Now let's open our Bibles again
to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, and let me
just give you one verse to think about, one verse for us to look
carefully at this morning. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5, there's
one God and one Mediator. between God and men, and that's the man Christ Jesus. Now there's not a subject of
greater importance to you and to me than this one which I have
chosen for our message this morning, the one Mediator, Christ Jesus. Now the word Mediator It's not
a word we use very often, but the word mediator, as applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ, signifies two or three things. Number one,
that it's his responsibility and his office and his work to
reconcile two parties that are at war and disagreement. Total disagreement. Total all-out
war. And I'm talking about God and
men. God is angry with the wicked.
Contrary to what so many people are saying and preaching, smile,
God loves you. Now my friends, and I don't mean
to be fanatical or radical or an alarmist or a sound sour notes,
but he that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth
on him." The Scripture says. The Scripture says God hateth
the workers of iniquity. The Word of God says that God's
angry with the wicked every day. The Word of God declares that
this world And the world, not the trees and the mountains and
the rivers and the valleys, but the creatures, the people of
this world, are under the judgment of God. Is that not right? And
somebody coined a little silly phrase years ago, and preachers
picked it up and ran wild with it. Well, God loves the sinner
and hates his sin. Now, wait a minute. You hold
on a minute. Without the sinner, there wouldn't
be any sin. Do you understand that? What
is sin? Sin is not something out there
that you can touch or put your hand on or something that exists
that God hates. Sin is our invention. Sin is
our product. This is what we produce, is sin,
because we have a sinful nature. The Word of God doesn't say that
the carnal mind is at enmity with God. It said it is enmity. The mind itself is enmity. The
heart itself is deceitful. Your heart, and your heart is
you, and my heart is me. This body's not me. This body's
going to die. We prayed Sammy's funeral yesterday,
but Sammy wasn't in that casket. His body, his house was there.
He's gone. His heart and soul is gone to
be with God. And if the heart is enmity and
the mind is enmity and the heart is deceitful, that's you. Is
that clear? And a mediator has been chosen
to reconcile two that are extreme opposites, God in his extreme
holiness, light, and life, and man in his extreme depravity,
corruption, and evil. We're not one with God. Your
sins have separated you and your God. But there's a breach and
a gulf between you that you cannot cross. And God will not and cannot
in his holiness cross. That's what a mediator is. And
secondly, a mediator signifies a person who's in the middle. He's between the two. A mediator
is between the two. And he, this mediator, now watch
this. This mediator has the good and
the well-being of both parties. Now, this is a tremendous, marvelous
thing that cannot be comprehended by the human mind apart from
a revelation from God. Jesus Christ, our mediator, has
God's glory at heart, God's good at heart, God's well-being at
heart. He'll not compromise anything
about God in fulfilling his work. But He has your good at heart. He is man as if He were not God. He is so identified with us,
so one with us, and so has our good, that He will not quit till
He accomplishes it. And He is so much God as if He
were not man at all, and has God's extreme, ultimate, eternal
glory about which John was praying that just floods me when I think
about it. He has got glory, that infinite
glory of his justice and wisdom and holiness and heart, that
he will not cease till he has accomplished that. And he'll
not accomplish one at the expense of the other. Now, you figure
that out. You better figure it out. If you can't figure it out,
you better read and find out how God's figured it out, because
we're going to be held accountable. God's appointed a day in which
he's going to judge this whole blooming world by one man, Jesus
Christ. Now, face it. Get acquainted
with it. I get so weary, weary. Not here. This is the delight to preach
here. That I preach funerals and other things and look into
the faces of people and tell them about Christ, and they turn
their heads and look at the floor. One day you'll look in His face.
One day. One day. You'll deal with Him
one day, and He'll deal with you. And you're going to look
straight, too. And He's going to look straight.
Now, you can turn your head away from me, you can despise what
I'm saying, you can ignore what I'm saying, but you won't ignore
it when He speaks. And God's going to judge this
world by one man. Not by one denomination, not
by one legalistic moral principle, but by one man, Jesus Christ. Get it? One man. And here's the thing that makes
this subject so great and so meaty, is that we're one. If there's one well, we better
all go there. If there's one storm shelter
and the storm come, we all better make it to the storm. One, not
two, one. If there's one bomb shelter,
we better get there, or we're destroyed. There's one. And look
at this, verse five, there's one God. You know that? I know
that. There's one God. The Lord our
God is one God. He said, there's no God beside
me. You got no choice. I know all the different denominations
are making up their gods and their ideas. They go, I'll tell
you what I think. Well, your thoughts are not his
thoughts. And the only way we're going
to know this one God is for Him to reveal Himself. He's immortal
and invisible, dwelling in a life to which no man can approach. If there's any revelation of God,
it'll come from above. It won't come from down here.
You listen to men and what they think, and the preachers, what
they think about God, and then disregard it. Find out what he
says. That's right. There's one God. All right, watch this now. And men, God and men, and men
are of one blood. He hath made all men of one blood. Isn't that what he said? That's
not talking about the blood of Christ, that's the blood of Adam. There
is no difference. I know we like to think there's
a difference. We've got people up here that
are eminent and important and influential and powerful. We've
got some folks down here that we wouldn't even stop to speak
to, let alone greet or converse with, but you're all one. You
came from one root, one blood, one father, one fountain, And
it's a rotten, polluted, corrupted, depraved, wicked fountain. You
may have finer clothes than the man down the street, but you
just like him underneath those clothes. And you may have more smarts
up here, but I'll tell you this, your heart's just black as his.
That's right. Just absolutely right. One root. One father. One fall. One condition. One nature, one
destination, eternal hell. That's us. One God. And there's one nature of me.
But now watch this. There's one Mediator. Now do
you realize what that means when God says there's one Mediator? There's one Mediator, one Reconciler,
one Atoner. Well, let me tell you, my friends,
in solemn terms, while I tell myself, I'd better hear me, the
Scripture says, Covet not to be teachers. Well, I thought
God wanted everybody to be a teacher. No, covet not to be teachers.
We have the greater responsibility. That's right. I recognize that. So let me tell
myself and you in solemn terms what it means not to know not
to receive, not to believe, and to reject this one mediator.
Now this is what it means, number one. This mediator is the sole
judge. The sole judge in those great
matters of righteousness, of sanctification, of sin, and of
judgment. He's the sole voice. You talk
about a dictator. But that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ is. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He's the
soldier. Jesus Christ is ordained by the
Heavenly Father as the only Mediator, the only Judge, and the final
voice on the destination and destiny of every son of Adam.
Did you know that? What happens to that little girl
out there is totally, completely in the hands of Him for whom
it was designed, decreed, and who purchased it by His death.
His right to do with His own what He will. Can you take that? He said the Son quickeneth whom
He will. He said the Father judges no
man. He hath committed all judgment to the Son. He prayed, Father,
thou hast given me all authority over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. This Mediator is the sole judge. There's no jury, there's no hearing.
It's Him with whom we have to do. It's Christ. Secondly, this
Mediator, if he's not heard, now listen to this, if he's not
heard, The scripture says, kiss the Son, lest he be angry. Well,
if he gets angry, the Father may take me in. Oh, no. No, the
Father has given all things into the hands of the Son. That's
what I'm saying. It's kiss the Son. If he's not
heard, and he's not loved, and he's not obeyed, the scripture
said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema, maranatha, accursed when Jesus comes. If he's not heard, loved, and
obeyed, he will leave the offending person to the severity of the
law and justice. That's what he's turned you over. That's the only alternative. Cecil just turns you over the
law. If he's not heard. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son,
the wrath of God. There's no middle ground. The
world thinks that somehow that everybody's in this neutral zone.
You know that? They're in this neutral zone
and they're trying to decide whether they want to go to heaven
or hell. But there is no neutral zone. It's in Christ or in Adam. It's under God's love or under
God's wrath. And I tell you where God's love is, it's in the same
place it was in the days of the flood. It's in the ark. And the
ark's Christ. He said if we sin willfully after
coming to a knowledge of this enlightened way, this Christ,
if we turn from Christ back to the beggarly elements, there
is no sacrifice for sin. But a certain certain fearful
looking for judgment. That's what it says. Certain.
If it's not Christ, it's judgment. That's the seriousness of this
one business, one God. Who is he? I can't be wrong on
this now. One nature. What is it? One mediator. He's not heard, loved, obeyed. He leaves the offending party
to the severity of the law. And do you not hear the law? Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things. This is what destroys this. People
say, well, I'm a pretty good person. That's not good enough. Well, I'm not the worst fellow
in the world. Well, that's too bad. Neither are you the best. And to offend in one point is
to be guilty of a whole lot. A man doesn't have to be guilty
of every crime known to man to be in prison, just one crime.
And he's just as much in prison as the fella that killed... The
man that killed one person as much on death row as the man
that killed 500. Ross said, if you're going to
rob a bank, you might as well rob a big one. Get you a big one. And if you're
going to kill anybody, kill somebody worth killing. Don't just go
out and kill somebody down the road, you know. You say, it's
awful a man shoot the president. Ain't no more awful than a man
to hate his neighbor. Both murder. In God's sight. I'll tell you another thing,
this mediator leaves no liberty, no room for appeal. After he
has passed sentence, there's nowhere to turn. Depart from
me, I never knew you. We'll take one more appeal, let's
appeal to what we did. We preached in your name. We
appealed to the law. We did many wonderful works.
There's no appeal. When he passed his sentence,
let him that's filthy be filthy still. That's it. Now I want you to turn to the
book of Ecclesiastes. I want to show you something
here that is very important. You see, all of us, all of us
are bothered by this. plagued with this misunderstanding. People are prone to misunderstand
and misjudge the patience of God. Did you know that? The long-suffering
of God. God doesn't quickly destroy an
evil person, like we would. We want swift
justice, and I wish we had swifter justice in this country. A man
can commit a murder and be tried three years later. But God, God doesn't quickly
destroy evil men. God doesn't quickly act in judgment. And men are led to believe that
he won't. That's right. They just trifle with the longsuffering
of God. God's patient and longsuffering.
And here are people in false religion, they just stay there.
Well, one of these days I'm going to do something about this. You're
presuming on the patience of God. And he is patient. We get
in a certain trend of life, or way of life, and God's forgiven
me so far, it means he'll keep on. No, it doesn't mean he'll
keep on. God's left me alone. God hasn't stepped in and crippled
me, or broken me, or killed me, or dealt with me in judgment.
Look at Ecclesiastes 8, verse 10. And so I saw the wicked buried. They had come and gone from the
place of the holy. They'd been to the temple, been
to the synagogue, been to the place of worship. They'd played
religion all their lives. They'd played religion, and they
were forgotten in the city where they'd done so done. This is
also vanity, because sinners against an evil work. You say,
you said religion. Religion's an evil work. Now
wait a minute, don't run off on me. In Matthew 7, those people
said, we have preached in your name, cast out devils in your
name, done many wonderful works. He said, depart from me, you
workers of what? Evil, iniquity. Actually, the greatest iniquity
and evil in this world is to worship a false god, or to worship
God falsely, or hypocritical. Hypocritically, that's right.
An insincere worship of a god of an imagination is evil. And that's what he's talking
about in verse 10. He said they've come and gone to the holy place.
They've come and gone, played church, gone through the motions,
gone through all the motions, and now they've gone and even
the town where they live don't remember them, doesn't remember
them. And because God didn't step in and destroy that evil
work and execute his judgment on that evil work, listen, verse
11, therefore the hearts of the sons of men, the heart of the
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. My friends, listen to me. Now
get this statement. Back to the text. One mediator.
There's coming a day. When this one Mediator will have
finished His work, this one Mediator will have finished His work,
and He'll give up His trust. You hearing what I'm saying?
And He'll cease to be a Mediator in this affair. He's going to
turn it over to the Father. I have finished the work Thou
gavest Me to do. Now glorify me. Turn to 1 Corinthians
15. Now listen to this. This is what
I'm saying, that we're prone to presume upon the patience
of God. We're prone to presume upon the
longsuffering of God. One day it'll be over. Listen
to 1 Corinthians 15, 25. He must reign until he hath put
all his enemies under his feet. this one mediator, and the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all
things under his feet. But when he saith, All things
are put unto him, it is manifested that he is accepted, which did
put all things unto him. The Father is not unto the Son. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, are you yet? All things are going to be. Are
you yet subdued under him? You didn't accept Jesus as your
personal Savior. You bowed to him as Lord. That's
what this world is doing, accepting him as a co-pilot and a business
partner and an equal. He said he subdued them under
his feet. That's Bible language. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things unto him. But God may be all
in all, but the Son's going to do it all, get it all done. And
if you're not in it, you'll be damned. That's just so. But why shouldn't we be damned? Some of us have sat and listened
to this gospel for years, why shouldn't we be damned? You're
not nearly as patient with your children. Not nearly that patient, nor
long-suffering. You tell them to do something,
you don't tell them over twice at the most. How many times has
God told you? And because execution against
the work of evil is not executed speedily, we go right on. Let me give you this hastily. A mediator is not chosen unless
there's a great work to be performed, and a work that cannot be performed
except by him. See that? If man could do it,
God would not have chosen Christ. If God could do it in his Elohim,
holy character, we would have needed Christ. You see that? You see, sin has made such a
great gulf between God and men, and God must punish the wicked. And if you want to see just a
sampling, let me give you just a sampling of God's acts of judgment. Just go to the flood. Eight souls
were saved. Go to Sodom and Gomorrah. Go
to the destruction of Jerusalem. God willed he was seen. Think about God's continuing
judgments that are unchangeable. Let me give you some that are
unchangeable. You want to look at it? God's unchangeable. The
angels that kept not their first estate, they're under an unchanging
judgment. No alterations. Jesus Christ
took not on himself the nature of angels. Adam, there was no
second opportunity for Adam. God said, eat the tree and die. He ate it, he died. It's unchangeable. He's dead spiritually. His whole
race is dead spiritually. There's not any alteration of
any of that. There's not one that comes along
once in a while that's not spiritual. I mean, it is spiritual. They're
all ungodly. There's only one man ever born
on this earth that was godly and spiritual, and a man didn't
beget him. A woman bore him without the
aid of a man. Do you know that? That's Jesus Christ. It's just
unchangeable. You can fuss at it and fight
it and growl at it, but if so, I'll tell you something else
I read to you a while ago, the place of a woman, God hasn't
changed that. I know the Equal Rights Amendment
and so forth, and you say, preacher, you're a male chauvinist pig. That's all right. But God Almighty
said back in the beginning, that a husband shall be head of the
home, and rule over his wife, and her desire shall be to her
husband, and he shall have the rule over her. That's what God
said. And you know why God said it? He said it in an unchanging
decree upon a woman that violated his law. You know why you women
have such a hard time in childbirth? God decreed that. God said your pain will be increased
in the birth of children. God decreed that. Why? Because
you rebelled against Him. And you ain't going to change
it. You're going to hurt the next one you have too. It's going to be miserable
and difficult and tribal. That's the unalterable decree
of God Almighty. You see what I'm saying? Men,
God said you're going to earn your living by the sweat of your
brow. And some of you men right here are tired. Man, you've worked
all week. You're tired. You've traveled.
That's just the way it is, and the way it's going to be. Because
God said it that way. Because we sinned against Him,
and it's unalterable. Is that right? It's unchangeable.
And God said if he won't work, don't let him eat. Don't support
him. Let him die. See, God doesn't... And this
is what I'm saying, I'm saying this to you, that this one mediator,
God has decreed this, He has set this, and He's not going
to change it. You see, the holy laws, if I
had told you about my rest, I got arrested one time. I mean flat arrested. You remember
it, Paul? You were there, weren't you? It wasn't funny then. But I was over here at the church
studying Saturday. Stayed over here all day long.
We were going to have company that night for supper, and I
stayed all day long studying. And my son Dan, we had two cars,
had my car and we had that old Chevrolet. It was a 56 Chevrolet.
He took that 56 Chevrolet. It belonged to the boys. And
he and some friends, Wish I could think of that boy's name. His
daddy is a big official in Ashton Hall. He went with Danny Fishing.
Wish I could, his name will come to, I don't know why it's blotted
out, but you'd know him. They all went fishing, three
or four boys. And on the way back from fishing,
Danny was driving, this boy, his daddy works with you, was
in the back seat, and he had a handful of BBs, Lloyd, and
a car came by and he threw them out the window and busted the
windshield of that car coming by. And our boys just went on
home, you know. I don't think they even knew
the windshield was busted. But that owner knew it was busted,
and he turned around and got my license number. My license
number. Carved in my name. That night,
I don't want police to wait until the dead of night come after
you. Maybe it's because God in the dead of the night is coming
after sinners. But we had a house full of company. Were you there
that night? You were, weren't you? Out over
in that White House, that house full of company, you remember?
But anyway, the knock at the door, I went to the door and
opened the door, and there stood a policeman with a flashlight.
They always got flashlights. Dark glasses. 10.30 at night. He said, You Reverend Millian?
I said, Yes, sir. He said, You're under arrest. I said, I beg your
pardon? He said, You're under arrest.
There must be some mistake. You're under arrest. He said, come on, go with us
downtown. I said, I'll follow you in my
car. He said, you misunderstood me. I said, you were under arrest. I said, what for? He said, breaking
a man's windshield. They got your tag number. I didn't
do it. You're under arrest. Your tag
number. So I went out and got in the
back of that car, and you know there are no handles on the inside
of those doors. There's hands on the outside, but not the inside.
You can't get out. And they got that screen wire
between you and the police, and they got a big shotgun up there,
a big double-barreled short-nosed shotgun. It's frightening. And we drove downtown. And the
Cattlesburg police met me down in Ashland and took me to Cattlesburg.
I'm in the back seat of that car all this time. And took me
in to book me at Cattlesburg Prison, and I said, I am not
guilty. I haven't done anything. I've
been in my study all day. Well, he said, nothing we can
do about it till the guilty party shows up and takes your place. And my son, by that time, did
you follow them down until that they were standing beside me,
and Danny spoke up and said, the boy's name is so-and-so,
and his daddy knows it, and he knows it, and I've called them,
and they'll be here any time. There I stood. But that door opened, I never
was so glad to see anybody in my life. That boy and his dad
came in, and the boy said, he didn't have anything to do with
this, I did it. And that fellow told me, he said,
you can go home. Are you getting the picture?
If the law ever gets a hold of you, you're going to stay under
the judgment of that law until somebody shows up who says, I
did it, he didn't do it. But you say, but I did it. Yeah,
but Christ said, I did it. He didn't do it. That's right. Luke and I were standing out
here by the church yesterday or Friday, and a young man came
up about 26, 27. He said, Brother man, I wonder
if you could help me. I said, Who are you? He told
me his name. He said, I used to come to your house when I
was a kid at Ramey home. I haven't seen you since, about
27, 28. I had written a bad check, $600,
and he said, I've got to come up with the money or I'm going
to prison. I said, how much have you got?
He said, well, I've got $430 left out of the $600 of the check. I said, well, we'll put up the
$170. He said, I talked to the law. I said, will you call them?
I said, yes. So I went in and called the law. Do you remember
who I called? Luke was with me. I called the
law. Ken Adams, Sheriff's Department. I said, tell me what story. He
said, well, he's got a felony on him. He'll have to have a
hearing. But if he can come up with the money for T.N. Marshall
out at Piggly Wiggly, it'll go easier on him. He might get a
suspended sentence. He could get off. I called Piggly
Wiggly and I told him this. I said, when they bring in the
430, 13th Street Baptist Church will pay the $170. He said, do you know that boy?
I said, no, sir. He said, why would you do that? I said, this church
believes in giving men another shot at it, don't we? But somebody's
got to come up with a payment. Somebody has. And I'm glad to
say this somebody is Christ Jesus, the one Mediator. I got a Mediator. That's my only hope, my only
plea. I got a Mediator. I have a lot more to say, but
I've got to let you go. But the mediator, listen to this,
this is, I've got to say this. The mediator, without him there's
no communion between God and men. Now there's no, God won't
speak to you, you can't speak to God. That's right. Contrary
to what men may think. People say, well I talk to God,
you talk to a God of your imagination. God won't hear you without Christ.
No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal. You know what scripture says? I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. You know what the word says?
You don't come to God, you come to a God of your imagination. But I've had some pretty good
times with Him, naturally. Satan is a powerful spirit. Give
you some pretty hard times and some pretty good times. I'm telling
the truth. You don't come to God. There's
no communion between you and God. God will not care any man
apart from Christ. Because anything we say is loaded
with sin. And the scripture says it must
be perfect to be accepted. And the reason the man, Christ
Jesus, is accepted is because he's a perfect man. Am I getting
through what I'm saying? He's the perfect man. God hears
him and hears us in him. That's why we pray in Christ's
name. Whatever you ask the Father,
in my name. Folks, I'm just telling you what
God says in the Word, and you know it's in this Word. You know
what I'm saying, so. Well, you're not going to tell
me that I don't talk to God. Do you know Christ? Do you love
Christ? Do you believe Christ? Did he
your mediator? No, sir. You don't talk to the
living God. Well, God showed me this. Do
you know Christ, love Christ, rest in Christ? No. Is He your
Mediator? God didn't say nothing to you.
Pardon the English. Another God spoke to you, a God
of this world called D-E-V-I-O-Devil. There's one God, one Mediator. What's the Mediator? In between. Who? Watch it now. Who? must
be one who is equal distance from and yet allied to both parties. Oh, catch this, please. He is
so far above and from man, he is in the bosom of the Father.
He's one with the Father. Yet when he became identified
with us, he was so far from God that he said, My God, where hast
thou forsaken me? and yet allied to both, one with
Him and one with me. And that's how I'm going to be
one with Him, that they may be one with us, even as we are one. If I never preach another sermon,
I'll go out with this one. That's where it is. You miss
Him, you miss God. You'll have a God, but you'll
miss the living God. You miss Christ, you're going to miss
mercy, because there's mercy in Christ only. If you miss Christ,
you're going to miss salvation. I don't care how pretty a life
you try to live, how people brag on you, how you are in your church
office and affiliation and religion, you miss Christ, you're going
to miss God, because He's the one Mediator. And I'll tell you what He did.
This one Mediator justified, glorified all the attributes
of God. God's righteousness and holiness
was glorified in Christ. God's justice is glorified in
Christ, for He enabled God to be just and justified. God's
wisdom is glorified in Christ. I found a ransom. A way is found
to bring together both justice and mercy, righteousness and
peace. That's wisdom. We'd do it another
way. That's our foolishness. We'd
let man have the glory. That's our foolishness. God's
wisdom found a way for righteousness and peace to kiss each other. God's mercy, love, and goodness
are glorified in Christ. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins. God's sovereignty is glorified.
Whom He foreknew, He predestinated to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Whom He predestinated, He called. Whom He called, He
justified. Whom He justified, He glorified. What shall we say
to these things that God may follow us? Who can be against
us? Glorification of His sovereignty. And in all this, His Son is glorified. Now, Father, I finished the work
You gave me to do. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
May glory be upon thee. Do you hear? If you didn't hear it loud and
clear, get the tape, please, and hear it again, because these
are monumental, mediaeval, heavy, eternal matters. There's one
God and one mediator. That's the man, Christ Jesus. All right? All right, Mike, let's
sing a closing hymn.