The first scripture I'll be referring
to will be taken from the book of Jeremiah 6, so you can open
your Bibles there. Keep your Bibles open for a moment. I do not believe that God can
send a people of greater blessing and to send them a faithful,
sincere and truthful minister of the gospel. I do not believe that any home
or family can experience a greater blessing than for God to send
to them one of his own to pastor them and to preach to them. And I include in that any blessing,
financially, materially or any other blessing. The greatest
blessing that God can give to a people is to give them a faithful,
sincere and truthful minister of the gospel who seeks their
good and God's glory, their eternal good and God's glory. And so the greatest judgment
that God can send upon a people in this world, the greatest judgment
that God can send upon a people in this world is to turn them
over. to blind, unregenerate, and covetous
preachers. The greatest judgment that God
can send upon a family, an organization, a denomination, a people, a nation,
is in his righteous indignation and wrath to turn them over.
Their believer line be damned for believing that lie. Their
beliefs strong delusions They'll heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears who will turn away their ears from the truth. And
when God turns them over to those bland, unregenerate, self-seeking
and covetous preachers, God's put upon them the greatest judgment
in this world that he can put upon people. In all ages there have been wolves
in sheep's clothing. That's the way they come. They
don't identify themselves as they should. But they identified
themselves as the ministers of Christ, as the apostles of Christ,
as ministers of righteousness and angels of light. The apostle
Peter wrote about them, he said, As there were false prophets
in Israel, there will be false teachers among you. Our Lord
warned about them. He said, Beware of false prophets. They will come to you as wolves
in sheep's clothing. You shall know them by their
fruits. Paul said in his book to Timothy,
in the latter days there shall arise false Christs and false
prophets. They shall forbid to marry, command
to abstain from meat, they shall teach the doctrines of men for
the commandments of Almighty God. Nobody spoke out more strongly
against these false preachers than did Jeremiah, the compassionate,
weeping prophet. Turn to Jeremiah 6. Let's look
at a few verses here. First of all, he charged them
with covetousness. Covetousness. And my friends,
covetousness takes more than one direction. Immediately, when
you mention covetousness, you think about money or possessions.
And that's the downfall of many preachers. They've got dollar
signs instead of pupils in their eyes. Their thoughts are about
possessions and money. Who's going to take care of me
when I'm old? The same one who took care of you when you were
young, they that preach the gospel are to live by the gospel. God provides for his own. If
he calls a man to preach, you supply his needs. If God calls
a man to preach, you ought to get rid of everything he owns
and live by the gospel. He said, I don't want that, then
start a ministry. That example is set in the Old
Testament. They've administered by the temple
or in the temple, lived by the things of the temple. The people
of God have to provide for the pastor. They provide for his
needs, not his wants, his needs. And if they're God's people,
they will, and if he's God's man, he'll be happy and content.
But these men are covetous. Now, they're covetous not only
for money, but they're covetous for respect. They like high-sounding
names like Doctor and Bishop and Cardinal and Pope and Priest
and Father and Doctor and Reverend and all these other names. They
love those names. They go to school not to learn, but to get
credentials so that somebody can call them Dr. Henry Mayhem. I'm not even a nurse, let alone
a doctor. It's strange that the only man
who ever deserved a title wouldn't wear it, and that's the Apostle
Paul. He just called himself Paul, a bond-slave of Jesus Christ. Covetous for titles, covetous
for respect, covetous for possessions, covetous for fame, covetous for
the applause of men. Most preachers are scared to
death they're going to make somebody mad. Well, let me tell you something. If you preach the gospel of God's
grace, every time you preach, somebody's going to get mad,
sad, and glad. Now, that's so. And Jeremiah
says here in chapter 6, verse 13, "...for from the least of
them even to the greatest," not anybody left out. From the least
of them to the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness. They're wanting something. They're
desirous of something. They're covetous of something.
And from the prophet even to the priest, every one of them
deals falsely. Why? Because they're covetous. If we could ever come to the
place where we covet nothing but God's presence, power and
glory, what we would preach, or how we would preach, how affectionately
and compassionately and effectively and powerfully and convincingly
we would preach. If we weren't interested in what
anybody thought or what anybody bought, we could preach. Not only that, but he charged
them, he said, they give people a false peace. Look at verse
14, they're healed. They were healed. God didn't
heal it, they healed it. They healed the bruises of the
daughters of my people. Saying, peace, peace. When there is no peace, they
haven't been healed. The prophet says they're healed. Well, God
bless you, you're saved now. Says who? Well, says the soul
winner, says the preacher. God's the only one who can say,
Go in peace, thy sins be forgiven thee. God's the only one who
can speak peace to a human heart. No preacher can do that. Brother
Henry, do you think I'm saved? Well, I don't have the faintest
idea, not the faintest notion. We cannot give peace, but that's
what these false preachers say. We had 25 saved last night. Well, wouldn't a better rendition
say we had 25 who manifested an interest in Christ? Somebody said, I want 100,000
souls to the Lord. Maybe a better statement would
be, under the ministry of the Word which God has been pleased
to give me, 100,000 people. And who counted them, anyway? A number of people have shown
some interest in the Redeemer. They've manifested an interest
in saving faith. They've manifested some concern
for their souls. It looks like they're seeking
the Lord. But brethren, I've seen too many professors fall
away to settle the issue of any man's salvation until he's made
like Christ. He says in chapter 14, turn over
there, they are covetous, they give people false hope and false
assurance, they heal the hurt of my daughter, they cry peace
when there is no peace, tell people they are saved when they
are not saved. In chapter 14, verse 13, he says
they deny God's judgment against sin. God will deal with sin,
either in you or in Christ. God is going to punish sin. We
talk like everybody is going to heaven. We talk like everybody
is a Christian. He said in verse 13, Then said
I, O Lord God, behold the prophet saying to them, You shall not
see the sword, neither shall you have payment. But I give
you assured peace in this place. Then the Lord said unto me, Prophets,
prophesy lies in my name. I didn't send them. I haven't
commanded them. I didn't speak unto them. They
prophesy unto you a false vision, and divination, and a thing of
naught, and the deceit of their own heart. You shall not see
the sword. When the overflowing scourge
of God's wrath comes through, it won't touch you, because you're
a member of my church. You're a member of my congregation. You're a member of my denomination.
You are all right. In chapter 23, another charge
he brings against them. This is the Prophet Jeremiah.
They covetous, they give people a false peace, they deny the
justice and judgment, the righteous justice and judgment of God.
God's judgment is going to fall upon all Adam's race. The only
deliverance from God's judgment is Christ. The only reason God's
judgment is not going to fall upon a believer is that it's
already fell upon Christ in his place. God's judgment is going
to fall. It either has fallen or it will
fall, because no one should escape the judgment. Every man should
give an account of himself to God. Every man should be judged
according to his works. And my works are not any better
than the greatest rebel that ever lived. But I stand by faith
in Christ. You see, that's the difference.
I have a righteousness, not my own, but his. I have a deliverance,
not my own, but his. I have a protection, him. I have
a refuge, Christ. I have a mediator, you do, some
of you. That's our hope. It's not that
we're going to miss judgment, because judgment has already
fallen. Then he says in chapter 23, verse 16, "'Hearken not to
the words,' saith the Lord of Hosts, "'hearken not to the words
of the prophets that prophesy unto you, that make you vain.'
They preach a vision of their own hearts, not the word of God. Well, this is the way I see it,'
says a preacher. Well, friend, close your ears. The preacher says, I had a dream,
I had a dream. I heard a preacher the other
night on the radio preaching. He was lying in the hospital
bed, and his door was slightly ajar. His wife and daughter had gone
out of the room, and somebody slowly pushed the door open. He said he roused up and looked,
and it was the Lord. Except he didn't call him the
Lord, he said it was Jesus. Nobody calls him Lord anymore,
except those whom the Holy Spirit hath revealed to their hearts
that he is Lord. But he said, Jesus came in and
stood right at the foot of the bed. He said to me, he said,
I told you, this, this, and the other. The man was preaching
a lie. If you have a dream, preach your
dream. He that hath my word, verse 28,
let him speak my word faithfully. I'm not sent to explain the word,
but to proclaim it, not to defend it, but to preach it. God says, I didn't send them.
I didn't send them. Now, here's the sad thing. Let
me give you the sad thing. The Prophet Jeremiah talks about
these false prophets. He said, they're covetous men.
He says, they cry peace when there is no peace. He says, they
preach their own visions and thoughts and dreams and not the
word of God. He said, they give people a false
peace and do not declare to them the judgment of God. But here's
the sad thing. People love to have it so. That's
what's sad. Folks like it. They had rather
listen. This is sad, but it's so. I'll
show it to you in a moment from the Word of God. They'd rather
listen to a false prophet than a true prophet. That false prophet
makes them feel so good. That false prophet encourages
their false hope. Turn back to chapter 5 of Jeremiah,
verse 31. Now, he's been talking about
these false prophets, and he says in verse 31 of chapter 5,
watch it, "'The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear
rule by their own means, and my people,' talking about Israel,
the nation of Israel, not his sheep, "'they love to have it
so.'" They like that to hear. They like that to hear. They
like to hear of man's dignity, not his depravity. They like to hear of man's choice,
not God's choice. That's right. They like to hear
of an atonement that leaves something to be done. They like to hear of grace, but
not pure grace, grace plus works, grace plus merit. Now, folks,
he says, love to have it so. Our Lord said in John 3.19, this
is condemnation, light is coming to this world, but men love light,
they long for light, they hunger for light, nor so they love darkness
rather than light. Because their deeds are evil,
their thoughts are evil, their opinion of God is evil, their
opinion of themselves is evil. In John 5.43, our Lord said,
I've come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. Let another
come in his own name. How can a man like
Jim Jones get 900 people to follow him, even to suicide? How can
a man like John Paul II get millions to follow him? He's an imposter. Anybody with common sense knows
that. How can Hollywood-type evangelists
of today get people to follow them? How can anybody get folks
to send in and buy a silly little apparel pin that he paid 40 cents
for and send $40 for it? I don't understand that. Or buy
a Bible for $125 if you know the man's going to buy him a
diamond ring next week because you see it on television. I'll
tell you why. People love to have it so. They love to have it so. 2 Timothy 4, the Apostle Paul says,
they have itching ears. They do, and so do the preachers.
The most treacherous and despicable thing that a man can do is decry
peace, peace in the name of the Lord. When he knows in his heart
he doesn't have that peace, And he knows in his heart his
people to whom he preaches do not have that peace. That's despicable. That's treacherous. I'd rather
sell out my nation than sell out God. A man sells a secret to the Soviet
Union, we cry, hang him! Electrocute him! A man that will
sell the souls of sinners is a greater sinner. He's a greater
wretch. I want peace. I want, as I said
at the beginning of this hour, peace with God. A true peace. And I want you to have that.
Peace with God, with passive understanding. Peace with God,
knowing that by the righteousness of Christ and the blood of the
Son of God, that I've been justified. Don't you want that peace? I
want peace of heart and conscience. Sure, I'm a sinner. Sure, I have
an old nature. There's no discharge in this
war. The conflict increases. It doesn't get any easier. You say it does, you're on the
wrong track. But I want that peace of heart
and conscience before God, that my heart condemn me not, knowing
that I'm resting not in my deeds or works, but in Christ alone.
I want peace with the trials of life, and peace with the people
of this world. Peace! To be able to receive that which
God sends my way, that is providential beings. A man that does not have grace
operative in his life, never had grace operate on his heart. The heart of a sinner, a wicked
man, is like the troubled sea. The heart of a believer is at
peace. He can hear news like Eli heard,
and say, Well, sir, Lord, let him do what he will. He can hear
news like Job heard, and he can fall down on his face and worship
God, saying, Well, the Lord gave, the Lord taketh away, blessed
be the name of the Lord. Peace. I want the peace that
God gives, not a peace that comes from a man, a preacher, a handshake. I don't want the peace that comes
from an experience that I had at an altar. I don't want a peace
that comes from a present feeling that will disappear like the
early dew of the morning. I want a peace based on the sure
will of God, the promise of God. A supernatural peace that's been
born in me, regenerated in me, put within me by the power of
God that no man can shake. If a man gave you peace, another
man will take it away. If a man gave you assurance,
another man will disturb it. If a man gave you that reason
for which you believe that you are on your road to glory, another
man can take it away. But what God doeth, nothing can
be added to it or taken from it. If God does a work of grace
in my heart, it's finished, it's final, it's complete. I'm going to give you what I
believe to be the road to peace. But before I speak directly to
that point, I must make two observations. I take it for granted, I take
it for granted that you believe that salvation is an inward work. It's an inward work. Salvation
is an inward work. It's a work in the heart wrought
in the soul by the Spirit of God through the seed, the Word
of God. It's not a profession, it's a
possession of a person. It's not a mental acceptance
of facts. A man can be a Calvinist and
go to hell. A man can be a Baptist and flourish. A man can be a theologian and
not know God. Salvation is not a mental acceptance
of facts. It's not a moral reformation
of life. A man can be the best example
morally of any person here, and his heart be filled with hell
itself. Salvation is a new birth, it's
a regeneration, it's a new creature. Come with me to Romans 1, or
Romans 2, let me show you a verse of scripture here, Romans chapter
2. He says in verse 28, Romans 2,
he's not a Jew which is one outwardly. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Verse 29, he is a Jew which is
one inwardly. Change the word Jew to believer,
Christian, child of God. He's not a Christian who's one
outwardly. You can put your hair in a bun and wear your sleeves
down to your thumb. You can get your Good Samaritan
Bible that weighs four pounds and put a cross in your lapel.
You can get the most pious look on your face and neither do any
of the things that the preachers say you're not supposed to do.
Outwardly, that's what the Pharisees did. They looked like Christians,
but they didn't live like Christians. Because he's not a Christian
which is one outwardly, he's a Christian which is one inwardly. He's had a work of grace, not
good works. Is that a visitation from God,
not a visit from a soul winner? The Spirit of God has performed
a miracle! He hasn't just made a profession,
it's an inward work. You know that? We needn't go
any further if you don't. Secondly, I'd make this observation.
I'd say that all persons whom God saves do not have the same
degree of conviction. That's right, they don't have
the same. Don't ask me to go far down as you went. I won't
ask you to go far down as I went. Don't ask me to weep an equal
number of tears. I may weep more. Don't give every
sinner the same pill. Every sinner does not have the
same degree of conviction or the same degree of faith. He
has the same food, but not the same degree. He has the same
love, but not the same degree of love. There's only one faith,
there are different degrees of faith. There's only one love,
there are different degrees of love. There's only one life,
and that is in Christ. Now, how I come to that life
is according to God's sovereign will. And so God has different ways,
various ways of bringing his sheep to himself, but he always
brings them to himself. He healed several blind men.
One he spit in his eye. Another one he just spoke to
him. There are different ways that God deals with men, but
he always brings them to himself. I hear four things on the road
to peace. The first one is this. Before
a man can speak peace, I'm talking about the peace of God in heart
and conscience and mind. I'm talking about a genuine revelation
of God to us. I'm talking about that peace
that passeth understanding, that sins are forgiven, the war is
over, God is justified, satisfied. The first thing, before a man
can speak peace to his heart, he must be made to see and to
feel and to be deeply conscious of and concerned about. is S-I-N-S,
sins. No man will ever say, I'm saved,
until he says, I've sinned. God saves sinners. Isn't that
right? That's what Christ said to the Pharisees. I'm saying
the first step that a man takes towards life, peace, joy, salvation,
is not when he receives Christ or believes on Christ, it's when
he feels his need of Christ. That's the first step. Our Lord
saved sinners. A man will never say, I'm saved,
until he says before God, I've sinned! The publican stood in
the temple and cried, God, be merciful to me, the sinner! The
Pharisee stood down near the altar. That's where he felt like
he belonged. The publican stood afar off. He wouldn't even come
to the front. He didn't belong there. He felt out of place. He felt contaminated, and he
thought he'd contaminate everybody else. But the Pharisees stood
down, and he hadn't sinned, and therefore he wasn't saved. He
talked about all the good things he'd done, but the publicans
smote upon his breast, which contained the heart that was
the source of the whole problem. I had a friend one time say he
suffered a heart attack while driving his car, and he said
he started immediately beating on his chest like the doctor
said do, you know. But the heart was his problem.
That was what was causing the pain. And he, Jerry, Jerry comes
out beating on his chest. Well, that's what that public
was doing. That heart was causing him so much trouble. And he was
barely banging on it. He wouldn't even lift his eyes,
let alone his hands to heaven. He said, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner. Sin is a transgression of God's
law. To offend in one point is to be guilty of the whole law.
You say, I'm not such a bad fellow. If I could show you truly in
your heart from the Word of God and from what God Almighty thinks
of sin, just the condition you and I are in by nature, nobody
here could stand the sight. I believe that, Jay. I've heard
people say, I'm just such a great sinner." You don't know the half
of it. God hates sin worse than he hates
hell. Did you know it? Because he made
hell to put sin in you. God hates sin so much, he lowered
his son to a cross to pay for somebody's sin. Sin, sin. Sin is against God. My sins are
against thee, against thee only. Did you ever feel the burden
of your sins? Did you ever feel the burden
of your guilt? Did you ever weep over your sins? Did you ever
long for forgiveness of sin? And I believe that cheap sin
we think so little about and preach about so little. A fellow
came to Whitfield one time and said, I want you to pray for me, but
he said, I just don't believe God saved me, I've been such
a terrible fellow. And Whitefield says, well, God
put us to save sinners. Christ died for sinners. Oh,
there's sinners twenty, I've been such a drunk. And he talked
about all the hours and nights he lay in together. And when
he got through, Whitefield said, is that all? Oh, he said, no
sir, that's not all. He said, I've been such a liar. Well, he said, I just couldn't
tell the truth. Every other word was a lie. Whitfield says that
all. Well, he said, no, sir. He said,
I've been a thief. I've been a thief. Nothing was
safe around me unless it was nailed down or had a lock on
it. I'd steal. Whitfield says that
all. I'll tell you, he said, I've
been a blasphemer. Oh, every other word out of my
mouth was a dirty word, an obscene word, a blasphemous word. Whitefield says, Is that all?
He said, Mr. Whitefield, isn't that enough?
The old man said, You haven't yet confessed the greatest sin
of all, of which you are guilty. You haven't yet confessed the
sin against which the canons of heaven have turned. You haven't
yet confessed the sin that's damning your soul and sending
you to hell.' Well, he said, in the name of the Lord, what
is it, Mr. Whitby? He said, it's unbelief. Unbelief. What's wrong with you
sinners? You talk about all these little
things, and they're not little things, they're great things,
but they're little compared to unbelief. What kept Israel out
of the Promised Land? Unbelief. Of sin, Christ said, the Holy
Spirit will convince me of sin, of sin, because they believe
not. He that believeth not hath made
God alive. Now, you and I, you might call
me this, that, and the other and not shake me up too much,
but my pride just won't let you call me a liar. And Almighty
God's holiness just won't let you call him a liar. That's right. Unbelief. Unbelief. You're sitting there
this morning, rashling over and talking about and thinking about
whether or not you're going to become a Christian. Every breath
you take apart from Christ is a breath of unbelief. And he that believeth not on
the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. Remember what I said
to you? I wouldn't walk too much longer
if I was you in unbelief. You sit around and talk about
when you chewed tobacco. Who cares? Talk about when you
said God's name in vain. Who gives a flip? Talk about
when you committed adultery, you stole something. I wish you'd
forget that mess and start thinking about your troubles. You've got
an evil heart of unbelief. You've got troubles. You're not
giving God the glory. You're not honoring the holy
God. You're not submissive to and surrendered to the holy God.
He's going to send you to hell, not for chewing tobacco, but
for unbelief. I'm telling the truth. If I said,
I ain't preaching now, I'm telling the truth. God's angry. God's angry. You're going to
be convinced of S-I-N-S. S-I-N-S. If you said, I never
drank, smoked or danced or chewed or all that stuff you know, well,
I'll tell you this, friend, you nailed God's Son to the cross,
and that's a pretty serious offense. And the second thing, the fool
man can speak peace to his heart, he will be convinced of his S-I-N-S,
and secondly, he will be convinced of his S-I-N, the fountain of
sins. The fountain of S-I-N-S, the
source, the nature of S-I-N-S is S-I-N, sin! Well, then, it's
not altogether what I do that's got me in trouble. It's who I
am and with whom I've identified, as in Adam all dying. God just
sees two men, the first Adam and the second Adam. And all
who in the first Adam died, all who in the second Adam are made
alive. You see, God's judgment and condemnation and wrath is
upon a race of people. By one man's sin entered the
world, and death, my sin, so death, that very mother, passed
upon all men, for all sinned, and not have, all sinned. Now, shapen in iniquity, conceived
in sin, brought forth speaking lies. When I would do good, evil
is present with me. It's not just when I do evil
that evil is present with me, it's when I would do good, evil
is present with me. I carry the fountain of sin around
with me. I carry the nature of sin, the
source of sin. Cursed is the heart. It's not
what you put in your mouth that defiles you. There are a lot
of things you ought not to do. You ought not to drink red devil
eye. You ought not to drink John Barleycorn. You put it in your
mouth, it will ruin your liver, but it won't send you to hell.
What's sending you to hell is not what you put in your mouth,
but what's coming out of your heart. That's what our Lord said. And
those religious folks got real upset about that. He'll ruin
all of our moral decisions and forces and organizations. He's
just going to upset every one of them. You give people the
losses of sin, they'll just go out and do anything. They're
doing it anyhow. Get them out in the open. They're doing it
anyhow. Christ said, it's not what you
put in your mouth that defiles you, that just goes in your mouth,
in your stomach, in your belly, and out through the draft. It's
not there every one day. That old heart's been with you
ever since you was born. You're carrying that thing around.
Every beat of it's a beat of iniquity. Every thought of it's
a thought of sin. Every imagination of it came
from the pits of hell. That's right, Paul. That's where
it started, right there. That's my whole trouble. You've
got to have a new heart. God will give you a new heart.
I hear these sad, silly, sentimental preachers say, Give Jesus your
heart! You don't have any use for that thing. He needs to give
you a new heart. A new heart. That thing is the
source of sin, it's the seed of iniquity, it's the fountain
of corruption, it's the source of rebellion! It's my heart,
my nature. A man doesn't become a thief
when he steals, he steals because by nature he's a thief. He's
born a thief. A man's not going to speak peace
to his heart until he realizes and comes to the understanding
of what he is by nature so he can look to him who makes him
righteous by grace. I've got to look completely out
of myself, not partially out of myself, totally out of myself.
In my flesh, Paul said, dwelleth no good thing, not some good,
no good. From the sole of my feet to the
top of my head, there is no soundness, holiness in me. My holiness is
Christ. In the flesh, no man can please
God. You've got to see that the fountain of sin is there. I need
grace to start this journey, and I need as much now as when
I started. I need grace to wind it up. Without him, I can do
nothing. Thirdly, before a man can speak
peace to his heart, he is going to be soundly convinced. Now,
this will rattle you clear down to your feet if I haven't got
you so far. S-I-N-S, S-I-N. But before a
man can speak peace to his heart, he is going to be soundly convinced,
not only of his S-I-N-S against God, of the fountain of evil,
his nature that came from the original fall, but he's going
to be convinced of this, of the evil found in his best deeds
and duties. That's so. Our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. Old Philip Doddridge, last words. You know what the last words
of the old picture were? The last words he spoke before
he closed his eyes and died. Oh, saintly, they said, godly,
faithful. Philip Doddridge said, before
he died, the best prayer I ever offered in my life deserves damnation. That's so. I never gave a gift or performed
a duty or said a prayer or preached a sermon that wasn't full of
sin. Not in the eyes of men, but in
the eyes of God. That's so. There's nothing any
man can do in the flesh, in God's sight, without sin. That's so. If you never feel the deficiency
of your righteousness, you'll never covet his perfect righteousness. Never will. I've got to realize
that even in the house of God, why don't you, why don't we be
honest, truthful? We've never praised God like
he ought to be praised. We've never, we've never worshipped
God like he ought to be worshipped. We've never prayed totally committed,
totally surrendered like we ought to pray. We've never given a
gift sacrificially. Nobody here has ever sold all
he had and followed Christ, not yet. I haven't met him. No widow
here has ever given everything she had like that widow Christ
singled out. Anybody, I'd like to meet her. will divide with God. But all of our deeds are tainted. They're not tainted with faith,
either. They're not tainted with committal,
either. Our conflicts with one another
are because of our self-righteous, sinful self. We can't even go
back to the thing of ministering the gospel without a critical
nature, an endist nature, a jealous nature, some other kind of nature.
We can't even go back to the task of teaching the gospel to
boys and girls and men and women without hurt feelings and divisions
and conflicts and feeling sorry for ourselves and all of that
junk. We can't even go about the matter of being a deacon
or a servant of Jesus Christ without having a conflict with
another deacon. The best we've got ought to be
sent to hell. Is that too hard? That's something. It's too full of sin. And brethren,
I'm telling you, we'd better quit talking about how good we
are and go to pleading for God's mercy. A man will never speak peace
to his heart until he comes to see that all of his righteousness
are filthy rags, and he'll quit trusting them and depending upon
them and looking to them and cast himself on Christ. And that's
where you'll find peace. You don't find peace in these
things. You feel good while you're doing them, but it's no lasting
peace. You forgive somebody and you
feel good while you're forgiving them, but after a while you've
messed up with somebody else. But this peace of Christ, you
see, this is my life, and this is your life. I'm up here, and
then I'm down there. And I'm in here, and up there,
and down there. But Christ is always in one place, at the right
hand of God, never moved. And if he's my righteousness,
and he's my hope, and he's my peace, then my peace never alters
with my conditions, or my environment, or my feelings, or my experience.
He's my peace. He is our peace. My peace I give
unto you." I've got to close. Four, before a man can speak
peace to his heart, he will be able by faith, repenting of his S-I-N-S, grinning
over his S-I-N, praying to the mercy of God upon
his unrighteous, filthy rags, take away my fig leaf apron.
And he'll be able by faith to lay hold upon the all-sufficient
righteousness and blessed atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can
you do that? Can you lay hold upon Christ?
He is our peace. My sins. I talked to someone
yesterday, a man concerned about something that happened years
ago, and his sin years ago. He's sitting there grieving about
something he did years ago. the guilt of it, driving him
to suicide. Well, I can understand that if
he's depending on that, or writing that, or straightening it out
in order to find acceptance with God, but the blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin. There's no use in me going back
and hatching up something that happened years ago and being
troubled and disturbed and distressed, forget it. Forgetting those things
which are under the blood of Christ. Christ is my peace. God has forgiven my sins. I have
peace with you. We go through a trial. Things
are not going like they ought to. But now listen, God's going
to work it out for your good. You haven't been able to meet
these obligations, and you're not making the money you'd like
to make, and things are troubling you in the home and so forth.
Listen, isn't that God's hand upon his people? David said,
I'm old, I've been young, I've never seen God's seed beg in
bed. You'd be the first one. What glorious thoughts! I'm the
first one of God's children ever begged in bed. There have been
a whole lot of them, and I'm the first one. He's never yet forsaken his own.
Do you know anyone he's ever forsaken? And if you believe
that, Christ is your peace, you can rest, and you lay hold upon
Christ and his righteousness and his peace. That's what I'm
talking about, laying hold upon Christ. Reaching out to the Son
of God. Turn to Romans 3. Let me read
this and quit. Romans 3. time to quit, Jay closed his
pen and put his pad away. That's when the preachers in
the school know to quit. He puts his pen together and
Jay takes no more notes. But I'm going to say one more
thing before I quit. Romans 3, verse 19. Watch this.
Now, we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every amount may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty. That's all right. I say, Amen.
I'm guilty. The 2nd verse says, Therefore,
because we are guilty, and the law has shut our mouths and condemned
us, put us in jail, therefore by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in God's sight. So we might as well quit.
Might as well quit trying to justify yourself by your works,
deeds, merit, law, and so forth. Might as well quit. For by the
law is the knowledge of sin. Not the cleansing of it, but
the knowledge of it. Not the putting away of it, but
the revelation of it. But now, not next year, now,
the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, the purity of
God, the sanctification of God, right now, the holiness of God,
without the law. If I have holiness and righteousness,
it will have to be without the law. The law has already damned
me. The law has already sentenced
me. The law has already condemned me. It can't cleanse me. So if
I have any holiness or righteousness in the sight of God, it'll have
to be without my obedience to the law. Without the law. It's
manifested. It's revealed, it's been witnessed
by every prophet of God, every preacher, every apostle, both
his word and his prophets. What is this righteousness? It's
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
upon all, unto all, unto, God gives it to you, upon all, God
puts it upon you. Them that believe, there's no
difference. No difference. High or low, rich or poor, old
or young, learned or ignorant, black or white, Jew or Gentile,
no difference. I'm such a terrible sinner, no
difference. I'm such a Pharisee, no difference.
For all has sinned and come short of God's glory. Therefore, Being
justified, being justified, that means just as if I've never sinned.
That means without any blame, guilt, or charge. Being justified
by the grace of God, the full gift of grace, through the redemption
that's in Christ. I've got peace, bud. That's where
it is right now. You go on trying to find your
peace in your little old silly religious profession. You go
on trying to find peace in that little silly decision you made
forty-odd years ago. You go on trying to find peace
in your morality and outward works. You go on trying to find
peace in your paltry fig leaf apron. You go on trying to find
peace in your vows to do better. My peace is at the right hand
of the Father. Seated. Accepted. and awaiting his return. That's
my peace. And I'm as holy as God himself
in Christ. Is that too hard? You better
be. Christ Jesus has no degrees of
sanctification. He has no degrees of holiness.
He is holy. And all who are in him, with
his spotless righteous garments on, are as holy as God's But
I myself am disappointed and ashamed, aren't you? Always,
even more every day. But God speaks peace to my heart. Our Father, anoint the message
with the power of your Holy Spirit. These are things that men cannot
understand except by grace. These are things that a natural
man will not receive. It's got to be revealed by your
spirit. These are things that the most
religious hate, the most religious despise. These are things that
men claim to believe and will not preach. These are things
the false prophets have never experienced and know nothing
of preaching them to the people. But Lord, these are the things
of our God. This is thus saith the Lord. Now own it and anoint
it and bring forth glory to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and peace, oh, that perfect peace that passeth understanding which
we have in Christ. Seal it in the souls of many
people here this morning for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. Amen.