But I invite you this morning
to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 John, 1 John chapter
two. I wanna read one verse of scripture
out of this chapter. 1 John chapter two. And verse 18. Little children, John the beloved
is writing to the Lord's family and he addresses the Lord's children
as little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard
that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists,
whereby we know that it is the last time. I read to you 1 John
2, verse 18, where John the Beloved has revealed to us that it is
the last time." And then he said, you have heard, that means that
they'd been under preaching where the subject of the Antichrist
had come up. And even now, he said, are there
many Antichrist whereby we know that it's the last time. There
are many Antichrist. Now if I understand the word
of God correctly, Antichrist is not a single man or a single
individual who will suddenly appear upon the earth in the
last day. But Antichrist is a system of
religion which is opposed to the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. It had already begun, as John
has revealed, in his day. The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew
chapter 24 and verse 24 that the false religion of Antichrist
would be such a cunning and crafty deception that were it possible
that it would deceive the very elect. And the Apostle Paul tells
us in 2 Thessalonians 2, in verses 3-12, that as the very end draws
near, that God's going to take away his restraining hand, allowing
the religion of Antichrist to spread throughout the world with
signs and lying wonders because As Paul states it, they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause, he said, God shall send them strong delusion that
they should all be damned that believe the lie of false religion
of Antichrist religion. Without the least hesitance this
morning or fear of error, I warn you that the religion of modern
fundamentalism, freewillism, easy-believism, and decisionism
is the religion of Antichrist. Now let me state that again.
I say to you this morning, I have no fear of being successfully
contradicted when I make this statement, and that is that the
religion of modern fundamentalism, freewillism, easy-believism,
and decisionism is the religion of Antichrist. I'm not trying
to stir up strife and division, but to be honest with your soul. it is my responsibility to tell
you the truth and to warn you of the deceptive delusion of
Antichrist religion. And for the honor of God and
for the truth of God and love to your souls, it constrains
me to speak plainly concerning this subject. Any doctrine, and
listen to me carefully, any doctrine that lowers the character of
God, His total sovereignty, His absolute righteousness, or His
strict justice is Antichrist. Any doctrine that exalts human
flesh is Antichrist. Any doctrine that diminishes
or adds to the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, His
righteousness, His satisfaction, His intercession, or His efficacy
is antichrist. And any doctrine that attributes
salvation in any measure to the will of man or to the works of
man is Antichrist. And whoever preaches these things
are Antichrist. And all who believe these things
are Antichrist. And furthermore, all who support
these things are Antichrist. Now you listen to me this morning,
and listen carefully, and hopefully God will be pleased to clear
up some things in our hearts, in our minds, about the Antichrist,
the false religion that is spreading over the world, and the last
time. John said in his day that even now are there many Antichrists,
and whereby, he said, we know that it's the last time. We know
that it's the last time. And this religion, this Antichrist
religion, is spreading the world like you would not believe. The
fastest growing religions in the world. Let me tell you, you
are Antichrist religions. And I want you to understand
that. And I want you to listen to me carefully. The carnal mind,
the mind of man, which is enmity against God by nature, maps out
A plan of salvation that gives the sinner something to do. That
gives the sinner something to do. It tells the sinner there's
something that you can do to influence God. There is something
that you can do that will get you into heaven. Well, this is
Antichrist religion. The very reason why some people
have missed the truth as to God's salvation and how God saves sinners
is just this. Like the Jews of old, you're
trying to establish and obtain God's salvation by works rather
than by faith in a substitute. You stumble over the stumbling
stone. You're, in your own opinion,
too good to be saved by free grace alone, through the merits
of Christ alone. The sinners substitute alone. You're too good for that. You've
got something to contribute yourself. You have got something that you
feel that you can do that God is going to look at and have
favor on you because of that thing. Now, Isaiah said that
Israel followed after the law of righteousness, and he said
they've not attained to the law of righteousness because they
sought it not by faith, Romans 9, verses 31 through 33, but
they sought it by works, the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. The stumbling stone He is Christ. The stumbling stone is the Lord
Jesus, who is the substitute of the Lord's children. As it
is written, he went on to say, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling
stone and rock of offense. It's offensive to the carnal
mind to be told that you cannot work your way to heaven. It's
offensive to the carnal mind to tell them that they've got
nothing that God is interested in. That there isn't anything
that they can do that is going to bribe God to have mercy on
them. that all the salvation of our
Lord is to be had through this rock of a fence, this stumbling
stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And people stumble over Christ,
trying, making an effort, working, laboring, endeavoring. And you
can get people to do about anything. Somebody said one time you could
get a man to push a peanut with his nose clear up to the city
limits. All you had to do was tell him
it would get him favor with God. You can get people to do about
anything if they're convinced that God's gonna take notice
to it and have mercy on them on account of it. Well, there
are others who believe in what some call the plan of salvation. Step one and step two and step
three. The preacher makes them a proposition. And he propositions them like
this. Do you believe that you're a
sinner? Did you ever do anything wrong? And they'll say, well,
yes, I guess everybody's done something wrong now and then
in their lives. Secondly, do you believe that
Christ died for sinners. Yes, they'll say, I believe that
Christ died for sinners. Well, the Bible says so. My mother
said so. Somebody else said so. The preacher
says so. And so they agree with that proposition. And so then they're told, well,
you believed in step one, you agreed with that. Step two, you
agreed with that. Step three is now you're saved. Now you're saved. And so they
have Followed what is commonly called the plan of salvation
of the Roman road But salvation my friend is not a plan not a
human plan. Anyway, not a human plan I want
you to turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and And I want
to show you God's plan of salvation. Romans chapter 8 and look at
verse 29 through 30. This is God's plan. Now this
is not the evangelist's plan or the preacher's plan or the Christian worker's plan, but
this is God's plan. For whom he did foreknow He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren, for He whom He
did foreknow." Now, beloved, this is God doing the foreknowing.
It says that He, the same God that did the foreknowing, did
the predestinating. And then in verse 30 it says,
"...moreover whom He did predestinate," that word predestinate means
ordain, It means for God to have pointed out with His finger,
before the foundation of the world, His elect people, His
chosen people. And them, He says, He also called. Those whom God predestinated
to be saved, them He also, in time, called. He called them
by the irresistible work of His Spirit out of the world. He called
them effectually unto Himself. And whom He called, them He also
gave a standing before Him, just as if they'd never committed
a sin. Them He also justified. God justified those He predestinated
and those He called. And whom He justified, them He
also in His mind Knowing the end from the beginning, he glorified
them. They're glorified in Christ.
They have a standing acceptance in the Lord Jesus Christ and
are glorified together with him. Now that's the only thing that
I find in the Bible that resembles any kind of a plan. And so this
is God's plan. But beloved, salvation is not
in a plan. Salvation is a person. It is
a person, and we've said that over and over many, many times
through the years, but there are many people, and the Antichrist
and the false religions of this world do not believe that salvation
is in a person. They believe that salvation is
in what the sinner can do for God. And we're here to tell you
this morning that the sinner is not going to be able to make
a contribution to his salvation. That he's not able to do anything
that's going to be accepted of God in the room instead of the
substitute's work. Now, salvation is a person. It
is Christ. Now they have a plan, many have
a wretched tendency to leave Christ out of the equation, to
leave Christ and his finished work out of the gospel. But I
want you to turn with me to John, the gospel of John, chapter 5,
and I want to show you what is involved here in this business
of leaving Christ out of the gospel. You leave Christ out
of the gospel is like leaving flour out of bread. My friend,
Christ is the gospel. Christ is salvation. It's a person,
not a plan. Now look here in John 5. I wanna
read verse 21. For as the Father raiseth up
the dead and quickeneth them, the word quickeneth means makes
them alive. As the Father raises up and makes
alive the dead, even so the Son That's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. He quickens, He makes alive, what does it say? Whom He will. He makes alive
whom He will. Christ, now listen to me, this
is a matter of life and death. This is not a matter of a proposition
and somebody agreeing with a proposition. This is a matter of life, it's
a matter of life and death. You're dead, Christ has life,
and you can only get life from Him. Notice, if you will, in
verse 26 of the same chapter, For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And the Son is able to quicken
whom He will. He can give you life, and that's
what you need. Life is in a person. It's in
Christ. And when you're joined to Him,
then you're alive in the Lord. Now then, we must never leave
Christ out of the Gospel. He is the Gospel. Old Simeon
of old looked upon the baby Jesus and said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation, thy salvation. The Lord's salvation is Jesus
Christ. And without Christ, there's no
gospel and there's no salvation either. The plan of a house will
provide no shelter. I thought about how that some
people, several around, have built houses in the last few
years. And if you take the plan of a
house and lay it out on the table and gather the family around
and they look at the plan, The plan in itself provides no shelter. There isn't anybody gonna get
any good or no shelter from the cold or from the bad weather
by just getting involved with a plan. Neither can the plan
of salvation provide salvation. Now, beloved, I want you to think
with me a bit because this is so very important. My mission
in this city has been and still is is to preach God as he is
to sinners as they are. to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only mediator between God and men. Now in this place,
I have preached to you this. I want you to listen carefully
to what we're saying. We're not going to be very long
this morning, but I want you to listen to what we have to
say. We have preached a God you cannot satisfy. Joshua told the
children of Israel, he said, you cannot serve the Lord. Now this is just the opposite
of antichrist religion. I'm here to tell you, you cannot
satisfy God yourself. You cannot serve the Lord in
your natural state. Until something happens in you,
you cannot serve the Lord. Until God is pleased to regenerate
your soul, until God is pleased to visit you with His salvation,
until God is pleased to come to you and to do something in
you, you You cannot serve the Lord. The Bible says God is holy. And Joshua said to the people
of Israel, you cannot serve the Lord because he's holy. And you're
a sinner. You were born that way. You come
forth out of your mother's womb speaking lies. You're a sinner.
And you're not to be trusted. And your heart is evil. And until God does something
in you, you cannot serve the Lord. And we've preached that
to you. You can't satisfy God. Somebody said, well, I think
I can. Well, you cannot satisfy God. Now listen to me, a law we preach
to you, a law you cannot keep. We believe in the holy law of
God. Some people accuse us of being
antinomians, setting aside the law. But we do no such thing. We believe in the holy law of
God. But we are preaching constantly
here that the law, the holy law of God, is a law that sinners
cannot keep. that fallen men and women are
not able to keep. They cannot keep the whole law
of God. And then we preach an obedience
that you cannot render. We believe that every man owes
it to God to obey God from the very time he's born into this
world to the time he leaves it. We believe that obedience is
necessary and important and that men ought to obey God. But the
obedience that God demands, you cannot render it. Can you be
perfect? Can you be perfect? Are you without
sin? Have you been without sin all
of your life? God demands perfection. And he's not going to receive
anything that is not, listen to me, unless you're as perfect
as Jesus Christ, God is not going to accept it. You're not able
to render an obedience that God is going to take notice of. And then a righteousness that
you cannot produce. We preach to you that except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Scribes and
pharisees were the religious people. They were the religious
people of Jesus's day and they were outwardly religious. They
kept the law outwardly. They would not even eat an egg
that a chicken laid on the Sabbath day. They wouldn't take a bath
on the Sabbath day. They wouldn't do anything. They
wouldn't even spit in the dust on the Sabbath day because it
would make a little furrow in the dust, and that was tilling
the soil or plowing. They were so strict, you see,
strict religionists. But Jesus said, he looked at
his disciples and he said, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter
into heaven. And what he meant by that was
that you're going to have to have a perfect righteousness,
not like these hypocrites here, but you're going to have to have
a perfect righteousness before you're going to enter into heaven.
And that righteousness can only be had through faith in our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. And then a love you cannot give.
We've told you here over and over that the Bible says that
you're to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all
of your mind, and all of your soul. And you people have other
loves, don't you? Yes, you do. You have other loves. There are things that you love
more than you love God. And the Bible says the two great
commandments is love the Lord your God, and the second commandment
is to love your neighbors yourself. and there isn't anybody around
here that loves their neighbor like they love themselves. You
go out and buy you a new pair of shoes, you don't go buy your
neighbor a pair of shoes. You go buy you a new automobile,
you don't go buy your neighbor a new automobile. You don't love
your neighbors yourself. You don't love God with all of
your heart either. No, you don't. No, you don't.
Like I said, you've got other loves in here. There are other
things that you've got your heart set on. And by nature, all of
us have our hearts set on something else besides the God of heaven
and the God of earth. But we preach a love that you
cannot give, a God you cannot satisfy, an obedience you can't
render, a righteousness you cannot produce, and a love you cannot
give. And we preach a sin that you
cannot get rid of. You were born in sin. The original
sin, Adam's sin, all of us were partakers of it through our parents. We were born sinners and you
cannot get rid of your own sin. You can't do it. That sin is
in you. It's a part of you. It's your
name, sinner. That's what you are. That's what
we are by nature. We're sinners and we cannot get
rid of our sin. We can't do it. So what are we
gonna do? We're going into the judgment. That's what we're gonna
do. Unless we find, unless there's a way. Unless we find the way,
God's way of getting rid of our sin. And then also we preach
a judgment you cannot endure. a judgment you cannot endure.
Now the Antichrist religion, false religion, will tell you
just do the best you can. If you do the best you can and
pay your bills and pay your debts and treat your family right,
when you come to the judgment you're going to fare well. That's
Antichrist religion or ain't a bit of truth to it. When you
get before God, if your sin, if you, Jesus said, if you die
in your sin, you're going to the judgment, and God's gonna
send you to hell if you die in your sin. Things will not be
all right with you at the judgment, my friend, if you die in your
sin. It'll not be all right. And don't
be deceived by this. He's just a big merciful grandfather
and you can just live and treat him like you want to. And when
you get to the judgment, he's going to say, okay, okay. And
God doesn't have the heart to send people to hell anyway. And
so he's just going to let them come on in. Not so. Not so. The God of the Bible is a God
of strict justice, inflexible justice. And my friend, you go
to hell if you die in your sin. Don't listen to this lie of the
antichrist that tells you that you don't need Jesus to get past
the judgment. You can't get past the judgment
unless you know Christ and are in Christ. You cannot. A judgment
you cannot survive and endure. We preach it to you. You're going
to hell unless Christ stands up in your stead and place at
the judgment. And then we preach that men and
women ought to repent. The Bible commands them to repent. The Bible says in Acts chapter
17 that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. Repent. But we preach a repentance that
you cannot work in yourself. A repentance that you cannot
manufacture. There isn't anybody, and I don't
know how to make it any clearer, there isn't anybody here in this
building that can give themselves an attitude toward God that they're
wrong and God is right. and that what the Bible says
is right, what they think is wrong, now you can agree with
that in your, just say, well, I agree with that, but really
in your heart to agree with it and to take sides with God against
yourself and say, God, you'd be right if you damned me forever.
I am a sinner. I have broken your law. I am
guilty. I cannot produce what you demand
of me. I cannot produce it. There ain't
anybody here who can give themselves an attitude of repentance. You
just can't do it. You can't do it. You say, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry. And many people are sorry about
their sin and sorry that they got put in jail. Sorry that their
families are all gone and forsaken them. Sorry about this and sorry
about that. but to be sorry before God, to
have a sorrow over sin, and to be sorry for what you are, a
sinner, one alienated from God, a hater of God, one who would
stick a butcher knife in God's back if you could get to him.
There are times in your life when you do that. Well, so we
preach a repentance that you cannot work in yourself. That's
what we're doing. But now this generation of anti-Christ,
false religionists, just tell you that you just, you just,
honey, you just make up your mind that you've done a few little
things that you shouldn't have done, and you just, you just,
you just kind of, you'll get over it, it'll be all right.
No, it won't be all right. It won't be alright. You gotta
repent of your sin. And only God can give you repentance. And the Lord Jesus, God raised
Him from the dead, seated Him at His right hand to give repentance. You gotta get it from Him. You
gotta get it from Him. An attitude from Him. Him working
it in your heart to where you can take sides with Him. And
agree with Him against yourself. Oh my friend, that's what real
salvation is. Now then, a faith which you cannot
produce yourself. We preach to you that God saves
through faith. The Bible says that he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
He that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. We preach that salvation is by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But my friend, this faith, It's
not something that you, your own self, can work up. You can't
work it up. You can't give yourself faith. You can't do it. The Bible says
faith cometh. It cometh, it comes down from
God. Paul said the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ is exceeding, abundant with faith and love. And you're
lost today for the one of faith and love toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. But the grace of God is abundant
with faith and love. And Paul said, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. It's a gift of God. And it's
not of works, lest any man should boast. You cannot produce it.
That's what made old John Bunyan. Finally, you know, he liked to
win out of his mind. He knew that God said you were
saved by faith, but he couldn't work it up. And so one day he
was out and he saw this toad frog jumping along on the ground.
He looked at that toad frog and he said, I just wished I was
that toad frog. That toad frog, he's not been commanded to believe.
He's not been commanded to repent. But he said, I've been commanded
to do both and I cannot do either. And my friend, until you come
to that place, Well, you know that God demands of you that
you believe Him, that you trust Him, that you rely on His Son,
that you depend upon His Son, that you cast all the weight
of your soul upon His Son until you come to that place. You,
my friend, are gonna feel just like old John Bunyan, that there
are things that you must do ere you die and leave this world,
but you cannot do it unless God visits you and blesses you. And
if anybody believes He believes because it's given to him to
believe. Because he's enabled to believe. He has nothing to
boast of or brag about. God gives the gift of faith unto
his people. But these religionists say all
you gotta do is get up and walk down the aisle. Just get up and
walk down the aisle, that's all you gotta do. Shake the preacher's
hand and you're in. My friend, you may be in that
local church. but you're not in the kingdom
of God until God gives you faith. Now then, Paul said our message
is Christ and Him crucified. 1st Corinthians 2. He said, for
I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. False religionists, they got
a whole lot to talk about. The Antichrist. But Paul said,
I just got one thing. He said in 1st Corinthians 22
and 23, the Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks, foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Now, beloved, sin is what connects
us with Christ. Now, the antichrist religion
never gonna tell you this. They're not gonna tell you this.
It's sin that connects us with Christ, not our good. but our
lack of it that connects us to Christ. Our death, His life. Our weakness, His strength. Our poverty, His riches. This is where a soul meets Christ
and connects to Him. Now get it. Our connection with
the Son of God begins with our sin. Bible says, for he came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you
went out here in this community to find people to shore up this
church, to get people in this church, some people would say,
go out here and look for the best people you can find. Just
go out here, knock on the doors, and get acquainted, and ask the
neighbors, what do you think of your neighbors on this side?
Get the best people you can find and bring them into the church.
The Lord Jesus came down from heaven and he said, I come not
to look for the best people on earth. I come not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. The Savior is for sinners, not
for the self-righteous. We're all so slow in learning
this, yet it's the very essence of the gospel. The very essence
of the gospel. Oh, we have a good day. We have
a good thought goes through our minds and We have maybe a warm
and fervent feeling. Maybe we have an earnest prayer
that crosses our minds. Maybe there's a tear of sorrow
that runs down our face, drips off our chin. They're great things. These are, in our eyes, very
great things. Because they think. We think. The religionist thinks that these
things recommend us to God and score some points with God that
he'll pay attention to us. Well, this is ignorance and unbelief
is what this is. We've not come yet to trust in
the grace and goodness of God. We must bribe God to bless us. We're convinced of it. Some way
or another we gotta bribe him before he's ever gonna bless
us. Now what we do, we try to hide the evil in us and we try
to display the good to gain God's favor, but it'll never work.
It'll never work. Now you listen to what I'm saying. Your life, the way you live your
life as an unbeliever, is not in any way shape or form going
to have a thing in the world to do with your salvation nothing
to do with it now there's laws against doing things that people
might do and the law will get you and it'll put you in jail
and the law will bring you into the court the law will fine you
the law will deal with you certain things you do but what you do
in your life as a lost sinner nothing to do with your salvation. Now you get me straight, but
now once you get the Lord's salvation, once God saves you, because salvation
is not what you do for God, it's what God does for sinners, it's
what God does for you. But once God saves you, your
life is going to be different. It'll be different. But not to
get salvation. It's different because God has
saved you. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. When a man is in Christ, after
God has saved him, his life is changed. But you cannot get God
to save you by turning over a new leaf. You say, I'm going to be
different. I'm going to be different. I'm
going to do different. And men tell their wives that. Wives
tell their husbands that. I'm going to do different. I'm
going to be different. Just be patient with me. I'm going to
be different. That's fine and dandy. Wonderful. Praise the
Lord. But it's not going to score no
points with God. Until God saves you. And then
when He saves you, you can serve the Lord. You can walk with God.
You can please Him. Now listen. It is sin that he
came to deal with, sin. And that must be brought to him,
all of it. It is with disease that our Lord
deals with. And beloved, we're sick from
the crown of our heads to the soles of our feet by nature.
We're full, the Bible says, of wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores in a state of nature. That's the way God sees us. and
it's disease and sin that he came to deal with. They that
are whole, the Bible says, need not a physician, but they that
are sick. They that are sick. Now, if we
do not come to him in our true character, and that's as a sinner,
unable to do anything for ourselves, unable to help ourselves, there
will be no meeting between him and us till we meet Him at the
judgment. We must come in our true character,
not able to satisfy God, not able to render an obedience that
He'll accept, not able to produce a righteousness which He demands,
not able to repent, not able to believe. Just come in your
true character. Quit deceiving yourself, thinking
you're gonna be able to do something for yourself. Mr. Spurgeon once
said, My hope lives not because I'm not a sinner, but because
I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My trust is not that I'm
holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith
rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what
Christ is and what he has done and what he is now doing for
me. Isn't that good? Praise the Lord.
That's exactly the faith of a believer. Again, he said, oh, if I had
a righteousness of my own, which no one could find fault with.
Preachers say, oh, you're a nice guy. Your mama would say, you're
all right. Your daddy would say, oh, you
get a blue ribbon, young man. You're just fine. Spurgeon said,
if I had a righteousness that nobody could find fault with,
I would voluntarily throw it away. to have the righteousness
of Christ. But as I have none of my own,
I do rejoice the more to have my Lord's, to have his righteousness. Well, the Bible said he did no
sin. He, Christ, did no sin. Then to the cross he went, bearing
our sins in his own body on the tree. When he took our place,
the place of the guilty, the bowl of God's wrath took aim
on Christ. And error after error of vengeance
was shot into his heart. And for three hours Christ drank
from the cup of wrath until he consumed it, even the bitter
drinks. Isaiah said it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. That meant that it satisfied
the father to bruise his own son on the behalf of his people.
The broken law demanded sin to be punished by death. And once
Jesus died, no judgment remained to be executed upon the people
of God, those for whom he died. Elisha Coles said this, I want
you to get this statement. He said, sin could not die unless
Christ died. Christ could not die without
being made sin. Nor could he die, but sin must
die with him. Now that, my friend, is a tremendous
statement. I said earlier that we preach
a sin you cannot get rid of. This is where sin was got rid
of. Let me give it to you one more
time, because it's very deep, but nevertheless, it's the gospel
truth. Listen to it. Sin could not die
unless Christ died. Christ could not die without
being made sin, and He was made sin for us. That means that He
was legally constituted sin on our behalf. Nor could He die,
but sin must die with Him. That's why I believe that all
of the elect will be saved. That's why I believe it. That's
why I believe that everybody for whom Christ died will be
saved. It's because sin died, the sin
of those that Christ represented on Calvary died when he died. Their sin died. You say, Preacher,
that's an awful lot to say to people. That might get them to
just be a little bit loose and careless. I don't think so. I
don't think so. I want you to look briefly with
me and we're going to close just a little bit here. John 17. Turn
to John 17 and there's a verse of scripture here that I want
you to see. John 17 and verse 4. Jesus is speaking here and He
says, I have glorified thee on the earth. He's praying to the
Father. He says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I believe
he did, don't you? He said, I have glorified thee
on the earth. He said, now listen to the next
statement. He said, I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do. Now Armenian free will religion,
Antichrist religion, they do not believe that Christ finished
the work. They're still getting people
to add up and to come, and to bring the ledgers, and to see,
you know, and how much have you done, and this and that, and
something. Still getting people to try to save themselves. But
the Bible says that Jesus finished the work which he was gave to
do. Jesus said himself, I finished
the work. I don't believe he lied. I don't
believe he lied. I believe he finished the work.
I'm here today to testify to you. This is a sinner standing
here that believes that Christ finished the work that he was
given to do. He finished it. Now then, what
was his work? And what did he finish? Daniel
9 and 24 says he came to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness. What did he finish? I'm gonna
quickly give you this. Number one, all the Old Testament
types and pictures were accomplished. Every type and shadow in the
Old Testament, Jesus completely fulfilled it. All of the prophecies
of him were fulfilled from Genesis 3 and 15 through the end of the
Bible. Every prophecy concerning the
Messiah, it was all accomplished in the life and death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And all of the indebtedness of
his people was paid in full, hallelujah! ever sin debt was
canceled and paid in full. All of the sins of his elect
were all put away in that proverbial sea, that bottomless sea. They were cast there where they'll
never be dredged up and brought up to the surface to appear. And all the law has been completely
magnified. Jesus, we don't preach a salvation
apart from the law. We preach that Jesus, our substitute,
kept the law perfectly, magnified it, honored it. And we don't
set it aside. We don't set it aside. Our substitute
obeyed it. And we worship him. We believe
in him. God said, you believe in my son. You can't do it yourself, but
my son did it. My son did it. You trust him.
He's the substitute. That's what all of this is about.
substitution, the very heart and marrow of the gospel, Christ
in our stead. Now look here, all of this humiliation
and suffering were completed. Isn't it wonderful? I rejoice
to know that Jesus is never going to have to be humiliated again
for my sins. I rejoice that all of the suffering
has been done. Hallelujah. All the suffering
has been done. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Well, the strength of sin is the law, and we know that death
is brought on by sin, but we know that all of the suffering
has been taken out of it, out of death. God's people are saved
through Christ having been humiliated, Christ having suffered in their
room instead, and Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the
life, and he that liveth and believeth in me, he'll never
die. He'll never die and God's people
will not suffer anymore When they when they go through they'll
not suffer for their sin Christ has suffered in their place He
was humiliated on their behalf and there won't be any more of
it. There won't be any more of it Hallelujah, and the Bible
said he'll see the travail of his soul. He'd be satisfied and
if I understand the gospel Let me just give this to you quickly,
and I'm done if I understand the gospel it is this I deserve
to be lost forever. The only reason why I should
not be damned is that Christ was punished in my place. That's the only reason. The justice
of God cannot execute a sentence twice for sin. Therefore, I'm
not going to hell. And any sinner that believes
in Christ is not going to hell. On the other hand, I know I cannot
enter heaven unless I have a perfect righteousness. I am absolutely
certain I shall never have one of my own, for I sin every day. But then Christ had a perfect
righteousness, and he said to me, There, poor sinner, take
my garment and put it on. You shall stand before God as
if you were Christ. And I will stand before God as
if I had been a sinner. I will suffer in your place,
and you're going to be rewarded for works which you did not do,
but which I did for you. Now, this is the gospel of God's
grace. The devil says, you're no saint. You're no saint. You ever told
you that? You're no saint. Well, if I'm no saint then I'm
a sinner. And Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. And sink or swim, I go to Him. Other hope, I, this sinner standing
before you today, have none. I have no other hope. Now then,
that's the difference, as I see it, between the Gospel, the true
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Antichrist religion,
the traditional religions of this world today. And as we said
earlier, we know it's the last time. The Antichrists are everywhere. You hardly meet anybody that's
got a single eye toward the Gospel of free grace. Hardly meet them.
But we thank God for you all and for your willingness to come
and hear the gospel today. And I trust that there's one
here and the Lord has moved your heart and you believe that you
don't understand all that you maybe have experienced, but in
your heart the Lord's done something. And you know that He has. And
you just know that while you couldn't stand up and tell it
all, you just know He's done something in you. You just know
He has. And you know you believe on this
Christ that the preacher's been talking about today that did
and finished his work. You believe in that Christ. We'd
like for you to just tell us about it. Stand up and tell us. In other words, we're not trying
to get you to do something to get you saved, but if you are
saved, tell it. Tell it. Let's have prayer. Father,
thank you for Christ. Thank you for this privilege
we've had to preach the gospel today. I pray that we'll be enlightened
by this truth, our souls will magnify the Lord, and I pray
that these ones that have sat under the sound of the gospel
over and over, that they will believe on Christ, that they'll
be given faith, and the grace of God will mightily come upon
them in this hour. In Jesus' name, amen.