Now, let me read a text, John
17, verse 3. And this is life eternal, this is it, that they might know thee. the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent." Now, I realize that many preachers
are irresponsible when it comes to what they say from the pulpit. And I've offended in that regard
many times, I'm confident. And the message that I'm going
to bring this morning is not off the cuff or the top of my
head, but it's one that I've given much thought to and much
consideration and deliberation, and I'm going to almost give
it to you as I've written it out. Like Pilate said when they
said, write not that he's the king of the Jews, but he said
he's the king of the Jews. Well, he said, what I've written,
I've written. And I say that concerning the
things that I'm going to present to you this morning, what I've
written, I've written. And I begin by making this statement. The whole religious system of
1983 and The whole religious system of
this day, everything I encounter, just about, in the name of God,
troubles me, just about every bit of it, just about every bit
of it. And I find this to be true, that
most men who know something about whom I regard as knowing something
about the Bible, most people who who are men of sincerity
and men of serious thought and men who are not caught up in
some sort of sectarianism or denominationalism or have some
ax to grind. They're just men who spiritually
are free thinkers, who are contemplating a relationship with God, the
favor of God, the presence of God, the Word of God. They're
troubled, too. They're troubled, too. Barnard
said to me back 25 years ago, we were in some kind of religious
gathering. He got up and said, I'm leaving.
I said, wait and I'll go with you. He said, I've had all this
religion I want. I've had all of it I want. Now,
I'm confident of four things. I'm as certain of these four
things as I'm standing right here. My generation, the generation
to which I'm preaching, is ignorant of the character of God. They're
totally ignorant of the character of God Almighty. Now, Christ
said that to His generation. I want to show you two scriptures.
First, John 8. These are the words of Christ.
In John chapter 8, In verse 19, listen to what he said. He's
speaking, he's not speaking here to a bunch of rabble-rousers
and a mob and a bunch of people that have no religious training. He's talking to the religious
leaders of his day. In John 8, verse 19, listen to
this. Then said they unto him, Where
is your father? Jesus answered, you neither know
me nor my Father. You neither. Now that's ignorance
of God. You don't know me nor my Father.
Now eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has
sent. And he's telling these people, you don't know God. Let
me show you another one, John 16. John 16, listen to this,
verse 1 through 3. This, you say, your words are
hard. These are the words of Christ.
He recognized, listen, He recognized by their attitude, by their conversation,
by their prayers, they didn't know God. He recognized by their
deportment, by their conduct and conversation, they didn't
know God. And I can recognize by my generation's
conduct, conversation, and prayers, they don't know God. They've
got a God, He's an idol, but He's a figment of their imagination,
but they don't know the living God. I can listen to people talk and
tell they don't know God. I'm talking about the awesomeness
of His power and His majesty and His greatness and His glory
and His holiness and His justice and His righteousness and His
sovereignty. I'm talking about God, in whom
we live and move and have our being, who holds our breath,
who bestows upon us all things. They don't know God. They've
got their ideas of God, but the God of heaven they do not know,
John 16.1. These words, these things have
I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They'll put
you out of the synagogue. The religious people hate you,
despise you, put you out of their denominations. The time cometh
when whosoever killeth you will think he doeth God a service,
and these things will they do unto you because they have not
known the Father." They don't know him. They talk about him,
write about him, read about him, but they've never met him. Do
not know him. He said, "...you approach me
with your lips, but your hearts are far from me." You come and
sit as my people, pretend to be my people, and act religious
and talk religious, but you don't know God. Don't know God. My generation
does not know God. I watch these television preachers
and observe them on the platform, I observe their their attitude,
I observe their expression, I observe their countenance, I observe
their words, I observe their programs, I observe all of their
entertainments, and I say to myself, they don't know God.
They don't know God. They've missed God. They're talking
about an idol. They're not even aware of God's
power and presence. There's no humility. There's
no fear if you call Him Father past the time of your sojourning
here and there. The beginning of wisdom is the
fear of God. Men don't fear God. I listen
to them play. They don't fear God. There's
no awareness of His awesomeness. There's a buddy system. God is
my co-pilot. God is my partner. That kind
of trash. They don't know God. The very
way, flippant way in which they use his name, the way they close
their prayers, amen and amen, they don't know God. That's ignorance. It's just filling in time. It's
just filling in space. It's just going about a religious
ritual like the Jews of old who killed their bullocks and lambs
and had no understanding whatsoever of why that lamb died. Second
thing, my generation is totally ignorant of the nature of sin.
Just as ignorant of What happened in the garden? They don't understand
at all. Oh, they talk about sins. They
talk about the fruit, but they know nothing of the root, Bob.
They know nothing of the root. They can clip all these outward
fruits off and have the root just flourishing and bubbling
within them, and they don't recognize it. That awful corruption of
heart and nature and that principle of sin is like a cesspool full
of filth and corruption, and yet because they on the outside
appear beautiful to themselves and men, they say, we're all
right. We're all right. the principle, nature, and extent
of sin, and the evil of sin, the exceeding, Paul said, lacking
for a descriptive term, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Paul said,
my sin is so great it can only be compared to itself, the sinfulness
of sin. We feel pretty good sometimes.
We feel pretty holy. We feel pretty righteous. We
feel like we've got the victory. We've overcome this particular
trial, and now we're on the mountaintop. We're never on the mountaintop.
We're always in the valley of the shadow of death. In Christ,
we're on the mountaintop. In Christ, we're on the right
hand of God. Old Wesley wrote in that hymn, false and full
of sin I am. I jotted that down last night.
I thought, can I say that? False and full of sin I am. How many religious people would
say that? I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
less than the least of all the saints. I'm not worthy. We're
all worthy. We're fit, able, and capable. But he wasn't worthy. And he
had more going for him than all of us put together. I'm not worthy. Though I be nothing, false and
full of sin I am, dark, full of grace and truth." If we ever
learn what sin is, we'll be aware of it all the time. My sin is
ever before me. Then my generation is ignorant
of the righteousness of God. Totally ignorant. They're totally
ignorant of the justice of God. God will by no means clear the
guilty. No means. Turn to Romans chapter
10. Here we are. Here we are. Here's all the religious system
of this day. Here's all the programs. Here's
all the promotion and the activities to hold the interest of unsaved
people. Here it all is. We're going about,
going about with much ado. Listen to it. Here's a description
of us. Paul said in Romans chapter 10,
My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, for those
religious people that they might be saved. I bear them record.
They have a zeal and enthusiasm for God, but not according to
knowledge. Or they're ignorant of God's
righteousness. And going about, going about,
we're running our buses. We're bringing in our people.
We're having our contest. We're going out visiting, knocking
on doors, compassing, seeing land, going about, passing out
our pledge cards, getting our ties together, preaching our
standards. Keeping folks out of the movies,
cleaning up the town, putting the liquor crowd out of business,
wiping out pornography, going about to establish their own
righteousness, and have not, and will not, and don't plan
to submit to God's righteousness. This ain't going to happen. This
ain't going to happen. This generation said, God, you
go on back to heaven and stay there and we'll work this thing
out ourselves. For Christ, Christ, one word, Christ, is the end,
the goal, the consummation, the fulfillment of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. That's our righteousness, and
this generation is ignorant of it. Love and mercy, purpose is
the salvation of sinners, but God's justice and righteousness
says, hold it! There's no sinner going to be
saved at the expense of God's righteousness. The justice of
God says no sinner, no matter how strong the plea of love,
no matter how strong the plea of mercy, there's no sinner going
to be saved at the expense of God's justice. The soul that
sinneth will die, unless somebody dies for him. That's just so,
and this generation is ignorant of that. Just believe on Jesus. Well, what about him? I don't
know. Just believe on him. Take him into your heart. Let him
have his way. Give him a chance. Except Jesus. God has a wonderful
plan for your life. God's got a plan for all wicked
men, and that plan is to suffer under his judgment and justice.
My generation is ignorant of the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Totally ignorant. But you say they're preaching
Jesus. They're not preaching Jesus Christ the Lord. They're
preaching Jesus. Yes, they're using the name.
They called him by all sorts of names. They are preaching
a frustrated Jesus, and a defeated Jesus, and a helpless Jesus,
and a hopeless Jesus, and a confused Jesus, and every other kind of
Jesus, a martyr named Jesus, a reformer named Jesus, an example
named Jesus, and a healer named Jesus, but they are not preaching
the one of whom Isaiah spoke when he said his name is Wonderful
Counselor the mighty God, the everlasting Father, that Jesus
in our preaching. Who is he? Who is he? We use his name so carelessly,
so flippantly, Jesus said. We don't even bother to call
him by his title, Lord. This generation of preachers,
listen to them. Listen to them and listen to
them. Jesus said this and Jesus said that. Where did you get
the right to call the Lord Jesus Christ by his by that name. He said, you call me Lord, and
you say, well, so I am. Are you on such terms with the
God of glory that you just call him by that name, Jesus? I'm telling you, the disciples
in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John called him Jesus to refer to
his name of humiliation and humanity. If they had said the Lord did
this, the people would have thought we were talking about God the
Father. But they said Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good.
Jesus of Nazareth said, when you get over into the epistles,
when our Lord Jesus Christ has already lived on earth, as Paul
said, I knew him once after the flesh, but that way no more,
and gone back to glory. You now gave him that glorious
title, the Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples called him Lord,
Lord, Lord, Lord. Who is he? He's the eternal Father. He's the everlasting God. What
did he do? He came to this earth in the
flesh, robed in human flesh as our representative, as our federal
head, as our substitute, as our sanctifier, as our redeemer,
as our righteousness. He came down here and fulfilled
all that God demanded and commanded and expected of us. He came down
to be our substitute and to be God's substitute. God needed
a sin offering. God's righteousness needed to
be satisfied. God's law needed to be honored.
God's justice needed to be dealt with. And Christ came down here
to this earth to do something toward God on behalf of sinful
men. Not only for us, but for God. God will provide Himself a sacrifice. God needs a sacrifice to save
you. God needs a sin offering. You
see, the blood was put on the altar before the Lord, not before
the people. Look at here, here's blood. Doesn't
that make you feel sorry? Here's blood. Doesn't that make
you feel religious? Here's blood. Doesn't that make you feel like
doing something for God? That blood was toward God. Lord, here's
blood! Here's death! Here's substitution! Here's a sin offering! Here's
an atonement! Be at peace! Now you can, God. Because your son, the sufficient
sacrifice, has died. You see that? You don't know
the gospel if you don't see that. Jesus Christ didn't come down
here to get us to feel sorry for him. He didn't come down
here to work on the pity. I hear people, they've gone up
and down, won't you do something for Jesus, you know, and they
pull on sinners' arms, won't you let Jesus have his way? Let
me tell you something. And I say this to every sinner
in this town, if God sends you to hell, you'll get just what
you deserve. God doesn't owe you anything. Jesus Christ didn't
come down here to get you to feel sorry for him. Let me tell
you something. God has a covenant chosen people. I read about them in John 17,
whom he gave to Christ. And Christ came down here to
this earth on God's behalf, and also on behalf of those people,
that they may be warned. He came down here because God's
law says that sinner can't be saved without Him obeying the
law. So Christ did it for him. And God's justice said that sinner
can't be saved and can't go to glory and can't be a child of
God until the law and justice of God has been fully satisfied
in his place instead for God's justice and glory. And Christ
died and finished the work that God might accept me, being just
and justified. He might not have done that for
you, I don't know. But don't you feel sorry for
Him, you feel sorry for yourself. Because His glory is going to
be accomplished. What did He do? He died, He obeyed,
He lived, He died. Why did He do it? That God may
be just and justify, that God may be righteous and show mercy.
Where is He now? I'll tell you where He is. You
want to know where He is? Jesus Christ, I'm going to tell
you frankly and fully where He is. He left heaven's glory and
came down here. God sent him to do it. He said,
Father, I finished the work you gave me to do. I finished it.
It's not on hold. It's finished. It's not just
a payment made. It's finished. Everything God
has purposed and designed to do from all eternity is finished
in regard to redemption. Christ came down here and did
that work. Finished it. He brought out a
perfect righteousness. He accomplished the perfect atonement,
he went back to glory, and contrary to what people may think, he's
not in glory wringing his hands over the condition of this world.
He's a satisfied, seated, sovereign Savior. He sat down on the right
hand of God expecting till his enemies be made his footstool
and his children be brought to reign with him. That's just doing. It's done. And that's where he
is. And we're ever learning, ever
learning. We've got all of our little study course books and
all our little cute sayings and all our religious clichés and
all our God helps them and helps themselves, cleanliness is next
to godliness, all this silly stuff, you know. And we're ever
learning and we're never coming to knowledge of truth. Truth
about God, His awesomeness and holiness. Truth about this cesspool
we're born with, this nature's got to have something done with
it. Truth about God's righteousness, the only basis, foundation on
which He can or will accept the sinner. And truth about Christ,
in whom all these things are provided. Truth! The truth will
make you pray. But we don't have truth, we've
got cute sayings. We don't have truth. We sell
flowers and say, love each other. You can't love out of Christ.
Christ is love. We've got all these things. We've
got trains for the children and all these places to meet and
have fun, food and fellowship, and we're missing truth. Somebody's
going to have to stand up and holler, stop. We're going to
hell. We're going the broad road to
hell, swearing on a stack of Bibles we're all right. Now,
that's the condition of our generation. Somehow, somehow, somewhere we
fell into a man-made religion, a pattern, a man-made religion,
and building for ourselves false refuge. And let me show you something.
Most men believe there's a God, a Creator, they call Him a Supreme
Being, the man upstairs or something. Their ideas of God are born from
what? Their own imagination. I hear
people say, well, God's this, that, and the other. Where'd
you get that information? God said, you thought I was altogether
such of one as you say. Well, my God wouldn't do that.
I know your God wouldn't. What about this God? What about
this God? That's not my God. I know it's
not your God, but it's this God. We have no right, we have no
right to come to any conclusion about God except from God's revelation
of Himself in Christ. I told the people Wednesday night,
I hear people say, well, This person believes in God, but he
doesn't believe in Jesus. And most everybody here thinks
that's all right. That's the biggest lie that the devil's
ever let you believe. No man knoweth the Father, wait
a minute, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.
Is that right? That's what the book says. But
I thought, that's what Neilman said, I thought. But it ain't
like you thought. Philip said, show us the Father,
and Christ said, he has seen the Father. It's absolutely impossible
for any man to believe in God apart from Christ, because God
does not reveal himself except in Christ. A man cannot know
God except in Christ. Now that's so whether you like
it or not, it's so. The man who does not believe
in Christ is an idol worshipper, he's an atheist. That's exactly
right. He's an atheist, because Christ
is the only revelation of God to this human race. He's the
what? The Word of God. The Word of God. Most men believe
in some kind of God. Most people believe the Bible
is a good book, a guide book, they call it, of some sort. They
argue about what's fallible or infallible, what's literally
inspired or verbally inspired, all these different things you
know, but as far as this book being the last word. It's the
first and last word. It's a revelation of God. He
said, if any man speaks not according to this word, it's because there's
no light in him. And I hear these preachers talking about their
dreams and visions and all these things. There's no light in them.
There's no morning, no dawn. They're in darkness. Let the
prophet who has a dream preach his dream. But he said, let the
prophet who's got my word preach my word. They're not preaching
the Not preaching the book, ashamed of the Word of God. And then
thirdly, most everybody believes in a person called Jesus. Most
people believe in life after death, to some degree, heaven
and hell. Most people believe in morality, sobriety, fair play,
and helping their fellow man. You know that. And these religious
thoughts, these ideas, well, I believe in God. I haven't accepted
Jesus, but I believe in God. You're deceived. Now, you're
deceived. You're under the wrath of God.
You don't know God. You've got your idol. You might
as well worship Buddha, Mohammed, or Confucius. No, I worship the
God of heaven. No, you don't. The God of heaven
is Jesus Christ. He is God. He's not just a messenger
from God. He's God. And not to know him
is not to know God. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. That's so.
And all these different ideas. Well, I believe the Bible. You
don't believe the Bible until you submit to it. You don't believe
anything until you experience it. I believe it. I'll tell you
what this religion is. Religion is big business. With
all of its billions and its millions and its promotions, it's big
business. I'll tell you another thing,
religion today is what it's never meant to be. It was never meant
to be big business. It was never meant to be a public
political force. No sir, I beg your pardon. The
Kingdom of my Lord is not of this world and never was meant
to be. It never was meant for us as the Church of God, as the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the people of God, to seat
and unseat political leaders. I don't believe that. I don't
believe it. I remember one time years ago
here in Ashland. Got a little I got a little Touch
of this way back yonder when I was just a kid 21 years old
and I went to a preacher's conference and you know what they were talking
about They were talking about the high school. That's when
it was down here on Lexington was going to have some kind of
thing on Wednesday night and those preachers got together
and got a committee and went to see the superintendent of
public schools and said, Wednesday night is church night. You can't
have it on Wednesday night. We're going to throw our weight
around. And another thing they decided to see the superintendent
back about was the girls in the play, their dresses weren't quite
long enough and the preachers were going to tell them how long
to wear their dresses. Now that's religion. You see how ridiculous,
I got a touch of that right at the start. It's got the wrong idea of its
existence. It's to glorify God. It's not
to put unsaved unbelievers in stocks because they don't come
to a place to worship. It's not to measure the length
and height of skirts and tell people this is church day, the
world, the whole world, Sunday blue laws. Read that article
in the Bulletin about Sunday. It never was called a Christian
Sabbath until a few Puritans made it so and started punishing
people for not keeping it. The church is a political force.
The religion is entertainment. Religion is a social outlet.
Religion is everything in the world but what it's supposed
to be, a knowledge of the living God, a heart knowledge. Never criticize another man's
religion. You ever heard that? This is
sacred, hallowed ground. Don't criticize his religion.
Brother, man, don't say anything about the Jews or the Catholics
or anybody else. Don't say anything about anybody's
religion. Just believe what you want to
believe. Brethren, there's truth and error. There's light and
darkness. There's grace and works. And
it's my business, as the pastor of this church and the under-shepherd
of these people, to warn of the wolves about and in the flock,
and warn men and women of false prophets. Now let me tell you
some of the things we've lapsed into. Number one, the Jew is
all right because he's a Jew. And he's got that idea. He's
all right because he's a Jew. And they're God's favored people
and God's chosen people, and they're going to be all right
because they're Jews. And then the Catholics have created a
super church, a super church, ruled over by a Pope. And everybody's
supposed to respect the Pope. You're supposed to speak kindly
of the Pope. The Pope is a good man. The Pope is a religious
leader of millions of people. The Pope is a lying imposter. He calls himself a name that
nobody ought to ever be called, Holy Father. In John 17, Jesus
Christ gave that name to the Heavenly Father. He claims to
be infallible and he's nothing but a sinner. And Catholics have
vested salvation in a religious hierarchy right with the Church,
right with God. That's a lie. Now, is that wrong
to say that? But what if our young people,
boys and girls, get brought into that system, and all you have
to do is see the power structure and the so-called beauty of it?
It's impressive! It's impressive! Oh, the gold
and silver and form and ceremony and rituals and promises are
impressive! Jesus Christ, the old tent in
the wilderness, and badger skin. A man, a cartoner, not very impressive,
is it? Our Lord, without a piece of
ground to call his own, the Catholic Church owns half the world. Our
Lord with just a robe woven without seam from top to bottom, worked
for four years. The Pope's got the most expensive
linen with all the gold and silver in his hat and carrying that
thing worth probably $10,000. Oh, my, my, my. And the Protestants
left the Catholics and created local hierarchies with all sorts
of ritualism, legalism, regimentation. And the fundamentalists have
created decision time. Let me tell you something. My
friends, I warn you, it's not down the aisle to salvation.
It's to Christ for salvation. Now, I warn you about that. And
Charlie was telling me about a TV preacher up in West Virginia
last week. He got all the people down front.
Now, I want you to listen to this. This is how far we've gone.
They're all standing there, and they prayed the sinner's prayer.
And then he said, in 60 seconds, God's going to write your name
in the Book of Life. That's power, isn't it? That man said, in 60
seconds, God's going to write your name in the Book of Life.
He said, tell you what. I'm going to give you folks out
there 30 seconds to get in on this. I'm going to start counting. He said, you come on down. He
said, 20, 15, 12, 10. And you don't want me to cry
out against that? That's evil. That's evil. You come from sea
and land to make a porcelain. After you've made him, you've
made him twofold more the child of hell than you are. Somewhere, somebody's going to
have to stand up when God gives him an open door and tell this
generation to stop. You're being led by false preachers
and you're being led the broad road to eternal condemnation.
And just because they're preachers and because they're called reverend
and doctor and bishop and father and all this sort of thing does
not make them from God. In fact, a man from God usually
takes no titles. He's a voice in the wilderness.
He says, Paul and Cephas and Apollos, we're nothing. Salvations
of the Lord. You're God's husbandry. You're
God's vineyard. We're nothing in the world but
farmers. Messenger boy. Look at our text again in John
17. John 17.3. Listen to it. Our Lord in the
garden. This awesome, terrible time. The hour has come. The
hour for which God has purposed through all eternity, that hour
of which he spake in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had
felled, the seed of woman bruising the serpent's head, that hour
has come. Father, verse 1, the hour has come. that hour of which
Abel spake with his blood sacrifice, that hour of which Moses wrote
when he wrote of the Passover, that hour that God prophesied
when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies with the atonement,
that hour that the angels announced to the shepherd the Savior is
born, that hour has come! And I was come. God, Father,
glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify Thou hast given him
authority over all flesh." That sounds like a weak, sissified
Jesus that we hear today, all authority in heaven and earth,
all authority over all flesh. That's our Lord, sovereign Lord,
King of kings and Lord of lords, that he should give, eternalize
the gift, my friends. Not something you labor for or
work for or merit, it's the gift of God. That He who gives it,
Christ gives it. That He should give and He gives
it, eternalize the gift. It's not something you do for
God, it's something God through Christ does for you. That He
should give eternal life. Life, that's the life of God.
That's divine life. That's not the natural life painted
and whitewashed and fixed up and defumigated. That's life, that's
the life of God, a new life. And who does he give it to? To
as many as thou hast given him. I'll be merciful to whom I will.
I'll be gracious to whom I will. Oh, somehow we've got the idea,
I don't know where this thing was born in the minds of men,
but back there somewhere somebody got the idea that everybody We're
to go all over the place, you know, see if we can get folks
to do something for Jesus. Do something for Jesus. Won't
you let Jesus have his way? Won't you accept Jesus? We got
this thing all backwards. Salvation's a gift of God. Salvation's
a work of God. It's a powerful, regenerating
work of God. You have power over all flesh.
Give eternal life to as many as you, as the Father gave him. God has to do a work for the
sinner. And this is life eternal. And
let me give you four things in closing. I hope we'll get disturbed. You say, you disturb people.
I hope we'll get disturbed. You know, I hope that some of
us will get so disturbed that we'll question our foundations
and we'll question our refuges and we'll question our professions
and we'll question our experiences and we'll just turn our eyes
to Christ, look to Christ. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Let thy blood be propitiation
for me. God, I want to know you. I don't
want to miss God. I don't want to miss salvation.
I don't want to go through the motions. Here's a question. I'll close with this question.
Just give you one, two, three, four, outline briefly. When is
a man saved? When is a man saved? I believe
I've got the answer to that. When is a man, S-A-V-E-D? Man,
woman, boy or girl. Number one, a man will be saved
when it pleases the Lord. Now, when it pleases the Lord.
I know that. Paul said that. He said, when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal
His Son in me. It pleased God to reveal His
Son, not just to me, in me. In me. Now, a man will be saved
when it pleases the Lord. I know we're born of God. But
secondly, a man will be saved when he hears the gospel of God's
glory and the gospel of God's grace. Because the Scripture
says how they're going to call on him in whom they've not believed
and how they're going to believe in him in whom they've not heard.
I don't mean just here's a preacher and here's a religious conversation
or read some man-made or man-written tract. I'm talking about a man's going
to be safe when he hears the gospel, the gospel of God's grace. If you hadn't heard the gospel
of God's grace, you hadn't been safe. John 6, verse 44 says,
"...they shall be taught of God, and every man that hath heard
of the Father, and learned of me, shall come to me." They're
going to be taught. They're going to be taught who
God is, and what sin is, and who Christ is, and how he redeems
sinners. in whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Thirdly,
he'll be saved, a man, woman, boy or girl, will be saved when
conscious of sin, that's right, conscious of sin and inability,
he sees the glory of God in Christ. He sees the glory of God in Christ. Let me show you that in 2 Corinthians
4. He sees the glory of God in Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, listen
to this. You see, God's glory is his character. God's glory is his holiness.
God's glory is his righteousness. God's glory is his rightness. God is God. And all that pertains
to the name of God is his glory. And we've come short of the glory
of God. We don't know anything about the glory of God. We're
living in a cesspool. And God's glory is infinitely
above us, but God's been pleased to reveal his glory to us. come
down in his glory and show his glory to us, the glory of his
holiness, his righteousness, his truth, his justice, his light,
the glory of God, the character of God, dwelt on this earth in
the person of Jesus Christ. And we beheld his glory, see
what I'm saying? The glory as of the Only Begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth, not grace alone, but
grace and truth. Because grace can't violate truth.
And that was all in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3,
says our gospel is hid. Hid to them that are lost, in
whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not. Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. But we preach not ourselves,
we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. Not the man only, the Lord. And
ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts," not
a vision we had in the bed one night, but in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's where it is. And I'll
tell you what a man will say, not when he feels sorry for Jesus
because he died If you love Jesus, haunt. That's not it. It's when
he sees and is awestruck, when he has stamped upon his heart
to some measure that the glory of God is in Jesus Christ, how
God can be just and justified, how God can be righteous and
merciful, how God can be holy and love, how God can put up
with us when I consider the heavens, what is man that is not mindful
of him?" You know what ought to amaze you? It doesn't, but
it ought to amaze us that there's even salvation for us. I don't
understand that. We take for granted, God's like
a ballet, you know. He comes when he's called. He
appears when you ring for him. That's the wrong God. I tell
you, the man that knows the true God is the man that says, and
can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior? Depth
of mercy. Can there be mercy for me? You
mean God just might hear me? You reckon God would hear me?
You mean, we say, won't you accept Jesus? No, I'm not going to go
today. Well, won't you? I want you to be saved so badly.
We need a Christian home. Won't you join us? No, someday
I will, you know. Someday you're going to hell,
that's what you need to tell him. God doesn't need you. I
tell you, the man is near salvation, the man says to the priest, you
mean to tell me what you're saying is truth? That the God of glory
would have something to do with us? You mean to tell me? that God would reach down His
Son and His hand into the slimy pit of corruption and lift something
like me and wash Him in His own blood and love Him and put Him
to His bosom and give Him His name and take Him to glory? I don't believe that. I don't
believe that. I don't believe that. Boy, you
can't believe it either unless God reveals it to you. That just
don't make sense. I'll accept Jesus. I'm so tired
of it, I could spit on the ground, as God said. You don't know God. God's so far away from this generation.
He may not save anybody else. I don't know. He might not, but
I tell you, man's going to be saved. is a man that has some
inkling or understanding of the glory of God in the face of that
person, Jesus Christ. And he is awed by it. I tell
you, he kisses the sun. He's in the dust. He's at his
feet. He can't believe it. He can't
believe it. Beyond his father's imagination. Well, our dear brother's gone
to be with the Lord, You want to bet? I'll tell you
where our dear brother's gone. He's gone where all the other
dear brothers are going who've missed the glory of God in the
face of Christ Jesus. Quited sepulchers. We've never
been all. We've been playing church. We've
been handing out tickets to glory. God never signed them either.
He signed one at Calvary. He signed one at Calvary. And
everybody that's ever been there is still there. Still there,
and they're still amazed. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and I wonder how he could love me. Smile! God loves you! He, how he could
love me. A sinner condemned unclean. I
don't believe it. Well, you believe it when you
see it in the face of Christ. And I'll tell you when he'll
be saved. He'll be saved when he, forcefully, when he comes
under the authority of that Lord. When He comes on the authority,
I don't have anything that belongs to Christ. We keep talking about
our my this and my that and my the other. I'm crucified with
Christ. My wife belongs to Him. My children
belong to Him. My life belongs to Him. This
church belongs to Him. Everything I am or have belongs
to Jesus Christ. I don't have anything that belongs
to me. It's His. I've committed it to
Him against that day. And that's when a man will be
saved, when he falls down, when he surrenders unconditionally,
puts his sword up, takes his sword away from the heart of
God. Well, Lord, you do this and I'll do that. Not anymore. We are slaves, the bond slaves
of Jesus Christ. Not a question of whether I'll
go there, go there, do this or that. It's a question of the
Lord's will. He'll do with me what he will.