I never had the privilege of
hearing Brother Rolf Barnard in person, but I've listened
to a number of tapes of him. Barnard preached in his lifetime,
and he frequently makes this statement, honest men don't go
to hell. Honest people will not heaven. Honest folks will not be lost. Now let me ask you, can you be
honest for a little while this morning? Honest before God, honest
with yourself. I recognize something of what
it takes to be honest before men, before God. That really doesn't cause me
any great concern, any great difficulty. It's not too hard
for me to speak to men in honesty about God. If men and women get
upset with what I have to say about God, that does not disturb
me greatly. Those who are the enemies of
God, if they're my enemies, that's insignificant. Those who despise
God, if they despise me for speaking on God's behalf, that's of no
consequence at all, really. So it's not difficult for me,
as a preacher, to speak to men and be honest with men about
God. But Bobby, I find it very difficult
to be honest before God about myself. To be honest when I speak
to God myself. That, that's difficult. I wish,
I pray, that God will teach us to be honest and to speak to
Him about ourselves. In the Psalms, they did. You
read through the book of the Psalms, and the Psalms do two
things. First, they give us the hymn
book of God's church, that first psalm you just sang yesterday.
The hymn book of God's church, that's the psalm. But at the
same time, the psalms allow us to go into the closet with God's
church. He's gone in, the child of God
has, and he's shut his door behind him, and now, in private, in
secrecy, praying to God, we hear what he's saying. We can listen
in on the prayers of men like David. We listen in as they speak
to God, and we hear them speak with absolute honesty as they
pour out their hearts to God. They don't hide anything. They
show God what they feel. They show God how they think.
They declare to God what their emotions are. They just open
their hearts to God. I wish we could do that. Just
open our hearts to God. Now, I'm reasonably confident.
I'm reasonably confident that I am a man chosen of God. The Lord God loved me, I believe,
with an everlasting love. The Lord God set his heart upon
me from old eternity. Before he formed me in my mother's
womb, he sanctified me and ordained me as a life everlasting. I'm
reasonably confident of that. I'm reasonably confident that
I am the man standing before you and before God this morning,
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ,
God's Son, laid down His life for me. He was made to do sin
for me, that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
I'm reasonably confident that I'm one of those sheep for whom
the Good Shepherd laid down His life. And I have a reasonable
and confidence in the fact that I am born again by the almighty
grace and irresistible power of God's holy spirit. I was dead
in trespasses and in sin. I was, like all other men, a
child of wrath. I was, like all others, walking
according to the course of this world. My conversation was according
to the conversation of this world. My manner of life was according
to the manner of life in this world. who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us, he stepped in and he gave
this dead sinner life. Now, I have a good hope through
grace regarding these things. I have some measure of confidence
and assurance before God that these things are so, and that
I'm a child of God, an heir of eternal salvation. And I base
that hope and assurance upon three things. I base that hope
and that assurance on these three things. First, I hear the shepherd's
voice. Well, it's not that I heard it
yesterday or a few years ago, but I still hear it. I still
hear the shepherd's voice. This past week, I heard men preach
the gospel, declare the word of God, and the word of God,
Hubert, still comes to this heart, and the word with power and much
assurance and in the Holy Ghost. heart rejoices in it as much
as it did first time I heard it. More than it did first time
I heard it. I still hear his voice. I have
confidence with regard to these things because I trust my soul
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And he that believeth on
the Son hath life. I believe him. I trust his merits. I trust his righteousness. I
trust his blood. I trust his intercession. I trust
his providence. I believe him. And thirdly, I
am assured with regard to these things. Because there is within
my heart a true, sincere love for the Lord Jesus Christ and
for the people of God. Now, my love is not worth it. It's not in any way a matter
of merit or of honor, not at all. But I'm here to tell you,
I do love the Son of God. Bob, we love him because he first
loved us. If he loved us, and his love is revealed in us, we
love him. And it's a love that grows. It's
a love that increases. It's a love that becomes more
and more dominant in the lives of God's children. I hear people
talk about, they try to stir up the revival. stir up emotions,
you know, and they talk about believers wishing they could
get back to their first love. Now that first love has got a
lot of emotion, and that first love has got a lot of tingle,
and that first love has got a lot of thrill. But I'm here to tell
you that God's children grow in love for Christ. They grow
in love for Christ. And I have within my heart A
sincere love for God's people. I love Oscar Baylor. I love that
man. And I love the fellowship of
you men and women here. I look forward, I can't tell
you how much, I look forward to being here Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Tuesday night, as long as we can be together.
I look forward when I am sitting in my study and one of you folks
drive up Well, I just kind of use it. It's an extra part of
my day. It's an extra blessing in my
day because I enjoy the fellowship of God's people. I do love the
people of God. I love to have them around me.
I love to have them in my home. I love to have God's people around
me and myself in the company of God's people at all times.
I'm telling you the truth. I love God's people. But I have
a confession to make. A confession I wish I did not
have to make. A confession of sin that I must
make to you publicly. You see, there is a terrible
struggle within my soul. There is a tormenting fire in
my spirit and a heavy burden upon my heart. I have a new heart and a new
will. I have a new oven-bent nature
created in me by the grace of God, a nature that longs for
and seeks after righteousness and conformity to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I really do. to love you like I love myself.
I want that. I want to love your son, your
wife, and your daughter like I love myself. I want to love
God with all my heart, soul, and mind. I want to be perfect in every
detail, in thought, in attitude, in words, in deeds, As my Lord
said, I want to live without sin and perfect righteousness.
Now listen to me, I want that. I want that. All of God's children want that.
All of us want that. But, I cannot do the things I
will. I cannot do the things I will.
Look here in Galatians 5 verse 17. I find the law in my members, that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. I find in my
soul iniquity and transgression and sin, and listen to me, this
is the confession I make to you and before God. I find in my
soul iniquity and transgression and sin far more hideous, far
more ignominious than the profane acts of ungodly man in this world."
Far more so. And we blast away at the
pornographers, and we blast away at the drunkards, and we blast
away at the harlots, and we blast away at the whoremongers, and
we blast away at the profane acts of being in this world.
Listen to me! I find in him far worse, more hideous, more
shameful illiteracy than any of those far I'm trying to be
honest with you. For the flesh, the flesh, now
that includes the physical body, but it's more. It's the natural
man. It's the soulless man. It's the
inner man. It's what you are. You see, this
is what you are, flesh, flesh, flesh. It's what we are by nature,
flesh! sinful, fallen, depraved, corrupt
flesh. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary,
the one to the other, so that you cannot, you cannot, there's
no possibility. It does not lie within the realm
of possibility. You cannot, you cannot do the
things you wish. Let me try to tell you what I'm
talking about. I've been trying for over 19
years now to pray. I've been trying to pray. And I plan to keep on trying
to pray. But there's too much Selfish
lust in the best of my prayers, Hubert, to call it quits. Too
much. That's what I'm talking about.
I want to worship God. I came here this morning with
an earnest desire on my heart to worship God. To worship God
and, would you like that? Really to worship But there's too much pride in
my worship, call it what, whether it's in private or whether it's
in public. Pride enters in just as much when I'm sitting back
in my office by myself, nobody around, and try to worship God
there as when I'm standing right here in front of you. Pride.
Pride. This is everything. I want to
be completely free of earthly care. I would, I would to God
that I were entirely free of earthly care. The cares of this
world that choke out the word, the cares of this world that
boil the spirit, the cares of this world that drag down our
souls, I would to God I were entirely free of earthly care.
But there's too much unbelief, too much selfishness, too much
resentment toward God's providence. I want you to understand what
I'm saying. I know that the acts that men do, the perverse deeds
of men are evil, and I do not excuse those things. But if we
ever learn something of what's going on in here, ladies and
gentlemen, we won't be so terribly hard for men who don't know our
God. Not so terribly hard. You know what that is? You know
what envy is? You think harvester's bad? You think murder's bad? You think being a thief and a
robber is a terrible thing? Envy. There's not a man or woman
here for you out there. Not one. You know what envy is? Envy is enmity against God. That's
what it is. If I were not by nature at enmity
against God, if this old man Adam, this old flesh of mine,
were not at enmity against God, I would not be envious of other
men and what God does for them. Discontented. Paul said, I've
learned in all things to be content. Well, I believe I'm learning.
But I haven't yet attained. I haven't yet attained this contentedness. This contentedness is not being
at ease always. This contentedness is not being
perfectly at peace before God and His providence. Contentment
is simply being unruffled by anything. Contentment is being
easy before God, wanting nothing more than what God has given,
desiring nothing more than what God has given, desiring exactly
things to be as they are, because we believe God. That's contentment.
Discontentedness is to despise God's providence. That's what the Jews did in the
wilderness, you remember? They murmured against God because
God thought it was not easy. They murmured against God because
the way in the wilderness was a little rough. They murmured
against God because they said, can God set a table in the wilderness? Yes, he can. And they knew full
well he could, but they despised it and would not believe God's
promise. Worry. Oh, worry. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm speaking
to us. Worry, fretfulness, all worry
and fretfulness. It matters not what you look
at and say is the cause of worry and fretfulness. All worry is
questioning God's wisdom and his wisdom. That's what it is. Some years ago, I'm sure you
folks don't do things like this, but Shelby and I were laying
in bed. Faith was, I suppose she was
probably seven, eight, maybe nine years old. We were laying
in bed late at night and we got to talking about the future. We got it all wrapped up. We're
going to get this thing worked out and everything will be fine. Things are going to go for our
daughter. She gets to be a teenager. She gets into high school. She gets kind of out in front
of the mom and dad's home. What's going to happen with her
in the future? And what's going to, how we're
going to prepare for those days, prepare for college, and what
about her marriage? All of those things. I mean,
we were just projecting ourselves way on out there. And Shelby turned over and went
to sleep. I laid him in bed that night. I laid awake for hours,
for hours, questioning God's wisdom and God's truth. That's what worry is. Lay in my bed, saying I believe
God. and laying in my bed questioning
God's reason for me and his goodness towards me. Now, let me talk
about living without things they want me to. Fear is a denial of God's power. Covetousness is a proud rebellion
of the heart against God. I hear men today talk of becoming
less and less sinful. of becoming progressively holier
today than they were yesterday. I hear men talking about what
they call progressive sanctification. Now this is their doctrine. Their
doctrine is that God's children grow in righteousness and in
holiness until they become right for heaven. Now, that's the doctrine,
that you and I as believers grow in righteousness and grow in
holiness until we finally put down the question of that we
become right for heaven. They teach that glorification
is the end result of our own progressive attainment in personal
holiness. Now if their doctrine is true,
listen to me, if their doctrine is true, then it is possible
for men by diligence and self-denial, by personal holiness, to eventually
attain sinless perfection in this world, if that doctrine
is true. Let me try to show you what I'm
saying. Lindsay, if it's possible for you to do away with sin a
little bit today, and a little and a little more the next day,
when the inevitable consequence is, eventually, if you live long
enough, you can attain perfection. Is that correct? That's just
reason, if that doctrine is true. But such doctrine is contrary
to this book. It's not part of this book. If
we say that we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. And if we say that we do not
sin, that is, if we say that we are without sin, then we make
God alive. If we say that we do not sin
for an hour or for a moment, if we say that there is ever
a single time at all when we do not sin, we deceive ourselves
and we make God alive. It's what you and I are by nature. It mixes everything we do, everything. Everything we touch, we're like
the lesser. If we touch it, we defile it,
because we're evil. Honesty compels me to acknowledge
not only that such doctrine is contrary to the Scripture, but
such doctrine is totally contrary to everything I've experienced. Now, let me try to be perfectly
sincere. I believe that over these past
19 years, I have grown in grace. I believe I have. I don't speak
arrogantly, and when I said that, there was a whole lot of arrogance
there. But I think I can say with honesty, before you and
before God, that though my love for more today than I've ever had.
That love and peace. My faith in Christ is a weak
trembling faith, but that faith is stronger today than it has
ever been. It's stronger today than it's
ever been. God on his grace has seen me. When I was first converted,
it was a tough trial for me to have hope in front of me. That
was a difficult thing to endure. I've had folks laughing and mocking
me. It won't last. We've seen you
before. We know you. That's not going
to last. That was tough. It was difficult for me to have
my companions, one by one, just drop it out. Just stand aside. No one can do that anymore. That
was a difficult time. Well, that's insignificant to
them. I've grown some, I've had some
other difficulties, some other trials that have caused that
faith to mature and to grow. My commitment to Christ, it's
nothing to be spoken of, but I'm more committed to him now
than I've ever been. I'm more committed to the gospel, more
committed to you, more committed to the kingdom of God, than I've
ever been in my life. I rejoice in Christ, I rejoice
in God's providence, I rejoice in him, my joy in the Lord, that's
gone as well. But listen now, listen. My sin has not diminished what
I am. What one I am. The inward evil
of my flesh has not been diluted. It has not weakened, it has not
diminished. My outward acts of sin are more
restricted and more composed today than they used to be. There was a time when I, if a
fella pulled out from 5th Street in front of me in the road, I'd
jump out of my car and beat him up. Boy, I don't do that anymore. You know, I kind of restrain
myself. Sometimes I feel like it, but I don't do it anymore
because I'm not supposed to. I don't go around and put a frozen
apple at me and hit him in the head with a baseball bat. I just
don't do things like that anymore. I don't get involved with those
outward things that men associate with being evil and sin. You
follow me? Those things are restrained.
But the inward evil of this man is worse now than it ever was. Worse than ever. With aching
heart, I confess that though I'm redeemed, justified, and
sanctified in Christ, I'm still a man in the flesh, full of sin. I find that in me, that is in
my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Not one thing good. I ask you to be honest with yourself.
Do you not find the same thing through the good, sir? As we
increase in age, in this world, this flesh does not get weaker,
he does not get more holy, he does not, the sin of the flesh
does not diminish, nor does it increase. That's what we are
by nature. That's what we are. This is my
soul's greatest trouble. I wish it weren't so, but it
is. How can you live in such a state? Where can we find comfort? Is there any hope for such creatures
as we are? Yeah, I believe I've got a message
for you. Turn over to 1 John chapter 3. I want you to see
this. The believer, the believer is
a person with two natures, with two principles, warring against
one another continually, and those two natures are the flesh
and the spirit. Here in 1 John 3 and verse 6,
the apostle says, whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Now that's
proof of the scripture. Rest, if you're in Christ, you
do not any longer continue under the dominion of sin. You do not
any longer continue to live under the rule of sin. Whosoever abides
in Christ sinneth not. The word is, he does not continue
in sin. But now look down in verse 9,
he's teaching another thing. He's saying, whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin. For his seed, that is the seed
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, remains in him. And he can not
sin because he's born of God. Now what John's telling us is
this. The believer has two needs. Here is that old man dead in
trespasses and in sins, the flesh defiled, corrupt, decaying, rotting,
going to hell. And the Lord God sends his spirit
and invades that dead flesh with life and implants Christ within
it. That's regeneration. Now the
flesh is still flesh. But there's a new nature implanted
within. There's a new heart. There's
a new will. There's a new bent. There's a
new direction. There's a new life implanted within. And that
cannot change. It's perfect. It's holy. It's
righteous. You say, well, Pastor, if it's perfect and holy and
righteous, how come we experience growth and degrees of faith and
degrees of love and degrees of joy and peace and all those things?
Because it does. It does. I'll give you an illustration,
you can compare it on your own time. Over in Luke chapter 2,
verse 52, our Lord Jesus Christ, the moment he was conceived by
the Spirit of God in the womb of the Virgin, at that moment
he was perfect, my love. He was holy, he was righteous,
he was just, he was perfect in all things. He had no sin. He's
that holy thing created by the Spirit of God. that the child Jesus grew in
reason and in chapter as a man. He grew, so that as a boy, his
faithfulness, and his dedication, and his commitment, and his love,
and his zeal, all of those things continued to grow as he progressed
into manhood. They matured because he grew
by himself as a man into maturity. Even so, the believer, being
born of God's Spirit, he's born of me! But all the virtue and
all the worth of the soul is in that being the moment the
Spirit of God is lost and it grows so that they become young
men. and they become elders, and they
become fathers in the Church of Christ. Do you see that? It
matures. The grace, the faith, the love,
the joy, the peace, all those things mature. Now you have an
example of this. I want you to turn with me to
Psalm 73. We read it earlier. You have
an example of this back here in Psalm 73. David, the man after God's own
heart, with the flesh and the sin. And he goes before God and he
speaks honestly to God about it. He describes before his God
the warfare, the struggle of his own soul between the flesh
and the spirit. Now, I said as we read this,
that this is one of David's penitential psalms. If you will compare it
with Psalm 51. In Psalm 51, David's dealing
with with the double sin, the double crimes, the hideous offenses
of adultery and murder. He deals with those things, he
deals with them honestly. He deals with them honestly. But,
but, those were isolated acts of evil. They were isolated acts
of evil. And if you'll compare the two
Psalms, you will find that David is here in Psalm 73 speaking
about something that was more vexing, more troubling, more
disturbing to him than the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder
of Uriah. Because now he's dealing with
inward principles with which he wrestles every day. Inward
principles of sin with which he continually struggles. Here
in verse one, he said, truly God's good to Israel, I know
that. Verse two, but as for me, my feet were almost gone. My
steps had well and I slipped. He says, I was ready, I was ready
to just give it all up and forsake God altogether because I was
envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity I'm sure that you've never had
any problems along that line. Sometimes I do. I get lots of
papers in church, literature and things, and I read in papers of the millions,
millions of dollars that are taken in by men who despise God
and despise the gospel of his grace. You just stop and think about
the kind of money it takes to operate these super aggressive
religious organizations. They hate God. They destroy the
souls of men. And I think to myself, man, what
I could do if I had that. David was just that way. He was
just that way. He said, I was sitting at my
window, and I was looking across the field, and I got to thinking
about me. That man over there hates God.
He's a fool. He has no regard for God. He
has no regard for the things of God. He never worships God. He never does anything for the
good of men. But he promises. Here I am. I worship God. I sing praise to God. I endeavor
to walk before God in uprightness and faith and faithfulness. And
I've got a house full of that man. That man's sons, they're
all at his table. My children have all forsaken
me. My children have despised me. My wife despises me. That
man, he doesn't go to his household. His children live with him until
he gets to be an old man and gone. He has nothing that heart could
desire. There's nothing the heart could
desire that he doesn't have. Everything that a man could want
is right at his fingertips. Everything. Riches, peace, prosperity,
fame, wealth, everything, honor, everything! He doesn't have any
trouble when he comes to die. He walks before God without any
trouble of conscience, without any disturbing of his mind. And
David said, now look at it, down in verse 12. He said, Behold,
these are the ungodly. who prosper in the world. They
increase in riches. You see it around you all the
time. You see it. Ungodly, unbelieving men, everything
they touch turns to gold. They seem to get along so fine. Their homes, their estates, everything
goes well. Their children raise up to honor
them and they give them no difficulties. Therefore, David said, look at
verse 13, Verily, now listen, listen, Hubert David's talking
to God here. He's talking to God. Verily,
I have cleansed my heart in faith and washed my hands in innocence. I'll give you the essence of
what he's saying. He's saying, I spoke to God And
in my heart, this is what I said, that the foolish thing to walk
before God. He says in verse 14, for all
the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning.
If I say this, however, if I say, I will speak thus, behold, I
should offend against the generations I chose. put my hand over my mouth. If I say that, I don't think
he's got the truth, and I can't stand across from that. You see
the two nations? You see the two? He said, he
said in his flesh, it's foolish to serve God. But there's another
man in him, he said, How could I dare speak such a
thing and offend a generation of God's children? Verse 16,
when I thought to know this, when I thought about offending
one of God's children, it was too painful for me. I couldn't
bear it until I went into the sanctuary of God. I went into
the house of God. I give you a word of admonition
here. You get troubled and distressed,
perplexed, difficulty. Your tendency is, your tendency
is, well, I'm not in the mood to go worship God today. I'm
not in the mood to go to church today. I'm not in the mood to
go to the house of God today. I couldn't worship if I went
there. I've got too much on my mind. Oh, now wait a minute.
David had a lot on his mind. And he didn't get it off his
mind until he went to the house of God. Because when he came,
the world was spoken, and he heard from God a word for him. Look at what he said. He said,
I finally, I went into the sanctuary, into the house of God, and this
is what I learned. He said, I learned, in verse
17, therein, surely God has set them in slippery places. God
cast them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terror, as a dream
when one waketh. So, O Lord, when thou awakest,
thou shalt despise their image." And then he says, thus was my
heart breathed. I was pricked in my wrist. O God, how can I My heart is free. My heart is fixed by Him. Flesh and Spirit. Flesh and Spirit. His flesh says the foolish things
of God. His Spirit says, God have mercy
on me. If flesh said, I've washed my
hands in innocence, I'm going to forget this thing. And the
spirit said it came. And what I'm saying is this,
my friend. God's children have a struggle, a constant struggle
between flesh and spirit. And I'm going to take David's
words here and make them my own. And I want to tell you two or
three things about myself. I believe they'll be helpful
to you. Number one, though I am saved
by the grace of God, I am a terribly foul and sinful man. I have had a few trials in my
life, a few difficulties, but the most painful, the most difficult
trial I have ever had to endure is one that I must endure as
long as I live. And that trial is the painful,
ever-increasing awareness and realization of my sin. David uses three words here to
describe his sin before God. Verse 22, So foolish was I, and
ignorant I was as a beast before him. Foolish. David said, I behave before God
like a fool. And we often do. We often do. This word fool, he used it over
in Psalm 14, verse 1. He said, the fool has said in
his heart, there is no God. He uses the same word to describe
himself, but he uses it to describe a man who says, there's no God
at all! He says, I behave like one who
is an atheist! A fool! One who doesn't believe
God is. One who loves evil and disguises
good. One who says, no God, no God. He said, I will never prove before
God. I prove before God. How often
we are. He says, I have been so ignorant.
My speech, my thoughts, my actions betray my ignorance as a man.
How often we act like ignorant fools, ignorant fools. men and
women who are utterly unaware of God's existence, and utterly
unaware of God's power, utterly unaware of God's control, utterly
unaware of God's goodness and his sovereign character. Once
before human, we fret, we worry, fret, worry, fret, worry, because
we behave like ignorant fools. That's why I wish I wish we had just as
much knowledge right here about God's character as we do here.
It put away this foolish, ignorant creation. We act sometimes like,
we act sometimes like no God in heaven at all. No God in heaven
at all. the thunder roll, and the lightning
flash, and dazzling vases, and you get a little uneasy? Pardon de luz. Pardon de luz. You afraid to go here, go there? Afraid to do this or do that?
Because you're just so apprehensive? Oh, what might happen? What might
happen? Get a little uneasy, go to the
doctor, scared to death, what might happen? Is there no God
in whom you can help? Is there none that you can rely
upon? Is God weak? Is God more wise
than good? People ask me. Every now and then, I talk about
flying. They get things figured out.
They had a plane crash a few weeks ago down in Dallas, and
everybody on the back end where they smoked, they were safe.
The folks up front died. They had one this week. Everybody
up front died, and folks in the back got killed. The ones up
front lived, and the ones in the back got killed. And now
they're in pickle. They don't know which folks are
safe. And folks just worry about that. Watch them interview folks
on television. I believe I'll go back there
and sit among those smokers, because that's the safest place to sit.
I hope that you wasn't on that plane. Folks ask me, don't you
worry about flying 40,000 feet in the air? No. No. Never crosses my mind to worry.
Never crosses my mind. My God rules the airwaves just
as well as He rules the Earth. Just as well. God's in control
of everything. Now I use that for an illustration.
But my friends, I find in my own heart so many times the same
kind of foolishness, and it ought to grieve us. It ought to grieve
us. David goes on to say, I behave like a brute beast before God.
The word beast here does not mean a lapdog. It doesn't mean
a little kitty cat. It's referring to some monstrously
hideous, astonishingly wild creature, and it's an accurate description
of our beastly nature. Like brute beasts of the earth,
we're too much attached to this world. Takes a hog out in the
mud, and he wallows around in the mud and grubs in the earth
for his roots, and he never thinks about stars and heaven. Doesn't
matter to him whether the stars shine or whether they don't shine.
Doesn't matter to you whether the stars stay up there or whether
they fall out one by one. He's not the least bit interested
in the stars. He's interested in the mire and
the roots in the mire. How much like the Halls do that?
Say, well, I'm not attached to the things of this world. Go
home and find your house burned up in the state. I'm not attached
to the things of this world. Go to the cemetery and bury your
daughter. Let's see if you're attached. I'm more attached to
the things of this world. Go and bury your husband or your
wife. Let's see how attached we are. I wish I could say as
David, my father was as a weaned child, but I'm afraid we're too
much like brute beasts attached to this world. Let us never be content with
our beastly attachment to the world, but don't ever be so proud
as to deny it. I'm also like the wild beast
in this regard. I have so little emotion, passion
for heavenly things. There's a beastly deadness, coldness
of heart, and apathetic indifference about everything I do. My preaching,
my repentance, my Bible reading, my praying, my singing, my worship,
everything's so sad. Everything's so sad. No wonder Paul writes to believers
and he says, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead, and Christ will give you rest. For most of us, our hearts are
more easily touched by a dime for another than by the cross itself. For
most of us. For most of us, our emotions
are more easily stirred by the sight of starving children in
Ethiopia than by the sight of Christ's crucifixion. Our books
have always called this acid, spiritual indifference, brutish. Again, we're like the beast in
our short-sighted Our hearts and minds are too much concerned
for the things of time and too little concerned for the things
of eternity. We can surely compare ourselves to beasts, Greek beasts,
because of our animal passions. Virgins said, he that hath fellowship
with God will sometimes feel the devil within him till he
thinketh himself a devil. When we honestly look within,
we find that there is nothing lovely to be seen. There is still in my flesh the
pride of a lion, the lust of a horse leech, the raging anger,
anger of a mad bull, the envy of a wolf, and the stubbornness
of a jackass, and it's true with you as well. The grace of God does not change
our old nature. Grace gives us a new nature.
But flesh is still flesh, undiluted evil, just as evil as it was
before God saved us. Grace conquers Adam. Grace rules
Adam. Grace holds Adam in check. Grace binds Adam's arms so that
he cannot do the things that he would. But grace does not
change Adam. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. This warfare and struggle
within each of us is a constant and perpetual thing. It's going
to continue until at last grace wins the victory. The flesh returns
to the earth and we're received up in the Lord. This is my painful
but true confession to you. I was as a beast before they.
If one thing I must acknowledge, I'm carnal, sold under sin, and
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Yet, secondly, though I am a
vile, sinful man, I trust the Lord Jesus Christ still. I am
sinful, shamefully sinful, but God is faithful, gloriously faithful,
and therefore, trusting the Lord my God, I will say with David,
nevertheless, I am continually with you. Thou hast holden me
by my right hand. What David's saying is this.
Though I am so sinful and so beastly, that doesn't change
a thing. I'm still with God. I'm still
with God. God Almighty does not deserve
his own. I am still with him. Thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me up to glory." God will persevere in his grace
toward us until he has performed his desire toward us. Nevertheless,
I am continually with thee. I am continually upon his mind,
continually before his eye, continually in his hand, continually on his
heart, continually in his favor. No matter what my outward circumstances
may be, no matter the evil of this flesh, no matter the evil
that I think or say or do, I am in Christ accepted with God. And that never changes. That
never changes. vile, depraved man shall one
day go to the grave. This vile, depraved flesh shall
one day be put away. But my friends, God Almighty
will never forsake you. He'll never forsake you. People
accuse us. They say, well, you're preaching
licentious You're preaching that men can go out and sin all they
want to. I sin a heap fat more than I
want to. Folks who accuse us of preaching
antinomian doctrine, licentious doctrine, are liars and they
know they're lying. I don't promote any such thing.
What I am saying to you who believe, to you who are God's children,
God will not charge you with sin. Not if you're in Christ.
He will not do it. He will not do it. Our security
does not depend upon our faithfulness to God, but God's faithfulness
to himself. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you tricky, deceitful, lying sons of Jacob are not conceived. He says, thou shalt, thou hast
to hold me by my right hand. I was writing this message out,
the thought came to me. My right hand, that's the hand
of my strength. If I want to do something, I do this hand.
If a fella comes at me and my body is in danger and I want
to protect myself, I don't throw a left hook. I hold that hand
out there just to keep myself up. I'm going to bust him with
this. That's the hand of my strength.
You follow me? The right hand symbolizes strength.
And what David is saying is that my strength is a weakness, and
God holds me by my right hand. He's the one who sustains me.
He is my strength. It says in verse 24 that God
will continue to guide me. He will continue to order my
steps, and He will, when it's all done, receive me up into
glory. He'll receive us up into glory,
holy and righteous and perfect and blameless in His One last
thing. My soul's only hope of eternal
glory is God my Savior. I have no hope in myself. There's
nothing in me, nothing I've ever done, nothing I've ever felt
has given me any hope or any commendation before God. My only
hope of salvation and acceptance of Christ is Christ Himself. Now listen. There are There are certain characters
and offices by which Christ is revealed, which you can only
claim and use in your sinfulness, in your awareness of sinfulness.
A holy man doesn't need a Savior, Bob. He doesn't need a Savior.
We come to Christ, our Advocate, our Prophet, our Priest, We come
to Christ, our mediator, our substitute, our intercessor. We come to Christ as that one
who stands between us and God because we need Him as sinner. And that's the only way we approach
Him. With our sin, we come to Him,
trusting His merits and His alone. Christ is all the hope I have.
And he's all the hope I want. Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. The
Lord Jesus Christ alone is the rock of my salvation and the
strength of my heart. The strength he, my God, my God,
is the strength of my heart. He's my portion forever. And
God, as he's revealed in Christ, is my everlasting portion. Therefore will I hope into my
heart and my flesh faith." That's a continual reality. Sometimes that old influence
of Arminian free will doctrine kind of invades us because it's
so natural to us, and we look for some comfort and assurance
in ourselves. We look in here and we find ourselves
full of doubt and fear because there's nothing in there. Nothing
in there is possible. Not anything in your heart or
mind to give us assurance. Nothing. But when my little vessel
is tossed and beaten about upon the stormy realization of my
sin, I cast anchored out of myself
to him that is within me there, and he is my hope. I rest my soul in him. He's all my hope, all my righteousness,
all my redemption. What I'm saying to you, children
of God, is this. Don't ever expect to be free
from sin in this world. You will not be. Don't ever expect your brethren
to be free from sin in this world. But in the midst of your sin,
even in the midst of your sin, go on trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ. He'll not cast you off. My little
children, these things write I unto you, John said, that you
sin not. But if any man sins, We have
an advocate of this doctrine, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and
he is a propitiation for our sins. Amen.