For though I preach the gospel,
I have nothing to glory of." Now, believe me, I mean that. Paul wrote it, the Holy Spirit
inspired it. I have claimed it, and I read
it to you. I mean that. Though I preach
the gospel, and I do preach the gospel, I know I preach the gospel. If there was a doubt in my mind
about whether or not I preach the gospel, I'd quit preaching.
Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity
is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Now I may be branded a fool,
and that's all right too. The Apostle Paul said that he
was a fool for Christ's sake. And once when he was witnessing
and preaching before a world leader, when he finished his
message, the leader said, Paul, you are insane. Much learning
has made thee mad. And I may be branded a fool,
but as I said, that's all right. And I may be branded uncooperative,
and that's all right too. I'm very particular about what
I cooperate with. But I'm convinced, I'm persuaded
beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what we call the gospel today
is not the gospel at all. I'm convinced of that. What we
call gospel preaching today is not the gospel at all. Now you
bear with me and listen to me, and listen with a sympathetic
ear, will you? Listen with an open heart and
see if these things are not true. Number one, today's church services
and today's preaching emphasizes entertainment, not worship and
not praise. Entertainment. We pay somebody
to pray for us. We pay somebody to sing for us. We pay somebody to preach for
us. We pay somebody to entertain
us and call it church service and call it religion. Is this
the gospel? Today's preaching emphasizes
mental agreement, mental agreement with facts, logic, argument,
doctrine, mental agreement, not heart submission. The Lord is
mine to them of a broken heart. The Lord saveth such as be of
a broken heart, not of a convinced mind. The Lord saveth such not
that be of a persuaded mind, but that be of a broken heart.
Preaching today is directed to the mind, not to the heart. Is this the gospel? Today's preaching,
for a while, and ninety-nine percent of the time it's a temporary
Today's preaching changes men's ways, not their hearts. Is this the gospel? It's a temporary
change. When one of the great evangelists
held a meeting in London, England, a few years ago, after all the
results were in, the preachers decided that less than three
percent of those who made professions continued to attend the churches. And somebody said, well, according
to today's standards, that's good. Is that good? Today's preaching
changes men's ways, not men's hearts. Is this the gospel? Today's
preaching makes heaven and hell our primary concern. The Word
of God makes men Christ-conscious, not hell-conscious, not even
heaven conscious but Christ conscious. Is this preaching that emphasizes
heaven and hell and eternity and ignores Christ, is this the
gospel? Today's preaching calls for a
decision. Is this the gospel? The gospel
calls for a vital union. Today's preaching calls for a
decision. The gospel calls for a vital
union with the living Lord, who said, I am the vine, you're the
branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him bringeth forth much fruit. Today's preaching calls on men
to do something for God. Poor, helpless God. Don't you
feel sorry for God? Poor little Jesus. up there in
Heaven just crying his eyes out because men won't let him have
his way. He tried and failed. He came
down here and made an effort. Won't you do something for Jesus? Oh, please, raise your hand.
Come down the aisle. Somebody do something for Jesus
so he can have his way. Is that the gospel? Today's preaching
calls on men to do something for God rather than calling on
God to do something for men. Every prophet of old was a man
of prayer who cried out to God, O God, have mercy on thy people. Wilt thou not, O God, revive
thy works in the midst of these days? Is it our duty to do something
for God, or is it imperative that God do something for us? Which is it? Today's preaching
calls on men to stand up and be counted. We're great counters
of people. We've got records for everything.
We keep records of everything. We call on men to stand up and
be counted, and don't leave before we count you, because we've got
to count you. Is this the gospel, or does the
gospel command men to bow down and worship? Which is it? Does the gospel call on men to
stand up and be counted, or does the gospel call on men to bow
down and worship the living God, be still and know that I'm God? God's in his holy temple. Everybody
have to say, Amen. Somebody shout, now don't be
afraid to shout, be still and know that I'm God. The Lord's
in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. Today's preaching emphasizes
the security of the professor. Make a decision, join our church,
we guarantee that you'll wind up in heaven. The Bible emphasizes
the perseverance of the saints. He that continueth to the end,
the same shall be saved. How can I leave thee, O Lord?
How can I depart from thee? Thou art my refuge, Thou art
my strength, Thou art my song. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from
me." Today's preaching emphasizes an offer, an effort on the part
of God, rather than substitution, and a covenant and a purpose
in the hands of a living God who said, He shall not fail. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. Is this the gospel we are preaching
today? I am convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt that what we call religion today is ninety miles
away from godliness. What we call worship today is
nothing in the world but entertainment. And what we call the gospel today
is not the gospel at all. Not at all. The great concern
of my heart is that my generation and the people to whom I preach
experience, really experience, a return to the gospel, a recovery
of the gospel. I don't have much influence.
Bands do not reach out very far, but I think we are obligated
and we are responsible to be faithful where God has put us.
And my concern is that we have in this area a return to a recovery
of the gospel. I believe the ministry is asleep.
I believe the church is asleep. I believe the ministry, the average
preacher today does not know what the gospel of the grace
of God is. I think we've been brought up
in tradition and we're walking in that tradition. I want to
return to that message. I want to return to that message
used of God in other days. A message that will awaken sinners
to their needs. A message that will reveal to
the sinners God's holy law and our inability to keep it. A message
that will lift up the cross of Jesus Christ and His perfect
sacrifice and bring men to the foot of the cross in repentance
toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. I want to return to that
gospel that breaks and that gospel that crushes and that gospel
that humiliates the flesh and that gospel that lifts up the
glory of God. and causes men not just to shout
in praise with their lips, but to praise God in their hearts. And that's a twofold message.
The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1 tells us what it is. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 24
and 25, he says it's a twofold message. All flesh is grass. Look at it, verse 24. 1 Peter
1, for all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the
flower of grass, the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth
away. But the word of the Lord, the
glory of the Lord, endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the Gospels preached unto you. What is it? All flesh is grass. And sinner, behold your God,
not in weakness, in power. Behold your God, not in failure,
in glory. Behold your God, not who depends
on you, but upon whom you depend. The results of that kind of preaching
will be a sense of the awful presence of God, like Isaiah
felt. when he cried, Woe is me! I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Gone will be the voice of the
proud sinner who debates in his mind whether or not he'll patronize
God. Preacher, you be nice to me and
I'll come to your church. You'll be nice to me and I'll
come to your church. I might even join. I might even
lend my influence. I might even honor God Almighty
by becoming a member of his church. Jesus Christ is knocking at my
heart. Shall I let him in or shall I
bid him depart? Gone will be the cry of the proud
sinner who debates whether or not he'll patronize God, and
instead we will hear the heartbroken sob. Oh, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. Been a long time, hasn't it?
Oh, won't you do something for Jesus? Won't somebody here do
something for Jesus? If you won't take him for a dollar,
we'll let you have him for a quarter, but just somebody take him. We
don't want to close this meeting without somebody making a profession. Jesus is at your door. Oh, won't
you let him in? Won't you let him in? Won't you
stand up like a man and be counted? Won't you do something for God?
I'm so tired of that. I long to hear some preacher
preach the awful holiness of God, and the inability of the
dead sinner, and the rotten corruption in human hearts, and the need
of the sinner for God and mercy to visit him and do something
for him, and the substitutionary work of Christ that cannot fail,
and brings the sinner down to the dust, crying with Saul on
the road to Damascus, O God, what will you have me do? They'll
bring them down in the dust like the people at Pentecost who cried
when Peter finished his sermon, men and brethren, what shall
we do? We're going to hell and that
right soon. Tell us, what on earth are we
going to do? We've crucified the Lord of glory. We've tried to throw God off
his throne. We've cried out with the whole
world. We'll not have this man reign over us. What are we going
to do? Oh God! Depths of mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved
for me? Can my God his wrath forbear,
me, the chief of sinners, bear? And instead of Christians running
around here trying to make candidates for heaven, Sinners who've heard
the true gospel declared in their awful condition before God and
death, biting at their heels and hell moving up to meet them
at their coming, will call on a preacher's house and say, Preacher,
do you have time to pray for me? You reckon God would save
me? How long been since you heard
somebody say, I'm lost, pray for me? No, we are knocking on
doors trying to get people to do something for God. Isn't that
right? Because we've got a phony gospel. There's no fear of God before
their eyes, and why should there be? The God that they're hearing
preached is no God. He's a mealy-mouthed, long-haired
granddaddy who tried and failed, who wants to and can't, who's
defeated and disappointed. and disillusioned. But if we
went out before this generation with the message of the Bible,
men would crowd in fear if we preached the God of the Bible.
And if man really saw himself as he is, and as God Almighty
sees him, and as the Bible really pictures him, not as the preacher
pictures him who's trying to keep his job As the Bible pictures
him, not as the preacher pictures him who's trying to get along
with his deacons. As the Bible pictures him, not
as the preacher pictures him who's afraid he's going to hurt
somebody's feeling. As the Bible pictures him, if
men could see themselves as God sees them, as the Bible pictures
them, they'd fall in the dust and cry for help and mercy. Mercy. Is there not a prophet?
Isn't there somebody in this land that's got guts enough,
and courage enough, and boldness enough, and grace enough to tell
me the truth about myself, and about God Almighty, and about
who Jesus really is? People don't know who He is.
They don't have the faintest idea who Jesus Christ is. They
call him a superstar. He ain't no superstar. If you
ever find out who he is, you'll bow like Thomas before him and
cry, My Lord and my God! Woe unto me if I preach not the
gospel. And brother, there's a woe on
Ashland like no town since Sodom and Gomorrah was ever seen. There's
a woe on this country and a woe on the ministry and a woe on
the churches because they're compromising the only thing in
the world, in this world, that God holds dear to his heart,
and that's the gospel of his Son. And we've sold out. You talk about prostitution,
the prostitution of the ministry. They've sold out. They've sold
their souls for a nest of pottery. They've sold their souls for
eighteen dollars, thirty pieces of silver. They've sold their
souls. Woe unto me if I preach not the
gospel. The gospel. It doesn't matter
who believes it and who doesn't believe it. I've got to preach
it. I got preached it. Woe unto me if I don't preach
it. Those authorities said to Peter and John and James and
Paul, if you preach what you preach, we'll put you in jail.
They said, put us in jail. We can't help but preach what
we've seen and heard. I believe in teaching me the
gospel of his Son. God Almighty taught me four important
truths, and I want to give them to you. This, I think, is the
basis. of the gospel. This is something that everybody
has to learn if he learns the gospel. This is something every
preacher has to know by experience if he knows the gospel. Number
one, salvation is something God does for the sinner. Salvation
is not something the sinner does for God. That's right. If you don't know that, you don't
know the gospel. You've got it backwards. You've got the caboose
before the engine. You've got the cart before the
horse. Salvation is not something you do for God. Salvation is
something God does for you. Twenty-five years ago, I ran
across a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled, Salvation
is of the Lord. If you'll turn with me to the
book of Jonah, I want to show you something. It says here in
the book of Jonah, chapter 1. Now listen to it. If you don't
want to turn, just listen to me read it. They took Jonah,
cast him into the sea. Verse 15, chapter 1, Jonah. And the sea stood still, or ceased
from her raging. And then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice unto the Lord. And
they made vows, and the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow
up Jonah. Well, you say, I don't believe
that story. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ did. Jesus Christ did,
and he referred to it. He referred to it twice. And
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights,
and then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's
belly. Now, picture this. Here is a
man in a great fish prepared by God, down in the belly of
that fish, down in the depths of that fish, down in the darkness
of that fish, helpless. hopeless, doomed. He said, verse 2, I cried by
reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell I cried,
and he heard my voice. For thou hast cast me into the
deep, into the midst of the sea, and the flood compassed me about,
and all the billows and waves passed over me, and I said, I
am cast out of God's sight. I am lost. I'm helpless. That's the condition of every
sinner. Helpless and hopeless. Without
God, without Christ, without help, without hope. That's what
the scripture says. And that's where Jonah was. The
people outside couldn't help him. He couldn't help himself. The angels couldn't help him,
the fish couldn't help him, nobody could help him. He was hopelessly
lost. Right? Of course. And the waters
compassed me about even to my soul. Some people believe Jonah
died. Down in the depths of that whale's
belly. The depths clothed me round about. The weeds were wrapped
around my head and I went to the bottom of the mountain. You
ever been there? Somebody said, you've never been
saved till you've been plum lost. Somebody said, you've never been
clothed with the righteousness of Christ till you've been stripped
totally naked. Somebody said, you've never been
made alive, resurrected till you really died. Jonah was at
the bottom of the mountain, the bottom of the barrel. The earth
with her bars was about me forever. Won't you do something for God?
I can't. Jonah, won't you get out of that
shape you're in? You're in an awful shape, I know
it. Well, why don't you get out of there? I can't. No way. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Thou hast brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. My soul fainted within me, and
I remembered the Lord. Remembering somebody can do something
about his condition. Somebody can relieve his distress. And he said, verse 9, I'll sacrifice
unto thee with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord. And when Jonas said that, that
fish coughed him out on a sandbar. God's the one that delivered
Jonah, and God's the one that saves and delivers every sinner
that's delivered. It's all of the Lord. Salvation's
of the Lord in its planning. How old is salvation? How old
is redemption? How old is grace? Huh? It's as
old as God. For the scripture says Jesus
Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Christ said, O Father, glorify me with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was. God said, I have drawn you with
an everlasting love. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end, even unto death, the death of the cross. God planned
salvation. It wasn't a council of angels,
it wasn't a council of men, it was the Heavenly Father who purposed
and planned and made a covenant in eternity past to redeem the
people. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath from the beginning chosen
you unto eternal life. God not only planned salvation,
but he executed it. For God so loved the world, he
sent his Son. We didn't reach up and bring
Christ down, God sent him in the fullness of time. God sent
his Son made of woman. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. It pleased the Father to bruise
him. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you with wicked hands crucified
and slain. In its application, salvations
of the Lord, Paul said, God who separated me from my mother's
womb was pleased to reveal his Son in me. If God leaves you
alone, you'll go to hell unworn. If God leaves you alone, you'll
go to hell unawakened. If God leaves you alone, you'll
go to hell without hope. He's got to call you. That's
right. We're the call of Christ Jesus. This is a holy calling. There
is none that seek God. No, not one. God seeks men. The sheep wasn't hunting the
shepherd. The shepherd was hunting the sheep. Bless God if he sought
you. Bless God if he found you. Salvation
of the Lord in its sustaining power, we are kept by the power
of God, not apart from faith, not in spite of faith, through
faith, but it's God that keeps. And then salvation of the Lord
in its ultimate perfection. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
3. Listen to Paul. 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. One of you says, verse 4, I am
of Paul. Another says, I am of Apollos.
Are you not carnal? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Even but ministers by whom you
believe, even as the Lord gave to every man. I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. That's all in the world we are.
We are just farmers. I can't save anybody, but God
can. I can't convict anybody of sin. The Lord Jesus said, when the
Spirit has come, he will convict the world of sin. I can't do
that. I can't break your heart, but
God can. I can't make you see what an
awful sinner you are, but God can. I can't reveal to you Christ
as your substitute and sacrifice and sin offering, but God can. They said, Lord, who can be saved?
He said, With me, and it's impossible. With God, all things are possible. Let me ask you something. If
your boy or daughter is lost, and your husband or wife is lost,
your daddy and mama is lost, or your best friend is lost,
How do you pray, huh? Well, you get on your knees and
you say, Lord, old Bill's lost. He doesn't love you. He doesn't
love the gospel. He's going to hell. I'm afraid
he's going to die without Christ. Lord, save my son. Isn't that the way you pray? That's the way anybody who's
got sense prays, because he knows in his heart, if not in his head
at least, only the Lord can save a sinner. Salvation is of the
Lord. I found that out one time. I
found out that salvation was not something that man does for
God, but salvation is something God does for man. And I found
out that these people who run around here serving God are playing
church. That's what they're doing. The
hardest thing in the world is to keep them faithful. The hardest
thing in the world is to keep them coming. The hardest thing
in the world is to keep on persevering. But I'll tell you, when God does
something for a man, when God gives him a new heart and a new
nature, when God gives him a love for Christ, when God puts his
Spirit within him, you couldn't run him off. He says, like that
old barn slave back on the Old Testament days to whom the Master
came and said, you've served your time, the seven years is
up, you can go. And that bond slave looks at
that master with tears in his eyes and says, Master, I don't
want to go. I love you, and I love your house,
and I love my wife and children, and I'd like to serve you forever.
And that's what happens when God saves a man. He becomes,
like Paul, a bond slave. You couldn't run him off. No
way. You don't have to make everything
easy for him, and you don't have to make everything just like
he thinks it ought to be. He's just glad to be there and
be with the Lord's family. I love the Lord's family. I don't
want to leave. Everybody's got to walk on eggshells
to keep from hurting somebody's feelings. He might quit church.
Well, let him quit. Maybe God will save him. And
then when he comes back, you don't have to worry about him,
because you can't run him off if he knows the Lord. He's a
bond slave. Second thing I found out quickly.
I found out that salvation is not only something God does for
men, but I found out it's something God does on purpose. On purpose. And I was 24 years old. I'd been
to school to study to be a preacher. And I'd pastored a church for
three years, and I'd been your assistant pastor for six months.
And God revealed to me one day that salvation, his greatest
work, the greatest work that God has done in his doing, he
does it on purpose, just like everything that God does. And
no accidents with God. One word opened the Bible for
me. After I learned the word Christ,
I learned the word purpose. Purpose. I was sitting one day
in a church service, thought I knew everything. don't know
nothing. That's right. And a preacher
looked down at me and he said, Romans 8, 28. And I got up and
I said, Let's see. All things work together for
good to them that love God. And I sat down. That's the scripture
everybody uses at a funeral, you know. And I sat down. He said, Well, what's the rest
of it? I said, Well, let me see. All things work together for
good to them that love God. There is some more, you know.
You know what it is? There is some more. We're dishonest.
We quote just half what God said. We're afraid of the rest of it.
To them who are thee called according to his purpose. His purpose. Now, your God might do things
by accident, but the God of the Bible does everything on purpose.
He came down there and said, Get out of your father's house,
get out of this place of idolatry, get out of this place of heathenism,
and go to the land I'm going to show you that I'm going to
make of your people." And Abraham did everything he could to buck
God, that's right. But God made of him a great people. Abraham wasn't always cooperative,
but God was always determined. You found grace in my eyes, building
art." Who's doing the talking? God is, on purpose. Moses, come to the burning bush
and take off your shoes. I've got some things to say to
you, Moses. I want you to do something, and
you're going to do it. Purpose. David, you're my king. Samuel, go down there and anoint
the king in Jesse's house. Samuel went down there, and Samuel
and the daddy both. tried their best to anoint six
different people before they got to David. And the daddy said,
well, he surely is not the one God wants. And God says, that's
my king right there, rise and anoint him. God looks on the
heart, man looks on the outward appearance. Saul, on the road
to Damascus, God smote him and brought him down on purpose.
And I'm here to tell you this, that everybody God Almighty calls,
he calls on purpose. And everybody whom God Almighty
saves, he saves on purpose. And everybody to whom God reveals
his Son, he does it on purpose. Now let me ask you a question. Are you saved? Yes, sir, preacher,
I'm a child of God. I'm glad, I'm glad. That's the
object of my preaching, to bring you to know Christ. Let me ask
you this, who saved you? Did the evangelist save you or
did God? Huh? Don't separate you. God
saved me. God revealed His Son in me. God
saved me. It was a miracle of His grace. It took a miracle to put those
stars in place. It took a miracle to put that
Son in space. And when God saved my soul and
made me whole, it took a miracle. God did it. Was it an accident
or did He do it on purpose? Huh? Well, he did it on purpose. That's
right. Acts 18, verse 10. Listen to
this. Paul was getting ready to leave
this place, just about ready to pack up the tent and move
out. He had been there preaching for a little while, and boy,
he had been persecuted, he had been reviled, he had been spit
upon, he had been hated, he was about ready to move out. And
verse 9 of Acts 18, God said to him, Paul, don't be afraid,
but speak, and hold not your peace. For Paul, I am with you,
and no man is going to hurt you, because I have got much people
in this city. Paul hung around for a little
while longer, and God saved his people. I've got some folks in
this city, Paul. Now, don't leave. You stay right
where you are. I'm going to save some people. They're mine. I
gave them to my son in eternity, and he came down here and brought
them on the cross, and the Holy Spirit is going to use your preaching
and your gospel to call them to faith. Now, you stay right
where you are, and don't you worry. I'll take care of you.
Nobody is going to hurt you. You stay right there, and you
preach. I've got much people in this city. I want to show
you another verse, 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2, and it's
verse 9 and 10. 2 Timothy 2, verse 9 and 10. Listen to this. Paul said, I
suffer trouble, even as an evildoer. People think I'm an evildoer.
They even put me in bonds, put me in jail and tied my hands.
But the Word of God is not tied. You can't bind the word of God.
Therefore I endure all these things, trouble, false witnesses,
prison, I endure all these things for the elect's sake. That's
why I'm putting up with it. That they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal joy. I'm going
to hang around, Paul said. And you do what you want to,
and you say what you want to, and you brand me an evildoer,
you brand me a fool, you brand me a heretic, you put me in jail,
that's all right. But God's got a people, and I
endure this for their sake that they might come to a knowledge
of salvation in Christ. Now, I found out something else
right quickly. I found out that salvation is
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
I found out. It's not in the baptistry, it's
not in the Lord's table, it's not in the sacraments, it's not
in the offerings, it's not in the wafers, it's not in the wine,
it's not in the altar, it's not in the mourner's bench, it's
not in church membership, it's not in the law. Salvation is
in the person and work of Christ. And whether a man be a thief
on the cross or a priest in the pulpit, his hope is Christ. Look
at 1 Peter 1, verse 18, for as much as you know, you were not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. I'm going to ask you two questions,
and if you'll answer these questions truthfully, I'm not talking about
as a theologian, I'm not talking about as a religious man, and
I'm not talking about as one brainwashed by your religious
traditions. You answer these two questions
truthfully, and the answer to these two questions will shut
you up to Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and his merit and his
righteousness for salvation. Number one, how much of the law
does a man have to keep? to avoid condemnation before
the law. How much of man's law do you
have to keep to avoid being condemned? Well, you say, all of it. I may
not steal and I may not kill, but if I kidnap, I'll be condemned. I may not kidnap, I may not kill,
but if I steal, I'll be condemned. I may not steal, and I may not
kidnap, but if I kill, I'll be condemned. You can't keep just
two-thirds of the law and break the other third, and go before
the judge and say, Well, Judge, I was pretty good, wasn't I?
There's a lot of laws I didn't break. I don't want one or two
here and there, but a lot of them I didn't break. How much
of the law of God does a man have to keep? All of it. Cursed is every one that continueth
not in all the things written in the law. James said to offend
in one little point is to break the whole law of God. One jot,
one tittle, one minute point. Here is the second question.
So we're in bad shape, aren't we? Brother, we haven't offended
in just one point. We've shattered the law of God
to smithereens. Isn't that right? And the second
question is this. How holy, how good, how righteous? You say, well, I'm a pretty good
fellow. Pretty good won't make it. Well, my mother was real
good. Real good won't make it. How
good does a man have to be to enter heaven? Huh? Perfect. Now, you quit calling folks pretty
good and really good and real good. There's just one way to
enter heaven by righteousness of my own, and that's for it
to be perfect. Perfect. And I don't have that, and I
can't do that, and I can't measure up to the perfect law of God,
and I don't have a perfect righteousness, but the Lord Jesus Christ came
down here in the flesh and did for me what I couldn't do. He
obeyed that law perfectly, perfectly. And he gave to me a righteousness
that even God the Father is completely satisfied with. And Christ is
my hope. I look at the law and I say,
unclean. I look in my own heart and I
say, filthy. I look at Christ and I say, complete. I'm complete in him. He's my
righteousness, he's my wisdom, he's my redemption, he's my sanctification,
he's all I need. And that's when I found out,
just when I found out how empty, how dead, how rotten, how corrupt,
how filthy, how guilty I was before the law, I ran to Christ. And I said, Lord, be my righteousness. And my salvation is not what
I do. You say, Preacher, I hope you
keep on holding out. I hadn't started to yet. Christ
holds me. I don't hold him. Christ is my
righteousness. He's my hope. He's my satisfaction. And the last thing I found out,
and I want you to listen to me and I'll let you go. Four things
I found out. I found out the fourth thing,
salvation. This thing of salvation is not
a hobby. It's not a pastime. It's not
a temporary trial. This thing of salvation is a
lifetime work. God does it. And when God starts
something, he finishes it. Now, if you claim to get religion
and about six months or a year later you hadn't got it, then
you're the one that got it. God didn't give it to you. God
didn't have anything to do with it. But you'd still have it.
That's right. You claim to love Christ, you'll
love him when you die, if God gave it to you. Now, what I'm
saying so, the scripture says, turn to Philippians 1, verse
6. Listen to it. Being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Now,
that will give you a solution, and that will give you an answer
to the question, what happens to all the folks that made a
profession in our last revival meeting? That's what they made,
my friend, was a profession. What happened to the folks? We
used to have all these folks in the Church years ago, but
they got out of the habit of going, you know. That's what
it was, it was a habit. But salvation is not a habit,
it's not a hobby, it's not a temporary trial. It's a life work, it's
something God miraculously performs in a man's soul. My friend, we
have been saved, for by grace have you been saved, Ephesians
2, 8 and 9 says. Check your translation. 1 Corinthians
1, 18 says we are being saved. To us who are being saved, the
cross is the power of God to salvation. Now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. We shall be saved. We have been
delivered. We are being delivered. We shall
be delivered. God who hath begun a good work
in you is going to wind it up. That's right. He's going to make
you like Christ. Turn to Romans 8. Now look at it. Romans chapter
8. I want you to see this before I dismiss you. Romans chapter
8. Listen to it. Beginning with verse 28. Romans
chapter 8, verse 28. Turn over there and read it with
me. And we know, and we know that all things work together
for good, for the eternal good, to them that love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And moreover, whom he predestinated, them he called, and whom he called
he justified, and whom he justified he glorified. of the Lord. It's something God does for man,
and it's a lifetime job. God's making us like Christ,
and if He started the work back in eternity and Christ fulfilled
it in time, God Almighty is going to complete it in eternity. It's
His work. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. It's God that worketh in you
both to will and to do. His good pleasure. He said, Preacher,
that kind of preaching makes me feel helpless. That's exactly
right. That's what I'm saying. How did
the publican feel in the temple? Helpless. And so he cried, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. And Christ said he went home
justified. How did the leper feel who came to Christ and said,
If you will, you can make me whole." Helpless. How did Jonah feel in the belly
of the fish when he cried, Salvations of the Lord? Helpless. How did
the woman feel who had gone to every doctor in the area and
wasn't any better but steadily grew worse and had paid everything
she had? And she came to Christ and she
reached out to touch the hem of his garment. How did she feel? And if you ever get there, you're
not there yet maybe, but if you ever get there, I guarantee you
God will do something for you. If you ever get helpless, if
you ever cry, oh God, I'm at my wit's end. Read Psalm 107,
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, trouble, and he saved
them. But you cry, I'm rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. That's right, you're right. You
don't need God or anybody else, not now, but someday. Oh, rocks and mountains, fall
on me and hide me from his face. O God, our Father, grant, even
in this place at least, a recovery of the gospel, the gospel of
thy glory, the gospel of thy purpose, the gospel of thy power,
the gospel of the effectual, sufficient sacrifice of thy dear
Shut the mouths of boasting sinners and bring us down in the dust
and set thy blessed feet, crying, Lord, be merciful, be merciful. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.