and let us have of His presence. Let us have of His presence.
I know He doesn't have to do that, but I am sure grateful and look
to Him to do it. I've titled my message this evening,
How Does One Learn the Gospel? How Does One Learn the Gospel?
How do you know you know the Gospel? If you don't know the
Gospel, you don't know God. If you don't know the Gospel,
you don't know Christ. And that's what the Apostle says here, starts
in Romans 1.14. He said, I am debtor, both to
the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the Gospel. to you that are at Rome also.
And it's the gospel that he's ready to preach. He's not going
up there just to socialize. Not going up there to make the
church grow. Not going up there to make himself well-liked by
everybody. To be a good administrator, he's
going up there to preach the gospel. For I am not ashamed. Verse 1, I'm not ashamed. Evidently,
there was somebody somewhere that was ashamed of the gospel.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It does not embarrass
me. It does not shame me. It does not make me want to back
up because I'm afraid it will offend somebody, hurt somebody's
feelings. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not
embarrassed by it. And he goes on to say, for it
is, it is the gospel. It's the very power of God. The
power of God unto salvation. Not unto service, unto salvation. To everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. And here is where the
power of the gospel lies. For therein, in the gospel, is
the righteousness of God revealed. What that means is that in the
gospel we see how God can be right, right to save sinners. and do it in a way according
to His very righteous nature and character. For the just shall
live by faith. Now, beloved, there's much I
don't know. I'll own up to you. There's much
I don't know. And I'm sure there's quite a
bit you don't know and you'd own up to it. But there's something that we
all and everyone should make it an absolute necessity to know,
and that is the gospel. We ought to make that an absolute
necessity. To know the gospel. To believe
the gospel. To embrace the gospel. For the
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Because in that gospel,
God reveals His righteousness. His righteousness. God's infinitely,
eternally righteous. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He will not at all acquit the wicked. I mean, He's righteous
enough that He will not let a man into His presence. He can't look
at sin, can't do it. And now we see the righteousness
of God, how He can stay righteous, be righteous as He is, and yet
save sinners like ourselves. And over here in verse 1 of Romans
chapter 1, look what it's called. It's called the gospel of God.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God. This is God's gospel. He's the
author of it. He's the author of it. And then
he goes on down here to say it's concerning in verse 3, concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, it concerns Him. It makes Him known. It reveals
Him to the hearts and minds of men and women. was made of the
seed of David. And then it's the gospel of the
ancient gospel. In verse 2 it says, He promised
the four by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. This wasn't
an afterthought of God. Christ stood as the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. God promised in Genesis 3.15
a Savior. Before there was ever a sinner,
God had a Savior. Before there was ever a sin committed,
God had the blood atonement ready for Him. And you see, and it's
the gospel of grace. To show its freeness. It's free. Gospel of grace. God absolutely
has nothing of you. Requires nothing of you. Wants
nothing of you. Absolutely no conditions upon
the gospel. Faith is not a condition. Repentance
is not a condition. The gospel is free. It's called
the gospel of grace because it's free. It's called the gospel
of God's glory because He gets all the glory. He receives all
the glory. He deserves all the glory. We
want to give Him all the glory. And we've also learned this by
experience that everyone, everyone who professes to be a believer
or to be a preacher does not know the gospel. I know this
by my own experience. There was a time I didn't know
the gospel. And I wasn't converted until I knew the gospel. I'll
tell you that without a reservation. But till I knew Christ in the
gospel of the grace of God, I was an unconverted man. I was a preacher,
but I was unconverted. I wasn't converted in Armenianism
and then grew in the grace of God. I didn't go to a higher
doctrine. God's only got one gospel. One
gospel that He saves His people by. He don't have a gospel for
the Armenians out there and you get saved there and you come
over here and grow in grace. That's not the way it's done.
Is it? God gets no glory out of that.
And beloved, listen, that's why Paul says, you know, I marvel,
he told the Galatians, I marvel that you are so soon removed
from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. He said, because it's really
not another gospel. There is no other gospel. And
they said, oh yes, you can have Jesus, you can have His blood,
you can have His righteousness, but And as you said last night,
if you ever put a butt to the grace of God, the sovereignty
of God, to any work that God does, you've done messed it up.
There's no butts. None whatsoever. And oh beloved,
and that's why if we or an angel from heaven preaches another
gospel unto you, God curse that man. God curse that man. You
know if a fellow goes in to rob a bank, and he's got a guy sitting
out in the car, the getaway car, and if they get caught, you know
that fellow that's sitting just driving the car is going to go
to jail just like the fellow that went in there to rob the
bank? So if you're not, if the fellow's lying to you, and lying
on God, and if you sit and listen to him and support him, you're
going to be just like the bank robber, you're driving the getaway
car, you're going to the same place he is. That's the truth. You don't say, boy, that's pretty
tough, preacher. I said it as lovingly as I could. You know, when our Lord told
His church, He said, go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. Preach the gospel, not water,
not works, not free will, not make your choice. When God gives
you a chance, go into the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth. Now that believing there is not
coming up here and believing one time. If you ever believe,
you'll continually and constantly, it's always in the presentive
believing. He that believeth. Not just he
that believed, he that believeth. Continually, constantly. Can't
help but believe. And if you ever do believe, you
can't help but believe. Try to not believe once you become
a believer. You can't do it, can you? And
oh, the gospel is what our Master would have all of us to preach,
all of us to believe by His blessed grace. You see, the gospel, it's
the word of peace, it's the word of reconciliation by His blessed
atoning sacrifice. The apostle said that, well,
he said in Isaiah 52, Blessed are the feet upon the mountain
of Him that publisheth peace, that bringeth glad tidings of
good things. And that's what we do at Seth
under Zion. Thy God reigneth. We're publishing peace. Peace
that honors God, peace that will satisfy your soul, peace that
will bring glory to His blessed Son. And our beloved in the gospel,
we have the doctrine of the free and full pardon by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, of justification only by His righteousness. In the Gospel, we have the Gospel
of the complete salvation by Him. Complete salvation, perfect
salvation, full salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
the Gospel, there's every doctrine. Every doctrine that relates to
His person as both God and man. God, He came to this earth. Emmanuel has come to be with
us. And then yet, He is a man. A man like us that could be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. A man who could weep, a man who
could cry, a man who could be touched with compassion. And
yet, He was God Almighty come to this earth. And in the Gospel,
beloved, there's all that relates to His office, His prophet to
teach us, as priest to atone for, as King to reign over and
supply our every need. In the Gospel, we deal with His
incarnation, Him coming into this world. of His sufferings,
of His death, of His resurrection, of His ascension, of His position
at God's right hand with all power and authority. And there
as He sits, He makes intercession for His people. And oh, in the
gospel, we'll hear about His second coming to judgment. So,
oh, we're to preach the gospel. And I'll get into it in a minute.
I will. Believe me, I'll get to it. I'm not going to just
talk about it. I'm going to preach it, God helping me. And every
doctrine in the gospel is every doctrine. Let me tell you something
about doctrine. Let me just stop here just a
minute and tell you this. In the scriptures, when it talks
about the doctrine of God, it's always singular. Always doctrine
of Christ. The doctrine according to godliness.
But whenever it's men, it's always doctrines. God's Word, God's
truth is singular. It's one. It's united. Just one. And when it talks about men,
the doctrines of devils, the doctrines of men, because they've
got to have a whole bunch of jumbled up mess. But the doctrine
of God, the doctrine of Christ, it's just one unified truth.
It's just all one. We may call them the doctrines
of grace, but it's the doctrine of grace. It's the doctrine of
Christ. It's the doctrine according to
godliness. It's one singular. And every
doctrine relating to the grace of God, every doctrine relating
to it. Of the Father in electing grace,
choosing His people in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Of the covenant of peace that our Lord Jesus ratified
by His blood. Of the Son in coming and redeeming
us with His own precious blood, paying our sin debt. Of the Spirit
coming and regenerating us and giving us life from the dead
and setting us apart by the gospel. And we must, by the grace of
God, publish, declare, proclaim these blessed truths and do it
in the freest, plainest, most open manner that we can every
time we get an opportunity. You know, I get through preaching
at home often and I don't know how many will come to me and
say, you preach that again tonight if you want to. Be sure to preach
that again next Sunday. You know, the gospel is not something
we just take every once in a while and preach. It's something we
preach every service. Get to Christ in every service.
We really truly do. When we talk about the gospel,
it's not a religious cliché. And it's more than just the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. That's facts concerning the gospel.
But the gospel concerns a person and what that person did. what
that person accomplished, who he accomplished it for, where
he is now and what he's doing for his people now. And we must
proclaim it with the boldness and faithful and continually
and constantly. We're like the jungle. I went
with Milton years ago down to Chiapas and we drove down there
and we stopped in this place called Palenque. And that jungle
would take that place in just a little while if there were
fellows out there beating the jungle back with machetes all the time.
And that's the way we are. Our hearts and minds and souls,
it's just like jungle. And the gospel is what keeps
it beat back. If the gospel don't keep it cut
off, the jungle will just swallow us up. Huh? But now let me tell
you something about the gospel. You can't tell it if you don't
know it. You can't tell it. Henry May, I know you've heard
him say this many times. A preacher can't tell what he
don't know no more than come back from some place he's never
been. And I never forgot that. But how you know to know the
gospel? You must learn the gospel. You must learn the gospel. And
if you're going to preach the gospel, you must learn it. Before
you can publish it or preach it or even believe it, you must
learn it. You must know it. And let me
tell you something about the gospel. It's a revelation. Our
Lord Jesus said in John 644, no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Or no man can come unto the Father.
And as it is written, in the prophets they shall all be taught
of God and everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father.
What does he do? He comes to me. God's got to teach you this.
God's got to give you eyes to see this. Simon Peter, who do
men say that I am? Oh, you're John the Baptist.
Some say you're Jeremiah because you cry so much. Some say you're
Elijah because you're performing miracles. And that's what everybody's
got something to say about Jesus. But he said, but who do you say
that I am? You're the Christ. You're the
Son of God. And he said, you're blessed because
flesh and blood did not make you know that, but my Father,
which is in heaven. Now, I tell you, it's a revelation,
and that's why our Lord said in Matthew 11, 25, He said, I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed
them unto babes. Now, there's five words, five
words, that I believe if you understand them, if you know
them, if you believe them, if God's made them known to you,
you know the gospel. And if you don't know these,
you don't know the gospel. Sovereignty, sin, substitution,
satisfaction, and submission. Oh my! Let's take that first
one for instance. Sovereignty. You know what? God
is sovereign. He's not a pretender. He's not
a pretender. You know, and until a person
sees this, and sees God's absolute sovereignty, and that just means
that God reigns, that God acts like God. And he'll never, until
a person sees this, he'll never learn the gospel. Now look over
here in Romans 9 with me just a moment. You know, until a person
sees the sovereignty of God, absolute utterance, absolute
sovereignty of God, God created the world. Did he need any help?
He spake and it was done. He commended and it stood fast.
But yet, if you hear the average person talk about it, God can
create a world and uphold it by the word of His power. But
He can't get in your heart unless you let Him. He can't, you know, He's got
to give you a chance. And we know when you take chances,
you know, I've never bought a lottery ticket. And not a gambler. Never bought a lottery ticket.
Never And I'm not boasting, you know, I'd say, if you won't buy
them, knock yourself out. But I never have. You know, that's
taking a chance. You spend a dime, you take a
chance that you'll win a lot of money. That's the way most preachers
present God. He's taking a chance, you know,
when He gives you your chance. He's rolling the dice, and if
you get your chance, and if you cooperate with Him when He gives
you that chance, When He gives you your opportunity, if you'll
cooperate with Him, then He'll save you. Then He'll do something
for you. Then He'll show you how much
He loves you. But beloved, God's not a gambler. God's not rolling
dice. God's not saving men on chance.
God's saving men on purpose. And if you're ever saved, it'll
be because God come to you on purpose. And God must invade
a man's world. He must come in with He must
come in with force. He must come in with dynamite
into a man's heart. He must subdue a man's mind. He must subdue a man's will.
He must put his hand on his heart and bring him down. And that's
being God. He don't ask you if you want
to be saved. He makes you willing to be saved. And all the man who doesn't see
the sovereignty of God in his creation, in salvation, beloved,
you know what he'll have? He'll have a general love of
God. God just loves everybody. I don't even love everybody.
And lots of folks I don't even like, much less love. I don't. And that's what they say, you
got to love everybody. No, we don't. David said, I hate them
that hate you. I love them that love you. We
need to get over this idea of, you know, that we're all wishy-washy
and got this old sugar sweetness. Sugar won't melt in your mouth,
you know. Listen, I tell you, beloved,
God Himself said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. He hates the workers of iniquity.
Huh? All nations that forget God will
be turned into hell. And I'll tell you, look what
it says here now in Romans 9, 11. For the children, being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. God
said the elder is going to serve the younger. Jacob have a loved,
Esau have a son. Oh wait, that ain't fair. That
ain't right. That's just not fair. To love
one and hate another? Oh, God's unrighteous to do that. Oh, shut up. That's what Paul
said, shut up. You know, I'll show you what
God said about it. He said to Moses, He said to Moses, Moses,
you know what I'll do? I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
Now, since it's like that, it's not of him that willeth. I can
will. You can will. It's not of him
that willeth. It's not of him that runneth.
I mean, he's out here running around trying to get something
done for God. Oh, let's get busy for Jesus. And oh, it's not of
him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but it's of God that
shows mercy. Huh? And oh, either man's going
to be sovereign or God's going to be sovereign. And there ain't
but two doctrines of salvation. It's of man or God. It's of works or grace. And one
fellow asked a guy the other day, he said, what's the difference
in what you all believe and what you all preach than, you know,
the Methodist or the Pentecostals or the Southern Baptists or something?
He said, He said, you know, what's the difference in all of them?
He said, there ain't no difference in them. They're all preaching
salvation by works. They're all preaching salvation
by man's free will. But, oh, beloved, if it's of
man, then we're in trouble. But if it's of God, oh, what
a blessed hope we have. If it's of grace, we'll be saved. If it's of works, we're all going
to be damned. And, oh, bless His holy name.
But you see, either man in witness business of salvation, either
God is at the mercy of man, or man is at the mercy of God. And
oh beloved, when you talk about salvation by man, it will either
be by chance or owed to a man, if a man doesn't see the sovereignty
of God. Now you can bargain with an equal,
but you've got to bow to a sovereign. You've got to bow to him, huh?
You know, look over here, and I want to show you this too.
Look over in Psalm 135. You've heard these quoted so many times,
and I could quote it to you. I could quote a bunch of verses
concerning it, but I want you to see it yourself. Look in Psalm
135 with me, just a minute. And we're talking about God's
sovereignty. He created the world without our help. He sustains
it without our help. He governs this world without
our help. He saves us without our help. I have never helped
God do anything yet. I haven't. I really had it. You know, I like it like
that. You know, I love the fact that
salvation is not in my hands in any way, shape, form or fashion.
Does the shepherd tell the sheep, now you all take care of yourselves
the best way you can? No, the shepherd takes care of
the sheep. He protects the sheep. He lays
down his life for the sheep. He gives his life for the sheep.
And here in Psalm 135 and verse 5 it says this, For I know that
the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, has God's sovereignty. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
He had to stop and ask permission. Will you let me? I'd like to.
I want to. I heard a fellow say one time,
be a lady or a gentleman for Jesus and let Him in. Oh my, whatsoever the Lord pleased,
what pleased Him, satisfied Him, honored Him, that did He in heaven. He done it in the earth. He done it in the seas. And in
all deep places. And oh beloved, that's what I'm
talking about. Have you seen God's sovereignty? Do you rejoice
in those questions at the end of that bulletin tonight? Will
this make you happy? Listen, if you could change God,
would you change Him? Would you change Him? If you
could manipulate Him, would you? If you could get Him to change
His ways just a little just to get your child converted? Would you do it if you could
change Him just a little bit so that you can get the ever
pew filled up? No, people that know God, They
wouldn't change Him for 10,000 worlds like this. And you know
He's no better today than He was yesterday. Don't know more
today than He did 1,000 years ago and won't know no more and
be any different a million years from today than He is right now.
He's God. Now, let's look at this business
called sin. God's sovereignty. You've got to learn that. You've
got to know that, that God is sovereign. He's got the power.
He's all omnipotent. He's got salvations of the Lord
from start to finish. And then sin. Sin. Let's look in Genesis 3. Just
a moment. Genesis 3. You know, there's no telling
how many people that have no idea how sin got in the world.
How did sin get into this world? How did sin come into this world?
Where did this curse come from that we have briars and thorns
and thistles and sage grass and these dry hills out here. Where
did these dry hills come from? It wasn't like that in the Garden
of Eden. Where did all this come from? Where did it come from
that we look at God and say, I don't need Him. I don't want
Him. I'm good enough. I'm doing the best I can. But
sin, beloved, it says here in Genesis 3, 6, And oh, the Satan come to the
woman and he told her, oh, how good she'd be. You'd be like
God if you could just eat this fruit. You'll be like God. You'll
be glorified and God's got this thing He don't want you to know.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. And gave
also unto her husband. And this is where we have our
trouble. He gave her to her husband and
he did eat. Wherefore as by one man, one
man, sin come into this world. Death passed upon all men because
of that one sin. This one sin of eating that fruit.
God said everything is yours but that right there. And there
wasn't anything about that fruit that psychologically or physiologically
or biologically changed Adam. But the only reason God said
that is, I'm God and I told you not to do it. Just to be under
obedience to Him. That's all the thing about it.
And He said, I'm not. Now, beloved, He goes on to say,
and the eyes of them both were open. Didn't they have open eyes
before? Didn't they see what was going on around them before?
Didn't they see the trees, the garden? Didn't they see one another? Yes, they did. But their eyes
were open. Why was it open? And they knew they were naked.
They'd always been naked. God made them naked. Now all
of a sudden they see their nakedness. And instead of looking at it
and seeing it and not being condemned, not feeling guilty or anything,
now they feel guilty, they feel ashamed. And their nakedness,
beloved, they understand it's before God. Everything about
us open and naked before him with we have to do and all listen
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves That's how
sinful they became and how sinful human beings if they took some
fig leaves and sewed them together and covered their nakedness and
they thought that they could actually cover their nakedness
with a fig leaf and And everybody's got, there's fig leaves of badness,
there's fig leaves of morality, fig leaves of prayer, fig leaves
of tithing, fig leaves of believer's rule of life, fig leaves of self-righteousness
and pride, and oh my soul, everybody's got, but when you pull a leaf
off the tree, you know what happens to it? It begins to die. And
it's going to wither away and you're going to have to get you
another one. And that's what folks do in religion. They're
all the time pulling fig leaves. They never have any satisfaction,
never have any peace. Always trying to cover themselves
up. And then they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. Now there ain't
but one voice that God's ever spoke by. Only one person that
ever walked this earth in the presence of God and the power
of God. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees
of the garden. Can you just imagine trying to
hide from God in a bush? Oh my, just hide, get down there. Well, He won't find me. He won't
find me. He won't find me. God can't find me here. Before
they enjoyed His presence. Now they're hiding from Him.
What happened? What happened? And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said, Adam, where are you? And he didn't want to know
where Adam was, he wanted Adam to know where Adam was. And I
ask you, where are you? God says, where are you? Where
art thou? Are you in your sin? Are you
in your rebellion? Are you in your self-righteousness?
Are you in your hypocrisy? Are you in your false profession?
Are you holding on to your fig leaves of morality and honesty
and integrity? What are you holding on to? What
are you trying to cover your nakedness with? God says, where
are you, Adam? And he didn't have no choice
but to say, I heard you. And I was afraid. I was afraid. Oh my, I was afraid. Because I was naked. And I hid
myself. And oh, here's another question
God asked him. Who told you you was naked? Nobody told him. Sin exposed him. Sin entered
into his heart. Sin entered into his mind. Sin
entered into his nature. And oh, look what happens now.
Have you eaten of the tree whereof I commended thee that thou shouldest
not? And here's man at his best now. And the man said, The woman
you gave me! The woman you gave me! That's
what my son told me one time. He said, Dad, you have an excuse
for everything you do. You just said you're never wrong. And I laughed. I said, well,
you're right. Somebody said you done it. My wife done it. The
kids done it. Somebody done it. I didn't do
it. But oh, the woman you gave me. She gave it to me. And the Lord God said, what is
this you've done? The woman said, it's the serpent.
And ultimately what they ended up doing was they've tried to
blame God for their sin. That was what they're trying
to do. They're trying to blame God. But now let me tell you
something about sin. God went on down here and spelled
them from the garden. Sin's not a misfortune. Sin's
not a misfortune. Evolution teaches that man started
at the bottom and he's slowly, slowly, slowly getting at the
top. But God and the Scriptures teach us man started at the top.
and fell all the way to the bottom. Man is not a victim of his circumstances. Man doesn't need a shove in the
right direction. And oh my, people get up and
say, I have no sin in these hands right here. And as far as I know,
I don't have any sin and I'm ready to go. But every part of
a man's faculty, eyes, mind, everything about him is ruined,
is dead, and trespasses and sins. And people think that sin is
something done with the hand, but it's something done with
the heart. It's an attitude, it's a nature, it's a principle.
Just like these children, your children, you don't teach your
children to sin, do you? But they do, don't they? Let
me tell you something about Armenianism, free willism. You know, they
believe that repentance and faith is a condition to be converted.
Well, how in the world do babies repent and believe? They say,
we preach babies in hell. Now listen, if a baby can't repent
and can't believe, he can't be a believer. And then if there's
an age of accountability, what happens to him if he dies before
he gets that age of accountability? Oh my! When you start taking
this free will Armenian doctrine to this logical conclusion, and
oh my! It's awful! But oh my! Listen beloved, you know, sin,
this thing called sin, it's such an attitude. When our Lord Jesus
Christ, If I was to ask you, I was talking to somebody the
other day, if I was to ask you, what's the worst sin to you? In your mind,
what's the worst sin a person can commit? What's the worst
sin a person can commit? You say rape, murder, adultery,
leaving your husband or wife and taking up with another woman,
adultery. Well, you know what our Lord Jesus Christ said? He
said, for from within, out of the heart, First thing He said
precedes evil thoughts. Sin starts right up here. And
don't it? Evil thought. Pride. Everybody
thinks all these things that you do outwardly is a horrible
thing and it is. But it all starts right up here
and all starts right in there. And whatever's in that fountain,
that's what's gonna come out the mouth. Whatever's out of
the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. As a man thinketh
in his heart, so is he. And sin has so darkened our understanding
that men think they can be holy in their own flesh. That they
can be holy and produce a holy life and be sanctified and become
more holy in the flesh. We've become so darkened by sin
that we think crying tears gives evidence that we have a tender
heart just because we shed a tear. That we've been so blinded by
sin that we think suffering in the flesh some way or another
atones for sin. And it makes us think that everybody
else is worse than us. I've got my faults, but... I'm
not perfect, but... And when you confront them with
God, you confront them with themselves, you confront them with Christ,
they'll get offended and they'll say, oh my, I just don't believe
that. And as old, I believe as Shakespeare
said, life's but a walking shadow. A poor player that struts and
frets his eye upon the stage and then is heard no more. It's
a tale told by an idiot full of sound and full of fury. Oh,
have you seen God's sovereignty? Have you seen sin? Do you know
what sin is? You know one of the part of the
covenants of grace is that God said, I'll make you loathe yourselves. Have you ever felt the stench
of your own sin coming from you? Just so much you loathe yourself.
And you say, if there's a hole someplace, I'd go crawl in it
because I'm not fit company for anybody. You ever felt that?
You ever felt it in your soul? Smell it and say, I sure hope
nobody else feels and knows what I go through. And I'll tell you,
beloved, if you knew what I was and you could see into my heart
and my mind, my soul, you wouldn't have me in your house. You wouldn't
have me at your supper table. You wouldn't have nothing to
do with me. You'd say, go to Tennessee and don't come back
if you knew what I was really like. Oh my, I'm telling you,
sin is a horrible thing. Sin is so deep and ingrained
in us. Sin is so part and parcel of
us that we do it without thought. We do it when we breathe. We
do it when we sleep. We do it when we eat. We do it
when we talk. We just do sin because that's
what we are. And if it wasn't for Christ,
we'd all go to hell being proud that we were sinners. Bragging
about it. Glory is what ought to be our
shame. Oh, that boy ain't going to leave you like that. Don't
want to leave you like that. Here's the next word. Substitution. I love that word. Substitution. Oh, my. Oh, my. 2 Corinthians 5.21. Let's look
at that. You know, here we are. We're sinners. God's sovereign.
God is absolute sovereign. And He'll have mercy on whom
He'll have mercy. That God devised a way, and this is where the
gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. We're born wrong,
so we need someone to live our life for us. A life of sinlessness,
a life of perfection, a life of obedience to God's holy law,
which we've all broken. God made His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and condemned sin in the flesh. And beloved,
we're born wrong, so somebody's got to be born sinless. Not any
relation to Adam. Christ came, no relation to Adam.
We live the life of sin, so someone's got to live a life of obedience,
a life of righteousness. And then we've got to die for
our sins, so we need somebody that's holy and sinless and perfect
to die in our room instead to bear our sins in His own body.
And then because we are so sinful, we can't approach God. We need
somebody to make us acceptable to God, and that's only Christ
the Lord of glory. Huh? Look what it says here in
St. Corinthians 5.21. I've heard Don preach this. I
couldn't tell you the times. I don't know how many men I've
heard preach this. For He, God, and He's the only one that can
make a man to be sin. He, God, made Christ to be sin. Talked about sin. He became what
we are. What we are, that's sin that
was so odious to God. Christ became that. God made
Him to be that. And it's worse than being what
I am in sin. What's more worse than sin? Well,
that's what God made Christ to be. Sin. All the sin of all the
elect of all the ages from eternity past to eternity future, east,
west, north, south. They came marching as great armies
to meet on the head of the Son of God. And God took all those
sins and made His Son to be that sin. What I just talked about,
that loathing of myself. That's what He made Him to be.
And listen, he done that to somebody who knew no sin. Knew no sin! And who did he do it for? For
us! Sinners! I know this, if a man's a sinner,
he's a saved man. I know if a man's lost, he's
a found man. I know that without a shout.
He may not have the assurance of it yet, but it's a fact. And
that's why they said that we, here we go, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Not just a righteousness,
the very righteousness of God. And it's not some, as Scott Richardson
said, it's not like it's pen, something you stick on. I mean,
it covers us from the top of our head to the sole of our feet.
It covers us from the inside to the outside. It's not just
something that God took and took us like a robe and just dropped
it over us, you know, to cover us up. No, no, when God declares
you righteous and makes you righteous, He, beloved, makes you righteous
from the top of your head. He gives you a righteous mind.
He gives you a righteous nature. He gives you a desire after righteousness
and holiness and truth and purpose and God's glory. It's an absolute exchange. God
got us. Christ got us. He got our sin. He got our shame. He got our
guilt. And when He was on that cross
and He cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
And God turned His back on Him, and the wrath of God come down
and fell on Him. And, O Beloved, He consumed the
wrath of God. And when He raised again from
the dead, and, O Beloved, all His obedience, all of His righteousness,
all of His sinfulness, Beloved, is given to us, covers us, fills
us, Oh, save me from going down to
the pit. Why? I found a ransom. Oh, let me just look at my watch
here. Let me look at my watch. Oh my, I've got to hurry, hurry,
hurry. Here we go, listen. Jonah, those fellas said, Jonah
told him, he said, the only way you fellas are going to be saved
in this storm. God sent the storm. God prepared the storm. And the
only way you fellas are going to be saved if you throw me overboard. And the only way we're going
to be saved when God sends a storm. And He's going to send it. That's
the way He's going to get you. He's going to send a storm to
your life. He's going to turn you upside down. You've got to
go, Jonah. Overboard Jonah went. He got
in the belly of hell is what it said. And he said, this one
thing I know, salvations of the Lord. And when he come up, God
took him and spit him out, and he walked that last hundred yards
to get to land. When God saved Jonah, He put
him out on dry land. And oh, He don't give Him, He
put Him in hell, brought Him up out of hell, and put Him on
dry land. And Christ, God, Christ went
to hell, He come up, and beloved, when He got seated in heaven,
God took all of us with Him, and set us right there with Him.
Huh? Together, just look all the way
in the Scriptures, together, together, together. And Oberrabbis,
huh? Rabbis. He was sitting there
in his cell one day, And they heard the fellows walking
down through there. He said, oh my, today is the
day of my death. They're coming after me. They've
got my cross ready for me. The fellow walked up there, you
know, put the key in his cell door and dungeon door. And he
heard them come down through there. He said, this is it, this
is it, this is mine. They opened the door. And he walked out. And he thought he was going to
his execution. They said, Barabbas! Go free! You're free! Why? Jesus of Nazareth took your place. And when I face God, and we're
all going to face God in the judgment, but the only difference
between the sheep and the goats, those who know Christ and those
who don't, Christ is going to stand for us, every single one
of us. He said, that's mine. The devil's standing there, that's
mine. That's mine. Well, they've done this. I took
care of that. I took care of that. You know
all my sins were future when Christ died for me? Well, I'm going to move on. Satisfaction,
sovereignty, sin, substitution, Christ taking our place. And
we got what we are, we got what He is. Absolute exchange and
satisfaction. You know, beloved, I think this is the most important
substitution. Satisfaction is the most two
important things in the Gospel. My personal opinion is that.
Now, satisfaction, the primary purpose of the death of Christ,
the first person, primary purpose, the first person, purpose of
the death of Christ, the first thing it done was to satisfy
God. To honor God. To satisfy His
righteousness, fulfill His law, honor His righteousness, magnify
His truth, magnify His law and make it honorable. That's the
primary purpose of Christ coming here and dying. First to satisfy
God. God must, as Scott Richardson
said, God must do something for Himself before He can do something
for us. And that's what He done. You
see, man cannot satisfy God. Can't do it. But man can die. God cannot die, but only God
can satisfy God. So God, in the person of His
blessed Son, came into this world. And as man, He could die. And as God, He could satisfy. And oh, beloved, God can be satisfied
with nothing less than Himself. Whatever sacrifice is going to
satisfy Him, it must be equal to Himself. That's why it's impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to put away sin. God must be
satisfied. He cannot take anything less
than Himself. It must be as holy as Him. It must be as infinite
as Him. It must be as righteous as Him.
It must meet every attribute, every demand of His heart and
soul and person. But I tell you what, Christ met
every demand, and nothing could satisfy Him any more than His
own Son. Now, I want you to see over in
Hebrews 9 with me just a moment, and I'll be done just in a minute.
Well, I say, you know, you've heard about the three most common
lies, haven't you? Let me tell you the three most
common lies known to man. First one is, I'm from the government,
and I'm here to help. The second one is, the check's
in the mail. And the third one is, the preacher
gets up and says, I'm going to be brief. Oh, boy. Well, we have more fun
than anybody, don't we, Gene? We really do. And you know that's
what's so wonderful about the gospel. It just fills us with
such joy and peace. We enjoy one another. We can
talk about these things and really enjoy them and rejoice in them.
Oh, we don't have to come in here with all long faces, but
oh, thank God. Now listen to what it says here
in Hebrews 9.24. God's satisfaction was rendered to God. God saw
the travail of His soul and was satisfied. It says in Hebrews
9.24, For Christ is not entered into the holy places, made with
hands, which are just figures of the true, or typical of the
true. But watch this, but in the heaven itself, and I love,
always love where I find this word now. Now to appear in the
presence of God. When I read that tomorrow, it
will still say now. I read that ten years ago, it said now. I'll
read it when I'm 75, if I live, and it will say now. Right now
He appears in the presence of God for us. And nor yet that
he should offer himself often as the high priest entered into
the holy place every year with the blood of somebody else, the
blood of bulls and goats. If that was so, then he'd have
to suffer since the end of the world. But now once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin, watch this,
by the sacrifice of himself. How did he do that? He satisfied
God. Satisfied God. He paid the price
of sin. Now look down here in Hebrews
chapter 10 and verse 12. Oh, I just love this. Absolutely
love this. But this man, those priests offered
often the same sacrifice, never take away sins. But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, forever, Forever. Forever is a long time. My wife
tells me all the time, don't say forever. Ever is too long. She said, don't draw no lines
in the sand, don't say I'll never. Oh, that's too long. But when
God says forever, He means it. Sat down on the right hand of
God. Now watch this. From henceforth expecting till
His enemies be made His footstool. Now here's what I want us to
see. For by one offering He hath perfected. What? Perfected. What? Perfected. Forever. There's that word forever again. Them that are sanctified. And
you know what sanctified means? Just set apart. You know holiness and sanctification
is a state of being. You know, that's why progressive
sanctification is wrong. Can God be any holier than He
is? Well, if we're in Christ, we're
as holy as He is, right? It's a state of being. That's
why you can't get any more holy than just this state of being.
And you're sanctified means set apart. So you're not going to
get any more sanctified than you are when Christ sets you apart.
That's just the way it is. You may be weaned from the world.
You may grow in grace. But you ain't going to get any
more holy. Alright, let me move on. Submission, that's my last
thing. Sovereignty. Sin. Substitution. Satisfaction. And oh my! Submission. There's nothing that a believer
delights in more, that knows the gospel, than to submit to
every bit of that and say, yea Lord. A Syro-Phoenician woman, she
came to the Master, and she said, Oh, I've got a daughter. She's
so grievously vexed with the devil. Our Lord just ignored
her. Just ignored her. You say, Boy, I tell you, my
Jesus wouldn't do that. Well, Christ the Bible did. He
wouldn't. He'd just act like she wasn't there. She just kept
on coming. Finally, He said to her, Well,
I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Well, that's fine too. That's wonderful. Oh, thank God
you do that. But my daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. He said, it's not fit to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. She said, oh Lord, she agreed
with everything he said. But oh Lord, even the dogs get
the crumbs from the master's table. And I'm going to scoot
up under the table and take everything he gives me. I'm like old Scott,
I can tell you I can go a long way on a crumb. And I'll be the Lord's dog. And
I'll say this, there's a girl come to our place and she came
two or three years, her and her husband, and I preached on that
one time about that woman being the dog. She got up and she walked
out the door and she said, I ain't going to be a dog for nobody.
And she ain't been back since. I'll be the Lord's dog. Yeah. God come before David. Oh, what
am I? A dead dog is me that's said before such a one as the
King. Huh? Thank you all. Appreciate you.
Amen.