Verse 14 and 15, let me read
these verses for our text. 1 Corinthians 2, 14, But the
natural man, and then verse 15 begins, He that is spiritual.
You see those two statements? The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. because they're spiritually understood,
but he that is spiritual. Now the Apostle Paul knows only
two classes of men, the natural man and the spiritual man. That's
it. He knows no other distinction.
Before his eyes all other distinctions are immaterial, male and female. And that is a distinction in
many things, in the government of the church, in the preaching
of the gospel, as a place for men, a place for women, but as
far as classes of people. It's not male
and female, it's not circumcised and uncircumcised, it's not bond
or free, it's not old or young, black or white. But all of these distinctions
are mere characteristics of the flesh, that's what they are,
male and female, that's a fleshly characteristic. Black and white,
that's a fleshly characteristic. All men, religious or otherwise,
fall into one of these classes, the natural man, the spiritual
man. Now under the term natural man,
the natural man, the apostle puts all of Adam's sons, all
of the sons of Adam who have not the Spirit of God or the
life of Christ. They are natural men. It doesn't
matter how excellent they are. It doesn't matter how strong
or how intelligent or how religious they may be. If the Spirit of
God has not given to a man the new life, the life of God, the
life of Christ, a divine life, he's a natural man. He may be
in the church, he may be a preacher or a deacon or a religious leader,
he may be a pope or a cardinal or a priest, he may be a theologian. Whatever he may be, if the Spirit
of God has not given him divine life, the life of God, the new
birth, if he's not been born again, he's a natural man. Wherever he is, it doesn't matter
how old or young he is, he's still a natural man. if he's
not been given the life of Christ. And they do what they do by nature. By nature, children of wrath.
But now let me ask you to turn to Romans 5 and show you some
characteristics of the natural man. Now bear that in mind. The apostle knows only two classes
of people. He has it right here before us
in the Word of God. In Romans chapter 8. Turn to
Romans 8. There's the natural man and the
spiritual man. And those are the only two distinctions.
Every other distinction is a characteristic of the flesh. There's male and
female, but there are natural females and spiritual females.
There are people who are in bondage, there are people who are free,
like us in this country, but those in bondage are either natural
or spiritual. There are people who are real
intelligent and some of us are a little slow, We're either natural
or spiritual. And there are people who are
fundamental and theologically orthodox and very religious and
devout, but still, they're either natural or spiritual men. And
all to whom the Spirit of God has not come in regenerating
power and made them a new creature in Christ and having given them
the new birth and the life of God, they're natural men. They're carnal. Natural men. Now look at Romans 8, 5. They that are after the flesh,
that is natural carnal men, do mind the things of the flesh.
They're concerned with the things of the flesh. A natural man,
number one, is concerned about the things of the flesh. That's
his major concern, that's his major interest, are the things
of the flesh. He's concerned about them, he's
anxious about them. Our Lord gave us an illustration.
He said, take no anxious thought for what you'll eat or drink
or wear. After these things do the heathen seek. The Gentiles,
the heathen. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things will be
added to you. But the natural man, that's his concern, that's
his interest, that's his anxiety, he does mind the things of the
flesh. That's his concern. All right,
another characteristic, verse 6, to be carnally minded is death. To have a major concern and interest
and anxiety about the things of the flesh is death. The things
that you're concerned about are going to result in death. Turn
to Romans 6, just back one page to verse 21. Now, even the spiritual
man at one time, this was his main concern and interest were
the things of the flesh. He can identify with you. He
can sympathize with you. He can certainly understand because he was there
too one time. But Paul says here in verse 21,
what fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?
The end of those things is death. material-minded, fleshly-minded,
overly anxious, concerned about the things of this world, we're
going to watch them slip through our fingers. It's like picking
up sand and trying to hold it, and it runs through your fingers,
or holding water in your hands. You've got to, no matter how
you grasp or hold it, it finally goes away. The fashions of this
world fade away. And that's going to be the result,
this carnally-minded man. Now, the word carnal here, does
not just mean that he thinks of vulgar things. We use words, this is the thing
about when the Bible was translated into English from the Hebrew
and Greek, the old English uses words that are kind of different. We talk about carnal knowledge
is a sexual thing. But to these men, the word carnal,
refers just to materialistic or natural. Spurgeon always used
the word vulgar. But he wasn't meaning what we
mean by vulgar. It is a sense of vulgarity. When
we talk about vulgarity, we're talking about blasphemy. We're
talking about the worst kind of talk. But when these men back
in the old English days used the word vulgar, they just meant
Fleshly. Yes. Secular. That's the word
I'm looking for. They meant secular. And totally
of that mind and nature. And so here's what Paul is saying.
The natural man, he's concerned. He does mind. He's interested
in. He's anxious about the things
of this world. The things that appeal to his
flesh. and to his comforts and luxuries
and all of these things, even things that we call necessities,
are not really necessities as far as our lives are concerned. And if we stay carnally minded,
it's death, because we're going to see all of this someday. Job
said, naked I came into the world, and that's where I'm going out.
I'm not going to take any relationship, any accomplishment, any fame,
any possession, I'm not going to take any of it with me. So
I'm going to have to lay it down. So to be carnally minded is death.
And those things to which we give ourselves, if they're fleshly
and carnal and vulgar or worldly, death, that's it. To be spiritually
minded is life and peace, because the things that you gain in spiritual
mind, that's a love, peace, joy, kindness, meekness, humility,
interest in Christ, and that will continue, and even be added
to. And then verse 7 of chapter 8,
here's another characteristic of the natural man, he hates
God. It says in verse 7, the carnal
mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind is not at enmity,
it is enmity. Well, the carnal mind here is
the natural mind, the fleshly mind. The mind as opposed to
a spiritual mind. Now listen to me. I know that
to say that men today hate God, we'd meet with some opposition.
And there may be a man sitting here tonight and he says, well,
I'm not a spiritual man. I've never been born again. I've
never been redeemed. I've never been saved. I wouldn't
say I'm a spiritual man. I'm a natural man. But I don't
hate God. You don't hate your God. You
hate the God of the Bible. That's the God that the fundamentalists
and the orthodox and the theologians and the religious today, they
don't hate their God, the God of their imagination. The God
that they think exists. The God that they fashioned and
made for themselves. This is the way they believe
God. They don't hate that God, but they hate the living God.
The living God. The sovereign God. The omnipotent,
almighty God. They hate that God. And I'll
tell you how to find out just how strong this hatred is. Declare
unto them the God of the Bible. I was sitting in a man's office
this week, and he asked me two questions. First, he asked me
how I felt about the eternal security of the believer. And I told him, I said, I'm not
too crazy about that term because the word believer has been pretty
well abused in our day, but I do believe in the security and preservation
of God's sheep, of his elect, those are Bible terms, and of
those who know Christ. I don't believe they'll ever
perish, any for whom Christ died, any who love him and trust him.
But I said I don't believe that the religious people who make
all these professions of religion are secure at all. They may feel
a sense of security, but they're not secure in God. And then he
said, well, another question. A lady talking to me, they said
she could accept everything in the Bible but hell. Now he says, can she be saved
and not accept the doctrine of hell? Well, I said to him this,
and I hope you'll understand what I'm saying too. Hell is
not a pleasant subject. I don't preach on hell too often. And I don't believe any of us
here tonight can look upon that subject except one way, and that
is with remorse and despair and heartache and tears and grief.
And I'll tell you this, I've had people say this to me, well,
you call God a God You call God love and grace and mercy, and
then you preach hell. You preach that men are going
to be cast into hell to suffer and burn forever, separated from
all that's good and holy and beautiful. I said, yeah, I'll
preach it, but I don't understand it. They say, well, I wouldn't
send anybody to hell. How could God send them to hell?
As evil as I am, as sinful as I am, as much as I hate my enemy,
I wouldn't send my worst enemy to hell. And I said this. You see, if
I could understand God, He wouldn't be God. Only God can understand
God. Only God can discern God. I just
know the Scripture teaches. that there is a heaven of glory
and beauty and enjoyment. There's a hell of separation,
damnation, condemnation, and eternal misery. That's what God
said. Now, I'll just have to wait to
understand it. But now, this is what I know.
I don't hate sin like God does. I can't understand God's hatred
for sin. I can see this. God hates sin
so much that He nailed His Son I couldn't have done that. Now
could you? I couldn't have done that. I could not have sent my
son or my son-in-law or you or your son. I couldn't have done
it. But God did. When Christ was
made sin, God spared not his only son. He turned his back. And I don't understand that.
How can God, who is God, turn his back on himself? But he did.
You see, I know in part, I prophesy in part, the secret things belong
to God to reveal things to me. But if you accept God, you've
got to accept God in all His attributes, by faith. And the
God of this Bible is a sovereign, almighty, omnipotent, eternal
God who made this world knowing that it would be plunged into
sin. who made a man, knowing that man would sin, who gave his son as the surety
eternal lamb slain before the foundation of the world to redeem
a people who had not as yet but would fall, who hates sin, who
has made a place called hell, who will save whom he will, who
has elected a people who has passed by some, and even reprobated
some, and even in their hardness of heart, when they would not
receive the truth, the love of the truth, he sends them strong
delusions that they'd be damned for believing a lie. And I'll tell you, when the God
of the Bible is proclaimed, who will someday say, cast them into
outer darkness, where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And yet at the same time will receive men who outwardly were
more wicked into his heaven. But let God be God. That's what
Darwin prayed a while ago. Let God be God. And this is the
God that men hate. They don't hate the simple idea that they have of God. They've
simplified God. Some folks have really, boy,
they've really simplified God. God, He just can't do anything
about it, you know. He's up there in heaven and He's
fixed it up so you could be there too, but if you don't want to,
there's nothing He can do about it. And He tried, but He couldn't
get the job done, and it's really your fault, and that's the God
that men love. And the God of the Bible men
hate. He's enmity to the natural man.
We've got to move on. The natural man is enmity. Enmity
hates God. And he's not subject to the law.
That's the Word of God. He will not bow to the Word of
God. Now, this we'd better learn. If you can't explain something
or understand something, it doesn't mean it's not so. Just receive
it. And we come to, we're in a bad
place when we feel like we've got to have an answer for every
question. We've got to, somebody's got to sit down, well I don't
understand that. Well that's alright. Just believe it. God doesn't require you to understand
it. Now if God's God, he's God. And
he's sovereign and he can do what he will, with whom he will,
when he will, if God's God. Now just believe that. He says
that, I am God. None can stay my hand or say
unto me, what doest thou? Can I not do with my own what
I will? I'll show mercy to whom I will.
I'll be gracious to whom I will. Just believe it. I don't understand
it. God says men are going to be cast into hell. I don't understand
that. Someday I will. Not now. I see
through a glass dimly. I preach in part. I don't mind
saying that. Someone comes and says, explain this to me. I say,
I'm sorry, I can't do it. I'd sure like to. I wish you'd
explain it to me. What kind of preacher are you?
You're supposed to be able to answer our questions. Well, that's the
kind of preacher I am. I can't answer them. Someday
we'll have an answer, but right now we don't have an answer.
But God declares it. But the natural man is not subject
to the law of God, to the Word of God. He wants an answer, and
he'll make one up if he doesn't understand the one God gives.
He's not subject to the law of God. The law of God demands that
a man believe. They said, what shall we do to
work the works of God? He said, this is the work of
God. Believe. Receive it by faith. And that's
the way we must receive it. I receive hell by faith. I receive
heaven by faith. I receive imputation by faith,
and regeneration by faith, and sanctification by faith, and
the trials of God by faith. You please explain to me why
the Lord Jesus Christ allowed Satan to enter Peter, his apostle,
and sift him as wheat, and cause him to try to block the path
of Christ to the cross. And to draw his sword and cut
off the ear of one of the men in the garden and deny the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's in God's purpose and will, for his own
glory, for Peter's good. I can't explain those things,
I just know they're so. And then verse 8 of Romans 8,
so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. No way
that a natural man can please God. Now remember two classes
of people, there's a natural man and a spiritual man. And
the natural man doesn't matter whether he's in the church or
out of the church, in the pulpit or in the pew. There's no way
under heaven that he can please God. He just can't do it. He cannot please God. And then
turn back to John. Let's look at something else
about this natural man. John chapter 3. In John chapter
5, John 3, that's it, verse 19. This natural man He hates God. He will not bow to the Word of
God. He cannot please God. And John 3, 19 says he loves
darkness. He loves darkness. He loves darkness. And then John 5, turn over there.
Verse 40 says he will not come to Christ. You will not come
to me that you might have life. Verse 42 says he has not the
love of God in him. Verse 43 says, he receives not
Christ, he'll receive another in his own name, but won't receive
Christ. Verse 44, he seeks not the honor that comes from God.
That's a natural man. That's a natural man. Now, on
the other hand, back to our text in 1 Corinthians 2, that's the
natural man. Now, on the other hand, there's
a spiritual man, all to whom the Spirit of God has come. And
this is what our Lord was talking to Nicodemus about. He said,
you must be born again. You cannot see, understand, comprehend
the things of God, the kingdom of God, unless you're born again.
You cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you're born again.
And I know men today are making fun of it. I saw an article not
long ago making fun of a born-again athlete, you know, claiming to
be born again. And they ridicule it. This is
that new life. That's what we mean by born again.
It's not just a religious experience. It's not just coming down an
aisle and accepting some doctrine. It's the Spirit of God coming
and breathing into us the breath of God, the life of God, convincing
of sin, revealing Christ as Lord and Redeemer, planting the life
of God in the soul, making you a new creature in Christ Jesus,
making you a spiritual person. Now these people, these spiritual
people, male or female, they may be yet babes in Christ. They
may be a baby. They may have all of the weaknesses
and infirmities of an infant, but they're still alive. They
have a spiritual life. And then their faith may be very
weak, but it's not the strength of faith, it's the truth of it.
We were talking about that the other night, some of it. It's
not, that faith which fades is not the degree of it or the strength
of it, it's the presence of it, it's the truth of it. Faith,
if I have faith, I live. And my faith may be weak, I'm
still alive. Their love for Christ and for
other people may be in an early stage, but they're still alive. Their thoughts, may exceed their
virtues. That's right. But they know God. They know God. They live. They're spiritual. They have
a divine life, and they know they live. His Spirit bears witness
with their spirits, and they live, and they know they live.
The life of God's in them, and they know that. And our text,
look back here at verse 9. It says this natural man, his
eyes do not see. His eyes do not see. Now, natural
eyes. Christ said they have eyes, but they don't see. They have
ears, but they don't hear. They may see things in education
and history and in the world. They may be a lot sharper than
some spiritual men in this world, in this area, but they don't
see spiritually. They don't see spiritually. They
don't hear spiritually. And he says, verse 9, and they
don't understand. It hasn't entered their hearts,
the things that God's prepared for them that love Him. But,
verse 15, now, he that is spiritual understands all things. He understands all things. He
sees the Son by faith, with eyes of faith. He sees Christ. He
sees Christ in His deity. He sees Christ in his redemptive
glory. He sees Christ in his incarnation. He sees Christ in his intercessory
power. He sees Christ. Who he is and
what he did, why he did it, where he is. And he hears Christ. He
hears the Word. The Word about himself and the
Word about God and the Word about salvation. He hears those words.
And he understands, not perfectly. Turn, if you will, to the book
of Philippians. Even the Apostle Paul did not
consider himself to have arrived in all things. He says in Philippians
3, he talked about that I may win Christ, that I may know Christ.
In verse 12 he says, now listen to this, not as though I had
already attained or arrived, Either we're already perfect,
I'm not perfect, but I follow after if I may lay hold upon
that for which I've been laid hold by Christ Jesus. So the
believer, the spiritual man, he does see, he does hear, and
he does understand. One other verse, turn to 1 John
5, verse 20. 1 John 5, verse 20. Listen to this. that the Son of God is come and
has given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true and that we're in him that is true. He's given us an understanding. Even in his Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God, this is eternal life. This is the truth,
this is life, spiritual life. All right, I want to give you
five things that I believe the spiritual man understands, which
the carnal man does not understand, which the natural man cannot
see, cannot understand, cannot hear. Here are five things. First of all, the spiritual man,
he says in verse 15, he understands, but he's not understood. He understands,
but he's understood by no one. He's an enigma. He's a real puzzle. In the first place, he understands
his identification with Adam in the great transgressions.
He understands that. He sees the wisdom of God in
that. He understands his identification. Turn to Romans 5. The spiritual
man understands his identification with Adam in the fall. He understands
that, what happened in the garden. In Romans 5, verse 12, he understands
that by one man, sin entered the world, and death, and all
that death implies, spiritual death, separation from God, the
presence of shame and fear and despair and depression and guilt
and nakedness and hatred and Jealousy and envy and covetousness,
all these things, by one man. You see, when God dealt with
the angels, angels were created, legions of angels. And each one
sinned against God individually. They rebelled individually. They
followed Satan, their leader, but each of them rebelled individually. And they were condemned not by
imputation, not by identification, but by personal transgression.
And they were cast into darkness. Now here's the God of the Bible
that I accept by faith. When Christ came to redeem a
people, He didn't take on Himself the nature of angels. He could
have, I'm sure, but He didn't. He didn't choose to. He passed
them by and left them alone. They're reserved, the Scripture
says, in chains of darkness. But He took on Himself the seed
of Abraham. So this is what the believer
understands. He understands that when God
dealt with the human race, he didn't deal with us individually.
He dealt with us in a representative. You can do what you want to with
federal headship, but Adam headed up a race of people. And when
he was in the garden, even Eve came out of Adam. God created
Adam from the dust of the ground. He created Eve from Adam. She
came out of him, and so did everybody else. There's only one man, and
that's Adam. One fleshly human being, that's
Adam. The second man is the man from
heaven, Christ Jesus. The first man is of the earth,
earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven. And all of
God's dealing with this human race is under those two men. That's right. In judgment and
mercy. In Adam, we die. In Christ, we're
made alive. As in Adam, death and judgment
came upon all men. In Christ, restoration and life,
favor, mercy came upon men. The word Adam means man. It's
a Hebrew word for man. Just two Adams. The first Adam
and the second Adam. And when Adam stood, we stood.
And God dealt with the human race as He dealt with a tree.
It had one trunk. And from that trunk were all
kinds of branches and leaves and twigs and so forth. But when
that trunk was cut down, the whole tree fell. We fell in Adam,
that's what it says here. And by one man's sin entered
this world, and death by sin, read it, death passed upon all
men, right then, in Adam, through Adam, because of Adam, our head,
our federal head. For that all, and that word have,
you leave it out, it's all sin. Now turn to the next page, Romans
5 verse 17. By one man's offense, death reigns. Verse 18, Therefore by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men the condemnation. Verse 19,
By one man's disobedience we were made sinners. There's identification,
there's imputation, there's impartation in Adam. You want to know what
the age of accountability is? It's not twelve. It's four thousand
years B.C. That's when the whole human race
became accountable before God. That's when the whole race fell,
right there, in Adam. And we're identified with him,
and his transgression is charged to our count, imputed unto us,
and his rebellious nature imparted to us. That's right. All right, the second thing we
all know. Now that, the natural man doesn't, he won't take that.
He won't take that. Second thing, we understand what
it is to be born in sin and to have a nature of evil. Now turn
to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. We know where sin got
its start. It started in Adam. And death
and judgment and condemnation and a wretched, evil nature has
been the nature of every man since Adam. And here's where
it starts in me. Psalm 51. Verse 5, I was shapen
in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me. That's when my sin
in me started. That's when the nature of evil,
it was in me from the time I was conceived. And then look at Psalm
58, verse 3, the wicked are straying from the womb, they go astray
as soon as they're born, speaking lies. The natural man won't have
that. He's got to save that little
bitty baby in there in the nursery. four weeks old, two weeks old,
they're innocent. Let me ask you a question. If that baby does not have a
sinful nature and an evil heart and a fallen nature, why do they
die? Why do they die? Well, you figure
that one out. They wouldn't die if they didn't
have sin. That's what it says over here in Romans. What is
it, chapter 5? Let's turn over there a minute.
Romans chapter 5. He says here in verse 13 of Romans
chapter 5, Now, when God created Adam, and Adam fell, God gave
the law, what, 2,000 years later, to Moses. People still died between
Adam and Moses when there wasn't any law given. Oh, there was
a law, alright, it was written on men's hearts, it just wasn't
written on tables of stone. In verse 14, he said, nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those that had not
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Who is
that? That's infants, babies. That baby in there, that little
fellow, and I may offend you here, but this is so, that little
infant, he has never spoken a word of blasphemy. I doubt that he's
ever thought a thought of blasphemy. He hasn't heard a word of blasphemy,
he hasn't committed an outward wicked sin, and yet he's a sinner. And he's subject to sickness,
he's subject to bleeding, he's subject to dying, he's subject
to thirst and hunger, he's subject to everything that you grown
men are subject to, if mama didn't take care of him. He's helpless.
And the reason is because in his heart, in his nature, There's
the seed of evil. He's a rattlesnake. He's a baby
rattlesnake, that's what he is. He's a spiritual rattlesnake.
And it's just lying there dormant, waiting for him to get a mind
to think evil, and waiting for him to get a tongue to speak
evil, and waiting for him to learn the language so he can
curse God. He'll curse him, just let him learn how to say it.
Let him find the words. And he'll hate. He'll be selfish. Just let him get a mind and eyes. Right now he can't see anything
around him, but when he can, he'll look on evil. And he'll
be selfish and carnal, because it's born evil. And we know that. And I'll tell you this, even
after we become spiritual men, that carnal nature is still there.
Yes, sir. Everybody in here is thinking,
amen, if you don't want to say it. That's a problem, too, isn't
it? That's something that folks don't
understand. They get that whoopee religion
and say, my old nature is eradicated, and they're the worst kind. Spurgeon
said, I sure hope that nobody in my household gets their nature
eradicated. He said, they've become harder
to live with than anybody. And that's so. And I'll tell
you the third thing that we understand. A spiritual man understands what
happened in the garden. He understands what happened
to him as a result of what happened in the garden. And thirdly, he
understands something of the nature and attributes of God.
Now, just as far that way as I am, a sinner, as far the other
way is God, holy. As far as I am in darkness and
lies and self and evil and hatred, God's just infinitely far the
other way in holiness and purity. God is love. God is light. God is life. God is truth. God
is holiness. Now, I and the world, is that
thing there going to get to Him? And brother, if it's left up
to that thing, it's an impossibility. That's what Christ said to His
disciples. He said, with men it's impossible. There's no man
that can bridge that gap. There's no man that can do anything
about that huge division between God and men. That gave birth to the question
Job asked, how can man be clean that's born of a woman? How can
man be just with God? Brother, let's just throw up
our hands. Somebody, some fellow comes along and says, we can
get baptized. That won't make it, and you know it. Well, he
can come down to the front and promise never to do it again.
Oh, you know better than that. Or he can believe a doctrine
or he can follow a preacher or join a church. He can tithe and
do all these things and pray and fast. That's not going to
do anything about his evil, rotten, filthy, guilty nature. That will
never make him like God. That's not going to justify God
in his holiness. That's not going to do away with
the record, with the enmity. I tell you, We understand what
needs to be done. We need a redeemer. We need a substitute. We need
somebody that can lay hold on God and lay hold on us. We need
somebody who can who can justify God in His holiness. You see,
God's holy, but God's just. And God's merciful, but God's
righteous. And God's loving and gracious,
but God is holy and true. We've got to have somebody who
can be both. Who can satisfy the law, honor
the law, and yet satisfy God's justice. So Romans 3 tells us
how that can be. It says in Romans 3 and verse
19, look at it. Now we know, he said, that what
things serve of the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law, that's us, that every mouth may be stopped. That's
a good place to be, before God with a mouth shut. And all the
world become guilty, guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law, works of the flesh, Morality of the flesh, energy
of the flesh, zeal of the flesh, religion of the flesh, division
of the flesh, whatever, there shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight. Now, we may justify ourselves.
I'm not as bad as you. Yeah, I know you're not, but
you're not good as God either. Well, I'm not bad as a lot of
folks down at your church. Nobody but a fool would hope
that would make God to be at peace with him. No flesh justified in God's sight. But now, verse 21, the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God, without the law, without my obedience
to it, because I haven't obeyed it, without my satisfying it,
is manifested. A holiness without me obeying
the law, without me Without me satisfying the law, without me
keeping to the letter of the law, it's manifested. Where is
it? Where is that righteousness?
I'm interested in it. And it's witnessed by the prophets in
the word of God. It's even the righteousness of
God, watch it, here's where it is, which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. No difference,
Jew or Gentile. for all its sin can come short
of the glory of God, but being justified freely by His grace,
by God's grace, not by our desert or work, through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, that's where it is, whom God sent forth,
Christ, God sent Him forth, God sent Him, made of a woman, made
under the law, to be a propitiation, a mercy seat, a sin offering,
a substitute, an atonement, through faith in His blood, to declare
God's righteousness, even for the remission of sins of the
past, even Old Testament saints, even those able, those back yonder
who look to the cross through the forbearance or longsuffering
of God. God put up with them because Christ was coming. He
puts up with us because He's already come. That's right. To
declare at this time, I say, to declare God's righteousness
that He might be just. and the justifier of everybody
who believes in Jesus. That's how it is. I understand
that. Do you understand that? I see God now then. God can still be God with his
holy, immutable, perfect law. Unchanging. Christ said, I didn't
come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. A man has
obeyed that law. Christ Jesus, my substitute.
You see, I was in Adam. And Adam disobeyed the law, and
Adam rebelled against God, and Adam transgressed the law, and
Adam fell, and I fell in him. He was my federal head, he was
my representative, he represented everybody that was in him, everybody
that was given to him, everybody that was represented by him.
He represented them, and they fell. Then along came Christ,
the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, God-man. God in human
flesh, he represented some folks. He represented those the Father
gave him. He represented those who were in his loins, his children,
his sons, his brethren, his family, his jewels, his people, his sheep. They called them by many names.
And when he was down here, he was numbered with them, and he
did for them what they couldn't do for themselves. He restoreth
my soul back in the favor of God. And then the fifth thing
we understand, we understand Hebrews chapter 10. Turn over
there just a minute and I'll quit. Hebrews 10. We understand
how that the believer's life is Christ. Hebrews 10 verse 9
and 10. The Lord said, then said he,
Lo, I come to do thy will. That's Christ. And he taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. What is the first?
It's the Levitical law. the Mosaic law, the Mosaic economy,
it's all of the holy days and feast days and Sabbath days and
do's and don'ts, he takes them away that he may establish a
second. And by the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
and for all. Now let me tell you something.
The believer understands that Christ is his holiness and yet
he longs to be holy. He understands Christ is his
Redeemer. He understands Christ is his
redemption and Christ is his wisdom, yet he seeks to grow
in wisdom and grace and the knowledge of Christ. And I know he's not
understood. I know he understands all things,
but he's understood by no man. They listened to Paul talk and
one of them said, you're crazy. You are crazy. Much learning
hath made you mad. Mary came in one day. Christ
was sitting at meat and Mary, who loved Him, came in and took
an alabaster box of ointment that was worth 300 something.
I don't know, 300 silver pieces or something. She just dumped
it out on His feet. Poured it on His feet and began
to dry His feet with her hair. Judas said, to what purpose is
this waste? I don't understand that. You
poured out. You could have sold that. The
natural man doesn't understand. He doesn't understand some of
you folks that drive safari to come to church. You pass a dozen
churches. Isn't one church good as another?
It is to the natural man. But not to the spiritual man.
He's got to hear his Lord magnified. He's got to hear the Word of
God preached. One church not good as another.
Why do you spend so much time listening to preaching? You heard
that same sermon last Sunday, just in a different text. I know,
but it's fresher and newer today. He doesn't understand that. Now,
if you'll sing to him, he'll come. If you'll entertain him,
he'll come. But he's not going to come just to hear you preach
to him. But the believer will do without the singing and entertainment
to get to the preaching. He kind of marks time until he
gets to the Word of God. He enjoys that other, don't misunderstand
me. Why do you say God's the first
cause of all things and yet men are all responsible? Why do you say the sheep are
secure in Christ but they still must persevere? I don't understand
that. Why do you say good works are
nothing and yet men are exhorted to walk in them? Why do you say
that we're righteous in Christ, you're holy in Christ, and righteous
in Christ, and accepted in the Beloved, and yet you say you're
the chief of sinners? I don't understand that kind
of talk. That's so, though. No, the natural man doesn't understand
it. Why do you say that the Father
gave to the man who wrote me this way? I wish you could have
read that letter. I should have saved it. He said, I don't understand
you. I like your preaching, but you
say God chose the people, then you turn right around and invite
all men to come to Christ. He said, first of all, you say
that the Father has given the Son of people and all of them
are going to be saved, and yet you send missionaries and you
preach on television and you invite men to come to Christ.
He said, I don't understand that. Well, I understand he doesn't understand,
but I think I understand it. I think some of you do.