In John 3, verse 9, Nicodemus, this was a man who moved in high
circles, a man of great influence, prestige, natural wisdom, a man,
I imagine, over middle age. answered and said unto him, How
can these things be? Our Lord had spoken to Nicodemus
about some things. These are the things to which
Nicodemus was referring, the things that Christ had been speaking
about. Our Lord had spoken to him in
these verses above about some mysteries. spiritual matters,
regeneration, the new birth, the presence of a new nature
in a man of flesh, a relationship with God. And Nicodemus did not understand,
and this was his conclusion. Well, how can these things be?
And the Master asked him this. He said, Are you an authority?
Are you a master in Israel? Are you authority? on the scriptures
and you don't know these things? Are you a religious leader, are
you a teacher of other men and you don't know these things? And again, he's saying here in
verse 11, he said, though you receive not my witness, the things
I've said, you don't receive them and you don't have the capacity
to believe them. Christ said, I'm still the only
source of knowledge and the only fountain of grace, for no man's
ever gone up to heaven to find out these things. There is one
who came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is, who dwells,
whose home is in heaven. And he's the source. Now, I hear
people say religion's a racket. Well, I'm going to surprise some
of you here tonight. I agree with you 100 percent. That's
exactly what it is. It's a racket. And there are
a lot of racketeers. And I'll tell you, they're not
any more deadly. They're not as deadly as the
Mafia. They're not as deadly as organized religion is not
as deadly as organized crime. That's exactly right. Because
these criminals and these gamblers and these fellows making merchandise
of men's money. These religious racketeers are
making merchandise of men's souls. If that guy doesn't lose his
money and survive, he'll lose his soul and be damned forever.
And I say they're more deadly, more poisonous. The enemies of
our nation, they're religious racketeers. I've heard people
say this, religion is the, you know what the Russians say, the
opium of the people? I agree with them. They're in
a stupor. Fundamentalists and legalists
and all the other ists are in a stupor. They hope some things
are so. But salvation is real. Religion is a racket. Religion
is the opium of the people. Religion is a profitable enterprise. It's a social circle. It's a
business. It's like Maude Amey said in
Time magazine, religion's so biz, and when your competitor
has a bigger bloom, you've got to get one bigger than his. That's
exactly it. She summed it up, and she's dead
right. But salvation is still real. And it's in Christ. And that's what our Lord is saying
here. He's talking to this man Nicodemus, who's a religious
man, who's a religious leader, who's in a religious authority.
He's in on all the religious enterprises and organizations
and ecclesiastical powers and boards and way up there, influential. And Christ said, you are a leader,
you are a master, you are a teacher of these things, and you do not
understand heavenly things. But they can be understood. And
that's what I'm here tonight to do, to help you and for me
to understand some mysteries these things. Would you learn?
Would you know? Would you be taught? Then I'll
tell you where we'll have to find ourselves. We'll have to
find ourselves at his feet, because he says, I'm still the source.
You don't believe, he said, and you don't receive my words, but
I'm still the fountain of knowledge and the fountain of grace, because
no man on this earth has gone up there to heaven to find out
these things. But the one who dwells in heaven,
whose home is in heaven, to whom heaven belongs, who made all
things, has come down here. And he is the source of knowledge.
He's the source of wisdom. He's the only source of information,
and we're going to have to be found at his feet learning. That's
where Mary was found. Christ said she hath chosen the
good thing that will not be taken from her at my feet, hearing
my word. We need to calm down, we need
to cool it, we need to settle down, we need to sit at Christ's
feet, we need to quit playing, as Luther Travis back there says,
fun and games, and get serious about this thing and sit at the
feet of Christ and see if he's pleased to teach us something.
Now, I have five questions tonight that are vital, critical. at
the very foundation of everything that this scripture teaches and
the relationship which we have with God and heavenly things,
these things. And I'm going to ask five questions
and deal with them. Number one is this. I gave them
to you this morning. I won't repeat them now. Repeat
them as I ask them. Number one. And I tell you, as
I prepared this message, I thought, now, there are people sitting
there who really care. who want to know what we're saying,
what are we teaching, what are we preaching? What's this all
about? Have you ever come to the place
where you think, well, I just don't know what's going on, I
don't understand that religious jargon, I don't understand all
that, well, praise the Lord, well, the Spirit lives, well,
this, that, I don't know what they're talking about, you know,
I'm lost in this. Well, let's come down here and talk American.
And let's see if we can understand some of these things in plain
language. That's what I'm going to try
to do tonight. And here's the first question. What creates
a real interest in seeking the Lord? What stimulates a real
interest in seeking the Lord? Now, the scripture says, you
know this is so, the scripture says, seek the Lord. You know
what seek means, seek the Lord. Set your heart on the Lord, set
your affection on the Lord. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. He said, you will seek me and find me when you search
for me with all your heart. Christ said, seek the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be
added to you. Men ought to seek the Lord. Don't you agree? They
ought to seek the Lord. He ought to be their end and
goal and objective, their obsession to seek the Lord. But they don't.
You know they don't. There's none that seeketh after
God. Not by nature. Well, what creates an interest? What leads some men to seek the
Lord while others never seek the Lord? What really creates
an interest? I picked up an article in a religious
paper last Wednesday or Thursday. See if you can see what's wrong
with this statement. A man began an article, and I'm not looking
at an article trying to find things wrong with it, it just
jumps out at you. And you can see what's wrong
with this statement right here. A pastor, a writer, a theologian,
began an article recently, and the title of the article was
The Existence of God, The Existence of God. And this is the way,
this is the statement with which he opened that article. Now,
think about this. This is the statement, quote,
Rational men have always wrestled with the question. Does God really
exist? Now, you think about that. He's writing an article on the
existence of God, proving the existence of God. And he says
rational men have always wrestled with the question, does God really
exist? That's not so. The fool has said
in his heart there's no God. A rational man doesn't debate
whether God exists. I'm talking about a rational
man, a sane man. A thinking man knows God exists. A fool, the
scripture says, the fool has said in his heart there's no
God. I've never wrestled with a question, does God exist? Not
while I'm in my right mind. I may go out of my mind someday
and wrestle with a question whether God exists, but the fool has
said there's no God. You know there's a God. Your
conscience, nature, the universe, all things, his wisdom is declared
in every language. The sound has gone out throughout
all the earth. He's not left himself without
a witness. That's not so. Rational men, sane men, wise
men do not wrestle with the question, does God exist? The fool is the
one that wrestles with a question like that. He says there's no
God. So that's not what creates an
interest, is there a God? He's not going to get anybody
interested in seeking God by trying to prove there is a God.
The Bible assumes that people believe that, it just starts
off in the beginning, God. It doesn't tell about his beginning,
it just tells about our beginning. There are four words that stimulate
an interest in seeking this God. who does exist, who is and was
and always will be. There are four words. Those words
are life, death, judgment, and eternity. Now, when I, let me
tell you this, when these words come to have a real meaning to
me, now, if they have no real meaning to you, then you'll never
seek the Lord. But when these words come to
have a real meaning, I've got a life to live. Now, that's all,
I've got a life to live. living human being. I've got
a life to live. I can live it happily, I can
live it miserably. I can live it in joy, I can live
it in sorrow. I can live this life with a hope
or with no hope. But I've got a life to live.
I've got one life which will soon be passed. I don't care
for the rest of that little cliché, but I like that part. Only one
life that will soon be passed. When you become aware of what a treasure you have a
life. One life. Here's the second thing.
I've got a death to die. I'm going to die. You're going
to die, Jeff Harris. You're going to die, Charlie
Payne, you're going to die, said Cecil. You're going to die. I'm going to die. I don't know
when, but I'm going to die. I've got a death to die. It's
a pardon unto me and wants to die. And I'll tell you this,
I want to die the death of the righteous. I don't want to die
the death of a dog, do you? I want to die under the mercy
of God, under the love of God, under the grace of God. I don't
want to die under the judgment and wrath of a holy God. Christ
said, if you die in your sins, you can't come where I am. We're
going to die. I wish people thought about death
before they go to the funeral home. I was reading a psalm just a
few minutes ago in a study. David wrote in Psalm 90 or 91,
one of those psalms, he said, teach us to number our days.
He said, Our days are threescore and ten. It may be we'll have
more, it may be, but not certain, we're going to die. And then
the third word is judgment. I've got a judgment to face.
Every man is going to give an account of himself to God. We're
either going to face God in grace or judgment. That's just all
there is to it. We're going to face God in grace
or judgment. And either place reveals the
true nature of both. You know what Brother Scott said
one time? If I meet God in grace, it's going to reveal his gracious
mercy and my need. If I meet God in justice, it's
going to reveal my vile character and his holiness. But it's going
to reveal both. I'm going to meet God. What I
want to do is meet him now. I don't want to meet him at the
I want to meet God now. I want to meet him on my face.
I want to meet him on my knees. I want to meet him with my hands
outstretched. I want to meet him with my hands
empty. I don't want to meet him at the
judgment, armed with all of my goody-goodies and all of my works
and my filthy rags of righteousness, and say, Won't these do? Or hear
the King come in and find me without a robe on, and hear him
say, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into hell, where the
worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. I've got an eternity
to spend somewhere. If a man dies, shall he live
again? Well, you know he will, and I know he will. The Bible
says he will. God says he will. He's going
to live separated from God, or he's going to live eternally
joined to God, sharing his glory and his beauty. Now, I say those
are the four words. You can talk about religious
interest or you can talk about anything else, but I say down
here on the foundry, down here where it begins, down here where
the boys say the rubber meets the road, these are the four
things that stimulate in me an interest in this book. Would
you say that, Charles? I think those are the four things.
I believe those are the four things that when you come right
down to it, and this is the thing about talking boys and girls
into professions of faith. I know we want to see our children
saved, we want to see other people saved, but they are not concerned
with these things, Paul. And you say, well, don't you
love Jesus? Well, if Daddy loves Jesus, they love Jesus. If Daddy's
a baseball fan, usually his son's a baseball fan. And most of the
time, they take Daddy's team. That's right. And they'll take
Daddy's Jesus and Daddy's God, or Mama's Jesus or Mama's God.
But when you come down to it, when you get out here, when you
become an adult, when you come of years, like Moses came of
years. He came of age. And Moses began
to waste some things. Now, am I going to perish with
these Egyptians and their idolatry and paganism and heathenism?
Or am I going to separate myself from them and walk with the living
God? And he made a choice. He said this, and there is a
choice. There is a decision. He said, I turn my back on the
riches of Egypt and I choose to suffer the reproaches of God's
people. Why? I've got a life to live
and a death to die and a judgment to face and an eternity to spend. A life like a dog, die like a
dog, then live well housed and well fed, like a dog. Let your God be your belly, let
your God be the things of this world, give yourself to it. If
it's true that tomorrow you die and you're annihilated, then
eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. But if
there's something after that, then there needs to be some seeking
of the Lord. That's just so, Paul, that's where it is. And
I say, when a man or a woman sits down and counts the cost,
you can have what you want, it depends on whether you want to
pay the price. If you want $100,000 tomorrow, it's right down in
the Second National Bank. Get your gun, go down and hold
it up. You say, yeah, but I'd spend the rest of my life in
jail. Then it's not worth it, is it? It's not worth it. That's what I'm saying. It's
not worth it. And this is the thing. Now, this
is not salvation. I say, this is the thing that
leads men to seek the Lord. You don't get saved because you don't
want to die. You don't get saved or you're not saved because you
don't want to go to hell. This is the thing that stimulates
an interest in spiritual matters. This is the thing that gets the
fellow started. He begins to consider the reality
of life, the realities, the values of life and death and judgment
and eternity. All right? Secondly, here's the
next question. Say a fellow here is interested
in God. You're interested in spiritual
things. Then what promotes, what really, down deep, promotes a
true conviction of sin? Now, there's got to be a conviction
of sin. A man's not going to receive
grace until he's guilty. You know that. A man's not going
to seek mercy until he's guilty. A man's not going to turn to
Christ until he needs Christ. Now, that's just, if you miss
Holy Spirit conviction, you miss repentance, you're not going
to repent of something for which you're not aware. You're not
going to grieve over a sin that's not real. You can't do it. You can't grieve over the doctrine
of sin. You grieve over the presence of sin, the reality of sin. I'm not going to sit down and
weep because some preacher said that the Bible says all men have
sinned. I'm going to weep when I find out that I'm that man.
I'm that man. What promotes a true conviction
of sin? How and when is a man really
broken? Most men and women have never
been broken, not under the conviction of sin. Well, number one, I know
this, and let's just put this aside, because let's assume that
all of us got this much sin. Number one, it's the Holy Spirit
who convicts, and we know that. When he has come, Christ said,
he will convict the world of sin. That's so. Number two, it's
the law by which a knowledge of sin comes, God's holy law. I'm just talking about the moral
law, the Ten Commandments, I'm talking about all of God's laws. Paul said, I'd never known sin
had not the law said this. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Thirdly, the heart is the place
that's affected. That's where the work of conviction
goes on, it's in the heart. They were pricked in their hearts,
the scripture said. They were troubled in their hearts.
That's where with the heart man believes, with the heart man
is convicted. We know those things. Let's set
them aside. Let's assume that they're true. We know they're
true, but let's just assume we all know it. But when does a
real awareness of my sin and of my guilt and of my filth and
of my shortcomings, when does that dawn upon my heart? You
know when it comes to a man, you know when it dawns upon a
man's heart. when he sees the holiness of God. That's so, when
he actually understands something of the holiness of God. You're
not going to look at a church covenant. You might look at a
church covenant and come to see that you don't fulfill what it
says. You may look at another person who is better than you,
morally. And you may be a little convicted
of trouble because you don't come up to that standard. You
don't come up to the standard your mother sets for you or somebody
else sets for you. But I'll tell you, when you really
fall down in the dust is when you see how holy God is before
whom we stand. Let me show you Isaiah 6. Isaiah
6. Now, this is true. I've showed
you this before, I'll repeat it again. But what I'm saying
is, this is when a man is convicted of sin. This is when he becomes
troubled. This is when he becomes, this
is when he's stripped. Isaiah said in Isaiah 6, in the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. He talks about God being high,
lifted up, and his train filling the temple. And he says in verse
3, even the Seraphim, verse 2, cover their faces and their feet.
And they cry one to another, Holy, Holy, Holy. I saw the Lord
in his holiness, and verse 5 said, Then said I, Woe is me. Then,
then, as a key there, T-H-E, then. That's when I said, Woe
is me. Up until that time, he had been saying, Woe is you.
And now he says, woe is me. Turn to Job, Job 40. As you go through the scripture,
you'll find that these men of the Old Testament were humbled
and broken and stripped and convicted when they met God in his holiness. When Israel came to the mountain
of Sinai and they saw the thunder and the lightning and the glory
of God, they backed up, they saw the Lord's holiness. when
they saw his holiness in the face of Moses. They couldn't
look on his face. In Job 40, the Lord answered
Job and asked him some things. In verse 4, Job said, Look at
it, Behold, I am bowed. What shall I answer thee? I lay
my hand on my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer ye, twice, but I will proceed no farther. See, it wasn't
a confrontation with a man that shut Job's mouth, it was a confrontation
with God. That's it. He had a confrontation
with God. God asked Job there, he says,
shall you contend with the Almighty, instruct him? And Job was confronted
with the greatness and glory and power and holiness of God,
and that confrontation shut his mouth. You and I have been trying
for a long time to get people to see their weakness and their
sins and their inability and to humble them, and we're trying
to do it with arguments. God does it with his presence,
just like that, his presence. People never met God, they've
never been broken. Look at chapter 42. Job 42, verse
5. Job 42, verse 5. Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore,
Lord, I hate myself, and I repent in dust and ashes." That's when
it will take place. I'm as good as you are, that's
what they'll tell you, and you have to reply, you're right.
I'm as good as anybody down at your church, you're right. I've heard men argue this where
somebody says, well, there are plenty of hypocrites down at
your church. And I heard a preacher say one time, yeah, but if you
hide behind the hypocrite, he's closer to God than you are. That's
a waste of time, a total waste of time. They're both a waste
of time. The man needs to see, every one of us needs to see,
we need to be confronted with. the presence of the Lord God
in his holiness and his right. When you find out how he loves,
you find out you don't. When you find out how holy he
is, you find out how unholy you are, we are. When you find out
how truthful he is, you find out how untruthful we are. You
find out how great he is, how small we are. That's the whole
thing. Real conviction of sin comes
when a man realizes that he's come short of what? The glory
of God. That's where it is. All have
sinned and come short of what? Man's expectations, man's rules,
man's law? No, sir. God's glory. And I don't
care how high on the totem pole you are with men, you're still
short of God's glory. And that's by the thing by which
we're judged. That's when real conviction comes,
and when we are made aware of the fact that our sins are against
God. That's what the prodigal son
said when he was sitting on the railing of the pigpen. He said,
I'm going to go home and I'm going to tell my father I've
sinned against him. Is that what he said? That wasn't
what he said. He said, I'm going home and tell
my father I've sinned against God and in his sight. That's
the difference. And Paul wrote to the Corinthians
in 2 Corinthians, and he said, When you repent with an earthly
sorrow, it'll just bring more death. But if you repent and
are convicted with a godly sorrow, it'll bring repentance. You say,
what's the difference? Repentance in earthly sorrow
is repenting because it cost us something, or we got caught,
or this, that, and the other. A godly sorrow makes us repent
because we've sinned against God, our sins against God. And that's when we're really
convicted of sin, and that's when we start looking for mercy.
If you keep on comparing yourselves with the other worms of this
world, you'll just try to be a better worm. That's all, just
be a better worm. But when you start seeing the
impossibility of ever being like Christ Then you turn your hands
up this way, and you say, Lord, I'm helpless, save me or I'll
perish. This is the difference right
here in present-day religion and salvation by grace. You go
out and preach, you're a sinner, you need to get straightened
out and all this thing, you need to accept Jesus, and they do
all these things. They try to get a little holier
than you, a little better than you, a little better singer than
you, a little better preacher than you. and a little better
this, that and the other than you, but they're still down here
in the cesspool. When you get your eyes off people
and men and laws and rules and regulations and set your eyes
on God Almighty and his holiness and his lofty, immaculate, immutable,
infinite and unchangeable, everlasting holiness, and you say, No use
climbing any higher in this cesspool, I'll still be in it. No use trying
to get above the best man. The best man is altogether vanity. They know he is competing in
this religious world. The Lord says, near I perish,
give me a righteousness with which you will be pleased, give
me a holiness with which you will be pleased. That's Christ. That's when a man is convicted
of sin, when he quits looking around and goes to looking up.
When he even quits looking within and goes to looking up and sees
he is short of the glory of God. That's when it will be done,
not until. What's the final experience which leads to a genuine faith
in Jesus Christ, a genuine faith? I can say this, I know whom I
have believed. I don't love Christ like I ought
to, but he knows. Some of you can say that, can't
you? You can say that, I love Christ,
I believe, my hope is built on nothing less than Christ. What
brought you that pleasure? I know there are some people
here that would be interested to know what actually brought
you to the place, that final experience, that final work of the Spirit that brought
you to just let it go, give it to Christ, commit yourself to
him. Well, let's put these several
things aside. I know we have no righteousness
of our own, and we cannot produce one. I think a man can know that
and not be saved. That's just a fact. Secondly, I know that Jesus Christ
died on the cross for sinners, and his is the only sin offering.
only sin offering, and I can even know this, it's the only
sin offering that will enable God to be just and justifying,
knowing that fact never saved anybody. So in other words, you
can believe in your head the facts of the gospel are not the
Savior. We realize that all of God's mercy, love and grace,
as you read in the study a while ago, Cecil, everything is in
Christ. That's a fact. These are all
Bible facts, but facts do not say it. It does not say, if you
believe the facts, you'll be saved. It says this, as many
as received him, to them gave he the privilege
to become sons of God. To as many as received, not the
truth about him, facts about him, or the things connected
with him, but him. That's what it says. Our Lord
said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll
give you rest. That's exactly what he said. And Paul the Apostle
said this, he's able to keep that which I've committed to
him. Now don't get so involved in religion that you miss Christ. Don't get so involved in an experience
of religion that you miss him who is salvation. Christ is salvation. Now, watch this. Here was a woman.
They'd been sick 12 years. Very sick, 12 years. She had
gone to everybody that she knew. She'd turned to philosophers
and psychologists, and she'd turned to doctors and all kind
of quacks, and she'd turned to teachers, she'd turned to remedies,
she'd turned to herbs, she'd turned to everything. She'd spent
everything she had. They couldn't help her. She was
no better. She was dying. She heard of Christ. She said
this, if I can get to Him, I'll be made whole. If I can get to
Him. And when she came, pushed her
way through the crowd and reached out in faith and touched him,
immediately the scripture says she was made whole. And that's
what I'm talking about, coming to him. He is our wisdom. I'm not saying just believe Christ
died on the cross and then try to get some wisdom. Christ is
my wisdom. I'm not saying believe Christ
died on the cross and then do your best to quit this and that
and the other and clean up your life and do what's right and
so on. Christ is my sanctification. I'm not saying that Christ died
on the cross and paid the debt so I don't owe it anymore so
I'll just get a free ride. That's true, but he is my righteousness
and wisdom and redemption. He's my redemption. He's my mediator,
he's all things. The disciples one day, when all
the people were leaving him, he said to the disciples, will
you go away? They said, to whom shall we go? To whom? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And listen to Paul in Philippians 3. Turn over there a minute.
Let me show you something in Philippians 3. This is where
it is. And this is where a man comes.
This is that last, final experience. He comes to this place right
here. This was the place to which Paul was brought. He'd been religious
for 40 years. He'd been seeking something for
40 years. And he told about all these things that he had done.
And then he came down to the end and he said in verse 7, But
what things were gained to me? All these things that were important,
that were gained, I count it lost for what? For Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things,
now look at that, all things, all things, my heritage, background,
accomplishments, morality, all things but loss, for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things, I do count them but rubbish, that
I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may
know him, know him, and the power of his resurrected life, and
the fellowship of his suffering. Now that's where it is. And a
person is knowing that person. It's my life. Other persons are
important, but Christ is my life. They fit in with him somehow. But he is the keystone. He is
the sun. What the sun is to the universe,
Christ is to me. What the keystone is to the arch,
without it, what the hands are to a clock, without which you've
got no time. It's just something there with
no meaning. what the needle is to accomplish. That's Christ. And that's where it is. It's
not a system or a religious rules and regulations or a moral system
or a reformation. It's married to, in union with,
vitally joined to a person. Christ Jesus. I'm nothing. He's everything. He's my rock on which to stand.
He's the heart that beats within me. He's my mind that thinks.
He's the clothing that clothes me. He's the breath that I breathe.
It's just Christ. That's where salvation is. Not
just believing there's a God. The devil believes that and trembles. It's not even just believing
that he died on the cross, was buried and rose again. You say,
well, I'm a fundamentalist. They believe in the blood and
the book and the blessed hope. And the devil does too. Isn't
that right? But I'm the Lord's bond slave.
He's my master. My Lord. I've been broken. He's
king. He's boss. But his word, it goes. What he says is, that's it. I've
committed it to him. And that's where a man comes.
He comes to that place, that decision, mind you, if you want
to call it that. But it's not a decision that
you believe he died on the cross, but you understand why he died
on the cross. And you approve of it. and you
receive it, and you bow to it, and you enthrone him, and crown
him Lord of all. That's where it is. That's the
Lordship of Christ. That's what Barnard came here
preaching 31 years ago. Almost 32 now in April, 32 years
ago in April, the Apollard Baptist Church. That's what he stung
every one of us with. We were all good little Southern
Baptist fundamentalists that made our decision for Jesus.
And he got up there and said, Christ is not just your Savior,
he's your Lord, or he's not your Savior. He's Lord. And that's where a man comes.
That's that last experience. He flirts around and fiddles
around with all this religion and morality and laws and rules
and covenants and confessions of faith and creeds and all the
rest of this stuff. And one day he meets the Lord,
and he just bows. God by His Spirit just brings
him down, Ronnie, and he bows, and he becomes Christly. And
when you talk about sovereignty, well, that's a sovereign Christ.
Talk about election, it's Christ who has the power over all flesh
to save whom he will. So it just comes natural, you
see. Talks about the divine call, it does cease to be a doctrine,
becomes the call of a person who calls his own. We talk about
particular redemption, see, that comes no problem when a man sees
that he can't fail. He can't fail. It's not a doctrine
anymore. It's Christ. The reality of Christ,
the person of Christ, the presence of Christ. To you that believe,
He's precious. He's not precious to anybody
else, but to those that believe. And we go to all these different,
we try to get our clichés and our little rules and regulations
and our pep talks and we go to church to be puffed up. or built
up or filled up or something, when all along Christ said, if
you come to know me, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living
water. The real presence of Christ. He says, I'm your rest, I'm your
peace, I'm your joy. Come unto me and you'll have
all these things. But we've come to this dry, dead system. People come to this dry, dead
morality and this dry, dead law and this dry, dead denomination,
and they get the fill of it in a little while, and somebody
has to keep pumping them up and pumping life into them, but Christ
becomes more glorious and precious every day. The reality. That's
it. And that's when a man will be
saved when he comes in. Here's the fourth thing. How?
The fourth question is this, how are the scriptures open to
a man's understanding? How is a man going to understand
this book? This is a mystery. This Bible, some people say,
well, I never have been able to understand it. Well, I know
that. Nobody else does. By nature, in the flesh, because
it's written by the Holy Spirit. If a man has not the Holy Spirit,
how is he going to understand it? It's written in a heavenly
language, not an earthly language. Now here's the way, here's the
key. Now let's set these things aside
for a moment. I know that we're taught of God.
That's so. I know we're taught it comes
by revelation. I know a knowledge of the scripture
comes by revelation. I know that. I know there must
be a desire on a man's part to understand anything. You've got
to want to know it. You ever try to teach a child
it wasn't listening? You can't teach him anything.
But if you can get a fellow listening to you, interested. I used to
tell my son, Robbie, that when he was in high school, he wanted
to play football. That's all he wanted to do, play
football. And his grades were bad one six or nine weeks. And he came in with a bad report
card. And I said, son, I said, you've got plenty of brains.
You're a smart young man. And why is it you can't get these
simple things? He said, when we're sitting in class, my mind's
out there on the football field. Well, I said, let me give you
some advice. When you're out there on the football field,
do you ever think about that class? Oh, no. I said, that's the reason
you're so good at football and so poor in class. When you're
out here, you got your mind down there. If you was down there
and had your mind up here, you wouldn't be any good at football. So I'll
tell you what you do. When you're in class, don't think about anything
but that teacher and what that teacher said. And when you're
on the football field, don't you think about anything but
that ball. and what you're supposed to do. That's all it is. When
you play football, play football as if that's all you're going
to do the rest of your life. Don't even think about anything
else. When you're in class, don't you think about anything else
but that book, and you'll make some good grades. That's so.
That's true in anything. Concentration, desire, interest, you can master
whatever. Somebody asked me about my memory.
I can memorize poems. I can read a poem and forget
that there's even a light on. My mind is so wrapped up in that
one thing, one, I live it, and it becomes real to me. And this,
if you've got to have an interest, I know that, and it's got to
be a desire, got to come by revelation. You've got to have pastors and
preachers and teachers, I know that. How can I except some man
show me? But you want me to give you the
key to understanding this book. One word. You say a magic word? No. Plain old word you've heard
many times. Christ. Now you say, I've heard... Wait a minute now. Hold on. Turn
to Acts chapter 10. Now this is so. You can't change
this. This is a reality. Brother Joe's
teaching in the Thursday Bible Institute's Salvation in the
Book of Genesis. You say, you don't find Christ
in the Book of Genesis. Christ is in the Book of Genesis
all the way through. He's in every book. And you don't
understand this book apart from him. Because in Acts 10.43 it
says this, to him, to him, That's talking about Christ, give all
the prophets witness. Who are the prophets here? Well,
they're not talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter,
and Jude. We're talking about Isaiah, Jeremiah,
David, Daniel, Moses, and those fellows. You mean they witnessed
it? That's right. To him, give all
the prophets witness. What did they preach about him?
That through his name, whosoever believeth in him should receive
remission of sins. That was there. Well, you say,
that's the message now. That was the message then too.
That's what the Jews came to Christ, and they said, if you
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He says, I told you, and you
didn't believe me. The works that I do bear witness. The scriptures,
you search the scriptures. There they would testify of me.
Well, they said, we have Moses. He said, Moses wrote of me. But
they said, Abraham was our father. He said, Abraham saw my day and
was glad. He rejoiced us. You see, when
God When he put Adam and Eve out of the garden, he preached
Christ. Christ is the way back to God.
When he slew the animal and clothed the naked man and woman to cover
their nakedness, he preached Christ. The innocent died that
the guilty might be covered. That's Christ. When Abel brought
his lamb and Cain brought his fruits and vegetables, that's
Christ. Christ is the lamb of God slain
before the foundation of the world. The ark, when God sent
the flood and judgment wiped out the world, Noah, Noah's floating
up there within that ark, in that ark, protected and delivered,
that's Christ. Someday the world will be judged
and destroyed, not by water, but by fire and by God's judgment.
You and I are going to be born up on the waters of judgment
by Christ. That's where it all is. When
Moses lifted up the serpent, it's Christ. When they slew the
lamb and put the blood on the lintel in the doorpost, that's
Christ. That rock Moses smote in the water, that's Christ.
He's the key to the Scripture. Look at Luke 24, and anything
you read, In the scriptures it's Christ. But now wait a minute,
it's a crucified Christ. Now it's not just Christ the
moralist or Christ the example. Now come on, this is where folks
are missing Christ. It's Christ the crucified substitute. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. That's where men miss it. If
you're looking for a way to live, an example, and so forth, and
that's all you use this book for, it'll still stay closed.
But you can see God's judgment and wrath against sin, God's
holiness and righteousness against men, and see that Christ is that
representative, that surety, that substitute, that sin offering,
that one who was given to justify God in his forgiving grace. Then you see, look at Luke 24,
verse 27. And Christ began at Moses, that's
Genesis. Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus,
and so forth. And all the prophets, he went
on through the prophets, he expounded unto them in the scriptures,
all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Look at verse
44, Luke 24. You want to understand the scriptures,
here it is. These are the words I spake unto you while I was
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written
in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, in the Psalms," he's coming right
on through the Old Testament, "'concerning me.' And he opened
their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures,
and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoove
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day."
That's what it's about, Jim. That's what it's about. And if
you want to teach the book of Ruth as a book of love, okay,
you find it there and all, but it's the kinsman redeemer that's
the focal point in Ruth. If you want to teach the song
of Solomon as a book of love and a happy marriage and so forth,
fine, it's all that. But the bridegroom there is Christ,
and the bride, though black and comely, is the church. And that
relationship is a relationship between Christ and the church
because he died for it. And you can just take it anywhere. You
can go to the Psalms and you want to read the 23rd Psalm so
that somebody will be comforted in their troubles. That's fine.
But the Lord is my shepherd. How did he become my shepherd?
God gave his sheep to him and he died for them. He laid down
his life for the sheep. And he restoreth my soul. How did he do that? He died for
me. And he leads me in paths of righteousness. He's my righteousness. He leads
me beside the still waters, the tumult and troubles of sin are
calmed down by his grace. He leads me in green pastures,
the pastures of his word. I feed on his word. So there
it is. That's the way, that's the key
of the scriptures. It's Christ crucified. Fifth question. What is a believer's bedrock
motive for holiness? The bedrock motive. I looked
up that word. It's in the dictionary, bedrock.
That means the real foundation. That means with all the froth
gone and you get down to that bottom rock, this is where it
is. This is the motivation, that
bottom rock, motivation for holiness of life and obedience to God.
What is the rock bottom motive? Let's put aside some things.
There are a lot of motives. There are a lot of reasons for
holiness. There are a lot of reasons for integrity. There
are a lot of reasons for righteousness. Let's put some aside. Number
one, I know by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. I
know a lot of us here are motivated by that, and we can't dismiss
that because that's scripture. By the fear of the Lord, men
depart from evil. A lot of times I obey my father
not because I really wanted to because I scared not to. He had
a razor strap. How wide were those things? Did
you ever meet a razor strap when you were growing up? Anybody
here have had a father that had shaved with all those straight razors,
had a razor strap about four inches wide, about that long,
and it could smart. It could lift you that high off
the floor with one swing. I feared him. He said, mother
could tell me to do something three times and I might get around
to it. My father never had to speak
but one time, that's a fact, after I came in touch with that
razor strap. And I know by fear men depart
from evil, but that's still not the rock-bed mode. Secondly,
I know that reputation and opinion contribute to the good conduct
of a lot of us. I know that we're motivated by
reputation. We want to protect our reputation.
We want to have a life that is held in high esteem by the opinion
of other men, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I know that
laws and commandments influence men. This is what God says. But
I still say that the bedrock word, the bedrock motive for
obedience to God is one word, L-O-V-E. I love him. I love him. I say that's it,
and our scripture backs me up. Turn to Matthew 22. I still say,
and I still say that is the only one, that's the only motive that's
really pleasing to God. You know, I wish you'd take when
your children are young and when they grow up, don't you wish
that they obeyed you and so forth and all, pleased you? Not because
they're scared of you. But we're dealing with little
rebels. We're dealing with children born in sin. I wish that they
were motivated by better motives than that. We just have to use
that when something better comes along. And some of you don't
spank your children. You're doing the child an injustice.
You really are. Children have to be because of
their nature. Now, if you've got a child that's
perfect, you don't have to spank it. But if you've got one that's
imperfect, you're going to have to, your fear is going to have
to be in their hearts. Fear of authority, fear of punishment,
just so. I wish we had better motives,
but over here in Massey, I believe the believer, I believe the believer
does have better motives. Matthew 22, verse 35, and one
of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, saying,
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? In other words, what's
the most important commandment of all? The Lord Jesus said,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
The second is likened to it, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
In other words, a person that does something, your children,
you're pleased that they do it because they fear. You're pleased
they do it because of ambition. You're pleased they do it because
of opinion. In other words, it's mother's
birthday and they bring mother a gift because who'd want to
forget their mother on their birthday, you know? That's why
you'd be, you'd be, you know, not very held in, not very high
esteem if you forgot your mother on her birthday, you know? You're
dumb-dumb. Wouldn't it be better if you did it motivated whole
and completely and absolutely for love? And that's what they
said. Turn to Galatians 5.14. Watch
this. Galatians 5.14. Somebody out
there I know is thinking right now, my mother, I forgot my wife
on her birthday. Well, I didn't mean to start that fight. When
you get home, tell your wife the preacher is a dumb dog. He
ought not bring things like that up in church. In Galatians 5,
verse 14, it says this, all the law, he tells us in verse 13,
by love to serve one another, and he says in verse 14, all
the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. And rather than that to me, that's
the bedrock motive for holiness of life. And that's, I say that
we're going to have to, anybody who guilts, who teaches, who
forgives, who leads, who preaches, who does anything. I say that
the chief motive has got to be love for Christ and love for
the gospel and love for the church family and love for our immediate
family and love for all men. You say, what's the definition
of love? It's not what most of us think it is. I found this
definition one time. Of course, 1 Corinthians 13 is
the best definition. But I found one one time I think
it's good. It goes like this. Love is a
principle of the heart that wishes to bestow the best that it can
on the object of its affection, the best that it can. I want
to bestow, if you love Christ, You want him to have all the
glory. If you love someone, you don't want to hurt them. You
don't want to mistreat them. You don't want to bring reproach
upon them. You just don't want to. You love them. If you don't
love them, then those things don't get. But love is a principle
in the heart that wishes to bestow the best I can. I'm not talking
about physics. A lot of people try to replace intangibles with tangibles. That's
not it. That's not it. I had a man tell
me one time, he said, if my wife and children loved me, he said,
I'd live in a shack down by the river. This man was living in
a $250,000 house. He's a lawyer. He had a boat
out there in the driveway. And he belonged to the country
club. He was an elder in a Presbyterian church. He had two or three cars.
And we set up at 3 o'clock in the morning one night. and talking
to me about how unhappy he was, how unhappy his family was. He
said, there's no love in my house. He said, I'd exchange. I said,
well, you've got everything else, haven't you? He said, I've got
everything money can buy and a natural man could want. He
said, I'd swap it for a shanty town, an old shanty town, if
I could have that love. Well, see, I'm not talking about
tangibles. I'm talking about intangibles. And love, true love,
wishes to bestow the best that it can intangibly not just materially
but intangibly, if that's a word. If it's not, I'll just coin one,
on the object of its affection. Tenderness and kindness and gentleness
and understanding and forgiveness and mercy and all these things
are intangible, and that's where it is. I hope this has been helpful. This is the thing I'm trying
to do in preaching, and I'm trying to instruct our preachers. Let's
quit being so... You can aim at accuracy in a
lot of other areas and miss the gospel, and miss people. You've
got to communicate with people. This is where we're living. What
I'm trying to preach to you is where I am myself, where I'm
living, because I know where I am, you are. I know the questions
you're asking are the same ones I'm asking. I know the desire
of your heart like mine. I want to know Christ. And I
want to protect this gospel fellowship. I want to protect this gospel
message. I want God to glorify it and
bless it. If it costs my life, I'll resign
tomorrow and let somebody take my place, if it'll promote the
glory of Christ. I mean that. I mean that sincerely. I'll do whatever God says, if
it'll promote the glory of God. And that's what I want desperately.
Our Father blessed the message. Speak to our hearts. Cecil's
already prayed, and I believe you did speak to our hearts.
Speak to the preacher's heart that he might speak to the people's
heart. Put him through experiences of whatever, burdens, heartaches,
toils, trials, tears, whatever, if he'll make a contribution
to thy glory and to the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Enable him to preach to men's hearts and not their heads. Preach
to men where they are, not where they're supposed to be. But we
thank you for your word. We thank you most of all for
Christ our Lord, for his mercy and grace to sinners. And we
pray your blessings on all here tonight and on this message for
your praise and honor. We trust that that is our desire,
your praise and your honor and glory, for it shall be done.
You will be glorified. We want to share in it. For Christ's
sake, amen.