Let me read my text again from
John 6. I'm going to try to make good
on what I promised this morning, and that is to speak from verse
44 and 45 of John 6 on the subject taught of God.
How does God teach men? What does God teach men? In John 6, verse 44, the scripture
says, no man. John Flavel says, whatever his
natural ability, heritage, tradition, no man. Whatever his race, whatever
his age, whatever his natural wisdom, no man. That's no man.
Can, is able, has the ability to come to me. That's to believe
on Christ. To come to Christ and believe
on Christ is the same thing. To receive Christ. No man is
able, can come to me except the Father, not excluding the Holy
Spirit, nor the Son. For God is three in one. Not
as some dear person wrote this week and asked me if I believe
in three gods. No. One God, three persons. Explain that. I can't. I can't. I just know when the Savior was
in the River Jordan, the Father said, this is my Son in whom
I'm well pleased, and John bore witness that the Holy Spirit
descended upon Him in the form of a dove. I just know that the
Apostle John wrote, there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. I know that our Master
commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. I know that the Master said here
on this earth to his disciples, I will pray the Father, he will
send you the Holy Spirit. No man, no man can come to me
except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, woo him, enable
him, teach him. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. It's written in the prophets, and they shall be all,
without exception, taught of God. And every man that, therefore,
that hath heard, he that heareth my word, how shall they call
on him in whom they've not believed, and how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? Every man, therefore, that hath
heard, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear, I shall hear without
a preacher. Every man that hath heard, blessed
are your ears, they hear, and hath learned of the Father, cometh
unto me." Now, my friends, religion is common to natural men. Please understand that this is
unfortunately the case. Religion is most common to natural
men. Religion is as much a part of
the natural man as any other emotion. Where you find a man,
you'll find some form of religion. It doesn't matter where you find
him. you'll find some form of religion. It may be a traditional
religion, it may be a very emotional religion, it may be a very formal
religion, but it'll be religion. Religion is common to natural
men. You don't know many people who are not religious, to some
degree, in some form. Natural men have religion. Our
Lord said to the woman at the well. Now here was a woman who
had a very careless life. You would say a life that didn't
take God into consideration at all, nor his laws, nor his principles. And yet she talked about worshiping.
And our Lord said, you do worship, but you worship you know not
what. In 2 Timothy 3, 5, the scripture says they have a form
of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. I want you to
turn to Matthew 23, and let me show you some of the marks of
natural religion, some of the marks of hypocrisy. And these
men of whom our Lord speaks in Matthew 23 are not spiritual
men at all. They're natural men. They're
not saved men at all. They're men who did not know
God. But they were men and women who
were very religious. Now here are some of the marks
of religion without Christ, without the Spirit. Verse 5, Matthew
23, their works they do are to be seen of men. They do it to
be seen of men. There's very little closet work,
secret work. It's mainly to be recognized
and seen of men. Verse 6, they love the uppermost
seats. They love offices. I heard about
one church that had 120 members and 121 offices. Everybody had
a job. They loved offices. They loved
the chief seats. Verse 7, they loved the greetings. They loved for men to call them
rabbi, doctor, reverend, bishop, cardinal, pope, just doesn't
matter. They loved titles. And then down
in verse 14, It says, for a pretense, they make long prayers. They
are people of prayer. Like the Pharisee, they pray
with themselves. They're soul winners, verse 15. Warren describes
Pharisees, hypocrites, you encompass sea and land to make one proselyte.
And in verse 23, they tithe, they pay tithe. Verse 25, they
make clean the outside of the cup and platter. Verse 27, they're
like whited sepulchres that appear indeed beautiful outwardly. On
the inside, oh, they're full of dead man's bones and uncleanness. Verse 29, they build the tombs
of prophets. They brag on dead preachers and
kill living preachers. They brag on the Puritans, and
they brag on John Wesley, and John Calvin, and Martin Luther,
and all these great old men of past days. They garnish the sepulchres,
that is, they decorate the tombs of the old prophets. They said,
if we had been living in that day, we wouldn't have killed
those prophets. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
you're killing the living prophets that are preaching the same thing
they did. Now, religion's common to natural men. just as common
as any other emotion or any other characteristic. Where you find
a man, you'll find religion. And it varies as to degree and
it varies as to dedication and enthusiasm and zeal, but everybody's
got religion. Now secondly, the basis or foundation
of this religion is humanism or human logic. This is what
we think. This is the way I see it. This
is the way I understand it. This is what our church believes.
This is the basis of natural religion. Now, the basis of spiritual
religion is thus saith the Lord. I don't understand it, but this
is what God says. I can't explain it, but this is what God says.
I can't comprehend all of the mysteries of the gospel and of
the truth of the scriptures, but this is what it says. God
said he divided a sea and a nation walked through on dry land, and
I believe it. God says a fish was prepared and swallowed a
man, and he was in that fish three days and three nights as
our Lord was in the heart of the earth. I don't understand
it, but I believe it. God says God came down to earth
through the womb of a virgin without the aid of man. You say
impossible, not with God. I believe it. God came down in
the flesh and went to the cross and died under the judgment of
his own father. God, forsaking God. I don't understand that, but
that's what it says. That's what I believe. But this basis of
man's religion is human understanding and human reason, not divine
revelation. This is what the Scripture says.
There's a way that seems right to men, but the end is the way
of death. God says, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. As the heavens
are high above the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The preaching of the
cross of substitution, of satisfaction, of a sin offering, the preaching
of the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness. It's foolishness. But to those who are being saved,
it's the wisdom and power of God. He says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. They're spiritually understood.
Eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered
the heart of man, the things God's prepared in his covenant
of grace for those that love him. But natural man, even though
he doesn't comprehend or understand the mysteries of the gospel,
he lays a foundation for his own religion and acts as if he
does. Turn back to John 5 and listen
to what our Lord said to these Bible scholars of His day, these
Bible teachers. In John 5, verse 39, He said
to them, search the Scriptures. Or this is what He's saying,
you do search the Scriptures. You are busy searching the Scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life, in the Scriptures.
But my friends, life is not in the scriptures, it's in him of
whom the scriptures speak. They are they who is testify
of me. That's what he says to them. You search the scriptures.
You get your doctrines laid out just right. You get your dates
and your events and advents and all of these things all fixed
up. And you study the scriptures, for in them you think you have
life, in the laws of the scripture, in the sacrifices of the scripture,
in the principle of the scripture. But there they which testify
of me, and you won't come to me, Christ said, that you might
have life. Turn to John 8. Listen to this. This is what
I'm saying. John 8. This kind of sums it up. He's
speaking to the same folks, the most religious people of his
day. In John 8, verse 14. Verse 14 and 15. Listen to him.
Jesus answered and said to them, though I bear record of myself,
my record's true. I know whence I came and whither
I go. You cannot tell whence I come or whither I go. You judge
after the flesh. That's your whole problem. You're
trying to interpret scripture by human understanding and human
logic and human reason. Well, I just can't see it that
way. Of course you can't. It just doesn't seem practical,
and it's not. It's spiritual. That's the whole problem. Look
at verse 19. Listen to what it says. Jesus
said unto them, where, they said unto him, unto Christ, where
is your father? And he said, you don't know me
and you don't know my father. Now brethren, I want you to remember
that the Lord wasn't speaking to a bunch of publicans and harlots
and lawbreakers. He was speaking here to the Pharisees
and Sadducees and Scribes, and if he'd been speaking today,
he'd been speaking in the football stadium to the Easter morning
crowd. You don't know me, and you don't
know my father. If you had known me, you would
have known my father also. This he said in the treasure
as he taught in the temple. That's where he was teaching. Now here in John 6 in our text,
and I want you to see this, our Lord in our text, which Cecil
read to you, our Lord offered himself to the souls of men as
the bread of life, himself. He offered himself, not a doctrine,
himself. He offered himself as the bread
of life. And against this truth, they set their carnal reasoning.
Listen to him in verse 35. He said, I am the bread of life.
I am the bread of life. Life is in Christ. It's to be
found in Christ. It's to be received through Christ.
That's where life is. That's where salvation is. That's
where God's blessings are in Christ. And he that cometh to
me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst. I said unto you that you also have seen me, and you
don't believe. And he went on down, and down
here in verse 41, and the Jews murmured at him because he said,
I am the bread that came down from heaven. And they said, now
here's their carnal reasoning. Here's their logic, you see.
Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Is not this a man? While
we know his mother and father, we know his brothers and sisters,
how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Here
our Lord is saying to them, preaching to them the mysteries of vital
union. by faith of living union with
Christ. That's where salvation is. It's
not just to believe a doctrine, not just to turn over a new leaf,
it's not just to join a church, not just to get religion. It's
to be brought with the Spirit of God through regeneration and
faith by the grace of God into a living union with a person,
Christ Jesus. To embrace him, to receive him,
to lay hold upon him, to eat of Christ. to receive him into
my life, to become one with him. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. In the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I'm not just a human
being with a religious principle, a human being with a religious
creed, or a human being with some religious doctrine. I'm
a human being who's feeding on and feasting upon Jesus Christ. who's resting upon and looking
to and finding refuge in Christ, whose life has been sold out
to Christ, whose bridges have been burned behind him, and he's
aligned with Jesus Christ. Christ is my life. Christ is
my life. Christ is your life. And that's
what he's talking about. I'm the bread of life. I'm the water of life. The person
who drinks of me and eats of me shall never ultimately hunger
and ultimately thirst. Like Cecil pointed out in the
study a while ago, we daily thirst for righteousness and hunger
for righteousness, and more holiness give me, more love for Christ
give me, more grace give me, more faith give me. We're never
satisfied till we're awake with his likeness, but there's a sense
in which through Christ and in Christ we're totally satisfied.
Because in Him, I have all I need. I have wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Unto God, Christ is made unto
me everything. It's all met in Him. It's all
given to me through Him. It's all mine because of Him.
You see that? It's allegiance with a person.
It's vital living union with a person. If you're married to
a doctrine, you'll perish. If you're married to Christ,
you're a joint heir with Christ. If all in the world we have is
just a profession of religion or some rules of morality, some
do's and don'ts, then we'll live by them and die by them. But
if we're already risen with Christ and seated with Christ in the
heavenlies, we'll reign with Christ forever. That's salvation. That's what he talked to them
about. And they said, well, what are you talking about? How can this
man give us his flesh to eat? How can this man give us his
blood to drink? Well, we know him. He's from
Nazareth. We know his mama, and we know his father, and we know
his brothers and sisters. And that's when Christ, that's
when the Redeemer strikes at the root of their whole problem.
And that's most of our problem. He strikes at the root of their
whole problem, ignorance. spiritual ignorance, spiritual
blindness, trying to comprehend that which is spiritual with
natural logic and understanding. And that's the biggest problem
we have. And he said to them, verse 43, there's no use you
murmuring among yourselves. You can get up before a congregation
and preach God's absolute, immutable, infinite sovereignty, and you
can see men's teeth begin to gnash and their eyebrows begin
to make a furrow in the middle, and you can see those natural
minds racing, you know. But we're free moral agents.
Man has a choice. Man has a chance. Man has a voice,
you know. You can just see that natural
reasoning begin to function. He talked about God's elective
grace and how that he in eternal purpose chose a people. And you
see those eyebrows narrow and the slits begin to go this way,
you know, and the jug on set. And those natural minds just
begin to fly. Talk about the effectual, sufficient
redemption and atonement which Christ accomplished for his people
on Calvary, and you can just see those human thoughts just
racing. That's not the way I see it.
I know, but that's the way God said it. And he said, and he said, I'm
the bread of life. Eat of me and never hunger. I'm
the water of life. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me, and out of his belly shall flow an artesian well of living
water. He'll never thirst if he comes
to me." And they say, murmuring, and he said, don't murmur. It's
all right. It's your whole problem. You reject me because you don't
know me. That's your whole problem. And
you don't know me because you've never been taught of God. because
he said it is written in the prophets Isaiah 54 13 verse 45
and they shall be taught of God. Taught of God. Taught of God. You don't come to me because
you don't know me and you don't know me because you've never
been taught of God. Whom do men say that I am? Our
Lord said that to his disciples. Whom do men say that I am? They
said some say you're Some say you're Elijah, and some say you're
John the Baptist, and some say you're a prophet. Whom do you
say that I am? Peter said, the earth, the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And he said, blessed are you,
Simon Barjona, flesh and blood. Didn't show that to you. Flesh
and blood says you're Elijah or John the Baptist. But my Father,
which is in heaven, blessed are your eyes, they see, and your
ears, they hear." They murmured, and he said, don't murmur. I
know your problem. You're blind, and you're ignorant,
and you're trying to comprehend spiritual truth and spiritual
principles with a natural mind, and it can't be. This is what
stands in the way of so many so many naturally intelligent
men and women. Now they're on top of the situation,
they're successful men and women, young people, they're college
graduates, they've been used to, with their sharpened minds
and intelligence, laying hold on a problem and solving it.
Picking up a situation and entering into it, and they attack the
scripture the same way, And you're in trouble when you do. Isn't
that right, Charlie? You're in trouble. Exactly right. That's the reason
not many mighty, not many noble are called. God had chosen the foolish things
of this world to confound the wise. Our Lord one day lifted
his eyes to heaven and said, I fought my father, Lord of heaven
and earth, I thank you. You've hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and revealed them to babes. but seem
good in your sight? It's nothing but fact, and the
whole problem is that these natural minds we try to lay hold of and
comprehend spiritual truth with natural reason. It's as far apart
as the poles. The wisdom of God is foolishness
to men. The natural mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can it be. No man can come to me, Christ
said, no man can believe on me. Come to me, I'm the bread of
life. You'll never hunger. Come to me, I'm the water of
life. You'll never thirst. But no man can do it. He doesn't
have the ability. He doesn't have the understanding.
He doesn't have the spiritual wisdom to come to me. And no
man can unless my father draw him and teach him. That's what
he says in verse 45. And it shows you've got to lay
down. I'm telling you this. You've got to lay down any natural
ability when you come to the scripture. You have. I'm telling you the truth. I
know it doesn't set well, but it's so anyway. We've got to
lay down this human wisdom and human reasoning, human logic,
and human natural understanding. The scriptures are not understood
in the light of human understanding. They're revealed, revealed, revealed. And that way that seems right,
well, this is the way I see it, yes? What are you seeing with?
You're seeing with natural eyes, natural wisdom. And what he's saying here is
two things. He's saying any man who comes to Christ in a living
relationship, now men can profess faith. The Pharisees did. Men can claim religion. The Sadducees
did. Men can fool other men. For when
our Lord said the Pharisees were blind leaders of the blind, the
disciples said, well who can be saved? And he said with men
it's impossible. Salvation's impossible with men.
You can't save a man and he can't save himself. But with God, all
things are possible. So any man who comes to Christ,
lays hold upon Christ, is saved by Christ, must be spiritually
taught the way of faith by God himself. That's right. It's impossible
otherwise. The world, by wisdom, knows not
God. They know a God, but not the
God. The world, by wisdom, knows not
God. But they said God is our Father.
He said you don't know God. The second thing he's saying
here is this, now you see the first, any man who comes to Christ,
and I didn't say come to the front, there's millions who've
come to the front. There's millions who've come
to the pool, there's millions who've come to the table. There's
millions who've come to Sinai. But coming to those places doesn't
save, coming to Christ saves. Coming to Christ by faith. with
a heart. And no man can do that till he's
drawn, wooed, taught. And it says in verse 45, and
they shall all be taught of God. Every man that hath heard, every
man that hath learned of the Father cometh to me. All who
are of God under his special revelation will come to Christ.
Now this is exactly what our Lord is saying, and I know it
Boy, they turned and walked off. They said, this is a hard saying.
Who can hear it? You won't be the first ones if
you walk off. You won't be the first ones.
If you say, I can't understand that, you won't be the first
one. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked
with him no more. In fact, so many of them left
that our Lord, look at verse 66, turned to his 12 and said,
will you also go away? Will you also go away? I know the modern preacher and
religionist and soul winner has this thing down to A, B, C, 1,
2, 3, 4, the Roman road and all this stuff, you believe this,
you believe this, you believe that, you're saved. Shake my
hand, join our church, get me a book on how to stay saved and
how to be happy though saved and how to tithe and how to support
our program and how to drive a bus and all these different
things, you know. But this thing of redemption, is a miracle. It's a birth. You go through
the book of John, you'll find it's a resurrection. It's a new
creation. It's life created within. It's God coming in to dwell. It's a new creature. It's the
one that didn't exist before now existing. And what he's saying
here is that nobody, no human being will ever experience that
regeneration, that new birth, that new life, that vital living
union with Christ till my Father draws him. And everybody whom
my Father draws will come. That's what he said. That's how
plain it is. And everybody my Father teaches.
That's a teaching process. It's a teaching. God doesn't
save men apart from their minds and understanding. I know with
a heart man believeth, and we're pricked in the heart, and repentance
is a work in the heart, and with the heart we lay hold upon Christ.
But in speaking of the heart, we're speaking also of man's
mental capacity. God teaches, taught of God. He
lays hold upon. A man can't believe what he doesn't
know. He certainly can't. A man can know something he doesn't
believe, But he certainly can't believe something he doesn't
know. Now here are four things that I'm going to deal with just
briefly. How does God teach men? How does he teach them? I'll
just give these to you briefly. Number one, he teaches them by
his word. Isaiah said, if they speak not
according to the law and the prophets, it's because there's
no truth in them. That's how God teaches men, by the Word.
I told our young people in the class this morning, there's some
basic foundations that you must never let anybody question or
shake. Because when you do, you've lost
everything. One's the deity of Christ. If you ever put a question
mark on His deity, well, you just wipe out any possibility
of His being the Savior. The second thing is the Word
of God. The Word of God. You put a question mark on on
the word anywhere. And you've got no foundation.
You've got no reason to believe anything. There's only one reason
why you can believe anything spiritual, and that's the word
says so. That's the only foundation of faith is the word of God. God teaches men by his word.
He said, My word will not return void. It shall accomplish that
whereunto I have sent it. It's like the rain that comes
down from heaven and waters the seed and brings forth food for
the people's mouths and stomachs. of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. We're begotten again, not with
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, the word of God. Now, it's
true that in former days, God appeared to men and spoke to
them. God spake to our fathers by the
prophets, and God spake mouth to mouth with Moses. That's what he told them over
in Numbers 12, 8. He said, I speak mouth to mouth with Moses, but
God doesn't speak that way to you. He hath in these last days
spoken to us by his son. The Word is completed now, and
God speaks through His Word. And I'm telling you, any appearance
or vision of Christ or God that you have... Now listen to me,
and don't get mad at me, because I'm telling you the truth. Any
vision that you have of Christ or God is Satan. Now you can
just put that down. It's satanic. I don't care what
anybody says. Well, what anybody says. Paul
said, I knew Christ in the flesh. I know Him that way no more.
The Word is complete. This is the way God speaks to
men. Not through dreams and visions, but through His Word. That's
a fact. That's a fact. All right? Secondly, He speaks
to men. He teaches men by His Word and by His ministers. Now,
divine teaching does not exclude human instruments. God spoke
to Saul on the road to Damascus. But Lord, he sent Ananias to
him, didn't he? Down there in the street called
Strafe. He said, you go take the gospel to Solomon. And God
had spoken to him, and God called him, but God still sent. Philip
was sent to the eunuch. Peter was sent to Cornelius.
And it says over in Ephesians that when our Lord ascended back
on high that he led captivity captive, and he gave some, listen,
prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. All right. Thirdly, he teaches
men by his word, by his ministers, by spirit, his Holy Spirit. Our Lord said in John 16, if
you'd care to turn over there, talking to the disciples, He
said, I tell you, verse 7, it's expedient for you that I go away,
for if I go away, not away, the Holy Spirit will not come. And
when He's come, He, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now down in verse
13, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into
all truth. For he shall not speak of himself.
And I've said this so often, I'll say it again. The preacher
who's always talking about the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the
Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, has an unclean spirit. Because the
Holy Ghost does not brag on himself, he does not call attention to
himself, he does not speak of himself, he speaks of Christ. He will not speak of himself.
He will not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he'll show you things to come, and
he'll glorify me, and he'll receive of mine." Now, how does the Holy
Spirit glorify Christ? Mr. Spurgeon said the Holy Spirit
glorifies Christ with his own things. If we would honor Christ,
we honor him with that which is his already, not some new
cause or new trend or new revelation. To honor Christ, you preach his
person. To honor Christ, you preach His incarnation. To honor
Christ, you preach His righteousness. To honor Christ, you preach His
death, burial, and resurrection. To honor Christ, you preach His
mediatorial work. To honor Christ, you preach His
coming. The Holy Spirit honors Christ with that which is already
His. He takes the things of mine and shows them to you. Not some
new invention, not some new revelation. Any new revelation anybody brings
you that says, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear
it. If it's new and beyond the word
of God, I don't care to hear it, because the Holy Spirit takes
the things of Christ and shows them to us. And he said, I have
many things to say unto you, and you're not able to receive
them. But when he comes, he'll teach you. So that's how God
teaches men, by his word, by his ministers, by his spirit.
Now, what does he teach men? What are the special lessons
a father teaches? Well, let me give you just four
or five briefly. Number one, he teaches us the
great evil of our natures and of our attitudes and our actions. And this is not a once-and-for-all
thing either. In fact, we learn more about
the evil of our nature the older our nature is. Most men have a general notion
of sin, a general idea of sin. but those who are taught of God
have a heart knowledge of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And I know there's a time, there's
a time when we, when we come to learn something about the
evil of our, our natures. I can, I know from the scripture,
Isaiah, Isaiah was in the preaching business before he ever found
out about the sin problem. He said, I saw the Lord. And
he'd been in Isaiah 5 talking about, woe is you, woe is you,
sound like some of these TV preachers, woe is you. Woe is you. And in Isaiah 6, he said he saw
the Lord, and he said, woe is me. A man's understanding of
sin, a man's understanding of sin, comprehension of what sin
is, will be in direct proportion to his understanding of God's
holiness. That's just so. The holier your God, the more
evil is your nature. The higher your God, the lower
your man. That's just so. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord.
And I said, woe is me. Job was in the religion business
before he really saw the Lord. He said, I've heard of you, Lord.
I've heard of you all my life. I've heard of you. Now, man,
I seeth thee. What happened to Job? He said, I hate myself.
I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes.
I've spoken once, yet twice, never again. I've spoken things
too wonderful for me. I've popped off about things
I didn't even know anything about. The more righteous you are, the
more you pop off generally. David said, my sins are ever
before me. He took his sins back beyond
the age of accountability and he said, I was born in sin. as
conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity. Saul of Tarsus didn't know anything
about sin until he came to understand the law, but as he grew in the
grace and knowledge of Christ, he grew in an understanding of
sin, and he started out talking about, I'm not worthy to be an
apostle, and as he got a little older, he said, I'm less than
the least of the saints, and when he was almost dead, he said,
I'm the chief of sinners. Woe is me. Oh, wretched man that
I am. So God teaches people whom he
brings to Christ the evil of their nature, their attitude
and actions. And brethren, if you can see
and understand and comprehend to some degree your wretchedness
and you're just bowed down with and broken over your sins of
thought and attitude and imagination, thank God for it because he saves
sinners. He saves, he died for them, God. Another thing he teaches us is
his own holiness and his just judgments against sin. Now here's
what, there are a lot of people who say, well, I believe God's
holy and I believe I'm a sinner, but I don't think God ought to
send me to hell. Well, now David cleared God in
his judgments, didn't he? He said, God, if you judge me,
you're righteous and clear when you judge. And if we really lay
hold upon this holiness of God and His just judgment against
sin, it'll be God is just to judge all sin, even mine, and
punish all sinners, even me. The wages of sin is death. And
we see that God cannot clear the guilty. And we're guilty.
To offend in one part is to be guilty of the whole lot. So I'm
guilty. Guilty of I'm a criminal, spiritual
criminal, I'm guilty before God. I have no plea. God is just to
send me to hell. Now there's got to be something
happen that can clear God and enable him to be just and justifier
of me and you. And Christ did that. So my only
hope is not an improvement of this nature. My only hope is
a cancellation of the charges against this nature. My only
hope is not for this nature to be improved, but for the Lord
Jesus Christ to pay all the debt that is owed and redeem and ransom
this nature, this person, this man, to clear me of all charges,
you see. Don't be foolish enough to try
to play down the charges. Here's a fellow that's guilty,
and he goes in the courtroom, and he tries to get off. How
does he try? Well, he tries to discredit the
folks that charged him. Well, that's foolish. And then
he tries to make out like the charges are too severe, and that's
foolishness. And then he tries to make himself
appear to be a fellow that won't do it again, and make all kind
of these promises, and that's foolishness. And let's not discredit
him who says you're guilty. And let's don't try to say, well,
I'm not as bad as somebody else. Don't try to lessen the charge. And don't try to say, well, Lord,
I've done this, that, and the other. Won't that make up for
it? Let's just say guilty, guilty, guilty. And say, now let Christ
plead for me. Let his blood be propitiation
for me on the mercy seat. Let's not go into the temple
like the Pharisees and say, Lord, I've done this, that, and the
other. Let's go in like the publicans who smote upon his breast and
said, God, be merciful to me a second. And he went home justified. The third thing God teaches is
deliverance from the guilt of sin and the wrath to come is
the most important business in the world. Now that God will teach you that,
that to have Christ is more important than having any other thing or
all things put together. What shall it profit a man to
gain? The whole world loses soul. The people who come to Christ,
Christ becomes the soul fixed object of their desire. That's
what David said. He said, God has made with me an everlasting
covenant and this is all my salvation and all my desire. But I want this and I want that.
Well, when you want Christ like you want this and that, you've
been taught of God. Because he's the pearl of great
price for which a man sells all that he has. That's right. He's the pearl of great price.
And that's when a man is taught of God. A man is wise and been
taught of God who sees that that everything he needs and
wants and desires is in the Lord Jesus Christ and taught of God. You see, God doesn't present
a pretty good Savior. He doesn't present a pretty good
deal. He presents the only deal, the
only Savior, the only way, the only light, the only hope. I must have Christ or I die.
Lord, save me or I perish. Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
It's going to cost you your life. Christ is my life. It's going
to cost you your friends. Christ is my friend. It's going
to cost you your family. Christ is my family. I've been
taught of God. And then, I'll tell you the fourth
thing he teaches us. No amount of works or religious
duties or laws can deliver our soul. We learn that. You see, Actually, and I know a lot of
people won't understand this, but actually religion becomes
quite distasteful to a man who knows Christ. That's right. Becomes very distasteful. The regimentation, the conformity,
the ceremonialism, the ritualism, the mechanics Just say a little
prayer here, and say a little prayer there, and read a little
scripture here, and read a little scripture there, and do a little
deed here, and do a little deed there, it becomes nauseating. I tell you, the more stuff you
have on the outside, the less you have on the inside. That's
the reason you need so much, that's the reason folks need
candles burning, and atmosphere, and that's the reason these preachers,
when they're preaching, or talking, or praying, gotta have an organ
playing, because ain't nothing else being done anyway, you know. The more outward, listen, I'm
telling you, the more vanities, visual assistance, outward commotion
and ceremony and regimentation and robes and all kind of, you
know, shaking the water and all that junk, the more that, the
less you have in here, the more you have to have out here. You
need that stuff, it's a crutch. I walked up here with a cane
two weeks ago. I'm well now, I don't need the
cane. And when I came to Christ, I
don't need the sacrifices, and the ceremonies, and the laws,
and the rules, and the rituals, and somebody sprinkling water
in my face, somebody saying mumbo jumbo, somebody wearing a silly
looking robe, or a sillier looking collar. Somebody said those fellas
wearing those collars look like a little boy spitting over a
whitewashed fence. I think that's a pretty good
description. But I'm telling you the truth. Telling you the
truth. When you're taught of God, these
things, the religious duties and details and all of these
things become obnoxious. You don't want any part of them.
It's not by the deeds of the law, not by works of righteousness. A man will never turn to Christ
until he turns away from all that paraphernalia. And he worships
in the simplicity of faith.