I have three questions that I'd
like to deal with for a moment. The first question is this, why do what we call grace preachers,
and a preacher is not a true preacher of God's gospel if he
doesn't preach grace. But why do the preachers of the
gospel of God's grace, as some people say, continually, continually
harp on original sin? And you know what we mean by
original sin? Original sin, the first sin.
Adam acted not only as an individual, but Adam acted in a representative
character. Adam acted as a head, as a federal
head of a whole race of people. You see, God only created one
man. That was Adam. Even the woman
came out of him. But we all, every person, every
person who's ever inhabited this globe, black or white or red
or yellow of whatever nation or race or generation or time,
came from Adam. When Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and the first seed was planted in her womb that formed and made
the first human being born on this earth came, That was the
first descendant from Adam. And all the rest of us came from
him. And we derive our nature from
him. That's original sin. That's what the Bible teaches.
So we harp on it and teach it because of the truth of it. The truth of it. Men have to
know the truth. And I would deceive you if I
didn't preach the truth. You see, in Psalm 51, I read
that a moment ago. Verse 5, Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me. I've said so many
times, the act of conceiving and bearing children is not sin.
God intended that from the time He created Adam. He told Adam
and Eve before they ever fell to multiply and replenish the
earth, He made them male and female. God made them male and
female. For this cause shall a man leave
his mother and father, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall
be one flesh." And they were male and female like male and
female today, and they were to bear children. But when Adam
fell, the Scripture says in Romans 5, you're familiar with this,
I've got to move along, I've got a lot to give you. But by
one man, sin entered this world, and death by sin, so death passed. Death passed. Death, depravity,
darkness, sin passed from that man to us. It passed by imputation,
reckoned, or charged, because he acted for us. And then it
was passed by impartation. A sinful father can only beget
a sinful son. Everything brings forth after
its time. And Adam, being a sinner, he
can't conceive or sire a sinless son, only a sinful son. As in Adam, all die. By one man's
disobedience, the many were made sinners. By one man's sin, judgment,
condemnation passed upon all men. So the wicked are straying
from the womb, speaking lies. We're born with the nature of
sin. And that's why we harp on it.
That's why we preach on it. Because it's so, as in Adam all
died. In Adam all died. Your children
don't have to be taught to hate. They know how to hate. They're
born knowing how to be envious and jealous and covetous and
full of maliciousness and bigotry and prejudice and selfishness
and all these things are part of our nature. And you know it
and I know it, it's our nature. And even after a man's saved,
and he gets a new nature, a divine nature, and he's born again,
he still has that old nature. Rises up and someone crosses
us and We, we, it, that nature rises up. Be driving down the
highway and somebody cut in front of you, you don't say, bless
him, Lord. It just, you know, and, and somebody,
if, if we have on a new suit and he has on a new suit and
somebody comes up and say, I like your new suit, but he doesn't
say anything about yours. Well, I got a new suit on too. He didn't
say anything about my new suit. Nature. Nature. It's just jealousy. Jealousy. Envy. Prejudice against
some race or people. And it's in us. It flows in our
veins. We weren't taught that. We were
born that way. And you still got it. I still
got it. Pride. Oh, we're proud. Gracious, alive, we're proud
creatures. And that's why we harp on it,
because of the truth of it. The truth of it. All right, second
question. Why do grace preachers continually
stress the fact we're still sinners? Why don't you fellas brag on
us a little bit? You know, I mean, we get tired
of hearing you talk about what sinful creatures we are, what
wretched creatures we are. Why do you continually talk about
that? Why do you continue to talk about
that? That's because of the truth of
it. We're still sinners. We're still sinners. And I'll
tell you this. But mainly, I talk about it because
Jesus Christ came into the world only to save sinners. And I don't
want anybody under my ministry to ever get the idea, even the
slightest idea, that they're worthy. That they're worthy. that they're worthy of God's
mercy and God's blessing. I want us to stay broken, stripped,
and humble. Because that's where God's mercies
are. Listen to the Scripture. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save what? Sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm
chief. Of whom I'm chief. Listen to
our Lord in Matthew 9. He said this, Matthew 9, 11 through
13. He was eating with some sinners, with some people who were sinners,
who were publicans and sinners. And the religious folks were
standing around finding fault with the fact that he was with
these sinners. And they said to his disciples,
why does your master, why does he congregate with and fellowship
with and eat with those kind of people. And the Lord Jesus
said, because the well have no need of a physician, but they
that are sick. He said, I'm not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now go learn what
that means. It says in Romans 5, verse 6,
when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. But God commended His love for
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And I really would do you a disservice if I bragged on us this morning.
I'd do you a disservice if I didn't try to make all of us see us
as God sees us. Let me ask you to turn to a scripture
over here in 2 Corinthians. This is interesting. It's in,
I believe, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I was
looking at it a moment ago. Yes, in verse 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse
12. It says here, we dare not. We dare not make ourselves of
that number. Or compare ourselves with some
that commend themselves. But they measure themselves by
themselves. When we talk about being good,
what good are we talking about? Good man's goodness. That's what we're talking about.
But that's comparing ourselves with others. We compare ourselves
with God, there's none good, no not one. Our Lord said to
the rich young man, why do you call me good? There's none good
but God. And when we come up with this
human goodness, we're doing it on the basis of comparing ourselves
with ourselves, measuring ourselves by ourselves, listen, and comparing
ourselves among ourselves, and that's not wise, Paul said. That's
not wise. I'll tell you the truth. God,
being God, in his character as God, the perfect, immaculate,
holy God, has never, from the time you were born until this
very hour, this very second, ever been satisfied with anything
you've ever done, said, forgiven. Not too tough, but it's suffering. Not in yourself. Now, it can't
be. Because God can only accept and
acknowledge and receive perfection. And we've never done anything
perfect. And it'd be wrong for me to,
and I do you a disservice, to set your thoughts on this trend
that you can by even singing or praying or preaching or giving
or witnessing, that you can please a holy God. in yourself. Now, I know he's pleased with
Christ. He's pleased with us in Christ. And with, as it says
over there, the humble and quiet spirit, for with such things
the Lord is well pleased. But that's in Christ. He's pleased
with Christ, and because of our being vitally united to Him and
in living union with Christ, then we're accepted in the Beloved. And what we do and give is because
we love Christ. And it's well-pleasing in the
eyes of the Father because He's well-pleased with Christ, John,
not with us. And we still have a nature, a
nature that cannot do right. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. You know what the Word says?
And I must insist, I must continue to stress the fact That we're
still centered, saved by the grace of God. Still centered. And then the third question.
Why do grace preachers continually urge men, urge men, ourselves
and those who hear us, to adorn the doctrine? To adorn the doctrine. Let's adorn the doctrine by our
good conversation. Let's let our conversation be
seasoned with grace. Let's adorn the doctrine of our
Savior by walking in honesty and holiness, in integrity and
truth. Let's mortify the flesh. Let's
suppress our old evil nature. Let's press them down. Let's
subdue them. Let's mortify them. Let's walk
in the Spirit of God. Let's live for the glory of God. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good work. and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. And yet we still call attention. Now watch, don't let me rock
you. And yet we still call attention to the fact that in themselves
our righteousness is a filthy rag. They won't do to hide under. They won't do to cover us. They
don't want to do the shield or shelter. They don't want to do
as a refuge. Our righteousnesses, Isaiah said,
we all do fade as the leaf. Our righteousnesses are filthy
rags in God's sight. Do you understand what I'm saying?
I don't know whether I can make it clear or not, but I do know
this, that a believer, an oath for a life of godliness, but
oh, for an understanding of my unworthiness, oh, for an understanding
of my position in Christ, my possession, join heirs with Christ. But the believer, the child of
God, is a paradox. He's holy, perfectly holy in
Christ, perfectly Brother man, I don't understand you. I just
don't understand. The natural man understands not
the things of God. The only way to understand spiritual
things is with spiritual life. That's what Christ said to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus said, how can these things be? Christ said, you must
be born again. Can I enter my mother's womb
and be born the second time? I don't understand you. I let
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so
and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so
and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so
and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so
and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so and
so and What's that next verse? It's the faith of Enoch that
pleased God. And the object of Enoch's faith
is Christ. And I'm telling you, everybody
here who trusts Christ, and believes Christ, and honors Christ, and
glorifies Christ, pleases God. That's right. God's well-pleased. Well-pleased. But outside of
Christ, the believer's holy. And yet he's the chief of sinners. We find Paul writing about being
holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight, and yet he says,
Oh, wretched man that I am. You say, I don't understand that.
I do. I do. Don't you? I don't understand
it perfectly. The believer is rich, indescribably
rich in Christ. He's rich. Rich in grace. And yet, David keeps saying,
but I'm poor and needy. I'm poor and needy. I'm poor
and needy. The believer rejoices in Christ. He's just full of joy and happiness. I guess he's about the most miserable
man around with a heavy heart. That's right. I have great heaviness
of heart and continual sorrow, Paul said. And yet he's the fellow
in Philippians that says, Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice in everything! Do you
understand that? I'll tell you this, if you ever
do, you can kick your heels again and say, I've been saved. The
believer is full, he's full, overflowing, and yet he's hungry
and thirsty. The believer is strong, and you
know when he's strong? When's he strong? When he's weak.
Paul said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. When he quits leaning on the
arm of the flesh and trying to do things for himself and starts
trusting Christ, he's strong in grace. There's no enemy that
can confound him. The believer, the believer believes.
I believe, I believe, I believe. Yet he says, help my unbelief. The believer knows the Lord.
I know whom I have believed, and yet that same man said, Oh,
that I may know Christ. That I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection. That's right. Why do I continue
to dwell on these things? Well, I'll tell you this. I had
rather people to whom I preached be subdued in their thoughts
of themselves and talk of, and be concerned about their unworthiness,
their unholiness, their inability, and for the slightest, the slightest
thread of self-righteousness to be found in them. The slightest
feeling of security, the slightest feeling of worthiness. Never let it be said. Never let it be spoken. Never. That smug, self-righteous attitude
of personal holiness, I hope God will rout it out and drive
it out and flush it out in every service. So men worship God from
the feet of Christ. I know who kissed Him on the
cheek, and I know who kissed Him on the feet. I know Judas
kissed him on the cheek. And I know that sinner kissed
him on the feet, and he said, Thy sins be forgiven me. Let
me give you five things, if I can, briefly. And George Whitefield
said this. I don't suppose a greater preacher
ever lived than George Whitefield. George Whitefield and Wesley
had a lot of conflict, you know. Oh, Wesley didn't believe in
election and sovereignty and Whitfield did. And Whitfield
was walking with a cane one day, walking beside Wesley, and he
slipped. He slipped. And his cane came back and hit
Wesley in the head. And Wesley mockingly said, well,
said, Mr. Whitfield, was that slip predestined?
He said, no, but the cane was. But Whitefield said this, he
said, a man's never repented, never repented in genuine repentance
before God. Never grieved, mourned over his
sins, and cried out because of his sins. Until he's repented
of three things. Until his repentance has taken
three directions. Number one, he repents. He repents
before God of his S-I-N sins. That's what he is. That's why
he does what he does. Why he thinks what he thinks.
It's that nature and principle that he recognized within him.
If he's standing perfectly stationary, his eyes closed, his ears deaf
like mine, his body motionless, he's still seeing. How can that
be? Because of the nature. Because
of the nature. because of bad blood. And he
repents of what he is, who he is. Secondly, a man's never repented
until he's repented over his S-I-N-S. What he's done. I was wrong. I'm wrong. I shouldn't do those things or
say those things. I shouldn't. And I repent. I
confess my S-I-N-S. David said, my sins, my transgressions
are ever before me. Don't excuse your sins. Don't
alibi. Don't justify. That's the worst
thing a man can do before God is justify himself. Worst thing
he can do is alibi. Worst thing he can do before
God is to try to make an excuse for his sins. That's the worst
thing he can do. And you've got to repent of sins.
But then thirdly, A man hadn't repented until he repents of
his righteousness. My righteousness. You know, when
we pray a prayer, do you ever, when you get through praying,
child, I know you do, and you other men, don't you sometimes
say, oh, I wish I could pray? It's a lie. That's so dead. I'm so dead. You get through with a sermon.
John preached a great sermon Wednesday to tell you, but I
bet you asked him, he'd say it wasn't great. I bet if you ask
him, he'd say, boy, I wish I could preach. Wouldn't he? You see, when you give a gift,
you do come away proud. Well, I sure gave a good one
this morning. You say, oh, I wish I could give
like I ought to give, you know, other than to the Lord for His
glory. Never satisfied with what you do. Never! Flat never. Never. Never. Because there's
so much sin and the best deed I ever did, enough to send me
to hell. Did you know that? My repentance
needs to be... I need to repent of my repentance! Somebody said, oh, they were
standing back there crying. So overcome with the message,
tears, that's good. But even those tears need to
be bathed in the blood of Christ. There's not only salt in them,
but sin in them. I'm telling the truth now. That's so. And here are five things, quickly, dependent on this. And you say,
well, why are you digging us like this? Because I'm digging
me. And I need it for this reason,
five reasons. A man's understanding, understanding
of, his grip on, his entering into the grace and goodness of
God depends on his understanding of his own sinfulness. I'm telling
you the truth. His very understanding of the
grace, grace, grace, I picked up your Kathy's Bible. See, they were in front of me.
I picked up her Bible. I read in there something that
I said one time. Grace is God giving us what we
don't deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what
we do deserve. Now, what's that based on? Understanding
of what I deserve? He's right. But understanding
what I don't deserve, His mercy. Why? Because I'm a sinner. See
what I'm talking about? I'm glad our people write things
like that in their Bible and understand things like that,
but you don't lay hold of them or understand them until you
see your wretchedness, my wretchedness. Old Mephibosheth fell down in
front of David. Here was David in his satin and
silk and gold and silver and jewels and cleanliness and power
and all majesty and all these things. There was an unclean,
crippled, deformed, dirty, ragged beggar, and he saw himself like
he was in David in that throne room, and he said, Why are you
showing such mercy to such a dead dog? Let me give you a self-statement.
If another king Even of not equal, but almost equal position, power,
possession. And glorious, David walked in
and David said, come eat with me. He might have been flattered
that David invited him to eat with him. He might have even
been kind of impressed with David's kindness to him. But I'll tell
you, the man that was really impressed with David's kindness
and grace was a man that didn't have anything. David was so high and he was
so low, he said, why are you showing such kindness to such
a dead dog? Now what made him feel like a
dead dog? His emptiness, his poverty, his dirt, his filth. See that? And that's the man
and the woman that has some in preacher. You say, well, preachers
preach grace, mercy, and extol and exalt God's grace. They never
needed it. They've never partaken of it.
They're equals. God is my copilot. God is my
partner. God ain't no partner with a bum.
No, sir. He's the king. And the further
down a man is, when that king turns and looks at you, you're
not impressed. A member of the Senate is not
too impressed if a member of the Congress speaks to him. But
I tell you, the fellow out yonder sweeping the streets is pretty
impressed when Senator Byrd stops and speaks to him. Huh? All right, number two. A man's
faith. Faith. We talk about wanting
faith. That faith is born of need and awareness of sin. Need. This woman was the issue
of blood. She tried everything. All she
spent, all she had, and it was no better. Sick, sick, oh, sick,
life just flowing out of her. And she said, if I can just touch
the hymn of his garment. What drove her to that person,
Christ? What drove her? Her need. If she hadn't been sick, she
wouldn't have been there, Ron. She wouldn't have been there.
If she hadn't been, she would have been helpless and hopeless. She'd never been there. She'd
have been still trying another doctor. What about the woman? Let me give you this. A Canaanite
woman, whose daughter was grievously ill, came to him and said, Lord,
have mercy on me. He didn't even speak to her.
He answered her not a word. She stayed right there on her
knees. The disciple said, she bothers
us. Send her away. She worries us to death. Right
there. He never answered her. She said, but Lord, have mercy
on me. He turned to her and he said, he pulled a doctor
of election on her. He said, I'm not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I'm only sent to the
Israelites. I had to run most of us away,
but not her. Why? Needs. There was nowhere
to go. She was in trouble. Stayed right
there. She said, Lord, have mercy on
me. And he turned and called her a dog. He flat called her
a dog. That's what the Jews called the
Gentiles, dogs. And he said, well, it's not right
to give the children's bread to dogs. Never moved, did she? Stayed right there. She said,
that's true, Lord, but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
the Master's table. Oh, our Lord said, great is thy
faith. I'm telling you, one thing will keep a man at the feet of
Christ, and that's need. One thing. One thing. You can't
run him away. You can preach election or sovereignty,
preach anything in the world, he's not going anywhere. Call
him a dog, he's not going anywhere, because there's nowhere else
to go. Thou hast the words of life,
and his need keeps him there by faith. Thirdly, a man's love
for Christ depends on an understanding of his sinfulness and weakness
and helplessness and inability, helplessness. I don't give you
the whole illustration, but you remember the woman that bade
his feet with tears? And Simon the Pharisee, remember
that story? And Simon made fun of him for
letting that woman touch him. He said, Simon, I came in your
house and you gave me no kiss of grief, no water to wash my
feet. Yet and since I've come in, you
didn't anoint my head with oil. This woman has kissed my feet,
washed my feet with tears, and anointed them with oil. He said
to whom much is forgiven, they what? They love much. You want
me to tell you the people in this crowd that love Jesus Christ?
I mean flat loving. are those sinners that He saved
by His grace. They love Him. Self-righteous
religionists love their churches. They love their traditions. They
love their doctrines. They love their social contacts.
They love a lot of things. They don't love Him. Love for
Him is born of need. I'm telling you. Strictly born
of And fourthly, quickly, a man's humility depends on his understanding
of his own nature. His humility. The prodigal son
came back and said, what? Make me a hired servant. Why? I've seen. Paul said, I don't
deserve grace. I persecuted the church. I'll tell you the man who's humble
and broken, the Lord's not going to share his glory with him.
And I'm telling you this, and I'll give you this just briefly.
I worked this over extensively in the conference over in Illinois,
but God's gonna bring everybody down now. What was Moses' strong
point? Meekness. Isn't that correct?
Meekness. Where'd he fail? That very place. He got angry. God told him, speak to the rock,
and he showed out. He said, you rebels, must I get
water from this rock? Old Moses had graduated from
meekness. He used to couldn't talk, now
he's talking too much. And God stood him up on the flat
land, let him look at the promised land, but didn't let him go in.
Brought him down, didn't he, Charlie? Abraham was his strong
point, faith. You know where he fell? Saber was a beautiful woman that
old king wanted her and Abraham said well Maybe we'd better compromise
and you tell him you're my sister and let him have you I don't
want to get killed Well the same God that brought him out of his
father's house would protect him there, but See God can't
let us get up there on that pedestal and brag about Peter Who was
the only disciple in the garden that was gonna fight for the
Lord Peter who was the only disciple down by the? Fire that denied
he knew him, Peter. Why, he said, I'll go to death
with you. I'll whip up on all of them.
The Lord said, no, are you going to deny me? And the apostle Paul
was taken to the third heaven. And God gave him, when he came
back, gave him what? A thorn in the flesh. You know
what it was? No, wait till you tell me. I
don't know either. Nobody else knows. But it's real to Paul. And he called it a messenger
of Satan. God sent it. And twice he said,
God sent it lest I be exalted above measure. Now I'm telling
you, I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's the man
after God's own heart. I don't care who it is. Noah.
Boy, he made a mess out of things. Lot. David. Job. What point did God brag on Job
about before Satan? He's a righteous man. And then
the Lord tore his hide off for bragging about his righteousness. You can't trust us. You can't
trust us. You can't do it. You put us on
a little pedestal and it just, it creates. You know what they,
what Solomon said Lord don't give me riches lest I forget
thee and don't give me poverty lest I steal That's human nature
Let a man in here get a little authority or prosperity and it
ruins him Let him have to suffer a little bit and he becomes a
thief. That's it. We can't be trusted You better
learn it and as soon as you learn it the more humble you'll be
before God and men That's right What I'm preaching
this morning is total Enigma to most religionist, but it's
so and some of you sitting there saying that's right. That's right
Didn't know he knew that. Yeah, that's right to know it
Kate You can't trust the flesh and I'll tell you fearfully and
I quit with this our compassion for others Depends on our understanding
of our own weakness and faith That's right. Paul said, if a
brother be overtaken in a fall, you which are spiritual, you
who are mature, you who are seniors, graduate
students in grades, restore him, considering thyself. And when
you start considering yourself, if you know yourself, you'd say,
Lord, that for your grace it had been me. And May 4th's over,
because the Lord's going to break. He's going to strip us flesh
and have all the glory. And I'll let these fellas go
around bragging on it and praising it and exalting it and dignifying
it all they want to. You say, well, if you preach
too much on sin and unworthiness and inability, you break a man's
spirit. I wish we could break these old
proud spirits. I wish we don't you, and sit
at the feet of Christ. A broken spirit and a contrite
heart, oh Lord, I will not despise.