Who is the worst of mankind?
I'm sure that you have a ready answer to my question, some of you. You would assume that it is that
alcoholic father who has given himself over to alcohol, whose
wife and little children live on the streets and beg for food
and shelter. Or your mind takes you to the
inner city streets, to the young woman who sells her body to buy
another rock, another hit. That woman who has birthed several
children by different men, but she's not a mother to any
of those children. The children are filthy, half-clothed
and hungry and uncared for and live in vacant buildings. Or
perhaps it is that man who has sunk so low that he lives in
the condemned house on Paddock Street with a gang of four-legged
street dogs. That man who's not bathed in
weeks He carries a sign over on Telegraph, we'll work for
food, but he won't. He's a liar and a cheat. He's
an able-bodied man and he could work, but he won't. He's a lazy
man who lives off of your tax dollars. Who is the worst of
mankind? What goes through your mind when
I ask that question? If you're going to find the worst
of mankind, you're going to have to go to church. There you will find the chief
of hypocritical religious folks who are going about to establish
their own righteousness. This is the chief of sinners. in the sense of condemnation
and the judgment and the wrath of God. That individual who is
going about attempting to establish his own righteousness, you are
the chief of sinners. You are an ungrateful, sorry,
good-for-nothing liar. attempting to establish your
own righteousness. You say, well, pastor, I think
you're being a little harsh. Well, Matthew 7, 22 through 23
says, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? And they did. And in thy name
we have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works. and then will I profess unto
them, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, because I never
knew you." Are you here today without Christ?
Are you here and a member of the Catholic Church, the Baptist
Church, the Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church, or Church
of God in Christ and out of Christ? And you are depending and going
about to establish your own righteousness by being a member of a denominational
church. What is your brag and boast?
What is your life all about? Are you trying to save yourself
by works of righteousness, which you have done? By being good? By being a law
keeper? Luke 18, Jesus tells the story
of two men who went up to the temple to pray, and one was a
Baptist, and the other was a sinner. No, that's not what that says.
Luke 18, 11. The Pharisee, which was a religious
person, a Judaizer, The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. My friend, I'm telling you, if
you have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, you are the chief of sinners, though you be in church. And here's what Jesus said about
these two men, which went up to the temple to pray. One was
a sinner, the other was a very religious person. And the Bible
says he prayed with himself. Your prayers are nothing but
hot wind. God doesn't hear your prayer.
You're praying to yourself. Dear God, I come to you, blah,
blah, blah, blah. You're praying with yourself.
God does not hear you. And here's what the Pharisee
said. I thank thee God that I'm not as other men are. Oh, I'm so good. I'm just, I'm
so proud of myself. You know, I've been an Episcopal
most of my life. I'm trying to make some of you
mad because maybe you'll listen to what I have to say. Maybe
you'll consider that all your religious shenanigans are dung
in the sight of God. that all of your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in the sight of God." Busy people. Why, this Pharisee said, I fast
twice a week. Wow! I give tithes of all that
I possess. Busy people going about to establish
your own righteousness. My friends, let me tell you this.
There is a righteousness that God demands. But you're not going
to produce it. God is not happy with your religious
doings. God has not been satisfied. Justice
has not been satisfied by your good works. There is a righteousness to be
had. but you can't produce it. God demands righteousness. And
I know maybe some of you the Spirit of God is dealing with
as I speak and you're going, well, you're shutting me up in
a box. You're getting it. I wish I could shut you up. You're
always talking about what you do, about your good works, your
good life, what you don't do. Matthew 5, 20, Jesus said this, For I say unto
you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. So there is a righteousness to
be had. And the scribes and the Pharisees
were just over the top. attempting to keep the law. And
Jesus said, you've got to have a righteousness, all right, but
it has to be better than that of the scribes and Pharisees.
You have to have my righteousness. That's what God says. You know,
in order for you to go to heaven, you have to be as good as God.
See, I can't believe you said that. Too late. I've already
said it. It's the truth. In order to enter God's heaven,
you have to have God's righteousness. You have to be perfect. You have
to be without sin. Shutting you up in a box. The
Pharisee stood and prayed with himself. Jesus said, you shall
in no way, in no case, enter the kingdom of heaven, unless
your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. When I was a kid, I used to hear
the preacher say, Trevor, you're gonna make it by the skin of
your teeth. Oh no, my friend, if you make it to heaven, you're
gonna make it on the righteousness, imputed righteousness of God
Almighty. You know, Jesus never had a good
thing to say about religious people. Not one time can you
find anybody. I looked. Last night, I looked
and looked. All week, I've been thinking
about this. If I could just find one place where Jesus said something
good, and I found out he said to the Pharisees, those religious
people, you are a bunch of snakes. Now that's not nice. Jesus said
that. You are a generation of vipers. You are whited supplicars. That's what Jesus said. You are
of your father, the devil. Let me tell you, there's only
one righteousness, and that's the righteousness of God. And
if you're seeking another righteousness, you're of your father, the devil.
I'll tell you, God's into this gospel thing. He's not playing
around with this gospel thing. And by the way, have you ever
noticed when you read the scriptures, I got happy last night, I was
reading Luke 7, 36 through 50. And I know this may shock you
a little about what I'm gonna say, but when I thought it last
night, I laughed. In my notes, I got, there's a
whore at the door. You'll find that in Luke 7.36.
Jesus was having dinner with the Pharisees, those self-righteous
folks, and some woman who was a streetwalker appeared and crashed
the party. And the Pharisees said, And what
she did was she took this costly oil and poured it on his feet
and took her hair and wiped his feet. What a humble deal this
is. The whore at the door. You will
remember that the rest of your life. What an awesome story! What a
glorious Savior! What a wonderful Redeemer! But
Phariseeism, God hates it. And the Pharisee said, if he
knew what kind of woman this was, he wouldn't let her stay
here. All of you good people, Jesus
is not your friend. He's only the friend of publicans
and sinners. Us bad folks, us folks who see
our sinnership and desperately need a Redeemer, a Savior, the
blood of Christ. John 8, the Pharisees took a
woman in adultery. They caught her in that. And
how interesting it is in John 8, They brought the woman and
threw her down at Jesus' feet. I thought it took two to commit
adultery. Where's the guy? He's probably
in the crowd with rocks in his hands, right? Church people. And Jesus said, you that are
without sin, cast the first stone. And they began to drop their
rocks, you know, real rocks. And Jesus looked up and said
to her, he stooped down first. He got on her level. You and
I need to talk. I forgot that camera's on. You
and I need to talk. Where have all your accusers
gone? They'd all walked away. And she said, I have none, Lord.
Is there anybody here that can say that? I have no accusers.
All the accusers are gone. Some of you are rock throwers
though, you're here. Neither do I condemn thee. Stop
committing adultery and sin no more. He said, neither do I condemn
thee, go and sin no more. Isn't that awesome? That is so
awesome. John 4, Jesus said, I must need
to go through Samaria. And they weren't going that way. They had not planned to go that
way. So the disciples said to him, you know, he's been working
a lot, probably a little fuzzy in his mind. Samaria is out of
the way. No, I have to go through Samaria. And they stopped at Jacob's well.
Samaria was out of the way. And here Jesus said to the disciples,
you go on into town to McDonald's and get some hamburgers and bring
them back. This is a Kent Clark version. And I will be waiting here at
the well. And out of nowhere there comes this adulterous Samaritan
that the Jewish people hate. They have no time. for the Samaritans. And she had her water pot and
she was going to draw water out of the well. And Jesus said something
like this to her. If you knew the water I could
give you, you would ask me. She said something like, evermore,
give me this water. And the Lord said, well, first
you got to go call your husband. Uh-oh, now we got a big problem. Jesus said, you've had five,
and the one you're living with now is not your husband. Oh,
the Lord began to cross her path about her sinnership. My friend,
if you've never faced your sinnership, you don't need a Redeemer, you
don't need a Savior. I mean, if you've ever faced
how big a sinner you are, a sinner by nature, a sinner by practice,
a sinner by choice, and you desperately need not a little Jesus, boy,
you need a great Redeemer, you need a great Savior. Anyway, she said, you're right. She went back to the men she'd
been sleeping with and said, come see a man that told me everything
I've ever done. Is not this the Messiah? Is not
this the Christ? And went on her way rejoicing.
But the Pharisees said, if he knew what kind of woman this
was. You see, because they were all about establishing their
own righteousness. This is gonna get better as we
go along here. The evil man is that religious
person who willfully, being ignorant of the righteousness of God,
goes about to establish his own righteousness. I don't know how I would pastor
a regular church. This church is made up of irregulars. We're all irregulars. I've been looking for a church
like this for 55 years, and finally I'm here. God demands perfect righteousness. And you know, right now you know,
you don't have a perfect righteousness. You've already sinned enough
this morning in word, thought, or deed to cast you into the
lowest hell. I got one amen on that too, space
amen. Say, Pastor, I think you're being
a little tough. Not as tough as God's going to be when you
stand before Him in your filthy rags of work. Perfect righteousness. You know,
the great question of the Bible is, and the great question in
life is this, How can God take you to heaven and not get himself
dirty? You know there are dirty judges,
right? They get paid in the back room. There's payoffs and compromises. A dirty judge is such a disgusting
thing. God is not a dirty judge. You
can't pay God off. You can't be super religious
and pay God off. There is no payoff for God that
you can produce. There is one who can pay God
off and do it righteously, and that's God himself. That's what
the gospel declares. How can God be just and yet justify
you? Well, he did. The dilemma of Darius is the
glory of God. You remember Daniel was praying
to the God of heaven and they had a law. It was the law of
the Medes and Persians that if you pray to any other God other
than the king, you got to go in the lion's den. But you know,
the old king loved Daniel. And he stayed up all night after
they arrested Daniel and threw him in the lion's den. You know,
God can stop the lions from being hungry. They didn't want preacher
that night. They threw Daniel in the lion's
den, and Odarius paced the floor back and forth. Those lions are
going to eat him alive. I've got to find a just way! I've got to find a just way! A way not to break the law! and bring him out of there. And
Darius couldn't find a way, but I'm about to jump now. God found
a way to bring me out where there's no judgment and no condemnation
and not get himself dirty. The Apostle Paul said this, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel. How come? For it is the power
of God. It's the dynamite of God. Oh,
it's so powerful to everyone that believeth. For therein is
the righteousness of God, a righteousness from God revealed. Anybody here
want a perfect righteousness? You'll find it in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It's there. Take your Bible and
go over to Romans 8. Let's go to Romans 4 first. Romans
4. I want to read this to you. I brought my study Bible today. Romans 4. I have this Bible so
marked up, but especially this part. Let's begin with verse
1. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if
Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but
not before God. Oh, if you can be saved by your
works, you're not going to have your hands lifted up praising
God. Praise be to me. Praise be to
my works. I did it. My good works outnumber
my bad works. Praise be to me. For if Abraham
were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before
God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness?
My friends, unbelief is act of rebellion against the God who
gave his only begotten Son, whereby you can be made righteous. And
so all of your works, God detests them. They're not good. in God's sight. You working your
way to heaven is an uplifted fist in the face of God, an ungratefulness,
an unthankfulness to God Almighty who sent His only begotten Son
into the world to die in your stead, room and place, whereby
you could be made righteousness and taken to heaven. Look at
this. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Oh, you don't believe
in salvation by grace. You quote Ephesians 2.8 a lot,
but you really don't believe it because you attribute your
salvation to your free will, and God has given you a choice,
and you're better than most people because you chose Jesus. Now,
all you free willers here today, I wouldn't be counting on my
free will. Your will is enslaved to your nature. God must overcome
you. This is what's so glorious about
the gospel of power. God comes to you in regeneration
power, in Holy Spirit power, and quickens you and gives you
life. And you completely, wholly, absolutely
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who did the doing and the dying
in your stead and place. And God is well pleased with
that. And it's by faith and not by words. Look at verse 5. To him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Can you sing with a songwriter?
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust my own, but
wholly lean on Jesus' name. Is that where you are? That's
where I am. They wouldn't keep me in hell.
I'd be singing, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. They'd throw me out of there. Even as David also described
of the blessedness, verse six, of the man unto whom God imputed
righteousness without works, without works, without works.
God imputed righteousness. God charges you with righteousness. God imputes to you righteousness.
Look at these verses, verse seven, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Oh, I'm a blessed
man. My sins have been forgiven and
my iniquities have been covered, but it gets better. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. What? The Lord refuses. Did you do it? I did it. And
Satan says, the great accuser of you says, he knows, he goes
with you, he prompts you to do what you do, what you think.
And then he says to God, that's one of yours. Charge him. Did you do it? Yes. But God says,
no. My son paid it all, all the debt
he owed. Sin had left the crimson stain,
but hallelujah, he washed it white as snow. There is no charge. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord refuses to impute sin. Isn't that something? Wow, what
a great salvation. You wonder, sometimes I think
you wonder why Pastor Clark is such a fanatic about this gospel,
because it's so marvelous. It just blows my mind again. I got this Bible in 1979 when
I moved to Michigan. It was given to me by a friend.
And I just got it out and began to see. I had a repediograph,
and you can see I tore this thing all to pieces. There are pieces
where I've gone over words in here that just popped out to
me in 1979 when we started this church. now preaching the same
old gospel I see our balcony filling up I see this auditorium
filling up I see what God is doing through the power of this
gospel can't preach the gospel preach the gospel exalt my son not ashamed of the gospel and now I close by simply saying
this which was my first attention getter here You, my religious
friend, are a wicked person. In fact, you're at the top of
God's chart because you will not bow to His Son, His only
begotten Son that He sent into the world to die and suffer and
bleed in the sinner's stead. And you will not bow to Him,
but you go about to do your thing. God will not have it because
there comes a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Some of you
are so religious people can't stand to be around you. I understand
that. You got your little rules and
regulations and you're so much better and nobody's going to
tell you about their own faults. I'm very comfortable here with
this crowd because I'm just like you. I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. You think about this. You know,
some of you've got your, back when I was a kid, we used to
give away pins if you didn't miss Sunday school. Every year,
some of us look like Gaddafi. We had our first year, our second
year, our third year, our fourth year pinned. How awesome. You trust in your pins, they'll
take you to hell. Jesus Christ is the Savior, and
He alone. And all of heaven explodes when
one sinner confesses faith in Jesus Christ alone. My glory, he said, I'll not give
to another. And he won't. God wasn't playing
some religious game when he sent his son down here into the world. You see what God demands, God
provides. You had to have a righteousness.
I had to have a righteousness. God demands it. Justice demands
it. But over in the Psalms, it says
that justice and mercy have kissed each other. Oh, what a sweet verse that is.
Justice, strict justice. God doesn't ask you to do your
best. God demands perfection, not simply on the outside, but
on the inside too. You have to be perfect inside
and out. You don't have that kind of righteousness. But God, in the person of his
Son, the God-man, came and walked the Judean acres. You have to
be a complete law-keeper in order to go to heaven. You don't have,
and I don't have that kind of righteousness. But Jesus came
and walked the Judean acres as my representative. And God smiled. And God was pleased with me because
I was in Christ. And I'm a complete law keeper
in Christ. I have kept the law in a substitute,
in a heavenly representative. But that's not all. Then he went
up on Calvary. And God took his righteousness
off of him and wrapped it around me. And he took my sins. and my sins was wrapped around
him. And then God turned his back on his own son. God didn't
forsake Daniel. God didn't forsake Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. But God forsook at Calvary his
only begotten son. Why hast thou forsaken me? Because
you're suffering in Kent's stead. You're suffering in Kent's place. You're paying Kent's sin debt. And Christ cried with a loud
voice and said, it's finished, it's accomplished, it's done. There's no condemnation for Kent. His debt has been paid in full. He's mine, and I impute to him,
charge to him, and accredit to him a perfect righteousness. Isn't that something? I remember as a saved boy, many
times sitting in church and thinking, if this is really what it's going
to be like after I die, I don't want to die. I was a professing
Christian, but the preacher was trying to scare the hell out
of me. You know, you can't scare the hell out of people. I mean,
I could lay so much guilt. Some of you are going to be glad
when I die because you've told me a bunch of stuff. You'll feel
relieved. But I used to sit in church and
just fear and not get happy about heaven. I was thinking about this yesterday.
I preached the funeral. The little lady had a big boy
that's my waitress, Helen. She was in Greece, and her daughter
died 40 years old in a nursing home, actually. And they asked
me to preach the funeral. And I did. I'm telling them the
same story I'm telling you. What a glorious gospel this is.
You know, you can leave here, I know some of you are like,
you know, but... You know, I was raised Catholic,
or I was raised Baptist, or whatever you were raised, and you know,
they taught that this was wrong, and that was wrong, and you know,
that God was gonna hand out yo-yos when we get to heaven. Some of
us were gonna get diamond-studded yo-yos. Some of us was gonna
drive Cadillacs, and others were gonna be on the back streets,
you know, driving Fords. Sorry about that. No. When we all get to heaven, we'll
sing the victory. will shout glory to God in the
highest. I often think this. When I get
to heaven, Jesus is not going to hear the last of this. You
don't get what I mean, do you? I want to sing there's victory
in Jesus. I want to give Him all the glory.
I know I am what I am by the grace of God. I know that you,
sitting way back there trying to hide here in church, you didn't
want to be here anyway, but God has surrounded you and brought
you here, and you're sitting back there. I pray it's so. Is this the truth? Is God a just God? Does God demand
perfection? But I've used heroin for five
years now. I've done about all there is
to do out there. Oh, I'm glad you are saying what
you are. Because the Spirit of God had
to get you to upchuck that, you know that? And then I'm saying
to you, Way back there hiding, I'm saying to you, the blood
of Jesus Christ will make you white as snow before God. I'm
saying to you, let not your heart be troubled. Jesus said, you
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. I've go to prepare a place for
you. What an awful thing if Jesus arose from the dead, went back
into heaven, prepared you a great big mansion that you didn't deserve,
and you be vacant, and you not make it. I'll tell you, every
dwelling place that God has prepared in Christ is going to be filled. No vacancies filled to the fullest. Now here's what I want you to
do. I was praying today somebody would pop up. I see it! I pray that the Lord will take
the scales off your eyes and that you stop trusting anything
but Christ alone. There's a passage in the Bible,
I can't remember, maybe Space, you know, it says, Instead, I
think it was the Bereans. They saw Jesus only. They saw
Jesus. That's all I want to see when
I'm here. I want to see Him. Because when
I look to Him and see those nail scars, I know it is well with
my soul. I know He paid the debt. I know
I'm free. Let's stand together.