I want you to open your Bibles
again to 1 Timothy 4. Two verses that I will read from
my text. My subject tonight is defining
the real issues. Preaching becomes a fearful thing. when it suddenly dawns upon you
that somebody's listening to you. Preaching's not too difficult
if you're filling up some time and if you're teaching doctrine,
if you're carrying on a religious service, but you suddenly wake
up one day and realize that there's somebody listening. There's a
good possibility that they're believing you. And there's another
greater possibility that they're doing what you say. And this
makes it an awesome responsibility. This is when Paul cried, who
is sufficient for these things? Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy
4, 6, if you put the brethren in remembrance of these things,
thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. And then in
verse 16, he said again to young Timothy, take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in so doing,
or in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that
hear thee. Somebody was listening to Timothy
too. And I'm encouraged When I think
of some things that have happened in the past, I was reading this
week a book written by Mrs. Spurgeon, telling about the first
time that she ever saw her husband-to-be. She was attending the New Park
Street Baptist Church in London, in 1850, two, three, and four,
five, in that area, in that time. She was attending with her uncle,
who was a deacon in the church, Thomas Olney, who later became
one of Spurgeon's greatest supporters and really one of his strongest
helpers in the church. And she wasn't really interested
to a great extent in what was going on, but she went to the
services, and that Sunday they had a young preacher, 18 years
old, out of the country, way back in a village somewhere in
the country. His name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Now, New Park Street Baptist
Church was a church pastored by John Gill, 51 years, who wrote
perhaps the greatest commentary in the world. It was pastored
by Benjamin Keech. It was pastored by Rippon. And
these three men pastored that church about 140 years. They had three pastors. And here
this morning, the crowd was very small. The church had been without
a pastor for some time. And the former pastor had been
dead, and they had brought in two or three folks that didn't
fill the bill. And somebody invited this young
man Spurgeon to come preach. And she said she was sitting
there in the auditorium, and the door opened over here by
the pulpit, and in walked this country lad. She said it was
really a little comical. He had on a country garb. You could tell that his coat
and pants and shirt had been tailored by a very inexperienced
person. And he had some kind of black
satin tie around his neck, and he had in his hand a blue polka
dot pocket handkerchief, carrying it in his hand, and a Bible.
And she thought to herself, what have we here? What could he possibly
contribute to this congregation and to this church with its illustrious
past? Well, he hadn't been preaching
very long, she said, until she found out what he had to contribute. And he contributed there for
40 years. and became the prince of preachers of all England and
Europe and, I suppose, the world. Then I think about John Bunyan,
the tinker, an inexperienced, uneducated man. And the great
John Owen was going to hear him preach one day, and one of his
friends asked him, why would you spend your time going down
to hear that tinker preach? to which John Owen replied, if
I could preach like that tinker, I'd give up all my degrees and
all my education if I could preach like him. And then I think of
a man named John the Baptist, and somebody went out one day,
sent a group of folks out of a committee just to find out
who is this character, who does he think he is. This man out
there in the wilderness, clothed in camel hairs, eating locusts
and wild honey, Mr. Nobody-from-Nowhere, and they
want to know just who are you, just what are your credentials,
you know. Who are you? And even our Lord, somebody told
that they'd found the Christ, and somebody said, well, where's
he from? And they said, well, he's from Nazareth. And they
said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Well, we know this. God will
use an empty vessel. And if we ever become empty enough,
it may be he'll fill us. He'll use that vessel that he
can use and get all the glory. And it's a possibility that it'll
be a vessel that you wouldn't be greatly attracted to. one
that you wouldn't think could teach you very much. And it may
be. I do know that that which man
highly esteems is an abomination to God. And that goes for not
only his political and social, but his so-called spiritual leadership. That which is highly esteemed
and that which is notably recognized by men, you can be sure, God
will not use it. That's true all the way through
the Word of God. He uses the most unlikely vessel. When he
went down to ordain and to anoint a king in Jesse's family, he
refused every one of the sons that had been handpicked, both
by the prophet of God and by the Father, and chose one that
they chose to totally ignore. So look for God to speak through
the unexpected. Look for God to do the unexpected. Look for God to use the refused. That's always been the way that
he's done it. He said he had chosen the foolish
things of this world to confound the wise. Does that mean anything?
He had chosen the base things of the world and the things which
are despised and the things which are not to bring to naught the
things that are. We can seek to establish our
credentials with men, but God won't use them. He just won't
do it, because he won't share his glory. He can't, being God,
share his glory. He can't do that. He's got to have all the glory.
And so I don't know what I understand about today's religion. I don't
know what God has for me, for you, for this place. But it may be that he will have
something to say. But if I understand today's religious
situation, if I understand it at all, I would say it's characterized
by five things. The first of which is this. This
is a day, this is a day of doubt. I think about Pharaoh when Moses
came to him and he said, thus saith the Lord, let my people
go. And you know what Pharaoh said? Well, he looked down at
Moses and he said, the Lord said, let my people go, who is the
Lord that I should obey him? Who is this Lord you're talking
about? And that's the day in which we live. This is a day
of doubt. Everything's under attack. The Bible, the church,
God, Jesus Christ, the home, morality. decency, it seems that
the very foundations of reason and order and authority are in
peril in this day. And the things that once were
holy and sacred and unquestioned are now being questioned. And they are held in serious
doubt. This is a day of doubt all around. You go forth Used to go forth
years ago and say, this is what it says in God's word. And somebody
looks at you and says, whose word? Is that God's word? Who
says that's God's word? Who is the Lord? And this is
not only the day of doubt, but this is the day of church failure. The church has lost its first
love. Jesus Christ and him crucified. And therefore the church has
lost its reason for existing. The church cannot exist as a
social organization. It cannot exist. Its mission
is to bring men to know God, not to know one another. It's
not the church's mission to bring men to praise one another, but
to praise God. I had one of the most unhappy
experiences of my life last Sunday morning. I'm going to relate
it to you because it fits in with just what I'm talking about
now. This is a day of church failure. Some of you have experienced
this many times. I haven't. Most Sundays I'm preaching
here or somewhere else. But last Sunday we were on vacation. And Saturday I picked up the
newspaper to find a place to go worship on Sunday. I was going
to the house of God Sunday morning. And I was going to find a church
where I could go and worship. And maybe hear something from
God's Word. And I found a lot of churches
listed. But I found one ad in the paper,
the Bible Independent Baptist Church. I thought, now that sounds
good. Pastor Jim Taylor. Services, 9.30, 11 o'clock, 7
o'clock. And I thought, that sounds good.
And we drove over and found the building Saturday evening so
we'd know where to go Sunday morning. And so Sunday morning
we went over to this. I thought the ad meant they emphasized
the Bible. They were independent. They weren't
bound by organization or programs or denominational traditions.
And it was a Baptist church, and therefore they believed in
the book and the blood and the blessed hope and baptism by immersion. And that's what's said in the
ad, you know. So we went in, sat down. It was a small congregation. Nice building, lovely. People
came up and welcomed us. We said we're from Kentucky and
we were down there on vacation, just wanted to worship. We sat
down, the song leader got up, and the pastor took his place,
and the song leader started a song, beautiful, Love Lifted Me. I
thought, well, I'm going to enjoy this. I'm just going to sit here
and worship. I'll sit in where you sit. And we sang Love Lifted
Me, and then the song leader led in some kind of prayer, and
then they sang He Lives. I like that. He lives, Christ
Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with
me, and I was enjoying that morning so much. And the song leader
sat down, and That fellow that called himself a preacher walked
up to the pulpit and he started and he made every announcement
under the sun. He called everybody's name in
town. He talked about jail services and bus routes and young people's
organization and ball games and picnics and he made jokes and
he laughed and carried on, had those people roaring. My heart
began to sink. All of it that had been prepared,
all that had been the foundation laid was gone, and I was sitting
there listening to a fool. And then he said, we're going
to welcome the visitors, like we always do. And he said, you
visitors remain seated, and he turned that crowd loose. And
they milled up and down the aisles and through the pews, and they
shook hands with everybody and talked to everybody. And then
he said, anybody had a birthday? They were all just standing around
everywhere. Nobody had a birthday. Finally, he found a fellow that
had one last March the 27th. This is a fact. And they sang
happy birthday to Bill Bailey or somebody, you know. And Bill
came down now and put his pennies on the table, and they carried
on a little while about that. And he said, anybody had an anniversary?
We got to find something to talk about. No scripture yet. Nobody
had an anniversary. Praise the Lord. Nobody had an
anniversary, you know. And then we went, and then the
song leader felt compelled to top the pastor. And he got up
and told another joke. And I turned to Bob and I said,
I can't stand this. I was getting sick. I said, when
they bow for prayer, I got to go. That's shame and it's rude. And I told him, I hate it. First
time I've ever got up, walked out of a church service. But
I thank God. I think I've justified. I don't
think that was a church service. I think I was in a pagan organization,
a social club. It should never have been called
the Bible Baptist Independent Church. It ought to have been
called the Independent Social Club. And I thought as I went
out, this is what people today are putting up with and calling
it church and calling it worship. It's not worship, it's paganism. The church has left its first
love. We're not here to entertain you.
We're here to worship God. We're here to read his word.
We're here to praise his name. We're here to give thanks. We're
not here to call names and make announcements and organize fun,
fun fest. We're here to worship. Aren't
you here to worship? And it's not the people's fault.
It's the preacher's fault. The deacons' and elders' fault.
It's the leaders of these churches that put up with that frivolity.
They ought to cast him out. They ought to go through the
temple like Christ did with a cat o' nine tails and drive these
thieves out of God's house. You've turned my house into a
den of thieves, promoters and entertainers. I think the people
ought to rise up. But this is a day of church failure.
And this is a day of spectator Christianity. And the reason
for this church failure rests in the pulpit, but also the pew
must share some responsibility, because church members are not
committed to Christ. They're not committed to Christ
and involved in a living union with Christ. They're sitting
watching somebody else carry on the show. They're watching
from the pews and they're being entertained by professional religionists. When we pray here, I think you
ought to pray out there. When we preach here, I think
you ought to enter into the preaching of the Word out there. Enter
into the Word, enter into the worship, enter into communion
with God. I'm not a professional religionist,
I'm just the man that out of this congregation that God has
put up here to deliver the message. But today we pray, we pay preachers
to pray for us and to study for us and to entertain us and somehow
to get us to heaven when we die. But we're sitting on the sidelines
as spectators watching folks play church. And then fourthly,
this is a day, I regret it, but I believe it's so. It's the day
of divine desertion. Where is God? Where is God? Amos wrote this. You can jot
down this reference. This little book is hard to find
sometimes over there in the Minor Prophets. Amos 8, 11. He said,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God. And I believe they're
here. The days come, saith the Lord
God, that I will send a famine in the land. not a famine of
bread, not a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord. We're in it. We're in it. Where is the convicting power
of the Holy Spirit? Where is the man that when you
hear him preach, you feel for that moment he has been anointed,
he has been endued with some power, that his lips have been
touched with the coal off the altar, with fire, to deliver
a thus saith the Lord. We have clever preachers, we
have popular preachers, we have talented preachers, we have old preachers and young
preachers and educated preachers and uneducated preachers, but
how many anointed, preachers have you heard lately, that you
really felt the man was anointed of God, that he made a contribution
to the glory of God and to your spiritual well-being, and you
went out from hearing him broken in spirit, troubled in
heart, and yet confident and assured in Christ Jesus. Where is the revival that men
speak of? I hear them talk about their
tens of thousands being saved. You know, the Lord took twelve
men and turned the world upside down. With all of the churches and
temples and cathedrals and chapels and all of these little Organizations,
people have to search for someone to preach the Word of God to
them. I had to pick up the Saturday
paper. I knew that it wasn't any use
just dropping into any church. I had to search in that paper
to find perhaps someone who was preaching the gospel. There are
churches on every corner, but where is the Word from God? And fifthly, Perhaps we are in
the last days, spoken of by Paul in our text. He said to look
back at verse 1 of chapter 4, I don't know, but he said, The
Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time, the last
days, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy.
having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to
marry, commanding to abstain from meat, which God had created
to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know
the truth." Maybe we are in those days, or perhaps we are in the
great falling away. Turn to 2 Thessalonians. Paul wrote about a great falling
away. He says in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, And verse 3, let no man deceive you by any means. That day shall
not come, talking about the return of Christ, except there come
a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed
the son of perdition. Maybe we're in the last day.
But I believe that our day is characterized by those five things.
It's a day of doubt. And thirdly, The gospel is good
news about a person. And thirdly, it's good news of
that person's finished work. Isaiah 53 verse 4 says, He was
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him, and by His stripes
we're healed. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Christ's work is twofold. It is toward the Father, in order
that God might be just and justify the ungodly. It is toward the
Father in order that he might be reconciled, that the enmity
might be removed, in order that he might be righteous and yet
merciful, and his work is for the sinner. If he paid my debt,
it's paid. If he died my death, there's
no death for me to die. If he had taken my judgment,
my condemnation, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who
inquire. He did for me what God commanded,
what God demanded, and what I could not produce. He paid it all,
all the debt I owed. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. It's finished. It's finished! He didn't mean his life was finished.
He lives forever. He meant that his redemptive
work, his sin offering, by one offering he perfected forever
them that are sanctified. That's the gospel. It's not if
you will, God will. It's not God done all he can
do and that's up to you. If it's not if you do this, that,
and the other, then God will save you. The gospel is good
news of a person and of that person's completed, finished,
redemptive work. And he's up there at the right
hand of God, already possessing heaven for us, and we are seated
in him, and if Jesus Christ died for my sins, I'm as good, I'm
as certain for heaven as if I was already there. And that's so. Nearer, so near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son, I'm as near as he. That's so. And with His holy
garments on right now, I'm as spotless as God's own Son. Because
Christ died for my sins. Brethren, that's the gospel.
And you can throw out your cards and get folks to promise to do
this, and you can entertain people to get them to come to church,
and you can send your visitation crews around to see why they're
not coming to church, and you can persuade folks and pull folks
and beg folks and badger folks promote all these things? If
they know Christ, if they know what Christ has done for them,
if they love Christ, boy, they'll worship Him. You couldn't drive
them away with a stick. You'd swing at them, they'd duck
and still listen. They love the gospel. What is
salvation? Now watch this, and I'll try
to close. What is salvation? I'll give you a definition of
salvation. Salvation is not just getting religion. You know that.
Salvation is not just becoming orthodox. Don't swap your doctrine
for mine. It won't help you. Salvation
is not just trying to miss hell. I don't know anybody who wants
to go to hell. Salvation is not just trying to get to heaven.
I expect everybody to enjoy that. But salvation is the ability
of a man to see and to love the glory of Jesus Christ. That's
salvation. The ability, he that seeth the
Son, sees him in his deity, who is Jesus Christ? If you ever
find out, you'll be so overwhelmed by the revelation that you'll
call nothing else wonderful, for he shall be called wonderful.
He'll be your counselor. He'll be your mighty God. He'll
be your everlasting Father. He'll be your King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. If you ever see Him, He that
seeth the Son, the ability, and no man can come to the Father
except the Holy Spirit draw him, I know that. But if a man, it's
salvation's the ability, the God-given ability, the Holy Spirit-given
ability to see. Jesus Christ, in his deity, in
his incarnation, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was in the world, and the
world didn't know him. But some knew him, and some received him,
and they were never the same. I know in these churches, the
preacher preaches a little three-point outline and gives an illustration
and reads a poem, and the choir starts singing, just as I am,
and here they come. And they join up and get baptized
and join the church, and then They filter out, they get tired
of it all, and they start finding something else to do on Sunday.
But brother, let me tell you, if God ever takes the wax out
of your ears, and you hear Him who speaks from heaven, the voice
of God, if God ever moves the blinders off your eyes, and you
behold the glory, the indisputable, immutable, infinite, eternal
glory, of Jesus Christ in his deity, in his incarnation, in
his holy obedience, in his substitutionary sin offering, in his ascended
glory, and realize that he's your Redeemer. He's your brother. He's your husband and lover.
He's your friend. He did it for you. You'll never
be the same. You just don't get religion.
You just don't become orthodox. You just don't pick up the old
puritans and become a charlatan. That's not it. That runs dry. That's a well, a cistern. That's
not a well, that's a cistern full of wiggle tails and it runs
dry and it gets so dead and so orthodox and so intellectual.
But he is the well of living water. And just to think of Him
is a joy, and to hear somebody tell about Him is a joy, and
to hear somebody sing about Him, and to hear somebody call His
name, and to see His Word, and to think of His glory, just thrills
your soul. And to hear somebody speak in
a detrimental way about His person breaks your heart. He walks with
me and talks with me. I walk with the King, hallelujah.
I walk with a king, praise his name. No longer I roam. My soul
faces home. I walk and I talk with a king. To see and love and enter into
and appreciate and be committed to and dedicated to the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's salvation. The preaching stand tell you
to You get old, he does too, and all you've got to do is be
saved. Say you believe Jesus died on the cross and buried
the rose again, he's lying, and you're being lied to, and he's
deceived, and so are you. Because the devil believes that.
But he doesn't love the glory of Christ. He doesn't love the
glory of Christ. Salvation is the ability of a
man to see. with spiritual eyes, and to embrace
with a broken heart, and to love with a fervent love, the Lordship and redemptive glory
of Jesus Christ." That's salvation. When a man comes to that, he
can say, I'm saved. I'm saved. You wonder why folks
are in and out of the Church, and the Church has 700 or 800
members and 200 in services, and the whole load is being carried
by a corporal's guard and the preachers moaning and complaining
about nobody come to hear him preach and all that junk. I'll
tell you what's wrong. They've never seen the glory
of Christ. They've never embraced him. He
never moved in by the poet to live. Because when he does, he
occupies every corner of the house. And then last of all,
my question is this. To me, what think you of Christ? Huh? I think you of Christ. And you might be listening, too.
So I'll ask you the same question. What do you think of Christ?
Who's he? What's he to you? What is it
to you, all that you that pass by? What is it to you that behold
my sorrow and suffering? What is it to you that shoot
out your lips? What is it to you? To some, Christ
is nothing. I know that. To some, Christ
is something, but not much. He's something, but not much.
To some, Christ is much, but not all. But to the believer
who called himself a bondslave of Jesus Christ, Christ is all
and in all, all and in all. Dearest of all the names above,
my Jesus and my God, who can resist his heavenly love, a trifle
with his blood? Tis by the merits of his death,
the Father smiles again. Tis by his interceding breath,
the Spirit dwells in this man. Till God in human flesh I see,
my thoughts no comfort find, the holy, just, and sacred prayer
terrors to my mind. But, if Emmanuel, God with us,
if Emmanuel's face appears, my hope, my joy begins. His name
erases all my fears. His grace removes my sin. Who is Jesus Christ to you? Well, Paul answered this. He
said, Christ is my life. Christ is my life. And let me
say this, and I believe this. I really do. I believe this,
and Chuck, you preached on this Wednesday night. I don't believe
there's a salvation anywhere else. It may sound hard, it may
be you're shutting too many people out. Preacher, I'm not shutting
them out. The door's open. Come on in. Whosoever will, let
him take the water of life. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. But you can't come
to a doormat named Jesus. You come to the Lord. That's
right, and you're not coming to a little fire escape named
Jesus that'll be an insurance policy for you in case you might
need him. You come to the King. I know
it's grace, but it's a throne of grace. It never has ceased
to be a throne. It's a throne of grace. Come
boldly before the throne of grace. He's a King. Out to the gracious
King approach, whose scepter mercy gives. He'll receive my
touch, and then the sinner lives. I can but perish if I go, so
I'm resolved to try, for I know if I stay awake, I'll forever
die." The Lord Jesus Christ, that's who He is. Our Father in Heaven, we believe
that Thou hast been pleased to speak to us tonight. We feel
that these things which thou hast given through thy servant
are honoring to Christ and true to the souls of men and women.
We know, our Lord, in our hearts that we care not for half friendships
and half loyalty, and we do not care to share a half confidence
Now do we care to have a part of a wife or husband, a child? So why should he who is the supreme
king of kings and lord of lords be content to settle for half
a man's heart, half a man's mind, half a man's love and confidence
and devotion? Our Father, we know better than
that. We believe we're preaching the truth, that Jesus Christ
is Lord of those whom he saved. He's their hope, their life,
their confidence, their refuge, their foundation, their all and
in all. And while we must live in this
world, but we're not of this world, while we must make our
living in this world, we must associate with. past the time
of day with unbelievers and rebels and blasphemers. And yet, our
Lord, we work to meet expenses. Our life is Christ. We share
these responsibilities because we have to have food, clothing,
and shelter, but they're supplied by thy grace. But our life is
Christ. Dedicated, consecrated to him,
he's in our hearts and our minds and our souls forever and ever. Give me Christ or I die. And
bless this message to our understanding and give us a greater understanding
of that which is written. For Christ's sake we pray, amen.