My text this evening is Revelation
19 and verse 9. Revelation 19 and verse 9, the last sentence of the verse. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings of God. that which John had seen and
heard in this wondrous vision, he was commanded to write. The
one who spoke to him said, write, and write this, these are the
true sayings of God. It was written down, permanently
recorded, so that it might be passed down to generation after
generation unto this day and unto that day when time shall
be no more. The reason for this permanent
written record of those things is given in our text. He saith
unto me, these are the true sayings of God. Now, I do not in any
way violate the scriptures when I take this sentence in this
passage and say that it applies to every word found in the sacred
volume. It applies to the whole body
of sacred truth. It applies to the whole of divine
inspiration. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
1, 2 Peter chapter 1, I'm sorry. Second Peter chapter 1. I want, if I can, by the Spirit
of God to encourage and admonish you to
highly reverence this book that you have before you. This book
is the Word of God. We do not say as many that it
contains the word of God or that it contains a word from God or
that if you study it and have some understanding in it, you
might find a word from God. This book is the inspired, infallible,
inerrant word of the living God. Here in 2 Peter chapter 1, we
read in verse 21, 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. That is the word of the prophecy. He's talking particularly about
the Old Testament scriptures. He says this word of prophecy
did not come by the thoughts, the craftiness, the learning,
or the devisings of man's heart, but rather it came because holy
men, that is, men who were set apart, sanctified, made righteous
by Jesus Christ, made righteous by faith in him, Because these
holy men of God, especially chosen and set apart by God as his messengers,
as his infallible recorders of his word, they spoke as they
were moved, as they were carried along and directed by God the
Holy Spirit. Now that is the meaning of inspiration. When we talk about the word of
God being inspired, We're telling you that it was written by men
who were commanded of God exactly what to write. And that which
they recorded upon the pages of Holy Scripture is exactly,
exactly to the letter what God the Holy Spirit dictated that
they should write. Because this book is divinely
inspired, We know that all the truths set forth in this book
are the true sayings of God. And that's my subject for this
evening. Because the truths revealed in
the book are the true sayings of God, they are to be plainly
preached, publicly preached, confidently believed, and implicitly
obeyed. The Apostle Paul told Timothy
in that passage we read earlier, that he had the privilege from
a child of knowing the Holy Scriptures, and these Holy Scriptures being
the Word of God. Because they are the Word of
God, they are able, by divine blessing, by the power of God's
Spirit, they are able, if you'll pay attention, to make you wise
unto salvation. Because these scriptures are
the word of God, they can show you the way of life. They can
make you to understand how a sinner can be justified with God through
the merits of Jesus Christ and saved by free grace alone. They
are able to make you wise under that salvation, which is through
faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. And then Paul says in verse 16,
all scripture, the whole body of scripture, Now, he's talking
about the Old Testament. He's talking about the books
of the apostles written in the four gospels. He's talking about
the book of Acts. He's talking about the whole
of the epistles, including that which had been written, was being
written, and should be written until the volume of Scripture
was complete. He says all Scripture, all the
inspired Word of God, is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable, the whole thing. It's all one book. It's all one
word. It's all one message from God.
When you read in Genesis chapter 1, and you read in the book of
Joshua, and you read in the book of Revelation, you're reading
the word of God, the very same word. And the whole body of Scripture
is profitable. That is, it's useful and beneficial
to our souls for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for
instruction in righteousness. Now what's Paul telling us? He's
telling us that this book is the only source of our doctrine
as the Church of God. This book alone reveals to us
what we must believe and what we must preach. We do not hold
to any creeds formed by men. I have a number of volumes of
books written by men, men that I love and appreciate and delight
in reading, but I do not put my faith upon anything written
by any man, but only upon this which is inspired of God. We
do not recognize the authority of any creeds written by any
group of men. I read just recently a number
of the old Baptist confessions of faith, dating back to the
very earliest of years, when the confessions of faith was
first being formulated. And they're good confessions
for the most part, very good confessions. But we don't hold
to any confession of faith except thus saith the Lord. This is
our only doctrine. We believe, we preach, we proclaim,
we insist upon that which is written in the book of God and
we refuse tenaciously to allow anyone, any group of men, any
organization, any church, any hierarchy to impose upon us any
doctrine not taught in this book. Now, that's the authority of
scriptures in the house of God. If the book says it, buddy, that's
what we believe. That's all. That's all. If the
book doesn't say it, I don't care how good it sounds, we don't
believe it. Not only is this our only source
of doctrine, but this book is our only rule of conduct, both
as individuals and as the church of the living God. What do we
do in the church of God? We do four things. only four
things. We sing hymns of praise to God. We offer to God our prayers and
our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and our gifts unto
Christ. We preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. We worship our Lord. We worship
our Lord by prayer, by preaching, by giving, by the ordinances,
by the songs that we sing. But that's all we do. Just those
four things. Nothing else. Nothing else. Anything
else is additional. Anything else detracts. Anything
else is contrary to the word. You say, well, the book doesn't
forbid these things. Oh, yes, it does. It forbids
it by not mentioning them. It forbids it by not giving them.
The Church of God practices only that which is written in the
Word. And we refuse, we will not, we
must not, we cannot, for the honor of our Savior, for the
worship of our Redeemer, and for the good of men's souls,
we dare not bring into the assembly of God's saints anything that
is not plainly declared and set forth in the Sacred Scriptures. And this book is our only guide
in worship. How do we worship God? We endeavor. I endeavor to lead you. You endeavor
as you come into this place to worship God after the manner
of the apostles. We endeavor in this place to
worship God with simplicity. The less we can have of adorning
pictures and symbols, you'll notice we don't have any. Not
only do we not have any, we're not about to get any. We just
don't. Those things are idolatry. We don't have those things. We
don't have any stained glass windows, not because we can't
get them. We don't have any because we
don't want them. And we're not going to have them. We don't
have any crosses. We regrettably can't buy communion dishes without
crosses on them and you got to have a handle. So we got a cross
on that thing. We keep it covered up. The religious
world has all those things. We worship our God with simplicity. We worship him with the least
measure of formality we can possibly have because our central purpose
and desire is to worship worship after the manner of the apostles
in the New Testament, to worship God not by physical adorning
things, not by physical images, not because of the physical place
where we are, but to worship God in spirit and in truth. That is to worship Him spiritually
according to the word of truth. That's the reason we do things
the way we do, because this book is the Word of God. It is our
source of doctrine, our rule of conduct, and our guide in
worship. Now, in our text here in Revelation
19, the Apostle John tells us plainly that all the doctrines,
all the precepts, and all the promises revealed in Holy Scripture
are the true sayings of God. Without any further introduction,
I want to show you a few of those things which are the true sayings
of God. First, I want to call your attention
to the true sayings of God which are referred to in our text.
When John wrote these words, these are the true sayings of
God, I'm sure that his immediate design was to assure us that
the things which he had just mentioned, wonderful and astounding
as they were, are indeed matters of divine revelation. He was
not writing his own opinion. He had had a vision. There's
no question about that. He had had a marvelous, wonderful
experience, a vision which no experience of ours could compare
to. An angel had opened heaven. An
angel had shown him things that must come to pass. He had had
a vision, but he was not recording his own interpretation of the
vision. He was not recording for us his
own opinion about the things which he had seen. But rather,
he is recording in this volume of Scripture exactly what God
revealed to him in the vision, exactly the truth which God intended
to be communicated to his church by this vision. He was writing
exactly the Word of God. He's saying, these things which
I have just told you are the true sayings of God. They are
things that are given to us most assuredly by God himself. Well, what are these true saints?
Now, because we have gone over them frequently in the past several
weeks, I'll mention them only briefly. Let me give them to
you under three points. There is in this world a great
harlot church. A church which God will destroy
with his wrath at the last day. That's part of the vision. Look
in verse 20 of chapter 18. The word comes from heaven. Rejoice over her, that is over
Babylon, this great harlot church. Rejoice over her, thou heaven,
and ye holy apostles and prophets. For why are we to rejoice? For
God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a
stone, like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea. And
this is what he said, thus with violence, that is with terror
and wrath, shall the great city Babylon be thrown down and shall
be found no more at all. And he tells us that this city
Babylon is the great whore, the mother of harlots and blasphemies
and so on. There are, in this world, only
two churches, two churches. A preacher, you're losing your
mind. I passed more than that on the
way to church tonight. A few weeks ago, somebody was sitting
in the office asking me how many churches there are in this town.
I don't know. But in the phone book, I counted up 98 of them,
98 of them. 98 Baptist churches, just in that
little old phone book, 98 Baptist churches in this and the surrounding
area. But it's only two, only two.
There are in this world a church that is called the true church
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that church which is composed of all
true believers. And then there is that church,
the other one, that is Babylon, the great whore. And that church,
Babylon, is made up of all false religion and all false religionists. The true church, the chaste,
virgin Church of Christ, has only one Savior, believes only
one creed, and proclaims only one way of salvation. Turn over
to Philippians chapter 3. People want to know what's the
true church. What's the true church? It is
no local assembly. None. None. Be it Baptist, Methodist,
Catholic, Episcopalian, Pentecostal, Buddhist, or what have you. It
is no local assembly. What is the true church of God?
It is spiritual. It is altogether spiritual. It
is the church which is described right here in Philippians 3 and
verse 3. For we are the circumcision,
that is, we are God's covenant people. We are those who are
saved by God's grace. We are those who are united to
Christ. We are those who are heirs of
God and heirs of eternal life and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
We are those to whom the promises of God and the covenants of God
and the blessings of God and the mercies of God belong. Well,
who are they? We are the circumcision which
worship God. Number one, they worship God. They worship the triune, sovereign,
glorious God in all his character as God. Number two, they worship
God in spirit. That is, we worship God in our
hearts. We worship God in a spiritual
manner, not an outward, carnal, ritualistic manner. And we worship
God by his spirit. God's a spirit. And they that
worship him don't worship him in holy places. They that worship
him don't worship him at altars and shrines. They that worship
him do not worship him in morning benches or in cathedrals. We
worship God who is a spirit in spirit and in truth. And rejoice
in Christ Jesus. There's the characteristic of
God's people. They rejoice in Christ. What does that mean? That means they trust Christ.
That means they have confidence in Christ. That means they lean
entirely upon Christ, the anointed one, who is Jesus, our Savior. We are the circumcision. We're
God's church. If you are among those who worship
God, worship God in spirit and trust Christ alone, you're God's
church. You're in his church and have
no confidence in the flesh. That's what it is to trust Christ.
Anybody who places any confidence for acceptance with God upon
anything in their flesh, that is, upon anything they say, do,
experience, upon anything they practice, upon any religious
ceremony, upon any religious deed, upon any work of righteousness,
if you claim to trust Christ and you still have confidence
in your flesh, you don't trust Christ. That's all there is to
it. That's all there is to it. Say, well, preacher, a lot of
people, about everybody I know says we rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. I know most everybody
says that. What I'm saying is this. If you
trust eating the bread and drinking the wine to give you any measure
of acceptance with God, you're a lost sinner. What I'm saying
is this. If you trust your baptism to
give you a higher degree of sanctification and glory, if you trust your
baptism to make you in any way a greater recipient of God's
blessings in heaven, if you trust your baptism in any way whatsoever
to win God's favor to the least degree, you're a lost man. I
don't care what you profess. Altogether lost. God's church
has no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in anything they
do, but only in Christ Jesus the Lord. So this is the true
Church of God. The Savior we worship is Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. He's our God. We worship him
as such. He's sovereign in all things,
glorious, majestic. He is an effectual Savior who
has accomplished redemption by the death which he accomplished
at Jerusalem. The creed we believe is grace
alone. That's all. Grace. What do you
believe about salvation? Grace. That's what I believe.
Grace. Pure, free, sovereign grace.
Well, what about good works? No, I don't believe that. Doesn't
have anything to do with salvation. Well, don't you think there's
a place for good works? Not in salvation. No. Well, don't
you think that you have to preach good works? Not for salvation.
No. Well, don't you think you have
to point me into good works for assurance? No, sir. We believe
in grace. Only grace, that's all, that's
all. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest anybody should boast in his flesh. That's what the
whole purpose of revealing these things is, to keep you from boasting
in your flesh. We proclaim one way of salvation,
and that way of salvation is substitution. It's only one way
in this world by which God can possibly save any sinner. There's only one way. And that
way is the substitutionary life, death, resurrection, and intercession
of Jesus Christ, his son, in the place of his people. And
I'm telling you that there is substitution. that only is substitution,
which declares the salvation of all for whom Christ is the
substitute. To declare that Jesus Christ
died in my place and yet declare at the same time that I might
die under the wrath of God is to nullify the doctrine of substitution. To declare that Christ bore the
wrath of God for men who yet bear the wrath of God is to nullify
substitution. To declare that Christ lived
for men, establishing righteousness for men, who must themselves
suffer as sinners forever under the wrath of God, is to nullify
substitution. That's no substitution at all,
buddy. That's no substitution at all. Substitution declares
God sent His Son, and His Son lived in this world, and He made
us righteous by His obedience, and He put away our sins by His
sacrifice, and He saves us by His glorious resurrection. He
saves us by the power that He has received as the risen Savior,
the substitute for sinners. Well, what about the other church?
The true Church of God. Worships one God, one Savior.
Believes one creed, proclaims one way of salvation. Babylon,
the great harlot church, worships a lot of gods. She got all kinds
of gods. She got little gods and big gods.
I watched one of these fellas on the Praise the Lord telecast
last night. It's a different one. This is
one in California. Shelby watched a little bit of
it with me. Somebody had bought him some kind of a little old
statue. He said it was. This is what
he said. He said, now this is Jesus. And he smiled real big. He's so sweet. It's made by this
great artist who's got pieces in the White House. This is Jesus
and the woman taken in adultery. And his wife got so choked up
she couldn't even say what she had in mind to say. She's watching
Jesus, sweet little Jesus. You can put him in your pocket.
You can set him on your table. You can put him in the closet.
You can kick him over if you want to. Sweet little Jesus. They said, well, we didn't mean
that. Oh, that's what they meant. She got just plumb choked up
over that little Jesus. Other folks got great big pictures
of Jesus. Oh, Robert saw one 90 feet tall. That's too small. That's too
small. Some folks have a God they call
Buddha. Some folks have a God they call Allah. All of them
have many gods in this one church. This one church not only has
many gods, but she has many saviors and many spirits and worships
many and varied ways. And she follows many ways of
salvation. Sometimes she says, make a decision. Sometimes she says, get baptized. Sometimes she says, receive the
sacraments. Sometimes she says, go on a pilgrimage. Sometimes she says, read your
Bible and pray through. Sometimes she says, seek to know
your sin. Sometimes she says, go to the
mourner's bench. Sometimes she says, say the sinner's
prayer. She has many ways of salvation,
but she always, now listen, this is important. Babylon always
holds one creed, and she defends it with vehemence to her death.
One creed. Many gods, many saviors, many
places of worship, many ways of worship, many shrines, many
holy places, many ways of salvation, but one creed. One creed. I'm going to tell you what the
creed of Babylon is. It's the twin doctrines. of free
will and works salvation. Now, David, that's it. That's
it. I don't care where you find it.
I don't care who proclaims it. I don't care how large the cathedral
is. I don't care how rich the cathedral
is. Babylon is that place, that church,
that society of men that proclaim salvation by man's free will
rather than God's sovereign will or proclaim salvation in some
way by man's works rather than God's work. Is that right, Lindsay?
Now, I want it to be so plain you can't possibly misunderstand. Well, preacher folks get mad
at that. I know. But I can't possibly do anybody
any good if I don't tell you the truth. I can't do it. And I'm telling you, I'm telling
you, every man, woman, young person here, I'm telling you,
hear me, God help you to hear me. If somehow you're trusting
in any measure, a little decision you made, a little prayer you
said, a little work you've done, a little experience you've had,
If you look to those things in any measure whatsoever for the
basis of your hope before God, you don't yet know Jesus Christ. That's not our hope. Our hope
is Christ crucified. That's all. That's all. And in
the last day. All who are of Babylon. Shall
be cast into hell. And suffer the wrath of God forever. Are you saying that all freewill
religion will bring men to hell? Ever
deceiving and being deceived, it will. Are you saying that
all works religion will bring men to hell? Ever being deceived
and deceiving, it will. It most certainly will. The Lord
Jesus Christ, God, our Savior, is the omnipotent,
sovereign monarch of the universe. This, too, is the true saying
of God. Look in verse six. I heard, as
it were, a great voice, the voice of a great multitude, and as
the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering,
saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Now the followers of Babylon
despise it, they poke fun at it, they constantly oppose it,
but it's still a matter of prominence in Holy Scripture. The God we
worship is totally, absolutely sovereign. Oscar Bailey, if he's
not sovereign, he's not God, and it'd do no good to worship
him. It'd do you no good. What good will it do? to worship
anything other than God. Anything. I mean, if you're going
to worship, worship God. And there's only one God. That
God is sovereign. Our God, the psalmist said, is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased. Our God is in the heavens, and
whatsoever he pleased, that did he in heaven above, in the earth
beneath, and in all deep places beneath the earth. Turn over
to Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4. Here's the
word of Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen Babylonian king, but a king that
God was pleased to show himself, a king to whom God was pleased
to reveal his glory, his greatness, and his power. Nebuchadnezzar,
after he spent some time grazing in the field like a wild man,
he said in verse 34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me. Only a madman would deny God's
sovereignty. Only a madman would oppose God's
sovereignty. Mine understanding returned unto
me, and when it did, I blessed the most high. Who is he? I praised and honored him that
liveth forever. He's eternal. Whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. He rules forever. And his kingdom
is from generation to generation. He rules over all generations. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as what? What does that say? Now remember, he's talking about
everybody. Everybody. Everybody all put together. All
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. Nothing. In another place, he
calls them grasshoppers. In another place, he calls them
just the small dust of the balance. In another place, he calls them
just a drop in a bucket. That's all. What's man? Nothing. Nothing. What's God? Everything. That's what we believe.
That's what we believe. Well, don't you think you have
to honor men? Don't you think you have to give
men a little credit? Don't you think you have to make
men feel good about themselves? No, I'm not a Babylonian. I'm
a believer. I repute it as nothing. And God
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or
say unto him, What doest thou? Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol, verse 37, the King of heaven, all whose works are
truth, and his ways judgment. Those that walk in pride he is
able to abase. What do you mean by saying that
God's sovereign? I mean that God does exactly
what he wills to do, exactly. He will do all his pleasure.
I mean that God Almighty always, in all things, with all people,
in all events, accomplishes his sovereign purpose. That's what
I mean by sovereignty. God's sovereign in creation.
When God willed that there be light, sun began to shine. When God willed the creation
of the world, the world was made by the Word of God. God's sovereign. I mean that God is totally sovereign
in all the affairs of prophetess, everything. For of him, through
him, and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. And
I mean, and this is the principal area in which God's sovereignty
must be declared. I mean that God is sovereign
in saving sinners. He's sovereign in salvation.
What does the scripture say? So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. He raised up Pharaoh and he said,
now listen here, Pharaoh, I've raised you up for this one reason.
so that all men might see in you my power and my sovereignty."
And therefore he cast Pharaoh into the sea. And the conclusion
of the matter by Paul's pen under inspiration is this, therefore
he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he
hardeneth. Somebody said to Rothbard one
time, he said, well, that makes God a monster. He said, I don't
know about that, but if it does, you better get ready to do business
with a monster, because that's who God is. That's who he is. If he wills to save you, he'll
save you. And if he wills to damn you,
he'll damn you. That's just as simple as it can
be. That's the character of God. He's sovereign. This, too, is
the true saying of God. In the last day, when Christ
comes the second time, He will yet find his church in this world. In verses seven and eight, Revelation
19. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints. Our Lord established
his church and he said the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And now our Lord Jesus comes
a second time and here stands that church and the gates of
hell have not prevailed against it. Never need fear for the ark
of God, it's always safe. Never need fear for the cause
of Christ, it's always in good hands, it's in his hands. In
the last day when the Son of Man comes, yes, he will find
faith upon the earth. Though Babylon overshadows her
in the eyes of men, the Lord will preserve in this world a
remnant according to the election of grace, which shall not be
intoxicated by the delusions and deceptions of Babylon. This
elect remnant is the Church of Christ, a pure, chaste virgin,
espoused to her beloved. Now, these are the true sayings
of God referred to in our text. and they are of great importance
to God's people in every age. The practical importance is found
in chapter 18 and verse 4. Here it is. Come out of her,
my people. Come out of her, my people. Let
us ever beware of false religion and get as far away from Babylon
as we possibly can. You must forsake the mystery
of iniquity. If you refuse, you will perish
with Babylon. If you cling to Babylon, you
will be damned with Babylon. Flee the abominations of Babylon. Say, how important is it? Read
Galatians 5. Paul says, stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. He said, if you be circumcised,
if you do something for God's favor, you're clinging to Babylon
and Christ will profit you nothing. Read Colossians chapter 2. Paul
describes the will worship of Babylon, keeping of Sabbath days
and holy days and new moons and touch not, taste not, handle
not, all of these things which have a show of wisdom. in will
worship. You cling to them, you'll die.
You cling to them, you'll die. What are you saying? I'm saying
flee from idolatry, every remnant of idolatry. Flee from sacramentalism. We're about to receive the Lord's
table. It's not a sacrament. To call
it a sacrament is idolatry and blasphemy. This is not a means
of grace by which men in eating the bread and drinking the wine
receive grace from God. Why, that's absurd. The priest holds up the bread
and the chalice, pronounces some kind of a mumbo-jumbo and waves
smelly censer over it. He says, now, by my hocus-pocus,
This bread has become the body of Christ and this wine has become
the blood of Christ. And this is our Savior. This
is our Redeemer. Why? And now we're going to eat
God. This is our little God. We're
going to eat him. That's ridiculous. It's absurd. It's blasphemous. No, the bread is bread, the wine
is wine. It's an ordinance in remembrance
of our Savior for men and women who have all his grace. And if
you don't already have all his grace, don't eat the bread, don't
drink the wine. If you're not born again by his grace, don't
you dare eat the bread or drink the wine. If you do, you receive
the bread in remembrance of him. You receive the wine in remembrance
of him. Flee from priesthood like you'd
flee from the plague. We don't have in Baptist churches
priest with fancy robes and funny looking costumes. But most Baptist
churches still have their priest. That's right. And I just soon
have a Roman priest or a Buddhist priest to have a Baptist priest.
I get done preaching and sing a little song and preachers said,
now come to me. If you want to come to Jesus,
come to me. Is that not priesthood? Is that not priesthood? Well,
of course it is. flee from freewillism, flee from
legalism, and worship Christ alone. Cling tenaciously to the
Word of God, forsake every doctrine, every custom, every tradition
of man's making, and hold only to thus saith the Lord. In the
true church of God, the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ is everything. In Him, in this church, there's
no circumcision and no uncircumcision. There's no male and no female,
no bond, no free, no Jew, no barbarian, but only Christ, and
Christ is all and in all. Among the redeemed of God, in
the true church of God, Jesus Christ is everything in redemption,
everything in justification, everything in salvation, everything
in preaching, everything in worship, and everything in esteem. And
I say to you who hear my voice, Give no rest to your eyes until
you know that you're among the number of these who are made
ready by God's grace to meet the Lamb at his marriage supper.
God grant that you be numbered among those, the chosen, redeemed,
beloved bride of Christ. And God grant that in that great
day, no member of this congregation will be found clinging to Babylon. You want to cling to Babylon?
Go where Babylon is. Go where Babylon is. If you want
works religion, you can go any place in this town, get somebody
to preach it to you. If you want to hear free willism, you can
go to any place in this town and get somebody to preach it
to you. If you want to hear men talk about a weak, puny, helpless,
defeated Jesus and a weak, puny, helpless, defeated God, you can
go anywhere and hear it. Go. Go. That's what I'm saying. Go. There's no place in this
assembly for Babylon, no place for free willism, no place for
the idolatrous religion of a weak God, no place for works, no place
for legalism. We preach Christ, we preach grace,
we preach sovereignty because this is the church of the living
God. We worship none but him. We honor
none but him. And then there are the true sayings
of God which go beyond this immediate text. those things which we have
proved by our experience. There are some things held as
matters of common faith by all true believers, because all who
are born of God have experienced them. We have proved them by
faith, acting upon them. And that which we preach to you
are only those things which we know, which we have seen and
heard and we have experienced by God's grace. Turn over to
1 John chapter 1. First John chapter one. If there's anything I could say
to young preachers about preaching, I'd say to them, don't ever go
in the pulpit with theory. Don't ever go in the pulpit and
work out your theories of religion and your theories of doctrine,
but go in the pulpit with what you know. what you know, what
you've experienced, that which no man can repudiate. And that's
what I come to you with. I'll leave it to somebody else
to work out their theories and to preach up their theories.
I'm here to declare to you what I've seen and heard. First John
1 verse 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the
life was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness and
show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that we may, that ye also may have fellowship
with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. Now here's the
things I've read in the word and I've proved them. These are
the true sayings of God. I read in the word of God. And
I know by painful experience that the heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. For the heart of man
is the source of all evil. The first thing the Holy Spirit
does in conversion is conviction. And the first thing He does in
conviction is to bring the conviction of sin. Before you ever know His grace,
you're going to have to know something about your sin. Before
you ever trust Christ, You're gonna have to know something.
God will have to convict you of sin. Apart from that, you'll
never trust the Savior. As long as you vainly imagine
that you're pretty good, as long as you vainly imagine that you're,
okay, I've done some bad things, but you know, I'm not really
all that bad. There's some folks around worse
than I am. You'll never trust Christ. George Whitefield staying
in a home There was a young girl, a servant in the house. She had
heard Whitfield preach and she had heard the conversations around
the dinner table and in the parlor where they sat in the evenings,
and she asked him the day he was to leave, Mr. Whitfield, how can I know Christ? How can I have this salvation
you speak of? And as he was packing up to leave,
he said to her, I'll tell you what, young lady,
ask God, if you want to know Christ, ask God to show you yourself. Will you dare do that? Would
you dare ask God to show you yourself? He left. Several months passed and he
came back through the same place, stayed in the same house. And
he inquired of the lady of the house about this young girl and
she said she said brother Whitfield just shortly after you left that
girl just she she became terribly distraught depressed and she
she's left our service we've seen very little of her since
then Whitfield thought he might know
the problem so he went and found the girl and he said now honey
Ask God to show you himself. That's where salvation comes.
You're going to have to know yourself and you must know the
living God. You must know him. I know by experience, this is
the true saying of God. Salvation is by grace and grace
alone. Only by grace. There is absolutely no salvation
by the works or the will of man, but only by the free grace of
God in Jesus Christ. And any mixture of grace, any
mixture of man's grace with the works of man or man's works with
the grace of God is a total, complete denial of God's free
grace. The apostle Paul describes in
chapter two of Ephesians what that grace is. He says, you were
dead, you were dead, but God quickened us together with Christ.
By grace are you saved, by grace alone. And I know this, this
too is a true saying of God. God help you to hear me. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's what he says, Wes, that's
just what he says. You're telling me, preacher,
that God's sovereign? You're telling me that Christ
has done everything for the salvation of his people? You're telling
me that salvation is by God's work alone? You're telling me
that God's elected the people and Christ redeemed them and
the Spirit calls them? And now you tell me that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved? No. No, I'm not telling you that.
God is. God is. Will you call? Will you call
on the name of the Lord? Are you happy to go to hell?
Are you satisfied and content to perish? Most astounding thing
in the world to me is the men will acknowledge their sin and
acknowledge the justice of God and acknowledge the declaration
of divine truth revealed concerning Christ and refuse to call on
the name of the Lord. I can't fathom that. I cannot
fathom that. To call on the name of the Lord
is to believe the record God has given concerning his son.
That's the first thing. Somebody asked just recently
why we keep insisting so much on on describing the sovereignty
of Christ and the substitutionary work of Christ and the satisfaction
of Christ and the satisfaction of justice and the efficacy of
Christ atonement. Because in order to call on the
name of the Lord, you got to know who he is. You got to know
who he is. To call on his name is to believe
the record God has given concerning his son. But secondly, to call
on his name is not merely to believe the record God's given,
but to look to him. Look down. Look unto me and be
ye saved, all beings of the earth. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. To call on His name then is to
know Him and trust Him as is revealed in the Scriptures. Trust
Him. To call on the name of the Lord is to surrender. to the claims
of Christ as Lord. And that's where the rub comes.
That's where the rub comes. Salvation is not just believing
the truth about God and his son. That's not it. Saving faith is
not just saying, I believe in Jesus. That's not it. Saving faith is the act of the
heart upon the revelation of God committing my soul, my life
to Christ. That's it. God told Noah it was going to
rain, and Noah believed God. Well, how do you know he believed
God? Because if God had sawed him around and started building
an ark, he acted on what he believed. God told Abraham that he was
gonna give him a son. And Abraham believed God. Well,
how do you know he believed God? Because he went and told his
wife, God's gonna give us a son. Let's go have a baby. And they
did. He believed God. He acted on
what he believed. God told Abraham to get out of the area of the
Chaldeans, to flee from Babylon. And he believed God. Well, how
do you know he did? He left. He left. I believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say, I commit myself
into his hands under his rule. Any sinner in all the world who
calls on the name of the Lord Any sinner in all the world who
believes the testimony of God, who trusts the Son of God, who
submits to the rule of Christ as his Lord, shall be saved,
immediately saved, and eternally saved. This too is the true saying of
God. Our God is always faithful. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Well, he'd been put through the
wringer. He said, I know this. Great is
thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. God's
faithful. God's faithful. If we believe
not, he can't deny himself, yet he abideth faithful. That's our
God. He's faithful to himself, faithful
to his covenant, faithful to his son, faithful to his word,
and he's faithful to his people. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. He's faithful and merciful to
keep us in the way of life. He's faithful to save us by his
free grace who come to him by faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And I hope that's beneficial to you. May God add his blessings
to his word. Apply it to your heart as he
sees fit for the glory of his son. Amen.