Your Bible is with me to 1 Timothy
chapter 1. It sure was some beautiful feet
up here tonight, weren't they? Beautiful feet. Beautiful feet. It's a delight to be with you
all again, to be here and see so many friends that I don't
get to see very often except in meetings from all over West
Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio. Dear, dear friends. Oh, it's so wonderful to see
everybody. Todd and Lynn let us come in.
Cody and Wynna come all the way from Manitta. Just to hear me
preach. You think I ain't got, I think I
ain't full of it. You know, there's been a lot
said this evening about, do you know you converted? Do
you know that you know the Lord? Have you been born again? Well,
I'm going to ask you a question. I want to ask you a question,
but let me read these scriptures here. 1 Timothy 1.12 down through
verse 16. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for he counted me faithful, putting
me into the ministry. who was before a blasphemer,
a persecutor, an injurious. But I obtained mercy, bless his
name, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieving.
Everything we did, we did in ignorance. We didn't know God,
we didn't know ourselves, we didn't know the scriptures, we
didn't know nothing about sin. Our whole life was a life of
ignorance until God came. Paul was a Pharisee, but he said,
what I did, I was ignorant. I was ignorant of the Scriptures,
ignorant of myself, ignorant of God, ignorant of righteousness,
ignorant of any way of salvation. I was ignorant. And I was in
unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying. and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting." Bruce asked the question, have
you been born again? Todd talked about under whom
I have believed. But have you ever asked yourself,
am I a child of God? How can I know I'm a child of
God? How can I know that I'm a believer? How can I know that
I've been saved by the grace of God? How can I know that Christ
has actually done something for me? How can I know that? When
you mention Brother David. Everybody, at one time or another,
has wondered whether they knew Christ or not. You've said something,
you've done something, you've went somewhere, you've thought
something, you've said, how could I know God? And said that, done
that, thought that, felt that. And even John Newton himself,
who wrote Amazing Grace, said, "'Tis a point I long to know.
Oft it gives me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not?' You know, if you ever ask yourself,
am I a child of God, I'll tell you who you don't dare to ask.
If you ask yourself this question, I'm going to tell you who not
to ask. You don't never ask another man. You don't never ask another man.
Another man can't let you know that. Another man cannot let
you know if you're a child of God or not. I know that that's
the thing that most people do when everybody starts looking
for assurance. They go to the preacher and the preacher says,
well, honey, I was there. You did confess to being a sinner,
didn't you? I did. You did accept Jesus, didn't you? I did. You
was on our altar, wasn't you? I was. Well, why are you down
there? The devil's doing that to you. Don't ask another man. Don't
ask another man. A man that would give you assurance
is really trying to find assurance for himself. And I tell you, don't ask this.
Don't ask this question. Don't ask how much I know. Don't
ask how much knowledge I have of God. How much knowledge do
we have of God? When Paul said, how unsearchable,
oh, the depth of both the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of
God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding
out. Who hath ever known the mind
of the Lord? Who's ever been his counselor of him, through
him and to him, the all things? Oh my, how much do we know about
him? Oh, we know he's sovereign, but
what else do we know? We know he has eternity, but
what else do we know? And oh, don't ask how much you
know about his word. There's men they call walking
bibles. They can quote chapter after chapter after chapter,
and yet, beloved, they wouldn't know God from a goat. If the
Lord Jesus Christ walked down the aisle of their congregations,
they wouldn't know who he was. They'd try to win him. And you
know, I'm serious about that. They really would. They said,
well, there's another soul we got to win to Jesus tonight. Oh, that's true. I'm serious
about that, wouldn't I? And I'll tell you something else
you don't dare ask. Don't never, never question your feelings.
Don't never look to your feelings. Oh, folks, I feel saved. What
do you do when you feel lost? What do you do when you feel
like you don't know Christ? What do you do when you come
to service after service after service and you don't feel the
presence and power of God? You feel like God's cut off the
light. He's turned it out on you. He's
made the heavens to be brass. And oh, beloved, don't ever ask
your experience or look to your experience. I've had experiences
while Bruce was preaching. Wonderful experience. But also,
if you're going to look to experience, what about all the other experiences
you have? You have a time when you can pray and you can seek
God, and other times you get down and seek Him in the office
and things go through your mind. If you're going to take the good
and look for that for assurance, you've got to take the bad and
take that assurance away by the bad that you have. Huh? Oh, my. And don't ask yourself
if you say, well, I know I'm saved because I believe the doctrines
of grace. That won't work, that won't work. So, oh my, am I a child of God? How in the world am I going to
know? How am I going to know? Who can
tell me? Who can assure me? Who can give
me assurance? Who can tell me that I know Christ,
that Christ is in my heart, that I've come to Him, I trust Him,
I know Him, that I've been saved by the grace of God? Who can
give me any assurance? There's only one place to get
it. It's from this right here. That'll give it to you. When
the church, it can't give it to you. The preacher can't give
it to you. Your doctrinal confession can't give it to you. Your creed
can't give it to you, can you? Church membership can't give
it to you. If you're going to get it, you've got to come out
of here. You keep Timothy, look with me
over in 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. You know, James says, By his
own will began he us with the word of truth. So forgotten,
begotten by the Word, then it's the Word and the Word only that
can give us any kind of assurance. And here in verse 22, seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth, Through the Spirit, and that's the only
way in the world you can obey the truth, is through the Spirit.
And when the Spirit comes, He gives you an unfeigned love for
the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. And this is why you do this.
This is why you obey the truth. This is how your spirit has been
purified, being born again, not a corruptible seed. You see,
there's two seeds here. There's this flesh that he talked
about, and the Spirit being born again, not a corruptible seed.
That's all we've got. but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever." That's what gets us.
That's it. We are born again by the word,
and if the word is the one that gave us life, then the word bears
witness to the life that we have. Now watch what he says now. For
all flesh is his grace. Oh, boy. And all the glory of
the man is the flower of the grass. You see, all these beautiful
trees right now, budding out, beautiful flowers come. And then,
oh my, they'll be gone. The wind will come along and
blow them away. That's just beauty. That's the way man is. He comes
up with all of his beauty, and the next thing you know, all
the blooms are gone. He's gone. That's it. Gone. The grass withered, and the flower
thereof falled away, and our flowers fixed to fall, some of
us. But, the Word of the Lord, it endureth forever. And listen
to it now, and this is the Word, which by the Gospel, It's preached
unto you. It's preached unto you. So am
I a child of God? Well, I'm going to try to, there's
only two questions that I'll get, you know, there's only two
answers, two questions that I'll ask, and I believe it will give
us an answer. It gives me an answer anyway. First question
is this, am I a sinner? Am I a sinner? I'm not talking
about a preacher made sinner. I'm not talking about a church-maid
sinner. I'm talking about a mama-maid sinner or a papa-maid sinner.
Going in your bedroom and tell you, oh, you want this? No, no,
I'm not talking about that. Look what Paul said back over
here in our text. Verse 15, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all the acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Sinners? Am I a sinner? Why in the world would you ask
that? Because that's the only people God says he'll save. He
will not save anybody else but a sinner. That's the only one
he'll save. This is a faithful save. Paul
said, for this cause, because I was a sinner. This cause, because
I was a blasphemer. This cause, because I was a persecutor. This cause, because I was injurious.
This cause, because I was ignorant. This cause, I obtained mercy. Jesus Christ came and saved me
because I was a sinner. And I have to admit that I am. I'll confess here before everybody.
I'll tell the world. If I tell the president, I'll
tell everybody. I'm a sinner, yes. God's Word
says that I am. It says that I'm not righteous,
that I don't understand, that I fall short of the glory of
God, and all of the best things I've ever done is as a filthy
rag. It says that I don't seek God, I don't understand God,
the way of peace I don't understand, that God went looking for somebody
who was righteous and good, He couldn't find one, so if that
means that He couldn't find one anywhere, that means I was one
of the ones He couldn't find. And oh, listen now, not only
has God's Word says that, but my own conscience says I am.
My conscience tells me I'm a sinner. It tells me, my conscience tells
me when I say things and do things and act the way that's not right,
that's contrary to God, contrary to my own beliefs, contrary to
my own principles. And my experience says I am.
My experience says I am. Everywhere I've ever went, there
ain't been no place that I've ever been that I didn't commit
a sin. I stand here in your presence tonight. And I've never done
nothing selfishly. I mean, I've done nothing for
the glory of God, and I've never done nothing unselfishly. I've
never done one thing completely for the glory of God. I get up
here and I worry more about how I'm going to feel as a preacher
and how you're going to act toward me and how you'll react toward
me than I am for the glory of God. How damnable a sin is that? My experience says I am, and my actions say I am. I open my mouth. Things I've
done, things I've said, the way I've acted, my actions tell me
that I'm a sinner. I get mad, and I get angry, and
I tell people off. I don't forgive people as quick
as I should forgive. My action says I am. Oh, my. The Holy Spirit says
that I am. He came and convinced me that
I'm a sinner. Oh, the death of Christ on the
cross tells me I'm a sinner. Why would Christ go and die and
bear sin in his own body on the tree? Why would the Lord Jesus
Christ take upon Himself my nature and identify Himself with me
and be made to be sin for God to forsake Him if I wasn't a
sinner? Why did Christ die if I'm not
a sinner? Why did Christ come if I'm not
a sinner? Why did God forsake Him if I'm
not a sinner? Why would God turn His back on
His Son if I'm not a sinner? Why would God pour out His wrath
on His Son if I'm not a sinner? My wife and children will bear
witness that I'm a sinner. They'll bear witness to it. My
friends have to bear witness to it. My loved ones will bear
witness to it. They'll all tell you I am. I'm
a sinner when I feel like I'm one, and I'm a sinner when I
don't. I'm a sinner when I'm sleeping, and I'm a sinner when
I'm awake. And oh, listen to me, I'm ashamed
of it. I'm ashamed of it. I'm not glowing in it here. I'm
embarrassed by it. I'm embarrassed by it. And oh,
I'd like to be done with it. I'd like to be done with it,
and bless God's name, one of these days I will. It's an awful,
awful burden to know that there's something in you that's so against
God, that's so against righteousness and so against holiness that
you would un-God God if you could. Something so intrinsically evil
in you that you'll go and let God leave your mind, let God
leave your thoughts. And think some of the awfulest
things sometimes that you've said. How could anything like
that go through anybody else's mind? And, oh, I'm a dog. A dog. Like Mephibosheth, I had to be
brought. When I was brought before the
king, I said, oh, why would thou look upon such a dead dog? It's bad enough to be a dog.
It's bad enough to be a sorry dog. But to be a dead dog, rotten,
corrupt, and stinking dead dog. Oh, my. But, oh, listen to me. Christ said, I came to save people
like that. It's the faithful saving. And
it's worthy for everybody in this building, everybody I've
ever preached to, even to my own self. It's just worthy. Believe this, accept this, embrace
this, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
And because of this, friend, I obtain mercy. Oh, let's don't
stop now. I'm a hypocrite. I know you're
not, but I am. I'll say one thing and I'll do
something else. I expect from others. I don't
even expect for myself. I expect others to act ways that
I wouldn't act myself. I pass judgments upon others
that I wouldn't even pass upon myself. I condemn others when
I wouldn't even condemn myself. And I found this out about myself. And when I would, what I would
do, I don't. What I wouldn't do, I do. And I see that in me, that is
in my flesh, absolutely dwells no good thing. No good thing. Now, oh, beloved, I don't want
to use my depravity, my sinfulness as an excuse for my sin. I don't
want to use my fallen nature as an excuse for my sin. I don't
want to use the grace of God as an excuse to sin. And I bear
the blame for what I am and what I do. I bear the whole blame
for it. No one makes me sin. No one twists
my arm. No one gets me by my neck and
says, sin. No one gets in my mind and says,
think that. No one gets in my mouth and says,
think that. No one gets in my heart and says,
make me feel this way. It's me. I take the whole blame
for it. And all my Here's the second question. And this is to me now, Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, or who mind she?
Oh, that gives me a little hope. As old Scott says, the more you
can convince me of my sin, the more hope you give me. Oh, just keep on, just keep on
pouring it on. It just makes me, shows me how,
you know, it just keeps driving me. Here's the second question. Back in our text, do I believe?
Am I a sinner? The second question is this.
Do I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, and I've committed my soul to Him? Do you believe that
with all your heart? That's what Paul said there in
verse 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtain
mercy, that in me Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering
for a pattern? Oh my, do I believe, do you believe
with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do
you know God's blessed word says that through faith in Him, God
would save me and justify me, declare me righteous, make me
accepted in Him without doing anything? Without act, just absolutely
just throw it in my heart with Him. Just throw it in my heart.
Just believe in Him. With grace in Him and believe
in Him. Let me show you. Look with me in Acts chapter
8. I'm going to show you what I'm trying to say, if I can. God says that through faith in
Him, He would be just. I always believed, even when
I was unconverted, that God was just. That, oh my, He was just. And oh, I don't want to deal
with a just God outside of Christ. He cannot at all acquit the wicked. He can't clear the guilty. He
won't justify the wicked. He won't do it. He can't do it.
Sin has got to be paid for. Sins must be atoned. Sin after
sin, all I talk about what I am and what I've done and all that
I feel and all that, I've told you that. But yet, beloved, that
sin must be atoned for. That awful things that I've done
must be paid for. The sins that I've committed
back then and the sins I commit now and the sins for the future,
all of them must be paid for. All of them must be atoned for.
And who in the world is going to do that? Oh, look here in Acts chapter
8, down here in Versailles. You all know the story where
Philip went to meet the Ethiopian eunuch and told him to go join
himself to this chariot. And he's sitting in the chariot
reading the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked him there in verse
30, he said, You understand what you're reading? You understand
what you're reading? And he said, How can I accept
some man should guide me? Oh, how in the world am I going to...
And in his heart, Phil, come up here and sit with me. And
the place of the scripture he read was this. He was led as
a lamb to the slaughter. Oh, my. As a lamb to the slaughter. You know what they do with a
lamb when they slaughter him? First thing they do is slit his throat.
Blood begins to gush. Now watch this. And like a lamb
done before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth. He never
murmured, never said a word. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare it? Who's
going to stand up and declare a generation for his life was
taken for the earth? Now watch what the eunuch answered
and said, I pray thee, of whom the prophet speaks, does he speak
of himself or some other man? That's a good question. Who is
Isaiah talking about? or some other man. He knows that
when he talks about that sheep and talking about that lamb and
talking about that humiliation and talking about that judgment
and his life being taken from there, he knows he's talking
about a man. He knows that. He says, is he talking about
himself or is he talking about somebody else? Ah, boy, I wish somebody
would ask me that question. I do. Then Philip opened his
mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went on their way, now watch this. They came unto
a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here's water. What
doeth hinder me to be baptized? Now listen. And Philip said,
If thou believest with all thine heart, you may. You may. Do you believe with all your
heart? And you know your heart is you.
Your heart is you. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
And so here's this man. He said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe
that this man you've been preaching to me, this Jesus Christ that
you've been telling me about, that you took to Isaiah 53 and
you named him Jesus. You said he was Jesus Christ.
And he went there and he started talking about where he was crucified
and when he was crucified and why he was crucified. And that's
why he said, I believe that Jesus is the Christ. I believe that
Jesus... How did he come to find out that Jesus Christ was the
Son of God? How did he come to that conclusion?
He started preaching from Isaiah, and then all of a sudden he comes
out. He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that, beloved, that's how...
Believe in that. What does it mean to be the Son
of God? It means to be God. That's what
it means. It means to be God himself. Look
again in Acts 13. Look in Acts 13. Verse 38. You know, everybody believes
that Jesus is the Savior. You can rarely find anybody that
doesn't believe Jesus is the Savior. You know, folks will
tell you, I believe Jesus the Savior ever since I was a little
bitty boy. I've known preachers that said, I was on the cradle,
I was on the cradle roll, you know, when they got, when they
joined churches and just quick as they're born, they put little
booties up on this bulletin board and said, you know, we got to
keep track of him all the way through his life. But oh my, look what he said
here in Acts 13, 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
what? The forgiveness of sin. We just
talked about being a sinner. But here he says, is preached
unto you through this man the forgiveness of sin. The forgiveness
of it. Watch this. And by him, all that
believe. By Him, through Him, because
of Him, all that believe are justified from all things from
which it could not be justified by the law of Moses. No wonder
Peter says, we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we should be saved even as they. You know, the question is not
how much I know, but who I know. You see, it's not so much my
knowledge of Him that gives me any assurance at all, but His
knowledge of me. I find much more assurance in
what He knows about me than what I know about Him. And oh, the
question is, have I come to Him? You know, the Christian profession
and the Christian experience is never, ever any more than
coming to Christ. To whom coming? as unto a living
stone, chosen of God, elect and precious. That's what it is. I'm going to preach on that tomorrow
night, God willing. To whom coming? That's the beginning and the
middle of our life. Coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. Have I committed myself to Him?
Oh, yes, there's no one else I can go to. 2 Timothy 1.12.
Look at it. Todd quoted it. Todd quoted it. Oh, yes, I have. Where else can I go? Who else
can forgive my sins? Who else can cleanse me from
my sins? Who else can make me acceptable to God? And that's
what Paul said here in verse 12. He said, for which cause? Because I'm a preacher and a
teacher to the Gentiles, for which cause I suffer these things.
Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed
of me. Don't be ashamed of the gospel
for I know who I have believed and am persuaded. I'm convinced
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. Oh, beloved, I need the Lord
Jesus Christ. I need him. I need him now. I
needed him yesterday and I'll need him tomorrow. I need him
as to be my savior. I need him to be my redeemer.
I need him to be my all. I need him to be my comfort.
I need him to be my stay. I need him to be my strength.
I need him to be everything that I need. He must be that for me. People are, you know, everybody's
trying to figure out, you know, preachers trying to figure out
what strength this person has so they can use him in the church
here and what strength they have there. I've never met anybody
that has any strength. David said, the Lord is my strength. If we had any strength, why would
we need Christ? We've got a blind side on the
left, a blind side on the right, and we're blind in the back,
and we're blind in the front, and we can't pick up nothing.
We need Christ to do it all. I wish I could, oh soul, have
I turned myself from myself to him? Have I turned from myself
to him? Have I left off my righteousness
and embraced his? Have I left off my works and
laid down my soul in his work? Have I left off my obedience
and trusted only in his obedience? Have I left off my goodness and
trusted only his grace? Do I trust my prayers or do I
trust his power? Do I trust my faith or do I trust
His faithfulness? Do I trust my repentance or do
I trust His redemption? Which one is it? Oh, to be done
with self. Oh, to be done with self. Cast myself on Him for all eternity. I'll be so glad when God writes
death, death, death, death, death, and they throw dirt on my casket. I'll be so glad. To be done with
self. To be like the Apostle Paul said,
and count all things but done. To spend our lives pressing toward
the mark of the prize of the high calling. He's the starting
mark. He's the finishing mark. He's
the prize. He's the prize of the race. He's
the crown in the fight. Oh, I want him. Got to have him. Got to have
him, Clarence. Got to have him. No, and the
older I get, the more I know it, the more conscious I am of
it. There's an old man, some of you
all might have noted him down in our congregation. I remember years ago when I first
started preaching. I've been where I'm at now 30
years. I've been there a couple of years, and Brother Elbert
at that time, he had a hog house and he had a bunch of hogs in
it. You know, you go in there and peeing is on all sides, big
old hogs all raised little pigs. And if you've ever been in a
hog house, nothing stinks like a hog. I mean, they really, really
stink. He called me up and said, he
had a little speech impediment, and he asked me to come see him.
And I went down to see him, and he had these old white buckets.
Everybody had these old white five-gallon buckets. And we sat
down on top of them buckets in these hog houses. And he said,
Brother Don, I'll tell you what. He said, I don't believe I'm
saved. I said, what's the matter? He said. He said, I can't tell
you how awful I am, I can't tell you what a sinner I am, I can't
tell you. I said, I feel I think he said, I can't describe to
you what I feel inside. I can't describe to you how awful
I feel in the sight of God. I can't describe to you. He said,
you know what garbage is? He said, I'm worse than garbage.
He started telling me that. And while he was telling me that,
I sat there in my heart just weeping. A man don't get that way without
God. Men don't get like that. He laid in bed one morning, a
little before daylight. They called me, said, Albert
Pasto. I said, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that's within
me. And you know what he couldn't
read? He put his name across that wall. Four foot letters. What's that? I don't know. Couldn't make change. If he gave
somebody a ten dollar bill, and he only spent ninety cents, they
could have gave him back two dimes, and he would not have
noticed any difference, instead of giving him nine dollars back. But this is a faithful saying. Oh, he believed God. He believed
God. Oh, and he loved Brother Henry.
He carried my water to me for years and years and years. He
got there and set my water right up here for me for years. And
I always sat right over there. He was a sinner. And he believed that Jesus Christ
was the Son of God. Beloved, I want to be saved.
I want to be saved by Him. I want to be saved His way. I
want His will over my will. I want Him to be Lord, to be
boss, to rule my life, to choose my family, to choose my friends,
choose where I live, how I live, how long I live. I want Him to
do it all. Oh, how I live what and when
I should experience in this life. I want him to choose what will
happen tomorrow. I want him to choose what will
happen the day after tomorrow. I want him to choose everything
in my life. I do not want to be left to make
any decisions on my own. I don't. Lord, command what Thou
wilt, and give what Thou commandest. John Donne said this, as the
first Adam's sweat surrounds my face, may the last Adam's
blood my soul embrace. It's like old Jack the Huckster,
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all
in all. You know, that's the whole purpose
of the gospel. That's the whole purpose of the
word. That's the whole purpose of the preaching. That's the
whole purpose of the Holy Spirit. And his work is to make men to
be sinners. This is where Paul ended up his
life. He said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. And you
know what he said? I'm the number one. I'm the chiefest. I'm the
chiefest. And if this isn't enough, knowing that I'm a sinner, knowing
it, knowing it, and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Son of God with all my heart, with all my soul, Then there's no hope for me,
if this is not it. You see, I'm an absolute sinner,
so I must have an absolute Savior. There's a whole multitude following
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he says, no man can
come to me except the Father which sent me, draw him, lest
he be given of him by my Father. And he said, the Spirit quickeneth
the flesh, prophets nothing. They all turned around and walked
away. And he said, well, you fellows going to walk away, too?
You going to walk away? Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
Lord. You have the words, the words
of eternal life. You know, God makes the gospel
simple enough that men who can't read can understand it, that
deaf men can hear it, that the blind can see it, and the dumb
can call on Him, the bedfast and the cripple can arise and
come to Him. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show.
More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. The more I learn about the Lord
Jesus Christ, the more I feel my desperate, desperate need
of Him. I believe there will be a lot
of folks here tonight say, yeah, I'm a child of God. God's done
something for me. Lord bless you.