This is going to be a personal
message. I'm going to talk to you just
as one-on-one as I can this morning. I want to talk to you about how
a sinner is saved through faith in Christ. There was a man who
came to our Lord one time with a son, his son, who was very
ill. He said, your disciples couldn't
help him. Can you help him? If you can, do something for
him. Now listen to what the master
said. And Jesus said unto him, this is in Mark 9, 23, if you
can believe, if you can believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. Can you believe? All things are
possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of
the child cried out, and this is what appealed to me, for I
feel this is the cry of my own heart, as sincerely as I know
how to cry, Lord, I do believe. I do believe, help thou mine
unbelief." Now, my friends, I can fully appreciate, I want you
to listen to me, will you listen? I can fully appreciate the confidence
and assurance that some men have had and have today of their hope
of a saving interest in Christ. I can enter into that. You know,
David said, the Lord is my shepherd, no doubt about it. The Lord is
my shepherd." You know, Job said, I know that my Redeemer liveth.
That was just as dogmatic as he could express it. I know my
Redeemer liveth. And the Apostle Paul said this,
I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed to him against that day. And
John the Apostle wrote, we know we've passed from death unto
life. I can enter into that, can you? I can understand that. If I have a hope, it's in Christ.
If I have a refuge at all, Christ is that refuge. If I have eternal
life, I know eternal life's in Christ. I know it's not in religion
or deeds or law or anything like that. It's in Christ. Christ
is my life. Christ is my hope. But I'll tell
you this also. I can also enter into and appreciate,
seriously, some preachers can't. I believe I can. The apprehension
the concern, the doubts and fears of those who continually examine
themselves for some evidence of eternal life. I can enter
into that. Listen to David again. Now, David
said, The Lord is my shepherd. But he said this on another occasion,
Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Is God's mercy clean gone? Hath
God forgotten to be gracious? You say, That's David. That's
David. You're familiar with John Newton's great old hymn, Amazing
Grace. Aren't you? Amazing Grace, how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but
now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. When I've been there
10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Yes, Newton wrote
that, and that's confidence and assurance in Christ. But he wrote
this too. He said, "'Tis a point I long
to know, Oft it gives me anxious thought, do I love the Lord or
no? Am I His or am I not? Lord, if
indeed I am Thine, if Thou art my Son and my song, then why
do I languish in pain and why are my winters so long?" Newton
could enter in to the confidence and to the
assurance of those who had a saving interest in Christ and felt it
very strongly, but he could also enter into those who were apprehensive,
full of concern and doubt and fear about their saving interest
in Christ. Actually, now you listen to me
a minute. Actually, in the light of God's
holiness, His immaculate, infinite, eternal, immutable holiness,
do you know how holy God is? Even the cherubims and seraphims
cover their faces in His presence. No man can look on Him and live.
Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled
the temple. And they cried around the throne,
holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. And he said, I cried,
oh, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Moses came down
from the mountain from the presence of God. and his face shown in
such a way that they had to cover Moses' face so the people could
look on him, and he'd just been in the presence of God. That
was nothing like the awesome, holy presence of God. Do you
know how holy God is? In the light of God's holiness,
in the light of my corruption and my sinfulness in word, thought,
deed, nature, just keep naming it, in the light of the spirituality
of God's perfect law, You hadn't commenced to begin to get started
yet to see the holiness of God's law, the spirituality of God's
law. You don't know a thing. You hadn't
touched the hem of the garment, the awesome holiness of God's
law, the spirituality of it. And then the deceitfulness of
human nature. Jeremiah just finally said the
heart is deceitful above everything, desperately wicked. who can know
it, and in the light of people just like you and me who have
departed from the faith by the millions. Now, in the light of
God's holiness, in the light of our corruption, in the light
of God's spiritual holy law, in the light of the deceitfulness
of human nature, and in the light of so many just like us who have
not endured to the end, who have fallen away, who, like the dog,
have returned to their vomit, and the sow to the wallen and
the mire, how can any of you, how can any of us have any presumption
or any overconfidence in the matter of salvation? I like the
words of the hymn writer who said, Here I raise mine Ebenezer,
hither by thy help I am come. I hope, I hope by God's good
pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Now, you go on with your
no-soul salvation. You go on with your cockiness
and your easy-believerism. You hold to it if you want to.
You go on with this fundamentalist idea of easy-believerism, walk
an aisle, make a decision, get baptized, put your name on the
roll. I see you in the sweet by-and-by and in the presence
of Jesus. My friend, let me tell you something.
I'm afraid most of us don't know who we're talking about. or what
we're talking about. Oh, the awesome holiness. The
Bible is full of warnings, full of warnings to religious people
who lay a presumptuous claim to God's favor. Three million
people came out of Egypt, three million people, two of them. Over 21, when they came out,
entered the Promised Land, two of them. Two of them, I said. Moses didn't even enter it. Two
of them. Many shall say unto me in that
day, Lord, have we not cast out devils in your name, preached,
done many wonderful works? I never knew you. Take heed,
brethren, lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief.
Our Lord said, Strive to enter in. Many, many strive to enter
in the straight gate. Many, I say unto you, will seek
to enter in in that day and shall not be able. We're told so many
times to examine ourselves whether we're in the faith. We're told
to give diligence to make our calling and election sure. Paul
feared. Paul, the apostle who wrote 13
books of the New Testament, Paul himself said, I keep my body
and bring it into subjection lest while preaching to others
I become a castaway. You know what a castaway is?
Reprobate. One old writer said they made
me keeper of the vineyard, and my own vineyard I didn't keep.
Now brethren, what are you saying, preacher? I'm saying this, that
I can understand an assurance of confidence in Christ, but
I can also understand reasons for apprehension. I can understand
reasons for doubts and fears. And the more a man knows of the
awesome holiness of God, and the more we're able, through
the Scripture experience and the Holy Spirit, to look into
these natures, these hearts of ours, and observe the behavior
pattern that we got from our Daddy Adam, you'll have more
room for doubt than you ever had before. That's absolutely
so. Well, how do you say, how can
a man have any confidence? How can a man have any assurance
that he's redeemed, that he's a child of God, that he's possessed
of a good hope? Well, I know four ways he can't
have it. I'll try to give you some ways
he can, but here are four ways he cannot have any assurance.
Number one, not by position. Somebody says, well, I know I'm
saved. I'm a preacher, or I'm a deacon, or I'm an elder. I'm
a Sunday school teacher. I sing in the choir. Lucifer
was an angel. You hadn't got that high yet. Judas was an apostle. You haven't
even gotten that high yet. Demas was a companion of the
Apostle Paul. You haven't reached that plateau
yet. Saul was king of Israel, and you haven't got there yet.
And these men all perished. And then there was the high priest
of Israel, who was a type of Jesus Christ himself, who perished
in unbelief. There's no security in office.
There's no security in position. There's no security at all in
a religious profession. No matter how high you climb,
how many offices you have or how many credentials you have,
there's no security. And then, my friend, you cannot
have any assurance or confidence of a saving interest in Christ
by outward obedience to the law. Now, will you listen to me? You
say, I try to live right. I try to live by the Ten Commandments.
The rich young ruler also lived by the Ten Commandments. He came
to our Lord and he said, Good Master, what What good thing
shall I do to inherit eternal life? And our Lord, not giving
him the way of righteousness, actually, if a man's born without
sin and keeps the law, he is righteous, and he will be received
by God. But what our Lord's doing is
revealing to that young man his evil nature, his covetousness,
his lack of love, not only for God, but his fellow man. He was
a very rich young man. He had plenty. His neighbors
were starving. He had clothes. His neighbors were naked. He
had everything his heart or flesh could desire, and people around
him were going without. And Christ said, keep the commandments. Why? He said, I've kept them
for my youth up. I've kept them for my youth up. Christ said,
well, go sell what you have and feed the poor. Oh, Christ revealed
to him he hadn't kept the commandments. But there's no salvation in keeping
the commandments. Saul of Tarsus said concerning
the law, I was blameless, but the Bible plainly declares, by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. There's no
assurance in morality. The most moral people who lived
in the days of Jesus Christ were the Pharisees and Sadducees and
Scribes. And our Lord called all of them
a generation of vipers, hypocrites. He called them whited sepulchres.
He called them sons of the devil. He said, you have your father
the devil. I'll tell you another way you cannot find any assurance,
not in position, not in morality, and not in religious duties and
faithfulness in prayer, fasting, and giving. You listen to the
average preacher today, and you would think if you gave up certain
sins that he names, he doesn't name inward sins and heart sins
and spirit sins and soul sins. He just names outwards and you
give those up and join the church and start living right and start
sending him 10% of your income and Start praying and start fasting
so many times a month then you sure to go to heaven, but now
wait a minute Now wait, let's see what the Lord says he said
a Pharisee went to the temple to pray and He lifted his eyes
to heaven and he said Lord. I thank you. I'm not like other
men And that's what the religionists claims today. The so-called Christian
claims he's different. He's separated from the world.
He's not like other men. He said, I fast more than is
required of me twice a week. I give 10% of everything I have. I tithe all my possessions. I
give alms to the poor. I don't commit adultery. I'm
not an extortioner. I'm a man who pays his bills.
I'm not unjust. I treat people fair. And our
Lord said he went home condemned. Now, that ought to answer your
question. You can't come up to that man's credentials. Our Lord
passed by that Pharisee and saved a publican who was a sinful man
who would not even lift his eyes to heaven but smote on his breast
and cried, God be propitiated, be reconciled to me, thee sinner. Our Lord passed by Sadducee and
saved a woman who'd been five times divorced. He passed by
Simon the good man and saved a harlot. He passed by the scribes
And save Zacchaeus because he said, I'm not come to call you
self-righteous hypocrites to repentance. I've come to save
sinners. Sinners. Our Lord died for sinners.
Christ died for the ungodly. He came to seek and to save the
lost. And you won't find any security in your position, in
the law, or in your morality, or in your religious duties.
I'll tell you one more. You're not going to find any
security or assurance by studying the Bible. Now, I know I'm going
to offend somebody here, but that's all right. Let's just
let it fall where it will. Let's tell the truth and let
God do with it what he will. But somebody said, well, I read
and study my Bible. Let me tell you something, friend.
You study for 6,000 years and you won't know enough orthodoxy.
You won't know as much orthodoxy as the devil knows. Now, he can
quote Scripture. In fact, when he tempted our
Lord on the mountain, he quoted Scripture to him. He said, it's
written, it's written, it's written, it's written. Satan is brilliant. He's a spiritual power and he's
a spiritual wickedness and darkness, and he uses anything at his command,
anything at his disposal, subtlety, craftiness, trickery, deceit,
and he'll even use Bible. That's right, and bring people
strong delusions. Somebody says, well, he knows
his Bible, but does he know the author? That's the key. You believe
in one God, you do well. The devil believes in trembling.
You know who the Pharisees were? They were the most brilliant,
orthodox Bible scholars of their day. You know who the Sadducees
and the lawyers were? Do you know who the scribes were?
The scribes were men who sat with the Scriptures all day long
with a pen and wrote the Scriptures in longhand. printed them with... They knew the Scriptures. They
didn't know the Lord. They knew the Scriptures. They
knew the histories. They knew the names. They knew
the dates. They knew the feast days. They knew the... All about
these doctrines. But when Christ came, they didn't
even know Him. So assurance and confidence in
eternal life is not to be found in position. It's not to be found
in obedience to law. It's not to be found in religious
duties. It's not to be found in knowledge
of Bible facts. Well, where is it to be found?
All right, let me give you five things quickly. Number one, the
salvation of God has to do with a person, not with a doctrine,
not with a law, not with an ordinance, with a person. In Romans 1, the
apostle Paul said, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel. the gospel which
He promised to for by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the gospel
of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, who was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of
God according to the spirit of resurrection. For of Him, through
Him, to Him, by Him are all things to whom be glory both now and
forever." My friend, don't be taken up with the things of religion
or the duties of religion or the orthodoxy of religion and
miss him who is all things. You'll miss all things if you
miss Christ. It's in a person. One day the religious leaders
came to our Lord with all their questions about various subjects.
You know, we got a lot of questions. We're more interested in the
Antichrist than we are the Christ. That's right. We're more interested
in where King got his wife than where Christ gets his bride.
We're more interested in what's going to happen than what has
happened. Christ died for sinners. But the religious leaders came,
like religious people today, and they said, Good Master, what
is the greatest law? Well, he said, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and thy neighbor as thyself. Well, that put them to silence.
He said, On these two hang all the law and the prophets. And
so another group came to him and said, Good Master, is it
lawful to pay tribute to a wicked man like Caesar? We're sons of
the kingdom of God. And do you think we ought to
contribute to this pagan emperor?" He said, you got a coin, one
of them brought out a coin. He said, whose inscriptions on
that? They said, well, Caesar's. He
said, well, you render to Caesar the things that are Caesar, and
to God the things that are God. And another group came up to
him who didn't believe in the resurrection. That was the Pharisees,
I believe. And they said, now, good master,
here was a woman. who was married to a man, he
died, and she married again, and he died, and she married
again, and he died, and she married five or six men. They all died.
Now, in the resurrection, who's going to be her husband? He said,
well, you err, not knowing the power of God or the Word of God.
In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage.
And they were all put to silence, and they started to leave. And
he said, now, hold it. I have a question. And, my friend,
this is the question I'm putting to you today. I have a question.
And when you solve all your naughty problems and all your conflicting
ideas, and when you get all the answers to your unanswerable
questions, I've got one for you and for me too. What think ye
of Christ? What think? Think. A man's thoughts.
A man's thoughts. That's where business is done.
What think you? Not your church or denomination
or pastor. What do you think of Jesus Christ? Whose Son is He? Now, that's
the whole issue right there. Our Lord dealt with these men,
their questions, and then he put to them THE question. And
that's what? Think ye of Christ. What think
ye of Christ? You see, the Bible, the Scripture,
sets forth, listen to me, it sets forth the fall and restoration
of sinners by representation. In Adam we died, in Christ we're
made alive. As we're born in the image of
the earthy, we'll bear the image of the heavens. The first Adam,
the first man, is of the earth earthy. The second man is the
Lord from heaven. And that's where it's all done.
By the disobedience of one, we were made sinners. By the obedience
of the other, we were made righteous. What do you think of Christ?
Whose Son is He? Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So I'm saying this to you, this thing of salvation,
whatever it is, whatever it consists of, Inheritance, eternal joy,
happiness, privilege, glory, righteousness. I'm telling you
this. It has to do with a person. And that person ain't you. It's
Jesus Christ. Now, that's who it's got to do
with. It's not your church or denomination. It's Christ. It's
Christ. God either sees you in Adam or
in Christ. God sees you condemned in the
first Adam and restored in the second Adam, one or the other.
That's right. It has to do with a person. Now,
secondly, watch this. I'll help you if you'll let me.
This thing of salvation, we've played games long enough. We've
played church long enough. It's time somebody said something
to this generation that made sense, scriptural sense, spiritual
sense. We're all doing something for
God, and God doesn't need anything. He said, if I was hungry, wouldn't
I ask you? The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. You need God
to do something for you, not you do something for God. He
doesn't read recognition. He's not in your hands. You're
in His hands. Salvation's not on your terms.
It's on His terms. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. It's not of Him that will it.
It's not of Him that run it. It's God that shows mercy. Salvation
has to do with a person God designated, God ordained, God appointed,
and God sent Jesus Christ. That's who it's got to do with.
And it's got to do with His exaltation, not yours. That's right. I know the believer is a child
of God. I know the believer has pardon and remission of sins.
I know that the believer has inheritance in glory. I know
that the believer will reign eternally, but all that he has
is in Christ and because of Christ and through Christ. And I'm going
to reign because he reigns. I'm not going to reign separately
and apart from Christ. I'm not going to reign at all
except in him. It'll be a reflected glory, just like there's a reflected
love. It's His righteousness I have.
It's His sanctification. It's His justification. It's
His position that I occupy. I'm seated in Him. We were chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. We were loved and
redeemed in Him. We are accepted in the Beloved.
Because He lives, we live. Because He lives, simply because
He lives. We're seated together with Him
in the heavenlies and we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. He's the heir. We're joint heirs. We share in His glory. The King
made a feast. For what purpose? To honor His
Son. Now, that's what the Father has
done. He's going to honor the Son. He said, I've given Him
a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee will bow in heaven, earth, and hell. And every tongue's
going to confess that He's Lord to the glory of God the Father.
He'll have the preeminence. He'll be exalted. He'll reign. And if I have any recognition,
any grace, any mercy, any position, any place in God's kingdom, it'll
be because of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to share in His
exaltation. I don't expect God to give me
personal, particular recognition. I expect to bask in the sunlight
of His glory. I expect to join that big crowd. More than the stars of the sky
and the sands of the seashore, I expect to join with them someday
and cry, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb, to whom be
the glory and the honor and the majesty, wherewithout end. Praise
God, from whom all blessings flow." That's the key to it.
Christ's going to be exalted. And you'll be honored and exalted
and glorified as you are in Christ. Now, you think you're going to
have some little corner in the cabin in the corner of glory.
You've got another thing coming. We're not going to be a separate
entity up there, we're going to be in Christ. "...that he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Jesus Christ." And then thirdly, this salvation
has to do with faith in Christ. "...he that believeth on the
Son of God hath everlasting life." Not faith in my faith, not faith
in facts, not faith in doctrine. Listen to me, don't be offended.
Saving faith is not even faith in the finished work. Saving
faith is faith in Christ Himself. You don't believe a work, you
believe a person. You believe Him who did the work. It's not
the cross that saves, it's the Christ on the cross. I know we
sing that song, the old rugged cross, so I cling to the old
rugged cross and exchange it for a crown. I'm not clinging
to any old cross. I won't even wear one. I won't
even have one in our church. A cross is a shameful thing.
It's an ignominious death. It's a humiliating death. It's
not the cross that saves me. It's the one who died on that
cross. Our faith is in a person, not in an act. All that he did
is part of his redemptive work. He stood as our surety in eternity
past. He stands as our mediator now.
His death on the cross accomplished nothing without his mediatorial
work, or his suretyship, or his righteousness, or his life. It's
a person. Abraham believed God before there
was a cross, except in the mind of God and the purpose of God.
But Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him for righteousness, but
for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe, what? On him. On him. who raised up Jesus Christ our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised for
our justification." My friend, your faith, the object of it,
better not be a work or a cross or a river, but a person, Jesus
Christ. And then the salvation of God
has to do with a vital living union with Christ. Listen to
this scripture, Christ in you, that's the hope of glory. I travail,
Paul said, till Christ be formed in you." Where is it? Assurance. It's
in a divine person. It's in His exaltation. It's
through faith in Him. It's by a living union with Jesus
Christ. Now, I have two messages on this
cassette tape. The first message I brought last
Sunday and the one I just brought on, Help Thou Mine Unbelief.
I'd like you to have these messages. If you want them, write to me,
and we'll send it to you. And you send a donation of $2.
That's what it cost us to make the tape and send it out. So
until next week, at this same time, Henry Mahan bidding you
a pleasant good morning.