If you have a copy of the Word
of God this morning, I invite you to turn back with me to the
Book of Habakkuk. There is a phrase we find in
verse 3, the first part of the verse that I'd like to attempt,
by the grace of God, to speak to you about this morning. Why
dost thou show me iniquity? Now, beloved, you cannot by listening
to me preach find out what the season of the year is or what
time of the year it is. I do not consult the calendar
trying to find the mind of the Lord for a message. I recognize
that there are many today that are going out to do honor to
their God, as it were, to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord
from the dead. We meet here, attempt to, by
the grace of God, 52 weeks out of the year on the Lord's Day
to do that. That's what we do every Sunday
morning. We're here to commemorate the resurrection of our Lord
from the dead. That's our hope. Christ who is
our life. And so this morning, if the message
doesn't appear to be what you might term or others might term
to be an Easter message, then of course you won't be alarmed
about it because most of you have known me for a while and
know that that's not the way here. But I want you to look
at this text with me and hopefully this morning we'll be able to
say some things that God has been pleased to give us that
will be edifying your souls. In this message this morning,
I will endeavor to give you some reasons why God causes his people
to see iniquity in themselves and in others. And I'd like this
morning to preface my remarks by reading to you a quote out
of the writings of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I'd like for you to
listen very carefully to this reading. I believe that it'll
be a blessing to you and it certainly will, I believe, prepare our
hearts for the message this morning. He says this, there are some
professing Christians who can speak of themselves in terms
of admiration. But from my inmost heart, I loathe
such speeches more and more every day that I live. Those who talk
in such a boastful fashion must be constituted very differently
from me. While they are congratulating
themselves, I have to lie humbly at the foot of Christ's cross
and marvel that I'm saved at all, for I know that I am saved. I have to wonder that I do not
believe Christ more, and equally wonder that I am privileged to
believe in him at all. To wonder that I do not love
him more, and equally to wonder that I love him at all, to wonder
that I'm not holier, and equally to wonder that I have any desire
to be holy at all, considering what a polluted and debased and
depraved nature I find still within my soul, notwithstanding
all that divine grace has done in me. If God were ever to allow
the fountains of the greatest deeps of depravity to break up
in the best man that lives, he would make as bad a devil as
the devil himself is. I care nothing for what these
bolsters say concerning their own perfection. I feel sure that
they do not know themselves or they could not talk as they often
do. There is tender enough in the
saint who is nearest heaven to kindle another hell if God should
permit but a spark to fall upon it. In the very best of men there
is an infernal and well-nigh infinite death of depravity. Some professing Christians never
seem to find this out. I almost wish that they might
not do so, for it is a painful discovery for anyone to make. But it has the beneficial effect
of making us cease from trusting in ourselves and causing us to
glory only in the Lord. Well, that's the opening statement. I'd like to begin this morning
by saying this, too, that in Job 40 and verses 3 and 4, it
says, Now, beloved, most of you who are acquainted with the book
of Job know that outwardly, probably, Job was the best man in the East
at that time. But in Job 1, in verse 1, we
read, There was a man in the land of
Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright,
and one that feared God and hated evil. Now that was the testimony
of God himself, of this man, Job. But yet he said, Behold,
I am vile. Then David, the sweet singer
of Israel, the man after God's own heart, said in Psalm 73 and
22 and 23, he said, So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me
by my right hand. In Isaiah chapter 6 and verse
5, the prophet Isaiah said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Paul, the apostle, the writer
of scripture, said in Romans 7, 14 through 15, he said, I'm
carnal and sold under sin. He goes on to say, for that which
I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not,
but what I hate, that do I. And in verse 17 says, now then
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. And in verse 18, for I know that
in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good, he says,
I find not. And then the hymn writer, the
converted slave trader, John Newton, The writer of Amazing
Grace said, strange and mysterious is my life. What opposites I
feel within. A stable peace, a constant strife,
the rule of grace, the power of sin. Too often I'm captive
led, yet always triumph in my head. Thus different powers within
me strive, and grace and sin by turns prevail. I grieve, rejoice,
decline, revive, and victory hangs in doubtful scale, but
Christ to me has promised past that grace shall overcome at
last. blessed words. Well, how did
these men, these good men I call them, come to this? How did they
come to this? How did they come to see themselves
in this light? How did they discover? How did
they make such discoveries of these things in their hearts? Well, I believe it was by God
showing them, by God himself, that God whose eyes are too pure
to look upon iniquity, this God actually revealing and discovering
to them the iniquity and the depravity that were in their
souls. God revealing to them their sin. Painful, yes. Distasteful, brethren
and sisters, yes. So much so that man on his own
would never discover the truth about himself. These men would
have never known what they knew about themselves. if it had not
been for the Lord showing them iniquity. And we come to see
that they who know God best know most about themselves. It just
seems to work that way. God never reveals himself to
a man till he first empties out the man of his own self-righteousness
and his pride, sick of self and fond of Christ. And it seems
to me that the more we know about ourselves, it just simply prepares
us. And I know that some of you maybe
have been praying that God would reveal Himself more fully to
you, that the Lord would enable you to love Christ more, and
enable you to embrace Him, and that He would be your all in
all. And you have said, maybe to yourself or maybe to others,
but all I get is a constant diet of my own weakness and frailty. All I get, it seems, is the Lord
showing to me my sinfulness and my wickedness and how unlawful
my own heart by nature is. And it seems that I never get
to the place where I can say, well, the Lord's answered my
prayer. Well, beloved, let me say to you this morning that
God is answering your prayer. Let me say that God is blessing
you because not all men have been privileged to see the iniquity
of their own hearts. Not all men have been enabled
by God to understand what they are in a state of nature in order
that they might see themselves as God sees them and sees themselves
as nothing before the Lord that Jesus Christ might really become
to them their all-in-all, the all-sufficient Savior. Now, beloved,
this is the order, I believe, that He wounds and He heals,
He kills and then He makes alive. Well, why does God cause us to
see this iniquity in ourselves? What's the reason of the discoveries
which the Holy Spirit makes to us of the evil of our own hearts? It is well known, I think, to
all who love the Lord that there are seasons in which the Holy
Spirit of God takes us into the darkest chambers of our being
and there reveals to us evils which perhaps we had never suspected
that dwelt there. The Lord opens up our hearts
and reveals things to us that we never suspected. We always
thought that we were above such things and that surely we were
not as other men in these various areas. But the Spirit of God
is pleased to bear the loathsome kennel of our heart and let us
look at all that deformity and depravity. And He takes us to
the rock which we were hewn and to the hole of the pit. from
whence we were digged. He bids us look with horror upon
our natural state and see that awful and hideous corruption
that still remains in our hearts even though we have been regenerated
by God's Spirit and are in union with Christ and our hope is in
the gospel, yet he reveals what we are to us. Why does he do
this, I ask? Well, I want to try, if I can,
to answer this. in several ways this morning. Number one, I think that he does
this to confirm us in the doctrines of grace. I believe he shows
us what we are in a state of nature. He shows us how sinful
we really are. because we recognize that it
was by the disobedience of one man that many were made sinners,
and this sin that dwells in us by virtue of our connection with
Adam, our forefather, and that we were in Adam when we were
born into this world. We were born into this world
partakers of that sinful nature, and we're sinners before God,
and the effects of this sin is far-reaching. And it spells iniquity,
the effects of this sin that is within us. And brethren, the
Lord would make us sound in the faith. He would confirm us in
the doctrine of grace. My brethren, let me say that
Arminianism is the natural religion of us all. Arminianism is the
natural religion of us all. I think one of the surest ways
in this world to put down all self-sufficiency and all of our
erroneous views of the gospel is for God to show us our own
depravity. One of the things that will straighten
you out and make a confirmed Calvinist out of you is for God
to teach you and to show you your depravity. Now a man may
talk about free will as long as he knows nothing about himself,
as long as he's not acquainted with his own corrupt heart, as
long as he does not understand his depravity, he can talk about
free will. But when the Lord is showing
him what he is, In a state of nature, his mouth will be shut
and he will say no more. He cannot say anymore. And if
he runs his mouth in an unscriptural way, yet his heart will convict
him and his heart will say to him, you're wrong. Because when
a man understands his depravity, he's got to be still about free
will. A man untaught of the Spirit
says that sinners of their own free will turn to God. But beloved,
it is not so. And these Armenians also say
that by a man's own strength at least, to a degree they keep
themselves and their final perseverance is dependent on their own diligence
and is not left entirely in the hands of God. No! These people
are untaught by the Spirit of God and have never been shown
the iniquity of their hearts. He does not, these do not know
their own true state and condition. or they would quit talking about
free will and creature strength and creature merit, and they
would talk, their conversation would be of free and sovereign
grace and mercy. Brother, sister, if God had not
begun that good work in us that Philippians 1, 6 speaks of, that
God has begun the good work in us, it could never have originated
in such a filthy pool as our hearts. God had to originate
the work. Salvation is of the Lord in the
beginning, in the middle, and in the end. And if he does not
carry on the work from the first to the last, then it will definitely
absolutely come to a standstill. It'll come to a standstill if
God just was to begin it in you and then leave you to yourself.
The work would come to a screeching halt. If I am not robed, beloved,
in those righteous garments of the Lord Jesus Christ, then I
shall stand bare and naked at the judgment seat of the Lord.
If the work be not entirely His work, or if He be turned away
by any sin or sinfulness in the creature, then the Lord knows
I must at last perish. If sheep of Christ can fall away,
my fickle, feeble soul alas would fall a thousand times a day. The work must be begun by the
Lord, and it must be continued by the Lord, and it must be finished
by the Lord, the God of grace, or else, my friend, we will never
see the Lord. And this right view of the subject
of the grace of God and of our own natures will drive us to
believe. It'll drive us, I say, to believe. And that's the only way anybody
comes to believe and are enabled to believe in the truth of the
gospel of God's free grace is to be driven to it. God must
teach our hearts and show us what we are until we're driven
to believe. Beloved, in discriminating grace
and irresistible vocation and omnipotent keeping and the infallible
perseverance of all the children of God, only when we're driven
to these things by our own corrupt natures and God's revelation
of these things to our hearts will we really believe them.
And I want you to understand that, you know, sometimes we
try our best to talk people into believing the doctrines of grace. We want them to believe them
so badly, but we're helpless to do so because without a discovery,
without God showing them the true state of their nature, they
cannot and will not embrace these things because, as I said, Arminianism
is the natural religion of all men. Now, notice it seems to
me that a belief of one of the doctrines of grace naturally
leads to the belief of all the rest. Conrad was telling me about
a young lady down in Lewistown. I know the young lady, and she
sat under the ministry for a while down as I preached in Lewistown,
and recently she went to Colorado to a Bible conference. or to
a Bible school, it was. And she was there. They taught
the difference between Arminianism and Calvinism. And they wanted
her to tell what she was and to write a paper on what she
was. And so, of course, she, after
having studied and searched the scriptures over, she said, well,
I'm a Calvinist. And the reason I'm a Calvinist
is because of the doctrine of depravity. Because the Lord has
revealed in his word and in my heart my depravity. Now beloved,
let me say this to you this morning, that this foundational truth,
this is where the Lord begins. by teaching us this foundational
truth of our utter depravity. He burns it into our conscience
by bitter experience and by terrible discoveries of our own sinfulness.
And he knows right well that the other doctrines will follow.
He knows that they will follow and when this truth is really
understood by us, the truth of depravity I'm talking about,
then we'll very soon have right views of the whole covenant of
God's grace that is ordered in all things and sure to the Lord's
people. So this I think Beloved, it is
the number one reason why that the Lord shows us our iniquity,
that he shows us our sin, and that is that we might be sound
in the faith and believe nothing but the doctrines of grace. Now, beloved people who deny
this truth that I'm talking about, about depravity and our iniquity
and sinfulness by nature. They who deny this truth, they
just simply are deceived. They are deceived. They do not
know themselves, or if they do and have had discoveries made
unto their hearts by the Lord of their iniquity and sin, They
just simply lie to themselves and they ignore the obvious and
that is that they are sinful before the Lord. They are wicked
and sinful of heart and they need the cleansing of the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus. 1 John chapter 1 verse 8 through
10 is very good on that. If a man says that he has no
sin, he deceives himself and the truth is not in him. If he
says he's not sinned, he makes God a liar. and his truth is
not in him. And so beloved, I want you to
understand this this morning that this is the number one reason
why God shows us what we are is that we be sound in the faith.
Number two, I believe that he does this to show us That is
our own sinfulness. He does this in order to keep
us humble. To keep us humble. To keep us
on the right track. He does it to keep us humble.
Now the Puritans used to say that God has given the peacock
black feet that he may not be proud of his bright feathers. In like manner, I believe that
God has allowed his people to see the black feet of their own
sinfulness, that they may not glory in any of the graces which
God the Holy Spirit has been pleased to give them. And the
Lord has been pleased to give us many precious and good things. There has been, there's reality
in the faith of the child of God and there's blessing that
has come down to us through Jesus Christ that are real and precious
in our souls. We cannot deny it. And there
are those experiences that we have. We have grown some in grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The Word of God has come to life
and has been made flesh unto us and we've been privileged
to eat of the good things of God. But listen, the sight of
our natural depravity, it brings us low and it humbles us before
God. This pride that we have by nature,
it's a very natural thing to us all. Pride of race and pride
of face, but worst of all, pride of our grace. Pride concerning
our grace. Now this pride that we have by
nature, that God must keep us low in order that we will not
get out of line, this pride is wrapped in the very roof of our
being, woven into the very wrapping roof of our being, and we would
never get rid of it. We will never get rid of it till
the worm has eaten up our flesh. Until the lid closes on the casket,
this old pride will have to be kept in line. Our hearts will
have to be kept in check, or else, beloved, we will, of course,
ruin the testimony of the grace of God within us. But God will
keep His people in the right place, and there is no, let me
say this clearly, there is no legitimate cause for pride in
any of us. God will humble us with discoveries
of our own sinfulness, and this is a great service to us because
it teaches us not to be high-minded, but to fear and to remember that
our standing in the grace of God is not of ourselves, And
we dare not boast, for by grace are you saved through faith,
that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, lest any
man should be boastful of it. And so beloved, this is the number
two reason is that God would keep us humble. He would show
us what we are so that we would stay with the proper attitude
and the right heart attitude. And the number three reason I
give is why God sometimes shows his people their own wickedness
is to make them submissive in the hour of trouble and in the
hour of trial. You know, I believe that a fair
sea of all people in the world would be the worst man to be
in Job's position. You remember the afflictions
of Job, remember the great trials of Job, and how the Lord subjected
him to these bereavements and losses. And yet a Pharisee in
that position. Beloved, if I must have trouble,
I would rather have it as a publican than as a Pharisee. The reason is this, because a
Pharisee never deserves a pain. A Pharisee never deserves a misery. A Pharisee never deserves a problem. No, they say, I don't deserve
this. Why should this happen to me? I don't deserve all these
troubles that come into my life. Why does God allow this to happen
to a good person like me? Why do they happen to me? Well,
beloved, the poor publican would say I'm a great sinner. and my
miseries are not a millionth part of what I deserve to suffer. These aches and pains, they're
nothing compared with what I merit at the hand of God. If I were
to receive justice from the hand of God, if God was to mark iniquity,
I would not be able to stand. It's the mercy of God that things
are as well with me as they are because of who I am and what
I am. Now, beloved, there's one thing
we need to understand, and that is all God's dealings with us
is based upon the way things really are. It's not based upon
what mama thinks of you. It's not based upon what the
preacher might even think of you. And it's certainly not based
upon what you think about yourself. You say, well, I think I'm a
pretty good person. Well, you may, but all God's
dealings with us is based on reality, the way they really
are, and the way God sees them to be. And that's the way they
are, the way that God sees them to be. All things are naked and
open under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Well, why
should a living man complain? We must bear with submission
our trouble, our problems, our difficulties. Why should a living
man complain? I'm still out of hell. I deserve
to be in hell. I deserve to be devoured by the
everlasting flames. I deserve to be off yonder where
the worm doth not and the fire is not quenched. That's what
I deserve by nature. And beloved, when God's the lash
of God upon my back for all eternity, that it's not already begun.
I thank you that you have spared me these terrible and afflictive
eternity. And this I believe also will
keep murmuring down. The sure cure for murmuring is
for God to let us know what we really deserve. And you know
there's an awful lot of murmuring. It's so easy to murmur. so easy
to murmur. The poor wretch now who has had
the rope around his neck and has been ready to be hanged when
he gets his pardon and goes his way, you will not find him complaining
or murmuring at the fare that is provided for him. He will
say, oh it is such a wonder to me to be alive at all and such
an act of mercy that I've had my life spared that this dry
bread and this cup of cold water is to me like a delicious meal
would taste to any other man. Why, he would be so, in his soul,
strengthened and lifted up in his heart to know that God had
mercifully spared him, that he wouldn't complain and murmur,
and you and I that have been bought by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you and I who have been redeemed by effectual amazing
grace and have been brought into right relationship with God,
right standing with God, you and I who have been so blessed
in Christ Jesus, We still murmur, don't we? We still complain.
But I'll tell you what, when the Lord is pleased to make known
to us when the afflictions and all when they come upon us, they
are less than we deserve. When God makes that known to
us, then I think it cures and it keeps us humble and submissive
before the Lord. Our troubles are but the small
dust of the balance compared with those mountains of tribulation
and anguish which we ought to have received in hell if we got
what was coming to us, if we got our come-ups. And so, beloved,
listen, just take another look. Should things really be better
with you than what they are? I mean, can you not really thank
the Lord this morning and say, it's amazing that things are
as well with me as they are. It's amazing that I have such
a good lot and that things are so... Oh, you say, Preacher,
I have trouble with that. You may have trouble with that.
And the reason you do is because you've not had these discoveries
made to you. You don't really know how bad
you are, what a sinner you are, how dead you were in sin. You
was dead as a fence post. You were as blind as a bat and
you didn't have enough life to know your death until God took
hold of you and delivered you and saved you and put his truth
in your heart. And you ought to know this. And
when you know it, then, friend, this will make you more submissive.
Thomas Watson said, those are the best prepared for the greatest
mercies that see themselves unworthy of the least. Is that right?
Is that right? It really is. And so, don't expect
that God's going to bless you with the greatest mercies and
a sight of them until you feel yourself to be unworthy of the
least. Now God has blessed his people.
Amen? We are blessed in Christ and
we ought to understand that and reflect upon it. But I believe
that many of us lose sight of it and that's why we're not as
submissive as we ought to be. Now then that brings me to this.
I believe the fourth thing is this, that it makes us value
God's salvation more when we really know what we are. Now,
the man who thinks most of the doctor is the man who is sick. Now, we make jokes about doctors
all the time, and we laugh and kid around about doctors, but
when a man gets sick, he generally gets to one. I mean, when he
really gets sick, he gets to one. I remember my brother-in-law
down in Southern Indiana, Donnie Sparks, And when he was a young
man, he went to a doctor, an old doctor down there in Bloomington,
Indiana. And the doctor said, now Donnie,
he said, do you see that plaque on the wall? And Donnie said,
yes. And he said, you see what that
says? He says, we practice medicine. And he said, Donnie, that's what
we do. You come in here and we'll give you something, and if that
don't work, you just come back and we'll give you something
else. We practice medicine, that's what we do. Well, that's a little
comical, that's a little funny, but listen to me this morning.
When God's people, when a man gets sick, he says, well, go
ahead and practice medicine. But with God, God's people, when
they discover their own leprosy, the leprosy of their sin, then
they greatly value the great position. They do. I mean, listen,
when they realize their own ruin, then it is that they prize the
God-given remedy. Then it is that they rejoice
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the masterpiece
of God Almighty, the gospel of redeeming grace. John Warburton
said this in about 1853. He said, The longer I live, the
more I feel that if there were one thing left undone, If the
devil were not conquered, sin not paid for, justice not satisfied,
the law not honored and magnified, death not overcome, and every
burden carried, I would have not a ray, not a ray of hope. And this, beloved, is the hard
experience, I believe, of all true believers. All true believers,
they come to that place. and they greatly value their
salvation, God's salvation. Men, you do not know this plague
of the heart. Therefore, they do not know what
we're talking about. They cannot understand why we
make so much of Jesus Christ and why we make so much of God's
salvation. Well, beloved, let me say this
to you. It's because we have been killed by the law and made
alive by the gospel. And that's why we make much of
Christ. It's because we were nothing
apart from Him. And all the merit that we have,
all the righteousness that we have, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has had mercy upon our poor
souls and He has revealed His truth to our hearts and made
us rejoice in full, complete, finished salvation in the person
of His Son, His lovely Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we
highly value God's salvation. But beloved, it's against the
background of our awfulness and our ruin and our sinfulness and
wretchedness and loathsomeness of heart. Now then, I must hurry
on. I'd like to, if I could, to answer
this question, the question of the text, in another way. Sometimes the iniquity that the
Lord shows us is in someone else. It's in someone else. Why does
the Lord expose us to iniquity in others? Why are we made to
see the sins of others and have to live with it and live around
it and look upon it and hear men talk and see their evil deeds. Why is that? Well, number one,
I think it's to let us see what we would have been if it had not been for the sovereign,
distinguishing grace of God that made a difference in our lives. We need to see that. John Bradford,
when he used to see people, and you might have heard this before,
but John Bradford, when he used to see people going past his
window on the way to Tyburn to be hanged, says, there goes John
Bradford, but for the grace of God. I would have been walking
down that road, my hands tied behind me, going to Tarbin to
be hanged if it wasn't for the grace of God. Now human hearts
are very much alike. You know, they're very much alike.
We're all cut out of the same piece of cloth. There's really
very little difference in us all. The seed of every sin which
every man commits is found in our hearts. There really As in
water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. Now
other men, those who fall into deep sin, are a picture of what
I would have been if it was not for the distinguishing grace
of God. Now that's the reason. You know,
we often give the credit to other things. God uses different and
various things. I believe God uses a good home.
I believe God uses good parents to make a difference in people's
lives. But the difference, the number
one cause of the difference in man is the grace of God. Who hath made us to differ? What
hast thou that thou hast not received? If thou hast received
it, then don't glory as if you had not received it. That which
distinguishes between men is the sovereign grace of God. Now, the Pharisees said, I'm
not like other men. I'm not like other men. He would
not own his part in the fall. He'd say the fall affected everybody,
but it didn't affect me. Well, it does affect all men. And Paul, in Romans chapter 3
and verse 9, he said, What then? Are we better than they? No! In no wise! Talking about the
difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. There's no difference!
Because all we've proved before, he said that all are under sin. all are under sin. Now, so God
sometimes allows us to see the sin of others to teach us to
admire his sovereignty which plucked us as brands from the
burning. Because if God hadn't laid hold
of me, where would I be today? I cannot answer that question.
I certainly wouldn't be in a state of grace I certainly would not
have a word to say for the Lord Jesus Christ. I would have no
testimony of salvation. Well, the Lord has made us to
differ. Grace, free grace. Why grace
to us and not grace to others? Why has the Lord singled us out? Well, we must concur with what
the Lord Jesus said. so it seemed good in thy sight.
Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. So the reason is
with God. The reason is with Him. And it's
to be left with Him. The sovereignty of God is not
so much seen among the righteous by themselves as it is when we
find the Christian growing up in the midst of the bushes and
the brambles of the ungodly world. The Lord puts us out here in
the world because His people are more conspicuous as they
are in a place where sin abounds. And brother, that's the reason
why maybe God planted you in this shop where you're at. And all you hear is ungodly speeches
and all you hear about is the ungodly deeds of men. But you're
more conspicuous there. I mean, God has planted you there
and you appear to be, because of the principle of righteousness
which God has been pleased to implant in you in regeneration,
you're different. You haven't made yourself different,
you're just different because God made you so. And we're to
recognize that, we're to see that. And this is the reason
why God allows us to be found. We're not hothouse plants and
God put us out here in the world where we find ourself. And what
we hear day by day and what we see day by day in this world
only, I think, magnifies the sovereign grace of God that has
made us different. The difference is God's grace.
The difference is the presence of the living Christ in our hearts. That's the difference. That's
what made us different. Now then, I think that should
be the difference that is magnified and we're not to make other things
You know, sometimes people say, well, you know, it's this or
that or something else. It's my preference here that
makes me different. But the real difference is the
difference God has made. And it doesn't make a difference
if you drive a Ford or a Chevrolet or that. That's not the chief
difference. The difference is what God has
done in regenerating grace and power in our lives. And so, you
very seldom see the lightning bug in the daytime. You see it
at night. And so I say you're more conspicuous
when you're in the world and when you're around sinners and
when you see that. Well, God shows us the sin of
others. Secondly, and I'll be closing
here right away, that we may be more earnest, more zealous,
more useful as an instrument in God's hand to proclaim the
gospel of free grace in which there's power to break the sin
and bondage and slavery that men and women are in. Now, you
cannot help, as you see the condition of men and women, as you look
upon the slavery that men and women are in, you cannot help
it in your souls, you look on the fields of the white harvest
that you desire, if you can, is to get a word to them of the
free grace of God, to preach the gospel to them. Where sin
abounds, grace does much more abound, and it ought to be so. It ought to be so. Now, if God
were to show us the sin of this city, If we were able to be hoisted
up above the city of Great Falls, and if we were able to see the
sins that were being committed and going on in the city of Great
Falls, if we were able to see that the demons at work in the
city of Great Falls, it would make better believers and better
Christians out of every one of us. And it would certainly make
a better preacher out of me, if the Lord was to show me the
iniquity that abounds in this city. Now Spurgeon said on one
occasion he said it has been a long time since I have made
a good speech at a public meeting but he said I do remember doing
it once and he said that this was after he went to the home
of a lady who wanted to become a member of the tabernacle and
he went into this home And he heard this terrible, terrible
ruckus going on, and the husband, the drunken husband, was beating
his wife. and just literally had her, she
was bleeding all over and it's terrible because she wanted to
come to the meeting the next day. She wanted to come to the
tabernacle the next day and this drunken husband so infuriated
that he was beating her and attempting to kill her. Well of course Spurgeon
called for some and they came and they took him out and Spurgeon
said, He said, I went to this home and I was kind of, well,
he said, I was in maybe a state of lukewarmness. But he said,
this stirred my heart. And he said, the next time he
preached, he said, I preached like a man on fire. I preached
like a man who was possessed with the Spirit of God because
I had been unable to see the iniquity in others. And he said,
I think it would do all preachers good if before they preached
they were to be drugged through the city streets to see the dark
and black and filthy and the abandoned. If they were all drugged
through the streets, preachers, then, he said, it would do them
all good. Do men need the gospel? Do they
need it? Well, I believe they need it.
I don't know the address of God's elect. I'm told to preach the
gospel to every creature. I'm told to go out and to spread
the message of God's grace. And it's the only hope for fallen
sinners is this message that has been such a tremendous blessing
and has brought deliverance to our own souls. Whitefield said
this, he said, when I think how this wicked city, speaking of
London, England, is perishing and how many are dying for lack
of knowledge of the gospel I feel as if I could stand on the top
of every coach in the streets of London and preach the gospel. Now this morning as we close
if you're here in this service and the Lord has been pleased
at some time or other to show you the iniquity of your heart
Let me say to you this morning, it is not that he might damn
you that he show you this. It's not that he might damn you
and send you to hell. It's in order that he might deliver
you from it. If God has broken your heart,
he's broken it on purpose to give you a new heart. If he has killed you by the law,
it's that he might make you alive by the gospel. If He has wounded
you in your conscience, He's done it that He may have room
to pour in the oil and the balm of Gilead. It's for that purpose,
it's for that reason. If He's stripped you, He's only
pulled off your rags that He may put on you those spotless
garments of salvation, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you're a convinced sinner, if God has convinced you of your
sin and of your need, Christ died for sinners. He died for
sinners. He died that poor sinners, that
just for the unjust, that they might be reconciled unto God. I'd like to, in closing here,
read a poem of John Newton's. Listen to the words. The title
of this is Rest for Weary Souls. Does the gospel word proclaim
rest? for those who weary be. Then
my soul put in thy claim, sure that promise speaks to thee.
Marks of grace I cannot show, all polluted is my breast. Yet
I weary am, I know, and the weary long for rest. Burdened with
a load of sin, harassed with tormenting doubt, hourly conflicts
from within, hourly crosses from without. All my strength is gone,
sink I must without supply. Sure upon this earth there's
none can more weary be than I. In the ark the weary dove found
a welcome resting place. Thus my spirit longs to prove
rest in Christ the ark of grace. Tempest-tossed I long have been,
and the flood increases fast. Open, Lord, and take me in till
the storm be overpassed. I hope this morning if you come
to the place where that you are weary of soul, dealing with your
own wickedness and corrupt heart, dealing with your own inbred
corruption, dealing with your problems, that's been brought
on you by your willfulness and your sinfulness, that you will
rest yourself in the Lord Jesus. Because He for sinners slain,
He was slain for sinners. For sin not His own, He died
to atone. Father, thank You for Your Word.
the privilege this morning of preaching your word, I ask thy
blessing upon the hearts of these dear ones. May the people of
God, who are a struggling, storm-tossed, tempted, and tested people, may
they be comforted, and may they see the reason why thou dost
deal with them, and why thou art showing them their hearts,
and the iniquity of their hearts. And might we all be brought to
rejoice in the purpose of our sovereign God and rejoice in
His full salvation and His beloved and precious Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. In His name we pray, Amen.