I'd like for you to turn back
with me to Luke chapter 4. There's a multitude of verses. I jotted down just a few of them
in Exodus 15, 11 and Psalm 77 and Psalm 96 were all places
where God's salvation was spoken of and set before men And the
word wonder was used to describe it. And so I titled this message,
The Wonder of It All. Salvation is a wondrous thing. I hear people talk about salvation
like they talk about their birthday, like they talk about something
appeared in the news, you know, a river flooded or something
and they talked about it. Salvation is something apart
from everything. It's apart from everything in
eternity. It's a wondrous thing. It's a
one-of-a-kind thing. It's something that God does
of which there's no comparison. There's nothing to compare to.
because God has chosen salvation to reveal the glory of who He
is. And He's done this from all eternity. It's not a work that just happened
in time. It's not something that spiritually
evolved in men's lives. This is something that God has
purposed from all times. There's no way to even calculate
the beginning. of this work of which God has
purposed. Salvation, it's nothing short
of a miracle of God's grace. And when the Holy Spirit, or
maybe I should say if the Holy Spirit, begins this work in a
man, he begins it by setting the stage for it in them that he sent to bless
with some idea of the absolute impossibility of them to save
themselves. Isn't that how it starts, Richard?
That's exactly how it starts. God the Holy Spirit begins to
prepare the stage upon which God will reveal His glory. And He begins that with revealing
to you the absolute impossibility of you to save yourselves. You remember the disciples went
and got this man. Boy, he was in high esteem with
them. I mean, he was the best they
knew. And they brought him to the Lord.
And he said, what must I do to be saved? And the Lord said,
well, you keep the law. Oh, he said, all them things
I've done from my youth up. Is that how you talk about the
law? Well, the Lord said, you won't
have no problem with this then. Sell everything you have. Take
up your cross and follow me. And he went away sorrowful. And the disciples looked at each
other and they said, who then can be saved? If this man can't
be saved, where does that leave us? Who then can be saved? And the Lord, reading their thoughts,
here's what He said, with man it is impossible. Has God ever
revealed that to you? When God the Holy Spirit prepares
a man to see this glory, to know something about the glory of
Christ, He's going to reveal to him the wonder of salvation
in his heart. This man is going to come to
know who God is. To know who God is. I mean know it in his heart.
Know something of the majesty of his sovereignty and know something
about the affection of his love and to know something about the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And the first thing he
does is show to him, prove to him. Paul said, we have before
proved that both Jew and Gentile are all under sin. So what's
that mean? Well, he tells you what it means.
They're unrighteous. Ain't no need to tell them about
your righteousness coming to God. They're unrighteous. No need to come to God talking
about all these visions you saw in your closet, because it says
there's none that understandeth. No need to come to God talking
about how you've been looking for Him. He said there's none
that seeketh after God. They're all gone astray. Jew
and Gentile, they're all gone astray. There's no profit in
them. They are together become unprofitable. There's none good, listen, no,
not one. No, not one. Has God ever revealed
that to you? The absolute impossibility of
you to save yourself. You can't take this book and
read it and understand what it says. You've got so much worldly religion
in your head, you'll read this book and come away talking about
free will that's not even mentioned in the book. You'll read this book and you'll
come away thinking, well, I can keep God's law, and if I do,
if I just make a good attempt at keeping God's law, I can win
his favor. That's not even in the book.
In fact, it says, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. Your best efforts is nothing
before God, except abomination, that's what he calls them. And this doctrine of man's absolute
and total depravity, this revelation of truth, this world is happily
unaware of. And they don't want to be told
anything about it. But if God the Holy Spirit does
a work in you, it's the very first thing he does. Very first thing he does. Now most people will admit of
some room for improvement, I've heard people say that when I
talk to them. Well, I got a little room for improvement. Oh, you
got a lot of room for improvement. And most will say that they're
not what they ought to be. Some may even confess that they're
sinners in some degree or another. One man told me all the things
that he did, but he said, one thing I can say, he said, alcohol
never touched his lips. And I, you're gonna get mad at
me, but I told him maybe he ought to get a drink. None, now listen to me, none
untouched by the Holy Ghost believe that they are accursed of God. That a curse has rested upon
them from the day of their birth. David said, I come forth from
the womb speaking lies. Is that right? I went astray
as soon as I was born speaking lies. The scripture said man at his
best state, at his highest pinnacle, is altogether vanity. Job said
he drinks iniquity like water. None, untouched by the Holy Ghost,
believe that they are cursed of God, under the condemnation
of God, fallen in their father Adam, and Adam all die. Isn't
that what it says in the Scripture? By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men
that all have sinned. Yet the scripture plainly declares
that by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. That means they're under the
condemnation of God. That by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, and by Adam's offense, death both passed
and reigns unto death in all men. That's Romans 5, 12 through
21. care to read it and prove it
for yourselves. Taken strictly from man's point
of view, from man's point of view, the way he thinks, the
way he's been taught, ignorant of the Word of God, ignorant
of the Gospel of God, taken from man's point of view, the eternal
predestination of chosen sinners to the adoption of sons seems
terribly Unreasonable. How can that be? I don't know,
I'm not God. I'm not God. I don't see like
he sees. But he's God. He's God. The doctrine of God's particular
love. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. God said that before either one
of them were even born. before either one of them had
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, that this is going to be the basis of it. Therefore,
it was said, the elder is going to serve the younger, as it's
written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. The doctrine of effectual calling
doesn't even seem possible anybody who believes in free will. How
can that be? You mean the Lord, a whole state
is out here, all these counties, all this whole state, all these
millions of people, and God said, I'm gonna save this one, and
this one, and that one. And He calls them and enables
them to believe on His name? You mean, is that what you're
saying? That's exactly what God said. That's what he said. Read 2 Thessalonians chapter
two. He talks about the condition
of this world, talks about antichrist religion, talks about men being
just absolutely swept away in a river of ignorance and deceit. And that God, because they received
not the love of the truth, they wouldn't have the truth, they
wanted that, those lies, they wanted that deceitful religion. And they received not the love
of the truth that they might be said, therefore God gave them
over to strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned. But, Paul
said, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth were
unto he called you by our gospel." Isn't that what he said to the
Thessalonians? We say, I don't believe in elections. Well, Paul
did. And he told them in his first letter to the Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God. Well, how do you know
that, Paul? My gospel didn't come unto you
in word only. When I preached to you, you didn't
say, well, that's your opinion. That's your interpretation. No,
when I preached to you, my gospel didn't come in word only. It
came in power and in the Holy Ghost. And it came in much assurance,
assurance that this was God's Word. Oh, I tell you, the doctrine
of the federal headship and the representative offices of our
Lord Jesus Christ seems unnecessary to a man that believes he's able
to keep the law and win God's approval. What's he need with
a representative man? Now, I quoted this to you a few
moments ago. It's out of the book of Galatians.
He said, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do thee. And the end of that, Paul declares
in the book of Romans, he said, therefore, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight by the deeds of the law. That's
an absolute impossibility. So how are we justified? How is the believer justified?
by the representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Made of a
woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. He's a representative man. He lived a perfect life under
the law of God that I might be made righteous. Is that right? That's my right? I don't have
a righteousness. Paul said, oh, that I might win
Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ,
his faithfulness, his obedience, the righteousness of God by faith. The doctrine of imputed righteousness
has no place in the head or heart of a man who thinks he can produce
his own. Paul was convinced there was
never a legalist greater than Paul. That's what he was. He
was a Pharisee. He was a legalist. He thought
he could win God's, he thought he could produce a righteousness
by his obedience to the law. But God convinced him that he
couldn't. Not only that, he convinced him that all his righteousnesses
were his filthy rags. The doctrine of substitution
has no impact on the heart of a man who still thinks he can
satisfy God by a reformed lie. Christ died for our sins. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. What's that mean? He died in
my room instead. He died in, that was me on that
cross God was killing. Is that right? Absolutely. There's no other way it can be.
You can't satisfy God through your suffering. Some old sinner, he was drunken
and he was a whoremonger. Oh, he was an awful man, awful
man. And then he decides he's gonna He's going to clean up
his act. He's going to straighten things
out. And he goes back to church and he makes his vows and gives
his commitment and makes certain promises to God and all of these
things. If you could satisfy God, now
I want you to listen to me. If you could satisfy God through
your suffering, through your sacrifices, through your suffering.
Why then is hell eternal? Why is it everlasting? Looks
to me like somebody eventually could satisfy God if it were
possible. But you can't satisfy God by
your suffering. And that's why hell is eternal.
That's why it's everlasting punishment. You can't satisfy God. But He
did! He did. I told you one time there
was a family and it was a beautiful spring morning, so they walked
to church and went to the service, had a good service. And a man
noticed his little boy was listening that morning. Preacher got his
ear. Man, his eyes were just fastened on that preacher. And
going back home, the little boy just kind of He just kind of
backed off from the group and he had his hands behind him and
he was just looking down and looking all around and they knew
something was wrong. And so the daddy just kind of
slowed down, went back there with him. He said, son, he said,
something on your mind? He said, yeah. He said, well,
what's the problem? And he said, well, I just don't
see how one man could pay for the sins and the
wrong of so many. And the daddy didn't know what
he was going to tell him. And he was walking along there and
all of a sudden he spied a grasshopper. And he said, son, he said, you
see that grasshopper? He said, yes, sir. He said, how
many grasshoppers would it take to be worth the life of one little
boy? Oh, he said all the grasshoppers
in the world wouldn't equal up to the life of one little boy. And he said Christ said that
he sitteth on the circle of the earth and all the inhabitants
of the earth were as grasshoppers. It's not that a man died on the
cross, it's who died on the cross. This was the Son of God. And
the Son of God, one who was equal, he thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. This one on that cross was equal
with God. He had the heart of God, the
mind of God, the wisdom of God. He satisfied God. He knew how. He had the ability
and he willingly accomplished it. And the scripture said he
put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. Huh? You see what
I'm trying to say? Religion is saying do this, do
this, do this. I'm telling you, look to Christ.
He already did it. It's done. Isn't that what he
said? It's finished. And then he committed his spirit
unto the Father. It's done. It's done. Oh God, I want to get a hold
of that in my heart. It's done. A righteousness acceptable to God,
a death that has put away my sin, a character that's well
pleasing to God. It's done. It's done. But not to the natural man. Not
to the natural man. Doctrine of substitution has
no place in his heart. The doctrine of sanctification
in Christ is foolishness to the man who sees himself becoming
more and more righteous. But I think the scripture says
over there in Hebrews chapter 10, that by one offering he hath
sanctified us forever. You know what that says? He's
my sanctification. God hath made him to be unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That according
as it is written, let him that gloweth, let him glow in him.
Glow in the Lord. He's my sanctification. To see the glory of God in the
salvation of sinners is to see it in the light of Holy Spirit
conviction. It's to see it like Barabbas
saw it. A condemned man, locked in chains,
set free by one chosen to die in his stead. That's how Barabbas
saw it. It's to hear it as the Gentiles
in Antioch heard it. God commanding His light to shine
unto the Gentiles. Oh, I tell you, when they heard
that, God has commanded his light to shine to the heathen. Oh, he said they were glad. I was too the first time I heard
it. I was glad. I'm still glad. It's to understand it like the
Ethiopian eunuch understood it. God's servant being sent to make
it known unto him. He read that verse and read that
verse and read that verse. And he was journeying back, he'd
been down to all the ceremonies, and been down to all the feast
days, and he didn't learn anything, and he was still reading that
same passage in Isaiah, and he's coming back, and God sent his
servant out. And he'd run along beside him,
and the servant looked up at him and said, do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I except some
man tell me what it says? Well, I tell you, you'll see
salvation in a new light when the Holy Spirit begins to convict
you and begins to break you down and begins to show you the utter
impossibility of you being able to save yourselves. Apart from
His work, oh, you'll just be a wash rag after that. You just
take me, do what you want. Do what you will. It's to see it in the light of
Holy Spirit conviction. This is a faithful saying, Paul
said, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. You think he's gonna
have his way? Huh? Do you think Jesus Christ
is gonna save every sinner he came to save? Huh? Scripture says he shall. I must reign till I put every
enemy under my feet. And that's exactly what's going
to happen. That's exactly what's going to happen. Those days shall
not be shortened except for the elect's sake. For the elect's
sake, those days shall be shortened. You think he's going to get everyone?
God, long-suffering to us, were not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. That's what God said. They're
not gonna lose any of them. I used to hear people talk, try
to apply that scripture to anybody who's dying. God's not willing
for any, if God wasn't willing for you to perish, you'd never
perish. Well, he looked at his disciples
and he said, you see that sparrow? That sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without your father. Even that sparrow can't die without
the will of God. He said, you think I'm telling
you that because God loves sparrows? I'm telling you that for your
own good. For your own good. You're not
going anywhere. Nobody's going anywhere apart
from the will of God. And when it's His will, I don't
care who you are, even His son is going to give up the ghost. Oh, listen to me. If you're sick and you want me
to, I'll come and visit with you. I'll come and sit with you
and talk with you, whatever good that can be. If you're hungry
and I got any food in my house, it's yours. It's yours. If you can't come get it, I'll
bring it to you. You call me. If you need clothing, I'll share
what I got. It may be a little large, but you can get it all. But I've got nothing eternal
for you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's all I've
got. That's all I've got. I have no
hope to offer except the sovereign grace of God. I have no eternal
comfort to give but Christ. And the wonder, the wonder of
salvation, the wonder of it all is that God would save a people
by his son for the glory of his own name. The wonder of it all
is that God would save anybody. Have you ever come to that realization? I used to talk about God's rights.
A man's rights, I mean. Man don't have any rights. He's
a prisoner. He's a captive. I hope no one listening to me
looks to anything to find potential for God to save sinners except
God's own glory and His grace in Christ. Paul wrote to Timothy
This young man, this young preacher that sat under Paul, that Paul
had taught how to preach, he wrote to young Timothy and he
said, Timothy, God has saved us. I didn't get saved, God has saved
us. And then he called us with a
holy calling. What's that mean? has to do with the whole character
of God being in harmony with itself. His justice, his love,
his mercy, his grace. All of this in harmony is holiness.
That's holiness. God called us with a holy calling. He called us with a calling in
harmony with his own character. He doesn't talk about God taking
a big eraser and erasing all your debts. No, he talks about
Christ dying for your sins. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Who is he that condemneth? It's
God who justifies. God saved us, Paul told Timothy,
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. How come God saved you? Because
God purposed to do it. And he worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the
children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our
behavior in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God." It didn't say,
but man, who made up his mind. It says, but God. But God. who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins has quickened us together with Christ. That is,
he's made us one in Christ. One. Let that sink in. When he quickened
us, he made us alive in Christ. He quickened us together with
Christ, made us one with him. and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Representatively speaking, I'm
seated on the throne of God with my Lord right now. And he did
all this that in ages to come, Ephesians 2, 7, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Salvation is not the humdrum
making up of the mind of whether or not you're ready to dedicate
your life to serve God. Salvation is not the intimidated
reaction of a child being pressured into some kind of false profession
of faith. It's God saving a people out
of a condemned world whose destiny is everlasting hell except he
intervene. That's what it is. Listen as John paints this picture
by the Holy Ghost in the book of Revelations. He's talking
about the whole world now. And God gives him this vision.
Gives him this vision. And here's how he describes it.
He said they all worship the dragon and the beast. The dragon is Satan and the beast
is false religion. They all worshiped the dragon
and the beast and there was given unto him a mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies. And he blasphemed God and blasphemed
his name and his tabernacle and them that were in it. And he
made war with the saints and power was given to him over all
kindreds and tongues and nations. Am I exaggerating when I tell
you that satanic influence has influenced the whole world? Scripture
said it is. John said, we know that we are
of God, now listen, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Is
that an exaggeration? And now listen to this, and all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship the dragon, whose names
are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain before
the foundation of the world. This world in a state of fallen
depravity is putty in the hands of Satan. He takes us captive
at his will. That's what Paul told Timothy. And as he deceives men with antichrist
religion, they in turn influence the multitudes around them until
the whole world wanders after the beast and after the dragon.
I'm not just preaching to mixed up people, people sold or billed
goods by somebody, but folks who love darkness. He said, here's
the condemnation, light come into the world, men love darkness
rather than light. Well, I don't believe I'm under
the curse of God, then why don't you love the light? Why do you go back to the darkness? This is the condemnation. They
love their lives just the way they are. I've had people tell
me that I like things just the way they are. They love their
religion just the way it is. They love their ideas just like
they are. They see nothing wrong with it,
nothing ungodly about it, nothing rebellious to it. It takes God
the Holy Ghost to press God's testimony of man upon his heart. When he does, he'll receive it. He'll receive it. Paul said,
I'm trying to remember the chapter and verse that's in Psalm 50,
I think, or 51. He said, against thee and thee
only have I done this evil, done this wrong in thy sight. He confessed
what he was before God. It takes a divine power to make
the law speak to men and judge them and condemn them and leave
them guilty before God and strip them of all their excuses. Take
away all their lame excuses, all their alibis and promised
reformation. But oh, when he does, I got no
good news for them. I got good news for sinners.
Christ died for you. If I can find one. I'll be honest
with you, I can't find a center. I go all over the country preaching.
I was in Rocky Mount, Virginia, and up in Madisonville, Kentucky,
and over in Sylacauga, Alabama. I'm all over the place. I can't
find a center anywhere. But if I can find one, oh, I
got good news for you. Christ died for you. Christ brought
out a righteousness for you. Christ reigns in glory right
now, successful, victorious over all things, arranging, overseeing, making things come
to pass just for you, just for you. All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. And I'm talking about wicked
sinners, helpless sinners, you can go on and on, depraved sinners,
deceived sinners, big sinners, little sinners. Our Lord turned to the Pharisees,
the most self-righteous people on this earth, and he looked
at them and he said, I came not to call the righteous, I come
to call sinners to repentance. Now you go learn what that means.
I have mercy and not sacrifice. Some would have me to believe
this sense of sin is unnecessary. Why do you emphasize sin so much
in your preaching? Well, I'll leave them to their
own conclusions. But the scripture said, when
he has come, talking about the Holy Spirit of God, he will convince
the world of what? Sin. Now what does that say? Sin. And then a righteousness. Not that God's righteous, but
that there is a righteousness for sinners. And judgment. Not that there is one, but judgment
satisfied. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. And no judgment. Judgment's passed. For the prophet, he said, the
voice said, cry. The prophet said, what shall
I cry? What shall I say? God said, you
say this, all flesh is grass. And all the goodliness of man
is like the flower of the grass. And the wind gonna blow on that
grass. That's the Holy Spirit. And when
it does, the flower withereth. and the wind blows it away. It's
gone. The wonder of it all is that
God has determined to save sinners for the glory of his name through
the person of his dear son. And they delivered unto our Lord
the book of the prophet Isaiah and he opened the book and he
found this verse and he read it aloud. I read it to you a
while ago. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, bankrupt sinners,
people without a price, people who don't have what it
takes to reconcile themselves to God, to redeem themselves
out of debt. I'm going to preach the gospel
to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the
blind, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. What is the acceptable year of
the Lord? He's talking about Jubilee. You
ever read about the Jubilee? On the year of Jubilee, all debts
were canceled. Everything's canceled. I don't
care how much you owed. You might have just went in debt
yesterday. But wherever the debt is, it's gone. All the property
that you had to surrender during that time, they had to be given
back to you. It's yours again. All your inheritance
that you lost is all restored. All restored. That's jubilee.
year of redemption, the year of inheritance restored, justice
satisfied, righteousness established, grace and mercy manifested. And
our Lord read these things to these Jews who understand them
and their eyes were fastened on Him, just glued to Him. What's He going to say about
that? He said, this day is a scripture fulfilled. Huh? Can I look at
you this morning and say, This day are these scriptures fulfilled. You've heard about the Jubilee. You've heard from this preacher,
quoting to you from the Word of God, you've heard what true
redemption is, true righteousness is, true substitution is. They looked at him, and you know
what they did? They were filled with wonder. Wow. We never heard anything
like this. Him preach like other people. He preaches like somebody with
authority. Well, if God called you to preach, You've got all the authority
you need. He said, all power is given unto me in heaven and
earth. Now you go preach. But what if they think I'm just
showing too much authority? Let them think what they want
to think. You're my ambassador. You represent
me out there. Now you go preach to them. And
I tell you what he gives you to preach is wondrous. It's a
wondrous thing when God the Holy Spirit sets the stage for it.
If he will, I'm telling you, it's the best thing you ever
heard in your life. You'll never know anything else
but that. You ain't gonna want to go anywhere.
You know that old boy, he was walking along there in the New
Testament. This was in a parable our Lord gave. And he looked
down and he said, ah, look at that. There's a big old chunk
of gold sticking up out of the ground. I guess there was a battle
or something there, and all the treasure that the army was carrying.
And here's a piece of it there. And he raked around on that ground
a little bit, and there's another piece. And boy, he covered it
up real quick, and he ran down to the courthouse, and he said,
how much you take for the field? What field? That big field out
there. I want to buy that field. What
are you going to do with that thing? It won't raise nothing.
And he said, I want that field. Whatever it takes. That's what
a man does when he finds the treasure in here. He buys the
whole book. He buys the whole book. And he
runs, and he says, it's mine. It's mine. Oh, may God enable you to see
what I'm telling you today. Thank you.