As you can see, the title of
my message today is Religious Vertigo. And over the last few
years, I've been giving thought to writing another gospel book.
And the idea for the book developed from my being struck over a period
of time with just how full the scriptures are with God's proclamations
that things are not as they seem to us. That is, specifically,
when it comes to God's gospel, his way of salvation. One of
my working titles for the book is the same as today's message,
Religious Vertigo. So as you may guess, today's
going to be a very abbreviated overview of sorts of some of
the things I'd put in the book if I'm ever able to finish it.
Well, as part of my initial research for the book, I began looking
for illustrations that I could use in the book's introduction. I was looking for examples of
instances in which things are not as they would seem to be
to us that we could relate to. And I used an internet search
engine for that, and a magazine article popped up, and it was
about a tragic U.S. fighter jet accident that took
place back in 2007 off the coast of Oregon. And I may well use
a paraphrase of that in the book's introduction. My paraphrase would
go something like this. while on a routine training mission,
all seemed fine to the experienced pilot flying the L-15A fighter,
when everything suddenly came to a tragic ending. The pilot
had unwittingly flown his plane directly into the water, hitting
the water at a speed of over 600 miles per hour. The accident
investigation revealed that there was no adverse weather conditions,
there was no distress call made, no attempt to eject, no equipment
malfunctions, nor any indication of any pilot distress. Instead,
the cause was determined to be the technical term being unrecognized
spatial disorientation, or what is more commonly known to us
as aviator or pilot vertigo. He was suffering from vertigo.
This pilot's fatal plunge into the ocean, it took place while
just moments before. He was thinking all was just
fine. He hit the water, see, completely mistaken about which
way was up or down. You see pilots who experience
vertigo, they become mistaken about the plane's altitude, about
its speed and or about its orientation relative to the horizon. And
for that reason, military pilots, they're constantly trained and
constantly reminded to trust their instruments. rather than
their own natural senses. On the ground, our system of
senses by which the body maintains its orientation, it typically
proves to be very reliable, much more reliable on the ground than
say when we enter into another realm, such as in the sky inside
of a highly maneuverable fighter jet. In short, vertigo causes
the pilot to not know or to be mistaken about which way is up
or down. Discernment of the reality of their position is lost to
them. Things are not as they seem. Well, you didn't come here
today to hear about fighter jets. So with that analogy in mind,
though, my intent with the book will be to set forth the gospel,
God's way of salvation, with an emphasis on how it, the gospel,
is not at all as we would naturally presume it to be. I want to show
the Bible's teaching that when someone first becomes interested
in religion or in their eternal welfare, that their natural way
of thinking, as it pertains to salvation now, that it will reflect
that they're experiencing what I'll refer to as religious vertigo. You notice I said man's natural
way of thinking. By those terms, natural or by
nature or naturally, I'll be referring to that initial spiritually
lost state into which all of us are physically born at birth,
physically alive yet apart from a new birth, as Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again or you can't see the kingdom of heaven.
Well, apart from that new birth, we remain spiritually dead and
void then, therefore, the spiritual faculties of life. And so by
natural thoughts, I'll be referring to the predisposed thoughts that
accompany and that characterize that state of spiritual blindness
that initially plagues us all according to God's word. Well,
we're going to be looking at some of these very declarations.
And given those declarations in the scripture that we all
are initially mistaken, then we can know it's only reasonable
that if we persist in trusting in a way of salvation that at
first seemed right to us, like the pilot in our story, it'll
end tragically for us. But now we're talking about an
eternal tragedy. You know, and like that pilot,
we must not judge by our own natural senses. As Mark read
those two verses, lean not into your own understanding. No, but
we need to rely on the instruments, if you would, that God gave us,
and I'm talking about his word of truth, the Bible. God repeatedly
declares to us in his word, that what seems right to us is in
fact diametrically opposed to his truth when it comes to the
spiritual realm, to his way of salvation. The Bible teaches
we all begin our lives that way, in a spiritually dead or lost
state. Ephesians 2.1 even says, you
who have been made alive spiritually, you hath he quickened. who were
dead in trespasses and sin. So we start out spiritually dead,
spiritually lost. And to be lost is to not know
the way to our desired destination. Spiritually speaking, that'd
be akin to not knowing the way to heaven, the way to acceptance
before a holy God, which is what the gospel reveals to us. And
you know, when typically someone is lost, at first they don't
realize they're lost, otherwise they would have corrected course.
And, but we will, according to scripture, we will persist in
what would be a fatal approach toward our eternal destination,
mistakenly thinking everything's just fine, but like that pilot,
not discerning the reality of our condition, our spiritual
condition. So we better look to our instruments.
We better make sure that which we believe in lines up with what
God says in his word. If we're gonna rightly discern
which way is up, the way up to heaven, if you will, and we know
by God's word that that only takes place if God blesses us,
if we're recipients of his power and his mercy and his grace. Well, what are we mistaken about?
As I say, in short, it's the gospel. I was discussing this
potential book with our pastor, and he suggested a brief outline
that would break down some of the elements of the gospel about
which we're mistaken. We discussed how we're naturally
mistaken, first of all, about the living and true God of the
Bible, what he's really like, and it's reflected in our very
way that we imagine at first we might be saved. When we ask
that natural question to ourselves, what must I do in order to be
saved? And that's a reflection of the
very state that we begin our life in. Secondly, we're naturally
mistaken about ourselves. Thirdly, we're naturally mistaken
about what's required for salvation. And last, we're mistaken about
Christ's personage, and in particular, the nature of his saving work.
And time's not gonna let me pursue this entire outline in detail
this morning, but I want you to know this. Remember, these
are all just elements of that simple gospel. And our misunderstanding,
our misperception is remedied if God gives us an understanding
under the sound of his preached gospel of his way of salvation. And it's a simple gospel. It's
that good news of salvation by God's sovereign grace based solely
on the merits of the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, his righteousness. And you know, words mean things. I know that so many, probably
myself too, when I was experiencing, quote, religious vertigo, I would
have probably said, oh, I agree with that, but let's be sure. And that's what I hope to accomplish
a little bit with this book is to get people to think about
that. Well, to show what I'm saying is true, the scripture
makes it clear that the truth, God's truth, doesn't at all match
up with what we naturally think. Let's just start with that very
proclamation. You're familiar with this verse.
I'm sure it's found twice in the book of Proverbs. It reads,
there's a way which seemeth right unto a man. But the end thereof
are the ways of death. So we know here he's talking
about a way of salvation because he says the way that seems right
to us is a way that ends in death, that's an eternal death. And
that's in sharp contrast to God's way of salvation as set forth
in his word because we know it leads to eternal life. That proclamation
in that verse there, I think it's very complementary to the
answer that God, or Christ, I should say, gave the disciples in Matthew
13. He was asked there, why do you
speak in parables? And he responded in verse 13,
therefore I speak out of them in parables because they, now
the they here, as we will see in the context, it is those who
are in that initial spiritually dead state. See, because they
are without God-blessed eyes and God-blessed ears. They seeing not and hearing,
excuse me, they seeing, see not, and hearing, they hear not, and
neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias, or Isaiah. He's quoting here from Isaiah
chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. And to support what I'm saying
about just how full the scriptures are with these proclamations
that we're all initially spiritually blind and spiritually deaf, I
want you to know, I found, and I'm not sure I found them all,
but I found some version of that same prophecy quoted at least
six other times in the New Testament. I was surprised it was that often.
And then I found statements in the Old Testament saying things,
referring to eyes that can't see and ears that can't hear.
I found at least seven other passages in the Old Testament
like that. We're going to look here, though,
as it's quoted in Matthew Again, he said, in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing you shall hear. You hear with the physical ear.
By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand. And seeing
you shall see with the physical eyes, but you shall not perceive. See, it's like that pilot experiencing
vertigo. You know, he didn't lose his physical sight. If he
had gone blind, I'm sure he would have made a mayday call and said,
hey, something's wrong, I can't see. He could see fine, and he thought
he was seeing fine, and yet he could not perceive the reality
of his position. And our spiritually dead state
is just as debilitating to us as when it comes to our understanding
of the gospel. He says, for this people's heart
is waxed gross, is hardened, and their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes, they have closed. Now, analogies like most, they
start to fall apart at some point, and that's where this one does.
So I'm sure that pilot, he would have loved to have had a radio
call come in and say, hey, snap out of it, check your instruments,
you're suffering from vertigo, but no, we're not like that,
you see, and now we start to see that this condition of being
spiritually dead, there's a sinfulness, an awful sinfulness attached
to that fallen dead state that we start out in. And unlike the
pilot, we don't want to hear it. He says, their eyes, they
have closed. Why? Because it listed any time
they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and
should understand with their heart and should be converted
and I should heal them. That may remind some of you,
as it does me, of occasions where you've had a friend that you
knew attended a church where they didn't preach the true gospel,
not the gospel of God's sovereign grace. And so, but they start
showing a little interest in what you believe, and so you
start sharing the gospel with them. And more often than not,
I find that I don't get very far. You can see the wheels turning
in their heads as they go, whoa, I don't know about that. That's
not what we believe at our church. And the ramifications start coming
home to them, and they start thinking, well, if I believed
that, I'd have to conclude I was lost. And practically everybody
I go to church with, we're believing a false gospel. And so they quickly
will say, no, no, I understand. It sounds like you really like
your church, but I like my church and what we preach there. In
other words, they won't say, that's enough. Let me close my
eyes lest I see. I don't want to be converted.
And there we start to see some of the evil, and we're all like
that by nature, okay? God's got to do a work to change
our hearts and our minds. But here's what we need. As he
told these disciples, blessed are your eyes, for they see,
and your ears, for they hear. A physically dead corpse, he
can't hear, can't see. Well, likewise, a spiritually
dead person, they can't see or hear spiritually. And you know,
along with these many declarations in scripture of this initial
spiritual blindness, we also have the assertions of scripture
that sadly most remain in that state of natural deception all
the way to judgment. Christ said as much in the Sermon
on the Mount, Matthew 7, when he said, enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction." That's that way that seems right to a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death. And he says, and many
there be which go in there yet. And then in contrast, he says,
because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it. And you know, in spite
of that very assertion, many, including myself in years past,
in my natural deception, our misperception, our being mistaken,
is reinforced by the fact that so many others concur with us,
with our false notions. I remember thinking when I heard
the gospel, thinking about those ramifications of what it meant. I'd been teaching Sunday school
for all these years and teaching people a false way, a false way
of salvation. It meant I was lost. It meant,
wait a minute, everybody practically I know thinks like me. And so
I thought to myself, well, I better look into this some more. Surely,
all these people can't be wrong. And that's what the natural mind
will cry out to us. But if we look here in our instrument
panel, wouldn't we think otherwise? Christ says most will approach
judgment on the broad way that leadeth to destruction. It should
bother us if we're It should at least cause us to
look if we find everyone in agreement with us on God's way of salvation.
Well, look, if one, we're initially all mistaken, and two, if most
remain mistaken, boy, shouldn't that prompt sinners to consider
getting into this word and making sure what they believe truly
lines up with what God says? Well, let's look at the passage
that I listed for my text, 1 Corinthians 2. There, beginning in verse
9, we read, And then speaking to fellow believers here, he
says, It takes a miraculous work of God the Holy Spirit And apart from God's revelation
of them to us, He's telling us here, it's not even on your radar.
It hasn't even entered into the heart of man. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the
Spirit of God. So by nature, before we're given
spiritual life, we don't have the indwelling presence of the
Holy Spirit to teach us, to give us an understanding, to guide
us. Let's go to verse 12. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God,
which things also we speak but not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth. Man's wisdom's going to teach
that way that seems right to them, sincerely seems right to
them. You can hear that way in pulpits across this city and
across this land, even at this hour. But we teach that which
the Holy Ghost teaches. Now, how can we be sure we're
teaching that? We have to go to the Holy Spirit-inspired
Word of God to be sure we're teaching that. And there we can
do, as he says here, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man, that's those
who are still in that spiritually dead state, without the presence
of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, They receive, if not the things
of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them." They don't have the ability to know them.
But like the people who see but see not and hear but hear not,
it doesn't mean they can't understand them intellectually what's being
said. But they can't know them in the sense here it's meant.
They can't know them so as to see the necessity that unlike
the way they initially presumed things to be concerning salvation,
that God's way must be like it is if God is who he says he is
here. And there's a part of the problem.
Remember, that's one of the things we're naturally mistaken about. We
don't really, our way of salvation by nature is a way that It doesn't
require that God be like He says He is, that He be holy, He be
just, that He's a God by no means will clear the guilty. He'll
be merciful Savior, but He won't do it at the expense of His justice.
No, we won't know Him. But here He says, and He tells
us why. He says because they're spiritually
discerned. It takes the work of God. We
see something of the awful sinfulness, not just the fact that, you know,
when we talk about being mistaken, we think, well, all of us are
mistaken about things, right? But there's a sinfulness that's
attached to this condition. I think we see that clearly laid
out for us by Paul in Romans chapter three. This is a passage,
if you think back on the outline there about how we're mistaken
about ourselves, in particular to this natural state that we
begin life's journey, even begin our first religious thoughts
with. Here Paul's talking to his fellow
Jews, and he's comparing them to the Gentiles, and he says,
what then? Are we religious Jews? Are we
better than they? No, and no wise, for we have
before proved, both Jews and Gentiles. If you're not a Jew,
you're a Gentile. That means everyone in the world.
We've proved that they're all under sin as it is written. There's
none righteous, no not one, and that's a big deal. Because what
we're going to see here is that to be accepted before a holy
God, we must be found righteous in his sight. But he's telling
us here there's none righteous. He's telling these religious
Jews that your religion doesn't make you righteous. Even your
zeal for your religion doesn't make you righteous. He continues,
verse 11, there's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after
God. We will seek after a God, but not God as he tells us he
is here in our instrument panel again, if you would. They're
all gone out of the way. They're on the way that seems
right to a man. And those ways, they are all
together, the ways that end in death, they're all together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. And he continues, but in the
interest of time, skip down to verse 15, I didn't want to leave
this out. Says their feet are swift to
shed blood, and I don't believe that that's referring to some innate desire in us naturally,
some bloodthirsty desire to go kill. No, he's talking to the
religious Jews who were given the ceremonial law which instructed
them to offer up the blood of animals on the sacrifice, the
very sacrifices that were to point to the sacrifice of the
promised Messiah. So he's saying they're religious.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. It's much like what Paul
said in Romans 10, you know, in verse one he says there, my
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear
them record. They have a zeal of God. He's
saying they're religious. But he says, but not according
to knowledge, for they being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, they're going about to establish a righteousness of
their own, and they have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. And so they're religious, their
feet are swift to shed blood, but where's it leading? Destruction
and misery are in their ways. It's a way of death. And the
way of peace, reconciliation between a sinner and a holy God,
they've not known. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. They just don't think about how
inconsistent the way we will normally first imagine salvation
to be, would be inconsistent with God as he reveals himself
in his word. I remember when I first was hearing
the gospel and I started seeing the implications and how my former
doctrine was inconsistent with the God of this Bible. And I
first tried to excuse it. I've told some of you, you've
heard this before, but I tried to excuse it. And I remember
telling our pastor, I said, well, yeah, but I just, I didn't think
about it that way, as if that made it okay. And he kindly,
but gently, and told me, he says, well, Randy, that's what it is
to have no fear of God before God. You just didn't think about
it that way. Hasn't even entered into the heart of man, you see.
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped.
Now, the Jewish nation here, they were under the old covenant
law. And many of them thought they could be saved by their
law keeping. This was very much akin, you
know, the law sets forth this list of rules and requirements,
things you must do to comply. It's very much akin to being
told by as most people tell you, here's what you must do in order
to be saved. You must meet this condition
or make this decision. And here's what the perfection
of the law, though, should do to us. It should be that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. As Christ said when he was summarizing
how the extent of the law in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew
5.48 says, therefore be ye therefore perfect. That's what the law
requires. Even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
He says, therefore by the deeds of the law, by your law keeping,
by your meeting a condition or requirement, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, not declared righteous, forgiven
of their sins, justified. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's how we know we fall short. And according to
God's word, you know, our natural way of thinking about salvation,
it's not that it's just a little different. It's truly upside
down to God's way of salvation. I think we see this especially
when you consider how the Bible teaches there's a sense in which
the very moral behavior and virtues that God himself instructs us
in his word that we should strive toward. We should be honest,
be moral, be charitable, These are deeds that we typically applaud
and commend when we recognize them in our fellow man, but that
we see in the, by God's word, there's a sense where they're
considered evil in God's sight and not at all commendable to
him. How can that be? Well, it's because such outwardly
otherwise good behavior, when it's done by those who remain
in their natural state of spiritual ignorance, it's then done in
opposition to the one singular thing. that will actually satisfy
our holy God. See, it's evil because men are
ascribing to those things some merit before God. They think
they must count for something before God. And that then places
those outwardly otherwise good deeds in rivalry and opposed
to what it actually took, the singular merit which meets God's
requirement. And that's the perfection that's
only found in Christ's person and finished work. And God says
in his word, he will not share his glory. With regard to that
sort of thing, remember what he told the Pharisees in Luke
16, 15, he said, he said unto them, year they which justify
yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that
which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight
of God. In other words, what natural
man considers good, God here is calling evil. And that really
does fit with Paul's description of his own initial repentance
in Philippians chapter 3, doesn't it? That initial repentance that
always accompanies true God-given faith. You know, Paul has set
forth, I can't remember the verse, but in scripture there's a pattern
to all who believe. And there in Philippians 3, he
started citing the things he thought counted for something
before God previously. He said, for example, touching
the law, I was blameless. And when he finishes that list
in verse 7, he says this about those things, what things were
gained to me, he says, those I counted lost for Christ, yea,
doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung. that I may
win Christ and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, due to my law keeping, my meeting those
prescribed conditions or requirements. No, it's not my doing. So he
says it's that which is through the faith or faithfulness of
Christ. It's all his doing. That's the
righteousness which is of God by faith, excuse me. Anyway,
it's pretty graphic language here by Paul, isn't it? Showing
how much his world had been turned upside down. As he indicates
it, he counts what he once highly esteemed himself, he agrees now
with God, is an abomination. So much so, he called it dung
in light of the truth of the gospel. The gospel that we're
told in Romans 1, 16 and 17 is the very power of God unto salvation. You know, the scripture says
he's pleased to save them. He calls his people to himself
by the foolishness, what the world calls foolishness, the
foolishness of preaching of the gospel. And in verse 17 there
of Romans 1, he says this is true to everyone that believeth.
It's the power of God unto salvation, and here's why, because therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. That's the very righteousness
that the God-man, Jesus Christ, accomplished by his doing and
dying as a justified sinner's substitute. It's his righteousness,
and that's in stark contrast to self-righteousness, which
most of religion, including today's popular so-called, quote, Christianity,
in many circles. And they don't call it self-righteousness. Don't be fooled by that. But
believe me, if they're not basing their hope solely on the finished
work of Christ, His righteousness alone, it is self-righteousness. That's all you're left with.
And unfortunately, those who sit under that and believe what
they're being told, it's where they're going to base their hope.
But naturally doesn't cut it, does it? Because God tells us
things aren't as they seem to us naturally when it comes to
his gospel. These passages I've shared, it's
just a small sampling of the many which warn of our natural
deception. You're familiar with many others,
I know. We're told in the Scriptures
to beware of false prophets, that they'll come to you as wolves
in sheep's clothing, that if it were possible they would deceive
even the very elect, those God has ordained unto salvation,
given to Christ. It says they'll come preaching
another Jesus and another gospel, which is not another. But I think
this deception maybe is best described for us or summarized
for us maybe in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. There it's described
as the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Look at
that in its context. Verse 8, and then shall that
wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
powers and signs and lying wonders, and here it is, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved." Again, unlike that Pilate that we might consider to have
been innocent in his vertigo, in our religious vertigo, our
sinfulness, we don't want salvation God's way, so we won't receive
it. And we deserve condemnation. If left to ourselves, that's
exactly what we'll get. It says, and for this cause,
because they receive not the love of the truth, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. Now I know some read that and
they think of unrighteousness as referring to gross immorality,
those people out there sowing their wild oats, indifferent
about religion. That's not deceitful at all. He's talking about that which
deceives us in our religion. See, the deceivableness of unrighteousness
refers to Satan's deception that has us trusting in a way of salvation,
but it's a way that's other than Or it's in addition to the one
very righteousness of God brought out by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, how can we know if we're mistaken? Well, since we're mistaken
about the gospel, Shouldn't the examination begin with just that,
our gospel doctrine? God's word, the gospel, is referred
to as the doctrine of Christ. And in 2 John 1, 9, we're told,
he that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father
and the Son. Makes it pretty important, doesn't it? Well,
ask yourself this. What do you think makes the real
difference in your way of thinking that would have you including
yourself among the saved, if that's the case. Whatever that
is, that's your doctrine, that identifies your gospel. I can't
go, I couldn't even identify all the false notions that are
out there, but you know what, I can say this. All the religions
of the world, other than true Christianity, okay, all the different
denominations and sects, they got one thing in common. And
that is they all fall under the common umbrella of salvation
by works. Now, when I say that, many sincerely
believe, as I once did, and will say that salvation, no, no, my
salvation's by grace, not works. I had memorized Ephesians 2,
8, and 9 long before I heard the gospel. And it says salvation's
not by works, it's by grace. No. Here's what we can know. You
may call it grace, but if you believe salvation's condition
in any way, or to any degree on something that proceeds from
you, the sinner, something done by you, some decision you make,
your choice versus someone else's, then know this, you can call
it grace till the cows come home, but to believe that is to be
a full-fledged practicing member of the false religion of work
salvation. And God says in his word, he
will not have it. I know many believe, as I did
initially, as I had been taught. My brother and I, we had loving
parents who were well-intentioned, and they saw to it that we were
in church practically every time the doors were open. And there
we, along with the rest of the folks there, were taught the
popular doctrine that God loves everyone and that Christ died
for everyone. And so by default, that left
us basing our hope on something other than exclusively his obedience
unto death, his righteousness, because if the merit of his death,
his righteousness did not get the job done for many of those
for whom he allegedly died, well then, something else, something
other than his righteousness, the merit of his crosswork, had
to be making the real difference in our mind regarding our salvation,
as it was, as that was the case for me at that time, certainly
wasn't the imputed righteousness of Christ. In fact, for the first
31 years of my life, I never even heard the term imputed righteousness. And I was there at church pretty
much every time the doors opened. And as such, at that time, and
here's what's key, in my practice of religion, I too was taking
pleasure in unrighteousness. And like so many others, you
know, I called it grace. And I would say, as most do,
that Jesus Christ was my Savior. But you can call things whatever
you want, but what's your real thoughts behind that? Know this,
whatever or whomever you think makes a real difference in your
being the Savior, in your being saved, that's your Savior, excuse
me. Since Christ's death was presumed to be on behalf of everyone
that ever lived, but unfruitful for the many who perish on that
broad road to destruction, I was left to imagine that the real
difference maker was the decision I made in answering the preacher's
invitation to accept this one we call Jesus as my personal
savior. You know, to others, I think
it's repeating a sinner's prayer It's perhaps a baptism or something
else they did or something else they decided that others wouldn't
decide. Maybe it's just sincerely doing
the best they can. Those are all kinds of faith,
but it's not genuine God-given faith in Christ. Mine was faith
in my faith. I had faith I believed. Others
wouldn't. Well, sadly, that one popular
but deadly false doctrine of universal atonement, that alone
exposes the fact that those who believe it remain in spiritual
blindness. Folks who, if they hear this
message, and I have so many friends like that, that I hope they do,
they just from the sheer logic of what I've just finished saying,
they should have every reason to get into this word. and to
examine whether what I'm talking about is according to what God's
truth, to see whether they might be among the majority suffering
from what I'm calling religious vertigo, who in the scripture
says in their spiritual blindness will continue to imagine everything's
just fine, but not discerning the reality that that kind of
hope It's a false hope. It will not stand up at the judgment,
not according to what God tells us regarding how he will judge
us. How's God gonna judge us? He
graciously tells us in his word in Acts 1730. He calls, we're
commanded, we're told there God commands all men everywhere to
repent. That's to turn from that way
that would naturally seem right to us. All men everywhere? All these different religions?
Wait a minute, is everybody out there wrong? Initially they are.
That's why it's all men everywhere and we see how that's true of
all of us by nature when you see something of what we're to
repent when you link verse 31, 30 with 31. He says, calling
on all men to repent because he hath appointed a day in which
he's gonna judge the world in righteousness. Whose righteousness?
By that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. You
know, most folks I know, they want to go to heaven. If you
want to go to heaven and you want to comply with God's command
in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, to examine yourselves whether ye be in the
faith, this verse alone is like having an open book exam. It's
telling us exactly the standard by which we are all going to
be judged. It's like God saying, look, I'll just give you the
answer straight up. Here's what you better have.
Here's how I'm going to judge you. I'm going to judge you in
righteousness. And the righteousness I'm going
to judge you by is none other than that one, that perfect righteousness,
the one I raised from the dead. That's the one rendered by the
Lord of glory, the sinless Christ. And he's so gracious, he doesn't
just give us the answer and says, I'm gonna judge you in righteousness.
But he says, not only that, I've given assurance to all men, I
proved it to you, in that I raised him from the dead. You see, because
we know that God was satisfied, that he actually was able to
pay the debt due unto the sins for which he died, righteousness,
the merit of that which he accomplished, it demanded he come out of that
grave. Just as sin, when imputed to Christ, laid to his account
the sins of the elect children of God, they demanded he die. The wages of sin is death. Likewise,
the merit of his death, the satisfaction to justice, demands life. His very righteousness. You know
we have a banner verse for our media ministry that's on the
front of our bulletin each week, Romans 5 21. It says as much,
it says that sin hath reigned unto death. Sin demands death. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life, whose righteousness? By Jesus
Christ our Lord. Righteousness demands life. And
so the only way that any of us will be given spiritual life
and ultimately gain eternal life, be accepted and raised with Christ
to heaven's glory, is if somehow we can measure up to that same
standard. Somehow we got to stand before God's judgment with that
same perfect righteousness. And the natural mind cries out,
well, nobody can do that. And that's right. No mere human
can do that, can they? We're up the creek here. God
declared through Paul, there's none righteous. We're all sinners,
so how can any of us, far from perfect sinners, be accepted
into the presence of a holy God who requires perfection? We're certainly not going to
be by some sin-tainted, far less than perfect decision, prayer,
or act that proceeds from us. But again, in our instrument
panel, God's Word, He graciously tells us how in 2 Corinthians
5, 21, we're told that God the Father made Christ who knew no
sin to be sin for us. Speaking of those He saves, that
they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. What this means
is Christ died to pay the penalty due unto the Father's justice
for the sins of God's elect children. Those that God had given Christ
the responsibility for, the scripture says, before the world began,
imputing or accounting their sins, the demerit of them, to
Christ, their surety. These were sins he had absolutely
no part in producing, that those for whom he died for, that they
might be credited in turn with that very perfect, sinless satisfaction
to justice that he made by his doing and dying a perfect righteousness. that's accounted, imputed unto
them, and it's a righteousness they had no part in producing.
What a wonderful, glorious, gracious, merciful exchange. He paid for
my sins and gave me a perfect righteousness, His perfect righteousness. Why would I spend one moment
more approaching judgment, pleading, or relying in my mind on something
done by me, a sinner, when I can plead the acceptable merit of
the perfect righteousness of Christ, that which was done for
sinners by the Lord of glory. Well, some of the scripture I've
read this morning is clearly, I'd say, and he said to the believers,
it's not intended for everyone. But you know those passages to
those who, the true believers, they do apply to each and every
one for whom Christ lived and died, or they will. I just said He paid for my sins
and gave me His righteousness. How can I know that, that I'm
among those for whom He died? Well, God also graciously tells
us that in His Word, doesn't He? And there we see it's because
for each one for whom He died, and only for each one for whom
He died, at some point in their respective lifetime, He will
have given them spiritual life. How can we know that's true?
Because where righteousness has been imputed, as it has been
for all for whom he died, it demands life before a just and
holy God. And with spiritual life, God
will have given them that blood-bought gift of faith, as I hear his
gospel proclaimed. And you know how we can know
that faith is genuine? It will be accompanied by that
initial repentance, like that of Paul. whereby we repent of
the way that seemed right to us, repent from ever having dared
to imagine that salvation was conditioned in any way upon ourselves. When it took the blood, the precious
blood of Christ, now God-given faith will have us resting on
Him alone for all of our salvation, for the forgiveness of all our
sins, for we'll see where the debt's really been paid, the
debt, the debt's forgiven. He will be our solid hope for
entrance into heaven. Well, I hope you can see from
the scriptures we reviewed this morning that God makes it clear
that what seems right isn't, not when it comes to this initial
natural understanding of God's way of salvation. That condition
that I've referred to as religious vertigo, and I pray God, if he
hasn't done so already, he will deliver you from that condition
through his preached gospel. calling you out of darkness into
his marvelous light. And if he's done that for you,
what a blessing.