else. you know a lot of people present
the gospel as being man's kind of in a neutral situation and
this message is preached and that's all up to men to do what
they're going to do and that appeals to men cause men like
to consider themselves to be in control they like to think
that they're the ones who determine the end from the beginning in
their own lives But the reality is that the Scripture says there
is none that seeketh after God. Now if you didn't know any other
passage of Scripture in the book but that one, it would put to
death the concept that a man can be offered the Gospel and
he can either receive it or reject it. Because the Scripture already
says that he's rejected it. It's not a matter of whether
you reject the gospel. You were born in that state.
The wicked go forth from the womb speaking lies. And we're
all born in rebellion against God. There's none that seeketh
after God. There's none that doeth good. And so, if there's
any hope to be had for any man before Almighty God, it is that
God would show mercy to it. that God who's rich in mercy
would pour out mercy. But mercy belongs to the Lord.
See, it wouldn't be mercy if man could earn it. Now that's
men kind of think that they're owed it. They kind of think that
God just shows mercy kind of randomly or that he just shows
it generally. and there truly is a sense in
which the mercy of God visited upon all men. I mean, the animals,
all the creation, in a measure, receive of the mercy of God.
I mean, all the creatures are fed, the lilies of the field
are clothed in beauty, and the fowls of the air, they have something
to eat. And that is an aspect of God's
mercy towards His creation because He wouldn't have to do that,
would He? You know, I mean, is the Lord
under any sort of obligation? Can men be, can the creation
say to the Creator, well, we don't think you should do it
like that. Now, the creation does do that quite often, and
will continue to do that apart from the mercy of God to change
the mind and heart to seek after Him. That's the only way it's
going to occur. And so when we come together
and we have any sort of a belief in the things of Almighty God
and we have a confidence and trust in the Savior of sinners,
we can be sure if it is a true trust and reliance, it had to
come from the Lord. It could not have been caused
within us. Now that's a comforting thought.
On the one hand, to the desperate sinner who is seeking the Lord,
and he knows himself to be without any help or hope, and yet he
finds within him a desire to seek the Lord, as Job said, though
He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. See, that is a comfort
in itself. When thou, my righteous judge,
shalt come, to call our ransomed people home, shall I among them
stand? Now that's a question that probably
comes into your mind every now and then, and it does come into
mine. Now, to the man that believes
he's the one that decided he'd be saved, he doesn't ever think
about that, does he? He just says, well, I'm saved. I mean, I remember when I was
growing up, and I joined the church, and they told me that
I was going to heaven. Because I joined the church and
I lived under that thought for a long time. But the day came
when I got to saying, well, you know, wait a minute here. I mean, I read some things about
the Lord that did add up to what somebody told me. And then the
Lord began to show me what I was by nature. That I didn't love His Word.
I didn't love His way. I didn't love the Lord Jesus
Christ. I didn't want to go to hell when I died. I mean, you
know, a man would be pretty stupid, would he not? To want to go to
hell? Now some people say they do,
but I mean, you know good and well, if they understood what
hell was, they'd be a man alive that wouldn't shrink back from
it. It's not just a fire. You know, it's the most awful
thing you could think of. to be cast out from the presence of Almighty
God forever. I mean, that's an awful thing,
dear brother. And so, you know, only the Lord
can bring a man to a place where he desires to walk in the things
of God. And the man who is a child of grace
is never satisfied that he's walking with the Lord. Now a
religious man, he can get satisfied, you know, he can fulfill the
requirements. I mean, you know, some folks, they figure, well,
you know, we went to church this Sunday. Kind of got, we can check
that off. uh... we might even read the
bible a time or two we can check that off but see the children
of God are never satisfied because they look within themselves and
they see a mass of unbelief and their consideration of their
unbelief overwhelms their any sense they might have of that
they have believed and so that's why we preach the gospel is so
that the God's people might be comforted in the knowledge That
it's not of works, not the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man, but of God. That we're born into the kingdom
of God. And that's both a fearful thought, as well as a comforting
thought. And the Lord has meant it to
be that way. That we might know and understand
that it's not anything that is of the flesh. Not one thing. Nothing. It's all the mercy and
grace of God that he might be glorified. So we read Psalm 70. It says, Make haste, O God, to
deliver me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and confounded
that seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, Aha! Aha! Let all those
that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee, and let such as
love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. But I am
poor and needy. Make haste unto me, O God, Thou
art my help and my deliverer. O Lord, make no tarrying." This again is, though it's a
Psalm of David, it says here in the title, to the chief musician,
a Psalm of David to bring to remembrance. Now what is it that
is to be brought into remembrance? Well number one, that though
David prayed this prayer, it is nonetheless the prayer of
Jesus Christ that was given to David. And when the Lord walked
among men in the earth, This was that which He spoke in His
soul before Almighty God. And it says here, it says make
haste twice. It says make haste in the first
verse and it says make haste in the second verse. What make
haste? I mean, help me. I need some
help now. You know, it's one thing for
somebody to say, we're going to come help you. I mean, if
you're in a burning down house with no way to get out, and you
call 9-1-1, and they say, well, we'll be there. You know, we've
got to gather up some people, and we'll be out there quick
as we can. And we'll probably be there in
an hour or so. That wouldn't be very comforting,
would it? I mean, that wouldn't be the thing you would be thinking.
No, you'd be saying, oh, make haste. Now, some people are just
satisfied for, you know, the things of God. They figure they'll
take care of them in time. You've heard people say, oh,
well, when I get older, I'll seek the Lord. Or when things
get right, you know, I gotta get all these different things
straightened out in my life, and I got to do this, that, and
the other, and then I'll seek the Lord. Well, they're not,
the Spirit of God not working in them. Because when the Spirit
of God begins to work in a man's heart, he begins to say, oh,
I've got to get some help here. It's not enough that I know the
help is there. I need it now. The Lord said
that the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take
it by force. There's a lot of ways we can
look at that particular verse, but I've always thought of it
in this way. That is that when a man is wrought
upon by the Spirit of God, he can't be satisfied with anything
less. He's like Jacob who wrestled
with the angel whom we believe to be the Lord Himself as he
He wouldn't let go until he was blessed. I mean, he had to have
it. It wasn't something that he hoped he'd get. It was something
he had to have. And so it is that when a man
is distressed with his sin, he is going to be in a situation
where he says, oh, make haste to help me. Lord, I need some
help now because I might not live long enough to get it if
you don't get here quick. Now when we think of the Lord
Jesus Christ as he was tempted in all points like as we are
yet without sin, he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows,
he understood that very thought. Just like when he stood before
a tomb where Lazarus lay and the scripture says that Jesus
wept Now there's been a lot of things preached over the years
about Jesus wept and also the scripture says Jesus was troubled
in his heart. Now can you imagine that? I mean the one who knew the end
from the beginning, the one who was as certain of the resurrection
of Lazarus from that tomb as he was when he created the world,
yet the scripture says he was troubled when he saw the sorrow
of the people around him, and he wept. Now, that's unfathomable by me,
and I believe the greatest mystery that there is that the Lord has
revealed unto men in the scriptures is the humanity of Jesus Christ.
It's one thing to believe in his deity. See some people believe
in his humanity separated from his deity. They just think he
was a man. He was a good man. In fact, I
read something this week that told us why we ought to embrace
the Muslims, because after all, they believe Jesus. And this
was by a supposed Christian minister. He said, we ought to embrace
the Muslims because while they don't believe in the divinity
of Christ, but they do believe he was a great prophet sent from
God. Well, dear brethren, that's the
exact Point. I mean, if you don't embrace
or do not recognize that He is God, a very God who walked among
men, then you have missed the whole point. It doesn't make
any difference if you think He was a good man. But then there are those that
believe He was God. but that he wasn't really a man.
I mean, he just kind of appeared to be a man and he kind of gave
us an example, but he wasn't really a man. But you see, the
mystery of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ was born in the
likeness of sinful flesh and walked among men and was tempted
in all points like as we are. He understood. The Scripture
says he can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Why?
because He's borne our infirmities. He knows exactly what the sorrow,
He knew exactly the sorrow that was in the heart of Mary and
Martha as their brother had died. He knew it! He felt it! He understood it! And He wept! And He was troubled in His soul!
And He says here, Make haste, O God, to deliver me. He said,
the strong bulls of Bashan have encompassed me about. The dogs
are growling and nipping at me and they're trying to destroy
me. And he said, Oh God, deliver me. Now did he not have power
at any point in time in his earthly life that he could have just
destroyed the whole bunch? He could have started over again
if he wanted to. He could have done anything he
wanted to do. But what He wanted to do was bear our sorrows. And
in order to bear our sorrows, He had to be acquainted with
them. And He was acquainted with them. And we read about it here. Oh God, deliver me. Make haste to help me. Oh Lord. You ever been in a situation
like that? I'm telling you the Lord Jesus
Christ He knows what that place is. He's walked there before
you did. And he's carried your sorrows
and your griefs. Let them be ashamed and confounded
that seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Now the Lord did indeed
come to seek and to save that which is lost. But what is often
overlooked is that the Lord came to render judgment in the earth. Now He came into the earth to
render judgment as a sinner paying the price for sin, even though
he had no sin of his own, yet he died as a sinner. He was cursed. He hung upon a tree as a cursed
man, as a man upon whom the wrath of God was poured out. And yet, while he prayed for
sinners, while he prayed for those whom he loved, Yet he did indeed come to manifest
the judgment of God upon the sin of this world and upon all
those that sought after his soul. He said, let them be turned backward
and put to confusion that desire my hurt, those that would destroy
me, O Lord. You know, over in the book of
Romans, Paul deals with this very thing. Now, you can be sure
of this, that that is that every one of those who sought the Lord's
hurt did so because the Lord ordained that it be so. I want to read something to you.
You've read this before, but I'm going to read it to you again. thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
And you know, you often hear men say, well, those men, I mean,
Judas, he couldn't have done anything else but what he did.
I mean, why should he be judged for doing what the Lord sent
him to do? Men like to come up with ways
they think they're gonna put God in a bind. Paul answers it, he said, Nay,
but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? David desired
to build the temple of the Lord, but the Lord said to him, You
can't do it, because you've got too much blood on your hands.
He said, You're a man of war. You've been out here killing
all these people and all this stuff. You can't build my temple.
My temple has to be built by a man of peace. Well, who told
David to go out and kill them people? The Lord did. He sent him to kill the people.
He said, don't spare the women, don't spare the children. He
said, kill them all. And yet the Lord said, you can't
build the temple because you're a man with blood on your hands.
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Pretty humbling, isn't it? When
the Lord gives a man an understanding of that, it just takes his breath
away. It takes away all of his arguments. There's nothing left
to be said. I mean, unless you just want
to accuse God of wrong, but Paul said you can't do it. Whatever
God does is right. Now some people try to say God
does right. Well, God does do right. But
what's right is what God does, because He's God. And there's
nothing that can stay His hand or say unto Him what doeth sound.
Paul said, Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why
shall he make me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another to dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath, what, fitted to destruction? He made them
to be destroyed. What are you gonna say about
that? Natural man gets mad, doesn't he? You know you do. I mean,
the man says, well, wait, that couldn't be right. God said it was right. And you'll
have to deal with that. You know, some people stay in
rebellion their whole life, and they die in that state against
that. But I'm telling you what, if
you believe in an absolute God, then you have to rejoice. Because
whatever he says is correct. that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath aforeprepared
to glory. Oh, what a wondrous thing. Now
see, we've been sent into the world to preach the gospel. And
the primary purpose of what we do when we preach the gospel
is to lift up Christ and Him crucified. And who was He crucified
for? For sinners. And he was crucified
for sinners that he loved. Sinners that he chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Those that belonged to
him. His people. Those for whom he
prayed in the garden when he said, Father I pray not for the
world but for them whom thou hast given me out of the world.
Thine they were and thou hast given them to me. They belong
to me. And so Christ came into the world
to pay the sin debt of His people. And we preach that, I hope, with
unfettered desire, reminding men that indeed He
has shown mercy to the vessels of mercy. But at the same time,
we must not forget that it is according to His purpose to destroy
those who are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. And I'll
let men argue about that all they want to. And get mad and
accuse God and say all manner of things. People say the dumbest
stuff. I wouldn't serve a God like that. Well, then you wouldn't
serve God. What you want is a God that's
like you think He ought to be. God that does like you want Him
to do. Well, there's no God at all. David said, the heathen,
their gods are like that. They have eyes, but they see
not. Mouths, but they speak not. But he said, our God is in the
heavens. He hath none whatsoever he hath
pleased. Oh, I want to worship a God like
that. I want to fall at his feet. I want to magnify him because
this God is the one who sent his only begotten Son. into the
world to die for sinners. And he called sinners unto himself. And he's tender. The scripture
says that the bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking
flax will he not quench. Oh, dear brethren, there's never
been a Savior so tender and mild as the Lord Jesus Christ, who
bids men come to Him that they might have life. But know for
a certainty that He will destroy those who will not seek Him,
those who seek His hurt. Because dear brethren, if a man
will not serve Christ, he must stand against Him. There's no
other place to be. A man's either for the Lord or
he's against Him. There's no neutral ground. That's
what's wrong with the idea of, well, these are good people over
here, they just don't believe that Christ is who He said He
was. Well, then they don't serve God. I mean, the Lord wasn't ashamed
to say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. There can be no other argument. What can a man say? let them be turned back for a
reward of their shame and say, ah ha, ah ha. There's not going
to be a man who shall be destroyed in the final day who shall be
able to bring any sort of an accusation against God. Because
they're going to get the reward of that which they sought. A
man that does not seek the glory of God or seeks to denigrate
the glory of God, he's going to get the reward of that. He's
going to have it. It might not be what He wants,
but He's going to get it. Let all those that seek Thee
rejoice. Now see, the Lord prayed that
His enemies be destroyed, but here, listen to what He's saying
to those that seek Him. Let those that seek Thee rejoice
and be glad in Thee. And let such as love thy salvation
continually say, Let God be magnified. Now isn't that the place that
a man who is seeking the Lord and desiring the salvation of
God, isn't that the place he would desire to be? Let God be
magnified. May His name be praised. Let
Him be lifted up in the highest. Let men fall down and worship
at His feet. let God be magnified, but he
says, but I am poor and needy, make haste unto me, O God. You
see, in the midst of his suffering, he prayed for his people. But
yet, that didn't take away the fact that he suffered for his
people. And he suffers here, as he bears our grief and carries
our sorrows, O God, thou art my help and my deliverer. See, the Lord As a man walking
in the earth, he had no other hope than in his father. Veins to help men. He understood
that. He walked that way. He said,
Lord, if you don't help me, I'm not gonna be helped. Help me. Now, he did everything that he
did for our sake, but in order to do what he did for our sake,
he was personally afflicted and touched with those things. What a glorious Savior. Oh Lord,
make no tearing. And is that not our desire today? Oh Lord, come and visit us with
our salvation. We don't want to wait See, some people, they're just
going through life. They say, well, you know, I was
saved back when I was 12 years old, and I was back in the little
church, and I just, one day, I'm gonna wake up, and I'm gonna
be in heaven, because you know, once you're saved, you can't
ever be lost. I mean, once saved, always saved.
And I was saved because they told me I was. I mean, I walked
down the church aisle, and the preacher said, well, son, you're
saved. And I said, well, man, that's great. And then I just
went on and lived my life. And now I've come down to die,
and you know people, when people get to the place of dying, people
go, well you don't look at there. I remember one time I was preaching
in a funeral, and another guy was there, and this old guy that
died, I mean he was, I mean I worked with him, he was an ungodly man.
And had no, had made a mockery of the gospel. on more than one
occasion in my presence because I had a Bible and I would read
and in my youthful zeal I even sought to convince him of the
truth of God. But he laughed at it. And yet
at his funeral, the other guy that was helping with the thing,
He read in his obituary that he was a member of such and such
a church. And he just said, man, that's just a relief to me. It wasn't no relief to me. Well,
brethren, it doesn't make any difference how many churches
you belong to. It doesn't make any difference how many decisions
you've made. It doesn't make any difference how many times
you've been baptized. None of that stuff matters. It's Christ
and Christ alone who's the Savior of sinners. Without Him, you'll
perish, and without Him, I'll perish. But with Him, by the
grace of God, if He's given us a heart and mind to seek Him
with all of our heart, He will never forsake those that call
upon His name. What a glorious Savior He is,
a wondrous Savior. And He prayed, O Lord, make no
tearing. He prayed that for Himself, but
He prayed it for us. and he will quickly. Scripture
says that he comes quickly. Now, you know, man's concept
of time doesn't lend itself to thinking of that as being quick.
But a day with the Lord says a thousand years and a thousand
years as a day. And what the Lord does, he does
quickly. You know, the existence of the
world, even if you Even if you were to adopt the theories of
the evolutionists who say that the Earth, you know, has been
around for billions of years. What is a billion years? It's
nothing. It's nothing. Now, I personally don't believe
that it's been around here for a billion years. But nonetheless, regardless,
time is of no consequence. What the Lord does, He does quickly
and He does suddenly and He does without remedy because He is
the Savior of sinners and the Judge of the wicked. Oh, that
the Lord might be magnified today.