The Apostle Paul here writing
to the Galatian church, he's filled with marvel that they're
so soon removed from him that had called them into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel. These people had had the gospel
of the true grace of God preached to them, and they had been effectually
called by the irresistible Spirit of the living God, and they'd
been called into the grace of Christ. And Paul says that they
have been now tempted to leave that gospel that had been preached
to them, They have been tempted to be moved away from that gospel. And Paul says in verse 7, which
is not another really, it's not another gospel, there's only
one gospel, but there are many perversions of the gospel. He said, there be some that trouble
you. And those who preach not the gospel of the true grace
of God, they're a very troublesome people, preachers that are not
given over to the declaration of the mind of God as it's revealed
in this holy book are a Troublesome lot of men and they create a
great deal of trouble in the earth because they pervert the
gospel of Christ Now there's one thing I believe that I have
learned through the years and that is if we're honest souls
We ought to desire That the man that we listen to that he knows
the gospel If he does not know the gospel, if he does not know
how God saves sinners, if he does not know how God reconciles
lost, hell-bound, hell-deserving sinners unto himself, then we
ought not bear with him, we ought not listen to him preach and
muddy the waters and damn men's souls as we support him, or as
we stand behind him, or as we encourage him. We ought to recognize
that he's a troublesome individual and one that needs to be avoided.
You ought to tune him out. You ought to turn him off. And
you ought not listen to a man who does not know how that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, but how that he imputed our trespasses
unto Christ, and that the Lord Jesus Christ answered to God
for our sin, and paid our sin debt to the full. Now there are
others in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Let me read here
just a few verses out of chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, and I'll
begin here with verse 3. But I fear, Paul says, lest by
any means, as the serpent back in the Garden of Eden beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you
receive another spirit which you have not received, or another
gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him."
And what Paul is saying here is, you readily bear with him. They were at fault. Because Paul
said these men, these racketeers, these merchandisers of souls,
these men who are butchers of men's souls, they come and they
preach another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive
another spirit which you have not already received or did not
receive through the hearing of faith as we preach the gospel
to you. or you've received another gospel
which you have not accepted, then you bear readily with them,
you put up with them, you endure them, you tolerate them, and
you allow them to go on with their ministry. But Paul the
apostle was very clear that there is a truth that men must expound
and declare unto the souls of men. If they fail to do that,
then they are not to be listened to, they are not to be born with,
but they are to be separated and revealed as we are able to
do it, as we reveal the true gospel they are declared or showed
up to be, what they really are, and that's false messengers of
the Lord. Now then, as we begin to deal
with this this morning, there's one thing that I would want And
that is, I want to be honest with your souls. I believe that
there are some here this morning, maybe, that recognize themselves
to be sinners. You recognize yourself to be
a real sinner in this world, and you know, the poet said,
a sinner is a sacred thing the Holy Ghost has made himself.
And if you're here this morning and you recognize or know yourself
to be a sinner in need of a Savior, I want you to know there's a
gospel that you ought to hear. And we hope this morning that
you will hear the true message of the gospel before you leave
this place. I believe there is but one gospel
as sure as God is God and Christ is Christ. There is but one gospel. Now it is that ancient gospel
Jesus said, Moses wrote of me. The gospel, there's only been
one gospel ever. One true gospel of God's grace. God saved people in the Old Testament,
the same as he saves them in the New Testament. This is an
ancient gospel that we're talking about. Now it cannot be said
today that we have one gospel. It cannot be said that we have
one gospel. Even the Baptists have many gospels. And I want, if I can this morning,
to point out some of these gospels which is a perversion of the
true gospel. These are not the true gospel.
They're perversions of the gospel. Now we have, first of all, the
gospel of church salvation. We hear a great deal about how
that if you join a particular denomination. If you have your
name on a certain book, if you shake a certain preacher's hand,
if you become involved in a certain congregation of people, then
your necessity will have salvation. That you'll be a child of God,
you'll belong to the Lord, and that when you die, you'll go
to heaven, and it's because you were a member of a local visible
congregation on earth. whatever might be the name of
it. Now, if you have that idea, that is a mistaken idea, and
that is a perversion of the gospel. My friend, you cannot join a
local assembly, make no difference if it be the soundest church
in the world, and be saved by doing that. You can only be saved
by having a living, loving, lasting union with a person of the Son
of God. You must come to Him in faith
and believe on Him and trust Him unreservedly, wholeheartedly,
if you would be a child of God. And the idea that the priest
or the church in somewhere or another, you know, I've talked
to people who said, well, I just leave it up to the preacher,
or I just leave it up to the priest. They take care of my
salvation. Beloved, when we come to know
the truth, we'll understand that no individual or no congregation
can take care of our own personal soul's need. We need to know
Christ on our own. We must know Him personally.
We must have a union with Him. We must know Him. The Bible says
in John chapter 17 and verse 3 that this is eternal life,
that you might know God, the only true God. and Jesus Christ
whom he has sent. This is salvation, knowing God,
not belonging to some church or some denomination. And we
must not leave our soul's salvation in any other hands except in
the hands of the living Christ, and we must come to him and look
to Him in faith. And then we have the gospel of
church salvation, we have the gospel also of church ordinances. They're those that believe that
the baptismal waters wash away sin. They're those that believe
that once a person enters into baptism, if they're baptized,
wherever they're baptized, make no difference if they're sprinkled
or if they're dipped or plunged or immersed, makes no difference
that baptism is that which gives them a relationship with God.
Well, it is not true. There is no efficacy in the water
to save a sinner. The efficacy and power to save
a sinner is in the blood of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no water that can
wash away our sin in order that we might stand accepted and complete
before God clean. It is through the shedding of
blood that we have the remission of our sin. It is through Christ's
blood and not through the waters of baptism. There are others
that believe that the taking of communion, the eating of the
wafer, or the taking of the Lord's Supper, the drinking of the wine
or the juice, that they're saving efficacy in that. There are some
that speaks of the ordinances as sacraments. And we know that
there are no saving power in those things. You cannot physically
partake of Christ. There's no way to physically
partake of Christ. The Bible does speak of eating
and drinking of Christ, but this eating and drinking is a spiritual
eating and drinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. One must be a partaker
of Christ inwardly, in the heart, in the soul. It cannot be done
through the taking of these elements from the outside. They're symbolic
of the blood and the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, but there's
no saving power or efficacy in the taking of those ordinances. And so we must understand that,
and I think if we can understand it, it will help us to begin
to open our ears and our hearts to the true message of the gospel. Now next, I want to say that
there's a gospel of morality that I've heard about. And we
know that God's people, and I truly believe this with all my heart,
they have a principle of the grace of God implanted in them
when they're regenerated by the Spirit of God, and they are a
holy people, they're holy before God, and they do practice practical
holiness in this world. There are loving people, there
are forgiving people, there are faithful people, but this idea
that we're going to go to heaven because we're good, beloved,
it's just flat wrong. There isn't anybody good enough
to go to heaven. Put all of our goodness into
a thimble and it would rattle like a peanut in a boxcar. I'm
telling you there's no goodness, not enough goodness here. You
say, I'm moral and I'm an upright preacher. Well, that's good.
That's good. There's nothing wrong with that.
But I want you to know there's a whole lot of difference between
morality and salvation in a Redeemer. Salvation is in Christ, and you
can be as moral as all get out. You can be as good as anybody
can possibly be after the flesh, but that goodness will not get
you into heaven. It takes a perfect righteousness
to satisfy the thrice holy God. God is just, absolutely just. And you can only get into Him,
you can only get into Him by faith, and you can only be accepted
of God by faith in Christ. Somebody said, well, I'm doing
as good as I possibly can. Well, I don't know of anybody
that's doing that. I've met people who said, I've done the best
I know how to do. Well, that may be true, but that's
not good enough. The Bible says that even those
that are saved, that they're unprofitable servants. And we
must be holy as God is holy. And to be holy as God is holy,
we must be in the Holy One. And if we're in the Holy One,
then we are holy and accepted before God in Christ Jesus. And so, if you think, well, I'm
keeping the Ten Commandments. You're trying to do that. But
Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness
come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. Righteousness, my friend,
comes through faith in a crucified Redeemer, and it does not come. Your righteousness, your righteousness
is as filthy rags in the sight. of almighty God. And so this
gospel of morality will save nobody. It may make you more
respectable among men, but it will not save you before a thrice
holy God. And then we have the gospel of
decisionism. I hear of this gospel often about
people making decisions And this is what gets them into the kingdom
of God. Now, beloved, the gospel that
God has done all that he can, and now, sinner, you do something,
this is a damning gospel. Is it true that God has done
all that he can and a man is still lost in his sin? I believe
in a saving God. I believe in a God who is mighty,
almighty. I believe in a God who can save
whoever he will, whenever he will. I believe in a God of purpose
and a God of salvation. I don't believe that salvation
is a human project. I believe it's a divine project
from the beginning to the very end. Somebody said, I made a
decision. I decided to let God save me. Well, my friend, salvation, it's
of a God that has determined it and purposed it before the
world, before the foundation of the world. Now, I recognize
that in our day and time, and this is unique, I suppose, somewhat
to the last 75 or 100 years, In America, we've had this gospel
of decisionism. We've got to make a decision.
Preachers must preach to get people to make a decision. And
we want them to decide. We want them to come up front.
We want them to shake the preacher's hand, go into the prayer room,
go into the inquiry room, make a decision. But my friend, you
can walk the aisle in every church in America and go to hell when
you die. Decisionism is not the gospel. The gospel is that God was in
the Lord Jesus Christ providing all that he demands for a sinner
and you can be saved without moving a muscle. You don't have
to move a muscle. You can sit right where you are
and believe savingly on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can sit where
you are and trust him. And somebody said, but if you
walk the aisle, that God is in a, you put Him in a corner and
He must save you if you walk the aisle. It's not so, my friend. You cannot put God in a bind
and force Him to save you by getting up and walking down front
in a church building. That is not salvation. And there's
so many people being deceived hourly in America by thinking
that some physical act on their part is going to bring them into
the kingdom of God. And it will not work. It will
not work. Now I say to you that we need
to bow down wherever we are right now and recognize Jesus as Lord. Bow down and bow down to Him
and submit yourself to Him and kiss the Son lest He become angry
with thee and you be turned out of the way. You know there was
a time when people all over America sung that old hymn Pass me not,
O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art
calling, do not pass me by. But many of those same congregations
that used to sing that old hymn, they don't sing it anymore from
the heart. Their preachers have lied to them for so long that
a new attitude has been created in the hearts of people in America.
The message which they have heard for years is, sinner, do not
pass Jesus by. That's the message they've heard.
He loves you. He died to save you. Even now
he stands knocking at your heart's door, weeping, pleading, and
waiting for you to let him in. Do not be hard-hearted and pass
Jesus by. Listen, my friend, it is the
fact that Jesus is passing by, and may he hear your humble cry,
while on others he is calling, may he not pass you by, and may
you recognize that it's not you that's going to flag him down,
it's he that is going to reach out and touch sinners and give
them life. Now then, another thing I've
heard is I've heard of the gospel of household salvation. You know, you've heard of infant
baptism? They're those that believe that if you baptize a baby when
they're little, baptize a baby, they take that after the circumcision
of the Old Testament. You know, Paul, he got involved
in religion when he was eight days old. He was circumcised.
But you know, he was 40 years old when God saved him. 40 years
old when the Lord struck him down on the road to Damascus.
He was involved in religion from the time he was eight days old.
And there's babies that get involved in religion when they're sprinkled
or baptized as infants, and they're told that this puts them into
the covenant of grace and that they're saved, that they're safe
in the hands of the Lord and they're saved for all eternity. Now then, I want you to understand
this, that in America, I think, of course, Grand Rapids, Michigan
probably is a hotbed of Reformed theology. In America, England,
Ireland, Scotland's run over with this, but most of those
that come from over in that country and come here, they like Grand
Rapids, Michigan, because there's a lot of baby baptizers in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. Well, you say, well, don't you
think a person ought to be baptized, preacher? I do. I do think you
ought to be baptized. And the Bible teaches that if
you can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you can be baptized. You remember Philip asked the
eunuch. He said, the eunuch said, here's water, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? And Philip said to him, if thou
believest, with all thine heart thou mayest, You can be baptized
if you believe. Well, as far as the Word of God
is concerned, believers are the only candidates for salvation.
We baptize those that have become believers and those that are
trusting Christ. Baptism is a picture. It's a
preaching ordinance of what has saved us. And we declare unto
all those that observe our baptism that we believe that Christ died,
that He was buried, and that God raised Him from the dead.
And we're picturing that as we are His followers. We are following
the Lord Jesus. It identifies us with Christ. A baby cannot be baptized. You cannot baptize a baby. It
will not affect him whatsoever. Give him a bath at home. That's
where he ought to get one. He certainly ought not be baptized
in the church. It isn't going to do him any
good. It will not do his soul any good. Fact is, later on what's
going to happen is that he's going to trust in that. He's
gonna believe that that had some efficacy, and he's gonna trust
it, and he'll go off into a devil's hell to suffer for all eternity. And then we get on a little something
else here. We have the gospel of lodge membership. I've run into people that, you
know, they were big in their lodge, and they said, this is
my ticket to heaven. This is my ticket to strut around.
This is my ticket to heaven. I'm a member of the secret order.
Nobody understands it, but the brotherhood and we're involved
in this and when I die they're going to come They're going to
say a few words over me at my funeral and they're going to
have their little time You know and that fixes me up for eternity
and heaven God's going to accept that and receive me at last in
everlasting bliss and glory Well my friend there is no truth to
that There's absolutely no truth to it. I'm telling you salvation
is in a person. And I'm telling you, you must
believe on that person, Christ, and have a union with Him, a
living union with Him. And there's no salvation outside
of Him. A Christ not in you is a Christ
not yours. And the only way you can have
Christ is for Him to be dwelling in your heart by faith. And we
can only have salvation as we have Him. Now then, let's say
a few things about this gospel that we preach. We believe that
man fell in the Garden of Eden. We believe that God made men
upright. He sought out many inventions. Romans 5.12 tells us that what
Adam did in the Garden of Eden, that we all did in him. And when
Adam sinned in the Garden, we fell in him. and that we're all
lost by nature, every one of us. God hath concluded that we're
all under sin. There's none righteous, no, not
one. All live sin and come short of
the glory of God. And so we stand in need of a
Savior because we're lost and we're helplessly lost and we
cannot save ourselves. May we say that salvation is
impossible for man. It is impossible for a man to
save himself. I invite you to turn with me
to the book of Matthew chapter 19. Turn over there and let's
read here a few verses out of Matthew chapter 19. Verse 23, down through verse
26, Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Truly I say unto you,
that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? Our Lord here is saying that hardly ever is a rich man going
to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And it's because he trusts his
uncertain riches and he doesn't recognize his absolute need of
a Redeemer, a Savior. He'll trust himself, he'll trust
his money, he'll trust his riches. And then again, Jesus said in
verse 24, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
The eye of the needle was a hole, a little hole in the wall around
Jerusalem. Says it's easier for a camel
to get down, they make this hole there. so that it could not easily
be invaded. Those that would come and invade
the city could not get through easily. And it's easier for a
camel to get down and wall or just push himself and squeeze
himself. through that eye of a needle
than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
It's just a very difficult thing for them to give up, to abandon
their riches and to turn their heart and life over entirely
to a sovereign God. They're their own God. They have
money and means and they want to run their own business. They
don't want to bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the King Jesus.
And so then in verse 25, when his disciples heard this, they
were exceedingly amazed, saying then, Who can be saved? But Jesus
beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible.
With men this is impossible. It doesn't make any difference
who the man is, whether he has riches or whether he doesn't
have riches, salvation is impossible to man. It's impossible. Nobody can save himself. You
don't have the ability. The Bible says, can the Ethiopian
change the color of his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
So then he that is accustomed to do evil, he can do good. We know that those that are accustomed
to do evil cannot do good. Their natures are bent to sinning.
Their nature is biased towards sin and evil. and they cannot
save themselves. You're here this morning without
faith and love toward Jesus Christ. It is impossible for you to reverse
your course and to be able to save yourself. You owe God a
debt and you can't pay that debt. You don't have the ability to
raise what you owe God. With man it is impossible, but
with God all things are possible. God has provided a Redeemer,
and that Redeemer is the Lord Jesus. God has provided everything
He's demanded of you, my friend. And it's all in a person. It's
all in Christ. And the gospel we preach is that
Jesus Christ is an able and sufficient Savior. Now, we also believe
and preach here when we preach this gospel, and I agree with
old Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who said that you could not preach
the gospel of God's grace without preaching what is commonly called
or referred to as old Calvinism. Now, I know what he was talking
about, and I believe what he was talking about. There is a
people chosen of God and are called to salvation. Paul in
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4 said, According as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. The God of the Bible
passed by angels and chose men. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world. He came into this world in love
toward a people that God had given him in the covenant of
grace. Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13 says,
I'm bound to give thanks unto God for you, brethren beloved,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. It is
true that God passed by Egypt and chose Israel. Now I know
that men do not like this truth. They do not like this truth.
What God has done, that's a testimony to what He will do. God has chosen
a people and He delivered a people in Old Testament time, a remnant. And the Bible says it was according
to the election of grace. And we know that God is saving
now, by pure grace, a people for His name. And He has chosen
those people. And apart from God's choice of
a sinner, there would be none ever choose God. Now you may
laugh at that, but I'm telling you the only reason you chose
Him was because He first loved you and chose you. And we know
that He loved us ere we knew Him. He loved us in the Lord
Jesus and gave us to Christ. And Jesus said in John 6, 37,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and they that
come to me I will in no wise cast out. It's impossible. The
Bible says that the Father must draw us by the Spirit or we will
not come. And we will not come left to
ourselves. We're hopelessly lost. With God,
it's possible because He chooses the people. You see, in Adam,
we chose to die rather than live. And the only way that we live,
and even we have been quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins, we've been quickened, made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only reason we've been
made alive is because God chose to make us alive after we had
chosen in Adam to die. We chose to die and not live
and in Christ we have been chosen by God To live so it's possible
with God For a man to be saved and God has a people that belongs
to him and they love Christ and worship him now our salvation
is not an effort and I want you to understand that it is an accomplishment
of Christ has died for his people. Now when we're preaching the
gospel, we preach that the gospel is accomplished. We're not working
on it. Redemption is not something I
am personally working on. Redemption is an accomplished
fact. We believe that peace has been
made. You may not enjoy the peace,
and you may not be happy in the peace, but the peace has been
made. It's an accomplished thing. Christ
hath redeemed his people. Christ was made a curse for us.
God laid upon Him the sin of all of His people. It was made
to meet upon Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ answered
to God for the sins of all of His people, for all those that
would believe upon Him. Jesus Christ accomplished our
redemption. And we worship a Redeemer that
is successful. We don't worship a failure in
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a successful
Redeemer. He's accomplished His purpose,
and He redeemed all those who were open unto Him. And it is
a particular and limited atonement in its scope. It was offered
for all those that the Father has given to the Son. Praise
His name. Jesus said, Father, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And that tells me that
everything that was necessary in order to save this people
that God had given to the Son, that Jesus accomplished that
work. He did it all. That's what it
means. It can't mean anything else. that Jesus finished the
work that the Father gave Him to finish. If somebody comes
and tells you, well, the work's been finished. The work's been
finished. First of all, you find out what
he's talking about. Well, are you talking about the
hazel mold and the hazel stack, the straws all in the pile? What
are you talking about? Are you talking about something
that I know something about? Well, when the Lord Jesus told
the Father, He said, The work which you gave Me to do, it is
finished! The Father knew what He was talking
about, and Jesus knew what He was talking about, and Jesus
was on a cross, dying, and when He was on that cross, He said,
It is finished! It is finished. Now, who are
we to stand up and tell God that we're still going to work on
our salvation or our redemption? The work is complete. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin or nothing, do neither great
nor small. Jesus did it all, did it all
long, long ago, and we need to believe that, and we need to
trust that. And then, too, what we believe
in this gospel is that the Holy Spirit affectionately calls those
that God the Father gave to the Son in that love covenant of
grace before the foundation of the world. In John 6 and 45,
the Lord Jesus said, they shall all be taught of God. Everyone
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Now you see, we're told in the
Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah 31 verse 34 that they
shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. They
shall all know me. And so those that have been given
to the son by the father, they're taught. by God and they all come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're taught enough about themselves
to know that they cannot save themselves, that they're ruined
and damned without a perfect Redeemer in Christ. They're taught
enough about enough about God to know they can't please Him
because He's holy, thrice holy, and they cannot please Him. They
know enough about themselves to know that they cannot get
out of the pit of sin that they're in and come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, that they must be taught to Him, and they are taught that
they can come to Him by the Spirit's enablement. So we believe that
the Holy Spirit must effectually call the Lord's people. And then
we believe they'll persevere. They'll persevere unto the very
end. Now, we have these people running
around, and I met some of them this week, talked with them this
week. They believe that salvation is
indeed given by God to a sinner. And that, as Jesus said in John
chapter 10 verse 28, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father which gave to me is greater than all, and no man
can pluck them out of his hand. They say, well that's true. But,
they say you can pluck yourself out of his hand. That you can
take yourself out of God's hand. Now you see, that is not a new
twist, but it's something that very few people that I've ever
met really thought about. That they can take themselves
out of God's hand. You know the Lord Jesus said,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and they that
come to me, those that get to me, I will in no wise cast them
out. I won't cast them out. Now what
I get out of John 10, 28 is that Jesus, that we're in His hands
and in the Father's hand, and that nobody is going to get them
out. Not even the individual himself is going to get themselves
out of the Father's hand. I believe in the doctrine of
eternal security. I believe that the feet of the
saints are preserved forever. And I do not believe that any
child of God, anybody can have salvation today and then be damned
tomorrow. I don't believe that. And the
gospel is clear on this subject that if God saves you, you are
saved eternally. And that what God does is an
eternal work and nothing can be added to it or nothing to
be taken from it. I believe that God will be the
final determiner as to who finally is in his family, and who is
in the bride of Christ, and who is in the temple, who makes up
the temple of the Holy Spirit. God will be the one to determine
that. And somebody says, well yeah, but you know, I'll probably
send away my day of grace. Well, if salvation was left up
to you, you would perish. There's no question about that.
And if you put yourself in Christ, you can get yourself out of Christ.
But of God, the scripture says, are you in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We don't put ourself in, and
we cannot get ourselves out. You're in Christ. You're in Him
forever. As I told this one gentleman
this week, If fickle, feeble souls could fall away, my soul
would fall a thousand times a day. And I'll tell you this, we're
saved entirely from the beginning to the end by the pure sovereign
grace of Almighty God. Salvation is indeed of the Lord. Now then, how do I know that
this is the gospel? This gospel we've been talking
about, how do I know that this is indeed the gospel? Well, let me say, first of all,
that this gospel is the only gospel that glorifies God. It's
the only gospel that truly glorifies God. And God said, I will not
give my glory to another. Now, you see, beloved, I hope
to see the day, and we don't see it in very many places, but
a few places scattered around in the earth, there is a pure
gospel witness. But I hope to see the day when
God is preached up when preachers preach God up, when they exalt
the Lord, when the whole earth is filled with the glory of a
sovereign God, and men are preached down like they ought to be. We
believe that Not like the evolutionists. You see, the evolutionists believe
that man started at the bottom and he's going toward the top.
But the truth is, man started at the top. He was made in the
image of God. And he went down. And man is
down. That's where he is. He's a lost,
hell-deserving, wiggling maggot of the dust. And only God can
lift him and save him. We want God preached up and the
sinner preached down. We want the glory. of our God
to fill the earth, and the only gospel that will do that is this
gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that everything that God demands
for a sinner, He's provided for him in the person of His Son. Now then, How do I know that
this is the gospel? Well, because it is the only
gospel that's true to the Old Testament scriptures. Turn with
me to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 24. Now, I was criticized,
not really criticized, but reprimanded a little bit because I preached
short last week. I generally preach about an hour,
and there's a few folks that thought the message was abbreviated
last week, but today I'll take care of that. No, really, I won't
run over. But in Luke chapter 24, our Lord
had been crucified and had been raised from the dead. And in
verse 17, he said, what manner of communications. He had come
and was walking together and talking to these that was on
their way to Emmaus. And he said, what manner of communication
are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad?
And they began to tell him about the happenings in Jerusalem that
day and how the women had come and told them about that Jesus'
body had been taken away. And in verse 25, then he said
unto them as they were walking along the road, O fools and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his
glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. Now, beloved, there is no question
about it that the Old Testament Scriptures set forth the Redeemer. Clear back in Genesis chapter
3, we have a promise of the coming of the Redeemer. And all through
the Old Testament Scriptures, they testify of Christ. Jesus spoke in John about those. He said, you examine the Scriptures. But the old scriptures testify
of me. You don't see me in them, but
I'm there. I'm there. And so the gospel
must be a gospel that is true to the Old Testament scriptures. And then might I say further,
it's the only gospel that enables God to be just and justifier. Now, you see, God, when He saves
a sinner, He must be just in doing it. God is absolutely a
just God, and He cuts no corners in the salvation of a sinner.
He does not do that. God does not save sinners at
the expense of His law. No, He doesn't. Turn with me
quickly to Romans chapter 3. And let's look at a couple of
verses in Romans 3. It must be a gospel that allows
God to remain just and the justifier. And that's found in verse 26
of Romans chapter 3. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Works? No, but by
the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Let me
try to explain quickly. Paul said in verse 31, do we
then make void the law through faith? God forbid we establish
the law. You see, God is an absolute just
God. He will punish sin. His holy
nature demands that He punish sin. But God must remain just
when He has mercy on the sinner. And the only way He can do that
is that He lay the sin of His people upon Christ. He was numbered
with the transgressors. The Lord Jesus was treated as
if he was a common criminal, that he was the greatest sinner
that ever lived. All of our sin were laid on him.
And then God exacted from him full payment of that sin. The
law of God, my friend, is a law that has not been made void through
our believing. We have established the law because
Christ perfectly obeyed the law, had no sin of his own, had no
need to die. like a sinner. But because God
had laid our sin on Him, He must die. And the righteousness of
God, Paul said, I declare at this time His righteousness. In Romans 1, he said that the
righteousness of God is manifested. And that's the righteousness
of Jesus Christ that is equal to the law of God, the holy law
of God. And so the sin of the believer
has been laid on Christ and been paid for entirely. And we have
not, God has not set aside his law. No, the law is established
as we believe on him that kept the law. Now it's not established
by me keeping the law because I can't keep it perfectly. Nobody
can keep the law perfectly. But Jesus did. And when we believe
on Him, then we establish the law. So when we're preaching
the gospel of free grace, we're not preaching that God saves
sinners. and takes a shortcut, and that the law is thrown out. No, we're preaching that Christ
satisfied the law, then he was made sin by imputation, and legally
constituted sin, and died as a sinner, and that God is absolutely
still the just God that he's always been, and he also is the
justifier of everybody that believes in Jesus Christ. He can do that.
His hands is free to justify the sinner because Christ has
died in their room and stead and place. Now we preach then
a salvation that honors God's holiness, satisfies God's justice,
magnifies God's law. And might I say, and I'm about
to finish here, it's the only gospel that gives real hope to
real sinners. It'll save a rich man, it'll
save a poor man. It'll save the lowest sinner
in the gutter or the most pious preacher in the pulpit. This
gospel of God's free grace. Hebrews 7 and 25 says he is able
to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing
that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. And so this gospel
gives real hope to real sinners. You see now, if I stood up here
this morning and told you to go out and do the best you could,
just go out and do the best you could, if I told you not to buy
any candy on Sunday, if I told you not to buy a newspaper on
Sunday, If I told you to not do this, not do that, not do
something else, you'd probably go out of here and you may try
to live just that way. But my friend, that'd give you
no real hope. That'd give you no real hope. The only hope,
the only real hope there is, is that there is a Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this Redeemer is set forth
in the Word of God as a successful Redeemer and one that can save
any poor sinner that can get to Him, that comes to Him, in
their hearts that will come to Him. And so this gives real hope
to real sinners. You see you owe a debt and you
can't pay it. And if you owed a debt down at
the bank and you went in and told them, said, I'll never borrow
any more money from you. I want you to know that. I won't
ever borrow any more money. I know I owe you $1,000, but I won't
ever borrow any more. That's like a sinner saying,
I've done this, I've done that, and I've done something else,
but I won't do it anymore. I'm never going to do it anymore.
No, no. The bank will say, oh, well,
that's fine. That's well and good. There's other people wanting
to borrow our money. But what about the money you owe me? What
about the money you owe us? We want that money. We got to
have that. God looks you in the face and
says, your debt, make any difference what your resolutions are. You
resolve not to do this and do that anymore. That's not going
to help. The problem is you owe God a
debt. And I'm telling you, God can
wipe the slate clean, and the debt's paid, the debt's taken
away, and you're clean and able to go on from this hour and serve
the living God. You're able to do that. So the
message of the gospel of God's grace gives real hope to real
sinners. And then let me say this, and
I want to just add this, it's the only gospel that'll keep
a man saved. the only gospel that'll keep
him safe. Now I know that every once in
a while when you talk to people they'll just put up with you
a little while but they'll get their hackles up if you insist
that the gospel that they preach that before they die every one
of them that believe their gospel that every one of them will damn
themselves. They really get upset about that.
But I'm telling you this, that if you preach works for salvation,
you'll damn yourself. you'll damn yourself. There ain't
nobody going to be able to work long enough, hard enough, do
sufficient amount of good works to be able to save themselves.
This generation of religionists, if they were to plant a tree,
they'd put the branches and the leaves in the ground and the
roots up above. They believe that you do good,
you accomplish things, you produce and produce and produce, and
eventually you'll be saved. Well, there's no truth to it.
The roots must be in the ground. The leaves and the branches and
the fruit is because of the roots are planted in the ground. And
when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and when you're
in Him, and you know that salvation is entirely His work from the
beginning to the end, that sink or swim, if He fails, you're
a goner! But that salvation is entirely
on Christ and in Him. when you know that and believe
that, and rest in that, and trust that with all of your heart,
then there's no way in this world that you're going to be lost
in the end. You trust Christ. You believe
on Him. He is a Redeemer. He saved me when I was 16. And
all these years I've been trying to talk about Christ being a
Redeemer, a Savior, a successful Redeemer. And there have been
those that happily have been brought to trust in that Redeemer.
And I'm here to tell you this morning, if you're here and you
say, I know I'm a sinner preacher, I know I cannot save myself,
trust Him. Trust Christ. Trust Him. Like
I say, you don't have to move a muscle. I'm not asking you
to make no show. Oh, I know that those who believe
on Christ, ultimately, they do confess Him with their mouth.
And they do confess Him in baptism. They do. They do. They own the
Savior. They love the Savior. And they
follow the Savior. But we're not asking you to make
a move this morning. We're just telling you that Christ
is the Redeemer. Come to Him in your heart. You
say, Preacher, I've got a problem getting to Him. Well, you may
have a problem in your heart, but you seek the Lord. Seek Him
with all your heart. Beg Him. Beg Him to save you. you see you're the beggar he's
the master and he's the the rich one he's the son of the living
God and he's able to save and to keep you and as Jude 24 says
that he's able to present us keep us from falling and present
us with a static joy in the end before the father holy and without
blame before him in love we do stand if we're in him this morning
May God be pleased to bless these thoughts to your heart, and I
hope that these things were edifying to each one of your hearts, and
that you'll be able to take something out of here with you. I realize
that there's been a whole lot said this morning, and in a very
short time, but you mill over this. You ask God to give you
recollection of the truth of His Word. and I pray for the
salvation of your soul. The reason I pray to God for
the salvation of souls is because I know He's the only one that
can save. Somebody told old Charles Spurgeon, said, if I preach what
you believe, I wouldn't, well, if I believe
what you believe, I wouldn't even preach. Well, Charles Haddon
Spurgeon said, if I didn't believe what I believe, I wouldn't preach.
I wouldn't preach, because I believe the salvation to the Lord. And
I pray for sinners because I know God's got to save them. And even
when you get an Armenian preacher, when he gets down on his knees,
he's got to pray unto God that sinners will be saved. And why
does he do that? Because in his heart, he's smarter
than he is in his head. He knows that salvation is of
the Lord from the beginning to the end and nobody can save a
sinner but God. And so I pray for your salvation.
Could we have a song, Larry?