Now if you'll turn once again
to Matthew 5, you'll notice about six times
in these verses, the Lord says, he quotes the old sayers. He says something about what
you've always heard, and then he tells the true spiritual meaning
of the subject. He says in verse 21, this is
what you've heard about murder, about this particular commandment,
thou shalt not kill. But then he gives the spiritual
interpretation of that commandment. And then in verse 27, he said,
this is what you've heard about the subject of adultery. And
then he gives the spiritual application. And then in verse 31, he says,
this is what you've always been taught and what you've heard
on the subject of divorce. And then the same thing on this
subject of swearing and then revenge, getting revenge for
something someone does to you. And then in verse 43, he said,
you've heard, this is what you've been taught. by the religious
teachers, this is their interpretation of the law. And then he gives
his interpretation, the spiritual application. Now what this is
all about is man in his efforts, in his efforts to be religious,
and man in his effort to merit God's acceptance and God's favor,
has a way of being religious without being committed to the
Word of God and to the teachings of Scripture. He's always trying
to find a way around what God says. He wants to obey God, but
he wants to obey his interpretation of God's commandments. That's
what he wants around it. He wants an escape valve. He
wants to get around it. He establishes his position. All of us are guilty of this
at times. We establish what we think the Bible teaches. We establish
our position on certain spiritual matters. And in doing that, we
make the Word of God of no effect. For example, turn to John 5,
and let me show you an example of this in John chapter 5. One
of the ladies in the congregation here remembers what a student
down at Lexington said, After I preached one night and they
had a discussion about the things that I had preached, this student
made this statement. Well, I don't know much about
the Bible, but this is what I think. This is what I think. Now, that's
a serious problem. That's a serious problem. And
what we do, we establish a position. We establish an interpretation
of Scripture. And then when we run upon it
in God's Word, we try to get around what the Bible is actually
teaching. Now watch this right here and see if you catch what
these men have done. In verse 5 of John 5, it says,
A certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight
years. Now here's a man who has been
lying beside the pool of Siloam for thirty-eight years. Now this
is no ordinary pool. This is a place of congregation,
it's like the fountain at the mall. Everybody says, everybody
in this place has been to the mall, and everybody knows where
the fountain is, and everybody says, meet me at the fountain.
An amusing thing happened when Bob and Becky had the, and Cole
and Jill were working up there in the, during Christmas in the
mall, they had a booth there, and the folks that owned the
mall had covered up the fountain. They had covered it up with some
kind of Christmas design, hadn't they? And some fella came, and
he's running around there, you know, and Becky saw something
was wrong with him, and he came down this aisle and up that one.
He finally came over to her and said, where's the fountain? My
wife said, meet her at the fountain, and there's no fountain in this
mall anywhere. Well, they'd covered up the fountain, but there was
one there. And this is about the Pool of
Siloam. It was no ordinary pool. It had a lot of superstition
about it. It was probably the main gathering
place because it was said that a certain time an angel came
down and disturbed the water and the first person into the
water after the angel came down was healed. Now these Pharisees
and religious people had been by the fountain many times and
this particular man for 38 years had been lame. And for many years he had been
lying by this fountain in the hope that someday he would be
the first one in after the angel supposedly disturbed the water.
And you might just study that a little bit, there's a lot of
comments about that. But now he was well known, he'd
been seen there a whole lot of times, these people knew him. 38 years he'd been unable to
walk. Verse 6, when Jesus saw him lie,
and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he
said to him, wilt thou be made whole? And the impotent or lame
man answered and said, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled
to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another
steppeth down before me. And Jesus saith unto him, Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole. took up his bed and walked, and
on the same day was the Sabbath. Now think what an awesome miracle.
Think what a visitation of the power and presence of God. Think
how awestruck and amazed everybody must have been, and how men must
have glorified God. If John Howsam were to get up
tonight and walk up here this platform, We'd never get over
how we would shout and praise God and thank God and be awestruck
and amazed. But now watch how these religious
people reacted. Verse 10. The Jews therefore
said to him that was cured, it's the Sabbath day. It's not lawful
for you to carry your bag. They missed everything. They
missed it. They were so taken up with the
accuracy and authenticity and the support of their religious
position on rituals and regulations and legalism, they couldn't see
the power of God. And we got that problem. We got
that problem exactly. So taken up with our position,
we've established a position on all different things. In the
last place where I preached, they don't pass the plates, they
have a box back there, but they're established on that box position. And they spend enough time talking
about the box for me to pass the plate three times. And we
get these positions on different subjects. I just dropped that
one. But we get these positions and
we're so strong in the defense of them that I'm afraid we miss
the light and the life and the power. Ever learning, ever learning
and never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Ever establishing
our position doctrinally, in our creeds, in our practices,
and all these things. We get it all fixed up. And God's
over there working in unusual power, and we miss it, defending
our position. I'll give you some illustrations.
I call this the great escape, trying to escape from the spiritual
truth of the Word and yet have a position. We're trying to escape
from what God says and yet establish our own position. For example,
Bill Sasser and I went in a filling station. I was on this trip,
and we walked in, we were filling the car up, and there were three
or four people standing around, friendly people down in Georgia,
a man about my age standing there, and a lady running the cash register,
and another fellow in and out. And this man asked us what business
we were in, and Bill said, we're preachers. We're down in Georgia
holding a meeting. And Bill walked away, and he
looked at me and said, what's your profession of faith? And
I said, Christ. Christ is my profession of faith.
He's my hope. He's my redeemer. Now he says,
what's your profession of faith? Bill happened to walk up there
and looked at me and said, I think he means your denomination. I
said, well, Christ is my profession of faith, but Baptist is my denomination. Well, that wasn't enough. He
had to pigeonhole me a little more. He said, you Southern Baptists,
are you independent or are you a missionary? I said, well, I'm
independent. He said, oh. Now, he's got me
pigeonholed now. You see, I'm in a pigeonhole. He's got me where he wants me.
He's not going to hear what I'm going to say about Christ. He's
not going to hear what I have to say about salvation. I'm not
of his persuasion. I'm not of his profession. And
therefore, he doesn't have to listen to me. You see what I'm
talking about? We pigeonhole, we get things
and he wants to cut this thing down to where he can put it here
and escape from it. He doesn't have any responsibility
to it whatsoever. He can escape because I'm an
independent Baptist. Now he might have been some other
kind of Baptist, but he doesn't have to listen to me because
I'm not his brand. I'll give you another example. We were
sitting around one night and this message has been building
up. Well, I've been thinking about these experiences. We were
sitting around one night talking, and a man who had been in the
service that night said to Brother Sasser, I was listening, he said,
you mentioned election. You mentioned election. And Bill
said, well, yes, I did. He said, that's primitive doctrine,
isn't it? That's primitive doctrine. Well,
as a matter of fact, it is. As a matter of fact, that's exactly
what it is. It's very primitive. Very primitive. About as primitive as you can
get. In fact, it goes clear back to the Council Halls of Eternity,
back before the foundations of the world. That's primitive.
But what he meant, I'll tell you what he meant. He meant,
that's primitive Baptist, therefore I don't have to listen to it.
That's primitive Baptist, and the primitives have gone to seed
on that doctrine. I know that, and you know that.
But the one thing that was significant to me in both cases is this,
is the individual takes either independent Baptist or election
or anything else, he takes that, and in both cases they relieve
themselves of the responsibility to both the teacher and the teaching,
because they didn't agree with the position of that individual. or that organization, or that
denomination. If I can put a person or a teaching
in a rejected position, or if I can take something, even if
it's in the Word of God, and I can identify it with error,
then I don't have to listen to it. And I'm going to give you
several illustrations of this tonight. I'm not going to tell
you how many because it might frighten you and you'll be here
too long. I've told the preachers in the class, don't ever get
up and tell them you've got seven points. Because they'll start
counting them. When you get to three, they'll
say, he's three-sevenths done. And then you get to four, and
he's been preaching forty minutes, and you say, well, my soul will
be here all night. And so don't tell them you got fourteen points.
And so what I'm saying is, it's amazing what men lose. We're
losing something because we pigeon-holed it. We're losing something. We're
losing a blessing, and we're escaping from the truth. Now
let me just take a few. And I'll show you what I'm talking
about. Now, the beloved Brother Barnard one time, a man sent
him a book on the hated doctrine of election. A book he had written. It was just a booklet. The Hated
Doctrine of Election by, I could call the preacher's name, but
I won't. And he wanted Barnard to read the book and he wanted
him to comment on it. And Barnard fired right back
to him and said, well, the first thing I do is change the title.
That's offensive. The doctrine of election is not
a hated doctrine, it's a blessed doctrine. Paul always said, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation world. Paul said, I thank God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen
you. It's not a hated doctrine, it's hated by its enemies, but
it's loved by the Lord and his friends. Now the election, you
say, well that's primitive Baptist doctrine, therefore I reject
it. It's primitive Baptist doctrine, so therefore I'll have nothing
to do with it. Just this morning, a man on the
telephone in there called me, Martha answered the phone, put
me on the phone. And he's a very precious man, and he gets our
tapes, and he gets our Sunday school literature, and he's trying
to learn something. He lives a few miles from here.
And he's trying to learn some, he's studying the Philadelphia
Confession of Faith, but he asked me, he said, what happened to
the Baptists back yonder in 16th or 17th century, 18th century?
And I said, they had a split. And it was the general Baptist
and the particular Baptist, and the whole split was over the
person and work of Christ. Whether the person and work of
Christ is particular or general, whether it's effectual or whether
it's universal. And he said, I don't understand,
and I've tried to explain it to him. He said, oh, oh, he said,
I understand what you're saying. We've got a lot of those primitive
Baptists in our area, and they believe a man born for heaven,
and what he does or doesn't do makes no difference. What he
does or doesn't do has no effect on the outcome. Well, that's
true, and that's not true. Turn to Romans chapter 3. Romans
3, verse 3 and 4. Now listen to this. The Lord
God of heaven, now whether you like it or not, the Lord God
of heaven has elected a people. There's no question about that.
God has elected a people. The scripture teaches that. The
word elections in the Bible again and again and again. And I'm
not going to relieve my conscience And I'm not going to relieve
my heart and soul from the responsibility to this glorious doctrine by
saying the primitive Baptists believe it, therefore I'm not
going to look into it. You better look into it, because
it's God's Word. And this is what the Scripture
says in Romans 3, verse 3. For what if some did not believe?
What if people do not believe? What if the great majority do
not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith or the faithfulness of God without effect? God forbid,
let God be true and every one of us liars. God's true. And I'm not believing something,
I'm going to change it. And I'm saying the primitive
Baptists hold to this and they've abused it and misused it and
confused it, therefore I don't want any part of it. You better
listen to it because God's true and every man's a liar. And it
would do no good to say, well, we had a next-door neighbor,
and boy, they went to seed on this. Well, so what? What if
some did not believe? Does that change God's purpose?
Does that make the faith of God without effect? Does that change
the purpose of God? No, sir. We'd better find out
exactly what the Scripture does teach about this doctrine. And
I'll tell you what happened here just a few days ago, turn to
Romans 8. And this is what these dishonest preachers will do.
In Romans chapter 8, there was a preacher at a funeral, according
to the report I received, I wasn't there, this report I received,
who read from the 8th chapter of Romans, beginning with verse
28, and carefully skipped every reference to election, sovereignty,
and salvation by grace. And this is the way he read Romans
8, beginning with verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. Verse 31, what shall we say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Verse 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Well, what did he do? He skipped
the heart of the thing. He skipped the very foundation
of it. For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate. But here's
the thing. It would have offended some people.
It's primitive Baptist doctrine. It's old school doctrine. It's
doctrines that we don't want to get in conflict over, so we'll
skip it. We'll leave it out. We'll go
around it. That's what I'm saying. That's
the great escape. Just leave it there. We want no part of
it. We'll go around it. You'll meet it at the judgment.
You'll meet it when you meet God, because He's the God of
election. He's the God of predestination. He's the God of sovereignty.
I'd rather meet it now. and find out exactly what the
scriptures teach you. But that's what preachers are
doing, they're leaving out. And let us not be guilty of leaving
out those scriptures that have to do with responsibility. Like
one Calvinistic brother of mine said one time, he said, I come
to certain scriptures and I say, Lord, what did you put that in
there for? It would be easier to skip over it, you know, and
not have to explain it. But turn to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. And listen to this, in Ephesians
1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father. And always when the
Apostle Paul deals with election, it's a doctrine of praise, a
doctrine of love, and a doctrine of glory for God, and a doctrine
of hope for the sinner. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself
according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of
the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved." Now what do we do? Some might say that's primitive
Baptist doctrine. No, that's Bible doctrine. That's Bible
doctrine. Now turn to 2 Timothy 2. Or 2
Thessalonians, first of all, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, whatever
it means, there it is in God's Word. And I'm just not willing,
I'm not going to try to escape and avoid conflict and controversy
and ignore the Word of God. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, listen,
but we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief
of the truth. Try 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse
9. Listen. He had saved us. He had saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works. But according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
when? Before the world began. Christ
said to his disciples, you didn't choose me, I chose you. So when
you sit down and like the other night in the home and somebody
says, you mentioned election, now that's primitive Baptist
doctrine. whether primitive Baptist or
whatever, whoever's adopted it, or whoever's dabbled with it,
or whoever's misused it, or whoever's abused it, I don't know, it doesn't
matter to me, it's Bible doctrine. And I want to find out what God
says about his glorious, exalted, elective grace, and his eternal
purpose in Christ Jesus, and I want to deal with it unashamedly,
and boldly, and clearly, and give God the glory for salvation.
I'll tell you another word. It's the word predestination.
You can mention predestination and you can start a bigger fight
than if you mention Republicans or Democrats or segregation or
integration or anything like that. Just predestination. That's
Presbyterian doctrine. That's Calvinism. That's what
will be will be. Well, now, wait a minute. You're
not going to get off that easy. You're just not going to get
off that easy. You're not going to escape. Here's a word, predestination. Here's a truth, predestination.
Now, you're not going to get away with just snarling at it.
You're not going to get away with just frowning. You're not
going to get away with just saying, well, that's Presbyterian or
that's Calvinistic. It doesn't matter what it is.
It's Bible. It's God's Word. Now, turn back
to Romans 8. It's Bible. It's God's Word.
And I'll tell you this, we're going to meet it at the judgment.
God is the God of sovereignty, He's the God of majesty, He's
the God of power, He's the God of election, He's the God of
predestination. And here in Romans chapter 8,
listen, verse 28, and we know, and this is the way that should
have been read, and we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God. To them who are the called according
to His purpose, His will, not their will, Not their will, His
will. Let me tell you something. And
if you can't swallow this, at least hold it on your tongue
till God gives you a throat to receive it. God's the only one
who has a free will. God's the only one who has a
free will. He'll do according to His will in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth. God's gonna do
His will. Your will is not gonna be done. Brother Barnard said one time,
Sometime in life, your will is going to be engaged in conflict
with God's will. And he said you better hope he
wins. Now you think about that a little bit. Someday, somewhere,
your will is going to be engaged in conflict with God's will,
and you better hope he wins. Because his will is going to
be done. That's been established from the foundation of the world.
But now read on verse 29, For whom he did foreknow, that's
foreordained. You see, I know something. I know something because it comes
to pass. God, it comes to pass because
God knows it. You see what I'm saying? In other
words, Scott, I know something. Today the sun did shine a little
bit. But the son did shyly because
God knew him. You see, there's a whole lot
of difference. He establishes, man supposes and God disposes. And he says here, for whom he
did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. Now, it won't do for you to say, I don't like
that, or that's Presbyterian, or that's Calvinistic, no matter
what it is, it's God's Word, I'm reading it out of the Bible.
I don't have a Presbyterian Bible or a Calvinistic Bible, I've
got a Holy Bible. And read on. He did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, conformed to the
likeness of Christ. That Christ might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
he called. Whom he predestinated, he called. Now, destination is what's going
to happen. Predestination is decreeing what's
going to happen before it happens. Predestinate. Predetermined. Predesigned. So God Almighty,
this, our destination is glory. Our destination is to be like
Christ. Our destination is to be conformed
to the image or likeness of God's Son. God predetermined that. And God ordained the means to
bring that to pass. That's what predestination is.
See, election has to do with people. God elected people. He chose us in Christ. He elected
us in Christ. Predestination has to do with
what those people are going to be. God has ordained all the
ends. All the means, and the means
is the preaching of the gospel, the means is where you're born,
to whom you're born, your encounter with the gospel, every event
of your life. You see, so many things that
happen in my life happen because of what happened in my father's
life. You see, the reason I was born in Alabama is because my
dad lived there. What was he doing there? Well,
his dad moved there. What was he doing there? His
dad moved there. What was he doing there? Well,
his dad came from Ireland. And you see, the reason he came
from Ireland is they had a famine over there, and he lost his farm.
And God sent the famine. And if he hadn't lost his farm,
he'd have prospered. I'd have been born in Ireland.
I'd never heard the gospel. You see what I'm talking about?
Every event, everything that happens, God even causes a rainstorm
to come in order to delay a person from going where he's not supposed
to go in order that he might hear the gospel. You didn't come
here tonight by accident. You might think so. But you came
here to hear the gospel and be saved or to hear it and be damned.
You came here to hear the gospel tonight to add life to life or
death to death. You came here tonight to hear
the word of God preached to add to your responsibility, accountability,
or acceptability. That's just so. There's no exodus
with God. We're not playing games. God's
not shooting an arrow in the air. He shoots it in hearts.
And he never misses. Now your God may shoot at random.
The God of the Bible never does anything at random. Everything
he does is on purpose. I believe that. Everything he
does is on purpose. Even, he said, not a sparrow
falls to the ground without your father. Is that correct? He said,
the hairs of your head are numbered. Sure things are ordained, ordained
by God. Do you think he puts those stars
on an orbit? He put the moon and sun on orbit?
Every planet, there are millions of stars out there, and every
one of them are traveling their decreed course. So are you. So are you. Don't you know his
people are more important than the stars? Don't you know his
people are more important than a piece of metal that he's going
to destroy someday? I'm going to live forever. Almighty
God from eternity set me on a course, a predetermined course, a predestinated
course. And I'm doing what I want to
do and doing what I want to do and doing what he will to do.
That's exactly right. He wanted to go and call the
heathen to Christ, and he got up before a group of preachers.
some well-known men, some great grace preachers, some Calvinistic,
sovereign grace preachers. And he got up before them one
day and he announced that he was going to the mission field,
he was going to preach the gospel to the heathen. And one of the
leading preachers there, and I can't call his name, I've read
it but I can't call it, but he's well-known. He got up and said,
young man, young man, If God is pleased to save the heathen,
he can do it without you. You talk about throwing cold
water on a mission enterprise, he flat did it. If God Almighty
is pleased to save the heathen, he can do it without you, and
sat down. And that man had a lot of power and influence. But William
Carey went anyway and became one of the greatest missionaries
in all the world, and that man later became one of his best
supporters. Thank God he's able to correct
our errors and change our bad spirit. But if we're not careful,
we're apt to discount the meaning, and we retort with that same
thing. In other words, if a preacher
preaches on, seek the Lord, somebody says, well, that's freewillism.
Well, I don't know whether it is or not, but it's the Bible.
The Scripture says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call
upon him while he's near. You know what the Bible says?
Somebody says, that's freewillism. No, that's the Bible. That's
the Word of God. You shall seek me, the scripture
says, and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Somebody
says, that's Arminianism, Pelagianism, semi-Pelagianism. No, no it's
not. It's Bible. It's God's Word.
Sinners are exhorted to flee to Christ, to seek Christ, to
call upon Christ. He tells us, while it's still
today, harden not your heart. Today is the accepted time. Now
is the day of salvation. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. Let him that hear it say, come. And let him as the thirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life. That's God's Word. Our Lord Jesus
Christ so often stood and said, coming to me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come to the water. Any man thirst, let him come
to me. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. And if we're not careful, this
is what I'm saying, if we're not careful, we'll try to escape
from truth, true spiritual, the true spiritual application. And
we'll get over here and we'll say, well, we're Calvinistic,
and that's Arminian, or that's Pelagianism, or that's freewillism. No. God doesn't have to explain
his purposes to me. I know that God is absolutely
sovereign, and yet I know every man's responsible. And I know
this, if any man is saved, God will get all the glory. If any
man is damned, it'll be his own fault. Now, I can't explain that,
but I know it's true. And I know anybody who wants
Christ can have Him. Anybody who in his heart wills
to lay hold upon Christ in genuine and sincere repentance toward
God and faith in Christ may come to Christ. You don't have to
come to the door and figure out whether you're elect or non-elect.
Are you a sinner? Christ died for sinners. Are
you lost? He came to seek and to save the
lost. Are you in need? Seek the Lord. Ask and it shall
be given you. Seek and you shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. The only reason you don't come
to Christ is because you won't. That's exactly right. Your inability
is born of your unwillingness. That's exactly right. You don't
want to come to Christ. Oh, you may want to come for
the benefits, but not for the benefactor. You might want to
come for the blessing, but not for the blesser. That's the problem.
You don't really want to come to Christ, you just want to come
to his heaven. You just want to miss his judgment.
You want to miss his condemnation. You want to miss hell. You don't
really want him. But if you ever really wanted
him, you could have him. If you really wanted him. If
you really wanted him. On his terms. On his terms. And God will not save a man on
anybody's terms but his own. It's down center. It's lay down
your shotgun, put up your sword, bring an empty hand, and look
to the Redeemer. It's God's terms. All right,
look at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. Paul says, now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you.
God beseeching a sinner? Oh yeah? What's an illustration?
Come, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them white as snow. There's an illustration. As God
saying, come to a conference. Come, let us reason together.
Come to a conference. What's the conference about?
Well, it sure isn't to determine your condition, that's already
been determined, though your sins be escarped. It's to determine
what's to be done about them. They shall be made white as snow.
But who will make them white as snow? Christ. See? And Paul
said, I beseech you, I pray you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled
to God, be at peace with God, fall down and worship God, that's
what I'm saying, be reconciled. Quit being God's enemy. Quit
shooting out your lip, and lifting up your nose, and doubling up
your fist, and sitting in judgment on God's Word. Bow down! Name
and hit the water. Hit the muddy Jordan. Well, I
thought. You better forget your thought.
You're replying against God. When you say, I thought, you're
replying against God. Be reconciled. Be submissive. Surrender. Unconditional surrender,
that's what he's saying, and that's what Paul's calling on
people to do. Surrender unconditionally. Well, I believe I let God save
me. You don't let God do nothing. That's exactly right. God's going
to do what he pleases. If He sends you to hell, He'll
do exactly right. He'll do what He ought to do,
and you'll get what you deserve. But if He's pleased to show mercy
to you, He'll get the glory. He doesn't have to. He's not
obligated. He's not obligated. Most people think God's obligated
to save them. God's not obligated to do anything
but be God. Be God, that's all. And if we
can get a little of His mercy, we'll praise Him forever. All
right, here's another word, the priesthood. I'll give you this
quickly. One time I preached on the believer coming to God
through a priest. No approach to God except through
a priest. A man came up to me afterwards
and said, ìThatís Catholicism, isnít it? Thatís Catholicism.î
Well, is it? Is it? Or is it Bible? Letís
turn, if you will, to a few verses of Scripture, say Hebrews 4.
Now, get what Iím saying. Please get what I'm saying. I'm
saying that no sinner, no son of Adam, dare can approach the
heavenly throne of God, the throne of mercy or grace or salvation
or whatever, except through a priest. And that priest has got to have
in his hands a suitable God-provided sacrifice of blood to atone for
our sins. I see that's never changed. You
see, you say, that's Old Testament. Well, the Old Testament was a
pattern. Here's a picture. It's a shadow of the truth, you
see. And Hebrews 4 says this, verse 14, seeing then we have
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. That's what
I said. Jesus, the Son of God, let's hold fast our profession.
Now, verse 16, let us therefore come bold into the throne of
grace. On what basis? We have a priest. We have a high
priest, and that's the only reason we can come. Look, if you will,
at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews 10, verse 20, 22. Listen. Hebrews 10, 21. And having a
high priest over the house of God let us draw near. We have
a high priest. Well, I'm not interested in the
priesthood. That's Catholicism. I'm not interested in studying.
You better study the priesthood. And I tell you, the Scripture
said you better be able to give an answer to the man that asks
you a reason for your hope. And you say, oh God, have mercy.
You don't think for a minute that God hears you directly with
no one in between, do you? You foolish enough to think that? Are you foolish enough to think
you can call on God and be heard without a priest? You are a fool.
God is so infinitely and awesomely and unapproachably high above
you that God would snuff you out if you even called His name.
But between men and God, there's a mediator. There's a high priest. There's a suitable sacrifice,
a satisfactory atonement. There's a suitable sin offering.
There's a man pleading. There's a God-man. There's one
to man God-ordained. He is there, and he makes even
our righteousness to be holy, which is unholy in itself. God doesn't hear you. He hears
Christ. He hears Christ. And somebody, a fellow sat the
other day, now you listen to this. The fellow said to me the
other night, he said, well, the Jews believe in God, but don't
believe in Jesus Christ. I said, don't believe in God
either. Don't believe in God either. He said, what do you
mean? He said, yeah, they believe the
same God we do. I said, no, they don't. No man knoweth the Father,
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal. Nobody can know
God apart from Christ. God hasn't revealed anybody apart
from Christ. Show us the Father and it suffices
us. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. He that hasn't seen me hasn't seen the Father. He
that doesn't believe me doesn't believe the Father. He that doesn't
know me doesn't know the Father. The Jew believes in their concept
of God. They don't believe in the living
God. He believes in his idea of God. The Jew is just as much
an idolater as the Buddhist. And anybody here tonight who
doesn't love Christ and know Christ and worship Christ and
receive Christ is an atheist. You know that's so? He's an atheist. He's an idol worshiper. You don't
know the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible only speaks
through Christ. Christ is the Word. And without
Christ, God is silent. You can't know God without Christ. You've never had any imagination
of God without Christ except it was wrong. That's exactly
right, Tom. The man without Christ is an
atheist. He's an idolater in God's judgments
on him. Christ said, you reject me, you
reject what? Him that sent me. And there are
people sitting out here in this auditorium that say, well, I
hadn't come to believe on Christ yet, but I believe in God. You
don't even know God. You can't know God. There's not
any way in the world for you to have any true concept or understanding
of God Almighty apart from Jesus Christ. Every revelation of God
in the Old Testament is Christ. Moses wrote of, what did he say?
Me. Our Lord, you see, you ought
to talk about the Jew. You know what our Lord said to
them, don't you? They said, God is our Father. What did He say?
The devil's your father. Is that not what he said? That's
exactly what he said. He said, you're of your father
the devil. That's the reason they nailed
him on that cross. And we namby-pamby and pussyfoot
around and say, well, they believe in God, but they don't believe
in Jesus. You're an atheist if you don't believe in Christ.
If you've never seen Christ or known Christ or loved Christ,
you're not a spitting distance from the God of the Bible. You
don't know it. That's just so. That's just so. All right, turn to Hebrews 9.
Let me show you something there. Hebrews 8, listen to this. I'm
not interested in studying that Old Testament tabernacle and
priesthood, no sacrifices and offerings. You better. You better
because it says in Hebrews 8.1, listen, Hebrews 8.1, Now the
things which we've spoken, this is the whole psalm in total.
We have a high priest. that is set on the right hand
of the throne of the majesty on high." Now, that's the sum
total. That's summing this whole thing
up, Paul said. We've got a high priest. And what does he say
about him? Now turn, if you will, to Hebrews
10.1. Hebrews 10.1. For the law is
a shadow. The law. What law? I'm not talking
about Ten Commandments. The Levitical law. The Mosaic
economy. The law having a shadow of good
things to come. And not the very image of those
things can never, with those sacrifices which they offer year
by year, continually make the comers there unto purpose. All
of those sacrifices in the Old Testament and priesthood and
days of atonement were simply pictures or patterns or shadows
or types of him who is to come. They had no substance at all.
In burnt offerings, God has no pleasure. Lo, he said in the
book, in the volume of the book that's written of me, I come,
O Lord, to do thy will. He taketh away the first, the
Levitical law, and establisheth Christ." That's our priest. So
you just take the... And I'm a priest. Turn to 1 Peter
2. Every one of us who are believers
are priests. Somebody said, Well, we're not
saints, you know. You better be. I'm more than
a saint. I'm a priest. And everybody saves
a priest. In 1 Peter 2, 9, you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood. He hath made us, what does it
say in Revelation, kings and priests unto our God. Yes, I'm
a priest. You say, well, that's Mormonism,
the priest. I don't know what it is. I just
know that every believer is a priest. Every believer, not certain chosen
believers, every believer, every believer is a saint. I don't
say let's turn to the book of St. Matthew anymore and I say
next Sunday night, St. Charlie will praise you. Matthew is no more saint than
Charlie, you see, they're both saints. You see what I'm talking
about? That's subtle. But I don't use that word because it seems
to canonize Matthew or canonize Jude or somebody else by an act
of a man. Every believer is a saint. If
you're not a saint, you're not sanctified. If you're not sanctified,
you're not justified. If you're not justified, you're
damned. And every believer is a priest. And we come to God
offering spiritual sacrifices of love, joy, faith, praise,
thanksgiving, all these things. But Christ is our great high
priest. And He went into the holy place, not made with hands,
but into heaven itself. And He offered not the blood
of animals, but His own precious blood. And He's our priest. And
I'm telling you, some folks running around saying, well, all I know,
I don't know anything about those things, I just say believe. Believe
what? You better find out what you believe. Believe whom? Paul said, I know whom I have
to believe. I know whom. And we need to look into this.
That's the reason I don't run every time somebody wants to
go to heaven, you know, run and talk them into a profession.
I tell you this, there's some things to be learned about this
thing of salvation. And our big problem is this.
Here's our big problem. It's not what we have to learn.
It's what this generation has to unlearn. That's what takes
so long. It doesn't take long to build
a house. It takes forever to tear one down, you know, get
all the old false foundation out. I'd heather rather go out
where nothing's ever built before and dig a footer and build a
house than to go out here where there's a bunch of ruins and
you've got to go in and take every brick out. and dig up all
the roots and tear out the old foundation and start all over
again, and that takes a long time. And that's what we've got.
We've got a bunch of old rotten foundations laid by false preachers,
and we've got all of our personal traditions and customs and ideas
and our thoughts, and they're all contrary to God's Word, and
we have to spend all this time tearing it all out, don't we? What about this fifth thing,
once saved, always saved? I've had people actually say
this to me. You're a Baptist? Yeah. You don't blame one's sake.
I always say that. You don't. Once in grace, always
in grace. Well, is that what the Bible
teaches? Now, I don't know. You say, that's
Baptist doctrine. Well, is that what the Bible teaches? Well,
my friend, that's exactly what the Bible teaches. The Bible
teaches whom? He predestinated and He predestinated
cause and He called it justified and justified and glorified.
All of them. Christ said, My sheep hear My
voice. I know them. They follow Me. I give them eternal
life. They'll never perish. He said,
All that My Father giveth Me shall come to Me. Him that cometh
to Me I'll in no wise cast out. Paul said, He that hath begun
a good work in you will finish it in the day of Jesus Christ.
Now a lot of people have perverted it. They've abused it, they've
misinterpreted it, and all these things. But I'm simply saying
the Bible truth of salvation by grace is everyone whom God
chose, God called, God justified, and God glorified. Somebody said
one time that every place in heaven has a nameplate. Their
names are written in the book of life. There'll be no vacancies
in heaven, but there'll be plenty of room. No vacancies. And then we go to this, you know,
let me give you this now, quit, baptism. Somebody says, well,
that's Church of Christ. The Lord's supper is neglected.
Somebody says, well, that's a Christian church, they take it every Sunday.
Well, maybe we ought to, I don't know. About as close as we come
to worship is when we take the Lord's table. The presence of
the Lord in great and unusual power is manifested when we...
He said, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you shall my death, till I come. And baptism, everybody in the
New Testament confessed Christ, followed the Lord in baptism.
And yet we have a way of saying, well, that's Church Christ, you
know, or that's Christian, or that's something else, you know.
This thing also of praying for the sick, that's holy rolling. Well, is it in the Word of God?
Some of the gifts of the Spirit, you know. I know the apostles
had certain gifts that were unusual, other languages, tongues, and
so forth. We don't have to try to duplicate
things. But does the Lord not give, according
to His will, gifts in His church now? Is there not the gift of
faith, and the gift of prayer, and the gift of teaching, and
the gift of prophecy, and the gift of ministry, and the gift
of all these things are gifts of God? And the body is many
members. We're not all just alike. You
can't put God's people in a mold unless you're molded as big as
Jesus Christ, because that's the one He's molded in the matter.
And they're different personalities and different characteristics
and different abilities and different talents and different gifts,
but all necessary. And the Holy Spirit, you know,
we give the Holy Spirit to the Pentecostals and the Charismatics,
and we won't even mention the Holy Spirit. We'd better mention the Holy
Spirit. He's very real, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
regenerates, the Holy Spirit quickens, the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ, the Holy Spirit seals us, the Holy Spirit indwells
us, the Holy Spirit fills us, the Holy Spirit teaches us, the
Holy Spirit prays through us, we have the Holy Spirit, our
bodies are called the temple of the Holy Spirit, be not drunk
with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit throughout God's
Word. And we must not ever get into this, this, this thing,
well, That's Holy Roller. Somebody
said one time that Holy Roller's called Spurgeon a hypercalvinist,
and a hypercalvinist called him a Holy Roller. There's no way
anybody could type him. They all hated him. That's right. But he didn't, he didn't, and
he'd stand up and preach, and he'd say, now so-and-so doesn't
believe that, but that's God's Word. That's God's Word. And
here's the last one. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12,
why don't you look at it just a minute, and I'll quit. I preached
too long, didn't intend to preach that long. I had a little burden
about this message, a little trouble about it. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 30, verse 29, or 28, let's
start with 28. And God had set some in the church,
first apostles, that office is gone. Secondarily, prophets. Thirdly, teachers. After that,
miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are
all teachers? No. Are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gift of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues? No. Do all interpret? No, but
covet earnestly the best gift. Nothing wrong with that. Covet
them. Desire them for the glory of God. Not for our personal
use or show off or be hiring somebody else, but just covet
them for the glory of God. God, if you can use me, use me.
If you can give me a gift, give me a gift. It'd be for your glory,
fine. But, watch this now. Yet, I'm going to show you something
better, a more excellent way. You mean something better than
being an apostle? Something better than being a
prophet? You mean something better than being able to stand up and
speak with the tongues of angels? Something better than healing?
Something better than being a martyr? Yeah, I'm sure something better.
Verse 1, chapter 13, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, and have not love, I am just a sounding brass or a tickling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have faith so I could remove mountains, wouldn't that be something?
Wait a minute. And have not love? I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, I'm the best giver in the church. I give everything
I've got. I even give my body to be burned.
I'm a martyr who died for the grace of God. And have not love?
Prophets mean nothing. He said, I'll show you something,
and this is something we need to work on. You can't give this
to the flower children. Like a few years ago, they had
the flyer children, you know, love, love, love, make love,
not war, all these things. We say, well, I'm not one of
those weirdos, you know. Well, the Apostle Paul said you
can have any of these other things that religious people covet and
miss out on this thing of love, and you're nothing You're a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal, and it'll profit you nothing.
All that put together. So, make love your aim. That's exactly what it says.
The last verse of that 1 Corinthians 13, let me look at that just
a minute, see if I remember that correctly. Make, I can't find
it now, but follow after charity. That's what I'm saying, and that
means make love your aim. Follow after it means to pursue
it. Make it your aim and objective. To try to love like God tells
us to love. Our Father, thank you for your
word. What a magnificent, indescribable
book. So far above us in our understanding. And yet the very revelation of
your character and your attributes and your glory and your mercy
and your grace, your justice and righteousness, how foolish
to let Satan and Satan-led men steal these precious things from
us. Because they get a lock on certain
things and abuse it or misuse it, then we flee from it and
we're afraid of it. Lord, give us an eye only to
you. and an eye only to your word, and divorce us from names
and traditions and customs of men and those things that would
bind us. And yet, Lord, you bind us with
the cords of righteousness and truth. You bind us to yourself,
hold reins upon us, and keep us true to the word. Keep us
from following our foolishness and going to cede upon our thoughts
and ways. But just deliver us from the
fetters of men and tradition. And Lord, You put Your fetters
upon us. You put Your yoke upon us. You put Your reins upon us
and direct us in Your path. But Lord, give us the freedom
and joy of knowing Christ. For His sake and in His name
we pray. Amen.