read that hymn and kindly hoped
Judy would sing it. Maurice wrote that, I suppose,
recently. Excellent hymn. Excellent hymn. Turn with me, please, to 1 Peter
chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. The text will be verses 15 and 16. I'm not going to expand these
verses, but rather I'm going to try to obey them. The Apostle says, Sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts, and he has set him apart. Set him
apart in your heart. Fix him in your hearts. Establish him in your hearts. You say, well, Pastor, that's
something God has to do for us. I know that. So Peter says something
you better do. You better see to it that you
fix your heart on God and have God fixed in your heart. And
be ready always, always, to give an answer to every man that asks
of you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and
fear. that is, with meekness and with
reverence. Now, I stand before you as a
man who declares, I have hope that when I have left this world,
I'm going to stand before God Almighty accepted, saved, justified,
perfect. I'm going to inherit everlasting
glory, whatever that is. I'm going to inherit all the
fullness of everlasting life. Now, it's reasonable that you
should say, well, Don, what's the basis of that? I want to
tell you today, best I can, with meekness and with reverence.
That is, recognizing who God is, recognizing who I am. I'm a sinner on this earth, a
man totally unworthy of God's approval, and yet I stand before
God Almighty, the Holy Lord God, and declare Him to be my Father,
my Savior, my Redeemer, having a good conscience, having a good conscience, so
that when I tell you these things, I'm not lying to you. My conscience
bears me witness. These things are so. That whereas they speak evil
of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed, but falsely
accuse your good conversation, your good manner of life in Christ. Now, I want this morning, if
the Lord will enable me, with a good conscience, to talk to
you about my that might not seem to be a good
subject for a man to talk about, but I want to tell you what the
basis and the essence of my religion is. True religion is not outward,
ceremonial, and ritualistic. Be sure you understand that.
Now, there are certain outward symbolic ordinances which we
conscientiously observe and must These ordinances—believers' baptism
and the Lord's Supper—are essential parts of true worship. You cannot
come together as a church of God and establish the worship
of God and properly worship Him and despise these ordinances.
You can't do that. You can't just say, well, baptism's
kind of outdated, and that's not something people understand,
so let's push that aside, and Lord's Supper, that's something
people, they don't want to bother with anymore, so let's don't
do that. Oh no, if we're going to worship God, we must worship
God according to the Word of God in the manner that God has
prescribed, and we will not, we must not, we cannot worship
God and set aside His ordinances. Baptism is the believer's confession
of Christ. Whenever a person is born again
by the Spirit of God, given life and faith in Jesus Christ, that
person comes to understand that when Christ died, we died insofar
as God's law is concerned. When he was buried, we were buried.
When he arose, we arose, for he's our representative. And
now, being born of his Spirit, we are risen together with Jesus
Christ to walk with him in the nearness of life. That's exactly
what a believer says when he goes into the watery grave and
comes up again. Read Romans, the sixth chapter.
Now, this is the believer's identifying mark, so that he says to all
the world, all my past religion and all my past knowledge was
without God. But now, now, Jesus Christ is
my Savior, I walk with Him. I'm committed to Him. I consecrate
myself to Him. The Lord's Supper is the believer's
symbolic remembrance of Christ. Every time we come together here
on Sunday evening and take the bread and the wine, take great faith that in doing
so, you remember Him. Remember Him. But don't just
go through the motions, don't just go through the ritual, but
rather eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him
who loved you. And because He loved you, He
became one of you. And because He loved you, He
lived for you and died for you, that by His obedience and His
death, you might stand before God everlastingly accepted. And
yet, these things are not the substance or the essence of true
religion. You cannot be saved if you refuse
to submit to them. I don't hesitate to say that.
Every believer will submit to believers' baptism, and every
believer will observe the Lord's table as he is instructed of
God to do so. But all who are saved are saved
without. Did you get the distinction?
You can't be saved and be a rebel. That's another impossibility.
A man or a woman who is a rebel to the Word of God is not saved. I don't care what they claim
to believe, I don't care what they claim to experience, those
who yet stand out in rebellion against the Word of God and the
truth of God, they do not know God. They simply do not know
God. And yet every person Every person
who is saved is saved without believers' baptism and without
the Lord's Supper. We're saved by grace, through
faith in Christ, and that alone. We come to Him now as believers,
surrendering to His Word, and we observe these ordinances.
True religion not only is not outward, ceremonial and ritualistic,
true religion is not merely doctrinal religion. This, too, is very
important. Doctrine is important. I sometimes
hear men make statements that somehow make doctrine sound like
a dirty word. And many times they're well-meaning
men. Doctrine is not a dirty word. Doctrine is absolutely necessary. It is essential to true religion.
But you can't believe all the right doctrines and still not
know God. quite possible. It is quite possible
for you to hold to a sound, orthodox, Biblical creed, your creed may
be thoroughly true to the Scriptures, and yet your religion be altogether
false. Let me give you an example. Saul
of Parsis. He believed everything Cornelius
believed. Saul of Parsis was exactly right
in his doctrine. Saul of Parsis, as a Pharisee,
was not an Arminian. Saul of Tarsus knew what the
Old Testament Scriptures taught, but Saul of Tarsus was lost.
In fact, Saul of Tarsus probably knew a great deal more theologically
and doctrinally than Cornelius knew. But there was a big difference. Saul of Tarsus was lost. Cornelius
was saved. The Lord God tells us that Cornelius
was a just and devout man. God Almighty accepted Cornelius
because Cornelius knew God, Saul didn't know him. Saul had no
knowledge of him at all. So it's quite possible for a
person to know the truth and yet not know God. To know all
the right doctrines and not know God. So the doctrinal instruction
is not enough. Doctrinal instruction is necessary,
but doctrinal instruction and doctrinal knowledge will not
save you. is not a mere outward religious
reformation. It's more than just outward religious
behavior. The kingdom of God, this is what
Paul says, the kingdom of God is not, it is not, doesn't have
anything to do with meat and drink, but rather it is, it is
altogether righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For most people, most of the
religious people you know, most of the religious people in this
world, their religion is nothing more than an outward conformity
to social standards of righteousness. That's all it is. That's all
it is. Their creed, their confession
of faith, They might not put it in quite these words, but
this is just about what it means. I don't smoke, drink, cuss, or
chew, and I don't run with people who do. That's just about it. Their creed is, I mean, their
confession of faith and their faith in their religion is nothing
more than just their outward social behavior, the outward
conformity of their lives to what present-day religion considers
to be righteousness. That's all it is. Now you listen
to me, and listen good. Whatever godliness is, whatever
it is, it is something that a lost, unregenerate man cannot produce. It's something that a lost, unregenerate
man cannot produce. Godliness never changes. We live in different parts of
the world, Believers in one part of the world, they look down
their nose at doing this, and these folks down in this part
of the world, they look down their nose at doing that, and
their regional geographic location sort of determines what they
consider godliness to be. Or we look at things that fifty
years ago were looked on as being ungodly, and today they're kind
of accepted. Or in a generation 2,000 years ago, it looked on
as being godly, but today it's looked on as being ungodly. That's
not the case. That's not the case. Whatever
godliness is, it doesn't change with time, location, or circumstances. True godliness is more than outward
behavior. It's more than outward behavior.
Let me give you a couple of examples. When I was in college, school had very strong regulations
against the use of alcoholic beverages. And please, please,
please understand me, drunkenness is totally contrary to scriptures
and godliness. The abuse of anything is totally
contrary to scriptures. But they had taboos, and when
asked questions concerning, well, what about our Lord turning water
into wine at the marriage feast? They said, well, in those Let
me tell you something. If it's all right in those days,
it's all right in these days. Those outward taboos of religion
do not, do not in any way reflect true Godliness. Now, it is perfectly
proper that men and women avoid using this thing or that because
of their choices and because of their personal ambitions and
personal determination, but don't ever point to the youth or the
abstinence of these things in this world and say, that's godliness.
Give you another example. Out in Springfield, Missouri,
back in 1968, some of you fellas will remember when it first started
started wearing, men started wearing shoes with straps and
buckles on them, or at least the first time in my lifetime.
Magnus Fischers, they got those shoes and they strapped them
over the top rather than lace-ups or loafers, and they had a buckle
on them. Those were worldly. You know we weren't allowed to
wear those? That ain't worldlyness. We weren't allowed to wear our
sideburns down below the middle of our ear. But then after it
became accepted, The fellas who made the rules, that's your picture,
whatever. Head side, burn it down to here. Because all of
a sudden, things have changed, and now that's godliness. Oh
no, godliness is not outward, it's inward. Have you got that? It's not something you do, it's
what you are. It's what you are. Fourthly,
true religion is an inward spiritual knowledge of the living God.
as he is revealed in Jesus Christ the Lord. Let me turn to Philippians
chapter 3 for a minute. I want you to see this. Philippians
chapter 3. Our Lord Jesus said in John 17
3, This is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Here in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul tells us again that true
religion, true religion has something to do with an inward spiritual
knowledge of the living God as he's revealed in Christ. Philippians
3.3, we are the circumcision. That means we're truly saved
people. We're truly the people of God. We're truly born of God.
We're truly those people for whom and with whom God's covenants
and promises and blessings and grace are given, which worship
God in the Spirit. That is, we worship Him by the
Holy Spirit, we worship Him in the Holy Spirit, and we worship
Him in a spiritual manner. We don't worship Him with rosary
beads and crosses and pilgrimages and outward signs. We worship
God in the Spirit. and rejoice in Jesus Christ. That is, we believe Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, and have no confidence in the flesh. True religion? It's knowing God. It's knowing
God. Now listen carefully. Any natural
man, if he chooses to do so, any natural man can understand
and accept all the outward aspects of religion. Anybody here can
do so. Any natural man can understand
and believe either Calvinism or Arminianism. I don't hesitate
to declare and avow myself one of those men who believes and
preaches what is commonly called Calvinism, but I wouldn't give
you a nickel to make a man Not a nickel. I hear fellows debate
and fuss about five points of Calvinism. That's not an issue
at all. That's not an issue at all. A man can believe all five
points and go to hell. A man can be either Calvinist
or Arminian and be lost. Being a Calvinist is not salvation. And a person can easily enough,
if he wants to do so, perform outward works of any religion,
any of it. He can go through the outward
rituals of any religion. But real, inward, spiritual aspects
of true religion are things that are both foreign and offensive
to all men and women by nature. So that no man, no woman will
ever submit to, no man or woman will ever delight in, no man
or woman will ever walk in true religion who does not know God. All true religion, all true Christianity
comes by divine revelation. That's where it starts. It's
a supernatural revelation of Jesus Christ in the heart, according
to scriptures. True religion is something that
a person experiences. Present tense. Wrong. True religion
is not something I experienced this morning, or yesterday, or
when I was a boy. True religion is something a
person experiences. Present tense. It's something that's experienced
in the soul. Now, I want to share with you
today what I know, what God has wrought in my soul, what I know
to be so. These are things that I have
learned and am learning over the past 28 years. I don't pretend
to be a model of what a believer ought to be. God forgive me, I know I'm not. I don't claim to have a corner
on the truth of God. There's an enormous lot of material
in this book that I don't know. I simply don't understand. And
when I come to a passage I don't understand, I seek to study it,
I seek from God some understanding in it, I seek to the best of
my ability to get hold of it, but when I simply can't get it,
I simply can't get it. Well, I don't know what that
means. I don't know what it means. I'll wait for God to make it
known. I'm not going to guess about it. But here are seven
things that I know. They have been inscribed in my
heart by the finger of God. I have no doubt that these seven
things are so. I want to talk to you about them
because I think they'll be of benefit to you. First thing is
this. My religion begins with what
I know and believe about God. That's where it begins. It is
not what I know and believe about God's law. It is not what I do
or don't do. My religion begins with God's
revelation of Himself in His Word, in His Son, and in my heart. You see, it is not possible for
a man to know God. Listen to me now. Listen to me.
It is not possible for you to know God, except God reveal Himself
in you. It's impossible. Canst thou by
searching find out God? Oh no, no. When Adam was lost
in the garden, Adam didn't seek the Lord. The Lord saw Adam.
Adam didn't discover God. Folks, discover God! You can't
discover God. He's not secret. He's not here
somewhere. God's got to make himself known
to you. Adam was found of God. Adam did not decide to come to
the Lord. The Lord came to Adam, and then
Adam was delighted that He had come. And I'm telling you that
you cannot discover God, you cannot find God, you will not
even seek God until first you're sought of God, and He discovers
Himself to you. Now let me show you what I know
concerning God, things in this book concerning Him. First, God
is sovereign. Turn over to the first verse
of Scripture in all the Bible, Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter
1 and verse 1. And here is established that
doctrine that is most crucial in understanding who God is. In the beginning, Rex, everything begins with God. Everything. Did any of y'all
see the news program? It was one of the
evening news, I don't know if it was ABC, NBC, or the other
one. Not any of them fit to watch,
but I try to keep up with what's going on, so I watch one of them
most every evening. Did any of y'all see the one where they
did an interview with this fellow who'd been over to Chernobyl,
where they had that nuclear accident 11 years ago? They were bringing
you up to date. They'd been over there where
all the species of animals had been infected with nuclear fallout
from that nuclear reactor going bad. And they found these mice. And these mice survived that
thing. They made it through with all
the radiation, and the bodies are full of radiation. And this
is what the scientists, the fool, discovered. This is what he discovered.
And I said fool because I mean fool. I'm not joking. The absolute
idiot discovered this. He's brilliant, but he's so smart
he doesn't know God and doesn't know his nose from a hole in
the ground. Doesn't know any of that. He says, these mice,
I saw pictures of them, these mice have evolved more in these
11 years than they did in the previous 8 million years. And you know how many of them
still look like mice? Still wiggle like mice? Still never had like
much, but he just covered changes in their DNA that he's convinced
they belong tremendously. Why, I expect when I get out
of textbook start reading it to me. Oh no, things didn't just
evolve. Idiots believe that. God Almighty
made this world, and everything begins with God. Everything. Everything. Your life begins
with God, and I've got news for you, it's going to end with God.
In the beginning, God. He created the heavens and the
earth. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. Listen to what he says. Remember
the former things of old, for I am God. And there is none else,
I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,
calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executed
my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass. I purposed it, I will also do
it." Now what does all that mean? God says I declare the end of
a thing before it starts. And the reason I do that is because
my purpose will stand. I purpose the end and that's
what's going to be done. I will do all my pleasure. I have been
pleased with this end. And that's what I'm going to
do. And I will call a ravenous bird, a ravenous bird to come
feed my prophet. Anybody ever heard the tale of
a raven coming and feeding a man? I will call a ravenous bird to
come feed my prophet. And I will call a pagan man,
a pagan king named Cyrus from a far country to come deliver
my people. Why, nobody ever told such a
thing. God said, I'll turn the world upside down for you. I
will move creation to accomplish my will for my people and for
my glory. When I declare that God is sovereign,
there's one thing. Either God's in control of the
universe, or he's controlled. Either he rules, or he is ruled.
Either God is sovereign over everything, or there's something,
somewhere, somehow, that's sovereign over God. Take your choice. Take
your choice. Either God rules, or somebody
else does. Either God's in control of this
world, or somebody else is. Either God is sovereign, or something
God created is sovereign. What nonsense. This is what I'm
saying. God Almighty exercises His total
sovereignty over everybody and everything at all times. And when you boil it all down,
this is the essence of it. God can either save me or damn
me. He can either save you or damn
you. You're not paying attention to
that, are you? He can either save you or damn you. It's up
to Him. You're in His hands. Turn to
Jeremiah chapter 18. I'll show you. Jeremiah chapter
18, verse 2. The Lord says to his prophet,
Arise, go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause
thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's
house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels." Have you
ever seen a potter's wheel? He'd sit there, spin that wheel,
and they'd work the clay. And the vessel that he made of
clay was marred But get it, it was marred, Lindsay, in the hands
of the potter. It wasn't accidental. It wasn't
something that just kind of happened, that the potter just hit a slip
of the thumb, it was marred. Oh no! The vessel was marred
in the hand of the potter. So he made it again another vessel.
It seemed good to the potter to make it. Not as seen good
to the clay, but as seen good to the potter. Then the word
of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do
with you as this potter? Sayeth the Lord, Behold, as the
clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house
of Israel. Secondly, God is holy. He sent
redemption to his people. He hath commanded whose covenant
forever holy and reverend is his name. Thus saith the high
and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place." God says, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. All that God is, is perfectly
holy. All that God does is perfectly
holy. All that God will accept must
be perfectly holy. That simply means this. Anyone
who comes to God, anyone who is accepted of God, anyone who
finds salvation in God must be found in Christ Jesus, the center
substitute, a perfect substitute. There's no other way God can
touch you. There's no other way God can look your way. There's
no other way God can deceive you except through the merits
of one who's holy. Turn to Psalm 24. Psalm 24. And listen to what the psalmist
declares. Who's going to heaven? Who's
going to ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who's going to be
accepted of God? I wonder if it's possible that
Merle Hart can stand before God Almighty and be accepted. Is
it possible for Don Fortner, sinners as we are, to stand before
God Almighty and be accepted everlastingly? Psalm 24, verse
3, the psalmist asks this question, who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? And then he answers. He that
hath clean hands, and a pure heart, and has never
lifted up his soul unto that hell, it wipes us out. No hope
for Buddy, and no hope for Buddy's wife, and no hope for Buddy's
kids. No hope. Anybody here got clean hands?
A pure heart? and never had a vain thought
in your life? Well, how on earth can we stand
then? Only in Him who has clean hands, a pure heart, and has
never given up His soul to vanity, who is Himself of infinite worth,
Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the only way we can stand
before Him. I know this too. God is just.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of Now those are facts. Those are facts. God is sovereign. That means
He can save you or damn you. It's up to Him. God is holy. That means He demands holiness,
and you don't have any. God is just. He will not pervert
justice. He will not alter His law. the
soul that sinneth it shall die." Now, those are facts, and facts
are stubborn things to deal with. They're just facts. They would
drive me to utter despair, except for this next thing. Turn to
1 John chapter 5, or chapter 4, rather. 1 John chapter 4, Luke verse 8. Here's one more fact. Thank God
it's revealed. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. He wants you to understand it.
Down in verse 16 he says the same thing. We have known and
believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him. God is love. God is love. Everything that God is and everything
that God does is perfectly consistent with total sovereignty, perfect
holiness, unbending justice, and perfect love. That gives
me hope there. That gives me hope. It does not
say that he is a God of love. Oh no, it says God is love. so
that he is himself all the fullness of love, and everything he does
is consistent with love. Because God is love, he's merciful. It is written, he delighteth
in mercy. Because God is love, he's gracious. Because God is love, he has no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather has found
a way to ransom, redeem, and save his people. And God's way
of salvation is the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
so that now, through Christ Jesus the Lord, God is able to be just
and justify such sinners as we are. Secondly, and I'll run through
these next few things, my religion compels me to face and confess
the truth about myself. Let's turn to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. I take David's words to be my
own, and you'd be wise to do the same. In this 51st Psalm, and in verse
5, the psalmist declares what he is. Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. In verse three, he says, I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me. This is what I am. I'm a sinner. And I've said that indescribably more lightly than
I think I'm a sinner. That means, Merle, whatever sin
he is, and all that sin is, I am. That's not a compliment. By God, that's not a trivial
thing. I'm a sinner. And I confess my sins. I'm not going to talk to you
about it much. Religion says come down here and talk to the
priest about it, or come down here and talk to the Baptist
preacher who acts like a priest about it. Come down and talk
to the church about it. That's easy. That's easy. I'm not even talking about confessing
murder, rape, and mayhem. Oh no, what I'm talking about
is indescribably worse than that. My heart by nature hates By nature, you and I are immature
against God. We hate Him. By nature, if we
could, we would hate God on His throne and set ourselves that.
That's what it is to be a sinner. I stand before God's holy law,
guilty and justly condemned. I say this with absolute reverence, and I say it fully aware of what
I'm doing. If God should send me to hell,
he'd be just. And if God should send you to
hell, he'd be just. If he sent the whole world to
hell, he'd be just. God doesn't owe us anything except
justice. That's all. The wages of sin
is death. And if God sent your children
to hell and mine to hell, he'd be just. He'd be just. Somehow we get the foolish notion
that our children are somehow exempted from justice, judgment,
and righteousness. Bobby, it's just not so. Just
not so. You boys and girls and young
people, listen to me. God help you to listen to me. If God should cast your souls
forever into eternal damnation, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. And while
our hearts ache and would weep for you now, when we see things
as God sees them, there'll be no tears shed and no pain experienced. God is just. So, Pastor, I didn't come to
say that. If you ever meet God, you'll
acknowledge If you ever find out what sin is, and find out
that you are sin, you'll acknowledge it. I am by nature spiritually
dead, totally defrayed, utterly incapable of changing my heart,
or desiring to have it changed, or even performing a single thing
that is truly good. There is none that do good, no,
not me, and no, not you. Thirdly, my religion constrains
me to recognize and confess the preeminence and glory and majesty
of Jesus Christ the Lord. All the fullness of God dwells
in him. He is God over all, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is that One who is the very image of God, who
in the beginning was with God, for He is God. He's the Creator
of all things, the Sustainer of all things, the Ruler of all
things. God the Father has put all honor
upon the Son. God the Spirit puts all honor
upon the Son. God's Word gives all honor to
the Son. The Triune God gives all honor
to the Son. And all God's people give all
honor to the Son. him, honor him, magnify him. Let me show you why. Let me show
what the glory of Christ is. When I wrote that down yesterday,
I thought, that's a big statement. Moses said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. And I can't show you his glory,
but I'll show you what it is. I'll show you what it is. As
the God-man, the only mediator between God and Jesus Christ
is able to do what neither God nor man could ever do. He's able to do what God in his
absolute glorious being could never do, and what man in his
depravity and corruption could never do. Jesus Christ is able
to suffer the wrath of God as a man. and fully satisfy the
justice of God, because he's God. The Godman is able to bring
man and God together without compromising the justice or the
glory of God. He brings us together in the
perfect unity of the Godhead, so that everything that Jesus
Christ is, everything he does, shows forth all the fullness
of the glory of God. The Lord Jesus Christ brought
out perfect righteousness for us as our representative. Wednesday,
brought an excellent exposition of Jeremiah 23 6 this morning. His name is called Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness. Jesus Christ lived on this earth
in perfect obedience to God the Father, but listen to me now,
he wasn't just a man. Mark, this man's God Almighty.
That makes his righteousness of infinite merit. And it is
his righteousness that is imputed to every believer so that we'll
make the very righteousness of God in him. And having established
righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life voluntarily
as a sin offering and a substitute for his people. when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong and the pleasure
of the Lord shall foster in his hand. He shall see of the travail
of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. For by his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many. This is his satisfaction. Those whose sins he wrought shall
be with him in glory, just did I, because he's the Lord our
righteousness. He has fulfilled all righteousness
for us. And now God, in perfect saves
every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ by imputing
his righteousness to us. Now, fourthly, my religion is
a believing, confident commitment of myself to Jesus Christ as
my Lord, my master, and my savior. Turn to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. For most people, religion's like
a wooden leg, something you strap on and it kind of helps you to
hobble down the road a little bit, but it never becomes a part
of you. Not the gospel, not true religion. True religion is a matter of
the heart. It involves more than words and
works. It's more than a way of life.
Christ is our life. Here in Luke 14, our Lord Jesus
had been preaching and some folks came, great multitudes came, and he said to them in verse 26, if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also. Now somehow another underscore
this in your mind. He cannot be my disciple. Well, I thought salvation was
walking down the front of the church and saying, I believe
in Jesus and I don't want to go to hell. Oh, no. No, no, no. Folks have lied to you. This generation has been lied
to so consistently, so long, by so many preachers, that the
whole world thinks like the preachers have taught them to think. And
men and women, some of you, I have no doubt, think, well, you know,
I've got this thing settled, this is in the bag. Boy, I'm
going to heaven because I have a little religious experience
and I've made my profession of faith. Lindsay, it ain't so.
It just ain't so. Faith in Jesus Christ is nothing
less than the commitment of my being to him. Nothing less. A man who believes
God hates his father, his mother, his brother, his sister, and
his only wife. Well, what does that mean? That
means that insofar as the worship of God's concerned, insofar as
the glory of God's concerned, insofar as the will of God's
concerned, that means Bobby Estes, Judy Estes don't count for anything. That's exactly what it means.
Give no consideration to her. What about my wife? Let her come between you and
God and you'll miss God. That's what I'm saying. What
about my children? Let them come between you and
God and you'll miss it. You'd miss the whole thing. You'd
miss the whole thing. What about my job? Let it come
between you and God and you'd miss it. You've missed it. Salvation,
eternal life in Jesus Christ, is the commitment life you need
to Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh boy, if that's so, there are
not many people saved. I've been telling you that for years. There
are not many people saved. There are few that enter into
straight gain. It's too straight. The few who
walk in the narrow way, it's too narrow. That's what our Lord
said. Nobody does, except God bring
them through the gate, and God lead them in the way. Nobody
will, except God tempt them, and make them drop out of there,
cling to Christ. Let me ask you something. Let
me ask you something. I'll talk personal. Somehow that
seems to get across better. Buddy, if you were out in the
middle of the ocean, and you're drowning, and you're going down
a third time, reckon how much you'd hold on
to your house, your wallet, your job, the cars you like to work
on. Reckon how much you'd hold on
to them. I'll hold on to my life raft.
That's my life. That means I've got to drop everything
else. My soul, what difference does it make? I'm going down.
I'm going down. Will you hear me now? By God's free grace, I found
myself going down to hell. And Jesus Christ, the Savior,
laid hold on me. And when he laid hold on me,
I've laid hold on him. And for Christ's sake, I am dropping
everything else. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. Now, preacher, that's radical.
Would to God I could make it so you understand just how radical
this thing is. I know through my And I am persuaded,
I say convinced, that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. He can do whatever he wants to. To believe on Christ is to trust
him as my Savior, his blood and his righteousness. It is to commit
myself to him. It is to willingly submit to
him as my sovereign Lord. The believers submit to his revealed
will. I already talked to you about that. They bow to the Word. I know I've lived in a generation
where everybody has their own opinion about things. Well, I
just don't think that. We have gotten so politically
correct, we're all insane these days. You find me a man, reads
this book, and he sees it's his responsibility to take care of
his household to take care of it. He'll take care of it. He may have to dig ditches, he
may have to get his hands dirty, he may have to do things in the
humidity, he'll take care of his family. A woman reads this book, finds
out it's her responsibility to love her husband, submit to and
obey him, she will. Boy, that'll get you in trouble.
I've been in trouble all my life. Nothing new now, but I'm telling
you, believing women are submissive women. Well, not me. Well, go to hell if you want
to, but that's the way it is. That's the way it is. I'm just telling
you the flat truth. Believers obey the Word of God. They submit to it. They submit
to God's providential will. And it's painful. A man goes
to the grave and buries his wife and buries his daughter. It hurts!
It hurts! And he bows to God. He vows to
God. It's God's will. Let him do what
he will. And they submit to God's eternal
will. He hath mercy on whom he will
have mercy. Whom he will, he hath. My religion is a living union
with Jesus Christ the Lord. And my religion produces a principle
of love. I have reason to believe my religion
is real, true, because I love God. Lord, you know everything. You know all things. You know
I love you. The love of God for me shall
abound in my heart, and it's produced in me love for him.
And I'm confident that it's real, because I love you too. Love
you too. I preach to you like I do, trying
to tell you the truth. Oh God, I try to tell you the
truth because I love you. I'd like to be with you. I want to
reach around the throne of God. And lastly, my religion constantly
presses upon me these three great rules. I know they cannot be
attained in this life, not by me, not by anybody else. But
like Paul, I pressed toward the mark for getting those things
which are behind, reaching forth to those things which are before.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. Here are the goals I seek. conformity to Christ. I want to be like him. Now either I'm a praying hypocrite or I'm telling you the truth. I want to be like him, don't
you? Exactly And I want total communion with
him. Oh, to walk with him in his presence
every day, all the time, and aware that it's so. Oh, to be with him in heart, in company unceasingly. How I hate those things that
interrupt that communion. And I want total, total commitment
to Him. I've been talking about commitment.
What faith is, Rex, is commitment to Christ. And it'll never be perfect here. Oh my God, tear every idol from
my heart and give me total commitment to Christ. And sometimes, Bob, that's going
to be painful. Sometimes that's going to be
painful. That's what we want. Total conformity,
total communion, total commitment. And when God gets done, that's what we'll have. Total
conformity. Total commitment. Total commitment
with Christ. That's my religion. I'm convinced
it's true religion. May God make it so for you, for
Christ's sake. Amen.