The rest of the crowd should
be getting here in the next 30 minutes. We're glad that you're
here. I am what I am by the grace of
God. God's unmerited favor. The man of one subject, the Apostle
Paul, said, I'm determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. And for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that faith is not of yourselves. It too
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This grace message, what a powerful
message it is. And oh, how different in this
sense that it was not your works, it was his, working in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? If you're here today and know the Lord Jesus Christ, it was God who made you to differ.
You're no better than your sister who is without Christ, or your
brother, or your parents who are without Christ. It is amazing grace and indeed
a sweet sound. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
under salvation. The gospel we preach is a gospel
that is shamed by many. but it is not a gospel
of shame. On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. But it was on that
old cross that the Lord Jesus suffered and died in the sinner's
stead and room. Who maketh thee to differ from
another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not
receive it? Aren't you glad you're different
in this sense, that he made that difference in you? There's a big difference between
the two, a gospel that's shamed and a gospel shame. The gospel of the Bible is not
a gospel of shame, it's a gospel of power, and I hope we can see
that today in the discourse. I have heard many times what
I thought to be a shameful gospel. I don't believe I have ever been
ashamed of the gospel. I don't think I have. There has
been times while listening to a pastor, preacher, evangelist,
or even a Sunday school teacher, that I've been ashamed of what
they call the gospel. I've been made ashamed by a gospel
preach, which in the book of Galatians,
the apostle called another gospel. Say, I believe the gospel, I
would say to you, which one? This morning, right now, across
our country, there are preachers preaching another gospel, another
Christ, another Jesus. A serious charge. It's a gospel
of shame that they're preaching. And the apostle also said, those
that come preaching another gospel are accursed of God. God's into
this gospel of his Son, this gospel of grace, this gospel
of substitution. God takes it serious. I hope
you do too. It's the gospel of the glory,
the gospel of the glory of God. The gospel is glorious. when you come to see it. It's
not a ho-hum gospel. It's an awesome, wonderful, majestic,
it's scandalous, as we sung about today, that God so loved that
He gave His only begotten Son. to the Galatians, the apostle
asked this, who has corrupted your minds? Who has bewitched
you that you should remove yourself from him that called you unto
another gospel, which is not another? Who has voodooed you from a single-mindedness in Christ? Can you say today my hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness? I dare not trust my own. Do you know yourself to be complete
in Christ? That all things are yours in
Jesus Christ? Do you believe that he and he
alone bear your sins in his own body on the tree and remove those
sins? There are gospels that are being
preached today that aren't an embarrassment to me. The gospel
that is being preached which says, God would like to, but
you won't let him, is an embarrassment to me. You won't let him? The Apostle Paul knew nothing
about you won't let him gospel. He was, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel for it's the dynamite of God under salvation. Or the gospel of the devil has
a vote, God has a vote, and you cast the deciding vote is an
absolute lie and embarrassment to me. It's an embarrassing message. It's a shameful message. Or how about this one? Preached
all the time, Jesus died to give you a chance. Let me tell you,
God is not a lotto God. He's not a rabbit's foot God.
He's not a black cat God. He's not a luck God. He is the
sovereign Lord of this universe. And I'll tell you this, I would
be a fretful person if I believed it was chance salvation. Or how about this one? I've heard
this one used a lot. God wrote the prescription, you
have to fill it. God didn't simply write a prescription
for poor dead sinners. He came into this world to save
sinners, and the good news is He did it on the tree of the
cross. Or this one, God is waiting for
you. I have seen and watched preachers tune up trying to break
the heart of someone. God is waiting on you. Feeling
sorry for Jesus is not the same as bending the knee and confessing
with the tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus does not ask for
your pity. He demands you bow and confess the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad God wasn't waiting on
me. And I trust today that while
the gospel is being preached, that Jesus Christ walks the aisles
of this congregation and comes where you are. That's your only
hope. He must come to you. There's another one that I've
heard quite often. Jesus is knocking on your heart's
door. You must get up and let him in.
The doorknob is on the inside. Let me tell you, dead men don't
walk, dead men don't talk, and dead men don't open doors. And
you, and you hath he made alive who were dead. You better hope
the doorknob's not on the inside. You cannot save yourself. And that's where the gospel begins,
that salvation is not of men. So what is the gospel? Here it
is. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That's where you could be, God
was manifest in the flesh. God invaded history. Isn't that something? Isn't that
awesome? That God invaded history, that
God condescended, that God came down to earth not to spy out
your sins, but to deliver you from your sins. The Word has become flesh and
tabernacled among us. How awesome. He has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. And my friend, the good news
is, all he seeks he saves. There were 99 safe in the foe,
99 sheep. One was lost. The shepherd left
the 99. Follow that lost sheep over the
mountains of vanity through the slew of iniquity. Lay hold on
that lost sheep. Put the sheep on his shoulders
and brought the sheep home. And guess who got the glory for
the salvation of that sheep? There's nothing dumber than a
sheep. Sheep are dumb. You can drop
a dog off. I've told this story many times.
We used to drop this dog off in Kentucky when I was growing
up. My dad would drop the dog off.
It was a stray to begin with. It would beat us home. But a
lost sheep, they'll just keep on wandering. Thank God for a
shepherd that seeks his sheep. The gospel is good news. Remember
that. It's the power of God. It's good news. It's glad tidings. Don't get angry at this. His
name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. Not he might. Not he's going
to write a prescription. He shall save his people from
their sins. So the gospel is good news. It's
glad tidings. When you're sitting and listening
to a preacher preach, judge him in that manner. Is he preaching
good news? Is he preaching glad tidings
for poor sinners? Who's getting the glory? That's
the acid test. Who gets the glory? Give every
testimony that acid test. I'm embarrassed by braggamonies. You didn't come to Jesus first.
He came to you. And I understand some of the
terminology. People say, I found Jesus. He
wasn't lost. You were. And he found you. By the time you find him, he's
already called you. He's already found you. He's
already quickened you. He's already given you hope in
himself. What is this salvation that the
gospel so powerfully brings about? Listen to me now. The Apostle
Paul is not speaking here in Romans 116 of the first event
of conversion, but the final triumph of the gospel in bringing
believers to eternal safety and joy in the presence of a holy
and a glorious God. God doesn't simply bring you
to conversion or grant you repentance and faith and then walks off.
The salvation that is talked about here in Romans 1 16 is
complete salvation. It is final salvation. Let me tell you, dear little
elect of God, in the end, you win. What a shame it would be if God
invaded history in the person of Jesus Christ, went up on Calvary,
and died in the sinner's room, stand in place, and then one
of those he died for not be in heaven. It would be a disgrace. I said it would be a disgrace.
The Bible declares that he shall not fail. From the tree of the
cross, Jesus said this, it is accomplished. It's finished.
It's done. Do you believe that? I know that's
true. Never has so much been said in
so little. It's finished. It's accomplished. I have paid the debt. I have
satisfied the justice of God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. I am being saved, I have been
saved, I'm being saved, and I shall be saved. I'm heaven-bound. You see, one of the ways of avoiding
this thing of shame, feelings of shame, is not by watering
down the gospel. Don't water it down. So many are trying to clothe
the gospel. Preach it naked. Preach it bare. Strip it down. Christ died for
the ungodly. Christ died for the harlot. Christ
died for the drug addict. Christ died for self-righteous
people who think they're better than others. Christ died for
sinners. Make it plain. People say to
me quite often, you still preaching the old gospel? Yes. Hell's hot. Unless you trust
Jesus Christ, you're going. I'm not ashamed of this gospel.
The gospel hope will not put us to shame. It is the gospel that gives boldness,
boldness in the day of judgment. The Apostle talks about it in
the book of Hebrews that we might have boldness in the day of judgment. Can you imagine that? I heard
all my growing-up life that we were going to appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, and we were going to be, you know,
shaking and trembling because we knew what we did after we
got saved, and God was going to bring it up on the movie screen
and show all the things that we've ever done since we were
converted, and it used to scare me to death. I was only 16 or
17 years old. I didn't want it shown on the
movie screen. Do I have others here who don't
want their — I thought so. This gospel will not put you
to shame. It's a powerful gospel. It will
remove your past, your present, and your future sins. It takes
them all away. This gospel is what gives us
boldness in this day of judgment, not shame. The gospel is a message
of victory. It is good news. It is glad tidings. This is the very way that Jesus
overcame shame. In Hebrews 12, 2, it says, for
the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross. In other
words, he fixed his eye and heart on the results of the cross.
The result is full salvation. The result is that not one of
his elect shall be lost. Lo, I and the children which
thou hast given me, one day Jesus will say that. The Father will
stand up and say, let's see. This is the Kent Clark rendition.
Yes, they're all here, all present and accounted for. You don't
have to be ashamed of that kind of gospel. Here is joy. Here is my victory. I'm not ashamed
of the gospel, for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and though
the skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. I shall see God for myself and
not another. I know that in my Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, He would have
told me. He goes to prepare a place for me that where I am, Where
he is there I may be also. I know that he has made me more
than a conqueror. I know that there is victory
in Jesus. I know that this is the gospel
of greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
You're going to overcome. I know that He gives His sheep
eternal life, and they shall never perish, and they follow
Him. I know that He's working everything
out for my good. I know that for whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate. Whom He predestinated, them He
also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified. who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. I am persuaded that neither life,
nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate
me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. I know that
there's no condemnation for me. I know that I will stand before
Him without spot or blemish or any such thing. I know the Lord
my God is in the midst of us and He is mighty. He will save.
He will rejoice over us with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over us with singing.
So salvation here refers to not just our conversion, but final
and complete salvation. Just rest and be comforted, little
child of God. So you are here and you have
relapsed. I'm such a mess. I know. Jesus knows, and so am I. I mean, just look at this motley
crew here. What a bunch we are. But listen
to us laugh. Listen to us clap. Listen to
our joy. Sense our joy. Much more than having now been
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
On the third day, up from the grave he arose with a mighty
triumph for his foe. He arose a victor from the dark
domains. Hallelujah, Christ arose. And
he ascended back into heaven. And there I have a lawyer who
sits at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for me.
And the blood of Jesus Christ cries out, forgive him, forgive
him, forgive her, forgive her, forgive her. And that precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. Oh, there is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein. And sinners plunge beneath
that flood, lose all their guilty stains. One of my favorite stories is
that of old Brother Barnard. He was driving an old Model T
Ford, and he was out in Yellowstone Park. The thing broke down. Brother
Barnard got out, got out his white handkerchief, worked on
that motor, got grease all over his hands, finally got the thing
started with the crank. Some of you don't know about
the crank, but you start them with a crank. He got that thing
started, went on into the park to Old Faithful, where that gusher
would spray up every hour on the hour. And there was a sign
there back in that day that said, if you have any dirty cloth,
if you drop it in right here, walk so many feet downstream
and pick it up, the water will cleanse it. Brother Barnard said,
I'm going to give it the test. He took out that handkerchief.
He dropped it in the water, walked down so many feet, picked it
up, and it was white as snow. And he began to sing, there's
a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
40 people were standing behind him.
Some guy tapped him on the shoulder and said, may we join you? Brother
Barnard said, yes. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power until all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. You see, there is no need to
be ashamed. This is a gospel of power. You
need to see it, though, and I need to understand it, that it's a
powerful gospel. You need to confess it. I will
make it by the grace of God, through the blood of Jesus Christ.
I am heaven-bound. This is the only gospel that
saves. There's only one gospel, and
it is good news. Lastly, The gospel is the power
of God. It's the power of God. It's what frees us from being
ashamed. I have never understood how you could not help be ashamed
when the preacher was talking about Jesus who's trying and
Jesus who wants to. Who is this that cometh from
Bozah with thine garments on? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. That's in the Old Testament. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Ephesians 119 says this, I want
you to know This is the Apostle Paul's prayer. I want you to
know what is exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe. Oh, he made a believer out of
you. You didn't make a believer out of yourself. It wasn't your genius. You didn't
measure everything up and weigh everything out and give your
heart to Jesus. I've always wondered this too.
The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. What
would Jesus want with your old heart? He'll give you a new heart
and a new start. That's what he does. That you might know the greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power. It took a mighty power to make
a believer out of you. Oh, you'd believe in crack. You'd
believe in heroin. Don't leave me here. you would
run to that. But how about the one who died
on the tree? The one who shed his blood? That
you might have life, and not just have life, but have it more
abundantly. How about this? I'm not ashamed
of the gospel, for it's the power of God. What kind of power? Well, my God is able. My God
is able. My God is able to do exceedingly,
abundantly, above all that you ask or think. Just go hog-wild and pig-crazy
about trusting God. He it was that went to Lazarus'
cave. He it was that came to our grave. In this universal, worldwide
cemetery, there is a Savior who finds His sheep, and when He
finds them, they're dead. They're inactive toward God.
They're not seeking God. And let me put it clearly to
you, your will is not free. You are enslaved to your nature. You have a depraved nature. You can choose life or death,
and many in here have chosen death through shooting stuff
in their veins, through snorting. You've chosen death, but now
here you are. You threw all that stuff away,
and God made a believer out of you. If anything I've learned in 30
years across the street, it takes power to save a crack addict. And right now we're battling
this heroin demon. It's going to take a power. Sheriff
Bouchard is not going to come up with the answer. The psychologist
is not going to come up with the answer. Now they're saying
it's a brain disease. Well, find a serum. Give somebody
another shot and cure it if it's a brain disease. It's a sin disease
is what it is. And that can only be broken by
the power of Almighty God. but he's able. One day he walked
out there in that cemetery and Martha and Mary are explaining
to him, Lord, by now he, oh, he already stinks. He'd been
out there four days already. Lord, if you'd have been here
early, this would never have happened to begin with. Roll the stone away. Lazarus,
my sheep hear my voice and I know them. Can you, Lazarus? He's all bound up. The scripture
says he was bound from the top of his head to the bottom of
his feet. And when God saves you, See,
I know this. I know this for sure. Some of
you, God saves, and you've had the heroin spook and the crack
spook and all of the other drugs. You're all bound up. You're all
bound up. And when you come out of the
tomb, when Jesus calls you, you come out like this. And then you sit under the gospel.
And you hear the voice of Jesus telling others like Pastor Clark,
loose him and let him go. Loose him and let him go. My chains fell off and I was
free, went forth and followed thee. Or how about this one? I like this story. There was a babe in the book
of Ezekiel. that was born and it was laid
in the open field. It was a reject. Laid in the
open field to the wiles of nature. And this is an illustration the
Lord gives of his grace. Its navel was not cut. It was
bloody. It had not been washed or swaddled.
But it was a time of love. And the Lord God came by and
said to that babe, live! Can you hear your Savior calling
today? Can you hear Him calling? Is
He calling you? Say, that's the strangest thing.
I've only been over at the mission maybe a few days. This is my
first time here, Pastor. I didn't even want to come this
morning, but here I am and something's happening on the inside of me.
I'm kind of thinking maybe what you're talking about may be true. That there's power in the blood,
that there's wonder-working power, that there's power, power, power,
power in the precious blood of the Lamb. It's the blood that
makes an atonement for the soul, and without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Can you trust Him today? Have you been enabled to trust
him today? I hope you'll confess him today. He that did not spare his own
son, but freely gave him up for us all. How shall he not with
him freely give us all things? All things are yours. Yeah. In every Lord's day, I preach
the gospel to you. because you need to feed your
faith day by day on the message that I have preached to you today.
I point you to Jesus Christ. Brother Jim, I thought of this
old hymn. I love to tell the story. I really mean it. Say, Clark preaches the same
thing. If you've heard him once, you've heard him. That's right. Oh, you got it right. I love to tell the story for
those who know it best. You heard all the clapping and
laughing in here today. That's because they know the
story. And when in scenes of glory I
sing the new, new song, t'will be the old, old story that I
have loved so long. I love to tell the story, t'will
be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and
his love. The spirit and the bride say,
come. Let him that is a thirst come. Are you thirsty today?
Has the world become a desert to you? Is your life a desert
place? Are you longing? Are you sick
and tired of being sick and tired? Are you longing for rest? Here's
the invitation, not given by me, but from scripture. Come
unto me all ye that labor. Somebody said, oh, it's hard
to be a Christian. No, it's hard to be a crackhead. It's hard
to be a heroin addict. It's hard. Are you tired of it? I read yesterday where only about
30% escape the addiction if they've been free for five years from
it. I'm telling you this, if the
sun sets you free, you're free indeed. Because there's power. I don't
believe that crack is more powerful than Christ. I don't believe
that drugs are more powerful. I do believe they're demons.
I believe that the pharmacia is the work of demonic powers.
I do believe that. But I also know this greater
is he that's in you than he that's in the world. So come to Christ without moving
a muscle. You say, Pastor, do I have to
come up front? No. No. There's nothing up here that's
going to save you. Without moving a muscle, right
where you are right now, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Amen. Somebody was asking me again
this week about, I don't understand all this predestination stuff,
and you don't have to. That's not your concern right
now. If you will do this, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I guarantee you, if you will
trust him, it won't be long till you get on this side of the door
and look back and say, why, he chose me before the foundation
of the world. Your business right now is not
to figure out whether he chose you or not. Your business is
to trust Jesus Christ right now, right where you are. And thou
shalt be saved. And then you'll begin to find
out some of the most wonderful things. You'll find out that
when you were in the hood, and you were tucking and rolling,
and they were shooting at you, that the reason you're not dead
is because God loved you with an everlasting love. It's called, ooh, I want to preach. It's called prevenient grace. It's called grace. It's called
grace before grace. Oh, the reason you're not dead
is because God was gracious to you. His eye is on the sparrow
and he watches over me. That's the truth. Now, right
where you are, trust Christ. Joy, peace will flood your soul
as you look to the Lamb of God and receive Him. Let's stand and sing together.