There is no substitute for simplicity. There's no substitute for simplicity,
especially in the preaching of the gospel, in the teaching of
the Word of God. Our Lord spoke in language that
men understood. Did you know that? Most preachers
today are not understood. They even don't understand themselves
what they're saying. But our Lord spoke in language
that men could understand. Now, they may not have believed
what he said, but they understood it. He crossed their traditions
and their religious pride, but they understood what he said.
They would not bow to his claims, but they understood what he said. For example, in Matthew 15, the
Lord had given certain ceremonies and certain requirements to the
Jewish people, to their priests and to the people. And most of
these were for the benefit of the people. Some of them were
types. and shadows that pointed to cleansing
by Christ, but some of them were just good dietary laws. And they were to protect the
people, their health, and their nation, and a lot of things.
For example, eating blood, animals that had been strangled, eating
pork, pigs in that particular climate, or eating without washing
their hands. My brother was with the army
in Turkey several years ago, and an epidemic of hepatitis
broke out among the officers, and they traced it to the kitchen,
to the Turkish cooks who never washed their hands. And this
epidemic was spreading from there, and the Lord gave these ceremonies
or requirements, I'm not saying all of them, but some of them
just good common sense, understanding of certain laws that protected
people. But these Jews made saving devices
out of them. And one day the disciples were
eating and the Jewish Pharisees observed that they ate without
washing their hands. And they thought it was a violation
of salvation's doctrine. They thought it was a violation
of righteousness to eat without washing your hands. If a man
ate certain forbidden things, it was a violation of righteousness. And they had a Sabbath day that
they kept, and the Lord went through the field on the Sabbath
day and picked corn and gave to his hungry disciples, and
it was a violation of righteousness in them. That's when he said,
That's when he said to them, it's not that which goeth into
your mouth that defiles you. You can't defile your soul before
God by doing something on a Sabbath day. You can't defile your soul
before God by eating without washing your hands. You can't
defile your soul before God by eating a pig. The soul is defiled
by what comes out of the heart, not what goes in the mouth. They
understood that. He made that quite plain. He
made that perfectly clear. And they got angry. The disciples
said, well, these Pharisees were offended by what you said. I notice people are so careful
to take their hat off even when this building is empty. And a
man will come in here to do a job, he'll take his hat off. We have
these rituals. We don't want to violate righteousness. I'll wear my hat through here
if I want to. That won't defile my soul before God. I wish we
were half as careful about what goes on in here as we are what
goes on out here. Just one half. And that's what
our Lord's talking about. It's not that which goeth into
the mouth that defiles us. It's not eating with unwashing
hands. It's not doing these certain
things. It's that which comes from the heart. And then again,
when he was down in Nazareth, and he went to the temple, as
his custom was, and he spoke to that Sunday, that Sabbath
day crowd, that Saturday morning Sabbath day crowd. And these
people were sitting there, they were Jews. They were brought
up Jews, they were born Jews, they were practicing Jews, they
were Orthodox Jews, they were ceremonial Jews, they were law-keeping
Jews, they were Abraham's Jews, and so they felt that they were
God's people, and in one sense of the word, they were God's
people. There's no question about that. The Jewish nation of the
Old Testament was God's chosen people, national people. They
weren't all spiritual people, they weren't all Abraham's seed,
they weren't all saved, But they were in a covenant made with
Abraham. They were natural people, national
people, whatever you call it. And they thought by that, because
they were in the covenant, and in the natural covenant, and
in the national people and bloodline of Abraham, that they were children
of God. And that's today. A fella says,
well, I'm a Baptist. My daddy was a Baptist. My grandfather
was a Baptist. We go clear back to John the
Baptist. So automatically that makes me one of God's children.
Not necessarily. Not necessarily. And that's what
these Jews thought. So when Christ stood before them,
he said what he meant. And he said it so they understood
it. He said. There were many Jews. There were many widows among
the Jews in the days of the Prophet. And famine was throughout all
the land. And God fed a widow, but she wasn't a Jew. She was
a Gentile. And among the Jews, Israel, in
the days of the Prophet, there were a whole lot of men who were
lepers. But God didn't heal any of them. Just one, a Gentile. And they got the message. They
got the message. And they rose up as one man in
anger. And they got a hold of him and
pushed him through that crowd and would have taken him out
to the brow of the hill. They went straight from the synagogue
to the execution block. They were going to kill this
preacher. Because he told them that a man's not necessarily
one of God's children just because He has facial features that resemble
Abraham. That was clear. They understood
what he said. And then on another occasion,
in John chapter 10, they came to him and they said, now if
you're the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you
plainly. You don't believe me. He said,
I told you, but you didn't believe me. And you don't believe me
because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck him out of my Father's hand. I and my Father
are one." And that's when they began to gather up stones to
stone him. They understood what he said. This is what we call the simplicity
of Christ's preaching. And then Paul in Galatians, we
had this in our Sunday school class this morning, the last
verse of Galatians 2. It's verse 21. Now listen to
Paul. Our Lord spoke in terms that
people could understand. They may not believe them, but
they understood. They may not bow to his claims,
but they understood them. And so did the apostles. Paul
said, I do not frustrate. What's he saying there? I do
not complicate. I do not distort. I do not confuse
the gospel, the grace of God. It's plain, and I sound a clear
note. That's what he's saying. I do
not complicate. Don't complicate the grace of
God. Preachers are so good at that.
And bless your heart, I love books, and I try to read, and
some men I can read, but some men I just flat can't read. They're
so complicated. They confuse me. They pile words
on top of words, and I can't understand what they're saying.
Let's just say it. We can't make men believe it,
but we can say it so they can understand it. We can't force
men to bow to Christ, but we can tell them they ought to bow
to Christ. We cannot force men to turn from
their idols, but we can tell them the consequences of idolatry. I can tell folks what happened
in the garden, ruined by the fall. I can tell you that. The man wasn't slightly wounded,
he was slain. He didn't lose the sight in one
eye, he was blinded by his sins. He was not just put in another
room, he was put out of the presence of God. Ruin, total ruin, utter
ruin, complete ruin. I can tell you what happened
on that cross. I can tell you about redemption by the blood.
I can tell you that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us. That he bled and died for my
sins. He bore my transgressions. He
was wounded for my transgressions. He suffered the consequences
of my transgressions. It's by his stripes I'm healed.
I can tell you what happens when God meets a sinner, when the
Holy Spirit regenerates and makes new. An old creature makes everything
new. Men who are saved do not just
make decisions, they are made new creatures. Men and women who are redeemed,
they do not just turn over a new leaf, they begin a new life. I know what happens when God
saves a sinner. And it's not fair to tell you
otherwise. We need to make it clear. We
need to sound a clear note. And I want to give you five or
six things here and want you to think about them. I don't
know if you will ever repent. You may
never repent. But I know this, except you repent,
you'll perish. Now, that's plain language. That's
the kind of language our Lord used to that bunch of Pharisees
running around washing their hands every time they turned
around. And walking so far on a Sabbath day and keeping this
feast and that feast and the other feasts. That's what our
Lord told this outfit that was sitting there and thought because
they were descendants of Abraham that they were children of God.
He made it plain. And I don't know if you'll ever
repent, but I know this, except you repent, you'll perish. That's what Scripture says. And
it's my responsibility to tell you what repentance is. Whether
you have experienced it or not is not my concern. But to tell
you what it is in language you can understand so that by God's
grace you might seek it. What is repentance? Isaiah 55-7
tells us. It's a change of mind. Your thoughts are not my thoughts,
God says, so therefore let a man forsake his thoughts. His thoughts
about what? His thoughts about God. I'm not
angry with God anymore. The enmity has been removed.
My thoughts about myself, I'm not as good as I thought I was.
I'm worse than I thought I was. I'm a guilty, helpless, hell-deserving
sinner. Who needs the mercy of God? My
thoughts about Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
Almighty in human flesh. What did He do? He died for sin.
Why? That God might be just and justify, reprobate like me and
you. Where is He now? He's at the
right hand of God. What's due unto Him? All worship,
praise, and glory. Changed my mind about what? About
trials. I don't find fault with God anymore
when he sends trials and trouble and tribulation. I thank him
for them, knowing they're for my good. Change your mind about
your neighbor. You don't hate him anymore. You
love him. You pity him. You feel sorry for him. When
he transgresses your property and your rights, you say, well,
if it wasn't for the grace of God, I'd do the same thing to
him. You change your mind. You may never repent, but repentance
is a change of mind. It's a change of mind about the
things of this world. They're not nearly as important
as you thought they were. The fashion of this world fadeth
away. The fame of this world is fleeting.
Everything that you heap to yourself today, God will heap in a pile
and burn tomorrow. Change your mind about this world.
Repentance is a change of mind, a change of manners. Your ways
are not my ways. Let a man forsake his ways. Turn from his thoughts and forsake
his ways. My ways are not God's ways. I've got to find God's way. My
way is get even. God's way is forgive. My way
is worky way. God's way is believe on Christ.
My ways are not God's ways. I change my manners, my ways. My way is love those that love
you and hate your enemy. God's ways is not only love those
that love you, but love those that don't love you. My way is to give so that you
can get something in return. God's way is to give, whether
or not you ever see it again. Cast your bread on the water.
Repentance is a change of mind, a change of manners, a change
of masters. Isaiah 55-7 says, let a man forsake
his thoughts, his ways, and let him return to the Lord. That's where we were before Adam's
sin. We were in subjection and submission
to the Lord. And we've got to come back to
that place. My Lord and my God. Paul said
on the road to Damascus, Who art thou, Lord? He said, I'm
Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecust. What would you have
me do, Lord? What would you have me do? I don't know whether you'll ever
repent, but I do know, except you repent, you'll perish. And
you can accept Jesus ten times and be baptized ten times and
join the Church ten times and do all these things, but except
you repent, you'll perish. There's got to be a change of
mind and a change of manners and a change of masters. change
of heart, change of will, change of nature. There's a change,
a remarkable change, a life-changing change, a 180-degree turn, difference
of opinion about a lot of things. There was a time when only God
knew I was a believer. There was a time when God and
I both knew it. And there better be a time when
somebody else finds it out. And then the second thing, I
don't know if you'll ever be born again. A young man walked
in the study yesterday and introduced himself and said, I'm a born-again
Christian. He may be, I don't know. But
I do know this, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. That's what Scripture says. It's
just that plain. That's the simplicity of Christ.
I do know this, I know the new birth is of God. I know I cannot
give myself life, I cannot give you life. The Son quickeneth
whom he will. The new birth is of God. This
thing of the new birth, it's essential, it's vital. It's of
God. It's not an option, it's a necessity.
He must, Christ said, be born again. It's of God. We're born not of
blood, that is family inheritance, not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but we're born of God. And this new birth
is by the Word of God. It's not by corruptible seed,
it's by incorruptible seed, by the Word of God. If no seed is planted, no fruit
is going to grow. And I don't know how some of
you expect to be born again, you don't hear the word of God.
The word of God is the seed. You needn't expect anything to
come up in your garden if nothing is planted. And the word of God
is the seed and the new birth is by an act of God. using his
word, germinated by his spirit, and
it brings a new life, born again, born again, born again. I'm not the same person, I'm
a new person. I don't have the same values,
I don't have the same ideals, I don't have the same philosophy.
I'm a new person. Old things have passed away.
All things have become new. How many things? All things. You get your concordance sometime
and look up those two words together. Found grace. Found grace. If I have found grace in thy
sight. Noah found grace. Moses found
grace. Joshua, I have found grace. And I said, Lord, Paul said,
I obtained mercy. I didn't earn it. I didn't work
for it. I didn't decide I was going to get it. I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. I don't know
why. I don't know whether any of us
will ever be objects of God's mercy, but I do know this, the
objects of God's mercy are safe. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. You say, where does that leave
us? That leaves us at his feet. Where does that leave us? That
leaves us begging. Where does that leave us? That
leaves us suing God for mercy. That's where it leaves us. leaves
us where we are. You can profess to be what you're
not if you want to. I know what we are. We're so
opposite from God, it astounds you to know just to what extent.
God is light. We're darkness. God's truth. Every man's a liar. God's holy and we're evil. God's
heaven and we're hell. God's Spirit and we're flesh.
Just keep on. Now where does that leave us?
That leaves us in the dust! Crying, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean, if you will. He doesn't have to. Now sinners,
if you'll do this, if you'll pray the sinner's prayer, if,
if, if, if, if nothing, if the Lord's pleased, you'll be made
whole. All you come with is empty hands. All you come with is your darkness. You don't have anything else
to bring. I don't know whether you'll ever
believe on Christ or not. I mean savingly believe on Christ. I mean savingly embrace Christ. I mean savingly be brought to
a living union with Christ. But I do know this. He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life. That's what it says. It says,
He that believeth on the Son. This is the record. God has given
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. It's not in doctrine,
it's not in theology, it's not in the law, it's not in religion,
it's not in do's and don'ts and ceremonies, it's not in playing
church, it's not in acting and looking pious, it's not in quitting
going to the show and smoking and drinking and cussing and
all these, it's in Christ. In a living union with Christ. It is to be brought, to belong
to Christ. Lock, stock and barrel. It's not to run down to the church
and visit him on Sunday. Two thousand years ago, as I
said in the bulletin this morning, people who hated him hung him
on a cross. Today, we've put him in a sanctuary. We've took him off safe, off
yonder in the sanctuary, and we go down and visit him every
Sunday morning. Hello, Lord, here we are. Goodbye, Lord, we'll
see you next Sunday. And those people that nailed
Him to that cross are no more deceived than we are. To think
you can silence His demands and silence His commands and silence
His claims by putting Him on a cross is no more foolish than
to think that you can isolate Him to a sanctuary. You needn't come in here looking
for Christ if you hadn't walked with Him out there. That's right. To believe on Christ is to embrace
Him. It is to be surrendered. Old
Barnard used to say, to submit. I burn my bridges and walk with
Christ. He's all I want. He's all I need. He's all my soul requires. I
work a job to make a living, my life is Christ. I work a job
to meet expenses, my life is Christ. I make contact with this
world because I can't do anything else, because I live in the world,
I'm a citizen of the world, but my home is not here. My fellowship
is not here. My desires are not here, they're
where He is. He's enthroned! He's king! I don't know when you'll die,
but I know you will. And I don't know how you'll fare
in the judgment, but I know you'll be there. That's just facts. That's the simplicity of Christ.
I don't know when you'll die, maybe in the morning. But I know
you will. And I know I will. And I don't
know how you'll fare in the judgment, but I know it's appointed unto
me and wants to die, and after that, judgment! And I don't know whether your
name's in the Book of Life. You say it is? All right. But I do know whosoever was not
found written in the Book of Life was cast into hell. How'd your name get there? That'd
be interesting to to work over a little bit, wouldn't it? You
say your name's in the Book of Life? How'd he get there? How'd he get there? Well, I may,
I, you know, I, back years ago we had a revival and the preacher
said, you want to go to Edmond? I said, yes. I raised my hand
and he said, come down. And I came down and He said,
do you believe you're a sinner? And I said, yes. And he said,
do you believe Christ died a sinner? And I said, yes. And he said,
will you accept him? I said, yes. And that's how it got there,
huh? Moses said God wrote that book. You know what Moses said? Moses said, blot me out of the
book which thou hast written. John wrote in Revelation that
that book was written for the foundation of the world. That's
what he wrote, that's what he said, to them whose names were
not found written in the book of life from the foundation of
the world. You see, this thing of the book
of life, that's God's book, that's God's covenant, that's God's
grace. Salvation of the Lord. You and
I are just as shut up in our present inability as Jonah was
in the depths of the sea. He had been swallowed by the
fish which God prepared and gone down to the depths and he says,
the bars were closed and the seaweed was about my head and
I was doomed without hope and he cried, salvations of the Lord. And bless your heart, God opened
that whale or fish or whatever it was in mouth and delivered
that old boy. And that's what it'll take to
deliver you and me, the power of God, the will of God, the
grace of God, the mercy of God, the justice of God. That's so. The gospel of the grace of God
has been preached by faithful men in the past. It is being
preached today by faithful men of few. It will continue by God's
grace to be preached somewhere. It's your business to find out
where. It may be difficult for you to find the grace of God,
but it's no secret where it's to be found in Christ. That's
right, it may be difficult for you to find the grace of God,
and there are a lot of difficulties. We're the biggest difficulty. Christ said, if you hunger and
thirst, you'll be filled, but what are we hungering for and
thirsting for? It may be difficult for you to
find the grace of God, but it's no secret where it's found. What I'm saying is the stumbling
block isn't nearly so much Satan as it is self. I'm going to preach on that tonight
a little bit, deal with it. We look around at the style of
life, our lifestyle. Does it fit in with salvation? We look at our steady companions. Can you walk with them and walk
with God? We look at our spirit and attitude.
Can I have that kind of spirit and attitude and walk with Christ? These are the things. It's no
secret where grace is found. But the problem is this, an unwillingness
to submit, to bow, to surrender, to come to Christ. Our Lord said if you're going
to fight a fella that's got 100,000 men in his army, you ought to
sit down and find out if you've got enough with you. Our Lord
said, if you're going to build a building, you ought to sit
down and figure out whether or not you've got a bank account big
enough to pay the laborers and pay the contractor and pay the
brick mason and pay the plumbers and pay the electricians and
pay for the wood. If you haven't got enough to
do that, don't start the building. And this is the thing about God's
grace. I know where it is. You know where it is. Don't make
it complicated. Don't whine around here and say,
well, I just can't find the Lord. He's not lost. You are. He's not lost. But you're not
going to walk with that outfit you walk with and walk with the
Lord, and you know it. You're not going to continue
to expend yourself and your energy everything to get the well-regarded
reports of this world and these things and seek the approval
of Jesus Christ. It can't be. You know it, and
he knows it, and I know it, and that's the problem. It's S-E-L-L. Old Barney used to say, lay down
your weapons of warfare and surrender. That's all you got to do. Well,
I don't want to lay them down. Well, go on to hell then. That's
what he said, wasn't it? That's not nice. He used to say
this, he used to say, stack your arms! Stack them! That's all you got to do. And surrender. And the Lord will
run his flag up on the flagpole. This is my territory. I'm king
here, but now you're not going to have these guerrillas out
there in the cave shooting at the master. You see, he's going
to run a peaceable island. His righteousness and his rules
gonna reign. He's not gonna have the guerrilla
sniper sittin' in the tree takin' pop shots at him. He's gonna
stack ya arms, that's what I'm sayin'. It may be a mystery why God saves
sinners, but it ain't no mystery how he saves them, huh? That's
right, darlin', no mystery. By the blood of his Son. By the
grace of his Son. It may be difficult, it may be
difficult for you to bow to Christ, but you will sooner or later. You may fight and struggle and
war against bowing. Brother, the gospel is not an
invitation, it's a command. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. He said every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's a matter of when, it's not
if, it's when. If you're not willing to bow to
Christ now, you will be someday. Let's just be honest. Everybody
wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to go to hell. I don't
know anybody wanting to go to hell, and we're trying to figure
out how we can miss hell and get to heaven and pay the least
price. We'll bargain. We'll go on these excursions
to Europe to save a little money. But there's just one way to God,
and that's surrender. There's just one way to Christ,
and that's submit. There's just one way to salvation,
and that's to receive the Son of God. Not on anybody's terms,
but His. He knows it's on your terms. Unconditional surrender. I know there are babes in Christ,
and young men in Christ, and fathers in Christ, but they're
all in Christ. I know in our family we've got
little babies and we've got grown men, but they're in the family.
They know who the daddy is. They wear the name, they live
in the home, they eat the food by the family. And this is the thing of the
simplicity of Christ. Satan, he complicates this thing. He gets us away from the simplicity
of Christ. Let's state it like it is. We
go out here and and try to get folks to do these different things
to go to heaven, you know. Let's just state it like it is.
Mercy. Mercy is free. Mercy is flowing
free. Mercy is from the throne of God.
There's a fountain filled with blood. But I'll tell you this,
that mercy is for committed people. Committed. I've committed it
to Christ. That's what Paul said. I've committed
it. And three things in closing.
You'll be judged at the last day according to your thoughts
about Jesus Christ. Now, there's three things that
only Jesus Christ can do. Number one, he's the only one
who can give you life. He's God's last move. You've been confronted by God
with the claims of his Son. He's God's last move. Secondly, Jesus Christ is not
an option. He's a necessity. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. I hear preachers talk about the
offer of the gospel. Well, in a sense it may be offered,
but I'll tell you in another sense it's a commandment. You
don't have an option whether or not you believe God. Thirdly, only Jesus Christ can
do for you what needs to be done to prepare you to meet God. He
is the only one who can deal with the law. He is the only
one who can satisfy justice. He is the only one who can secure
forgiveness. He is the only one who can set
us free. He said, If the Son shall make you free, you shall
be free indeed. He is the only one who can bring
you to glory. The Apostle Paul feared. He didn't fear men. He didn't fear
persecution. He didn't fear what was going to happen to his
life savings. You know what Paul feared? He feared becoming a castaway. He said, lest when preaching
to others I become a castaway. He feared false converts, just
awful fearful. And thirdly, he feared that people
would be removed from the simplicity of Christ. He feared the very
thing that is most prevalent in this day. I listened to three
preachers on the television this morning, and under God there ain't no
that a lost sinner could have ever found the way to God, listening
to those men pray. No way. You think you're the
only one preaching the gospel? No, I'm one of them. Not the
only one by any means. But I know what the gospel is.
I know we complicate it with entertainment, shows, laws, ceremonies. Church practices, hand raising,
standing, seating, marching down the aisle, burning candles, wearing
robes. Oh, we complicated God. We need to return to the simplicity
of Christ. It's Christ or condemnation. It's a person. This is the foundation
of faith. Christ is the object of faith.
To be brought to know him, to love him, to embrace him, to
be vitally united with him. Our Father in Heaven, how we
long desperately, earnestly, deep within our souls to know
the truth. Thou hast said the truth shall
make you free. Long before our day of modern
cathedrals and steeples that reach to heaven, and our uniformed
singing and our catechisms and creeds long before the organization
of our denominations and our modern evangelism, thou art God,
revealing thyself in the person of thy dear Son. And by the riverside,
men on the mountain, men in the valley, men in the forest, men
in the desert, walked with God. They knew God. Like Abraham,
he had no continuing city, he owned not a foot of ground, and
yet comfortable and happy and