Good morning. Such a delight
to be with you. As Lindsey mentioned, I'm home. I'm home. Sitting there thinking. I believe I can truthfully say
that I don't have a bad memory of the 20 years that I was here. fellowshipping with you and your
dear, dear faithful pastor. Just all good memories. I'm thankful to be here. I asked
that you would pray for me. Nothing has changed in that regard
since the last time I was here. And what I mean by that, I have
no ability. Except God gives it to them.
That's just a fact. Let's pray that he will be pleased
to make his word effectual. Let me say, I asked Robin, I
hope I didn't forget to mention this, and I almost did. You can
turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2, by the way. We came up Friday
evening, we stayed with Mark and Regina Hanson. And I declare,
if anybody has a problem staying with them folks, they really
have a problem. They treat us like we're somebody. Well, Regina
does. Mark's been kind of mean from
time to time. But Regina makes up for it. So
it's no problem. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Regina's
got the grandbaby, doesn't she? OK. In 1 Timothy, chapter 2, we want
to begin by reading just One verse of Scripture, and it's
this, verse 5. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. For there is one God. How do you receive that? How does that affect you? Or
does it affect you at all? There is one God. And if that were all, without
this connecting link that follows, we wouldn't have any reason to
hope, any reason or foundation for grace, for mercy, for salvation,
for anything, anything to look forward to except God's wrath. That's all except for this. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man. The middle man. The connecting
link. One mediator between God and
man. The man. Christ Jesus. Let me give you a a visual picture
of what we just read. Turn, if you will, for just a
moment to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 17. We've read our text in 1 Timothy
2 and 5, and now in Matthew 17, most of you, if not all of you,
are familiar with this, Peter, James, and John are on the Mount
of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus Christ. They get a glimpse
of His glory, His majesty. They're just overwhelmed by that.
Well, indeed. Indeed, they would be. But look
at verse 5. Peter blurts out because he's
caught napping. He wakes up, doesn't know what
to say. Let's build three tabernacles. Then God speaks. In verse 5,
while he gets spake, that is Peter, behold, A bright cloud
overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which
said, this is God speaking, this is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased, hear ye Him." That's final. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. Remember our text? There is one
God. Look at verse 7. Here's the mediator.
They were sore afraid of being in the presence of God alone,
but they weren't. When Jesus came and touched them,
there is one man between God and needy sinners, the man Christ
Jesus. And he came and he touched them
and said, you don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be
afraid to rise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man. Save Jesus only. The one, the only, only mediator. Again, for a few moments, look
at the first phrase. For there is one God. Whether people like it or not,
whether people profess to believe it or not, whether they attempt
to suppress it or not, there it is. There is one God. There is one God. Notice, is. Not was. There is one God. And He's that immutable God. That never-changing God. Why
should He change? He's perfect. Always so. Self-existent. From eternity. He had no starting place. I cannot
grasp that, can you? No starting place. He had no
beginning. He'll have no end. Everything
springs from Him. But He Himself had no beginning.
This is what He Himself says. This is God speaking and he says,
for I lift my hand to heaven and I say, I live forever. There is one God. Psalm 90 verse
2. Again, this one God speaking
and says, before the mountains were brought forth, wherever
thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. Without beginning, the best comment
I can make on that is just, wow. Wow. Not only God from everlasting,
but everlastingly God. Never ceases to be what He is,
or who He is. Sovereign. High, holy, lifted
up, and says, I will in no wise clear the guilty. I am God. God over all, God Almighty, God
always, God without equal, God without rival, I am God. Psalm 14, verse 1, the fool has
said in his heart, there is no God. Well, that proves he's a
fool, doesn't it? The fool may try to convince
himself, no God, no God. I'll sleep better at night being
a rebel if I can convince myself no God. He hopes there's no God. In spite of all he can think
or say or try to convince himself of, there is one God. God declares, I am God and there
is no God besides me. If Satan can't convince a man
that there is no God, he'll do the next best thing. Try to change
the true God from what he actually is. Try to convince folks that
he's not really the God that he declares himself to be. Remember
what Satan said to Eve in the garden? This is, in essence,
what he tried to convince her of, and actually did, that, yes,
he's God, but he's not like you suppose he is. He really didn't
mean that. Let me tell you what he really
meant. Now, no, not as God really is. He's really not like that. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. There is not a week, there is
not a week that goes by that I'm not confronted, and you as
well, with evidence of that very thing. Listen to the average
person, religious person, define their concept of God. It's totally different than what
God Himself says He is. What he said concerning Israel,
his charge against Israel in Psalm 50, is still true today. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. That could have been written
this morning. The ink is still fresh. Is that
not so? Are we not confronted with that?
I speak of believers. Are we not confronted with evidence,
examples of that day in and day out? And I'm not talking about
the drunk in the gutter. I'm talking about most men behind
the pulpits. Who are they talking about? A
God that wants to, a God that tries, a God whose will is not
executed. Who is that? There is God. Another example we hear on every
hand. God, how many times have you
heard this? God's too good to send anybody to hell. He's just
too good. He loves everybody. And he's
just too good to send anybody to hell. If God doesn't send
them to hell, then you tell me who does, and don't say the devil.
He doesn't have that power. God does. God does. Does everybody go to heaven?
David, as Brother Scott used to say, man, I'd like to find
a sinner. I can't find a sinner. Everybody's
saved. Everybody's made a decision for
Jesus. Everybody's walked to now, but
ooh, I'd like to find a real sinner that knows he's a sinner. Like those two debtors our Lord
spoke of in Luke 7, wasn't it? When they had nothing to pay. That's the kind of sinner I'd
like to meet. Like that poor publican, smiting
his breast and saying, God, be merciful to me. I'm the sinner. There's not a worse one like
me. Oh, they're rare. They're rare, aren't they? Hard
to find one. The truth is, this true God,
only he can make a sinner. and glory to His name, aren't
you thankful that He does? He gets men lost. Nobody else
can. He strips them, brings them down.
They learn of God and He brings them to His Son. Someone very
truly said, I want nothing to do with God outside of Christ. Oh, I don't either. Not without
the mediator. Outside of Christ, God is nothing
and can only be a consuming fire. Unless we behold God in and through
Christ, the only mediator, the middle man, the terrors of God's
majesty would overwhelm us. Because of our sins, we dare
not, we dare not approach God except in Christ. Oh, but with
our eyes fastened upon Christ, that's where God fastens His
eyes. Behold my Son, he says to his
church, behold my servant, my righteous servant in whom I am
well pleased. Behold the Lamb of God. As he
told Peter, this is my Son, my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. No man, our Lord said, has seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, have you Have
I been so long with thee, Philip, and you have not known me? If
you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Horatius Bonar made
this observation concerning this verse in Jude 11. Woe unto them,
for they have gone in the way of Cain. And he wrote, Cain is
not an atheist nor an altogether irreligious man. He acknowledges
a God and he brings his fruit to the altar, but he brings no
lamb, as his brother did, no blood, nothing that speaks of
death. He comes with no confession,
no cry for mercy. Imagine that! A sinner supposedly
coming into the presence of God and doesn't feel his need of
a sacrifice. There's something terribly wrong
with that picture. He went on to write, Cain has
a religion, but it's a self-made human religion. Again, doesn't
that sound familiar? A religion of his own without
Christ, without blood, without pardon, without a mediator. Rejection
of God's religion and His Messiah is the way of Cain. Before any man can think to stand
before the face of God's justice, be admitted into the secret chamber
of God's mercy, partake of the riches of His amazing grace,
he must have the one, the only mediator. God gives A sinner at nothing receives
nothing from a sinner except it goes through his son. Oh, how precious his son must
be. What worth he must possess. What merit he must have that
all that come to him he will in no wise cast out. What grace. Let me ask you this. Is anything
more important Anything more important than knowing Jesus Christ the
only mediator between God and man? Anything more important? Not to those who've been awakened,
not to a sinner who knows that he is a sinner. Because this,
I can be ignorant of a lot of things and I am ignorant of a
lot of things. I try not to show my ignorance.
My mother would tell me sometimes, now son, try not to show your
ignorance. I said, Mom, I'll do my best.
But I could be ignorant of a lot of things. And they won't determine
where I'll spend eternity. This will. If I'm ignorant of
Jesus Christ, and what I mean by that, I just don't know Him.
I don't know him." He said, I know my sheep, but that's not all
he said, is it? He said, they know me. My sheep know me. This will determine where I spend
eternity. This alone will determine whether
I hear God say to me in that day, depart from me, cast him
into outer darkness. And the great shepherd says,
I don't know him. I never knew him. He said in Matthew 7 people
would approach the very judgment seat of God with their fig leaves. Well, wait, we did this, we did
that. I never knew you. Depart from me. Why? Because
they didn't have the mediator, the only mediator between their
souls and a holy God. Is anything, again I ask, is
anything more important than that? Every now and then since
I've been down in Alabama and been pastoring, and it's been
nine years now, but occasionally, not so much anymore, but I would
get phone calls or emails and folks seeing us online or somewhere
out there. They'll ask, would you mind telling
me what your statement of faith is, your confession of faith? Is it the Baptist confession,
the Philadelphia confession? And I'll say no. Well, what is
it? And I'll say the Bible, God's
Word. It's much older than those others.
It's much more reliable and it's 100% infallible because God wrote
it. Is that good enough for you?
And it wasn't because they didn't show up for service. That's sad,
isn't it? I've been asked on occasion,
is yours a full gospel church? You know what people mean by
that? Sure you do. A full gospel church. And they mean, what do you have
in addition to the gospel? Full gospel. Will you allow us
to come in and flip-flop around and speak in tongues? That's
what we're looking for. And I'll say, no, I won't allow
it because God doesn't allow it. All that is is glory in the
flesh. And God forbids that any glory
in the flesh, only in the cross of His Lord Jesus Christ. I was
watching the news. Just recently, one evening, and
they were interviewing some pastor of one of those big uptown First
Baptist, not Second or Third, First Baptist church. And they
said, would you like to add a closing comment, a word to the audience? And he looked down, just smiled,
a jolly good fellow he was, and said, yes, this is what he said.
Yes, come to our church. You'll enjoy yourself. We offer
casual worship. Come as you are. Don't bother
to get dressed. Just come as you are. Wear your
PJs. Casual dress. Entertaining. Everything's
casual. If I remember right, I told Robin,
can you believe that? There are people standing under
that man. Rebels that don't know God from
a goose going to hell and they're enjoying it. Something's wrong. Enjoying the service. You know
what I'm praying right now. If you're here and you don't
know God, I sure hope you're not enjoying it. I hope God is
just ripping you up one side and down the other. I hope God
is making it clear to you it's only He can. You don't have a
mediator. When a few more days are come,
you're going to be ushered in the presence of God Almighty
and you don't have the only mediator that God himself has appointed,
that God himself will accept, the only man that can bring you
and God together. You shouldn't be enjoying anything
if you don't know that. If you don't know Him, no, no,
far be it that rebels enjoy a service. That's a sad commentary on the
service and the preaching if it's true, isn't it? Oh, but
here's the answer. How can I be just with God? Is there a way that a real sinner, a lost sinner, without hope,
without merit, nothing but sin. And the cry of his heart, like
blind Bartimaeus sitting in the darkness, clenching his rag around
him, Oh, Jesus of Nazareth, would you have mercy on me? Would you
have mercy on me? He was crying out to the only
mediator between God and man. And you remember what he did?
I mean Jesus Christ. You remember what he did? He
stopped dead in his tracks. He always does, doesn't he? When
he hears the cry of one needy sinner, Have mercy upon me, oh
Jesus, please, please don't pass me by. Because if you do, I'm
going to hell. Please hear my plea." And he
did. Glory to his name, the man Christ
Jesus. He interposes between the two
parties, the sinner and God. And he brings them together,
he reconciles them as only he can. The priest can't do it,
the preacher can't do it, the soul winner can't do it, this
preacher or none other can do it, Saint Peter, Paul or Mary
can't do it, but Jesus Christ can. Jesus Christ can. The main Christ Jesus. Look up
on the crucified Christ. He's the remedy for all your
miseries. His cross has procured our crown. He by himself purged our sins
away. He obtained eternal redemption. His death has disarmed God's
holy law and satisfied it. His blood has washed our sinful
souls spotless. His death is the destruction
of all our enemies, the spring of our happiness, eternal happiness,
and the eternal testimony of divine love. Oh, amazing. He loved me. and gave himself,
all of himself as a blessing for me." God is one party, the offended
party. And man is the other, the offending
party. And the justice of God demands
satisfaction. The true God, the one true God
demands satisfaction. And there's nothing less than
perfect obedience to his law. And bearing the penalty of his
law, that will satisfy him. He's hard to please. He won't accept just anything
and everything. It must be perfect to be accepted. And here's the problem. If all
a man can't do that, he can't satisfy God's justice. Nothing
he does. Nothing he does will be anything
but a filthy rag in God's sight, like the leaves falling off the
trees now. All of our righteousness are
filthy rags, and like the wind, they've taken us away." The prophet
said, "'Who should be my daysman?' Job asked." Who's going to stand in the gap? Here I am, a guilty sinner. And there's a holy God saying
to the soul that sinneth, it must die. What's the remedy for that? Jesus
Christ, the one and only Mediator. He did what only He could do. He satisfied every jot. He didn't come and destroy God's
law. He fulfilled God's law. He honored God's law. in word,
in thought, in deed, every breath from that manger until the last
one he took up on the cross, everything he did perfectly,
satisfied, pleased his heavenly Father. But not just that. He was made like unto his brethren.
And that being the case, the God-man, He takes the hand of
His brethren and the hand of His holy God, and He brings them
together, reconciled. Wow! What a Savior! What a glorious, glorious Savior! One hymn writer put it this way,
Till God in human flesh I see, my thoughts no comfort find.
The holy, just, and sacred three are terrorists to my mind. Oh,
but if Emmanuel's face appear, my hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish fear. His grace removes my sins." Yes,
we need the mediator between us and God. Absolutely. But we don't need a mediator
between us and Jesus Christ. Are you thirsty? He says, come
and drink. Come and drink. Do you labor
and are heavy laden with the load, the unbearable load of
your sin? Christ says, come unto me. Come
unto me. I'll give you rest. Oh, remember,
Lindsay, remember? When Jesus Christ first spoke
rest to your soul, remember? Oh my, what a load, what a load, that
burden, that sin was bearing my soul down to hell. I couldn't rest, oh my soul. I at first went to a church,
went through their religious hoops, altars and sinners prayers
and go home and lie down, I couldn't rest. You're lost, you're lost,
you're lost, just ringing my ears. And I knew, God's just, He has
to send me to hell. How can He not send me to hell? Thank God, as old Bunyan said,
it was grace that taught my heart to fear. I remember. Fearful days, I remember, Judy
Sanders. When I first saw my sin. Oh,
but the good news is, God doesn't leave a sinner there, does He?
He gets him lost to save him. He strips him to clothing. And grace my fears relieved. Oh, buddy, Jimmy, what a relief
that was. Oh, what a relief that was. When
Jesus Christ himself said, Larry, your sins, your sins are all
forgiven. Thank God for the mediator between
my soul and a holy God. One of Don's many hymns expresses
this better than I'm trying to do. Christ is my mediator stands. Christ is my mediator stands
between my soul and God. Upon us both he lays his hands
presenting precious blood. He took salvation's work in hand
before He made the Son. Maturity, both God and man, the
work is His alone. He is the daysman God approves.
By Him He's satisfied. The kinsman ransomed sinners
loved. Christ Jesus crucified. I like the last one especially.
God trusts His glory in His hands, and there I trust my soul. The
surety for both He stands, for God and for my soul." Oh, with
this glorious mediator, I can somewhat get a little grasp,
a little glimpse. When I read a verse such as this,
Revelation 14 and 13, And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto
me, Write, write, blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works
do follow them. Not blessed is everyone that
dies, but blessed are those who die in the arms of the Mediator. He prayed to his heavenly Father,
I will also, Father, that those whom you have given me be with
me where I am. That's our great high priest.
I will they be with me. If he wills that, you tell me
who's going to hold them back. Who's going to stop it? Someone once said concerning
Lazarus and the rich man that our Lord spoke of, both dying,
both going to their eternal abode, Lazarus, to be with the Lord,
the rich man lifted up his eyes in hail, the rich man was Lazarus. He died with the riches of God's
grace in Christ as the comfort, the blanket that he wrapped himself
in. We mentioned at the beginning,
I think, referred to the sinner, the publican that would lift
his eyes up to heaven, not like the Pharisee. You're familiar
with that. Oh, he just stood. He wasn't
a beggar, was he? He was a braggart. He won't mind
if you stare at him. He enjoys being stared at. Because
he's not like other men. Look how he dresses. Listen to
what he says. He doesn't ask for anything.
He doesn't need anything. He goes home just like he came
in. A self-righteous Pharisee. But there was another man. That's
the kind of person that I would like to meet. A sinner. The sinner. He spoke, what, a
fifth of the words that the Pharisee did in his prayer? Seven words.
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He despises himself. If you tell
him he's a sinner, he'll say, you don't know the half of it.
I'm worse than you thought. But he went home justified. Justified, rather than the other. He went home with a mediator.
You've probably heard this story, but there was a time that Brother
Rolf Barnard was preaching, and I never met Rolf. I understand
that he was a pretty straight shooter. Folks would consider
him kind of rough sometimes. This religious generation don't
need to be babied, but he finished preaching. Two young men walked
up before Rolfe came out of the pulpit, just stood there, one
just weeping. And Rolfe looked down at him,
kind of, what do you want? And one rather flippantly said,
want to be saved? Rolfe said, go back and sit down. The fellow said, okay, went back
and sat down, but the other one didn't. He just stood there,
sobbing. Tears rolling down his cheeks,
just couldn't stop. And Rolfe said, man, I asked
you, what do you want? He said, old brother Barney,
I want mercy. I want Christ. I don't want to leave without
Christ. And old Rolfe said, young man, I think God's got something for
you. Oh yes, God's got something for
every needy sinner. Let me wrap this up. Paul, the writer in Hebrew, said
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator, whether the forerunner
is for us entered, Even Jesus made a high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Do you know Christ's presence
before God the Father in glory is the absolute guarantee of
the presence of all of His people? Paul in Ephesians 2 speaks of
us already being with Him in glory. We are so truly represented
by Him. Christ now appears in the presence
of God for us, our surety. Lindsay, you may remember this.
Years ago, you invited me to play in your family reunion tournament,
golf tournament, where everybody that he could sucker into playing
would play against the Camels. The books was loaded, the deck
was stacked, but that's another thing. But one of the days that
we were going to play was at the country club, the private
country club. And I got there early. I've never
been there. They wouldn't let me in. But I went that morning. I was standing in the clubhouse
and waiting for Menzie, the fellas, to show up. And this guy standing
a little ways from me kept eyeballing me. And finally he come up to
me. He said, how are you? I said,
I'm good. He said, what are you doing here?
I said, I'm going to play golf. He said, I've not seen you here
before. I said, I've never been here before. He said, this, you've
got to be a member of the play here. And about that time, Lindsey
came through the door and I said, I'm with him. Oh, you're with
Lindsey. You're Lindsey's guest. Well,
that's all right. That's all right. In Revelation 20, we read that
when all men are ushered before the great white throne of God
Almighty, And the dead, small and great, stand before God,
and the books are opened. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. There was no hiding place. And
they were judged every man according to their works, and death and
hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the Lamb's book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And
there stands Larry Criss." If God should say, what do you think you have a
right to enter here for? I'm going to point at Jesus Christ
and say, I'm with Him. I'm with Him. And God will say,
well enter into the joy prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. God bless you. It was a delight
to be with you. Look forward to being back Tuesday
night. God bless you.