How can one discern whether or
not he's in the realm of true, vital, biblical Christianity? That is no light question to
consider. As I've turned the question over
in my mind with reference to the voice of God to our hearts
throughout the day, I think that we can most carefully and and
most succinctly zero in upon the heart of true religion by
asking you two questions that have to do with your opinions.
Now, this is usually not a place where we ask people for their
opinions. It's a place where there is proclamation, where
there is the opening up of the Word of God and the application
of that Word to the consciences of men. But I do want to ask
your opinion on two things tonight, and then I want to ask you a
third question. that has to do with what effect those opinions
have had upon you. The first question is this, what
opinion do you have of yourself? For one of the surest marks of
true saving religion is to be found in answer to this question. A man, a woman, a fellow or girl
who has been wrought upon by the Spirit of God and brought
into vital union with Jesus Christ has a very decided and definite
opinion of himself. And so I want to press the question
upon your conscience tonight. What opinion do you have of yourself? Is it an opinion based upon the
declaration of the Word of God made real to your heart by the
Holy Spirit? Or is it an opinion based upon
your own notions of what you are? Your own ideas of what you
are? Your own hopes of what perhaps
you should be? Or is it an opinion based upon
the declarations of Scripture burnt into your heart and your
experience by the Holy Spirit. For you see, it's only the Christian
who knows in truth what he is. Now let me break that down into
several categories. The Christian is a man who, first
of all, has this opinion of himself. I am a creature created in the
image of God. A Christian is a man who has
been brought to the recognition that I am a creature created
in the image of God. In other words, a Christian is
a man who has been brought to own the simple fact declared
in Genesis chapter 1 that in the beginning God made them male
and female after His own image and after His own likeness. When
the Apostle Paul was preaching to the Athenian philosophers,
who wanted to hear something about Christ and the resurrection,
the message he had been preaching to the Jews in the synagogue
and in the marketplace, he knew that the distinctive focal message
of Christianity, Christ and Him crucified, would make no sense
to these people until, first of all, they came to understand
that they were creatures of God. And so he says, and I quote from
Acts 17, This God that made the world and all things therein,
being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is He served by men's hands, as though He
needeth anything, seeing He Himself giveth to all life and breath
and all things, and He made of one every nation of men to dwell
upon the face of the earth. Later on, he says in verse 28,
quoting one of the heathen prophets, we are also his offspring, being
then the offspring of God. The Apostle Paul knew that these
people would never become Christians until, first of all, they came
to understand that they were creatures made in the image of
God, and as image-bearers made to be holy, made to be subject
to God, made to hold communion with God, made to bring glory
to God. Let me ask you tonight, in pressing
this first part of the first question concerning your opinion,
do you regard yourself in this light? As you sit right there
tonight, do you regard yourself as someone who is a creature
made in the image and likeness of God? Or do you regard yourself
as someone who is simply the product of a biological accident? or perhaps the good planning
of a mother and father. How do you regard yourself? Do
you in the depths of your being acknowledge, I was made by God,
I was made for God, I was made to bring praise to God? What
opinion do you have of yourself? A Christian is a man who has
this fundamental opinion of himself, I am a creature of God. But secondly,
he is convinced he is not only a creature of God, but he is
convinced he is a creature of Adam's fallen race. He has come
to the conviction that though I was made by God, to know God,
to hold communion with God, to reflect the glory of God, I am
not what I was made. to be. I am a creature fallen
in Adam. A Christian is a man who has
embraced the humbling teaching of Romans chapter 5, verses 12
and following, in which the Apostle Paul says, As through one man
sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death
passed unto all men, for that all sin And when did they all
sin? They sinned in Adam. God had
constituted Adam not only a private person, accountable to God for
his own sins, But God had constituted Adam a public person, the representative
head of all humanity, so that the apostle Paul can say in 1
Corinthians 15, as in Adam, all die. He says further in this
Romans 5 passage, verse 18, as through one trespass the judgment
came unto all men to condemnation. And the Christian is a man who
stopped fighting God and why God should have such an arrangement.
The Christian is the man who's far more concerned with the undeniable
evidence that he is part of a fallen race than debating with God as
to why he should be part of a fallen race. If you find yourself, as
it were, standing outside of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15
and Ephesians 2, debating and questioning and asking, why should
it be? My friend, you've never seen
your heart. You've never seen what it is to be a fallen son
of Adam. You begin to understand what it is that you, as a creature,
have defied the Almighty. You, as a worm of the dust, have
dared to stand in opposition to the God of heaven and earth.
You as a creature have within you a fountain, a veritable cesspool
of all uncleanness. And you'll stop standing on the
outside looking in, debating as to why God should constitute
Adam the head of the human race so that his sin becomes our sin. You'll be found on your face
mourning the reality of your guilt and your pollution, and
saying, O God, as through the one man Adam I sinned, O may
I through the one man Jesus Christ find mercy. For God has ordained
to deal with the whole human race in terms of two men, Adam
and Christ. The Christian is the man who's
come not only to embrace the fact that he's a creature made
by God, but he's a creature who has fallen in Adam. Now, what does that mean in a
more precise and in a more defined way? Well, it means at least
three things. As a fallen son of Adam's race,
I am guilty, liable to condemnation. I am defiled and depraved in
the totality of my humanity. And thirdly, I am helpless to
do anything about it in my own strength. That's what it means
to be a fallen son of Adam. Now that's what you are, whether
you've ever come to the recognition or not. You see, the difference
between the Christian and the non-Christian is the Christian
knows that he is what he is. The non-Christian lives in a
fool's paradise. Look at those three things. To
be a creature of Adam's fallen race is to be guilty. To be guilty. Romans chapter 3 and verse 19
states it this way, Now we know that what thing soever the law
saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under
the judgment of God, or as the authorized version says, may
be guilty. before God. And those are the
key words. Under the judgment of God. Guilty before God. You see, this is not a matter
of just failing to live up to the standards that I have set
for myself and therefore having guilt feeling. That's a purely
psychological phenomenon. You set goals for yourself. You
don't attain the goals, you feel a flop. A general all-around
flop. And you feel guilty. That's not
what we're talking about here. This is guilt in the presence
and in the court of God. The God who made you and has
constituted you accountable to Him. That God has said to you,
keep my law perfectly and thou shalt live. fail to keep my law
in the slightest degree, and thou shalt die, for the wages
of sin is death. And to be guilty is to stand
in a relationship to God as the judge of the universe, in which
everything in the character of God as just and holy demands
the punishment of a broken law. To be guilty before a human court
means that I have been proven as a violator of the laws that
that court is committed to uphold, and therefore liable to the punishment
which the laws of the land dictate and direct. To be guilty before
God is to stand before the moral governor of the universe in such
a relationship to him that at any time that he chooses The
sentence can come forth from His presence, and I can be, as
it were, consigned to the eternal prison house of God, the lake
of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. When does my
guilt begin? My friend, the sad and tragic
story is that I am born guilty. That's why we read in Ephesians
chapter 2 that we were by nature the children of wrath. That is,
children exposed to wrath. And we intensify our guilt by
every act of sin, bringing upon ourselves the just frown and
displeasure of a holy God. Now, you see, a Christian is
a man who has stopped fighting that truth. And he owns it from
the depths of his heart. He says, if I ever get what I
deserve, I shall be consumed by the wrath of God. He has no
problem with the doctrine of divine wrath. His problem is,
how could God have withheld it from me for so long? That's the
problem a Christian has. He's not debating with God, saying,
now wait a minute, is it right for God to be angry with us?
Is it right for... My friend, a Christian has stopped
debating that issue long ago. He's had a sight of who God is.
And having had a sight of Himself, his cry is, Lord, how could You
withhold Your wrath when my sins rose up and cried out for judgment? At times when my own heart is
lagging in its devotion to my Savior, I find there are few
things that bring it around to new measures of devotion, as
does the exercise of thinking where I would be had God given
me my just desserts before He drew me to His Son. And I ask,
O Lord, how could You have borne with me all those years when
day after day my life of self-interest and self-sufficiency, my life
of overt and covert rebellion against Your Law cried out to
heaven, Judge that sinner! Seize upon that sinner! Lay hold
of that sinner! Crush that sinner! And God said,
and he stayed the hand of justice, and he stayed the hand of inflexible
and holy and righteous anger that should have broken upon
me. What is your opinion of yourself tonight? Do you have this opinion?
That in and of myself I am a guilty son of Adam, deserving of the
righteous anger of God? Can you say that without tongue-in-cheek? And can you say it not because
it's a phrase you've learned and so you can parrot it? Can
you say it from the depths of your heart as Paul could say
it? Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I'm chief. In
me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Can you say it
like Isaiah? We are all as an unclean thing. The opinion you have of yourself
is a great revelation as to whether or not you have saving religion.
A Christian is a man who has this opinion of himself. I'm
a creature of God, but I'm a creature of Adam's fallen race. I am guilty. Secondly, he's come to understand
as a creature of Adam's race that he is polluted and defiled. Now, by that, I mean to reflect
the biblical teaching that sin has invaded and pervaded the
entirety of his human personality. That doesn't turn him into a
beast. Man, as an image-bearer at his worst, is worlds above
any beast at its best. Because he's an image-bearer
of God. He's not junk. But, oh, how the image has been
defaced. And a nature that, when it came
from the hand of God, if we could have, as it were, put a pane
of transparent glass over the whole inner life of Adam and
looked through, we would have seen nothing but pure light. When sin entered, it all became
dark and murky and crawling with the vermin of human depravity
and uncleanness. You say, that's strong language.
It's not as strong as the Bible. But the scripture says, the heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Again, Jesus said, for from within,
out of the heart of man proceed, and then he lists these sins
in the seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. These
things coming from within the heart, verse 20, evil thoughts,
fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness,
all these things proceed from within. You can't have anything
come out of something that wasn't in there first. Well, how did
it get there? Who put it there? Did society put the evil thoughts
within? Did society teach men and give
them desire for fornication and adulteries? Did society pressure
the spirit of thievery and murder into the hearts of men? No. Jesus
said to these proud, spotless Pharisees on the outside, He
said, if we put a transparent painted glass over your hearts,
you know what we'd see? This is what we'd see. this seething
cauldron of uncleanness, this vile cesspool of potential evil,
all within the heart of man. Now, a Christian is a man who's
had just enough of a peek in the direction of that terrible,
bottomless pit of his own polluted heart that he has no controversy
with God about. He doesn't go around making poetic
statements about it. The less he talks about it, the
better. But it's when he's alone with God, that's where you find
him saying, Oh God, this heart of mine, even as a Christian,
to think that there can still lurk within me all of this potential
for evil. And it's a reminder of what he
once was. The Christian has that opinion
of himself, that he's not only by nature guilty, but by nature
he's polluted. Sin has affected the heart, the
wellspring of all of his activity. It has affected his will. The
Christian knows what sin did to his will. Jesus said, Whosoever
commits sin is the slave of sin. Paul tells us in Romans chapter
8 in verse 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. In
other words, the human will by nature is a rebel. And the Christian
is the man who has come to see and say from the depths of his
heart, O Lord, how true. You say, but I've never been
a... My friend, listen, listen. If you're offended by that term,
that the human will is a rebel, it's because you've never seen
what your will is by nature. God commands you to love Him
with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And for years some
of you have thrown a few hours to God a week, and you thought
you did God's service. But the thing that has driven
you and motivated you throughout all the total spectrum of life's
activities has not been love to God, but love to yourself.
We have turned every one of us to His own way. We should no
longer live unto ourselves. 2 Corinthians 5.15, where you
see the Christian is a man who has this opinion of himself.
Not only is my heart by nature this foul cesspool of uncleanness,
my heart is this, but my will stood in rebellion to my God. It was like an unbroken coat.
He's come to see that his mind was darkened. The scripture says,
The Gentiles by nature have the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them. Ephesians 4.18, the understanding darkened. Darkened
to what? Not to the beauties of vanity
fair as we pass through this world and we come to those booths
that call for our attention. It may be the booth of sensual
pleasure, the booth of material gain, and the hawkers cry out
for their various wares as we find in Pilgrim's Progress. By
nature, we see much beauty in the wares, and we hear the voice
of the hawkers. The Scripture says concerning
the Lord Jesus, there is no beauty in Him that we should desire
Him. The voice of God can speak to us from His creation, for
there is no language nor voice where that message is not heard. Their line has gone out to the
ends of the earth, and the heavens under which we live day after
day cry out, God is great! God is good! God is wise! God is gracious! And we never
hear the message. God speaks through His servants
and in His Word of the beauty and the glory of His Son and
calls us to repentance and to faith. But our minds are darkened. We see no beauty in Christ. A
Christian is a man who has come to see that that is what his
mind was by nature. Dark. Dark. That is what it means to
be a polluted son of Adam. Sin affecting all the faculties. And then thirdly, to see yourself
as a fallen son of Adam is to see yourself helpless. Help us. Listen to the words of Paul in
Romans 5. For when we were without strength in due time, Christ
died. For the ungodly, Romans 5, 6.
When we were without strength, without strength to do what?
Oh, we have much strength to carry out our own given ideas
and plans and enterprises if God sustains our lives in His
sovereignty. But there is no strength to do
what? To blot out one sin. No strength
to break one chain that binds us. No strength to subdue our
own rebel will. No strength to move one inch
in the direction of the living God in a way of saving faith. Without strength. What do you think of yourself?
The Christian has come to see that's precisely what he was.
when God was pleased to bring the Savior to him. Let me ask
you tonight, do you have that opinion of yourself? You say,
that's a low opinion. Well, you see, that's the mystery.
It is the highest and yet the lowest opinion of oneself that
is the true opinion of oneself. The highest because I'm not junk! I'm not merely the accidental
epitome of the evolutionary process. The highest on the scale of the
beast I'm a creature made in the image of God. That's the
height of my glory as a man, but the depths of my shame is
this, that I have foully revolted against that God in whose image
has been so defaced in me, that it's well and I've been lost.
I am guilty, polluted, and helpless. Do you have that opinion of yourself
tonight? Don't answer out loud, but will
you dare to answer right there where you sit? Get as close to
saying it as out loud as you can. Get the words right up here,
but don't say it. Do you have that opinion of yourself? Brought in your heart by the
Spirit through the Word, do you? Every Christian can say, blessed
be God, yes. But then in the second place,
the Christian is known by the opinion not only that he has
of himself, but the opinion that he has of Jesus Christ. The crucial
question that comes down from the pages of Scripture is this
question, What think ye of Christ, whose son is he? Jesus asked
it of the religious leaders of his day. What think ye of Christ,
whose son is he? Identify that personage. Jesus asked the question, of
the disciples, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And
Peter answering his spokesman say, well, some say this prophet,
some say another, some say another. But now the crucial question,
but who do you say that I am? Having cleared away what other
men think, Peter, my disciples, what do you see in me? That's
the crucial question. And the Christian is known not
only by the opinion which he has of himself, but by the opinion
which he has of Jesus Christ, with reference to two very basic
things, the uniqueness of his person and the uniqueness of
his work. And I use the word unique not
in its present sense. Someone shows up with green trousers
and purple shirt and chartreuse hat and yellow bracelets and
we say, boy, that's a unique outfit he's got. And what we
mean, it's far out, it's unusual. But now the word unique in its
classical sense means one of a kind. One of a kind. And the Christian has an opinion
of Jesus Christ in which he is seen in Christ, person and work,
one of a kind. And what has he seen in his person?
He has seen in Jesus Christ what he can never fathom. He has seen
what he increasingly understands as far as the biblical distinctions,
but can never plumb the depths of it, that in Jesus Christ is
the true God joined to a true humanity. That's why John could
say, Whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is of God. He that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. Paul says in 1 Timothy
3, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. The Christian is a man who has
this opinion of Jesus Christ. He is the God-man. And that opinion again, though
God may have used the careful catechetical instruction of parents
or the church, the line-by-line instruction of a godly Sunday
school teacher or a preacher, whatever the means that were
used A Christian is a man who has come to the place where the
Lord can say to him, the opinion you have of me has not been revealed
to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father who is in heaven. Some of us can well remember
that for years we were taught accurately who Jesus Christ was. And if you asked us, what think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? We would have
said, without any reservation, son of God, son of man. But that
confession came from the larynx up. That's all. And you know what
transformed us? When God moved the confession
down about 12 inches. That transformed us. Because
when it was just in the larynx, we could say, Son of God, Son
of Man, and live indifferent to His claims as God. And when
the Holy Ghost reveals that He's God, you know what happens? John
chapter 21. Thomas fell at his feet and said,
Ha Koriasmu, the Lord of me. Ha Phaosmu, the God of me. See the personament? The Lord,
objective, but my Lord. The God, objective, but subjective. My God. That's it. The Christian
is one in whom that same revelation has occurred. He sees the uniqueness
of Christ's person as Son of God, Son of Man, the only appointed
Savior of sinners. And that confession is not something
he simply parrots because it's gone from the ear to the memory
and out of the larynx. But the Holy Spirit has revealed
it to his heart. so that he loves a Christ whom
he has never seen in the words of Peter, whom having not seen
ye love. And by the grace of God he would
die for that unseen Christ. But what about his work? He not
only has an opinion of the uniqueness of Christ's person being Son
of God, Son of Man, but he has an opinion of the work of Christ. His work of obedience, his work
of obedience unto death, His work wrought in His resurrection,
His work at the right hand of the Father, His incarnation,
His perfect life upon the earth, His crucifixion, His resurrection,
His ascension, His intercession. The Christian is a man who has
an opinion of the uniqueness of the work of Christ. He looks
upon Him not as one religious leader among many who has suffered
for His cause, But he looks upon the death of Jesus Christ in
such a light that he can say with the Apostle Paul in Galatians
2.20, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. He has seen in Christ crucified
the head of all who will come unto him and he sees in Christ's
death, his death, in Christ's satisfaction for sin, his satisfaction
for sin. He sees in Jesus Christ and the
work that he has wrought for sinners the one ground of his
acceptance with God. So again he can say with the
Apostle Paul in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the focal
point of his glorying because Christ in his work is unique
and precious to him. May I again press the question
to your conscience? What is your opinion of Jesus
Christ tonight? What think ye of Christ? Now get the answer right up to
here. Don't say it, but get it that far. What is your view of
the person of Christ? Could you fall at his feet tonight,
sincerely and without hesitation, and say with Thomas, And my God, he is the Lord of
glory. He is God made flesh, but he's
my Lord and he's my God. You see what that means? If he's
my Lord, he's on the throne, not only of the universe, but
of my heart. If he is my God, he's not only the sovereign ruler
and originator and end of all, he is my end. The one to whom I live, so that
I can say, for to me to live, is Christ. What think ye of Christ? What's your opinion of His person? The second half of the question,
what is your opinion of His work? Can you say without reservation
what Jesus Christ wrought in His life and death and resurrection? What He is accomplishing at the
right hand of the Father is not just part of my hope that I shall
be a forgiven sinner, that I shall be found numbered amongst those
who enter His presence with eternal bliss, but Jesus Christ is the
whole of my confession. You see, the two key phrases
that sum up the heart of the Gospel are these, Christ alone
to meet the sinner's need, faith alone by which the sinner's need
is met in Christ. And it's the little word alone.
Now, some of you wouldn't have much controversy. With Christ,
he enters in somehow, but can you say Christ alone? The Christian is known by his
opinion of Jesus Christ, and then in closing, The third thing
that marks a true Christian is this, what those opinions have
produced in his life. For the scripture says everyone
who comes to these two opinions, biblically, the opinion of himself,
that he is a creature of God, that he is a creature who has
fallen in Adam, he is guilty, he is polluted, he is helpless,
Everyone who's come to that opinion, and there is joined to it this
opinion of Christ, who He is in His person, what He is in
His work. If those opinions have been wrought by the Spirit of
God, they are always wrought in such a way that then they
do something more than merely expand the head with new notions
about myself and about Christ. By the Spirit of God, those truths
applied to the heart make a man what the Bible calls a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. If any man is in Christ, he is
a new creation. All things that passed away,
behold, all things have become new. You say you hold these opinions. The question I ask is, what have
they done? What are they doing right now? What difference do they make?
in the way you live, in the way you think, how you work, how you play, what
you do when you're in private, what you do in public, the patterns
of your thought, your social life, what you do on a date,
what you don't do on a date, how you speak to your children,
how you speak to your wife. This is what we're talking about.
These opinions applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost make
a man or woman a new person. Not perfectly new, but radically
new. You say you hold these opinions.
What evidence is there that you become a new creation? What is
there about you that defies any explanation but that Almighty
God has broken across the threshold of your life and laid hold of
you and made you a new man or a new woman in Christ? Thank
God there are many, and we've heard their testimony today,
who at the end of this day, if they give themselves time, will
have to sit on a little bench somewhere and scratch their heads
and say, who in the world are you? And they'll look themselves
in the mirror and say, that's you, but it ain't you. That's you, but it's not you! Why? Because a Christian is basically
a man who's a mystery to himself. If you don't believe it, listen
to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2.20. He was terribly mixed up.
Listen to it. I have been crucified with Christ. Well, good. Crucified men don't
write letters. He says, yeah, that's right,
and I am writing one in that truth, so I must be alive. So
he says in the next phrase, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Just when you're about to say, well, look, Paul, were
you crucified or are you living? He says, well, I have been crucified,
but I am alive. But he says, on the other hand,
yet I'm not alive. Well, what are you, dead or alive?
I'm quoting Galatians 2.20. Look at it. I have been crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Oh, so
you are alive. Well, cancel out the first phrase.
Well, no, not exactly, because yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. Oh, so now you've been blotted
out, and you're just sort of a channel and funnel, and Christ
is living through you?" And he says, no, no, because the life
which I now live in the flesh, oh, so you do live the life,
yes? Oh, so it's not Christ but you. Well, that's right, but
the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He's a mystery
to himself. I've been crucified, yet I'm
alive. Yet I'm not living, he's doing
the living, and yet he's doing the living in such a way that
I'm doing the living. He's all mixed up. My friend,
if you're not mixed up that way, you're not a Christian. Christian is the man who's been
confounded. God's done something that confounds
him. Some of us can sit here and say,
is this me? Am I the same person that when
mom and dad said, time to go to church, if I dared to, I would
have cussed? When mom and dad said, church
four times in one day? At a double cuss? A quadruple cuss? Am I the same person that once
had that attitude to gathering with God's people, who's found
sheer holy delight, intoxicating joy, in being with God's people
one, two, three, four, five times today? Sunday school, Sunday
morning baptism, Lord's Supper, evening service? And whose only
regret is that this mortal frame can't hold anymore? Is that the
same person? No, not on your life. Something's
happened. Something's happened. And it's
so radical that God says the old life has died and a new one
has emerged. And yet the new one has so emerged
that it's lived in the same human personality, with the same faculties,
same eyes, same ears, same crooked nose, everything the same, but
everything different. Are you a mystery to yourself
tonight? Or can you explain yourself? Can you explain yourself? Well,
there was my godly mom and dad and they taught me this and they
taught me that and I go to churches and I do all that. Oh, my friend,
listen, if you can explain yourself, I entreat you to consider seriously
whether or not you may have missed the whole point of all that we've
been talking about. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. These opinions of himself and
of Christ have been so burnt into his heart by the Spirit,
and in conjunction with his life-giving work, they emerge with him as
a new creature in Christ Jesus. Simple question, but oh, how
searching if we're willing to face them. You've been with us
today, perhaps the visitor. Some of you have just come in
for this evening. Could it be that God has directed this word
for your own well-being? You think hard thoughts of God.
You may have been sitting here even tonight and saying, why
in the world does that preacher have to look at me? Somebody
must have told him about me. He's looking at me! He's pointing
his finger at me! Why, why that? Oh, my friend,
listen. Listen. God, who knows your case,
has graciously sent his word of salvation to you, not to harm
you. For he says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, thoughts of good, not of evil. I have
no pleasure in the death of a wicked, but that he turn and live. And
I stand to soberly tell you in his name, if you do not have
this biblical opinion of yourself and this biblical opinion of
Christ, and these two opinions have not, by the Spirit of God,
been joined to his transforming work in your life, you're not
a Christian, my friend. If you're not a Christian, you're
not prepared to live, nor prepared to die, and much less prepared
to go to judgment. But to you this night is this
word of salvation sent. I got a letter the other day,
and with this little word I'll close, from some people who've
been listening to some of our tapes out in the Midwest. And
they were helped by them because in their area the standard of
ministry has so fallen where they can't get any solid biblical
preaching. They were all thrilled until
they listened to a sermon recently in which apparently I was entreating
sinners to flee to Christ and opening wide the door of mercy.
And they said, now, Mr. Martin, we understood that you
were of such and such a theological persuasion and that you believe
thus, thus, thus, and thus. And how is it that believing
that you can so freely offer Christ to all men? Oh, my, I
can't wait to dictate the letter on Tuesday. Because I want to tell them that
I can, in Christ's name, offer Christ freely to all men, urge
Him upon all men, because He Himself has warranted such an
offer and such an urgency. The gospel feast is spread, He
said. All things are ready. Go out
into the highways and hedges and hide behind a bush and once
in a while squeak out, come to the feast. No, no. Go into the highways and hedges
and compel them to come in. And they do so, and the Lord
says, yet there is room. Ah, my friend, that's the gospel.
We cannot compel you with physical coercion. If we could, we'd try
it and be willing to get our noses bent some more in the process,
because we desire your good and not your ill. But we're to compel
you with words of entreaty based upon gospel facts. Christ has
come. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ lives. Mighty to save. And He says from His throne,
in royal majesty and in regal compassion, come unto Me. I will give you rest. Come. Find rest. Tell Him, Lord, I've
been proud. I've had such a high opinion
of myself. Oh Lord, teach me what I am.
Be my prophet to show me what I am. He'll do that. Or maybe
you've come tonight with a low opinion. You've regarded yourself
as junk. Something not worth saving. Something
that God of heaven would never look upon. That's a lie of the
devil, my friend. You're of such worth to God that
all eternity will find your existence a monument to that worth, either
in heaven or in hell. You only destroy and crush and
recycle what is useless. God says human beings are not
useless. I'll never crush them and destroy
them and recycle them. They'll live for eternity, a
monument of how important they are to me, either in heaven or
in hell. Oh, my friend, whatever your
opinion has been of yourself, too high, too low, ask the Lord
Jesus to teach you what you are. Then whatever your opinion has
been of Christ, ask Him by His Spirit to show you who He is.
And pray that there will be no rest until what He teaches you
of yourself and of Himself transforms you into that blessed mystery
to yourself. God is able. Cast yourself upon
Him and find His promised mercy. And dear child of God, go home
tonight. And don't let the night find
you pillowing your head upon your bed until you've at least
said one hallelujah, one amen, one bless God for his mercy to
you and to us as his people and to these others whom he has graciously
drawn to himself. Let us pray.