I told my Sunday school class
this morning that I was dedicating this day, this morning at least,
I don't know what we'll hear tonight, but I'm dedicating this
morning, the Sunday school hour and this morning worship hour,
to a clear-cut, positive, plain declaration of how sinners are
saved, how God can be merciful and yet just at the same time,
how God can be just and justifier. I want you to listen to me. I'm
going to be very deliberate, going very slowly. I'm going
to point out these things that are the result of 35 years of
looking into God's Word and making an effort to preach the gospel
of the grace of God for the glory of God and for the good of the
hearer. And I say unto you that the greatest
battle in which you'll ever be engaged and the greatest enemy
that you face both now and the rest of your life is self-righteousness. Your sins will never keep you
from Christ, contrary to what you may think. There's no man,
no woman who's ever committed a sin that'll keep him from Christ.
Now your righteousness will. Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't know whether you do or
not, but it's so. Brother Scott says that's all there are to
it. Your sins, no man, woman, here, boy or girl, ever committed
a sin that could keep you from Christ. Because Christ came to
save sinners. Isn't that what he said? Paul
said, of whom I am the chief. And your sins won't keep you
from Christ. But I'll tell you what will. He said, I came not
to call the righteous. Your righteousness will. He said
two men went up into a temple to pray, one a Pharisee, one
a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, I've done this, I've done that, I've done
something else, I haven't done this, I haven't done that, I've
never done something else. And our Lord pronounced judgment
upon him. His righteousness kept him, Paul,
from Christ. He said there was a publican,
a wretched sinner, who would not even come up to the front,
who would not lift up holy hands, much less his eyes to heaven.
But he smote on his breast and he said, O God, be merciful to
me, thee sinner. And God justified him. His sins
did not keep him from Christ. And I say this to you very candidly. I hope if you don't understand
it, you will at least before you have to stand before God.
Your sins will not trouble you at the judgment. I don't care
what some preachers say. They will not. There's no judgment
to them who are in Christ. You know what will trouble you
at the judgment? Your righteousness. Lord, I thank you that I preached
in your name and cast out devils in your name and did many wonderful
works. Depart from me. There's no judgment, there's
no condemnation to them who are in Christ. No judgment, no condemnation. Your sins will never trouble
you at the judgment. Your righteousness will. You
better hope that you don't come there with one rag of self-righteousness
on you. I had rather be charged at the
judgment bar of God with being a murderer. I'd rather be charged
with being anything than a self-righteous man. Because God says murderers
are going into heaven, thieves are going into heaven, adulterers
are going into heaven, even like Paul, Saul of Tarsus, those who
blasphemed are going into heaven. But the self-righteous will never
enter the kingdom of God. And I'll tell you this, your
sins will not keep you out of heaven. Your sins will not keep
you out of heaven, but your self-righteousness will. So I say your greatest,
my greatest My greatest enemy is not my sins. I can bring them
to Christ. I can lay them at the cross.
My greatest enemy, my greatest battle is to fight this terrible,
terrible monster, this false monster, this counterfeit, this
imitator, self-righteousness, and keep it subdued and keep
it down. It will keep me from Christ.
Now, in Ephesians 2, I want you to look at something here, and
Paul paints such a black, dark picture of our race. I don't
believe you could paint a darker picture than he painted here.
But now listen, I don't think he painted any darker than it
is, or it should be painted. You know what Isaiah said? Before
I read Ephesians, let me just quote Isaiah. He said, we all
are as an unclean thing, an unclean thing. We all, all of us do fade
as the leaves. Now that's especially applicable
right now. You look out there and they are
wrinkling and withered and lifeless and fallen. And they're nothing
but nuisances. My yard's just full of nuisances,
leaves. I'm going to rake them up and
what? Burn them. We all fade as the leaves. And
he said, even our righteousnesses are filthy rags. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have driven us away from God. Now that's us. That's the best man who ever
lived. That's the description of man
in his best state. Because man in his best state
is vanity. And he says here, and you, Ephesians
2, 1, and you, that's us, who were dead, dead in trespasses. What's trespasses? on a hunting trip, and you're
hunting quail or squirrel or rabbit or deer or something,
and you came up to a farm, there's a fence around it, there's a
sign that says, no trespassing. That means you don't have to
walk on that ground. That's forbidden ground. You know what we are?
We're trespassers. God said, thou shalt not. We
said, we'll do it anyhow. God says, thou shalt not. God
said, no trespassing. But we ignored God's sign. We
ignored God's warning. We walked where we're not supposed
to walk. We walked on forbidden ground. We're trespassers, and
we're dead in our trespasses and our sins. Sin slew us. Sin
destroyed us. Sin brought all the misery that
you're going through, all the misery you'll ever go through,
all the misery you feel in your soul. Sin is responsible for
that. You're dead in your trespasses
and sin. Now, just hold Ephesians 2, and
let me show you something here in Romans. I said this to my
class this morning. Brethren, please remember, I'm
not talking about your condition in my eyes. I'm not talking about
my condition in your eyes. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about our nature and condition in God's sight. That's what we're talking about.
And in Romans 3, it says in verse 19, now listen to this. That
what thing soever the law saith, this is God's holy law, it saith
to them who are under the law, who are under God's law, and
everybody in God's kingdom is under God's law, everybody in
God's universe is under God's law, that every mouth may be
stopped. Let's stop our boasting and bragging.
Let's stop our self-exaltation. Let's stop all this arrogance
and haughtiness that comes from our mouth. That every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty. Two words that
are so important here. And they're not become guilty,
but the two words are before God. Now that's where we stand
before God. You're not judged by me and shouldn't
be. But we're guilty before God.
Now look at the next line. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, or deeds of religion, or works of religion, or righteousness,
there shall no flesh be justified, three words here that are most
important, in his sight. Now, one other verse, turn to
Luke, if you will, chapter 16. And this, I want you to understand,
this is what I'm talking about. When I say men are corrupt and
an unclean thing and fade as the leaf and our righteousness
is a filthy rag and the wind has driven us away, I'm not talking
about as we look on one another, because I compliment you for
your kindness. I compliment you for your graciousness
as a man. Doing what you can as a human
being. But I'm talking about in His
sight. I'm talking about before God. God is infinitely holy. Infinitely. The law of God does not command
me to love God. Only commands me to love God
with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. The law of God
doesn't command me to love you. Only commands me to love you
like I love myself. The law of God does not demand
that I live a good life, but that I live a perfect life, not
only outwardly, but inwardly, not only before men, but before
God. That's what we're talking about.
And in his sight we haven't done it. In Luke 16, 15, he said to
them, he said to these Pharisees, to these religious people, these
good moral folks, he said unto them, verse 15, Luke 16, you
are they which justify yourselves before men. That is not where
this business is done, before men. But God looks on your heart. God knows your heart. And that
which is highly esteemed and highly recognized and highly
praised and highly thought of before men is abomination in
God's sight. Now go back to our text. He says
you're dead in trespasses and sin. And you walk. This is our
course of life. We walk. This is our tenor of
life. This is the bend of our will.
We walk progressively. We walk. We continue. According
to the course of this world, we walk the way of the world.
All we like sheep have gone astray. What way is that? We've turned
everyone to his own. way. We've walked our way. That's the course of this world.
And we walked also according to the leadership, according
to the influence of the prince of the power of the air, the
devil. That's who motivated us. We weren't motivated by God,
we were motivated by the devil. And I'm talking about, he said,
that same spirit that right now works in that thief in the penitentiary
was a spirit that worked in you. That same spirit that now works
And all children of hell and children of wrath and children
of disobedience is the power under which you and I were motivated
before we met Christ. Because among whom also these
children of disobedience, these children of evil and corruption,
we all had our behavior in times past. What was our behavior? Fulfilling the lust. The word
lust is desire, to desire after, to pant after, to have ambitions
for. And it covers every area of our
being. The lust of our flesh covers materialism, passions,
ambitions, pride, all of popularity. We had our conversation, our
behavior in the lust of our flesh. We cared more for the body than
we did the soul. And we fulfilled these desires
of the flesh and of the mind. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this,
what we haven't done. we thought. You see, we talk about the lust
of the flesh, and some of us say, Well, I haven't done this
and I haven't done that. Wait a minute. What we haven't
done, we've thought. It's gone through our minds.
And Martin Lloyd Jones went on to say this, And the lust of
our minds, and the evil of our minds, the desires of our minds,
are even more evil than the lust of our flesh. For our flesh is
restrained. Our flesh is restrained, but
the lust of the mind is unrestrained. See, nobody can see it. We don't
do certain things because people see it. We don't say certain
things because people hear it. But you can't see what I think,
and you can't hear what I think. Therefore, I feel quite comfortable.
And nothing is holy to the imagination. Nothing is sacred to the imagination. The imagination has free vent,
unrestrained, and that's what God looks upon. You've heard
it said, Christ said by them of old times, thou shalt not
kill, but I say unto you, he that thinketh hard or calls his
brother a fool is guilty of murder already. He thought it, he thought
it, and he was guilty before God. You've heard it said, thou
shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you to lust in your
hearts. To look with desire is to be
guilty already. Lust of the mind. Nothing is
sacred in the mind. Nothing escapes the cesspool
of our thoughts. What we haven't done, we've thought.
And God Almighty is not constrained to looking on our deeds. God
looks on our hearts. Oh, shame, shame, shame. We ought to feel the shame of
our thoughts, our imagination. And we were by nature. What a
picture! But no blacker than it ought
to be painted. We were by nature, by birth, children of wrath. What does that mean? Twofold.
We vented our wrath on God. We vented our wrath against God.
We will not have him reign over us. And not only were we angry
against God and our natural mind's enmity against God, but we also
were under God's wrath. He that believeth not on the
Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. hateth the workers of
iniquity." God is angry with the wicked every day. And here
are three words here that did not escape my notice as I was
studying this passage. We had our behavior in the lust
of our flesh, materialism, the body, the flesh, We had our behavior
in the vilest imaginations of our mind, oh, the cesspool that
we carry around with us inside that nobody sees, that we keep
covered up with a veneer of religion and a smile and the secrecy of
our own thoughts and words. And we were by nature the children
of wrath, these three words, even as others, even as the angels
who fell and God committed to hell, that same wrath was upon
us, even as the citizens of the flood, who were destroyed by
God's wrath, even as Sodom and Gomorrah. You say, I'm higher
than them. Not in God's sight, even as others. Children of wrath, even as others.
I know, I regret what's going on today, and we're going that
direction of Sodom and Gomorrah in this nation, but I tell you,
I'll tell you this, and without sounding like putting any approval
on anything, I detest it and deplore it and all that, but
I'm saying, let's don't be guilty of self-righteousness now. God's wrath is upon everybody
out of Christ, whether he be a pervert or a Pharisee. And
I try. Because a man is homosexual and
so forth, it doesn't make God any more angry with him than
with you outside of Christ. Don't be too high and mighty,
isn't that right? That's the thing that troubles me. We can
get in our little smug religious cocoons and start talking about
abortion and homosexuality and communism and all this and act
like that we're somebody in God's sight. We're not somebody, we're
nobodies. And God's judgment and wrath
is upon every son of Adam, whatever his particular sin is, whatever
his particular direction is, even as others. You see that
word? Even as others. Even as those who crucified the
Son of God. I want you to see a verse over
here in Romans 3. Look here at Romans 3, verse 10. There's none
righteous. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after
God. They're all, they're all gone out of the way. They're
all together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. No, not one. Down here in verse
22, the last line, for there's no difference. There's no difference. Preacher, how can you say that?
I didn't say it. God said it. There's no difference.
There's no difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Whether you're Jew or Gentile,
old or young, whether you were brought up in a Christian home
or in a pagan home, there's no difference. There's no difference. All have sinned. That's what
it's saying here. You who were dead in your trespasses, dead
in your sins, you who walked your own way according to the
course of this world, you who were under the influence and
power of Satan. You who had your behavior, if
not in the expressions of your flesh, at least you, like a sweet
morsel upon your tongue, you rolled over the thoughts of the
mind, the imaginations of the mind, and took delight in the
evil of the mind, thinking you're protected from the eyes of men,
but not from the eyes of God. And we were by nature children
of wrath, even as others. There's no difference. Verse
4. But God. But God. I'd like to scream that over
the airwaves. I'd like to stand on TV and preach
it over a national hookup. But God. Paint that picture as
vile and dirty, as repulsive. Last week we were
in a Bible conference down in Crossville, Tennessee, and the
pastor has a farm. And he has some cows and cattle,
and he has some pigs. And I got there a little late
on Tuesday, and Bob and Becky were already there with Cary
Grace, and she was out there cavorting around on that farm,
having the biggest time. And she saw me and she came running
to me. She said, I want to take you
to the pig pen and let you see the pig, but Bogo, you'll have
to hold your nose. Oh, I tell you, I'd love to take
you to the pig pen this morning. I'd love to show you human nature.
I wish I could show you my nature and yours as God sees it. But
you'd have to hold your nose. You'd have to hold your nose.
But God, I tell you, nothing I could do but God. Something
he could do. Nothing I wanted to do. I satisfied
in that hog waller. I'm satisfied in my darkness.
Don't talk to me of heaven and holiness. I like what I am. I
know you do. But God can do something about
it. And God wills to do something about it. You want a summary
of my theology? There it is right there. There
it is. Men are dead in sin, dead in
trespasses, guilty before God, unable to rise, unwilling to
come to God. That's what we are. Unwilling. Can the leper change his spots?
No, sir. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? No, sir. Can we do good that are accustomed
to doing evil? No, sir. But God. That's my theology. But God. You want the good news
in a nutshell? You want the glad tidings in
a nutshell? Here it is right here. You can
preach law all you want to. You'll only make men more lawless.
You can preach works and ceremony. You can drench the people with
what they must do, and that's not good news. The good news
is this, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing but God. In the
flesh no man can please God but God. You were without hope, without
Christ, without help in this world but God. But God! It's not but I saw the
light. You can't see the light if you
don't have eyes. But I heard a still small voice,
you were deaf. But God gave you ears. But God. You want the hope of a sinner?
My sins not only were great, they are great. My sins in the
sight of God are so black, so filthy, so deserving of God's
wrath, but God, but God, but God commended his love toward
me while I was yet a sinner. That's it. That's the hope of
a sinner. But God. commended his love for
us. One day our Lord Jesus Christ,
talking to his disciples, and one of them, Peter, he was awful
braggadocious, awful impulsive. I see myself in him so much.
And he turned to the Lord and he said, these other fellows
may deny you, but I'll die for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ said,
This night the cock won't crow before you've denied me three
times." And then he said to him, Satan hath desired thee to sift
thee as wheat. But, I prayed for you. But God! That's my hope. That's my theology. That's the
good news. You want the remedy for ruin?
You want the remedy for ruin? Turn to Acts 13, chapter 13,
verse 26. You want the remedy for ruin?
Acts chapter 13. Let me show you. Here's the good news. Here's
the remedy for ruin. Men and brethren, the apostles
stood one day to preach. Acts 13.26. Men and brethren,
children of the stock of Abraham, whosoever among you feareth God,
to you is the word of this remedy, this salvation sin. Here it is.
They that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they
knew him not, Nor yet the voices of the prophets, which were read
every day, every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled these words
in condemning Jesus Christ. They didn't know him, but they
fulfilled the very words that they read with their very mouths,
the words concerning him. Though they found no cause of
death in him, they desired Pilate that he should be slain. They
took the Lord Jesus Christ and ran through a mock trial. brought
false witnesses against him, took him down to the soldiers'
hall, and they mistreated him and tormented him, shed his blood,
took him out yonder between two thieves and nailed him to a cross
and spat in his face, and stood back and laughed at him while
he died. And verse 29 said, When they
had fulfilled all this that was written, dead, they took him
down from the tree and laid him in the sepulchre. And the old
Pharisees went back to the temple and wiped the blood off their
hands and washed their white linen garments of religion and
sat down so pleased. They were through with that man,
Jesus Christ. No longer would he bother them, no longer would
he disturb them. He was laying in a grave. He
was dead. And they watched the people as
they took him down from the tomb and wrapped him in the sheet,
and they went over there and watched them as they put him
in the grave. And they said, put a stone in front of that
grave, and put the seal of the Roman government on it, and stationed
the soldiers outside. When all that was done, they
went back to worship the Lord on the Sabbath day. And to go
through their ceremonies, they were through with this troublemaker,
they were through with this They were through with this man, Jesus
Christ. And the disciples sneaked up to an upper room somewhere
and sat around and wept and cried and were so broken-hearted and
so sorry for their leader was dead, their master was buried.
It was all over, and they spent a lonely Saturday. Verse 30, But God, that's it. You can't read in there any of
the efforts of a human being. There's nobody took a vote. There's
nobody organized a movement. There's nobody who petitioned
heaven. There's nobody who contributed
anything. It was quiet. He was in the grave. Even the angels stood around
and watched. Everything was silent. Is it
over? Looks that way. But God raised
him from the dead. That's my theology. You can accuse
me of being a Calvinist, a fatalist, a hard shell, or whatever. I
don't care. An antinomian, Spurgeon said, I don't mind being called
an antinomian. I don't want to be one. But I
don't mind people calling me that. That's my theology. But
God. And you can trace that theme
through the whole Word of God. Almighty God created this world,
and he said it was good. He created it beautiful and perfect.
That's what that book said. And he put a man in here and
a woman in holiness and righteousness without sin, in a perfect garden
to rule over it, have dominion over it, to multiply and replenish
the earth, to live in happiness and holiness and beauty and all
these things. And Satan came and brought sin. And that man and woman rebelled
against God and fell, and darkness and disease and death descended
upon God's perfect work. And everything was over. Over. As far as any angels are concerned,
as far as men are concerned, as far as any hope is concerned,
it's over. The world and the human race
is plunged into impossible inability. It's over. But God! See that? He said, I'll send the woman's
seed, and they'll bruise his heel, but he'll wipe you out,
Satan, and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death with God. Nowhere I found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. But God had a man, chose a man,
brought forth a man who built an ark. Israel was down there
in Egypt in bondage and slavery under the heel of the Egyptians.
They had no possible strength, no possible way, no leader, no
nothing, not one weapon. Even the children under such
an age had been wiped out, they were weak and wounded, had been
there 400 years, they were in slavery, their nation was perished,
they had nothing, no hope of deliverance, but God! Israel stood one day at the Red
Sea, the deep, uncrossable Red sea, the mountains rising on
each side, and pharaohs well equipped, well armed, chariots
of war bearing down upon them. And they said, Moses, you brought
us out here to die. But God opened the sea. Follow it through the word of
God. Jonah and the whales vanished. He said, the iron bars were around
me forever, and the seaweed wrapped around my head, and I was perished
darkness. And I cried unto the Lord, and
God Almighty delivered him but God. That's it. That's our theology. Back to
Ephesians 2. That's the hope of the sinner. That's the remedy for ruin. That's
it. I want you to see three things,
and I'll quit, four things. In verse 4, but God. But God
what? is rich in mercy." Now, my friends,
listen to me. Our guilt is higher than the
mountain, and our guilt is deeper than the sea, but our God is
richer in mercy than you are in guilt. And God, listen to
me, is more ready to forgive than you are to receive it. Can
you believe that? That's so. He delights to show
mercy. He delights. The Mary Magdalenas
knew it. The woman at the well knew it.
Saul of Parsis knew it. Do you? Let's stop extending
our sins beyond the mercy of God. The mercy of God is infinitely
beyond the greatest sinner that has ever lived. infinitely. Come, humble sinner,
in whose heart a thousand thoughts revolve. Come with your sin and
your guilt oppressed, and make this last resolve. I'll go to
Jesus, though my sin hath like a mountain rose. I know his court. I'll enter in whatever may oppose. I can but perish. If I go, I
am resolved to try, for if I stay awake, I know I shall forever
But God, here you are, oh, what a terrible plight, what a terrible
condition in his sight before God. But God is rich, rich, rich
in mercy. You can't exhaust his mercy. His mercy is far beyond your
greatest sin. I delight, honestly, I delight
to speak to a man or a woman who is a sinner. I delight to
minister to them, I delight to tell them the good news, my Lord
is rich, rich! You say he's rich in gold and
silver, in mercy. You say he's rich in cattle on
a thousand hills, he's rich in worlds and stars, rich in mercy! These other things are nothing
compared to his mercy, mercy, mercy. What is mercy? It's God
not giving me what I do deserve. but rather giving me what I don't
deserve." Read on, "...for his great love," he's rich in mercy,
"...and his great love wherewith he loved us." You want to see
the hatred of men for the living God? See them as they take his
Son in their dirty, filthy, sinful hands of wrath and nail him to
a tree and spit on him, spit on him! And stand back and mock
him as he agonizes and suffers. And then when he asked for water,
give him vinegar and gall to drink. And then to see God in his infinite
love save some of those very people who nailed his son to
the cross. Oh, rich in love, his great indescribable
love. The songwriter said, could we
with ink the oceans fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
and every stalk, every twig on earth a quill, and every man
a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain
that ocean dry. Just to write it, just to tell
about it, much less experience, it would drain that ocean dry,
nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from
sky to sky. O love of God! Preach it! Where is it? Our error is not in preaching
the love of God. Our error is in misplacing, Mike,
the love of God. It's in Christ, David. You can't
show in Christ and drink of God's love. You'll drink of God's wrath. The cup of his indignation poured
out without any mixture, without any softening. Just straight. You'll take it straight. You'll
drink the wrath of God poured out straight. You can't even
drink that West Virginia moonshine straight, let alone God's wrath.
Straight, without mixture. Without mixture. Read on. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, even, even, even when we were dead, even
when we were dead in our sins, that quickened us together. You
know, we lay in a self-dug grave, a grave of corruption and evil,
dead for all eternity, dead until all that was holy, dead, unable
to rise. But God, but God quickened us
with Christ. Now, he quickened me by his Spirit. And he quickens me someday from
the grave. But my friend, he already has
quickened me with Christ back when he raised Christ from the
dead. That's right. I know I can't explain this.
I'm not going to try to. I can't comprehend God. If I
could, it would be God. But when Almighty God raised
Jesus Christ from the dead, he quickened with Christ every believer. That's what Scripture says. He
quickened us with Christ. And that's not all. And he raised
us up together with Christ. I'm so identified with Christ,
I cannot be separated from him. I'm so identified with Christ
in God's eternal covenant, in God's purpose, in Christ's work. That when Christ died, I died.
When Christ was buried, I was buried. When Christ arose, God
quickened me with Christ. And when Christ ascended, I was
raised together with him, and that's not all. And watch it,
and he made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus. That's the good news. Turn to
1 Samuel. The other night we heard that
blessed preacher to the Indians, Brother Tim James, preach from
this. We were all lifted so high, so high. It was just Friday night
down in Tennessee. Hannah's prayer, 1 Samuel 2,
verse 6, the Lord killeth and maketh alive. He killeth and
maketh alive. He's talking about his people
here. He slew them with the word, with the law, but he made them
alive with Christ. He brought them down to the grave, but he'll
bring them up. He made them poor. Oh, we have nothing, are nothing,
know nothing, but he makes us rich. He brings us low and lifts
us up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust. That's where he found us. He
lift the beggar from the dunghill. He lifts him and sets him among
princes and makes him inherit the throne of glory. I've already
entered into my inheritance, in Christ I have. For the pillars
of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon
them, but God." This is the good news of the gospel. Are you helpless,
hopeless? Are you without hope? Are you
at your wit's end? Are you at the end of the rope,
Brother Barnett used to say, and just hanging on to the threads?
about to perish into the pit of hell, good news, but God,
but God. I want to close with one passage
of Scripture, Matthew 19, if you'll turn there with me. And
this is the greatest hope that a preacher can possibly give
to a congregation of sinners, which we are, whether we know
it or not, whether we admit it or not, God knows it. In Matthew
19, verse 26, when these disciples heard it, verse 25, they were
exceedingly amazed, and they said, Well, who then can be saved?
If this is our condition, if this is our nature, if this is
our state, then who can be saved? Verse 26, And Jesus beheld them,
and said unto them, With men it is impossible. Don't tell
me anything to do, I can't do it. Don't tell me to walk an
aisle or to shake your hand, and I'll meet you in the promised
land. Don't tell me. Don't tell me the waters of baptism is all
I need. Don't tell me that. With men it's impossible. We'll
lie where we are. But, God. But with God, your salvation
is possible. Yours. That's right, Paul. Russell, right on down the line.
Your salvation. Who, me? Yeah. You mean me? Yeah, that's right. You, Bill,
Richard, you, Jim. Me. It's possible. But God. Is that clear enough? And that's where it is. You say,
what would you do? I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd
look to him with whom it's possible. That's what I'd do. I quit running
around here asking different people, what do you think, and
what do you think, and what do you think, and what does he preach,
what does he preach, what does he preach, what do you say, what
should I do, is there something? Why don't you just say, Lord,
let your blood be propitiation for me on the mercy of Satan.
Why don't you cast yourself on the mercy of God? That's where
a sinner is going to have to be found if he's found in mercy,
is at God's feet, but God. We pray this morning in the name
of Christ our Lord. We pray for ourselves. This is
our condition and our state. We've seen ourselves again. We
see it more every day, our inability and wretchedness, the impossibility
of ever doing anything in the flesh acceptable in your sight. How unclean, fade as the leaves. Our righteousness filthy rags,
the winds driven us away. Our only hope is in these two
words, but God. Will you be pleased to show mercy?
Will you be pleased to create in me a clean heart and a right
spirit? Will you be pleased to regard me in Christ? Will you
be pleased to look upon the blood that Christ shed, that blood
which is on the mercy seat, not of the tabernacle made with hands,
but in your very presence? and regard me in Christ. My Father,
I'm not worried about my sins. I'm worried about this awful
monster of self-righteousness that lives in every one of us,
that would whisper in our ears, grace is not enough, grace is
not sufficient, Christ is not enough, the blood is not sufficient.
You've got to do this. You've got to do that. Look to
yourself. Look to your heart. Look to your own hope. Look to
your works. Do the best you can. Lord, look
upon me in Christ, and all my friends, receive us for Christ's
sake. We are nothing. We have nothing.
We know nothing. We can do nothing. We're less
than nothing. We're unclean things. But Christ
is clean. He's perfect. He's holy. He's
your son. We pray for Christ's sake. Receive
us. Amen.