All right, this morning let's
turn to Acts chapter seventeen. Now, whether God gives me any liberty to deal with this
subject is totally in His sovereign will. But I can openly say that I have
given much thought, much thought, and much prayer to my subject
today, and quite a bit of preparation. I prepared this message while
I was in Louisiana last week, and I came upon a new book by
a young man printed by InterVarsity Press, a young man by the name
of Metzer, I believe. And he not only contributed a
great deal to this message, but inspired me in his writings to
deal with this subject. I get encouraged when someone
else stands up in a day of compromise and declares boldly what God's
taught him. I get encouraged. Brother Bill
Clark was here the past two weeks, and he heard many of you of our
young men preach, he heard Brother Shepard, Brother Nybert, Brother
Blair, Brother Adkins, Brother Wymer, and several more. And I guess if he said this to
me one time, he said it a dozen times, I'm so encouraged. I'm so encouraged. He says, we're
getting old, but God's raising up a new generation of preachers. to preach the gospel of his grace.
I'm so encouraged. Are you? I'm encouraged. Now, none can deny that this
is the most religious generation in American history. Would you
deny that? Is that not true, David? This
is the most religious generation in the history. I don't know
a great deal about history, but I've lived now seven decades. Count them. That's right. Seven
decades. Twenties, thirties, forties,
fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. And in my lifetime,
I've never seen as much religion as we have today. It's on the
television, no matter where you go. You drive late at night and
turn your radio all the way across the band, there's somebody saying
Jesus. God, Heaven, Hell, Bible, Salvation, Sin, Holy Ghost, Gifts. Isn't that right? And in every
town there are churches almost on every corner. There are more
churches, preachers, and religious organizations in America than
ever, ever before. That's right, isn't it? And here's
something I've never seen in my lifetime. Religion is today
front page news. even in the scandal magazines,
religions on the front page. Front page? That's unusual. But instead of rejoicing over
this unusual revival of religion, men and women who know and love
God and who worship the living God are troubled in their spirits. Is that not right? troubled over
what we're hearing and what we're seeing. I'm troubled. I'm troubled
for my generation. I'm troubled. Like Paul, in turn
to Acts, if you will, chapter 17, Paul came to Athens and this
troubled him, stirred his spirit. In Acts 17, 16, now while Paul
waited for them at Athens, His spirit was stirred in him, troubled
in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. And
the word there is full of idols, full of idols, full of man-made
shrines and altars and religious buildings. Therefore disputed
he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons,
religious persons, He disputed with them. They didn't have the
same God, the same gospel, the same message. The devout people,
the religious people, Paul disputed with them, and in the marketplace
with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of
the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said,
what will this babbler say, this vain fellow, base fellow? What's
the babbler got to say? What's the fanatic got to say?
What's the radical got to say? Who are you? Who do you think
you are? Another son, he seems to be a
setter forth of strange gods. A fellow said to a friend of
mine not long ago, I mean, they were, been friends for many years. Went to the same church together
years ago, but this man has learned the gospel of God's grace, and
his friend said, we're worshiping two different gods. Strange God. Who's this strange
God you're talking about? A setter forth of a strange God. Because he preached unto him
Jesus Christ and the resurrection, the power of God. And they took
him and they brought him to Areopagus saying, may we know what this
new doctrine whereof thou speakest to his... Somebody asked me one
day, you got some kind of new doctrine? I said, yours is new. Mine's as old as eternity, old
as the covenant of grace, old as Moses. What's this new doctrine
you got? For thou bringest certain things
to our ears, and we would know thereof what these things mean.
For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their
time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing. Beware the man who says, now
I got a new revelation. Beware the man who says, God
told me this last night to tell you. If I tell you anything,
it better have been said earlier than last night. That's too late,
because the book's been closed. And if anybody adds to it, God'll
add his burdens and afflictions. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill. Oh, what a courageous man. And
he said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you're too
religious. That's the word now. Superstitious, religious. Too religious. For I passed by,
as I passed by, and I beheld your devotions, and I found an
altar with this inscription. even an altar to the unknown
God. In case there's a God that we've left out, we'll build an
altar to Him, too. Whom, therefore, you ignorantly,
you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. The God that my generation
doesn't know is the God I preach. They said to our Lord, why, we
have one Father, even God. He says, the devil's your father.
You neither know me nor my father. Now, I know, I know that I may
preach this message, but the majority of this world is not
going to hear it. You will. But the majority will
not hear me. For like the men of old, they're
content with the form of religion. They're content with the form.
They're content with their tradition. It's good enough for them. Mom
and Dad, it's good enough for me. It's good enough for me,
the tradition. In fact, the Lord said over here
in Ezekiel, I'll read, you don't need to turn, He said in Ezekiel,
He said to me, Son of man, now you go and get thee into the
house of Israel and speak my words to them. Go to this religious
generation, the house of Israel now, speak my words to them.
For thou art not sent to a people of strange speech and a hard
language who don't understand you or you them. You're not going
to a bunch of strangers, you're going to people who claim to
know God. Not too many people of a strange
speech and of hard language whose words the opulence not understand
and they can't understand you. The ones I'm sending you, the
people to whom I'm sending you, they understand what you're saying
and you understand what they're saying. Y'all can communicate. But the house of Israel will
not listen to you. They will not hear you. And the
reason they'll not hear you is they won't hear me, God said.
That's the reason they won't hear you. He that heareth me,
heareth you. And the reason they're not going
to hear you is they're not going to hear me. For he said, the house of Israel
will not hearken to you, for all the house of Israel are impotent. They're hard-hearted and stiff-necked,
and they will not listen. And I'll tell you this. to receive
this message takes a discerning ear. Did you know that? A discerning
ear. And it takes an anointed eye
to understand what God shows. It takes a discerning ear to
hear His voice and an anointed eye to see His glory and a regenerated
heart to understand the mysteries. Yes, it does. For the natural
man receiveth not the things of God, their foolishness to
him, neither can he know them. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2,
I hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered
the heart of men, the things God has prepared for them that
love him, but he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth the
deep things of God and makes them known to us. So it takes
a discerning ear, an anointed eye, and a regenerated heart
to understand the difference between the false and the true. And I'll tell you this, now listen
to me. And if I've heard this once, I've heard it a thousand
times. Me will continue to find something good. It may be just
a morsel. It may be just a morsel. It may
be just a tidbit. But they're going to continue
to strive to find something good that the religionists say and
something good that the religious do in order to justify the religious. But, brother man, he said this.
I know he said that. What didn't he say? And we just insist on justifying
these religious men when our Lord said, woe unto the false
prophets. And we want to avoid being different. We just want to, we hate to be
different in this society of conformity. Watch our young people. Conformity is the rule, not the
exception, it's the rule. We hate to be different. We hate
to dress differently, or listen to different kind of music, or
go to a different place, or believe a different gospel. We just hate
to be different. We got to conform. We hate to
be despised. But I'll tell you this, I like
what the Apostle Peter said over here in Acts chapter 9, when
they told him, you just quit preaching this message now. In
Acts chapter 4, they said, you go on and have your religious
services now. You go on and play church, and you go on and preach,
but you just don't preach this name anymore. You just don't
preach this gospel anymore now. And I like what he said here.
He said in verse 19 of Acts 4, he said, Whether it be right
in the sight of God to hearken to you more than God, I let you
be the judge. Shall I listen to you or God?
Charlie, I love you. We've been together a long time.
But shall I listen to you or God? There's no question there
is. Well, should you listen to me
or God? That goes both ways. And he went on, he said, we cannot
but speak the things we've seen and heard. I'm going to bust
if I don't tell it. My court's going to bust. I've got to tell
it. That's what he said. I've just got to declare what
I've seen and heard. And this is what I see and I
hear. Now you listen to me. Today's religion uses the Bible.
Everybody who's preaching today, it doesn't matter whether they're
preaching works of grace, whether they're preaching salvation by
baptism, by the mercy of God, or whether they're preaching
salvation by the deeds of the law, or whether they had prayed
by the preciousness and person and work of Christ Jesus. They're
going to use this book, right? Every true preacher and every
false preacher is going to have a Bible this morning, every blessed
one of them. And they're all going to use
words like God. They're going to use words like sin, salvation. They're going to talk about Jesus
Christ. They're going to talk about heaven
and hell. They're going to talk about the Holy Ghost. They're
going to talk about righteousness. And some of them just might use
the word justification. And nearly every one of them
will use the word grace. And though the words are the
same, they're the same words my Lord used when he was here.
The same words the Apostle Paul used when he was here. The words
are the same. But the meaning is quite different.
One man says, God, he means one thing. Another man says, God,
he means someone else. One man says, sin, and he doesn't
know what sin is. He confines it to an outward
act. Another man uses the word sin and knows it's an inward
principle that determines the outward act. One man uses the word Jesus,
and he's talking about a frail, defeated, frustrated, compromising
superstar who didn't know where he came from or where he's going.
Another man uses the word Jesus, and he's talking about the omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent, eternal God. So one of them is another Jesus. That's
what Paul said, they'll come preaching another Jesus, another
gospel, and another spirit. Now, if he said to do, you better
well bear with the babbler. It'd be better to hear the babbler
babble about Christ than to hear the other one babble about something
else, huh? And there are four critical areas.
Now, four critical areas. I know what I'm talking about.
I'm not an office. I've been here and I've been there. And
there are four critical areas, and here they are. I'll give
them to you. Number one. Today's, in your religion, is it man-centered
or God-centered? The core of it is God or man,
one or the other. Just two religions, grace and
works. And today's man-centered religion,
number one, has a wrong view of God. A totally wrong view
of God. Now listen to me, see if this
is not true. See if this is not true. And I know some of you
listen to these fellas, I listen to them too. I read the paper. I want to know what's going on
around me, don't you? But what is the average preacher's...
Listen to me now. Let's do some thinking. I used
to have a teacher way back yonder in the third or fourth grade.
And she'd say, now put your thinking cap on. I remember two things in school.
I remember her saying that all the time. Put your thinking cap
on. And I remember sitting in the lunchroom, eating my lunch,
and one teacher come by and say, elbows off the table. Isn't that
funny how things like that stick with you? I can't eat a meal now without
thinking of her. Best to have my elbows on the table. Put your
hand in your lap. Eat with one hand. But you know
this is so. Now listen. What is the average
preacher's point of contact with people? What's his point of contact? How does he approach, how does
the average preacher approach the people and appeal to them?
You know, don't you? God loves you and wants to be
your friend. Now that's the point of, is it
not the point of contact? That's the point of contact.
between the average preacher and the congregation. God loves
you. I'm telling all of you out there
in radio land, television land, telling all of you. God loves
every son of Adam. God loves you, and I love you,
and Tammy loves you, and Bobby loves you, and we're just all
full of love. God just loves you. He wants
to be your friend. He wants to be your friend. Well,
that may be the sentimental opinion, but that's not what this Word
says. Do you know that? That's not what the Word says.
Honestly, that's not. Would you care to turn to Psalm
chapter 5? Psalm chapter 5. Now listen to
me. I'm not, the babbler's not telling something that's not
so. Psalm chapter 5, it says here in verse 5, the foolish
shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. My friend, the flood was not
a demonstration of love. The flood was a demonstration
of holiness, justice, and wrath, was it not? As fire rained down
on the perverts of Sodom. And you have no different message
to the perverts of San Francisco than you do to those of Sodom.
It's the same God, the same message, and the same sin, isn't it? Well,
you have no right to tell them God loves them. The rain of fire on Sodom was
not an act of love. It was not a demonstration of
love. It was a demonstration of holiness and justice and righteousness
and wrath. Is that not right? See that man
Lot climbing up that hill? That's the love of God. He ought
to have died with him. See the man floating on the water
in the ark named Noah? That's the love of God. He ought
to have died with him. But God loved him. Turn to Psalm
7. Paul said, am I become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? Psalm 7, verse 11, listen. God
judges the righteous. God's angry with the wicked.
God's angry with the wicked every day. Not just in the future,
He's angry with the wicked this Sunday morning. He's angry. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath life. He that believeth
not the Son of God shall never see life. The what? What is that
word? Don't be afraid to use it. Wrath
of God. Paul said in Hebrews, our God's
a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. And I'll tell you this. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. And I'll challenge you. I challenge
you. Don't need to challenge you because
you've read the word. But I challenge any man. The
book of Acts is the beginning of the church, the first sermons
they preached, the first churches they organized, the first pastors
they ordained, first elders, the first Acts of the Apostles
after our Lord arose, the first ministry, the first of everything,
wasn't it, the Book of Acts? Did you know that the word love
does not occur in the Book of Acts not one single time? In all the sermons that Stephen,
Peter, Paul, in all the witnessing and reasoning they did before
kings and rulers, not a one of them ever said it. God loves
you. I don't want to... You see, my friends, God is our
Creator. He made us for His own glory. You know what the word says?
He's the Creator. He's the Creator. He said that
in Revelation 4. If you care to turn over there,
I'll just read it to you. Revelation 4, 11. Listen. Revelation
411. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power, whether he loves you or not. He's God. Whether you're in his purpose
of love or not, he's worthy to be honored. For thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. God
is our creator, and God is our God, to be adored and worshiped
with the sheep of his pasture. You're not your own. We didn't
make ourselves, He made us. He's our God, and worthy to be
worshipped. He's our King, worthy to be served,
and obeyed, and honored, and glorified, and every knee shall
bow. I hear preachers say, oh friend,
make Jesus your Lord, and I want to say, you can't do that. You
can't make Him Lord. God made Him Lord. He is your
Lord. You can bow to Him, and you will. Either now or in hell, but you
will. You'll bow to Christ. Every knee will bow. And you'll
confess that he's Lord. Every lips, every tongue's gonna
confess it. Cause he is Lord. He's Lord by
decree. He's Lord by design. He's Lord by death. He bought
this world. He bought this universe. It's
his! And you're his. And he's got
all authority over all flesh. You know that? And God is holy. Holy and reverent
is his name. God's chief attribute is holiness. I remember one time years ago,
we were ordaining a preacher named R.T. Kendall here in this
church, and there were a bunch of us back in the office. This
was back in the, before some of you was born. We were back
in the office, and there was a preacher there, older than
the rest of us, and I knew a little more than the rest of us put
together. And he looked at Brother Kendall, and he said, give me
one word, one word to describe God. One word. And R.T. struggled with it, and
I struggled with it, and the rest of them struggled with it.
And finally, the preacher said, I'll give you one word. The word
is holy. Holy. Now, you ask the average
person, what's the chief attribute of God? He'll say, love. And
that's not so. The chief attribute of God is
His holiness, isn't it? His holiness. His love is a holy
love. And He cannot demonstrate His
love except in accord with His holiness. Did you know that?
They're the holy angels, this is the holy word, the tabernacle
is the holy of holies, God's in His holy temple. It says here
in Psalm 99, note turned, let me read just three times. Let
them praise thy great and terrible name, for it's holy. Exalt ye
the Lord our God, worship at his footstool, he's holy. Verse
9, exalt the Lord our God, worship at his holy temple, for the Lord
our God is holy. He's what? Holy, holy, holy,
the seraphim said. And if he loves you, not if he
loves me, It's got to be in accord, John, with His holiness. All
right, how does God love us in keeping with His holiness? He
loves us in Christ. That's where God's love is. Oh,
God is love. There's no way I could speak
on it like it ought to be preached about. God is love. His love is everlasting. It's
infinite. It's unchangeable. Indescribable,
it's incomprehensible, God loves. God is love. But I'll tell you,
it's a holy love. And that love's in Christ. Nothing
can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. So if you're in Christ, God loves
you. Yes, He does. He loves you. You didn't love Him. He loved
you first. You love Him because He loved you. But He does love
you. But if you're out of Christ,
I can't tell you God loves you. God's angry. And God's going
to judge you someday. That's so. Is that not so? Why
don't they tell us that? It's unfair to tell a man God
loves him when God's angry with him. That's not right. And I'll
tell you something else about my generation. The average preacher
in church presents to this world an impotent God. An impotent
God. They preach a God that's waiting
on the will of the creature. He wants to release his power.
He wants to release his grace. He wants to have his way. But
you won't let Him. He's standing at the door knocking.
You won't let Him in. That's sad. Poor God. I hear them, they say, God wants
to save you. God has a wonderful plan that
He wants to effect in your life, but you won't let Him. Chuck,
you won't let Him. That's a shame. There's so many wonderful things
out there waiting for you. God can and He will if you let
Him. God's knocking at your heart's
door. You won't let him in. God's not willing that anyone
should perish. That's not the will of God. God's will is that
everybody be saved, but people won't let him have his will. I talked to a young intern Tuesday
night after the service. He's in his last year of internship
over there in Shreveport, Louisiana, and he and his girlfriend were
visiting with me after the service. And I said, what made you start
coming to this church here? I said, this is a small church
of preachers and nobody. How come you're not down at one
of the big churches being a doctor and in your position? He said,
I went to them. He said, I used to go to these
places. He said, I had an interest in
God and a desire to know God, and I read the Bible, and I'd
go hear these preachers. And this is a quote. But he said
to me, when I'd leave the congregations after hearing those preachers,
I would say to myself, God has to be greater than that. Isn't
that wonderful? I liked to cry. I said, bless
you. Boy, if I could fancy more like you. I try to tell you how
great he is, how great he is. David said, Our gods in the heavens,
he hath done whatsoever he pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, and earth, and the seas, and all deep places.
Old Nebuchadnezzar said, The Lord ruleth in the armies of
heaven, and among the inhabitants of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will. God said, have I not purposed
it, shall I not bring it to pass? Have I not spoken, shall I not
do it? My arm's not short that I can't say. Let me tell you
something. If there's a sinner between the walls of this building
today, under this roof, upon whom God has set his affection
and given to his Son, bud, you'll come. You'll come. He'll make
you willing in the day of his power, and you'll come willingly,
and you'll come lovingly, and you'll come permanently. That's
right, and you'll come to his feet, and you'll come as a bond
slave, and you'll come. He said, I ain't coming. Oh,
if you want to hear his, you will. He said, my sheep will
hear my voice. They'll hear me, and they'll
follow me. I guarantee it. I'm not preaching
a weak, impotent God who wants to and can't. I'm preaching a
God who says, of his own will begat he us with the word of
truth. A God who says, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. A God who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And you can run around talking
about free will, man's will, this will, that will, all you
want to. But I know whose will is going to be done because my
Lord said, pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Huh? Great God, how infinite
thou art. What worthless worms are we?
Let the whole race of creatures bow and praise a lone gift of
Thee. Thy throne eternal ages stood,
our seas and stars were made. Thou art the ever-living God
where all the nations did. Eternity with all its years stands
present in Thy view. To Thee there's nothing old appears
and, great God, there's nothing new. God never discovers anything,
Bob. Secondly, our man-centered religion. Now stay with me. I'm not going
too long. I spoke long on that point because
that's where you ought to be speaking, the greatness of God.
If a man ever sees that, he'll see the rest. Right, Bob? He will. He'll see the rest.
But our man-centered religion has a wrong view of man. a wrong
view of sin. Now most everyone believes, and
I know this is so, and you do too. Most everyone believes that
man's a fallen creature. They believe man fell. You won't find hardly anybody
that doesn't believe man fell, except the evolutionists, and
they think he's climbing. But everybody believes that we
know man fell. But here's the problem. He's
not totally dead. That's what the 99% of the religionists
believe, that man's not totally dead. that man has retained the
power to choose good or evil. Now, don't they believe that?
That's what you believed when you used to be in that other
place. What's the rest of you believe?
He has the power to choose good or evil. He has, man's fallen,
but his will's not fallen. He has the will. He's a free
moral agent who can will to come to God if you can give him the
facts. Well, I'm telling you this, man
doesn't need the facts, he needs the new nature, and then the
facts. Man doesn't need friendship,
he needs to be born again, because he's dead. Like Brother Bowie
said, he's graveyard dead. Man's will is not free, man's
will is in bondage to sin. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. In fact, he said, Brian, no man
can come to me except my Father which sent me draw him. Men do
not seek God. They do not understand God. They
don't even believe they're away from God to start with. Why should
they come? Isn't that right? They don't even believe they're
away from God. They call bitter sweet and sweet bitter, good
evil and evil good. There's none good. The natural
man is enmity. By one man's sin entered this
world and death, death, death, death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. What are you saying, Pastor?
I'm saying that the Bible says that spiritually we're dead. We don't have a spark of life,
we're dead. We don't have a spark of light,
we're in darkness. Dead and in darkness. Listen
to me. We're without help, without hope,
without Christ. and without God in this world. Do you understand what I'm saying?
That's what the Bible teaches. You have to quicken who were
dead in trespasses and sin. Dead. Dead. And that's true of the most religious.
Here, a man called Nicodemus came to the Lord. Here's a man,
a scholar, a man of integrity and morality, a man of law, of
religion and heritage, an outstanding, upstanding, influential man in
the community, a teacher of the scriptures, and he stood before
our Lord and our Lord said to him, Nicodemus, even you must
be born again. Even you are so dead and lifeless
and godless and hopeless and helpless that you've got to have
a supernatural Act of God, in order for you to even see the
Kingdom of God. For you to even understand what
I'm talking about. I can tell you earthly things
and you don't understand high in the name of common sense.
Could you understand if I told you anything about heaven? When
you don't have any heavenly wisdom or understanding. You're dead.
You know what he said to that man? But it's true of every man. I'm
telling the truth. We don't need men to do something
for God, we need God to do something for us. That's what I'm saying,
that's what I'm preaching, that's what I'm declaring to you. God's
not sitting around saying, won't you let me in your heart? You've
got to have a new heart. You need to cry like old blind
Bartimaeus, Lord that I may see! But the preacher looks at you
and says, you can see, just look to God. But I can't see. God's got to do something for
me to enable me to see. Do you understand that? Well,
it's so anyway. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. There's none that doeth
good. All that's sin. We've got to
be born again. And there's no need for me dragging
folks down the aisle Doing all these things, you know, God has
to do something for us. The woman with the issue of blood
said, Lord, have mercy. The woman with the sick daughter,
Lord, have mercy. The leper said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. I tell you, we're out here running
around doing something for God, and God's never done anything
for some of us. And when He does, what you do
then will be worthwhile. I tell you this thirdly, our
man-centered religion not only has a wrong view of God and a
wrong view of man. God's not in need, we are. But
they have a wrong view of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wrong
view of the Lord. Now let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something, will you? Unto us a child is born, one
who never lives. on this earth, a child, formed
in the virgin's womb and brought forth after nine months, a little
baby. But unto us a son is given. He
who made woman was made of a woman. The infant of days is the ancient
of days. And the son is not born, he's
given. He's declared to be the son of God. He always is, always
was, and always shall be. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. And in the same breath that the Prophet calls him a
child, he calls him the Father. That's one to hang on to, isn't
it? In the same breath he talks about his garments being dipped
in blood, he calls him the Prince of Peace. In the same book he
calls him despised and rejected of men, he calls him Wonderful. Jesus Christ is prophet, priest,
and king from all eternity. Did you know that? Jesus Christ
is not a remedy God thought up after a need arose. Please hang
on to that. He's not a remedy that God came
up with after a need presented itself. He's the eternal, everlasting
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. He's the charity
of that everlasting covenant. He's the prince and mediator
of that mediatorial kingdom that God's delivered unto him. And
when he's accomplished all of it, even put down the last enemy
death, he'll deliver it up to the Father. When did God give
him that kingdom? After Adam fell? Surely you don't
think that. God gave him that kingdom before
time began. Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And he said, all that my Father
giveth me will come to me. And this is the will of my Father
which sent me, that of all which He had given me, I'll lose nothing.
I'll raise it up at the last day. He's the eternal prophet. He's the eternal priest. He's
the eternal king. He's the eternal surety. He's
the eternal representative. He's the eternal mediator. God
said, Christ be my first elect, he
said, and then chose us in our heads. That's it, but that's
it. He's the king. The Old Testament
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to him, give all the prophets
witness. And let me tell you something now. He came into this
world to redeem his people. And I want to tell you something.
It's not the doctrines of grace that men despise. It's the Christ
of grace. It says grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. It's not imputed righteousness
that men hate. It's Christ's righteousness as
opposed to your own. It's not particular redemption
that men hate. Ask Mr. Spurgeon, what's your
theory of the atonement? He said the atonement is not
a theory, it's an experience. It's not particular redemption
men hate. It's this right here. Did Christ succeed or did He
fail? Did He by Himself purge our sins or didn't He? That's
what men hate. An effectual, sufficient, atonement. Without anything added that anybody
does, did, or will do, he paid it all. Oh yeah, he came into
the world to redeem his people and the angel said, Joseph, call
his name Jesus, he shall save his people from their sins. All
of them, past, present, and future. And present them holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in God's sight. Oh, I believe that. I'm 61 years
old. I believe it more now than when
I heard it in 1950. It gives me more joy and comfort
and rest and peace to know that salvation's of the Lord and it's
secure in Christ. I'd like to tell the world about
that. I'd love to. I'd love to. Christ did not fail. Christ is not just an offer. He's a gift. He's a gift. He shall not fail. And last of
all, and I'll close, but our man-centered religion has a wrong
view of God, a wrong view of sin and the fall,
and a wrong view of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord. You know, I see that on signs
everywhere. And then I hear him say something
else. Is he Lord? What is a Lord? Where the word
of the King is, there's power. Power. Power. Invincible power. And then man
has a wrong view of preaching. Hal has a wrong view of preaching.
Let me tell you something now. Listen, don't misunderstand me,
please. But our main objective in preaching is not to win souls. No, it's not. Our main objective
in preaching is to glorify God. Is that right, Cecil? And if that's, you see, if that
changes, if my main, when I get up, when I prepare these messages
and pray over them and come up here to preach and open this
Word, if my main objective is to influence you or turn you
or make you respond or make you do something, I'll form and fashion
this message to do that. I'll take the edges off. I'll
say, now I won't say this because he couldn't take this right now,
maybe he'll take it later. I'll manipulate it and figure...
But if I come only with the Word of God and say, I'm going to
preach this if everybody quits me, I'm going to preach this
if everybody calls me a babbler, I'm going to preach this because
it's the truth, it's God's Word, it's God's character, it's God's
glory, it's Christ's glory, I'm going to preach it for the glory
of God. That ought to be my main objective. Totally not take into
consideration What any man will, how any man will respond to it.
Now then secondly, my main objective in preaching is to glorify God.
Cry all, he said cry, I said well I cry, he said tell them
all flesh is grace and behold your God. That's the twofold
message. That's the twofold message of evangelism. But secondly,
I preach the gospel for God's elect. Paul said, I endure all
things, whether it be prison, scourging, stoning, or prosperity. I endure all things for the elect's
sake, that they may come to the knowledge of Christ. And you're
not going to come to the knowledge of Christ if I don't preach Christ.
You're not going to come to the knowledge of the living God if
I don't tell you who He is. A man's relationship with God
depends on his thoughts of Christ, and his thoughts of Christ depend
on his view of Christ, and his view of Christ depends on what
he's heard of Christ. That's what we talked about,
wasn't it? But thirdly, let me tell you
this, and I don't apologize for this, this is the truth. The
gospel I preach and the word of the King whom I represent
is not a bare invitation. It's a command. I don't preach the gospel as
a bare invitation. God commands you to repent. He said, I'll give it some thought.
You'll give it some thought? Well, I'll consider believing
on Jesus. You'll consider believing on Jesus? The king doesn't invite slaves
to do his will, he commands them. Is that right? God commandeth
men to repent. Christ said, this is my commandment
that you love one another. You don't have an alternative. You don't have an alternative.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. You better praise Him. You say, that preacher's trying
to win me to the Lord. No, he's not either. That preacher's trying
to tell you who God is and warning you. You better praise the Lord.
My Lord can do without me and you both. Now, He doesn't need
you, Bob Coffey, does He? Aren't you glad we know that?
John Chapman, you glad you found that out? You need him. We can
spell church around here without you and without me. But we can't
spell it without God. He's all I need, huh? That's
just so. Let's quit trying to appeal to
people's baser nature. Flesh. And I'll tell you, our
choice is not the basis of salvation. It's his choice. He chose me,
and I chose Him. He loved me, and then I loved
Him. He sought me, and I sought Him. He called me! And you know
what I did? I called on Him. And I'll tell you this, and you
might as well just go ahead and butcher it all up, but salvation
is not accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. If that's all
you've done, And like the old country boy said, you lost as
a blind horse in a snowstorm. Salvation is bowing to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Bowing down. They say, stand
up for Jesus. Not me. I say, bow down. Bow
down. Fall at His feet. Worship Him. Worship Him. That's right. If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be your personal Savior,
Uh-uh. To be your Lord. That's what
it says. And believe in your heart, God
raised Him from the dead. And God raised Him from the dead
to give evidence that He made Him Lord. Thou shalt be saved.