Now this morning we're going
to face the issues of our day head on. Some of the things that
I'm going to say will be to the natural man, to the religionist,
most offensive. But to be true to the word of
our God and to be true to the souls of our heroes, we're going
to have to face these issues honestly. openly and plainly. Now let me establish two things
in beginning. First of all, this is true. As
sure as God reigns, as sure as this Bible is God's Word, as
sure as Jesus Christ is God's Son, and that is there is but
one gospel. There is but one gospel. Now,
that's what Paul is saying here in Galatians 1, verse 8. He talked
about the gospel of Christ, and he says in verse 8, "...though
we are an angel from heaven." I don't care, he said, if it's
an angel from heaven. Preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we preach. Let him be accursed. Now, in
2 Corinthians, if you'll turn over there with me, chapter 11,
Verse 4, Paul warns the Church of Corinth of people coming in
like Satan, in subtlety and craftiness, seeking to get folks to follow
them, and he says they'll preach, verse 4, another Jesus. They'll
use the name, but not the character. They'll talk about sweet little
Jesus boy. They'll talk about Jesus Christ
Superstar. They'll talk about Jesus who's
wringing his hands in heaven, hoping somebody will let him
have his way. That's another Jesus. That's another Jesus. That's not the Jesus. That's
God that has all power over all flesh, that does as he will in
heaven, earth, the seas, and all deep places, the conquering,
eternal, victorious Christ Jesus, Lord of all, to whom the Father
hath given all things, power over all flesh, authority in
heaven and earth. That's another Jesus, and he
said, you'll receive another spirit. Yeah, there's a spirit
of antichrist, and a spirit of the devil, a spirit of error,
which you've not received, or another gospel, which you have
not accepted. You might well bear with me.
That's what he's saying there, another gospel. All right, this
gospel is just one gospel. Paul called it my gospel in the
sense that he was saved by it, that he was separated to it.
He called it the gospel of God. It didn't originate with us,
it originated with God. It didn't originate in some synod. It didn't originate in some denomination. It didn't originate with men
at all. This is the gospel of God. And this is the gospel of
God's grace, free grace. The gospel of God's grace. And
then not only that, but it's the gospel concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. It's the gospel of God, the gospel
of grace, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is but one gospel.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Listen to Paul here. Moreover
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Not a gospel, the
gospel. The good news, the glad tidings.
There is but one gospel. One gospel. How did Christ...
Well, let's read on, verse 1. "...which I preached unto you,
which you received, wherein you stand, by which you are saved
by this gospel, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I received." I got it from God. I read that
to you a while ago. "...that which I received, how
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures." That's what the Word declares. There's one gospel.
It's the ancient gospel. It's the gospel Moses wrote about.
Why, these Pharisees and religionists said to Christ, we have Moses.
He said, Moses wrote of me. That rock in the wilderness,
that rock was Christ. That Passover feast, that Passover's
Christ. Christ is our Passover. That's
what Scripture says. Mike quoted in his prayers, Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. No new gospel. This is the everlasting
gospel. This is the ancient gospel. This
is the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of grace.
But today, but today, in our day, 1983, it cannot be said
we have one gospel. We don't have one gospel. We
have hundreds of denominations and millions of churches, millions
of churches all over the world. Not just hundreds and thousands,
I mean millions of buildings. And we have many Gospels. We
have many ways to God. You know that, now that's just
honesty. We have many ways to God. No use saying it's not true. Even the Baptists that are associated
together. in the Southern Baptists, or
American Baptists, or Association of Regular Baptists, or Conservative
Baptists, or Primitive Baptists, or Enterprise Baptists, or all
the rest of them. They even have many Gospels among
them. They just associate together
to send missionaries, cooperate to teach the same International
Sunday School lesson, but you go to a different Baptist church
and you'll hear a different Gospel. That's so. A different Gospel. We've got many Gospels. You know
it and I know it. First of all, there's the gospel
of salvation in the church. That's exactly right. Some of
you sitting right here in this auditorium came out of denominations
and churches that profess to have the power to save sinners.
Of course that's true. The priesthood of the church,
that's being taught by many denominations today. Salvation is dispensed
by the priest and by the church. And you know it's so. A friend
of mine was working somewhere one time years ago, and there
was a fellow employee who was a Catholic. Same thing could
be said of a Mormon or a lot of Baptists. But anyway, this
man happened to be a Catholic, and my friend was saved. He knew
God. He knew the gospel. And he was
going to witness to this man. He was going to read the Scripture
to him. He started reading the Scripture, and this man said,
Hold it! Don't read the Bible to me. He said, what? He said, don't read the Bible
to me. Don't you read. Here's what he said, listen,
don't quote any scripture to me. My salvation's in the church. My salvation's in the priest.
If the priest is wrong, that's his fault. If the church is wrong,
that's their fault. But I'm leaving it up to them.
So don't quote any scripture to me. You say, that's terrible. Maybe somebody right here's got
the same prejudice. You may be sitting right there
this morning listening to me preach with a prejudice in your
mind and bigotry in your heart. I don't believe what he says.
How do you know? You ain't heard me yet. But that's the way we are,
you see. I don't believe what Mahan preaches.
You ever heard him? No, but I don't believe what
he preaches. I don't believe what the saved preaches. But
I'll tell you this, I don't preach salvation in the church. Man's
not saved because he's a Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian,
Episcopalian, or whatever. Salvation's in Christ. And you
miss Christ, you go to hell, I don't care who you are, how
long you've been a church member, or your daddy may be a preacher,
but you miss Christ, you miss salvation. Salvation's not in
the church. Church has no power to save sinners.
And I'll tell you this, I know this is so, and you do too. No
use putting your head in the sand. There's a gospel of church
ordinances today. There are people who actually
believe that they contact Christ through that water. Now they
do, and you know that's so. You know that's so. Men preach
baptism as the door into the church and the door into Christ
and the door into salvation. That's so, and you know it. You
hear it all the time. They even pronounce it differently.
They don't say baptize, they say baptize. You can recognize
one just by the way he pronounces baptism. That's right. They preach
salvation by baptism, and men rely on their baptism, they rely
on their obedience to church activities. I'm telling you,
there's no salvation in the water. Simon Magus was baptized and
perished. The thief on the cross was not
baptized and went to paradise. Is that so? You know it's so.
You know it's so. Many people are baptized who
never know Christ, and there are people who know Christ who
have never been baptized, because of sickness or infirmity or death
even. Paul said, I thank God he didn't
send me to baptize. He said, I thank God I baptized
none of you, but two or three of you. He said he sent me to
preach the gospel. He did not send me to baptize,
but he sent me to preach the gospel. If baptism was a part
of the gospel, Paul would be preaching baptism. But he divided
the two, did he not, Tom? There's no salvation in baptism.
I'm not saying because he's baptized. Now, I'd say there's a fellow
that refuses to be baptized. If he refuses, he's indicating
a rebellious heart. He's indicating that he doesn't
know Christ either. He refuses to do what Christ
told him and commanded him to do. There's no salvation in the
Lord's table. You can line up in front of a priest or a preacher
or anybody else and get that wafer on your tongue and perish.
The Lord Jesus Christ didn't institute the Lord's Table as
a sacrament. Don't you ever call it a sacrament.
It's not a sacrament because it has no saving power. It's
the Lord's Table. It's communion. It can't save. It has its rightful place. Then
there's the gospel of morality. I get so tired of hearing this,
well, he's going to heaven because he's a good man, or she's going
to heaven because she's a good woman. Now, my friends, I'm going
to be as plain as I can. The people of God are a holy
people. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. We're chosen
in Christ that we should be holy. Our Lord said, you're my friends,
if you do whatsoever, I command you. If you don't have love and
grace and mercy, and an attitude of righteousness and seeking
for holiness in your daily living and honesty and integrity, you've
missed Christ. That's just so. You've missed
Christ. God's people are holy people.
They're righteous people. They're an honest people. They're
people who love and forgive. But I'll tell you this, when
we've done everything we can do, we're still unprofitable
sinners. And all our righteousnesses are
filthy rags. Now, that's so. I don't know
how to explain it. The believer's a paradox. He's
full, but he'll tell you right away he's the most empty man
in the world. He's righteous, but he'll tell
you he's a sinner. He'll tell you that. Oh, wretched
man that I am. He'll tell you that he's rich,
but he'll tell you he's poor. Rich in grace and poor in obedience. That's right. That he's knowledgeable,
but he's ignorant. That he's panting after holiness,
but he cries out because of his sins. Salvation is not in morality. Salvation is in Christ. And you
can take the best, most honest, most moral person in this building,
and in the sight of God, that person is unclean, ungodly, and
undeserving of God's mercy. That's right, before God. Now,
we may justify ourselves before men. We may stand toe-to-toe
and eyeball-to-eyeball with anybody and say, I'm good as you are.
My life's as clean as your life. And it may be in the sight of
men. Your reputation may be above reproach. Your character above
reproach before men. But God doesn't see as man sees.
Man looks on the outward countenance. God looks on the heart. And your
heart is not as pure as God. You're not righteous in the sight
of God. We're unclean and we're ungodly. That is, guilty before
God. The law doesn't require you to
love God. It requires you to love God with
all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And you don't do it.
That's sin. The law of God doesn't require
that you love your neighbor. It requires that you love your
neighbor as yourself, as yourself. Love him like you love yourself.
You don't do it. I just asked you this simple
question. If somebody's wife's got to die this afternoon, would
you say, well, let it be mine, don't let it be Mike's? Come
on now, would you? No. Well, then you don't love
him like you love yourself. You love yourself more. If somebody's
child's got a stain of crippling injury this week, let it be my
child, or let it be my grandchild. Don't let it be somebody else's.
Well, you can't say that. You can wish you could, but you
can't. I'll just be honest with you.
If you had a box up here like John Thornberry said, the boat,
let me go to hell or let somebody else go to hell. I wonder which
one you'd drop in. We don't love other people. We
love ourselves. That's who we love. There's none
good, no, not one. You say, but who does that? God
does. But God so loved the world, he
gave his only begotten son. That's exactly right. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, and yet made himself of
no reputation. The love of Christ is pure, holy,
immaculate, infinite love. And we've got to come up with
that same kind of love. I can't do it. That's the reason I'm
saying salvation is not in morality, not in the law. And then there's
the gospel of decisionism. This is another gospel. Come
to the front, make your decision for Jesus. We're going to have
a campaign in this town, and I'll just tell you honestly,
openly, publicly, I will not support it. I'm not going to
support these hand-raising, decision-making, hour-walking, soul-winning campaigns. Salvation is of the Lord. And
I know salvation is a decision. I know that. I know that. I know
that salvation is a man receives Christ. and loves Christ and
bows to Christ and confesses Christ. With this kind of gospel,
God's done all he can do. Now it's up to you. That's another
gospel. This gospel, it says Jesus Christ has done all he
can do. He died for every son of Adam
to make salvation possible. Now you make your decision today
and accept Jesus and you'll be saved. That's not so. That's
not the gospel. God's done all he can do, it's
up to you. You take the first step and God will meet you. If
I can take the first step, I don't need God. That's right, isn't
it, Cecil? What I need with God. The first
step is to come out of the grave. The first step is to give myself
life. The first step is to give myself sight. The first step
is to give myself a knowledge of God. And if I can do that
without God, I don't need God. Is that right, Charles? And they'll
have, they'll preach these little sermons, you know, and they'll
have everybody stand. The choir will start singing
softly and say, everybody, sure for heaven, as if you was already
there, raise your hand. Everybody will raise their hand.
They made a decision. One is 11 years old, or 12 years old,
or 13, came down now. Honey, don't you think it's about
time you accepted Jesus? Honey, don't you think it's about
time you joined the church? Don't you think it's about time
you was baptized? Yes, Mama. Betty went, and Elizabeth went,
so I went. We go all down the aisle. We
made our professions. I'm sure for heaven. I had a
revival, my wife was crying, my children were crying, so I
accepted Jesus to make them quit crying. Made my decision, accepted
Jesus as my personal Savior. I can't find in the Scripture
where it commands anybody to accept Jesus as their personal
Savior. I haven't found it yet. I find in there where you said
to bow to Him as Lord, Richard, I find that in the Bible. Bow
down! Kiss the Son! Submit to Christ! Bow down, rebel! I can find that. Confess Christ as Lord! I can
find that. He's not your Savior. He's not your Lord. And I'll
tell you why your churches are empty on Sunday night and Wednesday
night. You've got a thousand members
of that church or five hundred members and you can't get a handful
to prayer meeting. I'll tell you why. They made
their decision and never bowed to Christ. They accept Jesus
as a personal Savior and somebody else as their Lord, their jobs
their Lord, their wife as their Lord, their children as their
Lord, their ambitions their Lord, their money is Lord, entertainment's
Lord, television's Lord, everything else is Lord, Christ is not Lord.
And they'll bring 175,000 down the aisle this Sunday somewhere
and they'll all accept Jesus as their personal Savior and
not one out of a hundred will bow to him as Lord. They don't
expect them to. Decisionism is damning. I tell
you this, when a man comes to know Christ, when a man makes
that decision, when he bows to Christ, when Christ comes into
his heart and Christ makes him a new creature from the sole
of his feet to the top of his head, he gives him a new A new
Lord, a new life, a new family, a new ambition, a new objective,
a new walk. Everything's new. He's a new
creature. You don't ever have to preach
tithing to him. You don't ever have to preach
soul winning to him. You don't ever have to preach baptism to
him. You don't have to preach any of those things. He's going
to do them because that's what his Lord said to him. That's
what he wants to do. He's a new creature. You don't
have to beg him to come to church. I'll tell you another gospel,
and that is the gospel of household salvation. England, Holland, Scotland, and
Grand Rapids, Michigan are full of covenant religionists who
trust household salvation. What do you mean by that? I mean
that here's a mama and daddy who are church members, real
religious. The daddy may be an elder, a
deacon, or a member of the church, a mom or two, and a little baby
is born in the home. So they bring that baby up in front of
the preacher, and he dresses in a silly-looking robe, you
know, and has something hanging down here that he kisses, and
got this little book, you know, and that baby's there, and they
have a godmother, and isn't that a terrible name? And a godfather.
That's a pizza place, you know. But here's the godfather and
the godmother and whoever's standing around, and that preacher gets
some water and throws it in that screaming kid's face, and that's
supposed to fix him up. And brother, let me tell you
something. I know this is so. I preach for those people. They think
that's salvation. They think. And what they do,
that baby looks back to that experience that he was unconscious,
completely unconscious. And he reads his creed and his
catechism and he's catechized by his father and he's educated
right up into religion and takes his place in the church and goes
straight to hell. That's exactly right. There's
nowhere in this Bible that you have either commandment or an
illustration of an infant being having water sprinkled on him
in the name of God. It's not that. It's just not
that. It's paganism. Absolute paganism. And people who participate in
it are pagans, and those who support it are pagans. That's
exactly right. Baptisms for believers. That's
what scripture said. Go and teach all men and baptize
them. Go make disciples and baptize
them. I'll tell you how baptism is
hedged about. It's hedged about by faith. You
ask that man, just like Paul or Philip said to the eunuch.
The eunuch says, can I be baptized? He said, if you can, if you believe. If you don't, you can't. You
know what he said? That's exactly right. And so you can put that
to that little infant you got in your arms. Ask him. He's so
many days old. Ask him, do you believe on Christ?
Wham! That's all he says. Well, he's
got no right to be baptized. Why means no, Joe. Household salvation, covenant
religionists. You say, well, we're just doing
something. Yeah, you're doing something. You sure are. You're
establishing a system of errors, what you're doing, and you better
drop it. And I mean right now, just like
you drop a hot potato, because God Almighty will not have anything
competing with Christ for the glory. There are thousands of
other gospels. There's the gospel of eternal
election. I'm saved because I'm elect. No, you're not. Election
is not salvation. It's unto salvation. A man will
never be saved if he believes on Christ. Read that article
on the back of the bulletin next Sunday by Spurgeon. You'll see
what I'm talking about. There's the gospel of large membership.
You say, a man wouldn't trust his lodge to save him. Oh, yes,
he does, too. Don't you fool yourself. You
say, I don't. I'm a large member. I don't trust
it. Your buddies do. That's just so. I've had them
hand me those large membership certificates to ask my ticket
to heaven. Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't mind lodges. I keep the Bible out of them.
Keep the Bible out of them, because they're not religious organizations.
There's one institution. That's the church. And you've
got no business meeting around in funny hats and aprons and
calling God in on it. That's exactly right. And you're
asking for a shot, you're asking God to deal with you. You say,
you preach against masons? Oh, no. Brick masons, stone masons,
all the other masons, it doesn't matter to me. But I'm telling
you this, you better not meet down there and carry on some
little silly organizational ceremony and tradition in the name of
God and call it salvation, because God's not in it. God's in Christ
and preaching the gospel. And he's not here with a bunch
of pagans getting together and calling God to bless their paganism. That's so now. I'm telling you
the truth. Like I said, I'm going to offend some folks, but the
gospel is offensive. I'm saying you go ahead and get
to it. I think the Shriners Crippled Children Hospital is one of the
finest things in the world, but just don't call it religion. Because it's not. It's not salvation. It won't help you be saved either.
Christ is salvation. God blesses his church. That's
his church. Mormonism, Buddhism, Mohammedism,
deathbed repentance, all these are gospels. You say, what's
the gospel you preach? Let me give it to you in six
things here quickly. I'm preaching the gospel of God's
free grace in Christ Jesus. God's free grace in Christ Jesus.
Number one, man failed. God created man upright and he
sought out many inventions. God created man holy and without
sin, and he fell. He made a covenant of works with
Adam. He said, you do this and live. Adam disobeyed it and died. Now, so is that Scripture? And
Romans 5.12, you turn over there just a moment, Romans 5.12, let
me show you something. Wherefore, Romans 5.12, wherefore,
as by one man sin entered this world, sin entered the world
through Adam, one man, and death by sin. Spiritual death. So death passed upon all men. That's you, me, and everybody
else. Death. What kind of death? Spiritual
death. Eternal death. That's right. The death of sin.
The body of death. Look at Romans 5.19. Romans 5.19. Listen to this. For as by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners. One man. That's
Adam. That's representation. Adam sinned, we sinned. Adam
fell, we fell. Adam died, we died. You say,
well, babies are born innocent, then why do they die? Why do they get sick? If there's
no sin, there's no sickness. If there's no sin, there's no
death. The sting of death is sin. If
a baby is innocent, a baby cannot get sick and it cannot die. The
reason it gets sick and dies is because it's a sinner. It's
born in sin. It's shapen in iniquity. It's
brought forth speaking lies. That's so. And one day, it'll
demonstrate it. You don't have to teach that
baby to lie. He's born knowing how to lie. You've seen godly
parents bring up children in godly church-going homes, and
that child turned out to be a thief. Why? They didn't teach him to
be a thief. Joe, he's born a thief. And he
did what comes naturally when he grew up. That's the reason
it's so much easier to hate than it is to love, because we're
born hating. The reason it's so much easier to do wrong than
to do good is because that's our fleshly nature. Man's dead.
He's born dead in sin. He's born an enemy of God. You
say, I don't hate God. You don't hate your God. You
hate the God of the Bible. That's the difference. You don't
hate your God. Nobody hates his God. The Buddhist
doesn't hate his idea of God. The Mohammedan doesn't hate his
image, imagination. That's where the word image came
from, imagination. Make unto thee a graven image
according to your imagination. You've imagined God. You didn't
get God by revelation. You didn't get God by the Holy
Spirit's teaching. You got God by your imagination.
I think this. Your thoughts are not my thoughts.
That's what God said. Man's dead. Salvation, secondly,
is impossible with a creature. Absolutely impossible. Christ
said that. The disciples said, who can be
saved? He said, with me, and it's impossible. Impossible. Why is it impossible for man
to be saved in himself? Because he can't please God.
In the flesh, no man can please God. Because he can't keep the
law. And cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. God's law hasn't been repealed. Christ didn't
come to destroy. He came to fulfill it. God's
law hasn't been put on the shelf. It's still right where it was,
a revelation of the holiness of God. And you'll keep it, and
you'll obey it, and you'll honor it, and you'll exalt it, and
you'll magnify it, or you'll perish. What? That's right. Or somebody will have to do it
for you. But it's going to be honored. It's going to be magnified.
But that's impossible with men. Impossible. Thirdly, Almighty
God elected a people to salvation. I'm not embarrassed to say that
or ashamed to say that. If I could preach to the world
this morning, I'd say it because it's so. It's so. God said He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. But what about this? Well,
you do something with my whatabout and then I'll do something with
your whatabout. What about this? God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. Is that what Scripture said?
Christ said to his disciples, you didn't choose me, I chose
you. Is that in the scripture? Well, do something with it. Oh,
but I want to deal with that and who will have all men to
be saved? God's not willing that any should
perish. Christ tasted death for every
man. I'll deal with that when you deal with this. God chose
men and passed by angels, is that right? Exactly. The angels fell and men fell,
and God chose to save men and pass by the angels. That's what
the Bible says. He took not only himself the nature of angels,
he took on himself the seed of Abraham. God Almighty passed
by the Philistines and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Babylonians
and the Egyptians and every pagan country in the Old Testament
and chose Israel. Is that right? You know it's
right. And he gave Israel a tabernacle and gave Israel a law and gave
Israel an ark and gave Israel a mercy seat and didn't give
them anything. That right, you know it's right. You say, that's
Old Testament God. He's the same. He changes not,
yesterday, today, and forever. And what God did, He's doing.
And what God's doing, He will do. If you want to find out what
God's doing, you find out what He did. Is that right? Find out
what He did. He's the same. He said, I'm God,
I change not. I change not. He elected a people.
Yes, he did. He elected a people and gave
them to Christ and made Christ the surety, and our Lord said,
Oh, that the Father giveth me a company, and I'll not lose
a one of them. That's the scripture. Now, we
just well face it, we just well bow to it, but people don't like
it. They never have. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world and they nailed him to a cross. The
Apostle Paul came and they put him in prison and killed him.
Every disciple who preached the truth, they killed them, but
one, John, on the Isle of Patmos, they exiled him, shut his mouth.
John Bunyan put him in prison for 12 years to keep him from
preaching one thing, the grace of God. Everybody that's ever
preached anything suffered for it. Martin Luther, they hounded
him and hunted him all over Europe to keep him from preaching the
grace of God. Men don't care if you preach
salvation by words. They will not hear salvation
by pure, free grace. They won't do it. But that's
the way salvation comes. Christ came into this world in
the flesh and died for those people. Our salvation is not
an effort. It's an accomplishment. Our Lord
Jesus didn't die to make salvation possible. He died to make it
dead certain. Dead certain. And as the priest bore the names
of the tribe of Israel before the mercy seat on the day of
atonement, our Lord Jesus bore the name of every believer on
his breastplate of righteousness. And we don't have a possibility
of salvation, we have a certainty of salvation. I died, I lay down
my life for my sheep. My sheep. Salvation is not just
an offer. Salvation is an accomplishment. It's in Christ. The debt is paid. If he paid it, I don't owe it.
If my sins are under the blood, they're not on me. Payment, God's
justice, cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, and again at mine. That's not justice. Our God is
just. He said, I'm a just God. A just
God. I don't preach a limited atonement.
Our Lord's atonement's not limited. It's sufficient to save ten million
worlds, if God's pleased to save them. If God Almighty saves one
sinner or ten billion sinners, Christ's got to die. Christ's
got to shed his blood. If God saves one man, if not
but one man is saved by the grace of God, Jesus Christ's got to
do everything he did. Everything. If God saves ten
billion, Christ's just got to do everything that he did. It's
not limited in its power. But I'm telling you this. It's
particular and sufficient and effectual in its scope. There's
nobody in hell for whom Christ died on that cross. Now, you
can put that down. There's nobody in hell for whom
Christ... If somebody's in hell for whom Christ died, then he's
got a right to walk right up to the throne of God and point
his finger in the face of God and say, you're unjust. And God
says, why am I unjust? How come I'm paying for sins
that Christ's already paid for? How come I'm dying a death, he's
already died? How come I'm enduring a hell,
he's already endured? How come I'm suffering for sins
that he's already suffered for? I demand to be turned loose right
now. That's exactly right. But you
say salvation is by Christ and faith. Oh, I say, Christ didn't
pay it all. Only a part of it. And really
and truly it's left up for us to finish his work and make it
effectual. That's not the gospel. Not the gospel. The Holy Spirit
affectionately calls them. And they'll come. They'll come. The Holy Spirit affectionately
calls them. We're saved and called with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his grace that's given to us
in Christ before the world began. And they'll come. That's what
our Lord said. He said, No man can come to me
except my Father draw him. And he said, They shall all be
taught of God, and every one that is taught of God cometh
to me. Everyone that learned of God cometh to me. When God
gives them ears, they hear his voice. When God gives them eyes,
they see his glory. When God gives them hearts, they
understand his grace, and they run to Christ. Brother Pruitt
told us last week, he said he was sitting in a restaurant down
there in Louisiana, the owner's a member of their church, and
he's watching a little watching a little boy about two or three
years old, and he had a hold of an ear of corn. They had this
ball of corn boiled in heavy butter and have the sticks in
it, and you eat it. And it's time to go, and he's
still chewing on that ear of corn, that butter and everything
running. He loved that corn on that cob.
And he wouldn't turn it loose, and his daddy said, Now put your
corn down and put your coat on. We've got to go. He just held
it that much tighter and chewed on it. His daddy said, Son, if
you don't put the corn down, I'm going to whop you. He held
it up much tighter. He said to his son, come on now,
honey, we've got to go home. Put the corn down. He begged,
he threatened, he did everything, and the owner went to the counter
under the cash register and pulled out a Hershey bar. And he walked
up to that little boy and held that Hershey bar out, and that
corn just dropped just like that. Just dropped. And I'm telling
you this, when a man sees Christ with anointed eyes, All that
he is, in his righteousness and beauty, in his glory, in his
affection, in his saving power, he'll drop his corn. But he ain't
going to do it until. And the only one who can reveal
that's God the Holy Spirit. And they'll come to Christ, if
they ever see his beauty. They'll lay down their idols,
they'll drop these other things, they'll drop them and they'll
look to Christ. That's what I'm saying. And they'll keep coming
to him, they'll never perish. Now, I said, that's what we're
preaching. Scott, I ask you, how do you know that's the gospel?
Well, let me give you five things and I'll quit. I was going to
do your briefing. You write them down and study them later for
yourself. How do I know that's the gospel? Number one, number
one, that's the only gospel that glorifies God, that gives him
all the glory. That's right. Salvation as a
free gift through the merits of Christ. bestowed upon an unworthy
sinner by the eternal grace of God, salvation fully, Alpha to
Omega, beginning to end, all of grace is the only gospel that
glorifies God. This gospel, if you'll do this,
if you'll do that, that doesn't glorify God, that glorifies men.
This gospel of the soul winner, that glorifies men. I've won
175 souls to Jesus. You've never won anybody to Christ.
You might have been close by when the Holy Spirit won them,
but you didn't do it. You're not a Savior. There's
only one Savior. And he gets all the glory. He
said, My glory I will not share. I will, I'm a jealous God. He
said he chose the foolish, he chose the base, he chose the
despised, that no flesh should glow in his presence. Of him
are you in Christ Jesus. It's all of grace. It's all of
God. That's the reason the first will
be last and the last will be first. That's the reason this
so-called reward system in heaven is an abomination. It's not of
God. I'm going to have more crowns than you. I'm going to live in
a bigger house than you. Why? Because I did this. Oh,
salvation by works, reward by works. Jesus Christ did it all
for me. What I have, he gave me. What
I know, he taught me. What I wear, he gave me. What
I eat, he gave me. I have nothing. to call my own. I take that back, I've got one
thing I own. It originated with me, it's all
mine. That's my sins. They're all mine. But everything
else is Christ's. Secondly, it's the only gospel
that's true to the Old Testament scriptures. It's the only gospel
that's true to the Old Testament scriptures. Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. You know what scriptures that
is? Old Testament. Nearly every time in the New Testament when
the word scriptures is used, it's talking about the Old Testament.
Right, Cecil? Absolutely. And this gospel I'm preaching
is a gospel that's true to every type, every prophecy, every promise
in the Old Testament. As God moved, God is moving.
As God worked, God is working. What God did, He's doing. He
hadn't changed. You go back to the Old Testament,
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's the same
way you come in. Abraham was called by God out of idolatry.
That's the same way you come in. The people of Israel, when
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And he's
the one that gave the sacrifice. He's the one that told them the
sacrifice. And he's the one that passed
over them as they hid under the blood. True to the Old Testament. Thirdly, watch this now. The
gospel I'm preaching is the only gospel that enables God to be
just and justified. Now, you've got to deal with
this. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? Now, if
you preach a salvation, you've got to preach a salvation. You've
got to have one that honors God's holiness, that satisfies God's
justice, and it magnifies God's law. You've got to, because God
can't change. You see, read Romans 3, verses
19 through 26. Read Isaiah 45, 20 through 22. I'm a just God and a Savior.
I'm saying that God is just and holy. He'll not compromise. He'll not take the edges off
His law. He's unchangeable, unapproachable. And He's going to stay that way.
And if you and I get to God, we've got to come holy, immaculately,
pure, and justified, and righteous, and sanctified, and without one
taint, stain, or spot. We've got to have a holiness
like His. There's just one way, and that's
in Christ. It's got to be worked out by another. It's got to be
accomplished by another. It's got to be the free gift
of God. He makes us sufficient and meet
to come into His presence. And this is the only gospel that
enables God to be just and justified. Only one. And I tell you this,
it's the only hope, it's the only gospel that gives real hope
to a real sinner. Now listen to this Romans chapter
7. Here's one of the most religious, here's one of the most faithful,
here's one of the most dedicated, here's one of the most God used
men in all the world, the Apostle Paul, and listen to him. Verse 19 of Romans chapter 7,
verse 18, he says, I know that in me, in my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. The will is present with me,
how to perform that which is good I don't find. You say, Paul
was unsaved. Now you wait a minute when he
wrote that. You hold on. For the good that
I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not do, that I
do. Now, if I do that that I would not, it's not I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me, I find then a law when I would do good
evils present with me. I delight in the law of God.
That's a saved man. I delight in the law of God.
But I see another law in my members. I see flesh, human nature. thinking,
imagination, you see that? Warring against the law of my
mind, warring against my spiritual nature, bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin. Oh, wretched man that I am! Now then, what kind of gospel
are you going to place to him? He can't save himself and he
can't keep himself safe. Takes the grace of God, takes
the gift of God, takes the power of God. And he goes on and says
this, "...who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ the Lord. I have the victory." So
this is not only a gospel for real sinners, this is a gospel
that saves the Mary Magdalenas, the Saul of Tarsus, Simon Peter,
a thief on the cross. This is a gospel that will save
Jew and Gentile. It will save a prisoner or a
member of Congress, it will save a rich man or a poor man, it
will save a drunkard or a harlot in the gutter, or it will save
a pious preacher if he can be brought down to look to Christ.
That's right, it's the real gospel for real sinners, and the only
real gospel. And then last of all, it's the
only gospel that will keep a man saved, Jude. I'll tell you, and
that's the reason, I'll tell you exactly why these folks preach
fallen from grace. That's exactly the reason why
they preach that a man be saved today and lost tomorrow. Well,
I'd preach that too if I preached salvation by words. Because if
you quit working, you're done. If salvation's by faith, and
I don't, and my faith fails, then I'm done. I'm done. If salvation is my morality and
my morality has a kink in it, I'm done. But if salvation is
by Christ, by His righteousness, by His blood, by His obedience,
by His intercession, by His victory, I'm never done. Because where
He is, I am. What He has, I have. And that's
my only hope of perseverance. That's my only hope of being
preserved. That's my only hope of being kept. I don't know what
lies ahead. You don't either. You don't either. I'll tell you this. I've been
around in the ministry 35 years. I've watched folks come and go.
I've watched folks with as much zeal as you've got come and go.
I've watched folks preach. Preach with tears streaming down
their faces. Preach accurately, orthodox stuff,
hadn't you? Now they wouldn't give you a
flip for the gospel. They'd quit. How do you know
you're not going to quit? I know one thing, verse 24, Jude
says this, now unto him, now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling. Unto whom? Under your preacher,
he'll keep you. Your mom will keep you. Your
works will keep you. What? Under him who's able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, unto the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power
and everything else, both now and forever. Amen. That's my
gospel. But I tell you this, I'm not
fearful of God. I know it. I have not one doubt
about it. for those five reasons, because
it's the only gospel, I'll repeat them to you briefly, it's the
only gospel that glorifies God. It's the only gospel true to
the Old Testament scripture. It's the only gospel that gives
real hope to a real sinner. It's the only gospel that will
keep a man safe, the only gospel.