Now it may seem strange to you, but I can enter into and appreciate both the confidence of those who rejoice
in Christ, and I can enter into and appreciate the fears and
doubts of those who continually examine themselves for some evidence
of salvation. I know some preachers can't.
I hear preachers say, well, if you doubt, you're damned. Somebody
else said, well, if you don't doubt, it's because you have
nothing to doubt. I can't enter into an appreciate presumption.
No, I didn't say that. These people who say, if anybody
makes it, Lord, surely I will. That I can't understand. I can't
enter into that. But now I can enter into the
quiet confidence of the man who, like David says, the Lord is
my shepherd. I can understand that. I can
enter into his assurance. Or the man who says, as Job,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. Or with Paul when he said, I
know whom I have believed. I can enter into that. But I can also enter into David's
experience when he cried, is the Lord clean gone? Will he
never again hear me pray? I understand that. I can understand
John Newton when he wrote, tis a point I long to know. Often
it gives me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? I understand
that. Lord, if indeed I am thine, then
if thou art my son and my song, then why do I languish in pine,
and why am I winter so long?" Now, that may seem strange. That
may seem like I'm saying two different things that I can enter
into and appreciate the quiet confidence, stability, and assurance
of a person who says the Lord is my shepherd. I know that I've passed from
death unto life, and yet at the same time I can appreciate and
enter into those struggles and those doubts and those fears
that come upon us with such sometimes terrible force. And we ask ourselves
the question, and sometimes of others also, am I one of God's
own? Am I a child of the King? Actually,
I would say this in the light of three things. Now you think
about this a minute. I would say actually in the light
of God's absolute holiness, do you know who God is? David said, when I consider the
heavens, the work of thy hands, what is man that thou art mindful
of him? Isaiah said, I saw the Lord,
high and lifted up, his train filled the temple, and the cherubims
and seraphims put their hands over their mouths and their eyes
and covered their feet and cried, holy, holy, holy. God is holy,
immaculately, infinitely, eternally holy. Oh, the majesty of his
throne, the greatness of his throne, the purity of his throne. In the light of that, and in
the light of my fallen condition, in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. From the sole of our feet to
the top of our heads is no true soundness and holiness in us.
My sins are ever before me, said one of God's choice men. And
in the light of God's holy law, God's righteous commandments,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquity, who would stand? Now, in the light of those three
things, God's absolute, immaculate holiness, how infinite, how infinite
is His majesty, His holiness, how infinite His wisdom. and my dumbness and ignorance
and sinfulness in his holy law, which I have not kept. Before his law I crumble and
perish and die. How can any man be given to overconfidence
in this matter of salvation? I know if you've got a small
God, you can have all of the presumption and confidence and
assurance you want, but the greater is God in your in your thinking,
the greater God he is, and the more sinful we are, and the more
perfect his requirements, how can any person be plagued with
overconfidence? How can any man have any kind
of strong assurance or confidence that he belongs to God? You belong to God? You're God's
child? You're one of God's own, you
walk with the King, you have fellowship with God, you plan
to live eternally in his glory? Well, William Cowper said it
best, "'Here I raise mine Ebenezer.'" Ebenezer means, "'Hitherto by
thy help I am come.'" And he went on and said, "'And I hope
by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.'" The scriptures are full of warnings
to religious people who lay claim to God's favor. And we're not
hearing them. We're not treading softly. We're
not hearing God. He said, our Lord said to himself,
many, many are going to say to me on that day, many. Now you
think of the number. Many. Why, Lord, we preached
in your name and cast out devils and did many wonderful works,
and then will I profess unto them, I never, never, never knew
you." That scares me. Our Lord said in Luke 13, "...strive
to enter in at the straight gate, for many," again that number,
"...many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not
be able." When once the Master has risen to and shut the door,
they'll stand without and say, Lord, wait a minute! Open to
us. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians,
examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Well, in some
kind of faith, de-faith. Well, I've got faith, de-faith.
It's just one Lord and one faith and one baptism. Second Peter
1.10, give diligence, diligence to make your calling and election
sure. If you do this, you shall not
fail. Hebrews 3.12, he talked about
those people in the wilderness, and he turns to the Church, Paul
does, under divine inspiration, and he says, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. in departing from the living
God. Now, men seldom depart from religion. They do depart from
the living God. Most men die with some kind of
religion. I told someone the other day,
I've been to a lot of rest homes. I've never been to a rest home
where I found one old person that didn't believe in God. They
didn't have some kind of hope. They came there from all walks
of life, from all denominations, from all religions, and they're
just there in a potpourri situation, and they're all going to heaven
when they die. They're just waiting for Jesus to come. Paul feared. He feared this. He feared while preaching to
others he would become a what? A reprobate. Now if this choice
apostle, chosen personally by God, taught the gospel by Jesus
Christ, who had many divine appearances of our Lord, who was taken to
the third heaven, who suffered so many things for
Christ's sake, who labored faithfully and wrote 13 of the 27 books
of the New Testament, if that man would stand before the people
to whom he preached and say, I keep my body and bring it into
subjection lest while preaching to others I myself become a castaway. Are you afraid to say, I sympathize
with those who have doubts? Are you afraid somebody's going
to think you don't know the gospel because you don't have an overconfidence
or a presumptuous attitude in regard to your relationship with
God? Well, here's one preacher that does not have that attitude.
I do not mind dealing honestly and faithfully and truthfully
with those to whom God has given me the responsibility to minister.
I'm saying to you this, we're going to have to give diligence
to make our own personal calling and election show. Well, you say, Preacher, how
can a man have assurance? You say you can sympathize and
enter into both positions. Yes, sometimes I have assurance
and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I have confidence and
sometimes I don't. Now, you say, well, how can a
person have assurance and confidence that he is redeemed, that he's
a child of God, he's possessed of a good hope? How can he have
confidence and assurance? Well, certainly not by position. If you're looking for confidence
or assurance, what's this? If you're looking for it in your
position, you're looking in the wrong place. You say, well, I'm
a preacher. There'll be preachers in hell,
I'm confident of that. Well, I'm a deacon, I'm a church
member, I'm a Sunday School teacher. Well, let me tell you this. Now
listen carefully. Lucifer was an angel. Now that's something
to think about, isn't it? He was an angel. In fact, I believe,
according to the scriptures, he was the number one angel,
wasn't he? And then Judas was an apostle.
There were only twelve of these in the whole history of mankind,
twelve apostles. Judas was one of them. Demas was an elder, a companion
of the apostle Paul. Paul wrote about him several
times. Saul was a king of Israel. The
high priest of Israel, I read this the other day, where the
high priest had the Lord Jesus Christ on trial. Now, there was
only one high priest, great high priest. There were many priests,
but one great high priest. And that great high priest was
himself a very type of Christ. And yet this man sitting there
in the high priest's chair did not know the Son of God when
he was standing right in front of him. So there's no security
in office. Let no man here this morning
have any confidence or assurance because of any office which he
may hold or may have held. Secondly, there's no way to find
any assurance or confidence by outward obedience to the law.
I hear people say, well, he's a good man. He's a good man. I know what you mean. Believe
me, I do. I know what you mean. You mean that man, that particular
man or woman you're talking about, that person has lived his life
minding his own business. That person has lived his or
her life being honest in their business dealings. They've paid
their bills on time. They haven't killed anybody.
They haven't stolen anything. They've just been an example
among men. They've gone to church on Sunday,
and they've lived a quiet, peaceable life, and they don't blow up. They're kind and lovely and all
that. That's all fine. But now, if
that's your hope of assurance of righteousness before God,
then you've totally failed, because you see, goodness The goodness
of the flesh compared with the flesh is not goodness at all.
You see, when we compare ourselves with the holiness of God, we're
not good at all. There's none good, no not one.
There's none righteous. And I know this is the most difficult
thing for people to see. The rich young ruler came to
Christ and said, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said,
keep the commandments. He said, I've kept them. From
the time I was a kid, I've kept the commandments. I've never
bowed down to an idol. I've never desecrated the Sabbath
day. I've respected my mother and father. I've never killed
or murdered or committed adultery or stolen anything. I've never
done those. I've kept them from my youth up. Saul of Tarsus said
this concerning the law, I'm blameless. But my friends, what we fail
to see is that outward obedience to the laws of God is not righteousness. God demands
an inward perfection. You see, the law doesn't just
reach to the outward flesh. It reaches to the thoughts, to
the hearts. It reaches to the motive and attitude, nature,
the very life of an individual. God looks on the heart. Man looks
on the outward countenance or appearance. God looks on the
heart. And God sees our thoughts. And this is what he told the
Pharisees. He said, no, you've never killed. You've never killed
anybody. But he said, you've been angry,
and you called your brother a fool, and really and truly there are
times when you may not have wished him dead, but at least wished
him afflicted. Well, he said, that's murder.
You may not have committed the outward act of adultery, but
in your heart you've lusted or desired, and that's adultery.
He said, God looks on the heart. Principle. Sin is a principle.
It's a nature. And our Lord said, except our
righteousness exceed the righteousness or holiness of the scribes and
Pharisees. And these scribes and Pharisees
and religious men, their holiness was in keeping the law outwardly.
That was their holiness. That was their righteousness.
They didn't steal or commit adultery or kill or worship false gods
and kept the Sabbath day, paid their bills, they did all these
things outwardly, and they said, this is our righteousness. You
remember the Pharisee stood in the temple and he said, Lord,
I thank you I'm not like other men. I'm not an extortioner,
I'm not an adulterer, I'm not a liar, I'm not this, that, and
the other. That is my righteousness. Well, it's all right before men,
that's fine to have a good reputation, it's fine to have a good character,
it shouldn't have a good moral outward appearance. But brethren,
when we're dealing with God, now we're talking about not a
relationship with men, we're talking about a relationship
with God. And this cannot be accomplished by obedience to
the law because God looks on the heart. Turn to Luke 16 a
moment. And this is so vital that we understand this, Luke
16.15. And he said unto them, Luke 16.15,
Yea, they which justify yourselves before men. You know, most religion
is simply a form before men, it's to impress somebody. If I can impress George, then
I can impress God, not necessarily. If I have a good reputation and
a good character and a good report, then I must have a good report
before God. Not necessarily. Read on. But God knows your hearts. God
knows your hearts. And this is something you don't
even know, is your heart. The heart is desperately wicked,
it's deceitful above all things. Who can know? You don't even
know your heart. You don't. You and I don't understand
the depths of human depravity. I wish we could. We will someday.
I doubt we could stand it now. God knows your hearts, and that
which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight
of God. All of our form and ceremony
and rituals and goody-goody religious stuff and put on and show and
outward prayers and all these things is an abomination to God. You do's and don'ts, and you
touch not, taste not, handle not, don't, I don't do this,
I've never done that, so forth, that's an abomination to God.
Oh, people think it's great, oh, he's so religious, he's so
moral, and so dead. So dead. You see, sin is a state. Sin, and we're going to get to
this in a few moments, but sin is an introduction of another
will in the universe of God. It's the introduction of the
human will, the human way, rebellion against God's authority. Sin
is in the thought, sin is in the attitude. God does not judge
a man's mind by his deeds. He judges that man's deeds by
his mind. What you do is not nearly as
important as why you do it in the sight of God. Why you do
it? And we put a lot of emphasis
on what we do, what we do, what we do. God puts the emphasis
on why you do it. That's the reason the Pharisees
couldn't understand the Lord. They couldn't understand him
healing a man on the Sabbath day. It said you're not to do
these things on the Sabbath day. That's what the law said. They
couldn't understand him picking corn on the Sabbath day. They
couldn't understand him eating without washing his hands. They
had their rituals, they had their rules, they had their laws, and
their morality and holiness was governed by their strict observance
of these rules and laws. When he came along and violated
them, they couldn't understand that stuff. It didn't make sense
to them. They said, well, he's a gluttonous man, he's a wine-bibber,
he's always saying he's a friend of sinners. He associates with
Gentiles and publicans and harlots. He can't be holy. By whose standard
of holiness? By our standard of holiness and
by the Bible's standard of holiness, yeah, by your interpretation
of the Bible's standard of holiness, God looked from the heart. And
our Lord said man wasn't made for a law, the law was made for
the man. We're plagued with the same rotten
religious standards that they were then. We've got a standard
of religion by which we judge men. We cannot look on the heart,
we cannot look on the spirit, we cannot look on the soul, but
we're fruit judges, fruit inspectors, you know. Well, you're not going to have
any assurance by your outward obedience to the law, and I'll
tell you something else, you're not going to have any assurance
by doing religious duties. by faithfulness in prayer and
fasting and giving. That's what the Pharisees said,
Lord, I fast twice a week, I give alms to the poor, I do all these
things. Well, I'll tell you this, shockingly,
our Lord passed by one of those men and saved the publican who
stood back in the back of the temple and would not so much
as lift his eyes to heaven, let alone his hands, but smote on
his breast and cried, God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Here
was a man down here talking about all of his faithfulness in religious
duties and And our Lord just passed him by and went back there
and justified a man that had never had the time in his life
and never had fasted a day in his life and never had given
one alms to one poor man. He'd taken it from him. Oh, that
disturbed him. Our Lord passed by Nicodemus
and saved a woman divorced five times. That shook him. Our Lord passed by Simon the
good man. and gave his attention to a harlot
who had come into the room and was bathing his feet with tears. Our Lord passed by the scribes
of Jericho and called Zacchaeus the most hated man in the town. Our Lord passed by the good people,
the good hard-working people of the land of the Gadarenes
and went out in the cemetery and saved a man that was possessed
of demons. They couldn't change him. And they came out to him and
they said, why don't you just leave our town and not come back?
He said, I'm not come to call you righteous people, but sinners
to repentance. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying, Christ came to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Our Lord said,
the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
If you're looking for confidence and assurance of your relationship
with Christ by your position By your morality, or by your
religious duties alone, you're looking in the wrong place. Satan
will give you a false assurance, and a false confidence, and a
false presumption, and you'll perish someday under the judgment
of God. It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to his mercy, mercy, mercy that
he saved us. A man cannot find assurance of
his interest in Christ or his relationship with Christ by knowing
Bible facts. Now, here's a man I got this
letter from who has a B.A., a B.S., a W., a D.D.,
and all the degrees. And I'm sure he's a theologian.
But I'll guarantee you this, if he's trusting that for his
relationship with God, he's But I've read the Bible all the
way through. Somebody says, he says he knows his Bible. Does he know the author? The Pharisees knew the Bible.
The scribes knew the Bible. They were the translators and
the people who sat with pen and ink and inscribed the words on
other pages for other people. Satan quoted scripture when he
was in the Mount of Temptation with our Lord, he said, cast
yourself down, it's written, he shall give his angels charge
over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. My friends, listen to me right
here, and I want you to hear this if you hear nothing else.
I've been preaching about 22 minutes now, and I've come to,
I think, the most important part of this message. This salvation
This thing we call salvation. This thing of a relationship
with God Almighty. This thing of eternal life, sonship. It speaks of greater things than
religious offices. It speaks of greater things than
obedience to religious rituals. The pagans do that. They go through
much of their ceremonies. are taken from the Bible. This
thing of salvation, eternal life. speaks of greater things than
religious duties. You can fast and not know God.
You can tithe and not know God. You can teach and preach the
Scriptures and not know God. You can study theology and not
know God. You can pray and not know God. It goes beyond religious
feelings and experiences and morality and decisions. This
thing of salvation has to do with the great kingdom of God's
glory. That's what it has to do with,
the kingdom of God's glory. So many people are talking about
heaven who know nothing of his glory. He said, when you pray,
pray, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thine is the power and the glory. David, when he prayed, he said,
O Lord, thine is the victory, thine is the majesty, thine is
the wisdom, thine is the glory. This thing of salvation has more
to do with something greater than just keeping me out of hell. It has to do with the kingdom
of God's glory. It has to do with the exaltation
of his Son. That's what it has to do with,
primarily. And in the first part, it's not
our getting to heaven, it's Christ being exalted that's God's design
in redemption. Turn over there and look at this. You see, he's going to be glorified
both in the administration of his justice and his mercy. So it really doesn't matter a
great deal in the great universe whether I'm in the administration
of justice or mercy so long as Christ is glorified. That's right. It does to me, but now I'm not
talking about me, I'm talking about God's design in Redemption. I'm talking about the overall
design and glory of God in Redemption. I'm just another son of Adam,
of which there are billions. I'm just another grain of dust,
of which there are billions. I'm just another mass of putrid
flesh. This world is made up of billions
of them. He said in Philippians 2, listen,
verse 9, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven, in earth, under the earth, and every tongue
confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This
is God's great design in redemption, is the glory of Christ, and my
part in it. will be determined to a great
extent over my ability to glorify Christ. I'll tell you something else,
this thing of salvation, it's greater than religious offices
and duties and morality and feelings and rituals and experiences and
decisions. It has to do with God's holy
law and God's justice. The power and wisdom of God.
It has to do with a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness, populated by a people like his dear Son. Turn to Ephesians. Let me show you something over
here. Ephesians 1. What I'm trying to say to you,
if we could just get beyond our ego. our individuality, our selfishness. And if our minds and thoughts
could just look beyond the salvation of this one individual, this
particular flesh. I know it's my flesh, and it's
close to me, and when it hurts, I hurt. But God's great design is not
just to salvage this puny, feeble mass of flesh. It's to glorify
Christ. He says in Ephesians 1, listen
to this verse 9, "...having made known unto us the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in
himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might
gather together in one all things in Christ." The only name mentioned there
is Christ. We're not mentioned. Which are in heaven, which are
on earth. Look at chapter 2, verse 7. That in ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. The average preacher would have
you think that it's going to bankrupt heaven if you don't
give God your heart. Look at chapter 2, verse 7. that
in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. The average preacher
would have you think that it's going to bankrupt heaven if you
don't give God your heart. It's going to bankrupt heaven
if you don't let God save you. But let me tell you this, this
thing of salvation reaches far beyond individual sons of Adam. This thing of salvation has to
do with the glory of Jesus Christ. It has to do with the exaltation
of Jesus Christ. It has to do with the satisfaction
of his holy law and justice. It has to do with the manifestation
of the mercy of God in accordance with his holiness and wisdom
and power. It has to do with a new heaven
and a new earth and a new universe when dwelleth righteousness.
It has to do with God's will, not your will, but God's will. It has to do with the subduing
of every foreign will, of every other will, of every contrary
will, and God's will alone done. Listen to these scriptures. He
doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Our Lord prayed, Thy will, not
my will, be done. Every enemy shall be made his
footstool. What is sin? It's the introduction
into God's universe of another will. And I'll show you where
it started. Turn to Isaiah. I'll show you
where this whole mess started. Isaiah 14, look at it. It says in Isaiah 14, 12, Thou
art fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. Thou cut
down to the ground, which did weaken the nation, for you said
in your heart." This is where sin, this is where sin's throne
room is, the heart. This is where the business end
of sin is, in the heart. This is where the fountain of
evil is, in the heart. He said in his heart, I will
ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will. said also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the earth, I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds, I will! That's where she is, that's where
it all started. And Satan came sneaking privately
and quietly to our mother Eve and said, you will, you will
be like God, you will. Salvation, what is salvation? Salvation is God breaking, conquering,
bringing into subjection my will to His will. That's where it
is. The essence of sin is I will. The essence of holiness is Thy
will. If God Almighty can break me, He'll save me. If God Almighty
can humble me, He'll save me. If He can bring me down in the
dust, before his throne to worship, to bow down, you're safe. If
not, then my will's got to go. It's got to be cast out, it's
got to be put away, because one of these days every enemy's going
to be destroyed. And if my will's not conquered,
and my will's not broken, and my will's not submitted to his
will in all things, then I've got to go with Satan and all
the rest of them who are enemies of God. Got to go. Saul of Tarsus on
the road to Damascus was broken. And when he looked up, he said,
Lord, what will you have me do? I don't have a will, my will
is his will. I'll tell you this, I have not
succeeded in bringing God down to my understanding, not at all,
the secret things belong to God. I'm saying this, you watch this
picture, oh the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and
the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out who hath known the mind of the
Lord, who hath been his counselor? I do know this. You take the
mystery out of Revelation and you take the truth out of it.
You say, I don't understand, I don't understand, this is a
mystery to me. I tell you this, you take the
truth out of Revelation, or the mystery out of Revelation, take
the truth out. Anything that a natural man can understand
and approve of is a lie. Modern religion, modern fundamentalism
is a lie, because a natural man can understand it, can walk in
it, can approve of it, and can carry it out. It says in 1 Corinthians, you
listen to him in 1 Corinthians 2.14, it says this, listen to
it. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Anything that a natural man can
understand, can comprehend, can walk in, can receive and approve
of is not of the Spirit of God. That's so. There's foolishness
to it. God said, your thoughts are not
my thoughts and your ways are not my ways. And what I'm saying
to you, this thing of salvation, I know they've got it down to
a plan, they've got it down to an invitation, they've got it
down to an altar call, they've got it down to you're doing certain
things, but I'm telling you, this thing of salvation, you
go right on back, right on back, you stop with the thief on the
cross, what does he know about all these things we know about?
But I'll tell you this, he knew There was a king there next to
him, a lord, a master, and he submitted. He submitted. Let's go on back to Abraham.
What did Abraham know about all these things you know about,
about believing that Christ died, was buried, rose again, and ascended
to heaven? What did Abraham know about these
things? He had some revelation in type and promise. I'll tell
you where Abraham's salvation was. Abraham believed God. He bowed to God. Abraham submitted. You see this thing of faith.
Faith that saves is not faith in the finished work of Christ,
it's in Christ who finished the work. A faith that saves is not
faith in a fact, it's faith in a person. To as many as receive
him. Now that can be true if you go
on back to Abel. What did Abel know about a cross?
But Abel believed God, and he submitted his will to God. Though
he didn't understand, though he didn't comprehend, though
he didn't understand all the mysteries, though he didn't know
everything that was going to take place 4,000 years later,
God had said to him, My purpose, My design is to save you. How
I save you, what I do, is none of your business. You believe
Me, and you submit to My will. And you bow to me." And Abel
did that, and he brought the sacrifice God told him to bring.
His brother reasoned. This is modern man. He reasoned. Now, blood is not clean. Blood is an abomination. Killing an animal. Now, the humane
society wouldn't be for that. We don't want to be killing animals.
We want to save the animals. And so he brought, he fixed him
up a nice altar. Now this is the way to come to
God. All you friends and neighbors, just build you a nice altar and
put some lovely flowers around it, a candle or two, and get
that religious atmosphere that appeals to your heart and your
mind and your flesh. And then you come to God on a
certain time, and you do a certain way of bowing it, you know, get
you a nice pretty robe and bring that. There Abel's standing over
there in his old goat-skin outfit, you know, barefooted. That's
no way to come to church. Get you a beautiful robe and
all this sort of thing, and come to God in the quietness and worship
of a good atmosphere with, don't spill blood everywhere either,
bring a nice neat sacrifice. Kill him. Send him to hell. What I'm saying, Abraham believed
God. Turn to Romans chapter 4. And
I just know that what I'm telling you is so, because it applies
to every generation and to every believer and to all who come
to God. We come as guilty sinners, helpless. We come submissive, surrendered,
bow down, believe. In Romans chapter 4 it says in
verse 20, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. Some of
these promises were staggering promises. Old man, old woman,
womb dead, have a son. That's pretty staggering. But
he believed. He believed, he was strong in
faith, he gave God the glory, he was fully persuaded of what
God had promised he was able to perform, and therefore was
imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed, what? If we believe on him that raised
up Jesus from the dead. God at the beginning did create
man in his own image. God created man with beauty,
wisdom, strength, power, with dominion. Made with him a covenant. Leave the fruit alone. That's
not yours to reason about this, it's yours to leave it alone.
There's just one will in this universe, that's my will. And
you can be happy so long as you walk in my will. Outside of my
will, you've got to be destroyed. Adam was going to have his will.
That's when he exercised his free will. That's the only time
a man's ever exercised his free will in this universe. The only time
a man had a free will, that was it. He exercised it, and that's
the end of it. Our wills now are not free. They're bound.
They're under bondage. They're under slavery. Adam had
a free will, and he exercised it and perished. And our state
since that time has been one of condemnation and inability.
Now, the Lord did most freely for an everlasting purpose and
intended to save a people. He chose those people in an everlasting
covenant and gave them to his Son. Christ was made the surety
of that covenant. That covenant was consistent
with his holiness, his law, and his justice in that Christ came
down here and fulfilled it. In the Old Testament, you've
got Christ in prophecy. Those men believed it. Christ
in promise, they believed it. Christ in type, they believed
it. In the New Testament, Christ in person. And I'm saved exactly
like they were, looking to that person. You see, we have the
death of Christ on the cross here, but Christ was the lamb
slave and the foundation of the world. My faith is in him. My confidence
is in him. But he came down here in the
fullness of time, born of a woman. in all points as we are, obedient
in all things, died under the condemnation of our sin, was
buried and rose again, and he ascended to God's right hand
as our great high priest and mediator. By his obedience the
law is satisfied. By his death justice is honored
and satisfied. God can now, consistent with
his holiness and consistent with his justice and consistent with
his own righteousness, pardon me. because of what Christ did,
because of who Christ did, because of where Christ did. Now, that's
my claim to holiness. That's my claim to righteousness.
It's not anything that I've done, produced, or will do. My claim
to holiness is that Jesus Christ from eternity past as my surety
into eternity future as my mediator and reigning Lord has represented
me. That's my claim to justification,
my claim to glory, my claim to righteousness, my claim to all
things. It's Jesus Christ, the person
of Christ. He's the author and finisher
of faith. All that he did, all that he is, all that he will
be is my claim. Now, you can have assurance there.
Well, you say, well, Preacher, let me ask you this. I am an
individual. God's great design will be accomplished. No question about that. I'm confident
of that. But I want to have a part in it. I don't want the condemnation
part. I don't want the damnation part.
I don't want judgment. I want to reign with Christ. I want to be saved. I know fully
that this little Ritualism, they call salvation today, is not
it. I know that, and you know that.
You know that, and I know it too. Well, what shall I do then? Well, I would say three things.
And these are powerful things. They're so much more powerful
than the words indicate. First of all, believe. Believe. Paul said to Philippian Jader,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said in John 3, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth. Believe
what? Believe what the record says
about Christ, about God Almighty's holiness and justice and sovereignty
and majesty. You see, we can't have a God
of our own imaginations. It's got to be the God as he's
revealed in the Scripture. God of creation, the God of election.
He said, does a man have to believe in sovereignty to be saved? When
he's confronted with it, he does. Man has to believe in election
to be saved? If he's confronted with it, he does. Because this is the character
of God. God said, Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. I'll be gracious to him, I will be gracious." Somebody
said, well, my God wouldn't do that. Then you've got the wrong
God, evidently. Somebody's worshiping the wrong God. You're not believing
God. This thing of believing God is
more than just a word. I believe Jesus died on the cross
and buried and rose again, so does the devil. Well, I believe
God created the world in six days, so does the devil. Well,
I believe all the facts here about the sun standing still
and Jonah in the belly of the whale, so does the devil. But this thing of faith is to
believe the person, the person, as he's revealed, as he manifests
himself. It's to believe the record God
hath given concerning himself. That's what it is to believe.
He that believeth on the Son of God. Not A son of God or A
messenger of God, B son of God. How does the scripture identify
Christ? How does the scripture identify
God? What does the scripture say about me? I believe that. All right, secondly, not only
believe it, but bow to him. Turn to Romans 10. Romans 10,
verse 9. Bow to him. If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, Jesus to be Lord. To be what? To be Lord. The Bible
doesn't know anything about a doormat named Jesus or a fire escape
from hell named Jesus. It knows something about one
who is the Lord of our life. Brother Flaming gave me a little
note yesterday. You call me Lord and obey me
not. You call me the truth and believe
me not. You call me the way and you walk not with me. You call
me the light and live in darkness. You call me the life and live
me not. Something's wrong about that, isn't it? Is he Lord or
isn't he? Is he your life? This thing of
salvation. I'm talking about salvation now.
We're talking about bowing. Bow down. Bow down. You're the king. I'm under new
management. I submit, like Thomas of old, my Lord and my God. The
third thing is to confess him. Ananias said, Sorrow, arise and
be baptized, and wash away thy sin. Peter said to those people at
Pentecost, Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
That's what we're talking about. I've tried, my dear friends,
to show you. I just know that what's religion
today, I watch it and listen to it. It's nauseating. I know
if it's nauseating to me, it must be horribly nauseating to
God. We're like the Jews of old. We've got our rituals and our
ceremonies, our traditions, and our ways of doing things. And
we're going to demand of God in return. It's like the preacher
said on television this morning, God's going to reward me for
my faithfulness. We're going to demand it of him. And our
Lord came that Sabbath morning in Luke 4 to Nazareth where he
was brought up, and he spoke to that great multitude, and
he said there were many lepers in the land of Israel in the
days of Eliseus the prophet, and God healed none of them.
There were many widows in the land of Israel in the days of
the prophet. God fed none of them. And they rose up in wrath
and took him out to the brow of the hill and would have cast
him down headlong. And I'm afraid that we're in
the same shape today. We've got these little recipes
for revival that don't revive, and we've got this little plan
of salvation that doesn't save. No way Abraham could have got
in under present demands for salvation. The thief on the cross
or anybody else. It's just men of this generation.
That's the reason they've got several different dispensations
of how God saves men. They've got dispensation of innocence
and dispensation of conscience and dispensation of judges, dispensation
of laws, and now the law is no longer a test of salvation but
it's believing on the Son, and then during the millennium it's
going to be something else, hogwash. Salvation has always been by
one way, that's by Christ. And that's by believing Christ,
submitting to Christ, bowing to Christ, and owning Christ,
whatever he does. Under whatever degree of light
you have, under whatever degree of revelation, now is the accepted
time. Today is the day of salvation.
Bow to earth! Own Christ! Submit to Christ! Every knee's going to bow and
every tongue's going to confess throughout the universe that
he died on the cross? No, sir, that he's Lord. In what character was he humiliated
in the soldier's hall? King. In what character was he
crucified? They wrote over his head, King. That's right, king. And that's
what he is, and that's where it begins, my friend. This will,
sin, is an introduction of another will, another will, into God's
universe. And that's the whole battle.
His will, or Satan's will, or my will, or human will, or any
other kind of will, God's will. And this thing of salvation,
whether you're an able or whether you're Noah, Enoch, or whether
you're David, or whether you're Apostle Paul, or whether you're
under this dispensation of more revelation and more light, more
understanding, it still comes down to submission. All that I was, my sin, my guilt,
my death was all my own. All that I am, I owe to thee,
my gracious God alone. The evil of my former state was
mine and only mine, the good in which I now rejoice is thine
and only thine. Thy grace made me feel my sin
and taught me to believe, and in believing, peace I found,
and now I live, I live. All that I am, even here on earth,
all that I hope to be when Jesus Christ comes in glory dawns,
I owe it, Lord, to thee. I'm saying unto you, yes, believe
the facts of the doctrines of the cross, of the resurrection
and these things. But it's not just believing those
facts itself. Because there were men, there
were men who were saved with a lot less light than you had,
regarding a cross that would be, that they didn't understand.
They knew there had to be a sacrifice, they knew there had to be a lamb,
they knew there had to be a sin offering, they knew that God's
wrath had to be satisfied. But they believed that God would
do it. They believed God. Abraham believed
God, it was counted to him for righteousness, and today we've
got We got this thing fixed up so that if a fellow doesn't have
to submit, he doesn't have to bow, he doesn't have to surrender,
all he has to do is accept a few facts, walk down an aisle and
join a church, and he's fixed up. But it's a whole lot more
than that.