Now my message tonight will be
divided into three parts. I'm going to deal first of all
with a reason, and then second with a rule, and then close in
giving an example. There are three reasons for preaching
the gospel, and they are in this order, and they must not be reversed. This will determine not only
our methods, but this will determine our message. There are three
reasons for preaching the gospel, and they must not be in any other
order than the following. Number one, we preach primarily
and first of all for the glory of God. Scripture says whatever
we do, In word or deed, we do all for the glory of God. That's
why we preach. If we preach primarily for any
other reason, then I don't think we can expect the blessings of
God upon our ministry. If God uses our message as a
saver of life unto life, we praise His name. If God uses our message
as a saver of death unto death, then we still praise His name.
In Ezekiel chapter 3, I want you to turn over here with me
a moment. Now this is an unusual command, and it's an unusual
statement that the Lord makes to this man to whom He gives
the command. In Ezekiel chapter 3, verse 4,
He said to me, Son of man, go. Get thee unto the house of Israel,
and speak my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people
of a strange speak, and of a hard language, but I am sending you
to the people who call themselves my people, the house of Israel.
You are my spokesman, you are my prophet, and I am sending
you to preach to my people, to Israel, to professing children
of God. Verse 6, Not too many people
of a strange speech, or of a hard language, whose words thou canst
not understand. Surely had I sent thee to them,
they would have hearkened unto thee. Now listen, verse 7, The
house of Israel will not hearken unto thee. They will not hear
you. They will not heed what you say.
They will not believe your message. I want you to go. I want you
to preach to them, but they're not going to hear you, because
they will not hear me. For all the house of Israel are
impotent and hard-headed, and they will not hear you." In verse
5 of chapter 2, he gives a similar command. He told them to go,
I send you to the children of Israel. And verse 5, it says,
they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear,
for they are rebellious house, yet shall know that there hath
been a prophet among them." You go preach to them. They're not
going to hear you. They're not going to hearken
to you, for they will not hearken unto me. But you go for me, and
they're going to know that a prophet has been among them, whether
they hear or whether they don't hear. I want you to go and preach
to them. We preach for the glory of God.
In 1 Corinthians 3, I'd like you to turn to this scripture.
I think it's significant. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 4,
Paul said that the church at Corinth was divided. Some of
the people were saying, I am of Paul. I'm a follower of Paul.
Verse 4 and another says, I am of Apollos. I'm a follower of
Apollos. Are you not carnal? You're thinking
and acting like natural men. Who is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believe,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God giveth the increase. Now what's this next verse? So
then neither is he that planted anything. Paul's not anything.
He's just a vessel in the hands of the Lord. He's just an instrument
in the hands of the Holy Spirit. It's just a means that God uses.
Paul is not anything, and Apollos is not anything. But God, that
giveth the increase, He's everything. So we preach for the glory of
God. If we preach to a people who hear us by God's grace, we
preach for the glory of God. If we preach like Noah for 120
years to a people who never hear us and never hearken to us, We
still preach for the glory of God. We don't change our message.
We keep the same message. We preach for the glory of God.
Judson, the great missionary to Burma, whose efforts God crowned
with unusual success in later years, yet the first seven years
that Judson was on the field, he had not one single convert. Not one. And the mission board
wrote him several times and questioned his ministry. It certainly was
not effective, it certainly was not successful, and they even
suggested that he come home. But he wrote back and told them
that God sent him there, that God called him to preach his
gospel, and he was not responsible for the results. He was responsible
to tell men the truth and be true to their souls, and that's
the first reason for preaching. If God Almighty does not save
sinners tonight, or next week, or all year, the message is still
the same, the gospel is still the same, the need is still the
same, and we must be faithful. God did not call us necessarily
to be successful. Some of His greatest men, in
the eyes of men, have been totally unsuccessful. He called us to
be faithful, and He called us to be true to His Word, and we
must not compromise it. Somebody said, well, the primary
purpose for preaching is to win souls. And that's the very reason
why preachers today have compromised the message. Their primary purpose
is to get converts, church members, baptisms, and win souls, and
they've compromised in order to do it. They've cut the edges
off the gospel. They've made the gospel something
that it's not in order to get men to make decisions. We're
not preaching for decisions. We're preaching for the glory
of God. We're preaching God's message. We're delivering God's
Word. If men believe it, wonderful.
If they don't believe it, we still deliver God's Word. The
message is still the same. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Second reason why we preach,
and in this order, and they must not be reversed. They must not
be changed. The second reason why we preach
is the conversion of the elect. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2.
There's no reason why we should apologize for that word. No reason
why we should be timid in using it. Paul used it. Our Lord Jesus
Christ used it over and over again. We preach, first of all,
for the glory of God. Ezekiel went out to the Valley
of Dry Bones, and God says, preach to them. Ezekiel didn't say,
it's no use, they're dead. God says, preach to them. Ezekiel
didn't say, there's no use, they won't hear. God says, preach
to them. Ezekiel didn't say, it's no use,
they can't hear me, can't understand. God said, preach to them. He
preached to them. He did what God called him to do, and God
gave them life. Now, the second reason for preaching
is the conversion of the elect. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 10, the
apostle writes, Therefore I endure all things, and he endured some
difficult times. He was scourged, he was beaten,
he was stoned, he was shipwrecked, he was criticized, he was put
in prison. But I endure all things for the
elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is
in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Our Lord said, you go
and preach the gospel to every creature. We don't preach to
just the elect. We don't know who they are. We
preach to every creature. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1,
the Apostle Paul said, Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel.
It's the gospel which I preached unto you. It's the gospel which
you received. It's the gospel wherein you stand,
it's the gospel by which you're saved. That's why we preach. We preach, first of all, for
the glory of God. That's the reason for being up
here, for the glory of God, to deliver His message to this generation. God has His men in each generation,
and He gives His men His message, and He says, Paul says, I plow
and I plant and I polish waters and somebody else does something
else, but God gives the increase. God causes the seed to germinate. God gives the seed life. God
brings forth His children. That's God's business. Ours is
to pray and wait upon the Lord. And God uses this message for
the conversion of His people. He uses this message to convict
them, to reveal Christ to them, and to bring them to faith. The
third reason for preaching is to fulfill our responsibility
to unbelievers. We not only have a responsibility
to the elect, we have a responsibility to every son of Adam. That's
why we send missionaries. Not that we expect to convert
all the heathen, but whether any of them are converted or
not, we have a responsibility to them. Turn to Ezekiel 33,
and I'll show you that responsibility. Whether any man is ever saved,
through the television ministry of this church, we have a responsibility
to carry it on. Whether any man has ever saved
through the radio ministry, we have a responsibility to carry
it on, because our Lord gave us a commandment. You shall be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts
of the earth. We are to go and preach the gospel
to every creature. We have a responsibility to every
son of Adam. If every church in America as
far as missions and television and radio is concerned, was doing
in their area what this church is doing, we'd fulfill that responsibility
to this whole nation. There's not a person within 120
miles of this church that cannot hear the gospel of Jesus Christ
preached from this pulpit, either by radio or in person or through
the television ministry. And if every God-ordained minister
of the gospel and church of the Lord Jesus Christ would do that,
we'd get the gospel out to all men in this nation. In Ezekiel
33, verse 7, and that's our responsibility, listen, So thou, O son of man,
I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore
thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
Now, when I say unto the wicked, Oh, wicked man, thou shalt surely
die if you do not speak to warn that wicked man from his way.
He'll die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your
hands." That's serious, isn't it? We have a responsibility.
The wicked are not going to turn from their wicked way. They're
going to continue in their rebellion. They're going to die in their
sin. But God tells us to warn them, and if we sit down, somebody
says, if I believed what you believed, I wouldn't preach.
The reason I preach is because I believe what I believe. I believe
that salvation is in the hands of the Lord, and He's able to
save sinners. I don't believe sinners can save
themselves. But I believe even if God doesn't save another man,
He told me to preach. And it's not my business to question
God's wisdom. It's my business to do what God
tells me to do. When God says, go and preach
the gospel to every creature, I don't say, why, Lord? We're
supposed to do what He says. That's what He says here to Ezekiel.
Look at the next verse. Nevertheless, if you warn the
wicked, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and
he does not turn, he'll die in his iniquity. But you've delivered
your soul. You say, that's Old Testament.
Well, let's find it in the New Testament. Acts chapter 20. Acts
the 20th chapter. Now that was God speaking to
Ezekiel. He said, Ezekiel, you're my watchman,
you're my prophet. Turn to Acts chapter 20. You're
my servant and I've sent you out to preach. If you warn the
wicked and he dies in his sins, your hands are free from his
blood. But if you don't preach, if you don't warn him, whatever
the reason, I'll require his blood at your hands. And Paul
in Acts 20 verse 26. And he said, And now, behold,
I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom
of God, shall see my face no more. He is taking his leave,
and he knows he is going to die, and he will not be back. Therefore
I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood
of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. What a parting remark! Paul didn't
preach what he thought he ought to preach, or what he felt like
the people would receive. He didn't like one preacher who
said, if I preached a certain thing, I'd lose all my members.
That's not what Paul said. He said, I'm free from your blood
because I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel
of God. And that makes my hands free
from your blood. I'm not responsible. If you die
in your sin, if you die in your iniquity, if you die in your
rebellion, If you die without hope and without God and without
Christ, he said, I've told you, I've warned you, and that's all
I can do, and I'm free from your blood. Look at Acts 18. Acts
18. Now listen to this. And when
Silas, Acts 18 verse 5, verse 5 it is, when Silas and Timothy
would come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit, and
he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. He's the Savior. He's the Messiah.
He's the only hope of lost men. And when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, Paul shook his raiment and he said, All right,
your blood be on your own heads. I'm clean. From henceforth, I
go to the Gentiles. I'm free from your blood. I've
told you. And you've opposed and you've
blasphemed. You rebelled against God and
I don't know where these preachers today get the idea that they're
supposed to win everybody to Christ that they preach to. Paul
couldn't. Paul couldn't. I don't know where
they get the idea that everywhere they go they're supposed to have
a successful revival. Paul didn't. About half the places
he went he wound up in jail. They tell me nowadays when a
One of these big-shot evangelists goes to a town. He wants somebody
to show him where the best hotel is. When Paul went to a city,
he said, you show me where the jail is. That's where I'll probably
wind up and have to spend the night. But we expect now that
all we have to do is put our picture in the paper and announce
we're here and everybody will come and flock down the aisles
and we'll have revival. But they didn't. When Paul preached
to them who Christ is, they opposed. They blasphemed. He shook his
raiment. He said, all right, your blood
be on your own heads. I'm clean from your blood. I
turn to the Gentiles. Now that's the reason. We preach for three reasons.
The glory of God. That's the first thing. That's
uppermost. That's primary. That's it. Secondly,
we preach for the conversion of the elect. They're out there
somewhere. Our Lord's got some sheep out there somewhere. And
they've got to hear the gospel from somebody. And the Holy Spirit's
going to take the gospel and apply it to their heart. You
may not be one of them, but they're out there anyway. He said to
Paul, you stay in this town, I've got much people in this
town. They hadn't been saved yet, but they're there. Christ
said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, I'm going
to bring them too. And they're going to hear my
voice, and they're going to follow me, and they're going to be one
fold and one shepherd. They're out there somewhere.
And we, as ambassadors of Christ, are looking for them. And thirdly,
we preach to cleanse our hands of the blood of rebels, because
we have responsibility to a rebel. We have responsibility. We're
debtors both to the Jews and to the Greeks, to the barbarians
and to the free. We're debtors to all men, because
God's given us His word, His message. Secondly, now, we'll
give a rule. There are three things that should
always be present in every message. And now, there are high points
in a man's ministry, and I believe this was one of the high points
in my ministry, and they come in the most unexpected way. I
was just sitting one day years ago reading a book. I think by
Spurgeon or one of those men, he quoted Roland Hill. And Roland
Hill said that every message, every message ought to contain
the three R's. And ever since I read that statement,
I've been carefully examining every message I preach. It's
constantly on my mind, because I believe he was inspired of
God to write it and to say it. And I've been searching every
message I preach for these three R's. Spurgeon added this to that
statement. If the message does not contain
these three R's, it ought not even be preached. And they are,
first of all, ruined by the fall. Ruined by the fall, or what happened
in the garden. There's no way, now listen to
this, there is no way, no way that we can help a sinner unless
we and he properly understand his needs. No way we can help
a man unless we understand his need, unless he understands his
need. The doctor cannot prescribe for
a disease which he doesn't understand. The very first thing that a doctor
does before he ever writes a prescription is diagnose the problem. You don't walk into the into
the doctor's office and they hand out prescriptions as you
come in. Now here's a good one for you. And would you like a
pink one or a blue one or a red one? Now which kind would you
like? No, the doctor examines you and finds out whether you've
got head trouble or heart trouble. He finds out whether you've got
back trouble or stomach trouble because there's a different prescription
for different diseases. And unless he can understand
the disease, he can't correct it. And unless the preacher And
the person to whom he preaches, unless both of them understand
that man's need, there's no way he can be of any help to him.
We are sent to preach to sinners. And if a man's not a sinner,
we have no message. I've given this several times
in other places. I don't know whether I've told
it here or not, but it's a true story. I was pastor at Pollard Baptist
Church, sitting in the office one day, and the phone rang.
The lady on the other end of the line identified herself.
They live a few blocks from the church. She came to church occasionally,
but he never did. I'd been to his home, but didn't
do much good because he wasn't interested in spiritual things.
And she said, My husband's in King's Daughter's Hospital. He's
been hurt. Would you come down and see him?" I said, well, I
certainly will. She said, I think he wants to be saved. Well, I
said, that's wonderful, and I got my Bible, went out and got in
the car and rode down to the hospital. There he lay. He was working for the city,
and he was working down here on Greenup Avenue, and he had
some kind of blowtorch or something working over a manhole, and a
sewer gas blew up, and I started to stay scared out of him, but
it didn't quite. It just almost did, you know.
Anyway, he was lying there in the bed, and he wasn't hurt bad,
just scared. And I walked in, I had my Bible,
and well, I said, Ed, that was his name, I said, Ed, your wife
tells me you want to be a Christian. He said, that's right. He said,
Preacher, I nearly met God today. I said, yes, well, I said, I'm
glad that you want to be a Christian, and I was going to look for some
scripture. I said, Ed, you know you're a sinner, don't you? And
I started turning in my Bible, and he never said anything. And
I looked up, I said, you know you're a sinner, don't you? And
he had the most puzzled look on his face. He said, well, he
said, I wouldn't say that. I said, what would you say? He
said, well, I wouldn't say that I was a sinner. Now, he said,
I'm not the best fellow in the tri-state, but I wouldn't say
I was a sinner. I said, you wouldn't? He said,
no. He said, he said, I hadn't now, granted I hadn't been to
church, and he said I hadn't joined the church and been baptized
and nothing like that, but he said, he said, I've always tried
to live for a good life. Well, I don't know how you react
to situations like that, but I closed my Bible and I prepared
to leave. And I said, well, I don't have
anything for you. I'm sorry. He said, what do you mean? I
said, Christ died for sinners. If you're not a sinner, he didn't
die for you. He said, no use me standing here telling you
about his death. He died for the ungodly. That's what it says.
And I've got good news for sinners, but I'm sorry, Ed, I don't have
anything for you. And I walked out of the room.
Now, these tittle-de-wink playing preachers can go on and try to
win people like that if they want to, but if a man's not lost,
he's not going to be found. He said, well, you ought to stay
there and convince him he is a sinner. I can't do that. The
Holy Spirit has to do that. Scripture says, and when He has
come, He will convict the world of sin. And if God Almighty can't
convince a man he's a sinner, I'm wasting my time to try to
do it. And I'm not going to try to give
shoes to a man that's got no feet, and gloves to a man that's
got no hands, and Christ to a man that's got no knees. There's
no need of it. There's one thing that has to
be established, and that's ruined by the fall. Ruined by the fall. Men are sinners, and we've got
a message for sinners. What did Christ say? The disciples
came, and the Lord had been talking about, it wasn't that which goeth
into the mouth that defileth a man. It wasn't eaten with unwashing
hands. It's that which came out of the
heart that defiled. It's the corruption and evil
in the heart. And the disciples said, the Pharisees, the religious
people, were offended by what you said. What did Christ say?
Leave them alone. Isn't that what he said? That's
exactly what he said. You leave them alone. They are
blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
they fall in the ditch and everybody they lead falls into the ditch.
Leave them alone. Turn to people that have a need
and minister to them. and quit wasting your time with
these good folks that are going to hell. The second thing that
every sermon ought to contain is not only ruin by the fall,
but redemption by the blood. What happened on the cross, huh?
If you know what happened in the garden, you'll be interested
in what happened on the cross. If you know something about ruin,
you'll be interested in redemption. Paul said we preach Christ and
what? And Him crucified. We preach
all things are yours in Christ. Out of Christ the sacrifice,
out of Christ the substitute, there's nothing. A bloodless
religion is a hopeless religion. The death of Jesus Christ as
the substitute for sinners, the death of Jesus Christ that enables
God to be both just and justifier, The death of Christ for sinners
that puts away through His atoning sacrifice the penalty of sin
and the power of sin and the punishment of sin and even, yea,
the presence of sin is what this Bible is all about. That's what
it's all about. I'm not preaching civil rights
or civil wrongs. I'm preaching Christ and Him
crucified. That's the message. Redemption by the blood. It is
the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. I have given it
to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul. And
without the shedding of blood there is no remission. From Genesis
to Revelation it starts with the blood and it winds up with
the blood. Unto him who loved us and washed
us from our sin in his own blood. That's the way it starts and
that's the way it ends. And it must be in every message,
Christ and Him crucified. Now brethren, many preachers
preach about the gospel, but they don't preach the gospel.
Many preachers talk about religion, they talk about church, they
talk about programs, they talk about all these things, but they
don't talk about who He is, and why He came, and what He did. We've got to preach Christ. We've
got to quit talking about what men are doing for God and talk
about what God in Christ did for men. Preach Christ and Him
crucified. Tell men what He did and why
He did it. And then the third thing that
every message must contain, not only ruin by the fall and redemption
by the blood, but regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Now, brethren,
Salvation is more than an experience. It's a whole lot more. I hope
there's no one listening to my voice tonight who's trusting
and depending upon an experience to save your soul. Salvation
is more than a doctrine. I believe in doctrine. I love
it because I like to know why. I like to know what God's doing.
I like to know why God does it. I like to know in what way he
does it. I like to study doctrine, but
doctrine won't save. Doctrine apart from Christ is
dry, dead, and cold. But now let's not do this. Let's
not be so lazy that we make fun of doctrine because we're too
lazy to study. Now, I know there's a lot of
people guilty of that very thing. They say, well, I don't preach
doctrine. I preach Jesus. You're too lazy to study. That's
the reason. Salvation is more than doctrine.
Salvation is more than a moral code. Morality is important. Obedience is important. Righteousness
is important. Avoid every appearance of evil.
Let others see Christ in your life. But I guarantee you that
salvation is more than a moral code. It's more than a decision.
I believe that a decision will occur. If a man is saved, he
certainly makes a decision. He certainly does. He makes some
decisions about himself. He makes some decisions about
his home and about his life. He makes some decisions about
his activities. He makes some decisions about
his profession, his public works, all these things. But salvation
is more than a decision. Salvation is a person. Salvation
is a living, vital union with a person. Salvation is more than
an experience, a doctrine, a moral code, a decision. It is an encounter
with a living person. It is to meet Him, and to be
so taken with Him, and to be so enraptured by Him. And it's to become a part of
Him. It's a marriage union. It's a
vine-branch relationship. Paul said, I prevail till Christ
be formed in you. That's what salvation is. It's
a union with Christ. It's more than just coming down
an aisle and making the decision concerning what you believe about
Christ. It's to encounter Christ in a
saving way, in a believing way. It's to be merged into Him and
Him into you. My Father and I will take up
our abode in you. Now an example, Luke 19. Here's an example of that kind
of preaching. There are four things here that I'll do no more
than just give you briefly. First of all, our condition is
described. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Our condition is described. lost. These words describe every one
of us. Whether we're in the church of
the world, whether we are accepted socially or cast out by society,
whether we live morally or immorally, this describes all of us. We're
L-O-S-T, lost. We're lost by nature. David said,
I was born in sin. He said, I was conceived in iniquity. He said, I've brought forth speaking
lies. And however men may rebel against
this truth, it's so anyway. In Adam we sinned, in Adam we
died, in Adam judgment and condemnation came upon all men, in Adam we
are lost. And we're not only lost by nature,
we're lost by actions, for we have sinned and come short of
God's glory. To offend in one point of the
law is to be guilty of the whole law of God, and we're lost. And
then we're lost by attitude. The law of God goes deeper than
outward obedience. It goes deeper than action. It
goes down to the very imagination, attitude, and motive. The Scripture
says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And Christ said, This
is the law. And we haven't done it. And thy
neighbor as thyself. What a condemnation. And we're
lost under the condemnation and judgment of the law. The law
of God has a claim on you. Has a claim on you. We're in bondage to the broken
law, just like men who are in prison. They have violated the
law. The law has found them guilty
and sinister. And there's no way out till they
pay the price. Because the law has a claim.
Sure, mama has a claim. Sure, there's a wife out there
that has a claim. Sure, there's children out there
that have a claim. Sure, there's a job out there
that has a claim. But as long as this law has a
claim on them, nobody else can have them. And as long as the
law of God has a claim on you, heaven can't have you and God
can't have you. That law has got to be satisfied.
You see that? We're lost. We're lost. We're
lost to men. We're lost to God. We're lost
to society. We're lost to heaven. We're lost
to ourselves because the law has a claim on us. We're in bondage
to the law. We're shut up by the law. Imprisoned
by the law. It has first claim. Now, secondly, Christ is described. It says here, the Son of Man.
The Son of Man. First thing I see in this is
His deity. You say, you see his deity, son
of man? You mean son of God, you see
his deity. No, I see son of man. He calls
himself the son of man. He said this, Christ speaking,
the son of man. You say, well, how do you see
his deity? Well, wouldn't it be rather affectatious
for me to call myself the son of man, huh? What if I came up
here tonight and said, now I'm a son of man? You say, well,
my soul, we all know that. We've known you twenty some odd
years, and that's been one of the most evident things about
you, is you're a son of a man. Adam at that. That's all I am,
a son of man. I'm nothing else. And it would
be affectatious, it would be ridiculous for me to stand up
here and say, I'm the son of man. But when Christ calls himself
the son of man, it is in contrast to nature. He is the son of God.
And in condescension, He reminds us that He also, don't forget
He said, I'm the Son of Man. Don't forget, I'm the Son of
Man. That's who I am. That's the only way He could
be our Savior. For as the Son of Man, Christ Jesus takes not
only His condescending character, but He takes a representative
character. By man came death, By man came
resurrection. By man came sin. By the Son of
Man came the true and effectual sacrifice for sin. What God required
of man, a man fulfilled. In Adam we die, in Christ we
live. In Adam we became sinners, in
Christ we're made righteous. The man, Christ Jesus, He said,
the Son of Man. The only way that God can save
us is as the God-man. God as God only. And I hope you understand what
I'm saying. I hope I won't be misunderstood. God as God cannot
save sinners. Man only as man cannot save sinners. It takes God as man. Now that's right, because only
God can satisfy, and God can't suffer. But man can suffer, but
he can't satisfy. You see, man can never. That's the reason hell is everlasting,
because sin is important depending upon who it's against. And when
sin is against an infinite God, it requires infinite punishment.
And so men suffer in hell everlastingly. But Jesus Christ, being an infinite
Savior, is able by one sacrifice to satisfy an infinite God. And he wouldn't have, let me
tell you this, if Christ came to save if it wasn't but one
sinner, he'd have had to suffer just as much on that cross. He
didn't shed so much blood for so many people. He didn't suffer
so many seconds for so many people. If he saves ten billion, if he
saves ten, he's got to die. God as man. God to suffer, man
is to satisfy. Man could never save because
man is finite in his character. But Jesus Christ being the God
of glory and being perfect man can both suffer and satisfy. And we see him in his mediatorial
character. There's one God, one mediator,
the man, the Son of man. All right, look at the next line
quickly. His grace is described, it says, the Son of Man is come. Now brethren, this may be translated,
and it is in the amplified version in a different way, but I prefer
the King James here because it says what Christ is saying. He
didn't say the Son of Man was come or has come or will come.
He said He is come. He is come. His suretyship is
forever. You can't say anything about
Christ saying He was here because He's always been here. You can't
say He will come because He is come. You can't say, well, He
has come. That's intimating that it was
a time when He wasn't here, but He is come. There was a time
when Christ was not our surety. There never was a time when Christ
was not our Savior. Then there was a time when Christ
was not our substitute. Then there was a time when Christ
was not our Lamb. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, and He is the Lamb of whom they speak
when they say He's worthy to take the book and open the seals.
He's still the Lamb. The Scripture says He's a priest
forever, having neither beginning nor ending of days. Like Melchizedek. He ever liveth to make intercession. He is come. Moses could say that
when he looked at the Passover. He is come. Abraham could say
that as he looked at the ram caught in the ticket. He is come. Israel could say that as they
looked at the brazen serpent. He is come. Isaiah could say
that as he looked at the root out of dry ground. He is come. Simeon could say that as he looked
at the child in his arm. He is come! And Paul could say
that as he looked back from the road to Damascus and said, he
is come. So the Son of Man is come. From the covenant to the second
coming, he is come. What far is his mission to seek
and to save? To save, he had to become a man. To save, he had to be tried. To save, he had to suffer. To
save, he had to die. To save, he had to be separated
from the Father. To save, he had to rise from
the tomb. To save, he must daily intercede. To save, the second time he must
come. Our Father, take this message
tonight and use it to magnify and exalt and lift up Thy precious
Son, who is our Lord and our Savior. We never grow weary of
hearing of the treasures and blessings we have in the Redeemer.
Christ is our life and our hope and our salvation. Thank Thee,
Lord, that in our misery Thou art our delight, and in our failure
Thou art our joy. Thank Thee, Lord, that You take
the stumblings and fumblings of men, and make them rebound
to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the most frail vessel
can be used to satisfy the hungry and to make glad the thirsty. In the name of our Lord, we thank
thee. Amen.