To Whom Coming

Down in Mexico and the Yucatan,
all of you are familiar with the Native Preacher School, which
we have had a large part in supporting. Some of these Native preachers
have been attending the school there for about ten years, some
six, seven, eight, nine, or ten years. They come every Monday. Some of them come over on Sunday
night and hang their hammocks up in the building. And the next
day, Walter and David, while he was there, but now he's gone,
Brother Alfonso Estrada, teach these young men. They take notes
and study. They go back to their pueblos
and to the churches where they pastor and where some of them
serve as deacons. And they preach what Walter's
taught them through that day's study. And one of the things
they're doing now, one of our men gave Walter a mimeograph
machine while he was here in July, and now they're taking
the Sunday school lessons that you have studied in Hebrews and
Walter's translating them into Spanish and Betty's typing them
and they're running them off on a mimeograph machine. You
didn't know that mimeograph would run Spanish, Charlie, did you?
But it will. And they're passing them out
to these preachers, and they're making them notebooks of our
Sunday school lessons, and they're studying those in their Monday
classes. Someone asked one of these students—he
was out in the town of Metoda, or one of the pueblos—and someone
asked one of those preachers—Jose's been there now seven or eight
years, now Alfonso longer, And Moximo, he's been there. Retilio's
been there about that long. And somebody asked one of them,
said, when do you finish your course? He said, when do I what? They said, well, when do you
graduate? When do you get a certificate? When do you complete your studies?
He said, we don't ever finish. We don't ever graduate. We don't
ever get a certificate. There is no end, he said. We're
always studying. Well, he was half right. Now, there is a graduation day
for God's people. Moody called it the coronation
day. It's the day when we'll finish
our course. Paul said, I finished my course. I finished my course. But that'll
be the day that we lie down to die. That's when we gonna finish
our course. That's when we gonna get our
certificate. We know now in part, and that's when we shall know
all things. We see through a glass darkly,
that's when we'll see face to face. But on this earth and in
this flesh, we never finish the course. We never graduate. We never attain any higher than
this. I know in part. I prophesy in
part. That's all. We expect to graduate. We expect to receive our degree.
We expect to receive a certificate of graduation, but not here.
And we can learn from that young fellow. We never graduate. We never finish the course. We
never complete our studies. Paul summed it up. Let me show
you something over here in Philippians 3. He summed it up for us. He
said in Philippians chapter 3, and verse 8, the last line, that
I may win Christ. Well, Paul was in Christ, that
I may win Christ and be found in him. Well, Paul was in Christ,
wasn't he? But here this man of God is,
counting everything but loss and counting everything but rubbish,
that he may win Christ and be found in him. Here he is sitting
in prison, writing one of the prison epistles, suffering for
Christ in exile. Here he is wanting to win Christ
and be found in him. That should make us ashamed who
feel like that we've graduated in theology, that we've arrived,
that we've apprehended, that we've reached a certain plane,
you know, we know so much. Listen to the next verse. And
he said in verse 10, Oh, that I may know him. Well, Paul knew
Christ, but he wanted to know him more intimately. It was as if he didn't know him
at all. He felt that his knowledge of
Christ was so limited. It was as if he didn't know him
at all, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
verse 11, if by any means of God's grace and God's providence
that I might attain unto this glorious resurrection of the
dead. For he says, I have not already attained. I have not
already arrived. And verse 13, he said, brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended, I count not myself to have laid
hold yet on that for which I've been laid hold of Christ. I haven't
laid hold of it yet. But for getting those things
which are behind," he said, "'I press forward toward the mark
of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.'" Now,
I don't want to be misunderstood, and I hope no one here and Sometimes
when we're talking about things of this nature, we are easily
misunderstood. And someone goes out and says,
well, Brother Mahan doesn't believe in instantaneous salvation. Yes,
I do. To believe on Christ is to be
saved. To believe on Christ is to be forgiven. I preached it
Sunday night. A man is a child of God who believes on Christ.
The just shall live not by works, not by growth, not by attainment,
but by faith. The infant in Christ Jesus is
as much a son of God as the glorified saint. That thief on the cross
was just as justified and sanctified and redeemed as the Apostle Paul
ever was, or is now. And the weakest of God's sheep
are still in his foals, and the weakest of God's sons are still
in the family. We're redeemed not by works of
righteousness, which we've done, but by the mercy and grace of
God in Christ Jesus. But brethren, as long as I live
on this earth, I am but a spiritual child in need of growth. That's
what I'm saying. As long as I live on this earth,
I am a spiritual child in need of growth. I don't care if I'm
52, 62, 72, or 82, I'm still a child in need of growth. And the scripture still comes
home to me, grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ
the Lord. I never attain or apprehend or lay hold in this life upon
that for which I've been laid hold of Christ. I'm still a sinner
in need of forgiveness. It doesn't matter how long we've
been on the path, how long we've been on the road, how much we
know of Christ, we're still sinners saved by God's grace and in need
of forgiveness. Old John Wesley used to say every
morning, I pray, Lord, this day, keep me from sin. And every night
I have to pray, Lord, forgive me of my sins. Don't you? If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We are forever sinners in need
of forgiveness. And as long as I'm on this earth,
I'm a student in need of teaching. I can be taught, I hope. I hope
I never reach the place when I cannot be taught, when I do
not have as much to learn as I've already learned and more.
And brethren, we can be taught sometimes by the youngest. We
can be taught by the weakest. You know what Job's friend said?
He said, gray hair is supposed to be wise, but it's not always
so. And men of great years are supposed to be men of great learning,
but it's not always so. And he says, I've kept my mouth
shut because I was younger than you fellows, and I've listened,
hoping one of you would speak for God, but since you failed
to do it, I'm going to have my say. Wasn't that what he said?
And he had his say. I'm always a wanderer in need
of a leader, as long as I'm on this earth. I'm always a man
of flesh in need of rebuke and correction. I hope I never come
to the place when I'm offended when God rebukes me. In order
for God to rebuke me or correct me, he's going to have to do
it through his word or through someone preaching his word. And
when I come to that place when I cannot be corrected and I cannot
be rebuked and I cannot be dealt with by the Spirit of God through
those who teach and preach the word, I'm in trouble. As long
as I'm in this flesh, I'm a weakling in need of strength. God had to speak to him. He said,
now my grace is sufficient for you. He said, I prayed three
times about this thing, and finally God said, I'm not going to remove
that. I'm going to let you know you're
still a weakling, you're still a man, you're still in the flesh.
I'm not going to move it. Somebody said, God always answers
prayer. Yes, but he doesn't always answer
yes. Sometimes he says no. He said no to Paul. God, remove
this thorn. I won't do it. I put it there
for a reason. I put it there to keep you, always
let you keep in mind that you're a man, you're a human being,
and you're going to carry it, and you're going to wear it,
and you're going to bear it. But I'm going to give you the grace.
My grace is sufficient. So all the way through this life,
I'm still a weakling in need of his strength, and I'm still
a son in need of a spanking, correction. Call it what you
will, chastisement, chastening. probably what you will, but I
need trial, I need them desperately. I'm always in need of them, that's
what I'm saying. And I believe it's with this
condition in mind, 1 Peter 2, that the Apostle Peter writes
these words. It is with this condition in
mind that we're always sinners in need of forgiveness, we're
always students in need of teaching, we're always children in need
of growth, we're always wanderers in need of a leader, we're always
men of flesh in need of correction. We're always weaklings in need
of strength. We're always a son in need of
chastisement. And so he comes in chapter 2
of 1 Peter and he tells us some things. He said, "...wherefore
laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies
and all evil speaking." Now, to talk of a once-for-all victory. I hear people talk about it.
I attended a conference one time years ago on what they call the
victorious life. And they meant by that that you
attain a plane of victorious living. But my experience has
been that Monday I have a victorious life and Tuesday it's another
day. And Wednesday I just might have
a victorious Wednesday, but Thursday I just might have a real difficult
time. I haven't found that I reached
a plane and particularly held it. To talk of a once for all
complete victory over these things of the flesh is to set before
me an impossible task. Now it is. To talk of me attaining
a level of higher living or victorious living or living above It's to
set before any honest person an impossible task. But now,
if you come at me like Peter does here, if you come at me
like he does, he doesn't come with this higher level and higher
ground and victorious life and deeper living. He comes at us
this way, wherefore laying aside, laying aside, not once for all,
but every day laying aside. Oh, now then, now I'm beginning
to see. Wherefore, laying aside," this
is continually doing this thing, continually working on it, continually
striving, continually seeking holiness, continually panting
after holiness, continually trying to attain this goal, continually
moving in that direction. That's what he says, wherefore,
not once for all lay aside all malice, there's nobody going
to do that. Once for all lay aside all hypocrisy, once for
all lay aside all guile, once for all lay aside all envy, once
for all lay aside all evil speaking, and live on a higher plane in
a victorious cloud, there's no human being, no honest human
being, can do that. But Peter exhorts me to be about
this business continually. Wherefore, laying aside," you
see, that's the point I wish to make, and if we just stop
right there and camp tonight, that'd be far enough. Wherefore,
laying aside. Now watch as he uses these words,
malice. Malice. What do you think of
when you look at the word, that word right there, malice? What
do you think of? Well, most people immediately
think of hate. Deliberate intention. to do harm
to another with malice aforethought." That's the way we use it, with
murder with malice aforethought, assault with malice aforethought. But malice, now wait a minute.
I don't believe there's any true belief. Peter's writing to believers.
We're not writing to the folks out yonder in the world. He's writing to the brethren
here. This is to believers. He's talking about the malice
that you and I have a problem with. I don't think anybody here
who knows Christ wishes to murder anyone. I don't think anybody
in Christ, anybody in this congregation, has any delight or desire to
hurt anyone. Well, then we can't be guilty
of malice, and Peter is just wasting his breath. Now, hold
on. Could I suggest something? Malice can take other directions.
It's just a nasty word. But it's still malice. It just might be that some of
us entertain some unfriendly feelings toward another person, unfriendly feelings toward another
race, unfriendly feelings toward another organization. That's
malice. Now, you may soften the blow. Christ said that, you've heard
it said, But I say unto you to say to your brother, thy fool,
is to be in danger of the judgment. Christ said, thou hast heard
it said, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you,
to imagine this in your heart is to be guilty already. So you
see, this thing of malice is not just to, with gun or knife
or sword or rope, destroy someone. But it's to entertain unfriendly
feelings. That's malice. It might be an
unforgiving spirit. We may not wish a person any
harm at all, but have you ever held a long-time grudge? Have you ever brought up something
that happened a long time ago, something someone said a long
time ago, something someone did a long time ago? That's malice. The very fact that that plant
could live in the hot house of your heart indicates the presence
of malice. Otherwise it couldn't survive.
Plants like that cannot survive without food. And somewhere unintentionally
or secretly, you know David prayed, Lord deliver me from secret faults. And Spurgeon suggests that he's
not talking about faults unknown to other people, he's talking
about faults even unknown to himself. Weaknesses unknown to
himself, of which he's not conscious. But the very fact that that experience
is still well known to you indicates that you've given it some food
on which to survive. That's malice. An unforgiving
spirit is malice. And then it may take this direction,
it might be a secret desire to see another person fail. A secret
desire to see another person fail, or to be exposed, or to
get what he deserves. That's malice. Or it just might
be this direction, it might be an unwillingness to speak to
another person, or to show common kindness and courtesy to that
person. That's malice. I pass by on the other side of
the street, refuse to speak to a man, and to show common courtesy,
which I would to a stranger on the streets of Mexico, that's
malice. I may not consider it to be such,
but it is malice. It might be a spirit of pride
that enjoys cutting another person in order to show my superior
intelligence. I like to say something will
make him put him in a bad light, or maybe reveal his ignorance,
or his cowardness, or his weakness. Have you ever been around folks
that seem to enjoy doing that? They seem to enjoy saying something
that would sort of throw off on another person, make them
feel smaller, or weaker, or not as intelligent, or maybe a little
ignorant. We like to show off our knowledge.
That's nothing in the world but veiled malice, that's all that
is. Anytime I delight to put someone else in a bad light,
it's malice. Perhaps we have a spirit of pride
which considers another person less intelligent, less courageous,
less informed, or maybe unworthy of my attention, or maybe beneath
my station. That's malice. And so we can take this word
and give it to someone else, but I'll tell you this, it belongs
to all of us. And that's not the spirit that's
becoming to a believer. And this is what Peter is saying.
He is saying, laying, constantly laying these things aside. Lay
them aside, constantly. It's a battle. We sit in judgment,
and I'll tell you this. The scripture tells us if we
judge ourselves, God won't judge us. That's what it says. With
what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you. And if you
judge yourself, you'll not be judged. And if we can expose
ourselves to ourselves, God already has exposed us. But if we'll
be judging jewelry and try ourselves and cast ourselves on the mercy
of God, mercy we will receive. And God will give us some grace
to do something about these spirits and attitudes and motives and
personalities of ours that certainly do not draw men to us, but rather
turn them away. And then there's the word envy.
If I stay on every word that long, we'll be here a long time. But there's the word guile, rather,
the word guile. What is guile? It's an ugly word,
too, isn't it? Well, the word guile is fraud. It's deceit is what it is, but
in the spirit, and most of us, I don't think most of you would
be guilty of guile, fraud. I don't see that. So there must
be some spiritual implications here, and two other writers indicate
that there is. John Gill said this. Now listen
to this. Guile is to express with my lips
what's not in my heart, what's just not there. to express with
my lips what is not in my heart." And John Brown says this, a man
must not try to appear to be what he's not. He must not, in
the spiritual realm, act a part as if he were a stage player.
And guile here is a general name for dishonesty. We would be better
off to confess our faults one to another and pray one for another
than to put on pious shows and indicate to others that we are
something which we are not. That's God. And it's similar
to the next word, which is hypocrisy, both to God and men. Not many
of here are guilty of false faith or false devotion or insincerity
in worship. But how we must guard against
this, listen to this. performing religious duties to
be seen of men. Are we ever guilty of that? That's
hypocrisy. Praying to be heard of men. Giving
to be seen of men. Exercising ourselves in religious
duties for the praise of men. Loving in word and not indeed
in truth. Are we guilty of that? trying
to appear outwardly righteous when within we are struggling
and fighting fierce battles. And we lead others to think that
they're the only ones who are great sinners, that we have no
great conflict, we have no great warfare. We give the appearance
that we're on top of the situation at all times. We would not dare
have them at all to enter into our conflicts and our warfare,
but it would be good for them. It would encourage them. It certainly
would not make them to believe they're the only ones with this
type of warfare conflict. We ever have any trouble with
finding fault with the providence of God while we're speaking positively
of his sovereignty? That's hypocrisy. I have a preacher
friend that's one of the strongest preachers in the United States
on God's sovereignty. He can preach a better sermon
on God's sovereignty than about anybody I've ever heard. He's
the most grumbling, murmuring fellow when it comes to God's
providence and sovereignty I've ever met. In the pulpit, he's
a powerhouse preaching sovereignty. When he gets out of the pulpit,
he's a pantywaist. That's right. He's always griping.
about something that's going on. That's hypocrisy. What I'm
saying is that we're not talking here about false faith. I believe
we believe. I'm not talking about insincere
worship. I believe you're sincere. We're
sincere in our worship or false devotions or hypocrisy of the
Pharisees, but he's talking to believers. Believers are to lay
aside malice. Believers are to lay aside deceit. Believers are to lay aside hypocrisies. And it's a constant warfare,
constant battle. And then envy. Oh, this is a
tough area now. This is a tough area, one that
needs constant attention. To be able genuinely and sincerely
before God, to look not on my own things but on the welfare
of others, not to be covetous, not to be jealous, not to be
envious of another person's happiness. Rejoice with them that rejoice. Not to be envious of another
person's prosperity, not to be envious or jealous of another
person's riches or honors or gifts, either temporal or spiritual. But to be content with what we
have, having food and raiment, therewith to be content. To learn,
in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, not to be envious
of another person's good health, not to be envious of another
person's happiness, not to be envious of another person's treasures. Laying it aside, and all evil
speaking. James tells us how we need to
put a watch on our tongues. I believe that the tongue is
one of the most treacherous organs of the human body. Other than
our hearts, I believe we sin more with our tongues than any
other member of our body. We need to set a watch on our
lips, don't we? I don't know whether it would
be such a curse to be dumb or not. I suppose we'd see it in
some other way, but we speak. How do we speak? We speak, and
we're not talking here to unbelievers, evil speaking. We're not talking
here of blasphemy. God's people don't blaspheme.
We're not talking here of taking God's name in vain, evil speaking. God's people don't take God's
name in vain. We're talking here of evil speaking, and we do it. We speak harshly. Do you ever
speak harshly? Harshly. And you know you're
wounded. You know, like a fella said one
time, well, I boil over once in a while, you know, but I get
over it, yeah, but everybody around you's been scalded, you
know, and they don't get over it too quick. They got third-degree
burns. You're the tea kettle that boiled over, you know, and
everybody else got the water. And you get over it, and you
run around smiling, well, why aren't they smiling? You burned
them. We speak harshly. I've been guilty of that too
many times. We speak critically. Critically. We're criticizing. We do more
criticizing than we do praising. Especially our children, don't
we? If we'd praise them a little more instead of criticizing them.
We criticize our wives, and criticize our husbands, and criticize our
close friends, and too often we criticize behind the back.
And that is the most cowardly criticism there is. You know,
Spurgeon, I read something today. He said, He said the man who
is being criticized always has an advocate in a believer. For
example, if someone comes to you to speak harshly of a person
who's not present, he said a believer will always jump to that person's
defense. And he will say to the critic, now wait a minute, he's
not here to answer for himself, so I'm going to take his part.
That'd stop a lot of stuff, wouldn't it? Somebody came to you saying,
I don't know whether this is true or not. And I wouldn't have
you tell it for the world, but do you know what I heard? Has
anybody said that to you? And if you just speak up and
say, now she's not here to defend herself, so I'm going to defend
her. Or he's not here to defend himself, and I'm going to defend
him. You wouldn't get to hear what may not be so, though. That's
what's tough, you know. You wouldn't get to hear all
that juicy gossip. So we just keep quiet till after
we've heard it, you know. Well, maybe it's not true, you
know, but we did want to hear it. We wanted to get in on the
ground floor. We speak unjustly. We speak hastily. Do you ever speak hastily? Just
hastily. You know, I've been working on
something around here as a pastor of this church, and that's to
learn to wait on the Lord. I've been working on that, got
a long ways to go. I want us all to work on that,
wait on the Lord. Again, I say wait on the Lord.
I wish I could learn to get my mouth to wait on the Lord, don't
you? Just hear something, but instead of reacting and responding
and speaking hastily right now, just don't say anything. and walk off and pray about it
and then come back. I wish I could learn that, but
that's evil speaking hastily, hastily. Most of our mistakes
are made speaking without thought. And when you speak hastily, you
have to speak without thought. You don't have time to think.
Speaking uncomplimentary. I've often thought about this.
I wish I could put it in practice. Don't say anything about a person
that you wouldn't want them to hear you say. Wouldn't that be pretty good?
In other words, just don't, if just way at a moment, before
you say anything about Mike here or Cecil or any of the brethren
or anyone, just don't, if you wouldn't want them to be standing
there listening to what you're saying, It would be a pretty
good idea not to say it. That's uncomplimentary. If it
was complimentary, you wouldn't mind. But if it's uncomplimentary...
So this is what Peter is saying here. Lay these things aside.
Laying them aside. Working in this area here. Malice. All malice. All guile
and hypocrisy. Envy. All evil speaking. And I've got to quit. But here
in verse 3, I put verse 3 in front of verse 2, if you don't
mind. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and that's
about all we're capable of is a taste, isn't it? That comes
from David's words, O taste and see that the Lord is good. But
you know someone said one time in a hymn, I've just tasted,
but when I see thee as thou art, my Lord, I'll praise thee as
I ought. When I see thee as thou art.
My Lord, I'll praise thee as I ought. I've had a taste of
his mercy, I want more. I've had a taste of his glory,
I want more. I've had a taste of his love,
I want more. I've had a taste of his fellowship,
I want more. Well, how can I have more? All
right, verse 2. If you've tasted, the Lord is
gracious as newborn babes. desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. The gospel to the believer is
what the breast is to an infant. That's what it is. He desires
it, he craves it. The gospel is to the believer
what the breast is to a newborn man. It sustains him, nourishes
him. It's his food, it's his The sincere milk of the word,
without the mixture of tradition. I think this is one of our problems
in this day. We're reading too much stuff,
and not enough of this book. Man's opinions, not the pure
word of God. As a newborn babe, as an infant,
craves the breast, the milk, that you, as a newborn babe,
You crave, desire the pure, without tradition, without mixture, without
man's opinion, the pure word of God. This is the way to grow. This is the way to grow. And
my last point, verse 4, to whom coming. Now let me give you something
here, and this is the title of this message, I'm just now getting
to it, but to whom coming. Let me just give you briefly
some things I jotted down here. Again, this does not refer to
the first act of faith by which we are saved, as Peter is writing
to believers already in Christ. This does not refer to our first
believing on Christ, but this statement, to whom coming, is
written to those who have already come to him by faith And it refers
to a continual exercise of faith, Jeff. That's what it's talking
about. To whom coming? It's a continual coming. It's a continual exercise
of faith. The Christian life is begun,
it's continued, it's perfected altogether in connection with
Christ. And a complete description of
the Christian life is a continual coming to Christ. That's the
description of the Christian life. It's a continual coming
to Christ. It begins with Christ. If it
continues aright, it continues with Christ. If it finishes aright,
it finishes with Christ. That's what our Lord is saying
in John 15. Turn over there just a moment. To whom? Coming. In
John 15, listen to this. Verse 4, "... abide in me, and
I in you." The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, never could,
can't now, never will, except it abide in the vine. No more
can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the
branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Without me you can
do nothing. To whom cometh? To whom cometh? I know that we're in a generation
and a day and we're listening to preachers that they've got
ways and means and propositions to fix you up, just like that.
You shake hands with the preacher and say you believe something
and get baptized and that's it. But the Christian, the scripture
of the Christian life is a continual coming to Christ. As that baby
continues, he might eat right now, but three hours later he
wants some more Three hours later, he wants some more. And I tell
you, if you don't give it to him, you got a fuss on your hands.
You got a fuss on your hands. He wants that meal. And God's
people want that Word. That's what they want. That's
the way they grow. That's how they live. That's how they survive.
Without Him, we can do nothing.

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