I intended for you to get that
on recording. I never cease to be amazed in observing God's
hand of providence in my own life and in the lives of folks
I know. Back in 1993, I got a telephone
call from somebody out in Alameda, California, connected with an
outfit I'd never heard of called Family Radio, and asked if I
would allow them to put messages, I preached, on their radio stations
around the world. I said, of course, happy for
you to do so. And I decided I'd go buy a shortwave
radio so I could pick them up in our area and started to listen
to them and found out what their affiliation was or lack of it
and background. And I said to my wife, I said,
I don't know how this has happened, don't know why it's happened,
But I know it won't last long because what the scriptures teach
concerning baptism and what scriptures teach concerning the believers'
freedom from the law are things they won't stomach for very long.
And for two years, that family radio program, some of you heard
it, maybe still do, I don't know, played messages that I preached
two to five times a week all over the world. And that's how,
first, I came in contact with a good many of you. And then
Brother Tom Shuler was out of work and had to come up here
to go to work. And y'all met Tom, and he arranged
for Jim Byrd and I to come over here for a meeting, and I got
to know the rest of you, at least most of you, in a way. And I
made an impression, apparently, on somebody. And here we are. I can't tell you how thankful
I am for what God's done for you, for gathering you in this
place, and for giving you, as he promised a faithful pastor,
according to his own heart, to feed you with knowledge and understanding. What a great, great, great blessing. And I can't tell you how honored
I am that I've been asked to come here and share this special
three days with you, culminating in the ordination of your pastor
on Friday evening. And I think it's very important
that you all understand, normally in denominations and religious
hierarchy, ordinations are performed in a very ceremonial way. And
the ordination is looked at as something that's done by a group
of preachers outside the congregation. The calling of a pastor, recognizing
God's gifts, And that man being set in the office by a local
church is the ordination of a pastor. This is just a public declaration
of that which God has given you a heart to do. The ordination
of a pastor and the calling of a pastor is by God and it is
through a local church just exactly as this one. Now I have to say
this. Shelby asked me several times
today, early this morning, every time I talked to her and talked
to her just a few minutes ago, be sure to let the folks know
how much I appreciate them wanting me to be there, and how sorry
I am I can't be there. I've told some of you ladies
what she has to do for the next two weeks, and she'll get it
done. I don't know how she does, but she'll get it done. But this
just wasn't a time she could come, and she so much wanted
to be with you and would love to be. Perhaps we can come up
again together soon. That being said, I've come here
to preach, to preach to you, and I believe God's given me
something to say and something worth hearing. Tonight and tomorrow
night, I plan to preach pointedly to you. You men and women in
this congregation, you young people here, I plan to preach
pointedly to you. And then Friday night, I plan
to preach pointedly to my dear friend, your pastor. You can
listen in, but the message will be for him. And I believe it
will profit you as well. The title of my message tonight
I've given in the form of a question. Why have another church in Princeton,
New Jersey? Why? This town of less than 14,000
people has got dozens of churches. Dozens of churches. I looked
in the phone book. I said in the motel room while
I was studying this afternoon, I thought, I'm just curious. There are too
many for me to count. I've got dozens of churches.
And I doubt that there is any city in the United States that
has a richer religious heritage than Princeton, New Jersey. You
are, I presume, aware of that, and you certainly ought to be.
So I ask, why have another church in Princeton, New Jersey? The rich heritage of the past
is no longer characteristic of this community as far as I know. The influence of men like William
and Gilbert Tennant, Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield, Jonathan Edwards, Mason,
Van Teel, others, has long since ceased to have any influence
in the religious community in this town. So the question, why
have another church in Princeton? Because there's no gospel church
here. Now, you may recall, some of you, I hope you will recall,
one of the conversations I had with you the first time I came
here. If I recall correctly, we were sitting around the table
after eating over at Jaime and Sharon's home, and I said to
you exactly what I said to the church in Danville The first
time I went down and preached to them and they were interested
in me coming down there and pastoring that group. I said to them and
to you, if there's any place in this town or within a reasonable
driving distance of this town where you can go and hear the
gospel of God's free grace in Christ preached, preached consistently
and preached clearly, any place where you can go and worship
God in truth, Don't establish a church here. Go join up with
them. This town's not big enough for
two, and I'm sure if there's another one here, it's struggling
to make an existence. Go join up with them. If you
determine to establish a church here, to call a pastor, If God
allows you to do that, you are saying by that action, there
is no other gospel place where we can go and worship God and
hear the gospel of His grace. Now, turn with me, if you will,
to 1 Timothy again. 1 Timothy chapter 3. And I want, if God will enable
me, to show you... I started to say what a gospel
church ought to be. Let me show you what a gospel
church is. And I pray God the Holy Spirit will graciously inspire
your heart and mine with the desire and the determination
that this place be a faithful gospel church in this town, holding
forth in a place of darkness the light of the gospel of God's
grace and glory in Jesus Christ the Lord. Let's read verses 14
and 15. Paul is instructing us by divine
inspiration about the work of the ministry. They said, well,
Brother Don, we're not in the ministry. If you're not, you're
not in Christ. The work of the ministry is not
the work of a man. The work of the ministry is the
work of a local church. It is the work of God's people.
I don't have a ministry. Grace Church in Danville does,
and I'm part of it. And Clay Curtis doesn't have
a ministry in Princeton, New Jersey. Sovereign Grace Baptist
Church does, and he's blessed to be a part of it. 1 Timothy
3, verse 14. These things write I unto you,
unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I carry
long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and the ground of the truth." The Lord God has
established two permanent institutions in this world for the good of
his people. Before the sin and fall of our
father Adam back in Genesis chapter 2, God brought Eve to Adam and
married the couple and established the home. He sanctified the home. He did that as a picture and
a type of Christ and his church. And every word of instruction
given in this book about the home is not really about the
home. It's about Christ and his church. But he established the
home and said that the husband is to forsake his mother and
father and be joined unto his wife. And therefore it is written,
marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. The home
God gave for the happiness and the welfare of man living in
this world. The second institution which
God has established for the blessedness of his people is the church. the Church of the Living God.
When Peter had made his confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God, our Lord said to Peter, Upon this rock will
I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. Now we tend to think that that
means the Lord's going to not allow Satan to come against his
church and harm his church. It certainly includes that. But
gates are not weapons of offense. Gates are weapons of defense.
And this is God's promise. As God's church in this world
marches against Satan and his kingdom, the gates of hell can
never prevail against it. Did you hear me? There never
has been a time in history, never a time any place in the world,
not with regard to any church of God over which the gates of
hell have prevailed. God's church is always successful
in the work to which God has committed it. Now this second
institution, the church, the church of the living God, now
listen carefully and hear me, is even more precious more needful,
and more important than our homes. More precious, more needful,
and more important. You who know me even slightly
know how I cherish my family. Unless I am deceived, I'm perfectly
willing at the drop of a hat to lay down my life for any of
them. But the church of God's more
important. The family of God is more important than our personal
families. The house of God is to be preferred
before our households. If ever that comes to pass, if
ever really you cherish this family more than you do those
sitting right there on that row, nothing will interfere with what
you do with this family. Nothing. It doesn't with that
one, does it? It's to be preferred. Why? Let me tell you why. The church,
the family of God, is an everlasting family. It's everlasting. I have
a union with my wife that's temporal as my wife. Sooner or later,
one of us is going to leave the other alone, more than likely. One of us is likely to precede
the other in death. And that union that we enjoy
will be forever dissolved. Forever dissolved. And if I die
before her, she is perfectly free to marry again as she finds
a man in the Lord to whom she wishes to be wed. And the same
is true of me. That union will be dissolved.
But we have another union. We are one in Christ. Oh, that's
better. indescribably better. That union
will never be dissolved. You remember what our Lord did
in the book of Mark when they came to him, some of his disciples,
and they said, Master, your mother desires to see you. It's in Mark
chapter 3. And our Lord looked at the congregation
before him and he said, Behold, my mother and my brothers and
my sisters. He was not suggesting that Mary
was not his mother and to be treated with regard and respect
and cared for as his mother. He was saying, this is my family. This relationship between me
and that woman is a temporal relationship that soon must be
dissolved. This relationship is a relationship
that shall never be dissolved. And when we think about the church,
the family of God, we should particularly think about the
local church of which we're members. That's the subject of our text.
Here in 1 Timothy, Paul has this purpose. It is to instruct the
young pastor Timothy. and to instruct us in the affairs
of the church. He tells Timothy how to discharge
his office honorably as an evangelist, as a pastor, teacher, as a servant
of God, as a preacher of the gospel. And he is teaching us
how we are to behave in the house of God, as members of the family
of God, and is telling us what every local church ought to be
and is. Every local church, look at it,
is the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. The church of God is a
spiritual kingdom, a royal family whose one purpose, whose one
design in this world by God is to uphold, maintain, and set
forth the truth of God. Your one purpose for existence,
so long as you gather in the name of Christ in this place,
is to uphold and set forth and maintain the truth of God. Your one purpose. The church
of God has absolutely no other purpose in this world. Now, you
ask pastor, what should the church be? They may answer by making
a practical observation, a few practical observations. There
are practical observations that I draw both from the word of
God and from personal experience. I've been pastoring now for almost
40 years. It's an observation which both
pastors and church members need to learn and remember. And it's
needful. There never has been and never
will be a perfect church on this earth, not until God makes all
things new. There never has been and there
never will be. Frequently I see people going
from one church to another, seeking a church that measures up to
what they think a church ought to be, but their pursuit is in
vain. Pastors are often frustrated
and depressed Somebody sent me a tape. They had a conference
over in England. I guess they thought I was getting
burnt out. This fellow had preached for five nights on burnout in
the ministry. And I sent them back and I said,
if I get burnt out, I'll die. No. But pastors get burnt out. And they get burnt out because
they get frustrated and depressed. Things aren't going the way they
think they ought to go. The church doesn't measure up
to their expectations. And so they quit and find them
another place to preach. The fact is churches are made
up of sinful human beings. Now this is what I mean by that.
Art, they're made up of folks just like you and just like me. Sinful human beings. Sheep. What a good, apt description
of God's people in this world. The dirtiest, smelliest, most
helpless, defenseless animals you can ever find. Sheep. And sheep must be constantly
cared for. If folks, they want to find a
church that's just exactly the way it ought to be, and I suggest
to folks when they say such things to me or give any indication,
The best thing you can do if you want a perfect church is
for you to get out. Go somewhere else. Because if you get in,
you'll ruin it. The church of God in this world
is a house of redeemed sinners. A family of sinners saved by
God's free grace. Read the scriptures carefully.
In the kingdom of heaven, tares always grow wherever wheat grows. Wherever our Lord sows his wheat,
Satan sows his tares. Wherever our Lord gathers his
sheep, Satan herds in some goats. And our Lord commands us plainly
to make no effort to separate the wheat from the tares or the
sheep from the goats. We can't get over it. We have
the tendency in our self-righteous arrogance to think that we can
actually distinguish between the two. How many times do you
look at somebody or have looked at someone who has been faithful
and they profess faith in Christ and they do something that just
flat messes up and persist in it. So I just don't believe a
child of God could do that. Would you tell me what it is
exactly a child of God can't do? Please tell me. Just exactly
what, other than do good, tell me what it is he can't do. What?
What evil will he not commit? What sin will he not commit?
You won't find any indication such in this book. You're not
going to find it there. The kingdom of God is made up
of goats and sheep in this world, of wheat and tares, and our Lord
says concerning them, let them grow together. Leave them alone. Leave them alone. And here's
the reason. If we decided to start separating the sheep from
the goats, we would hug up the goats and run the sheep off every
time. If we started trying to separate the tares from the wheat,
we would every time pull up the wheat and cultivate the tares.
That's our nature. The fact is we can't see what's
inside anybody. I don't have the ability to discern
what's going on in Michelle's heart right now. I can't do that. For that matter, Eric can't either.
Give you some proof. You folks, most of you have been
married a while. How many times does your wife look at you and
say, I know what you're thinking. I know you're angry, I know you're
upset. Not upset at all. Something bothering you, but
not upset, not angry. But she just presumes so because that's
how you act when you're upset. And the fact is, With regard
to God's people, we cannot know what's in the heart of a man.
Only God sees the heart. And only God Almighty can separate
the sheep from the goats, and He will. Brother Don, what about
the matter of church discipline? I find it strange that folks
are always concerned about getting folks out. I find that strange,
I really do. Sometime back I had a friend
of mine called me and he was asked to preach and he said,
he said, Brother Donovan, I've been asked to preach and I've
been preparing a message on church discipline. Have you got anything
you can give me that would be good to study? And I called him
by name and I said, why don't you preach on something the Bible
says something about, like the gospel of God's grace, that will
give you obedience to the command God gives to those who preach
to comfort my people. That's his command, isn't it?
Comfort you. Comfort you, my people. Well, don't you believe
that discipline ought to be exercised when it's absolutely necessary,
as quietly as possible, like you do your children, for the
correction and the welfare of the child, not to put folks out?
The churches of the New Testament, all of them, had a lot of problems.
just like churches do today. People talk about returning to
the New Testament era church. They expose their ignorance.
Let me remind you what New Testament churches were like. The first
one had a fellow who was a ringleader, a fellow who the other apostles
looked up to. When this fellow spoke against
a woman who committed what he considered a terrible waste,
the other apostles followed his lead. His name was Judas Iscariot. The church at Jerusalem was a
terribly racially prejudiced church, despising Gentiles, looking
down their nose on Gentiles. The church at Corinth was played
with strife, division, incest, disorderly worship, drunkenness
at the Lord's table even. And the church at Galatia perhaps
was in the worst shape of all of them. It was nearly destroyed
with legalism. All the early churches of the
New Testament era were assailed constantly with false brethren,
false prophets, and false doctrine from within. From within. Not
folks attacking from outside, folks from within. Every local
church today will experience the same. You too. You too. I've had some experience of it
with Danville. Our congregation has. It's always painful to deal
with, come realization of. But what do you do when the church
has got trouble? It's my family. It's my family. And faithful folks don't abandon
their family, especially when they're needed. When the family's
got trouble, you don't abandon it. You take care of the trouble.
When the family's got trouble, you don't forsake it. You take
care of the trouble. When the family has a need, you
don't leave it. You supply the need. When trouble
comes, faithful brethren will not forsake the family of God.
Now, here's the second thing. What should a church be? Let's
look at Paul's doctrine in this text. Look at the name Paul gives
the church. He calls it the Church of the
Living God. The Church of the living God,
the assembly, the congregation of the living God. What is the
church? It's a congregation of believing
people gathered in the name of Christ by the power and grace
of God the Holy Spirit to worship God and obey his will. It is a spiritual family, not
a denominational organization, a spiritual family. The church
belongs to God. I don't think I have ever used
these two words with reference to myself, my church. That blessed family in Danville,
Kentucky is not my church. It's my family, but it's God's
church. It's God's family. I'm part of
it, but it's not mine. Not mine to do with as I will.
Not mine to treat as I will. It is God's church and God's
family. which God Almighty purchased
with his own blood. The church that Christ loved
for which he gave himself, the church he sanctified, the church
that he will present, a glorious church without spot, wrinkle,
or any such thing at the last day, the church that he nourishes
and cherishes as his own body. It's called here the church of
the living God. The church is a living body. The living body of Jesus Christ,
her living head. And so, Brother Don, is that
talking about the church universal or is that talking about the
local church? Yes. Yes. This local assembly is the living
body of Jesus Christ. That ought to make you treat
it with some great reverence and great esteem and great respect. It is that church which lives
one with Jesus Christ. The fact is no one is truly part
of a local church who is not united to Christ in a living,
vital union of faith and life. And the very worst thing that
can happen to any local church is the decay of life. We have
a terrible, terrible tendency toward formality and idolatry. The problem is not that, and
I don't say folks have to do it or necessarily should do it.
In Danville, we observe the Lord's Table every Sunday evening. We
have for the 28 years I've been there. And somebody sometimes
will say to me, well, I'd like to do that, but I'm afraid it'd
become mundane. Me too. Very afraid of that.
But the problem is not because we observe the ordinance too
often. It's because we fail to reverence what we're doing. It's
because we fail to do things in the proper way, with a proper
heart and proper attitude. The reading of the Word of God
becomes mundane, doesn't it, Eric? My God, I wish it didn't,
but it does. Often I can read newspaper articles
about which I have absolutely no interest, with much more interest
than I read this book right here. But the problem's not with the
Word. The problem's with me. and the church of God, we must
guard carefully against allowing ourselves to decay from life
to mere ritual and ceremony. We must earnestly avoid formalism,
coldness, and death. Spiritual life depends upon the
spirit of God. We must have more than a sound
creed. We must have more than a proper
form of worship. We've got to have the Spirit
of God. I keep praying earnestly as I
try to preach. Spirit of God, speak by me. Speak
through this worthless, empty, dirty pipe to the hearts of your
people. Otherwise, my preaching is just
talking to you. It'll do you no good. And as
we come together in God's house, we ought earnestly to pray for
God the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to us in the gracious
operations of His mercy upon us and with us. A local church
without the Spirit of God is like a body without a soul, dead,
useless, decaying, and obnoxious. The sooner it's buried, the better.
Turn to a few passages of Scripture with me. Turn to Matthew chapter
18. This is one I know you can quote, but I want you to look
at it. What is a local church? A local church is described by
the Apostle Paul as the habitation of God through the Spirit. This is the one place in this
world, the one place where God Almighty meets with his people. The one place where God comes
down and meets with men and women, and speaks to them, and instructs
them, and leads them, and guides them by his word. Matthew 18,
20. Our Lord Jesus says, where two
or three are gathered together in my name. We've got a few more
than two or three here tonight. I wonder if there's two or three
people who come here tonight in his name. What does it mean
in His name? We're saved in His name. We worship
in His name. To come here in His name is to
come here believing Him, seeking Him, trusting Him, seeking to
honor Him. Where two or three gather together
in my name, right there I am, every time. That means, pastor,
it's impossible. for two or three people to gather
here Sunday morning and Thursday night in the name of Christ and
Him not be here. Just two or three. Just two or
three. And it may be if two or three gather in His name before
they leave, the rest will be gathered in His name too. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. Now here in 1 Corinthians 3,
Paul is not addressing individual believers, but rather he's addressing
the congregation. And he addresses the individual
believer as part of this congregation. In chapter 6, when he says, you
are the temple of God, speaks of your body being the temple
of God, he's talking to individual believers. But here he speaks
to you and me gathered here tonight, and this is what he says. Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God? and that the spirit of
God dwelleth in you. There are a lot of things in
this book that I know are so that I can't begin to explain.
Some folks call it mysticism, they call it whatever they want,
I don't care. But this is what happens when men and women come
together to worship God in his house. Doesn't matter whether
his house is in a barn, in a firehouse, in a cathedral, or in the open
field. When men and women come together as God's house in His
name to worship Him, something wondrously mysterious and inexplainably
spiritual takes place. When we come together, God the
Holy Spirit comes here with us. The Spirit of God dwelleth in
you. Now turn to Ephesians 2, verse 19. Now, therefore, you're
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints into the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. That is, built on the same foundation
they're built on, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly
framed together, all these living stones fitly framed together,
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." That's
what Paul means back here in our text. The church of the living
God is the house of God. What does he mean by such language?
The church is a spiritual house built of living stones. Many
women built together on one foundation that holds them together, and
that one foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord. Several years
ago, I was preaching a Bible conference down in New South
Wales, Australia. And why the other fellows were
there, I don't know. But there's a fellow preaching
with me. And he didn't say anything. It's drudgery to go and listen
and try to be polite. But he said one thing that was
great. I haven't forgotten it. I had
at the time forgotten it, something I had read many years earlier.
He said when the temple was being built, none of the stones in
that temple were measured and cut to fit exactly, none of them. But rather they were cut, stone
placed here and stone placed here, and they'd bring a stone
in, it was too big to fit between them, and they'd rub it until
it fit, dropped right in place. And that's exactly how the temple
was built. And that's a pretty good illustration of how God
still builds his temple. He takes rough cut living stones
and rubs them together, making them fit with one another. I
pastor a group of folks in Danville from many different parts of
the country. Black lady in the congregation,
two black, young girl who's a black girl. Some who are highly educated,
brilliant folks. Some who have very little education. Very little. One of the deacons
in the congregation died several years ago. Completed second grade. I never called on him to read
because it was an embarrassment to him to try to read. But faithful,
faithful man. Lots of different people. And
you know, we wouldn't fit together anywhere else. We wouldn't fit
together anywhere else. But God has fit us together. We are the church of God, his
house, a spiritual house, his family. The house that God builds,
provides for, protects, takes care of all the time. That's
what a father does for his house. It's the place where God's worshipped,
the place of God's abode, the place where he reveals himself. If you want to know a fella,
You want to get to know him, spend some time in his house.
At your house, he'll hide himself. At your house, he'll keep his
shoes on and keep his shorts on. At his house, he'll come
in, put his bathrobe on, prop up, and he's just comfortable. This is my house. And everybody
in the house knows him, from the smallest to the greatest.
This is where our father reveals himself. He exposes himself in
all his glorious, gracious character all the time. Next, Paul tells
us that the church of the living God is the pillar and ground
of the truth. The church, the local church,
is the pillar which upholds, maintains, and sets forth the
truth. The church, the local church,
is the ground, the undergirding, the stabilizing force of the
truth. the truth being Jesus Christ
himself, the truth being the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the
truth being the gospel of God's free grace. The church is the
pillar which stands and supports and maintains and holds forth
the truth, and it is the ground, the undergirding, the stabilizing
of the truth in this world. the whole church, not just the
pastor, not just the elders and deacons and teachers, but the
whole church. Every member of it is the pillar
and ground of the truth. In the church of the living God,
the truth is constantly lifted up as light in the midst of darkness. The church is the lighthouse
of truth in this dark world. And her one purpose, as I stated
in the beginning, the one business of the church is to uphold, maintain,
and spread abroad the truth of God as it is in Christ. What
does that mean, Brother Don? All your strength, all your talents,
all your resources are to be given to and used for this one
glorious work. Grace Baptist Church in Danville
and Don Fortner, her pastor, And Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
in Princeton, New Jersey, and Clay Curtis, your pastor, are
not in competition with one another. We're fellow laborers in the
same cause, in the same family. This is what that means. I am
not responsible to do what God has given that man to do. And
he's not responsible to do what God's given me to do. Our congregation
in Danville is not responsible to do what God gives you the
privilege and the ability and the opportunity to do. Nor are
you responsible for what he's given us the privilege and opportunity
and ability to do. But we are responsible to do
what we can in the place where God has put us for the cause
of Christ. That's our responsibility. That's
our responsibility. It matters not what comes of
it or doesn't. It matters not how it appears
to anyone else. Matters not whether anyone sees
it. In fact, it's far better for
us if they don't. It's our responsibility to do
what we can in the place where God's put us as a local church.
There are many other important causes in the world, I know.
But in God's providence, he raises up other people and other organizations
to take care of those causes. The church must not be turned
aside from the blessed business of preaching the gospel. Members
of political parties will support their politicians. Let God's
churches support gospel preachers. Doctors will build hospitals
and practice medicine. Let churches build churches and
practice missions. Moralists will struggle for moral
issues. Let the church struggle for the
furtherance of the gospel. Educators will teach children
the three R's of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Let the Church
of God teach sinners the three R's of ruin by the fall, redemption
by the blood, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. We have no
other work. Everything else is meaningless. Everything else is meaningless.
I, uh, sometimes your fellows, they get involved with this issue
and that. They spend their time with this
issue and that. Get churches all excited about
this issue and that. I recall years ago, I was just
a young man riding down the road with two preachers. We were going
over to a bookstore. I was 20 years old. These fellows
were my age now. And One of them looked at the
other one and said, if I could just get an issue, I believe
I could make things happen. And when I was 20 years old,
I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut most of the time.
But I thought to myself, don't you have an issue? Don't you
have an issue? I have an issue. It's the gospel
of God's grace. And I don't have any other issue.
I don't have any other issue. Don't you think we ought to fight
abortion? Let somebody else fight that. Don't you think we ought
to fight alcohol? Let somebody else fight that.
Let somebody else fight those things. Don't join hands with
folks who hate God and pretend that you're serving God. We preach
the gospel of God's free grace. We have no other work. Truth
is what we've received from our forefathers, and truth is what
we must maintain, and truth is what we must pass to the generation
to follow. Now, let me give you a challenge. God has given you the privilege
of being a part of his family, of his house, the church of the
living God. All my life, I've never dreamed
of being part of anything that anybody won't have anything to
do with. And here I am, a part of the house of God. Amazing is His grace. How highly
honored, how greatly privileged you are, and I am, as God's children. This is my challenge. Make it
your business to maintain defend and publish abroad by every means
and every opportunity God gives you the truth of God with every
fiber of your being. See to it the Sovereign Grace
Baptist Church in Princeton, New Jersey is the pillar and
ground of the truth. Any church that ceases to be
a pedestal of the truth ceases to be a church. and she's to
be numbered with nothing but the religious nonsense all around
you already. Every believer must be engaged
in this noble cause. The Church of Christ must never
tolerate in her pulpit any man who is opposed to or indifferent
to truth. We must never tolerate any attack,
any violation, any compromise of the word of God. to the law
and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. Turn to
Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Let us seek the good way and
the old paths. Verse 125. David says, I am thy
servant. Give me understanding that I
may know thy testimonies It is time for thee, Lord, to work. That's not an order, that's recognition. That's another sermon in itself,
but I can't leave it alone. I hear folks bemoaning the day
in which we live. What a terrible day it is. I
reckon it is, but I suspect the biggest problem is there's just
more people in it. I can't think of a better time in history in
which to live and serve God. This is the day God's made for
us. This is the day. Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. And unless I am greatly mistaken, I am convinced and have been
for many years, we are living in time of the greatest revival
the world has ever known. There are more people who believe
and preach the gospel of God's free grace topside of this earth
in the midst of all the darkness and apostasy of this age than
there's ever been. This is the time. The time. It is time for thee, Lord, to
work. For they have made void thy law. Therefore, I love thy commandments
above gold. Yea, above fine gold. Therefore,
I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. And don't
leave out the last clause. And I hate every false way. The word of God alone is our
creed, our confession of faith, our rule. We must bow to the
authority of God's book, but only to the authority of God's
book. And we must not tolerate any departure from the paths
of gospel truth without hesitation or apology. We must sound out
the glorious message of God's free, sovereign, eternal grace
in Jesus Christ the Lord. We don't need to clarify the
gospel. We don't need to reform the gospel. We don't need to
modernize the gospel. We don't need to defend the gospel. We simply declare it. I'm sure
you've heard me say this before. I like Westerns. I'm especially
fond of those Clint Eastwood Westerns where he uses dynamite.
He takes the dynamite, sticks a cigar to it, and throws it,
and gets out of the way. I've never seen him once take
careful aim. Not one time. Get out of the
way. The gospel, Paul tells us, is
the power of God and salvation. Were we to take that word translated
power and transliterate it as our translator did the word baptize?
The word baptize is an English word that came into being because
the translators didn't dare translate the word immerse or dip or plunge,
so they just transliterated it. That is, they took the Greek
letters and made English letters out of them and became baptize.
If you were to take the word power in Romans 1, The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation and transliterate it. The word
would be the gospel is the dynamite of God unto salvation. The dynamite,
it is the explosive power of God. I'm not ashamed of that. What do you do with dynamite?
You throw it and get out of the way. That's all. Throw it and
get out of the way. It does its own work. It needs
no defending, needs no protecting, needs no clarifying. Now let
me give you six or seven stubborn statements that go right to the
heart of this thing. These statements, there's no
middle ground between them. And if you read this book and
understand it as I believe God intends us to understand it,
there's never middle ground in the things of God. Never. There might be middle ground
between conservative and liberal politics, and there might be
middle ground between conservative and liberal religion. There might
be middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism, but there's
no middle ground when it comes to the gospel of God's grace.
Number one, either God Almighty is absolutely sovereign in all
things, in total control of all things, always performing His
will in all places with all creatures, including the good and the evil,
or He's not God. It's just that simple. It's just
that simple. Any God that men have carved
out of the dark forest of their own depraved imaginations that
lacks the will, the power, or the ability to rule the universe
absolutely with ease is no God at all. There is no distinction
between absolute atheism and a God who's not sovereign. Number
two, either man is totally depraved, utterly dead in trespasses and
in sins, or there's nothing really wrong with him, and he doesn't
need a Savior. If he can do anything to assist
himself toward God, if he can do anything to bring himself
nearer God, if he can do anything to put himself in a more favorable
position before God, he doesn't need a Savior. Number three,
either God chose to save some of Adam's fallen race, chose
to save some to salvation and eternal life in Christ Jesus
before the world began, as this book everywhere declares, or
there's no possibility of salvation for anybody. Salvation is the
Lord's. That's what the book says. Not
just salvation is of the Lord, it is the Lord's. And I want
to tell you something about Don. I don't have much, but whatever
I've got in my pocket, whatever it is, it's mine. and you're
not going to tell me what to do with it. That's just not going
to happen. Salvation is the Lord's, and
nobody's going to tell God what to do with what's his. Nobody.
It's God's work. It's God's gift. It's God's operation. If God Almighty has a people
in this world whom he loves and to whom he is gracious, He loved
them and determined to be gracious to them in eternal election before
the world was made. And the immutable God changes
not. He saves those whom he's chosen.
Number four, either the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is altogether and alone the effectual redeemer of his people. I mean
by that, either he actually redeemed his people when he died at Calvary,
fully accomplishing everything he intended, or he is a worthless
failure and we are yet in our sins. And no middle ground. To
talk about Christ trying to redeem, wanting to redeem, offering to
redeem, providing redemption for folks who perish in hell
under the wrath of God in spite of everything he's done is to
talk about a Christ who is no more Christ than the last fellow
who claimed to be. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is an effectual redeemer who by the sacrifice of himself has
put away our sins. Number five, either we are regenerated,
called to life and faith in Christ, by the irresistible power of
God the Holy Spirit, or there's no such thing as salvation and
eternal life by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God doesn't
come and nudge men toward Christ and put men in a position where
they can choose Christ if they want to. The Spirit of God comes
to dead sinners and breathes life into the dead. He doesn't
work from the outside in. He works from the inside out.
You see these pictures. And I don't think any of you
have any. Any pictures you have, religious images, religious icons,
please burn them. Please burn them. But you've
seen these pictures of Jesus, supposedly. Isn't it amazing?
They're always this kind of fella. He's standing outside the door. I had a fella tell me when I
was just a kid. He said, you see that? That's a picture of
Christ standing outside the door of your heart, and you'll notice
there's no handle on the outside. The only way he can get in is
if you let him in. And even then I thought, that's
a strange picture. There he stands, he's supposed to be the light
of the world, he's holding a lantern. And he's supposed to be God Almighty,
and he's waiting for me to give him permission to enter the heart
that he made. If the Son of God ever knocks
at your heart's door, He'll knock it down, bolt and bar. And the
first time you will know he's around, he's already sitting
on the throne on the inside. And that's by the power of God's
spirit. And fifth, either God's people, and I suppose
for you this will be the one thing that you're going to have
to struggle with. You have struggled with it, and you will have to
struggle with it. I still do, because it's contrary to flesh.
Either God's people are entirely free from the law, as the scriptures
declare, dead to the law, as the scriptures declare, or we're
yet under bondage to the law and must keep the whole law perfectly. There's no in-between ground.
Well, what part of the law? What part does the law have in
a believer's life? Brother Todd Nyberg called me. yesterday while
I was in the study. He was working on a message.
He said, I'm preaching tomorrow night for the Ten Commandments
in Exodus 20, going through the book of Exodus. He said, we'll
be dealing with the law. He said, is it right to say that
the new man in Christ, by faith, is not under the law, but he
obeys the law? And I paused, because I wanted
him to ask a second time. I said, no. No. It is proper
to say the believer, the new man in Christ, by faith in Christ,
delights in the law, but he doesn't obey the law. He doesn't obey
the law, but he doesn't violate the law. He delights in it. We are not in any way motivated
by ruled by or inspired by the commandments given in the law,
all of which have this attached to them. This do and or. Find me any commandment, any
ceremony that doesn't have that attached to it. This do and this
is what you get or if you don't, this is what you get. No. No,
I'm not motivated by those things. Now, the law tells me I can't
beat my wife. And you know, sometimes I've
gotten a little frustrated. But in 39 years, I've never been
inclined to beat her. And not because the law says
I can't do it. That doesn't have anything to do with it. Now,
some men, that's the only reason they don't. No, I'm not inclined to beat
her. No. For one thing, I wouldn't, I'm not sure I could. But I'm
not inclined to. I'm just not inclined to. Why? I love her. I love her. I'm not
inclined. This new man, God's made in Christ. Oh, the old man, every inclination
gets to him. But this man who believes the
Son of God, I'm not inclined to dishonor him. I'm not inclined
to bring reproach against him. We're free from the law. Free
from it. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Now, I know
people have a tough time understanding that. How old are you? You're what? Thirteen. Do you
know where the end of the room is? Walk to the end of the room,
will you? Let's see how smart this boy
is. I want you to look at that. Well, that's astonishing. Is
that the end of the room? Are you buttoned up against that
wall there? That's the end of the room? That's as far as you
can go and still be in the room. That's what the word end means.
In fact, it's the very same word our Lord used when he said, it
is finished. It's the end. It's the end. Nobody
have any trouble understanding what that means if it wasn't
for the perversion of religious nonsense. When the scripture
says Christ is the end of the law, Christ is just as far as
the law can go. He's the end of it. He's finished
it. He's fulfilled it. He's satisfied
it. And the law can demand no more
from me. Oh, Christ is mine. Please understand what I want
to tell you and I'll quit. I am a debtor head over heels to the
God of glory. I am a debtor head over heels
to the God of glory. I can't say that in such a way
as to communicate what I feel in my soul. But I don't owe God
anything. I don't owe God anything. Jesus Christ, the son of God,
lived and died for me, and he paid it all, all the debt I owe,
everything. I fulfilled the law in him, and
by faith in him, establish the law, magnify it, and make it
honorable. recognizing that Christ is my
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and salvation, my
all, my all, my all. God make him yours. Amen.