I have before me a book, a divinely inspired book. It's
a book written of men. I was reminded of that not too
long ago when I was witnessing to one of my close relatives.
And they said, well, the Bible is written by men. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. And these men were
fallen men. They were weak men, sinful men,
fallible men. Yet, they were inspired by the
Holy Spirit of God in such a way as to write infallible words
in this book. He says to us here, all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. All of it. I remember the first
time I read for myself in the Word of God about the doctrine
of predestination. I didn't even know it was in
the Scripture. I read it in Romans chapter 8. I immediately went to a concordance
and found it again in Ephesians chapter 1 and read this about
predestination. I didn't know it was in the Bible.
And so I went to one of the elders in that Armenian church that
I was attending, and I said, what is this talking about? Oh,
he said, don't get into that. Don't get into that. He said,
the hidden things belong to God, and the revealed things belong
to us. And I said, now wait a minute.
Doesn't it say all scripture is given by inspiration of God? All of it? And doesn't it say
that it's profitable? There's nowhere in here where
he tells you to avoid parts of this book. That's not in the
Bible. That's in a deceived man's head,
is where that is, and in his heart. The writings of this divinely
inspired book are clearly enough stated and uncomplicated enough
to understand, and so is the only adequate source for doctrine
to be based. It's profitable for doctrine. What is doctrine? That's what
we believe. God's testimony concerning His
Son. That's the doctrine of Christ. I think it's in the book of 2
John or 3 John, one or the other, he's writing to the elect lady
and he said, if any come unto you and bring not the doctrine
of Christ, don't invite him into your house. He comes to the door
and he said, you know, I had this not too long ago. Four or
five of them came to my door, and there was a little old building.
It was abandoned over there in Taylor, and they started a church
in it. And we started this, whatever the name of it was, church. And
we come here, and we want to talk to you a little bit about
these things. And I said, well, it's, you know, I've been a preacher
for a while now, and I'm pretty sure I know most of these things.
And as soon as he understood that I was a Baptist preacher,
he didn't have anything else to say. He got back in his car
and down the road they went. These things are clearly enough
stated in the Bible. Now, let me tell you. You say,
well, they're clear. They're complicated to me. Let
me tell you what's complicating it. all these preconceived notions
that you've got in your head that religion has been telling
you about for the last 20 years. That's what's making it complicated.
It's not complicated. In Ephesians chapter 1, you read
in there, it said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Is that complicated? We have 10-year-old kids in here
can understand that. They know exactly what that's
saying. It's not complicated. What makes it complicated is
you've been told you had a free will and that you choose God,
he don't choose you. That's what complicates everything.
There's nothing complicated about the fall of man. By one man,
sin entered into the world, death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. It's that hard to understand.
You don't have to be a seminary graduate to understand that.
It's clearly enough stated in the Word of God. And so that
the Word of God is the only adequate source for doctrine, for doctrine. Are you with me? You understand
where I'm coming from here? A man's diploma from a seminary
is not profitable for doctrine. They love to display their diplomas. I had a fellow, he was a master
theologian. He was a friend of mine. Master
theologian. I can't imagine hanging something
like that on my wall. That's not profitable for doctrine.
The Pharisees were master theologians, and they were wrong about everything.
Is that right? Nicodemus came to the Lord. He
immediately started telling the Lord what he knew. We know that
thou art a master. We know that you're a master
of theology. We know that. We know that you're... Nicodemus, you don't know anything.
You don't know anything. Aren't thou a master of Israel,
and you know not these things, and you must be born again? And then the Holy Scripture,
it said, is profitable for reproof. Reproof is to point out a fault. Every week when I preach to you,
I'll give you the truth, and then I'll give you an example
of an untruth. And people who believe that untruth,
when I tell them that, they swell all up and get mad and red and
their Adam's apple runs up and down and they get angry. Angry. That's reproof. Reproof. Somebody says something and you
tell him to his face, no, that's not so. And then thirdly, this
Holy Bible is profitable for correction. We don't reprove
and correct by coming up here and I pull out this little I
pulled this out, and I said, now, this is the church covenant,
and I'm going to show you here where our church don't believe
that. And while that thing might have some profit, it's not profitable
for correction. If you're going to correct somebody,
you turn in here and show them what it says, not in here. It's profitable for correction. We open our Bible. I was talking
to a man not too long ago, a Methodist minister. And every time I would
ask him about something, he'd say, well, we believe this. Our
church believes this and teaches that. And then fourthly, the words of these
men who were inspired of God to write this book are profitable
for instruction in righteousness. The only one righteousness before
God, and that's the righteousness of Christ. Well, how come you
can be so dogmatic when you say that? You don't leave any room
for argument. Well, there is no room for argument.
Let God be true and every man a liar. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. That's
pretty clear, isn't it? Tells him what it is. Tells him
what this righteousness is. Tells him where it is. and tells
him how to obtain it. You know, ignorant and foolish
people like to say of preachers, that's his opinion. I get that
all the time. That's your opinion. Or they
like to say this, that's your interpretation. God's preachers nail down their
gospel with the word of God, and they say, let God be true,
and every man a liar. Now, if we can't build, this
book, he said, is inspired of God, and it's profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
If I can't nail down what I preach to you in this book, I got no
business being behind this pulpit. If I have to run and get my brother-in-law
or run and get the church covenant or run and get some book somewhere
to tell you something, I don't know anything at all about what
I'm preaching. I go to the Word of God. It's
the only profitable source there is for doctrine. And God's preachers
nail down their gospel with the Word of God. This divinely inspired
book, being profitable for these things, is able to make them
wise unto salvation. Isn't that what Paul told Timothy?
You've known the scriptures. Your grandmother was not ignorant. She was a godly woman. And your
mother wasn't ignorant. She was a godly woman. And they
read the scriptures to you when you was in your youth. From a
child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, and they alone are
able to make thee wise unto salvation. I can be right all day long and
still not give you the foundation of faith. I need to be right,
but I need to show you that I'm right in the Word of God. And if this weren't so, we wouldn't
quote from it, we wouldn't preach from it, and I wouldn't have
you turn to look at things. So let me say again, I have before
me the Word of God. The Word of God. All right. Now,
if God in His providence gives me an opportunity to speak, and
He has this morning, where do I begin? I had Richard fill in for me
not too long ago. And I could see the look come
on his face, same as with anybody I had fill in for me. That look
comes on her face. Oh, where am I going to go? It's a big book, ain't it? This
book spans from the beginning of Revelation. Where's that? The eternity past. I hear preachers
talk about the council halls of eternity. How far back is
that? Further than you can imagine. It spans from eternity past into
the abyss of the future. That's a big book. It's a big
book. And then consider this. Most people that you're going
to speak to know very little about the book. They don't know
much about it at all. I went to church all my life.
I probably couldn't have quoted more than three scriptures out
of the whole book. Folks know John 3.16 because
it's on every billboard up and down the road. It's quoted by
every preacher on the radio and TV. They know John 3.16. They've heard stories about Noah.
Saw the movies, Hollywood productions about Noah, David and Goliath,
Samson and Delilah, and a few other things they've heard. They've
heard about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. They've seen the
manger scenes at Christmastime. And they've heard the carols
that they sing and these things. And they know a little bit about
the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. They know that he died on a cross. They've heard people talk about
that. He died on the cross. And they celebrate His resurrection
every Easter. So what are they ignorant of? They're ignorant of everything.
They're ignorant of creation. If they weren't ignorant of creation,
you'd never hear the phrase, Mother Nature, come out of somebody's
mouth. They're totally ignorant of creation. They don't know who created the
world. They say, well, God created the world. Yes, in a sense, He
did. In a sense, He did. But it says
that the Son of God created the world. And not only that He created
it, but that it was created for Him. See what I mean? Ignorance. ignorant about creation. They don't know who created the
world or to what end it was created or how it's maintained. My soul,
they're worried to death, worried to death about the earth going
to destroy itself or man going to destroy himself. He would if he was in charge.
He would. But he ain't in charge. He ain't
in charge. being ignorant of creation. They
don't know what's going to become of it. They think this earth
is going to go on forever just like it is. And then secondly,
men are ignorant of the fall of man in the garden. God created
man, put him in a garden, and man fell. Man fell. And that fall had its impact
on all humanity. We're not left to ourselves to
speculate or theorize on the condition of man. The Bible plainly
tells us what's happened. I quoted it for you just a few
minutes ago out of Romans chapter 5, verse 12. And then thirdly, they're totally
ignorant of the mystery of the Gentiles and the Jews. They know
there's something about the Jews. Something about those Jews over
there. They know that this book talks a lot about the Jews, a
lot of promises, a lot of things being given to the Jews. And
somewhere down the road, the Gentiles come into the picture,
but they don't really understand why or what they are or who the
true Jew is. You talk to every person, you
don't know. I quoted the scriptures to a
man one time concerning the nation of Israel. I went over to Romans
chapter 9, and I read him those verses there. And I read this
to him. These are not the children of
God. They're not the children of God.
All these relatives of Abraham, these are not the children of
God. But the children of the seed
are counted. They're the ones who are counted.
That's the real children of God. But there's nothing in this world
that men are more ignorant of than the person and work of Jesus
Christ. They're totally ignorant of it.
When they say things about Christ dying for all the sins of all
men, that thought goes no further than a statement, no deeper than
that. You begin to question them about,
well, then, did he die for Judas? Because Judas is in hell. Scripture
said it'd been better for him, better off for him, never be
born. Pharaoh, he was a son of perdition. Demas hath forsaken me. He's
gone. Did Christ die for these people?
Did he purchase these people? And then they were lost after
all? Then all these things were for naught, weren't they? You
see what I'm saying? People, they're ignorant of the
person and work of Christ. They don't know who He is, why
He came, what He did, or where He's at, or why. So where does one begin to talk
to a fallen sinner? Where do you begin? I was wrestling
with this in my study, this very thing. And I went over here to
2 Timothy 3, and I began to read down there. And I believe the
first thing that must be communicated to men is that the Bible is the
Word of God. Now, if I can't get you to agree
on that, I've got nothing for you. I'm
not trying to be crude or rude or anything else, but I don't
have anything for you. If I can't get you to settle
on this book as the foundation of faith, then I've got nothing
else to say. Because everything I have to
say is based on what's written in this book. I'll sit down with any man, any
woman, any boy or girl who's interested to know the truth,
and I'll go through the Scriptures with you, and I'll show you to
the best of my ability what God has to say on that matter. But
if you insist on dragging your experiences and feelings and
speculations of being into it, I got nothing for you. The opinions
of the man say opinions like noses. Everybody has one. We
got to have some place we can go where we can be reproved,
we can be corrected, and we can be instructed in righteousness.
We have to have somewhere to go. And that's His book. That's
His book. It doesn't really matter how
many titles and diplomas and credentials I can produce. If
I can't back up what I'm saying in the Word of God, it carries
no weight whatsoever. Paul told Timothy, having told
him about the Word of God and what it was profitable for him,
told him about the condition of men, he tells Timothy, preach
the Word. Preach the Word. Don't get on
your soapbox on all these personal issues. Preach the Word. Tell
me what God says. And he said this, he said, you
study the Word. You study to show thyself a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, dividing the Word of truth. And
again, he told Timothy, till I come, he said, you give attendance
to reading. Reading what? Reading this book. And to exhortation and doctrine. And he said, you meditate on
these things, now listen, and give thyself wholly to them. You give yourself to it. You get a part. Anybody in here ever done any
preaching, you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about.
You can't hardly get a part to yourself, can you? You just can't
hardly do it. But that's what he told Timothy to do. Give yourself
wholly to these things. Most of this religious world
believes preachers ought to be knocking on doors trying to get
attendance up in the church. First thing those old deacons
told me down there, they got tired of me sitting in my study
and they come up there one day and said, preacher, you need
to be out here knocking on doors and inviting people out to church.
And I said, well, I don't believe that's what I need to be doing,
but if you're convinced of it, you go home and get your suits
on and we'll all go out and knock on doors. Well, no, that's okay.
That's okay. They wanted me to knock on doors.
And the reason they wanted me to knock on doors was because
the attendance wasn't rising fast enough and because they
didn't think there was any profit in me being in a study. They believed preachers ought
to fill up most of his day visiting hospitals and rest homes and
then spend the balance of his time counseling men and women
over marital problems and drug abuse and the first one thing
and another. And while there might be occasions
when some of these things ought to be done, this is not where
he's to concentrate most of his efforts. The preacher's life
is a life of study and a life of prayer and a life of meditation. I can just retain so much. There's no point in me reading
the entire Old Testament in the morning. retain that much, but
I'm to read and study things and then have some time to think
about them. Think about them. It's a life of study. Deacons
were ordained in the church in the Book of Acts for this very
cause. There was issues and things in
the church that had to be done. And he said, you look out from
among you, and you get this man and that man and certain men,
and gave the qualifications for them. And they're going to be
deacons, and they're going to oversee all the dispersal of
money to the widows and all of these things of which the church
is concerned. All right. So here's the first
thing. I begin by doing everything in my power to convince you that
this is the word of God. This is the word of God. If I can't shut you up to this
book, now I understand only God can do that. But if he does,
he'll do it through a man. And if I can't shut you up to
this book, then there's no need for me to go any further. I'm
just wasting my time. Secondly, the next thing that
I tell you, if God would bring you to submit yourself to this
book, is God's testimony concerning the condition of your soul. My soul, that's what preachers
do. We're trying to warn men to flee from the wrath to come.
They don't know there's wrath coming. They don't know they're
ungodly. They don't know anything about it. They're just going
about, just going about doing this and that. And, well, if
I want to be of any reputation in the community, I'm going to
have to join a church somewhere. And at the very least, I'll get
some votes if I'm a politician, or I'll get some notoriety. People will at least say, oh,
yeah, yeah, you're a good man that goes to church down there. I got to tell men something about
God's testimony concerning the condition of their soul. And
while most folks are willing to confess an imperfect life,
one old fellow told me he was up in his 80s, come down to mow
the church yard down in Ball years ago. And he said, I was talking to
him about, you know, if he had a church he went to and so on.
Well, he said, you know, I ain't always done the right thing.
But he said, one thing I can say, alcohol never touched his
lips. I said, did you ever lust after
a woman? He turned red as a beet. Didn't give me an answer. You ever told a lie? We're sinners. We're sinners. Most folks are willing to confess
an imperfect life. They've had some ups and downs,
some temporary infractions. But they don't know anything
at all about sin. Sin is the reality of our condition
before God. Romans 5, verse 12, I quoted
that to you a while ago. This death, this spiritual death
passed upon all men. Verse 18, he says, by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Verse 19,
by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Why? Because Adam was a covenant head
of our race, and Adam sinned. And we come from Adam. We come
from him. David said he was conceived in
iniquity. He said men go astray as soon
as they be born, speaking lies. Little old tiny kids. Well, you
know, that little baby come up here a while ago and climbed
up into my arms. And you think about them, and
to us they're so innocent and they're so. I'll tell you what you do. You
take all them babies in there in the nursery and you take all
them toys in there and you put them in closets. You give him
one toy. You say, now here, you have this.
You can play with it as long as you want to. But whatever
you do, don't go in that closet. And go outside and peek through
the hole and see where he goes first. Straight to the closet. Huh? Sin. It's in all of us. It hasn't
had a chance to manifest itself in them like it has in us. In Psalm 94-11, I'm quoting to
you now from the Word of God. If I could shut you up to this
book and I could tell you something about the condition of your soul
and God's testimony of it, not my opinion of it, not the Baptist
doctrine on it, but God's testimony of your condition, I want you
to listen to this. All this Scripture is inspired
of God. It's profitable for that. Psalm
94, 11, it said, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they
are vanity. Empty. Empty. Vanity. Isaiah said, We are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. In Romans 3, verse 9, Paul declares
that he had before proved both Jews and Gentiles to be under
sin. In verses 10 through 18, he describes their condition
in great detail. All the way through those verses.
None righteous. None that understandeth. None
that seeketh after God. Altogether, they've gone astray. Unprofitable. And then he draws
this conclusion at the end. Therefore, because of this nature
of sin, because of their condition, because of their ignorance and
blindness and darkness and condemnation. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. You take the holy law of God
and a sinner by nature, a depraved son of Adam, And he comes up
to the law and he begins to try to keep the law. That law condemns
him. That's all he can find there. He can't pray enough. He can't
give enough. He can't dedicate enough. He
can't rededicate enough. He can't get to first base with
the law because from the law is the knowledge of sin. That's
all you're ever going to get from him. Therefore, he said, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The
law is wholly just and good, and being so can only condemn
guilty sinners. It exposes their crimes. It doesn't justify them. You
won't find justification in the law. But it just exposes your
ignorance, darkness, and evil. Men do what sinners do. It's
hard to describe it when you're talking to one. Because some
of them live, for lack of a better word, upright lives. They're
honest in their dealings. They pay their bills. They mow
their grass. They live upright lives. And
they're not like these folks over here. They're divorced and
split up and hanging out in bars and drunk every night. drug abusers
and bank robbers. Well, we're not like them. That's
what the Jews said. We'd be not born of fornication.
You're saying we're sinners? No, God did. God did. By nature, children of wrath,
even as others. They walk in the vanity of their
mind. I read that in my Sunday school lesson. Believing one
thing and doing another. The hierarchy of Israel. Master
theologians, Pharisees, practicing religionists. They believed they
knew the truth, believed they knew God, believed they were
children of God, and believed they worshipped God, and that
they were a guide to the blind. That's what Paul called them.
A guide to the blind and a light to them which be in darkness.
But all the while, they were children of the devil, doing
his will and serving him. I want you to picture something
in your head this morning. Picture Israel after the crucifixion. Now, they were out there, and
there'd come an occasion when they were to release one man.
The Romans agreed to do that on a certain day. They'd release
somebody to them. And they came out, and he said,
who would you have me to release? And he tried to release Jesus. He wanted to get shed of him.
Didn't want him on his hands and under his goods. But those
hierarchy of Jews, they went through that crowd. And they
convinced that crowd that he was an imposter. He was an imposter. And so they said, give us Barabbas. And they took this murderer in
his stead. And when he pointed back to Christ,
he said, this man's done nothing amiss. And they said, crucify
him. Crucify him. And so they released
Barabbas and they crucified Christ. And you just picture Israel,
you try to picture them after the crucifixion, confident that
they were justified in their judgments about Christ. and confident
that they were justified in their actions. They believed him to
be an imposter and being confident of their traditional understandings
of scripture, satisfied with what they believed, being satisfied
with their self-righteousness and their ceremonial type worship
and service. And of their priestly government,
they were satisfied, confident in those things. going on as they had for thousands
of years, going on in their Sabbaths and holy days and sacrifices.
Now picture, if you can, here's this great multitude. They come
up for the feast days, come there from all over the known world,
come up there and keep those feast days. And here they were
at Pentecost. And you picture 3,000 souls as
the Holy Spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel begin
to convince them of the testimony of God concerning their sin,
concerning their rebellion against God and their hatred for the
Christ that came into this world. And see them as the realization
comes into their minds and hearts that they crucified the Son of
God. They thought they were good folks. They didn't believe what Christ
told them about their hearts. They didn't believe what Christ
told them about their sin. They didn't believe God's testimony
concerning their condition. And they went on in their religious
ideals and they crucified the Son of God. And Paul said he
was sin of God down there, or Peter was, and he preached that
day at Pentecost in the power of the Holy Ghost. And the Holy
Ghost began to convince them and take that testimony of God
and press it on their hearts. I can almost visualize looking
into their eyes when the realization come into their minds and hearts
that they crucified the Son of God. They said, men and brethren,
what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And what about you and I? Is
it any different with us? We lived our lives denying the
Son of God and the testimony of God concerning His Son, concerning
our sin. The Eternal Christ, He whom God
set up from everlasting. We didn't want any part of that.
The Sovereign Christ, the Covenant Surety, the One Mediator. You
mean there's just one man? Who mediates the will of God?
Who mediates peace between men and God? That's exactly what
I'm saying. The justifying Christ, the creating
Christ, the preeminent Christ, the sovereign Christ, the Lord
of the dead and the living. And then what of the means which
God has ordained for the salvation of His elect? We lived out our
days despising the means, didn't we? Who does that preacher think
he is? I've said it. I've said it. And they despise them because
they don't fit in with their own ideas and experiences. The sinner in his depraved nature
and twisted heart hates God. That's your condition. That's
a condition of every son of Adam. He hates God. Not his God, not
his ideas of God, but the testimony of God concerning himself. He
hates that God. He hears, he's been instructed,
the truth been pointed out, but he loves darkness rather than
light. He refuses to receive the things of the Spirit of God
because they're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them
because they're spiritually discerned. God said to Israel in Isaiah
chapter 1 verse 5, why should you be stricken anymore? He said,
you'll just revolt more and more. More and more. Why? For the whole head is sick, and
the whole heart faint, and from the sole of the foot to the top
of the head ain't no soundness in you. That's man's condition
before God. That's God's testimony of your
condition. That's what it says. Man is a
sinner. He's a vile, ignorant, rebellious,
God-hating sinner. And that's not my opinion, and
that's not my interpretation. That's the testimony of God. The total depravity of man is
a doctrine. It is a doctrine. I'm teaching
that doctrine to you this morning. I'm declaring that doctrine to
you this morning. But to the believer, it's not
just a doctrine, it's the reality of his being. I'm a sinner. That's the difference between
a professor of faith and a believer. What God has testified concerning
the believer, he believes and it becomes his experience. It's
the reality of his being. Several of our congregation here
has cancer. They had it before they knew
it. And before they knew it, it didn't
really bother them. Huh? It didn't really bother
them. I mean, they knew they had some
effects. There were some effects. That's
the way it is with sin. See, we have this sin, but we're
not... It's never been diagnosed to
you. It's never been declared to you. We have this sin, and
it has its little things that pop up and things that you do
and things that you say. But, oh, I tell you, when that
doctor come in and he says, you've got cancer, and he opened up
that book and he says, see here, you see the effects of this?
Oh, this man's an expert on diagnosing diseases. And he got up and he
told you you had cancer. I tell you, from that day to
this, that cancer's been a reality of your being. Is that right? Sure it is. Sure it is. That's the way sin is. The way
sin is. But I'll tell you this, when
that man told you that and you believed him, if he said take
a pill, you took a pill. If he said go in here and get
radiation, you got radiation. If he said you need an operation,
you got an operation. That's what I've been preaching
to you every week. This is our condition before God. If God
would shut you up to this book, shut you up to His testimony
concerning your sin, I could then tell you something about
your condition and my condition before God. If I could just do that. And
then thirdly, by the grace of God, what would I do? Where would
I go in this book, this big book? Where would I go? What would
I say? By the grace of God, I'd make every effort to point you
in the word of God to the only remedy for sin. There's just
one. There's one. Christ. Christ. the person and work of Jesus
Christ. There's one thing that I've seen
established time and time and time again. The whole need not
the physician, the sick. But I tell you, if God will shut
you up to this book and shut you up to His testimony concerning
your condition, you will look for a remedy. You'll need the
physician. You'll need His help. You'll
need His remedy for sin. I heard things all my life, these
things, and I know when you leave here and get among your friends,
they tell you that, or you hear their parents say that. God helps
those that help themselves. That's a lie. That's what that
is. That's a lie. God helps the helpless. That's who He helps. He went down at that big pool
at Bethesda. And there was people laying everywhere,
paralyzed, sick, lame, everywhere. And they were trying to help
themselves. When that angel would come down
and trouble that water, if the first one go into that water,
he'd be cleansed. And so people were waiting. And boy, they see that water
troubled, and here they come. They come limping over, trying
to get in that pool. But here lay the man he couldn't move.
He paralyzed head to toe. Helpless. Helpless man. Been
laying there for 38 years. All his life. Helpless. Helpless. He wanted in the water, but he
couldn't get there. You know who the Lord went to?
To the helpless. He helps the helpless. And believe
me, if He ever convinces you of sin, you'll understand you're
helpless. You can't even believe. Oh, I'll just wait till this
happens or that happens or some catastrophe or I know I'm going
to die and then I'll accept the Lord and I'll serve. No, you
won't. No, you won't. I'll just believe on Him then.
No, you won't. Let me tell you what He said on the book of Proverbs.
He said, in that day you'll seek Me, but you won't find Me. Huh? You'll need Him then. You'll
want Him then, but you won't find Him. Because you despise the day of
grace. He helps to help. You have to quicken, listen to
this, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Listen to this one. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Who's he helping? The helpless. The helpless. He was delivered for our offences
and raised again for our justification. And none that understandeth,
and none that seeketh after God." Romans 3, verse 11. But if a man does seek the Lord,
if a man does, if a man does believe on the name of the Son
of God, it's been given to him by the grace of God to seek Him.
Huh? By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Proverbs 16.1 says, now listen
to this, this is not something I quote to you every week. Proverbs
16.1, the preparations of the heart in man and the answer of
the tongue is from the Lord. The preparation, that heart that's
been made soft, that old stony heart that's been broken and
made soft, the preparations of the heart in man, that's of the
Lord. And what comes out of that mouth is of the Lord. Christ is the remedy for sin,
and Christ comes to the believer through the preaching of the
gospel. And the gospel of this word is Christ. The book says,
neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name given unto heaven whereby we must be saved. In Christ alone, my sins have
been justly charged, justly punished, and justly put away. And then
He was raised to declare my justification. And in Christ, by virtue of His
perfect obedience to God, I have imputed to me, charged to me,
a perfect righteousness. The holy law of God has been
exalted and honored in such a way in Christ that it's absolute
perfection. Honored and exalted the law.
There's no point in me doing anything to the law. The law
has been exalted as high as it can get. And I tell you, you
can't honor the law and honor God any more than you do when
you look to Christ as your righteousness. By virtue of His accomplished
redemption, we've not only been given opportunity and means,
but power and authority to become sons of God. He come into this
world, and the world was made by Him, and the world received
Him not, and He came unto His own, and His own received Him
not. But to as many as received Him,
to them gave He what? power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name, which were born, not
of the will of man or the will of the flesh, but of God, made
meet by the Father to be partakers of their inheritance. True saving faith is not just
a doctrine, it's a living principle, it's a state of being, and it's
the experience of all who believe. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And Paul said, for me to live
is Christ, and to die is gain. This divinely inspired book is
the record John said that God had given to us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. And the man who believes these
things is fully, he's fully the workmanship of God created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that he should walk in. Otherwise, he'd never believe.
He'd never repent. He'd never walk with God.