I do not frustrate, and that
word means confuse, or complicate, or distort the grace of God. This is Paul speaking in Galatians
chapter 2, verse 21. I do not frustrate, complicate
the grace of God. If righteousness come by the
law, Jesus Christ died in vain. Now I want to speak to you today
from this verse of scripture on this subject sounding a clear
note. Sounding a clear note. Now my
message may be somewhat offensive to some of you. I hope not. It
may not please some. Others, it'll make your heart
glad because you believe these things. But I want you to listen.
Will you give me a hearing ear? Will you give me just a few moments
of your time? I know a little bit about preaching. I've been
preaching for a little while. Now, there are many important
and essential things in the preaching of the gospel. First of all,
the Lord calls his preachers. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The important thing there is
not the man's name, but the fact God sent him. There was a man
sent from God. It doesn't matter what his name
was. They asked him what his name was. He said, I'm just a
voice. They said, Are you the Christ? He said, No, I'm not
worthy to unlace his shoes. I just come to tell you about
him. He must increase and I must decrease. God not only calls
his servants, but he anoints them and empowers them. The Holy Spirit said to the early
church, You separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work
whereunto I have called them. The Apostle Paul said, I thank
God who put me into the ministry. God calls, anoints, and sends
his servants. Now, I know there are a lot of
preachers who have run in their own names, and consequently they're
delivering their own messages, and many people hear them. Our
Lord said, let another come in his own name, and him you will
receive. I've come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. But God does call, and God does
anoint, and God does send and equip is messengers. But there are three essentials
to good preaching. I know good preaching when I
hear it. I know good preaching when I do it. And there are three
essentials to good preaching. And they need to be emphasized,
especially in this day of poor preaching. We're not hearing
much good preaching. We hear a lot of promoting, and
we see a lot of programming. and a lot of proselyting and
everything else, but we don't hear much real good preaching. But good preaching requires three
things, three essentials. That is, other than being called
of God and anointed of God and sent of God and commissioned
of God, first of all, it requires knowledge. And I'm not talking
about knowledge in the sense of human wisdom. I'm talking
about knowledge of God, of Christ Jesus and of his word. Over in
1 John 1, verse 1 through 3, the Apostle John talks about
the message he preached. And he said, I declare unto you
that which I've seen and heard. And he says that three times,
three times in those three verses. That which I've seen, that which
I've heard, I preach unto you. I declare unto you that which
I've seen. A man can't preach what he doesn't know. A man cannot
preach what he's never experienced. The reason you don't hear very
many effective sermons on repentance is most men have not repented.
The reason you hear such poor preaching on faith is most men
are not the subjects of faith. They know nothing of faith. They've
never experienced faith. And that's the reason we're doing
so much promoting today and so little preaching. Most preachers
have nothing to tell. They haven't been anywhere spiritually,
and they have nothing to tell. They have to talk about their
trip to the Holy Land. They've never been to Calvary.
They have to talk about eschatology because they know so little about
the first coming of Christ. They have to be bound up in church
doctrine and discipline and organization and all of these things because
they know so little about a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've got to have knowledge before you can pray. You've got
to know Christ, to know somebody. If you know him, you can brag
on him. If you know him, you can talk about him. If you know
him, you can introduce him to somebody else. But you've got
to know him. And then the second word is sincerity. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
10, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved, that they might be saved. I bear
them record. They have a zeal and enthusiasm
for God, but it's not according to knowledge. For they're going
about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted
to the righteousness of Christ, but I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow for my brethren in the flesh. I could wish myself,"
he said, a curse from Christ, that they might be saved. I want
them to be saved so badly. I want them to know God so badly
that I'd almost go to hell for them. That's what he said. And
Moses said something very similar to that. He said, he stood between
God and Israel one day and he said, Lord, if you destroy these
people, then you blot me out of the book you've written. That's
strong language. But that's strong feeling, and
that's strong sympathy, and that's a heavy burden. That's a heavy
burden. But if you can't preach from
a sincere heart, get out of the pulpit. If your heart's not broken
for your congregation, if you don't love the people to whom
you preach, you can't preach. You can't talk to men for God
unless you can talk to God for men. There's just no way. There's
got to be a sincerity, a deep sincerity, whether you teach
or preach or witness or whatever. unless you can do it out of a
genuine heart love, then leave it alone. Leave it to somebody
who can. There's a twofold motive, a twofold motive that constrains
every true minister of God, and it's not praise or popularity
or possessions, it's the glory of God and the eternal good of
his hero. That's what constrains him. It's
the glory of God. He wants God to be glorified.
In all things, he wants God to be glorified, whatever the cost.
He wants God to be glorified. And he wants his heroes to genuinely
be saved, not just become a name on a roll, or a number in a Sunday
school class, or somebody to brag about that you want them
to Jesus. He wants them to come to know
the Son of God. And then the third thing, and
this is really what I'm getting to in this message, sounding
a clear note. The third word is simplicity.
Three essentials to gospel preaching, knowledge, sincerity and simplicity. There's no substitute for simplicity
in preaching the gospel. The Apostle Paul was a brilliant
man. The Apostle Paul was one of the
most highly educated men of his day. In fact, one great ruler
said to him, you've studied so much you've lost your mind. Now
that's the conclusion to which he came in reference to the Apostle
Paul. You've just been studying so
much. Much learning has driven you crazy. The Apostle Paul was
a studious, educated, learned man. He graduated from the best
university of his day. He was a man schooled in the
Scriptures, in the traditions, in the ceremonies, in all of
the types. He's a man, he just didn't know
Christ. But when he came to know Christ,
he set all this aside. He said, I count all this but
dung that I may win Christ and be found in him, that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection. And he said to that great city
of Corinth, I'm determined to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. And in the second epistle to
the church at Corinth in chapter 11, he said, I fear, I fear. And Paul didn't fear many things.
He feared God. He feared false converts. He
feared lest he become a castaway after preaching to others. And
he feared, he feared lest Satan should corrupt their minds and
turn them away from the simplicity of Christ. Is that not done in
our day? Have men not been turned away
from the simplicity of Christ? Have we educated ourselves out
of the ministry? Have some men totally and literally
educated themselves out of the ministry? They're talking in
language people don't understand. They're preaching on subjects
that folks know nothing about. They're answering questions that
nobody's asking. And folks go to church and sit
and listen to these fellas and come away, pretty music, a beautiful
building, and a fine choir, and et cetera, et cetera, but no
message. I don't understand a thing the man said. Our Lord preached
to people In language, they understood. They may not have believed what
he said, but they understood it. They may not have bowed to
what he required, but they understood it. They did not agree with what
he said, but they understood what he said. They understood
it. And I could go all the way through
his teachings, and I could say to you, you understand what he
said. You understand, you may not believe
it, you may not be willing to bow to it, you may not agree
with it, but he spoke in language that men could understand. Now,
what is preaching? Just exactly what is preaching?
Well, I'll give you what I believe preaching to be. Number one,
it's proclaiming the gospel. Proclaiming the gospel. John
said, that which we've seen and heard, declare we. It's a declaration. It's a proclamation. Preaching
is not explaining the gospel. It's proclaiming the gospel.
There's no way I can explain the gospel. The gospel has to
be revealed. I can proclaim it. I can proclaim it. I can preach
it. I can declare it. But it's not
explaining it. Natural men do not receive the
things of God. They're foolishness to them.
The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
But that doesn't mean I quit preaching it. I preach the cross
and depend on the Holy Spirit to reveal it. to reveal a man's
needs, to reveal a man's sins, to reveal Christ to his heart,
to reveal the mystery of the gospel. The preaching of the
gospel is proclaiming it. It's not putting it in systematic
order so men with their natural minds can understand it. It's
just preaching it. Preach the gospel. Paul said
to Timothy, Timothy, preach the gospel. Our Lord said to his
disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Declare
who Christ is, and what he did, and why he did it, and where
he is now. Tell them about the cross. And they despise it, and
hate it, and reject it, and turn from it. They did in his day,
but he went right on preaching it. So, preaching, first of all,
is proclaiming the gospel. And secondly, it's holding forth
the Word of God. Paul said, Timothy, preach the
Word. Preach the Word. That's what we're to preach,
the Word of God. Open your Bibles and preach from what the Word
says. We're preaching today. Men are preaching their ideas.
They're preaching on the current topics, they say. They're giving
book reviews, and they're giving nice little stories and poems
and trying to get folks to feel good. We're to preach the Word.
That which we've seen and heard declare we unto you. This is
the message we've heard of him and declare unto you. We're not
seeking to be consistent with ourselves. That would be to be
consistent with a fool. We're seeking to be consistent
with the Word of God. This is good preaching when you
preach the Word. Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith
the Lord. The Old Testament prophets were
sent by God to declare what? Their ideas, their thoughts,
their philosophy? Oh, no. Go tell them, thus saith
the Lord, thus saith the Lord. That was what they preached.
And God promises that his word will not return unto him void.
It shall accomplish that whereunto he has sent it. And then thirdly,
good preaching is proclaiming the gospel. It is preaching the
word of God. And it's thirdly, communicating
with our hearers. Preaching is taking God's message
to men in words and language that they understand. Paul said,
not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ be made of
none effect. Not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. But preaching the gospel is communicating. Communicating with people. Saying
in the language that men understand what God sent you to say and
that's what Paul is saying in our text in Galatians 2 21 He
says I do not distort confuse Complicate or frustrate the grace
of God. I sound a clear note Now I cannot
force men to turn from their idols, but I can identify their
idols That's right. I can identify them I cannot
force men to believe the gospel, but I can preach the gospel,
because they're not going to believe it if they don't hear
it. 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?
They've got to hear the gospel. And then I cannot force men to
bow to Christ, but I can tell them that God commands it, and
that one day all men will bow to Christ. The question is not,
is Christ your Lord? He is your Lord. He's every man's
Lord. The question is, will you submit
to his Lordship now or at the judgment? And then I cannot force
men to face the issues, but I can let them know what the issues
are. That's plain preaching. I can tell you what the issues
are, and that's what I plan to do in the next few moments. I'm
going to declare to you what the issues are in language you
can understand. It doesn't matter whether you
are a college professor or whether you are a man who didn't go past
the second or third grade. You're going to understand what
I'm saying this morning because I'm going to talk to you in your
language delivering God's message. Now here's the first point that
I want you to listen. Don't you listen to this. I don't
know if you'll ever repent. If you'll ever repent. But I
know this. Scripture says except you repent
you'll Paris. That's pretty plain in it. That's
sounding a clear No, we don't need to hedge about it. We don't
need to argue about it We don't need to fall out over it Almighty
God said through the mouth of the Savior himself except you
repent you shall all likewise perish I Don't know how to define
repentance. Somebody said it's a turning.
Yes, but oh what a turning somebody else says it's a chain, but Oh,
my soul, what a change. It's a change of mind about some
things. In Isaiah 55, it says, let the
wicked forsake his thoughts. It's a change of mind about yourself
and about God and about His Word and about His Son and about justice
and righteousness. It's a change of mind. And repentance
is a change of manners. He says, on further, let him
forsake his way. We've got to give up our way
and go God's way, give up our will and go do God's will. And
it's not only a change of mind and a change of manners, but
it's a change of masters. Let him return unto the Lord.
I think that's a good definition of repentance. It's getting your
mind straightened out about God and about sin and about righteousness
and Christ. It's changing your manners, your
behavior and conduct on the basis of God's Word, and it's changing
masters. No man can have two masters.
That's repentance. And I don't know whether you've
ever have repented or ever will repent. You may be a Sunday school
teacher and never repented. You may be a preacher and never
repented. But except you repent, you'll perish. That's what God's
Word says. Do with it what you will. But
that's sounding a clear no. I don't know if you'll ever experience
a new birth. I know a new birth is not walking down a church
aisle. It's not shaking a preacher's hand. It's not deciding you'd
rather go to heaven than to go to hell. A new birth is of God. We're born of God. That's what
the scripture says. Not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man. We're born of God. It's a supernatural
birth. It's a spiritual birth. It's
from above. We're born of God. And we're
born of the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And
we're born of the Word of God. He hath begotten us again unto
a living hope by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. of his own will begat he us with the word of truth."
And it's to a new life. We're born of the Spirit of God
to live a spiritual life. And I don't know whether you've
ever been born again or ever will be born again, but I know
this, and this is sounding a clear note, except the man be born
again, he'll never see the kingdom of God. Now, you can do what
you want to with that, but that's sounding a clear note. That's
preaching. And I know a lot of preachers, him and her and and
apologize and beat around the bush and do whatever they do,
you know, to stay on the good side of whoever they're trying
to stay on the good side of, but that's where it is. That's
what the book says. Except a man be born again, he'll
never see the kingdom of God. Whoever that man is. You can
laugh at it and ridicule it and make fun of it and talk about
born-again Christians and some of them ought to be made fun
of. But nevertheless, you can't do anything about that one charge. Except a man be born again, you'll
never see the kingdom of God. I don't know if you'll ever receive
Christ as your Lord and Savior. You may never. You may never
have. You may and you may not. I don't know, but the scriptures
make it clear. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall never see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. That's plain precept. And that's
the kind we need to hear. This is the record. God has given
us eternal life. This life's in His Son. He that
hath the Son of God hath life, not he that hath a good reputation,
he that hath a moral code, he that hath a good standard, he
that goeth to church on Sunday and teacheth the Sunday school
class and sings in the choir, he that hath the Son of God hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God shall never see life. These things I've written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know you have eternal life." Life's in Christ. He's our righteousness,
our wisdom, our sanctification, our holiness, and our redemption.
It's all in Him. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. You're complete in Him. I don't
lack anything if I'm in Christ. If I'm not in Christ, whatever
I have will do me no good. I don't know if you'll go on
trusting your own righteousness and holiness. bragging about
how holy you are, and good you are, and spiritual you are, and
religious you are. I don't know, you may go right
on down that path of self-righteousness and perish, but I'll tell you
this, the Lord said he picked out the most righteous men of
his day, the Pharisees, and he said to his disciples, if your
righteousness does not exceed theirs, go beyond theirs and
better than theirs, you'll never see the kingdom of God. You say,
where am I going to get that kind of righteousness, that kind
of holiness? It's in Christ. Christ is God's
righteousness. He imputes it unto us. He was
made sin. Who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him? He was born under
the law, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were born under the law, that we might be righteous in
Him. Christ is our righteousness. God can't look upon anything
you are, say, or do and accept it because it's imperfect. God
can only accept perfection. But He loves us in Christ. He
accepts us in Christ. He sees us as righteous in Christ.
He forgives us in Christ. It's all in the Savior, in Christ,
like in Noah's ark. Noah was in that ark. He wasn't
out there swimming along with his own strength and power and
floating on water wings and lying on a life buoy. He was in the
ark. And the ark was his security and safety. The ark was his refuge. And Christ is our refuge. I don't
know when you'll die. I don't know. I don't know when
you'll meet God in the judgment. But brother, I know this. You're
going to die. And you're going to meet God
at the judgment. The scripture says it is appointed. It's an
appointment you're going to keep. It is appointed unto me who wants
to die, and after this judgment." My friend, that's straight. That's
sounding a clear note. That's where it is. You may be
hearing the last preacher you'll ever hear. You may be laughing
at the last preacher you'll ever laugh at. You may be ridiculing
the last gospel message you'll ever ridicule. You may be rejecting
the last word of truth you'll ever reject. And I'm telling
you this, you're going to die, and you're going to meet a holy
God in And he says, every secret thing shall be brought into the
open. Everything whispered in the closet shall be shouted from
the housetop. God's going to judge every man according to
the things written in the book. I don't know what's on your books,
but I got a good idea. I don't know what's on your record,
but I've got a good idea. The word of God says all is sin
and comes short of the glory of God. From the sole of our
feet to the top of our head, there's no righteousness or soundness
in us. Let me give you four words to
think about. You've got a life to live. You've got a death to
die, you've got a judgment to face, and you've got an eternity
to spend. And that's the four most important
words you can think about. It's not how much money you make
or how many friends you've got or how big a house you live in.
You've got a life to live. And the only life that's worth
living is that life which is lived in Christ. And you've got
a death to die. And you'll die in your sins or
you'll die in faith, one of the two. You've got a judgment to
face, and you'll face it in Christ, your substitute, or you'll face
it alone, alone. And if you face it alone, you'll
spend eternity alone. You'll be cast out of the presence
of God. But there's no condemnation to them who are in Christ. There's
no judgment. And I don't know if your name's in the Book of
Life. I've never seen it. I don't know whose name's in
the Book of Life. But I do know this, the Scripture says, Whosoever
is not written in the Book of Life shall be cast into hell. That's what it says. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, the disciples came running to him one day. They
were real excited. They had been out there preaching a little
bit, and they came back real excited, and they said, Lord,
even the demons are subject to us. That sounds like some present-day
hucksters on television, doesn't it? Merchandisers of the gospel.
But they came running and said, even the demons are subject to
us. And our Lord said, don't rejoice that the demons are subject
to you. but rather rejoice that your
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The demons can
be subject to demons. The demons can be subject to
Satan's ministers. The demons can be subject to
Satan's ministers of righteousness who deceive the people and creep
in unaware. But the demons' names are not
written in the Book of Life. The sheep of Christ, the children
of God, the beloved, Their names are written in the Book of Life.
This is what you better rejoice in. This is what you'd better
seek, to have your name written in the Book of Life by the hand
of the Savior, who loved us and gave Himself for us. I don't
know when Christ is coming back to the earth, but I know He's
coming. I know He's coming. I know a
lot of people are getting excited right now, but they've gotten
excited before. But I'm telling you this, our
Lord said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's the main thing. That's
the main thing. Christ Jesus shall appear the
second time without sin unto salvation. But the main thing
is, has he appeared the first time on your behalf to put away
your sin by the sacrifice of himself? If Christ is your Redeemer,
it doesn't matter whether you go through the tribulation or
don't. If Christ is your Redeemer, it doesn't matter whether millennium's
on this earth or not. If Christ is your Redeemer, it
doesn't matter whether there's seven judgments, five judgments,
or one judgment. Who cares? There's no judgment
in Christ. We're redeemed in Him. Everything's
all right in my Father's house. Everything's all right. Let's
don't get taken up with these things and get sidetracked. What
you'd better do is make your calling and election sure. If
you do these things, you'll never fail. I know he's coming back. The angel said the same, Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, just so come in like
manner as you've seen him go. Now, men may claim that it's
difficult to find mercy, but I tell you this, my friend, it's
no secret where mercy's found. It's in Christ. That's where
it is. God said that. It's in Christ. And men may not
understand why God saves whom he saves, but it's no secret
how he saves He saves them by the sacrifice of his Son. And
if gospel issues are laid down, lines will be drawn, and folks
will choose up and take sides, and God will be glorified.