For the past 30 or 40 minutes
wrestling over how to begin this message tonight. And I think of what I'm going
to do is just begin it like I've got it down here. It sounds a
bit harsh. It sounds a bit egotistical. It may sound to you like I believe
we're the only church around here preaching the gospel. And
I don't believe that. You know, Elijah said, Lord,
why don't you kill me? I'm the only one left. And they seek to take my life.
Why don't you just take it? And the Lord said to him, you're
not the only one left. I have 7,000 that I have reserved
who have not bowed their knee to Baal. They have not bowed
their knee to the bail of possessions and popularity, materialism,
a claim of men, the pressure of conformity. And even so, at
this present time, Paul said, there's a rendement according
to the election of grace. But I do say this, and it may
sound a bit radical. It may sound a bit harsh. But
my heart and my head is so weary and so tired of today's religion. I am tired of it. I'm weary of
it. I'm weary of the pretense. I'm
weary of the presumption. I'm weary of the promotion. I hate to be so pessimistic,
but I don't believe that we're in a religious revival, a revival,
spiritual revival, in a religious revival, but we're not in a spiritual
revival at all. I know there are men who think
we are. They're excited. They say there's more preaching
going on today than ever before. There's more false preaching
going on today than ever before. I believe that, Bill. I really
do. I believe that modern fundamentalism,
Catholicism, all the other isms, I believe today's form of religion,
I really believe this sincerely in my heart. I do believe it.
that today's form of religion that we get from television and
from pulpit is the greatest farce that has ever descended on the
human race. I do. I believe from Catholicism to
Protestantism to Fundamentalism, religion today is a joke. I really
do. Now I say that based on three
things. Now see if this is not true.
First of all, the character of God is not being preached today. The true character of God. The
true character of God is not being preached. Not only is it
not being preached, but it's being denied. God said, Thou thoughtest I was
altogether such a one as Thyself. Our God, they said, David, where
is your God? The heathen said, where is your
God? David said, our God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. Our Lord said to Moses, Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory. He said, I'll cause all my goodness
to pass before thee. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I'm saying, my friends, that
the God of creation, the living God, the God of the Bible, the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not only omnipresent,
That is, he's everywhere at the same time. He's not only omniscient,
not only does he know all things, but he's omnipotent, he's almighty,
Joe, almighty. He said to Nebuchadnezzar, he
said, you'll learn that I, the Most High God, rule in the kingdoms
of men and I give it to whomsoever I will. That's the God of the
Bible. I'm saying He's sovereign, absolutely,
immutably sovereign, unchangeably sovereign. In everything that
happens, in creation, in providence, in salvation, God is on the throne. That not even a sparrow falls
to the ground without your Father. I believe that. That every hair
of your head is numbered. That God Almighty controls all
things. That the devil is God's devil.
and he can't make a move without God's permission. Is that heretical?
That's what the Bible says. You say, where do you find that?
Well, the Satan came and appeared before the Lord when the sons
of men came before God, and God said, have you considered Job?
He said, well, Job just serves you because you blessed him,
you built a hedge around him, won't let anybody touch him.
All right, the Lord said, he's in your hand, but don't touch
his body. Satan couldn't touch Job without
God's permission. He said, I'll let his property
be in your hands, but not his person. And so Satan destroyed
his property. And he came back, and Job had
praised God instead of cursing God. And God said, have you considered
my servant Job? And God doesn't ask questions
for information. He asks questions to get you
to commit yourself. He said, Adam, where are you?
He said, I hear you. God knew where Adam was. He said,
Cain, where's your brother? God knew where Abel was, knew
he was dead. It was all in God's purpose, but he wanted to hear
from Cain, you see. He wanted to hear from Adam.
He's going to hear from you. God doesn't ask questions for
information. I heard a preacher say this week,
now God's trying to show you something. God's not trying to
show you anything. Now that's a different God. The
God of the Bible doesn't try to do anything. God doesn't try
to do things. God does what He does. Our God
is absolutely sovereign in all things, omnipotent. He's king. He said, I'll do. Moses says,
show me your glory. God said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Turn to Isaiah 45. Isaiah chapter
45. Let's read some of these words
here. The 45th chapter of Isaiah, verse 5 through 7. Listen to
this. He said, I am the Lord. Isaiah 45, 5, I am the Lord,
there's none else, there's no God beside me. I girded thee,
though thou hast not known me. That thou, that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west, there's none beside
me, I'm the Lord, there's none else, I form the light. I create
darkness. You say, how does God create
darkness? By withholding light. You see,
God is light, and when God withholds the light, there's darkness.
I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do these things.
Look at verse 9. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker! Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioned it, What maker'st thou, or thy work? He hath no hands. Woe unto him that saith unto
his father! What begaddest thou? Or to the
woman, what hast thou brought forth? Turn to Isaiah 46. Listen
to this. Isaiah 46 verse 9, remember the
former things of old, I'm God. There's none else, there's none
beside me. I am God, there's none like me.
Verse 10, I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall
stand and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from
the east, The man that executeth my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have
purposed it, I'll also do it. That's the God of the Bible.
And I'm saying that this God is not being preached. Not only
is He not being preached, He's being denied. Let's turn to Psalm
50. Listen to this. Psalm 50, and I'll begin reading
with verse 10. Psalm 50, verse 10. The Lord
God said, For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle
upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains,
and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell thee, for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving, pay thy vows in the most high,
and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me. All right, secondly, I'm saying
the character of God is not only not preached, but it's denied
today. And then secondly, the true character of man is also
not preached, but denied on every hand. I listened to a minister
on television this morning, and he was just constantly using
these words, constantly, your own free will. Salvation is a
choice of your own free will. You can today decide for Jesus. There's the gate. God shows it
to you. You understand it. It's up to
your own free will. Now, let me tell you something. If you will turn to the book
of Psalm 51. Now, something happened back there in the garden. And
that something that happened was this. Our father Adam sinned
and died. God said, when you eat of the
fruit, you'll die. When you eat of this particular
fruit, you'll die. Well, Adam didn't die at that time physically.
It was several years before Adam died, 800 to be exact. But something
happened to Adam. Adam, who knew no fear, became
fearful. Adam who knew no shame became
a shame. Adam who knew nothing but love
became a hater. Adam who was wise and brilliant
became a fool. What happened when he ate that
fruit? I'm saying this happened, and the Bible says this, that
when Adam sinned, he died spiritually. He lost the life of God. He lost
that divine life. He lost communion with God. He
lost spiritual understanding. And he was plunged into death
and darkness, and as a result of his fall, darkness and death,
spiritual death, passed upon all men. And not only is there
imputed unto us the sin of Adam, but there's imparted unto us
the sin of Adam. And when we're born from our
parents, we're not born with goodness in us. We're born filled
with sin. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. We're born without God, without
hope, without strength, without help, without Christ in this
world. Listen to Psalm 51, David speaking. He says, Behold, verse
5, Psalm 51, I was shapen in iniquity, in sin did my mother
conceive me. Now turn to Psalm 58, verse 3. It says the wicked are estranged
from the womb, They go astray as soon as they're born. Speaking
lies. The scripture says every imagination
of man's heart is evil. Turn to Romans 3 and let's read
a description of human nature. Now this is not preached from
the pulpit. All preachers say men are sinners,
men are sinners. Well, what kind of sinners? Dead
sinners. Depraved sinners. Sinners who
have no knowledge of God, no understanding of God. In fact,
our knowledge is opposite from God. We're darkness, God is light. We're evil, God is holy. We're
dead, God is life. We're lies, God is truth. Let God be true and every man
a liar. From the sole of our feet to the top of our head,
there's no sound to sinners. They say, see if you can't appeal
to the spark of good in every man. There is no spark of good
in every man. In Romans chapter 3 it says this,
verse 10, as it is written, there's none righteous, no not one. There's
none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable,
there's none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an
open sepulcher where their tongues have used deceit. The poison
of ash is under their lips. This is not talking about somebody
else, this is talking about us. It's talking about us as a result
of Adam's fall in which death passed upon all men. Judgment
and condemnation. It's not talking about someone
else. It's talking about our present condition as we're born
from our parents. Out of a filthy fountain, you
can only get filthy water. Out of a corrupt stream, you
can only get corrupt people. And that's what we are. Read
on. Their throat, verse 13, is an open grave. You know the stench
of a dead body. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of snakes is under their lips. Their mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness. This is in God's sight now. This
is the way we look to God. Their feet are swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery in their ways, the way of peace
have they not known? There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith,
the holy, perfect, unchangeable law of God, it saith to them
who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. mine and
yours and every son of Adam. And all the world become guilty,
guilty, subject to the judgment of God, guilty before God. Therefore, being in this condition,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. That's the reason our Lord said
to Nicodemus, you must be born again. That which is born of
flesh is flesh, and flesh shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
You must be born again. must be born again. The true
character and condition of sinners is not being preached. I'm saying
that men left to themselves will never seek God, they'll never
come to God, they'll never even inquire of God. All right, here's the third thing,
it's not being preached. I'm saying there's three things
not being preached today. The character of God. How long
has it been since you, anywhere else, I know you hear him here,
Jay tries to preach him, I try to preach these messages on the
character of God. Who is God? God is in his holy
temple. Let all the earth keep silence. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Let all the earth bow before
him. God is sovereign. Don't feel
sorry for God. Don't waste your penny on the
Son of God. He's almighty, omnipotent, sovereign,
majestic, eternal. God is God. He said, I'll do
all my pleasure. I'll work my will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth. He shall not fail.
He's God. And man is a depraved and wretched
and corrupt and sinful creature that doesn't have in his mind,
soul, spirit, body, faculties, anywhere, any goodness, any merit,
any truth, any beauty, any seeking or inquiry after the true God.
Now he'll seek, man will seek religion, he'll seek some temporary
peace, he'll seek some rest for his troubled soul, he'll seek
a place in heaven, an eternal home with pie in the sky to sweep
by and by, but he'll never seek to know the living and true God. It's repulsive to him. God's
repulsive. The truth of God's offensive.
And here's the third thing, it's not being preached. The true
character of conversion. The true character of conversion
and redemption is denied. It's not being preached, it's
denied. Now, I've seen God move. I've seen God work. It goes back
a long ways. I remember one of the first real
experiences I had with watching God take a religionist and just
turn him completely around. It was back in the early 50s,
about 1953, 52 or 53. I was pastoral here at Poly. And I got a letter from a chaplain
over in Germany who told me that a man over there had had a heart
attack and that he'd gone to visit him in the hospital. This
was your brother-in-law, wasn't it, Charlie Eaton. He'd had a
heart attack. He was a career soldier. He was
a sergeant in the Army. And he had a heart attack in
Germany, was very, very critically ill, and a chaplain went to see
him. Now, I know what happened. The chaplain sat down beside
Charlie's bed. I can hear him now. I know how
these fellows operate. They said, well, you had a close
call. God was merciful to you. Now you're sick and you're in
trouble and don't you want to receive Jesus? Don't you? Do
you believe the Bible? Yes, sir. Do you believe you're
a sinner? Yes, sir. Do you believe Christ down on the cross? Yes,
sir. Well, just take my hand and let's decide for Jesus. Will
you accept Jesus?" And he said, yes. And the chaplain wrote me
and said, I'm going to baptize him. I want you all to receive
him into your church. Write back and tell me that you
will." Well, of course I did. I wrote back and told him, be
glad to receive him in our church. Go ahead and baptize him. So
Charlie got a discharge and he came back to this country. When
he was back in this country, right away, he came to church.
You remember? He came right to church. Well, from the start,
there was something missing. I can't tell if people are saved
or not saved, but I know when something's missing. I know when
Christ is missing. Now, that's obvious. And this
young man had religion just like most of us got religion. You
remember your first profession? I remember mine. I was nine years
old. I was in a little church in Wilton,
Alabama, and this had a revival meeting. It was a preacher called
Burns. This had been 47 years ago. And all my kinfolks was
there, and Mr. Burns preached. I don't know
what he preached. But he told a lot of stories, and scared
us all to death, and sang just as I am, and I went forward.
And I accepted Jesus, and they baptized me. Anybody else had
that experience? As lost as a blind horse in a
snowstorm, and didn't even know it. And you, some of you had
that same experience. I learned the gospel one day,
though God revealed the gospel of Christ to me. I don't trace
my salvation back to that false profession. And you better not
trace yours back to it either. Well, anyway, Charlie joined
the church and we already had him in because he was baptized
over in Germany. And so he started attending.
Well, it wasn't long until he got weary of it. He quit coming
on Sunday night and Wednesday night. He'd show up on Sunday
morning. Then he kept drifting further toward the back. And
finally he was all the way out. But now here's a good thing about
it. This is God's providence. He
liked me personally. We were friends. I'd been in
the service, he was in the service. We had something in common and
so forth. So he kept listening to me on
the radio. I was on out here at WTCR then. It must be something
else now, but it was WTCR then. And Charlie would every morning
listen to me at 8.30 on the radio. He didn't attend church and didn't
care anything for the things of God. He'd gotten interested
in fishing then. But he listened to me on the
radio and one morning I finished my broadcast. And as I started
out the door, the announcer said, there's a phone call for you.
And I went over and picked up the phone. It was Charlie. And
he was crying. Oh, how he was sobbing. I said,
what's wrong, Charlie? He said, I'm lost. I'm lost. I said, well, I'm glad. He said,
you're glad I'm lost? I said, no. No. Yes and no. I'm just glad you found it out
because I think I already knew it. Well, he said, there's no
hope for me. I said, well, there might be.
He said, no, there's no hope for me. Well, I said, I'm coming
back. He said, I'm here at the house.
Edith's down at school. She worked in the cafeteria.
So I went by down there on Crawford Street, where he lived. And I
remember just like yesterday, I parked my car and I walked
up the steps in the house. And there he sat on the sofa.
He'd cried so much over the puddle down there, just dripping through
his hands, you know. It's not funny. The man was slain. You ever been there? I remember
God brought you there. God slew him. And he sat there
and all he did was cry. And I said, well, Charlie, I
said, let's talk about the gospel. He said, it's no use. God never
saved me. You don't know me. I'm no good,
no count, good for nothing, low down. There's no hope. I said,
there's hope for you because you're just the kind of fellow
God saves. He died for the ungodly. He don't
save these good people. They go into hell. He's self-righteous. God never saved a one-off. He
never saved a Pharisee since the world began. Every self-righteous
Pharisee is going to bust hell wide open. Every one of them.
I said, Charlie, you're a candidate for mercy. God saved sinners. Let me show you. And I went through
the Word and I showed him how Christ died for sinners. How
Christ suffered for sinners. And brother, let me tell you,
he fell on his knees there, we did together, and God saved that
old boy. Don't you believe he did? I believe
he did. I believe that old boy came to
know Christ. And you talk about attending services, he sat down
on the second row every service after that. Do you remember?
Every service. He loved the gospel. He's always there. He played
the piano by ear. Literally. And so he'd come early,
or I'd be sitting in the study, and I'd hear him out there plucking
on the piano. And one Sunday night, it was
about six o'clock before church, and I heard him playing on something
I didn't recognize, and I went out there, and he said, hum this. So I hummed it. Naught have I
gotten, but what I receive. Grace hath bestowed it, since
I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I base,
I'm just a sinner saved by grace. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
loving the Savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell it,
would I embrace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
He said, that's it. That's my song. So he started
playing it. And he played it. And I got a
steady diet of only a sinner saved by grace for the next six
months, I think. I'd sit in there, only a sinner
saved by grace. But he loved it. It's simple,
and he knew it, and he experienced it. Well, we had a preacher up
here. You remember in 1954, we had
a preacher up here preaching for us from Louisiana. This is
like yesterday to me. But this preacher preached on,
do you know Christ? One Sunday morning, do you know
Christ? Do you know Christ? Oh, that I may know Him and the
power of His resurrection. Not a profession, not a religion,
not an experience. Do you know Christ? Do you know
Him? And he sure handled that subject that morning. And when
he got through with his message, he just, there was steps all
around the pulpit, and he walked down the steps. I was sitting
where John is. And Charlie was sitting behind me. And the preacher
came and stood in front of me and talked to the congregation
about knowing Christ, about knowing, do you know you know Christ?
Have you been brought to a saving, living, vital union with Christ? Does he live in your heart? He
looked down at Charlie and he said, son, you know Christ? Just
like that. And Charlie said, yes, I didn't
used to, but I do now. I know him now. Well, he said,
I'm glad, and he went on preaching. Well, we closed the service,
and I went home with you, Paul, that Sunday morning to have dinner.
My wife and I and Don Phitzer and the preacher, you remember,
had dinner at Paul Williams' house. We're sitting there at
the dinner table, and the phone rang. And somebody answered,
and he called me the phone, and I answered the phone, and Charlie's
wife said, Preacher, Charlie's had a heart attack. Can you come
quick? So Don and I jumped in my car and we drove over to his
house. It wasn't about four blocks. Pulled up in front. I ran in.
He was still on the floor. And I helped pick him up and
put him on the bed. And I didn't know what to do.
Nobody else knew what to do. They called an ambulance. He
was blue and veins standing out, and he was just shaking like
that in breath, gasping for breath. And the ambulance came. We wheeled
him out in the ambulance, and they told me to sit in the back
and give him oxygen. I put that oxygen mask on his
face, and we headed for King's Daughter. But he died while we
was going down there. And we got to the emergency room,
they wheeled him in, doctor came and examined him, pulled a cloth
over his face and said, he's gone. And I turned to Brother
Fitzer, and I said, Don, do you remember, what's the last thing
you ever heard Charlie say on this earth? He's gone now, but
what's the last thing you ever heard him say? He said, I don't
remember. I said, I do. That preacher said,
do you know Christ? And he said, I didn't used to,
but I do now. That's pretty good last words,
isn't it? I know whom I have believed. Paul said this, he
said, the time of my departure is at hand, I've fought a good
fight, I've kept the faith, I've finished my course, and laid
up for me a crown of righteousness because I know whom I have believed.
It's not I know when I believe, forget it. It's not I know what
I believe, it's not doctrine, it's Christ. And these preachers,
I tell you, salvation is not what preachers are saying it
is, it's not what churches are saying it is. Salvation is not
a decision for Jesus, I beg your pardon. It's not mental acceptance
of a bunch of facts about Christ's life, death, or resurrection,
or his second coming. It'll do you no good to know
when Christ is coming, or how Christ is coming, or what's going
to happen to the Jew, or what's going to happen to the Gentile,
or what's going to happen to Russia. It'll do you a lot of
good to know Christ. Now that's the key, to know Him.
Salvation is not a doctrine or orthodoxy either. Nicodemus was
as orthodox as it come, and Christ leveled his finger in his face
and said, you must be born again. Here was this man Nicodemus with
his broad phylacteries and his white uniform walking up to the
Savior talking about, you must be from God. Nobody could do
what you do except God be with him. He said, you must be born
again. You must be born again. Maybe we ought to shut the mouths
of today's preachers with that very statement. You must be born
again. Except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God.
He can't enter the kingdom of God. Ye must, Christ said, must
be born again. That's not a decision, that's
a birth. That's not a little profession of faith where you
press down the aisle and tell everybody you believe in Jesus.
and join the church and get baptized and give a tent for your money
and kiss God goodbye and see him in heaven. That's not salvation. It's not doctrinal orthodoxy
and it's not moral goodness and reformation. The Pharisees were
moral and Saul of Tarsus was the most moral man of his day.
He said concerning the law, I'm blameless. But he missed Christ. Salvation is more than ceremonialism,
it's more than ritualism, it's more than church attendance,
it's more than religious affiliation. I want you to turn back to the
text I read a moment ago. Let me just show you a few things
about salvation. In 1 Peter chapter 1, here are
just three simple things about salvation, about redemption. That's what we're talking about
tonight, redemption, knowing God. Our Lord said, this is eternal
life that they might know thee. I wouldn't take anything. I went
back to look for a letter that one of our young ladies wrote
to me this week. A young lady that's been in this
church two or three years, or four years, and told me how in
the last little while God had graciously and mercifully revealed
the gospel to her heart. I just, that thrilled my soul
to read that letter. How that she grew up in religion
and in a religious home and was educated in religion, but didn't
know Christ. And how that God had brought
her through the preaching of the gospel. And she was just
thanking me for being true to her soul. Well, what else can
I do? If I'm true to God, true to His
Word, but be true to yourself. I never will forget when this
young man walked in the study, David Atkins. I was sitting in
there one, what was it, on Tuesday? A weekday. He lived in Kettlesburg. Turned on the TV. He'd been reading
in the Bible about the Lamb of God. Turned on the TV and that's
what I was preaching on. Is that right? The Lamb of God.
He'd never understood the blood, the sacrifice of the blood, the
Lamb of God. How that Christ, our substitute,
died on the cross for our sins. His blood maketh atonement for
the soul. How God can be just and justified.
So he came to see me about it. I believe he rode around about
ten minutes before you decided to come on in, out there in front.
Finally he came to study. And he sat down out there in
front of me and talked to me about the gospel. And then he
came to church the next night. And God did a work for you, didn't
he? He was in religion. He was in the church. He made
a profession. He was a good boy. But going
to hell because you didn't know Christ. That's just the truth
in the day. Just did no crime. I'm no magic
preacher at all. I'm just telling the truth. I'm
just telling who God is. That's all. I'm just telling
what shape we're in by the fall, by birth, by nature, by conscience,
by practice. I'm just telling what we are.
You can believe what you want to believe. But it's still so.
And I'm telling who Christ is. He's an effectual, sufficient
Redeemer. He died to put away the sins
of everybody that believes in Him and He doesn't fail. And
if you don't trust Him, and believe on Him, and receive Him, and
love Him, you've missed Christ, and you've missed salvation.
And you can go on with your little ritualisms, and your little Pharisee-isms,
and your little legalisms, and all your little ceremonialisms,
and ritualisms, and all the other isms, and stand before God someday
and say, I did this, I did that, and I did the other, but you
never knew Christ. So bind him hand and foot and
cast him into hell. That's what the Scripture says.
I never knew you, and you never knew me, and we were never one. You're just a religious lost
man, that's all. It's not decisionism, it's not
moral reformation, it's not do-goodism, it's not orthodoxy, it's not
fundamentalism, it's not being right on the church. Salvation
is to know Christ and the power of His resurrected life. to be
born again. You read the book of John, it's
a living artesian whale springing up from within. It's a resurrection
from the dead. It's a birth from above. It's
a new creature in Christ. It's seeing the glory of God
in the face of Christ. It's being turned completely
around, walking with the living God. Salvation is not a mechanical
thing, it's a spiritual thing. And look here, in 1 Peter 1,
he says it is of God, verse 18. For as much as you know, you
were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. as a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who was verily foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times. What I'm
saying is this. Salvation is of the Lord. It
began with God. It's the gift of God. It's the
work of God. It's the calling of God. And
it's the power of God that keeps us. For by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should vote. I'm saying that
we're redeemed by the power of God, by the blood of Christ,
and Christ was ordained before the world began to be our Lord
and our Savior and our Redeemer. And whatever takes place in this
sinner's heart and life in this matter of redemption is all of
God. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. And if you want salvation, the place to go is
not to a preacher, it's not to a soul winner, it's not to a
mourner's bench. If you want salvation, the place
to go is not to a priest or to a pope or to a high-pressure
evangelist. If you want salvation, the thing
to do is not write somewhere for a book to read. If you want
salvation, the place to go is to the Lord Himself and seek
His face. That's what the publican did.
He went in the temple and would not so much as lift his hands
in prayer like the Pharisee, but he smote upon his breast
and cried, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what Bartimaeus
did in his darkness and blindness. He cried out, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. That's what the thief on the
cross did. He cried, Lord, remember me. And I'll tell you, It's good
advice for me to use. If you want salvation, you go
to Him who gives it. Isn't that true, Joe? Well, now, we've got this business
of going to the preacher, going to the soul winner, going to
somebody else, going to the books, going everywhere but to Him who
is alive. And I recommend, this is what
I say to you, salvations of the Lord. It's the work of God. It's
the gift of God. He's the author and finisher
of faith. He's the giver of redemption. He's the source of life. He's
the fountain of grace. He is gracious. He delights to
show mercy. Go to Him. Look down here at
verse 4 of chapter 2. To whom coming, no, verse 3,
if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. He's
gracious. He delights to be gracious. He
loves that word gracious so much that when Moses says, show me
your glory, He said, I'll be gracious. So come, poor harlot,
sit at his feet, and pour out your broken heart and your sins
with your tears, and kiss his feet, for he's gracious. Come,
Saul of Tarsus, with all your religion, your religious blasphemies,
with all of your anger, with all of your orthodoxy, with all
of your blindness, with all your prejudice and bigotry, come to
him, he's gracious. Come dying thief, stained with
murder, theft, and all types of sin, in your dying hour, come! Reach out! He's gracious. Come
weak, frail, dying woman with an issue of blood who's wasted
everything you've had on crack doctors, and reach out your trembling
hand and touch the hem of his garment. He's gracious! Come publican in the temple with
your shame and greed and bowed down with your guilt, not able
to lift your eyes to heaven, but reach out to Him because
He's gracious. Come humble sinner in whose hearts
a thousand doubts revolve. Come with your sin and guilt
oppressed and make this last resolve. I'll go to Jesus, though
my sins hath like a mountain raised, and I'll say to Him,
I'm a wretch undone without His sovereign grace. I can but perish
if I go, I'm resolved to try. If I stay away from Him, I know
I'll forever die. I've got to get to Christ. And
I'm saying to you, don't let anybody get between you and the
Redeemer. Go home tonight, if doubts fill your mind and fears
flood your soul and uncertainty crowds you and you don't know
whether you're saved or lost, just go get right on the rug
in your den and shut the door and cry to God and say, Lord,
here I am a mess from top to bottom. I don't know where I
am and who I am and where I've been or where I'm going. And
I'm guilty, a son of Adam, deserving of hell, but I'd sure be much
obliged if you'd save me. I'll thank you forever." Huh? Don't go down to the front of
the church because I don't know whether anybody's ever been saved
down there or not. I'm serious. I'm dead serious about that.
I just don't know. I think it's substitute. I think
it's substituting church membership for regeneration. I think it's
substituting decision for the new birth. I think it's substituting
the work of man and an act of man for the gift of God. Now
if God does something for you, come tell us about it. I believe
you will. Come follow the Lord in baptism. But my brethren,
salvation is a work of God. A work of God. And that's the
reason I don't stand here and plead and beg for people to come
forward. I'd rather you wouldn't. I'd
rather you go home. If the message has convicted
you and the message has broken your heart and the message has
smitten you and brought you down and stripped you and humbled
you, go home and cry to Him. It's His work. Salvation is of
the Lord. And then it's a new birth. Look
here at verse 23 of that first chapter, being born again, being
born again, not of corruptible seed. What does that mean? That
word seed is semen. Not of corruptible semen. That's
how we were born the first time. First time we were born of the
flesh. We were born from our mothers and daddies. And they
made us just like they are. Just like they are, fallen creatures,
depraved creatures, wretched creatures, deceived creatures,
corrupt creatures, godless creatures. I don't care what you think of
your mom and daddy, they're still sinners. Lost sinners. When you
were born from them, you didn't receive any goodness from them
at all. You received a corrupt, rotten, sinful, human, depraved
nature that can never inherit heaven. It's called corruptible
seed. But we're born again, born of
God, redeemed, regenerated, made over, a new life, a divine life. The second time, listen, but
we're born the second time of incorruptible seed, incorruptible
seed, the Word of God. I don't know a whole lot about
the new birth. I know it's not what folks are saying it is today.
It's not a decision. It's not church membership. It's
not moral reformation. It's life from above. I know
the new birth, I know it's of God. We're born, not of blood,
that is, not of fleshly inheritance, not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, we're born of God. I know the new birth
is by the Holy Spirit. The Scripture says we're born
of the Spirit and the Word. I know the new birth is by the
Word of God. We're born, He hath begotten
us again unto a living hope, He has begotten us through the
word, that's what it says, the seed of the word. Of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. And I know this, that
new birth is a new creature. Now I know that we still have
the human nature, I'm still flesh, I've still got the same eyes
I had 56 years ago. I still got the same ears, the
same brain, the same heart, the same flesh, the same problems
that I had when I was a child growing up a boy. They say behavior
patterns are set before you're five years old. I don't know
about that, it may be true. But I know something else is
I have a new nature, a new person, a new life. I have the life of
God, which I didn't have. And everybody who's born again
is a new creature. He's a new creature. Somebody
said the other day, talking about a person in this congregation
who had been saved, they said they had never seen such a remarkable
change take place in any one man's life in all their lives.
Well, that's nothing but the new birth. That man will admit
that he still has problems and he still has wrestling with the
flesh and conflict, but he's a new creature, new person, new
being. That's what salvation is now.
I just know it is. It's a new creature. It's a new
birth. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of
his. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
accursed. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. By this shall all men know ye
are my disciples, if ye love one another. No, you're not perfect,
but you're God's people. You're different. You're a peculiar
people, a royal nation, a holy priesthood, you belong to God,
and you're consistent and dependable and trustworthy and men of honesty
and integrity. You walk with the living God. And I'll tell you, this form
of religion that leaves people in their hate and malice and
covetousness and jealousy and materialism is not of God. It's not the New Birth. And then
closing, salvation is this, it's not being preached today. We
won't wait on, this is what we won't do, we won't wait on God.
We get these little boys and girls around here and we talk
them into the decision and talk them into church membership.
You want to hurry and get them in the church before they get in the
world. That's a problem. I was with a preacher in Texas
in 1950. I was leading the singing and
he was preaching. You remember John Purtle? Anybody here remember
John Purtle? You do, Ruth, Camden, and Betty,
and Roe. Y'all remember John Purtle. Well,
I went to Texas with him, Leach, singing in a meeting. And I'd
learned a little grace then. I knew he didn't know any. I
knew enough that he didn't know any. And I led the singing one
night, and, uh, well, the pastor told us when we got there, he
said, now, boys, he said, the Texas Baptists, Texas Baptists
won a million souls this year. My, my quote is 150. And we're
going to get them these two weeks." Well, that scared me, you know,
because I knew they'd do it. And so Purtle preached that night,
and I led just as I am or something, and they started coming down
the aisle. He started bringing them down. They filled that whole
front row and second row with children. Now, I'm not saying
children can't be saved. Don't you go out and say that.
Paul said, Timothy, from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures,
that they will make thee wise unto salvation. He didn't say
he was saved, but he had some seed planted, he had a foundation
laid, he had some direction set in order that he would come to
salvation. But they filled those rows, and I was so dejected that
I went on and sat down on that row, and Purtle came on and sat
down beside me, and he was so happy, and he said, Boy, see,
we got about half of them tonight. I said, John, I said, I think
I'm going home. I said, I can't take much more
of this. I said, this bothers me. I said, I watched those kids
and I said, there's no conviction, there's no repentance. There's
just no repentance manifested. There's no sorrow for sin. He
said, isn't it wonderful God saved them before they had anything
to repent of. I did go home then. I knew I
was in paganism. That's paganism. And brethren,
I'm telling you, we better wait on God. You see, that old hard
fallow ground, that old dead sinful heart has got to be broken
up. Break up your fallow ground.
There's no shortcut. There's no shortcut, especially
in this day of religion. We've got to tear out the old
foundation. We've got to root up the old
Traditions, we've got to dig up all those old prejudged notions. We've got to kill their gods.
Men today in religion are worshiping a false god and you've got to
kill their god before they'll ever bow to the god of heaven.
You've got to slay their god and that's painful. That's painful. But that plowing has to dig up
that pallet ground and then there has to be the disking of it,
just crush it, break it. God's got to break it. It'll
be saved if you're broken. Pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. God saves men of a what?
Broken heart. A broken and a contrite spirit. Your spirit, God's going to break
every wild, ashes, colt He saves. Now, He'll break you. He'll use
His Word to do it. He'll use His Gospel to do it.
He'll use His Preacher to do it. He'll use His Providence
to do it, but He'll break you. Somebody's going to give and
it ain't going to be God. A will's gonna be crushed and won't be
His. I'm telling you the truth. God's gonna break us. And then
not only will He break us, but He'll come along and sow the
seed. It'll be the seed of truth. You can't grow faith without
the seed of truth. It'll be the seed of truth. You
can't have true understanding of God, of Christ, of redemption,
of justification and righteousness without the seed of truth. God'll
sow the seed of truth, and He'll water that truth with His Spirit,
and it'll come forth. And it'll bear fruit some forty,
some sixty, some a hundredfold, but it'll bear fruits. And any
believer that doesn't bear fruits dead. That's just so. Salvation, last of all, let me
give you this. It says in verse 4 of chapter
2, to whom coming? To whom coming? To whom coming? No, that's to whom I came. I
came! No, to whom coming? You don't
ever quit coming to Christ. You came to Christ, you come
to Christ, you shall come to Christ. Once, now, always. A living stone. You keep coming
to Christ.