Well, I have you sitting before
me tonight, who will soon be in the position that James is
in, and so I must preach to you. Years ago, it's been a long time
ago, Brother E.W. Johnson, who is an old man now
out in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, went to visit a man in his congregation
who was dying. And as a faithful pastor, he
asked him, he said, are you prepared to meet God? Is everything all
right with your soul? And that man looked up at him
and he said to his pastor, if you've told me the truth, I am. And if you've told me the truth,
everything's all right. Therefore, I must tell you the
truth. I must declare to you that which
you've got to know to prepare you to meet God. I pray that
God will enable me to do so this evening. Let's turn to Mark chapter
8. We have before us in verses 10
through 21 a very solemn portion of scripture. The Lord Jesus
came into a place called Dalmanutha preaching the gospel. We're told
he came there by a ship. What a blessed privilege these
people had. The son of God himself, God incarnate,
came to their little town as a man to speak to them words
of life. God Almighty came to preach to
them the gospel of His grace. What an opportunity, what a privilege
God had given them. And yet, the opportunity and
privilege set before them in God's good providence was utterly
contemned and despised. From what I can gather from my
text, not one person in this place seems to have availed himself
of the opportunity and the privilege set before him. Instead, our
Master was confronted by a group of self-righteous religionists,
as most people are. He was confronted by this group
of self-righteous religionists who wanted to argue doctrine
with the Son of God. Because of their folly, the Holy
Spirit tells us that the Lord Jesus just turned around got
back into a ship and sailed away. And left them forever to go to
hell. What a solemn portion of scripture. May God the Holy Spirit now be
our teacher and open to us the word of God and open our hearts
to God's word. In these verses of scripture,
the Holy Spirit uses the Pharisees, their doctrine, and the weaknesses
of his own disciples to teach us three very important lessons. Here's the first one. Nothing, nothing, nothing under
heaven, nothing, nothing even in hell is more disgusting and
contemptuous to the Son of God than smug religious hypocrisy
and self-righteousness. Now you listen carefully to this
preacher. And anyone who hears this message on tape or radio,
however God's pleased to send it out, you listen carefully
to this preacher. Most religious people, most religious
people are smug religious hypocrites who are doing nothing but playing
games with God. And that applies to some of you.
You're sitting here playing games with God, pretending that you
have an interest in the things of God, and you're just playing
games. You're just playing games. You know it. If you'll ever come
to acknowledge it, you know it. And God certainly knows it. Look
at what these Pharisees did in verse 10. Straightway he entered
into a ship with his disciples. and came into the parts of Dominutha.
And the Pharisees came forth and began to question him, seeking
of him a sign from heaven, look at it, tempting him, testing
him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit
and saith, why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say
unto you, there shall no sign be given to this generation.
And he left them. entering into the ship again,
departed to the other side. These Pharisees, presuming themselves
to be righteous, had no need for grace to be preached to them
by the Son of God. Presuming themselves to be good,
they had no need of the redemption which he had come to accomplish.
To them, the gospel was really an affront. It was an offense
to tell them that they must be saved by free grace, to tell
them that they must repent, to tell them that they are sinners
and needed mercy. Why, that was an affront to them. That was to stand before them
and present an offense to them, a thing that caused them to get
their dander right up a little bit. Who needs grace when you're
righteous? Who needs mercy when you've done
nothing wrong? Who needs forgiveness when you
haven't done anything to be forgiven of? That's the attitude these
Pharisees had. These men came to the master
not to learn, but to ask carping questions of no profit. I meet
with folks like this literally everywhere I go all over the
world. They began to question. They
didn't ask questions because they wanted to learn. And it's
not hard to spot the difference. They didn't ask questions because
they were interested in learning more about him, his gospel, the
glory of God, and the truth of God. They had those things settled.
They asked questions not to discuss, but to debate. Not to learn,
but to show how much they already knew. And we're warned again
and again to avoid such people. Turn to 1 Timothy 6. Let me show
you. Paul said in chapter 2 of 2 Timothy,
foolish and unlearned questions avoid. Foolish and unlearned
questions. Folks come to you and they ask
you, you stay in chapter 6, I'll get there in a minute. Folks
come to you and ask you foolish questions. Questions that nobody
under the shining sun has any idea what the answer is. They
come and ask you questions, foolish questions. Questions about times
and seasons and dates and months and years. Questions about Intricate
details of things past that are not revealed. Just foolish and
unlearned questions in the pretense of seeking to understand the
deep things of God. Avoid them. Just avoid them. Don't join in their religious
games. Don't play games with them as they play games with
God. Avoid foolish questions, Paul told Titus. And look here
in chapter 6 of 1 Timothy verse 3. any man teach otherwise, and
consent not to wholesome words," look at what it says now, "...even
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine, the gospel,
the teaching which is according to godliness, he is proud and
does not know a frazzling thing." knowing nothing, knowing nothing. Don't give him the honor that
he heaps upon himself of thinking, boy, this man's a deep student. He's proud, he doesn't know anything.
But doting about questions and strifes over words, whereof cometh
envy, strife, railings, and evil surmising. There are many, whom
Paul describes, who are ever learning, but never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth. They get the book, and they get
the commentaries, and they get the doctrine books, and they
get everything coming off the press, and they read, and they
study, and they discuss, and they talk, and they have Bible
studies, and they meet every day of the week and discuss the
scriptures, and they go through religious exercise, but they
never come to know truth. because they grope in the dark
rather than walking in the light. They play religious games trifling
with the word of God, showing less reverence for the book of
God than the Supreme Court of the United States shows for the
Constitution of this country. They think they're smart spiritual
giants, but they are in reality spiritual morons and pygmies.
And I want to tell you something. Just as soon as you get to the
idea and the notion that you think you're a smart spiritual
giant, I'm telling you, you're a spiritual moron and a pygmy. You haven't yet learned anything,
nothing. Our Lord refused to answer their
question. He would not stoop to debating
with men about the things of God, and we shouldn't either. These religious zealots came
to the Son of God seeking a sign. What sign will you show us? Now
you show us a sign from heaven, we'll believe. All you've got
to do is do like Elijah and call down fire from heaven. All you've
got to do is speak and cause the clouds to bring forth rain
on a dry, arid day. Show us a sign from heaven. Paul
told us later the Jews, that is lost religious people, require
a sign. The Gentiles, lost irreligious
people, seek after wisdom. But both groups reject the authority
of God and his word. Both pretend that they would
believe if you could either give them a sign from heaven or some
intellectual proof of the things you believe. Show me a sign I'll
believe. Prove to me that God created
the world and I'll believe it. Prove to me that Jesus actually
rose from the dead and I'll believe it. But they deceive themselves. They wouldn't believe if you
gave them a sign. They wouldn't believe if you had a library
full of proof. They wouldn't believe. Notice
this fact. The Lord Jesus refused to give
them a sign. He said there shall no sign be
given to this generation. They wanted a sign from heaven,
but the fact is many signs had already been given them. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on the day that he was baptized
by John the Baptist, as he came up out of the watery grave, showing
a displaying picture of how that he would fulfill all righteousness
by his obedience to God unto death as our substitute, had
a voice speak from heaven. that everybody around him heard.
A dove came down from heaven and laid on his shoulder and
stayed right there. And God spoke and said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. That's a pretty good sign. I
never saw anything like that. I never experienced anything
like that. But these Pharisees wouldn't believe. Our Lord had
performed miracle after miracle after miracle of mercy, and His
miracles of mercy were not like these charlatans in our day who
pretend to perform miracles. Oh no, there was not one time
that anybody, not even His most implacable foes, ever questioned
that He had performed a miracle. Not one. We read earlier about
Lazarus. The Jews knew that Lazarus had
been dead for four days, and he raised him from the dead.
They never questioned him. Our Lord healed Jairus' daughter.
Nobody questioned it. She had been dead. He raised
her from the dead. The widow of Nain's son, they were going
out to bury him, and the Lord Jesus called him to rise, and
he arose. They saw blind men made to see,
deaf men made to hear, lame men made to walk. They saw him have
it and ate loaves and fishes. They saw him feed the multitudes
with just a few loaves and a few pieces of bread and a few pieces
of fish. But they wouldn't believe. You see, the fact is those whose
faith is built on signs and miracles never have enough signs. They
never have enough miracles. Those whose faith is built on
scientific evidence, those whose faith is built on intellectual
proof, never have enough evidence. They never have enough proof.
I'll give you proof of that statement. Afterward, when the Lord of glory
was nailed to the cursed tree, these same people, they said,
now give us one sign. They said, you come down from
the cross and we'll believe you. Never have enough signs. Never
have enough proof. They've always got to have more.
Matthew Henry correctly made this observation. Thus obstinate
infidelity will always have something to say. Though ever so unreasonable,
they demanded this sign, tempting him, not in hopes that he would
give it them, that they might be satisfied. but in hopes that
he would not, that they might imagine themselves to have a
pretense for their infidelity. They come and ask for a sign,
hoping you won't give it. They come asking for proof, hoping
you can't possibly give it, so that they will have some pretense
to justify their unbelief and their infidelity. Nothing is
more contemptuous than religious infidelity and hypocrisy. Look at this word in the scriptures.
You see almost an identical form of this word in chapter 7, when
our Lord took that man who was a deaf mutant, looked up into
heaven and sighed, said, Ephrata, and loosed his tongue and stopped
his ears. And yet there's a greater emphasis
here. The scripture tells us that the
Son of God sighed deeply in his spirit. I've been studying that phrase
for nearly a month and I don't have any idea what it means except that he sighed deeply. Here is the God of glory groaning as one in deep, painful vexation
of soul. Not as one who's frustrated,
but as one who is simply overwhelmed at the hypocrisy and infidelity
of men standing in front of him as he's come the light of the
world. And after such a deep groan and
sigh, he says, why doth this generation seek after a sigh?
This generation so unworthy to have the gospel brought to it
and to have any sign accompanying it. This generation that so greedily
swallows up the traditions and customs of the elders without
any confirmation or any sign at all. This generation! into
which our Lord Jesus had come. And knowing the Old Testament
Scriptures, if they had just simply calculated out the numbers,
they would easily have perceived that this was the generation
in which Messiah would come. This generation. Why would this
generation seek after a sign when they had seen such great
wonders and miracles as were given to none before and given
to nonsense? There's never been a generation
on earth that had ever seen such wonders as this generation had
seen. And I'm saying to you, why would you still seek after
a sign? Why would you still seek after
some confirmation to the word of God, some confirmation to
the gospel? Never has a generation existed on the earth that's had
the gospel preached with more clarity and more distinction
than the generation in which we live. When God speaks to you
in his word, as he has spoken to every one of you here, It is the height of presumption
to demand signs and proofs from the Almighty. Shall a man teach
God knowledge? Our Lord demanded, or denied, rather, to this generation
the signs that they in pompous self-righteousness asked. And
with disgust and contempt, he said, no, I won't give you a sign. You
can go on to hell. He left them. He left them. Now look at verse 13. And he
left them. What a solemn word. He left them in the darkness
of their own light. He left them in the corruption
of their own imaginary righteousness. He left them in the ignorance
of their own brilliance. He left them forever. Now you
listen to me. If God Almighty is kind enough,
good enough, merciful enough, gracious enough to speak to you
by His word, by the gospel of His grace, and you're fool enough
to spit in God's face, despise his grace, refuse to believe
the record he's given of his son, refuse to trust his son,
the time will come when God will leave you alone. And if God ever leaves you alone,
if God leaves you to yourself, He'll leave you forever. And you're just as surely damned
as if you were in hell. Our Lord said to Jeremiah, when
Jeremiah called upon the Lord for Israel, and Israel had repeatedly
been warned, often reproved, and then hardened their neck.
God said, now Jeremiah, you can read it in chapter seven. Let
me read it to you. Jeremiah 7, 13. Because you have done all
these works, saith the Lord, and I spake to you rising up
early and speaking, but you heard not. And I called you, but you
answered not. Therefore will I do unto this
house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto
the place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done
to Shiloh. And I'll cast you out of my sight,
as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
You remember, he said, Ephraim is joined to his idols. Leave
him alone. Therefore, he says to Jeremiah, Pray not for this people. Neither lift up cry nor prayer
for them. Neither make intercession to
me, for I will not hear thee. May God be pleased to conquer
you by his grace. to force you to bow to his son. May God be pleased to give you
life and faith in his dear son. Secondly, in verse 15, our gracious
Lord warns us once more to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of Herod. He charged them saying, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod. Take heed, beware, lest you partake
of the leaven of the Pharisees. Lest you embrace the tradition
of the elders to which they are so wedded. Lest you be proud,
hypocritical, ritualist like them and perish forever. Now, Merle, this warning It's given
to you and Danny and Don. This warning given to his disciples.
These are the fellows who are in the ship with him going back
across the sea. These are the fellows who believed him. These
are the fellows who followed him. And our Lord said, now you
listen to me. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of Herod. This was not an isolated warning.
It's given numerous times in scripture. Matthew tells us that
our Lord said, beware of the leaven of the Sadducees and the
Pharisees. Mark says, he said, beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. So our Lord is telling
us, beware of the leaven of the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and
of Herod. And we don't have to guess what
the leaven is. The Sadducees were the liberals of the day.
The Pharisees were the religious conservatives of the day. And
Herod was an infidel. The leaven of the Pharisees and
Sadducees is the leaven of false doctrine. Now false doctrine
is any doctrine, be it liberal or conservative, be it Catholic
or Protestant or Jewish or Muslim or otherwise, any doctrine which
makes salvation to any degree at any point dependent upon you.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were two distinct doctrinally different
religious sects. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. Within the Jewish church, if I can use language
like that, within the Jewish religious sect, there were the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, much like in the most inner denomination
you have Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, you just name it.
You've got both conservatives and liberals. You've got some
within the same denomination who say we believe the blood
and the blessed hope. And others say, well, we sort
of believe the book, and sort of believe the blood, and sort
of believe blessed hope. They wouldn't just throw the
word of God away, but they don't pay attention to it at all. There
are some who will fight you for the word, and some who will just
assume you read the Koran. It wouldn't matter to them, because
they don't understand anything. But in reality, they believe
exactly the same thing. In reality, they believe exactly
the same thing. Well, how can you say that? Because they essentially... When you throw away all the rites
and ceremonies and crosses and pendants and stained glass windows
and habits and turned around collars and robes and crowns
and smoke and incense and altars and baptism pools and kneelings
and creeds and confessions. You throw it all away and get
down to the bare bones. They all believe you save yourself.
That's the essence of it. They believe salvation really
is not determined by God and His purpose or Christ and His
redemption or the Spirit and His call, but rather it is determined
by your will and your works. The Pharisees were self-righteous
religious ritualists and conservative theological purists, a form of
religion that appeals to many. As a matter of fact, most people
that you and I know The Pharisees' religion would be very appealing
to them. Boy, they're outward purists.
They're doctrinal purists. They believe in conservative
things, conservative causes. The Sadducees were the self-righteous
religious liberals, just as ritualistic as the Pharisees, just as self-righteous
as the Pharisees. But they were smug theological
liberals. smug intellectuals who, in the
name of intellectual freedom and liberal thinking, will tolerate
anything, anything. You can make a movie, Jesus Christ
Superstar, and they'll say, well, there's some good in that. And
you can talk about the possibility that maybe Jesus Christ really
never existed. And they'll say, well, there's
some good in that. about that. And some of us come along and say,
oh no, now we believe that that Jesus is the virgin-born Son
of God. We'll accept that, that's okay.
Just whatever suits you'll be okay. We ain't no quarrel with
anything except the dogmatism of the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ. Because when the Son of God came
and said, I'm the way, there's no other. And he said, I'm the
truth, there is no other. I'm the life, there is no other.
Now he could have said, I am a way. And they said, well, okay. You
can be a way. And he could have said, I am
a truth. We recognize that. There's a
little truth in everybody. And he could have said, I am
a life. That's okay, we just don't want
it. But he said, no, I'm the way. I'm the truth, I'm the life. The Pharisees and Sadducees got
together and hung him on a tree. And they still do. Herod and
those like him were self-serving, self-righteous worldlings, self-serving
materialists, infidels, who believed nothing and stood for nothing
except that which would advantage themselves. They were pragmatists. Kind of like politicians, you
know. Our president one day talks about
God and the Bible and Jesus and worshiping God. And next day
goes to a queer rally and taunts them. Because he's a pragmatist. He's got the leaven of Herod. an infidel who uses religion
for his own gain, like most people, to a materialist, a self-serving
man who really has no creed of any kind, who stands for nothing,
who just uses everything for his own purposes. And if you
want to send it to him, I'll say amen. I said it publicly.
The fact is most folks are just like him. Now our Lord warns
us to beware of the leaven of false doctrine, because a little
leaven leaveneth a whole lump. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and of Herod. statement is used twice, a little
leaven leaveneth a whole lump. Both times it is written by the
Apostle Paul. Look in 1st Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 6. The subject here is sin. Paul
is dealing with the incestuous man and telling the Corinthians
you've got to deal with him. You got to deal with this thing.
He says in chapter 5 verse 6, your glorying is not good. Know
you not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Now
here the Spirit of God is warning us that like a little package
of yeast dropped into a whole big bowl of dough gradually permeates
the whole lump until the whole lump is just permeated with yeast. My wife makes sourdough bread,
and I kinda like it. She'll work that stuff down,
takes her hands, and just goes to town, working that stuff,
smoothing it out, make it so it doesn't have any air holes
in it, you know, just as smooth as it can be. And she puts the
yeast in there, and she works that stuff in, and then she sets
it under a light, and we go to bed, and next morning, Before
she ever puts it in the oven, man, the smell of that yeast
and that bread just, it just goes through the whole house.
It just goes through the whole house. This is what our Lord says, a
little ethanol, doesn't take much, just a little, permeates
everything, everything. And what he's telling us here
is that we must not tolerate in ourselves any sin. So Pastor, we are saying, everything
we do is saying, yes, but you must never tolerate it. You must
never become comfortable with it. You must never be satisfied
with it. Our goal must ever be that we
sin not. That's the goal. If you tolerate,
just a little. If you become comfortable with
just a little, you'll soon take a little more, and a little more,
and a little more, and a little more, until at last, that's all
you want. And you forsake everything that
has to do with godliness and the worship of God and of Christ. In chapter five of Galatians,
verse nine, the apostle tells us the same thing, but here he
tells it not about sin, but about false doctrine. He says, a little
leaven leaveneth a whole lump. And he's talking about those
who would mix law and grace, who would mix works of men with
the grace of God. And he tells us that if we tolerate
anything, be it a work, an experience, a feeling, or even a decision,
if we tolerate anything, be it ever so small as a condition
we must meet in order to be saved, you'll never know the grace of
God. He missed it altogether. Salvation from election to glorification
and everything in between is of the Lord. It's all God's work. There's not one thing that God
requires of you that you can do. Do you understand that? There's
not one thing God demands of a man in order that he accept
you that you can do. It must be done for you. Oh,
but we must believe. You can't believe unless God
gives you faith. And if you ever come to believe,
you'll acknowledge that. Salvation's of the Lord. Oh,
but we recognize that we can't keep God's law. We can't be perfect.
Nobody is. That doesn't justify anything.
Just because everybody else is lost, that doesn't mean you're
not going to be. In fact, you are. And you will never attain
perfection, but God demands it. The only way you'll get it is
if God gives it. You can never pay for your sin,
but God demands it. The only way you'll be paid for
it is if God pays it. You can never give yourself life,
but God demands it. The only way you'll ever get
it is if God gives it. You can never believe on the Son of God.
The only way you'll ever believe Him is if God gives it. The voice of the world, the whole
world, the Pharisees got them all over town. The Sadducees
got them all over town. Herod's got them all over town.
The voice of the whole world said, no, that's too strict.
That's too dogmatic. That's too straight. That cuts
things too narrow. You can't do that. When you listen
to the whisper of the world, remember a little Leaven. Leavens the whole lot. Just let
in a little bit of works, you've destroyed the whole scheme of
grace. Whosoever you have justified by the law, you've fallen from
grace. You've missed it all together. Now thirdly, our text shows us
plainly that as long as we are in this world, we will have a
sinful inexcusable fleshly dullness to all things spiritual. This shouldn't need any proving
if we'd be honest with ourselves. Doesn't it astound you how much
easier it is to read with care the local newspaper every day
than it is to read with care the word of God. Doesn't it astound
you, you who love the Lord, how much easier it is to talk to
men with excitement about a ball game than it is to talk to men
with excitement about free grace? Does anybody experience anything
any different? Does it not astound you? How much easier and more
pleasing it is to the flesh to spend your days involved in anything
in the world except the worship of God, the praise of His name. Read verses 14 through 21 and
understand that the strongest believers in this world are very
weak and full of unbelief. The most godly of saints in this
world are only sinners still. The most learned and well instructed
of God's people are still very dull of understanding. Abraham,
the father of the faithful, that man who believed God, sometimes
trembles before pagan kings. A lot that righteous man sometimes
makes sinful choices that lead to sinful actions, that lead
to terrible consequences. Job, that man whom God says was
perfect, one that fears God and eschews evil, that man who will
endure the loss of sons and daughters to the last one. Who will endure
the loss of every possession he ever owned to the last die. Who will endure the loss of all
strength to the very last breath in his body. That man who will
endure even his wife saying, why don't you cuss God and die.
That man who will endure the ridicule of his self-righteous
friends who came to judge him. will sometimes cuss the day of
his birth and say, God let me die. Noah, that man who alone
found grace in the eyes of the Lord in his day, on some given day may be found
in a drunken stupor to his shame. Moses, the meekest man who ever
lived, when left to himself, just a minute, in a fit of temper
will take his rod and strike the rock which is Christ Jesus. He'll take his rod and strike
out at God, Moses. David, the man after God's own
heart, Now, Paul, we're talking about
giants now. These are not nobody's like you
and me. These are giants. These are men
who are named as great heroes of the faith. David. Let God take his hand off of
him for just a minute, leave him to himself. He'll commit
adultery. and being a proud piece of stinking
flesh, in order to protect his name and his image and his reputation,
he'll have his best friend murdered to cover his tracks. Peter, bold Peter. I don't know
many fellows who would take a pocket knife and attack a troop of Roman
soldiers when they came out against the Lord. Peter took his sword,
just a dagger, just a fisherman's knife, And he went after the
soldier standing in front of him when they came to arrest
the Lord. Bold man. I can't imagine any man in church
history any bolder than Peter was. But there's Peter. Before a little girl, withering to a coward. who rather than contend with
the confrontation of a little girl, while the Lord of glory
looks on him, he cusses and swears he doesn't know him, though he
loved him more than anything in the world. The apostle Paul and his loyal companion Barnabas Those fellows were friends. They
were friends. You and I have been together,
laboring together in the kingdom of God and the cause of Christ
for 18 years. Paul and Barney's been together
a long time, a long time. But in the time of weakness,
in the flesh, Those loyal, faithful friends, loyal, faithful servants
of God. Bobby, they split up, parted
company, and never walked together again on this earth. Now read the text with me. Mark
8, verse 14. Now the disciples had forgotten
to take bread. Neither had they in the ship
with them more than one loaf. Verse 16, and they reasoned among
themselves, saying, when the Lord said, beware the leaven
of the Pharisees and of Herod, they reasoned among themselves,
saying, it's because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew
it, he saith unto them, why reason ye? Because you have no bread. Perceive ye not? Neither understand? Now wait a minute. Lord, who
are you talking to? He's talking to men who had been
with him for three years, listening to him preach every
day for three years, every day. He said, don't you understand?
Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? Having ears, hear ye not? And
do you not remember when I broke the five loaves among you, among
5,000, how many baskets full of fragments took you up? And
they said to him, 12. And when the seven among 4,000,
how many baskets full of fragments did you take up? And they said,
seven. And he said unto them, how is
it that you do not understand? We are often overwhelmed like
these disciples with present cares and overwhelmed with our
distrust in the midst of those cares because we don't understand
and we don't remember what we have known and seen and experienced
by the power of God. That's just that. Now when I
read these things, I can't help but to ask, why has God, who has given us
a new name and robed us in perfect righteousness, so carefully recorded for our
learning the weaknesses and sins and faults and unbelief and ignorance
of his most faithful servants? Why? Let me give you a few reasons
and I'll send you home with these to meditate upon and pray that
God will enable you to apply the message to your own heart. We must constantly be reminded
that salvation is God's work alone. Bob Ponce, you will never
be capable of doing anything in itself to please God. You
understand that? Salvation is God's work alone.
We must constantly be reminded not to think too highly of ourselves. I hear, I don't often hear this
from Folks who've been around long, but young fellas, young
men, young women, you know, they, I remember when I was 21 years
old, man, I had the world by the tail on a downhill pull.
I got it all. I got it all. And most do. Most do. But I hear fellas say,
you know, I have grown so much. I've learned so much. Just the
last little while, I just, you'd be amazed how much I've grown.
And I think to myself, you would be too. You would be too. Don't think too highly of yourself. You're nothing but a lump of
sin. That's all. And your brilliance
is just ignorance. and your spiritual understanding
got lots of dark corners in it, and mine too. So don't get too
high an opinion that causes you to look down your nose on folks
who you esteem to have less understanding and less brilliance and less
astute minds than you have. We need to learn, you see, to
be tender, patient, for bearing with and forgiving of one another. As a pastor, y'all forgive me, but I'm sort
of like a father, and I sometimes get a little disgusted. I do,
I'll just be honest with you. I hear things come out of the
mouths of folks I've been preaching to for 18 years, and I think,
hadn't you heard anything? Didn't you pay any attention
to anything for the last 18 years? And I see inconsistencies. It's real easy for me to be consistent.
I'm the pastor. It's easy for me to be here every
Sunday. Easy for me to be here every Sunday night. Easy for
me to be here every Tuesday night. You wouldn't put up with it long
if I wasn't. And you shouldn't. But I see inconsistencies and
I get a little upset. And then I'm reminded of the horrible inconsistencies
in myself and unbelief in myself. And I say, God, forgive me and
teach me to be forgiven. Teach me to forbear as you forbear
with me. And after all, our Lord was a
heapsight better teacher than I am. He's a much better preacher
than I am. And these disciples are a little
better than most of you. And they heard the Lord every
day for three years. And they still didn't understand.
And they still were full of unbelief. And they were still terribly
inconsistent. And they were still beloved of
the Lord. We constantly need to be reminded
that it is Christ alone who gives us acceptance of God, with God.
And it is Christ alone who keeps us in life, in grace, and in
faith. We must never imagine, not as
long as we live in this world, that we have arrived at anything
close to perfection. Paul said, I haven't yet attained,
I haven't yet gotten that which I seek after, I haven't yet apprehended
as I have been apprehended of Christ, but I press toward the
mark for the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
the Lord. And yet, all the while, we must
be constantly reminded that though we are sin, And though we do sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, an ever-living high priest, the
propitiation for our sins. His name is Jesus Christ the
righteous. Now, brethren and sisters, Beware
of religious hypocrisy. Beware of the leaven of false
doctrine and of sin. Beware of the sin that's in you. And being ever aware of all these
things, be aware that if any man sins, We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's the propitiation
for our sins. Amen. Lindsay, you can lead us
in a hymn, please.