Preaching of the gospel is a
matter of proclaiming to men as truth from God that he has
come to save poor sinners. Now, I wanna give you four facts.
Fact number one. that all men are sinners. This
is not difficult stuff, folks, unless you make it difficult.
I'll tell you where it gets difficult, that you have to keep the commandments
to be saved. Well, there's 5,000 in the Old
Testament. I hope you have memorized them
all. If that's your position that you're gonna keep the commandments,
say, well, you know, the 12 commandments, the 10 commandments. You don't even know them. Everybody
in here is a sinner and you are helpless to save yourself. You cannot do it. Preaching the
gospel is telling men and women that Jesus Christ, God's son,
is a perfect savior for sinners. He is a perfect savior for sinners,
even the worst of sinners. I wonder if we have the worst
of sinners in here today. Well, several hands went up. And I know those are converted
hands because no one raises their hand to be the chief of sinners
unless the spirit of God indwells them and they actually know what
it means to be a sinner. Some of you have run the gamut
in trespasses and sins, and you're sitting in here, and you have
no thought of you being a horrible person. I mean, you have done
just about everything there is to do. But you're glad you found
a place that would at least feed and clothe and shelter you. You're
happy about that. But you don't like this church
thing. You don't like being here. I guarantee you this, if that's
your position today, you're not going to get much out of this.
But if you're here and you're thinking to yourself, could God
actually love me? Could God actually die in my
room and God pay my debt at Calvary? And is God right now holding
back those forces that would take my life and keep me from
coming to Christ? Is God doing that? And kind of
there's a wonder thing going on in the inside of you as I'm
preaching. And you're going, and can it
be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's love? Died he
for me? Oh, I tell you, if you're talking
that way, you're his. Amen. Amen. Preaching the gospel is telling
men that God the Father and Christ the Son have promised that all
who know themselves to be sinners and put their faith in Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior shall be received into favor and none
can cast them out. That is good to know. See, some
of you are still in a position because what you've heard all
your life, that you have to be good enough to go to heaven,
that after you're converted, you have to hold out, you have
to overcome, you can never relapse, you can never mess up. I can tell you right now, that's
a fairy tale. That is insanity. And everybody in here knows who's
been converted. You didn't last over 10 minutes. It wasn't long after you were
converted that you were saying, was I really converted? Don't
come and be trusting your Catholic baptism, or your denominationalism,
or your priest, or the hierarchy of some church. Don't come and
trust Christ plus being a Baptist, a Catholic, a Methodist. You
come to Christ alone. You know, I can tell you this,
Miss Pam is the love of my life. I can tell you this, if I would
go to her, you know, on a daily basis and go like that, you know,
I just, I really love all women. I wouldn't float her boat. Here's what I say to Christ.
You are my savior. You are my Lord. You are my redemption. You are my everything. I have
all my cookies in one basket. I'm trusting you. and trusting
you alone. You think about this. You're
a sinner and cannot save yourself. And here's what Christ says,
come unto me. Come unto me all you that labor
and are heavy laden. Who said that? Christ said that.
You know, the God of the Bible, he's a condescender God. Oh, yeah. I mean, that he would
even speak to us, you know, he had to condescend. You know,
he has to come down to your level. I mean, why would God speak to
you, crackhead? Why would God speak to you, running
around, whoring around? Why would God speak to you, drunker
and a skunk? Why would a holy God... How does
that work? Is God counting on you or does
God count on himself? How wonderful it is and what
a condescending thing it is for God to look you square in the
eye and say, come to me. Come to me. This is not the invitation
of a weak puny God, but a sovereign God who commands you to come
to Him.