Now the introduction to my message
this morning is, I feel, as important as the message, because the introduction,
I pray, will whet your appetite and encourage your interest in
what I have to say in the message. Charles Spurgeon told of a son
of one of his deacons who, while saying his prayers one Saturday
night, said this, reported by his mother, Lord,
I pray that our pastor will say something tomorrow that I can
understand. That's a shame that not only
children, but adults, find it necessary to pray a prayer like
this. Lord, I pray that our pastor
will say something tomorrow that I can understand. The Apostle
Paul was concerned about this. If you'll turn in your Bibles
to the book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 1, verse 17, Paul was
concerned about this, that he might preach so that men could
understand what he was preaching. He said in 1 Corinthians 1, 17,
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and
that not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of non-effect And then in the next chapter of 1 Corinthians,
chapter 2, he said, Brethren, when I came to you, I came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you
the testimony or the word of God. For I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now, I fear that
preachers today, and in reading the books that I have of sermons
recorded in the past, I fear that preachers have been and
are today preaching from their towers of theology and not from
Calvary. I believe that preachers are
preaching from their halls of intellect and they're not standing
on Calvary's mountain preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Consequently, that's the reason
that little boys and girls and men and women have to pray prayers
like this, I pray that our preacher will say something tomorrow that
I can understand. One great preacher of the past
has put it this way. Churches today are faced with
six defects in the pulpit. First of all, Churches today
are faced with, in the pulpit, we're not talking about the pew,
as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. There's not a preacher in
Ashland that can blame the condition of his church on anybody but
himself. There's not a preacher anywhere in the world that can
blame the ignorance of their people on anybody but themselves.
There's not a preacher in the world who can blame the spiritual
deadness of their churches on anyone but themselves. And churches
and people in the pews are faced with six things. Number one,
we're faced with worldwide apostasy, just plain old apostasy. There's a rank departure from
the truth of Scripture. There's a rank departure from
the doctrines of the Word of God. The Word of God is being
denied from the pulpit. Beginning with Genesis 1-1, in
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's
being denied from the very start. Preachers wonder why their young
people in high school and colleges have been shaken with teaching
of evolution. I'll tell you why. The foundation
has not been laid in the churches from the pulpit. That's where
it all started. The pastor began to put a question
mark on God's act of creation. The miracles of the Old Testament,
the appearances of God, the incarnation of Christ, the virgin birth,
the blood atonement, the resurrection of Christ, the existence of hell,
judgment, these things are being denied from the pulpit. We're
facing today worldwide apostasy. I believe that a man standing
in the pulpit representing God ought to declare that he believes
in the verbal inspiration of the Bible, that from Genesis
1 to the last verse in Revelation 22, it is the inspired, unbroken,
inerrant Word of the living God. And everything that is reported
by the Holy Spirit in the Bible is truth. We are facing worldwide
apostasy. And I'll tell you the second
thing we're facing in the pulpit is worldwide compromise, just
plain old compromise. Now the pulpit is one place you
cannot compromise. But in an effort to gain numbers,
and that is the first reason, in an effort to gain popularity,
in an effort to win approval, The pulpit has just plain compromised. They've compromised the terms
of salvation. The terms of salvation have always
been and are now repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you cannot compromise that. Paul said, if any man preach
any other gospel, I don't care if he's an angel from heaven,
let him be accursed. It doesn't matter if he's the
local neighborhood pastor. Let him be a curse. It doesn't
matter if he's the superintendent of the denomination in our area.
If he preaches any other gospel, don't compromise with him. Let
him be a curse. That's what Paul says. We compromise
from the pulpit the terms of salvation, the purpose of the
church, the Bible standards of holiness. And thirdly, we are facing the
pew, you people sitting out there, are facing worldwide lukewarmness
in the pulpit. There's no urgency in the pulpit
anymore. The sons of thunder no longer
thunder. They emcee banquets now. The voice in the wilderness no
longer cries. Repent and prepare ye the way
of the Lord." The warning is no longer sounded. Instead, the
so-called prophets today cry, Peace! Peace! And God says there
is no peace, because the Prince of Peace is being denied. The fourth thing that we face
today in the The pew is only a reflection of the pulpit. The
fourth thing we face is worldwide deadness. Now, every pastor in
this city will admit that a state of spiritual deadness exists
in the Church. Every pastor in the United States,
if he's honest, will not deny that a state of deadness I'm
talking about spiritual deadness now, I'm not talking about fleshly
enthusiasm, I'm talking about spiritual deadness. The power to pray, the power
to worship, the power to call on God, the power to feel the
presence of the living Lord of Lords and King of Kings, that's
what's missing, deadness. And instead of crying in our
closets, O Spirit of God, breathe on the dead bones. The pastors
are trying to resurrect the dead with fleshly activities. We're
trying to resurrect the dead with religious programs. We're
trying to resurrect the dead with socials and special days
and special music and special revival meetings and special
enthusiasm. Spiritual deadness has never
been made alive or revived by activities of the flesh. If your
young people's program is failing, you don't organize a ball team
and get them to attending church. That's not the way to resurrect
the dead. You resurrect the dead by calling, as Ezekiel did, on
the Spirit of God to breathe on the dead bones. The pastors
know their churches are dead. They won't deny that. Spiritually
dead. but they're employing fleshly
means. They're tying the bones together
and stringing them up on a line and wiggling them by special
activities and special enthusiasm. There's no flesh on them, there's
no life in them. They're just put together by
denominational program strings and they're held intact and in
place. The fifth thing that we're facing
in this day from the pulpit is worldwide unconcerned, just plain
old unconcerned. David summed it up, he said,
I looked on my right hand and I beheld, but there was no man
that would know me, refuse, fail me, listen to it, no man cared
for my soul. Do we care enough for the souls
of men? Not just to invite them to church.
That doesn't manifest your care. It may be that you're trying
to have more in your Sunday school class than the class next door.
That's not care for a man's soul. Do we care enough for the souls
of men? Not just to take our cars and
go by and pick them up and bring them to church. It may be that
you want to have more in Sunday school this year than you had
last time. That's not care for the souls of men. We look round about us and we
see some empty seats in the church, and we begin to get concerned,
and we say, well, things are falling off, maybe we'd better
fire the preacher and call another one. That's not care for the
souls of men. You know how you manifest genuine
genuine, sincere, unfeigned care for the souls of men, you know
how you manifest it, cheaply? By telling them the truth about
themselves, and telling them the truth about their sins, and
telling them the truth about God, and telling them the truth
about salvation, and telling them the truth about eternal
judgment. and telling them the truth about
the danger that eternal hell. That's how you show you care
for the souls of men. It's not enough to send missionaries.
You've got to send missionaries who are preaching the truth. It's not enough to have a service
every night in our church. We meet every night during the
week, well and good. But that's not enough if you're
not telling the truth to men when they come together. It'd
be better if you met one time a year and told men the truth
than to meet 365 days a year and tell them nothing. Somebody said they had a great
revival, that they sang songs and rejoiced
in the Lord and people began to go to the altar and they didn't
even have an opportunity to preach. You can't have revival without
the preached Word of God. Don't be stupid. Man can't be
saved without the Word of God. God has chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. The only way that a
man will ever be convicted of his sins is for the Holy Spirit
to take the preached word of God and the power of the Holy
Spirit and show a man his guilt. The only way a man will ever
see Jesus Christ as his sacrifice, as his substitute, as his redeemer,
as his refuge, is to have the preached powerful word of God
applied to his heart as the quickening seed by the Holy Spirit and bring
him to fall on his face before a crucified, risen, exalted,
intercessory Lamb of God. That's the only way. It's got
to be preached. And the man who cares for the
souls of men is the preacher or deacon or elder or Sunday
school teacher or rank-and-file Christian who is willing to stand
eyeball to eyeball with a man and tell him that he's going
to hell without Christ. And the only hope is not just
to come to church, our church in particular, or make a profession
of faith, or join the church, or do God a favor by making a
decision. His only hope is that a sovereign
God, through the merits of His Son, will show mercy on his soul. People are concerned today, all
right. They're concerned that their
programs be successful. They're concerned, all right.
They're concerned that their churches grow. They're concerned,
all right. They're concerned that they have
a bigger building than the people next door. They're concerned,
all right. They're concerned that they have
a big crowd on Sunday. They're concerned, all right.
They're concerned for their numerical growth, but they're not concerned
for the souls of men. Nobody cared for my soul. Churches today are like the rich
young man who said, now, your barns are filled, eat, drink,
and be merry. I say to my soul, my soul has no desire for eating
and drinking and merriness. My soul needs Christ. He's the
food for the soul. And then in the sixth place we
face this. We face worldwide confusion. religious confusion. There are
a lot of people who have just quit making an effort. They've just quit going to church,
and in a sense I don't blame them. They've just thrown up
their hands and sat at home Because all these roads, the
road of apostasy and the road of compromise and the road of
lukewarmness and the road of deadness and the road of unconcern,
all these roads lead to confusion. The world stands back and watches
the Church going through their little religious ceremonies and quarreling and arguing and
backbiting, and the world stands back and watches and says, What's
it all about? What are they doing? And even the church members,
they pick up their bulletins on Sunday morning and they begin
to read all the activities of the week, this meeting and that
meeting and the other meeting. and all of this fleshly enthusiasm
and activity, and they go through all the motions, and they go
to these things, and they sing their little diggies, and they
bow their head and pray their little prayers, and they go through
all this, and then they go home and sit down and look out in
space and say, What in the world is it all about? What are we
doing? And the preacher fights to hold
his job, and he fights to get a bigger opportunity, and he
recommends here in hope that he'll be recommended there. And
he goes from one church quarrel to another, and then two or three
weeks out of the year he runs off to Florida to get away from
it all, away from the people and away from the telephone and
away from the confusion. And he sits down there on the
beach and stares off into space and says, What's it all about
anyway? The Church is confused because
the Prophet's confused. Now, I'm convinced of this. We're
preaching as dying men to dying men. We're preaching, we say, as God
anointed, God appointed, God ordained, God sent messenger
to men who have a life to live. and a death to die. We're preaching to men who not
only have a life to live and a death to die, but we're preaching
to men who have a holy God to face in the judgment, and an eternity to spend somewhere. Now, if that won't make your
little s.o.l. get in a circle around the wall
and light a candle and sing, Oh, how I love Jesus, if that
won't make that look stupid, I don't know what will. We're preaching to men who have
a life to live and a death to die. If that won't make all these
little rogue choirs and cherub choirs And silly special days
look as silly as they are, I don't know what will. Oh, the solemnity
of it. The fearful terror of it. There
won't be any stained glass windows at the judgment. There won't
be any organ playing softly in the background while the preacher
in his melodious voice tries to pray. There's just going to
be the stark reality that we're guilty sinners before a holy
God who's angry! And we need hell. Oh, eternity, eternity. We don't have many shots to fire. Not many. We don't get many opportunities
to tell men the truth. Let these shots, however many
we have, be fired with purpose. Purpose. Let's take dead aim. Let's concentrate
our efforts in one direction. Nothing will do the helpless
sinner good except the pure, plain gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Man's wandered all week through
the dregs and rottenness of the world and sin. His ears have
listened to the swearing and the blasphemy and the cursing. He's been out there working on
the job in the dirt and filth and confusion of the rat race
of this world. He's had problems with his children,
conflict with his neighbors, his taxes are too heavy to bear,
his bills are more than he makes, and he comes to the house on
Sunday morning, and the preacher gets up and preaches on tithing. He comes to the house of God
on Sunday morning and a preacher gets up in the pulpit and balls
the people out because they weren't in Sunday school. We don't have many shots to fire. That old boy is not going to
sit there too much longer. There are some things that contribute
to the well-being of a sinner The gospel is essential to his
very being. You see, every time we come together
here, you preach about the same thing. I know it. Somebody might
be here for the last time and hadn't heard it yet. I don't
know anything else to preach, but Christ died for sinners. The man's gone through all of
this terrible confusion during the week, and then he comes to
the house of God on Sunday morning, and there's as much confusion
and chaos and problems and troubles there as he has out there on
the job. Why come? I don't blame him.
I'd stay home, too. I want to give you something
from the Word of God here that I believe is the essential This
is not just for your well-being, this is for your very being.
Turn first of all to Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 4, Habakkuk,
the little book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament. Now, my friends,
four times in the Word of God, four times, the scriptures, in
the scriptures, the Holy Spirit writes these words, four times,
these words, shall live by faith." Six words. The just shall live
by faith. Six times. Now a message that
is so often repeated in the Bible must be of great importance.
A message so often repeated in the Bible ought to be preached.
A message so often repeated in the Bible ought to be received
by you and by me. Now let's look at it. First of
all, in Habakkuk chapter 2, let's see where it's used, the particular
setting and the particular meaning at that time. In Habakkuk 2 verse
4, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him,
but the just shall live by his faith. Now, the first time that
this text is used in the Bible, in the book of Habakkuk, what
does it show me? I'll tell you what it shows me.
It shows that the faith in Jesus Christ of men who had the promise
of redemption but not the fulfillment The first time that this scripture
is used is in the Old Testament, before Christ came, before Christ
died. It doesn't say the just shall
live by the law. It doesn't say the just shall
live by the ceremony. It doesn't say that Josh shall
live by the sacrifices of the tabernacle. It says in the Old
Testament, before Christ ever came, before Christ bled and
died, before Christ died on the cross, that Josh shall live half
by faith. Moses wrote of me, Christ said. Abraham sought my day and was
glad. Job said, Way back yonder, the
book of Job is reported to be the first book of the Bible ever
written. Before Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus. But here's Job, sitting way back
there, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before
Christ was manifested, before Christ came, and sitting there
in his poverty, for all had been taken from him. He looked into the heavens, and
by faith he said, I know my Redeemer lives. My Redeemer. My friends, from the sacrifice
of Abel to the last blood offering before Calvary, every drop of
blood points to the cross of Christ. and every drop of blood
slain on Jewish sacrifices was offered in faith in the coming
Redeemer. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Christ is our Passover. Christ is our rock. Christ is
our peace. Christ is our atonement. Turn
to Romans chapter one. The apostle Paul, in writing
the first chapter of Romans, says this, that he says in verse
1, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. I'm called to be an apostle,
and I'm separated unto the gospel. The gospel, not a gospel. The
gospel, never been but one. It was the gospel preached to
Adam in the Garden of Eden. The woman's seed shall bruise
the head of the serpent. It was the gospel preached by
Abel, read on, the separated to the gospel of God, which he
promised afore by his prophets in the Old Testament scriptures. It was the gospel preached by
Abel when he shed the blood on that offering, on that altar. It was the gospel preached by
God to Abraham when he said, Loose your son and let him go,
and he picked up that ram caught by his horns in the thicket and
put it on that altar in the stead of his son. It was the gospel
preached by Isaiah who said, He was wounded for our transgressions
and by his strife we are healed. That's the gospel. And way back
here in the book of Habakkuk, long before Christ came and long
before Christ died, the Holy Spirit once again inspires the
prophet of God to say, the just shall live not by his works,
not by the deeds of the law, but by faith. It doesn't matter
whether your faith looks back to Christ or forward to Christ,
the just shall live by faith. The second time this is used
is in Romans 1, 17. Now listen to it, Romans 1, verse
17. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written. The just
shall live by faith. What do you see, Pastor, in the
second text? I see in the second text, because
of where it's located, Romans 1. You ever read Romans 1? The
second text shows faith in Christ in the midst of a perverted,
rotten, filthy, insane, God-hating, crooked generation. Read Romans
1 and blush at the depravity of the human race. God says they're
unthankful. Worshipping the creature, worshipping
four-footed beasts and birds, homosexuals, lesbians, reprobates,
murderers, haters of God, proud, without natural affection. Read
it sometime. But right in the middle, right
in the middle of this cesspool, of rotten, perverted, depraved
human flesh. A single voice cries out in verse
16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Jesus You reckon in the midst of the
cesspool of religious perversion that somebody today will have
the courage and the boldness to cry out whatever it cost him,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. that out yonder in the world
where men work and where they play and where it's sporting
to make fun of religion, that somebody's got the courage and
the intestinal fortitude to stand where he is and say, though the
whole world's going to hell, I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. I'm not ashamed. Paul says, in the midst of this
rottenness and perversion, the just shall live by faith. By
faith. Not by his works, not by his
good deeds, not by his church membership, not because he's
a little more feminine or sissified than the fellow next to him,
but he's a real man and she's a real woman, and they're not
afraid to stand and say, wherever they are, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. I can do my job, I can compete
with you, and still own my Lord." And then the third time that
this is used is in Galatians 3, verse 11. In the book of Galatians
3, verse 11, it says here, "...no man is justified by the law in
the sight of God, Bless her heart, one lady wrote
to me this week, I know she ought to know better, and she said,
Brother Mann, you do your best and God will do the rest. That's human theology, that's
the stinking human theology that's being preached now. No man, no
man is justified by the law and the sight of God. No man is justified
by his best or anybody else's best. My best is filthy rags
in God's sight. Can't we see that? The plowing
of the wicked is sin. Your righteousnesses are filthy
rags, God says. The best you do is still sin. Even your repentance needs to
be repented of. Even your tears in the closet
of prayer have enough sin in them to send you to hell, there's
enough self-love and self-righteousness in your best deed to crucify
the Son of God. Did you know that? I don't know
how to say it so folks will hear it. I've done everything but call
them a name. No man is justified by the law
in the sight of God, if ever done. But just shall live by
faith, faith, faith, faith! Now, the strength and purpose
of this text, located here in Galatians 3, is right there in
the first sentence. The people of Galatia to whom
Paul had preached the gospel of substitution and the gospel
of representation and the gospel of atonement and the gospel of
Christ's sacrifice. Those very people were reverting
back to circumcision and ceremony in the law. That's the reason
Paul said in Galatians 1, did you start in the spirit and now
you're made perfect by the flesh? Did you start your journey to
glory by faith, and now you complete it by works? What's the matter
with you?" he said. No man is justified by the law
at any time. What is the law? It's the character
of God. That's what the law is. Number two, the law is the requirements
of God on all the subjects of this universe. That's what the
law is. Number three, the law is the perfect standard of holiness. That's what the law is. Now,
what does the law require? The law requires perfect outward
obedience and perfect inward obedience. It will not be satisfied
with one jot or tittle less. The law requires that you love
God, not with as much strength as you can get, but with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The law requires that you love
your neighbor as you love yourself, and it won't be satisfied with
one jot or tittle less. Well, can any human being meet
the requirements of the law? No! Can any human being meet the
requirements of God's law so that God will be satisfied? No! Has any human being ever met
the requirements of God's love? Yes! Who was it? Jesus Christ, that's who it was. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill it, and that's exactly what he did,
he fulfilled it. He was tempted in all points,
as we are yet without sin. And as my representative as a
human being, as God in the flesh, He obeyed the law. And as my
representative, I'm justified in Him, only in Him, and ever
in Him, and always in Him, and never because of anything I've
done, will do, can do, or hope to do. It's Christ. The just
shall live by faith, by faith, by faith. No man is justified
by the law, the just live by faith. The last time that this
text is used, in Hebrews 10. In Hebrews 10, verse 38. Look
at it. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him." What does this text show? It's very obvious. It shows perseverance. It shows
a continuous faith, a continuing in faith, until faith gives way
to sight, until hope gives way to reality. We begin salvation
by faith. We are kept, the scripture says,
by the power of God through faith. And we complete the journey,
as Paul said, I've kept the faith. The time of my departure is at
hand, I've kept the faith. And the just shall live by faith,
on and on and on and on. The soul is the life of the body. Faith is the life of the soul,
and Christ is the life of faith. The absence of faith would cause
us to draw back, and that drawing back would be a fatal sign. One day the Lord Jesus Christ,
talking to his disciples, Peter began to boast about what
he was going to do. The Lord had said, All of you
shall be offended because of me this night. And Peter said,
Not I. These others may be offended,
but Lord, I'll stand with you if it costs me my life. And the
Lord Jesus turned to Peter, and he said, Peter, before the cock
crows tonight, you'll deny me three times. But I've prayed
for you. I've prayed for you. That your faith fail not. That's
the foundation. That's the foundation. That's
where a man stands in God. Faith. Faith. Not his work, not
his obedience, not his goodness. Faith. is faith. I've prayed for you
that your faith fail not. I believe if I were permitted
to pray for any single thing, just one single thing at this
time, I'd say, Lord, give me faith to believe in Christ. Because
I know that's the very essence and the heart of this whole thing.
He that believeth on the Son hath life, he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life. I want to believe. Our Father,
bless the Word, come down among us in great power and shake our
hearts If our foundation is not secure in Christ, shake that
foundation so that the whole hope, the whole building falls
and leaves us in ruins, that we may be built a temple of living
stones on Christ Jesus the Lord. Come down among us and take our
religious professions and our religious traditions and our
religious customs and our religious standards and just shake them
until they fall like filthy, dirty, rotten old rags off our
bodies at our feet and we stand absolutely naked before the searchlight,
the burning, piercing searchlight of Thy holy love and of Thy holy
presence. And let us be clothed anew and
clothed afresh with that spotless robe of righteousness Wrought
out by the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may not be ashamed at
His coming. In His name we pray and for His
sake. Amen.