I want you to open your Bibles
tonight to the book of Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, the thirteenth
chapter. Jeremiah thirteen, verse twenty-three. Now, this is our text. Now, subject
tonight is entitled, The Miracle of Redemption. the miracle of
redemption, the miracle of salvation. Let's look at the text. Can the
Ethiopian change his skin? Or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. Now, my friends, salvation is
a miracle. It's a miracle. I know we're taught today that
salvation is a decision, or salvation is accepting Jesus, or salvation
is giving mental agreement to some facts about Jesus Christ. or salvation is joining the Church
and being baptized, or turning over a new leaf and trying to
live a good life. But redemption and salvation,
according to the Scriptures, is a miracle. In the Word of
God, just the book of John, in the third chapter, salvation
is described as a birth from above, Our Lord said to Nicodemus,
you were born the first time of flesh, mother and father,
natural birth, carnal birth. But to enter the kingdom of God,
to be saved, to be redeemed, you've got to be born again in
a miraculous fashion, born of the Spirit of God and the Word
of God. And that's by the sovereign pleasure
of God. You've got to be born again.
There's got to be a miracle. another birth, a new birth, the
creation of a new life. And then in the fourth chapter
of John, our Lord Jesus Christ described salvation to the woman
at the well as being the creation or appearance of a well of living
water from within. Not coming to the church and
getting refreshed every Sunday or revived or recharged But actually a man,
a woman who's regenerated and redeemed has within them that
source of life. It's a well of living water.
Christ said, he that drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall have in him a well of living water springing up,
springing up like an artesian well all the time from within,
from within, unto life everlasting. And then in the fifth chapter
of John, our Lord calls salvation, redemption, a resurrection from
the dead. He says, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. I say unto you, the dead
shall hear my voice, they that are in the grave shall come forth.
and live, spiritual graves. He talks about spiritual death,
and he talks about physical death later on in that same chapter.
But salvation is a resurrection, a resurrection from the dead.
You who were dead, hath he quickened, or made alive. It's the life
of God, an eternal life, and life that can never die, given
by the Spirit of God to a man who was dead and seen. And then
in the sixth chapter of John, you can just go through the book
of John and find these definitions of what salvation and redemption
is, a whole lot more than just deciding to go to heaven, and
deciding that you don't want to go to hell, and deciding that
after all the Bible may be true. And a fellow needs a refuge,
he needs some security in the event of death, he needs deliverance
from judgment. Salvation is a miracle. It's
a miracle. In the sixth chapter, our Lord
says salvation is a revelation. A revelation. He says, no man
can come to me. And to come to Christ means to
believe on him, or to trust him, or to receive him, or in today's
language, accept him. But no man can come to Christ,
He said, except my Father which sent me draw him. And they shall
be taught of God. Taught of God. Now, no man knoweth
the things of the Spirit of God, but no man knoweth the things
of God save the Spirit of God, and he to whom the Spirit will
reveal them. And they shall be taught of God, personally, individually. This is a miracle. Taught of
God. If my voice is the only voice you hear, you're not going
to be saved. You've got to hear Him speak,
who speaks through His Word, by His Spirit. If my voice is
the only voice you hear, you'll never be redeemed. I think we
must hear the voice of a man, we must hear the scriptures read,
or preached, or taught, or we must read them ourselves, but
we must hear him speak who speaks through his word. God must speak,
and they shall be taught of God, and every man that's taught of
God cometh unto me. And you can go right on through
the book of John. Salvation, a new birth, salvation,
a living well of living water. Salvation, a resurrection, salvation,
a direct revelation. I'm not talking about dreams
and visions now and seeing Christ in person and this sort of thing.
I'm talking about God revealing, teaching you the mystery of godliness,
the mystery of the gospel. Just for a moment, turn to the
book of 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This is what I'm talking about
here. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and I'm saying to you, And I'm
saying it as sincerely as I can, and I'm saying it as plainly
as I can. This thing of salvation, this thing of redemption, it's
not a little easy believism. It's not a simple decision that
a man makes and tries to do his best. It's a miracle, a miracle
of birth, a miracle of resurrection, a miracle of revelation. And here in chapter 4, 2 Corinthians,
Paul said, verse 3, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them that believe not. They are blind men, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
But we preach Christ Jesus the Lord, Christ the Redeemer, Christ
our righteousness, Christ our substitute, Christ our mediator,
Christ our satisfaction. We preach Christ. We don't preach
a decision or a denomination or a theology or a doctrine.
We preach a person. And ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake, for God. And this is what happened to
us. in order that we might know Christ, in order that we might
believe Christ and trust Christ, God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, just like He did in the original creation.
The darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God said, let
there be light. And there was light, and God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's a miracle. Now, my friends,
there's no miracle in making a man religious. There's no miracle
in making a man religious. Men are religious by nature.
Men are superstitious by nature. Men are emotional by nature.
Men by nature have a zeal for some God. Paul, talking about
the Israelites in Romans 10, he said, I know them. They have
a zeal of God. But it's not according to knowledge.
They're ignorant of the righteousness of God. So there's no miracle
in making a man religious. There's no miracle in getting
a crowd of folks and preaching to them there's a hell and there's
a heaven and there's a cross and if you want to be saved,
raise your hand and do this and do that and come down and make
a profession and join the church. There's no miracle in making
a man religious. You've just got to find what
appeals to him. He's religious by nature. They'll
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They have itching
ears, and the teachers have itching ears. They want to hear what
they want to hear. And if you meet a man's particular religious
feelings and emotions, he'll join up with you. That's the
reason we've got so many denominations, is each one appeals to a different
crowd. There's the whoop-de-do folks,
that appeals to the whoop-de-do folks. And there's the long-faced,
dry, pious folks, that appeals to them. And there's the legalist
and the ritualist and the ceremonialist and the separationist. And all
these, they appeal to the people, their God is like them. That's
what, their God's just like them. He fits their personalities and
their characters. They're religious by nature,
they're superstitious by nature. Paul came there to Athens. Wasn't
it Athens and Mars Hill when he saw all these shrines and
altars and religious statues? He said, I perceive you are very
religious people. Why, he said, I walk down your
streets and there's statues to gods everywhere. But he said,
I'm going to preach to you a god you don't know, the unknown God.
So there's no miracle in making a man religious. The miracle
is in making a man righteous. That's the miracle. Making a
man righteous. Righteous before God. Righteous
before God. With a righteousness that God
will accept. With a righteousness that God
Almighty will receive. With a righteousness that satisfies
His righteousness. That's hard to do. Make a man
righteous. Righteous before the law. Righteous
before God Almighty is immaculate, infinite, holy law. That's a
miracle, to make a man righteous. Brother, I tell you this, you
can make him religious, you can shake his hand a thousand times,
like Brother Griswold used to say, you can baptize him till
the frogs know anybody's first name, but you can't make him
righteous. You can't make him righteous.
That takes a miracle. You can't justify him, you can't
sanctify him, you can't redeem him, you can't make him righteous.
That takes a miracle. Only God can do that. And I'll
tell you something else. It may surprise you, but this
is true, and I think if you think about it a little while, you'll
agree with me. There's no miracle in Reformation. I hear people
say this, and Darwin, I think, mentioned this last night in
his message. He had a friend or a relative or someone who
was a heavy drinker. And he got religion and quit
just like that. And I've known other fellas to
be on drugs and quit just like that. I've known other fellas
to be blasphemers and profane swears and quit just like that.
There's no miracle in that. The drunk wants to be sober.
If you really knew him, you'd know he wants to be sober. There's
no drunk who enjoys the gutter. He's a slave to it. And if you
can hit the right note, if you can hit the right key, you can
bring to him psychology, if you can bring to him religion, if
you can bring to him some reward, if you can bring to him something
that appeals to him, he has enough positive mental attitude that
he'd quit that deal. He can quit it. The reason I
know that is one of the men sitting right here in this church was
working for a fellow that was a big boss in the state. And he used God's name in vain
all the time. Every time he opened his mouth,
he'd use God's name in vain. And this friend of mine said
to him that, he said, that's offensive to me. That's offensive. And I want you to stop it while
you're in my presence. And you know what he did? He
stopped it. He stopped because he had some motivation. This
fellow, he had respect for him. And therefore that respect, take
these fellows that speak on television, radio. Some of them, when they're
not on radio, they curse constantly, they drink constantly. When they're
on the air, they never utter a curse word, John. It can be
done. But you got to have the right,
you got to have the right key. And you can promise him heaven,
you can promise him, the drunk wants to be sober, the harlot
wants to be pure. Most of them. Most drunks. I'm not talking about without
exception, I'm simply saying I know that the average drunk
would like to be sober, and the average prostitute would like
to be pure, and the average thief would like to be honest. And
if you can properly motivate him, you can get the job done. If you can get him around in
group analysis, or you can use psychology, religion really,
in the way that most people present it, is a psychology. But I'll
tell you this, there's no miracle in Reformation. The miracle is
in regeneration. To make a man sober in his heart. To make a woman pure in her heart. To make a thief honest in his
heart. Now there's the miracle. That
takes a miracle. It took a miracle to put the
stars in place. It took a miracle to put the
sun in space. But when He cleansed my soul
and made me whole, that took a miracle of His love and His
grace. Now, that man cannot do. That's
something God does. That's what I'm saying. There's
no miracle in Reformation, none whatsoever. It can be done when
a man's properly motivated, and you have the right key if you
can reach him. That's the reason we go around
to the different preachers. Now, you only need to hear one
preacher, one gospel. There's just one gospel. But
the reason people go from place to place and church to church
and here and there and revival to revival, they're waiting for
somebody to motivate them. Somebody to say that secret word,
somebody's personality, somebody's power, somebody's psychology
to move them and make them reform. But I'll tell you this, regeneration is a miracle. If
any man be in Christ, he's a what? Not a new convert, not a new
member, he's a new Christian. He's a new Christian. And he's
got the principle of righteousness within him. He's got a nature
of righteousness within him. He's got a law of righteousness
written on his heart, God says. God says, I'll write it on his
heart! God says, I'm not going to give him a list of rules to
live by, a church constitution and church bylaws and ten commandments
that he can carry around and read. I didn't know that was
wrong. I'd have to drop that. And oh, this is what I'm supposed
to do here. God says, I'll write my law on his heart. I'll write
it on his heart. I'll put my spirit within him.
And his righteousness and his holiness will be motivated by
the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's right. That's a miracle.
Now that's a miracle. And that might happen here tonight,
I don't know. But there's one thing for sure,
I can't do it. God took Ezekiel out there on
that ledge of a mountain that's in a valley. He looked out over
the valley. And there'd been a battle there,
I don't know a long time before, there'd been a battle. And a
lot of people were killed in that battle, and their bones
Their bones were lying in the sand, some covered with sand,
some exposed. But there were very many in that
open valley, and they were bleached, and they were dried, sun-dried,
and they were just everywhere scattered. And God said, Ezekiel,
can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, as he looked
at them, Lord, you know. And what's he saying there? He's saying, I can't make them
live. And he's saying they can't make themselves live. But he's
saying, Lord, you know because you can make them live. It'll
take a miracle to put those bones together. It'll take a miracle
to put flesh and sin whose upon them. It'll take a miracle to
put breath back in their bodies. It'll take a miracle and that
is beyond me or anybody else. But Lord, you know. You know. And our Lord said, preach to
them. That's a strange request, isn't it? You know, if a fellow
walked by when a man was standing out there in a valley preaching
to a valley full of dry, dead bones, and he saw him doing that,
he'd probably send some help for him, you know. Somebody come
and rescue him. The fellow, he's flipped his
lid. Preacher, if I believed what you believed, I wouldn't
preach. You mean believe men are dead and believe God has
to raise them? and believe God does it sovereignly
through the preaching of his word? Yeah, if I believed that,
I wouldn't preach. I'm sure I'm glad Ezekiel didn't
feel that way. Ezekiel stood there and preached
to those dry bones. Why did he do that? Number one,
God told him to. That's the only reason I need.
That's the only reason I need, is God to tell me to preach.
He said, you preach the gospel to every creature. And I'll tell
you the second reason why Ezekiel preached. He preached because
God Almighty used the Word to give them life. It's the Word
that quickens. It's the Word that awakens. It's
the Word that convicts. It's the Word that reveals Christ.
It's the Word by which we are made alive. Of his own will begat
he us through the Word of truth. That's what Scripture says. We're
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed
by the Word of God. We're born of the water and the
Spirit. The water there is the Word of God. The Word of God. There's no miracle in reformation. There's a miracle in regeneration
to make the dead to come alive. And that's what I'm doing tonight.
I'm preaching to two classes of people. I'm preaching to the
dead and the living. I'm preaching to the quick and
the dead. I'm preaching to those who've been regenerated, to those
who've been made alive, to those who know Christ, and in preaching
to them, they're edified, they're strengthened, they're enabled
to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, they're sanctified
through the Word of God, they're cleansed through the Word of
God, they're motivated by the Word of God, but also I'm preaching
to dead bones, dead, dry, bleached, barren bones. And God will make
them live, John. One day He made you live. You
was a dead bone one time. And God made you live. He's the
one that gave life. Regeneration is a miracle of
God's grace. I'll tell you something else,
there's no miracle in learning doctrine. No miracle in that.
You hear a fellow that's orthodox and fundamental, he knows the
doctrines, he knows all about Calvinism and Pelagianism and
Arminianism and Antinomianism and all the other isms. He knows
the doctrines. He's a walking commentary. There's no miracle there. No
miracle there. Some of the most sinful, hypocritical
men who ever lived were theologians. Did you know that? Some of the
most wicked, sinful, hypocritical, conniving hooksters that ever
lived were orthodox theologians. One primary example was Solitarsis. Solitarsis. He hated Christ,
and he hated the Church, and he hated salvation by grace.
But, buddy, he was a theologian. He was an orthodox theologian. So there's no miracle in learning
theology. All you got to do is just live
where it's taught. All you got to do is buy your book on theology.
Just buy your book with 4,000 questions answered or something
like that. You know, memorize it. Know who the kings are and
where they lived and when they took over and all these things.
I'll tell you the miracle is in learning Christ. Now, that's
a miracle. To learn Christ. Oh, Paul said
that I may know Him. and the power of his resurrection.
You can't learn Christ by reading only. Christ is revealed to the
heart by the Spirit. You learn Christ by looking to
him. You learn Christ by leaning upon
his breast, you learn Christ by sitting at his feet, you learn
Christ by turning from your idols to the living God, you learn
Christ by the miracle of the Spirit teaching you from the
Word. Now that's a miracle, to learn
Christ. And this is what I notice when
I discuss theology or scripture with a lot of people. They want
to talk about, and some of you men have said this to me, men
where I work want to talk about preachers, they want to talk
about prophecy, they want to talk about theology, they want
to talk about the church doctrines, they want to talk about all this.
Nobody wants to talk about Christ. They haven't learned Christ.
You can't talk about somebody you don't know. That's their
problem. It's easy to learn the doctrines
of the church. It's easy to learn the doctrines
of prophecy, premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism,
all other kind of millennialism. All of these things are easy
to study, get your chart, memorize it. The reason men don't talk
about Christ is they don't know him. They don't know him. But I'll tell you this, if they
were to go in a restaurant And this Dallas quarterback, Roger
Staubach, was sitting there, and Roger came over and said,
I'm Roger Staubach. How you, John Halsom, or how
you, Mike Bartram, and sit and talk? You wouldn't hear the last
of it for six months. That's right. They sure talk
about old Roger. Say, guess who I met last week?
I met Roger. Who, Roger who? Roger who? What
do you mean, Roger who? But men don't talk about Christ
because they don't know him. It's a miracle to learn Christ.
It takes a miracle. In the third place, there's no
miracle in forming a refuge. They said over there in Isaiah,
we have a covenant with death, with hell are we at agreement,
but I'll tell you what the miracle is, it's Christ being formed
in you. Christ being formed in you. Christ
my rock, Christ my refuge, Christ my foundation. That takes a miracle. Now, Jeremiah had preached to
these people. Let's look at our text for a
few minutes. Jeremiah had preached to these people, and they wouldn't
hear. Turn back to Jeremiah 7. Let me show you that. They wouldn't
hear. They just wouldn't listen. They wouldn't listen. It says
in, I'll make it brief, Jeremiah 7, 27, Therefore thou shalt speak
all these words to them, but they won't listen to you. They
won't listen to you. Thou shalt call unto them, and
they won't answer. They wouldn't hear. And then
Jeremiah had wept over them. Look at Jeremiah 9.1. He's called
the weeping prophet. In Jeremiah 9, verse 1, O that
my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that
I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of
my people. Here was a man who wanted to
cry a river. Cry a river over the people of
Israel. But they wouldn't consider. And
God had sent judgment and sorrow among them, and they wouldn't
repent. They were so hard. And finally he came to this conclusion.
He says, you can no more do good, you can no more seek God, you
can no more walk in holiness than a black man can change his
skin. That's the conclusion that Jeremiah
can You are hard-hearted, you're indifferent, you're careless,
you're settled in your sins, you're blind and you're deaf
and you will not hear, and you're in your trespasses and sin, and
you can no more rescue yourself from this state than a black
man can change himself into a white man, or a leper in the forest
can make himself to be without spots. Now, Jeremiah wasn't casting
any reflection on black people here. Because he had a good friend
who was a black man. You'll turn to Jeremiah 38, I'll
show you that. He had a good friend who was
a black man. This black man came to his rescue
one time. They threw Jeremiah down into
a dungeon with no water, nothing but filth and mire. Jeremiah,
it says in verse 6, the last line, Jeremiah 38, he's sunk
in the mire. He's sunk in the mire. They threw
him into a filthy, dirty dungeon. Well, there was no water or bread
or food, just a mire way down. Now when, verse 7, Jeremiah 38,
now when Ebedmelech, Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, the Ethiopian,
one of the eunuchs that was in the king's house, heard that
they put Jeremiah in the dungeon. The king was sitting in the gate
of Benjamin, and this Ethiopian, Ebedmelech, went forth out of
the king's house and said to the king, My lord, the king,
these men have done evil. in all that they have done to
Jeremiah the prophet, whom thou hast cast into the dungeon, and
he is going to die in that place for hunger, and there is no bread
in the city. And the king commanded the Ethiopian
Ibed-Melek, saying, You take thirty men with you and get Jeremiah
out of the dungeon before he dies. So Ibed-Melek took the
men with him and went to the house of the king under the treasure
and took some old rags, some old rotten cloths. and let them
down by cords into the dungeon of Jeremiah. Now listen how tender
this black man is. And Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian,
said, Jeremiah, put these old claws and rotten rags under your
armpits so the rope wouldn't cut his arms. He gave him the
rags first to put under his arms. Then he let the cords down and
drew up Jeremiah with the cords and took him out of the dungeon.
And Jeremiah remained in the court. of the prison. That man,
that was a black man, but Jeremiah, he wasn't casting any reflections
on the black man or putting him down. He was simply stating a
fact. The prophet was borrowing an
illustration from the work of God, from the everyday work of
God, to illustrate spiritual truth. Our Lord did this. He
said, think about a sparrow. A sparrow never lights on a limb
without your Heavenly Father. He never falls to the earth without
your Heavenly Father. Consider the lilies of the field.
They were clothed by your Heavenly Father. He said a certain man
had two sons, and he said the sheep are in the sheepfold. So
Jeremiah is simply using his black friend as an illustration.
He said, can Ebed-Melech change his skin? Can he? What's the answer? Here are two
points, and I'll quit. The question is, can the Ethiopian
change his skin? You say, no, it's impossible.
Now, a white man can become dark. He can get out in the sun. He
can use all these tanning lotions and junk, and he can become dark.
But a dark man can't become white. And man can fall, which he did. Adam fell. Adam was created holy
and upright and fell and became a sinner and became a polluted
creature. But once in that state, Charlie,
ain't no going back the other way. See what I'm saying? The
black man can't change his skin. Neither can you. It's going to
take a miracle. Neither can you. Now, what's
the problem? Well, there are four or five problems, quickly,
if you'll be patient. Number one is our nature. The
black man's black by nature. It wasn't painted on him. It
wasn't an accident that did it. It's his nature. And even so,
you and I are sinners. Sin is not an outward problem,
it's an inward problem, Bill. That's what my problem is, an
inward problem. I'm by nature a sinner. I was
born a sinner. Let's check that Psalms 51. Psalms
51. I know a lot of people find a
lot of fault with this now, and they don't like it, but the natural
man receive it, not the things of God, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned. And I know you get up and say
that babies are born in sin and shaping in iniquity and brought
forth speaking lies. Somebody, ooh, my baby's not
a sinner, my baby's innocent. Look at that innocent little
doll. Now, you'll find out how innocent that little doll is
in a few years. Every one of you were innocent little dolls
one time. That ought to tear that theory
to bits, shouldn't it? Old Jim Spence was an innocent
doll. That tears that up, doesn't it?
Good, gracious alike. We didn't make him what he is.
God didn't make him what he is. Sin made him what he is, and
it was born in him. Brother, you can fight that all
you want to, but it's so. It says in Psalm 51, 5, "...Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me."
Mother didn't sin when she conceived you. You were conceived in sin. It's you. It's the seed of sin. Your father planted there. Look
at Psalm 58, 3, "...the wicked are estranged from the womb."
They go astray as soon as they're born, speaking lies. That's God's
Word. I tell you, the reason regeneration
is a miracle, the reason redemption is a miracle, the reason righteousness
is a miracle is because of our nature. Born in sin, the natural
mind is immaterial against God. It takes the power of God to
put life where there is no life, to put holiness where there is
no holiness, to put a divine nature where there is no divine
nature. I'll tell you another reason
that this is all a miracle, not only because of our nature, but
because of our wills. Our wills. Now let me tell you
something. Men cannot honor God because they don't have the will
to honor God. That's so. They'll honor themselves,
but not God. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. O Jerusalem, how oft would I
have gouted you, but you would not, you refused. Men cannot
because they will not. They will not. They love darkness.
They love sin. That's the third reason. We love
sin. That's our problem. We actually love sin. It's a sweet marshal. Stolen
waters are sweet, and stolen fruits are sweet. That's your
nature. Which is easier to do, read the
Bible or read something real juicy scandal that you pick up
in a magazine? Which is easier to read? You
say, I can't understand the Bible. You can understand that other
junk. Some of you people sitting out there can understand trigonometry
and algebra and what's all that calculus, and you can understand
some of your doctors and businessmen, you can read blueprints, you're
brilliant, and you come tell me you can't understand, ye must
be born again? Yeah, I know what's wrong when
you do too. Yeah, I know what's wrong. You can't understand he, that
Believeth not on the sun, shall not see light. Those are just
two-syllable words, most of them. Most of them one-syllable. Yeah,
you're right. We don't understand it. And you
know why? The understanding is polluted, twisted, warped. We think, but we don't think
on God. We love, but we don't love God. We walk, but not with
God. We love sin. And it's going to
take a miracle to change that situation. It's going to take
a miracle. The blindness of our understanding,
I see no wisdom in the cross. If God does a work of grace,
you'll see wisdom in that cross. And to them that are perishing,
the preaching of the cross is sheer nonsense, but to them who
are being saved, it's the wisdom and the power of God. It takes
a miracle, that's what I'm saying. And a man's not going to walk
down this aisle and shake my hand and understand the Bible.
He's going to have to have a miracle of grace where God says, let
there be light, let there be light, let there be light. All right, here's another question.
Go back to the text. Jeremiah, can the Ethiopian change
his scheme? Can he change his scheme? No. Can I give myself understanding? Eyes to see and ears to hear
and a heart to understand and lay hold upon Christ, to close
with the Son of God, to have a saving interest in Christ,
to see the wisdom and grace and mercy and justice of God in the
cross, in substitution and satisfaction, in the sin offering of Calvary.
No! Now, here's the second question. Can the Ethiopian skin be changed? Can it? Can it? Yes, sir. Who can do it? God can do it. God can do it. God can make him
a white man just like that, just like he made him a black man.
Just that way. Yes, he can do it. Can he eat
the open skin and be changed? Yes, sir. Who can do it? God can do it. Can these dry
bones live? He can do it. Can that dead sinner
rise from a tomb? Yes, sir. I can't raise him,
and he can't raise himself, and Mama can't raise him, but God
can raise him. Can that old son of yours, that
rebel son, can his proud spirit be broken? It sure can. But you can't do it. God can
do it. God can do it. God can do it. God can do it. Can the lover
of self and pleasure become a lover of God? Yes, sir! God can do
it. I see a proud, arrogant rebel
religious, self-righteous, riding his proud white horse, leading
a whole crew of men going to Damascus to put an end to this
foolish preaching of a son of a Nazarene called Jesus Christ. And on his way, in his pride
and arrogance, he met King Jesus. And boy, he unhorsed him in no
time. He shut his mouth and knocked
his foundations out from under him and stripped him and brought
him to be a lover of Christ, a friend of Christ, a bond-slave
of Jesus Christ. King Saul became bond-servant
Paul. Who did it? Well, I tell you,
no preacher came to him with a Roman road nor get him into
it. No soul winner called on him and said, we're taking a
religious census. What's your denominational preference?
He said, I'm a Jew. I'm a Pharisee. Huh? But one day our Lord visited
him, and it was a hard work, and it was a permanent work,
and it was a miraculous work. And brother, I tell you, it was
a work of grace, because that bird didn't deserve it. God ought
to send him to hell with me and you both. But God saved him. All things are possible through
God. Let me read one verse. Turn over here to Matthew 19.
Matthew 19. Our Lord Jesus Christ said in
Matthew 19, verse 25, the disciples, when they heard this, they said,
Lord, who can be saved? Who can be saved? And verse 26,
Jesus beheld them and said to them, with men it is impossible. I wish we could just sound that
out over this whole nation, to every religious organization
that's meeting tonight. With men salvation is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. He can make a man to live because
the Lord Jesus came into the world for that purpose, the gospel
is prepared and preached for that purpose, the Holy Spirit
is given for that purpose to convince men of sin, and many
sinners have been made whole. Old John Newton made this statement.
You know what he was like before God saved him. He said, I was
a wild beast on the coast of Africa once. But the Lord Jesus
caught me, and he tamed me, and now people come to see me as
they would go to look at the lions in the circus. I'm a captive
of Christ now. I want to do his will. And in
closing, I want to read you a poem that I read some time ago. Oh, endless misery. Oh, endless
misery. I labor still, but still in vain. The stains of sin I see, deep,
dyed in the grain. There's not a spot that will
move a jot for all that I can do. There's no quarter in Jordan's
water, though I add the sacraments to. I many plans have tried,
I've listened to preacher's pleas, I've raised my hand, I've walked
the aisle, I've fell upon my knees, I've washed and I've rubbed,
I've scraped and I've scrubbed, I've done all that a man can
do, and still my soul is as black as coal, I can't make anything
new. Can no help be had? Lord, thou
art sovereign, thou art king. And though my heart is foul and
sad, thou canst make me clean. Speak, blessed Lord, by thy precious
word to a sinner so distressed. I know thy wilt, for thy blood
was spilt, and in this I rest." The hope's in him. You say, what'll
this do? I'll tell you what it'll do.
It'll drive believers To pray, to pray for their loved ones
and their friends, it will drive preachers to the prayer closet,
to pray God will anoint them, to preach, and to bear this heavy
responsibility for which we're not sufficient, and it will drive
the sinner to look to Christ. He'll throw up his hands in helplessness
like the Republican in the temple, and he'll smite upon his breast
and he'll cry, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And it just
might be, for His glory He will. Our Father, this that Thou hast
taught us in Thy Word and by experience and by Thy Spirit
is true. Salvation is a miracle. Salvation
is of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of Thee and of Thee only. I know that. At least in their
heads, and some in their hearts know that. Thy word teaches that. The dry bones can live, but only
by your power. The black skin can be chained,
but only by your power. The leopard spots can disappear,
but only by your power. And we can be made whole, righteous,
justified, but only by your power and by your grace. There can
be put within us that well of living water. That divine nature,
Christ, can be revealed to our hearts as our substitute and
Savior by Thy power. Lord, we wait upon Thee. Move
among us according to Thy blessed will, for Thy glory, the salvation
of sinners, for the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
all praise is due. For it is in His name we pray.
Amen.