My subject this morning is a
summary of our gospel. I realize as much as many of
you that we're out of step with the great parade of religion
today. This church and this pastor And
many other pastors and churches are out of step. We're not marching
to the popular religious tune. This place is different. Its
message is different. And I realize that we are putting
a serious question mark on some very successful organizations
and operations. And we're putting a serious question
mark on practically all of the major denominations. And I'm talking about the Baptists
and Methodists and Presbyterians, Episcopal and all of them. A
dear lady came to hear me this week in Shreveport, Louisiana,
who was a member of the Episcopal Church. And she came Wednesday
night. She liked what she heard. She
came back Thursday night. We talked a little while, and
she said, I'm a member of the Episcopal Church. She said, I
like what you're preaching. And I said, it so happens that
your church in its original state believes what I'm preaching.
I said, are you familiar with the 39 articles? She said, they're
in the back of the prayer book. I said, have you ever read them?
I said, why don't you go read them? And you'll find that they're
saying exactly what I'm trying to say. Same thing's true of
the old London Confession of 1689 that the Baptists put out.
The same thing's true of the Heidelberg Catechism which the
Dutch Reform put out. The same thing's true of the
Westminster Confession of Faith which the Presbyterians used
to believe. And I know that we're putting
a serious question mark on these organizations and on these religious
denominations. I'm not unaware of that, and
they're not either. And I realize that we're charging
some recognized and powerful and hardworking preachers and
religious leaders with failure to preach the truth. And I mean
by the truth, I mean the true gospel of redemption. I'm not
talking about the truth of church government. It matters little
to me how you govern your congregation. I'm not talking about the truth
of prophecy, what's going to happen next, in the next millennium. I'm not interested in what's
going to happen in the millennium. I'm interested in what God's
doing right now and what God did on the cross at Calvary.
But I'm saying that these men are not preaching the gospel
of redemption. Who is Jesus Christ? Why did
he come into this world? What did he do when he came?
Where is he now? What think ye of Christ? I'm
saying it's another gospel we're being exposed to. I'm saying
it's another gospel that we're hearing preached. I'm saying,
as Paul said, they're preaching another gospel, another spirit,
and another Jesus. And I realize the fourth thing,
that we're a very small minority compared to the vast religious
movement. But I know that our Lord said
this in his own day, when he was walking this earth. there
be that travel the broad road of destruction. Straight is the
gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there
be that find it." Well, preacher, why? Why buck the system? Why swim upstream? Why challenge
that which is approved by the majority? Why make enemies? Why
divide organizations and institutions of religion and and people that
are banded together for social improvement. Why book the system?
Well, there are three reasons. And
the first one is that we might be saved. I've got to admit to
a selfish motive I want to be saved. I've got to admit to a selfish
motive. You know why I book the system?
You know why I'm daring to be different? You know why I'm preaching
a gospel that I believe is not being preached in this day? Because
I want the people who hear me to know God. That's selfish,
isn't it? But I do. I don't want our congregation
to stand before him who sits on his almighty throne in the
day of judgment and hear him say, I never knew you. But now
wait a minute, Lord, we preached in your name and cast out devils
and did many wonderful works. I never knew you. Depart from
me ye that work iniquity." I don't want to hear that, and I don't
want you to hear that. And Paul evidently didn't want the people
to whom he preached to hear that. Turn to 1 Timothy 4, and let's
see what he has to say. 1 Timothy 4, verse 16. He's writing to young Timothy
here, and these are the closing days of his ministry. And he
says to young Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 16, take heed to yourself. and to your doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." I had
a young man come to me this past week in the meeting down in Louisiana.
He said, I don't want to talk doctrine with you. I'm not interested
in doctrine. I said, son, you better get interested
in it. You better get interested in it, because Paul told Timothy
here, take heed to your doctrine. For in doing this you'll save
yourself and them that hear thee." You can't separate Christ and
his teachings. You can't separate the great
master from his commandments. And his commandments are not,
we're not talking about the moral law here, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill. Christ said
this is my commandment that you love one another. This is my
commandment that you believe on him whom God has sent. Anything
Christ taught is his commandment. And I want our people to be saved.
There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. None other name. Heaven is a
great city and we're all going there. We're traveling different
roads. Christ said, I am the way. No man cometh to the Father
but by me. That sounds like there's just
one road and one way. Christ said, I am the bread.
He that eateth of me shall never hunger. I am the water of life.
He that drinketh shall never thirst. He said, I am the door.
By me, if any man are in or entering, he shall be saved. I am the way." Oh, Paul lamented and wept over
the people of Israel in Romans chapter 10. He didn't call them
pagan. He didn't call them infidels,
he didn't call them agnostics, he said they have a zeal for
God. In Romans 10, verse 1, he said, brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, they're interested
in God, they're enthused about God, they're zealous about God,
but it's not according to knowledge. They're ignorant of who He is.
The woman at the well said to Christ, she said, we worship
in this mountain, and you worship in Jerusalem. He said, you don't
know what you worship. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him don't worship him in mountains nor in cities. They
worship him in spirit and truth. You're worshiping, but you don't
know what you worship. That's what Paul is saying here
in Romans 10. They have a zeal for God, they have an enthusiasm
for God, they're talking about heaven, they're talking about
hell, they're talking about salvation, but it's not according to knowledge. I want to be saved. I don't want
to miss Christ. I don't want you to miss Christ.
I know the religious road is a heavily traveled road. I know there's much hypocrisy
and covetousness and idolatry. 1 Peter chapter 4, if you will
turn over there, I'll tell you something else. Why buck the
system? Why challenge that which is approved
by the majority? Why make enemies and divide religious
institutions and organizations that we might be saved? And secondly,
that God may be glorified. In 1 Peter chapter 4, Verse 11,
Peter says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles
of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God gives him. Why? That God
in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. My friends,
God will not share His glory with another. Our God is going
to be glorified. He's going to be glorified in
creation, he's going to be glorified in providence, and he's going
to be glorified in the salvation of his people. If you'll turn
to Ephesians chapter 1, I'll show you something here that's
very important. And I don't have time to dwell upon it a long
time this morning, but I would like for you to go back and study
it again. But in Ephesians chapter 1, in the first 14 verses, We
have the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the redemption
of sinners. And it says in Ephesians 1, verse
3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
in Christ. The Father has blessed us. Verse
4 says the Father chose us in Christ. Verse 5 says the Father
predestinated us to the adoption of children. And verse 6 tells
us why, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Why did God
choose you that he might be glorified? Why did God give his Son to die
for you that he might be glorified? Why did God call you by his Spirit
that he might be glorified? Why did God accept you in the
Beloved that He might be glorified? That's why He did it. That's
why the Father purposed to redeem a people, that to the praise
of the glory of His grace. That in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. And then in the next few verses
you have the work of the Son, verse 7, we have redemption through
His blood. We have the forgiveness of sin
according to the riches of His grace. Verse 9, He made known
unto us His will, that is, He revealed the Father in salvation
to us. In verse 11, in Him we obtain
an inheritance. We have an inheritance in glory
because Christ purchased it. Verse 12 tells you why, that
we should be to the praise of His glory. And then in the next
two verses you have the work of the Holy Spirit in whom you
trusted after you heard the Word. Man's got to hear the Word before
he can trust Christ. "...Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? How shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"
So we heard, and then the last line in verse 13 said we were
sealed with the Holy Spirit, and verse 14 says the Holy Spirit
is the earnest or token or pledge of this inheritance which has
already been purchased Look at the last line, verse 14, Ephesians
1, under the praise of his glory. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. Moses had seen the dividing of
the sea. Moses had seen the death of the
firstborn. Moses had seen the rock give
forth water. Moses had seen the river turn
to blood. Moses had seen the plagues of
frog and life. Moses had seen the bush that
didn't burn. It was not consumed, though it
burned. Moses had seen all these things, but Moses said, Lord,
show me your glory! And the Lord said, My glory is
my grace. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. So I'm telling you, I'm preaching this gospel, which
our Lord called the gospel of his glory. And even Christ himself,
turn to John 17. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to Calvary,
these are the words that he said. His chief end was to glorify
the Heavenly Father. That's the chief end of every
man, to glorify God. In John 17, these words spake
Jesus and lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come, glorify thy Son. Why? That thy Son may glorify
thee. I wonder what we're doing. Are we doing it for the glory
of God? Whatever you eat or drink, do
it for the glory of God. He said he had chosen the weak,
the foolish, that no flesh should glow in his presence. As it is
written, he that gloweth, let him glow in the Lord. And then
thirdly, why buck the system, why swim against the current
Why challenge today's modern religion? That we might be true
to divine revelation. Turn to 1 John chapter 1. I want
you to look at something here that the Apostle says in 1 John
chapter 1, that we might be true to divine revelation. The Apostle
John writing here says in verse 3 of 1 John 1, that which we've
seen and heard declare we unto you." My friends, a man cannot
tell what he does not know. A man cannot preach what he has
not experienced. A man cannot preach repentance
who has never repented. A man cannot preach saving faith
who has never believed. A man cannot preach the glory
of Christ who has never seen the glory of Christ. A man cannot
preach the redemption that is in Christ alone unless he's been
by experience a partaker of that redemption. That's what John
said. What I've seen, what I've heard,
I declare unto you. And he says that three times.
What I've seen, what I've heard, declare we unto you. Turn with
me to Acts chapter 4. In the fourth chapter of the
book of Acts, the apostles were forbidden. In the fourth chapter
of the book of Acts, verse 18, the apostles were forbidden to
preach this hated message. They were forbidden to preach
redemption through Christ, resurrection by Christ, eternal life by Christ. They called them, verse 18, chapter
4 of the book of Acts, they called them and commanded them not to
speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus. And Peter
and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in
the sight of God. to hearken unto you more than
to God you judge. Now here's a question here. Is
it right for me to hearken more to the traditions of my denomination
or to God? Shall I hearken to the creeds
and confessions of faith that are popular today or to God?
Shall I hearken to what men want to hear or to what God says they
need to hear? Now you be the judge of that.
read the next verse, but we cannot, we cannot but speak, we cannot
but speak the things which we've seen and heard. That's all a
man can preach. Paul says, I was not, I was not
disobedient to the heavenly vision. I was not disobedient to what
God was pleased to reveal to my heart. Necessity is laid upon
me. I must preach the gospel. Woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I wonder, turn to Galatians chapter
1, I just wonder if our pulpits and if our Sunday school classes
and if our church services are designed to win and woo the praise
of men and the approval of men, or is our pulpit designed to
declare, thus saith the Lord, regardless of what men think
of it? Our Sunday school class is designed, is this why we're
there? To see how many folks we can get in, to see how many
numbers we can attract, to see how many people we can persuade
to come our way Or our Sunday school class is dedicated to
one thing, to teach this word regardless of the consequences. Regardless of whether men and
women, boys and girls like it or don't like it. Well I tell you what it better
be, listen to Paul here in Galatians 1 and 10. Do I now persuade men
or God? Do I seek to please men? If I
yet please men, I am not the servant of God." Boy, that's
powerful. If that's my motive, if that's
what I'm seeking, if I yet please men, if that's my aim, well,
you know, Brother Mahan, we don't want to offend anyone. Why not?
Paul did, Christ did. Paul said the gospel is offensive.
We're afraid we're going to offend someone. John Paul was afraid
he wouldn't. He was upset. He said, the natural man receiveth
not the things of God, the natural man's going to be offended. This
Bible sits in judgment on my thoughts, and on my imaginations,
and on my motives, and on my attitude, and on my sin. This
book exalts and magnifies the holiness of God, the dignity
of God, the righteousness of God, the glory of God. This book,
this Word is supposed to strip me that I might be clothed in
the righteousness of Christ. It's supposed to knock my foundation
out from under me that I might build on Christ the Rock. It's
supposed to slay me that I might be raised with Him. It's supposed
to bring me down into the dust of repentance that I might look
with faith to Christ. It's supposed to do that. But
oh my soul, today we've got to We can't offend any that we have,
and we can't drive away any prospects. We may offend God, we may compromise
his word, we may put to shame his glorious Son, but we must
not offend the sons of men. What a shame! Well, I'm going
to be true to the divine revelation. from it through the divine revelation.
And I want to speak plainly to you this morning, 1 John 5, verse
11. I'm going to give you a summary
of our gospel. I'll give you a summary of that
which is offensive. I'll give you a summary of that
upon which we build, that upon which we hope. And it will be
very brief. Number one, verse 11 of 1 John
5. This is the record. This is the
record. What's the record? What's the
record? What's he talking about here?
This is the record. He's talking about the scriptures.
This is the faithful saying. This is the true foundation of
all that God has given. This is our foundation, the scriptures. I can go out into the woods and
look into the heavens. The heavens declare the glory
of God. And I can see the stars and the moon and the clouds and
all of the different planets that God has created and all
of it in its precision and exactness and everything on time and everything
down to the most minute detail. And that'll tell me something
of the wisdom and the power and the glory of God. He won't tell
me a thing in the world about God's grace to sinners. He won't
tell me a thing in the world about my need and God's remedy
with it. I can stand out there all day
and look at the sun and the moon and the stars and never know
if God will redeem sinners, if God will show mercy, if God will
forgive, if there's some way God can be just and justify,
if there's some way that God can be righteous and holy and
accept this sinful creature to himself. I go out into the woods
and I see the grass growing and the trees and the little animals
and the birds and the flowers and all of these things, and
I see, I see God. I see His majesty and His glory
and the beautiful things He's made, but those things will never
tell me if God will be merciful to me. It'll never tell me anything
about His righteousness and His redemption. And the way that
he saves sinners, and the way he created the world, and the
way he's designed to redeem the world? He doesn't tell me anything. Where shall I go for that? Well,
what about looking into my own imagination? Well, my thoughts
are not his thoughts. Every imagination of man's heart
is evil continually. Well, what about looking into
my heart? The Scripture says the heart's deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know? Well, what about
asking somebody else? Well, all men are liars. Let
God be true in every man a liar. Where can I go? Where can I go
to find out something about the attributes of God, His character,
who He is? Where can I go to find out something
about the redemption that God has purposed and planned, His
eternal counsel, His present revelations, His future glory? Where can I go? There's only
one place, to the Scriptures, to the Word, to the law and to
the testimony. Isaiah 8, verse 20, to the law,
to the Word, to the testimony. If men speak not according to
this Word, it's because there's no life in them. This is the
record, John says. This is the record. It's not
even my articles. It's not my books by all of my
renowned writers. It's not my confession of faith. It's not my book of common prayer. This is the record that God has
miraculously preserved, that God has providentially kept,
that is verbally inspired. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. All Scripture. You say, well,
it was written a long time ago. I know that it was. It brought down through a lot
of years, preacher, I know, and the same God who in His power
wrote it, in His power preserved it. No problem. You say, but there have been
translations. I know. God Almighty inspired the writing
of it and He inspired the translating of it. It's been kept by His
providence. And this blessed book written
by 40 men, men of God, moved by the Holy Spirit to write what
they heard from the Spirit of God. These 40 men over a period
of 1,500 years, most of whom didn't know one another, wrote
66 books that when they were brought together tell one story
about one person and one redemption and one life. That's right. Moses, Christ said, wrote of
me. Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
David wrote of me. Abraham saw my day and was glad. To him give all the prophets
witness. This book is verbally inspired.
It's divinely given. It's been divinely preserved
and divinely kept. And I would say to every person
here, Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And you will find that every
cult and every sect and every denomination that departs from
the truth of the gospel first had their departure from this
book. That's when they quit using the book in their Sunday school
classes and started using the writings of men. And then it
began to drift. That's when the preacher began
to read one verse of scripture and close his Bible and start
talking about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the
trees and civil government and wars and rumors of wars and millenniums
and tribulations and prophetical themes and everything else under
the sun but the book. That's when we got in trouble,
when we left the book. And that's the trouble you and
I are in today. We've departed from the Word
of God. We know a whole lot about the U.S. News and World Report,
but very little about the Book of John. We know a whole lot
about everything under the sun, but very little about God's Word.
And yet the only thing that's going to endure, he said, Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my Word will never pass away. My Word will judge you. My Word will judge you. Oh, how important it is. This,
this, this, this is the record. And the only record. All right,
look at the second line. God hath given to us eternal
life. Where'd it come from? God gave
it. God gave it. Eternal life's the
gift of God. I earned the wages of sin. The
wages of sin, wages, they're wages. that are earned, the gift
of God, is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It's
a gift of God. Our Lord said, Thou hast given
me authority over all flesh, that I should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given me. Salvations of the Lord. Eternal life is the gift of God.
It says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Mercy,
sovereign mercy. Grace is sovereign grace. Redeeming
love is sovereign love. God gave it. A man can receive
nothing except it be given him from above. Pilate said to Christ,
didn't you hear me speak to you? Answer me. Don't you know I have
the power to crucify you or let you go? And our Lord said, you
don't have any power over me at all except it were given you
from above. No man, Christ said, can come
to me except my Father which sent me to draw him." The gift of God. This is the
record. Here's what it says, that God hath given. Man didn't
earn it, God gave it. It's a gift. Man makes no contribution
whatsoever to that gift. It's a gift of God. And the gift
of God is what? Fourthly, or thirdly, eternal
life. Now you hold on to your seat
a minute. We're not talking here of the length of life. Eternal
life, that's a little bit deceptive. Everlasting life. We're not talking
about the length of it at all. And when the Bible talks about
eternal life, it does not talk about the length of it, because
according to the scripture, everybody's going to live forever. But eternal
life is talking about the type of life it is, or the quality
of life which it is. He said, and this is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the only true God. That's eternal
life, to know God. To know God. There's several
forms of life. There's mineral life. There's mineral life. There's
plant life. There's animal life. There's
human life. And then there's eternal life.
And as human life is above plant life, so is eternal life above human
life. I'm telling you the truth. Everybody
has human life, every son of atom. But everybody doesn't have
eternal life. Eternal life is born in us for
the power of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That's what confused Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was religious, he was a scholar, he was a student of
the scriptures, he thought. He was a man who went about the
ceremonies and the rituals of religion, he came to Christ one
night to discuss religion, and Christ said to him, you've got
to be born again, or you can't understand the kingdom of God. You can't see it, understand
it. You've got to be born again, Nicodemus, or you can't enter
the kingdom of God. He said, I've spoken to you of
earthly things and you don't understand them. How shall you
understand if I tell you heavenly things? You've got to be born
again. You've got to have the animal.
You can stand and talk to a baboon. And he doesn't understand geometry or algebra or trigonometry. He looks at you, you know, you're
talking to him about, talking to him about, like that farmer,
his boy went to college, you know, and his boy came back and
he said, son, what you studying? He said, I'm studying algebra.
His old dad hadn't had much experience in education. He said, well,
say something in algebra. And the boy said, well, power
square. He said, you ain't learned nothing,
son. Pie or a round, cornbread or a square, anybody knows that.
And you can talk to an ape about these things and he'll look at
you. He doesn't understand. He knows
bananas, but he doesn't know anything about these things.
And you talk to a natural man about the things of God, he doesn't
understand it. He's going to be born again.
He's got to have spiritual life. Adam in the Garden of Eden lost
something. What did he lose? Life. Physical life? No, he lived 800 years, didn't
he? 700, 800 years? God said when you eat, in the
day you eat, you die. Well, he didn't. Yes, he did.
Yes, he did. He didn't die physically. We
thought he died spiritually. He's dead as a hammer spiritually.
He lost eternal life. He lost the divine nature. He
lost the divine life. Adam didn't know a thing about
shame till he seen it. He was standing there naked and
didn't even know he was naked or real. He didn't know a thing
about shame. He said, I tried to cover myself. Why Adam? Well,
he lost divine life, holy life. He's nothing but a carnal creature
now. He never knew a thing about fear till he seen it. Why, he
walked with God. He walked in that garden and
walked with God, but when he fell, He said, I hid. Why'd you
hide? I was afraid. What were you afraid
of, Adam? He lost his life, spiritual divine
life. He became an animal, human animal,
knowing nothing of God. That's the reason men must be
regenerated. They must be born again. That's what we're talking
about. God has given us eternal life, divine life. Peter calls
it a divine nature. In Adam we died. Christ were
made alive, born of God, born of the Spirit. When a man is
born the first time into this world, he's born of human parents'
flesh. When he's born again, he's born
of God. And he becomes a new creature,
a new life. The mysteries of God he understands,
just like a human understands the mysteries of math and an
animal doesn't. If an animal could become a man,
he'd understand. And if a man can become God,
well, we're sons of God. That's what we've become in the
new birth. Sons of God, huh? That's right, Charlie. I'm flesh. I was born of Atha, Aline, and
John, Cary, Mahan, 53 and a half years ago, a man. And one day,
by God's grace, I was born of God. And I understand things
that I didn't understand. I see things I've never seen.
I've partaken of the nature of God. And that's something that
I'll tell every preacher on the television. I wish I could call
their names, bless their hearts. But they drag these folks down
the aisle. You believe? Yes, you're saved. There's no
more saving a billy goat. Men are saved by God. They're
redeemed by God, not by raising their hands, and not by walking
an aisle, and not by accepting a creed, not by being baptized,
and not by eating a wafer and drinking wine. They're redeemed
by the power of God Almighty when they're born again and become
new creatures. And these men are doing nothing
in the world but giving people false hope. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
the life of God. And let me tell you something.
When God creates that life in you, it never dies. It never
dies. You're a new creature. Old things pass away and all
things become new. You live in a new world, a new
family. Oh, you're still in this world. You still make your living
here. You still got attachments and friends. But you're citizens
of a new kingdom. You have a Lord and a Master.
All right, the fourth thing quickly, and this life is in his son.
Where is it? It's in Christ. There are just
two religions in this world. They can call themselves by 175,000
different names, but just two religions. And those two religions
started back yonder when Adam and Eve came out of the Garden
of Eden. When two boys came to an altar, one named Cain, one
named Abel, John, They were sinners, separated
from God, cast out of the garden. Adam lost three things in that
garden. He lost his life, spiritual life, he lost truth, he believed
a lie, and he lost the way to God, the way, the truth, and
the life. Those three things are restored in Christ. He said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. But Cain and Abel were
outside, cast away, separated from God, and God gave through
Adam a way back. And that is the way of the blood.
I know people talk about the slaughterhouse religion, the
bloody religion. Let me tell you something. Blood
speaks of death. Death speaks of sin. You see,
the wages of sin is death. God is righteous. God is just. And the soul that sinneth must
die. And so God says to man, the only way back is by my justice
being satisfied in the death of the rebel. The only way back
is the way of righteousness, the way of truth, the way of
holiness, the way of obedience. And man can't come that way because
he doesn't have obedience and holiness and truth. Man can't
come by the way of hell and pay for his sins through death because
to do that he would infinitely be cast away from God. So he's
got to come by way of another who can do those things. And
that Another is Christ the Lord, the Lamb of God. He came down
here as a man and obeyed the law. As our representative in
the flesh, there was a man, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, became
the Son of Man. The sinless became sinful, was
made sinful. that the sinful might be made
sinless. And he did for us what we can't do for ourselves. He
came and obeyed God's law. And he died on the cross and
shed his blood that God's justice might be satisfied. You know
when the Bible talks about an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth, it's not talking about you folks knocked somebody's
tooth out who knocked yours out. That's foolishness. That's ignorance.
It doesn't mean you're supposed to pluck a fellow's eye out because
he plucked yours out. What it's teaching is that the
punishment is supposed to fit the crime. That's what it's teaching. You're not supposed to send a
man to the electric chair for stealing a watermelon, but you're
not supposed to fine a man $5 for killing his neighbor. The
punishment fits the crime. And our crime is rebellion. Our
crime is trying to take God off the throne. Our crime is that
we're traitors, and the crime demands death, and God's justice
demands death for the traitor, for the rebel. Christ died that
day. And back there in the Old Testament
times, God gave pictures of Christ, and types of Christ, and symbols
of Christ, and representatives of Christ, until Christ shall
come. The Lamb of God will come, and until He comes, you slave
the animal land. The blood of animals never put
away sin in the Old Testament. When Abraham sacrificed the ram
on top of Mount Moriah in the place of Isaac, that blood of
that animal can't put away sin. It's a picture. It's a type. And the man that brings the animal
is saying, I believe in the Lamb of God who will come. I bring
this till he does come. You see that? So those two boys, they built
their altar. And Abel did what God told him
to do. I'm a sinner. My sins deserve
death. And he brought the innocent lamb
and slew the lamb and put the blood on the altar. And he said,
Oh God, purge me with hyssop. Wash me and I shall be clean.
Atone for my guilt by death. The death of the innocent in
place of the guilty. I wait till your promised lamb
comes. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. The seed of woman who shall crush
the serpent's head. I wait. And this is the picture.
Not Cain. Cain didn't want anything to
do with blood. He didn't want anything to do with death because
he didn't realize the seriousness of his sins, the seriousness
of his crime, the seriousness of his separation from God. So
he brought, he came to his altar, and I know he had candles around
it, you know, and we need some candles to help us worship, don't
we? We ought to burn some candles somewhere. Everybody ought to
stand around a circle holding a silly candle, burning it, you know.
And we ought to have flowers everywhere, You ought to have
pictures there. We need pictures. You just can't
work without pictures. They're idols, that's what they
are. They're images, but we got to have them, you know. Because
the more you have, the less you have in here, the more you have
to have out here to remind you. And Abel, or Cain, brought his
flowers and decorated his altar, and he brought his candles and
put them around. Then he brought his apples and
oranges and bananas and things he'd raised and worked hard and
put them on the altar. And he said, there you are, God.
There you are. God was angry. He rejected that
boy's offer. Just like he rejects any religion
today, I don't care how decorated it is, I don't care how formal
it is, I don't care how dressed up it is, I don't care how elaborate
it is, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of
sin. And I tell you what we'd better do, we'd better get rid
of some of this entertainment We've got to get rid of some
of this you and me and my and start talking about God. We've
got to get rid of some of this human glory and bragging on the
flesh is just one worm bragging on another worm, that's all.
You know what this praise is? Doctor so-and-so and rabbi so-and-so,
that's just one worm bragging on another one. That's all. We
need to start bragging on God. We need to start exalting, magnifying
Him. I'll tell you, that life is in
His Son. On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross, an emblem of suffering and shame. And on that old rugged
cross one day died a man, the man Christ Jesus. And his blood
cleanseth me from all sin. And that's my hope. That's my
hope.