1 John 5.20, 1 John 5.20, and
we know, and we know. Now, that's my title, and we
know. Actually, I might call this message, What the Center
Needs, or What the Center Needs to Know. But that's the direction
I'm going, and we know some things we need to know. And we know
that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding.
Now, my friends, I've often said there are three or four things. God is my witness, and there's
nothing wrong. We're not supposed to swear.
He said, let your yea be yea and your nay nay. That's sufficient.
Anything more than that's sin. But the Apostle Paul, for emphasis,
and to try to put forth his heart feeling to the people on more
than one occasion, said, God is my witness. There's so many
liars in this world, it's a shame that we have to say that, but
God is my witness. There are three or four things
that mean more to me than anything in this world. God is my witness. And those three or four things
are these. I want to know the gospel. I'm not married to a
denomination. I'm not married to a theological
system. I am not married to a tradition,
religious tradition, believe me. I want to know the gospel. Not a gospel, the gospel. There's not but one gospel. The
Apostle Paul said there are men who preach another gospel, which
is not another, but a perversion of the gospel of Christ. And
I do, under God, want to know, not just in my head, but in my
heart, the gospel. Do you? I want to know the gospel. Secondly, I want desperately
and sincerely, with some power and wisdom, I want to preach
this gospel. I don't want to preach unnecessary
things. Now let me tell you this. I am against abortion. I am against
freelance abortion. There may be some cases, and
I don't care to name them, where they are what's necessary. to
save a mother's life or something of that nature or some other
background. I'm against it. Let me say to
you, it's wrong. All right, let's let her in there
and go and preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. I'm for putting
out of our society those things that are detrimental to the well-being
of our children. Having said that, let's go on
to the gospel. You see what I'm trying to say?
There are issues. I hear preachers say, we need
to stand up against this, that, and the other. Just declare the
gospel of Jesus Christ and declare the message God laid on our hearts,
exalting His Son. Touch these things as the door
opens, but our major emphasis is the gospel. I am determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Yea, woe is unto me if I don't
preach the gospel. I'm so concerned that everybody
who hears me pray hears the gospel. There may be someone here tonight
who will hear a message for the last time. Never again will you
hear another preacher pray for one reason or another. Woe be
unto me if I let you come and sit here and depart and not hear
the gospel. How God saves man. And then thirdly,
and I don't take this for granted by any means, a man can know
mechanically theoretically or even scripturally, the gospel
and not the saints. Yes, he can in his head now.
And also a man can preach some truth. I won't say that he can
preach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, but I say he can
preach some truth related to Christ and not the saints. So
I want to know the gospel, I want to preach the gospel, and I want
to experience it. I want to be saved by that gospel."
That's what Paul was saying in Philippians 3. He said, Oh, that
I may win Christ and be found in him. What a tragedy! What
an awful tragedy! to stand before God someday,
having stood in the pulpit with an open Bible in front of a congregation
or in a classroom, or having sat in a congregation for a number
of years, what a tragedy, to stand in front of the Holy God
someday and hear Him say, Depart from me, I never knew you. I
want to be saved, Bob. I want to be saved. You say,
Aren't you saved? Believe I am, but I sure don't
want to miss it. Oh, that I may know Him and the
power of His resurrection. Lord, if I have not loved you
before tonight, let me start tonight. Is that the way you
feel? If I haven't rested in Christ
prior to this moment, I want desperately right now to rest
in Him. If I have not committed all things to Christ against
that day, I want to do it right now. I'm not going to foolishly
defend an experience or a feeling and go to hell defending it,
swearing, as Barnett said, on a stack of Bibles that I'm saved.
It's imperative that I know Christ and I want to be saved. And the
fourth thing is this, I want you to know the gospel. I want
you to sit and you listen to me preach and other men who stand
in this awesome place, this place of great responsibility. And
it may be, Barnard said one time to me, he said, now be careful
what you preach, somebody might believe you. I wish they would. All what I'd give is somebody
to say, I believe that. I believe that. Like a friend
of mine came and sat and listened to me preach for, oh, several
weeks or months. And he'd sit there and frown
at me while I was preaching. He wasn't mad at me, just couldn't
understand me. And one Sunday I had a little liberty to preach
the gospel of God's grace, and I'm standing right back there
by that door. This was years ago. They say when you get old,
you remember things that happened a long time ago, and you can't
remember what happened this morning. But years ago, I was standing
back there by the door, and he came out with this big smile
on his face and a twinkle in his eye. And I took him by the
hand. I said, well, come back. He said, I'll be back. I'll be
back. Tonight, Wednesday, I see it. I see it. Oh, to see it. See what I'm saying? That's what
I want. I want somebody tonight, even perhaps stand up in the
middle of my message and say, hey, I see it. I see it. I was
preaching down in Cherokee, North Carolina. Last October, bringing
a message on when Jesus passed by our Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus it
was. And I got to the end of the message and a fellow back
and back said, I've heard enough, I've heard enough. You remember
that? Remember that? Some of you were there. And down the
aisle he came. I've heard enough, I've heard
enough. Have you? Well, when you hear him, you've heard enough.
When you see him, you've seen enough. But till you hear him,
you ain't heard nothing. Till you see Him, you haven't
heard anything or seen anything. That's just right. Now, I don't
profess to be able to save anybody. I can't even convict anybody.
I hear people say, well, brother man, when you talk to somebody,
maybe you can do something with him. I can't do anything with
him. I can't do anything with him. I can't do anything with
him. I can't convict men of sin. I can't persuade anybody to believe
in Christ Jesus, but God can. God can. And God can through
the gospel preach. That's how God saves sinners,
through the preaching of the gospel. You may belittle it. You may discount it. You may
do what you will. You may grow weary under the
preaching of it. It's like the man that was sitting
right where Mindy is now at Joyce's funeral Wednesday night, and
I looked at him, and he's sitting there about half asleep, and
it just got to me. And I said, sleep on. Someday,
folks that sleep under the preaching of the gospel are going to sleep
the sleep of death. And his eyes popped open about
four inches. You say, you ought not do that.
Well, what do you do? Let them sleep on? Sleep on, old sluggard! That's what Scripture says. Awake
thou that sleepest! Awake! We better awake, because
God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. So I want to give you a few things in this message.
Few things that I believe are important in the matter of salvation. Now, somebody says the art of
preaching is never tell them how many. I'm going to tell you
anyway. I'm not very artistic. There
are seven of them, and I'm going to be brief with them. But here
they are. You can write them down if you want to. A sinner
needs to have, whoever you are here, a sinner, whoever we are,
a sinner needs to have a knowledge of God. A man is not going to
be saved without some knowledge of God, to some degree, a knowledge
of God. Put down these scriptures, John
17, verse 3. Listen, let me quote it. Our
Lord said, This is eternal life, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now, that's
eternal life. And without some knowledge of
God, you don't have eternal life. I'm talking about God the Creator,
the God, Tom, addressed in his practice, who reigns and rules
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth,
and giveth it to whomsoever he will." Listen to this scripture,
Hebrews 11, 6. Write that down. He that cometh
to God must believe that he is, that he is, and that he is the
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And my text here, the
Son of God hath come and given us an understanding that we may
know him that is true, and we're in him that is true, even in
his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, the true
God, the Creator, the eternal God. My friends, salvation has
to do with a relationship with God. Salvation is not just to
quit getting drunk. You can go to AA and do that.
Salvation is not just to lay your drugs aside and become a
sober individual. You can go to a drug rehabilitation
center and do that. Salvation is not just to become
a better husband or a better wife and a better father. You can go to a marriage counselor
and do that. Salvation is a relationship with
God. And when that relationship with
God is right, then that relationship with others is going to be right.
There's the key. Every cry for mercy is addressed
to God. David said, have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy lovingkindness, Psalm 51, according to thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions, God. The publican in the temple
addressed the Lord. He said, Lord, be merciful to
me, a sinner. The thief on the cross addressed
the Lord. He said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. In Romans 10, 13, it says, how
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? So salvation
has to do with a relationship with God. And before a man can
enter into what we call this state of redemption or life or
eternal life or salvation, he's got to have himself personally,
individually, some conception, some understanding of God's existence. That's right. Of God's power,
of God's greatness, and of God's glory, he's got to be taught
by the Spirit of God and the Word of God who God is. But that's not enough. Because
James says, you believe this one God, you do well. The devil
believes in him. All right, here's the second
thing. A sinner must have or needs not
only a knowledge of God first, But he needs to have a knowledge
of sin. And I'm talking about sin in
general. We'll get to something else in
a minute. But he's going to have to have some understanding of
sin. And sin is understood in the light of God. Sin is understood
in the light of God's holiness. Now write Isaiah 6, 1 through
5. It says, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. This is Isaiah. I saw the Lord. Now, let's quit putting people
in classes. And you folks that are already
religious and already made a profession and already claimed to know God
and the children of God, remember that Isaiah claimed the same
thing before he ever saw the Lord. Same thing. So did Saul
of Tarsus. So did a lot of other folks.
So don't say, well, I've already got that. Wait, just maybe you
have, maybe you haven't. Maybe you've come to some understanding
of sin in relation to the standards of meaning. Maybe you've come
to some understanding of what's right and wrong in relation to
your parents, or wife, or husband, or children, or your conscience. But I'm talking about a knowledge
of sin as it relates to God. And Isaiah said, I saw the Lord
high and lifted up in His trained power fill the temple. And the
cherubims and seraphims cried, holy, holy, holy, Lord God of
hosts. I saw the Lord. And then I said,
woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips. And
this whole outfit has unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips. Our sins have separated us and
our God. There's a war between heaven
and earth because of sin. The wrath and anger of God is
upon men because of sin. Job said, Job 43 through 5, Behold,
I am vile. When did he decide that? When
he saw God. He said, I've heard of you by
the hearing of the ear, Job 42, 5 and 6, but now mine eye seeth
thee. I hate myself. David said in
Psalm 51, 3, My sins are ever before me against thee, and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Remember four
things about sin. Number one, it's nature. It's
a law. It's a law within. It's not just
an act without. Sin is a law within. Turn to
Romans 7. It's a principle, a nature, a
law within. That's what Paul said in Romans
7, verse 21. Listen to this. I find in a law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Evil, like
a virus, lives within me. For I delight in the law after
the inward man, the new man, the regenerated man. But I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? That's what sin is. It's nature. It's a nature, it's a principle,
it's a law within. that causes us to do what we
do without. I've said this so often, a man
does not become a thief when he steals, he steals because
he is a thief. He kills because he is a murderer.
We are seeing, the natural mind is not at enmity, it is enmity. It is enmity, the natural mind.
Then secondly, seeing it's object, it's against God. The Particle
Son came back and accurately defined his problem. He said,
I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. That's what he
said to his dad. Most of us would have come back and said, well,
daddy, I've sinned against you and done you wrong and this,
that, and the other. He didn't say that. He said, I've sinned
against God. My sin's against God. And that's
what David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. Now sin, if you understand and
come to some knowledge of sin, first you have an understanding
of its nature. It's a principle. It's a nature. It's a law within. And we grapple
with it and wrestle with it all the time. And it doesn't get
any better as you get older. That's just so. It doesn't get
any better. And the warfare seems to get
greater because you realize there are more areas in which Sin is
not understood in a younger day. I know that we're to crucify
the flesh, but you'll have to do it tomorrow, too. You're not
going to do it once for all. If you understand sin, it's a
principle, it's a nature. And its object is God. And its expression is outwardly. The sin's expression is outwardly,
and then sins extend. Even my righteousness is a filthy
rat. Even my righteousness, it reaches
all places. Sin rears up its ugly head even
in the prayer closet. Sin rears up its ugly head even
in the congregation, in the middle of worship. Sin rears up its
ugly head in the pulpit. That's right. That old evil,
there's no place, there's no place to hide from it. It's everywhere. It's all its extent, even my
righteousness. Isaiah is clean, Isaiah 64, 6. We all do faith as the leaf.
We're all an unclean thing, and even our righteousnesses are
filthy rags, fit to be burned. But thank God Christ came to
save sinners. I shall call his name Jesus.
He'll save us from our sins. And I'll tell you, a man is not
going to have much understanding of this thing of salvation until
he has a knowledge of God, until he has a whole lot more than
this generation of preachers today is preaching about sin.
Sin. Sin. And then thirdly, a sinner
needs a knowledge of himself. David said in Psalm 51, my sins
are ever before me. Against thee have I sinned. Now,
this is a hard pill to swallow. And this is where the rubber
meets the road, as somebody said recently. But it's so vital,
it's a hard lesson to learn. I am the chief of sinners. Now,
I know we've got common expressions like, I'd never do that. If I
were him, I'd do it this way. I, you know, I thank God I'm
not like other men. I, I, I, you know. A man is not
going to be saved until he mourns a part. That's right, there's
no bargaining with God. I'm going to have to see that
this evil of hell is in me. It's not in my neighbor. I like
that Negro spiritual. It ain't the preacher nor the
deacons, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's me. Have we ever found that out?
It's me. Oh, let us mourn apart. Let us be convicted individually,
ourselves. Oh, I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. God doesn't save nations. I hear
the preachers hollering, America, back to God. America never was
with God. How are they going to get back? They never were. Let's have our community get
back to Christ. No, sir. Christ saves people
individually. And they're brought to a consciousness
of God and of sin and of their own sins and their own guilt
and their own wickedness. My sin is ever before me. Against thee have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. We want others to pass. Yet they're
as guilty as I am. No, that's not it. That's not
it. That's not it. It's I. Or here's
the fourth thing. A sinner needs a righteousness
before God. I've got to have it. And I've
got to deal with it, and I've got to have some understanding
of it. Now turn to Psalm 24, and let's see if I can simply
state this. And how can you simply state
a mystery? How can you simply state something that has to be
revealed? that the princes of this world did not know or they
would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, that the kings
and wise men of this world can't enter into, that the eye cannot
see, ear cannot hear, and the heart cannot understand. It has
to be revealed by the Spirit of God. But let's put it so that
if the Spirit of God is pleased that He'll reveal it, and we
won't be a stumbling block in the way. You know, they used
to have those cities of refuge, and they had signs pointing to
the cities of refuge. And somebody told me that the
priest was supposed to clear the way for the guilty man so
that he wouldn't get on the wrong road, so he could clearly see
the sign. So let's clean the sign up and
polish it and reword it, not reword it, but make it clear
so that men at least can see as the Spirit of God is pleased
to reveal it. Psalm 24.3, who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord? That's what we're talking about.
Who shall stand in his holy place? Who? He that hath clean hands
and a pure heart. And brother, that means clean
and that means pure. And that's not your standard
of cleanliness, it's God's. And that's not your measure of
purity, that's God's. Who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Turn to Matthew 5.20. Matthew
5.20. And our Lord says here, I say unto you, And you know, he used that word,
except, several times. He said, except you repent, you'll
perish. Except you be born again, you'll not see the kingdom of
God. Except you be converted and become as a little child,
you won't enter the kingdom of God. And here he says, I say
unto you, except your righteousness, your holiness, exceed, exceed
now, not equal, but exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."
In other words, he's saying the scribes and Pharisees are not
going to the kingdom of heaven. And they were the preachers and
teachers and religionists of their day. And they were men
who fasted twice a week. They were men who outwardly kept
the moral law. They were men who studied the
scriptures. They were men who taught in the synagogue. They
were the best men of their day. In fact, people used to say,
if there are two men in heaven, one of them will be a Pharisee
and one of them a scribe. But Christ said they're not going
to enter. And neither are we, unless our holiness exceeds theirs. Well, my soul, my outward holiness
doesn't even come up to theirs, let alone exceed it. It was theirs
and not his. It was one they produced, not
one he produced. So what we've got to have is
a holiness before the law of God. A holiness before God Almighty's
law. Now where am I going to get it?
I can't produce it. Well, Romans 3, and these passages
are so vital in respect to this subject. In Romans chapter 3,
listen to this. It says in verse 19, now we know
That what things serve of the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law. That's all of us. Romans 3, 19.
That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God. We're guilty before God. I'm
not talking about guilty before men. I'm talking about guilty
before God. And you say, well, preacher, you offend me when
you talk about us being worms, and talk about us being wretches,
and talk about us being defiled, and the brother prayed a while
ago, we're worthless creatures. What are you talking about? You're
talking about the folks on Front Street, you're talking about
the harlots in the Red Light District, you're talking about
the bums on Skid Row in Austin, talking about us. What they are
in your sight is what you are in God's sight. That's just what
I'm saying. You walk down the street and
there's that old bum with all kind of diseases through his
terrible life who'd shoot you in the back for a glass of wine.
who carries a knife and will rip your stomach open and steal
your purse. He'll lie there in his vomit
and filth and pollution and you look at him and say, what a guilty
vile wretch. In your eyes he is. In your eyes
are eyes of some morality but not perfect morality. In your
eyes are eyes of a pretty sharp standard. It depends on your
upbringing, where you were brought up. My friend, you know how holy
God's eyes are? And how holy God's law is? And
when he looks at the best man on the earth, he said he's altogether
vanity, a breath of air. That's all he is. Worthless. Thy worm, Jacob. That's right. So that's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about what we appear to be in God's eyes. Guilty before
God. Therefore, verse 20, by the deeds
of the law, By doing religious things. Preachers say, now you've
got to come to the front, you've got to join a church, you've
got to be baptized, then you've got to give your tithe, then you've got to
attend church, then you've got to treat your neighbor right,
then you've got to do all these things. That's fine. But before God,
that won't do it. That's not going to satisfy His
holy law. His holy law reaches a lot deeper than these outward
actions. It reaches the thought. God demands that you love Him
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, your neighbor as
yourself, and every act be motivated by that perfect love. I'm out
from the start. Just count me out. And by the
deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Verse 21, but now,
right now, the righteousness, the holiness of God himself,
the holiness which God demands, which God requires, which God's
provided, without the law, without my obedience to the law, because
if I have it, it's going to have to be. Like a fellow said, well,
if I get in, it'll have to be free. And if I have a holiness,
it's going to have to be without the law, because I can't keep
it, either inwardly or outwardly. So the righteousness, the holiness
which God demands, requires, and expects, and has provided
without the law is manifested. What's manifested? It's right
out there in front of you. Here it is, he said. And it's
witnessed by the Word of God and by the prophets. It is even
the righteousness of God which is by faith or by the faith of
Jesus Christ. It's by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ and it's unto all and it's upon all that believe and
there's no difference between Jew and Gentile, male and female,
white and black, old and young, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. There's your righteousness right
there. It's that which He perfected. He was born of a woman and lived
on this earth, in the flesh, as our representative, as our
federal head, and did everything that God required of me. And
before God, I have a perfect holiness. I upset some people
the other night when I questioned our term, progressive sanctification. And the reason I question it
is this. Number one, it's not in the Bible. Number two is this. That when God Almighty in Christ
redeems a man, he's holy, perfectly sanctified. He's holy, perfectly
sanctified right then. For both he that's sanctified
and they that are sanctified are what? One. That's what the
book says. The thief on the cross was totally
sanctified the moment he looked to Christ or he would have never
entered paradise. He would have defiled it had
he not been holy. That's right. God, Christ, hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. He is my sanctification. Now
wait a minute. I believe there's a growth in
grace. I believe we grow in faith. I believe we grow in love. I
believe we grow in understanding and patience. I believe we grow
in these, in character. We never get very far, but we
grow. We all say we're the chief of sinners, and when we think
we're something, we ain't nothing. It's a paradox. We're filled,
but we're still empty. We're rich, but we're still poor.
We're happier every day, but we're sadder every day. You see,
we're richer every day, and we're made more like Christ every day,
but we feel we're less like Christ every day. You feel holy? Anybody here feel holy? Could
I introduce anybody here tonight and say there's a holy man of
God? Boy, I'm not standing up. I'm not standing up. Well, I
thought you sanctified. I thought you'd been sanctified.
You feel a little more holy today than you were two years ago?
Do you really now? You pressing on to higher ground?
I'm telling you this. I don't understand the paradox
of it, I just know it's so. I know we grow in grace and in
love and in faith and in patience and humility and these things,
but the more growth God by his grace enables us to experience,
the further we feel from what we want to be. That's just right. But I'm perfectly holy in Christ.
Absolutely, you're looking at a man that's holy sanctified,
and I'm looking at people who believe in Christ, who are holy
as God in Christ. That's so. Now if that offends
you, you better look into the gospel. Because God cannot accept
anything except perfect holiness. And if you accept Him, the Beloved,
you're as holy as the Beloved. And with His spotless garments
on, I'm as holy as God's Son. So the sinner needs a righteousness.
Well, preacher, where are you looking? I'm looking to Christ.
And I looked to Him yesterday, and I'll look to Him tomorrow.
And by His grace, I'll look to Him the next day. He is my holiness,
without which no man will see the Lord. I don't know why folks
get tied up on that verse of Scripture. Beyond me. It's beyond me. Without holiness,
no man will see the Lord. Without love for the brethren,
no man is going to see the Lord. He that is born of God loveth.
He that loveth not is not born of God. But it's not my holiness,
it's His. It's not my love, it's His. It's
not I, but Christ that liveth in me. He gets the glory. All right, the fifth thing. A
sinner needs a substitute. Brethren, our sins will be punished. I hear saying, God must punish
sin. He will, too. He will, too. You can bet your bottom dollar
on that. God will punish sin. And we need a substitute. We
need a sin offering, just like I told you this morning when
that priest went into the tabernacle. He better have some blood with
him, or he better not come in. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Now, whose blood will it be?
Well, for me, it's the blood of Christ. Romans 5, let's turn
over there, you're almost there. We've got to go to Romans 3,
just flip over to Romans 5, verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8,
God commended His love toward us and while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Verse 10, if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Verse 12.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all, for all have sinned. Verse
11 is the one I want. And not only so, but we also
join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. What does that word mean? Reconciliation. By his death. by his death. Christ,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of substitution. I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of the blood of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of a sacrifice who hung on the Calvary's cross and died
for my sin. That's my hope. Six, a sinner
needs repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. Turn to
Acts 20. Now let me tell you something,
and I want to be as plain as I can here. Elections, not salvation. It's unto salvation. It's unto
salvation. And I know that God has chosen
us and God has given Christ to be our righteousness and Christ
to be our sin offering. But there's got to be personal
faith. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. I know faith's a gift of God
and the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance. But here Paul
said in Acts 20, verse 20, and he's talking to these elders
of the church, he said, I kept back nothing that's profitable
to you, but I've showed you and taught you publicly from house
to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God. Repentance toward God. I'm talking
about individually. And that repentance toward God
is a hard work. And that heart work, sincerely,
personally, individually, acknowledges God to be God. Let God be God
in every man alive. And that's repentance, takes
that position. And then repentance admits the
holiness of God. Not only the power of God and
the sovereignty of God, but the holiness of God and admits my
own sinfulness. And then repentance, thirdly,
justifies God in his condemnation. Justifies God in his judgment
as David said Lord you're just and you're holy when you condemn
me when you sit in judgment upon me you're just and righteous
and holy because I am a sinner and Then repentance longs to
be delivered from that sin. Not only its penalty. Not only
it's punishment Not only it's practice, but it's their presence.
We long to be delivered. We long to be like Christ. There's
a genuine hatred for sin and a love for God's righteousness
and a longing to be like Him. That's repentance. And repentance
believes the record that God has given. Repentance, little
children, God keep you from idols. Repentance sets up no No competition
with Christ in this matter of redemption. Genuine repentance
does not bring in any rival to Christ. Genuine repentance says,
let God be God, let Christ be the only Redeemer, and I bow
before Him and worship Him alone. That's repentance. And faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Romans 4. Let me show
you one thing. Sinners need that. And that's something only God
can give. The goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance. I know we could sit here tonight
and, you know, to some men, satisfaction proved as a God. The fool has
said in his heart, no, God. And we could, to some satisfaction,
some people's satisfaction proved as life after death. People are
trying different ways to do that. And we could, to many people's
satisfaction, deal with a matter of our having a part in the second
resurrection. And get folks down an aisle to
make a decision and to make a confession, say, I cast my lot with you guys. I cast my lot with you fellas.
When God makes up the load for him, I want to be in the bunch. When the saints go marching in,
I want to be in the number, you know. But this thing of hard
work. that slays the old man and makes
a new man. This business of hard work, not
only on Sunday, but Monday too. Not only when the sun's shining,
but when it's raining. Not only when things are going
my way, but when they're not. Not only in fair weather, but
foul weather. I believe God. I believe God. I believe God. I'm conscious
of his presence. I'm conscious of his glory, his
power. I'm conscious of my sin. I'm
conscious of his holiness. I'm conscious of the gift of
his grace, his unspeakable gift, his beloved son whom he gave
for me. I love his fellowship. I covet his communion. I fear
his frown. I'm conscious of everything being
of God, every good and perfect gift. That's something that we
can't do for you. That's something only God can do. That's a work,
that's a permanent, continuing work of grace only God can put
in the soap. Men get religion and lay it aside.
What a man makes himself, he can unmake. But what God does,
it's forever. He puts life in a man that can't
be extinguished. He puts a fire that can't be
put out. He puts a knowledge that cannot
be denied. He puts a life that cannot be slain. He puts the
life of God in that man or woman, boy or girl, and it's God's gift. And that's salvation. That's
salvation. That's salvation. And that's
what Abraham had. And that's the reason I've said
to this community for 30 some odd years, and I'm going to keep
saying it, salvation is of the Lord. Now you can have them like
Brother Kent Clark told us the other night, said the free will
Armenian fundamentalist preacher had a big group to do service
and got 20 people down the aisle and they all made professions
of faith and they all joined the church and was baptized.
He went home that night and in his devotions he said, Lord,
I bet you can't guess what happened at church tonight. I'll tell you this, the salvation
of the righteous is of God and of him only. And what he does
is forever. And it's as supernatural as his
creating a son. It's as great and magnificent
as him making a world. That's right. And that's what
Abraham, verse 20 of Romans 4, he staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. And I'm
telling you, that was faith when he didn't know where he was going,
and he didn't know how God was going to give him that son, and
he didn't know why God wanted to kill him. But he believed
God. He believed God. Verse 21, And he was fully persuaded
of what God promised God was able to perform. Therefore it
was imputed to him for righteousness. God, give me that thing. I don't
want anything less. Now that was written, not for
his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
that same righteousness shall be imputed if we believe on him
who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for
our offenses and raised for our justification. I can't give you
that kind of faith, but God can. That's the gift of God. That's saving faith. That's what
a sinner's got to have. You're making this thing too
difficult. I'm trying to make it impossible. You know what
Christ said, David? They said, well, who can be saved?
And he said, with me. And it's what? Impossible. That's the reason I want us to
quit looking up here for salvation. And looking in here for salvation. I tell you where we'd better
look. Lord, save me or I'll perish. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Here I am. I've made a mess out of it. I've
been to every old Dr. Law and Dr. Reform and Dr. Decision
and Dr. Denomination, and I come to Dr. Grace, and I cast myself on your
mercy. Lord, save me, I pray." That's
so. You say, you're putting it out
of our hands, doing my dead-level best, because it's not in your
hands, salvation of the Lord. We say, what are we going to
do? Tell us something to do. Look to Christ. That's what you
do. You look to Christ. You look
to Him. And we've been given, folks, religious professions
and experiences and tell them, now you're saved. Pray the sinner's
prayer. I'll tell you, if a man's drowning,
you won't have to tell him what to say. And he'll say it. Help! That's right. That's right. Help. Who'd he say help to? Christ. Then last of all, and I'll quit,
a sinner's got to have love. 1 John 4, let's look at it. Our Lord said, by this shall
all men know you are my disciples if you love one another. 1 John
4, and I'm talking about love for Christ. You see, I think a man might be brought
under conviction by growing angry. Somebody said, well, folks didn't
like what you said the other night. Well, you know, in a sense,
now don't be angry with me. In a sense, it's good that they
were angry. It's good. It's good because
a natural man is going to battle the gospel of grace. It's indicative
of the fact I must have said something true for them to go
angry. Isn't that right? If I had preached
salvation, nobody gets angry with salvation but we're. But
salvation by pure grace that gives God all the glory, the
natural man's going to chafe under it. He's going to... And
when you bring your friends here to hear this gospel, now don't
be surprised if they go on and say, I don't believe that. Well,
I didn't like what he said. How can they like it? The only
person who likes grace is a person who's been recipient of grace.
That's the reason they don't like it. So fine, fine. But I'll
tell you this, before they're saved, they're going to come
to love it. And that's exactly right. They'll love it. They'll
fall in love with it. Love with Him, with His Word,
with His people, with His methods, with His grace. Beloved, 1 John
4 and 5, Let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone
that loveth is born of God, and he knows God, and he that loveth
not knoweth not God. For God is love, and now abideth
faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these.