I have this morning a special
message that I want to bring to you. I want to speak as plainly
as I can speak. I want you to hear me. And hear
me not just with these ears, carelessly and indifferently,
but I want you to hear me with the heart, with deep, deep interest
in the things that I'm about to deal with. The title of this
message is True Conviction, True Conviction and Conversion. True Conviction and Conversion. I don't claim to be an authority
on the Word of God. I don't lay claim at all to being
a scholar or an authority on the Word of God or spiritual
matters. But neither did the Apostle Paul.
If you'll turn to Philippians chapter 3. You read Paul saying
the same thing. I'm not an authority. I haven't
arrived. I do not know everything about
the Bible or about God or about salvation or about spiritual
matters. I don't claim to. And Paul said that, Philippians
3, verse 12. He said, not as though I had
already attained. I haven't arrived. Either we're
already perfect. I'm not perfect. You know, we
preach in part, we prophesy in part, we understand in part,
we see through a glass dimly. And he goes on to say this, but
I follow after, if that I may apprehend or lay hold. I want
the word apprehend is to lay hold upon something. A person,
a criminal, is apprehended to lay hold on it. And Paul says,
I want to lay hold. on that for which I have been
laid hold of Christ Jesus. I want to lay hold of the treasures
of God in Christ. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, to have arrived. I haven't finished the
journey. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, forgetting those things which are behind.
I don't live in the past. The past can't help me now. I'm
not living on my heritage or ancestry or profession or doctrine
or whatever. I'm pressing, look at verse 14,
I'm pressing for the mark, for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. So like Paul, I say to you, I
confess publicly, openly to you before God, I'm not an authority. I don't have all the answers.
You can ask me any questions that I cannot answer. But I do
know this. I'm as certain of this as I'm
standing before you now, as I'm holding in my hand the Word of
God. I do know this. I know enough about the Scriptures. And my mind hasn't been changed
as I've studied it through the years. I know enough about this
book. And like the Apostle Paul, I
can defend the fact that I have diligently and earnestly studied
it. And you know that. To the glory
of God and for your good, I have been a studying pastor. Many
pastors don't study. Many preachers don't study. But
you have the proof of it. You have the proof of it. In
the New Testament, 22 books, I've studied comma after comma,
word for word, and written commentaries and handed them to you. In the
Old Testament, I've studied, I've written 40 Bible lessons
on pictures of Christ in the Old Testament. And these things
are not done flippantly and carelessly. They take hours and days and
days and days. And I've applied myself to the
book. I've studied the book. And I know enough about it. I
know enough about it. And I can truthfully say there
isn't anybody in this building at all that has studied it as
much as I have. That's not boasting. That's just
fact. And you've given me that opportunity because you supported
me and my family and let me sit in that study while you're at
work. I'm studying the Word. You see that? And that's the
way it's intended to be. God intended it that way. He
intended for his preacher to be an overseer. Some people call
me a dictator. That's all right. I don't mind
whatever you call me. I don't want to be one, but I
don't mind being called one. But I know what I believe, and I
know the direction we should go. And you've given me that
office and put me in there to find out for you while you work
at your job to teach you the Word of God. And I do know this
from the Scriptures, and I know it from the grace of God. that
my generation, this generation in which I'm living and the generation
to which I'm preaching, and the Bible says David served his generation. He served his generation. And
this generation that I'm called to serve, it's a generation of
religionists. There's more religion today than
there was when I was a boy. And when I was a teenager and
when I first began to pastor, there's more religion is popular
today. Religion's popular. Everybody's
religious. It doesn't matter from the capital
in Washington on down to Nashville, to Hollywood, to the prize fighters,
to the baseball players, you know, everybody's religious.
Everybody's talking about God. And I'm convinced that my generation
of religionists, and I hope you don't get taken up in it, this
is one of the things Peter said at Pentecost, save yourselves
from this generation. He said it's an untoward, it's
a perverse generation. It was a religious generation,
but it was a perverse generation. They perverted the gospel. And
we're going to have to save ourselves from this generation. And the
way we're going to save ourselves is to hear somebody that's telling
the truth. And associate with people who believe the truth.
And lay hold on Christ who is the truth. My generation has
missed true conviction and true conversion. They have a conversion,
but it's not true conversion. They have a religion, but it's
not true faith. And I'm not being radical. Say,
well, you think you're right and everybody's wrong. Not in
the least. Not in the least. God's right
and everybody's wrong. That's what I believe. Let God
be true and every man a liar. This one too, if he doesn't speak
according to the Word of God. Let every man be a liar. Every
man who says, I think, is a liar. Every man who says, well, I see
it this way, is a liar. Every man who says, well, this
is what I believe, is a liar. Every man who says, thus saith
the Lord, speaks the truth. Now, that's the way it is. Me,
you, or anybody else. I'm not being fanatical. I'm
not being unreasonable. I just know my generation by
their walk. By their walk. by their walk,
even the preachers, by their walk. And I'm talking about their walk
in luxury and foolishness and worldliness. And worldliness is not just going
to the places of the world. A person is worldly who is of
the world, who has the spirit of the world, the spirit of the
world. who condones the spirit of the
world, the attitude of the world, the ways of the world. The preachers
of this, of our generation, are worldly. And I know by their
walk, and I know by their talk, I know by their talk. I talk
those who are of grace, their talk is seasoned with grace. They talk of God, they talk of
the glory of God. They don't just preach the glory
of God, they talk the glory of God. lets people know that they know
something about the person of God and the glory of God. The
attitude of my generation, they're like the Jews of old. Paul said
they have a form of godliness. They have a form of godliness. And this generation today has
a form of godliness. They have a form of worship.
They have a day of worship. They have a form of godliness.
They have an outward form of godliness and morality. It's
outward. It's outward. But they deny the
power, Paul said. They deny the power thereof,
the power of godliness, the power of God, the power of the gospel.
Paul said, I know your election. Our gospel came to you not in
word, not in form, in power. There's a power of God. Our Lord said this to the religious
people of his day. These men were students of the
word. These men were Students of the
sacrifices. These men were students of the
days and the rituals and of Moses and of Abraham. And our Lord
said to them, you do err. You err. I don't want to err.
You do err. You're off base. You're going
the wrong direction. You err. What's our problem? You don't know the scriptures
or the power of God. That's your problem. You don't
know the scriptures and the power. That's what he said to them.
And then Paul wrote this. He said they're ever learning.
Oh, they have books, books. There's no end to the making
of books. We've got books everywhere. We've got books running out of
our ears. Everybody's writing a book. And they're ever learning. They're always having Bible studies,
Bible studies, Bible studies, sharing sessions, sharing sessions,
all these things. Ever learning, learning, learning,
learning, learning. And never coming to a knowledge
of Christ the truth. Isn't that horrible? That's 2 Timothy 3, 7 if you
want to look it up. This generation is ever learning. Smart, clever,
artistic, wise. Don't know God. Don't know God. And Paul expressed that fear
in Romans. Turn over to Romans 10. This
is the fear. Romans 10, Paul says, verse 1,
Brethren, my heart's desire, my heart's desire, my innermost
desire and prayer to God for Israel. You don't know about
the Babylonians or the Egyptians or the pagan gentiles, Israel,
the keepers of the temple, the translators of the Scripture,
Israel, Israel. is that they might be saved. Wouldn't that be offensive to
our generation? Someone comes along and says,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for every church member
is that they might be saved. That's what Paul's saying. I
bear them record. They have a zeal of God. You
can see it. Hoop-de-doo. Hooray. Praise God. They have a zeal of God. A lot
of enthusiasm. This is what you've got to do
to get religion going, is get the singing going. Get the enthusiasm
going. Get the foot to pat. Get the
heart to rejoice in. Get the, you know, get the feel
of it. And then the preacher gets up, and he's in the feel
of it. Amen? That's so? God bless you, whoopee,
you know. They've got a zeal for God. And they think if you're
not pacing and carrying on, you're not really worshiping. Back here. Men worship God in silence. That's right. They worship God
in fear. They worship God in awe. God
is in His holy temple. Let your words be few. Be not hasty to utter anything
before the Lord. Job said, when he saw that God
appeared to Job, and he said, I put my hand over my mouth,
not one hallelujah, not one praise the Lord. And he was in the presence
of God. They have a zeal of God, verse
2, but not according to knowledge. They're ignorant. My generation,
Paul said, is ignorant. With all their learning, with
all their wisdom, with all their knowledge, they're ignorant.
Ignorant of what? Ignorant of the basics. God's
righteousness. That's where they're ignorant.
And that makes them unsaved. A man who does not know the righteousness
of God, whatever he knows is unsafe. He said, I pray to God for Israel
that they might be saved. What's wrong with them, Paul?
They're ignorant of God's righteousness. Consequently, they're unsafe.
Now, when our doctrine, however accurate it is, in our experience,
in our hope of life, is not glorifying the Christ Jesus, And according
to the Word of God, we can surely say, I know nothing of true conviction
and true conversion. And the ignorance of my generation
of preachers and people, like Paul said of his, is in the most
vital area. Now, I want you to stay with
me for a few moments. In the most vital areas. And you just
don't hear sermons on these vital areas. The reason is that people
don't know anything about them. They're ignorant of them. And
here's the first one. The character of God. The character
of God. Turn to Isaiah 1. Isaiah chapter
1. Isaiah chapter 1. Verse 2 and
3. Isaiah 1, 2, and 3. And the Lord
says this. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children. and they have rebelled against me. The ox, the poor,
dumb ox, he knows his owner. The ox knows his owner. The ox is obedient to his owner. He recognizes his owner. He knows
his owner. He comes at the voice of his
owner. And the ass, the dumb ass, will be out yonder in the
field, and it comes suppertime, and he'll come to his master's
crib. He knows where it is. He knows who filled it. and he
comes to his master's crib. But Israel, people who are called
by my name, doth not know. My people doth not consider.
And the amplified translation is clearer on that. It says this,
Israel doth not know and recognize me as Lord. Is that what it says? The dumb ox knows his owner,
and the dumb ass knows his master's crib, but people who claim to
be are called by my name and claim to know me, do not know
me, my people do not recognize me as Lord, and they do not understand
me." My friends, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let that
be established. Let's turn to two or three scriptures.
First of all, to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, the Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth. God rules. In Isaiah 45, Reading
verse 20 through 23. Listen to this. Isaiah 45, 20. Assemble yourself and come. Draw
near together, ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray
to a God that cannot save. God can do anything. God can
do what He will, when He will, with whom He will. God's arm
is not short that He cannot save. His ear is not heavy that He
cannot hear. Our God can do all things. The only thing God can't
do is lie or sin, or that which is contrary to His nature. But
God can do all things. Whether you let Him or not, God
can do all things. The God that's being preached
today, who has a wonderful plan, but He's dependent upon men to
let Him put it in motion, God wants to save the world, but
the world won't let him, and consequently his hands are tied.
We hear preaching like this, God has no feet but your feet,
no hands but your hands, no eyes but your eyes, no tongue but
your tongue. That may be the God of your imagination, but
not the God of the Scriptures. Verse 21, Tell ye, and bring
them near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared
this from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? There's no God else beside me.
There's no king, no ruler, no sovereign beside me. I'm a just
God, and I'm a Savior, and there's none beside me. So look unto
me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, I'm
God. There's none else. I've sworn by myself, the word's
gone out of my mouth in righteousness, it shall not return. That unto
me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear, shall
confess. I've sworn that. It's going to
be done. God's going to accomplish His will. Turn to Isaiah 46, verse 9. Remember
the former things of old. I'm God. There's none else. I'm God. There's none like me.
I declare the end from the beginning. From ancient times are things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel will stand, and I
will do my pleasure. I call a ravenous bird from the
east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country. I've
spoken it. I will bring it to pass. I've
purposed it. I will also do it. God will do
it. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, What doest thou? This is our God. Our God is omnipotent. Our God is omniscient. Our God
is omnipresent. Our God is almighty. Our God
ruleth. Nebuchadnezzar said, He ruleth
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and giveth it to whomsoever He will. God reigneth. We come here today to worship
Him, to praise Him, to sit before Him in fear and reverence and
adoration, and to seek His mercies and His grace. And the second
thing that my generation knows nothing about They know nothing,
first of all, of the character of God. And they know nothing,
secondly, of the nature of sin. Now listen a moment. Like the
Pharisees of old, men confine sin to duties and deeds and dress. They confine sin to an act, to
an outward failure. Sin, to the average person, is
in places. things, meats and drinks, bottles
and boxes, places and things, cards and dice and liquor and
all these things. These are sin. But let me tell
you something, and this will tell you easier than anything
I could say. All God would have to do to put sin out of this
world is to take me and you out of this world. Did you know that? He could leave it just like it
is now. Not move, not change one single thing. Not change
a thing. Just take you and me out of this
world, and sin isn't here anymore. So then, sin must not be in places
and things and boxes and bottles. Sin is in the heart. Here's where
it is. It's a principle. Sin is in nature. Sin is in attitude. I don't mean
to discount the evil of the hand, but the hand does what the heart
tells it to do. I'm not discounting the evil
of the tongue, but my tongue won't say anything that I don't
tell it to say. Is that right? I'm not discounting
the evil of the foot, but I'm declaring this. Sin is not so
much in what I do as what I am. What I do is because of what
I am. You see that? Listen to the scripture. Our
Lord had given a parable and the disciples came up to him
and they said, declare unto us the meaning of this parable.
Our Lord said, It is not what goeth into the mouth that defileth
a man, but what cometh out of the heart. He said, Are you without
understanding? Don't you understand this? That
what a man puts in his mouth goeth into the belly and out
the draught. But he said, What comes out of
the heart? evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, blasphemy. These are the things that defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands? You could eat with mud
on your hands and eat thick and it wouldn't defile you. The mud
that's defiling us is in us by birth and nature. That's what's
defiling us. Out of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Keep your heart out of the issues of life. As a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he. This is why the Lord Jesus looked
at one of the most religious, toughest, most moral, strict,
legalistic, religionist of His day, and said, You'll never enter
the kingdom of heaven till you're born again. Because Nicodemus,
with all of his resolutions and vows, and penance, and planting,
and laws, and morality. With all of these things, he
could not get rid of sin. He couldn't make himself holy,
because it was in his blood, in his nature, in his nature. And the preachers, even of my
generation, don't understand that. They don't understand that.
They don't understand that sin is a nature. You see, We're guilty
by imputation. Our father Adam represented this
whole human race in the Garden of Eden. And when he fell, we
fell. When he sinned, we sinned. When he died, we died. When he
was separated from God, we were separated from God. And by imputation,
we're guilty. And then Adam not only imputed
to us a guilt as a whole race fell before God, but he imparted
that nature to us. He passed it on by his seed from
himself to his son. And his son was born a sinner.
In sin my mother conceived me. I was shapen in iniquity. I was
brought forth from the womb speaking lies. The wicked are straying
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they're
born. Nature. Nature. You see, our baby sinners,
if they weren't, they wouldn't die. That's exactly right. Sin brought death. There's no
death till sin came, and they have the nature in them. It's
an evil nature. And we've got to have a new nature.
We've got to be born again. We've got to have a nature, a
spiritual nature, a divine nature, a holy nature, God's nature,
miraculously, supernaturally begotten in us, regenerated in
us by the Holy Spirit. And that's not something doctrine
does or a preacher does or a decision does. It's something God does.
of his own will, beget he us with the word of truth." The
word is the seed planted. It's just like here's a woman
who's never had a child. Mary said, how can I have a child?
I've never known a man. And how can a man be saved who's
never known God? He's dead. Mary's womb was dead,
and she knew that of herself and by herself there was no way
in this world she could give birth to a child. The seed, the
miraculous life-giving seed, had to be planted. She knew that.
She said, I can't have a son, I don't know a man. Never have.
Looks like preachers have learned that. That people cannot be born
of God until God meets them. till God plants a seed, till
God miraculously germinates the seed of the Word in their hearts
and gives them spiritual life. Well, the angel said, the Holy
Ghost is coming on you, and the power of the highest is going
to overshadow you, and that holy thing begotten in you shall be
the Son of God. And that's what happens every
time a person is saved. When the gospel is preached,
the seed is sown. the Son of God, the seed is the
Word of God. And every time this blessed Word, who is Christ?
Christ is the Word. And when that seed is sown and
that seed is preached, the Holy Ghost will plant it where He
will. Nicodemus said, How am I going
to be born a second time? Enter my mother's womb? I'm a
grown man. Our Lord said, The wind bloweth
where it listeth. And you hear the sound thereof.
You can't tell whence it cometh or where it goeth. Even so are
those born of the Spirit. God will beget and regenerate
whom He will with His Word. That's right. Salvation is of
the Lord. God doesn't make the old nature
better, He gives us new nature. And one of the surprises that
believers encounter when they're saved is they've still got an
old nature. When God saves him and gives him a new nature, and
he loves the Word, and he loves God, he loves the gospel, he
loves the people of God, he rejoices in the blessings of God, and
he has a new nature that wants to be like God, wants to be perfectly
holy, wants to walk with God, can't get enough of fellowship
with God, but whoop, whoop, wait a minute, he's got another nature.
He's still carrying around that body of sin, that body of death,
still got it with him, still got it with him. And he experiences
that, and it shocks him at first. I hope nobody ever gets used
to it. Because you have to suppress it. You have to abstain from
fleshly lust. You have to put them down. They're
still there. Fleshly lusts that bring unrest
and discomfort to the soul, you still have to suppress them.
They're there. But thank God there's a new nature with which
to suppress them. There's a new nature that has
a desire to suppress them. that has the want to suppress
them, but they're still there. That old nature does not change. And let me tell you this, I'll
shock you further, it doesn't get any better either. That's
a fact. It doesn't get any better. But
I'll tell you this, that new nature grows and develops in
grace, in knowledge of Christ. That new nature does. And that
new nature brings to the believer greater power, greater authority
over these things. But this nature of sin, I tell you, it's just my generation
of religionists just aren't, they're not aware of it. They're not aware of it. And
then the third thing is this, the righteousness and justice
of God. Here, according to Paul, is the
real seed of ignorance. When I read that in Romans 10
a while ago, he said, I pray these religious people might
be saved. What's their problem, Paul? They're ignorant of God's
righteousness. Listen to these two things. God is holy. God is holy. The chief attribute
of God is holiness. Did you know that? I'll bet if
you ask the average religious person, describe God to me, well,
God is love. If you said that, you've missed
the true understanding of the God of the Bible. The Bible What
do you got on the front of your Bible? It says, Loving Bible. No, it says, Holy Bible. God
is in his loving temple. No, he's in his holy temple.
His angels are his loving angels. They're not just his holy angels.
The tabernacle is called the what? The loving place. There
wasn't much loving going on there. There was some justice hanging
over that thing, and righteous holiness. When the high priest
went into the Holy of Holies in the most, in the strictest
most awesome, most prominent part of the whole Old Testament,
the Day of Atonement, the day when men held their breath, the
day when the great high priest representing Jesus Christ, the
day when the Shekinah glory of God descended on the mercy seat
in the tabernacle, that day, that breath-holding day when
that How a priest went under the veil, taking the incense
as it smoked, and the blood in the bowl facing him, and faced
the chicanic glory of a holy God who is angry with the wicked,
who hates the workers of iniquity, who said, I will by no means
clear the guilty, and sprinkled that blood on the mercy seat.
He had written on his miser, God is love. He did not. He had
written on there, Holiness to the Lord. Holiness. Holiness. And we're going to learn that
now, that God's righteous and holy, and He demands perfection,
and He can take no less. The demand is ever and always
the same. That's of you, me, or anybody
else. You say, God had a law. He gave Israel and demanded perfection.
That's your law, too. Cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things written in the book of the law to do. The
second thing is God's just. God will punish sin. He's going
to punish sin. He's going to punish sin. Now,
you can put this down. That man, this person was a nice
person. Did he ever sin? Well, yeah.
Well, God's going to punish sin. My mother was a fine woman. My
daddy was a fine man. My brother was a fine man. He
always found good people around, you know. But now, are there
sinners? Have they ever sinned in any thought, word, or deed,
imagination, or association? Well, yeah, preacher. Then God's
going to punish sin. Yes, He is. God's going to deal
with it. God's just. The Word of God says, The soul
that sinneth, it'll die. That's what this book says. And
God will not compromise. He can't lie. He's got to punish
sin if he's going to stay God. And he can't be a just God and
let some go free and punish others. If God doesn't punish all sin,
he owes an apology to every sinner he's ever punished. If he lets
you go free, then he owes an apology to the devils in hell.
But he will punish sin. Then we're faced with two questions.
We're faced with two questions. How can man be clean that's born
of a woman, clean enough for God to accept him? That's a good
question, isn't it? Because God can only accept perfection.
Perfect, holy cleanliness. Who shall stand in his presence?
He that hath clean hands. Mine aren't clean. But I'm like Isaiah. I'm a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell amidst a people, among a people
of unclean lips. Anybody here this morning whose
hands are clean before God, hold them up. You wouldn't dare do
that, would you? Well, you've got to go stand
in his presence then. You're not, I'm sorry if your
hands aren't clean. He who shall stand, he has clean
hands, wait a minute now, don't get deep, and a pure heart. That's tough, isn't it? Let's
just go home. I know you're hanging around.
Let's go home and get ready to go to hell. Let's go home and
get our asbestos suits or something. That's right. Unless there's
someone who can make us clean. Now, we can stand here and talk
if there's someone who can make us clean. And this preacher has found out
who it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who it is. Let's turn to Romans 3. Let me
show you that. That's who it is, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's who it is, bless his name, that's who it is. That's why
he came, to make us righteous. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made. The righteousness of God, in
him, the holiness of God. Look at Romans 3 verse 19, Now
we know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, but
the laws and knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness, the
holiness of God, clean hands and a pure heart, without the
law, without my obedience to the law, is manifested, is revealed,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It's even the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God Himself, which is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. And bless your heart, here's
good news, it's unto all and upon all them that believe. Not
to those who join the Catholic Church or the Baptist Church
or get baptized or do this. To all that believe. There's
no difference. No difference for all if sinning comes short
of the glory of God. And we're freely justified, justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus,
whom God ordained, whom God set forth, whom God predestinated
to be a propitiation. What's a propitiation? A mercy
seat. A mercy seat. God set him forth. God sent him. God ordained him
to be a mercy seat through faith in His blood to declare God's
righteousness. Christ declared God's righteousness. He declared it from eternity.
He declared it in His Word. He declared it when He came down
here and submitted Himself to that law. He declared God's righteousness. And when He fully obeyed that
law in every jot and tittle, He declared God's righteousness.
Even for the remission of Old Testament sins, Old Testament
saints, sins of the past. through the patience of God.
Watch it now. To declare, I say, Paul says, I'm going to say it
again. To declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness
in order that God might be just and holy and justify him that
believeth in Jesus. What's those two questions? How
can I be clean? And how can God be just and accept
me? Isn't that it, Charlie? That's
how. How can I be clean? How can I
be clean? Behold the moon, it shineth not.
The stars are not pure in God's sight. How much more abominable
and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water? We drink
it like water. We like the taste of it. How
can we be clean? How can God be just and have
dealings with us just one way? I don't care what the preacher
says. I don't care about growing up,
your mother and daddy are believers. Join a church, be baptized, the
church of Christ said you got to be baptized unless you got
to... I'll tell you this, you got to have Christ. Nothing else
is required. I believe a man will be baptized
and will walk with the King, and he will be changed, he will
be transformed, he will be a new creature, he will be generous,
he will be loving, he will be kind, but that's because of that
new nature God put in him. It's not his old nature that's
kind, it's his new nature. It's God in him. Isn't that right,
John? It's God in him. You're what
you are by the grace of God. What you want to be is what your
daddy made you, in the flesh. What you are is by the grace
of God. And that brings me to the fourth and final thing. My
generation just doesn't have an understanding of and appreciation
for the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. Oh, I know
they use the name Jesus. They use the name Jesus. But I'll tell you, they just
don't have an appreciation for and an understanding of the glorious
person and work of Christ. I want to read you a poem here. Here, Lord, my soul convicted
stands of violating all my God's commands. And on me justly thou
canst pour thy wrath in one eternal shower. But thanks to thy Spirit,
whose strong alarms have warned me of these approaching harms. And now, O Lord, my guilt I see. Lost and undone, I come to Thee. And I see my fig-leaf righteousness
can never Thy holy law impress. Yet in Christ's life and death
I see there's hope of pardon for even me. Here in Christ I behold thy wonders,
Lord, how Christ has to thy law restored all honor on that atoning
day which us guilty sinners took away." He's restored all that
we lost. We dishonored God's law, and
Christ came along as a man and honored it. Does not thy holy word proclaim
salvation free in Jesus name? Well, to him I look and humbly
cry, Lord save a wretch who really deserves to die. To whom much
is forgiven, they'll love him much. And I'll tell you, one day a
woman came in where our Lord was seated. She came in to where
he was seated. And she had in her hands a box
of the most costly, costly, precious ointment, perfume. And I'll tell
you, those were poor days, days of poverty. There were a lot
of beggars and poor people. They had no welfare programs
or government aid. There were a lot of poor people. She came
in with that box of costly ointment, probably been in the home for
many years, saved. And that could be used in those
days for money, for purchasing. She came up to where he was seated
and broke it open and poured it on his feet. Just poured it out. Poured it
out. And one of the most religious
fellows there, he had the only office among the apostles. He was the treasurer. woke up
and said, why this waste? This ornament could have been
sold for a lot of money and given to the poor. Now that's the difference in
those who really appreciate, understand and love the Lord
Jesus Christ and those who have a religious profession. And our
Lord answered that man Not that that man was concerned for the
poor. That's what the scripture said. He wasn't concerned for
the poor. He was trying to show off his piety. That's what a
lot of religious humanitarian efforts are. Nothing in the world
but to earn heaven and show off their piety and get something
off on the income tax. And our Lord said, the poor you
have with you always. This woman has done this to my
glory. And it'll be spoken of her as
long as this world remains. We need to get a hold of that,
don't we? I know there are things we want
to do for the poor. There's no question about that.
I'm not debating those things at all. I believe in godliness
and honesty and integrity. You know I do. I believe in helping
the poor and doing things. But I'll tell you this. My love
is for Him. My rejoicing is in Him. My hope
is in Him. My exaltation and praise is to
Him. He has the preeminence. I've
got to know Christ. We're going to have to worship
and love and adore and praise and preach Christ and rest in
Christ. He is our righteousness. He is our redemption. He is our
justice. He is our wisdom. He is our hope. Christ is our life. That's it. And it takes God to reveal that.
A person doesn't just come to a knowledge of that like you
learn doctrine. It's an experience. You experience
a person. You're born again. You're born
from above. You say, well, what should a
person do? Ask God like the thief on the cross for his mercy. Lord,
remember me. Ask him like the publican in
the temple. God be merciful to me, a sinner. But I tell you
this, we're going to have to come down to be raised. We're
going to have to be stripped to be clothed as long as we're
dabbling around with something else and never admitting our
loss or our need or our inability. God's not going to do anything
for us. He's going to do what He does for His glory. If He
can get all the glory, He'll do it. If He can't, He won't.
We're going to be to the glory of His mercy or the glory of
His justice, one of the two.