Testimony of a Christian (Albert N. Martin - 11/24/1974)

Introduction: Baptism as a Public Declaration of Union with Christ

0:04 You are aware this is a very special day in the life history of our own congregation and in a very special, special way, the life history of some of the individuals within our congregation. For in a very real sense, this is, to some amongst us, what a wedding day is to a bride or to a groom.

0:30 By means of previous association, they have come to the place where they have committed themselves to each other. They have indicated that committal in what we call engagement. And they've declared to each other and to the world that they have settled upon their choice of a life's partner. Then comes the day when there is the formal cementing of that union with the exchange of vows, the exchange of rings.

1:01 And then they go off to show, share life together, for the two shall no longer be twain or two, God says, but one. Well, that is precisely what happens in the life history of a true Christian. God, in grace and mercy, brings a needy, bound, condemned sinner into living acquaintance with his Son, Jesus Christ. And that person who has thus been brought to that place of committal to the Lord Jesus, then, in obedience to the Lord, has a formal wedding day to the Lord.

1:40 That is, there comes a point in time when they declare publicly, before God and in the presence of witnesses, their hearty committal to Jesus Christ to be his loving bondservant and their public declaration that Jesus Christ is now theirs. And that is essentially the significance of the ordinance, of baptism. That is essentially the significance of becoming part of the visible church of Jesus Christ. The baptism does not make a man a Christian.

2:16 Becoming part of the visible church does not make a man a saint or a child of God. But it is the visible, public declaration before God and man that that relationship has been established and now is being declared in the way that God has ordained. And because this is a special day in the history of our church, there will be those bearing witness to Christ in the waters of baptism. This past Wednesday night, some 17 people bore testimony to the work of God's grace in their lives.

The Four Common Denominators of a Christian Testimony

2:53 What I wish to do this morning is to speak to you very simply, very, I trust, biblically, on what it is that has brought all of this to pass. Many of you were here. Many of you were here on Wednesday night and heard those 17 testimonies. And if you were here, you will remember that there were certain common denominators in all of those testimonies.

3:16 People sharing with us how God brought them to the place where they are now married. They are joined to Jesus Christ. And what I wish to do this morning is simply to take those four common denominators that were present in all of those testimonies and share them with you. Basing them upon the word of God that we might leave this place this morning with some understanding of what this is all about.

3:46 What is Christianity? When you strip away all of the activity and all of the rituals, good and bad and indifferent, and you get it down to its barest bones, what do you have when you have a Christian before you? Well, there were four common denominators, as I mentioned, in the testimony shared. Wednesday night.

First Denominator: A Painful Sense of Need for Christ

4:06 And the four were these. Number one, every single person who bore witness Wednesday night to being brought into vital relationship to Jesus Christ indicated that, first of all, God brought them to a very pointed and at times painful sense of their need of Jesus Christ. Not a one of them said, I went to bed one night perfectly smug, perfectly clean, perfectly clean, perfectly content with my life, my religious experience and everything, and I woke up the next morning a Christian. No, no, not a one of them said that.

4:44 Every single one of them, though the manner in which this happened was different in every case, every single one said, there came a point in my life, over a period of weeks, months or years, where I was brought to a painful awareness of my need of Jesus Christ and His salvation. I was brought to a painful awareness and I was brought to the awareness that I was not adequate of myself to live. I was not fit of myself to die and go to judgment. And you know our Lord Jesus Christ said in no uncertain terms that no one will ever be one of His followers until he or she is brought to that sense of desperate need of Himself. Where did He say that? Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. We're not dealing with the opinions of one of the pastors of the Trinity Baptist Church.

5:41 That isn't worth a nickel.

5:44 And I mean that literally. Even an inflationary nickel. It isn't worth it.

5:49 We're dealing with Jesus Christ,

5:54 the eternal Son of God, who speaks nothing but truth, who is called the very Word of God. Listen to the statement of our Lord in Matthew chapter 9, beginning with verse 10. And it came to pass, as He sat, had it meet in the house, He had gone to join in a feast in the house of one of His disciples named Matthew. Behold, many publicans and sinners, that is, notoriously sinful people, people that were known in the eyes of men to be the riffraff of the society of that day, they came in and sat down with Jesus and His disciples.

6:36 And when the Pharisees, the religious crowd, who had no sense of need, they had their religion, they had their ritual, they said their prayers, they went through all the rigmarole of professional religion, they had no sense of need. When this crowd saw the Lord Jesus hobnobbing with that crowd, this disturbed them. And they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with publicans and sinners? How in the world can your religious leader get into such close proximity to and intimate association with the riffraff?

7:10 Don't you know he's not hobnobbing with the in-crowd religiously? We're the in-crowd. We're the Pharisees, the official teachers. We're the priests and the teachers and the leaders and the reverends of our day.

7:23 What in the world is he doing with that bunch?

7:27 The Lord overheard this and noticed His response. But when He, Jesus, heard it, He said, They that are in the flush of good health, they that are whole, they that are well, they that are strong, have no need of a doctor. But they that are sick. But go ye and learn what this meaneth.

7:47 And then He quotes from the Old Testament. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous. Those who, like you Pharisees, have no painful sense of their need. I did not come simply to adorn your present religious life with a little more religion or a little different religion.

8:10 I did not come to call the righteous. I came to call you righteous ones. You who have no sense of need. You who are content because you're in the right place at the right time, saying the right words in the right way, according to the right standards.

8:23 He said, I didn't come for people like you. But He said, listen, this is what I came for. One of the most wonderful words in all of the Bible. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

8:33 I came for people like these publicans and these sinners. I came for people like these publicans I came for people who are aware of their need. I came for people who have come to see that they are not adequate of themselves to be fit for heaven. They are not adequate of themselves to know how to live life.

8:56 I did not come for the righteous ones. I came for sinners. You see, the religion of Jesus is a religion for sinners. And over the door of every single meeting place that is called, that is called a church, there ought to be emblazoned in the brightest of letters for sinners only.

9:22 For sinners only. Jesus could not state it in plainer words. In other words, until you have been brought to a painful sense of your desperate need of that which only Jesus can give, you are not a Christian. Oh, you say I'm not a Hindu.

9:42 I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a pagan. I'm not a Christian. I'm a baptized Christian.

9:48 My friend, you may bear the name of Christian, but according to the words of Christ.

9:57 They're my words. His words. I'll hide behind them. I'll be appalled this morning.

10:02 I'll hide behind them. He says to you from His own word, I did not come for the righteous, but sinners. He said it. And He gave a classic example of how this works out in practical experience.

Illustration of Need: The Pharisee and the Publican

10:15 Turn over to the Gospel according to, Luke.

10:19 Here's the statement from Christ. Now we see the Lord describing how this actually works out in the experience of two kinds of religious people. Because everyone here this morning is religious or you wouldn't be here. You'd be home reading the Sunday news or watching some inane program on the television or snoring away and having a glass of beer or something else, but you wouldn't be here.

10:43 And that's why this portion is so helpful because it speaks of two kinds of religious people. Luke, chapter 18, verse 9. The Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 18, and verse 9.

10:56 Jesus is talking again. And He spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and set all others at naught. Now you know what that crowd is. We already encountered them there in the household of Matthew.

11:12 That was the Pharisees. Two men went up into the temple to pray. See, both religious men. They were both in church at the right time.

11:19 They were both in the right place. Two people went up to the Trinity Baptist Church to sing hymns and pray on November 24, 1974. And in these two people, every one of us is found in one or the other. They are two representative people.

11:35 Now let's look at them. The first one is one of these characters, one of these Pharisees. The one a Pharisee, the other a publican, one of these notorious sinners. Now the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or...

11:54 And he probably pointed. Can't you just picture him raising his face and his nose to heaven and this publican, almost as if the turn is knocked away from this melody. Now it says he didn't pray to God. It says he prayed thus with himself.

12:08 He was just having a soliloquy of his own goodness here. And he's apparently telling God this. I'm not like other men. This, this, this, and this.

12:16 And besides that, look what I do. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. Here was a religious man in the place of religious worship engaged apparently in religious talk and religious exercises.

12:30 How did God look upon all this? Well, let's read further.

12:36 But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much his eyes to heaven, but smote his breasts, saying,

12:44 God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, I don't have anything to bring. I don't have anything to bring to you. I can't say like this Pharisee, look at me, God.

12:56 I'm this, I'm that. I do this, I do that. Oh, God, when I look at what I am and what I've done, I come up with one conclusion. I'm painfully and woefully inadequate.

13:07 I'm a sinner. When I look at what I am, I can't brag like this Pharisee. I'm this, I'm that, I'm the other. When I look at what I've done, I can't bring it to you in some kind of collection of merit.

13:20 Lord, Lord, all I can do is plead that you'll show mercy to a man who's a sinner. And he didn't have a tongue in his cheek when he said sinner. And he didn't have any fine print that said sinner, but. Sinner, whereas.

13:35 Sinner, however. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, how did God regard the two people? This is Jesus talking now.

13:44 Look what Jesus said. Follow on. I say unto you, the Son of God says, this man, this publican, went down to his house justified, that is, forgiven and accepted before God as righteous. His sins pardoned, his record made clean, rather than the other.

14:06 That other man went down to his house under the wrath and curse of Almighty God. In spite of what he was, in spite of what he did, God says he was no Christian. He was in a temple. That's the place where men are supposed to worship.

14:25 He was going through the motions of prayer. God commands prayer. He tithed. God commanded the tithing.

14:32 He fasted. God hadn't commanded that. He was even going beyond what God required. And yet God says, I don't accept all this.

14:40 Why? Because he never was brought to the painful sense of his need that would drive him out of himself to trust wholly in another. Now, you see, the thing that caused the publican, to go down to his house justified, was not that he was an immoral man. He didn't say, now, God, you better have mercy on me because I really am the baddest and the worst and I'm this.

15:05 No, no, no, no, no. He went down to his house justified for this simple reason. He looked completely out of himself for forgiveness. He didn't look to what he could do or what he was or could become.

15:21 He said, God, you be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the heart of what Jesus meant when he said, I did not come to call the righteous. I did not come for people who think what they are and what they can do, good in itself, will ever be the grounds of their finding acceptance. I'm coming to call people who will look completely out of themselves to myself.

15:49 Now, Jesus stated it in Matthew 9. Jesus illustrated it in Luke chapter 18. 18. And now the great apostle Paul bends the nail over in the book of 1 Timothy.

Christ Came to Save Sinners (1 Timothy 1:15, Matthew 1:21)

16:01 We're just establishing this first principle, the first common denominator of all the testimonies shared with us on Wednesday night. There was this painful sense of need. And now we read in the words of Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15. 1 Timothy 1.15 Faithful is the saying and wise. Worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to establish a new religion.

16:41 Is that what your Bible says? Christ Jesus came into the world to give us new religious regulations. To give us new ways of prayer and new ways of work. No, no.

16:55 What does it say? Faithful is the saying. Worthy of acceptance. Christ Jesus.

17:01 Christ Jesus came into the world. That is, came from the glories of heaven. Who where he had been from eternity was with his Father. He came into the world by way of the womb of the Virgin Mary.

17:16 He came into the world for this express purpose to save sinners. Not to help people who had a few problems and were helping themselves and he comes along to assist them. He came to save. To do all of the saving.

17:35 He came to be the Savior of sinners. People who are not adequate to stand before God in themselves. People who do not look to the institutional church or religion or religious forms or ceremonies. They look to Jesus Christ alone because and this is the fourth text this alone meets the very purpose for which he came Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21 turn to it if you will please when the angel announces that this young probably in her middle or late teens this young peasant virgin is going to be the mother of the Son of God right at the outset the angel is careful to make clear why he's choosing a virgin to be the human instrument through which God's himself will come to the earth in the person of Jesus Christ verse 21 she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. Now who does the saving? Did the angel say thou shalt call his name Jesus

19:02 for he shall institute a new class of preachers or priests or prophets who will say that isn't what it says my Bible doesn't read that way does it say thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall institute a new church that shall say that isn't what my Bible says nor does it say thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall set up a whole new system of worship and sacraments that will say that's not what the Bible says. That's not what the Bible says. What it says is thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save that person shall save and he saves by coming into direct contact with the needy sinner.

19:54 He does not deposit his saving merit in the words or hands or mumbo jumbo or activities of reverends be they Protestant or Christian Catholic or any other brand we have no magical powers to save men he does not deposit his saving power in his church that saving power is in his person and he's come to save needy sinners and so the first common denominator of every testimony this past Wednesday night was by some means over a period of such and such a time God brought me to see that I was a sinner I had broken the laws of God I had a disposition that was contrary to what God wanted me to be I did not love God I did not love his people I did not love his ways I was condemned because of my sin because the scripture says the wages of sin is death I was bound by my sins because Jesus said whoever commits sin is the slave of sin I was blind to the truth of the gospel because the scripture says the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not and now may I press the question upon your conscience this morning have you ever been brought to the place

21:20 where you have been painfully aware of need that you the church religion ceremony etc. could never meet have you have you been brought to that place where you've been painfully aware of the need of the need of the need of the need as was that public oh God if you don't have mercy on me directly and sovereignly and efficaciously Lord if you will not be merciful to me I've had it have you been brought to that place every true Christian has why because that's the only kind of people Jesus came to save if he's enrolled you as his followers he always starts by showing you your desperate need of him well there was a second comment and I'm going to read it to you of the testimony of the other night and it was this every one of these people who shared their testimony completely different in oh so many details but this second common denominator was present every one of them had a sight of God's mercy in Jesus Christ based upon the Holy Scriptures you remember how some said one brother testified that he was roaming around the country trying to find meaning in his guitar and his drugs until he picked up a hitchhiker tiger who opened up the scriptures and began to tell him about the Savior. One of the young

Second Denominator: A Sight of God's Mercy in Christ Through Scripture

22:46 women testified that she was reared in a home and in a church where from every period in life she remembers being taught the scriptures. Someone else bore witness to the fact that God put a real Christian in their path, in a place of business, and there on the job this person began to do what? Began to open up the scriptures, and the scriptures, may I say it reverently, became a beautiful casket in which the beauty, the perfections, the loveliness, the power, the mercy of God in Jesus Christ was displayed. That was the second common denominator of every single testimony shared the other night. From that painful sense of sin and need came that blessed sight of God's mercy in Jesus Christ. Now why was it that in every case, though the way was different, the way was different, the way was different, the way was different, the way was different, the way was different, was so different in every case, why was this second common denominator present? Well, for the simple reason that the only remedy that God has for sinners is His Son, and therefore when He's going to rescue them, He gets the remedy to the needy sinner. There's only one remedy, and therefore that remedy must come to the one in need. Now let me turn you again

24:03 to the scriptures. We read from the lips of our Lord Himself, John chapter 14, and verse 6. John chapter 14, and verse 6. Jesus Christ Himself claims to be the one remedy. Jesus saith unto him, that is to Thomas, Thomas who is asked a question, how can I know the way to heaven? The answer Jesus gives is this. Jesus saith unto him, I am not a way, one way of many, but He said, I am the way of many. I am the way of many. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one cometh unto the Father but by me. Some of you Christians have had people say this when you've been talking to them about Christ. They say, but the way you speak is so narrow. How dare you be so narrow? You mean to say that this religion,

25:09 that religion, all the rest, how dare you be so narrow? And this is the text we often turn to, don't we? We are no more narrow than Christ. We're not saying that Jesus said, unless you come into this particular church, you won't make it. No, no, don't anyone go out and say, who in sinless should become Baptist? You can't be Christian. No one here said that. That'll be a lie. You'll be breaking the ninth commandment if you go out of here and say we said that.

25:36 And God will hold you accountable in the day of judgment for your false witness. What we are saying is that Jesus says, He is the way. Not His ministers. Not His ministers.

25:47 Not His church. Not His priests. Not His prophets. He is the way. I am the way, He said. I am the truth. I am the life. And no one can bypass me and make it. In bypassing me, you may think you'll make it because you end up in my church. But if you miss me and are in my church, you'll never make it. You may, in bypassing me, end up in my sacraments, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. You may end up in association with my people. You may end up in association with my people. You may end up conformed to my rules and regulations. But if you miss me, you've missed heaven. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. That's why in every single case of these who've borne testimony to God's saving grace, they said that God brought them to a site of the only remedy for their sin. And

26:47 that remedy is the person and the work of Jesus. But not only is it the statement of our Lord, it's the statement of the Apostles. Turn, please, to 1 Timothy. The book we looked at a few moments ago. Chapter 2 and verse 5.

27:04 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5. Here St. Paul is speaking. What he speaks is the unanimous testimony of the Apostolate. All of those special servants of Christ. For as we'll see in a moment, it's the testimony of the Apostolate. And as we'll see in a moment, it's the testimony of the Apostolate. of St. Peter as well as the testimony of St. Paul. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, himself man, and who is he? Christ Jesus. One God, one go-between. One mediator, not two. No mediator and mediatrix. No mediator

27:56 plus lesser mediators, plural. One God, one mediator, and who is he? He is the man, Christ Jesus. Now this passage is not saying he is only man. That would be a contradiction of the entire scriptures. It would be a contradiction of what the Apostle Paul tells us. In this very letter and in other letters that he is God over all, blessed forever. He is the word made flesh. He is before all things and in him all things consist. But he is emphasizing here that the mediator is the manifested God in the man, Christ Jesus. For as man he lived a perfect life that we never lived. As man he died upon the cross and tasted the pangs of hell. On behalf of his people. As man went into Joseph's tomb. As man he came forth. As man

28:54 he went back to the right hand of the Father where he sits today. And the Apostle says there is only one mediator. If you are ever to get from your sinful state into the presence of the Holy God, you are going to have to have direct dealings with the only go-between, Jesus Christ. When countries are no longer unnegotiable, and they are seeking to re-establish negotiations, country A will appoint man number one to be its ambassador to make the initial approaches to country B. Country B is informed if you are to have any dealings with us in the future, you must listen to man number one who comes to you. And if there is to be any bringing together of the two nations, it will have to be in terms of nation B listening. To the only go-between that nation A has appointed. And if they despise him, there is a total breakdown.

29:53 There will never be reconciliation. There is a holy God in all of his glory. Here we are in all of our sin and God says there is one go-between. The man Christ Jesus. If you miss having dealings with him, no one else will be able to bridge the gap. That's the simplicity and yet the absolute inflexibility of the gospel. Now, as I said in the beginning, we are going to have to have direct dealings with the Holy Spirit. That's what St. Peter taught us. Well, absolutely. Turn to the book of Acts in chapter four.

30:24 The mouth of two or three witnesses, our Lord says, let every word be confirmed. We're taking three basic witnesses to each of these fundamental points. The lips of our Lord and the words of the apostles. In the fourth chapter of the book of Acts, the apostle Peter is preaching.

30:46 And as he preaches, this is what he says in verses 11 and 12. He, Jesus Christ, is the stone which was set at naught of you, the builders, which was made ahead of the corner. And neither is there salvation, and in none other is there salvation, for neither is there any other name under heaven that is given among men wherein we must be saved. What does St. Peter do?

31:17 Does he say, having lived with Jesus Christ for three and a half years, I have come to the conclusion that he has established me as the head of an institution which can save you? Never! He said, having lived in intimate association with the Lord Jesus, this is what he taught me. He taught me to preach to you Jews of my day, that though you rejected Christ as unfit to be saved, you were not saved. You were not saved. You were not saved. You were misguided in the name of God Christ the Lord your God! He is the one who has prepared you. The fact is that even from faith he just 잡les you with him in the Christ of lameness. So don't begin to argue with me that asking for his help is not as easy as for you to do, son!

32:18 You must seek him. In Jesus Christ, and in him alone, is salvation. No other name by, by which we must be saved. Don't look to me! Don't look to this new church that is emerging in Jerusalem!

32:19 of Christ and the gospel of Paul, that's the gospel of the Bible. Don't look to the Baptist church. Don't look to the Methodist church. Don't look to the Catholic church. Don't look to the independent church. Don't look to the Jesus only church. And don't look to the church that says we don't have a name, we're the real one. You look to Christ and to Christ alone and to Christ always. And that's what's happened in the case of all of these who've borne testimony. God brought them to see that in that person who is God and man, who is the only way to the Father, on the basis of his perfect life, his death upon the cross in which, as the scripture says, the Father bruised him for our iniquities. He was made a curse for us. He felt it himself. And this is not poetic language. This is the raw, ugly

33:18 and yet blessed realism of what really happened. He felt the pangs of hell itself upon the cross. He felt in his soul the abandonment of his Father. And he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? My friend, if sin is not real, if hell is not real, you turn Calvary into the greatest travesty that's ever occurred upon the face of the earth. That a holy, good man such as Jesus should cry out, my God! My God, why have you forsaken me? You turn God into a monster. You turn the world into a circus of meaningless, unconnected events.

34:08 But if the cross is what the Bible says it is, the Father putting to the account of his Son the sins of all who will believe in him, and when he's bearing those sins, to bruise him, to heap upon him all the sins of all who will believe in him, and when he's bearing all of the just demands of the holy law which says, this do thou shalt live, this fail to do thou shalt die. If that's what the cross is, then wonder of wonders, it is the most blessed, the most glorious, the most stupendous fact of human history. Almighty God is taking the sins of the creature upon himself. If the creature might be forgiven. That's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 1.18, the word of the cross is to those that are saved, the power of God. What was it that caused

Third Denominator: A Saving Response of Repentance and Faith

35:14 you people who bore testimony here last Wednesday? What was it that caused you to see there is hope that my chains can be broken, my blinded eyes can be opened, an offended God can be my friend and my Father? What was it? It was this sight of the person and work of Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible. Isn't that true? It's true of every single Christian. Well, there was a third common denominator to every testimony, and I want to touch on it briefly, and it was this. Not only were each of these brought to a sense of sin and need, secondly, to a sight of God's mercy in Christ, but thirdly, they were brought to the place where they rendered.

36:01 A saving response to the message of Christ and to the person of Christ. Each one said in different terms, I was brought to that place where I gave myself to the Lord, where I was able to rest upon what the Lord had done. They used various terms to describe what the Bible describes under two simple words, repentance and faith. Now let's look at the Bible.

36:32 Let's look at the biblical witnesses. When Jesus came preaching, what did he tell men was the essence of a saving response to his message? Well, in Mark chapter 1 we have the answer, and it's beautiful in its simplicity. You see, the whole idea that there must be a list of 2342 different things we must be and do before we can even begin to hope that God has accepted us and even then we can't really know, that's not the scriptures. That's a miserable thing. So bondage, worse than any bondage under the law of Moses, Jesus comes preaching. And what does he preach? Mark chapter 1 and verse 14. Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God. And what was that gospel? Be my follower and here's all the regulations I'll give you. Do this, do that, do this, do the other thing.

37:29 You must fast, you must pray, you must do penance, you must... And when it's all done and over with, then maybe you'll somehow have a faint hope that somewhere out in the future you may be accepted in the presence of God. That's no gospel. That's a terrible thing. Here's his gospel. Look at it. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand because the king was at hand, the king of grace, the king of glory, the king of authority and of mercy.

38:02 Because the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. Repent and believe. Turn your back upon your sin. Your ideas about what it means to be a Christian. Your ideas about how you can be accepted with God. Your notions about life. Your notions about religion. Your will in terms of what you want and where you're going to go and how you're going to make it. Repent. Have a change of mind.

38:33 Repent and believe the gospel. Believe the message that Almighty God has sent me, his son, to be the savior of needy sinners. That I ask you to do nothing but to give yourself to me. That's repentance. That's faith.

38:55 Now that's exactly what St. Paul preached. We find him in Acts chapter 20 and verse 21 reminding the Ephesian Christians, of what he preached during the years of his ministry amongst them, and it was over three years. He preached many things, but when you boiled it all down, Paul says, this was the heart of what I preached. Here it is, Acts 20, 21, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You see what he does? Was Paul indifferent to the church? Of course not. He planted churches wherever he went. I mean, he didn't go out with a little seed in the hole and plant something and up came a building. No, no. He gathered congregations together. He was concerned about the life of the congregations. That's why he wrote 1

39:49 and 2 Corinthians, the epistles, Galatians. What are the epistles? Just some material to go in prayer books and to go in church order books? No, no, no. Those epistles are the expressions of Paul's love. He was greatly concerned about the church. The church in its function, the church in its life, the church in its worship, in its prayers, in its preaching, in its liturgy we may say. But you see, in a passage such as the one before us, he tells us that this never became a substitute or obscure in what he was really out to do. And what was he out to do? To see people brought into living first-hand dealings with God and with his son. He said, I preach that men should repent toward God. That is, have a change of mind about the God who made you. He made you that you might be his creature and obey him. That

40:47 you might, in obeying him, bring glory to him. That you might worship him. That you might own him to be holy and right and just and good. And because of your sin, what have you done? You've turned your back upon God. You've gone your own way. Oh, once in a while you throw a little sop in the direction of God. And he says, be honest, you people, as I call upon you to be honest. God's not the center of your life by nature. And that was the testimony of all who were here. They had some other center. Maybe it was drugs. Maybe it was ambition. Maybe it was money. Maybe it was sex. But whatever the center was, it was not God. But the scripture says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned away from that God. Now, Paul says, I preach that men should repent. They should have a change of mind about that God. Come to see that the Lord is with you. Come to see that the Lord is with you. Come to see that the

41:35 God who made you and who has sent his son to needy sinners such as you is the God who's worthy of your love, your adoration, your obedience, your worship, your devotion, and all that you are. Have a change of mind about that God. And the only way to have it, he said, is look, you must have faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't approach that God except you approach him through his son. And he said, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say, trust Jesus Christ. He said, trust Jesus Christ. He said, follow the religion of Jesus. Take the sacraments of Jesus. He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have first-hand dealings with that one who is a sovereign upon a throne. He is the Lord. And he is the Lord identified as Jesus of Nazareth who came into this earth by way of the virgin's womb. He is the Lord Jesus who is God's anointed Messiah. He is

42:34 the Christ. The one in whom all the types and shadows of the Old Testament are fulfilled. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Get beyond me, the Apostle Paul, who preaches about him. Get beyond the church, which is, as it were, the sounding board of the message of Christ. And he told people, don't be satisfied with anything less than first-hand dealings with Christ himself. And first-hand dealings not on the very surface of Christ. But on the basis of works. But on the basis of faith. Faith, you see, takes what God provides.

43:16 It rests in what God sets forth. And common to every testimony born here Wednesday night was that God brought me to that saving response of repentance and faith. Have you been brought to that place? Let me put it as personally as I know how. Oh, listen to me, dear people.

43:37 Here in this building, in the balcony, downstairs, in the living room, in the living room, in the living room, in the living room, in the living room, in the living room, in the living room, downstairs, in the overflow room, to my right. Listen, listen. Have you personally been brought to that place where you've had a radical change of mind about God and have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? First-hand dealings with God and with his Son. Have you?

44:04 Or have you stopped with his church? Have you stopped with his teachings? Have you stopped with his ministers? Have you stopped with his servants? Oh, dear people.

Fourth Denominator: A Subsequent Change of Life

44:13 You must have dealings with God and with his Son. And then the fourth common denominator, and with this I close this morning. The fourth common denominator in every testimony born on Wednesday night was this. Not only was there a sense of need, a sense of need rooted in the awareness of sinfulness, a sight of God's mercy in Christ, a saving response to that sight, repentance and faith, but in every case, this was present, there was a sub-service, Subsequent change of life. A subsequent change of life. People said, why, I now had loves that I never had before. I had hates that I never had before. I had a whole new circle of friends, a whole new dimension of desire and ambition.

45:02 Well, you know why that was true? I'll tell you why. Listen, listen. St. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, these simple, explanatory words to that question. Why is it that each one said there was a subsequent change?

45:18 Here's the reason. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17.

45:29 Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is repented. He is believed on the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ, for that's how we get into Christ. We are joined to him by faith.

45:43 If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things are passed away. Behold, they are become new. Why is it that everyone could say there was a subsequent change?

46:01 It's because if you're in Christ, there will inevitably be a subsequent change. If any. If any man is in Christ, he becomes a new creation. There is a whole new relationship to the God towards whom we've repented.

46:18 God is no longer, on the one hand, what he was to many of us. He was the celestial ogre who, with his keen and perceptive eye, marked down every single deviation from his law and was licking his chops until the day of judgment when he could get to us. No wonder. No wonder we didn't like to think about a God like that.

46:45 We didn't delight to think about God. Because to think about God, we had to think about that checklist. And we know that he never missed a trick. It was all there.

46:56 It was all there. Can you hold fellowship with someone who's that in your mind? Never. Never.

47:05 To others of us, God was just sort of the nearsighted celestial grandfather. He didn't see too much. But he was a celestial grandfather. But he was always warm and benevolent.

47:16 And whenever you come and snuggle up to him, he ruffles your head and says, Oh, you're a good boy. You're a good girl. You're doing well. Here's a quarter.

47:24 Go buy an ice cream. Or thirty-five cents now. Go buy an ice cream.

47:31 Or, perhaps we were those who simply tried not to think about him at all. Because to think about him gave us an uneasy feeling that we might someday have to stand before him. But whatever our native thoughts about God were, one thing they were not. There was no loving delight in the being of God.

47:51 We could not say, Oh, God, full of holiness, full of infinite beauty, full of majesty and power. Though you are holy and you know all my sins, I dare to come and hold communion with you. Because you've blotted out my sins for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son, whom you bruised upon the cross. You could not hold any loving communion.

48:17 But if you've been made a new creature in Christ, the old has passed, the new has come. God is a new being to you. He's the God who is majestic, who is holy, who is all-knowing. But he's the God who's so loved as to give his only begotten Son.

48:41 And he's become your Father.

48:44 Is God that to you? If you've experienced the great change he is. Because there is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a subsequent change in your whole relationship to the Lord Jesus.

New Relationship to Christ as Gladly Owned Master

49:01 He is not only your Savior now, he's your gladly owned Master.

49:08 You own him as your Master. The Scripture calls him our Lord Jesus Christ. Which speaks not only of his position as King at the right hand of the Father. And it not only speaks of his inheritance.

49:22 And deity. It speaks of his rights over his people. That's why Paul again and again identified himself. He said, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

49:35 And he gloried in his servitude to the Son of God. He didn't say, well, I got a few things from Jesus. I got some forgiveness and peace. And I'm going to stick them in my pocket and go do my own thing now.

49:48 And hope everything will turn out all right. No, no. Any sinner that gets a pardon from God. John Jesus is brought into loving bond service to the one who's given the pardon.

50:01 Is Jesus Christ your gladly owned Master? Can you say, John Smith, bond slave of Jesus Christ. And be happy about it? Not bond slave, but bond slave of Jesus Christ.

50:25 His love is conquered. You see, there is no conquest. There is no conquest like the conquest of love. In the past two years, 23 times, we've heard the words, I so and so take thee to be my God-given husband.

50:41 Promising to love, to honor, and to obey. And I've been witness to all but three of those exchanges. Of the 23, and we've got one more to go before this year's out. That'll be 24 for these two years.

50:58 Never once. Have I seen a young bride stand there like this? I so and so take thee so and so to be my God-given husband. Promising to love, to honor, and to obey.

51:22 Have you seen that?

51:26 No, no. The bride stands there with her countenance beaming. Promising to love, to honor, and to obey. Why?

51:37 That man's love has conquered her. And the glad response of her conquered heart is, Here I am, I'm yours. If that's true, when the love of one human being is discovered to another human being, pray tell what is it when the love of the infinite Son of God is discovered in the heart of a servant.

52:02 Here, Lord, I give myself to thee. When the Apostle Paul fell prostrate upon the Damascus road and realized that that vision, that glory and manifest presence was none other than the Lord Jesus, he did not say through clenched teeth, Lord, what will thou hurt me to do? Because I've been taught if I'm going to get saved, I've got to surrender? Ridiculous.

52:27 He saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me do? Gracious sovereignty always conquers the native rebellion of a sinner's heart. Does it comfort you? Is it yours?

52:45 Are you Christ's bond-slayer? So that his will really cuts mustard in the way you live. Your lifestyle is affected by what he says. You take the book seriously.

New Relationship to God's People and Word

52:58 You've got a new relationship to God and a new relationship to his Son. And all these people testified they have a new relationship to his people. You know, one of the most amazing things to me, there are times when I'm sitting and ruminating, and that's a good thing to do. If you ought not to be doing something, you ought not to be doing anything else.

53:20 And I sit sometimes right up here on the platform. You wonder what goes through the preacher's minds when they're sitting up here. I'll tell you one thing that goes through my mind sometimes. It's this.

53:28 I say, Lord, what in the world am I doing here?

53:32 I say, what in the world am I doing here? And furthermore, Lord, what am I doing here actually enjoying it?

53:41 Because I can remember a time, it seems, but a few years ago, though it's been over 22 years ago, when there was nothing like the boredom of having to be with the people of God. The same. The singing of hymns, counting, as it were, the time till I'd hear the amen, and when my head was bowed in prayer, shielding my eyes like this so no one could see it, and opening them and looking straight at the floor, or twitching my ears like this because I just couldn't stand to hear people praying. Everything was boredom and drudgery and bitterness.

54:16 And here I sit, enjoying it. I say, Lord, I'm not what I once was. I'm not all I want to be, and I'm not all I'm going to be, but I'm not what I once was. I'm a new man in Christ.

54:32 I've got a new relationship to your people. But all their faults and warts and moles and kinks and winding ways about them, Lord, they're the precious of the earth. I wouldn't choose a mountain of kings in lieu of the assembly of the saints of God. And all of you, far less mentioned, that was one of the fruits of the change, you say, I want to be a part of God's people.

55:01 Why? They don't have a lot of money. They've got a kinky old building that doesn't hold us all. Converted gin mill and dance hall, that's all it is.

55:12 That's what it is. A few years ago, the walls reeked with the smell of stale beer, and the feet were witness to the shuffling feet of half-drunk worldlings trying to find a little meaning in life a few times a month when they gathered here in the old Elks Club.

55:28 Well, what in the world is it that makes this people, is so attractive? It's because we see, oh, it's little, but thank God it's there. We see something of our Savior in all of His children. And that's why we love to be with them.

55:44 We want to be a part of them.

55:49 If you are a true Christian, that change has come. A new relationship to God, a new relationship to His Son, a new relationship to His people, a new relationship to His Word. Now, is that true of you? Now, those aren't profound questions.

Call to Self-Examination: Have These Four Things Occurred?

56:03 I mean, you don't even need to be a graduate of the sixth grade to answer those questions.

56:09 Do you love the God as revealed in the Bible? Do you delight to think about Him? Do you love His Son, and do you delight to think of yourself as His slave? Do you love His people?

56:21 My friend, listen to me. I say it as lovingly, but I want to say it so plainly, and I hope none of you have been insulted that I've talked to you at the level of grade school this morning because it's an awful thing to be a minister of the Gospel and to know that I shall stand before God and give an account of this time I've spent with you this morning. I pray God help me to be so plain that the youngest child will not be able to miss it. Dear people, listen to me.

56:48 This is a simple question. Have these four things occurred in your life?

56:55 Now, I'm not asking if you belong to a church, if you've got... No, no, no.

56:59 That's not my question. My question is simply this. Have these four things happened in your life? Have you been brought to a painful sense of your need?

57:14 Need rooted in your sinfulness, your alienation from God? Have you? Have you been brought to a site of God's provision for sinners in Jesus Christ? Have you taken seriously the Gospel that says Christ is God, Christ has lived, Christ has died, Christ has been buried, Christ has been raised?

57:41 And do you see in those acts of the Son of God the foundation upon which you as a guilty sinner can approach a holy God? Have you taken seriously that message? Thirdly, have you been enabled to render a saving response to that message? Have you repented toward God and do you believe toward the Lord Jesus Christ?

58:04 And has there been and are you now a witness of the subsequent change? For it's not the change of a day, a week, or an hour, but it's a change that will go on by degrees until it is climaxed when the Lord Himself returns and the Bible says we'll be like Him, for we'll see Him as He is.

58:30 Can you face that question and answer in the affirmative? Thank God I have seen my sin. I have seen my only hope is Christ. I have repented and believed.

58:41 I have become a new man, a new woman, a new boy, a new girl in Christ. Oh, my friend, if you can say that. And with all the gathering storms of inflation and depression and all the rest and with the ominous clouds upon the international scene, whatever happens, it's only a short time and we're going to see Him.

Warning and Exhortation

59:05 And in the words of that gospel hymn, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. One look of His dear face, all sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race till we see Christ. But my friend, if you can't say yes to those four questions, you're of all people most miserable.

59:30 You sit here this morning with the wrath of God hanging over your head. And unless that canopy of wrath is removed through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, you will curse the day you were born, the day you were ever conceived. You'll curse that day. You'll curse that day through all eternity when in hell you cry out for a drop of water to cool your tongue.

59:58 And my friend, if you do,

60:02 my hands will be clean of your blood.

60:07 You will not be able to say, I was never told my need. I was never told of the remedy. I was never told how to get to the remedy. I was never told to know if I've been to the remedy.

60:19 You've been told those four things this morning from the Word of God. You've been told those four things from the Word of God in the simplest, plainest language I know how to use. My hands are clean of your blood.

60:32 May God grant that in that day you should be found as one who saw His name, saw the Savior, embraced Him, and became a new person, fit for the new heavens and the new earth. And then together we'll join in the chorus that will have but one theme, break, break, all the praise. He'll bring forth the top stone of His work of grace in us, and He Himself will lead the chorus singing amazing praise. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me when we've been there 10,000 years with no less days to sing the praises of His grace. Let us pray.