I have what I believe to be a
very special message for you this morning, and I hope that
you'll just pull up a chair and sit and listen to the entire
telecast. I want you to write to me and
we'll send it to you. I'm turning for a text this morning
to John 17 verse 3, in which our Lord Jesus Christ said, and
this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now, my friends, I've
been preaching long enough to know that this is true, that
one essential thing in preaching the Word of God is to preach
to men where they are, where they are, not where they should
be, not where they think they are, not where they ought to
be, but to preach to men where they are and as they are. Now, our Lord, in His infinite
wisdom, spoke to different people according to their needs. There
was a man called Nicodemus who came to Christ. Now, Nicodemus
was a very moral, religious Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews. This man,
Nicodemus, thought he knew God. He believed that he worshipped
God. He believed that he had a sure
entrance into the kingdom of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ
talked to this religious Pharisee, this moral man, about a new birth. He said, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot understand
the kingdom of God. He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Our Lord spoke to Nicodemus,
the religious, moral Pharisee, about a heart work. Not a work
of theology, or orthodoxy, or rituals, or legalism, or ceremony,
but a heart work, that which Nicodemus knew nothing about.
Now, when our Lord spoke to the woman at the well, he didn't
talk to her about a heart work, he didn't talk to her about the
new birth, he talked to her about sin. Here was a woman that had
been married five or six times, was living with a man that was
not her husband, whose life was all confused and messed up and
troubled, and he talked to her about the water of life. He talked
to her about never thirsting again. He talked to her about
his work as the Messiah. He talked to her about true worship.
He talked to her about forgiveness of sin. He didn't talk to this
woman the same way that he talked to Nicodemus. He talked about
the same subject, knowing God. having a living relationship
with God, but he talked to them in a different way. He preached
to these people where they were, where they were and as they were. You see what I'm saying? And
then there was a rich young ruler who came to Christ. And he was
a man who was very wealthy and who wanted to do something to
earn eternal life. He said, what can I do that I
might earn eternal life? Well, our Lord knew him to be
a very proud, pious, self-righteous man who felt that he kept the
law. So our Lord gave him something to do to inherit eternal life.
He said, keep the law. Obey the commandments. Well,
no man obeys the commandments. No man has the ability or the
power to obey the commandments. No man in the flesh can please
God. But what our Lord was doing was flushing this man out of
his refuge of lies. He knew what the man was thinking.
And the man said, well, I've kept all these. I've kept the
commandments. What lack I yet? Christ knew
that's what he would say. And then our Lord hit him at
the delicate spot. He was a very wealthy man. He
had people living all around him who were starving, who didn't
have enough to wear, who needed the things of this world, and
he wouldn't share with them. So our Lord said, go and sell
what you have and give it to the poor. And you come take up
your cross and follow me." Well, he didn't talk to Nicodemus about
selling out. He didn't talk to the woman at
the well about selling out. But he met this man where he
was. He was a covetous man. He was
a man who loved his riches. He was a man who hated his neighbor.
He was a man full of greed. He was a man full of selfishness.
And our Lord met him where he was. Do you see what I'm pointing
out? You don't just give the same pill to everybody. You've
got to find out in this matter of preaching where men are, where
they are, and preach to them there as they are. Now, I know
where my generation is. I've been around long enough
and I've been preaching long enough to know where you are. I know where my audience is,
and I'm going to preach to you where you are and as you are
this morning. This is perhaps the most difficult
generation to preach to of all time. And I'll tell you why.
There's several reasons. Number one, nearly everybody
is religious. That's right. We've got more
religion in America today than ever before. We've got less Christianity. We've got less righteousness.
We've got less knowledge of God than ever before. But we've got
more religion today than ever in the history of this country
and more than in the history of any country. Well, you can
turn your radio or television on most any time of day or night
and pick up a preacher. That didn't used to be so. There
are churches all over town. There are hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of churches. There's a church for about every
two or three hundred people in the average town. Nearly everybody
today is religious. This is a religious generation. And secondly, they all claim
to believe in God. It's much like the conditions
to which our Lord came. Everybody was religious. Everybody
claimed to believe in God. Everybody claimed to be righteous.
And yet nobody knew God. Our Lord looked at those people
and He said, you don't know me or my father. They said, we're
Abraham seed. We're Baptists. We're Methodists.
We're Presbyterian. We're Catholic. We're Episcopal.
We're something else. He said, if you were Abraham
seed, you'd love me. Abraham loved me. Abraham saw
my day and was glad. And our generation believes in
God. And thirdly, most of them have
made a religious profession. Most of them at some time have
walked down somebody's aisle and made a decision for Jesus,
made a profession of faith and joined the church. And they're
still doing it every Sunday by the thousands all over this country.
Walking down an aisle, making a religious profession. Churches
have just rolls crammed with people. and yet empty pews throughout
the church every Lord's Day. A bona fide sinner is hard to
find. One of the most difficult things
to find is a sinner, because men are justifying themselves
before men and before God. That's what our Lord said to
the people of His day. He said, you justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your heart, and that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. There is much religion
today, much preaching, and much entertainment in the name of
God Almighty. But my friends, today, God's
character is not preached. We hear so little of the holiness
of God, of the justice of God, of the righteousness of God,
of the sovereignty of God, of the grace and mercy of God. We
do not hear God's character and God's attributes proclaimed.
Therefore, our generation does not know God. We have not heard
who God is. We have not heard the character
of God preached. And sin is not defined. Sin is
not defined as a principle. That's what sin is. People everywhere
are preaching against sin, but not defining sin. They're talking
about sin, but not clearly defining what sin is. Sin is a nature.
Sin is a principle. Sin is a spirit. A man is not
a sinner because he steals. He steals because he's a sinner.
He has the principle of theft in him. He has the principle
of evil in him. Sin is a nature, and it's not
defined. And sin is not against my neighbor.
It's against God. And true repentance is not defined. And true faith is not preached.
And God's righteousness in Christ. Does anybody know anything about
God's righteousness in Christ? It's an unknown subject. And
yet Paul devoted so much time to the preaching of God's righteousness. In Romans 10, he said that's
the problem with Israel. He said they have a zeal for
God, but it's not according to knowledge. They're ignorant of
the God of the Bible. And they're going about to establish
their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God, which is Christ Jesus. In Romans chapter
5, he says practically the same thing. He said, the righteousness
of God is in Christ. There is a righteousness manifested
and witnessed by the law and the prophets, and that's Christ.
But preachers are not talking about God's righteousness, no,
God's justice. Job asked two or three times
in the book of Job, how can God be just and justify the ungodly? How can man be just with God?
The justice of God, the cross of Christ, is not defined. We don't even know the reason
for the cross. Everybody knows Christ died on
the cross, but they don't know why. They have not the faintest
idea why the justice of God required His Son to die. He didn't die
as an example. He didn't die as a martyr. He
didn't die as a Reformer. He didn't die to show us how
to die. He died specifically to satisfy the righteousness,
holiness, and justice of God. The Lordship of Christ is compromised. We're asking everybody to accept
Jesus as their personal Savior, a term which is not found anywhere
in the Word of God. But there's plenty of scripture
which says, bow to Christ, kiss the Son lest to be angry, receive
Christ, eat His flesh and drink His blood, embrace the Son of
God, bow to the crown rights of Jesus Christ. I'm saying this,
that modern religion in America, is a satanic conspiracy against
God, against men, and against truth. That's exactly what I'm
saying, and I've thought this sentence over quite a bit. Modern
religion, going under the name of fundamentalism and all other
kinds of religions in America, is a satanic conspiracy against
God, against men, and against people everywhere, and we're
being swept up in it by the millions. We do not like God as He is,
so we change Him. We do not like God as He's revealed
in His Word, so we change Him to suit ourselves. He said in
Psalm 50, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as Thyself.
The God of creation, the God of the Bible, the God of the
universe is not declared in His true character. We have a God
that we've cut out with our own little scissors and made Him
just like we want Him to be. He does what we let Him do. I
hear people say all the time, God's done all He can do, now
it's up to you. When did God ever do all that
He could do for a man and that man not be saved? And I'll tell
you something else, we do not like God's definition of sin.
So we form our own definition. Sin is not what I am, sin is
what I do. That's what they're saying, but
that's not true. Sin is what we are. And what
we do is the results of what we are. And what we are has got
to be changed. Not just what we do, that's what
the Pharisees did. Christ said they cleansed the
outside of the cup. They changed their habits, but
not their hearts. Our Lord said cleanse first that
which is within, and then the outside will be changed. Modern
religion starts on the outside and tries to work in. Salvation
starts on the inside and works out. The heart is made clean.
God says, I take the stony heart out and give you a heart of flesh.
No, we change men's habits and leave their hearts bitter and
hard and dead and cold and evil, murderous hearts, divided hearts,
double hearts, hearts that hate God and men, though they're religious,
clean as a houndstooth, straight as a gun barrel, and just as
empty. We don't like free grace. We
don't like sovereign grace. We don't like substitution. So
we invent our own ways of salvation by works and deeds. Original
sin offends man's dignity, so preachers don't preach it. The
gospel of revelation offends man's wisdom, so preachers won't
preach it. The Lordship and authority of
Jesus Christ offends their love of self. Substitution offends
man's pride. So modern religionists, using
the Bible, oh yes, they use the Bible. Modern religious make
up a god of their own. They make up a religion of their
own. and a heaven populated by Pharisees and do-gooders, but
the Scripture still declares, Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. God
said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom? I will have mercy. And
I will be gracious to whom? I will be gracious. God's Word
still says, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The Word of God still
declares this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He said,
I didn't come to call the righteous. I didn't come to call the religious.
I didn't come to call the Pharisee. I didn't come to call the do-gooder.
The world do not need a position. I came to seek and to save that
which is lost. And I'll tell you something else,
and I want you to pull your chair up real close now. I've got something
to say to this whole generation of religious people. Our Lord
said, my kingdom is not of this world. Now, what preachers are
trying to do today is make America and Christianity synonymous,
and it's not. What the average preacher is
trying to do is make patriotism and religion synonymous, and
it's not. Now, I'm telling you something.
You listen to me. America is not the kingdom of God. America
is not the promised land, whatever you think. Democracy is not Christianity. No, sir, it's not. Our way of
equal rights and individual liberty is not the way of life, and it's
not eternal life. Now, that's just so. We are sinners
before God. Listen to me. Don't leave me.
Listen to me. We are sinners before God just
as much as the Communists are sinners. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Just because I'm an American
doesn't mean I'm without sin. And just because a man's a communist
doesn't mean he is a sinner. We're sinners in the sight of
God just as much as the communists, the socialists, or anybody else.
A conservative is just as lost as a liberal, even though he
may be in a church. We need the grace of God and
the mercy of God individually as much as they did in Rome.
as much as they did in Japan, as much as they did in Nazi Germany,
as much as they do in Poland or Russia today. We need the
mercy and grace of God as much as anyone. God is no respecter
of persons. We're sinners just like they
are. Sin and salvation and a knowledge of God in Christ is a personal
matter, not a national matter. It's an individual matter. The
kingdom of God is in the hearts of believers. It's not in nations. God doesn't save nations. He
saves individuals. Christ didn't die for nations.
He died for individuals. And He has a people out of every
tribe and kindred and nation and tongue unto heaven. And I
tell you this, this relationship with God, this living, vital,
personal relationship with God is through true individual repentance
and true individual faith. The Scripture said, shall confess
with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." And I'll
tell you, this true repentance and true faith, which leads to
a true knowledge of Christ, will make a person a new creature
in Christ Jesus, bent on doing the will of God and serving his
cause of righteousness. You can't legislate holiness,
but Almighty God can give it when he gives a new nature. You
can't legislate godliness. You can't legislate morality.
You can't legislate obedience. It's the work of God in the heart.
And God can perform overnight a miracle that no man can perform
with all of his works and religions and deeds unto heaven. And let
me tell you this, and I'm far some of these things, but I want
to tell you this, we don't want to get this thing on the wrong
track. America is not the kingdom of God. And we may clean up our
streets, and our hearts still be far from God. And I tell you
this, you can ban pornography, and you can fight the communists,
and you can make abortion illegal, and you can elect conservatives,
and you can balance the budget, and you can put prayer in the
schools, and you can make everybody a church member, but every one
of us has still got the greatest problem of all, Sin which lives
in the human heart. That's the problem. That's the
problem. That's the great problem. Sin
against God. How can I be just before God? Not how can I be justified before
men. Not how can I make my reputation
right before men, but how can I be just with God? How can He
be clean that's born of a woman? How can God be just and justifier? Depth of mercy, can there be
mercy still reserved for me? Can my God, His wrath forbear,
and me, the chief of sinners, spare? If Satan can, he will
get us sidetracked and lose sight of the fact that four vital things
face me as an individual. I've got to live with or without
God. I've got to die with or without
God. I've got to face judgment with
or without God. I've got to spend eternity with
or without God. Now then, when you go out this
way and try your best to make everything just as moral and
righteous and religious as you can, you remember that God Almighty's
issue is a heart problem and a personal problem, and that
we're going to stand, every man's going to give an account of himself
under God. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after that, the judgment. And we've invented all kind of
religious clichés, and we're hiding behind them, those religious
clichés which give us a false refuge. One of them is this.
Listen to this. You think about this. Boldly and brazenly, men
say, I have made my peace with God. Have you now? You made your
peace with God? My friend, that's an impossibility. Peace with God can only be made
by the Prince of Peace. The Word of God clearly says
in Ephesians 2.14, He is my peace. Our Lord clearly told His disciples,
My peace I give unto you. Colossians 1.20 plainly says,
And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him
to reconcile all things unto Himself. Christ is our peace. He's the peace for the individual
because he meets all that God requires. Now let me give you
five or six things before I leave you. No man, and I'm talking
about individuals, and this is an individual matter. I know
we need to unite together, do all we can to have a good government
and a good community and a good city and good schools and all
these things. But you can do that and not know
God. You can do that and not know Christ. You can do that
and perish in your sins. I've got to personally, individually
know God. And what I'm saying is do these
things. Clean up your community. Clean up your city. Clean up
your government. Do all these things. But don't
try to make it synonymous with salvation. Don't try to make
it synonymous with knowing God. Don't call everything Christian
because it's clean. Christianity is Christ. And it's
a right heart with God. Not only a right walk. But I'm
saying this. Our peace is Christ. But no man
can speak peace to his heart who has not faced the matter
of his sins. S-I-N-S. Now John said, if we
say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not
in us. There is no difference, Paul
said, all that is sinned and comes short of the glory of God.
David said, I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin is ever
before me. God will forgive sins. I don't
care what you've done, or how deep you've fallen, or how long
you've been in the gutter, or what you've been through, God
will forgive sin, but through the blood of Christ. God forgives
sin through a sacrifice, through a substitute, through a sin offering.
Jesus Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree, and by
His stripes we're healed. And when I'm convinced of my
sins, and my sins are before me, and I'm aware of them, and
look to Christ to cleanse them, God will have mercy on me. But
you're not going to speak peace to your heart, to your face,
your individual sins. Now watch this. No man can speak
peace to his heart who has not faced the matter of sin. You
say, you just said that. No, I didn't. I said sins. Now I'm saying sin. Sins are
what we do. Sin is what we are. Sins are
the result of sin. We commit sins against God because
we have a sinful nature. A man steals because he's a thief
by nature. A man lies because he's a liar
by nature. A man hates because he's a murderer
by nature. We need a new nature. This is
what I'm saying. We've got to face this fact of
S-I-N, what we are. What makes us do what we do and
say what we do and act like we act is because we're motivated
by a fallen nature and a fallen will. By one man's sin entered
the world. S-I-N, the nature, the principle. And so death passed upon all
men because of all sin. Thirdly, a man cannot speak peace
to his heart until he has faced the sinfulness of his best deeds. That's right, the best deeds.
You know what Scripture said? Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Isaiah wrote, We all do fade
as the leaf. We are an unclean thing. Even
our righteousness is a filthy rag. Some people take great delight
and satisfaction in their prayers. Whatever prayer you've ever prayed
is full of sin. Some people take great delight
in their gifts, their good deeds, their preaching, their religious
works, all these things. But without Christ, every act
of religion is an abomination to God. God requires perfection. A man may love God, but not perfectly. A man may serve God, but not
perfectly. A man may give, worship, do good
things, but not perfectly. And I'll tell you this, if it's
not perfect, God can't have it. You say, well, how is my worship
accepted in Christ? Christ makes it acceptable. We're
accepted in the Beloved. Without Christ, we're castoffs.
We're outcasts. We're deserted. We're left like
the infant in the field. Christ is our righteousness,
fourthly. A man cannot speak peace to his
heart until he's dealt with a matter of unbelief. You know why Israel
couldn't enter the Canaan land? Unbelief. Unbelief. That's the
reason. The centurion came to our Lord,
and he said, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. The
Holy Spirit convinces men of sin, righteousness, and what?
Unbelief. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. We'd better be praying like the
disciples of old. Lord, increase my faith. I've
got enough unbelief. I need belief. I need faith.
God Almighty is pleased with faith. We must have faith. We must believe not only in God,
but we must believe God. We must believe not only in Christ,
but we must believe Christ. All things are possible to them
that believe. And then last of all, a man cannot
speak peace to his heart until he's faced the matter of the
Lordship of Jesus Christ. If thou shalt confess without
Jesus to be Lord, Not just your personal Savior, your Lord, your
Master, the One who reigns over you, the One who controls you. Somebody said Christ is the most
important part of my life. When He's your Lord, He is your
life. We bow to, acknowledge and proclaim the Lordship of
the Son of God. Now this is the title of this
message, a plain, plain preaching to my generation. On this tape
is another message I'll bring next Sunday called, My Religion.
If you want it, send two dollars, that's what it costs, and we'll
mail it to you by return mail. Until next week, may the Lord
bless you, is my prayer.