The Burden of the Ministry

Message will be built around
the title using a text found in 1st Timothy 1 15 This is a
fateful saying This is a sure saying And it's worthy of acceptation
by all means That Christ Jesus came into this world to save
sinners of whom I am the chief Now when the old prophets came
forth from God with the message which God gave them for the people,
and Paul said, God spake to our fathers by the prophets, he hath
in these last days spoken to us by his Son. But these old
prophets often call their message the burden of the Word of God. You'll find that several times
in the Old Testament, the burden of the word of the Lord. And
too often their messages were messages of doom, messages of
judgment and condemnation. Now our message is no message
of judgment, it's a message of grace. Our message is no message
of doom, it's a message of mercy. Our message is not one of condemnation,
but of one of love, God's love in Christ. But this message ought
to be and is to every true servant of God just as much a burden
as the message of the Lord was to Habakkuk and Jeremiah, who
said, Oh, that my eyes were rivers that I might weep for the daughters
of my people. Charles Spurgeon once said, he
who finds not the Word of God to be a burden here, will find
it to be a much heavier burden at the judgment. Paul felt that
way. If you'll turn to Romans chapter
9, I want you to listen to this man who, this is the man who
wrote, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. This
is the man who talked about, let every prayer be seasoned
with thanksgiving and praise. But listen to him in Romans 9.
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing
me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. In chapter 10, verse 1, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. And then again he said, brethren,
I travail. He borrows that phrase from the
woman in birth pains. I travail. A woman bringing forth
a child in birth pain. Paul said, that's the way I feel.
till Christ be formed in you." That's how much a burden it is.
That's what an experience it is. He says, for me, Christ being
formed in you, it's like giving birth to a child. I travail till
Christ be formed in you. And then again, he said, I'm
jealous. I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. I'm jealous
for you. I fear. I'm afraid. Listen to
these emotions. You know, this bothers me about
the religion of this day. The preachers are always laughing,
and these television clubs that are on there late at night. I
see these men always laughing and joking and praising the Lord
in this light vein. This is not the way Paul entered
the ministry or conducted the ministry, nor did these prophets
of old, nor did our Lord who wept over the city of Jerusalem,
who wept over the unbelieving people. I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart. Brethren, I travail I'm travailing
in pain until Christ be formed in you. I'm jealous, jealous
over you with a godly jealousy. I fear, I'm afraid, lest Satan
corrupt your minds from the simplicity of Christ." He said, I'm scared
to death. That like Satan crept into the Garden of Eden and these
false prophets, they don't come in announcing their entry, they
creep in, unaware. and catch you unaware and corrupt
your mind from the simplicity of Christ like Satan crept into
the Garden of Eden and poisoned the mind of Eve against her God. The burden of the Word of God. I read in the paper Saturday
where some church here was having a haunted house. Honestly, I've,
you know, I've read these things and I know they're so, but I
still don't believe them. I just don't believe that they're
happening. I don't believe they're taking place in my day. But they
are, and it's getting worse. Where is the burden of the Word
of the Lord? Where is the broken heart? Where
is the weeping? Where is the fear? Where is the
travail? Where is the godly jealousy?
Where is the concern? For a world, like a snowball,
is rolling down the hill to eternal hell. What makes it a burden? Look back at our text in 1 Timothy
1. What makes the Word of God a
burden? What makes the Gospel a burden?
Well, first of all, verse 11 is the glory of it, the glory
of it. This is not that ten-cent store
glory we talk about, glory hallelujah, you know, with that lightness
and vanity of thought and attitude and all this. Paul in 1 Timothy
1 says, he's talking about this gospel, he said it's the gospel
of the glory of God. The gospel of the glory of God. I will not give my glory to another. We're not playing games. We're
not entertaining sinners on the road to hell. We're dealing with
God's greater glory. We're dealing with the chief
glory of God. We dare not trifle. We dare not
play. It's the glory of God we're dealing
with. The glory of God in His righteousness. The glory of God in His justice.
The glory of God in His holiness. The glory of God in His mercy.
The glory of God in His grace. The glory of God in His Son.
We're dealing with the glory of God. We're not playing church. All that God might reveal is
glory. Oh, that God might visit with
us in person. That's what makes it a burden,
it's the glory of it. The glory of it. And I tell you
another thing, look at that same verse 11, that makes it a burden
is the care of it. Paul said, this gospel of God's
glory, this gospel of God's glory, His chief glory, Moses, I'll
make my glory pass before you, I'll be merciful. He's entrusted
it to me, Paul said. Me. He's entrusted it to me who
was a blasphemer. He's entrusted it to me who was
a persecutor. He's entrusted it to me who was
injurious. He's entrusted this gospel of
His glory to me. He's put it in my hands. What
overwhelming burden that is when you realize that God has entrusted
you with His most precious treasure, His gospel, His glory. Think
about that. That's what destroys all these
little simple Bible schools that are training preachers and turning
them out like Ford assembly lines. To whom has God entrusted His
glory? To whom has God entrusted His
greatest treasure? To me. To me, He hath entrusted
this gospel of His glory, committed it to my trust. If a man, if Brother Ronnie Lewis
had the Hope Diamond, I don't know anything about the Hope
Diamond, I just heard that word and I know it's something special.
And he came to me and he said, Brother Henry, I'm going out
of town and I'm going to leave with you this invaluable diamond. It's of infinite worth and value.
I'm committing it to your trust. I'll be back in three months.
I'll pick it up when I get back in town. Oh, I'll tell you. I'll tell you it'd be on my mind
all the time. I just don't know. I expect I'd carry it around
with me all the time. Maybe hire me two or three bodyguards. But listen, God has entrusted
to us something infinitely more valuable than anything in 10,000
worlds. And that's the glory of His name,
His Son, His Gospel. He's in, here I am, a human being. Here I am, the frailest of creatures.
Here we are, brethren, who do the teaching and the preaching.
Here we are, ordinary men of like passions, and God has entrusted
to us the treasure of heaven, His gospel. You think about it
a little while. I dare not change it. I dare
not. What would Ronnie say if he came
back in three months and I'd taken me a chisel? There's two
or three, there's two or three, I don't know what you call it,
facets or sides of that thing, and I decided he'd had eight,
he'd ought to have ten, so I just took me a chisel and whittled
her down a little bit, you know. He'd come back and say, you ruined
it, Henry, you nut. You ruined my diamond. You ruined
my diamond. It's not worth anything. You
ruined it. I expect the Lord's going to come back and tell some
preachers that in in trying to improve on the gospel, they just
ruined it. And that's what you do. If you
can't preach, thus saith the Lord. If you can't preach what
God has put in His Word, you ruin it. It may seem right to
you, but you ruined it. I dare not change it. I dare
not change it. And I dare not compromise it.
Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is. Paul said,
oh, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. He said, if we are
an angel from heaven, I don't care, he said, if it's an angel
from heaven itself, come down here and preach to you any other
gospel, the gospel of redemption, of substitution, of blood sacrifice,
the gospel of Paul, the gospel of Peter, the gospel of James
and John, the gospel of Abraham and Moses, the gospel of Jesus
Christ, let him be accursed. Let God's wrath be upon him. Let him be anathema when Jesus
comes. And I dare not confound it. What
does that mean? That means to frustrate it, to
confuse it, to try to mix it up with works. If salvation is
by works, it's not of grace. If it's of grace, it's not of
works. You just have to make up your mind which you're going
to preach. Are you going to preach man or God? Are you going to
preach works or grace? Are you going to preach cooperation
or divine operation? You've got to make up your mind.
You can't preach both. You'll mess it up. You'll do nothing
but confuse your hearers if you try to mix it. And then I'll
tell you another reason why it's a burden. It's a burden because
of the glory of it. I'm awed by the glory of it. I approach the pulpit more and
more with fear and trembling. I'm beginning to understand a
little bit of what Paul was talking about when he said, brethren,
I came to you in weakness and fear and trembling. I don't think
he was at a loss for words. I don't think it was lack of
preparation. I don't think he was afraid of the people. I don't
think he was afraid that of what might result, what might come
to pass as a result of his message, I don't think he was afraid that
they wouldn't like him. I think it was the message that
caused him to be fearful. It was the sacredness of it,
the glory of it, the care of it, the importance of it, the
greatness of it. God speaking. If he doesn't speak,
we're wasting our time. If he does speak, we'd better
redeem the time. If he doesn't speak, you don't have to listen
to me, but if he does speak, you'd better listen. Christ said,
if they don't hear you, they won't hear me. And he said, if
they won't hear you, you shake the dust off your feet and go
to another town, and your shaking the dust off your feet will be
a witness against them in the judgment. That's how serious
it is. That would make preachers quit
saying, I wish you'd listen to me, and go to saying, you'd better
listen to me. And I'll tell you another reason
why it's a burden is the glory of it, the care of it, and then,
brethren, the subject of it. Now listen to me. The gospel
is not a statement of facts to be argued. Men just reveal their
foolishness when they go to arguing about the gospel. It's not a
statement of facts to be argued. When I hear people arguing religion,
I know there's two fools arguing with one another. That's right.
And the gospel is not a statement of facts to be accepted or rejected. The gospel is not a statement
of facts to be believed or not believed. The gospel is not a
statement of facts. The gospel is a person. The subject
of our gospel is a person. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. Our Lord, the Heavenly Father
said of our Lord, this is my Son. Listen to Him. The gospel is a person. The man
who has reduced the gospel to a plan, to a proposition, who
has reduced the gospel to, as Barnett used to say, a tin cup
proposal, or a capsule religion, has never understood the gospel.
The gospel is an encounter with a person. Encounter with a person. The woman at the well didn't
meet a plan. She met a person. She met a person. Paul on the road to Damascus
didn't meet a proposal. God didn't say, now if you'll
do this and if you'll do that, Paul, I'll do so and so. He met
a person. A person who redeems. A person
who reprobates. That's right. He redeems. He said he came to seek and to
save the lost, but I'll tell you something else, he spoke
with authority when he said of the Pharisees, leave them alone.
And brother, when he said leave them alone, they were left alone.
When he said, Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus came forth. When he said,
leave them alone, he left them alone. When he said, depart from
me, they departed from him. When he said, Matthew, follow
me, they followed him. He, Paul, on the road to Damascus
met a person who redeems. He met a person who reprobates.
He met a person who rules. I have all authority, he said, over all flesh. I have all authority
in heaven and earth. He met a person who rules, a
sovereign Lord. So this is why it's a burden.
This is something that nobody ever told me when I was going
to school. This is something when folks
were encouraging me to enter the ministry, they never told
me these things. They said, we encourage you to preach, we'll
license you to preach, we'll send you out to preach. Some
church says we'll call you to preach. But nobody ever told
me about the burden of the Word of God. Chances are if they had,
I wouldn't have attempted it. The glory of it. The glory of
it. If there's no glory in it, I
don't want to be in it. I don't want to worship Baal.
I don't want to bow before statues, whether somebody else made them
or I made them. I don't want to play church, whether it's
called Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian. I'm not interested
in playing church. I don't think you are. I want
to see the glory of God. I'm going to feel like Moses.
Lord, show me your glory. And if you go not with me, don't
let me go. and the care of it. I know we're not fit to have
it in our care. I know that much as anyone. I
know we're not worthy to have it in our care. I know we're
nothing but clay vessels, but that's the kind he chooses to
use. He chooses the foolish to confound the wise. That's what
he said. He chooses the things that are nothing to bring to
naught the things that are. I've got that in my favor. So
have you. But oh, that it might dawn on
me the subject of this gospel. The subject. It's not the law,
it's Christ. It's not the Jew, it's Christ. It's not the church,
it's Christ. That's our subject. And if that's
not a man's subject, then he doesn't know the gospel. If that
is not his subject, he does not preach the gospel. It's a person.
And we can present to people the way to heaven, but we don't
present it accurately unless we present, bring them to encounter
face-to-face with a person. What think ye of Christ? Now
these people came to our Lord and they wanted to argue about
whether a Christian ought to pay taxes. They wanted to argue
about who was going to be married to who in the resurrection, you
know. They wanted to argue about which law was the greatest law,
which was the greatest sin. And he dealt with them on these
matters and shut their mouths and finally he turned to them
and he said, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And if I can't bring you to an
encounter with Christ, I've done you no good. If all you're going
to do is leave here and argue about whether or not you ought
to be baptized by immersion or by sprinkling, you've missed
it. You've missed it. If you're going to leave here
arguing about whether or not election is true or untrue, you've missed
it. If you're going to leave here arguing about whether or
not you ought to be a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian,
you've missed it. If you leave here arguing about
whether or not Christ's coming will be premillennial or postmillennial
or all-millennial, you've missed it there, too. But brethren,
I tell you, if you can ever, if I can ever, if God can ever,
by His grace, if He will ever bring us into a personal encounter
with Jesus Christ, our Lord, what think ye of Christ? What
think ye of Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? Who is he? Well, let's look at this. Paul
goes on down and says, this is my message, verse 15. This is
my message. This is it. This is that fateful
saying that's worthy of all acceptation. And he gives, I suggest, four
things here in this message. He talks about the objects of
mercy are described. The people God's pleased to deal
with. And then the Redeemer is described. And then the Redeemer's
work is described. your response to this gospel. Now, first of all, the objects
of mercy described. Look at it. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Now, there's not one person here
who does not find his place with all the rest of us in that tribe,
sinners, under that title, sinners. I don't care whether it's in
the palace or the prison, we're sinners. It doesn't matter whether
we're in the college or the coal mine, we're sinners. It doesn't
matter whether we're in government or the gutter, we're sinners.
It doesn't matter whether we're the most honored in this town
or the most hated. In the sight of God, we're sinners.
The Scripture says all have sinned and come short of God's glory.
All we like sheep have gone astray. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that understandeth. We're sinners. And Charles Spurgeon
says we're fourfold sinners. You want to look at this? Fourfold
sinners. Now, this is good. First of all,
he says we are sinners by nature. We're born that way. Oh, how
men have rebelled against this doctrine. Oh, how they hate it.
Oh, how they despise it. It must be of God, the way men
hate it. It must be of God, original sin must be true because everybody
hates it. The truth, the truth of man's
fall, men hate it, but it's inspired of God. Listen over here, David
said, I was shapen in iniquity, I was brought forth in sin. In sin my mother conceived me,
the wicked are estranged from the womb, speaking lies. One day our Lord was talking
to his disciples. And one of them said, who's going
to be the greatest in the kingdom of God? And you read this sometime. He called a little child over,
and he said he set that little child in the midst of them. And
our Lord evidently put his hand on that little child's head,
and he looked at these disciples, and he said, except you be converted
and become as a little child, you shall not even enter the
kingdom of God. And then he began to talk about
these little ones and offending these little ones. It'd be better,
he said, if a man had a millstone tied around his neck and cast
into the sea rather than offend one of these little ones. And
then he said this, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost. That's right. Even the little
child is lost. And even the little child owes
its redemption, its salvation, to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he said, read it. He took that child and set that
child in their midst and he began to talk about this child and
began to tell them they must be humbled and broken and converted
and brought to the place in spirit of a little child, in humility
as a little child. And then he had thought, the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Our Lord said that which is born
of the flesh is flesh. whether it's one day old or whether
it's a hundred years old, it's still flesh. We are sinners by
nature. And then Spurgeon said this,
we're sinners by action. Watch this, our nature reveals
itself in our character. And our character reveals itself
in our conduct. David said, my sins are ever
before me. Are yours? Are your sins ever
before you? The word sinner belongs to us
not only by nature, but by actions. Our sins of thought, our sins
of attitude, our sins of deeds, our sins of words, our sins of
imagination, anything that's short of perfection is sin. Even
the thought of foolishness, God says, is sin. And then thirdly,
we're sinners by inability. We not only wander away from
God, listen to this, we not only wander away from God, but we
have no desire to come home. You will not come to me, he said,
that you might have life. How oft would I have gathered
you to myself, but you would not. And then this very enlightening
statement was made by Charles Spurgeon when he said, the Son,
listen to this, he said, what's wrong with man? What do you mean
by inability? The sun, S-U-N, the sun, it gives
light to this world. The sun can only be seen by its
own light. Now get that, let that soak in. The sun can only be seen by,
when I look at the sun, I'm seeing the sun by its own light. If it were not there, I couldn't
see not only anything else, but it either. I see the sun by its
own light. When a man loses God, which we did in the garden, he
has no source of light to see God or understand God, because
God is understood in the light of himself. You see what he's saying? And
man has no way of understanding who God is, what God is, what
God wills, what God does. He has no way of seeing, no way
of understanding without a revelation of God himself. To see God God has to reveal Himself. He's
understood in the light of Himself, just like the Scripture is interpreted
not in the light of a commentary, but in the light of itself. That's
where man's inability is. No, don't talk to him about the
Son. The Son's not there. He cannot understand. The Son
is seen in His own light, and God is understood in the light
of God as God reveals Himself. And we're sinners not only by
nature and by actions and by inability, but we're sinners
by condemnation. We're oftentimes told by inaccurate
preachers that we're on probation. Do you think that? Do you think
you're on trial? They say, this world, this life
is a trial. I beg your pardon. Now that couldn't
be any further from the truth than it is. The trial's over.
We're not on probation. We're not on trial. We're under
condemnation. That's what the Scripture says.
The trial is over. Man has been tested and failed. The evidence has been presented.
The trial's over. The verdict's already been pronounced.
The wages of sin is death. The soul that's in it, it shall
die. We're under judgment. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
The trial's over. We're already under sentence.
We're not on probation, we're on death row. We're awaiting
execution. It's a matter of time. The scripture
says hell is moving up to meet you at your coming. You're already
a subject. What the captive needs is to
be set free. What the guilty needs is to be
pardoned. What the criminal needs is to
be justified. What the sinner needs is for
somebody to take his place and bear his sentence. He's already
under condemnation. Do you understand what we're
saying? Already under condemnation. We're not on trial, we're not
on probation. We don't come into this world as a baby and begin
to grow and on probation whether or not we'll go to God or go
to Satan. We're already children of wrath, even as others. Christ
turned to those Jews and says, you're of your father the devil.
He was a liar from the beginning. He's the father of liars. That's
what the Master said. What we need to do is by Christ
be rescued from the clutches of the evil one. We need to be
rescued from our prison cell on death row and Christ to open
the door and take us out and go in and take our place. Because
the sentence has got to be carried out. The soul that sinneth it
shall die. So there it's described, Paul
said, these are the objects of mercy, they're sinners. Not potential sinners, they're
sinners. Not probable sinners, they're sinners. The Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that which was lost, L-O-S-T,
lost, plum lost. It's the objects of mercy. All
right, notice the Redeemer. He's described now. It says,
Christ Jesus. This is interesting. Christ Jesus.
What do these two words mean? Christ Jesus. We use them all
the time. Some people use them in blasphemy.
Jesus Christ, you know. But these two words have a meaning.
Christ Jesus. The words mean this, anointed
Savior. That's what they mean. The two
words, Christ Jesus, means anointed Savior. And this is what he's
saying. A true report, and it's worthy of your acceptation that
the anointed Savior has come into this world to save sinners. Now then, that reveals two things.
It reveals, first of all, his preexistence. Now, I'd be foolish
to say, I've come into the world. You'd say, you're foolish. Where
were you before? Well, I didn't exist before.
In August the 19th, 1926, that's when I started to exist, right
then. I never existed before. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I came into this world. He came through the virgin's
womb in the form of a baby, but before the world was, He was. He said, Father, glorify me with
the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, and the Word was made flesh, and we beheld His glory.
I came into this world. Turn to John 16. Here's the verse
that I found in connection with this. John 16, verse 28. Listen to this. He said, I came
forth from the Father. John 16, 28. I came forth from
the Father, and I'm coming to this world. Again, he said, I
leave this world. and go to the Father. I came
from the Father, and I came into this world. And I'm in the world
now, and I'll leave this world and I'll go back to the Father.
The anointed Savior has come. You know, I'll tell you something
else. The Lord Jesus called himself the Son of Man. Now, any human
being, be fooled, called himself the Son of Man. What else could
he be? The son of a gorilla? The son of a turkey? No, he's
the son of man. That's what we are. We're the
sons of men. We can't be anything else. But Christ said, I'm the
son of man. The son of man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. It's unusual for God to be the
son of man. You see, that's a miracle. That's
incarnation. The son of God is the son of
man. He who thought it not robbery to be equal with God laid aside
his robes of eternal glory and came down here and clothed himself
in the likeness of sinful flesh and became the Son of Man. Christ
Jesus, the anointed Savior, anointed of God, the Savior. That's the way He's described,
the anointed Savior. There is no other Savior but
the One who is anointed, the One who is ordained. For this
cause came unto this hour. He has come. Now here's His work
described. Listen to it. He says, this is
a sure saying and it's worthy of your acceptation that the
anointed Savior has come into this world to save sinners. Now He didn't come, the anointed
Savior didn't come to aid us in our efforts to save ourselves.
That's not what He says. The anointed Savior has come
to aid you in saving your souls. He did not come to make up certain
deficiencies in our righteousness. He did not come to lower the
standard of God's holiness and God's law that we might slip
in by tainted works and tainted lives. No, he said he came to
save. The anointed Savior has come
to save. And all that is included in our
redemption from eternity past to eternity future, Christ is
and Christ did and Christ is doing. That's so, that's salvation. He came to give us a righteousness
which we didn't have. Righteousness for the ungodly.
He came to give life to the dead. He came to give pardon to the
guilty. He came to give mercy to the
undeserving. Turn to Romans chapter 5. This
is a familiar scripture, but I want to read it right here.
Romans chapter 5. Salvation is not cooperation with God. Salvation is a work that Christ
has done in active and passive obedience and fulfilled and finished
in Himself. Anything that I return to God,
anything that I perform for the glory of God, anything that I
do for the glory of God is that which God does in me and through
me and for His will and purpose and it has nothing whatsoever
to do with my acceptance with God. Nothing whatsoever. My acceptance or Or am I being
separated from God? Look at Romans 5, verse 6. When
we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8, God commended His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Verse 10, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life. Does that sound like cooperation?
Does that sound like God on the end of a bargain? If you will,
I will. You take the first step and I'll
meet you. If you believe, I'll do this. If you'll join the church,
I'll do this. If you'll be baptized, if you'll
give me your heart, if you'll give me your life, I'll do this
in return. I'll do this in response. I'll
reward you. I'll bless you. This is what's
being preached. But I'm preaching, and I believe
it with all my heart. I'm preaching a salvation by
substitution. I'm preaching a salvation by
divine design. I'm preaching a salvation which
God has accomplished without the aid of any human being, without
any effort or works or deeds or decisions or even faith on
the part of man. And that salvation was purposed
in Christ, it was given in Christ, it was accomplished by Christ,
and all the glory will be given to Christ. And that's a particular
redemption. And I'll tell you this, it's
yours if you want it. Yeah, absolutely, it's yours
if you want it. But don't you come bringing your nickel to
exchange for God's millions. Don't you come with your rags
to be added to His robe. Don't you come with your hands
full of your promises and your pledges and your decisions to
add to Christ's righteousness. You come naked and He closes
you. You come hungry, and He fills you. You come satisfied. You come hungry, and He fills
you. You come poor, and He enriches you. You come dead, and He gives
you life. You come guilty, and He pardons. In my hands, no price
I bring, except for the cross I claim. If you don't want that,
you can't come by Christ, because He won't share His glory. He
that gloweth, let him glow in the Lord. Listen to this. Come
ye sinners, poor, needy, Weak, wounded, sick and sore, Jesus
ready stands to save you, full of pity, love and power. Let
not conscience make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. All
the fitness He requires is what? To feel your need of Him. That's
it. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and mangled by the fall, if you tear it till you're better, you'll
never come at all. Now you needy, come and welcome.
God's free bounty, glorified. True belief and true repentance.
Every grace that brings you nigh. Without money, come to Jesus
Christ and buy. How do you buy without money?
It's a give. That's how you buy without money.
Now don't try this downtown tomorrow. It won't work. You got to have
something to give in exchange. But when you come to our Lord,
it's the opposite. Don't bring anything. He'll turn
you away. You go to town without money, they'll turn you away.
If you go to God with money, He'll turn you away. If you go to town without some
means of exchange, they'll turn you away. You go to God with
any means, He'll turn you away. Because if you can wiggle that
little finger, you'll wiggle it in glory, and it'll mess up
that glorious song of praise to the Lamb. It'll be somebody
out of tune. Maybe somebody out of tune. That
heavenly choir sings together. They sang one tune unto Him who
loved us and washed us from our sin and made us kings and priests
unto God. Unto Him, Him! And some guy back
here in the back row, me, me. I baptized 120. I won 40 souls
to Christ. I gave a tithe all my life. I
taught Sunday school. I didn't miss a service. I did
the, get him out of there. He's messing up the heavenly
choir. He's messing up the song of praise. Our Lord's not going
to share his glory. Get him out. How'd you get in
here? Take him out. He has not on a
wedding garment. Cast him out. Everybody that
comes in comes dressed for the King. And the King provides the
whole garment. The whole garment. He won't even
let you wear a boutonniere of your own human righteousness.
He'll rip that off too. You're going to come in clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. There won't be one little finger
lifted in glory to the praise of man's works. Not one. That's
what Scripture teaches. Christ Jesus came to save. The anointed Savior came to save. Now in closing, what's your response? He says, This is a sure saying. This is the record. God has given
us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Now, what is the
response? He said, it's worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy to be received. But I'll tell you this, it meets
my need. It meets my need. I receive it. I don't know of
any other foundation so I build on Christ. I don't know of any
other door. So I go to Christ. I don't know of any other way.
So I look to Christ. I don't know of any other mediator.
So I cry to him. I don't know any other way. He
turned to his disciples one day and he said, Will you go away?
And they said, Well, Lord, to whom shall we go? I don't know. I'm not satisfied with what I'm
hearing. I'm not satisfied with what men
are presenting. But I'm satisfied with what God
has said. It's in Christ. I find this meets
the need of the no matter who it is. If I go over to Africa
and find some heathen hot-and-tot in the jungles of Africa, I can
say, God'll save you. You don't need to present a thing.
You don't need to bring anything. It'll meet your need. You're
just a mass of flesh. That's all you are. You're just
a needy fallen sinner, son of Adam, a rebel. I can go up to
the White House and find one of the senators, and I can say
the same thing to him. It'll meet his need, too. It'll meet
his need. He's nothing but a sinner. He
may have it covered up a little better than that hot and taut,
but he's just a sinner. He may be dressed in finer clothes and
smell better, but in the sight of God, he's nothing but flesh.
He doesn't smell any better than the heavenly nostrils. He smells. He's got leprosy. His throat's
an open sepulchre. And I tell him the same thing,
and I find a talented athlete, and I tell him, Christ is your
only hope. I find some poor boy in a wheelchair
and I tell him, Christ is your only hope. I don't care who you
are. I find a college professor and
he studied what makes the sun shine and what orbit the moon
takes and the stars. He knows all those things. I
find an old plow boy over here behind a mule and he doesn't
even know anything about those things. He just knows you plant
corn and it comes up in the spring. But God will meet their needs,
either one of them. And He's the only one that can.
There's only one way of salvation that meets every need, and that's
free grace. Free grace. If a man has to do
anything, say anything, be anything, produce anything, give anything,
it's going to leave somebody out. It's going to leave somebody
out. But this gospel of free grace
leaves nobody out. It's worthy of acceptation by
all men. Don't you mind leading us in
242. I think this might be appropriate. The response, out of my bondage,
sorrow not, Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and
life, Jesus, I come to thee. Oh, the beauty of this song,
out of my sickness, into thy health, out of my want, into
thy will, out of my sin, into thyself. Let's stand while we
sing 242.

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