I want you to turn back to Matthew
11 and let me read two verses of Scripture. I'm going to speak tonight on
the subject, In Search of the Truth. In Search of the Truth. I'm going to read verse 25 of
Matthew 11. At that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. And then one more, verse 28,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Now I realize more and more each
day how shallow present day religion really is. I think what gave
birth to this message that I'm bringing tonight is two telephone
calls that I received this morning from people who have been watching
our television program. And they've been on my mind all
day and they've been troubling me, troubling me because it's
it's evident that we are in trouble in this day. The total ignorance,
total complete ignorance of the Word of God on the part of preachers,
their parishioners, religious leaders and church members is
shocking. The religionists in this day,
it can be said of them what Christ said of those in his day, you
do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. And we're
in trouble. We're in deep trouble, and we
may or we may not recover. If God is pleased to raise up
somebody to tell us the truth, and if God is pleased to give
us ears to hear that truth, it may be that we shall be delivered.
But we're covered up with Unscriptural clichés. Statements like this,
once in grace, always in grace. And men fight and argue over
that. Depends on what kind of grace
you're talking about. And then come down front and
pray the sinner's prayer. Now where is this sinner's prayer
that you come and pray and you're automatically And then another,
it's fun being saved. And then another, something good
is going to happen to you. And then another, somebody up
there likes me. And then another, we're saved
to serve. And then another, come to the
revival and get born again. Unscriptural clichés that are
dooming and damning men's souls to hell. And preachers and denominations
are wrapping salvation up in a neat little package and selling
it to people. And they're trying to word the
mysteries of the gospel in such a way that the natural man can
understand it. And that he can settle this matter
and make peace with God and get on with more important things
in his life. We're plagued with simple creeds
and simple catechisms that do not interfere with our regular
routine, do not interfere with our social contacts, and do not
interfere with our employment. And religions in the same state
today it was in when our Lord visited this earth 2,000 years
ago. Denominational sectarianism,
dead, cold, dry orthodoxy. outward morality and self-righteousness
and total ignorance of the living God. He said, you neither know
me nor my father. They had a God, but they didn't
know the living God. They had a form of religion and
a form of worship. And he says, you don't know the
scriptures. They had soul-winning organizations. He said, you encompass
sea and land to make one proselyte. And after you've made him, he's
two-fold more the child of hell than you are. We've done what
the Pharisees have done, what Brother Barnett accused us of
doing years ago. He said, you're trying to put
God in a box. Present-day religionists want
to systematize and simplify the great mysteries of redemption.
They want to narrow it down to the proportion of their own brains
and their own minds. They will not dare confess we
know in part and prophesy in part, but we know all there is
to know. We don't hesitate to have question
and answer periods. We don't hesitate to invite men
to send us all their mystifying questions about anything in the
Word of God. And yet over in Job it is said,
Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out
the Almighty unto perfection? It's as high as heaven. What
can you do? It's deeper than hell. What can you know? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. There was a dear one who sat
in my study yesterday with more problems than the Christmas list,
and yet she was an accomplished, graduated Bible teacher, teaching
other people how to solve their problems, and she couldn't even
solve her own. We've mastered the Bible. Oh,
how we need today to close our mouths and open our ears, how
we need to wait upon God, how we need to be still and know
that I am God, how we need to pray for wisdom, how we need
to read Scripture like this, over here in the book of Ecclesiastes,
where the wise man says, keep your foot when you go to the
house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice
of fools. They consider not that they do
evil, be not rash with thy mouth, let not thy heart be hasty to
utter anything before God. God's in the heavens, and thou
upon the earth, therefore let thy words be few." Our religion is all fixed up.
It's put in a box and wrapped in tissue paper with a ribbon
on it, and we've got it all settled. And we get our Sabbath day all
fixed up and then Christ comes along and picks corn on that
day and heals a man and baffles the Pharisee. The Pharisee got
all their denominational lines settled and fixed up and then
the Lord came along and fed a Gentile and healed a Gentile leper. Man
gets his baptism all outlined and then Christ comes along and
saves the thief and takes him to glory without being baptized. And then man gets his dietary
laws all fixed up and Christ sends a sheep down from heaven
and tells him to kill and eat a pig. And the Pharisee gets
his fasting and praying and morality to the bragging point and Christ
turns his back on him and justifies a publican. The discipline committee
prepares to stone an adulteress and Christ saves her and sends
them away embarrassed. The religionist prepared a feast
for the Son of God, and he shows his attention and mercy to a
harlot at his feet. That ought to teach us something,
but somehow it doesn't. Somehow we still keep going the
same way. Somehow we keep going the same
direction. We keep God in this box. We keep
God pigeonholed. We keep this thing of a relationship
with God in a routine, in a ceremony, in a form. And we expect our most foolish
questions to be handled. I want to look at some areas
tonight where we are prone to be so dogmatic, argumentative, where
we are prone to fix hard and firm guidelines only to realize
that we cannot swing the pendulum of God Almighty in the direction
of our natural wisdom. It can't be done. You pin God
down here and he'll work over here. You pin him down here to
your systematized, simple theology and he'll move over here. Our God is sovereign and he does
everything in a way that he can get all the glory and share it
with no man. And when we come to the place
where we think we have all the answers and where we feel like
that we know about all there is to know about God and the
gospel and the things of God, we're actually further from the
truth than we were when we started. I know that's hard to realize,
and I know that's hard to understand, but it works with the same understanding
as when the apostle says that we're full but we're empty, that
we're dead but we're alive, that we're sinners but we're holy,
that we're happy but we're miserable. It's something you can't explain. But I want us to look at four
or five things. First of all, the matter of sovereignty and
responsibility. Now, blessed is that man who
can shut me up to the sovereign mercy of God, the sovereign grace
of God, totally, completely shut a sinner up to God's mercy, to
God's sovereign grace. He can totally shut a man up
to God moving on his behalf and in his direction, and yet, and
yet, lovingly beseech that man for Christ's sake to be reconciled
to God. Blessed is that man who can see
that salvation is totally, sovereignly the gift of God, and yet all
who want it may receive it. Now the Word of God teaches,
and I want you to turn to several verses of Scripture with me,
The Word of God teaches in John 6, verse 37, that our Lord has a people, and
that those people shall be called and they shall be redeemed. In
John 6, verse 37, listen to it. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. Verse 44, our Lord says, No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last day. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse
13 says, We are bound to give thanks to God always for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. In Acts 13 verse 48 it says,
And the Gentiles, when they heard this, were glad, they rejoiced,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. And
over here in our text tonight, our Lord Jesus lifted his eyes
to heaven and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. But men have taken these scriptures
and they have gone over into what we call fatalism, hyper-Calvinism. Hardshellism, antinomianism,
and so many other errors of human logic. The Scripture teaches
us plainly. Our Lord said to his disciples,
go into all the world and preach the gospel, not to the elect,
but to every creature. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. Our Lord said, as he looked over
the city of Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how awkward I have
gathered you unto myself, as a hen doth gather her brood,
but you would not. It is still you will not come
to me that you might have life. Our Lord has ordained to save
a people. There's no question about that.
The Word of God teaches that. But our Lord has also ordained
the means by which those people shall come. And those means are
the preaching of the gospel. Those means are the work of the
Holy Spirit. Those means are genuine repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say this
boldly and clearly, any person who wants to be saved from his
sins and become a child of the living God, is welcome to come
to Christ. If any man is saved and delivered
from his sins and delivered from darkness to light and delivered
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear
Son, it is of the Lord and of him only. But any man who does
not come to Christ and who does not receive Christ and who does
not believe on Christ, his damnation is his own responsibility. He
could have come if he would. But he would not. That's so. You say, how do you reconcile
that preacher? You don't have to reconcile doctrines
that are not enemies. Somebody said to Spurgeon one
time, how do you reconcile sovereignty and responsibility? He said,
they're not enemies. If God were not sovereign, man
wouldn't have anybody to be responsible to. But man is a responsible
creature, and the problem is not his ability, so much as his
unwillingness. If he were willing, he'd have
the ability. And I don't know why we have
to go one way or the other, why we have to swing all the way
over into fatalism and hyper-Calvinism or else swing all the way over
this other way into Arminianism and legalism and salvation by
works. We need a balance. We need to
strike a balance. We need to go and declare unto
men that salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord in its
origination all the way through to its consummation. It's of
the Lord as the author and finisher. Salvation is a gift of God. But
any man who needs Christ and knows that need and desires Christ
is welcome to come to Christ. Now the second thing that needs
to be dealt with, and that is the new birth and committal to
Christ. Now when will we get enough wisdom
to quit making foolish statements? I wish that we could stop, and
I know this is difficult to do, I wish we could stop and pray
about things before we say them, or consult the Word of God before
we express ourselves so forcefully, especially in regard to a matter
so important as the salvation of a man's soul. Now listen to
this statement. Salvation is of the Lord. There's absolutely
nothing that a sinner can do. That's not so. That's just not
so. Now the first part of it's so,
salvation is of the Lord. But it's not true when you go
on and add this second part, and there's nothing a sinner
can do. Here's another statement. God's done all he can do. Now
it's up to you. That's not so either. Now here's
the truth of the matter. Now listen to this. And we need
to be so careful about handling these sharp swords unless we
cut ourselves and butcher everybody else too. We need to be wise
in the teaching of the things of God. First of all, salvation
is of the Lord from first to last. Now listen to me and I'll
help you a little bit. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Faith
is the gift of God, but men do believe. Repentance is the gift of God,
but men do repent. Now listen to this scripture
here over in 1 Peter 1. It says, verse 6, we are kept
by the power of God through faith. And listen to this scripture
in John 6.37, "...all that my Father giveth to me shall come
to me." But what's the rest of it? "...and him that cometh to
me I'll in no wise cast out." So there is something the sinner
can do. There is something the sinner must do. There is something
the sinner will do if he's ever saved. Paul said, "...I know
whom I have believed. I have persuaded he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him." committed unto him. Listen to this scripture. Over
in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Spurgeon said, if there wasn't another
scripture in the Bible teaching election but this one, I'd believe
it. But that's not all it teaches. We're bound to give thanks to
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. So you can't have just half of
that. You can't say God chose a man to salvation and there's
nothing the sinner can do. There's nothing the sinner must
do. There's nothing the sinner will do. There is something the
sinner must do. He must believe. He that believeth
not on the Son shall not see life. Turn to John chapter 1
verse 11 and 12. And let's look at this. John
1 verse 11 and 12. We must not teach one truth and
distort another. We must not teach and emphasize
one truth at the expense of another. Let's teach a truth and be gentle
with the other. For example, if I were going
to talk to somebody about sovereignty and salvation, I'd say salvation
is of the Lord. It's all of God. For example,
here in John 1, verse 12, it says, "...as many as received
Him." That's something the sinner does. He receives Christ. To
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that, if something else the sinner does, believe on his name. If
he doesn't believe, he'll be down. If he doesn't receive Christ,
he'll go to hell. You say, but the Holy Spirit
enables him to. I know that, but he still believes. He still
receives Christ. And it goes on and tells us in
the next verse that the Holy Spirit enables him. And these
people who did receive Christ and who did believe on Christ
were born. And it wasn't through natural
generation. It wasn't because their parents
were Christians. It wasn't of the will of the flesh nor the
will of man, but of God. But they still believed. Turn
to Romans 10 and listen to this. Romans 10, verse 9 and 10. And what I'm saying is this,
there's no reason, there's no reason for us to swing like a
giant pendulum over to one position and get locked in that position
and overlook so many precious and beautiful and wonderful things
that God has given us in His Word. You don't have to defend
one position at the expense of another. It's just like God has
many attributes. God is love, but God is holy. God is merciful, but God is righteous. God is beauty and truth, but
God is wrath against sin. And this is what we're doing.
It seems like every denomination is created today to emphasize
one particular point at the expense of all the rest of it. In Romans
10, verse 9, listen, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth,
the Lord Jesus, or Jesus to be Lord. Now, wait a minute. Who
confess? You confess. With whose mouth? Your mouth. And if thou shalt
believe, thou shalt do what? Believe. The Holy Spirit convicts
us of sin, and we believe what the Bible says about our sins.
The Holy Spirit reveals Christ, and we believe the record God
has given concerning His Son. But the Holy Spirit doesn't believe
for us. We believe. We repent. We receive Christ. We bow to
his sovereign claims. Thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed, or make haste, or confound
it. There is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich unto whom?
All that call on him. Now, I know calling upon the
Lord, we are enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit, but a man
who does not call on Christ will not be saved. For it says in
the next verse, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. How shall they call on him whom
they have not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Yes,
salvation is of the Lord, but just don't add that other line.
And there's nothing you can do. So the sinner sits down and folds
his arms and closes his Bible and he waits for the lightning
to strike. And it never strikes. And he goes on passing by opportunities
to read God's Word and to hear God's Word preached. He goes
on passing up opportunities to hear the Gospel. He goes on passing
up opportunities to fall on his face as a publican in the temple
and cry, O God, be reconciled in me a sinner. He passes up
every opportunity to seek the Lord with all his heart and to
seek mercy and come like the Canaanite woman who cried, O
God, I know I'm a dog, but brush some crumbs off for this dog.
Have mercy upon me, or like the leper who fell and worshipped
and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, or the
thief on the cross. who cried, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. I tell you, it's a distressing
thing. And here's our problem, is that,
like in Psalm 50, God says, you thought I was altogether such
a one as yourself. And we get our theology so that
we can understand it. We get our theology so it fits
human logic and human reasoning and human understanding. And
then God is not in it. It's just like the Pharisees
who had, they misread the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day, man wasn't
made for the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day was made for man.
And they had it all fixed up. And then Christ goes right through
the field and starts picking corn on the Sabbath day and his
disciples eat. And the same thing true of all
these other things, you know, that we get it all fixed up.
They got circumcision that way, and it was a seal, it was a token
of a covenant, but they made it the covenant. And if we're not careful, we'll
do the same thing with this sovereignty of God and the supernatural new
birth. We'll make that salvation, and
that's not salvation. Christ is salvation. And it's
being brought to a living, vital union with Christ. I'm not concerned
about whether or not I'm one of the elect. I'm concerned about
whether or not I'm in Christ. If I'm in Christ, I'm one of
the elect. And if I'm not in Christ, being
one of the elect is not going to help me. You see what I'm trying to say? I know what I'm trying to say
if I can get it over to you. He says in Ephesians 2, 8 and
9, for by grace are you saved through faith. And when we go
out to witness, I know we want to shut men up. This generation
is a generation of works. And we want to shut men up to
God doing the work and God doing the saving. And we must do that,
but we must do it wisely and not give that sinner an excuse
for his sin. And leave him thinking this,
well, if I go to hell, it's God's fault, it's not mine. I wanted
to get in, he wouldn't let me. I wanted to be saved, he wouldn't
let me. And that we must guard against.
We must avoid with all of our hearts. Let that man come to
this place. Push him to this point. Christ saves sinners. Are you
a sinner? You can have Christ if you receive
Him, and trust Him, and believe on Him, and love Him, and bow
to His sovereign claims, receive His Lordship. No, he says, I
don't want any of that. I don't want any of that. Knowing
in our hearts that any man who wants that, God did it. God enabled
him. God did that work of grace. And
yet, our Lord, when Nicodemus came to Him, the proud religious
teacher of the Scriptures, He said, you must be born again.
He shut him up to God's sovereignty. He shut him up to the work of
grace. All right, watch this now. Watch this problem. Preservation and perseverance. You've got these problems all
the way down. You take sovereignty, sovereignty
and responsibility. You take the new birth and a
committal to Christ. Now you take preservation and
perseverance. Now watch this. And Baptists
are accused of teaching this, and I really don't know any Baptists
that teach it. There may be some, but I don't
know. You say you teach that a person who has made a profession
of faith and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior is eternally secure
no matter what type of person he is, how he lives, or whether
or not he remains true to the gospel. Well, this is not true.
That's dishonoring to our Lord. Totally dishonoring to our Lord.
To teach this. Now listen to this. to teach
that a person in a revival meeting or in a Baptist church, after
a preacher preaches and gives a so-called altar call, and he
comes down the front and makes a profession of faith, is baptized
and joined the church, he's eternally secure, he can never be lost,
he'll be in heaven no matter how he lives or what type of
person he is or whether he remains faithful, that's not true. That's
dishonoring the Christ. But now let's go the other route.
to teach that a man whom God chose to salvation, to teach
that a man whom Christ came to save, came to this earth and
obeyed the law and died on the cross to redeem sinners, and
a man whom the Holy Spirit quickened and called to faith in Christ
and who by receiving Christ became a child of God, to teach that
that man may eventually fall away and be lost. That's dishonoring
to God, too. That would be terribly dishonoring
to God. To say that God couldn't keep his own children, that God
couldn't save and secure his own sheep, that would be dishonoring. Where would you have any great
shepherd there? Where would you have any good
shepherd there? He said, I am the good shepherd.
I know my sheep and have known of mine. I give them eternal
life and they'll never perish. I'm the great shepherd. I lay
down my life for the sheep. So what the Bible teaches is
neither one of the positions that men take today on the once
saved, always saved, no matter how you live, or the other one
either, that if you don't hold out, you'll fall from grace.
The Bible doesn't teach either one of those things. But I tell
you what it does teach. You want to go with me to the
Bible? Let's turn first of all to Malachi. This is what it does
teach. It teaches on the part of God,
by the power of God, it teaches preservation of his people. Preservation by God's eternal
purpose, by God's eternal covenant, by God's faithfulness to his
purpose and to his word and to his son. In Malachi 3, verse
6, it says, I am the Lord, I don't change. I change not. God doesn't change in His purpose.
He doesn't change in His providence. He doesn't change in His covenant.
He doesn't change in His grace. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Why? Because you remain faithful
or don't? No, because God doesn't change.
That's the foundation of it. The very fact. I'm going to be
in glory someday by God's grace. And the foundation, the rock
down there, way down upon which the footer is laid, down beneath
all of the faithfulness and trust and faith and repentance and
all that, down the basis of the whole thing, is that God Almighty
set out to save me. And he's not going to change.
He made a covenant with his son, and he gave me the son. And that's
the bedrock, bottom line, foundation stone on which this whole thing
is built. There's some more things to go on top, but that right
there is the main thing. Turn to Romans 11. Let me show
you something else. Romans 11, verse 29. That's the
bedrock of the whole thing. And then Romans 11, verse 29. Now listen to this. For the gifts
and calling of God are without change. Salvation's a gift of
God. Eternal life's a gift of God.
The calling, we're the called of Christ Jesus, whom he justified,
he called. You're the called of Christ Jesus.
God who separated me from my mother's womb called me by his
grace. Not many mighty are called, not many noble are called. This
thing of calling is out. So his callings are without change. So therefore we'll never perish.
That's down there under the foundation of the whole thing. But there's
some more things. Turn to Romans 8, if you will. Romans chapter
8. There's some more here. Now listen
to this. It says in verse 29, whom he
did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he called, and he called
he justified, and he justified he glorified. It says in verse
33, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Verse
34, who is he that condemneth? Verse 35, who can separate us
from the love of Christ? That's several. So we're preserved,
and it said, Our Lord will present him that is able to keep you
from falling and present you faultless before his throne with
exceeding glory. The Bible teaches preservation
by the power of God. When I turned that scripture,
I quoted a moment ago in 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1. But the
Bible also teaches not only preservation, but the Word of God teaches the
perseverance of the saints, that they will walk in faith, that
they will continue in faith, that they will look to Christ
and keep on looking to Christ. Not without fault, not without
stumbling, not without failure. You can go through the Bible
and you can see Abraham, you can see Isaac, and Jacob, and
David, and Solomon, and Peter, and Thomas, and Paul, and all
these men. who had their times of difficulty,
their times of despair, their times of distress, their times
of failure, their times of faltering, but they continued looking to
Christ, believing, walking with Him. In 1 Peter 1 verse 5, listen
to it. First of all, verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away. It's reserved
in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God. Not whether
you've got faith or not, not in spite of faith, through faith,
ready to be revealed at the last time. Turn, if you will, to Hebrews
3. Listen to this, Hebrews 3, verse 6. It says, But Christ,
Hebrews 3, 6, as a son over his own house, whose house are we,
if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the whole firmament
to the end. Verse 14, we are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. And 1 John 3 says, He that loveth
not his brother knoweth not God. By this shall all men know you,
my disciples, if you love one another. The believer is a new
creature in Christ Jesus. Old things pass away, all things
become new. If any man departs, let him depart. But John said this, he said,
if they had been of us, they no doubt would have continued
with us. So you've got two things here that are true. And one is
not true without the other. The saints will not persevere
without God keeping them. And God will not keep those who
do not persevere. But He will keep us, and we will
persevere. He will not leave us, and we
will not leave Him. That is not to say that we shall
not fail, we shall not sin, we shall not in any way dishonor
our Lord. We may. But we'll keep looking
to Him, believing on Him, and resting in Him. And any man who does not continue
in Christ, just never did know Christ, Now the next thing is this, an
imputed righteousness and spiritual growth. And this needs to be
dealt with. Imputed righteousness and spiritual
growth. Now, this troubles me a great
deal. I made the statement one time
and somebody remembered it on tape. I was in a meeting recently,
I don't remember where it was, but somebody asked me, he said,
did you say on a tape one time that If a person doesn't grow
in grace, that they're not in grace. And I said, well, something
like that. Yeah, I said that. I said this. I was quoting Charles Spurgeon.
I said, he that grows not in grace knows not grace. Anything
that's alive grows. If it doesn't grow, it's not
alive. And what I'm saying is this. Now get this, and I'll
give it to you briefly. It is true. that Christ has imputed
to us a perfect righteousness. God, in Christ, considers us
to be holy and unblameable. That's what it says in Colossians
1.22. We are holy and unblameable.
He says in Romans 5.19, by the disobedience of one man we were
made sinners, by the obedience of another we were made righteous.
Romans 4, verse 7 through 8 declares that blessed is the man to whom
God will not charge sin. In other words, in Christ, by
divine election, in Christ, by divine purpose and covenant mercies,
in Christ, by His perfect obedience, we are holy and without blame. Brethren, we don't become a law
unto ourselves, and we don't sin that grace may abound. And
we don't violate God's laws and commandments simply because we
have a righteousness and are not charged with sin. His commandments
are not grievous. I think every believer can say
with David, I love thy law. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. It is true that we have a perfect
righteousness. It is true that in Christ we
have no sins, and we are sufficient to inherit eternal glory, right
now, just like we are. But I'll tell you this, the Bible
teaches this, and I want you to turn to some Scripture. First
of all, in 2 Peter 3, let's get over in Peter's epistle, 2 Peter
3, verse 17 and 18. In 2 Peter 3, 17 and 18, you
therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things, beware lest
you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall
from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do what? Grow in
grace. What's this grace he's talking
about? He's talking about the grace and fruit of the Holy Spirit,
the grace of love, and the grace of kindness, and the grace of
humility, and the grace of faith, and the grace of joy, and the
grace of prayer, and the grace of all of these things that are
mentioned, the grace of giving, generosity. Turn to 2 Peter 1,
verse 5 and 6. Listen to this. And besides this,
giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. And to virtue,
knowledge. And to knowledge, temperance.
And to temperance, patience. And to patience, godliness. And
to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, charity,
love. If you do these things, these
things being unibound, they make you, you shall need to be barren
or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn,
if you will, to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, verse 1. Now watch this, "...laying
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envy, and
evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the
Word, that you may grow thereby." Beware of that profession, and
I say this with as much solemnity as I can and with as much concern
as I can for myself and all who are my heroes. Beware of that
religious profession that just leaves you in the same state
in which it found you. Beware of that profession about
which there's no There's no enthusiasm. There's no hunger and thirst.
There's no concern and compassion. There is no panting after Christ. There's no weeping and grieving
over sin. There's no concern for the souls
of other people. There is no concern over your
own failures and your desire to be more godly in your conversation
and in your conduct and in your attitude. That cold, dead religious
profession that leaves you a babe 25 or 30 years. I'd be scared
to death of that. I'd tremble. And yet, that's
what we find in the average Baptist church. I don't know anything
about the rest of them, but I go in these churches, and I went
in 20 years ago, and they're saying the same words, and praying
the same prayer, and living the same life, got the same attitude,
and harping on the same old arguments. There's no growth. There's no
warmth. There's no spirit revealed. There's no change in men's attitudes
and lives. There's just something wrong
with that. Our Lord took the disciples.
I know He took them from the seashore when they were ignorant
fishermen. But brother, when you met them
ten years later, they weren't ignorant fishermen. They knew
the Lord. When you met Peter ten years
later, I know he denied the Lord, and I know he was impulsive and
all that. When you met him ten years later, though, there's
a difference in old Peter's attitude. God took some starch out of him,
pride out of him, arrogance out of him. God mellowed him, didn't
He, Cecil? He mellowed him. Why didn't He
mellow me? How come we're not growing? Well,
one of two things. Either there's no life, or we're
not doing any eating. You're going to desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Now, you've been a professing
Christian 25 years. Do you find it easier to love,
forgive? Do you find more hunger for the
word of God? Do you find that God's done something? Not just a profession, but God's
done something. You see, these are things, I
know, and we get over here, but God gave me an imputed righteousness,
I'm holy before God. Well, is that what we say, or has God
really done that? Is that what we claim, or is
that something God has really given us? Is that something we
believe because it's a doctrine, or is that something we have
experienced? This is what I'm saying. That
old pendulum, if you're not careful. What's to protect us from going
the same way that the religionists did in Christ's day? And then the last one is this.
The preaching of the gospel and the preaching of practical godliness. Now I've heard people say something
to this effect. Now I want you to listen real
carefully to this. I've heard people say something to this
effect. I think the pastor should preach fewer sermons on Christ
and the gospel and more sermons on practical godliness and Christian
living. Now hang on to that a minute. I think the pastor should preach
fewer sermons on Christ and the gospel and more sermons on practical
godliness and Christian living. A statement like that reveals
three things to me. Number one, it reveals an ignorance
of what godliness is. That's the first thing. Secondly, it reveals a possible
ignorance of the true motivation for godliness. The true motivation
for godliness. And then thirdly, it reveals
an ignorance of what is of value and what is called godliness
in the sight of God. Now let's take some scriptures,
and here's what I'm contending. I'm contending this, that every
need a man has is met in the cross, and every grace that God
gives is given through the cross, and I want to show you that from
the Bible. Now turn to Ephesians chapter 4, and every argument
that the scripture presents for living A godly life is because
of what Christ has done for you. Every, all the motivation that
the scriptures offer, in other words, none of this, don't do
this because you wouldn't be caught doing this if Jesus came.
The Bible doesn't talk that way. Don't do this because you're
a Christian and you wouldn't want folks to think that you
weren't a good Christian. The Bible doesn't motivate believers
that way. Give because you know God may take it away from you
if you don't. Now you be sure and tithe because if you don't
tithe, God will make one of your families sick and you'll have
to pay it in the hospital. The Bible doesn't motivate people
that way. I can't find, I hear preachers preaching like that,
but I don't hear that in God's Word at all. Now here's what
I see in God's Word, Ephesians 4, verse 32. And be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Why? On what basis? as God for Christ's sake has
forgiven you. That's the motive. That's the
reason. Show mercy to that old sinner
because one day God showed mercy to an old sinner, found him in
the depths of despair, and made him his child. Let's go to another. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 8.
Now you folks that are familiar with the Word of God know that
this is a chapter that where Paul's trying to teach people
the grace of giving. That's what he's dealing with
in chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians. He's talking about giving. Talking
about supporting the ministry and supporting missionaries,
supporting the kingdom of God. Let's see the basis on which
he, the argument that he presents for the grace of giving. In 2
Corinthians 8 verse 7, Therefore as you abound in everything,
in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all diligence, in your love
to us, See that you're bound in this grace also, that is the
grace of giving. I speak not by commandment. That's
when you destroy giving, when you command people to give. You
see, the motivations go. We'll read some more in just
a minute. When you start commanding people how much to give, and
where to give, and when to give, they don't give as unto them.
It's not giving at all, it's paying. It's not giving at all. I'm not giving you anything,
you're taking it away from me. But now read on. I speak not
by commandment, but by the occasion of the forwardness of others,
and to prove the sincerity of your love. Now here's the far.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through
his poverty might be rich. That's the motivation. You want
to learn to give? Go to Calvary. God gave his son,
Christ gave himself. He gave everything for me. That's
my motive. Want to learn to love? Go to
Calvary. Now turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Let's go back two or three pages. This is Paul arguing for
godliness. This is Paul contending for men
living righteous lives in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14. Listen to this. The
love of Christ constraineth us. Because we thus judge if one
died for all then we're all dead and if he died for all that we
That they which live should not fit henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto them to him which died for them Christ died for me. I'm not my own. I've been bought
with a price what price is blood Let's go to first John 4 listen
to this first John chapter 4 verse 10 and 11 in 1 John 4. Herein is love,
1 John 4, 10. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God so loved us as to give his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins, we ought also to love one another. So when a man preaches the gospel,
And when he brings sinners to the cross and keeps them there,
he's preaching the greatest sermon he can preach on practical godliness. And I'll tell you this, if a
person can go to Calvary and sit there as the Holy Spirit
opens his eyes and look there and see the mercy and the love
and the grace and the goodness of God and what he did for them
and come away and not be gracious and merciful and kind. He didn't
see anything there. God didn't do anything for him
there. But this routine religion that calls for other motivating, other motivations and other reasons
for godliness and other reasons, it's all flesh and it's works
and it's not grace. You could go on and on dealing
with things like this tonight, and I feel that it's necessary
for us to get into the book that we might be wise witnesses and
good stewards of the grace of God. That we might wait upon
the Lord and ask him to give us words to say, give us an understanding
of what he has done and what he is doing, and make us good
witnesses of Christ Jesus. study to show thyself approved
unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing
the word of truth the mysteries of the gospel our father in heaven as we read
this book we realize how little we really know and we we understand something of how
Our vision is through a glass dimly, but we rejoice that someday
we're going to know as we have been known. O Lord, be our teacher. We feel that thou art saying
to us tonight what you said to the apostles. I have many things
to say unto you, but you're not able to bear them. And how that
even the most brilliant Pharisee of all, when you brought him
to yourself. You took him off into the desert
for over three years and taught him the gospel. Our Father, teach
us. Let us have ears to hear, as
our brother prayed a moment ago, and eyes to see, and hearts to
understand. And Lord, we pray that we'll
be good witnesses of Christ. Let us not look for an excuse
not to witness and not to be zealous for our Lord, but, O
God, let us wait upon Thy Spirit to lead us and to motivate us
and to teach us. Use this pulpit and this church
and its influence throughout this nation and around the world
Lord, give us a hearing, give us effectual doors, open, through
which we might take the gospel of Thy redeeming grace, the gospel
of the glory of Thy dear Son. We wait upon Thee. We look to
Thee. Lord, let us not be deceived.
Let us not fall from this steadfastness. Establish us in the gospel. Let
us grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. I'll be satisfied,
not here, not with anything here, but when I awake with Thy likeness.
I shall behold Thee in Thy glory. Through Christ Jesus our Lord
we pray. Amen.