I invite you to turn back in
your Bibles, if you will, to the book of 2 Peter 1. The book of 2 Peter 1. I'd like to read beginning with
verse 16 down through verse 21. Verse 16 down through verse 21. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well,
that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I wish to speak primarily this
morning upon the last three verses that I've read to you The Apostle
Peter has been talking about the experience that he and others
had experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration when they
heard the voice of God from heaven saying concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, verse 17, the last part of the verse, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven Peter said, we heard. We heard this voice when we were
with him in the Holy Mount. We heard this voice from God,
an audible voice that spoke. It was the voice of God speaking,
saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then Peter went on to say
in verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Not that
the testimony or not that the word heard from heaven was not
a sure word because it was the word of God indeed and it was
a sure word, but what he means is that we have a prophecy that
is written down. We have a prophecy that those
that were not there to hear that audible voice We have a prophecy
that they might enter into and that they might receive It's
a more sure word of prophecy to the many where into you do
well That you take heed where into that you that you would
do well if you would search it out search out this word of God
this God in voice, the prophecy, the testimonies, the scriptures,
that you would search them out, that you would seek the knowledge
of God in these scriptures, and that you would take heed unto
them, that you would apply these scriptures unto your lives. that
your behavior might be controlled by these scriptures. You would
do well that you would take heed under this sure word of prophecy
because this is a light that shineth in a dark place. And
this light that shines in a dark place, this is the holy word
of God. It's the scriptures. It's God speaking through the
holy prophets and the apostles. It's God giving his mind unto
men. And we have the revelation of
God before us. We have this sure word of prophecy.
And it would do us all much good if we would take greater heed
unto this sure word of prophecy and study it, search it out,
and apply the teachings of the Word of God to our lives. And
it also says here, until the day dawns. until the day dawn. Now, beloved, we're in a dark
place, Peter says, and we need this prophecy. We need to have
an understanding of what lies ahead. We need to know what God
will do for those that love Him. We need to have an understanding
of the mind of God because we're in a dark place where it seems
that there is a tremendous amount of confusion and where there
is hardly anyone who has a word of hope. And so therefore we
need to pay particular heed unto the word of God until the day
dawns. Now what day is he talking about?
Well he's talking about the day, the first day of eternity when
the light dawns in the morning never, never for there to be
any more darkness for the people of God. Never will there be a
dark day again for the Lord's people because the day is dawning,
the morning is coming when all those things that are as they
have been, when all things that are temporal as we know them,
when all of the former things shall pass away and there shall
be a day dawn wherein there is nothing but light, eternal light. And so until that time comes,
Peter is saying that we ought to give particular heed unto
this sure word of prophecy, unto the word of God, until this day
dawns. And until, he says, and the day
star arises in your hearts. Now, beloved, this day star,
I believe, is the star of the day, which is the Lord Jesus
Christ. until the illumination comes,
until Christ is revealed fully unto us in His glory, until the
day star arises. Can't you imagine a day wherein
the Lord Jesus Christ will be the star of the day? There shall be no rivals, when
there shall be no rebellion, when there shall be no sin, when
there shall be no body around that will in any way attempt
to usurp his authority and attempt, as it were, to dethrone him,
when the Lord Jesus Christ will be the sovereign star of the
day. And, beloved, until this occurs,
we are to pay particular heed unto the Word of God and we're
to apply it unto our lives and search it out, knowing this first,
in verse 20, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
interpretation. Now this means, to me at least,
knowing this first, we ought to have this understanding at
the very outset, Peter is saying in our hearts, that man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God, and that there is no scripture anywhere
found that is God-breathed and God-inspired that ever expends
itself on any one application. that God in this world is able
and he speaks the word unto our situations wherein we find ourselves. And whatever be our trial, whatever
be our trouble, whatever be our test, whatever be the difficulty
that we're encountering in this world, there is a word from God. You say, well, that word, was
it not spoken in years gone by? It was, but there is no, there
is no prophecy of the scripture that expends itself on any one
interpretation. Meaning that God is able to apply
the word to his people wherever they find themselves and in whatever
generation they live upon the earth. And so, beloved, we are
not to forsake this book. And we're not to say, well, it's
an outdated book. This book is not relative to
me. Beloved, the Word of God is of
no single application and it can speak to your need where
you are today. And I want you to understand
that. Peter said, I want you to know this first. That the
Word of God is for you. The Word of God is for you. The
Word of God is meant. And it's meant to comfort us
and to establish our hearts. And it's meant to give us strength
until that day dawns. That day wherein there shall
be no more confusion, no more problems, no more tests. No more
sad goodbyes, no more troubling circumstances until that day
arises. God's word is meant to establish
comfort and teach our hearts in the way of truth. And so we
need this sure word of prophecy for the prophecy in verse 21
came not. Now the prophecy is the scriptures.
It's the entire revealed Word of God. It's the whole body of
truth as it has been given to us by God. This prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man. It didn't come to us because
some man willed to speak. And therefore he spoke because
he wanted to, and because he had something to gain by his
speaking? No, the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now it tells us here that these
men were holy men. Now that means to me that they
were men that walked with God, they were men that God had saved,
they were men that God had owned, they were men that God had called,
they were men that God had gifted for this particular work of speaking
as the Holy Spirit of God moved them according to the will of
God to speak. This Bible is here because God
willed it to be here. This message is here because
God Almighty purposed and decreed from eternity that in the darkness
and confusion of this world there would be a light. and that light
would guide his people successfully through and would be a lamp unto
their feet until that day dawns when the star of the day, Jesus
Christ, arises in their hearts and before them and when they're
able to look upon Him and rejoice for all eternity in Him, the
Son of the living God. Now, beloved, listen. This brings
me to say this morning that the scriptures, both the Old and
the New Testament, that they are God-breathed, that they are
inspired, that this is the book of God and it is indeed the word
of God. Now holy men of God, prophets
and apostles, they were chosen, ordained, and gifted by God to
write the scriptures as they were infallibly guided by the
Holy Spirit. As they were infallibly, I say,
guided by the Holy Ghost. Though for the most part, And
I think this needs to be pointed out that these men that we're
talking about, that they were unknown to one another in many
instances, and they lived in different lands and ages, and
they spoke different languages, and were widely varying in natural
abilities and social rank, yet they all wrote of one person
and declared one message without the slightest contradiction.
I'm talking about the Holy Scriptures, beloved, and these men that wrote
these Scriptures. Now, the person of whom the Scripture
speaks is the Lord Jesus Christ, John 1.45, and you listen to
it, John 1.45, Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him,
We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did
write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph. We found him that the scriptures
testify of. You remember also in the book
of John chapter 1 where it says that search the scriptures for
in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify
of me. And so Moses and the prophets
wrote of him. And so these prophets, they had
one message concerning one person. And that one person is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the message they declare
is redemption purposed. And also accomplished, redemption
purposed and accomplished. And applied, also an applied
redemption. That's the message that they
spoke, a redemption. God purposed it and God accomplished
it. when he hung his son on the cross
to bleed and die, and also God applies this redemption. And
this is the testimony of the Holy Scriptures that God applies
that redemption unto his people. This is the work of the three-in-one
God. This is the work of the triune
God. He has purpose, he's accomplished, and he applies redemption. Now listen to me this morning,
I want to talk a little bit about this holy book of God, about
the word of God. Now listen to me, this book is
holy I say, and that's not because it's written on a certain kind
of paper, and that's not because I think that the King James Version
of the Bible came down from heaven, because I don't think that that
particular version came down from heaven, but it's holy because
it testifies of a holy God. It reveals the character of a
holy God, and it's holy because it was breathed out by the Spirit
of a holy God in men and was written down, and the message
of this book leads to holiness. It leads to one who is holy,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and shows us how to be holy in
Him, in Him. And so this is a holy book. It's the Word of God, and it's
to be reverenced, and it's to be honored. It's to be highly
esteemed by us as it is the Word of God. It's to be highly esteemed,
honored, and reverenced. I'm talking about the Bible. Now in Psalms 138 and 2, the
last part of the verse says, For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. Thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. Now let us, beloved, never depreciate
or in any way show the slightest disrespect for the Word of God. If God has magnified His Word
above all of His name, then surely those who reverence His name
ought to reverence His Word. Those that reverence His name,
and you and I all claim to reverence His name, we would not on purpose, habitually, in any way,
shape, or form defame the name of the living God. We would not
take his name in vain. We would not do that. Habitually,
we would not. It would take some sort of a
terrible slip of our tongue to do such a terrible, terrible
thing as to take the name of our God in vain. And so those
who would reverence his name ought also to reverence his word
because he reverenced his word above his name. And so we must
do this. Now listen, the book of God is
sacred. It is not a relic or it's not
a magical charm, but it is sacred and it is to be treated as such. This is a sacred word. It has been said by men, apart
from the application of the Holy Spirit, that the Bible is no
more valuable than the morning newspaper. But beloved, that's
not so. That's not so. Unlike any other
word that's ever been written with pen and ink, this Bible
provides, as we read in Revelation 1 and 3, a special blessing of
God upon all who read, upon all who hear, upon all who obey and
keep the sayings of this book. Revelation 1 and 3 says, Blessed
is he that readeth. and they that hear the words
of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein. Beloved, no morning newspaper
don't carry with it any such blessing as that. Those who hear
the words of this prophecy, those who keep and obey this word of
prophecy, there is a special blessing from God indeed promised
upon them. Now we do not worship the Bible
because that would be idolatry and we do not hold the Bible
as a protection like a rabbit's foot or like the rosary beads
in times of danger, in times of fear from evil. We don't do
that. Because as far as I'm concerned, that would be witchcraft and
superstition to do that. But we do reverence the Word
of God because it is the Word of God. We do reverence God's
Word and believe that it is a holy and sacred Word. Now, note next,
if you will, that the Word of God alone is authoritative in
the Kingdom of God. Now, beloved, if we're looking
for a word of authority, and the world today says there is
no word of authority. There is no final word of authority. But I want you to know this morning
that in the Kingdom of God there is a rule of authority and that
rule is the Word of God, that is the Bible. Now I want you
to understand what I mean by this. We believe and we preach
only that which is written in the Scriptures and all, we try
to preach all that is written in the Scriptures. We add nothing
to what the Bible says and we take nothing from what the Bible
says. We believe in this church that
it's the Word of God that we ought to speak and we believe
that where the Bible is silent, we ought to be silent. Where
it speaks, we ought to speak. Now we practice in public worship
only that which is taught. in the scriptures and all that
is taught in the scriptures as far as I'm concerned as it is
taught in the scriptures if you please We believe that the Bible
is the authoritative rule in the kingdom of God. And the kingdom
of God is that sphere in which God rules. And the church is,
in that sense, the kingdom of God on earth. The kingdom of
God. And you and I have the kingdom
of God within us as we have the rule, the sovereign lordship
and sway of the Lord Jesus Christ over us in our hearts and in
our lives. But our authority is God's Word. We bow to no other authority
but to the living Word of God. Now the Bible alone is the book
of faith. It's the book of practice for
the Church of God in this world. And we ought to remember that,
and we ought to esteem the Word of God worthy of our utmost respect. Now we have in this world today,
in the religious world especially, men who claim to believe the
Bible to be the inspired Word of God, who thumb their nose
at much about what the Bible teaches, and they have no regard
for some of the clear teachings of God's Word. They, as I said,
they thumb their nose at what God has to say. But as you and
I very well know, these men will read a portion of the Bible and
laugh at it. They will not bow their knee
to what the Word of God says. That's the reason why that they
will dishonor God every time they get up to preach. They do
not know the God of the Bible, and neither do they respect His
authority. And when He gave His Word, that
He wasn't just simply giving us something to entertain us,
He was giving us something that was to guide our hearts, our
lives, and to be the last authority on what we're to do as we live
in this world. Now then, I want to talk a little
bit about the instrumentality of the Word of God, how it's
an instrument in the hands of God. in this world as God has
given it to his church as the church has it as it were because
it has been committed unto us as we use that word as we preach
that word how God uses that as an instrument to bring to pass
His purpose. Now in James 1 and 18, if you
have your Bible and you would want to turn with me to the book
of James chapter 1, I'd like to read here this verse. It's
a precious verse and you ought to memorize it because it has
in it Many of the fundamental doctrines that you and I believe
but let me read James 1 and 18 to you It says of his own will
Begat he us with the word of God Now he says that he's done this
with the Word of Truth. That's where instrumentality
comes in. The Word of Truth. He's done
it by the Word of God. Now, beloved, listen. There isn't
anybody that I know of who preaches the doctrine of God's sovereignty
any more dogmatically than what I do. But I do believe that God
uses means in the salvation of sinners. Now I believe this is
the usual way in which God converts sinners. I believe that God has
chosen, through the foolishness of preaching, to save them that
believe. And in Romans 1 and 16, it says,
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes.
Now in this gospel age, God has ordained the salvation of his
elect by the preaching of the gospel. That's what I mean by
the instrumentality of the word. That's what I'm talking about.
I mean that God has ordained that through the ministry of
the word that men and women would be saved. Now, does that mean
that a person must audibly hear a man preach the gospel in order
to be saved? Of course not, because that would
rule out all of the death and say, well, a man If he's deaf,
he's just out. He can't possibly be one of God's
elect because he cannot audibly hear the message of the gospel.
Well, that doesn't mean that at all. It just simply means
this, that it does mean that no one can be saved apart from
the ministry of the Word of God or the ministry of the gospel,
meaning that God must apply, even through the printed page,
or in some means, the gospel must come home to the heart.
The scripture says, how can they believe on him of whom they've
not heard? And how can they hear without
a preacher? And how can he preach except
to be said? And how beautiful upon the mountain
is the feet of them that carry the good tidings of the gospel.
Beloved, one must hear of Christ in order to believe upon him. Now God does not bypass his own
ordained means of grace. God has ordained this, and I
don't think that God bypasses it in an ordinary way. I think
that God uses this fair means to save sinners. And in Acts
chapter 8, I'd like to read here just a couple of verses. And
we read here beginning with verse 31, And there was a man, Ethiopian
eunuch, most of you are familiar with Acts 8, and Philip had ran
to the chariot and he asked this Ethiopian eunuch a question.
In verse 30 he said, Understandest thou what thou readest? Now this
man had been reading the Old Testament prophets, been reading
the scriptures in the Old Testament. Do you understand what you're
reading? And he said, How can I except some man should guide
me? How can I understand this except
somebody would guide me and show me whether this man's talking
about himself or whether he's talking about somebody else.
I need somebody to explain this to me so that I'd know what this
is talking about. Okay, now then the place of the
scripture which he read was this in verse 32. So he was reading
the scripture and then in the 35th verse it says then Philip
opened his mouth He opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture
and preached unto him Jesus What did he do? Well, he just opened
the Word of God and opened his mouth and said this is what this
is talking about This is talking about Jesus Christ This is talking
about his humiliation This was talking about the King of Glory
coming into this world and being made sin for His people and the
Lord Jesus Christ being humiliated, being made sin, being made what
I am. And He was taken to the cross
and He was delivered up to the bloody cross and He was crucified
because He was accounted, He was numbered with the transgressors
and He was accounted to be a sinner. He was reckoned to be a sinner.
And he was delivered up to the cross, and he died that in order
that those who believe upon him that they might be saved. Do
you believe, Eunuch? Do you believe? And as they went
on their way, there came to a certain water, and the Eunuch said, See,
here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believe us, if you believe what the prophet
said of him, If you believe what the prophets said of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if you believe on him, then you may. And he
answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. And so beloved, what we find
here is how that God did not bypass the ordinary means that
he uses in the salvation of sinners. He uses his word and somebody
to take that word and explain it to other people. And then
the question is asked, do you believe? And Eunuch said, I do. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. And so Philip, he commanded the
chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water,
and he baptized him. And he baptized him because he
had read the scriptures, he heard it explained, and he believed
them. God saved him and he went down
into the waters and was baptized now that's instrumentality is
what that is God using his word now then We read further in the
scriptures that in first Peter 1 verse 23 through 25 to enforce
What I'm saying here. It says being born again and
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed by the
word of God. He says, all flesh is as grass
and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass and the grass
withers and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of
the Lord endueth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. That's first Peter chapter one,
verses 23 through 25. Now, beloved, listen. Let me
talk a little bit about this incorruptible seed of the Word
of God. This incorruptible seed is this
pure message of Christ and Him crucified as it is revealed on
the pages of the Bible. This is the incorruptible seed.
This is God's Word. And whenever this Word is preached
And when it's revealed to the heart, God is pleased through
that to quicken his elect unto life. God saves his elect by
the word that he's given through the preaching of the gospel of
Christ. And this word is fully preached
when Christ crucified is proclaimed. That's why Paul said, I determined
not to know anything among you Corinthians, but Jesus Christ
and him crucified. He said that's the whole counsel
of God, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, beloved, listen,
every true preacher of the gospel desires many things for his hearers
during the course of a message. and there's only one subject
which effectually accomplishes all. If it be instruction, if
it be admonition, if it be comfort, whatever be the desire of the
preacher toward the people that he's preaching to, there is only
one subject that accomplishes all of his purpose, and that
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I want you to understand that
because that's very important that we understand that there
is one message in this book that accomplishes God's purpose. The
whole counsel of God is summed up in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, when a man preaches the
substitutionary redemption, the imputed righteousness, and salvation
by grace alone, he is preaching the counsel of God. It is the
responsibility And I want you to get this because it's so important
that as a church we understand something about our place and
our position in regards to this pure Word of God and in regards
to the instrumentality of the Word of God in this world. It
is the responsibility of every believer and every local church
in this world to do everything within the scope of our God-given
ability to preach the gospel to all the world in the generation
in which we live. That's our God-given responsibility. This is the task of evangelism,
if you want to call that, which our Lord has committed to our
hands. Now then, turn back with me to
Matthew 28, and look at this commission, look at this command
of the Lord Jesus Christ in regards to this great work that I'm talking
about. And Jesus, in verse 18, came
and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. Well, what are you going to teach
them? Well, you're going to teach them Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You're going to teach them this
message that convicts, this message that converts, this message that
establishes men and women in faith, this message that brings
hope and comfort to the sin sick soul. You're going to teach all
nations And you're going to baptize them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world, to the winding up of the ages.
I'm with you until that day dawns. I'm with you! And this is your
job in this sin-blackened world, this sin-darkened world. This
is it! that you teach men and women
this message of the gospel. I'm with you and all power is
given to me. You go. My power will go with
you. My power is with you. So it is
our responsibility then to use the God-given ability that God
has given us to proclaim this gospel. Now then, to close this
morning, I want to give you four reasons Four reasons why I believe
with conviction that I am to preach this gospel that I'm talking
about. Four reasons. And I think as
we give them to you that the Lord will move our hearts to
understand something more about this message that we're talking
about. Now then, the first thing I want
to say, the first reason, God-given conviction of my heart that I
am to preach the gospel is this. The first reason for doing anything,
I think, is for the glory of God. It's for the glory of God. Now, brother, sister, listen
to me. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 and 31, or whether you drink or whatsoever
you do, do all to the glory of God. And so certainly the preaching
of the gospel has and must be for the glory of God. My primary
motive and that which must be of uppermost importance is that
the Lord of heaven and earth be exalted, that He be honored,
that He be glorified through the proclamation of His Word. My duty and I'm duty-bound to
do it, and I must do it, and I have no, I have, I cannot,
I cannot deviate from the duty that I have as a servant of Almighty
God. My duty is to exalt the name
of God and debase the creature. That's my business. You say,
that creature's hard on, he's hard on flesh. Well, I've told
you before that we're to preach Him up and preach the creature
down. Nobody ever sees the beauty of
the Lord Jesus Christ until they see the ugliness of flesh and
sin. And until there's a withering
work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of sinners, they'll
never be brought low enough to be able to look up to see the
glory and the beauty that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you
don't know yourself, you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
those who have been brought to see their creature sin and be
brought to see the original sin and the truth of what we are
by nature. Only those know the glories of
Emmanuel. Only those know the glory of
God Almighty in Christ. Only those know the power of
saving grace. They've been lifted up. out of
the state of nature into a state of grace wherein they have hope
and where they feel in their hearts great comfort that God
has lifted them up out of the dunghill of sin and put them
on the rock upon the rock Christ Jesus praise be unto his name
that's my duty I got to do that preach him up and preach the
sinner down And that, whether it's acceptable in this age or
not, is the duty of every man whom God has sealed unto himself
and laid hold of and called. That's his duty and his obligation. And he's got to spend the time,
whatever people want him, else the people want him to do, he's
got to do that. And unless he does that, he's
failed in his duty and his obligation. We're sometimes asked, did you
have a good service? Well, the primary test by which
we can determine whether or not we've had a good service is this.
Was the name of the glorious God exalted and glorified through
the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Was His name
exalted? Was it lifted up? Now, if Christ
was honored, if God was exalted, We had a good service. We had a good service. Now, if
not regardless of what else happened, it was not a good service. Now, friend of mine, you just
listen carefully to what I'm saying because we want that we
would be right. I'm telling you that this is
my reason for preaching this book. This is my reason for preaching
this gospel, is that it glorifies the name of God. And that's what
we must do, and that's what we're about. And so in order to have
a good service, it's got to be God-honoring, God-exalting, and
God-glorifying, and it's got to be debasing to the sinner.
And when a man leaves, he may not say, I just feel good. And
he won't say that unless he's been made to feel good by the
operation of the divine spirit upon his heart, upon his life. Unless he's been able to receive
the comfort of full salvation through the name of the crucified,
risen Lord Jesus Christ. And unless he's able to do that,
he may say, well, it just somehow or other didn't meet my need.
But I think we can say as a church that we have a whole Bible for
our staff. that we have a whole Christ for
our salvation, we have a whole church for our fellowship, and
we have a whole world for our field of labor. And as children
of God, and that's what Augustine said, and I believe that that's
exactly what we can sing as God's people this morning. Now the
second thing is this, we also preach the gospel. I'm giving
you four reasons why that we preach the gospel. We preach
the gospel for the salvation of sinners. for the salvation
of sinners. Now Paul, we already talked a
little bit about this and I won't spend much time on it, but you
listen to me. Paul tells us that I endure all things for the elect's
sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 10. Now he was saying that while
preaching the gospel that he willingly endured hardship because
he knew that God had many lost sheep out in the world and that
they must hear how that God through Christ shows mercy to sinners. So he said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake that they might obtain. Somebody's got
to go through some things. Now that's what he's saying.
He's saying that somebody's got to put their hand to the plow
and if the ground gets hard and rocky, they just got to hang
on to that plow. And they got to keep on going.
They just don't turn around. They got to endure hardship as
a good soldier of Jesus Christ because God's got some people
out here that must hear the message of Christ and Him crucified in
order that they would come to salvation. We preach the gospel
knowing full well that God's going to honor His message and
use this glorious message for the salvation of poor, guilty,
lost, undone sinners. We know He's gonna do it. We
believe He's gonna do it. And if you're here this morning,
we believe that God will work in your heart, that God will
deal with you, that God will cross your path, if you're one
of His, and bring this gospel savingly to your heart. Wouldn't
that be a wonderful thing? Now thirdly, and we'll hurry
here, we preach the gospel for the spiritual maturity of believers. Now we believe that the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ enlightens the people of God. As God's sheep
hear the word, they grow in the grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of Christ that
enlightens, that informs you of what God in Christ done for
your poor soul on the cross. It's the gospel that informs
you of that. It's the gospel that encourages a poor sinner. You see, the gospel is for sinners.
It's not for the righteous. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. No man is so bad
that Jesus Christ cannot have mercy upon him, that Christ cannot
save. He saved the chief of sinners.
And he can save any sinner this side of hell. And the gospel
encourages. And it also strengthens. And
it teaches God's children in this life. It teaches them to
deny themselves. It teaches them to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ, to be his disciple. It teaches them to
bow to his Lordship. It teaches him that the way of
God is not the way of flesh. That the way of God is the way
by the Spirit through his truth and his word. Now, the more we
hear of Christ, the more we are enlightened. The more we hear
of his work of redemption, the more enlightened we become, the
more we can see what he did for us, the more we can see his grace
in operation and work, the more we can be comforted, the more
we can be encouraged and strengthened, the more we hear of it. And the
more we hear of Christ, say what you will, the more we will hate
sin and love Christ and love God. Now you say what you want
to, but there is not another message under heaven given among
men that will ever turn men's hearts away from sin, but the
message of Christ and Him crucified. You preach the law all you want
to and tell men and women what they ought not do, that may make
him guilty and feel guilty, but it'll never make him hate what
he's doing. There's only one place where
sinful men and women can see the attitude of a holy God towards
sin, and that's at the cross of Calvary. Look over yonder
on that hill. at the bleeding substitute. That's
what God thinks about sin. See him bleeding there? See those
five bleeding wounds as he hangs on Calvary's mount? That's how
God feels about sin. And there's nobody gonna know
what they ought to know about God's attitude towards sin until
they hear a spirit-filled, anointed preacher of the gospel preaching
Christ and Him crucified. And then they're going to say,
I know something about this sin business. I know how God hates
it. And I know how He went about
saving His people from the radical results of sin and the penalty
of it. I know how He went about it.
He hung His Son on a cross and He demanded full payment from
Him in order that He might be set free, in order that His people
might go free. God demanded payment from His
own Son. I mean, He slew His own Son. I mean, He exacted from Jesus. every ounce of debt that we owe
to the justice of God. Now if that don't turn your heart
a little bit toward God and toward being against sin, I know that
we all have an appetite for it. I know that we all Still feel,
you know, many times that we're going to be overcome by it properly
before we die. But listen to me, if there's
anything that'll turn your heart against sin, and God knows we
ought to be against it, listen to me, it'll be a sight of Him
hanging on that tree. It'll be Christ and Him crucified.
I'm telling you, the spiritual maturity of the believer depends
upon him or her sitting under the sound of the gospel. It depends
upon that. And nobody ever grows to spiritual
maturity unless they're under the sound of this message, this
message of the gospel of redeeming grace and mercy in Jesus Christ
our Lord. I'm telling you the truth. We've
got to have it in order to grow up. Just don't grow up until
you hear it. Little baby is sitting all over
this world this morning listening to a bunch of stuff that'll never,
never, never, never increase their spiritual stature a fraction,
not a bit. Because they know not the gospel,
they know not Him, and they know not His truth, and His gospel
has not been preached to them. Well, lastly, we preach the gospel
in order to leave all men without excuse. That's why we preach
it. We preach the gospel so that
once you've heard it, nothing will ever be the same. We preach
the gospel so that you come in, you hear it, and the word is
out, and you can't ever go back to like you was. You are without
excuse once you heard this gospel that I'm talking about. Once
you saw the picture of Christ hanging on the gory tree and
bleeding out his life, once you understand that God has condemned
sin, once you understand that God made up his mind to punish
sin and that either he'll punish it in your substitute Christ
or he'll punish it in you, you won't ever be the same. You've
got to live until you die. But you'll never be the same
because you're without excuse. Ain't no excuse for you. You
say, well, I'm the way you just lie all you want and say what
you please, but there just isn't any excuse for those who have
heard the gospel. Now listen. God will save and
receive every sinner who comes to Him through the blood and
righteousness of His Son, Christ Jesus. And the question is, will
you come to Him today? And now listen, you don't have
to move a muscle to do it. But will you come to Him? That's
the question. Will you come to Him? God's people,
Peter said, to whom coming? We're always coming to Him. We
come to Him all the time. God's people come to Him all
the time. I've come to Him this morning. I had to this morning. I had to come to Him. I'm a sinner
and nothing at all. But I had to come to Him in my
heart. You don't have to move a muscle,
but will you come to Him? Will you come to Him? God will
save every sinner that'll come to Christ and plead the blood
of the crucified one. God will save you. And the question
is, will you come? Now, now hear me out. Will you
forsake the rags of your self-righteousness and come to Christ and be robed
in his spotless righteousness and washed in his blood? This
is the only way of salvation. And now you've been told. You've
been told. You have no excuses. You must
face the consequences. You either believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ or you go to hell. And if you, here this morning,
if you will not sue for mercy, you being a sinner, dead in sin,
lost, hopelessly lost apart from Jesus Christ, if you won't sue
for mercy from now on till the day you die, pleading with God
to spare you through the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading with Him
to bestow upon you the comforts of the gospel and giving you
the garment of salvation. If you won't do it, you ought
to go to hell. I'm telling you the truth. You're
without excuse. You're without excuse. Now then,
may God be pleased to give us greater respect for His Word
that we might be able to believe it reverence this word and submit
ourselves to it. May God own this message. Father, thank you for your word,
for this truth, and this sure word of prophecy, this testimony
of Christ and Him crucified. Be thou pleased, O God, to bless
it to our hearts and to encourage us, and may we all grow up in
the Lord Jesus, be able to sing, our Father, the great songs of
redemption Praise the Lord from our hearts. Thank you, dear Lord,
for giving us this view of Christ that we've had this morning,
to be able to preach with Thy Spirit. We thank Thee in Jesus'
name. Use the message for Your glory,
we pray. Amen.