Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to Hosea chapter 8. My. The name of the message tonight
is Mercy Amidst Sinfulness. Mercy Amidst Sinfulness. So open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Hosea chapter 8. We'll continue our study in
this wonderful book. Let's read verses 1 to 8 to start
and to open our message. I'm going to take verses 1 to
8 and then just say a few things about them. And we're going to
go to some cross references. And then we're going to look
at verses 9 to 14. And we'll say a little things
about them. And then we'll be finished for tonight. Hosea 8.1, set the trumpet to
thy mouth. So this is God speaking to the
prophet. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the
Lord because they have transgressed my covenant and trespassed against
my law. Israel shall cry unto me, my
God, we know thee. My. Israel had cast off the things
that is good. The enemies shall pursue him.
They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes,
and I knew it not. Of their silver and of their
gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast
thee off. Mine anger is kindled against
them. How long will it be? e'er they attain to innocence. For from Israel was
it also the workmen made it, therefore it is not God, but
the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. For they have
sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. It hath no stock, the bud shall
yield no meal, If so it be, if so it yield, the stranger shall
swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up. Now shall
they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. Again, we see the continuation
of the exhortation that we saw in chapters six and seven. We
see the wickedness of Israel laid bare, don't we? the wickedness of Israel laid
bare. And we see that this chapter
opens with a command to someone, and that command is to Hosea,
from God. From God to the prophet to cry
aloud in a way of reproof. And we've
seen that these last few chapters, right? But we've seen mercy mingled
in with them, haven't we? Mercy mingled in. Turn with me if you would to
Isaiah chapter 58. This cry in Hosea 8.1 is similar to the command
that the prophet is to cry aloud. So we see a command to the prophet
Hosea in Hosea 8.1. And here in Isaiah 58, we see
another command by God to Isaiah the prophet. Very similar commands. Look at
this. Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet
and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their
sins. Now let's look at that verse again. Look at this. Cry
aloud. So he's to proclaim to them,
right? Spare not. Don't hold back anything. Remember what Paul said in our
study in Acts chapter 20 when he's talking to the Ephesian
elders? He said, I've held nothing back that's profitable to you.
Don't hold nothing back. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
Gospel preachers, words is trumpeting the scriptures. Remember, Norm
said that we're like a trumpet, right? Trumpeting the gospel of salvation
through Christ alone. And look at this, look at caught
up in this verse that we could skip right over and show my people. Their transgressions. And the house of Jacob, their
sins. I love those two little words,
my people. I could have named the message,
my people. God says in that verse, do you
notice he brings forth their sinfulness, but before that he
calls them my people. My people, a people of his chosen,
right? a people who he's covenant with. It's a picture of us, beloved. It's a picture of us. We see there in verse 1 of Isaiah
58 that the prophet Isaiah is commanded just as Hosea is. In
Hosea it says, set the trumpet to thy mouth. So God's commanding the prophets
to proclaim the truth to his people. God's preachers were
commanded by God to set the truth before you, aren't we? And ourselves,
too. See, most preachers say, well,
you, you. No, us. The truth is to be set before
us. And we do that with one another, too, don't we? When we sit and
talk, and we talk about the Scriptures, and we talk about the things
that we've learned, we're setting the truth before each other. And we see that the prophet is
commanded, just as Hosea is in Hosea 1, to preach of the transgressions
of the Lord's people. Now, I don't have to sit here
and go through every sin we ever do because I can't even number
all my sins. I can't even remember all my
sins. No way, brother. It's endless,
isn't it? But in us saying in the preaching
of the word that there's none righteous, no, not one, that
this truth is proclaimed that all the world, the law is set
forth that all the world may become guilty before God. Guilty
of what? Transgression. Our sins are transgressions against
God's law. And we humans have no way to
pay for those transgressions. By our own works, or by anything
we think, or by anything we do. or by anything we imagine. The
only way our sins can be paid for is through the blood and
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. So look at this. Look at how
Isaiah is commanded to proclaim to his people their transgressions.
But at the same time, the Lord calls them my people. My people. Tell them of their
transgressions. Tell them of their sin. Tell
my people. And the only ones who will receive
this message of grace and mercy through Christ and the forgiveness
of all our sins, the only ones who will admit that we're sinners is those who have been taught
something by the Holy Spirit of God, right? I met a young lady this week.
One of the ladies is a manager at McDonald's. Her daughter's
13 years old. And I was sitting there talking to her. You know
what she told me? She said, I'm such a sinner. Unprompted. And I said, well, yeah. You're
not good, are you? And she goes, I'm not good at
all. And I said, and she goes, I'm
thinking I might want to be baptized because I'm I know now that I'm
a sinner and I need to be saved. So I pointed her to Christ. I said, the only way you can
be saved, the only way I can be saved from our sin is through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
said, if you believe, then you get baptized. And I just left it there. It's
all we can do, right? It's all we can do. Point them
to Christ. Didn't try to, like in the old
ways, Zane, lead them in a prayer. No. Leave them with God. Leave them with God. And I told
her, I said, the fact that you admit that you're a sinner, God's
showing you something. Because I said, most of the people
in this world won't even admit that. It was a good sign, wasn't
it? Maybe the Lord's doing something.
Obviously, she learned the truth so far that she's a sinner and
she has no hope outside of Christ. So I pray the Lord will regenerate
her and save her soul. I'll get it for you after the
service, my brother, yeah. So think of this, despite our
sinfulness, how sweet is this verse in verse 1 and of Hosea,
and how sweet it is in Isaiah 58, cry aloud, spare not, lift
up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression. What sweetness there! God, God,
Shows us and reveals us our sinfulness and gives us faith to believe
on Christ And you know the very one who's
commanding this is the very one who died for us The way very want think of this
to Adam and Eve sin God comes down in the garden, right? Where
are you? He's not asking for information,
is he, Brother Zane? He knows exactly where they are.
And do you ever think of this? You ever think of this? See,
we picture God as a spirit, right? Do you ever picture this? Do you
ever think of this? It says that God walked with them in the garden. They saw him. So Moses, think of this, Moses
is writing that they saw him, Adam and Eve saw him, and then
later on he writes, if you see God, you're gonna die. Okay, that's God the Father,
right? Think of this, who was the angel
of the Lord all the time in those Old Testament That was Christ. Who was walking with Adam and
Eve in the cool of the garden? That was Christ. Who came to them and had an animal
killed and who clothed them with those skins to cover their nakedness?
The same one who clothed us in his righteousness, right? That's
a picture of that, isn't it? See, there had to be death of
an innocent one. That lamb didn't do nothing wrong.
Adam and Eve transgressed. Actually, Adam transgressed. He's the federal head, isn't
he? He transgressed, and we died in him. So the very one who commanded
them not to eat of the tree, the very one who walked with
them in the cool of the garden appears to them, Right? He's looking for them
again, right? But knows where they are. Where
are you? That was a man. The man Christ is. He's a Christophany. He's a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't he? Who gave the law to Moses? You know who it is, ain't they?
Amen! Who fulfilled the law for us?
Amen! That he might be just and a justifier. Isn't that wonderful? So the
only time we will see God is through Christ. Isn't that amazing? He's the
messenger of the covenant, isn't he? Yeah. He's the angel of the Lord. What a Savior we have. What a
King. So what mercy is spread through
in this verse? They're my people by choice,
by purchase. This is even before he came in
Isaiah. This is before he even came to this world to die for
us. He's a lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. Hey, we start to understand what
that means more and more, don't we? My people. by choice, by
covenant, and by purchase, but not yet. Now, it's true now,
2,000 years ago, but when Isaiah was written, he hadn't come yet
to redeem us. But see, in God's economy, it's
already done, because he knows the end from the beginning, but
that which is purpose and plan, like we talked about, has to
come to pass in time and space. There it is. There it is. So despite our sinfulness, despite
our transgressions, the Lord will always call those
given to him by the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ will always
call those who were given to him by the Father in eternity,
my people. Isn't it wondrous that we're
one of my people of God? Isn't that wondrous? That's wondrous! Oh my! That's incredible! What a sweet
thought. However much we fail as Christians,
and we fail all the time. I don't care about these religious
shenanigans that go on with religious people saying, well, I don't
sin very much. Oh, you're so full of lies and
hypocrisy. We sin every day all the time. We despise it in ourselves, but
we admit we're but safe sinners. We desire to serve the Lord,
and we do. despite our sinfulness, despite
ourselves, despite our failings, but isn't it amazing that when
we fail, He never fails? When we're not faithful, He's
always faithful. When we get cold in our hearts
and kind of wander a little bit, He's right there beside us, says,
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And we can have cold times in
our heart. I got revived a little bit two
weeks ago listening to this fella I'd never heard before. Man,
he was so clear and simple on the gospel. It revived my soul. It got me even more excited than
I usually am. It's amazing. That's how it is,
isn't it? So what a sweet thought. However
we fail in our Christian life, Jesus does not fail in love,
in grace and mercy towards we who are his people. That's amazing. Now, if we spiritualize chapter
eight of Hosea, looking at this as a picture of the Israel of
God, so those he's speaking to is a picture of the Israel of
God in our natural state and sometimes even in our safe
state. But especially in our natural
state. Then this chapter can be very profitable to us. Because we see the Lord sets
before us is speaking to Israel. All the elect of all the ages. Now we who are the redeemed of
Lord marvel as what is set here before us. In our text and note. In our text. That the Lord says. Take note. that the people of
God in all ages are guilty of what is set before us. See, we
can read these things about Israel and go, that was me. That was
me before the Lord saved me. And when my heart gets cold after
he saved me, that's me sometimes. And we can be carried away by
different things. So easily distracted. But remember,
the Lord's got a hold of us. Isn't that wonderful? He's got a hold of us. He won't let us destroy ourselves,
beloved. And when it's in his time to
take us home, there is no one's going to stop it. No doctor will help. No other human will help. We'll
be gone. we'll be going home. So I ask you, and when I say,
have we not been guilty of these things, have we not transgressed
the covenant of God? Have we not, in our flesh, before
the Lord saved us, went after false idols? Have we not Even as believers,
broken God's law and transgressed His law. Praise God, we're saved
out from under it, eh? Praise God that the penalty of
the sin that was against us, the penalty of us breaking the
law has been laid on Christ. But we're still lawbreakers,
aren't we? I heard one guy one time, a guy claimed to be a preacher. And I heard him one time, he
says, you know the command to love the Lord thy God with all
their heart, mind, and soul? He says, I got the first two
down, I'm working on the last one. I looked at him and said, you're
lying, man. The only one who did that was
my Savior. And he did it as my substitute.
I can't love, I'm commanded to, but I can't love the Lord my
God with all my heart, mind and soul. I want to, do you want
to? But none of us do. But Christ
did it for us, in our room and place. Isn't that wonderful?
So though we transgress the law of God, before we're saved and
even after, praise God, we have a surety. Praise God, we have
one who fulfilled the law for us, so that law is not counted
against us anymore. Oh, what a Savior! What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. So I ask, have we not broken
and trespassed God's law? All of us have. Have we often
set up idols in our hearts, just as the kings and princes of Israel
did? And an idol in our heart could
be money, It could be things of this world. And I remember
one preacher saying, we can even make our children idols. We always taught our kids that
God comes first. And it's not that we didn't love
them. We always said, we love you so much. You will never find
out how much we love you, but God comes first. And I used to
tell our kids, I love God more than I love mama. And more than
I love you. And Vicki would say, well, I
love God more than I love dad. And more than I love you. Just
to give them the proper perspective. And we'd always say that the
love that we have for God is totally different than the love
we have for our kids. And the love that we have for
our spouses. God is God. Now, do we love Him with all
our heart, mind, and soul? No. Do we desire that? Oh, yeah. And we will one day, won't we?
When we get to heaven, Brian, we'll love Him like we've never
loved Him before. With our heart, mind, and soul.
It'll be glorious, won't it? Kathy's loving God with her heart,
mind, and soul right now. unhindered, sinless love and
worship for the king. My. So we see ourselves all through
these verses, and yet God said, mercy on us in Christ. Wonder
of wonders. And how often have we sought
alliance with creature strength, which is with the strength of
others? Well, we can get up together, and we can pray. This used to
be in religion. And we can gang up on God. They
never told you they were ganging up on God, but they figured,
you ever hear that? No, you're not. You remember that. The more
people you get to pray, maybe God will say yes. That's people
kind of gang up on God. We don't do that, do we? We lift
up people in prayer. I love our little group. We lift
up people in prayer, in our prayer group, and we say, Lord, if it
be your will, when we're praying on our own, don't we? Whether it's the salvation of
the young people in the church or for someone to be healed like
John, Kathy's brother-in-law, whether it be somebody like that,
we just lift them up. We don't know them, but we still
lift them up to our King, don't we? and praying, Lord, you will
be done. They're in your hands. They're
in your hands. So let us never seek alliance
with creature strength. Works of man. Because there's
no works of man that can save a man or a woman. Turn if you would to Romans chapter
three. Romans chapter three. Before we're saved, you know
what we do? We set up our own righteousness. Thinking that
our own righteousness will gain us acceptance with
God. And you know how we, we might
not come out and say those exact words, but you know how we say
it? Well, I'm a good person. God doesn't send good people
to hell. Hell's full of good people, isn't it? Heaven's full of sinners. And
to him who washed this in his blood, I'm never going to stop
saying that because I love that. It's true. Hell's full of people. I was a good person. Now you're
just a sinner just like me. But you didn't acknowledge it.
You didn't see it. And the only way we know that
we're sinners is because God's revealed it to us by His grace
and mercy in and through Christ Jesus our Lord, who is our salvation. Our salvation's in the person. Our salvation's in the blood
and righteousness of Christ, isn't it? Oh yeah, that's where
it is. Oh my. And listen to this and
feel the full force of the apostle's exposition in Romans chapter
three here against creature confidence, against man's works confidence. I got creature confidence from
Robert Hawker. I love that. He says, creature
confidence, right? Because we think we can make
it to God by our own doing. And listen to the force that
the Holy Spirit had Paul, pen here, in Romans chapter 3, starting
in verse 1. What advantage then hath the
Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision? Much, every
way, chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles
of God. For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
God forbid. Yea, let God be true. but every
man a liar. As it is written, that thou mightest
be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou
art judged. Verse five, but if our unrighteousness
command the righteousness of God, what shall we say then?
Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid. For how then shall
God judge the world. For if the truth of God hath
more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I
also judged as a sinner? And not rather as we slanderously
be reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that
good may come, whose damnation is just. Now there's an incredible
verse against antinomianism. You ever meet an antinomian?
Or you ever meet someone who accuses you of being an antinomian
because of what we believe? Yeah. Just, just give them this
verse. Because we agree with Paul, don't
we? We agree. And rather not, as we be slanderous
reported, and as some affirm, let us do evil that good may
come. You ever heard a preacher say that? You ever heard any
grace preacher say, well, let's go ahead and do evil, that good
may come of it? No. I've never heard a preacher
say that. Have you? No. Paul didn't even
say it. Hey, Paul. No. Look at this,
whose damnation is just. What then? Are we better than
they? No, and no wise. For we have
before proved both Jews and Gentiles, look at this, that they are all
under sin. Everybody, every man, woman,
and child in this earth, Jew and Gentile, that includes the
whole world, doesn't it? Because the Jews called anybody
who wasn't Jew a Gentile. Look at verse 10. As it is written,
there is none. None righteous. None. Not one seed of Adam. Not one child of Adam. My kids are sinners because I'm
a sinner. And the only thing a sinner begets is a sinner.
Now Christ, he's the seed of the woman, isn't he? He was conceived
by the Holy Spirit of God. He's sinless. He's the God-man.
God prepared a body for him. He's sinless. But look at this.
Of all of us, there is none. That none means none. Righteous. No, not one. Okay,
now look at this. People say, well, I understand
the Scriptures. I understand about God. Well, The only reason
we understand the things of God is because God gives us, well,
he reveals himself to us, right? Because otherwise, there is none
that understand it. There is none, look at this,
people say, well, I sought God. I sought him by my own free will. Well, that goes against that
Bible verse, doesn't it? How do we come to Christ, brother? We're made willing, aren't we?
We seek him definitely, but only because he sought us first. And
he made us willing. The glory goes to him. Look at
this. So look at this. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. No one by their own supposed
free will will ever seek God. As a matter of fact, it's the
opposite we see in this verse. And notice, despite what people
say, there is none that seeketh after
God. None. If you're seeking God,
it's because God sought you. Oh my. That lost sheep, what
was he doing? Bah, wandering around, right?
He's called the wandering sheep. He's wandering all over the place.
Who sought him out? The shepherd, hey. Who sought
us out? We were lost sheep, wandering
around in darkness, groping around. Oh, I hit my head. Groping around
in darkness. And he sought us out, praise
be to God. He found us right where we all
were, wandering lost sheep. And because there's none that
seeketh after God, we did not seek him. He sought us. Why did
he seek us? Because he purchased us 2,000
years ago at Calvary's Cross by his blood. Oh, isn't it wonderful? That's
wonderful. Now look at this in verse 12.
Another description of us in our natural state. They are all,
a little word means everyone. Doesn't say some, does it, Brother
Zane? It says they're all gone out of the way. They all together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. That's a great verse to present
to someone who says, well, I'm a good person. My boy gets mad at me sometimes,
and I don't mean it, because I just can't stand it when people
say it. And they say, well, they're a
good person. No, they're not. No, they're not. I would say, no,
they're not. I'm not trying to offend them. I'm just saying
the truth. It's true. They're not good. Right? Like that young girl said. She
says, I'm not good. How many people would tell you
that? No one. You go out in that world tonight, Brian, you and
I and Zane and Sister Linda, we go across the road in McDonald's,
we just stopped a few people in their cars and said, are you
good? You know, probably 100% of them would say, yeah, I'm
good. Well, this verse here says they're
none good. See, this goes against the world's
thoughts, doesn't it? This wounds man's pride. But this, when we've been pouring
a can, we say, praise God, this is so true, I'm not good at all.
What a change. My. Now look, it goes on to talk
more about us in our natural state. Their throat is an open
sepulcher, it's a grave. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips. whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Oh, I remember how I was before
the Lord saved me. That was true of me to my shame. Oh, their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. Look at this, look at this. What
do we have now in Christ? Peace with God, right? Peace
in general. Look at this. In our natural
state, in the way of peace, have they not no one? Oh, they think
they have peace, but they have no peace. The king of terrorists
comes at their death, doesn't he? And they find out they have
no peace outside of Christ. No peace with God. And look at this, is this not,
is this not only, you know, we look at the scripture and go,
oh, that's true, that's this, that's right now. This is how
it's always been. Paul's writing this shortly after
Christ's resurrection. And he says, there's none that
feareth God. No, not one. You see how, do you see how the
scripture's relevant to all the ages? You ever think of this?
It crosses cultures, it crosses time. People say, well, you're preaching
out of an old book. Well, it's God's book. And it crosses time and cultures,
kingdoms, generation after generation. And it's still true. Yeah, see,
we haven't changed. Man is still fundamentally man. We're just a bunch of sinners.
And it's wondrous when God saves us. Because we got no way out
of being a sinner, do we? And even after we're saved, we're
still sinners. That keeps us humble, doesn't
it? Keeps us leaning and looking
to Christ is what it does. Oh my. the way of peace they've not
known, there's no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know
that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that's Jew and Gentile, that's both, that's everyone
in this world, whether they affirm it or not, they're under the
law of God. And remember, beloved, we've
been redeemed out from under the law. That's what makes it
so glorious, right? Look at this one, in verse 19.
Now, we know that whatsoever things sayeth the law, it sayeth
to them who are under the law, that's everyone, that every mouth
in our natural state, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. All the world, everyone.
Every man, woman, and child, guilty before God. And then look
at this, I love how he wraps this up. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, in
God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. No one can be justified by following
the law or by doing the law. No one. But we can be saved from
under the law And we have been, haven't we?
By the Lord Jesus Christ. We who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Galatians tells us we're redeemed out from under the law. Our guilt, our sins were borne
by the king. And God now sees us in Christ. That's a mirror. Sinners who have no way of saving
themselves, no way of cleansing themselves, no way of fulfilling
God's law. God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ,
comes to this world and purchases us with his blood and gives us
his righteousness. You know why? Because we're one
of the ones who are called my people by him. And saying there ain't nothing
in us, that would make Him call us His people. It's all according
to the free and sovereign grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all because of His precious
blood and His perfect righteousness. Salvation's through Christ and
Christ alone. There's no other way for a sinner
to be saved. Praise be to God for our Savior's
redeeming blood. So our text is very humbling
as we see our natural state and we even see how we are after
we're saved too. Lord called us unprofitable servants,
but yet he still uses us, doesn't he? That's amazing, still uses
us. We're his people, we're people
his choosing, people his purchase. And so if we read the scripture
to see our own state and the state of the church all through
the ages, it'll be very profitable for us. It'll cause us to rejoice at
the wonder of salvation that we have in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it'll cause us to praise
God for his precious blood that washed us from our sins, that
redeemed us from our sins. The blood of God, right? The
blood of the God man. God purchased the church with
his own blood, says in Acts. Oh my, that's wondrous. Now let's
read verses 9 to 14. For they are gone up to Assyria,
a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim hath hired lovers, yea,
Though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather
them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of
princes. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars
shall be unto him to sin. I have written to him the great
things of my law, but they... Look at this. Look at this. But
they were counted as strange things. They sacrificed flesh for the
sacrifices of mine offerings and eat it. But the Lord accepted
them not. Now will he remember their iniquity
and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt. For
Israel has forgotten his maker and built the temples and Judah
has multiplied fence cities. But I will send a fire upon his
cities and it shall devour the palaces thereof. Now we know
he won't destroy Judah completely, will he? Because out of Judas
springs Christ. And we know God will keep his
people, don't he? Oh, yeah. This is a very striking passage
of Scripture, these words of the Lord. And again, it's suited
to the Israel of God through all the ages. And note how the Lord saith,
The great things he wrote to Israel were counted by them as
strange things. Let us remember us in our natural
state. When someone came up to us in
our natural state before we were saved and started telling us
that Jesus was the only way to be saved, did we not count that
as a strange thing? Do you know all through religion,
Vicki and I have talked about this in all the places we went
to before the Lord saved us, do you know they never talked
about the righteousness of Christ? We never heard messages on it,
and yet we're saved through the blood and righteousness of Christ? But we never heard messages on
that. We never even heard it talked
about. Until we started listening to Grace Preaching. Until reading
Spurgeon and stuff like that too, he pointed that out. But
we had never heard a message on that. Never knew anything about it.
Because they were always so busy telling us what we needed to
do, not what Christ had done. Basically, promoting man's righteousness,
which we read, is like filthy rags. There's none righteous,
no, not one. We can't make ourselves righteous,
can we, Brother Brian? Not by anything we do. And I ask you, we're not the
great doctrines of the scriptures. And even born-again believers,
strange things to us before the Lord saved us. I had never heard
of election. Never heard of that at all. Never
heard of told to prophecy. Never heard of that before the
Lord saved me. Had no clue what that was. Didn't even know that the wrath
of God fell on Christ in my room and place. Didn't even know that. So, these doctrines, these great
doctrines were strange things. You know, today, it's still the same. Because many professing Christians, if you start talking to them
about the things we believe, just put election out there for
fun. You will find out from your religious
friends and relatives that if they don't know grace, it's a
very strange thing to them. So much so that they're trying
to disprove it. And I've told you, when I first
heard the doctrine of election, I recoiled so bad in religion,
I thought, no way God's like that. Now I love it. God chose
me in Christ? Oh, my goodness. Wonder of wonders. You're smaller, but I do too.
Wonder of wonders. He chose us in Christ. It's amazing.
Absolutely incredible. You know, if you ask most professing
believers what or tell me about the righteousness of Christ,
they don't know what it is. I know this to be true. Six months
ago, I was talking to two of the men across the road. And
my buddy Jim and I, we'd been talking about the righteousness
of Christ and how important it is and how wonderful it is. And I asked these two guys, they're
both Assembly of God guys. I said, you know what the righteousness
of Christ is? You know what they said? Well,
I don't know, what is that? These are men who claim to have
been saved for years. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not
down, I'm not trying to get down on them. This is fundamental
to the faith, beloved. We are saved by the blood and
righteousness of Christ. Because without His blood, we'd
never be redeemed. Without His righteousness, we
could never be in the presence of God. They didn't know. So then I explained
to them what the righteousness of Christ was. that the righteousness of God
is manifested in the gospel, and that righteousness is Christ.
He's called the Lord our righteousness. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the believer's righteousness. He's all my righteousness. And
then he closes people in his perfect righteousness. This is
incredible. And the reason he does that is
because we couldn't be in the presence of God without that
perfect righteousness. That's the wedding garment. In
Revelation, the white wedding garment, that's the righteousness
of Christ, beloved. And that's why Colossians said
we're made meat for heaven. In the Greek, it's we're qualified
for heaven. only because of the blood and
righteousness of Christ. Right, Brother Zane? That's it. Only
because of the perfect finished work of Christ in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So as I talked to these two men,
this was strange things that I was talking to them about.
And I talked to them about election. You know what? That's strange
things to them. I talked to them about limited
atonement. It's strange things to them. And then they say things like
this, well, I talked to my pastor, and you Calvinists are all wrong.
I don't care what your pastor says. I care what the word of
God says. Because I was in the same position
as that pastor, fighting it. And praise God, he revealed the
truth to me. Praise God, he had mercy on me. because it's the most wondrous,
the doctrines of grace. We don't even have to call them
Calvinism. We don't believe everything Calvin believed, but it's just
systematic theology. It's the gospel. The doctrines of grace is the
gospel. We're saved by Christ alone,
through Christ alone, by his blood alone, and because of his
righteousness alone. And we say hallelujah. And we
believe what the Word says rather than what some man says. See,
that's the problem. I've told you guys all the time,
don't just believe it because I say it. Believe it because
it's in the Word of God. Right? Charlie says, I love you.
And Denise, when she was alive, they both used to say, I love
how you preach. You just tell us what the Word says. That's
all I can do, right? And I won't hold anything profitable
back from me either, like Paul said. Man, that's how it should
be. So the only means of salvation
is Christ's blood and righteousness. This is pure doctrine, beloved. This is pure doctrine. His shed
blood, his perfect righteousness is the only possible means of
salvation for sinners. And when I was telling these
men that, it was strange things to them. And these guys claim
to be Christians for 25, 30 years. But you know what? I don't look
over them as I know more than you. I look at them and go, that
was me. until the Lord revealed the truth
to me. And the only difference between
me and them is the grace of God in Christ. Period. That's it. That's it. My. Think of this. Without Him
revealing these blessed truths to us, about His blood, His righteousness,
our justification before God. Without Him revealing these blessed
truths to us, we couldn't even enter into an apprehension of
these things. Isn't that amazing? And how do we know that? Because
these things were strange things to us before the Lord saved us. Oh, yeah, they were. I ask you,
is there anything more great and glorious than salvation through
Christ alone, through his shed blood, through his righteousness? My, let we who are the redeemed
marvel at this wonderful truth. Let us marvel that God's revealed
this to us. Oh, it's a blessed truth. God
was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Right? Reconciling his people.
Who are comprised of people of Jew and Gentile all over the
world. Through time and ages. Right? My. It's amazing. And he came to save his people
from their sins 2,000 years ago? He came into time, and he accomplished
our salvation perfectly 2,000 years ago. Perfectly, beloved. And if we are to know these things,
God must reveal them to us. God must teach us these truths,
or we won't know anything. Without the Holy Spirit's gracious
instruction, the mystery of godliness will be to us as strange things. Nikki was talking to a lady out
west, and she was going to go out and get her book and refute
everything we believe, election and all this. Well, she happened
to leave her book at home, but you know what? You can't refute God's Word. You're fighting God. The problem is people read this
word and they go, I don't believe that. And then they get their ears
tickled by someone who tells them, oh, those folks are trouble. Well, they said the same thing
about Paul, and about Spurgeon, about Whitfield, and about a
whole bunch of other preachers before us. They took Tyndale. They killed him. They buried
him. Then they dug him up and burned his bones. Did it stop the Word of God going
forth? Nope. Did it stop the gospel from going
forth and the Holy Spirit taking it and saving people? Nope! Nope. The Bible is a lion you
cannot cage. His king, he goes forth with
power. Power of God and the Holy Spirit.
Oh my. So without his instruction, these
blessed truths would be strange things to us, just as much today
as in the days of Christ. Because remember, they didn't
even know who Christ was. Here's God in the flesh talking
to him, doing these miracles. And we see the natural depravity
of mankind, which is still prevalent today, in hating him without
a cause. Praise God, he took us rebels
and turned us into praisers. Turn if you would to John chapter
six, we're closed with this. And as we look at here in John
chapter six, we're gonna see a word disciple.
Now disciple in this text means one who is a learner or a follower. And these disciples are distinguished
from the 12. And there's a reason that they're
distinguished. They were people who followed
Christ. They were attracted by his miracles,
but they did not really believe him. And the scripture actually
says in the end of John that he did not commit himself to
them. That means he did not reveal himself in the Greek to them. He didn't reveal himself to them.
So they were falling, they're getting their bellies filled,
weren't they, Brother Zane? They were seeing these miracles, and
they were seeing these things, and they were excited about them. But he didn't commit himself
to them. He didn't give them faith to believe. And their ignorance
and false allegiance are revealed in the next few verses here in
John chapter six. We're gonna start in verse 60.
Because one minute they sought to make Christ king. They were
like, oh, we're going to make you king. And then the next, they're leaving
them. They're walking away from them.
And many of these disciples, many of these disciples, having
heard his gospel of divine visitation in verses 29 to 35, you can read
that at home, and then hearing of his sovereignty and salvation
in verses 37 to 45, and then hearing that salvation comes
through a living union with him by faith, they were unable to
comprehend these great mysteries. They were strange things. and they didn't understand his
language, or they didn't understand what
he was saying because of his language, he spoke plainly to
them. If you go back and read from verses 29 all the way to
verse 59, he spoke very plainly to them, very clearly to them. So it's not that his language
was unintelligible, It's not that they couldn't understand
him. But what they heard was irreconcilable
with their own views. You see? It didn't match up to
their views of who God was. It didn't match up to their views
of salvation. We still have that today, right?
You preach the truth and people say, well, what about my free
will? Well, let me tell you, your will is bound to your nature.
But if God regenerates you, you're going to willingly run to Christ. No one will stop you. That's why we call it irresistible
grace, don't we, Brother Zane? My. So they wouldn't receive
these words of the Lord Jesus Christ as truth because they
were strange things to them. And is this not true still for
natural man and for religious man? They're straight like those two
guys up, strange to them, what I was telling them. As we read verses 60 to 69, let
us always remember here, John 6, 60 to 69, God must reveal
himself to us, or we will never know him. Look at this, John
6, verse 60. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can
hear it? And again, he had preached on, he had preached on on his
sovereignty and salvation. He had told them that salvation
comes through a living union with him. And they couldn't comprehend
that it didn't match up to their views of salvation. And look, they said, this is
a hard saying, who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, does this
offend you? My oh my. What and if ye shall
see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the
Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Now
look what he just told them. The flesh profiteth nothing.
These are proud Jews. Remember that one fellow at Zane,
that Pharisee? I do all these things. Surely, I'm saved by doing those.
No, you're not saved by any of those works. Lord, just tell
them all your works are nothing. They don't profit you in salvation. But there are some of you that
believe not. Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore,
said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except as is
given you of the Father." Look at this. From that time, many
of his disciples went back. So these were just hearers and
followers. Off they go. They couldn't accept
what he just said. He just said, didn't he just
tell them, your works are nothing. The Spirit, you must be born
again. You're like, this doesn't line
up with how I believe. Well, you gotta submit to Christ. We find out, didn't we? Didn't
we have to unlearn a whole bunch of stuff, Zane, that we learned
before? We had to unlearn a ton of stuff.
And look what he said. He says, from that time, many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then
Jesus said unto the 12, Will ye also go away? What a penetrating question,
eh? Then Simon Peter had answered
him. Now here, Simon, we're going to say the same as you, Simon.
This was a good answer, wasn't it? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe. And are sure who
gave them that belief and who made them sure God did didn't
he? That thou art the Christ The
son of the living God and then later on he says have I not chosen
you twelve one of you is a devil But look at look at the proclamation
of a true believer Where should we go Brian we got nowhere else
to go do we and we don't want to go nowhere thou has lord jesus
thou has the words of eternal life praise your mighty name
amen and amen brother brian can you close us in prayer